Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ The winds of change ❯ Acquaint ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Noises... Fucking loud noises! Oh shit my head hurts... Fuck... Wait a second... where exactly...?

Ichigo wearily opened hi eyes and groaned in pain, it made the throbbing in his head worse. He was in a lime green room, lying on a white couch. There were noises coming out from another room, probably the kitchen... Now how did he get here from that club?

A man with long blond hair walked in graciously.

"Morning Kurosaki. " Oh yeah… He was in Ilforte Granz's apartment.

"Morning" he mumbled quietly, he preferring quiet voices right now. He sat up and felt like shit. Ilforte looked at his disheveled appearance critically, as he scrunched his nose and scratched the back of his head.

"Now this is why I told you not try beating Grimmjow in drinking. Do you want to use the shower?" Ichigo shook his head and then abruptly stopped, that did not help his headache. He heard a quiet thump from next room and it was immediately followed by an Oh fucking shit! In came Grimmjow. His hair was plastered on his face and he was squinting his eyes. He leaned against the doorframe and lifted a hand on his forehead.

”Fuck…” Ichigo felt better now. Grimmjow looked just as awful as he felt.

”Morning Grimmjow.” Ilforte greeted him. Grimmjow mumbled something incomprehensible.

”Good morning Jaegerjaques! One tequila too many?” he asked considerately, an amiable smile on his face. Grimmjow gave him a look that would turn milk sour.

”Fuck. You.” Ichigo snickered contently, but stopped when it made the throbbing worse and groaned.

Flashback:

”I know that look… I think I am gonna go introduce myself for her… If you gentlemen excuse me…” Shawlong QuFang, a man with a long black pony tail and a slim face, said and left the table. Ichigo and Grimmjow had arrived the club a couple hours ago. With them had come Grimmjow’s friends that Ichigo remembered from high school. Even though Ichigo had little interaction with them, he saw how they had looked up to Grimmjow. There was Di-Roy, a man with blond hair that hung over his face and revealed only one eye, he grinned a lot. Then there was Eduardo Liones, a very large man with a strong jaw, bright red eyebrows and crazy hair that was half shaved and black and half long and bright red, and who Ichigo remembered, got into trouble often back in school. Nakeem was a black haired and serious man who looked like a sumo wrestler.

Ichigo had lost the track of time a long time ago. And it wasn’t the only thing hazy for him.

Now how many drinks had he had again... How many tequilas had he had before this one? Was it three? Ah, who cares... probably not that many, as he told Grimmjow before, he knew how to hold his alcohol.

”C’mon Kurosaki take it in one go. Or what you reached you limit already? You’re such a girl.” Grimmjow genially suggested and pointed to the tequila shot Ichigo was holding.

”Shhhut UP, JhaeGERjachs, I drrink d-drinks like theshhe for breakh-fasht!” Ichigo sharply corresponded and poked Grimmjow’s chest. Grimmjow lazily slapped his hand away, he looked up again and the tequila was gone and Ichigo was giggling.

”Man he is out of it!” Di-Roy cackled and gulped some of his beer. Eduardo laughed.

”Yeah, but you know what Di-Roy? He aint any worse than you were last month, when we were in that smelly old pub-!”

”Will you quit bringing it up!? I mean come on! Yes I was drunk, and yes, that girl did point out she would rather do it with a donkey, but-!”

And so went the conversation that Ichigo was too drunk to pay much heed to.

”What ever man, I am getting more booze.” Grimmjow said and stood up. He nudged Ichigo whose chair was between him and the bar counter.

”C’mon Kurosaki, move it, you’re blocking the way.” Ichigo stood up perkily and then wobbled.

”Woww.” he mumbled and put his hand to the wall for supportl.

”Yeah, yeah, just move.” Ichigo, was now standing right in front of Grimmjow, he looked up and brought his hand up to his chin thoughtfully.

”You know wha Jhaeg-g-geerjhac…”

”Well what?” Grimmjow asked impatiently as he waited for Ichigo to move.

”You’rreee really... really TAaaLL!” Ichigo proclaimed and rose his hand high up in the air to further demonstrate his tallness. Grimmjow grinned.

”One tequila too many Kurosaki?” Ichigo laughed drunkenly and shook his head.

”I can di-dri- dRINk maaany more!” Grimmjow laughed at the slightly wobbling man and led him toward the bar counter.

”We’ll see. You know, you really should get wasted more often, you’re so much more fun like this.”

”I am alwaysh fun you jerk!”

End flashback:

From there on they had drunk a LOT more. Grimmjow could drink a LOT of alcohol. When the club was closed they went to Ilforte’s apartment to continue they’re drinking, where Ichigo had immediately passed out.

Ichigo’s phone started ringing, way too noisily in Ichigo’s and Grimmjow’s opinion. Ichigo quickly grabbed it and answered.

“Hello” Rukia’s voice filled the phone.

