Day 6: The Morning After the Night Before

This article, , is the third chapter of the Investigating Grat arc, which is part of Bleach: Cataclysm. Garrett Sheppard remains the primary point-of-view character.

Brief flashes -- likely memories -- kept running through Garrett's mind as he slept. One moment he saw a woman, whom he was certain was Tiffany, dressed in the signature black of a. Next he was flying through the air, his ribs more than likely cracked or broken, before colliding hard with the floor.

Light flooded his senses and he sat bolt-upright!

"Owww!"

That really wasn't a good idea. His shoulder and ribs protested at the sudden and explosive movement and he ended up collapsing back onto the mattress which supported him. For a time he lay there, breathing laboured and body sore, staring at the ceiling. The design of the plastering on the roof was different from his bedroom.

"Where am I?"

"I didn't know where else to take you."

He turned his head a fraction to see the speaker. Tiffany was dressed in a long pink-coloured house-coat. Her feet sported frilly padded slippers. By the look of her she wasn't long out of the shower either: her hair was still wet.

"So it was you I saw last night." Garrett insisted. "You're a Shinigami."

"Rogue Shinigami, thank you very much." She answered with a little smile.

"What did you do?"

"... They condemned me because of who I am, as if it was something I could change. I'm sorry, can we talk about something else?"

That just made him all-the-more curious but he wouldn't get anything else out of her without appearing ungrateful. She would tell him or she wouldn't: it was as simple as that. So he nodded his head and sat up a little more carefully this time and turned to face her, his feet dangling out over the edge of the bed.

The blankets barely covered him now and he realized that he was butt-ass nude beneath! He pulled the blankets around him again. Tiffany answered him with a slight smile though the colour was rising in her cheeks.

"I take it you did this?"

"I put your clothes in the wash." Tiffany answered, somewhat defensively. "Not to be rude or anything, but when that Hollow hit you, it sent you flying into the gutter." His nose twitched at that. "You smelled bad. Like really bad."

He could have said anything at that point. Opened with something cool or off-handed. Make light of the situation. But no, Garrett wasn't really thinking with his primary brain right now. He saw Tiffany leaning against the door-frame, hair and body still wet from her recent shower, and he felt a tingling in his loins.

"So... you've seen me naked." He started. As he spoke he was wondering just what the fuck he was doing. "Can't help but feel our situation here is a little one-sided."

She turned away from him.

"You still stink, by the way. The shower's at the end of the hall and to the right." She turned to look at him then. "Your clothes are sitting on the floor. I'll get started on breakfast."

So he went to the shower, taking considerable care that Tiffany didn't spy him naked once again. The shower-room was unremarkable. He had spied painting paraphernalia sitting in the hallway. Now that he thought about she had only been in the area for about two weeks. He saw how he would repay her for the help. He was a deft hand at the old painting and decorating.

He stepped into the shower cubicle, taking the time to remove his various bandages beforehand, and turned the water on. The water that swirled down the drain had hints of blood in it though that came as no great shock to Garrett. His ribs where bruised and the cuts around his left shoulder-blade ached. It was from those cuts the blood had flowed but he applied some pressure -- which hurt like a bitch -- and soon he was drying himself off.

He found his clothes folded neatly on the floor and dressed his lower half quickly. He then studied himself in the mirror as he began the arduous task of redressing his shoulder. Despite being only sixteen years of age Garrett was muscular for his age. He was quite tall too; he stood just shy of six foot.

"Damn I need a shave and trim."

His hair was almost shoulder-length at the moment and he had the beginnings of a descent beard. Nothing quite like what Randy would have grown in the same span of time, but impressive all the same. He finished dressing his wound and stepped outside into the hallway.

He found Tiffany in the kitchen.

"Breakfast's nearly done."

She was swinging the pan. The delicious smell of frying sausages, bacon and soda-bread played havoc with his nose. He was practically drooling! When she cracked two eggs into a separate pan he couldn't contain the growls of his stomach.

"I saw the paint tins out there." He said. "I can help out with the decorations if you want. As a thank you for all this."

"You'd do that?" She asked. She was clearly surprised.

"Well, sure. You looked after me, washed my clothes, and now you're gonna feed me. It's the least that I-"

The ringing of his phone brought him up short.

"Sorry." It was May. "Morning."

"Garrett, I'm just calling to tell you something's come up. I won't make the cinema tonight."

"Sure, don't worry about it. I'll talk to you later." He turned to Tiffany. "I've got a cinema ticket that was just freed up. Fancy a film tonight?"

This could end up being an alright day after all.