The orange haired shinigami frowned, annoyed that the albino wouldn't make eye contact with him, avoiding his gaze, eyes averted to the ground with those tears sliding down his face.

Standing, he slowly faded away while looking down on his inner Hollow with disappointment flashing through his brown orbs. The alabaster form lifted his head, eyes locking with his own, lifting his right hand and grasping the end of his sleeve, wiping the sticky substance off his face.

"I'm sorry..." he breathed, closing his eyes in disgrace. "Ichigo."

XXXX

The vibrant haired teen sat up with narrowed eyes as he shook his head, hoisting his left hand up and placing it against his face with furrowed brows. Still confused on the last actions the albino gave away before he woke up.

Hearing his cell phone go off, he turned towards it to see that it was Chad calling. Grabbing it and pressing the talk button, he pressed the phone up to his ear, taking in a breath and releasing it steadily.

"Hey, what's up, Chad?"

"Nothing much," came a stern reply, "anything new with you?"

"Well, Hic-" he stopped abruptly before announcing that he learned that his Hollow was jealous of his girlfriend. He swallowed nervously before finishing his sentence, "I...went out on a date with Orihime. We had ice cream and whatnot, but...something was bothering me that I couldn't really enjoy it."

"What was bothering you?"

"Um...I don't really know how to explain it," Ichigo lifted his opposite hand to rub the back of his neck, "and I'm not sure if I should tell you."

There was silence on the other end until the brute sighed heavily, "You can...trust me, Ichigo, you know that."

"I know."

"So...why is what's bothering you so hard to tell me? I've known you since middle school, it shouldn't..." he heard Chad take in some air, "be that difficult to tell me."

"I know...I just don't know how to put it into words right now," the eldest Kurosaki sibling sighed, "with all the crap that's been going on, I'd be impressed if I had enough strength to go to school tomorrow."

A grunt was his reply, hearing rummaging happening in the background, making him lift a slim orange brow.

"What are you doing, Chad?"

"Looking for something..." he replied simply as a crash erupted suddenly, making the lightly tanned teen to cringe, "ouch...that hurt..."

"You're built like an iron tank, dude, almost nothing in this world can hurt you," the teenager muttered as he turned his head toward the window, gasping once he saw his reflection on the window's glass flash for a second, showing a depressed Hichigo, returning to its regular form. "Uh...I need to go, Chad...there's a report I need to finish and...yeah."

"Okay, good-bye,"

"See ya tomorrow,"

With that, both teenagers hung up as Ichigo set the phone back onto his night stand, looking back at the window with tilted brows put into a worried position. Is...Hichigo all right?

"Goodnight...King..." came the albino's whisper, hesitant and shy.

Quirking a brow, Ichigo laid back on his bed once again, gazing up at the ceiling with worry flashing in his chocolate colored eyes.Goodnight...Hichigo...