The Glasses (Hurt/Comfort and Humor, Aizen/Ichimaru) 65 years ago
Sosuke groaned as he stirred awake. He was leaned back in his desk chair, and his long legs had nowhere to go but up onto the desk. He opened his eyes and was surprised to see that he was in the living room of his captain's quarters, Ichimaru-kun was sleeping on a tatama mat on the floor, Kyoka Suigetsu was still lodged into the floor beside Gin, and the front door was wide open. Sunlight blasted through that door and his front window as well, bathing the entire place in an extremely obnoxious glow. Especially since...
"Oh, I feel like a pile of crap," he complained out loud. At his feet was the culprit; a nearly empty bottle of Jagermiester on the desktop, along with one knocked over glass and another that had a few dark brown drops left. Slowly, it started to come back to him. Zaraki Kenpachi had stumbled in here last night, rambling about how he got into a fight with Soi Fon and they wound up trashing Ukitake's garden during their fight. And so he went to a bar, did a few (yeah sure more like several) shots of Absinthe and followed that up with a PB&J sandwich, then headed over to Squad Five's barracks to tell me all about it. And thus drained me of my Jagermeister as well.
Sosuke got up and shut his front door. Today was a really lousy day to be hungover; there was a vitally important captains' meeting this morning. "Oh damn it! What time is it?" Frantically, he looked for the Rolex he'd picked up in the living world. "Oh, good, I have about twenty minutes. Gin! Wake up!" he said sharply.
His vice-captain stirred, then stretched a bit and opened his eyes. Unlike himself and Zaraki, Gin hadn't touched any alcohol last night. "Oh, good mornin', Sosuke." Gin looked around him, and primarily his eyes rested on Kyoka Suigetsu standing before him. "Thanks for this."
Sosuke plucked his zanpakuto from the floor. He had created an illusion for Gin last night, to help him relax. He'd set him in an English-style library next to a roaring fire and reading a book. "What book were you reading again?"
"Oh, Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass. Also, was Zaraki-taicho here last night? I seem to remember him sittin' next to me, smellin' funny, like peanut butter…"
"Ah." The illusions were getting far more elaborate and intense. Now Gin could actually read a book in the illusion. Excellent. Someday I may be forced to create a very grand illusion... But he still noticed that Zaraki had been in the room. Well, I'll worry about those details as time moves on. First, to get through today! "By the way, have you seen my glasses?"
Gin glared at Sosuke. "Do you mean Zaraki-taicho saw ya without yer glasses last night? An' with the zanpakuto in the floor?" he asked, a bit panicked.
"Gin, are you kidding? He'd been drinking la fee verte*! Besides, it's remarkable how little the captain knows about zanpakuto! He knows about how to fight, and not much else, I'm sorry to say. I merely told him I was allowing you to use it as a tool for meditation. If he didn't believe me, he certainly didn't say so. Frankly, I think he was a bit more caught up in his own drama last night." Reassured, Gin settled back onto the tatama mat and stretched some more. Then he propped himself up on his elbows and grinned. He watched as Sosuke began rifling through all the papers on his desk, frowning when he could not find his glasses. "Gin, really now, have you seen my glasses? If I don't find those glasses..."
"Its. All. Over!" Gin chirped.
Sosuke darted over to him so fast that it was almost like shunpo. "Where are my glasses, Gin?"
Gin grinned and laughed at his captain's intensity. And then, produced the pair of glasses that masked the true nature of Aizen Sosuke. Sosuke pounced on top of him, so that Gin was pinned under him. "Give me my fucking glasses, Gin," he growled in the way a dog growls with warning he's about to bite.
"Ooh! Gimme my glasses, bitch! Now!" Gin joked, his maroon irises sparkling. Sosuke just gave him a look with slightly deadly sepia eyes, and Gin perched the glasses upside down on Sosuke's face.
Sosuke remained on top of Gin a bit longer, regretting that he had absolutely no time to take this further. Then he drawled, "My Gin, I think that these missions to the camps have been fucking you up badly."
"Oh, yeah? Well I think they've been affecting ya more. Now ya stink like that German jagermeister crap ya soaked yerself in last night! Since when do ya get drunk?" Gin complained, making a face.
"Well, fine French wines are quite scarce these days, as you well know! They are all locked up where only Hitler, you and I know where!" Sosuke retorted with a wink and climbed off Gin's slim body.
Since this terrible war in the living world began, a war the humans are calling "World War Two," so many Shinigami have been called to go into the living world. The battlefields and especially the places known as "concentration camps" were veritable breeding grounds for Hollows. Little did humans know, as they fought their enemies and they fell, that at the exact same time, another war was taking place right alongside them. Of course, all this time in the living world was starting to affect the Shingami, the way they did things, the way they thought about things.
For one thing, now Sosuke had acquired a taste for alcohol besides the Soul Society's beloved sake. He wasn't the only one. So spoiled have some Shinigami become with a wider selection of libations, they now wanted places that had what was called a "full bar." Gin had been informed, much to his annoyance, that his name, spelled in English letters, actually was the name of one of these new alcohol drinks...gin! Which of course was a main ingredient in a hideous drink called a "martini," the preparation of which was something that Kuchiki-fukutaicho supposedly excelled in, much to his grandfather-taicho's consternation and his secret girlfriend's amusement! The whole business made Gin grumpy, ever so slightly.
The thought of going to Birkenau concentration camp after the captains' meeting made him far more upset than the new alcohol fad...Gin watched Sosuke straighten his glasses. "Well, I'm ready to go!" the captain announced.
"Uh-uh, not yet!" Gin warned him.
"Oh, yes!" Sosuke popped a peppermint candy into his mouth to possibly cover the herbal liquor he'd been told he stunk from. "Gin, I hope Zaraki isn't so shitfaced that he screws up this meeting this morning!"
"He's a few inches taller than ya, Taicho. He has a place where all that crap goes. I'm not sure where it is. Maybe his bells. I think he'll be in better shape than ya're. Commere, ya still not ready to go!"
"What is it?" Sosuke asked.
Gin reached up to Sosuke's rich-earth hair and ruffled it, restoring the taller man to his benign, sweet bespectacled persona once more. "I'm glad I'm not goin' there alone again," Gin then said.
"I gave you my word I wouldn't send you there alone again. Our third seat is still hallucinating in Squad Four's barracks from your last trip to Auschwitz, and I...I cannot bear the thought of having something like that happen to you, my Gin. Cheer up! With each passing day, our future army of Hueco Mundo grows. I didn't ask for this war, I didn't cause it certainly, but I sure as hell have no qualms about benefitting from it!"
"I'll be ready for ya when ya get back, Sosuke," Gin told him.
*La fee verte means "The Green Fairy" in French, which is another name for Absinthe. This is a preview of a possible future story. If you find it interesting, please let me know with a reiview. Thanks!