-rangikumatsumoto:

Rangiku’s eyes softened ever so slightly at his face, he looked so lost, so confused. She could feel her heart breaking ever so slightly at his expression. 

She looked at him for a moment, letting him attempt to sort out his feelings. All she wanted was to make it go away. She remembered this, this is how she felt  when they were younger. While Gin always made a point to protect her against everything, she wanted to desperately return the favor. 

So she did the only thing that came to her mind. She walked up to the man, sent him a comforting smile and wrapped her arms around her neck, pulling him into an embrace. Her heart fluttered in her chest, she almost couldn’t help it. She inhaled his scent, he smelled of home. Where ever he was, she was, which made it home. 

“I don’t know what brought you back,” She murmured into his neck, “But I really need to thank them for giving you back to me.” She said as she tightened her arms around his neck.

Gin couldn’t help but nervously tense up as Rangiku approached him, suddenly so afraid of the woman in front of him. Her arms wrapped around him and her breath danced across the skin of his neck, and despite wanting so desperately to relax into her embrace, he became terrified. So many questions remained unanswered, and beyond that, Gin had no idea what to tell her when she eventually asked what happened in Karakura Town. Did he tell her the truth? Where was Aizen..? Gin swallowed, hoping to push down the lump forming in his throat.

As he finally heard her speak, his body relaxed a bit. The way she was talking to him now, so comfortably and so open, made it feel as though no time had passed. Like they were still Gin and Rangiku, the childhood friends that stopped at nothing to protect one another in the deadliest areas of Rukongai. It felt like…

….it felt like it did before he had betrayed her, before he had betrayed everyone. When he was happy.

“….Someone was on my side, I s’pose,” Gin murmured back as his arms finally wrapped around her, pulling her closer. “I thought I’d never see you again, Ran. I didn’t realize… how much I had to say t’ya, before it was too late.” Gin inhaled, his face buried in locks of honey colored hair. “Sorry fer keepin’ ya waiting.”