It was raining. Hard.
He was drenched through in seconds of the heavens opening up, so he didn't bother to hurry across the bridge.
In fact he stopped altogether just about half way across, where there was a gap in the metal support beams, and he step from the sidewalk out onto the unprotected side of the bridge.
He stared down to the waters far below, black in the rainy night and thundering from the all the recent rain.
It was that time of year, when it never really stayed dry.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He stepped back from dangerous ledge and back through the supports until he was roadside again. He pulled out the phone to see who was calling.
Isshin Kurosaki.
He sighed.
"Yeah, Dad," he continued walking across the bridge. "I'm okay. Yeah, I'm staying in town tonight. Yes, I'm sure, I'm ready. Okay. Night."
Ichigo tucked his phone back in his pants and ducked under a bus stop for some relief from the onslaught. He was shaking, but not from the cold. One hand slid to his coat pocket but he pulled it back before he remembered what used to be there was absent.
"Dammit."
He rushed back out into the rainstorm, splashing through puddles and wading through veritable rivers on the sloping sidewalk. His path looped back around toward the underside of the bridge. A few homeless people were sheltered under the structure. He pitied them but hurried on. But just before he stepped through the curtain of rain he stopped short.
Someone was standing at the river's edge, under the protection of the bridge. The water was churning violently. He looked like he was contemplating going in.
"Hey." He glanced around to see if anyone else was with the man but he appeared to be alone. He didn't turn at the call.
"Hey," he called again, getting closer. It was so dark he couldn't make out much about the man, just that in a soaked t-shirt and jeans he was underdressed for such weather. When he got closer, Ichigo was pretty sure the man was barefoot. He must be homeless, maybe he was high. It would be best to leave it alone.
But that's not who he was.
"Hey, can you hear me?" He was about ten feet behind the man. The light from the walkway barely reached him, he was mostly just a shadow, wavering on the edge. He looked unsteady, like he was on the verge of collapse.
"Hey!"
"What?"
The stranger turned unexpectedly.
Ichigo stopped dead.
"You...but you're dead."
"Do I know you?" The man stepped down from the edge of the bank, the light striking his strong jawline, his ice blue eyes.
"It's me, Ichigo Kurosaki."
This got a reaction. The man's eyes roamed over him, as if trying to put two pieces of a puzzle together.
It had been six years, after all.
"Kurosaki..."
"Yeah. But how...you were reported dead at the end of the war. No one had seen you for three years."
"You pricks left me behind." Now he strode fully into the light and his pale skin gleamed under the lamplight. Ichigo's eyes zeroed in on the barcode tattooed on one forearm. The mass of scars around each wrist. And the fury in blue eyes.
"Grimmjow...I don't know what to say. How are you here?"
"How do you think?" But he scratched at the barcode and looked around as if he wasn't quite sure where he was.
"You do know you're in the world of the living right?"
"Of course. There was nothing left in Heuco Mundo for me after you lot wrecked the place."
He took a step and one knee gave. Ichigo caught his arm and helped him straighten up.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine."
"Have you eaten?"
"Ain't nothing to eat around here."
"Grimmjow you're in a gigai right? You need to eat human food. Come on."
He expected a fight, but after surveying the pathway Ichigo indicated for a moment, he nodded.
Ten minutes later Ichigo was sitting on the subway, facing a man he'd thought long dead. Grimmjow sat uncomfortably, taking in all the signs plastered on the train's interior, then watching the bricks fly by the window outside. A pool of water soaked the floor beneath his bare feet.
They didn't speak a word until they were in the tenth floor apartment.
"Sit down."
Grimmjow didn't. Ichigo heated up whatever he could find in the fridge. Grimmjow devoured it.
"Where have you been all this time?" Ichigo was changed into dry clothes. He offered Grimmjow a towel but the other didn't even seem to notice he was soaked.
"What do you mean?"
"I haven't seen you in six years. The war ended three years ago. The soul reapers told me you were dead."
"They're idiots."
Grimmjow guzzled water. Ichigo got him another glass. He downed this too before he was finally satisfied. He sat on the stool at the counter and looked around the apartment.
"Is this your home?"
"Yes."
"Are we in Karakura?"
"No. Just outside."
"Huh."
"Did you think you were in Karakura?"
He shrugged.
"Were you looking for me?"
"No."
"What are you doing here?"
"I already said. I ran out of resources in Hueco Mundo."
"There's no way you've been living in those ruins for three years."
"Three years?"
Ichigo looked Grimmjow straight on, then down to his wrists again. The skin was clearly scarred, but some marks still looked fresh.
"Grimmjow...where have you been this whole time?"
"Where you fu-" he cut himself off sharply and clenched his fist, looking to the floor. "Where you left me."
Ichigo's gut clenched. The last place he'd seen Grimmjow was in a collapsing section of the Vandenreich palace, half way through the six year-long war.
"But the war ended...three years ago."
"Yeah well, apparently no one got the message where they were holding me."
Ichigo gripped the counter. This had been happening ever since the war—for weeks after the war they'd discovered lost friends held captive in separate bases. All of them with those barcode tattoos. They'd held out hope for so many, but soon they ran out of places to look. Since then, they'd uncovered three or four other bases, but there hadn't been any survivors found in them for over a year.
"Soul reapers found me three weeks ago. I've been in the ruins of Las Noches since then."
