Love At First Word

Chapter 10

~ Grimmjow ~

Ichigo eventually slumped against me, signifying my suspicions that he'd fallen into complete slumber.
I sighed and easily picked him up bridal style.

I moved to the bedroom he'd deemed as his own and cautiously stepped over Renji to lay Ichigo gently on the bed. I covered him up and turned away, carefully walking from the room.

"Hey." A rough, sleepy voice mumbled from the floor. I looked back to see Renji rolling his torso to squint tiredly at me.
"Thanks. He needed that."

I realized Renji must've heard what I'd told Ichigo, so I nodded.
"It's fine. You wanna....you wanna start over? I, uh, I know he's really fond of you. I wanna be friends with you too." I whispered.

"Yeah, man. Let's start over...so long as you help Ichi, like earlier." I nodded again and Renji smiled tiredly. I closed the door softly and went back to my own bed, easily sacking back out.

~~~~~~~~

"MotherFUCKER!"

I jerked up in bed, looking back at the door from where I'd propped myself up on my elbows.

"GRIMMJOW." Ichigo sounded distressed and I stumbled from my room, into the kitchen.

"I need help." Ichigo whispered, his body rigid, back turned to me.
I noticed the broken glass on the floor and grimaced at his bare feet.

"Where's Renji?" I asked.

"I sent him to the store to get me cinnamon, sugar, and eggs." Ichigo mumbled.

I jogged to the front door and grabbed my shoes. Just as I sat down, I heard Ichigo call out, "Grimmjow? Grimmjow, where'd you go?!" He sounded frantic and I yanked on my shoes as quickly as I could, and rushed back to into the kitchen.

"Ichi, I'm right here. I can't come in here bare foot, now can I?" I asked, and he laughed breathily.

"Y-yeah."

I approached him slowly and when I stepped on a piece of glass, it crunched and Ichigo's hand shot out behind him to grasp desperately at me.

"Ichigo." I started, "It's okay. Take your hand off my thigh and I can pick you up."
Ichigo's hand tightened on my thigh before he hesitantly released it.

Just as I'd promised, I picked him up just as I had earlier that morning. The only difference was that his arms wound around my neck and his face pressed tight to my shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I get worse as I get older. Anxiety makes me shake." Ichigo's fingers clutched tighter at my neck and shoulder, and I nodded slightly.

"It's fine, Ichigo. I don't mind." I set him on the counter and gently pried his hands away from me.

"It's going to be like living with a child. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You don't have to apologize, you've done nothing wrong." Quickly, I got out the dust pan that Ichigo had shown me the day before and swept everything up.

After I dumped the glass in the trash, I turned back to Ichigo and my heart clenched horridly.
He was weeping quietly, his face in his hands.

"Ichigo, please don't cry."

"It's just been so long since someone's taken care of me like I'm not a burden...like I-I'm not something fragile that needs to be out on a shelf, away from everyone." His broken sobs had me taking a few steps toward him. "You're treating me carefully...b-but equal." He wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands and smiled weakly at me.
"It's nice. Thank you."

I couldn't say anything. It truly hurt me that Ichigo hadn't been treated like he was human.
Nnoitra and I had been together forever, and him losing his eye didn't change the fact that he was my brother. It only made me careful with how I did things. That's what made it so easy for me to help Ichigo, but he didn't seem to understand that.

"I'm back-" Renji stopped dead when he saw the tears on Ichigo's face and I knew I was in trouble.
"What. Did you. Do?" he growled at me, advancing on me.
I was going to stand my ground, but found I didn't have to.

"Ren, I dropped a glass. Grimmjow cleaned it up. He did nothing but help me and treat me right." Ichigo smiled at me and Renji seemed to relax.

"Alright. We'll see if he's truly worthy enough for me to leave you with him." Renji and Ichigo shared a grin that I gathered meant nothing good for me.

"And...how-how do we do that?" I asked cautiously.

"Oh, it's easy. You just have to survive cooking with Ichigo." Renji's grin turned malicious and I could feel myself pale because why did that seem like it should be something out of my nightmares?