kai crazy: Yeah, again excuse my spelling, through out this story you will see me use different words for Ulquiorra's rank, mainly because I don't know which one to use or which one is correct.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
Claimer: I do however own Akane.
A week passed since Grimmjow began training Akane and she was already improving. She could dodge almost all of his Cero blasts and even managed to injure him a few times during sparing matches. The most noticeable change that everyone saw was in the way she carried herself. At first she had been very shy around most of the other Espada and lower ranking Arrancar; she was frightened by many of the other fracciόn as well. Now she was more confident and even frightened a few other Arrancar when she passed, especially if she was walking with Grimmjow.
"Hey, Ulquiorra, you know what I've noticed?" Grimmjow glanced at the Cuarta who merely gave him a questioning look. "Akane hasn't spoken a single word since she arrived."
"Perhaps she is mute," Ulquiorra shrugged, he obviously didn't care for this conversation.
"No, that's not it," Grimmjow scratched his cheek and gave an annoyed growl.
"Then maybe she is just afraid to speak," He gave the Sexta a side long glance. "Or she is simply afraid of you," The blue eyed Espada flipped him off then. Suddenly, he grinned a devious grin making the Quarto sigh.
"Let's play a small game," He began, getting that look in his eye. "Whoever can get her to speak by the end of this week is free from paper work for a month." Ulquiorra's fingers twitched at the suggestion, no matter how loyal he was to Aizen-sama, he couldn't ignore a chance to be free of paper work.
"This actually sounds quite interesting," He mused. "I'll play," He refused to shake hands.
"Alright, the game starts now," In the blink of an eye, Grimmjow was gone, hurrying towards his quarters where he knew Akane would be. Suddenly the Sexta found himself pinned to the ground, with a certain little Arrancar sitting on his chest. "Dammit, Akane!" He swore, pushing her off. They stood up and Grimmjow realized this was his chance to get an advantage over Ulquiorra. "Why don't you ever talk? Are you mute?" She shook her head. "Do you just not want to talk?" Again she shook her head. "Are you afraid to speak?" This made her pause and think about it. "Are you afraid of someone or has someone threatened you?" She shook her head once more.
"So is there a reason as to why you are so quiet?" She hesitated and looked at her feet. "Look at me when I am talking to you!" She flinched at how harsh his voice was. Grimmjow noticed this and softened his voice, deciding to use a different tactic. "You know you can tell me anything right?" She gave a small nod. "Then why won't you tell me what it is that keeps you from speaking?" She suddenly began tracing words in the air. Grimmjow's eyes widened as the words became visible, like small clouds of smoke. "I'll tell you later," He read aloud. "Why haven't you done that before?" He read her next words and laughed. "You though t it would scare me?" She nodded shyly. "It'll take a lot more than that to scare me!" Her next words made him roll his eyes. "Fine, go rest and no more jumping on me from out of no where," She spelled out her thoughts and he rolled his eyes again. "Whatever you say," With that Akane disappeared.
XxXxXx
Grimmjow fell to his bed in an ungraceful manner and let out a small, if not annoyed, sigh. Akane said she would tell him her reason later but she was no where to be found. He closed his eyes and suddenly gasped when the said girl jumped on his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.
"I said not to do that any more!" He snarled when she jumped away. Cautiously she approached him, climbing onto the bed so she sat face to face with him. "Now are you going to tell me why you don't speak?" She nodded and took a deep breath. At first she only spelled stuff out to him. "So while you were a Hollow you forgot how to talk?" She gave a small, ashamed nod. "I may not be the nicest of the Espada but you are basically my fracciόn so I guess I can help you out." She gave him this wide eyed look, like she couldn't believe what he had said. "I can help you learn to talk again, just don't talk my ear off when you get your voice back." She nodded eagerly, a big smile on her face.
"Now, let's start off with your name," Akane opened her mouth and gave a raspy sound. She tried again with the same result, frustrated she pursed her lips tight. "It's okay, just keep trying," Grimmjow encouraged her. The emerald eyed Arrancar continued to try and each time the raspy sounds became word-like.
"Aka," The rest was a low rasp. "Akan," She was getting closer. "Akane…" Her eyes lit up when she heard her name from her own lips. "Akane!" Grimmjow grinned, he had gotten her to speak but just her name wasn't enough to get him out of a month of paper work.
"Now try saying my name," The girls face fell, she had never really heard his name. "Grimmjow," She mouthed the name first and then tried to speak it. After a few failed attempts she got it, which made her quite happy. "Try saying your name in a sentence," He explained how to do so and had Akane try.
"My n-name is A-Akane," She struggled to form the words but Grimmjow understood what she had said. Through out the afternoon, Grimmjow continued helping Akane regain her lost speech though he found he liked hearing her soft voice more than anything and he wouldn't deny it either. By about what he guessed was a quarter past six, he stopped their lesson, earning a small pout from the girl.
