The yawn that left his mouth upon waking up was so gratuitous, he's lucky he didn't wake up his mother. Throwing the blanket off his body, he went to swing his legs off the side of his bed but something was there. Staring up at him with electric blue eyes. His scream was not girly and he would fight anyone who said otherwise. The overzealous amount of space under his bed had facilitated many nightmares in the past of monsters lurking just below him. He never expected them to be real, let alone in the form of a hyper violent man with apparently no sense of direction.
"You sleep late for a fucking kid. Shouldn't you be playing outside or something." He teased as he got up from under the bed.
The shocked teen sputtered, pressing himself back against the wall as he pointed at the intruder.
"Y-you, what are you doing in my house!?"
With all the commotion and noise he was making , his mother definitely would've rushed in if she was here. He was simultaneously relieved she was out of harm's way but also scared that he was home alone with this feral monster.
"Didn't wanna go back to that shit hole so soon, so I bunked here. No big deal." The man answered, crudely jamming a pinkie finger in his ear.
Calming down, Akito pinched the bridge of his nose. This man clearly wasn't human, so calling the police would'nt be of much help. He wanted to cut this interaction as short as possible.
"If this is about this Ichigo person again, I told you: I don't know where he is."
The man looked down at him like he was something gross on the bottom of his shoe. A cat looking at a captured mouse that wasn't good enough to eat. Honestly, Aki felt like he was underreacting considering what he had seen the man do. Politely asking him to leave was out of the question; he looked like he hadn't said the word please or thank you once in his life.
"You can see me but you don't know what I am?" The man asked incredulously, tone filled with contempt at Akito's clear lack of knowledge.
"I can see you? What do you mean I can see you?"
The man lifted his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as he scowled. Shaking his head, he rudely pushed Akito out the way so he could climb out his window. In a second, he was gone. Running his hand over the window frame, Akito spotted the broken latch.
"Dick..."
_._._._
Everything was fine for a couple of days. No nightmares. No monsters. And especially, no weird, blue haired guy. His mother was away for a week-long trip, so she had dropped off his little sister at the childminders house. Akito was by himself once again. It was a routine he was used to, so he didn't feel lonely by any means. Sipping on his water, he couldn't help but think back to the man's terrible insult. So what if he slept in? It was Saturday. Shaking his head, he discarded any and all thoughts about the dubiously interesting man. Washing out his glass, he made his way back to his room.
For the next hour or two, he meticulously practised his craft. Wearing gloves to protect his hands from the chemicals he had to utilize. Multiple brushes and other tools had been laid out on his table; a small basin of soapy water close by. Rapidly, he scrubbed with one of the small brushes, banishing all the dirt that had lodged itself within crevices and grooves. After the cleaning was done, he got a towel to dry them off. Thoroughly dried, he grabbed more tools to begin the mending process. Thanks to the headphones placed firmly on his head and playing music, he didn't hear as the intruder from before invited himself back in. Sitting backwards on the desk chair, the ex-espada rested his chin and arms on the back rest as he peered at the human. 'Supposed human' he thought.
Akito hummed along to the song, becoming more and more happy with the outcome of his work. Setting down his tools, he turned to get up only for someone's face to be practically touching his shoulder. Jumping away, he screamed whilst wrenching his headphones from his ears.
"Gah! What the hell!?" He shouted, rubbing his arm where he had bumped it against his drawers. His heart was pounding hard in his chest.
The man just crouched by his table with a glare, closely examining the items on it.
"The fuck are you doing?"
Akito scoffed, sitting up in the cross-legged position. Apprehensively, he watched closely as the man grabbed the fruits of his labour.
"That's my line." He shot back only to flinch when a cold look was sent his way.
Realising he hadn't answered his question, he stuttered out a response.
"I fix up shoes then sell them."
Blue eyes squinted at the pristine white sneakers, looking at them from every angle.
"That's stupid. Who would want that?"
