Hey guys, I wanted to try something new. I decided to challenge myself and write something a bit more on the angstier side. I released the first chapter and I'll write more if you guys like it. Please enjoy.

Chapter 1

It's been a two years since Ichigo's fight with Aizen. Within that time he's lost his powers and gained them back again. Those two years before he regained his powers were the most depressing years of his life, but now his life was back to its old chaotic ways.

He may roll his eyes whenever his combat pass screamed that there was a hollow in the area, but secretly he loved his job. He's had a reputation to keep. He wasn't allowed to show his true emotions; especially since he was more at peace then he has ever been in his life.

Killing hollows everyday may not have seemed peaceful to the normal person, but to Ichigo it was. In his eyes there were no more surprises. No more shinigami trying to executing his best friend, no more of his friends were being kidnapped, and the hollows around him didn't exhibit a real challenge in a long time so he wasn't beaten to an inch of his life anymore.

The most challenging part of his life was probably that he was preparing to leave high school and preparing for the university entrance exams. It shouldn't be too hard since his grades were pretty good; the only point where it dropped was his freshman year of high school when all the shinigami chaos started. He missed a lot of class and homework because he was always absent and even went missing for a while. His teacher never wrote him off as a delinquent though since he always stayed toward the top of the grade.

After he lost his powers he was able to throw himself back into his studies and make some money from temporarily joining other clubs and having a part time job that he barely even went to.

His life was back to the way it was supposed to be though and he wouldn't have wanted it any other way. He learned how to balance school and shinigami work. He had to quit his part time job in the process, but if he had to pick between his part time job and his old job he would be a substitute shinigami without looking back.

Rukia becoming the new lieutenant of the thirteenth division made her appear less and less in Karakura. She left to go back to Soul Society just that morning leaving Ichigo to look after his town by himself. He was used to it, and he refused to admit it made him feel lonely and it reminded him of when he lost his powers two years ago.

He will admit that it was a lot quieter without Rukia around. When he was left alone with his family it reminded him that his dad still never told him about his past, and since the hollow appearances have become less frequent many nights are just spent in his room studying or reading manga that he's already read a million times.

Even though his life was peaceful he still had one problem. Ever since the war he has had an incredibly hard time falling asleep. He kept waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat from nightmares of the battles that he had faced. It was crazy that even when he lost his powers and couldn't see anything spiritual he was still able to see everything clearly in his subconscious.

He refused to think of it as PTSD because he would still willingly pick up a blade and fight if he needed to, but what he experienced in Hueco Mundo definitely left a mark on his psyche. He remembered his arm being broken, losing more blood then he thought he even had, and of course nearly dying and coming back to life as a hollow. To this day he has no idea what the fuck happened there.

Not only that, but right after fighting the most intense battles of his life he lost all of his powers making him feel utterly defenseless. He couldn't even see the danger in front of him and his shinigami friends didn't even bother to visit him. Was it so hard to borrow a Gigai from Urahara and say hey to him?

There was also the fact that he learned that he was practically observed by Aizen his entire life. He knew that Aizen was imprisoned, but to know that a single man had so much influence over his life left him completely shook.

Rukia still preferred to sleep over in his closet whenever she came to visit since she didn't want to notify his family that she was over, even though they knew that Ichigo's dad and probably his sister, Karin could feel her presence. Ichigo knew that she worried about him, but he kept telling her that he was fine.

Usually she would beat him up for giving into his fear and letting it control his actions, but this time she backed down. She must have realized the effect that the war had on him and there was no way violence and harsh words were going to fix him this time. He still did his job so it didn't affect his everyday life too much.

He sat on his bed with his biology textbook resting heavily on his chest, open to the chapter that was going to be on the test that was meant for tomorrow. He was dozing off until his combat pass started to scream signaling that there was a hollow in the area nearby causing him to be startled awake.

Even though he was never really good at sensing spiritual pressure he was surprised that the combat pass was the thing that woke him up in the first place rather than the incredibly strong pressure that was present.

It was incredibly strong, much stronger than the one he took care of earlier that day. It was unusual for there to be more than one hollow attack in a day though. One already attacked when he was in school. He went out to kill it using the same excuse he always did, that he had to go to the bathroom. It wasn't even questioned at this point, unless it was and he just sprints out of the classroom before they could be asked.

This time though, it was around midnight and there was no doubt that the guy that took Rukia's place as the shinigami of Karakura was hiding. What was his name again? Imoyama? Whatever it was he proved to be unreliable a long time ago. Which meant it was his job to pick up the slack.

Ichigo placed his combat pass to his chest allowing his body to fall down lifeless in his bed. He tucked his body under the covers to make it look like he was sleeping. He tucked his body under the covers so many times, but to this day he still can't help but feel weird doing it. His dad and Karin would understand that the body was empty, but if Yuzu were to find it then there would be a problem and he didn't like to let Kon in his body so easily anymore.

