Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. If I did, I wouldn't have killed Gin. T.T

Author's Note: I felt I should do a tribute for my favorite character. I did once recently for Severus Snape ("After the End", look it up!), so, I feel I should do one for Gin. I love doing after death stories...

This is slightly GinxRan, although I don't like the pairing. It's just that his death scene was too angsty. I feel like he should have had an awesome death scene, but no, he had a loving one. I feel like it shattered my image of Gin.

I do hate this version of Gin. I loved him better when he was a bastard. Or, was he only pretending to be a bastard? Argh, I don't know now! I hate this Gin. I feel like I should reiterate this. I hate this version of Gin. I do not like him being all "LALA,ILOVERANGIKU!" But, since that's how Kubo-sensei ended him, to be canon-y, I guess that's how I'll end him as... Although, I hate this lovey!Gin.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Gin, and I'm pretty proud of what I wrote here, but still, It's hard to live with the fact that the Gin that I had loved for the past few years wasn't real. I mean... Why, Kubo-sensei, Why?

Although, as a shinigami, wasn't he already dead? Hehe, Difficult, difficult...

Gin opened his eyes. He was laying on a hard concrete floor, looking up at a bare white ceiling. He sat up, leaning back on his arms, taking in his surroundings. It was an empty room, perhaps ten feet by ten feet, with a lone closed door in front of him. All white. All empty.

"Patient 947846254, Ichimaru Gin, is awake and healed." A cool female voice echoed in the room, causing Gin to looked around, wondering where the voice was coming from.

Healed? Gin thought. With a small shock, he looked at his right arm. He had only just noticed that it was there. Hadn't it just been torn off? And- he patted his chest. He had just been slashed, what happened to the wound? Where was he, anyway? He should be dead. Instead, he was in a strange room, wearing different clothes and his body completely intact.

He brought his hand to his head. Aizen had killed him hadn't he? And just before he lost consciousness, he had been able to see his old childhood friend once more. He moved his hand down to his neck, where he could still feel the cold drops of her tears.

Rangiku. I'm so sorry. I failed you, didn't I? He thought again. He sighed and stood up. It was no use sitting around in an unknown place. He made his way for the door. As he reached it, he noticed there was no handle, yet it slid open on its own, the light on the other side blinding him for an instant before he adjusted to the light.

He stepped through the doorway to find himself in a larger room, filled with many faces he thought he'd never see again, sitting around in various places around the room. The one closest to him glanced up and frowned, noticing who had just come in.

"They got you too, then?" he said. Gin looked down to where the voice came from to find himself staring at Tousen Kaname, who was wearing the same simple white gown he was. Gin frowned.

"Weren't ya dead, Tousen-san?" Gin asked, slightly irritated with the fact that he had meet up with the blind man again. He was the last person he wanted to see. Tousen snorted.

"We're all dead here, look around." Tousen said, waving his hand around. "Every person in this room perished in this War." Gin looked up to see a huddled in a corner, sobbing loudly, Hinamori Momo, and grouped in the center a few of the Arrancar. He smiled slightly as he saw his old favorite standing up and shouting loudly at the Arrancar next to him. As he turned away from his group, he noticed Gin looking at him, and his face lit up.

"Ichimaru-sama!" the youthful Arrancar exclaimed, jumping and tackling the former shinigami. Gin laughed as Luppi Antenor gripped him in a tight hug.

"Ya, Luppi, it's been a while." Gin said, putting the former sexta down and patting him on his head. He looked around again at the rest of the room. "Where are we?" he asked.

"I don't know what it's called," Luppi said, shrugging. "But from what I've seen with how long I've been here, Arrancar souls that hadn't been purified by a zanpakutou to be sent to the Soul Society, and Shinigami souls which are killed before it was time for them to be reincarnated, are sent here." he explained, as Gin scratched his head. He hated thinking about things like this. He had already died once when he was a human. There was another afterlife? How bizarre.

