Treasures

Disclaimer: I own nothing of or related to BLEACH.

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Grey-blue eyes watched a couple shinigami return from the human world from her place at her office window. They looked so happy to be back.

A smile flit across her face as she remembered the first time he came back after vanishing for no more than a few hours. They'd been together for barely a week—two kids struggling to survive in the harsh environment of Rukongai, not that he made it seem like he was struggling at all—and he'd simply disappeared from her side in the middle of the street.

When he'd finally found her little more than two or three hours later, she'd curled herself in the corner of an alley, sobbing silently because she'd searched for him everywhere, but he was just gone. His words still echoed in her mind, a gentle reminder of what he used to be.

"There ya are, Ran-cha—why are you crying?"

Too caught up in throwing herself at him, letting her tears rain onto his shoulder, Rangiku hadn't heard the almost threatening tone in his voice once he saw her tears. A small presage of what he could become, perhaps, but he'd held her, whispering assurances into her hair until she calmed down—the same assurance he whispered to her every time he came back from wherever it was he went, and the same assurances he broke every time he vanished again until he left her completely for the Seireitei and ultimately, Aizen.

His expression as he was carried to Hueco Mundo with the other two traitors, that remorseful tilt of his eyes and that frown, almost made her believe that he wanted to take her with him that time. His words had just proved it.

Rangiku fingered the slight pink scarf around her neck—a replacement for the one he gave her—and felt her lips quivering between a smile and a frown.

She had followed him to Seireitei, partly because he was there already, and partly because she was a shinigami, but it didn't matter either way, because he was waiting for her, a simple short pink scarf in hand.

"There ya are, Ran-chan. Took ya long enough."

Her most precious possession was always around her neck, even when she out grew it by far. So when it was shredded during a spar with her taicho, she had to pretend it was "nothing, no big deal." Perhaps her acting at the time hadn't been as good as she thought, because two days later, Hitsugaya-taicho, blushing and awkward, presented her with the one she wore now.

He was just so cute she had to tease him for a few days and not wear it. A flustered Tenth Division Captain was just too adorable to pass up. But, she could admit to herself that she had an ulterior motive. She wanted to see if he would even notice. Of course, if he did, he didn't show it, instead keeping up his perpetual grin and teasing her Chibi-taicho. It wasn't until after she started wearing the longer scarf that she was rewarded with the faintest drop of his smile that she was certain only she could see.

The next day, a package was delivered to her by a nondescript Third Division girl, and her new favorite possession came into her hands. She never took the chain necklace off, even when they dropped down into the human world for a time. Her new scarf was a close second, but his gifts always came first.

"Don't go around wearin' anybody else's favors unless you got one o' mine." Rangiku laughed quietly as she remembered the card that came with the necklace—it was so Gin, but no one would know that but her.

So she wore her two most important men's gifts, and clung to them like a lifeline during the turmoil of the ryoka and everything that followed. Orihime asked her about them once, but she gave ambiguous answers that satisfied to over-imaginative girl.

Rangiku propped her head up on her chin, grinning when her taicho came back in and scowled darkly at her lack of progress on her stack of paperwork. She didn't tell anyone the significance of either of her treasures, because if they found out who gave them to her, no one would let it stay quiet.

She couldn't wear the favors of a traitor after all.

AN: Is any of this valid in the actual BLEACH storyline? Probably not, but I thought it would have been cute nonetheless. Anyway, I had fun with this one, so please leave me a review!