Headstrong, Powerful, Dangerous
Thursday morning.
As the sun did its job, ligting the world, it did the same to the small tent which held two seemingly star-crossed lovers.
Rays of warm sunlight beamed down onto Ichigo's face through his tent's open canopy causing him to pull his blanket over his face. He wanted to at least try to remain asleep a bit longer.
Upon moving his head, he felt a cold substance on his face. It could only be one thing.
Drool.
He sat up and wiped his own mouth to make sure it wasn't his own then looked down to the slumbering man beside him.
Grimmjow, sleeping soundly, was missing his usual scowl. That always seemed to happen when he slept. But how could he be upset in any way whatsoever? He had gotten his wish last night, to sleep right next to his strawberry. Why shouldn't he be content?
After looking over the wet pillow, Ichigo realized it had been quite some time since he had to deal with this particular issue. And he missed it greatly because the cause of it was a habit of someone he had grown to love the most in this world.
When Grimmjow turned onto his back and threw one of his arms behind his head, the boy couldn't help but smile.
He reached his hand over and gently ran his fingers over the bluenette's lips affectionately. How much he missed them…
He got a long, memorable taste of them last night, and was grateful Grimmjow thought it was just a dream.
Once he noticed cerulean eyes opening, he turned and pretended to rub his eyes. Couldn't let Grimmjow know he was enjoying this closeness. It wasn't right to lead him down a dead end like that.
For now, distant and platonic was just the way things had to be.
"Still here I see." The cerulean haired man said before flashing his pearly white teeth.
"Yeah, well I didn't know if you saying you didn't want to wake and find me gone was a part of the deal or not."
"It wasn't."
When Grimmjow reached out for the boy, he only grasped air.
Ichigo quickly stood up and dressed himself, ready to begin another day of observations. If he and Grimmjow were seen coming out of the same tent, he wondered if that would that be a good thing.
His friends were already getting suspicious, so maybe to keep their break up a secret from them, he'd need to spend the day finishing his assignment with Grimmjow.
"Grimm, get dressed. We're doing the last parts of the assignment together."
Said man yawned, but did what he was told. The more time he could spend with Kurosaki the better.
Senna sat up in a tree while leaning against the bark, reading a manga release she had missed out on Tuesday on her cell phone. She was waiting patiently. For Renji.
There was a bee hive at the end of the branch just below her that was just begging to be dropped on him and she had seen him coming down this path a little earlier.
She had finished her environmental assignment yesterday with Rukia. Inoue kept her promise and did her assignment with Chizuru and the other girls.
That girl had an obsession with Inoue that you'd have to be a complete ditz to miss.
"Inoue doesn't seem to know though…" she said.
When she heard a voice approaching, she sat up and readied her mini razor for cutting.
It was Renji like she had expected it to be, but he was with Shuhei.
"Damnit… Of course he'd be with him…"
Shuhei, enjoying the nature walk with his boyfriend, noticed a slight rustle in the tree just up ahead. He kept talking like nothing was out of the ordinary, but inconspicuously stole a glance up past the lower branches and saw it was Senna.
Then, as he and Renji walked under the tree, he noticed the bee hive.
"I know she must be planning to drop it. She could have done so a few moments ago, but why didn't she?" he thought, then stopped directly under the tree.
"What's wrong, Shuhei?" Renji asked.
"I have something in my eye…" said man answered before rubbing his left eye as though it were true.
"Let me help you."
Renji moved closer and blew harshly into the other's eye.
Senna sighed and sat back into her earlier position, making Shuhei realize why she didn't drop the hive.
"Renji, I want to know something."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Senna, what do you think of her? Really. Give me your honest opinion." the shorter boy said after continuing their stroll.
"What makes you ask something like that?"
"Well, I kind of owe it to her, Rangiku-san, and Ichigo for giving me the courage to tell you how I feel about you and now we're together. I know how you truly feel about the others, but I don't know what you really think of her."
Senna's interest was sparked. She climbed down the tree and stealthily followed the two until they came to an overhang with a waterfall on the other side of it.
"Senna… Hm… I don't know. I guess now I think of her as a kid sister. I thought she was kind of attractive when I first met her, but that wore off the second we talked to each other."
"So, you care about her at least?"
"Well, I wouldn't say anything like love, but yeah, I do feel for her. She's one of the group. Which is why I punched that security guard when he dropped her back at Los Noches."
"That sure surprised everyone…"
"I know we might argue and fight and prank each other, but it's all in good fun. I'd never go so far as to hurt her…intentionally…"
"Think you'll ever tell her that?"
"No way, never. Absolutely not. She'd get the upper hand on me then and I can't ever have that."
Senna stood in place with her hands clasping her chest. She never knew Renji cared about her in any way whatsoever. He came off as just an obnoxious idiot who liked to pester her if she was honest with herself.