Gin dropped his hand and smile as he noticed two familiar beings off to the side glaring at him with piercing stares. No wonder Tousen sat on the other side of the room. Patting Luppi on his head once more time, Gin swerved between all the Arrancar, to reach other other side of the room, facing the two older shinigamis who kept their gaze steely on him. The one with long white hair opened his mouth slightly, as if to speak up. Before he could say anything, Gin bowed his head deeply in front of them.

"Ah'd like ta apologize." Gin said, softly. Ukitake Jyuushirou let his mouth hang a little wider before closing it with a snap. The old Soutaichou cleared his throat beside him.

"Indeed?" Yamamoto-Shigekuni Genryuusai said, not once taking his eyes off of Gin. "It would seem a bit too late for that, wouldn't you think?" Gin straightened up, his smile back.

"Ah come on, Soutaichou-san," he said, his playful voice back. "'S tha first time Ah've ever thought of sincerely apologizin', and yer makin' me feel bad."

"I think he means, Ichimaru," Ukitake interjected. "Even if we accepted an apology or heard an explanation, it wouldn't matter. What has been done, has been done. There is nothing we can do to each other anymore." Gin frowned slightly and scratched his head. Sighing, he plopped himself in front of the two shinigami.

"Yer right." he mumbled, half to himself. "Mah reasons were stupid, anyway. Ah bet Ah could have done it in a better way." He leaned back, laying down on his back. "Meh, at least Ah had fun."

He closed his eyes and he noticed that everyone fell silent as a loud beeping noise filled a room. When the beeping noise subsided, the cool female voice sounded again.

"Patient 947846242, Luppi Antenor, please report to the processing room." it said, as a door slid open. Gin sat up, wondering what was happening. He turned to the two shinigami.

"Wha's goin' on?" he asked. Ukitake shrugged.

"I don't know, this is new." the former Thirteenth Division Captain said, watching interestingly as Luppi stood up from where he had sprawled out when Gin had left him to talk to the two Captains. With one more look into the room, he disappeared beyond the door. It closed with a slight snap behind him. Curious, Gin stood up and made his way to the door, trying to get it open. Not budging, it stayed closed, firmly keeping Gin from leaving the room.

Sighing, the silver haired man made his way back to the room and sat down in an empty spot against the wall. He closed his eyes. So what, they were just supposed to wait until they were called? What could this place be? He rapped his knuckles on his forehead and thought.

Okay, say this was a waiting room. Waiting for what? They had just died in the dead world. Was this the waiting room to be reborn again? Gin opened his eyes. That must be it. Reincarnation worked both ways. Humans were sent to the Soul Society as dead souls, and when their time up was there, they were sent back to the living world.

If the Arrancar had been killed with a zanpakutou, they would have been purified and sent to Soul Society. Gin looked around at the faces around him. Barragan, Ulquiorra Cifer, Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, and those three in the Privaron Espada, as well as Wonderweiss, was here. That made sense. They were all killed without the use of a zanpakutou.

Well, a shinigami's zanpakutou, at least. Gin thought, looking at Grimmjow again. He had been decapitated by Nnoitra, hadn't he? That would have been an annoying way to go.

But why were they being made to wait? Gin pondered again, frowning. Didn't this reincarnation thing usually work instantly? Was it because their deaths weren't orderly? Premature deaths, perhaps?

There was another beeping noise, followed by the soothing voice again. "Patient 947846243, Dordonii Alessandro Del Socacchio, please report to the processing room." Gin looked up as the Privaron Espada with the ugly face stood up and walked stoically towards the door, keeping his gaze straight on ahead.

This is going to take a while. Gin thought, as he leaned his head back against the wall. Sure enough, he found himself sitting against that same wall for many more hours, before he had lost count of how long it had been. Time didn't seem to exist there, and all he could do was sit there in boredom. Perhaps if he had Shinsou, it would have been different. At least he would have had someone he would have wanted to talk to.

"Patient 947846255, Matsumoto Rangiku, is awake and healed." The cool voice echoed suddenly. Gin snapped his head up. That couldn't mean-

The door that he had walked through himself earlier slid open and a confused Rangiku stepped through, in the same plain white gown that Gin had woken up in. As her gaze scanned the room, their eyes instantly met, and they froze, locked in time staring at each other, forgetting about all the others.

