Author's Note:
It's been a very long month for me, and a fairly depressing one. The world feels darker now to me, and I'm sure some of you are feeling the same way. If you need someone to talk to, send me a PM, and I'll try to help. Stay safe out there!
The Crimson Guy, Kimikozumi, VitameatavegaminGirl, Black Bankai, Junichiblue, SoulMore, your reviews were one of the brightest bits of the past month. Thank you. It's because of you that this chapter exists right now.
Chapter 14: Bloodstains
Grimmjow sauntered forward and propped his hands on his hips. "Oh yeah?" He smirked. "Waiting to get your asses kicked, you mean?"
Arietta's hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You're the one who's going to pay," she spat. Fluttering her wings, she rose into the air and gestured behind her. "Drop your weapons, or we paint the desert in the humans' blood."
Ichigo peered in the direction that she had indicated, then gasped. His sisters, heads lolling to the side, were tied to the spire of rock in front of them; his father lay bound hand and foot at their feet. Kinderras stood over them, one sai lazily tracing patterns over Yuzu's neck. He bared his teeth. "Let them go." The fluid bubble of his hollow's growl echoed through his voice.
"Or what?" Arietta's voice rang with scorn. "We hold all the power here, shinigami. Your little family won't wake up for hours, and you can't get to them before Kinderras slits their pretty little throats." Her eyes narrowed. "Drop. Your. Weapons." Her tone brooked no disagreement.
Ichigo glanced at Grimmjow, who sneered. "You kill them, and you know you aren't getting out of here alive," he drawled. "Do everyone a favor and go crawl back wherever you came from."
Arietta's wings flared, lightning sparking along their edges. "You think I care about getting out of here alive?" A faint sheen of madness crept into her violet eyes. "You think that matters now, so long as you're spilling your guts into the sand by the end of this?" She threw her hand up above her head, summoning cero fire into a coruscating halo around it. The stench of scorched fabric drifted to Ichigo's nose as the tattered ribbon clenched in her fist began to char. "You really think any of that matters?" she screeched.
Grimmjow tensed. "What the fuck are you talking about?" He glanced at the cero, then at Ichigo's unconscious family. Even if they got past Arietta, there was no way to reach them in time to save them from Kinderras. "Fuck, bitch, be smart for once."
A crazed laugh bubbled from her throat. "Oh, I'm being smart," she giggled, cero flaring hotter. "But…" She frowned. "You don't even remember, do you?" She laughed again. "Oh, what a fucking twist of fate! You don't even remember!"
"Remember what?" Grimmjow snarled, cero fire of his own starting to swirl in his palms.
"Ichigo…" The whisper came from behind him. As Grimmjow continued to banter with Arietta, Ichigo glanced over his shoulder at Orihime. She clasped her hands in front of her chest, as though terrified, but her wide brown eyes held a hefty dose of determination. There was fear there, yes, but the resolve was stronger.
Ichigo tipped his head towards her, and she nodded once, eyes flickering down at the ground. He frowned. "What?" She glanced down again, then up at him, then down one more time. He followed her gaze.
Oh, the girl is clever! his hollow crowed. Look! It forced Ichigo's gaze to lock onto three specks speeding towards his family.
A slow grin spread over Ichigo's face. He locked eyes with Orihime, who blinked slowly. One. Two. Three. "Now!"
Everything happened at once. Arietta, infuriated past reasoning, hurled her cero at Grimmjow, who dove aside and returned fire with one of his own. A golden shield sprang into being around Ichigo's family, hurling Kinderras backwards as he belatedly stabbed down at Yuzu's unprotected throat. He howled in pain and anger.
As the serpentine espada hurled himself towards the growing fray, Ichigo yanked Zangetsu off his back and took a wide-legged stance. "Go," he urged Orihime, throwing a glance over his shoulder. "Get behind your shield, now!"
