-All For the Money, Honey: [Chapter 13: Good As Gold]-

Pairing: Grimmjow Jeagerjaques x Ichigo Kurosaki

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any Bleach characters

In the warm afternoon light, Ichigo walked briskly up the driveway of the Kurosaki Clinic with his hands in the pockets of his school jacket. It had been two and a half weeks since that eventful night at the awards show and Ichigo was once again visiting Grimmjow, who was still confined to the clinic to make sure he wouldn't aggravate his rib fracture. Every couple of days, Ichigo would come back with a clean set of clothes for his bodyguard and a new story or two about students at school making a huge fuss about the explosions and the never-ending barrage of questions from teachers.

The moment Ichigo entered the clinic, Isshin came flying at him with an attempted kick to the face. "HELLO, ICHIGO!"

The redhead quickly dodged out of the way and elbowed his father in the chest, sending him crashing to the floor. Ichigo shook his head at his father's antics and when he noticed movement in the corner of his vision, he looked up to see Grimmjow standing before him with his hands on his waist, eyebrow raised. "I'll never understand your strange family interactions."

"You get used to it eventually," Ichigo sighed and hitched his bag up on his shoulder. He gave his bodyguard a once-over and saw that the cuts and bruises he'd sustained from Ulquiorra's attack had all healed, save from the rib fracture. It was still strange to see the cerulean dressed so casually, most of the time wearing jeans and basic t-shirts, but even in the laidback attire, Grimmjow was still a commanding figure.

Isshin pulled himself up off the floor. "My dear son, how come you stopped visiting all of a sudden? We haven't seen you over here for a while now."

Ichigo nodded understandingly. "I've been busy with weeks of overdue schoolwork and the teachers have been really strict with me ever since the awards show. They yelled at me for ages when they saw the news on television."

Grimmjow shrugged, clearly not caring. "You could bring the schoolwork over and do it here."

"No, he shouldn't. School should be his top priority at the moment," Isshin interjected.

Ichigo and Grimmjow shared a look. Since they had to explain Grimmjow's extensive injuries somehow, Ichigo told his father a skewed version of the events that occurred at the awards show that didn't mention their involvement with Ulquiorra. The redhead decided to steer the conversation away from the topic. He turned to his bodyguard, "How's your rib fracture?"

Grimmjow ran a hand up the side that had been fractured. "The heaps of meds I'm taking stop it from hurting most f the time, but I still can't do anything strenuous in case I screw up the healing process. I should be out of here in a day or two." He looked at Isshin to confirm his statement.

Ichigo's father nodded, "I'll need to take another x-ray just to make sure, but yes, you'll be free to go in a couple of days."

"That's good. I'm sick of Ilfort following me everywhere I go." Ichigo grumbled.

Since Grimmjow wasn't able to fulfil his duties as the redhead's bodyguard, he'd set Ilfort on him with one objective; keep Ichigo safe. Since the blonde chauffer had rescued Ichigo from the boot of Ulquiorra's car, the two hit it off pretty easily and because Ilfort was house-sitting in Grimmjow's apartment, he could visit Ichigo regularly. The redhead didn't mind at first, but he quickly started losing his patience when Ilfort started following him everywhere. He'd randomly follow him in Grimmjow's car or appear out of nowhere during lunchtime and watch him from a distance. Ichigo had actually come over straight from school today just to avoid the guy. It was almost like Ilfort had nothing better to do than to bother the teenager incessantly.

Grimmjow smirked at Ichigo's frustration. "He's doing what I pay him to do; his job."

The redhead looked up at Grimmjow distrustfully. He could easily imagine his bodyguard specifically telling Ilfort not to let Ichigo out of his sights.

Isshin opened his mouth to speak, probably to agree with Grimmjow, when his phone rang loudly in his pocket. He held up a hand of apology and answered it, his face suddenly turning serious.

Ichigo watched with concern as his father frowned. When he'd hung up, the redhead asked, "Who was it?"

"There's been a minor car accident a few blocks away. Someone's going to get sent here in a couple of minutes."

"Do you need me to help you?" Ichigo offered.

"No, it's only a broken arm, maybe a slight head injury at worst. Nothing I can't handle." Isshin looked at the pair, "If you'll excuse me, I need to go prepare the clinic. Tell the girls where I am when they get home from school." And with that, he disappeared from their sight.

Grimmjow started walking towards the kitchen with Ichigo following beside him. "I have no idea how you managed to survive living here for so long. I've only been here for a couple of weeks and I'm already going mad."

