And Then, There's You: Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not use big words and I do not own Bleach. Also, I do not have beta reader.

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Ichigo steps out from the entrance of the club. Behind him, trails of giggles and laughter follow. His left eye twitches in annoyance. How can they be so fucking happy all the time?

“Sure you don’t want to come with us? There are plenty of other parties we were expected to be…” Ishida is his manager since he first started in this business. Ichigo owes a lot to this guy. He is basically the man who responsible for his successful career.

Ichigo nods in affirmative. “Just drop me at the apartment.”

He has had enough for the night. The parties can continue till all hell breaks loose for all he cares.

“He’s a party pooper. Who needs him around anyway!” says Nel giggling and hugs Inoue by the waist. Inoue, being who she is, giggles with Nel for no apparent reason. Woman, you can never understands how their mind truly works! But what puzzles him the most is why is Renji laughing too? Sure he’s gay and all that but does it affecting his male hormones too? Ichigo is never good with this kind of things.

Ishida looks fondly at Renji and hugs him by the shoulder before kiss him squarely on the lips.

“Oi oi get a room!” Ichigo warns the couple. He does not have problem with his manager being gay. Most of them are. But he does have problem when they start showing public affections. After several years, Ichigo is still not used to it.

“But we are in love Ichigo. You should try it too. Want me to introduce you to someone?” says Renji just to tick him off.

“Boozed talking” replies Ichigo scowling, trying to avoid Renji’s little comment. Ishida and the others burst out laughing after hearing his answer. Again he does not see what is so funny.

He looks at his watch. Quarter past twelve. He starts to tap his left shoe on the pavement. Impatience starts to creeps in. Where the fuck is the valet attendance?

“Ichigo, rumor has it that Grimmjow has a hot for you!” says Nel while grinning stupidly at Ichigo. “You and him make such a… rather unique couple, I must say.” The other three burst out laughing again.

And just like that he lost his patience. Ichigo turns around and storms off. Not bother if he has to walk back to his apartment. Anything is better than spending another minutes with those drunktards.

“Don’t forget you have a photo shoot tomorrow!” Ishida yells from behind. He waves his right hand in acknowledgement. He can still hear Renji and the girls laughing hysterically.

Love.

Overrated.

That’s what love is.

Ichigo kicks an empty beer can on the pavement with his right foot out of frustration. It is not like he does not have lovers. There are plenty of them. For some weird reason – OK maybe not so weird since he is the most sought after male model at the moment – girls and women are flocking to be his next… girlfriend? No, girlfriend is too intimate. More like play things.

Is it true though that Grimmjow has a thing for him? One look at the blue-haired man, you would not say that he’s gay but Ichigo learns a long time ago that in this industry, nothing is as it seems.

Why the fuck is I am thinking about Grimmjow anyway? Ichigo shakes his head and raises one hand to ruffle his orange hair. A habit he used to do when thinking to himself. I seriously need to mingle with other people that aren’t models.

That is when he hears a muffled scream from an alleyway that he is passing through. The alleyway is in between shop and office building so naturally there are not single lit windows that can help him figures out what is going on in the dark alley. He squints his eyes to see what is happening when he hear a shout and another muffled scream.

Not listening to the voice inside his head that screaming for him to just walk away, he creeps into the alley quietly. From the silhouette, he can see that there are three figures rounding up another figure in the middle. After he observed closely, the one in the middle is a girl. A very short girl. From the look of things, the three jackasses are harassing her.

Why the fuck am I doing this for a stranger? Ichigo wonders but too late to turn around now. “What the hell are you doing?!” Ichigo yells, hoping that he can at least intimidate his opponents.

All four of the standing figures turn around in an instance when they heard his yelling. “None of your fucking business.” One of them said. Ichigo can’t be sure which one as the alley was still dark. The moon that is hidden behind the cloud does not help the matter either. Ichigo assumes the one who said so must be the stupid gang leader. “I suggest you turn around –“

Before the jackass could finish his sentence, Ichigo see the girl punching the jackass on the face. Ichigo is taken aback by this action but apparently the other guys are ready for it. Ichigo takes the opportunity and runs forward to give aid. But before he reaches them, the girl has already knocks the air off the leader jackass and is now facing off the second jackass.

“Look out. Your back!” warns Ichigo and he comes just before the third jackass’ foot connect to the girl’s head. Ichigo pushes him with all his might which send the surprising jackass flying to the other side of the alley, landing face first. Now Ichigo is back-to-back with the girl. The leader by now has stand up again and is squaring it off with Ichigo.

“Go away. I can take care of this,” hisses the girl which taken Ichigo by surprise. He expects the girl to cry helplessly and thank him for his heroic deed or at least weep while hugging him asking for help. He certainly does not expect this! This just proves the point he made earlier: you can never fully understand what was going on in a woman’s mind.

