Yes, it's true. I actually kept my word and published within a week. The next chapter is nearly done as well. Let me know your thoughts and thank you all so much for your comments, favorites, and follows. Hope you are all doing well and I'll see you again next week!
XOXO~GirlX

Chapter Five - Womanizer

Ichigo and her grandmother were exiting the gardens and heading back to Yamamoto's office. It didn't look like the walk did Ichigo any good. She was still quiet. Even on their way to the luncheon. The luncheon often took place with a marriage for a member of the Soul Society within a noble family or within a high position. It was less formal than the wedding ceremonies or the reception but it was still stressful.

Ichigo sat between her husband and her grandmother and listened to all of the conversations around her. Not one person spoke directly to her. They spoke to her husband. They started conversations with her grandmother and even her uncle, but not with her. To be fair, Ichigo didn't start a conversation either. Every time she opened her mouth she'd grow pessimistic and decided against it. She ate the food in front of her. Careful not to make a mess with her veil and simply observed her surroundings. Noble women were gossiping along with their husbands. Surprise, surprise. The captain with bells in his hair was drinking a lot. Her husband was having a conversation between himself, Captain Yamamoto, and his silver haired friend. It was something about the Captain with silver hair obtaining a lieutenant. A 'Rukia Kuchiki' was mentioned a few times during the conversation. Nearby another captain with black hair and weird white hair ornaments surveyed the room just as Ichigo was occasionally doing. He sat diagonally from her near some members of the central forty-six. An old man that shared the same eyes sat to his right and a man with bright red hair, tattoos, and wild eyes sat to his left.

"I can't believe that they approved this," a woman's harsh whisper diverted her attention to a group of women sitting away from the Captains. The women were obviously married to members of the Central Forty-Six as their kimonos indicated a high pedigree. If Ichigo had been in the middle of a conversation she wouldn't have heard the woman, but she wasn't. So the woman's harsh whisper was the focus of her attention. "A marriage of all things. I mean, goodness couldn't they have just signed a contract?"

"My husband told me that the reason they couldn't do a contract was because of all the bad blood between our soldiers and the quincies. No one would trust it."

"Can you blame us? Those freaks have been nothing but trouble since their lineage was started. And that girl! Poor Captain Kyoraku to be chained to such a thing. I heard his mother didn't even attend the wedding." Ichigo hadn't even known he had a mother. Well, a living mother.

"She hasn't even removed her veil, did you see?"

"Who could miss it? It's as if she hasn't even accepted the marriage."

"She won't last. Captain Kyoraku is a man that requires a real woman. Someone that can keep his attention. He's had all of his attention on women of no status and she falls into the same grouping as all of them."

"Mira, my dear friend, it almost sounds as if you fell for his womanizing ways."

"Nonsense. Anyone could see that he wasn't a man that wanted a committed relationship. Especially with those women. It's just as I said, he needs a woman that can keep his attention and that quincy certainly isn't that. That girl will never be able to hold onto him. He'll be in the arms of another within six months, just you see. And who can blame him, a girl like that will only bring him dishonor."

"Perhaps, but she can give him children. That might make him stay."

"Oh indeed! You're right about that. She has perfect birthing hips. If she gives him a son within a year he may not be forced to stray."

Ichigo had heard enough. She averted her attention to her own plate and bit her lip. Womanizer was he? Of course he was. Why else would she have been married off to a man that was old enough to be her father. That would be why he was so accepting of their not consummating their marriage- wait. No, that didn't make sense. If he was a womanizer he would have pushed the issue to consummate their marriage, right? Ichigo was even the one that brought it up. He didn't want to force her.

Ichigo turned her attention to Shunsui again. He was raising his cup of sweet sake to his mouth again and noticed her attention on him. The side of his mouth quirked up and his eye twitched.

Oh dear god, he was having a seizure!

Ichigo panicked and jerked her attention to the crowd looking for the lady with the braid. She was the captain of squad four which -if she recalled her lessons about the soul society correctly- meant she was the doctor captain. Uncle Ryuken was also there. They could take care of this. A deep chuckle directed her attention back to her sickly husband who turned out to not be having a seizure. He gave a full smile this time and leaned towards Ichigo's ear.

"You're going to have to learn to not be so shy, my dear," he murmured softly. His breath tickled. Ichigo went into another mini panic attack. This one was more related to herself not attacking her husband versus trying to save him. Her fists clenched under the table. "Allow me to get you a dessert. You prefer strawberry and chocolate right?"

"Yes," Ichigo nodded her head along with her response. He nodded in return and reached towards the serving plates that held the desserts and chose a chocolate cake with strawberry toppings. It was in front of her so when he reached for it he brushed up against her. Oh, he's a womanizer alright, Ichigo thought, and a skilled one at that.

"Poor thing," Rangiku Matsumoto murmured to the Ise Nanao who sat next to her. "She seems scared." The two sat in a small grouping of captains, lieutenants, and other high seated officers a bit of a distance from the new couple. Nanao could have sat with the couple but chose to sit with Rangiku instead due to some gossip she had overheard during the wedding reception. While Nanao wasn't usually one to take the prattlings of her captain's prior lovers seriously, she wanted to prevent any further gossip than necessary. Mira Aikawa and her usual grouping of power seeking women had not stopped their onslaught of slanderous gossip since the reception began. Despite her blood relation to Captain Kyoraku, it had been insinuated that the new Madam Kyoraku would consider Nanao competition and have her stripped of her title. Upon overhearing that Nanao knew the mere idea was ridiculous but she also did not want to give the group of spiteful women an opportunity to easily compare herself to the bride.
Nanao glanced up from her meal at the veiled woman and her Captain in time to see the young bride jerk away from the smirking groom. Within seconds he was reaching forward and pulling a desert of the serving tray for her after he leaned in to whisper something to her and she gave a nod.

