BLEACH: Creatures Born From Tragedy

The Vampire took the cigarette out of his mouth this time, laughing too much to keep it steady. Laughter; something Ichigo hadn't heard in quite a while. The teen was surprised; the longer they talked the funnier he apparently became. That was baffling to the teen. Grimmjow could be so easily angered, stoic, mute; but if you played your cards right he became talkative, easy to make laugh…and Ichigo's jokes were never funny.

Soon the both of them had settled again, taking individual drags in their silences.

"So tell me more about Vampires." Ichigo remarked with interest, flicking the end of his cigarette.

"Mn…." He agreed. The teal-haired man scratched his chin in thought; "Well" he began trying to think of a place to begin, "Why don't you just ask me questions?"

"What? But what if I don't ask a question you have an answer for?"

"Hm… " The Vampire nodded in amusement.

Ichigo seemed to come up with something though, "Well… I guess… I always wanted to know a bit more about the blood thing…"

"Like what?" Grimmjow asked.

"…Does it taste gross?"

Grimmjow laughed at the sheer absurdity of that question, "Well… I don't think so… When you become a Vampire, blood doesn't taste like it used to… the closest thing I can describe it to is… an essence…" he squeezed out the word.

"Uh…?"

"It's like drinking someone's soul, personality, energy what have you." He chuckled darkly, accent rolling with his depth. Ichigo couldn't help but feel a bit of chill as he spoke.

"So… if you feed on someone enough they'll become a soulless zombie?" Ichigo asked with wide eyes and a frown, "Vampires must have had an all-out buffet on my entire high school."

Grimmjow laughed again, god this kid was a fucking riot, "No, you don't change humans by feeding. Their energy replenishes with their blood…. But there is a folktale among Vampires that the people you feed off of, get a little tint of your personality after you feed. Injected into them from your bite. A little sliver of you that never goes away… I always thought that would be interesting if it were true…" The Vampire said the last with a vague smile.

"… Sounds fantastic, I know," He continued taking in the teen's baffled expression, "But that's what it tastes like. Most Vampires have a preference of sorts."

"What are the preferences?"

"Ohhh… like…" Grimmjow squinted his eyes and waved his hand in a circle like he were trying to wind out an example from thin air, "Angry people, they're bitter. Kind people are sweet. Body type to personality, that sort of thing."

"What's yours?"

Grimmjow thought for a moment before replying, "Well… I've never been too picky, I'll eat whoever's lying around…but I know Ulquiorra loyally weeds out the more intellectual prospects. He says, 'they're perfectly aged delicacies and are an undeniable match for his palate'. I saw him drink an idiot once. He had to out of necessity, for we'd been trapped in a crate for almost a month drinking nothing but bilge rats and-"

Ichigo gave him a look.

"It's a long story…," the Vampire laughed, "Anyway, as soon as we got off the boat he found himself in the most deplorable of moods. That lovely phase lasted for at least a year…. He said that's how long it took for him to get the taste out of his mouth. If you ask me, I say he's just ignorant to the fact that he's more stubborn than I am. 'Never again!', he shouted at me, 'Next time I'll drink the bloody captain and you get the deckhand!'...Ah, that was a miserable boat ride… "

The Vampire couldn't help but become rife with chuckling and continued Ulquiorra's rant, "He had scurvy!"

Ichigo snorted imagining a salt-stained Ulquiorra curdling and screaming at the top of his lungs on a dock to a complacent Grimmjow shuffling behind him like a perturbed spouse.

Ichigo inhaled from the cigarette again and sensuously slid the smoke from his lips racking his brain for ideas.

"Do you really sleep in coffins?" he asked; questions randomly popping into his mind.

Grimmjow groaned through a smile, "Christ, of course not…" Then Grimmjow took on a jesting tone, " C'mon Ichigo do I really look like a man who would sleep without sheets? That would be barbaric."

Ichigo cackled, "Really? I thought that was true!"

