A/N: Hello all! My name is Princess Kitty1 and this is my second GinRan one-shot, because this pairing is mind-numbingly irresistible. Inspiration for this fic came from a day spent at the fair – actually, not even a day. I stared at the ferris wheel for a grand total of two seconds before my brain violently drop-kicked me with this idea. Unfortunately, like my first GinRan one-shot, this story is rather long.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, the song "Do Ya" by Michelle Tumes, or any other copyrighted material mentioned in this story!

Do Ya

By: Princess Kitty1

"Do you like the way I go all shy

and I just can't look you in the eye?

I'd like to think so.

Will you stay here for a while

so I can watch you when you smile?

I'd like to think so."

Rangiku Matsumoto tapped her sandal-clad foot impatiently, every other thwack of cheap white plastic against ugly tiled floor lining up with the ticking of the clock hanging above the chalkboard. Her ice blue eyes had been chasing the second hand around the ring of numbers for the last five minutes, though they should have been recording the words that her balding economics teacher was writing. He struck the dusty green surface of the board with the chalk so hard that it made her wince, and then she would lose her counting rhythm and have to catch up with the clock again.

How could a thin little stick, she wondered, be charged with a task as monumentally important as allowing time to pass? She imagined Chronos in a crisp business suit, sighing as he waited for the tragically slow revolving door – which stood between him and a board meeting with the other deities – to let him through.

Her manicured nails dug into the flesh of her forearm, her teeth worried at her bottom lip, and her flip-flop smacked the ground at a more frenzied pace. One minute, just one more minute! The longest hand on the clock trembled in the white space between the glorious twelve and a mark slightly bigger than a period. One more minute until the weekend, one less minute between her and the night that she had been looking forward to since it had been planned three days ago during her lunch period.

The bell rang shrilly overhead. Rangiku was packed and out of the classroom before her teacher had finished giving out instructions for the homework assignment. What the hell did homework matter at this point, anyway? She was a senior! Her school ID card boasted a number twelve more beautiful than the one on the clock! With three weeks left until she walked across a stage and received her diploma (she had been practicing her graduation smile since spring break), and a framed acceptance letter to UCLA hanging on her bedroom wall, she wasn't worried about grades in the slightest.

No, she had more pressing concerns to address that evening. "Rangiku!" Momo Hinamori, one of her closest friends, was shoving textbooks into a cramped locker a few feet away. "Are you going to the fair tonight?"

"Girl, are you kidding? I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Rangiku replied without breaking her stride, her strawberry blond hair whipping over her shoulder as she turned her head. "I'll call you later!" She tried not to look too eager as she all but jogged towards the doors that led out to the student parking lot. Pressing her lips together in an effort to contain her smile, she dodged small cliques, flirting couples, and a pack of cheerleaders dressed in their sweats – Fridays were spirit days after all. The exit loomed just up ahead! Once close enough, she grabbed hold of the metal bar and pushed down, throwing her weight against the door, bursting into the sunny California afternoon and…

There he was.

Sitting in the bed of his beat up old truck, Gin Ichimaru was already surrounded by a pack of guys, all laughing at some joke that he had undoubtedly fished from the reservoir of his mind. His short silver hair had been tousled by the breeze that had swept in from the Pacific Ocean, which lay a couple of hours to their west. Combined with his ever-present smile, it gave him a boyish appearance that didn't really fit his gangly body.

Rangiku, however, did not mind in the slightest. She'd had her sights set on Gin since the tenth grade, six years after he and his family had blown into their plantation town and turned her world on its head. Closing her eyes, she remembered fondly his first day of school; everyone had snickered at him because he couldn't pronounce 'wash' without sticking an r in it. When the teacher had asked the class to break up into groups to work together on an assignment, Gin had walked right up to her and flashed the grin that she'd come to know and love.

"Can I work with you?"

"Why me?"

"You're the only girl in this class with boobs."

Ah, yes. Rangiku had been an early developer, and the new boy had not failed to notice. Needless to say, she hadn't liked him very much in the beginning, but he had an irresistible charm that made it impossible for anyone to hate him. He cracked jokes, he smooth-talked his way out of trouble, and somehow managed to convince his friends into joining him for whatever crazy stunt he was thinking of pulling. Even their teachers, who had a hard time dealing with his limitless energy and constant pranks, thought of the boy fondly.

But the best thing about Gin, Rangiku thought, was that no matter how popular his antics made him, no matter how many different groups of people they drifted through in the last eight years, he always considered her to be his first and best friend. They had spent countless afternoons hanging out at each other's houses, were guaranteed to go to homecoming together if neither of them had a boyfriend or girlfriend to hang off of, and whenever he was suspected of putting glue on the teacher's chair, she was sure to be hiding said glue in her backpack.

People had suspected them of being an item for as long as Rangiku could remember, and they were both sure to deny it, even as they sat next to each other at lunch every day, swapping and stealing food regularly. She couldn't count how many times Gin's girlfriends had accused her of making a move on him, to which she would laugh in their faces, accidentally spitting chewed bits of pizza on them. "Gin and I?" she barked, and their other friends would join in the laughter as well, "Not in a million years!"

Little did they know that her million years had ended as a sophomore, when she'd turned to ask Gin a question about the episode of Survivor that she'd missed and saw him in a new light. Well, the sun had been shining on him through the classroom window, so she was seeing him in some light, but the way that he'd smiled at her that fateful afternoon had sent her heart skipping.

Rangiku walked casually towards her car, a silver BMW convertible that her parents had bought her for her sixteenth birthday, making sure that her back was straight, her chin angled upwards, her fingers resting lightly on the strap of her backpack. She was poised, confident, pretty – at least, that's what her admirers told her. Her car was always parked next to Gin's ancient truck whenever she bothered to drive it to school – oftentimes, he was the one who picked her up in the morning and brought her home in the afternoon. The other guys hated him for it, but he merely laughed it off, not quite understanding why he was the target of their envy. Even now, she heard the pack of males quieting down as she approached, their expressions reminding her of the vacant stares of the colorful fish her parents kept in the living room.

"Hey Ran," Gin rested his arm on the side of the truck bed, leaning out to the side as if it were a window, "I'm pickin' you up for the fair, right?"

Rangiku barely turned her head, giving him what she hoped was a coy smirk through a curtain of blond hair. "I'd be a little put out if you didn't."

Gin grinned from ear to ear. "Don't you worry your beautiful self, then, I'll be there at six sharp." He waved his hand flippantly. "You just focus on paintin' your toenails, or whatever it is you girls do that takes you 'til God knows when."

"Gin!" she swatted at his arm, "I do not take that long to get ready."

"Oh, you don't? What about prom night?"

"That was a special occasion."

"The movies last weekend?"

"I told you I was washing my hair."

"Yesterday morning?"

"I overslept!"

