My goodness, my brother nearly caught me writing my stories! Even on the laptop, I still don't have enough privacy! Congrats to OfeliaWolf for being the 200th reviewer! You now get . . . . a pool full of chocolate milkshakes! Yays! Oh, and whitebengal14 asked me another question about the Playstation Network, to answer that it had happened around mid-April then it came back online a month later. That's all I can say for now . . . .

Game Over by Boogermeister

Chapter 13- Turn Up The Lights

Nearly every day, Ichigo and Grimmjow had seen each other at the younger man's apartment though they often spent more messing with each other (mostly on the blunet's fault) than making the game. At one point, Grimmjow attempted to nip at his neck when ignored for the umphteenth time over a new suggestion. So far, however, they continued to act like the bully and the disgruntled worker at Los Lobos but nobody paid attention as they were still worried about the Playstation situation. Still, they hadn't had a second date since the trip to the museum, and Ichigo sighed heavily.

"The weekend's coming up . . . ." he sighed, looking over a level for the third time before finally deciding to move on to the next one. "And he did promise to make me drunk." Maybe they were too busy during work and after work to discuss much of it.

"Rookie, how's it going?" smirked Grimmjow as he sauntered by, and Ichigo frowned at him.

"Stop calling me that, I've been here for over two months now, Grimmjow," he frowned.

"I said otherwise until Rippers is finished," he smirked. "Anyway, how's the last levels going so far?"

"Uh, great, I'm making extra sure that there's no error," he replied.

"Oh, you're working too hard there, you're gonna burn out soon," he chuckled, leaning over to pat him on the back. "I'll see you later, rookie . . . ." Ichigo nodded a little as the blunet went into his office, but when he glanced down he noticed a new note on his desk. He blinked but picked it up anyway and unfolded it.

'Friday at 8:30. Wear something pretty.'

"Ugh, what an idiot . . . ." he scoffed under his breath, though slipping the note into his pocket. But he was still happy for the next date as he went back to work at a slower pace this time.

Friday . . . .

As soon as the day came, Ichigo had placed aside his clean set of clothes to wear for the date tonight. Though it was the same type of clothing as he liked it, it was decent enough for his time with Grimmjow. Meaning that he had to wear the light blue shirt from Shinji since he ran out of other clothes again. As usual, everyone became depressed over the Playstation Network fiasco so nobody bothered him about the Nintendo controller farting rainbows across his chest.

"Oh, see that you're wearing that shirt again," smiled Grimmjow as he greeted him.

"Tch, and?" frowned Ichigo as he started working.

"Come on, just saying that your friend's got interesting taste," he smiled. "And speaking of your friend . . . ."

"No, I told him that I was going out to see a gaming tournament," he said. "I doubt that he would try to bother me once I go home."

"Hah, the perfect alibi," smirked Grimmjow. "Why? You got a date or something tonight?"

"It's none of your business," scoffed Ichigo.

"Ooh, touchy . . . .!" he laughed. "All right, whatever you say, rookie."

(Pwnage)

Watching the sky darken through the window, Ichigo waited for Grimmjow to come. He was wearing his favorite black T-shirt with a demonic skull who grinned wickedly to those who see it. His navy jean was decorated only with a simple black belt and a wallet chain, accented with his usual Converse sneakers. He even brought along his messenger just in case. Glancing at the time on his cell phone, it was only ten minutes left.

He was having a feeling that Grimmjow would be late, possibly on purpose so he could get mad at him and get smirked at in return. Oddly enough, he would want to anticipate that as he smiled a little. ". . . . Oh, he's already here," he muttered in surprise, noticing the familiar motorcyclist slowing in front of his building. After locking his door, he went downstairs and stepped out just as Grimmjow took off his helmet. "Huh, you're five minutes early," he smirked.

"Why? I've never been late for my life," smirked Grimmjow.

"And when will I get my own helmet? I'm tired of using yours," he scoffed, climbing onto the back after taking his protection.

"You have money to buy one yourself."

