Author's Notes: This chapter was co-authored by my friend Rain-and-Thunder.

Also I greatly apologize if Gin sounds OOC. There is a reason for his oocness. In this, he has been placed in a situation he's never been in before. Therefore acting OOC is often essential until one gets used to what's around them. Even we will act out of character of what we normal act to when we're in something we've never found ourselves in before. I am taking a lot of time and effort though in thinking how Gin probably would act, so I am doing what I believe would be in his character to do under the strange circumstances.

Other than how Gin loves to act very mysterious and teasing, we really don't know how he would act when placed in dire situations. We know he can and will frown as just before his death, he actually acted out of character to what we were used to of him.

Job Hunting

With it being a new day, Orihime once again got up, had her breakfast and got ready to leave for school, leaving Gin once again by himself in her apartment. Gin had completely missed her sadness from the night before although his surprise to her about the closet did make her forget.

"Have a nice day Orihime." Gin waved at the door with an unusually large grin plastered over his face. "Don't talk to any strange hollow, Soul Reaper, or other on your way to school, especially if they suddenly grin at you."

Orihime laughed to herself and she put her shoes on and waved. "I'll see you later Gin." The door then closed leaving the man alone in the apartment.

With Gin, now alone, there were many things going through his mind. One of them being the fact he had to figure out something for income. He had another cold night sleeping on the couch and it was rather annoying to him. If he could get a job, then he could get his own place or at least find a two-bedroom apartment for himself and Orihime. Knowing she lived alone and she had high spirit energy, she could become another easy target again.

Remembering there was a daily newspaper delivered to Orihime's door, he walked to the door, opening it to find the morning paper. Picking it up, he quickly closed the door, keeping whatever heat was in the living room trapped there. He didn't need anymore cold air in the apartment.

Taking a seat at the small table, where he left his tea, he began to scan the paper, looking for the job offers. One thing he did learn while in Aizen's services was some of the things humans did in their daily lives. Aizen followed Ichigo from the time he was born, making sure Ichigo would grow to come to his true Soul Reaper powers by meeting Rukia and taking her powers to actually activate his own.

As Gin browsed through the paper, learning of the latest accidents and other news, he continued to sip his tea. One article though caused him to frown. There typed in black lettering was an accident that occurred the day before of a car suddenly being flipped upside down, killing two young children and their mother. He knew there was no way a car could flip like that unless it hit something. That accident was no accident. A Hollow killed those victims. He would have been able to save those humans if he had use of his spiritual power.

Not wanting to dwell on something he had no control over, he flipped the page to the want ads.

"Let's see, what sort of jobs they have," he replied. He took another sip of tea. "They have help wanted for jewellery store clerks, bank clerks, cashier for a gas station…" He then nearly slipped the tea out of his hand as his eyes fully opened. "What the hell?! A male escort service wanted? What in the world do these humans do in their free time? And those in the Soul Society thought I was creepy. Humans are really creepy."

His eyes continued to scan the want ads until something caught his eye, almost like a slap in the face. "Substitute Teacher wanted for Karakura High School. That's the same school Ichigo and Orihime attend. Interesting…" His grin then returned, eyes back to narrow slits. He never had the opportunity to teach at the Academy in the Soul Society before, but he did graduate there in one year of attending, so teaching probably shouldn't be too bad for him. And it would give him a chance to be closer to Orihime. Being honest with himself, he actually didn't like her going to school alone, not since what happened when Aizen kidnapped her.

Putting the paper down, he made his way to the bathroom to get ready. Since arriving in the World of the Living, he once paid a visit to Kisuke's shop. He knew Kisuke wouldn't treat him very well since there was bad blood between them. The man, though, was all business when Gin stopped by and allowed the man to have some unused older men's clothing, giving Gin at least some wardrobe.

Getting out what appeared to be the best out of what few clothes he had, he looked himself over and checked his hair in the mirror. "Hmmm…guess I'll have to go with my charming personality I suppose." He hummed as he ran his fingers through his hair, trying to make it more presentable. He didn't really have any other clothes besides what he'd arrived in and what few he received from Kisuke, something he'd have to change soon if he was gonna be stuck with these humans. "Might as well get there before anyone else gets the job."

/

He sat in the office with several other candidates for the job, waiting his turn for the interview. The man next to him was a little chubby and sweating bullets, he kept glancing his way for some reason. Then again it could have something to do with the perpetual grin he always wore on his face. "Hello." He tried a friendly approach, opening his eyes slightly.

The man calmly and quietly scooted his chair to the other side of the room.

'Well that was just rude' Gin thought, still grinning, knowing he was frightening the man.

"Gin Ichimaru?" a man called from the office door, the man Gin assumed was the principle.

"Oh, that's me." Gin waved.

