Worth Celebrating

"Hey Ulqui, d'you know what day's today?"

"Based on which calendar?"

Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez sighed. Speaking with Ulquiorra was had always been too complicated. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered.

"Dunno… the one Aizen used?"

Ulquiorra Cifer sighed too, hoping whatever Grimmjow had in mind this time could be done and forgotten quickly.

"That is the Gregorian calendar, Grimmjow. Today would be December 1st."

Grimmjow grinned victoriously.

"Exactly! Today's yer birthday!"

Ulquiorra blinked a couple of times, seemingly unfazed.

"If by that you mean today is the anniversary of the day I was created, then you are correct. However, I hardly find such a thing noteworthy, and fail to see why you seem so enthusiastic about it."

Grimmjow frowned. Of course he had to fall in love with the biggest party pooper in all of Hueco Mundo. Seriously, only Ulquiorra fucking Cifer could make a freaking birthday sound like the most boring day of the year. And of course, the deadpanned look and his gloomy face didn't help one bit. But Grimmjow was determined to make Cifer enjoy his birthday, and maybe get him to agree to wear that sexy kitten costume as a reward.

"Aww, c'mon! It's your birthday, for the love of…! Yer supposed to have a big party, with tons of food, and cake and presents and booze!"

"I just don't see why I would have to make the loud celebration you describe over such a menial event. You called it birthday, correct? I think it is a day just like any other. I am only a day older than I was yesterday, and I find the human notion of counting age by years pretty laughable."

The blue-eyed male clicked his tongue in annoyance and snatched the smaller man by the arm, forcing him to stand up.

"Just shut up and follow me. I'll show you why you should celebrate yer birthday."

And with that said, he opened a Garganta and forced the both of them through it.

Honestly, what was going on in Grimmjow's mind? The Human world? What made him think there could be something in this place that could change Ulquiorra's mind about how irrelevant this so-called birthday thing was?

"Would you mind telling me what we are doing here, Grimmjow?"

"Well, ain't it obvious? I'm gonna show you how people celebrate their birthdays so that you stop bitchin' and let me make you a real party." Grimmjow answered, feeling a bit pissed already by Ulquiorra's constant complains and insults. "Look, those humans are hangin' some decorations outside their house. Maybe they'll have a party later."

The humans in question were climbing on a ladder and hanging a long green string with multiple colorful buds to the rooftop. The ones on top of the roof made some signs to another human waiting at ground-level, who ran inside the house and seconds later, the colorful buds started to glow and make an annoying bleeping sound. Grimmjow growled in annoyance.

"So? Is this not what you were expecting?"

Grimmjow growled again. "Nah… it's not a birthday party. They're decorating for Christmas. Every year humans get all silly 'bout love and sharin' an' shit. 'S cool 'coz there's a lot of food, booze and presents. But it's still really sappy. 'Sides, there's almost a month left before freakish Christmas, what a waste of time to decorate already."

"I am afraid you have misunderstood the point of Christmas, though I cannot blame you for it. In its origins, this human festivity was created to celebrate the birth of the son of one of their gods, according to my own observations. Though the point in itself seems to be lost in the modern celebration that you just described."

Grimmjow frowned for a minute as they walked away from the family, which was now singing some annoying songs while hanging random unknown objects to a large tree, but his expression lit in a few seconds.

"See? They make all this fuss over someone's birthday! Let's go, I'll show you somethin' else." He grabbed Ulquiorra by his sleeve and dragged him away from the site, the smaller man posing little resistance and deciding to just let himself be dragged along.

"Grimmjow, just what exactly is this place?"

Said male rolled his eyes in annoyance. Only Ulquiorra could make him feel like he was being called an idiot with a simple question.

"Yanno', you should come to this world more often. Having to explain everything to you 's gettin' kinda old. This is a party store. They sell all kinds of party stuff. Balloons, candies, decorations, cards, ribbons… Though this place is more like… children parties. But it's somethin' I guess."

Ulquiorra explored the tiny store with little interest, his emerald eyes raking over the various articles hanging from the walls and displayed on the counters. Colorful balloons with bizzarre faces painted on them, huge bags of candy that would cause whoever tried to eat any of them to become diabetic. Long streamers hanging from the ceiling and walls, shiny boxes with even shinier ribbons on top… this was such an odd place.

"And what are you expecting to achieve by bringing me to such a place?" he inquired, glaring with disgust at one of the ugly balloons.

"Oh, I dunno, maybe I thought all these colors would turn you into a happier person." the taller man snapped. "Didn't I tell you the point of this trip? You gotta understand that birthdays are cool, so that you won't be all gloomy on yer own birthday."

Ulquiorra then wondered why he had agreed to come to begin with. At this rate, and if that was Grimmjow's condition to go back, they could very much start searching for a place to live in the human world.

"Oh, for the love of… At least pretend yer havin' fun, it's yer freakin' birthday, for fuck's sake!"

