Not much to say for an author note…
This story is making some good progress, if I do say so myself. *snort*
Anywhoo, back to the man children…
It was around six-thirty when Ichigo finally made it home. Yuzu was already almost finished with making tonight's dinner. Karin was at the table, reading a novel that she must have gotten from school, because Ichigo didn't think she was actually taking in the writing.
"There you are!" Yuzu set her wooden spoon down on the saucer dish, "you didn't come home last night, I was worried."
"Yeah, sorry," Ichigo mumbled, though he wasn't entirely sorry.
Yuzu got a good look at Ichigo and furrowed her brows, "those aren't your clothes…" Her eyes landed on the blanket. "And that isn't yours either. Where did you stay last night?"
"Just with a friend, Yuzu, nothing important," Ichigo said as she took Ichigo's dirty clothes.
"Is he really a friend?" Karin asked, setting her book down. She smirked as Ichigo turned red in the face.
"Who said it was a he?" Ichigo tried defending, earning a laugh from Karin.
"Give me a break, Ichigo. You weren't that interested in Orihime. Tells you right there that you probably weren't that interested in girls to begin with." Ichigo was speechless at this point. She was right, Ichigo never had much interest in women but when it came to a good looking guy walking down the street, Ichigo was looking a little longer then he intended to. But were they OK with it, was the question running around in Ichigo's head.
"Ichi-nii," Yuzu started in, noticing the look on his face. "We don't care if you feel like that. But what I'm worried about is if you're absolutely sure about this."
"Yes," Ichigo said immediately. Renji made him really happy, and he didn't want to be second guessed. "He's a really good guy."
"Invite him over for dinner," Karin suggested. "Then we can see what you mean."
Yuzu lit up, "yeah! So we can meet him!"
"And determine that he isn't some creep."
"Karin."
"Where's dad?" Ichigo shouldn't have asked because his dad started hollering his name and pounced on Ichigo, landing hard on the floor.
"Dad! Get off of me!" Ichigo shoved Isshin off of him, who just laughed good heartedly as Ichigo stood.
"Glad to have you home, son!" Isshin got up himself up and brushed off, "now what's this about having a guest over for dinner?"
"Ichigo met someone, dad!" Yuzu said happily, going back to the stove to stir dinner.
"Oh really?" Isshin raised his brows to Ichigo, who was turning red again. With how much he's been doing that, he's surprised he hasn't burst a blood vessel or something. "What's her name? Is she pretty?"
"She is a he," Ichigo said slowly. "And I think he's really pretty." Pretty didn't even describe Renji to Ichigo. He was way more than that.
Isshin barked with more laughter and put Ichigo in a headlock, giving him a noogie. "I knew you had it in ya! My son has finally found someone to make him happy!" He let go of Ichigo and walked to the memorial of Misaki, "our son has finally found happiness!"
"Dad, knock it off," Ichigo shook his head, taking his phone out of his pocket to text Renji.
"Family wants to meet u, come over?" - sent.
'4 dinner? Be there in 5'
"He's a lot taller than I expected."
"That's not his fault."
"I never said it was."
"Then what did you expect?"
Ichigo gave Karin a deadpan expression as he stood next to Renji, "so what if he's taller, I don't have to reach as high for things."
Karin rolled her eyes, deciding that now would be a good time to help Yuzu with setting the table. Renji gave a look to Ichigo and he just mumbled a 'don't worry about it'. Renji was the second person Ichigo ever brought home to meet. And it took him weeks to bring over Orihime. No, he can't be thinking about that.
"So, what's for dinner?" Renji decided to ask, grabbing Ichigo's hand and walking to the dining room table.
"Taiyaki," Yuzu smiled, then laughed a little at Renji's expression. Ichigo looked up at his boyfriend - boyfriend - and started laughing. Renji looked over, "what? It's one of my favourites!"
"I said no judgement," Ichigo said, lifting his hands up defensively.
"No, but I can feel your judgement."
Dinner went smoothly at the Kurosaki house with the meeting of Renji. It didn't feel awkward even in the slightest, and everyone seemed to have had a good time. Ichigo hadn't been with Renji for long, but he had to admit to himself that he was smitten with the redhead. All he wanted to do was be with Renji, watch TV with him, go on walks with him, and make fucking cookies or something with him. What Ichigo didn't know was that Renji felt the same. Whenever Ichigo came into the shop - and thankfully without him noticing - Renji would just stare at Ichigo. Everything about him was perfect, the innocent uni, those pretty eyes of his and his stupid orange hair. Things could not have been more perfect, and they both saw it when they looked at each other.
"Ichi-nii, are you staying with Ren-shinku tonight?" Yuzu asked, putting away the leftovers from tonight's dinner. Ren-shinku? Ichigo blinked a couple times before looking to Renji, thinking that he should answer.
"We were gonna go out for a bit, but dunno," Ichigo shrugged slightly. "Yuzu, I'm not gonna get lost out there."
"I know," she sighed, setting empty containers on the counter. "Just keep us updated, ok? I don't want to have dad send out a search party or something, you know how that goes."
Ichigo couldn't help but roll his eyes, "I know."
The boys said their goodbyes and left the house, driving in the direction of Renji's house. Renji held Ichigo's hand as he drove, getting a sense of worry from Ichigo. "You ok, koibito?"
Ichigo nodded, "yeah. Just thinking."
"Need to talk about it?" Renji flicked on his blinker and took a left down the road. His thumb was lightly stroking Ichigo's and butterflies filled Ichigo's stomach.
"Just Yuzu trying to be all mother like," Ichigo shrugged, "I mean I don't mind…"
"Your dad and I were talking about it."
Ichigo looked at him, wide eyed, "what?"
