Characters: Orihime, Gin, Rangiku (in spirit)
Summary: "You just… remind me of Rangiku."
Pairings: GinRan
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Hueco Mundo arc
Timeline: Hueco Mundo arc
Author's Note: I know he had to notice the resemblance.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Brown eyes flash where he expects pale icy blue, and the hair is bright copper red instead of pale gold, but other than that, she is her as a young girl, down to the life. A little more innocent, a little more naïve, but otherwise, just like her.
When the door creaks open, Orihime expects Ulquiorra. His is the only face she has seen here since being consigned to imprisonment, the only visitor and the only sign that there is anything even mocking life at all on this eerily silent night world.
But it's not Ulquiorra. Instead, Orihime is met with a flash of watery silver as a tall, almost skeletally thin man in flowing white robes slips into the room like some slippery animal, closing the door with odd care as not to let it slam.
Orihime stands, and when he turns around, white linen swishing at his heels, Orihime recognizes him.
This is one of the Shinigami captains who defected with Aizen. A man who always has his eyes half shut and a too-wide smile that stretches in a Cheshire Cat's grin when it shows teeth, flashing and predatory. The one everyone but Rangiku (from what Rangiku has said of him, in terse tones that indicate that speaking any more is painful for her) seems to fear.
"Hello, Orihime-san." Ichimaru Gin flashes a long, thin smile at her, and Orihime stares uncertainly at him.
The fact that he engages her in conversation is something Orihime finds shocking, but shocks are hardly out of place in her life lately so she just goes with it. She considers not answering him, both shaken and somewhat offended at the core of her bones, but Orihime is as ever possessed of a keen sense of propriety. She is as ever polite—it won't leave her now.
Gin seems almost to be straining to be polite, to not be off-putting. Orihime can only guess at what this means. He never approaches close and pays close attention to the answers she gives to the queries put to her. Like this is just a normal social call, and to Gin, perhaps this just is another social call. He seems to Orihime distinctly uncanny, distinctly out of place—it wouldn't surprise her if he sees things differently than what is considered normal.
Finally, he stops speaking, and just stares long and hard at her, eyes half-open to reveal flashing, pale turquoise blue eyes that are light and intensely piercing, to an extent that far exceeds Ulquiorra's, even at his most concertedly staring.
Orihime feels her face color, tingeing pink around the bridge of her nose. "What?" She stutters slightly at the words.
Gin just shakes his head. "Nothing, Orihime-san." He studies the wall behind her with intense interest. "You just… remind me of Rangiku."
A copper eyebrow rises, disappearing into her bangs. Orihime is… taken aback by this. Well… That's… interesting…
The only reason she continues to speak is really to satisfy a personal curiosity. The memory of Rangiku's vivid blue eyes growing hazy and far away, far too bright and yet far too dull, when she speaks briefly of Gin.
"You and Rangiku-san are—were… close?" Orihime inquires tentatively. She tilts her head slightly as she looks at him.
Waves of silent sound rise up as the quiet that echoes between words grows yawning and overwhelming. Gin peers long and hard at her, sizing her up, before the flick of a tongue licks lips and he speaks again.
He's standing straighter now, considerably less at ease than before. "What makes you think that, Orihime-san?"
She shrugs uncomfortably. "Rangiku-san… talked about you for a little bit when she was staying over at my house. As I understood it, you were friends, before…" Orihime leaves off; no need to state the obvious and now it hangs like an elephant in the living room.
And now, Gin seems almost as though he's been knifed in the gut. The signs are subtle but Orihime is a keen observer and she can see them—his eyes flutter wide for a moment and after they come back to squinting he seems distinctly ill at ease, looking like he'd like nothing better than to leave. Revisiting memories can have that effect on people, Orihime knows.
His eyes stare clean through her. "Ah… I see. And she's…well?" He asks, more awkward than Orihime ever guessed he could be.
Orihime nods slowly. "When I last saw her, yes."
Gin takes this as a cue to leave, and the tension starts to leave him. "Orihime-san," he mutters, highly abstracted, before sweeping out the door and shutting it with the same, careful, meticulous care he showed in closing it when he first came inside.
When he's gone, Orihime sighs slightly, feeling the last of the discomfort leave the room, as she goes to sit on the deep couch, all the energy draining out of her and leaving a yawning tiredness in its wake.
It's late, and she needs her sleep. Ulquiorra will no doubt be back soon, having no respect for a human's sleep cycle, with his questions that are framed far less politely than Ichimaru Gin's.
As Orihime starts to drift off, she thinks of Rangiku's eyes as she talked about Gin in her short, sparing words.
They were far-away, wistful, and melancholy, so out of character with her otherwise cheerful demeanor.
With this, at least, a suspicion of Orihime's has been unequivocally confirmed.
What a tangled web.
What a pointless, painful, needless tragedy.