I'M SORRY! Such a late update! Been caught up with going back to college (Grrr!) and my other story but I will neglect this story no longer. Thanks for ya reviews as usually. Really good reviews. Finally, I bring you Chapter 13 at long last!

Chapter 13: Jealousy is a Shade of Blue

"You couldn't have picked a better day to do this, Rukia." Said Renji sarcastically, wrapping his dark blue jacket closer to his body, since the day was fated to be a very cold and rainy day. Rukia just glared at him and huddled up closer to Ichigo to keep warm. The gang was all waiting around outside Ichigo's house, ready to set off on the very hush- hush day out Rukia and Orihime had planned but was temporarily delayed since the two espadas had failed to show their faces yet.

"Where the hell are they?! I'm freezing my ass off here." Complained Ichigo, rubbing his black gloved hands together. Orihime was scoping around the area, looking worried that her darling boyfriend had decided at the last minute not to come and was preparing herself to go to Urahara's to go fetch him but her eyes lit up upon seeing two figures walking up the road.

"They're coming!" She said cheerfully as Ulquiorra and Grimmjow came strolling up the road, hands shoved deep in their coat pockets, their faces showed a sense of boredom and annoyance at having to forced out into the cold.

"It's about time! We've been waiting for ages!" Chastised Ichigo.

"Shut it, Kurosaki! We're here now, so stop ya whining!" Retorted Grimmjow angrily, seeming like the bitter temperature was making him more grumpy than usual.

"Ohh, you look so adorable! I knew I had picked out the right clothes." Everyone overheard Orihime gushing over Ulquiorra, her hands were placed firmly on his shoulders and was gazing happily into his eyes. After their three hour shopping trip the previous day, Ulquiorra came away swamped with bags of cute clothes that Orihime specially picked for him and a passionate dislike for shopping, branding it 'a disgusting and evil way of spending ones time.' and now here he was, wrapped up warm in a brown duffel coat, dark green baggy combats, trainers, gloves, scarf and a woolly hat stretched down over his forehead, he was barely recognisable. The only thing that gave some indication that it was Ulquiorra was his dead green eyes peeping over the moss green scarf. Snickers of laughter were tightly suppressed behind hands since Ulquiorra did look mildly amusing but they did feel kind of sorry for him because from the looks of things, he didn't look like he had much of a say in the matter.

Laughing at Ulquiorra over, Grimmjow was standing next to Tsukiko with a sly grin spread across his face. She glanced over at him, noticing the grin but was too busy studying his face. It was ever so strange to see him look like a normal human. A very tall human, who had what looked like teal eyeliner or tattoos thickly under his eyes. It was so strange to see him without his hollow mask obstructing half of his face. Very odd indeed.

"Gotta present for ya." He said to her, his grin getting wider by the minute. That was a surprise. Grimmjow did seem like the selfish type, only thinking about himself so this was interesting. With a little surprised smile on her face, she watched and waited as he fiddled around in his deep jacket pockets and slowly pulled out a long black material. He placed it in her open hands and watched her face as she began examining it.

"Got that Hat man to make it for me."

"But why?" she said in confusion.

"What? I'm not allowed to give ya presents?" He said with a hint of annoyance. She noticed this and decided best not to question further otherwise risk his fiery temper.

"Yes, yes, of course you can…this is really nice." She said. It was a black chocker, trimmed with white at the top and bottom. Definitely something she would wear but there was a nice shiny silver bell attached at the front which really intrigued her. Raising her eyebrow in amusement, she also noticed something white on the inside lining of the chocker. Upon closer inspection she noticed it was writing, writing in a nice fancy swirly script. She read it quietly to herself.

"Grimmjow's Little Kitty Cat?" She said slightly unimpressed at being called a 'Little Kitty Cat'.

"Well, that's what you are and you are mine, so it's pretty damn accurate. Don't you like it?" He said in mock sadness. It was very hard to resist the cute face he pulled. He had given her a present, which he didn't have to do. No matter how slightly insulted she felt at being referred to as a domestic cat. Yes, inside that gigai she was a freaky looking human cat hybrid but she was a person none the less but maybe she was interpreting the message a bit too much, so she just politely accepted it.

"Yes, it is lovely, thank you." She took off her current studded black chocker round her neck and graciously replaced it with Grimmjow's and listened to the bell chime softly as the chocker was wrapped around her neck, imitating a sleigh bell.

