Chapter 2: If I Could Escape...

Nnoitra blinked his eye open and stretched as he felt the blonde beside him rise. He weakly moved his hands to try to catch his boyfriend but he managed to escape his grasp. He already missed the warm, soft body beside him. Their bed had been a safe haven for the tall man all these years, all he wanted to do all day was wrap them up in the fluffy white bed sheets and forget about the world. Unfortunately, his companion wasn't the same way.

"Shinji" he whined and patted his hands on the bed. A soft laugh came from the blond as he walked over and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek.

"Time to go to class Nnoi, get up" Nnoitra groaned as the phone began to ring on the bed stand right beside his ear. He turned around to bury himself back into the comforter. He didn't care much for college; it wasn't like he wasn't already taken care of. He only went to the damn classes to keep Shinji and Kisuke from bitching at him too much. He figured it must be Kisuke to ask why he hadn't gone to them today, the man pestered him so much when he decided to be lazy. But what did they expect? No one could get him out of bed if he didn't feel like it, point-blank.

"'M so sleepy" he grumbled and settled into the middle of the oversized bed.

"Helloo" Shinji answered in that annoying morning voice that he hated so much. "Uhm, okay hold on, he just woke up" Shinji turned toward him and sat on the bed. The blond leaned down and pushed some strands away from his boyfriends face. "Nnoi, it's Jyuushiro, he said it's important" Nnoitra sprung up and he snatched the phone out of his hand while reaching for his eye patch on the bedside table.

"What?" Nnoitra asked with annoyance. He knew what was about to happen. Nnoitra's apartment has become a jail cell for the kids back in the Seireitei. Jyuushiro sends them to his damn place so often that most of them have their own keys, he doesn't even know how they got them. There were two probabilities. Either Szayel stole their keys and made duplicates, or it was Shinji, whom he suspected never minded the company no matter how much he poked at the visitors.

"Get up, Nnoitra. You have to come to the Seireitei now. We have to go-"

"What? Come on, it's like two in the morning" Shinji snorted from beside the large vanity as he began to get ready for the day.

"We found him" Nnoitra's heart skipped a beat and his mind went numb. They found him. Who is him? It couldn't be-.

"I...- I'll meet you" he said, his voice quickly depressing at the thought, the reality had yet to sink in.

Yumichika growled and kicked at the bars again. He was absolutely livid, those damn cops had locked Ikkaku and him in this cell hours ago and it looked like there was no way out. This was possibly the worst thing that could ever happen, he shouldn't have gone out. What had he been thinking? That damn car was so pretty though, anyone in their right mind would have taken it.

"Yumichika" Ikkaku sighed quietly. He sat on the tiny fold out bed on the other side of the cell and stare up at his companion whom he couldn't help noticed hadn't ceased pacing. But of course he didn't stop, the cops just had to mention that they had called the Seireitei and tattled on them. It was bad enough to have gotten caught, it was another thing to find out that they would be sent back to the safe haven that was specifically built to keep them away from Aizen. He could only imagine how Yumichika must feel being kept away from his precious Papa for so long. "Yumi!" he repeated louder and reached out to grab the frantic teen's wrist to pull him down beside him. "Calm down, there's nothin' we can do now. We just gotta wait" Yumichika looked over at him and nodded in agreement. He was right, they had to think of this logically so they could get out.

"Sure, but what if they take us back before we get a chance? What if I have to- ah..no, we need to get out of here. Right now" The brunette said and put his head in his hands.

"Shh. They're gonna take us back either way, we got three guards on us. The bastards aren't gonna let us go, the only chance we got is to go back to the Seireitei and get out there"

"What if-"

"No, stop it. It doesn't matter, we get out there"

"Ikkaku-"

"No arguments. You aren't thinking straight" he said sternly and crossed his arms over his chest as he lay back against the bars. Yumichika huffed and put his head to the broad chest.

"What about Papa?"

