Chapter 11

Hello~! I am back. I know you're all pissed at me for not updating, but some shit has been going down with my family and I've been having a hard time writing especially with so much going on around me.

I quickly read through this chapter for proofreading, I hope I didn't fuck it up too bad. It's four in the morning, bear with me.

For those of you who don't know, this story is supposed to be set in the months in between the time Ichigo defeated Aizen and the Fullbringer arc. It's still really AU though.

Feel free to laugh at the parts where I mention pitching tents.

Uryu looked so small under the thick quilt that Ichigo had tucked him in under. He was threatening to fall asleep, and every time he blinked Ichigo thought he was going to drift off. Ichigo was sitting up beside him, his hand running up and down Uryu's back.

"You look really cute when you're tired." Ichigo looked into Uryu's blue eyes, which looked quite grey in the dark of the room. He played with Uryu's hair for a little while before sliding down to lie beside his boyfriend, who smiled and kissed his nose.

"Good night Ichigo." Uryu mumbled into his arm before falling asleep.

"G'night Uryu." Ichigo stayed up a little while after Uryu dozed off, but he eventually managed to sleep a few hours before Isshin burst into their room.

"Uryu…" Ichigo nudged Uryu's small, shallow breathing form until his dark blue eyes were slowly becoming aware of the world around him.

He blinked a few times and sat up. "Where are we?"

Ichigo gave Uryu his glasses. "We're in a motel, remember?"

"Oh." Uryu pushed his glasses up his nose and stood up. He noticed that the other bed was empty. "Where is Tommie?" He asked.

"He's getting ready to go." Ichigo said, taking Uryu's hand and giving him some clothes.

Uryu nodded, and pulled on some sweats and a t-shirt, not really caring what he looked like.

"It should be another two hours until we get to the site." Ichigo said when he and Uryu were getting in the car.

Uryu buckled in and they were soon driving down the road again.

Yuzu had the radio on as they drove down the boring road, the yellow plains rolling past them. Most of the time in the car was spent sleeping for the two sisters, Tommie had his phone, Ichigo and Uryu sometimes chatted for the first half of the ride but it got pretty shallow pretty fast.

Uryu gazed out the window, sometimes sighing, sometimes glancing back at Ichigo, who was looking back at him every time. He smiled a little and squeezed Ichigo's hand a little tighter, looking back to the roads that rolled past them.

In time, they managed to get to the campsite early in the morning, they soon all had their tents up, and there was a fire going in the pit. I won't go into detail about all the bickering Uryu and Ichigo made while trying to pitch their tent, or the cursing that Isshin did as he wasted match over match trying to light the damp wood that they cut, but all in all setting up the campsite was somewhat uneventful and boring.

The campsite itself though, is not so boring to hear about. Uryu learned from Ichigo that the site was long-since abandoned, and that his family members were probably the last people to be camping here in many years. Isshin and Masaki came to camp when Ichigo was born because they figured it would be fun to do, and they carved their name on a picnic bench there. This was the main reason that Ichigo's family even bothered to go camping, even though no one else that they knew did. Ichigo also told Uryu about the little trail that he found and told no one else about, and about how one time he saw a skunk and it wasn't very kind to him.

Now, Ichigo was sitting by the fire on a picnic bench. Uryu was close at his side, as usual. It was sort of damp and chilly outside, as it was still early. It was probably going to rain, Uryu could tell. It always smelt good outside before a rain, and the air hung around them like a bathrobe.

Isshin, Yuzu, Karin and Tommie were all busy in their tents, getting sleeping bags ready for themselves.

"I'm kinda tired…" Uryu yawned.

"Well we did kind of stay up really late last night." Ichigo remarked, leaning back in his spot and yawning as well. He wrapped his arm around Uryu's waist in a rather possessive manner and pulled him closer.

Uryu sighed and rested his head on Ichigo's broad shoulder, closing his eyes and letting his shoulders relax for the first time since he woke up. He didn't know why but whenever Ichigo was around, he felt safe, as if nothing could touch him. He drew his knees up to his chin, and leaned entirely on Ichigo, shrinking back as if he was being pushed backwards by some invisible force in front of the bench.

