7I just had an idea for something that could happen after chapter 626, where Grimmjow takes Ichigo out of the fight for a moment in order to save him. Of course Kubo wouldn't make it romantic, and I'd never expect him to. But this was just a bit of a nice thought. I love uncomfortable moments. XD
JB
626
Perfect Sense
They practically crashed through the doorway of the garganta.
Grimmjow's shoulder ached from where he'd used it as a battering ram against the solid barrier between their two worlds, it not being fully opened up yet as Grimmjow raced them through to the other side of the gateway to the safety of Hueco Mundo.
They needed a minute.
Ichigo, the stupid shit, had tried to take on Yhwach directly. From the titanic waves of power he was giving off, even Grimmjow knew better than to confront a monster like that head on.
Everyone had felt the moment when the Soul King's being had been extinguished, marking Yhwach's ascension high above the crumbled remains of what used to be Serieiti.
Yhwach had consumed the Soul King.
He was powerful. He was dangerous.
And they had all just spilled out like a bag of marbles onto the battlegrounds with no fucking clue what they were up against.
Yorichi's idea had really sucked. And Grimmjow had had no qualms about telling her so.
"Stupid bitch! The fuck's this shit? Who the fuck put you in charge? I'll kill'em!" She'd said nothing. Because she knew he was right. They weren't prepared for what they had walked into. It was a scramble, to attack, to defend. It was chaos.
But Ichigo.
That stupid reckless bastard.
He'd gone straight for him.
Grimmjow's sword was already gone, his body encased in white hollow armor. He took another blow from his current adversary before delivering one of his own. But it would take more than claws and brute strength to bring down one of the Vandenreich.
Fortunately, he had backup. And fortunately, for once, this wasn't about pride.
The air whipped past him so fast it stung. Grimmjow didn't even look back to see if the others who had jumped into the middle of his fight were winning.
He only had one goal right now. To save Ichigo. To do what he'd come here to do, and make sure the one key being in all of this wretched land, known as Soul Society, would survive to complete his task.
It was Ichigo's destiny to finally finish of Yhwach.
That is what the Reaper, Urahara, had told him.
And if Grimmjow could keep him alive long enough to see it through to the end, then Grimmjow could fight him. And kill him.
A deal was a deal.
So, here he was.
He'd stolen Ichigo from right beneath the blade of Yhwach. He'd never sonido'd so fast in his life. It had taken every breath of power he'd had and the element of surprise. Yhwach had been so stunned at his gall that he'd failed to act. Plus, Grimmjow knew the others had been converging on them to the same end.
Everyone, it seemed wanted to keep Ichigo's ass safe.
Well, Grimmjow had.
He panted, hands and knees burning from where he'd skidded to a hard and dusty stop in the rough Hueco Mundo sands.
He pulled his hands, now human again, from the sand and sat back on one knee, turning to look over his shoulder at the air behind him. His breath continued to come hard and fast, even though the garganta had closed.
They were safe, for the moment. But he didn't know what powers Yhwach had. For all he knew, the new Soul King could come tearing through to this world at any time.
Grimmjow brought his attention back to the orange-haired man lying a few feet away. He was flat out on his back, arms akimbo, body covered in a light sheet of sand, where it had crested in waves over his middle. Grimmjow scowled as he brushed some of the sand off his arms.
"Well? Ya gonna lie there all day, Kurosaki?" He glanced over.
Ichigo didn't bother with a response. He just lay there, basking in the moon of Hueco Mundo. Or catching his breath. Grimmjow couldn't blame him, really. But he couldn't keep his natural ill temperament from insisting on things either.
"A fuckin' thank you'd be nice, asshole."
Grimmjow scrubbed a hand through his hair, sand raining down over his eyes, before he finally, truly, bristled at the silence.
With the Reaper here, there shouldn't be so much silence.
He looked over, elbow bent, hand clenched into a fist, and yelled.
"Oy! Dipshit! We're not on vacation here..."
Grimmjow trailed off. Was it his imagination or was Ichigo not moving... at all?
