Love Lies Bleeding

Chapter 8

(From Ichigo's eyes)

"Again? Kurosaki, you are pitifully predictable,"

Staring at the window I had just managed to pry open, I was starting to hate that Ulquiorra guy. This was the third time today he's foiled my plans of escape. But this time was different! I picked the hottest room in the mansion, and it was almost noon. The heat was crawling up my sides and strangling me, and I was only part… you know. Part…ech, part vampire. So it must be awful for a full-blown one, right? Yes, it had to have been. I gave the window pane one final push and it fell down with a too-loud crash. It felt like a burglar alarm or something, like a traitorous bird screaming 'Here I am Aizen! Ichigo's escaping!'

The man terrified me. Aizen, not Ulquiorra. Well, I'd rather not get the shit beaten out of me by Ulquiorra, but if I had to be alone in a room with either, I'd pick Ulquiorra.

AS the pale man turned the corner, I climbed onto the windowsill. Looking down, I realized that it was a pretty long jump down, and there was unforgiving concrete waiting to greet me at the end of my jump. I glanced back at the creepily cat-like eyes of Ulquiorra and scowled.

What the hell.

I jumped.

And then, I landed. For a split second, I had no idea what was going on. My left leg was numb. My right leg was in agony, like somebody had taken it and smashed it against a tombstone.

The rest of me was pressed against something warm and soft, something with a firm grip and a not unpleasant scent about it. Unwillingly, I shuddered, and knew it was Aizen even before he opened his mouth.

"Tch… Ichigo Ichigo," he said in that awful, condescending tone. Like he was talking to a little kid or something. I felt a hand drag down my injured leg and pain exploded behind my eyes. I tried to bite back a cry, but it didn't work so well. Why the hell was he touching my leg anyways? It was probably all cut up, and bloody…

Oh yeah.

Fucking animal, that's what he was. A Goddamn animal.

"Hope you cut yourself on glass," I muttered venomously, gritting my teeth.

"Ichigo, that's not a very nice thing to say," Aizen replied, again with that stupid tone of his. I felt myself get pulled up, he was holding me up and standing, fucking bastard. I could see the scene of the crime, all red and white and glittering with shards of glass like snow. The red was everywhere, like someone dropped a bunch of balloons full of red paint. I realized with a sickening lurch of my stomach that it was my blood painting the creamy, innocent sidewalk. Why hadn't anyone else noticed? Where were all the people? It was too hot. I felt dizzy all over. My sweat seemed to be steaming off of my body, not cooling me off. It felt totally gross. Every time Aizen stepped, my head throbbed. I pressed my face into the bastard's shoulder, ignoring the soft chuckle he gave. I hate that bastard. His shoulder was just… convenient.

The air became much cooler- we were inside. And heading down (or up?) stairs, judging by the jerky way we were moving. My leg hurt so much… I couldn't move. Even blinking seemed to make my leg throb. I tried to squirm in a desperate move to make myself comfortable, but Aizen's hands seemed to stop me. Why was he touching me! I didn't want him to… I wanted to curl up in a black corner somewhere, or chop my leg off. But if I cut my leg off, then I couldn't escape this hellhole! I was fucked either way…

"Szayel."

Geez Aizen was loud. Why was he so loud? I lifted my head a bit, in time to be laid down on a bed that felt amazingly cool. I closed my eyes for a moment, relaxing. It felt nice.

The prodding in my leg felt less nice. I snapped my eyes open, watching.

There was this weird guy, pink hair, white lab coat, prodding my leg. He had a cart full of sharp instruments that looked rather painful, but all the man was holding at the moment was a pair of tweezers and what I think is a hemostat. I wish I had paid more attention to my dad when he was doing his whole surgical thing. My eyes flickered over to Aizen, who was watching the procedure with silent, dark eyes. He didn't seem very angry, something that caused me a twinge of relief. If he was pissed, I reasoned, then he would hurt me or something. I had enough hurt for one day.