Gin turned to the guys and jabbed a thumb in her direction as if she weren't there. "She's cute when she oversleeps. Comes runnin' out of the house, one shoe on, Poptart in 'er mouth, tryin' to put on her mascara and hop down the driveway at the same time."

Rangiku rolled her eyes and dug into her purse for her keys. Okay, so what if she did take a little long to get ready? The idiot should have realized that she only did all of that for his sake. If her friend Shuuhei was coming over, she'd greet him at the door in sweats with crust in her eyes. Not that Gin hadn't seen her like that before… "Whatever. I'll be ready by six, on the dot. If I'm not, I'll buy you funnel cake."

Gin's narrow blue eyes widened in excitement. "Two of 'em?"

"However many you want," Rangiku pulled open her car door and lifted her hand to wave at the guys. "See you all tonight."

"Bye Rangiku," some of them murmured, stupefied by the ease with which she and Gin conversed. Slipping into the driver's seat, she closed the door behind her and started up the car, hoping that her hair would hide the huge smile on her face.

She would see him tonight; a few hours from now, in fact. And after two and a half school years of pretending she wasn't sad to see him with his arm around other girls, of having to act normal for the sake of their friendship, she was going to take one bold step across a hopelessly fine line: She was finally going to tell him how she felt.

…

Rangiku had tried her hardest to fight the feelings that had stirred on that fateful afternoon. She'd dug up all the blackmail pictures she had ever taken of Gin: the one of him dressed as a Lolita girl for Halloween in ninth grade; the one taken after he'd gotten his wisdom teeth removed and his entire face had swollen up like a balloon; the one taken when they'd persuaded him to go bungee jumping in seventh grade and he'd cried because he was afraid of heights (a fear that he had since conquered). She had gone on double dates with him and his girlfriends, which eventually turned into failed attempts to make him jealous. Hell, she'd even visited some phony psychic named Don Kanonji and bought from him an anti-love spell that had done nothing but give her a bad case of indigestion.

Unfortunately, nothing worked. Gin's indestructible charm cut through her defenses like a diamond sword, invading her thoughts and dreams with visions of things that would never come to pass. It had gotten so bad that when she'd seen him snuggling with one of his girlfriends after school one day, she'd driven home and sat in her car, forehead-to-steering wheel for ten minutes until she had stopped crying.

The fact that her parents disapproved of her friendship with Gin didn't make things any better. "He's a bad influence," her mother would say with a frown, "completely unrestrained, a delinquent. Does he have any plans for the future? Is he even going to college?"

Of course she would say that. Gin was born and raised in a small Mississippi town, where he'd spent his weekends swinging from ropes and diving naked into dirty lakes. Rangiku came from a house where the napkins were made of cloth, pets were decorations and she was expected to wear pearls to dinner. She'd thought that the stiff atmosphere would keep Gin away, but he regularly barged in and made himself right at home, propping his socked feet up on the glass coffee table and pretending he didn't notice the way Rangiku's mother glared at him down her nose. One of the many things Rangiku loved about him.

By the time six o'clock came around, her mother was standing in the doorway of her room, halfway through one of her famous rants. "…riding around in that death trap of a vehicle. Has he checked his brakes lately? You know that there are a lot of hills on the way to the fair, and if one little thing were to go wrong you're two seconds from a fatality. I'd feel much more comfortable if you took your own car, but of course, you're an adolescent and simply cannot be reasoned with."

"Nope," Rangiku replied as she attempted to apply mascara without keeping her mouth open. "Might as well try to stop a speeding train."

Her mother scowled. "I want you home by eleven, Rangiku. Just because you got into our alma mater doesn't mean that I'll be as lax as I was last the time you tip-toed in here at three in the morning, reeking of alcohol." A loud horn blared outside and the older woman jumped. "Gracious! Would you tell that animal to cut it out? This neighborhood has a noise policy!"

"Yeah, sure, noise. Whatever." Rangiku grabbed her purse off of her desk chair and jogged to her bedroom door, kissing her mother on the cheek and switching off the lights. "See ya later!"

"Eleven o'clock, Rangiku, or I'll call the police! Don't think I won't!"

Taking the stairs two at a time, she stopped at the mirror hanging from the wall by the front door to check her reflection. She wore a breezy, floral-print summer dress, her trusty flip-flops, a simple necklace and a pair of silver hoop earrings. It wasn't much, but she'd wanted to keep things to a minimum; no plain old jeans, but no fluffy gowns either. Breathing in deeply, she steeled her resolve. This was it. This was the night that would change her life, for better or worse. Turning and grabbing the brass knob, she pulled the door open and stepped out into the sunset.

Gin's truck sat in the driveway, the cab windows rolled down as his air conditioning unit had stopped working a month ago. He stuck his head out to yell at her. "You're two minutes late, Ran!"

"Piss off! I was ready at six, before you honked the horn and scared the crap out of Mom," Rangiku answered, running around the front of the truck as he leaned over to unlock the passenger door for her.

"Ah, is yer old lady still high strung? Poor darlin'. A glass of wine'll patch that right up, I hear."

"Ha! If that were true, with all the drinking she does, she'd be looser than a stoner." Rangiku climbed in beside him, her purse dropping between them with a plunk. "She said she'll call the police if I'm not home by eleven."

"Sounds serious. Good thing I'm hell-bent on being punctual, huh?" As Gin backed out of the driveway, careful not to ram into the family SUV parked by the mailbox, Rangiku stole a shy glance at him. He was dressed in a black shirt that would have been more form-fitting had he not been so skinny, a pair of jeans with ends frayed from being stepped on too many times, a denim jacket and his favorite sneakers, which were practically coming apart in the back. Always dressing comfortably, she noted. He probably would have worn the same thing to prom had she not harassed him into getting a tux. "By the way, Ran, do you remember where the fair is?"

She glared at him. "You mean you don't know?"

"Nobody told me!"

"It's in the strip mall parking lot! You can see it from school!"

Gin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Is that what that was?" he murmured, coming to a stop at the end of the street.

Rangiku rolled her eyes and clicked his stereo on. It was probably the newest thing about the truck, second only to the speakers. She'd been there the day that he had installed it, and had subsequently been asked to test it, putting in every CD she owned to reassure Gin that it worked, as he'd bought it at a discount and had been paranoid about quality. "What are you in the mood to listen to?"

"Uh… you flip, I'll tell ya." Gin said as he turned onto the main road, leaving behind Rangiku's upper middle class subdivision. Pressing the number one, they both cringed as Party in the USA came on. "Next!" Gin cried. A heavy metal song blared through the speakers, and they both shook their heads 'no' in agreement. Next came a rap song, followed by some sort of weird chant, and then a country song that Rangiku left it on to soothe her ears.

All the while, she felt her nerves beginning to bundle in her stomach. Sure, she had decided on making today the day of her big confession – there were only a few weeks left of school, then the long summer ahead before they parted ways for college, so it was now or never – but she hadn't really planned a specific time or place that she would tell him. Furthermore, their friends were going to be there. She had to get him alone.

