Author's notes:
Finally found the time to finish this chapter. Life sometimes sucks real bad, ne? XD But lets not dwell on such things and get started with some Gin/Matsu goodness
Though I'm pretty depressed, that *beware of recent chapter spoilers* Aizen got a scene with Hinamori and Gin still hasn't gotten one with Rangiku!!! Hell, Kubo-sensei, how much longer will you make me dangle from that hook?!?!
R&R
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"So how's he?"
Looking up from his half filled cup of warm sake, Kira blinked a few times as he contemplated the question his friend had posed. With a deep sigh, he put down his drink and straightened.
"I don't really know. He seems to be nice enough, but except for some basic conversations, we haven't found the time to… I don't know… what am I supposed to do anyway?" Brows creased deeply as a sweaty hand combed through his straw blond hair.
Renji emptied his own cup and grinned. "You are the brownnoser, not me."
Making a disgruntled face, Kira sighed again. "I'm new to this. Becoming fukutaichou all of a sudden took me pretty much by surprise and then I have to act under a newly assigned captain as well… why's it always got to be the hard way?"
Snorting in annoyance at Izuru's self-loathing, Renji refilled his cup and glanced at his other companion.
To celebrate the newly arrived captain and vice-captain of the third division, the other members of the third had decided to throw a welcome party. Around the same time, Renji had achieved fourth seat of the 11th and Hinamori had finally been given the place right beside her beloved Aizen-taichou.
So here they were, sitting in Kira's private quarters, while the rest of his quad was having a great get together in the canteen.
"What's your problem anyway?" The red-head demanded irritably, throwing his free hand up in the air. "I only got to be fourth. And that was outta pure luck! If it weren't for Ayasegawa-san, I'd be somewhere around five at best!"
"Abarai-kun, don't be like this." Hinamori chided her friend with a broad smile. She had been doing that a lot lately, Renji noted with a risen eyebrow. Smiling like the cat that got the cream. "You'll be given a better position as well."
Always the optimist…
"Anyway. How's yer taichou by the way?"
Practically beaming, Hinamori clapped her hands together and opened her mouth to start about all the positive characteristics she had already noticed about Aizen-taichou, when a knock on the sliding door indicated a new arrival.
Before Kira could give the person permission to enter, the sliding door had already been opened and Matsumoto Rangiku stepped inside.
"Now isn't that a surprise?" She began, folding her arms underneath her bosom as she leant against the frame of the door. Head slightly cocked to the side, she quirked an eyebrow.
"Having a drink together without waiting for the star guest."
Kira frowned slightly, contemplating whether to mention or not that the three of them had been assigned their first seats and not her, but decided spontaneously against voicing any form of protest.
"Rangiku-san, I didn't know you were coming today." Hinamori looked extremely worried about having offended the tall woman (they hadn't been friends for too long, but already the woman with the black bun couldn't think of anything worse than disappointing her) and with a sigh, Renji decided to end her misery.
Producing a new sake cup, he waved Matsumoto over to his side. "It ain't empty, yet. The third seems to be on the rich side of life."
Smiling slyly, Matsumoto lifted her hand and waved him off with a slight motion of her wrist.
"Thanks, but I still have some errands to run. Since I'm currently acting as captain and vice-captain, the load resting on my two best friends has been doubled." Turning around, she gave them all a quick smile. "Congrats on your promotions. Maybe I'll come by again later."
A chorus of mixed "Thank you, Matsumoto-fukutaichou" and "Whatever" accompanied her as she walked along the way leading away from Kira's quarters to the private compound of the new taichou.
The smile had vanished from her face as soon as she had been out of sight, having been replaced by a hard façade. Lips drawn into a thin line and brows knitted together as if in pain, she headed straight to where she knew the new captain of the third division was residing.
It weren't good times for a delicate woman such as her to be second IC of the tenth squad. With the sudden, mysterious disappearance of their former captain, the division had been left headless and Matsumoto had been forced to shoulder a new responsibility until a new captain was in reach.
Among doing a heap of paperwork she hadn't known could actually exist in such quantities, there were still the chores her actual seat brought along with the job description.
