So, I'm a bit scared of what will come of this. Oh well, I'll just write my ass off and see. I thought I'd be writing more oneshots but this one morning I darted out of bed, ran like a maniac (mumbling to myself) and glued myself to my laptop to write down a plot I came up with in my bed, half asleep. I was awarded with weird looks from my family. If you don't hear from me, somebody must have called the guys with white jackets... I'll try to escape so that I'll be able to update.
Please try to bear with my grammatical errors and typos, I'm seriously trying to avoid them. Seriously.
And again, enough with my useless babbling, let's get on with things. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it~
Warnings: Yaoi/Manxman, obviously some smut is in the horizon. I'm not hurrying things though. But in general if you're not into it, please don't read this story. Also contains bad language and character death in one chap. If there's more to warn about, I'll mention it in the particular chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. God only knows what would happen, if I did… *smirk*
This chapter is written in Ichigo's POV. I might change the POVs from time to time, but I'll shout it out loud when I do so.
Chapter 1: The price of cockiness
Oh fuck I really need to find this guy. I'm starting to run out of time. What did Renji say… Black shoulder-length hair, big droopy eyes, overall small and apologetic appearance and then… It was some kind of a clue about the location he was standing, waiting to be found. I gritted my teeth and ran my fingers through my orange locks as I cursed myself to hell for not listening properly what Renji had said. Fuck. Seriously, fuck!
The thing here is that earlier today I, for some stupid reason, started to brag about my capability to find anything or anyone if needed. My friend Rukia didn't swallow it at all, so she hit me on my shoulder out of nowhere (which still by the way hurts like hell) and started to joke about my statement. Of course I got pissed and the whole thing got out of hand and now I'm trying to find this Hanatarou-dude from this huge shopping center, which is more than crowded. Damn I hate sales. Oh, and to make things worse, we made a bet out of this. Rukia is also trying to find him, to prove me wrong about me being a great fucking detective. I really don't even know why I'm doing this. There's nothing I need to prove to Rukia so I guess it's just my goddamn pride that won't allow me to eat my own words.
And maybe the fact that the loser has to do something shitty the other tells them to do. Me and my big mouth for suggesting something like that.
Okay so, I need to relax and just try to find the brat to get this over with. And of course I can't deny that I wouldn't enjoy seeing Rukia doing something she absolutely hates. Oh I'd have the time of my life! I'm so ready to dance my happydance once I claim my victory.
But enough with that. I again plunged into the mass of people and tried to look around for Hanatarou. Looking in front of me, all I saw was brown hair here, a red jacket there, ripped jeans over there… Oh and on my left there was a punk whose hair was green from the front and pink from behind. Who the hell dyes their hair like that? Seriously.. I gave a last glance at the brightly colored hair, then shrugged it off (as I remembered the color of my own hair) and concentrated on my mission once again. I took my hand out of my pocket and checked the time from my watch. Shit. It was already 1:48pm. We agreed that there would be a timeline to this for two reasons. The first being: I do not want to waste a whole day in this. Besides being almost crushed to death by so many unknown bodies makes me feel more than uneasy. I don't like crowded places. I'm not so socially active that I constantly need a mass of people around me, the thought actually makes me want to run away. This is the reason I don't go to bars and stuff. The second reason for the timeline was Hanatarou's silent plead for not being forced to stand alone for hours if no-one wouldn't be able to find him. I guess it's understandable. He was also uncomfortable in this kind of a place but the reason for it was that he was, in addition to everything else, scared of people. I sure as hell wasn't scared of people, I just didn't feel comfortable being surrounded by them.
Now that I think about it, this might be Rukia's awesome idea to try and get me over my anxiety of a huge mass of people. It was her idea after all to have Renji hide Hanatarou somewhere in here. Oh screw her.
I glanced at my watch again. Hell no. I groaned and whined at the same time making the sound resemble something straight from a jungle. It was already 1:59pm. We were supposed to meet outside at 2pm. In a sudden fit of anger and frustration I threw my watch on the floor and stomped on it, instantly regretting my actions as I heard it crack under my shoe. I wasn't able to feel sorry for my watch for long since suddenly somebody came from behind, shoving people (including me) out of his way. And as a lucky person which I am, I tripped and fell, almost creating a domino effect as I pushed the person in front of me who pushed the next one and so on. Oh fuck I hate shopping centers and the overly eager mass of people running after low prices! This day couldn't get any worse.
