Golden Threads and Poisoned Fangs

Laughter

"Shit!"

Now swearing was a commonplace occurrence in Las Noches, especially Grimmjaw's irrepressible temper and Nnoitra's constant warmongering, itching for a fight. Except this time, the expletive hadn't come from either of those two troublemakers. The curse wasn't even spoken by any of the Espada. Instead it was…

"Orihime, what could possibly…" Aizen trailed off, surprise uncharacteristically on his face, as he took in the strange scene before his eyes.

Orihime was cradling her evidently broken wrist against her chest, breathing heavily. Pain caused her eyes to slightly water.

Opposite her, some distance away, Nnoitra's face sported a darkening purple bruise strangely in the shape of a tiny fist.

"You little bitch! Just you wait.."

Before Nnoitra could follow through with his threat or Aizen could speak another word, a new sound was heard.

Everyone turned to gaze at Gin.

The silver-haired man was doubled up, laughing.

Even Aizen stared.

Gin may have smirked, mocked, killed, been sarcastic to the point of irritation … but never had he laughed, and certainly never like this.

"You find this funny, you bastard! Why don't you get a taste of this! That'll wipe the smile off yer –"

Nnoitra was cut off mid-speech by a sword impaling his stomach.

"Gin." Aizen reproved smoothly though, to Nnoitra's consternation, a small smile curved his lips.

As Ulquiorra led Orihime away, she couldn't help but look back to gaze at Gin. Was it her imagination or did his smile seem to widen when he was… looking at her too?

She did not know much about this dangerous man, a man so dangerous and almost, if not equally as, dangerous as Aizen.

But whether he realized it or not, whether he was deliberate and willing or not, he had inadvertently saved her from another clash with Nnoitra.

A/N Hallelujah! My exams are at last over, and I can soon get back to my other stories including She's no traitor.

As always, don't forget to leave a review. Always much appreciated!

And no… Bleach does not belong to me, only Tite Kubo.