Heeeeyyyyy y'all! Hows everybody doin'?
Okay so I had this idea for a fluff story just diddyboppin' around in my head and I thought "Who better to share it with than my precious babies?" Coz I love you guys, I really do. Y'all are like, the bestest fans ever. You guys make we wanna keep writing. This is gonna be a complete story. Like 18-20 chapters max.
Anyway, this story's gonna be like, fluff central. The feels were too real when I was writing this. I feel, and so does the lovely Patd06, whom I absolutely ADORE, like the GrimmIchi portion of needs more happy times fics. So that's what this is gonna be. If you're lookin' for that angsty, dramatic, raunchy, action packed fic, this is not it. However, there will be some of the good stuff ;)
A very special thanks to my new beta, Patd06 for helping me out with this one. She's literally like, perfection. And she's crazy as all hell but that's why I love her. I never thought id get to work with one of my favorite authoresses(is that a word?) but she made my dream come true. Thank you,boo!
If you havent seen the characters involved in this story, you should know that this is a GrimmIchi yaoi story. So if you don't like it, don't read it.
Enjoy!
He was tired. Dog tired. And from the looks of it, he wasn't getting out of the small shop anytime soon. An hour or two at least. He huffed out a breath of agitation, running a hand through his already tousled blue locks.
"Grimmy! We're heading out now. Are you sure you don't wanna come with?" Grimmjow's co-worker, and best friend Szayelaporro, called as he and the others walked towards the exit. With his upcoming project deadline fast approaching, how could he leave now? There was so much work to be done.
"Nah, I'm gonna stay a while longer. You guys go have fun." Grimmjow said, pricking his finger for the umpteenth time due to lack of focus. Normally, he would have jerked his hands back to tend to the small wound. But, seeing as how he was used to it from his many years of sewing, he waved it off as if it hadn't even happened.
"Are you positive? Last time you 'stayed a while longer' you ended up sleeping in the shop and we had to take on whatever you had left. Remember?" His pink haired friend explained, placing a delicate hand on his slender hip. Szayel had always been the one to look out for Grimmjow for as long as he could remember.
"Szay, I'm good. Go on without me."
Grimmjow sighed; another missed outing, another night of disappointing his friends. Szayel never said anything, but he knew that it upset the other that they rarely hung out like they used to. It was hard to deal with, but something that the blue-haired male had come to accept; when you wanted to chase your dream, there were some things you'd have to leave behind.
He sat up from his sewing desk, rubbing his crystalline eyes that had formed less-than-attractive bags under them from the lack of sleep. Three more days. That's all the time he had left before his next show. He knew that buyers from huge companies like Macy's and H&M would be at this show; it had the potential to build him up even more or destroy him completely. It gave him a rush just thinking about the possibilities. Honestly, he was much more excited than he was nervous.
He'd been building up his brand, Azul Sechs, for the past three years since he'd graduated college. Sure, he'd gone to school, but it was mainly to please his parents. All he'd ever wanted to do was make clothes, and he had no shame in that. He'd been sewing since he could read and write, and he made his first piece of clothing, a shirt, when he was eight years old. From then on, he worked hard, mastering his technique and apprenticing in the local seamstress shop until he graduated high school and went to college. His biggest project then was his older sister's prom dress. He was still very proud of that.
Currently, he was working part time at a bar to keep his rent and utilities paid while he worked on his designs, showing them to local boutiques and shops. Yes, he was working hard to make sure that his dream became a success. After all, hardworking pays off in the end, right? It was the sole reason that Grimmjow worked himself into the ground, day in and day out. It'll be worth it in the end, he thought to himself as he finished attaching faux pearl beads onto a burgundy, chiffon shirt collar.
A very loud, very annoying buzzing noise woke Grimmjow nearly three hours later - as his phone screen so politely informed him - his eyes filled with blinding light. It was a call from his roommate. He was sure to hear hell from him.
"Grimmjow! It's nearly 3 o'clock in the morning. Where are you?" The fiery red head yelled into the phone, fully awakening Grimmjow. Why is he even up at nearly three in the morning? said bluenette thought.
