Chapter 2:

It had been six months since Ichigo and Grimmjow agreed to a secret relationship. As far as Grimmjow could tell no-one suspected a thing so far. This however seemed to be the only good thing in his life at the moment as more bodies had been turning up, making more questions than answers as to the killer's intentions.

"Will I see you tonight?"

Grimmjow paused, turning to look at Ichigo who was still in bed. "I don't know, depends if I can get off early."

"You mean, if any more bodies turn up?" Ichigo asked, standing up and approaching him. He smiled, pulling Grimmjow's shirt tighter to do the buttons up. "I'm sure you'll catch him soon."

"What I don't understand is why he came back." He took the tie Ichigo handed him. "I mean, he was gone for five years and we thought it was over. Why start again?"

"When you catch him, ask him. Besides, what makes you think it's a guy?"

He shrugged, grabbing his jacket. "Some of the tapes we found have recordings with a male voice. Obviously it's distorted-"

"Oh obviously."

Rolling his eyes he leaned closer to the teen and kissed him quickly. "I'll try to get out early but no promises." Ichigo nodded, grabbing his tie suddenly when he turned away to kiss him again. "What was that for?"

He shrugged, a small smile playing across his lips. "Nothing, just I love you."

Grimmjow nodded, giving the orange head a tight smile. "Yeah, me too. See you later." He left quickly, letting out a sigh as he closed the door behind himself.

It may have been six months but Ichigo had been saying those words since day one. Although Grimmjow had told Ichigo he loved him once, he couldn't bring himself to say it again. Saying those words to Ichigo, it would make everything seem more real. Not that it wasn't already but taking that next step lead to the next one which meant telling everyone, including Ichigo's father.

He had been friends with Isshin for a very long time, long enough to have known Ichigo since he was a toddler really. They had been neighbours originally and when both Ichigo and Grimmjow's parents hit it off Grimmjow was the one stuck with babysitting duty. He became good friends with Isshin later on in life and could always rely on the man for a quick medical assessment.

When he arrived at the police department he found Nnoitra already working and the man glared at him as he entered. "Sorry, sorry I know I'm late."

"So who is he?" Nnoitra snorted when Grimmjow froze at the question. "Please, I've worked with you for years and you thought I wouldn't notice?"

"But you don't know who it is so you're not that good." Grimmjow sat down heavily at his desk, shoving some papers away so he could actually see the desk. "And it's none of your business either." He added as Nnoitra opened his mouth.

"Whatever." He retorted instead before throwing a file in front of his partner. "We found the husband of the latest one. He's in the hospital about to be transferred to a psychiatric ward. Someone's on their way there now but I doubt they'll get much from him."

"Perfect, another dead end." Grimmjow groaned and rubbed his face, a bad habit he had started developing recently. "What exactly is this guy doing to these people? Those we find alive aren't exactly in a cooperative state to give us leads."

"We'll catch a break eventually. Even the best slip up, we just have to be there to find it." Nnoitra said, leaning back in his chair, a pen between his teeth as he stared at his monitor. "It's getting more frequent. We found the woman a week ago right?"

"Right."

"We've been finding new bodies every month exactly, so we have just over three weeks to find this guy before the next one. I'm betting in the next few days someone's going to go missing." Nnoitra stood up suddenly. "Come on, let's go revisit the dump scenes to see if we missed anything." When Grimmjow didn't move he turned to glare at him "Got a better plan?"

"Well here was me thinking I was the optimistic one." Grimmjow muttered before getting up to follow Nnoitra.

With no leads all day and the visit to the husband turning up more dead ends Grimmjow had one good thing to look forward to when he finished on time for once. He knew Ichigo was there when he opened the door to his flat, he had been cooking. "Shouldn't you be studying or something?" He asked the orange head when he found him stood over a pan.

Ichigo just shrugged, looking up at him long enough to smile before returning to stirring the contents. "My grades are fine stop worrying so much. There's no exams for at least four months." Leaving the stove he grabbed Grimmjow's jacket to pull him closer. "Besides, I figured you'd want something to eat when you got back. I was going to plate it up ready for when you got back but since you're here we can eat now."

"Making me dinner now?" Grimmjow asked in surprise, leaning down to kiss him gently. "What did you tell your father?"

"That I'm staying late at a friends and would be back later." Ichigo shrugged nonchalantly. "If I end up staying the night no big deal I'll tell dad I fell asleep on his sofa."

"You're too devious for your own good."

"Arrest me then."

