A/N: I am saddened by the lack of reviews. However, since this is about Szayel, who is still a minor character to Bleach, I'm not fully surprised. LOL, since I'm not in college or anything, I looked chemistry up on wikipedia, and hoped to get something that wasn't completely boring. If you've ever looked chemistry up on wikipedia, let me tell you, nothing is exciting. Not even the pictures, which are sometimes cool. I sound so stupid right now. So, when you see something specific, you can go, 'Oh, I see. She found that on wikipedia.' It can be like a game. This story is still amazingly fun to write though. I'm sure when I get about three more chapters in, and I actually have to develop a relationship, I won't be saying that. I'll be saying, 'Noooo, I wanna write a oneshot with Grimmjow!' Then I'll write like five random yaoi stories. Maybe I'll finally write RenjixIshida. I love RenjixIshida, is that weird? One more thing, you put book titles in italics, right? I couldn't remember whether it was italics or underlining, but I don't like underlined things in a story, so I just made it italicized.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, by Tite Kubo… He does, though, if you didn't catch that.

I also don't own the idea for what happens, so I'm kind of just a mouthpiece (Thank you very much, TheAngelOfLucifer for the idea which I was too stupid to figure out myself XD)

The next afternoon in chemistry class started out normally. Szayel had finished the book, but he decided to wait until he figured he would absolutely have to before he gave it back. He didn't want to talk to the other student. He was pulled out of his thoughts when Aizen entered the room, looking overly pleased with himself.

'Hello students.' A meager hello was the response. He beamed at them with that smile that should have been comforting, but wasn't.

'To start the new unit out, I've decided we're going to do something different.' When he saw that everyone was paying attention, he let out a sigh and put his hands behind his back.

'Your next assignment will be in groups.' Szayel's eyes widened in dismay. He hated group work. You would have to make small talk, and Szayel ended up doing all the work in the end, whether he wanted to or not.

'Usually, I let you pick your own groups, because I think it helps you create, but I wanted to try something unusual, so here's who you'll be working with.' He gave a stack of papers to the closest student to hand out, and Szayel looked at his group in horror.

'Szayel Aporro Granz, Ishida Uryuu and Grimmjow Jaegerjacues – Group Eight.' The assignment was relatively easy, and he only had to use two textbooks for reference, but that wasn't the point! Damn it. He looked over to where Grimmjow was sitting and saw him wave and shoot him his signature sadistic and 'I'm gonna fuck you up with joy' look that made the girls call him devious. He sunk lower in his seat and looked to the front row, where Ishida was looking mildly surprised. Ishida turned towards him and shrugged. They kept the stare for another awkward moment before Ishida turned around again.

Szayel was trying to move out of the room quickly, without bumping into any of his new partners. It seemed pointless, though, because Ishida had been waiting for him. Grimmjow had put his attention on a female target not too far off, and was distracted for the moment.

'Hey there.'

'Hello.' Same as yesterday.

'It's not a tough assignment. Aizen probably doesn't want to tax Grimmjow's mind much.' Szayel let out a sharp chuckle and kept walking.

'Yeah. So I was thinking, we, just us, should work on it together. I have a roommate, but he's really not going to bother us.'

'That wouldn't be a problem.' It would, he didn't want to do it, but he hadn't ever had another student in his room since he'd gotten to the school, and there was no reason to make anyone come in now.

'Okay. Come on then.' Szayel started to say something, since he hadn't expected this, but he was stopped by a malicious chuckle and a big, strong hand on his shoulder.

'Hi faggot.' Szayel turned around quickly and looked at Grimmjow, with some redhead girl standing next to him, looking slightly less enthusiastic than most, but still willing.

'Hello Grimmjow.' Ishida turned around as well, looking at Grimmjow before his glare was directed to the girl. He smiled softly.

'Inoue! What are you doing here?'

'Oh, Grimmjow-kun asked me to come with him for a walk, and I remember him from when we were in high school and we had Art together.' Szayel repressed a snicker that would come from Grimmjow in art class.

'Oh, well, okay. Have fun.' Grimmjow brought his gaze back to the two students, showing his canines in a feral smile.

'When are we all gonna work together, as a group? I wanna finish early.'

'Not today, we have something planned, but maybe…Friday?'

'All right then. Whatever. C'mon Orihime.' Orihime waved goodbye to Ishida and skipped off with Grimmjow, his hand around her shoulder. Ishida sighed. She did not need this guy. Szayel turned back to him and smiled apologetically.

'I'm terribly sorry. He likes to toy with me.'

'Did you still want to work together today? I have to make dinner, and I can make enough for you, if you'd like.' Usually Szayel denied these kinds of offers. Who knows what you could put in the food? Szayel did. He loved researching poisons and slow killers. It was his favorite topic.

