A/N: I won't always be able to get out chapters this quickly, so please don't be discouraged if they start to slow down at any point. Writing a story is a long, and sometimes stressful process, so please be patient. ^^

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the latest installment.

-Kieran

Chapter Three:

Ichigo immediately straightens his head, keeping his eyes locked on the gates to his freedom like a lifeline, ignoring the sound of a car door opening behind him. If this guy wants to fight with him, then he'll get exactly that. He'll see that Ichigo is no pushover. Countless adversaries have underestimated him because of his appearance, and they all ate their words. There's no reason to believe that this will be any different.

A gentle chill enters through the gap in his black shirt, raising the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck. Footsteps sound from behind him, and Ichigo's not sure what his best move would be here. Does he sucker punch the guy in the face before he can finish what he started? For some reason, the idea of Grimmjow being so easily caught off guard doesn't sit well with him. That strike to his nose was clean and precise. This guy knows how to fight. That much is clear, so he'll have to plan carefully if this turns into another altercation between the two of them.

"Turn around," a rough voice demands flatly, a hint of mint breeching his senses. When he remains stubbornly facing forward, the owner of the voice lets out a pissed off sigh, quick hands spinning him sharply, and before he can even react, his shirt is yanked out of his grip, exposing his deformed nose. He's about a second away from really letting the guy have it, when miraculously, his nose is being set in to place, a momentary white-hot agony shooting through him. He fixes Grimmjow with a hard stare, anger evident on his features, despite the fact that this lunatic just literally fixed what he broke in the first place. Now that he's had a second to breathe, Ichigo intends to start verbally/physically tearing the shit out of the man, when he's once again cut short by a wet-wipe being offered to him by an outstretched hand. "Clean yourself up."

Without a word, Ichigo takes it, narrowing his eyes with unbridled distrust. He attends to his nose, cleaning off the blood without a mirror to guide him. Ichigo goes to stuff it in his pocket when he's done with his task, but a "tsk" from Grimmjow halts him, and he's caught off guard when it's taken from him and shoved into a small plastic bag. The prankster in him would ask if he was planning to use that to grow his own personal Ichigo Kurosaki, but this isn't the time or place for that.

"Is this your way of saying sorry?" he asks instead, avoiding eye contact.

Grimmjow sniffs at that, cleaning Ichigo's blood off his hands with a separate wet-wipe, which he disposes of the same way.

"Now you don't have to pay to get it fixed. We good?"

Ichigo swallows down an incredulous laugh.

"My Dad is a Doctor. I wouldn't have had to pay," he informs him, wishing that he brought a spare shirt with him. He may have been able to clean the blood off his face, but that's not going to stop his shirt from crusting and irritating his skin, due to the drying blood.

One broad shoulder shrugs lamely at that. "Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Regardless of that, I saved you the trip," Grimmjow retorts, looking for all the world like he really doesn't give a shit.

"Are you not here of your own free will?" Ichigo questions, not sure if he's teasing or not.

Grimmjow closes his eyes in quiet frustration. "Nel said that she won't do this with anyone else."

Ichigo can't help but feel honoured by that. He'd really like to help Nel, too, but there's no guarantee that them hashing things out here is going to be the end of it.

With a response on the tip of his tongue, Ichigo opens his mouth to relay it, when it's snapped shut by the sound of Nel screaming his name and running down the walkway as fast as her legs will carry her, waving her arms in the air like one of those inflated mascots sales companies use. A part of him wants to laugh at the spectacle because it's humorous–the other part is willing him to just make a run for it, climb over the gate if he has to, risk breaking his legs–just get away now. Grimmjow doesn't seem fazed by it at all, eyes not leaving Ichigo's distressed face, gauging every minute move he makes. They're so predatory that he feels like a canary in a cage–a cage that's been left unlocked.

"ICHIGOOOOOO!" Nel hollers, huffing raggedly. "WAIIIIIIIIIIIT!"

Ichigo stands stock still as Nel passes Grimmjow in a flurry, misjudging the space between the two men completely. She crashes into the younger man, tackling them both to the ground beneath them. Ichigo feels pain explode at the back of his head, registering the weight lying half on top of him.

"Nel–uh," Ichigo begins helplessly, trying to shield his eyes from the harsh sunlight beaming down at him smugly, as if punishing him for allowing himself to end up in a position like this.

Nel is as quick as she can be to move off of him, scritching her fingers through her long, wavy green hair, laughing nervously. "I'm sorry, Ichigo! I didn't mean to tackle you like that. Haha. I'm so silly," she rambles, blushing shamefully.

These two couldn't be any more different if they tried.

Now that the adrenaline has worn off, Ichigo gives Nel a few beats to catch her breath, waiting until she flicks a few strands of hair out of her face and smiles like she's fine now. He takes the time to quickly check over his belongings, ensuring that nothing is broken. It wouldn't do him any good to be without a laptop right now. Not to mention, all of his notes are typed out on there, and he has zero copies of any of them.

