Aizen entered Szayel Aporro Grantz's laboratory with Ichimaru Gin trailing behind him. Upon spotting the pink haired scientist, who nodded at him, Aizen advanced towards the spot where the Octava stood, which was next to a table where two large items were placed on carefully. "Szayel, are they ready?" the brown haired man asked, gesturing at the items on the table.

Szayel nodded. "Yes. Ulquiorra and Grimmjow's gigais are ready."

"Excellent," Aizen said as he eyed the two clothed gigais on the table.

Ichimaru looked at the gigais over Aizen's shoulder curiously, a smile ever present on his lips. The gigais looked exactly like Ulquiorra (female Ulquiorra, anyways) and Grimmjow did, except for the presence of their Hollow holes, broken masks and markings. They looked human. Szayel really was excellent at what he did. These two gigais were perfect, so what Aizen said next surprised him somewhat.

"These are perfect," Aizen said, "However, there is one or two things that I would like to change about Ulquiorra's gigai."

Szayel raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be, Aizen-sama?"

At the look on Aizen's face, Ichimaru groaned out loud, "Oh God, no, Sousuke…"

Ulquiorra was packing up his belongings into a little suitcase. He did not have many things to bring, just the essentials; toiletries and the God forsaken items that Szayel had given him. It was not like he had many clothes to bring. The only clothes that he owned were his Espada uniform. He eyed them all with distaste. Even so, he still had to rush to pack his things up because he was held up by Grimmjow.

Grimmjow narrowed his sapphire eyes at Ulquiorra, suspicion written in them.

"Just who the hell are you?" the Sexta Espada said.

"…"

What was Ulquiorra supposed to say? He was speechless.

"Who are you?" the Sexta demanded once more.

Brain switching on to thinking mode, Ulquiorra thought quickly, trying to think up of a reasonable answer that the teal haired Espada would accept. "I'm… uhhh… I'm Ulquiorra's cousin!" Ulquiorra invented desperately. "I'm Kiorra Schiffer!"

"Hmm." Grimmjow did not seem happy and he still eyed Ulquiorra with suspicion but he seemed to accept this answer because he did not press Ulquiorra any further on the matter. "Tch. Then I'll see you later then, Ms. Schiffer." He threw one final look at the Cuatra Espada before finally leaving a visibly shaken Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra closed his eyes, his grip on the edges of his suitcase tightening. Did Grimmjow suspect him? It seemed that way. He could tell that the Sexta did not completely trust him. But what could he do about it? Nothing. Ulquiorra would just have to live with it as long as he was in this disgusting female form.

It was just a stroke of luck that he was able to come up with a good enough excuse for why he looked so similar to the Ulquiorra that Grimmjow knew. He should have said he was his sister instead of his cousin, but that moment has passed. There was nothing he could do about it. Ulquiorra settled on to his bed, sighing as he did so.

Going on a mission with Grimmjow and living with him in the human world while doing so.

He wondered how that would be like.

Will he be able to get through this whole ordeal with a Grimmjow who seemed to hold some sort of grudge towards his other identity, Kiorra?

Only time could tell.

"Ulquiorra!" A knock on the door. "Are you decent?"

"Yes," Ulquiorra answered. From the voice, Ulquiorra knew that it was Szayel. And the pink haired scientist obviously remembered what had happened the last time he had entered Ulquiorra's room without knocking first. "Come on in."

Szayel entered the room then, carrying something that looked very much like a female human body over his shoulder and several articles of clothing in his free arm, a look of relief on his face. As attractive as Ulquiorra was in this state, he did not want to barge in like he had done before, accidentally catching Ulquiorra half naked. The Cuatra might just Cero his head off for it.

"What is that?" Ulquiorra asked, eyeing the body that was draped over Szayel's shoulder curiously.

The pink haired scientist placed the clothes on Ulquiorra's bed carefully before putting the gigai into Ulquiorra's outstretched arms.

"This," Szayel said, "Is a gigai of yourself. Kiorra. I have made it especially for your mission. It is essential so that you would be able to live as a human in the human world."

