Chapter 3:

The following day was just as long and mind-numbingly boring as Grimmjow had expected it to be. Even Nnoitra was suffering under his own workload and Grimmjow had seen the man putting extra hours in. When the day was finally over he was more than glad to be leaving and the thought of Ichigo possibly waiting for him in his apartment brightened his mood considerably.

Unfortunately when he opened the door to his flat there was no sign of Ichigo anywhere, it didn't look as if the teen had returned since that morning. Grimmjow snorted softly and dropped his bag on the floor. Ichigo had a family to go home to, he had to stay there at least sometimes, more than he should at Grimmjow's place anyway.

But that didn't mean Grimmjow wasn't going to talk to him and pulling out his phone he called Ichigo's number. After a few rings it went to voicemail and he frowned, it wasn't like Ichigo to ignore his calls, or anyone's calls for that matter since the orange head always had the device on him. Shrugging it off Grimmjow made himself something to eat, maybe Ichigo had forgotten his charger that morning.

He tried again after a few hours only to receive voicemail again. Something must be happening for Ichigo to ignore his calls and Grimmjow was halfway to the door when he paused. Maybe he was being just slightly paranoid about this, there must be a simple reason for Ichigo to not be answering his phone. Perhaps he lost the thing down the back of his sofa, Grimmjow did that enough times himself.

The following day however when Grimmjow still hadn't received a call back or even a text, he was starting to seriously worry about Ichigo. Had he done something wrong to upset the teen? Was he purposefully ignoring his calls? If this was true then a call from his office should be answered since Ichigo wouldn't know it was him.

With that plan in mind Grimmjow left. Outside however he paused as he turned down an alleyway leading to the parking lot. On the floor was a badge and bending down to pick it up, Grimmjow recognised it as one from Ichigo's bag. He knew Ichigo wouldn't have missed that it had fallen off since he was often checking to make sure they were securely attached. So why was there a badge here?

There wasn't any other sign of him so Grimmjow figured Ichigo thought it was in his flat and would retrieve it later. Pocketing the badge he made for his car to get to the station, Nnoitra would skin him alive if he was late again. When he got there however he was surprised to see Isshin's car parked outside. Something heavy settled in his stomach at the sight, what reason could Isshin have for being here, was it to do with Ichigo?

A terrifying thought entered his head and Grimmjow walked inside. What if Ichigo had told Isshin? Maybe that's why he hadn't returned his calls if his father had taken his phone away. If that was true then that meant the man was here to confront him about their relationship, not a conversation Grimmjow was looking forward to having. Entering his and Nnoitra's office he saw his partner talking to Isshin and sighed deeply, waling over to the two of them thinking he might as well get it over with.

However as Grimmjow got closer he saw Isshin didn't look furious, instead he looked worried which in turn made him feel worried too. "Isshin?" He asked when he stopped next to the two men. "What's happened?"

The older man sighed heavily and turned to face Grimmjow, giving him a grim smile. "Ichigo's missing."

"Missing?" Grimmjow repeated and the heavy feeling was back in his stomach, only this time it was ten times heavier. "Since when?"

"Two nights ago. He told me he was staying at his friend Renji's house. But I've talked to Renji and he said Ichigo was never there." Isshin paused and shook his head. "I called the university and they told me Ichigo wasn't there yesterday either."

Grimmjow looked up at Nnoitra who shrugged. "Are you sure he's missing? I mean, what if Ichigo is with someone. I know he's been in trouble with the law do you know if he was planning on anything illegal? Does he have a girlfriend? Boyfriend?"

"Not as far as I'm aware."

"Ichigo's been clean for months, not a single brush with the law." Grimmjow had to bite his tongue suddenly. If Ichigo really was missing, then he would have to tell them the truth. Ichigo hadn't gone missing two nights ago since he'd been in Grimmjow's bed. He would have gone missing the previous morning after he had left for work. He thought about the badge and slowly pulled it out of his pocket. "This is Ichigo's right?"

"Yes." Isshin took it, looking at Grimmjow in surprise. "Where did you find this?"

"Outside my apartment complex. Ichigo must have walked past." Grimmjow sighed and leaned against the desk, closing his eyes for a moment. "Ok Isshin here's the plan, go home for now." He held up a hand as the older man went to object. "Call me if Ichigo doesn't contact you or come home tonight and come back here tomorrow. We'll open a missing person case then."

