This is my first time on something like this... still a FF-virgin But I really tried...
Note: There are/will be multiple pairings in this: Of course GinHitsu, but also HitsuHina. GinMatsu and AizenHina, if you want to see it that way. Plus, mentioned/hinted HitsuAizen, HitsuGrimm, HitsuHali, HitsuNoi, GinKira
He woke up, freezing. That wasn't really that unlikely down here, because it got never warm in the white dizzying high hallways and halls of Las Noches. But he had got used to it a long time ago. No, this wasn't the normal cold (the average temperature was about that of an room with good air conditioning) of his new home (though he, being as restless as he was, wouldn't have called it that. "Home", he had heard, was a place one would want to come back to where ever he went – and Gin had never felt about any place that way. Talking about other things... talking about humans, it was different. That was a fact that made him feel unease. He had now idea how to manage coming back to Rangiku this time. But eventually, there would a possibility reveal itself. It always did.).
No, it definitely wasn't the average coldness of this place. It rather felt as if someone had put him into a refrigerator and had shut the door close behind him...
He sat up, trying to figure out what was wrong. The sheets slipped from his shoulders exposing them to the freezing air. He shuddered. Some new idea from Aizen-sama? Or maybe something Szayel had screwed up... He didn't appreciate the pink haired arrancars existence too much. He had never liked Mayuri, and Szayel seemed to be created to resemble him strong enough to have the same mad ideas. Not that he found mad ideas disturbing in general. But this certain kind of ideas was disgusting. Although the Espada had proved quite useful...
His wandering glance catched a glimpse of a smooth, delicate white skin. AH. So that was the point...
He suppressed the immediate wish to slap the boy that was lying there, curled up as far away from the former 3rd division captain as he could manage with one hand tied to the bedpost, wrapped into about every sheet the other one didn't use. Ichimaru had made the mistake to touch him the first time this had happened, and the result had been frostbitten fingers. Not very pleasant. Plus, Aizen had been very angry at him for hurting himself. Which was even more dangerous than the actual injury.
He sighed, took a book and threw into the general direction of the white haired shinigami. It smacked right in the younger ones head, kicking him hard enough to let him slip off the bed.
Ichimaru heard him thud onto the ground, followed by a pained yelp when the handcuffed arm got streched too far and sent sharp, immediate pain through the boys body.
He grinned, resting his head on his arms, waiting for the others return from the floor. He didn't have to wait long. The overstretched arm had to be quite uncomfortable, he mused. Pity, ne?
"Ye really shouldn't dream too much, ya know? I might get ... upset some day..." He tried to lock eyes, but couldn't find anything to hook into in those listless, empty turquoises. Damn, they had done a good job in breaking him... maybe too good to Gins taste. But Aizen liked it this way, he knew. And, to be honest, he did like it as well...
Only that the kid had quit speaking at all disturbed him. He did talk even less than that dumb blond arrancar this idiot Tousen was so fond of. First, he had stopped talking when being spoken to, preventing any conversation from happening. Then, he had fallen silent when he was tortured, too. No more cursing, no more threatening. Sometimes Ichimaru wondered if the day would come when he would not even hear moaning or whining or any other sounds of pain from him anymore.
Whatever... he didn't really mind. "C'mon..." He patted the bed next to him, ordering his toy to lie down there. "Ye have awoken me... Now I want some fun..."
Toshirou Hitsugaya didn't like males in general.
She knew that. Knew also, that he had always been suppressing this irrational, confusing hatred, to behave ordinary, to get along normally with the other shinigami. But the harder he tried to eliminate those feelings, the stronger they grew.
Men were intimidating. Men were unfair. Men were a danger to everything important to him. Men were a danger to his mere existence at a socialized human being.
It had been a male who had taken away all interest and affection for him from the one girl he loved.
It had been a male who had killed his grandmother.
It had been a male who had made it clear that he wouldn't let him come near the only person that had been left to him at this moment (not that he would ever have tried) and stated that she was his possession and he merely allowed him to choose she as his vice, and that he could withdraw this allowance at any time, if he wanted to.
It had been a male who had tried to take this woman, who had saved him from his own abilities, giving him a chance to learn how to control and finally master them, from him.
Men was to be distrusted.
Especially smiling ones.
She had never been quite sure if this distrust included the child prodigy himself.
Finally, Matsumoto had come to the conclusion that it didn't. And, years passing by, she had learned of the cost this kind of self-deception demanded from him. Maybe the only person in all of the three worlds, she had understand why he wouldn't grow. Why he, maybe forever, would be imprisoned in this childlike body he was so often complaining about.
He just wouldn't have been able to handle an adults shape. He would have become one of those men he despised so much.
She had tried to keep his secret. She had, actually. But she was Matsumoto Rangiku, not some abstinent living saint. She drank. Sometimes a little bit too much to maintain full control. Sake loosens our mouths... The outcome was the fact that
Gin Knew.
