I.K. – 10/24 Fri. – 7:11 pm

"It's right across the street from where you work," Renji said about a certain bookstore Ichigo hadn't known about until just a minute ago. "You seriously didn't notice? It literally says Urahara's Bookstore!"

The orangette just shook his head as he stared at the little shop before him with unbelieving eyes. Renji just sighed. He was a big sigh-er, and he was also a big eye-roller. No one could roll his or her eyes like Renji could. In Ichigo's eyes, his red-haired friend was a legend when it came to rolling his eyes. Like, damn.

"Man, Ichigo. You gotta start paying more attention to your surroundings. You're always walking around so immersed in your own daydreams that you barely notice anything else."

They were standing in front of a little shop with sliding doors and paperback books on display. Back home, Ichigo often dragged Renji to bookstores and spent hours in there, once staying up to five hours just browsing and reading. Renji always complained about it, but he always went with Ichigo anyway. Ichigo hadn't known a bookstore even existed in the area, so he could only visit one when he went back home with Takeshi and Mugetsu. This time, however, Renji had asked him whether he'd gone to the one near the college, and when Ichigo said no with extremely wide eyes, Renji took him to this place – Urahara's Bookstore.

Suddenly, the main door slid open and a blond man in a green-and-white-striped hat peeked out at them. The two started and stared.

"Would you two like to step inside?"

III

The name of the man who greeted them was Kisuke Urahara, the owner of the store. He was eccentric, at the very least. With the bucket hat hiding most of the blond tufts of hair, the rest of him was clad in a dark haori and a matching green outfit underneath. Every time the man took a bouncing step, his wooden sandals clicked beneath him.

"Welcome, welcome. First of all, may I ask you why you were lingering in front of someone else's store? I must say, it may have looked rather suspicious to a stranger's eyes." Urahara snapped open a fan in front of his face.

"Err," Renji said with a glance toward Ichigo, "we were just talking. Sorry 'bout that."

Then, the owner laughed heartily, softly fanning himself. "Oh, no, worry not. I was merely teasing. Then, I will leave you two to your own conversations. Happy shopping!"

If I were that guy just now, what would I have said? Happy browsing! Happy reading! The man picked the safest word – in Ichigo's opinion. Or maybe he had just spoken without much thought at all.

They looked around for a bit, and then settled in the manga section. Renji's request.

"That dude. He's a little weird," the redhead commented, to which Ichigo agreed.

"Oh, by the way, there's gonna be a Halloween party," Ichigo said, suddenly recalling Grimmjow's invitation and the note that he could invite a friend. "On Halloween. Come."

Getting no reply, he glanced up from fingering through manga to meet his friend's eyes.

"What?" he asked when Renji just stared.

"Eh? Oh, no, just – you never go to parties. How come… this one?" Ichigo stared for a moment, then shrugged. Honestly, he didn't even know. When Grimmjow asked him if he wanted to come that Thursday night, he had just replied without giving much thought to the idea. It just came out instinctively, even though his typical response would be a no.

"Dunno. It's Halloween, I guess. Listen, you coming or not?"

"I'll come, I'll come. Who's hosting?"

"I think it's my roommate's sister. Or one of her friends. Or one of his. I'm not sure. It's on Halloween… That's all I really know. My roommate's taking me there so I guess he didn't really feel the need to tell me much else."

"Awesome-sauce. Costume party?"

"Yeah, I think so. We're not going trick-or-treating, though." Renji laughed, and Ichigo smiled. He turned a book around in his hand to read the summary, then skimmed through the black and white pages.

It seemed it was a manga about people called "shinigami" – or death gods – and this teenage boy who one day becomes one in order to protect his family from a monster – apparently called "hollows." Meh. Not his type. He squeezed the book back into the bookshelf.

God, he couldn't even focus on manga. He had to read that summary six times in order to process the content in his mind. His thoughts were back on Thursday night, his blue-haired roommate half-naked and dripping wet from the hot shower. Why had he accepted the invitation, really? His mind had been a haze. By the way, Grimmjow had a really good body. Admirable. He had perfectly chiseled abs. The back and shoulder muscles as well - very well-toned. And his biceps were quite the sight, too.

