tampered | (no subject)

(no subject)

When; January 3rd, night
Rating; Probably nothing more than PG
Characters; Rangiku

kitsunesmile
Summary; Gin arrives in the city and the first person he wants to see is Ran. She offers to let him stay with her, and so he heads over,
Log;

Gin was ecstatic to be out of the company of Byakuya, though it didn't show; it never did. He had wandered around the city for a while, not really knowing his way, but following the familiar reiatsu of Rangiku. Hopefully she wouldn't be as cold as the others had been. There were so many others in the city, shinigami and arrancar alike. That would prove to be very fun, he just knew it. Finally finding the warehouse Ran had mentioned, Gin walked inside and looked around. He hoped she'd feel his reiatsu and come retrieve him soon, he truly did want to see her again. His smile grew a little just thinking about it.

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She'd felt his reiatsu the moment he'd neared the warehouse. She couldn't remember how many times she'd felt the familiar tug of his power. With a little trepidation, she climbed to her feet and ventured out to get him.

If she could sense him, the opposite was true enough, but she still stuck to the shadows when she arrived on the first floor.

"Looks like you found your way here..."

Gin simply smiled back in her direction, slowly following her reiatsu into the darkness. As he neared, he spoke. "Rangiku, it's wonderful t' see you again." He stopped a short distance away, thinking she'd share the feelings of the other shinigami. "I hope you've been doin' well in my absence."

All she could do was stare at him from her safe spot in the shadows. So many thoughts ran through her mind when she looked at him, so she cleared her throat and moved a bit closer, into the dim light in the room.

"I've been fine, Gin. It's... good to see you again, too."

"That's good t' hear. I was worried, but I know you're a strong girl." She was just as he remembered her. And he was overjoyed that she wasn't going to snap at him as the others did. "Rather interestin' choice of livin' quarters you have here."

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Please. Have you ever seen me sleeping someplace like this after we got in the academy? I live on the roof. The city made a nice place up there for me..." She started up the stairs, not bothering to look behind her.

"You were worried, huh?"

"The roof, huh?" He followed, shortening the gap between them by a small distance. "O' course I was. I couldn't just leave you behind and not feel anythin'."

Her feet paused as she took in his words, but she didn't stop for long. She didn't say anything until they'd reached the roof and she'd opened the door. "I missed you, Gin. For a long time."

Without another word, she walked into her apartment, leaving the door open for him.

He took a few quick steps to catch up and wrapped his arms around her from behind, leaning in to speak quietly in her ear. "I meant it when I said I wished that you could have held on a little longer."

Her breath sighed out as his arms wrapped around her. That same ache she'd felt the day he left resurfaced. Slowly, her eyes closed and she leaned back a tiny bit, falling back into remembered comfort. "You didn't let me, Gin..."

"I did what I had to. Didn't sit well with me, leavin' you behind like that. But there wasn't anythin' else I could do." He raised one hand and slowly brushed it through her hair.

Her brain screamed at her to step away from him, but she couldn't. Instead, she tipped her head back to lay on his shoulder and sighed. "Of course there was... there's always another choice."

His hand returned to the top of her head, which he began to stroke as she leaned against him. "An' what would you have liked me t'do? Take you with us?"

"Would you have?"

She finally pushed away from him, but not after her hand stroked over his arm. "I couldn't have gone anyway, even if I'd wanted to... "

Once inside, she settled on the small couch and gazed up at him. "What would you have done, if it'd been your way?"

"Now ain't that an interestin' question." He paused to think a bit, and replied, "well, I was doin' fine where I was. Guess 'f I had it my way, we wouldn't have had to leave at all. But that's not how things turned out. Life's not fair sometimes, y'know?" He walked in and looked around. "'s nice here. You ain't stayin' with the other shinigami?"

Her gaze followed him as he walked. "Thank you... I got here before they did. Taichou was here then, but he left... and I was the only one in the city for a while. I found I wanted to be more on my own if I couldn't be with friends... now I just want some space, I guess." She hadn't actively thought about why she didn't join the other shinigami in their shared building.

It sounded odd, since she was such a social person.

"It's close to the entrance to the Underground and such.... makes it a good place for me. I go down there a lot to work out. The city makes us lazy, I'm afraid..."

"'s probably nice an' quiet though. If I'm takin' that away from you, I can always find somewhere else to stay." It was good to know that she was doing well. "Underground? There's enough of this city above it. What's down there?"

Allowing the subject of habitation to pass for a moment, she smiled a little. "Monsters and the like, some worse than others. Most of them make Hollows look hard to deal with. A few are a challenge, but that's an uncommon thing. A lot of the Underground has some really great clubs and bars, and you know I've been to them all. The best is Automatica... they even have good sake there."

As if she'd go anywhere that didn't.

Looking away from him, the smile faded a little. "Aizen's living down there, too. He told me you were welcome to stay with him if you wanted... It's up to you, really."

"Maybe you'll have to take me sometime. Sounds like fun, I've been stuck doin' grunt work and haven't had much time for fun. 'sides, it wouldn't be much fun with any o' them, so serious all the time." He stopped observing the room and looked back at Ran. "If you don't mind my company, I'd like t' stay here."

The thought of going out and having fun almost always cheers Ran up. "A night of club-hopping it is. Maybe this coming up end of the week... " She caught herself looking back up and Gin and felt the smile growing a little more.

"You can stay here if you want. There's a spare bed in the second bedroom you're welcome to use as long as you like."

"I appreciate it. I think I'll head there now, 's been a long day. 'f you need me, you'll know where t' find me." He watched her for a second, just happy to have her in front of him again. He then made his way to the second bedroom and lay down. Hopefully Aizen wouldn't be scheming anything so he'd have time to just relax.

She kept her eyes on him until he disappeared into the other room. For several minutes, she sat on the couch, silent, while Haineko chided her in her mind. Before she knew it, her feet had her moving to stand next to the door of the second bedroom.

Into the silence, she murmured, "I'm glad you're here." With that, she turned to go to her own room.

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