Thank you all for reading and reviewing, I'm absolutely thrilled to hear from you guys! I'm continuing this for sure! :)

In case anyone's unsure, this is a Grimmjow x Ichigo story even though it's Renji's who's currently all gaga over Ichi. It will be a longish story, so the M-ness of the story will not come so soon...I promise there will be loads of it later, so just bear with me in the meantime! XD

Here goes...

"Thirty minutes, boys and girls, thirty minutes," a smooth, haughty voice filled the room as the students ambled around the room to gather beakers, Bunsen burners, spatulas, and other equipment needed for the experiment they were about to conduct.

Ichigo slipped on a pair of large goggles over his eyes and brought a small glass beaker in front of his face for inspection. Finally satisfied that it was completely dry, he placed it back on the table and fussed with the Bunsen burner.

"This thing is so fucking stupid," a deep voice rang behind Ichigo, causing the boy to jump slightly.

He looked up and immediately frowned as his lab partner walked up to the table and slammed a pair of plastic goggles on the metal surface.

Grimmjow Jaegerjaques.

He'd felt apprehensive when he found out that he was paired with this blue-haired giant for Chemistry lab, but seeing that he had no reason to dislike the guy, he had grudgingly accepted the arrangement. It wasn't like he had a say in it anyway.

Ichigo shifted aside to give the other teen enough space at their table. He eyed Grimmjow, taking in the ruffled blue hair that refused to obey the force of gravity and the strong, straight back that tapered off into the distinct V shape below the waist. He gulped, feeling suddenly very out of shape and short.

In other words, he felt absolutely intimidated.

"You seriously wearing those?" Grimmjow interrupted Ichigo's brief mental time-out with a rap of his knuckles on the orange-head's goggles.

Ichigo flinched back instinctively. "Yeah! We're supposed to! Ammonia is toxic!"

Grimmjow snorted as though he'd just heard a joke, but didn't say anything. Pushing the goggles aside, he placed two small glass containers next to Ichigo's beaker. Inside the containers were crumbly, white powder-like lumps — ammonium chloride and calcium hydroxide, the keys to their lab assignment of the day.

"Twenty eight minutes," their teacher intoned from the front of the lab, sweeping his eyes around the room from the top of his silver rectangular glasses that were partially covered by pale pink bangs.

"What an ass," Grimmjow muttered under his breath.

Ichigo frowned. His first impression of Granz-sensei was less than perfect, but cussing out a teacher wasn't really his thing, and he found himself more than a little bothered that his blue-haired lab mate had no such reservations. But he held his tongue and simply held out two spatulas, offering one of them to Grimmjow.

Grimmjow took it and stuck it into the container containing ammonium chloride.

"Two spatulas," Ichigo read from the instruction sheet. He carefully scooped up the same amount of calcium hydroxide from his container and dumped the content into the beaker. Then, he squinted at the paper and pursed his lips. "Drats. Forgot the calcium oxide."

He flicked his eyes at his lab mate, who ignored him in favor of chipping off bits of ammonium chloride. With a sigh, Ichigo left the table and went over to the counters at the side of the labs to get the missing ingredient.

It seemed like he'd been gone for only one minute, but by the time he returned to their table, Grimmjow had already mixed the crystals together in the beaker and was shuffling through the tiny pieces of Litmus paper that they'd prepared. Ichigo frowned. Was it his imagination, or did the mixed lumps look bigger than he'd expected?

"You should've waited for me," he grumbled.

Grimmjow grinned at him. "Ya don't trust me with a little bit of mixin'?"

Ichigo ignored the jab and held two pieces of Litmus paper above the beaker, one blue, the other red. The red one gradually turned blue.

"Hand me the test tube," Ichigo mumbled, holding out his hand.

"What am I, your maid?" Grimmjow growled darkly.

Ichigo huffed in exasperation. "Fine." He walked over to the other side of the table and grabbed one of the glass tubes.

Finally, after scooping, scooping, and more scooping, the entire mixture was stuffed into the test tube along with a small lump of calcium oxide, and Ichigo began to wrestle a stopper equipped with a delivery tube onto the test tube. Just as he tipped the tube to the side and reached for the retort stand, the Bunsen burner was shoved roughly under the tube he was holding.

"Thanks," Ichigo said absently as he worked the clamp around the test tube.

