Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, or any of the characters used in this fic. They all belong to Tite Kubo. I only own any of my original characters that I choose to include, as well as any of my own original plot ideas.
Left Under The Mattress
A/N: Post-Winter War.
When she'd found it in the snow, she hadn't known what it was; just that it was pretty. It had been patterned with blue and silver beads and ended with a cross, cold to the touch as she'd pulled it from the white bank. He'd grabbed her hand then, pulling her up and out of the chill. He'd said that he didn't want her to catch cold. She was hard enough to take care of as it was.
She'd told him to leave her; that she could take care of herself.
And she had done just that, but not without thinking of him. They'd whizzed by, the days, and she'd always wondered when, and if, he'd come back. He hadn't.
But she had found him, working to ward off the boy who would save them all. At the last moment, he'd changed his mind, a foolish gesture, and had ended up in the last place she'd wanted to see him: Red and in her arms.
That's why she was here on such a cold morning. Lying in bed, sheets pulled up over her eyes. She didn't want to look at the world, let alone think about it. The night had brought that memory back, that of the snow, as it had laid the once green sight to rest with a sheet of soft white.
"What is it?" she had asked him, drying the item with her shirt.
He had touched it, tilting his head as he did when he analyzed something. "That's a rosary."
"What's that mean?"
"Some humans use it to pray. Each bead," he had laid her fingers over them, "represents a different prayer."
Now, she wondered where it had gone. Last time she'd seen it, Gin had tucked it away, insisting that he'd keep it safe for her.
Absently, her hand slipped beneath the mattress, grazing something that doesn't belong. She pulled, the clicking sound familiar as she moves to look. It's faded, but it's there and in her hand. The very same rosary she found in the snow all that time ago.
"Stupid man. You just had to hide it, didn't you?"