Title: The Candle's Flame

Rating: G

Characters/Pairings: MatsumotoxGin (sorta)

Word Count: 543

Warnings: Angsty-ish

Summary: Matsumoto keeps the everlasting flame burning.

A/N: Dedicated to maestrong, because she asked for MatsumotoxGin back in chapter 2 (eek! Sorry it took so long) and I live to serve. This story took a different direction from where I had planned... it's not really as MatsuGin as I wanted. But I tried. I don't think I got Gin quite right, either... was he EVER this nice? o.O

----------

When Matsumoto was young, she found Ichimaru Gin. Or, rather, he found her.

When he returned to his home in Rukongai after their first meeting, she followed. He didn't protest his new companion's presence. He didn't try to stop her. In fact, he welcomed her into the home he shared with so many other children. He introduced her to his friends and acted as though she had always been there. It was a casual acceptance, without using so many words. They were now a part of each other's lives. Inexplicably, irreplaceably, irreversibly.

Matsumoto had long been afraid of monsters. During the day, when the sun shined and cast light on all objects, she would never give her fear much thought. But when night rolled around and the protection of the sun waned, she would lay in the darkness wishing for the return of the day. The day that she would no longer be afraid. The day when she could fight the monsters. The day when she would not cower in fright from their shadows.

The day she met Ichimaru Gin was the day she found the answers to her wishes. He rolled out a bed for her and caught the terrified expression on her face, the only kind of fear he could recognize: absolute. So he smiled and tucked her in, patting her hair comfortingly.

"Rangiku-chan?"

"Hai?"

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

"Anou…" She did not want to admit her fear to her new friend, but she trusted him in a way she could not explain. "I am afraid of the monsters."

"I see… well, that can be helped." He walked to the table and plucked a candle out of the box, thrusting it into a tarnished silver holder. "You see, monsters are afraid of light."

Matsumoto perked up, never having heard this piece of information before. She was instantly curious.

"Hai. Monsters are more afraid of light then you are of them." He took a match and lit the candle, smiling slightly and padding back over to her side. He kneeled down so that he was level with her and placed the burning candle on the ground next to the bed.

"As long as you keep the light on, they will not come near here."

Matsumoto marveled at this fact and Gin's knowledge of it. She watched the flickering candle with pure interest, amazed that such a small flame could stop the monsters of her nightmares.

"To tell the truth, Rangiku-chan, I am afraid of the monsters, too."

She looked inquisitively at Gin, stunned that he was afraid too. She did not think it possible that he could ever be afraid of anything. But he was not looking at her, rather at the small glittering flame next to her bed.

"That is why I always light a candle before bed."

Matsumoto watched the iridescent flame unseeingly, her gaze turned inward at her own memories and thoughts. It was that night that she finally gained her courage. That night she decided to fight the monsters. That night she stood up and fought her nightmares.

Gin kept the candle lit at night.

Matsumoto kept the candle lit at night too.

Gin had extinguished his flame a long time ago.

Matsumoto kept hers burning.

----------

FIN