Dissonance

Are promises made to be perpetual or ephemeral?

*Dissonance- a. lack of agreement; inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs

b. a mingling of discordant sounds; a clashing or unresolved musical interval or chord

Saturday evening.

A quiet walk in the autumn air as the many colorful leaves danced about carelessly in the wind.

That was what Ichigo wanted. He needed time to think, a lot of it to be exact. And after hours of being away from Grimmjow in his holding cell and thankful that his first talk with Ginjo was done, thinking cohesively was the last thing he accomplished.

On a brighter note, the leaves scattered about the ground in the city reminded him of Senna. It was about this time of year when he met and saved her social reputation.

She always said that fall was her favorite season and she often played in the leaves just for the heck of it. Childish yes, but it was Senna. There was no shame in her game. Literally.

He wondered if she would be able to help him out in this situation. Of course, she was often childish and impractical, but there were times when she showed a much more refined, sensitive side. This was especially true when she wasn't in the company of Renji.

Seeing her right now may not have been the best idea though. For some reason, Ichigo felt that this was a matter that he had to face alone. There was no need to suck everyone into his messes. Although, they had practically sniffed him out when he had gone after Inoue.

Urahara had told him about how they almost got into Los Noches. It apparently took a lot to detain everyone.

This time, he would be much more careful. This was his problem, not theirs.

It was between him, Ginjo, and Grimmjow.

"Grimmjow…" he whispered as he continued walking down the sidewalk.

With his eyes glued to the cracks that crossed his path, he was inattentive to his surroundings.

He looked up and chanced a glance on two high school guys walking side by side. They were walking too close for comfort he noticed.

"Strange…" he commented.

After slowing his walking pace, he noticed how unwelcoming and menacing one of them appeared, then how nice the other seemed. In a way, they reminded him of how he and Grimmjow were.

Although he wasn't the nicest, compared to Grimmjow, most people saw Ichigo as the more approachable one of the two.

When they came into earshot, he heard the shorter one shyly asking if the other one would want to spend the night.

He stopped dead in his tracks once they passed him. There was a point in his life when he asked Grimmjow to stay over. Actually, there were so many times that Grimmjow had begun inviting himself over most often.

It was welcome of course, but he'd never let him know that.

Brown eyes followed the couple until they rounded a corner.

Ichigo continued on his way walking through the city until he reached the park that Grimmjow had texted him to meet him at. It had been when they weren't on speaking terms and he assumed Grimmjow wanted to break up with him.

There was no describing how happy he was when they got back together. Well, more precisely, when they started talking again.

He had walked quite a distance from downtown and even considered going back to the police station, but decided against it. He would see Grimmjow soon enough, that was certain.

For now, he decided to go back to the clinic.

Being in such a familiar, loving place was all he needed to hold him from his mental anguish.

"Grimmjow…" he spoke softly as the wind caught a pile of leaves and sent them past the teen.

With little left to consider in this heavy situation, Ichigo turned and headed back downtown. The time for action was now.

Neliel waited anxiously on the couch in her home.

It was a little after six o'clock now. Their father would be home in just a little while.

Since Ichigo had abandoned her at the police station, although she was the one with Grimmjow's car, she had no choice but to turn to the last person Grimmjow would want help from.

If anything, at least he could be bailed out.

When she saw the head lights through the open blinds, she felt her heart beating uncontrollable through her t-shirt.

She always seemed to put herself in weird and uncomfortable positions for Grimmjow. Especially with their father. But he was her brother, whether she was adopted or not.

She didn't waste any time getting up and unlocking the door.

"Neliel, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be out with that Senna friend of yours. Are you feeling okay?" Mr. Jaegerjaques asked as he entered the house.

"D-daddy! Grimmjow is… he's in jail!"

The man's blue eyes lit up in surprise.

"Come again?"

"I don't know what happened, but you have to bail him out! Please!"

