-All For the Money, Honey: [Chapter 10: Split the Bill]-

Pairing: Grimmjow Jeagerjaques x Ichigo Kurosaki

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any Bleach characters (The wonderful Mr. Kubo does)

A thick cloud of concrete dust blasted past Ulquiorra after the almighty BOOM of the plastic explosive detonating. The air around him had seemed to ripple from a slight shockwave. Curious to see what had happened to his opponent, Ulquiorra hobbled back out from behind the stockpile, his eyes searching for any signs of movement. The top of the pillar was all but gone and was now littered across the ground in chunks of rubble, but no sign of Grimmjow.

There was a sudden loud cough from Ulquiorra's far right and slowly but surely, he saw the cerulean rise from the ground practically covered head to toe in bits of rubble and concrete dust.

Grimmjow winced as pain shot up the side of his left ribcage. When the bomb had blown, he'd been hit by a decent sized chunk of the roof as he'd dived to the side. There was the chance that he'd probably cracked something, but at this point he couldn't assess the damage. Once he spotted Ulquiorra watching him intently, he glared back at him. "That was a fucking cheap shot." He coughed again as dusty air filled his lungs.

"That's payback for my leg." Ulquiorra reasoned.

Grimmjow swept the back of his hand over his shoulder and cloud of dust wafted away. The corner of his lip curled up in agitation as he muttered, "Do you have any fucking idea how much this suit cost?"

Ulquiorra didn't respond. He tested his weight on his leg but still flinched from the pain. Fighting Grimmjow in this condition was going to be difficult, but not impossible. He put his injured foot back down onto the ground and once again, he felt the pain shoot up his body, but he bit his lip and ignored it.

When Ulquiorra came running at him, Grimmjow moved back into a fighting stance, telling himself that if the emo bastard was going to go all out, then he might as well do the same.

The pair connected again with a flurry of blows and Grimmjow's injuries slowly became clear to Ulquiorra; his punches from his left were much weaker than before and he avoided a lot of higher arm movement. Ulquiorra tried his best to aim for the ribcage region, but the cerulean did a good job of defending himself from such attacks.

Grimmjow's main offence was trying to knock Ulquiorra off balance, but it was much easier said than done. The man was quite lithe and seemed determined not to let his leg hinder him. With every step onto his injured leg, Grimmjow wondered just how much it hurt. But he would never find out from expression alone; his face remained as emotionless as usual.

Immense willpower can help overcome the pain, but Grimmjow also had to worry about the swelling and bruising. The one problem with injuring his ribcage was that contained the most of the vital organs. Ulquiorra was at a slight advantage as the cerulean's breathing was suddenly coming out much raspier.

"You should know your limits, Grimmjow." Ulquiorra commented as he swung a karate chop at his opponent's shoulder.

Grimmjow blocked it and growled, "I've withstood much worse than this, you prick."

Ulquiorra could see the blood darkening the back of the cerulean's jacket and how the patch was slowly growing as they continued to fight. "Not much longer now. And once I'm finished with you, Ichigo will suffer the same fate."

Grimmjow couldn't help but chuckle darkly. "It would put a damper on any feeling she might have for you if try to hurt him." He punched forwards and it connected with the other bodyguard's shoulder.

Ulquiorra winced, but moved with the momentum and spun around. "When I first found out that she liked him, I couldn't believe it. Even right now, I have no idea what she see's in him. But you liking him I can understand; garbage belongs with garbage. You're both just trash!" He swung his leg around with a high roundhouse kick that only just connected with the ceruleans jaw.

"I don't know what crazy ideas you have about Ichigo and that girl, but she's just going to have to do without because I'm not giving him up to anyone." Grimmjow licked the corner of his mouth, and he could instantly taste the coppery tang of his own blood. "Now shut the fuck up and stand still so I can kill you."

-xxxxx-

Once Ichigo had disappeared out of the door, he'd made short work of the stairs leading back into the main hall. When he got there, security had kicked in and were calmly leading the guests out of the building in an orderly fashion. Panic was written all over the faces of the celebrities, but for the television crews, this was ratings gold.

Ichigo was suddenly grabbed on the arm by a frantic Rukia. "Ichigo! What the hell's going on? Dammit, if only Renji had brought a camera with him."

Renji appeared behind the short show host, "I didn't need to. Your brother is probably outside this building right now documenting everything."

Despite that, both Ichigo and Renji knew that Rukia was itching to be put behind a camera.

