Chapter 8: All Hell Break Loose…

A sweet aroma wafting passed his nose made Ichigo sniff at it in both dislike and want. Ichigo shifted in his seat, awkward, and stared intently at the coffee table in front of him. His wrists were no longer tied, but he knew that if he were to make any move towards the door, the albino in the next room would instantly notice and come to retrieve him back to his seat, as he already did once or twice. In the end, Ichigo gave up and just sat patiently in waiting with a small scowl.

"You'd think that this brat had learned by now," Shirou had mumbled to himself a few hours before when the orange-haired teen had made another attempt to escape. Ichigo could have sworn that Shirou had the hearing of a dog. The man was always there, prepared and ready with his smirk to drag Ichigo back into the living room, it wasn't even a joke.

The orange-haired teen let out a sigh. "How much longer are you going to keep me here…?"

A head poke out from a doorway and Ichigo frowned at it. Shirou barely spared Ichigo a glance before staring back down at the silver tray in his pale hands. He balanced the heavy objects on one hand skillfully as he stirred at a cup thoughtfully.

"Quite awhile," he replied, putting the tray down on the table and raising a reproachful eyebrow at the teen. "And what did I tell you about my name?"

"Nothing that I could care for," Ichigo snorted in the man's direction. Shirou just shrugged and set the beverages down one by one, with an addition of a plate of little snacks, before giving a small, pseudo-bow.

"Bon Appetite, my dear aibou."

"Why do you insist on calling me that?" Ichigo scowled at Shirou's smile. The man's amused face was irritation inducing, and Ichigo found that he was going to have a hard time keeping his fists to himself whenever Shirou grin ear-to-ear, which was, practically, always one time more than the last.

It was like he could make a new drinking game with it and the rule would simply be "Hey! Drink every time this freak smirks!" and ultimately every participant in the room would end up drunk and passed out in close to no time at all.

"Well," Shirou muttered and handed Ichigo a cup of coffee, to which the orange-haired teen merely stared at with something close to revulsion. "You don't call me by my name either. I see no reason not to do the same."

Ichigo opened his mouth to reply, and Shirou took the chance to shove a small piece of pastry in. He laughed when Ichigo nearly choke and had to drown the stuff down with the coffee Shirou offered him before.

"You—!"

"Shouldn't talk with your mouth full."

"—bastard 'Shirou'."

The albino man smiled. "That's close enough…and you know, I was wondering…"

As Ichigo glared at the man with anger, a few tears blurring his eyes from the near-death experience, Shirou ambled to an armchair and flopped down on it.

"I was wondering," he continued, "What was a kid like you doing at that good-for-nothin' bank anyway. You weren't doing anything particularly special except sitting there—disturbing my peace, by the way—and besides all that, Nippon is definitely not a place for someone like you."

Shirou paused in thought. "You were waiting for someone, is that it?"

Ichigo's annoyance flared. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm not rich or important enough? Yeah, right, I thought Nippon was—."

"You thought it was," Shirou repeated with a scoff. "Nippon sucks. In all reality, it's just this "luxurious" counterfeit factory and all these other pathetic excuse of a "crime production crew." Cowards!"

Ichigo cleared his throat again and coughed; there was still something bothering his throat. "Yes, I've been told, if you could just let me finish talking! And it's not like you're any better."

"But I'm a simple man, Ichi," Shirou said, "I don't go around lying to the whole world. If you think about it, wouldn't the priority in crime be placed on those company owners? What I do is like child's play compare to what they do everyday."

Shirou raised an eyebrow in thought and stared up at the ceiling, as if he could find something written on there that he had forgotten. "Technically…I steal and I use the money, so it's like I'm giving back the money to the community…" Shirou wiggled his eyebrows at Ichigo. "Technically…"

"What are you, Robin Hood?"

Shirou laughed at the notion of it. "Hardly." He looked back at the orange-haired teen. "And you didn't answer my question."

"Question?" Ichigo repeated.

"You. The Bank. You were waiting for someone?"

Ichigo paused and observed the albino tentatively, wondering at the man's interest in such matter. He scratched at his cheek. "You can say that."

With a short pause, Ichigo sucked in a breath through his teeth at a sudden thought. "Damn…that guy's gonna hunt me down for disappearing on him."

"So you were with a guy."

