Tales of Imagination

Chapter 2 The Man of the Crowd

A couple of months had gone by and things surely had changed in Grimmjow's life. His Fridays were no longer spent drinking bad quality booze in Nnoitra's house (seriously, where did that guy buy that crap he drank all the time?), but rather playing Scrabble with his substitute Japanese Literature teacher Ulquiorra Cifer. Mind you, he still lost miserably, but he was kind of starting to learn some words too.

It had also become a habit of his to visit the raven head's house from time to time to borrow random books. Some of them he enjoyed, some of them he found boring as fuck, some of them were super crappy. On some occassions, the teacher would offer to help him with his school assignments, as long as they were not from Literature class, as that would overstep the boundaries between the 'neighbour relationship' and their 'teacher-student' relationship.

"Ha! Eat this!" Grimmjow smirked triumphantly as he placed the word 'devour' on the board.

As always, the emerald-eyed man said nothing as he arranged his letters to form the word 'fellony'. The teen scowled. There was just no way he would beat the man in this game.

"Oi, let's do somethin' else. We always play this shit, it's getting' kinda old, don'ya think?"

The teacher quirked an eyebrow.

"What do you suggest?"

It had become a routine. Ulquiorra Cifer was a routinary man. He liked schedules. He liked knowing what was going to happen before it happened. He liked to have a plan. And so, he was always on time. Because he had to follow the plan.

When the boisterous teen had first invited him to spend the evening with him, it had been out of the schedule; out of the plan. The plan was to read until his eyes felt too tired to recognize the characters on the pages, and then go to sleep. But Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez had altered the plan. Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez had made a whole new plan, a new schedule, a new routine. And Ulquiorra had somehow gotten used to it.

"Uhh… dunno… Like videogames? Though I still got only one. But no one beats Halo!"

Ulquiorra was about to roll his eyes. Playing Scrabble with Grimmjow every Friday was now part of his routine. He didn't want to change it. And playing videogames was not a favourite hobby of his. While he had had consoles when he was a kid, they had never drawn his interest. He had always been one for books and mindgames.

"Next week, shall we? It is almost three in the morning anyway. Let's at least finish this round before I go back to my place."

Grimmjow furrowed his brow, knowing the battle was lost and glancing at his letters. Ah, who cared. He was going to lose anyway. But he still felt he wanted to get the highest score he could, just to prove Cifer that he was getting better. Why he felt the need to do so, he wasn't sure.

He placed the word 'amuse', feeling satisfied, since he didn't even know how to use that word a couple of weeks ago.

Ulquiorra was a bit annoying for an opponent, since he rarely said a word while they played, except for the occasional small talk, or when he asked Grimmjow about the latest book he'd borrowed from the teacher's house. This time was no exception, the man stayed deathly quiet while he examined the game, his eyes going back and forth from the board to his letters, to the board again. Finally, he added the letters m, e, n, t to Grimmjow's word, writing 'amusement' and hitting a triple score box.

Grimmjow sighed. Playing Scrabble against Ulquiorra was like playing against a fucking dictionary.


"Oi, Ulquiorra! Oi! OI!"

Ulquiorra finally stopped on his tracks as he walked towards the school exit. He turned around to meet face to face with the loud blue-haired teen who was struggling to get through the crowded hallways to reach the tall red doors.

"I have told you countless times that you should not call me by my given name. Especially while at school"

Grimmjow shrugged it off as he caught his breath after all that yelling.

"Yeah, whatever. I'll call ya whatever ya want, but can ya give me ride? I crashed my bike this morning and it kinda… died. Please?"

Ulquiorra felt slightly amused by the student's choice of words, but that didn't alter his decision.

"Jaegerjaquez, you know I am your teacher. I can not do this kind of things for you. You will have to take the bus."

