"Gin! Gin! Gin!" Rangiku nearly shouted, rushing into the Fifth Division main office. Her long-suffering son pouted from his perch strapped to her back. The boy thought he should be allowed to walk, but his mother was usually in too much of a hurry to do less than shunpo, and he had the unfortunate fate of being very small and light for his size because each and every summer he stopped growing and lost weight. Even though other children his age had mostly outgrown being carried around in a sling, he was probably going to have to put up with it for a few more years.
Captain Aizen raised on eyebrow as his lieutenant's wife burst into his office. She could not be convinced to consider the idea that he and Gin could have work to do, and her constant interruptions were unhelpful. He hated to imagine what she was like in her own division, but then the Tenth never had been particularly disciplined.
He sighed and gestured to the corner where Gin was sorting through files, finally doing work he'd already put off for weeks.
"Gin, guess what!" Rangiku exclaimed, turning abruptly to her husband.
"I've already heard Shiba's girlfriend's transferred," Gin told her without bothering to raise his head from his work.
"Of course you did. I told you she was going to last month. This is much better—this is the biggest news in Seireitei in centuries!"
"Then how is it you heard before me?" Gin asked.
"I'll give you a hint: my captain told me," she said grinning hugely. "And he heard last night, at a gathering of the four houses."
Gin turned around. "Since when do you care about anything the nobility is doing?" he asked, suddenly curious.
"Kuchiki Byakuya is getting married!" Rangiku exclaimed, almost jumping up and down with excitement.
Gin blinked, trying to make that news seem important. "He's the head of their house. Doesn't the family usually encourage them to marry young?"
"But he's marrying against his family's wishes!" Rangiku exclaimed. "He's marrying a girl he met in Rukongai! He saved her from a hollow and it was love at first sight! Kuchiki Byakuya is marrying a peasant!"
"You heard this from Captain Isshin?" Aizen said suddenly.
Rangiku spun around and grinned at the captain. "Isn't it wonderful! Who could have imagined Kuchiki Byakuya would have a heart?"
Aizen smiled. "It does give one a feeling of hope. If even a man so proud as Kuchiki can be touched by love maybe there is hope for the world yet."
"Right!" she agreed, before spinning back to Gin. "You have got to get us invited to the wedding, Gin! You've got to!"
"Ran, you know—"
"I've got to go tell Miya-chan before Kaien does. Don't forget, Gin! We have to go!" And with that she rushed out of the room. Toshiro waved bye bye helplessly as he was carried off again.
Gin sighed and turned to his captain. "I don't suppose you could help me?"
Aizen's smile grew. "I have no idea what you did, but Kuchiki despises you. There is no way he would invite you to his wedding even if I were to ask, which I am not going to do. You are on your own this time."
"But it isn't possible!" Gin protested.
"And that is what is going to make this so amusing," Aizen agreed. "I've no doubt you will think of something, and I always find your little schemes enlightening."