Author's Note: Please, please, please a thousand times PLEASE forgive me! Life has thrown me curve balls and such and I almost couldn't get into writing or updating this story. I just finished having my second child and time has escaped me. Anyway, I seem to be faltering a little with this story so I'll update as I can. I don't want everybody to expect updates coming in fast though. I just started getting into Bleach again so my writing will come as inspiration does. Either way, enjoy and let me know if I'm messing anything up (nicely please!). But yes, read and enjoy.

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Chapter Six

The night sky illuminated the couple as they lay in bed together. Kenpachi's fingers twirled in Retsu's hair, set free earlier so he could watch her in all her vulnerable beauty. The quiet beauty possessed a strength that was almost scary. But he was Zaraki Kenpachi, and he backed down from no one. Of course that same resilience was why he fell in love with her instead.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked,

Retsu looked at him shocked, "Why do you ask?"

"Because, you would've been peeling away at my mind by now, and now I'm nervous because you're quiet. That means you're thinking of something fucked up."

"Actually, I was thinking of a way for Kurosaki Taicho and Hinamori fukutaicho to get together."

"What are you, hanging with Yachiru?"

Retsu giggled a little, "No Kenpachi. Actually, I was thinking that you can help me."

"Fuck no!" he almost bellowed,

"Language Ken…"

"Fuck that!" he spat, "You're not putting me in some matchmaker type of shit. I only care about fighting and fucking you on occasion…lots of them. Why make my life complicated with all of this love shit going around?"

"So you don't love me?"

"I didn't say that." Zaraki spat, "Stop putting words in my mouth and go to sleep woman."

"Not until you agree to help."

"Get the brat to help. I'm not in it."

It'd gotten quiet, and that made Zaraki twitch just a little more. He hated when she did that. She wasn't like other women that would argue with a man. She always knew just how to get her way with him. Everything that worked in the Fourth Division's walls during his appointments worked just as effectively in their romantic situation. However, the real reason was because he, Zaraki Kenpachi was in love, and no matter how many times he would say no, the answer would become the opposite.

"You make me sick." He muttered,

He pulled her closer to him in the bed, making the woman under him sigh almost inaudibly. She wondered if he could see the smile on her face.

"Yet you haven't gotten rid of me."

Zaraki smirked, "I never will."

---

Renji found that he was ready to kill himself. Rukia had gone off into a rampage over flowers. It was bad enough that he had to give the Captain Commander his decision in a couple of hours. It was also bad enough that his own Captain had almost lectured him to death about what would happen to him if his sister was unhappy-as if she might not send him to an early grave first-and such other changes his life will incur once this union was made. Once upon a time, marrying Rukia wouldn't have caused this much trouble. Now he had to uphold the pride of the Kuchiki clan and such other nonsense. Upon asking for his mentor's advice on whether he should attain Captaincy, Byakuya answered in the positive.

"Of course, you have yet to flawlessly wield your bankai, but otherwise, I don't see other obvious reasons you should say no."

Renji did.

He was seeing stars as he found himself face up on the cold hard floor of his quarters. The one he would vacate as soon as he was married. It seemed nothing in his life was ever permanent.

"You're not paying attention!"

Renji sighed, letting anger pass for the time being. He didn't feel like fighting his fiancé. He didn't even feel like thinking at the moment, let alone talking about wedding arrangements.

"Yes, I was. I just stopped." He replied, rubbing the side of his face where the pain was seeping through his awareness.

Renji sat up, looking dead on at Rukia's glare, "Why are you stressing this so much anyway? We're going to get married, and we're going to screw each other's brains out. What more do you want?"

"I want my wedding to be perfect Renji." She said, "You do know, this is like, the biggest thing that's happened to us since, joining Soul Society."

"Is it? I mean, I almost died twice since you meeting Kurosaki. You almost died since meeting Kurosaki. You almost died…"

"I get it Renji. I mean, we're getting married. I just want the day to be perfect because we can't repeat it. I've never had a day that was just perfect."

"So the day we said we loved each other and don't want to let go wasn't perfect enough? What are you just stupid?"

"No baka! I'm…I'm saying that I just want the day to go right."

"I'm thinking of the days after the wedding. I want those days to be perfect."

Rukia opened her mouth to cut him off, but was silenced with a menacing glare from Renji. She would've returned one of her own, except that she felt that what he wanted to say would forever rest between his mind and his lips if he didn't get it out.