The teen's face fell in disappointment after hearing the teacher's negative. He felt slightly guilty for abandoning the kid, but he knew that fool was old enough to take care of himself. And more importantly, it would do no good if anyone saw the blue-haired student getting into his car. It would probably raise unwanted rumors, and the one thing Ulquiorra Cifer didn't want was to get a bad reputation.

He watched with a bit of pity as the boy carried the remnants of his destroyed bicycle on his shoulder towards the bus station and got inside his car.


Grimmjow was sick of the bus. Stupid fucking bus. It had been nearly two weeks since his bike had been destroyed by that stupid tree. He knew he shouldn't have been reading while riding, but he was totally caught in Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. And now he had to take the stupid dirty bus, that just happened to be packed of sweaty, smelly, disgusting people, crying children, idiotic giggling middle schoolers, huge fat guys, and a lot of more infuriating people. Or he could avoid the bus and waste forty-five minutes on the walk home. He made fifteen minutes on his bike. Seriously. This was just plain stupid. And it would take him ages to save up enough money to repair his fucking bike. He was doomed to take the stinking bus for the rest of his life.

As he got inside the building, he noticed an object lying against his door. He was about to set it on fire. That would teach whoever left it there not to leave their crap on his way. But as he got closer, he recognized what it was. There was no mistake, even though it seemed a little different to how he remembered it. It was his bike, and it looked almost as if it had never been struck by a huge tree. Shiny, polished and completely reconstructed. He smiled. No more fucking bus!

As the initial euphoria wore off, he realized bikes did not repair themselves. Thus, someone had had to do it. Nnoitra? Never. He knew the douche enjoyed hearing his stories of how much he hated the fucking bus. His parents? Nope. His mom had said she would not pay for his lack of attention. That only left one option (which made Grimmjow sadly realize how few close friends he really had. His life was really fucked up).

He knocked on the apartment number four, fidgeting a little. He really didn't want to do this, he felt incredibly stupid right now, but he knew he had to.

The young teacher appeared behind the door with his usual unemotional face. His eyes glanced from the bicycle to the student's face and he seemed to understand the situation, as he simply dug his hands into his pockets, waiting for Grimmjow to speak.

"Uhm… hi."

Yes, Grimmjow was brilliant with these things.

Ulquiorra still said nothing, slightly amused by the teen's struggle, and patiently waiting for him to find a more refined way to express himself. Not that he expected much refinement from Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.

"Well, I just came back an' found this in my doorstep an' yanno'… I just wanted to say thanks… uhm… I still don't know why ya did it, but uh… thanks."

The boy pointed at the bicycle he held next to him, still fidgeting nervously and waiting for the green-eyed man to aknowledge his presence so that he could disappear as soon as possible.

"I have no idea of what you are talking about."

If Grimmjow hadn't known better, he would've believed that. What with the teacher's death serious voice and his pale face completely lacking emotion, it was hard to believe he was lying through his teeth. But Grimmjow knew better.

"The fuck's that mean? Don't think I'm gonna buy that shit!"

"Could you please stop yelling? I am standing just a few inches away."

"I'll yell what I want to! I mean, ya even have them change the seat! Yellow? For fuck's sake!"

"The seat I added was green."

Grimmjow pointed at him accusingly.

"Ha! Gotcha'! You just admitted you did it!"

Ulquiorra crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.

"I never said I didn't. I just said I did not know why you were thanking me. I did it because I wanted to, I do not expect any gratefulness or retribution, that is all."

Grimmjow wanted to slam his face against the wall. Leave it to Ulquiorra to turn every one of his words against him. He could be so creepy and infuriating when he got into those word-games of his. Still, he knew arguing was useless. In fact, the more he spoke, the more he exposed himself to be humiliated by that smartass.

"W-well, whatever! I don't care if ya don't want my thanks, 'coz I'm thanking ya anyway! S-so thank ya and… and that's it!"

And he stormed off and disappeared behind his own door, a deep crimson blush adorning his cheeks.


