Sorry it's been so long guys. I'm trying to work on it, but I suffer bouts of both random laziness and sudden and inexplicable exhaustion. I hope you enjoy this chapter, me and Accomplice were bouncing ideas for it and I think it turned out fairly well. Meh, knock yourselves out.
RV Occupants: Ichigo, Grimmjow, Stark, Lilinette, Ulquiorra, Sung-sun, Mila Rose, Apachi, Hallibel, Izuru, Gin, Yumichika, Toshiro, Nelliel, Rukia, Byakuya, Ikkaku, Renji, Nnoitra
+Hanataro
Ichigo huffed in frustration in the early morning light as his escape-mates stumbled about groggily, apparently incapable of something as simple as getting into the freaking RV.
He growled lowly.
And went for his secret weapon., something he usually reserved for when he locked Shiro in a room with someone else to 'convince' them of something, when the never-ending song really needed to never end.
Coffee.
There was an immediate flood of people headed for the RV.
"So..." Ichigo began, preparing to climb to the gun turret. (Which was actually a rotating tennis ball launcher with random kitchen scraps(primarily waffles) as ammunition.
30 minutes, 26 pounds of waffle, several expletives, and nearly a full two minutes of maniacal laughter led them out of camp, leaving a trail of traumatized and waffly counselors and guards behind.
They were on the road.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Wake him up, wake him up!"
"We're gonna die!"
"I'm too beautiful to die!"
"Oncoming traffic!"
"Semi, semi!"
"Why Stark, why?"
As Stark(asleep) was finally kicked from his chair and Gin took over driving, everybody breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Except Izuru, though nobody seemed to notice.
Sighing resignedly, he headed toward the back of the RV, crawled under a table, and assumed the fetal position, arms over his head.
"Chickenchickenchickenchickenchicken!" Gin cackled maniacally.
"Bad Gin, bad!" scolded Ichigo, clinging to the back of the driver's seat. "You don't play chicken when no one else knows they're playing!"
Grimacing, Ulquiorra yanked the wheel out of Gin's hands and steered them out of oncoming traffic and into the correct lane.
Izuru poked his head out from under the table. "Is it over?"
"Faster Gin, faster!" cheered Lilinette, punching the air. "Stark drives like a grandma!"
Sighing, Izuru ducked back under the table.
Ulquiorra, already albino, seemed to pale further as Gin, still in the driver's seat, complied."I can't steer this fast!"
Gin huffed and rolled his closed yes. "If you're still in control, you're not going fast enough!"
Panic ensued.
It all started when Yumichika decided the pristine white RV wasn't beautiful enough. Of course, he decided to paint it.
Lilynette did not appreciate his choice of designs, elegant as it was.
Elegantly streaked blossoms contrasted stenciled skulls.
Patches of camouflage blended into sea foam and clouds.
Of course, Sung-sun had to get involved. A painstakingly detailed serpent sprawled across the hood of the RV.
Arrogant cuss that he was, Grimmjow actually had some artistic talent. The side of the oversized vehicle was soon adorned with a blue panther paused in mid-pounce.
Soon, a carefully painted bat appeared, followed by a pair of coyotes, a terrifying shark, a massive and incredibly intricate ice-dragon that started at the front of the RV and ended all the way back at the tail end of it, a lioness roaring, a deer in mid-leap, a fantastical centaur, a particularly sly-looking fox with closed eyes and silver fur, a good number of psychedelic swirls of color, groovy flowers, ribbons of brighter colored paints, fluttering birds, and even a few butterflies.
Ichigo was careful to avoid Rukia's portion of the RV, as frankly, Chappy and Byakuya's seaweed creature creeped him out.
All in all, the project turned out to be pretty awesome.
Poor, poor not-at-all-artsy Ikkaku was fed up with being excluded. Grumbling, he scooped up a handful of red paint and threw it at one of Lilinette's skulls. "Haha!" he barked, pointing. "It's a blood stain.
Furious, Lilinette rounded on him, a can of spray paint in hand.
"Take this, Baldy!"
And the war began.
In their haste to dissolve the fight and go get changed and cleaned up, they accidentally left five people behind at the rest stop.
Of course, the five of them had only been left along on the roadside for just under an hour, but in that time, Nnoitra had picked a fight with a biker gang(who only escaped because Nnoitra had to rescue Renji, muttering about Ichigo killing him if they had to hide another body), Renji had almost been eaten by a bobcat, Izuru had stuck up a deep conversation with two guys of questionable sobriety who tried to offer him some mushrooms and a frog(He kept the frog. It, at least, he couldn't be arrested for possessing.), Toshiro had built an impressive igloo out of falling snow(in the dead center of the parking lot), and Ulquiorra hid inside the igloo with his laptop, turning the power on and off in the nearby city out of boredom.
Stepping out of the RV to collect the stragglers, Ichigo groaned. "I need chocolate to deal with this."
A collective 'agreed' came from inside the RV as about half the occupants(and Renji) headed inside the gas station's market in search of chocolate.
As they deposited the massive heap of candy on the table and prepared to pay for it with some of the money Ichigo'd stolen from the counselors, Ichigo's eyes fell on the cashier.
"Aren't you a little young to be working here?"
"Aha, yeah," the raven-haired boy agreed, laughing nervously.
"Why?" Ichigo's instincts were working overdrive. There was something off with this picture.
"Ah, that is, my uncle doesn't work," he stuttered, blanching a little."So he makes me." The last part was a little whisper.
Ichigo sighed, reached over the counter, and picked the boy up by the back of his jacket. Carefully depositing him on his side of the counter, he knocked all the candy into a couple bags, and handed them off to the girls(and Renji).
"I'm Ichigo. What's your name?"
"H-Hanataro."
"Well, Hanataro, my friends and I are on a road-trip so I can go see my brother again. Wanna come with?"
Hanataro looked nervously hopeful. "Um, well, that is-"
Ichigo rolled his eyes and threw Hanataro over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Welcome to the family, kid."
No one questioned Ichigo when he hauled the new member of their caravan into the RV and set him on a clear and out-of-the-way portion of mattress and told everyone to 'play nice'.
The silently implied 'or else' was enough to make them watch themselves.
And then, there were twenty.
"Eh, Izuru, aren't you driving a little fast?"
"He started out fine..."
"I am? Sorry about that, I've never done this before."
"Oh, that's oka- wait, what!?"
"Vertical pedal on the right, dumbass!"
"Language, Grimmow."
"Merge, you f-"
"Grimm!"
"Okay, yeesh. Drive like you're going somewhere, grasshole!"
"...I give up."