Author's note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU and set in the same universe as Tales of the Kingdom. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story.

Midnight

With a gentle smile that only one woman had ever seen, Gin slid into bed and draped an arm over Rangiku's gravid stomach. They hadn't exactly planned on this pregnancy, but Gin wasn't going to complain. At this rate, the war was probably going to be over before the baby was born. Aizen had survived, sadly, but he wasn't doing so well. His had started to fall apart, and his allies were deserting him.

Rangiku turned and snuggled into his embrace. Gin let out a soft sigh. He had missed her. Things just had not felt right when he was away from her. His return to Seireitei six months ago had been unexpected. Gin had hoped to still be feeding information to the Shinigami Knights at this point. However, Aizen had gotten a little too suspicious of him and had finally remembered that Gin wasn't exactly a trustworthy person. Aizen had ended up with several holes in him, and Gin had had to flee. Aizen had probably gotten the worse end of the deal.

Gin's defection had been the start of all sorts of problems for Aizen. It had been the sign of weakness some of his allies had been waiting for. Aizen was a leader because he had been powerful and people were afraid of him. When that got undermined, Aizen found himself facing internal problems as well as external. It was working out rather well.

He had been a little surprised at the welcome he'd received when he had returned. Not only had he been greeted with a full pardon, but he had immediately been tossed into working with Rangiku on the spy networks. Queen Nanao had also expressed the sentiment that he had better get his act together and make his and Rangiku's relationship permanent. Not that Gin had been adverse to that idea at all. So he and Rangiku had married a month or two after his return.

And now they were expecting a child. It was a little overwhelming. When he had stopped and saved the starving Rangiku, he had never expected this would be the outcome. Gin wasn't that upset about it though. Saving Ran had lead to an interesting life, and Gin had enjoyed it so far. He doubted that their future would be any less interesting.

Ran murmured sleepily and shifted closer to him. Gin pressed a kiss to her cheek. No, this was not what he had expected when he had saved Rangiku, but he wasn't going to complain about the results.