Aren't we alone now? her brain rationalized. Rangiku felt all the heat in her body rise up to her face. They were, weren't they! The moment had come sooner than she thought!

Gin glanced over at her. "You're awfully quite, Ran. That ain't like ya."

Her entire body tensed as if she were preparing for a head-on collision. "Umm, yeah, about that…"

"Hmm?"

"I've been thinking a lot lately, and – red light!" she screamed, and Gin floored his brakes, causing the tires to squeal and both of them to lurch forward. Rangiku flew back and hit her seat rather hard, pain shooting up her spine. "Would you keep your eyes on the freaking road?" she snapped at him, grabbing her purse and whacking his arm with it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Gin cried, inching forward slowly when the light turned green a few seconds later. "Geez, what do you keep in that thing?"

"A paperweight," Rangiku grumbled in response, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring out the window at the passing fields.

Gin smiled in an effort to appease her. "You were sayin'?"

"Oh," Rangiku's annoyance left as quickly as it had come, and she fumbled with the hem of her skirt nervously. Maybe now wasn't the best time in the world to tell him. After all, if she was rejected, enjoying the fair would be the farthest thing from her mind, and the awkward air between them would rob him of his peace as well. "I-I've been thinking a lot lately, and… I'm really going to miss you when I go off to UCLA in the fall."

Gin had applied to UCLA as well, and since she had been grounded the day that the acceptance e-mails arrived (she had broken her curfew for the umpteenth time), the two of them had shared the moment over the phone. Rangiku had gone into celebration mode before she'd noticed Gin's silence on the other end, and when she'd asked him what was wrong, he had announced that he hadn't gotten in. But he'd quickly reassured her, saying that he'd been accepted into a school in Washington State and that broadening his horizons would be beneficial to him.

"But it's two whole days away from here," Rangiku had muttered into the phone.

"I know."

Her thoughts were cut short by a loud wail. They had come to another stop sign, and Gin was currently leaning on the steering wheel, his shoulders shaking with every exaggerated sob that he let out. Rangiku growled and hit him with her purse again. "Cut it out! I'm serious!"

Gin lifted his head, his fake sobs morphing into laughter. "I am too!" He put his turn signal on and checked the roads. "I thought we agreed that we would save all the melodramatic stuff for September. No need to get all worked up about it now. We're supposed to be havin' fun, remember? Pretendin' that college doesn't exist and that we'll be kids forever?"

Rangiku sank lower into her seat. "We haven't been kids for a while, Gin."

"Then why are ya poutin' like one?" He reached out to ruffle her hair and she shoved his hand away, pulling down the visor mirror to fix the mess he'd made. "Look! We're already here."

…

The fair was honestly nothing special. Once a year a traveling troop of amusement settled in the strip mall parking lot with a number of relatively unimpressive rides and all the rip-off carnival games that one could ever hope to endure. But the local high school kids used it as an excuse to goof off, take ridiculous pictures for their facebook profiles, attract a mate, and then make out with them at the darkest corner of the parking lot, as if a lighted ferris wheel were the most romantic backdrop in the world. Rangiku would have skipped it altogether had she not realized that it would be the perfect time to confess to Gin.

And besides, it was a hell of a lot cheaper than the movie theater.

Gin found an open space next to Shuuhei's car, where the others were waiting: Shuuhei Hisagi himself, the editor of the school newspaper; Kira Izuru, Gin's anxious and straight-laced best friend; Momo, who was practically a sister to Rangiku; Toshiro Hitsugaya, the valedictorian, who was rumored to have skipped a grade or two; Renji Abarai, the future cop; and Rukia Kuchiki, the artist whose "abstract" paintings were selling for thousands to ridiculously wealthy clients.

When compared to their overachieving friends, Gin and Rangiku had given themselves the nicknames "Bum" and "Bummer", as they weren't particularly smart, particularly talented, or particularly motivated. Rangiku's father joked that it was a miracle she'd even gotten into college, considering that in place of a brain her skull was filled with hair spray. And as for Gin, well, no one was sure what Gin did in his spare time.

"Took you two long enough!" Renji yelled as they both got out of the truck, the doors creaking in complaint at being moved, then slamming shut with an unhealthy bang.

"Ran's fault," Gin said immediately, and dodged her hand as she attempted to smack him again.

"So do we have a plan of action to get through everything before the fair closes, or are we just going to split up and run amok as usual?" Kira asked, already looking tired.

"We should try to do at least one thing together," Momo threw in, clasping Toshiro's hand, "like the ferris wheel!"

Renji nudged her. "I hear they have a tunnel of love this year, complete with swan boats and everything." He grinned as her and Toshiro's faces went completely red.

"We don't have an even number of guys and girls," Rangiku observed, "unless we count Kira as one of the gals."

"Hey!"

"Here's an idea!" Shuuhei said suddenly, catching everyone's attention. "Let's just… go." He waved his hands in shooing motions towards the fair's entrance. "We can figure it out later, as long as I can get a decent story for the school paper. Move it!"

Momo and Rukia hung back to wait for Rangiku, bouncing up and down with excitement. Once she had caught up to them, they bent their heads towards her and lowered their voices. "Alright, so are you going to do this or what?" Rukia asked, her cheeks flushed with determination to get things going. Earlier on the phone, Rangiku had told them of her plans, in case she needed someone to keep the guys distracted while she had Gin all to herself.

"You bet. No more chickening out!" Rangiku whispered, watching Gin's back as he ambled onwards, his hands clasped behind his head. "Man, I'm so freaking nervous. I had to skip dinner for fear of puking my guts out."

"It'll be fine," Momo reassured her. "I mean, I was really nervous when I told Shiro how I felt about him, but it was such a relief afterwards!"

"Yeah, because he returned your feelings," Rukia elbowed her in the ribs, causing her to squeal loudly. Renji and Toshiro looked back at them, but they quickly motioned for them to go on. "Look Rangiku, even if this does turn out to be a huge catastrophe, at least you'll still have him as your friend. Gin doesn't seem the type to get all weird just because someone confesses to him."

Now it was Momo's turn to elbow her. "You're not making things any better!" she cried.

Rangiku smiled. "Thanks guys. I'm glad I can count on the two of you to keep everyone else the hell away from us."She patted the shorter girls on the head and ushered them forward.

Admission to the fair was free; probably to make up for the outrageous prices inside. There were no games cheaper than five dollars, and tickets to the rides cost a fortune on their own. Luckily, they offered an unlimited access wristband for fifteen dollars, which was what Rangiku bought, hoping that whatever ride she ended up on with Gin, the humiliation would be worth the money.

Meanwhile, the object of her affection was already mapping out his night. "Rollercoaster first. Kira, you're comin' with me."

"No way! You know I hate those things, man."

