Unlikely Romance

A year and six months after the Winter War

"Well, you look pissed. I guessed the new gigai didn't work," Karin said as she munched on her toast.

"He's says he's a fucking genius but every time he tries to modify one for me it just doesn't take. How hard can it be?" Grimmjow groused., sitting down in the empty seat left for him.

"It's not like hollow energy and shinigami energy are very alike," Isshin pointed out.

"I know that, I'm not an idiot," Grimmjow replied. Anyone, even Ichigo back when he could sense spiritual pressure, could tell the difference between the two.

"I'm sorry that you're having a rough morning, Grimmjow," Yuzu said with a smile, looking at the (to her) empty seat.

It had been completely bizarre at first, but since Grimmjow had come back three days after leaving Ichigo's room in a huff he had refused to leave. He slept in Ichigo's room, watched TV while Ichigo was at school, helped out with chores, and even assisted Karin with her duties keeping hollows out of town.

Having Grimmjow train Karin (even a little) had driven Ichigo to the point of distraction. He had been absolutely sure that the former espada would accidentally lop off Karin's arm or something. The two actually got along great though, which was a small miracle in Ichigo's mind.

After the initial oddness, his family had just accepted Grimmjow's presence. Yuzu knew that he was a spirit, but hadn't been told that he was actually a hollow. Since she couldn't see him anyways, there was no reason to cause her to fear him.

Isshin hadn't reacted very well, as to be expected when an ex-shinigami meets an espada demanding to live with them because he was somehow bound to his son. He had dragged Grimmjow to Urahara's shop and somehow all three had come to an agreement. As long as Grimmjow didn't step out of line, Kisuke and Isshin would just ignore the fact that he was there. That isn't to say that Kisuke didn't report the interesting matter to the Soul Society (or at least to Head Captain Yamamoto, who relayed the information to Captain Kurotsuchi). Mayuri had been overjoyed at the idea of studying an espada close up, but found that Grimmjow actions towards Ichigo Kurosaki were actually more interesting then the espada's body would have been for him. Besides, he already had an espada body to do whatever he wanted to, as long as he made sure that it didn't completely die and dissolve.

Both Isshin and Karin knew that Ichigo had some sort of relationship with Grimmjow, despite the fact that Ichigo couldn't even see or hear his blue haired lover. Yuzu had been clued in, although Karin was careful to not mention how she had walked in on Grimmjow molesting Ichigo more than once. She had rather curiously questioned Grimmjow as to what he actually did to Ichigo, considering that Ichigo could only feel pressure and not much else, and had instantly regretted it since Grimmjow didn't really have a filter to process what was too much information.

Somehow, he had become a part of their family. Ichigo was still a target for hollows, even though he couldn't see them, and if nothing else the ex-espada provided security for him. Isshin was aware of at least two occasions when Grimmjow had saved Karin from severe injury or worse, and he was grateful for that too. Isshin had followed Karin around at first, but after getting more than couple of beatings from his daughter he had reluctantly let her off on her own. He was happy to see that she didn't seem to have the same problem with Grimmjow, since Grimmjow was more than likely to let her deal with anything herself unless she was seriously overpowered (or he was hungry).

He had actually wondered if his dark haired daughter had a crush on the arrancar, or if she was just more easy in his presence than others because they both didn't take each others shit.

Ichigo had zoned out a little, a piece of toast hanging from his mouth. Grimmjow thought he looked pretty adorable and was wondering what would happen if he just ripped it from Ichigo's mouth. Ichigo would probably sputter and then yell at him, which was always pretty funny when it happened, considering that Ichigo didn't know exactly where to look.

Karin rolled her eyes. "Do you have to look at him like that?" she asked.

Ichigo quickly looked to his right, where Grimmjow was sitting, a blush lightly dusting the tops of his cheeks.

Grimmjow just laughed.

Yuzu honestly thought the idea of Grimmjow still wanting to be around Ichigo even though he couldn't see him really romantic. She had been a little shocked to learn that her brother was gay, but she was just happy that he had someone...kind of. She had read enough romance novels that the idea of two men loving each other wasn't gross to her, and since Ichigo had never really been into girls ever it wasn't that hard to come to terms with after the initial shock. To her, Ichigo was super manly, but after awhile she decided that he could be gay and manly. Her discussion about the issue to Karin had left her confused since Karin mostly laughed through the whole thing.

"Can you tell him I'm going to school with him today?" Grimmjow asked Karin.

Ichigo's friends had taken longer to get used to the almost constant presence of the ex-espada, which was understandable since they had actually seen him fight, remembered when he was the enemy. Even they had long gotten over it by this point though.

"Good morning, Grimmjow!" Orihime greeted him.

Usually, if he followed Ichigo to school, he hung out in the window, enjoying the warm sun. Even though Aizen had added a fake sun to Hueco Mundo, it didn't give off the delicious heat of the real thing. Grimmjow had lost count of the "cat sunning himself" jokes that had been launched his way, but he would just ignore them. Right now he was in his usual position, in the window next to Ichigo's desk, stretched out with his hands behind his head. He grunted at Orihime's welcome.

