Wedding Plans? WHAAAT!?

Something was causing a fuss in Division Six. A tall, dark haired woman who seemed quite angry, was flailing her arms at people as she charged through the squad. The white Haori stood out quite a bit, and the only thing that had slowed her down had been entering the gates and getting written down as a visitor. Her red eyes almost glowed as she searched for the Taicho of this squad.

"Where is that lilylivered poor excuse for a noble Taicho monster man?! MASARU -TAICHO!" Her hair was out of its usual twin tails, and looked rather like she had just woken up and gotten dressed in a hurry. Even her shinigami uniform was a little skewed.

Masaru was quiet surprised by the sudden....angry entrance made by the other taicho. Soon after entering his division she'd stormed into his office as he steadily worked on his paperwork.

"D-Daikibona-taicho?" His tone held confusion to match his expression. "What's wrong? Is something wrong?" He asked, clearly oblivious to whatever the woman was so angered about.

Finally she found him! Arka walked in, slamming the door behind her and placing her hands on his desk with a glare as she leaned down. "Call it off. I am NOT marrying you, no matter what they want. I mean you're not even my type. The scar is sexy yes but you are so calm. Where's your passion?" Her anger sorta faded for a few seconds and she sighed, her head falling and her hair making a curtain around her in her anguish. Looking back up, her eyes were watery with fake tears.

"Please? Please cancel it! I beg of you!"

"M-Marriage?!" Just what was she....The elders. No...no, no, no, no! "Look, whatever they have planned I am in no way involved! I swear, Daikibona-taicho!" He tried to reassure her. Ignoring the comment about his scar and lack of passion. "I'll do what I can, I can promise you that."

Masaru gave a frustrated huff, sitting back in his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Damn elders..." He's been fighting with them on this subject for so long...Sure, he was the head of his clan with no wife or heir. He was in a bad spot with them for that because if something were to happen to him on a mission...well, no one would be able to take over for him and continue the Shirakawa name.

Still though...Making plans without even consulting him...

Arka's fake tears, real anger and all sorts of other things she had planned to convince him sorta...disappeared. All in one instant. Masaru's reaction surprised her, and she stood up properly, reaching up to twirl her hair in thought. "So...it wasn't you? I...I have to apologize Masaru-Taicho. Um, just call me Arka, or something like Arka-chan. I mean you are kind of higher rank and such, plus I only make people I don't like call me that."

Looking around the room, she pointed to a nearby chair. "Mind if I sit? We should...probably discuss how to handle this."

Masaru nodded, "Yes, please sit if you'd like." It wasn't polite to just leave her standing like that in the first place. "Yes, I think we do need to discuss this. I've been arguing with my clan's elders about this for a long time..."

A sigh escaped him as he sat back up, resting his arms on the desk. "Time and time again I've told them I'm not interested in their arrangements, that I want to do the whole love and marriage thing on my own and at my own pace...Ever since becoming head of my clan though I can guess they've grown quite panicked that I'll be killed on a mission or something and they'll have no heir to take my place." He shook his head, "Still, despite that I'm not in a very good spot with them right now I'm not going to allow this."

It was ridiculous...going behind his back to make such arrangements.

Arka brushed her hair back and sat in a chair with a relieved grin. "Honestly, I am very glad you are against this. I have no real power in my family, as one of the lower members. If they wanted, they could make me marry you if you wanted to. Hells, if you wanted you could marry me and still keep around a few lovers..."

Steepling her fingers, she eyed Masaru with interest. "And yet you are a Noble... You do know sometimes we don't have the...liberty of loving right? Hey don't think I am ragging on your or anything, I really am happy you are holding out for your special someone."

Masaru's face turned from serious to wide-eyed when Arka mentioned keeping around a few lovers...it was...certainly unlike him. He felt awkward, just a bit, when she eyed him; voicing some thoughts...mentioning the love thing.

Resting his cheek on his hand, Masaru voiced his own thoughts. "My father found my mother through love...not arrangements despite the fact she was a noble woman herself. I only want the same chance..." He said, his expression once again serious. "So keeping any side-relationships are against everything I've been raised to believe in. I see no...appeal to it, really. I see no appeal in arrangements or being forced into a loveless marriage. Wrong is one word used to sum it up."