She nodded once more, then darted away at an angle. Kinderras jerked to the side to follow, but Ichigo sprang forward, a feral grin on his lips. "I don't think so."
Kinderras hissed at him, fangs hinging down from the roof of his mouth. "Get fucked, shinigami!" He yanked his other sai out of his sash and pressed them together. "Coil and strike, Vibora!"
A few yards away, Grimmjow laughed wildly. "Oh, we're playing like that, are we?" He pressed his fingertips to Pantera's blade and dragged them downwards. "Grind, Pantera!"
As power flooded through him, Grimmjow screamed in exultation. Bones cracked and shifted, armored plates emerging from his skin to envelop him in a skintight, flexible suit of bone; a tail ripped its way out of his spine and lashed wildly. Fire burned through his veins, energizing him even as it burned away the last vestiges of his human form. The pain was nothing compared to the energy that poured into him.
Slowly the dust settled. Grimmjow flexed his new claws and grinned at Arietta, fangs bared. "Want to give up now, bitch?" he drawled. Bouncing on his toes like a kickboxer, he gave her an insouciant smile. "I might even let you live if you run away now."
He wouldn't, of course, but hunts were so much more enjoyable when the prey led him on a good chase.
Arietta's violet eyes narrowed. "You wish!" she spat. Tapping her scimitar on her leg, she let her mouth stretch into a broad, humorless smile, showing off her shark-like rows of jagged teeth. "Dance, Mariposa."
Grimmjow propped his hand on his hip and watched as dark purple energy enveloped the female arrancar. It was tempting to attack while she was in the middle of transforming, but he'd learned his lesson about doing so when he tried to do the same thing to Ulquiorra. The storm of reiatsu generated by an arrancar in the midst of a resurrection transform did not take kindly to being interrupted. As he didn't fancy getting blown halfway across the battlefield, it was better to wait.
He didn't have to wait long. Arietta started to giggle, voice spiraling higher and higher in pitch, as the reiatsu cloud dissipated. As the last drops of energy evaporated, she ran her tongue over her darkened lips and quirked an eyebrow at Grimmjow. "Like what you see?"
Grimmjow sneered. "You look like a strong wind would blow you away. You sure that's it?" Her new form appeared positively waif-like. He could count her ribs underneath the sheer gown she wore, and the top of her head would barely come up to his collarbone. Her teeth were the same, jagged and sharky, but her eyes were now slit-pupiled like a cat. They took up far too much of her triangular, elfin face now, though one was partially shielded by her flowing, red-black locks that reached all the way to the ground. Her wings had segmented, and now resembled dragonfly wings that glinted like metal along the edges.
Arietta giggled. "Come find out." She darted higher in the air. "That is, if you think you're strong enough."
Grimmjow studied her for a brief moment. She appeared weaponless, though he wasn't about to trust that. Still, the only thing in her hands was that damn ribbon she kept playing with; her scimitar had vanished during her transformation.
He flexed his claws, a low purr rumbling from his chest. This was going to be fun. Ichigo's family was safe under Orihime's shield, and Ichigo – now in bankai form – looked to be having a good fight with Kinderras, so he could take his time here.
He sprang after Arietta, eyes blazing as he summoned cero power into his claws. She darted backwards, wings fluttering and eyes wide with fear, as the cero bloomed around his hand. "Sayonara, bitch," he snarled.
The first cero streaked by an inch above her head, as he'd planned; the second followed a millisecond later. He'd intended for it to cripple one of her wings and force her down, but somehow she managed to flip out of the way. He bared his fangs. "Scared?" he taunted. "Stop running away and fight like a man!"
She laughed in his face. "How about you fight like a girl? You might actually get somewhere that way!" On the last word, she flattened her wings to her back and dove at him, leading the way with the spiral horn protruding from her forehead. He sneered at her as he dodged to the side, and she turned a somersault in midair to face him again.
Then the fight began in earnest.
