Hey, it's been a little while, hasn't it? First of all, I wanted to thank all of the Guests who have previously written lovely reviews on some of my previous stories - you know who you are. Second, I won't be uploading anything in November, as I am very busy and need as much spare time as possible to finish off bits and pieces (that, and I haven't had a break since I joined back in April this year (2014)), so I'm sorry in advance. Third, I don't remember how this fanfiction came to life, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Yaoi, so if you don't like, please don't flame/comment. Please comment/like/favourite/follow/review and all that jazz. I accept constructive criticisms, as well as way in which I can improve the way I write. Mentions of RenRuki, just 'cause next to GrimmIchi, I love them (and Ulquihime and GinRan)! Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. All I own is this story. I also don't own any songs that have been named 'Human' - it was just a befitting title for this particular fanfiction.
Human
I sat at my desk, bored stiff. Today so far had been lousy. I woke up late, tripped down the stairs only to make a slight recovery before landing face flat on the laminate flooring, I had burnt my fingers as I went to pick a slice of toast out of the toaster a bit too early than I should have, I spilt coffee everywhere, including on myself which caused me to run back up the stairs to change into a cleaner school uniform, I then packed the wrong textbooks for school and locked myself out of the house. That all happened within an hour or so, and my luck, so far, hadn't changed. I ended up being a couple of minutes late and had to stand outside of the class, looking out of breath and feeling sweaty. It may have just turned April, but it was sticky and humid. I twirled the mechanical pencil in between my fingers, only to stop it by tapping the rubber end of it on the wooden desk. My eyes darted around the room, focusing on the people I knew and separating them out from the others, out of nothing but pure boredom. In the end, I turned what little attention I had remaining in my system to the outside world. It may have looked promising this morning, but now, it didn't. The sky had started to turn darker as each minute passed by, and the clouds began to look heavier as well.
Great! Just fucking great. Just what else could happen today? I cursed to myself as I slowly got more frustrated with myself. What did spark an interest to the rest of the occupied students, as well as the teacher, was when the door to the classroom had been thrust open at such a force that the door threatened to break off of its hinges. In flew a male teacher, and I couldn't help but be a little intrigued when the male teacher walked into the room. I could have sworn that the room had frozen over in that split moment. A few students broke out in hushed whispers as the two teachers briefly shared a conversation; I looked down at my desk and sighed heavily. One girl nearby wasn't exactly quiet when she 'whispered' to her friend about a supposedly hot, new transfer student who looked like a supermodel. I couldn't help but scoff to myself. Yeah, right. Like someone who's all that would ever come here, I thought sarcastically, and added a classic eye roll at the sheer thought of having someone who looked as good as a model, let alone, a supermodel, come to a place that was basically located in the middle of nowhere. As soon as the male teacher left, in sauntered the alleged 'supermodel' of a person. It didn't take long for all the girls (and a couple boys) to gasp in awe at his very being.
The homeroom teacher managed to just about silence the class before she asked the transfer student to introduce himself. The first thing I noticed was the colour of his hair; it was bright electric blue, and it seemed to make it look like he had just woken up half an hour or so before coming here. As he introduced himself, I propped my elbow on the desk and rested my head in the open hand; my fingers rested gently on my jawline. And I thought my hair colour was outrageous, that has to be dyed surely. There's no way in hell it could be natural! The transfer student then sauntered down the room and came to the only vacant seat. It pissed me off in that instant because it was right next to me. As the class resumed, the transfer student looked at me, smiled gently yet complacently at the same time before he leant in closer. It caught me off guard.
"Name's Grimmjow" he said. His voice was quite deep, a low baritone, and had a sort of sexy ring to it. I couldn't tell if I liked it at first or not; I mean, sure, I had the odd girlfriend or two, but I was attracted to men moreso.
"Ichigo Kurosaki" I simply replied and looked away, his cerulean blue eyes had managed to pierce right through my being. I heard Grimmjow smirk. Yeah, today was going to be a long day. Lunch couldn't have really come at a better time, but because of the weather, I remained inside. I sighed heavily into my desk as I opted to ignore the loud whispers from the majority of the female students in my class. Something about how I was supposedly 'lucky' to have Grimmjow even look in my direction, or that it was somehow my job to introduce him to everyone in the class. It pissed me off, but what made me relax a bit was when Rukia, a short girl with short black hair and calm violet eyes, came up to me and started talking to me, as if nothing had happened.
