– Stray –
The loud roar of thunder echoed and bright flashes of lightning lit up the sky above as heavy drops of rain mercilessly poured down on the pair.
"It's over Ulquiorra!"
"What? Why? Grimmjow, I don't understand!"
"Don't touch me!"
"Grimm–?"
"Just – Just get the hell away from me!"
"You're not making any sense at all! Get back here before you–!"
"I'M NOT GAY!"
Deafening thunder howled high above. A blinding flash of lightning illuminated two emotion-filled faces. One was defensive, angry… and confused. The other showed none but pure shock.
"What?"
"Just go away! I don't want anything more to do with you!"
"Grimmjow explain–"
"We're fucking through, Ulquiorra!"
"What–? Grimmjow–!"
Their shouts were outmatched by the crash of thunder. Tears were lost in the downpour of rain.
Azure eyes shot open and a muscled figure rose from the tangled sheets. Hands automatically rose and cradled his head where a most terrible headache was pulsing. Brows were furrowed and tanned lips formed a frown. He felt dizzy. And cold. And sick.
So sick.
That voice. His voice… it kept ringing in his ears. Haunting him…
When the pain in his head had somewhat subsided, blue eyes scanned his surroundings. He found himself in a bedroom; a bedroom that wasn't his. Pupils narrowed in confusion as they jumped from the bed to the walls, to the furniture and everything else in between.
This place was… familiar.
Drip drip patter patter drip
The handsome face turned to find a closed window just beside the bed he occupied. The glass was fogged as rain drops collided on its cool surface. It showed an empty street, gray skies, and a drizzle of rain showering everything outside.
This neighborhood… he'd been here before…
He tore the covers off of his body, vaguely noting that he was fully clothed. They were green, those sheets; they were a deep shade of green. Like a lush forest. The muscled man froze. The pieces falling into place in his mind.
What in the world was he doing here? Of all places!
Really. It was just over a day since… How could he even have the guts to come here? Oh wait. How did he even get here?
Everything about last night was a blur.
Well, there was only one way to find out.
The blue-eyed man got out of bed. Swaying a bit on his first steps but he managed to get across the room, yank the door open and step out. As expected, he found himself facing a short hallway with the front door at the end; doorframes were on either side of the walls lining the hall, marking the other adjoining rooms. He ventured forward, summoning up all the courage that he had in him. His feet were bare; the tiled floor was bitingly cold on the soles of his feet. Those petty things didn't matter much right now, though.
A head of spiky electric blue hair tentatively peeked into the doorframe on the right. He found nothing more than an empty kitchen. With a great heave of breath, the man entered the doorframe on the left-hand side, steeling himself for what he would see.
The sitting room was exactly the same as he remembered and he easily spotted the new addition to the cozy little room. A bundled figure was sitting at the couch; pale and looking so serene. The whole room was quiet, the droplets of rain from outside being the only source of sound.
The floor was carpeted in the sitting room and his feet made no noise as the muscled man made a beeline towards the unmoving form. The ebony head was turned down, making it quite impossible to see if the other man was awake or not.
The blue-eyed man then kneeled beside the bundled figure, registering in his mind that the ebony-haired man was indeed asleep. Asleep on a couch in his own home with a thick quilt wrapped around his form.
Something white on the floor caught his eyes and a hand reached out towards it. Moments later, azure eyes were faced with a white handkerchief sullied by smudges of red and pink of varying shades. And then there were blotches here and there, diluting the hues on the pristine cloth.
Jaws clenched as memories resurfaced in the young man's mind.
Those marks… He remembered those… They… He had them. Those colors were on him… Last night… he was overwhelmed with confusion and he went out. He got into a bar and drunk himself silly. And then… he ended up here?
The aqua-haired man shook his head, his fist clenching the fabric stained with colors.
He had let himself go last night. Those colors on that handkerchief… they were lipstick. He was sure of it. He got himself covered in them, from various girls he didn't even remember now. But still… that didn't explain why he woke up, clean of everything, sleeping comfortably in a bed! Ulquiorra's bed, to be precise! And then he finds the man dozing off on a couch! A damn fucking couch in his own home!
Too immersed in his thoughts, the azure-eyed man failed to notice the other presence in the room stirring awake.
Twin jade orbs fluttered open, blinking slowly to adjust to the semi-brightness of the sitting room. A patch of aqua caught his gaze and the pale man's grogginess vanished in an instant. The muscular man was kneeling beside the couch, a shadow cast over his eyes with a tight frown on those tanned lips. The tips of that spiky aqua-hair leveled with his neck despite the fact that he was already sitting up straight.
