Those Nights

A/N: I decided to try to name each chapter after a song. This one is Those Nights by Skillet.

He looked down at the town the below; it was filled with people going about their daily business, utterly oblivious to his existence. "Where to start." He said to himself with a pleased smirk. Hichigo did not have that much time and he knew it; beating that shinigami was harder than he though, even when he attacked him by surprise. Lying somewhere, tied up, and hopefully unconscious, was Ichigo. Of course the moment he woke up, he would most likely try to escape and fight his way to the surface but until then he, Hichigo, was king in this castle and he planned to make every minute worth it. He had at most two weeks – perhaps three – which despite being far from ideal, was enough time to make sure that when Ichigo got back, there was a nice, big, hell of a present waiting for him in his precious, little, waste-of-space town.

She was not looking for him but she found him anyway, he was just standing there with his hands in his pocket, looking down at Karakura. She rarely saw him so she was not surprised or bothered when he disappeared two days ago and it was not until she found out that Rukia, Orihime and Chad had not seen him either that she began to suspect something was wrong. She had not come here with the intention of looking for him; this spot was where they used to cry. When his mom died, when her granddad died, when her older brother left Japan to go to school abroad, when Karin was hospitalised – they came here when bad things happened, or at least they used to, and the other would always come. The day she came second in the vale-tudo contest she came here, cried and waited for him. She was still waiting.

Tatsuki had no idea why she had come until she spotted him leaning against the tree, his hands shoved into his pockets and the slight slouch that she would never have associated with Ichigo. She knew something was wrong with him – why else would he come here? There was something wrong that even he could not deal with on his own, and unlike him she was holding up her end of the deal. "Oi, where the hell have you been?" She asked as she hit him upside the head lightly.

Hichigo was actually taken by surprise; he did not know the living body had so many limitations; he had been unable to sense the person who had approached him and whoever it was had actually managed to hit him, Ichigo's inner hollow – oh they were going to pay. In blood. He spun round, with the intention of grabbing whatever had had the gall to hit himby the neck and flinging it down towards Karakura, his hand was barely an inch from her neck when he froze. He felt as though he was falling, falling into those surprise widened brown eyes of hers. He heard the rustle of leave before the hill actually came into view before his very eyes, he looked down at his hand when he felt something wet drop on them - they were tears. His tears? He looked to his right and sitting beside him, with her arm around his shoulders was the same dark haired girl – much younger – with the same large brown eyes, this time shining with unshed tears. Who was she crying for? Why was she crying and why did the sight of tears in eyes bring even more tears to his?

Suddenly he was falling again.

The pain spread through his right side and up the rest of his body. Tears began to run down his cheeks uncontrollably as he sobbed; these were not tears of joy or sadness; they had no emotion attached to them, he was crying simply because he could. "Are you crying again?" an impatient voice demanded. He looked up at her; she was even younger this time. "Your mommy's waiting for you." She snapped and pointed behind him, he turned to see a light-haired woman smiling and waving at him. A feeling he could not quite place spread from the centre of his chest outwards – was it happiness or something? He waved back, and once again he was falling.

He was standing by the river. He could not move because fear like he had never felt before had coiled around his heart and immobilised him, so he was forced to watch – horrified – as a hollow devoured the light-haired woman. It took all his strength to pull himself from that onslaught of images.

Hichigo fell to his knees; he felt as though he had been stabbed in the chest repeatedly, his head was throbbing, his limbs were shaking and for some reason his eyes were watering. What the fuck had she done to him? "Hey Ichigo." She reached down to place her hand on his shoulder but he pushed her away so violently that she fell to the ground.

"Stay the hell away from me you bitch." He spat acerbically as he rose his feet. Hichigo held his head in his hands as he walked away. It never even crossed his mind to harm her; all that he could think about was Ichigo's past.

He followed her stealthily. Two days ago, when he had met her and obtain a pounding headache as a result, he had made a mental note to kill her as soon as possible. Why? Did he need a fucking reason to?

Hichigo weaved through the crowd; slowly he closed the gap between them. A weird feeling began to stir in the pit of his stomach as he neared her, but he ignored it. He stood directly behind her, his arm raised and ready to end her life. Slowly the feeling in his stomach migrated up his chest. He began to feel as though something had bound him and was squeezing the life out of him; he could barely breath and moving was simply out of the question.

Some part of his mind that he did not know existed opened up and moments from Ichigo's past streamed in. It was not an attack like the first time, this time they floated gently through his mind as though they had all the time in the world. One sickening moment stuck out. She had the arm of an older kid locked behind his back at a painful angle "He does not want to fight you and neither do I but if you force me I will." That idiot had always been weak, he had always been pathetic and fragile and she was the only reason he survived his younger years and did not turn out a spineless coward who feared who own shadow.

"You didn't have to do that." He was twelve years old and trying to be tough. His smile had disappeared years ago and with that the few friends he had – except her.

"Hey strawberry, I'm always going to look out for you; I've been doing that since pre-school and old habits die hard." She smiled at him, "Plus best friends have to protect each other."

"You never need to be protected." He was slightly bitter, because since they were little he had been her burden and he could never pay her back – what kind of friendship was that?

"I'm really sorry that you feel like that."

He saw it. That is where Ichigo got the drive to surpass everyone he faced; he was trying to pay her back. And that is when their friendship began to fall apart; little cracks of envy and self- doubt.

Hichigo lowered his hand slowly. He felt sick. "Who are you?" he whispered under his breaath, he had not expected a reply because he thought she could not see him, and was surprised when she turned around and looked directly at him.

"Ichigo?"

He looked at her silently, oblivious to the small tears that rolled down his cheeks. "Who are you?"

"What kind of question is that? Are you alright?"

He stared at her like a helpless child. Tatsuki grabbed his hand and pulled him to a corner where no one would see her talking to herself. "Ichigo what is wrong with you? Where have you been? Ichigo? Ichigo?" She placed her hands on his shoulders and shook him slightly, "Ichigo what is wrong with you?" He lifted his eyes to her and tilted his head slightly, and she noticed tears that fell gently from his eyes. "Oh my gosh Ichigo, are you ok?" she asked as she wiped them away, not quite caring that he was barely responding. He wrapped his hand around her wrist and pulled her hand from his face. He stared at her, tying to find the question he wanted to ask.

'Who are you?' She was Tatsuki Arisawa, Ichigo's first real friend.

'What are you?' She was a living person. A normal living human with no powers, no special abilities and nothing really interesting about her except she kept making him see – and feel – Ichigo's past.

"Ichigo let go; you're hurting me." Tatsuki said as she tried to pry his fingers, which had tightened considerably, off her wrist. He loosened his grip and she pulled her hand away, "What is up with you; no one has seen you in days."

"What the hell do you want with me?" he snapped, irritated by his lack of focus and inability to separate himself – emotionally – from her. His mind was still scattered from the flood of emotion that came with the memories, and he was angry with her for being so concerned about some piece of shit. "Ichigo is not here."

"What?" Tatsuki furrowed her brows,

"You need to fucking let go of Ichigo. He's not here, he's gone and even if he's to come back it will not be to you so get him out of your fucking head."

"No." She did not say anything more. She simply turned around and walked away; she was done hitting him, done yelling at him, done demanding anything; she just did not have the energy to anymore.