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Middle Grounds	By : Sena Category: Bleach > Yaoi - Male/Male > Grimmjow/Ichigo Views: 4055 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. All characters associated with the series are the property of Tite Kubo and no money/profit is made with this story. I'm just playing with them.

Chapter List
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Soul Society. Few hours after Karakura’s war.
Ichigo was exhausted but couldn’t sleep. After their brief incursion to Hueco Mundo, they had come back unnoticed, and now he was finally lying on the uncomfortable bed of his cell, trying to get some rest. Unfortunately, his head had other plans. He was highly relieved to know that Grimmjow was fine, so now his mind decided to focus on his current situation. He still had no idea about Gin’s plans, nor did he even know if he actually had any. The first time they met, Gin told him he wanted to change Soul Society; but this meant nothing right now. It didn’t explain why they were in prison. Neither gave him any clue about his business in Hueco Mundo. Since they had come back Gin had remained silent, lost in his inner world, and Ichigo didn’t dare disturb him.
Instead, he tried to sleep. He knew that he would need all his strength the next day, when he explained everything to his friends. They had gone to Hueco Mundo despite the prohibition from the Captain Commander, so they deserved to know the bitter truth.
Ichigo was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice any presence until Inoue’s soft voice filled their cell.
“Oi, Ichigo” She was smiling warmly.
Ichigo jumped to the cell bars, clinging there, carefully examining Inoue’s features. She looked truly exhausted; her clothes were still covered with dust and dry blood. She was still wearing the white outfit of Aizen’s men and Ichigo realized for the very first time that it actually looked great on her. He moved one hand to cup Inoue’s face, smiling when her hand covered his. They remained there for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. Lots of questions filled their minds but neither of them seemed ready to start verbalizing them.
Beside them, things flowed easier. Matsumoto had opened a small door and stormed into the cell, almost hollering questions at the older shinigami. When Gin only answered with a silent smile, she started yelling, and quickly moved to physical aggression. Effortlessly, Gin caught Matsumoto’s wrists and forced her to stand still, watching intently as the tears ran down her cheeks. He moved one hand slowly up to her face and gently brushed his thumb over her cheek, removing the falling drops before releasing her. His other hand closed at the back of her neck, bringing her close and crushing their lips together. Matsumoto felt her anger leave as fast as it had come, embracing him and responding eagerly to the kiss.
Paying them no more attention, Inoue approached Ichigo and finally broke the silence.
“Do you want to talk?” It was a soft invitation, without pressure; like she always did. Ichigo knew that if he refused, she wouldn’t insist nor would try to push him. He loved her for that. But he couldn’t hide it anymore. It was past time for them to talk.
“Yeah. I have a lot to tell you.” His voice sounded tired, not with the usual physical tiredness he used to have after a battle, but something deeper, sadder.
“You don’t have to.” Closing the distance, Inoue buried her fingers in his orange hair, wild and messy, and played lazily with some locks.
“I want to.” Ichigo’s thumb caressed her lower lip. Slowly, he leaned down to kiss her. She moved her hand to the base of his skull as they deepened the kiss, unable to release their hold, fearing that everything would fall apart the moment they separated.
Matsumoto’s loud and clear laugh forced them to face reality again. Behind them, Gin had the vice-captain pinned to the wall and was whispering huskily into her neck.
“You are such a pervert, Gin” The former captain released her, smirking widely.
“It’s your fault, Ran.” He turned his back to her and moved to the younger couple. “And quit bitching, you loved it.”
“Arrogant prick.” Matsumoto moved faster, hitting Gin on the head while advancing toward him. “Well guys, we need to talk. The four of us.”
“Not only us.” The three people turned to look at Gin, who was still massaging his head where Matsumoto had reprimanded him. “Ran, can you still open a secure senkaimon?”
“Where to?” She cocked her head to look at him, curious to know what the shinigami had in mind.
Gin just smiled enigmatically. “Urahara’s shop. He has seen enough to make out most of the plot, so we can just take a direct approach.”
Ichigo frowned. He had decided to tell Inoue everything; which was not a big deal since she already knew most of the story, but facing Urahara was a lot different. Unfortunately, Gin was right. He had seen Shiro’s released form defeating Aizen and had even exchanged a few words with him; so he had probably figured out most of the picture by now. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a senkaimon opened under Matsumoto’s command. This time, Ichigo didn’t bother to ask if anybody in the Seireitei would notice their departure. He had already concluded that security measures meant nothing to Gin; and looking at the lack of surprise from Matsumoto’s part, it was pretty obvious that this wasn’t the first time she had broken the rules either.
