Way to win once more, Whalefriend. I hope you enjoy, along with everyone else who read this.
If you were to turn into a snake tomorrow and begin devouring Humans, and from the same mouth you devoured Humans, you cried out to me "I love you!", would I still be able to say "I love you" the same way I do today?
Rangiku pushed her index finger around the rim of her glass, looking out the window with her head propped up on her hand. She heaved another sigh, her eyes slowly sliding shut.
She opened them again, turning to stare away from the window.
Outside someone laughed, a high shrill laugh that most likely belonged to Yachiru- it sounded demonic enough. A man, probably Ikakku, screamed and ran past the window, the laughing soon racing after him.
Rangiku smiled faintly to herself, leaning her head further into her palm.
The sounds of someone moving in the room behind her caught her attention, making her turn her head to the side. She blinked at Gin, dressed in his white robes, and then sighed heavily.
"I was already having a bad day." She told him quietly.
He smiled. "Well, Ran-chan, seems is' about ta' get worse."
She nodded, having already accepted the fact. "What is it?"
"Lord Aizen wants ta' kidnap someone. We need a princes up in the castle, but right now we're real short on 'em. So I was ordered to come by and pick ya' up."
She frowned. "I'm supposed to be at Orihime's house." She said. "How did you know I would be here and not with her? I'm heading back there tonight anyway." Or was, she thought.
"Aw, a magician never shares his secrets, you know that!"
She nodded to herself, staying silent for a moment. After a thin still had stretched between them, she bit her lip. "Are you going to try to take me by force?"
He smiled wider, like the idea was something silly. "Force ya'? Now why would I do that?" She looked closer and noticed just how very forced his smile was, and was confused to find he was nervous. "Naw, we get cute little Izuru to blackmail ya. If ya' don't come along with me, then I'll have him go after yer captain."He titled his head to the side. "Now I have ta' wonder, who would come outa' that fight alive?"
Rangiku swallowed. "This isn't your style of bastard." She pointed out bitterly. "Did Aizen plan all this out?"
His smile started to crack, growing larger and larger. "Now why would ya' say that?"
"No reason." She pushed her index finger around the rim of her sake cup once more before looking back over her shoulder at her former superior. "Fine, I'll come with you." She stood up, brushing her palms off on the sides of her hakama.
"Ah' course! Right this way, ma' lady." He gave her a mocking bow, gesturing broadly to the rip in reality that had appeared in her bedroom.
She held her head high, swallowing, and walked into the gap between her world and his. It was cold and damp, sort of like winter, but thick with emptiness like the heat of summer. She walked through, Gin following close behind her, stepping out onto cold white marble in a room unfamiliar to her. She knew they were in Los Noches immediately she could feel thousands of hollows around the area.
"Where are we?" She asked quietly.
"Take a guess."
She looked around once, and then pressed her lips together. "I guess this is your room now, huh?" She walked over to the bed, sitting down and bouncing a couple of times. She smiled bitterly. "This is nice and cozy, isn't it?"
There was a knock at the door the moment the garganta closed. Gin calmly turned, his eyes shut tight, and answer with a cool, "Come on in."
The door swung open to reveal a man as pale as bone with hair black as night; streaks like tears running down an emotionless face. "Your orders have been altered." The hollow informed Gin, not even sending Rangiku a glance. "You are no longer tasked with the abduction of Matsumoto Rangiku."
"Oh?" He purred. "Well that's wonderful news! She'd be awful sad without anythin' but tea to drink, eh Ran-chan?"
She glared at him.
The arancar seemed as amused as Rangiku. "You are to return the shinigami woman as soon as the current target has been attained."
"And who'd that be?"
"Orihime Inoue; a human woman."
Rangiku felt the air leave her lungs in a whoosh of air, horror trickling into her stomach. They were going to kidnap Orihime?
"Well, she is a beauty. Hair's not as blond as it could be, ya know, but she's still a feisty lil' thing, isn't she?" He wasn't talking to Aizen's other minion- he was talking to her.
"You leave Orihime alone."
"She will not be kidnapped." The other man informed her, though he still looked only at Gin. "She has agreed to come of her own free will."
No!
"See there Ran-chan? S'all right, she's just coming 'cuz she feels like it." Gin's smile was dripping with lies and bad humor, they both knew, but she couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit reassured that Orihime wasn't being taken from her home by force.
It was still clear to her that the girl was most likely being blackmailed, but at least she wouldn't get hurt.
"That is all." The hollow turned on his heel and left, closing Gin's door closed behind him.
Gin waited a moment, his back to her, standing as he faced the closed door.
