I've been freezing lately. I don't get what it is.
Sssssss
I was honestly convinced that Aizen lived in that big dark room where my fate had been decided and I ended up in the hands(claws?) of Grimmjow. When I entered the room for what must have been a record breaking third time in the past week, a table had been laid out with a starch white cloth covering it and all the items for a hearty two course meal assembled neatly on its surface. I had been starving since the second time Grimmjow had had sex with me, as difficult as it was to admit. The blue haired menace was always eager to pin me up against a wall and touch my stomach but he was horrible at remembering that I actually required food to survive. There had been a granola bar here and there but I was aching for a full meal.
Only two chairs had been set up, and Aizen was sitting in one with a look so smug it could have dripped slime. I assumed the other was for me, so I sat down and tried not to stare holes through the steak on my plate.
"Ichigo Kurosaki. It is my understanding that is your name?"
"Your understanding is on point. Are you really Aizen or is that just your street name?"
His smirk deepens as he stares at me with a neutral expression. I have no idea if he's actually pissed or not. Maybe he would help me comprehend his feelings with another knife. I begin eating when his gaze becomes uncomfortable and the smell of the food on my plate overwhelms me. It's delicious. I could have eaten ten more plates but pushing my luck was something that didn't seem to come without consequences for me. Aizen didn't take a bite.
"You know, your disobedience at that meeting was amusing. You're rebellious by nature, aren't you?"
I shrug, my mouth too full to answer.
"Whatever it was, I hope you still have that spark."
"Do you want to put another knife in my chest? Because I guarantee the next time you do I'll put it through your neck."
"Oh thank Christ," Aizen lunges over the table and grabs my hair, pulling my head smack against the table and pinning it with his knee. Before I can yell or struggle, my own steak knife is pressed against the dip in my collarbone.
"It looks like we can still make a deal."
If the massive boner Grimmjow had given me moments before I had to come here was still tenting my pants, it was definitely gone now. Being pinned by Aizen wasn't even remotely sexual(not that I ever liked being trapped before). I felt like a frog on a lab table when he stroked my neck with his knife.
"I have a feeling that inflicting pain on you specifically won't pull the same affect as it did before. However,"
Aizen leaned closer and pressed me farther into the table like I would have been able to escape. He had an even worse superiority complex than Grimmjow.
"You seemed to express strong emotion when confronted by your coworkers experiencing physical pain, the one with red hair specifically. If you do not co-operate with me, I will not only hurt you but I will inflict the same pain on them by a factor of ten. Essentially, it's you or them."
"What do you want me to do, exactly? Is it something we can discuss like normal human beings?" I sighed in relief when Aizen slid off of me, in his seat by the time I sat up.
"You will come here when I call you and do what I say."
"Is that it?" I doubt Aizen knew how to make any other facial expression than a smirk.
"Are we in agreement then?"
"Yeah, sure-" He was on me the second the affirmation left my mouth.
Aizen was not a lithe man and yet he moved like a demon, maybe even faster. Probably faster. I shoved at his shoulders as he sucked a hickey onto my neck, one that I knew would be big and dark and very easy for Grimmjow to see. I was fucked, and not even because of the Aizen deal. I had a feeling Grimmjow would not take nicely to a massive love mark from a person he absolutely hated on someone he loved(fucking).
sssssss
"Shit."
Grimmjow was four kinds of tense when I left to see Aizen, but now he looked like fifty feet of pure stress had curled itself around his ribcage and was crushing his vital organs. The simile is disgusting but it's the only way I could accurately describe his physical state. His hair is wild, but lacks its usual endearing disheveledness and his room looks even worse than before, like he had been pacing and kicking everything out of his way.
"What the hell happened? You look horrible." He glowered at me and stretched himself out on the bed like a brooding animal.
"Yeah and you look the best you've looked in a week minus that fucking hickey on your neck. Did you guys make passionate love after he treated you to a spa day? Or did you make passionate love during the spa day?"
"You're ridiculous. We had…dinner. And he asked me to make a deal with him." Grimmjow went from being on the bed to pushing me back against the wall behind me in less than three seconds. I shoved him off of me.
"Stop with the pushing me into walls and pinning me down! I get that you have dominance issues but it's weird, okay?"