Greeting the new taichou in her squad's name was one of them.
Wetting her dry lips, Matsumoto turned the corner of Kira's office and stopped dead for a rather long moment.
Ahead, the private quarters of Ichimaru Gin were lying ghostly still in the pale light of the half moon. The surface of a small pond rippled in a slight breeze, grass stalks rustling in its wake.
For some reason, her legs refused to move any further, her tabi-clad feet rooted to the spot as she stared at the peaceful compound in front of her.
Except for the normal vice captain meetings every month, she hadn't seen him much in the last years, the bond that the two had once shared having dwindled into mere memories already decades ago.
But still… whenever she was near him or even fleetingly thought about him, a strange feeling of longing and pain made her world quiver as if shaken in its very chore.
"Beautiful, ain't it?"
Jumping in surprise, Matsumoto swiveled around in shock, eyes wide as a short scream died in her throat. Heartbeat still racing as if she had just shunpo-ed from one end of Soul Society to the other, she pressed her hand against her heaving sternum.
Without thinking, she barked out the first thing that came to her racing mind: "I-idiot!"
Silence descended upon the two shinigamis as Matsumoto felt her ears turning red when finally the implication of her words hit her hard. Immediately, she bowed deep in front of the tall man, silently damning her loose mouth for being faster than her brain. Again.
"My deepest apologies for my insubordination, Ichimaru-taichou! I take full responsibility for my words and am awaiting any form of punishment, you feel-"
"Now, now, Rangiku." It was the first time in ages that he had used her name like this, his voice holding a bemused undertone. "Jus' glad nothin' 's fallen out…"
Eyes going wide, Matsumoto shot up into a straight position, her mouth slightly agape. She could barely believe her ears with her brain still trying to catch up to the changes of the man standing in front of her.
She suddenly felt as if she had finally woken from a nightmare.
He had returned.
Gin was back.
"Still, I'm sorry for being so rude to a superior… " Before she could dive back into her subordinate-mode, the woman caught herself and subtly took a calming breath. "I fear, I didn't hear, what you just said…"
The broad smirk on his pale features turned momentarily into a small almost serene smile, his eyebrows crinkling together slightly as if contemplating. "I merely commented on a beautiful scene."
Feeling a blush creeping into her cheeks, Matsumoto turned around swiftly and stared at the silent pond, the reflection of the moon casting an eerie glow on the surface of the water.
"It surely is."
Before any form of uncomfortable silence could pass between the two shinigamis, Ichimaru walked past her, his white captain's haori trailing slightly behind in his wake and Matsumoto couldn't help herself and closed her eyes for a brief second when she felt his reiatsu engulf her.
She didn't give her sub consciousness the chance to dwell on the memories that his energy signature evoked, warming her skin like an embrace. Instead she looked up to find him heading towards his private quarters.
Unsure what to do, she allowed her eyes to trace his frame for a second.
"Matsumoto-fukutaichou." His playful voice was carried across the small distance with a slight echo. "If ya hav' ta discuss somethin', I got some tea ta offer."
He was the only man in this world, who would willingly pass the chance to drink sake with her.
A warm fuzzy feeling suddenly spread out inside her as she felt her feet carrying her across the small yard to where Gin had left the sliding door to his office open. Matsumoto couldn't remember the last time she had been so absolutely relieved ever since their ways had parted.
It almost felt like coming home to this old shack…
Closing the door behind her, she found the lean man preparing two cups, the smell of green tea invading her senses and adding to the feeling of content.
"What brought 'cha 'ere?"
For some reason, she felt obliged to absorb every ounce of him. His reiatsu, his voice, the way he moved. It all felt like silk floating across her skin with a feathery touch.
The memory of their first meeting here in Seireitei pulling the silky blanket away from her and leaving behind cold bitterness.
"Please… Stay away from me."
"I… I'm here in the name of my squad to congratulate you on your well deserved promotion with the utmost respect and to ensure you of the support of the tenth division."
Looking up from her slight bow, she found him half sitting on the window sill, one knee bent as his arm rested on it, his other foot planted firmly on the tatami mat for support. The moon light filtered in through the window, falling on his black shihakushou.
