I updated faster this time *yay for me* Reviews and favs keep Ichigo alive!

Ichigo: Are you serious?!

Sei: Yep.

Ichigo: ….Well shit.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. (Ichigo: Thank god he doesn't.)

As always, I'm sorry about grammar mistakes and so.

x.x.x.x

Ichigo's POV

I rolled over and silently groaned as my bruised body cried out in pain at the unwanted movement. Plus I had a headache that made me feel like someone was slamming it with a hammer. I crawled up slowly as a wave of nausea swept through me. After I was finally finished retching over the toilet, I flushed it and I leaned against the wall next to it. I felt tears prick at the corner of my eyes from all the pain I was feeling.

I almost passed out right there but I felt a cool hand brush my hair from my sweaty forehead. I leaned against the cool skin and looked over to see who the hand belonged to. I saw Shiro standing over me with a worried expression and Urahara-san right behind him with an identical look.

"How are you feeling?" I shook my head slowly and made a thumb down sign. Urahara-san approached me and cleaned my face with a cool wet rag. I let my eyes slide close at the soothing feeling it brought.

They helped me stand up and walked me back to the bed. After I was settled they put the washcloth on my head and Urahara stuck a thermometer under my tongue.

I heard a tired sigh minutes later from Kisuke as he took the thermometer out and saw my temperature.

"He has a bit of a fever, " Urahara announced to Shiro was still looked deadly worried over me. Why did he care so much about someone as broken as me? What was the point? "I guess he can stay here until he feels better."

Shirosaki sighed and crouched down besides me. He smiled softly and I couldn't help but try to smile back though it ended looking more like a grimace. "I'll go to school now. I'll take notes for ya', so don't worry 'bout that." I nodded and mouthed a silent thanks that Shiro seemed to understand.

After that I fell asleep but my dreams weren't exactly pleasant.

x.x.x.x

Shiro's POV

School was shit when Ichigo wasn't around. I was really bored having no friends. Some beefy guy tried to pick up on me but I assure you that that bastard wasn't going to try to do it again in a long time. When lunch time came, strangely enough, 'Ichigo's friends' invited me over to sit with them and eat. I shrugged my shoulders as I accepted, having absolutely nothing else to do. I tried memorizing their names but it was quite the chore. Memory isn't my strongest feature. The midget with big violet/blue eyes was Rukia, the girl could be foul mouthed; the big guy with red hair and weird tattoos was Renji –the one who I wanted to tell me more information about Ichigo because they were childhood friends; the red haired girl with abnormally big titties was Orihime… I think; the four eyed guy with a stick up his ass was Uryu I believe; the guy who thought he was funny was Asano; the black haired always typing messages on his phone was Mizuiro; and the biggest and quiet guy of the group was Sado? Chad? How his name was even pronounced? I understood why Ichigo got along with this last guy though.

"So Shirosaki-kun… wasn't it?" The red haired girl said and I nodded. "What made you approach Kurosaki-kun?"

I found myself thinking about it. If I was honest with myself, I thought he was interesting at first and then I saw he needed help. A lot of it. And I didn't want to offend them but he needed a true friend. I wanted to be that friend for some strange reason. I mean… I almost had no friends.

"He's interesting in his own way," I answered nonchalantly as I took a bite of my sandwich. "And he's a beast with the guitar."

"It's useless trying to befriend him," Renji snorted with a scowl. "The freak will end up pushing you away too. He did with all of us."

I saw red the moment he dared to insult Ichigo but the look of hurt in everyone's faces made me pause before trying to get up and punch the red haired bastard. I couldn't stop my impulses thought and I ended doing it anyway.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" I demanded harshly as I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Isn't he yer friend still?! He can't talk for fuck's sakes! Maybe… yes! He has been hiding away because he's afraid but that doesn't mean he doesn't need ya'! All of ya'!" I was panting after I finished the small rant. They were staring at me wide-eyed, knowing that what I said was true. Even Renji looked hurt from my words. He fucking deserved someone finally yelled the truth to his face.

"Shirosaki-kun please calm down… " I clicked my tongue as I freed Renji from my grip and let him fell back sitting to the floor. "We really have tried helping him a lot of times but he didn't trust any of us enough to do it, not even Sado. He kept pushing us away again and again and we had to give up on him. It really hurts us but there was nothing we can do."

I calmed down a little bit after listening to their reasons. Still, they didn't have the right to insult him. I was completely sure Ichigo wasn't mute because he wanted to be like that. Had no one else the same point of view as me? It pissed me off.

x.x.x.x

Ichigo's POV

I stumbled into my house and I was utterly drunk. I went to take a step, but the world started spinning and I ended up crashing onto the floor. Footsteps came down the stairs and suddenly my dad was standing in front of me.

I looked into his eyes full of hatred and even in the drunken state I was in; I could tell I was screwed. "Are you drunk?" He yelled.

