Strength Comes from the Small Things

Chapter 17

'Later' actually wasn't much later.

The children had happily eaten their chicken and macaroni, and there was barely any struggle over the peas. They obediently allowed the adults to bathe them and went to bed with no whining.
Ichigo had told Grimmjow to get settled on the couch and that he'd join him as soon as Nel's hair was braided.

All that was left was to talk.

The red-head slowly made his way into the living room and settled tentatively beside Grimmjow on the couch.
His boyfriend - Ichigo loved that word - looked at him before he decidedly hooked an arm around Ichigo to pull him much closer so that they could snuggle together.

"So what's this about the kids hating you?" Grimmjow rumbled quietly, stroking Ichigo's back. The red-head shrugged, burying his face in the side presented to him. Ichigo took a while to answer, but Grimmjow was patient.

"Sometimes, when we were younger and Dad would go away on business trips, we'd have this baby sitter over. She didn't really stay around much, though, and I usually ended up taking care of my sisters. At one point, Karin had been friends with these slightly older boys. They were sixteen and she was fourteen. I was eighteen, but I wasn't around a lot because I'd just started college. Anyway, the babysitter was gone again and I decided to stay over for one of the nights I didn't have any homework. Karin had gotten three really bad grades all in a row and no one was around to punish her. She wanted to go out and play soccer with these older boys, but I didn't like the way they looked at her. So I used her grades as an excuse and said she couldn't go out until either Dad was back and allowed her to go or she brought her grades up." Ichigo sighed.

"She told me she hated me. Even Yuzu looked at me disapprovingly. Karin wouldn't talk to me for two weeks and Yuzu wasn't much better. So, three days after Karin began talking to me again, albeit, sparsely, we were sitting in the living room watching TV. A news report came on about two sixteen year old boys that had raped a girl a year younger than Karin. The same two Karin had wanted to go out and kick a ball around with in an isolated place. She stared at the screen for a few minutes, whispered 'thank you,' and then she got up and walked away to shut herself in her room for the day. It had been like that other times, where I told her she couldn't do something and she wouldn't talk to me, but I think that was the first time my suspicions were accurate. I don't want that kind of thing to have to be what teaches a child a lesson."

With a weak, short laugh, Ichigo wryly smiled. "And I really don't like laying my hands on anyone who isn't an adult that deserves it."

Grimmjow sighed and finally pulled Ichigo all the way into his lap so that the other couldn't hide his face.
"That's okay, I guess." he mumbled, settling his hands on Ichigo's hips. Grimmjow tapped an unintelligible rhythm on his slightly exposed skin.
Ichigo smiled, relaxed, and slowly settled his arms around Grimmjow's neck. His blue-haired inamorato slid a hand up his body to cup the back of Ichigo's nape and lead him forward until their foreheads touched.
Ichigo closed his eyes, loving the feeling of those large hands on him, the warm breath ghosting over his own.

He could feel Grimmjow lean forward just a bit, so close to catching his lips in a kiss.

"Daddy?" a tiny, tired voice whimpered.

Ichigo's eyes popped open and he stood up from his place on Grimmjow's lap with a weary smile.
"Hi, baby. What are you doing up?" he asked, picking her up when her little arms stretched up to him.

"I can't sleep, Itsygo. I wanna sleep with Daddy and Itsy." she whispered, already falling asleep in the red-head's arms. He laughed softly into her braided hair, slowly rocking with her.

"Okay, sweetie." he told her, petting her back as she finally began snoring lightly into his shoulder. Ichigo looked back to Grimmjow over Nel's head and motioned towards his own bedroom.

The amputee followed quietly, having been shocked into silence when he was hit, once again, with how much he loved seeing Nel with Ichigo.

__

Ichigo sat up with a frown. His eyes, tired and drooping, squinted at the bright red numbers of the bedside clock - 3:42.

Ichigo was usually a heavy sleeper unless something woke him up by sound.
One of the children must've been up.

He checked on Nel and Grimmjow, who were slumbering soundly, and then he shuffled out the door to check on his niece and nephew in the room beside his.

Again, he frowned, deeper this time, when he found both children in bed, sleeping. What had woken him up?

Then he heard it - the rustling in the kitchen.

It was almost familiar.

Quickly, but silently, he got back to his room and got his pistol from the holster under his nightstand.

Ichigo cocked his gun, deftly creeping towards his kitchen. His scowl was deep as he tried to place who was in his kitchen.
Swiftly, he turned the corner and his stomach sunk like a heavy rock, but his finger didn't once leave the trigger. He stared in disbelief and terror at the man standing in his kitchen.

"Shuuhei?"