A/N: Hello everyone, and thank you for clicking on my lil' story here! I am quite proud of myself, as I have managed to produce this on the same day as I wrote my epilogue to my ShiYori fic, The Six Matchmakers. I guess I'm just having an inspiration rush. This is probably going to be quite a dark fic, but there'll hopefully also be some humour etc, so I didn't know what to put in the second genre section. Never mind! This is a very long chapter for me, and it isn't even that long, so don't go expecting huge enormous chapters from me. Don't get me wrong, I love long chapters, but I'm not very good at writing them. I tend to lose the plot. As I am doing with this A/N. I should probably shut up now... XD
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or and of its characters. All credit goes to Kubo Tite. Who is awesome. And I don't own Run by Leona Lewis, either. Just so ya know!
Run
"I'll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go.
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done...
..Louder, louder,
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak, I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say...
Thirteen year old Matsumoto Rangiku ran through the door, past Gin, who was struggling to drag the box with their belongings into their new apartment. She stopped and exclaimed in amazement.
"Wow, Gin, it's amazing! A whole house for just us!"
"Heh. Not quite a house, Ran-chan, but I'm glad ya like it." Gin said, dropping the box and straightening up, his trademark grin all over his face.
"The manager who rented us this place was really stupid. I can't believe he fell for your fake adult voice!" Rangiku laughed, slightly drunk with happiness.
"Hey! That's mean, my adult voice isn't that bad. But, I must admit, he was quite dumb, not even askin' if he could see us before we rented it." chuckled Gin, opening the box again. "Come on, Ran-chan, at least help me unpack our stuff. That box was heavy!"
"It's tiny! All it has is our blankets, pillows, some food and the money we stole from the orphanage."
"Although my adult voice may be amazingly realistic, I'm afraid I still have the physique of a slightly malnutritioned thirteen year old boy." replied Gin, not embarrassed in the slightest. "Now help, please!"
"Fine, whatever." Rangiku said, rolling out the blankets. One of the bags of dried persimmons they had snaffled from the orphanage kitchen before they left rolled under a tatty chair that stood in the corner. Rangiku groaned and crawled over to reach under the chair and pull it out again. However, her hand met something large, spindly and hairy on the way. Rangiku shrieked when the huge spider ran over her hand to the other side of the room, causing Gin to rush over from the small kitchenette to see who was murdering her.
"Ran-chan! What happened?" he asked anxiously, his grin slipping a bit before promptly returning when he saw the spider Rangiku was cowering away from. "Come on, it's only a spider. I'll get rid of it for ya, don't worry." he soothed, scooping up the spider to Rangiku's whimpers and tossing it out of the window. "There, all gone! You okay?" he asked.
"Mm. But this place has too many bugs. I hate bugs, they're scary..." mumbled Rangiku, shivering with disgust at the thought.
"Think of it this way. There is no way that a couple of bugs could make this place worse than where we just came from, right?" said gin, crouching down in front of her and putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Yeah. Thanks for getting rid of the spider, Gin." Rangiku offered a weak smile. It was true. The orphanage was one of the worst places in the world for them. She still remembered the day she was brought there. Her mother had been an alcoholic, and her father on drugs. They'd beat her every day for the slightest of things: crying, sniffing, sometimes just for being around. She'd never tried to run away; the beatings would be so much worse when they caught her.
One day, her father had come back from a night with his 'workmates' completely high on drugs. Whereas some people would go off into their own blissful little world, Rangiku's father only became more violent when the evil concoctions were in his bloodstream. She remembered hearing him come in, cursing under his breath. She remembered putting her hands over her ears, trying to block out reality, trying to imagine nice parents, a father who had a normal job, a mother who did not die of liver failure after drinking herself into a stupor night after night. She remembered how her hands had been able to do nothing as her father had struck her again and again. She remembered the gun, but had no idea how he'd managed to get his hands on it, remembered the broken bottle lying on the kitchen table; a farewell present from her mother. Her father had thrown the bottle at her, right on her back, shredding it and leaving her with a permanent scar. She remembered flinching at the gunshot, waiting for more pain, but when nothing came, she had looked up, shaking, to see her father lying in a pool of his own blood, a bullet hole through his temple.
Rangiku had been found hours later by a couple out on a romantic walk as she lay in the gutter, covered in blood. After research on her family and remaining relatives, (of which there were none) she was sent to the orphanage. She'd hated that place from the bottom of her heart, but couldn't quite wish she'd never gone there. Quite apart from the fact that if she hadn't gone she'd almost definitely be dead, the orphanage was the place where she had first met Ichimaru Gin.
At first, she'd thought he was a mildly creepy boy with no friends to speak of, always smiling with that fox-face of his, but soon came to realise that the reason he was ostracised was because the rest of the children were little demons, not the other way round. So she had befriended Gin, although he was the one to take the first step, offering her a piece of candy he'd nicked from the fat boy he shared a room with. Soon, they became inseparable; the only thing keeping them sane was the other. After a month or so, she'd worked up the courage to tell him her story, expecting to be pushed away, but instead was met with his own. Gin had been found abandoned in a dustbin, so he'd told her, no parents or relatives in sight. He'd been at the orphanage ever since.
The other orphanage kids had not liked the pair; they were bullied, physically and mentally. When they appealed for help to the orphanage officials, they'd blown them off, stating that they had no time for silly childish games. Predictably, the bullying had eventually gotten unbearable. The little gang who had made their sole aim in life to make hers a misery were holding her by the hair, teasing her and asking if she wanted them to cut her face or her arms first. Gin had saved her, like the hero he was, but had received a serious cut to his upper arm. She bandaged it afterwards, hands shaking while tears streamed silently down her cheeks. Gin had lain on her bed, gazing up at the ceiling distractedly. After a few minutes, he'd turned to her and wiped the tears off her face with his good hand.
"Let's run away, Ran-chan."
...
It was only seven when the two decided to go to bed; they were very tired, having walked half-way across the city just to get there. They ate a supper of bread and persimmons in good cheer, the weight of living at the orphanage finally lifted off their shoulders. However, when the time came for them to roll up in their blankets and go to sleep, Rangiku vehemently refused to do so by herself.
"There are creepy bugs around!" she moaned.
"Oh, come on then." said Gin, tutting and lifting up his blanket so she could crawl in as well. She snuggled closely up to Gin's chest, wrapping her thin arms around his waist. The last thing she felt before she fell asleep was the soft stroking of Gin's hand on her hair.
"Sleep well, Ran-chan."
A/N: Oh dear. A little bit darker than I would have liked, but it kinda sets the scene. Now that's out of the way, lets love on to some romance! WOOOO! Don't get your hopes up quite yet, though, I'm not sure when I'm actually going to introduce the lurve yet, but reviews always help me along my way! (I'm shameless, I know...) :P
Please tell me whether you liked this or not! I have never written a GinRan before, and this is only my third fic! Tips and suggestions are highly welcomed! xx