You guys are lucky I couldn't fall asleep.

I realized that you'd be coming with me to Seireitei, to the Central Spirit Institute, when you complained to me one day that there was something growling in your head.

I'd never heard growling in my head—but it didn't surprise me. I knew it was different for everyone. Instead I heard a silky, suggestive voice that promised infinite power.

I recall one night, a particularly dreary, cold winter night when I rolled over in bed, throwing an arm out to pull you closer to me, only to find empty space, and the place where you should have been cold.

I sat up immediately, my bright eyes scanning the interior of our little shack, lit only by the dying embers of our sad fire. You weren't there. The door, however, was opened ever so slightly.

I stood, throwing an old kimono on and tying the sash hastily before I slipped into the pair of geta I'd stolen from a farm years before and stepped out into the calm winter air.

You sat with your back to me on our little porch, your knees drawn up to your chest.

I said nothing, only sat beside you. I could tell you wouldn't speak to me, not yet, if I'd asked you what you were doing out in the cold, so I just waited. I was slightly unnerved by your silence, but most of all by your vulnerability.

You were many things, Rangiku, but vulnerable was never one of them—never, except on that one, cold, winter night.

"I saw it," you said finally, softly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Saw what, Rangiku?"

"The cat," you replied simply.

The cat.

I knew immediately what you were talking about. "In your sleep?"

You shook your head and shivered. "No. I rolled over in bed, and it was right there—standing over me. I looked at it, and it said something to me, but I couldn't understand it. I tried to say something, but it ran out here," you finished by waving a hand around, gesturing to the outside world around us. "Then she disappeared."

I wasn't surprised your cat was feminine. For some reason, I knew it would be a sultry, beast—a hellcat, just like you.

I looked at you, my eyes sliding open a bit more than usual so that when you looked at me you smiled slightly and raised a hand to my face.

You always said you loved the color of my eyes.

I snaked an arm around you, drawing your into my arms to try and stop your feeble shivering. It in no way surprised me you'd rushed outside with nothing more than a yukata on, even in the winter

"She'll be back," I said against your hair. I could still feel traces of the power your cat had left behind. It was powerful, more so than I thought it would be, and almost sensual. I realized then that it fit you nearly perfectly.

You fell asleep, wrapped in my arms, soon after. I stood up, lifting you easily into my arms and carried you back inside, where I tucked us both back into bed.

Your cat came back a few weeks later.

Snow had just fallen, mountains of it, and it was still falling as I traipsed around our hut, calling your name. You'd disappeared outside almost an hour before, wearing nothing more than a yukata, and I figured you were either frozen solid, or something much worse. You had a strange affinity for the snow, something I didn't question, but when you were gone for long periods of time in it, I couldn't help growing anxious, the protective side of me kicking in.

The moment I rounded a corner that led to a small cave, I felt it: I huge surge of reiatsu, mixing and moving so that it shook the things that surrounded it—it wasyours.

I panicked at first, trying to call up my own power, but yours was overwhelming, and I couldn't seem to grasp my own flame deep within my soul. I took slow, careful steps past the mouth of the cave, and that's when I saw it. That's when I saw you— except it almost wasn't you. You were different.

You were sitting on a rock, framed by the dark dirty cavern wall and your own golden hair. Your entire body seemed to be alight, shining silver with flecks of gold. You were smiling down at something, and it didn't take me long to spot what it was that held your attention.

A massive cat resembling a tiger, almost as tall as you when it stood on four legs, was pacing back and forth before you, leaking reiatsu as it moved. I almost called for you, yelled for you to get to safety, before I realized the power it was leaking was yours. It was a golden beast, with dark gray markings around its fearsome face.

I realized that the cave was shaking so fiercely because your beast was purring.

I don't think I'll ever forget the sight, or the feeling, or your fully released power. Every bone in my body was shaking as I inched closer, and I froze in place when your cat suddenly turned it's head and looked my way.

The purring stopped immediately, replaced by a low, rumbling growl. Something about it was sensuous, but it reeked of power.

You noticed me then, and you smiled slowly.

"She came back," you told me. You sounded proud of yourself.

"Aa, I can see that," I said, my voice shaking. That caught your attention and you pursed your lips.

"Gin?"

Your cat was advancing on me slowly. I don't know what it was, but she didn't like me.

Maybe she knew that, one day, I would leave you, that I would betray you. Maybe it was just my scent. I've never figured it out, and since that day your cat has wanted my blood. I wonder if you've ever figured it out; I admit, I'd be fascinated to find out.

"Call her off, Ran-chan," I said softly, my eyes now wide open as I watched your hellcat begin stalk me.

It was the first time I was ever truly afraid for my life. Your cat's eyes spoke only of murder as it stared at me.

Your eyes narrowed with concentration and I could see your power flooding from you. Your cat stopped in its tracks as you called out to it and it turned to you. The growling ceased as well, and I felt myself relax slightly, but not completely: my own power was screaming to get out, and every muscle in my body was taut, reading to spring into action if I needed to.

I watched as you stepped down from the rock and padded over to the massive manifestation of your power. Even you seemed slightly wary, but it shown only in your eyes; your stride, as it always was, was confident. You stopped in front of the beast, your head held high and you raised your arm, slowly as if you were unsure how exactly to call the hellcat back to you. You tried what any person would do to calm a kitten, and scratched it behind its ear.

The purring began once more, and the cat nuzzled its head against you. You whispered something, what I couldn't hear, but the hellcat soon began to shimmer and then fade away, it's power returned to you. Before it disappeared completely, it turned and faced me once more, it's eyes hard: it seemed to say 'I'll be watching you'.

I shivered involuntarily as it faded, and I relaxed only when it had disappeared from my sight, back to you.

I looked at you then, and you were suddenly someone I felt like I didn't know: you stood a little straighter, your eyes seemed to shine a little brighter, and you seemed so much more powerful.

You smiled at me, a coy, proud smile. You knew what you'd done, what you'd just achieved.

We packed up and left our hut the next morning.

Our destination was The Central Spirit Institute.

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--Luin