First Contact Chapter 14: A Summer Night, a bleach fanfic

When he slipped back into the office, I could smell blood on him.

I was curious, but regretfully I had an appointment. Someone was to leave tonight – forever.

Gin emerged from the bathroom, drying his hands.

"I thought you wore gloves," I said softly as he leaned in for a quick kiss.

Gin chuckled. He whispered, "What did she manage to see?"

"You seated to the side of my table, working on the documents, while I read. And occasionally I'd look over your reports."

"Hmm. Boring."

"It's not meant to be entertainment, Gin. How did the spell work out?"

He stretched his arms. "Excellently. Charred and dusted. A bit of a strain on my reiatsu store though."

I ran a hand down his back as he prepared to exit to the outer office. "That was why you chose me, wasn't it? To forcibly raise your own reiatsu levels? To become powerful enough to deal with all those pathetic schmucks?"

Slowly Gin turned around to face me. His face was set in his usual mask, but I could detect the shock beneath the smiling veneer. "You knew?"

"I found out." I kissed him on the forehead again, a benediction and a forgiveness. "Go on. I have to leave for an appointment too."

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The next day Seireitei was in an uproar.

The captain of the second division had left as well. The Goddess of Flash, Shihouin Yoruichi, had voluntarily joined disgraced captain Urahara Kisuke in exile.

Only four persons did not exhibit surprise. Then again, we were the four that were at the send-off last night.

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"Good evening, Sousuke."

"Good evening, Kyoraku-san," I said with a genial bow. The other captain smiled crookedly and settled to wait, his hand covering Ukitake's. I could sense the strain that both were trying to hide – Urahara became a close friend of theirs after he headed the Research Bureau's formation.

And only for Urahara's sake would I tolerate Kyoraku's presence. The man irked me no end. Even the nonsense-spouting Kurosawa was better company. I knew he knew I wasn't what I appeared to be, but the coward refused to even try challenging me.

If he seemed content to merely observe, i might not feel such antipathy. But the eighth division captain kept interrupting my progress with Mizuki, kept on interfering with her education. Kept trying to inculcate values I wanted her to leave behind.

If I didn't know he and Ukitake had been screwing each other ever since Unohana developed a special annual preventative vaccine for Kyoraku, I'd swear he was trying to bed my girl.

If I didn't detest him so much, I might have let him.

Finally, out of the dark a blond man in white appeared. He was escorted by Kurosawa, the tenth division captain.

"Whoa.. That's quite a group to bid bon voyage!" remarked Urahara.

I managed a slight smile for his benefit. Ukitake did so too, although his was rather watery. Kyoraku didn't even bother.

"So, where is he going to be placed?" I asked Kurosawa.

"Someplace called Karakura. Isolated little hamlet, population 300." Kurosawa shrugged. "But we all know that in a few decades it'll be a bustling little town."

Ukitake scratched the back of his head. "Um, Kisuke, we both know I can't go to the human world until... so um..." He chewed on the inside on his cheek. "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Juushiro. Especially your appetite." Kisuke's hands were shackled behind him, or else he would have patted the thirteenth division captain's shoulder. Ukitake compensated by throwing a hug around Urahara, and I was aware that Urahara was trembling with emotion. Only slightly, but it was there.

Living in the same room with someone for six years guaranteed a deep sensitivity.

Kyoraku tipped his hat forward, blocking his eyes. He handed a package to Kurosawa, but spoke to Urahara. "Those two things were meant for your birthday."

Kurosawa ripped the package open without waiting for any invite. One was a dark green coat with large rhombuses along the bottom hemline. The other was a pair of wooden sandals.

"Just so you stop walking around your room naked and barefoot and scaring the ladies," Ukitake tried to crack, but failed.

Urahara smirked. "That's not fear they're expressing, Juu."

My turn. I walked up and patted his shoulder. "I've always meant to tell you this: you're a first-class moron."

"Gee, thanks," he said. We both knew what I meant by that statement, even if the other three were directing confused or annoyed glances at me. I pulled out a slim box and slipped it in his shirt.

"Ki," I said, using the nickname I had for him since our fourth year in the Academy, "Take care."

"What's in the box?" Kurosawa asked suspiciously.

Urahara looked at me to answer. I merely smiled. "It's a fan. You know how you get those creepy smirks on your face."

"Yeah." He swallowed.

I sighed heavily and hugged him awkwardly. Our relationship was complicated at best, but he did form part of my best memories as a shinigami and as a student.

As the two proceeded to the gate a black feline bounded through at top speed, even before the hell butterflies entered the brilliant gate. Ukitake and Kyoraku shared a look, while I pressed my lips together.

Bitch.

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Tousen was facing the council for the ninth division captaincy in any event, and now the captains and lieutenants decided to push for Soi Fon and Kurotsuchi Mayuri to captaincy as well. The former I agreed with, the latter was someone I admired detachedly for his psychosis and brilliance. Unfortunately his ego was far too large for me to win him to my side, but then again he could be a complication all on his own.

In all the furore, no one cared that the fourth division found a student who hung himself in a forest. He was just like all the others who couldn't take the pressure of academic rigor.

I noticed that it was the young lordling of the Kuchiki household who found the body. And I also noticed that he did not overreact nor dismissed the matter.

A man to watch. Gin might be interested in that task.

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That evening I waited for Gin to turn up. My girl was with Kyoraku and Ukitake, both of whom were drowning their regrets.

He came late in the night, still damp from his shower.

"Good night thus far?" I put the book aside and took off my glasses.

"Yes." He settled beside me on the bed, his legs curled under him. "What do you wanna hear first?"

"The staged suicide. I didn't know you were planning that." I placed a pillow behind my lower back. "Did you kill him yourself?"

"I didn't touch him at all," smirked Gin. "I only encouraged him to find release from his, uh... guilt."

I rolled to my side, looking at the pale youth beside me. "What guilt?"

"He spilled all the secrets to me. Turned out that Fumio misunderstood him; the boy didn't want to get on top of me. In all senses of the phrase."

I laughed. "How was he?"

"Virgin. Young. Incredibly tight. Really liked to be hurt. And an incredible screamer." He flipped to his side as well to face me. We were not touching, but our gazes locked onto each other's eyes.

"Sounds fun. What next?"

Gin shuffled lower in the bed. "He was ashamed that he liked being hurt... and ashamed that he had to be hurt before, well, you know... so it was rather easy from then on." He ran his tongue around his mouth. "I do have a silver tongue."

"That you do." I inhaled the scent that crept from him, slowly invading my space. His reiatsu, cold and sinuous and light, stole about me, and involuntarily my own levels rose to meet the challenge. He had never described how it felt when I forced my reiatsu to envelope him, to suffuse the air about us, to surge and overwhelm him when we made love.

Perhaps that was what he enjoyed. It was, after all, what he sought in the beginning.

The candles burned low, then guttered and sputtered out. We sat in darkness, and I listened to the rest of his spiel until sleep overtook both of us.