Chapter 4: ICHIGO!?
"Those two sure are inseparable today aren't they." Toshiro says crossing his arms.
"They are like glued to each other." Rukia sighs.
"Do you think they..." Renji asks.
"Yeah, they are definitely together now." Rangiku says happily.
"They seem happy." Orihime says.
"I don't know, Ichigo looks pretty pissed to me." Renji says.
"Yeah he does, Grimmjow is picking on him for something." Rukia laughs.
"Grimmjow and Ichigo aside, I can't believe we leave tomorrow." Toshiro sighs.
"I know right!" Rangiku frowns leaning on Toshiro. "We didn't even have anything special planned for today."
"We could go see a movie or something." Orihime suggests.
"We already did that." Renji sighs.
"The beach?" Rukia asks.
"Did it." Toshiro says.
"An amusement park?" Renji says.
"Ichigo and Grimmjow will probably get arrested if they got back there." Rangiku sighs.
"Why don't we go on a hike?" Ichigo pipes into the conversation as he walks over with Grimmjow.
"Good idea Ichigo!" Rangiku cheers. "Let's go hiking!"
"Let's stop hiking!" Rangiku complains as she leans on Ichigo for support. "It's too hoooooot!"
"Maybe you should have dressed appropriately and you wouldn't be in this situation right now." Toshiro scolds.
"But I wanted to look cute in case any cute people came by."
"What are you talking about? We are hiking, not exactly the hot spot for cute guys to just randomly appear." Toshiro sighs.
"You never know."
"Whatever." Toshiro sighs giving up and continues to walk.
"Look over there." Rukia says excitedly pointing to a beautiful waterfall with a stream below it and a bridge over the stream.
"So pretty." Orihime exclaims.
"Sure is." Ichigo puts his hands in his pockets and looks at the waterfall.
"I know!" Rangiku says happily making everyone look to her. "We should have our lunch here." She smiles and drops her backpack to the ground, getting her blanket and her lunch out. She spread the blanket out so everyone could sit on it. She sat in a corner setting her lunch in front of her. Everyone grabs their lunches and sit somewhere on the blanket that Rangiku brought, well everyone besides Ichigo and Grimmjow. Grimmjow dragged Ichigo over to the stream and they sat at the edge, taking their socks and shoes off and waving their feet in the flowing water as they ate their lunch.
"I can't believe that this is our last night here." Ichigo sighs as he takes a bite of his sandwich. "I don't want to have to go back to all the tedious days with school and homework."
"It won't be that bad," Grimmjow looks to Ichigo as soon as he finished his lunch. "after all, you have me now." Grimmjow playfully smirks making Ichigo blush and smile back.
"I guess you're right." Ichigo finished up his lunch and packed the box away.
"Ichigo, look this way." Grimmjow grabbed Ichigo's chin and carefully turned his face. "You're so messy, you got something on your face." Grimmjow takes his free hand and grabs a towel from the bag wiping it off. Ichigo slightly blushes again making Grimmjow laugh as Ichigo turns his head away. Grimmjow then grabs his chin again and kisses him, but not for to long, but long enough for Orihime to see. She cringes at the sight. It makes her sad to see that Ichigo is with him instead of her. Still not wanting to accept the fact that they are together, she looks away holding her head high as she looks to her friends.
"We should probably go, we've been here for a while." Orihime says loud enough for everyone to hear. Grimmjow's once soft and caring gaze turned hard and unwelcoming when he heard this. Everyone stood up and pack up their things and putting their backpack on their shoulders again. As they trekked down the hill Ichigo and Grimmjow were having a conversation about who knows what, but whatever it was must have been funny because both Ichigo and Grimmjow were laughing hard enough they could have peed themselves. When they got to the bottom of the hill, everyone piled into the van and they drove back to the hotel.
The hotel was getting less packed everyday. Everyone that was there before was leaving or getting ready to leave, but don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of people there. Once the got out of the car, they got straight to their rooms and take showers and get ready.
"I'll take a shower first." Grimmjow says to Ichigo as they get into their room.
"Alright."
"But of course we could always take a shower together if you want." Grimmjow smirks wickedly when he sees how much Ichigo was blushing.
"Uh ... er... uhhhh ... " Ichigo was speechless.
