Sour Cherry

Chapter 7: Break Time


I'd never been in such a fancy restaurant in my entire life.

So bet your ass I was going to take advantage of it, even if being with Grimmjow's family gave it a new level of intimidation that made me feel like I was in a shark tank.

Zaraki was still terrifying, even if he was doing his best to make me feel comfortable (I think) in his own way. Ulquiorra treated me like I wasn't even at the table, which should've helped my weird ass fanboying, but it wasn't. If anything, I found myself trying to make eye contact with him, which was just pathetic.

Especially since Grimmjow was sitting next to me and being ridiculous.

Grimmjow's hand kept crawling up my thigh, back and forth, back and forth, and it was doing things to me that were inappropriate in public with his fucking family.

So I grabbed his hand with all my strength, hoping I was grinding his wrist bones enough to make him understand how I didn't need his games right now.

He gave me a giant crocodile grin, which, alright, that didn't do much to help my heart rate either.

"If ya wanna hold hands, all you gotta do is say so, cutie," he winks, gripping my hand back and, somehow, this is…too much. Too intimate, despite how weird our relationship has been this far.

I was so lost staring at him and trying not to hyperventilate that the waiter had to repeat himself three times before I finally responded with something brilliant like "Wha?"

"He'll have what I'm having," Grimmjow said, looking way too fucking smug for my tastes, "and bring a house bottle."

"Of course, sir," the waiter said, taking our menus that were printed on really fucking nice boards.

"Make it two bottles," Kenpachi said with a giant grin, "We're celebratin'."

The waiter bowed (fucking bowed, goddamn, wait how expensive was that steak GRimmjow had ordered?!) and left us to the linen table clothes and warm colors and leather seats.

God, I was suffocating. I didn't belong here, who were these people?

"Nice of you ta show up," Grimmjow said to a woman that approached the table, looking drop dead sexy in a fitted skirt suit. She had the same eyes as Grimmjow, piercing right through me as she took a seat next to Zaraki, pecking him on the cheek, "Apologies for keeping you boys waiting."

Wait, was she FRENCH? Grimmjow snarked something else at her and she responded sharply in French, making Zaraki laugh and Grimmjow's face fall into a pout, but he started grinning almost immediately after as they went back and forth, back and forth with me not understanding a damn word.

"Grimmjow, stop being rude to your guest," she finally snapped in Japanese, flicking her long, gorgeous light blue hair over her shoulder. It was much lighter than Grimmjow's but there was no doubting that this striking creature was his birth mother, "I'm sorry that my son has no manners."

"Me too," I mumbled, breaking out into a smile when Zaraki laughed boisterously.

"I like 'im. Keep 'im, Grimmy," Zaraki said, taking a sip from what had to be his third or fourth scotch.

"I'm Madeline, Grimmjow's mother," she said, speaking flawless Japanese with just that hint of accent that intimidated the fuck out of me. She reached out her manicured hand for a brief shake, which was a little awkward for me across the table, but I wasn't about to say no to Grimmjow's powerful-looking mom.

Zaraki might be all big and bad, but I knew power when I saw it. She might be tiny, but she held herself in a way that brooked no argument. I didn't doubt for a second that GRimmjow had some deep respect for this woman, even if I hadn't understood a word they'd said I knew she had put him in his place.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Ichigo," I offered awkwardly, my palms feeling all too sweaty and Ulquiorra's eyes swiveled onto me for the briefest moment before looking away again to his phone.

"Ichigo. What a strong name," Madeline offered, making me perk up. God, it was annoying how most people immediately associated it with strawberries or numbers. I decided just then that I really liked Grimmjow's mom.

It was still weird to be meeting her so soon though. I mean, this was Grimmjow's flesh and blood. And we weren't really…anything yet, were we? Didn't couples wait weeks, even months or years before meeting family?

But here we were, awkwardly sitting in the most expensive place I'd ever been in my life, all pretending that Grimmjow wasn't just trying to get into my pants as quickly as possible.

Not that I was going to complain. If I was going to be with Grimmjow, I was going to have to learn to stop caring so much about shame because Grimmjow didn't have time for it, and neither did his family, apparently, since Zaraki leaned over and whispered something to her as she giggled and kissed his neck, her hand falling to his lap. Okay then.

"Your accent is really beautiful," I offered in super fucking awkward conversation, taking a sip of water in what had to be a crystal glass.

Madeline smiled at me, a smile so fucking beautiful I knew exactly where Grimmjow had gotten his expressions from, "Thank you, Ichigo. That is so kind of you to say. I grew up in France. Again, I apologize for my son's rude behavior. I always tell him it is a bad practice to not speak a common tongue when in company."

"It turns him on," Grimmjow said, smirking at me with a look that promised wicked things, "He likes smart people, apparently."

"Good for him," Madeline said, laughing a fairy laugh that made my skin crawl in an erotic way. Well Jesus, if this was Grimmjow's mom, I hoped to god to never meet his biological father the combination would put me in the grave.

