Not So Happy Ending

Chapter 15: Tug of War Part 2

Quick AN: I wrote this whole thing and uploaded it using my new iPad =D

~G~

I sat in a chair in the waiting room, swinging my legs as I waited for the doctor to be done with Mai. Cifer-san disappeared somewhere, so I'm all alone. And really bored.

Somethin' weird happened though. I remember somethin' had hit my head before we lost that last game of tug of war. I think it might've been a small rock or something... It came from my right, from the building that was next door to our school. Weird, 'cause small rocks and pebbles usually come from the street, not empty buildings!

"Hmmm...Weird..." While I was thinkin', a doctor came out. He called for Cifer-san, but when she didn't show up, I stood up. "Cifer-san isn't here right now, but I came with them," I said to the doctor-guy.

He nodded, "Are you Mai-chan's older brother?"

I shook my head. Why do people think that?

"Err...her cousin?"

I shook my head again.

"A friend?"

I nodded.

"Okay, well, Mai-chan's arm is broken, and there's a small cut on her cheek, but she'll be okay. Her arm will be a bit sensitive for a while, so be careful when playing, okay?"

I nodded, "Yes, sir!"

He laughed and patted my head. "You'll make a great boyfriend someday."

I was confused as he led me down the hall and into the room where Mai-chan was. What the heck was that supposed to mean? Having girlfriends and boyfriends are stupid. You can just watch TV to see how weird it is.

When I got into the room, the doctor lifted Mai down from the hospital bed thingy and set her down on the ground. He patted her on the head and gave her a sucker before leaving.

"Hiya, Grimmjow," she said with a wave.

"Hiya, Mai." I walked up to her as she was messin' with the sucker. She held it in her good hand and was trying to unwrap it at the same time.

"Shoot, I can't open it..." Before she could try to bite the wrapper off, I took it from her hand and unwrapped it myself. "Hey!"

"Ya coulda just asked for help, y'know," I said before shoving it into her mouth. I laughed when she glared at me.

She pulled it out of her mouth and yelled, "That was mean!"

"So?"

"You're not supposed to do mean things!"

I laughed, wow, she was weird. It wasn't that mean, I was just trying to help. I started walking away, with her followin' me 'cause I think she had to.

"Where are you going?" she asked before putting the sucker in her mouth again.

"Back to school. It's almost time to go home." 'I think...'

Mai caught up with me when I stopped in the waiting room. She sat down next to me in a chair and continued sucking on her sucker.

"...Where's my mom?" asked Mai after we sat there for what felt like a long time.

"I dunno."

"Is she gonna be here soon?"

"I dunno."

"Why'd she leave you alone?"

"I dunno."

"Was she busy?"

"I dunno."

"Are we leaving soon?"

"Are you gonna stop asking a ker-billion questions?" I asked, annoyed. She stopped and put the sucker back in her mouth.

"I wanna go 'ome though..." she mumbled around the pink candy.

I sighed. So did I, but Cifer-san was taking forever.

~G~

A while later, I fell asleep. It was hard to at first 'cause Mai kept whining about how she didn't want me to leave her alone, but after a bit, we both got really bored and tired.

I woke up a long time later and found myself in the back of Cifer-san's car. Mai was still asleep, leaning on the door behind the driver seat. Her mom was talking on the phone. The car was moving, but I wasn't sure where since I never left the neighborhood except for school. The little clock said 6:34. I think it's been a long time, since when we were at the hospital, the small hand was moving a little bit past the four.

"...don't you think I know that? Dammit, Charlotte, listen to me!" My eyes widened; she said a bad word! I didn't think she knew I was awake. Her voice was a teeny bit loud, but quieted down again when she heard Mai sigh in her sleep. "Listen, there's something off about that neighborhood." She was quiet again while the person on the other end talked. I couldn't hear much, but I caught the words "Karakura", "Sosuke", and "dishwasher".

