Here we are with a new chapter! Oh and thanks to all those who said happy birthday in the previous chapter! :)

Okay, story so far, in the last chapter, you get to meet Momo and Toshiro. Momo returns home from overseas but she and Toshiro soon hear something that will change their lives forever.

What will they say?

Chapter 2: Marriage? No Way!

Just now, Toshiro and Momo were given the most shocking news in their lives. They wished that what they heard wasn't what it sounded like, but the words were as clear as a bell.

"Grandma's saying that you have to marry Momo!" was the words Miyuki said just a few seconds ago.

The two mentioned people were utterly speechless as you'd expected. Finally one of them tried to say a sentence.

"Huh? M-Marry her?" Toshiro spluttered.

"Marry Lil' Shiro? Us? Together?" Momo spoke in disbelief, "Granny…you're not serious are you?"

Grandma Hitsugaya shook her head. "Of course I am Momo," she confirmed, "That's exactly what your grandfathers would've wanted. After your grandfather died Momo, Toshiro's grandfather felt sad that his friend did not get to see their promise fulfilled before dying. And he felt the same before he passed. Toshiro, your grandfather asked me himself that I see that their promise would be kept."

He'd hate to disappoint his grandmother's wish, but this kind of news was something Toshiro already had an answer to, and it wasn't going to change that easily.

"There's no way that's going to happen," he firmly stated, "I'm a high school student! I can't marry anyone now! It can't be done!" He didn't even want to go near the thought of what'll happen if all the kids at school found out that he got married in the middle of high school, and especially…when your wife is older than you and in college.

He expected that his statement would be true…until his mother spoke.

"Toshiro, technically you can."

Toshiro's head spun and faced his mother, giving her the look. "What?"

Naomi continued, "If you are 15 years old or older, then children can marry as long as they have their parents' consent."

This brought a change to Toshiro's plan in just an instant. "Hold on, but I don't turn 15 until...!"

He paused for a moment and dared to glance at his parents.

"Mom…Dad…don't tell me that you two are…?" he started but couldn't finish. He anticipated for his parents to apologize for lying or even for his mom to say she's joking like usual.

Unfortunately, this time, Jushiro gave a half sad and a half smile. "Your mother and I have already decided Toshiro," he said, knowing his son's feelings, "After all, your birthday is not too far from now."

"So with our permission, you may marry Momo after your birthday!" Naomi proudly announced, "Isn't that wonderful Shiro?"

Now normally, most couples would be thrilled to receive the parents' blessings to wed the person you want to marry. But for Toshiro and Momo's case, it was truly the opposite effect.

What? I did mention in the in the beginning of the story that there were some marriages that aren't exactly your dream's desire.

And Toshiro's answer to this marriage proposal should be quite obvious.

"Grandma...I really don't want to hurt your feelings, but there is no way I can do this request," he bravely declared, "I just can't marry anyone now or at this time. Excuse me."

He got up from his seat and went towards the door without another word so he can be by himself. His mother was about to insist Toshiro to stay, but the boy ignored his mother and left the room.

After he left, Momo then spoke. "Grandma, I'm sorry, but...can I ask that we have some time to think this over?" she requested politely, not wanting to hurt her feelings, "This kind of news is...too much at the moment." She bowed her head and quietly left the room as well.

As for the parents, they were rather disappointed that this did not go as planned, especially for two anxious mothers.

Tatsuya, who had concerns with the wedding when he was told this weeks ago, shook his head and sighed. "I should've figured this wouldn't be easy."

Hoping to forget about what Toshiro's grandmother told them, Momo wanted to spend time revisiting old places in her home starting the next day. First place on her list is her school, Karakura University. She had only attended there for half of her freshman year before leaving to America.

In addition to visiting her school, there other people besides her family that she was anxious to see. Right now, she called one of those people and waiting until she heard her friend pick up the phone.

"Rangiku, it's me," she said cheerfully. The second after she finished her sentence, Momo nearly had to pull the phone away from her ear upon hearing the voice of her best friend, Rangiku Matsumoto, screaming with enthusiasm.

"Oh my gosh! Momo! How are you? Did you come back from America already?"

When she finally lowered her voice, Momo put the phone back against her ear and spoke again. "I just came back yesterday," she answered.