Ichigo nodded grimly at him, failing to notice a little pout making its appearance on Shirou's face at his response.

Ichigo's lips twitched. Grimmjow. Considering his aggressive attitude, Ichigo could just imagine him fuming right now. It wasn't a nice sight.

The teen tsked at the thought. What did he care about that guy anyway?!

A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder and Ichigo jumped at it, which elicited a laugh from the man next to him. Shirou grinned when Ichigo slapped his fingers away in disgust as if his skin was infected by some unfathomable disease and Shirou was going to pass it on to him.

"Why can't you just stay in jail!?" Ichigo screamed at Shirou, and tried to scoot further away from him in his seat.

"Who the hell in their right mind would?" Shirou looked at Ichigo like he was an idiot. He then brushed the question off, replacing it with a yawn instead. "That place's a shithole. I'm obviously gonna get outta there the first chance I got."

The orange-haired teen shook his head and grumbled to himself with utmost irritation. He never thought he could feel such migraine from dealing with only one person.

"Really…" Ichigo grumbled, irked and a bit exasperated at everything concerning this situation he was in. His mind revolved back to a scowling face and he pictured himself winning against a certain blue-haired man. He couldn't.

Ichigo glanced at Shirou warily. "I swear, you're just like Grimmjow."

"Grimmjow?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes at the repetition from the albino. "Yes, the bastard I was waiting for at Nippon who is going to kill me if he—."

"Grimmjow Jaegarjaques?"

When Ichigo saw the smile dropped from Shirou's face, he knew something was wrong. Terribly wrong when Shirou's brows furrowed down and he let out a hiss.

"Tell me something, Ichigo," Shirou muttered dangerously, containing his fury that was threatening to tip out with such precaution that Ichigo could see the sudden change in his expression. Shirou tried hard not to narrow his eyes.

"Is this…friend of yours," Shirou continued, "happens to have blue hair, and a personality of an utter, annoying, narcissistic prick?"

"Ummm…" Ichigo winced at the tone and clammed his lips shut, retreating into his panic thoughts to find some kind of answer for the albino in a hurry. "No?"

Shirou turned around and passed a hand over his face, tired and in attempt to be as calm as he could be. He kept his stare on the floor.

"Ichi, Ichi, Ichi, why must trouble follow you so…?" Shirou murmured with a sigh, turning to smile at the teen; it was gone as fast it came. "You wanna hear a secret?"

"Not particularly," Ichigo replied, cagey.

Shirou let out a chuckle. "Well, it'll do you good to know this anyway. You see, there's a problem—always a problem—and apparently, as far as I can discern, Grimmjow has taken a liking to ya."

Ichigo stood up scowling at that, but Shirou raised a hand to silence him. The orange-haired teen had no qualms to obey just for this once, with the smirk that Shirou was tossing at him.

"That," Shirou pointed out, "does not go well with me. Knowing Jaegarjaques and Schiffer, if they're still together, it's not gonna be long 'till they find me, and consequently, you." Shirou made a face at the idea. "After that, it's pretty obvious that Grimmjow's gonna kill me."

Ichigo scoffed. "Well, you pick the wrong day to make such commotion at the same place they were in. So, yeah…"

Shirou couldn't help but smile at the teen's naivety. It was cute. He really hadn't made a bad choice to take Ichigo with him. The boy was an enigma.

"Yeah, about that…Sorry to dash your theory down, but Grimmjow wouldn't get so worked up over something so trivial like that," Shirou explained, his golden orbs glinting. "YOU, though, if he knows you are here…"

Shirou cast Ichigo a cynical grin. "Hell's gonna break loose."


A/N: lol, adorable Shirou is adorable. Confused yet? probably not, honestly I'm still making this up as I go cus after school ended this year, the plot just sort of disappeared from my mind, and if it didn't I wasn't that content with it anyway, so sorry for the late update. I'm trying hard, I really am, switching from summer assignments to tennis practice to my free time to trying to have some of the writer's block lifted because I need to update soon lest I feel the wrath of you readers' impatience. *Sigh* and now summer's almost over. Sorry for the little rant but yeah....I'm gonna be having a busy busy year coming soon and I'm just not ready to embrace that fact yet (Why not give me some reviews to cheer me up, lol) Hope you enjoyed!