Honestly, I didn't think it made sense. Cifer-san shifted in her seat when we stopped at a red light. I quickly shut my eyes when she straining turning around. She sighed, and when the car started moving again, I carefully opened my eyes again.

"I know, they're only children. I doubt they even know anything we would find useful." The person on the other end, Charlotte I think, said something short. Mai's mom frowned, "You're such an idiot. If that dishwasher is broken when we get home, I'm throwing your ass out." A pause. "Ugh, yes, and we're thankful, but..."

I stopped listening. Now they were talking about houses and chores. What did they mean before? The name Karakura sounded a bit familiar. I think one of the teachers at our school lived there. Sosuke...I think that was Ulquiorra's dad's name. Did they know Ulquiorra's dad? What does he have to do with them?

I frowned. What neighborhood was she talking about...?

~G~

That weekend, I went over to Ilforte's house. I had to tell him about what I heard! Lucky for me, I remembered it really good because it's all I've been thinking about since I was dropped off at my house. When I walked into Ilforte and his brother's room, I found Szayel, Ulquiorra, and the Arruruerie twins in the room. They were sitting in the top bunk and were whispering about something while eating mini chocolates.

"Oh, hello there, Grimmjow," said Szayel. "What're you doing here?" They all turned and looked at me. It was kinda weird.

"Um...where's Ilforte?" I asked as I scraped the back of my head. "I gotta tell him something important..." They all looked at each other.

"Oh, um...Ilforte-nii's in the bathroom right now," said Szayel quickly. "You can come join us while you wait, if you want," he scooted over and made room for me. I shrugged and climbed up there.

"Okay..." I sat down in between Ulquiorra and Szayel "So...what're you guys talking about?"

They looked at each other again. Why do they keep doing that?

"Remember when we went to Starrk's house a while ago...?" asked Szayel. Aaron and Niero weren't there, but the other two must've told 'em about it, cuz they didn't look confused at all.

"Yeah, it was really freaky," I said. They looked at each other again.

"...Remember how there were weird bony things on our heads and faces?" he asked me as he pushed up his glasses. I nodded. Ulquiorra reached up and ran a hand through his hair, where the helmet thingy on his head was.

"We think they might have to do with Espada." Ulquiorra whispered quietly. He glanced at the doorway. No one was there.

"Espada?" they all glanced at each other again. "Wait...wha-?" Then I remembered somethin'. It was weird, but I was all grown up, had a big scar on my chest, and I was bullying Ulquiorra, who was also grown up!

I've had a dream like this before, but it never really meant anything. I thought it was from a movie I saw a long time ago.

"Yes, I think that somewhere, a long time ago, we were all grown up and called Espada," Szayel whispered. Aaron and Niero looked at each other. "I think a few of us in the neighborhood had dreams about this before. I've had them, Ulquiorra here has had them, and the twins told me they have, too. I'm pretty sure Nnoitra and Starrk know something about this too."

"I've had them, too. But not a lot, only one or two times before..." I whispered, taking a piece of chocolate and eating it.

"Something strange is going on, and we want to find out what," Szayel told me.

"Yeah...something strange..." I stayed quiet for a bit. Our neighborhood did seem pretty weird...we all moved here only a month or so ago...

"I think it's like the movies, where there's a bad guy and we gotta stop them!" said one of the twins, Aaron I think.

"Yes...it's sort of like tug of war," Szayel said thoughtfully. "We must pull the rope away from the bad guys, keeping the cloth in the middle away from them, because they'll use it for bad reasons."

I nodded; he made it sound a bit easier. "Yeah...and right now, I don't think anyone's winning..."

"Why do you say that?" asked Ilforte's younger brother.

"Well...nothing bad happened yet. We don't know who the bad guys are, and maybe they don't know much about us, because...er..." I stopped. "...this is all really confusing."

They all stared at me weirdly.

"What?" I asked, glaring at them.

"Well...I didn't think you were that smart. You just proved me wrong." Szayel laughed while everyone nodded agreeing with him.

