Chapter 1: The Hotel
"I said no, so stop asking!"
"Oh come on Ichigo, It'll be a lot of fun." Orihime says, trying to convince the stubborn teenager.
"Why do you continue to ask when I already told you my answer is final, I'm not changing it, ok, I have to go now." Ichigo tries shutting the door, but something ends up getting in the way. He looks down and sees a tiny foot. Rukia. "What now?"
"You have to come Ichigo, we need you to come."
"You don't need me to do anything. You all just want me to go but I can't. I'm sorry Rukia, Orihime."
"Fine, But if you change your mind then we will be meeting at Urahara's Shoten tomorrow morning." Rukia sadly says as she turns to Orihime to leave. "Let's go Orihime." Orihime solemnly turns to leave, making Ichigo feel sort of bad.
Ichigo turns around, closing the door and leaning against it closing his eyes, heaving a huge sigh. When he opens his eyes again he sees his father standing there arms crossed and a frown on his face.
"Don't give me that look, you know I don't like it." Ichigo sputters.
"You always isolate yourself from everyone. I'm starting to get really worried, Ichigo. Why do you never go out with your friends ever since-" He gets cut off by Ichigo's glare.
"Stop ... don't talk about it," Ichigo pauses while looking away. "I'll be in my room." Ichigo harshly says.
"I just want you to re-think the vacation with your friends, it might do you some good." Isshin yells to his now saddened son who was now on his way upstairs to his room to lock himself away for who knows how long. Isshin sighs and goes into the living room to bother Yuzu and Karin.
Upstairs, Ichigo's room, he's laying on his bed thinking about today. Maybe ... just maybe ... he should go with them. It could take his mind off of the most recent tragedy. Everyone has been really worried about him lately. Maybe he should go just so everyone will ease up on trying to invite him places and finally give him some room. He can just act like everything is fine for the vacation, easy enough ... right?
Ichigo huffs and grabs his cell phone. "They better be happy." He mumbles, texting Rukia that he has changed his mind and that he will go with them ... they seemed overjoyed.
Ichigo gets up and sits in his windowsill, opening the window. The breeze flows past him and into his room. The sky was dark, lit by the moon and the stars. Automatically, the memories came rushing into his mind all over again. This was his favorite view. The calm night sky.
"Why..." Ichigo tries to hide the fact that he was about to cry. The fact that he was about to made him furious, and he grew angry with himself. "Stop it ..." He tries to convince himself. "Crying doesn't make anything better. I have to be strong ... for him ... and myself. Crying only makes you weak." He looks up, holding his head up high, tears subsiding.
While below him was a lonely person. They didn't really get along. In fact, I would say they hated each other. That is until this person saw Ichigo in such a weak state. Ichigo always acted so tough and stubborn. The light blue haired person looked away from his conflicted ex-rival and leaving for home, to get ready for the trip tomorrow to the hotel.
The next morning Ichigo goes to Urahara's Shoten, finding Rukia and Renji standing there. When Renji sees Ichigo he stops talking and nods to Ichigo causing Rukia to look back. The look on her face was sincere and she looked extremely happy. Renji smiled and goes up to him, giving him a quick man hug.
"We the only ones going?" Ichigo asks.
"No, there are still some more people coming." Renji replies.
"Let's see there is Orihime, Rangiku, Renji, myself, you, Toshiro, and Gri-" Rukia gets cut off mid-sentence.
"Sup, Ichi, wasn't expecting you to come." An all too familiar voice sounds from behind Ichigo.
"You have got to be kidding me." Ichigo groans, turning around to see Grimmjow smirking his signature smirk. He then turns back around to Rukia who was happily smiling at him. "Why didn't you tell me he would be here?" Ichigo gabs his thumb towards his sworn enemy.
"Because I knew you would never come if I mentioned him." she laughs.
"Oh now come on Ichi, we're best buds." Grimmjow walks up to Ichigo and wraps his arms around his neck, breathing on his neck, giving him slight chills.
"No ... we aren't." Ichigo sharply says as he pulls the troublemaker off of him. Grimmjow laughs at his attempts, but he only makes his grip tighter so he can't get him off. As those two fight each other everyone else shows up.
"Looks like everyone is here." Rukia says making Grimmjow look back, making Ichigo think he had an opportunity to escape his grasp, but when he tried to run Grimmjow brought him back into a bear hug.
"Hey Rukia, Renji, Grimmjow, ... Ichigo! You came!" Orihime shouts loudly making Grimmjow let go and Ichigo finally gets away.