"Exactly! You screamin' like a sissy makes it all the more enjoyable," Gin slung an arm around his shoulder. "Don't bail on me now. If I ride with Shuuhei, he'll probably be writin' the entire time. If I ride with Ran, her hair's gonna whip me in the eyes and I'll be blinded for life – ow, ow, oww!" he finished as Rangiku came up behind him and pinched the back of his neck. "You know I was just kiddin'!"

"Uh-huh. You chuckleheads do what you want. We're going to check out the food," she quipped, taking Momo and Rukia by the arm and dragging them along.

"Don't forget my funnel cake!" he called.

"Get your own damn funnel cake!" Rangiku yelled back.

Momo looked up at her questioningly as they went in the opposite direction of the boys. "Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I thought the objective was to get as close to him as possible."

"I need an excuse first," Rangiku answered with a glare in the direction of the food cart, which was being manned by two college girls in pirate get-ups – the first with two long, black ponytails and a patch over one eye; the other with short, spiked up blond hair and a patch over the other eye. The line was a good twenty-five people long, and if all of them were ordering funnel cakes – the fair was the only place in town to get them – Rangiku would be waiting the entire night.

She sighed, blowing out her bangs. The food was going to have to be put on hold. What now? Surveying the area, she spotted an atrocious looking funhouse out of which some younger high school kids were stumbling. "Change of plan, girls," she said to her two friends, "we'll do things the good old-fashioned way and have the men come after us. What do you think?"

Rukia, always one for fun, nodded in agreement. Momo on the other hand was a little more conservative, and needed convincing. "I don't know… Shiro worries when he doesn't see me, being that I'm so small and everything."

"Oh, relax!" Rangiku turned to face the roller coaster, where the guys were just climbing into their seats. Lifting both arms above her head, she waved frantically until Shuuhei noticed and nudged Renji in the ribs. Rangiku pointed towards the funhouse. "There, see? Now they'll know where we are when they get through with their adrenaline fest." She began marching off in the direction of the structure, which was little more than a trailer with a giant slab of cardboard over it painted to look like a mysterious castle.

The plan was simple: these sorts of things were bound to boast a hall of mirrors, in which she could stand and wait for Gin to come along. Then, once she had him alone, she would confess. Quick, easy, and the maze provided some excellent escape routes, though she'd have to scope them out before the guys arrived. With her determination fueling her, Rangiku walked past the funhouse attendant – a large, elderly man who looked to be about eighty, probably posted there to kick out rowdy teenagers against his will – and through the door.

The first room was completely black, with glow in the dark neon paint splattered everywhere, giving off the illusion that one was standing in the middle of a void. Rukia, enthralled by the room, began running about and making funny poses. "I'll stay here and wait for the others," she said to Rangiku and Momo, though both wondered how mission-minded she really was.

Next came a short hallway lined with image-warping mirrors. Rangiku stopped in front of these, checking out her bizarre reflections. In one, her boobs were so astronomically large that she couldn't see the rest of her body. In another, parts of her were blurred, as if a giant had left thumbprints on the glass. In the last one, she had become morbidly obese, which actually made her laugh. She looked back, finding Momo stuck in front of a mirror that made her appear taller and more voluptuous. "I take it you're staying here?" she asked.

Momo chewed her bottom lip. "It wouldn't hurt, I suppose."

Rangiku smiled knowingly and moved on, into the hall of mirrors. The maze itself was rather challenging; it took her a good ten minutes to navigate it completely, all of her escape routes designated. She walked them each twice, just to make sure, then came back into the center, where a circle of mirrors surrounded her with doppelgangers of herself, each one looking just as worried as the next. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath to steady her erratic heart.

It was going to be alright, she thought. This was just Gin. She'd known him for years. He knew her better than anyone. She'd slept beside him on more than one occasion, back when she hadn't had the feelings to appreciate the proximity. There was no reason to be afraid.

A warm breath tickled her collarbone. Rangiku's eyes flew open, staring into her reflection. It was no longer alone; a reflected Gin stood behind her, leaning in to whisper in her ear. "Boo."

"Are you trying to send me to my grave?" she asked, whirling around to face him.

Gin grinned. "If you're gonna complain, you shouldn't make yerself such an easy target," he told her, looking slightly rumpled from the rollercoaster ride. Then again, when did he not look rumpled? But that, too, was just part of his charm. "What were you doing, standin' off all by yer lonesome? Any random guy could've come up and squeezed yer unguarded ta-tas, y'know."

Rangiku crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously. "I was waiting for you," she confessed, then blushed and added, "all. You all. The guys, I mean. The food line was hella long, so we came here instead."

"Ah, well, I can wait. We'll find somethin' else to do in the mean time." Gin searched their surroundings for an exit. "Now how do ya suppose we get outta here?"

"I-I found the path a while ago, but before we do," Rangiku swallowed a gulp of air, "I wanted to, uh…" Her mind went blank the moment he gazed down at her, his handsome face the picture of youthful curiosity. "I-"

"GOTCHA!"

Gin cried out in surprise as he was pounced on by an angry Renji, who immediately put the squeeze on his neck. "This is revenge for the rollercoaster!" the redhead barked, grinding his fist into Gin's skull.

Rangiku backed away until she was pressed safely against one of the mirrors, watching the violent display. She turned her head and saw Rukia running down the corridor, appearing ready to apologize profusely for letting Renji get past her, with a pale and green looking Kira in tow. Her hands clenched into fists at her side. Damn it! She'd known that getting some privacy would be tricky, but she was so sure that the funhouse plan would work!

"What's going on?" she asked Kira, hoping to hide her disappointment.

"Well," the blond began, rubbing his temples, "it went like this: The rollercoaster got into its first climb. You know, the one that they make agonizingly slow to build up anticipation? Gin and I were sitting behind Renji and Shuuhei, who both seemed to be concentrating very hard on the climb. So what does Gin do? He gives me that look, shushes me, then leans forward and clamps both hands down on Renji's shoulders, screaming bloody murder. That, in turn, scares the piss out of Renji, bad enough to make him faint. His eyes rolled back in his head and everything. Gin laughed the entire way through the ride."

"It was hilarious!" Gin added as he wrestled Renji away from him.

"I'm sure it was," Rangiku muttered glumly. Her second chance at a confession had just been flushed down the toilet. She gave Rukia a reassuring smile before the shorter girl could launch into a fit of remorse. Nothing to be depressed about! The night was still young.

…

The fair rides formed the perimeter of the action, and safely enclosed by the laboring machines, booth after colorful booth of different games promised the same outcome: lost money. But even though Rangiku had told herself that she wouldn't be swayed by the stuffed animals surrounding a wall of balloons waiting to be popped – for five dollars every three darts – a stuffed wolf in a dignified pose caught her attention as she walked past the bottle-smashing booth. "Cute," she murmured, coming to a complete stop.

"Which one?" Momo asked, her eyes lighting up at the sight of a ridiculously fat walrus with beady eyes.

