Flirting

A/N #1: Crap has been happening in my life, but rather than talk about it I'd like to congratulate my friend who came out at his 30th birthday party. It wasn't really a shock to those of us who knew him well, but I hope that finally coming to terms with himself will lead a happier life than he's led so far. 30 is later than 20, but at least he didn't wait until he was 40!

A/N #2: When is FF going to fix these crazy problems?

Shuuhei was lost in paperwork when someone came through the door. He had left it open to try and let some air in. Kisuke had done something in his office that had filled the whole building with green smoke that smelled curiously of lavender. It wasn't an unpleasant smell, but the smoke stung Shuuhei's eyes. He hadn't even bothered to go in and check on his captain. If he stopped working to make sure Kisuke hadn't blown himself up every time there was a minor explosion in his office he'd never get anything done.

"Lavender?" Grimmjow said from just behind Shuuhei's ear. "A little feminine, eh?"

Shuuhei practically jumped at the sudden voice, but Grimmjow had his hands on his shoulders, holding him down.

"What are you doing?" Shuuhei asked, trying to crane around and look at Grimmjow.

"Nothing. You just almost got me in the face with your shoulder is all," Grimmjow said, although he didn't release his grip on Shuuhei.

"It was from one of Kisuke's experiments," Shuuhei explained.

"Hm," Grimmjow said. Shuuhei could feel him get close again as Grimmjow practically buried his face in Shuuhei's hair. "Yeah, you smell more like mint than lavender."

"Are you...smelling my hair?" Shuuhei asked, trying to not freak out. First of all, just because he was ok with Ichigo touching him, didn't mean he was ok with another man touching him. Second of all, that man happened to be Grimmjow, someone who Shuuhei tried to not hate but who definitely wasn't high on Shuuhei's list of people he liked. Honestly, even if Grimmjow was a woman the whole thing was kind of creepy, considering that Grimmjow's hands were now practically caressing Shuuhei's shoulders. Shuuhei shook Grimmjow's hands off of him and stood up, turning to face Grimmjow.

"Something wrong?" Grimmjow said with a wide grin.

"Why are you here?" Shuuhei questioned him, trying to not let Grimmjow's odd behavior get to him.

"You know, I always was a little confused as to why Ichigo would be so infatuated with you, but I suppose I'm beginning to...see the attraction," Grimmjow said ignoring the question, his voice a low purr.

"Stop being weird. Did you have a message from Captain Zaraki?"

"No. I just came to see you," Grimmjow said. As he spoke he approached Shuuhei, his bright blue eyes never leaving Shuuhei's smokey gray ones.

"Yeah, well you've seen me, so now you can go," Shuuhei replied.

Grimmjow wasn't stopping, still moving towards Shuuhei. Shuuhei unconsciously backed up, then cursed himself when he saw Grimmjow's eyes brighten when he did so. He felt the file cabinet behind him, but Grimmjow took another step, his body slightly pressing into Shuuhei's. Shuuhei was flat against the cabinets, looking up at Grimmjow with shock. Grimmjow placed his hands on either side of Shuuhei's head, preventing him from leaving or even being able to look away.

"There has to be a reason Ichigo likes to kiss you," Grimmjow said, moving his face close to Shuuhei, his lips millimeters away from Shuuhei's. Time slowed down as Shuuhei's panicky thoughts swirled around. He's not going to kiss me, is he? Shuuhei wondered with shock.

There was a loud bang and Grimmjow moved away. Kisuke came bolting out of his room, this time followed by another green cloud.

"Shuuhei, I need..." Kisuke stopped when he saw Grimmjow, who was still standing close to Shuuhei.

"I'll see you soon," Grimmjow said with a wave over his shoulder as he made his exit.

"Are you ok?" Kisuke asked, seeing Shuuhei's flushed face.

"YES!" Shuuhei yelled. Kisuke's eyes got wide but he didn't say anything. "Sorry," Shuuhei's apologized sheepishly. He was mad at himself for how he had handled Grimmjow. I should have hit him with a kido spell or something the second he started getting too close to me, Shuuhei thought. I was just stunned though. I'm still confused. What the hell, Grimmjow?

"You pressed him against the wall and practically kissed him?" Yumichika said in disbelief. "That is not flirting."

"Yeah it is," Ikkaku offered his opinion.

"And what, you would have just kissed him if Captain Urahara hadn't come in?" Yumichika asked.

"Maybe," Grimmjow said. "It was kind of fun. He didn't know what to do."

"Start smaller or he's going to know what you're up to," Yumichika said.

