Kurama had never walked the gauntlet before. But the second that the man had introduced himself as his chosen's brother- he'd got the feeling that that was exactly what was about to happen.
He was proven right when the man then called out to someone, and he immediately heard several pairs of footsteps rapidly approaching them and turned his head to see three women emerge from the hallway.
Blinking, because there was no way that the women could be Ichigo's kin due to their various appearances. As well as the fact that she'd told him a while back that she only had two siblings, both of whom were younger than her. Then he could only surmise that everyone present were his chosen's friends.
Very close friends too, considering how some of them smelled very strongly of Ichigo's scent. Meaning that they usually had a lot of close physical contact with her.
So, after a moment of hesitation, he plastered on a friendly smile and waited for the inevitable. Thankfully, he was ushered further into the apartment by the red-headed man, so he didn't have to wait for very long.
"Oh wow! Look at this cutie," One woman, a buxom blond with pale blue eyes said excitedly before then calling out over her shoulder, "Ichigo, I'm so jealous!"
"I think I am to." Said the next woman, a tall, exotic beauty with gold eyes and long burgundy hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She had a cat-like smile that made Kurama bristle a tad and nearly growl at her in warning given the fact that cats were notorious tricksters and pranksters. Just like he was.
Demon cats were especially bad about such things.
But despite all of that, the only thing that kept him from doing so was the fact that no matter how carefully he probed her spiritual energy with his own... He managed to only learn two things.
One, was that she wasn't an actual cat demon. And the second, was that she wasn't any type of demon at all.
She was merely cat-like in her behavior and as such, there was no need for him to growl at her. So, he didn't. He did, however, watch her like a hawk while trying to pay attention to the third woman present.
She was a short, flat chested, China-doll-esque beauty with wide violet eyes and black shoulder length bob cut hair. And if not for the confidence that she radiated then he might have easily mistaken her for a young girl.
"I'm not jealous in the least, I have Renji." She said carefully, earning a 'Thank you, babe.' from the guy that had taken up the spot next to him while he hadn't been paying attention.
Kurama gave the lot of them his most charming smile, despite the fact that their scrutiny was starting to make him break out in a cold sweat and politely introduced himself to them as Ichigo finally joined them and gave him a small, awkward looking wave from over by the hallway.
His expression brightened considerably once he had the chance to lock eyes on her form.
Ichigo looked utterly ravishing dressed up for their date. Especially since she had pulled out all of the stops. Everything from her makeup to her various accessories- were meant entirely to make her look sultry and completely eye catching to the opposite sex.
Which worked out well since he honestly couldn't take his eyes off of her as she walked over to join the rest of her friends. Not even pausing to ask one of the women to move out of her way and instead rudely pushing her out of the way instead just to get to him.
He simply smiled even more at the display of rudeness from her and took it as some sort of small display of possessiveness from her. Or maybe it was eagerness?
Either was a very nice ego boost to him so he didn't bother thinking about it overly much.
"Hello, Ichigo." He greeted her while holding the bouquet of flowers that he'd grown and carefully selected for her, out for her to take.
She smiled at him warmly and gently took the bouquet from him as one of her friends let out a wolf whistle and then exclaimed. "Holy crap, he brought her flowers! He's a keeper!"
Causing both he and Ichigo to blush in embarrassment as someone reached out and took the flowers from his chosen's grasp.
Ichigo might have been about to slap her friend's hand over them taking the flowers from her, but the woman took a moment to reassure her that she was simply going to put them in a vase for her so that they wouldn't wilt and then walked off. Leaving his chosen to glare at her back for a second or two before then turning her attention back to him as a chuckle escaped him.
After that, someone decided to push them together and take some photos of them while cooing about how adorable they looked together as a couple.
Someone else made the off comment that their future babies were going to be beyond pretty, making them both blush even more than they both already were. All in all, everything lasted a total of ten or maybe fifteen minutes.
But the ridiculousness was enough to last the for the both of them for a lifetime at the moment.
And since that was the case, Ichigo grabbed his hand, and thinking quickly, mentioned their dinner reservations while one of her other friends- the blond woman- was busy attempting to wrangle the information about whether or not he had a twin brother out of him.
After that, they said their goodbye's and made their escape before anyone could come up with anymore silly ideas or questions.
But not before someone called out that he had to have Ichigo home by three a.m. or else they would come looking for them.
He had had difficulty suppressing his amusement at the random and strangely threatening comment, simply chalking it up to them being protective of his chosen because they cared about her.
But the weird look of vague alarm that crossed Ichigo's face quickly ended his amusement and made his mouth drop open a bit in shock as they entered the elevator and waited for the door to close.
And when it finally did, he couldn't stop himself from asking her. "They wouldn't actually come looking for us, would they?"
She thinned her lips a bit in displeasure and looked him dead in the eye and nodded her head curtly, causing him to giggle nervously and make a mental note to have her home long before three a.m. No matter how much fun they had while they were out.
Their date officially began once they made it outside of the building and Kurama pulled a set of keys out of his pants pocket while absently maneuvering Ichigo around to the side of the building, with a hand resting gently on the small of her back, to where his car was parked while saying half-jokingly, "I hope that you don't mind, but I thought that we'd take my car since you have a curfew."
"It's fine. I really can't blame you for wanting to use the car, especially with the threat of my friends 'hunting us down' hanging over both of our heads."
He gave her a doting smile as he opened her door for her and let her climb into his car and then shut the door so that he could walk around the vehicle to the driver's side and join her.
And once inside, he started the car and slowly pulled it out of its parking place to head for the street as he said, "I can't believe that your friends would actually hunt us down if I don't have you home by a specific time. They do realize that you are a grown woman, don't they?"
"Of course, they do." She said dryly.
His voice then took on a worried tone as he then asked her, "Be honest with me now, you were having a bit of a laugh at my expense before, weren't you?"
"No." Ichigo deadpanned.
"Seriously?" He blurted out in disbelief. "Why?"
"Because they're a bunch of troublesome, and nosy jerks." Ichigo said in a dark tone that made him let out another nervous giggle.
He couldn't think of anything more to ask her about her friends after that and since the mere mention of them seemed to upset her, he decided to change topics. And he was so glad that he did since it gave them both a chance to relax a bit and have some fun while learning a bit more about one another.
For instance, she learned about his affinity for nature and plants. And he learned that she loved camping and other outdoorsy things.
Which sort of explained how she managed to capture Psycho and Bee. After all, someone who spent enough time in the wilderness tended to learn a multitude of different things. Mostly survival skills. But that was neither here nor there.
He also learned some other things that he didn't know before. Like the fact that Yuki was her adopted child. And while she didn't exactly elaborate on how that had happened... He would admit, that startled and shocked him pretty thoroughly. Especially since he'd seen how much she loved little Yuki and took great care of her.
If not for the fact that she had decided to tell him that the infant was adopted- he never would have guessed otherwise.
But after managing to digest the information a bit, he wound up feeling pretty proud that his chosen was such a kind, generous, and wonderful woman that she would take in a child that isn't her own and raise it.
People like her were rare in his world regardless of whether he was in the human world or demon one. And he knew right then and there that he would be keeping her come hell or highwater.