Author's rambling:

So I am sitting all alone in my lab… waiting… trying not to look too unmotivated… and decided to write some tragic stuff about Gin/Matsu. You all want it, now read it!

(Beware: End of winter war and chara death T.T)

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It was hard to breathe.

The air was so thick. Flaring reiatsu surrounded her like an ocean, dark heavy water clutching at her limbs, tightening around her chest like a deathly embrace.

She was suffocating. Eyes staring ahead into nothingness.

No. Not nothingness.

At him.

Ichimaru Gin was standing ahead of her down the street, arms hanging limply by his sides as his eyes stayed transfixed on the top of the building in front of him. Blood was dripping down his sword arm, trickling down his zanpakutô and gathering in an increasing puddle of crimson liquid underneath his form.

Most of the blood was flowing out of the large hole in his left shoulder. A clean puncture wound inflicted by one long sword that had been forced through tissue and bone without mercy.

Her side hurt.

The pain from the injury that abominable monster had torn into her body still too fresh on her cloudy mind to suppress, even if Kira had done a wonderful job closing it enough for her to survive.

The blood was still flowing down his arm and torso.

His breathing was even, lips forming a thin line as he watched time pass by. The ever present grin was gone, leaving behind only a hateful memory of awful lies and heartache. He had always been smiling back in Seireitei, hiding behind a mask she so easily saw through but never understood in its complexity.

Pressing her hand against her side, she jerked together in surprise as two shadows whizzed past above the pair, their reiatsu flaring up momentarily on their hunt.

They were hunting him.

Only half an hour ago, she had felt their reiatsu signatures vanish. The three traitors had either died or escaped after the tiring hours of slaughtering. At one point of the nightmarish massacre, she had feared her head would split from the noise of clashing metal, screams and explosions.

It seemed like the remaining Gotei 13 hadn't done their job of eliminating the ultimate threat too thoroughly, because one was still standing. And she should be doing something. It was her duty as a proud shinigami and worrier to bring him down, but then…

Her chest hurt…

"Hey, Ran."

… from the breaking heart.

"Do you remember?" He was mumbling, almost a whisper among the murmur of the wind, his normal dialect intermingling with the heaviness of his tongue, making it almost impossible to discern the words.

Like a puppet pulled by invisible strings, her body drew closer to the sound of his words, her throat knotting painfully into a tight lump as she left a trail of her own blood with every step she took towards him.

Still he stood there. Motionless as he stared up into the reddening sky.

No tears would fall, the blood spilled at their feet enough wasted life force for both of them. Enough for a lifetime of promises not kept.

She remembered. Everything. Every word he had spoken in all those years, every touch, every time she had caught him watching her from behind.

She remembered all the promises from a youth in the gutters of hell. All the dreams they had shared.

Matsumoto remembered every single time he had vanished without a trace out of her life, leaving her behind to hope.

"Yes."

Now that she was closer to him, she could hear the raspy sound every time he inhaled, blood gurgling in his throat from the punctured lung. But he looked solemnly ahead at the top of the building, oblivious to the small rivulet of crimson liquid cascading down the side of his chin.

"Ya always wan'ed ta live in that old house behind da woods."

Don't say another word. Her mind was begging for his voice to cease to nothingness. Ichimaru Gin wasn't talking about the past and Matsumoto Rangiku wasn't trying to remember it too often. They had both buried it a long time ago and she couldn't allow him now to unveil it again.

Still she couldn't stop him.

His voice was fainter when his lips parted again.

"Wish I had lis'ned fer once."

Gulping down the rising lump, Rangiku watched as Gin's face turned slightly towards her, eyes barely open as he seemed to gaze right through her at something invisible behind her.

No. At someone.

Another presence had materialized out of the nowhere, but the aura of her Captain had changed, the malice and fierce hatred gone. Instead it was the warm securing reiatsu she had come to rely on that wrapped around the pair. He posed no threat for the couple.

The splashing sound of liquid falling into a puddle resounded within Matsumoto's mind with such clarity that it almost hurt her physically. Drip, drop, drip, drop. Mockingbirds everywhere.

