Started April 14th.

Completed April 27th.

Authoress: Desperatembrace

Disclaimer(s): I do not own Bleach. If I did, Harribel would be a major character. She is the bomb. Though her choice of clothing is a bit iffy...

Warnings:

Violence

Alternate Universe

Language

Sexual Content

Yaoi

Chapter 5

"Sister"


The day had started simple enough. Ichigo woke up bright and early, heading straight for the shower and preparing for the morning. He took his shower, got dressed, brushed his teeth, and folded and put away his blanket. He started the classic American's breakfast--bacon and eggs, sunny-side up.

When the plates were prepared and set at the kitchen's island, he covered them up to insulate heat. He headed into Grimmjow's room, not even bothering to knock. Tip-toeing to the bedside, he slowly pulled on the blanket, trying desperately not to rouse the sleeping man as it uncovered his body inch by inch. He then began tugging on the pillow that his teal-haired head rested on, pulling it out from underneath.

When the pillow came free, he tossed it on the floor and kicked it underneath the bed, shoving the comforter under after it. He stood up from his knees and dusted imaginary dust from his stylishly faded jeans and smirked, turning his eyes back to the subject at hand.

Now came the fun part.

He quietly reached for the alarm clock, tapping the buttons as delicately as possible and setting it back in to place. He looked around the room curiously for a moment, searching desperately for something.

His eyes lit up when he found the perfect item. Aha! He snatched the wrinkled and discarded tie up from the floor next to the closet and made his way back to the bed, careful not to trip over his own himself. It would ruin the fun. He slowly edged it underneath both of the still feet, quickly tying them together. He gave a devious grin, glancing back at the alarm clock. Finished just in time. Much faster than previous times, in fact.

Ichigo went back to the door and slipped out, quietly clicking it shut behind himself. He went back to the kitchen and pulled the covering off one of the plates, picking up a fork and using the side of it to cut off a chunk of egg. Just as the fork had pressed into the egg, the faint sound of an alarm began blaring from the direction of Grimmjow's room.

The brown eyes watched as the yellow yolk of the egg began to ooze and spread, but his ears were perfectly directed to the commotion happening in the bedroom. The alarm stopped after a moment and then muffled curses sounded, no doubt Grimmjow wondering where the hell his sleeping equipment had disappeared to. Then, he could easily and almost perfectly imagine in his mind's eye as Grimmjow threw his legs over the edge of the bed with a moody huff, preparing to find his comforter and pillow.

Ichigo's eyes gleamed victoriously as he heard a crash and a loud, not-so-muffled curse and felt a grin spread across his face.

Grimmjow: 1

Ichigo: 6

He hastily gobbled up the rest of his eggs and the crispy bacon, hoping to miss the sure-to-come storm. Sure enough, he heard the door slam open as he put his plate in the sink, loud stomping making its way across the living room to the kitchen. When Grimmjow walked through the kitchen door, he had a messy bed-head, the teal strands sticking up at nearly every angle possible. He had only a pair of boxers and a simple wife-beater on. What made Ichigo burst out laughing, though, was two things.

One, Grimmjow had his eye twitching, a look that said he was no-doubt contemplating on how to get back at the amnesiac.

Two, he had a nice, big red spot spread across the right side of his face, as if he had mysteriously fallen...

Ichigo just gave a victorious grin in the man's direction before turning back to the sink, pouring dish soap onto the plate and scrubbing it.

Grimmjow made his way to the island counter, still fuming. Finally, after a few moments, he spoke. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't toss your ass out my front door."

The orange haired man's smile merely widened as he continued to scrub the plate before turning on the water and rinsing it off. He slowly dried it and made his way to the cupboard, all the while watching Grimmjow's reaction from the corner of his eye. What he saw only made his smile impossibly wider. The man was getting absolutely ticked off.

After making a scene of putting the plate up, as if it required all of his attention, he finally turned his brown eyes back to the man, an amused light in their depths. He gave a slight roll of his shoulders before shrugging and smiling as innocently as possible.

"You know... I think it's a little thing called karma. It truly is a bitch, isn't it?" He repeated the phrase that Grimmjow had used on him weeks prior. The blue-haired man twitched as Ichigo pointed in the direction of the living room, no doubt indicating the couch.

