Blah to getting the worst set of tables ever on St. Paddy's day. Made soo little money compared to the other servers, ugh.

Thanks to: Sensei7 (yay for reading blurbs!), Blueberry Absinth, MissTeak, and Beautiful Nightmare07

38. Future

It seemed like one day, Rangiku was beginning her third year and then the next day, she was seated in a row of six years, of her friends, waiting for her name to be called. Behind her somewhere, Gin sat watching with the rest of squad five, she knew. He had caught her eyes as she walked to her seat. He was as eye-catching as ever with his silver hair.

Not that she was not eye-catching herself. She had been voted most beautiful by her class, a fact she had been flaunting to no end as of late. Rangiku knew she was beautiful; it was hard for the girls to come close to her phenomenal curves and strawberry tresses, and that was far from the end of her beauty.

What Rangiku did have some trouble grasping was that she was a smart woman. She was graduating in the top ten percent of the advanced class. She wondered if Gin would be proud of her even though she was not at the top of her class, nor had she skipped years as her friend had done.

Her friends began to walk up, one by one. When Nanao crossed the stage, Rangiku let out a whoop; her friend had graduated with the top grades and had found a place, along with Rangiku in the eighth squad.

Then Rangiku Matsumoto was called out across the crowd. As she crossed the stage, she could not help but be proud, shaking captain's hands, even the head captain's hands. Today, everything changed. Today, there was a whole new world for her to experience.

Gin's world.

Once more, she would see his world, even if he was far ahead of her already. She knew he had far from forgotten her. Since he had shown her the letters that had finally made their way to him, he had written a line or two to her every two weeks, even when she was slower to reply to the letters.

When the ceremony finished and the freshly graduated students made their way away towards the crowd, Rangiku stood still, searching the crowd for Gin. There were plenty of people she needed to congratulate, parents of friends she needed to meet, but until she saw Gin, none of that mattered.

"Whatcha lookin' for?" Gin said, his breath tickling her ear.

"You," Rangiku said, spinning towards him. "How'd you do that?"

"Magic."

Rangiku hit his arm. "I did it!"

"Ya did good," he said and hugged her tightly. "I'm damn proud of ya."

"Really?"

"Yeah," he said and led her away from the crowd. "So I got ya a present."

"Really? What'd you get me? Can I have it now? What is it? I wanna open it now!"

Gin chuckled. "Yer impatient. Maybe I should make ya wait."

"No!"

Gin laughed again and pulled out a small box from a pocket. Rangiku took it eagerly, examining the package. It was neatly wrapped in silver paper with an equally neat bow done with a sparkly silver ribbon. A second later, the ribbon was on top of Gin's head and the paper was drifting around Rangiku's feet.

She opened the box and stared. "It's beautiful."

"Ya like it?"

Rangiku nodded and flung her arms around Gin. "I love it. Thank you so much. I'll always wear it."

"Yer silly."

"No I'm not," she said. "Hold the box so I can put the necklace on."

He did as she asked and Rangiku slid the silver chain under her hair, then pulled the tail through a silver ring. The tail settled between her breasts and the circle settled just beneath the dip in her neck.

"How do I look?" Rangiku said and struck a pose.

"Like the most beautiful girl in seireitei."

"Y'know, I got voted—"

"Yeah, I know. Seems them students got somethin' righ'."

Rangiku blushed. "So are you gonna take me out to eat too? I deserve it for graduating, you know. Oh, and I want dried persimmons too."

"Whatever ya want, Ran-chan."

School was so fast. Maybe I should have drawn it out more. I wonder. Too late now, I suppose. Wish me luck for tomorrow! Got my date in the evening, eek!