Christmas Nightmare
~Gin Rummy~

Gin sat at the head of the small taicho's futon, not moving, but not going into the boy's inner world as of yet. Even though there had been the insistence that it was rather important that someone go into the boy's inner world, to find out exactly what was going on, he couldn't help but feel some reluctance in doing so, and was taking his time.

The former taicho of the tenth division sat in a corner, fast asleep, yet alert enough to wake up if any serious changes came to the young man, or something else occurred that his attention needed to be drawn too. In Gin's opinion, this man was in truth the best person to go into Toshiro's inner world, simply from the fact that Toshiro was more trusting of that man out of all three of them.

However, Urahara, who had gone to his lab, and Isshin had both formed the idea that Gin was the best and most likely, simply because of the fact that Hyorinmaru had in fact trusted him, which was in truth the greatest barrier that one would need to overcome in order to get into the young boy's inner world. It could easily be said that the ice dragon was like a shield over who Toshiro really was.

Ichimaru had no smile on his face, and instead had a frown. Not to mention, his eyes were open wider than normal, giving off a dark aura, as he watched the young child's rough breathing. Things were not supposed to be like this, as he had done everything that he had done, to make sure that the young one would remain safe. Thus his curiosity, to know that Hitsugaya would be all right, overcame him.

The right hand of Gin carefully moved, tense at the idea of touching, as his mental state rather told him he had no right to. Finally, though, his fingers brushed against the boy's forehead, brushing away that oddball lock of hair that seemed to always come into his face. The fact that there was no reaction at all from the white haired boy, let Gin know, he might as well proceed with the whole matter.

His ling, bony fingers settled to touch lightly against the skin of Toshiro's forehead, and he closed his eyes, trying to meditate, to go into his own inner world, and perhaps find some breach between his and the icy world that he knew Toshiro to have. However, he didn't expect to be greeted by a fuzziness, which wasn't characteristic of his world, nor for the ice dragon to present himself in front of him.

Gin stood in front of the huge beast, remaining calm, even though the dragon could at times be more unsettling then his own zampaktuo, or his own inner hollow. The man's usual customary smirk suddenly reappeared. "Hello, Hyorinmaru. I know that you don't like me, but I have a good reason for intruding like I am."

"As I have said before, it is not my place to decide if I like you or not. You've entered masters inner world a long time ago, telling me to hold off on letting his powers emerge, to not call to him…" the dragon stated, the last part said rather darkly.

"Couldn't you have held off a little longer? You and I both know that he's the youngest to have ever entered the academy, the distance between him and the others, about forty years, or the equivalent of four year," Ichimaru stated firmly, asserting his own problem that he had had. "And I don't think that chibi-taicho would like you calling him master, would he?"

"I'll call mine shingami what I will," the ice dragon muttered, breathing deeply through his nostrils. "You are free to enter, though I doubt that Hitsugaya-sama would be happy with you there, but while I am able to call to him, and here his pleas for me to interfere, I am unable to have him hear my words."

"Is there a chance that I will not be able to enter…" Gin stated firmly, slight concern in his voice.

"No… the chance of you being able to enter has actually grown, Ichimaru Gin. Something else has taken control of his inner world…"

"Please tell me it is not an inner hollow developing," came the hurried reply, not to mention a slight, but short lived frown from the silver headed man.

"No… it is actually mine shingami that is subconsciously blocking me. It is almost like some sort of drug has taken effect," the dragon stated, then spoke up, feeling the concern coming from Gin about what he had just said. "Without me, master would be susceptible to a lot of things that he normal wouldn't, as he is still a child, whether he wishes to admit it or not…"

"Then I am on my way…" Gin stated, but not before, he gave some parting words. "Ne… Hyorinmaru… you ever think about letting up a little on Shiro-chan, so that he might accidently act his age."

"Oh… I have done so… I can only suggest things, and protect his inner world… under most circumstances," the dragon stated, almost as if he was laughing.

Ichimaru shunpooed mentally through the static, until he came to an odd, sandy white world, which was most defiantly not the inner world that he knew the small taicho to have, which in itself was concerning. He wanted to spend time looking around, but he knew that he had to be getting along to find the boy.

His luck was, as soon as he breached the wall of the inner world, he felt Toshiro's rieatsu fluctuate. It was rather filled with a level of shock, not to mention, disternation at the fact that the boy had already figured out that someone or something was intruding on him, however, there was no fear there, more of a complete acceptance of the fact.