"Did Grimmy apologise?" Nel asks hopefully, glancing at her Brother for a brief moment.

Ichigo sighs, "In a way."

Nel frowns thoughtfully at that, clearly taking note of Ichigo's no longer bleeding nose, and linking it to the see-through bag of used wet-wipes hanging from Grimmjow's clenched fist. She looks torn between whether or not that's enough for the orange-haired man sitting in front of her.

"Grimmjow,. . . you're supposed to use your words," she grumbles, turning to glare at him. "You punched him in the face. That's not a nice thing to do."

Pointing out the obvious doesn't seem to discourage the man in the hot seat. He rolls his eyes like this is just a huge pain in the ass, which provokes his Sister to close the gap between them and press her pointer finger into his chest a few times, accentuating it with a repetition of the word "sorry", as if saying it enough will help him to understand the importance of it in this situation.

"I saved him a trip and set his nose for him," Grimmjow defends dryly, unperturbed by her actions. "If anything, he should be thanking me. I didn't have to do that."

"You broke it in the first place!" she snaps, huffing out a breath. "Just please say you're sorry, Grimmy. . ." Nel almost begs, and Ichigo feels a tug at his heartstrings when it looks like she's about to start crying right here in the middle of the walkway.

"Are you really going to cry, Nelly?" Grimmjow feings curiosity, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We both know that you're tougher than that."

Nel spins away from him, crossing her arms over her chest petulantly.

"I thought if I cried, you would give in and say sorry," she declares proudly, keeping her back to him. "Clearly, you don't care enough about me or my future to do that."

Ichigo winces internally at that. He would hate to hear something so wrong from one of his Sister's. Even though Grimmjow clearly keeps up a hard-ass disposition–lie or not, that has to get to him in some way. To his credit, though, the man remains immaculately unfazed, stepping around her to stand in front of the younger man, obviously displeased with this development.

"Sorry," he says curtly, not waiting for a reply. He's quick to stride off to his car, getting in and slamming the door behind him, beeping the horn at Nel in quick succession, growing more impatient by the second.

Nel ignores him, beaming at Ichigo. She reaches for him and pulls him up into a standing position, brushing off the dirt she can find, continuing to act as if the alarming sound in the background doesn't exist.

"SO, YOU'LL COME BACK NEXT WEEK, RIGHT?!" she yells over the unceasing, ear-splitting car horn, bringing her hands up to cover her ears when it all becomes too much. "WAIT A MINUTE, GRIMMY!"

Not really sure what to do here, Ichigo just gives her a thumbs up, slapping on a smile for good measure. He feels like his ears are about to explode, and he'd really like that sound to stop as soon as possible.

"GREAT! AWESOME! SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!" Nel rushes out, giving him a quick hug before dashing to the other side of the car, yelling at Grimmjow to knock it off, as she wrenches the passenger-side door open.

Ichigo watches for a few seconds as Nel grabs for the man's hand, trying to pry it off the button. Her efforts go unrewarded, and she starts pouting at him. Those dark blue eyes seem to stare through him, sending a pulse of something–far too inappropriate right now for Ichigo to comprehend–straight down south. He decides then and there that this is his cue to leave, and he gestures at the gate lamely.

They start to open as if that was the magic action. Ichigo doesn't question it at this moment, quickly turning on his heel and walking as fast as he can off the rest of the premises, turning the corner to his freedom as soon as he's able.

I should still probably get Dad to check this.

Nel makes a point of making a clattering sound when she sets Grimmjow's dinner out in front of him. Although he apologised to her new friend, he didn't mean any of it. She doesn't really understand how it got to that. Her Brother told her that Ichigo said something that he didn't agree with, so he punched him. Which, knowing Grimmjow, actually made a lot of sense. Still, that's normally when it comes to Nel's boyfriends or something, because he doesn't think that anyone is ever going to be good enough for his Sister, which she finds rather adorable. Nevertheless, Ichigo is going to help her actually start doing something with her life, and her Brother must understand that attacking him really isn't doing her any favours.

"I'm mad at you," Nel informs him, miffed that he can just pick up his knife and fork like her displeasure means nothing at all to him.

"I can tell," Grimmjow mutters before taking a bite of his food. "Thanks for the grub."

"You're welcome. Why don't you tell me exactly what he said to make you punch him?"

Grimmjow disregards table manners as he explains what happened, unsure if he has it word for word, but reasoning that the general gist of it is enough. He goes on to say, "Something about him bothered me. I don't know what it was, so don't ask," ending the conversation there and then, making it clear that he would like to finish the rest of his dinner in silence.

