Hello All 3

Needless to say 2020 was a shitty year for most of us. Particularly for me because I lost someone very close to me (non-COVID related). Anyways, I would have been back to update my story a bit sooner but for some reason or another locked me out of my account. I'm back and I've just come to the realization that I originally posted this story 4 YEARS AGO. It's a wake up call. I'm a but disappointed in myself that it's taken me four years to get only about halfway through the story I wanted to tell. I can still remember sitting down at my desk until about 3am just typing out the idea and being really excited to share it with you. Now I feel... like it's a story that deserves the time and effort I feel like Kubo didn't get a chance to elaborate on. Obvi this isn't canon, but the inspiration for this story was the fact that I felt there were many relationships, romantic in nature, that Kubo hinted at but never truly developed. And yes this was shonen, but come on, people! If Yoruichi and Kisuke aren't doing it then I don't understand Bleach at all lol.

This chapter is going to be a continuation of the last and a little choppy. It was written in advance, and a lot for me has changed since then. I think another big issue that stopped me from updating is that I was afraid to let my story change with me. And I wanted to be as accurate with timelines in the manga as possible. But having gone through my chapters I realize I didn't do as careful of a job as I'd thought. But I digress...

I have some fans out there still and I do REALLY REALLY appreciate all of you still making my story one of your favourites (it's the right spelling - I'm Canadian.)

Without further ado, the story continues...

CHAPTER 11

"Are you still sleeping?"

She shifted her weight while managing to grumble a very unconvincing "no" into the ether.

"Ahh, so things have returned to normal"

Her eyes shot open then, looking at him with an ice-cold glare that rivalled her 4th seat's shikai.

I'm pregnant, you fucking asshole.

Gin scratched his head, "I'm sorry, Ran. That was…insensitive"

That wasn't what she was most concerned about. Gin had been an insensitive asshole all his life. The only thing that had changed was that he was better at controlling his impulses, and his temper.

No, she was most afraid of things, "returning to normal," whatever the fuck that meant. Between them, normal was, at its very essence, this: Alone in the middle of nowhere taking care of each other.

But so much had happened since those days of childhood bliss and disillusion. Even if she wasn't pregnant, the demons of their past made it safer for them not to show any kind of attachments while on duty. Even her own zanpakuto, Haineko, despised him. In the early days of being a Soul Reaper she had made a habit of leaving her at the barracks whenever she'd planned to go home, such was her burning hatred of her master's other companion.

"Ran, cut it out. You've been staring into space for 2 minutes now and it's unsettling. I said I was sorry."

"Everything is not always about you, Lieutenant."

She got up to undress and change into more appropriate attire to go out into town. The increasing weight of her belly made getting up from her tatami a struggle.

"Here," he said softly as she braced herself against his chest as he lifted her up. "You should really stop sleeping on these things for now, Ran."

"I'm fine, really."

She wasn't, but she also didn't want his help.

Not that she didn't like it. Rather, she couldn't trust that it would last.

"I'm going to change now, Gin."

"Okay," he yawned, stretching his arms upward and resting them behind his head on the way to the door. She began to slip off her clothes before she realized Gin had only gone to the end of the room to lean against the wall.

"Gin,"

"What!? It's nothing I haven't seen before."

Clearly, that was true. But since the night when he'd rescued her, he had only ever seen her nakedness in darkness or very dim light. She was afraid for him to see her scars, not only because she was embarrassed of them, but of how he would react if he saw them.

He'll think that I'm weak.

"Gin, please." There was a slight whimper in her voice that betrayed her insecurity.

"What, Ran ? You're worried about the stretchmarks? I think they're kind of sexy," he teased.

"It's... ," her voice softened to a whisper, "It's the scars."

"Show me." Was his calm reply.

She bit her lip until she tasted the saltiness of blood but continued undressing, anyway. Even though most of her scars lay on her back and the backs of her thighs, she couldn't stand the thought of facing him right now, his look of pity or disgust.

She had just pulled the nightgown past her hips when she felt the cold chill of his eyes widen. She quickly hurried to pull it off and grab her clothes.

She liked it when he was serious. It comforted her. It made her feel protected from the things she felt too weak to fight. It made her feel okay to be weak.

It made her trust in him.

It made sense, then, when he brushed his lips up against her shoulder blade, at the base of her deepest scar, that her shivering stopped and became a different shiver altogether. The conflicting feelings she had – love and loathing, fear and anger – only served to enhance her body's natural physical reaction to him. They would always fit together, somehow.

He continued up the scar to the base of her neck and his hands wandered up to touch her breasts. Flushed and panicked, she grabbed his hands and entwined his fingers with her own.

Smart, Rangiku. Make him think you're not mad anymore and maybe we won't have to revisit how I got these scars in the first place.

She wanted him, of course, but she was more concerned about diverting his attention away from her body so that they didn't have to have a conversation about her scars. It was not a conversation she was willing to have.

But was he?