No matter how forcefully Grimmjow struck, Arietta simply wasn't there. His punches ended an inch in front of her face; his kicks swung harmlessly just past her body. Ceros flew past her without her doing more than twitching a wing. Every time he tried to get closer to her, she'd dart away, maintaining a constant distance between them.
After about a minute of this, Grimmjow was thoroughly fed up. As unlikely as it seemed, Arietta was just a hair faster than him. If he'd managed to hit her even once, she'd be out of the fight, but she clearly knew this, and was unwilling to close with him. He growled. "Fucking fight already!"
Arietta smiled sweetly. "What, you don't like feeling powerless?" Her fist clenched around the ribbon. "You don't like being unable to do anything to the person you hate?" A wealth of venom lay underneath her tone.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Grimmjow snarled back. "Just stop your fucking cowardly games and fight me like an arrancar already!" He really should have traded opponents with Ichigo – it looked like Kinderras, at least, was giving the teen a proper fight.
Arietta drifted towards the sandy ground, keeping a wary eye on Grimmjow. "Do you really not remember?" Her tone was almost conversational.
Grimmjow spat onto the sands. "Remember what? What the fuck are you talking about?" Why did she keep asking him if he remembered something?
Arietta blinked slowly, pupils expanding until her eyes resembled ebony voids. "No, you don't." She folded her wings and alighted onto the sand, careful to avoid the thin cracks in the ground. "You…" She sighed and shook her head. "I guess I shouldn't expect anything better from you."
Grimmjow, thoroughly out of patience, hurled a cero at her face. She swayed aside, and it crashed into the ground in a spray of sand. The scent of scorched ozone rose in the air as she stared fearlessly at him and lifted a hand. "Remember this?" The tattered velvet ribbon dangled from her fingers.
Grimmjow rolled his eyes. "It's a ribbon. What about it?"
A soft laugh escaped Arietta's throat, but there was no humor in it. "It's more than just a ribbon, you bastard. It's all that you left of Morganna after you tore her to pieces." Reiatsu flared around her. "Why? Why'd you have to kill her?" she screamed, voice cracking.
Grimmjow frowned. "What the fuck…" His eyes focused on the ribbon again. He did vaguely remember an arrancar wearing ribbons like that – she'd taken the form of an adolescent girl with pigtails. Too weak to be claimed as a fraccion, she'd been just another one of the nameless arrancar running around Las Noches, until she'd had the misfortune of crossing his path soon after his humiliating punishment at Tosen's hands.
The former sexta espada snorted. "She was dumb. What of it?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "Why the fuck do you care?"
The reek of scorched ozone grew more pronounced as Arietta snapped her wings open. "You… you…" she spluttered, reiatsu surging in a maelstrom around her. Her eyes narrowed. "Have you ever been in love?"
Grimmjow involuntarily glanced over at Ichigo. The teen was bleeding from a shallow gash on his bicep, but the injury didn't slow him down at all. A feral grin hovered about his lips as he clashed with Kinderras, whose serpentine body was littered with numerous slashes. None were even close to fatal, but it was clear that the arrancar was outmatched.
Arietta followed his gaze and began to laugh. "Oh, I don't believe this! A shinigami, sexta? Really?"
Grimmjow's teeth ground together at the sound of his former title. "Shut the fuck up," he warned, voice grating in his throat.
Arietta just laughed harder, though there was more than a hint of despair underneath the harsh laughter. "Oh, no, this is too much! Really? You think you love a damn shinigami?" She shook her head, sending her long, flowing hair flying.
Grimmjow bared his teeth at her, reiatsu rising. "I said, shup up!" Cero fire gathered in his palm. "Love?" He snorted. "Arrancar can't love. Only stupid bitches like you think differently." He was willing to admit to attraction and lust, even a certain level of respect. But love? Love was a weak, mortal emotion. Love hadn't done anything to protect his mate and cubs, and it sure as hell hadn't done anything for him since then.
