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The sight of a Kuchiki at their family gathering was surprising for most of Kiki's eclectic family. A few of the younger members looked at him in amazement, then at Kiki, and got huge grins on their faces. After all, while Kiki wasn't the only shinigami in their little bunch, she was currently the highest ranked, and the party today was in honor of her, so it only stood to reason that the elegant captain would be here because of her. The elder folks who'd been around a bit were more reservedly friendly, bowing politely to Kuchiki and offering him appropriate greetings. The littlest children stared at him in surprise, seeing the windflower silk scarf and his kenseikan and though they didn't know what those symbols of status meant, they knew that they were unusual and should be admired somehow.

The guest of honor in question was currently surrounded by much rowdier well-wishers, jostling the baby in her arms gently and letting the little tyke chew on her finger serenely, looking as if she was rather used to holding babies. Given how many little children their were running about like half-housebroken puppies, it was obvious where she got her experience. Her laughter rang out loudly, as a scrawny, stooped old man talked her ear off with a funny accent, seated at a table that was filled to overflowing with baskets and buckets and bowls, tins and boxes full of treats of all kinds. Every treat imaginable, from baklava to samosa, from the four corners of the earth, was piled on the table, and most people weren't even waiting around for the main dishes to be finished to start going to town on the sweets.

Kiki's expression lit up when she noticed Kuchiki standing there, making her way over to him and grinning happily. "Hey! You actually made it! C'mon over, I'll introduce you to my folks!" She took the box from his hand and moved towards the head of the table, setting it down near the front while deftly handing off little Leynka to Aunt Priss, a short blonde woman with huge blue eyes, freckles and a very thick Boston accent. Kiki smiled up up at him a moment before motioning to a man sitting in a chair, a garishly loud yukata covering the empty place where his legs below his knees would have been. He didn't look very old, with wild messy black hair tied back in a loose ponytail, streaked with gray but mostly still shiny and thick, with a broad, cheerful face marked with scars here and there from old battles. A woman stood beside him, wearing a much more demure and tasteful yukata of grey and soft rose pink. Kiki was a younger, taller, slightly rangier version of the small, elegant woman, her greying brown hair drawn back into a sleek chignon at the nape of her neck, her features elegantly European and aristocratic. Seeing Kiki and Byakuya making their way over, she bowed her head in welcome and leaned down to whisper in the slightly singed man's ear. The crippled former shinigami grinned brightly and turned his chair, looking at Kiki happily.

"Hey! There's my Keekum's!! C'mere, gimme some sugar!" The man held his arms wide and Kiki laughed, flinging herself onto his lap and hugging him tightly, pressing kisses all over his cheeks and face. "Gahh!! Too much sugar! Too much sugar! Yer gonna make me diabetic, kiddo!" He laughed, giving her a squeeze before shoving her unceremoniously off his lap. "Tell yer mom hi. She's missed ya." Obediently Kiki stood and rubbed her backside, shaking her head and grinning down at her dad before going to her mother, pressing a kiss to each cheek of the smiling woman.

"And you brought a guest, how lovely!" Chisuzu smiled at her daughter's companion, immediately bowing in acknowledgement of his status as a noble. "You honor our gathering with your presence, Kuchiki-sama. Thank you for coming, it is a great honor you pay us." Kiki rubbed the back of her head and grinned sheepishly.

"Well, you wanna hang out here with Mother or want to meet the rest of the clan?" She motioned to the wild array of people milling about, trying not to look too interested in the fact that their lil Keekums had a gentleman friend showing up, and as the younger or more brazen ladies of the group giggled to themselves as they elbowed one another, one they certainly wouldn't kick ouf of bed for eating crackers.

* * *

Ikkaku suddenly knew how it felt to be trapped in a cage with a very hungry tiger. However, add to that fact that the very hungry tiger was protecting his female cub from interloping males sniffing around where they shouldn't have been (if they had an ounce of good sense at all) and you had the basic jist of the situation. So he did what any man too much enamoured with a girl and with no sense at all would do in this situation: he was honest.