He dimmed the lights in the room before he hopped out of his open window, silently wishing that Rukia was there with him so he doesn't have to fight alone. As much as he hated to admit it, he was getting rusty. He didn't have a real challenge since the fullbring incident, and even then he had some of his friends there to help when he needed it.

He was on his own this time though without any real back up. The source was way too strong for any of his school friends to help and he didn't want to put them through any danger especially after what happened last time with the fullbring. He needed to move fast so they wouldn't get any ideas.

He rushed forward leaping from rooftop to rooftop as he got closer to the source of spiritual pressure. The closer he got the larger the pressure seemed and his nerves started to eat at him. He made a quick observation and froze still on one of the rooftops of a flat building.

He didn't notice till now, but the source was coming closer to him by itself. Whatever the source is it was looking for him. The first thing that came to Ichigo's mind was that it was a very strong hollow that was targeting him as food. It's been a while since it last happened, but it wasn't unusual. The only problem was that the spiritual pressure definitely didn't belong to any old hollow.

Whatever it was he needed to hold his ground. It was probably going to chase him if he left since he had the strongest spiritual pressure in the area, and if wasn't going to kill it then who would?

He did not expect what happened next though. The source of the spiritual pressure picked up the pace and before he knew it they were now standing in front of each other.

"You're Grimmjow."

He was a few feet from Ichigo, but stood taller than him and didn't make any movement to reach for his sword or even put up a fight. He just stood their standing up straight and looking a little downwards towards the substitute shinigami that was shorter than him

"Yo Kurosaki, long time no see." A cocky smile broke out across his face. The way he talked seemed aggressive, but Ichigo sensed no hostility behind it. It eased his nerves a bit, but he didn't let his guard down, gripping onto Zangetsu's hilt.

He was not prepared to fight Grimmjow. He hasn't fought an Arrancar in years and there was no way it was going to be a fair fight. He flashed back a few years ago and remembered their brutal fight with him having to fight as a Visored.

It was a fight that gave him nightmares all the time. He got incredibly banged up and he even had to jump in front of Orihime a few times to protect her. He was incredibly fast and fought like a wild animal when he released his Resurrección. He won, but he almost lost his sense of self during the fight.

He was afraid that what Grimmjow said was true. That he truly enjoyed fighting and the reason why he stuck around wasn't because he wanted to save Inoue, but because he wanted to fight Grimmjow.

At the end of the fight Grimmjow refused to give up and wanted to continue fighting even though he was in no state to continue. Ichigo refused him and he said that he'd fight him as many times as he wanted if he truly despised him, but right now he really hoped that Grimmjow wasn't planning to cash that in.

Two years has been a long time and if Ichigo was rusting in that time Grimmjow could have been sharpening his blade.

Grimmjow's appearance hasn't changed in the two years he hasn't seen him. His outfit didn't show off the scar that Ichigo gave him when he used the Getsuga Tensho as much, but he could see a bit of the gash sticking out of the black V-neck that he wore. His shirt and white jacket also covered the large hole that he had in his abdomen that came with being a hollow.

There was silence. Grimmjow made no movement for his sword nor did he give off any hostility in general. In fact if he had to describe Grimmjow's personality at that moment, it was calm, uncharacteristically calm. Ichigo frowned seeing that he had no choice, but to break the silence.

"What do you want?"

Grimmjow's smile faded and shifted from one foot to the other in confusion of what to say. It's been two years since they saw each other and his appearance was completely random. His clear blue eyes stared sharply into Ichigo's deep brown ones that were glaring at him with directed intensity.

Just because Grimmjow was acting calm didn't mean that he felt the same way. His nerves were a little at ease since Grimmjow didn't seem to have any intention to attack, but inside he was freaking out. He refused to display that though. He couldn't let Grimmjow think he was weak.

Grimmjow clicked his tongue. "I rehearsed this in my head a million times, but I can't seem to get the words out, shit." There was silence again and Ichigo raised an eyebrow, not really knowing how to respond.

"I guess I should start with saying something like 'I don't despise you.'" He said.

Ichigo was shocked he was pissed off, but he was shocked. "Ummm, last time I checked I was pretty sure you wanted to rip my throat out." Ichigo said. "And I'm pretty sure you said that you hated me in like five different ways."

Grimmjow squeezed his eyes into little slits and frustration was written all over his forhead. "Fuck Kurosaki, don't make this any freaking harder for me." He growled in an animalistic fashion.

The sound sent shivers throughout his back, but he stood his ground. He was scared and he knew that, but he was damn pissed off too. This guy caused him a lot of problems and he hurt his friends. There was no way he could forgive any of the Espada.

"What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry for trying to kill you?" He barked. "We were in a fucking war and you were a good fight."

Ichigo was still very confused, but he treaded carefully to try and get more information out of him. "Why are you saying this? And why are you saying this now?"

Grimmjow crossed his arms and continued to look pointedly at Ichigo. Geez, he had a terrible attitude. "Maybe you forgot, but your fucking spiritual pressure disappeared out of nowhere."