"Neliel-"

"No! No excuses! Get over to the police station and pay the bondage fee! He's your son! Stop acting like you hate him and help him out for once!"

"…Neliel, let me… let me get some things together first, before you make me jump the gun."

The girl's light silver brown eyes lit up in joyous astonishment.

"Don't take too long! And I'm going too!" she called as she was left alone in the room.

Looking down, she blushed after realizing that her shorts were completely covered by her t-shirt, making it seem as though she wasn't wearing them in the first place.

She closed the door and took her seat on the couch again, waiting for her father to return so they could go and set Grimmjow free from his incarceration.

Karin and Yuzu watched as Ichigo entered the house and didn't utter a word of greeting.

He took off his shoes at the door and sat in place as if anticipating something for about fifteen minutes then got up and was now walking solemnly by them.

That was so unlike him.

"Onii-chan?" Yuzu called from the kitchen.

Karin turned and put her arm over the back of the couch to watch Ichigo walk by. She knew he was going through something, and she had some idea of what. She was much more in tune with things unlike her often times oblivious little sister. No offense.

But something was definitely amiss. It was as if he didn't even register that there were other people in the house. And he seemed depressed… very depressed…

"Is that my son I heard!?" Ishiin shouted as he ran from his office to the stairwell and peered down at his son.

"He didn't say a word dad…" Karin said.

"Ichigo! I've returned from my trip! Now let's have a father son chat so I can tell you all about it!" the large man shouted happily with open arms when said boy made his way past him in the hallway.

"Not now dad. I need to be alone…"

"What?"

"I'm not feeling so good right now…so I'll be skipping dinner tonight. Tell Yuzu for me please."

"Got a stomach ache? A good scuffle with your old man'll make you feel all better!"

The boy didn't offer any response to that. Ishiin blinked a few times and watched as Ichigo entered his room and closed the door behind him.

Free of all distractions, Ichigo turned off his room light before walking over to his bead and throwing himself onto it. He turned his head to his open window and gazed at the evening sky.

This reminded him of Grimmjow for some reason. Perhaps he should have gone back to see him after all. It was, however, too late to be fretting over that right now. Grimmjow was a big boy. He could handle himself.

There was now an indescribable feeling boiling in the pit of his stomach. What had he done?

Realizing that moping about and wallowing in his pit of woe was no way to feel better, Ichigo sat up and sighed.

With nothing else to do and nowhere else to go for the day, he decided to take a bath.

It had been a taxing day indeed and all he needed now was to relax.

He got one last glance out his window at the setting sun. One of the most beautiful sights this world has to offer and here he was doing everything but enjoying it.

Getting off of his bed, he grabbed more relaxed clothing and headed to the bathroom in hopes of feeling better.

"What should we do?" Karin asked.

"You tell me! You're the older one!" Yuzu whispered loudly.

She was leaning against the couch and facing the kitchen where she was cooking beef stew and rice with a cake in the oven.

Karin sat on the couch and began twiddling her thumbs, thinking seriously about her older brother.

"What would have him so upset in the first place?" she asked.

Yuzu brought her hand to her chin in thought for a moment, "Hmm, I don't know… Maybe he has a stomach ache!"

Just then, the two heard the sounding of the doorbell.

"Who could that be?" Karin asked before getting off the couch and walking over to the door.

Ichigo had submerged beneath the water a few seconds before hearing the doorbell ringing.

He noticed as it danced in his vision how long the sides of his hair had grown. He would definitely need to get it trimmed soon.

Above him, he could not see. That was due to the bubbles that coated the surface of the water.

A nice bubble bath was the best way to relieve stress after all.

He quickly emerged but left his mouth beneath the surface when he felt the need to release his oxygen intake.

As childish as it seemed, he blew bubbles as he exhaled.

After actually bathing and sitting for another few minutes, he decided to get out of the bath tub and began drying himself off.

"I guess that helped a bit." He commented before stepping into his underwear and then his dark red sweat pants.

