The fire was burning in different hues of red, orange and yellow. Grimmjow was marvelling the beauty of it as he listened the sound that came forth from the slightly damp wood he had used to make the fire. The dance of the flames was almost hypnotic. Grimmjow pulled the blanket tighter around his body. He had been sitting still for some time already, waiting for the boy to regain consciousness. It had been boring sitting inside so he had decided to sit on the outside shed, used to the meetings of the tribe leaders.
When Grimmjow and his men had attacked the horse carriage the bluenet had locked eyes with the red head. It had been only a split second but that short moment had been enough for Grimmjow to see the fire burning in those eyes. That moment had sealed Ichigo´s fate. Was it lucky for him to be noticed by the rebel leader or merely something that would lead to much sadness and pain, even Grimmjow himself didn´t know that, Ichigo much less. Why had he wanted to chase down the kid, it was bothering him. Acting like this wasn´t like him at all.
Grimmjow shook the thought out if his head. He rose from the ground where he had been sitting and straightened his clothes. He was wearing a simple robe. It was frosty blue and it had a snowflake pattern on the hem. On his feet he was wearing sandals. A chill ran through the bluenet´s spine. The winter was closing in. He should start dressing more warmly. Soon it would snow and the snow would make sure the red head wouldn´t be going anywhere. They were deep to the mountains and Grimmjow was sure the kid wasn´t stupid enough to try and escape.
It would be a pure suicide to even try and cross the mountains when it was winter. It was far too dangerous and besides the kid didn´t know where he was or what direction he should head to get away from the mountains and back to the civilization. Grimmjow snarled at the thought.
He had made one of his subordinates to take care of the kid´s wounds. Szayel was a pain in the ass but he knew his way around herbs and stuff, so the bluenet tolerated his absurd behaviour. Grimmjow hadn´t bothered listening the pink haired man´s explanation when he had been treating the kid. He didn´t care how Szayel fixed the kid, as long as he fixed him it was all he needed to know. The bluenet hadn´t had even the slightest interest to listen the yapping of Szayel.
Grimmjow headed towards the bedchamber. He wanted to see if the kid was awake. Then he would finally get to ask some questions. All this waiting pissed him off.
Ichigo´s eyes shot open. Yuzu and Karin!
The red head tried to sit up but his left shoulder and his stomach were quick to disagree with his plan. Having no other options present he laid down on his back. He was anxious to know where he was, with whom and why? But at the moment he was in no shape to move around. His neck was stiff but he was able to move it, so he could inspect his wounds. He remembered being hit and kicked. A slight blush spread to Ichigo´s face as he realized that he was stark naked if you didn´t count the bandages covering his wounds. Someone had taken care of his wounds. Who?
Ichigo didn´t have any more time to wonder. He could hear footsteps coming closer. For some reason his heart rate sped up slightly. Should he pretend to be asleep? No, that could be dangerous. He would take it lake a man, as his father would have put it in his rare moments when he acted like a person of his age should.
Grimmjow opened the slide door to the room and immediately saw that the red head had regained consciousness. He smirked. It was bloody time. The brat had been sleeping over a day already.
Ichigo eyed the person who had arrived. The man was tall and his hair was blue. Blue hair, it felt somehow familiar. The red head followed the bluenet with his eyes as the man walked to sit on the pillows beside where he was laying. Ichigo swallowed. He was waiting for the bluenet to make the first move.
The bluenet knew the red head was watching him. He didn´t mind. It wasn´t like he was ashamed of his looks. Grimmjow was almost enjoying this. He was sure the red head was coming up with all different kind of theories as to why he was here and what would happen to him.
"So, What´s yer name kid?" Grimmjow decided to use a friendly tactic this time. Over the years he had noticed that going straight to threatening and torturing was not effective. Acting all composed and patient was not really his style but he´d endure it.
Ichigo froze, his eyes going big as the realization hit him. He couldn´t understand a word the man in front of him had said. He was not stupid by any means but this man was speaking a different language than him. He was quite positive it had been a question but that was all he could figure out from the intonation. Ichigo swallowed again, trying to come up with and answer to the unknown question. He opened his mouth and closed it again, repeating this few times. Ichigo could see that the bluenet was growing impatient. He would need to answer somehow. But before he had the chance, he started to cough violently. His whole body hurt from the tremor and he couldn´t stop.
Ichigo didn´t register anything happening around him. His eyes were squeezed shut and his hands were holding his throat as he kept on couching. Before he knew it he was being lifted to a more upright position and a cup had been brought to his lips. Ichigo brought his hands to the cup and with a little help he was able to drink the liquid, it was bitter. When the cup was taken away Ichigo was slightly panting. He didn´t remember that he would have coughed that hard ever before. Now he was able to take in his surroundings again. He was leaning on to someone. The bluenet wasn´t where he had been a while ago, so Ichigo assumed that the bluenet was the one holding him.
"Kiitos." Ichigo might have been confused, worried and a tad bit scared but he hadn´t forgotten his manners. When someone helped you, you should show your gratitude. Grimmjow had heard the kid say something but he hadn´t been able to catch what it was.
After a while they were sitting face to face. The bluenet had put pillows behind Ichigo´s back so he was on a sitting position.
For the past 15 minutes Grimmjow had been trying to ask questions from Ichigo but no matter what the red head said, the bluenet couldn´t understand a word and it pissed him off great time. He was ready to smash something. What should he do? He was curious of the kid but apparently they couldn´t understand each other. Grimmjow pinched the brick of his nose and closed his eyes. This was getting complicated and hard and he hated complicated things. Ichigo could read from Grimmjow´s body language that he was irritated. This was so out of character from him but something in the back of his mind told him that he shouldn´t let this man get mad, so he grabbed the bluenet´s hand. Grimmjow jerked away from the touch but lifted his face and they locked eyes, warm brown met azure and both of the men stopped at their tracks.
Ichigo brought his hands to his own chest and took a deep breath.
"Ichigo." For some reason I the red head though it would be good to have the man know his name. He couldn´t explain it to himself why but he decided to just go along with it. If he wanted to know where Yuzu and Karin were, he shouldn´t make unnecessary enemies.
Grimmjow was slightly taken aback. The kid was trying to communicate with him. Ichigo? It was probably the kid´s name. Did the red head perhaps want to know his name? Grimmjow thought about few possible ways this could go. He couldn´t come up with anything that would leave him un-amused. A feral grin rose to Grimmjow´s lips. Ichigo could after all be of some amusement. If nothing else then at least he would have something to do during the winter.
Grimmjow leaned towards the red head, grinning like a maniac. He could see that the red head was trying to lean away from him but because of the pillows he didn´t have much space to do so. Grimmjow just knew that he was going to enjoy this and he wasn´t the only one. All of his men were relieved that Grimmjow had decided to pick up the red head as his new plaything. No one of them had wanted to take that role this winter.
"Grimmjow." The bluenet´s mouth was right beside the red head´s ear; his deep voice sent involuntary shivers to Ichigo´s spine. The red head swallowed hard.
Where had he gotten himself? And more importantly, where were the twins and how would he get to his dad?
AN/: I wasn´t planning on writing this until next Wednesday but I´m stressing about my math test and this just happened. I´m pretty much done setting out the story now. Next one will introduce some new people.
Please review.