"What? He wasn't going to come before?" Rangiku comes up behind Ichigo and turns him around, hugging him, shoving his face into her giant boobs. He starts to flail trying to get away but soon went limp.
"Rangiku ..." Toshiro says.
"Yes?" She smiles.
"You're suffocating the poor guy." Toshiro says calmly. Rangiku looks down and sees the limp boy in her grasp.
"Oh!" She pulls Ichigo away from her boobs and holds him up. He gasps for air. "I'm sorry, silly me." She laughs and helps him stand properly again.
"I-It's ok, I'm fine." He says as he is still trying to catch his breath. Grimmjow looks at Rangiku slightly annoyed, but you wouldn't be able to tell if you weren't looking closely.
"Are we already to go?" Urahara cheerfully says, appearing out on nowhere, scaring everyone but Rukia, Renji, and of course Grimmjow, he has to make sure he doesn't look stupid in front of his soon to be boyfriend.
"U-Urahara! Don't just jump out, out of nowhere!" Ichigo exclaims.
"But I didn't jump out, I walked out." He holds his little fan up in front of his mouth like he normally does and smiles. Ichigo just looks at Urahara like he was about to punch him for his smartass remark. "But anywho, it looks as if everyone is here, are they not?"
"Yeah everyone's here." Renji responds.
"Perfect." Urahara starts walking towards the back of the shop to a parked van. It looks as if it hasn't been used in quite some time. "Now don't forget, I want her back in one piece, but besides that, here are the keys. Take care and have fun... just ... don't have to much fun." Kisuke hands the keys to Toshiro since he's the oldest, but then Rangiku snatches them before Toshiro could grab them.
"Sorry Toshiro, you're too short to see over the steering wheel." Rangiku laughs as Toshiro becomes annoying at her constant teasing about him being short.
"Come one everyone, throw your stuff in the back and hop on it. It might be a tight squeeze but we'll all fit." Rukia says as she opens the back of the van and throws her bag in. Everyone does the same and hops in. Grimmjow was about to jump in but he saw Ichigo on his way so he stepped back and let him take the seat before him. Ichigo was skeptical at first but he went anyway. When Ichigo realizes he is sitting he knows why Grimmjow let him in first. He is sitting in the very back next to Orihime and Grimmjow quickly got in the seat next to him, smirking. Ichigo sighs and glares to the front window. Grimmjow was gonna torment him the whole way there.
"Hey Ichi." Grimmjow smirks and leans closer to him making Ichigo scoot closer to Orihime. She looks at him slightly confused, but since she likes Ichigo she didn't mind that he was sitting closer to her. Maybe he secretly liked her back too. She blushes at this thought and covers her face with her hands, but in all reality Grimmjow is poking Ichigo and trying to hug him and fake kiss him making him scoot away and Orihime just so happened to be the one in the seat next to him.
This is going to be one long trip. Ichigo thought to himself as he fights off his potential lover.
Near the end of the trip, when it was night time and everyone was exhausted, Ichigo gave up on fighting Grimmjow and just let him do what he pleased. He is in the middle of two sleeping people who both happening to be leaning their heads on both of his shoulders. Ichigo refused to fall asleep. They were almost there anyway, but Ichigo lost his little fight with himself and ended up falling asleep. Once he was completely dead to the world, his head fell over to the side that Grimmjow was on. Ichigo's head now resting on Grimmjow's.
Rukia looks back and the sight makes her smile so of course she has to tell Renji, Rangiku, and Toshiro. Rukia takes a picture of the two sound asleep. Rangiku mouths "Aww" when she adjusts the divers mirror so she can see them. Toshiro smirks and Renji, well Renji is really happy because maybe, juuuust maybe, Grimmjow could be the solution to end Ichigo's deep depression.
"Wake up sleepy head." Rangiku says to Ichigo. He groggily opens his eyes blinking a couple time to get used to the light. When he's fully awake he sees Rangiku staring at him. "Finally you wake up! You were so dead to the world when we got here that you wouldn't even wake up, so Grimmjow had to carry you into the hotel." Rangiku laughs at Ichigo's surprised face.
"Don't worry he was actually very nice about it. Renji said he would do it but Grimmjow was persistent about carrying you. He carried you bridal style through the hotel, it was so cute. Ichigo you looked so adorable in Grimmjow's arms!" Rangiku squeals as she walks over to the door. She then looks back to Ichigo who was massively blushing, trying to hide his blush, but failing. She looked sincere and happy. "I'm glad you seem a little better today, Ichigo." As she says that she opens the door. "We will be down in the lobby, come down when you're ready." She leaves his room and the door closes behind her.
