AN

Um, you know the deal.

VioTanequil, in short, you rock my, uh, well if I was wearing socks and not flip flops you'd totally rock them.

AN

Orihime sat down on the bench with a grateful sigh, undoing the clasp of her shoes. It was lucky that the Kuchiki gardeners took such good care of the lawn because she couldn't bear the thought of wearing the horribly uncomfortable shoes anymore. She sighed and rubbed at one of her offended feet, wishing that she had found pretty and comfortable shoes instead of the ones she was currently wearing. But they looked very nice with her dress. She smiled and looked down at the skirt. Despite having a lot of western influence in her wedding, Rukia hadn't made them all wear the same hideous dress, instead letting them pick their own out. Orihime had found one the color of the sky, it barely brushed her knees like Nel's. Her favorite part was the flowers that had been embroidered into the skirt and up the sides, giving her dress an appearance of a garden.

"You look beautiful," a soft voice told her.

Orihime smiled and leaned back against the hard plane of Ulquiorra's chest, feeling the warmth of his skin through the fabric of his shirt. There was no hesitation in his voice, in fact knowing him, he probably didn't even think he was giving a compliment to her, just telling her the truth.

Since he had kissed her, Orihime's life had been nothing short of a whirlwind. Once she had been confirmed as fully healed the Captains had all decided that her having a Zanpakuto was un-necessary and probably a bad idea. So she had been training to master the Shun Shun Rikka in their new form.

Unohana had already spoken to her about joining the 4th Division when she was ready. Orihime had been ecstatic, she could think of nothing better than working under the woman who had helped her so much.

The best changes had been the ones she hadn't seen, like Grimmjow and Ichigo being co-Vice Captains. She had seen the two laughing over a joke at one point and couldn't help but remember when they had wanted nothing more than to kill each other. She was glad they were getting along—most of the time. It was very funny to see them when they did argue be reigned in by the little Captain who barely came up to either of their shoulders. Even she wouldn't want to mess with Hinamori; even Hitsugaya didn't seem to want to get in between the two of them and his angry girlfriend.

Yes, girlfriend. Anyone with two eyes could see the two Captains were together. The first time anyone saw Hitsugaya Toshiro blush was when he came back from a particularly hard mission, a bit cut up but otherwise alive and Hinamori had screamed at him for being an idiot for almost getting himself killed before fisting her hands in his Captain's robe and kissing him soundly in front of both their Divisions and the 4th. Unohana stood back with a satisfied smile, her eyes seeming to say 'I knew this would happen'. Everyone else seemed fairly shocked by it though everyone who knew already couldn't imagine why.

Grimmjow was the hardest to figure out. He seemed unusually happy. She knew he was friends with Ulquiorra now, but even she could see the friendship was not the reason. Because she had healed his cheek and she was prone to noticing such things, she started to realize the skin didn't remain unblemished. A variety of marks started to appear there; as soon as one would fade another would appear. She hadn't realized who was doing them until one day she went to find Ulquiorra and saw Soifon in a horrible mood. She had seen Grimmjow later that day, Soifon's crest stabbed into his cheek, glaring furiously at the wall. She never would have paired the two of them up, but when they weren't fighting they seemed to work better together than she thought possible. When they were fighting or engaging in other...uh...activities, well, it was not the most productive thing in the world.

The two she, and she had feeling that all of Soul Society as well, were waiting on were Renji and Nel. They cared about each other, but they were both so hurt when it came to their hearts that neither would make a move on the other. She knew what it was like to have your heart broken or, in Ulquiorra's case, to not know what your heart was. She wanted all her friends to be happy. The only one she hadn't seen shows any interest in someone else was Halibel. Mentally Orihime put her, Gin and Byakuya in the same place. They were all so good, all so strong, but they pushed the world away. She wished her fairies could heal them as well.

"What are you thinking about?" Ulquiorra asked, watching her eyes go distant with her musings.

"I'm thinking," Orihime said turning back so she faced him, "I'm thinking I want all our friends to be as happy as I am."

"You're happy then?" he said, his voice holding a slight teasing note in it, "Orihime?"

"Of course I'm happy," she said with a bright smile, trying to ignore the shivers that raced up and down her spine when he said her name, "Are you?" she looked at him.

"Yes," he said, no hesitation in his voice.