It seemed like a normal day, with Christmas break drawing closer every minute. Grimmjow was about to leave school and probably go to Nnoitra's house (he really didn't have much social life apart from that) to play some videogames. But as he walked down the hallway, he noticed loud noises coming from the teachers' lounge, and he saw Ulquiorra walking out of the room with his usual calm expression. That was absolutetly normal. What was out of Grimmjow's expectations was to see Ichimaru-sensei soon catching up with him and flailing his arm over the thin man's shoulder, his trademark grin plastered over his fox-like face.

"C'mon Ulqui-chan! 's yer birthday! Ya can't run away from yer birthday! We even got'cha a big party! C'mon le's go back inside!"

Ulquiorra unlatched himself from Ichimaru's hold and kept walking with his hands dug inside his pocket.

"I appreciate your gesture, Ichimaru-sensei, but I have to prepare tomorrow's classes and grade some assignments. Please excuse me with everyone else."

"Awww yer no fun…" Ichimaru whined as he walked back to the teachers' lounge.

Grimmjow watched the whole scene unfold with wide eyes.

"Sorry Nnoitra, I forgot I got some stuff to do"

Nnoitra clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Ya shittin' me. Ya always have 'stuff ta do' on Fridays since Emo-bitch came aroun', an' now yer ditchin' me on a fuckin' Wednesday? Are ya at least fuckin' him er sumthin'? Ah, whatever, I'll call Nel instead."

Grimmjow paid him no mind and rushed out of the building, mounted his bicycle and took off in the opposite direction of his apartment.


"Yes, thank you… I know, I will try… Forgive me, I have to leave you, someone is knocking on the door... Goodbye Mom."

Ulquiorra opened the door, exasperatedly. Granted, what he had told Ichimaru had been a mere excuse to escape from his party (he was not really a party person), but he was starting to tire of getting calls after calls from people, mostly his old acquaintances from Tokyo, to congratulate him for his birthday. He understood and appreciated his mother's call, but the other ten? He didn't even talk to those people anymore. And all he really wanted for his birthday was some peace and quiet so that he could read.

He was surprised to be met with a familiar pair of sapphire blue eyes and striking electric blue hair. The owner of said features blushed crimson when his gaze met Ulquiorra's, and his eyes averted to the ceiling, trying to avoid the teacher's calm stare.

"Uhm… hi."

Ulquiorra was starting to get used to this. He waited quietly, knowing the teen would find more eloquent words at some point. He found it funny how the boy seemed so uneasy when talking to him on a daily basis, yet he was so laid back and bold during their routinary meetings every Friday.

"So… I kinda heard today was your birthday…"

The teacher quirked an eyebrow. He had seen the student when leaving from Ichimaru's noisy party, but hadn't imagined that he would have overheard their conversation.

"And well… Happy Birthday! Or something like that, I guess… Uh… I… got you somethin'."

Ulquiorra took the clumsily wrapped present, feeling some sort of endearment towards the teen for the sweet gesture. The object was covered in multiple layers of green paper and there was a small, pre-made silver bow on the corner. It was clear that the student had wrapped the gift in some sort of rush, and the vision of the already impatient and clumsy Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez fighting with layer after layer of wrapping-paper drew a small smile on Ulquiorra's lips.

He unwrapped the present as carefully as he could, trying not to break the amateur wrapping too much. As he finally got through the last layer of green paper, he found a thin book with an ash color cover and an odd, devilish-looking black creature standing all over it. The title was written in black strokes next to the creature, whose playful, evil smirk could terrify the most daring man.

"Akutawa Ryuunosuke's Jigokuhen. Who told you I like classic Japanese Literature?"

"I figured. Ya teach that stuff yanno'? 'Sides, ya got a lot of books like that."

"And how do you know I don't have it already?"

Grimmjow scratched the back of his head for a second and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"I've been to yer library lots of times, I got a decent idea of what ya got in there."

