Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, just this fanfic idea.
It came to me when I saw a forum thread about Hitsugaya's wedding. The suggested best man seemed kind of wrong to me and I began thinking who he would actually give that position to. From those thoughts this story was born.
"I can ask him for you Shiro-kun." Matsumoto Rangiku said helpfully to her captain as they walked through Soul Society.
"I've told you already. No." Hitsugaya Toshiro answered with a firm voice. "If I'm only allowed to do one thing to contribute to our wedding besides marrying you, and it looks like that will be the case, it should be to acquire my own best man."
That's right, after a few years of dating the youngest captain in Soul Society had finally asked his busty lieutenant to marry him. It had been incredibly romantic and the night after had been more passionate than anything either of them could remember.
That was five months ago and ever since Rangiku, and most of the Shinigami Women's Association's members, had been hard at work to orchestrate Rangiku's dream-wedding. Toshiro had wisely stayed out of most of the planning, even if it annoyed him that he had so little control over his own wedding.
To his happiness he had at least been allowed to select his own groomsmen and best man to escort his fiancé's maid of honour and three bridesmaids down the aisle.
It had been harder than he thought. You usually asked your best friends to take on those positions and to be honest Toshiro didn't have that many male best friends. In the end he had managed to convince Kurosaki Ichigo, Abarai Renji and Ayasegawa Yumichika, he thought that Yumichika had more class than the brutish style of Madarame Ikkaku, to be his groomsmen, despite Rangiku's desperate attempts to make Yumichika one of her bridesmaids.
And so only the best man remained. A problem he was going to fix right now.
"Well, do you know how you're going to ask him?" Rangiku asked.
"I've asked you to marry me, how would this be any harder than that?" Toshiro retorted. It was as if she didn't trust him. "Besides, I've already written it down and memorized a perfect speech."
Rangiku pouted at this information. "Is that what you did when you proposed as well?" She said with a strangely sad tone.
"Huh, no. I just let the words flow as I came up with them that time." He said dismissively.
"Oh, Shiro-kun!" She quickly glomped him from behind and kiss his head. "You do love me!"
Toshiro honestly had no idea why the idea that his proposal would be rehearsed proved his love less than it being spontaneous. But considering the result he didn't complain. Or he wouldn't if he wasn't in a hurry to get this over with.
"Yes, I love you. I think I've made that perfectly clear several times over the last few years. Now will you let me go, I want to do this as quick as possible." Giggling, the strawberry blonde lieutenant unceremoniously dropped her captain and fiancé to the ground.
"Funny, now go away. I can handle this without you. I promise."
"Oh, I know you can. But I have a few errands to fix myself. So I'm coming with you." Toshiro grumbled a little before they began walking again.
Soon enough they arrived at their destination. The barracks of the 13th division.
Before they could really enter it however Rangiku whipped around like a bloodhound locating its prey. "Kiyone!" She screamed while pointing at the female third seat of Ukitake Juushiro's division, who was in the midst of trying to sneak out a window.
Toshiro noticed the female shinigami's horror stricken faced when seeing Rangiku. "Thought, you could get away, did you now?" Rangiku said triumphantly while stalking over to the smaller female.
"No Matsumoto-san… Of course not." She answered with a shaky voice. "I… I… I just woke up. Yeah. I'm late because I just woke up." Toshiro had never heard a more unconvincing lie in his life.
Rangiku didn't seem to buy it either as she smirked devilishly at Kiyone. "Good, then you'll have lots of energy to help your sister decorate everybody's dresses." For a moment nothing seemed to move.
Then Kiyone tried to make a run for it but Rangiku swiftly caught her by the shoulder and began dragging her down the road to the 10th division barracks.
"No, it's so boring and tedious! I don't want to!" Kiyone kept screaming and kicking but her captor just whistled a jolly tune.
Toshiro stared at the pair as they disappeared down the road. Once they were gone he decided to just ignore it and entered the barracks. It didn't take long to find his destination. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door of Ukitake Juushiro's office.
"Come on in." A welcoming voice said and Toshiro let himself in.
"Ah, Shiro-chan." Juushiro said with a friendly smile. "Welcome. Please have a seat and I'll go get you some candy."
"Eh… that's not really necessary." Juushiro looked at the younger captain with a baffled expression.
"You don't want any candy? Wow, that's new Shiro-chan. Is because of wedding-nerves?" Juushiro asked seriously, apparently not noticing Toshiro's confusion.
"When have I ever wanted any candy?" He pushed back the urge to ask the question out loud and got right to the point. "I'm fine. Though I am here about the wedding." Juushiro nodded as the two captains sat down on opposite ends of his desk. "There's something I want to ask you."
Juushiro nodded for him to continue and Toshiro began reciting his prepared speech.
"You are one of the most powerful captains of the Gotei 13. I have always had a great deal of respect and admiration for your status and…" For some reason Toshiro felt as if though he lost his voice.
