Chapter 5 ~ First Contact

Grimmjow felt Ichigo's brown eyes on him, but he didn't look at him. He was focusing on the three men instead. They looked a bit stunned first, but the man with the chain got a hold of himself back first. He took a step towards the bluenette and grinned stupidly.

"Are you this freaks friend, freak?" he asked and raised the chain a bit. Grimmjow glanced at Ichigo for not even a second, but saw puzzlement in his eyes. He was sure the Strawberry remembered him.

"Who're you calling a freak?" the Sexta asked and stared at the man in front of him. He was now much closer than a moment ago.

"You'd better fuck off right now", the man said with a warning voice, but didn't scare Grimmjow. He was the Sexta Espada after all.

"And what if I don't?" he asked and raised his eyebrows. That obviously annoyed the man, 'cause the smirk on his face faded away. He raised his hand, intention to hit Grimmjow with the chain, but the bluenette was faster; he grabbed the man's arm and in a blink of eye the man was laying on the ground. The Sexta moved his gaze to the startled men.

"Get out of here", Grimmjow stated and the other man let go of Ichigo. He and his friend hurried past the bluenette, lifted the moaning man from the ground where Grimmjow had smashed him and rushed out of the alley. One of the men looked at Ichigo and Grimmjow over his shoulder and spitted on the ground before they turned around the corner. Grimmjow snorted and muttered something before turning his head to Ichigo. The Strawberry rubbed his wrists without moving his gaze away from the Sexta.

"I could've handled that myself."

"It didn't really look like it."

Awkward silence fell on them. Both wanted to break it and opened their mouths at the completely same time. Another awkward silence.

"You first", Grimmjow said and Ichigo straightened his back.

"You're Jaegerjaques, right?" he asked, making the Sexta a bit surprised. He didn't expect Ichigo would remember his name.

"Yeah, but just say Grimmjow", the bluenette said and Ichigo nodded. There was a brief silence before he asked his question, "What was that about?"

Ichigo looked at the ground, the spot where that man had lied just a moment ago.

"They hate me 'cause of my hair color. People don't understand it's natural", Kurosaki said and moved his gaze to Grimmjow, "I've been bullied since like forever 'cause of my hair."

The bluenette stared at Ichigo and glanced at his orange hair; it blazed like fire in the wind. Then he moved his gaze back to the Strawberry's brown eyes. He didn't know what to say. He didn't want to pretend he had compassion to share.

"Well", he just said and ran his hand through his hair.

Ichigo looked at his blue hair and seemed to understand what Grimmjow meant. The bluenette didn't really want to talk about his hair, and for his luck Ichigo looked over Grimmjow's shoulder and asked:

"Where's…?"

It took few seconds for Grimmjow to understand what he meant.

"Oh, Ulquiorra?"

"Yeah."

"He forgot some book and went to get that", the bluenette said and once again awkward silence fell over them.

"What is he actually to you?" Ichigo asked after a while. It sounded like he had thought how to formulate his question.

"Half brother", Grimmjow said. If someone asks you're my half brother and we have same father but different mothers, that will explain our different family names, Ulquiorra's voice echoed in his ears. Ichigo glanced at his watch. "We'd better go or we're gonna be late."

"Yeah", Grimmjow said and turned around. Ichigo followed him and they headed their steps to the school. Grimmjow wanted to maintain small talk; with joke, story, question, telling how annoying fuck Ulquiorra was… With anything, now that he had got contact to Kurosaki, as Ulquiorra would say. But it was too late.

The Strawberry turned to the Sexta and looked him in the eyes. "I guess I see you later."

"Yeah", Grimmjow said and moved his gaze to Ichigo.

"Hey", Kurosaki said and Grimmjow raised his eyebrows. "Thanks."

The Espada stared at the Shinigami, then smirked.

"No problem, it was nothing, really."

Ichigo smirked quietly, then turned around and walked away. Grimmjow looked after him for a while, then turned around and almost jumped out of his skin.

Ulquiorra was standing in front of him.

"Jesus Christ, Ulquiorra, I almost got a heart attack!" he said with a loud voice and glared at the black-haired Espada. Ulquiorra didn't listen to Grimmjow, his eyes were riveted on Ichigo's back.

"What was that?" he asked as he moved his gaze to the Sexta. Grimmjow grinned and rubbed his neck.

"Let's just say that I kinda saved Kurosaki's ass just a moment ago", he said. Ulquiorra looked at Grimmjow for a while. Then the bell rang.

"You tell me everything during the lunch", the Cuatro said and they walked to the class. Grimmjow made a humming sound as an agreement and was now on much better mood, even though it had just started to rain.