~G~

By the time I went home, we agreed to work together to find out more about the Espada. Nnoitra came over to tell Ulquiorra that his mom wanted him home, and he ended up joining our little group, too! I ended up never telling Ilforte about Mai's mom, but I did tell Szayel, Nnoitra, Ulquiorra, and the twins. They all thought it was weird, but Nnoitra said that maybe they were talking about something completely different. Ulquiorra said he was gonna try and find out more about his dad to see if he was a bad guy.

On Monday, we all met up at lunch to talk about what we found out. Me, Nnoitra, and Szayel were sittin' together when Ulquiorra came up to us. He was in a different class, so we didn't see him much.

"You'll never guess what I found out!" he said excitedly when he sat down. He looked around carefully to make sure no one was listening. Starrk had gone home earlier because he didn't feel good, so he wasn't here. Tia was sitting at a different table with the other neighborhood girls and Mai.

"What did you find out, Ulquiorra-kun?" asked Szayel calmly before eating some of his soup. With all of the searching going on, we all became friends, even though it's only been a couple of days. Aaron and Niero were a bit younger then us and went to the day care that was across the street, so they didn't have school with us.

"Daddy took me to the park, and you'll never guess who was there!" We all looked at each other.

"The prime minister?" me and Nnoitra guessed. We heard he has a daughter that was our age. The awesome part was that she liked robots and baseball instead of dolls and ballet, so she sounds cool!

"No!" Ulquiorra laughed and Szayel rolled his eyes. "It was Mai-chan!"

"Really? What happened?" I asked, "Is her arm still broken?" They looked at me weirdly. Hey, I never broke anything, but it looked like it really hurt.

"Of course her arm is still broken, Grimmjow," explained Szayel, "It'll take a month before it's fixed." The pink head pushed up his glasses with a smile before eating the rest of his soup.

"Yeah, but she was alright, I spied on her a bit and it didn't look too bad," said Ulquiorra as he sipped his apple juice. "There was a bandaid on her face though. Her cast was a weird purpley blue color."

"Oh, purple's a delightful color," said Szayel. "A good choice for her cast. Hey, did you know you can write on those things?"

"Woah, cool, you can?" I asked. "Maybe we can write stuff on it!"

"Yeah, it didn't have anything written on it this morning," said Ulquiorra, who sat at her table.

"Forget the girl's arm, tell us what happened already!" yelled Nnoitra as he slammed his spoon into his pudding.

"Oh, yeah," Ulquiorra rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry, I forgot." He took a breath before going on. "When I was there, she was with her mom." Szayel nodded, listening closely and paying lots of attention. "I found out her name's Uley."

"That's a funny name," I laughed. "Kinda like yours, Ul-qui-orra." I laughed again and the green eyed funny named glared.

"Uley Cifer...continue, Ulquiorra-kun," said Szayel with a frown.

"I know that face, you're comin' up with a plan, aren't ya?" grinned Nnoitra. Szayel waved his hand at him.

"Anyways...so Uley-san was being pretty weird." Ulquiorra got up with the other two and followed me out to recess after putting our lunch boxes away. Outside, Ilforte was talking to Zommari and didn't notice us coming out.

"How was she being weird?" asked Szayel as he kept on his thinking face. I laughed when Nnoitra asked if she was going around saying "Ooo-lay!", since that's what her name sounded like.

"She kept lookin' at me funny. I don't think she knew that I saw her though," Ulquiorra replied with a frown. "Mai-chan didn't see me, but her mom did." Now we were sitting under the slid. Ulquiorra waved to Hali before continuing. "She didn't see me cuz she was climbing was tree and I was on the swings," he told us.

"Who lets a girl with a broken arm climb a tree?" asked Hali when she stopped next to us. "That's bad parenting," she said. Szayel nodded in agreement, the rest of us ignoring her.

"Thanks for getting Dracula for me," smiled Ulquiorra. She nodded before walking over to a bench where her friends were sitting.