"So, what do you think? We now get a mysterious new transfer student who looks like something out of a film, and in the middle of the term as well. It's a bit mysterious, don't you think?" she asked as she pulled a vacant seat up at my desk.
"Not really. You transferred into the middle of term last year. There's nothing mysterious about it" I stated and rested my head and arms on the desk. Thinking about it gave me a headache, but it could have been the fact that there was a lack of food in my system. Either way, I couldn't tell.
"That may be true, but you're not denying the fact that he looks like something out of a film, or that something like this won't completely turn your life around" Rukia said and took a sip of her drink.
"Yeah, like that will happen" I sarcastically said and reluctantly lifted my head off of the desk to face her. Nearby, a group of female students giggled as Grimmjow walked into the room in only a way that he could master. I rolled my eyes; it wasn't like I wasn't interested in the new transfer student, I just didn't think he was all that, and by the looks of it, Rukia didn't seem to care one bit when Grimmjow pulled up a seat and joined the pair of us.
"Hey, you going to introduce me to your friend or not, Ichi?" Grimmjow asked and raised an eyebrow as soon as he caught sight of Rukia.
"It's Ichigo, not 'Ichi', and you can ask her yourself" I replied. There was no indication of care in the words that I had spoken just then.
"That's cold, but I admit I can understand why you wouldn't want me to know her girl's name. She's cute after all" This caused Rukia to blush slightly. "Anyway, I'm Grimmjow" he turned to face her and gave a smile; the same one he had given me but this one, despite looking the same, felt somehow different, if that was even possible. It felt normal, whilst the one he flashed at me, needless to say, I couldn't help but feel...different about it. It somehow felt a lot like Jealousy but at the same time, it felt the opposite of it.
"Rukia Kuchiki, it's a pleasure" she smiled gently. "I'm sorry, but we're just friends" she quickly added as she tried her best to fight the small tint of blush that seemed to grace her cheeks. Grimmjow looked at her for a minute in shock before his face softened slightly.
"That's too bad, you really are cute" he flashed yet another smile to Rukia. "You're missing out, Ichi" he said as he turned to face me. A small smile graced his face as he looked at me.
"Am not" I spat out; the tone in my voice was cold enough to freeze even Hell over. I was too focused on what he had said just then, to even think about criticising him on the stupid ass nickname he had picked out for me. I soon felt tense, and I would have left if Grimmjow hadn't stood up when he did.
"Thanks for the time. See you around, Rukia, Ichi" he smirked before he disappeared from the area.
"See you around" Rukia gave a small smile and waved; I just looked away. He irritated me, and in the next minute, Rukia practically interrogated me about my attitude towards him. "You could have been a little friendlier to him, you know. It's hard to try and make friends with someone who's unwilling to even fake a smile" she spoke seriously. Her words rang through my ears for the rest of the afternoon. It had starting to get increasingly darker as every minute pressed on at an agonisingly slow pace. If it stayed that way, it would begin to rain sooner or later. 'You could have been a little friendlier to him'. Yeah, right. It's better to be honest with someone from the get-go.
The rest of the day slowly progressed and I was desperate to get home. The sooner, the better; it had been a long day. The week also went on at a snail's pace. I didn't even think it was possible, and in that time, Grimmjow had managed to flash a smile to pretty much everyone in the class. It turned out that aside from being charismatic, he was good at Sports and managed to rank in the top 50 of our year. Heck, he was in the top 10! I would have been lying if I said I wasn't surprised by all of this. First, the guy looked at me differently to anyone else and gave me that embarrassing nickname, whilst calling everyone else by the given name. Then, he ranked in the top 10 after three days of being here, and got everyone to like him in such a short time as well as being so good at Sports that practically everyone wanted him on their team. What did surprise me the most was the fact that he had rejected every single offer, and even when some of the girls had confessed their 'new-found love' to him, he had simply rejected every single one of them. To me, Grimmjow was an enigma. That much was safe to say about him.
"Don't tell me you're jealous of him, Ichigo" Rukia sighed before a smile broke out her face.
"Why would I be jealous? If anything, he surely has everything he wants so why bother, right? Why bother trying to be jealous of someone like him?" I asked. I had given Rukia's warning some thought over the week and I didn't think that I was jealous or anything. Maybe...maybe amazed? Even if it was just a little bit.
"You are so jealous. Who wouldn't be? He's smart, kind, great at Sports, has a killer smile and is pretty hot" she smiled more.
"You'd better not cheat on Renji, and like I said, I'm not jealous" I stated before I left the area, just before I reluctantly muttered an "Amazed, maybe". I slowly walked down the corridor and the more I did, I started to question what I had said to Rukia, and more importantly, what I felt, if anything, toward Grimmjow.