"I've done that far too many times now." Ichigo laughed and kissed him again before letting go to set up dinner. "Besides, I can think of a better use for handcuffs on you."

"Really?" Ichigo asked, setting a plate in front of him before sitting on the opposite side of the table with his own. "Care to try it out?"

Grimmjow choked on his first mouthful, looking at him in surprise. "You'd let me?"

"As long as you don't leave marks. I doubt I'd be able to bluff my way out of that one. Dad'll think I'm sleeping with Renji." He shuddered before smiling. "And that is a terrifying thought."

"Well aren't you lucky you're sleeping with me."

"I'm not just sleeping with you." Ichigo said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I love you, that's why I'm here."

Grimmjow shook his head, choosing not to answer but eat another mouthful of food. "It's good." He said, shoving another forkful into his mouth. He still couldn't say it back and glancing up at Ichigo to see he had his head lowered but Grimmjow could see his eyebrows were drawn, Ichigo wasn't happy.

They ate in silence after that and when he was finished Ichigo had whisked the plate away before he could blink. Grimmjow winced as the plates crashed in the sink, he was debating whether or not they were broken when Ichigo started washing them.

"Hey." He said gently but got no response. "Ichigo?" He said louder, standing up to touch his shoulder on to have it shrugged off. "Alright fine, be that way."

"If you don't love me, you could just say." Ichigo finally muttered once he turned away and Grimmjow sighed, stopping to face the teen again to see he was no longer washing up. He watched as Ichigo rubbed his face against his arm, certain the teen was crying. "Don't pity me and string this along if you don't feel the same way."

"I do feel the same." Ichigo snorted in reply. "Look, I know I haven't said it back but I do you know." He shrugged in reply this time. "Come on." Ichigo finally turned around and Grimmjow could see the tear tracks on his face and sighed, brushing them away. "I'm just… not ready to say that yet. Ok?"

"Ok." Ichigo muttered before giving him a small shove. "Now let me clean up would ya?"

"Alright." Grabbing his chin he kissed Ichigo and smiled, bumping their noses together. "I'm going to have a shower... I'll leave the door unlocked."

"I'll keep that in mind."

In the end Grimmjow rightly guessed he had earned Ichigo's forgiveness since he ended up sharing the shower. It was only after as Ichigo lay half asleep in his arms that Grimmjow finally understood why the teen had gotten so upset earlier. Leaning closer to him Ichigo laughed when he kissed his neck.

"I'm trying to sleep."

"Sorry, I just wanted to tell you something."

"Mmm, what's that?"

Grimmjow smiled against his neck before sitting up slightly to look at Ichigo properly. "I love you."

That got Ichigo's attention and he sat up so quickly Grimmjow had to jerk back so he didn't get head-butted. His eyes had gone wide with surprise and add that to his more than usual tangled hair he looked like he'd had the shock of a lifetime.

"You mean that?" He asked quietly.

"Of course." Grimmjow was pushed onto his back with the force Ichigo exerted when he launched himself into his arms. "Ok ok, careful before you break my bed."

"Sorry." Ichigo sat up and smiled, kissing him firmly. "I love you too." And then he laughed, shaking his head. "God it actually feels good to say that."

"Hey um, there's something else."

"What?"

Grimmjow sighed, running his hands down Ichigo's sides to come to a rest on his hips. This was what he was really dreading, the reason why he didn't want to tell Ichigo he loved him. "We need to tell your family, specifically Isshin." At the orange head's sudden worried expression he smiled. "Come on, I'm sure we'll be able to talk him around."

"And your job?"

"Well they need all hands on deck at the moment with this bastard roaming free in the city. I doubt I'm in danger of losing my job." At Ichigo's now relieved expression Grimmjow sighed in relief. At least he sounded confident about that. "We'll meet tomorrow and talk it through properly ok?"

Ichigo nodded after a moment and blew out a breath before smiling nervously. "You might want to bring backup, I don't think dad will take it well."

"Let's deal with that tomorrow ok. For now get some sleep, I'm sure tomorrows going to be a long day." Grimmjow's thoughts strayed to the pile of mounting paperwork on his desk. "Very long."

"Better than finding dead bodies and hunting murdering psychopaths right?"

"Right." Grimmjow agreed before shaking himself and smiling at Ichigo. "You better let me sleep."

"No promises. Maybe I'll want more than a goodbye kiss in the morning." Ichigo kissed him suddenly but it was over almost instantly and he laughed when Grimmjow let out an annoyed huff. "Tomorrow." He whispered, leaning over the older man to turn the light off and they were thrown into darkness.