They had left the party store and were now wandering aimlessly, trying to find something to prove Grimmjow's point on why birthdays were as exciting as he tried to make them sound. Ulquiorra had to admit that, even if the Sexta's attempts so far had been more than fruitless, it was kind of endearing to see him try so hard just to make him enjoy himself in what was supposed to be an important date. Still, if he were to choose on what to do on this particular day, he would rather stay in bed, cuddling with his blue-haired lover, rather than freezing in the cold human world.

Grimmjow was now listing some examples of cool birthday parties he could remember. Which of course, served no purpose because Ulquiorra never attended to said parties. "C'mon, y're not gonna tell me you didn't go to Nnoitra's birthday, are you? It was just like three weeks ago, everyone was there! 'N there was a looot of booze 'n food. I got really wasted so I don't really remember anythin', but he even got some strippers an' st…" he stopped mid-sentence, noticing the deathly glare in those emerald eyes. "I-I mean, it was kinda borin' anyway and I left early, so…"

They were now passing by a small house with a tiny garden, which was covered in snow. The garden was decorated with balloons and streamers and a long banner was hanging from two trees with the words "Happy Birthday" written on it. Just below the banner there was a long table covered with a colorful tablecloth and surrounded by people, mostly children, all of them wearing pointy colorful hats on top of their heads, laughing and yelling. On top of the table they saw multiple boxes, like the ones in the party store, with the shiny laces and ribbons, and in the center of the table, a big, round, pink cake, which seemed to be the object of the children's attention.

Grimmjow grimaced. This wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind, but it'd had to do. Although, knowing Ulquiorra, he could already imagine his response. Something along the lines of "and why would I want to imitate a vulgar human tradition?". Yeah, that sounded really Ulquiorra-like. Well, whatever. The little prick would have a birthday, whether he wanted it or not, and that was final.

Once again, he grabbed Ulquiorra by the sleeve and pulled him towards the modest celebration. Taking advantage of the fact that these humans could not see them, they approached as far as Ulquiorra would let him so that he could observe the events unfold with as much detail as possible.

"Here we are. This is a birthday party." He announced enthusiastically, pointing towards the crowd of noisy children.

Ulquiorra's eyes shifted from Grimmjow, to the children, back to Grimmjow, to the children, and back to Grimmjow again. He quirked an eyebrow quizically. Was this really what the fuss was about? A large group of people making noise around him, wearing silly hats and staring stupidly at that big piece of bread covered in pink? He had really overestimated Grimmjow's good criteria if he thought something like this could be enjoyable.

"Don't even give me that look. I know this's a kid's party but you can learn somethin' from here. Look, the point of birthdays is that you get to do whatever you want on yer birthday! People are s'pposed to treat you like y're the king or shit just b'coz it's yer birthday. And look, that thing in the middle? That's a cake. 'N I bet it's chocolate, 'coz kids love chocolate. You like chocolate too, don'cha? In yer birthday you can have a huge cake of any flavor you want 'n a lot of sweets 'n chocolates."

Doing anything he wanted. Having people do what he asked them to… well, that didn't sound half bad. And getting all kinds of chocolate and a massive portion of chocolate cake. Tempting, indeed. But he eyed the roaring bunch of children, screaming and yelling and throwing mud at each other and imagined Nnoitra and Grimmjow sparring in the middle of his "birthday party", if he even had one. Not worth it.

Grimmjow noticed Ulquiorra's growing disinterest. Well, a small part of him had kinda known the battle was lost since the beginning, but had insisted on it just to piss Ulquiorra off. Still, he didn't want to give up just yet. His eyes scanned the table quickly, searching for something that could draw Ulquiorra's attention.

"Oi! What about the presents? Every good birthday has tons of cool presents!" he tried, pointing at the colorful decorated boxes piled around the cake.

Ulquiorra examined the boxes with his eyes carefully, keeping his thoughts for himself while the exploration lasted. Grimmjow was nervous. If this one didn't work, he was out of ideas.

"And why would I want a pile of boxes, if you would mind to explain?"

Grimmjow slammed his face against the table. In his imagination, of course.

"Are you stupid or what? The boxes are not the presents! The presents are inside the boxes!" he took a moment to compose himself, remembering that Ulquiorra rarely visited the human world and had little knowledge on this kind of things. "Look, in yer birthday, yer friends or family or shit, give you gifts or presents to show they care. The… presents're like… things you like or things you need or want… or things that are important and meaningful yanno? Like memories or… dunno. They can be anythin'. That's why presents are so cool."

The raven-haired Arrancar directed his eyes towards the taller male, trying to comprehend what the other was talking about. He almost felt like checking directly into these humans' 'presents' to see if he could get a better grasp of the concept, but Grimmjow grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the group of humans before he could take any actions on the matter.

He was about to ask Grimmjow if he was going to give up, when a little object was shoved on his face.

"I was… gonna give it to you later… yanno', when y'admitted I'd won an' shit… But that ain't gonna happen so… yeah…"

Ulquiorra stared at the tiny black box, the shape of a regular cube, that could have easily fit in the palm of his hand, decorated with a simple green ribbon. His emerald eyes raised to look at Grimmjow's face, which was now turned away from him, his tan cheeks stained with a slight crimson.