"I thought you didn't like this idea. Why are you helping him?" Ikkaku asked.

"Well, if he's going to do it he should at least do it right," Yumichika explained.

It was a couple of days later when Yumichika pointed out Shuuhei's walking form. "He's alone right now," Yumichika said. "Go and talk to him. And no touching yet!"

"Why are you upset again?" Ichigo asked.

"He's just been weird," Shuuhei told him.

"Grimmjow doesn't really have the same uh...boundaries...that we have."

"No, he was..." Shuuhei knew it was ridiculous of him to say it, but he wanted to say, "Grimmjow was hitting on me!"

There had been three separate times now that Grimmjow had just come up and talked to him. For no reason. Talking about anything. Shuuhei might consider that Grimmjow was just trying to be friendly (for whatever reason) but the looks he was giving Shuuhei, his body language, and most of all his constant compliments made every single conversation amazingly awkward for Shuuhei. He had to fight the urge to bolt whenever he saw Grimmjow approach him, not wanting to answer questions about how he had slept, or wonder how to take a comment about how long his eyelashes were. Grimmjow had even run his finger along Shuuhei's facial tattoo, in a eerily similar gesture to what Ichigo would commonly do.

"He's being creepy," Shuuhei said out loud.

"Better than just insulting you all the time though, right?" Ichigo pointed out.

Actually, no, Shuuhei thought to himself.

He was absolutely mortified when he arrived at his office one Wednesday and found flowers on his desk.

"Ah, how sweet, Ichigo sent you flowers," Kisuke said with a grin.

Shuuhei knew that Ichigo would never send him flowers, at least not to the office (Shuuhei secretly liked flowers but being sent them was way too girly for him). He looked at the small note that was with them. "They're...from Grimmjow," Shuuhei said with a slight choking noise.

"Someone probably told him that people send flowers to each other to apologize," Kisuke shrugged.

"Yeah, Grimmjow is exactly that type of person to apologize for being a jerk," Shuuhei said. "And why the hell would it be red roses?"

"The flower seller probably just talked him into it because they are more expensive."

Ichigo said similar things when Shuuhei brought them home. Shuuhei would have just thrown them out in the office trash but Kisuke convinced him that Ichigo might like them on their dining table so Shuuhei had reluctantly brought them home.

When he got the sake he didn't throw that out either, but that was just because it was high quality sake. He just stashed it in a desk drawer. I'll use it for when Grimmjow comes by and annoys the hell out of me, Shuuhei thought to himself. He tried to ignore the note that came with it. "I hope you enjoy this. Maybe we can share it over dinner sometime." He didn't even bother showing it to Ichigo, knowing he would just view it as a peace offering.

Grimmjow you asshole, I know you're up to something, Shuuhei thought. There's no way that all of sudden he's over Ichigo and totally in to me, and there's no way that I'm not reading the signals he's sending. Sure I was stupid about Ichigo liking me, but that's because we were best friends. It's different with an enemy.

Enemy? Do I still view Grimmjow as that? I suppose not really, Shuuhei had to concede. Rival though, definitely.

"This is fucking driving me crazy," Grimmjow complained. "It was more fun my way."

"I don't see why you don't just show him your released form," Ikkaku said.

"What?" Grimmjow asked.

"What do you mean what? Why do you think Ichigo dressed up as a cat for the costume party?" Ikkaku continued.

"What are you getting at?"

"Come on. Shuuhei has a thing for cats," Ikkaku explained.

"He...seriously?" Grimmjow questioned.

"It's not that weird," Yumichika said. "Unlike Ikkaku who..."

Ikkaku was quick to silence his partner.

Grimmjow raised an eyebrow but didn't ask. He probably didn't want to know.

Shuuhei likes cats, huh? Grimmjow laughed darkly.

Shuuhei gasped as the blindfold went around his eyes. He immediately sensed Grimmjow and his hand went for his zanpakuto.

"Take it easy," Grimmjow said softly. "I'm taking you to a place where you can get all of that aggression out."

"What?" Shuuhei asked, turning to look towards Grimmjow even though he was blinded by the piece of cloth.

"I'm taking you to Captain Zaraki's training room. It's shielded there, no one will bother us," Grimmjow said.

Shuuhei reached up and yanked the blindfold off. "Why this then?" he asked, holding it out.

"Ah, just 'cuz it was fun," Grimmjow said. "I promise not to hurt you if that is what you're scared of."

"Who said I was scared?" Shuuhei replied. "I thought you weren't supposed to fight."

"I can't fight against shinigami, but I can spar," Grimmjow said. "Wanna spar with me?"