"The wolf," Rangiku turned to the booth's attendant, a bored looking teenager with slightly disheveled black hair and sharp green eyes. "How much?"

He didn't even bother to look behind him. "All three bottles."

Rangiku hesitated. Like most things in the fair, it cost five bucks for two baseballs to throw. "I don't know…" It wasn't like she didn't have money to spare, but she hated to see it wasted. And besides, the rest of the group was moving on, looking for where to go next.

The black-haired boy's eyes narrowed. "Are you afraid?" he asked, only to be whacked upside the head by a redheaded girl who had come from the back of the booth with an armful of prizes to hang up.

"Don't mind him," she said, breaking out into a sunny smile. "If you give it a try, I'll tell ya which set of bottles not to hit. But only one!" Great. That still left nine more sets to guess from. Putting the stuffed animals on their designated shelves, the girl took up two baseballs and offered them to Rangiku. "What do you say?"

The temptation was too great for her to resist. "Okay," she dug into her purse and withdrew a five-dollar bill, laying it out on the counter. The redhead handed her the baseballs and leaned in conspiratorially while her black-haired companion took the money.

"The sets in the middle are impossible to break," she whispered, "because they're the ones that everybody goes for, statistically."

"Ah, makes sense." The two of them shared a smile, then Rangiku jogged back to stand behind a strip of tape that had been set down to mark the throwing distance. Momo let out a whoop, and Toshiro, who had come to wait next to her, cheered enthusiastically.

"You can do it, Matsumoto!"

Rangiku tossed the ball into the air lightly and caught it, trying to decide which bottles to aim for. She eventually settled on the ones on either side of the center set. Clenching the first ball in her hand tightly, she wound back and threw it with all her might. It missed. "Aww man!" she stamped her foot as Momo, Toshiro, and the booth girl went on encouraging her, while the black-haired boy stared off into the distance, seeming rather indifferent to the merriment around him. Dropping the second ball into her right hand, she wound the pitch again, then let it fly. This time it hit the mark, but only one of the bottles cracked, the other two looking as if they could withstand a hurricane.

"Ooh," the girl clicked her tongue, "not quite wolf-worthy, but you do win a smaller prize of your choice," she grinned, "unless you want to keep trying for the bigger prize."

Oh, Rangiku knew a waste of money when she saw one. But the wolf was just hanging there, teasing her with its cuddliness. How could she walk away from it? She dug into her purse for another five, throwing it down on the counter. "One more," she said, to which the redhead cheered and went to fetch more baseballs.

Five minutes later, Shuuhei noticed that a piece of their group was missing and stopped walking. "Hey," he flagged the others down, "where did Rangiku and the shrimps go?"

When no one could come up with a decent answer, Gin lifted his hand. "I'll go find them!" he volunteered cheerfully. Dodging packs of running children – some in a euphoric state, others having just come off of the vomit-inducing rides and clutching their stomachs – he headed back in the direction they had ventured from. It didn't take him long to find the absent trio; all he had to do was follow the yelling.

"That's enough, Matsumoto! You're going to lose all of your money!" Toshiro cried. His hands were clamped on Rangiku's arm as he attempted to pull her away from the booth, and Momo was in front of her, ready to push her if the need arose.

"No way!" Rangiku's face was red with rage. "I've invested twenty dollars into this damn game! That wolf is mine, you hear me?"

The black-haired boy spoke, counting out the money that the booth had earned so far. "You can say that for certain once you have won it."

"Give me two more of those baseballs! I'll use one to break your freaking teeth!"

Momo saw Gin approaching and sighed with relief. "Oh, thank goodness you're here!" She abandoned the effort to contain her friend and jogged over to meet him. "Rangiku's hung up on this stuffed animal and keeps throwing her money away, the guy at the booth keeps antagonizing her, and you know how she gets when someone challenges her."

Gin blinked once, then held out his arm and gently pushed Momo to the side. "No worries! Leave this to me." He pushed up the sleeves of his denim jacket and strode over to the booth. Rangiku had calmed down enough to stop struggling, but she was still glaring daggers at the male attendant, whose attention was now focused on the silver-haired boy. "Two please!" he said as he fished his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans.

"Sure thing, my good sir!" The female attendant bent over to retrieve another pair of baseballs. Her partner wordlessly accepted the money from Gin, who took the projectiles from the girl and ambled back to where the other three stood.

"Did ya at least get any hints for this thing?" he asked Rangiku, who tossed her hair back huffily.

"She said that the middle sets are impossible to break."

"Ah," Gin tossed one of the baseballs into the air lightly, "see, that's how they get ya. It's not untrue, but when ya hear that, you get to thinkin' that the ones on either side of them will probably be the easiest to break, which is a wrong assumption. But even if you're smart enough to think that far ahead, you might still fall prey to the idea that the sets on the very ends will be the easiest to break, and that ain't true either. They're hard as steel." He grinned. "Going along with what ya know about the neighbors of the sets in the middle, you can then guess that the neighbors of the sets at the end are also impossible to break…"

"Which leaves two of the ten sets, and those are the breakable ones," Toshiro finished for him.

"Exactly." Gin aimed for the third set from the left and let the baseball fly. The bottles exploded, a shower of glass bursting from the epicenter of the impact. With a triumphant chuckle, he fired the second baseball at the third set from the right and those bottles also shattered.

The redhead at the booth cheered and clapped enthusiastically, not bothered in the slightest that someone had sorted out their trick. "Amazing! You're a smart guy!" she said as she fetched a pole with a curved end and used it to bring down the wolf plush from where it was hanging.

"Nah, I've got an uncle who worked at the fair back in Mississippi. He explained the game to me," Gin confessed, requesting the walrus for Momo's sake.

"Ha! Guess you've got us all figured out, then!"

He turned around and offered the stuffed animals to the girls. Momo squealed and immediately put hers on Toshiro's head. Rangiku, on the other hand, accepted hers with a timid smile. Her heart was beating faster than it needed to be, but he'd come to her rescue! "Thanks Gin." She buried her cheek into the wolf's fur, nuzzling it happily. Perhaps she would name it after him – they both had silver hair, blue eyes, and a heroic air about them.

"No problem, Ran. I know how much ya can't stand losin' money." Gin began leading her towards where the rest of the group was waiting.

"Enjoy the rest of your night!" the female attendant called after them, waving energetically.

"Thank you for your patronage," her green-eyed companion said flatly.

Rangiku noticed that Toshiro and Momo had walked on ahead of them – what luck! Momo had probably done so in order to give them some alone time. Looking up at Gin, who was whistling a spirited tune, she decided that now would be the perfect opportunity to get what she wanted to say out in the open. "Gin," she addressed him, laying a hand on his arm. Damn it, why did she feel so dizzy? She stopped walking and he paused a step in front of her to show that he was all ears, but when she opened her mouth, he held a finger to her lips.

"Hold that thought!" He looked at her seriously. "There's somethin' I wanted to tell ya. Not in front of the other two, though. It's kind of embarrassin'."

