"Grimm," a soft voice sleepily murmured from the living room doorway.
Grimmjow looked up from his textbooks to see Ichigo standing sleepily in the doorway, her bright orange hair sticking up and her clutching a little stuffed bunny. The blue haired teen smiled softly at the seven year old girl in the doorway.
"What's wrong, Ichigo," he asked, leaning back on the couch and gesturing for her to come sit by him.
Ichigo quickly took him up on the offer and scrambled to sit on the couch by him. The child quickly cuddled up against the older boy, who stroked her hair.
"I had another nightmare," she mumbled into his chest.
"What was it about," he asked.
"That you were going to leave me like mommy," Ichigo whimpered, burying her face into her chest.
Grimmjow remembered the last time he had been over here, which had been a week ago. Ichigo had had a nightmare then, too. It had been about her mother dying. She had cried for an hour until she fell to sleep, and he could hear her beginning to sniffle and shake in his hold.
"Shh, it's okay, Ichigo," he reassured her quickly. "I won't leave you."
She sniffled and looked up at him with large, dark eyes on the brink of tears. "You promise?"
"I promise," Grimmjow said.
Ichigo smiled up at him and curled up beside him as he went back to doing his homework. At about ten o'clock, Grimmjow had finally finished his homework and looked over at the child beside him to find her fast asleep. She looked so peaceful in her sleep. So innocent and pure, like an angel, not the little devil she was when she was awake. His eyes softened as he picked up her small body and carried her back to her room. Grimmjow gently laid her in her bed and covered her up, before leaving the room and gathering up his stuff. He sat down on the couch and waited for Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki to walk through the door so that he could leave. When the pair walked through the door and he bid his goodbye, he didn't expect that it'd be the last time that he would see Masaki Kurosaki, nor the vibrant little girl he babysat.
The next day he'd gotten a call sometime in the afternoon from Isshin telling him that Masaki had gotten hit by a drunken driver, while she and Ichigo had been walking back from the karate dojo. And at the moment she was in critical condition and the doctors weren't sure if she was going to make it.
"How's Ichigo," he'd asked almost immediately after Isshin had finished talking.
Grimmjow couldn't help but to notice that Isshin hadn't mentioned anything about Ichigo.
"She's fine," Isshin said into the receiver, glancing at his daughter staring blankly at the wall ahead of her. "But she hasn't spoken since it happened, besides that it's her fault."
Grimmjow continued to listen to Isshin, before the older man told him that he wouldn't need him to babysit Ichigo today, thus ending the phone call. As Grimmjow sat on his couch he remembered Ichigo telling him about her nightmare. She'd told him that a car was going to take away her mother. And he couldn't find it in his self to say that that was a coincidence. It seemed a little too accurate to be just a coincidence. He leaned back on the couch and ran a hand through his hair and glanced outside at the pouring rain.
It was a couple hours later when he heard a phone ringing somewhere in the house. He didn't bother getting up to answer it knowing his mother would do that. So, he just lay in his bed and stared up at the ceiling listening to the quiet murmur of his mother's voice. He was just about to fall asleep when his mother burst into his room. Grimmjow opened his mouth to complain about privacy, but was swiftly cut off by his mother.
"I just got off the phone with Isshin," she told him. "Masaki didn't make it."
Those words hit him like a freight train, but he was sure that Ichigo was feeling worse than him at this moment. Grimmjow wanted nothing more than to ask his mother how Ichigo was handling it, but the words just wouldn't come out. His mother left shortly after telling him the funeral would be held in a couple days and that she was going to the store to get a few things. Grimmjow stared blankly up at the ceiling; his mind couldn't comprehend anything that had happened today. It all just seemed so surreal.
The sound of a shrill ringing filled the house and Grimmjow was almost tempted to ignore it, but his mother would kill him if he didn't answer the phone and had actually been something important. Grimmjow sauntered into the kitchen to where the phone sat. He swiftly picked up and held it up to his ear.
"Hello," he said into the receiver.
"Hey, Grimmjow," Isshin greeted, his voice sounding a bit strained. "Have you seen Ichigo?"
"No. Why do you ask," Grimmjow asked, confused and a bit worried as to why Isshin would think he'd have seen Ichigo. "Did something happen to her?"
"Oh, it's nothing to worry about," Isshin replied. "She probably just headed back home without me."
"Ok," Grimmjow murmured, worry gnawing at his gut.
"Alright, bye," Isshin said before hanging up.
Grimmjow stared at the phone in his hands, his brow furrowing as he set the phone back on the counter. He cyan blue eyes glanced up at the window nearest to him and he watched the rain pour down from the sky, before rushing to throw on a jacket and run outside.
Grimmjow ran through the town searching all over for Ichigo. He couldn't find her anymore. It was almost like she had disappeared. Grimmjow was slowly running out of places to look for her and he knew he would have to head back home soon, considering he was soaked to the bone. He jogged down the sidewalk by the river keeping a look out for her bright orange hair. The blue haired boy was almost to the bridge, when he finally saw her small form crouched in the grass between the road and the river. He rushed over to her and pulled her up into his arms.
As he crushed her smaller form to his body, he heard her take a sharp breath before it turned into a sob. She clutched his jacket as she sobbed and grief racked her body. He soothingly rubbed her back and held onto her to reassure her that she wasn't alone. Grimmjow pulled away from her a little bit to look at her. Ichigo's clothing was soaked completely, like she'd taken a dive into the river. And her orange hair was plastered to her skin. The skin around her eyes was red and swollen, and her chocolate brown eyes bloodshot.
He pushed her sopping wet hair out of her face and asked, "What are you doing out here, Ichigo?"
"I don't know," she murmured, looking away from him, guilt displayed in her dark eyes.
Grimmjow sighed and ran a hair through his unruly, blue hair. "I swear you'll be the death of me. Well, let's get you home so that you don't worry your dad any more than you already have."
She merely nodded and climbed onto his back, before they set off for his house.
A/N: Okay, I know this different from my other stories, but I wanted to try doing Fem!Ichi story. I think this is a pretty good start. I almost made this into a oneshot, but decided it would be better as a full length story. Well, what do you guys think? Anyways, reviews and all that good stuff greatly appreciated.
Important!: Alright everyone, I'm sad to announce that I will more than likely be leaving FanFiction. I will come to a final decision next week. If I do decide to leave, then I will tell you all where I will be posting my stories or you guys can give me some ideas for a different site I can post my stories on. But in case any of you guys are wondering, I won't delete any of my stories posted on here. So, if you suddenly can't find any of my stories on here anymore then FanFiction deleted my account.