"Yumichika" he growled again and the smaller teen stopped. He knew the voice, it was the angry/annoyed voice that usually got him pressed up against the nearest wall fighting for air. Ikkaku had learned it in his time at Las Noches. On a normal night, he may have picked and prodded to push the angry sex along but for once in a long time he wasn't in the mood. He knew what was coming and he didn't want to do it anymore. He was sorry, really really sorry. All Yumichika wanted to do was go home. Sighing, he closed his eyes as his best friend pulled him close. "It's ok. We'll get out and leave the Seireitei, we'll find yer pa in no time. Didn't he teach you any patience?"

"That's really weird hearing that from your mouth" Ikkaku grinned.

"You try waiting three hours to pop a body. Takes introspection"

"Eh, I knew I shouldn't have let you hang out with Gin" Yumichika quipped with the roll of his eyes before continuing to stress about his all too near future.

Ichigo tapped his pencil against the pad in his hands at a frantic pace. This early morning class was getting irritating quickly, it was his last year of high school and it was taking too long. Only a few more months and he would be free. Ichigo scrunched up his nose as a hand came down on his paper and stopped his frantic tapping. He looked up at the red-head with a look of 'sorry' only a moment before the class bell rang.

"Are you okay?" Renji asked with a tilt of the head and Ichigo just got up to walk out.

"I'm fine Ren, just..fidgety today. It just feels like something's wrong" Renji raised his eyebrows and smiled before embracing the orange head into a tight hug.

"I can make you forget that" he purred. Ichigo grinned down at him and put his arms around his shoulders before giving him a kiss. He didn't know where this thing with Renji would go but he liked it. So far it felt effortless. They had been friends for so long and the red-head had always been there for him. No one could deny the clear spike of jealousy he showed when Renji began dating Kensei behind his back, he was just happy to have him now.

"Oh can you?" Renji nodded hastily and grabbed his hand to pull him toward the dorms.

"How about you come back to my room and I'll make you forget everything"

"I got class" he stated, yet continued to allow himself to be pulled toward the red head's room. Renji pouted and Ichigo melted and began to follow willingly.

Ulquiorra squinted his eyes as he watched the two out the window. He hated seeing Ichigo and Renji, but he had no idea why. It had been so long since he had felt those things for Ichigo, but he couldn't help the jealousy from rising up in his chest. He could have had that once, a long time ago when he and Grimmjow were so obviously not going to work. Kind of like what was going on now actually. Shaking the painful memories from his thoughts Ulquiorra got up and gathered his things to walk and meet Szayel on the tables outside in the courtyard.

Even the tables seemed different. There was no longer a 'Kids of Las Noches' nobody touch table. Now that Nnoitra and Shinji were gone and everyone was off doing their own thing the tables were almost always filled with people who weren't apart of the group. No more beautiful drawings from Yumichika's paint, no more cigarette burns from Nnoi or knife marks from Grimmjow. No more evidence of Szayel's liquor concoctions and no more hidden blunts. It was almost as if all the history of this bench had disappeared as soon as Shinji and Nnoitra left. Ulquiorra couldn't help but ponder how depressing this was.

"Hey" he said quietly as he sat beside his friend. Szayel was looking down in deep thought and flinched as he put up his hand to touch his shoulder.

"Shit Ulqi..I..you scared me for a second there" he said lowly and took a deep breath before looking at his friend. Ulquiorra looked down and bit his lip, he really didn't know what to say. He knew what Szayel was thinking of, it was most likely the same thing he was just thinking of not five minutes ago.

"How are you feeling?" It had only been a night that Jyuushiro let them sleep. He said that they would discuss this today and everyone knew what that meant. It meant that someone was getting kicked out for a few days to spend some time with Nnoitra. Ulquiorra hated it, sometimes he would lie and go out to drink all night before passing out at a hotel just so he didn't have to encounter the couple. He couldn't help but keep a grudge, no one could blame him for that. Well..at least that's how he liked to think of it.