Roughly a week ago, Grimmjow had wanted Ichigo up to cook him breakfast. He had gotten up before the amnesiac for once and absolutely had to have his meal right then. The last time he had tried to wake the orange haired man up (which was many weeks ago, sometime after most of the bruises from the accident had healed), he had merely tried to rouse the man to waking by shaking his shoulders lightly. Evidently, it wasn't the best thing to do. He had ended up with a fist flying in his face, landing him a nice, fat bruise across his cheek.

He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. So he had simply opted to not touch the man at all.

And tipped the couch so that the man would roll off onto the floor.

Needless to say, the man was not pleased with that and had declared a war. For the next week, he had been waking Grimmjow up in the most unorthodox and obsolete ways, making damned sure that they would annoy the hell out of Grimmjow.

First he placed the alarm clock under the pillow (which was rather effective considering the blare on the damned thing. It amazed Ichigo how loud the fucking thing got), he repeated the trick a couple of times due to the fact that it actually worked quite well in annoying the blue haired man and getting him out of bed.

But then Grimmjow became accustomed to it, quickly putting in time for counter measures, plugging the damned thing in a socket that was too far to reach the bed. So Ichigo began to try other methods, changing them up constantly so that he was in control.

It felt nice to be in control.

Grimmjow merely sighed, rubbing his red cheek. Things had not been going well. Ichigo seemed to be having funwith all of these wake-up calls. Although, admittedly, if he were in Ichigo's shoes, he would probably feel the same thrill.

He stared at the grinning orange-haired man before rolling his eyes, cutting into his eggs with his fork. He shoved a bite in his mouth and sent a glowered glare in Ichigo's direction, his silent message clear. Shut up and get to work.

Ichigo nodded, the grin never fading from his face as he made his way to Grimmjow's bedroom to clean up the man's mess. Every time the man came home from work, he found some way to get his room dirty. Hence, Ichigo made it a daily habit to clean up after him in the morning. At least it would keep the roaches away.

Meanwhile, Grimmjow finished his food and dumped the plate and fork in the sink. He grabbed some clothes and headed for the bathroom. "Yo, Ichigo! Taking a shower! Don't blow anything up!"

He called as he closed the door behind himself.

In Grimmjow's room, the orange haired man rolled his eyes, smoothing out the wrinkled of the replaced bedding. He had been left alone in the man's apartment every day when the man went to work for a little over 5 weeks now. Why now, of all times, would he feel the need to blow something up while he was in the shower?

He quickly pulled out the used bedding from underneath the low bed and made his way out the door and into the laundry room. He quickly put the settings on the washer and poured in the right amount of detergent, shoving the corner of the comforter in. He shoved it in a little further, groaning when he caught sight of over half of the comforter still outside of the washer. Why did it have to be so hard to load a damned washer?

A loud curse erupted from his lips when he heard the chime of the doorbell and rhythmic knocking coming from the front door. He glared at the comforter, shoving the rest of it in as quickly as he could. When he finally snapped the lid shut, he breathed a sigh of relief and went to the front door, pulling it open.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

The young woman standing before him stared at him for a moment, utter bewilderment erupting across her features. She unconsciously reached up and tugged at one of the long green strands of her hair, blinking. She glanced at the Ichigo, then at the door, staring at the door number for a moment. Then she reached over into the threshold and grabbed hold of the doorknob, a smile on her face.

"I'm sorry. I believe I got the wrong place," she said in a childish voice, and she pulled the door shut on herself, leaving Ichigo in astonishment. Well... that was a little too strange for his tastes.

He had turned around and was about to walk off when someone pressed the doorbell multiple times, almost urgent, and the rhythmic knocking sounded again.

He stopped, trying to decide whether to ignore the crazy lady or hear her out. Well, he considered, she could just be very... 'out-of-it'. Deciding to humor the woman, he pulled the door open again, coming face to face with her sheepish expression.