Apparently, their sibling relationship had a mutual feel to it.
She was immediately glad she didn't cut that hive down on the redhead. This little discovery was a better reward than what she was hoping for with that plan. Though, she wouldn't have cut it down anyway since the clean-slated Shuhei was with him.
For now, she'd back off as long as Renji did the same. A truce of sorts. Perhaps it was time to have a more mature relationship. Not that she didn't see any arguments coming, those were assured, but at least she'd stop pranking him.
And for the first time, she genuinely smiled at the thought of the redhead. It was nice knowing there were people in this world that truly cared about her beyond just her parents, Ichigo and the girls.
As carefully as he possibly could, Ichigo followed Grimmjow down an old path that led to who knows where.
The two weren't headed in any particular direction, just walking. Passing the day by with each other.
It was the least the orange headed boy felt he could do to let Grimmjow know that they were still friends, apart from letting him sleep in his tent. Though, that part was a bit of an unexpected call on a deal Ichigo had made with him a long time ago.
Grimmjow remembering it up until now meant that he had been saving it for something.
"But why something that small?" he thought.
Although the events from last night had not fled his own memory, Ichigo knew the other could not have expected something that major to happen. More importantly, he assumed it was all just a dream.
The taller man turned around from his small distance ahead while holding a tree branch out of the way, "What are you spacing out for? Pick up the pace, pansy. I'm holding this itchy ass branch for you."
"Shut up! We're not even going anywhere in particular! In fact, we're just getting more and more lost from the group… I think we should turn back…"
"Where's your sense of adventure? Huh? You come all the way out here to Hokkaidō and get the chance to explore this big ass national park, but you wanna spend your time hiding under your crazy teacher's bosom? Maybe you aren't the Kurosaki I thought you were."
Ichigo stopped his already slowed pace. Those words, particularly the last ones, hurt him something fierce. Not the person he thought he was? As if! He was ten times the person Grimmjow thought he was!
"I already told you to be quiet… I'm not giving up. I'm just being rational. What sense is there in getting lost out in an unfamiliar land? There are animals in this park too, you know; really dangerous ones."
"You can turn back if you want to, but I'm going on ahead. See you at the tent." The bluenette said before turning and continuing on the foreboding path.
"…Idiot…" Ichigo turned around and headed back to camp. There was no way he was stupid enough to be baited into following a nimrod down an old, unused, and probably treacherous path.
He was definite in his conviction to go back to the others until he saw some dark and heavy looking storm clouds on the horizon.
"Miss Misato never mentioned this…" he commented, annoyed at the approaching shift in weather.
The boy turned and wondered if Grimmjow was aware of the looming storm.
"Did he actually turn around when he saw that I wasn't following him? Or did he just keep going?" he asked aloud.
The wind blew against him, and he took it as a sign that he should go back and retrieve the stubborn man.
"I wonder if a storm will be enough to convince him to come back with me…" he wondered before turning around and following Grimmjow's path yet again.
Grimmjow, now standing behind a tree, watched as a bear stood in the river just below the ledge not too far from where he was stalking. After pulling the map he had been given by the teachers from his back pocket, he saw he was right at the Ishikari River.
When the bear roared, he turned his attention to it. The large beast was busy trying to catch fish to notice it was being watched stealthily.
Any sudden movements or sounds would surely draw its attention.
"Grimm! There you are!" Ichigo called loudly, "I've been looking-"
"Kurosaki!" said man yelled and tackled the boy to the ground before swiftly covering his mouth, "There's a thousand fucking pound bear down there! Shut your pie hole or it'll hear you!"
Ichigo looked down and noticed the large, warm, and sweaty hand covering his mouth. He blushed and quickly pushed Grimmjow off of him.
"As if it'd be my fault if it found us. You were makin' more noise than me. I was just trying to warn you about the storm-"
*AOOOORRRRROOOOAAAR*
The two turned and noticed the thunderously loud bear down near the riverbank. It was looking directly at them and once it made eye contact, it immediately jumped into the water, heading over to the lowest part of the ledge to climb up to them. It clearly saw them as easy pickings compared to the fish in the river.
"See what you've done!?" Grimmjow asked with hysterically wide eyes.
"All we have to do is…uh, climb a tree! Adult bears can't climb as well as cubs! We'll be safe in a tree!"
Grimmjow stood and helped Ichigo off the ground before they both ran as fast as they could to the forest they had both came from.
But the bear had climbed the ledge and was now fast approaching.
"Kurosaki, go up first!"
"Grimm, I-"
"Go damn it!"
Grimmjow offered his hands as a boost, but before Ichigo could use it to get up, the bear had slowed and was walking only a few meters away from them.