"Oh great! We definitely have to meet up today! Where are you right now?" Rangiku urgently asked. "I'm just at the college," said Momo, "How about you meet me in front of the arts building at noon?"

"Noon? Oh me and Rukia'll be there in 30 minutes!"

"Alright! See you then!"

After Momo finished her call, she put her phone away and started going into the building in front of her to pay a visit to someone she knows.

...

Momo arrived at a classroom she knows and found the door open so she quietly walked in. The first thing she heard when she entered the room was the sound of jazz music playing from a stereo that sat behind the teacher's desk. And speaking of the teacher, Momo found the person she's looking for sitting at his desk, has blond hair and has his face hidden in a book he's reading at the moment and his feet propped up on the desk. His foot tapped to the rhythm of the jazz music that he enjoys listening.

"Excuse me?" Momo spoke to gain his attention.

The man sitting at his desk heard her voice and looked up from his book to see that he has a special visitor. "Well! Momo, this is a surprise!" he remarked as he got up from his seat. He picked up the remote to the stereo and paused the jazz music.

"Hello Hirako-senpai," Momo greeted, "Oops. Sorry, I should be calling you Hirako-sensei now don't I?"

Shinji Hirako is her senior in art and friend, a friendly easy going man who enjoys art and music, jazz preferably as you've noticed from the stereo music. He is about several years older than Momo and it was just last year that Shinji was hired to be a teacher advisor for the art class.

"Whatever you wish to call me is fine with me," he reassured, "Please come in."

Momo came and sat on one of the desktops in the classroom as Shinji came around his desk and sat on the tabletop to speak with Momo.

"My, has it been a year already?" Shinji said in wonder, looking at Momo's appearance, "Cause if it was, you seem to be the same as ever."

Momo shook her head. "I came back early for family business," she explained, "I heard that you were selected to teach the new class for the incoming freshman. How is it?"

Shinji gave a grin. "Well, it's a challenge but with my comical personality and my handsome features, I'm sure my new girl students will find me easy to befriend."

Momo giggled at her senior's amusing comment. "Trying to pick up on your girl students now? You haven't changed senpai," she said, shaking her head.

Shinji gave a proud grin and said, "Nope. Of course I haven't. Anyways, since you're back and all Momo, feel free to come by my classes once the semester starts," he encouraged, "Maybe you can help me lead one of my younger classes once in a while if you're free."

"Oh, that'll be fun," said Momo with enthusiasm, "But I don't really think I'm good enough to teach."

"Nonsense! Would I ask anyone else to do it but my best junior?" Shinji insisted, "It'll thrill the students that we have a role model student back in the campus again."

Intrigued by her senior's words of praise, Momo said, "Thank you. I'll think about it."

After a pleasant time catching up with her upperclassman teacher, Momo went outside the school. She is waiting for someone to arrive as planned.

"Hey, hey, there she is! Momo!" an enthusiastic female voice cried out from a distance.

Knowing that voice well, Momo turned around and smiled happily to see her old friends run up to her.

"Rangiku! Rukia!"

Her two friends finally reached her and gave Momo a big welcoming hug. "Oh it's good to see you back home!" Rangiku squealed with delight.

"We've missed you!" said Rukia.

"Look at you! Back from America," said Rangiku stepping back and taking a full look at Momo, "Did studying overseas change you in any way? I bet you learned a lot of things from the Americans!"

"No. It's just same old me," Momo confirmed with a shrug from her shoulders.

"Well that's good to know," said a pleased Rukia.

Rangiku then had a suggestion. "Hey, this calls for a celebration! Why don't we stroll down to the bar and party with sake?"

However, in addition to the fact that Momo hardly ever wants to drink alcohol, the peach girl had another reason to decline. "Uh sorry Rangiku, I can't," she said half-regrettably, "Right now I don't think this is the best time."

Rukia noticed that Momo looked troubled about something from the look in her eyes. "What? Something happened at home?" she asked in concern.

Momo shook her head. She began, "Well...something big happened."

"Hm? What is it? Tell us!" Rangiku eagerly asked as she shook Momo's arm, filled with suspense.

Momo paused in reluctance but can't hide it forever. So she took a deep breath and let the words out.

