From Yesterday

From yesterday, it calls him
But he doesn't want to read the message here
On a mountain he sits, not of gold but of shit
through the blood he can learn, see the life that he took
From a council of one
He'll decide when he's done with the innocent

It was no secret that she hated paperwork. Normally, Hitsugaya wouldn't have bothered her with it, knowing that her mind would wander off and what little she accomplished had to be redone or at least looked over. But with the absence of the captain of the 5th Division and Hinamori's sparse knowledge of how the paperwork needed to be done, she found herself doing more and more of their division's paperwork while Hitsugaya lent his talents to Hinamori in going through the mountains of paperwork that accumulated during her hospital stay.

She set the quill down, leaning the end of it on the inkwell. Her hand hurt. It was cramping from trying to slowly write the characters as to keep it neat so the paperwork looked perfect. It was a pet peeve of Hitsugaya. She could see him sitting by his desk in the next room over, filling out paperwork as well. His finished stack was much bigger then hers although they had started at the same time. She was jealous. She had no idea how he could whip through them so quickly and still be so neat and precise. She sighed and picked up the quill. She dipped it into the inkwell and made the first stroke in Kokichiro's name.

There was warm breath on her neck and she froze, her hand stopped moving. The ink pooled at that point.

"Move," the voice purred into her ear. "We wouldn't want you to mess up yet another report."

She finished out the stroke and wiped the tip off on the edge of the inkwell. " Why are you here?" she hissed. " If Hitsugaya-taichou finds out…"

"I wouldn't tell if you wouldn't," Gin replied in that sing-song tone voice he knew she hated so much.

"Why are you here?" she repeated, writing the next character, staring directly ahead like nothing was going on, eyes locking with Hitsugaya who was probably checking in on her progress. She gave him a little wave and he caught sight of her nearly nonexistent done pile and rolled his eyes, returning back to his work. Rangiku didn't know how he didn't see Gin. She could feel his hair tickling her shoulder as he breathed next to her ear.

"Can't I see an old friend?" She felt his lips brush against her neck. It was nice. She ignored it, concentrating on writing up the report.

"I don't want to see you."

"Ah, so you want to kill me?" He was no longer touching her but she knew he was very close to her. She longed to look behind her and get a look of him but that would tip Hitsugaya off. She didn't know if he wanted to see Gin dead or hurt so she kept silent and still.

"I'd let you kill me, you know."

"No, you wouldn't. Before I could even draw, I'd be dead," she responded, redipping the quill to write the next sentence.

"You're right. I would kill you." His voice had changed to the serious one. For most people, it would make them nervous and scared but for her, it put her at ease. It was his honest voice. She knew she wasn't played when he used it.

She sighed. "Did you just come here to bait me?"

"No. I came to make an offer." She could see him mentally, slithering closer to her like a snake. He was right next to her now. She could feel the heat rolling off of his body and she suddenly felt like her temperature had risen a few degrees. She felt his blunt nails running through her scalp, tangling themselves in her hair. It would have been a comforting gesture from anyone else, not a suggestion of the power he had over her, but nevertheless, she tried to enjoy it. She couldn't do much else.

"Aizen's' ready and he'll kill everyone who gets in his way," he whispered into her ear. She could see a long pale finger twirling a lock of her hair out of the corner of her eye.

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Don't fight. Come with me."

"It's my job to fight," she hissed, slapping his hand away before she had time to think over her action. She found Gin's zanpakuto against her throat. She chewed herself out for being so stupid.

"Don't you want to live?" he pressed the blade harder against her neck in order to make his point. She noted he wasn't pressing hard enough to draw blood. It was either another manipulation device or that he honestly didn't want to hurt her.

"I'm not a coward like you, Gin. I'm not afraid to die."

"Why do you want to fight when you know you are only going to lose?" he whispered. The pressure on her skin from the sword lessened as he slowly ran the tip of it down her neck and lower. " Why do you want to see all your friends dying in front of you and know that you can't save them? Why do you want to watch your home burn down and everything destroyed? Why do you?"

The sword point hovered right above her heart and Rangiku felt bold enough to tip her head back to meet Gin's eyes. "Why do you?" she answered back. His eyes went from slit to fully-open back to slits, but in that split second, she saw something like regret and confusedness there.

"I don't care about what happens here. I never liked this place or the people."

"And yet you still try to save your friends," she whispered.

"You're not my friend."

She smiled at his denial, finally feeling like she had the upper hand on the situation despite the sword still on her.

"You're my enemy," he added, just in case she needed clarification.

"Even so, you're still my friend," she told him.

"And are you going to save me?" he mocked.

"Do you want me to save you?"

He didn't answer. She felt and saw him remove the sword from her and place it again by his side. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." She watched him walk out of the room, knowing that it was the last time she would ever see him. She wasn't sure how she was thankful or saddened by that prospect.

She lifted her head from the back of the chair and picked up the quill to continue with her paperwork. She glanced at Hitsugaya quickly to find he was staring at her with a pensive expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" she called out.

"Nothing," he shook his head. " Stop chatting and get back to work."

She hadn't been chatting that long to him anyway and she scowled, putting her signature to the form to finish it out. She heard in the background the clang of weapons meeting and things exploding and the screams of people dying. In that moment, she realized Hitsugaya had known all along what she was doing and probably once again, she and her captain had fallen into one of Gin's traps. She watched him furiously writing out another form and she knew that he knew it too. But it was a game that they had to play.