As Arka didn't know much about Masaru, she was a bit...happy he seemed so innocent. It would really work in her favor, especially since he seemed so against arranged marriages. Blowing a piece of hair out of her face, she then laughed lightly. "They were lucky then. Very lucky." Arka shied around the topic of his father, remembering the news and funeral... He probably didn't want THAT brought up. She was curious but not heartless.

"Apparently you grow to love the person you are with? I have no idea. I don't plan on ever getting married or having kids. My damn part of the family can die with me. So Masaru-Taicho," Arka's eyes grew a bit mischevious, "Are there any...girls you favor? Or boys if you swing that way. I won't judge~"

Masaru nodded in agreement, they had been lucky. Lucky to find each other and the bond they'd shared. Arka continued though, telling him what she'd heard about arranged marriages; how the two would grow to love one another eventually. Still...it wasn't right to him. Forcing two people in a relationship simply to produce an heir. It sickened him almost.

Then she just had to mention that. "Oh, uhm..." His face tinted a little pink at the question. "Interested in? Ah...n-no." He lied, "Not at the moment..."

"Ah okay. My last boyfriend dumped me a few days ago. Honestly, does being a female captain really intimidate everyone else so much?" Arka's face turned into a pout and she looked directly at Masaru, almost picturing him as the last person to dump her.

Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms. "Saaay, you wouldn't be the type to lead girls on would you? With your pretty boy face and stuff..."

"Wha?!" Masaru shook his head, "No, I would never do that." Leading someone on...that was wrong too! It was cruel to toy with another's emotions like that, he would never do such a thing. "Doing that...I could never toy with another's feelings."

Again, it was another thing that would go against the way he was raised. He knew there were many noble men that did that, that held many relationships at once as a matter of fact. Then again, that was one reason most of them weren't in the rankings as one of the four great noble clans....it was a shameful act to do such a thing, and could soil one's name.

"Oh? Well then, you would be safe then..." Arka pondered for a few seconds, before standing up and pointing a triumphant grin on her face. "SO Masaru-Taicho. Its settled, you wouldn't break my heart or lead me on correct? Then I respectfully request a date, one to cheer me up. Would you be so kind as to humor a lonely girl? I won't lead you on, and you won't lead me on so its perfectly safe. All this talk of marriage and being dumped has made me quite inconsolable."

A...A date!? Masaru looked at Arka, rather surprised by the sudden request. Then again, he could understand how she felt...as when she'd told him of the elder's plans he'd been rather furious himself. He wouldn't just hurt her feelings either, it was just a date. Nothing to hurt there, though he wasn't very good at them...The last date he'd been on was all the way back during his academy years with Kano.

"S-sure." He agreed, "Is there anywhere you'd like to go specifically?"

It was a common question, if it were a date then it was his job to see she had a good time.

"Well there are all sorts of dates to choose from. We don't want something romantic, that wouldn't do." Arka stood up and walked over to Masaru and held out her hand, winking at him.

"We do NOT want to give them fuel. But a friendly date like say... I dunno a picnic? Out in the open near others, ooor we could head to the beach, not for swimming but collecting seashells or something. Dinner is too romantic, movies are over used... We could go to a coffee shop and just talk too over scones and such. Now the major thing is stay here in the Soul Society or go to Human world.. What do you think is better?I like both ideas!"

When she held out her hand to him, he blinked for a second before moving his hand to take her own as he was meant to. Standing up, he listened to her suggestions. Yes, staying away from romance was key if they didn't want to fuel the elders.

Maybe staying out of the prying, rumor-spreading eyes of other shinigami was also a good idea. "Maybe the World of the Living?" He didn't want rumors reaching the ears of the elders...and if they acted all close and friendly those rumors would morph into something involving romance. They certainly didn't need that.

"We could stop for some lunch and talk if you'd like." He suggested, "though...I've only ever really been on one date before this. So I don't really know how to handle them quite yet..." He admitted, a small, light chuckle escaping his lips afterwards.

Arka was very happy he said human world. After she had thought it over for a few seconds, the Soul Society was a really bad choice. So Arka let go of his hand and waved her hand back at Masa as she turned. "Ill go grab my gigai, um... Lessee. It'd be better if we left separately, I'll send a hell butterfly. Here." Grabbing a pen, and a small slip of paper from Masa's desk, she wrote down the address of a nice little cafe in the human world, Japan to be exact.