He sniffed. His nose was running, and he hated it.

"Dude, Ichigo, you got a cold, man?"

With a sniff, Ichigo turned around, shaking his head. Renji was holding a book with that ninja boy on the cover – he couldn't remember the name, though, and Renji was covering the title with his fingers.

"Ichigo!" Renji's eyes got all wide and he leaned down to get a closer look at his friend's face. "Dude, you have a nosebleed."

Blinking stupidly, Ichigo brought his hand up to wipe his nose on the back of it. A bright scarlet smudged the skin when he glanced back down at it, and droplets kept falling and coloring it until Renji snapped his chin up so no more blood could drip.

"Crap… Wait here, I'll go get some tissue, yeah?" Ichigo attempted a nod, but Renji frowned and kept his head in place. "Idiot, don't do that."

When Renji walked away, Ichigo was left alone staring at the ceiling. He leaned back and laid his head on the shelf, bloody hand hanging in midair and other hand holding a manga. It'd been so long since his last nosebleed. In fact, the last time it had happened was back when Mugetsu had just left the orphanage and Ichigo just wasn't getting enough sleep. Takeshi had been there to help him back then.

"Tired much?" Ichigo looked to his left, and Renji held out a tissue for him to take. Several others lay pinched between the fingers of his other hand, just in case. Ichigo shrugged in answer to his question and thanked him.

"Dunno…" He held the tissue to his nose and held his head up to hopefully stop the blood flow.

"Well… I know for sure that that Urahara dude is fucking insane. He has a thousand boxes of Kleenex! Not joking, seriously. He has a fucking storage of Kleenex. He just plucked one and handed it to me, but I only took a few and gave it back. Um, did you need the rest?" Renji watched him worriedly, and Ichigo shook his head softly. He took another tissue from the redhead's hand since the first was soaked in red, and the blood still didn't seem to want to stop. Maybe he actually did need the rest of that tissue box.

He was getting more sleep than he had in high school, and he'd never bled back then, so why now?

"Anyway," Renji said, his face brightening suddenly. "How's it going with the gir – I mean, Inoue?"

"… She said her roommate likes celery."

"The heck? I'm not asking about those things, idiot."

When Ichigo looked at him curiously over the bunched up tissue at his nose, Renji sighed real dramatically. "Um… She likes celery?"

"I'm saying. You dating her yet or something?"

"What? No!"

"But I heard you talk to her a lot these days. You even hang out together, right? Like having lunch or something?"

"Yeah… I talk to her. We hang out. But that doesn't mean we're dating!"

"Pfft," Renji snorted. "Does too. Stop being such a pussy and ask her out, man!"

"But I don't… I don't feel that way about her…"

"Thou shalt not lie to thy redheaded friend, Ichigo Kurosaki." Ichigo laughed at that.

"I don't know… I like her maybe. Just… She's a good person. Nice friend, y'know?"

"Nope. Don't know."

"Ahh, shut up. I don't know." Ichigo waved his friend off, hence dismissing the conversation. He raised the tissue off his face and felt around his nose. The bleeding seemed to have stopped for now. Renji gave him a nod to signify there was no more dried blood on his face, and then went back to browsing.

What did he think about her though?

The sun was just beginning to set when they left the store (having not bought anything), and the sky was painted a brilliant mixture of warm colors. Dried leaves lay scattered on the concrete grounds, several more still fluttering down from unique branches. Ichigo tugged on his coat and hugged himself slightly to generate more heat. It was getting chillier by day.

When Ichigo got back, Grimmjow wasn't there. The room was empty and eerily quiet. It had always been like this before, when they somehow never saw each other for the first week of college, but now that they did see each other and spent quite a bit of time together in the room, it got sort of lonely when Grimmjow wasn't in.

A noisy electric beat rang from his phone, and Ichigo quickly fished it out from his coat that he had thrown onto his bed. It was an unknown number. Usually, Ichigo wouldn't pick up those kinds of numbers, but what else was there to do? If it was spam, he would make small talk with whoever was on the other end of the line just to annoy them until they hung up on him first. He used to do that a lot with his friends back in junior high. He swiped the screen with his finger and raised it to his ear.