"I'm sorry. I'm looking for Grimmjow...?" She ended it with a questioning tone, waving her hand as if searching for a word. When Ichigo continued to stare at her with a questioning eyebrow raised, she repeated herself slowly, as if she were talking to a foreign, mentally slow person. "Gur-iiiim-jooooooooooow. Wheeeereee?"

Ichigo's lips slipped into a scowl. "Good god, woman. Shut up. I'm not from a different country." The woman blinked, surprised at his ability to speak the same language as herself until his words registered in her head. "I'm sorry! I couldn't help it! You looked all confused and unable-to-comprehend-like when I was talking to you. And the fact that you have orange hair certainly doesn't help!"

Slightly tanned hands shot to orange hair, covering it up futilely. He drew back a bit, still scowling at the woman standing just beyond the doorway. "Yeah? Well, you're one to talk! Your hair is green! And what the hell is with your voice?!" He honestly didn't know how she could bash against his hair. Not to mention her voice was just weird. He sighed, finally deciding to keep his cool with the stranger. "Well, you just wanted to talk to--"

"Nel?" Ichigo spun around to see Grimmjow, almost completely naked if it weren't for the towel around his waist. He was rubbing his hair with a seperate towel, eyeing the green-haired woman. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The woman, presumably named Nel, gave a huge smile and spoke in her childish voice. "I was here to visit you Grimmy! How've ya been?" She brushed past Ichigo, accidently forcing him into the wall when she made a leap at Grimmjow.

Grimmjow's eyes widened as he dropped the towel, swiveling out of the woman's way just in time. Ichigo snorted as the woman made a face plant onto the floor, rubbing his head as he stepped forward. Nel stood up and smoothed the wrinkles from her simple white capris and huffed good-naturedly. "Jeez. The same as ever, Grimmjow." She pinned him with a resolute stare. Said blue haired man just shrugged and picked up the discarded towel, drying his hair once more.

Ichigo was about to make a comment when a white hot pain shot through his head. He leaned forward and hissed, clutching his head in pain. It was a quiet hiss, but Nel had heard it. She sent a curious glance his way to which he just shook his head. With a vague excuse of changing his sweaty clothes, he retreated further into the apartment and slipped into the bathroom.

He clutched the sides of the marble sink, his eyes narrowed at his reflection in the mirror. He desperately clawed at the memory trying to make itself known, pulling it to himself and making the nostalgia grow thicker. Finally, the memory enveloped him.

He remembered being in a cozy room. It was a little familiar to his future self--someplace that he had seen before.

A shrink's office, he realized, recalling the movies that he had recently watched with Grimmjow. It was a small room with many bookcases, a couch and a desk. A faceless man sat behind the desk, droning on and on--the words lost in the memory.

His younger self was lying on the couch, evidentally not listening or talking if the thoughts in his head were any clue.

52 tiles... How many books..?

He felt the body shift, turning to glance in the direction of one of the bookcases. The nameless and faceless man continued talking, absolutely no sound making its way from his lips. Everything was silent save for his younger self's thoughts until one word seemed to penetrate the quiet.

"...knife." Ichigo felt the smaller body of his younger self tense, muscles screaming in protest. The surroundings were becoming hazy, no doubt becoming less of an interesting subject to his previous self. After a few moments, Ichigo began to notice that his throat was starting to hurt, feeling like it was tearing itself apart.

Screaming, he realized. I'm screaming.

He vaguely registered pressure being applied to his arms and legs, realizing that he was probably being held down by the doctor. His scream grew louder and louder in volume until...

Nothing.

The memory disappeared.

Now that he was staring back in the mirror, Ichigo noticed he was glaring. He realized his younger self had probably been put to sleep and bit back a growl. Releasing a tense breath, he shut his eyes and slowly undid his grip on the sink, vaguely surprised that he hadn't put cracks in it. Noticing a hat lying on one of the counters, he snatched it up and fitted it over his orange locks.

He quickly calmed himself before stalking out of the bathroom, happening to walk in on a conversation between Grimmjow and Nel.

"How is he the one?"

A shrug from Grimmjow.

"He's not even a kid! You told me your charge was a kid!!"

Grimmjow growled. "He is a kid."