"I don't give a fuck about appearances. You know that. Everything seems to be an appearance lately. What are you trying to prove by all this frilly shit anyway? Our relationship has never been frilly. Why do you suddenly want that? Make me understand."

"It's not anything that symbolizes us." Rukia said, "It's just that I can have it. I've never had something that was worth celebrating. Something that was very special for me. It's just that you have to suffer at the hands of it."

The first part of her answer almost made him melt. The latter end of it stopped him from doing so. He was just seeing that Rukia was being a spoiled brat, but it was fine by him.

Looking down at her though, he couldn't help but get taken in that ragged beauty that was her. In those big violent eyes he could see himself drowning deeper and deeper in love. He didn't even know he could fall deeper.

On impulse, he snatched her up and kissed her, throwing her against the wall, thinking to himself that he was a little rough, but figured Rukia didn't care. They were both rough around the edges, being two brats that came out of the Rukongai. Now they were about to get married. He was about to become nobility and was about to accept the offer to promote his rank to as high as it was going to go.

The kiss ended with both parties out of breath. Renji could see the need in her eyes, and then decided to gather his payback at that moment, since he should be on his way to the Captain-General.

"I'm leaving now."

"Leaving? How could you…"

"Meeting…Captain-General. Accepting Captaincy."

Renji pulled away, leaving Rukia sulking where she stood. He knew he'd pay for that later, but at the moment, revenge was too damn sweet. In either case, he couldn't leave her that high and dry.

"Choose red and yellow roses." He said, "That's pretty much us."

Shutting the door behind him, Rukia smirked. It was sweet that he pretty much solved her problem, but she was still getting him back later on.

---

Toshiro was getting disgusted. It'd been a week since the big blowout, and Rangiku was hardly giving an inch about the whole situation. He wondered how long she was going to keep the façade up. On the upside, paperwork was getting done. There was silence in the office, but that wasn't an upside. Honestly, it grated his nerves worse than her incessant chattering about nothing. He missed quite a few other things. He thought to himself if he would give his soul to see the woman happy.

"I'm going to transfer to another division."

Toshiro snapped his head over towards Matsumoto, shocked because of the fact that he'd heard her voice in the first time in days. The words she uttered also threw him off balance.

"Transfer? For what?"

Matsumoto looked at his face for the first time in days, shame written all over them. "On a professional note-"

"-You've been nothing but professional since we've met Rangiku." Toshiro snapped, "Why say anything on a professional note when this is clearly personal?"

He stood, walking over to her desk, and placing both hands on it, "Why haven't you looked me in my face for the past week?"

He cursed himself inwardly for even asking the question. It was quite strange for him to go that far, but screw it. He was at his wits end.

"I embarrassed myself. I thought you cared about me the way I cared about you…I love you Captain. I fell in love, and I'm sorry. I thought that one day you'd just come along and want to be with me. Maybe I read you wrong. I thought…it doesn't matter. I'm resigning so as to keep us from bumbling around the other."

Silence permeated the room. Toshiro found himself out of his element, and that was rare for the prodigy as he was rarely ever out of his element. That seemed to be happening more often than not lately, and it seemed Matsumoto Rangiku was the cause more often than not. If he didn't love her, he knew for sure he could do nothing else but hate her. Just as this moment was causing him confusion on whether he did love or hate her, as frustrated anger coursed through his veins.

Toshiro leaned so close to Rangiku's face that there was hardly an inch of space left between them. Anger shone brightly in his teal orbs, when he opened his mouth.

"I'll be damned if I let you leave."

Rangiku, for the life of her, wasn't sure whether to be upset or not at that admission. She knew she couldn't deny that her heart palpitated more than normal at the proximity of her Captain's lips from hers. She couldn't deny that her palms were sweaty, and that her hands itched to run themselves through his hair. It was ridiculous but love didn't stop her from being attracted to the boy, even if he didn't feel the same way. The only problem was which route to take? She could swallow her pride and go on with life, or she could be the same big-as-life personality she always been, and leave with a dramatic exit.

Of course, she was taking the dramatic way out.

"Captain, with all due respect, I've taken care of myself, and damning yourself of my leaving isn't going to stop me. Now, let me move on with my life so that you can move on with yours."

With almost a flourish, she stood up, causing Toshiro to tip backwards a little. Before Rangiku made it to the door, Toshiro was in front of it, blocking her from exiting.

"Captain…"

"You were wrong."

Rangiku was left to scratch her head in confusion, "About what?"