"I'm still in the shop. I'll be home in a little while. Make su -"
"You said that two hours ago. Come on, Grimm. You need a good night's sleep and the table top at the shop isn't cutting it. Come home." His roommate insisted in a concern laced voice. Ichigo was always looking out for him, much like Szayel only more often, given the fact that they lived together.
"Ichigo, I'll be fi -" Grimmjow wasn't one for being cut off and Ichigo knew that.
"No, you won't. Be home within the next thirty minutes or I'm coming to get you. And believe you me, it won't be pretty." Grimmjow sighed heavily. He knew full well that Ichigo was right in saying that he needed a good night's rest, although he'd never tell him that. Then the orange head would never let him live it down.
"Okay, fine. You win. I'm packing up now." A smug and thoroughly satisfied chuckle came from the other side of the phone call before Ichigo hung up. Grimmjow rolled his tired eyes as he put away the remnants of his project, taking extra care to not ruin anything, lest he have to start over, which was something he couldn't afford to do. Sluggishly, he pulled the strap to his satchel over his broad shoulders, taking slow but large steps towards the exit due to his height.
The cool morning air was refreshing after a long time spent cooped up in a shop. The bluenette fished around for the keys to his white Nissan Altima...2012 edition. Coz in this day and age, who could afford to buy a car from the current year? The answer to that question was actors, athletes, people with sugar parents and high end strippers - all of which, Grimmjow was not. He tossed the brown bag into the passenger's seat before buckling up and starting the car. He'd decided to drive slow given his current, sleep deprived state.
He arrived home quicker than he had anticipated, which was great because he'd be safe from the wrath of Ichigo. Speaking of Ichigo, he was asleep, face first on the L-shaped portion of their brown leather sectional, donning nothing but a pair of pale green sweatpants when Grimmjow walked in. A mischievous grin crossed Grimmjow's tired features. Having known Ichigo for the better part of 10 years, he knew many things about the young man. Like the fact that he was extremely ticklish on his feet. He set his bag down on the floor beside the couch and crouched down. He reached a finger out and lightly drug his nail down Ichigo's foot, causing the man to giggle in his sleep and move his foot.
"Hehe...hmm." He mumbled in his sleep, curling and uncurling his toes. Grimmjow chuckled lightly and repeated the action, earning a limp kick from the sleeping foot. He could do better. Much better. The blue haired man grabbed his roommates feet and assaulted them with his fingertips. This produced an unmanly shriek from the orangettes mouth. "Ahahaha! St-Stop it, Grimm! I-I mean it!" He laughed, struggling to get his feet from his friends hold. Finally, Ichigo managed to get his left foot close enough to Grimmjow's face to pinch his nose between his big and second toe. Grimmjow promptly let go of his foot after that.
"Aye! That's nasty. I dunno where your feet have been and you go and grab my nose with that monkey's foot?" Ichigo grinned and pressed his foot against Grimmjow's chest, pushing him over in the process.
"No one told you to come in here and touch all on my feet. Foot fetish much?" He joked, watching his friend get off of the floor. "I cooked. Get in there and eat." Ichigo exclaimed, pointing towards the kitchen. Grimmjow nodded and walked towards the kitchen.
"What'd you cook?" He asked, even though he had just taken the lid off of the pot. Ichigo rolled his eyes. His best friend was stupid sometimes.
"Your favorite ramen." The shirtless young man said, laying back down on the couch. He could practically hear Grimmjow's grin.
"Extra pork and bok choy?" Grimmjow asked, poking around in the pot before turning the stove on. The ramen was warm but Grimmjow was a "burn your tongue on your food and suck in air while you chew" kind of person, so it had to be a lot hotter for him.
"Wouldn't be your favorite without it, right?" Ah, Ichigo knew him so well. As he should, considering the many years of friendship between the two. Though, Grimmjow had come to know many things about his friend that even the orange head himself didn't know. One could say that Grimmjow held a certain fondness for Ichigo.
He and Ichigo had met when they were they were thirteen, Ichigo being sixteen days older than Grimmjow. Though his charismatic and slightly childlike personality showed little to no signs of the supposed maturity that he tried to hold over the younger boy. Ichigo had seen Grimmjow from his window, sketching new clothing designs. The spunky preteen tossed a discarded bolt from a project he had been working on at Grimmjow's window, startling him at first. He got up from his desk and walked the short distance out to his mini- terrace, which was fairly close to Ichigo's neighboring apartment.
