Chiaki, Momo and Byakuya stood back to admire the work they'd been putting in. Chiaki had a bit of a surprise when Neji returned, and smiled at the sight of the room around them. Byakuya looked to Chiaki and inquired, "what prompted this?"

"He's been living in the house that I bought for myself and Tetsuya. He's been adapting to life in Soul Society. He took on a little girl that had no one, and got the surprise of his life—or after life? Well, a pretty big shock, no matter how you look at it," Chiaki listed off, rubbing her pregnancy swollen stomach with the last point. She smiled and admitted with a shrug, "I wanted to do something to make this place his house too."

To her surprise a smile tugged at the corners of the stoic Captain's mouth as he replied, "I'm certain he'll appreciate the effort."

"I hope so. I was going to wait until he went on a field trip with the academy but—an opportunity presented itself—plus I have to admit it's been a decent distraction from-" she trailed off, her eyes downcast.

Rangiku gently placed a hand on Chiaki's shoulder, and gave it a small squeeze while reminding her that Neji hadn't followed the kids alone. He was with three of the strongest Lieutenants in the Gotei 13. Chiaki smiled and nodded in acknowledgement while adding, "With Renji being a father himself, I'm certain the children will be fine. That doesn't make it any less terrifying to think about, however, try to use that thought to counter the fear."

"For all we know, they could have already confronted the kidnapper and be on their way back," Momo offered. This idea seemed to put the expectant mother at ease.

Brightening from the idea and Chiaki nodded as she suggested, "true. So how about we clean up before they get back?"

The Sixth squad Captain gave a small nod of his head in agreement. Rangiku relaxed as they began gathering up their respective tools and materials for Neji's surprise. It hadn't taken much to convince Momo Hinamori to come by and help out, the only other person they could think of with the required skill to get this done was Captain Byakuya Kuchiki. Both Lieutenants admitted to each other they felt a bit better with him nearby while they stayed with Chiaki. Yes, he was one of the strongest Captains in the Seireitei, but he was also one of the most proficient flash step practitioners. If the stress of the situation had caused labour to start, they knew without any doubt that they could either get Chiaki to the fourth, or get word to them to send someone over.

Meanwhile Neji's group for the most part, walked in silence through Sakahone before Suzume looked up at the brunette man that was carrying her. She reached up and gently poked at his cheek. "Hmm?"

His white eyes met her brown eyes as the child shyly asked, "did you mean what you said? About us being your kids?"

Neji gained a smile as he nodded and replied, "Indeed, I did. I do mean it. Initially I thought myself too young to be your legal parent, Suzume. I'll admit that, however as Chiaki and a few others have pointed out to me, we're actually not that close in age. While Renji does have a daughter, he could still pass as a teenager himself. That's even truer of his wife, Rukia. Even still they do have Ichika together and she does resemble your age range."

A young boy's voice reached his ears, questioning, "me too? Even though I'm kind of more of an obligation than Suzume? I mean, you're dating my Aunt and she's like my mom so, it's a packaged deal."

"Yes, in truth even when I was alive, I was willing to be as much of a Father to you as you'd let me be," Neji answered. He freed one of his hands by shifting Suzume so he could hold her close to him, one handed. The freed hand he placed on Tetsuya's head, gently tousling his hair. The boy looked up to the white eyed man and asked, "for real? Even if you were still human, you'd do that?"

"Even then, I would've been willing to find some way to make it work so I could be a father to you," Neji agreed. He was silent for a moment before realizing another fear that the boy may have had.

"That won't change if for some reason things don't work out between your Aunt and I. Although I don't see it being an issue, I also want you to know that there isn't any kind of fine line where I can easily escape my responsibility to you if I so choose to," Neji added.

Suzume wrapped her arms around Neji's neck, hugging him close. He smiled as he nuzzled her in response. Tetsuya smiled a little more, and his body, previously taunt was more relaxed. He glanced up at Suzume, and switched sides so he was next to her.

The little girl blinked a little at the change, but smiled again when she felt Tetsuya's hand on the middle portion of her back.

'I have a family,' she thought to herself.

'Wow, weird. Is she a sister or a cousin? I don't know,' Tetsuya thought to himself.

'I always wanted children. But when I was with Tenten, towards the end I couldn't see it happening. This—everything with Chiaki just feels—right,' Neji acknowledged to himself. Renji smiled as he dropped into a kneel in front of Tetsuya and stated, "climb on kid. We're gonna get back fast."

Neji nodded when Tetsuya looked to him, and as a result, the raven haired boy climbed onto the red haired Lieutenant's back. Renji secured Tetsuya by looping his arms underneath the boy's legs before flash stepping off. Ikkaku and Shuhei followed, each of them holding onto an arm of the blonde haired man.

Neji caught up to Renji and flash stepped alongside him. Briefly Neji reflected on his current situation between himself and Chiaki they already had a boy and a girl, realistically even though this baby was his biological child he didn't care what the gender of the baby would be, as long as both the child and Chiaki were safe and healthy.

Renji glanced over to the Hyuga man beside him while asking, "You got names picked out?"

"It was relatively easy when considering what we want the baby's name to represent," Neji answered. Renji chuckled and nodded in agreement as he admitted, "Rukia and I have a mutual friend, Ichigo. A bit more than decade ago, there was a huge uproar here, without Ichigo a lot wouldn't have turned out as it did. Plus, Ichigo's wife, Orihime, is friends with Rukia. The Ichika flower is Orihime's favourite. So Ichika became our daughter's name."

Neji smiled as he realized the other father's reason for asking and stated, "the names we've selected honour important people in our lives as well."

Renji nodded in acknowledgement as the rest of them continued into the Seireitei. Once they were in past the gatekeeper, Renji and Neji headed off towards the house he shared with Chiaki and the children. Shuhei bid them goodbye as he and Ikkaku continued escorting the blonde haired man to the second division.

Arriving just inside the house, Renji knelt down and allowed Tetsuya to jump off his back. The boy waited momentarily for Neji to arrive with Suzume. He unwrapped Renji's cloak from around Suzume and set her down on the ground. He then held the article of clothing out to the redhead with his thanks.

"No thanks necessary," Renji replied as he accepted the cloak back. The two men then followed the kids into the house. Suzume looked around and then gasped, glancing back she looked to Neji wide eyed and exclaimed, "look! Someone's been painting!"

Neji rounded the corner, smiling at Suzume. He then glanced up and gasped wide eyed as he took in the appearance of the home.