It hadn't been easy to break the rational, distrustful short taichou. But they had managed eventually.
Ichimaru had tried it the way he had broken Izuru, and when it proofed that it didn't work, Aizen had tried his own. It hadn't worked either, and, angered at the lasting resistance, they had handed him to Grimmjow. Hitsugaya had been halfway dead after that, but not broken. They then had let Halibel and Noitora have a try as well, but neither of them could do anything more than the Sexta.
At this stage, they had decided to crush Hyourinmaru. It was a shame, as the zanpakuto was even powerful if used by a stranger, but those swords were part of their owners souls. Shattering them shattered something inside the shinigami, too.
The effect had definitely been there, but not as much as they had hoped to. Later they found out that the strong willed Hyourinmaru was rather bound and controlled than supported through the shape of it's blade, and they had merely released it.
They hadn't achieved anything... Not until Hinamori had come to Hueco Mundo. To rescue her captain. Gin smiled mischievously at this. Stupid girl.
Being forced to watch her being abused by about half a dozen arrancar, being exposed to her in the same manner, he had given in. It had been an elevating moment when those burning, hateful turquoises had been lowered to announce with a even, flat voice to no more resist... If they just would leave his friend alone.
Adding some of Szayels pills, he had become more and more obedient, until, as Aizen remarked, he was easier to handle than even Ulquiorra.
In the beginning, this blank, dull expression had lifted at the weekly visits to the girls room the boy was allowed to do. But time was passing by, and not only he but also his beloved one had become more and more hopeless until they had stopped talking at all, doing nothing but holding each others hands, indulging in this rare moments of relative safeness and peace.
The defiant, rebellious expression in his eyes had left. The once forceful, repulsing reiatsu had left, too. It had been replaced by a low-pressured, hardly controlled reiatsu drifting around the seely figure, being no more than a reminiscence of the powerful shinigami captain he had once used to be.
"... And Karin-chan has taken the entrance exams of the Joushien now, and what she says about it it sounds as if everything is as it should have been... I really hope she did it, she has studied so hard... But how about you? Are you doing well over there?"
Ichigo nodded. Then, realizing that even the hell butterflies couldn't transfer movements, he added a "Yes, of course." to it. His captain, sitting behind her desk and watching the talk with his sister silently, giggled. He gave her a short glare, which she totally ignored.
"And when are you coming back?" The question wasn't meant to be reproachful, but it was. It was and she was damn right.. He hadn't been much at home since the beginning of the winter war, and with the war becoming normality, he had got used to being exhausted, tired and busy all the time.. There just was no time to become homesick. But (at least up until now, and he didn't wish this to change) the war was limited to two of the three worlds, and his sisters didn't experience much more then a constantly absent brother and father for it. They had had to shut the Kurosaki Clinic down due o this. But except of this, Karin and Yuzu lived still her normal lives. And they missed the two Kurosakis that were always away on their respective shinigami duties.
He sighed. "I am sorry, I have no idea... You know we are all busy here... But maybe I can manage a short visit.. Let's say, Saturday evening?" His eyes asking for permission, he turned towards Matsumoto.
The woman nodded, speaking in the hell butterflies direction. "Of course we will come!"
"Wait!" He made a step into her direction. "That wasn't what I was talking about! This is fucking private! I just want to go home and-"
He stopped when she arouse from her seat and walked towards him. "Calm down, Ichigo, calm down." She let the butterfly rest on her fingertip. "I don't want to disturb you. But it has been quite a while since I have been to the human wo- at your town." He recognized the sparkling in her eyes. Most likely, she thought about shopping now.
He scowled. "But..."
She grinned, poking into his stomach. "Oh boy. Don't try i that /i . I had many years to get used to it. It won't work at all." She patted his head. "Besides, Taichou was much better at it."
Still "Taichou"... Ichigo doubted that Matsumoto would ever accept any of the new captains. Neither Izuru, who was now in charge of the 3rd squad, nor herself, who had made captain of the 10th. Which was a pity. Noone would have believed it, but she was quiet a good captain. Not having Hitsugaya to cover up for her laziness anymore, she had proved to be respomsible than they had thought.
"But Matsumoto-san!" Yuzu put some insistence into her words. "Please come to our house too! I'll prepare dinner for you two! So don't you dare not coming!"
"Yuzu!!!!!"
"But!!!!"
Rangiku smiled. "Thank you, Yuzu-chan. I would love to visit you, but I don't know if I got time..."
"Ok... I'd hope you do..." he enthusiasm seemed to be muffled a bit. "Ah, and Ichigo... When you are coming, please make sure you put your usual expression on."
This confused the orange head. Puzzled, he glanced at the woman besides him for help. She tried to imitate his usual scowl, failing entirely. But he had got the point.
Even more confused now, he asked: "Why?"
Yuzus voice was serious now.
"Because Shiro-chan doesn't like smiling males."