A few minutes later, they were seated in Urahara’s living room, sharing tea while everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. Inoue was seated close to Ichigo; her mere presence was a reassuring calm warming his worries, which were mainly focused on the shop’s owner and the best way to bring the subject up. However, Urahara paid him no attention, as his gaze was placed on Matsumoto, trying to figure out how involved she really was—or had been. The vice-captain shifted uncomfortably under the green-silver stare and turned to look at Gin, who was smiling as calm as ever, stirring his dark steaming tea lazily.
“So, can we finally talk,” Matsumoto smirked slightly at her partner “ex-Captain Ichimaru?”
Gin snorted softly and turned to face Urahara to answer. “Of course Ran, let’s put the cards on the table. Don’t you agree, Kisuke?”
“I completely agree, Gin.” Urahara was smiling flawlessly. “Mainly because this time I hold no cards at all.”
Gin chuckled softly. “Yeah, sure. Let me ask you something: when did you figure out my plan?”
Urahara relaxed in his chair and took a sip of his tea before answering. “I started to seriously suspect something when you kidnapped Inoue. It precipitated the war and timing was in your favor. So, it wasn’t a logical step.”
“And Soul Society shared this opinion?” Gin cocked an eyebrow in an incredulous gesture.
Urahara sighed. “They thought you wanted to divide our army. And so did Aizen, I assume.”
“Yeah. He was as narrow-minded as the rest of the captains.” Gin also relaxed in his chair and waited for Urahara to continue.
“I hate to admit it, but it was a wise move. Of course, at that time I had no idea about who was under the plot... I suspected you, and the way you and Kurosaki fought confirmed my suspicions. You weren’t fighting him at all; but I didn’t know if Kurosaki was aware of this. He didn’t seem to fear you, but he didn’t look like he knew what was going on either. Of course, when I found you later it was pretty obvious there was something between you.” Ichigo shifted uncomfortably at these words, but Urahara only smirked at him “We will get to that later, Kurosaki.” Facing Gin again he continued. “But what amazed me the most was the tactics used during Karakura’s war. You matched people by abilities so not a single shinigami died. How the hell did you manage to not lose anybody?”
Gin’s eyes opened for the first time. They were icy cold, and so was his voice. “I lost most of the low ranks, the King and a few espadas in Hueco Mundo; don’t you dare say I haven’t fucking lost anybody. My arrancars fought to win, your shinigami fought to kill.”
Urahara’s eyes widened slightly while he approached the table, showing a bit of surprise for the first time this night “Your arrancars? The King?”
Gin forced himself to calm down, his voice sounding softer but the sharp edge was still there. “Barragan was the closest to a king that could ever be in Hueco Mundo. He should lead the situation now.”
Urahara sounded sincerely curious this time. “But he was not the first espada.”
“Aizen never considered it necessary to keep a self proclaimed king as their leader, so he decided to rank them by the raw power that they showed to him. He never knew that the arrancars had always listened to their King, although it didn’t mean that they followed his commands or suggestions; but his opinions were always considered.”Gin took a pause and let his gaze drift to the ceiling. When he spoke again, his voice was stained with a tinge of resentment. “Like the rest of the shinigami, Aizen considered all arrancars arrogant enough to blatantly reveal their powers if threatened properly, so he never thought that any of them would decide to hide something from him.”
Urahara relaxed slightly in his chair, his face a mixture of surprise and amusement. “So, you mean that the ones fighting in Karakura weren’t the strongest espada?”
“It depends on what you mean by strongest… Do you mean raw power? In a team fight? In a one to one combat?” Gin relaxed at the sight of Urahara’s delighted interest and smirked slightly before going on. “Or do you mean in a street fight? It’s not so easy to rank powerful people. Would you dare to rank the shinigami captains?”
Urahara didn’t take the bait and focused instead on his previous concerns. “Why would some arrancars hide their power?”
Gin’s answer was as cryptic as his current smile. “The more powerful you are considered, the less freedom you are allowed. If you pretend to go unnoticed, it’s better to be average.”
The blond shinigami chuckled softly but didn’t skip the subject. “That just brings me to the same question: why would they want to go unnoticed?” His voice was almost playful, but his eyes shined with knowledge far from untroubled.
Gin noticed Urahara’s hard stare behind the easy smile. “You don’t think I went this far just to save Soul Society from Aizen’s plans, do you? Please, I thought you were smarter, Kisuke.”
The blond shinigami leaned back in his chair as realization fell over him like icy rain. “You expected them to kill each other.”
Gin acknowledged the truth hidden below these words. “I hoped they might kill each other; but as none of them died, now I have to walk the longer path.”