Ichigo looks around the room. The bed beside him was a mess too. Who was his roommate? He slowly takes the covers off and looks down. He didn't have a shirt on but he had his shorts on, which was a huge relief to him. He gets up and walks to the window. It was so high up you could see over so much. It must be really cool to look at, at night. He then goes to the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror, he was a mess. He got ready and put on some good clothes and headed out to go meet his friends ... and Grimmjow.
He goes down the hall and presses the button for the elevator. A little girl came running up and bumped into Ichigo catching him off guard. She looks up at him scared. He must look terrible still. He sighs and tries smiling to the girl, but it's no use. She gets up and runs away even more scared. He glares at her and looks forward again.
The elevator finally comes and the door opens. He steps in and leans on the wall of the elevator, closing his eyes until he feels it stop again. When he hears the door open he pushes himself off the wall and goes out the door. His friends are all laughing and talking.
Where's Grimmjow? Ichigo thought. Wait, why is he automatically looking for Grimmjow?
"Well look at who's finally joined the living again." Grimmjow playfully jokes as he pushes his shoulder making him stumble forward a little bit. When he catches his balance he looks over his shoulder and glares at Grimmjow. Grimmjow's eyes widen and he steps back a little.
"Geez, you look like you really were dead, what happened to you?"
All Ichigo could muster up was an annoyed groan making Grimmjow smirk a little.
"Still feeling it from last night?" Grimmjow smirks and walks to the group leaving Ichigo speechless. He quickly snaps out of his shock and chases after him.
"W-what the hell are you talking about?"
All Grimmjow can muster for his reply is a giant smirk making Ichigo furious.
They get to the rest of group and Ichigo looks like he's about to kill Grimmjow, so Rangiku steps in between Grimmjow and him. This makes Grimmjow frown and glare at her for separating him from Ichigo.
"Looks like we can go to the mall now!" Rangiku cheers, wrapping her arms around Ichigo and dragging him away from Grimmjow.
They all go to the parking lot where they parked their car and piled into it.
They pull into the parking lot for the mall and get out of the van. Ichigo is finally all the way awake now. As they go into the mall a bunch of girls (and boys) keep looking their way. Ichigo doesn't think anything of it and ignores them. Probably because he's off in lala land again.
"I want to go to Girls24/7." Orihime says looking back at everyone.
"We'll go with you." Rangiku winks at Toshiro and Renji before wrapping her arm around Rukia's and dragging her away to their store.
"Looks like I'll go to the sports store." Renji says.
"Me too." Him and Toshiro leave Ichigo and Grimmjow in the dust so they can't tag along.
"Do you know what the hell just happened?" Grimmjow questions completely confused.
"No idea."
"Well I guess we can go to Rue or something," Grimmjow looks Ichigo over. "and get you some new clothes."
"What's wrong with this?"
"Nothing, it's just that you cant go to a party with that kind of clothes."
"Nobody said anything about a party."
"Hey Ichigo,"
"What?"
"We're going to a party, there, said something."
"Really..." Ichigo just sighs and starts to walk to Rue. As they are walking for some reason Grimmjow keeps walking closer and closer whenever Ichigo steps away a little bit. Ichigo gives up and looks around, seeing a lot of the girls in the mall just staring at them and whispering. He looks over at Grimmjow and he looks like he trying to look mean so people don't approach him or something.
"What's wrong with you?" They walk into the store and start looking around.
"Nothing, why?"
"You look angry."
"Well I'm not." Grimmjow grabs a red shirt, a black hoodie, and ripped jeans and told Ichigo to go and try it on. Ichigo went to the changing room and changed into it. He showed Grimmjow and he said it was good and he was going to buy it for him.
Once they bought the clothes they go out and just start walking around to pass some time.
"When exactly is this party?" Ichigo looks to Grimmjow who looked like his normal self again.
"Tomorrow night."
"Why do I have to go?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yeah, that would be nice."
"Because everyone just wants you to get over what happened and be happy again, Ichigo," Grimmjow pauses and looks away so he can't see his face. "even I don't like seeing you like this."
This surprises Ichigo and makes him feel a little funny inside. He thinks nothing of it though. Could he really be telling the truth or did the others put him up to this?
"I'm trying." Ichigo looks down to the ground and Grimmjow looks at him sadly.
"No one expects you to just forget about him like nothing ever happened, but ... uh ... er... j-just know I'm here for you too, okay?" Grimmjow said that last part fast, but Ichigo heard it perfectly.
Could it be that Grimmjow was trying to comfort him.
