Please excuse me, I'm not thinking clear.

My palms started to get sweaty and my heart was pounding like a helicopter. He came from behind a corner of wall which ended small corridor. It looked like those couple seconds slowed down to minutes, hours even maybe. His eyelids slowly rose, raising thick eyelashes with them and uncovering auburn irises, where I saw care, anger, happiness, sadness and thrill in so many times before. Then our eyes met.

Oh snap. What should I say? I should apologize. How? Where's Shirosaki? No, there's a toddler. Where's his wife? Girlfriend? Lover? I felt sick twisting burn in deep of my stomach.

'Grimmjow…'

Faster than my brain could process it, he was hugging me.

'Huh?'

Well, there wasn't much I could do. I circled my arms around his shoulders and it started. Tsunami of words.

' Ichi, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I was an idiot. I didn't want to lose you and I-…'

' I've missed you so much.', he said, nuzzling his face in the crook of my neck. Damn, he's still as surprising as he was in high school.

'Itsygo, who's dis?'

We broke our embrace and stood awkwardly for a few moments, not brave enough to make eye contact. Fuck. For a moment there I forgot about the brat completely.

'Nel, this is Grimmjow, my friend.'

Damn, no one escapes friendzone. I'm internally screaming at this very moment. No, wait. I should slap myself for these thoughts. I mean, really, Grimmjow? You kind of broke his heart and then, after almost a decade you decide to show your face again. I should seriously be glad that he didn't kick my ass out of his apartment in the first place.

My few seconds lasting bickering with myself was interrupted by Ichigo continuing on introduction.

'…and Grimmjow, this is Nelliel, my…', he stopped as if unsure what to say. Then glanced at the girl. She grinned.

'Technically a daughter, Itsygo', she giggled.

My eyes widened.

'Technically?'

Ichigo burst out of laugh.

'Your face right now is priceless! Come here, I haven't seen you in so long, I have so much to tell you, I bet you also have a lot to share with me. So how about a cup of coffee? My god, with all this time that has passed since I last saw you I guess we'll have to drink tone of coffee for me to be able to tell you all the stuff and…'

I let my head get filled of how his voice sounded. All of my insides felt so warm and cozy. I just can't explain that jubilant excitement that took over my every muscle, every nerve and every cell.

I followed him to the living room. It was a regular living room. Couch and armchairs around the small wooden coffee table. TV was hanged on the wall before couch. There also was a huge bookshelf filled with books. (Of course, Grimmjow, what else do you expect? A collection of katanas?)

While Ichigo was putting cups and sweats on the table he casually looked me in the eye and smiled. Sweet heavens I swear, my heart won't take this for long. Ok, you thought, a smile, so what? DUDES. And DUDETTES. It's Ichigo's smile. You know that inner belly tickle that sometimes happens when you're driving car very fast through up-and-down road? Exactly. It's pleasurable but also somehow scary that your legs will turn to jelly.

He turned and went through doorframe.

'I'm going to boil the water for coffee.'

Then my brain started to function normally again. And the question which popped in my head immediately was rolling out of my mouth.

'Oy, where's Shir—OUCH!'

The sharp pain pierced my leg. The toddler just kicked me.

'What?', Ichigo's head appeared in the doorframe again.

The brat pressed her index finger to her lips and grimaced 'Shhhh!'.

'Ah… Nothing. I was talking to… uhm…'

'Nel.' , Ichigo chuckled.

'Yeah,' I smiled.

When he moved to the kitchen again I bent so my face could be just a little above of Nel's.

'What the fuck is your problem?' I hissed.

'Dun say that name in front of Itsygo evar again.'

'Why?'

'It makes him sad.' Nel looked away.

I saw that she doesn't want to talk about it so I didn't press the issue further. (Even though, this intrigued me. What did Shirosaki do to him? I swear to bloody hell full of fuming hounds I'll tear his throat open and push his balls down to his liver if he had hurt Ichigo.) She's just a kid. Instead, I decided to distract the girl.

'Say, Nel, where did you get that scar from?'

I noticed it before. An oblong triangle shaped scar with jagged edges, skin there darker than on the rest of her face. The scar went from her forehead and ended at her nose bridge.

Nel's eyes watered.

'I-it's him.', she whispered then started to tremble slightly.

Uh-oh.

And then she began to weep her eyeballs out. Tears, big as raindrops of a tropic rain rolled down her cheeks. Real smooth Grimmjow. Your communication skills with children are magnificent. 'Cause the best way to distract a kid from hurtful topic is to ask where she got that huge scar from. It couldn't bring any bad memories, no. Good game. Want a round of applause?

