Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

Please enjoy!

"Hey, Loly?"

Loly glanced up from her laptop to see her sister, Menoly, standing in the front of the doorway to her room with her arms folded and a disappointed look on her face.

"What is it?" Loly asked.

Menoly sighed and made her way to Loly's bed, brushing away the headless stuffed animal before sitting at the edge of the bed.

"I need to talk to you." Menoly began. "It's about... Ken'Ichi."

Loly turned her chair around to face her sister, looking more concerned when she heard Ken'Ichi's name.

"What about Ken'Ichi?"

Menoly exhaled sharply before she started to tell her sister what she saw and heard.

"You know how Ken'Ichi's parents are gay?"

Loly nodded. "Yeah. What about them?"

Menoly motioned her arms, trying to find the right words to say. "Have you ever thought that maybe Ken'Ichi might also be-"

"Ken'Ichi's not gay, end of story!" Loly interrupted, shutting her laptop and putting it on a nearby shelf. "How can he be? He's dating me."

"Him and like, ten other dudes." Menoly whispered under her breath. Loly shot an angry glare at her sister and Menoly yelped in fear. Loly got up and walked slowly to her sister and kneeled in front of her, her face scowling hard.

"Did you say something, Menoly?" Loly asked, her tone seething with fury ready to explode onto her sibling.

"I'm sorry, that was a bad joke." Menoly nervously chuckled, trembling lightly in fear. Loly rolled her eyes at her and walked back to her chair.

"Anyway, Ken'Ichi's not gay, okay?"

"I'm just saying, I saw him and that new guy, Toshiro talking today."

Loly giggled. "Alright, that doesn't mean that they're gonna hook up."

"You didn't see the way they were looking at each other. The way they were talking. It kinda looked like flirting. They were kinda all over each other and neither seemed to mind."

"Ken'Ichi would never cheat on me, alright? I know my boyfriend."

Loly turned back around to grab her laptop when she heard Menoly say something under her breath as she headed for the door.

"What did you just say?" Loly asked, turning back around to her sister.

"Look, all I'm saying is that maybe we should go check on him and make sure that he isn't pulling any funny stuff, okay? They did say that they were hanging out later tonight."

"I'm not spying on him, Menoly." Loly said. "I trust my men, ugh I-I mean, man. I trust my man." Loly nervously giggled as she corrected herself. Menoly simply smirked at her sister.

"Come on, all I'm saying is-"

"We've been over this, Menoly. Just because you don't like Ken'Ichi doesn't mean you can exaggerate things about him."

"Loly-"

"Menoly, just get the hell out of my room and stay out of Ken'Ichi's business." The pigtailed girl demanded. Menoly sighed frustratedly and walked out her sister's room, slamming the door behind her. Menoly put her back up against the wall next to her sister's room and sighed again. She couldn't shake the idea that there was something going on between her sister's boyfriend and the new guy. She had to know.

"I'll just fine out for myself." Menoly decided.

Loly sat at her chair typing away at her laptop, but she soon found herself typing the words 'Ken'Ichi gay cheating' on her laptop. Loly quickly realized this and backspaced those words. She thought very briefly about what Menoly had told her, but she quickly passed it off as her sister being paranoid. And the fact that Ken'Ichi's parents were gay couldn't have meant a thing.

"Ken'Ichi wouldn't. He, he isn't!" Loly chuckled nervously.

"...Is he?"

Minoru could only stare disappointingly at his orange-haired father, who was sprawled out across his bed, having crashed from the cocaine he took the day before for hours now. He laid half-asleep in his bed with just a pair of briefs and a comforter covering his lower body. The crash of the coke had really taken its toll.

"Feeling any better?" Minoru asked sympathetically but with a hint of sarcasm.

Ichigo groaned, tossing and turning weakly before lazily opening his bloodshot eyes to see his son. Ichigo shook his head slowly in response. To say he felt horrible would be a complete understatement. Crashing from coke felt alot worse than it looked. The strawberry-blonde felt like vomiting. His nose was swollen shut and mucus was visibly dripping out of his nose. He felt incredible just last night. He didn't realize how bad it would feel to crash from something like that.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Ichigo asked weakly.

"I came home early." Minoru replied. "I was too worried about you."

Ichigo quickly shut his eyes and held his stomach, groaning loudly as he felt nausea piercing his stomach.

"Daddy!" Minoru ran to his father's bedside, grabbing his right hand and holding it tight. He made a slightly disgusted face when he felt Ichigo's clammy hand, but held on nonetheless.