"…I'm getting married."

Immediately, as she expected, Rangiku and Rukia's faces were full of shock.

"EH?!"

"Seriously?!" Rangiku exclaimed. To this, Momo nodded.

Then a thought came to Rangiku's mind that she desperately wanted Momo to answer. "Hey, tell us! Is he American or Japanese?" she asked anxiously.

At the Hitsugaya residence, the person who is supposed to be engaged to Momo was just getting ready to leave home so he can go to school.

After eating breakfast, Toshiro returned to his room and slipped the jacket to his school uniform on and grabbed his school bag. After leaving his room, Toshiro was about to head back down when he stopped in front of the ajar door to Granny's room. Through the crack, Toshiro spotted his grandmother still resting and quietly walked inside to spend a minute or two with her alone.

Tip-toeing up to the bed, Toshiro noticed that the blanket is not covering Granny's shoulders and up. So while watching his grandmother sleeping, Toshiro reached down and carefully pulled the blanket up to her neck to make her comfortable.

And while leaning over his Granny's face, Toshiro whispered, "I'm off now Grandma." Following that, he gave his grandmother a kiss on the cheek. He then picked up his bag and quietly went out the room, making sure to close the door silently behind him.

Toshiro goes to Karakura High School due to his excellent grades and prodigy talent from his junior high scores. It was because of that he's able to move to the freshman year early.

On normal days Toshiro usually walks to school unless something came up, that is when he takes the bus home. As usual, he arrives at the school gates on time and is expecting the arrival of someone he knows.

"Hey! Toshiro!"

Coming to Toshiro is his best friend, Sojiro Kusaka. He is in the same grade and class as he is and both had been friends since junior high.

"Hey, what's new?" said Toshiro to his friend.

After Toshiro waved back to Sojiro, the older boy nudged Toshiro's arm with his elbow, ushering him to look ahead. "Check it, the slacker trio's acting weird again," the taller boy teased.

The group Sojiro is referring to are three junior boys, Hayato, Daiki and Ken, who are hanging, leaning against a gate and talking with each other with smuggish expressions. They are considered to be the school's most trouble making slackers. As far as not wearing their school uniforms properly and having strange hairstyles, they frequently pick on anyone. Such as right now, when Hayato, the main boy of the group, stuck out his foot to trip one boy walking on his way to class and laughing in amusement at his act.

"Why wouldn't they be acting like that?" said Toshiro, staring at the trio with disliking, "They spend their whole day gawking at girls rather than paying attention to studies. Such losers."

"Sh!" Sojiro shushed him and whispered, "Do you want them to hear you say that?"

"As if I'm afraid of them," Toshiro stated, "Besides, we're way better than them."

When the boys looked at the slacker trio again, they saw them straightening up and brushing up their posture in order to attract the attention of a specific student that is about to enter the school grounds.

If there's one thing that'll change their attitude, it's Haruka Amano.

Not only is she one of the hot girls in the whole junior class, but she's talented, and one of the best players in the girls' tennis team. She always has her long beautiful dark violet hair in a ponytail that flows behind her as she walks. Hayato and his boys were eager to get some kind of eye contact from Haruka as she is about to walk pass them. But Haruka only gave one glance with no emotion and passed by the trio without a word.

Despite the lack of response from the girl, Ken gave a wolf whistle as he and his friends chuckled and admired how hot the girl is.

Toshiro and Sojiro were also glimpsing at Haruka as she met up with her friends and walked into the building. Sojiro looked at the sight of her and sighed, "Gosh...she sure is pretty." In truth, Sojiro actually is one of those boys in Karakura High who has a crush on her.

Had enough of watching, Toshiro nudged Sojiro in the shoulder, gesturing him to follow. "Come on. Let's get to class," he said. And he led himself and Sojiro off towards their first class.

Meanwhile, following Toshiro and Momo's decision not to marry each other, a plot was being schemed in this desperate time. And who else would be the plot schemers than Toshiro and Momo's mothers?

At this moment, Miyako and Naomi were having a conversation on the phone to discuss something.

"So I brought my mother-in-law to the hospital, in case something might happen and the doctors finished examining her," Naomi spoke into her phone.

"And? What did they say?" asked Miyako.

