Holy fuck! 100 reviews and over 100 followers! I… phew. A little floored here. I don't know about you guys, but when I write, I always appreciate it when people review just so you don't feel like you're talking to a wall… You know? But you guys have been lovely and loving me so well. I'm a lucky girl ;)

Anyway, to address a few questions. Yes, yes, Grimmjow does still have Ichigo's book. Yes, yes, that will come back to bite him on the ass later on. Good one Grimmjow!

Is Grimmjow going to find out about the bullying? Yes. Imma' thinking it's going to be a loooong time coming though. But I'm sort of (totally, completely) impatient so maybe I'll just smack him over the head and it'll come right back. To be honest, it might not happen till they're… nice and close. (If you get my point.) Just to fuck with you all and then he'll remember and they'll have to work a little more on their relationship.

Furthermore! (I love using grown up words!) They will be doing some more detective work that will actually be detective work. At the moment though, because they be crazy and pissed at each other, it ain't working out. Don't worry, it will.

And yes, my dog is like a baby. She's sooo much like a baby. It's crazy. I love her though.

Without any further ado however, here is the newest chapter. Still a little filler-y because I have to get to Grimmjow, Ichigo and Ukitake having it out but, here it is. Have fun!

XXX

The car trip was silent, though Renji kept glancing at Ichigo out of the corner of his eye every 15 seconds and taking small intakes of breath as if to start a sentence before changing his mind and looking away.

Any other time and Ichigo would have punched him in the arm and told him to focus on the road or at the very least told him to stop staring. He wasn't inclined to do so today however and just stared out the window.

After Grimmjow had left, Ichigo was promptly taken to his room. He had badgered the nurse to let him out of his room so much though, that the nurse finally hit him up with an extra dose of morphine and knocked him out.

When he awoke, it was with Renji fussing over his bed. Apparently the nurse had told the doctor to look Ichigo over again and it was decided that he was more than okay and they allowed him to be released early; as long as he was in someone's care.

Ichigo's sullen mood squished any conversation that Renji wished to start though as they walked to the car and all that had been said was that he wished to go home.

Renji finally broke the silence, tapping his finger on the steering wheel. "I'm not really meant to be taking you home and leavin' ya alone Ichi."

Ichigo tried to keep his irritation in check. It wasn't Renji's fault, not at all. But he was pissed because Grimmjow was such a headstrong, immature and thoughtless dick-face. Yes, that was now an insult. And the result was him taking his anger out everyone else. "I told you, I'm fine. Besides, it's not like the doctors are going to know you didn't actually observe me."

"Yeah," Renji agreed. "But Uryū might know. Plus, you should really be resting; you lost a lot of blood-"

"I know!" he snapped, heaving a sigh as the words slipped from his lips, scrubbing a hand down his face. "I know," he said, more gently. "I'm going to be fine though. I'll be careful and get some rest. I just – I really need some time by myself."

Casting a concerned glance his way, Renji finally shrugged. "Alright, fine. But if ya get in trouble, don't blame me."

There was silence again before Renji opened his mouth. "Ich, is this about Grimmjow?"

"What about him?" Ichigo asked wearily.

"Well did you fight or something? You've been all sulky since I picked ya up."

"I'm not sulky," he growled.

"Fine, grumpy then. That better? Well whatever," Renji shook his head, not wanting to fight about the issue. "Ya just seem pissed is all. Or upset maybe…"

Ichigo shook his head in return, sighing and staring out the window. "It's just… Grimmjow says he's leaving. He doesn't want to work with me anymore."

There was a pregnant silence as Renji pursed his lips, not wanting to say the words that slipped from between his lips; "Isn't that what ya wanted?"

Thankfully, Ichigo didn't grill him for his question; rather he seemed mad at himself, fisting his hands as he glared at the trees. "I know! But… I think it just pisses me off he's leaving because of a misunderstanding."

"What misunderstandin'?"

"He – I didn't – fuck!" Ichigo ground his teeth. "I don't know. I was just a dick and what I said didn't come out the way I wanted it to-"

"But that's just you Ichi, you always fuck up when you wanna' say something important."

Sending him a withering look, Ichigo continued; "Well Grimmjow didn't like it and flipped out, saying that we clearly hate each other and whatever…"

"Ya sorta' do."

"Are you just going to keep putting in snide comments along the way Ren? 'Cause that's going to get old real fast."

Ichigo's look was violent and deadly. Wisely, Renji flashed him a sheepish grin, keeping his silence.

"Anyway, so he quit basically."

Deciding that his next sentence was in no way snide, Renji asked; "So, when's he gonna' talk to Ukitake?"

Giving a small, half-shrug, Ichigo replied, "I don't know. Now I guess. Still, Ukitake'll wanna' talk to me when he brings it up, so I'll find out soon enough."

Renji shook his head, patting Ichigo's shoulder as he clicked his tongue. "Whatever, you said you could kill him if it didn't work out. Now's your chance."

Ichigo chuckled, thankful for Renji's presence, despite everything. "Yeah, I'll get on that. I 'spose I could just shoot him and say that he was shot in the line of duty. At least that way, I'll get the satisfaction and he'll still get the glory. Seems that that's all he's interested in."

Renji's brow rose at the spiteful tone but didn't comment. Ichigo clearly needed to deal with that himself and Renji wasn't about to get his head cut off because of it.

