Venomously Attractive

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y

Ghostly Recollection 1

"I might have made a mistake."

Ren turned away attempting to run, but Gin reached forward grabbing her by the shoulders and pulled her inside his office. He pushed her behind him while he slid the shogi screens shut, only turning to wrap an arm around her waist when she tried pushing past him in protest. She mistakenly walked up to his office, used to the routine after two months of serving beneath him, though she would have never thought it would be a hard habit to kick.

Ren forcibly shoved his arm from her waist and he grabbed both her wrists holding them at her sides as his smile widened. "I have work to do," she stated, struggling. "Unhand me."

"What kinda work does a lazy woman like ya do? Selfishly skip chores in order to earn pocket change from gambling with the same group of people every day?" he asked derisively.

She scoffed. "I've done plenty of work on your behalf."

"You had others do yer work for ya, only proving how lazy ya are."

"I'm not a maid, chores were beneath me – the simple thought of doing them was very offensive!" she argued, shuddering at the thought.

"Why'd ya think I made ya do 'em then?" he asked, letting go of her hands.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm leaving."

Ren pushed past him and exited his office, hoping to find something interesting to do back in her division instead of resorting to senseless drinking games. They kept them all entertained until one of them puked, after that, things got nasty.

Halfway down the hallway, she felt someone grab a hold of her wrist stopping her. She whipped around to see Gin holding up a deck of cards. "Let's play."

She would have normally jerked her hand out of his grip and continue rushing off, but there was really nothing left for her to do in her division. With the exception of having to wait until midnight because her captain wanted to have a private audience with her, as if their conversation hadn't taken a turn for the worse he had to make it sink deeper into the dirt. The thought of their exchange made her shudder and Gin took notice of it, quirking an eyebrow.

She smiled. "Are we betting?"

"Only if it's fair game."

"Deal," she said, walking back towards his office. "Have anything in mind?"

Gin's smile widened. "Strip for now."

She chuckled upon entering, hearing him slide the door shut behind him. "I'm game, but everything counts. Since you're wearing more than I am."

"I'll take off the haori, if ya want."

Ren shook her head, taking a seat in one of the couches in the corner of the office, gesturing for him to sit in front of her. Gin took care of shuffling the cards and dealing.

She took her cards, discarding three and picking up another three from the deck.

"Why don't ya tell me more of yerself?" he suggested, dropping one card and picking another.

"You've had enough time to get to know me," she replied, spreading her cards over the table. "Two."

He dropped his cards and smirked. "Three."

Ren reached up for her hair tie and dropped it on the other side of the table, letting her messy black tresses fall past her shoulders in shallow waves.

"Cheater," he called.

"We agreed everything would count."

He shrugged, dealing the cards once again. Ren discarded her whole hand and took a new one.

"So are ya gonna tell me?"

"We've spent enough time together for you to get to know me," she repeated, keeping her focus on the game rather than the conversation. "Four."

"One." Gin pulled his zanpakutō from his belt and dropped in on the floor near him. "I wanna hear it from you, since I know almost everything written in the report is a lie."

"I'm glad you noticed," she remarked as she picked up a new hand.

"Two," he said. "I aint stupid, Ren."

"What do you want to know?" she asked, dropping her cards with a smirk. "Straight."

He shook his head and pulled off his haori, dropping it over his sword. "Whatever ya want to tell me?"

"And if I say I didn't want to tell you a thing?"

"Yer lying."

Ren had taken the deck, reshuffling it while glaring at him. "I was born in vanity, to the Takudaiji clan a previous family of the Four Noble Clans," she began, dealing the cards. "My father was told I would be a good heir regardless of my gender and because of it decided to bend the rules for me."

She lost the next round and dropped her zanpakutō beside her hair tie.

"I'll skip the annoying details of my youth," she replied. "By the way, Kazuya is my only sibling; the other's listed were all the miscarriages my decrepit grandmother had in her youth."

"Ya don't get along with 'er?"

"No." She shook her head, losing another round and discarding one sandal upon the table. "She's never liked me because I resemble my father in many ways, so to speak." She took a gander at the cards in her hands. "It only got worse though. On the day of my family's death, instead of being happy I was alive, she tried to kill me herself if only it'd bring her favorite back to life – stupid old bat – shit."

She lost again and glared at him. "You better not be cheating, jerk."

Gin laughed. "I aint, it's just luck."

Ren removed the other sandal, thankful to have the little things to offer for her careless losses. "My aunt and uncle took me in and that's it."