"Hello?" he said into the phone, sitting down on his chair and getting ready for a nice little chat.

"Ichigo?" This voice…

"… Grimmjow?"

"Oh, okay, I thought it was someone else for a minute." A grin slowly made its way onto Ichigo's face.

"How'd you get my number?"

"Uh… from Nel. She had your number." There was a lot of background noise.

"Oh, okay."

"Yeah. So… did you wanna… like…"

"Sorry?"

"Um. Never mind. I'm gonna be late, so… you can lock the door, I guess. You don't need to wait for me."

Ichigo sucked his lip in and bit down hard, preventing himself from saying anything. The grin on his face no longer existed. He felt like the time back when he was at the orphanage, and Mrs. Moretski had come in with a fallen expression to inform Takeshi and him that Mugetsu could not come back to get them for another year or so. Takeshi had been fourteen at the time, Ichigo eleven. Twenty-year-old Mugetsu had already been gone for nearly two years, and the younger two had been waiting for him to return. I'll come back for you in a year's time, he had said. And they had waited. And waited. And waited. It had been awfully lonely back then, even with all the other kids swarming the little brick building, they wanted out. They wanted to get out of the orphanage and live with Mugetsu.

"Ichigo?"

"Huh? Oh. Sorry. Okay. You have your key?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Bye."

"Yeah, 'kay. Bye."

A long silence settled in on the conversation, and they both stayed quiet for a minute, each waiting for the other to put the phone down first.

It was Grimmjow who hung up first.

There was no homework left that needed to be done. There was no class left that needed to be attended. There was no activity left that needed to be participated in. Ichigo cranked up his music and plugged in his earphones after changing, deciding not to bother himself with a shower. He sank into his bed and pushed his pillow into his face, letting go only when he couldn't breathe well anymore.

He fell asleep thinking about Mugetsu and his girlfriend, who were probably going to get married soon. Ichigo was happy for them. Suzumi was a kind person, not to mention very beautiful. He hadn't seen her in a while, but he remembered she had sleek black hair like Mugetsu's and eye color just as dark. And then his mind wandered to Takeshi and his new boyfriend that the albino had only just recently told him about. It was a guy named Uryu Ishida, who Takeshi had had a crush on since, like, forever (which really meant since the beginning of the year). He thought of Renji's words, and Orihime Inoue, who was cute and kind and perfect material for a nice girlfriend.

And then, strangely enough, his mind filled with the color blue.

He wondered when Grimmjow would be coming back.


G.J. – 10/24 Fri. – 10:07 pm

"Bye."

As Grimmjow clicked his phone off, he let out a deep breath, realizing he'd been holding it for quite a while now.

"Grimmy!" He looked up to see Nel with her boyfriend. Giovanni still seemed to be slightly nervous around Grimmjow (although, the bluehead was pretty sure the guy could beat him up in a matter of minutes if he really wanted), but the two were a little too drunk to care anymore.

"'Sup."

"So is Ichi-tan coming?" Ichi-chan? What the hell? She's got to be drunk.

"No…" I couldn't ask him. "He's… busy."

"Haaa, but it would've been fun with him here," Nel whined, and Grimmjow shrugged. Her friends were next to her by now, and they all looked like they were having fun. In other words, they were completely stoned.

He was sitting at the bar. He wasn't exactly in the mood for dancing or "clubbing hardcore" like the others. All throughout the night, he'd been drinking a little, and that was it.

"Another glass?" Grimmjow turned around at the voice, away from Nel and her gang. His eyes fell on a man with feminine features: jaw-length black hair with colorful feathers decorating his right eye. The man's name was Luppi Antenor, the bartender, offering him some more bourbon.

Grimmjow considered finishing for the night and returning to the dorm.

Ichigo.

"Yeah, thanks." He gulped down half the cup as soon as it was filled for him.

"No problem," Luppi said slowly, wiping a glass.