Nel put her hands on her hips, glaring the poor blue haired man down. "That man was no kid. When you say you save a kid's ass, most people would think 4 foot, annoying, snot-nosed brat. Not some 5'9" man who could very well be my age or even your own!" She huffed. "And now, because of that, he doesn't like me. And because of that, I thought I got the wrong apartment--and you're the only one on the damned floor!" She waved her arms dramatically.

Grimmjow shot her a look before clenching his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. "How fucking stupid..?" A loud smack resounded, an angry red welt making itself known on the blue haired man's bare arm. His teeth were clenched and his hands turned to fists as he looked up to glare at Nel, but stopped. She was pinning him with a deadly glare, daring him to continue. "You had better be glad that you didn't finish that sentence." She slowly lowered her arm, switching out of offense mode, although she was still tense.

Ichigo cleared his throat, a little uncomfortable that he had just walked into a conversation about himself. The two quieted down, the moment broken.

Grimmjow finally had enough of the silence and excused himself with a simple "gotta go fucking change.." When the bedroom door had shut behind him, Ichigo flopped onto the couch, releasing a tired sigh.

Nel sat down on the leather couch, watching him for a moment. After Ichigo had felt the woman's eyes on him for too long, however, Ichigo looked up and snapped, "what?"

Nel stayed silent for a few moments longer, her eyes on his. She had seemed to have gone into a daze, unable to hear him. Taking advantage of the moment, Ichigo decided to observe her a little more closely.

She had a good figure and a rack that any hormonal-driven man would die to have in his possession. A sweet face, kind, foamy-green eyes, long, green hair. She seemed nice enough. But a scoff of disgust worked its way into the orange haired man's throat.

Probably just another of his girlfriends.

He retreated from his thoughts when he noticed that she seemed to snap from her daze. Her green eyes lit up in excitement at information that only she knew. A smile stretched across her face, her appearance becoming even more childlike than it already was.

"I know your nick-name!" She said in a sing-song voice.

He was thrown off for a moment. "..What?" He blinked at her, wondering where the hell nick-names had come up in their silent conversation.

Nel giggled, her eyes seeming to shine even brighter. "Your nick-name!" She lifted her hand conspiratorially, cupping it around the side of her mouth and leaned forward as if she were letting him in on a big secret.

"You will now be called... Itsugo!"

His confusion and utter bewilderment must have shown on his face because the second the word had come out of her mouth, she had fallen to the floor in a fit of giggles. She rolled around on the floor, unable to contain her excitement, repeating his nick-name over and over.

Great, he thought. The woman's a loony.

When she had finally gotten over her fit, she wiped away tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes and stood up on shaky, unbalanced feet. "Oh, lord. That was a good one. Wasn't it, Itsugo?"

He growled at the nickname, ready to deck her when the bedroom door opened. He stepped out in black slacks and a white dress shirt, attempting to button the cuffs. Nel looked over to him and raised an eyebrow. "Whatchya wearing those clothes for?"

Grimmjow just stared at her with a 'duh' expression on his face. "For work." He headed in the direction of the kitchen only to be stopped by the woman's words. "No need, Grimmy."

He paused in the doorway, turning around and narrowing his eyes at her. "I don't like the way you said that, Nel. What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Nel just leaned back in the leather chair and found interest in her nails, observing each and every critical shape of all of her nails. She glanced over her nails innocently. "Because I called in sick for you."

Grimmjow's hands dropped from his cuffs, his expression going eerily blank. "You.. called in sick for me," he repeated, to which Nel nodded. "Why in god's name would you go and fucking do that?" His words were filled with a vile acid. The green haired woman was undeterred. "Well, it's not every day you have a chance to be with me." She continued the observation of her nails.

Ichigo watched as Grimmjow's hands curled into tight fists. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't toss your ass out of my front door." Ichigo grinned at the familiar words that he had heard only earlier that day.

When the words were spoken however, it was like a trigger. Nel's innocent smile faded into a knowing one as she reached into her pocket and pulled out 3 slips of paper. "Because I've got tickets to a certain art-show that a certain blue haired man had been wanting to see for quite the amount of time." She grinned at him, absolutely no traces of fear.