"Ah, I see." Ulquiorra stared at the gigai of himself. Szayel had done an excellent job on this gigai that was like an exact replica of him in his female form. The gigai had Ulquiorra's doll-like face and the same slender, petite body. The only things absent were his Hollow hole, his broken mask and his tear track markings. But that was to be expected. These attributes were not normal in a human being, after all. The gigai's lips were not black and white. They were a soft pink. The gigai's hair was also slightly longer.

The duplicate in his arms was also dressed in clothes that Ulquiorra could only call slutty. By his standards anyways. It was dressed in a green tank top (the same colour of his eyes) and an impossibly short denim miniskirt with equally impossible high heels on his feet to boot. But that was not what made Ulquiorra stare however, his eyes growing larger and larger by the second. He stared at the gigai's chest, then at his own, then at the gigai's, then at his own and then at the gigai's once more, his eyes glued to it.

"Err… Szayel?"

"Yes?"

"Why… Erm…" Ulquiorra hesitated. God, this was embarrassing. "Why does this thing have bigger breasts than I do?"

Indeed, the gigai that he held in his arms had slightly larger boobs than he did. They were not as large as Halibel's, but still. Its breasts were practically spilling out of the tank top for goodness' sake. It was horrifying.

"Oh, uhh…" Szayel turned red in the face. "Aizen-sama told me to do that…" he muttered under his breath but Ulquiorra caught it.

The Cuatra widened his eyes. "He did?" He looked down at the gigai once more and sighed. Well, if that was what Aizen wanted, then he would just have to follow the man's orders. Even if he did not see the point in them. Even if he would have to look like some sort of prostitute with a cute face to do it. "But… Why?" Ulquiorra asked, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. What did a large bust have to do with anything with the mission?

If possible, Szayel turned an even darker shade of red. "Uhhh…" He sweated. Well, this was awkward. How was he going to explain their leader's perverted actions to the innocent Ulquiorra? Spotting the articles of clothing on Ulquiorra's bed out of the corner of his eye, he grabbed them and shoved them in front of Ulquiorra's face. "Since you don't have any normal clothes, I have prepared some for you," Szayel said, in hopes of changing the subject.

It worked though, because Ulquiorra eyed the clothes in distaste, his question completely forgotten. Most of them were quite revealing. Weren't there any other clothes that he could wear instead of these? "Since I think that this mission is going to take some time, I don't think that these are enough," the slender arrancar stated plainly.

The Octava nodded. "Exactly. That is why Aizen-sama is providing both you and Grimmjow quite an amount of money to buy clothes and food."

Ulquiorra let out a breath of relief. "Well, that's good." He did not plan to wear any of these revealing clothes for too long. As soon as he got to the human world, he was going to buy some pants.

"Oh, and Aizen-sama said that you can buy any clothes that you want," Szayel said. "But no pants or anything loose fitting."

Damn it.

Szayel turned to leave. It seemed that he was done explaining everything that he was supposed to explain to Ulquiorra. He rested his hand on the doorknob, looking at Ulquiorra over his shoulder as he did so. "Now, get into you gigai. You will be leaving soon. I'm going to set to work on a cure for this right away."

"Fine," Ulquiorra sighed. He entered the gigai. Once he was in it, he stretched himself, feeling his muscles strain as he did so. He wrinkled his nose. In this gigai, he had the athletic ability of a female who hardly exercised. In other words, he was weak.

"Oh, and another thing." Szayel opened the door, ready to leave. "I have also prepared a few larger sized brassieres for you."

Now, isn't life just a bitch?

When Ulquiorra heard the door click shut, he bent over his suitcase which was placed on the bed. It looked like he needed to pack his new clothes in it now. It would not be long till he would be called to go to the human world with Grimmjow.

Grimmjow was not happy. He was not satisfied with the answer that Kiorra had given him earlier. Ulquiorra had a cousin? He had never heard about the former Cuatra actually having any cousins. Let alone any relatives. It was not that he was angry with Kiorra; it was more like he was angry with himself. If what Kiorra had said was true, he felt stupid for not knowing such a fact about Ulquiorra. He still did not care for Kiorra, nor did he trust her. He did not care that she was now Cuatra Espada, even as a substitute. Because in his eyes, that was all that she would ever be; a substitute.

