So, I haven't updated this for a year. I am really sorry about that, I did try to update this (and my other stories for that matter), to give you an idea, I started writing this chapter in December of 2013, but life kept getting in the way. The past year has probably been the busiest of my life. Between college, applying for university and severe health problems (which got so bad I was considering dropping out of education entirely at one point), student finance, coursework, exams and stuff like that I just couldn't get anything other than school work done. But I am back now!

Also, I have rewritten the first chapter and replaced the old one. The original one is still available to read on AO3 (my username is same on there as it is here, and there is a link in my profile), but I think the rewritten one is better, and fits the format of a multi-chapter fic a bit better.

Chapter 3: Family Matters

Rukia would've smiled at Ichigo's nervousness if she wasn't just as bad. It was a rare thing, seeing Ichigo actually get anxious about something. Rukia had been telling him the importance of this meeting for days now and yet he still underestimated it, and now it was showing. Both Ichigo and Rukia were listening closely to the Kuchiki elders arguing.

"This match will not work. The boy isn't even noble!"

"Actually, he is half Shiba."

One of them scoffed. "A fallen clan. And the other half is Kurosaki. I have never even heard of this name."

Ichigo took a deep breath. It was incredibly irritating to have people argue about you while you were in the same room. He was starting to understand why Byakuya seemed so high-strung all the time.

Another elder spoke up. "Kurosaki is the name of the man who practically turned Soul Society into chaos all for the sake of breaking Rukia out of custody."

All of the elders turned to face Ichigo. The man in question felt himself starting to sweat. "Are you related to that man?"

Ichigo swallowed. "Actually, I was that man."

"But you stated earlier than you do not currently hold a position in the Gotei 13."

Ichigo nodded. "Yes."

"You are not even an officer of the Gotei 13, and you defeated two Captains, including the Head of this clan?"

Ichigo didn't speak, his throat felt dry. He nodded. He was surprised that they didn't know about all of this. At the minute it seemed like this meeting could go either way.

One of the elders turned to the aforementioned Captain. "What exactly are your reasons for recommending this young man to be Rukia's suitor?"

Byakuya answered without missing a beat. "They are a good match. Rukia belongs to a noble family. Ichigo has noble blood. Yes, blood from a fallen clan, but what he lacks in nobility he makes up for in social standing and power. There is not a single member of Gotei 13 who is not aware of who he is. He did indeed defeat me, four years ago. He has also been steadily increasing in power ever since. When he does assume a position in the Gotei 13, and I believe he will at some point in the future, it will be a Captain's position if one is available. And they care for each other. The two of them have saved each other's lives countless times."

Rukia struggled to keep the smile off her face. After catching sight of Rukia's face, Ichigo struggled as well. One of the elders spoke up. "No member of this family has ever married anyone who wasn't pure blood, save for yourself, and I'm sure you remember that was met with opposition as well. It severely damaged the name's reputation."

Ichigo noticed that the elders seemed to be divided now. The majority seemed to be in favour, probably because of how desperate they were for heirs, but others seemed too stubborn to let a few traditions slide.

Byakuya spoke as calmly as ever. "But Rukia isn't of pure blood either, so we can justify this match, given his social standing."

It was true. It was all about appearances. An adopted member of the Kuchiki family could get away with marrying someone who wasn't of pure blood if they were an incredibly powerful, Captain-level shinigami that everyone knew of, because it looked impressive. Truth be told, due to being adopted Rukia got a lot less potential suitors than your average noble woman. Having an adopted family member had changed the Kuchiki's reputation. There were plenty of noble families who looked down upon Rukia. There was one family who absolutely refused to communicate with the Kuchiki family until they 'purged their family of common blood'. The looked down upon member of the family marrying a talented Captain-level shinigami? It would mend the family's reputation a little bit. Besides, Ichigo had more noble blood than Rukia did.

"What about the family?"

Byakuya stood up before replying. "I expected you to ask that, so I invited the rest of the family to visit this afternoon. The rest of the family consists of Ichigo's father, Isshin Shiba, and two daughters-"

The elders looked startled. "Isshin Shiba left Soul Society for the human world!"

