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Chapter Ten: Square One Sensation
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"A Double Pepperoni, Family size, and a Seafood Deluxe, doubles," a uniformed lady announced as she set down two platters of pizza down at the table. "Is there anything else missing from your orders, ma'am?"
"Nothing, at all…" Neliel replied, being the nearest, and the employee left with a smile and 'Please enjoy your meal.'
It was lunch break, Monday, the first day back after summer break, and they were eating at the pizza place outside the University. Once their orders came, everybody began to dig in, at the same time resuming their vacation stories.
"Japan was wonderful!" Neliel continued as she took a slice of pizza. "'Hime showed me loads of pretty places and then I met her boyfriend there–"
"Nel-chan!" the flustered voice of the Japanese woman came from beside her best friend. "Kurosaki-kun isn't my boyfriend! He's just a very good friend of mine!"
"Right, right…" the teal-haired woman replied with a smirk.
"Ooohh, look, Orihime's blushing!" Cirucci pointed out from the auburn-haired woman's other side.
"How come you never told us about him?" Tesla inquired with a mild smile from opposite the blushing woman, drinking his soda.
"W-We're just friends! Honest!" Orihime protested.
"Of course you were…" Neliel stated, taking a bite of her food. "So how about you guys?"
"Well, Cirucci took us to some mountain resort during the last week of vacation…" Nnoitra admitted, reaching out for his second slice of pizza.
"But wasn't there an announcement that your family won some European Cruise package?" Orihime tilted her head at the gothic woman opposite Nnoitra.
"Yes, but we already had reservations to that resort so I took the reservations and invited the guys to come with me!" Cirucci exclaimed. "It was so fun, wasn't it?" Her amethyst eyes pointedly looking at Ulquiorra.
The ebony-haired man, however, completely ignored her; still munching on his slice of seafood pizza.
"It sure was…" Nnoitra nodded, he, too, was looking at their pale-skinned companion.
"Eh?" both Neliel and Orihime looked confused.
"It's nothing…" Tesla told the confused women.
Ulquiorra was still keeping quiet when he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. Sighing as he put down his pizza, the jade-eyed man wiped his fingertips with a tissue paper before getting out the gadget. It had received one message, he scanned it briefly.
'Hey. Have ya eaten lunch yet?'
Finding no point in ignoring the message since another, more persistent one was sure to come, slim fingers deftly typed a reply. 'Yes. And you?' Once his message was sent, Ulquiorra took another bite of pizza. It was only a few seconds before there was a reply. This time, he didn't bother to put down his food; instead he took his cell phone in one hand and navigated the keypad.
'Nah. Still shooting.'
A delicate ebony brow rose. 'You ask me if I've eaten when you haven't even taken your own lunch yet. Idiot.' His hand still held the phone as he finished the last bit of pizza in his hand.
The cell phone vibrated again – there was another message. Ulquiorra took a drink of iced tea as he read the message.
'Oh haha, very funny. It's not like I want to eat late, you know! It's the damn company's fault for wanting a midday shoot. THOSE people are the idiots. They're just sitting under some shitty shade while I had to pose under the fucking heat of the sun!!'
The smallest of smiles rose upon pale lips as Ulquiorra shook his head slightly in disbelief. He typed his reply, 'Oh yes. Poor, poor you. What a sad life you have… Get lunch soon before you kill yourself, alright?'
It was only after he'd already sent the message that the ebony-haired man realized what he'd said. What in the name of hell was happening to him? He shouldn't have even replied to that celebrity's messages in the first place. In the middle of his musings, his cell phone vibrated once more.
'Aw, you're concerned about me?'
'Idiot. I'm having my lunch and you are disrupting me…' Jade eyes were narrowed as he sent his reply, fighting off the color rising in his cheeks.
"Ulquiorra? Who're you texting?" Neliel's voice caused the ebony-haired man to look up, only to find that the rest of the table was now staring at him.
"Nobody important," was Ulquiorra's quick reply.
"Eh? Then why is Ulquiorra-kun blushing?" came Orihime's question.
He saw Cirucci smirk at him and his jaw clenched. "It's nothing; just the usual text promos and stuff."
"Really?" Tesla asked innocently but his mocha eyes were filled with a knowing look.
"Yes, really." Ulquiorra replied stiffly as his cell phone vibrated once more; revealing another message.
'Sorry, babe. You ain't pissed off at me again, right? Anyway, I've got a surprise for ya… I think it's already delivered… Anyway, shooting is starting… Later.'