"Ya seemed to have skipped quite a bit of detail," he said pointedly.

"I don't like talking about myself," she answered. "How would you feel if I was prying into yours?"

"I was a street rat from Rukongai," he replied, humoring her. "That's my story."

"Lacks a bit of detail, don't you think?" she asked, throwing the question back at him.

"It's not a very interesting story," he said lightly, playing his cards.

Ren won with a Straight and Gin followed her lead by removing his sandal first.

"Can ya tell me how ya got out of the fire?" he asked curiously.

Ren pursed her lips into a tight, worried line for a few minutes. They continued playing through her silence and she managed another two wins before finally speaking in accordance to his inquiry.

"I just remember being really sick," she said, tossing away another hand to take a new one.

"Hmm," he muttered, winning another hand. "How old were ya then?"

"Seventeen," she muttered.

"Not ten."

With a frown on her face, she pulled her left sock off.

"Is it fine to speak of my past and not yours?" she asked once more.

"It aint as interesting as yers," he answered dismissively.

"What about that hairpin you have in your drawer?" She had only just remembered about it when she tried to remember how the events had played off during the fire. She knew Kazuya had gotten her out, but she had her doubts.

"You shouldn't rummage through other people's things, Ren-chan."

He had another winning hand and she gave him her last sock. Now she was more determined to win since she only had a wallet full of coins, a cherry-scented cigarette, and a carton of matches left to give up before she would start with her clothes.

"Whose is it?" she asked again. "I doubt it's yours."

"I stole it from a girl when I was a kid," he admitted. "She had a stomachache or somethin'. I don't remember all that well."

"Thief," she muttered beneath her breath. "Four."

"Two."

Ren smiled widely. Maybe her winning streak would return in due time and she could strip him bear before he could her.

"I tried returning it too, but she let me have it the last time I saw her."

"Are you ever giving it back, or can I have it?" she asked quickly. It was a lovely piece; it wouldn't hurt to have it even if it was simple and fit for a child.

"You can have it," he said. "If ya can win this round, if not you pay up double and one's gotta be clothes."

"How can you be so sure I can't win?" she asked, bluffing. "I've got a good hand 'er, good hand."

"Royal Flush." He showed his cards and she nearly slammed her hand on the table, having only one pair.

Ren reached into her top, dropping her wallet over her pile of things while leaving the cigarette and matches by her seat. She stood up and undid her hakama, kicking them off in front of Gin who merely stared at her legs. She fixed her top, keeping it closed with the obi and discarding her pants over her pile.

"It's nice ta see yer wearing underwear today."

"Go to hell," she mumbled taking a seat.

They hardly exchanged anything interest from that point onward, just very lewd jokes on Ichimaru's part when he managed to win over everything but her panties, but he hardly had much to laugh at too, considering he was only wearing one sock and his trousers. Ren had struck a winning streak and she was very determined to win this next one as well considering she had a Full House in her hands and Gin seemed to do nothing but bluff during the last few games. She was confident in winning and the decision had to be made soon since she was already a good thirty minutes late to her scheduled meeting with her captain. Not that she was eager to go, merely curious to see if he was going to talk to her about misconduct or throw a gay jealous fit because his lover Ichimaru Gin dumped him for her. If it was the latter…she hoped it was scandalous enough to spread.

"Four," Gin called.

"Full House." She smirked. "And that would make us even since you're not wearing anything under your hakama."

He pulled his sock off dumping it on the pile. "Winner takes all."

"What if someone walks in?"

"We're only playin' cards Ren, unless ya wanna do something else."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't have time for that, pervert."

"You have all day."

Ren shook her head. "Captain Aizen wanted to have a private audience with me around an hour ago."

"Yer planning ta go?"

"I disappeared for a good portion of the day and skipped duties; shouldn't I present myself to the man when he asks?" she asked, raising an eyebrow watching him shuffled the deck on final time.

"Skip it."

"No. I think I should attend." She felt as though she had to attend…just to be on the safe side. There was no actual way to know what would be discussed or what sort of conversation he was trying to get to by initiating it. Or why she felt that creepy aura when he had asked her to go.

He dealt the cards and she looked at her hand, discarding two and picking up an equal number. "Let's go somewhere."

"Where's somewhere, Ichimaru?"

"Gin," he corrected. "Let go on a picnic."

She almost dropped her cards to the floor and looked at him incredulously. "You're kidding me, aren't you?"

"Nope," he clarified. "Come with me."

"Invite someone else," she stated. "I'd rather go see Captain Aizen."

"I don't have anyone else in mind."