"Yes. Their mother was human."

"Was?"

"Masaki Kurosaki died when the children were young."

A different elder talked before the previous one could again. "So this boy is half human!?"

"Yes."

Ichigo never thought he'd be so glad for Byakuya talking for him. Being able to answer everything the elders threw at him without batting an eyelid took skill. If it was him answering the questions he'd probably be shouting by now.

"He would have to give up his human life to marry Rukia."

"He is aware of that."

"What about the rest of family?"

Byakuya gestured for the people in the room to rise. "It would be better to discuss that with the family present. For now, this meeting is dismissed. We will meet back here at two o'clock. Ichigo, Rukia, you are welcome to use the gardens until lunch, where you will meet the Kurosaki family in the main dining room."

The elders stared at Byakuya. After the future bride picks the suitor she wished to pursue, the families were supposed to meet and both families were supposed to consent to the relationship before the couple were allowed to go off on their own. The fact that Byakuya was suggesting that Rukia and Ichigo spend time alone in the gardens meant only one thing. He, the Head of the Kuchiki family was not only supporting the couple, but he was in fact pushing for them. And it was a little hard to argue with the Head of the family.

XxXxXxX

Rukia let out a heavy sigh as she sat down on the bench opposite a stream. Ichigo sat down next to her. "Is this what it's always like?"

"No. Things don't get debated very often. We have our own way of doing things and have done for thousands of years. But now, their only chances of getting heirs is through an adopted family member. It's hardly a normal situation for the family, so a lot of arguments come with it because different people have different ideas of how it should be handled."

"Until your brother comes along that is."

Rukia smiled. "I have to ask, what did you do to get Nii-sama to approve of you?"

"I didn't do much to be honest. We just had a very long conversation. He told me that the elders had been bugging him to get remarried for years until he admitted that he had no intention of doing that. So they started bugging you instead. I think he feels guilty to be honest. Byakuya said that the elders pretty much see you as their last hope. Although I would've thought they'd be plenty of people who could overtake as Head of the family."

Rukia shook her head. "Yes and no. There are plenty of nieces, nephews, cousins and whatnot who could take over if need be. But the family much prefer to have an heir who is in the immediate family, usually a sibling or a son or daughter. We haven't had a Head who wasn't in the immediate family for centuries. But Nii-sama's an only child and he doesn't plan on having any children. Because I was adopted by Nii-sama himself and I'm the little sister of his late wife, my future children and I just about count as immediate family."

"Ah I see. Because they want an heir from the immediate family that badly then they can justify using you. I suppose because Hisana was the one who looked after you when you were a baby until she had to leave you, and that Byakuya adopted you when you were still in the academy, you kinda work as the child from their marriage."

Rukia nodded. "In a way, yeah."

Ichigo paused to sigh before going back to the original topic. "He actually really cares about you a lot. A lot more than it seems anyway. I told him that I wanted to become your suitor, I told him about that night-"

"You did what?"

"Relax. I don't have a death wish. I told him about our conversation and that we kissed and that was it." Rukia stared at him for a moment, then nodded slightly. "Then he said he'd prefer that you end up with someone you liked and cared about rather than some random noble dude just for the sake of the family, so he agreed to help me out anyway he could." Rukia smiled at Ichigo's words.

For a while, the two of them just sat, watching the garden and it's wildlife, until Ichigo spoke, noticing that Rukia was rolling her head.

"Neck pain?"

"Yeah. Having my hair styled like this makes my head heavy and it strains my neck."

Ichigo nodded. It didn't surprise him. She had extensions and a number of hair ornaments in her hair. Both of which added weight onto her head, particularly the ornaments. Most of them seemed to be made out of jewel-encrusted solid metal. "Hopefully the meeting this afternoon won't go on for too long so you can undo your hair." Rukia nodded.

"I always feel bad though. The servants always spend hours doing this for me to just take it all out again."

"Yeah but if it hurts..."

"I guess. Do you know if Karin and Yuzu are getting their hair styled?"

