This is the second of three thank you fics dedicated to the 3 first reviewers on my drabble series Some Hearts.

This one's for you JaggerjaquesShizuka.

I'm not entirely sure about this. I'm not really comfortable with writing GinRangiku but I attempted which is really what counts. I just need more practice at writing their characters. Thanks to intoxication who sat down with me and bounced ideas at my head for this. 3

The best bit about fanfiction is it's all about interpretation and I can write as much fluff, angst and whatever else I want and not feel ashamed.

So without further ado.

xpainted dog.

She could still feel him around. A presence that crept along her senses and made the fine hair on the back of her neck prickle.

“You’re still here aren’t you?” she would whisper bleakly to no one and everyone in particular. To the long shadows that afternoon cast through her window, to the swirling dust motes that rolled around the still room. “I feel you here watching me. Like you never wanted to leave in the first place.”

“What happened to you Gin? Why’d you have to go? Why’d you have to go on and leave me?” she’d whisper brokenly, like a traitor into nothing, to no one.

--

In the depth of La Noches he often thought of her. Of sun kissed hair, long limbs and strength. There was no sun here only stars and without Rangiku, Gin was rather like a moon with no earth to orbit.

To deal with the craving, the yearning in his heart he served like a loyal dog. Gin did not question his orders and did exactly as he was told.

He was restless though and in his dreams he saw her. He’d wake up clawing at the sheets, hands reaching for anything, any hint of the phantom woman who he saw in his dreams, who danced in fire behind his closed eyes.

Sometimes the thought of going back crosses his mind.

He can’t though. He signed his own death warrant with a flick of his wrist the moment he’d become Aizen’s true lieutenant. Signed his name in blood when he’d shown a hint of talent, a skerrick of promise in front of the god-driven man.

It didn’t change the fact he still missed her.

--

Their zanpakuto’s long for each other too.

Haineko the agile cat, much larger than your typical tabby, had once been a social, extroverted creature. She was wily and by far the most independent of all the zanpakuto wielded within the Gotei 13. She seldom listened to anyone and preferred sleeping and sunning to doing anything else.

A cat did as she pleased when she pleased it.

When Shinso had fled, had turned his tail and ran away Haineko had been utterly and completely broken.

Swords, comrades, friends and lovers and that had all been swept away on the winds. As quickly as sand through the hourglass their intertwined lives and paths had been spilt.

Haineko was a quiet, solemn and lonely sword. A reflection of the utter loss and longing her mistress’s soul felt.

--

Shinso is not much better. The red fox had always been a trickster, wild and all together a very disliked sword on the whole. He and the cat had had an understanding, she did not judge him, did not frown upon his inherent wickedness.

“You’re a fox.” She’d say as if that was enough to explain everything and the two sentient creatures would curl around each other. Looping limbs together till they were a mess of ginger and tabby stripes.

He missed her warm fur. The way that Haineko smelt like sunshine on rainbows and waterfalls crashing to the ground.

Shinso resigned himself to stretch out in trees and staring longingly at the horizon. As if he will see the swish of a tail, the flicker of a tufted ear.

The worst is the waiting and the horrible sinking feeling that the cat and fox will never see each other again.

Even worse is the dawning realization that the next time they meet it will be as enemies across a battlefield.

--

Indeed when they all meet again it is across the street from each other within the confines of Karakura town. The spectral cat hisses and swirls around her mistress, a coalescing cloud of ash that cuts hollows down where the stand.

Gin swallows hard. A few months have not made her any less beautiful.

She feels eyes upon her, that prickle that pushes the hairs on her neck back up.

Rangiku knew that stare.

Her lips quirk into a hard, feral snarl and the sentient cat spits.

“Well if it ain’t Rangiku.” He laughs. He can’t do anything else.

Haineko presses against Rangiku’s leg agitatedly, her long tabby tail slicing through the air. Stupid fox was grinning just like his wielder.

She wants to claw the smile off his face.

“Get out of here Gin. I don’t want to have to kill you.” Rangiku growls.

