The next morning was a busy one for both Rimuru and Ichigo for a multitude of different reasons. For instance, the very first thing that Rimuru had done as soon as the sun had risen, was round up and summon everyone within the Jura Tempest Federation so that he could inform them of his impending wedding to his Queen.

Whereas Ichigo, had had to escape her home just to keep herself from being cornered by Rukia and being forced into doing some wedding planning. But let's face it, flowers and frilly lacy monstrosities known as dresses were not her thing. So, of course she was going to escape and run away.

What she hadn't known was just how pissed Rukia would be for doing so. The second that the smaller woman had realized that she split before she could be cornered, she let out an ungodly scream of frustration and used her spirit energy to find her.

And then...the chase was on.

Rimuru had just concluded his meeting with the others and was being congratulated when everyone heard frightened screaming coming from outside of the council building and got curious.

He and several others wandered over to the nearest window and peeked out of it just in time to see their future wife/Queen running just as fast as she could by the building with Rukia chasing after her.

The dark-haired woman screaming all kinds of obscenities at Ichigo while attempting to slow her down by using some sort of ice affinity to make her friend slip on the stone street.

A sight that was both kind of funny and just a tad bit alarming to each of them. Especially when it didn't exactly work because Ichigo somehow managed to melt the ice under her feet using black flames, and then tried to run away again. And got blown up for her efforts.

Rimuru blanched in horror as the explosion took place.

Mostly because it had come out of absolutely nowhere and because he got a nice view of Ichigo flying through the air before she slammed into a tree trunk nearby and went totally still. Either because she was actually injured or because she was dazed.

He wasn't sure which it was, but he did know that he wasn't going to allow her to get blown up by her hormonal friend anymore. After all, if that crap kept up- Ichigo just might sustain more than just a few minor injuries.

Making an irked sound in the back of his throat, he quickly reached out and opened the window and then jumped out of it to go and intercept Rukia before she could do anymore damage to his Queen.

His feet hit the ground easily, and his hand went to the sword that he'd decided to carry on him from now on so that he could more easily defend his Queen, while he watched Rukia close in on Ichigo's still form with a slightly unnerving smirk on her face.

Moving swiftly, he placed himself between the two before the smaller woman could do anything else remotely homicidal to his Queen and glared at her and barked, "Woman, what the hell do you think you are doing to my Queen?"

Rukia's smirk vanished and she blinked at him as if not knowing how he'd appeared so suddenly. It was probably because she hadn't known that he was holding a meeting nearby and hadn't been expecting any interference.

The sad truth of the matter was that if he hadn't made a move to stop her, then Benimaru, Souei or someone else would have. And then he'd have to explain to Ichigo why the damned woman was either injured or dead.

"Oh, lord Rimuru-" She said in a weirdly happy tone, as if she hadn't just tried to murder Ichigo in broad daylight.

His eye twitched a little bit, and a growl bubbled forth from his throat in agitation as she quickly explained to him what she had been trying to do.

And her explanation went something like this.

Apparently, Ichigo hadn't wanted to be kept indoors today pouring over wedding plans. So, she had run away. Rukia had found out this little fact once she went to help her and had merely given chase and tried to stop her before the girl could actually escape into the woods and... live as a swamp hag? Or something else along those very confusing lines.

Still, he couldn't help but feel pissed at the woman for trying to force Ichigo to plan for their wedding when she was still trying to adjust to the idea of being his wife and Queen. So, he felt no need to reign in his temper completely. Especially when the woman had attacked his bride-to-be.

"You blew her up!" He gritted out from between clenched teeth, the venom in his voice must have startled the dark-haired woman a bit since she at least had the decency to cringe and suddenly find the ground interesting as he went on to say, "Attacking my Queen- even in this instance- is considered treason, Rukia. Don't. Do. It. Again. I will not have your husband kicking down my door to express his displeasure over you being tossed in a cell."

Rukia mumbled something that was difficult to hear, but he assumed that she said okay.

Once he was sure that he'd made his point he turned his back on her and knelt down next to Ichigo to see if she was alright. A quick health analysis told him that she was just stunned.

Any injuries that she had sustained from being blown up by her friend were more than halfway healed, leaving only some lingering aches and pains here and there. Which was a relief to him since he knew that things could have been much, much worse.

But he figured that out for himself when she cracked an eye open and looked at him for a second before slowly pushing herself up a bit on one elbow, a low hiss of pain escaping her as she gingerly moved.

"Ichigo, where are you hurt?" He asked, slightly concerned that even with her injuries almost completely healed- she was still feeling some sort of pain or discomfort.

"I'm not," She hissed as she slowly moved again. "I just feel like my bones are black and blue now, that's all."

He wasn't totally sure if he believed her or not, but after a moment of mental deliberation, he just nodded his head and reached out and wrapped his arms around her body so that he could help her to get to her feet and allowed her to lean on him a little as he steered her away from Rukia.

Whom he shot a dark look at from over his shoulder as he led his Queen away from the woman.

A short time later, he had Ichigo stretched out on her back on one of the nice cushy couches in the council building while he fretted over her.

"Are you sure that you're, okay?" He asked for like the millionth time in the past few seconds.

"I'm fine. The discomfort is already going away." She assured him as she watched him as he paced around a little bit in agitation. He reminded her of a caged animal, desperate to escape and sink its claws and fangs into something.

"I can't believe Rukia blew you up!" He growled out before deciding to go on a tirade. "I mean, what the hell? Is she crazy? You could have died!"

Ichigo held her silence for a few seconds longer before finally cutting in. "Actually, she wasn't really trying to blow me up." He stopped speaking so that he could snap his head around to look at her. His expression thunderous as she went on to say. "She meant to blow up the ground at my feet. But I sort of zigged when I should have zagged. So, that was more my fault than hers."

"I can't believe that you're defending her behavior." He said in an utterly aghast tone. "I'll say again, she could have killed you!"

"For god's sake, Rimuru she didn't use enough power to kill me." Ichigo finally snapped at him. "Cripple me for a little while, sure. But not kill me. Besides, if she had killed me then she would have an entire frigging army of people hunting her down."

He made an annoyed sound and then crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled sourly. "Not if I got her first." And he would, he silently vowed. If he ever saw Rukia blow Ichigo up again...baby or not, he would tear her apart.

Sighing, Ichigo closed her eyes for a second before trying to shift the conversation to something else. "I did some thinking last night about our wedding," She started, noticing that she suddenly had Rimuru's total and undivided attention. Good. "I think I'm okay with it now."

He blinked at her.

"I mean, I've never been in any sort of a romantic relationship before. To be honest, I mostly avoid all things romantic like it's the plague. Mostly because I have no idea how to function in a relationship. And I just haven't got a romantic bone in my body." She finally confessed.

Rimuru raised a brow at her words and cocked his head questioningly but continued to listen.

"But I also think that we would do well together," She said. "There are...certain things, about me that I think that you would understand."

"Oh?" He said questioningly as he then crossed his legs and dropped gracefully to sit on the floor next to the couch before asking, "Will you tell me?"