Ichigo sighs heavily, and sits straighter, but it hurts as his shoulders try to fit into their natural position. His hand hurts, and he throws his phone onto his bed.

He takes off his shirt in the bathroom and throws on a gray hoodie. He gets under the comforter after turning off the lights and tries to push the thoughts of loneliness aside.

It's one or two am and the darkness behind his eyelids does nothing to distract him from the emptiness he feels.

He thinks of watching a funny youtube video until he feels drowsy, but that would take away his sleeping time, and he wouldn't be able to concentrate in class.

It's not as if he was interested in what he studied either, sure, if someone sat him down, he would listen, but only because that would take his mind away from how pathetic he feels at the present.

It might add something to his stagnant life, he thinks- hopes, maybe.

His body is tense as he shifts around in bed.

It's so horrible that the darkest of thoughts invade his mind and jeer at his life, right before everything fades away.


''I want to go home!'' Some girl says right when Ichigo enters the room for his first class, and he can't help but agree.

He sits down and is momentarily blinded by the Sun shining in his face through the window.

''Like, the fuck? Chill.'' He mumbles under his breath, thoroughly regretting his seating choices.

His phone vibrates in his pocket and he takes it out and reads Renji's message insisting that he attends this part with him at some Gin person's house.

He thinks even the cockroaches in his apartment weren't as persistent as his friend was, who messages him about this thing every couple hours.

Ichigo decides not to reply any longer, and leaves the message at 'seen', then promptly mutes Renji.

A few murmurs are heard around the room and Ichigo had ignored his surroundings before he made the revolutionary decision to pay attention in class, so now he looks towards the entrance and sees Grimmjow coming in.

He never realized Grimmjow gained this much attention before.

As he walks up the steps, his blue locks ruffled over his forehead as if he had come straight from bed, his swollen cheeks betraying him by playing witness, he glances up briefly and their eyes meet.

Awkward.

Ichigo finds the eye-contact so awkward, that the hairs on his arms raise in protest, and he looks away instantly.

As a silently established rule, Ichigo and Grimmjow do not communicate aside from the subject matter that is in their syllabus. No physical contact and No eye contact.

They don't talk to each other once they cross the Biochemistry section of the University Library.

And this works splendidly.


Ichigo is sitting in the cafeteria, engrossed in watching a dance cover on Youtube.

''Thank God it's Friday!'' He hears Renji say and looks up. ''It's Friday?'' He asks, then looks at the day on his phone before Renji can reply.

Renji rolls his eyes before dragging his chair nearer to Ichigo and looks up with big, hopeful eyes.

''So-''

''I muted you on my phone for a reason.'' Ichigo says before Renji even begins.

Renji looks incredulous. ''No way...'' He whispers.

''Yes way. Now, shoo. Don't interrupt me with nonsense. I'm not going. Don't ask me again.''

And Renji knew how stubborn his friend can be and pats himself for at least trying, but still cusses out an, ''Asshole.'' then looks away with a scowl.


Ichigo decides he can't take it anymore.

He gets up and shuts of his phone. Once the screen is completely black, he takes out an old shoe-box and puts the lifeless device in it and shoves it into a deep corner in his closet.

He stands there, feeling more emotional than he'd ever admit.

'I feel like my life is being sucked away.' He thinks but never says it out loud, in fear that it will become more serious of an issue than he wants it to be.

Renji is probably at that party, and he has no other friends.

And this is the moment where he is both craving for human contact yet wants to be left alone.

''Ice cream.'' He says. ''I should treat myself to ice cream.''


Ichigo gets a chocolate bar with a Vanilla filling. He likes to think he eats with a method to it, making sure not a single bite is wasted and he finds himself chuckling lowly to himself when the remaining chocolate almost slips off the bar and he bends his body to steady it.

There's soda and other weird candy in the plastic hand hanging from the wrist of the hand which his buried in the pocket of his sweatpants.

It's nice to just stroll around, he decides. The night air was cool, and there weren't many vehicles.