"Fine" the pink head shrugged. "Waiting I guess. Jyuushiro got a call a couple of hours ago and he ran out"

"You could have come to my room" Szayel didn't say anything. Ulquiorra didn't care to speak that much either. It was an emotionally exhausting couple of days. A hint of blue hair caught the side of Ulquiorra's eye and he turned his head to see Grimmjow walking and laughing with a couple of other people. Probably joking about what he was going to do with Ylfordt when he got his hands on him. Ulquiorra heard the blonde was hiding in Unohana's office but everyone knew he couldn't hide forever. He sighed and looked back down. "You ever think you'll get back together?" Szayel asked solemnly and watched as Grimmjow walked into the halls of the Seireitei. "I mean like...really together?"

The brunette looked back to see that Grimmjow had left his line of sight and he closed his eyes as he felt his heart clench. "Probably not, Szay..probably not" Szayel nodded and looked back down at the ground. Szayel knew he shouldn't have asked. No one really talked about that anymore. They all knew what happened between Ulquiorra and Ichigo had been some big drunken mistake but Grimmjow wouldn't let it go. Szayel blinked away his tears as he thought of his own man troubles. He didn't feel like speaking so he didn't, Ulquiorra apparently had the same idea. That's how they stayed until lunch was over, just sitting together staring at their feet.

Yumichika ran his hand through his long purple hair and looked up as the door on the other side of the bars opened.

"I suggest you watch yourself. They nearly escaped when we were bringing them here, had to put them in the cell cause the little one got out of his handcuffs, twice" an officer said and stepped out of the way to show Jyuushiro Ukitake and Kisuke Urahara who couldn't be more relieved when they saw it was really them.

"Yumichika!" Jyuushiro exclaimed and hurried over to the bars.

"Ikkaku?" Kisuke questioned and looked down at his former student. Yumichika turned toward his best friend as the last man ducked his head to walk into the room.

"Ikka" he whispered frantically and patted him on the arm. "Ikkaku!"

"Hey, stop that!" The officer yelled and took out his baton to bang it on the bars.

"It's alright officer, I'm sure they're fine-"

"Look, I realize that you are their sole guardians but these two have caused us some trouble and it's begun with moments like these. The bald one stops speaking then as soon as you open the door they're out-"

"I'm not bald" Ikkaku growled and he was against the bars in an instance. He reached his hand out as far as he could and snarled in frustration as he came about an inch too short of the officer's neck. The man looked down and motioned them to look at the line of duct tape on the ground.

"And this is why we have the line"

"I thought you said they were only here for two days" Kisuke said with amusement and raised his eyebrow as Ikkaku turned and cracked his neck.

"Yes but they've tried to escape, as I said, the prisoners have already gotten away several times" Nnoitra took a deep breath and stare down at Yumichika. The boy was different. His hair was longer, he was dressed in expensive clothing, his nails grown out, and had black makeup smudged all over his eyes. He felt his heart beat out of his chest when the teen turned away and hid his face under his hair.

"Yumichika" he breathed out, fell to his knees, and leaned his forehead against the bars. "Yumichika!" he screamed and punched at the metal. "Look, I know I fucked up, but it's been fucking years! Where the hell have you been!?"

"Ikkaku" Yumichika whispered and Ikkaku stood in front of Nnoitra with crossed arms and a hard expression. The tall man looked up at the bald man and growled.

"Open this door" he demanded at the officer and stood slowly to look down at the bald man with a manic grin on his face.

"Yeah, open this door..grr" Ikkaku mocked and puffed out his chest.

"Alright boys..we're not doing this today" Jyuushiro said worriedly and pulled Nnoitra back. "Release them" he nodded and looked over at the officer.

"We'll escort them to the Seireitei. You never really know with them,
it's safer that way"

"Yumichika's not going to the Seireitei" Nnoitra said sternly and moved his head to the side to look down at the boy.

"Nnoitra-"

"No, no Nnoitra this, Nnoitra that..he's going home with me Kisuke" he said sternly, with a proud look that said he was not giving up. They couldn't do this, no one was going to take Yumichika away from him again. Nnoitra began to go over plans of how this could happen, never again would the boy leave again. Not after all this time of being free, he had his damn time alone, now it was time to come back to reality and be back with his brother. It's just how the tall man thought of the world and that's how it was going to be.

