There was a tap on the bedroom window, late at night.
Izuru sat up at his desk, his ears open. Tap tap tap. He swiveled around in his office chair, putting down his pen looking at the window. He gasped lightly at the pale hand splayed on the glass, then let out a breath at the vague outline of silver hair. He trudged over and slid open the window in a fluid motion, standing on top of his bed.
"Gin, what the hell are you doing here?" He asked, gripping the window sill.
"I came ta say hi," Gin explained with his signature smile.
Izuru flushed. "You could have just called me."
"'S not the same as seein' your pretty face."
"You flatter me," Izuru drawled in a sarcastic voice. "But it's late. And I was going to go visit tomorrow."
"But it's been so long since I seen ya last."
Izuru looked at his watch. "It's only been ten hours."
"That's a long time." Gin stared at him, unsmiling.
I guess it is a long time. Izuru felt kind of bad. "Then um, come in, I guess." He jumped onto the floor.
"Yosh!" Gin vaulted nimbly through the window and landed lightly on Izuru's bed. He flopped down. "Ahh, a real bed! I haven't slept on a real bed since me 'n dad moved up here from Kyoto!"
Izuru sat down next to him. "So you are from Kyoto. I was wondering where you got the accent from."
"Yeah. We moved when I was sixteen, after I got expelled."
"Oh, I see." Izuru fell silent.
Gin rustled behind Izuru, and lanky ivory arms were twined around Izuru's skinny body. "You're still wearin' the sweatshirt I lent ya," Gin giggled, burying his face in the crook of Izuru's neck. Izuru allowed himself to smile.
"It's comfortable,"
"Keep it." Gin purred.
"Really?"
"Why not?"
"...Cool!"
Gin grazed the sensitive skin just below Izuru's ear with his teeth. Izuru shivered, and Gin nibbled on Izuru's ear.
He spat out Izuru's ear. "You have a robotic ear!" Gin exclaimed.
"A roboti- Oh, my ear cuff! That's the second time today."
Gin pulled on the silver loop with his cold spidery fingers. "Other people are allowed to nibble yer ear?"
"Huh? No! I had my hair tucked and my renter who rents the upstairs noticed it after you dropped me off."
"There's a renter?" Izuru could feel Gin smile against his neck. "That makes things fun."
"Fun?"
"Means when we do things, we also have ta try not ta wake the roomie."
"D- do things?" Izuru choked.
Gin laid the palm of his hand on the flat of Izuru's stomach. "Mmhmm,"
Izuru's heart picked up. Is this what he came to do? The pervert. Warmth rushed to Izuru's collar, and Gin wormed his fingers under Izuru's shirt. He traced delicate cirlces on Izuru's hip. Izuru twitched madly, biting his lower lip, trying impossibly hard not to laugh.
"What's this?" Gin asked, and twisted around with Izuru in his arms, somehow ending up so that they were laying side by side. "Are ya ticklish?" Gin prodded Izuru's tender sides. Izuru squirmed, squealing. "Y'are!" Izuru flopped about as Gin ran his fingers up and down his sides. Izuru's eyes began to water from laughter.
"Nng, Gin! That tickles!" Izuru was breathless, his hair mussed up. Gin somehow remained very neat, and sprawled his lean body on top of Izuru's chortling frame. Izuru let out a long breath.
"I'll hafta remember you're ticklish, in the future." Gin said into Izuru's bedding with a laugh.
"You're no fair," Izuru sighed, stretching his arms above his head.
Gin slid off Izuru's torso and cuddled into his side. "All's fair in love and war," Gin quoted, pulling Izuru closer.
"Shut up," Izuru groused.
A cool breeze blew in from the still open window as they let a moment of silence pass.
"Do you like me, Izuru?" Gin asked in a low voice.
"Well, yeah." It was rather nice to have a warm body next to his.
Gin heaved a sigh. "That's good."
Izuru looked at the top of Gin's head. "Why are you asking?"
"Just need to know." Gin muttered, twining his fingers with Izuru's. Izuru reveled in the feeling of having his hand held for the first time by Gin.
Izuru looked up at the ceiling with a blush. He let his eyes slide shut.