Rangiku's eyes widened. "Y-Yeah?" Whoa, wait a minute; was he going to confess to her?

Gin glanced over his shoulder once, then cleared his throat. "Your dress, Ran." She stared at him in confusion, and he continued sheepishly. "I think you might a' twisted the fabric when you were pullin' against Hitsugaya, 'cause there's a tear goin' down the side and yer bra's showin' plain as day."

Rangiku gasped, lifted her arm, spotted the offending tear and immediately clamped her hand over it. "Oh my God!" she hissed, surveying the crowd to make sure that nobody else had been staring at her. One of the nearby booth attendants, a seven-foot tall man with an eye patch and a wide grin, was leering in her direction. "What am I going to do?" she hopped from one foot to the other anxiously.

"Personally, I think there's nothin' wrong with showin' off that particular bra; it's got a nice color to it, but you might not agree." She glared at him icily. "Figured as much. Here," Gin removed his jacket and stepped behind her, draping it over her shoulders. He held the stuffed wolf for her as she slipped her arms into the long sleeves hurriedly. "You were lookin' a little cold, anyway."

"I can't believe it. This dress is new!" Rangiku groaned, taking the wolf back from him and holding it to her chest. More than that, she couldn't believe how utterly mortified she was. If he'd allowed her to go through with her confession with her bra sticking out like broken limb, she never would have lived it down.

Three failed attempts now, she thought as they joined up with the others. This should not have been so difficult.

…

With the sun having set on the west coast, the fair's population only grew as more families and groups of teenagers squeezed into the gates. This prompted Kira, in his nervousness, to insist that everyone stay together, which effectively killed any chance for Rangiku to be alone with Gin. She tried to remain optimistic about the situation, but when nine o'clock came around, the fair an hour from closing, she began to grow desperate. Her nerves were fried, her eyes got this wild look about them that made Renji keep his distance from her, and any moment now she was going to open her mouth and scream.

She was being silly, of course. There would be plenty of other opportunities to talk to Gin before graduation. Hell, she knew where he lived; what was to stop her from driving across town to his house and telling him there?

But she'd wanted it to be tonight. She wasn't very motivated, so when she did set her heart and mind on something, she wouldn't be able to rest until it got done. Thus, the reason for her current madness.

"What's left?" Renji asked when it seemed that they had covered every ride and all won their share of prizes; Rukia was carrying a plush rabbit, Renji had a stuffed baboon perched on his shoulder, Shuuhei had a plastic sword through his belt loop, Kira had a plush turtle tied to his head with a piece of string, Toshiro was carrying an army of stuffed animals for Momo, Gin wore an interestingly colored rubber wristwatch, and Rangiku had Gin the Second cradled in her arms. They looked around the fairgrounds, weighing their options.

The Tunnel of Love had been a total bust. Run by an enormous man named Charlotte, who was flamboyantly gay and proudly dressed in drag, couples had been thrown onto the wooden swans at random, Charlotte declaring that he got paid either way. This had led to Gin and Kira riding in the same boat, which was never good news for the unfortunate, turtle-wearing blond. Before disappearing into the tunnel, Gin had waved at the group still on shore, then he'd grabbed Kira and dipped him into a very passionate – and hopefully very fake – kiss. Rukia and Renji had eaten it up like candy, laughing and cheering on the 'happy couple.' Momo had nearly had a heart attack at the public display of affection, partially because she could hardly even hug Toshiro in public, and mostly because she'd been worried about Rangiku's feelings.

Rangiku, of course, knew better than to fall for Gin's antics. The idiot had probably done it 'in the spirit of the ride,' and had no doubt been trying to comfort Kira within the tunnel while thanking him for being a good sport. The poor boy had emerged from the tunnel a whimpering, shaking mess, while his swan-mate had stepped onto solid land and proudly declared that he'd made a man out of his best friend.

Shortly after that, a rainstorm had swept in that forced most of the fair-goers under what little cover was provided. It had taken a good twenty minutes for the storm to subside, and then the number of people in line for rides had doubled, most wanting to have their fun and leave in case the weather decided to take another turn for the worse. Meanwhile Rangiku had been fussing over her dress, hoping that it wouldn't rip open any further throughout the night.

"We haven't ridden the ferris wheel yet," Toshiro pointed it out – or tried to, with all the stuffed animals that he was holding.

"Sweet! Who's riding with who?" Shuuhei asked.

Gin immediately flashed Kira a wicked smile. "Oh no! There is no way in hell that I'm going to be stuck several feet above the ground with you on a wobbly car! No sir! I'm riding with Hisagi!" the blond cried, hiding behind Shuuhei, who looked like he didn't care one way or the other.

With a none-too-apologetic shrug, Gin turned to Rangiku. "Guess that means yer stuck with me."

"I'll be fine so long as you don't do anything stupid," she said bluntly, and he let out a whine that suggested that she'd just put a stop to some insidious plot. Glancing at the short line ahead of them – and ignoring Gin's pout – she noticed that the attendant, a pink-haired guy with glasses, was letting four people onto each car. She sighed. It appeared that there really would be no chance of isolating Gin from the pack.

"Hey," he pointed towards the snack stand, "I think the lines have calmed down a bit. Wanna get funnel cake after this?"

"Sure," Rangiku smiled at him, the promise of food making her stomach rumble. She really shouldn't have starved herself before coming. When she got home, regardless of the outcome of her confession, she was going to heat up whatever was left over from dinner and devour it in front of the TV in her bathrobe. A perfect end to a less than perfect night, she supposed.

In her distraction, she didn't notice the argument that Toshiro had gotten into with the ferris wheel's attendant, so when it was time for her and Gin to get on the next car, she was surprised to find it full of stuffed animals. The pink-haired guy shrugged. "Your friends said you'd watch them," he said, motioning for them to hurry up. "In you go."

Rangiku climbed on and carefully wedged herself between the walrus, two puppies and Spongebob Squarepants, unable to believe her good luck. She set Gin the Second down on her lap, while Gin the First sat across from her, trying not to upset a stack of bunnies and a bug-eyed unicorn. The pink-haired man closed the door, shutting out most of the noise from the fair, and then the car lurched as the wheel began to turn. "The nerve of those two, leavin' us with their luggage!" Gin smiled and stretched, leaving his arms up on top of the seat.

Rangiku was personally grateful for the stuffed animals, but oh, what she wouldn't give to be under his arm. "Yeah," she tucked her hair behind her ear, "but it's much better than being stuck with strangers, right? I don't think those preteens behind us would have made very good company."

"I agree," Gin said as the wheel stopped again, presumably to let more people on. "They probably woulda done somethin' evil like rock the cart or…"

"You're not rocking this cart, Gin."

"You're a bully!" he yelled, crossing his arms and pouting further.

