Chapter Text
They waited for the winter to melt away before they made their union. Yumichika had insisted, stating that he needed the flowers of the springtime.
Ikkaku had asked him during the first snowfall. It was cold, and so was Yumichika, in one of his flighty moods where he would pout and sigh, ignoring all attempts to console him, making Ikkaku earn it.
“You can keep at this whole act, Yumi...” Ikkaku had said, folding his arms in the kitchen as he watched his lover wrap himself in a blanket.
“Hm.”
“...but one day I'll get you to marry me.”
Yumichika then burrowed his head out of the blanket. His hair was standing on end, maybe from the static, maybe not.
“And when would that be?” he asked haughtily.
“I dunno. Tomorrow.”
“In the dead of winter? Are you serious?”
“Some other time, then?”
“Obviously.”
“Is that a yes?”
And so they waited for the warm weather, hoping through those cold months that peacetime would continue. No matter how romantic Yumichika thought it might be to wed in a war zone, he could not risk the chance of having empty seats at the ceremony.
“Aren't I like...not supposed to see you or something?” Ikkaku asked as he watched Yumichika comb his still-wet hair.
“That's if I was a bride, 'Kaku,” he sighed. “Also, it's a stupid tradition.”
“I agree,” he said, striding over to wrap his arms around Yumichika's waist from behind. “I like seeing you all nervous like this.”
“Who's nervous?” Yumichika challenged. Ikkaku nuzzled his face into the curve of his neck. “Hey now, save it for after.”
“It'll be different tonight, Yumi,” he mumbled into his warm skin, “like you're really mine, finally.”
“I look forward to finding out what you mean by that. Also...”
“What is it?” Ikkaku asked, turning Yumichika around to face him.
“You'll be mine, too.”
“Fool, I've always been yours.”
__
Rukia had the privilege of sitting in the front row, all dressed in floral prints with her lover's arm around her shoulder. On her other side sat Byakuya, his eyes rather dead, looking around at all the blossoms.
“Brother...” she cooed, placing one hand on his arm.
“It's alright, Rukia,” he said solemnly. “Who am I to deny others the happiness of marriage, just because...”
She felt Renji shift uncomfortably beside her. The whole ordeal made him quite jumpy, she had noticed. Like he thought she expected something from him.
Idiot, she thought.
“You look beautiful, Rukia,” he stammered, adjusting the flower in her hair, brushing a few black strands behind her ear.
“Oh stop,” she sighed. “Don't say it too loud. I don't want to steal the spotlight...”
“Right. He'd kill you.”
“Rukia...”
“What is it, Renji?” she asked. They had decided against pet names. They had tried. Renji called her his bunny once, and it was nice, until Byakuya overheard and looked on with such disgust they vowed to only use their real names from then on out.
“Maybe, I dunno, one day...”
Byakuya shot him a sidelong glance, and it shut him up. Rukia sighed, knowing that for perhaps the rest of her life she would be caught between them.
There were worse things that could happen than to be loved so dearly.
__
They were wed beneath a flowering tree, bent like an archway over their heads. Yumichika was dressed in greens and blues, Ikkaku in only warm colors.
“I love you,” Yumichika whispered as the crowd settled before them. They were holding hands before hundreds of other souls, all eyes on them. Normally that attention would be a thrill for Yumchika, but the biggest thrill of all was what was to come. Promised to his lover for eternity. He almost regretted putting on such a big show. Perhaps they would have some private ceremony afterward. Just them, in their room, vowing and pledging.
“The union of two souls in along-standing tradition of Soul Society,” Captain Kyoraku said, his voice booming as he stood between them. “It is rare that we have the privilege of witnessing so beautiful a thing, as our lives are so uncertain.”
Yumichika and Ikkaku looked at one another, faces softer than ever, eyes both shimmering, smiling in relief that they were both alive to be so joined.
“It is said that when two brave warriors are joined such as this, that their strength grows immeasurably. I always took that to mean not their physical prowess, but their strength of will. The strength of their love.”
Ikkaku's face turned red, so unused to all this attention, to all this talk of his relationship.
“It is only a shame that this didn't happen sooner. Speaking of which, I think a few of you owe me money,” the Captain went on, locking eyes with a few people in the crowd. “So today I ask you this: Do you both, the third and fifth seats of the eleventh squad of the Gotei 13, promise before Soul Society, before the eyes of all things living and unliving, to strengthen your will and your love by joining together for as long as you both shall live this afterlife?”
They made no reply, simply embraced before the cheering crowd, both crying a little, nodding their heads in agreement. They swayed there beneath the arching tree, long after Captain Kyoraku walked away to join the crowd. Everyone was on their way to the party, to the celebration scheduled to take place after the ceremony.
They gave themselves a few moments, beneath the falling blossoms in the springtime air, whispering their love and vows, promising to stay alive forever, to never lie or hide again.