Ichigo pulled her had off of his arm. "You two should go with the security, at least outside you'll be-"

Rukia cut him off, "No way, the real story is in here and I know that you know what's going on in here so you better-"

The ground suddenly rumbled again and Ichigo's eyes widened. Ulquiorra had undoubtedly set off another explosive. He worried for his cerulean bodyguard's health and more importantly, Orihime's. She could easily be next. The redhead looked around worriedly, "have you seen Inoue anywhere?"

Renji answered, "She's over in the corner," and pointed in the direction of the doors that led into the theatre seating.

Before Rukia could grab at Ichigo again, he snaked through the slowly moving crowd until he spotted her leaning against a wall.

She saw Ichigo hurry forwards and in a shocking move, he grabbed her purse right out of her hands and rifled through it. "K-Kurosaki-kun?" She said, more worried than frightened.

Ichigo didn't respond but once he'd searched the bag's contents and found no trace of anything explosive, a weight was lifted off of his shoulders. He sighed. "Sorry Inoue, I didn't mean to scare you. I was told that the guy we're fighting put something dangerous in your bag."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Fighting? Please don't get hurt. Should I call the police or-"

"-No. This is personal. This guy, Ulquiorra, attacked me when-"

Orihime covered her hands over her mouth in shock. "U-Ulquiorra?"

Now it was Ichigo's turn to look surprised, "wait, you know him?"

"H-he's the bodyguard I was telling you about. Ulquiorra Cifer is my bodyguard."

Ichigo reeled as everything suddenly made more sense. Orihime being called away from the shopping centre then him getting attacked while alone, the ease at which Grimmjow scared off the henchmen at his house and his questionable familiarity with Ulquiorra. Orihime herself had said she had a bodyguard from Aizen Corp. but Ichigo had never questioned it further. Grimmjow probably already knew all of this but had never opted to tell the redhead.

Ichigo looked down at Orihime's bag. It was becoming more and more obvious that Grimmjow had been lying about bomb just to get him out of the fray. Before he could even gather the energy to be angry at his bodyguard, Orihime grabbed at his sleeve. She was practically on the verge of tears.

"Where is he?" She said, "There must be some kind of misunderstanding, he's not a bad person."

Ichigo blinked. He couldn't help but think, if that were true, then why the hell is he so out to get me?

Although it crossed Ichigo's mind to tell her to stay here, there was a determination in her eyes that told him that there was no way he could stop her from following him. So to avoid a pointless argument, Ichigo sighed, "follow me."

Her hand never left his arm as they took the trip back down to the storage room under the theatre stage. Her grip tightened as they progressed further into the dank and darkness. When Orihime swung open the storage door, Ichigo made a quick grab for her, lest she runs ahead to save Ulquiorra. But surprisingly, she didn't even try it. It was easy to see that she desperately wanted to, but she knew that she couldn't. She put her arms around herself to almost physically stop herself from rushing to his aid.

Ichigo slowly lead her through the vast stock piles until they came upon the fighting bodyguards. For Orihime, it was probably a very confronting sight. The bodyguard's were doing their best to inflict as much damage on the other as possible. Every hit was so quickly dealt that Ichigo was almost struggling to keep up watching it.

Ulquiorra's gaze happened to pass over where Ichigo and Orihime were partially hiding and the accidental pause that followed gave Grimmjow the opening he needed to deal a powerful punch to his opponent's face. The force knocked Ulquiorra off his feet and onto the ground with a dull 'THUMP'.

"NO!" Orihime cried and rushed forwards before Ichigo could stop her. She brazenly ran overand draped herself over Ulquiorra, her white dress spread wide like a protective cover.

Grimmjow looked down at her and exhaled sharply. If it were any random chick, he wouldn't have thought twice about pushing her aside, but this Orihime girl was too pitiful for him to even bother. Or so he told himself. "Get up. There's no need for that. Our fight is over."

It was plainly obvious from her expression that she didn't trust him, which was understandable since she'd never been given any incentive to. Without even turning her head, she called out to Ichigo, "Kurosaki-kun, could you come over here, please!"

Ichigo looked at Grimmjow and mouthed 'do nothing' which the cerulean then replied with a half-assed nod. He walked slowly over to Orihime and saw that she was delicately inspecting him, tears now overflowing and dripping onto Ulquiorra's dirtied suit.

"I-is he okay?"

Ulquiorra's brow furrowed and a low grumble escaped his lips. "... I'm not dead."

Orihime leapt up off of him immediately with a gasp of joy. She helped him up from the ground but when Ulquiorra's eyes met with Grimmjow's, he pulled her behind him protectively. He looked intent on continuing their fight, but Orihime was having none of it.

