Characters: Rangiku, Gin
Summary: Put out to walk with no road to guide the feet.
Pairings: GinRan
Warnings/Spoilers: Vague spoilers
Timeline: pre-manga
Author's Note: This ended up being more a friendship piece, but I think romance still shows here just a little bit.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Sometimes, sometimes it feels like she's been put on a road and told to walk, only to watch as the road dissolves into the darkness before her. She still has the compulsion to walk, overpowering, but there is no path to follow and she's left to wander aimlessly in the dark.
And Rangiku can't even tell, sometimes, that she's walking blind.
"Where were you?" Rangiku's gasping slightly as she stops, bracing her hands on her knees for just a moment. Her tone is more curious than annoyed or worried, but Gin still stiffens, and doesn't look at her at first. "I've been looking for you for hours." She smoothes down her black hakama after hastily hopping up on the low brick wall beside him.
For a moment, Gin is silent and still. His face, still young and rounded, is utterly unreadable—hardly unusual to Rangiku's eyes but today it has some sort of secret quality to it that she doesn't like. Just as Rangiku's going to prod him in the arm to see if he's conscious, Gin opens his mouth to speak. "I'm… I'm sorry, Rangiku. I was helping Aizen-taicho with something; the time got away from me, I guess."
Rangiku can't help but frown a little bit at his absent tone. He's not lying—Rangiku likes to think she can tell when Gin's being truthful or not—but there's something there… Something he's leaving out.
She smiles to change the subject, gently rubbing his slight shoulder. "You look tired."
"Nyahh, I'm alright."
And occasionally, in the darkness, she finds her friend, a pale, thin boy with a smile permanently affixed to his face, and she grabs his hand, smiling slightly, relieved to see any familiar face in the gloom, floating out from behind the dark trees.
Gin's not always greatly honest with her. It frustrates Rangiku; they've always been friends, for nearly as long as Rangiku can remember, so she doesn't understand why he can't be more open with her than he is.
But for the company of a wandering soul, there is no one better—and there's no one else Rangiku would ask for, alone in the dark.
Gin knows how to navigate all the hidden paths.
