Why today? thought Ichigo as he cleaved a particularly ugly bat-like Hollow in half. He was sure everyone around him was thinking the same thing, though they all knew the answer: they had tempted fate. You couldn't bring so many people with so much reiryoku together in one place so suddenly without some Hollow catching wind of it. And where one found food, the others swarmed, until it was a true feeding frenzy. Himself, the woman who he shouldn't have seen until later that evening, Uryu and Orihime, Renji, Rangiku, and Captains Ukitake, Rose, Shinji, Kensei, and Toshiro had gathered for a celebration, but now found themselves in the heat of battle.

"Dammit, Ichigo!" he heard Renji shout from somewhere behind him. He spun around to find the man hacking away at a huddling of Hollows, looking severely peeved. "This is all your fault!"

Dashing in to cut the legs out from under Renji's prey, Ichigo locked eyes with the man as the Hollow between them disintegrated. "Don't blame this on me, you bastard!" he screamed. He'd meant for it to be the prelude to a tirade, but was cut off by the thunderous sound of malicious laughter that erupted right after.

Renji and Ichigo barely had time to leap aside as the laughter blew by like a hurricane, shredding the Hollows in its path like leaves in the violent wind. Prone on the ground before him, Renji popped his head up to fix Ichigo with a hysterical expression.

"You invited Captain Zaraki?!" he asked frantically.

"Don't be stupid, of course I didn't!" Ichigo retorted. This was true. Ichigo had very specifically avoided even so much as looking at the Kenpachi for months. The man had clearly shown up simply to get his share of the carnage while it lasted. Whether he'd officially been sent to support them or just sniffed it out on his own like a dog drawn to fresh meat, Ichigo wasn't sure.

Ichigo sprang up and took off in the exact opposite direction of the howling maniac. Luckily enough for him, there were still Hollows in that direction to act as his excuse. He sliced away at them as he had the whole time, thinking, again, about how badly he wished to enter Bankai and end it all right then. But if he did that, he might just draw more even stronger Hollows to them. Nobody else did either, so he decided he'd follow suit and strike back the old-fashioned way.

Why today?

He heaved his giant sword back to split yet another Hollow in half, only to have it fall away in two before he even got the chance. He hastily redirected his swing while still in mid-motion as Rukia, who'd dispatched the Hollow herself, came sailing at him with wide-eyed surprise. She twisted in the air to avoid the sword, he twisted his wrist to avoid her. They both collided and fell in the pavement with a thud.

Ichigo sat bolt upright when his fiancé hammered his chest with her fist.

"You fool! Didn't you take the time to sense where I was? You almost killed me!" she screamed in his face.

"That's my line! You're the one who knows how to hide that stuff!" he spat back. There was no real anger in his words, just as he was sure there was none in hers. But it was a very exciting day for both of them, and with no other way to express it with all their friends around to watch, yelling became a useful giddiness vent.

Rukia had been about to yell something back, which gave Ichigo that much more satisfaction when he tossed her high into the air as Hollows approached them in front and behind. As he knew she would, his fiancé-projectile turned in midair to separate the mask of the frontal attacker with her zanpakuto, whilst Ichigo spun around, letting Zangetsu push through the chest of the rear assailant. As both beasts faded away, Rukia landed deftly behind Ichigo, before wheeling about to grab the back of his shihakusho and make him do the same.

"You should have known I had this area covered!" Rukia screamed at him, completely ignoring how he'd thrown her. It hadn't been the first time, though, so he guessed she might just be used to it. "You were supposed to be over there!"

Ichigo winced. "Don't yell right in my face! I might decide not to show up later!" he threatened. But nothing was ever less believable, and she knew that.

"Your lies are too obvious!" she shouted back with a smile gleaming in her eyes. "Now get back to where you're supposed to be!"

And with that, she spun him back around to kick him in the rear, separating them once more. Despite the pain, he almost laughed. However, before he could even crack a smile, his face was punched by a fist to small to belong to a Hollow, and he stumbled back.

"Ichigo, you asshole!" he heard a small but rough voice say. It was Hiyori, dressed in her usual track suit. She had abandoned her pigtails in favour of tying her hair back with a single red ribbon, and made the solitary hair-clip on the right pull double-duty to hold all of her bangs neatly in place, rather than letting some fall free. It made her look almost completely different, and if not for the stinging in his cheek or her stray, fang-like tooth, he might not recognize her.

Holding his cheek, Ichigo fired back. "What the hell?!"

"I got all cleaned up for today, and you drag me into this!" she griped at him, before turning around to make quick work of a Hollow with her sealed sword.

"Don't say that! I didn't ask you to come help out!" Ichigo defended while swinging at a few more attackers. Suddenly, Love, in his green sweatsuit and unmistakable white oni-like Hollow mask, appeared beside his compatriot.

