In this chapter I have Gin describe Ukitake as a kitten. That's from another fanfic, but I can't remember which one. It was just too perfect to resist, so whoever you are who thought Ukitake is a kitten, you're brilliant.
Rangiku did not feel at all comfortable in the white silk kimonos of a bride. They were suffocatingly tight. Three layers of silk were losing the battle against cleavage and the wide obi was riding up and wrinkling beneath her breasts. She had always thought brides were stunningly beautiful, but when Miyako pulled her in front of a mirror after they had dressed her, she had been thoroughly disappointed by her appearance. She had looked, in her opinion, fat and silly, and no amount of 'ooh'-ing and 'aw'-ing by the girls of Squad Ten was going to change her mind.
She looked silly, and she felt silly, and she was finding the whole ordeal of a wedding reception quite disappointing. The fact that everyone around her was drinking Shiba family sake, and she couldn't might have had something to do with it.
Captain Isshin, as the official host, was going around checking on his guests, and he stopped in front of Rangiku with a huge grin. "You look stunning, Rangiku-chan," he told her, and then, noticing Gin, he said, "Sorry, it's Ichimaru-san now, isn't it? And what do you think, Lieutenant? Your wife is quite the beauty, isn't she?"
Gin turned to look at his wife. Rangiku returned his gaze with eager eyes. He so seldom complimented her directly.
"I think that hat is going to give her a headache," Gin said, finally.
Isshin laughed at that and shook his head. "You know your problem, Lieutenant? You're sober." And with that he poured Gin out a cup of sake and ordered him to drink up.
Gin's eyes went from the captain to the saucer-like cup in his hand.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Afraid of a little sake?" Isshin demanded.
Gin frowned and drank it all down in one long gulp.
Isshin laughed and poured him some more. "That's more like it. Have another. There's plenty."
"Captain, I'm not sure that's a good idea," Rangiku said as she watched her husband consume a second serving, which made two entire cups more than she'd ever seen him drink in his life. "Gin isn't used to drinking."
"Don't be such a wet blanket! You're just jealous you can't have any," Isshin answered.
"Very true," Gin agreed. "Poor Ran-chan hasn't got any idea what to do at a party if she can't get drunk. Poor thing's bored out of her mind at her own wedding reception."
"Well, I'm sure you can think of some way to entertain her," the captain answered. "I'm told you're a very clever young man."
"Oh, I am," Gin agreed. Then he turned to smile at Rangiku, and his smile was so fox-like it sent a shiver down her spine. "Poor Ran-chan," he said, leaning closer and lifting a hand to her cheek. "If you're bored we can just go home and go to bed; would you like that better?"
He was nearly close enough to kiss with his foxyist smile perfectly in place.
"Oh, no," Rangiku breathed. "You're drunk."
"Possibly," he agreed. Then, abruptly he got to his feet and pulled her with him. "I'm bored," he declared. "Let's go say hello to all of our guests."
"Have fun," Isshin said, grinning at Rangiku's distress.
Gin quickly found Miyako and Kaien and dragged Rangiku over to sit beside them. "Lieutenant Shiba Kaien," Gin began, pouring himself another cup of sake from the bottle at their table. "The perfect shinigami nobleman," he added, before taking a sip.
"Please ignore him," Rangiku said. "He's drunk."
Gin turned a frown to her. "I am not, Ran-chan, or maybe I am, but what I am doing is having fun for your entertainment, so behave."
He turned back to Kaien, fox-smile back in place. "You are quite the gentleman, Shiba-kun. Everyone says so. I know it's true because if you did have any dark secrets I'd have found them out by now. All you have is a crazy little sister who's going to blow herself up one day if she can possibly manage it. Anyway, I thought you should know, because people may have lied to you, waiting doesn't make it any better. It's practice that makes it better, so much better, don't you agree, Ran-chan?"
Rangiku blinked back at him. "I'm pretending I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You're no fun," he told her and suddenly drug her to her feet again.
He had random and sometimes completely incomprehensible comments for most of the guests. Captain Kurotsuchi he told, "No one likes a peeping tom," before hopping up and dragging Rangiku on.
He stopped at the table where Captains Kyoraku and Ukitake were seated and actually hugged Ukitake. "You are truly the kindest person I've ever met," he told the white-haired captain.
Ukitake smiled indulgently in response, being more than a little used to drunken confessions.
"I mean it. There are all sorts of people in Seireitei, good, bad, boring, painfully stupid, but you, I just love you. You're like a puppy, no, puppies have too much energy; they can be exhausting. You're more like a kitten. Everyone loves you."
"That's very kind of you, Gin-kun," Captain Ukitake said, only a little stiffly.
"No, but he's right," Kyoraku agreed. "You're a little white kitten, and everyone wants to pet you and take care of you."
"And you're the puppy," Gin declared, turning to Kyoraku. "We love you, but you require too much work. If you'd learn to do a few things for yourself you'd have your sexy lieutenant eating out of your hand."
"Hey, now," Kyoraku began. "You can't go around talking about Nanao-chan like that."
"Don't worry, Captain. Ran-chan is more than enough woman to keep me satisfied. I'm not going to start chasing after your sexy little librarian," and with that he was dragging Rangiku to here feet once more.
The next table they joined was filled with Squad Eleven. They were glad to share their sake and laughed loudly at the way Gin's pale face had flushed pink.
Gin answered by taking a swig directly from a handy bottle, before declaring, "You know what I like best about about Eleven? It's the way none of you ever tell each other anything. It's beautiful. There are so many lovely secrets at this table!"