"They didn't offer to help you?"
"Sure they did. I told them where to stick it."
"I can't believe this."
Grimmjow shrugged. "And I can't believe you beat Bach, but there you go."
He slipped off the stool and stood. "You look different."
"I'm not a kid anymore. I'm twenty six years old."
"Not that."
Ichigo stilled. He looked away from Grimmjow's eyes. "You should dry off. Better yet, take a shower. I'll find you clean clothes."
Grimmjow stared at him a moment longer, then nodded.
Grimmjow followed him to the bathroom. Ichigo noticed that he inspected every room on the way by. He set out clean towels and left him to it.
Then he went into his bedroom, shut the door and pulled out his soul pager.
"Rukia."
"Ichigo, what is it, what's wrong?"
"Calm down, I'm fine."
He heard her take a calming breath. "Sorry. Ichigo, it's good to hear from you."
"Yeah, sorry I've been out of touch."
"It's understandable."
"Listen, I need to know something."
"What is it?"
"Did you guys find another Vandenreich base recently?"
Silence.
"You did. Rukia how could you not tell me. That's probably where-"
"I'm sorry, Ichigo. But there was no point concerning you with it."
"Concerning me? It already concerns me! Rukia if you've found one all this time later that means more of those bastards are probably still out there and-"
"Ichigo, it's like the Head Captain said. We'll keep hunting them out, until all of them are found. But you've lost too much of your life to this war already."
"I've lost everything to it!"
His shout rang off the apartment walls. He heard her breath hitch on the other side. He fought to calm himself again.
"Just tell me something," he continued.
"What?"
"Did they find Grimmjow Jaggerjaques alive in that last base?"
"...yeah. How do you know?"
"Because he's showering in my damn bathroom as we speak."
"He's what?"
"I'm assuming you didn't tell me about him because you didn't want me to know about the base."
"He ran away from us. We assumed he didn't want anything to do with soul reapers, including you."
"Yeah well I found him wandering around by the bridge."
"The bridge? What were you doing by the bridge?"
He hesitated. "Nothing. So they really did have him in captivity this whole time?"
"Yes, Ichigo."
"What about others? Did they find anyone else?"
"No. A handful of adhuchas and Vandenreich defects. Grimmjow was the only one we knew."
"Shit. I still can't believe he's alive."
"I know. We tracked him to Las Noches but let him be. I didn't think he'd go to the world of the living."
"So what, he just walked away from six years in prison and he's perfectly fine?"
"He was well enough to tell us to screw off and disappear."
"Huh."
"But who knows what state he's in. Ichigo you should convince him to go back to Hueco Mundo. Or at least come here."
"I can handle it, Rukia."
"Ichigo after everything-"
"I'm fine. Thanks for the info. Night."
He shut off the pager and dropped it back in the nightstand.
Grimmjow was in the sitting room when he came out, holding a picture frame that had been on the coffee table.
"You live here with Inoue?" The picture was of Ichigo and Orihime on the beach, holding hands.
Ichigo yanked the photo back and set it on the table. "We did. She left me a few weeks ago."
"Oh."
"It's okay, I'll get her back, I just need time. Here," he passed Grimmjow a blanket. "You can have the couch."
Grimmjow took the blanket but dropped it on the couch and moved back over to the window.
"What'd your soul reaper friend say when you told her I was here?"
"Grimmjow..."
"I figured you'd call. Just tell me, are they coming to collect me?"
"No. Why, do you expect them to?"
"Not sure. I guess I always figured when the war was over, they'd come after me."
"I don't think so. You were a huge asset. And what would be the point now?"
"Guess you're right." He turned back from the window and sat on the couch but didn't look like he was settling in to go to sleep.
"Grimmjow you must be tired."
"I'm fine." The espada chewed at one nail and scanned the room. Ichigo suddenly became a bit self conscious of all the take-out meals spilling from the garbage can, the photos of him and Orihime on the wall and bookshelves. He grabbed the tv remote and turned it on in order to get Grimmjow's attention off of all the details of his personal life.
"Do you like tv?"
"What's tv?"
Ichigo hit the button and Grimmjow watched the flat screen come to life.
"Well enjoy. I have to go to bed. I have school tomorrow."
"School for what? You already killed Bach, how much more training could you need?"
"Not for soul reapers, Grimmjow, I'm human too. I lost alot of my life to that war. Now I'm catching up."
"Oh." He couldn't possibly understand what it had meant to lose six years of his youth to that war. It had raged far longer than any of them had thought—even the Vandenreich. Ichigo had been seventeen when it all began. He was in his early twenties when most people his age were starting their careers before he even started college. Soul society had helped him fudge the fact he'd never graduated high school.
"Do you need anything, before I go to bed?"
"I'm fine, thank you."
Ichigo was startled by the polite words that came out almost automatically from the espada. "Okay, the, I'll see you in the morning."
Ichigo left him flicking through the channels and shut the door to his room letting out a long, trembling breath. He shut his eyes and tried to relax his body, calm his thoughts.
He went to bed, but couldn't sleep.
Redemption follows the themes of ReEducation and Recovery in that this is an HC fic, but in this one, Grimmjow is not the only one who needs saving. I loved this fiction when I started it, but I hit a real road block 1500 words in and I'm really having trouble getting past it. I will probably come back to this one someday and publish it in full, I just sort of lost motivation right now.