Chapter 7: For the Love of a Strawberry
Disclaimer: NOT MINE!
please review..Thanks a bunch
For the Love of a Strawberry
Grimmjow and Ichigo had parted ways at the outskirts of the forest. They had looked at each other, nodded, walked a little bit away, turned around to look at each other again before starting towards each other only to meet the other's lips at the middle ground. Grimm sighed with pleasure just thinking about Ichigo's lips and what Ichigo made him feel. He knew this couldn't go much longer. They would have to break their fledgling relationship off, if it could be called a relationship. He thought about letting Ichigo go, thought about Ichi's future, thought about how Ichigo …his thought process got cut off as he started imagining other people in Ichigo's life; other people touching his Ichigo, other people loving HIS Ichigo. He started to get furious, as something in his chest start to tear itself apart.
"Ichigo's mine and anyone who touches him is dead." He said out loud with death and destruction lacing his voice for the advantage of the people who dared think that Ichigo could actually for a second be theirs. What was this feeling? Where was this overwhelming feeling to protect him coming from? He felt a shift within his essence and his body was wracked with pain. He fell to his knees clutching them in pain. It was like nothing he ever felt; worse than when he was just a mere low level hollow. He could not take much more than this, he thought. He didn't know what was happening to him, what was going on, but he knew that he would have to make it, there was no other choice. If he let go though, maybe he would be in a better place? Maybe, but Ichigo wouldn't be there…Ichigo, Ichigo would be his hope, his shining beacon of light, his light at the end of this long very twisted tunnel.
His thoughts were these as he fell to the floor of his chamber.
Ichigo shivered; something was wrong. He felt like he should be remembering something but what he didn't know. One thing he knew for sure is that he would never forget Grimmjow. He sighed, as if he had found paradise. Bliss, oh how perfect it felt in Grimmjow's arms. When he was with Grimm, he could just breathe and relax. The perpetual weight that always hung over him was gone and instead was replaced by this airy, almost reckless feeling of weightlessness. It was exhilarating, it was amazing and it was also too good to be true. He didn't think of how he would be able to go on, if he didn't have those moments with Grimm.
"Nah, not gonna let that happen." He whispered to the wind. Wherever he goes, however far he goes, I'm going to after him and remind him over and over again who he belongs to. He grinned at the thought of him chasing Grimm around the world over and over again; it got quite comical. There was a pleasant buzzing in his heart and a spring was introduced to his steps. Whatever would happen would happen but one thing was for certain; Grimm and Ichi equaled to fate.
He got home, bounded upstairs quietly when he saw his guests and his family were entranced by the t.v., jumped into his springy bed and promptly fell asleep.
A few weeks passed as Grimmjow and Ichigo continued to meet on the sly despite the looming war. All time spent together was talking about everything and nothing, cuddling, kissing, making slow sweet love, kissing, cuddling; it goes on and on. Even as plans were made to take the other side down, they met, sadness and wariness in their eyes melting away as soon as they laid eyes on each other. They were each other's shelter from the rest of the world and the rest of the world knew nothing about them. In their cacoon, they could forget.
They fell, oh, they fell marvelously. They learned the other so well that they knew the meaning behind every word, every pause, and every gesture. In between everything else, during their chance meetings, they tried to hold back (not to fight at their absolute best, so not to hurt their love) but as with everything else, they could not hold back from each other. Others thought this was their resolve to win, to bring the enemy down. They mistook Ichigo's and Grimmjow's passion for hate, their love for wrath. They did not see when the two lovers met after such a fight; how they were gentle and how they carefully healed one another.
And although, they chose not to talk about the upcoming event, they knew in their hearts and souls that the end was looming. But whose end? After they separated every night, they lay in their beds thinking; sleep was somewhere else as nightmares gripped their minds and uneasiness overtook their bodies.
The date loomed closer, their meeting and visits became less frequent. Each was training or on missions to sabotage the other. Quiet desperation took over the shinigamis as they were hit hard repeatedly with no mercy (but this was expected). The supply of hollows never seemed to end but more Shinigami were taken out of field; their souls finally becoming one with the universe. New strategies were thought of, stricter training regime; everyone was expected to be the best. But through it all, laughter seemed to be heard everywhere one went; this joy came from giving one's best and working together.
Ichigo, missing his beloved, drove himself into the training, doing what he had to do to be too tired to think, too tired to breathe, too tired to dream, too tired to love. On the other end of the universe, Grimmjow was in a foul mood, taking it out on anything and anyone. And his mood seemed to affect everyone around him, except for Aizen, Gin, and Tosen. Every corner of the hellhole was filled with hollows of every shape, color, size, and power and all of them were getting in to the mood of destruction and taking down any Shinigami or human they saw.