Akito huffed, not in the mood to explain the business behind refurbishing things to a man who probably stole everything he owned. He frowned, mentally chastising himself for being so lenient with this intruder. Even Though he knew what the man was capable of, he didn't want to come across as a helpless boy with no agency. Disparity in strength was no excuse to disregard basic respect.
"Hey, I don't appreciate you breaking through my window and touching my stuff." He declared with a firm tone.
The shoe was slammed back down with a loud bang followed by light blue eyes turning to Akito's dark irises. He was surprised the boy had the guts to talk to him in such a manner. It reminded him of a certain red head and it pissed him off.
"Oh yeah? Well you better learn to appreciate it." He replied with a smirk.
It was a very cryptic response, so Akito didn't know if he should interpret it as a threat or not. Looking at the way he was grinning made him think it was. Folding his arms, the teen regarded the other with mild annoyance. He was less afraid; if he intended to hurt him, he definitely would've done it already. Getting some information would be a good start.
"Are you gonna at least tell me why you're here? Or your name?"
Standing up, the man scratched his cheek as he looked around the room as if surveying it for something.
"My name's none of your fucking business."
"Sounds foreign." Akito quipped with a roll of his eyes.
He raised his arms up in a defensive position when the man suddenly pivoted to face him with his fist clenched and raised. The snort and laugh that followed made him pout.
_._._._
Making food for a strange man who had threatened him more times than he could count in the span of a couple minutes probably wasn't a good idea. As he served up a basic breakfast consisting of a heart stopping amount of bacon and eggs, he decided to make the most out of the situation.
"You're not from here, are you?" He asked, watching the man wolf down the meat like he hadn't eaten in 3 years.
He didn't get an answer until the plate was gleaming, having been thoroughly ravaged by the inauspicious man.
"I'm an Espada , dip shit. Well, that's the title we were given by that bastard, Aizen."
The first answer he had gotten and it was complete gibberish. Perhaps his hopes were a little high.
"Espawhat?"
The atmosphere became thick with a palpable sense of bemusement. Akito shuffled at the feeling of judgemental eyes glaring daggers at him.
"Are you... Actually retarded? You were dropped on your head, weren't you? That dog fur you call hair is covering up a dent, isn't it?"
Akito pursed his lips, tempted to snap back with his own insult but knew it would only end poorly. For some reason, this guy assumed he knew about arrancars and he had to find out why.
"What do you think I am?" Akito asked, putting his hand to his chest with an earnest expression.
"Some fucked up version of a soul reaper, obviously."
Akito nodded. That was the second answer he had gotten and it made slightly more sense.
"Mhm. What exactly is that?"
_._._._
Handing him an erasable marker, Akito sat on his bed to watch his new teacher explain things. He had pulled out his mother's whiteboard to make things easier although had to tell his teacher not to bite the marker unless he wanted ink poisoning.
"Pfft, like this dumb thing can poison me."
"This-" he said whilst pointing at a circle "is the world of the living." He moved his hand down to a circle below it "this is the soul society. Shitty place. Don't go there."
Akito nodded, focusing intently as his hand moved down yet again to another circle.
"Then this is Hueco Mundo." He hastily shaded the circle with the black marker. "It's black and cold and boring. It's where hollows live."
Akito raised his hand, forgetting he wasn't actually in school. It didn't matter as the man pointed to him anyway.
"What's a hollow?"
He watched as a monster-like being was drawn with a hole in the middle of its chest. Surprisingly, he wasn't a bad artist despite stating he had never drawn anything in his life. Perhaps he had a photographic memory of sorts. A wave of realisation hit him. All those monsters he had seen were hollows! He felt stupid for calling them 'big freaking nightmares' in his head. He learned about how hollows came to be as well as the different variations of them. It didn't come as a surprise when the man explained how he was essentially at the top of the hollow food chain. He would probably be at the top of the human food chain as well. Unfortunately, he did fit the bill of a typical alpha male both physically and personality wise. He then went on to explain what Soul Reapers were, going on a tangent about the Ichigo person and how he wanted nothing more than to tear him to pieces.
