It's been forever! How is everyone? (Hang head guiltily) I'm so sorry for disappearing on you guys for so long. I can hardly believe that it's been five months since my last update to this story, I hope some of you are still following it! Bad writer's block is bad, but thanks to Junko and her epic ByaRen soap opera over at AO3, my writing gears started turning a little…this is quite a bit shorter than the previous chapters, but I needed to get something going...
Let me know what you think of this. :)
WARNING: Cliffhanger ahead.
Stretching over to the passenger side to grab the four boxes of beer took quite a bit of strength and delicate balancing, but Grimmjow managed it somehow. Nudging the door open with his foot, he stepped carefully out of the car.
"I didn't know you were that anxious for beer too," he said in surprise when he noticed Szayel standing at the front door.
The pink-haired doctor huffed. "As if," he said. "I was merely trying to convince Abarai not to run after Ichigo."
"Run after Ichigo?" Grimmjow kicked the car door closed, an eyebrow raised in confusion.
Renji appeared next to Szayel, looking troubled. "I don't know what happened, but Szayel told me that Ichi just left suddenly. Didn't say why."
"Huh." Grimmjow frowned. "Here," he said, handing the drinks to Szayel, then he pulled out his cell phone from a back pocket. As Grimmjow dialed Ichigo's number, the three of them made their way back into the house.
The phone rang but wasn't picked up. Grimmjow rubbed the back of his neck and ended the call when he was greeted by Ichigo's voicemail. He wasn't really worried just yet, but Renji and Szayel's concern was certainly infectious. Surely there was a reasonable explanation for this? Perhaps Ichigo had received an urgent phone call from his family and had to go? It was unlikely, but what else could've made Ichigo run off in such a hurry? Grimmjow briefly considered giving Isshin a call, but dismissed it immediately. He didn't want to cause a false alarm.
"Okay, who was the last person to talk to him?" Grimmjow asked.
He had gathered everyone in the living room, and now he looked expectantly at his friends. One by one, Starrk, Nnoitra, Shuuhei, Nel, and Renji shook their heads.
"Does bumping into him at the hallway count?" Kensei asked gruffly. "I saw him right before he plowed right into Szayel. He didn't say anything to me, but he did look very upset."
Shuuhei looked at him in surprise. "You did? When? I thought he was gone by the time we-" A sudden blush overcame his face, and he stopped abruptly.
Grimmjow watched as Shuuhei shot Kensei a pleading look. "Well? What is it?" he demanded.
Kensei and Shuuhei looked at each other again. Kensei didn't blush, but he rubbed his nose awkwardly. Then, after clearing his throat and giving Shuuhei's shoulder a quick squeeze, he said, "Shuuhei and I went to your study and, uhh, we...you know."
"Goddamnit, you guys fucked in my office?" Grimmjow roared, eyes wide in mortification.
Kensei let out a sheepish chuckle. "It was quick, and we didn't make a mess." He took one look at Grimmjow's face and seemed to shrink a little. "Sorry boss. Won't do it again."
"Christ," Grimmjow grumbled, giving his friends the stink eye. "I'm going to have to bleach the damn place."
Szayel piped up suddenly. "Do you think Ichigo saw?"
"Shit, I sure hope not," Shuuhei said, blushing even harder. He straightened his t-shirt and scratched his ear. "We might've said something about you two."
Kensei snorted. "It was completely harmless," he said. "Even if he heard it, it doesn't explain why he ran off."
"Oh yeah?" Grimmjow's face darkened. "What'd you say?"
"Well, we were just laughing about the way you two met," Shuuhei explained, and then winced when Grimmjow suddenly grabbed his wrist. "Hey, oww! What the fuck?"
"What did you say exactly?" Grimmjow growled fiercely. His heart pounded in his chest, and he could feel his blood draining from his face. He suddenly had a very bad feeling about where this was heading.
"Christ, calm the fuck down," Kensei snapped, glaring at Grimmjow, who refused to relinquish his hold. "I don't see what the big deal is. I just said something about you guys being all kinky..." When Grimmjow frowned, Kensei continued with a shrug. "You know, 'oh, sensei, I've been a bad boy'..."
Grimmjow let go of Shuuhei's hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew now, what must've happened. What Ichigo must've thought.