The more she thought about it, the more his kisses lost their appeal.

Gin, if not anything else, was brilliant. He may not have been on the level of people like Captain Uruhara, but he was logical: he was a strategist.

Which made his recent act of intimacy seem self-serving. Could this have been what he anticipated? To find me in a position of vulnerability and be there to pick up the pieces?

"Gin, stop it. You've been horny since you got here." If there was any point in her life where she needed Gin to think of someone other than himself, it was now.

But he continued, and much to her chagrin, she liked it. Well her body did, anyways.

Somehow in between her complaints he had managed to spin her around to face him and walk her back towards her couch. The backs of her knees hooked the arm of the settee and she fell backward gently with Gin landing awkwardly on top of her.

"Gin! Stop!"

"Shut up and don't move." He'd picked up Shinso from the floor, and had him at her throat, hairs away from cutting her.

She froze, knowing that he wouldn't have hurt her but being cautious all the same.

"But, Gin –" she protesting.

What is he up to?

"Relax, Ran-chan, " he said, dropping his zanpakuto on the floor and swiftly replacing it with a handful of Rangiku's flesh. Ran sighed, loathing her body so reaction so pleasurably to the threat of a sword. The idea of pleasure - especially when it came to sex, was foreign to her. So, for such a violent interaction, even with someone she loved so fiercely, could set her body on fire like that...

What is happening to me?

His lips stopped first to kiss the length of her collar bone before he rose to give her a kiss that literally took her breath away. Her audible gasp when their lips parted was permission enough for Gin to continue his ministrations. He went back to her collar bone and slowly trailed kisses downward, nibbling the softer parts of her flesh.

She interrupted him at the base of her belly.

"Gin..." her voice had a tone of warning.

He looked up at her face, eyes round and dilated, as if she were in trouble.

"Don't hold back on me, Ran." He resumed at his last target of affection, careful not to draw blood with his bites. Lower, lower….

The moan that escaped from her lips when he put his mouth on her slackened his grip on her chest, freeing up his right hand to push her left thigh upwards and squeeze her closer to him.

"Mmm…"

She was purring now, but he could feel her body mellow underneath him.

"Relax, ran," she said, head barely visible over her tiny bump. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She nodded, and she looked as if she was somewhere between the world of the living and the dead. Afraid and ashamed at how much she enjoyed was he was doing.

He stopped and sat up, scratching his head.

"Do you like it when I put my mouth on you?"

She blushed. She looked so innocent, so virginal to him. He had to remind himself of what she'd been through. Of why maybe forcing Shinso to her throat to please her wasn't exactly the best idea.

"I'm going to go down on you again, Ran. Here," he took her hands and placed them gently in his hair. "I will do whatever you want me to do. If you want me to stop, just say it and give my hair a yank," he flashed a smile at her. His friend and woman he had only just begun to know intimately. He suddenly felt a falling sensation in his stomach.

"If you want me to keep going, then use me. Use the control you have over me and show me how you want to feel." He never remembered having to explain to any other of his partners how to be pleasured, but he was excited by the fact that he would teach her how to use him, as he lowered himself to her centre once more and hovered there. The cool breath of his exhalations tickling her blonde curls.

He was hoping she would ride his mouth. To be honest, he had never been more turned on in his life. The idea of her carrying a child – his child, in her belly, and her body changing and growing to accommodate it was, well…

Sexy.

"Move me," he was desperate to hear her call out his name in ecstasy. She did as she was told, and brought his face up to her swollen lips.

She tasted better – fuller and sweeter in her body's anticipation of satisfaction. He wrapped his arms around her thighs and cupped her whole sex in his mouth, creating a suction he resolved not to break until she came on his tongue. She was still holding on to his hair, but was moving rhythmically against him, enjoying the feeling of being in control.

He could feel her swelling on his tongue.

And the yank on his hair that had him sitting up and staring into terrified icy blue eyes.

"What –"

"I'm sorry Gin, but I thought- I felt like..."

"You felt like what?"

"Like I had to…pee."

Gin tried very hard not to laugh, opting instead for his signature grin.

"Ran, that sensation you're feeling is called an orgasm. I'm supposed to stop after you feel like you…peed yourself." He chuckled. He didn't know how else to explain it to her. He didn't know he was so shitty at explaining.

"How do you know?"

"'Cause men have that feeling too."

"Oh," It wasn't an answer she was expecting. She didn't have time to hide her disappointment, her insecurities.

She'd kissed lots of boys before Gin. And she was really good at it, at least she was told. She'd even planted one on Shuhei during a resuscitation exercise at the Academy, taking a longer than usual time on the mouth to mouth part. At times when she passed Lieutenant Hisagi, she could still see the blush on his face.

But this, this was new territory. Of course, she wasn't a virgin, she was 5 months pregnant for God's sake. But she'd never known she was supposed to enjoy it. Not physically anyways. Aside from her months as a prisoner, there was only Gin. And as much as he might – did care for her, she hadn't the heart to tell him how awkward she felt underneath him. How the sudden intake of breath was because he was being a little too rough. She was afraid to tell him she was still afraid.

