a/n: Adrienne. IT IS FINALLY DONE. Your birthday/Christmas/because-you're-awesome fic (though there's no j-rock, which would have been fun). ;) Fairy tales with wolves suit this pairings very well.

T for all of Grimmjaw's potty-mouth. It's not that bad, though.

"What the hell's that?"

She looked up, and the melancholy seemed to flush out of her features. "Oh, Grimmjaw-san. Uh…" She looked nervous, frightened. No doubt thanks to his vicious nature. If Grimmjaw was paying her a visit, she didn't know what to expect, or how to act.

"Wh-Where's Ulquiorra-san?"

Grimmjaw didn't have the heart to tell her, Sticking another hole in your friend's neck.

"Out," he grunted.

"Oh."

"Why are you here?"

"Aizen wanted me to come in. Feed you." His head motioned in a frustrated jerk toward a tray he'd brought in. She'd been so consumed in whatever she was doing that she hadn't noticed.

"Oh."

"Someone had to do it. It's like one of you humans' animals that you keep in your houses."

And he was bored, because Ulquiorra was allowed to go out and fight, and he, Grimmjaw, the strongest of them all, was stuck in here and forced to do chores, no better than a chained dog himself.

Damn.

"Pets?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

Pet-sama – the word no more than a slither in her memory, and for a second she was vaguely grateful that Grimmjaw was Ulquiorra's replacement.

"Are you ever going to tell me what the hell that thing is?"

She clutched it tightly to her (even he would admit, ample) chest, as if afraid he was going to take it. She stared down at the floor, a nervous flush coloring her face.

"A storybook."

"A what?"

"A picture book, a story."

"What kind of story?"

"Why do you want to know?" she whispered, almost defiantly.

"Damn it, woman, you don't have to act like it's something important. Just tell me." He was getting exasperated Being polite was crap.

She looked caught off guard, perhaps that someone in this place would want to know something about her.

"Little Red Riding Hood."

"Uh?"

"It's a really popular human fairy tale," she explained, "an old fantasy story."

Then she added, "I've had it since I was little. So long I can't remember."

He didn't answer, and she continued.

"And it never was really that special to me, but when I was looking for what I wanted to sneak in her I saw that and I just… I don't know. Of all things, that was what I wanted…"

She trailed off, hoping he'd understand. He didn't.

Instead he took it from her, flipped to the first page, squinted at the letters for a minute, and then read:

"Little Red Riding Hood was a young, lonely girl, with no friends to play with."

His reading was slow and not particularly smooth. Gingerly, Orihime took the book from him and continued:

"The only person she had was her Granny, but her old Granny was getting sick and frail. Red was going to go see her." Her head lifted from the page for a second, and something resembling life was in her eyes. "But, on her way… she was sidetracked by a wolf." And here, unexpectedly, her free arm exploded into a grand gesture, to illustrate the wolf's danger.

"Wait, what kinda shit is this?"

She bit her lip and shut up. Quickly. Her arm dropped limply to her side.

"Well, finish," he prodded her gruffly. "Don't commit to something you're not gonna finish."

Her voice started up again, at first meek and quiet and then growing in momentum and emotion.

"He said, 'Come with me, little girl. Those treats of yours look very nice.' And, he thought to himself, You look very nice, too. He was very handsome, even though he was a wolf. He was handsome in a vicious, wild way, and the girl at first couldn't tear her eyes away. 'Oh, but I can't," Orihime said, taking on an even higher, more girlish voice than she already had, just as she had taken on a (nearly comical) rumble for the wolf. "'I have to go and see my Granny."

"The wolf was angry at being scorned, and so, he went ahead to her Granny's house."

"He… he ate up her granny and wore her clothes. When the girl got there, it had grown dangerously dark, and the girl was unable to tell whether he was her granny or the wolf, friend or foe. She came closer, clinging to her basket of treats. 'My, what big ears you have…!' 'All the better to hear you with!'… 'My, what big eyes you have… ' 'All the better to see you with'… 'My what… what big teeth you have…"

Orihime was no longer looking at the page, but at the wall, with an almost haunted look in her eyes at the thought of the wolf's deception.

"'All the better to eat you with,'" she finished in a weak whisper.

"And so the wolf came closer, and closer, and closer, until she could feel the drip of his saliva and his hot, wolf's breath, and she was about the scream when… a hunter, a very brave and handsome hunter, maybe one with… with kind eyes and a tough look came and chopped off the wolf's head, just chopped it. And the girl screamed again, because the blood scared her. The hunter took her hands and asked her if she was okay. She said she was, but in a shaky voice she told him her whole story."

"He said he was sorry for her loss, but took her as his bride – always to be protected. But the girl, who wasn't really so little, was never the same again, because sometimes scary things just… don't… go away…."

Her mouth quivers, and he swears that he will cuss loud and strong if the tears overflow and she actually cries. But she sniffs once and she's fine.

"And that's why little girls shouldn't play with wolves," she said, an 'o' of storyteller's surprise, with, big, round eyes. Suddenly, her mouth pops into a weak smile. "So? What do you think, Grimmjaw-san?"

He was silent for a full minute, which was the longest and most pensive she'd ever seen him.

"I think," he said flatly, heaving himself up, "That little girls shouldn't play with wolves."

Orihime's picture book dropped from her hold in the tide of loneliness that washed over her, drowned her, overwhelmed her, in that single instant.

Without another word, he left the room, and the little red-haired girl was left alone in the silence again.