Author's Note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.


There's More to Life Than That

Rangiku had been a little surprised to receive a call from Gin. Pleased, but surprised. She was even more surprised when he asked her for her help. More than a little intrigued, Rangiku had agreed, and they had planned to get together for dinner and a discussion of the problem. It had seemed simple enough at the time. Except Rangiku had gotten caught up working on her thesis and had lost track of time, and now she was running late. She hadn't even had time to change out of the scruffy jeans, tank top, and long sleeved flannel shirt she'd been lounging around her apartment in. Needless to say, she was not looking her best.

At least the restaurant Gin had picked out wasn't too fancy. Rangiku skidded to a stop in front of the little sidewalk bistro and ran a hand through her hair. Gin smirked at her then pulled her into a hug.

"Just in time, Ran-chan. I was beginning to think you're going to stand me up," he teased.

He clearly had reservations since they were almost immediately shown to a table. Rangiku found herself catching Gin up on her latest projects, and they were halfway through the meal before he brought the reason he needed her help. Apparently, he was certain there was something wrong with the statistics that had been generated from the major research project that he'd been overseeing. Only, Gin couldn't figure out where things had gone wrong. He wanted her to look over the numbers for him.

"Not a problem. Did you bring them?"

"You'd think I'd deprive you of the joy of crunching numbers?" Gin teased, producing a sheaf of papers. "That's not all of it, but it will give you an idea of the problem."

Rangiku laughed. Gin had always liked to tease her about her love of numbers. She quickly scanned the papers. He was right when he said the math was wrong. Ran shook her head.

"Whoever was responsible for the computations is an idiot. There are at least two mistakes in one of the equations, and I'm pretty sure that they actually added wrong at some point." She flashed Gin a smile. "I can fix it though. It shouldn't be too hard. Actually, untangling these will be a good exercise. I haven't worked with these equations since last year."

Gin took one of her hands in his own. "After dinner, Ran-chan. Then I'll buy you a coffee and you can disappear into your equations."