Ichigo glanced at him for a second before looking back to the fire, which was crackling quietly. He prodded it a few times with a big stick that he found by their tent.

"I like fire." Uryu said quietly, when Ichigo sat back down beside him. He immediately returned to Ichigo's shoulder like a dog that .

"Me too." Ichigo replied, watching the little orange-glowing ashes rise into the air before turning grey.

Isshin, Karin, and Yuzu got out of the big tent that they were sharing. They sat down in some lawn chairs that they unfolded by the fire.

"I hope it gets a little warmer soon, because I wanna go swimming in a bit." Yuzu looked up to the solemn, dull grey sky and glared, her big brown eyes looking a little disappointed.

"It'll be warmer tomorrow Yuzu." Ichigo said. "I checked the weather last night."

Yuzu nodded.

"Besides, it's windy so the lake is pretty choppy today. Ichigo wouldn't let us swim in it like that." Karin crossed her arms.

Ichigo nodded.

Yuzu sighed and rested her chin in the palm of her hand.

"Well, not that it isn't boring here, but me and Uryu are gonna take a walk." Ichigo said. He got up and Uryu followed him out of the campsite and onto the dirt road.

"What are they doing?" Yuzu asked.

"Eh… I don't know." Isshin was looking at the little fire that he'd made.

"Are you sad that Ichigo and Uryu love each other?" Yuzu asked.

"No." Isshin replied. "It's fine- but I was really hoping to have grandkids from him."

"I don't think girls are out of the question for Ichigo though." Karin interjected.

"Hm." Yuzu sighed. "Well I thought Rukia was a nice girl. I thought Ichigo liked her."

Isshin nodded. "I wonder where she went…"

Meanwhile, Uryu and Ichigo were walking in a little thicket of trees.

"Why are we here?" Uryu asked, waving at a little squirrel in the tree as if he expected it to wave back.

Ichigo sighed and held a branch for Uryu so that it didn't hit his face. "We're here because when I was nine, I went wandering around here and I found a place that I swore I would keep a secret from everyone."

Uryu nodded. "What's it like?"

"It's quiet."

"So this place you're showing me, did you come back the next year, when you were ten?" Uryu asked.

Ichigo nodded. "And then the next year, pretty much every year that we came here I went wandering in the trees and I always came back to this spot."

"Why?"

They walked right into a little clearing.

Uryu could see why Ichigo liked this place, it was quite nice, and it was so quiet, as if even the wind daren't whisper to the trees here. It was a patch of green grass in a clearing of the green pine trees, and it was somewhat dark in this place, but there were some spots where the sun could shine through.

"Well, I guess when I was nine I was still freaking out about my mom dying." Ichigo paused, "And when I came here, it was so quiet and alone that I felt that this would be a good place to cry about her, because no one was there to see me or hear me blubbering on like a baby."

Uryu nodded. "You don't like crying in front of people?"

"Who does?"

"Well I don't." Uryu sat down by a tree and invited Ichigo to join him.

Ichigo sat down beside his boyfriend and breathed in the smell of pine needles and grass.

"I like this place too." Uryu said quietly.

Ichigo lied down in the grass, Uryu flopped beside him and looked up to the sky, which was still grey, but it seemed to be clearing up a little. There were little patches of blue starting to show through, and it was starting to warm up too.

"What time is it?" Uryu asked.

Ichigo pulled out his cell. It read 11:34. He showed it to Uryu.

"It seems later than that." Uryu remarked. He rested his head on Ichigo's chest.

"Yeah, it does sort of." Ichigo sighed. "What should we do to pass the time?"