One would have to be extremely slow not to notice the way the man looked at him. Grimmjow liked the other bartender much better, because for one, Starrk didn't prey on drunk customers. While Luppi only looked to get laid, Starrk actually knew how to deal with people at the bar. Besides, Grimmjow wasn't even that drunk.

Ignoring the leering man, Grimmjow took another sip. His furrowed eyebrows just would not relax. Why the hell would he chicken out from asking Ichigo to join them down at Las Noches? He had invited him to the Halloween party. So…

"Tsk." He stood abruptly, startling the bartender. Handing him the money, Grimmjow waited for his change before leaving the bar. Just in case, he texted Nel; although he doubted she would be able to think straight enough to read it properly anyways.

The night air was… not fresh. The stench of sweat, alcohol, and cigarettes stank up the entire area and Grimmjow scrunched up his nose in revolt. He hadn't realized how drunk he was, for now that he was out of the crazy-dancing-lights-and-blaring-music zone, he noticed just how heavy his body felt. The alleyways were spinning just a little in his eyes, but not enough to make him feel like puking.

"Eyy, Grimmjow," a familiar voice called out. He turned around. A tall figure stumbled over to him, a few others behind him.

"Nnoitra," the blue-haired man acknowledged with a nod.

"Tha' short guy atcher workplace tol' me ya room wit' Ichigo," the taller man said, slurring his words even more than usual. Grimmjow had never liked that guy. Nnoitra was terribly crass and without proper education, always dragging around his gang wherever he went. They just fooled around wherever and whenever was convenient for them, but as long as their daily activities did not interfere with Grimmjow's, he didn't mind them too much. Ignoring them was the best way, he had decided a while ago.

"Yeah, man… What about it?" He tried to keep his cool, but he didn't like the way Nnoitra licked his lips, or the heated look in the lanky man's eye. Grimmjow recognized two blond men, a raven-haired man, and an absolutely humongous Asian all of whom were standing behind Nnoitra. They all reeked of alcohol and vomit.

"Introduce 'im to us next time, won't cha, kitty-boy? I wanna fuck 'im 'till he fuckin' bleeds, man…"

With an elongated yell, Grimmjow charged at the man, getting a good punch in the cheek. He huffed with rage, growling as Nnoitra staggered back and his cronies got all defensive. Rubbing a now-sore cheek, the seven-foot-tall man spitting at the ground.

"Dude… what the fuck, man?" Nnoitra only looked dazed, not too angry, thank goodness. Grimmjow knew he shouldn't cause any more trouble. Normally, he would be able to take on five guys at once, but these guys were actual hoods. They fought on the streets – that was literally all they did. They fought people, raped people, got drunk, stole, et cetera. Plus, he wasn't sure he could beat the ones who taught him how to fight in the first place.

Lowering his head, Grimmjow clenched his fists to keep himself from attacking once more. It had happened so fast, he hadn't been able to stop himself from landing at least one punch. Shit, this was getting rather… out of hand.

III

"Don't cry," a soft voice spoke. "Shh, it's okay."

The little girl held the crying boy in her arms, and although she was barely even six, she had a vague idea of what was going on. Her parents had gone out one day and brought back a little boy with them. He was even younger than she was – maybe four. At first, it seemed he only wanted to scowl. He refused to eat, and had a hard time going to sleep at night. Nel didn't like him very much. He was just a grumpy little boy who didn't know how to appreciate her parents' kindness.

But then he wandered into her room one day, a few months later. Nelliel had been playing with her dolls, dressing them up and arranging them on the white shelf above her bed. Papa was at work, and Mama was at the grocery store. She was supposed to be watching the house and her 'brother' for just twenty minutes. When the little boy barged in without permission and stared at the room, then at her, she snapped.

"What do you want?" she had said, her tone vicious. She had glared heatedly at the boy, wanting him to step out of her room now.

The way his eyes widened back then, she could never forget. The boy dashed out of the room, leaving the door wide open. Nel tried to go back to her dolls, but her mind was elsewhere – with the blue-haired boy, his ever-permanent scowl, and the odd marks by his big cyan eyes.