We all sat quietly for a while. Then Nnoitra spoke up and said, "...Y'know...she annoys me."

"Why?" we all asked. Hali seemed pretty cool.

"Cuz I found out she's gonna take karate at my dojo," he crossed his arms. "Girls shouldn't fight." He made the pfft sound.

"Why do you think that?" asked Ulquiorra. "My mommy used to do somethin' called boxing." Me and Nnoitra looked at each other with wide eyes. Lacey-san wasn't a big muscley guy at all! She was a thin ladylike lady! She had tea parties and did girly stuff! I didn't believe him, but decided not to tell him that.

"Because it's not ladylike?" suggested Szayel.

"No...cuz girls are weak!" declared Nnoit with a huff. We all looked at each other with a smile. None of us had ever fought a girl, so we wouldn't know.

~G~

After school, while we were waiting for our parents to pick us up, me and Szayel talked to Mai. Nnoitra and Ulquiorra had already gotten picked up by Lacey-san.

"Hey, Mai!" I ran up to her with Szayel trailing behind. She smiled and waved with her good hand.

"Hi, Grimmjow," she said with a grin. "Hi, Szayel." He waved and smiled before leaning over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"How's your arm?" asked Szayel politely once he was done breathing heavily.

"It's okay. It hurts a bit sometimes, but I found out I can draw on it, see?" She stepped closer so we could see inside the sling. There was a smiley face, a star, a heart, and her name written on it.

"Cool," said Szayel. "The heart looks nice."

"Yeah, I didn't draw it since I can't draw with my left hand," said Mai, "It's hard, so I had my mom draw some things for me. She woulda drawn more, but then my arm started to hurt."

"Oh..." Szayel looked at me and glanced at the blue head, telling me silently to do something. I got no idea how I'd ask her about her mom, so I said the first thing that came to my mind. "Can I sign your cast?"

Behind me, Szayel face palmed.

"Um...I'd like you to, but my arm kinda hurts right now..." she looked up at me (yup, she was still that short) and smiled. "And I don't got anything to write with...sorry."

"It's perfectly fine, Mai-chan," Szayel cut in with a smile. "Maybe another time." She nodded but started to mess with the sling the cast was in.

"I can show you my cast if you want." She frowned for a moment and pulled a piece of the sling down and turned her arm over. "I got my sister to sign this morning." Szayel stepped forward to get a better look. Even though I was the one that got all that info on Uley-san, Szayel was a lot more interested in this then anyone else.

On the cast, there was a swirly heart on it drawn in a pretty greenish blue color. Next to that, a name was written. Szayel gasped quietly next to me. I looked over to him and saw that his eyes were wide. I mouthed "what?" at him.

"S-so your sister wrote that?" asked Szayel as he quickly cleared his throat and pointed at the name.

"Yup!" she smiled happily. "Nee-chan has pretty handwriting right? Her name's Charlotte!"

Szayel and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Mai waved before skipping off to Uley-san, who was waiting in the parking lot. Szayel and me were quiet for a while. After another minute, we looked at each other. Before he could say anything, I spoke up.

"...So...it seems Mai's against us in this game of tug of war..." I said slowly.

END CHAPTER

Cheesy line is cheesy?

Grimmjow's now in the game lol. Good for him, he's informed.

I'm not sure if you guys even remember the other events in this story, I sure don't...but I'm trying, and from where I stand right now, there will be a sequel, and it'll be when they're in high school or end of middle school...along with a time skip in this story...

Well, this thing now has a plot. Sorry this chapter wasn't really funny, I'll work on that next time. Things were rather serious in this chapter, ne? I'll probably use that weird tug of war reference a few more times XD, but rest assured, I will not call the sequel tug of war. I'm planning on sticking to the not so happy ending/fairy tale-ish theme.

Please review! Who do you think the bad guys are? And what are their motives? ...Who bets Nnoitra will get beat up by Tia at the dojo?

~Amaterasu Ai