She got exactly the reaction she wanted. Grimmjow's eyes lit up and his fists relaxed as he cleared his throat. "Oh, well..." She could almost imagine a pink tinge across the man's cheeks. Too bad that was impossible. "I suppose that it's alright, then..." His eyes flashed momentarily as he regarded her. "But if you do that again I will make sure that you regret it."

She nodded, a smile still stretched across her features. "Yes, yes. Of course. What else would I expect from you?" He grunted, eyeing the tickets in her hand. "So... when are the tickets for?"

Nel blinked before nodding, glancing at the confused Ichigo and then at the clock hung above their heads. "Well, I would say..." she brought her gaze back to Grimmjow.

"Well... in a little less than half an hour." She smiled widely, her eyes shutting with glee, missing the look of pure wrath that took residence on the man's face. When she opened her eyes she was met with a blue-eyed glare and brown eyes full of laughter and amusement.

Oh, yes. She just knew her and the little amnesiac would get along fantastically.

Ichigo yanked the car door open and hastily stumbled out, dramatically falling to his knees. He ran his fingers through the thick, lush, manicured grass, never realizing how thankful he was for land. The orange haired man was so grateful that the car ride was over, that he was out of that small car and on rock-hard, solid ground.

There were two things that had made the car ride absolutely excruciating. The first was a classic--Grimmjow had driven like a maniac. Ichigo had seen him drive that way before, but... this time it was just insane. You could definitely tell that he wanted to be on time to the damned art show.

The second reason was the car itself. Nothing in particular was wrong with it--it was a gorgeous car (Porsche Boxster, for god's sake!)... but there was a bit of an impasse. The car was a two-seater. Meaning only two seats for only two people. There were three people trying to get in the car. Now, normally, most people would think of putting Grimmjow in the driver's seat, Ichigo in the passenger's and Nel in his lap.

Simple and logical, no?

No.

Nel had slipped into the passenger seat and then turned to him with a wide smile on her face, patting her lap and saying, "come on, Itsugo! Get in." So it had ended up with Grimmjow driving, Nel in the passenger seat and Ichigo in her lap. Needless to say, it was majorly uncomfortable to be sitting in the lap of a woman (who was smaller than him) and feeling her freakishly-large bust pressing into his back.

The green haired woman stepped out of the vehicle, shutting the door behind herself before she walked over and stood behind Ichigo, sitting on her haunches. She patted his back, not noticing his slight stiffening as she smiled widely. "There, there, Itsugo. I know he drives like a maniac, but you'll get used to it! I promise." Her smile grew in size as Ichigo scowled at the nickname before she stood back up and turned to Grimmjow who now stood behind her.

"Let's go?" she asked, her smile still intact. Grimmjow just shook his head and walked past her, pausing next to Ichigo's form dramatically sprawled on the grass before he clenched his jaw and strode to the building. Nel watched with knowing eyes the whole time.

She held her hand out to help Ichigo up and was ignored as he stood on his own. She didn't particularly mind and just tilted her head in the direction of the building that Grimmjow had disappeared into before saying, "come on." She tugged on his shirt sleeve, pulling him to the massive, modern building.

After walking through the glass doors, they stopped at the front counter, next to which Grimmjow stood with a scowl on his face. His arms were crossed as he tapped his foot impatiently, sending Nel a look before throwing his head in the direction of the receptionist. The green haired woman ignored the pointed demand and took her time in taking the tickets out of her purse, shuffling between the little items inside before she finally pulled them out.

As the blue haired man's scowl grew fiercer by the moment, Nel could hear Ichigo laughing quietly into his hand behind her and smiled, handing the tickets to the receptionist. The moment that the paper slips were in the man's hands, Grimmjow had delved further into the building, leaving Ichigo and Nel behind.

As Ichigo followed the green haired woman inside at a slower pace, he sent a curious look at Grimmjow's back that was slowly growing smaller and smaller. "Hey, why is he in such a hurry to be here and stuff? I mean, I know he already drives like an absolute drunkard, but... that was just crazy!"

