Many thanks for the reviews! They're the best motivation ever! xD

blueeyedcorpse: You totally read my mind, and you'll see why when you read this chapter!
TaytayXD: Sorry I couldn't reply directly. This is nowhere near the end of the story yet, no worries! xD
Bobb and Ria and everyone else who reviewed as guests: Thank you all so much!

Here goes…

"What do you think? These two look good together?"

Ichigo turned from his task and frowned at the dress shirt and slacks that were held up in front of him. He crossed his arms and brought a finger to his chin.

"I think the shirt's a little too dark," he said finally.

Grimmjow scowled and stuffed the shirt back into the closet and pulled out another one. "How about this?"

Ichigo gave the slate grey long sleeved shirt a once-over and nodded his approval. That was one of his favorite shirts. Or rather, one that he especially liked to see on Grimmjow. The color seemed to somehow accentuate the intensity of Grimmjow's ocean blue eyes, which Ichigo thought was Grimmjow's best feature.

"Alright! I'm done!" Grimmjow announced proudly.

Ichigo looked at the clothes that had just been dumped unceremoniously into his roommate's luggage and rolled his eyes. "Great, now they're going to arrive in Vegas in a wrinkled mess," he said. He folded his own clothes carefully and tucked them into his own backpack.

"Haven't you heard of laundry services in hotels?" Grimmjow asked in a tone that suggested that Ichigo was stupid.

Ichigo rolled his eyes again and huffed. "Not everyone stays at five-star hotels all their lives, you asshole," he shot back.

"But you love me anyway," Grimmjow retorted.

Ichigo heard his roommate zip up his luggage and turn on the television behind him. He kept his mouth shut the way he always did when he didn't know what to say. Not for the first time, he wished that Grimmjow would stop saying things like that. There was no need to pretend anymore as far as Ichigo was concerned. They had debunked their pretend relationship in front of his friends a month ago, and Sosuke hadn't done anything worse than greeting him now and then. There was no reason for them to pose as a couple anymore.

Yet, Grimmjow acted like they were still carrying on the front, even when the two of them were alone. Ichigo had tried and failed to ask Grimmjow to stop, so he had given up on that a long time ago. Now he was reduced to simply not responding and hoping that his lack of response would dampen Grimmjow's eagerness to rile him up.

Other than this, though, Ichigo was happy with the progress they'd made as…friends. Not mere roommates as they had been all along. This was what he had always wanted to have — a roommate with whom he could share more than just a room. Oh, they still drove each other up the wall, but where it used to be more out of spite and disrespect, it was now with playfulness.

Well, most of the time.

Grimmjow was still as cocky and rude as ever, and Ichigo still found plenty of reasons to nag and ridicule him, but they got along. Ichigo knew that Grimmjow's accident — the idiot refused to tell him the details — was the turning point, and he supposed that it was good that at least something positive had come out of that unpleasant experience.

But then again, this was all in his head. For all he knew, Grimmjow hadn't even noticed the shift in their friendship, or if he even cared. No matter how blurred the line got between Grimmjow's stupid game and their growing friendship, Ichigo knew that Grimmjow would never truly be with someone like him. That is, if the teen was even capable of having a relationship in the first place.

"So how long are you guys going to be on the road?" Grimmjow interrupted Ichigo's thoughts.

Ichigo did a quick mental calculation. "Well, there are a couple of places we want to stop in between, so I'd say maybe six. Seven at the most," he said.

"Damn." Grimmjow wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Why don't you just fucking fly?"

Ichigo sighed in exasperation. "Not everyone is as rich as you, Grimmjow," Then he grinned and added, "Plus, it's part of the fun, you know? Nine people in two cars, it's going to be awesome!"

"Nine?" Grimmjow brought up his fingers and started ticking off the names he knew. "I'm coming up short. Who're the other two?"

"Ikkaku and Yumichika," Ichigo replied.

Grimmjow's eyes widened, then he chuckled. "Of course, I forgot about him," he said.

Ichigo laughed. Grimmjow and Yumichika's first meeting — through Ichigo, that is — had been priceless. Yumichika wasn't aware that Ichigo would be bringing his roommate along for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and Grimmjow had no idea that Ichigo knew Yumichika. Their simultaneous "oh shit" expressions when they saw each other almost sent Ichigo writhing on the floor in a fit of giggles. The best part was that nobody else knew what was going on, and Yumichika had fled the scene before anyone could ask. Since then, Yumichika avoided Grimmjow like the plague.