“Wait, wait…” Ichigo couldn’t remain silent for longer. He had barely followed the conversation, but now he was completely lost. At his side, Inoue looked as clueless as him. After an awkward silence, Matsumoto answered his unspoken question.
“Yamamoto.” She was playing lazily with the tea spoon, never facing anybody. “He wished him dead.”
“The old man?” Ichigo’s surprise only increased as he realized Matsumoto was completely unimpressed by the revelation. He stood up, facing Gin, his voice rising “You wanna kill him?”
Gin only smiled tiredly. “I said I hoped he died, not that I wanted to kill him. Everything would be easier without him messing around.”
Ichigo sighed and dropped down onto his chair. The exhaustion was starting to weigh heavily on him.
“So, what’s your plan now? Just sit down and wait in prison?” Ichigo took the tea cup and drank a sip, trying to recover a little serenity, something that had never been his strongest point so far.
Gin left his tea to watch Ichigo’s reaction. “No, in fact I’m gonna use you to convince that stubborn old man to make a deal with the vasto lordes of Hueco Mundo.”
Ichigo almost choked into his tea before looking back at Gin, eyes wide open, while Urahara laughed loudly at his words. Inoue was as shocked as Ichigo, but she felt too stunned to overreact.
“What the fuck are you laughing at?” Ichigo frowned at Urahara’s reaction, although the mood lightening was more than evident.
Surprisingly, it was Matsumoto’s turn to feel like something was missing. “Precisely, Gin. What is Kurosaki’s role in the picture? Has it something to do with his hollow powers?”
Everybody was now looking at him. Ichigo felt himself blushing at the sudden unwanted attention. He had a pretty good idea about Gin’s intentions, but he didn’t know how to explain his so called “hollow powers” yet; so, he decided to drink to avoid the stares. Unfortunately for him, Gin spoke again, smiling widely without even looking at the blushing shinigami.
“Well, since Ichigo is on friendly terms with his hollow, I thought that Shirosaki could be extremely useful to prove… the hollow’s harmless nature.”
Ichigo did choke this time and blushed again. There was no coming back from this point. It was true that Matsumoto and Urahara had already seen Shiro but from now on, they will know that he “willingly” allowed his hollow to take full control of his body. What if they freaked out? What if…
“Ichigo, why do you look so upset?” Inoue’s voice stopped his storming mind, drawing him out of those unsettling thoughts. “We have already met him, it’s not that big a deal.”
“It’s just. I...”. He couldn’t bring himself to answer anything coherent at that point.
Inoue cut him off helpfully. “You didn’t want us to freak out?” She smirked at him playfully, Ichigo feeling immediately better.
“Yeah; he can be kinda creepy.”
Gin interrupted their private joke, his words teasing Ichigo. “Wouldn’t it be easier and faster to explain if you just let him out?” Without another word, Gin stood up and walked to the nearest wall. He placed a hand on it while whispering something and after a brief sparkle, a faint glow covered the four walls and the ceiling.
He came back to join the others in the table as Urahara looked at him mildly impressed. “A hollow’s reiatsu barrier, I suppose?”
Gin smirked at the shop owner. “Just in case yours doesn’t work fine with hollows.”
Urahara gave him an incredulous look. “So, are you assuming that Ichigo is going to release his hollow in my living room?”
Ichigo suddenly realized Gin’s real intentions. The point has never been to reveal that he had a hollow, nor that he could fully transform either. The astonishing part for the shinigami was to accept that they could peacefully coexist with a hollow. So, choosing a living room, with everybody drinking tea peacefully, instead of revealing him in the basement grounds was the key point.
Ichigo grinned widely at Urahara, enjoying the fact that, for the very first time since they met, he will be able to surprise the older man. “Gin is right, Shiro can explain everything much better than I can. See you in a while, guys.”
Before disappearing, he gave a glimpse on Gin’s eyes, understanding finally flowing between them. The usual swirl of black reiatsu left Shirosaki sitting relaxed on Ichigo’s place. His reversed black and golden eyes shined amused at the people staring at him.
“Long time no see, Gin” It had barely been two hours since they had gone to Hueco Mundo, but the hollow knew that the others had no idea about their little adventure. Gin smirked at him, not missing the irony of his words.
“It’s been an awfully long day, Shiro. Have you been listening all the time?” Gin refilled Ichigo’s cup with tea without asking, and offered him the sugars. “Shiro took two sweet cubes and stirred the steaming cup, clearly amused by the situation.
“Of course. I never miss Ichigo’s embarrassing moments.” He took a deep sip and looked at the group of people gathered there. “So, why exactly am I at this lovely tea party?”