She may carry the Schiffer name, but she was nothing next to Ulquiorra.

But the teal haired arrancar knew that he did not really think that way of her. He just could not help it. He was still pretty sore about Ulquiorra leaving without telling anyone. It hurt. And having her turn up, taking Ulquiorra's place, really sucked balls.

Grimmjow and his two superiors', Aizen and Ichimaru, footsteps resounded across the hall. The two former shinigamis had picked him up from his room and they were now making their way to Ulquiorra's room, which now belonged to Kiorra. The Cuatra's room was not that far. It was only two rooms away from his. Grimmjow was already in his gigai and was wearing a white button down long sleeved shirt that fit him in all the right places and a pair of black slacks. He did not tuck in his shirt which added to his I-don't-give-a-fuck look.

Grimmjow did not know why Aizen had tagged along since it was only supposed to be Ichimaru who was to lead them to the human world, but the brown haired man had insisted on coming. All Grimmjow knew that it had something to do with wanting to make Kiorra more familiar with her leader since she was new.

Familiar his ass.

Noticing the Sexta's sour face, Ichimaru, who was walking beside him, spoke up.

"Not looking forward to working together with Kiorra-chan, are you, Grimmy-chan?"

Grimmjow flicked his sapphire eyes lazily at the silver haired man. "Hn," he grunted in response, shrugging, pulling his luggage behind him.

He did not bring much since Szayel had assured him that Aizen would be providing him and Kiorra with a large amount of money. Some of the money was in the wallet that his superiors had given him. It was tucked safely in his back pocket. The other half of the money was given to Kiorra.

To be honest, he was not sure what to feel about Kiorra. There was a part of him that hated her, resented her, in fact. But there was another part that was… he did not know how to put it; attracted towards her? He shook his head, ridding his mind of such thoughts. He did not want to think about it at the moment.

When they had arrived at the Cuatra's door, without thinking, Grimmjow grabbed the door knob, twisted it and swung the door open.

The sight that met his eyes nearly made him faint.

Kiorra was bending over her suitcase in front of them, so caught up in packing that she was completely unaware of her new visitors. She had bent down so low in a way that Grimmjow, Aizen and Ichimaru could see her panties and part of her perky butt. Aizen and Ichimaru seemed to appreciate this display, especially Aizen. Grimmjow, however, was a whole different story.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT………………………….!!!" Grimmjow yelled. And as if on cue, blood spurted out of his nose.

"Hm?" Kiorra straightened up and turned around to find a flustered and embarrassed looking Grimmjow trying to staunch the flow of blood from his nose using his sleeve. There goes his clean, white shirt.

"ARE YOU FRIGGIN' NUTS, WOMAN??!" Grimmjow screamed in her face, surprising poor Kiorra. "You do not… You do not just bend over and… You… don't just… no bending… JUST DON'T FUCKING DO IT AGAIN, YOU HEAR ME??!"

The infuriating female Espada blinked. "Do what?" she asked, clueless.

Grimmjow really, really, really wanted to strangle her then. He was about to go into another screaming tirade when he suddenly deflated, realizing that it was not worth getting pissed off over. "Tch. If you don't know, then never mind…" Grimmjow muttered, his cheeks tinted pink as he averted his sapphire eyes away from Kiorra's doll-like face. He shoved his one free hand into his pocket, kicking at an imaginary pebble on the floor, completely and utterly embarrassed.

"You are bleeding," Kiorra stated plainly.

"Yeah, well…" he said, embarrassed. "Forget about it. It's nothing."

Kiorra pulled a handkerchief out of the pocket of her miniskirt, gently removed the arm that Grimmjow was using to cover his nose from his face and cleaned up the mess, completely oblivious to what a nosebleed meant and who exactly caused it.

"Hey, hey…" Grimmjow said weakly, his eyes wide as he stared at her. She was way too close for comfort. Uncomfortable at their close proximity, he grabbed the handkerchief out of her hand and jumped away from her. "I can do it myself, thanks," he said awkwardly.

