The Visit

Disclaimer: I own nothing!!

"Oi, Kira!" called Renji, "Where are you off to?"

"Hey Abarai-kun," said Kira, pausing as Renji and Hisagi Shuhie walked up to him, "I am just taking some buns over to Matsumoto-san. I had these baked for the squad today and I made this batch myself. They should go well with sake, I hope she likes them."

"You have been spending a lot of time with her," commented Hisagi, his eyes narrowing somewhat in suspicion, "You and her are become real close, aren't you?"

Kira blinked and laughed slightly, "It's not like that Hisagi-san," he said, "I would never dream of touching her," after all, she belongs to the Captain, Kira added to himself, "I know she's out of my league. I just feel really comfortable around her, that's all."

Renji put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "You alright, Kira?"

"I am fine, Abarai-kun," Kira lied, "Just fine. Anyway, I better get going. I'll see you two later."

As they watched him walk away Renji commented, "Sometimes I think he's doing worse then Hinamori. After all, she bakes glasses shaped cookies sub-consciously. He made those fox shaped buns on purpose."

"Fox shaped buns?" wondered Hisagi, "What do you mean?"

"Those buns he was talking about," said Renji, "They were baked in the shape of a fox. I saw a number of squad three Shinigami staring at them with this sad and lost expression on their faces. Most of them were big fans of Ichimaru."

Hisagi shook his head, "I'll never understand the appeal of Ichimaru Gin. Never."

When Rangiku saw the buns she couldn't help but say, "Is this how you have seen Gin all these years?" she wondered, "A fox shaped bun, just waiting to be eaten."

"Ha?" said a confused Kira, "I don't understand, Matsumoto-san."

Rangiku giggled, "O Kira," she exclaimed, "Let's eat!" with that she savagely tore off the head of one of the fox buns, "That's for leaving me!" she said to the bun, "You stupid man!"

Kira smiled, "I am glad you like them, Matsumoto-san."

Hours later, Rangiku fell asleep with a sake bottle still dangling from her hands. Kira got up and took the bottle away before covering her up with a blanket. As he tucked the blanket around her he whispered, "I miss him, Matsumoto-san," he told her sleeping form, "I miss him so much it almost a physical pain. The men miss him too! He was so popular. Ninety percent of my men are still huge fans of the captain. I can never replace him. I don't want to replace him. I just wish..." he sighed, "I don't know... I... I sometimes wish that he would just walk in here. You know, come here to see you and then maybe... maybe I get to..." he trailed off.

"Get ta what, Izuru?" asked Gin.

Kira jumped, turning swiftly he came face to face with Ichimaru Gin. He was still wearing the black kimono of the shinigami but his haori was pure white and not that of a captain, "What..." he reached for his zanpakuto, only to realize he hadn't brought it, "Ba... Bakudo..." before he could complete the spell Ichimaru had grabbed him around the throat and squeezed enough to deprive his lungs of air and distract him completely from trying to cast the kido spell.

"None of that now, Izuru," he said softly, "I don' have much time and I would hate ta have ta fight ya," he let go.

Kira collapsed, gasping for breath. Gin knelt next to Rangiku and slowly caressed her face, "Gin..." she whispered in her sleep.

Gin's smile turned subtly genuine as he whispered, "I miss ya too, Rangiku," he planted a soft kiss on her cheeks as he slowly removed her pink scarf and stuffed it inside his sleeves.

"Why, Captain!" cried Kira, "Why did you do this?" he demanded.

"So many reason and none of 'em sound all that good out loud," replied Gin.

"You are never coming back are you," whispered Kira, "We are never going to be on the same side ever again!"

"O, ya never know," said Gin, "I might be a double cross'n, double crosser. I could be work'n secretly with Squad zero. I could stab Cap'n Aizen in the back ta save Rangiku or even ya."

"Wha..."

Gin laughed, "Don' get ya hopes up," he said, "But don' give up yer hopes either."

Kira pulled up his kneels and buried his head against them, "The Shinigami Men's association wanted us to design a phone for the modern male shinigami," he told Gin, "Something macho, something really masculine. So I made a silver phone with a three on the back with a fox shaped cover and..."

"Ya turned me in ta a phone?" asked Gin, utterly amused.

"When I think of macho and masculine, I think of you Captain," replied Kira, "Ichimaru Gin, the one silver man. What else could I design."

Gin laughed, "Ya do miss me, don' ya?" Kira nodded, "Ya'll get over it, Izuru. You'll be fine."

"No I won't," whispered Kira with certainty.

Gin sighed him, "Take care of yerself and take care of 'er," with that he planted a soft kiss on Kira's bowed head and then he was gone.

"Wake-up," Rangiku shook Kira awake, "The captain will be here any minute! Quick help me clean up!"

"Matsumoto-san...." whispered Kira, slowly getting up, his head pounding horribly, "How much did I have to drink last night?" he wondered. Was that all a drunken hallucination? Was the captain really here? Or did I dream all that?

"I don't know," replied Rangiku indifferently, "Now come on! Let's clean up and while you are at it, help me look for my scarf! I can't find it anywhere!"

Author's note: I recently managed to get my hands on the majority of the Colourful Bleach chapters and two of them really drove home exactly how much Kira misses his captain. So I thought I would write a little fanfic around those. I actually didn't know how to categorise this. The characters should really be Kira and Ichimaru. But I didn't want people to click on it thinking it was a Ichimaru x Kira Yaoi or something and then get disappointed. So I ended up putting down Rangiku and Ichimaru like all my other fics.

Anyway, for anyone who would like to read the colourful bleach chapters I based this fic on for themselves (including the bit about Hinamori baking glasses shaped cookies) I put them up here: http : // pics . livejournal . com / tinni / gallery / 0001yhet (don't forget to remove the spaces) I'll get around to putting all the Colourful Bleach chapters I have managed to gather from different places there one of these days.... but then most people don't seem to be as interested in them as me so... maybe not.

O I found the meaning of the name Ichimaru Gin at: http:// wiki. answers. com / Q /What_does_Gin_Ichimaru_mean