"Can't, I promised my Mom to buy more chairs."

As before, they drove to the city, light pollution made the night sky filtered by brownish-orange haze as Grimmjow zipped through the traffic. Ichigo saw the passing environment and wondered where was he being taken to. Obviously somewhere where he would get pissed drunk. It wasn't long until he noticed brief glances of piers and the twinkling dark water of the Hudson River. He frowned yet was curious of where was the blunet was taking him. On a cruise ride or something? That seemed too plain, even for the both of them . . . .

". . . . Look, we're here," announced Grimmjow when he made a turn away from the piers for a wharehouse nearby. Ichigo glanced up as the other man parked next to the thick metal wall, he could hear and feel heavy bass noises of techno music from the inside.

"Where are we, Grimmjow?" he asked as he took off the helmet and they got of the bike.

"Oh, I remembered that day when that friend of yours had mentioned how vulnerable you are when it comes to drinking," he smirked. "And because of that, I decided to take you to a rave."

"A rave . . . .?" Ichigo scoffed in disbelief. "Is it illegal to have one here?"

"Why? Nobody rarely comes around here," chuckled Grimmjow.

"But, are they doing drugs- snorting on 'E' or something and act crazy and- oh, I realized that I brought my sketchbook with me!" rambled the younger man, causing Grimmjow to laugh louder.

"Calm down, Ichigo, they only got liquor at this party," he laughed. "There's a good chance that some idiot brought drugs but we'll just keep it to ourselves, all right?"

"But-"

"Come on, kid, it's only for a few hours," he smirked, gripping his wrist to lead him inside. As expected, the party was nearly pitch-black with the expection of the multicolored glowsticks from the dancers and black lights from the high ceiling. The music was loud and deafening to their ears but Grimmjow kept a tight grip on Ichigo, who finally calmed down, as they swam through the crowd for the bar lighted lime-green. "Here you go . . . .!" he yelled over the music, and the younger man sat on the high stool.

"Do they got regular beer instead of some crazy cocktails?" Ichigo shouted with a small smile..

"They better!" As requested, the bartender (who was wearing glowing bracelets up to his elbows) bought them four bottles of beer. "To getting shit-faced!" laughed Grimmjow, picking a bottle up.

"Shut up . . . .!"

An hour later . . . .

Ichigo cackled like a hynea over Grimmjow's simple joke, nearly toppling off his stool after tilting his head back. "Oops, I nearly broke this stool . . . .!" he giggled, deep red already tinted across his cheeks from his second beer and was starting on his third. The blunet laughed with him, still sipping on his first bottle.

"Shinji wasn't lying, you do get drunk easily!" he smirked. "Guess that means that you're also easy picking for those perverts!"

"What? I'm not some easy lay . . . .!" Ichigo scowled, but his drunken expression had made him pout instead. "I haven't had a date for long time . . . . I'm not like my silly friend who flirt with those who breathe!"

"All right, I understand-"

"You know . . . . a year and a half ago, at a club similar to this, Shinji tried to hook me up with this buff-looking dude!" he groaned in playful disgust. "He had short silver hair and got this little hoop on his eyebrow . . . .! I forgot his name but he seemed scary to me, he looked like he owns a gym or something!"

"Hah! You know what happened after that?" smirked Grimmjow.

"Uh . . . . I really don't know, to be honest!" laughed Ichigo. "All Shinji told me was that I had shrugged him off or some shit like that . . . .!" Grimmjow scoffed in amusement, trying to imagine the person based on Ichigo's vague description. But it was cut off when the younger man started shouted for something. "Hey, where did they get those glowstick thingies? I want some . . . .!" he yelled at the bartender nearby. The guy simply nodded and gestured to the far right in front of the two.

"Guess we have to go get some then, huh, Ichigo?" Grimmjow asked loudly. Seriously, they would lose their voices over the random electronic music. "Come on, let's go . . . .!" Swinging a strong arm around the waist, he led the younger man in the sea of dancing shadows with dulled illumination of the glowing tubes. Part of the dancefloor cleared temporarily as they passed by and saw a buff shirtless man decked out with multiple glowsticks, pop-locking in tune with the shrills of a whistle between his lips.

