Rangiku could not remember ever having seen Miyako drunk before. It was quite the new experience. Poor little Rukia was just about freaking out. She kept suggesting the two of them go back to the division which was only making Miyako more dramatic.

Our division? Our division?" Miyako repeated miserably. "It's not going to be our division anymore! Just your division! You have to promise me," here she took hold of both of Rukia's hands and looked her straight in the eyes. "Promise me you will take care of the Captain. He's always trying to do too much, but you can't let him. You have to make sure he rests everyday and--"

"You don't have to quit," Nanao said, dryly, unimpressed with Miyako's tearful performance.

"You don't understand!" Miyako declared, releasing Rukia to turn to Nanao. "I do. I have to. If I don't--"

She turned to Rangiku, holding Kinta asleep on her lap, as she went through her second bottle of sake. "You understand, don't you, Rangiku-chan?" Miyako demanded of her friend. "You don't want to be a burden, do you?"

Rangiku's eyes went from Kinta's golden head to Shiro-chan, sitting in the corner, reading, with his usual enormous pack next to him. Gin had disappeared again, at the last minute, when he knew full well she needed him to watch the kids so she could go out with her friends, and even worse, Kira was already out with friends so she couldn't leave the boys with him either. "I don't think I'm the burden in this relationship," she answered irritably.

"No!" Miyako agreed strongly. "Of course not, Rangiku-chan! You'd never be a burden. You never lost nine men on one mission!" Tears overflowed her eyes at the memory.

Rukia was quick to speak up then. "No one blames you for that, Miyako-san. You were fortunate to survive at all. Captain Ukitake says it was another of those strange, mutated hollows, maybe an arrancar. Very few shinigami below lieutenant could have hoped to defeat it. You should be proud of your accomplishment."

Miyako shook her head. "No, no, no, no. I can't--I'm not that strong. I should have died. I should have, and what would have happened to Kaien? What would he have done if I never came back?"

"I'm sure he would have been upset," Nanao agreed, but there was no sign of sympathy in her tone. "But that is the risk we take as shinigami. You two have done very well for many years balancing your fears and duties and have worked together with an unusual degree of success. Kaien-san has never been like Captain Ichimaru, trying to limit your activities to what he considers safe. I don't see why now you feel that you should quit entirely due to one close call."

"Lieutenant Ise's right," Rukia agreed. "I'm sure Kaien-san would not want you to give up everything that's important to you. The Gotei 13 is your life. You--"

"No, it isn't," Miyako said. "It's not. I love you all so much, and the division, and the captain, and everyone, oh, everyone, but I have the Shiba family, too, you know, and they've wanted me to quit for years. Being a shinigami isn't really what the wife of the Head of the Family is supposed to do. I'll just go do wife-things now and everyone will be happy."

Rukia made a face at that. "Will you be happy?" she asked.

"We may have to crash your new house with our Women's Association meetings," Rangiku declared, grinning. "You're going to live in a palace! I'd stop being a shinigami too if anyone'd offer me a palace. Instead I've got the brokest captain in Seireitei history. If I quit working we'd probably starve."

"I doubt that's true anymore," Nanao said, coolly. "Captains do receive living allowances along with their salary, and Captain Ichimaru's should be considerably more than any other captain's as he has a family to support. I also understand that you get most of your meals from the Third Division cafeteria so it's doubtful your food would run out anytime soon."

Rangiku rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean it literally. I just meant there aren't going to be any palaces in my future, not that I mind, really, but it does leave me the odd one out, doesn't it?" She looked from Nanao to Miyako and Rukia. All three of them were now highly placed members of important families. They lived in palaces or could if they wanted to. It was a very different sort of life they lived than hers would ever be. Rukia had been from Rukongai and Miyako had spent a lot of time broke before she had gotten married, but not one of them was ever going to have to think about a price tag again.

"Don't even try to make us feel sorry for you, Rangiku," Nanao said. "You're probably the happiest person we know, and I don't think there's even one thing in the world that you actually want that you can't have. You're so satisfied with your life that it can be literally nauseating."

"Nauseating? Really?" Rangiku looked over at Shiro-chan again before dropping her eyes to Kin-chan. They really were pretty perfect as far as children went. "If you'd let me set you up with someone I bet you could be nauseatingly happy too!"

Nanao sighed and turned to Rukia. "You'd better watch out, Rukia. Rangiku thinks that men are the secret to true happiness, and she does her best to find one for every woman she knows."

"Well, I don't need one, thank you very much," Rukia declared.

" 'Course you don't," Rangiku agreed. "You've already got one. Two would be more trouble than they're worth."

"I don't have a man!" Rukia protested loudly. "Where did you hear that? If somebody's spreading rumors about me, I'll--what?"

Rangiku's grin had grown bigger with every word she spoke. "You're serious? You two still really aren't together? Wow! You've never even noticed, have you?"

"Noticed what?" Rukia demanded.

Nanao spoke up before Rangiku could answer. "Leave her alone, Rangiku. She's clearly not interested. She doesn't need you meddling in her life."

Rangiku turned to Miyako, who was leaning one elbow on the table and yawning. "Were we really that stupid when we were young?" she demanded.

Miyako shrugged. "Probably."

"How exactly am I being stupid?" Rukia demanded.

"At least I noticed when a man was worshipping the ground I walked on," Rangiku said.