When Nel ran out to look for him, she found him curled up against the wall at the back of the house, crying. Her young heart practically broke in half at the sight, the jagged edges piercing her chest with every sob that escaped the boy's lips. She took a step towards him, whereas his eyes snapped up and his cries halted momentarily.

And then tears leaked, streamlined down his puffy cheeks, his jaw hanging open and emitting odd choking noises. Nelliel knelt down and pulled the boy into her embrace, tucking his bright blue head under her chin and his shaking body within the cage of her little arms. She took off the hat she always wore around – it looked like a broken comical mask: a character from a popular kids' cartoon – and pat it into place on the boy's head. His unseen cries stopped then, and he slowly looked up. Nelliel smiled down at him, and he stared with huge eyes, as if it was the brightest thing he'd ever seen in his life.

Grimmjow. The boy's name was Grimmjow. That was what Mama and Papa had said. Now, he was a Jaegerjaquez. Her little brother.

III

Grimmjow woke up inside the club, which was still as lively as ever. How had he fallen asleep in such a noisy environment? Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he got up from the little booth he was in and asked someone for the time. It was two in the morning, which meant he had been sleeping for a lot longer than he first thought.

Blinking stupidly, he flopped back down on the cushy chairs and checked his phone. He had forgotten he had it with him.

Missed calls (1)

Text messages (2)

They were from Ichigo.

"when r u coming back?"

"are u staying out today?"

"okay. g'night."

Groaning to himself, Grimmjow leaned his head back against the wall where the chair didn't quite reach. Nnoitra and his gang had been way to stoned to get serious with his punch, and when he got back inside, he ended up fucking some tiny chick that didn't even have proper boobs. Forcing himself to stand, he stumbled his way to the exit.

"Leaving, Jack-chan?" It was Rangiku, face red – probably drunk and stoned – in a booth near the door. That creepy fox-face guy was beside her, arm around her shoulders and glaring up at Grimmjow. Well, at least, he thought the man was glaring. He couldn't really tell since Gin's eyes were fucking tiny. Or he just never really opened them. Whatever.

"Yeah," he muttered, ignoring the nickname. "Gotta get back. Tell Nelliel for me, would ya?"

"Ryoukai," she said with a wide grin and an 'okay' via slim fingers. Rangiku was quite the beauty, and she knew it. Even drunk and smiling stupidly, she still looked friggin' hot.

Nodding tersely as a thank you, Grimmjow left the place. The fresh air seemed to clear up his aching mind a little, and the chilly air felt good when it entered his nostrils. With only his leather jacket as a cover-up, he made his way back to the dormitory. How long had it taken him? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Maybe more?

He fumbled for the key to Room 211 in his jeans pocket and clumsily opened the door. Hoping he hadn't made too much noise, he carefully shut the door and tiptoed in, slipping his jacket off, tossing it onto his desk, flinching at the clanking it made, and then just stripping completely. He didn't even bother to put a simple wife beater on, let alone sweatpants, just left his boxers on.

A bright light suddenly shone from Ichigo's side of the room. Quietly walking over, Grimmjow noticed the sleeping man's phone and a new notification – an email. And the phone was playing music. The man wasn't even wearing the blanket properly. Earphones were plugged in, and Grimmjow could vaguely hear the melody in the silence of the room. It was a song he liked: "Life of the Party" by Shawn Mendes. He didn't usually listen to soft songs like this one, but Ichigo had gotten him into the genre. Leaning over, he tapped the screen to turn off the music and tugged the earphones away from Ichigo, who scowled in his sleep and moved a little bit, but otherwise slept on.

Perhaps he would blame it on the alcohol, or maybe even the drowsiness, but on the spur of the moment, Grimmjow leaned down further and gently locked his lips on the sleeping form's. Ichigo's lips were soft and warm, and he just wanted to keep kissing them forever and ever. But Ichigo stirred, and eyes blinked open. Grimmjow shot up and scratched the back of his head. Had he noticed?

"Sorry," he said quietly. "Um, did I wake you?"

"… No," Ichigo mumbled sleepily, rubbing a weary eye. Then his eyes widened and his head snapped up. "You're back?"