"Dah . . . .! Did you see that, that guy's dancing weird!" Ichigo screeched with laughter, playfully smacking him on the chest.

"Tch, that guy's really on something!" cackled the blunet. They had soon forgotten about the dancer as they found a giant bin full of uncracked glowsticks in the back, free for any patron to take. "How would we know which to take?"

"Just take as much as we could!" Ichigo smiled, grabbing a handful. He snapped the first one and the liquid inside the tube soon turned neon blue. "Here, this one's for you, Grimmjow . . . .!" he laughed.

"Fuck you . . . .!" he scoffed but took it anyway as Ichigo cracked the next one, a bright yellow this time. "Yellow . . . .! Blue . . . . oh, blue again! Pink . . . .! And now . . . . orange!" He laughed at the last color, putting the attached string around his neck. "Let's go, Grimmy . . . .! Here, you can keep the blue ones!"

"Hey, only my doofy cousin calls me that!" frowned Grimmjow playfully but was embraced by him with a muffled giggle.

"But it's cute on you . . . .!" smiled Ichigo as he glanced up. "C'mon, I wanna dance until I fall asleep! Please . . . .!" Grimmjow stared back and a great amount of intoxicating euphoria swell inside of him, even if Ichigo was drunk he didn't mind dancing with him. Hell, he would enjoy dancing with him being sober.

"Okay, let's dance the alcohol outta our system . . . .!"

(Pwnage)

Despite being dead tired, Ichigo hang on tightly around Grimmjow's midsection as the blunet drove him home. He was still a little woozy from the drinking but he wasn't sick enough to barf like that one time, he really should stop partying with Shinji from now on. The trip felt too long yet too short for him until they finally reached his apartment. ". . . . Hey, wake up, we're here," chuckled Grimmjow.

"Ugh, I'm home . . . .?" Ichigo muttered groggily. "Oh . . . . can you take up there? Feel like I'm about to fall into the Rabbit Hole . . . ."

"Rabbit Hole? Shit, you really are drunk . . . ." he smirked, helping him off the bike as he took off the helmet. "One step at a time, kid. Else, you're gonna eat concrete," he muttered. He noticed that the front door was broken yet unlocked as he pushed it open, hauling Ichigo up three flights of stairs. "Got your keys on you?" he muttered.

"Um, in my left pocket, attached to my wallet chain . . . ." mumbled Ichigo, subconsciously shifting his hips against the blunet's thigh. Grimmjow felt that and nearly gulped in surprised. Even when the younger man mentioned that he wasn't an easy lay despite being drunk, he sure wasn't making it easy physically. He reached down to Ichigo's hips for the chain and yanked the jingling keys out, finding the right one to unlock his door. The street light filtered through the windows when he carefully placed tha half-asleep guy onto the bed, messy as usual.

"Want me to . . . . take off your street clothes, Ichigo?" muttered Grimmjow, removing the strings full of the glowsticks from his neck then his messenger bag.

"Nah, I'm good . . . ." Ichigo yawned, shrugging off his jacket and sneakers before plopping back into his mattress. "Good night, Grimmjow . . . ."

"Yeah, same to you . . . . See you at work on Monday," Grimmjow smirked a little. Ichigo smiled back before closing his eyes, within several seconds he finally fell asleep. Grimmjow sighed deeply at the sight, he remembered seeing the same peaceful face weeks before when working on the last levels. He simply shook his head before finally leaving, climbing onto his parked bike once he reached outside. "Shit . . . ." he sighed, putting on his helmet. Even though it had been over a year, he didn't want to think about it at least for now. As an unofficial rule, a couple should not have sex until after the third date. Still, he enjoyed the company between him and Ichigo and he didn't want to ruin it.

Especially since they were still working on the younger man's secret project.