Nel merely laughed at the comment, glancing at the first artwork along the wall. As her eyes traced the bold lines, she said, "well, he doesn't really like to admit it, but he has an absolute addiction to art. He loves it." At this, Ichigo's eyebrows rose in surprise. He really couldn't see Grimmjow as the artsy type. Seeing his expression, Nel laughed and sent a knowing glance his way. "I know--he doesn't really fit the bill, does he?" She lead him to the sculpture sitting in the center of the room, pointing out small details of the piece.

As they went through many different galleries, they lapsed into silence, comfortably observing each intruiging piece of artwork that was presented. The two came to a piece that lit a fire in Ichigo's limbs. Ironically, it was entitled 'Memories'. It showed a child sitting at a dining room chair, a flower clutched in his hand as he seemed to animatedly talk to the young girl on the floor, petting a dog. It had amazingly precise details, each grain shown in the wood of the table--even the carved etching of a heart in the surface of the wood.

Ichigo was drawn to the artwork, all of his senses entirely focused on the painting. He could almost feel the prickling sensation of a memory making it's way back to the surface before a penetrating thought silenced it. Where was Grimmjow?

His eyes abruptly snapped from the picture, turning around and scanning the room around him. When he caught no sight of shock-blue hair, he frowned, stepping to the next room when a hand caught his arm in the doorway. He looked back and saw Nel, an embarassed and apologetic expression crossing his face having totally forgotten about her. She didn't say anything and just followed along behind him, glancing at the paintings and sketches that they passed.

When his mind began to go into overdrive, a curious thought entered his mind and he paused. Catching Nel off guard, he stumbled forward a bit when she bumped into him. "Oh, I'm sorry, Itsugo! I didn't know you had stopped!" she apologized.

Ignoring both the use of the nick-name and her apology, he asked, "Hey Nel... just out of curiousity... are you Grimmjow's girlfriend?" Nel seemed to have frozen on the spot, her eyes wide and dilated. He almost started to panic until she hunched over and began to laugh loudly, clutching at her stomach. He just watched her, unable to understand what was so funny. After a few moments, he began to get frustrated and scowled. Why was he being laughed at?

Finally, the green haired woman straightened up, wiping stray tears from the corner of her eye. "Girlfriend, he says..." she let out an abrupt chuckle. "Oh lord, no. That would be incest. Grimmjow and I are siblings. He's my brother."

Ichigo never felt his jaw drop. All he knew was... that was not what he was expecting. After a while, though, he felt the corners of his lips twitch upwards. He didn't know why, but... he almost felt happy about the new revelation. Nel smiled at his reaction, tugging on the end of his sleeve. "Well, come on. Let's go find my dear brother."

When they finally found the man, he had insisted (very subtly) on viewing more of the art, causing them to leave later on in the afternoon. Dusk was approaching at a rapid rate as they piled into the car, Nel insistent upon the same seating arrangements. When the woman began to insist upon eating out, they pulled into a diner and occupied a booth, Ichigo clutching onto the sketchbook that Grimmjow had given him. Only a few pages remained and he wanted desperately to save them.

As the trio ordered (Grimmjow ordering something for Ichigo) the orange haired man began to draw on a blank page, lost in his thoughts and not even knowing what exactly he was drawing. When Nel leaned over and let out a strange sound of confusion however, he snapped out of his trance and glanced down, groaning at the sight that met him.

Grimmjow leaned over, wondering what the problem was and quirked a brow. "Drawing clothes? What the hell are you drawing clothes for?" Ichigo buried his face in his hands and let out another groan, the pencil dropping to the tabletop with a quiet smack. "I don't know." The answer came out a bit muffled, the words blocked by his hands. He lifted his face from his palms and stared unseeingly at the drawing. "It seems to be a fall-back for me. When I don't know what to draw, I end up drawing random clothes, designing them..." A scowl crossed his face. "I don't even want to draw clothes. It's more like something of a... habit."

Nel shrugged slightly. "It could have been something from before you had amnesia. Maybe you had a project in college for designing or something..." Her eyes lit up at the possibilities that crossed her mind. "A designer! You were definitely a designer."

Ichigo rolled his eyes at the proclamation. "Why would I be something that I don't enjoy?" The woman visibly faltered, a little disheartened. "Well, yeah, I suppose that's true..." Grimmjow had stayed silent and watched the orange haired man, desperately trying to unravel the mystery named 'Ichigo'.