Honestly, it kind of pissed him off that almost half of Ichigo's class could see him while Ichigo couldn't. He could see all sorts of emotions play out over Ichigo's face when his friends came and talked to him too, so he imagined that Ichigo felt the same way. It was more fun to stay at home and watch TV, but sometimes he didn't feel like letting Ichigo out of his sight. It was just a weird instinct he had sometimes, most of the time it was nothing, but Grimmjow had survived off of instinct too long to ignore it.

The day passed slowly, and Grimmjow tuned out the voice of Ichigo's teacher, watching the birds outside out of pure boredom. Eventually he just fell asleep.

The lunch bell woke him suddenly. As soon as he was awake he knew that he shouldn't have fallen asleep. He could feel his shoulders tense as he prepared himself.

Orihime and Uryu had jumped up as well. Chad was looking at the door with concern.

"Guys?" Ichigo asked.

Renji walked in the door.

"Still can't see me, eh?" he asked Ichigo. His eyes zeroed past the humans standing in the way to the arrancar who was now standing in the window frame. Before he could react Orihime was grabbing on to her arm yelling at him, Chad had placed himself in front of Grimmjow, and Uryu was standing directly in front of Renji talking very quickly.

"Renji's here," Chad quickly clarified to a very confused Ichigo.

"It's ok, Abarai," Uryu was saying. "He's not a threat."

"What the hell do you mean he's not a threat? Why the hell is he even alive?" Renji said angrily, still drawing his zanpakuto.

"No, no, no!" Orihime was saying, hanging off of his hand.

"Renji," Ichigo said, looking at whatever it that Orihime was grabbing onto. "The Soul Society knows he's here."

"What?" Renji said lowly.

"Oh, don't rate high enough to get told stuff like that?" Grimmjow said evilly.

"Please don't make this worse," Chad told the arrancar.

Grimmjow knew that he was right, but it was so easily to rile the big redheaded shinigami.

I'm a captain now, shouldn't someone have mentioned this to me? Renji wondered.

"He's with Ichigo," Tatsuki had stayed back at first, since she didn't really know the shinigami. Keigo was hanging off of Ichigo and Mizuiro had now joined Chad standing by Grimmjow.

"What do you mean 'with?' Hell, Ichigo can't even see him," Renji spat out.

"Ichigo brought him back after the war," Orihime explained. "He lives with the Kurosakis now."

"What the hell, Ichigo!" Renji yelled at the unhearing boy.

"Don't be mad," Orihime tried to calm the situation.

"I won't let you hurt him," Chad claimed.

"He had never done anything to warrant violence," Uryu said. "Well, not since after the war," he added.

Renji had just stopped by to see how everyone was doing, and hopefully see if Ichigo was getting any of his spiritual senses back. He hadn't expected this, and wasn't prepared to accept a former enemy as now welcome in Ichigo's home. He knew that he had a tendency to blow up though so he decided to step away from the whole situation and think it over for awhile.

"He left," Keigo told Ichigo, still clinging on to him.

"Grimmjow is ok?" Ichigo asked.

"He's fine," Uryu told him, adjusting his glasses.

Despite the recent failure of Kisuke's gigai, he had told Grimmjow to come back and try again later that day, after he made a couple of modifications. Ichigo was a little worried about Grimmjow wandering around by himself when Renji might come back, but at least he'd be safe once he got to Urahara's shop. Ichigo himself went straight home, to work on homework.

Thank goodness I'm almost done with all of this, Ichigo thought to himself. He hadn't really figured out what he wanted to do after high school, but that didn't mean he wasn't happy to see it over.

As he worked he heard his window open and shut.

"Back already?" Ichigo asked.

Renji blinked. "Er..." it was kind of hard to have a conversation with someone who couldn't exactly hear you. He laid down on Ichigo's bed, staring at the ceiling, not really sure why he had come. "You're not...like 'with' with that espada, are you?" Renji asked Ichigo.

Ichigo stretched and decided to take a break. He crawled up on the bed, next to Renji.

"Um..." Renji was feeling a little awkward now. He felt more awkward as Ichigo started undressing.

"I guess I should just be happy you didn't provoke Renji into attacking you, you big idiot," Ichigo said, looking at the indentation in his bed.

Oh shit, he thinks...well I guess that answers that question, Renji thought to himself.

"How the hell can you be dating an arrancar!" He yelled at Ichigo. "Plus you can't even see him! AND he practically put his whole fist through Rukia, not to mention almost killed you several times!" Renji's eyes went wide as Ichigo's hand slide across his own chest, moaning slightly.

"Uh...Ichigo?" Renji asked stupidly.

"I miss you," Ichigo said, his hands dipping into his boxers.

"F-fuck," Renji said, frozen in place.