"I was only kidding." Grimmjow laughs. "No need to worry." He grabs a change of clothes and a towel and goes to the bathroom door then looking at Ichigo. "If I wanted you to take a shower with me I wouldn't ask, I would just grab you and take you in with me." At that, he smirks and closes the bathroom door behind him leaving a very reddened Ichigo covering his face under a pillow on his bed.
Was he joking? ... no he probably wasn't, I guess it wouldn't surprise me if he actually did that one day. Ichigo thought to himself. He uncovers his face and takes a breather. He sits up and looks around at the room. He decides to start cleaning up his stuff. His clothes were on the floor form the other nights they were there. So he decides to pick them up and put them in his bag. He will get his toothbrush and other morning/night stuff from the bathroom when Grimmjow is done.
After a while, Grimmjow emerges from the steamy bathroom only in pants and a towel around his neck.
"It's all yours." Grimmjow plops himself down on his bed and looks around. The room was like no one had ever been in it before. He stood up and looked to Ichigo. "You did all this?"
"Ya." Ichigo grabs his stuff and heads to the bathroom.
"How long did I take?"
"Not long." Ichigo goes into the bathroom and closes the door leaving Grimmjow confused. Ichigo sure seemed tired. Grimmjow thought. Grimmjow put a shirt on and put the towel in a hamper for the cleaning people to get. He then walked over to the door and heard someone talking on the other side.
"Don't knock! Just go in it'll be fine." Rangiku's muffled voice was heard on the other side of the door. Grimmjow opened the door as soon as Renji was about to knock surprising both Rangiku and Renji.
"Is Ichigo taking a shower?" Renji asks.
"Ya." Grimmjow replies confused.
"Oh goody!" Rangiku cheers. "Come on, let's go!" She grabs Grimmjow's wrist and runs to the elevator with Renji following close behind.
"What the hell? Where are you taking me?" Grimmjow shouts.
"Shhh." Rangiku shushes Grimmjow with her pointer finger. "Not so loud."
"Then tell me where you're taking me." Grimmjow says in a more calm voice.
"We're going to the store to get supplies for a mini goodbye party and we want it to be a surprise for Ichigo." Renji explains.
"Then were is everyone else?" Grimmjow asks.
"Waiting in the van." Rangiku replies happily. The elevator finally reaches he bottom and they run out and get in to the van. The seem to get to the store in no time at all, Rangiku must have been driving pretty fast. They get out of the van and go into the store splitting up into groups, each with their own items to get. Grimmjow got paired up with Rangiku.
"why do you seem really jittery Rangiku?" Grimmjow looks at her confused.
"I'm so excited for this! I really want to see Ichigo happy about this party. After all, this whole trip we organized was to get him out of his funk, it's thanks to you that he is all better now, Grimmjow. So I just want to thank you." Rangiku smiles at Grimmjow.
"Y-ya, your welcome, I guess." He looked around at the store, it was huge, but he soon looked back to Rangiku. "He won't be thrilled about the party you know."
"Why not?!" Rangiku frowns.
"Because the last party you guys took him too, you got him drunk."
"Well this one will be different." Rangiku holds her head up high and nods confidently.
"Sure, sure, but no booze, got it."
"Of course not, pssh, w-why would we get that stuff." Rangiku casually pulls out a pen from her purse and scribbles off something.
"What are you crossing off?" Grimmjow asks.
"Not alcohol that's for sure, hahaha." Rangiku laughs and looks back down to the list. Grimmjow grins slightly.
After a while, the groups all met back up with their stuff ready to pay for their items. When they finished that they quickly got back into the car and heading back to the hotel.
"That took a lot longer then I thought It would." Rukia says.
"Ichigo is probably gonna be mad at us." Orihime sighs.
"Or he's worried sick." Renji laughs.
"Why are you laughing like that for?" Rukia questions.
"It would just be nice to see him worry about us like he used to, even a little bit." Renji explains.
"But that doesn't mean you need to laugh." Rukia scolds.
"Sorry." Renji smiles. "I can't help it." That's when a fire truck comes up behind them and they pull off to the side so it can pass.
"I wonder where it's going." Rangiku says.
"Who knows." Toshiro calmly says thinking nothing of it.
"Wherever it is I hope everything is ok." Orihime says worriedly.