The next couple of days were very interesting, to Izuru. School started back up, and things began to get crazy again. Izuru began his class on Ancient Japanese Poetry, which was taught by a regal man with slick long black hair and sharp pewter eyes. And rumor around campus was he was the older brother of a girl that Izuru saw around campus a lot. The short black haired one with the orange haired accomplice.
It was a hard class. Professor Kuchiki was a tough grader.
Work was... income. Not much more. Gin became very persistent, but Izuru could assume that was because he didn't have school, and Izuru was gone for most of the day in class, and then gone for longer at work. It seemed the boy really, really liked Izuru. They hung out with Aizen quite often, although Tousen was rather infrequent. Izuru thought Gin and Aizen's relationship was an odd one, and they acted as if they were old lovers.
Izuru was jealous.
The way Aizen touched Gin sometimes... made Izuru want to bear his teeth and hiss at him. Gin was his now. And Aizen was intruding. But Izuru allowed it, because Gin seemed to enjoy having Aizen around.
Gin wanted to meet the renter. Izuru was curled up in his chair in the living room, typing an assignment for Professor Kuchiki's class when he talked to Shuuhei.
"Hisagi?" He asked, keeping his eyes fixed on the laptop screen.
"Hmm?" Shuuhei kept his eyes on his laptop too.
"What would you think if I were g-gay?"
Shuuhei stopped typing. "Come again?"
"What would you think if I were gay?" Izuru's tongue seemed suddenly very heavy.
"Well, um, I guess that's fine, and your decision, as long as it's not me you're um, pursuing. Because I'm straight. As a ruler." Shuuhei picked up typing again.
"Oh no, I already- already have a um, a- a b-boyfriend." Izuru stammered, hunching lower over the keyboard, blushing.
"T-that's good to hear," Shuuhei shared in Izuru's stammering.
"He'd like to meet you, so I'm going to invite him over for dinner tomorrow." Izuru read over what he'd just shakingly typed.
Shuuhei audibly gulped. "Sounds good."
"This doesn't make things awkward for you, does it? It doesn't make you feel uncomfortable?" Izuru looked over the top of his screen at Shuuhei.
"Not at all. It's just a little sudden, that's all." Shuuhei was blushing.
"Okay. Thanks for understanding, Hisagi. Those were... those were hard words to say." Izuru rubbed his face.
"That's understandable, dude. No worries."
Izuru let out a sigh. "Thank you."
"Augh, what are you doing? Put me down!" Muffled voices. "I'm not your bride, you ass!"
Shuuhei turned off the television, his ears perking up. A giggle.
"How're you going to open the door?" The door creaked open. "Oh, okay, I s- ow. You just hit my head on the doorframe."
"Whoops."
"Will you put me down now?" Izuru's voice was clearer now. Shuuhei craned his neck, but they were still in the front hall, and he couldn't see Izuru's new... boyfriend. "Thank you." Shuuhei assumed Izuru had been put down. "I'm home, Hisagi." Izuru called. "There's someone I want you to meet." Izuru scuttled into the living room. "Um, Hisagi, meet Ichimaru Gin. Gin, Hisagi."
Shuuhei stood up to meet the silver haired man Izuru had in tow. His blood ran cold. Him! "Kira, who the fuck is this?" Shuuhei pointed accusatorily at Gin, who dropped his smile.
Izuru's eyes went wide. "He's Gin, m-my-"
"I don't want him in the house."
"Why?" Izuru looked confused.
Shuuhei pointed to his face. "These scars didn't make themselves."
Izuru frowned. "What are you saying? Gin?" Izuru looked up at Gin, who was smiling widely and maliciously.
"How've you been, Shuuhei?" Gin's voice was low and cutting, and his hand tightened around Izuru's. His other hand balled into a fist.
"Get him out," Shuuhei hissed.
"It's been a while, hasn't it? How's your face feeling?"
"Gin?" Izuru squeaked. "What's going on?"
"Bastard," Shuuhei was seething.
"Now, now, let's not call such mean names. Surely after seven years y've stopped holdin' a grudge against me, ne?"
"How can I forgive you when every morning when I wake up, I look in the mirror and I'm reminded of how you screwed up my face?" Shuuhei stomped his foot in a childish manner.
"Can someone please explain what's going on?" Izuru looked back and forth between Gin and Shuuhei.