Upon opening the door, he poked his head out and glanced around the hallway in case his father was hiding somewhere ready to attack. When he saw that the coast was clear, he quickly exited the bathroom and successfully made it to his room.

The person sitting on his bed surprised yet didn't surprise him.

"Yo, Kurosaki." Grimmjow greeted nonchalantly.

"G-Grimmjow… what are you doing here?" he asked, half expecting his visit.

"What do you mean? You're my little play thing remember? And we didn't get to play at all yesterday…"

"…What happened at the police station?"

"Oh, the guard just let me go! It was weird but I guess he was too afraid of me to have me around." The bluenette grinned, completely full of himself.

Ichigo turned his eyes to look out the window where the sky was darkening, needing desperately to avoid looking at the man sitting naïvely on his bed.

"Grimm, you really shouldn't be here…"

"Huh? What crawled up your ass and died? Is that any way to greet me? You know, it sounds like you don't want me around…"

"Well, I was hoping I wouldn't see you for a while actually…"

Grimmjow raised an eyebrow, "Why's that?" he asked.

"Because now I have to tell you something… Something I don't really know how to-"

"Wait, before you do, I want to apologize for what I did to that guy yesterday… I know you were pretty upset about it and I guess I went too far. So I'm…sorry…" Grimmjow barely managed to spout that last word.

An apology was unexpected from him of all people. But there was something that just couldn't go unsaid on this evening, no matter what the cost.

Dropping his dirty clothes in the basket inside his closet, Ichigo turned and sighed uneasily. He clenched then unclenched his sweating hands and could feel his heart beating frenziedly, but he began anyway, "Grimmjow, I can't begin to tell you how much pain I've gone through thinking about all that's happened. The worst of it being last night… And it's great that you're apologizing. It is… And I honestly thought things were going smoothly but maybe I was wrong."

"Where the hell are you going with this?"

"If you'd let me finish I'd tell you… As I was saying, I thought things were going smoothly between us, you know, the long distance and all. And I didn't end things between us because they were actually good. But that temper of yours, Grimmjow, it's…it's too much for me…"

"Kurosaki… I just told you I'm sorry about what I did. What more can I do? You want me to kiss the bastard's fucking feet?!"

Ichigo turned his eyes away from the bluenette who seemed ready to pounce on him from the bed in a moment's notice.

"Apologizing won't be enough this time, Grimm. What you did to Ginjo was too much. You went too far… Now I see that things have spun too far out of control for me and I can't deal with you right now."

"Kurosaki-"

"And so, I think it'd be best if we-"

"Kurosaki!" Grimmjow shouted, jumping off the bed and gripping the shorter boy's arms with more force than necessary, "Don't you say it! Any problems we have we can solve them! I can change! I fucking apologized didn't I?! That's a start!"

Grimmjow paused and calmed himself down before continuing, "Kurosaki… I love you… So don't leave me. You can't leave. Not you. You're the only person in my life who I always expected to be here, so please…stay. Please."

Ichigo glanced quickly into the blue orbs he had grown so familiar with. They were full of passion as always, but now there were a few not so familiar feelings there as well. Fear and anxiety were just a two of the many raw emotions he could make out.

This side of Grimmjow was one he barely ever got a glimpse of. He was hurting. That was easy to see. And he was pleading. Pleading.

That wasn't the worst of it though. The thing that tore at his heart, the thing that was eating away at him was the promise that he had made to him when they first met, in the school garden, in the hot springs and so many other places. That promise being to never abandon the man desperately clinging on to him at this very moment begging him not to do just that.

He couldn't keep eye contact, so he looked away before carrying on with his painful decision, "No. I can't…"

"Kurosaki-"

"Grimm, I-I think it'd be best for both of us if we…if we break up."

Sorry to all of my reviewers and readers so against a break up, but for the story to go as I planned (about 10+ more chapters so far), this was necessary. And it pained even me to write, but I had to. I hope you'll see it through to the end though!