Chapter 3: Start

The pain was excruciating.

Every cell in his body was screaming, and shock waves flooded through every sense in his body. Ichigo swore he was dying. He grabbed at his head as the pounding became so intense he thought it would explode any second.

"Urahara, do something!" a man with blue hair screamed at the other with desperation. His hands gently caressed Ichigo's cheeks, wiping away the stray tears.

"There's nothing I can do. He'll have to get through it on his own." the blond man said with a sad tone, barely heard over Ichigo's screaming.

"Fuck you!" the blue haired man looked Ichigo in the eyes as his hands kept stroking his face and arms reassuringly. Ichigo tried to keep his attention on that beautiful figure above him, but it was hard when pain was shooting through his body constantly.

Ichigo's vision blurred, and for a few moments he feared he would fall asleep once more. Every attempt to clear his head failed, and memories merged together until Ichigo couldn't tell reality from the inside of his own mind.

"Ichi?" the blunette stood over him once more.

Ichigo would have pushed the other man's hand away from his own, but the sudden calm feeling that settled over him made him only grasp on tighter. The pain slowly drained away, and, out of fear the pain would return, Ichigo wove his fingers through the other's. It felt so right, so familiar. Ichigo raked his brain for memories of someone with blue hair, but he came up blank. How come he felt as if he had met this man before?

"Thank God." one of the men sighed. "Are you okay? Ichigo?"

Ichigo couldn't figure out how to make his mouth work, so instead he turned his head to look at the blond man. A smile was etched onto his face, so large Ichigo thought it shouldn't be real.

"Oh, it is good to see you awake again, my dear! I thought I would never see your beautiful eyes ever again!" the blond man cried dramatically.

"Shut your fuckin' mouth!" his hostile eyes turned gentle as he gazed at Ichigo's still figure.

"We have a lot to talk about. Shall we wait until Ichigo's a bit better, Grimm?" as the blond man said Grimmjow's nickname he flicked his eyes to Ichigo's face.

Grimm.

Something wasn't adding up.

"Grimm? Is that...you?" Ichigo bit his lip as he looked up at the blue-haired man through his orange bangs. His eyes held many questions, but they were the eyes. The ones they had been looking for.

He nodded, a small inclination of his head. "Yeah. I'm Grimmjow."

"And I'm Urahara. The others are in another room, would you like to meet them? Or would you rather wait to answer your question so-"

"Yes please." Ichigo voice louder than his usual voice. "I want to know what's happening. About the monster, about you, about what's going on here."

The two men, "Grimmjow" and "Urahara", Ichigo reminded himself, nodded to each other. Grimmjow sat back down next to him and once again wove his fingers through Ichigo's own. Again, he didn't pull away. Urahara left with a grin, and a few seconds after leaving he re-entered with a few extras in tow.

"Ichigo!"

"Well, look at that."

"Hey kid."

"'ey, King!"

Ichigo blushed at all the attention. Grimmjow just gripped his hand tighter to reassure him, and, to Ichigo's amazement, it worked. All of his anxieties ran through his body and left through the area where their hands were interlocked. It was amazing. One of the men who entered made Ichigo's eyes widen comically.

He must have noticed, and he laughed. "Remember me, Kid?"

Ichigo nodded. "But who are all of you? Why did you save me the other night? What's so important about me?"

"We will get to that. Let me introduce you first?" Urahara retook his seat on Ichigo's other side. Ichigo nodded at him and braced himself.

"Okay."

The brown haired man Ichigo recognized fell to one knee and bowed. "My name is Starrk. It is...good to see you awake once more, Kid."

Ichigo scoffed. Being called that made him feel inferior, even though he felt as if it were just silly. "Don't call me a kid."

Starrk rose. "As you wish, Kid."

The next to bow was a voluptuous woman with teal hair only a few shades off from Grimmjow's own. Her eyes were wide and childlike, and the large smile on her face never wavered.

"I'm Nelliel, but call me Nel. I'm Grimmjow's sister and your..." the warning look Grimmjow gave her made he stop speaking. " I've missed you so much Ichigo, can I hug you?"

Ichigo felt awkward as she rose and slipped her arms around his neck. Ichigo slowly rose his free hand around the woman's back, and the sniffle that sounded made the atmosphere even worse. When she finally rose Ichigo noticed her tears and gaped.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Just missed you, is all."

"If you're sure..."

Her watery gray eyes reflected the light off of the overhead bulb, and they twinkled like stars on the clearest night. For some reason, however, Ichigo could not help but remind himself that her eyes paled in comparison to a certain someone's ocean-like ones.

"So you're Grimmjow's sister? I shouldn't have to ask that actually, you both look terrible alike. Except for the eyes, that is." Ichigo's blush rose as the words fell from his mouth like a waterfall. Sometimes, when he talked, Ichigo realized he just couldn't shut up.

"She got mother's eyes." Grimmjow whispered to him quickly while the others started arguing over something. "And I got dad's."

"Don't tell her this, but..." Ichigo leaned in even closer to shield his words for everyone but Grimmjow. "Your eyes are better."

