For all the lovely stories I've read for this pairing, I'm now giving back to the community. I dedicate this one tho Penny, Racey and ConfusionNoHime.

This is set about eight months after the winter war. Enjoy. :)

Grimm-p.o.v.

Grimmjow sat cross-legged on the high back throne that once belonged to Aizen. In one hand, a glass of red wine, in the other, a few pounds of boredom. As he stared at the empty white room with the high ceilings, a pool of light poured in from the wholes in the walls, still unfixed.

Grimmjow was alone.

[He was too proud to admit the idea that he could have died on the war, alas, he had never expected to survive either, at least not while all Espadas, and rogue Shinigamis, would die to the hands of Seretei. This that had happened, was the unexpected. When he woke up, to a world deprived of strong reiatsu, he was taken by surprise, and after recovering his strength, they found him. The remaining arrancar bowed to him and looked up for guidance. He gave it to them. He was the new king of Hueco Mundo. And he quite enjoyed it too.

That was, until the boredom started. There was no one to fight, no one to defeat, no one to even bicker with. He dared to think he missed that fucker, Nnoitra, a lot.

He chugged down the rest of his wine and yelled his lungs out for another glass. A short, red headed arrancar scurried out of one of the side doors with a bottle and filled it without a single word. The king had killed enough servants for talking when he didn't feel like hearing.

"Out." He voiced mechanically, swirling the wine around in the glass. Such a pretty color, red. Much like dried blood. He dearly missed the color. The sound of the door slipping closed barely registered on his mind. Grimmjow was thinking about much nicer things, like killing, feeling his empty heart pounding madly and the life draining out of pray. He was quite tired of eating meager hollows. He longed for strength, for fight. With a groan he downed the wine and set the glass on the floor, jumping up from his the throne.

The moment he was out of the front door in that room, he was face to face with long-hair-huge-tits. "Grimmjow". Yes. There she was. The little fucker that clung to him for dear life out on the desert and ended up saving his life with fucking DROOL out of all things! Save his life? He meant helped him, when he was perfectly fine. He would've recovered from Nnoitra's blow in no time, he could still kill. Fact now was, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her. Not after she cried tears of relief when he woke up.

Most of the time she would just steer clear of him, so, he had to ask, albeit rather rudely. "What do you want Nel?"

She smiled that small smile he rarely saw. "We have a visitor, Grimmjow."

Ichi-p.o.v.

He ran! He, fucking Kurosaki Ichigo, killer of the infamous Sousuke Aizen, RAN. Why? You may ask? Well that's a little more complicated to explain.

You see he was back at home, filling in his college application, when the doorbell rang, and after about five minutes, it rang again. Ichigo had called out to his father absentmindedly for him to answer the door already. Only after that act did it dawn on him that Isshin was out on shinigami duty and Karin and Yuzu were at the movies. He sighed and dragged his ass to the door. He put his best frown on and opened the door. "What?" He grunted, before even seeing who it was.

"Kurosaki-kun, he-hello." Orihime, with a shy smile on her face.

He seriously tried to relax his facial muscles before attempting to talk again.

She began to rant when he didn't say a thing. "Am I interrupting something, is it a bad time? I can come tomorrow morning if thats better for you!"

He moved away from the door, leaving her to follow him. "Hey! No, I was just finishing out the application form." He plopped himself on the couch at about the time she closed the door behind her, she would soon follow him.

"So... are you still planning to go to Hokkaido University?" She seamed a little tentative, like she would be disappointed to be proven right.

It didn't even occur to him NOT to be honest. "Yes-"

"You can't." She interrupted him, borderline yelling and with a serious look on her eyes. His eyes went wide as he stared at her.

"Why?" He blurted.

She suddenly seemed to realize she was pretty rude, and went into adorable, confusing Orihime rant mode. "Aaaah-ha, well, mmh... The town! Kurosaki kun, you can't leave Karakura to the hollows!" She grinned and blushed profusely, she knew full well how out of it that was.

Ichigo face-palmed. "What's the real reason you don't want me to go? Inoue, if you want to tell me something, just do it. Don't beat around the bush.

She looked down and fisted her skirt. "Just like that... is it what I should do?"

Ichigo tried to make sense of what she was saying, but he didn't even have a facial expression to work with, so he went with coherence. "Yes, it is."

She got up and walked until she was right in front of him, and propping one knee down on the couch beside him, she bent foreword. It was very fast, and Ichigo was still trying to make out why she got up when she crashed her lips to his. He didn't have time to react. She said 'I love you, Kurosaki-kun, that's the truth', to his empty, half curious, wide eyed face.

He said nothing, remained in the exact same spot. After the tension dragged on for enough time, Inoue straightened herself up and sobbed, understanding the silence. Ichigo stood up and walked out the room, up the stairs, into his room. Where he couldn't listen to her quiet crying, he grabbed Kon out of its evening nap, eyes hazy and lifeless while sticking his hand down its throat to grab at the soul pill. The moment he parted from his body he was standing on the window sill.

"Uh?" Kon whined unintelligently.

Ichigo flashed him a dead smile, filled with sarcasm. "She's all yours."

After that... He doesn't remember anything. That must have been courtesy of Shiro, since he DID end up in Hueco Mundo. He didn't even care right now. He hurt Orihime, and as the coward that he is when it comes to relationships, he ran. Ichigo wasn't to blame, really, he just didn't return her feelings at all.

He gazed across the endless sands, white bright in the moonlight. He had RAN.

A/N: Yes, it's short. And I'll keep it so. I'll right a little more every time I can, so I'll update as often as possible.