AN: Written for PoisonLadyAnissina's birthday! Happy (Belated) Birthday!
The sky above the undulating landscape of Hueco Muendo was dark while the sand beneath it flowed under the effect of an unseen wind. A small, lizard like Hollow with a barely formed mask burrowed itself into a sand dune, its instinct sensing a danger its mind was too young to comprehend.
Barely a split second later, a blue blur – a whirling mass of speed, colour and ferocity – swept through the area. The wind howled behind him, as if in reproach, but he paid it little heed and continued to run at a speed that left light behind.
Suddenly, he stopped. Surveying the desolation before him, he threw back his head and laughed. There was a tinge of mania in his laughter and a hint of insanity in his blue eyes. But every movement he made was unclouded and clear. His hands moved with almost rhythmic precision as he dropped them to the ground. Taking a defensive position on all fours, he looked up at the starless sky above with an impatient look on his face.
A ripple of energy pulsed through the atmosphere before the night was torn open to reveal a door. A petite woman stepped out of it and adjusted the glasses perched on her nose. With slow, measured steps, she made her way down to the ground and stood before him.
"Took you long enough," grunted Grimmjow.
Her response was a muttered incantation that left a crater in the spot he had occupied milliseconds ago. Had he not moved in time, Grimmjow would have been among the ashes that lined it.
With a wicked grin, he drew his own sword. Since Aizen's defeat, he had lost the ability to enter Resurrecion but Panthera was still a deadly weapon in its own right. Nanao's lips curved slightly at the sight and she fired another Kidou spell in his direction.
But this time, Grimmjow had been ready for the attack and he swivelled sideways to avoid it. In the short space of time it took her to release her next spell, he attacked, sending her frail body flying into the ruins of Los Noches. The building crumbled under the pressure of the reiatsu that now surrounded the Shinigami's body and she quickly moved away with a speed that exceeded his.
He pursued her, falling quickly into the familiar pattern. They had played this game of cat and mouse several times now but he still had to be constantly alert to win. Each time, she surprised him with a new trick, a new attack, a new facet of herself that she had not formerly revealed. He revelled in the knowledge that it was him she was fighting. It was he and no other who witnessed these moves that she had long concealed.
Grimmjow was distracted by a sudden rise in air pressure on his left and immediately he swerved right. Nanao materialised in front of him and asked, "How did you guess it was a trap?"
"You're getting predictable."
With a frown, she disappeared again. Reappearing by his side, she whispered, "Then I'll have to make sure that you don't get bored."
He could detect the smirk stretching across her face in the cadence of her voice. He spun around to face her but she was long gone. A flare of reiatsu in front of him gave away her position and he hurried forward to catch up with her.
Raising Panthera above his head, Grimmjow flashed it through the sky cutting across thin air in his effort to slow her down. Lightning streaked down from his sword and the cries further along his path confirmed his plan's success.
He rushed forward and then stopped abruptly. The place Nanao had led him to was the throne room once occupied by Sosuke Aizen. He did not want to set foot in the room that had robbed him of his precious freedom. But if he wanted her in this strange game they played he would have to step within. With a slight, almost inaudible sigh he followed Nanao.
She waited for him behind the throne, her violet eyes shining. She smiled at his reluctant entrance. The fact that he had actually taken her lead spoke volumes to her. In her moment of distraction, she missed his swift Sonido. He stood tantalisingly close to her and plucked the comb that held her hair up in its tight bun out, crushing it between his fingers. With an outraged gasp Nanao felt the loose hair cascading down her back.
"A point to me," he said, before running out of the room and launching himself back into the night sky. Her swift temper mounting, Nanao followed him. The prey now stalked the predator.
When he looked back and saw her small form behind him, Grimmjow snorted. But a small smile made its way to his lips nevertheless. The very idea that someone as weak as her truly believed that she had a chance of defeating him appealed to the former Espada of Destruction.
He continued to skim across the air and shouted, "Why do you want to fight me?"
"I don't know."
Her answer was dangerously close to what his own would have been had he been asked the same question. While their differences stood in stark contrast to the world, their similarities were starting to become far too visible to them. He swooped lower and sent a crimson Cero flying towards her. She managed to dodge it but the tell-tale smell of burnt cloth told him that it had been a near thing.
He turned around and saw that she was standing on the ground, her charred robes fluttering. Her eyes were brilliant and piercing, despite the glasses that covered them. They met his directly, without the slightest hint of fear.
Grimmjow slowed his run to a walk and began to descend to stand opposite her. Nanao drew her sword out of its sheath and his heart started hammering in his chest. Would she entrust him with her greatest secret tonight? He had been longing to see the sword release that no Shinigami or Hollow had ever been privileged enough to witness. His hands were trembling slightly as he gripped his own sword and dug his heels firmly into the ground.
Nanao's eyes glittered as she promised softly, "Tomorrow."
And then she vanished before his eyes and reappeared above him. The door opened once again and she stepped through it into another world.
Grimmjow summoned another sandstorm around himself as he continued to run through the sand of Hueco Munedo. The never-ending wasteland stretched before him. But there was always tomorrow.