"Talk to me Ichigo."

She sat across from him in meal hall, twenty something years old, but dressed in a school uniform, she could easily have been a student. In fact, she had used this rouse several times now to make contact with him.

"Rukia, can you just leave it alone?"

"You've been spending time at the pub again. He's back isn't he?"

He said nothing, but she knew.

"How?"

"Rukia I can't say. He made me swear."

"Bullshit, Ichigo!"

"Keep your voice down!" he scolded. Keigo looked sideways at them. He knew enough not to question Ichigo's business in public, but he'd probably overreact once they were in private.

"How is this possible?"

"Like I said, he made me swear not to say."

"We have to take him in."

"No, don't! Rukia please, he told me he's safe as long as you keep your distance." It was the best he could come up with to keep her away. Her eyes narrowed, but her emotional involvement in this case made her give in.

"Fine. For now. But I'm going to keep eyes on him."

"Just don't let him know you're on to him. He's in a bad place right now, it would only add to his stress."

"Bad how? You think he might try something again?"

"I'm not sure. He just seems different. More hostile or something."

"Well be careful. You shouldn't even be involved."

"But I am. And maybe I can help him."

She didn't like anything about this situation, but she let it drop. They discussed nothing more to do with the case and when the bell rang for the next period she slipped out the main doors.

Ichigo didn't stop thinking about Grimmjow all day. He knew part of the story was missing, that Grimmjow was keeping something from him, but what? What had Aizen done to him in that time he'd been gone?

He had taken a key to the apartment last night, and let himself in. There was no one in sight, but the bathroom door was shut.

Dread filled Ichigo in a rush of deja vu. He remembered finding Grimmjow nearly overdosed on pills the same night he'd been taken by Aizen.

"Grimmjow!" He hammered on the door in a panic, but he immediately got a shout back.

"Screw off, I'm in the can."

"Oh. Sorry."

Grimmjow was pissed when he came out and shouldered past Ichigo to the kitchen where he dug out a thing of hotdogs to cook.

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"Thought I was trying to off myself, I know. You can get the Hell out if you think I'm that pathetic."

"I don't."

"Oh screw you." He threw the hotdogs in the sink and spun, grabbing his coat from where it had been flung across the back of the couch.

"Where are you going?"

"To get some real food."

He walked out the door without even looking to see what Ichigo planned on doing. The teen hurriedly followed him out and down the stairs. He was already on the street by the time he pushed through the doors.

"Dammit, Grimmjow's what's going on with you?"
He got no answer. Grimmjow trudged on, hands in pockets. He cut into an alley and Ichigo finally caught him by the arm.

"Grimmjow-"

"Fuck off!" Ichigo hit brick with stunning force. He saw black for a moment before he rebounded and felt snow crush under him. Copper tanged in his mouth, cold air hissed painfully over a chipped tooth. Grimmjow watched him sit up slowly.

"What the Hell?" Ichigo exclaimed both in shock at Grimmjow's reaction and the force of the blow.

"Just get off my case." Grimmjow turned, intending to leave him where he'd fallen, but his path became blocked when the end of the alley filled with men. Ichigo got up behind him.

"Who-"

"Yakuza," Grimmjow answered, eyeing an identifying tattoo. "You boys can't be serious. Don't you know what happened last time you tangled with me?"

"We know." The voice came from behind them and Ichigo was startled to find themselves boxed in. It was dusk, but in here it was dark and they were just far enough from the street most people wouldn't notice them. "But we've been biding our time until your father slacked off his surveillance. Guess today was our lucky day."

"Tch." Grimmjow stood relatively relaxed. "I fucking dare you."

It was chaos. And yet there was a fluidity to Grimmjow's movements, a speed and precision that awed Ichigo as he stood in the middle of the battle. Men came at them, but Grimmjow destroyed them.

Ichigo was reminded of the night in the motel—even though Grimmjow was no stronger than them, his intense training under Aizen was clear. Ichigo guessed this was what he was witnessing once more, as the men fell under his calculated blows. He dodged and manoeuvered, he even used the alley walls to dance around the enemy, and the snow to slide beneath them.

From Grimmjow's perspective, things were not going as well. He was holding back, he couldn't give the game away and let Ichigo know he was on the drug again. He had to force himself to take a few hits, he had to ease up on his strikes so it took twice as many to down each opponent. He had to pretend someone's kick to his back actually caused him pain. And he had to remember that the Grimmjow Ichigo knew would still try to protect him. So when he spotted a Yakuza pull his gun on the kid, he slammed into him, shoving him out of the line of fire and whipped around fast enough to catch the man's wrist before he could fire. The gun was in pieces in the ground in a second, the man followed it right after.

"No guns!" Someone warned, but there were only three left standing. Grimmjow met them with a feral grin.

