Christmas Nightmare
~Broken Dreams~

To say that visiting with Gin didn't leave a sour note in the pit of the small taicho's stomach, that would have been a lie. As he walked back to the tenth division, he couldn't help but feel regretful about having made the decision to do what he did. It felt like he had made the situation worse, not to mention, he felt like he had done something wrong.

He, the child genius, also felt stupid for trying to get Ichimaru to see what seemed logical, with a man who thought completely illogically. There was in truth many a time he had wondered in the past whether his lieutenant's child friends was in truth sane, and there was the possibility, Yamamoto had allowed Gin to get off with simply staying in jail for that very reason. The betrayal happened to throw out all that the shingami believed in.

There was also the fact that being around Gin had caused his heart to beat in his throat. Many had claimed that they had odd sensations around the man, like for example; the sifth division taicho's sister happed to feel like snakes were chocking her. He had most definitely felt uncomfortable when he was around the man, not a matter of not feeling safe, but it almost as if it seemed as if everything were a bunch of lies.

The man mentioning, even insinuating that Toshiro's picture should have been in the locket, bothered him too, for some reason. The most logical conclusion that had come to his mind was that Gin was a pedophile, and he had happened to voice this, thankfully so that only that one person could hear him. Something made him feel as if everything was simply going to get twisted around.

As he was walking, he couldn't help but find himself, like Rangiku, becoming more and more depressed over the whole matter, to the point that he wasn't watching where he was going, so he ended up crashing into someone as he went, causing them to drop everything to the ground. This dropping of items to the ground made it so that suddenly, he was in the world again, and scrambling to help to person pick things up.

"I apologize, I didn't mean to crash into you. I wasn't paying attention," he muttered, picking the items up.

"You not paying attention Hitsugaya Taicho?" The female voice caused him to startle and look up, staring straight into the face of the lieutenant of the eighth division. "That isn't usual. Is something bothering you?"

"Don't tell Matsumoto, but I went to see…" he paused, letting the bile taste in his mouth dissipate, as he tried to forget his awkward discomfort. "I went to see the former taicho of the third division."

"I see…" Nanao suddenly had a concerned look on her face, and she pushed her glasses up. "I can't imagine that one actually went well…"

"No… I also well admit that I did something that may have been very stupid, but at the time when I came up with the idea, I thought it was a good one," the small taicho stated, grimacing at the idea of Rangiku finding out. However, he knew that Matsumoto's best friend wasn't a gossiper, and she tended to have the knack, when something needed to be said, to go and phrase things in ways that were not likely to hurt the other person's feelings.

"What exactly did you do? Not try to convince Gin that he needs to beg Ran for forgiveness, because that won't happen in a million years. He cut her deep," the woman took the things from his arms.

"The idea was to give him something so that he would, before he even thinks of doing something like he did to betray Soul Society, to think about Rangiku's feelings when he does such bad things." His two teal eyes revealed his frustrations.

"I see… what exactly did you give him…" the woman asked.

"A locket with her picture in it…" the boy muttered.

"That… possibly was, no offence meant by this, one of your worst ideas ever. I can promise you, I won't tell her that you pulled this stunt, as even if I could think of something to say, she would still somehow take it the wrong way," Nanao frowned.

"I kinda figured that out afterwards. Hey… should I be concerned that he…" he paused short of asking her is he should worry about what Gin had mentioned about the locket, as he felt something weird. Suddenly, snowflakes began to fall from the sky. "That's weird… the weather wasn't set to snow…"

"Are you sure that it isn't your powers?" The eighth division fukutaicho watched as the flakes began to stick to her glances.

"No…" The small white haired taicho narrowed his eyes, as he suddenly caught whiff of a certain scent. "Is that… I don't know what that smell is. It is almost… I don't know, the best way to describe it is Christmas like."

Nanao grimaced at the sudden odd phraseology of the young taicho. "I never imagined something like that to come from your mouth. You usually use bigger, and more precise vocabulary."

"Yes, well… the only thing I am familiar with Christmas about is the giving of gifts… everything else is skewed…" the small boy stated, something definitely bothering him about the whole situation.

"I would have to say that, well… you don't know about Santa Clause?" Nanao suddenly shook her head in disbelief, as most of the younger shingami knew about that tradition.

"Oi…" this caused the small taicho to turn and glare at her, his eyes narrowed. "I am not a little kid."

"Yes, but look at my taicho and Ukitake taicho… even Yamamoto knows about that…" Nanao shook her head in disbelief.

"I don't believe in silly things like that, getting wishes granted by an old man who lives up in the Arctic, when I of all people should know how hard it is to survive in the coldest of cold. It's completely ridiculous, to tell you the truth," he grumbled, then watched her shocked look of horror. "Look… I avoid saying such things to Yachiru… I bite my tongue."

"Is that because you care about her feelings or because you don't want her to bite your head like she does Ikakku," the woman had her turn to glare at him.