"Do you speak any other languages?" she asked, folding a napkin on her lap as the waiter brought around appetizers.

"Uh, um, no."

"Oh, that's perfectly alright. Japanese is a strong, dexterous language."

"Like my tongue," Grimmjow mumbled low enough for only me to hear, which, of course, turned me crimson.

"Grimmjow, don't tease him," Madeline said, rolling her eyes as if she saw this kind of behavior from him all the time, "you're making him uncomfortable."

"I like making him uncomfortable," GRimmjow added, grabbing at my hand again and stroking over my knuckles while looking at Ulquiorra.

Wait. If I didn't know better, was he posturing in front of Ulquiorra? Like a caveman staking his claim?

Was this Grimmjow being JEALOUS?

"I didn't know you spoke French," I said dumbly, staring at Grimmjow.

Grimmjow shrugged, "Only with mom."

Madeline scoffed, "He's brilliant, but too lazy to accomplish anything of true value. He could have graduated AGES ago, but does he push himself? No. He wants to stay in that dump of a public school instead of attending a prestigious university early, getting a jump start in the shark pool that is the real world."

Then again, maybe Grimmjow's mom WAS actually terrifying and I should just not talk to her ever.

Grimmjow growled, "We gotta do this right now, mom? Can't you hound Ulquiorra?"

"Oh I will," she said with a wink, "but he's actually applying himself in university. I have yet to see you fill out a single college application."

They bickered back and forth, my anxiety building until Grimmjow ended it with threatening to flip the table and leave.

I didn't doubt he'd do it for a moment. Madeline sighed, looking at her nails before checking her phone, mumbling something in French. Grimmjow snarked back at her, and it obviously wasn't nice if even I felt like it couldn't be nice, but all she did was smile a giant smile and wink at me, "Take care of him for me, won't you, Ichigo?"

What the hell had that all been about?!

Before much else could happen, our food arrived. I actually moaned aloud at how juicy and tender my steak was, which got the attention of Grimmjow immediately and I knew I had to savor this dinner because he'd no doubt be making me work off the calories later in every conceivably dirty way.

Surprisingly, wasn't the worst family dinner I'd ever attended. They continued to bicker back and forth about normal family shit but sometimes went off on tangents in other languages that I didn't understand. It didn't bother me because I just continued to chew my delicious dinner, thanking kami for such an opportunity. It really was the greatest meal I'd ever had, even if the people I was with were eccentric and weird.

Ulquiorra never looked at me again all through dinner, even though I was dying to ask him questions about his manga, but then I remembered that Grimmjow was his agent or something, so if I had questions, really all I had to do was ask him.

"So how did you get into the publishing business?" I asked him when dessert was being placed in front of us.

The table went quiet as I waited for an answer, GRimmjow shoveling a giant bite of some kind of cheesecake into his mouth.

"You've told him about the business, Grimmjow?" Madeline said, with a glint in her eye that told me she was more than amused, "You never share that with, well, anyone. Are you planning on marrying this boy?"

I spit my drink clear across the table, much to the annoyance of Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra wiped his face, glaring death at me as he wiped off his cellphone which had taken a majority of my water.

"I'm SO SORRY…" I started, scrambling to give him my napkin as Zaraki barked with laughter and Grimmjow looked like he was about to lunge up and strangle his mother.

"He kind of found out by accident," Grimmjow said, turning his accusing eyes on me, "Snoopin' around."

"Well if you didn't leave your work out and cleaned up after yourself instead of being a bum, maybe it wouldn't be such an embarrassment to you now."

I gave up trying to dry off Ulquiorra to whip my head around, staring at her with wide eyes, "Wait, what do you mean? I thought he was Ulquiorra's agent."

"ULQUIORRA?" Zaraki said loudly, taking another sip of scotch, "I love my kid but he can't draw a stick figure. Grimmy's the one who could probably make the Mona Lisa outta some soy sauce."

If possible, my eyes got even bigger as I looked at Grimmjow accusingly, "You…you're Pantera?"

Grimmjow looked super uncomfortable, which was hilarious, because it made him look constipated. Actually, I don't think I've EVER seen him look uncomfortable in all the time I've known him.

"Why did you lie?" I asked, genuinely curious.

He shrugged, "Dunno. Panicked."

"But WHY did you care?" I said, practically scowling now, "Why would you give a shit?"

Zaraki was cackling now with Madeline holding a hand over her mouth, her eyes dancing with laughter.

"Oh my god, you actually like him," Ulquiorra offered, his voice a low drawl, "How boring."

Grimmjow was fucking crimson as Zaraki finally lost it, laughing so hard he was shaking the table and drawing a lot of attention.

"Shut the fuck up," he growled, making Zaraki howl even louder.

So I did the only thing I could do, really, and leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

If I thought he'd been red before, he was a fucking fire truck now.