Arietta tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Oh yeah? So how'd you feel if Kinderras ripped his heart out right now?"
The thought shot an unexpected pang through Grimmjow's heart. His reiatsu surged to a fever pitch as he glared at the slender arrancar in front of him. "Not gonna happen," he scoffed. "Ichigo's way too strong for that moron."
"But you wouldn't like it, would you?" Arietta shot back. As Grimmjow opened his mouth to reply, she spat on the sand. As the ground ripped open to look for prey, she snarled, "Don't try to deny it. The expression on your face says it all."
Grimmjow hissed low in his throat. "Go fuck yourself." Why was he bothering to talk to her at all, anyway? She was just a stupid arrancar; she didn't know anything. It would be better if he stopped playing around and simply killed her where she stood.
Her next words forestalled any attempt to attack, though. "It would rip your heart out, and you know it. Make you feel like someone had run you through." There was no question in her words.
"Yeah?" Grimmjow replied skeptically, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "How do you know?" He wasn't about to admit that the feelings she described had hit all-too-close to the mark, but he couldn't just let it go, either. How did she know so much?
Arietta laughed bitterly. "Because that's how I felt, you idiot, when you sliced Morganna in half for the crime of being in your way!" She glared at him. "She wasn't doing anything to you, and you fucking murdered her!" Her wings fluttered as though a high wind buffeted them. "You tore her to pieces and laughed about it, then left her there like so much trash." She pushed her hair out of her eyes. "You really are a monster, you know?" Her tongue flickered over her lips as her gaze darted around the sand. The energy swirling around her was making the air scream with its intensity, giving her a violet halo. "You deserve this."
As the last words fell from her lips, she snapped her wings up to point directly at Ichigo. A massive lightning bolt shot out of them and streaked towards the shinigami's unprotected back, blazing with heat. Grimmjow yelled a warning, but the booming of thunder drowned him out. Heart in his mouth, he watched helplessly as the bolt slammed into Ichigo's spine, right between his shoulder blades. The substitute soul reaper convulsed and started to tumble to the ground.
Grimmjow screamed. As the shockwaves from his voice hurled Arietta backwards, he leapt for Ichigo's limp form, but he could already tell that he wasn't going to make it in time. The fur in his spine rose in atavistic reaction to the shinigami's imminent impact with the hungry ground, which was already gaping open as it prepared to receive its prey.
Then, moments before Ichigo crashed into the black maw, a golden glow streaked over the sands. Ichigo's body landed on the magical shield with a sickening crunch, but Grimmjow breathed a sigh of relief. He might be broken, but he wasn't dead, and that was the important thing.
Arietta, who had regained her footing, screamed in fury. "Fine!" She spun and pointed her wings at Orihime and Ichigo's unconscious family, who were now unprotected. The young healer stepped forward, arms spread in a futile attempt to protect those behind her, as Arietta bared her teeth. "Take this!"
A hand through her gut stopped the lightning before it could begin to form. Grimmjow smiled viciously. "Don't you fucking dare, bitch," he snarled, throwing her down towards the sand. "Don't you fucking think about it." He spun and caught Kinderras's strike on his forearm. Baring his teeth at the serpentine espada, he grated, "Same goes for you. Hands off the kids!" As Kinderras swung again, Grimmjow planted a foot in his gut and shoved him backwards.
Below them, Ichigo pulled himself to his feet and shot back up into the air. Glancing at Grimmjow, he asked, "You good?"
Grimmjow grinned fiercely. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Kinderras. "You take care of him. This bitch is all mine." No one tried to hurt his pack and got away with it.
As Grimmjow dove towards Arietta, she hauled herself upright and spat blood onto the sand. "Fuck you. You don't know what it's like to lose someone you love!" Glittering amber oozed out of her fingertips, and she flicked her bright red tongue over her lips. "This is for Morganna!" Eyes shining with insane fervor, she threw herself towards him.