The emerald eyed arrancar looked at him and let her arms fall to her sides. "Ah, I see." She looked hurt but there was no way Grimmjow was going to take that back now. He knew that she had meant well, but he could not help feeling slightly uncomfortable. Especially since she was the reason for his uhh… reaction.

Deciding to break the tension, Ichimaru cleared his throat. Aizen still had not broken out of his daydream since he had seen Ulquiorra's knickers so he was useless at the moment. Why did he have to do everything around here?

"Kiorra-chan," Ichimaru addressed Ulquiorra, who snapped to attention. "Here is your half of the money for your trip to the human world. Money will be sent to you every week, so spend it wisely, okay?" He pressed a purse into Ulquiorra's hand.

Ulquiorra nodded.

"Good girl." The smile on Ichimaru's face widened. "Now, let's go to the human world."

A garganta was opened and before Ulquiorra stepped into the portal, he risked a glance at Grimmjow. The teal haired arrancar seemed to be looking away from him determinedly. Well, now he knew that their trip was going to be a hell of a lot of fun. Especially since Grimmjow obviously hated his guts. Whoopee, Ulquiorra thought sarcastically.

Ulquiorra hardly ever went to the human world. When he did, it was only to carry out missions and he did not have time to look around so he did not have much knowledge on humans. So now that he was in the human world, he could not help looking around in wonder, eyes wide. They were in town and there were humans everywhere. So this was what humans did. Women were bustling around, buying groceries. Teenage girls were out shopping with their friends, constantly shrieking over displays of beautiful clothing in the windows of stores. Men were driving to work. Teenage boys were hanging out as they checked out attractive looking girls. There were some children screaming and running around.

The noise was deafening.

He noted that even Grimmjow seemed to be fascinated, if not a little by their surroundings, however, the teal haired arrancar hid it with an air of annoyance. Only Aizen and Ichimaru did not seem to be at all impressed by the sights that the human world offered them. But that was no surprise. They used to be shinigamis, after all. Of course they would have a lot of experience in the human world.

Yes, Ulquiorra had lived in the human world, back when he was still alive. But that was many years ago and it seemed that the world had changed in his absence. There were now cars, tall buildings and technology. He guessed that he must have been away and dead much longer than he had thought.

"Aizen-sama," Ulquiorra said. "When are we going to reach the hotel?"

"Soon, Kiorra," Aizen replied, his eyes on an oblivious Ulquiorra's chest. "We are almost there."

"Oh, okay." Ulquiorra fell silent once more.

They passed by more buildings, shops and people. No one took notice of the two former shinigamis, of course. The two men did not bother with gigais. So the people only saw Ulquiorra and Grimmjow walking together side by side. If anyone saw them from afar, they would have thought that the two were a couple. But upon further inspection, they would feel the tension in the air between the two. Quite a few girls and women giggled or threw flirty looks Grimmjow's way, irritating Ulquiorra to no end. Luckily, the Sexta paid no heed to the fawning females, much to Ulquiorra's relief. Ulquiorra noted that teenage boys and men that they had passed by had the tendency to stare at Ulquiorra's backside.

Why on earth would anyone want to stare at someone's backside?

Humans nowadays were so weird.

"We're here," Ichimaru announced happily.

Ulquiorra looked up at the building that they had stopped in front of. It was very tall and it looked… expensive. How could Aizen-sama afford to pay for this if they were to stay here for months? Aizen-sama was a great man and everything but everyone had their limits. When they had entered their rooms, Ulquiorra's eyes widened even more. Even Grimmjow looked impressed, his façade slipping for a moment.

The room was… perfect.

It was tastefully furnished and there was even a little kitchen for Grimmjow and Ulquiorra to do their cooking. Oh, wait, scratch that. For Ulquiorra to do the cooking. He doubted that the Sexta had any skills in cooking. The man would probably set the whole hotel on fire. The refrigerator was empty, though. They would have to buy some food later.

Noticing the look on Ulquiorra's face, Aizen said, "Don't you worry about the money, Kiorra. After all, my Cuatra Espada deserves the best."

