Urahara, calling on some sort of favor that Ichigo hadn't known he'd owed him, had made Ichigo come babysit Grimmjow for a while, because Urahara had business elsewhere, and when he wasn't there, Grimmjow maliciously broke stuff. Although it was kind of a weird request, considering Grimmjow was a grown man and was certainly not happy that they thought he needed supervision, but well… he totally did.

It wasn't that bad. Grimmjow and Ichigo had started to learn to get along ever since Ichigo had agreed to have regularly scheduled fights with him – Really, it was charity. No one else would volunteer, and Grimmjow got bored easily. Thankfully, today wasn't a fight day, and they were at MOS burger for now, because it was lunch time, and Ichigo missed these things when he was in Seireitei.

When he'd let Grimmjow know he was going to bring them back some burgers, he'd had to wait for him to get in a specially made gigai – which Grimmjow always fucking complained about wearing, which was why Ichigo had suggested he just wait at the shoten, but no,couldn't go with the sensible plan, because that would mean listening to Ichigo for once!

So there they'd gone, with Grimmjow under threat of pain if he terrorized the employees. Ichigo had ordered their food as quickly as possible, because Grimmjow was a pretty impatient guy. He was already cranky as it was. For one, he hated people in general, he didn't like his gigai, and he said that eating felt kinda' gross.

Meaning, that even after he'd gone through his first spicy MOS burger, Grimmjow's fish burger was still sitting unwrapped, and untouched, other than being pulled apart by Grimmjow's finicky fingers.

Ichigo sat cross legged on a stone wall, his wrapper resting in his lap, both his hands holding his sandwich, while Grimmjow lounged around on the ground, leaning by Ichigo's legs.

"You gonna' eat that?" Ichigo asked through a mouthful of food. He was pretty full, but if Renji were here, he wouldn't let food go to waste. Ichigo could probably fix that burger… maybe. The fish part was still good.

Grimmjow poked at the straw sticking out of the soda Ichigo had gotten him. "Naw."

Ichigo shrugged in a 'suit-yourself' manner and pulled Grimmjow's food towards him, only to have it tugged back away. Stupid indecisive bastard. He rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

Grimmjow placed his arms up on his knees, grumbling a bit when his stomach gave a loud growl. Ichigo didn't even know how it did that; wasn't there like… a hole?

"Nothin'a' eat around here," Grimmjow sniped.

"Dude," Ichigo mumbled with his mouth full. "Why don't you just eat the Hollows that pop up?" There weren't many these days, but it would be, y'know, helpful. Like a cat eating mice.

"You dumbfuck." Grimmjow always went from a two to a ten like that. There were no mild insults with him, no period between irritation and rage. Ichigo just gave him a deadpan look and took a large bite of food, cheeks bulging. "I'm the compilation of a million evil souls."

Ichigo raised his eyebrows as if to say 'your point?'

"Eating Hollows?" Grimmjow said leadingly, like Ichigo was a complete dumbass. "Could you survive off crumbs?"

"Okay, point taken." Grimmjow had eaten only Vasto Lordes for a long time when he'd been living in Hueco Mundo. Hollows did have to seem kind of shrimpy by comparison. "We can go there." He pointed to a conbini that wasn't far off. Grimmjow gave him a look that indicated he didn't feel too hot about moving, but as Ichigo gathered up their food and started walking off, Grimmjow – unable to resist following him as always – trailed behind with his hands in his pockets and watched as Ichigo picked some boxed sashimi out of a cooler.

He knew Grimmjow liked the good stuff, but Ichigo was low on funds, and Grimmjow was way too spoiled anyways, the big bully.

Ichigo held the prepackaged sashimi and wouldn't let Grimmjow touch it or look at it until they'd walked all the way back to Urahara's, hoping to frustrate him enough that when he finally let him have it, he'd actually eat it. The guy operated on ninety percent spite, ten percent rage; not letting him have or do something he didn't want to have or do was the only way to make him do it. It mostly worked. He finished Grimmjow's mangled burger and watched from atop a rock as Grimmjow picked his sashimi apart on the front yard of Urahara's shop, throwing the rice away into the grass and just eating the fish with his fingers. Savage. Byakuya would be mortified by such bad manners.

"Why're you sittin' way over there? Don't you wanna' lay down in the sun?" Grimmjow called halfway through his little box. It looked like he liked it, or as well as he could like anything. He sure liked laying around in the sun, after living in a warmthless desert for his entire life. Ichigo had tried repeatedly to prank him while he slept in the yard, but he always caught him.

"I know you break bottles out here like, all the time, Grimmjow."

"That's a rumor!"

"Whatever. I'm not laying down on the ground with you, Dude."

Grimmjow was a pretty moody guy almost all of the time, so the best way to live in peace around him was to just not talk to him. Which is why it was so weird when Grimmjow got talkative all of a sudden.

"So, haven't seen Red in a while."

Ichigo looked up from the remaining bit of soda he was slurping up. Grimmjow twitched every time he did it; it was funny to see how annoyed he could get him before he snapped. He was getting a lot better about not jumping straight to violence over mild irritants, but the slurping was probably pushing it. Ichigo let the straw pop out of his mouth.

"Yeah, he's working a lot," he agreed, then mumbled, shoulders sinking, "Important stuff." Ever since that talk he and Renji'd had in the locker rooms, they haven't been able to spend much time together. Sometimes he thought Renji was avoiding him on purpose. He missed him a lot these days.

Being apart for this long was stressing him out. They hadn't talked in awhile, and he didn't like it. He was all horny and lonely, and it sucked. Sure, Renji had given him a number on how long he had to wait before they could, y'know, touch and kiss and do all the normal things people who were in love did – but just because he had the number, well, now he had to actually wait it! Being able to count down the days didn't make it any easier, that was for sure.