"Better her than you." He murmured quietly; so dim in volume she almost didn't hear him.
She did though, even if just barely. She looked away sharply.
Gin turned, his smirk stretching up over his face. "Now what'er we gonna do 'til I take ya' back to where yer posed' ta' be, hm?" He slithered closer to the bed, causing Rangiku to lean back. "Why don't ya' tell me how you've been fairin'?"
"I'd rather not." She spat, crawling back and away from him, scooting up until her back hit the headboard. "It's not like you care, anyway, Gin. Why don't you just drop the games and leave me alone?"
"Aw, you're so mean ta' me, Ran!" He knelt before her on the bed, smiling as he titled his head to the side. "Here I was all concerned fer your well bein!"
Rangiku blew a puff of air out of her mouth. She was silent for a second. "… Just… talking. Okay? Just talking." She watched wearily as he lay down beside her, his hands behind his head, looking up at her with a smile that was almost more fond of her than it was creepy.
"Jus' talkin." He repeated.
She slowly slid down until she was laying beside him, her head turned to look at his face. "I've had a lot more to do," She said slowly, still not sure if he was just being his bastard self and trying to dig under her skin. "Since you've been gone."
"I'd imagine so."
"Paperwork." She said seriously. "Lots of paperwork."
Gin's smile stretched. "Paperwork?" He asked with humor tinting his voice. "Aw, chibi's making you do paperwork? How ever will you survive?"
She snorted, almost a laugh. "Trust me; I'm dying."
"I bet! Ya' know, you shoulda' been my lieutenant. I never gave Izuru much paperwork." He smiled wider. "Played plenty a' pranks on 'im though."
Rangiku laughed lightly at that. "You're a liar. He had just as much work as I did." She held her hands up in front of her, imitating his voice and acting like she was holding a cup. "I don't know what to do anymore! Captain Ichimaru is working me to the bone!" She threw back the cup she had played out, glugging down invisible liquid. She slammed the cup back out in front of her. "And here's the worst part: he's replaced all of his signatures with little doodles of foxes! Now I have to go back and fix everything!"
Gin laughed quietly. "So maybe I gave 'im a bit."
Rangiku went to laugh, rolling over on her side so she could be closer to Gin, but her smile slipped right from her face as she did. "You know…" She blinked slowly, looking away from his face. "It doesn't have to be like this. You could come back with me and it would be like old times again."
"Now you know I can't do that, Ran-chan." He drawled. "They'd hang me up like a proper traitor, now, wouldn' they?"
"If you gave them inform-"
"Naw, too risky. I'm loyal to Aizen, ya know?" He poked her shoulder firmly. "Convertin' the enemy now, are ya'? Be careful now, yer captain don't like me much so if ya' managed to get me back ya'd get more paperwork, ya know."
She frowned at him. "I'm not joking around Gin." She muttered.
He was silent for a second. "I know."
She waited for him to ask her to come to his side, hoping that she would feel better once she turned him down, too, but the question never came. His fingers wound into her hair in the inquiry's place shifting through her strawberry-blonde locks.
"You could come back." She said again softly. "You don't have any dried persimmons here, do you?"
He smirked, nodding at a cabinet behind her. "I came prepared."
"Gin…" She leaned into his touch, her eyes glossy. "Why'd you leave us?"
They both knew she had said us but they also both knew she meant me.
"I'm a snake in the grass." He told her, leaning closer. "With cold skin, no emotions, that slithers around searching for prey with its tongue." He breathed into her ear. "Swallowing down whatever looks tasty." He nipped at the shell of her ear, his tongue darting out to leave warmth around the outside of her ear.
She pressed her fingertips to his chest, lightly pushing him back. "Just talking." She reminded him, though she sounded breathless even to herself. It didn't matter how much she may have liked the sensation of his tongue running around the outside of her ear- it made her insides feel like she had been drinking liquid acid.
He nodded, slowly backing away with a smile telling her he was disappointed. "Right. Jus' talkin."
"… Gin?"
"Yeah?"
"You apologized for something."
They didn't need to say anything more than that; he knew she was talking about the day he had betrayed her. She had held a sword to his neck, and he had murmured, "It would have been nice If my capture had lasted a little longer. So long, Rangiku. Sorry."
"I did." He said, his gaze seeming to shift away from her though he had never once opened his eyes.
"For what?"
He didn't answer her; he just rolled over so that his back was facing her.
She sat up quickly; stalking away from the bed and to the cabinet he had earlier nodded at. She yanked open one of the drawers, grabbing a persimmon, and shoved the thing in between her teeth. She bit into the treat, relishing the sour taste.
"Don't you go eatin' up all my food." He warned her playfully from the bed.