"No, please stop!" She stepped in front with her arms out wide, blocking his view of the cerulean. "Why are you doing this?"

"I... I have my own reasons." Ulquiorra said flatly.

Orihime wasn't taking her time in getting teary again, "But I care about you too much to see you get hurt. Please, stop this!"

"Nonsense. As a bodyguard I am always-"

In a shocking move, Orihime suddenly slapped Ulquiorra across the face. The sound echoed loudly through the storage room. Ichigo's mouth nearly fell open with surprise. What had happened to the timid girl he knew at school?

"W-when you get hurt, I'm hurt." She lightly placed her hand on his face where she'd hit him. "I... I love you."

Ulquiorra's eyes widened dramatically. Grimmjow had never seen the man look so surprised. "But you... towards Ichigo..."

Orihime shot Ichigo a sad look, "I'm sorry, Ichigo. You're a good person too, but I've come to care for him more."

"... Whuh?"

Grimmjow glanced over at Ichigo and had to fight back a laugh that would have probably done some extra damage to his ribs. Ichigo was utterly dumbstruck with his mouth hanging wide open.

Ulquiorra looked down at the ground. He spoke so softly that Grimmjow barely heard it, "Aren't you frightened of me?"

She smiled, "... I'm not afraid." Orihime removed her hand from his cheek and held it out, palm up.

Ulquiorra looked at it, raised his hand and after a moment's hesitation placed it onto hers. Their fingers curled tightly together.

Grimmjow grimaced. "Alright, Ichigo. Time to leave." He grabbed the redhead by the arm as he left and dragged him out the door.

Ichigo quickly emerged from his stupor. "Wha- Where are we going? I still want to give that guy a piece of my mind."

"Don't get me wrong, I still want to beat the living shit out of him, but I'd prefer to do it some other time when he isn't schmoozing up with that ginger chick." That was a side of Ulquiorra that Grimmjow hoped to see as little of as possible.

"...True." When the cerulean suddenly stumbled a little, Ichigo put his hand on his lower back to steady him. When he removed it, he was horrified to see that it was coated with red. Because Grimmjow's jacket was so dark in colour, it wasn't surprising that he hadn't seen it earlier. "Shit! Are you okay? What happened?"

"The bastard tried to take me out with one of the bombs. I got hit with some of the roof." Grimmjow rounded the corner and was met with the beginning of the stairs.

Ichigo recalled hearing the explosion earlier and growled, "That motherfucker..."He moved to turn back but Grimmjow grabbed his shoulder.

"I wouldn't do that. I'm not actually sure how much blood I've lost and I could pass out at any moment." Grimmjow sniffed.

Ichigo threw him a disbelieving look. "Ok, you should not be walking around. Just stay here and we'll need to get some paramedics-"

"-Nah, I'll be fine." Grimmjow then proceeded to walk up the stairs briskly.

The redhead shook his head with a frown. Crazy bastard, he thought.

The pair made it up a couple of flights of stairs and the walls of the building were beginning to look much cleaner and bright once again as they moved back towards the main hall. The hall was now entirely empty of people but like the short bloodhound she was, Rukia managed to appear out of nowhere.

"Ichigo! There you are!"

"Not right now, Rukia." Ichigo pointed at Grimmjow. "This guy needs medical attention."

She saw how serious the redhead was and kindly switched off her journalist-mode. "Do you need any help getting to the medics?"

Grimmjow shook his head. "Just give me a media-free route to my car. I've never been a fan of hospitals." He rustled around in his pockets and pulled out his phone. It was terribly cracked (probably from avoiding the explosive) but amazingly enough, it still worked.

Rukia looked at him like he was crazy and was about to say something, but Ichigo held up his hand to stop her. "There's no point in arguing. I'll take him to our clinic and get him fixed there."

While Grimmjow was talking on the phone, Rukia lead the pair out as inconspicuously as possible.

The sky was lit up with stars as the sun was well and truly beyond the horizon. The Seretei Festival should've been in full swing at this point and had it been uninterrupted, they would've all been sitting in a wondrously lit theatre watching award after award be given out. The only lights theey saw now were the flashes of cameras and bright set-ups of the film crews.

Ichigo looked at the crowd of people and was glad to see that no one had been hurt. The journalists were talking to various cameras and dragged the occasional witness into the shot. Rukia did very well at avoiding any cameras by taking them through the darkest route, away from the spotlights.