Ulquiorra closed his eyes and sighed. That idiot…
"Sorry, babe. You ain't pissed off at me again, right? Anyway, I've got a surprise for ya… I think it's already delivered–"
Jade irises shot open and he saw Nnoitra, using his incomparable height to an advantage, peeking over Tesla to read aloud the exposed message screen of Ulquiorra's cell phone. Realizing this, Ulquiorra quickly hid his cell phone from view and closed the message inbox before stowing the gadget back in his pocket.
"Nnoitra, you–" the threat barely made it out of his lips when his friends' voices overpowered it.
"Oh my god! Who was that, Ulquiorra?" hazel-eyed Nel gushed out
"You never told us you had a text mate!" Orihime was all smiles.
"Is that–" inky-haired Cirucci wore another all-knowing smile.
"It's not!" Ulquiorra replied to the gothic woman.
"But who else could it be?" Tesla was barely controlling the grin that threatened to split his face into two.
"Don't jump to conclusions, Tesla…" jade-eyed Ulquiorra told off the blonde man beside him.
"Ulquiorra don't deny it. I saw his name…" Nnoitra stated pointedly, a smirk on his lips.
"His?" Nel and Orihime chorused.
"Come on, Ulquiorra, we're friends aren't we? Friends don't keep secrets from each other, you know…" Cirucci winked at him.
"Did something happen that we didn't know about?" Orihime asked the rest of the group.
"Well…" Nnoitra rolled his eyes, directing towards Ulquiorra.
"You can trust us, Ulquiorra…" Neliel gave him an honest smile.
The jade-eyed man sighed. "Fine. If you must know, that godforsaken idiot who was texting me was Grimmjow."
As expected, Nel and Orihime squealed in delight while Cirucci snapped her fingers and said, "I knew it!"
"So when did you two hook up?" mocha-eyed Tesla asked.
A dusting of bright red settled over porcelain cheeks. "We did not hook up!"
"Oh? Then why are you two texting?" Cirucci's raised her brows at him.
"He keeps sending me messages."
"But he was already sending you messages before and you were just ignoring those then." Nnoitra reminded him.
"Yes, well…"
"Do you like him, Ulquiorra-kun?" Orihime's wide gray eyes were sparkling with delight.
"N-No, of course not…" Jade eyes shifted to his plate.
"Oh god, you are so in denial, Ulquiorra! And you were even smiling while you read his text a while ago!" Neliel informed him.
"I was not!" Ulquiorra stated defensively.
"So spill, Ulquiorra… How did you and Grimmjow become this close?" Neliel was bursting with excitement.
"It happened like this, I invited them guys over to the resort with me, remember?" and in a matter of five minutes Cirucci had recounted everything from Grimmjow carrying a mud-covered Ulquiorra back to his room, the breakfast conversation (which even Ulquiorra wasn't aware of), and, finally, the swimming pool incident.
"Th-That's like… just… wow…" Orihime said appreciatively, she was very much into love stories, most especially of the not-so-moral-kind.
"Looks like after twenty-plus years, you're finally gonna get yourself a boyfriend, Ulquiorra! Good for you!" Neliel exclaimed.
"Don't be so loud, Neliel…" Ulquiorra muttered as he took a sip of iced tea to distract himself.
"I wonder what 'surprise' that Grimmjow was talking about…" Cirucci mused aloud.
"Oh yeah!" Nnoitra nodded.
"Well, he already knows the school… Maybe he's sent it there…" Tesla put in his two cents.
There was a murmur of agreement and they finished their lunch, splitting the bill in between the six of them as usual.
They crossed the road and entered the University, and Ulquiorra knew that his friends were all looking for any sign of the sleek black car that they once saw Grimmjow ride in at school. They reached the main building and still, there was no indication of Grimmjow's presence whatsoever…
'He did say that he had it delivered…' Ulquiorra mused inwardly, feeling the slightest bit of excitement despite himself.
"Maybe he sent it to your apartment…" Neliel said as they headed towards their first afternoon class that they all had together.
"He doesn't know where I live." Ulquiorra pointed out as they entered the door. He could see the other students appearing to be gathering around a particular spot in the middle of the room… Suspiciously around the place where he usually sat.
Tesla and Orihime shared a raised brow as Nnoitra tilted his head in silent query.
"What's going on here?" Neliel asked in her childish voice.
A black-haired bespectacled woman with a braid down her back answered them as she pushed up her red-rimmed glasses. "Three people came here with some package, everyone wants to see but they can't get near enough… scared I suppose, there's two hulking bodyguards, anyway…"
"Really, Lisa-chan?" Orihime moved closer to the crowd.
