Hey guess what? I'm posting this chapter early!

So last time, Toshiro and Momo clearly stated that marrying each other is not what they wanted, but that won't stop their families.

Chapter 3: To Catch A Groom

The boys soccer team of Karakura High were having their practice later in the afternoon. Right now they were dribbling and maneuvering their soccer balls down a line of cones in a zig-zagged path.

Toshiro, one of the team's best forward players came to the end of the line of cones and picked his ball up as he made his walk back to the end of the waiting line for another round. As he waited at the end with his ball at his feet, Toshiro was stuck in a thought.

The words of his grandmother's request couldn't leave his head throughout the whole day.

"I really hope you can keep this promise Toshiro."

To tell the truth, Toshiro almost nearly had the notion to do what his grandmother requested, since she was ill and she was his last grandparent after all. But at the last moment, he gave a groan and shook his head to shake the thought out.

"Ugh! Why am I thinking about it? Dang it!"

Still frustrated, and needed to vent some steam out of his system, Toshiro did not stop to think as he kicked his ball with a great force that sent it flying over several of his teammates' heads and left the field.

"Oh shoot-!" Toshiro yelled at himself for making a stubborn move. Without a second to lose, he ran after the runaway ball and left the grassy field. He followed and spotted the ball, watching it rolling towards the fountain sinks area and stopped when it bumped into someone's foot.

He stopped running when he saw the ball being picked up by a girl who was standing in front of one sink to rinse her face when the ball bumped into her foot. That girl was none other than Haruka.

She was dressed in her tennis uniform and was taking a short break until the ball bumped into her. Looking down at her feet, Haruka saw the soccer ball and picked it up out of curiosity.

Toshiro was rather embarrassed to ask, but he had to get his ball back. "Um...Ahem," he cleared his throat to let his presence be known, "That's mine."

Haruka turned and looked at Toshiro, the owner of the ball sitting on her hand. "Oh. Here you go," she said willingly.

Haruka then tossed him the ball and the boy easily caught it. Once he caught the ball, Toshiro simply said, "Thanks" and was about to leave when Haruka spoke.

"Hey, you're Toshiro Hitsugaya from Class 2-A right?" she asked out of curiosity.

Toshiro only nodded.

"I heard you're quite a prodigy. You skipped a few grades right?"

Toshiro's normally not one to be involved in a conversation with a girl, besides Momo. But to answer question, Toshiro nodded and said, "Yeah...skipped 8th grade actually."

Haruka showed a smile of interest in his prodigy title. "That's cool," she complimented.

Then the voice of one of Haruka's friends from the tennis team is heard calling out, "Hey Haruka come on! Your next ranking match is up!"

Needing to return to the courts, Haruka looked back at Toshiro and said, "See you around then?"

All Toshiro did in response is a single nod and small "yeah". Haruka then picked up her tennis racket that is lying against the fountain and ran off towards the tennis courts. As he watched her leave, Toshiro heard Sojiro calling out to him from the field.

"Hey Toshiro! Hurry up! Coach has called it a day!"

Hearing his friend, Toshiro sighed and returned to the field with his soccer ball to prepare to go home.

After school was done and the boys have finished soccer practice for the day, they walked to the school gates together. "So, want to get something cool to eat?" Sojiro suggested. Toshiro shook his head and gave a yawn. "Nah. I'm just going to head home and take a nap," he said lazily. Sojiro showed a look of disbelief. "At this time?" he remarked, "Why is it you take naps a lot?"

"It's something my grandma told me," said Toshiro, "If you want to grow more, sleep more."

"Ah, you really take your grandmother's advice seriously," Sojiro commented for fun.

"Oh knock it off."

The two now reached the school gates and were going to part ways. But before they did, Sojiro spotted something near the drop off zone. "Hey, I wonder who is she waiting for?" he said in curiosity.

Hearing his friend's comment, Toshiro looked in Sojiro's direction to see what he saw, but then saw someone he instantly knows and most definitely did not want to see now, waiting for him by a car.

That girl turned out to be Momo, who willingly came to pick him up from school. (Yes, she knows how to drive.) She hasn't seen Toshiro yet and is gazing off in a different direction, waiting for him to show up.

"Oh no."

Sojiro then saw Toshiro trying to walk the other way without a word and got confused. "Hey wait!"