Thus he was able to shunpoo towards the small boy, no clue at all what was going on, and felt his fake smile suddenly slipping from his face, and his eyes widening, as he caught site of the small boy's companions. Under normal circumstances, he would have found it hysterical, but in truth, he knew that this was in fact serious.

Isshin was dressed in the weirdest shingami uniform Gin had ever seen, the imaginary one that was, for he knew the man hadn't entered Toshiro's inner world. Also, there was an imaginary Orihime-chan there, dressed in a rather flimsy dress. The girl for some reason always reminded him of Ran… perhaps because of the way she looked.

And there was Toshiro, slowly following along behind them, his footsteps sluggish, and his whole body fighting to catch up. It was rather obvious that his body was rather weak, and that he was fighting with all his effort to keep up with the other two, who seemed to treat the matter with relative ease. Gin could only shake his head at that boy's stubbornness.

He also realized that he would have to find a way to fit in, and thus closed his eyes, imagining a roundish, rather cartoonish skeleton mask that he had once seen when he had gone to see a Christmas movie with Rangiku. Thus, it would seem less likely that Toshiro would suspect that something was off about the whole matter.

To Gin's irritation, as he was walking on ground that allowed him to see further ahead, he saw that Isshin and Orihime had gotten rather far ahead of the small boy, and he thus hopped down, to follow the small boy, at a rather close distance. However, something gave him away, causing Toshiro to suddenly turn on the man.

"You… why are you here too! What's next in this stupid nightmare of mine? Aizen? Tosen?" the boy prattled off, much to Gin's dismay. "It's already enough that Isshin-san taicho came to me with this stupid mission of rescuing Santa Clause, who… hell… isn't real, I'm going to have to deal with all the Espada too in the stupid, childish dream."

"Ne… maybe they'll turn into something really childish, like jack-in-the-box?" Gin stated, suddenly catching up to the small boy. "it seems that your shunpoo still can't keep up with your taicho's, can it, Shiro-chan?"

"Don't call me that!" the small boy snapped, almost stumbling forward. "Go away!"

"I'm not going to!" Gin stated

"Just do it! I don't want to have dreams about you, you stupid pedophile!" Toshiro snapped out again, his two eyes, with bags under them, suddenly feeling with rage.

"All right… I'll leave you alone here…" Gin stated, suddenly and quickly disappearing from the small boy's inner world. He opened his eyes to reality, and removed his fingers from the small boy's forehead.

That hand reached up and touched the locket that Toshiro had given him, ironically on the small boy's own birthday. To Gin's dismay, it broke off the chain, and the hinge was in such a state that each half was now separate. In the opposite side from Ran's picture, Ichimaru couldn't help look at the picture that he had placed there.

"How did it go?" Isshin suddenly asked, having woken up from his nap

"Not well…" Gin sighed, glancing away, his hand loosening his grip on the locket pieces, allowing Isshin to suddenly see the other picture that was in there.

"Hyorinmaru did let you in though?" Isshin asked, a rather worried tone in his voice.

"Oh… Hyorinmaru let me in… if that dragon had his way, Toshiro would have been in the academy by the time he was age two, I think," the man muttered. "But he listened to me, when I told him it was for Toshiro's best interest."

"So… even though you gave your son up, you still got to see him… that wasn't rather fair to Rangiku, now was it," Isshin admonished, leaning back against the wall.

"No… it wasn't. I'd really forgotten about it, until Hyorinmaru reminded me. I really didn't get to see him, at least what I consider seeing him," Gin stated, glancing at the wall. "If Ran ever finds out, she'll kill me."

"She'll want to hurt you simply for taking her baby away for this long…" Isshin muttered, his tone indicating that he didn't want to be on the woman's bad side, but he knew he might end up being that way, simply because he was dead by soul society's ruling. "Now, if it wasn't the zampaktuo…"

"I hadn't taken into consideration Shiro-chan's stubbornness. And… I had forgotten that he had told me earlier that he thought I was a pedophile… and that was why I happened to have asked him why his picture wasn't in the locket," Gin muttered.

"So… you were the one who happened to put it there, not him?" came the logical question from the older man.

"Nope… I felt that it had more meaning that way, though I doubt he would understand why."

"He might if you told him, you were his father," Isshin sighed. "You should eventually tell him…"

"He isn't old enough…" came the firm reply. "He might have made it to be captain of the gotei, but it was really by fluke. I know it sounds weird, me saying it as I am in fact one of the captain's that supported him becoming captain, but… if you were still around, he would still be in the father and son relationship he needs."

"So, you don't think he's grown at all?" the former tenth division member asked.

