tampered | Completed

Completed

When; Aug. 16 afternoon
Rating; R Sands has a mouth on him and it's nekkid day
Characters; Sands

10thdiv_haineko
Summary; Sands volunteered Ran for a mission so he's using that as an excuse to come to her place.
Log;

Now he can't see them. It's one more thing he's missing out on. Sands wishes he saw more sunsets, more landscapes, more lesbian porn.
He makes his way to Ran's apartment with a blank look that signifies nervousness. They seem to be getting along today when usually he's just annoying the crap out of her. Punching Norrington and threatening Jack was a mistake. Though both satisfying. He's become possessive. It's never been that way before and prefers not to dive too deeply into the reasons.
Especially when he has a headache. It started shortly before he left his building and now it's strong enough to cause him to sway in front of her door. He didn't shoot up before coming, not wanting to be too out of it. With one hand he knocks. The other leans his cane against the wall to pop open a bottle of Advil which he's been chewing like tic tacs the whole way there.

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She laughs and heads back to the couch, knowing he'll end up following her voice. "Yep. Still can't find anything to wear. I assume it'll all be back in my closet first thing in the morning, but I'm beginning to think I'll be disappointed when it happens."

Flopping back down into her sprawl, she turns her head enough to watch him. "So why didn't you just strip and join the rest of the crowd? It's been a lot of fun wandering around the city naked."

Sands seems to be wearing more clothes then usual- even for a man who commonly layers. He's trying to compinsate. He received new threads with the upgrades but when he arrived he came to the same clothes in his barracks closet when he was in the army. Finding comfort in a very old and torn sweater that was his favorite all those years ago he stands in the middle of the room- cane in one hand and the other clutching at that arm. He's trying not to touch to be honest.

"I figured Jack was giving everyone the show so it would just be repetitive.
I hate to bring up business when you're enjoying your naked time but I named you as my first lieutenant. And am speaking with Rosiel about you heading up a small team of the angels for a reconnaissance mission."

Oh.

His words sobered her up quickly, and his obvious discomfort in her presence soured her fine mood a little, but she tried her level best to keep that from him.

"Why would you want me leading the angels? They're much more powerful than I am."

It wasn't that she couldn't lead. She's had a lot of experience, but it didn't really help that the angels made her a little... nervous.

He makes his 'I'm thinking' face. A hand moves up to scratch at his mess of hair before he makes his way closer. The problem here is that he wants to see her. And the only way to do that is use his hands.
Talking about business makes him calmer- even if he did accidentally ruin her mood.

"You're the most powerful person on my team, Rangiku. If I'm being fucked here I have to send in someone that can handle themselves."
He puts a hand out to her palm up from less then an arms length away. He just holds it there between them to be taken or ignored. Either way the hand doesn't waver and seems as if he can wait forever.
"Who else? Jack? Norrington? They know what to do. It's Rosiel's plan you're just there because I insisted my people weren't to be foot soldiers. I thought it best to mention it right away instead of waiting... till we were comfortable. I went over this in my head on the way here and somehow 'God, you feel good, hey by the way I'm sending you out to gather information with the brigade of winged monkeys...' just doesn't come out right."

She sat in silence for a moment, making sure she thought over everything he'd said. Even though she hasn't known him all too long, she knows that he talks several stories at the same time. While she thinks, her eyes never leave his outstretched hand.

"You need to realize something... the angels are on a completely different level than I am. I'm not saying I can't hold my own, because I can, but... " she paused, smiling a little. "I might have something in mind that could put some more power on our side, but I can't speak for anyone until I talk to them."

She wasn't sure why she was pondering her limitations and ideas outloud, but her words were already in the air between them. Her hand lifted to his, moving to rest palm down on top of his.

"I'll do what needs to be done."

She doesn't seem to plan on continuing with this mysterious option. This is just not done in his opinion. Sure he does things constantly without cluing him his superiors but when he does it it's called 'improvising'. Feeling out of the loop, it's a real effort not to demand details. After a long moment he settles down on the floor in front of the sofa still holding her hand.

