Un Accro

Durhur, why did I take so long to upload this? Sorry guys.

--One over the eight--

Thank god tomorrow—or was it today?—was Saturday. Ichigo didn’t think he’d ever be able to move again. He meant that in a surprisingly good way, though.

True to his word, Grimmjow had somehow been keeping minor hollow activity at bay, but quite frequently called on Ichigo to fulfill his part of the arrangement. Ichigo had suggested they try a few other rooms at the love hotel, but Grimmjow was always adamant and would even wait for the bird cage room to become available rather than choose another.

Ichigo shuddered to think about what Grimmjow would do if there was a jungle themed room. He was getting a little tired of the hunt and fuck Grimmjow seemed to enjoy. Not that his nights spent with the Espada were anything short of mind blowingly hot, the previous night being no exception. While their encounters were always considerably painful, though not as painful as he’d first dreaded, a fair amount of pleasure was mixed in.

The best part about all of it was that Grimmjow didn’t skimp on using his reiatsu, giving Ichigo enough to have the teen coming more times than he could count. But now he was sore and sticky in weird places, after having woken alone

Ichigo crawled out of bed, wincing as he limped towards the bathroom, eager for a shower.

He got home exceptionally late, a little surprised to find his father still up. Caught unawares, Ichigo got slammed into the wall by his father’s kick as the man scolded him for not coming home earlier and making them all worry. Their argument woke Karin up and she came downstairs to relate the phone calls he’d received while away.

Ichigo recognized one of the numbers as Shinji’s and he felt his stomach drop. He had to admit, he didn’t mind fucking around with Grimmjow all that much, but he had the sneaking suspicion that the blonde wouldn’t feel quite the same and would demand answers as to Ichigo’s whereabouts.

With a sigh, Ichigo headed upstairs so he could call Shinji and talk uninterrupted, figuring that the blonde was probably still awake.

“Where were you today?” Shinji’s voice crackled through the phone.

Ichigo smiled at the sound of it, because he missed the blonde and it was just nice to hear from him. However, Ichigo could hear the slight accusatory tone, though Shinji hadn’t yet resorted to outright anger.

“I wasn’t feeling well, so I took the night off,” Ichigo half lied. He wondered if he tried talking to Shinji face to face if the blonde would be able to sense Grimmjow’s reiatsu on him.

Grimmjow had mentioned several times that he intended to make sure that everyone would be able to tell who Ichigo belonged to, so Ichigo thought it might be good to avoid people sensitive to reiatsu for a little while, not to mention he had mouth shaped bruises all over his spiritual form and he didn’t need those to be discovered.

“Is that right?” Shinji asked, not sounding convinced in the slightest.

Ichigo frowned, wondering how in the hell he was supposed to keep this a secret from the blonde. Not to mention, Shinji would surely tell Urahara if he felt something was afoot and then Ichigo wouldn’t stand a fucking chance. It was entirely unfair the way they ganged up on him.

“Yeah, it is. I’m sorry if you needed something.”

Shinji was quiet for a long moment and it made Ichigo worry a little.

“Don’t worry about it,” Shinji said finally. “The old pervert and I just miss having you in our bed is all.”

Ichigo smiled at what qualified as a rare moment of romanticism coming from Shinji.

“I miss you guys, too. Shit has just been keeping me busy.”

“I know it has,” Shinji said, sounding surprisingly understanding. “You’re still coming over to train in the morning, right?”

“Yeah,” Ichigo said, feeling apprehensive. “If I don’t fall asleep on the way over or something.”

Shinji laughed and it just made Ichigo feel worse. “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” the blonde said before hanging up.

Ichigo set the phone down and chewed on his bottom lip. Grimmjow’s reiatsu, if it was in fact, still on him, could maybe be explained away by saying the Espada had dropped by for a fight, but Ichigo knew that the bite marks and bruises, while rapidly fading, would not be so easily written off as just a run in with an angry Arrancar.

Holding his head in his hands, Ichigo wondered what the fuck he’d gotten himself into.

Ichigo showed up at the Vaizard’s warehouse early the next morning after a sleepless few hours, trying not to look like he was guilty of anything. He didn’t know how successful he was since Hiyori gave him a weird look. Not that she didn’t always, but this one seemed particularly weird; either that or he was so fucking jumpy he’d spill the whole story the moment someone asked him the time.

“Glad you could make it,” Shinji said with a grin, leaving Ichigo feeling relieved. It didn’t seem as though Grimmjow had left any traces of his reiatsu on him.

