Gin had a very good birthday that year, he thought as he pleasantly walked – with much care – back into the third division quarters. He had gotten a nice persimmon cake from his Izuru, the sweet house wife he was, a large spool of yarn from Rangiku, a box from Kuchiki-taichou (It had been thrown at him to get him to go away, but he had still been quite amused), and even a box of candies from Yachiru, though she had promptly asked for them back. That was fine, considering Aizen had gotten him a large container of his precious dried persimmons, though he had to wait until evening to go get them.

And thus, the reason why he was walking so carefully through the halls. It had absolutely nothing to do with not waking up anybody else – Ichimaru Gin could most certainly care less. There were few things he enjoyed more than his persimmons, and what Aizen always did to him definitely made that list. It only was better when he did things with the persimmons. Ahh, he couldn't think about that right now. He was a bit too sensitive to become excited again. So he thought about other things. Or rather, tried to, before he realized that he smelled something coppery.

"Blood?" he asked allowed, looking at the ground in surprise. Sure enough, a trail of droplets were in front of him, leading down the hallway and right at the turn up ahead. Gin blinked, and then smiled. It was like following breadcrumbs! He followed the vermillion pricks down the hall, turned, and passed the unseated officer's dorms. Interesting. So a seated officer had left this for him! Which was it, he wondered? He ran over the faces in his mind, but since he was himself, he had never taken to remembering any of their names, so he was almost distressed that he wouldn't be able to chastise them when he found whoever it was.

Until he realized he was almost to his own room. Three rooms left – one of them was an extra store room, and then the vice-captain's room, and finally the captain's room.

"Who's bleedin' in m'room?" he asked the blood indignantly, his smile tightening. That wasn't very nice of them, to go off and do that in his room. He stalked to his room faster, letting his limp begin, because he was quite perturbed. He stopped watching the trail of blood lead him closer to his destination and threw open the door to his room.

"HA! I've caught ya whoever…ya…be…" But alas, there was nobody in Gin's room and he was quite confused. He checked everywhere, including underneath his mattress, but nobody was there.

"Well, ain't that a bit strange? Ya lied ta me!" he accused the blood trail, looking down at his feet, only to find that said trail of blood wasn't in here! Confused, Gin backtracked a bit, his steps soft once more, and found that the blood did not stop at his room, but the one next to it.

…Wait, why was Izuru…?

If possible, Ichimaru Gin's smile widened to impossible lengths as he strutted down the hallway a few paces before throwing open his vice-captain's door without so much of an announcement.

"Ichimaru-taichou -!"

"Izuru, why's you havin' sex, 'n how come I wasn't invited?" he said immediately, pouting in that still-grinning way of his. "I toldja that I wanted yer first time, ne?"

"Taichou, I… …what?"

Gin took this moment to actually look at the room. "…Izuru, yer not havin' sex."

"…No, Taichou. I'm not," came the exasperated reply. The closest he was to having sex was that he was on his bed, though one hand was clasped tightly around his upper arm, keeping in place a cloth that was soaked in… none other than blood.

"So what happened?" Now he was excited.

"There was a hollow battle, it wasn't a big deal, I promise," the blond said. "The blood just won't stop… why did you guess… what you did?"

"I smelled the blood!" Gin said with a smile.

Izuru didn't want to know why his captain associated blood with sex. In fact, from that day forward, he made sure that any and all blood was kept far away from the residential quarters. Though he knew Gin always sniffed for it when he entered.