Ichigo couldn't help but smile a little. Even though Grimmjow would sometimes complain about being forced to stay at the clinic while the fracture healed, he actually fell into the Kurosaki's pace quite easily. Ichigo's family had gotten used to having him around and were very accepting of this new bodyguard.

"So... Why are we in the kitch-mmph!" Ichigo's sentence was quickly hushed by Grimmjow's lips covering his own. When the cerulean pulled back just as fast, Ichigo glared at him, "what the hell was that for?!"

"Another reason I'm sick of this place is that we're never alone together." Grimmjow grinned, very far from feeling any guilt for his actions, "your sisters aren't here and your father is busy with a patient; it's perfect timing if I do say so myself."

Ichigo frowned suspiciously. "... Please don't tell me you ordered Ilfort to hit someone with your car."

The cerulean chuckled, "No, that's going a bit too far. But if I had to hold out for another week, I'd probably consider it."

Ichigo rolled his eyes comically. It was indeed true that they hadn't had any alone time since Grimmjow had been brought to the clinic. He'd been too immersed in schoolwork to really think about it, but Ichigo did kind of miss it. After the cerulean had confessed about his past, the pair had reached a critical point in their relationship, but with the Kurosaki family being ever present, they were stuck at a stand-still until Grimmjow was healed enough to leave. Clearly the cerulean couldn't wait that long.

Grimmjow pulled Ichigo in close, their eyes locking together, "you have no idea how hard it's been to keep my hands to myself. Every time you visit I can't take my eyes off you."

"I noticed." A faint blush spread across Ichigo's cheeks, "It's really hard to concentrate on anything when you're staring at me so damn hungrily."

Grimmjow's restraint just snapped. He claimed Ichigo's mouth once again in a long, passionate kiss. Ichigo's school bag slid off his shoulder and onto the floor with a dull flop, very much forgotten. The redhead accepted the kiss readily and wound his arms around the cerulean's neck, savouring the taste of Grimmjow's lips against his own. Their mouths moved together in a flurry of kisses that left them quickly short of breath.

Ichigo's mouth wandered down and along the edge of Grimmjow's jaw line, his mouth brushing lightly over his skin until he reached his ear and tenderly swirled his tongue around his earlobe.

Grimmjow let out a low purr of a sound and swiftly pushed the redhead against the wall, his hands moving down Ichigo's legs and hiking them up to his waist. Ichigo let out a small 'ulp' as he was raised off the ground. The cerulean thought he could hold him there, but his rib fracture quickly began to protest and he winced a little.

Ichigo noticed and muttered, "Don't strain yourself."

Grimmjow chuckled, his voice deep and breathy, "There's more ways than one to do this." He slowly lowered Ichigo back to the floor and grabbed Ichigo's ass, pulling it forwards so that their hips connected. He couldn't help but grin with satisfaction when Ichigo let out a loud groan.

The pair brought their lips back together again with Grimmjow's tongue pleading for entry into the redhead's mouth. Ichigo granted him access and was involuntarily getting more and more turned on by the combination of the cerulean dominating his mouth and firmly squeezing his ass. He was very quickly becoming less and less aware of his kitchen surroundings.

Grimmjow was starting to wonder if they had enough time to sprint up to the bedroom when he heard the merciless sound of the front door opening and the voices of two young girls alerting their father that they were home. He promptly pulled back and from the look on Ichigo's face, he'd heard his sisters' entry as well. The pair's eyes met with a look that could only be summarised as 'OH SHIT.'

After taking their shoes off at the door, Yuzu and Karin rounded the corner into the kitchen to find Ichigo leaning against the counter with a drink in hand and Grimmjow with his head in the fridge.

"Hey, Yuzu, Karin." Ichigo said, probably trying a little too hard to sound casual.

Karin greeted her brother in return, but Yuzu hurried on past the kitchen without saying a word to any of them. Ichigo watched her go and looked at Karin questioningly.

She shook her head lightly, "never mind her; bad day at school. Hey, Grimmjow!"

The cerulean emerged from the fridge with a beer in hand. Lord knows he needed it. "Hey, kid. Your dad's working on a patient at the moment. He shouldn't be too long."

Karin nodded, "Yeah, we saw the car getting towed away." She turned to her redhead brother, "are you going to stay for dinner?"

Ichigo shrugged, "Sure."

"Alright, I'll tell Yuzu." Karin then disappeared after her twin and Grimmjow swore that he saw a small grin spread across her face. Had she figured it out?

The moment the pair were alone again, Ichigo let out a heavy sigh. He noticed his bag still lying in the middle of the floor and quickly scooped it up. "That was close. Good thing they're always loud when they get home."