"Grimmjow…"
A boyish face instantly looked up, a pensive look etched upon it. Bright blue eyes staring right back at the porcelain face. Those bright jade eyes were slightly glazed with sleep, the choppy ebony hair stuck up in odd places and partly opened lips formed the smallest frown. The small bags under those thick eyelashes didn't elude him, a telltale sign of the other's recent lack of sleep. Pale brows contracted slightly as an eruption of warmth came from his stomach, accompanied by a sickening twisting feeling.
"Why?" the blue-eyed man dared to ask, his voice low and serious, its tone betraying his well-hidden guilt.
Despite the lack of any explanation, the pale man easily understood what the other had meant. Still, he found that he wasn't very much comfortable at having the aqua-haired man stare up at him with those deep azure orbs that he loved. Yes, even now. So he cast his eyes to the side, wrapping the quilt tighter around his slender frame, replying in a meek voice that he only allowed himself to use around the muscular man. "You were knocking at the front door at two in the morning… You were completely wasted and… I can't just leave you out there, not when a storm was brewing…"
Grimmjow absorbed the pale man's words, feeling the warmth inside him spread further along his body. "I thought…" the muscled man began in a quiet voice, disbelief lacing his words. "I thought I told you… we're through…"
"You never explained to me why," was the reply he received.
"You don't understand, Ulquiorra." Grimmjow muttered, he should've known that he couldn't just get away so easily.
"You're right," came the depressed yet musing tone of the ebony-haired man and Grimmjow could not help but have a wide-eyed expression on his face. The sole fact that the smaller man had those words disturbed him. Ulquiorra finally focused his gaze on the muscular man, doing his best to keep an undisturbed mien. "I don't understand, Grimmjow. Why you suddenly broke up with me on a whim. I want answers, reasons… so that it would be easier for me… to let you go…"
The pale man breathed in deeply, how many times had he rehearsed those words in his mind last night? He still couldn't believe this was real but… If the other party wasn't reciprocating, then their relationship was truly useless. He had never thought – it had never even crossed his mind, in fact – that what they had would come to an end but…
A jade-eyed gaze fell to the aqua-haired man kneeling in front of him, said man appeared crestfallen, the dim lightning of the room serving to further darken his shadowed features. He had the air of one that was earnestly trying to form a coherent sentence. Keyword: trying.
Finally, tanned fists clenched and a determined look settled on the handsome face, azure eyes lifted to look on par with a bright green pair.
"Ulquiorra, listen," Grimmjow said at last, his knuckles turning as white as the handkerchief that he still held in his right hand. "I… Well, we can't be together anymore…"
The pale-skinned man kept quiet, a signal for the other that more explanation was needed. He definitely wasn't satisfied by that one sentence.
"You did nothing wrong… I don't have a problem with you but… it's… the thing is, the problem… is me." The azure-eyed man admitted with a huff. "I know we're already clear with your parents but you know how my family is… They're a crazy ass bunch of uptight puritans… And they don't really tolerate people like… like me."
The pale man flinched. 'How hard can it be to say 'people like us'? Why do you act like all those times hadn't happened?' Ulquiorra wondered inwardly, honestly feeling like a small scalpel was slicing him inside at the thought. Still, he kept his silence, allowing the muscled man to explain himself further.
"A-And when my family discovers, well, what I really am…" the kneeling man continued, his voice only a slight bit stronger than when he started. "I just… I just don't want to get you involved in the mess…"
"Why are you shouldering all the blame?" Ulquiorra finally spoke, asking the other in a subdued tone. He felt… betrayed. "When we got together… we promised, didn't we? Through thick and thin, I'll be there and vice-versa…"
"It's not just about my family!" Grimmjow objected, jaws clenching. "There's a whole load of stuck-up bastards out there that looks down on–" us "–me! Just because I'm in like with another guy! There's–"
"Don't you think I'm already aware of all of that, Grimmjow?" Somehow, the sides of his eyes were stinging but Ulquiorra refused to acknowledge them. He'd cried enough tears for this. His anger was rising dangerously. How could Grimmjow just act as if there had been totally nothing between them? "I know how homosexual couples are treated around here… I know how they're looked down upon by society… But you know what? Despite all that, I still caved in for you… And, god damn, when you returned my affections, I decided that I don't care what other people thought about it. I don't care if they'd think that I was worse than trash! It was your opinion that mattered to me, Grimmjow; it still does. That's why I simply cannot make sense of why you just– just broke up with me for those petty reasons! We've been together for more than half a year and you're thinking about that now?"
Grimmjow only looked up at the ebony-haired man, his too-blue eyes wide and his mouth agape. "Ulquiorra, I–"
"What good will it do if you break up with me? I'm still gay whether or not I'm with you!" Ulquiorra spat, his own pale hands clutching the soft fabric of the quilt draped around his body.
