So this was a long time coming...sorry? Sadly, school trumps fanfiction, and 'Lilies' and a few other planned stories (which you can check out on my profile page :3) have all been taking over my life... but mostly it's school... and fencing... here you go, though, sorry it's pretty short ;

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach... but I wish I did.

Aizen-sama had the girl brought here today—Inoue Orihime.

I confess, she reminds me a little bit of you.

It's not just her obvious physical assets, but the optimism she seems to posses, even if it's just the smallest amount. She's got your same determination, Rangiku. She knows what's at stake here, as well as what she needs to do, I can sense it.

She doesn't have your strength, the raw power you eventually learned to control and turn into your loyal ash-cat, but she's got something; her strange, time and space reversal powers.

I've started to find myself thinking what I could use her and her powers for.

Given the chance, I wonder if I could make her take me back, make it so I never left with Aizen and come to this obviously God forsaken pit of sand. Somehow I don't think her powers work quite like that.

It's nice to think about, though.

I think it's her eyes that get me the most.

They lack the endurance I've seen in your eyes, endurance that you've gained over your many years—but mostly they lack the cynicism that you've come to view the world with, most likely due to me.

Her eyes are hard, but they lack the pain that I'd see in yours, the raw hurt I did see in your eyes the day I left your side for good by means of a huge, golden light.

Sure, there is pain in the girl's eyes, one just has to look at the situation she is in to understand why, but it doesn't affect me the same way the pain in yours does.

Probably because I'm not the cause of the pain in her eyes.

I'm going to bet that Kuroskai never packed up and left her, betraying everything she believed in and knowingly crushing her heart in his hand.

He doesn't have it in him.

He'll probably show up here soon to save her, crashing around in the sand, creating havoc for us as he goes.

It will break the monotony of this place nicely.

I'm hoping he gets here soon.

I haven't yet decided if I want you to be with him.

I'm confident that you would seek me out if you came here, either that, or I'd seek you out, keeping careful watch over you.

You'd hate that.

What would I say to you, Ran-chan?

What could I say, is a better question.

'Sorry'?

Somehow, I don't think that would sit well with you. I've said sorry to you only once, and look how that turned out.

The truth?

Even I'm not sure I know what the truth is. And there is no guarantee you'd believe me, either. I think you'd want to, but I haven't given you much reason—ever—to believe a single word I've said.

Yet… you did believe, on more than one occasion, and surprisingly, on more than one of those occasions, my words to you were true.

It only makes me feel all the worse. Betraying and misleading the only person in my life I care about—the only person I've ever loved…

It's enough to get my twisted heart to ache.

I've said it before, though never to you, but when I die at the end of this whole plot, I want you to be the one holding the blade.

It still rings true, Rangiku, and I find myself hoping more and more than you will come here, following on the heels on Kurosaki Ichigo, to put an end to me.

This isn't one of my favorites, but it's been done for ever and I felt the two week lack of updates was getting mean.

As always, please review, especially if you favorite or alert this story.

-Luin