Chapter Eight

Grimmjow

Sitting at the kitchen table and eating with Ichigo across from him was… different. Nice, but different.

Grimmjow wasn't really much one for reflection. He preferred getting on with life, dealing with things as they came. This, he found, was mainly down to his parents. They were opportunists and, while he had no doubt they cared for him, loved him, they weren't the sort to turn down a free trip or networking opportunity just because they had a child. He'd just learnt to live his life as it came, they could be off at any moment for any reason and he'd just have to go with it.

Grimmjow was used to eating alone. When he was younger his uncle had been over quite a bit when his parents were away, and he'd always had Nel, the live in house keeper to keep him company. She'd cook for him, and help keep the house clean, and take him to school when he was to young to go by himself. In many ways she was like a big sister. She'd lived with them, rent free, when she was a student, some agreement his parents had come to with hers. Nel had lived with them from when he was four to when he was fourteen while she studied medicine to be a paediatrician. She had been the one who taught him to cook, had told him it'd do him well.

He certainly thanked her for that.

She now worked at the local hospital for demonkind, and he still saw her regularly, spoke to her every other day on the phone.

In fact he thought, as he looked at Ichigo, she'd be wondering why he hadn't called her for a while.

He thought he had a good reason.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo said, tilting his head to one side.

Grimmjow shrugged, heat spreading across his cheeks. He hadn't meant to stare. Looking back down to his food and, with no other thoughts coming quick enough, said, "You smell different."

Not at all what he wanted to say.

But Ichigo didn't seem at all bothered by the statement. Instead he gave a shrug of his own. "My body's got what it wanted, so my heat's ended. Less scent to tell alphas what's going on."

There was still so much they had to discuss, so much to sort out. Grimmjow knew as soon as they had eaten and cleaned up the topic of conversation would turn to vital matters of 'what now'? Or, at least, what would have to happen over the next few days. The implications of what might be eight months from now could wait. Grimmjow was aware of the fact that he lacked a lot of knowledge when it came to the complexities of beta biology, but he knew enough that he could be almost sure that in eight months time his life would change again. Still, they had eight months to figure that out if things went well, and Grimmjow didn't even want to think about all the reasons why it wouldn't.

"Will people be able to tell?" he said.

Ichigo gave him a funny look. "That my heat's ended?"

"No, that you're … you know." Grimmjow didn't really know what he was trying to ask.

"Can you usually tell when people have had sex?"

That certainly wasn't it.

"That's not what I'm asking," he said, the warmth creeping across his face again.

Ichigo laughed, pushing his empty plate away from him. "I know. I know, sorry." Taking a breath he calmed himself down.

Grimmjow couldn't help but smile at how much more relaxed the beta seemed.

"Ummm… to answer your question. I don't really know. I don't think so, not for a few weeks at least." Ichigo said, putting his hands on his belly and looking down on them.

Grimmjow followed his gaze. "Are you?"

Ichigo nodded. "I think so. I can tell something's different than before. It's why the first heat is so important. It's why…" He stopped and swallowed. "It's why he was after me. After the first one there's ways to stop it, even suppress the heat, but not the first time."

"Does it scare you?"

Ichigo looked up and their eyes met across the table. "I… I don't know. I have worries, things I can't just get rid of, but I don't think I'm scared. Does it scare you?"

"A bit," Grimmjow said, "I don't know how to be a father."

"Me neither," Ichigo said, looking at his hands again. "We'll get there. We have time."

There was no putting it off anymore. There were no more dishes, no more laundry, and the kitchen looked even cleaner now than before they had started to cook.

Now they had to plan.

More specifically, they had to plan how to deal with Ichigo's family, and Grimmjow's uncle (because he was being honest with himself and he had no idea when his parents would be back), and the fact that Grimmjow was moving to a new town in a few days time.

They didn't try to keep any distance between them as the sat cross-legged on the floor at the coffee table, their backs against the sofa. Grimmjow had given Ichigo his clothes back, but the other had no interest in putting them back on and instead had elected to dig around in his alpha's room to find something he could wear. Grimmjow didn't have any complaints.

A pack of pens and a notebook sat on the table in front of them, raided from one of the boxes Grimmjow had packed ready for his move.

Ichigo tapped a pen on the wooden table top, the click click click of the lid filling the silence between them. Grimmjow placed his hand on top of his and carefully removed the pen from his grip, not missing the way Ichigo's nails had started to elongate into sharp claws. Whatever Ichigo had on his mind it was distressing him greatly.

"Where do we start?" Grimmjow said, keeping his voice low. "Do you want me to write?"

Ichigo shook his head and took the pen back. "I want to do it."

"Okay."

Grimmjow waited as Ichigo shifted closer to him and reached out to join their hands.

"I don't even know where to begin," Ichigo said, turning slitted honey eyes on Grimmjow. "I know I want to stay with you though. I'm going to tell my brother first I think. He might try to come and fight you, but once I explain it he'll be the easiest one. Shiro can help me with the others."

"You're going to go back to your house?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No. I think I'll call him, get him to come pick me up."

"Are you sure?"

"Shiro will help if I ask him too. He was always kicking off about how stupid the elders' rules were." He scribbled some notes on the page. "I doubt they'll be happy to have me at home, but if I need to could probably stay there until we can figure something else out."