She swallowed, reaching in for another to toss to him. "I only took one."
He didn't move when the dried fruit hit him in the back of the head, he just stayed lying on his side so that he wouldn't have to look at her.
She sank back down into the bed, nibbling on the edge of another one of the fruits. "I think that maybe that guy, you know, the one who was just in here, I think he's going to kidnap Orihime-chan." She surmised. "He seems like he gets things done."
Gin didn't say anything.
"How long are you going to keep me here?" She asked quietly.
There was a soft sound of the blankets beneath them moving slightly, then the cool of Gin's bony arms wrapping around her neck. Into her each he whispered, "Not long enough."
She swallowed. "Gin…"
"Just a little kiss, Ran-chan, hmm? Yer goin' back soon. And I do miss ya'."
As if on cue, there was a loud bang on the door. Rangiku jumped, but Gin just turned his head to the side to look through squinted eyes at the door. "Yes?" He asked, his tone pleasant enough. To Rangiku it sounded as if it dripped with annoyance and anger; like venom disguised as sugar-water.
The door slid open, a blue haired man with only one arm standing looking irritated. Rangiku recognized him vaguely. "Aizen sent me to tell-"
"Aizen-sama." Gin corrected him with a large grin.
The man scowled. "Lord Aizen," He said through clenched teeth, "sent me to tell you to send that shinigami bitch back to her little garden or wherever the hell she came from."
Gin calmly unwound his arms from Rangiku's form, leaning forward dangerously. "I'm sorry, Grimmjow, but if you'd like to keep yer other arm, you'll go ahead an' address 'er as Matsumoto."
Grimmjow scowled and slammed the door to Gin's room closed.
Rangiku stood swiftly. "Well, I guess-"
Gin grabbed her shoulder with a light touch and spun her around so that she no longer faced the garganta that had suddenly opened up where it had just earlier. He roughly kissed her cheek, asking for permission to her lips.
She knew she would hate herself for it, but she wound her arms around his neck anyway.
His mouth was warm and sticky with the juices of the persimmon, his touch rough but careful at the same time. She sighed into his mouth, melting under his hands as the familiar sensation of the bony fingers on the back of her neck and lower back came into play.
For a moment there was no war. No sides, no shinigami or arrancar. No Aizen or Yammamoto or Soul King. He wasn't a traitor and she wasn't the one who didn't follow.
It was just them and a long kiss full of things they both wanted to say but had no words to use.
When she drew back everything else was there again, though, and she had just kissed a backstabbing man who had betrayed her and everyone else, and suddenly the taste of her favorite food felt like acid inside her mouth. She drew back from him like she had been slapped, shaking her head as the extreme need for the burn of saké festered in her throat.
She looked up at his face with wide confused eyes, and could tell he felt just as sick by what they had as she did.
She took a step back, and then another, so that darkness swirled around her and they were in different worlds though they stood right across from her.
She felt like there was a drastic need for final words- they both knew that the next time they met would be on a battlefield and they would have to hate each other as much as logic demanded.
But because she didn't know what to say she just stared at him, wide eyes with her swollen lips partly opened.
He should have said something, but instead he lifted a hand and ran his long bony fingers through her hair one last time, watching as the strands slipped from his hand like water.
She stared at his hand as he withdrew, back into his own world, and suddenly she realized she had to say something or she would never say anything at all and they would just be that book with the last pages ripped out- unfinished and not right in any way.
But as soon as she reached for his hand, tears building up in the side of her eyes, the blackness closed around her for a moment. She gasped just as the air around her suddenly became lighter; the sunlight of a living world pouring in through her pores. She regained her balance just before landing on the roof of Orihime's home, looking around frantically.
Somewhere not to far away, another garganta opened and closed.
She shakily slipped into the girl's apartment, and picked up the letter she had a feeling would be there.
She wondered who had made it so that the young human girl would take her place, before sobbing out loud, finally crumbling to her knees. Gin had become a soul reaper to make it so that she wouldn't cry anymore, but in the end he was the only reason she ever shed any tears at all.
He had put Orihime in the open slot for the princess of the tower.
He had devoured another human's life, just for her, and then had kissed her in asking of acceptance with the same mouth that had ordered so much blood shed.
No wonder it had burned so much; she had been kissing the same mouth that lied by simply smiling- the mouth that dripped poison in every word and spat venom out into the corpses of those he moved from his path.
Every word but "Sorry." was a mocking lash of his serpent's tongue, and not even she knew what he meant by that.
She glared at the letter, her hands shaking. "Gin," She rasped, his description coming back to her in that moment. "You really are just a snake in the grass."