Not sure how to reply to that, Ulquiorra nodded silently. The attention that Aizen-sama kept on giving him today was making him feel a bit confused. His superior usually gave him orders and that was it. But now, the man was actually looking at him. Ulquiorra was not sure whether he should be glad for this or if he should run for the hills.

Ulquiorra explored the room while Grimmjow went off with Ichimaru and Aizen to look at the bedroom. The Cuatra saw that the bathroom was spotless. It had both a shower and a bathtub. And the living room had a couch and two armchairs facing a television set with a little coffee table in between. Ulquiorra doubted that they were going to be watching much television, though. Grimmjow and he will be having their hands full with dealing with that Kurosaki boy.

Ulquiorra had never met the boy before so he had not the faintest idea how the boy looked like. Aizen-sama did not even provide them with a photo of Kurosaki. All he had said was that Ulquiorra would know who the boy was as soon as he met him; Kurosaki had a vast reiatsu that was hard to ignore. Well, Ulquiorra supposed that that was good enough for him to go on. It was rare for mere humans to possess vast reiatsu.

"You have GOT to be freaking KIDDING me!" came Grimmjow's voice from the bedroom.

Curious, Ulquiorra walked into the bedroom where he met a seething Grimmjow and a laughing Ichimaru Gin.

"What's wrong?" Ulquiorra asked.

"Just take a look at the room!" Grimmjow seethed, pointing a finger at the innocent bedroom as though he had found it offensive.

"There's nothing wrong with it."

"Just look properly," Grimmjow insisted.

And so Ulquiorra looked. The bedroom seemed innocent enough. Ulquiorra found nothing offensive about it. It was tastefully decorated, just like the rest of the rooms and it even had a large bed…

Oh.

"There is only one bed." Ulquiorra's throat constricted.

"Damn straight!" Grimmjow said indignantly.

The Cuatra Espada felt like fainting. Not only did he have to work and live with the Sexta Espada, he would have to sleep with him as well?? And not even sleep with him in a fun way, mind you. Sleep as in sleeping in the same bed. Together. That act itself was so intimate to Ulquiorra that he wanted nothing more than to bolt out of the room.

Enjoying the panicked and angered looks on the two Espadas' faces, Ichimaru decided to tease them some more. He sat down on the bed, making it move under his weight and sloshing sounds could be heard. When the looks of horror escalated on both Ulquiorra and Grimmjow's faces, the smile on Ichimaru's face widened. "Do you like it?"

It was a bed. Not just any bed. A water bed.

Oh my fucking God.

"You're kidding me!" Grimmjow said in disbelief. "You have got to be fucking kidding me!"

The smile that was permanently plastered on the silver haired man's face told them otherwise.

"Why, Grimmjow, I would think that you would be jumping at this chance," Ichimaru said slyly.

Grimmjow's face turned red, a colour that contrasted with his own blue hair. "Shut up, you perv!" Grimmjow said heatedly.

But Ichimaru only laughed. "Well, since we have already brought you here to your hotel room, it is time for us to leave. Enjoy the bed," Ichimaru said easily, making Grimmjow growl. The fox faced man did not seem threatened by this, though. If anything, it only amused him even more. "Let's go, Sousuke. Sousuke?"

"Wait," Aizen said. He had been standing in the corner of the room the whole time but Ulquiorra and Grimmjow had not noticed him until now since they were too preoccupied freaking out over the God forsaken bed that they were to share. Aizen dug into his pocket and threw a coin over Ulquiorra's head, who was directly in front of him. "Oops, I seem to have dropped a coin. Can you help me pick it up, Kiorra?"

"Of course." Ulquiorra bent over and picked up the coin.

As he did so, Aizen imprinted the image in his mind. This was nearly as good as eating cookies. Once Ulquiorra had picked it up and placed the coin into his leader's hand, Ichimaru rolled his eyes and grabbed Aizen by the arm. "Come here, you horn dog," Ichimaru muttered, irritated. "We are going home." He looked at Ulquiorra and Grimmjow over his shoulder. "Good luck. Bye bye." He waved at them in his trademark way as he wished them goodbye before finally leaving the room.