“Hey Ichigo, I was just calling you to tell you that we were thinking of meeting in front of that McDonald’s next to the beach instead of that- What was that noise?” Rukia questioned suddenly. Grimmjow had just knocked over a chair on his way to bathroom and it went down with a banging noise which was soon followed by Oh fucking hell!. Seriously, was that guy always such a klutz when he had a hangover?

“Umm… That was…”

“Is somebody else there? Are you even at home?!”

“Sheesh, since when have you been such a mother hen…” he knew that it was safe to say this as even Rukia could not physically harm him through a mobile phone.

“Answer the question right now Kurosaki Ichigo!” Ichigo scratched the back of his head.

“It’s kind of a long story Rukia, and no, I am not at home and… can’t I just explain it to you later?”

“Did you sleep with some gu-!?”

“I’ll talk to you later.” Ichigo quickly said and looked at Ilforte who was listening with interest his phone call.

“You better. And do you realize that we are seeing you in an hour?” Ichigo looked at his watch. Oh shit!

“Bye!” Ichigo stared at his phone a moment, speechless. He was supposed to meet his friends in an hour, including his ex-boyfriend with his new boy friend. He had no idea where he was right now. He had the mother of all hangovers.

He looked at Ilforte, who was still inspecting him with great interest.

“I gotta go now. Thanks for letting me sleep on your couch. Bye. Oh, and bye Jaegerjaques!” Ilforte raised his hand lazily.

“No problem. See you.”

---------------

With some miracle Ichigo arrived on time to meet everybody, and he even had time to take a shower and some aspirin before he left. This was an achievement to be proud. Unfortunately he still felt pretty shitty, and at the very moment he was trying very hard to not notice how close Renji and Kira were walking as they were heading toward the beach. Him, Rukia, Inoue, Sado, and Keigo were also present as they met up and headed to the beach.

The moment he had arrived Rukia had been studying him intently, and he had tried to not notice that too. This, however, was not enough to make someone like Kuchiki Rukia give up, so soon she was slowing her pace and grabbed his arm in order to make him take the hint. Resignedly Ichigo complied. She looked around to make sure Keigo wasn’t listening and then asked Ichigo very considerately

“So what happened last night? Tell me everything.”

“Umm well… I didn’t have any one night stands, if that’s what you were implying…” Rukia looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“No? Then where were you this morning?” Right then Inoue called at the two and asked if they wanted to buy ice cream. Rukia quickly shook her head and waited a little distance away from others as they gathered around an ice cream vending machine. Rukia went back to staring at Ichigo, waiting for answer.

“Well I was in Ilforte Granzt’s apartement. You know the guy that was on our class in high school-“

“What, you mean the one in Jaegerjaques’s group? Why on earth were you in his apartment? I don’t even remember you ever talking to him! It was always just you and Jaegerjaques having your juvenile fights.”

“But I talked with him last night, and ended up passing out on his floor.” Ichigo blurted out, as he did quite frequently. Rukia’s eyes widened the size of saucers.

“What!?” Everybody turned to look at them curiously.

“Is something wrong Kuchiki-san?” Inoue asked worriedly. Rukia quickly recovered.

“Oh nothing at all Inoue! Ichigo just said just now that he… umm… Doesn’t like potato and butter flavored ice cream! I myself find it quite tasty!” This very witty lie actually worked, as the group had already got used to the two bickering over odd things.

“Really Kuchiki-san? I think so too! But you know, this squid flavored that I have right now is quite tasty as well.” she then turned to Sado who hadn’t bought ice cream. “You should try the squid flavored Sado-kun! Although, I recommend the cherry blossom petals flavored as well!” In the end Sado bought a rice cake flavored ice cream and they continued walking. As soon as Rukia calculated they were out of earshot, she eagerly prodded Ichigo to continue his explanation.

“Ah, you know it was actually Jaegerjaques that asked me to come to this new club yesterday and-“ Rukia stopped on her tracks, now she looked even more shocked than before.

“You went out with Jaegerjaques!? The Jaegerjaques that’s Nell’s uncle!? The same one you hated in high school? You went out on a date with him!?” Keigo, who had done his best to listen what the two were being so secretive about, whirled around at that.

“Really Ichigo!? You went on a date with him?!” Ichigo blushed out of embarrassment and was glad Jaegerjaques couldn’t hear this conversation. Everybody was staring at him now; even some passer by’s who wondered what the fuss was about.

“No, for God’s sake! I mean, yeah I did go to a club with him, but not on a date! There was a group of people, not just the two of us…” Ichigo had to glance at Renji at that moment.

How would he feel if Ichigo did go out on a date?

For once Ichigo couldn’t tell what the man was thinking, his expression was unreadable. Had he wanted him to look upset? He then realized that Kira had noticed him watching Renji, and he quickly moved his gaze.

