Characters: Gin, Aizen, Hinamori
Summary
: The truth is shaded.
Pairings
: onesided HinaAizen
Warnings/Spoilers
: Spoilers for Soul Society arc and Deicide arc
Timeline
: pre-Soul Society arc
Author's Note
: Onesided HinaAizen through a Gin lens. Scary, no?
Disclaimer
: I don't own Bleach.


Gin smiles cattily as he sits in the bough of the tree and watches Hinamori. Pale, delicate Hinamori. Pretty, malleable Hinamori. Clueless, unknowingly unfortunate Hinamori.

She follows after Aizen with light feet bouncing off of the dewy grass, skimming, barely touching the ground. Like she's floating, buoyant, utterly weightless. This is so very ironic that Gin can barely restrain a sardonic chuckle, that the little girl can't see the chains gathering around her, dragging her closer and closer to the earth.

To say he plays the game much better than her is an understatement, since he actually knows what game he's playing.

Little Hinamori has fallen in love with an illusion, been fed so full of lies and deceit that she can't see the real world as anything but a mash-up of insipid gray rain clouds. The illusions are the only things in renditions of vivid color for her anymore. It's a little sad, really, but Gin doesn't care enough to feel sad for her personally. His goals preclude feeling guilt or indignation over collateral damage.

Aizen's happy to feed her addictive poison if it keeps her coming back to him—virtually the only thing Gin can admire about his former captain is his ability to so masterfully manipulate everyone around him.

He has manipulated before. Kira and Renji could have stayed wrapped firmly around his fingers if he had so chosen, but instead shipped Renji (deemed useless and too dangerous) to the Eleventh, and gave Kira (possibly dangerous if things got to that point) to Gin, knowing that Gin alone possessed the ability to control Kira. And, yes, Gin is still perfectly capable of keeping Kira so thoroughly wrapped in the dark and shadows that Kira couldn't find his way out even if he wanted to.

Aizen can fool almost anyone, and those who weren't fooled aren't in a position to protest against him (Urahara, Shihoin, Tsukabishi and the Vizard are all likely to lose their lives if they ever attempt to warn Soul Society concerning the traitor in their midst). Even Gin was at one point nearly lulled into a sense of false security; it was only the reminder that Aizen would likely poison him with falsehoods that brought Gin back to himself. He is without a doubt the most dangerous man Gin has ever known.

And he has plied his considerable talents to so thoroughly coat Hinamori in sugar-spun lies that she is utterly submerged in a frothy sea of deceit, drowning in it.

It was such a magnificent thing to behold. So subtle at first but then became obvious to anyone who was in on the secret as Aizen lathered it on thick. It's almost frightening how charming he can be when he wants something.

And now the truth is shaded, visible only to those who know where to look and what they're looking for. Gin can see it clearly, and Tousen too, despite his physical blindness (and the irony is impossible for Gin not to notice, since Tousen is spiritually blind to all the other that they are exposed to), but no one else can.

They just see a young lieutenant utterly besotted with her kind, affable captain.

They don't see the manipulator.

They don't see the girl who's dying on the poisons being fed her.

She herself can't see that she's dying.

Gin, the consummate liar, can see everything; the one who tells lies is especially well-adapted to spotting them out. It's how he's navigated the hazardous avenues of power and ambition of Seireitei without getting even slightly scathed. It's how he can walk through the fire and emerge without a scorch mark on him.

It's, he supposes, part of the reason Aizen keeps him around, keeps him despite knowing he's a danger. The one who can spot out the lies of another is useful to him, and Gin can guess that it's refreshing to Aizen, to have at least one person who always knows when he's lying. He needs someone astute enough to seek out the truth and guess as to what it is he really wants.

And he's the only one who can see the truth now.

Many of Seireitei simply smile indulgently on the facile displays of affection engaged in by Hinamori. This is harmless, they assume, and even if it's not, there's no ban between supervisor-subordinate relationships in the Gotei Thirteen. Aizen and Hinamori can do whatever they want, sexually and romantically speaking.

Rangiku and Kira both raise an eyebrow to this. They are close enough to Gin that a little of his truth-sight has rubbed off on them. They can guess that something is off with this, but they can't tell what. They narrow their eyes at the sight, frown a little bit, and then try to forget it, because as much as their gut tells them that something is wrong, they can't tell what's wrong.

Hitsugaya doesn't like it, but it's obvious why, and the self-knowledge of his jealousy and envy is what keeps him from speaking out and raising his voice. He simply can't find a good reason to hate what goes on between Aizen-taicho and Hinamori-fukutaicho of the Fifth division.

Gin scoffs at them all, for not being able to see the obvious.

Aizen devours Hinamori like a snake on a mouse, consuming her flesh. He drinks her blood to bind her to him, and gives back sweet, alcoholic poison drips of lies, something for her to lap up, something to keep her coming back.

He poisons her slowly, like she is a queen and he a disgruntled servant pouring arsenic in the teacup.

And Hinamori is too blind, too fed on lies and too engorged on the illusion of love to see the little white half moons appearing on her fingernails, sure signs that she's dying on the poison Aizen drips, drips, drips in her delicate ear.