"I don't know. Yuzu usually wears her hair down but she might not want to pass up the opportunity to have expensive accessories in her hair." He spoke with a small smile on his face. "Karin usually wears her hair up but might not want to have accessories like that put in her hair. So it could go either way."

Rukia smiled. "Sounds about right."

Ichigo tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You know, it might be a bitch to style and wear, but...it suits you." He cupped her face gently. Rukia smiled again, her usually pale complexion tinged with pink. Ichigo leaned forward and kissed her, happy when she reciprocated without hesitation.

"Oh! Um..."

Rukia pulled away from Ichigo to meet the eyes of one of her personal maids. The woman cleared her throat before speaking. "Kuchiki-sama, lunch will be ready within the next ten minutes if you and Kurosaki-sama would like to make your way to the dining room."

Rukia gave the maid a kind smile. "Thank you." The maid bowed and quickly scurried off.

"Wow. Being called Kurosaki-sama is weird."

Rukia nodded. "I've asked her to not call me Kuchiki-sama hundreds of times but she never does. It's part of the job description really."

"Yeah. Come on, let's go to the dining room, I haven't seen Dad or the twins for a month now."

XxXxXxX

Rukia never got to see Yuzu and Karin the last time she went to the human world, which meant she hadn't seen them for about five months. It surprised her how much they could grow in that time. At the age of fifteen now, the twins had more or less grown into beautiful women, both taking after their mother, although in different ways. They were both sitting neatly in the dining room, eating with more finesse than Rukia was used to seeing. Karin was wearing a deep blue kimono with silver embroidery, matching hair pins holding her hair up tightly in a bun, with some strands left to frame her face. Yuzu was wearing a kimono made up of a patterned light pink material, her hair tied to one side in a loose plait with floral hair ornaments weaved through. The kimonos weren't as nice as the very expensive red one that Rukia had been wearing all day, but that was to be expected. Besides, they suited the twins well.

Rukia noticed that the girls were a little more fidgety that usual, although she supposed that this was a normal reaction. Yuzu had a tendency to get nervous when meeting new people, and the fact that Isshin was behaving in a mature manner for once was clearly unnerving Karin. Said girl finished her plate and turned to Rukia. "So, how exactly does this thing work? Do we just sit there?"

Rukia nodded. "Yeah. Don't speak unless you're spoken to. They'll speak to Ichigo and your father the most."

Yuzu finished her mouthful before speaking up. "If they do talk to us, what sort of things would they ask us?"

Isshin answered before Rukia could. "Your achievements, your ambitions, your plans for life, that sort of thing. If this whole thing goes ahead, you could end up being the aunts of the future Head of the Kuchiki family."

Rukia agreed with Isshin. "Any question they send your way will actually be them judging how impressive you are. So don't be afraid of boasting. But don't make it obvious that that's what you're doing."

Karin turned to Rukia again. "Are they gonna try and make us all stay here?"

"You mean here in the Kuchiki estate, or Soul Society?"

Karin shrugged. "Both, I guess."

"Possibly. I know you still don't know what you want to do in the future. Just make it clear that it's you making the decision, and don't let them force anything on you and you'll be fine. If they do suggest that you guys move here, it probably means that they like you. As for staying in the Kuchiki state, it would only be a suggestion. I lived in my squad's barracks until recently. And in the future, unless you married someone in the Kuchiki family, you'd be expected to move out and live with your husband."

Yuzu frowned slightly. "If you and Ichi-nii do get married, and our families merge, does that mean we'd be expected to marry really high noble people too?"

Ichigo spoke up, having asked that same question to Byakuya weeks ago, wanting to make sure that his decisions wouldn't decide things for his sisters. "If you stayed in the human world, you could marry whoever you want. If you moved here, all that would be expected of you would be to marry someone with some noble blood or with a seated position in the squads. And even then they might let that slide because we're outsiders to the family, and you guys wouldn't be in the immediate family."

Isshin smiled at his daughters. "And even if they didn't let it slide, you'd probably be fine. You'd be surprised how many shinigami have noble blood in them. And I expect you two would move up to seated positions quickly enough, so most of the people you would interact with would be seated officers. So I don't think it would affect you too much."