"Why does it matter to you?" I spat back. I was surprised that words came out from my mouth. It sounded like my old voice… that of a nine-year-old. I winced as he kicked me in the ribs knocking the wind out of me.

"Not so cocky now, right?!" He raged. I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for the beating… But it never came.

When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting in my classroom yet something was off. All the students' faces were blank. I glanced around and I watched as someone walked inside the room. It was me but at the same it wasn't. This version of me was writing my name on the board. When he turned around I gasped loudly. His eyes were completely drained of life and his lips were sewed together in a messy scary way.

"He's such a freak!"

"Look at his hair!"

"Did the cat bit his tongue?"

"Hey mute boy! If you want to be kicked stay quiet!"

I stared horrified at my classroom mates. I tried to scream and tell them to stop and found myself unable to move my lips. I closed my eyes tightly and covered my ears with my hands but the voices were inside my skull, echoing painfully. I blinked and I was no longer sitting at my desk. I was at the front of the classroom as I watched how my classmates continued laughing at me. I tried running away but my legs wouldn't move. I was stuck.

Freak. Freak. Freak.

When I managed to turn around to avoid the faceless stares, my name was no longer written on the board instead in blood red there was the word I always dreaded to hear.

Guilty.

I pried my lips open and it hurt like hell as they were still sewed together. I felt blood run down my chin but I ignored it as the only thing I wanted to do was scream. It ended sounding more like an inhuman sounding screech. That was all I was? A monster?

"Ichigo…"

Who was calling out to me? It sounded familiar…

"Ichigo!" The voice was much louder than all the students' voices together and it made me feel relieved. A bright light shinned over me and I had to close my eyes. However, when the voice called my name again, I opened them. Golden eyes were staring back at me, a hand being lifted towards me.

"Shirosaki?" He smirked like he was real and I took his hand and held it tightly.

"Don't give up Ichigo."

"Why? Why do you insist in helping me?" This imaginary Shiro my mind had conjured up just smiled. The light blinded me again and then all I felt was darkness around me. Where was I now…?

"Ichigo? Ichigo wake up!"

Huh?

I fluttered my eyes open and the first thing I noticed is that my headache felt infinitely better and it was almost gone. The next thing was the added weight on the right side of the bed. Shirosaki was sitting there, staring at me still with a worried look. I sighed.

"Urahara told me you were sleeping all day. It's six pm." Holy… I slept for that long? I must have been pretty tired. "I brought ya' homework by the way. It's alright if ya' don't feel like doing it but I don't want ya' falling behind." I nodded as he helped me into a sitting position. Still my chest hurt like hell. I guessed it was some cracked rib but Urahara made sure it was tightly bandaged so I didn't strain it too much. I used the books as an improvised table so I could do my homework. Luckily, it didn't take me much time to finish it because there was nothing in it I didn't know already. All the time Shirosaki had been staring at me and I must confess he was making me feel uncomfortable. I appreciated his preoccupation but… I wrote my thoughts down in a more subtle way.

'I'm okay. Stop staring at me like that.'

"Stare at you like what?" He answered quite confused. I sighed.

'Like I'm gonna die or something.'

"Well… A car almost ran over you and you were fucking drunk so I have the right to be worried." He crossed his arms and tried to put on an angry expression but he still looked worried like some mother hen.

I huffed and mimicked his actions by crossing my arms too.

"Urahara has been teaching me sign language." He said out of the blue making a sudden change of topic. "The shit is hard to learn." I chuckled at that. "How much time did it take ya'?"

I wrote my answer down. 'I was a kid and it was a necessity so I could communicate because I couldn't write kanji and shit. It took me over three months more or less to learn the basics.'

"Three months! That's a lot of time." Shirosaki let out a defeated sigh but it didn't take him long to take a deep breath and smirk. "But I'm a fast learner!"

I smiled. I was touched by Shiro's actions. He was really trying to get to know me even going as far as trying to learn something as complicated as sign language so I could have a normal conversation with him. Writing all the time was tiresome. Then I decided I wanted to get to know him too.

'So I don't know much about you, fill me in?'

"Well, my name is Shirosaki Ogichi. I hate my first name 'cause I think it's ridiculous. I live alone for now, I'm searching for a partner so we share the flat. My favourite colour is red. I like water sports. My favourite food is chocolate and I'm really really interested in this guy named Ichigo." He whispered the last part and I could feel my cheeks heating. What the… Trying to distract myself from the strange feeling of butterflies fluttering inside my stomach, I wrote another thing down.

'My favourite food is chocolate too but my favourite colour is violet. I'm not much into sports. I love everything related to art tho.'

Shirosaki read what was written on the paper and then looked over at me like I was some kind of wonder. It made me feel weird but a good kind of weird. I think… I think that was the first time I smiled genuinely in a long time.

'I'm also interested in a guy named Shiro.'

We both chuckled at the same time which made me regret it later because my chest hurt a lot with the vibration but for the moment I felt quite happy.

Shiro was like medicine for my broken soul.