Orihime nodded and turned to her original position so she was leaning against his chest. Ulquiorra somehow managed to change more than anyone else and yet, stay wonderfully the same. She doubted she'd still love him if he changed a lot. He was still blunt as ever and she sometimes heard him refer to people as 'trash'—but he was usually referring to Grimmjow or Urahara and that was when there was an unusually large stack of paperwork on his desk courtesy of the two strong-willed women he worked with. But even if he was blunt, he always told the truth. She had known he was perceptive but she didn't really know how perceptive he was. If there was a rumor floating around Soul Society, the only person to ask about it was Ulquiorra, something that understandably annoyed him but amused Orihime to no end. All in all she was very happy that he had decided to stay in Soul Society.

"Dance with me?" she looked over at him.

"I don't dance," he responded automatically.

"It's easy," she said stepping up and holding out a hand, "Come on," she said, "I'll show you," she looked over at the tents, they could hear the music from where they were fine, he slipped a hand into hers, "Okay," she said guiding his hands around her waist before putting hers around his shoulders, "Now we just—" he had already started to move them to the music, "You can dance, Ulquiorra."

"I said I don't, I didn't say I couldn't," he said looking at her, his green eyes softening.

Orihime smiled and stepped a little closer. Happy to be in the garden, happy to be with Ulquiorra. She remembered being so in love with Ichigo and thinking she would be so sad if he ever married anyone else. But now, now she was happy that he and Rukia were together.

She had her own fairytale to write.

Break

For his part Grimmjow was trying to concentrate on what one of the Kuchiki elders was saying. He was pretty sure it had to do with...uh...his hand fisted in the table cloth as Soifon's toes withdrew fractionally, drawing a teasing line up and down his inner thigh before returning to their earlier actions. He fought back the urge to swear as she continued to maintain her conversation with some nameless man flawlessly, her face blank. He watched as one of her hands reached up and tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear before trailing down her neck, along the line of her halter style indigo dress. It wasn't that he hadn't seen that hand do a hell of a lot worse; it was that she was acting so fucking innocent.

And there was nothing he could do except sit there and try not to moan.

He fought back the growl on his lips and tried to focus on the man's words, on anything but her foot. Was every inch of her flexible? Well he knew the rest of her was but her foot? Come on! This was ridiculous. Soifon's eyes darted over to him, her lips curving into a wicked smile that didn't even attempt to appear innocent. The man she was talking to stopped, his eyes going between the two of them. Grimmjow realized he was flirting with her; the bastard was flirting with his girl. Every inch of him screamed that he should kill him, then go and make sure Soifon knew there was only one man and that was him. Or maybe he should switch the order, either way he was going to do something as soon as her foot stopped torturing him.

Or maybe...

Soifon watched Grimmjow struggle and tried to keep her face blank. It was just so much fun torturing him. She saw his eyes flare and realized he finally saw that this idiot next to her was flirting with her. It was amazing what a low cut purple dress could do to someone. Ever since their fight when Grimmjow had spent the entire two days they weren't talking wearing her butterfly crest, she was under the obviously mistaken impression that all of Soul Society knew they were together. Unfortunately, the contradiction was right there, flirting with her. Grimmjow's face made it clear he wanted to murder the poor fool and then make sure she didn't think anyone else could measure up to him. Unfortunately she was already whole heartedly behind him in both those—

He shifted his hips, his knees encasing her calf and trapping her foot. Soifon's eyes widened before she quickly hid the shocked expression. His face wore a wicked expression as Soifon waited to see what he was going to do next. For a minute he didn't move, he seemed rather content to just sit there with her foot trapped between his legs. Then his eyes turned to the man next to her who, understandably, turned a few shades paler than he had been before.

"Hey idiot," Grimmjow snarled leaning forward, "Stop flirting with my girl."

"Your girl?" Soifon demanded, "Just what the hell—"her eyes widened and her lips parted as his hand ran up the length of her leg, his calloused fingertips catching on the smooth skin of her inner thigh before his eyes widened slightly in surprise before his grin widened and his fingers hit home, "Yes, uh, stop flirting," she got out, "Or he's going to kill you."

"I'll turn you into a fucking doormat," Grimmjow promised, enjoying the fight and the sight of Soifon's control slipping, "I mean I—"her toes flexed, "You know what, that's it," he stood up and grabbed her hand, pulling her after him.

"Where are we going?" Soifon demanded, "And what the hell did you mean 'my girl'?"

"Like you're surprised," he snapped over his shoulder, not slowing his pace. She yanked her hand from his, forcing him to stop, "What?" he demanded turning around.

"What did you mean by 'my girl'? I'm not your girl; I'm not anyone's girl!"

"Don't give me that," he snapped walking over until he was towering over her. Her eyes met his defiantly, "What did you think this was? I don't fuck and leave," he growled, "Not for seven months," his hand locked around her wrist, "What the hell are you afraid of?"