"I trust your instincts. I trust you to finish the mission no matter what the cost." The last part isn't true because he seriously doubts she'll still serve under him if she knew what he was doing for Jack but- it's a nice thing to say and can't hurt the situation.

His words nag at her instincts, making her suspicious. Yes, she has trust issues still, and it doesn't help that she gets the distinct impression that he's lying... he's hiding something...

"You trust my instincts, but you don't trust me... that's interesting."

Sands gives her his very best smile. The one that says- 'I am an officer of the law here to help you.'
"Is it? Seems normal to me. I trust your instincts in battle. I'm not all that sure you wont eventually kill me. But you're unsure about me as well. Yet you're naked and alone with me. If you couldn't kick my skinny ass two ways to Sunday I'd say you were looking for trouble."

He brings her hand to his mouth speaking against her skin. "This is a war. People will be sacrificed."

She didn't want to talk about her own insecurities, especially not with him. Not now, anyway. "I"m always looking for trouble. That's just how I am." Her hand twitches when his breath crosses it, but she just leans back and smiles.

"It's a commanders job to make sure that number is kept to a minimum... and I don't sacrifice anyone I don't have to." She twisted her hand around in his, trailing her slim fingers across his lips.

Sands kisses her fingers trying to think. She's serious. It's both comforting and a pain in the ass.
"It's a commanders job to finish the mission. We were trained differently, Ran. I'm good in my field because I do whatever it takes."

"My plan is to enjoy you now because if you don't plan to whack me now it sounds like you will when this is over. Hopefully I'll be out of the city though so it will all work out." He grins at her looking sheepish.
"I like you. But something tells me I'll never be able to convince you people have to be hurt for the greater good. And thats okay. As long as you don't try too hard to stop me."

"Oh, I might whack you now. I still haven't decided..." Her hand moves to slowly slide through his hair, pausing when her fingers find the back of his neck. Shifting her legs a little, she leans back down closer to him, murmuring, "I'd willingly sacrifice myself to save everyone in this city, but I won't let my friends be hurt. You need to tell me what you're planning, Sands..."

She pauses, almost down to his level.

"I can't help if I don't know."

He gives his best hurt bunny face. Then her hand is in his hair and it feels too good to act self righteous about her teasing him back. The hair thing- it makes him behave. It always has. Not that he's thinking happy thoughts, he's just uninterested in acting on his bad ones for fear the hand will go away.
His face comes up when hers comes down. She has his full attention. He wants to tell her. But she'll just be mad and possibly hit him. He hates being hit.

"I can't do this and keep everyone in this city safe. I don't have that kind of power. Some people's lives are going to get very bad for a while. Don't hate me, Rangiku, I'm only trying to get my life back. The others mean nothing to me. Give me names. A list of people that you wont abide me hurting and I'll try."

"I know what war is like. I'll try not to hate you, but I might be hating everyone then."

Her fingers carefully stroke the back of his neck as she brushes her lips across his forehead before she speaks in a low voice. "The one's I'm mostly concerned about are the other shinigami here. They're fighters, but they're not as... apt to fight as I am. I plan to ask them for help with something, but I can't allow them to be hurt. They've already been hurt enough."

"Those are your people. I consider them off limits. Any orders I have to them will go through you."
He's a bad ass till a girl gets a hold of his hair. This is where all his problems started- only for now he doesn't care.
Though when he's less turned on he might go back on that whole 'off limits' thing. But he makes a mental note to leave them off his victim list for Jones. What he's most worried about is his brilliant plan to give up Norrington. She might see that as his jealousy at work when really selling his friends into slavery is just really convenient.

"I truly didn't come here to worry you."

She chuckles and pulls back a bit, fingers still moving aimlessly on his neck. "No, you won't be ordering them around. They'll be there to help me." Her hand leaves the back of his neck to trail the line of his jaw as she smiles down at him.

"Do I have something to worry about, Sands? Will you betray me like he did?"

