Author's Note: Hey yall! I'm back xD And before anything... I'd like to apologize for not updating for so long. As well as the shortness of this chapter. Frankly, I'm slipping into writer's block more and more often as well as having some final projects at school xD So... I've been busy x.x
OH! And before I forget, a few people asked me about the message I was talking about last time I updated that gave me so much lulz since the few rabid fans out there decide to make such a fuss over how Ulquiorra and Grimmjow's last names are spelled and some even asked me to forward the message to them so to spare you the time of emailing/messaging me and save me the time of replying back, I'm gonna post it right here! :D Word for word! xD
From: Anonymous
IT's CIFER not SCHIFFER you dumb bitch. HAVENT YOU SEEN Bleach wiki baka? Tite Kubo-sama already made it official in like the FEBRUARY issue of Bleach you fucktard. u either need to work on your fucking spelling or actually get IN TOUCH with updates on all this stuff. I bet you're some fat ugly white chick with no life or friends that sit around writing yaoi porn all day.
And besides, Cifer goes to explain more to Ulquiorra-sama's released form because it kinda looks like Lucifer (Thus LuCIFER) stupid. USE YOUR FUKCING BRAIN!
Ulqui-sema supposed to be the fucking devil! And so STOP MAKING HIM SO goddamn ADORABLE! DAMMIT Thanks for wasting my tiem reading this totally inaccuate piece of shit. Retard.
Please note: I am in no way offended by this in fact, I laughed so hard, my stomach started hurting. I have yet to reply to this email (No idea how this person got hold of it in the first place) since I dont think it's a reasonable way to use my time.
Anyway, thank you Dior Crystal! For always being there to beta my stuff. You're always awesome :3
Thank you to all the people that read this, and reviewed. It means so much to me and yes, it does keep my sanity in check. I STILL dont own Bleach -.-"
Please enjoy this next chapter!
Ulquiorra woke up feeling rejuvenated. He smiled to himself upon remembering what had just happened the day before. Ulquiorra shifted his position so his back was against Grimmjow's bare chest – his tan, muscular arms still wrapped around Ulquiorra's waist, their bodies covered by his blanket. However, as much as Ulquiorra wanted to remain in this position, he still had a report to give to Aizen-sama. He had already delayed it long enough. Reluctantly, Ulquiorra began to slowly lift Grimmjow's arms , breaking his warm embrace. The sudden movement caused Grimmjow to stir in his sleep but not enough to wake him up. Ulquiorra sighed in relief as he slid away from his lover's sleeping form, glad to have not waked him up.
His calculating green eyes scanned his room silently, noticing the small pile of discarded clothes. Ulquiorra sighed quietly to himself before picking up the small pile of clothing and tossed them into a laundry basket near his closet. Feeling a bit sticky, Ulquiorra grabbed a large towel from his closet before walking to the bathroom.
He slowly turned on the faucet, almost flinching as the water hit the white-tiled walls, fearing the sound might wake Grimmjow up. Ulquiorra paused for a few seconds, listening for any signs of Grimmjow waking up, before closing the bathroom door, taking off his boxers and stepping in the steamy shower and closing the white-semi transparent shower-curtains behind him. He felt his muscles relaxing as the warm water touched his pale skin.
Ulquiorra was so preoccupied with his shower that he did not hear the bathroom door opening or the sound of bare feet walking inside.
"Glad to see you awake."
Ulquiorra's attention immediately focused on voice beside him – looks like his try-not-to-wake-him-up plan failed.
"I did not want to wake you up," Ulquiorra merely said, "And I can see that did not work well."
Grimmjow chuckled lightly, "You think I won't notice?"
"…"
"Come on, you know me better than that."
"Alright. I thought perhaps I should report to Aizen-sama and complete my mission before you wake up."
"Then?" Grimmjow questioned from the other side of the shower-curtains.
"Have your wounds healed?" Ulquiorra asked, attempting to change the subject.
"What's wrong?"
"It's… nothing…" Ulquiorra answered hesitantly.
"Look," Grimmjow began, "What happened wasn't your fault."
"…"
"And they healed already so you don't need to worry," Grimmjow said softly, "You worry way too much over little things like these."