The Bunsen burner was soon working merrily, and Ichigo held another test tube, cupped upside down over the delivery tube, to trap the ammonia gas being produced as the mixture continued to react. Grimmjow made himself comfortable on one of the stools and stared at all the equipment with a bored expression.

"Since you're so bored, why don't you come hold this?" Ichigo sent his lab mate a glare, feeing annoyed that he was doing most of the work.

Grimmjow stared back with a smirk and, surprisingly, actually got off the stool and took over. Ichigo stood aside and watched.

The entire lab was filled with soft murmurs and occasional clinking of glass as the students raced to finish the assignment within the allotted time, which, Ichigo noted, was just ten minutes away. They were making good progress, and he relaxed his shoulders, feeling pleased.

Then, disaster struck.

Grimmjow's hand flexed abruptly as he suddenly let out a loud sneeze; the test tube that he had been holding knocked into the delivery tube, which in turn caused the other test tube to move. Ichigo stared in horror as things unfolded in front of his eyes. The retort stand was knocked off balance by the movement, and then as Ichigo's heart fell to the bottom of his gut, the entire apparatus slid off the lab table and crashed to the floor.

Almost immediately, the stench of ammonia reached his nose, and he staggered backwards, almost knocking the stool over in the process.

"Fuck!" Grimmjow yelled, darting away from the mess on the floor, which was still producing copious amounts of the foul-smelling gas. His eyes began to tear up, and he waved his hand in front of his face, swearing under his breath as he did so.

Their classmates began to step back from their experiments; some covering their noses, some coughing. The lab was very well ventilated and was perfectly safe for conducting this experiment, but the sudden release of the gas was still too much to handle all at once.

"Out!" Granz-sensei shouted in a tense voice. "Get out of the lab and go stand outside!"

The students quickly filed out of the lab, and Ichigo followed with a dark scowl on his face.

Stupid idiot! Now everyone's experiments were ruined, and Ichigo was certain that their Chemistry teacher wasn't going to let them off so easily.

Sure enough, after the lab was aired out and cleaned, Ichigo and Grimmjow were called to the teacher's office for a good lecture. As it turned out, Ichigo had been right. Not only had Grimmjow messed up by breaking the equipment — which technically was an accident, and Ichigo would've forgiven him if it weren't for the other problem — he had used more than what they were supposed to.

I knew it! Ichigo screamed in his head as he stood silently in front of Granz-sensei's desk. The pink-haired teacher went on and on animatedly about how irresponsible they'd been.

It wasn't my fault! Ichigo thought miserably.

"Zero points for this assignment! Everyone else can redo it in the next lab session, but I'm giving you two zero. And you're going to take this as a lesson, do you hear me?"

Ichigo blinked. What?

"But —" he blurted, eyes wide in panic.

Granz-sensei smacked his palm on the desk. "No buts," he said firmly, shooting a glare at Ichigo, and then at Grimmjow, who simply shrugged.

"Sensei!" Ichigo began. This was a nightmare! His first assignment, and it was already royally fucked up, all thanks to his idiot of a lab partner.

The pink-haired teacher gave him an unsympathetic gaze and waved his hand in dismissal. Ichigo had no choice but to shuffle out of the room, fuming as he went.

This isn't fair!

"This is all your fault!" Ichigo hissed at Grimmjow as soon as they were outside, who merely looked back at him with a bored expression.

Shrugging, the blue-haired teenager said, "What's the big deal? There are plenty more lab assignments, we'll catch up."

"That's not the point!" Ichigo threw up his hands in exasperation. Couldn't the oaf see that this incident had tarnished his image in his Chemistry teacher's eyes?

"Why'd you even do that?" Ichigo asked, feeling very tempted to stab his finger into Grimmjow's unbelievably muscled chest.

Grimmjow shrugged yet again. "I thought it'd be cool," he said.

"It'd be cool?" Ichigo echoed, staring at Grimmjow incredulously.

"Yeah," Grimmjow replied simply, looking at Ichigo with a straight face, as if that was the most reasonable thing in the world.

"God, you're such an idiot!" Ichigo exploded at the ridiculous explanation. Then, with a throaty growl, he glared at Grimmjow and stalked away, leaving his classmate standing in front of the staff room in stunned silence.

"Yeah, I hear that a lot," Grimmjow muttered under his breath even though there was nobody there to hear it.

Ichigo continued to fume even after he got home. He threw his backpack across the room as if it was all its fault, then quietly cursed his blue-haired lab mate as he gave his mattress a brutal kick before finally plopping down in his chair. With a frustrated grunt, he pulled his laptop in front of him and switched it on.