"Nothing." Uryu closed his eyes and breathed in the cold air, glad that he had Ichigo by his side to warm him up a little. It took him a while to realize that Ichigo was asleep. He kissed his boyfriend's cheek and brushed his bangs behind his ear. "Well I guess sleeping could count as nothing…" He lied by Ichigo's side, remaining awake, even though he was quite tired from falling asleep late and waking up very early. Thoughts ran through his mind that he didn't allow to for a long time; things had been too busy to just sit there and think as he normally could. He wondered why Isshin even bothered taking him in off the street; he wasn't of any value to Isshin then. Perhaps, Isshin knew him through his father, because they belonged to the same trade? It was a possibility. Uryu decided to look into it a little later. He also pondered on why Ichigo loved him, even though he had to put up with all his bullshit. He felt so fragile and weak when standing next to Ichigo.

"I wasn't always like this…" Uryu whispered, looking at the scars on his wrist. He could feel the cold metal of his cross rolling over the barely-healed wounds that he inflicted on himself. He wondered if he would ever cut again; he prayed not to, because he didn't want to disappoint Ichigo ever again.

Uryu stared at the sky for a for a spell, then to Ichigo, and then to the pine trees, whose tops were swaying gently in the wind. He waited for Ichigo to wake up for a long time, until the sky was darkening.

"Ichigo." Uryu nudged him a few times. "Wake up,"

Ichigo let Uryu help him of the ground and they started walking back to the campsite.

"You took a pretty long nap, Ichigo." Uryu said.

"I can't believe that you sat with me the whole time." Ichigo muttered, still half asleep as they walked through the trees of the clearing. He looked at his phone, (which was only useful for telling the time now due to lack of service,) it was seven PM.

"What were you dreaming about?" Uryu asked.

"Mom."

"Oh."

They walked into the campsite, where Yuzu and Karin were sitting by the fire, and Isshin was whistling to himself. The sun was setting fast, and the sky was turning a navy blue.

"Where were you two?" Karin asked as soon as they sat down. Her tone was far from mad at them, it was more curious than anything.

"Walking around." Ichigo muttered.

"You were just walking for about nine hours?" She asked.

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah."

Uryu nodded too, and looked over to Isshin, who was talking with Yuzu across the campsite about something, by their tent. They were both smiling and laughing.

Tommie walked over and sat down beside Uryu, not caring that they barely knew each other. Uryu noticed his freckles, and the dimples on his cheeks; they were much higher up on his face than anyone else's.

"So where are you keeping your snakes?" Uryu asked.

"In my bag, but I normally have them on my neck when I can." Tommie pointed to the big Garter snake on his neck.

Uryu reached out his hand and ran his fingers along the smooth scales on the snake. "What's its name?"

Tommie smiled. "When I first saw him I tried to kill him with a shovel because I was scared, so I named him Shovel. He's pretty chilled out right now; you can probably try to hold him."

Uryu picked up the snake off of Tommie's neck and let it wrap around his fingers. "Ichigo, look." He held the snake closer to Ichigo, who shied away from it.

"You don't like snakes?" Uryu asked Ichigo, who was sitting at the opposite end of the bench now.

Ichigo shook his head. "I would really prefer if you didn't shove that thing in my face."

Uryu nodded and gave the snake back to Tommie, looking back to the fire. The wood was burning down slowly, and Ichigo sometimes added new logs, but it was still very quiet there, except for the tapping noise that Tommie was making on his phone, and Karin sometimes muttering things about the smoke from the fire getting in her eye.

"Are you guys hungry?" Yuzu asked.

Everyone nodded, except for Uryu, who simply didn't answer.

Yuzu brought out some wieners that they roasted over the fire, and made hot dogs with them. She set out condiments on the table and established a rule that the last person to use them had to put the stuff back, and that if she saw anything left out she would freak out on someone.

Uryu occasionally nibbled at his hot dog but never really got around to eating it, much to Ichigo's annoyance. He looked over to Ichigo, who was surprisingly not breaking his food into little pieces and trying to shove it down his throat.

When Karin, Yuzu, and Isshin were done eating they went to sleep, leaving Ichigo, Uryu and Tommie awake, sitting by the fire.

"Are you tired?" Uryu asked.

Ichigo shook his head. "I just slept for like 8 hours."