Nel gives him that, choosing to start eating her own as well. She's not that hungry. Altercations such as those have always taken away her appetite, and she struggles to get it back when the dust has cleared. Her thoughts on the matter are that Ichigo was starting to get angry by whatever Grimmjow was saying, and that childish side we all have took over in that moment. She doesn't believe that Ichigo meant what he said. Anyone that knows them knows that they would do anything for each other. They have that kind of bond, and it really doesn't take a genius to figure that out after spending even five seconds with the two of them. Ichigo is most certainly smarter than that, so she's sure that he picked up on how close she is to her Brother.

Having said that, she owes it to Grimmjow to thank him for defending her in his own way, even if it should never have come to blows. And, truthfully, she should make it clear to Ichigo as well that she knows in her heart that Grimmjow will always support her in whatever it is that she wants to do. With any luck, she can say so in a way that won't leave her without a tutor. She shares an internal laugh with herself, fiddling with the pork squares on her plate periodically.

"Thank you for defending me," she says several minutes later, when Grimmjow sets his utensils on top of his plate, and wipes his lips with the napkin provided.

"I was and I wasn't. He implied that I would stand in your way, and that pissed me off, sure. But it also pissed me off when he made out like my fucking pride was more important than your happiness. So, yeah. I was and I wasn't."

"Still, I appreciate it, is all I'm saying," Nel adds, feeling warmed by the admission. "Just talk it out next time, okay? No more hitting my new friends, please?"

Pretending to take a moment to think about it, Grimmjow smirks over at her. "Sure, why not. I guess I can let you have at least one friend."

"That's all I can ask for," she agrees, poking her tongue out playfully.

After he got to his car, Ichigo did end up stopping by his Dad's clinic to have his nose checked out, just to be safe. His Dad said that it was a clean set, and that he's impressed by whoever did it. Ichigo wasn't sure what to say to that. He just about narrowly avoided explaining how it happened in the first place. Sometimes his Dad doesn't know when to let things go, so he got off extremely lucky in that instance. Yuzu and Karin had their questions, too, but Ichigo deflected them by asking about school and the like–anything to keep the spotlight off him.

Now that he's all cleaned up, he decided to get a drink with Renji and Rukia to celebrate his first client. Fortunately, Rukia didn't have to work today, so she can actually afford to hang out with them for longer than five minutes. She even promised that if she got a call, that she would ignore her phone. Her Brother has some ties to the news station she works for, so she's confident that she won't get fired for it.

It's not long before they're pushing him for details, wanting to know everything that happened, since he tip-toed over the fact that he ended up with a broken nose. He regrets telling them all together, when he really just wants to forget about the whole ordeal, drink his drink and move on from it. His friends have a way of getting to the bottom of things, though, and he knows that, unlike his family, they're not going to drop it until he spills all the details.

His first time all over again.

"I don't know what to tell you. Her Brother was a huge asshole. I got angry, we exchanged some words, and he punched me in the nose," Ichigo explains, not bothering to act it out verbatim.

Rukia covers a laugh with her dainty hand.

"Why did he punch you, Ichigo? You must have said something to upset him. Unless he's deranged?"

Ichigo scowls.

"It doesn't matter. It happened. It's over now. Can we just move on?"

On the other side of the table, Renji gives him a look like there's no way he's getting off that easy.

"Why didn't you get him back for it?"

"That wouldn't be professional," he lies, glaring into his drink.

Rukia's eyes widen at that, clinking her glass against his to get his attention. "You're really growing up, huh?" she teases him, her lips pulling up in a half-smirk.

"Or he's just becoming a pussy," Renji supplies unhelpfully, grinning like the cat that got the cream. "Admit it, Ichi–I bet this guy was a walking wet dream and you didn't have the guts to ruin a face like that."

Ichigo nearly choaks on his drink, regretting taking that moment to quench his thirst. He pins Renji with a threatening glare, striking his foot out underneath the table. Renji yelps, tapping his hands down on the table vigorously to distract himself from the fleeting pain. Once it wears off, he offers a glare of his own, daring Ichigo to do that again. Ichigo feels sorely tempted to do so, but he drops it for now.

"Was he?" Rukia pipes up, clearly amused by the exchange. "Your face did go red when Renji said that."

Seeing to a non-existent itch on the side of his neck, Ichigo turns his head to the side, looking away from them. He feels the heat creeping into his skin again just thinking about the man's flawless features. Those eyes, those hands, those lips–everything about the man was perfection itself, and Ichigo hates how much a guy like that would completely have him at their will. Blue hair shouldn't work on anyone, but it does on him. Teal tattoos underneath eyes shouldn't work on anyone, but they sure as shit work on Grimmjow. All of these things that just shouldn't fit in to place, come together so effortlessly for that man that it's sinful.

"He was okay."

All three of them know he's lying through his teeth.

A/N: Until the next time! Thank you for reading. ;D. . .

P.S: Even though this is an AU, I love Grimmjow's teal tattoos, so I worked them into it. You're welcome.

-Kieran