It tickles. And is not a place people touch on him often. In fact besides leading him around people hardly touch him at all. When he had eyes they touched him much less. He looks cuddly but people usually stopped trying after spending five minutes with him in which he would either threaten their anal virginity or kill something very suddenly.

"Furthest thing from my mind at the present moment." He is putty in her hands. Like a junk yard dog given pork chop laced with sleeping pills. All Sands wants to do is curl up at her feet and be petted.

The hand drops down to rest against his chest for a moment, then moves away as she leans all the way back on the couch, knowing he can hear her moving.

"What's on your mind right now?"

He frowns when the touching stops. Now what's on his mind is irritation at that question all women love to ask. 'What are you thinking about?'
'Your breasts' is never the right answer.

"War. Famine. Death. Sex. You. The Black Swann. The fact my headache is gone. That your naked. And my foot is starting to fall asleep... that about covers it. You?"

Finally. An honest answer.

With a laugh, she reaches for him and tugs on his shoulder. "You've got too much on your mind, then. First things first... the couch is comfortable and I can promise your foot won't be asleep up here..."

The rest, she thinks, is up to you.

"Okay. But I was giving you space to spread out and.. be nude." He gets up and switches to the couch beside her, slightly turned toward Ran but also not leaning into her personal bubble. His leg is close enough to lay against hers but the rest of him is shifting trying to get comfortable without getting too comfortable. After a few seconds of this he starts to laugh at himself.
"I never thought that one day I'd be alone with a naked girl and have no idea what to do with her. It's like I'm thirteen. Only at that age I was being awkward with both parties fully dressed."

He slides an arm around her shoulders gently dragging her over to lean on him. His other hand is suspended wondering where to go. Finally it rests on his own leg.
"Okay. Honestly game. Sometimes I don't want to leave. it freaks me out because part of me is sure I'm just in a cell imagining all this. And another part of me thinks it's better here. I can make a new life here. But it's too small. And I'm nothing. No- that's not it. I'm everything here. My worlds entire military in one man. I'm not just the boss. I am the fucking general. I'm a General of our army, Ran. I thought one day I could be head of the cia. With my eyes gone- that's over. The cartel is probably still after me. I have nothing there and everything here.
And I'm telling you all this because I'd like to know why you don't have a major hard on for leaving like most of us do."

"I don't need to spread out to be nude," she mutters, but settles herself next to him when he pulls her closer. It isn't often she listens in complete silence, or stillness, but this time, she makes an exception. Even after he finishes, she remains silent, her brows furrowed.

"It's not that I don't miss my home. It's more like... Well. It's nice to be somewhere where's there's not that much responsibility. If and when I go back, I'll more than likely be handed a Division and a promotion and I'm not sure I want it. Top that off with the fact that I can't remember as much as I should about things there, and it just adds to my reasons..."

Her hand moves to rest just barely touching his leg.

"Maybe you can go to another world. It's not out of the question is it? Physics here are a mystery and I'm not even going to pretend I can guess about possibilities within dimensions. But I told that girl I'd take her with me."
Most of the reason he agreed to that is because when he gets back the cia might have A LOT of questions. He's afraid of being a guinea pig and figures if there are two of them only one will be dissected.
Failing that- he plans to make Veronica an agent.

"Maybe there's a place better for you. Anything is possible now. Even this." His hand comes up taking in the whole apartment and them together before landing on top of hers.
"We could have some kind of rule where everything is okay as long as we're behind closed doors. It's not a 'here, hold this knife for me' kind of trust but it's nice right now. I can be nice here."

"As long as this doesn't get around. I have a reputation and the guys would laugh if they knew I was cuddling or some other girly thing."

The snort isn't a ladylike sound, but it conveys what she thinks quite well. "I promise it won't get out that you're a closet cuddler, but you can't tell me you came here for this..." She's not sure if she's actively ignoring some of the other things he's said, or just saving them to think about later.

"You really are like him in some ways..." As she talks, she's in motion, moving to turn and look at him. Looking for any trace of someone else; a trickster with slitted eyes and a fox grin trying to lead her down the wrong path again.