It was raining harder outside, the temperature was dropping. A strike of lightning momentarily bathed the area with blindingly bright light, followed closely by a particularly loud crash of thunder that resounded in the shadowed sitting room.
Grimmjow's throat felt uncharacteristically dry.
"… And I still love you."
Jade eyes were filling with liquid that refused to spill, pale lips trembling as the fiver-word sentence passed between them.
Tanned hands lay limp on either side of him as the pain jolting from his knees were completely ignored. The well-chiseled face wore a look on utter astonishment and speechlessness. "I'm… sorry…" Grimmjow began weakly, azure orbs still clashing with jade. "It's just… that morning, two days ago… before I went to school, my parents were watching this news program…" The muscular man swallowed thickly. "… and there was something in there about a homosexual getting killed by some guy-prostitute that he'd paid for a night and… if you'd just heard what my parents said… clicking their tongues, saying that dead guy deserved it… for- for stupid things like immorality and shit… I just got… afraid… All day, I was thinking… If my parents knew about us… Would they treat you the same way?"
The jade-eyed man pursed his lips, absorbing every word that came from the other man. He could feel a familiar warming sensation filling him as he felt his heart beat a mile a minute within him.
"You didn't deserve to be treated like that, I resolved," the muscular man carried on, somewhat still managing to form decent sentences in spite of the wild heartbeats that he felt somewhere around his throat. "So I… decided to just… let go of you… before you get hurt because of me…"
Silence filled the gaps between the two men for a short moment until Ulquiorra found his voice to speak.
"That…" the ebony-haired man started in a leveled voice, his grip slackening on the quilt around him. "Is the single… stupidest… sentence… that I have ever heard in my life, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques!"
A pair of azure eyes widened in surprise at the uncalled for outburst, as such, the muscled man didn't have enough time to react when the slender pale figure threw itself at him.
A muffled 'THUD!' indicated the meeting of Grimmjow's back with the carpeted floor. The aforementioned man didn't seem to take note of that fact much, though, seeing as he was still in shock at his now 'armful of Ulquiorra'.
The ebony-haired man had wrapped his arms around the other's neck, burying his porcelain face at the crook of the taller man's neck and shoulders. No words were exchanged as Ulquiorra tightened his hold around Grimmjow. (Read: possessively.)
Slowly, muscular arms encircled the slim waist and a boyish face leaned in to the locks of ebony hair pressing against his left cheek. "Ulquiorra?" Grimmjow hazarded to ask.
"Shut up, I'm hating you now." Came the muffled reply.
"… Okay." The blue-eyed man decided it was easier to just agree as he held the smaller man tighter against is body. He closed his eyes, relishing the warmth of the other's body so close to his.
Long moments stretched into minutes until Ulquiorra finally rose, placing both hands on the muscular man's chest for support. Bright jade eyes focused on the boyish face underneath him as the other opened his eyes.
"You cried." Ulquiorra pointed out, reaching out his right hand and wiping away the sing track of liquid that ran down the sides of the aqua-haired man's face.
"Yeah, guess I did…" Grimmjow murmured, raising his left hand and trapping the pale hand on his left cheek, squeezing it in reassurance for himself.
"Really," the jade-eyed man huffed as he leaned down and pressed his forehead against Grimmjow's; the action was quite a habit of his. Those azure orbs were now closer than ever and he was more than willing to lose himself in them. "I won't even be surprised if I go crazy because of you now…"
"Sorry…" was Grimmjow's only reply, his thumb caressing the back of the pale hand in his grasp. "Ulquiorra… Can I kiss you?" the muscular man found himself asking.
"Why are you asking for permission?" Ulquiorra queried in reply, his left hand placing a firm grip on the other's shoulder.
"I wasn't sure if you–"
And the rest of Grimmjow's sentence was left unsaid as a pale set of lips lightly descended on his own. The aqua-haired man kissed back passionately. Good lord, he'd gone through just one day without Ulquiorra and he already missed the pale man by this much.
Fervor was evident as the kiss deepened, both parties bathing in the haze of heat, enamored too much by the other to care about anything else at the moment. Somewhere in the middle of their kiss, Grimmjow had managed to turn the tables around; hence, the paler man was now underneath him. Ulquiorra's right hand had slid from the tanned man's cheek, both of his hands now clutching the muscular man's broad shoulders as Grimmjow used his hands to balance himself above the smaller man.
Gradually, the kiss slowed into a stop, eyes fluttering open noting the flushed cheeks of the other. Grimmjow placed a finishing kiss on Ulquiorra's now-pinkish lips, the corners of his lips curving upwards in a hesitant smile.