"I'm not interested in romance with Momo. I loved her, as a brother loves his sister. I ran all through out the Seireitei trying to save her life. You were right about that. I dragged you along because I knew something wasn't right from the beginning. To end up seeing Aizen stab her through the chest…I couldn't take it."

"Captain-"

"-Let me finish before I lose my nerve!" he snapped, "I watched Momo transition from a strong admiration, to a small school girl crush, to love. She was so deep in love with that man that she asked me to save his very life. This was after he stabbed her through the chest, and left her for dead. I wanted to spit on her for that. How dare she ask me to save that bastard's life! How dare she!"

The room reverberated with his tone raising. Rangiku felt the temperature change, the cold starting to seep into her bones. She placed her hands on his shoulders. She didn't understand what the story had to do with her though. That's what she was trying to figure out. At least she was getting more insight to his feelings concerning Hinamori.

"Captain. Calm down a little bit. It's getting cold in here."

The room started returning to regular room temperature, bit by bit. Toshiro stared Matsumoto in her crystal eyes and sighed. He lost himself for a moment there. Looking into her eyes still, Toshiro made the move to lose him self even more.

"I love you Rangiku." He said, "I have for a long time."

She wasn't sure whether she gasped or not. The admission should've been enough to make her faint, but she would contain her composure. Besides, this was the moment she'd been waiting for. The events leading to it weren't ideal, but it came anyway.

"So what stopped you from telling me before?" she questioned, and Toshiro smirked a little,

"I don't want to be hurt by anybody else."

It was Rangiku's turn to be insulted, "Captain, I've always been the playful sort. It's common knowledge. I'm lazy. I'm somewhat annoying…"

"Somewhat?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, making the older woman smirk,

"Yes. You would've gotten rid of me already. But, I know when not to play around. I don't play around on the battlefield, and I won't play around with your heart. I know what it means to have your heart broken as well."

He saw the quick flash of pain in her eyes and remembered she'd lost her old friend. Gin was many things to Rangiku. Their long time friendship was destroyed upon finding out he was the traitor. She'd taken his life…and Toshiro believed it was her way to saying goodbye.

"I know." He'd said quietly, "And I'm sorry that I've been selfish."

"I'm sorry that I was a little emotional."

Actually, Rangiku found she wasn't. Her Captain was an amazing person. He was the youngest Captain for years before Ichigo bum rushed his way into everyone's lives. He was acclaimed a genius. But even geniuses had stupid moments. Though she took a route she hadn't wanted to, Rangiku found she'd reached the goal she wanted. And that was to make the irritable, sometimes cranky, other times stiff Captain of the Tenth division hers.

"We've just spent the last hour of work fighting about this…we'd better call it a day." Toshiro said, sighing a little bit,

Rangiku squealed and grabbed Toshiro into a crushing hug, "That's the sweetest words that could've parted your lips today!"

"I just told you I loved you, and the fact that you don't have to work is the sweetest thing I've said?"

Rangiku let him go, and scratched her head as in deep thought. A moment later she looked down at her Captain with a grin.

"Actually, it's hard to choose which one was the sweetest."

A chuckle actually escaped his lips and before he knew it, Toshiro grabbed Rangiku and placed his mouth on top of hers. They were an odd pair, but sometimes he found, odd was just right up his alley. As long as she didn't hurt him, he felt he could get used to Rangiku and everything odd about her.

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It was five o'clock, and Hinamori was still working. She scribbled endlessly on each report. She was in the zone as far as her paperwork was considered. She'd just finished correcting Ichigo's while the young warrior snored soundly on his desk, a river of drool trailing downwards his face. Hinamori didn't even want to count the difference in age next to hers. She had centuries on him. Even Toshiro had a couple of decades or so over him. She wondered why it was possible that a sixteen year old boy caught her very interest, and why she wondered why he wore that scowl on his face on a regular basis. She wondered about his past life before he became a soul reaper. She wondered many a thing, while she scribbled her last name and rank continuously on endless documents.

Momo's head snapped up when she heard a groan being heard. She looked over to see Ichigo sitting up, wiping his face off.

"What time is it?" he muttered, "Kuso. Five fifteen?"

"Hai Kurosaki-kun. You knocked out at about four thirty."

"You should've yelled for me to wake up."

Ichigo sat up, and looked over at his vice-captain. He smirked at her grunt and the snide remark that followed it.

"Nothing can wake you when you're sleeping."