And that was when he felt an explosion of incredible pain in his chest. The world slowed. The walls tilted on either side of him. He fell into rough brick, catching the confusion on the enemy's face. Up became down, gravity defied itself and dynamite erupted in his rib cage. He heard the kid scream is name, felt his body convulse where it had fallen, slumped back against the brick.

"What the Hell is wrong with him?"

But Ichigo knew. Grimmjow may not have told him the exact truth, but he had mentioned damage to his heart. And this was certainly evidence of that as he sat, air straining to get in and panic in his eyes.

"Get him."

"You won't touch him." Ichigo stepped over Grimmjow's body and put himself between them.

"Back off kid, before we kill you."

"No."

Blue eyes went dark for a time. White snow blended with ivory tiles, water with vodka. He saw her eyes, he saw that look of pain and fear—no, of utter horror and despair. He saw her soft features, he remembered a smile that told him everything would be okay. But it was replaced by another, a man, and his smile always hid something dark, told the beginning of a secret but never all.

Then there was crimson and orange and he returned to the present, felt the spray of snow, and looked up to see the boy defending him.

He was bleeding. He was hurt. And yet he stood his ground. His will was unrelenting. His strength impressive. His endurance remarkable. His determination, unstoppable. Weapons came out, Ichigo stood little chance now, even though he'd take out one man with a strong strike. His face was cut, he stood half bent from blows to his core, but even when the knives came out, he held his ground.

Grimmjow was sure he was about to witness the kid's demise, but he watched in shock when he smoothly side stepped the first attack, caught the man's wrist and snapped it in one deft move. The man screamed in pain and fell back for the second to attack. Ichigo now had a weapon of his own and they engaged. There were more sprays of snow, grunts and cries, Grimmjow was losing focus again, but he dropped his hand from where it had been clenched against hid chest and felt the cold gun he'd dismantled earlier.

Ichigo smacked into the wall and barely dodged what would have been a lethal strike. His palm was torn open and bleeding, and he hadn't escaped a strike at his ribs which tore his clothes and stained them red. His fear was held at bay by adrenaline, and so was the pain, for the time being.

"Just fucking kill him!" The man with the broken wrist insisted, searching for another weapon. They manoeuvered so that Ichigo was between them. The teen cursed himself for allowing them to force him into a vulnerable position.

"Let him go."

The voice from the ground caught their attention, but even more effective, was the reassembled gun directed at them.

"I have no problem bringing attention to our little situation here. How about you boys?"

Their eyes narrowed.

"Let him by," Grimmjow demanded.

One man nodded. Ichigo was allowed to move to Grimmjow.

"Leave." The gun never left them as they worked their way back out of the alley, past the panting and unconscious forms of their allies.

"Guns," Grimmjow grunted, grabbing one from another's belt. Ichigo, shaking from his injuries and beating heart, still managed to follow suit, and gathered those he could find but the men around them were getting back up, it was time to go so he took hold of Grimmjow's arm and helped him stand.

It was a tie as to who was really supporting who as they made their way from the alley. Ichigo was sure he started out holding them up, but by the time they had stumbled along the sidewalk and reached the foot of the stairs to Grimmjow's apartment, it was without a doubt the supersoldier's arm that kept them going. The door opened with a bang and Grimmjow dropped to his knees, but Ichigo kept going, face hitting wood hard and he had a last glimpse his own arm stained red before everything turned to black.

"Shit." Grimmjow had a hand against his chest but watched the beaten, bleeding boy who'd risked his life to save him. "Why didn't he just run?"


Hi all. I was asked to share this message. It has to do with SOPA-like legislation that could shut down sites like . I would hate to see fanfiction shut down. ~Riza.

"The United States Government is trying to put policies in place that will effectively shut down FanFiction, deviantArt, and any other website associated with fan-made art work and literature. There is a petition up that will stop this, but there is only 11,501 signatures out of 100,000, and the deadline is April 13. The only reason I can think of for this is that these policies aren't getting as much publicity as the infamous SOPA policy, and I'm trying to change that.

What I'm asking is for all of you to spread the word as far and wide as you can. The best way I have found to do this is an emergency update on popular stories, but even just putting it on your profile will help. Facebook, Twitter, PM-ing all of your friends, a journal entry on deviantArt, anything you can think of to make this general knowledge.

I've already appealed to my readers and watchers, and I've managed to make a small dent, but we can only do so much with so few of us.

Here is the link to the petition:

/ petitions. whitehouse. gov/ petition/ stop- sopa- policies- trans- pacific- partnership- notice- and- staydown- efforts- and- other- policies/ dXMRvNh8

I know some of you don't live in America and probably can't sign this, but I'm willing to bet that you have quite a few readers that do and can, so please spread the word.

I can't do this on my own."

Elder Dragon