"They said that she's still got at least 12 years left. That's good but at the same time it's bad," said Naomi with a sigh, "That won't be able to convince Shiro and Momo to do it."

"So, what should we do next?"

Naomi gave a sly smile on her side. "It looks like desperate times call for desperate measures," she announced, "I'm going to start with that plan. So back me up will you Miyako?"

On her end, Miyako nodded. "Got it. Leave it to me."

...

While Naomi gets started with that plan, whatever it is, Miyako decided to get started in her part of the plan. And that was to get Momo convinced that she should marry Toshiro.

Speaking of Momo, the girl was sitting in the living room with her father. They both sat on the couch watching a movie on TV together. After seeing her friends and visiting her school, Momo thought that she should spend the rest of the day with her family.

Momo had finished peeling some apples and cut them into slices for her and Tatsuya to eat. "Here you go Dad," she said as she gave a fork with a slice on the end to her father.

"Oh thank you Momo," said Tatsuya as he took apple slice and ate it.

Now Miyako came in after her phone conversation with Naomi and joined her husband and daughter on the couch as they watched the movie, sitting on Momo's other side. "Mind if I join you two? This looks like an interesting movie," said Miyako, looking at the movie playing.

For a while, the three of them watched the movie quietly and without a word. But that is until Miyako then made a out of nowhere comment.

"Hey Momo...did you ever wonder who you like to marry?"

Momo and Tatsuya looked over at Miyako with confused expressions.

"Huh?" said a puzzled Momo. Tatusya on the other hand, had a bad feeling of what his wife's scheming, or more likely, knows what she's trying to do. "Miyako...what are you thinking?" he thought.

Miyako continued, "Oh it's just out of curiosity. You've always had a thought of what kind of a man you would like to marry one day don't you Momo? Come on, at least you have some thought right?"

Momo felt uncomfortable that her mother is bringing up this kind of subject, after hearing Toshiro's grandmother's request to marry Toshiro just a day ago. She had difficulty in answering but managed to speak. "Well um...I guess I did kind of imagined marrying someone...who is kind and likes me for who I am," she started, putting some thought into it, "And well, he should be honest and never wants to hurt me."

"Hmm...that sounds like the perfect husband for you," Miyako remarked, "Now...who do we know that may fit that description? It could be a certain boy...with white hair perhaps?" Of course Miyako only had one person in her mind to fit the part.

Momo now saw where her mom is going with this and had to cease her scheming. "Mom! Don't tell me that you really think I should marry Shiro do you?" she said, hoping that it wasn't like she thought at all.

However, that's exactly what Miyako's doing. "Well think about it Momo. Out of all the boys who you've met and talked with, is there no one else who knows you better than Toshiro?" the mother insisted, "You two have been friends since you were little, therefore he knows what you like and what you don't like. And you two have no secrets to hide about each others' lives. You know most couples these days have problems when they keep secrets about their lives from others."

As much as Momo wants to deny it, she found that her mother did point out some true facts about Toshiro. "Maybe...she is right. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to marry Shir-" but she realized what she's about to think and quickly changed it, "No! What am I thinking? Oh now don't go thinking nonsense Momo Hinamori!"

She then said firmly, "But Mom, he and I are different. We're both far apart in age and level. He's still in high school. It's better that I don't ruin his high school years with me marrying him."

Miyako got no accomplished answer from Momo, but at the same time she didn't felt too crushed. She then sighed. "Okay, have it your way," she said in defeat, "But I just want to tell you honey that you shouldn't mind your future husband by how old he is. Remember that."

And without another word, Miyako then got up and went into the kitchen, leaving Momo and Tatsuya speechless.

Once Miyako left, after hearing what her mother said, Momo now is in a state of confusion, and a little pressure. "Dad...is Mom really serious about the marriage thing?" she said, her voice had a hint of worry.

Concerned for his daughter's feelings about the marriage issue, Tatsuya patted Momo's hand. "Courage Momo," was all he could offer for comfort.

Author's Note:

Oh boy, what will the mothers think of next?

I apologize it this chapter was kinda written weird. I was having difficulty to think of the details. Oh BTW, I want to give a big thanks to AznVKai for helping me out with her suggestions on this chapter!