By the time the cerulean had finished his call, they were on the border of the car park. Rukia stopped, "And this is where I leave you. It'll look suspicious if I'm gone for too long."

Ichigo smiled, "Thanks for your help."

She nodded and her eyes seemed to glaze over, "look out for each other, ok?" And with that, she turned and walked away.

From there, Grimmjow lead the way back to where he'd parked the car and when he came upon it, he grinned. "Glad you could make it."

Ichigo looked up to see who he was talking to and saw the chauffer he'd seen in the past leaning against the car. The chauffer stood up straight and out of nowhere, took of his black visor to reveal-

Ichigo's eyes widened dramatically. "Ilfort?"

The blonde man smirked. "Hey, Ichigo. In trouble again, I see. Looks like Grimmjow's had his work cut out for him."

"Shut up, Ilfort." Grimmjow opened the passenger side door. "I'm not in the mood for your antics right now."

"Yes, sir." Ilfort put the visor back on and was about move around to the driver's side when Ichigo grabbed his arm.

"Why didn't you tell me you worked for Grimmjow?"

"Ah, well at the time I found you in Ulquiorra's trunk, my main priority was your health and safety. Besides, it's not my fault that you're so ignorant of your surroundings." He chuckled.

Ichigo frowned although what he said was indeed true. He shuffled in after Grimmjow and the car sped off. "Take us to the Kurosaki Clinic, please."

Ilfort nodded. "Whatever you say, kid."

Grimmjow leant back against the chair and chuckled to himself. "Well, that was fun. We should go to award shows more often."

"No, I think that was my first and last award show. But at least now I don't have to worry about Ulquiorra anymore..." Ichigo bit his lip as he pondered to himself.

Grimmjow noticed his troubled expression, "Oi, something bothering you?"

Ichigo looked at the bodyguard. "Yes, actually. I would never have guessed that Inoue had feelings like that for me. I wonder how long she's felt like that."

The cerulean shrugged. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say a decent couple of years. You seem to have this amazing ability to miss things that are right under your nose."

"What the hell does that mean?" The redhead rounded on him.

"It means this-" Grimmjow turned and pulled Ichigo into a strong kiss. He was unrelenting as his lips moved with Ichigo's, all his feelings for the redhead gathered in one passionate kiss. Orihime had failed in understanding that when it comes to Ichigo, being direct is by far the best and by god was the cerulean good at it. Grimmjow's hand lingered on Ichigo's shoulder as he pulled back and looked into his hazel brown eyes. Even in the dark of the car he could see a light blush sweep across the redhead's cheeks.

Maybe it was because Ichigo was feeling a sudden rush from their kiss or the day's activities had caught up with him and left him feeling a bit exhausted, maybe even both, but his mouth moved before his brain even registered what he was saying. "Why... Why do you like me so much?"

Grimmjow sighed. "I'm not sure if I have a straight forward answer for that, but explaining it will be a lot easier when I tell you about the first time I saw you when..." Without warning, the cerulean suddenly slumped forwards onto Ichigo.

"Woah, Ichigo, what's happening back there?" Ilfort spoke up with concern.

Ichigo lowered Grimmjow's body so that he was lying across his lap. He checked for his pulse and sighed with relief when it was still pumping away. "He's just passed out. His blood pressure must've gotten too low."

"Ah." The blonde remarked, a little too calmly. "Now might be a good time to ignore the speed limit."

"Go ahead." Ichigo couldn't help but frown at the cerulean's timing. Now he would have to wait until his bodyguard was conscious again to finally be able to hear about Grimmjow's past and their previous connection.

The white car zoomed through the streets as Ilfort slammed his foot down on the accelerator, heading as quickly as possible to the Kurosaki Clinic.

Guh, Grimmjow! Why did you have to go and pass out on us? What? He's terribly hurt, you say? Well, I guess he deserves some peace and quiet for a while then... *grumble*

Woah 'All For the Money, Honey' has hit double digits, the big 1-0! PAR-TAY! Thanks for all the support so far that hopefully still continues into the future. And gee guys, sorry if the Ulquiorra x Orihime scene sounded a bit too corny or forced. When I was originally planning this story, I was A-OK with them as a pairing, but after writing up an idea for another fanfic (involving Grimmjow x Ulquiorra), I kinda lost my like for them as a couple. Sorry UlquiHime fans out there!

But I digress, I've been labouring over the next chapter for AGES now and I've changed it many many a time. It's a flashbacker folks so be ready for some emotional awesomeness!

Comments and reviews will be used to pull Grimmjow back into consciousness ASAP!