Characters: Kira, Gin
Summary: Blood meant many things to Gin, but has only three meanings for Kira.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: spoilers for Soul Society and Deicide arcs
Timeline: post-Deicide arc
Author's Note: Not much to say here, except that diving into Kira's mind always seems to produce somewhat disturbing little fics.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
This is how I remember him: stained a shade of blood unimaginable after battle, wiping it from his lips with a flick of the tongue, eyes keen and bright, hands ready for another round, and not just with Hollows, but with any foe he could find.
Even me.
Blood was a hunger in him, a desperate undercurrent to a monstrous river, a desire for release, as though he carried some great, dark secret on him that only the shedding of blood would expiate.
If only I'd known.
Spill water over all the grime and stains hiding Kira from the world at large, and he still keeps his secrets well, still keeps his own counsel without letting anyone in through the doors. The only thing that seems clear about Kira, even to those who know him well, is his painfully obvious devastation when his captain deserts Seireitei to cast his lot in with a traitor and megalomaniac. Apart from that, nothing is certain.
Gin was always painted up and down with blood, and so Kira became as well from mere association with the man. Where Kira uses chiaroscuro and the grim that comes from a life lived in the shadows to keep his secrets close to the skin, Gin used blood, and did so until the day he died.
Blood, Kira can surmise, had a legion of different meanings to his former captain.
A veil, to hide what he didn't want others to know. If that was the case then Gin shrouded himself so thoroughly with carmine veils that he was utterly submerged beneath gauze. No one could ever see him when he wore blood.
A wash to drain away the worry and the guilt of whatever secret sin Gin wore on him—strange, how blood seemed one thing one second and something entirely different the next. Where water is seen to wash away sin for others, Gin used blood, scrubbed it so hard into his skin it left scars that were still on his corpse—though Kira was the only one who could see it as he stood over him with far more equanimity than he ever expected to be able to have.
And blood, Kira is sure, signified so many different other things to Gin, but he'll never know now since the man is dead and Gin can keep his secrets so much better now that his mouth if forever silenced.
As for Kira, blood means three simple things.
Blood means violence.
Blood means death.
Blood means oblivion, in anesthetic carmine waves.