"Is there anything wrong Toshiro?" The elder captain asked with a concerned voice.
Toshiro coughed a little before speaking up again. "No, now where was I? Ehh, I have always had a great deal of respect and admiration for your status and commitment to your duty as well as your subordinates. It is the kind of example that I myself strive to…" Once again he lost his voice and just stared stupidly at his fellow shiro-chan.
"Are you certain that there's nothing wrong with you Shiro-chan?" Juushiro asked with an increasingly doubtful voice.
"Yes, let me just finish what I'm saying." He had to think for a moment to remember how far he had gotten in his speech. "Ehm… where was I?" The young captain asked out loud.
"You were striving for something." Juushiro said helpfully.
"Right, right… you're an example that I strive to live up to and it would be an honor if you would…" He went silent again, only this time Juushiro could clearly see that there was nothing wrong with Toshiro, except for a little uncharacteristic bout of nervousness that is.
The elder captain kept himself from chuckling as an act of sympathy for his friend who was now looking down at the floor in shame.
A few moments later Toshiro raised his head and gave Juushiro a tired gaze before sighing.
"Please forget everything I said from the time I sat down in this chair to the moment I sighed. It's too manufactured and not what I should say." Juushiro tilted his head in a curious fashion but let Toshiro continue since he had obviously untied his tongue.
"You're the only captain who's given me respect from the very beginning and for that you deserve honesty from me. Allow me to finish before saying anything." A deep breath. "You annoy me." Juushiro's eyes widened a little at the revelation but he stayed silent to see where this was going. "You more or less force large amounts of candy on me because our names just happen to be similar. It's weird and has quite frankly annoyed me all this time." Juushiro was speechless. His fellow captain seemed to have misunderstood him completely. At least that's what he thought until Toshiro continued, now with a small smile.
"At the same time I appreciate those things more than you can imagine." And now Juushiro was just confused. "Like I said, you're the only captain who treated me with respect from the very beginning, despite my size and age. But more importantly, you're also the first captain who tried to be my friend. I just didn't see that at first. I didn't understand that the candy was your way of approaching me in a non-business manner or that referring to the similarity in our names was a way to find common ground between us. Nobody else tried anything like that."
Juushiro smiled greatly at his fellow Shiro-chan who smiled back. "I'm sorry that I didn't respond appropriately. As you might've noticed I've tried to make up for it by well talking to you more. Outside of our work I mean. And honestly it's been rather fulfilling to talk to you about anything really." Again Toshiro sighed, but this one was more relaxed.
"What I'm trying to say is that I think of you as my best male friend, even if I only realised rather recently. Anyway, will you be the best man at my wedding?" A sigh of relief escaped Toshiro as Juushiro contemplated just how much the boy had grown as a person since he first was announced as a captain. It made him smile with joy and friendly pride.
It was without hesitation that he answered. "It would be my honor Toshiro-kun."
The young captain smiled and nodded thankfully to his senior.
"A celebration is in order. Shall we see if we can drag Shusui away from his workload and have a nice afternoon tea with us?" Juushiro suggested happily.
Toshiro nodded. "I'd like that." Sure his work would suffer a little but considering the chaos that he was certain his wedding would be a little time off wouldn't hurt.
Unfortunately the white haired duo didn't get further than just outside of the 13th division barracks when a rose zipped by their heads and imbedded itself in a tree like a throwing knife.
"Hi whitey heads!" the 11th division lieutenant shouted happily as she ran up to them with a large assortment of differently colored roses in her arms. The two captains weren't even able to ask Yachiru what she was doing before she happily declared it. "I'm practicing at being a flower girl." She violently tossed a pink rose through a nearby window, shattering the glass.
"Flower girl?" Toshiro asked with a terrified voice that Yachiru didn't seem to pick up.
"Mhm. At short whitey head's wedding, booby-chan asked me." She explained happily. "I've never been a flower girl before so I'm really happy now!" Several roses where thrown into the wall of the 13the division.
Not wanting to see his division destroyed by roses Juushiro tried to reason with the pink haird ball of energy and destruction. "Eh, lieutenant Kusajishi, I think that you're only supposed to throw the petals and not…"
But it was too late. Yachiru had already run off to do more 'practice'.
For most people in Soul Society this was a good day.
Toshiro got a best man for his wedding and deepened his friendship with Juushiro.
Yachiru became incredibly happy with her new position, sadly her rejoicing it caused havoc and unexpected destruction.
That did however have the unforeseen consequence of freeing up Rangiku's slav… I mean wedding planners as the busty lady in question had to hide in her captain/fiancé's office once word got out that Yachiru's hyperactive rampaging was her fault.
All in all, a good day in Soul Society.
Author's notes: Sorry about the little off-topic ending. I just thought the idea was a fun one to end on.
So what did you guys think? Good, bad, could use improvements? What? Tell me in a review.