Characters: Rangiku, Gin
Summary: Sharing skins.
Pairings: GinRan
Warnings/Spoilers: No spoilers
Timeline: Pre-Soul Society arc
Author's Note: I still love this pairing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
His skin is cool and dry like the scales of a snake just before shedding, and Rangiku fingers skate across, wondering just when he's going to shed his skin again and put on a new façade.
It's always a new face with Gin, a new persona, a new mask—he's at times a bit over-fond of imitating Hollows—maybe to hide from her, maybe to hide from others or maybe because he's never found a skin that fits him right. He's never felt comfortable in any of these exploratory, experimental skins.
If he's hiding from Rangiku, it hasn't worked, and maybe that's how Gin always intended. They've never been able to hide their faces from each other, or their skins; they have their secrets, certainly, and Gin is much better at keeping secrets than Rangiku. There are things she doesn't know, won't ever know, words in languages she doesn't understand etched in deep black ink like sin-stains across his chest, but she doesn't ask.
Gin's inner workings are his alone.
And of course, those words stay on, ineffaceable, no matter how often he sheds his skin. But Rangiku can take him like he is, regardless of tattoo-ink-scars.
Her fingernails dig into his back, will leave marks later.
Gin can have some of her skin, to cover up the marks on his. Rangiku doesn't mind.
They've slept in each other's skins before.