'That would be fine.' Szayel Aporro Granz did not know what he was in for.

'Hey Uryuu! I'm hungry, so can you get started on dinner?' Renji shouted as he burst into the small room and disturbed Szayel and Ishida from their quiet aura of learning. Both sent him a sharp gaze. Renji was used to it from Ishida, but when he saw who Ishida was working with, his mouth dropped open. He sent a questioning look in Ishida's direction, only to receive a stern furrowing of eyebrows in return.

'Hello. I'm Renji Abarai.' He held out his hand for Szayel. Szayel took it cautiously, and shook it lightly, as if his hand were contaminated.

'Er, hello. I'm Szayel Aporro Granz. I take chemistry with Ishida.' Renji grumbled something and turned back to the dark haired boy.

'So, yeah. About dinner. What'cha plannin' for that?'

'Szayel will be joining us, so I thought we would have something cheap. Orihime made soup, and her soup is usually decent.'

'It depends, what kind is it?'

'Just noodles, and it has curry.'

'Hmm…maybe. Is there fruit?'

'Yeah, it's just bits of fruit I think. You can pick it out though and you probably can't taste it. It shouldn't be too bad.'

'It sounds kinda good, but I'm ravenous, so whatever. See what Granz wants.' Suddenly, both pairs of eyes were on him, and he shook his head quickly, putting his hands up.

'I'm fine. I'll eat it. She sounds inventive, and I respect a fellow fan of experiments.' Renji snorted and threw a sweaty shirt on the back of the couch, revealing a map of body art on his tanned chest. Now, Szayel wasn't that kind of gay, the kind that sees an attractive man without a shirt and drools, but he couldn't help staring at the tattoos. He had so many, and they were all over his body, wrapping around him like ink ribbons. He realized he was staring, though, and pulled himself back to his work. They were sitting on the floor, books spread all around them, ranging from simplistic pamphlets on chemical reactions to, what felt like, at least, a fifty-pound textbook on molecular quantum mechanics. Renji glanced over there one more time before turning to the fridge and pulling a soda out, glancing at their work. He picked up Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry and raised his eyebrows at Ishida. It had been a terribly useful resource as they jotted down notes, occasinally sparing a small conversation before Szayel cut it off and returned to his reading. As easily as the two got along, Szayel still wasn't sure he liked Ishida for more then a fellow chemist. He looked up when he heard a loud bang and a groan to see Renji had just dropped the textbook in Ishida's lap, from it's lofty position of five feet. Ishida moved the book and yelled a few expletives at Renji before turning to Szayel.

'Renji is hungry.'

'He's like an animal, does he always try to get your attention like that?' Ishida laughed and opened the book to the chapter that covered their research topic, but Renji merely scowled at Szayel.

'Hmph. Whatever. What're you doing?' He crouched down and looked over Szayel's shoulder, studying his neat cursive notes and the small text on the page he was reading. His head was less than an inch away from Szayel's head, and as soon as Szayel noticed, he leaned back and smirked at Renji.

'Sorry, but you're not my type.' Renji grinned like a feral animal and stood up.

'Heh. Whatever you say, Scientist.' Szayel didn't take offense. Tricking him into saying something like that had been a trick of other student's for a while. In fact, that's how Szayel lost his virginity. His aversion to social interaction had good reasoning behind it, but Ishida was just trying to befriend the pink-haired young man. He was smart, and could be just as sarcastic as Ishida on an intellectual level, not like Renji's comments. His new favorite was "your face" so Ishida desperately needed a being at his level to converse with. And, as only Orihime knew, Ishida was gay, and if Renji wasn't Szayel's type, maybe Ishida could be.

'We can have dinner now, if you think it would quiet your roommate.' Ishida heard Szayel state nonchalantly.

'Really? That would certainly quiet things down. I'll warm the soup up. Renji, set the table.'

'Why me?'

'Because he's a guest, you imbecile.' Szayel laughed. Dinner sounded fine, even with someone like Renji.

A/N: OMK (oh mah kami), this is longer than I think I usually write. My units of measurement make it painfully obvious that I'm American. I think I was trying to pass for English for a while back, and now I can't because I said inches in reference to distance and pounds in reference to weight. Blast. And yes, there actually is a chemistry textbook that has that super-huge name, I asked my mum. I tried to go for a poetic thing in there, since I don't think anyone's referred to Renji's tattoos as ribbons, at least not in RenIchi or RenIshi. That's, like, the only Renji yaoi I read. Not so much into the RenBya thing, except sometimes. My Author Notes are longer than my story XD. Next time, we have dinner with the triangle of freaks.