A/N: I know what I said and I started writing this anyway because I fell in love with josei manga and Korean dramas and yeah, this was probably a bad idea. Oh well. Also, triggers warnings for this whole story, because this is the dark and gritty reboot of one of my fave josei, Hapi Mari. Or whatever, this first chapter is relatively safe.

Disclaimer: The author respects the rights of Tite Kubo, Shuiesha Publishing, etc as regards BLEACH, its characters and other material.

Ichi

There was a black stretch limousine waiting for Rangiku when she stepped out of the station building that morning after work. She had seen but dismissed it at first, assuming it belonged to some big-shot they had picked up overnight and headed for her ancient, bright pink Toyota hatchback. The Yaris had seen better days but was the first vehicle Rangiku had ever bought, lovingly dubbed Haineko, and at that moment she hoped it could get her home with the speed of a sports car. Well, she tried to anyway. As soon as she stepped to the edge of the curb, the limo rolled forward and blocked her path.

"Hey!" she snapped, without heat. She was in front of the station and there was a shift change in process, crowding the entrance with officers heading in and out. If anyone was crazy enough to attack her here, they were not getting away with it.

Then the back window slid down and a very familiar baritone said, "Vice Captain Matsumoto, good morning."

"Kuchiki-san?" asked Rangiku, eyebrows raised behind her sunglasses. Her eyes felt filled with grit from her lack of sleep but at the sight of him she was instantly alert. Most women would be, given that this was Kuchiki Byakuya she was looking at. And he was a sight for sore eyes in that black suit, dark grey silk shirt that matched his storm-cloud eyes, and thin black tie. His sleek, shoulder-length black hair, which more than a few women dreamed of running their hands through, had been parted to one side, revealing an ear and the Bluetooth headset attached. It made him look a little like a beautiful robot, which given his reputation, was not too far off from reality.

"I know that you must want to get home but I hope you would be willing to take a detour first…for breakfast?" he asked, smiling lightly.

She blinked at him, her brain momentarily short-circuiting. He had smiled at her? She wanted to tell him that it was a slightly unnatural sight on his usually stern face but instead, "You had me since you pulled up in the limo. Scoot over!"

He disappeared from view and the door opened. Rangiku slipped in, taking a moment to revel in the feeling of being collected from work in a limousine, what luxury, and shut the door behind her. The interior of the limo was white leather, smelled of jasmine and consisted of Byakuya, an elderly, white-haired gentleman in a kimono whom Rangiku did not recognise—he looked nothing like Byakuya anyway—and a petite young woman with jet-black chin-length hair and wide, violet eyes. Rangiku's eyes went wide. This was Byakuya's sister, Rukia. Why was she here? The young woman smiled at Rangiku as the lieutenant settled into her seat and said, "Hi there!"

"Hello," said Rangiku, slowly, looking between the three.

"Is there anyone that you need to get home to right now?" asked Byakuya.

"Only Toshiro, but he should be at school…better be at school at this hour," said Rangiku.

"Toshiro…?" asked Byakuya.

Rangiku waved away the question, already searching for her phone. "My son, he's fifteen looks about twelve." Before she could dial, a message came up from Toshiro that yes, he had in fact gone to school and that breakfast was in the kitchen. He also mentioned checking on Granny Hitsugaya later and Rangiku suppressed a panicked flutter in her heart. She had to tell him, they had to before it was too late.

"You have a fifteen year old son?" asked Rukia, mouth open.

Rangiku looked up at her and then remembered that yes, it was weird for a twenty-eight year old woman to have a fifteen year old son and said with a smile, "It's a dark story."

"His father is Ichimaru Gin?" asked Byakuya.

At this Rangiku turned to him with a sharp look. So he had researched her in the time since they had last met. She shook her head and replied, "Not biologically, no."

Then the old man said, "Perhaps, Byakuya-sama, this is a conversation that we may have later at breakfast. I spoke with the chef and they will be ready for when we arrive. To speed things along, they asked if you have any specific requests."

He finished with a pointed look at Rangiku, who stared back at the old man a moment before replying, "Coffee, the darker, the stronger the better. I'm half-dead right here."

"Very well, Matsumoto-san," said the old man and typed something into the tablet in his hands. He seemed rather tech-savvy for an old man.