"Hey, how're you doing, Ichi?" a familiar voice called out from behind me. I rolled my eyes and stood fixed in place. I didn't dare move from my place, no, I wanted to move but my feet froze in place. For a split second, it felt like the sea of students around me seemed to pass me by, and I was almost certain that some of them would crash into me, in a similar way to how the free ocean crashes against the restricted rocks on a stormy night. It was only until Grimmjow had come to stand in front of me that I managed to just about breathe. He got under my skin in such a way that irritated me, and I had only known him for about a week. It didn't make sense. Nothing about the way he acted towards me, made any damn sense to me. "I was looking for you, you know" Grimmjow flashed a smile. His smiles were what originally got under my skin, but the one that he had just flashed at me felt kind of...lonely.
"You were?" I couldn't help but ask dubiously as I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah" Grimmjow said before he looked away. Maybe I had been too harsh on him? No, harsh isn't that, cold? Maybe, I thought quietly to myself, and at the point, guilt resided in my pit of stomach.
"Did you need anything?" I quickly asked. I must have sounded annoyed because the look I got from Grimmjow was one of disbelief. It was as if I had stared back at my reflection in the mirror and didn't like what I saw. Grimmjow simply looked at me in shock, like I had just been set alight.
"Oh, forget it. Sorry to waste your time" Grimmjow apologised and turned on his heel. He must have taken a few footsteps or so. The next thing I knew, my hand was grasped around his forearm. He froze in that instant; I did too. What the hell am I doing? What am I going to say to him? More importantly, what can I say to him? Sure, he may have gotten under my skin and irritate me like no-one else but surely I owe him an apology, I told myself. Grimmjow glanced over his shoulder and looked at me in confusion. "What's up?" he asked, his voice was filled with concern. I slowly let go of his forearm and stood there, looking at him with my mouth slightly open. Usually, he would have added his nickname for me, but the fact that he didn't meant that he was genuinely concerned. A part of me felt reassured to know that he hadn't used his stupid-ass nickname for me just then, but another part of me could help but feel like a complete asshole as to how I treated him since the day we first met.
"I've given you the cold shoulder since the day I met. I thought you were some narcissistic, flamboyant jerk and yeah, you may get under my skin, but I owe you an apology" I said slowly at first. I could feel my blood creep up to my cheeks and dust them in a light pink colour, but I didn't care; I had to let him know the reason as to why I was hostile towards him. Despite him getting under my skin, I knew but would never dare myself to admit that he wasn't a bad guy. Grimmjow's eyes widened hysterically at first, and all I could do was look down at my feet.
"It's cool. It's not the first time someone's prejudged me. Besides, I like a challenge, and you, Ichi, are one" he smiled. Unlike the ones he had flashed me before; this one was genuine and filled with understanding. As he smiled, I wanted to cry. I didn't hate the way he had smiled, but something about it seemed so lonely.
"Why is that when you smile most times, it seems lonely?" I asked without thinking it through. It was only until I realised just exactly what I had said, that I desperately wanted to take it back. "Shit...I'm sorry, Grimmjow" I quickly apologised, blushing more feverently as I did. Grimmjow gave a small smile before he patted me gently on the head once. I hadn't noticed it before but he was tall and well-toned. He wasn't exactly a body builder or anything, but he was well-toned. His fingers ran gently through my spiky orange hair. Something about the way his fingers moved effortlessly through the short strands of my hair felt therapeutic, almost to the point where it felt soothing.
"Let's just start over, okay?" he suggested after a short while.
"I'd like that" I gave a small smile. Three months had quickly passed after that incident and since then, I had gotten to learn about Grimmjow, even if it was just little by little. The more the pair of us talked, the more I discovered how wrong I had originally been, when it came to prejudging Grimmjow. I had made sure to avoid questions relating to Family, mainly because if he asked, I wasn't sure if I could tell him what had happened six years ago. What I did find out, though, was that Grimmjow originally was from Germany, but had lived in Spain and then Kyoto in the space of about two or three years before he moved here with his family. His favourite colours were Blue, Silver and White, his hair was naturally blue and apart from being great at Sports and being smart, he was a good friend who was loyal and supportive. I couldn't help but trust him with my life in such a short space of time, but everyone knows that there's quite a large distance between friendship and love. I however didn't realise how big the distance was between the two and at the time, I didn't know that I, without fail, would come to fall for him.