X-X-X-X-X
"Yeah, right. They wouldn't even allow me a wooden sword, so what makes you think they're gonna give me back my Zanpaku-to?" Kaida blinked at Grimmjow, a frown creasing her face as she folded her arms across her chest defensively. He shrugged.
"You haven't even tried. Weren't you the one who said "You never know until you try"? Or some other bullshit like that?" She snorted at this.
"Please, Grimmjow. I'm a Captain with an Espada level Hollow side. What makes you think Aizen, or anyone else in their right mind, would give me back one of the main sources of my power?"
Grimmjow only frowned, thinking over what she had said, before she sighed again. Pointing to his Zanpaku-to, she spoke frankly, with an edge of sarcasm in her voice.
"You want to know the real reason Aizen is only allowing Espada numbers 6 or higher into my quarters? It's because if I can get my hands on ANY Zanpaku-to, then I can find Hieimaru, and potentially kick all of your butts to Soul Society and back." He snorted in disbelief.
"Please, like that's even possible."
"It's is!" she shot back, an angry pout spreading across her face at his smug expression. "I can find Hieimaru just by touching another Zanpaku-to. Or didn't you know that?" She finished with a snide smirk, crossing her arms and tilting her head to the side, regarding him with an all knowing look. He actually growled at her.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Shinigami. What makes you think you could lay hands on my Panthera?" Kaida grinned.
"Is that a challenge, Arrancar?" she smirked, and his eyes widened slightly, before narrowing. She chuckled, before leaning back on her pillows, against the headboard, grinning down at him at the foot of her bed, her snide smirk growing when she saw his disgruntled expression. He was the type who did not appreciate being laughed at.
She turned her eyes to the ceiling, her smirk dying slowly as she regarded the shadowed white stone. As cold and lonely as them both. Finally, she sighed, before sitting up and looking at him, crossing her legs as she leaned forward slightly.
"I can't help but ask, Grimmjow. Why do you continue to follow Aizen, even when I can see that you despise him?" He blinked at her completely serious, slightly curious expression, eyes wide as his brain comprehended the complexity of her question.
She wasn't asking him the face question, per say. She wasn't really asking why he continued to follow Aizen. She was asking what he was fighting for, what meant the most to him, what motivated him to fight the way he did. It wasn't the type of question she asked often, but he found these types of questions from her stirred something in him that urged him to answer her honestly, in all seriousness, and with none of his usual arrogance and defensiveness.
He sighed, eyes drifting shut as he thought about her question, and the answer that he could give her. The only thing he needed to ask himself was if that would be the real answer he gave her, or another dead end. He could tell, without saying a word, by the way her eyes drifted to him, or away from him, sometimes, that she was trying to reach out to him. Trying to understand his world, and the days and years he had spent in it, trying to understand it himself.
Finally, he raised his head, locking eyes with her.
Red met blue, and they held for a moment, as the weight of the air around them pressed down on them.
"I've asked myself that before. But I guess that there are still a few loose ends that I need to take care of, before deciding what to do."
She nodded.
It was one of the most cryptic answers he had ever given her. But she knew, by the look in his eyes as his gaze drifted to her, or away from her, sometimes, that he was trying to let her in, if just a little, and maybe trying to get to know her a tiny bit in return.
X-X-X-X-X
Uluqiorra hadn't said a single word that first morning, when he had walked into Kaida's quarters and found Grimmjow there. He had been surprised, yes, slightly alarmed, oh hell yeah, but he said nothing as his gaze swept over the rather strange scene.
Kaida was sitting at the head of her bed, leaning back on her pillows, legs drawn up under her, neck bent and head forward as she dozed, Grimmjow's head in her lap, his taller frame stretched out across the sheets as he slept, snoring lightly.
Uluqiorra had just stood there for several moments, before backing up the way he had come, waving to the hollow pushing the trolley with Kaida's breakfast to leave it by the door, and then walked away.
There was no real point in him guarding her if Grimmjow was there. He would come back later, once the sixth had returned to his own quarters.
X-X-X-X-X
Only, Grimmjow did not return to his own quarters. Much to Uluqiorra's alarm, he remained with Kaida, never acknowledging the fourth's presence, even when he flared his rather angry reiatsu in annoyance.
Several days went by before the fourth espada finally went to Aizen, his confusion over the whole ordeal reaching a peak when, that morning, Grimmjow had answered the door before Uluqiorra had even entered, taken the tray of food, and shut the door in the fourth's face, all without saying a single word.
"You want to know why Grimmjow is being permitted to have free access to Kaida-san's quarters, when my orders were for all but yourself to stay out?" asked the former shinigami, smiling knowingly down at Uluqiorra from his throne, head tilted to the side as he spoke. The fourth nodded, completely silent. Aizen chuckled.
"Pay no heed to Grimmjow, Uluqiorra. He has done no harm, and I do believe that without him, Kaida's life here would be…unbearably boring."
X-X-X-X-X
"Don't you think he's gonna find it weird, you staying here, I mean?" asked Kaida, accepting the tray of food that Grimmjow handed her, breaking her chopsticks, picking up the bowl of noodles, and tucking in whole heartedly. He chuckled.
"There's little that goes on in Hueco Mundo that Aizen doesn't know about, I'm afraid. So if he hasn't done anything yet, I doubt he will. Besides, you don't seem to mind." At this, Kaida almost choked on her noodles, and, after a few moments of coughing, in which Grimmjow thumped her heartedly on the back, grinning the whole while, she glared up at him, grumbling obscene things under her breathe, most of which she had learned from him.
"Smartass," she finally managed, glaring at him over the rim of her bowl. He chuckled, before picking up her dango stick and sliding one off the end, before popping it in his mouth and starting to chew. She proceeded to smack him upside the head, whereafter he glared at her heatedly.
"What the fuck was that for?" he asked angrily, even as she finished off her noodles with a strange mixture of calm and annoyance stamped across her face. Setting down the bowl and chopsticks, she snatched the last two dango from his hand.
"That was for not asking." She snarled.
One of the many things they argued over was food, and Grimmjow had learned, early on, after a nasty confrontation involving her threatening to impale him with a pare of suddenly threatening wooden chopsticks, to never touch her Taiyaki, thought the rest of the tray was usually negotiable.
Sighing, he rubbed the back of his head, before regarding her curiously. He had accidentally fallen asleep in her room about two weeks prior, and had awoken to the rather strange shock of seeing her leaning over him, also asleep. Suffice it to say that he had nearly panicked in that first instant of wakefulness, but had managed to compose himself enough to explain himself to a sleepy Kaida.
Afterwards, however, when he returned to his own quarters, he found that it felt strangely empty, devoid of feeling. Of her presence. After three sleepless nights, he had returned to her side, only to fall asleep almost the instant he got there, much to his shock. Since then, he had made a habit of sleeping in her room, either on the couch, or beside her on her bed, though he never moved to touch her.
Even he knew that that was crossing a boundary as of yet discussed between the two. Despite the overwhelming urge to reach out and touch her, an urge he had suppressed for a long time, he refrained, knowing from his time with her that she was too inexperienced and fragile in that field to rush into something like that, no matter how much his body wanted it.
So the cycle continued, evolved, and changed, though it still remained nameless. A feeling, a bond, beyond comprehension. Beyond words.
X-X-X-X-X
Second chapter, still have no idea what to think, I just write this stuff…(sighs)…anyway, please read and review!!
Arigato!!
WPD.