“What? What are –“

“You heard me! Go away!” yells the girl. Ichigo can hear her heavy breathing. She must have been beaten up pretty badly before he came.

“But… but I came to save –“

“Go away!” the girl yells again. Ichigo turns around to face her but she has already ducked and a punch comes straight to his face. The girl has already kicking the jackass after she gives him a knee in between the leg.

Ichigo yelps and before he can counter attack the jackass that hit him, the leader has gotten hold of him by the neck. Shit now what? As Ichigo is struggling to breath, he hears the girl’s voice.

“Let him go.”

“Go and die bitch.”

“I said let him go!”

This is not right. I was supposed to save her not the other way around!

The girl comes running with a fist close tight. As she said that final sentence, she swings her fist pass Ichigo’s face and accurately hit the leader’s jaw. Ichigo hears it connected and knows the girl has broken that jackass' jaw. The grip that strangles him loosens and in his attempt to inhale as much oxygen as he can, he is caught in a coughing fit for several minutes.

All the while, although the girl is fully aware that the punch was the final blow for the leader jackass she feels that she has not has enough. She stands in front of the sprawling jackass and kicks his rib over and over again. She can definitely hear cracking sound more than twice.

Ichigo who has finally past the coughing fit goes up to the girl. He knows he needs to stop the girl from kicking the jackass otherwise she would have murdered him. Not that the jackass doesn’t deserve it but still…

The cloud has move a little and the moon finally decides to lend its light to the alley. Up close Ichigo realizes that the girl’s cloth is torn. Clearly these jackasses were trying to rape her. Ichigo takes off his coat and places it on the girl’s shoulder. She is shaking.

The girl stops the kicking when she feels a hand on her shoulder. She looks around as if just realizing Ichigo’s presence. Her body immediately tenses up again.

“Are you alright there?” Ichigo asks.

The girl looks squarely at Ichigo’s face, not saying a word. Ichigo see that the girl has unconditionally beautiful eyes. He cannot see what color her eyes are though because of the semi-darkness. He decides that whatever the color is, she would still look lovely. And she is lovely. And pretty too. And beautiful.

That all mean the same thing, you idiot.

Without a warning, she holds up Ichigo’s face with the palm of her hands. Ichigo who is once again taken up by surprise can only stands there and let her observe his face. He feels his body tenses and for the life of him cannot explains why he feels tingling sensations all over his body when the girl touches him. It is not as if this is the first time he is being touch by a girl. He is pretty experienced in that area. Oh yes sir he is! So why does he feels like his body just experienced an electrical shock?

Then he winces a little when the girl touches his purple cheek that starting to throbs.

“You’ll live,” is all she says before she lets go of his face. Not very gentle either. “No need to thank me,” she adds. She turns away limping and grabs her belongings.

No need to what?!

“What the hell did you just said?” Who the hell does she think she is anyway?

“You heard me.”

“I just save your ass and that’s how –“

“From what I have just experienced, it was more like I was the one who was doing all the saving,” she replies indifferently. She starts walking towards the street with her bag swaying behind her.

Well that was kind of true but still… “I assisted you!” shouts Ichigo.

The girl snickers. She turns around to face Ichigo. “I don’t need any assisting. I already told you to walk away, didn’t I?”

What the hell is this girl's problem exactly?!

Ichigo is fuming now. He starts walking towards the girl who was still standing there looking at him.

“Can you walk?” he asks since the girl was limping quite badly. Ichigo is surprise that he can still control his anger and not to lashes out at this very small midget girl.

“No duh!”

Fuck! Why the hell is she’s acting all holier than thou?! And here I am trying to be a good citizen.

“You ungrateful midget –“

“What? Want me to walk you home now?” she cuts his sentence short. Ichigo can still hear the snickers behind her voice.

Damn it! Say something you idiot! You going to let her walked all over you?

But Ichigo is too dumbfounded to say anything.

Looking at the stupefied expression on Ichigo’s face, the girl smirks again before limping away. Before she turns, Ichigo caught her eyes and he thinks she has the most beautiful eye color he has ever seen.

I guess my new favorite color is violet now.

But there is something else too. Those eyes… why does it look so sad?

Ichigo looks at her for several minutes to make sure the girl didn’t stumbles and get run over by a car after all the trouble he went through to save her.

Yeah right. More like she saved me.

He looks at her until she disappears around the corner. All the anger that built up during their short encounter has dissipates from him the moment he saw those eyes. He starts walking the opposite direction that would lead him to his apartment. Occasionally Ichigo would turn around, half hoping to see the girl again. For some weird reason, he can’t forget those eyes. A chill wind makes him realizes that he has given his coat to the girl.

There goes Hugo.

He puts a hand on his cheek which has been swelling pretty badly by now.

Damn it. I have a photo shoot tomorrow. Ishida is so going to kill me.

With that thought in mind, Ichigo ruffles his hair again before he walks into his building.

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