I let out a sigh of relief as I got to the exit. Fresh air and sunshine welcomed me which was a nice change to the thick and hot air of the shopping center. Fuck Hanatarou, if I weren't able to find him neither was Rukia. I was 100% sure of that. Besides, she's so short that she can't even see around her in the mass of people. And I guess it's nice to live closer to ground so that when some bastard comes behind you in a rampage and makes you fall down you won't hurt yourself so badly, but in this particular situation it's not much of a help. So this was going to be a tie, right?
Remember when I said that this day couldn't get any worse? Okay well it just did.
Here I was lulling myself into believing that nothing bad was going to happen to me because of the bet, when the sight in front of me proved me totally wrong. Renji was standing there with Rukia.. and Hanatarou? Huh?
Rukia must've seen the utter disbelief which was slowly crossing my face because she started walking towards me with a taunting smirk on her face.
"Took you long enough, Ichigo. You know, we've been here for like a half an hour if not even longer." She said and her smile got even wider and voice lower as we both knew what this meant.
"So, to me this looks like Mr. Kurosaki here lost our bet and now I'll be rewarded with the authority to command you to do whatever I want" I could hear the triumph in her voice and see the glint of pure evil in her eyes. Oh yeah, rub it in my face as much as you want thank you very much. Renji walked beside her, giving me a sorry look, knowing I wasn't going to get off easily. I glanced at Hanatarou.. or at least where he was a minute ago. It seems that Renji had told him to leave now that we didn't have any use for him anymore. So harsh, but that's Renji for you.
I looked at some stray cat wondering on the other side of the road and waited for my judgment to be announced, scowling fiercely. There was nothing I could do about this. I lost, hands down. I wish I'd just have kept my mouth shut from the beginning. As I vowed never to talk again my fate was revealed by that devil of a woman.
"We all happen to know that besides the hate of crowded places, you also have a fear of heights, right Ichigo?" She taunted while keeping a pleasant smile on her face. My stomach rolled but I only glanced angrily at her and said nothing. Asshole, if it wasn't obvious that I had a fea.. No, let's rephrase that. I prefer ground level to high places. I leaned against a wall frowning and sighed, making it clear that I just want to get this over with. And quickly please.
"So I was thinking that maybe you should take a skydiving class? How about it? Oh, I almost forgot, why am I presenting a question when you don't have anything to say to this anyway" She cackled and wiped off a tear of joy from her left eye. Renji stood there dumbfounded and didn't do or say anything. I would have joked about it (normally he never shuts up), but I was ready to shit myself so that idea somehow didn't fit in my panic-filled mind. Me? Skydiving? Jumping to nothing, floating so high I was actually able to see God's toe hair?
"A-are you fucking serious?" I managed to squeeze out of my throat. Okay I might rephrase that one sentence once again. I do not dislike heights, I fucking dread heights! I do not want to do this. Seriously.
Rukia just gave me a knowing look and slowly nodded once. And to emphasize her superiority she got on her toes, ruffled my hair and then pushed my shoulder.
"Off you go, you have a class to catch" She laughed manically and turned away. Her steps were so light and she held her head so high that I only wanted to throw something at her. Maybe a bomb or something?
Renji looked at me and tried to say something. He knew how much I feared heights because we've been friends since we were just little brats. I just stared at him with wide eyes, trying to find some kind of a way to escape this. Renji understood what was going through my mind and just sighed.
"You know Ichigo that a bet is a bet. It was your idea to add this little twist in it, so there's not much you can do about it. We've done this before; you remember when Rukia went in that rat hole because she lost that one bet? She did it, not without complaining though, but still. And besides, maybe you could get over your fear? Try to look at the positive side of this because.." Renji was abruptly cut off by my sudden yell.