"You have friends, invite some of them," she suggested, trying to avoid going with him anywhere alone.

"If you lose you come with me," he proposed.

"I'm not going to bet over this!" she stated, irritated. "I don't even want to go out."

"Yer gonna go out anyways once ya leave my division."

"Two," she called, dropping her cards.

"Three. I win." His smile widened. "Guess yer coming with me tonight."

Ren huffed and leaned forward, her long hair falling over her shoulders, covering her chest. "Who in the right mind has a picnic at night?"

"That's why we're goin'."

"What the hell is that?" she asked, moving her face away from what Gin was forcefully trying to feed her. She continuously shoved his hand away but he grabbed her by the jaw and propped open her mouth, shoving whatever it was inside.

"You don't even give it a chance."

Ren was about to spit it out without even chewing or tasting it, but he covered her mouth as well.

"Chew it," he ordered.

She reluctantly did and noted halfway through chewing that the flavor wasn't as bad as she would have thought it to be, but being as proud as she was to respect the discipline that raised her, made a funny face.

Gin removed his hand from her face and stepped away from her. "They're dried persimmons."

She stuck her tongue out obscenely. "Blergh." He glanced at her wordlessly, eating the rest of the dried persimmons in the jar. "You could have spared me the shoving in the mouth act."

"Ya need ta learn to stop being so snotty."

"It's engraved in my soul," she said. "You can't ask a cat to stop meowing, Gin."

He chuckled. "That's quite a comparison, Ren-chan," he said. "I didn't think you'd say that."

"Whatever, if you get it, that's what matters." She crossed her arms over her chest and continued swinging her legs back and forth as means to pass time.

He went off to rummage through the rest of the kitchen until he started to set up a number of ingredients to cook.

"Gin, you're so talented," she chimed. "You can even cook."

"You should consider watching; maybe ya can learn to take care of yerself."

"Pfft." She pouted and turned away.

She kept her mouth shut for a long while as he started making food. The smell of the spices he was using kept reaching her noise, causing her empty stomach to growl in anticipation and when she held her hand over it, Gin laughed. She only tried pushing those thoughts to the back of her head, ignore the hunger pains emerging from pit of her stomach and considered the hours they planned to go out in.

"Why can't we just wait for tomorrow to go on this picnic?" she asked, curious.

"'Cause I already made up my mind," he replied.

"But it's already evening," she said lightly. "Isn't there a chance that I'll get attacked by those things?"

"Ya have me ta take care of ya."

"That's not very comforting."

He shrugged. "Yer coming anyway, right?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No." He turned to her with a large smile on his face.

Surely enough, the moment they entered a quieter part of Seireitei, they were attacked. Gin excused himself from partaking in any of the action by saying he wouldn't want to ruin the food he prepared and left the fighting to Ren, who felt insulted. He was a liar. He led her on to believe he would help her instead of having her protect his stupid food from being ruined.

As she swung her sword upward sloppily, having focused her full attention on her resentment rather than the actual fight, the man countered against her.

"Ya should get serious Ren, that swing was weak," called Gin from the ledge where he was perched.

"No one asked you, coward!" she rebuked, thrusting her blade forward.

"Pay attention to your fight, not yer surroundings."

Ren stumbled back, lifting her zanpakutō over her head in time to stop another one of the man's swing. She pushed him back with all her strength, twisting her sword and countering.

"If you shut up, I'd have a better chance of doing—" The man ducked down, sweeping her from below with his leg, causing her to fall on the ground and drop her sword.

"I did warn ya."

Ren was too busy trying to pull herself from the ground to pay heed to Gin's taunting words while her opponent swung downward with as much strength as the monster could manage. Before the sword hit her back, she kicked upward knocking it out of his grip.

"You can take all your advice and shove it up your ass," she mumbled, scrambling off the ground to grab a hold of her sword. When she picked it up, instead of lunging forward at the man who had rushed to recover his discarded sword, she threw her zanpakutō, watching it spin multiple times until it stabbed into the monster.

Unlike its predecessors, it decayed before it hit the ground, blood splurging all over the street.

She winced as she headed to retrieve her sword from the unsightly remains, limping the closer she got. She felt her muscles strain when the man sweep his leg beneath hers and when she hit the ground there was a horrible crack in ankle.

"What's with the limp?"

"It might be twisted." When she turned, he was already at her side. "Done watching?" She arched an eyebrow.

"Ya gotta take yer fight seriously, or you'll have to deal with something worse than a limp."