Although, Ichigo had to say, he had expected Grimmjow's reaction to be a little more…lively. He had known that there would definitely be some reaction, which was why he didn't invite Yumichika for Grimmjow's recovery celebration. From Grimmjow, especially. Ichigo expected him to make a lewd comment — or a dozen — in front of Yumichika, but the teen had been surprisingly subdued after the initial shock. Perhaps something happened between them that Ichigo was not aware of. He was curious, but not enough to ask Grimmjow about it, lest he be bombarded with gory details about their bedtime activities.

"Well, I'm going to sleep, early morning tomorrow," Ichigo said after he made one last inspection of his luggage. Everything was in place except for his toiletries, which he would still need to use the next morning. He was all packed and ready to leave. They were supposed to meet at Shuuhei's apartment and then take off from there at nine.

"Good luck," Grimmjow mumbled around his cigarette as he was sprawled lazily on the lower bunk. He turned off the television and booted up his laptop.

As Ichigo climbed up the ladder — they didn't bother swapping their beds back — he caught a glimpse of two naked men writhing in the throes of passion on his roommate's screen. He groaned inwardly, especially when he noticed that his roommate's right hand was hidden beneath the covers. Well, at least Grimmjow was nice enough to mute the video.

Grimmjow sucked in a deep breath as he returned to the waking world reluctantly. He threw his covers open and stood up, avoiding the crumpled balls of soiled tissue paper next to the bed. He couldn't help but grin at the image of his roommate cringing at the sight of the evidence of his self-love session from last night.

He grabbed his toiletries and trudged lazily to the communal bathroom to get ready for the day. Unlike Ichigo, he didn't have to leave for his vacation until after lunch. He would take his sweet time, go through his bag one last time, then walk to the pasta place downtown to meet Tessai.

He couldn't wait to get on that plane to Vegas.

The campus was pretty much dead. Most students took advantage of winter break to go home or go on vacations. Grimmjow took his usual route to the downtown area, through the student union and past the college administration building. Tessai was already there waiting for him by the time he arrived at the restaurant.

"I took the liberty of making a dinner reservation for us at Michael Mina," Tessai said after the waiter took their orders.

Grimmjow's face lit up. The restaurant's lobster pot pie was to die for, and he'd been thinking of going there. Trust Tessai to read his mind as always.

When the server came back with their food, Grimmjow's phone rang. He fished it out from his pocket and raised an eyebrow when he saw the caller ID.

"Sup?" he said into the phone.

"Have you seen Ichigo today?" Shuuhei asked straight away.

Grimmjow frowned. "No," he replied, feeling puzzled. "Weren't you guys supposed to leave in the morning? He left the room before I got up."

He heard a muffled "fuck" from the other end as Shuuhei presumably relayed his response to the others.

"He's not there with you?" Grimmjow asked. He felt stupid even before he finished the question.

Shuuhei didn't tease him about it, though. "That's the problem. We thought maybe he'd overslept, but we've been calling him for the past hour and he hasn't picked up the phone," the boy said, sounding worried.

Grimmjow glanced at his watch and frowned some more. "It's almost twelve. You didn't think of calling him earlier? Weren't you guys supposed to leave at nine?"

"Well, yeah," Shuuhei muttered. "We kinda got up late too, and we figured that it's not a big deal if we leave late, you know?"

Grimmjow put down his fork and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ichigo is never late for anything. You should've known that."

"Yeah, way to rub it in," Shuuhei grumbled, sounding annoyed.

"I'll give him a call," Grimmjow said. "I'll call you back if I find him."

"We've already called—"

Grimmjow hung up before Shuuhei finished his sentence. Tessai gave him an inquiring look, but he ignored it in favor of making that phone call. He hit the speed dial key corresponding to Ichigo's number and waited. And waited. And waited. Then there was a click and Ichigo's cheery voice came through, "Hi, you've reached Kurosaki Ichigo. Sorry I can't come to the phone right now—"

Grimmjow hit the End button and placed his phone on the table. He wasn't really expecting to get a different result, but he just had to try. Where could the idiot be? It wasn't like Ichigo to ditch his friends without an explanation, and he was certain that Ichigo wasn't in the room when he woke up. The boy's hand-held luggage wasn't next to his desk where he had placed it last night.

Shuuhei's concern must've rubbed off on him, because now he was suddenly worried. It didn't make any sense. Ichigo was a big boy. His phone was probably on silent, and he could be having lunch by himself at this very moment for all they knew. There was no reason for them to overreact just because they couldn't find him for two hours. It wasn't like Ichigo was the president's son who could be in danger of getting kidnapped.

Grimmjow sat bolt upright, his blood suddenly running cold.

Do you know what I want to do when I get my hands on Ichigo?

Grimmjow's chair toppled backwards as he stood up abruptly. Tessai pushed his chair back as well, startled and confused by his young master's behavior.