The screen came to life, and Ichigo quickly launched Adium and signed on. To his relief, his best friend, Rukia, was online.

[ Ichigo: You won't believe what happened today! ]

After a brief pause, the status bar of the message window blinked, indicating that Rukia was typing.

[ Rukia: Hey handsome! What happened? ]

Ichigo exhaled through his teeth and typed, his fingers flying deftly over the keyboard.

[ Ichigo: I got ZERO for my lab assignment because I have the stupidest lab partner in the world! ]

[ Rukia: Oh? What'd he do? Or is it a she? ]

Ichigo glared at the screen as he thought of his blue-haired classmate.

[ Ichigo: It's a HE. He screwed up the experiment because he used too much stuff…ON PURPOSE, can you believe it? God, I HATE him! ]

He paused for a few seconds, and then sighed. He typed slowly, simply because he felt kind of embarrassed by what he was going to say next. But he meant every word.

[ Ichigo: I miss you guys. ]

[ Rukia: Awww…you poor thing! It's okay, I'm always here for ya! I'm going over next month, remember? ]

Ichigo beamed and straightened up. He'd completely forgotten that Rukia had accepted his invitation to visit him at Karakura.

[ Ichigo: I can't wait! ]

And then the conversation switched to Rukia and the rest of his friends over in Tokyo, and Ichigo allowed himself to forget about his annoyance at Grimmjow, albeit only temporarily.

Grimmjow watched his orange-haired lab mate walk off in stiff, long strides and frowned. He didn't get it — what the fuck was the big deal? So they lost points on this assignment, but there were plenty more to come that would easily make up for their overall score. It wasn't like this would make them fail the class or anything.

A large hand landed on his shoulder suddenly, and he whipped his head around and found himself staring into a pair of auburn-colored eyes.

Renji had a smile on his face, and his eyes glinted with amusement and curiosity. "What the hell happened, man?"

Grimmjow scowled. "I exchanged one tight-ass for another," he grumbled.

His friend chuckled. "Come on, you can't deny this one. You did fuck up," Renji said with a smirk.

"He didn't have to be that pissed," Grimmjow said, gesturing at Ichigo's receding back. "I mean, you'd think I killed his mom or something."

Renji laughed, and then sighed happily. "That's so cute. He's a good kid, you know?"

Grimmjow's eyes bulged, and he stared at his best friend as though Renji had gone mad. "Did you just call him cute?" he asked in shock.

Renji gave him a dirty look. "Yeah," he said. "Why? Somethin' wrong with that?"

"You're hopeless," Grimmjow muttered, rubbing his face with a calloused palm. "He's an ass and a fucking nerd, that's what he is."

"Aww, come on!" Renji grinned and gave his friend's arm a playful punch. 'You gotta admit, he looks adorable when he's pissed off."

Grimmjow glared at the redhead in disbelief before grunting in disgust. "This is fucked up."

One week later

Yep, Kurosaki Ichigo was a freaking nerd, Grimmjow decided. Although, he had to say, Ichigo was much more pleasant to the eyes than that scrawny-ass Ishida.

After the whole ammonia fiasco, Ichigo began to act all frosty towards him. The debate championship spanned over a few weeks, so Grimmjow was stuck with the orange-haired teen for a while. It was a pain in the ass.

Not only was Ichigo serious during lab, he was serious about everything. He listened in class, handed in his homework on time, and was the only person — he wouldn't be if Ishida was back — in the class to get perfect score on the weekly Math quiz. Grimmjow himself had barely scraped through that one, and damn if he gave two shits about it.

There was absolutely no way Ichigo would like Renji even if he was gay.

Speaking of which, Grimmjow had made no progress on that end. He had to admit, it was quite impossible to gauge the guy's sexual preference if the guy refused to talk to him at all. To his chagrin, Renji had begun to lose patience and wouldn't stop nagging.

Grimmjow sighed and threw a sideways glance at his best friend. Renji was ogling at Ichigo, as usual. His eyes were glazed with what could only be lust, and it looked like the redhead was straining with all his might not to drool on the desk. Grimmjow chuckled. Renji was so fucked this time.

Finally, the last bell rang, and Grimmjow sprung from his seat. But before he could make it out of the classroom, he heard something that made him go cold.

"Ichigo," said a voice that could belong to nobody but Renji. "How about I take you out for lunch? You know, to make up for that incident at the lab."