"J-just open it already, bastard!"

The pale Espada did as he was told with mild curiosity, wondering what his partner had in mind this time. He was mildly surprised when he found a long silver chain with a curious medal hanging from it. It was shaped just like the traditional Yin Yang, a symbol Ulquiorra could recognize immediately, but the half that represented the Yin was blue instead of white, and the other half, the Yang, was green instead of black.

"Grimmjow, I am afraid this has a mistake." he said, holding the object in front of his partner's face. "The Yin Yang is a Chinese symbol that represents the way opposites complement each other. Black and white, earth and heaven, water and rock. It can not be green and blue, because it becomes meaningless."

His emerald eyes once again averted from the small object he held in his hand to the tan face of his lover and was surprised to find it completely blank and somewhat pale and ill-looking. He cocked his head in confusion and was about to call out for the blue-haired man, when said male snapped out of his trance and his face contorted into a deep frown.

"What's wrong with you? I don't give a flyin' fuck about the correct Yin Yang or whatever shit! Can you step out of yer square little box for a minute?"

He grabbed the medal and tore the green half apart, attaching it to a thick black cordon that was hanging around his neck, and leaving Ulquiorra with only the blue half. The Cuatro opened his mouth to chastise him for breaking the object, but got interrupted before he could formulate any word.

"See this?" he pointed to the blue half still laying on Ulquiorra's hand "It's blue 'coz blue is the coolest color ever. 'n my hair's blue 'n my eyes're blue. My Cero's blue too. 'n it even looks like a six, see?"

Ulquiorra examined the remaining half, noticing that it did have a shape resembling the number six. Still, he could not see what Grimmjow's point was, but he decided to wait for him to finish his explanation.

"And this one" he continued, holding the green half in his hand "'s green 'coz yer tattoos're green. 'n that freakin' Cero of yers is green too, 'n you almost killed me with it once." His face turned a dark shade of crimson as he continued speaking "'n… yer eyes are green… 'n they're kinda pretty." he finished, lowering his voice until it became nearly a whisper.

The green-eyed Espada quirked an eyebrow, mildly surprised at Grimmjow's odd behaviour and slightly out of character confession.

"T-the point is that we each keep a half of it, a-and the color is so that we've got something to remember the other when we have to go on separate missions or somethin' like that. 'Sides, didn't you say the Yin Yang thingy represents how opposites complement each other? We're somethin' like that, right? 'Coz we're completely different but we're better when we're together, right?"

Ulquiorra didn't reply right away, instead deciding to examine the half that he was still holding in his hand. He traced the curves with his index finger, his eyes fixed on the striking sapphire blue surface.

"Well, if you still don't like it you can give it back to me." he heard Grimmjow say, the man's hand moving to snatch the object away from him. "After all, blue is still the coolest color ever."

Ulquiorra's pale fingers closed around the small medal and his emerald eyes rose to meet Grimmjow's.

"It is extremely rude to try to take back something you have given as a gift. This is mine and I intend to keep it, regardless of its inaccuracy." he said as he fixed the chain around his pale neck. "But you have yet to demonstrate why you make such a fuss over something as menial as what you call 'birthday'. Do tell me why such a date should be celebrated, since I fail to understand it."

Grimmjow grinned and circled Ulquiorra's wrist with his hand.

"Well, that's obvious, dumbass. You celebrate birthdays 'coz you gotta be happy you managed to stay in this shitty world for one more year."

"And? Should I waste my time in ridiculous celebrations over such a childish motive? Why is it so great to be a part of this world that makes it worth celebrating the day I came to it?"

Grimmjow's face turned serious and he pulled Ulquiorra closer, until their faces were close enough to feel their breaths mingling in the air between them.

"Because it would suck to be part of this world if you were not in it."

Ulquiorra's eyes fluttered closed as Grimmjow leaned in to press their lips together. The hand that held the blue Yin entwined with Grimmjow's larger one, the medal still tangled between their laced fingers. After a moment's thought, Ulquiorra Cifer thought that perhaps this birthday thing was indeed worth celebrating.

The End.

I wanted to publish this for Ulquiorra's birthday (December 1st) but I was stupidly busy with school and couldn't do it. Which is really stupid since I wrote this A YEAR AGO. Exactly a year ago for Ulqui's birthday. And I commend my beta Tokyo Kitty because three days before December 1st I was like "can you do this for me? I want to have it done for Ulqui's b-day –insert puppy face-. AND SHE DID IT ON TIME. But this was for the fanbook so I saved it to publish it now, in Ulqui's b-day.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ULQUIORRA. I hope you get awesome presents (like Maid!Grimmy or something smexy like that :D). On the actual story I think it's really fluffy, I hope I didn't kill anybody from fluff overdose. I was really worried about what kind of present Grimmy would give him, I suck at that kind of stuff (my first idea was a scarf, then Ulqui would put it on and Grimmy would pull it to kiss him –laaaaame-) I don't even remember where I got the Yin Yang idea but up to date I can't think of anything better (and I tried)

I hope you liked it and that you enjoyed Ulqui's birthday :D See you next time!