The pink haired guy pulled out a rather large shard of glass, causing me to cry out. I gripped the sides of the bed. Aizen was looking at me now. Our eyes met for a few moments. His were scarily calm, blank, emotionless. The man walked over to me and put a warm hand over my eyes. Everything seemed to relax and fade, the smell of disinfectant and Aizen (which smelled awful together, let me tell you) the feeling of pain in my leg, the coldness under me… it all faded, dulled, and then vanished. Everything vanished, leaving only a warm fuzzy darkness.

I dreamed about Hichigo.

It was really weird, let me tell you. He and I were sitting on a floor, in his bedroom, but it was weird. Everything was on its side. No really- the light bulb was attached to the wall on my left, the bed to the wall on my right, all the stupid crap Hichigo had on that wall too. But for some reason, I didn't touch it. I knew everything was alright, because it was always like this, right? This isn't sideways; having your bed on the floor is sideways. Silly me.

Wait what?

That made no sense. None at all.

"King, quit thinkin' too much," Hichigo poked me. I sighed and stared at him. I didn't feel sad or angry at Hichigo. I felt… I dunno. Detached.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm you, silly," Hichigo replied.

"No, you're Hichigo," I corrected him.

"Ya know, Hichigo is just Ichigo with an H attached," Hichigo replied calmly. I frowned. "Aw come on King, don't frown like that or your face will get stuck like that,"

"You're funny," I muttered sarcastically.

"I know, right?" Hichigo grinned. "Yer gonna be lonely for a while, so get used to me,"

"What do you mean, lonely?" I demanded.

"Well, ya got some friends around, but ya can' talk to them," Hichigo mused, turning on his TV and showing Ishida, arguing with the pink haired guy from earlier. The pink guy proceeded to pin Ishida to a wall and make out with him. I felt my face redden (was this my imagination) I had wanted to do that at one point in time, really! But… the scene changed to show Orihime Inoue, one of my oldest friends, asleep and leaning on a muscular man with curly dark hair and a funky goatee. At least that image wasn't so bad… if Mr. Goatee hurt Orihime I think I'd rip his face off. AS it was, I really wanted to do something nasty to the pink haired freak molesting Ishida. What kind of asswipe does that?

"The kind that hangs around that Aizen guy too much," Hichigo answered. "And as bad as it looks, Ishida ain' hurt,"

"What do you mean he's not hurt?" I demanded.

"He liiikes it," Hichigo replied in an almost lecherous purr. Was that really me? "Oops, looks like yer wakin' up,"

"Wait, what…" I groaned, my eyes peeling open. The air smelled like disinfectant again, with the hint of blood. Not my blood.

My leg was all bandaged up, with what looked like a brace wrapped in. I couldn't feel a thing on it, but I supposed that was a good thing.

I didn't see the pink haired man. I'm glad I didn't though, because if I had, I would have really wanted to bash his face in. And if I did that, one of us would have gotten hurt. The sad thing is, it probably would have been me.

Sighing, I laid back in my bed.

That dream was real. Ishida and Inoue are here, but they aren't hurt. I can't explain how I know, it just… is. That's the truth. That's how it was. No denying it.

Hichigo was inside my head.

Inuyoshie's after the chapter special

I'M BACK

Sorry about the wait, I really am. It's just… I couldn't write it, ya know? Fell out of vampires, fell out of Bleach, fell out of yaoi, I dunno. But I didn't post anything for a while. And then the school year began ending and… yeah. But now it's over, it's summer, and I'll either be producing a helluvalot of stuff, or I won't produce at all. Summer is strange like that.

But yeah. Ichi-berry fell down. Ichi-berry met Szayel. Ichi-berry got to psychically visit the other two side stories, Spiraling Madness and Romantic Seclusion.

And, Aizen's an ass. But what else is new?

Che. I do suggest reading the two. Romantic Seclusion makes more sense if you read this one though.

T-T

I dunno about Spiraling Madness.

Anyways.

Moar hot yaoi later on, I promise.

Review?