Ulquiorra gave a second glance at the book, wondering just how well did this teen know him, but decided to ignore his concerns for the time being.

"Come inside. Shihoin-sensei gave me a cake and I doubt I will be able to eat it on my own."


Ulquiorra made a mental note. Never ever let Grimmjow pick the movie again. Even better. Never ever accept to change their routinary Scrabble game for a rented movie. Zombie movies were just boring. He was starting to doze off while the people on the screen cried for their lives or screamed when one of those disgusting monsters came to devour their brains. So clichèd. He took a sideways glance at his blue-haired neighbour/student and couldn't stop the tiny smile from drawing itself on his lips when he saw the teen laughing at the poor innocent people being devoured on the screen. Teens these days were so twisted, he thought as he drifted off to sleep.


Emerald eyes fluttered open as the first specks of sunlight made it past their eyelids. As the initial confusion disappeared, Ulquiorra started to wonder where he was, as it was very clear he was not in his house, and how he had gotten there. Memories of the previous night started to return to him, and he remembered falling asleep on Grimmjow's couch, watching that absurd movie. Then why was he lying down in a foreign bed, as if someone else had tucked him in, making sure he was properly covered so that he would not be cold? Had Grimmjow carried him all the way from the living room to the bedroom while he was asleep? And where was Grimmjow now?

Ulquiorra got up, noticing the clothes he had been wearing were now crumpled from having slept with them, which made him frown. He arranged the bed and walked out of the room into the living room, where the first thing that caught his eye was the blurr of blue hair, and its owner sleeping soundly on the couch. So the teen had really given up the bed for him and settled for staying in the cold living room. He should have just woken him up so that he could go to his own place instead of going through all that trouble. He felt like he was the child here, and not the other way around.

As he covered the teen with a blanket, he knew he had to do something to repay him. He sighed as he pulled his coat closer to his body. Winter was really coming fast.

Grimmjow woke up to the warm sweet scent of home-made food coming from the kitchen. He hadn't as much as touched anything from that kitchen, except for the microwave, ever since he had moved here, save for the rare occasions when his family came to visit and his father cooked. Still in a half-asleep state, his feet dragged him towards the smell, and he was met with a most curious scene.

There was the infamous Ulquiorra Cifer, one of the most terrifying teachers in Karakura High, wearing a baby blue apron with the words "Kiss the Cook", and holding a frying pan with one hand, a look of deep concentration imprinted in his face.

"Oi, what'ya doin'? And where d'ya get that thing?" he slurred trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he pointed at the apron.

Ulquiorra seemed unamused as he turned off the stove and lifted the pan, carrying it towards the counter and signaling for Grimmjow to follow him. On top of the counter there were two plates and a pair of mugs, already filled with steaming hot coffee, which Grimmjow gratefully took.

"I found it in your kitchen, Jaegerjaquez." he pointed out as he served the contents of the frying pan into the plates dilligently, ignoring the teen's first question, as he found the answer pretty obvious. "And good morning." He added as he passed one of the plates to the teen.

"Ohi! Thmis ish gfoohhd!" the teen blurted, with his mouth full of pancakes.

Cifer rolled his eyes at the student's horrible table manners, but did not comment on it as he ate his own food quietly, trying to ignore just how homely the entire scene was.


Grimmjow shut the door as Ulquiorra left the apartment. He leaned his back on the wooden surface and slid down to sit on the floor, covering his face with his hand.

Shit.

Everything was so messed up.

Why? Simple. Last night he had seen Ulquiorra fall asleep on the couch. At first he had thought of leaving the raven haired man there. But something inside him had moved him to carry his small teacher to the bedroom. He couldn't stop himself from noticing how light the man was.