Gin smiled innocently. “I wanted to properly introduce you to my dearest friend, Matsumoto Rangiku.”
Shiro stared at her intensively, grinning lustfully at the sight of her breasts. “It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you, honey. I can see why he is your friend.”
“She is much more than a lovely cover, Shiro. And she is mine, so keep your hands off her.”
He could have sounded threatening, but his amused features highly reduced the effect.
Shiro snorted before teasing him a little more. “I didn’t know you were so—picky. And I haven’t even tried to put my hands on her. Yet.”
“You guys do know that I’m here, don’t you?” Matsumoto frowned and looked at Gin. “If you ever had the right to call me ‘mine’, you completely lost it a month ago, so you better start working on making it up to me.” She smirked at Gin’s mildly surprised face and turned to Shiro. “And if you ever dream about laying a hand on my fucking wonderful body, you are more than welcome to try. But you better keep in mind that I’m not easy to reach.” She leaned forward, blue eyes locked on golden ones. “I’m a vice-captain; I’m more than capable to cut your hand off if you are not worthy of it, hollow.”
Urahara and Inoue tensed, faces worried as they half expected a violent reaction from Ichigo’s hollow. However, Shiro laughed loudly at Matsumoto empty threat. “I now can see why he likes you. You are a pretty interesting woman, shinigami. I like you.”
Urahara had been silently observing their interaction. Obviously, Gin and Ichigo’s hollow knew each other, but he was surprised at Matsumoto’s reaction. She wasn’t intimidated by the hollow’s form, nor his provocative comments. In fact, the three of them seemed to play a disrespectful verbal battle, a mixture of sexual insinuations and empty fighting threats. He understood that Gin was used to this kind of interaction, as he had been in Hueco Mundo for the last month, and he had probably been going there long before that, but he had no idea why Matsumoto seemed to be so comfortable with this. It almost looked like she was also used to interacting with hollows, which would have been impossible unless... He grinned. This night was starting to get very interesting.
“How long have you been going to Hueco Mundo, Matsumoto?”
Everybody turned to face her. Matsumoto grinned back enigmatically. “Long enough.”
When she didn’t elaborate, he let the issue go for now and turned to speak to Shiro for the first time. “So, what kind of agreement have you made with Ichigo? You overpowered him?”
Shiro’s face grew serious “We share the body—willingly. I have always overpowered him, but I’m not taking over by force.”
“Why not?” Urahara was truly curious now. He, as well as the rest of the shinigami, had always assumed that Ichigo’s hollow would try to control him at some point.
Shiro sighed. He realized every shinigami he met would eventually ask the very same questions, and explaining himself all over again was a pain in the ass; but he had promised Gin he would help, so he took a deep breath and faced Urahara. “We had an agreement. I have few demands and I’m easy to please. If I’m fine, Ichigo is fine, so everybody is fine. It’s much easier that way than a constant fight for dominance.”
Urahara looked at him slightly amused. “I see. So you are the one who defeated Aizen, after all?”
Shiro smirked. He expected Urahara to start asking the endless battery of silly questions about their situation, but he seemed to be perfectly fine with it. It surprised him, but couldn’t say he didn’t prefer it that way. “Not really. We fought together. Aizen was stronger than me. We joined forces.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you were so close that you could do that. I guess you both have been training a lot.” Shiro didn’t miss the glance the blond man gave Gin.
“There’s still room for improvement.”
Urahara smiled enigmatically. “You can train here if you want. It’s completely sealed, even for hollow’s reiatsu.” He directed the last words to Gin and was now grinning openly to Shiro and added. “And you can bring whatever sparring partner you like.”
Shiro stared at him, not missing the implications of what Urahara was offering. “Without questions?”
“Hm, hm” The old shinigami held the golden stare until Shiro finally whispered.
“Why?”
Urahara smiled. “If both of you are fine, it’s a good enough reason for me. And you probably are going to need some place to release the stress of your ‘evaluation’. Dealing with the shinigami of Soul Society can be highly stressful.”
The hollow smirked back. “I’m not as easy to upset as Ichigo, but thanks.”
Shiro finally turned to Inoue grinning widely. She had been staring at her empty cup since he appeared, so he had no clue about which attitude the girl would have with him. But as everybody had dropped their masks, he hoped she would, too. He really hated her sweet shield.
“Nice to see you again, sweetie.” He leaned closer, to whisper in her neck “Did I scare you at that tower?”
The last time they had seen each other was during the fight with Ulquiorra, when he had released his body trying to save Ichigo. He had completely lost his temper and gave a bloody show. It had been more a butchery than a fight. And not to mention, it had been the first time she felt his dark reiatsu unleashed without the training seals.