"I'm sure it will all be ok." Renji comforts Orihime. They see the fire truck go down the road the hotel is at. Grimmjow furrows his brows and looks out the window. He sees a massive smoke cloud rising into the air from the direction that the hotel is in. Once they pull around the corner they all saw what they were all praying wasn't true. The hotel was engulfed by flames. Grimmjow's eyes widened as his whole body tensed.
"Oh no." Orihime covers her mouth in horror.
"Ichigo..." Grimmjow whispers under his breath clenching his jaw and his fists. As soon as Rangiku parked the van he barreled out of the car looking at the massive structure burn to ash. The firemen franticly try and put it out as quickly as possible, but something so big won't go out so easy. Grimmjow starts to slowly walk towards the hotel unconsciously with only one thing in his mind, Ichigo.
"Grimmjow!" Rangiku rushed over to him grabbing his arm. Renji ran over along with everyone else.
"This can't be happening." Grimmjow mutters in complete shock. "It was completely fine when we left."
"Grimmjow." Rangiku looks at him sadly. "We're all sad right now, but all we can do is have faith that he is ok." She slowly let's go of his arm. Grimmjow walks over to the van clenching his fist as hard as he can, his heart beating so fast, he wasn't thinking right now. He pulled back his fist and hit the van's hood with all his might making his knuckles bleed pretty bad.
"Grimmjow!" Rangiku says shocked running over to him.
"He has to be ok, he has to."
A long time passed and the fire has stared to die down. Grimmjow sat on the dented hood of the van with Rangiku. His knees pulled tight to his chest as he rests his head on his knees. Toshiro, Rukia, Renji, and Orihime were all in the car. Orihime was just stopping from crying. Rukia was calming her down and Renji and Toshiro were sitting quietly waiting for the fire to go down.
When they finally got the fire out and they started taking bodies out from the hotel, Orihime ran over before someone could stop her. There were a lot of people trying to get to the hotel, yelling for people, only to be stopped by the police. Orihime ran to the where the police were blocking people, looking desperately for Ichigo.
"Ichigo!?" Orihime cried. "Ichigo! Where are you?"
"Miss you have to get back!" An officer says holding her back.
"But Ichigo is still in there! He could be hurt really badly! I have to go save him!" Orihime tries to push past the man but fails.
"Miss, please back up! I don't want to have to hurt you!"
"Ichigo?!"
"Miss, please!"
"ICHIGO!?"
"That's it, I'm sorry but you leave me no choice." The man starts to pull out a taser.
"I'm terribly sorry for my friend's actions, there is no need for that, I'll take care of her from here." Grimmjow grabs Orihime by the waist and throws her over his shoulder. She keeps punching him in the back and keeps flailing her legs around making Grimmjow have to grab them to make sure they don't hit him in the face. When he gets back to the van he throws her in it.
"Grimmjow! How could you!" Orihime shouts.
"No, Orihime! How could you! We are all worried sick about Ichigo, but we have to remain calm and let the police do their job! We can't be interrupting them and hope that they find him when we are preventing them from doing helping look for survivors!"
"You wouldn't understand! You haven't known Ichigo as long as I have! So I like him more then you!"
"It doesn't matter how long you know someone. I bet you I know more about Ichigo than you ever will. Don't you go around lecturing me about how you think you like him more just because you've known him longer." Grimmjow shuts the door and turns around walking over to Rangiku.
They all fell asleep soon after that, only to be woken up by the ringing of a cell phone.
"Hmm?" Grimmjow searched his pockets for his phone but he looked down at the floor of the van by his feet and saw it lit up. He quickly grabbed it and answered it. "Hello?" Grimmjow groggily mumbles. Grimmjow talking wakes everyone else up.
"Grimmjow?" Rangiku mumbles.
"Yes this is him, who is this?" Grimmjow said still tired with his eyes half open still getting used to the light. Everyone was looking at him squinty eyed because of the light. It was around two.
"What?!" Grimmjow's eyes opened fully, they finally got his attention. "Really? Where at? Ok we will be there." Grimmjow hung up the phone and looked at everyone.
"We have somewhere we need to go." Grimmjow said.
"This way?" Rukia questions.
"I don't know." Grimmjow sighs.
"What about that way?" Rangiku asks.
"I don't know." Grimmjow says.
"There?" Toshiro asks.
"I don't know!" Grimmjow shouts at his friends who keep asking him this question.