"'Bout what happened to your mom. I only know you were young when she died and it still messes with ya sometimes, which is why I'm not gonna press the issue anymore than you want me to." Renji looked at him, being as sincere as he could be, "whenever ya wanna talk about that or anything else, let me know, alright?"
Ichigo stared at him for a long while, trying not to either burst out crying or smother Renji with more kisses. He did not deserve this treatment and he was grateful that it was being given to him. He mumbled an 'ok' and gave Renji's hand another light squeeze.
"Yuzu means well, Ichi," Renji spoke, "yeah, it probably gets annoying but that's just them letting ya know they care."
"I know, Ren." Ichigo looked out the window right as the rain began to come down. "Where are we going? I thought we were just going to your place."
"Ya did say we were gonna go out for a bit, so I thought why not get some ice cream?" Renji said, smiling a little.
They had their little date at the small ice cream shop near Renji's place. They were the only people in the small shop, which was fine, because they didn't have to deal with the weird looks from other people. They had their legs linked under the table, eating their ice cream slowly, talking about who knows what. Topics ranged from serious politics to how to say certain words, like crayon, caramel, roof, and so forth. It was later decided that Ichigo was staying at Renji's the rest of the week because, in Renji's words, why the fuck not.
The drive home, on the other hand, was eventful. Ichigo found an aux cord in the glove box and decided to play his own music. For a good hour, they drove around, dancing and singing to whatever came on. Ranging from hard rock to the auto tuned stuff nowadays, they sang together, to each other and at pitches that were hilarious to the other. Renji finally drove home, noticing that Ichigo was getting a little drowsy and dozing off in the passenger seat.
Laughing and exchanging kisses, they finally got inside. Ichigo mumbled something against Renji's lips, causing the redhead to pull away, asking to repeat himself.
"I said dibs on your pineapple pajama bottoms," Ichigo laughed as Renji grabbed hold of Ichigo before he could bolt off. Ichigo broke free and raced to Renji's bedroom, shutting the door in Renji's face and locking it.
You little shit, Renji couldn't help but laugh a little, "koibito, open the door."
"No."
"Please?"
"You're gonna freakin' tackle me, I don't think so."
"I promise I won't," Renji whined, trying the door handle again.
"You're a sap ball."
"Only for you, strawberry."
"Stop it."
"I will if ya open the door."
"... Promise you won't tackle me?"
"I promise."
The door handle unlocked and the door opened and Renji could barely keep himself together. Ichigo was still wearing Renji's grey hoodie but the baggy pajama bottoms made him look even cuter. I swear to fucking god, I can't handle this.
"You ok, Ren? You look pretty red…"
"I'm fine," Renji managed before shutting the door, not taking his eyes off of Ichigo. Renji remained expressionless before he began to grin.
"Don't you even," Ichigo warned as Renji took a step forward, starting to laugh as he flinched every time Renji moved. He then charged, tackling Ichigo onto the bed, burying his face into Ichigo's neck.
"You said you wouldn't, you liar!" Ichigo couldn't help but laugh as Renji just laid on top of him, cuddling.
"You're so fuckin' cute, I can't handle it," Renji said in his neck. "Just gonna eat you up cause ya look perfect."
Ichigo brought Renji's face up to his, taking in every detail, lightly tracing his finger on the other man's face. "Ya make me feel perfect, ya know?" Ichigo felt sappy for saying that, but it was true. Renji made him feel a lot of things and feeling perfect was the best feeling in the world.
Renji leaned in and kissed Ichigo with a lot of love and passion. As lips met one another's, mouths parted as tongues entered to twist and taste the other's warm caverns. It sent sparks everywhere through the both of them, making them feel that they would lose the other if they let go too soon.
They finally parted for a minute to breathe and it was Renji's turn to take in Ichigo's features. Renji didn't understand how he got so lucky to have Ichigo in his life, someone that made him so happy. Him and his stupid face, his stupid, beautiful face.
"You make me really happy," Renji sapped a little, smiling as Ichigo blushed a little more.
"You make me happy, too, Renji," Ichigo said, smiling back, "and I'm glad you met my family tonight. That was kind of important to me."
"I know," the redhead replied, moving Ichigo's hair out of his face. "That's why I did it because family is important."
Ichigo just smiled some more and pulled Renji down to kiss him again.
The night was finally over and after another make-out session or two, they finally fell asleep together in Renji's bed, holding onto each other. Whatever that cop wanted to do with Renji, it wasn't going to tear them apart. Nothing would.
Grimmjow was in the dark alley, watching the expensive car pull up into Renji's driveway. He watched them get out together, singing various songs together and even dancing in the driveway under the dim light.
He was happy for them being together, but he was jealous, too. This stupid, orange head uni was pestering Grimmjow in the back of his mind like some fungus on a mushroom and it was seriously pissing him off. He couldn't do anything about it, but he needed some dirt on Renji if it gave him a chance. Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez never played fair, he played dirty, and his guilty pleasure was probably sleeping with the pineapple head inside.
Stupid, this was really fucking stupid, but Grimmjow didn't care.
And scene. Alrighty, so there's chapter 4 for you to dwell on. It totally didn't take me all day to do this. Yeah, totally.
So I've created a smol playlist of what they most likely were listening to in the car because that's always fun. I don't own anything, just my brain.
Smol playlist:
Hero - Skillet
You Had Me At Hello - A Day To Remember
Waste A Moment - Kings Of Leon
Home Is Such A Lonely Place, She's Out Of Her Mind, Los Angeles, and The Only Thing That Matters - blink-182
Probably all Lady Gaga songs
Swing Life Away - Rise Against
Mr. Brightside - The Killers
You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring
Closer, Don't Let Me Down, and Roses - Chainsmokers
Cinderella Man (let's be real) - Eminem