Yuzu looked at her father. "Even me?" It had taken a while for Yuzu to develop enough to be able to see spirits. In terms of ability, Yuzu felt like it took years for her to grow the same amount that Karin had managed in months. Because of this, she felt self-conscious in Soul Society, as the name Kurosaki seemed to be associated with strength.

Isshin grinned. "Definitely. After being a Captain, I got good at guessing who will be strong and in what. Your brother is incredibly strong in terms of actual strength and fighting ability, and he's good with speed, but otherwise, he's not so great. He's only been getting better at sensing reiatsu recently, and he sucks at Kidō. I know it took you a while to learn how to sense reiatsu, but you're already better at it than your brother. Just because you might not be suited towards fighting doesn't mean you won't be strong. The different squads specialise in different things."

Karin perked up. "They do? What kind of specialities?" About two years ago, after he had given up on hiding from his family, Ichigo had sat down with the girls and explained all about the shinigami side of his life. Which also prompted Isshin to explain things to the twins as well. It had cleared a lot of things up, and they had visited Soul Society once or twice, but they didn't know all the ins and outs.

Isshin and Ichigo looked over to Rukia, hoping she would answer. Ichigo was hardly an expert, and Isshin didn't know if things had changed or not since he was a Captain. "Well the first division isn't specialised as such, but it has a reputation of being the best squad with the members being classed as model shinigami. The second squad is the stealth force, in charge of law and order. And I think there are a couple of specialities within that as well. The third has no speciality. The fourth specialises in healing. The divisions from fifth to eighth have no speciality as far as I'm aware, but the sixth is another division that is seen as a model squad. The ninth division is the security force, and is known for overseeing arts and culture, and is in charge of the Seireitei newspaper. The tenth also has no speciality, whereas the eleventh division focuses solely on fighting. The twelfth are responsible for research and development, and the creation of new technology and equipment, but I really wouldn't join that squad if I were you. And then there's the thirteenth squad, which is the one I'm in."

Isshin set down his chopsticks. "Not to mention, there are plenty of different jobs within the squads as well. I'd say that you probably have more choice in the human world, but I don't think it's by much."

Karin spoke up. "So if I wanted to be a doctor I could be?"

"Yep."

Karin tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Ok, what if a decade in I decide that I'm bored of one occupation, can I change?"

Rukia nodded. "All you need to do is request a squad change. Renji started in the fifth squad, moved into the eleventh squad, before settling into the sixth squad. It's not set in stone."

Isshin nodded along with Rukia's words. "It's actually not uncommon for shinigami to ask to switch squads. Shinigami live for a long time, and could you imagine doing the same thing for three hundred years? Shinigami shift round the squads a lot."

Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed. "Until you're a Captain."

"Yeah, but ignoring paperwork, being a Captain doesn't get too boring. There's always something to deal with."

XxXxXxX

Karin was hardly the type to get nervous, but even she stumbled a bit with her words. "Well, I'm not all that sure on what I want to do when I get older, but it's either become a shinigami, or stay in the human world and get a job, like a doctor or something." She inwardly cringed. That didn't sound impressive at all.

An elder studied her. "Not much of a plan."

Ichigo watched as Karin's eyes narrowed, praying she wouldn't snap at the man. Karin glared at the elder for a moment before sitting back on her heels. "Well with the grades I'm achieving at school I should be able to get any human job that I like. I'm also already better than my brother in some shinigami skills, like sensing reiatsu, and I'm highly trained in martial arts, so I'll be fine with whichever route I take."

Ichigo struggled against the smug expression trying to make its way onto his face. Over the years Karin had gotten very talented at making perfectly civilised words sound like the words 'fuck you', a skill Ichigo was delighted she had.

Another elder spoke up. "Apart from your high grades at school, what else have you achieved?"

"I'm a qualified nurse, I'm the Captain of a sports team and I'm pretty sure I've defeated over 100 hollows over the course of 3 years."

"Given your father's and your brother's accomplishments, that isn't particularly impressive."