Ulquiorra's better praise him because of this.

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The bell rang to lunch and Grimmjow jumped up from his seat. For his surprise Ulquiorra did the same thing. He was eager to hear what happened with Ichigo.

"Come on", Ulquiorra snapped and Grimmjow left the class willingly. They walked along the corridor and headed their steps to the canteen since it was raining outside and they couldn't eat there. Grimmjow was just about to start telling what happened in the morning with Ichigo when familiar orange hair found his sight. His blue eyes met brown ones.

"Hey", Ichigo said and Grimmjow answered with a simple nod. The Sexta glanced at Ichigo's three friends who were staring at him and Ulquiorra. Then he glanced at the Espada next to him. Ulquiorra was staring at Ichigo.

"Do you want to eat with us?"

Grimmjow moved his gaze to the Strawberry and wasn't sure did he hear right.

"What?"

"Do you want to eat with us?" Ichigo repeated, looking at Grimmjow. The invite didn't sound like Kurosaki did it of free will; it was rather a thank you for the early, a compulsory question. Grimmjow actually didn't want to answer with yes; it would have sounded too keen. But there was no choice. Ulquiorra would strangle him if he let this chance slip by.

"Uh… If it's fine to you. And Ulquiorra", the bluenette said and glanced at Ulquiorra.

"It's fine", the Cuatro said and was now looking at Ichigo's friends. The girl name of which Grimmjow knew to be Inoue Orihime, smiled warmly.

"It's completely fine to me", she said and Sado and Ishida muttered agrees behind her. They walked through the canteen to an empty table. It felt awkward. They were like two groups that had forced to be together and no one could run away. As they reached the table they sat down. It seemed like no one wanted to sit next to Ulquiorra or Grimmjow. Finally Orihime took a seat next to Grimmjow and gave him a smile. The Sexta glanced at her and tried to smile as a response. Let this end soon, the bluenette prayed.

The lunch was everything Grimmjow expected it to be: silent and awkward. He ate sandwiches Ulquiorra had made and stared at the wooden surface of the table. Ulquiorra kept his eyes closed and looked calm, but behind that emotionless face he was thinking hard. This lunch was a great chance to learn to know Ichigo and now they just needed something. A light, nice conversation maybe? But there was a problem: what should he say to start a conversation. He opened his eyes and swallowed the last bite of his sandwich

"What actually is the meaning of this lunch?" he asked, even though he already knew why Ichigo had asked the two Espada to eat with them. Everybody was now staring at the Cuatro.

"Grimmjow helped me out of difficult situation and I thought this may be a good way to thank him", Ichigo said and focused on his lunch again. "Thought you wanted to come too since you're new and don't have any friends yet…"

Ulquiorra stared at Ichigo for a moment, then moved his gaze away without saying anything anymore.

"Wherefrom did you move here?" Orihime asked. Grimmjow looked at her.

"We're originally from Tokyo, we moved here 'cause our father wanted us to gain independence", Ulquiorra lied and kept a short break before adding, "We're half brothers."

"Oh, so, do you have different moms then?"

"Yes."

"What about them? Did something happen to them?" Orihime kept asking questions and Ulquiorra glanced at her.

"We wouldn't like to talk about it", he said quietly, almost emotionally. Grimmjow glanced at him, then moved his gaze to his lap. Just better to play along.

"Oh", the smile from Inoue's face faded away, "I-I'm sorry."

The Cuatro stared at the girl.

"Don't be", he said and glanced at Grimmjow who continued eating. Silence fell upon them again. Pupils started to leave the canteen, which could mean only one thing: the lunch was almost over. With relief Grimmjow stood up, Ulquiorra following his example.

"See ya later", he said and the two Espada received goodbyes from Ichigo, Orihime, Sado and Ishida. Ulquiorra just contented himself to stare at the teens before leaving with the Sexta. He looked right forward, thoughts rushing in his head. Grimmjow asked something but the Cuatro couldn't hear it.

"Ulquiorra", the bluenette said and grabbed Ulquiorra's shoulder. The raven-haired Espada turned around to face Grimmjow who repeated his question:

"What are we going to do next?"

Ulquiorra stared at Grimmjow for a while, then turned around and walked into the class.

"We wait."

Grimmjow didn't really understand what that supposed to mean. He frowned and followed Ulquiorra, taking his seat. But the Cuatro was thinking something. Some plan.

Maybe things are really going to work after all.