He laid the sleeping man on the bed and tucked him in. It was, after all, a very cold night. He was about to leave when he stopped to watch the pale teacher sleep. He looked peaceful and delicate. Grimmjow didn't have time to notice his features when he was awake, because he was busier thinking of smart retorts to argue with the man. But now that Ulquiorra wasn't giving him a hard time, he could stop and admire his flawless milky skin, his lithe build, his pale face, framed by his rich messy raven locks, his dual-colored lips that seemed to be calling to him…

He did the only thing that seemed natural at the time. He leaned in and brushed his chapped lips against Ulquiorra's. It was only an instant. It was over before he knew it had happened. But it had. And he wanted more. And when that realization hit him, when the weight of what he had just done fell down on him, he covered his mouth with his hands, horrified, and dashed out of the room.

And now everything was really fucked up.


Contrary to Grimmjow's apocalyptic thoughts, he had actually managed to act normally around the raven haired teacher for the next couple of days, in spite of the turmoil going on inside him. After some time had passed, he just came to forget the incident and everything went back to normal.

"Hey, Ulquiorra! What're ya doin' for Christmas?"

Said man rolled his eyes. Today had been the last day of school before the winter break and they were having pizza and playing Chinese Checkers for a change (granted, Grimmjow didn't have what one would call 'exciting' boardgames).

"What have I told you about the use of my name? About your question, I have no plans for Christmas Eve, but I assume you will spend the night with your family."

Grimmjow grinned and took a bite from a slice of pizza, melted cheese dribbling down his chin in a disgusting fashion.

"Aw, c'mon, don't be like that. We're neighbours, aren't we? I'm not gonna go around callin' ya 'Cifer-sensei' when we're in the building, it'd be totally stupid."

No it wouldn't, Ulquiorra thought, but he knew it was a waste of time. He would forever regret pointing out the difference between the neighbour and the teacher-student relationship. The teen was always making the best out of it.

"Anyway, if ya don't have plans, ya can come over to dinner. Spending Christmas alone is the worst plan ever."

"What kind of nonsense are you blabbering about now?"

Grimmjow kept grinning as he moved one of his blue pieces across the gameboard. Oddly enough, he was not that bad in this game.

"Well, I think I never toldja, but Mom and Dad are both European, they came to Japan for college and then they met and married and shit. Somehow they stayed here but that doesn't matter. Point is they have this western thing of the big dinner and the turkey and the family and stuff. Ya already said ya got no plans so ya have no excuse to refuse right? Ya can come an' have dinner with us. I'll just tell'em to bring the stuff over. I don't really feel like goin' back yet."

Ulquiorra blinked perplexed a couple of times. Dinner with Grimmjow's family? Something at the back of his mind was telling him there was something wrong about having dinner with his student's family, but his brain felt a bit too numb to figure out what it was. He was never one for parties, but he decided to give in. After all, he didn't have anything else to do on Christmas Eve.


Of course that little voice had to come back right when Grimmjow's parents rang the bell to the apartment number six. He couldn't get it out of his mind, something felt incredibly wrong about this. Oh right.

What would Grimmjow's family think when they knew their son spent every Friday night playing with his Literature teacher?

But it was too late to run away. Grimmjow had already unlocked the door and Ulquiorra would have to face the angry parents and explain himself to the school board. And hope against all hopes that he would not lose his job, or even worse, face criminal charges for perversion or something along those lines.

He was about to warn Grimmjow to prevent him from saying things that would make him appear like a pervert, but he hadn't even opened his mouth when he heard the blue-haired teen yelp from the door and a pitch voice filling the room.

"THAT GOES FOR TAKING THE XBOX!"

"THE FUCK'S WRONG WITH YOU BRAT?"

Ulquiorra sighed. It was to be expected. This was, after all, Grimmjow's family.

Moments later, Grimmjow came to the dining room grabbing his crotch with a pained expression on his face, followed closely by a short girl with blond hair and pink eyes who was glaring at the teen's back.