"What're you drawing?" Ichigo asked, trying to peer through Grimmjow's window with no such luck. The blue haired boy stepped outside of his room and slide the door closed, effectively blocking Ichigo's view.
"None of your business." He answered, taking a seat on the terrace floor. He sighed and took a deep, refreshing breath. He loved the smell of summer air.
"Aw, come on! I'll show you what I'm working on if you'll show me what you're drawing." Ichigo bargained, face splitting into a wide grin. Grimmjow chewed on his bottom lip in deep thought. What if he laughed at him? What if he thought he was weird? All of these thoughts came flooding to the pre-teens mind. But they left as quickly as they came because Ichigo had climbed over the rails and on to Grimmjow's little area and displayed a small robot to the timid boy.
"It's for my robotics club. It's not finished yet but when it is, it'll move and pick stuff up. Pretty cool, right?" Said the orange haired youth, looking expectantly at young Grimmjow. The blunet nodded and stood up, walking towards the door to his room. Ichigo followed behind him, whether Grimmjow wanted him to or not. "You've got a really cool room. It's so big. And clean too. Mine's a mess." He said as he plopped down on Grimmjow's bed, uninvited. The younger boy visibly bristled at this. How could he just make himself comfortable? No matter, he'd be gone soon. Grimmjow walked towards his desk and took his sketchbook into his arms and walked back to the boy seated on his bed.
"Promise you won't laugh?" The timid boy asked, sitting on the bed next to Ichigo who nodded and extended his pinky. This confused Grimmjow. He hadn't ever seen someone do that with their finger before. Poor boy didn't have many friends because he always felt different and unwanted by children his age. Ichigo grinned and hooked his baby finger around Grimmjow's, squeezing it a bit. His face flushed a bright pink and he turned away, embarrassed.
"I pinky promise I won't laugh. If I do, you can go smash my robot. Okay?" He beamed, waiting for Grimmjow to reveal his work. Shyly, the young boy set the sketchbook in his lap and opened it to the first page. Ichigo's eyes widened as he studied the page. After a few minutes, Grimmjow handed the book over to Ichigo so that he could have a better look. Grimmjow had never shown this to anyone. Not even his dad. Yet here he was, letting this strange boy see everything. Ichigo said nothing as he looked and Grimmjow was glad that he didn't. He would be so embarrassed. The younger boy studied Ichigo's calm face, checking for any sign of emotion. "These are awesome!" The oranget exclaimed suddenly, making Grimmjow gasp and place his hand on his chest. He nearly scared the life out of him. It then dawned on him. He liked his designs. He liked them!
"Y-You...You like them?" Grimmjow asked, not daring to look in the other boy's eyes, lest he'd be even more embarrassed. Ichigo nodded quickly, taking another look at the sketchbook before closing it. Grimmjow was ecstatic. So happy that he could have hugged the boy if he wasn't so shy.
"When you make new ones, can I see them?" Grimmjow had never nodded so quickly in his life. With that, Ichigo laid back on Grimmjow's bed and stared at the ceiling. "Can I stay the night?" He asked, shocking Grimmjow. They had just met. Why so sudden? But nevertheless, Grimmjow let him stay. He would tell his father later. He just made a new friend.
"Food's burning." Ichigo said calmly from the kitchen island, mouth pulled up into a smirk. Grimmjows blue eyes widened in shock as he quickly turned the stove off and moved the pot off of the stove eye, spilling a large amount of the broth on his hand in the process.
"Shit! Fuck! Son of a bitch, that's hot!" He shouted uncharacteristically. He wasn't one to use a lot of profanity. Only when it was needed. And right now, as he ran his burning hand under the cold sink water, it was completely necessary. His best friend just laughed and made his way to the fridge pulling out...a bottle of mustard? Grimmjow thought.