"Positive? You can say there's a positive side to this? Oh fuck Renji I'm screwed and you know it as well as I do. There's no way I can jump off of a plane. It's just plain impossible. The mere thought makes me feel dizzy." Maybe I should just find a high cliff and jump to end my misery. Oh but that wouldn't work either.. The height-problem would haunt me there also.
Maybe I'll fetch that bomb back, which I in my imagination threw at Rukia when she was walking away, and blow myself up with it. At least then I didn't have to do this shit right now. Oh yeah, here I am fulfilling Rukia's demand. Fuck that stupid bet I seriously should have kept my mouth shut. This thing here is going to put me in my early grave. Oh well..
I looked at the building in front of me. It wasn't big and it had seen better days. Paint was peeling off from its walls and grass was growing on its roof. On the wall it said KASKY, meaning Karakura Skydiving. It was located pretty far from Karakura centrum, so there was nothing more than forest surrounding me. Oh but there actually were a field further away and if I saw right there was a really old Cessna 208 Caravan at the side of the field. Yeah, I know something about planes, but my fear of heights kept me from getting deeper into them. I started to doubt this place. But the class' price was rather cheap so that's why I decided to come here. I just hope their parachutes are not filled with holes or that their plane won't break down or something.
I felt more than little hesitant as I started to walk towards the building. I didn't know anybody else, who was attending to this class. So I was alone with the devil of a voice yapping in the back of my head, giving me a hard time to try to swallow my growing fear. As I got closer, I suddenly heard quiet steps behind me. I thought I was currently alone and was deep in my thoughts, so I almost jumped before I turned my head around to see who was coming behind me.
Okay, I don't know what's wrong with this guy. I tried to check the back of my pants to make sure I didn't have toilet paper hanging from my pocket or something, because the guy behind me wore a wide, and I mean like a WIDE grin on his face. He padded closer to me and tilted his head.
"Haven' seen ya here before, ya new?" He asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.
I really couldn't tell what this guy was up to, but the atmosphere which was surrounding him wasn't nice at all. I also couldn't look him in the eyes since they were squinted, making him resemble a fox. He was extremely hard to read. Or actually impossible.
"Uhh, yeah. Yeah, I'm new. Actually I was forced to take a skydiving class, so here I am, confused as hell." I scratched the back of my head and looked around nervously. I wanted to run away while I still had the chance.
The weird looking man hummed and looked at me through his squinted eyes. Or I guess he did, it's kind of hard to tell. His face in general was starting to piss me off. Could you just act normal? No? Okay.
"Is tha' so, well then we're class mates in a way. Even though I've been doin' this fer years." He looked like he was thinking about something, but I seriously didn't want to know what it was. I had been talking to this guy for a few minutes and he was already creeping me out. I just mumbled something in response and stared at the ground before me.
"Gin! Hey you're here already! Why didn't you wait for me?" I snapped my head up when a bright voice came – again – from behind me. I – again – turned around to see what kind of a freak was now in turn.
"Gomen, Rangiku" The weird man, supposedly named Gin, said or actually sang while still staring at me. It bothered me, why was he staring at me?
The woman named Rangiku walked beside me and looked at me with curiosity. Oh nice, another pair of eyes glued to my face. This is just what I needed..
"Ne, Gin, who's this cutie?" Rangiku asked and moved her face closer to take a better look at my confused face. I tried to put some distance between us and staggered backwards.
"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki and I'm here for the first time. I hope this is also the last time since this place is seriously giving me the creeps. And stop with the cutie-crap" I mouthed with a deep scowl. She ignored the venom in my words.
"Ichigo? Like a strawberry? Oh, what a cute name~ And you're a newbie? Welcome to the club" She practically squealed and then glomped me, crushing my face against her huge breasts. I let out a muffled yell and pushed her away.
"What the fuck are you doing? Stay away from me, bitch!" I fumed and blushed furiously from embarrassment and rage.
"Oh Gin, isn't he just too cute!" Rangiku giggled, totally ignoring my shouting which made me even more angry. Gin just chuckled and hid his hands in his sleeves. I was just about to strangle both of them, but settled for shooting daggers at them as another person made an appearance.