Grimmjow turned around and gaped at his friend in disbelief. Wait, what?

Ichigo stared at the redhead with narrowed eyes. "Why would you take me out for lunch when he messed up?" he asked, simultaneously sending a icy glare at Grimmjow.

"'Cause I'm his best friend and all," Renji replied, grinning from ear to ear. When Grimmjow grunted, he looked up and gave his friend a wink. "And you're really sorry about messing up, right Grimmjow?"

Grimmjow opened his mouth to deny it, but clamped his mouth shut when Renji gave him a playful pouting face. "Yeah, whatever," he growled, sounding anything but sorry.

Ichigo pursed his lips in annoyance, but Renji draped an arm over his shoulder before he could retort. "Come on," Renji prompted, giving Ichigo's shoulders a shake. "Just think of it as hanging out with two of your coolest classmates. How about that, huh?"

Grimmjow rubbed his face and barely contained a groan. Renji was really overdoing it. Even with his lack of knowledge in the romance department, he knew that coming off as a sleazy pervert wasn't the way to go.

So he was surprised when Ichigo mumbled, "Whatever."

Grimmjow could tell that Renji wanted to pump his fists and scream "Yessss!" at the top of his lungs, but the redhead actually displayed some self-restraint and simply went red in the face in excitement.

The atmosphere was kind of awkward as the three boys sat at a table in the nearby cafe. At least the food was excellent, and it kept them all occupied.

Renji blabbered like an idiot throughout lunch, while Ichigo simply nodded politely. Grimmjow didn't blame the guy; after all, he hardly knew Renji. The two of them had barely talked before, much less have a full-blown, lengthy conversation.

And then Ichigo surprised him again by ordering dessert at the end of the meal. Grimmjow would've thought that the boy would escape from Renji's clutches as soon as he could, but there he was, sitting across the table with a banana split. Looked like the little nerd was denser than he thought. In fact, Ichigo looked happy as he dug into his treat, shoving spoonful after spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

Grimmjow swallowed as Ichigo took another mouthful of ice cream and silently cursed the boy's table manners. Hadn't anyone told the guy that one shouldn't moan and look like he was making love to the spoon when he ate?

Ichigo's eyes became half-lidded as he licked the spoon in appreciation. Apparently, the ice cream was delicious.

"Mmm…" Ichigo hummed as he scooped up the banana and slid it into his mouth. Clearly, he meant to bite off a piece with his teeth, but Grimmjow couldn't help picturing other things in his mind as the fruit disappeared between the orange-head's lips.

Grimmjow glanced at his best friend, who was sitting by his side, and nearly burst out in laughter. The redhead's face was almost a deep maroon; Grimmjow was certain that the guy was sporting a massive hard-on at the moment.

"Thanks for lunch," Ichigo said to Renji, pointedly avoiding Grimmjow's eyes. He seemed to be in a much better mood now that he had food in his stomach.

Renji stared at the boy for a good two seconds before sputtering, "Yeah, no problem. My pleasure."

With a wave, Ichigo excused himself and left the two friends by themselves at the table. Renji continued to sit in his seat with a shocked expression on his very red face, while Grimmjow looked as if he would explode at any minute.

"That was…that should be…" Renji whispered after a long stretch of silence. His eyes were wide, and his mouth hung open in awe. "Fucking illegal."

That was it. Grimmjow finally let go and howled, slapping his hands on the table and kicking the chair in front of him.

"That was so sexy!" Renji said, sounding almost breathless, completely oblivious to his friend who was laughing his head off next to him.

"I know, I know, you want to be the spoon," Grimmjow said dryly. His friend was so, so screwed. "Look, man, I really think you shouldn't get your hopes up too high," he added. "He's a fucking tight-ass like Ishida and you know it."

Renji chuckled and flashed a grin. "I would hope it's tight!" Then he threw his head back and laughed at his own crude joke as Grimmjow looked on with scowl.

"Why the hell do you need me to do your dirty work if you're so impatient?" Grimmjow growled.

Renji's grin widened, and his eyes took on a devilish glint. "Because you have thicker skin than I do."

"Stupid idiot," Grimmjow grumbled, but couldn't help chuckling quietly in the end. That was true — Grimmjow could care less about what people thought of him.

Stupid or not, the redhead was the closest thing he had to a brother, and he would do what he could to help, even if it meant he would have to look like a fool to do it.

To be continued...

See y'all next chappy! *muaks*