I wake up to someone harshly knocking on my front door. Usually I would ignore the door, especially if I don't feel like answering it, but it's loud enough to make me wake up. I open my eyes, squinting them a little as I peer over my shoulder at my bedroom door, wondering who the fuck is at my house knocking on my door like that.
It's not too early but I'm not expecting anyone either. I know that it's not Ichigo either. After spending the majority of my night at it with Ichigo, he left my place claiming to be exhausted. I feel too tired to even answer the damn door.
It's my day off, so I'm going to savour it and sleep as long as I want to. I turn to my side, pulling the thin sheet over my head. Whoever the fuck that is will leave me alone anyway, so I close my eyes and flood my mind with some hot fantasies all including Ichigo.
The knocking continues. The surge of irritation is enough to break my drowsiness, but I get stubborn with this shit and hope the fucker on the other end of the front door gets the idea and beats it. I yank the sheet off me when it only continues and pull on a pair of shorts since I'm not about to show my nude ass to nobody. Whoever the fuck that is disturbing my sleep is going to get a few knocks from my fists. I walk through my house bare chested and finally open the front door.
A bunch of random men stand in front of me. I notice the bright flashing lights almost blinding me before I even see the fucking cameras and instinctively slam the door shut. What the fuck is going on. I lock my door quickly and stare at it because for a moment I don't know what's going on, but a gnawing feeling in my gut tells me this is some serious shit.
The better part of me tells me to not open the door again so I step out onto my balcony instead. With both hands on the railing, I peer over the edge. I have a straight face on though I'm paranoid as fuck. I see them. More people with cameras, going off in my face. Now I'm starting to wonder if I'll actually be able to leave my house anytime soon.
Realisation hits me. They're all paparazzi. My heart is hammering at the sheer thought of why there are paparazzi here, taking photos of me. I rarely panic, but now I'm tripping the fuck out. Well it's a good thing I'm not completely naked otherwise I don't know what I would do. Even now, I have no fucking clue why there's paparazzi flooding my house like a nightmare and god knows how I look in those stupid photos. I'm anxious and pissed.
I start to think that there's something else at play here. Ichigo didn't tell anyone about me and neither have I told anyone about our relationship. We've been careful not to be seen together, or to be followed around but… I know that whatever reason, the paparazzi are here because of Ichigo.
It's not long until I get the idea as to how this could have happened. Somehow, someone saw Ichigo and me together, and the only way I'm gonna figure out exactly how is by seeing the original photo of us together. Nothing gets around without a photo for proof, and with all these guys here I know there is one.
I ignore them outside my place and turn my laptop on, determined to see the photo. I go straight to the celebrity section, browse through the latest news and gossip until I come across a picture that makes my heart jolt.
The writing stands out easily. Ichigo Kurosaki's new man. There's a picture with me and Ichigo. At my apartment. On my balcony. I have him propped up, kissing him and his legs are around my waist. Good thing I didn't fuck Ichigo out on the balcony or there was gonna be some explicit shit up in here. This explains how the paparazzi know where to find me. I immediately look at the name in the bottom corner to see who the person was that took and sold our photo. Nnoitra Gilga. Whoever this guy is, I'm going to find him. Too bad nobody really cares about the quality in this case. It's obvious who's who and that the paparazzi have already found me.
My stomach drops the more it starts to sink in. This whole thing doesn't even feel real but the photo shows me otherwise. I realise that the flash I glimpsed that day out on the balcony with Ichigo and thought nothing about was a flash when a photo was taken. So, this paparazzi followed Ichigo to my place. Saw us kissing on the balcony and took a photo. Sold it to a publisher and now, everybody knows about us. They'll be bothering Ichigo too. I get the feeling that Renji and Rukia are old news now. It's our turn to be in the spotlight.
I go to my room and grab my phone. The first thing I can really think about doing is calling Ichigo. I dial. He picks up on the third ring. By his voice, I know he's in a good mood and I don't wanna ruin it for him but he's gotta know about this.
"Hey Grimm, I'll see if I can come over today," Ichigo starts.
"Hey," I say, deciding I'll cut straight to the chase.
"Ichi, don't come over today. There's a fuck load of paparazzi outside my door."
By the looks of it, I don't think they'll be leaving any time soon either. I walk out of my room and into the lounge as I hold the phone to my ear.
Ichigo is quiet for a long moment, and in the meantime, I can hear the guys outside my door still knocking on the door and calling out for me to open the door. What do they not understand in getting the door slammed in their face? Oh…yeah. Paparazzi tend to be persistent fuckers that's for sure. I know that well enough.
This is so fucking weird. It's like the roles are reversed or something. It's like a joke but I'm not laughing. In this moment all I feel is confusion, as to why and how, but the picture on the internet proves that this is really happening.
"W-wait, what do you mean?" Ichigo finally speaks. He sounds like he doesn't believe it.
"Exactly what it sounds like. The paparazzi are outside my fucking door trying to take photos of me."
