I had to rewrite this chapter more than seven times because I was trying to figure out if Ichigo should come clean about being a Soul Reaper or not.

I even had it written out where she revealed all. But Bruce's reaction to learning what she was- was 'meh' so I decided against outright telling him anything and trying to go with a cover story instead.

That didn't turn out well either.

So, this is what I came up with. I hope that it works because if it doesn't then I'll be stuck again.

Bruce couldn't help himself; he gave his princess a wary side eye the entire trip back home.

He wasn't sure what exactly she was thinking since he had casually mentioned Ivy's name and what she had tried to do to him. But he was betting that his Mistress was planning something. He would also bet that it was nothing good for Ivy's health since Ichigo's behavior appeared- at least to him- as if she were being possessive.

Or maybe territorial would be a better way to describe it?

He already knew that she certainly wasn't jealous of Ivy. After all, the woman had tried to kill him and that would be insane. And Ichigo didn't care for him in a any sense that could possibly explain her feeling jealous.

Sighing in frustration because trying to make sense of her behavior was going to make his brain explode. He decided to make an attempt to ask her what was going on in her head before it spiraled into potentially dangerous territory.

Like a revenge attempt on his behalf.

"Ichigo, would you please tell me what you're thinking right this second?"

She had been looking out the car window again, just like she had on their trip into town. So, when he asked her his question, she quickly whipped her head around to look at him, wide eyed and innocent.

"Huh?" She said unintelligibly, having been caught off guard. So much so that she frowned as if she hadn't heard him. So he asked her again.

"What are you thinking? About Ivy, I mean."

She didn't hesitate at all before saying, "That she's not much of a woman." His lips quirked a bit despite himself because he completely agreed with her there. Yet that wasn't really what he was looking for.

"What else?" He asked.

Hoping that she would just blurt it out and save him the time and effort that it would take to spy on her, and bug her cell so that he could stop her if he caught her mentioning anything nefarious about his ex.

Ichigo was quiet for several moments, her expression somewhat thoughtful as she finally said, "I feel like I need to rearrange her face. Just a little bit."

He understood that feeling. But also, didn't buy her words for a second. Especially when she said, Just a little bit, since a 'little bit' could mean just about anything imaginable.

"Uh-huh," He said with another nod. "And why is that?"

"I'm not sure." She replied with a frown as she explained, "I'm...not very familiar with the possessiveness and overprotective feelings that I'm feeling right now. All that I really can say is that maybe I'm starting to get attached to you."

He glanced at her in surprise at the admittance since it was an unexpected one.

"And that makes you feel possessive and overprotective of me?" He asked in bewilderment. She slowly nodded her head yes, and he stared at her for a heartbeat longer before grinning at her as he said honestly.

"I'm attached to you too."

She made a weird face, then blushed, and then turned back to the window and refused to speak to him again. Not that he cared any. He'd gotten the information that he wanted, and no he felt considerably better and much less suspicious about her behavior.

The moment that they returned to the mansion and went to go inside, Alfred opened the large door for them and smiled at them. And as if sensing something was a bit amiss, Ichigo smiled back at the man and then scampered aside so that Alfred could speak to his master about anything weighing on his mind.

"Is everything okay, Alfred?" Bruce asked as he carefully set the bags down at his feet.

"Chief commissioner Gordon has called a few minutes ago, sir. He said something about an accident occurring at your company and to let you know about it as soon as you have returned."

"I see," Bruce said as he cast a quick glance at Ichigo. "Did he say anything about what kind of accident there had been?"

"No, sir. Only that it was important, but not so much that it couldn't wait a little while." He said and then quickly tacked on. "If you had been gone any longer, then I would have called you."

"I see. I should probably go and call him back then." He said, before then giving Alfred instructions to take Ichigo's stuff to her room and then walked off after apologizing for leaving her so soon.

She waved his concerns away with a hand and then once he was gone heard Alfred ask her, "Slim pickings at the shopping center, miss?"

"I'm just not much of a shopper." She said with a shrug.

Alfred gave her a fond look and then said, "It's nice to find that my master has finally found a woman that isn't after his money."

"I take it that he has a habit of bringing home gold diggers, then?"

"It's an unfortunate habit, miss." Alfred said as he started to collect her things, only to have her grab the heavier bags before he could get to them. Purely so that he wouldn't have to carry them.

"I'll have to help you break him of that, then." She said and then once he was done straightening his spine, indicated that she would follow him to her room since she no longer knew where it was. He smiled at her kindly and then started walking and she fell into step beside him a second or so later.

"Did the boys give you any trouble while we were gone?"