“Sure thing,” Ichigo said, shrugging and immediately regretting it. The action caused the fabric of his uniform to rub painfully over the bite marks Grimmjow had left him with the night previous. Ichigo winced, but luckily Shinji had already turned around and was heading to the center of their enclosure.

Ichigo followed him, hoping that the soreness that had plagued him all morning wouldn’t be too obvious as they were training.

“Well, Ichi,” Shinji said, and Ichigo wished he wouldn’t call him that, because that’s what Grimmjow often called him and that was just weird and something he didn’t really want to think about. “Let’s work on that transformation of yours.”

Hours later, Ichigo collapsed onto the couch, exhausted and hungry. The other Vaizard were all gathered around the table not too far from where Ichigo sat and they were talking. Ichigo had an idea who their conversation was about. Ichigo knew he was right when the other Vaizard dispersed to god knows where and Shinji approached him alone.

“You seem distracted, Ichigo,” Shinji said seriously and Ichigo knew he was done for.

“There have been a lot of attacks lately,” Ichigo said, purposefully meeting Shinji’s eyes. He knew if he avoided eye contact, it would be a dead giveaway that he was up to something.

“So I noticed,” Shinji said, giving Ichigo a pointed look.

Ichigo recognized it and knew Shinji was expecting something from him, but he didn’t know what to say without giving himself away entirely. This was Shinji giving him a chance to own up to anything, but Ichigo didn’t know how to bring up the deal he had made with Grimmjow, or even if he should.

“Grimmjow,” he began, not sure where he wanted to go with this particular sentence, “has been, uh, showing up lately.”

He wished he could meet Shinji’s eyes now, but he just couldn’t make himself. Not looking would let Shinji know something suspicious was going on under his nose, but looking at that moment would have been as bad as coming right out and saying it.

“I know,” Shinji said and Ichigo could tell he was in trouble already. “You really want me to believe you’ve been taking care of it?”

“Ulquiorra showed up and called him back.”

“Multiple times?” Shinji demanded.

Ichigo felt like he might as well be in a dark room with a light being shined in his eyes. “Just once.”

“When?”

“The first time,” Ichigo said, knowing that lying to Shinji would just make things that much worse. He just hoped Shinji wouldn’t ask the questions that would lead Ichigo to tell him about his whereabouts yesterday. While he didn’t feel comfortable out and out lying, he didn’t have to tell the whole truth, either. “But I think Grimmjow’s gotten on Aizen’s bad side. His arm’s missing and—”

“Are you going somewhere with this, or are you just making excuses?”

“I’m going somewhere with this,” Ichigo insisted. “He’s just been making a nuisance of himself. We haven’t fought.”

Shinji was quiet for a long moment and Ichigo figured that the blonde was thinking over what the teen had just said, trying to find where Ichigo might be lying or not telling the whole truth.

“And yesterday,” Shinji said finally and this is where Ichigo was positive he was done for, “Grimmjow was here for quite a while. You don’t have any idea what he might have been doing here for so long, do you?”

Ichigo swallowed, his heart hammering loud in his ears. He was at a complete loss for words; what was he supposed to say anyway? Grimmjow came over and we fucked in a love hotel? It would be the truth, but that was decidedly not how he wanted to admit it.

“He knows about the wound on my shoulder.”

Hirako looked as though he had been about to say something, but the blonde Vaizard paused and gave Ichigo an unreadable look. “And how did he find out?” Shinji asked after a long moment.

“He made it sound like it wasn’t the first time he’s seen something like this,” Ichigo said. It felt nice to finally talk to someone about this, even though that someone was Shinji and the blonde would probably tan his hide for keeping this a secret.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Ichigo winced at the sound of disappointment in Shinji’s voice. “I didn’t know how,” Ichigo admitted.

“What were you really doing yesterday, Ichigo?”

Ichigo didn’t really feel like going there yet. “He said he’d tell Aizen if—”

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Shinji said, his voice dangerous.

Again, Ichigo found himself at a loss for words. Just saying he had been at a love hotel seemed too blunt. Ichigo didn’t think he could handle it.

“I was with Grimmjow,” Ichigo said, although he knew that wasn’t even close to the answer Shinji was looking for.

“That isn’t what I asked,” Shinji said, clearly starting to lose his patience.

“I was at a hotel, okay?” Ichigo shouted, glaring up at Shinji who looked taken aback.

“A hotel? Shinji repeated incredulously.

“That’s what I said,” Ichigo grumbled, crossing his arms and refusing to look at Hirako.

