Hey peeps, first of all tenth chapter! Yay! And second, over 1k hits? If I could scream from the top of a cliff I would. That may not seem like a lot for a story, but to me it's on par with a million. Honestly, since I have a knack for killing stories when it's not even the second chapter, I never thought it would come this far. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed this story because it was that first follower who pushed me to crank out the second chapter, and since I'm a freak and saved that email notification, here's a shoutout to you: Xxdreamergirl95xX. Sorry for this long A/N, but I just wanted you guys to know that I really am thankful for everything, even the reviews where you guys voice your own opinions and tell what you liked or didn't like about the chapter, because it lets me know! In this chapter we explore more.. feelings! Sorry this is short, but hope you guys enjoy ^_^

Chapter 10

Arrival

Grimmjow's first reaction the moment their lips touched was to push the girl away. But he didn't. The girl's eyes slid shut, which Grimmjow was glad for because then he wouldn't have to awkwardly look into them. His own eyes, though, were only at half- mast, flickering around the girl's face, unsure of what to do.

The kiss itself could hardly be classified as such. The initial touch of their lips had caught Grimmjow off guard more than Mikan, and he had started to shrink back, slowly inching away, millimeter by millimeter. Unfortunately, and amusingly a lot like a dog with a bone dangling in front of it, the girl leaned forward as he leaned back, keeping the same distance.

His toes curled in his shoes and he was suddenly aware of his hands on the girl's wrist and the back of her neck. He felt like such a human, such a fucking dumbass for acting like one. He may have donned their clothing and looked the part, but there was no erasing the six tattooed underneath his gigai.

Suddenly the door behind him suddenly swung open, bubbly laughter dying away. Like, well, two teenagers caught together, both Mikan and Grimmjow snapped out of the lip- brushing and stepped away from each other. Grimmjow threw his hands off the girl to boot, pushing her back as he did. His head spun around, lips sealing shut when the unheard guests stood and gawked at them. Mikan's eyes snapped open, full of confusion and slight hurt as she looked from him to Ichigo, Orihime, and Urahara.

Grimmjow's previously lowered eyes had snapped back into their place in a searing glare not particularly directed at any one person. As the seconds ticked by, the air grew stiffer and more uncomfortable, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife.

"You wanna tell me what was going on?" Urahara said in his usual slow, sleek voice behind his fan. The words only added fuel to the burning bonfire, however, snapping Grimmjow into action, angrily stuffing his hands into his pockets and muttering a, "fuck!"

Grimmjow stomped past Orihime, shoving her aside with his shoulder, and kicking the door open with his foot. It seemed to rattle on its hinges after he slammed it shut, leaving a resonating sound into the silence.

Mikan stood there with one hand that had started to reach for the clearly upset bluenette, but decided against it. Ichigo's mouth hung open, his whiskey- colored eyes wide and unbelieving. The scene they had intruded upon: Mikan kissing... Grimmjow?

"Were you guys just- was that- a- are you-" He couldn't even form coherent and complete sentences. His words jumbled up in his mouth, gushing out like a waterfall. He just couldn't believe what his mind was blatantly telling him. How could Grimmjow have willingly locked lips with a human? Then again, the little temper tantrum he had thrown just then could have meant there hadn't been mutual consent in the kiss. In that case, had Mikan come onto Grimmjow? Ichigo tried to wrap his mind around that idea, but she just didn't seem like that kind of person.

"Fucking shit damn!" The random profanities spilled out of Mikan's mouth without her usual filter on. If it weren't for the situation, it probably would've been funny for the Level 2 Cusser to have been at a Level 4. Orihime stepped aside wordlessly, allowing her to slip inside most likely run to her room.

The door slammed shut for the second time, the wood near splintering into pieces. Ichigo, Orihime, Urahara stood there together, looking, but not seeing, at the cars whizzing by on the street. Urahara was the one who broke the silence, with a simple, "Interesting."

"Interesting? Is that all you have to say, Urahara?!" Ichigo exclaimed. The clog- wearing man grinned and looked at Ichigo from the corner of his eye.

"What else is there to say?"

"Mikan and Grimmjow were-! They...were... are they together?" He spluttered, utterly baffled by the concept of Grimmjow, a former Espada, taking Mikan, a human, out on dates. It was an absolutely ludicrous idea.

