Love At First Word

Chapter 9

~ Grimmjow ~

It had been about an hour since Ichigo had disappeared. I decided to check the courtyard first because I remembered his love of the old weeping willow.

As I passed by the side doors, I caught a familiar color in the corner of my eye and turned.

Ichigo was sitting on the small concrete steps, watching the road outside. A car pulled up, but I paid it no mind as I walked quickly towards the door.
I needed to apologize.

Just as I set my hand on the handle, a vaguely familiar red-head stepped out of the car and shut it.
Ichigo shot off the stairs and ran to the man, who I recognized as Renji.

Renji was probably my height and when he hugged Ichigo, Ichigo's feet lifted off the ground.
It made me jealous.
Renji put him back down, but Ichigo didn't let go.
After a moment, Renji reached down and picked Ichigo up by his thighs, letting Ichigo cling to him like a child.
Renji pulled a bag from the passenger side and started towards the door I was still frozen at. He spotted me and stopped for a moment before a deadly glare was set into his features. I turned and walked back to our dorm room stiffly.

I left the door open behind me and a minute or so later, Renji set Ichigo down once again, and this time Ichigo reluctantly let go.

"Ichi, take a shower, take some NyQuil, and go ta bed." Renji muttered.
Ichigo complied easily, trudging off to the small bathroom.

"Uh, hi. I'm-"

"I know exactly who you are, fuckface." Renji snapped quietly, probably so as not to alert Ichigo, as he whipped around to scowl angrily at me.
"You're the one Ichigo has been obsessing about. You're the one that took his biggest trouble and anxiety and threw it back in his face like it was nothing."
Renji advanced on me, and I knew that the thoughts to fight back going through my head wouldn't be smart. Ichigo was fond of Renji and not of me at the moment.
The red-head my height shoved me back in a chair and smacked his hand onto the back of the chair near my shoulder, trapping me.
"You listen to me, dickwad. As of right now, you're not anything but a mosquito on my arm that I won't hesitate to squash. You made him cry." Renji stopped and listened for a moment before he continued.
"That's not acceptable. Ichigo blames himself for his mother's death. She laid herself over him like a turtle shell and saved him. The doctor's say it's a miracle that he survived with even partial eyesight. He can't do what he loves because of his fucking eyes. He lost his family, his father and sisters, because of that accident, long before they died. And then he thinks that, because you had a friend with a smiliar problem, you'd accept it." Renji looked like he wanted to hurt me very badly.
"And obviously, instead of telling him you understood, you took it as an insult he hadn't told you before and treated it like it wasn't his life's fatal burden. As of right now, I fucking despise you and that's not a good thing."

Renji, like nothing had happened, walked to the cabinets, looked through a few until he found the NyQuil, and then poured a dose into a small plastic cup.
Not moments later, Ichigo shuffled in, dressed in over-sizes pajamas.

Renji smiled and handed him the cup, which he took like a shot.
As the taller red-head lead Ichigo out, he glanced back to glare at me once more.

~~~~~~~~

I groaned and rolled over in the bed, squinting at the clock.
3:17 am.

I grumpily planted my feet on the floor and got up to head I the bathroom. I was two steps from the bathroom door when a thud from the kitchen startled me.
So that's what woke me up.
I cautiously moved to the kitchen area, peeking around the wall. I could see the figure moving around, but it was doing so clumsily.
I flicked on the light and Ichigo turned wide eyes to me.
"S-sor..sorry...I didn't mean to wake you up.."

"You didn't." I lied. "I needed to pee."

"O-oh." He nodded and looked at his feet awkwardly.

"I'm the one who should be apologizing." I finally muttered. "I didn't mean to...to take your problem as nothing. I just - I've been with Nnoitra forever. He lost that eye at nine and it's easy for me to forget that other people do get bothered by their...disabilities." Ichigo listened quietly.
"I thought...I don't know what I thought, but I didn't expect you to be blind. I don't understand what it's like, but I know how to live with it. In fact, it'll probably be better for both of us. I'm accustomed to living with Nnoitra. He moves things around when he wants, I don't touch anything. Everything has a designated place, I take extra precautions....but again, I'm sorry."

Ichigo hugged me and I felt something wet drip onto my chest. I carefully wrapped my arms around him and smiled.
"Thank you." Ichigo murmured through his sobs.
I only nodded and let him cry.