Rangiku sat back and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before calmly raising her eyes to Miyako. "It's kind of rude to follow someone into the bathroom just to snoop on her. I'd think a well-bred lady like yourself would know that."

"Gin?" Miyako said softly.

"I think it's called eating the wrong thing for breakfast. I don't know what it is you're thinking Gin could possibly have to do with it. I'm pretty sure he hasn't taken to poisoning other squads yet."

"You can fool all the other meatheads in this squad, Ran-chan, but I'm not blind," Miyako answered. "You're pregnant."

Rangiku's eyes dropped to the floor. "What are you talking about?" she asked, wondering why she was even trying to hide it anymore. Had she spent so long keeping everything about herself and Gin a secret that she didn't even know how to start talking about it? She should be able to talk to Miyako. They'd graduated the Academy together. They'd been roommates since Rangiku had made Fifth Seat. She should be able to talk, but the words just wouldn't come. "I'm not even-I don't-why would you think that?"

Miyako sighed. "You're tired all the time, sensitive to smells and foods, gaining weight, and over-emotional," Miyako said, counting off the reasons on her fingers. "If there are any other symptoms I don't know I'm sure you have them too."

Rangiku closed her eyes. Gin had said he wanted the baby. That had to mean he no longer intended to keep their relationship secret, didn't it? Why was it that they never managed to communicate anything clearly?

"Why would you think Gin?" Rangiku asked uneasily. "I've told you before, he's just a friend. We were kids together."

Miyako sat down next to Rangiku. "Don't you think that if you're going to call me your best friend you could try not to lie to me all the time? I've known you've been seeing Gin for at least a year. I know that you've wanted to keep it quiet so I haven't said anything, but you're pregnant now. You can't keep that secret. You know that, don't you?"

Rangiku nodded slowly. "I'm sorry I've been lying to you," she said softly.

"Don't worry about it," Miyako said. "He asked you to, I understand."

"It's not-he didn't want-" Rangiku struggled to defend the man she loved. "It's just that most captains wouldn't like it. They would think he wasn't properly devoted to the Gotei 13, and he wouldn't be allowed to advance. It wouldn't be fair, stopping him at Third Seat. He's so talented, even Captain Aizen says he's going to make captain."

Miyako bit back the desire to argue that point. It was true that very few married men ever made it to the top of the Gotei, but even so a good man wouldn't try to hide the woman he loved. If anyone told him he couldn't have both, he'd welcome the challenge, like Kaien had, and Kaien, despite the fact everyone knew he and Miyako had been dating since the Academy, had made lieutenant three years before Gin.

"Have you told him?" she asked. That was the really important thing now. Did Gin know, and what was he planning to do about it?

Rangiku nodded. "He's going to take care of us."

"Then there's no reason to keep trying to keep everything secret, is there?" Miyako pointed out. "Everyone will have to know eventually."

Rangiku nodded again. "I just-I don't want to push-I think I should let him decide who he wants to tell and when. There's no hurry, and it's a lot-a lot to deal with, don't you think?"

Miyako thought it was probably a lot more for Rangiku to deal with than for Gin, but he was the man Rangiku had chosen, and if Rangiku wanted to be absurdly patient that really was none of her business. Personally, Miyako would've murdered the man by now.

Rangiku smiled as though she could guess what her friend was thinking. "Don't worry," she said. "I know he seems awful, but he really will take care of me. He always does. I trust him more than anyone. Really."

Miyako nodded. "Alright, Rangiku-chan. I'm sure you know him better than the rest of us. Now are you feeling up to getting to work or do you need me to give the captain some excuse?"

Rangiku smiled. "Just tell him I'm hungover again. I'll be at practice in a little while."

Miyako shook her head. "You've got to be the only shinigami in history who'd use 'hungover' as an excuse."

"I just like to keep expectations comfortably low."

Rangiku would have liked to have kept everything just the way it was for a few months longer. She liked her life and wasn't in any particular hurry to change it. Miyako seemed to think she should be behaving differently, and especially that she and Gin should be talking things out, but, really, the baby was months away, and what was there to do now but wait?

So she did her very best not to think too much about it and enjoy her life.

Only some people seemed bound and determined not to let her.

Ayasegawa Yumichika usually knew what was going on. He wondered why most people missed so much; all he did was pay attention. People were very obvious and mostly fairly boring as well. Matsumoto Rangiku was as predictable as most shinigami, but she was also unusually entertaining and, even more rare, he actually happened to like her.

So how could he possibly leave her alone? He'd gone to the Tenth Division to follow up on some paperwork for a transfer of a low ranking officer to the Eleventh and found the Fifth Seat napping on her captain's office couch.

"Good afternoon, Matsumoto-san," he said, loudly enough to wake her.

Rangiku yawned and stretched, automatically adjusting her shihakusho before sitting up. "Yu-chan," she said, smiling pleasantly. "Do you need something?"

He handed her a small stack of paper. "It's a record request for Mori Hiroyuki, no hurry."

Rangiku stared at the paperwork like she had no idea what it was or what she was expected to do with it, but that was nothing new. Yumichika wasn't concerned. Instead, the reason for his visit taken care of, he turned to a much more entertaining activity, confirming his own newest theory.

"Are you free at all this weekend, Matsumoto-san?" he asked pleasantly.

"Oh, are we doing something?" Rangiku asked enthusiastically.

"It's Ikkaku's birthday so we're thinking we'll invite a bunch of low ranking officers along to the sakeya and see how many rounds we can get them to pay for," Yumichika told her, smiling pleasantly.

Rangiku's huge smile faded abruptly as she remembered she wasn't drinking anymore. "I'm busy," she said, miserably.