Rangiku immediately turned back to Byakuya and asked, "How do you know about Ichimaru Gin? I haven't spoken to that man in years, with good reason, mind, and Toshiro wouldn't recognise him if he saw him."

Kuchiki Byakuya may have been one of the most feared criminal prosecutors in contemporary Japan, infamous for his poker face but at this question slight colour warmed his cheeks. Rangiku thought she was going to faint. His voice was steady though, as he replied, "I had good reason for carrying out a thorough background check. I am very sure that you also did the same for me."

She shrugged and replied, "Only what I could get off of Google, which isn't the important stuff like, do you regularly pick up women in this limousine? Did you think that I would be impressed by this limousine? And who is your stylist? I could never get my hair to shine like that."

She punctuated this with a broad grin and Rukia giggled, but Byakuya did not reply. It did not matter if he had anyway. If he was going to make her uncomfortable it was only fair that she return the favour.

She would die before admitting that she was impressed by the limousine and doubly so at their destination: Seireitei Tower. Not only was the luxury high-rise known for its brand name shopping on the first three floors, the building also had at least two Michelin-starred restaurants and one of them was owned, in part anyway, by the Kuchiki family. Rangiku had often dreamed of going there but the reservation list was not only booked for the next two years it was also ridiculously exclusive. And here was she stumbling in among the movie stars and high society trophy wives, bleary-eyed, sweaty and sleepy, her hair in a messy ponytail and wearing a sinfully-short black miniskirt, hoodie unzipped low enough to reveal her generous bosom and Uggs. She felt at once outrageously smug and painfully out of place.

No one commented though, as the maître led Byakuya, Rangiku, Rukia and the elderly gentleman, now sporting a small briefcase to their table, one near the windows with a wonderful view of Tokyo Bay. There were a few wrinkled noses and piercing stares, of course, mostly from well-coiffed, finely-dressed, doll-faced women, but Rangiku let her hair down and ignored them. These women were not important. Whatever the hell Byakuya brought Rangiku here for was and that was what she needed to focus on. Besides, it was not as if she was ever going to meet any of these women again.

Byakuya let Rangiku and Rukia sit first and then he and the old man, now identified as Hara, his family steward be seated. From Google, Rangiku had learned that Byakuya had a younger, taller and quite handsome red-haired assistant, Abarai Renji, who people thought was either his lover or yakuza or both, but there was no sign of the young man now. So this was not a work-related matter then. Okay, odd.

The maître was replaced by a young waiter who said, "Your meal will be along shortly, Kuchiki-sama. Would you like some tea?"

Byakuya dismissed the boy with a wave and he scurried away as if his life depended on it. Rangiku considered this and then asked, "So, what was this proposal you had in mind?"

Byakuya, perhaps intentionally, waited until Rangiku had brought her glass of water to her lips before he replied, "I want us to get married."

Rangiku could not help it. She choked on her drink and sprayed water all over the table, and then she started coughing.

"Nii-sama!" cried Rukia. Then she was patting Rangiku on the back and scolding, albeit rather respectfully, "Perhaps you should have waited until later. Was there not an easier way of asking her?"

Wait, the girl knew? Rangiku gulped down the rest of the water as quickly as she could while her eyes watered, still coughing, and then glared at Byakuya. "What did you just say?" she asked.

Byakuya, who had not moved, though Rangiku noted that the steward had moved his briefcase from where he had rested it on the table, said, "I want us to get married. No, rather, I need us to be married in the eyes of the law and my family in order for us to proceed. I told you before that I had plans that required your assistance and you agreed to help me."

Rangiku waved away Rukia's hand—the girl was thumping her back a little too hard—and hissed, "That was because I thought it had something to do with work! What on earth could you possibly be plotting that requires me to be your wife? And what about my son?"

He nodded to Hara, who replaced the briefcase on the table, opened it and withdrew a sheaf of papers an inch thick, then Byakuya said, "In order for us to present any kind of challenge to my uncle, we need access to him. While this would not normally be a problem, my family follows some very strict codes. There are matters, places that I would simply have no access to without a wife. I intend to rid my family and Japan of this man, I cannot do such a thing without aid and you are, at this moment, my only hope."