"I would say that it is hard to interpret with her veil but she does seem to flinch away from him often," Nanao responded.

"I'm not so sure it's flinching away from her as much as it's just flinching at everything. She's probably so overwhelmed with all of this. She's been moved from the only home she's ever known to marry a complete stranger."

"Nobles are always marrying people they don't know," Shuuhei Hisagi commented after a rather large gulp of sake. "What makes this any different?"

"The nobles aren't moving to the world of the living with those marriages," Captain Hitsugaya responded much to Nanao's surprise. The young captain generally kept to himself at these events besides his scoldings towards Matsumoto. "They're also not marrying into a group that encouraged mass genocide of their own people."

With that comment the group of Shuuhei fell silent as a wave of pity and guilt fell over him. No, he was not one of the soul reapers that heavily contributed to the genocide of quincies, but he felt shame by association.

"What do ya think she looks like under that veil?" Ikkaku Madarme asked after the seriousness of Captain Hitsugaya's observation passed.

"Her grandmother's appearance is adequate - perhaps even considered pretty. I can assume she has the same potential," Yumichika Ayasegawa responded with his usual backhanded compliments.

"Or she could have beady eyes, and a big nose - oh and a mole the size of a fist," Yachiru giggled. "And that's why she's hiding her face."

"I doubt that's the case Lieutenant Kusajishi," Nanao hastily interjected when Mira Aikawa of all people turned her head at Yachiru's high pitched voice. Yachiru wasn't in the habit of whispering. Sure that Mira Aikawa would take Yachiru's childish gossip and further spread malicious rumors about Madam Kyoraku, Nanao raised her voice an octave. "I'm sure Madam Kyoraku has her reasons for wearing a veil that does not include her appearance."

"Wolfey kept his mask on because of his appearance." Yachiru pointed out helpfully.

Ikkaku and Yumichika choked on air and went to grab Yachiru's mouth to stop her from offending anymore people. Komamura's ear twitched from a few seats over indicating that he did, indeed, hear Yachiru's observations.

Kenpachi laughed and downed another cup full of sake. "Nah she's hiding something. People wear masks when they have something to hide."

Damn it all if the warrior captain didn't have a valid point.

Yachiru had bitten into Ikkaku's hands causing the bald man to swear and pull his hands away from her. "Like her big nose!"

"Yachiru that really isn't polite," Matsumoto scolded as Hitsugaya shook his head.

"Or her grief," Izuru's generally quiet voice echoed around the group successfully cutting off Yachiru and Matsumoto's bickering.

"But no one's dead," Yachiru shook her head after she stuck her tongue out at Matsumoto.

"She's grieving her life in the World of the Living," Kenpachi sighed and pushed Yachiru's plate closer to the girl with a nod at the food indicating silently that she needed to stop playing around and finish her meal. "It's like what Shorty there said. She's leaving her life and friends behind. Imagine if you were taken away from the eleventh division. Wouldn't you be sad?"

While Hitsugaya's eye twitched at the Shorty comment, he nodded along with Kenpachi's explanation.

"A mask also provides protection," the deep animalistic voice of Captain Komamura cut through the group causing all individuals to look in his direction. He made eye contact with the group and nodded towards the whispering noble women, the glaring eyes of Captain Kurotsuchi, and discontent stares of other individuals that were not pleased with the union or marriage. "In a place full of everyone already prepared to ridicule you for who you are born to and not for who you are, you need all the protection you can get. A shield to block those who are not willing to get to know you from feeling that they know you. Makes their words stick less because when they don't even know what you look like, anything they say is simply questionable."

Nanao took another glance at the bride. Captain Kyoraku was in discussion with the Captain General while Lady Kurosaki was having a conversation with Lord Kuchiki. The woman had no one to talk to. Having no position other than heir in question - as she may no longer be eligible to be the next head of the Kurosaki Clan, she had no one to speak to. The noble women around her kept to themselves and clearly ostracized her out of any conversation they may have while Captain Kyoraku was otherwise preoccupied in his discussions with members of the Gotei Thirteen.

"At this rate he'll be visiting Miss Kiyama's whore house in the third district just to stand to be around her. Poor Shunsui, to have that frumpy little thing become Madam Kyoraku. I'm sure his mother is simply livid," Lieutenant Omaeda's sister-in-law trailed off.

"One thing is for absolute certain," MIra Aikawa said after she hummed in agreement. "She will never be accepted or welcome here."

Nanao hadn't heard all of the noble women's gossip as she had tuned it out earlier but after hearing the last few remarks and the observations from her comrades, Nanao hoped that Madam Kyoraku didn't hear their gossip. Unfortunately, the tightening of Madam Kyoraku's hand on the glass of green tea in her hand and slight tilt of her head towards her hands indicated to Nanao that she didn't just hear the recent comments. She'd heard them all. With that realization, Nanao found that she was actually happy Madam Kyoraku wore a veil. She didn't want to see the hurt expression on her face as she realized how cruel the people of the Soul Society could be.