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The cinder block is cold and rough against the back of his head. It does nothing for the headache, pain swelling from his knuckles, or his nose. “Damn gigai!” He’s still not used to its fragility. He can hear the chink of the lock followed by the rolling of the heavy metal door. He slants his eyes open to see Ichigo has returned.
“Well, we have an hour.” He says plopping down onto the bench next to him. “My dad said no, so wait an hour or spend the night.” The berry puts the ice pack back on his own purpling eye.
“No one else to call? How about glasses?”
“And give him something to lord over me? No thanks.”
They sit in the small cell in silence, trying to ignore each other; everything unsaid floating between them, just waiting to explode. The bars around them feel like they are suddenly closing in on him. He’s got to move, got to drop the meat sack, get the fuck away.
“Trust me, I don’t want to be here any more than you do.” Ichigo crosses his legs under him and turns a cold shoulder. “God, telling my father we were arrested for public brawling was fucking embarrassing!”
“Yeah, well the guy deserved it.”
“He has a name, asshole, I’ve told you before.” Ichigo shoves him, playfully; at least that’s what it feels like.
“Joe isn’t a name, it’s a drink. And he deserved it.” He tries to see if his nose has stopped bleeding with a touch that sends sparks behind his eyes. “Gaddam, Berry! I think you broke the body’s nose!”
“Well, Joe’s arm probably doesn’t feel any better.”
“Again, deserved.”
“Why!?” Ichigo throws the ice pack across the cell and angrily turns to face him. “What did Joe do, Grimm, that he deserved to be pulled out into the street and have his arm nearly broken?”
“He touched you!” The speed with which his head comes forward makes him dizzy.
“Of course he touched me! He was flirting with me. It’s what people do on a date!”
“You don’t get it.”
“What the hell, you touch me all the time!”
“Not like that!”
The shock registers on Ichigo’s face. There’s something happening in his head, but not fast enough and the claustrophobia is creeping up his neck. “Tch, fuck this.”
The only sound in the room now is his pacing; the only thoughts in his head are Joe. Joe, laughing at something Ichigo said; Joe smiling at Ichigo; Ichigo smiling back. Joe’s hand comping up (his own feet unconsciously moving him across the street); Joe’s fingers brushing Ichigo’s cheek (The door to the restaurant opening); Joe’s hand resting on Ichigo’s neck (a woman yelling something); Joe leaning in.
He would have put Joe’s fucking face into the table, if he hadn’t stood up as the predator approached. There was someone in his way, so he punched them. He swiftly grabbed Joe by the arm, thrown at him as an attempt to attack, wrenched it behind his back, and dragged Joe out. Fuck the fact that humans are fragile. Fuck him!
The only thing that he could hear at that moment was the blood of the gigai, thrumming through his body. It took someone sucker punching him from behind to let Joe go. He wheeled around to attack and found angry brown eyes, burning holes in him. The punch to the nose came quickly after. They wound up brawling in the street for only a few minutes. A beat cop on patrol happened to drive up.
His own arms wrenched behind him and cuffed as Ichigo checked on Joe. He may have yelled something inappropriate, just to set Ichigo off again. Whatever he said touched a nerve and Ichigo wound up thrown against the cop car, too.
In replaying the whole thing, Grimmjow has to admit, he has no idea why Joe set him off like that. Dumb human, doesn’t know shit about the Berry. Doesn’t know what he looks like when he’s bloody, sweaty, and breathing hard. Doesn't know what it feels like to pin such power down, using all your strength to put him in his place. Doesn’t know what Ichigo looks like when truly sated.
“But, he knows what Ichigo looks like when he laughs. When he genuinely relaxes. When he’s embarrassed because he said some stupid human shit. When Ichigo wants to be touched, not hit.”
“Would you fucking stop!?” Ichigo yells. He’s currently holding his head between his pulled up knees. His hand threaded through orange locks, to the point of white knuckles. “I can’t think while you are moving.”
His brain says “Keep moving. Piss him off more,” but his feet plant in place. Ichigo lets out a long exhale before quietly asking a question.
“I didn’t hear that you mumbling fuck.”
“Do you want to touch me like that?” Ichigo practically shouts when angrily lifting his head up, “Can you do that?”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I don’t know, Grimm! You are the sixth Espada, Embodiment of Destruction! Can you be tender? Can you love?”
Honestly, he doesn’t know. Love is something Aizen never taught or cared about. Obedience, honor, loyalty, those he can do. “I had a pack, you know. Until some brats destroyed them.” He thinks it's the right answer.
“That’s not the same, Grimm. They relied on you, protected you, because you were the strongest. You were their king. Can you be with someone who is an equal? Or possibly stronger? Can you look at that person and think ‘wow, he’s amazing and I’m so lucky!’ Not ‘I want to knock the fucker down a peg.’”
“And Joe does that for you? Joe-schmo, the human! He’s your equal, he's ‘stronger’ than you? He’s really that amazing?”
“No, you asshole!” Ichigo stands to get in his face, challenging him. “I do that with you!” A finger gets jabbed into his chest. “Every time we fight, I think of how lucky I am to have found someone so strong and very much my equal. But, that’s all you do! Fight, bicker, and leave. Joe at least tries to understand me, listen to me. He’s just…”
“Convenient? Normal?”
“Exactly. Human. But, I don’t want Joe, Grimm. I settled for Joe.” He flinches involuntarily when Ichigo brings a hand up to touch his shoulder. He is tense and doesn’t know what the berry is going to do. “Trust me?” He doesn’t get to answer before the hand moves to touch his cheek.
“Like Joe did,” is the first thought that pops into his head. He has something snippy to say, but watching the softness on Ichigo’s face, quiets things down. With every brush of fingers, the want for more grows. The hand moves to the back of his head and he tenses.
“Sh, sh, shh. Trust me.” Ichigo says it with a small step in, the other hand goes around his waist, and the fingers now caress the back of his head.
“Oh…” He embarrassingly moans, feeling every muscle relax. Every care disappears and his world narrows down to just him and his Berry. “Oh.”
Ichigo’s hand pauses in its ministrations. “Something wrong?”
“No.” He wraps his own arms around Ichigo’s waist. “I get it now.”
“Mmhmm.” Ichigo says with a cheeky smile. “You were jealous?”
“Ugh. Yeah.” He begrudgingly admits.
“It’s ok. It’s normal.”
“My, my, my!” Kisuke’s voice interrupts the mood. “When I sent you for take out Grimm-san, I didn’t expect to have to bail you out.” The fan waves and he is left cold when Ichigo suddenly pulls back.
“Bullshit Kisuke. You knew exactly what you were doing. You sent him to that exact restaurant to fuck up my date.”
“I have no clue what you are talking about.” The man says slyly, “Besides Kurosaki-kun, you wouldn’t be the first person to find a boyfriend in jail!”