Ichigo smiled a little bit and looked at Grimmjow. This shocks Grimmjow making his eyes go wide.
"Thanks, Grimmjow."
"Anytime." His look softens when he says this. Then a smile comes across his face. "Wanna leave?"
"What? We can't." Ichigo looks around for the rest of their friends to see if they were watching them.
"Yes we can you loser, let's just go get something to eat, I'm starved." Grimmjow smirks and grabs Ichigo's hand, dragging him out of the mall. He stops by the car and drops off Ichigo's clothes first before leaving.
They walk to a restaurant. It's nothing fancy but its no fast food restaurant either. They got their seats and the waiter gave them their menus. They both got a water and Ichigo got some sandwich thing and Grimmjow got ribs.
They had a good dinner consisting of chatting, of course eating, making fun of each other, a heated discussion about different foods, and asking each other questions trying to get to know each other. Let's just say that they knew each other pretty well by the time they were done. They split the bill and left before everyone would notice.
"Uh..." Ichigo stars to say making Grimmjow look at him. "Thanks for taking me ... to dinner and all," Ichigo looks away from Grimmjow a little embarrassed. Grimmjow noticed his embarrassment and smiles. "but that doesn't mean I like you, cause I still don't like you..." Grimmjow frowns at this but then Ichigo says something again. "but I don't hate you anymore." Grimmjow smirks at Ichigo making him angry. "What is that smirk for?!"
"Nothing, I'm just happy." Grimmjow laughs. Ichigo's eyes widen and he looks to the ground. Grimmjow looks over to Ichigo and even though it's getting dark out he can still see his slight blush. Grimmjow almost loses it at this moment.
Grimmjow stops Ichigo by pushing his waist to a wall they were walking next to and holding his arms back so he can't try anything funny. Ichigo's eyes widen to the size of baseballs. Grimmjow steps a little closer making the space between the two smaller and smaller every second. Grimmjow would stop if Ichigo hesitated even the slightest, but he didn't even flinch. He actually moved his face closer to Grimmjow's, slowly, but it's an improvement. Just as Grimmjow's nose touched Ichigo's he heard someone speak.
"Grimmjow? Ichigo? Is that you?" Orihime says questionably. Grimmjow quickly yet smoothly moves away from Ichigo acting as if that didn't just happen.
"Yeah, it's us." Grimmjow was trying to hide the pissed-off-ness in his voice, but he was always pretty bad at hiding things.
"O-ok, we were all just worried because you two just took off and didn't come back."
"We are fine, we were on our way back right now actually." Ichigo comes into this conversation to help Grimmjow out from killing their friend.
"Oh! Good, let's go back together then."
"Yeah." Ichigo says as he starts walking next to Orihime. Grimmjow sees this and catches up to Ichigo standing closer than he should be to him. The walk back was pretty quiet. Ichigo was praying that Orihime didn't see that almost kiss back there. Grimmjow didn't care if she saw, if he could he would probably fuck Ichigo in the middle of the hotel lobby and not give two shits about what people say.
"There you guys are!" Rukia says waving to the three.
"Sorry guys, we got hungry and we didn't want mall food." Ichigo laughs.
"It's alright, we're here to do what we want so have fun." Renji says leaning on the car. Orihime ran up to Rangiku and Rukia and whispered something to them both, making them both sneakily look to Ichigo and Grimmjow in surprise. Ichigo was confused, and Grimmjow, well Grimmjow is still sulking over the interrupted kiss and not paying attention.
"Is everyone Ready to go back then?" Toshiro's voice comes from inside the car.
"Yup everyone's here." Rangiku says smiling and getting into the drivers seat. Everyone gets into their seats and buckle up. As soon as everyone is seated Rangiku heads back to the Hotel.
It's ten o' clock when they all get back to the hotel. They cram everyone into the elevator and go up to the top floor. When it reaches their destination they get out and all head to their rooms, all saying their goodnights to everyone. Ichigo and Grimmjow walk into their room and the first this Ichigo does is go to the shower.
"Taking a shower Ichi?"
"Ya." Ichigo closes the door leaving Grimmjow confused. He seemed a little tense. Ichigo finishes his shower and comes out of the bathroom in only shorts drying off his hair with a towel. Grimmjow liked this sight but sadly he couldn't stare at him for much longer because he had to take a shower also. So he went to take a shower to get it over with so he can admire the beautiful shirtless boy in his room.
Ichigo lays his towel that he was using on his hair around his shoulders. He walks over to the windows sitting on the window sill. This view sure was something. Ichigo got up and turned the lights off so he could see it better and sat back at the window bringing his knees to his chest hugging them tight. He stayed like this staring out at the city below lost in thought until Grimmjow finished his shower.