He winced, despite his rising curiosity, as he pushed himself off of his knee and onto his feet, two steps being all it took until he was looming over-top the prostate Shinigami hybrid. One eye narrowed as he studied him closer.
"Kurosaki?" he grumbled. "Are you breathing?"
Ichigo stayed quiet. His chest... stayed still.
And everything Grimmjow had hoped for suddenly plunged through his own chest like heat and ice and nothingness. And his eyes widened.
"Fuck!"
The sand was loud in the silence of the dessert, compressing beneath his weight, Grimmjow's knees finding themselves burrowed deep into it, spread beside the rise of Ichigo's body.
"You fucker!" he bellowed.
Grimmjow, at a loss, gaped for a moment, eyes darting across his body, searching for a sign that wasn't there, not really focusing at all in their panic.
Because that's what it was.
But then a thought came to him, something he could do. The only thing. In this wasted place, with just the two of them. With no time and no sense in trying to return him to the middle of a war to find the one person who could fix this kind of shit.
So, he did the only thing he could think of.
He breathed.
His mouth over Ichigo's.
The Soul Reaper's head drawn back against the sand by fingers tangled firmly in his orange hair. His chest rising again because of Grimmjow's breaths.
His lungs, filling again and again, and rising every time, despite the injuries, because of the air Grimmjow expelled from his own.
And then, finally, a flinch. A jerk. A gag.
A cough.
And Grimmjow pulled his lips just far enough from Ichigo's to make room for the Soul Reaper to catch is own breath.
He waited through a series of harsh coughs. But it faltered for too long. So he gave him more. Everything he needed until he could do it on his own.
He was still working when brown eyes blinked rapidly, another breath dragging in against the damage while they fought to focus.
They landed on him right away, moments crawling by them both, before finally seeing him.
Grimmjow pulled away. Yet he didn't. He couldn't decide if he should back off or lend a hand. He'd never felt this way before.
So... unsure.
This was his enemy. When everything was finally over, and it was just the two of them, this was the one he was going to tear apart in the darkness of Hueco Mundo.
Ichigo's voice came out like air, warm and compressed between them. It was raspy. A soft shrieking and grinding, like glass on glass.
"G- Grimmjow?"
Grimmjow still didn't pull away, not really. Those eyes he hated. He'd never been so close. There was an emotion... growing in them. Azure blue stayed still. Curious.
"Hn?" Grimmjow watched as brown slowly opened.
"Wha- " He watched as Ichigo's breathing slowed.
And then brown eyes flew open.
"YEAAAAAGH!"
One long, spindly arm shot up, and Grimmjow was abruptly thrown back hard into the sand and onto his ass. When he regained his sense of direction he was faced with all the fury of hell in an orange halo. It seemed impossible, but he swore there was steam coming out of the Shinigami's ears.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
Grimmjow scuffled with the sand as he tried to rise and get away, simultaneously, from the explosion of angry Shinigami.
"WHAT?!" he snarled. Ichigo angrily sputtered in response, hands not moving, yet nearly pointing in every possible direction at once.
"YOUR.. LIPS-?! MY-?! ...WHAT?!"
Grimmjow grimaced, and angry sneer the only thing he could come up with to defend himself.
"I- JUST- SHADDUP! YOU UNGRATEFUL BRAT!"
"WHAT?!"
"YOU WEREN'T BREATHING!"
"I- I wasn't?" Grimmjow drew himself into an aggressive stance.
"NO – SO..."
"I- ...Thank you..."
"...just..." The blue-haired arrancar's angry words seemed to stumble into confusion. Ichigo looked away before he looked back up, brown eyes determined and a little wary.
"Grimmjow..." Grimmjow still didn't move. He couldn't.
"Hn..."
"Why... why'd you save me?" Grimmjow glared at him hard for a long moment before abruptly looking far away, hollow eyes straying out across the endless dessert.
"Che. I can't... fight you... if you're not even breathing..."
There was a small exhalation of breath. And Ichigo gave a gentle nod.
His eyes locked with Grimmjow's. Binding them through their mutual discomfort. For that one uncertain moment, holding them together.
He smiled softly.
"Makes perfect sense..."