There were very few things that Asano Keigo was a completely sure about in life.

Granted, his overwhelmingly charismatic (annoying), larger-than-life (dramatic), confident (cocky) personality would make anyone think his life choices were purposefully and solely his decisions, but they tended to overlook the fact that he was all but fifteen, and very little of those decisions were in Keigo's hands.

His parents were almost never at home, so technically, it wasn't his decision to loiter by the streets late in the evening, hoping to catch a friend to hang with. He just didn't want to be home alone.

Again, it wasn't his idea to befriend Kurosaki and Sado that one time when the duo somehow managed to take down an entire gang of senior kids. That one was on Mizuiro; of course, he would never complain about that. Meeting Ichigo and Chad might as well have been one of the Best Ideas Ever despite his initial, and very vocal, reluctance.

Not to mention, his sister was Mizuho for god's sake, so naturally, it was her way or the highway.

The point being, since Keigo only had, say, about three percent - three and a half on a particularly good day - control over his own life, it would suffice to conclude that he was usually a pretty damn apprehensive about things chucked his way, contrary to popular opinion. Covering his anxiety with a layer of devil-may-care brashness in front of the entire world though, was a can of worms he wasn't willing to open yet.

So.

Very few things he was sure about. Right.

First, was that Keigo was an Average Joe. And if there existed an infinite number of alternate universes (so he read Stephen Hawking that one time, shut up.), Keigo would be said Average Joe in each and every one of them. There was simply nothing distinguishing about him. Straight brown hair, brown eyes, skinny build and a plain face: he was meant to blend in the crowd. That would explain his... Keigo-ness. It's hard to stand out when you know you're nothing special okay?

Second, his sister has a thing for bald blokes. This is something he won't ever understand or be able to explain. It was just another byproduct of the Big Bang

(That Hawking shit really messed him up).

And lastly, the third thing he was one-hundred-fucking-percent sure of, was that Ichigo fucking Kurosaki wasn't fucking human.

What?

Did he stutter?

He could gamble his soul to prove the fact that Ichigo wasn't human. No siree. He was a sword-wielding, black-robe donning, self-sacrificing shithead who was getting his ass handed to him by the monsters of his nightmares right on the streets of Karakura. It didn't help that Keigo had to witness his own two house-guests/moochers change into similar kimonos, pull out swords seemingly out of their asses and actually leap into air with no support whatsoever and remain airborne.

How did this become his life?

Ikkaku... or Yumichika, he doesn't remember who, but one of those idiots tell him to run while they "took care of the problem" and, really, as a (secretly) self-proclaimed natural escapist, who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth?

So Keigo got the hell out of dodge.

When he woke up the next day, Keigo had a splitting headache and his mouth felt like cotton and everything that happened last night just turned out to be a really weird dream.

After his usual dose of caffeine, when he animatedly narrated the events of his dream, Ikkaku choked on his juice and Yumichika stopped twirling his hair. Both scoffed and called him ridiculous.

And that was that.

The next evening, when school ended with a C+ on his History test and a punch in the face from a banged up Ichigo, Keigo heard - no - felt a familiar pressure, less suffocating than the previous one but with enough... energy? to make the hair on his arms stand, and a deafening roar to accompany it. The feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach returned and Keigo realized that he wasn't dreaming the black robes fighting bone masks last night.

As fate would have it, a fortnight later, some ass-clown in a striped hat comes up to him and Mizuiro and tells them to "follow him if they want to know where Ichigo is". School had just ended again, and Ichigo and his newly formed rag-tag excuse of a gang (one that didn't include Keigo and he wasn't bitter about it at all, okay? Drop it.) hadn't shown. Except Ishida. But that guy had the Stick of Academia so far up his backside, Keigo would be surprised if he skipped school despite having to face an apparent life-and-death situation. Otherwise, Chad and Orihime's desks were empty, Rukia (who Keigo figured was definitely one of them) hadn't been to school in a long time anyway, and the rest of the new 'exchange students' had taken to follow Ichigo wherever he went. Needless to say, Keigo was the victim of many of Tatsuki's right-hooks.