"Gimme your hand." The chocolate eyed man stated, reaching for his friends wounded appendage. Grimmjow shook his head and pulled his hand from Ichigo's reach. "I said gimme your damn hand." Ichigo rolled his eyes and snatched the hand over to him as he uncapped the mustard and squirted a generous amount on Grimmjows hand. Almost instantly, the pain subsided. "Mustard helps take away the sting and in a little while, it'll be like you never even burned yourself." Ichigo cradled his friend's hand as he explained the seemingly "magical" properties of yellow mustard. All the while, Grimmjow was admiring Ichigos calm face and gentle voice. He always found Ichigo to be attractive but now even more so, seeing as how he looked so adorable tending to his needs. "Stop starin' at me like that. You're making me nervous, ya little weirdo," Ichigo mumbled, letting go of his roommates hand.
"Wh-What?" Grimmjow stammered, looking away with a flushed pink face and matching ears. Ichigo chuckled lightly and patted the top of his head before going to fix a bowl for the blue haired dork.
"Let that dry and you should be good to go." He explained as he scooped noodles into the bowl and ladled in some broth. He even picked out a few extra pieces of pork.
"Thanks." Grimmjow muttered as Ichigo set the bowl down in front of him. He shook his head and smiled.
"That's what friends are for, right?" A head of blue hair moved along with a nod. Although, being called a friend stung a bit and Grimmjow couldn't figure out why. Maybe he was just tired. Yeah, that's it. I'm tired. He thought as he picked his chopsticks up and began eating. He hadn't even noticed that his friend had fixed himself a bowl and seated himself across the island. Grimmjow hummed in appreciation as he loudly slurped his noodles. "You're gross, you know that?" Ichigo piped up, gently blowing on his food, though his face showed no actual signs of disgust. Grimmjow rolled his eyes and continued to slurp even louder, just to annoy the other man. When he wasn't paying attention, Ichigo swiped a piece of pork from his bowl and popped it into his mouth.
"What the heck, man?" Grimmjow pouted, staring at the space where his beloved pork piece used to be. Ichigo just laughed and continued to eat. Just as the blue haired man thought that the little thief wasn't paying attention, he reached to steal a piece from his bowl as revenge, only to have a mustard covered hand be popped none too gently.
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot." Ichigo fretted in realization, reaching to coddle his friends hand. Grimmjow just shook his head. He was so cute when he was worried. Deciding to play around a bit, Grimmjow pulled his hand from Ichigos grasp and turned away from him.
"That actually hurt. Why would you do that?" He mumbled, looking at Ichigo with misty crystalline blue eyes, averting them when they locked with honey brown. Grimmjow knew full well that Ichigo was sensitive to other people's feelings and this time would be no different. He almost felt bad for it.
"Grimm, I'm really sorry. " Ichigo apologized, walking around the island to face Grimmjow, who turned away from him. "I didn't mean it." He explained, trying to get a look at his friend's face. Grimmjow made sure to hide his face well or else Ichigo would have seen that he wasn't crying, but laughing. "Grimmjow, I said I was sorry. Gimme your hand." He said, soft brown eyes getting bleary as he reached out for his friends hand. Finally, after Grimmjow heard Ichigo sniffling, he turned around to find him wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. He had taken it a bit too far.
"Ichigo, look at me. I'm okay. I was just kidding. See?" He admitted, displaying his hand to Ichigo. He then heard Ichigo mumbled something. "What? What'd you say?" He asked. Instead of a verbal answer, Ichigo smeared the mustard from his finger tips on to Grimmjow's nose, forehead and cheeks.
"Gotcha!" Ichigo grinned, taking pride in the baffled look on his friend's face. He had gotten him and he got him good. Instead of being slightly upset like Ichigo assumed Grimmjow would be, he laughed and wiped the mustard from his nose.
"Yeah, you got me." He smiled, flashing Ichigo a toothy, pearly white smile. "And I got this piece of pork from your bowl." He cackled, swiping yet another piece of meat from Ichigo's bowl with a triumphant smile. Ichigo grinned and rolled his eyes.
"You'd better get over to that pot and gimme my pork back with your thieving self. The blue haired man chuckled and got up from his stool to retrieve replacements for the food he had taken.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." He smiled. Things were often like this between the two of them. At times, he hoped for more but he decided against it. Their relationship was great how it was. Why complicate it?
Soooo did you guys like it? Review and lemme know! Thank you!