"I hope it doesn't mess up your sleep pattern..." Uryu picked at his nails.

"Yeah, we don't need you bitching all day tomorrow." Tommie said, letting Shovel slither down his shirt.

Ichigo glared at him for a second, but then looked to Uryu, who was sitting there, taking little bites out of his hot dog. Ichigo wondered if he planned to ever finish it.

"You still haven't finished your hot dog?" Tommie asked, noticing Uryu's meal wasn't even half finished.

"Nope." Ichigo said flatly. "He eats like a bird."

"Do you want the rest of mine?" Uryu offered Ichigo.

"No, you have to eat." Ichigo moved in a little closer to Uryu and whispered in his ear to eat it up quickly, or Tommie would start asking questions.

Tommie was roasting another two hot dogs for himself. "I don't understand how someone could dislike eating. I list eating as a hobby." He smiled when his hot dogs were charred to the point of them looking inedible, but he seemed very happy with them and ate them with a grin.

"You have dimples, and they're on your cheeks." Uryu pointed out.

"Is that a bad thing?" Tommie asked innocently. "I thought they were normal."

"No, they're nice." Uryu shook his head. "But they aren't normal, I've never seen them before."

Tommie looked back to what he was eating and apparently forgot to respond.

Ichigo made sure Uryu finished at least another hot dog, (which took quite a while,) and in that time, Tommie had finished his other two hot dogs and decided to go to bed.

Uryu, who felt a little bloated from all the food that he ate, put his feet up on the arm of a lawn chair that was nearby and looked over to Ichigo, who seemed pretty pleased about something.

"Hey Ichigo," Uryu spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

Ichigo was staring blankly at the fire. "Yeah?"

"Do you wanna go for a walk?" Uryu asked, stretching out his legs.

Ichigo shook his head. "I wanna stay right here." He sighed. "Come here."

Uryu got up and was going to sit in Ichigo's lap, but a sudden wave of dense spiritual pressure ran over him; it was cold, and reeked of something foul. He looked over to the right, which was where the pressure was coming from, and he saw a hollow emerge from a grove of trees some way off. He ran towards the hollow without any warning, surprising Ichigo, who couldn't see anything that was going on.

He started after Uryu, but was thrust back by some force that he couldn't see, he couldn't even feel it but it had shape, form. He knew that this had to be something related to the spiritual realm that he would've been able to see a few months ago, but he'd lost his powers after defeating Aizen. However, now, that wasn't his main concern. His thoughts were mostly on what his boyfriend was doing, and why he was running away so fast.

"Uryu!" Ichigo called out.

Uryu looked as if he'd been thrown aside by something. He coughed a few times on the ground before getting back up, making a motion similar to one drawing a bowstring back. Ichigo had no idea what was going on, but he had heard stories from Rukia about a race of Shinigami-like people that destroyed hollows with bows and arrows made of spirit pressure. He guessed that Uryu was one of those, but he couldn't quite put a name on whatever Uryu had to be. After calculating that, he tried to get up, but it was almost as if something was pinning him down, like the spell that Rukia put on him the night that he got his powers. The shittiest part of the situation as current was that he had to sit there and watch Uryu fight something that he couldn't see. However, judging by the way Uryu was fighting, his boyfriend could handle what was going on.

Uryu managed to bring down the hollow in a short manner, no thanks to the shinigami that had been dispatched to destroy the monster. He waved them off and told them to go back to whatever they were doing, after they undid the spell that was pinning Ichigo to the ground. He walked back to Ichigo, sweat dripping off his forehead, and his clothes were pretty torn up especially at the knees of the sweatpants that he was wearing, where blood was oozing from.

"What the hell was that?" Ichigo dusted off his jeans as he stood up. "Was it a hollow?"

Uryu jumped a little, surprised by Ichigo's question. He knew that Ichigo knew what just happened. "Y-yeah, it was? Go to bed." He tried to nudge Ichigo back to the tent and kept telling him to go back to sleep, that this was all just a dream, and that he would wake up tomorrow…