Slapping his hands down on his thighs, Akito thanked him for the wealth of information.
"Thank you. But-" he looked up, a perplexed smile on his face "I barely understood any of that." He whispered.
The pen slammed into his head hard enough to leave a bump.
"Too bad! I'm not going through all that shit again!" his teacher exclaimed, kicking over the white board in anger.
Akito rubbed his head, picking up his phone he had placed beside him on his bed.
"I knew you would say something like that, so I recorded all of it." He proudly revealed with a smile.
After so long, he was finally learning about all this weird stuff. The only places he could consult were the internet and random occult books which never seemed to have the answers he was looking for. Maybe this man was here for some inexplicable yet beneficial reason. His smile quickly faded into a frown, something not adding up in his mind.
"But, the nightmares look like normal people. They're definitely not espadas or arrancars, so what are they?"
The blue haired man collapsed onto the desk chair again, frowning.
"Nightmares? The fuck are you talking about?"
"It's these people who have black eyes and come out at night. I'll slice them with my sword and they'll turn back to normal." He recounted, making the motion of slicing with his hands.
Evidently, his explanation wasn't very good if the man's perplexed expression was anything to go by. Sighing, he took out his phone, finding the appropriate picture and showing it to him.
The small device was snatched from his hand so the man could stare at the screen. After a minute, he came to a conclusion.
"They've been affected by a hollow. Some hollows have unique abilities."
Akito nodded, making a mental note of it. 'Perhaps the hollow used the infected people to bring more victims back to it.' Slamming his fist into his palm, he put on a determined expression.
"So, I have to hunt down the hollow who's been affecting them!"
His burst of determination went just as fast as it came, shoulders sagging in premature defeat. His nervousness was heightened by the fact he now knew there was more than one kind of hollow.
"I-I don't think I'll be able to kill it though."
Thanks to his reflexes, he caught his phone that had been unceremoniously thrown at him.
"Huh? Didn't you try to kill a hollow a couple days ago? Why are you being a pussy now?" came his teacher's uplifting inquiry.
Scratching the back of his head, the teen frowned at his needlessly hurtful wording.
"That was... I just wanted to help the spirit I saw." He mumbled, remembering the scared face of the ghost.
The whole time he was in that conflict, he wanted nothing more than to run away. It was a humiliating fact but one he couldn't deny. Waving his hands, he brushed away that train of thought.
"A-anyway. You never told me why you're here." Akito reiterated.
This question was apparently treasonous based on the man's over the top reaction. He flipped his desk chair so hard it rotated in a blur before skidding across the floor. He pointed to Akito who held his hands up like he was facing a loaded gun.
"Yes I fucking did! Clean out your ears, moron! I'm here to kill that asshole, Ichigo!"
Laughing quietly to dampen his scared state Akito shook his head, pointing at the ground.
"I mean here. In my house."
The man grinned, picking up the chair again to plop himself down on it. The poor thing was going to break sooner or later with all the abuse. He spun around, menacing grin showing off his pearly whites. 'Who is this guy's dentist?'
"Like I said, you're the only person I've found that can see me."
Slamming his feet on the ground, he stopped the chair so he was facing Akito who felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead.
"We're gonna have some real fun. Roomie."
Room mates. Okay. Now knowing his intent, Akito felt himself calm down. Using the word "only" implied people like Akito were a rarity, meaning he was indispensable to this man. At least, he hoped he was. Maybe this man was an attention seeker who just wanted to be with someone he could interact with. Sighing, he finally let himself smile again.
"Alright, roomie. The name's Akito. Akito Maeda." He introduced, holding his hand out.
His gesture was ignored as the man spun back around, letting his eyes wander around his room again. He really liked this chair.
"Grimmjow. Grimmjow jaegerjaquez."
"... Yeah, I'm just gonna call you Grimmy."
"Like fuck you will!"