(Pwnage)

"Praise the gods!"

"Hallelujah . . . .!"

"It's working, it's finally working!"

"Hell yeah!"

For the first few hours in the morning, nearly everyone at Los Lobos went into a cheering frenzy when Ichigo came to work. He would have frowned in confusion if it weren't for the dumb red-head who pulled him into a tight embrace. "They did it, Ichigo! They finally fixed it . . . .!" cheered Renji.

"Wh-what? What got fixed . . . .?" Ichigo frowned in confusion.

"The Playstation Network . . . .!" whooped one of the workers.

"We can log back on, baby!" cheered another, along with more cheering. Ichigo blinked and couldn't help but smile excitedly at the news, if the Network was back on then everybody could make the game without worry once again.

"Wow, that's great!" he smiled, only to scowl when Renji hugged him again.

"Yeah, and we're gonna celebrate after work!" he smiled. "We're gonna demolish that Taco Bell soon enough . . . .!"

"Really?" he scoffed a little when he pushed him away. "Well let's hope that the SWAT team won't come in on you guys stuffing down burritos." He walked to his desk and slumped onto his chair, it was hard to ignore the constant cheering but he couldn't blame them for it. He heard one guy wanting to buy everything out of the vending machine but was jeered humorously. "Damn, maybe I should go with those buffoons . . . ." he sighed.

"All right, all right, all right . . . .!" came Nel's happy tone of voice, which quieted down the rowdy men. "Yes, we all heard the news this past weekend, and we are truly happy about it! However, as much as we want to celebrate, we're still on schedule for Rippers. So, all of you guys, get back to work!"

"Hey, Nel, now that you heard the good news, does that mean you wanna go on a date with me?" flirted Renji. "I got . . . . five bucks on me, enough for a Taco Bell meal!"

"Uh, that's okay, I'm a Chipotle type of person," smiled Nel. "Get back to work, or I'll sic my cousin on you."

"Aww . . . ." Renji finally left, as the director moved around the cubicles to briefly discuss the progress. Ichigo glanced up and frowned, he couldn't start working since he didn't have the flash drive, because he didn't have the chance to call for Grimmjow.

"Hey, Nel . . . .?" he called out as he stood up and the woman smiled at him.

"Oh, Morning, Ichigo!" she smiled as she walked up to him. "How's it going?"

"I just got here, and I'm wondering if Grimmjow's here since he got the data for the last levels," he replied.

"He should be, I just saw him a while back," she shrugged. "He found out that his motorcycle ran out of gas this morning and had to take the train." Ichigo nodded in understanding, guess that explained why he didn't see the bike parked out front. "Oh, don't worry about that sourpuss, Ichigo," she sighed. "In two weeks, more or less, we're going to Los Angeles for the weekend so you don't have to think about that idiot."

"Los Angeles? For what?" frowned Ichigo.

"You're working for a gaming company, and yet you don't know about E3?" Grimmjow suddenly appeared behind his cousin as he walked up to the two. "Goodness, you probably don't even know the diffence between GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS, rookie," scoffed Grimmjow.

"Shut up . . . ." frowned Ichigo but glanced down for his ignorance. He knew what E3 was, the mecca of video gaming convention. Meeting the best of the best from the famously known companies as well as the anticipated games and demos of the newest consoles. "So what, you guys go over there just to promote Rippers for three days straight?" he asked, and he saw Grimmjow mockingly sneering at him.

"Wow, you're making it sound that fucking easy," he scoffed.

"Quit it, Grimmjow," frowned Nel. "And Ichigo, it's actually much more than that. We have to entice everybody there about how hard we have worked the game and convince them to believe that it's good enough for the cosumers to buy it."

". . . . So, you're going there to promote it?" rephrased Ichigo.

"Yeah, that's really just the case," she shrugged. "But it's harder than it sounds like, considering that there are dozens of competitions fighting for attention. Anyway, two of you should get back to work. Good luck, guys . . . ."