Ulquiorra stood in the shower, his arms crossed over his chest, looking down at the ground.
"Well," Grimmjow said casually, "I gotta go do something and – "
Ulquiorra parted the shower-curtains, his head peeking out, "Would you like to join me?"
"Are ya gonna stop brooding?"
Ulquiorra silently nodded, his big green eyes looking at Grimmjow, half-pleading and half-apologetic.
"Alright." Grimmjow walked to where Ulquiorra's head was still poking out of the shower curtain, cupped his chin and gave his pale lover a gentle kiss before undressing and climbing into the shower. As soon as Grimmjow pulled the shower-curtains close again, he felt two pale arms wrap themselves around his neck as Ulquiorra buried his face into Grimmjow's bare chest, crying.
"Ulquiorra, what's wrong?" He wrapped his muscular arms around Ulquiorra's smaller form, pulling their bodies closer.
Ulquiorra only shook his head, wiped away the stray tears, and snuggled himself closer as the sound from the shower faded into the background.
Grimmjow let out a deep sigh before grabbing a bar of strawberry-scented soap. Why Ulquiorra enjoyed girly soaps was a mystery (but hey no one's complaining so it's all good!), and began cleaning Ulquiorra's backside. As his hands roamed Ulquiorra's slender form, Ulquiorra seemed to have calmed down – deciding to just stand there with his hands wrapped around Grimmjow's waist.
"You're upset with my putting myself in danger, aren't you?" Ulquiorra asked quietly, his face still buried in Grimmjow's chest. Grimmjow's hands continued to roam Ulquiorra's body, his hands massaging Ulquiorra's lower-half, eliciting a small sigh from his pale superior.
"Tch," Grimmjow scoffed but his voice softened as he looked at his lover," What matters now is that you're okay." He tightened his embrace against his pale lover's smaller form.
"So you forgive me?"
"… Yeah..."
_x-x-x-x-x-x-x_
When Szayel and Nnoitra arrived in the kitchen, they almost cried. Not only was half of the room a chocolate-coated mess, something was burning…
"Damn. I bet that Yammy had something to do with this." Szayel massaged his temple. He could feel a migraine coming.
"Better get someone to clean this mess up. Tesla, go get the cleaning crew to clean this up, will ya?"
"Yes, Nnoitra-sama." And he disappeared.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Szayel adjusted his glasses as he and Nnoitra walked over to the clean half of the kitchen.
They immediately got started. After all, after they're done with this, Gin's chocolaty reign of terror would be closer to being over.
-.-.-.-.-.-
As they finished their shower, Grimmjow, realizing that he didn't bring a towel with him, decided to wrap the towel around his lower half, after drying the both of them, and carried Ulquiorra bridal style back to his queen-sized bed. Feeling cold, Ulquiorra wrapped the blanket around himself as Grimmjow walked to Ulquiorra's closet.
With Grimmjow's frequent 'visits' to Ulquiorra's and vice versa, they had decided to split their closets in half – meaning both had extra articles of each other's clothes; all neatly folded, hung or put away. All the more convenient for when the two of them get into such situations.
As Grimmjow opened the drawers where Ulquiorra had organized Grimmjow's numerous undies… he picked out a clean set of boxers and put them on, throwing the used towel into the laundry basket.
Ulquiorra watched his teal-haired lover from under the blankets as Grimmjow began to redress himself. Ulquiorra quietly curled himself into a ball and wrapped the blanket around him tighter but his eyes never left Grimmjow's body as he put on his hakama, tied the obi securely around his waist and put on his jacket.
Grimmjow continued to search for Ulquiorra's clothes, bringing out a clean set and walked back to the bed where Ulquiorra sat looking at him.
"What the hell are ya doing?" Grimmjow asked with a raised eyebrow. As he put down Ulquiorra's clothes, "Unless ya wanna get sick, you better change."
Ulquiorra didn't budge.
"Oi… come on. Weren't you in a rush to report to Aizen a minute ago?" Grimmjow slowly unwrapped Ulquiorra from the blanket and Ulquiorra quickly grabbed his boxers and pulled them up, face slightly blushing, looking away. (And they'd been together for how long?)
