Eros & Psyche (Heart & Soul)

From: Roman and Greek Mythology (there are multiple versions of this story)

Warnings: Implied sex between a married couple

Main Cast: Rangiku as Psyche, Gin as Eros (Cupid), Soifon as Aphrodite

Also: Orihime and Rukia as Rangiku's sisters, Unohana as Demeter, Yoruichi as Persephone

In the land of sun there was a golden goddess. She wasn't really a goddess, but that didn't stop people from worshiping her. When her two sisters Orihime and Rukia had grown up, everyone had though them to be utterly beautiful, but they had nothing on the beauty of Rangiku.

Eventually the people began to even pray to her as the goddess of beauty and love, which didn't go over with the actual goddess of beauty and love. She looked down with anger on the people who where blaspheming and realized that her own temples weren't being given the same gifts that this Rangiku mortal was getting. As revenge against the fickle mortals she sent down her servant, Gin Ichimaru, who often played games with the mortals (and immortals), making them fall in love with his magically bow.

"Make her fall in love with the ugliest man in the world," Soifon ordered.

Gin agreed and went down to do his duty, but was quite taken with the woman he was supposed to curse.

"Would you like a dried persimmon?" the woman offered him, even though he had hidden his godhood and was dressed as a beggar. "You look hungry."

So Gin spent the day eating dried persimmons with the beauty, loving her laugh as he told her jokes. He pulled some sake from his pack and the two got drunk, their merriment increasing as the day grew long and the fireflies began to come up. While semi-drunkenly looking for some more sake in his pack, he accidentally pricked his own finger with the bow, and fell hopelessly in love with Rangiku.

Soifon was curious as to why Rangiku still hadn't fallen in love with anyone so she put her own curse on the woman; that she would be alone for eternity, never being with any mortal man. Meanwhile, Gin was doing silly things like watching butterflies and mooning over flowers. Soifon had to shake her head at her silly servant and wonder what in the world had happened to him. He refused to do his job and no animals were mating, no humans were making children, the earth itself was dying. Finally, she made an agreement with him.

Rangiku knew she was cursed! She had just known! She had definitely been gaining weight and she had a pimple the other day. Of course the trip to the oracle painted a much worse picture, a life alone without love...well, not without love at all. She was to be the bride of a beast or a monster.

Rangiku's sisters and parents wept with her, but in the end she submitted to her fate and waited on a hillside for her monstrous suitor to come for her. She waited through the night, watching the stars when she saw them blotted out by something big. She closed her eyes in brief fear and then felt herself being taken some place.

When she woke she was surprised that she was surrounded by food and drink, her favorite fruits and the very best sake. There was a note on the table that told her all she needed to do was ask for something and it would be given to her. She never saw any servants, although all of her needs were tended to. Baths in the large house she lived in were drawn, fresh roses set at the table, fires started and her bed made.

And of course there was her husband.

He only came at night. The first time Rangiku had laid in bed frightened, wondering at the beast she had married. But then a cool hand had wrapped around her, holding her close until her shaking stopped.

He smells so good, Rangiku had though, eventually gaining the courage to run her fingers through his hair, finding it of medium length and very fine and soft.

"Can you turn on the lights?" she asked quietly.

"No," came a voice that almost triggered a memory, but the remembrance remained hidden from her consciousness.

It didn't sound like the voice of a monster, but monsters could be tricky.

As Rangiku went to ask another question her lips were caught in a kiss, a warn enveloping kiss that took over her senses. Since she had never been in love she had never kissed anyone aside from her family members. She had flirted a lot with the local boys, but had never found any interesting enough to go farther with.

So this is a kiss, she thought to herself, even as she was being laid back gently into the pillow, covered in more kisses.

"Tomorrow we'll do more. I want you to be settled in, my love," the hidden beast said.

By the time that the monster finally made his move, Rangiku had to admit that she more than wanted him. She was no longer afraid of him, although the fact that she was alone during the days was boring and lonely.

Still, she looked forward to the nights with him and his familiar presence, and as he undressed her she ran her hands along his body helping him with his own clothing in the dark of their room, the only room she had even seen him in. She wished that she knew what he looked like, but at least he didn't feel scaly or like he had wings or claws or talons or fangs. Perhaps he was a shapes shifter? In any case, she gave herself willingly to her captor, grabbing onto him in passion as they made love for the first time.

It was several months before the loneliness got too much. "Please, can I see my family?" she asked the hidden beast that night as they lay holding each other.

The hidden beast knew that it wasn't a good idea, but in truth he could never refuse his wife anything, aside from telling or showing his true identity, so he gave in.

Rukia and Orihime where taken to Rangiku's palace, marveling at the grounds and at their food and rooms.

"What about your husband?" Rukia asked. "Is he as hideous at the oracles said?"

"Does he touch you?" Orihime shivered.

"I don't think he's a beast or a monster," Rangiku said.