Suddenly the room was bathed in bright artificial light and both males looked up in surprise. Standing just inside the doorframe to the sitting room was a woman with wavy teal hair wearing a bathrobe over her sleepwear. An unabashed look of surprise was stirring in her hazel eyes as she stared at the pair on the floor.
"I didn't know Grimmjow slept over last night," the woman's childish voice filled the otherwise deathly silent room.
At that, the aqua-haired male had the audacity to blush.
"M-Mom… you're awake," the jade-eyed man greeted somewhat awkwardly. Well, his own mother was standing in the doorway looking at him with another male lying on top of him.
"Well, it is already morning," Ulquiorra's mother replied easily. "Oh, and when you two are done making out on the sitting room carpet, help me with breakfast in the kitchen, okay, Ulquiorra?"
"Y-Yes, Mom…" the pale teen replied, his cheeks taking on a red hue.
With that, the teal-haired woman turned to leave but seemingly remembering something, she faced the two again.
"Oh, and your father's going to get up soon, Ulquiorra, so finish your business quick." The woman reminded them before walking off towards the kitchen, muttering to herself. "Grimmjow's going to have breakfast with us today… What to cook? What to cook?"
Back at the sitting room, a pair of flustered men uneasily shifted to sit up on the carpet beside each other.
"So…" Grimmjow decided to break the monotone between them. It was eerily uncomfortable sitting there with Ulquiorra's mother having just walked in on them so casually.
"…"
"…Yeah."
"…"
"…"
"Well, erm… What do you want for breakfast?" Ulquiorra finally asked, jade irises nervously peeking at his companion from the corner of his eyes.
"Anything really…" the blue-eyed man replied, shifting slightly to face the other man. "Hey Ulquiorra…"
"Hm?"
Grimmjow found his eyes cast down as a jade pair landed on him. "I was just wondering if I could somehow still repair our–"
"Ah, yes… You broke up with me, didn't you?"
"Well, yeah… so I was thinking maybe…"
"Maybe what?"
"… Maybe we could get together again?" Grimmjow finished in a small voice.
A pensive look showed on the porcelain face. "Let me think about it… No." the ebony-haired man replied coldly.
"What?!" shock was evident in those too-blue orbs.
"Just because I made out with you doesn't mean that I'm taking you back so easily." Ulquiorra replied coldly.
"Y-You don't wanna–?"
"Don't I want to get together with you? Of course I want to!"
"Then, why–?"
"If you want me back then go do it properly."
"… Er, what?"
"You know what I mean…"
"…!" Realization hit Grimmjow like a ton of bricks. "Oh geez… Are you serious…?"
Ulquiorra only smiled at him before getting off the floor, cocking his head to one side to show the other man that he was waiting.
"Well – Oh fine… Have it your way…" Grimmjow gave in; taking the pale man's outstretched hand, allowing himself to be pulled up to his feet.
The two of them walked out of the sitting room and headed towards the kitchen where soft clinking noises of silverware were emanating. Just before they came into view of the doorway, however, Ulquiorra pulled the muscled man aside.
"Ulqui–"
Grimmjow's words were cut off by pale lips placing a quick peck on his own.
"I was just kidding, Grimmjow," the ebony-haired man whispered, merely a breath away from the taller man's lips. "Of course we're together again… Just don't even think of breaking up with me. Ever."
"Promise." Grimmjow responded, claiming those tempting lips for his own, his hand automatically traveling around the pale man's abdomen, pulling him closer.
Breaking apart, smiles decorated both pairs of lips.
"Ulquiorra? Are you two done yet?" came the inquiring voice of a certain hazel-eyed woman.
"Yes, Mom… I'll be in the kitchen soon," Ulquiorra replied, a pinkish tinge coloring his pale cheeks.
"Hey, can I help in there, too?" Grimmjow asked, not wanting to just sit and do nothing. Especially with the threat of Ulquiorra's father waking up soon was hanging in the air.
"Ask my mother about that…" Ulquiorra answered, gently pulling along the muscular man into the kitchen.
The rainstorm still poured outside but it had somehow become considerably warmer.
– From G to U –
A/N: Another fic made at the ungodly hours of the night… or morning… whichever…
I never could stomach heartbreak fics… I live for happy endings…
And Grimmjow and Ulquiorra seem to get more and more human as these Stray fics go on… hmm. That's bad ain't it? Boo for the drama… Ulqui's acting like a total sappy bitch. –oh noes- D: –is not really happy with this but published it anyway–
Well, Mommy Nel makes a reappearance with mentions of Nnoi-daddy… so… Yay? –sweatdrop-
3558 words. It's a bloody downpour over here at my country...