What Sojiro didn't understand is that Toshiro is purposely doing whatever he can to avoid seeing or talking with Momo because it might end up be something about the marriage problem.

Unfortunately Toshiro didn't get away far enough and was dragged back by the back of his school jacket by Sojiro. "What's wrong with you?" Sojiro asked. He doesn't know about Momo, so he is unaware of Toshiro's reason for avoiding her.

"Let's just go the other way, please," Toshiro mumbled almost desperately.

He and Sojiro looked at Momo, who now saw Toshiro and gave a small wave to him, much to the white haired boy's dismay.

"Oh crud...She saw me..."

"What? Who is she?" asked Sojiro, "Do you know her?"

Toshiro just wished that he could say no right there and only sighed.

Momo wanted to have a talk with Toshiro, but since he was with Sojiro, she hesitantly asked him to come along as well. There was a fast food restaurant not too far from where they are and walked over there to talk.

When they had arrived, Momo told the boys to find a table and order something to drink while she goes to the restroom.

While waiting for Momo to return from the restroom, Sojiro wanted to know something from Toshiro. "Hey, tell me already, who is she?" he asked, nudging his friend's elbow.

Toshiro put his drink (which is tea) down and sighed, "No one. Just a girl I know."

"Oh really?" Sojiro inquired, "You mean…like a girlfriend?"

"She is not!" Toshiro immediately stated.

Momo finally returned and sat on the other side of the table. She was at first troubled at what to say but she finally got the courage. She was the first to speak.

"Toshiro…I've been thinking about this carefully, so I'll start first..." she started and then took a breath and exhaled before continuing,

"And I say…let's do it."

Toshiro nearly choked on his drink and coughed several times to regain his breath. "Have you lost your mind?!" he exclaimed.

In return, a small smile came on Momo's face.

"Toshiro…I was only kidding."

Nearly had him fooled, he slumped back in his seat with a sigh of exasperation. "Geez don't do that," he groaned, "I actually believed you for a second..."

"Honest though, I don't really feel like doing it as you do," said Momo bluntly, "So can you not act upset with me?"

"And what about me? I sure as heck don't want to do it too!" Toshiro restated, annoyed that he's repeating this again, "Not with you or any other girl! How can I marry at this time? I'm barely 15 for crying out loud. And you're 5 years older than me!"

Toshiro and Momo's conversation however made no sense to an oblivious Sojiro. He was now feeling awkward as he looked from Toshiro to Momo several times.

Finally he got the courage and hesitantly spoke. "Um…I don't mean to pry," he started, "But is either of you going to explain what's going on here?"

Toshiro almost forgot that Sojiro was with them for a minute and was reluctant to say anything to him. "It...It's kind of complicated to explain," Toshiro tried to convince his friend to not hear it, "I don't think you need to hear it."

"Try me," Sojiro proposed, "We're both the top in our class. How complicated can it be?"

It took a while and a lot of consideration, but Toshiro and Momo are left with telling Sojiro the truth. After a few minutes later, they managed to explain everything about the promise their grandfathers had made that includes the two of them getting married.

After hearing everything, Sojiro was left stunned.

"Whoa...An arranged marriage?" he said with bewildered eyes, "That's a huge shock."

"Tell me about it…" Toshiro sighed. He rested his chin on one of his palms with his elbow propped up on the table.

Now, since a long while has passed for the three of them, Sojiro decided that it's best to leave the two to talk alone. "I should head home now," he told the couple, "I'll see you later Toshiro." He got up and picked up his soccer bag and started to leave. But before he lost the chance, Toshiro grabbed Sojiro's sleeve and pulled him back for a moment. "Hey, don't forget…it's a secret," he sternly reminded.

Sojiro nodded and patted Toshiro's shoulder in assurance. "Got it."

Momo waved to Sojiro as they watched him leave, then turned her attention back to Toshiro. "Well...he took it rather good didn't he?" she said pleasantly.

Toshiro rolled his eyes. "I guess."

"Well, while we're here, why don't you order something?" she suggested, "I'll pay."

"Look, you don't have to-"

But Toshiro was interrupted by a ringtone coming from his phone. With a heavy sigh, Toshiro reached in his pocket and took out his cell phone and answered it. "Hello?" he mumbled.

