Title: You must stay the cooling too…

Disclaimer: Ducks with swords own more than I do.

Summary: Bridezilla, meet Rukia. Rukia, meet…oh, wait, I think you've already met!

"OK!" With a flourish, Rukia spread the map across the table. Her "troops" gathered round.

"Research says that these three locations are the optimal points of attack. We will need to spread out and hit here…" her finger tapped on one red dot "here, and here. We will split into three groups in order to maximize our time. Each member will bring a unique quality to the group, and I will need you to work together in order to make this attack a success."

She looked around the table, assessing each soldier.

"Sado, Orihime, Ishida!" Orihime straightened and saluted, Ishida nodded sharply, and Sado glanced from under his bangs. "You will converge at Point A at 11am sharp. Group 2!" She whirled and slapped a letter down in front of Yoruichi. "Yoruichi, Tatsuki, and Renji, you are scheduled to hit Point B at 11:15."

Tatsuki frowned, Renji gave a sharp "Hai!" and Yoruichi failed to suppress a yawn. 6 am was too early to have this sort of meeting.

"Ichigo and I will rendezvous at Point C exactly at 11:30." Ichigo was scowling, so Rukia knew he was listening.

"I don't need to remind you how important this is." She made eye contact with each person, and they nodded in response. She regretted having to send each group in by themselves, but time was of the essence!

"Now, let's find me a wedding cake!"

Orihime clapped her hands as she examined the two smiling yellow bunnies that danced on the top of a purple, sugar-laden cake. "I think Rukia-chan would love something like this!"

Ishida looked, and snorted. She probably would, but Ichigo would kill him. "I think Kurosaki would prefer something a bit less…bouncy…at his wedding, Orihime-san."

Sado nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Oh, you're probably right." Inoue thought for a moment, then smiled brightly at Ishida. "How about ducks?"

"It's pink."

"It's a Japanese cake shop, Red, what color did you think it would be?"

"Listen, half-pint, you can stick your sarcasm right up your…"

Yoruichi rubbed the headache that was forming between her temples. She thought longingly of the warm sunning spot at the entrance of Urahara's shop (Oh, it was the best place to take a nap!) before snapping her attention back to the present. Really, if she could lead an entire force of secret ninja police, how hard could two temperamental young adults be?

"Dammit! Stop pulling the pony-tail, you flat-chested brat!"

Ichigo glared suspiciously at the lace-decorated the chair the store attendant had offered him. The bubbly woman had greeted Rukia and him as they entered the store, and the two women were already sitting at a table covered with different cake and frosting samples, chatting merrily away.

He figured that Rukia would be giving him the patented "short Shinigami" glare of death in a moment if he didn't sit down, but the chair was just so…frilly.

Rukia turned to look back at him, and her eyes narrowed. He glanced from her, to the lacey chair, and back and she seemed to catch on. While the store attendant went in back to gather some design samples, Rukia yanked the lace covering off the chair and shoved it under the frilly pink tablecloth.

He really did love that crazy little runt, Ichigo reflected fondly as he finally took his seat.

Ishida didn't really care much for sweets, and he decided, after the third type of vanilla, second type of chocolate, and fourth fruit cake, that he never wanted to eat cake again.

Sworn comrade or not, Ichigo owed him big.

Orihime, he noted, seemed to be enjoying herself. She asked the woman about the ingredients for the different fillings, frostings, and cakes ("Are you sure there's no curry in this? I thought I tasted curry…"), though her talking seemed to be getting faster, and she was bouncing in her seat. More than usual.

He glanced over at Sado, who had quietly cleaned off his cakes and what was left of Ishida's. He wondered if the large man could even get a sugar high.

"Should I show you some designs?" The woman asked Orihime, apparently recognizing the most easily swayed member of the group.

"Can you make a cake with ducks waving swords?"

Yoruichi was beginning to regret her seating choice. After dragging Tatsuki and Renji into the shop by their ears (it always worked with Jinta), she sat them across from each other at the table. With her and the store attendant sitting between the two, she had thought it would diffuse the situation. Instead, Tatsuki and Renji spent more time glaring at each other than they did actually eating the cakes.

"Um…" The attendant was nice, Yoruichi reflected, if a bit too timid for her own good. "Have you tried the lemon cake? It's our chef's specialty, and very popular."

Tatsuki and Renji continued to glare at each other, completely oblivious to what the woman had just said.

Yoruichi sighed. She reached her hands behind both her teammates' heads, and, before they could register what was going on, she shoved their faces into the cake in front of them. The two flailed wildly, but Yoruichi held them down.

She smiled pleasantly at the stunned woman the entire time. "Why don't you wrap us up a sample, and we'll take it to go."

"I like this frosting," Rukia mused, sticking another forkful into her mouth, "but I don't think it really goes with the cake. What do you think, Ichigo?"

Ichigo grunted and shrugged. "Tastes fine."

Rukia gritted her teeth, but continued to smile pleasantly. "What about the coconut?"

Ichigo made a face.

"Are there any that you actually did like?" Rukia snapped her fork down on her plate a little too sharply. The store attendant jumped in surprise, but Ichigo seemed unconcerned with the sudden display of temper.

Instead, he was looking at her slightly embarrassed, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"I like strawberries."

Rukia blinked, her temper momentarily distracted. After a moment, she began to laugh.

The Strawberry really did like strawberries.

At 2 pm, they had agreed to meet back up at the Kurosaki residence. Rukia was surprised when, despite being on the opposite side of the city, Yoruichi's group made it back first.

She was even more surprised when Yoruichi handed her a bright pink box wrapped with a ribbon.

"Cake sample," the woman said succinctly. "Lemon cake, supposed to be their best."

"Where are Renji and Tatsuki?"

"Outside, still arguing." Yoruichi gestured vaguely towards the window. "I'm going to take a nap."

As the woman moved into the living room, Rukia glanced out the window towards the redhead and the martial artist then did a double-take. Did they have cake on their face?

Sado, Orihime, and Ishida made it back shortly after Yoruichi had settled onto the couch. Sado and Ishida quietly accepted the tea Rukia offered, and Orihime launched into her report.

"…and they didn't have eggplant frosting, which I think really goes well with chocolate, but the nice lady did have us try a really yummy almond sherry frosting, which Sado thought tasted good with the vanilla cake…" the quiet man tilted his head slightly "…though the raspberry-meringue filling made Ishida-san sick, so I don't recommend getting that."

The Quincy seemed slightly embarrassed as he adjusted his glasses.

"And the nice lady did say that she could make some lovely spun-sugar ducks or bunnies for the top of the cake, though she didn't think she could make them with swords."

Rukia blinked. Swords? "Thank you, Orihime, I'll keep that in mind."

"Have you made any decisions on the type of cake you will get, Kuchiki-san?" Ishida asked politely.

Rukia beamed at him. "I want a white cake with strawberries on top."

Sado looked at Ichigo out of the corner of his eye. Ichigo glared back. "What?"

Wow, another chapter done! See what nice reviews get you, more chapters!

Updates may get a bit spotty pretty soon (I have a big project coming due at school), so I will apologize to all my loyal readers. But, stick with me! Next chapter should have a Byakuya appearance, and I have lots of fun with him.