That must be the youngest sister, Ulquiorra guessed, eyeing the curious position of Grimmjow's hands, and remembering those stories about the little girl with the odd habit of kicking the teen's private areas.

Behind them he saw three young girls, perhaps two or three years younger than Grimmjow, so different from each other as the night was from the day. One of them had chocolate-colored skin, green eyes and long wavy brown hair. She was bickering with her sister, who had short dark blue hair and dual-colored eyes, while the third sister, with grey eyes and long sleek black hair, kept her mouth hidden behind the long sleeves of her blouse.

The last to enter the room were Grimmjow's parents. His mother was tall and had dark skin like one of her daughters. She had short, spiky golden hair and piercing green eyes, and Ulquiorra felt immediately intimidated by her presence. The father, on contrary seemed to be more calm and laid-back. He had wavy brown hair falling past his shoulders and a poorly kept goatee. His grey eyes scanned the place lazily and he yawned as he walked behind his wife.

"I can't believe you've kept this place exactly the way it was when I lived here. Feels so nostalgic." the man mentioned, yawning again.

"At least it doesn't smell the way it did back then." His wife added with a deep voice and her arms crossed across her chest.

"Uh… yeah, Ulquiorra makes me clean the place 'coz he said he couldn't stand the smell of 'old pizza, sweat and dirty feet'" Grimmjow commented as he showed his family to the dining room.

That is exactly the kind of thing he should not be saying, the young teacher thought miserably, carrying the food trays to the table. The student had asked him to help cooking dinner since his parents had ordered that everything should be ready by the time they arrived and he had no idea of how to prepare a big Christmas dinner on his own, so Ulquiorra had had no other choice but to aid the helpless teen. Or rather, cook everything by himself while Grimmjow decorated the house.

"And who's Ulquiorra? Anyone brave enough to deal with you should be given a medal." the brunette sister laughed, taking a seat at the table that the emerald-eyed man was just finishing setting.

Grimmjow was about to retort angrily when his mother noticed the stranger standing on the opposite side of the room, dusting off his clothes.

"Who is this, Grimmjow?"

The teen turned his gaze at his teacher who sent a calm look in his direction, but still said nothing, waiting to be introduced.

"Didn't I tell ya I was gonna invite a friend over for dinner?"

"We thought you had invited Nnoitra-kun." His father supplied nonchalantly.

Grimmjow clicked his tongue.

"No way! Nnoitra's fun for parties and when I want to destroy somethin'. But he's a douche and he eats a lot." He complained, imagining the lanky idiot devouring all the food in a matter of minutes. "This is Ulquiorra, he lives next door." He finally said, pointing at the shorter man.

Ulquiorra sighed with relief, grateful that Grimmjow had not mentioned that he was his teacher. He knew he could not keep it as a secret forever, but at least he hoped he would not be discovered so soon.

"Ulquiorra, these are my sisters, Mila Rose, Sung-Sun and Apacci." Grimmjow said, pointing at the three girls, who waved their hands at him, "Oh, and this midget's my little sister, Lilynette. I told you about her, didn't I?" he added, pointing at the short blond girl. "And these are my parents."

Grimmjow's parents both bowed. "I'm Tia Harribel, and my husband's name is Starrk, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Ulquiorra bowed too, still a bit scared by the woman's powerful stare. "Ulquiorra Cifer, the pleasure is mine."

Tia Harribel stared at him for a minute. Her deep, piercing eyes sent chills down Ulquiorra's spine.

"Cifer? Aren't you one of Grimmjow's teachers?"

Damn it.


It hadn't been as bad as Ulquiorra had envisioned.

"Well, I don't know what you've been doing, but keep at it. Grimmjow's grades improved noticeably this period, especially in Literature. I was about to lose hope in this idiot. But make him work hard, he needs someone to watch over him since I'm not around."

Seriously. He had expected to be in jail by this moment. But instead, Tia Harribel was thanking him for tutoring her son, not accusing him for being a pervert. He had never felt so relieved in his life.