And as if the crying brat wasn't enough, Ichigo just popped in the doorway.

'Nel, he said, frowning in concern as he saw her big green-grey teary eyes, what happened?'

Well, fuck.

Now Ichi will kick me out of his home for making the kid cry. And yea, Ichigo is OH SO capable of it. You haven't seen him angry. He'd defend the one he cares about until the last drop of blood.

'I-Itsygo! Grimmy said… He said he missed you so much, an- and I couldn't stop myself from crying…'

(suddenly POV changes a bit)

Grimmjow's jaw dropped. Inwardly, of course. The girl just saved his life. Not literally, but still.

Ichigo smiled, took few steps to Nelliel, kneeled down in front of her and hugged her tightly.

'There, there… Everything is fine. It's good thing that Grimmjow missed me, so there's no need to cry…', he whispered softly and gently caressed Nel's back. In less than a minute she calmed down. She gave Ichigo toothy grin and chirped:

'So… Grimm's gonna be your new boyfriend now?'

Ichigo's face flamed up.

'Nel! Don't say things like that! Grimmjow feels uncomfortable.'

Grimmjow raised an eyebrow.

'I'm perfectly fine with things like this, Ichi.'

'Eh? Aren't you homophobic?'

This time it was Grimmjow who burst out laughing. Ichigo just watched him, confused.

'Ichigo, a rainbow is straighter than me. I'm gay.'

'YOU WHAT?' Ichigo's expression was mixture of shock, anger and… pain?

'Ichi, you ok?' Grimmjow asked with worry in his voice.

'I- I'm… That fucktard! We, he-!'

Ding dong.

Ichigo has stopped in the middle of his sentence. Or something that would have became coherent sentence in time being. He just murmured 'I'll go get it.' and walked to the door.

Soft click as the keys fumble in lock.

A slight squeak as the door is opened.

'Good afternoon, Berry – sensei.' Grimmjow heard male voice.

Berry… SENSEI?

'Don't get too familiar with me, brat. What do you want?'

'I brought report from last week's class meeting.' The male paused. 'Shouldn't students be friends with teachers?'

'Tsk. Not on this level. Now, hand over me the report.'

'Awwww... Why won't you invite me for some tea, Berry – sen- OW! What was that for?'

'You know too damn well you asked for this, Pineapple head... I have an important guest today.'

Grimmjow smirked. Word important from Ichigo's lips was a nice stroke for his already Asia – sized ego.

There was silence for couple of milliseconds.

'AAAARGH! Okay, come in, but only just to meet my friend!'

Tap tap tap.

Two men entered the living room. Behind Ichigo there was tall angry looking redhead with high tied ponytail.

'Grimmjow, this is one of my students, Renji Abarai. Renji, that's my high school friend, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.'

(POV change)

'…my high school friend Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.'

Renji guy's expression changed. I can't say how. It just looked like it changed.

I noticed one thing. He has that aura. That 'Ichigo's' aura. I can't put it into words but everyone that ever had impact with orange head; all of them have that feeling. The midget had it too. Nel is just soaked in it. I guess I also have it, heh. Anyway, back to current.

'Nice to meet you.' he held out his hand to me. I took it. Dude squeezed my palm harder than needed.

HUUU ~ UUUH~

So he wants to show that he has his eyes on Ichi and noticed that I do, too. (Don't ask - it's some kind of hunter's instincts.)

Too bad for him. I saw oranget first. So I naturally squeezed back. He flinched. I grinned. He glared.

'Nice to meet you too.' I replied.

We released each other's hands.

The silence fell upon us like a heavy blanket as me and Renji was trying to kill each other with looks.

'Abarai, you have to hand over the report to me, remember?'

Thank god we have Ichigo.

'Uh… Right, sensei.'

'Come here, I need to give you some papers for your parents to sign. Since you've recently moved here and you're still…' his voice trailed in some other room.

'So…' I turned my head to brat. Weird, she didn't say a word during all this 'meeting time.'

'Awe you two going to fight over Itsygo?'

It really surprised me.

'How in the…?'

She comically frowned and started giggling.

'Nel isn't blind, y'know.'

I'm starting to really like this kid.

Tap tap tap.

'Goodbye, Berry – sensei!'

'Seriously, Abarai, do you really want to see Saint Peter at this young age?'

SLAM.