A/N: This is based off of an idea I had on the way to work and another AU story I'm working on.
Disclaimer: Just borrowing Kubo's stuff for a little while, okay, so please don't sue.
"Fox Bride"
"How could you do such a thing, Byakuya-sama? That woman is entirely inappropriate! We had a deal! You agreed that you would not see her again! You agreed that you would marry Lady Ogawa!"
"I did give my word, I know. But I could not abide this…I could not let her marry anyone else."
"So you snatched her away from her wedding?"
Here's an outfit Matsumoto Rangiku never saw herself wearing: a bridal kimono made of layers upon layers of purest white silk, elaborately embroidered with her and her betrothed's initials along the hem, lining and obi. Or at least it had looked that way when she first put it on that morning. Somewhere along the way out of the temple she lost the hood and the bottom of her kimono is ruined, covered in grass stains and mud. Her hair has started to come loose of its elaborate tie and her make-up has been mostly wiped away. Right now she looks less like blushing bride on her wedding day and more like the aftermath of a pub crawl.
Perhaps it is for the best though. It was a fool idea for her to get married to Hisagi Shuuhei in the first place, and especially since she knew that she was having doubts. Thank goodness Byakuya stood up when he did or she would have actually gone through with it and ruined both their lives.
"We will not stand for this! Not another Rukongai woman! Lieutenant or not she is unsuitable."
"I cannot believe that when you said you were going to that wedding that you would return with the bride! How could you do this! The shame! This situation must be rectified immediately."
"Indeed, it should, that's why I propose to marry her, immediately."
Rukia, seated across from her in the hall looks little better. She arrived at the manor only moments after them and had clearly been caught up in the commotion from the way her hair has gone wild and her missing haori. But she is otherwise unharmed. She starts a little at her brother's demand. Rangiku does not.
Marriage, again. She has been expecting it from the moment he took her by the hand and set off for Kuchiki Manor in a burst of shunpo. There will be a scandal regardless but a little less so if they get married quickly and quietly disappear on a long honeymoon. But while his family may cave eventually—at the end of the day they will have received what they wanted, Byakuya will have a wife—their colleagues in the Gotei Thirteen will not be as forgiving.
Shuuhei's expression of absolute dejection will haunt her for weeks to come.
How many years was it, that he said that he had been pursuing her? Apparently since he got out of the academy after first laying eyes on her at the annual Recruitment Day, back when she was a lowly Tenth Division grunt tagging along with Captain Shiba. She was beautiful, he said, and kind and smart and funny and carefree and all those wonderful things. So yes, it had taken him a while to get his shit together and pursue her seriously and then even longer for her to consider him, but he was glad she did.
Her jaw clenches at the memory of him smiling so happily at her. She squeezes her eyes shut, pained, at how easily she had smiled back while knowing that the only reason she had was because she had sided with the Kuchiki Elders against Byakuya, talking him into giving her up to prevent a coup. She was trying to protect him, she had told herself, from his own family. What a wonderful solution she had found then, to break all their hearts.
"Absolutely not! You will return that woman to her husband and then marry Lady Ogawa and that will be the end of it!"
"I will do no such thing. She is not his wife and I have no interest in Lady Ogawa. Beautiful and intelligent she may be she bores me. I have lost one wife to illness and barely survived two wars. I agreed to get married again because I know my duty to the clan but that does not mean I will take whatever you throw at me. I will not settle for anything less than what I want!"
"You are acting like a child! We told Ginrei that he and Sojun were spoiling you, but did they listen? We will not have that woman as lady of this house!"
"Then I suggest you find another home for I will marry no one else!"
This argument has been going for the greater part of the past hour without any sign yet that either side is willing to give. But of course not, not after this. Honestly, Rangiku wonders how they never saw it coming. Well she had not either, but that was beside the point.
How had this all started? Ah, that's right, the festival. She still does not know what he was doing in the Rukongai. His mask made him a fearsome oni and she, with her fox face, had sought him out when she recognised his reiatsu. What was a captain, lord of a Great Noble House doing in the Rukongai at some nameless festival for some obscure deity or the other? He had replied that he always attended this festival and that this was where he had first met his wife selling spicy treats at one of the stalls. You like spicy things, she had asked, surprised. In reply he had taken her directly to the stall that sold the spiciest, the heat so strong that it made Rangiku's head hurt just looking at it. But then the seller had greeted him by name and rank and prepared his usual and Rangiku's eyes had nearly popped out of her head as he bit into it and smiled. You are full of surprises; she had told him when she recovered from her shock. He had responded with a noncommittal grunt and offered to show her more.
Maybe…maybe she should not have taken him up on the offer.
Of a sudden there are sounds of commotion from somewhere outside. Rangiku and Rukia rush to the nearest window. Though she cannot see them from here, she can clearly identify and count the reiatsu signatures. Hisagi has arrived, with some of the wedding party in tow. The captain commander, Nanao too, and, her heartbeat picks up, members of Central Forty-Six. No crime has been committed but a complaint must have been filed, behaviour unbecoming of officers at the very least, outright fraud if Hisagi is angry enough. A blink and the garden is filled with Kuchiki family guards.
The black-and-grey clad figures, the sons and daughters of some servant clan must know who they have come to stand against but their loyalty is to the clan first and all else second. They will defend their lord and his stolen bride with their lives.
How did that old folktale go about the man who takes a fox for a wife?
The door opens behind them and she and Rukia turn away from the window to find Byakuya and the others looking out. He looks her directly in the eyes for a moment, Rangiku's breath quickens, then down to his sister and says, "Find her something else to wear. We will greet them together."
"Nii-sama," says Rukia with a nod. She turns to Rangiku, her colleague and acquaintance these many years, co-conspirator in the SWA and defender of mankind, of Ichigo and nods again, "Nee-sama."
Rangiku gasps but Rukia has turned her back and so she must follow her down the hall. She glances at Byakuya again as she walks past. He has a slight smile on his face, oblivious to the glares of the Elders around him. She will destroy the clan, they are convinced of it. There is little evidence to contradict them. Did Byakuya not tell her that the Ogawa family had strong connections to more than half of Central Forty-Six?
Half an hour later, they meet Byakuya at the entrance hall with Renji and Ichigo. Fury and embarrassment colour their faces red, at the betrayal, at the subterfuge, but their gazes are determined, serious, and loyal. They will stand with Byakuya, no matter what.
Rangiku is now dressed in an elaborate royal blue kimono covered in embroidered flower petals that appear to be dancing in the wind, with a silver-white obi. The Kuchiki clan crest is featured prominently throughout and it is not a furisode. Later her name will be entered into the family register but for now the symbolism is enough. Byakuya takes her hand as she comes to stand with him and says, "Are you ready for this?"
She intertwines their fingers then looks up at him. No, she wants to say. Does he not know the woman he is sacrificing his family's name for? Does he not remember the man she had destroyed before him, before Hisagi? Her fox mask had not been a cover for her secret nature; it had shown her true face. His eyes say yes, he does know, but no, he does not care.
She tightens her grip on his hand and smiles.
A/N: Thanks to everyone still reading and reviewing my crazy ideas.