I had a few people ask what were their friends and family were up to after Matchmaking Trouble so here is a brief epilogue for them.
Twenty Years later...
The Soul Society was buzzing after Ichigo and Rukia's newest announcement. At a joint dinner, the next night, the Kuchiki and Shiba Clans announced their plan for a dinner party to celebrate their newest members, even if their first appearance into the world would be 4 months hence. Byakuya and Isshin made themselves in charge of everything from each family, which is another story in itself. The duo argued with one another about the location, food, and decorations while Kukaku watched on in amusement. Ichigo notice Byakuya grip Senbonzakura so he immediately picked up Kaien and took him to play somewhere faraway before the little boy could watch his Uncle Byakuya attack his grandfather with pink petals of death. While Isshin yelled at Byakuya, Rukia told Kukaku that she would take care of the invitation list.
The petite captain thought about all of their friends throughout the years - nobles, soul reapers, humans, and espada. They all changed her and Ichigo's destiny and life for the better. While everyone was on her mind, Rukia escaped to her office.
A large majority of the dinner group remained in the dining hall after her exit… a loud crash was heard. "Nope. They moved into the training room." She said out loud, thankful that Ichigo was off playing with Kaien in a nice, safe spot. Rukia entered her office in Kuchiki Manor. Byakuya had a new office set up for her as part of her wedding present to incorporate her more into the role of being the heir and future leader. Over the past 20 years, Rukia finally took to it to a duck like water after she came out of her shell. Byakuya and her replaced all the council except for two, Yuuto and Hayato. Those two would be on the council until they passed, and they were getting invitations as well as the new council members.
Sitting down at her large, cherry oak desk, Rukia picked up her pen to make the list of names. All the elders from both clans were to be invited along with all the ranking soul reapers. That list she could make in her sleep since Byakuya drilled so much formal information into her and Ichigo's head for whenever they took over the clans.
The first people that Rukia wrote down were the Ishidas. They were 2 of her first friends when she was stranded in the World of the Living, and they remained best friends as they aged. Rukia smiled as she remembered all of Uryuu and Ichigo's competitions over the years. Whenever they started in on their macho man kick, she and Orihime would go find the nearest ice cream shop and Chappy store while the boys acted like idiots. They always visited from time to time, and Rukia was happy to have plenty of girl time while the kids played with one another as well as the husbands trying to outdo each other.
Orihime and Uryuu have been married 15 wonderful years in the World of the Living, and it's a miracle the orange haired woman and yet to kill her husband with her horrible cooking. They have three beautiful children – Mayu, Masato, and Yuudai. The girl has a unique power like her mother's while the sons took after their father with his quincy powers. Rukia spent the past few years watching has their friends age, and every time she and Ichigo visited, she made sure Kisuke had aged gigai for them so they wouldn't stand out. During their visits, she would hear about Orihime's stories of being a stay at home mom. It was never dull hearing about what the kids were working on or Orihime's latest creations; although, Rukia would brave hell again before every trying Orihime's food ever again. Her last concoction made Rukia ill for two whole weeks. On the other hand, Rukia loved receiving surprises from Uryuu. He was a fashion designer and owned his own shop now. Everything was looking up for the couple, even Uryuu's relationship with his father. They came to terms a few years after Mayu was born. Rukia thought that having grandchildren soften Ryuken.
Rukia then remember Orihime tell her about Keigo and Mizuro recently. Unfortunately, they didn't get to see those two since they were always busy working nowadays, but rumor had it that they were living together since Keigo was renovating Mizuro's older house to a more modern style. As part of his payment, Keigo was allowed to stay there until the job was completed or until he finished renovating his own house first. This big job was all thanks to Mizuro running a large technology company, even though his older women habit drained some of his bank account. Each man was successful in their own right; yet, neither one found a lovely lady that they really could stick with or who would understand their unusual friends.
Chad ran an shelter for abused children as well as a home for lost fullbringers. His goal was to bring all those affected by hollows into the fold while helping children deal with their trauma. He ran the shelter with Saukra Tataskhi, who he was more than a little sweet on. All the girls were hoping for the gentle giant to settle down with the fullbringer. They were making a wonderful difference in town with their mission.
The next person that Rukia wrote down brought a smile to her face. She thought about Tatsuki a lot since their friend was living singly in the World of the Living. But don't let her seemingly non-existent human love life fool you. Tatsuki was in a long-term relationship with none other than Renji! It seemed Rukia and Ichigo started a couples' trend since Tatsuki and Renji were the next couple to make everything official followed by Toshiro and Karin.