"Now that we're all here, let's get going." Rukia said with an authoritarian ring to her voice. The gang nodded and they all slowly strolled behind Rukia, wondering where on earth she was taking them.

"Here?" Ichigo was definitely not impressed as he looked over at the huge shopping complex. Ulquiorra paled beyond belief underneath his thick layers, not expecting to be back to the evil shopping mall of horror so soon as he still hadn't recovered from yesterday's little trip.

"We're not going shopping, well not just yet. No, we're going here." Rukia pointed her petite finger to a place not far from the shopping complex, to an enormous looking silver dome building.

"Karakura Snowdome?" Questioned Renji, reading the enormous sign protruding from a top of the dome.

"Yes! Today guys, we're going to have some fun in the snow!" Rukia and Orihime said happily.

"Great, we're going from the cold outside to the cold inside. Brilliant Rukia, really brilliant." Renji's sarcasm was growing with each minute. An evil glare was sent in his direction, ceasing all manner of sarcasm.

"Snow-dome? What is a snow-dome?" Asked Ulquiorra.

"It's a place where you can do skiing and sledding and have snowball fights. It's amazing!" Said Orihime. Ulquiorra just stared at her with his usual blank expression since he had not encountered 'snow' before.

"You'll see when we go in." She smiled as the group made their way to the building. Ulquiorra and Grimmjow were beginning to form ideas in their head at what all this 'skiing' and 'sledding' was and most of all, what on earth was this 'snow' thing.

It really wasn't what they were expecting at all. It was all white. White. They had enough of seeing white. They wore it every single day as their arrancar uniform. It was sickening.

The dome was filled mostly with excited children and their parents dressed up in snug winter coats and other accessories, playing joyfully in the snow. Mothers and fathers sitting in red plastic sleds with their off-spring, squeals of delight as they slipped down the slope. On the other side, a group of teenagers, skis attached to their boots, setting off down the dry slope, some managing to stay upright, some just tumbled down in heap but were all having fun together. Ulquiorra and Grimmjow both eyed up the centre and both came to the same conclusion- they do not like it here at all. It was too lively, too happy, and all very sickening.

"Ulquiorra-san, let's do some skiing!" Squealed Orihime, dragging him off towards the ski slope, despite telling her, he was not interested.

"Are you coming as well, Tsukiko?" Ichigo had a little crafty glint in his eye. She shook her head adamantly. Ichigo knew how she didn't like skiing after one particular occasion when Ichigo, Keigo, Mizuiro and she went skiing here and after a few successful runs, she accidentally collided with Mizuiro, which ended up with her hurtling down the slope, hoping that the barrier at the end would stop her but it never did. Instead, she flew right over the it and slid into the dining area, bringing down chairs, food and surprised diners with her. Never had she managed to live that down.

"We will go sledding instead. It is much safer." It seemed she was trying to reassure herself more than anything.

"Alright, suit yourself." Renji, Rukia and Ichigo followed after Orihime and Ulquiorra, whilst Tsukiko and Grimmjow made their way to the sledding slope.

He was standing on the precipice of doom, looking down at the long white slope which stood before him, screaming children sliding down it with glee.

"This looks stupid." Grimmjow commented unimpressed, a sneer present on his face.

"You won't know until you try it. You never know, you might like it." Tsukiko tried to persuade him. His eyes glanced over at the red plastic looking thing she had dragged behind her.

"So what do ya do with that thing?"

He asked, watching as she positioned it right by the edge of the slope and was about to get in when a familiar shrill voice was heard from the ski slope.

"ULQUIORRA-SAN! ARE YOU ALRIGHT??" Orihime was awkwardly walking in her skis towards a fallen Ulquiorra, who was flat on his back, spread out like an eagle. He tried. He really did. He had watched carefully how everyone else was doing it but that was one thing. Putting that into practise was a different matter. Starting off well, he had managed to get a metre down the slope perfectly, but it all went downhill after that, literally. Tangled up in his skis, he twisted and turned, trying to gain back some control but it only resulted in him sliding all the way down the slope on his back. Orihime had slid down after him in worry whilst Ichigo and Renji started to laugh. Never in all their lives would they have thought the one thing that could conquer the fearless espada was skiing.

Back on the other side, Grimmjow too was laughing his head off after seeing Ulquiorra lying motionless in the snow. Tsukiko shook her head, feeling sorry for the green eyed man.

"Ok, let's go." She was ready to sit at the front but was gently pushed aside.