"Mm-hm," Grimmjow agreed with a large swig of his beer. It was at times like this when he was glad that he didn't have siblings. He couldn't even imagine what it'd be like to have younger brothers or sisters getting in his way. The cerulean silently toasted his sibling-free life and chugged down the rest of his drink.

After about half an hour, the girls came back down from their room, Yuzu still looking very unhappy. Grimmjow watched Ichigo's expression and wasn't surprised to see him look somewhat concerned.

Yuzu prepared herself to start cooking dinner and it quickly became clear that she was intentionally avoiding Ichigo. When the redhead figured this out, he glared at Karin, "This has nothing to do with school, does it?" He hissed under his breath.

Karin shrugged like she had nothing to do with it and tugged at Grimmjow's arm, "C'mon, let's let them talk it out."

Since it was none of Grimmjow's business, he let the kid lead him out of the kitchen and out into the hallway. She sat herself down on the stairs and the cerulean followed suit. The pair sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Karin spoke up, "... You like Ichi-nii, don't you."

Grimmjow looked at her with a raised eyebrow, not with surprise, but with curiosity at her bland reaction. He'd thought she would be just a little more emotionally invested in discovering their relationship, but all he got instead was less of a question and more of a confirming statement. "When did you figure it out?"

Karin crossed her arms, "Pretty quickly. I was a bit surprised at first, but Ichigo seems happy enough."

Since the kid was happy being frank, he cut straight to the point, "It doesn't bother you that I've basically turned your brother gay?"

The girl shook her head. "Nah, I don't think it's your fault. I mean, I always thought it was a bit fishy that Ichigo never got together with Inoue, the hottest girl in his class when she clearly liked him."

Grimmjow couldn't help but grin, "You knew about that too?"

Karin smiled back at him, "it was so obvious."

The cerulean chuckled and tousled the kid's hair, making her fidget and frown. In some ways, Karin was a lot like Ichigo. She was quite a tough girl and was probably the most mature person in the family. Sure, he didn't like the idea of having siblings of his own, but Karin and Yuzu were alright in his book. He nodded his head in the direction of the kitchen, "so why does Yuzu look so upset? Doesn't she like the fact that her brother is going out with me?"

Karin's brow furrowed with thought, "... I don't know. I think she also figured out that there was something going on between you two and when she asked me about it today, I told her what I thought. I didn't think she'd get so troubled by it."

When Grimmjow had figured out his sexual preference, he paid little attention to people thinking that what he did was 'wrong', but the same could also be said for any other aspects of his life. If someone didn't like him, well that was their own fucking problem. But if Yuzu really didn't like that part of Ichigo, Grimmjow was actually curious to see how that would affect the redhead.

He leant back with a sigh, "We'll just have to see how it turns out."

Karin made a brief noise of agreement.

In the kitchen, Ichigo was busy trying to think of what to say to his sister. He walked up next to her while she was cutting up some vegetables and cleared his throat, "is there anything you want to tell me?"

"No," Yuzu pouted without taking her eyes off the food.

Ichigo put his hand out and leant over the bench so he could get a better look at her face, "Yuzu, if you're angry at me I'd like to know why so I can apologise for whatever it is I've done. Is it because I haven't come over to visit in a while?"

"No..."

Ichigo could hear her voice tremble slightly and pushed forwards, "I know I haven't been around recently because I've been busy with a couple of things, but that's all been sorted out now so I'll come and see you guys much more often, I promise-"

Yuzu suddenly smacked her knife down on the bench, "Don't make promises you can't keep!"

Ichigo was speechless. He'd never heard his sister yell like that before. Why was she so angry with him? "Yuzu..."

She turned to look at him with tears forming at the corners of her eyes, "ever since you won all that money, you've changed! I don't like the Ichi-nii that you've become!"

"How have I changed?"

"You moved out of home, you buy us nice things but you're never around anymore, all of a sudden you get a bodyguard and he... You..." Yuzu couldn't continue. She bit her lip and looked up expectantly at her brother who was slowly piecing it together.

"Wait, so this is about Grimmjow and me?" Ichigo tried not to show how utterly shocked he was that Yuzu (and almost certainly Karin) knew about his relationship with Grimmjow. "You think that it's because of money that I'm like this?"

Yuzu gave a little nod and looked down at her feet.