It didn't really matter to Renji right then that he was in a relationship, even if it was a neurotic one. He had always found Ichigo attractive and had loved annoying the ever-loving crap out of him, practicing bankai against him for hours, and just hanging with the kid when he was in the world of the living. It had been a fun time for him, and his attraction and respect for Ichigo had given him a little bit of a crush on him, not that he had ever even thought about doing anything about it. He had however, always viewed Ichigo firmly as very young and kind of clueless, not this sexy person who was now feeling himself up in front of him. Renji had always been a passionate person, and his libido soared as he watched Ichigo get completely naked, stroking himself and moaning.

Even though Renji knew that Ichigo couldn't see him (obviously, or else this wouldn't be happening), he found himself holding his breath. It's because I know I really really shouldn't be here, Renji's conscience chimed in.

Of course, the experience was slightly distracting in that Ichigo kept calling Grimmjow's name, but Renji kept watching, feeling his blood pressure increase and himself throb as Ichigo began to writhe around, close to his release.

I wish that Byakuya would do this for me, Renji thought, his mind panicking ever so slightly at the idea of his ex-captain and current lover finding him in such a situation. Renji closed his eyes for a second and then pushed himself up, going back toward the window. He jumped onto the roof, trying to ignore the sounds that were still coming out of Ichigo's room, and then took off down the street.

Ichigo came and closed his eyes, relaxing into the feelings that were flowing over him. He frowned slightly. Grimmjow usually would always do something, push on Ichigo a little, bite at him, hold him close...just to somehow be participating. Ichigo looked down at his still come covered hand and belly. "Grimmjow?" he asked. There was only silence.

Ichigo cleaned himself off and went downstairs, knowing it was almost dinner time.

"You're late," Karin said halfway during their meal.

"It's not like I eat anyways," Grimmjow replied.

"Did he...just get back?" Ichigo asked.

Karin nodded.

"He didn't stop by earlier?" Ichigo pressed.

Grimmjow responded and Karin relayed the answer to Ichigo. "No," Karin said.

Well shit, Ichigo paled a little. Who was that in my room earlier then? It was definitely someone. Was it Renji? He was here earlier. Ichigo realized that he had no idea if Renji had a mission there or if there were other shinigami in town. Oh my god, what if it was Rukia? Ichigo's white face began bright red as he considered all of the horrible possibilities.

"Grimmjow?" Ichigo said, as he lay in bed with the ex-espada wrapped around him. Grimmjow had his own pad on the ground, but if he had ever actually slept on it Ichigo would be surprised.

"What?" Grimmjow responded sleepily.

"I think you should leave."

"What?" Grimmjow was fully awake now.

It's not like Ichigo had never thought about it, but a lot of recent events had just been pressing the issue. He would be leaving for college soon. It had been a long time and he wasn't gaining his powers back. What if Renji's report about Grimmjow made the Soul Society change their mind and come and take him away? Was Grimmjow really happy anyways? How could he be? His life now was so different than it was under Aizen that Ichigo didn't understand how the arrancar wasn't pulling his hair out in sheer boredom. For all Ichigo knew, he was. Ichigo flinched slightly thinking back to this afternoon. I can't even tell when it's him that I'm with.

"I know you feel...obligated to me...but I never accepted it," Ichigo said. "I've never been your master."

"Ichigo, don't..."

"And it really would be best for everyone if you just went back to Hueco Mundo," Ichigo continued.

In response Grimmjow just held onto Ichigo closer.

"Please, Grimmjow..." Ichigo said.

During all of the time that they'd been together, Ichigo had never actually asked Grimmjow to leave. He had seemed more worried that Grimmjow would just up and leave one day and that he'd have no recourse in getting him back. He sounded serious though. Grimmjow closed his eyes for a second and then got off the bed. He jumped out the window, leaving Ichigo to shiver slightly in the cool air that was let in. Grimmjow waited a few moments before walking along the rooftop to another part of the house.

"What?" Karin said, annoyed. "My pager didn't go off."

"Ichigo told me to leave...permanently," Grimmjow admitted.

"Idiot," Karin rolled her eyes. Ichigo always tried to make these sacrifices for other people, but it tended to make things worse in her opinion.

"Yeah," Grimmjow gave a small laugh. "Uh, so I'm going to go back to Hueco Mundo for a little bit."

"What?" Karin was shocked.

"I'm not...leaving. I'm just a little curious to see what's happening there now at all. I'll just be giving Ichigo a break. I'll be back soon," Grimmjow told her.

"Hopefully it'll teach the dumbass a lesson," Karin said.

"Just watch out for him, alright?"

"Good morning, Grimmjow," Yuzu greeted the empty chair in the morning.

"He's not here," Karin told her sister.

"Oh."

Karin looked over at her brother.

"I uh...I'm not really hungry," he said, his eyes shielded by his hair. He stood up and left the table.

He better be happy that Grimmjow is smarter than he is, Karin thought to herself with annoyance. She wasn't looking forward to having to deal with her older brother moping for however long it would be that Grimmjow would be gone.