"Let's sit down," Gin offered, inviting himself in the living room. "Me and Shuuhei will explain everythin'." Gin claimed the couch so he wouldn't have to let go of Izuru's hand, forcing Shuuhei into an easy chair.
Shuuhei grumbled, reluctant.
"So it was seven years ago, right before I got expelled."
"The reason you got expelled was because of what you did to me, jackass. How about you let me do the explaining?" Shuuhei crossed his arms sternly.
"Have it your way," Gin said with a flick of his hand.
Izuru began to sweat. Shuuhei stared at the floor. "In truth, it was I who began the fight."
"Damn skippy," Gin interjected.
"Shut the hell up," Shuuhei snapped, locking his dark gray eyes on Gin's face. "It wasn't your place to be criticizing who I was friends with. Anyway, there was a guy I really looked up to. Muguruma Kensei. And Ichimaru's crowd could be called Muguruma's crowd's enemy, really. It was kind of an us versus them thing. And one day, Ichimaru comes around with that dopey grin of his, taunting and teasing me about how I was always hanging around Muguruma, and asking if we were... romantically involved. That really got to me, and I threw the first punch." Gin cleared his throat, and Izuru looked up at him with his wide blue eyes. "Before I knew it, Ichimaru had scratched me down the cheek and I was bleeding everywhere."
"Ne, you got me too." Gin dropped Izuru's hand to pull up the sleeve on his left arm. A short, jagged scar twisted on Gin's wrist. Izuru traced it with his finger, leaning on Gin, shocked into silence. He hadn't know.
"No one gives a damn," Shuuhei carped.
"I give a damn!" Izuru exclaimed, whipping his head up from examining Gin's scar. "I wish I'd known sooner! I wouldn't have brought Gin!"
"Too late now, I guess." Shuuhei stood up. "The door is over there."
"What?" Izuru narrowed his eyes. "That's not fair at all, Hisagi. You said you were okay with this."
"Oh no, I am. It's absolutely fine. But I'm not okay with Ichimaru. I mean, are you sure you trust that fox?" Shuuhei demanded. "Because I tell you, he's one slippery bastard. He tells a lot of lies."
Gin spoke up. "I've changed, ya know." He said, standing up. "I've realized I can't become anything, because a what I did to ya. That's how it is. I can't go to school or nothin', because they won't take me as a student." Izuru could have sworn Gin was tearing up. "I know I treated ya with a little hostility earlier, but I been through some difficult things recently."
"Oh? Like what...?" Shuuhei folded his arms again.
"My dad committed suicide." Gin's breath caught, and Izuru stood up, gripping his sleeve. "He jumped out a ninth story window at the hospital, sufferin' from heart cancer. 'Zuru was there when the hospital phoned. That in itself was hard, seein' 'Zuru worry fer me, and knowin' that I ain't got no parents left." Gin wiped his face on his sleeve, sniffling. "And I ain't got no money to pay fer a funeral, 'cause I can't get a job 'cause I don't got an education."
Izuru looked at Shuuhei with his saucer eyes. Come on, Hisagi, he's begging for mercy.
The bastard's probably putting on a show, Shuuhei thought, snorting. "I'm outta here. Kira, I'm going to visit Matsumoto. Have fun dining with your new appendage."
"Hisagi-" Shuuhei grabbed a pack of cigarettes and slammed out the door. "Well, that was one big screw up." Izuru flopped onto the couch. "I'm sorry if that opened up any old wounds."
"Nah," Gin flopped onto the couch next to Izuru, lacing their fingers together again. Izuru's breath caught just a little bit, as it always did. "But I'm curious- was Shuuhei goin' to go visit Matsumoto Rangiku?"
"Well, um, yeah. You know her?"
Gin laughed. "We were best friends in grade school."
"Really! It's a small world, isn't it?"
"It really is." Gin snuggled into Izuru's neck. "And no worries about Shuuhei- I'd be mad too."
"All right," Izuru sighed, feeling Gin breathe on his collarbone. "But do you think it would be best if you didn't come over for a little bit? I think Hisagi may need some time to cool down. Because he grabbed cigarettes before he left, and he doesn't smoke unless he's truly pissed off."
"Guess that's fine," Gin mumbled. "I mean, ya can always come over to my house."
"True," Izuru sighed.
This sucks, Izuru thought.