Private

Chapter 7

Chapter 7:
Grimmjow woke up with a start when his alarm started beeping loudly and groaned, whacking the offending object to make it stop. He stood up and stretched before frowning, trying to remember what he'd forgotten. When his mind supplied no answer, he shrugged off the feeling and went into the kitchen to get a drink. Halfway through filling the glass, Grimmjow finally remembered that Ichigo was currently asleep in his spare room.
"Shit."
Putting the glass on the side, he went to the door and paused for a moment, remembering what happened last time he went in without knocking. With a sigh, he knocked on the door and waited a minute, when receiving no reply he opened the door cautiously and went in.
Grimmjow sighed in relief when he found Ichigo was still asleep and slowly walked over to him, sighing when he saw Ichigo's sleeping face, smoothed free of his usual scowl. Sitting down next to him, Grimmjow reached out and gently shook Ichigo's shoulder.
"Hey Ichigo, wake up."
Ichigo frowned and shifted in his sleep, mumbling something about 'peanut butter' before sighing and falling silent again. Grimmjow frowned and bent down to brush his lips across Ichigo's ear. Ichigo sighed and pushed against Grimmjow's cheek with a smile. "Five more minutes."
"Ichigo you need to wake up."
His brown eyes flickered open and he looked up at Grimmjow in confusion for a moment before quickly pulling his hand away and sitting up. "I... um... morning?"
Grimmjow grinned as Ichigo started blushing and looked away from him. "Morning yourself. How'd you sleep?"
"Ok I guess. What time is it?"
Grimmjow glanced at his watch. "Just gone eight. You need to get up and ready to go in the next half hour or we're gunna be late for school."
"Yeah, of course." Ichigo stood up and stretch, freezing when he glanced back at Grimmjow to see he was watching him. "What?"
Grimmjow just shook his head and stood up. "Nothing." He went over to the door and opened it again for turning to speak to Ichigo. "I'm gunna get your clothes so come out when you want."
"Sure." Ichigo watched as Grimmjow left the room before sighing heavily and running a hand through his hair. "C'mon Ichigo, just go get your clothes and leave for school, it's not that hard. You don't have to be alone with him again after this." He flinched at his own words and shook his head before leaving the room to find Grimmjow in the kitchen. "Hey."
Grimmjow turned around with Ichigo's clothes in hand and grinned. "Hey."
"Can I have my clothes?" Ichigo stepped forward to take them, frowning when Grimmjow didn't hand them over. "What?"
"I'll give them to you, on one condition."
Ichigo scowled and folded his arms, eyeing Grimmjow sceptically. "And what's that?"
"A kiss." He stated the words simply, but Ichigo was sure he misheard.
"A what?" Ichigo asked dumfoundedly, his arms falling slack at his sides and Grimmjow's grin morphed into a smirk as he stepped closer to the stunned teen.
"A kiss. C'mon Ichigo it aint like we haven't kissed before. Hell, we've done a lot more than kissing."
Ichigo gaped at him for a moment before clearing his throat and chuckling softly. "You always ask for the most difficult things."
Grimmjow frowned as was going to ask what Ichigo meant but never got the chance as Ichigo stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his neck, pulling him down into a kiss. Ichigo only intended for it to be a simple kiss, but when Grimmjow's arms wrapped around his waist to pull him closer and his tongue slipped into his mouth. Ichigo pressed his body closer to Grimmjow's with a soft moan, grasping the back of Grimmjow's hair tightly.
It was when Grimmjow's hand slipped under his shirt to run down his back Ichigo came back to his senses and realised what was happening. Ichigo pulled away quickly and pushed out of Grimmjow's arms.
"Can- Can I have my clothes now?" Grimmjow held out the clothes wordlessly and Ichigo quickly grabbed them and turned around, going back to Grimmjow's spare room. Dropping the clothes on the bed, he lent against the desk with a heavy sigh. "What the hell am I doing?"
After composing himself, Ichigo managed to change into his clothes and left the ones Grimmjow lent him on the bed as he left the room for what he hoped would be the final time. When he went back into the main room, he found Grimmjow was still stood where he'd been before and Ichigo cleared his throat, gaining the man's attention.
"I'm uh, gunna go..."
When Grimmjow didn't reply, Ichigo took that as his cue to leave and went to the flat door to open it. He jumped when Grimmjow pushed it shut and turned around to find the man stood just a few inches away from him.
"Ichigo...."
He quickly covered Grimmjow's mouth to stop him. Whatever he was going to say, Ichigo didn't want to hear it, he didn't want a repeat of the night before. "I already know Grimmjow so don't say it yeah?" removing his hand, Ichigo sighed and turned around opening the door again before pausing as he stepped outside. Turning around, he gave Grimmjow a small smile. "You know, when I told you I loved you, I meant it, even if you didn't."
Grimmjow's mouth opened in surprise but before he could respond, Ichigo had already closed the door and was halfway towards the elevator. He knew chasing Ichigo down wouldn't help the situation so he let him go for the moment. Turning around, he saw Ichigo's school bag lying innocently on the floor near the door and grinned.
"Guess I have a reason to find you later then."
...
...
...