Ignoring the alarmingly loud, and surprisingly present conscience in his brain that screamed STRANGER DANGER, Keigo and Mizuiro followed the guy to a convenience store called "Urahara Shop". The employees consisted of two brats - Angry and Emo - he called them, and a Giant of a man with biceps the size of Keigo's head. The furrowed brows and resting bitch face didn't really help the situation and Keigo was definitely one of those lesser men who cowered before it. That was before the man did a full 180, introduced himself as Tessai and force-fed them the hardest rice cakes Keigo has ever eaten. Keigo chalked it up to that being Tessai's mother-henning because... okay - let's face it - big, intimidating guy with pure intentions behind questionable food choices? That was a total Rubeus Hagrid move.

Keigo, however, only liked Tessai till he led them down to the shop's basement which turned out to be some sort of parkour training arena with rocks and mud and holy crap that's Ichigo back in his black robes and the weirdest looking katana ever. And Chad was there too, but one of his arms looked like a Hotweels racing track and- of course Ishida was there, why not, wearing customized nurse scrubs and... is that a portal?!

Obviously a situation like that warranted an over-reaction. Keigo however, managed to impress himself and Mizuiro by completely not freaking the fuck out.

In fact, Keigo was kinda angry. And hurt. The hurt part came later, when he asked Urahara what was going on and all the man gave was a cryptic summary that The Golden Trio were off to another realm to save Orihime.

Yeah.

The fact that everything that had happened the past few weeks with Kuchiki and Madarame and Ayasegawa and Matsumoto for fuck's sa- Everything was a lie. And now Orihime, the sweetest freaking person Keigo had ever had the fortune to meet, was in trouble.

Ichigo hadn't even told Tatsuki about this. And Wasn't that a punch to the gut.

Like. Okay, Keigo knew he wasn't big shit, and that sometimes Ichigo only tolerated his presence. But Tatsuki was his childhood friend. The one who - by the looks of it - practically saved Ichigo's life when his mom died and the carrot-head didn't have the decency to even tell her the truth. Tatsuki had been worried sick about her for the past few days; Keigo would know because he took the most of the brunt of her anger. Even though she didn't like to show it, Keigo could see her falling apart right in front of his eyes because how long had Orihime been missing? Would any of them have ever found out if Kojima and him hadn't just spied on them? What would they tell everyone if - oh God - what if Orihime didn't make it back? What if none of them did?

He couldn't take it anymore. It was all too much.

Keigo was a skeptical person. He didn't show it, didn't have to, but he was. But if Ichigo had just told him - told them, he'd just take it in stride because he trusted Ichigo.

And later, Keigo knew he'd trust Ichigo to save Orihime, because the guy was a stubborn SOB who never learned to back down. Keigo would trust him. He knew.

But now...

Now Keigo needed air, and some time away from the people he knew because it was just suffocating. The whole not-being-in-on-the-joke and secret glances and mysterious disappearances, all while Orihime was in danger. He needed to not be with Mizuiro right now. He needed to just... not be.

So, with an uncharacteristically quite murmur of "I need to go." to Kojima and a "Fuck off!" to a questioning Urahara when he tried to stop him, Keigo left the scene and ran.

And ran and ran and ran.

Because after all, that was all Keigo was good at wasn't he? Running away from his problems. Eventually they would go away. Keigo didn't want to deal with this. He already had a pretty good idea about what Ichigo was and nope. He wasn't ready for that kind tilt in his reality because Shinigami and Reapers helping souls pass on was alright. Whatever. Fine. But villains of said Shinigami attacking his town? Lalalalala - can't hear you.

It would all go away. If he closed his eyes and trusted Ichigo to do his job, the whole thing would just be one big, bad, messed up dream. Just like Keigo had thought it would be.

So, taking it with a pinch of salt and cramming all Halloween-related realities at the back of his mind, Keigo went on with life and pretended he wasn't scared out of his wits. It was all going pretty well too.

Until a week later, when he realized that he was being followed.

A/N: hi! Update: It's been a whole year, yes I know. But i've managed to grasp onto some inspiration for this story (cant say the same about the other one so lets not go there ^^''). Anyway, I've made some changes and have more chapters up on ao3. But I'll add them here as well.

Thanks for your patience!

-SA