Momo found that when Ichigo was bored and inactive, sleep overtook his being unless roused by any sign of action. Taking Rukia's advice on the fly one day when she stopped by for tea, she rapped him on the back of the head. She wasn't as headstrong as Rukia to argue with him however, which led to Ichigo apologizing for sleeping in the first place. After the first time she decided she would let her Captain sleep and just finish as much work as she could. Besides, he was eerily terrible at paperwork. Kyoraku had to be better at it, and he didn't attempt to do his paperwork at all.

"The bump on the back of my head is proof that you found a way actually."

"It was a last resort, and I promised I wouldn't do it again."

"Whatever." He said, "You should check out now though. Shift's over."

"I'm almost finished Taicho." She said, scribbling away, "One more paper."

"Hurry up already. You should run off and do something girly, like shopping. Maybe do something to your hair."

Momo raised an eyebrow and paused scribbling her name that last time, to catch the smirk on his face. She recounted their conversation on her hair before. And even the prior one with Unohana.

"Why is everybody telling me to get my hair done?"

"Che. I could care less what you do. I just feel that it's a sin to work after shift's over. I used to kill to rush home after my father cut me loose."

"Well, Kurosaki-kun, I'm finished for the day."

Hinamori stood up, files in hand. She regarded Ichigo with a glare, trying to understand why she was upset. Momo was realizing that his apathy was slowly but surely getting on her nerves. One thing she couldn't stand was a man that could only express that he didn't care for things in life. She found it to be disgustingly opposite of what he really was and what he embodied. That wasn't the only reason that she was upset.

Ichigo watched her walk out and found himself confused as well. He didn't mean to appear apathetic, it was just simply the way he was. Whether she went straight home to read a book or to try to pass out drunk was none of his business. He just wanted to return to his own quarters and fall back asleep. It started to irk him that he hurt her feelings.

"Hinamori…I'm sorry." Ichigo said,

Hinamori shrugged her shoulders, "No apology necessary Taicho. You don't have to be engaged in my personal life."

Hinamori was walking towards the door when Ichigo beat her to it, blocking her pathway. Looking down at her dainty features he wondered how she ever made it to the rank that she was. He pictured her being one of the many maids living in court under the Kuchiki clan. Ichigo pictured her walking around in a kimono all day, just looking pretty rather than having to get her hands dirty in battle. He couldn't picture the same stalwart woman falling desperately in love with a man who would cold bloodedly leave her for dead.

Under his glare, Momo found herself quavering and hoping that he didn't notice. She hoped that he didn't notice that his proximity was affecting her in the worst way and that it embarrassed her.

"Look, I'm sorry. You have to excuse me. I'm used to having these conversations with Rukia and I'm seeing day by day that you're nothing like her."

Momo raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to ask him what he meant. He chuckled and looked at her.

"I'm not trying to say you're weak. You're just…not rough around the edges like she is. And you're nicer to look at."

Momo bit down the giggle that tried to rise in her throat but knew she couldn't stop the blood from flowing to her cheeks.

"Nicer to look at?" Hinamori questioned,

He shrugged, "Yeah. Rukia's pushy as shit. But anyway, I see that you're not Rukia and I'll try not to be an asshole every time I answer questions you ask. Fair enough?"

Momo chuckled, "Thanks for the compliment, but I won't crack and fall to pieces every time you act like you don't care about everything."

Ichigo snorted, "Like you did a couple of seconds ago."

He slid back the fusuma and the two companionably walked towards Momo's quarters. People looked on from everywhere watching the twosome walk. Neither of them thought about the fact that more rumors would ensue.

"Hey! I was about to go on my merry way and take a nap." Momo said, "I'm tired too! Considering its been a long day and I do more work than you anyway."

"Feh." Ichigo said, "I'll get the paperwork right one day. I've had enough of doing it back home."

For a second Ichigo missed his sisters and the tidy life they held back in Karakura. He almost missed Kon. But he was there to serve for the army he's helped on many occasions. He also was searching for the mother who was stripped from life so long ago. Whether he would find her or not was debatable. He wouldn't give up until he'd turned all of Soul Society up and down looking for her.

"I believe you will Kurosaki-kun." Momo said, as they stopped at her quarters,

Ichigo looked down at her and grinned, admitting to himself that he loved Momo's optimism. He wanted to get to know her without all the frills. There was a reason she and Toshiro was so close. It couldn't be because she looked at the bright side of everything. He'd find out sooner or later though.

"Thanks." He said, "Have a good night."

Momo nodded, "I will. Goodnight Taicho."

Ichigo walked away with a nod, not bothering to correct her. His mind was filled with the hope that she'd come to work with her hair down instead of entrapped within her usual bun. He might not stop looking at her.

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