With a snort for her impetuousness, Grimmjow planted his feet and waited, teeth bared. "Come on, bitch, what are you going to do?" he taunted. His tail lashed behind him as he bounced on his toes, waiting for her to get closer.
Arietta let loose a scream of pure fury. "Go to hell!" She slashed at him with her fingers crooked into claws, then snapped her wings out and flipped backwards, kicking him with both feet. He blocked the first blows, but the kicks caught him by surprise, sending him tumbling backwards.
Before he could regain his balance, she was on him, raking with her fingernails as she screamed incoherently. Her wings buzzed as she clawed at him like a rabid wolf, leaving bloody scratches across his chest. Then, as he lifted a hand to shove her away, she reared back and drove her head downwards, stabbing towards his heart with her horn.
Grimmjow grunted as he brought a forearm up to protect himself. Hooking the horn on the spikes protruding from his elbow, he twisted upwards. A sickening crack echoed through the air, but Arietta didn't seem to notice. With another howl of hatred, she jerked her broken horn out of his grasp and slashed it across his face. Her hands scrabbled for purchase on his neck.
She appeared to have abandoned all attempts to guard herself, so Grimmjow launched a vicious hook punch into her gut. She grunted, but didn't let go, so he hit her again and again, raking his spikes over her ribs. He could feel her blood pouring over his abdomen as she clutched at his throat; her dark crimson hair spread about them like a cloud.
Finally, Grimmjow snarled in annoyance and grabbed one of her wings, slashing it in two. Arietta yelped with pain and jerked backwards, then bared her teeth at him. "Go… to… hell…" she panted, eyes blown wide with fear and pain.
Grimmjow laughed. "You first." He drove a fist into her face, and her expression softened.
"I'll see you there." A strange peace filled her eyes as she took a deep breath, then exhaled a glittering cloud of white powder. Her wings fluttered, and she grabbed onto his armor with both hands as sparks raced over them. He swore under his breath, tasting the curious sweetness of the white powder, and tried to shove her away, but it was too late. Even as his punch broke her nose, lightning crashed through her hands, sending thousands of volts directly into his chest.
For one brief moment, his entire body seized up, sending him tumbling towards the ground. Arietta fell with him, fingers clenched in a death grip though her reiatsu was quickly fading. Ichigo's yell of alarm came from far away, as though they were underwater.
Grimmjow cursed. There was no way he was going to die like this! As the ground rushed up to meet them, he forced sluggish muscles to spin them in the air, placing Arietta beneath him. Then he braced for impact.
They landed with a gruesome crunch, inches away from where the deadly salt flat began. Arietta's wings splayed out on the sand like a bug pinned to a corkboard; her blood flew everywhere. Her violet eyes were dull as they stared unseeing at the sky. "Morganna," she whispered, fingers twitching around the bloodstained, tattered ribbon in her hand. Then her head fell back and she lay still.
Grimmjow stared down at her motionless body. "Actually, I do know what it feels like to lose someone," he murmured, battle fury draining from his body. The exultation he usually felt after winning a battle was entirely absent; he merely felt cold and exhausted.
And, oddly, dizzy. Was it just his imagination, or was the moonlight dimming?
He shook his head roughly, forcing the sensation away. In the distance, he spotted Ichigo drive Zangetsu through Kinderras's throat, nearly beheading the serpentine arrancar before letting his body fall to the sands. The ground opened up to swallow him whole, and Grimmjow winced. No matter how much he hated someone, that was an awful way to die.
He glanced down at Arietta. Then again, is there ever a pretty way to die? It all ended up the same – a broken corpse and bloodstained sands, and an aching void left in those left behind.
Grimmjow's hand drifted up to press against his hollow hole. He could practically taste the scent of his mate on the wind, tantalizingly elusive – it was as if she was just over the horizon. His jaw tightened. The scents of his cubs were there too, almost too faint to make out… or was he just imagining things?