His friends had no idea what they had just done.
The door burst open with a loud bang, and Ichigo stumbled in, panting and feeling light-headed from the sprint up to his apartment. Downstairs, the taxi driver gave his strange passenger one last curious look before shrugging and peeling away from the sidewalk.
Once the door slammed closed, Ichigo leaned heavily against it, his legs suddenly giving out beneath him. He didn't even realize that he was sliding down until his breath was jarred out of his lungs by the hard landing on his butt. He winced, letting out a soft hiss of pain, before closing his eyes and dropping his head in his palms.
They knew.
He could picture them now: snickering behind his back, shaking their heads and talking about how fucking kinky he was. It's not normal, liking something like that; he must be sick, abnormal. Disgusting.
His phone rang again, vibrating in his pocket, and he wrenched it out and threw it aside, not even bothering to check the screen. He could guess who it was, and he wasn't ready to talk. In his current state, if he were to hear an apology, a confession, he didn't know if he would be able to take it. He didn't want to have his fear confirmed; didn't want to find out that Grimmjow had betrayed him. He had trusted Grimmjow, and he was still trying desperately to cling to that trust, even though he couldn't imagine how else Kensei could've found out.
Perhaps he had overreacted, running away like that, but it had been his first instinct. He had panicked. The shock and shame had completely overwhelmed him, and he had done the first thing that came to mind: run.
Ichigo let out a tired groan. What was he supposed to do now? He'd have to face reality eventually. It wasn't as if he could simply disappear. People would have questions, including Renji, Szayel, Kensei, Shuuhei. Everyone that he cared about.
And Grimmjow.
Gods, what was he supposed to do?
Grimmjow cursed as he cut in front of another slow-moving car. Ichigo didn't live that far from him, but it might as well be on the other end of the earth with all these idiots on the road. The driver behind him honked loudly. On any other day, Grimmjow would've flip him off in the rear view mirror, but this time he couldn't be bothered. Every minute counted. He needed to get to Ichigo before the younger man did anything stupid, like convince himself that Grimmjow had betrayed him.
He tried not to shiver as he remembered the last time Ichigo didn't answer his phone. This was different, Grimmjow reminded himself. But he just couldn't shake this bad feeling off. Swearing again, he grabbed for his phone again, glancing down briefly to unlock the screen and press the call button.
It rang and rang.
Huffing out a breath, Grimmjow rolled his eyes and ended the call. It was no use. He would just have to get there and shake the stupid out of his boyfriend himself. Throwing a quick look over his shoulder, Grimmjow switched lanes once more to overtake the slowpoke ahead of him.
What's with all these morons going under the speed limit in the fast lane?
By the time Ichigo made it to the couch, he had calmed down. Mostly. He was still feeling a little ill but at least he wasn't shaking anymore. He sank down into the cushions, threw an arm over his eyes, and let out a long sigh. Right, he could do this. Time to man up and call Grimmjow back. If his heart was meant to be broken, then so be it.
Pulling his knees up and curling into a ball, Ichigo took out his phone and stared at the screen. The long list of missed calls made him feel a little guilty, so he quickly unlocked it and brought up the Phone app. His thumb hovered over Grimmjow's name.
And then the phone suddenly rang. In his surprise, Ichigo jumped, and the phone slipped out of his palm and skittered under the sofa. Shaking his head at his own nervousness, he dove down for it.
One hand still holding the phone, Grimmjow slammed the other palm on the car horn. If he had another hand he'd wind down the window and yell at the stupid fucker. The light was fucking green, for god's sake. And green was for fucking go!
"Hello?"
Finally! Relief flooded over Grimmjow as the familiar voice came over the speaker.
"Ichigo! Listen, I can explain," he began.
Suddenly, the driver in front of him seemed to finally realize that he was at an intersection and sped up...just as the light turned yellow.
For a split second, it crossed Grimmjow's mind that he should probably stop. But the car ahead had made it, and he was going a little too fast to slam on the brakes now anyway.
He floored the accelerator.
Ichigo was still waiting for the explanation when he was suddenly blasted with an ear-splitting screech. He stared at the phone, stunned, blood draining from his face, as the screech gave way to the loud, unmistakable sound of crunching metal.
To be continued…