Rangiku giggled and leaned forward on her elbows, petting the stuffed wolf. She was hoping that she'd come off as flirtatious, but the laugh had sounded abnormal to her, like that of a serial killer about to decimate a victim. "Whatever happened to that fear of heights of yours? You wouldn't have been so willing to upset this ride a few years ago." Remain calm. Act natural. Don't freak out; remember the mission and you'll be fine.

Gin tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm," he smiled. "You remember eighth grade, when they took us on that trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona?" Rangiku nodded once, a little too eagerly. "Know how we got to fly over the canyon in that small plane, and you sat next to me, holdin' my hand the entire time?" He shrugged. "Wasn't afraid of heights after that."

She blinked, her heart skipping a beat. "Really?"

"Really." The ferris wheel began to move again, taking them higher up into the sky, but this time it didn't stop; all the passengers must have been loaded. Rangiku drew Gin's jacket tighter around her body, fidgeting. Now was her chance! He'd practically invited her to confess! But suddenly she found that her mouth wouldn't move, like that of a child hesitating to call for their parents during a thunderstorm. Her heart was beating so hard that she thought the poor organ would simply give out, and while her body descended on the ferris wheel, her soul would ascend to the afterlife, kicking itself the entire way.

Why was it so hard for her to just say it? Back when she'd had crushes on other guys, she'd had no problems waltzing right up to them and asking them out on dates. This was stupid! She had always been able to tell Gin everything – her secrets, her fears, her dreams. She trusted him not to take her feelings lightly. She knew that he would never hurt her intentionally, and yet…

"Hey, check it out!" Gin pointed out of the small window. "Fireworks!"

Sure enough, the fair was holding a small fireworks display to welcome the oncoming summer. Reds, blues, greens and yellows burst across the sky, filling the small ferris wheel car with brilliant colors. When Rangiku didn't say anything, Gin turned to look at her, just in time for her face to be illuminated by one of the dazzling explosions. His smile faltered. "Ran? Are you cryin'?"

Rangiku sniffled, her bottom lip trembling. "Yes," she whispered, not even bothering to cover up her tears. She hadn't wanted to end up breaking down like this. But damn it all, she was so frustrated! Why couldn't she just tell him what had been on the tip of her tongue the entire night, especially now, when the moment was so perfect; straight out of a teen movie? And why did he have to go on grinning at her the entire night like it was any other day, like she didn't have all this emotional baggage chained to her ankle? "Stupid…" And now she was mad at him for smiling so easily when she felt so freaking awful.

"What is?" Gin inched forward to hear her better.

"You are!" Rangiku cried, standing abruptly and sending the car off-balance. "You're a stupid, dense moron! I hate you!" And now she was in full-on tantrum mode, the kind that made her mother carry migraine pills and her father hide out in his study for hours on end. Obviously she had yet to make a complete idiot of herself. "I hate you and your southern chivalry and your pranks and the way you constantly piss my parents off! A-And the way you smile all the damn time, like everything's a-ok in Gin Land when there's so much to worry about, and the way you can read me like an open book except for when it actually matters!"

Gin pressed himself back against the seat, hoping to dodge fists should she start swinging them. "I-I'm sure you don't mean that!"

"I do!" she yelled, though she didn't, and knew it was childish to be blaming him for her inability to speak her mind. Pressing her palms against her eyes, she heaved a sob strong enough to make her lungs ache. "Why'd you have to go and say something like that? S-Something so sweet, a-a-and…" she trailed off, unable to continue.

"'Cause it's true, and you asked me!" Gin answered helplessly. He stared at her trembling form, painted by the occasional streak of colored light, and heaved a sigh. Standing from the hard plastic seat, he joined her in the center of the car. "Come on, Ran. What's the matter?" he asked, putting his arms around her in an attempt to smother the flames of her rage. "You wouldn't say somethin' like this outta the blue." Rangiku's response was an unintelligible wail, lacking syllables and any sort of clear definition. "Is this about us goin' to different schools? 'Cause if it is…"

She pushed him away, causing the car to swing out a bit further as he stumbled backwards. "No, it's not!"

"What, then?" Gin took hold of her shoulders, willing her to look at him.

"Let go of me!"

The ferris wheel stopped suddenly, and the force of the movement made Rangiku's foot slip. She gasped as she collided with Gin, hard enough to send him sprawling onto his seat, the bunny pyramid knocked onto the floor. Of course, with the firm grip he'd had on her arms, she was projected forward as well, tumbling onto him and narrowly avoiding mashing her knee into his crotch.

In the aftermath of the fall, there was absolute silence in the car, save for the booming fireworks and Rangiku's occasional sniffle. She would have pulled away immediately had Gin's arms not locked around her waist, leaving her with no choice but to slide her legs over until she was properly seated on his lap. Neither of them spoke for a solid minute. The ferris wheel continued to start and stop regularly, putting less distance between them and the ground each time. Then finally, Gin broke the stillness. "That was kinda terrifyin'. Guess I'm not completely over my fear," he quietly confessed, stroking her hair.

"I'm sorry." Rangiku whispered, feeling a plethora of unpleasant emotions stirring in her growling, butterfly-filled stomach.

Gin stared down at her seriously. "Look, Ran, here's what we're gonna do. The moment this thing stops, we're goin' to get some funnel cake, then you're gonna tell me what's really botherin' ya. Is that okay?" She lowered her head in a nod. "Good." He lifted his jacket collar and wiped her cheeks. "Yer make-up's runnin', by the way."

"Don't remind me."

…

When the car came to a stop on the ground and the pink-haired man allowed them off, Gin led Rangiku away from their curious friends, reassuring them that everything was alright. "We'll catch up later," he promised, leaving them to wonder what had happened in the car – Rukia and Momo exchanged anxious glances, ready to make sleepover plans in the event that comforting was needed.

The food line had shortened significantly; Gin only had to wait ten minutes for a funnel cake and two Cokes, which he brought over to Rangiku. She'd waited on a nearby bench, being tortured by the delicious smell of fried dough and keeping the stuffed wolf close to her chest, hoping that it would somehow bring her a much-needed bout of courage. At least she'd managed to stop crying, though one glance into a passing mirror had showed her that irreversible damage had already been done to her face; she looked like a screamo band groupie.

"Eat up! It's still soft," Gin said, ripping off a chunk with his fingers and scattering powdered sugar all over the bench between them.

Rangiku followed suit, the warm dough like medicine for her sore throat, and watched the scene around them. A gaggle of screaming children ran past, splashing in puddles leftover from the rain, their exhausted parents making half-hearted attempts to stop them. In the distance, a blue-haired man was challenging passing guys to demonstrate their strength by using a mallet to try and ring a bell, a busty green-haired female hanging off of his arm to tempt them further.

Gin licked sugar off of his fingers. "So," he began slowly, as if treading into dangerous territory, "what's got ya so upset? You already said it wasn't school."