"Aaand, I didn't hate him... It was more like, you know, we had disagreements. Every now and then. You know, just some differences of opions. Not like we hated each other." Ishida rolled his eyes and Rukia muttered a whatever.

“You went to a club with them and didn’t invite me Ichigo!? And it was filled with hot chicks, wasn’t it!? Just tell me truth!” Ichigo rolled his eyes annoyed.

“It was a spur of the moment kind of thing.”

------------

Ichigo made it out alive from the beach. It had even been kind of fun, hanging out with them. Just like back in high school…

For the most part it had been like back in high school. Except for one thing significant matter.

It had been awkward with Renji and Kira. He could see that Renji made effort for things to be less awkward, and Ichigo did his best to act as he was fine with the situation. It was easy when he listened to Renji talk about his college, his teachers and stuff like that. The way Renji talked was so animate, and his eyes sparkled whenever he laughed. It was compelling and made it so very easy to laugh with him.

Renji and Kira didn’t do anything more intimate than sit next to each other. But the fact remained that they were, indeed, together. When Renji asked Kira if he wanted to go to the store on the way home, the two said goodbye’s and left together…

That was when it was hard. He then said nothing or gestured in anyway that he was upset. But his friends knew. He could feel the way Inoue was looking at him sympathetically; Keigo was quiet for a moment, not knowing what to say to make the situation better. Ishida hurried the rest of them to leave, saying it was getting chilly and Chad being unusually chatty quickly agreed and answered with four complete sentences. Rukia offered Ichigo a bubble gum and told him to hurry up, as she needed to go over and baby-sit Nell later that day.

Ichigo wished sometimes that his friends didn’t know him so well, he hated it when they felt they had to fuss over him, still… it was a bit comforting when they did.

He then noticed that grey clouds had gathered in the sky, it was starting to lightly drizzle. Good thing they had left the beach.

Just as he was opening the door for the building where his apartment was he spotted movement from the corner of his eye, something small and black.

As he turned around to inspect, he saw a shaggy black cat running towards him and the open door, giving a happy purr. The cat looked at him with big eyes and brushed against his leg. Ichigo looked at the cat amazed.

“Surely we haven’t met before, have we cat?” he asked the cat and bent down to scratch it behind his ear. The cat rolled over to lie on its side, purring contently.

“But you sure look like the cat from that park.” Ichigo continued his monologue with the cat. The cat purred.

It must be just some similar looking alley cat, when he had seen the cat in the park he had been at least twenty kilometers away from where he now was.

But he had the feeling this was the same cat. The cat brushed his cheek against Ichigo’s hand eagerly and Ichigo couldn’t help feeling a little affection toward the shaggy fluff ball. Without thinking any further he scooped up the cat and carried it with him to his apartment. He was pretty sure anyway that his landlord allowed pets.

----------------

Later that evening Ichigo was walking around his apartment, searching for a place for a newly acquired litter box. He really couldn't place it in the middle of the living room; he couldn't put it in the kitchen, or in front of any of the doorways.

Black cat looked, who had a moment before finally entered and thoroughly inspected the apartment, very content laying on the coffee table in front of Chappy the Bunny. The cat's big yellow eyes followed Ichigo's every move as it purred barely audibly. Ichigo smiled at the cat lightly and scratched it behind the ear.

"Where should I put your litter box cat? Their doesn’t seem to be any vacant space." the cat let out a loud purr. Ichigo sat there for a while listening the cat's soothing purring. It was the most calmest moment of his the day. It was however ruined by his phone going off.

A text message? I wonder who it’s from, Ichigo thought absently as he picked up his phone from the coffee table.

‘You know you left your ID in Ilforte’s place today’

Oh.

-----------------

“Thanks, I can’t believe I forgot this.” Ichigo thanked Ilforte as he handed him his previously forgotten ID.

“Yes, you did leave in bit of a hurry.” Ilforte replied absently. He was leaning against the wall and his eyes were somehow unfocused, as if his mind was entirely somewhere else. Ichigo was a bit puzzled by his behavior.

“Well I should get going then.” he said and turned for the door he had just entered.

“Is there…” Ilforte suddenly started and Ichigo turned around. The man looked at Ichigo and he still had that far away look in his eyes.

“I mean to say, how did you and Grimmjow meet yesterday?” Ichigo felt surprised by the sudden question and briefly wondered why the man hadn’t asked that from Grimmjow. He then briefly explained the situation with Nell and the coat. Ilforte listened quietly while he spoke.

“I see. I was just curious given how the two of you were before.” Ichigo scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, you weren’t the only one. But I don’t know, errr, I guess things just change. Well I gotta go now, thanks for this.” Ichigo said and waved his hand holding the ID as he left the room and closed the door after him.

Ilforte stood there for a moment before he walked to kitchen where he was in the process of cooking dinner. As he started washing carrots he muttered to himself.

“Do they really…”