"If we keep going you're gonna hurt your throat," He sighed. "And you've already lost your voice once and I think once was enough." She nodded and slid off the bed, heading towards her newly assigned room. Another fact that Grimmjow hated to admit was he missed her comforting presence in his room at night, not that he actually cared for the small female, he just liked having a similar presence with him. "Hey, Akane," He called after her. The girl stopped in her tracks, one foot out the door and turned to look at him, a confused expression on her face. Had she gotten in trouble? "Look, why don't you stay here tonight?" He rubbed the back of his head, slightly embarrassed. Wait, he, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, the Sexta Espada, was embarrassed? That couldn't be right but he couldn't deny the fact that his face felt slightly heated from suggesting she stay in his room that night.
Intent on not using her voice again, she spelled out the words that said 'really?' as though she were surprised by his suggestion.
"Yeah, I mean it can get kinda lonesome down there ya know?" Grimmjow watched as she cautiously approached the bed again, unsure of whether he was telling the truth. Just before she reached him, the dinner bell rang making the girl jump in surprise; she'd been caught off guard. The Sexta narrowed his eyes; Akane was never one to be caught off guard, what could have caused her to let her guard down? He shrugged it off and got out of bed, shoving his hands in his pockets as he headed for the door. As usual he barked at Ulquiorra when he found the Quarto outside his door, apparently waiting for his fracciόn to be.
"How many times must I repeat myself to you?" He sighed, gazing uncaringly at the larger Espada. "She is not yet your fracciόn to command, you still have another week until then."
"Don't you think I fucking know that?!" He snapped, obviously pissed. Grimmjow noticed that the small Espada's eyes were on Akane and a grin graced his lips as he realized what Ulquiorra was trying to do. Grabbing the front of his uniform, Grimmjow shoved the pale Espada against the wall, leaning in near his ear he snarled, "It won't work ya prick." Ulquiorra only shifted his eyes to look at Grimmjow's face. "Ya know why? Because I already know why she doesn't speak so I have the advantage," With that he gave him another shove and released his uniform. "Let's go," Akane nodded and quietly followed her Espada, giving the Quarto a sad look before she disappeared around the corner.
XxXxXx
That night Grimmjow watched over Akane as she slept, musing to himself when she clutched at the edges of his shirt. He became even more amused when she growled in her sleep, obviously displeased by the fact that he had moved. Even though he had to wait another week until she was his fracciόn, he couldn't help the small sense of pride that welled up for some reason. Why was he proud? Who the fuck knows! It wasn't like he hadn't had fracciόn's before so why should Akane be any different than the last one's he commanded? Sure she was female but that didn't mean shit to Grimmjow, he could make her stronger with hours of rigorous training. Of course this was also his first time having a female fracciόn so it did make things a little awkward but that was something they would have to work on and get past.
He could easily train her to be as strong as Shawlong had been, maybe even stronger since he saw so much potential in her and that was what he wanted. Akane had lots of hidden strength that he could draw out in training so it made her valuable to him; he wanted to be stronger than all the other fracciόn. But another trait that slightly bothered him was her shy nature, it was so damn annoying! Sure she held herself with an air of dignity but that was only when he was around, when he wasn't, Akane was as shy as a newborn kitten. She had this aura around her that could calm him on his worst of days and that, he liked. He could return to the quarters pissed off as all hell and she could calm him without even touching him, hell she didn't even have to be in his room; her calm aura seemed to engulf everything within the Sexta's territory. Everyone who entered that part of Las Noches noticed it, whether they were passing by or actually looking for Grimmjow, they sensed it.
There was one other trait that he hated about Akane. She had a weak killer's instinct. What use was she when she had a weak killer's instinct? He needed his fracciόn to be strong and want to kill, like him and his past group of fracciόn. Without that Akane was useless to him on the battlefield. There had been times she had radiated a murderous aura in the halls when cornered but she had never made any attempt to kill her attackers and usually waited until Grimmjow arrived to scare them off. It was something that he saw as ridiculous, and needed taking care of as fast as possible. He didn't care if they spent a whole day in the training halls, he would mold her into a killer, no matter what it took. Grimmjow had never been fond of female fracciόn's so he didn't bother with having one but now he had Akane and he realized how much more fun it would be. Training female's to be as strong as their male counterparts was always a chore and being who he was; Grimmjow couldn't resist a challenge quite like this. If he was to keep her as his fracciόn than she had to be strong, otherwise training her would have been a waste of his time.
The girl stirred shaking Grimmjow from his thoughts and making him look down. Her mask once again changed before his eyes and he couldn't resist reaching up to touch her ears, awed by the fact that they actually felt real.
'It's only an illusion,' He told himself, pulling his hand away. But they had felt so real, so alive… He couldn't help but wonder about her other powers. Shaking it off Grimmjow turned over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, going over plans for the next day of training. 'Winning this little game will bring me one step closer to beating that fucking bastard Ulquiorra,' He thought with a smirk. Not only was he helping Akane for her sake, he was helping her to help himself. So long as she did as she was told, he didn't care what she did after she regained her speech, as long as she didn't associate herself with the Cuatro Espada; that would piss him off so fast… Grimmjow looked at Akane when she whimpered, curling her body into a small ball before nuzzling into the pillows. The Sexta chuckled and closed his eyes, she really was a kitten. And in less than a week she would be his kitten to command.
kai crazy: I hope you like it, plz R&R