Grimmjow sighs stepping out of the bathroom as he slips a shirt on. He looks around confused to why the light was off. He looked at Ichigo's bed but realized he wasn't there, hen he saw him in the window. He smiles and walks over to him taking a seat on the window too.
"Pretty, isn't it." Grimmjow looks out to the city just as Ichigo was.
"Ya."
Grimmjow looks at Ichigo and frowns.
"Is something the matter? Did I do something wrong?"
"No."
"Then what is it?"
"Nothing."
Grimmjow stood up and grabs Ichigo's shoulders turning him and staring him in the eyes.
"Don't you dare start pulling that damn teenager shit on me Ichigo." Grimmjow snaps. When Grimmjow says his name and not his little nickname he gave him it surprises him, he must be serious now.
"I'm not doing anything, nothing is wrong, really, I'm just ... " Ichigo pauses turning around when Grimmjow let's go of his shoulders.
"You're just..?"
"Happy."
"Not that it's a bad thing, but why are you happy?" Grimmjow sits back down.
"Well, It's just that I thought you were a jerk. I hated your guts. If I had the chance to kill you I would hit you with a bus and double tap you just to make sure you died."
"This makes you happy?" Grimmjow sounded annoyed.
"No." Ichigo chuckles startling Grimmjow. "I'm happy because I was wrong about you. You're not what I thought you were like. I only thought you were mean because you always annoyed me."
"I see." Grimmjow smiles looking at the cars on the road.
"Grimmjow,"
"Hmm?"
"Can I trust you?"
"Huh? Definitely."
"Do you mind if I talk to you about something ... that has been really bothering me lately?"
He must be trying to talk to me about the incident. "Of course you can."
"Well, you know about what happened, to Kuro, right?"
Grimmjow was right. "Mhmm."
"I don't really know how to talk about this, I've never talked to anyone about this before."
"It's ok, I'll wait as long as you need to think about it, don't worry, I'll listen."
"Thank you Grimmjow." Ichigo's voice was quiet but Grimmjow heard all the emotions tremble Ichigo's voice. Ichigo took a little while to think about how he would say this.
"I'd have to say I wasn't really expecting that to happen," Grimmjow perked up when Ichigo said this. "I mean it's not like many people wouldn't be shocked by it. If someone proposed to them one night, but then as soon as you would say yes they hit you. You would be surprised too, almost everyone would." He was quiet for a minute. "I don't know what he was thinking. He hit me making me fall to the ground then he pulled out a pocket knife." Grimmjow knew the story, but he didn't know all of this story. He had no idea that this happened. He was completely at a loss of words. "He tried to kill me." Ichigo tightened his hug on his knees and buried his face in his legs. "He ... He said He loved me and that he would never do anything to hurt me, was all this just a lie? He said he would make me the happiest person alive. He has one messed up vision of happiness. And to top it all off, he commit suicide right after I locked myself in the bathroom. I shouldn't care about him after that, but I couldn't just hate him after all that time I spent loving him. I-I just didn't know what to do. I was completely devastated at his death even though I know I shouldn't have been." Ichigo had tears rolling down his cheeks now, they only reason Grimmjow knew this was because he heard his voice starting to choke up and he saw a tear gleam as it dropped from his cheek. "Sorry, I'm probably making you uncomfortable for crying like this, I shouldn't cry."
"Don't apologize for crying, there is nothing wrong with crying, sometimes it's good to cry. Tears don't make you weak, just because you cry doesn't make you cowardly they just mean you have been strong for to long."
"Grimmjow." Ichigo looks up in surprise with tear stains on his cheeks. Grimmjow smiles softly. They could see each other from the light from the city. Grimmjow lifted up his hand and wiped away the tears on Ichigo's face. He brought up his other hand and wrapped it around Ichigo's waist. Ichigo wasn't expecting this so he didn't know what to do for a few seconds, but he then felt his chest tighten and a tear fall down his face again. He hugs Grimmjow back tightly resting his head on Grimmjow's firm shoulder.
"I'm glad you can trust me Ichigo, I'm also glad you told me to talk to this about." Grimmjow was rubbing Ichigo's back calming him down trying to make him happier. They stayed like this for a while. They stayed like this until Ichigo fell asleep. Grimmjow brought him to his bed and laid him down. When Grimmjow tried to step away he found that he couldn't because Ichigo had a tight grip on him so he gave in and got into Ichigo's bed next to him and cuddled up falling asleep.
9
