I can't get in a writing mood today. I've barely started my drabble for today *sigh* and I have to work in the morning, ugh. Guess I'd better get it together, huh?

I really don't know about this one. It took an odd turn, I think?

Thanks to: MissTeak and sierraqueen, hugs to you both!


13. Judgment

Sometimes, Gin wondered about the day he saved Rangiku. It haunted him on some late nights. Would he have saved her if she had not felt hunger? He was not sure. If she had been ordinary, she would not have needed saving that day. Even given her reiatsu, Gin was not sure why he had shared the persimmons with her, or led her back to his tiny shack, more of a lean-to than anything else. They kept it only because it had been forgotten by others as too decrepit to live in. Why had he shared what little he had stored away and carved out a different life for her?

Mostly, he worried because he wanted to keep her close forever. Their differences scared him, and it scared him that he had changed so many parts of his life to allow her in.

To the rich, sharing a meal was a simple matter. To one like him, it was a heavy decision. Yet he had seen her, and a moment later, the persimmon was pressed to her lips.

He wondered how "me and them" became "us and them," and why Rangiku's smile was so important. His smile meant nothing, but hers lit up a room and dazzled the world. Still, no one spoke to him the way Rangiku did.

Gin looked down on most people; they were stupid, lacked reiatsu, or did not try hard enough. He wanted to be so much more most days.

Other days, when he saw Rangiku's smile, heard her happy laughter, sometimes it seemed like it was all enough.

Today, though, Gin was ready to trade away his dreams, his carefully thought out goals to make Rangiku stop coughing. A single pained, ragged breath interrupted the coughing every so often. The girl could scarcely breathe for coughing the wracked her body.

Gin held her up, leaning against a wall. It was even worse if she laid down, and this way, at least, she was a little warmer. But he was scared, and he remembered he was just a boy, and he did not know what to do to help her.

He held her close when she finally slept, her breaths shallow and raspy. "Be okay, Ran-chan," he whispered. "Yer a survivor, doncha forget it."


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