"Now now, stop teasing the new boy. That's not beautiful at all. Try to think about his fragile feelings, Rangiku" A man spoke with a soft voice and then nodded at Gin as a greeting. Gin didn't react to that but just kept smiling that weird smile of his. Rangiku ran a hand through her long strawberry blonde hair and sighed.
"Don't be so boring Yumi. Why can't we tease Ichigo a little.. It's not going to kill him" She whined and made a sorrowful face. The man with black jaw-length hair and somewhat feminine facial features didn't respond to Rangiku's wailing but looked at me.
"So, your name is Ichigo I suppose? My name is Yumichika Ayasegawa. And if these two haven't been smart enough to introduce themselves, I'll do it for them. The woman harassing you is Rangiku Matsumoto and that slim man is Gin Ichimaru." He explained with a relaxed expression and then looked behind him.
"Oi, Ikkaku! There's a new guy here" He called softly at the woods. I looked away from where Yumichika was shouting and frowned. So, everybody seems to know each other. Nice. Like this wasn't bad enough, now I'm going to be harassed by this fucked up group of people because I'm the new one. Oh I wish this would be over already. My thoughts were cut off when something moved in the bushes and a bald man came out with a yell.
"What the hell are you shouting Yumi, I almost got that bastard of a.." He fumed but then went quiet and smirked once he locked eyes with me. I subconsciously took a step backwards when I saw the baldy carrying a wooden stick in his hand and eyeing me with a malicious grin. I do not want to know why this guy carried that thing with him. I also decided not to piss him off.
The bald guy looked at me and raised his wooden sword-or-whatever-it-was. "So you're a newbie? Make sure you don't get in my fucking way or I'll kick your ass" He barked and then looked at both Rangiku and Gin with a quick nod. Okay, forget I said anything about pissing him off. That fucktard just made me see red.
"Fuck you baldy." I spat at him words dripping venom. "What the fuck you're saying? You are going to kick my ass? With that stick you're carrying? Let me laugh." I faked a lame laugh and then went serious again. "Fuck off."
"What the hell did you just call me, brat?" Ikkaku fumed, narrowed his eyes and took a step forward before Yumi got in front of him, looking strictly at him in the eyes. Ikkaku tried to pass him in his rage to get to kill me, but stopped when a hand was placed to his chest. "Ikkaku please, let's not start this, okay?" Even though Yumi's face was now dead serious, his voice was still soft and pleasant. I wondered what their relationship was because after Ikkaku sent me another death glare, he then looked back at Yumi and with a deep and irritated sigh he forced his body to relax.
I just stared at the two of them as Ikkaku turned his head away from all of us and crossed his arms. Yumi turned to me with a slight smile and pointed a thin finger behind him at the scowling baldy.
"Ikkaku Madarame, my boyfriend. Try not to get on his bad side, okay? I already have hard time to keep him and our unofficial boss away from each other's throats." He said and smiled but there was a threatening atmosphere around him. Boss? What the hell? I decided to keep my mouth shut for once. I almost started to direct my attention to somewhere else when something Yumi said struck me. Boyfriend? Ikkaku is his boyfriend? So that makes them..gay? Rangiku seemed to notice when I grimaced at my thoughts and guessed the cause of it. She walked near me and placed a tender hand on my shoulder. I flinched and tried to get away, remembering her previous harassment, but she followed and leaned closer to whisper softly in my ear.
"Don't worry, they're not the ones you should be worried about." She then laughed out loud when my head snapped towards her and I shoved her away from me once again my face in utter shock.
"What the hell is wrong with you people? Keep your hands away from me! Just stay away you fucking bitch!" I shrieked and my face went deep red as I stumbled backwards. Rangiku held her stomach as her laugh got even louder and it drew the attention of the rest to us. Yumi lifted an eyebrow, Ikkaku just glanced and huffed and Gin.. Well he kept that creepy smirk on and cooed something about Rangiku being so loud. I couldn't hear it accurately because that woman with those breasts huge enough to suffocate people was laughing so loud I thought my eardrums were going to explode.