"Well, Ulquiorra-san looks like a gentleman, he's the kind of influence our Neanderthal brother needed." the long-haired sister said in a quiet voice.

"Shut yer trap, bitc-!"

Grimmjow couldn't finish his banter because Ulquiorra smacked him with a heavy book.

"OI! And what's wrong with you?"

"Such language and behaviour is inapproppriate, do not make such a pitiful display on the table."

The father eyed the exchange and quirked an eyebrow with curiosity but said nothing, sipping wine from his cup. It was in his nature not to act, simply observe and wait for the results. And he was damn good at it.

Tia Harribel didn't seem to notice anything strange, and if she did, she didn't act like it. She was glad to see that there was someone to correct her son when he acted out of line, and she didn't care whatever else was happening beyond that. A couple of months ago, she was prepared to give her only son a warning about his behaviour. She was tired of receiving calls from townspeople and teachers due to Grimmjow's vandalism and terrible performance at school. She was well acquainted with some of the teachers, so she received detailed information about the way her son was doing, even if the teen no longer lived with her and she had been about to give Grimmjow an ultimatum. If his grades didn't rise, she would stop paying his bills. Harribel would not force him to study if he didn't want to, but if he wanted to drop out of school, he'd had to face the real world all on his own.

Thus, she was really pleased to hear that not only had her reckless son started to behave a little more like a civil person, but one of her friends at school had called a couple of weeks ago to say how amazed all the teachers were about Grimmjow's improvement in most of his classes. Whether this was related to this young Literature teacher in more than one way, she couldn't tell yet, and she didn't care.

Suddenly, a piece of meat flew in front of her eyes and was followed by a loud curse from her blue-haired son.

"Ya wanna die, brat?"

"That's for taking the Xbox, stupid!"

"The Xbox's mine, suck it up!"

Harribel sighed. There they go again. It made no sense that her eleven-year-old daughter was always fighting her eighteen-year-old son, but it seemed like those two could not look at each other without starting a fight.

"What were ya just saying about my face, Mila Rose?"

"That you got a huge pimple. Serves you right for eating all my chocolate."

"At least I'm not a fat bitch like ya!"

"Honestly, the way you two fight is so unsightly."

"Shut the hell up, Sung-Sun!"

The three sisters were already bickering over meaningless things again, like they always did. Harribel eyed her husband, who was still sipping his drink lazily. When things came down to all her five children fighting each other, the best to do was to follow his example and just ignore them until all of them got tired and stopped fighting on their own.

Ulquiorra watched the whole display, not quite understanding how the Christmas dinner had become a battlefield. But watching all the siblings bickering and yelling at each other, acting like little kids, no matter how odd it was, gave him a warm, familiar feeling, that reminded him of his time in Tokyo, when his own family gathered to have dinner. A small smile appeared on his lips. He rose from his seat and walked away from the warzone, taking out his cellphone and typing a few characters. He looked at the screen for a couple seconds before pressing the send button.

Merry Christmas, Mom.


A couple of hours later, when Grimmjow's family had already left, Ulquiorra was helping the teen clean after the mess that the food war had left behind.

"I should not be helping you with this. You are almost twenty years old and you participated in a food war with your little sister. You should clean this mess on your own."

"But… pleaasee! I could never do all of this alone! I need ya!" the student whined miserably, holding a mop and a bucket and looking like a lost kitty.

Ulquiorra shook his head disapprovingly. He was spoiling this kid too much.

"Holy fuck, I thought we'd never be done!"

It had taken two hours, but finally the apartment was back to how it looked before dinnertime. It was nearly four in the morning, and they were both completely spent. Cooking, decorating, having dinner, cleaning… All Ulquiorra wanted was to go back to his warm, comfy bed.

"Sorry about my family. They're a bit crazy. Specially Lilybrat. I don't need to tell ya, I guess, ya just saw it." The teen chuckled scratching the back of his head after taking a long gulp of soda.