Ichigo landed a few feet away and leaned on Zangetsu's blade, breathing heavily. Grimmjow gratefully inhaled his scent as he stepped closer to the teen, tail lashing. Blood, sweat, and the acrid scent of power, all underlaid with Ichigo's unique, spicy scent, drove away his ghosts. "You okay?" he asked gruffly, studying the blood splashes on Ichigo's exposed skin.
The substitute shinigami shrugged stiffly. "More bruises than I can count, and a few scrapes, but that's normal." He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. You?"
Grimmjow eyed him sharply for a long moment, taking in the torn gi and blood oozing from a gash on his bicep, then barked a laugh. "Just great." Apart from an ache in his hollow hole and the steadily increasing dizziness, that was. What the hell was going on with him? Since when did he care at all about the death of prey, much less feel sorry for it? And since when did a simple fight leave him so… He swore. "That bitch..." The words came out slurred. "Did it ag…"
As the last word tumbled away from his unresponsive lips, darkness snuck up and claimed him for its own.
Grimmjow woke to a dissipating golden glow and the worried visage of Ichigo leaning over him. After a moment, he snorted. "Didn't we do this already?"
Ichigo rolled his eyes and punched him in the shoulder. "Well, if you would stop getting poisoned…" he drawled. Then his expression sobered. "How are you feeling?"
Grimmjow stretched experimentally. "Pretty good, all things considering." His lips twitched into a smile. "Good enough to kick your ass, at least." Though every muscle ached dully, he could feel no major injuries, and his reiatsu stores felt nearly full. It was a major contrast to how he'd felt after Arietta's last batch of poison.
"You wish," Ichigo snorted, punching him again. "Idiot." His lips quirked involuntarily. "I should have left you in Hueco Mundo," he teased.
Grimmjow bared his teeth. "Why didn't you?" he challenged.
Ichigo waved a hand. "Oh, Orihime wouldn't let me." When Grimmjow glared at him, he grinned and relented. "Actually, once you went down, she came running, but apparently that poison of Arietta's is pretty damn nasty. She poured a lot of power into you, but you wouldn't wake up, so we called Urahara and got him to make a portal, then got my dad to carry you through it." He snorted. "He wasn't exactly pleased, but he couldn't exactly say no, either, not when the girls were looking at him like that."
Grimmjow cocked an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Apparently, they were awake for part of the fight – Orihime was healing them even as she shielded them. They think you're quite the hero, or at least Yuzu does." Ichigo lifted an eyebrow. "Karin, on the other hand… well, you met her, you know what she's like."
Grimmjow nodded, trying not to smile. He couldn't imagine the feisty teen calling anyone a hero; she was far too cynical for that.
His thoughts must have shown on his face, for Ichigo laughed. "Yep, that's her, alright! Anyway, after my dad was fully healed, he carried you and I carried Yuzu, while Orihime helped Karin." He paused, head tilted to one side. "She's actually got a decent amount of spiritual pressure of her own now, I wonder if she'll become a shinigami…" Shrugging, he let the idea go. "We got back to the shoten without a problem, and…" He shrugged again. "Well, here we are."
Grimmjow pulled himself upright and fixed the teen with a hard stare. "So, sounds like we won. What now?" Despite his attempt to sound carefree, a touch of worry wound its way into his tone. Would Ichigo want nothing more to do with him after this? After all, it had been Grimmjow's fault that his family had been kidnapped. If I hadn't killed what's-her-face, Morganna, maybe none of this would have happened… He pushed the thought away. That was in the past, and – while he understood Arietta's hatred now – he wasn't going to let it ruin his day.
A faint blush spread across Ichigo's cheekbones as he smiled. "Well, that's up to you, I think." He shrugged one shoulder and spread his hands. "What do you want to do?"