"We'll decide this after we get back to the Seireitei, either way we're going there. That's where your car is Nnoitra" Jyuushiro said then sighed.

Grimmjow crossed his arms and sat next to his friend in the middle of the courtyard. He stubbed out his cigarette and threw it away from him. "Shouldn't have got involved" Ichigo said softly as he breathed out some smoke. Grimmjow shrugged and looked away, he really didn't know what to say to Ichigo anymore.

Things hadn't been the same since Yumi left…it was such a long time ago. Grimmjow had lost his best friend not much later than that. He didn't blame either one of them for what happened but it still hurt. But then again, after what Ichigo had done, Grimmjow knew he wasn't in as bad shape. Things could be worse, once in a while he wondered what life would have been like if Ulquiorra just disappeared. Grimmjow didn't even want to imagine that world, even with what happened between them he didn't want to have that pain. After all, it wasn't like Ulquiorra was the only one having those feelings when it happened, he was just the first one to do something about them.

There really was nothing else to say, yet they always seemed to meet up like this. Subtly expecting the other to say something new, hoping that something would change. Even after the blue haired teen had kicked Ichigo's ass all those times they always managed to find themselves back on this bench when the night was approaching. But now that Ichigo had Renji it seemed to be all that he cared about. Things were certainly changing for what seemed like the better, at least for Ichigo that was. "How's Ulquiorra?"

"I wouldn't know. We're not speaking again so..." Grimmjow drew out and leaned forward to put his elbows on his knees.

"Oh.." Ichigo stated and looked away. After a few minutes of awkward silence Grimmjow rose and turned away from the orange head.

"I'll see ya later Strawberry"

"See ya" Ichigo said sadly and watched the bluenettes back as he walked away. With a deep groan he lit another cigarette and closed his eyes. Truthfully he hated seeing Grimmjow, the man was always down around him nowadays, in fact, everyone from Las Noches seemed off beat lately. Now with Szayel and Ylfordt, Ichigo wondered how much worse it could get.

Ichigo pressed his palms to his forehead and let his thoughts go back in time. He wished he had a time machine and then he could really go back. Back to when Nnoitra used to be himself, or when Grimmjow and Ulquiorra were together, or when Szayel and Ylfordt didn't always fight back and forth about everything. Back when Yumichika was there and he was happy, not the kind of up that he gets when he's with Renji, back when they were all genuinely happy to be together.

It seemed like a lifetime ago, but he still couldn't sleep at Renji's. It was awkward the first time he did, especially since when he woke up he had sworn it was Yumichika lying beside him in bed. When he found red hair he had to leave immediately before he embarrassed himself by crying in front of his new boyfriend.

Most days he would close his eyes and try to forget everything that had gone on since the beautiful boy had left him. He knew they all knew it, every time his old friends looked at him they thought of Yumichika. Somehow this whole fiasco was his fault, and Nnoi, Nnoi believed it to. Nnoitra and he made up not long after everything happened but that didn't mean that sometimes when that eye came upon him he couldn't feel that regret being radiated onto him.

Ichigo slowly got up and threw his cigarette down. He began to walk back to his dorm with thoughts of a black-haired vixen. He pulled his phone out and decided to call Renji to ask him to come over for the night. Maybe tomorrow when he woke up he would think of the right person, well the person who was there.

Yumichika yawned and leaned his head as best he could on Ikkaku's shoulder. They were handcuffed to the seats behind them and it was entirely too uncomfortable. He felt Ikkaku move a little and kiss the top of his head as he drifted off. It wasn't a very long ride back to the Seireitei but it felt like they were creeping toward death.

Yumichika wanted to go to Kai's. Kai always had nice things, he could get them out of this. He made a silent note in his head to see about calling him even though Kai said they were done. But Kai lied, he always said mean things to him when he asked him not to leave. Like boohoo you have a baby on the way, shouldn't have stayed the first night then.

