Arms curled loosely around the miniature menos that he’d found and decided to keep as he wandered the park. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea he ever had really, keeping a  tiny hollow as a pet, but what else was he supposed to do? The poor thing was practically defenseless and didn’t seem to eat anything except the occasional bit of fruit or meat---it was even afraid of a tiny lizard that has someway found its way into Ichigo’s room. From the moment he saw the thin, he knew he wouldn’t be able to just slice it up in good conscience and he wasn’t about to leave it to die either.
So---through an inordinate amount of poor decision making born from what have should have been an ultimately uneventful patrol a couple weeks back---he now had a tiny menos he called Mer (short, of course, for Mercutio). Bad as he knew his decision making must be, he couldn’t find himself to regret it. Mer wasn’t very noisy at all and seemed content to bounce its squishy form around his room and simply settle in his lap when it became tired. Still, his room was pretty small and cramped and Mer was from Hueco Mundo where there was endless space... Ichigo could imagine the little guy probably missed roaming around more.
That’s how the pair of them ended up walking through the part. It seemed, feeling Mer squirm around in his arms, that he was right about the guy enjoying more space to run around, but he didn’t plan on setting him down just yet. He wanted to get further into the park, away from all the screaming children and nosy parents, before he set Mer down.Â
Yet it seemed that was not to be. A hollow roared and Ichigo could see it not too far away. Typical. Setting Mer down carefully with instructions not to move from the tree he placed him in.Â
Dispatching the hollow was quick work, but he was not fast enough it seemed. By the time he returned to the tree, Mer was gone. Where the hell did he go? The little shit couldn't stand still for one minute now, could he? God fucking dammit.Â
“ Mer?! ” thank fuck he was in his soul form or else he’d have to deal with looking like even more of a crazy person than Karakura generally thought him to be. He was running through the park now. “ Where the hell did you go?! ” He was becoming frantic now.Â
And lo and behold---there he was! Backed up against a tree, cowering away from what looked like a miniature of a sinisterly familiar hollow alongside a full-sized sinisterly familiar face. “ Oi! Get away from him---Leave Mer alone! ”