And since he rarely comes out, he feels like he is on a mini adventure.

Ichigo takes the long way home, and while he walks, he hears noise coming from one of the houses nearby. Must be a party, he thinks

There's a small park just up ahead and when he passes by, he witnesses a very unexpected sight.

Grimmjow is squatting on the ground with two hands clutching at his hair and pulling, his eyes tightly shut and groaning.

He stands there contemplating, his tutor was obviously dressed up for some kind of party, wearing a leather jacket, with gelled up hair, and clearly, he was piss ass drunk.

He must have friends, surely, who would come looking for him and take care of him.

As he turns reluctantly, but with determination not to get himself involved, he hears another very pained groan from the other man, voice cracking like he was going through puberty all over again.

And he probably was, ''Motherfucker.'' Ichigo says and groans, which harmonizes with another one of Grimmjow's moans and he turns back.

He walks very slowly towards Grimmjow, hoping for a miracle that someone would come to take care of the guy but nothing happens.

He carefully squats in front of Grimmjow and gingerly places a hand on his shoulder, ''Hey, you okay?''

Grimmjow looks up, wincing at Ichigo's volume but the latter isn't apologetic at all.

His eyes are bloodshot and his chapped lips indicate how dehydrated he is and Ichigo couldn't imagine the painful amount of alcohol that was pumping through the man's veins at the moment.

''Dude,'' he whispers, shaking Grimmjow slightly to make him pay attention, ''If you throw up on me, I will literally bury you.''

Grimmjow looks confused. Ichigo grabs Grimmjow's arms and tries to pull him up. ''Fuck, you're one of those muscle freaks! Fuck!'' He curses some more as Grimmjow barely budges.

He heaves a sigh and bites his lips in thought until an idea strikes him and he searches around his plastic bag for a chocolate lollipop and waves it in front of Grimmjow's face.

He coos softly, carefully, ''Here, get up, and you can have it.''

Grimmjow appears to have sobered up a tiny bit and he frowns slowly, and Ichigo wonders how confused he must be, but then the guy surprises him with a groggy, ''I'm not...a dog...''

Ichigo snorts, ''I wish you were, this would be a lot easier then.'' And Grimmjow frowns even more.

''Come on,'' Ichigo says and grabs Grimmjow's hands this time, and it's all very uncoordinated, their hands don't fit well, Grimmjow doesn't hold onto his hands, but latter finally gets up, making Ichigo huff.

He leads the man to the swings and makes him sit. Grimmjow wobbles in his place.

''Boy, are you drunk...'' Ichigo says and thinks about a plan of action.

His phone is at home. He could only call Renji even if he had it with him. Eventually, he decides.

''Hey, Grimmjow, mind if I use your phone?''

Grimmjow frowns, but stays silent. ''Where's your phone?'' He tries.

He stares and finally, his gaze drops to the ground.

Ichigo sighs and walks forward. He leans over Grimmjow and his hand reaches into Grimmjow's back pocket and grabs his phone.

When he goes to stand straight, Grimmjow grabs his wrist and tugs him forward. ''What...?'' He says, looking at the phone then at Ichigo with wide and shockingly blue eyes.

Ichigo frowns, ''I need to call your friends.''

Grimmjor relaxes at that, his eyes cloudy and he slumps. Ichigo doesn't know what to make of this. He goes to the call logs after seeing that he doesn't have a password and calls the most frequently called number.

Another guy answers the phone, sounding a bit drunk as well, and then Ichigo tells him about the situation and the location. The man curses on the line and asks him to wait.

Ichigo sits down on the adjacent swing and swings back and forth.

What a tiresome night. He looks over at Grimmjow who is staring down at the ground, half-asleep and he nudges his leg with his foot.

''Hey, why did you drink so much?''

He doesn't get an answer, as expected.

In just under two minutes, Grimmjow's friend comes to take him away, eyes sharp and sober. He takes Grimmjow's phone and thanks him curtly.

Then Ichigo is walking home again, guilt free.