The man at the door adjusted his glasses. "I see…well at any rate if you would please follow me."

Gin followed the man into the small office sitting down when he was instructed to. The other man imply sat behind a large desk, someone cleared their throat. "Ah, Mr. Principle sir I was just getting our new applicant seated."

The real principle, a man with something of a goofy face smiled at Gin warmly, reaching to shake his hand. "Your background is a little questionable, but you scored remarkably high on the evaluation test. And you seem like such a friendly laid back sort of guy." He gave a hearty laugh.

Gin's smile widened, "Why thank you sir, I've often been told I have a… interesting personality." To say the least, Rukia he'd known had typically compared him with a snake, and a few other Captain's thought he was always up to something devious. Of course he actually was, but this was just his face after all.

The principle suddenly cleared his throat. "I just have a few more questions I'd like to ask?"

"Fire away." Gin replied.

"How good are you with party decorations?"

"Mr. Principle?!" His aid seemed shocked.

Gin opened his eyes at the man, who flinched back, causing the principle to laugh. "I do ok, I guess you could say I'm the life of the party, though a friend of mine, Rangiku is more of the party girl type."

The Principle smiled, putting his hands together. "That's the type of attitude I like hearing with potential teachers."

Gin slightly frowned, narrowing his eyes back to slits. Was that a challenge? Something Gin himself would pull on others? It sure sounded liked it. "I'm not sure I follow."

"I was testing you," the older man continued. "I wanted to know what your reaction would be to a senseless random question and you answered it with ease. I can see you work well under pressure, just from that one question alone." He then leaned forward. "By the way, this Rangiku friend of yours, would she mind if I got her phone number? I mean there are times I do like to throw a party."

"Mr. Principle!" squeaked his aid in complete disbelief. He was glad Kagine wasn't in the room.

Giving a wide smirk, Gin just had to answer the question. "Unfortunately, my friend is very hard to reach right now. She's not even in the country and won't be for quite some time."

"That's too bad," the Principle answered, leaning back, showing he actually was serious that time. "Well on to bigger things like why you feel the want to teach adolescent teens ranging between ages of 15 – 18."

"In my experience," Gin began. "I have dealt with much worse. I was once a leader so to speak."

"Leader?" asked the aid. "Like a boy scout leader?"

Gin turned his narrowed gaze to the man he thought at first was the Principle. "No. For a time I attended… the army and rose through the ranks pretty quick and made it high enough to lead my own team. And those who followed my command could sometimes act very unprofessional and immature."

"How can leading immature men have anything to do with dealing with the teens?" asked the aid.

"Because immature men can act worse than teens," Gin threw in, grinning. "And you know dealing with subordinates who just whine all day can be quite tiresome, unless you throw a firm command, making sure those under you realize you are their leader or in this case with these teens. They think they are the smartest people on the planet therefore we are stupid compared to them. You can't let teens think they can run the classroom when they are only just learning and you already learnt what is needed to teach."

The Principle gave an impressive nod. This strange man did know what he was talking about. Even if his resume stated his only job was serving in the army since he was old enough to serve, the man did seem to have some smarts and looked as though he could handle tough situations, including some out of control teens. Then again the man's wide grin could probably put fear in the teens.

"I do have a couple more questions for you?" asked the Principle. "By chance can you speak another language?"

Gin turned his gaze to the older man. "I can speak several languages fluently including English."

The older man grinned. "Guess that now answers my next question, which was about your army background. But since you can speak more than Japanese, I'm not going to bother to ask about it." He sighed. "Well there's not much more I can ask. Except for one. If I were to hire you, when would you be available?"

"Mr. Principle," Gin began. "I could begin working this afternoon if need be or right now even."

The Principle and his aid looked at one another with an impressive glance. This man was ready right then and there. The Principle then stood and stepped away from his desk. Gin stood as the man stopped in front of him.

"Well Mr. Ichimaru, welcome to the teaching staff." He held out his hand for Gin to take.

Gin's grin never faltered as he shook the man's hand. "Thank you Mr. Principle."

"I would like you to start first thing tomorrow. Classroom 1 –3, needs a teacher for a few weeks and the current teacher is taking leave as of this afternoon after school is over."

"One dash Three?" Gin questioned. "I think that'll pretty easy to remember." In the back of his mind he knew exactly what classroom that was. That was the room Ichigo, Orihime, Chad and Uryu attended. In a way he wasn't sure if that was a good idea to announce to the Quincy and former Substitute Soul Reaper he was actually now living in their town. But there wasn't anything he could do about it. At least this way, Gin could keep a better eye on Orihime in case of Hollow trouble.

"Oh before you leave, I know there are other potentials out in the other room," the Principle started. "But don't let them know I've hired you. I am hiring for one other position which will be starting next week and it's for the Twelfth Grade."