The tension in the room was so thick, Ulquiorra felt like he would drown in it.

Kicking at his feet, Ulquiorra fidgeted. "Urm…" He looked at Grimmjow, who promptly looked away from him. Now that their superiors were gone, the man did not seem to want to talk to him. "So what do we do now?" Ulquiorra said helplessly.

"…" Grimmjow went into the living room and propped his feet up on the coffee table, Ulquiorra trailing behind him. The Sexta was plainly ignoring him.

Come on, say something, damn it. Ulquiorra badly wanted to shake Grimmjow.

Finally, the Sexta said, "Beats me." He added, "Hell if I care."

When the teal haired arrancar did not make any attempt to start a conversation with him or to even acknowledge his presence, Ulquiorra gave up. If Grimmjow did not want to talk to him, then fine. Grimmjow must really hate him. The man had jumped away from him when Ulquiorra tried helping him with cleaning up his blood; how the Sexta started bleeding in the first place, he had no idea. And he also seemed especially repulsed with the idea of sharing a bed with Ulquiorra. Was Ulquiorra that disgusting? Ulquiorra was not exactly ugly, that much he knew. And as far as he remembered, he did not remember doing anything to offend Grimmjow since he had been turned into a female.

Deciding that he could not take the tension anymore, Ulquiorra said, "I'm going to buy the groceries." He needed a breath of fresh air to clear his mind.

"Hn," was all Ulquiorra received as a response from Grimmjow.

Once Grimmjow was sure that Kiorra was gone, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cushions. He knew that he should not have been so cruel to Kiorra, but right now, he did not fucking care about anything. He did not even want to be here in the first place. It was not like he could have any fun in this place; he had been sent here on a mission. So fun was out of the question. Not only was he not allowed to have fun, he had to spy on some stupid Ryoka boy? Grimmjow was pretty sure that he had better things to do than to just watch the boy. For example, he could be killing the boy. Now THAT was fun.

And then there was also the fact that a certain emerald eyed arrancar's absence was bothering him.

Ulquiorra.

Where are you?

Grimmjow looked up at the ceiling. Many a time that he had spent arguing with Ulquiorra, irritating the Cuatra to no end, he remembered. He wished that he had not done that. Otherwise, things would have been different. And approaching the subject on dreams would have been much easier.

How long was Ulquiorra going to be away?

Grimmjow regretted not speaking to Ulquiorra on the matter sooner. Especially now that he was gone and Grimmjow had no idea how long the slender arrancar would be away. It could be days. It could be weeks. It could also easily be months, depending on how hard the mission that Aizen had sent him on was.

Grimmjow wanted Ulquiorra to come back. They needed to have a serious talk as soon as the real Cuatra returned.

With that last thought in mind, Grimmjow closed his sapphire eyes, the familiar image of Ulquiorra Schiffer's face forming in his mind's eye as sleep took him over.

Ulquiorra was no stranger to grocery stores. He had heard about them from lower arrancars. Aizen-sama usually sent a few to the human world every now and then to buy some food and his beloved tea. Since there was no way they could get any food in Hueco Mundo, they had to get their food from the real world. Sometimes Ulquiorra wondered where Aizen-sama had gotten his money from, but he supposed that the man had his ways.

Even though he had heard of grocery stores, this was his first time actually being in one. He had some trouble trying to find it, at first, but he managed to get some directions from a few friendly residents of the town and here he was.

Ulquiorra stared up at the shelves of food, wondering which ones he should get.

There was just so many to choose from. Cans of food, vegetables, fruits, meat… Ulquiorra decided to buy a bit of everything, especially the canned food. He had a feeling that Grimmjow was the type that would eat a lot. It was a wonder that the lower arrancars were able to do this without breaking a sweat and some even liked it. But then again, Ulquiorra supposed that they were used to it. And the human world did have much more to offer than Hueco Mundo, he had to admit that.