XXXXXXXXX

When they returned that night, Ichigo had immediately plopped himself down on the leather chair, claiming it as his bed for the night (as Nel had declared that she was staying the night with her 'beloved brother'). Nel and Grimmjow had disappeared into the kitchen (no doubt to bicker about the food fight that Nel had initiated at the diner) and Ichigo decided to use this time to immerse himself in his drawings.

Minutes (hours?) later, Nel had made her way back into the living room and stopped behind the chair, a gasp escaping her lips. Grimmjow, having followed her into the room, walked up beside her and stopped, glancing over the amnesiac's shoulder. His eyes widened in pleasant surprise, wondering how the hell the man he had saved was so talented.

The whole page was a sketch, very detailed by the time they set their eyes on it. It was a picture of a young boy in a chair, clutching a flower in his hand... Nel practically melted. It was almost an exact replica of the painting that they had viewed earlier, with minor differences in the background and style. Nel leaned back on her heels and whispered, "he's amazing...!" She glanced at Grimmjow, noticing his eyes were no longer on the sketch, but the man drawing it.

She gave a knowing smile and disappeared into the kitchen, tidying up as much as she could. When she returned to the living room, the sketchbook was lying on the coffee table, Ichigo was staring at nothing in particular, and Grimmjow was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Grimmjow?" Her quiet, naturally childish voice startled Ichigo, making him jolt. He turned in her direction and released a pent up breath. "Went to go take a shower. Kept muttering about amnesiacs and sisters chunking spoonfuls of mashed potatoes." He snickered, a content smile settling on his face. She laughed along with him, easing into the quiet silence that followed.

She broke the silence with a curious, yet serious question. "Did... did Grimmjow ever tell you the story behind his scar?" Ichigo looked up from staring at the cat prancing into the kitchen. He knew that this was a sensitive topic for both of the siblings, sensing the tension that surrounded the two of them every time it came up.

"He.." he paused, forming his words delicately. "He said something about a bad past and a vase...?" Nel smiled softly, watching the man with awe. "So he told you the truth.." When Ichigo sent her a confused glance, she chuckled and replied, "well, he usually tells some kind of lie. Usually some kind of epic story. He doesn't like people to know about something so personal... and he claims that he would rather it be where he kicked major ass rather than... as he put it 'a sad sob story of the past'." Her eyes lit up as she regarded the confused man before her, positively ecstatic at the newly found information. "He trusts you..." she whispered to herself.

Ichigo just watched her, confusion and curiosity rolling off of him in waves. What.. what exactly happened to give him the scar? He immediately stiffled the question, telling himself it wasn't his place to know. Nel watched his internal struggle and offered another kind smile. "It's okay if you want to know. I'll tell you. I'm..." If anything, her smile only softened further. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind you knowing." Ichigo missed the emphasis on the word 'you', only nodding for her to continue. It was now or never. Knowing Grimmjow, he would never tell him the whole story.

Nel looked past him, focusing on nothing in particular and immediately delved into the story. "He's never known his father. The excuse that we were always told was that he died in minor war years back." She glanced up and caught Ichigo's gaze, the orange haired man's eyebrows furrowed and a frown across his face.

"Mom wasn't really around much for him. She was always out god-knows-where for massive amounts of time, usually around a week before she returned home. Although it was rather irregular. The shortest amount of time that she disappeared was maybe two days. The longest..." she paused, thinking a little bit harder. "I think he said was about 10 months." Ichigo's eyes widened, wondering what the hell Grimmjow's mother had been doing and how she could abandon her own child for such a ridiculous amount of time.

She continued on, disregarding Ichigo's own mental struggle. "Evidently, she had gone off and gotten pregnant with another man and married him. It was quite a surprise to have her come home with a ring on her finger. A rather expensive one, at that. They were always rather poor, so it automatically rose questions. He kept questioning her and pestering her about it for a couple of weeks before she finally caved. She said that he was going to meet his new father."

Nel blew out a rough sigh, clearing her throat a bit. "When they met, the man was rather nice. He was only nine or ten at the time, so he was still naive, even if he did know the harsher sides of life. He never suspected that he was just out to get their money..."