"Don't think? What, you haven't see him?" Rukia scoffed.

"No..." Rangiku admitted.

"At least he hasn't eaten you yet," Orihime said.

"I bet he's a dragon in disguise them, fattening you up before he eats you, or a sadistic satyr who has just made you one of his many women," Rukia pointed out.

"Rukia, he's not like that!" Rangiku defended her husband.

"Then why don't you look?" Rukia asked.

"Oh yes, why don't you just bring in a lamp while he's sleeping? You could finally see him," Orihime agreed.

After her sisters left Rangiku was torn. She didn't want to disobey her husband, but on the other hand she was a very curious person. Finally she decided to do it. One night, when the two of them had spent all evening drinking and making love, she figured he was tired enough that he wouldn't wake and brought an oil lamp to the bed, holding a knife in one hand just in case he turned out to be a dragon that wanted to eat her.

As the light caressed the face of her husband she gasped at the beauty of it, instantly knowing that he was no mortal, his silver hair and grin making him looking mischievous and lovely even in his sleep. In her shock she dropped the oil lamp onto his face and chest, and he woke up with a startled shout.

"I am the god Eros, also known as Gin Ichimaru. We met before and I loved you," Gin said. "But you broke your promise to not try and find out who I truly am," he said, leaving at once, holding his wounded face.

The house disappeared around Rangiku, and the grounds fell into ruin. Rangiku cried out in the wind, not caring about losing her things, but desperate to get her love back. "GIN!" she screamed, the wind caring her cries away.

Rangiku returned to her sisters and family before setting out on a journey. If she couldn't be with the one she loved, then maybe she could find some other meaning in life. She found an abandoned hall, littered with baskets of grain. She took the grain up and cleaned up the hall, restoring the hall that had used to be a temple. Unohana, who was the goddess of growing things, saw her and approached her. She was happy that her temple had been restored and upon hearing the girl's story, promised to help her get her loved one back.

"I will talk to Soifon. She can be capricious and stern, but she is after all the goddess of love. We can sway her heart," Unohana promised Rangiku.

"You love Gin Ichimaru?" Soifon laughed coldly.

"Yes," Rangiku said quietly. "Please, let me see him again. I just want to talk to him."

"You must do some tasks for me first, to prove that you are really as in love as you say you are. A lot of women would pretend to love a god," Soifon said. "First I want you to sort these grains and seeds for me, by tomorrow!"

The storeroom was a mess, full of different types of catnip for Soifon's sacred animal, the cat. Rangiku had no idea how she would organize it in time, but she agreed to do it, tears in her eyes as she began to work.

The ants that usually moved around the room noticed her tears and asked her what was wrong, eventually offering to help her, calling on a huge army of ants to move the different branches and leaves and seeds to different parts of the room.

In the morning it was done, and there was nothing that Soifon could do. She looked angry and told Rangiku that she had merely finished her first task. "I want wool from every one of the golden sheep on the hill just beyond this temple," Soifon ordered.

Rangiku thought that sounded a lot easier than her previous job, but was shocked to find that the sheep were sheep of the sun god, flaming hot and impossible for her to touch. She began to cry by the river but drew the attention of a river god, who had pity on her after hearing about her story. The river god said, "Just wait until the sun goes down at the sheep all go home. When they come to drink at the river they go through the briar patch and leave behind wool on the branches."

So Rangiku came back to Soifon with an armful of golden wool gathered from the thorns by the river , but Soifon was angry still.

"Mortal, here is your last task," Soifon said, finally coming up with something that she honestly didn't think Rangiku could do. "I want you to go to the underworld and get me some beauty from Yoruichi, goddess of death and spring."

Rangiku trembled at the request but bravely made her way to the gates of the underworld, only stopping in fear once she got to the gate. She heard Gin's voice on the wind however, encouraging her, and took heart, going down to meet Yoruichi.

As she was leaving however, she couldn't help but wonder at what was in the box, which didn't seem heavy at all. What did the goddess of love and beauty need with more beauty anyways? Rangiku was the one that needed to win Gin back. Surely Soifon wouldn't miss a little bit of beauty. Rangiku opened the box. However, Yoruichi's "beauty" made Rangiku go into a deep coma from which she didn't wake.

Gin found her, having healed himself and forgiven her for her transgression and carried her to the heavens, wiping the sleep from her eyes and presenting her to the various gods and goddesses of heaven. He told their story and got together a council of the gods, who agreed that because the pair loved each other so much that they should be together.

"Here, have this," Gin said, raising a cup to Rangiku.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The best sake you've ever had," Gin smiled widely as he handed her the ambrosia.

She drank deeply, becoming an immortal and growing even more beautiful and luminous than before. so that the two could always be together, heart and soul now always being entwined.

A/N: I think that the next one will be Shiro and Ichigo one about two brothers bringing their mom back from the dead.