With a heavy sigh, Ichigo ran a hand through his hair. He'd never expected to have to deal with this so early on, but he couldn't just brush the matter off. He bent down a little so that he was closer to her eye level, "Look, Yuzu, I can't deny that things haven't changed - suddenly receiving so much money would do that to anyone - but I'm still the same person. I had to move out of home because I was trying to protect you guys from all the publicity I was getting. How about I bring you around and show you where I live so you can visit whenever you want. Sound good?"

She nodded again, wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes.

The redhead bit his lip, "and Grimmjow, it's not because of money that I... Like him. I know that he probably looks really intimidating to you guys and to be honest his personality isn't very friendly either, but I trust him. He really is a professional bodyguard."

Yuzu put her hands out in front of her, suddenly quite abashed. "Oh no! I didn't mean to be disrespectful to Grimmjow-nii. He's very nice and very helpful. I hope he gets better soon, and then he's always welcome to come back here."

Ichigo stared at her, absolutely dumbfounded. Grimmjow -nii?! When the hell had she started calling him that?! "That's good," He managed to utter, "I'm glad we cleared that up."

While Ichigo was near eye-height, Yuzu wrapped her hands around her brother in a tight hug, "I'm sorry for getting so worried about you changing. No matter what, you'll always be my brother. Just please use your money wisely and don't forget to visit often."

"Sure," The redhead smiled and when she let go, he grabbed his bag and made his way out of the kitchen, only to find Grimmjow and Karin sitting on the stairs. He glared at them sternly. "Oi, you weren't listening in on that were you?"

Grimmjow shook his head, "nope, we can't hear you from here. We were just waiting until you two finished talking."

Ichigo clearly didn't believe them, but didn't bother to challenge it. "Yuzu and I sorted things out and once I cleared her doubts, she's not really that against..." He paused, glancing over at Karin, "um, do you know about..." Since Grimmjow was right next to him, he felt suddenly much more awkward than when he was talk to Yuzu.

Karin rolled her eyes, "Yes, I know. I'm sorry Ichi-nii, but it was really obvious."

Grimmjow tried to hide a smirk, but Ichigo saw it and frowned at him.

The young girl looked thoughtfully at the pair. When she first saw Grimmjow, she was honestly taken aback by the hulking cerulean-haired man, but it didn't take her long to see that his personality was surprisingly similar to her older brother's. (Watching Ichigo frown only seemed to confirm this.) With such conflicting personalities, she wondered how they even managed to get this far without killing each other. Their relationship was still, in many ways, strange to her, but she supposed that she'd just have to deal with it. With a shrug, she left the pair to go and help her twin with dinner and maybe apologise for winding her up so much.

Grimmjow watched her leave, still smirking. "That girl's going to make one fascinating teenager."

'Don't remind me," Ichigo grimaced. He suddenly turned to his bodyguard, "Did you know that Yuzu calls you Grimmjow-nii?"

"Yeah, so does Karin sometimes, though not as often as Yuzu." Grimmjow looked at the redhead and grinned at his shocked expression. "What, are you worried that you're getting replaced? Are you afraid that they like me more than you?" He teased.

"No," Ichigo frowned, "I'm just surprised that they warmed up to you so much. I know that they're fine with you being here, but I didn't realise that they were that fond of you. Yuzu backed down a lot faster when I wrongly assumed that she didn't like you. Clearly they don't know how dangerous you are."

The cerulean leaned in with a lecherous grin, "and you better not forget it."

As Grimmjow's hand cunningly snaked around Ichigo's waist, the redhead raised a disapproving eyebrow, "you can't be serious."

Now that their secret relationship had been outed by the girls, Grimmjow felt no need whatsoever to hold back anymore. "I am. There's a perfectly good bedroom upstairs just waiting to be used to continue where we left off."

Ichigo's hand tightened on the strap of his school bag, his attention focused on the mischievous expression slowly spreading across his bodyguard's face. Oh, he looked quite serious indeed.

Oh no! What's Ichigo to do?! Will he resist Grimmjow's advances and play it safe or will he cave and go up to his bedroom where shenanigans will most definitely ensue?! D:

Wow, I seem to write Grimmjow as such a horndog in this fanfiction. Though it looks like he hasn't gotten any action for a while now so I suppose he's allowed to be a little more than frustrated by this point.

MAN, my studies have had me running knacked for a long time now but thank lord that it all ends for the year in a couple of weeks so after that point I should be able to get back into the writing scene. Essays really suck all the creativity out of me.

Anywho, thank you for the wait and I hope you enjoyed this latest update! :D

Comments and reviews will be used to keep Isshin busy in the clinic and the girls busy in the kitchen so they can't disturb anyone *wink wink*