"What's wrong?" the older man asked, taking his napkin off of his lap and placing it on the table.

"I'm sorry, Tessai," Grimmjow said, straining to talk around the lump of panic that had suddenly formed in his throat. "Looks like I'm going to have to miss that flight." Then, without waiting for a response from his mentor, he turned and ran in the direction of the dormitory.

Tessai stared after the teenager, stunned. After a few seconds, he pulled out a wad of bills and dropped them on the table, then he jogged to the car. He threw the door open and slid into the driver's seat and revved the engine. He hadn't the slightest clue what was going on, but he wasn't going to let the kid handle things alone.

Grimmjow stopped when he heard the familiar honk of Tessai's car.

"Get in."

Shuuhei, Shinji, Nnoitra, Hanatarou, and Izuru arrived about twenty minutes after Grimmjow called them. During that time, Grimmjow had scoured the entire room for any possible clues, any indication of where he could've gone. He even lifted Ichigo's mattress just in case the boy might've accidentally left his phone behind. Both desks were dragged to the center of the room but no notes had "accidentally fallen" behind them.

"Do you think the bus could've broken down half way?" Shinji asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet nervously.

Tessai shook his head. "I've driven along the routes that the bus would've taken. I didn't see anything."

"I thought he would've gone with you guys," Grimmjow said, looking questioningly at Shinji. "Don't you guys usually take the bus together?"

Shinji scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "We...err, I...thought Ichigo might've gone ahead without us. He did tell me last time that he'd leave my ass behind if I was late again."

Grimmjow rubbed his face as he sat down on his bunk bed. "So, when did you start calling him?"

"About five, ten minutes after ten," Shuuhei said, checking his phone log. "Yeah, first call at 10:08am."

They fell silent. That meant that none of them had had contact with Ichigo for at least three hours. Grimmjow hadn't heard a thing when Ichigo left in the morning; he could only assume that the boy had left some time between eight and nine, given that it only took a short bus ride to Shuuhei's apartment.

Hanatarou was the first one to break the silence. "Shall we file a missing persons report?"

"Tch, it's only been a few hours," Nnoitra said with a curl of his lip. "I say we look for him ourselves."

"Aren't you supposed to wait for some time before you can report a missing person?" Shinji asked.

Izuru piped up softly. "No, that's a myth. I think we should file it now, just in case." When he saw the surprised looks from his friends, he explained, "My uncle is a policeman."

"He's right," Tessai cut in. "Let's go, I'll take you guys. I can't fit everyone though..."

Shuuhei jingled his keys in his fist. "No problem, I'll drive the rest."

"Wait." Grimmjow jumped to his feet and threw open the drawer in Ichigo's desk. He tore off a small piece of paper and scribbled a note to Ichigo, asking him to give them a call when he saw the note, and left the note on the desk. He knew the likelihood of Ichigo actually finding the note and calling them were slim, but it was still a possibility.

Despite the growing concern in the pit of his stomach, Grimmjow bit his lip and willed himself to calm down. There was no proof that this had anything to do with Aizen.

The police sergeant filled up the form as he listened to Shuuhei and Shinji describe the situation. Grimmjow stood behind them, hands stuffed deep inside his pockets. Why was this taking so long? How hard could it be to understand that an orange-haired Japanese kid was missing? All this time they were wasting here, they could've been outside looking for Ichigo themselves just like Nnoitra had suggested.

Grimmjow knew that everyone was worried, but with each second, his worry was slowly turning into fear. The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that Aizen was behind this. Nothing else could explain Ichigo's mysterious disappearance. Ichigo was a responsible person, he wasn't someone who would put his friends through something like this.

How could he not see this coming? Grimmjow felt like strangling himself. All this while he had been thinking that this was between him and Aizen, but of course it wasn't. He shouldn't known. The whole reason Aizen had a problem with him in the first place was Ichigo. If Aizen couldn't take Grimmjow out of the equation, the obvious alternative was to go straight for his target. If this was a matter of winning Ichigo's heart, then this wouldn't have worked. But as Aizen had so eloquently informed Grimmjow that night, he wasn't in this for Ichigo's affection.

When Shuuhei was asked to describe Ichigo's appearance for the third time, Grimmjow couldn't take it anymore. He stomped out of the room and headed for the exit of the police station. They were wasting precious time.

Grimmjow was getting into Tessai's car when Shuuhei and Shinji appeared, finally done with the missing persons report.

"Where are you going?" Shuuhei asked, sounding winded after the sprint from the entrance of the police station. "You're not just going to leave, are you?"

Grimmjow's eyes darkened. "I'm going to do something actually productive, Scarface. I'm done sitting on my ass waiting."

