This was originally supposed to be a light, cheery OneShot… But I started writing, and the story changed. It's not my best work, and it was written only in one afternoon, but here it is.

I wanted to show a softer side to Grimmjow, and I just couldn't name the female lead, so feel free to insert any name of your choice, including your own. =)

The Way We Are

"Hey! Come back here! Why you little – "

"Watch it, Mister," I playfully chided my partner-in-crime. He whirled around to face me, slightly flushed from anger, his cyan eyes glittering with malice.

"Sandy, bring me the jump rope," I said to the laughing child who hopped about, just out of my partner's reach.

"No!"

I rolled my eyes at them both. No wonder they argued so often, they were just like each other.

"Give it – "

I cut him off mid-bark. "Sandy Jackson, bring me that jump rope or no dessert tonight," I said firmly. "I heard it's gonna be sundaes."

That did the trick. The young boy flung the jump rope in my direction and lit off after his friends toward the lake.

"Ow! That little…"

I couldn't help but laugh. The flying jump rope's wooden handles had soundly connected with my co-counselor's head.

"It's not funny, _!" he protested loudly, ungracefully disentangling himself from the rope.

I contained my snickers as best I could and gently reached out to him. He flinched at my gentle touch, like always. I ran my thumb over his brow, wiping away the welling blood before it dripped into his eyes.

"That's a pretty bad gash, Grimm."

"Ow! I know! Stop touching it!" His blue eyes flashed, but the anger was mostly gone from them, replaced by a tinge of pain and mirth.

I slapped his shoulder with my clean hand. "You big baby."

"Ow." He made a big deal of rubbing his arm, but couldn't suppress his laughter.

"Come on," I sighed, "Nell has our group. Let's get you to the nurse."

"What on earth?" Orihime paused to tsk at Grimmjow. "How did this happen?"

"Ow!" he yelped as she poured peroxide over the wound. I answered for him.

"Fighting with Sandy again. Kid threw a jump rope and the handle caught him."

"Grimmjow Jeagerjaques! " the young nurse scolded, "You need to stop picking on that brother of yours. You're the older sibling, you should – "

"Shuddup, Ichigo," Grimmjow groaned.

"Hmph!" Orihime huffed at him, continuing with her work quietly while I fought down laughter.

I first met Grimm twelve years ago, the day we started Kindergarten. In fact, Ichigo, Orihime, and most of the other camp counselors this year had met in that very same classroom.

Grimm had been a happy child then, not the surly, crass creature he was nowadays.

Well, to everyone but me he was that way.

I suppose it was because I was with him that day. The day that changed him.

Or, more accurately, the first of the days that changed him.

"All right, you should be fine now," Orihime grumbled as she placed a butterfly bandage over the wound to hold it closed.

"Oooh," I cooed, unable to stop myself, "sexy."

Grimmjow cocked his uninjured brow at me. I handed him a mirror and watched his face redden as he saw the hot pink band-aid.

"Orihime," he growled.

"Serves you right, you big bully." She marched herself into the back office of the building while I placed a hand on Grimmjow's shoulder to keep him from throttling her.

He looked up at me and his gaze softened, not quite losing the hard edge, but allowing me to see the sadness that eternally existed in his heart. With a heavy sigh, he leaned his head against my side, dropping his gaze to his lap.

"That kid… Why? Why does he always…?"

Grimmjow looked up at me again and I answered with a smile and a shrug.

"Isn't that what little brothers are supposed to do?"

I caught the small smile that crossed his features for only a moment before the normal scowl settled in.

"All right. We better go help Nel."

We were ten when it happened. The first day that changed Grimm's life.

It wasn't the type of day on which bad things happen. The sun was up, the weather was pleasant, and the mood was light and cheery.

I had convinced Grimm to walk to the library with me. He had grumbled at first, but eventually agreed to go. After I got my books, I relented and walked to the park to read with Grimm. He clambered about the rocks in the stream while I read aloud.

As the sun began to set, we headed home. It was only then that a sense of foreboding settled in my gut. I tried to shake it, but it lingered.

When we reached Grimm's house, he invited me inside for a soda.

We found his mother seated on the couch, her head in her hands, shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

She looked up as the screen door slammed behind us.

"Oh, Grimmjow… Your father…he's dead."

"Ah! Hey, I thought this was flag football!" I yelped as Grimmjow and a couple boys tackled me, trying to wrestle the ball from my grip. I held on like a snapping turtle.

Until Grimmjow started tickling me. I yelped and scrabbled to get him away from me, dropping the ball in the process. One of the boys grabbed it and made a touchdown while I tried to catch my breath.

"No fair!" I yelled at my cyan-eyed attacker.

He just laughed and ran to congratulate his team on their win.

"It doesn't matter anyway, _," Nel said, coming up behind me. "It's time for dinner."

It wasn't the best way to break the news to a ten-year-old. Grimm's mother knew that, but she was so caught up in her own grief she couldn't stop herself.