I sighed in irritation and pinched my nose with my thumb and index finger. I can't deal with this. I seriously can't.. And I won't. I looked at Rangiku and frowned. She had already stopped laughing and was now wearing a puppy look on her face. She obviously got it that I'm starting to reach my limit.
"Don't get mad at us, Ichi. We mean no harm, it's just that you're so cute when you get all confused and angry" She pleaded and blinked her blue eyes. Oh fuck me this is pure shit. I knew I wanted to leave, but I also had to complete this nice little mission Rukia gave me for losing the bet. Oh I'm so going to get back at her for this..
"Don't call me cute, idiot. And who the hell gave you a permission to call me Ichi. My name is Ichigo." I huffed and turned my head away. Rangiku made a sound which indicated that she was about to say something when a car pulled to a free parking space. We all turned our heads towards the electric blue car and I furrowed my brow. Yeah this is great, another bastard.
Gin walked closer to us from the shadow he had withdrawn earlier. "My my if it isn't Grimm, late as always" He chuckled. What the fuck is wrong with this guy? He hasn't stopped smiling even once. And doesn't it bother him that he's not able to see in front of him properly because he keeps his eyes shut? How the hell can he walk without bumping into things? I don't get it. Besides his hair color was odd. It was so light, almost silver. I was dragged out from my thoughts once more as the car's door was opened and somebody stepped out.
What the hell? A guy with blue fucking hair came out and stretched before slamming the door shut. He then sniffed once and turned his head at us with a wide grin.
"Guess ya guys are all here already. Good, spares me the pain of waiting. I fucking hate it." He said with a gruff voice and walked towards us with a yawn. "Well fucking move it! Let's get things started, Soifon should already be preparing the plane and she'll be pissed as hell if we aren't ready when she is. And I don't want to deal with the bitching." He rushed the others as he got closer. I could feel heat reaching my face and knew my face was red as a tomato. Fuck I hate my tendency to blush easily when I'm nervous or embarrassed or so on. Well I need to inform my presence and tell that I'm new and and.. shit, I don't want to.
I mentally kicked myself since I was acting like a goddamn girl. Let's just get this over with. I stepped forward and cleared my throat as everybody else started to make their way into the worn out building behind us.
"Err, I'm Ichigo Kurosaki and I'm kind of new with.. this shit…" I trailed off when the blue haired man noticed me and stopped walking. His cyan eyes locked with my brown ones. Okay now I feel like a fucking deer in the headlights. I don't know how long we just stood there in awkward silence. Or at least it was extremely awkward for me, I don't know about this other bastard now in front of me. He broke our eye contact and let his eyes make a tour on my body. Okay now I feel uncomfortable as hell. One gay couple is enough for me thank you.
"A new guy it is. And name was Ichigo.." He said with a husky voice and looked me in the eyes again. I couldn't help but turn my head away. I don't know why but his eyes were like lasers and I felt myself blushing even harder. Fuck this all!
The man obviously saw my reaction and an even wider smirk plastered itself on his face. "Name is Grimmjow Jaegerjaques and I'm the leader aka the boss of this shithole. Do as I say and we're all good." Pride could be heard from his voice as he offered me his hand. Though I don't get it why one would be proud of this place. It really is a shithole. Nevertheless I shook his hand and looked at him. His eyes were still fixated on my face and I felt more nervous than before. If it was even possible. He bend down so that his face was on the same level as mine, almost invading my personal space. Fucking bastard, even though he's clearly taller than me, it's not like he'd had to rub it in my face. I scowled and took a step backwards. This is ridiculous, fuck Rukia and everything else on this goddamn planet!
He just barked a laugh at my reaction, grabbed my arm and despite my protest he started to drag me towards the garage-like building where the others went earlier.
"Okay Berry, let's see what ya got."
Okay so, I hope that this wasn't too boring.. Was it? If it was, then please tell me so that I'll know to avoid it in the future~ I just thought not to rush things too fast since this was the first chappy after all. :|
But yeah, poor Ichigo.. And things are not going to look any better for him.. With this group around him, it's only natural that things are going to get worse. Fufu.
Reviews equal instant love and huge gratitude :)
~Frichikiras