"Alright, I hope you know what you're doing Grimmjow." Isshin grabbed his arm firmly, staring at him levelly. "This is my son we're talking about."

"We'll find him, I promise." Isshin let go after a moment and nodded, placing the badge back on the desk he left the room. Once he was gone Grimmjow blew out a relieved breath and sank into a chair. "Shit, what has Ichigo got himself into this time?"

"You sure about him being clean? I mean, he was in and out of here all the time until a few months ago. Maybe someone got pissed at him leaving and dragged him back."

Grimmjow looked at Nnoitra sharply at that statement. "Ichigo was never involved in any gang, he always worked alone. Whenever he was caught no-one was ever with him. This isn't gang-related."

"Alright, so what else is there? The kid just up and runs away? Maybe a secret partner who convinced him to run away together?" Nnoitra mused, tapping a pen against the desk and Grimmjow had to snatch it away because the noise was so irritating.

"He's not eloping idiot!"

"And how would you know?"

"Because I'm- we're…" Grimmjow groaned and banged his head on the desk, slowly looking at Nnoitra whose eyes widened in realisation.

"Shit you've been banging that orange haired delinquent these past few months?" When Grimmjow didn't answer he knew he'd guessed correctly. "Damn, you got some balls doing that being Isshin's back."

"I'm not proud of it alright!" Grimmjow snapped at his partner before sighing. "We were going to tell him." He said more calmly. "Yesterday actually but Ichigo's gone missing so that takes priority over our relationship. Don't tell Isshin alright?"

"Dude, I don't care who you sleep with in your spare time. Ain't none of my business." Nnoitra held up his hands but slowly lowered them, looking at Grimmjow suspiciously. "How long has Ichigo really been missing?"

"I don't know but Ichigo was never going to see his friend two nights ago… he was with me. Sometime between me leaving for work yesterday morning and him not turning up for his classes. Which gives an hour or two gap in which anything could have happened to him." He held up a finger warningly as Nnoitra opened his mouth. "Not a word to Isshin unless absolutely necessary."

"You know if we report this as a missing person's case you'll have to tell them, right?"

"Right… But let's cross that bridge when we come to it." With a heavy sigh Grimmjow stood up. There was no use worrying without any reason too they couldn't report the case for a full fourth eight hours so unless Ichigo turned up before the next morning, there was nothing to worry about. Not that this thought eased the feeling in his stomach in the slightest. A sudden, horrible thought occurred to him. "You don't think… it could be him do you?"

Nnoitra looked at him in surprise, after a moment snorting. "No. Doesn't fit the profile does he. Unless you two are secretly married?" Grimmjow shook his head, feeling a little more relived. "There you go then, what possible reason would he have for taking Ichigo?"

"You're right. I'm overthinking things now." Shaking his head Grimmjow rubbed his face with a groan. "Come on, let's go out and get something done, I can't stand another day behind the desk."

"Dibs on driving." Nnoitra grabbed the keys and grinned widely as Grimmjow rolled his eyes. "What, you get shotgun."

…

Grimmjow spent the rest of the day trying very hard not to worry about Ichigo. Maybe it was because he was a detective or just because he was far too overprotective of the teen but he couldn't help but imagine the worst situations. He was sure he was overthinking things, that there was a reasonable explanation for Ichigo's disappearance. Maybe he would go home and find Ichigo waiting there and they'd have a good laugh over how worried he had been.

Despite his hopes however when Grimmjow returned that night he knew Ichigo hadn't been there, the place was just as he'd left it. The only difference was the post littered on the floor. Picking up the letters Grimmjow flicked through them as he shut the door. He paused however upon finding an unmarked letter, there was no address or stamp on the front which meant someone had delivered this personally.

Turning it over Grimmjow opened it, dropping the rest of his post on the table. Pulling out the letter a rectangular piece of paper fell out onto the table as well. He frowned, turning it over and stilled. It was a picture of Ichigo. But it wasn't an ordinary photo. His fingers hovered over the photo, it was definitely Ichigo, there was no-one else with the same shade of hair as him but the top half of his face had been covered in a blindfold and he'd been gagged. There were bruises on his cheek and Grimmjow could see his lip with bloody and swollen and felt a growing sense of rage building up inside of him. Someone had had hurt Ichigo and that someone was going to pay dearly.