Grimmjow lifted Ulquiorra up and, after struggling, managed to put on Ulquiorra's hakama for him and tied it securely.
"There." Grimmjow admired his work. "That's better right?"
"…"
Grimmjow stared at the gothic four tattooed to his lover's chest and lifted his index finger and traced it, the touch making Ulquiorra shiver. "Next time you go on one of those kinds of missions, make sure you don't do anything reckless, ya got that?"
"Grimmjow, I'm fine," Ulquiorra claimed, taking Grimmjow's hand in his and kissed the palm gently before putting on the rest of his uniform. "I do believe we have our own business to take care of at the moment; I with Aizen-sama's report-" Ulquiorra gave Grimmjow a quick peck on the lips before opening the door leading to the hallways and stepped out "-And you with a… dessert contest?" Ulquiorra turned and gave Grimmjow a teasing smile before disappearing in a corner, heading to the throne room.
How did he know about that? Grimmjow facepalmed himself. Ulquiorra, aside from being adorable as hell, was one hell of a good actor.
-.-.-.-.-
Meanwhile, Gin and the Privaron Espadas were busy in the throne room. Some were cutting out pink or red hearts while others were decorating the walls with ribbons, and setting up tables – which will be filled with countless varieties of chocolates and desserts. A smaller table, enough to place three seats on one side, was set in the middle of the room for the judging.
Just as the tables were set, the Espadas and their fraccions carried in tray after tray of chocolate treats; from brownies, to hard candy and a seven-layered chocolate cake as the centerpiece into the room. It was the one time the Privarons, who normally would want nothing more than to rejoin the Espada, were content to be Privarons.
Gin, who was busy directing the decorations, felt the familiar reiatsu of the Cuarta Espada approaching. He called Harribel over and handed her the directions and plans he made for this event.
"Watch ta others while I go fer a sec, will ya?" He then flash-stepped out of the room and closed the door of the throne room behind him.
-.-.-.-.-
Ulquiorra walked down the familiar white halls of Las Noches, and arrived at the throne room to find Gin leaning against the door.
"Ah. Ulqui-chan, I've been waitin' fer ya!" Gin said cheerfully upon seeing the Cuarta's approach.
"I am here to give my report to Aizen-sama."
"Oh… well, Aizen-taichou is in da meetin' room."
"Then I shall not waste anymore of your time," Ulquiorra said as he turned around and began walking. "Excuse me."
Oxoxoxoxox
Aizen sat on his usual chair in the currently empty meeting room with a steaming cup of tea in front of him. With all the chaos of the Valentine's Day preparations in the throne room, such peace and solitude was hard to come by. Aizen lifted his tea cup and took a small sip, enjoying the tranquility of his solitude.
"Aizen-sama?" The familiar voice of the Cuarta Espada approached him quietly.
"Welcome back, my dear Cuarta," Aizen said gently as he set his tea down on the table and turned to face Ulquiorra as the raven-haired Arrancar walked to his side.
"My sincerest apologies for intruding," Ulquiorra said with an apologetic bow.
"It's quite alright," Aizen dismissed, "Tell me, was your mission successful?"
"Yes, Aizen-sama."
"Please show me."
Ulquiorra lifted his hand to take out his eye and crushed it in his hand. He waited patiently as Aizen viewed his findings.
.0.0
Grimmjow worked frantically trying to finish his dessert entry. According to Szayel, he had just less than four hours to finish this task before the deadline. By now, most of the ingredients were already near depletion so there was no time to make something too big. But hey, quality over quantity, right?
Grimmjow scratched his head in frustration, Damn it.
0,0,0,0,0,0
"Yammy…" Gin said as Yammy walked in with his dessert entry, which was a chocolate blob, "What is that…?" Gin asked hesitantly as he pointed a finger at the blob on his tray. He could have sworn the blob moved…
Yammy only grumbled to himself as he set down his blob onto the contest table. Gin quickly stuck a small white flag with a simple hand-written number one into the blob. Gin shook his head and walked away as he noticed Starrk walking in with a small platter.
"Eh… Starrk… aren't those just those chocolate squares we made last time?" Gin noted in confusion.
