Gin Ichimaru had grown numb staring at the ceiling of his cell. He'd refused to adopt any empathy for the Kuchiki girl and how she might have felt while waiting in her cell for her execution, empathy was an emotion that always escaped him.

He would not allow himself to become intimidated by Central 46, he would not allow the guards teasing taunts to get under his skin, he would not allow much of anything to permeate the battered battle armour he now wore.

Then he heard her voice.

She spoke so softly to him, that Gin was sure he'd partially dozed off, hearing the lull of her voice as he drifted toward sleep. Then she said his name again, sharper and more demanding than the first time she'd spoken it.

'Gin.'

It was enough to rouse him. Gin shifted and turned to face the front of his cell where Rangiku stood, her face a perfect mask to hide the emotions he knew she was feeling. Despite how Rangiku Matsumoto looked on the outside, fierce, commanding, dominating, in control, Gin could easily read the uncertainty and insecurity in her eyes.

'Hello Rangiku,' he offered her name back pleasantly. 'It's good to see you.'

She almost broke, the corners of her lips shaking and her eyes hardening their resolve in her steely pale blue gaze.

'Don't,' she breathed, and Gin drunk in every octave of her voice, committing it to memory, the way he'd committed the feel of her to memory too.

'Don't what?' he asked the question innocently after she refused to speak again, losing his patience to hear her voice.

Rangiku reached out to grasp the bar of his cell, her fingers curling around the metal surface as she drew in a sharp breath. She closed her eyes and it was a while before she opened them again.

'Don't act like this is just another Saturday evening,' her voice shook on the words. Gin felt his gut clench, a tiny wavier of remorse for his actions tightening and coiling inside him. He had very few regrets for everything he'd done, but hurting Rangiku was one of them.

'I loved those Saturday evenings,' Gin chuckled, standing now, moving toward her like a moth to a flame. Rangiku hesitated at his advances, her body leaning away for a moment before her feet planted themselves and she decided to stay where she could be close to him. Gin leaned his head against the bars, peering down into the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. 'The world seemed so small back then.'

A smile broke her lips, and though her features were still shrouded with sadness, she was remembering a time when they were not. 'We were so small back then.'

'Yer right,' Gin grinned, his eyes drawing down to her lips, down her neck and to the necklace he'd given her. The chain was simple, ending in a ring that looped the chain back through it, keeping it in place.

The ring had been a promise. A promise of a better life he'd not been able to provide.

He suddenly wished that the bars were gone, so that he could take her into his arms like he had done so many times before, knowing that nothing could hurt her while he held her.

'I had to do it Ran,' he drawled, trying to convince himself as much as her.

Rangiku's eyes flashed a warning up at him and she moved away from the bars.

'You had to manipulate and nearly kill Momo? You had to mentally abuse Rukia? You had to pretend to…' her voice choked and she took a deep breath, 'you had to leave me?'

She whispered the last words and for the first time, Gin felt actual remorse for what he'd done. He reached through the bars toward her, the pain in her voice hurting him too.

'I did it fer you-'

'Don't!'

Gin closed his mouth, his jaw clicking shut with a snap. Rangiku turned away from him, hiding the façade that was clearly failing her. He watched as her shoulders shook, his ears straining for the noise of her distress. Rangiku was a strong woman, and no sob broke her composure, when she turned back to him, he could see the hurt in her eyes, but no tears.

'Don't pretend like you did this for anyone other than yourself.'

Her words hurt, they lashed like a whip in the space between them.

'I knew you could be cruel to others, but I had no idea you would ever be so cruel to the people that I cared about. I thought…' she took a deep breath, 'I thought I could teach you compassion, I thought I could teach you love.'

Gin's heart fluttered dully in his chest. Rangiku stood rooted to the spot but her eyes were on the dirty ground of his cell.

'Clearly I was wrong,' she finished, her eyes flying back to his, 'goodbye, Gin.'

She turned on her heel and Gin knew, he knew that she wasn't going to come back if she left.

'Ran!' he called, an air of desperation in his voice as he pressed his body against the bars to peer down to the hallway, 'Rangiku!'

Something in his voice made her hesitate at the door.

'I'm sorry!' he called, and this time he genuinely meant it.

It wasn't enough for her to stay. Without looking back, she yanked the door open and the last glimpse of her that he had, was the swish of her shihakusho and strawberry blonde hair.

'Gin Ichimaru,' the dull voice of the Central 46 member thundered around the room, 'you have been brought before this council under the allegations of gross misconduct, conspiracy against the Seireitei, conspiring with enemies of the Seireitei, attempted murder of a Lieutenant of the Gotei thirteen, abduction of a human girl. How do you plead?'

Gin sat on the wooden chair, the ancient wood uncomfortable against his bony cheeks, the stale smell of the chamber only punctuated by the relief of the fresh draft of air blowing in from a barred window set high above the council members. He'd stopped paying attention to them long ago, his eyes focused on the beam of sunlight that shone through the bars instead. It would likely be the last bit of sunlight he'd ever get to see.

'Guilty,' he sighed.

He didn't know what punishment awaited him, nor did he care. The one thing in this world that he did care about, had walked out of his life for good and he knew it just wasn't worth living anymore. She was his last ray of sunshine.

He still believed that he did the right thing, to try and protect her. He just wished things had played out differently.

'A number of the captains have appealed your sentence,' the member stated, 'ergo we will not be sentencing you to death, but instead either the destruction of your soul chain or a lifetime imprisonment.'

Gin sighed.

'Which do you choose?'

He didn't want his powers to be taken away. He knew Aizen wasn't dead, simply imprisoned and so long as there was even a chance that the man may come back, Gin didn't want to be powerless to protect the one thing he loved.

'The latter.'

'Very well,' the loud clank of wood on wood sounded around the chamber and Gin was suddenly surrounded by members of squad two. 'Take him to the maggots nest.'

It was on his way to the hell hole in the ground, that he received a scroll; a handwritten letter that sparked a small flurry of hope in his empty chest.