Ichigo's expression morphed from anger to confused, "How do you know that I lost my spiritual pressure two years ago? Were you looking for me or something?"

If Grimmjow was searching for him for years then his lack of spiritual pressure should have made him give up, but here he was, two years after their fight and he stood before him.

"I was, and I did manage to find you after wandering around for hours. When I did find you I sensed nothing coming off of you and I literally stood right in front of you. You completely ignored me so I only assumed that you lost everything."

Ichigo's eyebrows knit together. He was still not satisfied. "What made you come back today though?"

Grimmjow finally looked back over to Ichigo and his eyes narrowed. "That doesn't matter."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Riiiight, if that's all you wanted to say then I'm going to go now." He said taking his hand off of Zangetsu, but not yet turning away from Grimmjow, not trusting to reveal his back to him.

"Wait, don't leave yet dammit." Grimmjow cursed. "We aren't done talking yet."

Ichigo froze where he stood when he heard Grimmjow's frustrated attitude towards him, but he kept his brave face so that he didn't alarm Grimmjow that he was nervous. If he found that out then he would be an easy kill.

"I came over here so that I can bring you back to Hueco Mundo with me." Grimmjow blurted out. He growled as soon as he realized what he just said and that it was too late for him to take it back.

Ichigo didn't seem to fully understand. He cursed and placed his hand back on Zangetsu's hilt.

"If you want to fight I can't right now. If I succeed in killing you this time there will be no way for me to get back and fighting you here will cause a lot of damage to the human world. My first priority is to protect my town and friends." He said sternly, eyes lowered and studying Grimmjow's movements even though he hasn't moved much and still acted aloof.

Grimmjow blinked a few times and quickly became impatient. "I literally just said that don't hate you! Killing you doesn't interest me anymore either even though you were a good fight! Why can't you get that through your fucking head?" He yelled.

Ichigo took his hand off Zangetsu just so he could clutch at his temples. All of this was giving Ichigo a migraine.

Ichigo was smart, but he couldn't put the pieces together. Why would Grimmjow come over and talk to him two years later and ask him to go to Hueco Mundo with him if he didn't want to fight him? For the life of him he couldn't put it together.

"What's the point of me going then?" Ichigo asked.

Grimmjow bit down on his lips and clenched his fists. "I can't tell you the exact details, but you may be in danger."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "You're joking right? That's nothing new. I'm always in danger so why should I follow you to a desert wasteland that is infested with hollows? It sounds a bit counterproductive."

Grimmjow restrained himself from face palming, trying to keep his movements limited. If he moves to much Ichigo may assume that he is attacking and things might get too complicated.

"This time is different, Kurosaki. Don't be difficult." Grimmjow growled.

Ichigo was about finished. "Listen, you said that you don't resent me and that you don't want to fight me anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that I still hate you."

Ichigo turned his back to Grimmjow and was ready to leave, no longer caring that his back was toward the violent hollow. "Don't try and follow me. I can't trust someone who tried to kill my friends so easily especially if they are a hollow."

Grimmjow frowned and dug his nails into the palms of his hands. "Don't write me off as some lowly fucking hollow. I may be a hollow, but I'll admit it. You have hollow blood too, don't try and reject it."

Ichigo called out after him. "I'm a shinigami and you damn well know it. Natural enemies like you said. You're not allowed to take back what you said now."

Grimmjow turned his back to Ichigo as well making a motion that opened a Garganta back to Hueco Mundo. "Fine, I'll give you a bit of time to think about it, but I'll be back. Be grateful that I'm choosing not to kidnap you."

Ichigo's neck became cold in sweat. He really could just kidnap him and it would be that easy. There was no way Ichigo would be able to fight back if he decided to. Grimmjow said that he wouldn't, but there was still a chance that he would.

"Whatever, go home." Ichigo said clicking his tongue making sure that Grimmjow was actually leaving before he took off himself.

"Alright, alright, I'll see you around, Ichigo." He said making note to call him by his first name. Ichigo's face darkened and flipped him off causing Grimmjow laugh as the Garganta closed behind him.

As soon as Grimmjow was out of sight Ichigo crouched down and hugged his arms. He could feel his entire body shaking. Grimmjow's spiritual pressure was more intimidating then he remembered. It was strong enough to pull someone with a small amount of spiritual pressure to the ground.

If Grimmjow really did see Ichigo over a year ago when he didn't have any powers then he must have suppressed his reiatsu to keep him from getting hurt. There was really no way to tell. He didn't even know if he was telling the truth.

Ichigo curled himself up even further. He really hoped that was the end of it, but he knew his luck better than anyone. Nothing really worked out for him and Grimmjow said that he would be back and there was no way the universe would let him off that easily. Things happen for reasons, but he really just hoped that those reasons wouldn't kick him in the ass.

A/N: Please review and stuff so that I know if you guys like this sort of thing. I do have a bit of an idea of what I want from this story, but I won't write it unless at least a few of you guys like it. In the meantime please check out my other work, Strawberry Fangs.