XXX

Soon enough, Renji had reached his house and was letting him out. The moment Ichigo stepped out of the car he was overwhelmed by exhaustion and he could feel a dull ache beginning to pound in his arm. Slowly he dragged himself off to his door, waving Renji off before pressing inside, cursing when the door knob fell off.

"Fucking Grimmjow…"

He plodded towards his room, losing pieces of clothing as he went, body singing at the mere idea of bed.

He was thankful, for once, that Zangetsu wasn't around. Zangetsu just seemed to give him a look that said; 'you're a fucking idiot… you know that right?' and right now he didn't want anyone telling him he'd fucked up.

Falling quite ungracefully onto his bed, he grabbed his pillow, pulling it into an embrace wanting nothing more than to sleep everything away.

Unfortunately it was at this time his phone decided to ring and he was forced to search for it amongst the mess that was his bedside table.

He didn't recognise the number and he considered leaving it but he didn't. "Hello?"

Rukia's voice came through the phone, dripping with innuendo and suggestions, "So, how was coffee?"

Ichigo groaned, rolling onto his back, staring at the back mouldy patch on his ceiling. "I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"Well clearly. Renji told me he was picking you up from hospital."

"Well then you know that I'm meant to be resting right now."

"As if you would actually rest," Rukia laughed. "But yes, you should rest; I swear this is going to be quick. It's just a check-up."

"I'm fine. I'm going to bed."

"But what about Grimmjow? Did you guys… talk?"

Ichigo was silent for a moment, wondering if the patch had grown since last week when he had looked at it. "We did."

"And?"

He could practically hear the bounce in her voice, although he couldn't expect any different. It wasn't like she knew the circumstances surrounding their particular situation but he didn't know what she wanted to hear. That they got along? Or even worse, that Ichigo was into him.

Ichigo was gay, and he may very well be boyfriend-less but he was not desperate enough to go for Grimmjow.

"And," he replied, rolling to his side. "I don't want to talk about it. Ask Renji if you wanna' know that badly."

"But Renji doesn't see the potential that I see Ichigo," Rukia sighed wistfully. "In fact, he thinks it's silly. He says I'd have better luck pairing Kirk and Spock in Star Trek and I replied that there was no way he didn't see the tension and he said the only tension between you and Grimmjow was killing intent."

"Kirk and Spock are just not a relevant comparison to me and Grimmjow at all. Mainly because there is tension between Kirk and Spock but with me and Grimmjow… well, he's right. We just want to kill each other." Ichigo knew that he wanted to kill Grimmjow but what he didn't know was why the hell he was upset about the misunderstanding. So what if Grimmjow wanted to quit! That was awesome!

Yet somehow, it wasn't. Maybe it was just because he didn't want him going thinking he didn't appreciate Grimmjow sticking around when he fainted.

"Well that's always a good start you know," Rukia said. "There's always a story where they hate each other then end up falling in love! I mean, I thought Renji was a total dork before-"

"What do you mean was?"

Rukia paused. "Yeah, okay, but I learned to love that part of him."

"Rukia, it isn't even a question of whether or not I can put up with his quirks. We just can't work together. If this was just a friendship, maybe it'd be different, we could handle the hiccups but we're police officers. But we're pretty fucking poor ones at the moment because of each other!"

She exhaled noisily and he could hear her clicking her tongue. "Still…"

"No Rukia, unfortunately we just seem to be the kind of people that can't work. Fortunately… whatever the hell it is, it's not happening."

There was silence as Rukia took this in. Slowly she said, "Okay Ichigo, I understand. I'll drop it. But… you should try to work it out. You're not yourself at the moment and I don't like sulky Ichigo. It's annoying. I may have to kick it out of you."

Ichigo wasn't sure if he should be offended or not so he just snorted. "We'll see what happens when I talk to Ukitake, alright? 'G'nite Rukia."

"Night Ichigo. Rest up."

The dial tone sounded and he held the phone for a moment before chucking it to his table and rolling back onto his belly.

Thoughts continued to swirl through his head, making him dizzy and sick. He wasn't sure if he wanted to cry or scream but he knew he wasn't getting sleep anymore. Damn Rukia.

Pushing himself up, he took a moment to consider what he wanted to do.

Picking up his phone once more, he dialled Uryū.

"Kurosaki, I hope that you're not going to tell me you're out of hospital."

"You're not going to like this then…"

Sighing wearily, Ichigo could practically hear the eye roll. "What is it then?"

"I was thinking we should go out."

"To a hospital?"

"No," he replied with a laugh, grabbing his clothes from the floor and attempting to dress himself. "To a bar. We haven't had a night out for a while and I really need one."

There was a moment of silence and he swore he could hear the disapproval.

"Very well," he finally replied. "Where would you like to meet?"

XXX

Didn't go the way I planned…

Zangetsu is like the manifestation of every pet I've ever owned. Especially Fletcher. She looks at me sometimes like, "Really mum? You're a dumb ass. A fucking idiot." Then she'll literally turn her back. Or punch me in the face, whatever she's feeling.

Anyway, so… that happened. I swear the next chapter will get to the whole quitting thing and we'll sort that out. Thank GOD! Seriously Grimmjow, what are you doing?

Please review because I feel loved if you do and I crave attention like the sun. Imma' be honest. Thank-you for all those that favourite and follow me, I appreciate it and you make me smile. But you know what makes me smile more? Reviews.

Do ittttttt!