"He's right, Hiyori," he told her firmly but calmly, "you were the one who said to stop here."

"Shut up, Love!" the girl whined, "What was I suppose to—"

With a rush of what seemed like a sudden wind, Hiyori's hair suddenly fell out of place behind her, cutting her off. Her ribbon had vanished. A fire lit up in her eyes as she turned in the direction of the gust.

"Shinji, you baldy! Gimme that back!" she exclaimed, vanishing from sight.

Ichigo rushed past the crouching, green-suited Hacchi before he could finish apologizing for Hiyori's behaviour, and carried on his assault.

The battle lasted for a good twenty more minutes before the last Hollow was finished. Ichigo thought sourly that Kenpachi and his insane reiatsu was probably the bait that drew the heavy-hitters out later on, dragging the battle out longer than necessary. At least the man had enjoyed himself enough to leave without the time to realize they would all be going somewhere without him later.

"Whoo..." Ichigo heard someone in the distance exclaim as if exhausted. He turned to find Urahara sauntering onto the scene casually as if on a morning stroll. If he wasn't so important to him today, Ichigo would have punched him in the mouth.

"Where were you when we needed you?" he asked the man irritably.

Urahara just smiled. "Making preparations at my shop, of course," he said, sounding devious despite there being nothing to be devious about. Ichigo hoped not anyway, for Urahara's sake. "I was just wondering where you all were," he added.

"As if you didn't know," Ichigo griped, folding his arms. They fell limp at his sides a second later when he spotted Rukia walking up to him. She'd spent much of her time protecting her Captain, and so looked pretty dishevelled. Ichigo took a moment to resent Uryu, who had spent the entirety of the battle in a protective bubble Orihime made, popping off bow shots in safety and comfort, and coming away without a hair out of place.

Ichigo jogged up to meet her and put a hand on her shoulder. Even today, of all days, he still didn't feel comfortable hugging her where everyone could see. He wondered grimly how he was supposed to do his duty later that day, in front of an audience.

His eyes were drawn to her lips...

Well, maybe it wouldn't be so hard.

He didn't know how or when they'd drawn so close together. All he knew was that, in a flash, he was being pushed away from her by a steely palm.

"Uh-uh," he heard Urahara say, "that's off-limits until tonight." Then, he felt the man dash away, carrying Ichigo along with him. From out the space between two of Urahara's fingers, Ichigo caught sight of Rukia being spirited away by Rangiku, mirroring Urahara and he.

Why today?

That's the woman I'm going to marry.

It was something you were supposed to think when you met the one, and you were supposed to think it right away. That's how you knew, right?

It had never been that way for Ichigo. He hadn't thought it until just then, while picturing Rukia as he waited tensely for her to appear. And when he thought of her, that's when his mind had said it, but strangely, not before.

Not even after he'd bumbled his way through a proposal he'd never thought he'd make before she came into his life, or even a while after. Theirs wasn't a traditional romance, so to speak. He wasn't sure how many started off with the guy kicking the girl right in the back, but he wouldn't bet on too many.

He thought about that kid – that fifteen year-old kid – who started on the road to the most meaningful friendship of his life with a spine-kick, and mused about his naivete. How could that punk have known that, down the road, he'd end up marrying the ghostly intruder of his bedroom? And what would that girl say if she was told she'd be saying I do to the guy who just booted her like that?

You said I do, right? Western-style wedding ceremonies confused him a little. Maybe he should have gotten more information before signing off on it instead of just letting Rukia have her way. What if he messed up? He was almost positive you said it. But did you have to say it in English? Or did you just—

Oh.

God, she was beautiful.

She'd always been beautiful, of course, even if he hadn't always seen her that way, but now, in her wedding dress – a dress made my Uryu, no less – walking toward him, arm-in-arm with Byakuya, she was...too beautiful.

Suddenly every man at the wedding, few as there were, was setting off his radar for being a sleazy ogler. Even those he knew to be in relationships, or to be stand-up guys, or to be his father. It didn't matter, because all reason had fled in the wake of her dizzying perfection, and now, as they respectfully watched her walk the aisle, each man in attendance took a moment of time in his mind's eye to be beaten senseless by a crazy, orange-haired jealousy monster. This was just for him.

Yet he didn't deserve it either.

Seeming to drift sluggishly in the vast ocean of his fiancé's beauty, which nearly drowned them all, Ichigo's thoughts slowly turned from jealousy to fear. Not that he was getting cold feet – he doubted there was a single part of him that wasn't burning up right then – but soon enough, everyone would see them standing together. And the thought would dawn on all of them as it had on him mere seconds ago: what the hell was she doing with him? It would be like putting a rusted tin soldier next to a pristine china doll. He was sure everyone would resent him for stealing something so precious away from the rest of the world without at least having the decency to measure up.