"Long as I could get away with it, taicho. Didn't see no point in getting you involved til Sym had made up her mind about me anyway. You'd get upset, she'd get upset, you guys would fight and all over what, if she didn't decide she wanted to go the distance with me? I figured we'd wait til we were at least official-ish." He held his breath and waited for the inevitable blood spray and gore to follow.

Kenpachi glared at him a moment, the sword still at the bald man's nose. "I should gut ya where ya stand, ya coward. You gonna date a girl, you gonna do right by her. Ain't gonna watch her haveta pick up the pieces again, and especially with you, bein' her best friend and all. May as well just kill ya now, so she'll at least have some good memories of ya."

It was probably insanity, some self-destructive tendency buried somewhere inside of Ikkaku that was just now making itself visible, some latent death wish that he'd never known he'd had. It was as if his good, common sense was standing on the outside of his body, watching in horror as he raised his hand and shoved the sword away, drawing his own.

Ohh kami! Ohh kami! His sensibility screamed in his head. You're gonna get yourself killed! Are you totally insane?? You should have just impaled yourself on his sword and been done with it!! It was unusual how much like that little 4th Division pansy Hanatarou his common sense sounded. But he had a point to make. "Well, go ahead and do it. Then Sym can be pissed off at ya and then where you gonna be? No disrespect intended taicho, but I like Sym-chan. Hell, I could probably say I love her and not be too far off the mark. I been there for her through nasty breakups and midnight training sessions and all them damned times she thought she wasn't livin' up to YOUR expectations!" Kenpachi had the good grace to look slightly abashed at that.

"Hey, I ain't never said the kid didn't make me proud and yer changing the subje..."

Any other time, Ikkaku wouldn't have dared interrupt his captain, but he was starting to get a good head of steam on him and he wasn't sure which was more shocking; that he'd actually advanced on his captain or that his captain had backed up.

Zaraki Kenpachi. Backed. Up.

It was surreal in a way, but Ikkaku was just getting started. He poked Kenpachi in the chest, coming almost nose to nose (well okay, nose to collarbone, Kenpachi was STILL one of the tallest men in Seireitei!). "You trust me with your division. You trust me with your back in battle. You trust me with Yachiru. What the hell beef you got saying you don't trust me with Sym-chan? You know I'd DIE before I let anything hurt her, much less do it myself! You know how many of her a*****e ex's I beat the stuffin' out of when she didn't know about it, just cuz they made her cry? So don't you dare start lumpin' me into that category and I know that's what yer doing! Yer a daddy, and yer protective, I get that. I respect that. But don't you forget that we done been through a lotta years fightin' t'gether and I ain't no more one a them dogs that did her sorry in the past than Yumi is!"

He'd have probably gone on at that point, but then a door flung open and Yachiru popped her head out, calling out to taicho with a very confused looking Sym standing in the doorway. At that moment two thoughts whizzed through his mind. Firstly, Sym-chan had just heard every thing he'd just said, including the 'almost love' part. Secondly, he had just been bawling out Zaraki Kenpachi and his finger was STILL pressing into the man's chest. Ohh yes, Madarame Ikkaku was a goner.

He just hoped that Sym was impressed enough to mourn at his funeral.

Kiki's mother smiled a little and shook her head, folding her arms across her stomach as she watched her daughter and her father bicker lovingly. "That is a very common misconception, Kuchiki-sama. I wasn't from the noble house. The people you see here today... these are my family. I'm simply a soul from this district, whatever I may have once been on earth." She turned to regard the young nobleman and smiled serenely. "Of course Kosuke could have come and taken Kiki back to the clan and left me here in the district. Kiki would have been raised as a noble lady, or she may have been slighted because of my common status. Noble clans, as I am sure you are aware, can be very rigid and very cruel sometimes. But I think in the end, Kosuke decided that we were more important to him than the arbitrary breeding rules of his family." She smiled at that, as though thinking of some memory that those words had evoked and it was obvious she was still very much in love with the man to this day. She turned her attention back to Byakuya and regarded him calmly.