"What do you mean you made a deal with him?!" Grimmjow snarled. I swallowed, my throat suddenly bone dry. He stopped staring me down and paced the room, agitation rolling off his back in waves.
"If you really did make a deal with him…then we're in a delicate situation." He sat back on the bed and steepled his fingers, pressing his forehead to their tips.
"Listen up kid and come the fuck over here."
"I'll stay here. You and beds are a poor mix for me." Grimmjow didn't protest, which surprised me. Either he wasn't listening or the situation was serious enough for him to not lose his temper.
"Aizen is going to kill you or come very close to it if you don't get away from here soon. I don't know if he'll mean to do it or not, but it's going to happen."
A wave of nausea swept over me. Grimmjow wasn't above lying but there was no reason for him to in this situation.
"Do you have a family Ichigo?"
"Why?"
"Because he's going to go after them too."
My blood ran cold when I thought of Aizen showing up at my house, Yuzu answering the door. Karin screaming as they dragged her away. I knew going into a drug ring wouldn't result in zero consequence, but they weren't involved in this. They didn't deserve it.
The idea of Aizen getting his hands on my family because of me had me sliding down the wall I was leaning against and clutching my stomach with both arms. My head spun. Grimmjow seemed too immersed in his own thoughts to notice.
"I don't suppose you want to make a deal?" Grimmjow's voice and expression were impossible to read.
"I did that once and now my friends and family are doomed unless I obey a sadist's orders."
"I'll help you get out. I can't help your friends or anything, but I can make sure you get out of here alive." I gaped at him, my queasiness forgotten for immense shock at what he said.
"You're kidding me. What do you want in exchange, my soul? You already have my virginity for what it's worth."
Groaning and rubbing his temples like he had only just realized what he said to me, Grimmjow laid back on the bed.
"I'll think of something," He said as he threw his arm over his face.
"I just don't like when Aizen ruins people. And you, you're…something. He's a black hole."
sssssss
The most intimidating part of Las Noches wasn't Grimmjow, or how casual Aizen was with stabbing me in the chest, it was the massive sprawl of the compound itself. Grimmjow had taken me on a stiff, quiet walk through several halls that were lined with doors, so many that I had no idea why they would even need this big of a place. I nursed the idea that Aizen was seriously compensating for something with it.
"Where are we going?"
"Stay quiet. I'm not supposed to be in this half of the building." Grimmjow had worn a scowl since before we left his room. We took four more turns before he decided it was safe to talk.
"Do you trust me Ichigo?" I narrowed my eyes.
"I don't exactly have a choice here, so-"
"I'm asking if you trust me. It's a yes or no question." He said, interrupting me. I realized we had stopped in front of a room with a small window in the door. A yellow light flickered inside. Grimmjow knocked quietly on the door and pulled me close to him, hand curling around my waist and refusing to budge.
A man with long brown hair pulled back into a bun, sea green eyes, and an unbelievably bored expression opened the door. His expression slowly changed, eyebrows raising at he looked first at Grimmjow and then at me.
"Get inside."
He shut the door quickly behind us and I heard the lock click. The room was larger and nicer than Grimmjow's and a doorway to my left led to other rooms. The furniture was sparse, but Grimmjow pulled me down to sit next to him on a couch resting against the wall far from the door. The whole room smelled faintly of both incense and cigarette smoke.
Leaning against the door so the window couldn't be seen through, he groaned and rubbed the stubble on his chin that ran up his jawline.
"I can already tell this is going to be a headache Grimm."
"I wouldn't have come to you if I had any other option. Stark, this is Ichigo. Aizen made a deal with him." Stark groaned again, louder this time.
"Do you want me to make him a coffin?"
"No, you owe me a favor and he needs ink. I don't care where he wants it, just make sure he chooses somewhere discreet and it's the same as the one you gave me." I balked, pushing Grimmjow away from me.
"What the hell?! I didn't agree to this!"
Grimmjow glared at me and pulled me toward him by the front of my shirt. "I'm doing this for you Kurosaki. Don't you trust me?"
"Not enough to get a tattoo! And getting the same tattoo as you really doesn't sound necessary!"
"Then find your own way out. Try riding Aizen's dick or something you whore." He stormed into the other room and both Stark and I watched him go.
"Fine!" I yelled after him. "I'll get your dumbass tattoo!" He didn't come back but a small, slim girl walked out of the doorway. She had dirty blonde hair and was wearing a shirt that was around Stark's size, stretching down to cover her to her mid thigh.