"There!" Renji says pointing ahead of them. They quickly rush over to a desk with a lady behind it.
"You must be Grimmjow?" The lady asks.
"Yes, How did you know?"
"He's been talking about you. Down the hall, room 120." Grimmjow starts running down the hall looking for room 120. He saw it right ahead of him. He didn't stop very well. He ran into the door frame panting hard as he looks straight into his shocked eyes.
"Ichigo?" Grimmjow asks. "Is it really you?" Grimmjow slowly starts to walk over to Ichigo's bed side. Everyone finally catching up, standing in the doorway.
"Yeah, it's really me." Ichigo smiles. Grimmjow drops to his knees putting his head onto Ichigo's lap.
"I thought I lost you, they couldn't find you." Grimmjow whispers. Ichigo grabs Grimmjow's hand, cupping it in both hands. "I don' know what I would have done if they didn't find you." Ichigo could hear Grimmjow about to cry so he squeezed his hand. Everyone else let Grimmjow and Ichigo have time alone so they all went to the waiting room.
"I'm sorry I scared you so bad, I won't do it again I promise." Ichigo smiles warmly as Grimmjow looks up to him. He stands up hugging him as tight as he could without hurting him. He stays like this for awhile, soaking up the fact that he can still hold his boyfriend in his arms.
"Well that turned out well." Rangiku smiles.
"I'm glad they found you, Ichigo." Renji grins.
"I am too, but we lost all of our clothes." Orihime frowns.
"It'll be ok, you have plenty more Orihime." Rukia laughs.
"You're quiet Toshiro." Rangiku says looking to him but then back to the road. "Aren't you happy?"
"Of course I'm happy." Toshiro says.
"Then look it. Turn that frown upside down." Rangiku pokes the corners of his mouth with her thumb and pointer finger and forces a smile on him.
"I'm surprised you're not trying to smother Ichigo right now Orihime." Rukia whispers.
"I would be, but Grimmjow scares me and he hasn't broken away from Ichigo ever since we picked him up." Orihime whispers back. The trip back to Karakura town was full of chatter. When they got back to Urahara's Shoten Grimmjow quickly got out of the van dragging Ichigo with him as he immediately ran off.
"Wait! Grimmjow, Ichigo!" Rukia shouts.
"Who is that I hear?" Urahara's voice sounds from the door of his shop.
"O-oh, hi Kisuke." Rukia nervously laughs.
"You guys sure did get back late, it's already eleven o'clock."
"Ya, we sure did, well I guess that's all, thanks for letting us borrow your car." Rukia says waving. That was the signal for everyone to run. Everyone ran as fast as they could, getting back to their house. As for Ichigo and Grimmjow, they finally stopped running.
"Why were we running?" Ichigo questions.
"I dented Kisuke's van."
"Wha-!" Ichigo gasps.
"I was mad, no biggie, I'll fix it later." They stop in front of Ichigo's house.
"Oh geez Grimmjow." Ichigo sighs looking back at his house. "Well, I guess I have to go now."
"Ya, but first." Grimmjow pulls Ichigo close to him giving him a loving goodbye kiss making Ichigo's heart flutter. Grimmjow pulls away and starts to walk away.
"I'll see you in school Ichigo." Grimmjow smiles, waving as he turns a corner leaving Ichigo's sight. Ichigo just stood there for a little bit, his smile growing ever so slowly. When he could no longer hide his happiness his grin widened as much as it could. He then turned to his door and composed himself before he opened the door, he realized it would be nearly impossible for him to stop smiling right now so he opened the door stepping in.
"I'm home." Ichigo says. You could hear the happiness in his voice.
"Ichigo?" Isshin walks around the corner seeing the smile on his son's face. This made him happy. "I see you seem pretty happy, so, tell me all about it." Isshin walks over to Ichigo and is about to pat him on the back but Ichigo starts walking.
"Maybe later."
"Wha-?!" Isshin gawks at Ichigo then hanging his head in defeat.
"It's ok dad, he will tell you someday." Yuzu says walking over to him.
"At least he seemed happy now." Karin points out.
"Yeah, I guess so." Isshin sighs standing up. Ichigo finally back to his normal self with his new boyfriend to thank for that. Everyone will rest at ease now, not having to worry about Ichigo. And Ichigo will be able to live happily ever after with all of his friends and Grimmjow.
THE END
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