"Do not worry," Gin teased. "I would never say anything to anyone. Not even to my roommate." No that was something he couldn't tell her. Not to mention he wanted to see the expression on her face the next day when he would walk into the classroom. "Good day, Mr. Principle."

With that Gin turned away from the two men and left the office. Not once did he look at any of the other candidates in the waiting room. Gin actually had to get out of the school and quick before anyone who knew him, knew he was there. He wasn't quite ready for the ton of questions.

/

Feeling satisfied Gin made his way back to Orihime's to wait for her return. Upon reaching her place, he was glad she gave him an extra key so he could get back in. Back in the warmer home, he carefully removed his footwear so the snow wouldn't get too far around the doorway and hung his coat up.

Afterwards, he strolled over to the closet and opened it, marvelling at his own handwork. His slitted eyes fell upon the ripped bear and a frown fell upon his face. "This just won't do. Can't have her keep remembering such a horrid memory of someone she lost."

Grabbing the bear, he walked over the couch and turned on the TV to some random program. Two days ago he had watched Orihime with a keen observant eye, pretending that he wasn't, when she had to sew something on one of her favorite sweaters, fixing a hole or something. So how hard could it be to sew a rip on a teddy bear?

For nearly an hour the man tried to fix the damn bear but the more times he tried, the more times he kept pricking himself with a needle causing his index finger to bleed. The annoyance of it caused his grin to fade completely into an annoyed scowl. He was completely frustrated by this small simple looking task.

Too frustrated for the moment, he roughly pushed the bear onto the couch and got up. He was going to take a break from trying to fix that nuisance of a bear. He had to get up and stretch his legs anyway from sitting there in one spot too long. Of course this would give him time to bandage up his fingers to hide the unfortunate mess of all the needle pricks.

He could just imagine Rangiku. She no doubt would have passed out by now from laughing because he was humiliating himself too much for a stupid plushie. With the thought of his old childhood friend in mind, Gin made his way to the bathroom, turning on the water to clean his fingers.

Leaning over the sink, he looked at himself in the mirror, looking at what he was reduced to now. Gone from a famous, respectable Captain in the 13 Court Guard Squads to betraying them to try and stop Aizen in his own way to finally being killed by the evil man only to be brought back to life by Orihime Inoue and now must live the remainder of his life, however long that would be in the World of the Living, with no powers.

"I've reduced my life to this," he whispered to his reflection in the mirror. "Damn it, Aizen! Why couldn't I stop you sooner? Then none of this would be happening."

He continued to hold his fingers under the facet as he stared at himself almost like he was half expecting the reflection to answer him back, but that wasn't about to happen. With a deep sigh, his eyes finally averted down, while his other hand turned off the water and he went and dried his hands before working on applying some bandages to his injured fingers. Too bad there wasn't anything to help seal up his wounded pride or even ego.

Knowing there wasn't anything he could do about his situation, he left the bathroom, going back to the living to try once again to fix that blasted bear before Orihime was to get home. He wanted to leave it as a surprise for her. It was the least he could do for her allowing him to stay with her, keeping him off the streets. Now he had some news to tell her. He wouldn't tell her where he found a job, but he was going to tell her did get one.

By the time Orihime finally came home from school, all ten of Gin's fingers were bandaged up and he was sitting on the couch, leaning his head back, slightly exhausted. Once he finally had that confounded bear fixed, he placed it on the mantel beside the picture of Orihime's brother. He had noticed the time was slipping away from him and Orihime would soon be home and he wanted to again make dinner since, currently, he wasn't working.

"Hi Gin!" Orihime called in her cheerful voice, when the time came she entered her home, not yet noticing his tired body. "How was your…" she paused, noticing him. "Day…"

Gin finally lifted his head from the back of the couch. "Pretty good once you consider I decided to spend all day job hunting, trying to find a way to get money for myself to live." He then flashed her his infamous grin. "But I did procure a job."

"You did!?" she gasped. Once removing her shoes, she bounced herself to the couch, startling the man. "That's great!" Before thinking of it, her arms were quick to be around his waist. "I'm so happy."

He was taken aback by her sudden move. He was not expecting her to 'attack' him so impulsively. And what made matters more surprising for him was her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly while her face was pressed against his chest.

"Ummm… Orihime…" he tried, trying not to reveal a blush.

She then lifted her head suddenly. "Oh! Was I just squeezing you too tight? I mean sometimes I do end up doing that when I get really excited. Tatsuki knows that all too well." She quickly rambled on, not realizing the awkward position she placed the two in.

Not knowing what to say to her sudden ramble again, he tried to push himself away from her but with her arms still around his waist, she lost her balance and fully landed on his lap. She released an audible gasp as she fell forward, being closer to him than she realized.