"Scarface?" Shuuhei looked stunned, and for a moment looked like he was offended. But then he purse his lips, presumably deciding that this was not the best time to bicker over something so juvenile.

"And what do you consider 'productive'?" Shinji asked sarcastically.

Grimmjow gripped the car handle. "I'm going to head to the bus stop, see if I can find anything. Someone might've seen Ichigo."

"That's actually a good idea," Izuru nodded his agreement.

Shuuhei nodded as well. "I'll go too."

"No, you check somewhere else," Grimmjow said firmly. "The student union. Maybe someone there might've seen Ichigo."

"But there's hardly anyone there," Shinji protested. "It'd be faster if we—"

Grimmjow slammed his palm into the door frame and stepped out of the car. He pulled himself to his full height, towering over Shinji and Shuuhei.

"This is not a discussion," Grimmjow hissed.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Shuuhei said, his temper fraying. "You don't even know—"

Shuuhei was smashed bodily against the car before he even realized that Grimmjow had grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt.

"This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for your incompetence," Grimmjow snarled, his voice rumbling in his chest. "So you are going to listen to me or I swear to God I will make you wish you have never been born."

Shuuhei narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean my incompetence?"

"If you had called Ichigo earlier, if you had picked him up instead of making him take the fucking bus-"

Shuuhei pushed the larger teen off of him. "How am I supposed to know this would happen? Don't you dare act like you're the only one who cares about Ichigo, asshole! I'm not the one who always treats him like he's a—"

A graceful hand pressed on Shuuhei's chest, stopping the dark-haired boy from lunging at Grimmjow.

"Grimmjow-kun is just worried," Izuru said soothingly. "Right?" He raised an eyebrow and looked warningly at Grimmjow.

Grimmjow took in a deep breath and braced his arms against the car. "We're wasting time," he said finally. "We should go now. I'm going to the bus stop. You can go wherever the fuck you want."

"Why are you so worked up anyway?" Shinji asked in disdain, disgusted by the way Grimmjow was placing the blame on Shuuhei. "You never give a shit about Ichi, we're the ones who truly care."

"Shinji-kun!" Hanatarou cried out in dismay as Grimmjow spun around and punched the blonde in the face.

Shinji yelped in pain, his hands flying to grab his nose. Grimmjow reared up to throw another punch, but a pair of strong arms enveloped him from behind. Grimmjow roared and kicked, but Tessai's grip was like an iron vice.

"The fuck's wrong with you?" Shuuhei yelled, rushing to his friend's side to inspect the damage.

The blonde opened up his hands and revealed a bloody nose. "Fug!" Shinji swore, his voice muffled as blood trickled down his nostril.

For a few minutes, there was silence except for Grimmjow's harsh breathing and Shinji's soft mewls of pain. Then Izuru spoke up.

"You know something, don't you, Grimmjow-kun?"

Grimmjow stiffened in shock. He had always discounted the other blonde's presence because of how quiet and timid he seemed, but it looked like he was actually the most perceptive and calm out of all of them.

All eyes turned to Grimmjow as they gradually realized the implication of his silence.

"What are you not telling us?" Shuuhei asked darkly.

That was it. Grimmjow knew he couldn't - and shouldn't - hide his suspicion anymore. It was their only clue.

"I think Aizen Sosuke might have him," he said slowly.

As the others stared in shocked silence, Grimmjow told them about the incident from that night. When he repeated Aizen's taunt about Ichigo, everyone's eyes widened, even Nnoitra's, who had been standing on the side looking kind of bored.

"You stupig idiog!" Shinji screamed through his still-bleeding nose.

Shuuhei clutched his hair and stared hard at Grimmjow. "And it never occurred to you to even warn Ichigo about it?" he asked incredulously.

Grimmjow bit his lip. No, it hadn't.

He had kept it to himself to protect his pride, to hide the humiliation from losing to that coward named Aizen. He had been so caught up in his own agenda that it never crossed his mind that Ichigo could be in danger.

"How could you be so stupid?" Shuuhei said, still looking at Grimmjow in disbelief. "We have to tell the sergeant. Come on, Shinji."

Shinji turned and followed Shuuhei back into the police station without sparing another glance at Grimmjow.

To be continued…

Michael Mina is a real restaurant in Las Vegas. Seriously, their lobster pot pie is to die for, I'm not kidding!

Also, contrary to public belief - at least from what I saw from TV - there is actually no waiting period to file a missing persons report. In fact, LAPD, for example, prohibits the observance of a waiting period. I dunno where I got the idea of a 48-hour rule (that's what I thought before reading it up online), heh.