It roared again before standing on its hind legs, trying to challenge and intimidate Grimmjow.
With angry blue eyes, the larger man pushed Ichigo aside and got ready to tackle the bear.
"Grimm, what the hell are you doing!? Don't crouch! You have to look big not small, baka!"
"There's no way this guy's gonna think I'm bigger than he is."
The bear leaned slightly forward and pawed Grimmjow to the ground causing Ichigo to freeze in fear. As it moved closer, about to tear at its prey, it suddenly stopped.
The wind was blowing hard but that wasn't the reason for its halt.
Grimmjow turned and saw, through the trees, the storm that was coming their way. With it, a brilliant yet terrifying display of lightning with a few strikes of thunder crashing about as well.
The bear turned and ran as fast as it could back to the shelter of the cave it likely dwelt in.
Ichigo was shaken from his near petrified state and moved over to Grimmjow with great haste when he saw red covering him.
His left arm was bleeding tremendously. The bear had actually scratched him when it knocked him to the ground.
"Grimmjow! Are you still with me!? Say something!" he frantically ordered.
"I'm fine… Damn… That sucker did a number on me though…" the man responded while gripping his arm tightly.
"I'll treat you right away!" Ichigo said, pulling out a first aid kit from his small booksack.
Grimmjow moaned when the boy had finished sterilizing and gauzing the cuts.
"You think you're okay to walk?"
"Yeah. You know I'm-"
"Yeah yeah. You're no pansy like me. I know."
"Bingo."
Ichigo put away his utensils and placed the kit back inside his bag before helping Grimmjow stand.
After being shrugged off, he reduced himself to walking a few paces behind the other man.
When they came to the ledge, Grimmjow stopped and stared off the side of it from a bit of a distance.
And he looked so epically cool while doing it too. Ichigo felt his cheeks get hot again at the thought of last night coming to plague his mind once more.
How much he must have hurt Grimmjow to have him think he was dreaming about him.
"I never meant to hurt you…" he whispered.
"Huh?" the bluenette turned and eyed the boy down.
"Oh, uh, nothing." Ichigo started walking all the way to the edge of the ledge and stopping, "I was just thinking…"
"That's nothing new."
"This time, I was wondering what the world would be like without me… What you would be like without me…"
"What the hell are you going on about, Kurosaki? Get back from the edge like that or you won't have to wonder."
"I've… caused you so much pain. I've brought nothing but sorrow into your life since that evening you found Ginjo on top of me, and I'm so sorry for that."
"You explained everything to me. It's fine."
"But what if it wasn't fine? What if he made me-"
"Kurosaki!"
Ichigo felt the ground around him start to crumble away. He was scared. So scared.
The world had seemed to slow and everything was deafeningly loud.
He turned to Grimmjow regrettably, who was now sprinting towards him in a desperate attempt to save him.
As the ledge broke and his footing was lost, he was not.
He glanced down at the many rocks now falling into the rushing river and then turned to see that Grimmjow had caught his arm, holding him in place.
"Kurosaki… I'm gonna pull you up…"
"Grimm, just let go. It's not worth it!"
"What was that!?"
"Your wounds aren't closed! You'll bleed to death if you don't stop!" the boy said when he noticed the trails of blood streaming down Grimmjow's arm.
The bluenette panted heavily as he struggled to hold Ichigo in place, let alone try to pull him up, "I won't… ever let go… I'll never give up on you, Kurosaki!"
It was true that thanks to the sharp, stinging pain in his left arm he was weakened, but he wasn't about to give up when the life of the only person who ever truly believed in him and saw the good in him was in his desperate hands.
"Why Grimm…? WHY ARE YOU BEING SUCH AN ENORMOUS FOOL!?"
Grimmjow smiled down through the pain to the boy, "Because I never knew what love was until I forced myself into your life and you took me in."
"Grimmjow… Grimmjow! The rocks are crumbling at your feet! Let me go!"
Said man glanced down and noticed the ground was indeed crumbling around him. It must have been too much of a strain to have near three hundred pounds of men to support.
He tried with one last haul to pull Ichigo up before they fell, but it was in vain, "Shit…"
That was the last thing he said before he and Ichigo fell into the rushing river. He fell in so deep that he hit his head and everything immediately faded out.
Ichigo somehow managed to avoid the bottom of the deep river and swam back to the surface.
The storm that was rolling in had finally arrived. The two in the river were now flowing to an unknown destination. One of them unconscious near the bottom and the other fighting the water trying to swim and save his ex lover, all the while remembering that day his mother died near a rushing river.
It was a struggle indeed.
"Anyway, don't think I'm giving up on you so easily. I know we're just friends for now, but I want more than that with you. And if I have to move the stars or the ground beneath my feet, I'm gonna make it happen."