"You two fuckin'?" Grimmjow questioned bluntly. Ichigo spewed his drink into the grass, coughing.

"What do you even- Why would you?!" he coughed into his fist, eyes watering. "How can you just-"

"So… No then," Grimmjow assumed lazily, eyes narrowed. Fuck, he always forgot how perceptive the guy was. He should've realized that Grimmjow raising the subject meant he had caught on to something or other. Seeing that it was too late to deny it or dodge the question, Ichigo blushed a little and just shook his head, mouth tightly shut. He didn't know why Grimmjow had brought this up, but he didn't particularly want to talk about this one with him. The guy latched onto weakness, and for Renji, Ichigo was pitifully weak.

"Why not?" he spat incredulously, before his face morphed into that shit-eating grin that Ichigo hated. Just on sight of it, Ichigo stuck his lip out in a scowl and hunkered down in a heated pout. "Oh lemme' guess. Just another instance of you bein' a complete chicken-shit."

"No," Ichigo shot back defensively, "You think you know everything, don't you!" Grimmjow gave a noncommittal shrug, raising an eyebrow, which Ichigo could see even from this far away, the cocky bastard. "For your information, he's the one resisting."

"Hah!" Grimmjow cackled, "He doesn't even want your ass! Priceless!" Ichigo frowned, not really having anything to say to that. Any refutation would just sound like denial, and agreeing would be pathetic. Besides, he made it a point not to agree with Grimmjow, especially when he was right...

Damn, he'd made himself sad. He looked down at his cup, then back to Grimmjow, who had gone quiet and was staring observantly with that smart look Ichigo hated. In retaliation, Ichigo raised the straw to his lips casually and gave a long slurp, which made Grimmjow groan and flop onto his back.

"You two are some weird fuckers. That guy wants to swallow your entire dick."

"He doesn't act like it," Ichigo muttered. "He's been a real jerk lately. We don't talk about it." He rubbed his hair off his forehead. "I dunno'," he shrugged, "I dunno' what's wrong with me. I'm probly' just bein' dumb."

"What, really, he don't want you?" Grimmjow's brow furrowed. "Why, whatsa' matter with'm'?"

Ichigo really had to fight off a smile at that one. "I don't know, okay? I've told'm' that I wanna'…" he gestured with his hands, his face feeling hot, "you know… but, he just… won't," he ended lamely. "Said we can't. I can't get him ta' change his mind. He's making this point of having self-control or something."

"That's fucked up," Grimmjow said bluntly. "What're the merits of having self-control if it keeps you from fuckin'? What is wrong with that guy?"

"I dunno'. I feel like I've tried everything. The guy does not break."

"Why not? Ain't that the weirdest shit?" Grimmjow hummed and cleaned his teeth for a bit. "You tellin' me you both wanna' fuck-"

"Yeah."

"You both…" Grimmjow kind of choked right there, because he was one of those dudes who can't talk about feelings. Being a Hollow might have something to do with it, but Ichigo was pretty sure it was just his personality.

"Yeah," Ichigo said shortly, face blazing, eyes carefully averted.

"And he's fightin' it for some reason. Even after all that Aizen and Yhwach shit?" Grimmjow clarified, baffled. "The fuck is he doing that for?!"

"He thinks he's too old for me. Or… I'm too young for him, rather," Ichigo admitted, and watched Grimmjow for a response, but he just lay in the grass and was quiet for a long time. Ichigo turned back to his food and felt miserable.

The last time he'd seen Renji, he'd been kind of cold to Ichigo. He felt like every time it seemed like they were getting somewhere, Ichigo went and fucked it up without even knowing. He wondered – he wasn't confident enough to act 'sexy' and try to break Renji's patience, but maybe without knowing… maybe it was hard for Renji to wait too. Maybe Renji just couldn't even stand to be around him.

Ichigo sighed. He just didn't know anymore.

"Kurosaki."

Ichigo looked up to see Grimmjow leaning on one elbow, his palm on his chin, expression his usual uncaring glare. "Huh?" Grimmjow grinned then with all his wicked teeth.

"I think it's time you handed this one over to the dirty tricks department."

"What? "

Grimmjow stood then and headed towards the shoten, a hand over his shoulder indicating Ichigo should follow. "Three step plan, Kurosaki. He won't know what hit him."

Ichigo blinked after him balefully. He didn't know if any advice of Grimmjow's would actually help. It'd probably be to like… try to kill Renji or something.

Despite himself, he stood and wandered after, curiously. "What're you thinking, Grimm?" he muttered suspiciously.

"Guy don't think like the rest of us. Tempting him to fuck ain't gonna' work, because well, for one, you're pathetic, and for two, you said it yourself, the guy don't break."

"What then?" Ichigo asked, brow furrowed.

"You gotta' fingerbang his heart."

Ichigo snorted and closed his eyes, raising one eyebrow as he rubbed at his temple. "Grimm, I dunno'." Grimmjow gave him the most offended look he'd ever seen. "Look, it's been a long time since either of us have even said anything. I don't even know for sure if he still…"

"Leap of faith then."

"I don't believe in acting on faith," Ichigo said flatly.

"Sure you do."

Ichigo gave him this weird look, but Grimmjow just smirked and walked away. "C'mon. Evil ta' plot." Ichigo sighed and put a hand to his eyes. "Won't be hard. Abarai's a bleeder."

"You'd better know what you're doing."

"Make a leap of faith."

"Ugh, fine."

...

Thank you for your support, reviews are very appreciated. Please also read my Renji-centric sequel, 'Overdue,' now with more angst, humor, and sex than ever before.