"But," Starrk said with a yawn, "They're cut into little dogs and wolf shapes so technically, it's original."
"Fine," Gin said with a hint of disappointment before sticking a handmade flag with the handwritten number two on Starrk's plate of chocolate squares – er… dogs and wolves….
As the rest of the Espadas arrived carrying their own 'original' chocolate entries, Gin stood in disappointment, and mild confusion, as Harribel brought in a semi-burnt cannoli decorated with little fishes (anchovies maybe?)…
Well, the Espada had originality… but not much for taste.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Grimmjow slowly mumbled to himself as he made the final touches to his cake. Let's do another recap:
~Flashback~
As soon as Grimmjow rushed into the kitchen, he noticed the half-cleaned mess as the cleaning crew worked tirelessly trying to scrub the mess clean. He searched through the ingredients, annoyed with the fact that there was barely enough ingredients left to make a decent-sized cupcake. He quickly mixed the ingredients before pouring the batter into the correctly-sized molding and jammed it into the pre-heated oven. Tapping his fingers on the counter restlessly, the Sexta found the ingredients for making those delicious sugar flowers. Only problem was… there was no more red or white left to make pink; only green or blue. Well, a blue or green sugar rose would be fine, right? He found a box of toothpicks, taking one out while stirring the batch of gum paste (what the sugar roses are actually made of). He absentmindedly grabbed one of the bottle of gel-paste colors and poured it into the gum paste as he stirred.
Something's off… Grimmjow thought to himself as he slowed down his stirring only to realize that the gum paste, instead of being blue was a shade of green! That shocked him back to out of his stupor, almost dropping the hard-made mixture to the floor. Fuck.
However, as the clock ticked away, Grimmjow decided to improvise rather than sulk. He quickly made the heart of the rose, which was in the shape of a cone on the tooth pick and stuck it to a piece of Styrofoam to dry, before rolling the gum paste in to a thin sheet, getting out the petal cutters and making the individual green rose petals and laid them on the indents of the silver spoons, making the petals with their curvature.
"Grimmjow-sama?" Tesla opened the kitchen door slightly as his head poked though. "Nnoitra-sama wanted me to see if you required any help."
"Figure out a way to make the damn flower dry faster, will ya?" Grimmjow said just as the timer for the cake rang. Out of his eagerness, he grabbed an oven mitt and snatched out the cake, heat from the oven was enough to give him a slight first-degree burn. Now that the cake was cooling and the green rose heart was drying, he mixed a smaller batch of gum paste and added in the blue gel-paste. He then made the leaves, cutting them out like he did with the petals using a leaf-cutter.
As the small cake cooled, Grimmjow proceeded to put the rose together one painstaking petal at a time. As soon as the rose portion of the sugar rose was finished, the very annoyed Sexta Espada gave it to Tesla to dry while making a small batch of icing to go with the cupcake-sized cake, only ten centimeters in diameter.
Grimmjow scratched his head in frustration as he waited for the cake to cool. He grabbed the drying green rose and began to attach the blue leaves to the rose, carefully making sure that the rose does not get deformed since it was still not completely dry. He carefully placed the leaves on the bottom of the rose using tylo glue. He was being extra careful.
"There!" Grimmjow exclaimed with relief when he finished and left the rose for Tesla to completely dry and admired his work: a single green rose caressed in blue leaves.
~End Flashback~
Grimmjow looked at the clock in the room. He still had an hour to spare.
The teal-haired arrancar let out a sigh of relief. He let himself relax a little; the first time he was able to do so since he left Ulquiorra's room earlier that day.
A/N: Okay! Well, I think I made the beginning a bit more angsty-er than I thought o.O and the sugar rose, it's another real recipe that I happened to come across when I was bored. I go on google and search up random things in hopes that something will amuse me. It's odd but I sometimes do that x3 I think I'll post the recipe for the sugar rose next chapter so It's coming! xD
And for all of you that followed me so far on this little story... yes I'm stalling (If you know what I'm talking about) I'm sorry! TT^TT.
And I hope that message gave you as big of a laugh as it did for me =) Until next time (which will be soon since it's going to be a copy/paste post of the sugar rose recipe and direction haha xD)
oxoxoxoxox! ~LR