"I'm gonna throw up." Ichigo said, his eyes tightly shut and his left hand still clinging to his stomach.

"Daddy, why on earth would you do something so ridiculously stupid?" Minoru asked, worried. "For god's sake, you're a doctor! I shouldn't be telling you how dangerous that stuff is. You're also lucky Tetsuya was asleep when you in last night. He shouldn't hafta to see you like that."

Ichigo groaned again, the wave of nausea calming down a bit. "If you knew how I felt right now, Minoru.." Ichigo sighed. "I'm never gonna do it again."

"That's not the point!" Minoru let go of Ichigo's still clammy hand and stood up with a concerned and upset look on his face. "Why would you do it in the first place? People get hooked to this stuff after just one try!"

"Minoru, he gave it to me to make me feel better-" Ichigo confessed. Ichigo's eyes grew wide as a realization hit them both. Not caring about his current condition, Ichigo quickly sat up to explain himself, but he knew it was already too late; Minoru's head was lowered with his brown bangs covering his face, meaning he was on the verge of anger or sadness. Minoru had a bad feeling that was... no it couldn't have been. Not after they had that man-to-man, right? Still, Minoru gad a suspicion that he had something to do with it.

"Dad, where did, where did the drugs come from?" Minoru voice was in a low and intense whisper that made Ichigo's voice cringe.

"Minoru, I screwed up, Okay? Don't try to blame-"

"Answer my question!" Minoru demanded, his patience already wearing thin. "Who gave you the coke? A drug dealer? The mailman? Who?!"

Ichigo snorted and wiped his nose with the palm of his hand. "Umm..." Ichigo was at a loss of words. The silence confirmed Minoru's suspicions as he slowly stood up from the the ground and walked to the door.

"It was Grimmjow wasn't it?" Minoru said, his back still turned to the door. "I'm so stupid. How could I trust that guy?!" Minoru felt like kicking himself for thinking that, even for one second, that Grimmjow could actually be a good person, let alone a good man for Ichigo.

"Minoru-"

"Dad! How long how you and Grimmjow been doing this?!" Minoru spun around and faced his father.

"I've only done it once and he's only done it twice!" Ichigo shifted himself and sat on his bed. "Please Minoru, he only did that to take my mind off some things."

Minoru simply scoffed at his father's statement. "Yeah, that's a really romantic gesture."

"He was there for me, okay? At least he understands."

Minoru couldn't bear to listen to one more word Ichigo had to say. He couldn't believe some of the things his father was saying to him. Only Grimmjow cares. Only Grimmjow understands. He wanted to throw up at Ichigo's statements. He wasn't making any sense. It was as if he and his brothers didn't mean anything.

"Dad! Why would you accept drugs from Grimmjow of all people?!" Minoru's voice was rising in anger and confusion at his father.

"It may not have been the best thing to suggest, but It was good enough to-"

"Good?!" Minoru shouted incredulously. "If he was any good, that asshole wouldn't want you to fuck your life up!"

"Watch what the hell you say to me, little boy." Ichigo demanded in a fierce growl. Minoru whimpered very slightly, but otherwise remained unfazed in response to his father, whose facial expression had turned into his signature scowl. "I understand that you're worried and I'm sorry for what happened, but I'm still your father and I won't take your bullshit."

Minoru didn't respond. He was too angry to. He had a brief moment of fear, but was now seething with anger. He felt like he would go crazy if he even opened his mouth. Instead, he stared at his father with scorching intensity. He questioned if Ichigo was still high because of the way he was acting. Maybe he didn't have to curse like that, but that was only because he loved his father and Ichigo knew that he would act out for just nothing. Ichigo felt his son's anger and sighed.

"Minoru, I promise I won't ever do it again." Ichigo said. "Now I want you to promise me that you won't start any trouble with Grimmjow, okay?"

Minoru breathed a sigh of disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

"Look, I can handle my own business, okay? I don't need you checking up on the people I deal with, got it?"

"But this is different! That stuff couldn't killed you! He never should've given it to you, no matter how bad you felt!"

"Once I get well, I'll talk to him myself. The last thing I need is to get a call from Grimmjow's work saying an 11-year got him fired."

Minoru didn't respond. He resumed to staring angrily at his father, slightly shaking.

"Minoru...!"

"Fine!" Minoru said in defeat, breaking his silence. "But only if you promise me that you'll never let Grimmjow or anyone else talk you into something like that ever again."