Rangiku blushed brilliant red. He was not going to start sharing everyone's secrets. It was one thing to be a terrible snoop who spied on absolutely everyone he ever met, it was another altogether to get completely smashed and spill all the secrets he'd managed to collect over the past thirty years.
"Gin, I think I am getting tired. Let's go home," she said, tugging on his arm.
"But they are the best secrets, Ran! Really! Nothing like the science tech who likes to play with the gigai. These are just nonsense. All of these manly men-they're afraid of nothing but their friends' opinions!"
"Oi, Ichimaru, you spying on everyone?" Kenpachi demanded, just as Yachiru looked up from her meal to ask, "What's he do with the gigai?"
"Yes and not for your ears," Gin said, and he seemed to focus on the pink-haired girl. "How old are you, anyway? Shouldn't we have an age limit for shinigami? Do you even know how to read yet?"
"I'm not a baby," Yachiru protested, getting to her feet, where her head still didn't quite reach the level of Kenpachi's shoulder beside her.
"You look like one," Gin said, holding up his hand as if trying to judge her exact height. "Human three, maybe?"
"And we're off," Rangiku declared, dragging Gin to his feet and retreating from the table before Yachiru's growing aura could explode.
"I was talking," Gin pointed out as she pulled him back toward their original seats.
"I know," she agreed, ignoring more than one friendly call in her direction. Gin was absolutely right. He could not be trusted with alcohol. She had to get him away from anyone he could anger, humiliate, or offend as quickly as possible.
But a low voice called his name, and he stopped so abruptly she stumbled backwards into him.
"Gin-kun," a kind, gentle voice said. "Don't you think it's about time you introduced me to your bride?"
Rangiku's eyes went to the speaker. Captain Aizen sat less than two feet away from them, and with him were Captains Tosen and Kamamura. All three were well known to Gin. Both Tosen and Kamamura had spent years in the Fifth, and Aizen was his captain, but Rangiku, herself, had never met any of them. Her outgoing nature had not quite given her the courage to try to befriend the captains and lieutenants of other divisions. Seated officers were alright, but the top shinigami were still a little intimidating.
"Of course, Captain," Gin answered, but he didn't move to join their table. "This is my Ran-chan-Rangiku."
Aizen turned soft brown eyes to Rangiku and smiled, gently. "I am very glad to finally meet you, Rangiku-san. Gin-kun is like family to me so I hope you won't mind if I consider you family as well."
Rangiku let out a relieved breath; Gin's captain really was nice. She'd heard he was, but you never knew. She returned his smile, and answered, "It's very kind of you to say so, sir, thank you." Then she bowed as well as she could with a pregnant belly and a too tight kimono.
"Captain Aizen has always been far too kind to me," Gin told her. "He's looked after me since I first came to Seireitei, nothing but a skinny, little kid." Then he turned to Aizen. "But you won't have to keep an eye on me now, sir," he told the captain. "That'll be Ran's job."
Aizen laughed. "Then I wish her great luck. That is one job I am happy to relinquish; it is not nearly so easy as it sounds."
"Oh, I know," Rangiku agreed. She really was surprised at how easy it was to talk to Captain Aizen. Gin had, for so long, insisted she stay away from his captain and Tosen, too, when he was Gin's superior. She had thought that was afraid they wouldn't like her, a cheap, shallow girl from his Rukongai past, but now she wondered. "You never know what he's thinking," she said, looking up into Gin's smiling fox-face. "That's what makes it so tricky."
"Would it help if I told you I don't know either?" He offered. "It's actually pretty random in here." He pointed to his head as he spoke. "Like right now I was just thinking that you and Lieutenant Ise are the only shinigami I know who wear glasses and if that's because glasses are too expensive for the common rabble and we let them go about half-blind or if the people of Soul Society do not naturally have vision problems like humans and you and Ise have some strange, rare affliction-perhaps a curse from a hollow?"
Rangiku forced a laugh. Even sober, Gin would likely have been rude enough to suggest someone's vision problem was some sort of curse. "That is pretty random," she said, only a little stiffly, "But I don't think they're the only ones I've ever seen in glasses. I think that's your imagination."
Gin cocked his head to one side for a second. "Perhaps you're right."
Aizen laughed again. "I leave him in your able hands, Rangiku-san."
"Thank you," Rangiku said, bowing. Then she added, "Thank you very much for coming-thank you all." And she bowed low to each of the captains.
"I didn't know you had manners," Gin said, watching her.
"Please enjoy your evening," she added, bowing once more before grabbing her husband by the wrist and dragging him away from the table.
"Now for the very best part of getting married," Gin declared as he closed their door behind him, and, before Rangiku could respond, he had upended a satchel full of small envelopes onto the tatami floor. Every one of them had some version of congratulations or good luck and their names written across them.
"Is that all money?" Rangiku asked, her eyes widening at the sight of so many gift envelopes.
"Should be," Gin said, sitting down and reaching for the first envelope.
"Just a second!" Rangiku interrupted loudly. She climbed up awkwardly onto the raised tatami floor and hurried as quickly as she could to the second room. A few seconds later, she returned with a pen and paper. "I've got to write down who gave us what for the thank you gifts!"
Gin was grinning at her and continued to do so as she plopped down on the mat beside him.
"What?" She asked.
"You waddle!" He exclaimed.
"I do not!"
"Yes, you do. I just saw you, waddling back and forth like a little duck."
"That is not true! I don't-" his lips on hers interrupted her, and she surrendered without another word.