Is this really why he's been bothering me the last couple of weeks? Shuuhei wondered. Just to get me upset enough to do this? Or maybe he really thought he was getting on my good side, bribing me so that he could spar against me?

"Fine," Shuuhei agreed.

"One condition," Grimmjow said.

"What's that?"

"Don't tell Ichigo," Grimmjow told him. "I don't want him whining to me if you get all banged up. Besides, I'm pretty sure he told me to never touch you again after we had that little tousle."

That "little tousle" was several thrown punches at a bar just outside of the Seireitei.

"Alright," Shuuhei replied.

Grimmjow's face lit up with a wide grin. "Fantastic," he said with a growl.

Shuuhei wasn't unaware of the dangers. Being in a completely shielded room meant that Grimmjow could fully attack him instead of just spar. He's going to be a little surprised if he tries to actually kill me, Shuuhei thought.

"I'm not stupid," Grimmjow said, as if reading Shuuhei's thoughts. "I know that going all out would get me off my probation and sentenced to death. As fun as it would be, you're not worth death. Besides, Ichigo would get all sad when I brought him your dead body."

"It wouldn't be as easy as you obviously think," Shuuhei said, continuing to follow Grimmjow to Squad 11. "And he'd be more than sad. He'd kick your ass. Again."

Grimmjow ignored him.

The room was cavernous. It looked like it could fit a small building inside of it without any problems. There were odd devices around, all coated with rust...rust which on closer examination appeared to possibly be blood. Shuuhei had wondered how Kenpachi trained, since it wasn't like he could go all out against his own men and the other captains studiously avoided him.

Grimmjow stopped and faced him. "You ready?" he asked.

Shuuhei drew his weapon.

"I hope you're not planning on going after me with your zanpakuto in that state," Grimmjow said. "I want to see your shikai."

Shuuhei tensed. "No."

"Well then this is going to be very quick I guess," Grimmjow told him. He held out his weapon with his right hand, his left hand going to the blade.

"What are you doing?"

Grimmjow raked his hand along his zanpakuto. "Grind, Pantera!" he shouted.

Shuuhei crouched down as a wave of spiritual pressure burst out from the former espada.

Shit, that was...he's really strong, Shuuhei thought to himself. What did he expect though? The initial reports about the espada had all warned "captain level or higher". He was facing something bankai level now. So am I going to give in to him and show him my shikai or am I just going to let myself get royally thrashed without even putting up a fight?

As much as Grimmjow would love a fight with Shuuhei, that wasn't the point of his release. He was pretty sure he could beat the shinigami without having released at all.

Shuuhei looked up as his body adjusted to the increase of spiritual pressure that Grimmjow was giving off. His eyes widened. Grimmjow smiled and deliberately whipped his tail around for added effect.

Grimmjow's feet had become black paws, his hands black as well, his fingers now long claws. His ears were now long, his body covered in white armor. And of course he had that long tail.

Grimmjow...is a cat? Shuuhei wondered.

"You look a little surprised. I was a panther when I was an adhucja," Grimmjow said. He padded closer towards Shuuhei. Shuuhei was still stunned but raised his zanpakuto to defend himself. He didn't even see Grimmjow as he sonidoed closer. Grimmjow's arms were wrapped around him. He felt Grimmjow's tail wrap around his thigh.

This is not goo...Shuuhei's thoughts went blank as Grimmjow kissed him.

Later that evening Shuuhei was out of sorts so Ichigo gave him some space, leaving to go and hang out with Renji. Shuuhei laid on their couch staring at the ceiling.

I let him kiss me, Shuuhei thought. I didn't fight him, I didn't even push him off. I fucking didn't bite off his tongue when he shoved it down my throat. I PET HIS EAR. Shuuhei sighed. That wasn't that weird right? He just wanted to know if it was soft and fuzzy or hard like his armor. Of course HE WAS LETTING GRIMMJOW KISS HIM AT THE TIME.

Grimmjow had kissed him, laughed, and then took off, leaving a confused, slightly turned on, and guilty feeling Shuuhei behind him.

I'm not even that mad at him, Shuuhei realized. I'm mostly pissed off at me. It's in his nature to do crap like this, it's not in mine. And what do I tell Ichigo, "by the way, I kissed Grimmjow?" I mean, I didn't want to, but it's not like I was fighting against it or anything. If Ichigo told me he kissed Grimmjow, how would I react? How can I blame him if he gets as angry as I would?

Shuuhei put his hands over his eyes and wished he had brought that really good sake that Grimmjow had sent him home, because he could really use it right around now.