Ichigo sent a confused glance his way. "But you said..."

"That they were poor? Yeah. They were. Or at least, they thought they were. It turned out that a relative of his father's had died and was looking for them to give them the inheritance. Would have inherited roughly half a million dollars." She gave an unenthusiastic laugh. "But only mom and him didn't know about it. It continued on... she had her baby--me, and we continued on in life.

"After a while, however. The man, my father had started to become different. He became angry that we weren't given the money-they had given up on finding us. At first he just disliked Grimmjow. It was really subtle. He wasn't allowed to go out with friends on the weekends, wasn't allowed to have anything special at home... simple things that nobody would suspect. But then it grew into hatred. He slapped him whenever he disagreed with him, never let him see me or mom..." Her face had become expressionless by now.

"Eventually... he turned mom, the only person whom he felt he had left-even if she wasn't there for him much-against Grimmjow. She began to beat him whenever she got the chance by using little excuses. Grimmjow eventually distanced himself from them and became a delinquent, skipping school and getting terrible grades. Getting into fights, hurting teachers..." She trailed off, a frown marring her face.

"One day, Grimmjow walked me home, and when we came in, mom had gotten on to his case about something from school, even though she had never paid attention to it before. So he ended up talking back to her. She got really pissed off and Grimmjow walked out of the house to go cool off. He came back sometime after midnight... but..." Her eyes grew distant, a saddened haze covering her vision. "She had evidently been waiting for brother, because when he got to the top of the stairs and turned around to check the lights... she pushed him down them."

Ichigo's eyes had grown wide, a horrified look painting his face. "At the bottom," Nel continued, "there was one of those artistic vases, the large ones that are really thick... he fell on that and a huge chunk got embedded in his abdomen." She poked her stomach as if the incident had happened to herself and still felt phantom touches on the scar.

"He stumbled out of the house and into an alley... that's where Ulquiorra found him." Ichigo cast a questioning glance at Nel for her to elaborate. "Ulquiorra was another delinquent. Not exactly the fighter type, although he could kick ass when he wanted to, but more like the quiet one that skipped school a lot. He took Grimmjow to the hospital and got him fixed up. Then he called some of those government people.. CPS? on mom and dad and eventually we were free from them. I think he works with Grimmjow..." She trailed off before shrugging slightly. "Anyways, we ended up staying with Ulquiorra until Grimmjow became an adult a few years later and then we moved out and brother took custody of me." She stared at her hands in her lap, a small smile tugging on her lips.

She looked up from staring at the leather of the couch at Ichigo, surprised by what she saw. Ichigo was shaking slightly, tears glistening in his eyes. "I'm sorry." He sniffed, shutting his eyes and trying to brush away the evidence of his caring, brushing away the traitor tears.

Nel smiled kindly, reaching forward and brushing her hand against his arm. "Don't be sorry. The two of us went through a lot, but... it's made us who we are today. I won't deny it--it's been really hard..." Her smile became that of pure joy, her eyes shining with gratitude. "I'm just glad that Grimmjow found someone who cares about him. He's been through a lot and has never really gotten along well with people. You're different. I'm grateful that he found you."

He never noticed Grimmjow cross the threshold, heading in the direction of the front door clad only in boxers. Ichigo couldn't understand what she meant. Why would finding him be a good thing? He was a useless leech who was quite possibly insane with a voice in his head and only sucked up time and money. He was already struggling to help the blue haired man out. How could she say that he was a good thing for the man? Despite his confusion, he nodded, standing up from his stool. He nodded slightly in the woman's direction before heading out of the kitchen. He paused outside of the doorway, contemplating what Grimmjow's sister had said.

His thoughts were interrupted by loud voices coming from the front door. Curious, he decided to check things out.

Ichigo shuffled away from the kitchen doorway and stopped behind Grimmjow. "Who are you bickering with?" He peered out from behind the blue haired man's frame to see. When he saw a short, black-haired woman, however, he froze, faint memories flashing through his head as a name fell to his lips.

He made a choking sound before her name rode on his exhaled breath.

"Rukia..?"

-Chapter End-

A/N: Review?