The day of the final battle came too soon. The new plan was to get into the enemy's home base and take them down from the inside. Of course, this was both of the sides' plans. So, Ichigo and his small army gained entrance to the stronghold of Hueco Mundo, at the same time an Arrancar team made into the Shinigami world, and many others fought in the skies of earth.
The battle started erratically but kept steady as foes and friends alike fell. Cheers and smiles were exchanged for each victory and a resolve for justice was made for each loss (Shinigami). For the Hollows the process of gains and loss were very different; each victory met with more killing and each loss made no difference whatever.
Slowly but steadily, Ichigo and his team members made it through the castle, searching for the center, where the root of evil lay, where Aizen watched the proceedings of the war as if a gory cartoon on the television. Fight after fight Ichigo seemed to get stronger, faster, better; he made up for any loss. He absolutely refused to let any lives go to waste. The team split up as they took to different directions upon meeting enemies; some staying behind to fight where others kept on going. One fight that became the turning point for Ichigo was when he was fighting Ulquiorra. Their fight had become quite stagnant as they seemed to hold approximately the same amount of power. This was disturbed as a Shinigami and Grimmjow suddenly burst in on them. This changed the dynamics of the fight such that it was now two on two but also the fact was that Ichigo and Grimmjow didn't want to fight one another.
The fight went on nonetheless. At one moment, when Ichigo became distracted by the fight between Grimmjow and the Shinigami, Ulquiorra chose to strike. Grimmjow and the Shinigami caught Ulquiorra's intent but each chose a different action. The Shinigami chose to hurry to Ulquiorra, whose utmost focus was on Ichigo, and stab him from the back. Meanwhile, Grimmjow, panic gripping his heart, pulled Ichigo away from the tip of the sword, and threw him across the room. The impact caused by the Shinigami's sword in Ulquiorra caused his sword to puncture Grimmjow. Grimmjow stumbled away; he could already feel his insides rotting and the void that had just been filled by Ichigo was being eaten away. He wanted to see Ichigo's face once more. He made his way to Ichigo's side and knelt down to touch the face of his beloved. 'I love you.'
The Shinigami looked up from cleaning his sword to see Grimmjow moving toward Ichigo. No, he wouldn't let a comrade die. He, noiselessly, ran towards the blue haired Arrancar and swiftly called his sword and buried it in Grimmjow's body.
Ulquiorra's whole being was in pain but he let not a sound escape. The foolish Shinigami who thought he could kill an Arrancar with once stroke moved away. Ulquiorra looked up to see the Shinigami's turned away; 'an eye for an eye', as humans say. Pushing aside all the pain, he got up and in one step he had taken the Shinigami's head off his shoulder. He looked down to see Grimmjow, with a hilt of the foolish Shinigami sword protruding from his body (Oh, well, he never like the blue haired asshole anyway), and Kurosaki, with multitude bruises and cuts all recent and still bleeding (too bad, the boy was interesting).Dead, they're dead, he thought. He tried to move but couldn't as though his body was turning to stone. He looked down at his hands; they were turning to stone.
'Gone,' he thought, 'Gone with one stroke from an amateur Shinigami.' Slowly, he fell to the floor, breaking in to thousands of pieces.
Ichigo woke up slowly, his head pounding. He felt Grimmjow's hair in his hands. What were they doing that they fell asleep in this position and what did he drink that he had such a headache? Soon, it all came back to him and he opened his eyes in shock. When he looked down, he was looking into the blank eyes of Grimmjow. That which wasn't supposed to happen had happened. His heart broke, and he was left in darkness. He got up slowly, pulled the sword out of Grimm's body. He didn't blame the Shinigami, really he didn't. This was what they were here to do after all. He went and closed the Shinigami's eyes, mumbling heartfelt thanks for fighting alongside him.
He carefully laid Grimmjow down on the marble floor, which was flooded with blood. He caressed Grimm's face, his whole body started to quiver and tears fell down his already dirty face. 'I can't follow you just yet,' he thought, 'wait for me Grimm.'
He stood up, his eyes full of purpose and strode out of the room; he was pricked with a stone shard but it hardly bothered him compared to the pain wracking his heart right now. If he had turned around right then, he would have seen Grimmjow's body fading away, but he didn't turn around. On the contrary, he started running and every hollow he encountered he fought and won. Each fight, each win made his eyes dull more. Soon his eyes were blank, and the rest of his body was in a rage; this made for a scary picture as his eyes looked dead and his body moved with irregular movements that had no particular pattern or style.
Ichigo felt himself closing in as he dug deeper within himself, drew himself in a cocoon and stayed there to cry and mourn in peace. He just wanted to sleep and never wake up.