"I'll go there." He smirked, squeezing himself into the little sled, his knees were practically under his chin he was so big. She wasn't sure that was a good idea but this was sledding so what could possibly go wrong. She clambered in behind him, holding onto the sides and gently lent forward and gently propelled them down the slope. It was slow to begin with but they soon gained some speed and were also heading straight off to the side.

"Grimmjow, you need to steer."

"Steer?"

"Yes, grab the string things in front of you."

"What string things?"

"In front of you."

"Where?!"

"There!" She awkwardly began reaching round him, the sled starting to rock from side to side a bit as she tried to take control of the runaway sled herself but her hands were swatted away angrily.

"I will do it!" Grimmjow shouted at her, not wanting his authority to be undermined, wanting to show that he had control of this but he didn't and he still couldn't find the stupid controls, even though it was literally at his feet.

"Grimmjow!" She could see they were going to crash into an unlucky father and his son, so in her desperate attempts to try and gain control, Tsukiko rocked the sled and the pair spilled out of the sled and split apart, rolling down the slope in separate directions. Grimmjow crashed right at the end, hitting the barrier with his head. Such a simple look contraption and yet he still managed to hurt himself. Even little kids were doing it and they didn't get a scratch on them and here he was, a grown man, falling out of a sled.

"I knew this thing was stupid." He grumbled to himself, rubbing the back of his aching head. Now where was that woman of his? Technically she should have been somewhere near him but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Where the hell is she?" Standing up to glance around the space, he heard a soft jingle, like a bell, just like the bell on her chocker. Ears pricked, he followed the sound and his eyes landed in her direction. His eyes were burning with anger and jealousy, hands had curled up into tight fists, watching in disbelief at what was unfolding in front of him.

Lying flat on her back, cushioned by the soft white snow, Tsukiko's purple eyes gained their focus and slowly gazed up to be met with concerned, sparkling brown eyes, looking straight into her eyes, the face was extremely close to hers, feeling the warm breath skimming over her skin. For that brief moment she had forgotten where she was, losing all her senses, lost in a daydream.

"Are you alright?" Such a mellow voice, teasing her sensitive ears like gentle music.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine." She said, not quite sure and getting flustered at the very intimate position she was in since the man was on top of her, looking very imposing. Sensing her unease, the young man retreated back off her to stand up before offering his hand. Tsukiko took it graciously and was hauled off the snow but was pulled inches away from his face and this is when she got a proper look at him. Handsome features, beautiful chocolaty brown eyes, shaggy black rock style hair and a cute smile which would make any girl weak at the knees. Not as handsome as Grimmjow but he wasn't bad looking, she couldn't deny that.

"I'm Takahashi Hiro, what's your name?" He said. She could feel his cool breath gently whisking across her nose.

"Ermmm, Sasaki Tsukiko."

"That's a cute name…Tsukiko-chan." That smile that he gave her made her blush in embarrassment but was soon back to a concerned look again.

"Are you sure you are alright?" He was worried since her eyes seemed glazed over, not really registering what was happening around her. His gloved hand was still holding onto hers, his fingers lightly caressing the top of her hand. Suddenly, strong arms were latched around her fast, securing her like constrictive metal chains protecting a valuable treasure chest.

"Who the hell are you?!" Grimmjow snarled, protectively squeezing Tsukiko tighter in his anger.

"Grimmjow…"

"Takahashi Hiro. It's a pleasure to meet you." A thinly disguised smirk was spread across Hiro's face, infuriating Grimmjow more than ever. It took all it had not to punch the smug bastard straight in his face.

"Listen here ya little prick! Don't you touch my woman, ya got that?!"

"Grimmjow! What is wrong with you? He was just helping me up, he wasn't doing anything wrong." Tsukiko interrupted, trying to loosen his vice grip around her waist just to make it more bearable to breathe.

"That wasn't what it looked like from where I was standing! He was all over you!" People were paused in their activity and starting to stare at the trio in curiosity at the ruckus that was occurring.

"Come on, leave it be. People are staring." Tsukiko tried wiggle her way out of his grip but he was having none of it.

"Let them stare, I ain't finished speaking! Now don't interrupt!" He shouted back at her, leaving her stunned. Her mouth slowly closed shut but was quivering as words were trying to edge their way out.

"So-"

Arms were thrown off around her and Grimmjow suddenly saw Hiro moving away from him. No, Hiro wasn't moving away, it was him! The little chat hadn't even finished, he wasn't finished with that freak yet and he was being pulled away.

"What are ya doing?!"