Ulquiorra shook his head "Actually, I enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me of my own family. My mother's brother, my uncle, he's the owner a very important company and he's always busy, or traveling, so we can rarely see him. So on those rare occassions that he does come home, my mother organizes a big dinner and all the family gathers to spend time together. They are almost as if we were having our own celebration."

Grimmjow grinned. The raven-haired man quirked his eyebrows in curiosity.

"This's the first time you've talked to me 'bout yer family." He said, his grin widening.

Ulquiorra ignored the comment and took something out of his pocket. The sapphire-eyed teen stared with wide eyes at the silver-wrapped box that was being handed at him.

"No way! You got me something for Christmas?"

The teacher rolled his emerald eyes. He had never liked rethorical questions.

The young student opened the present happily, feeling like a little kid, and not caring about it. He believed everyone felt the same childish excitement when opening those colorful boxes, wrapped in bright papers and topped with big bows, as if those present boxes could hide true happiness inside them.

"Awesome man! Videogames! Yer the best!"

Ulquiorra watched him acting like a five-year-old who just opened a present to find exactly what he had asked for, a wide grin adorning his young features as he read over the titles he had just received. He really didn't know why he had done it, he had been walking around the mall and seen a game store and thought about Grimmjow. So he had decided to get them as a Christmas present. Something like an impulsive act. He rarely acted on impulse, and he was surprised at himself for doing it this time. But the young teen looked really happy, so he thought it couldn't be that bad.

Sapphire eyes rose from the games that were making him so happy, and met emerald ones.

"Thanks! Merry Christmas, Ulquiorra."

A hint of a smile appeared on the corner of the teacher's thin lips.

"Merry Christmas, Grimmjow."

To be continued

Firstly, I want to apologize. I wanted to upload this on Friday, but alas, my computer died last Saturday (DIED) and I just got her back yesterday (don't fret, all my files are backed-up). Just so you know, this story is only three-chapters, so the next one is the last one (huuuh, they grow up so quickly) and it's already written, but I'll upload it in a week or two since both chapters are pretty long.

Seconds, I once again apologize since I messed up the notes, Ha. Since the story is already written, I know what I'm supposed to say in the notes but forget which chapter's got what stuff. So I told you about Akutagawa when the book doesn't come up until this chapter. I fail like that. You can read the note about Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's Jigoku-hen at the end of the previous chapter. Sorry for the mess. And yes, I actually used Ulquiorra's real birthday for that (December 1st as per the Masked book)

Ehhh… ah, the Chapter title. The Man of the Crowd is another Poe tale, which, I confess I haven't read (yes, I love Poe, no, I haven't read all of his work). It is supposed to refer to Ulquiorra and his Demophobia (fear of crowds)

Now I want to thank Tokyo Kitty for all the help she gave me beta-reading this and for her advice about Christmas traditions in Japan and school periods and stuff. It helped a lot since I wanted to keep it as realistic as possible. On a funny note, when I described the "bus" she noted that Grimmjow seemed to be taking the bus in Chicago, to which I thought that the bus I described seems more like the ones in my own city so yeah LOL.

And yes, I made Starrk and Harribel to be Grimm's parents. Blame pretense. One of her Stray oneshots stuck with me since my very first incursions into GxU and now it's got to be them. But I added all the siblings because I like lively families full of noisy siblings. Blame my psychotic life.

There's a small mention of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It's a classic, I read it when I was very young and I loved it. I think someone like Grimm would like an adventure sci-fi-ish kind of literature like Verne's.

That's all for my gigantic author notes of doom. I hope you like this chapter and thanks for all your nice reviews! Someone requested that I published Grimmjow's haiku from last chapter… ahhh I'll think about it, if more people ask for it I might want to embarrass mysef and my pathetic non-existent haiku-skills. For now, see you next chapter!