"It is when you consider that I don't have a Zanpaktō, and that I've never actually entered my soul form."

"You...You defeated over a hundred hollows while in your human body?" Karin simply grinned at them. "Yes, well, moving on." The elder turned to Yuzu. "What are your plans?"

"I know I want to go into healing and healthcare, although I'm not sure whether I want to do that as a human or a shinigami yet."

"And what about your achievements?"

"Well I'm also a qualified nurse, and I'm the student council representative for my class."

Rukia watched the exchange carefully. It was clear the elders weren't sure on what a student council representative was, but they weren't about to ask. However, it wasn't particularly important whether they understood or not, it sounded impressive, so it was good enough. Both girls were handling themselves well, better than Rukia when she had her first noble meeting.

"I believe you have asked the family all of the questions you wished to."

One elder put a hand up, making Byakuya pause. "Hold on." He turned to the twins. "Do you understand that if your brother marries into this family he would have to stay here in this world, and your access to him would be very limited if you decide to stay in the human world?"

Yuzu nodded. "It's been made clear to us, yes."

"Are you sure you are happy with that?"

Karin was starting to get a little sick of all the questions. Especially that last one. She knew full well that the elders didn't care about their feelings in the matter. They were trying to find reasons to not approve the match. "Do you think we'd be here if we weren't ok with it?"

Ichigo glanced at Karin before looking over to Byakuya, hoping he would get the hint to end the meeting before she offended the elders. Luckily, he did. "If that's the last question, then we can move on to the last part of the meeting. I believe the Kurosaki family have made it clear that they accept the match, now we need to determine whether the Kuchiki family agree. All those who disagree please raise your hands." Ichigo resisted the urge to groan. Five hands were raised. There were ten elders, and he had no idea what happened in the case of tie-breakers. Byakuya observed his fellow family members before speaking again. "It appears we have an even split. And as tradition goes, in the event of an even split, the head of house makes the decision, so the Kuchiki family consents to the match."

XxXxXxX

"So, what do we do now?"

Rukia turned round to face Ichigo. "Well the families have consented to the match, so I guess we're free to do what we like."

"Ah. You know it's funny, it feels like I've been waiting forever for it be consented to, but now that is has, I have no idea what to do."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "How about we spend time with your sisters? Today was the first time we've seen them in ages."

"Sounds like a plan. Doing what exactly?"

"Ask them, they're the guests in this situation."

After finding the girls in the rooms they were going to be staying in for the next couple days, it was agreed that Ichigo and Rukia would take Karin and Yuzu round Soul Society (Isshin had already left the estate, catching up with the tenth squad), getting them familiar with the surroundings. Regardless of what the twins chose to do in life, if the match went ahead, they'd find themselves in Soul Society at least occasionally. The four got changed (there was no sense in walking around in expensive clothing that could get damaged) and left to walk around the squads.

Despite being in normal shinigami dress, Ichigo and Rukia had been getting a lot of attention from passer-bys. Admittedly they had Karin and Yuzu with them, who were wearing human clothes, which would naturally garner more attention than usual, but it wasn't that weird to see Ichigo with people in human clothes. Rukia sighed as she realised the increased attention was probably due to rumours spreading about the two of them. "What's up?"

Rukia looked up at Ichigo. "Nothing. Just...Should have expected the extra attention is all."

Karin turned her head, looking at the two shinigami while still walking. "Oh, so you don't usually get this much attention then? I thought it was weird, having all these people staring at us."

Ichigo turned to Karin. "Well we're gonna get some people staring, you two are clearly human which isn't normal for here, and Rukia's a Vice-Captain, and then there's me."

Karin raised an eyebrow, making Rukia smile. "Your brother's pretty famous around here."

"Yo Ichigo!"

All four looked up to find the speaker. "Oh hey. How come you're so far away from the eleventh?"

Ikkaku hopped down from the building. "Patrol duty. Didn't know you were around. Explains why I've barely seen the Captain lately."

Ichigo nodded. "Been here a couple weeks, sorting some things out."