Grimm's father had died a hero. The office he had worked in had caught fire and Mr. Jeagerjaques had ran into the burning building until every one of his co-workers had made it safely out. He had died later in the hospital from smoke inhalation and burnt lungs.

But to Grimm, none of that mattered. His father had been his idol, and he had left him all alone.

After his father's passing, Grimm sank into a deep depression and began demanding everyone call him "Grimm", as Grimmjow was his father's name, and he wanted nothing more to do with it.

It was hardly a year later when his mother made the situation even worse.

"You know, you'd think they'd serve something better than hot dogs for the last night," I grumbled.

"The kids didn't complain," Nel retorted.

"They wouldn't."

Grimmjow, Nel, and I sat on the front porch of the female camp counselors' cabin, as Grimmjow wasn't allowed inside. Ichigo, Orihime, and a few others sat across the way on the male counselors' cabin porch. The kids were all in their cabins, lights out, and we were enjoying the cool evening before the wild last day of camp.

"Hope they serve waffles tomorrow," Grimmjow commented.

"Waffles? You hate waffles," Nel said, shocked.

"Yeah, but Sandy loves them," he replied, the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

Grimm hadn't even known his mother was dating until she told him he was going to have a little sibling.

To make it worse, she did it on the anniversary of his father's death.

Grimm was crushed. I remember him running to my house, calling her names that would make a sailor blush.

For the first few years of Sandy's life, Grimm hated the child. He hated his mother. And his stepfather thought he could literally beat it out of him.

Of course, that only made Grimm hate him the most.

It was when Sandy was three that the hatred Grimm harbored began to fall away. Mr. Jackson raised his hand to the child and Grimm intervened.

Sandy's father beat him good for that.

It's hard to think that it was only three years ago Grimm was laid up in the hospital, Sandy's father sent to prison, their mother in divorce proceedings, and Sandy lost in the mix.

"All right! Waffles!"

I could hear Sandy's cry across the crowded mess hall and caught the flash of a grin on Grimmjow's face before the scowl hid it again.

"He sounds happy," I said softly. My co-counselor nodded and poured syrup over his breakfast.

"You care. Stop acting like you don't."

He grunted and shrugged.

"Grimmjow," I scolded.

"What?" he snapped, startling me. His cyan eyes glowed with anger until he took in the startled expression on my face. He stared at his plate a moment, then pushed it away.

"Grimm?" I asked softly.

"I'm not hungry," he growled, excusing himself from the table.

"He always gets like this when he has to say good-bye to Sandy," an auburn-haired counselor said as he sat down by me.

"Oh?... Thanks, Ichigo." Apparently there was a side of himself Grimmjow hid from even me.

"He'll be okay," he offered, hearing the concern in my voice. "He just needs some time."

After he was released from the hospital, Grimm refused to go back home. He was angry with his mother for not protecting him and Sandy.

Grimm's mother couldn't stand the stress of it all. She had a meltdown and was admitted to a mental institution. The boys were taken in by the state.

Luckily, Ichigo's family was able to take Grimm in as a foster child, but due to Grimm's prior behavior toward Sandy, the state decided it would be safest to place him in a different home. He ended up only a few blocks away, with a family who knew the Jeagerjaques, and allowed the boys to visit each other.

Try as he might to hate him, Grimm's protective and brotherly love for Sandy grew. He spoke of the boy often to me, and begged me to be a camp counselor with him when he found out Sandy would be going to camp this summer.

Now, the month of camp was over, and they would go to their separate homes.

"When I'm eighteen, I'm going to petition for custody of Sandy," Grimmjow confided in me as we watched the campers greeting their parents.

Watching him watch his brother, I couldn't be surprised. There was a light in his eyes I only saw when Sandy was around, or we were alone.

It was a light I was sure was reflected in my own eyes when I was around Grimmjow. More than once Nel had teased me for it, but I never said anything to Grimmjow, and he never said anything to me.

"I love you, Grimmjow."

The six-year-old's voice drew me from my reverie.

"I love you, too, buddy," Grimmjow whispered, hugging his brother tight. "I'll see you soon."

"One more game before I go?" the boy asked.

I watched, intrigued, as I saw Grimmjow's tough exterior start to crack.

"All right. Make it quick."

"Truth or Dare?" Sandy asked, squirming with glee.

"What the heck," Grimmjow said, "Dare."

Sandy grinned mischievously. "I dare you to kiss Miss _."

The boy ran off to his waiting foster parents, leaving Grimmjow staring after him, mouth agape.

"Well?"

Nel's voice startled me.

I looked around me to see all the other camp counselors staring at Grimmjow and me expectantly.

"You put him up to that?" I asked quietly.

Nel nodded.

"Yes, it's that obvious," Orihime put in.

I glanced back at Grimmjow. He was actually smiling, a smile that went all the way to his eyes.

"Well?" he asked me softly. I felt heat rising in my cheeks.

"KISS HER ALREADY!" the counselors chorused.

For once, he listened.

Others would have judged him. Called him hostile or a bad seed. Few knew the truth. Few could see that…

Sometimes, it's the things that made us who we were, that allow us to change and become the way we are…