Remembering the letter Grimmjow opened it with shaking hands. There was only one sentence, the letters cut out from magazines to form crude words.

'How far are you willing to go to save him?'

Flipping the piece of paper over there was nothing else. He checked the envelope again only to find nothing. But Grimmjow already knew he wouldn't find anything else, he had seen this before and that growing sense of fear returned. Grabbing his phone he called Nnoitra and collected the pieces of the letter together, heading for the door.

"Meet me at the station, we need to talk now."

Ten minutes later he was showing his partner the letter. Nnoitra had known to come immediately, Grimmjow's tone had left no room for reason. As he looked over the letter Grimmjow paced the room, raking a hand through his hair aggregately before whirling to face Nnoitra again.

"You know what this means right? He's taken Ichigo!"

"But why?" Nnoitra shook his head, frowning in thought. "This doesn't fit his profile. Ichigo isn't married, he isn't in a serious relationship." Catching sight of Grimmjow's face he quickly amended. "You know what I mean. All the victims have been married at least ten years. This doesn't fit at all, why Ichigo?"

"Because he knows we're closing in on him." Grimmjow said exasperatedly, throwing his hands up in the air. "He knows we won't stop until we find him and somehow he found out about me and Ichigo and took him! It's my fault Ichigo's been kidnapped and it's my fault he's probably dead!"

"No he's not." Nnoitra replied calmly, shoving Grimmjow to make him calm down slightly. "He doesn't kill the victims, at least not right away. We knew he would take someone else didn't we? So that give us what, three weeks to find Ichigo before he kills him? And we know you're going to get more letters, he's going to want you to do something."

Grimmjow snorted. "We always wanted to know what he did to those people we managed to find alive. I guess this is our chance to find out." He banged on the table suddenly, making Nnoitra flinch. "God damn it! I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved with Ichigo and now look! His life is in danger because of me, because I couldn't stay away like I knew I should've!"

"What are you talking about?" Both of them jumped, turning to face the door to see Isshin stood there. "I was on my way to yours when I saw your car here. I wanted to tell you Ichigo hasn't come home and I still can't reach him. But you seem to know that already, so what is going on?"

Grimmjow shared an exasperated look with Nnoitra before standing up straight, clearing his throat. He was the one who had to tell Isshin, not Nnoitra, this was his fault and he was the one who had to own up to it.

"Do you know who 'Mr Heart' is?"

Isshin looked confused at the question. "What the serial killer? Yes, why?"

"He's taken Ichigo."

There was a long pause and after a moment, the man shook his head and laughed in disbelief. "But I thought he only took people who were married! Why would he take Ichigo?"

"Revenge."

"For what? What did Ichigo ever do to him?!"

"Nothing, it's my fault." Grimmjow closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath before looking at Isshin. "It's revenge against me. He knows we're trying to catch him and he took Ichigo as a warning, a threat. All Ichigo ever did was love the wrong person."

Isshin took a few minutes to process these words but when he finally understood he glared at Grimmjow with enough rage to make anyone cower. "You and my son…" Grimmjow could only nod. Isshin was across the room before any of them could blink and he punched him hard enough to make him crash to the floor. "What's wrong with you?! He's ten years younger than you and he's my son! And now he's in danger and most likely dead and it's your fault!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Grimmjow replied quietly, wiping his mouth when a trickle of blood escaped. He stood unsteadily, waving Nnoitra away when he tried to help. "I know it's my fault but I will do everything I can to get Ichigo back you have my word. I won't let him die."

"Yes I know that because if he dies, I'll kill you." Isshin threatened and Grimmjow took those words to heart. "Find my son, and you bring him back alive no matter what."

"You have my word." With one final look of disdain Isshin left. He and Nnoitra stood in silence for a good few minutes before the man cleared his throat.

"So now what?"

Pushing his hands in his pockets Grimmjow felt something cool and pulling his hand out he saw it was Ichigo's badge. "Now?" Grimmjow asked before smiling grimly. "Now we catch this son of a bitch, and we kill him before he can kill Ichigo."