No longer able to, Gin's cheeks turned a hue of pink as he felt her young breasts pushed up so tightly against his body. Not even Rangiku ever tried to get this close to him unless she knew he wanted her to. "Well…" he lightly squeaked before coughing. "I think it might…"

She lifted her head once again and stared at him in the face, her own face just as red as his. Her lips went dry as she tried to find words to say. From the corner of her eyes, she noticed Gin's hands out at the sides and the digits were wrapped up. She gasped once again, removing her arms from his waist to sit properly on the couch like a lady, since she was in a skirt.

"What happened?" she asked, blush fading she grabbed one of his hands.

Finally finding his voice, he pulled his hand away from hers and suddenly stood. "I should check on dinner." He was swift to leave the room, leaving a dumbfounded teen in his wake.

Orihime opened her mouth to speak as she slowly stood, wondering what was wrong with him. She had never seen him act so flustered before. With a shrug, she turned to her picture of her brother and released another gasp. "What the…"

With careful steps, she stepped towards the picture, grabbing the bear with shaking fingers. Tears surfaced as her left hand traced the newly fixed bear her brother tore when he was a Hollow. There was only one person who could have done that and the bandages on his fingers proved it.

"Gin…" she breathed as tears splashed on the bear. She hugged the bear tightly and took a seat back on the couch. Gin had fixed her bear. How could she repay him for something like that? She had thought of getting Uryu to fix it but she could never get the nerve to take the bear out of the apartment.

Not paying attention, Orihime's tears continued to fall as all her emotions finally caught up to her. She couldn't even hold in the rejection from Ichigo's words after school the other day. She felt completely alone. It even seemed Tatsuki had abandoned her, but she knew that wasn't true.

"Orihime?"

She felt a shift on the couch, but continued to ignore everything around her. It wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder before realizing Gin was now sitting beside her and was probably looking very concerned.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "I can't believe those tears would be just strictly because I fixed your bear."

"No…" she sniffed, hugging the bear tightly. "It's just…" her voice choked up from the tears. "I'm completely alone. I have no one."

"That's not true," he replied. "You have your friend, Tatsuki. And I'm sure you have your other friends who rescued you from Heuco Mundo."

"That's just it!" she blurted. "Ichigo ignores me. Ever since Aizen was defeated, he's been ignoring everyone and…and…"

"And?" he blinked, confused.

"He doesn't return my feelings!" she announced as she hugged the bear even more tightly. "I told him I loved him and he plainly stated he doesn't return my feelings without even looking at me!"

Gin totally could relate to that very easily. He had the same problem with Rangiku. His busty friend had feelings for him, but he only saw her as a friend, which was why he always kept her at arms length and would disappear into the night without telling her when he was going. He cared greatly for Rangiku and wanted to give back what Aizen stole from her, but he failed in that mission. However, he only loved Rangiku like a sister.

"When did he tell you this?" he asked, finally after a few minutes of listening to her quiet sobs.

"A couple days ago after school. But then it totally slipped my mind when I got home and found the closet cleaned up and now seeing this bear…"

"It wasn't my intention to make you cry," he honestly answered.

She looked up at him, shaking her head. "How do you do that?" she asked. "You remind me so much like Rangiku. She even knows of my feelings for Ichigo and she never once told me I was stupid for having feelings for him."

"Rangiku and I grew up together in the Rukon," he smirked. "Some of our bad habits rubbed off onto the other."

"She told me she has feelings for you."

"Yes, I know," he admitted. "But like Ichigo, I do not feel for her as she does for me. To me, she's like a sister I never had. Ichigo may feel the same for you."

"But why be so distant?" she asked, confused. "He's pulled away from everyone. From Uryu, Chad and even Tatsuki."

He shook his head. "I can't say what is going through his mind but I do have an idea what he's going through. I've just gone from Captain level power down to nothing. I've lost all my spiritual power and this Gigai prevents me from gaining spirit energy. My soul is trapped and have to learn to live without what I had before."

One of his hands rested against her face, brushing her tears. "But you have to realize Ichigo is going through a tough time right now."

Orihime's breath hitched in her throat feeling his hand against her face. She wasn't sure what to make of it. A small blush appeared on her cheeks as her eyes began to light up. "Thank you," she whispered. "For fixing my bear."

He grinned. "I'm glad. Chances are Aizen was the one who sent the Hollows after your brother and transformed him into a Hollow in the first place. Come, why don't we eat dinner now. I did whip us up something to eat."

She sniffled once and then smiled, crinkling her eyes. "Ok!" The mention of food brought her out of her depression, for the moment. She was curious to what type of job he was starting but she had a feeling he wouldn't tell her. At least he now had one that was the main thing. Soon he probably would leave her apartment and perhaps no one would find out she was harbouring a former Soul Reaper who did many crimes against the Soul Society.