"He felt that being with the woman he loved, no matter what her station, and raising his daughter in a happy, if a bit eccentric, household was more important than having great wealth and prestige. As he has always told Kiki, and she has taken this lesson to heart, the honor that your birth grants you is nothing compared to the honor your heart and your deeds grant you." She turned her gaze back towards the two people she loved most in this world. "Very wise words, I think."

Kiki glanced up from her argument with her father and grinned at Byakuya, seeing him talking to her mother, before turning her attention back to her dad, who was currently grilling her on the arrival of so highly esteemed a member of the noble house of Kuchiki. "Dad! there ain't nothing goin' on between us!" She protested, her voice slipping more into the rougher accent of the district with the sound of it filling her ears. Her father didn't seem convinced.

"Yeah, yeah... like a Kuchiki's just gonna come hang out down here in the districts just cuz yer interestin'! Keeks, ya gotta open yer eyes girl!" He tapped her forehead and sighed, shaking his own head. "Well, if you end up married inta some noble family, don't say I didn't warn ya. It'll be you stuck dealing with those stuffed shirt jackasses and their rules. Rules for everything, ya know? Rules fer eating, sleeping, meeting folks, how to walk and sit... hell they got rules for takin' a piss!" Seeing Kiki's mulishly obstinante face he sighed and shook his head. "Wastin' my breath on ya. Make us up some tea, will'ya? You do it good." Smiling a little to himself at the idea of so noble a shinigami sniffing after his little girl, he turned his attention back to the barbecue as Kiki sighed, exasperated and looked at her mother and Byakuya.

"I'm gonna make some tea, you guys want any?" As soon as she said that, there was a general murmur through the crowd of people and she looked around, stricken. "Okay, looks like I'm making a lotta tea. Alright Mother, I'll bring ya a cup. Kuchiki-taicho, y'want one too?"

* * *

Kenpachi tightened his stomach as he felt the punch and watched his daughter speak quietly with Madarame. He had nothing personally against the guy, but he was a daddy; what did she expect outta him? He waited til she was done and turned her attention back to him. The moment she called her sword into shikai, he grinned a little, bringing his own blade up to salute hers. "Looks like yer gettin' serious there, squirt. Alright. We done established that Madarame's got it bad for you. Let's see how much you'll fight for him."

Immediately he pressed the attack, leaping at her, his sword swinging in a lightning fast arc. He wasn't holding back, the best way he could show his respect and belief in her prowess was to go all out and he was pleased to do so. Granted, he wasn't gonna kill his daughter, but he'd give her the hardest fight he could without putting her life in danger. Her weapon was impressive, and she knew how to use it; he'd trained with her enough to know that. "So, just outta curiousity, if ya like the guy so much, why were you hidin' it from me? Thought I'd get mad about it?" He took a step forward, his own reiatsu flaring. "Dammit brat, I'm happy for ya, but don't sneak around and s**t! I'd be kickin' his a** if I had thought that he was ashamed of ya enough ta hide being with ya! Good thing for him he's about as subtle as a punch to tha face, so I knew he liked ya before YOU did!"

Kiki blushed a bit and grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Man, you ain't gotta call me princess, I sure as heck ain't one." She turned and headed into the house, certain that he'd be okay til she got back. Kiki's mother looked at him a moment and then towards her husband, who was regarding the noble from out of the corner of his eye while he was working on stoking the fire for the barbecue pit. "Kosuke, love...your sleeve is on fire." She pointed out mildly. Too busy eyeing the Kuchiki clan head with the suspicious malvolence of a father, he hadn't noticed how close his sleeve had gotten to the flames and yelped, patting down the cloth quickly to put out the fire. Her mother just shook her head and went to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing his red face. "I think Kiki can handle herself around Kuchiki-sama. You're worrying for nothing, my love." Kosuke just grunted and kissed his wife's arm, then went back to getting the barbecue started, paying more attention this time.

