"Maa, Sousuke –"
The airy voice stopped, its echo resounding through the darkened chamber briefly before silence took hold again, but only for a moment. The famous smile always plastered to Ichimaru Gin's face drooped a little and he stepped in the room, the clicking of his shoes against the tile having an odd metallic clang against stone. He reached the lounging form in the chair and sat on the arm rest, leaning over to get in his leader's face.
"Sousuke?" he asked, smile still slighter than normal.
"Gin, do you miss him?" the dark-haired man asked after a moment, elbow on the arm rest that Gin wasn't sitting on and chin in his palm. He wasn't facing the silver-haired ex-captain.
"Miss who, now?" Gin asked, his smile growing at the prospect of a guessing game.
"You know who."
"There are lots of him's I coulda missed, Sousuke," Gin chirped.
"Don't fool around, Gin, you know who I mean." The tone to the brilliant leader's voice was sterner than normal and Gin's smile fell again to mimic a pout almost.
"Ya mean Izuru-chan? A little, but obviously I didn' miss him enough ta stay," he admitted. After a pause, he positively grinned. "Is Sousuke sayin' he misses his Hinamori-chan?" he sang.
"I wouldn't say miss," Aizen confessed. "It's more like a pang of guilt."
"Why?" The question was frank, genuine, and at that point Aizen knew Gin would never understand. He had absolutely no pity for the people he broke in order to rise above them all. He never had.
"Because she was just such a sweet girl," he told him anyways, drumming his fingers on his knee. There was silence for a moment before Gin shifted, getting more comfortable, and leaned his head down on Aizen's shoulder. He had always been rather clingy.
"Nn, now that ya say it, I guess Izuru was a good kid, too. Yep," he agreed. "They was good, good kids. 'N that's why we chose 'em, right, Sousuke?"
"Yes, you're quite right," Aizen mused, his voice somewhat distant. Who had known, forty years ago, that it would've worked that well?
"Is that why ya couldn' jus' kill her?" Gin continued. "'Cause ya was s'posed ta."
"The level of devotion on her face, it wasn't something I had expected to see." He had expected surprise and disbelief that her captain had lived, not the complete acceptance of it, or the readiness of it all. He hadn't even used hypnosis to bring that about.
"Somethin' beautiful, ne?" Gin made a happy hum. "Ya shoulda seen Izuru's when I fucked him. Complete devotion!" Aizen turned his head finally and gave him a funny stare. "What? Ya never did that stuff ta Hinamori-chan?" the silver-haired man asked, appalled. "Well, I didn' have a sword all the time ta hypnotize, 'n sex works jus' the same way, ya know."
"We never got that far. Our relationship was much more… sophisticated," Aizen told him, turning his head back away to avoid Gin's pout. The man had always been such a little slut. "We did little more than kiss."
"Did the kisses get steamy?" Gin immediately wanted to know. "I betcha did the bare minimum 'cause yer gay! Hmph, Sousuke cheated 'n used his sword too much!"
"I offered you the same privilege," the brunette said with some exasperation. "You said you had it all under control. You could've been a bit more subtle with what you had, too."
"Thas no fun," Gin pouted. There was another silence in which Aizen continued to brood and think and Gin cuddled against the man's shoulder.
"You know, she even tasted like innocence. She smelled like innocence, and tasted like innocence."
"Innocence don' have a taste," Gin told him. "Izuru smelled like fresh air mosta the time, 'less he smelled like me which was my fault. 'N he jus' tasted like Izuru."
"I'm being figurative, Gin," Aizen said, his sternness back. "She really was beautiful."
"Ya sure ya don't miss her?" This time, the pout was obvious. "'M here, ya know."
"I know," Aizen said, voice a little coy as he pulled Gin into his lap and kissed the thinner man once. Gin wanted more, he could tell, but it was fun to tease him. "I don't really need her. It was just a passing thing of guilt."
"They deserve better 'n us," Gin agreed, and Aizen believed that for once he was being serious.
"Then I hope they've found it," he murmured. "Now what was it you wanted to tell me?" he said, changing the subject.
"Oh! Oh, oh, we has ryoka of our own now, Sousuke!" Gin said gleefully. Plump lips curled into a smirk.
"Oh?" He gave a quiet chuckle and pet Gin's hair in his amusement. "Do you feel like greeting them at the gate, just like you did last time?" The silver-haired man almost got up, but he stopped and leaned back against Aizen's chest with a sigh.
"Iss too hot," he moaned. "I don' like the desert, Sousuke."
"I know you don't, Gin," Aizen sympathized, playing with the collar of Gin's coat. "I think you'd enjoy it a little more if you didn't wear so much clothing…"
The hint was caught immediately, and Gin turned back with a grin to kiss Aizen hard. When he pulled away, he made a slight face. "But that'll jus' make us hotter!"
"Then I propose we move our location to a cold shower," he said, scooping the only man considered his vice-captain up and standing. Gin made a noise of glee.
"But wha'bout the ryoka, Sousuke?"
"They can wait, Gin. The Espada will take care of them," he said.
"I love our funny Spanish people. We have sex so much now!"
"That's why I made them, Gin. To do all the dirty work." And with that, they exited the room in the direction of the nearest bathroom.