"Yeah I heard some unseated officers gossiping about you becoming Rukia's suitor. Is it true then?" Both Ichigo and Rukia nodded, Rukia a bit more shyly. "Congrats."

"Thanks. Ikkaku, these are my little sisters, Karin and Yuzu. We're kinda giving them a tour of the place."

"Oh? Whole family moving over here then?" Ikkaku had become decent friends with Ichigo over the years and had had a few conversations with him about his sisters. He had heard that the twins had been considering becoming shinigami.

Karin shook her head. "Not sure yet."

Ikkaku grinned at the twins. "Well if you're half as good at fighting as your brother, you're welcome in the eleventh. But anyway, I should go, it's hardly patrol duty if I spend the whole time in one spot."

After about 15 minutes of walking, with more people stopping to talk to Ichigo, Yuzu leaned over to Rukia. "Ichigo really does know everyone huh?"

"More like the other way round, but yeah."

"It's kinda daunting. Like if we did move here people would already know about us when we know nothing about them."

Rukia nodded. "That's true. It would be something you'd have to get used to. Especially if you make your way up to high seated positions."

Karin joined into the conversation. "I take it that most officers know the Captains and Vice-Captains then?"

Rukia nodded. "Pretty much all officers know about the Captains and Vice-Captains, things like characteristics and achievements that sort of thing. Don't always know them by appearance, but that's why we have the Captain haoris and Vice-Captain badges."

Ichigo scoffed. "Yeah but most of the time it's obvious whose who."

Yuzu cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

There are certain Captains that stand out. I mean Byakuya's obvious because the whole nobility thing. Komamura's obvious because he's a huge wolf man." Ichigo paused for a moment, trying not to laugh at the twin's faces. "Tōshirō's obvious because he's the youngest with bright white hair. Suì-Fēng and Unohana are easy to figure out because they're the only female Captains. Kensei's obvious because you don't get many people going round with a 69 tattooed to their chest. And so on, the ones you can't recognise you can figure out by process of elimination. The Vice-Captains aren't much better either."

Karin nodded slowly. "Shinigami seem quite...eccentric."

Yuzu nodded, agreeing with Karin. "Well it doesn't matter what they look like. How good they are at being a Captain is what matters."

Rukia nodded. "Yes, well it differs for every Captain. Does also depend on how you individually define a good Captain."

XxXxXxX

Ichigo smiled as he realised that Byakuya clearly had a soft spot for Rukia. It was hard to tell really, unless you spent a lot of time with the both of them, and Ichigo had gotten the impression that Byakuya only tolerated her. But it was the only explanation as to how Rukia had managed to convince Byakuya to have dinner with him and the rest of the family. He did look quite uncomfortable. Although that could've been because Isshin knew Byakuya back when he still a child, a fact that brought Ichigo great joy. He couldn't imagine Byakuya as anything other than the adult Captain that he was now. But the stories of Byakuya's adolescence were amusing nonetheless. After a while Ichigo started feeling a little guilty though (Byakuya was trying hard to be a part of family dinner, for Rukia's sake) so he changed the subject to how school was going for the twins, which Byakuya was a little more willing to take part in. After two hours, the twins decided to head to bed (the two seemed to have adopted some sort of buddy system so if they ended up lost, they wouldn't be lost alone, although Ichigo guessed this was more for Yuzu's sake than Karin's), which led to the rest of the group retiring for the night.

Rukia smiled as she flopped backwards onto her bed. "Our families actually get along."

"Well, your brother gets along with us. We already knew that you got along with the twins and dad."

"Except for the elders and the extended family, who don't really count, Nii-sama and I are the Kuchiki family, so my statement's still true."

Ichigo sat down on the bed, next to where Rukia was lying. "Can't argue with that. But dinner did go surprisingly well. Even when dad starting telling stories about Byakuya. It's nice to know that Byakuya once acted like a normal person." Rukia punched him lightly in the side. "Still, it's good that it went well. I'd hate to have a distant family."

Rukia nodded. "Yeah."