“Undress,” Shinji said suddenly.

Ichigo blinked, startled. “What?”

“I said undress.”

“But—” Ichigo cut himself off as he saw the look of intense fury come over Hirako’s face.

“I’m not giving you a fucking choice in the matter, undress.”

“Last time I checked,” said a slightly amused voice, “this isn’t how the usual seduction scene goes.”

Ichigo and Shinji both looked towards the entrance at Urahara who was standing there with a smile on his face, his eyes obscured by his hat. Urahara took in Ichigo’s look of near terror and that of Shinji’s immense annoyance with amusement and curiosity. He’d missed the conversation previous to when Shinji had started demanding Ichigo’s nudity, but he figured they’d catch him up.

“Well,” Urahara said finally, when it didn’t seem like either of them was going to take the time to explain things to him, “you heard the man, Ichigo.”

Ichigo nodded slowly, knowing now that he probably wouldn’t live to see the sun another day, slowly and hesitantly baring his torso so that the two blondes could inspect him. He heard their sharp intakes of breath as the bite directly over his wound was revealed, along with several other less serious bites and scratches. Once he was bared to the waist he stopped undressing, waiting for one of them to say something.

“It seems like you had an exciting night, Ichigo,” Urahara said finally, breaking the silence that had built uncomfortably between them. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that you and Shinji decided to play without me and he got a little overzealous?”

“Don’t be stupid, Kisuke. You know as well as I do who he was with last night.”

Urahara sighed. He did know, actually, but the two of them looked agitated enough that he didn’t want to tip either of them overboard. Someone had to be the voice of reason, but that didn’t mean Ichigo wasn’t in considerable trouble.

“Let’s at least let Ichigo explain himself, alright?”

Shinji rolled his eyes but he didn’t argue. Now that Urahara was there, what he said would go, so he figured he might as well listen to whatever flimsy excuse Ichigo had for keeping secrets and lying to them.

Ichigo tried to explain as best as he could, but he was nervous with the two of them staring at him like they were—Urahara impassively and Shinji angrily—but he thought he got the gist of it across.

“You should have come to us straightaway, Ichigo,” Urahara said calmly.

Ichigo tried not to show how angry he was at that statement. That was one of his biggest problems with their relationship; he was always treated like a child, like he couldn’t handle hollows or whatever the hell else on his own and needed adults to step in and fix his fucking messes for him. It was infuriating. Shinji wasn’t saying anything, but Ichigo could guess at what the younger looking blonde was thinking and it just made him angrier.

Shinji and Urahara exchanged looks. Ichigo probably didn’t know it, but they could feel the fluctuations in the teen’s reiatsu and they knew that Ichigo was quite angry with the two of them. Shinji couldn’t even fathom why. They were the ones that had every right to be angry—not Ichigo.

“The hell are you so pissed off about?” Shinji demanded. He thought maybe that had been the wrong thing to ask when Ichigo gave him a look of staggering hatred.

“I’m not—” Ichigo started, his voice loud and angry. Ichigo opened and closed his mouth several times, apparently too angry to even voice it. “I fucking hate it that—”

“Ichigo,” Urahara said gently.

“No!” Ichigo shouted. “No! I’m fucking—fucking sick of this and I’m fucking sick of this shit! It’s just fucking over, okay? Leave me alone!”

With that, Ichigo stormed off, pulling the top half of his uniform back on. Shocked, but still a large part angry, Shinji made to go after the teen, but Urahara stopped him with a gentle hand and head shake.

“He needs to cool down,” Urahara said. “He won’t stay mad.”

Shinji wasn’t convinced. “If that fucking bastard comes back to Karakura, I fucking swear I’ll kill him!”
Urahara knew Shinji was talking about Grimmjow and honestly he felt much the same way. But he knew no good would come of forcing Ichigo into anything. The teen already appeared to resent him and Urahara didn’t want to add to that.

“There’s obviously something in particular that’s upsetting Ichigo,” Urahara pointed out. “And it’s not Grimmjow,” Urahara hastened to add when Shinji looked as though he was about to say something. “There’s something that’s been bothering him for longer than that.”

Shinji grumbled, but he knew Urahara was right.

--

*clears throat* If any of my readers have stuck around, well then thank you! I'll try and get the next chapter out soonish. I recently had to reinstall my OS, and now that I've put my stories back on the computer, a lot of them have lost their quotation marks and it's just a big editing mess. Let me know if I've missed anything.

PS Thank you to everyone who reviews!

PPS I think Chapter 11 got so long I had to divide it into two parts.