Ichigo is silent again. I'm staring at my front door and I know those fuckers are still out there.
"What am I supposed to do?" I ask, finding myself at a loss.
"You're still paparazzi too, aren't you?" Ichigo states. "I mean… do something about it."
There's not much I can really do about this. It's clear that neither of us really know what to do in this situation, but Ichigo being a celebrity and all, he is used to this sort of stuff. Me on the other hand? Not so much.
"Well, it looks like it doesn't matter whether I'm a paparazzi or not. There are like a dozen of them outside."
"Grimmjow…you didn't trick me right? You didn't leak the photo right?" Ichigo asks.
"No," I say, pushing a hand through my hair. "Ichi I wouldn't do that to you. Besides, I got rid of the last photo in front of you. Don't you trust me?"
"I-I do trust you and I know but…" He stops for a moment and I hear him sigh. "Why is this happening to you?"
"Look," I try to reassure him, but I don't even know what's going to happen now. I've never been in this type of situation before. Usually I'm the one taking photos of celebrities. I'm usually the one to exploit them, not the other way around. I was never the one in front of the camera, only behind it.
"They saw us together and leaked a photo." I say it as simply as I can.
Ichigo sounds worried. I know it's cause they won't leave him alone now.
"I'm not blackmailing you anymore. But there's paparazzi at my place. They saw us together and leaked a photo. So I guess now they're just trying to get more photos of me for a story or something."
Even though I'm not blackmailing Ichigo anymore, I shouldn't be surprised that karma has come around to bite me. We tried that hard to not be seen together for what?
"I didn't know I was being followed," Ichigo says. I don't need to see him to know that he's disappointed with what's happening but there's no going back now.
I'm not going to blame Ichigo for being stalked to my place. For all I know we had gotten a little sloppy and making out on the fucking balcony is the ultimate fuck up anyway. I didn't think anyone would even see us, let alone take our picture.
Ichigo's used to the paparazzi following him around and I know he would have been extra careful whenever he came to see me but I know how paparazzi work and they'll go to extremes to make the next cut, to hit the magazines and publishers and grow their name.
"Grimm what are we going to do?" Ichigo asks.
I don't even know what I'm going to do about this let alone what we both have to go through now.
"Don't worry. It'll be alright. We'll figure something out."
Easy to say, but I don't exactly know what's going to happen now. I can only hope that our lives don't get turned upside down. I don't blame him for being worried about this. Something like this hasn't exactly happened before.
"But Grimm…"
"Baby trust me."
Ichigo quietens down, his voice hardly heard.
"Fine. I guess no more hiding then..."
Yeah. No more hiding. We don't need to sneak around anymore. I'm glad that the world knows now. But it brings out another problem. Now I'm going to have to deal with the paparazzi too.
"Yeah…I guess so."
After hanging up, I walk out onto my balcony again. There are a few things you learn about paparazzi when you are one of them yourself, and that's to expect them to still be there, even when you slam a door in their face or tell them to fuck off. Just persistent fuckers is all they are. I would know. I wouldn't exactly expect to leave even if I were to call the cops on them.
There's a few more outside, standing below the balcony with camera's ready, looking up. Shit. My inner self is reviling at all the attention, but there's so fucking many of those guys trying to take more photos of me, it's kind of disturbing. It's like a paparazzi apocalypse. It's already doing my fucking head in. I wave my middle finger around so the moron gets it. He takes a photo and I already know it's going to end up published too.
I walk inside. Pull my blinds shut and growl. My apartment is already a little dark from the lack of light. I never wanted any of this attention. Sure, I like attention, but…not exactly this type. All I want is to have Ichigo all to myself, and now it's brought along all this shit. I don't even have any peace at my own place and now I'm left trying to figure out what I'm going to do about it.
I decide to spend the night indoors since going outside now is going to be a bit of a hassle with these guys. It's not like I'm going to go out and attempt to work when I'm going to be the one photographed. I'm on my laptop instead, looking through all the articles and celebrity news. Of course I'm not surprised that the leaked photos of Ichigo and I are still circling around.
Some time goes by and the paparazzi finally leave. It's amazing how things quickly escalate. As I expected, there's a panel with some photos of mainly me sticking my finger at the camera, and another of me topless holding the front door open. I stare at the magazine page online, feet propped up on the coffee table as I sigh. It's mid-day, and I'm already published in a damn magazine. Looking at the pictures is infuriating enough. I can't even read the damn thing without wanting to throw my laptop across the damn room.
I laugh even though it's not funny. I don't expect any good to come out of this, especially now that I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to see Ichigo, or even have him come over in privacy. I never thought this would actually fucking happen to me. Whoa. They're calling me Ichigo's fucking boy toy now. What boy toy? They wouldn't be calling me that if they knew how Ichigo and I met, which is a good thing that those guys don't know our business to that extent.
There's one thing for certain. I'm not gonna let that guy that took our photo and sold us out get away with it. I'm sure as hell going to find the paparazzi that did this.
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