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Days passed, Ulquiorra didn't show any signs of super awesome plan he might have and Grimmjow was frustrated. He had talked to Ichigo, yes, and kept up their incipient friendship. Grimmjow couldn't say he was Ichigo's friend yet, more like a pal. Sometimes Ichigo came to talk to him, and Grimmjow didn't need to start the conversation. Ulquiorra kept saying it was a good thing. He obviously thought Grimmjow was the one who had to become friends with Ichigo and dig everything out of him while Ulquiorra was looking aside and telling the Sexta what to do. Grimmjow wanted to yell to the Cuatro, scream he wouldn't talk to Kurosaki anymore nor let Ulquiorra to say him he couldn't touch anything. Fuck you. That's what Grimmjow wanted to say to Ulquiorra. Fuck you, fuck this mission, fuck Aizen. Fuck everything.

Ulquiorra had taken good care of the house. He cooked, cleaned, washed the dishes, did the laundry and so on. When he wasn't doing anything from that list he was hiding in his room. Grimmjow still hadn't found out what the Cuatro was doing there. He didn't even know what the Cuatro had in his room. Sure, he had looked in the room one or two times, but he was focusing on Ulquiorra (the images were still disturbing him at times) not on the room. The bluenette had stopped asking questions, he couldn't get answers to them anyways. Ulquiorra obviously wasn't a person who wanted to talk about himself.

Grimmjow glanced at the door of Ulquiorra's room and frowned. The Cuatro had locked himself in there again. Grimmjow's thoughts were interrupted suddenly. The wrinkle on the carpet was almost unnoticeably. The next thing he knew was pain everywhere when he rumbled down the stairs. He hit his head on the floor and then just laid there. He heard when Ulquiorra opened the door, the noise had caught his attention, and Grimmjow sat down, holding his head. He felt something draining down his neck and cheek. His temple hurt.

"What are you doing?"

Grimmjow raised his gaze and saw Ulquiorra standing in front of him.

"Nothing, just chilling on the floor", the bluenette said sarcastically and added with annoyance, "I tripped, what does it look like?"

Ulquiorra looked at Grimmjow in silence, then bowed and touched the Sexta's temple with his fingertips. He rubbed his fingers together and stared at them.

"You're bleeding."

"No shit, Sherlock."

Ulquiorra turned around and Grimmjow followed him with his eyes.

"Get up", the Cuatro said and opened the bathroom's door. The Sexta stood up and followed Ulquiorra to the bathroom. The raven-haired Espada was taking something from the cabinet. The washing machine was humming in the corner. When Grimmjow turned his gaze back to Ulquiorra he saw absorbent cotton and a bottle of disinfectant in his hands.

"Sit down", the black-haired Espada demanded and Grimmjow sat on the toilet seat. Ulquiorra moistened a cotton ball in disinfectant and pressed it against the bluenette's temple. It stung a bit, but to Grimmjow it was nothing. He looked at Ulquiorra. The raven-haired Espada was focusing on Grimmjow's wound. He frowned. Grimmjow looked into his green eyes. For a second, just for a second, the bluenette thought an image of Ulquiorra with blushing face and big eyes. He jumped because of the image and earned a sharp "stay still" from Ulquiorra. The Cuatro wiped blood from his neck and Grimmjow didn't look at him anymore. Suddenly he just wanted Ulquiorra to stay as far as possible.

Ulquiorra stopped wiping, put a plaster on Grimmjow's temple and straightened his back.

"There", he said and turned around. The Sexta touched his temple, feeling the rough surface of the plaster. He stood up and looked after Ulquiorra. Blushing Ulquiorra under him. Whispering his name. Scratching his back with black nails. The Sexta shook his head until he almost lost his balance and had to lean on the sink. He rubbed his blue eyes and pressed them till he started to see white.

He saw that Ulquiorra in his dreams, he didn't want to think that Ulquiorra while he was awake.

MsBlackAngel: Whoa, totally didn't see that coming.

Lambtron: Me neither.

Grimmjow: What the fuck that supposed to mean? This is your fic!

Lambtron: Yeah, but sometimes even your own fics surprise you.

MsBlackAngel: But you wouldn't understand it Grimmy~

Grimmjow: For the last time, could you please let go of my arm already? I can't feel my hand anymore!

Ulquiorra: I think it's turning blue.

MsBlackAngel: Blue, my favorite color!

Lambtron: *Sweat drop* Angel, at least loosen your grip a bit, Grimm's gonna need that hand.

MsBlackAngel: To what?

Lambtron: You'll find out that in the next chap.

Grimmjow: WHAT?

MsBlackAngel: *Too much fangirl emotions*

Lambtron: Okay, disclaimer; I do not own Bleach or characters, Kubo does. Thank you so so much for those who have reviewed and read this fic, I appreciate it a lot. And just one thing anymore; rating will change to M in the next chapter. Till then~