"Nah, you just assumed they all were," Miyako told her. "But they mostly were so you were usually right."

Rangiku smiled. "They were, weren't they?" she said, sighing happily. "I had so much fun playing with all the boys. They were always so sweet, buying me presents and things. Rukia, you should be sure to enjoy this time, while you're young and all the boys can't take their eyes off of you. Don't waste it all training and working hard and being responsible. There'll be plenty of time for that when you're old like the rest of us."

"Regardless of how you'd like to consider yourself, Rangiku, I am not old," Nanao said icily.

"You were already a lieutenant when me and Miyako graduated from the Academy. You may not be old yet, but you're definitely not young, and I'll bet you don't turn heads like you used to either," Rangiku declared.

Nanao's eyes widened and Miyako cowered back from the lieutenant. "Are you saying," Nanao said slowly. "That I look old?"

Rangiku, tipsy though she was, finally seemed to notice she'd annoyed Nanao. "No, of course not," she said, but her protest didn't sound particularly sincere. "You're very pretty, very, very pretty."

"Oh, dear," a cool voice cut short Nanao's response, and all four women raised their heads at once.

Gin was standing behind Nanao frowning down on them. "Are you drunk already?" he asked, and then he turned to Toshiro. "Shiro, you really shouldn't let your mother get this drunk so early. She won't be able to walk by the time she's ready to go home--did you plan to carry her and Kin-chan together?"

Toshiro raised his head to glare at Gin. "I was going to ask Lieutenant Iba or Hisagi for help if you didn't show up," he said, gesturing toward the other end of the sakeya where Hisagi, Iba, and several other officers from their divisions were enjoying a somewhat raucous party.

"I'm fine," Rangiku declared. "I haven't drunk very much at all, thank you very much!"

Gin turned to Nanao. "Lieutenant Ise, would you agree with that?"

Nanao turned uncomfortably to look up at Gin. "Have you gotten taller?" she asked.

"Ah, so you're all drunk, I see," he said. "I'll be just a moment."

"What is he up to?" Nanao asked as she watched Gin cross the sakeya to the table where the lieutenants were seated.

Rangiku sighed as she turned the bottle of sake upside down. There wasn't a drop left. "Ruining my evening out, as usual," she answered irritably.

"Tell him to go away," Nanao suggested. "He's not my captain so I can't tell him what to do, but he is yours, I mean he belongs to you, so tell him to go away because we're not ready to go home."

Miyako let out a sound suspiciously like a snore before she sat up abruptly. "Are we going home?" she asked drowsily.

"Yes, you are," Gin answered, reappearing with Iba and Hisagi behind him. "Iba is going to make sure you and Rukia-chan make it back to your division safely, and Lieutenant Ise, Hisagi will do the same for you."

"Shuhei is not walking me home," Nanao said, firmly. She stumbled a little as she got to her feet, but that didn't seem to change her mind. "I'm perfectly fine on my own."

"Lieutenant Ise, I'm not about to get a visit in the morning from your captain demanding to know why I allowed you to wander off and fall in a ditch in the middle of the night. Lieutenant Hisagi will walk you home. That's an order."

Rangiku stuck out her tongue at Nanao, who had turned a beautiful shade of red and looked like she might explode at any moment. "Now you know how it feels," she told Nanao.

"Not the best of ideas, Ran-chan," Gin said as he bent over to lift the sleeping boy from her arms.

"What?" Rangiku demanded, but then she caught sight of Nanao, who very possibly looked angrier than she'd ever seen before. "Time to go, Shiro-chan," she said, quickly, and hopped to her feet, gripping Gin's arm with both of hers and putting him and the sleeping Kinta between herself and Nanao.

Nanao turned abruptly on her heels and said, "Shuhei, I'm leaving now, if you're going to walk me home I suggest you do the same."

After Rangiku watched them leave, and was still waiting for Toshiro to get all his stuff in order, she said, "That wasn't very nice."

"Why not?" Gin asked.

"There's something going on between them," she told him.

"Oh? You noticed?" Gin said. "That's my clever girl. I thought I'd give them the chance to work it out."

Rangiku shook her head. "Nanao-chan doesn't want to. She's been avoiding Shuhei-kun since the Chocolate Party. He always tries to talk to her after the lieutenants meetings, and she always shunpos off. It's getting really annoying. Sometimes I want to talk to her."

"Wait, what's going on?" Iba said, turning to Rangiku. "Do I need to give that kid a talking to? I can make him leave Ise-san alone."

Rangiku shook her head. "If Nanao-chan wanted him to leave her alone she'd have blown him up by now. She doesn't need anybody to defend her. She just needs to figure out what she wants to say and say it."

"What's she got to say to him?" Iba demanded. "He's got no business bothering a lady like her. She's better than that."

"How is she better?" Rangiku demanded, suddenly leaping to the defense of a fellow former Rukongai resident. Ise Nanao was a lady of a noble family, but she was a lieutenant exactly like Hisagi Shuhei. They were equal, and Rangiku would not allow anyone to say otherwise.

"Time to go," Gin declared, catching her around the waist and practically carrying her out the door.

"What are you doing?" Rangiku demanded.

"Gotta get the boys to bed," he declared pleasantly.

"Oh," Rangiku said, all the fight driven from her by the reminder of actual responsibilities. "Right."