Chapter 4:

Ulquiorra stood a few feet away from Nnoitra with an icy stare. Nnoitra looked shocked at first but quickly brushed it off with a scoff and dropped Ichigo to the ground causing a small puff of sand to form where he fell. Ichigo coughed as Nnoitra glared at Ulquiorra who in turn showed no expression.

"Ulquiorra, you joined the party. I didn't know you were a weakling sympathizer-"

"I think you should leave. I don't really feel like fighting and you are asking for one," the fourth espada interrupted the taller, fifth espada.

The taller walked up to the shorter espada and looked down at him to seem intimidating, but due to rank Ulquiorra was the obvious winner of this contest. Ulquiorra barley even looked up to meet his opponent's eyes and kept his stoic face. Nnoitra eventually backed down when the shorter shot a look of pure ice to him telling him he was done playing around.

Ichigo smirked as he watched the fifth espada walk off defeated, still sitting where he was dropped in the sand. He had always hated Nnoitra, he was a jerk. Ulquiorra shifted his stare down at Ichigo. The small orangette glanced up and smiled at the older.

Ichigo and Ulquiorra bonded pretty well despite initial impressions. They both were smart and relied on their brains in battle, and they both were always stuck with rash muscle-headed idiots that didn't think things through.

"That guy is such a jerk, I hate him," Ichigo said as he picked himself up off the ground and brushed off the sand from his white uniform.

"I can't believe you stood up to him, you're always so quiet and skittish I didn't think you had it in you," Grimmjow smirked at the smaller arrancar.

"Just because I'm smarter than you it doesn't give you the right to be a jerk too," Ichigo smirked right back at the bluenette.

Shiro laughed because of the look of shock on Grimmjow's face. Ichigo very rarely spoke up to anyone other than Shiro and even then it was limited. But ever-so-slowly he was opening up to his new family, they seemed more at ease than his previous family anyway and Ichigo liked the way he couldn't hurt his family like he did with his old one.

Flashback

Ichigo stared in shock as his mother lay on top of him. He felt hot sticky liquids seep on to the ground around him. He crawled out from under her and stared in silence until cold fear grabbed his heart.

"mom…"

"Mom!"

"Mom, get up," he shook her shoulders.

She didn't respond or showed any reaction at all, she only stayed lying face down on the pavement.

His father and sisters never said anything but he knew they blamed him. How could they not? So he stayed away as much as he could to save them the burden of having to be nice to him when no one could bare the loss of the light of their family.

He pretended not to see the hurt in their eyes whenever they looked at him. Ichigo couldn't even look them in the eyes anymore.

Two years passed and he still avoided his family. He quit talking all together mostly. His family stayed at distances with each other as well. With one death it pretty much killed all of them in one fell swoop.

End Flashback

Ichigo couldn't help but wonder how they were doing now that he was gone. Maybe one day he could go see them, just to make sure they were ok.

"Hey!" a hard hit to the back of his head interrupted his train of thought.

He looked up to find Shiro looking at him with a slightly worried eye while Ulquiorra and Grimmjow talked about their next mission which is why Ulquiorra came out in the first place.

"Hey are you ok?" Shiro asked still looking at him worriedly.

"Yeah I'm fine, just got lost in thought," Ichigo smiled slightly at his twin.

Shiro sighed and started to explain what he missed because he knew once Ichigo got lost in thought he was only focused on that train of thought and nothing else that is going on around him. Grimmjow and Ulquiorra were assigned a mission to the world of the living, which left Ichigo and Shiro with no 'babysitter' until they got back. So they were trying to agree on what to do with them. They obviously couldn't go with them, Shiro could fight but only low level hollows, not soul reapers, and Ichigo… well… he had a long way to go even though he was the best out of the twins (and Grimmjow) to instantly be able to spot weaknesses. So because their training wasn't complete yet they were stuck at home… with an unknown supervisor. This is going to be fantastic…

AN: so i just got back from the doctors and this just came to me so i figured i would post it for you guys! it came much quicker than i thought it would, so let me know what you think ;) the more reviews i get the faster i will update and just for anyone who was wondering this chapter is a little over 800 words so its longer than the others. and in case i don't update before, Merry Christmas everybody! or anything you celebrate... you know what just HAPPY HOLIDAYS!