"I came here because I like hanging out with you." He's hanging on to that with a bulldog tenacity.
"And I felt one of my migraines coming. Thought I should get out and be normal before taking up the fetal position again."

His hand slides from her shoulder down to her back as his head tilts in an automatic movement to cover his face with his hair.
From this up close it's far too much. Even if it's not for her- to him it's like having his worst feature under a microscope and studied by the one person he wants to have sex with. By time she's facing him is hair is a curtain between their faces and his head is pointed to the side and down. The sunglasses come back out now.
"Glad to hear it. You didn't tell me much but I like the guy's style. And any man named after hard liquor is okay with me."
Now he's just talking out of his ass.

She knows better, honestly. She knows he's here for many reasons, some he won't tell her, but she doesn't have a smart remark for him. She doesn't get angry and demand to know what's going on. Instead, she slides her hands into his hair again and murmurs, "he was a liar and a traitor. He hurt a good many people on his way out of Seireitei. He was the one man that broke me."

Sands leans his forehead against hers.
"It's debatable if I can be a traitor without first being loyal to something, isn't it?
I may be a liar and a murderer. But I have no desire to break you. What do I get for one out of three?"

"We're all liars and murderers if you think about it... it's the last one that matters most... "

Since I'm still broken.

Long fingers rake through his hair and slip down against this cheeks as she brushes a light kiss across the tip of his nose.

"You get my gratitude. Is there anything else you want?"

This is too much. He's mentally kicking the shit out of himself for not moving. For being a coward. He traveled across a rioting town with his eyes seeping down his face but a naked Rangiku in his arms stops him completely.
"I want plenty. I just...I..." His mind switches over like changing a channel. Reality too much for you? Love life a confusing disappointment? Have some Paula Abdul.
For no reason at all Straight Up starts to play in his head. This is the benefit of being fucking insane.

"Straight up, now tell me
Do you really wanna love me forever
Oh, oh, oh
Or am I caught in a hit-and-run?"
He gives a short laugh and kisses her cheek.

"Be gentle with me, Hot Lips, I'm a torn man." Both arms pulls her toward him and he holds her there in an effort to think.
"I can't. I want to but it doesn't work." He's not just talking about his penis.
"I don't know how to be with a woman without fucking it up. If we got an outside line I would have you call all my ex's. Some have restraining orders. All of them hate my black, scheming, little guts. With me- this is as good as it gets."

For a moment longer, she's content to rest against him before she pulls away and stands up, still stroking his cheek as she moves.

"Well. Seems like we have a few things in common, too. If that's as good as it gets, then that's alright. Neither of us is really whole."

Her hand drops away from his face after they trace over his lips one more time. "Such a shame... I wanted to know what those lips felt like on my skin... ah well."

She moves away and starts to step towards her bedroom, then pauses.

"You're welcome to stay if you like. The couch is comfortable, or you can take the bed if you want. I can sleep anywhere." She can't help but chuckle at the last comment.

"...Thanks."
As soon as she leaves he shoves his hand down his pants just to check. Sands hasn't been this turned on in since getting here. Nothing.
Falling face first into the cushions he curses for a long time. If that didn't do it for him it's final He's a limp noodle for the rest of his life. A beautiful woman that wants him despite the injuries and he still can't have her. It's enough to man a man weep.

Pushing himself off the sofa he goes to her room (hitting his shin on something half way there. If she couldn't hear him coming she now knows from the cursing and hopping up and down).
He comes to a door he hopes is the right one and not a closet or this will just make him look like a fool.

"Ranguki?" Sands comes in slowly, kicking his shoes off as he explains himself. "I just- I want to stay with you. Just let me sleep here. I can't sleep anymore."
It takes drugs to knock him out. Sands doesn't so much sleep as pass the fuck out. But he thinks that for once he could if she's there. Just one night so he doesn't go insane.
Leaving his shirt in a pile and climbing into bed with his pants still on he wraps himself around Ran and slips into what can be described as a pleasant coma for the next six hours.

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