Grimmjow nodded, trying to hide the smile he was wearing. Was the darkness enough to disguise it? "Um, go back to sleep. I just… turned off your music, is all."

Nodding slowly, Ichigo yawned and took the earphones that Grimmjow handed to him, and then carefully wrapped the cord around his phone and set it down beside his head, charging. He glanced up at the blue-haired roommate before dropping his head on his pillow and turning around to face the wall.

"'Night," he mumbled, and the other said the same.

Flopping onto his own bed, Grimmjow swallowed hard. It didn't seem like Ichigo noticed. Or had he? Was he just pretending?

He hugged his pillow tightly, gritting his teeth. What the hell was he thinking? Wasn't Ichigo completely, absolutely, undoubtedly straight? With Princess and all that. Holy hell, whatever, he didn't even know what to think anymore.

Sudden desire to sleep consumed the man, and he focused on a stain on the wall to help himself fall asleep. Oh… he had forgotten to set his alarm. But he was tired. Tired, tired, tired. And there was no class tomorrow, so…

He dreamed of mountains. Extremely tall mountains of which he could not even see the summit, for the tops were all hidden by the enormous clouds sitting firmly on them. Before him was somebody, someone important to him. So important, he didn't know what he would ever do without that person. And that someone was yelling, calling to him, waving and smiling and making his chest go all warm. Such a precious being that person was, yet… Who was it? He couldn't seem to remember. He didn't know. The person. The special someone. Who…

And then, the mystery being was snatched away from right under his nose. The antagonist was cackling, along with the other goons. But the person… the precious person… was crying. And he had no idea as of what he should do. This person was so important to him that it almost felt as if his life depended on whether the person was living there with him, beside him, laughing and making him feel all warm. But now, whoever this was was crying for him. He couldn't see much else, but he could at least see the tears streamlining down flushed cheeks. He made a jump for it. His hand was right there, outstretched, reaching for his loved one.

And then they vanished. Both the kidnapper and the captive vaporized. There was no other way to explain it. They were gone. They had dissolved into thin air, and all he could hear were the cackling voices and muffled cries. He had failed to protect yet another one he loved, as he had done so many years ago. He made the same mistake as he had back then, and fucked everything up so bad…

He cried. And he cried. He fell to his knees and screamed at the sky – the sky that was slowly fading to darkness when only just a minute ago, it had been as bright as could be. He realized that, when the light of his life had been taken away, the sun had begun to slowly die out. Was that even possible? Was it possible that the sun could die out? Yet here he was, sobbing like the shitty coward he was. He was sweating even though it was so cold all around him. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit…!

"Oooi," an unfamiliar voice called. It was an irritating voice. He was still indulging himself in grief. Allow him to drown in sorrow for just a little, at the very least! "Dude, is this guy really okay or some—"

Grimmjow shot up from his position on the bed before his eyes even managed to blink open. His blanket was tangled with his feet at the bottom, his neck and forehead were soaked with perspiration, and his pillow was nowhere on the bed. Had he tossed it away during his sleep?

"Ah, Grimmjow!" He immediately looked up at Ichigo's voice, but was met with a completely unwelcoming pair of eyes he'd never seen before.

He screamed with all his might and backed away as far as possible. Pressing himself up against the wall, he tried to calm his breathing from the very close encounter of this fucking stranger. They had almost been touching noses! The mere idea sent unpleasant shivers all throughout his body. He glanced up again after rubbing his eyes, but it was not a dream at all. A stupid-looking red-haired moron sat glaring at him with a stupid-looking expression, stupid-looking tattoos covering his stupid-looking face and body as far as he knew. And right beside the redhead was a man with white hair, pale skin, and a swirling mixture of gold and black as his eye color. It was almost intriguing, but fucking disturbing at the same time.

"Hah? Wha's wit' tat look? Di'nt I jus' pull ya out of a nightmare?" the albino said loudly, as if mocking him. He probably was, actually.

"Take-nii, enough already…" Glancing further up, Grimmjow finally noticed Ichigo behind the other two, an apologetic look on his face. Were they all friends? He could already tell he did not like the taller two.

