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Ichigo huffs as he drops the pile of blankets he was holding onto the ever growing pile on his bed. He steps back and stares at it. The pile spans almost the entirety of his bed, and almost up to his chest in height.
He might… need a bigger space…
Get th' spare futons and spread 'em out on the floor. Ya should have enough space in th' middle of th' room.
Good idea.
And get more clothes. Zangestu suggests, It's not gonna be any good if it only smells like ya.
Right, right. He can grab somethings from his sisters' room when he grabs the extra futons, and Goat-Face is out, so his lab coat should be easy enough to snag. There is a jacket hanging off his chair that Chad left the last time he was here, and he has one of Orihime's cardigans that he had taken from her desk where it had been forgotten after school with the intention to return it to her on patrol later. The fact that the patrol came and went and the cardigan stayed in his bag is completely besides the point.
He doesn't have an excuse as to why he has one of Uryu's shirts. It had torn one day while fighting Hollows, and after Uryu pulled on his spare and turned away, Ichigo couldn't stop himself from grabbing the torn one and stuffing it into a side pocket of his backpack.
It's fine, no one has mentioned anything being lost, so clearly their items aren't missed.
He'll get their stuff back to them… eventually…
Ichigo walks back to his room, arms laden with the pilfered goods. Setting the latest pile down, he sets to work on getting the futons set up, sheets and a layer of thin blankets for the base. Then he starts ringing the pillows in a big, rough circle and covering that with a fitted sheet to hold it's shape, a blanket draped over after. He stands in the middle with his hands on his hips. That's a pretty good wall. Time to get the rest of it put in.
A soft haze settles over Ichigo's mind as he loses himself in the soft structure being built around him, Zangetsu's gentle suggestions and encouragements filtering in every once in a while. He stuffs Uryu's shirt over one of the pillows and weaves Chad's jacket and Orihime's cardigan into the wall by the head. His family's stuff gets added wherever feels right until he's left with just the comforter from his bed, standing on the outside and wondering why it felt like something was still missing.
Zangetsu grumbles something about pack and Shinigami, which reminds Ichigo that Rukia left a dress here last time she visited. He moves over to his closet. Hopefully Yuzu hasn't washed it yet.
When he slides the door open, he startles to see a lion plush laying on the bed that's permanently taken residence in his closet. With how often Rukia comes over at such odd, frequent intervals, Ichigo has given up on taking it down between visits. But he didn't expect to find Kon seemingly taking a nap on it. He's usually with one of the girls now that the cats out of the bag with all the spiritual stuff.
"Kon?" Ichigo asks.
Kon sits up and rubs his eye-beads, "What? Can't a Mod Soul get some sleep?"
Kon, Zangetsu says.
"Kon," Ichigo agrees, and picks up the lion plush.
"Wha- hey!" Kon sputters, flailing, "What do you think you're doing?!"
Ichigo doesn't respond, just sets him down against the Uryu pillow and says, "Stay," before turning back to dig through the closet. He ignores the grumbling behind him, only briefly glancing to make sure Kon does as told.
We should talk to Kisuke about getting Kon a Gigai.
Christmas.
Yeah, Christmas was coming up in a few months. That gives him enough time to figure out the design and logistics. Ichigo has a feeling Kon would want to look similar to him, so it shouldn't be too hard.
Just then, the window to his room slides open and brings the scent of desert sands and sun-warmed fur. Ichigo doesn't startle, he felt the reiastu as soon as he opened the Garganta by the Shoten. It was just a matter of time before he made his way over here.
Ichigo whirls around, dress successfully found and in hand, "Grimmjow! Perfect! Give me your jacket!" He demands as he kneels to weave Rukia's dress in with the other clothes in the wall.
Grimmjow pauses and cocks his head. He looks around, takes in the chaos of the room before slowly removing his jacket and passing it over to Ichigo. Ichigo snatches it with a bright grin and wraps it around a smaller pillow, zipping it up and placing it next to the Uryu one.
It's quiet for a few moments while Ichigo fusses with the arrangement of the pillows and blankets, huffing at the fact that there's still something missing while Grimmjow watches with a furrow between his brows.
Eventually, he asks, "What are you doing?"
Ichigo freezes and looks down at the pile on the floor, the light fog that had been hovering around his head lifting. What was he doing?
"I… don't actually know." He responds. "I've had this slow building urge all week to take my friends things and bring them home, and today it just boiled over and I started doing… this."
Yer nesting.
"What?"
"What?" Grimmjow asks.
Ichigo waves him off, "Not you. You." He points at his own head, "What?"
Yer nesting. Zangetsu reiterates, Like an Omega.
Blood rushes to Ichigo's face so fast he's suddenly lightheaded, "How do you know about the Omegaverse?!"
How do YOU know about th' Omegaverse? Ichigo sputters and covers his face with his hands, I live in YER head, Aibou. Don't ask me why I was at the devil's sacrament when ya had ta be there ta see me.
Okay, the fact that his zanpakuto spirit knows about the Omegaverse because Ichigo has read about it aside, "Zangetsu says I'm nesting."
Grimmjow nods, "That's what I figured. 'S a good looking nest. Looks big enough for a whole pack."
Ichigo preens at the praise, even if it only brings more confusion, but before he can even open his mouth to ask more questions, Zangetsu pipes up again, Oh my god, just put th' kitty in th' nest and stop makin' it so damn complicated! Which, rude, but he can work with that.
So, deciding that he'll listen to Zangetsu for once (Thank fuckin' god!), Ichigo plops in the middle of the nest and grabs Grimmjow's wrist, tugging him to join. He's hesitant, but Ichigo just keeps tugging, and then makes a weird click-whine noise in the back of his throat that he's never made before. It's a cajoling sound, like he's trying to say comenestsafe and packpackpack. Whatever it was or wherever it came from, it clearly makes Grimmjow cave as he kicks off his boots and carefully crawls in next to Ichigo.
Pleased, Ichigo turns and starts rearranging the pillows in the nest before positioning Grimmjow where he wants him and pushing him to lay down. He goes down with surprisingly no complaint. He grabs the forgotten bed comforter, settles it over the both of them before grabbing Kon and flopping down on top on Grimmjow, who let's out an Oof but reaches to settle him properly none-the-less. It takes a moment before Ichigo is comfortably curled up onto Grimmjow's chest, Kon held close with Grimmjow's arms wrapped around him.
He sighs, content and warm, surrounded by the scents of some of his people, and a rumble starts up in his chest. It starts low and soft, an unconscious action that he doesn't really know how he's doing. And then Grimmjow's chest starts vibrating in response, and the rumbles from his chest start going higher in pitch until it's trilling at the end.
He doesn't understand these instincts, what hindbrain activated that lead him to this position, but he figures, in the safety and warmth of this nest, that they can't be too bad.
He feels a tug on his reiatsu and a warmth settle at his back as Zangestu drapes himself over him, matching Ichigo's trilling purr. Grimmjow jolts in shock, but allows himself to be soothed by Ichigo's pat on his chest.
"'s just Zangetsu." Ichigo slurs, sleep tugging at his mind.
Grimmjow grumbles, something about Fucking hybrid, but starts up his deep purr again not too long after, and Ichigo fully melts into the nest.
Yeah. Not too bad at all.