"I am not afraid!" she said, her eyes revealing something else.

"Bullshit," he snarled, his breath hot on her face, "People don't even know your name."

"My name is Soifon!" she glared up at him. He stared down unyielding, "my entire life I belonged to someone else! You don't have any idea what that feels lik—"

"Oh really?" he cut in, raising an eyebrow.

He did, Soifon realized. She crossed her arms and glared at the ground, feeling her lips pout unhappily. Grimmjow grinned and ducked his head.

"I know you hate to loose," he breathed into the skin of her neck, "You pout and look so damn innocent it hurts," his hand found the skirt of her dress and slowly pulled the fabric up, "I know that when you win you have this grin that makes me want to do all sorts of things to you," he slid his hand up the exposed skin, bringing it closer to its goal, "And even if it fucking kills you to admit it, I know there's only one person you want to be doing this with and that's me."

"Hmm," her eyes opened as she turned, pinning his hand between her hip and the wall, her hands went to the buttons on his shirt, slowly opening them, "Well I know you're not half the asshole you make yourself out to be," she continued opening a sliver of skin, "I know you care about the people who you respect—even if you make them work very, very hard for it," she widened the exposed skin, "I know that when we're done and when you sleep next to me, you purr."

"I do not," he argued

"Oh yes, you do," she said, one of her fingers tracing the exposed skin of his Hollow hole, "And I know that there's no-one else you'd want to be purring next to at the end of the day."

"Or in the morning," he grinned down at her.

"That too," she agreed finally.

"So, you're my girl," he stated.

"No," she glared up at him before her lips parted in a bright grin, "You're my guy."

"I'm your what?!" he demanded.

"I said," she said grabbing his hair, "You're my guy," her eyes darkened, "And I don't like to repeat myself."

Well, Grimmjow reasoned as his girl released his hand, there were a lot worse things he could be.

Break

Halibel had her own problems. Apparently her wearing a dress was not a good idea. That was all she could think as the young men kept coming to talk to her. She didn't think her dress was that spectacular, she hadn't even picked it out. She had been working her way through a stack of papers when Sun Sun had marched into the office and rattled off the list of tasks she had done for the day, one of which included buying her Captain a dress for the Kuchiki wedding. As a Captain Halibel knew she was going to have to attend but she hadn't given any thought as to what she was going to wear. Now she was starting to regret letting Sun Sun pick out her dress.

She looked down at the satin skirt that fell almost past her ankles in a smooth wave of blue-green. That certainly wasn't attracting their attention. The bodice of the dress was strapless and low, painstakingly stitched to give it an almost corset-like appearance. It made her waist look small and her chest look big. She had left her blond hair down, it wasn't long enough to pull up really. She was starting to wish she had brought her Zanpakuto. Her eyes cast about, looking for someone, for anyone to help her get away from these men.

"Captain," Halibel almost keeled over out of sheer relief as Hisagi walked over to her, "may I have a word?"

"Of course," she said, not even bothering to look upset at the prospect of leaving these men behind.

Hisagi glanced at the men before focusing on his Captain. It was true that he had been less than enthusiastic about the prospect of working under the former Espada. Even coming from working under a traitor he had been nervous. Then he had gone on a mission with her. Many things could be said about Halibel but no-one could question her abilities as a Captain. Hisagi had been floored by a person's abilities three times in his life. One was Kensei, one was Aizen and he had to admit being stunned by Yumichika when he 5th Seat kicked his ass. Halibel, however, made them all diminish in his eyes. What she did out in the field was nothing short of art.

Halibel may have come off as cold to most people, but as he spent more time in her company Hisagi learned to pick out the little quirks his Captain had. Like the fact her mouth was by far her most expressive feature. She was quite good at keeping her eyes cold but her lips would always give her away. Sun Sun seemed to know this too and would always look at her mouth before her eyes when talking to the Captain. Hisagi liked the green haired 3rd Seat with a penchant for long sleeves and hairclips. Neither her nor Halibel minded working with him. He had helped the two learn about Soul Society, making sure they didn't get lost or run into the few Shinigami who still disliked the idea of the Espada blending with the rest of them.

"Thank you," Halibel said as they walked away from the men.

"No problem," he said, "You looked like you were getting close to killing them with your bare hands."

"Yes," Halibel said, "Let's just be glad I could not find a way to conceal my Zanpakuto in this dress," Hisagi couldn't help but agree, "I think poor Sun Sun is in need of a rescue as well," she said.