"That's not true," said Rangiku, her mind riffling through the information from her Google search the night before. "What about that Shihouin woman? Why not one of those?" she asked, waving a hand in the direction of the other women around them. "They" were ladies of high society, women who lived comfortably in a life of luxury, worked only because they wanted to and wielded insane social power. If he was thinking along the lines that she thought he did, these were the kinds of women that would help him. Certainly not some cop from Harajuku, and absolutely not one who, with a little searching, one could find links to the yakuza. Rangiku would be the end of him. What was he thinking?

Byakuya's mouth twitched and he said, "I want no part of the Shihouin woman. Never will I have her as part of my household. She is also in a long-standing relationship. You said it yourself, you are not in any way attached to Ichimaru Gin—a fact that he confirmed—and I hardly think with your skills and training that you would not be able to blend in or play the role required with great difficulty."

Rangiku had stopped listening somewhere around the time he had mentioned Gin and so said, "You saw Gin?"

At this Byakuya opened his mouth to speak, stopped, and then continued in a low voice, "It was necessary to ascertain the nature of your relationship before I proceeded with my request. He assured me that he last saw you at his arrest and not since and that he has rejected any and all attempts at communication since. He went to great pains to keep you at arm's length and would never do anything to jeopardise that."

Rangiku felt the old hurt again, the heartache she carried for Ichimaru Gin never faded, merely dulled with time and hearing again that he did not want to see her or the boy, that no, he would not accept any messages or gifts, cut fresh. She sucked down a cry of pain and said, "You must be insane. You must be mad to think that I would agree to this. I have worked very hard for the career that I have and I am not prepared to give that up for anyone, not even you. And have you forgotten that I have a son? I can't just run off and marry some stranger."

"Ah, yes, young master Hitsugaya," said Hara then.

Rangiku looked over at him. She had completely forgotten that he was there. The old man smiled back at her and said, "You have a very intelligent son. Top of all of his classes, there is talk of him getting into Toudai…and that is even without the football scholarship. The Kuchiki family would of course be willing to foot the bill for his education, so to speak, and ensure that he is able to get into his course of choice."

Rangiku snapped her gaze back to Byakuya, stunned. Then she said, "You would bribe me?"

"Never," said Byakuya. "But while your son is talented…well, his chances of getting that scholarship are not very high."

And just like that, Rangiku was angry, no, furious. Who the hell did this man think he was? Well, okay, yes, he was Kuchiki Byakuya, from that family with that lineage and all that money but did he think he could just buy Rangiku? Did he read too much into her outfit the other night? No way in hell was she going to let him buy her like some kind of whore.

She opened her mouth to tell him so and then Rukia said, "Matsumoto-san, I am sorry that we offended you but if you would please listen." Rangiku turned to the girl, the one Byakuya had adopted after his wife's death because she was his wife's sister and not his, and Rukia said, "I know that what Nii-sama, what we are asking is a bit much but please understand…Uncle Kouga is working with Aizen Sosuke."

Rangiku was out of her seat and backing into the window before she could think better of it. She was not afraid of a lot of things, had never been, not even on that rainy afternoon that strange van had pulled up beside her as she trudged home soaking wet from school. She spoke her mind and mouthed off to her superiors and dressed how she wanted and once punched a teacher for calling her son ainoko but Aizen Sosuke…that was a man she feared.

Hara said then, "Matsumoto-san, please…"

Rangiku looked around her to find that they were being stared at. She was making a scene. She wanted to not care but Rukia had said that man's name. She took a deep breath, held it for two beats and then released it. Then she righted her chair and settled back at the table and said, "Please don't say that man's name again."

"I am sorry," said Rukia, immediately. "But I want you to know. He…he hurt me too, maybe not as bad as you, but, well…that man has to be stopped. And if he gets his hands on Kuchiki money to do it…Japan is doomed."

That was the downside of a family being so well-connected, so wealthy, and so powerful. They had friends in very high places in government and society, friends who would come to their aid without question, links made before the samurai became the aristocrats they had been since the Edo period. Kuchiki Kouga, though he had come into that name by marriage and not birth like Byakuya, was head of one of the most prominent families in Japan. His nephew was his heir, in part because Kouga and his wife had no heir, and because Byakuya had yet to remarry after the death of his first wife and produce one. If Byakuya was going to challenge him for control of the family he needed a wife…and an heir, possibly. But what the hell made him think that Rangiku was up for that?