"Uh-huh." Lisa nodded before she went back to watching the gathered people.
"Hey, Ulquiorra." Cirucci nudged the ebony-haired man.
"What?" the pale man replied.
"What's the betting that's what your boyfriend was talking about?" her purple-hued lips formed a smirk.
"He's not my–" but it just dawned on Ulquiorra the real concept of the woman's words. He looked at his other friends and they nodded, together they made their way towards the crowd with Nnoitra moving with an intimidating glare in front, dispersing the crowd.
In the middle of the circle were two strict-looking body guards and an effeminate bespectacled man. Szayel?!
The pink-haired man was tapping his foot impatiently, a pout on his lips as his golden eyes looked around in boredom until he spotted a pale-skinned man in the crowd with bright jade eyes.
"Ulquiorra!" the stylist exclaimed as he rushed over and pulled the shorter man into the center of the circle, dragging all eyes on them. "It's good to see you alright…" Szayel added as he shook hands with the student.
"Erm, good to see you as well, Szayel…" Ulquiorra replied uneasily. Of all the people that Grimmjow would think of sending…
"Oh! Cirucci, Tesla and Nnoitra are also here? Hello guys!" Szayel added once he spotted the other three who waved back uneasily at him.
"Well, what took you so long?" the pink-haired man asked, placing both hands on his hips as he demanded an explanation from the jade-eyed man.
"We were having lunch."
"Oh, right… Should've known… Anyway, your idiot's been pestering me all morning to bring you his present…" the effeminate man said with a small huff.
"Err, my idiot…?" Ulquiorra did not like where this was going.
"Grimmjow, who else?" Szayel Aporro tsk-ed at him. "Anyway, now that you're here…" one of the guards standing behind him handed the stylist an elegantly decorated box. "Your idiot wanted you to have this…" he placed the boxed package into Ulquiorra's hands.
Ulquiorra held the box in his hands, it was slightly heavy and it covered his whole front. "Szayel, what is this?" he asked the golden-eyed man.
"Oh just something from Belgium…" Szayel replied airily. "Well, we've gotta go… I daresay Grimmy would want to know that you received his present…"
"Wait, what's this for?" Ulquiorra called as Szayel and the bodyguards moved to leave.
The stylist just shrugged and gave him a mysterious smile. "Who knows? Bye-bye, Ulquiorra…"
Once the 'visitors' had left, all eyes turned to Ulquiorra and the elegant box in his hands. Whispers and murmurs filled the room once more.
"Did you see that?"
"Wasn't that pink-haired guy that famous celebrity stylist?"
"Yeah! What was he doing here sending a package?"
"Why was he all-friendly with the ice-block?"
"Did he just say that box was from Grimmjow Jeagerjaques?"
"Oh my god!"
"And it's supposedly imported from Belgium!"
"It's for Schiffer?"
The ebony-haired man looked stunned at the package in his hands. His friends surrounded him in a circle while his other classmates formed an outer circle. He undid the golden ribbon tied around the box, he delicately removed the glossy dark brown wrapper around the box, there was a final layer of opaque white paper and he removed that as well. What it revealed was something that made the whole class gasp and Ulquiorra's face burn a bright pink.
Inside was a two-foot high box with layer after layer of various kinds of chocolates (bonbons, truffles, white, milk and dark chocolates); there were so many assortments he didn't know where to look first. Enclosing the sweet concoctions was a glass box with a lid, on the lid was the product name engraved in curving gold letters.
"Sweet mother of god…" was Nnoitra's half-awed words from behind Ulquiorra as he stared at the unwrapped package.
"Kyaaa~!! Isn't that so sweet of Gri-?" Orihime exclaimed but Cirucci covered her mouth just in time.
Ulquiorra, meanwhile, had one brow twitching. Th-This… Grimmjow was really the biggest idiot he'd ever met… A tap on his shoulder brought the man momentarily out of his musings. Tesla was smiling as he handed him a small envelope that he hadn't noticed before.
"This fell off when you unwrapped it," the blonde told him as he placed the box of chocolates down on his desk to get the envelope.
It was small and made out of crisp white paper. Inside was a gold-hued card covered with a barely readable handwriting. It stated:
'Ulquiorra,
Look, man, I'm sorry for the thing in the forest with the mud and all. But seriously, at least you didn't have to wait long for rescue, right? So, yeah… Anyway, the chocolates are all yours, though it's more likely that you'd give it away but dude you need to eat. You're like as thin as a stick…'
Ulquiorra's lips tightened as his friends who were reading along with him snickered.