"I promise." Ichigo smiled and got up from bed to where Minoru was and embraced him in a hug. Minoru just stood there breifly, but he shut his eyes and wrapped his arms around him, holding him tightly. After about a minute, Minoru pulled away from his dad.

"I'm just gonna go take a walk to take my mind off of this."

Ichigo nodded and patted his son on the head. Minoru walked out of his father's bedroom and grabbed his jacket, which was sitting on the couch. He didn't know who to be more pissed off at: Grimmjow for giving his father drugs, Ichigo for defending Grimmjow, or himself for putting his trust into either one of them. The only thing that was on his mind was how could Ichigo defend that bastard after he gave him the cole. He should've never believed Grimmjow in the first place. But still, Minoru decided to keep his promise with Ichigo.

He wasn't going to 'start trouble'.

He was going to raise hell.

Ichigo let out a trouble sigh as he made his way back to his bedroom with his head down. He was disappointed in himself for doing what he did. What was worse was that Ken'Ichi and Minoru saw him like that. The only good thing about it was that Tetsuya was asleep during the time he was high. It already hurt enough that two of his sons had to take care of him like he was an hyperactive and immature child, but it would've broke his heart to see his youngest son disappointed in the man he looks up to.

Ichigo also knew good and well that Minoru wasn't just 'going for a walk'. Knowing Minoru, he was probably on his way right now about to get into it with Grimmjow. While he didn't like the fact that his son was trying to fight for him, he also didn't have the strength to try and convince him otherwise and had just hoped that things didn't get that out of control.

Walking back into his room, he walked into his closet and pulled off a pair of grey pants that he wore last night that were held on a clothes hanger and put it own his bed. He fished into his right pants pocket and pulled out a tiny little bag of cocaine that was leftover from when he got high with Grimmjow the night before.

"I'm sorry, you guys." Ichigo whispered to himself. He tossed the bag onto his bed and buried his face in his hands, troubled over his situation.

"Hahahaha! Really?"

"Yeah man. My younger brother Minoru had this huge bed-wetting problem up until he was eight." Ken'Ichi snorted. He and Toshiro's laughed harder as the two boys walked through the crowded streets of KaraKura.

"I'd take that secret to my grave." Toshiro chuckled.

"And that's not even the worst part." Ken'Ichi added. "He even had to sometimes wear a diaper back to bed after his 'accidents'." The two boys stopped in their tracks and laughed hysterically, leaning over while holding their stomachs, while their faces were turning red and their eyes shut from laughing. They could feel the heat from other people's eyes locked on them, giving them strange glares while wondering what it was that was so funny.

Ken'Ichi and Toshiro continued to laugh for a few more minutes until they finally began to regain their composures, their sides starting to hurt from laughing so hard.

"Oh god, Minoru will kill me." Ken'Ichi realized, still chuckling softly.

"Aw man." Toshiro said.

"What is it?" Ken'Ichi asked.

"What? Oh nothing." Toshiro replied. "It's just... it's nice... being able to go out and laugh like this."

"Yep." Ken'Ichi responded, putting his hands behind his head. "Not a care in the world."

"Yeah, not having to worry about family issues or anything."

"Yep, I feel you on that." Ken'Ichi said. "It's like, as much as you love them, there are some things about them that you can't... overlook."

Toshiro looked over to Ken'Ichi, slowing his pace down. "Yeah, that's-that's how I feel when I'm with them."

Ken'Ichi noticed that Toshiro wasn't walking right next to him and turned back around to see the white-haired boy standing closely behind him. It was odd, looking at Toshiro on the streets. Ken'Ichi's eyes were locked on him, as if there wasn't another soul walking past.

"My family-" the boys said in unison.

"Sorry, you go first." the boys said in unison once again. The boys chuckled softly and somewhat awkwardly.

"It's okay man, you go first." Ken'Ichi said.

Unexpectedly, Toshiro borrowed his eyebrows and took a step back from the brown-haired boy, now looking at him with slight hostility. He didn't understand why his gut feeling about Ken'Ichi had suddenly changed, but it was as if this was... too good to be true. Almost like this whole night wasn't real.

"I can't." Toshiro replied, lowering his head.

"Wh-what? Why not?" Ken'Ichi asked, sensing his friend's mood swing.

"Ken'Ichi as great as this has been so far, I barely know you... and you barely know me."

"Let's change that." Ken'Ichi smiled.

That's chapter 10! I'm reallllly sorry for the longggggg update. I've been so stressed out with school and my exams and my college appilcations, it all was taking a much bigger toll on me than I thought. Please R&R and chapter 11 will be up very soon! Things are about to get really interesting...