Ren pulled her zanpakutō from the remains and sheathed it. "You don't take anything serious either, so you shouldn't be lecturing me."

"I take you seriously."

"Oh shut up." Her cheeks flush red and felt his hand on the small of her back. She turned to him curiously. "Are you cleaning up here?"

He pulled her along with him, forcing her to take a few reluctant steps forward until she pushed his hand from her with a hiss. Her ankle hurt and she lifted it upward, feeling around the area to notice it was beginning to swell.

"Damn it, I think I sprained it."

Gin handed her the bag holding the food and turned around bending down. "Get on."

Her face turned a darker shade of red. "D-don't spout nonsense Ichimaru!"

"I'll carry ya to the grove," he said. "Hurry up before I change my mind an' make ya walk."

Ren frowned but got on his back, her face suffering the embarrassing repercussions. He straightened himself out with a firm hold on her legs as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She looked around to make sure no one was around to see this, but at the same time felt very anxious. She thought he would have made her walk all the way there to amuse himself, so the result was too unexpected for her tastes.

She bit her lip, leaning against her arm as he began walking.

The rest of the walk was quiet without any comments out of any of them and for some strange reason, Ren felt somnolent. The walkways he decided to take were said to be a shortcut to the grove he mentioned and they were narrow, hidden from the larger streets. When she lifted her gaze from the nook of his neck she found herself facing an unknown familiarity to the area. It was as if she had been in a similar place years ago, but like a fleeting memory it vanished when she laid her head against her arm and closed her eyes.

"Don't go falling asleep on me, Ren-chan."

"I didn't wanna go out to start…" she whined with a yawn.

"You'll drop the food and you'll regret it," he said.

She let out a quiet moan. "M'kay."

Ren flinched, scaring herself out of slumber and opened her eyes to see they had stopped somewhere unfamiliar.

"I fell asleep," she admitted dumbly.

Gin dropped her body on top of an old bench beneath an apple tree. "Wait here, I forgot something."

She rubbed her lower back with a frown on her face, unable to protest before he turned on his heel and left.

She lifted her gaze from the ground, placing the bag on her lap, to see Gin rushing off like an inconvenienced fool. He could have easily crossed the distance from there to where he wanted to go by using shunpo, but she figured sometimes the creativity of a person must dim from time to time. Gin seemed to be no exception to that mentality, especially when he is prone to abuse said ability to sneak up on her whenever she least expected it.

Ren leaned back slightly, just enough to make sure she wouldn't fall off, but still manage to keep her awake until he returned. She still found the idea very juvenile and stupid. Going on a picnic in the middle of the night would seem that way to any smart person. So, why she decided to go? She wondered. The thought lingered in her head longer than she could fathom it. Until something else crossed her mind that mirrored every one of Ichimaru Gin's moves from the moment she sprained her leg to the boring surroundings she sat amongst.

She propped herself up on the bench and looked over the walls in the slightest when her eyes widened and a chill ran down her spine. Her skin was covered in goosebumps within the next anxious minutes and she looked down the same street Gin ran through and a small memory surfaced in her head.

Kazuya had similarly left her on that same bench and with a smile on his face had said the same thing.

"Wait here, I forgot something."

She did.

And he never came back.

x L i l i m:

I always get excited when I hit - 20 - chapters. Always. And, that's pretty much how I am right now. Exuberant with unfathomable joy, glinting like - yeah, I'll stop there. Next goal...thirty! Wonder when that'll happen?

Onto the chapter, I think it's about time to give a good look into Ren's past. I only gave clues up to this point and a pile of lies because she's not the kind of person to like thinking about it. So, the next two chapters are the events leading up to the fire that killed her family, and they all precede the discovery of something dark.

Oh yes, and another thing. I have a poll up on my page (for those who haven't seen it yet) for everyone to vote on their favorite story on my page. The one with the most votes will be updated daily for a week, just a bit of a prize. So, go vote on your favorite! (To those who don't have an account on FF and are too lazy to make one - I used to be one lazy anon too, guys - you can drop a review saying: vote (insert story here). You can pick up to three. Or, you can e-mail me. I'll have the address posted on my front page while this is going on.)

Thanks to:

The Loyal Newt (Well, it did make me chortle when you mentioned it sounding wrong. :3), .C H I D O R I - S H I O R I. (I'm glad you like the story and Ren, and for taking the time to drop a line.), cheesebubble (You're a poacher and a fuzzy coat, got it?), and cmsrawrr (Thank you. I'm sure there were other ways for him to claim his property, but took an different approach. Haha, yes, that would be way too cute!)