Once he had bought everything that they needed, Ulquiorra pushed the little trolley of food to the counter to pay. The cashier rang up the price and Ulquiorra paid the amount needed. Even with his little shopping trip, he still had quite a large amount of money left. Aizen-sama really was generous with the amount that he had given them.

Ulquiorra carried the plastic bags of groceries, intending to return to their hotel room. He had spent a long enough time shopping to avoid Grimmjow.

Grimmjow.

Ulquiorra sighed.

What was he going to do with the Sexta?

What would happen if Grimmjow had found out about his identity? This worry gnawed him at the back of his mind. What was he to do if Grimmjow found out? Ulquiorra would not be able to live it down. And then there was the matter of those infuriating dreams. Ulquiorra could have kicked himself for not taking an earlier initiative. If he had not hesitated and procrastinated on confronting the Sexta, their confrontation would not be postponed. Or, Ulquiorra's throat constricted, if I'm going to be stuck this way forever, then the confrontation will never happen.

He would forever live wanting to know the answer. But at the same time, he did not want to know. Because, what if he was not the one for Grimmjow?

Ulquiorra clutched at the plastic bags tightly.

Well, if I'm going to be stuck this way forever, Ulquiorra reasoned, I will just have to tell him.

There was no point in avoiding the confronting the Sexta if Szayel could not come up with a cure and his condition would be permanent. But that was only if it was permanent. For now, Ulquiorra was going to keep his identity a secret from Grimmjow.

The emerald eyed arrancar was so lost in his thoughts that he had accidentally bumped into someone, making that person fall backwards onto the ground with Ulquiorra landing on top of that person.

"Ow! Watch it!" the young man cried out as his head hit the ground painfully. He rubbed at the back of his head as he studied Ulquiorra who had landed on his chest. Once the initial shock of being knocked over was gone, the angered look in his warm, brown eyes disappeared and it turned into one of concern. "Are you hurt?" he questioned.

"No, I'm not." Ulquiorra shook his head numbly. "I'm sorry," he apologized.

The young man shook his head. "Nah, it's alright." He laughed awkwardly. "Maybe we should get out of this position, huh?" Indeed, people had started staring at them. Some were even glaring at them, sending looks of disapproval their way. The young man stood up and held Ulquiorra's hand as he did so, pulling him up.

Once Ulquiorra was back on his feet, he dusted at his clothes.

"Are you new around here?" the man asked.

Ulquiorra looked up at the man. He was taller than Ulquiorra and, Ulquiorra noticed that the man's hair was an unusual shade of orange. "Yes, I suppose you can say that," Ulquiorra answered vaguely. "I just came here today, actually."

"I see." He paused. "Well, since you are new, maybe we can go out some time and I can show you around?"

The Cuatra immediately brightened up at that, the meaning behind the man's question completely lost on him. "Really?" Ulquiorra said hopefully. He did not like walking around like an idiot with absolutely no clue where he was going. And the young man seemed nice enough, so…

"Yes, really," he laughed. "What's your name?"

"Ul- I mean, Kiorra," Ulquiorra managed to catch himself. "Kiorra Schiffer."

"Well, it's a date then, Kiorra."

Ulquiorra blinked. A… date…? Was the man actually flirting with him? "And what's your name?"

The young man raised an orange eyebrow. "Oh, I didn't mention it? My name is Ichigo. Ichigo Kurosaki."

Grimmjow woke up with a start, breathing hard, sweat trickling down his brow, the look on his face one of panic and confusion. In his dream, he had seen Ulquiorra Schiffer's image in his mind's eye. But then, the image suddenly morphed into someone else. Someone completely different.

"Kiorra," Grimmjow breathed hard and fast.

HOW ULQUIORRA LOOKS LIKE AS A FEMALE: Since some of you have asked me to draw how he looks like in his fem Espada uniform. I have drawn two drawings. The drawings are available on my Deviantart account, if any of you are interested in looking at them. The links are available on my profile.

A/N: Whoa. I didn't realise that it has been nearly a month since I've last updated this. Sorry if I disappointed any of you with this chapter. It's not that great or funny, I know. I actually struggled with writing this, so yeah. D: Reviews are appreciated.