In Yumichika's experience, there was no such thing as Matsumoto Rangiku being too busy for free sake. In the past she had skipped out on any number of actual responsibilities at even the possibility of free sake. The chances for his theory being correct were looking very good-but he wouldn't want to jump to conclusions.

"Oh, we can do it any time," he offered, giving her another chance. "It's not really even Ikkaku's birthday. It sounded like fun, but it wouldn't be without you. When are you going to be free?"

Rangiku only looked more miserable. "I don't think I'm going to be free at all for a while."

"Not at all?" Yumichika asked, forcing a hurt look to his face. She was so obvious. Did she really think she could fool him? "We haven't done anything wrong, have we, Matsumoto-san? You're not avoiding us, are you? I would hate to think that I might have unintentionally offended you."

"Of course not!" Rangiku protested, and she looked so distressed by the suggestion that Yumichika knew he should feel bad about it, but he really didn't.

"Is it Lieutenant Ichimaru?" he asked. "Iba thinks he doesn't like you spending so much time out with other men. He isn't jealous, is he?"

"Of course not," Rangiku answered immediately, jumping, as she always did, to her man's defense. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone we were together!" she added quickly. "Why did you tell Iba about me and Gin! You promised you wouldn't!"

"I didn't tell anyone," Yumichika answered with some annoyance. "But if he will carry you out of a sakeya in front of everyone, a few people are bound to make assumptions—he is welcome to join us, you know. We could all go out together. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"I really am busy!" Rangiku protested.

"You were napping five minutes ago," Yumichika could not resist pointing out.

Rangiku growled. "This weekend. I'm busy this weekend!"

"And forever after?" Yumichika asked, smiling at her obvious frustration.

"Yes!"

Yumichika shook his head. "Alright, dear, if that's the way you want to be, I suppose there's no point trying to talk to you, but if you do ever decide you're tired of all the pretending, I'll be more than happy to beat some sense into Ichimaru for you."

"What?" Rangiku demanded, but he was already out the door.

Rangiku and her crowd of giggling friends, all the female officers of Squad 11, did not go unnoticed as they roamed one of Seireitei's more fashionable shopping districts. Half a dozen happy and pretty young women were bound to get looks. They were used to the indulgent smiles of their elders, along with the occasional shaken head at how silly girls could be, and rarely noticed. They were too busy enjoying their day out even to bother flirting with the young men who couldn't fail to notice them.

It was beginning to be a good thing that Rangiku could block out all the looks and whispers beyond her group of friends. She was showing. No matter how she tried tying her obi she looked more pregnant than fat, but in the end she decided she didn't care, and it was no one's business but her own. The whispers and looks in the Gotei were bad enough, but here, among Seireitei's most snobby, would be the worst.

But Rangiku was very good at focusing on her fun, and she was having a fabulous time. They were looking over a stall of hairpins than not one of them could possibly afford and were arguing happily over which would best suit each of them.

Miyako was the only one not laughing, and that was only because she was considering asking her parents for a little help with her finances. She needed to purchase a new kimono and accessories in order not to make a fool out of herself at the Shiba New Year's Party Kukaku insisted she had to attend this year.

None of the girls noticed a pair of gray-haired noblemen watching them from outside the tea shop across the street.

"So that's the girl Shiba-dono won't get rid of," one said, making a sour face. "Didn't want to believe it when I heard it."

"Girls had shame when we were young," the other agreed. He was even older than the first, and his wizened face looked like it had melted into a perpetual frown. "They didn't go about parading their sins, all grins and giggles with their friends. They hid themselves away. They knew what they were and what they'd done."

"Someone should do something if Shiba-dono won't. It's a disgrace to the entire Gotei," the first said. "I've been holding my tongue, but it's about time I went myself to tell General Yamamoto what I think of them letting these girls whore themselves out-"

He stopped speaking abruptly. He had never been a shinigami, and he'd never once been in an actual fight, but he could still recognize the sharp steel tip of a blade that was suddenly against his back. It had sliced through the layers of silk he wore and pressed against his skin just below the level of his heart.

"Now I don't think you've really thought that through," a strangely cheerful voice said, speaking so close to him that he could feel the heat of his unknown assailant's breath on his ear. "If you had you would have realized that she might have a man, most likely a shinigami like herself, possibly even a strong one, and if he doesn't worry about public opinion, then it's very unlikely that the tragic death of a noble or two would be of much concern to him."

The nobleman didn't dare move. His eyes went to his melancholy friend for help.

His friend was staring back at him with obvious fear. "This is a public street, lieutenant," he said in a voice that trembled.

The man with the blade to his back started to shake. There were only thirteen captains in all of Seireitei, and only the thirteen lieutenants, and for all that the Gotei liked to boast of its perfect military discipline, the twenty-six at the top were so strong they only followed the law because they chose to. They were all unpredictable, willful, and dangerous, and very much known for taking care of their own problems their own way.

"So it is," the lieutenant behind him agreed. "And if you both plan to spend the rest of your lives here you can likely continue to complain about the faults of others in at least as much comfort as you feel now.

"Shall I fetch Yama-ji for you? He hasn't heard yet about this shameful occurrence because you are right. If he knew she would probably be ejected from the Gotei. I've gone to a lot of trouble to keep it from him, but I'm sure I could find some way to thank you, sooner or later, for removing that troublesome task from my schedule."

"That really isn't necessary," the man with the knife in his back said. "I'm sure the General has better things to do than listen to this old man's foolish opinions on how he should do his job."

"I wouldn't dream of bothering him," the other man agreed. "I have the utmost respect for the General and the Gotei 13."

"I'm so glad you say so," Gin said, stepping away from the two men and sheathing his zanpakuto so quickly it was unlikely anyone even saw it. He waved as he walked away. "I'll be seeing you around, Komura-sama, Mitsui-sama."

Then with the abruptness of shunpo he was gone.