Winter came early that year. The first light snowfall was in November, and Gin and Rangiku quickly discovered their home was little better than a sieve. Gin spent a day off boarding up cracks and going over the roof seeking out a leak they had discovered as the snow melted.
Rangiku just did her best not to complain. She had almost completely forgotten they were poor while going to the Academy and then living in the division barracks. She had never considered how few shinigami, even older squad members and ranking officers had homes of their own; nearly all lived in their division housing.
To live elsewhere in Seireitei you were supposed to have family, preferably nobility, with a large and elegant estate, or as one of the lower ranking family members whose homes clustered around the walls of the main estates.
It was completely ridiculous that she and Gin, a fifth seat and a lieutenant, for crying out loud, could afford only a little better than a shack, and it was definitely contributing to her mood as she stood out on the road watching Gin going over the tiles of their roof.
"No, no!" she shouted up at him, "It has to be there or higher—don't you see where I'm pointing?"
She stepped back to get a better angle and stepped right into one of her more irritating neighbors.
"Do you mind?" a far too familiar, icy voice demanded.
Rangiku turned abruptly to face the young, attractive, and incredibly stuck up captain of the Sixth Division. "Maybe you should watch where you're going," Rangiku snapped.
A strong hand clamped onto her upper arm and yanked her back. Gin jerked her behind him so quickly she had to grab ahold of his sleeve to keep from falling.
"Good morning, Captain Kuchiki!" Gin said with false enthusiasm, bowing much more politely than he ever did.
"Lieutenant Ichimaru," the young nobleman acknowledged with clear distaste. "You might want to keep your wife out of the road. She doesn't appear to be capable of keeping an eye on her surroundings while speaking. I would suggest she try not speaking at all if it is too distracting, but, from what I've seen of the Fifth Seat, she is incapable of silence."
Only Gin's hand still on her arm prevented her from charging straight at Byakuya. "I don't care if you are a captain, you spoiled, narcissistic, inbred—"
Gin swung her up and over his shoulder. "Beg your pardon, sir. I'm sure it's just the hormones," he said as he carried her inside as quickly as he could manage.
Rangiku's fury didn't die as he closed the door behind them—it just shifted to him.
"You put me down right this second, Ichimaru Gin! You have no business dragging me off like a misbehaving child! Kuchiki Byakuya is an arrogant bastard and he deserves to be told so right to his face! Don't you go thinking you can stop me from telling him off if I want to tell him off! I am my own person, and I have every right to do whatever the hell I want, and I don't need you getting in my way! And I—" but there she broke off. Gin had set her down as soon as they got inside, and he just stood there watching her and smiling as she yelled at him.
"Why the hell are you smiling at me?" she demanded furiously.
"You're beautiful when you yell."
"You weren't even listening, were you?" Rangiku asked, most of her anger draining at his words.
"Nope," he agreed. "My brain shut down in shear terror after you called Kuchiki inbred."
She smiled as she sat down on the edge of the tatami and tried to reach the ties on her sandals. "I can't believe I said that, and I'm still alive."
"I expected to die in a rain of flower petals," Gin agreed as he knelt down before her, untying her sandals as he spoke. "Which would have made a lovely, tragic tale, but I've never liked tragedies and I certainly don't want to be in one. We're lucky that even Kuchiki thinks it's poor form to murder a pregnant woman."
Rangiku flinched at that. He probably wasn't wrong. Byakuya had one of the worst tempers among the captains, and a single blast of senbonzakura would be enough to end her and Gin, too, if he tried to shield her. "He really is a spoiled, narcissistic, inbred, bastard," she said, trying vaguely to defend her actions.
"You clearly haven't read the most recent issue of Seireitei Communication. Captain Kuchiki was named this year's most eligible bachelor," Gin told her, displaying said magazine with the captain glaring on the cover. "He is officially gifted with god-like beauty, intelligence, and style. There was absolutely nothing in the article about being spoiled, narcissistic, inbred, or even a bastard. I checked twice. It seemed like something they ought to include, but no, Kuchiki is, officially, every woman's picture of masculine perfection. You simply haven't been paying attention."
Rangiku made a face. "Maybe there's another Captain Kuchiki. I'd rather spend a month on paperwork than waste an hour with the Kuchiki I've met."
Gin smiled as he flipped through the pages. "But he's so pretty. Don't you get all hot and bothered when he turns his fathomless eyes on you?"
"Fathomless eyes?"
"That's what the article called them."
"Who wrote this article?" Rangiku demanded, reaching for the magazine.
Gin easily moved it out of her reach. "Avoiding the question, Ran-chan," he told her as he folded the magazine over to display a picture of Kuchiki at his estate during the Tanabata Festival. He did look quite beautiful in a silk kimono in the starlight. "Doesn't his perfection excite you?"
Rangiku glared back at Gin. "Definitely. In the exact same way being trapped in the same room with a pit viper would. They're very pretty too, and about as likely to spit on me."
Gin shrugged. "I think I'd put up with being spit on if I could have all that money."
"You're such a whore!" Rangiku declared. Then she burst out laughing. "It's amazing!" she declared, falling back against the tatami and looking around the little house, leaky ceiling and all. "There was a time we would have done anything just for a meal, absolutely anything if you hadn't stopped me, and now-"
She looked up at Gin, smiling hugely. "Do you ever think how lucky we are? I don't know about you, but I have more than I ever even dreamed. Who cares if the roof leaks? We have a home, a family, and we never, ever have to be afraid of running out of food ever again. I never imagined life could be so good!"
Gin sat down beside her, and his expression was surprisingly somber as he looked down at her. "You deserve servants and silks, and palace to live in."
"What would I do with a palace?" Rangiku asked. She stretched out her arms to the sides like she could somehow embrace the entire world. "Gin, I'm so happy I could burst! This is all I need. This is perfection!"
For a moment it looked like he wanted to say something but instead he leaned down and kissed her.