The 2-time Olympic karate champ owned 3 dojos in the Karakura Town. She also helps Chad with the fullbringers since she developed powers later on as well. Tatsuki spent a large amount of her free time in the Soul Society trying to master her new powers, but she planned on staying in the World of the Living until she passed. Rukia was looked forward to working with her hard ass friend and having double dates with her and Renji. Whenever the time came for Tatsuki crosses over permanently, she knew that Rukia always had a position available for her in Squad 13, but Rukia and Renji both thought that Tatsuki would choose Squad 11 since Kenpachi was always recruiting her whenever she visited.
Next of the list were the all the Vizards. Shinji, Kensi, Rose, and Mashiro were all in the Soul Society as members of the 13 Court Guard Squad so they would receive invitations automatically. Each of the captains were still over their perspective squad, but Mashiro become Ichigo's lieutenant. She was more than thrilled to be able to help him get fully acquainted with his new duties and role. As for the four vizards in the World of the Living, Lisa was running a successful erotic book store since her retirement. Hiyori took over as team leader of the Karakura Town unit from Lisa when she became bored and wanted more excitement in her life. The small blonde woman was still a handful, but she slightly mellowed out unless Shinji or Hitsugaya was around. Love helped Hiyori patrol the area while Hachigen assisted Isshin in his clinic. Hachigen healing abilities were amazing, and he put them to good use.
Rukia wouldn't dare leave off Kisuke and company. She knew Yoruichi and Kisuke would be at the dinner come hell or high water. They were always visiting them since whenever the Shibas or the Kuchikis had any type of social function. Rukia just thought of the couple as honorary members of their clans. Those 2 had a relationship for so long that Rukia wondered if they ever would make it "official", but she doubted it. They weren't the usual couple. Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu were also invited to the dinner. They helped out the gang numerous times, and they ran the shop while Kisuke was busy. Rukia just had to remember not to eat any of Tessai's latest creations when they visited. Ururu was turning out to be an adorable young lady while Jinta was hostile as ever. But a certain Kurosaki slowed him down and turned the feisty red head into a decent man.
Rukia invited Neil to the dinner with Kyoraku's blessing. The captain-commander was quite fond of the Espada since she helped them. If Neil was about to come, then she would bring Grimmjow along with her because the Espada was never far away from his girlfriend. Rukia foresaw a rematch between Ichigo and the blue haired Espada along with Kenpachi showing up somewhere in between to join the fun.
Upon hearing the great news, Neil was excited to have other Kurosakis running around to play with. She loved removing her wrist band that Kisuke gave her, and she'd become a child again as well. The children would be well protected when they she was around, child form or not.
As for their soul reaper friends, Momo and Kira were married a year after Rukia and Ichigo were. The couple of lieutenants worked hard for their beloved captains, and Izuru finally learned how to say the word NO to his family. Of course, it also helped that four captains were laying the pressure the Kira's to allow the marriage. Now, the couple was happy with two kids, and they had their Uncle Shinji and Uncle Rose wrapped around their little finger.
Two other dear friends, who ended up together a couple of years ago, were Shuuhei and Rangiku. The couple was nervous at first since Rukia dated Shuuhei, but she happily gave her beloved friends hugs and her blessing when they started dating ended up together with Rukia's blessing. They were both great people. Shuuhei even learned his bankai while Rangiku refused to put in the effort to develop hers. She didn't want the responsibility of being a captain. But she was Rukia's full time stylist and godmother to Kaien with all her noisy help getting her and Ichigo together.
Kenshin and Sasuke Shihoin were also coming to help celebrate. The boys remained friends with Rukia after she married, and surprisingly, they turned out to be good friends of Ichigo's as well. Sasuke still remained in Squad 2 under Soi-Feng while Kenshin moved under Squad 6 since his return. Him and Byakuya also did get along well, and Kenshin even met his future wife in his new squad.
Kaien's other godparent was more like a grandfather to him. After all, Ukitake was basically Rukia's adopted father. He taught her so much. After his retirement from the position of captain, Ukitake taught others now from young soul reapers studying at the academy to ranked soul reapers trying to move up. Ukitake spent his time taking tea with Rukia and Kyoraku or providing consultations for them about business matter. The long, white haired man was a pillar to the Soul Society and the Kuchiki-Kurosaki bunch. Rukia looked forward to the days when Kaien and the twins tell her stories about their adventures with Ukitake. She knew that he would impart wisdom on her children leading them to greatness.