Suddenly the car stopped and Yumichika blinked open his eyes as the cops got out. He smiled as he heard a click and looked up at Ikkaku's evil grin. "You ready?" the bald headed man asked. Yumichika nodded as their doors opened. When his face came into contact with a standard issue police Taser to be used in special situations, he rolled his eyes.

"Aw how sweet, you think so much of me Techka" he smirked and stepped out of the car. Yumichika fiddled with his cuffs and heard a tongue click from the other side of the doors. Quickly he slipped his dislocated wrist out of the cuffs and easily moved the metal away before planting a solid palm into the officer's nose and kneeing up as he fell forward. He turned around and growled as he saw that Nnoitra had Ikkaku by the throat. "Ikka!" he cried out and forced the dramatics.

Ikkaku made choking sounds and promptly went limp in an instant as soon as he heard Yumichika cry out. Nnoitra growled as he felt Yumichika's hands pushing them away from each other and Ikkaku dropped into a lifeless heap on the ground.

"Nnoitra!" Jyuushiro screeched as he came onto the scene and knelt beside Ikkaku. The purple haired teen threw himself to Ikkaku's chest and let the tears fall freely.

"What is wrong with you!? How can you do this!? Please Jyuushiro, please I'm sorry! I'll never leave again, ever ever again just p-please don't make me go with him please!" Yumichika cried and looked up into Jyuushiro's eyes with sincerity.

"He's lying!" Nnoitra said in exasperation and threw his hands into the air.

"Please Jyuushiro! He just choked Ikkaku! You saw it! P-please uke-san! He's gonna h-hurt m-me" Yumichika cried and straddled Ikkaku before wrapping his arms around his shoulders and digging his head into his neck. "Please don't let him hurt me"

"Oh you fucking bitch" Nnoitra grumbled and took a step toward the two bodies on the ground. "He is lying"

"About what Nnoitra? I did see Ikkaku in the air with your hand around his neck so please explain this to me" Nnoitra rolled his eye and pointed at the officer on the ground and the other that was sitting up blinking rapidly with his hands on his head.

"They both had their handcuffs off, I saw them get out the car and knock em out myself THATS why I jumped out the car and why I had Ikkaku in the air! See!" he pointed to the handcuffs on one of Yumichika's wrists. Yumichika looked up to Jyuushiro with fear.

"That's not true uke-san! They were already uncuffing us! Nnoitra attacked him for no reason"

"Then why are there two officers on the ground Yumichika?" Jyuushiro said sternly and stood with his arms crossed. Yumichika huffed and sat up on Ikkaku realizing that his plan had been foiled and this was just not going to work.

"Fine! But no one said it was okay to attack him like that! Please don't make me go with him" Yumichika cried and buried his head in his hands.

"Uhm, Ikkaku I think you can get up now" Kisuke said with amusement as he saw his former students nose twitch. Ikkaku opened and eye and looked up at the blond before putting a finger to his lips and closing it again.

"Later yeah, playin dead"

"Motherfuckers!" Nnoitra screamed and kicked at Ikkaku's foot. Yumichika let out an annoyed sound and punched a laughing Ikkaku in the chest.

"Bastard!" he yelled before getting up and looking over to check himself in the cop car window. Jyuushiro took a deep sigh as Kisuke helped Ikkaku up and an angry Nnoitra grabbed onto Yumichika's arm.

"Unhand me trash!" Yumichika screamed and jumped up a little to slap Nnoitra right in the face.

"You little fuckin- eh!" Yumichika yelped as he was scooped up and lifted entirely too high into the air and carried away.

"Ikkaku! Jyuushiro please! I'm afraid of heights!" he cried and punched his fists on the long back. The purple haired teen did his best to squirm away but soon he was thrown into the passenger side of a huge SUV and the doors were locked.

"See ya later Yumi" Ikkaku waved to his friend and turned with a smile to the confused men. "I'm hungry, whatcha got to eat?"