"It's kind of cute." Orihime chimed and tapped a finger on her chin, wondering about how the two would look together. Unusual, but perhaps not too far fetched. "Cute? Grimmjow is an arrancar! Mikan is a human! How would things work out between them? Not to mention, is Grimmjow even capable of emotions like love?" Ichigo said exasperatedly, using hand gestures as an emphasize on his point. Urahara silently pondered the topic himself. Not matter what happened between those two, the bottom line was: he didn't want Mikan getting hurt. He wasn't blind, he could see how she acted when Grimmjow said something or reacted to something she said. The girl was smitten. And he wasn't sure he was comfortable with that.

"We'll figure things out." Urahara mused as usual, the hat on his hat putting a cork on all his flowing thoughts and turmoil, not letting them seep out. Ichigo rolled his eyes and let out a deep breath.

"Ugh. When did everything become this complicated? That stupid Grimmjow should just go back to Hueco Mundo." He muttered, digging a hole in the ground with the tip of his sneakers. Orihime's eyes softened with concern when she saw the troubled look marring Ichigo's face. Tightening her lips in a line, she said, "I should get going. Rangiku and Toshiro are probably waiting for me at home." She clasped her hands together and forced a sweet smile on, "Bye Ichigo! I guess I'll see you in class Monday." He raised his head at his name and gave a swift nod, then went back to twisting his foot around. Orihime's smile dimmed slightly, but she had already turned away and he was none the wiser.

Urahara was facing the closed door, not sure why he hadn't gone inside already. It felt so strange to him, the idea of treating Mikan like his daughter. Of course, she was dear to him, like a daughter, but perhaps being a father just wasn't a suit he was about to wear just yet. He preferred the term guardian. Yes, with a slight nod of his head, he went inside the store that seemed a tad too quiet, just like the calm before the tempest.

The small light stand next to the bed went flying, ricocheting off the wall and the wood splintering into pieces. The impact had also left a nicely sized dent in the wall, but Grimmjow didn't care. He was angry and not in a good mood, to say the least. He was livid.

What had he been thinking? He would have liked to know what he had been thinking? Never in all his life, spent at either Hueco Mundo or the Human World, did he ever even dream he would have been... doing that vulgar act with a human. The only question was why? What had caused that spur of the moment? Why was he so angry? Would he still stay in the World of the Living? Could he bear to show his face again? There were too many questions, none of which he wanted to answer.

"Damn. It. All." With every word he bit out, a piece of furniture he could get his hands on went flying at the wall like a Frisbee. He couldn't go out of his gigai and go looking for some hollows to kill, either, because of that stupid Shinigami Captain. And he couldn't just punch the shit out of everything he saw because of said gigai and how intolerant it was to things like pain.

Grimmjow let out a soft huff and ran his hands through his hair before resting them on top of his head. There was just the lightest of throbs, a minuscule little thing, but it reminded him of the injuries he had brought with him when he first came to the Human World. They had all mostly healed, relatively fast all things considered, but his tantrum must have reawakened them. It didn't matter, though, and he didn't care.

Now what? His smartass mind thought as Grimmjow looked around at the trashed room. The only things intact were the bed and the window. All four walls were polka- dotted with dent marks, revealing the white insulation inside. The night stand, chair, and small desk were all strewn around and laying on pieces on the floor. It looked like there had been a hurricane in the room, but it was really just the aftermath of Grimmjow's chaotic emotions.

Emotions. What a weak, bitchy word. Were emotions why he had acted like he did? If so, then Grimmjow thought he had better figure his plans out for the future, and fast, before the disease known as Emotions took over more of his mind. He felt lower than he had ever felt before, and that included the time when Tousen had sliced his arm off like it had been made out of butter. That had been a cheap shot, though. What he did with the girl, that had been his own action, and he was severely regretting it.

Inhale through the nose, exhale out the mouth, inhale, exhale. Grimmjow repeated the routine until his breathing wasn't so erratic, and his mind didn't feel like it was about to explode. At least not yet, anyways. But what should he do? He didn't want to talk to anyone, especially not the human girl. She was too unsettling to be around, and made him too relaxed which was definitely a bad thing.

Resting hands went back into action, plowing through lush blue hair. He felt restless. His legs propelled his body to the door, and his hand even rested on the doorknob, ready to turn it and then- then what? A sigh escaped Grimmjow as he weighed his options:

1). Grow a pair and confront Mikan.

2). Stay in the room.

3). Take a nap.

The options got progressively more lax and unproductive the more he thought about it. While he was getting tired, he didn't want to have given Kurosaki the wrong impression that he... was in a relationship with the girl. Pride and strength, the two factors that dominated most of his actions. Except that one...