Despite Hitsugaya's presence, the strawberry blond woman drew closer still until she was in arm's reach of the only man she had never been able to forget. Had never been able to read.

Ha never been able to keep by her side.

Gin watched her through thin slits, the blue of his eyes –blue like the clear, icy liquid in a mountain's brook- barely visible. But nonetheless so intense, that she couldn't keep her hand from lifting towards his face.

He had changed so much over the years, but still his skin was the color of the moon and the boyishness was still edged into his cheeks and wrinkled, thoughtful brows. Always thinking; contemplating things nobody had ever found worthy to cry over.

Smoothness greeted the tips of her fingers as her thumb ran across his chin towards his lips, smearing the blood that was trickling out of the corner of his mouth in their wake.

"I hate you so much." Her voice caught at the end of the sentence, eyes suddenly brimming with so much sorrow and despair.

The noise of a sword clattering to the ground interrupted the silence that had followed and with his good arm, Gin reached up, his long blood smeared fingers touching the side of Matsumoto's face softly.

"I know… " The rueful smile that appeared on his lips then -right underneath the tips of Rangiku's fingers- almost breaking her into uncountable pieces of unbearable pain. "I love you, too."

Her right leg took the last step towards him, feet bumping. And then her face was buried in his shoulder as the tears fell against her will, soaking into the already stained material of his coat. An arm sneaked around her back, shaking from the pure strain of merely lifting against the blank fatigue and drew her form even closer towards his chest.

Blinding pain in her chest.

Not from the physical wounds.

"Idiot… reckless idiot… why did you… why…"

Gin didn't answer. He never did.

But he never had to anyway.

Instead, Rangiku felt his right hand wander underneath her chin, index finger and thumb caressing the skin so softly that she felt goose bumps rise at the nape of her neck. So very slowly, he made her look up at him.

His soft smile a blurry illusion in her brimming eyes.

"Such'a beautiful woman. Ye're always shinin' so brightly, Ran." His brows knotted into another deep frown. "Like a star…"

His lips were just as soft as she remembered them, the tenderness in his kiss so uniquely him. He had always been like the wind, playing with her, toying with her. Lifting her up towards the clear sky; bringing her down painfully. Caressing her skin like a breeze; tearing apart her heart like a storm.

"Don't drink too much, Ran. Ye're too strong fer that." He whispered against her lips, making her shiver for reasons she had tried to deny since he had disappeared in Hueco Mundo.

The spiritual pressure of another two strong shinigami appeared, but Matsumoto paid them no heed.

Too much hadn't been said, but there were no words on her tongue.

Just the taste of persimmons and iron lingering freshly on her mind.

His body suddenly sagged forwards into her arms and together the couple sank to their knees, hakama soaking with the crimson liquid. His breathing was ragged as he embraced her once again in his slender, strong arms and she felt again secure. Safe from the darkness of the world.

"Wish I could stay like this forever." The tears wouldn't stop falling, the horrible sound of memories echoing so loudly in her mind, that she could barely hear his fading voice anymore.

"Gonna go ahead… Ran."

Matsumoto had forgotten how heavy his body was.

As Ichimaru Gin's last breath passed by her ear, Rangiku felt the world around her razed to ashes, black hollow nothingness spreading out in her chest and guts, filling her mind with coldness. She was alone, buried underneath the rubble of shattered dreams.

Shifting slowly, Matsumoto maneuvered Gin's heavy form around until he was lying on her knees.

Her blood smeared hand travelled across his still features, droplets of salty tears splashing onto his still warm skin as she cried silently. Hair as silver as the reflection of the moon on the surface of water.

"Wait for me."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

FINIS!

Ha~… Now that it's done, I feel like killing Kubo-sensei if he ever dares and kills Gin. But there is probably no escape of the inevitable T.T

"LIVE GIIIII~N", I wanna scream, "TELL AIZEN TO GO TO HELL; MAKE TOSEN TRIP OVER YOUR LEG AND KISS HEEE~R FINALLY!!!!"

But I never scream… I'm the glaring type -.-