"Buuut," the white-haired man whined, making Grimmjow want to puke, "this bastard was bein' sooo ungrateful ta his nightmare-savior that I jus' had ta say somethin', yanno?"

"HAH? Whad'ya SAY? You're a fuckin' nightmare… Ichigo, what's with tattoo baboon and whitey here?"

"EXCUSE?" The redhead suddenly spoke up. Grimmjow could literally see the tick mark on the guy's forehead as he cracked his knuckles and exchanged glances with the albino, as if deciding Grimmjow was better off dead than alive. "Big blue baby!"

"Red fuckin' pineapple!"

It became a full-on war of insults, the three of them throwing nasty words back and forth at each other.

"Whitey ass-hat!"

"Old geezer!"

"Fuckin' trash!"

"Dipshit!"

"Li'l fucker!"

"Dick-face!"

"Crap—"

"ENOUGH!"

When they all settled back down on Ichigo's bed (surprisingly, they all made themselves fit since none of them would give up a seat), the three debaters each had a large bump on their heads, in courtesy of Ichigo's knuckles.

"Sorry, Grimmjow, I was going to take them out; just, I forgot my phone. But then you were all tossing and turning and these two here were like—"

"WAIT. Why are ya apologizin' to blue baby here? We ain't done nothin' wrong!"

"Yeah, Ichigo, he started it—"

The two stopped immediately when Ichigo glared at them. The orange-head sighed and shook his head. "You call waking somebody up on Saturday and insulting them to the best of your abilities first thing in the morning 'nothing wrong'?"

"But it was fuckin' nine already! Ya can't sleep forever! Besides, tha' was totes not the best of my abilities…"

"Take-nii… Just because you're an early riser doesn't mean everyone has to be that way."

"But nine ain't even early!"

The albino shut up when Ichigo glared at him, but Grimmjow didn't miss the glower he gave him when Ichigo wasn't looking.

"So," Ichigo said with a huge exhale. "I don't think we've introduced ourselves properly, and since none of you seem to want to speak up first, here goes. Guys, Grimmjow. He's my roommate, as you probably have at least a vague idea of."

The blue-haired man huffed. Yeah, I'm his fucking roommate and all, so back off!

"Umm, this is Renji Abarai, and I've known him for, eh, five, six, years now."

"Yeah, since junior high," Renji added as an afterthought.

Okay, so, childhood friends. He's old. I'm new. I probably have a better chance yeah? Shoo, shoo, thanks.

"And… this is Takeshi." Grimmjow acknowledged the man with an indifferent nod, still refusing to make eye contact. "He's my older brother."

"WHAT?" Grimmjow's eyes snapped up, his head whipping around to look at the albino. Now that he looked carefully, the two certainly did have a rather remarkable resemblance. He just hadn't noticed because of all the… whiteness.

"Yeah, I know. Takeshi Kurosaki. Say hi."

If that's Ichigo's brother, that means I need to look good to him, doesn't it? Like, if we ever get married or shit… Hahahahaha, fuck it.

"You… you had a brother?"

"Yup. I have two, actually. Haven't I told you?"

"Two?" Grimmjow stared wide-eyed. "Another… brother…"

"Yeah," Ichigo laughed. "No sisters, though."

"Does… does he go here?"

"Nah… He'd twenty-seven. He works back home."

"Yeah, bro! And I'm a fuckin' senior! BOW TO YO SENPAI!" Takeshi cackled maliciously, and Grimmjow stared as Ichigo punched his brother in the stomach.

"Settle down, seriously," Ichigo muttered as he shook out his fingers. "You're freaking moronic." Takeshi whimpered, sticking his bottom lip out in a pout. Grimmjow just had to laugh, to which the albino glowered ruthlessly.

"So, anyway," Ichigo continued. "We were about to go for brunch. Wanna tag along?"


This chapter was a little longer than usual, but I suppose that's okay.

School has begun once more… which means I don't have much time on my hands anymore D': I haven't even double-checked (last-minute-edited) this chapter… I thought this was already up like a long time ago... guess not .

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

[ Jou ]