"Nope," Gin stated. "He hasn't grown at all in the last twenty years since you left. In fact, I think he actually went backwards from the improvements that you had helped him with… way back…"

"Have you taken into consideration his personal growth between when you betrayed everyone and now?" Isshin was trying to draw from his experience as a father. "Every time my kids have been away…"

"I guarantee you, Isshin-san… he hasn't grown…" the man stated.

"And when was the last time you talked to him? Today… the Winter War… when you left Ran to follow Aizen?"

"Don't make me laugh. He shouldn't have ever been in that battle. It was all way over his head. I could tell from his reactions, his speech patterns, the changes in his rietsu…"

"Gin… do you really think that you are going to protect him all his life?" came the wisdom filled advice. "I also wouldn't go judging his growth on that battle either. Yes, it was way over his head, but… seriously… it was rather nasty, wasn't it? He had a lot of emotions riding in that one… things he possibly wasn't used to, because it was the first time, he faced them. But that was also two months ago, and a child can actually grow from that."

"I'll think about it…" Gin murmured, rather irritated about the whole situation.

"You need to try again, and don't back down simply because he doesn't want you there. I mean, it would be one thing if it were life in general, but it seems you might be putting in your fears of him rejecting you into this. I need to know that you will be alright with just Tessai in the morning, as I need to take care of my clinic, so as no suspicion is aroused."

"I'll be fine… though I admit that this isn't an easy task at all…"

"I'll be heading home now, as I have two little girls around his age, both of which it would be best not to worry. If anything happens, Urahara will contact me…" Isshin stated, getting up.

However, his movements were interrupted by the small taicho suddenly sitting bolt upright, his eyes glazed over. His weak voice suddenly came out. "Don't… leave… me … a… lone…"

"Gin…" Isshin's two eyes suddenly filled with worry. "What exactly is going on there? I think you had best go back in."

With one swift movement, Gin had pulled the boy into his lap, only to have him struggle for a bit, a few seconds after it was obvious that Ichimaru had gone back into the dream state the boy was in.

M

At first, Hitsugaya was quite fine with Gin leaving, however, this completely changed when the distance between him and Isshin-san taicho and Inoue san had grown to the point he couldn't see them anymore. And even then, this didn't bother him. That was until his mind began to fill with loneliness and uncertainty. At least with the two companions, he knew something was going on. " Don't leave me alone!"

Suddenly, he felt an arm that was slightly on the bony side, wrap around his waist, and a few fingers placed on his forehead, that could only belong to one person. "Gin!"

"Ne… chibi-taicho… if you don't want to be left alone, you need to quicken you step, right?" Gin commented.

"Let go!" Toshiro suddenly felt the urge to struggle. "You're a pedophile!"

"It's a dream, isn't it?" Gin hummed carefully into his ear. "Maybe I am the Gin before all the bad stuff happened?"

The small white haired taicho suddenly settled down, applying the logic and thinking about the whole matter. In a more calm, but rather tired manner, he spoke up. "I would still rather you let me go."

At that, Gin let, go, and moved in front of him, that odd smile on his face. "I know that you don't like help from others, or being treated like a child, but if I were to carry for a ways, we might be able to catch up with them, ne?"

"I don't want them to see! It's embarrassing!" Toshiro's eyes narrowed, and he had a deep frown on his face.

"They aren't really… but imaginary… so the real ones won't know!" Gin smirked. "Or should I just go head and walked without you?"

Toshiro watched as Gin got down low enough so that the small boy could grab a hold around his neck with his own strength, the little that he had left. He watched as Hitsugaya hesitated, then the boy closed his eyes. "Hell… it is just a dream… and I am so tiered. Maybe it would be alright if I rested a bit…"

Stiffly, he walked behind the silver-headed man, and wrapped his arms around his neck, while Gin used his arms to hold him onto his back, and then they set off. "So… what can you tell me about this, Shiro-chan?"

"Just that stupid old Isshin blurted out about the mission to rescue Santa… Hinamori-san is supposed to be an angel…."

"You're tireder then I thought… it is Inoue-san," Gin sighed.

"Oh… yeah…" Toshiro sighed. "That is about all I know… oh… and everything seems to be a weird twisting of Christmas here, though I am not entirely sure… except your odd hollow mask. I thought that it was supposed to be a fox one, but it is this one I've never seen before… it seems more Halloween then Christmas…"

Toshiro swore he could feel the man tense up, but decided to think nothing of it, his body protesting the need to find out versus the need to rest.

Author's note - About the mask, it is supposed to be the main character from Nightmare Before Christmas. Gin tensed up, because he realized his mistake in picking something from a movie that Toshiro had never seen before.