Grimmjow eyed the substitute shinigami for a long moment, taking in his dark, nervous eyes and the adorable shy quirk to his lips. A slow smile spread across his lips. "Oh, I can think of a lot of things I want right now," he purred, running his tongue over his lips. "They all require you to be a bit closer, though…" He cocked his head to one side and patted the mattress next to him.
Ichigo's blush darkened in a hurry. "Um, ah…" he stammered, glancing around. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he hissed, leaning closer to Grimmjow. "This is Urahara's shop, you know!" Despite his words, though, his reiatsu flared with excitement.
Grimmjow released a breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding. "If that's all you're worried about, I've got a solution," he murmured, reaching up and dragging Ichigo down to him. The teen went willingly, steadying himself with a hand on Grimmjow's chest as he straddled the espada. Grimmjow chuckled. "Just be quiet, alright?" He wrapped a hand around the back of Ichigo's neck and pulled him down into a heated kiss.
As their tongues tangled, Ichigo let out a soft groan and molded his body against Grimmjow's chest. Grimmjow growled under his breath. Ichigo tasted fucking delicious, and the reiatsu emanating from his body was positively intoxicating. A thousand different images flashed through Grimmjow's head as heat poured into his veins.
But then the teen pulled back slightly. Though he was breathing heavily and flushed a bright red, he still managed to sound relatively composed as he said, "We really, really shouldn't do this now…"
"Scared?" Grimmjow taunted breathlessly, running his hands up Ichigo's sides.
Ichigo squirmed, biting his lip as he inhaled sharply. "No… just…" He swore under his breath. "Just… cautious…"
Grimmjow dragged a finger down Ichigo's hip. "You sure?" he purred, running his tongue over his lips. "Totally, utterly sure?" He chuckled at the teen squirmed more, shifting his weight in a very distracting way in Grimmjow's lap.
Ichigo leaned in for a quick kiss, then pulled away before Grimmjow could deepen it. "Unfortunately, very sure," he murmured, pupils blown wide with lust. "But…" He held up a hand before Grimmjow could say anything. "If you can be patient for a little bit, we can get out of here, and…" As pink flooded his cheeks again, he let the sentence trail off.
Grimmjow smirked. "And…?"
He was rewarded with more blushing. "You know what I mean!" Ichigo spluttered. He glared halfheartedly at Grimmjow.
The espada laughed lowly. "You mean something like this?" Before Ichigo could dodge out of the way, he yanked the teen into another searing kiss.
When he finally let Ichigo go, the substitute shinigami coughed. "Yeah, something like that." He made an attempt to look serious. "But you have to be patient." The attempt was marred by the way he kept shifting on Grimmjow's lap, biting his lip to keep from moaning.
Grimmjow tipped his head to one side. "What'll you give me if I am?" he purred.
"I, ah…" Ichigo gasped as Grimmjow ran a finger down his chest. "What do you want?"
The espada smirked. Good question. There were plenty of things he wanted, most of them involving Ichigo naked and begging for release, but right now… He tangled his fingers in Ichigo's hair and tugged his head back, exposing his neck. "I want you," he growled, pressing his lips to the vulnerable flesh.
"Fuck…" Ichigo swore under his breath, arching into Grimmjow's touch.
Grimmjow chuckled. "How does that sound?" He bit gently on Ichigo's jugular, eliciting more strangled curses. "Does that answer your question?"
Ichigo's hands tightened around Grimmjow's shoulders. "Perfect," he growled, fingernails digging into the muscle under his hands.
Grimmjow hissed as the unexpected pain sent sparks straight to his groin. "Fuck, Ichigo," he snarled, sweeping his legs off the mattress and standing, bringing Ichigo with him. "You're mine," he bit out, teeth closing around the juncture of Ichigo's neck and shoulder.
Ichigo gasped. "So long as you realize that goes both ways," he challenged, a faint echo of his hollow in his voice.
Grimmjow laughed. "Perfect."
He wouldn't want it any other way.