A GrimmIchiShiro FanFic - Targets

Honestly. Some people just never learn, do they? Ichigo has been the target for bullies and people since he was young. He guessed it was the hair? Or maybe it was his personality that just rubbed them the wrong way? Either way, people were always taking a jab at Ichigo, just like the human lump that was currently making the concrete sidewalk it's new home.

"I mean really," Ichigo sighed and distractedly kicked a guy over onto his back when he tried to stand up and go at it with Ichigo again, "If that tactic didn't work the first time you tried to jump me, what makes you think it's gonna work this time?"

"And one last thing, you stupid bastards," Ichigo said, eyes locking on that damn bastard that still looked like he had some fight left in him. Ichigo scowled.

"I was already running late before!" Ichigo finished his rant and sprinted towards The Kurosaki Clinic. It took him about five minutes of him running like the devil was after him for him to get there. He barely had time to skid to a stop before the door swung open.

"Ichigo!" His dad, Isshin cried, flying at him for a bear hug. Ichigo's instincts kicked in and his father was greeted with the sole of Ichigo's shoe. He crumbled in a pitiful ball.

"Ichigo, how could you? That was mean… to your own daddy," Isshin stood up, holding his now bleeding nose, fake tears in his eyes. Ichigo sometimes felt like his dad only existed to be comic relief for bad days. Or maybe just to give him a hard time.

"Well, you gotta admit, you were asking for it," Ichigo rolled his eyes as Isshin made a sniffling sound.

"I wasn't attacking you, you big meanie, I was just worried since you came home so late," Isshin addressed, closing the door behind him for a top secret meeting with his son. "We all promised to be here on time for Karin's birthday."

"I know, I know! Some guys tried to jump me on my way here and I had to—" Ichigo's defensive speech was cut off, his hand groping for a small bag of goods that wasn't there.

"Shit!"

It was ten minutes later before Ichigo had returned back home, falling on his face in the living room as Karin plucked the bag from Ichigo's practically lifeless fingers. A shinigami, somewhere, was certainly ticking off the seconds until Ichigo left for the otherside.

"Happy Birthday Karin," Ichigo mumbled as a stern Karin tossed gift wrap onto Ichigo's head. The sprint back and forth became worth when he saw his little sister's face light up when she lifted Ichigo's gift from the bag.

All's well that ends well, right? Ichigo slept like a log that night, but somehow still woke up feeling like shit the next morning. His legs were sore and he really wanted to play hooky during gym class.

But for now he sat in class with his head on the desk, staring out the window while his teacher prattled on and on; probably about something stupid like the meaning of life. He wasn't paying attention. His mind was outside the window where two birds were staring at him. One he recognized as a blue jay, but he really didn't know the species of the white one sitting next to it.

They looked at him and he looked at them. Those bird were giving him the creeps. It felt like they were looking into his soul or something.

"-Go? Ichigo?

"Uh, yeah?" Ichigo startled as his name was called and he looked up the shadow looming over him. A couple of people tried not to laugh, but he and the teacher heard them.

"You weren't seriously daydreaming were you? You dare to not pay attention in my class?" She asked, looking very close to flying off the handle. She always was. Ichigo looked out the window once more, but the birds were gone now. Dammit.

Ichigo stood up, exiting the classroom.

"Oi! Ichigo, where do you think you're going?"

"Bathroom," Ichigo replied automatically, sliding the door open and stepping out. The teacher snorted behind him.

"Right, and when you don't come back I suppose I'll have to look for you. If it's a lie, at least use a better excuse," The teacher said, doing the thing teachers to best: lecturing.

"Okay. Dad's calling," Ichigo said and broke into a run. He reached the front gate when Orihime and Chad caught up to him.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime called, waving frantically as Chad ran stone-faced next to her. Ichigo just really wanted to be alone today.

"Go awa-"

"Kurosaki-kun! Look in front you!" Orihime warned, arms flailing, but between her arms waving distractingly and the overall lateness of her warning, Ichigo ran the gate, two feet away from where he should have been. Ichigo suspected that it must have looked comical to any other than himself.

"Ouch!" Ichigo snapped, "How about you say that a little earlier, like, before I run into a wall? And what are you two doing out of class anyway?"

"Same thing as you," Chad answered.

"I know that much! But why?!" Ichigo asked, making Orihime smile. Guess he was just amusing everyone today.

"We were worried about you, you know," Orihime replied before giggling, eyes lit up, "Besides, it was fun to run from the classroom shouting 'bathroom'. I've always wanted to try it."

Ichigo sighed, "Whatever. If you going to follow me, follow to your hearts content."