Because all at once his height made him too gangly, and his hair was obnoxiously bright, and too messy; his scars were like ugly cracks in a fine sculpture; and he was sweating too much. He was everything she wasn't, and she was everything he couldn't possibly achieve. They were 2+2 equalling 5 – they just didn't make sense. And soon everyone would realize it, if they hadn't already. This pearl, this masterwork of the human form, was about to be bound forever to a vagabond someone had dressed up in a tuxedo.

But she was smiling anyway.

It would be no stretch to say she looked like the happiest person in the world. Certainly the happiest-looking on the grounds of the Urahara Shoten, already full of smiling faces. He knew because he'd be the her biggest competition, except he could feel the dumbfounded look on his face betraying the sheer joy that was overtaking him.

And he was the reason behind that smile. And if he could do that – if he could make that – he guessed he wasn't all that bad after all.

Wait, there was one person who wasn't smiling: Karin. His sister – looking too eye-catching for him to trust in any man in the room besides himself and their father, in a deep blue dress that he wished he could have vetoed in favour of a nun's habit – had tears running down a stunned visage. Ichigo couldn't deny that it might be the amazing spectacle of his bride-to-be, but as her eyes followed Rukia's path toward Ichigo, he could see in them that he was wrong.

Why was she crying?

xxx

"It is not like you to dress formally for dinner with me," Byakuya pointed out, somewhat to justify the rather impolite staring he'd been doing.

Not that he could be blamed: his dinner guest had just walked in wearing the most ravishing blue gown, which reached the floor, with a length of ruffle trim cutting diagonally across the long skirt from the hip. The bodice hugged her quite closely, doing nothing to hide her shape, and it left her shoulders bare, without straps of any kind.

Her dark hair was still done up in the high ponytail in which he always saw her, but for once he found himself wondering what it might look like down, especially with that dress. Maybe it would serve to hide the bright blush in her cheeks, though only for the purposes of elegance – he in fact found her redness to be quite cute.

She kept her eyes on the floor as he spoke, then as she did. "I-it's...what I'm gonna wear to Ichi-nii's wedding tomorrow," she squeaked.

As the staff had since filed out of the room to leave the two to salutations in privacy, Byakuya took his chance. "It's very lovely, you wear it well," he told her, though without letting his composed facade slip. He couldn't have that. Not here.

Somehow, Karin got even redder, and her hands, which still held the skirt slightly aloft, clenched. "Thanks," she told the floor, "my sister said so too."

"However, I doubt it will be suitable dinner-wear. I wouldn't wish to see it accidentally stained," he said.

In response, Karin shook her head, but still didn't look up. "I didn't really come here for dinner this time. I just – I wanted...um..."

"You wanted to show me the dress," Byakuya finished for her. But again her head shook.

An uneasy laugh tinged her voice as she spoke again. "No, that's not it. I was kind of...wondering...if you were going to go too."

Byakuya raised a brow, and though she couldn't see it, he was confident Karin had felt him do it. "To the wedding?"

She nodded.

"Did you wear this in an attempt to bribe me into joining you?" he asked, rationing out the part where it was nearly accomplishing the task.

Now Karin met his eyes, and there was something foreign in them. "No! I just...you're like my boyfriend, right?" she asked. Honestly, Byakuya rather disliked the word, but failed to correct her this time and kept silent. "So aren't you supposed to ask me to important things like this?"

Her tone was pleading. It was enough to sway Byakuya inside, though not the way she wanted. Were they not in the center of the main hall, he would have shared with her their first true kiss. So strongly did he wish to reassure her of his sincerity. But he did not. Not that he was ashamed of her, or of them, but their intimacy was nobody else's business, and was better expressed in a more private setting.

"I apologize," he told her sincerely. "But I will not be attending, and therefore do not require a guest."

"But why not?" Karin asked. By her tone, he could tell she had been expecting that.

"Their union is not something I wish to support," he confessed bluntly. It might hit her hard, but the sooner this conversation was over, the sooner she could leave, and the sooner his body would stop aching as he restrained it from everything it screamed for him to do.

"It's your own sister!" she bit back. She'd let go of the dress to clench her fists at her side in frustration.

"My sister is not the issue," Byakuya defended. He wished this would end. Showcasing her fieriness only made it harder to keep the purity of that gown alive.

"Can't you and my brother not fight for a day? You did it on my birthday!"

"I'm not concerned with fighting him, I simply do not wish for him to marry my sister."

"Why?!"

"Because I don't much care for him."

"Because he's not good enough?!"

Byakuya's thoughts seemed to hitch. "Excuse me?"