"Thanks, Nel," he nodded as he sat down. Nel smiled back before leaving, Grimmjow simply rolled his eyes at her before frowning at Ichigo. ". . . . What?"

"You really didn't know about E3 coming up, do you?" he frowned.

"It's not my fault, I was too busy with my . . . . secret project," he frowned back.

"Ah, then you should pay attention to your work then," he said with a small smirk, tosssing a flash drive at his head. Ichigo nearly yelped out but the surprised impact then scowled when the blunet chuckled at him. "Get to work, slave," he ordered, going to his office.

"Don't call me slave . . . .!" he scowled.

"Then I'll just continue to call you rookie!"

(Pwnage)

"Grimmjow . . . . so you're really going for the weekend, right?" Ichigo asked, glancing up from the shelves full of packaged folding chairs. "For the E3 thing, because you're the lead designer and stuff?"

"Of course, I'm getting extra money for doing this shit," he chuckled a little. "This year it starts at the first weekend of June, which is convenient since Rippers is coming out around the last week of that month." He glanced around at the red and white decor of the department store before shivering from the industrial-sized AC. "Why're we in Target? Thought we were going back to your place, Ichigo."

"I need another chair, I promised that to my Mom," he sighed, gazing at two packages before looking at the prices.

"Aw, that's nice," he smirked.

"Shut up . . . ."

"Anyway, did you have a good time this past weekend, Ichigo?" he smiled, walking up to him. "Or at the very least, did you remember since you were shit-faced?"

"Yes, I remember the glowsticks and that one guy who was dancing stupidly," smirked Ichigo but frowned in embarrassment as he scratched the back of his head. "But by the next afternoon, I had to make up an explanation to Shinji about the glowsticks and me being hung over."

"Heh, did he suspect you of going somewhere else?" smirked Grimmjow.

"It was hard to convince him, I had to lie to him that the gaming tournament was also part party," shrugged the younger man as he opted for the one similar to the other he already had and pulled it out. "Anyway, thanks Grimmjow," he smiled at him. "I really did had a great time that night, even if it was all a blur."

"Hey, if you wanna get drunk again then be my guess and we could do it again," he chuckled.

"Hell no, I wanna see a movie this time," he scoffed a little. "I heard that Thor is good, maybe I might get some inspiration outta that."

"Thor it is, then," smiled Grimmjow. "Hey, why do we have to go to Target in the Bronx . . . .?"

"Oh, I'm a bit embarrassed to go to the one in Brooklyn since I used to work there," he shrugged.

"Really, what happened?" he asked.

"This guy harrassed me, I knocked him out, got fired to avoid lawsuit, end of story," he explained, and the older man laughed.

"Good on both parts, that guy deserved it and you didn't need to work at a shitty job," he laughed.

Ichigo smiled and shrugged again as they walked out of the aisle. "Guess that's right," he sighed before glancing at him. "Hey Grimmjow . . . ."

"Hm . . . .?"

"Do I have to go with you to Los Angeles?" he asked. "I mean, I'm a junior designer so I assumed that-"

"Sorry, even if I wanted to, there wasn't enough space for the venue," Grimmjow sighed, patting him on the shoulder. "Plus, all of the tickets were sold out. Don't worry about it, you can still see it on TV."

"Figures," frowned Ichigo. "I was a little curious of what will happen over there."

"Nothing much, just smelly fanboys arguing over which is better, Halo or Mass Effect," he joked.

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LOL, the part with the crazed dancer was inspired by watching 'White Chick'. If you don't know what I meant, just watch it. Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna eat some cereal. Yummers!

P.S.- I just realize that the actual E3 starts on a monday but it's too late to do it over since I'm writing a wee bit ahead! Seriously, who would start on a monday and not at a weekend like any other convention?

P.P.S.- I just read the latest chapter of Bleach, and Ginjou simply slice poor Ichi in the eyes! I screamed in surprise and now I'm pissed cuz I hafta wait to see what'll happen next week!

Read and Review.

I'll update ASAP!