Ichigo sighed in relief when he finally got to school and glanced at his watch, noting he had around ten minutes before the first class. It was only then he realised he had left his bag at Grimmjow's, and that he had an important project to hand in during his first lesson. Just his luck that his project was currently inside his bag, presumably still at Grimmjow's apartment.
"Well fuck."
He was about to turn around and head back, he'd rather be late and have his project then turn up without it, his teacher would skin him alive for that. As he turned, he heard someone shout his name and sighed defeatedly, turning around to see it was Rukia and he felt his normal scowl slide into place as she walked over.
"What Rukia?"
She stopped in front of him and looked down for a moment before sighing heavily. "Sorry."
Ichigo's eyebrows rose in surprise, he'd never heard Rukia apologise for anything, ever. "Why?" He asked dumfoundedly.
She looked up at him with a frown. "For what happened yesterday of course. I didn't mean to ruin things between you two."
He snorted and rolled his eyes. "There wasn't anything to ruin. But I swear to god if you follow me anywhere again, I might have to kill you."
Rukia looked up at him hopefully and smiled. "So we're good?"
"Yeah, we're good."
The bell signalling classes rang and Ichigo groaned. "What is it?"
"I left my project in my bag, which is still at Grimmjow's. I forgot to pick it up this morning."
Rukia frowned in confusion. "This morning? You spent the night with him?"
Ichigo shook his head as they started walking to class. "Yes, I mean no. I slept in his spare room. It was pouring down with rain and it was dark so I stayed. We didn't do anything."
"Ok." She didn't press her opinions, for which Ichigo was grateful.
As they stopped outside the classroom, he started chewing his lip in worry. What was he going to say to their teacher to convince her about leaving his project by accident?
"Ichigo!" He jumped and turned around to see Grimmjow coming towards them, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw his bag in the man's grasp. He held out the bag when he reached them. "Thought you might want this. Don't you have some big, important project due in today?"
Ichigo, for the moment, forgot about Rukia's presence. "How did you know that?"
Grimmjow rolled his eyes and smirked. "You've blown me off too many times in the past few weeks because you've been too busy doing your project. I figured you might want it."
"Oh, well... Thanks I guess."
"Don't mention it. Just make sure to check through it before handing it in. Don't want to give your teacher something stupid you accidently left in there." Grimmjow hesitated for a moment, glancing at Rukia before reaching out to cup the side of Ichigo's face, running his thumb along his cheek bone. "See you around Ichi." With that, he left and walked away down the corridor, presumably to his class.
Ichigo stood staring after him in shock, slowly touching his cheek and frowning in confusion. "Ichi?"
Rukia looked at Ichigo's face and sighed heavily; even to her it was painfully obvious what had happened to him. "Ichigo."
"Mmm what?" He jerked out of thoughts and looked at Rukia, a blush creeping up on his cheeks. "Anyway, we should go inside now."
"Sure."
She followed him inside and they both hastily apologised for being late before going to their seats. As he sat down, Renji lent across from the next desk to whisper to him. "What happened, why are you both late?"
Ichigo shook his head and Renji frowned, but let it drop and returned to sitting upright. He looked down at his bag and sighed, taking out his project before frowning, remembering what Grimmjow had said. "Something inside..."
Renji glanced over with a worried look as he murmured to himself but Ichigo ignored it in favour of opening the folder and flicking though the pages. About halfway through, a small note dropped out onto his desk. He hesitated before picking up the paper and started to open it.
"Ichigo Kurosaki!"
He jumped almost out of his seat and looked up to see his teacher glaring at him. "Yes?"
"Is there something you want to share with the rest of the class?"
Ichigo shook his head and slipped the paper into his pocket. "No, nothing."
"Ok then. Kindly focus your attention to the front the please."
"Sorry."
Renji snickered next to him and Ichigo threw a pen at him, smirking when it hit the side of his face. Grabbing his book and a new pen, Ichigo settled down to pay attention, he really didn't want to be caught slacking again twice in one lesson.
...
...
...
"So Ichigo?"
He glanced up from his food and glared at Renji suspiciously. After two lessons, the note in his pocket had all but been forgotten about and he was currently about to start eating his lunch. "What?"
"What did the note say?"
His eyes widened in surprise and he dropped the food, rummaging in his pocket to find it. "Shit! I forgot about it!"
The panicked tone gained all his friends attention and Renji laughed. "Alright calm down. I'm sure it can't be that important."
Ichigo, finally finding the small piece of paper, had stopped listening to Renji and was currently building up the nerve to open the paper. He already knew it was from Grimmjow, but for some reason he couldn't explain, Ichigo felt extremely nervous about reading it. Finally working up the nerve to do it, he unfolded the paper, his eyes widening in surprise as he read it before he laughed, a wide grin threatening to split his face in two.
Scrambling to his feet, Ichigo shoved everything back in his bag in a hurry. "I'll see you guys in next class."
"Where are you going?"
"I've gotta go find him."
"Find who?"
"Grimmjow!" Ichigo yelled the name over his shoulder as he ran off and they all looked at each other uneasily.
"What could he have possibly said to get Ichigo so worked up like that?" Uryu questioned.
Orihime noticed the note Ichigo had read was lying on the floor and picked it up, Rukia noticing her do it. "What does it say?"
She frowned in confusion and looked at Rukia.
"It says, 'I meant it too'."