"The only time she bit me was when she was teething, or she was losing her baby teeth, and I stuck my fingers in her mouth…" he stated, a completely serious look on his face.

Nanao quickly interrupted, her face twisting in horror. "Why the hell would you do something so stupid!"

"Because, her mouth hurt, and I was able to form ice on my fingers and stick it in…" Toshiro scratched his head. "I know it wasn't one of my best ideas, but…"

"No kidding…"

"…but my point is, I am careful about her feelings not because I am afraid of her, but because she is younger than me, and it is my job to look out for her, not in the sense of her taking care of herself on the battle field, but other aspects…" came the firm reply.

"I see…" Nanao shook her head. "Hitsugaya Taicho, I'd be best be going now… ahh… taicho and Ukitake would like to know what you would like for Christmas…"

"Office Supplies, or something to make Matsumoto do her work," he commented, causing her to face fault, as she never really got how he could be so adult like all the time, yet be as young as he was. That was to her, who had the chance to be a child, a scary thought.

M

Gin was in his cell, fiddling with the locket, thinking about the fact that the small taicho had really gone out of his way to bring such a thing to him. "He really doesn't get it…"

"That is because you haven't explained it to him," his zampaktuo hummed.

"That would be because of the fact that I don't think he is grown up enough to be ready to handle me telling him the truth about everything. And explaining that I simply will do anything to keep those I care about safe, even if it means hurting their feelings, or getting them to turn their backs on me…"

"I would say…" a third voice hummed, even though both were supposed to be sealed away. "I would say the truth is, you're guarding his feelings right now, because you don't want to admit that you are guilty of not just abandoning Ran-chan, but Shiro-chan too."

Gin of course, choose to ignore both voices, still fiddling with the locket in his hand. The small taicho's comments had in some ways been funny, considering the fact that Gin knew the truth of the whole matter. However, he happened to know that the white haired child found the whole matter to be unsettling. In addition, there was also the fact that Hitsugaya might actually go and tell Rangiku that he thought Gin was a pedophile.

He had to admit that if the small taicho told Ran about what he felt, Matsumoto would definitely come and see him. However, he would not get a word in edge wise, not to mention she might get mad to the point that she cursed him out. The likely hood of him explaining anything to her, the fact was it would make it even less likely to happen.

A noise came from the window, causing him to glance up. Snowflakes fluttered through the opening, and yet, he knew that this wasn't the small taicho's abilities coming into play, but someone else, especially since there was the Christmassy smell of pine, that filled his nostrils, and the rietsu was otherwise hidden from everyone around them.

His pale teal eyes narrowed as some sort of ivy spindled through the window, and grasped the bars. Yet, the plant didn't smell at all like one would expect of ivy, and might have been where the pine smell was coming from. He snapped the locket shut, his frown not yet retaining its usual look, as the depression for once actually ran deep.

He knew better than to peek out the window, as the ivy ropes might pull the wall down on him. However, something, two icy blue eyes peaked through the window, seeming almost soulless, and with those two eyes was pale blond hair. "He's here Holly…"

"Holly and Ivy… how original…" Gin smirked, suddenly gleaning his usual persona that he presented to people. The person that was floating outside of the window disappeared, and a creaking noise could be heard, then the wall bursting out loud came to his ears, as debris suddenly scattered. He glanced at the wall. "I have no plans on escaping… and if you are here to kill me, simply go ahead… it isn't as if I can put up a fight."

A female Arrancar stood outside the window, narrowing her eyes at him. She had Christmas red hair, and silver painted lips. Her nerdy glasses were only part of her overall clothing that went and took gaudy to the extreme. "I am not going to give you the choice in whether or not you are coming with us, and I most definitely am not here to kill you."

" I don't want to play games with… something dressed for Christmas that has no concept of what the meaning is," Gin stated, referring to the two holly sprigs attached to her short hair behind her ears.

"Now… aren't you someone to talk… consider my little friend and I to be spirits of Christmas…" the woman stated.

"If you've read Dickens, you know that there are three…" Gin sighed, turning back to fiddling with his locket so that he opened it, the only side visible being the one with Ran in it, the other covered by his hand.

"The third was silent… consider me past, Ivy present, and you… simply put, future… as you are the future of our plans…" the woman smirked.

"I already told you, not exactly in these words," Gin's eyes opened up, flashing red, and the locket clicked shut. He carefully hung it around his neck, and looked away. "I am not going to leave this place. Kill me or be gone."

"Except that we need your help revenging Aizen," the woman stated.

"My loyalties to him had nothing to do with trust or like." Suddenly, the woman swung out, her hand scratching his face as she slapped him.

"But his dream was your dream, was it not?" the corner of the woman's mouth twisted up, her gaudy makeup pulling at her face. "You don't have a choice in the matter either."

"And what exactly are you going to do to make me do what I don't want to do…" The former captain of the third division tried speaking in circles, to buy some time, or to find out more information.

"I don't see why you even bother holding onto those few sappy feelings you ever had. It isn't as if she ever gave you something." The name of the Arrancar was in truth laughable.