Because she loved him.

"What it is, Ran-chan?" She only noticed now that he was halfway out of his clothes, his hair unusually disheveled since she'd been clutching it. She regretted not keeping him down there just a little longer, just to know what it felt like to like sex.

"It's nothing, really. I'm just tired. I think I'll take a nap."

She turned over before he could question her any further.

He tried again the next day.

Aside from him finding her pregnant body extremely attractive, he felt incredibly guilty. Guilty about not being there for her. About putting her in this situation in the first place. They were really just getting to know each other that way. But she was so warm and so welcoming. She was the only soul he could ever come close to calling his friend. And now that she was a Soul Reaper and had many more friends to choose from, he realized that he never wanted to be replaced.

Still, nothing he did coaxed Rangiku out of her shell. He knew that he had to break this barrier if he wanted to go any further. If he wanted her to feel like he did when he was inside of her.

His mouth sucked harder. Maybe if he bit down on her softly…

"Ouch!" Rangiku yanked on his hair and removed him from her legs. He saw that he'd drawn blood, a tiny pinprick at best , but enough to call his efforts off for the night.

She wouldn't look at him. Just up at the ceiling.

"Ran, I'm…"

"Maybe you should stop trying, Gin" she was looking up at the ceiling, too frustrated to look him directly in the eye. "I'm getting tired anyways."

He sat up and watched as she turned over to her right side, her default position now that her belly was growing. Gin remembered when they used to sleep on their sides together. He didn't touch her; he didn't want to. Not when he couldn't release her from her fear and torment. Not when he couldn't perform.

He helped around the house for the next few days. Rangiku had dismissed Mrs. Kamato while Gin was here, it was easier for them to be alone. She hummed while she folded the laundry, like she used to in their old house. She seemed happy here.

"Ran?"

"Mhm?"

"Have you told the Gotei of your resignation yet?"

She paused mid-fold. "I did not."

"When were you planning on telling them?"

"I wasn't planning on telling them anything, actually."

"But-"

"That's why Mrs. Kamato's here," she cut him off, unwilling to hear any of his objections. "If I leave the Soul Society they will wonder why. They'll start asking questions. It'll come back to you…and the fire." He could tell by her tone of voice that she no longer believed in his excuse.

"You're going to leave her alone in the care of an old woman we barely even know."

"You barely know her. She's a wonderful person! Besides, what makes you think we're having a girl?"

We're.

It was the first time she'd acknowledged it out loud. Something he didn't realize he needed to hear. Guilt set in again, and he wondered what life would have been like if he didn't join Aizen to get revenge.

If it would have changed the way he felt about her now, then it didn't matter what could have been.

She was grumbling in her sleep.

"Ran?"

He received no answer. Instead, he pressed his hand firmly on top of her belly, to see if that was the cause of her pain.

It worked. Her moaning subsided, and Gin proceeded to rub her tummy in circles, the thin fabric of her nightgown creating more unwanted friction between them.

He slid his hand underneath her dress, feeling the contact of his skin on her made her relax even more. With his other hand propping up his head. Gin stared into the face of his friend, his lover.

His soulmate.

He leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth. She caught his lips with her own as he was breaking the kiss, causing him to come back down on the fullness of hers.

He couldn't stop. She was intoxicating him. As he travelled down the base of her neck to her collarbone, and lower still, he realized that her breath was ragged, and her hands were searching for something, anything to hold on to.

"Do you like it when I put my mouth on you?"

He felt her soft hands weave themselves into his hair. Unable to stop, he planted kisses on her belly, reaching his hands underneath to the small of her back. He lingered there, not sure of what he should do next.

"Use me"

"Move me."

It was a soft push, but he understood what it meant. As he kissed and nibbled on the inside of her thigh, he wondered what changed, if she would change her mind again….

Her swallowed her whole before she could have second thoughts.

"Ah!"

She let out a ragged breath as his mouth latched on to her. She invited the licking and prodding this time, knowing he'd never intentionally hurt her, knowing that he wanted to show her how it was supposed to feel.

Knowing that sensation she was afraid of actually felt good.

No, it felt amazing.

"Gin,"

He felt the tremble of her legs before she came. Her body buckled underneath him, and she let out a cry of pleasure that he'd never elicited from another woman before. He smiled, teeth bared as he mopped away the rest of the liquid with his kisses.

"Doesn't feel like peeing now, does it?"

She was still reveling in the aftershock of her orgasm. Her breathing was only just starting to even out.

Gin was not a sentimental man. He could probably count on the fingers of one hand how many times he'd said the words, "I love you.". He didn't have to tell her, because she knew.

Still, adding a second hand to the count wouldn't hurt.

"I really do love you, Ran."

And although she was turned over to her side, the veil of sleep surrounding her, he could decipher the melodic 4-syllable murmur that was her reply.