Characters: Kira, Rangiku
Summary: Maybe Rangiku is the anti-Universe.
Pairings: GinRan, slight onesided KiraRan
Warnings/Spoilers: spoilers for Deicide arc
Timeline: post-Deicide arc
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
He honestly never thought she would stop and pause from the story of her own grief to acknowledge his own, let alone try to help him out of it. Personally, Kira never thought anyone would ever do anything except try awkwardly to ignore the fact that he obviously in crippling amounts of pain. That's the way these things are normally handled in Seireitei.
But Rangiku, as she likes to emphasize, is not the average Shinigami, and she doesn't believe in being a conformist.
Kira can't say why, following his captain's death, he feels so bereft. Frankly, he doesn't know why he feels so devastated at all. If Gin's behavior is any indication, he never gave a damn about Kira himself to begin with, so why should he bother about him?
He does, anyway. Kira does care, despite having the knowledge (at least in his own mind; he will never know for sure now) that those feelings of having cared were never reciprocated. In a way, the parasitic bond that ties him to his former captain seems to have only grown stronger following Gin's death.
And Rangiku, Kira supposes, could have been forgiven for cutting ties with him, for refusing to ever speak to him again. She has her own pain and confusion to sort out; she has been left out in the cold just as much, if not more so than Kira. And Kira would not have been surprised if suddenly he passed her on the street one day and said hello, only to find that she didn't acknowledge him anymore.
Surprise ends up being the core of his being anyway, when Rangiku reaffirms herself as a non-conformist and shelves her own grief to help him with his. Kira isn't sure how much that helps Rangiku in the long run, but he isn't about to push her away if she's willing to help him.
It still surprises him. Kira hates to admit it, but whenever something good happens to him in his life he tends to be surprised by it; he's made peace with the fact that, for the most part, the Universe is working actively against him in order to make everything in his life go wrong. Why should this be any different?
Maybe Rangiku is the anti-Universe.
Kira still feels awful. He still feels as though his entire body has been put through a cheese grater.
However, it never ceases to amaze him, the difference a pair of friendly hands to help him along makes.