“You couldn’t kill me Rangiku . Not even if you wanted ‘ta.” There is a slight shake in his voice. A hint of weakness, a whisper of fear as soft and muffled as a breath of wind. An errant thought that tumbled through his mind like a pebble rattling down a steep cliff – it didn't make him fear the avalanche, but it stirred enough disquiet to make him cautious.

Shinso’s hackles rise and he snaps his jaws in the quiet recedes of Gin’s mind. The cat’s agitation is thick in the air, making him a little crazy, a little bit manic.

The air is tense enough that a single sword swing would have cut everything between them.

“Eat sword bastard,” she roars the pain in her voice so achingly obvious. After all these months she still loved him, still hadn’t moved on and he had just ripped a gaping wound in her heart.

Haineko lunges at the merest flick of her wrist, the ash falling in an almost beautiful way. She is terrifying with tears on her cheeks and her face in a bitter frown.

For every slide of their swords against each other Gin’s resolve cracks. Small fissures running along his promises to Aizen, fissures that turn into cracks and cracks that finally break.

Haineko and Shinso tumble. Swiping paws, feral growls and the hiss of threats. Teeth clicking together menacingly and the occasional yowl of pain as one of their wielder’s takes a blow. Haineko’s hooked claws skim through the air and brush through the red fox’s fur. The fox’s sharp teeth rake down her shoulder.

Then they aren’t really fighting merely sparring like old times and their zanpakuto’s are tumbling in games rather than for the sake of blood. There are no claws or teeth. No sharp angry rings of swords clashing against each other.

When they discards the swords entirely and wrestle with their lips time has stopped, stopped for only them. They are endless, red and silver, black and white.

“Gin. I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed ya too Ran,”

Of course. They were never made to last. It didn’t matter how hard they tried or how much they had wanted it they were both traitors now.

There would be no where for them to hide and they wouldn’t be fast enough. Wouldn’t be able to outrun the law.

A musical laugh breaks their tender reunion, a sound that strikes fear into their hearts. A sound that Rangiku hadn’t heard in a long time.

“Aizen,” she gasps quietly.

“Well, well, well. Just what do we have here?”

Gin’s smiling face never so much as deviated from the grin but Rangiku could see the tense pinch around his eyes. The way his lip was twitching ever so lightly.

“Hey Sir. Fancy seein’ you here!”

Aizen’s face is blank; there is something in his eyes though. Morbid satisfaction or something akin to that.

“Such wasted talent Gin. You could have been a king, a god...” he pauses thoughtfully. “Yet you waste your time with whores. Such a shame.” He drawls out.

Haineko leaps as the word whore leaves Aizen’s lips. Rangiku is angry, insulted. Gin draws Shinso and in tandem they whisper.

“Shoot to kill Shinso.”

“Growl Haineko!”

Aizen’s face is taken by a grin as their attacks race towards him.

Then the world tips and perspective is turned entirely on its head. Rangiku’s attack is no longer running towards Aizen but instead to Gin and Shinso is plunging into her stomach.

“Such a shame.” Are the final words Aizen leaves as on his parting words using shunpo to put distance between the dying lovers.

They bleed out together, bodies heavy as they slump against each other.

“I ‘m sorry... Ran,” Gin wheezes.

There are no words on her tongue. Merely blood and confessions of love that drown in the blood.

She wishes she could tell him how much she loved him, how much she misses the ways he had held her.

Haineko and Shinso are fading fast. Flickering erratically as they vanish. Nestled in each other embrace. The fox curled protectively around the cat.

Gin’s lips on her temple felt so far away. She felt so heavy, her limbs wouldn’t move. She could only breath shallowly and lay there.

Dying with the one she loved.

He could only think of how beautiful she looked as he was dying. He had been a fool to leave and be swayed by Aizen’s ideals.

“I’m so sorry. I love you.”

Her heart had stopped though and his confession had not been heard. It had fallen on deaf ears.

Bought together to be torn apart again.