He frowned and looked over his shoulder. Sun Sun was standing there in her party dress, looking around at the men who were talking to her. Her lip was caught firmly between her teeth and she seemed torn between running, crying or killing them where they stood. Her hair was down around her shoulders, a gold hairclip in its usual place and she wore a short black silk dress. Much like Halibel, her give-away was her hands which were currently exposed and twisting themselves in front of her. None of the men seemed to realize how uncomfortable she was at their advances. Hisagi looked at Halibel who waved him off. He walked over to the men, determined to rescue the former Fraccion.

Halibel watched her Vice Captain stalk over to give the men making advances on Sun Sun a piece of his mind a slight smile on her lips.

"Weird pairing," Gin commented. Halibel turned around, "Not as weird as Sado-kun and Karin-chan, but weird."

"Yes," Halibel agreed, "They are strange together," the two walked off together, a distinctive blush on Sun Sun's cheeks, "But it's sweet," she turned her head to face him, "Besides, I thought you liked happy endings."

"I do," he said, his trademark grin firmly in place, "But this is more the end of a chapter than the story."

"I suppose," Halibel said, "I doubt the next one will be as interesting though."

"You've only been around Soul Society for less than a year," he said, "Coming from Las Noches, I can tell you, this place isn't half as boring," she raised an eyebrow, "Oh you don't believe me," he pouted before grinning once again, "Well just give it a week, if something interesting doesn't happen," he titled his head to the side, contemplating, "I'll fight you myself."

Halibel's eyes narrowed. Though he was a Captain, Gin was still on probation. That meant that if they sparred they would have an audience. As far as she knew he hadn't been involved in a sparring match since he killed Matsumoto. Her fingertips itched and she could practically hear her Zanpakuto crying out the answer on her lips.

"Deal," she said.

Break

The first few minutes of their walk were horribly awkward for Nel and Renji. But Nel wasn't one to run away and Renji wasn't one to shut up and so they made it work. It was much easier to talk when the entirety of Soul Society wasn't waiting for him to try and attack Ichigo. He wondered what the hell they thought he was going to do, kidnap Rukia? No, Renji may have been many things but he wasn't going to stand in the way of his friend's happiness. Gamuza and Zabimaru had always gotten along rather well, maybe it had something to do with both being Chimera and, to put it simply, insane.

"So then I shot him," Renji finished.

"You shot Kurosaki Isshin?" Nel demanded, "Did anyone think you were a cop?"

"Not really," he admitted.

"I don't think you look like a cop," she said, "Who'd give you a gun?"

Renji chuckled thinking of the shop where he'd bought the thing. Nel laughed and shook her head, a lock of her hair falling down across her collarbone. Renji reached out and brushed it back, his hand lingering on the curve of her shoulder. Nel stared at him, his eyes on his hand before it trailed along the length of her upper arm, resting along the smooth skin. His hands were calloused and rough from years of sword training but, then again, so were her own. She looked up at him, all the nervousness she felt around him roaring to life. But, all she was worth, she couldn't make herself move from her position in front of him.

"Nel," he looked at her, "I—"

"It's okay," she said, her voice soft, "I know," she reached out and laid her hands on his forearms, "I know it hurts," she smiled, "I hurt too, you know," she felt her eyes tear but forced them back, "But when I'm with you, it doesn't hurt as much."

He smiled, the relief in his eyes showing that he felt the same way.

"So," she said lacing their fingers together, "Tell me more about your adventures in the real—"

She wasn't ready for the deep press of lips against her own. Her eyes widened in shock, both at the fact he was kissing her and just how right it felt when he did it. Her hands slid up his arms, wrapping around the powerful expanse of his shoulders. He was gentle and almost hesitant when he kissed her and she realized that for all the multitude of experience he had, Renji was not trusting with his heart. She understood. She was the same way. He pulled back, his eyes searching her face and obviously waiting for her fist to connect with his jaw.

"What took you so long?" she asked, her voice breathless to both their ears.

"Sorry," he said, his arm wrapping around her waist as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Just be glad your worth waiting for," Nel told him, her voice full of mock seriousness, "Now then," she looked at him, "Let's go back to the party, I'm starving."

"Me too," he agreed, "Come on," he led her back towards the party.

"So, what happened after you shot Ichigo's father?" she asked.

"Well…"

They got back to the party where all their friends were talking. Rukia smiled, her eyes taking note of his hand around Nel's as she sat next to her new husband.

Gin watched them all with a smile on his face.

"Captain?" Kira questioned, watching him stand up.

"I'm going home, Kira," he said, "Enjoy the party."

He turned and walked away, a genuine smile on his face.

He loved happy endings.