"I am sorry, but I really don't need you telling me that I have or haven't gotten something from my relationship with Ran-chan. You don't know my life, so you don't know what I happen to have gotten, or what so called sappy feelings that you have." His words suddenly caused the woman to laugh.

"Don't mock me… she has completely ignored you… you have nothing to lose from me," the woman gave another sneer.

"Holly… we need to hurry…" came the other voice Gin had heard before, quite child like… or perhaps it was a lack of worldly knowledge.

"I still think it is funny that Arrancar are all dressed up for the Holidays… when I know that you don't celebrate it." He too had his own smirk, completely emotionless when he wanted.

"I will tell you this… I doubt that you will be able to say no," the woman stated, her aura dark, and very unseasonal. "As Ivy said… we really don't have time for you to argue with us…"

M

Back at the tenth division, Matsumoto was not doing her work, though she had made a small attempt. Her thoughts just happened to travel some more. Something told her that her small taicho had been up to something when he had left, but it was really hard to say what he was doing. He could be as conniving as Gin, when he wanted to, but there seemed to be a softer mood to his pranks, at least in her opinion.

She could say that, because Nanao had, on multiple occasions, complained about the fact that her taicho had… as her best friend pointed out, a rather morbid, awkward mind. Rangiku had to, in some ways agree, but she also knew that Toshiro didn't realize this himself. It use to be that she could argue the same with Gin, but she now felt that he had known exactly how sinister he had been.

As she was thinking about her small taicho, she saw him slip into the room. She glanced outside to see the snow falling, then back at her small taicho's face. Her eyes narrowed, as soon as she saw the gloomy look in his eyes. While his eyes normally had a way of distancing people from him, they always had a fire to them, yet right now, it was obvious his mood was down.

"I didn't put you into a bad mood, did I taicho?" his lieutenant asked.

"Ehh… no…" he glanced up, suddenly getting that usual guilty look on his face, indicating he had possibly done something he knew, or now knew, that he shouldn't have. Of course, there was always the chance that he was feeling guilty for something that he should most definitely not feel guilty for.

"All right… what did you just go do…" Matsumoto took the tone of a mother with him.

"Ehh… what makes you think I've done anything majorly important… or that you need to know about," the corners of his mouth twitched as he tried giving her an innocent look, which was never believable.

"Because you have that look on your face…" Matsumoto stated.

"What look…" again, his mouth twitched.

"Oh… you know, that look," Rangiku turned her head to look out the window. "Say… is it snowing because you are in a poor mood because of whatever you did?"

"No… it doesn't match my rietsu pattern. There isn't even a rietsu pattern to it, that I can discern. But what bothers me is the smell…" the small taicho slipped off into his own little world, lost in thought, trying to figure out what was going on. Thinking, and being upset about things tended to put him into a position that he might actually spill the info she wanted.

"So, what were you out doing?" she hammered out her question.

"I visited Gin…" came the straight face reply.

"Taicho…"

At Rangiku's stern, not to mention, irritated tone, he suddenly turned, gulping as he did so. "Sorry… I just thought… I don't know what I was thinking! I feel really stupid after speaking with him, trying… trying…"

"Taicho… you don't have to try to fix things between me and Gin. I admit it is sweet of you to try, however, I have to say, it really is not needed, and I need you to stop. Obviously… it left you in a bad mood," Matsumoto sighed.

"Ne… Rangiku… you do know what day it is today, right?" came an unusual question.

Rangiku blinked a couple of times. "It is your birthday…"

"Which you were avoiding wishing him, because it is also such a bittersweet day for you…" Haineko purred.

"It's just… you always seem to remember everyone else's, but you seem to avoid mine for some reason as another. Hinamori always bugs you about it…" the small taicho returned to his work.

"I thought you didn't care for your birthday, taicho," Matsumoto sighed.

"You were the one who told me to trust the person who told me what my birthday is… that would have been Granny," Toshiro sighed. "It's just… when…"

"Taicho, what happened between you and Gin," his lieutenant suddenly became concerned, as her small taicho was purposely trying to avoid a certain subject.

"Well, he's the only one who brought up my birthday today, so far," the small boy stated. "I felt like something was twisting my stomach, not to mention… I felt like it was all a lie."

"Look… taicho… that is exactly why I would like you to avoid speaking with him again, unless you are ordered too," the strawberry blond sighed. "Gin has always been a hard person to deal with."

"I was hoping to make things better…" came his reply. Before Rangiku could retort at the stupidly of that, the clacker alarm went off. Two hell butterflies suddenly appeared through the window.

Rin's voice chimed out. "Attention! Attention! Ichimaru Gin is escaping from the cell! All shingami assemble!"

Author's note - About Toshiro calling his birthday a lie the last chapter. He was from the Rukongai, where people don't know if their birthday is necessarily their real birthday. As for the two Arrancar names, I know that they aren't usual… but I figure that they fit for a Christmas fanfic…