Alright. His alter ego could kindly shut the fuck out. Grimmjow glanced at the setting sun behind the window before flopping down onto the bed eagle- spread, with his face in between two pillows.

Option 3 it was.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh geez, oh man. Oh golly. Oh gosh. Oh damn. Oh fuck." Mikan ranted every oh- something she could think (they got progressively more vulgar) to try and calm down. It didn't work, since she was still pacing back and forth in her room, fingertips touching her lips.

She had kissed Grimmjow. On the lips. What the hell was she thinking?! Of course he had practically shoved her away and then bolted from the scene, it wasn't like he had wanted to be kissed! And it just made her want to crawl into her bed and die under the covers when Ichigo, Orhime, and Urahara had walked out to that scene. Her self- embarrassment was at an all- time low and it felt absolutely awful.

At least she knew the answer that somewhat sated her curiosity. Her stupid, damn curiosity. Just when she and Grimmjow had started getting along fine and dandy, it had to come along and tear down everything with a life- ruining kiss.

Okay, maybe she was being a little dramatic, but how could she not? Mikan couldn't believe that she had locked lips with the same ex- Espada that had used Rukia as a glove and Ichigo as a personal punching bag. It was crazy to think something so... human had happened between the two. And the kiss itself... It had felt breathtaking to Mikan; had made her want to fling her arms around Grimmjow and have him spin her around in a circle (not that that would ever actually happen). It had probably felt chaste to Grimmjow, but somehow Mikan was ok with it being her first kiss.

Yep. Seventeen years old and a had- been lip virgin, not that there was anything wrong with that, Mikan just never dreamed her first kiss would've been with an arrancar with crazy, wild, blue locks and a wicked, psychotic grin that she always liked seeing, not to mention those cornflower blue eyes that had no trouble rendering her speechless with loss...

Hormones. Hormones all over the place. Mikan let out a groan and placed each of her hands over her ears, even though there wasn't any noise to block out. And right after that, there was a loud crash that came from the wall between Mikan and Grimmjow's rooms. It didn't take a genius to figure out said bluenette was probably having fun wrecking the room, if the noise that followed after the initial crash meant anything.

The brunette girl sat down on her white- spread bed. Her jaw clenched and relaxed over and over, which was probably bad for her teeth and made them feel weird, but she didn't care. The repeated action was a poor attempt at distracting herself from thinking how silly a notion it had been from the start to be attracted to Grimmjow. After all, wasn't that practically the same as turning traitor?

But then everyone accepted Grimmjow, no matter how uncertainly, and Mikan just kept falling deeper and deeper into a bottomless pit of hopelessness. She was hopeless, too far gone. And she knew she was acting like an over- dramatic teenage girl (which she was), but she had just been so into that blue- haired bastard and his rugged and violent personality that now that she had been rejected, it felt like a tractor had just steamrolled right over her and she had melted into a disgusting puddle of goop and skin.

Why did Grimmjow have to be so impulsive and crazy? It seemed almost masochistic to expect anything resembling love from Grimmjow and all she would receive would be a big bag of Disappointment. Maybe if he had been some random high school boy with normal interests like skateboarding and video gaming, she wouldn't be feeling so hopeless and sad, it was pitiful.

Mikan laid down on her back with her legs dangling off the side. At least he calmed down, she thought, from the absence of various crashes and trembles from the wall. There were so many things she wanted to say to not just Grimmjow, but Urahara and Ichigo too. She just didn't think she had it in her to actually force the words out of her mouth. At least, not tonight. Mikan closed her eyes and let her lips part just a fraction of an inch, the sweet darkness of sleep pulling her in.

"Rangiku."

"I'm contacting the Soul Society immediately." The busty lieutenant said in a business- like manner while punching buttons on a device that resembled a cell phone.

Captain Hitsugaya bit his lower lip, his chin resting between his thumb and pointer finger in a thoughtful pose. Both Soul Reapers had felt the strange disturbance of spiritual pressure in the World of the Living. It was an unsettling feeling, heavy, and chilling them to the bone. It wasn't the crawling sensation on his skin that troubled the Captain, however, it was the timing. Why so early? Autumn wasn't even half over yet.

"This is bad. Arrancars."

A/N: So this was more of a buffer chapter and I wrote it over the span of a couple days, so sorry if it shows in the writing. As always, thanks for reading!