Rangiku sighed heavily. "That's only part of it." Could she do this now, after destroying the ideal moment in the ferris wheel? He had that deceptively relaxed look about him, the one he had worn a few years back when she'd been planning a surprise birthday party for him and he'd chased her down relentlessly until she'd had to tell him a bogus lie to get him to stop. If she tried to run now, he'd only keep coming after her.

"Well, whatever it is, you know you can tell me. I won't judge ya." Gin pulled off another piece of the funnel cake and stuck it in his mouth.

"That's just it! I can't tell you. Well, I can, but it's really hard to say."

He chewed thoughtfully. "I know ya aren't pregnant, so it can't be that bad." His chewing stopped. "Wait, you don't have cancer, do ya?"

"No!" Rangiku stared at him in horror and rapidly knocked on the wooden bench. "Don't say things like that! You want me to die early?"

Gin laughed. "Don't be so paranoid. You know I'd never wish that on ya," he said, reaching out to wipe powdered sugar from the corner of her mouth. When he tried to pull his hand away, however, she grabbed onto his thin wrist.

"Umm," she stammered, her cheeks burning. How to go about saying it, now that she had his attention and hopefully nobody was coming to interrupt them? "The thing is… yeah, I'll be sad about going to different schools, but it's not just because we've been together for so long that people assume we're more than friends."

"People an' their crazy assumptions," Gin murmured absently.

Rangiku hesitated. "What?"

"Nothin'," he was smiling again, "go on."

She lowered her hands, keeping a hold on his. "Oh, well, I always thought it was funny that they should say that, but at the same time, it hurt because," she took in a shaking breath, "I wanted it to be true, Gin." Her eyes closed, feeling the rush of relief that Momo had described earlier, the weightlessness of her glorious freedom. "I wanted us to be more than friends."

Gin stared at her a moment longer, then lowered his head, rubbing at the back of it with his free hand. "Is that what all the fuss was about?" he asked, to which she nodded wordlessly. He let out a short laugh. "Aww shucks, Ran. That really is embarrassin'. I'm sorry."

Rangiku felt her heart drop. "So you don't feel the same way."

"No, I just imagined this goin' a lot differently in my mind," Gin kicked at the asphalt with his worn shoes. "Basically I thought I'd be the one who said first, and here you were, killin' yerself over a confession that shoulda been mine. I feel really bad. I mean, seriously, I'd envisioned this scenario a thousand different ways, and this wasn't one of 'em."

"W-Wait, but…"

"I'm such an idiot!" he said mournfully, taking his hand back to bury his face into. "I waited so long, and now the funnel cake's cold, and I made ya cry like that. I hate it when ya cry, Ran. I'm so, so sorry."

Rangiku reached out and pried his hands away from his face, feeling elated and giddy and in even more of a screaming mood. "It doesn't matter! I'm fine, see?"

He lifted his head and gazed at her sadly. "You look like a clown." Her smile dropped faster than a cartoon anvil. "And I'm a jackass, so I guess we make a decent pair." She was still glaring at him. He grinned, shook his head and straightened, offering her his hand again in an apologetic gesture, which she accepted. "Y'know," his fingers laced through hers, "it's not too late to have this end the way all my planned scenarios did."

"What do you – " Rangiku's sentence was cut off as he leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her lips. Her eyes flew wide, the butterflies in her stomach going insane and remaining that way, even as he pulled away from her. She was sure that her face was redder than the balloons being handed out from a nearby cart. "Oh."

Gin laughed. "Too bad we ain't goin' to the same school, huh?"

He just had to shoot her down from her high. "Yeah," Rangiku sighed, returning his smile with a sad one. Oh well. At least they had the summer. "Though I don't get why UCLA wouldn't accept you. Aren't you in the top ten percent of our senior class?"

"Top five percent, darlin'." Gin shrugged. "Maybe I'm just too smart for them." He motioned towards the jacket that she wore. "Feel along the inside pocket, there. I was actually hopin' you'd make me feel better by writin' them a nasty response, so I printed the rejection e-mail and brought it with me."

Rangiku let go of his hand and reached into the jacket. Sure enough, she found a folded sheet of paper jutting out of the inside pocket. So that's what had been poking her in the ribs. "Alright," she said, withdrawing it and laying it out on her lap. "I'll be sure to give them a piece of my mind."

"No way! Give them the whole thing!" Gin cheered her on, pulling her purse towards him. "Here, let me get you a pen."

Rangiku unfolded the sheet of paper, her hands still shaking from the excitement of being kissed. "I think I'll start with 'Dear Assholes'," she spat venomously as he handed her the pen and moved the funnel cake aside so that she could use the bench as a writing surface. Leaning forward, poised to start scribbling every insult she knew, she paused to see what kind of excuse they had given for rejecting Gin in the first place.

"Dear Gin, it is my pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted in the University of California…"

Rangiku stared at the paper, blinking slowly. "Gin."

"Uh-huh,"

"This is an acceptance letter."

"Uh-huh."

"You told me that you had been rejected."

"Sure did."

"So you lied to me."

"Yup."

She lifted her head, glaring at him menacingly. "There had better be a damn good reason."

Gin picked at the funnel cake. "I wanted to surprise ya! Y'know, you'd be mopin' around, settlin' into your dorm room thinkin' 'bout how much you miss me, and then I show up at your door to ask for your address 'cause I wanted to be sure we stayed in contact while we were two states away from each other." He shrugged. "So, uh… surprise?"

"You moron!" Rangiku yelled at him, snatching her purse back to hit him with. "You good for nothing, sweet talking, idiotic prankster! I hate you!"

Gin caught the purse, laughing. "But you just got through talkin' 'bout wantin' to be more than friends!"

"I changed my mind!" she cried, attempting to push him off of the bench. "Go away! I don't ever want to see you again!" She squeaked in surprise when he yanked her forward, causing her to fall onto his shoulder. When she lifted her head to chew him out, she found herself nose to nose with him, staring into his warm blue eyes.

"Now I know yer lyin'," he said as he pulled her into another kiss, satisfied when she melted against him, her eyelids fluttering shut.

A short distance away, Shuuhei noticed the pair and whacked Kira on the shoulder, pointing them out. "Well, would you look at that!" The blonde's enthusiasm caught the attention of the others. "Looks like he finally got up the guts to confess to her."

"What?" Rukia and Momo gawked at him in disbelief. "You mean he's liked her this entire time?"

"Of course," Kira laughed, continuing in the opposite direction to leave the happy couple alone, "since the day he first laid eyes on her."

The End

A/N: Two idiots in love. It happens a lot in high school, as does getting frustrated enough to cry. Anyway, this one-shot was drastically longer than I thought it would be, but I hope y'all enjoyed it nonetheless. Did you catch all the cameo appearances? 8D You should find: Loly, Menoly, Baraggan, Ulquiorra, Orihime, Nnoitra, Charlotte, Szayel, Grimmjow and Nel!

Until next time!

/Princess Kitty1/