"Yes. Traveling by coffin, sure. Free from expense. Nice nap. No sun- but we really try to avoid that business as much as possible. You know how it is… How many coffins can randomly disappear or turn up empty before someone starts asking questions…" The Vampire rolled his eyes in a very annoyed tone before turning to the teen and informing him, "But! Sleeping upside down is a normalcy."

"What?" Ichigo furrowed his eye brows, "Isn't that uncomfortable?-"

As Ichigo looked over to his right, he realized Grimmjow had disappeared. The teen looked confused, "Grimmjow?... What the…?"

Just then a cigarette butt fell from the sky, dropping to the marble just a few feet away from Ichigo's shoe. Ichigo slunk back from it and looked up, seeing a smiling Grimmjow pull a replacement from his breast pocket. He masterly flicked open the lighter in a way as to not burn himself, seeming to have learned from years of practice that the flame tilted towards the ceiling. He puckered his lips slightly drawing the nicotine into his lungs. He exhaled still smiling like a feral cat. Grimmjow didn't seem to care about smiling with his teeth as most Vampires did. He carelessly showed his fangs without a thought in the world as to how they'd be taken. But then Ichigo realized, that maybe the person he ever smiled around, was someone who wouldn't know the custom. That someone being Ichigo.

The Werin couldn't help but think that was somehow nice… a private thing between them. But he dusted the thought away. He probably didn't follow the custom around anyone anyway. Grimmjow wasn't one for rules.

The teen thought it looked funny as the smoke slid slowly sideways past Grimmjow's face. Ichigo caught sight of the golden chain of Grimmjow's pocket watch as it dangled towards the floor along with any other loose articles of clothing or, in a non-clothing regard, his vibrant teal hair.

He was simply standing there on the wall as effortlessly as a shelf. His feet were firmly planted, as if he were just standing on the ground and nothing out of the ordinary were happening at all. Nothing like, defying the very laws of gravity themselves. Magic, Ichigo thought, was a wonderful, wonderful thing. Something thriving inside both the Vampire and Werin races. Something that made their very existence, possible.

The vampire tucked the cigarette in his mouth between his middle and index finger. He took a few strides, stepping on and off one of the windows lining the corridor, as if it were a mere stepping stone to the marvelous man. He exhaled through his nose leaving a trail of smoke swirling in his wake. Ichigo was extremely amused.

"Yeah, kid it's very uncomfortable," Grimmjow sneered, strolling down to ground level again without paying any mind to the 90 degree tilt he'd just taken.

"Go ahead, let me break a few more intrinsic Vampiric legends before your innocent eyes." Grimmjow commanded while adjusting the cravat around his neck.


_{Excerpt from chapter 11 of "Creatures Born From Tragedy" by ~The-Silver-Fox-Inari at FanFiction.net}
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I was totally inspired by the chapter filled with enlightening, amusingly humorous and fuzzy warm interaction between the budding friendship of two opposing factions -Ichigo, a somewhat freshly turned tiger Werin, and Grimmjow, a 272 year old Vampire- that I'm absolutely tempted to draw the two together chatting down the hallway with Ichigo asking Grimmjow various questions with childlike curiosity.

I had a lot of fun with this than I initially though, although dressing them up in formal edwardian attire, which they're both wearing, was a serious pain in the neck (but admittedly it was so worth it to see those two in such classic formal attire)... NO critique please!

Hope y'all like it~! I'd especially recommend y'all GrimmIchi fans to read the fic

Now excuse me while I go pass out for my much needed (and deprived) sleep....

<sub>[Tools: Wacom Intous tablet + Paint Tool Sai + Photoshop]




Art © *blackstorm [ME]
Characters © Tite Kubo | BLEACH
Story "Creatures Born From Tragedy" © ~The-Silver-Fox-Inari
Castle hallway stock © ~Roewyn
Vintage brush pattern © DinPattern</sub>