Requested by AnimeLuver4everandevr- thank you

Toushiro x Gin

Static

Gin was good at reading people. In fact, he considered it to be a useful talent. He'd had a lot of practise at it, as well- everyone had traits that he could read; he could even tell things from what part of the room Unohana was serenely smiling at in the Captain's meetings.

Everyone was readable, that was his motto.

But to every rule there is an exception.

Understanding Toushiro Hitsugaya, Gin realised soon after he met him, was like trying to tune a faulty radio. It didn't matter how carefully you turned the dials, or how hard you hit it to try and make it work, all that came out of him was the echo of static. It didn't matter what he did or how he did it, the boy just stayed unreadable. There were no pattern to how he did things, or at least no pattern that Gin could read- he was just unsystematic, illogical noise.

Gin could not understand.

And Gin hated that.

So every time he pressed the diminutive shinigami against a wall or a bed or to the floor, he listened and tasted and touched, and waited for a sign to show him just what the other was thinking. But still, time after time after time, nothing came. Their meetings became more frequent, their sessions prolonged, but with that came only more frustration, and more confusion.

The only way to silence the pain and nag in his mind was to lose himself so deeply in the feeling of the other that the question no longer mattered. When he was buried deep inside of him, with Toushiro's hands on his back and their teeth clashing in heated, awkward kisses, he felt like they were connected, that maybe, when they parted, he would be able to understand. But every time they did pull away from each other, Gin could see only pale skin and dark, mouth-shaped bruises- no meaning, nothing.

Each time he would pat Toushiro's head and smile in his own ambiguous way, hypocritically mysterious, and leave with that ache of ignorance in his head again.

What Gin had never considered doing- perhaps because he had never had to do it before, perhaps because it was simply not in his nature to do so- was just asking.

What he had never been able to guess, despite his lifetime practise of knowing and understanding and predicting every aspect of the people that he met, was that had he just asked what Toushiro was thinking, or feeling, the other would have told him.

Would have told him everything, without a moment of hesitation.

But Gin never said a word, never asked.

Then he was gone, and Toushiro remained uncomprehending and unreadable.

Just voiceless static.