"Meet me there? It shouldn't be too hard to spot either of us I think."

Masaru nodded, "Alright, I'll just clean up my desk before leaving." Although the thing was rather clean already, just the pile of paperwork needed organizing. "That should give of plenty of time in between leaving."

Once he put those papers away, he would just grab his own gigai and head the World of the Living himself and head towards the cafe that Arka had written the address down to.

"Meet you there then."

Arka was sitting at a table in her gigai, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was near the window, so she caught Masaru's arrival and gave him a smile with a small wave. She also gave him a look over and winked. He looked snazzy outside the uniform, and she got up to greet Masaru with a friendly kiss on the cheek. "Aha, you came. I wasn't sure if you would bail or not Masaru...Um is it all right if I call you that?"

Masaru arrived at the coffee shop, hoping he hadn't taken too long to leave. He was in his usual gigai outfit, a long-sleeved white button up shirt, kept un-tucked from his black pants. Upon entering the shop he returned Arka's wave as she got up and walked over to greet him, surprising him once more with the peck on the cheek; causing his face to redden some. He wasn't used to such affection, as the only times he received that were from either his parents or Setsuna, as she was like a grandmother to him.

Still though, he nodded. "Sure, I don't mind you calling me that." He responded, hoping the color in his face had left him.

"I am glad. It means we are becoming friends!" Arka was...happy. Not fake happy, but happy happy. She didn't tend to get along with many of her peers sometimes because of her showy nature and affectionate ways. She was too happy to notice his redish face, and clapped her hands together. He didn't seem to mind her tattoos or showy outfit. They weren't exactly date material, but this was a friendly sort of one so she didn't mind.

She turned around and headed for the counter, bending over a bit to look at what was on the bottom rack thingy for pastries. Her mouth watered and Arka turned her head back to look at Masaru, gesturing over. "Oh wow they have Pumpkin bread today. I'll get some and you can try it if you want... I don't mind sharing."

Masaru followed Arka over to the counter, looking over the pastries as the other captain did. She seemed rather happy to see they had pumpkin bread, he'd made it before and it was rather good. "If you want some sure." He said, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet, "My treat." He offered, he never really had the chance to well...pay as he'd been instructed to on his first date. He still felt rather bad about that...

He turned to the employee, ordering and paying for two pieces of it, just in case Arka was only being courteous about sharing.

"I've only had it a couple of times before." He noted, handing Arka her piece. "I've baked some and it was rather good."

Arka laughed a little bit, sheepishly pulling her hair over her shoulder before she took the bread. She still wasn't used to people buying things for her, it felt odd. In a nice kind of way. Like she was some sort of Lady or something. "Oh wow thank you. I rarely get any because no one will make it for me."

Still, she looked a bit shocked at Masaru, tilting her head a bit. She could wait to take a bite. "Huh, you can cook? I...can't." That was an understatement. She thought back to the most recent incident, where she almost burnt down Kano's house trying to make hot water... Her face turned a light shade of red and she shook her head.

As they moved to sit at one of the tables near the window, Masaru gave a small, shy laugh. "Well, I guess it is odd...for a noble to be able to cook. It was a rather...necessary hobby for me to learn." He admitted, hoping Arka would understand by what he meant. He knew she'd received the news on what Mamoru had done to him before he died, it was kept secret from low-ranking shinigami but for the high-ups it wasn't something that could be hidden, as they'd needed to know so they would understand Masaru had killed his father out of self-defense...even if he hadn't meant to.

Masaru took a bite from his own piece, it was good. Almost like the kind he'd made himself back at home. The taste of pumpkin bread was rather delicious.

"Ah...yeah it would be wouldn't it? You'll have to bake me something sometime, I love homemade goods." Arka sighed, taking a small bite out of the bread and looking out the window. She knew what happened, it was...something that she tried not to think about too much. It easily could have been her, but her parents had died soon after her birth. Honestly, no one liked to talk much about them, so all she knew were that they had a marriage of convenience and that she had been an accident.

"At least they loved you, even if it went away...you had that love right?"