September

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

September 1st

"The captain is not available right now," Kira informed the new third seat of the squad, a transferee from squad nine.

"What is he doing!" demanded the shinigami, "Captain Tosen never struggled his duty for... for whatever Captain Ichimaru get's up to! He's never here! Never! He's such a..."

Kira's eyes narrowed, his usual look of indecision and diffidence giving way to a quiet ferocity. At the look the third seat promptly shut up. "If you are unhappy with your place here than you can always go back to Squad nine. I will make sure that Captain Ichimaru signs your transfer form promptly and files if following all Gotei 13 procedures, thus ensuring a prompt and speedy transfer," Kira informed him.

"No... no... that won't be necessary," he stammered out, "My deepest apologies, Vice-captain Kira, I... I am just having some difficulty adjusting. But I am happy to be in Squad three and will strive harder to understand it's ways."

Kira regarded him sternly for a few more minutes before nodding, "See that you do so and do not ever make the mistake of speaking ill of the Captain."

"Understood," replied the third seat before scurrying away.

Kira sighed and took a reluctant step towards Ichimaru's private quarters. There was no avoiding it, his captain had "asked" him to join the tea party and he wasn't going to turn down his Captain. If only because doing so would incur the passive aggressive wrath of Ichimaru and the more direct wrath of Yachiru. Though why his captain hosted a tea party for Yachiru and her rather numerous dolls every year on September 1st was beyond him, "May I come in," called Kira when he had reached Gin's door.

"Yay! Izurun is here!" came the bubbly happy voice before the door was flung open and Izuru was dragged to his place between a big black teddy bear and a large silver fox with a grin just like that of his captain. The later fox was in fact a gift from Ichimaru himself, "We were getting worried! What took you so long!"

"Yeah Izuru," his captain piped up with a grin more mischivious than usual, "I had ta hold myself back from havin' the last hoshigaki. But I saved it fer ya. Here ya go."

With that he pushed a plate with the dried persimmon towards Izuru. Kira gulped, "Captain you didn't have to save this for me! Indeed, given that it is your favorite, you should have it."

"It is my favorite. That's why I wan' ta share," replied Ichimaru with a decidedly evil smirk.

"Foxy is so mean!" cried Yachiru in delight as she jumped up to hug Ichimaru, "Poor Izurun!"

If you feel sorry for me, why don't you eat this... this thing! You'll eat anything that's sweet. Thought Kira in irritation, but of course, Vice-captain Kusajishi had a sadistic strike of her own. It was probably a prerequisite to be the vice-captain of a squad full of masochists. Sighing in defeat, Kira began to eat the hoshigaki he so loathed.

"hahahaha! Izurun is making funny faces! I'll be kind to you Izurun!" with that she grabbed the hoshigaki and stuffed it in her mouth. Kira was sure the relief showed on his face because Ichimaru's grin just got bigger.

"Ain't ya nice, Yachiru. Won' ya be as nice ta me?" he wondered.

"I already told you what she wants."

"That ain't somethin' I can give her."

"Why not? I would have so much fun planning your wedding! I could borrow Bya-kun's house! I could get Re-chan to do all the flower arrangements! Then when you two have babies I could play with them everyday! And than when I am all grownup and have big boobs like Ran-chan, I'll marry Bya-kun and we'll have lots of babies. Then our children can play with your children! It'll be perfect!"

Kira chocked on the piece of cake he had started to eat. He could only imagine Captain Kuchiki's reaction to Yachiru's bold declaration. Perhaps what was worse was that Kira could imagine an adult, big breasted Yachiru simply walking upto Captain Kuchiki and going "Let's get married Bya-kun!" and leaving said Bya-kun no option but to go along with it. Kira didn't even want to imagine what their kids would be like.

Caught in imagining Yachiru and Byakuya, Kira missed the brief moment when Ichimaru's grin faded and a look of deep longing mingled with regret passed over his features. But it was gone almost as soon as it appeared, totally unseen by his companions, "Tha' would be nice," replied Ichimaru with his trademark grin in place, "Bu' I would still like ta get her somethin' else."

Yachiru sighed, "Silly foxy, fine!" she reached into her uniform and pulled out a piece of paper, "You can get her this. But I still think you should just ask her to marry you. That's what Ran-chan really wants for her birthday!"

Suddenly Kira had the answer to his little mystery and it was now so obvious he wondered why it had not occurred to him before! The core group of the Shinigami Women's association were a tight knit bunch. Not only was Rangiku part of that core group, one of her closest friends was Ise Nanao: the vice-president of the women's association. While Kira couldn't for a moment imagine Matsumoto sitting with Yachiru and telling her how much she wanted Captain Ichimaru to marry her, he could see Matsumoto talking about such things to Nanao and once Matsumoto spoke something like that out loud... Yachiru would hear about it. How and from who was not important but she would hear about it. That girl knew everything and anything that was going on with the key members of her little club. So it was unsurprising that Captain Ichimaru would butter her up to find out what Matsumoto wanted for her birthday. Matsumoto's birthday was on the 29th of September and by having the tea party on the 1st, Ichimaru would have time to get whatever it was that Matsumoto had wished for. Kira felt like a fool for not realizing it sooner.

It was only after he had gone through that entire thought process that the most pertinent point of the entire conversation hit Kira. What was that about Matsumoto Rangiku wanting to marry Captain Ichimaru... Did Yachiru just suggest that they get married in Captain Kuchiki's house and have Captain Unohana do the flower arrangments... Did Yachiru just offer to baby sit Captain Ichimaru and Rangiku's babies.... Did he, Kira, really have that expressive a face because judging by the look Captain Ichimaru was giving him, it was pretty clear that Ichimaru had just figured out what was going through Kira's head. Indeed, Kira knew for sure he had a very expressive face when Yachiru started laughing and declared, "Izuran is being slow today!"

"Ain't he," agreed Ichimaru.

About an hour after Kira joined the party, Yachiru and her dolls were picked up by Ikkaku and Yamichka. Kira waited till he could sense her reitsu back in Squad eleven barracks before he started undoing the braids Yachiru had done up at Captain Ichimaru's encouragement, complete with colourful ribbons and flowers. Kira was sure it would take him weeks to get rid of the sound of Ikkaku's derisive laughter and Yamichka's teasing complements out of his head.

Ichimaru smile widened as he watched Kira pull at his hair in a tearing hurry to undo the offending braids, "My, my, Izuru. Wha's the rush. Ya' look good with em'."

"Thank you for the compliment, Captain," replied Kira, "But I think I would lose whatever little respect I have with the squad members if they catch me with colourful ribbons in my hair."

"If ya' jus' stopped worr'en about what they thought of ya, ya would be happier and they would think better of ya," returned Ichimaru. Kira said nothing, "I wouldn' have ya, if ya were no good, Izuru." Kira's eyes widened and he blushed deeply. It was a same reaction he gave whenever Ichimaru doled out praise, which were very rare indeed and to Kira, very precious.

Gin smiled in amusement, "Ya blush so prettily Izuru," which made Kira blush even more. Gin chuckled, "Well, mind the squad fer me," with that Gin simply got up and walked away. Kira figured that perhaps Ichimaru was off to get Rangiku's present or simply to go on one of his walks. Whichever way, Kira concluded that he should probably not expect his captain back among them anytime soon.

Author's note: For those who don't know. Gin's birthday is on 10th of September and Rangiku's birthday is on the 29th, which isn't really the date of her "birth" more the date she and Gin met. So I figured September is probably an important month for the two of them.