"G-Gin?" she stammered, tears welling up in her eyes. Gin smiled softly and stood up, walking up to her. As a teardrop started to fall, he brought his finger up to her cheek and wiped it clean away.

"Mah, Rangiku, ya know Ah don' like seein' ya cry." he whispered to her. As she felt his warm fingers on her skin, she broke down completely, wrapping her arms around him in a fierce hug.

"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Rangiku cried into Gin's shoulder. Awkwardly, Gin placed his hands her her back, tangling them in her long hair.

"That's what Ah should be sayin'" he mumbled into her neck. He pulled her off of him slightly. "What happened?" Rangiku sniffled, trying to stop her tears. Unsuccessful, she kept crying, as Gin held her gently in his arms.

"After you were gone, I ran with your body." she managed to say after a few seconds. "I just wanted to get away from it all. I ended up running all the way to our old shack." she chuckled at herself at this. "I just wanted to remember the good old days, I guess, back before this whole shinigami business started. Then I remembered the day you told me you were going to be a shinigami." she took a deep breath. "And I knew that I wanted to follow you there, since you were my world. And I couldn't just run when you had given your life for me. So I went back, laying your body underneath your favorite persimmon tree from when we were younger." Gin smiled at the thought, brought Rangiku in a tighter hug. She could always think of things like that even in times like this.

"When I got back to Karakurachou," she continued, "Aizen and the human boy were locked in a staring match, neither one having lifted their swords against each other yet. It was as if they were gauging each other's strength.

"You would mercilessly strike down your own comrades? Kurosaki had said towards Aizen. And Aizen just had this triumphant look on him. As if he knew what you were going to do, Gin, and he had kept you for that moment, so that he could just grow stronger from your death. And- I guess I couldn't take that." Rangiku sniffled once more. "I just shot kido after kido at him, and sent Haineko flying at him, although Kurosaki was shouting at me not to. I couldn't help it. I had lost my world and there was nothing else for me.

"I can't remember after that." she ended defeatedly. "He probably appeared behind me before I could realize it and killed me then. But," she looked up into Gin's eyes. "If I knew it would have brought me back to you, I would have done it much sooner."

Gin glanced away from his childhood friend, noticing the stares of the others around them for the first time. He pointedly avoided the gazes of Tousen and the other two Captains of the Gotei 13. Che, they didn't need to see this side of him. He turned back towards to Rangiku and smiled softly again.

"C'mon, Rangiku, let's sit over there." he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her over to a blank space on the wall.

The two cuddled with each other like they hadn't done in years since they had lived in that cold and empty shack over a hundred years ago. They didn't talk any, just held each other in their arms and kept each other warm, like they were young again. Slowly, the numbers around them dwindled down, leaving the two of them and Yamamoto Soutaichou. As his name was finally called out, he walked over to the couple. Gin looked up at him.

"Ichimaru, I'll accept your apology." Yamamoto said, simply, before turning towards the door. Gin bowed his head slightly in thanks as the old man walked through the doorway and disappeared. Sighing, Gin nudged Rangiku.

"Ah think Ah'm next, Rangiku." Gin mumbled into her hair. She muttered something incoherent into his chest. "Ran?"

"Don't leave me." she repeated. "Not again." Gin sighed and smiled.

"Ah'm sure we'll see each other again." he said, patting her shoulder. "We seem ta be bond by an unbreakable thread. If this really is tha start of a new life, then we'll meet each other in the next life, fer sure." Rangiku smiled up at him and nuzzled into his chest again.

"You better be right, Gin." she said. The beeping sound went off again.

"Patient 947846254, Ichimaru Gin, please proceed to the processing room." Gin stood up, lifting Rangiku up with him. She walked him to the door which had slid open and gave him one more hug. She whispered her last goodbye into his ear as he stepped through the doorway. As Gin started to reply, the cool voice sounded again, just as the door was sliding closed. Gin and Rangiku shared a quick look of shock and dread as they realized who had just entered the room, before Gin was shut out from her.

"Patient 947846256, Aizen Sousuke, is awake and healed."