His silver hair seemed to reflect the eerie glow like the rippling surface of the pond.
"I'm…" What was it that she wanted to say then? Somehow the words just wouldn't come out.
Instead she unconsciously felt for the hem of her silken pink scarf.
"I've jus' finished plantin' some persimmon trees." He suddenly began, looking out into the garden across his shoulder. "A few years an' we'll be able to eat da first fruits, ne?"
The memory hit her so hard as if she had received a physical blow.
"Here, eat up." A brown wrinkled fruit dangled in front of her fuzzy vision.
"I'm happy you've made it so far, Gin."
No title, no honorific.
Matsumoto felt safe again.
The two cups of tea were standing on the small table, steam rising from the greenish liquid. Forgotten, as she walked to where he was looking out into his private compound bathed in nightly shades of grey.
She could practically feel the sudden change in his demeanor at her words, the slight fluctuating of his reiatsu palpable even if he had tried to mask it immediately. A ghost of a frown appeared on his forehead as he turned to face her approaching form.
"Are you?"
The words took her off guard and she couldn't decide whether it had been a question or just his voiced acknowledgment.
"Gin… what… "
He turned around on the sill, facing her completely, bangs of smooth hair falling over his eyes. He looked so lost to her, like back then in Rukongai when he had been sitting at the lake, bathed in blood.
"I dunno where I'm goin', Ran."
Halting in her steps, the woman with the strawberry blond hair lifted her hand towards her neck, her fingers closing around the necklace, its pendant hidden in her cleavage. One day, it had been lying on her bed, shortly before she had joined the shinigami academy. A faint silvery trace of reiatsu wrapped around the chains.
Her lips parted, his name burning on her tongue, when suddenly, his head jerked around to the closed door.
Without a word, he got up and strode towards the table, taking the two tea cups and proffering one to her. Befuddled, Matsumoto extracted her hand from her necklace and took the warm cup, thoughts racing like troubled waters in a wild lake.
The stranger was back. The Gin she couldn't recognize anymore.
And he was staring at the door behind her.
"Matsumoto-fukutaichou. What a pleasure to meet you here at such a late hour."
Startled, Rangiku turned around to the owner of the velvety voice, finding Aizen Sousuke's broad form standing in the now open door. She hadn't even heard it sliding open, much less, felt his presence advancing.
"Aizen-taichou." She finally acknowledged her superior with a deep bow, sweaty hand still clasped around the cup of green tea. "I was-"
"The flowers and gifts 're just flyin' in like that." Gin's smooth voice interrupted her before she could start blabbering, which she was well aware of, she would have done. As she turned her head, she found the mask back on, a sly smile pulling the corners of his mouth up into what looked like a sneer.
"Is that so?" Aizen asked bemusedly, his eyes moving from Matsumoto to Gin and back to her irritated form. "Then I shall make my regards another time, Ichimaru-taichou."
The bespectacled man turned to go, but Matsumoto beat him to it.
"Please, Aizen-taichou. I shall take my leave. I believe some people are awaiting my return." Bowing once again, Matsumoto put down the cup of tea on the table standing between her and Gin. Daring to look at him, she felt something twist painfully inside her.
Gin had always prided himself with the ability to never show worthless emotions when watched by anyone. But Matsumoto had always been able to look right through his ever present grin and almost closed eyes, had known when he was acting or lying and when he was being honest.
Ever since she had first seen him again in Seireitei, she had known that he was acting. Why, she didn't know even though it had broken her back then.
But right in that one fraction of a second, she was able to see through that act, his mask having crumbled a bit then.
A flicker of pain and hurt hushed across his face like a shadow so fleetingly, that she doubted he had realized the emotion himself. She decided against imploring him with her eyes and turned back around, hastily walking past the second captain with a short "Goodbye".
Striding through the small garden, past the pond and down the alley towards Kira's office, she felt her hands trembling and balled them into fists.
"I dunno where I am goin', Ran."
"Idiot." She forced out between suppressed sniffles. "How should I know?"
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FINIS?!
Weeeell… R&R
We are nearing the end.