And so, Ichigo led them aimless through town, stopping here and there whenever Orihime pointed out a shop she wanted to go into. Which varied from clothes, much to Ichigo's horror, to buying fruits and vegetables at the farmers market which, Ichigo was sure, would all go into the same meal. No matter how much Ichigo thought mushrooms and spinach didn't go with apples and peaches.

Please god, don't let this end with Ichigo having to force down another Orihime-made abomination.

Much to Ichigo's luck or perhaps bad luck, quite a few of Ichigo's biggest fans seem to have spotted his bright orange mop of hair and decided it was time for round two. Or three. Or maybe it was round four?

Though it's not like Ichigo could fight freely with Orihime here. Damn, maybe it really was bad luck. He'd rather eat Orihime's cooking than have her get hurt because of him.

"Chad," Ichigo said, counting their numbers inside his head. Ten….eleven…twelve…damn this could get dicey. It looked like everybody and their mother was here to fuck Ichigo up.

"Yes?"

"Take Inoue and get her out of here," Ichigo said and when Chad opened his mouth to protest, Ichigo turned around a snapped at him, a warning in his eyes.

"Do it now. Before she gets involved would be nice."

Chad nodded reluctantly, grabbing Orihime's hand and dragging her away, leaving Ichigo alone. He grinned, feeling very, very, out-numbered. He would have liked Chad to have stayed, but Orihime wouldn't have left on her own.

Oh well. Ichigo knew when he woke up that today wasn't going to be a good day.

"So, who's first? I'm ready anytime," He wasn't about to show mercy or weakness. After all, these bastards had wanted this fight and he was going to give it to them. Even if he had a lot of shit that he really wanted to say. Ichigo had learned to hard way to say your little speech for after the fight was over.

"What are you waiting for? Get him!" A petit girl in a red jersey shouted, Ichigo hadn't even noticed her. But apparently she was a big wig because men twice, even three times her size listened to her.

They launched themselves at Ichigo, who cut through them with ease, he felt like he was on top of his game, thinking that maybe a little fight was exactly what he needed to blow off some steam.

That is, until the small girl who didn't even reach Ichigo's armpit kicked him and, much to Ichigo's shock,he found his feet leaving the ground. His back collided with some park fence and his feet finally returned to the ground along with the rest of his body. And at the same point, the world blinked out of sight for a moment.

When the world blinked into sight again, the petit pig-tailed girl was no where insight. It was that point, helped with a dull throbbing in his skull, that Ichigo realized he had passed out.

He had sorely underestimated that girl, and he had paid the price for it. Though, as far as Ichigo knew, he hadn't been out for much longer than half a minute. And in that time, some serious shit had gone down.

"Ya 'kay?"

"Uh…?" Ichigo blinked to get rid of the blurs in his vision. He had seriously seen stars for a moment there.

"Are ya 'kay?" The voice repeated itself, this time a little harsher and Ichigo stared at the hand extended a few inches away from his face. He hadn't noticed it before. Top of his game, yeah fucking right.

"Yeah," Ichigo answered, picking bits of wood from his clothes.

"So, ya gonna accept my hand," the stranger said and at this Ichigo felt a little angry as this impatient stranger.

"Or just stare at it all day?"

Ichigo started to stand up on his own, ignoring the hand. He was still pissed about what happened early, what with getting his ass kicked. Ichigo just couldn't understand why these jokers wanted a piece of him so badly. Was it really just his hair.

Though, Ichigo thought, when he saw the hair color of the man before, he decided he wasn't much to complain.

"What?" The stranger asked impatiently, scowling now. He might have a worse temper than Ichigo. He snickered, this guy was probably a bigger target than himself, but since the hair was obviously dyed, Ichigo couldn't feel too bad for laughing.

"Nothing, I was just thinking that your dye-job looks great. If I knew it couldn't be natural, I would think it was," Ichigo said redundantly and his tempermental company snorted.

"Right," the stranger said. His hair was blue, and not just any blue, but a sky blue so bright that he stood out like a sore thumb among the crowd. He also had legs that went on forever, Ichigo noted with a cluck of his tongue.

"So, are ya just sittin' on the side walk 'cause it's really comfy or somethin'?" The man asked and Ichigo rolled his eyes, finally accepting the hand offered to him and was pulled surprisingly easily to his feet.

"Good boy. Well, I'll see ya around. Maybe," The stranger said and Ichigo opened his mouth for some snappy reponse, but the strange blue haired man was already weaving his way through the gathering crowd, leaving Ichigo there to wonder where the people he'd been fighting had gone.

A/N - First chapter over, and Ichigo's already gotten into two fights. Is this a new record? I'm not sure. And I just wanna say right now, this is not a story where Ichigo has to choose between Grimmjow Jaggerjaques or Shirosaki Hichigo/Dark Ichigo. It's meant to be a threesome.