'…Okay, now don't get mad at me. I mean, we just made up. So just think of it as a peace offering, alright?
See you around,
G.'
Once Ulquiorra had replaced the card inside the envelope and had placed the object into his pocket, he looked up to the eerily smiling faces of his friends.
"What?"
"He is so hooked on you…" Neliel jested.
"And I thought Tesla's case with those rabid club girls were ridiculous…" Nnoitra added.
"This is like so, so, so, so sweet, Ulquiorra-kun!" Orihime nodded in agreement.
"He's an idiot." Ulquiorra muttered, as he began to re-wrap the chocolates. "What's he trying to do? Give me diabetes?!"
Cirucci only whistled as this, smirking as she noticed the faint blush on porcelain cheeks.
The next day was the same, there was another package awaiting him after lunch. This time it was Il Forte who came, handing him a huge bouquet of bright orange roses; a peace offering for the breakfast Grimmjow had supposedly ruined.
Wednesday brought Stark to their classroom, with yet another boxed present with him. This time, Ulquiorra knew better and opened the box in discretion, only peeking over the top lid. It revealed to him a three-foot high stuffed bear; Grimmjow's peace offering for the night he said he'd offended Ulquiorra by the pool side.
An irate Halibel stuffed an envelope containing thousands worth of gift certificates at him at Thursday before leaving the ogling crowd behind her. It was a peace offering for having almost-drowned him at the resort pool.
Friday finally dawned and lunch was just finished. They entered their usual classroom and, as expected, there was another gathering around the center. Szayel was back and this time he was busily signing autographs as they approached him. It seemed that the class had learned to cope with the recent bombard of celebrities in their room.
"Let me guess, another peace offering?" Cirucci raised a brow as she spoke aloud gaining the stylist's attention.
Szayel looked up and smiled, finishing his final autograph before he addressed the group. "Not today…" He fished out what looked like a folded piece of paper from inside his vest and handed it to Ulquiorra. "Just present this to the maitre d' hotel when you get there…"
"Wait, what?" Ulquiorra asked in confusion as the bespectacled man moved to leave.
"He said he'd tell you later…" Szayel Aporro smiled cryptically before setting off once again, the crowd dispersing as he left.
Jade irises settled on the folded piece of paper, it was thick and was half the size of a coupon bond. The front part had the emblazoned name of some restaurant that he had quite a difficulty in reading the name.
Cirucci gasped at it. "Oh my god! He's taking you there?"
"Do you know that place, Cirucci?" Ulquiorra asked the woman.
"It's only some high-class French restaurant downtown!" Cirucci explained, while Neliel nodded behind her.
"And this is…" Ulquiorra flipped open the second page.
"It's a reservation…" Tesla stated.
"Ulquiorra-kun… I don't think this is just a peace offering anymore…" Orihime pointed out with wide eyes.
"Hell, I don't think the rest of that guy's gifts were just peace offerings…" Nnoitra concluded.
"What do you mean?" jade irises looked up at the knowing expression on all his friends faces.
"Ulquiorra…" Cirucci broke the tension. "He's courting you…"
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A/N: Belgium… Belgian chocolates… it just makes sense!! And why orange roses? Aside from wanting to receive some myself, orange roses (according to the internet) symbolize passion and desire… Besides, plain old red roses are just a bore…
I personally feel like a great big chunk of the story was missing… the period between Ulquiorra's almost-drowning incident in the pool up to the first day after summer break… but I couldn't exactly pinpoint what's NEEDED to be written about that…
As far as I can think of, Cirucci, Nnoitra, and Tesla just brought Ulquiorra back to his room after the swimming pool incident. Ulqui had a bath, changed clothes and refused to go out of his room until their departure, which sadly, Grimmjow wasn't able to catch. And that's about it…
And yes, Grimm and Ulqui are going to have a date on the next chapter… :D
You know, the funny thing is two days after I've posted up the previous chap, the Committee on Higher Education here announced that the first day of classes for colleges will be moved by a week... so, like, the start of classes for me will be on the upcoming Tuesday... -is getting nervous all over again- Still, thanks to all who've given me their congratulations and good luck for college! I'm feeling better about it now... And I'm more than halfway through with Chapter Eleven... -used the extra week of vacation to squeeze my muse to write-
And 100+ reviews already! Wow... I'm totally speechless. Speechless in the good kind of way... xD Just... Thank to all of you who reads this and keeps me happy...