"You are making an unnecessary scene."

"Unnecessary?! His fucking hands were all over you and you don't expect me to say something about it?!" Grimmjow fumed.

"Please, just come on, let's wait outside for the others." She said.

'And give you time to calm down.'

The moment that Ichigo and Ulquiorra had been dreading the most, the bane of all men, the evil sport of shopping, had finally arrived. Women could do it for hours on end, inspecting every last garment in every last shop. What was annoying was they either come back spending loads and loads of money, up to their eyes in bags of clothes they weren't going to wear or coming back empty handed, either way it was still the worst thing ever.

"Some celebration. I thought this was an all together thing, not some girly day out." Moaned Ichigo

"See ya later!" Rukia suddenly said, snapping the boys out of their horrified gaze at the giant shopping mall.

"Oi!" Ichigo called out but the girls were too far gone and far too giggly and excited to even care that he was calling them. He sighed and turned his attention back to the rest of the bored group of guys.

"So, where shall we go, since those three are in paradise right now."

"I'm hungry, let's go eat!" Renji said. He had been dying for food but never dared ask, in case Rukia tore his head off for interrupting her perfectly crafted plans, though it wasn't perfectly crafted. The day was suppose to be a day of celebration ALL TOGETHER and yet they had gone AWOL, leaving the guys to fend for themselves.

"Fine, a chance to sit down and relax." Ichigo agreed before leading the group towards a nearby café. The place was filled with shoppers taking a well earned break from…shopping, having friendly conversations, whilst munching away on sandwiches and sipping on various beverages. After finding some seats, the group were quickly approached by an excitable waitress who took Renji and Grimmjow's orders, Ichigo and Ulquiorra made unimpressed faces at the amount of food that was ordered, wondering just who was going to foot the bill here (No doubt it would most likely be Ichigo.)

There was a small silence between the quartet since they had nothing to say. It was still very weird and awkward to be sitting at a café table, about to eat lunch with a couple of arrancar. Not so long ago, they were part of the biggest masterminded plot Ichigo had ever encountered and now they were having sandwiches and juice like they were the best of friends. They're not the best of friends and probably never will be but they could tolerate one another. In small doses.

The happy waitress arrived and offloaded the selection of sandwiches and hot chocolate. The smell was tantalising Grimmjow's senses, making him mentally drool with hunger. Renji dived in, no questions asked, taking a cheese salad sandwich and taking a huge mouthful. His mouth making chopping noises, thoroughly irritating Ichigo. Grimmjow was surprisingly caution at first, taking a sandwich in hand and inspected it, all very alien to him. Slowly he took a bite and chewed, taking in all the different, strange flavours before deciding it was worthy enough for him to eat and began scoffing it down.

"So how do ya like skiing?" Ichigo said, trying to think of a good conversation starter but had to settle for that. He directed his question at Ulquiorra since Grimmjow was temporarily incapacitated.

"It was boring. Waste of time." Only saying that to cover up the embarrassment of falling flat on his back. Ichigo sighed, not the answer he was hoping for.

"Oh yeah, what was all that commotion earlier?" Ichigo remembered suddenly.

"Yeah," Renji joined in, second sandwich in hand, ready to be devoured.

"Yes." Ulquiorra agreed and the three guys turned to look at Grimmjow, who just carried on eating.

"What the hell are ya all looking at?!" Spraying them all with bits of bread.

"I have a feeling it was him." Ulquiorra sighed.

"Yeah…" Ichigo and Renji joined in, shaking their heads.

"What?! What?!" Grimmjow was getting increasing annoyed at being singled out for something that he no understanding of.

"Was it you causing all the commotion today?" Ichigo asked again.

"It wasn't commotion, Kurosaki! I was having a little chat."

"Yeah…a little chat." said Renji quietly in a sarcastic tone, taking a sip of his extra sweet hot chocolate.

"Yeah, we all know you don't do 'little chats'. Who was ya arguing with?"

"Some stupid bastard who was all over the woman. Helping her up? He was fucking groping her!" His grip on his sandwich had turned into a death grip and it was crushed into a mush in the middle as he snarled at his vivid and slightly exaggerated version of the events. Ichigo and Renji gave one another funny looks before turning to Grimmjow, smirking and saying in unison,

"Are you jealous?" That done it. The poor baguette was snapped in two and fell to the floor, his hand crunched up into a tight fist, his face quivering with pent up frustration. The corners of his mouth twitched, ready to shout but all that came out through gritted teeth was,

"I'm. Not. Fucking. Jealous!" Renji began to chuckle with laughter whilst Grimmjow growled out some dark deadly threats to him. Ichigo rolled his eyes at the bickering pair and suddenly noticed Ulquiorra's eyes glazed over, like there was no one currently occupying him right then, just leaving an empty shell of a body.