The blonde American woman had sidled up to Byakuya by this point, the baby that Kiki had been holding laying across her shoulder. "Sooo...Kuchiki, yeah?" She said, her blue eyes sparking with curiosity. Her husband, a mountain of a man who introduced himself gravely as Yakov with a thick Ukranian accent eyed his small wife with trepidation.

"Priss, it's not polite to pry..." He said in that sonorous, vaguely sad sounding Slavic accent. The blonde girl waved her hand dismissively and settled the baby on her other shoulder and grinned up at the nobleman.

"Sooooo...what brings you out here? How'd you meet Kiki? Are you two a couple? She looks happy, have you guys kissed yet? Has she been to your hou-" Her husband's hand over her mouth muffled her words as the man looked at Kuchiki with an amused, exasperated expression on his face. He murmured an apology as he gently pulled his wildly gesticulating wife away.

"Don't mind her. Priss is always in everyone's business." A voice rumbled beside him. Briathe had decided to introduce herself to the man who had come (very obviously) on account of Kiki. The woman was taller than Byakuya, a few inches over six feet, blue paint coating her body, slashed across her face like stripes across her eyes and cheeks. Beads and braids stuck out from her hair wildly and she leaned on a large, jagged-looking spear. She observed Byakuya a moment and grinned a little, a decidedly wolfish look on her face. "Good to have you here though. Kiki's pleased."

* * *

Ikkaku watched the beginning of the battle between Sym and Kenpachi with more than a little trepidation. He worried about Sym; she hadn't been able to beat him yet, and Zaraki-taicho could still wipe the floor with him. He glanced over at Yachiru and then back over at the fight. "She'll do fine." He said, more for himself than for Yachiru. She was going to be fine. Sym was tough and quick and smart, she'd be fine. Her dad wouldn't actually hurt her, she was going to be just fine...

"Well, I'd have talked to you, but ya been sneakin' around, not sayin' nothing ta no one! I figured you'd come to me at some point, but ya never did! Ya never came ta me, I gave ya every chance! So what, ya can't come tell me when ya finally, FINALLY find someone decent who's not gonna treat ya like s**t, and ya can't even tell me??" He stood back up from where he had gotten slammed into the tree, brushing the bark and splinters from his shoulders. The bleeding cuts that her strumming the strings caused stung, but he gave a wide slash of his sword, sending a wave of pure pressure back at her, sending her flying backwards, more blunt force than actual killing intent. He lept forward, reaching out with his hand to grab at her kosode, his golden eye furious as he looked down at her. "I'm yer father, dammit! So come to me once in a while! Don't make me go to yer boyfriend to find out what's going on with you! Didn't ya think I'd be happy for ya and want to tell ya I was??"

He advanced on her, striking at her with the backside of the blade, the non-sharpened edge, hoping to beat some sense into her if all else failed. At least this would get her anger out of her system and they could at least talk things out after the fact.

Damn. What sorta sissy had being a father made him into??

Briathe grunted, a sound that could have been anywhere on the range of emotion from 'acceptance of his words' to 'abdominal pain from under-cooked meat'. She didn't strike anyone as a person who indulged in many words, nor did she expect them from others. "Be good to her." She said, fixing him with a gaze that seemed old and fathomless, eyes that had held darkness once long ago, and hadn't entirely lost that malevolent cast. She clapped him on his shoulder, her hand heavy and large on his before turning and walking away, silent and formidable, heading towards a table where other men and women sat, dressed in similar garb with similar weapons, and paid him no more mind.

It wasn't long after before Kiki came out, bearing a large tureen of tea, bracing the huge pot on her shoulder. "Hey! Tea's done, get it while it's hot!" She called, and there was a laughing mob descending on her as she set it down on one of the few mostly bare tables and started pouring tea into cups for everyone. She glanced up and over at where Byakuya stood and smiled, taking a cup and bringing it over to him. "Hope nobody tried to corner you while I was gone. I told'em that if you showed up to be on their best behavior and not go bothering you, since you're not used to folks being so friendly and all."