"You could stay here. My uncle wouldn't mind and he'll help us."

They went through a few more options, working from what they thought would be easiest to deal with and circling around the three topics neither of them wanted to face: the elders of Ichigo's family, Grimmjow leaving for uni and, the most worrying, the other alpha that already tried to take the beta.

"He won't give up, and I'm sure the elders will side with him. His family has power and me mating him was supposed to be part of a deal they were trying to get."

"How does that make any sense."

"It's just how it is." Ichigo fell silent a strange expression coming across his face. "They could hurt my sisters because of this…"

"Ichi…"

Ichigo shook his head, his face hardening. "I'll figure it out. Shiro will look after them."

They fell to silence again, the pen scratching across the page as Ichigo wrote.

Grimmjow let his thoughts occupy his mind, the problem of him going to uni at the forefront. He know he wanted to go. He'd worked hard to get in but maybe he could wait, maybe he could find a different place to live, bring Ichigo with him. Would he even want to move away from town? Ichigo still had school, he had things he wanted to do, and, as much as he feared what was coming he sill loved his family. Would he leave them?

"I'm going to call a friend of mine," Grimmjow said, making Ichigo jump at the sound of his voice. "And I'm going to call my parents. I'll call all of them today. I have to go do my course, but I'll come back regularly to be with you."

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to come with me, but I don't know if I can find accommodation where we can do that, or even if I can get out of the contract I made with the uni for halls." He met those beautiful eyes with his own, took in the sharp fangs peeking out between those lips which he couldn't wait to kiss again. Grimmjow took a breath. "And I can't ask you to leave your life here. You had a plan right, things you wanted to do? I won't be the one who make you give that up, so I'm going to do what I can to let you stay here, away from you family if that's what it takes."

He didn't expect to get knocked flat to the floor with arms wrapped around his neck and legs around his waist.

"Thank you," Ichigo said, burying his face in Grimmjow's neck. "No one's ever…my dad's tried and I know Shiro would do anything for me, but at the end of the day it's their family too. Even they didn't let me hope too much."

He drew back and looked down into Grimmjow's eyes. "Thank you, Grimm."

"Is it ringing?"

Grimmjow nodded, holding up a hand to stop Ichigo talking any further.

After Grimmjow gave him his reassurances, the beta had calmed down and his demon features had settled back into his unreleased state. It truly was a testament to how unnerved Ichigo had been for a partial shift to occur. Usually a conscious effort, one which took focus, the fact that it had happened without the other bringing his heritage forward on purpose had Grimmjow marvelling at the strength his partner possessed.

Ichigo's family were idiots not to see it, encourage it. Grimmjow wouldn't make that mistake.

Though, and he didn't like the thought one bit, he had to wonder if the unconscious shift was a response of the trauma the beta had undergone at the hands of another alpha. He knew Ichigo worried about the man even more than the response he'd get from his family.

They were still sat on the floor, Grimmjow able to manoeuvre them upright after a while lying on the floor together.

Ichigo hadn't moved off of him though, and now sat comfortably on Grimmjow's lap as the alpha tried to connect to a video call with his uncle.

The phone chimed, the call going through. As the video loaded, Ichigo tried to slide off of Grimmjow's lap to sit on the floor beside him instead, but Grimmjow wrapped his arm around his waist. Ichigo turned a questioning look to him. Grimmjow shrugged, just as his uncle's face appeared on the screen.

"Grimmjow!" Devlin said, and stopped, his eyes flickering. He blinked. "You have a friend with you."

Grimmjow nodded, pulling Ichigo closer. "Yes. This is Ichigo."

Ichigo turned his head and smiled at the little screen. "Hello."

Devlin hummed. "It's…nice to meet you." He studied Ichigo for a while before speaking again, turning to Grimmjow. "As much as I like speaking to you, Grimmjow. It is unusual for you to call me like this. Is there a problem?"

"Not a problem exactly." Grimmjow, rested his chin on Ichigo's shoulder. "But we may need your help."

"What's going on, Grimm?"

"Ichigo is my mate."Grimmjow said, shifting his eyes away from the phone and to the piece of paper on the coffee table. "And umm… he may need somewhere to stay." Sighing he sat back up straight and rubbed a hand through his hair. "He might be… um well… he was in heat and…"

"Oh, Grimmjow. What have you done?"

"Nothing… Well, okay, something, but we talked first I swear." Grimmjow said, shrugging. "Now we're…just… we're trying to figure everything out. What to do."

"Honesty, Grimmjow?" Devlin sighed, pinching the bridges of his nose and closing his eyes. "Have you called your parents? Of all the things — How does he even feel about this?" He opened his eyes and gestured to the screen. The message was clear.

"I already said that we tal — "

"Excuse me, sir, but if anything what happened is more my fault than Grimm's."

Grimmjow looked down at Ichigo, but the beta wasn't looking at him, instead he was staring at the phone.

"Grimmjow saved me. He made sure I was okay. He made me promise that I knew what this meant for the both of us. He's telling you the truth."

Devlin didn't speak for a while. Grimmjow watched as some silent exchange went on between them. After a moment he nods.

"Alright boys. Tell me everything."