Once all their friends were addressed, Rukia started thinking about sending invites to immediate family. There wasn't a point to send Byakuya one, but she would be nice and make a note for Kaien to take to his uncle. The little boy would love that especially since he wanted Byakuya to train him in flash step at such an early age. Besides, it's not like Byakuya wasn't planning on helping her host the party after all. Kami, forbid the man ever got woman other than her, Kukaku, or Yoruichi to help him. He had to keep up the most eligible bachelor in the soul society after all!
Of course, Kukaku and Ganju were coming to Byakuya's distain since they were helping with half of the banquet after all. They were going to teach the little ones how to hog right and make fireworks along with whatever Isshin had planned. That fact did scare Rukia some, but she knew that her brother and Kukaku would reign Isshin in if he got to crazy. If that didn't work, Ichigo and Karin would take care of their father, or he could just go drink with Kyoraku as Nanao supervised them. Along with all the festivities, the Shibas planned on bringing two ex-fullbrigners and an ex-espada turned soul reaper. Uliquiorra worked his way up in the ranks to attend the academy and become an official soul reaper with Kyoraku's blessing. He was placed under the watchful eye of Hitsugaya in case something ever went wrong.
As for her wonderful sister-in-laws, Rukia made sure that they received their invitations well in advance. Family dinners weren't the same without them. Although, she would have to check with Isshin to see where she needed to send Yuzu's. Hell, she may just hand deliver it and have lovely tea with the darling twin. Since her powers developed, Yuzu had been living between the Soul Society and the World of the Living. Captain Unohana was training her in advance medical kidos since Yuzu had a knack for it. Rukia doubted that Yuzu would ever become a full fledge soul reaper due to her distaste for violence, but Unohana always told her that she would be an honorary Squad 4 member since they could always use more medics skilled in the healing arts.
When she wasn't in practicing in Squad 4, she was working at Isshin's clinic as a nurse. She also moonlighted as a caterer at times. Yuzu shared her life with Jinta. They married a few years ago, and Isshin was foaming at the mouth for all three of his babies to have kids. Rukia did question her father-in-law's sanity at times. Why rush them?
Rukia worked closing with her other sister-in-law since Karin was her lieutenant. She was very glad that Karin choice to be her lieutenant rather than Ichigo's. The siblings would have killed each other and would have always brought her or Hitsugaya into the mix. Rukia had enough trouble keeping Ichigo from strangling his dad and her brother half the time. Karin provided Rukia the extra amount of sanity that she needed to get through the day.
Karin and Toshiro Hitsugaya were the first two who learned about the twins after Ichigo and Rukia's picnic. The couple fled back to Squad 13 shortly after they ate due to a sudden rain storm that ended their magical picnic. Karin and Hitsugaya were surprised to see the couple back early after Ichigo's instructions to help out his wife while Rukia was out of the office. Karin was still new to learning all the lieutenant duties us some of a Captain's duties for when Rukia takes leave. This caused Rukia to think back to when her sister-in-law first arrived in the Soul Society. Karin was very similar to her brother about wanting to protect others and fight for what's right. She thought the best place to do that was as a member of the Gotei 13 Court Guard Squad. Now, whenever Karin wasn't being Rukia's Lieutenant, she was the sponsor and captain of the Soul Reaper Women's soccer team while her husband was over the Soul Reaper Men's soccer team. They had numerous matches against one another and per league. This gave everyone a break from all the random hollows that kept popping up all over the world.
Looking down at her list, Rukia was satisfied. She wrote down everyone important to them, and the rest of the soul reapers would receive invitations as well. This was a major celebration after all if the Kuchiki and Shiba Clans were holding a party.
Slowly, Rukia rose from her chair and walked across the hall to place the list on Byakuya's desk. Then, she went in search of Ichigo and Kaien. She could still hear the sound of shattering wood from the training area along with a few of the spare rooms. The servants are going to have fun rebuilding half the manor after Isshin and Byakuya got through, but when was that anything unusual? If Isshin didn't get in trouble with at least one of the Shibas or Kuchikis during his monthly visits then something was wrong.
Thanks again everyone! I hope you enjoyed this!