A GinKira fic. Written in Kira's POV.

I'm not exactly sure what drew me to him in the first place. I mean, we had virtually nothing in common. No common interests, no common looks, heck, not even a common food! But there was attraction, no, love, between us. And that was all that was needed.

One perfect Ichimaru Kira relationship:

1 Kira
1 Gin
Lots and lots of love

But he was amazing. Yeah. Sure. He was lazy as a dog, and often made me do all his paperwork for him. He often missed his meetings and so I went to go fill in for him. Everybody wondered why I did so much for this captain, when any other vice captain probably would have resigned by this time or would have issued a complaint against said captain. But what people didn't know - people like Renji, Hinamori, Shuuhei - they didn't know that I loved him. With all my heart and soul.

Maybe it was his possessiveness that drew me to him. Because, in all reality, I'd wanted that. I'd wanted someone to want me so much, someone to be so protective of me, that they were not willing to share me with anybody else. That they would get tense whenever I was talking to someone else. That they were ready to beat up another person if they so much as dared to look at me in a suggestive manner. I'd wanted someone as possessive as Ichimaru Gin. And there was the love, too. The love that knew no boundaries. The love that I carried with me wherever I went, and the love that I knew he carried around with him wherever he went.

Contrary to what people think, I was not, in fact, a rebound relationship for him from Rangiku. I was the start of something new, of something better.

Taichou loved taking care of me. I was fragile, delicate, and he was strong and knew exactly when to be serious and knew when to stop. Renji and the others would often tease me about my acting weak like a little girl; when I came home that day and Taichou saw the look of anguish hidden behind my eyes, he always knew exactly what was wrong, and he would be there to comfort me. To kiss away my tears. To comb long fingers through my hair. To whisper words of love in my ear, to let me know that, if anything else, he would always be there for me. In return, I gave him everything that I had to give.

I loved it.

And then it changed. Well, not our relationship. No. Nothing could have changed our love.

One day before Rukia's execution, I was cuddled up in his arms, savoring the warmth his body gave off. I was half-asleep when he told me that he would be leaving. I asked him, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going somewhere...and you're going to stay here and learn a very important lesson..."
"When will you be back? And what lesson?" I was practically slurring the words by that point; I was just so damn tired and, well, it was just so damn comfortable there in his arms.
"I don't know, Kira. But I will be back. I promise. A lesson about roses and how they're bitter and sweet and yadda yadda yadda. You'll learn it, and once you do, we'll be back together again."
"Okay."

The next day, I woke up. He was gone. And he didn't come back.

I was bitter. I cried, refused to eat, screamed into my pillow with frustration at night. And I hated him. I hated him for leaving me.

There was a letter on the table when I came home one day a few months after he had left. It was written in his sloppy hand, and I read:

"Izuru, please forgive me for our abrupt goodbye. I wish we had more time."

And then, like an afterthought,

"I love you."

Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes and clung to the eyelashes, but they did not fall. In all our time together in Soul Society, Ichimaru-taichou had never said those words to me. Never. But here they were, on printed paper, in his hand. And I knew that he really, really did love me. And I was so ashamed. So ashamed of what I had felt a few months before. Because taichou loved me. He LOVED me. And I had been wrong to doubt him.

A few days ago, I felt Ichimaru-taichou's reiatsu in the fake Karakura Town. I was guarding one of the four pillars there, and I couldn't leave my post.

So I did the only thing I knew how to do. I whispered, into the wind, "Taichou...I love you."

A few moments passed, and I thought that maybe he hadn't heard, hadn't sensed my reiatsu. Then a rose blossom fell through the air, landing in the palm of my hand. It had a little note attached to it. "Open me," it said.

I spread the petals of the flower softly, so as not to damage it, and I found a small, tiny heart inscribed in the center of the rose. Four words were written on it in his sloppy hand.

"I love you too."

And once again, I cried. The tears fell onto the rose and clung to its fragile petals, its delicate center, but they refused to fall.