valmora | [Bleach] Colors and Contrast (10, 3/10b)

Title: Colors and Contrast
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Bleach. It's been a while.
Pairing: Hitsugaya Toushirou, Ichimaru Gin/Matsumoto Rangiku
Disclaimer: Characters not mine.
Notes: Inspired by this image by Kine, BUT BEFORE YOU CLICK, please note that the person in the window is actually Kira Izuru. I just reinterpreted the image's vibes and, wow, used a picture with homoerotic overtones to write het. End of the world is nigh. (Maybe it's because I don't ship 3/3b?)

It's cold, too cold for anyone to really be wandering around Seireitei now, and Hitsugaya shivers, wrapping his arms closer around himself in his coat. He may wield Hyourinmaru, master of ice, but for all that, he's still vulnerable to the winter chill that is pricking at his nose and the tips of his fingers, tiny barbs of sensation. It's late, too, and he's just on the edge of tiredness, that sweet edge where everything is a little sharper before it blurs into confusion and color in a way that only sleep can fix. The adrenaline from speaking to and practicing combat with Hyourinmaru is beginning to wear off.

Someone, he notices, passing by the quarters in question, in Tenth Division has left a lamp lit and forgotten to draw the blind. The shadows visible through the window have color and shape, a faint glimmer of distortion from distance, but the occupant is still clearly Matsumoto, her smile bright as she stares at the wall, perhaps at some memory from the day or her past. She is wearing bed-clothing, the forest-green cloth gilded in the light, spilling open at her throat, insufficient covering for her breasts - but what clothing could fail to draw attention to that? - tied shut at the waist. It is not so scandalous for her to have left the light on, though perhaps, Toushirou thinks, he should try to tell her to close the blind in an attempt to salvage her virtue from any gossips or lechers who might pass by. He somehow doubts he would convince her; she would probably ignore him in the doorway and instead exclaim over the falling snow and its beauty and demand he come and stay an hour or so to watch with her, and he would fall asleep on her couch and wake up there, stiff and uncomfortable, early in the morning. And while he does enjoy Matsumoto's company, he does not like to disgrace himself in front of her by looking like a little boy who's missed his bedtime. He's a captain and should maintain that image - but it's also his job to look after her, and right now that means telling her to close her blinds.

Toushirou takes a couple of steps towards her door, intending to knock on it to get her attention and, when she will open it, to tell her to draw the blinds - but another figure enters the little tableau, salt-and-ash against her gold-and-green, folds her up in his arms and draws hands through her hair, and Toushirou halts, staring. Tastes melting snow on his tongue, his jaw dropped, and Ichimaru Gin smiles at Toushirou through the window as though he can see through the glass, past the light and into the darkness.