"Earth to Ulquiorra." Waving a hand in front of Ulquiorra's even more blank pale face. The green eyes zoned towards Ichigo.

"What?" He said rather forcefully.

"Nothing, ya just spaced out."

"I was not spaced out…I was thinking about women."

"What?" Ichigo almost chocked at the sudden random answer Ulquiorra gave, not expecting that at all.

"I have noticed that human women behave very peculiarly."

"Not just human women." Mumbled Ichigo, thinking about a certain Kuchiki Rukia.

"They dress in the most bizarre fashion and they have annoying unsophisticated voices I have ever heard. They squeal and shout over the most trivial things and cry over them too. Why do they behave in this way, Kurosaki Ichigo?" Why on earth was he asking him of all people? If he knew one of mankind's unsolved mysteries of the female behaviour, he would be a god amongst all men but since he didn't, he couldn't really think of an answer.

"Ermmm, they just do." Judging by the expression on Ulquiorra's face, the answer did not satisfy him one bit.

"Believe me, you really don't want to know what makes the tick. Their brain is not really a place you and I would want to explore, so just forget about it." Ichigo said, hoping he would heed his little warning but it only left Ulquiorra curious for more.

A thinning number of shoppers were left flitting around from shop to shop as the day was drawing to an end. The boys dragged themselves from the comforts of the café, realising they had been sitting there for hours but it was better than being dragged around by the lady folk into shops they had no interest in. Ulquiorra was still pondering about female behaviour, finding it annoying and at the same time, fascinating. Ichigo just found it strange, strange that Ulquiorra of all people would be thinking like that.

"Hey guys!" The girls came dashing at them in a bundle of colourful shopping bags.

"How much stuff did ya need to buy?!" Gasped Ichigo, looking over at Rukia's stash of items.

"They're not all for me. I bought some things for Nii-sama." She said, leaving Ichigo wondering if Byakuya would appreciate all the human world goodies that she had bought for him. Ulquiorra felt shreds of reiatsu slivering around like thin threads.

"Grimmjow, control yourself."

"Shut up!" He barked before going back to glaring at a certain spot. He couldn't help it since he saw Tsukiko happily waving goodbye to a group of funny looking guys. What was going on? Was it some kind of 'Flirt with Tsukiko Day' or something?! Teeth were grinding against one another in irritation, watching as Tsukiko rejoined the group.

"Who the hell were they?" He said, trying and failing to mask his jealousy.

"They were my band mates. It is so good to see them again."

"Band mates?" Grimmjow said, not familiar with the term. Her mouth formed an 'o', remembering he was lacking in human terminology.

"I am part of a band. It's a group of people who sing or play instruments to make music. They were the rest of the band." She explained to him but he didn't really care, just still concerned about her canoodling with a bunch of guys and he had a feeling this wasn't the last he was going to see of them.

"So what have you guys been doing? Goofing off I suppose." Said Rukia as the group started to head towards the exit. Ichigo and Renji began trying to explain that they were not goofing off, but having a civilised lunch at a café, to which Rukia burst out into hysterics. Grimmjow was still feeling moody about today's events, hands shoved angrily into his trouser pockets and his pace matched the anger as footstep after footstep was heavily placed on the ground. Tsukiko could sense his anger and his jealousy but just let it slide. In her mind she was glad he felt that since that how she felt when he was flirting with his little fan club at school but he really had nothing to worry about. A light breeze caressed her face like fingers made of air but was left with a confused look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Grimmjow asked, glancing down at her.

"Oh, nothing." But she was unsure of what occurred. For that brief moment, she swore she heard her name being whispered, her name whispered by the same mellow voice from the ski slope but she just but it down to imagination and carried on walking.

A smile etched across his face and brown eyes glittered from the mall lights as he let out a wistful sigh.

"Till next time…My beautiful Tsukiko-chan."

Phew! Glad I'd finished this. It took unnecessarily long for me to write but its done! Thanks for reading!

Next Chapter: Tsukiko's life is suddenly busy, busy, busy, leaving Grimmjow feeling bored and neglected and matters aren't helped with Hiro constantly on the scene with his devious eye on her.