"No, miss. They were both fairly determined to make your new room look very nice and hospitable for you. Why, master Dick even dusted the furniture. And master Damian stole the vacuum away from me so that he could take credit for doing that."

"None of you did any heavy lifting did you?" She asked in concern, idly wondering if any of them had hurt themselves doing anything. Sure, the older man seemed fine so far. But she hadn't seen the boys just yet, and she couldn't help but worry about them since they had obviously done a majority of any heavy lifting while she and the master had been away.

Alfred found himself smiled again at her worried tone while thanking his master's lucky stars for having been fortunate enough to find her while in trouble instead of some gold-digging tramp.

A few minutes, and a few more turns through the labyrinth hallway, they finally reached her new room just in time to see Damian and Dick both rolling around the floor fighting.

"Good lord." Alfred muttered in dismay as the two rolled right past them before someone wound up on top of the other throwing punches and then they rolled again.

Ichigo, to her credit, was completely silent but observant, watching the two boys. She was interested to know what was going to happen next or if she or Alfred should step in and stop the fight.

Alfred put his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle, that startled her enough to make her jump. But once the sound died down the man was clapping his hands and hollering for the boys to stop what they were doing and fall in line.

But the boys neither stopped what they were doing, nor fell in line.

A sad fact of the matter was that they were simply too engrossed in their bickering to care much about anything else. Much less, give a damn about anyone that had seen them doing it.

Alfred sigh and looked around helplessly for a moment when she decided to help the man out and get the boy's attention. Stepping into the bedroom, she walked briskly over to the two brawling kids and yanked them both up by their shirts and slammed their heads together, hard.

Both kids yelped in pain and then she dropped them back to the floor and put her hands on her hips and glared at them while they both squirmed under her stare and rubbed their aching heads before meeting her eyes.

"He started it." Damian said as he automatically pointed to Dick.

And Dick's jaw dropped open in utter shock at being thrown under the bus before he yelled. "I did not!"

"You threw the first punch." Damian deadpanned.

"No, you threw the first punch! I was just defending myself!"

"Both of you shut up." Ichigo said in her most authoritative tone of voice. The boys fell completely silent at hearing it her commanding tone despite the fact that she didn't raise her voice any to yell, shout, or scream at them. She was silent for a heartbeat or so after that before slowly saying, "First of all, I don't care who did what. Both of you apologize to each other. And then you're going to apologize to Alfred for not listening to him when he tried to stop you."

The two glanced at each other, obviously thinking that they were getting off more lightly than if they had been caught by Wayne, himself. And were quick to do as she bid them and apologized to each other and then to Alfred.

Then once that was done, they started to get up and dust themselves off so that they could leave but she wasn't done with they yet. And she made sure that they knew it by letting them get barely across the room before speaking again.

"Now, because Alfred and I caught the two of you fighting we are going to have to punish you so that you don't do it again."

Alfred visibly perked up at the mention that the two of them were going to impose some sort of punishment on the boys for fighting. A million different ideas started flitting through the elder's head as he asked, "And what do you have in mind for their punishment miss?"

"Something very agonizing. But fun for us." She said absently as an idea formed in her mind.

The boys exchanged another glance with one another and gulped.

They had both learned long ago from Bruce that a woman's wrath was truly something to be feared. It helped that that idea had been enforced in their minds by a few 'wrathful' incidents taking place over the years. So, when she mentioned that their punishment was going to be agonizing, they expected something along the lines of physical agony.

Never in a million years would they ever think that this particular woman could be both so very evil and cruel as to inflict the kind of mental agony on someone as she planned to inflict on them. But she was.

Especially when she finally told them what their punishment was going to be. Alfred was also shocked and somewhat horrified as well. Though it was for very different reasons.

He had never imagined that his master's princess was so inventive. Punishment wise that is. Yet this was a delightful idea and would certainly prove to be entertaining too. One that he could easily say that it was the greatest idea ever and quickly ran to get the book that his master dreaded so much for the boys to use as a basis for ideas.

While he was gone, Ichigo laid out some rules for the boys to follow. After all, she couldn't have them ruining things by destroying Alfred's book. And she even specified that if they failed their punishment and learned nothing- then they would both be grounded for the next six months.

In the meantime, they would be spending the next month planning Bruce and her wedding. Alone and without any help from anyone else in the house except each other.

They had to come up with dress ideas, flower arrangement ideas, decoration ideas, which church the ceremony would be held at, which venue, they had to each write out a menu and many, many other totally migraine inducing things.

And they were completely sure that it was going to be a nightmare. Especially when Alfred finally returned and handed his book over to them just in time for Ichigo to let them know that she was notoriously difficult to please.