Seconds later, Momo was gazing away to let Toshiro have his phone call when Toshiro suddenly gave a shocked response that grabbed her attention.

"What?!"

In case she should get worse, Grandma Hitsugaya was brought to the hospital, on Naomi's recommendation of course.

But she had another reason for this.

It turns out, Naomi is determined to try and get Toshiro and Momo married sooner than you think. To do that, she came up with a clever plan in order to fool her own son that involves with a certain piece of machinery.

She is right now in the room where Granny is resting, ready to do a test. Making sure none of the hospital staff nor the other family members were not in the room so it's only her and Granny, Naomi set her eyes on the heart monitor. She followed the lines that were attached to the grandmother's chest and found the same wires inserted into the machine. Taking one of the wires, Naomi pulled it out of its socket and looked at the screen.

Like she expected, the heart monitor showed a flat line and beeped in a monotone when she jiggles the wire attached to the pad out of the monitor at will. "Good," she said with satisfaction, "This will work."

Then to her mother-in-law lying in bed, she said, "Now Mother, please do what I asked you to do when the time is right."

Granny nodded but then spoke quietly, "Naomi...I appreciate the effort you're doing to help fulfill my husband and his friend's promise, but are you sure you're not rushing it little bit much?"

But Naomi gave her a reassuring expression. "Now don't worry Mother. All I'm doing is giving Shiro a little push and help to make up his mind. And besides, the promise that both of the children's grandfathers made isn't the only reason why I want to do this." She said this with a playful wink.

"Now, just lay here and wait. I'll go and see if the kids are here."

Naomi then turned to the heart monitor again and slightly tugged the wire out of its socket a little bit so to let the monitor show a flat line again. And seeing the scene prepared, Naomi left the room while Granny just laid there and looked like she's sleeping.

...

A few minutes later, Toshiro and Momo now arrived in the room after receiving news about Granny being in the hospital and were told by their parents who were already outside to go in and see her.

"Grandma!"

"Granny!"

Both of them ran to her side and had a shock when they saw Granny not awake and the heart monitor showed a flat line and had a monotone beeping, alerting those in the room that her heart had stopped beating.

While Toshiro stayed by the elder Hitsugaya, calling her name, Momo ran to the door and called for their parents. "Mom! Dad! Uncle Jushiro! Aunt Naomi! Something's wrong with Granny!"

Quickly the parents rushed in (Naomi did a pretty good job acting worried as they are and blended right in) and came to the bedside. Obviously no one noticed that Granny's actually doing fine

"Mother? Mother are you alright?" Jushiro asked worriedly. Tatsuya looked over at the beeping heart monitor and gave it a few hard raps so to make it work properly.

"Grandma please wake up!"

With everyone's attention on the old woman in the bed, Naomi can sneakily scoot closer towards the heart monitor and insert the wire she loosely pulled out earlier back in its socket completely.

Everyone then sighed with relief when the line continued moving and the alert beeping ceased.

"Oh that's close..." said Naomi.

"Must be a little glitch," Tatsuya presumed after analyzing the monitor once more in case, "Naomi, you sure you and Jushiro chose the right hospital?"

"Positive," said Naomi with confidence.

Granny now opened her eyes and looked at Toshiro. "Grandma, are you alright now?" said Toshiro with concern yet with relief to see her wake up. Granny nodded and patted Toshiro's hand. "Gomen ne...I must've be out of it again..." she said softly.

Now Naomi spoke, "Now, we should minimize the number of people in the room. So, you kids stay with Grandma now. Jushiro, we should wait outside with Tatsuya and Miyako."

Jushiro was still concerned whether it's safe or not to leave Granny when something like the heart monitor beeping would happen again while they weren't in the room. But he eventually followed his wife and adult friends out the room.

...

All of the parents went and sat on the benches out in the hallway. Jushiro and Naomi sat on one bench against the wall while Momo's parents sat on the bench across from them.

Jushiro took a few deep breaths and patted his chest lightly after nearly getting a panic attack. "For a second, I nearly panicked," he said.

Tatsuya laid back against the wall and sighed, wanting to change the subject on a different matter. "I don't know here Jushiro. Don't you think this is becoming too soon for marriage for them?" he said with an uncomfortable look in his eyes.

She then looked to her husband with a yearning look. "Come on honey, let's go ahead and marry the kids," she insisted anxiously. Jushiro sighed and is still unsure of what's the right thing to do.