Well, all's well that ends well as they say, and sparring with his daughter as opposed to having to beat sense into her was a much better way of ending the afternoon. It was more playful now, not quite as deadly serious as it had been, and Kenpachi seemed to be genuinely enjoying the spar with his daughter. At least, that was what Ikkaku could tell from what he was seeing. He watched Yachiru hop down and flash away, and settled in to watch the match. They moved well together; you could tell they were related. It was in stances, mannerisms, even facial expressions. Sym favored her mother more, or at least that was what he assumed since he didn't see much feature-wise of the rugged, rangy captain in the girl. But the important parts were there, the backbone, the drive, the little hint of battle-induced insanity that she had a sliver of and Kenpachi had in buckets.

He'd end up sparring with her later as was their usual, but she'd been tense lately. Hell, he had been too, glancing over his shoulder, waiting for black haired, golden eyed death to come bashing through a wall like the goddamned Koolaid Man, wielding fatherly outrage and bloodlust. This thankfully would cut that off at the head and everyone could go on about their lives. It probably wouldn't happen; after all, he lived in the 11th Division and everything there was about two inches from going completely off the rails and into slavering insanity every day, twice on Sundays. But at least it would settle back into the cheerful, manageable insanity.

And with Sym around to keep him sane, that was the craziness he didn't mind handling.

The barest brush of his fingers along hers as he took his teacup made her shiver just a little, a faint blush filling her cheeks as she looked away. She felt so silly, letting so small a thing affect her so. She had always wondered how on earth the girls that fell so hard for the calm, stoic captain could lose themselves so easily to a man who showed not the slightest bit of notice in them. However, finding herself now being subjected to his small smile and the slight touch of his fingers on hers, she couldn't figure out why everyone else WASN'T head over heels for him!

She looked up at him in surprise as she heard him say what Briathe had told him and felt her cheeks flush a little. "Ohh...er...well, you don't need to worry about her. I'll explain things." She said, trying to will the warm flush out of her face and doing her very best not to embarrass herself further. "They umm...well, they get weird ideas when they see me around a guy. Mother and Dad keep asking when I'm gonna bring a nice boy home and...I guess everyone thought that was you. Sorry about that." She rubbed the back of her head bashfully and looked away, biting her lip slightly. Not that anyone with half a mind would be upset about Kuchiki Byakuya taking an interest in them, but it just seemed so ludicrous, considering their very different personalities and upbringings and everything.



It was an epic battle to end all battles, which was an unusual thing to say about a fight between two combatants who were grinning and laughing and seeming to have more fun with it than anything. Everyone had to agree that at that point, the family resemblance between Zaraki Kenpachi and his daughter was quite evident. Ikkaku smiled as he watched, glad that they had patched things up enough to fight each other like they normally did, balls out and reveling in the joy of a good fight. Sym was a beautiful fighter, not a blocky power attacker like lots of the 11th squad was, but she had a grace to her as she moved, not having to sacrifice any power for her fluid, flowing style. It was interesting to watch her fight Kenpachi - powerful as he was, he wasn't exactly graceful and she kept him on his toes admirably.

"So, Uncle Crazy and the squirt's goin' at it again?" A voice beside him spoke up and he glanced over at Nakeuchi Arisa. The tall, scruffy looking 9th seat watched, resting her chin on her hand and tossing back her tangled braids behind her shoulder, grinning a bit and making the claw marks across her left eye, a memento from a long ago Hollow attack in academy, crinkle a bit around the paler, milky eye that even now wasn't able to see quite as clearly as the other. "She's gonna wind up our captain if she ain't careful - Zaraki-taicho's gonna slip up one day and she'll be the one grabbin' his haori." She glanced over at Ikkaku and grinned, that feral smile that split half her face. This time that smile was wicked and knowing. "Guess you'll be gettin' special favors, datin' the captain and all."