Grimmjow's answering smile was contagious, and as he turned back Ichigo was face to face with a paler copy of himself.

"'ey King. Nice to finally see you 'wake again! Thought you'd sleep forever!"

Ichigo openly gaped at the man. He was strange, but not the bad kind of strange. It was the kind of strange that piqued Ichigo's scientific side. Ichigo's skin crawled as he fought off the questions waiting to be fired off at the mirror-like image of himself.

"I'm Shiro, your faithful horse." he bowed his head lightly, and the disarray of white spikes framed his head like a halo.

"Are we-?"

"Nope!" Shiro interrupted him quickly with a maniacal grin. "We're not related. I am, however, at yer disposal King."

Ichigo inhaled a shuttering breath. 'King'? What a silly title for one such as himself. Why did these people hold him with such high regard?

The people in the room continued introducing themselves. Szayel, Nnoitra, Tesla, and many other names that didn't register with Ichigo's slowly deteriorating mind. Now that the fun was over Urahara caught Ichigo's attention again.

"This is our team, we have fought throughout the ages. And you, Ichigo, you're at the center of it all."

The next few days passed rather quickly. Ichigo was up and moving withing hours of his original awakening time, despite Grimmjow's relentless protesting. Many of the team members he had already met showed him around the enormous estate, and Nel even gave him tips on finding his room from different places. She also mentioned how to find Grimmjow's room, but Ichigo tuned her out as his ears turned pink.

The only thing that bothered Ichigo was the bodyguards.

No matter where he went there were always eyes watching him. Ichigo figured it wasn't supposed to cause any problems with him, but damn it, it was driving him crazy! It's like they expected him to be attacked at any given moment!

Ichigo's current bodyguard was one that he didn't mind too much. Tesla. The smaller man rarely talked, and when he did he only answered questions given by Ichigo.

So Ichigo asked a lot of questions.

Many times Tesla's answers led to the same central person. Nnoitra. It wasn't long til Ichigo had figured out Telsa was in love with the tall, intimidating man. But the orangette didn't mind. Love was love, and he was happy that his friend had something so dear to his heart. Speaking of.

Grimmjow hadn't resurfaced today, and Ichigo was becoming more and more nervous. Many things were still a mystery about this place, about these people, but Ichigo did know that Grimmjow was linked to him. He had known it since they first laid eyes on each other, like it had happened before in the past.

"Do you know where Grimmjow is?" Ichigo looked over at the blond male.

"Ah, you probably didn't know. Many of our other members returned today. He was more than likely required to welcome them back, which is why I was your bodyguard today. I don't deal with the fighting part of this..." Telsa trailed off looking nervous.

"Other members? Where were they?"

"Off fighting I'd bet. You may not know much about what we do here yet, but we are always fighting. Never do they stop, even in their death."

Ichigo stopped his wiggling and tried to grab Telsa's avoiding eyes, but they stayed trained on the white carpet floor. Ichigo gave a huff.

"Why am I here, Tesla? What's so important about me?" Ichigo noticed Tesla stayed still and silent. "Don't I deserve to know that at least?"

Tesla's internal battle won out, much to Ichigo's relief, and he finally rose his head. Ichigo bit his lip, awaiting the answer to the one question he would never get an answer to.

"Well-!"

"Hey Ichi." Grimmjow popped out from behind Ichigo and the orangette jumped. His racing heart took a few moments to calm down, but when it did Ichigo turned on Grimmjow with an angry frown.

"Grimmjow! How dare you sneak up on me like that!"

His laugh was deep and sensuous, which only made Ichigo's heart race faster. Ichigo figured his heart would flutter away if he didn't move away from the delicious tanned skin only centimeters away from his own. He made to move, but as he stepped away Grimmjow gripped his arm, pulled him back even closer, and threaded his fingers through Ichigo's.

"I'm sorry Ichi. I hope I didn't interrupt anything important between you and Tesla here?"

Oh yeah. Tesla had been forgotten. Ichigo glanced his way, meaning to get the answer he was awaiting, but Tesla looked tense and ready to dart like a deer.

"Oh, not a-at all Grimmjow! We weren't talking about anything important! U-uh, see ya later Ichigo!" with a watery smile Tesla turned on his heels and practically ran from Ichigo's direction. Shit, Ichigo thought to himself, there goes the answer I needed.

"That's what I thought."

"You did that on purpose, didn't you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ichigo stuck his tongue out childishly. "Of course."

"Well," Grimmjow turned the way he had come from before. "We have a few people you need to meet. Are you okay with going now? Or should we grab a bite to ear or something else-?"

Ichigo put his free hand over Grimmjow's mouth, earning him a wet lick on his dry palm. "Disgusting, Grimm!"

Ichigo wiped his hand off while Grimmjow laughed. "Anyways, let's go. I want to meet these people. But I also want to know the truth. Don't make me regret coming with you instead of chasing Tesla down while I still have the chance."

Grimmjow ruffled Ichigo's wild orange hair. Today it was even messier than before, and Grimmjow wasn't exactly helping.

"Don't worry, you won't regret this. I have a feeling you'll embrace these members like they were...let's say, old friends."

Chapter 3: End