"He's sulking in our room cariño. Why is he even here?" She had a Spanish accent-similar to Stark, I realized-and stared daggers into the man's eyes. He easily returned the gaze and I couldn't tell if they were siblings or in a relationship that had a massive age gap.
"This boy," He gestured to me lazily. "He made a deal with the Aizen and needs a tattoo. Can you clean up the chair and get out the black ink?" She rolled her eyes and stomped away.
"That's Lilinette. I apologize for her poor attitude. Where do you want this tattoo? It's going to be a little larger than the palm of your hand if you need an idea about it's size."
He led me to a room with a record player and a shelf full of binders, records, and equipment I assumed was for the tattooing itself. Lilinette was sitting at a small table in the corner, cleaning out what looked like the tattoo gun.
"I still need to make and sterilize the needles, but you need to trace the design too." She said, not looking up from her work.
Stark motioned for me to sit in the large leather chair in the center of the room. He sat across from Lilinette after pulling a few sheets of paper and a pencil from a blue binder, and then one sheet of paper from a green one. I drummed my fingers against the arm of the chair anxiously.
"Thinking about where you want that tattoo niño?"
"What? Oh, yeah." Aizen would probably be displeased to see me with the same tattoo as Grimmjow, so I had to think of a place subtle enough that he wouldn't see it unintentionally but not somewhere weird like my ass cheek. I settled for the patch of skin next to my right hipbone, low enough so the tip of the tattoo would just barely peek out of my pants and wouldn't look suspicious.
Lilinette stared at me curiously as Stark cleaned off the area and pressed the mirror tracing of the tattoo against my skin. It was the number six in a gothic font. I had no idea why Grimmjow would want such a tattoo, but he wasn't here for me to ask him questions.
"You know, he must really care about you if he's sticking his neck out for you like this." Lilinette sounded casual as she slid the thin needles that she had made earlier into the gun and handed it to Stark.
"Impossible. Grimmjow only cares about himself."
Stark dipped the tip of the gun into a small pot of black ink and connected it to a wire that allowed him to turn the gun on and off at will with a footpedal. He pressed the tip of the gun against my skin and turned it on. I forced myself to not jump at the sudden sting and buzzing of the needles against my skin. He started and stopped the needle every few seconds to wipe the excess ink away. Lilinette walked over to the chair and pulled a stool up on my left side.
"Grimmjow used to have the highest rank here. Closest to Aizen. They were very close."
"What happened?" I asked, my interest piqued enough to lose my focus on the burning sensation on my skin. Stark stopped and looked at Lilinette meaningfully.
"Mija, I don't think Grimmjow would want us to tell him this." She snorted.
"Good. That's what he gets for throwing a hissy fit." The tattoo was a third of the way done and I was unbelievably curious.
"Anyways, he was Aizen's right hand man. But one day," Lilinette screwed up her face.
"What are the words…he…..fell." She mimicked falling with her hands.
"From grace. Like el Diablo fell from heaven. I don't know what happened but he disappeared for weeks. And he came back with that big ugly scar on his chest asking for that." She pressed her finger against the skin near the more or less finished tattoo. Stark wiped the last bit of ink away and pressed a big piece of clear plastic wrap against the tender skin after cleaning it, sealing it so the wrap didn't move.
"Wash this after a few hours, and put this ointment on it when it feels tight. Keep washing it gently and…" He continued telling me everything to do, handing me another bottle while I readjusted my pants. Lilinette left to get Grimmjow.
"Don't tell anyone you were here. Come back to me if anything weird happens. This should take around a month to heal completely, so be gentle with it." The idea of staying in here for another month was sickening, especially when I needed to get out of here as quickly as possible.
He leaned in close to me as I was getting out of the chair.
"It probably doesn't seem like this at all, but you can trust Grimm. I'm sure he wants you to trust him too."
"I'll keep that in mind." I could hear Grimmjow and Lilinette yelling a couple rooms away.
"And you can't trust Aizen. Don't ever trust him. He is a snake that will eat you alive."
sssss
This took so long to write and I don't know how I feel about it, especially the last part.
Note for the Spanish: Cariño is a term of endearment for people you're close to
Niño is boy
Mijo is a term for friends and also one of endearment