She leveled her gaze with the hollow’s, meeting those weird black and golden eyes. Smirking slightly she moved her right hand to grab Shiro’s collar, holding him close. Deliberately being slow, she used her other hand to tilt Shiro’s chin while she leaned closer, their lips almost touching. When she finally spoke, her words flew soft and slow.
“There is no fucking way you scare me, Shiro.” She caressed his lower lip with her thumb. “And I clearly told you not to call me that.”
Shiro snorted and grabbed the teasing hand. “And I clearly remember telling you I would when you stopped behaving like one.”
She made no move to release her hand from Shiro’s iron grip and held his stare. “Well, I’m not now.”
Shiro cocked an eyebrow. “You sure?”
Inoue blinked. She felt her resolve faltering at the thought of the implications in Shiro’s words.
Everybody in that room had been sincere so far, even Ichigo had let everything out. Now it was her turn to place the cards on the table. Throwing all cautions to the wind, she locked her eyes on Shiro’s. “No, I’m not. But it’s about time.”
He grinned at the new found resolve on her eyes and closed the small distance they had between them, crushing their lips together. It was rough and short, but the message was perfectly delivered to all present.
“Well, nice to know that you are finally in the open, healer bitch.”
Inoue chuckled. “Go to hell.”
Shiro released her and turned to the stunned faces of all that were present. “See you, guys.” Without any more warnings, Shiro’s form reversed to Ichigo’s, who looked nervously at Urahara. The blond shinigami grinned flawlessly to the orange haired boy.
“You never stop surprising me, Kurosaki. One can never get bored around you.”
“Are you really OK, with this? Aren’t you worried?” Ichigo was still reluctant to believe that the subject was over. And the funny looks that Matsumoto was giving to Inoue promised that the matter was far from over.
Urahara chuckled. “It’s your decision. If you are fine and she is OK, then it’s enough for me.” He smiled amused at Ichigo’s and Inoue’s sudden blush. “However, you should be sure that you tell your friends before they discover it by an official report.” His smile vanished at some unpleasant thought, and he hesitated a moment before continuing. “And you must face Hirako. The sooner, the better.”
Ichigo shifted uncomfortably at the thought of Shinji’s temper. Urahara turned to look at Gin again, this time there was no amusement left in his voice.
“Anyway, there are more worrisome things to deal with at the moment. You do know they are going to blame you for his choice, don’t you?”
Gin’s voice sounded tired. “Of course. But I had no other options.”
“Are you really commanding the vasto lordes?” Urahara’s eyes shined strangely bright, his voice lower than usual.
Gin snorted faintly. “Nobody commands a vasto lorde. We just work together.”
“What for?”
The silver haired shinigami took a deep breath before talking with the same tired voice from a moment ago. “vasto lordes and shinigami captains have the same objective; they just disagree on the methodology. It should be easy to cooperate.”
Ichigo interrupted again, feeling himself missing something again. “Same objective?”
Urahara answered first this time. “Soul balance control. If unbalanced, the three worlds would collapse.”
“Oh. So, where is the problem?” Ichigo’s innocent look reminded Urahara how young the boy was, and how few things he knew about the shinigami. So many things happened in the last months that the older man easily forgot; that only a year ago Ichigo was merely a human.
“They won’t accept any alliance with a hollow, vasto lorde or not. If he’s a hollow, then he must be killed.” The blond shinigami’s voice sounded also tired. Something changed in his eyes, as if this statement had stirred some old unpleasant memory.
Ichigo still refused to give up. “Even if he doesn’t attack anybody?”
“It’s a potential threat that we cannot allow.” Ichigo looked puzzled at Gin, who had mimicked Yamamoto’s commanding tone.
Urahara smiled sadly. “You have no chance to win this, Gin. Are you really going to drag them into a war against their own friends?”
Before Gin could say a word, Ichigo cut him off sharply. “I will never have to fight my friends, Urahara, they will trust me.” His voice sounded exhausted, but held Urahara’s stare until the blond shinigami sighed.
“One thing is trusting you, another one is trusting the former Captain Ichimaru.” His voice sounded harder than he had intended. Reluctantly, he decided not to push the matter any further. “Well, let’s hope we won’t need to check this point, Kurosaki.” The former captain stood up slowly, finishing the conversation. He faced Gin one more time, his voice calmer. “Whatever you need, Gin.” He didn’t need to finish the sentence as they found an unspoken understanding when their eyes met.
“Thanks Kisuke.”
Even Matsumoto was surprised by the sincerity of Gin’s voice.
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Middle Grounds