The truth behind the smile

Disclaimer: I own nothing!!

50 years after the execution

Tenth of September, the day his captain was born. Kira lay in bed honestly wondering if anyone would miss him if he just didn't turn-up to work today. After all, Captain Ichimaru used to disappear all the time. Kira had always managed to keep thing going, had never panicked. Well he did the first few times and his Vice-captain would be banging on his door demanding to know what was wrong if Kira just stayed in bed. His Vice-captain knew him to be a captain who never missed work, even when he was sick. Kira sighed, there was no helping it. He was simply too dutiful a captain to indulge himself. But... getting up he opened his closet and from deep within it's hidden recesses he brought out the book. The scrap book that Matsumoto Rangiku had put together for her children. He sat down on the bed and stared at the picture of his captain that was on the cover. His captain, dressed in his haori, sitting and posing obediently for the woman he loved. Smiling his smirk, hiding his vivid blue eyes. As he had said to Inoue Orihime all those years ago, he would not open the book because it was not his to open. But he often brought it out to gaze at the picture on the cover. "Why can't I forget you, Captain?" he asked out loud, "Why do I still miss you?"

Alas! The picture was just a picture and it could not answer his question. Sighing he set aside the book and started to get ready for work. Perhaps he would indulge himself a little and work from the office that adjoined his private quarters and not the main office that he shared with his Vice-captain.

Hours later Kira found himself sitting at this desk quietly working through his mountain of paperwork when the window behind him was thrown open, "Hide me!" cried little Shunsui, as he climbed in, trembling from head to toe, "Rukia-chan and Yachiru-chan are after me. They want to dress me up like a bunny rabbit and take pictures!"

Blinking Kira got up and opened the door to his adjoining private quarters, "You can hide in my room," he said.

"Thanks!" said the boy before rushing in and shutting the door firmly behind him.

No sooner was he inside that Yachiru throw open the door to his office and walked-in, "Izurun!" she called cheerfully, "Have you seen Shunsui? I thought I saw him heading towards squad three."

Before Kira could answer Rukia walked in carrying little Rangiku dressed in a frilly dress with an equally frilly hat, "I am Mary!" Rangiku informed Kira, smiling happily.

"We found a book of nursery rhymes from the living world and Rangiku really like the one about Mary and her little lamb," Rukia explained, "So we thought we would dress Rangiku up as Mary and Shunsui up as the rabbit and take pictures!"

"Ah, don't you mean lamb?" asked Kira.

"No because rabbits are so much cuter then lambs," said Rukia smiling brightly, as Yachiru nodded in agreement.

"Well he's not here," said Kira, "As you can see."

"Well send him to us if you see him," said Yachiru as they left, "That boy really is getting good as masking his reitsu," she commented as they started walking away.

"It's all the games of hide and seek he plays with Shiro-chan," Rangiku told them, "He's always playing hide and seek or shunpo tag with, Shiro-chan. It's so unfair! He hogs all the attention from Shiro-chan."

"Well you hog all the attention from Captain Hisagi," Rukia pointed out, "So it balances out."

"But Shuhei-chan is my one true love!" protested Rangiku, "It's hardly the same thing."

"Don't say that in front of Shun-shun or Hisagi-chan will be in loads of trouble," Kira heard Yachiru saying before the three of them went out of his ear shot.

Smiling to himself, Kira opened the door to the adjoining room and said to Shunsui, "You can come out now, they are..." the words died in his throat as he spied the boy standing in the middle of the room holding the scrap book, the scrap book that had a picture of Ichimaru Gin on the cover. How could he have forgotten to put it away!

"So I do look like him," said Shunsui.

Kira started as comprehension hit him, "You know!" he cried, "How?"

"Figured it out," said Shunsui cheerfully, "I mean look at me," he said tugging his silver, silver hair, "I don't look like dad and I don't look like mom. So I must have been adopted. But if I was, who is my father? Why doesn't anyone talk about how me and Rangiku are adopted? Not like it would change anything. My dad would still be by dad, you know," he stated.

"Which must mean they don't want us to know about our father. If so, why? Figured he wasn't someone people liked talking about or maybe that mommy had never told them who he was before she died. But from time to time Yachiru-chan compares me to someone she calls Foxy. She doesn't do it on purpose and hates herself for it once she realizes. So I figured this Foxy was my father. Then we found Gin the Fox and Ichimaru the Snake and you told me Ichimaru Gin and mom were friends. Nanao-san looked like she had seen a ghost when she saw those dolls. The dolls were silver, and one of them was a fox. Plus you said that some people thought Ichimaru Gin was a very clever Kitsune. So I figured that Ichimaru Gin was called Gin cause he had silver hair just like me and Yachiru-chan used to call him Foxy. After that it was pretty obvious," declared the boy.

"Explained why you can't look at me without getting all sad, why Hinamori looks like she wants to hit me with Tabiume every time she sees me. Then there are all the puzzles he left for us, why there are no pictures of him anywhere and him being our father explained better the one time those shinigami from squad five tried to hurt Rangiku," he said, "So you know, it all fit into place," he said with a bright proud smile. Happy that he was able to figure out the puzzle by himself.

"You are clever," whispered Kira, "Just like your father."

Shunsui smiled a warm gentle smile, the kind his mother used to give to her friends, "So what's this?" he asked holding up the book.

"It's a scrap book your mother made for you and Rangiku," explained Kira, "I never opened it but in the note she left me with it, she said that it had little bits of things from the life they shared."

"Oh!" exclaimed Shunsui, "Cool," he said as he jumped onto Kira's bed. Sitting down he patted the spot next to him, "Let's open it together!"

Kira sat down beside him, "Today was his birthday, you know," he whispered.

"Really?" cried Shunsui, "So mommy and him were born on the same month!"

"Not quite," said Kira, "Matsumoto-san couldn't remember the date of her birth. So the captain, the captain made the date they met into her birthday."

Shunsui gasped, "I didn't know that!" He opened the book, on the first page was a picture of Gin holding Rangiku tightly around the waist, as he rested his chin on her shoulder. Kira blinked and ran a slow finger along the length of the caption that went with the picture, in was written in the neat hand of his captain and read simply: I did love her.

Kira felt a soft hand on his cheek, he turned his head slightly to catch a glimpse Shunsui's concerned face, "He must have been something," said Shunsui, "To still make you cry," it was then that Kira realized his cheeks were wet with tears, "Tell me about him," urged the little boy.

"I will," said Kira, "But I warn you, it's a very sad story. Just the kind, the captain hated."

Author's note: Finished! Done! Complete! I know this is probably not the ending most people envisioned but I hope you like it still. Now does little Shunsui tell little Rangiku what he found out? Does he take the scrap book with him or leave it with Kira and come look at it in squad three? Does Nanao end up getting in trouble with the kids for her actions fifty years ago? I wanted to leave those things ambiguous. I thought about writing to make these questions clear but there is such a thing as too much detail.

I hope you guys like this, which at the moment is my second longest fanfiction ever both in word count and chapter count. This turned out longer then I expected it to. I honestly didn't think I had this much to say on Gin and Rangiku. But now I think I have made mountains of the every molehill out there. Nothing left to do but hope KT gives us more.