"This is insane," said Rangiku. She looked up at Byakuya and said, "I'm not having your kid. There needs to be a line here, i-if I'm going to do this, that's it, I'm not having your baby."

Byakuya merely shrugged and replied, "I only need you to be my wife in name."

Then Hara pushed his sheaf of paper towards her and said, "If you would like to go over the contract, we are quite willing to give you some time. Do you have a lawyer you would like to consult? As they would explain to you this is a very straightforward marriage contract with some clauses for confidentiality and finances. Of course, Byakuya-sama will see to it that you and your son are well compensated."

Rangiku had read the words "Certificate of Marriage" at the top of the sheaf and her mind blanked out. What the hell was she doing? What the hell was this?

But then the waiter had returned and she was forced to whisk the paper off the table and into her bag. They all sat together quietly while the food was laid out, drinks poured and the waiter asked again if they needed anything. Rangiku, salivating at the aroma of breakfast after the long, boring night that she had just had, shook her head. Byakuya dismissed the young man and waited until they were alone again to say, "I apologise for the way that I have presented this to you, Lieutenant, but you must understand that I want to act quickly. This weekend the family is to have its quarterly retreat and meeting at our ancestral estate and I hope to present my new wife there. This way you shall meet the key players in what is to come and, since Kouga cannot resist showing off, a few of his allies in government and their wives."

Rangiku just nodded, more focussed on what she wanted to have first, the soup or just go straight for the eggs? This must have been a tactic too, taking her to breakfast after work when she was very hungry and therefore vulnerable.

"Kouga is expected to announce his intention to pursue political office, Prime Minister of Japan, and I need to upstage that first of all, by showing up, secondly, with wife in tow, and third, with an announcement of my own. You are only required to stand with me and act as expected of any Japanese wife," he said.

At this Rangiku looked up at him and said, "I have not agreed to anything yet. Hold your horses there, cowboy. Also, I have never been married before."

"That will not be a problem," said Hara, smiling. It was a bit unnerving.

"What makes you think you're going to fool your family or Kouga anyway?" she asked, deciding to start without him.

"My uncle does not see me as a threat, or at least, he did not until quite recently. I suspect it has something to do with his lack of heir and the factions of the family that favour me…even with my predilection to 'unsuitable' women," he replied.

That was right, his late wife and adopted sister came from a background quite similar to Rangiku's. They would not be too alarmed then, to see that he had married beneath him again, and that this one had a career.

"I'm not giving up my job," Rangiku said.

"I don't expect you to," said Byakuya. "I have staff to take care of my household. You would only be required to attend a handful of important events with me."

Rangiku considered this and then said, "We are going to tell my son the whole truth, together. And anywhere I go, he goes."

"Of course, of course," said Byakuya. "I would not expect you to lie. But, ah, there is one more thing."

Rangiku looked up at him just as Hara laid a small velvet box onto the table. They all looked at the box, and then Rangiku said, "I did not agree to anything yet."

"No, you have not," said Byakuya, and then Hara opened the box.

A platinum band, encrusted with diamonds and sapphires. The wife of someone like Kuchiki Byakuya would have a pretty ring. Matsumoto Rangiku also liked that it was flashy, the kind of sparkly thing she would look at it in windows and dream about getting until she remembered that in her line of work it was too flashy. She looked up at him again and said, "I can't wear that at work."

"Ah," said Hara, and he produced another box. The ring in this one was simple, a plain gold band that she could wear anyway, that announced her change in status without being too loud about it. No one would complain. Then she realised that once she signed those papers in her bag she would not be able to go undercover or do a lot of the things she sometimes had to for work. Everyone would see her face. Certainly she had seen Byakuya's on the TV from time to time since childhood when he wore shorts with his suits and a cute hat over the most adorable pair of chubby cheeks.

She reached for the first box and Haru withdrew the other. He did it without comment, and Rangiku got the feeling that even if she had not signed the papers yet, she may as well have said "yes". Damn it.