Meetings

Back then, they hadn't known that showing your zanpakutō spirit to someone else was something you weren't supposed to do.

"Please, Gin?" Rangiku had said. And she so rarely asked for anything that he just couldn't say no.

"Will ya show me Haineko first?" he'd said, hedging. He'd never seen anyone's zanpakutō spirit other than his own. He wasn't sure exactly what to expect.

So there they were, sitting cross-legged in the long grass behind their little house, and the big grey cat sauntered out from behind Rangiku as though it had been sitting there all along. Gin was a little surprised; Rangiku had said that Haineko was female, but the cat had a thick scruff of fur around its face, making it resemble a very small grey lion rather than the ordinary boring kind of cats you saw getting kicked in the streets of Rukongai.

"Hey, kitty," he said, holding out his hand. Haineko ignored him and followed in a cricket in the grass.

"Sorry," Rangiku said, and then hissed to the cat: "Haineko! Get back over here!"

The cat stretched and wandered over to Gin, passing just close enough for its fur to tickle Gin's knee. He reached out to pat its back, but it did that thing cats do, seeming to melt as it walked just enough that his hand could never quite make contact. "Keep your hands to yourself," it said over its shoulder as it strolled away and slowly de-materialized.

"Sorry," Rangiku said again, halfway between being apologetic to him and being angry with her zanpakutō spirit. "I think she's in a bad mood today."

"That's okay," Gin said. "A deal's a deal, right?"

He closed his eyes briefly, and then Shinsō materialized beside him. He saw Rangiku's eyes light up. "Ohh, he's so beautiful!" she said. "Why didn't you want to show me him before?"

Gin shrugged again. "Ya can pet him if ya want. He won't mind," he said.

Rangiku leapt up and dropped to her knees again by the huge animal, hesitating for a moment before sinking her fingers into the silver-white fur. "It's so soft," she said, patting the fox's head as though he were the family dog.

Shinsō bore it calmly, even seeming to warm to Rangiku's touch a little, and Gin relaxed. It had taken him a long time bargaining with Shinsō to get to this point, but Gin was certain the spirit understood now that if he harmed Rangiku, Gin would not hesitate to snap his sword in half and never touch it again. It was worth it, though; he'd known Rangiku would want to cuddle Shinsō, and she looked so thrilled now.

"It's nice to meet you, Shinsō," Rangiku said to the fox spirit, but it just looked at her impassively.

"Don't mind it, he won't talk," Gin explained. In fact, part of the deal had been that Shinsō would not open his mouth. Right now, Shinsō could almost pass for cute, especially seen through the eyes of someone like Rangiku. With his teeth showing, though, there was no way he could be seen as anything but frightening. Therefore, he was going to keep his mouth closed.

"I wish Haineko was like you," Rangiku told the spirit wistfully, sitting back on her heels.

"I think Haineko's fine," said Gin. Haineko kept her feelings on the surface, just like Rangiku. If someone didn't like him, he'd much rather they showed it. And if someone did like him, it was nice to see that too.

"Ugh! But she's so moody. And lazy," Rangiku said, still gently patting Shinsō's head. "Whenever I want to practise, all she wants to do is sleep."

"I think I gotta send Shinsō back, though," said Gin, who had been monitoring Shinsō's mood.

"Oh, okay." With regret, Rangiku withdrew her hand and watched the spirit de-materialize again. She turned to Gin. "So what was all the fuss about with you not wanting to show me him?" She laughed. "You're so strange sometimes, Gin."

"Do ya think so?"

"Of course." She flopped back onto the grass, and he flopped back next to her. "I wonder what it says about us that our Zanpakutō spirits are the way they are," she said, looking up at the clouds.

"I dunno if it means anything," he said. "Maybe that's just how it is."

The wind must have been moving fast up there in the sky, he thought. The filmy clouds were tearing away from the horizon in shreds. And yet, down here, there was only just enough of a breeze to keep the tall blades waving around them as they lay.

A/N: So yeah, I'm ignoring the zanpakutō filler arc for the purposes of this fic. I always pictured Haineko as a grey cat (like a Maine Coon cat, if you know what that is) and Shinsō as a kitsune, although that second one is pretty obvious. The only other real alternative is a snake, but I don't think Gin is as much of a snake as he thinks he is.

Why aren't you supposed to show other people your zanpakutō spirit? I made that up based on Kira and Rangiku's fight back in the Soul Society arc. Kira asks Rangiku if she knows what his shikai is, and she says that no, she doesn't because you don't talk to anyone about that kind of thing. So I figured zanpakutō stuff is considered pretty private. But in canon you don't see people talking to other people's zanpakutō spirits, except maybe Yoruichi when she's training Ichigo, I'm not sure. Anyways.