Now tears were beginning to well up in Karin's eyes. "Is it...because my brother isn't a noble? Is that why you don't want him marrying Rukia-san?"

"Of course not."

"Then there's no reason you can't come!" Karin said defiantly, stamping her foot under the dress.

"I will not attend to celebrate for Ichigo's sake," Byakuya said staunchly.

"Then do it for me!"

Byakuya's mind went too quiet too fast. All the thoughts, all the prepared responses he'd had at the ready, were suddenly missing, and with them went his ability to speak. Finally, he managed to say, "What?"

"If it's really not about him being common or whatever, then you can just come because I want you to be there. Just come because..."

"Because...?"

"Because you love me, don't you?!"

Whatever Byakuya had been about to say didn't get a chance to be said, because Karin started up again without pausing.

"I know...it's probably really selfish of me to just assume something like that. Maybe I'm too young to know how hard it's supposed to be to say it," she said.

And it occurred to Byakuya that he'd never told her. His knees almost buckled.

"But I love you, okay?" he heard Karin say. "And maybe you just don't like to say it, or maybe you don't feel that way towards me, but if you did, you could stop thinking about it like you're doing my brother a favour or not, and just come because of me."

By the time he came back to his senses, Byakuya heard the front doors of the mansion shut.

xxx

Despite all of her anticipation over the past few months, everything about the wedding seemed unexpected to Rukia. Everything around her was a surprise, like she still couldn't believe it was already happening.

She certainly hadn't expected Byakuya to show up last-minute and offer to escort her down the aisle. In Western weddings, that was what the father did, but Byakuya was the closest Rukia had, and she heartily accepted. She'd fully expected him not to appear because of his disdain for the bridegroom, but now here he was, keeping pace with her as she approached her soon-to-be husband.

Ichigo looked unbelievably handsome in a tuxedo, his red tie making it harken back to his Shinigami attire. His beautiful golden eyes seemed almost to glow in the fading light of dusk.

They'd decided to hold the wedding in the evening based on its mixed nature. Of course, any spiritual guests could have worn gigai, but it was more about Rukia herself. Ichigo Kurosaki couldn't very well be seen marrying someone nobody was likely to ever see again. Being a spirit, it was impossible to put her on the family registry of the Kurosaki, as if something came up, it might all unravel.

So this would not be the traditional wedding. Their marriage wouldn't exist officially, on paper; but in the eyes of anyone who mattered to them, and in the eyes of Soul Society, it would be as real as any other. She would be a real wife to a real husband. A man who, at the moment, was staring at her as if he'd just seen an angel touch down in front of him, making her face and chest warm.

She chanced to look around – moving only her eyes – to confirm that everyone was indeed staring at her as she passed. Surely enough, they were, all save for Ichigo's sister Karin, who instead stared at the man who led her down the way. They could all see how red she was, and that only made it worse. The only other who came close was Ichigo's other sister, Yuzu, who stood beside Captain Hirako. Judging by her redness and what Rukia had been told about the Captain, the girl was still coming to grips with the fact that she was the man's first love.

But everyone and everything else seemed to fade away once she finally reached the end of a walk that had seemed to go on for days.

Urahara seemed to be a good Master of Ceremonies, although she heard almost nothing he said as she lost herself in Ichigo's eyes – though she got the gist of some sort of explanation of vows. Then the time came for the rings.

Kon, who had been given the duty of keeping the rings until the appointed time by Urahara and against Ichigo's wishes, seemed staunchly to refuse to part with them. He crossed his paws defiantly and turned his back to Urahara and the couple standing before him.

Urahara proceeded to pick the stuffed lion up by the head and give him a light shake, then tutted. "I see," he said, before turning to the onlookers. "Just a minute," he told them. Then he turned around, and Rukia wasn't sure, but she thought he shoved his entire hand into Kon's mouth, as there was an audible struggle taking place. Seconds later he turned back to them, holding the rings triumphantly in his hand, as he stuffed Kon unceremoniously in his coat pocket. Ichigo made a face, but as soon as the ring was in his hand, it melted away into astonishment.

She slipped the ring meant for him on his finger when he held his hand out, then accepted as she held out her own. The act of the band being placed on her finger sent a shiver up her spine, and she could do little more than stare at it until...

"...I love you, Rukia."

That was all he said. When she looked up at him, she at first couldn't see him clearly, as her eyes had already filled with tears without her realizing. She hadn't known what to say when the time came – there was just too much she wanted to say. She thought maybe Ichigo would inspire her once she heard his vow.

She didn't know why she'd expected any more from him. Or why she'd ever want any more than that. Ichigo was never one for speeches. And what more could she possibly need? What could be better?

Nothing.

"I love you, Ichigo," she said.

And they kissed.