Ikkaku felt his ears turn red as he tried to focus on the fight and not on the laughing 9th seat's words, prophetic as they might be. Sym had the makings of a great captain one day... and he wouldn't consider it a break of his vow to go to whatever squad she went to. After all, he'd vowed to serve under Zaraki til he died... he'd never specified which Zaraki that would be.

Kiki grinned a little and looked down, trying to hide her embarrassment as he mentioned her being picky about the guys she brought home. "Well, I think they're just all curious cuz I've never brought a guy here before." She looked down at her tea cup and cleared her throat, feeling more than a little bashful about talking about such things with Kuchiki-taicho. "Well..y'know...weird ideas. Like me bringing you here cuz there's somethin' going on between or stuff like that. You know, that kinda stuff." She looked over at him, her eyes lingering just a moment too long, indulging in a bit of fantasy. What if things were like that between them? Would things be different when he came here? Would she meet his family? Ugh. Hanging out with a buncha nobles! That'd kill the buzz right there! Still, as she looked at him and then away to focus on her tea, she had to admit that, for him, having to stand hanging out with nobles for a few hours wouldn't be so bad.

* * *

The fight had become more intense and Ikkaku wondered how long it would be before one of them had to give. He had to put his money on Zaraki-taicho if only because the had more experience in that particular area than Sym. Give her a few decades though and she'd be right up there with him. Apparently, Arisa was of the same opinion. The 9th seat watched her the girl appraisingly, her good eye following the lightning quick movements easily. "She's good. She'll do better with more hand to hand training though. I wouldn't mind taking her on and teaching her." The woman said nonchalantly and Ikkaku glanced over at her, a bit alarmed.

Arisa was a banshee on the battlefield; he'd been fought to a standstill by her before. Of course, he could have won the match if he'd brought out his bankai, but he wasn't willing to do that to beat a competitor who wasn't actively trying to kill him. But Arisa specialized in hand to hand and her zanpakuto's shikai was deadly enough as it was. He had to admit, he'd given pause when the woman's release command was "Rend the universe, Toratsume" and she had gigantic freakin' raptor talons on her hands and feet. He'd needed more than a few wounds stitched that day.

Still, while Yoruichi was without equal in speed when it came to hand to hand, Arisa had power and endurance behind her. Not to mention a sheer, brutal killing power that was unmatched in the lower ranked officers and unranked shinigami. "That might be good for her." He mused quietly, watching the fight. "I'll mention it to her, see if she wants a little more training."

Kiki spluttered a little into her tea, feeling her face flush as she looked over at him and then down, squirming a little shyly. "I...w-well, I mean... I don't...I don't mean it'd be bad or nothing like that but...well, it sure wouldn't be the norm!" She laughed, but even to her the sound was a bit brittle and nervous. Was he insinuating that he might not mind too much if there was something between them? That idea was just enough to boggle the mind, and Kiki found herself contemplating it, if only for a moment before she caught herself and smiled a little bashfully. "It wouldn't...it wouldn't be bad though." She said softly, biting her lip and looking up at him from the corner of her eyes, a shy, hopeful little expression on her face.

* * *

Ikkaku tore his eyes away from the battle to greet the new man who had arrived. Sym's otouto? Well, he supposed it made sense. Sym tended to have people gravitate to her, it would only make sense that she'd manage to gather up a brotherly figure while she was doing so. And if he was able to make the transition to the 11th from the 12th, Ikkaku had to admit the man was made from sterner stuff than most of the Creeper Patrol's denizens. "Good to meet you. I'm Madarame, 3rd seat of the division. If yer lookin' ta come around, you gotta like ta fight." He grinned a bit, looking down at the bladed knuckles that dangled at the man's side. "C'mon over sometime, I'll give ya a workout, we'll see what yer made of."

His piece said, he turned his attention back to the fight, watching intently as if he could keep Sym from getting hurt by sheer force of will alone. Usually fights between those two could last for hours. Who knew how long it'd take to get it out of their system this time?