He spoke, "I don't know. I mean we should think of Toshiro's future. He's still only a boy."

Naomi held her husband's hand to encourage him and looked in his eyes. "Oh Jushiro, our Lil' Shiro can handle it. And besides, he acts quite mature for his age, despite his childish appearance. Hm?"

For Jushiro, it's really hard to say no to his wife's pleading face that he almost showed a small smile. "Well...I suppose."

Miyako also gave her husband an eager look to have their daughter wed as she held his arm and shook him a little but Tatsuya can only sigh and worry about their daughter's future as Jushiro is about their son.

While the parents remained outside, their children remained with Grandma so they'd be alone to have a talk. Toshiro sat on one side of the bed while Momo sat on the other side, holding one of Granny's hands.

Now that the childhood friends were with her, Grandma had something to show her grandson. "Toshiro…I want you to look at this," she requested.

She held out some old photographs to Toshiro and the grandson took it. On one picture is a couple wearing country clothing and the picture was in black and white, meaning that it was taken a long time ago.

"This was Momo's grandparents," Granny explained as Toshiro looked at the picture of the couple, "When this picture was taken, war had arrived."

Toshiro took time to view the picture of Momo's grandparents when they were younger.

His grandmother continued, "I want to tell you two a secret. In the beginning, I secretly had feelings for Momo's grandfather before I married Toshiro's grandfather."

Momo, who never heard this story before like Toshiro didn't know, was surprised. "You did?"

Granny nodded. "Eventually...I managed to let go of Momo's grandfather and tucked away all the feelings I had of him. That is why I always see and treated Momo's father as my own son.

"Toshiro…your grandfather really wanted to see his promise fulfilled. But when he was unable to finish the promise, he asked me to see that he and his friend's promise was kept before he passed away. It would mean so much if you marry...Momo..."

Here, Granny got drowsy earlier than she expected and closed her eyes to rest more.

But Toshiro and Momo didn't pay attention and didn't notice this. Right now Toshiro was looking down so he didn't see her face. His mind was full of decisions and confusion. The way he heard his grandmother asking him to do his grandfather's last wish when she's ill herself, made Toshiro lost and unsure of what to decide.

He then said, "Grandma...I...I don't know if I can do it-"

But his sentence was cut short when the heart monitor again started to beep and the line was shown flat. Momo and Toshiro immediately panicked and were up on their feet again

(What the two didn't know is that before leaving the room, Naomi had cleverly set another trick before leaving with the parents. She had jiggled the line to the heart monitor again so the end would almost be out of its socket if pulled out by a single touch. She made sure the line was placed close to Granny's hand so the old woman can trigger setting the heart monitor to beep if she tugs the line. And upon falling into sleep, Granny's hand unconsciously moved and touched the wire, tugging it and let it out of its socket from the heart monitor, thus making the machine beep again.)

Toshiro was up from his seat and beside Granny in an instant and took her hand in his. "Grandma!" the boy cried, "Grandma you can't die now! Hang in there! Wake up!"

Momo looked at the heart monitor and tapped it hard a few times. "Oh please! Don't do this!" she pleaded, in hopes that it was only glitching again and return to normal. But to her and Toshiro's dismay, the machine continued showing a flat line and Grandma made no response.

Finally, with no moment at all to think about it, Toshiro was forced to shout in desperation.

"Alright I'll do it! I'll marry Momo! I'll keep Grandpa's promise! Just don't die now! Please!"

Those were the magic words Naomi needed to hear and it was heard by the other parents who came in the room after Momo called out for them at the last minute.

"And we got him," Naomi whispered in triumph once and had already set the monitor to return back in its normal state.

The moment after Toshiro agrees to the wedding, Momo had a bad feeling that this thing was planned from the beginning. And now that Toshiro said he'll marry her, there's no turning back from what's lying ahead of her and him.

"Oh no..." she said quietly and with remorse. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Author's Note:

Uh oh.

Well...it looks like Toshiro got himself in a bind huh? No thanks to his matchmaker mother that is (and a little assistance from Granny *snickers).

Now that the groom has said yes, what will happen to these two now?

Next chapter's going to take a while for me to finish. I can tell you though that it's going to have the wedding! Don't miss it!