Ichigo looked at her when her tone of voice changed. "What's wrong?" Rukia shook her head. Ichigo lied down next to her so their faces were level. "You got nervous again."

Rukia sighed as she put her arm over her eyes and nodded. "Sorry."

"Sorry about what exactly?"

"That I keep getting nervous."

Ichigo stayed silent for a moment before talking. "It's ok to be nervous. I mean, it's probably pretty normal to be nervous, but I think you keep jumping ahead." Rukia took her arm off her head and looked at Ichigo. "You're not getting nervous about spending time with me or anything, you're getting nervous about the idea of us getting serious and getting married, which is way off into the future. And whether that actually goes ahead is completely up to you. Plus you know, that decision isn't for years yet. I know it's hard to stop, but try and stop worrying about that for now. Just try and enjoy it. Don't treat this as something your family's forcing you to do, but something you want to do."

Rukia nodded. "Yeah. I agree with you, it's just...difficult. How are you not nervous?"

"I never said I wasn't. But I'm probably in a better state than you. I don't know, I guess that this whole situation affects me less. I mean you have family elders breathing down your neck, the family reputation to uphold, while balancing your job, I don't really have those pressures. My family love you and I don't have a job that ties me down somewhere. I mean, my biggest worry was that my decision would affect the twins' future, but it turns out that's fine and they can do what they choose, so yeah, I have less things to worry about than you."

"Hmm. What would you rather they chose?"

Ichigo looked at her. "You mean what would I rather the twins pick future-wise?"

"Yeah."

Ichigo thought for a moment. "It's hard. Both have their pros and cons. I mean they'd be safer in the human world, but they'd be close if they became shinigami. To be honest, I don't think I'd care which, as long as they're happy."

Rukia nodded. "I think they'd do great either way." The two stayed silent for a while, just lying next to each other, before Rukia spoke up again. "Ichigo? Is it really ok with them for you to move here?"

Ichigo sighed. "I think they were both sad when I told them, but I think they saw it coming before I did."

"I feel guilty. Like I'm taking you away from them or something."

"Well...Yes and no. You might have been the one who gave me shinigami powers in the first place, and yeah you're a pretty big factor into the decision of moving here, but you're not the only reason. There are career choices that I could choose without regrets in the human world, but nothing fits me like being a shinigami. It's what feels right. I think I was bound to become a permanent shinigami at some point, you're just speeding up the process, that's all. And I think the twins know that. Dad definitely does. And if they don't realise it yet, I think they'd understand when they get older, when they find that thing they really want to do with their lives."

Rukia sighed. "I guess."

"Besides, Yuzu actually squealed when she found out that we're dating. They're happy for us."

Rukia smiled slightly. "They have been rooting for us for a while haven't they?"

"Yeah. So try not to worry. They're not thrilled that I'm leaving, but they love you. And they're happy we're together now."

Rukia nodded. "Ok. I will try not to worry."

"Speaking of being together, we haven't actually gone on a proper date yet."

Rukia's small smile got bigger. "What did you have in mind?"

Ichigo thought for a moment. "Well I would say dinner, but I have no idea where would be good for a date, and I have no Soul Society money."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "I'll pay. You paid for me plenty of times in the human world, it's only fair. So you want to go out to eat at some point?"

"If you want to."

Rukia nodded, rolling on her side to face Ichigo, smile back on her face. "Sure."

This is another build up chapter really, it's not brilliant, but the next chapter is planned out and will have a bit more substance. But I think this is a chapter that needs to be written, even if it was super difficult. I think family, especially his sisters are really important to Ichigo and I think he would involve them in every step of the way, and I think Rukia understands that as well, so yeah. (Also wow I don't think Ikkaku was written very well at all, I have no idea how to write him, but I needed to lead into the twins talking about Gotei 13 stuff, as what they do with their lives will end up affecting Ichigo in the story.)

Also please ignore the fact that the Captain line up doesn't quite fit the recent manga, as I started writing this a while ago, and it's unconfirmed what's happened to certain Captains, I feel it's just easier to stick to things before the Quincy war. Anyway, I'm very sorry it took me so long to write and post this, but I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading!