A/N: Hey guys!

I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT

The first few weeks of school are always hard for me. But school actually doesn't suck as much as I though it would, so yay!

And I just want you thank everyone again for taking the time out to review. Don't know if I said it already, but I am absolutely in love with reviews. I just really like hearing your thoughts. :3

But anyway, here's another chapter for you!

Enjoy! :3

Treading the ground

I once used to know

People are strangers

Same as before

Streets look familiar

I remember the part

Where I buried my head

So deep in my hands

All around me was dark

This here city

Is for the lonely ones

Won't find no angels

Selling maps to the lost

This here place

Is too small for two

It took one to realize

When dreaming's this hard

It's not meant to come true

So throw me a line

Somebody out there help me

I'm on my own

I'm on my own

-The Temper Trap 'Trembling Hands'

"So what're you doing here anyway?" Dr. Zaraki asks me as I gently push his little girl on the swing. Yachiru asked me to push her and insisted on calling me 'Kitty', so I just went with it. I think about my answer for a bit before Yachiru's swing comes back.

"Kisuke and I just had a little argument," I answer and push the kid again.

"'Bout what?"

"Uh...dumb stuff...He wants me to take meds, but I'm not going to do that. Plus I don't really like weed, so..." I shrug one shoulder.

"Well...there is a reason why, Grimmjow. You need to take something to help. If not the drugs, then the other stuff will help. It doesn't depress you like meds, it just calms you down. It's not that bad. Y'know?" I hear him say from behind me.

Yeah, I know.

I knew as soon as Kisuke told me, and I know now.

But...it's just kind of hard, admitting that you're crazy.

Well, not crazy. Just that you have a problem.

I just don't want to believe it.

"Hey, Kitty? You space out just like my mommy did," Yachiru says. "Doesn't he, Kenny?"

"Don't say that," Zaraki tells her sternly.

"Why do you call your daddy 'Kenny'?" I ask her.

"'Cause my mommy used to call him that."

There's a bit of an awkward silence and the only sound was that of the creaking swing.

But I wonder...

"Hey, Zaraki," I ask lowly. "If you don't mind me askin, what happened?"

"Hm?"

"Like, what happened to her mom?"

"Oh..." Zaraki's face hardens a bit and I fear I may have upset him. "Hey, Chiru? Why don't you go play on the pirate ship?"

"Yeah!" The little girl jumps off the swing and runs for the sand.

"Be careful!"

"You don't have to talk about it," I tell him as I sit on the bench next to him.

"Hey, I'm supposed to say that to you." I roll my eyes at his bad humor. "But it's fine."

He tells me the whole story.

Yachiru's mom was his highschool sweetheart.

They married young, he went to school and she got into modeling.

Things were great until her agent told her she needed to be thinner, more 'desirable' to the public before she could go international. And she could work with that. She'd eat a little healthier and exercise more.

But she got sucked in, like so many others.

Self-consciousness set in, body image issues, bulimia.

Zaraki felt horrible, so he began to make her feel special whenever he could. He wanted her to see that she didn't need to change.

And that's how Yachiru was born.

Things were smoother after she came along, but her mother was crushed inside.

To her, she had so much baby weight and fat, and it was Yachiru's fault.

Kenny took care of her more often since her mother was no where to be found.

She'd barely come home, a lot of times she'd be drunk or take Yachiru out late at night.

She was fucking her boss profusely for more money.

And she left Yachiru outside her job.

Zaraki found out when he went looking for them one night.

Some creep was strutting down the street holding his baby girl.

I think it's safe to say that he was beaten out of existence.

Quite literally. Like, his mass had probably disappeared completely.

Anyway, his wife left him, and Zaraki spent every penny he'd earned on hiring a divorce attorney and a lawyer to fight for full custody.

And what's even worse is that she didn't even fight the no visitations thing.

She said it was a weight lifted off her shoulders now that she didn't have to deal with a kid.

Zaraki wants to hate her, but she was his wife, the mother of his child.

That's tough.

Now he's working full time to make more money to provide for his kid.

Shit.

"Turns out, she was great at hiding the fact that she was on drugs while she was pregnant. I don't know how I was so blind. Yachiru has heart problems now, but..." He gazes to the young girl yelling to us from the top of the fake pirate ship. "I try not to hold her back. I want her to grow up normal."

"Tch," I scoff. "What's normal?" Zaraki grunts in agreement. "She misses her mom?"

"Everyday. She talks about her all the time. But that just makes it harder."

"Yeah. I know a guy who's got it bad with drugs."

"How?"

"Highschool."

"Oh, that's right. You're a junior, huh?"

"Almost. When school starts I will be," I answer him.

"Do you like it there?"

"I didn't at first," I scratch my head through my beanie and think. "And I'm probably not going to if I go back. Pretty sure everyone hates me now, 'cause of what happened."

"Oh..." There's always and awkward silence whenever I bring that up. "Why didn't you like it at first?"

"It's a long story."

"Well, Yachiru's not coming down for a while. So why not?"

"...Okay," I say with a shrug.

"How about I enroll you into the academy I went to?" Kisuke asked me excitedly on my birthday. He and Yoruichi had home-schooled me and Renji, but now it was time for me to go to a real school.

Renji was gone, so I really didn't want to be stuck there anyway.

And I actually did want to go to the same school as Kisuke.

We went and bought a uniform, gray slacks and a gray blazer with red stripes.

I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

Karakura High was a place for basically anybody. You didn't have to be smart or rich, or super good at something. It was just a place to go to learn. And it was such a great school that even college classes were offered.

At least now I know how Kisuke got so smart.

Anyway, anyone from any walk of life could attend.

And I could work with that. I come from a totally abnormal walk of life.

My first day was a bit terrifying, but who's first day of highschool isn't?

One stroke of good luck I got was that I had a top locker, which meant I wouldn't have to bend over all the time and get hit in the head. My schedule consisted of a lot of advanced classes. Stuff like Psychology and Philosophy. I loved it, though. But one weird part of my schedule was that I had a regular art class.

I almost flipped my lid.

I had always been into drawing and painting and stuff like that, and Kisuke said I was pretty good, so I decided to pursue it.

Though the only reason I was ever any good at it was because my...father...taught me how.

I had really thought he was spending time with me before I found out what he was really doing.

I wish I couldn't draw, then the memories wouldn't be there.

But it's not something I can stop, so I am going to put it to good use.

That was the only class I got to on time, as well as Psychology, which was my first period.

I sat by myself near the middle and laid my notebook out. The teacher wasn't there yet, so I just stared at my hands. I think I was in this class with mostly upperclassmen because everyone was already sitting in groups and talking as if they'd know each other for years.

But that was fine. I would be just fine staying by myself.

I've done it for most of my life.

Until today, apparently.

"Yer a freshman, huh?" Someone asks.

When I turn my head, a freakishly tall guy with long black hair and a bandana over the side of his face is behind me. I got a really bad vibe from this guy. And I wanted him to leave me alone so I didn't say anything back. I'm sure I came off as rude, but I didn't mean to. I just haven't interacted with school kids in a while.

"Hey! I'm talkin to ya!" He shouted, drawing the attention of the whole class. I hate when there's a lot of people staring at me. It makes me nauseous. "Ya better watch yerself around here, ignorin upperclassmen like that," he threatened with a sneer. As soon as I rolled my eyes, he grabbed the back of my chair and pulled it out from under me. I hit the floor with a loud thud then quickly stood back up and clenched my fists in anger. "Ya got some nerve rollin' yer eyes at me, punk." He said and threw the chair to the side. "Ya asked for it."

What?

All I did was roll my eyes. It wasn't like I called his mother a whore or anything. Was he just picking a fight? Why would anyone do that? It's pointless. Was it just fun picking on freshman?

I don't know why, but I want him to hit me first.

Then I can hit him back.

But something inside me wants me to hit him first.

And I really want to.

"Tch. Looks like yer too much of a pussy ta hit me," he laughed before my fist cracked his jaw.

Oh, that felt really good. Maybe a little too good.

He ran for me and tackled me to the ground, rousing screams and cheers from everyone.

"Tsk, tsk, Nnoitora. Picking fights on the first day," everyone turned away from us to turn towards a man standing behind the desk at the bottom of the class. He had short brown hair and glasses and was dressed nice. He must've been the teacher. "Why don't you sit down? Before you end up failing my class again." That made everyone laugh and 'Nnoitora' threw me away from him roughly. "You two have detention after school." Nnoitora groaned but I didn't care.

I was just trying to stop my blood from boiling.

I've never hit someone before.

Well, I hit Renji before, but I've never hit out of anger.

I liked it.

I liked the feeling it gave me. I was able to hold my own and fight someone. I'm pretty sure that if the fight had gone on, I would have lost. But that hardly mattered. The rush of my fist flying towards his face then clenching up before impact...I didn't feel helpless anymore.

"I think that's where the whole PTSD thing started. But I had no idea. I liked not feeling helpless like I was back with my parents. I could be the one to hurt somebody, no the one being hurt anymore," my mind spoke freely.

"I can't say if that's good or bad. It's good that you didn't feel helpless, but not that you fought a lot," Zaraki responds. I just shrug. I'm my eyes, if something made me feel better about myself, then it was all good.

I notice we've been out here for about an hour or so because the sun has moved lower.

Maybe Kisuke's still home and I can talk to him.

"Uh-Oh," he says glancing at his watch. "C'mon, Chiru. Let's go!" He calls. Yachiru whines as she runs back to us.

"Kenny! I don't want to go!" She pouts and holds onto his leg.

"But don't you wanna go see the doctor?"

"Hmm..." She looks up in thought. "Can Kitty go? I want him to meet Dr. Unohana!" She runs over to me and grabs my leg.

"Unohana? Restu Unohana?" Kenpachi nods.

"You know her?" He asks.

"Yeah. She was my doctor a while back," I say with a shudder. Zaraki laughed. He knew.

Retsu Unohana had to be one of the most terrifying people I'd ever met. I tried to get out of my hospital bed one time and she dragged me right back. With little effort might I add.

"So do you want to go with us?" Zaraki asked with a smirk.

"Uh, if I could just catch a ride home, that'd be fine." I scratch the back of my head.

"Aw, Kitty! Are you shy like Kenny? He always clams up and turns pink whenever we see her!" Kenpachi covered her mouth and cleared his throat.

"Heh. Kids," he says nervously.

"Right," I respond and raise an eyebrow. "So about that ride home?"

"Sure." We all walk towards the car and they drive me home. "Hey Grimmjow!" I turn back around. "I'll count two hours for today."

My eyes widen at first, but I smile and wave at them then knock on the door. Kisuke opens it up and we just stare at each other. He knows I hate it, but he's waiting for an apology.

"Sorry," I mumble.

He steps to the side and lets me walk in. I head straight for the table and the weed is still there. I grab it then walk up to my room.

I look at it weirdly.

I don't know what to do with this.

Kisuke knocks on the door then comes in. I turn around to face him and hold the bag up and shrug.

Kisuke takes it from me then sits on the floor.

I sit across from him and tap on my shoes.

"A friend of yours came looking for you," he says as he pulls out a folded up piece of paper. "Kid with long brown hair?" I take the paper and unfold it.

Can we please talk? I don't know if your phone is broken, but my calls won't go through. Please? I want to talk to you.

On the bottom, there's a phone number.

I frown.

There's only one person I know with shitty handwriting like this.

I ball up the paper and throw it into my trash bin.

"We're not friends," I say plainly.

"No?" Kisuke opens up the bag and I cover my nose. That shit stinks to me.

He rolls it up in two pieces of paper and I laugh on the inside.

He's going to smoke with me?

Kisuke has to be one of the most irresponsible adults I've ever met.

But he's also one of the best people I'll ever know.

I think it's absolutely hilarious that Kisuke is going to smoke with Grimmjow. It shows the bond between them, but it's also outrageous that they're going to smoke together.

Let me know what you guys thought of this chapter!

R&R, please!

~EMAE