"Grimmjow...if you can hear my voice, then you have to get up. Wake up, Grimmjow. Wake up…" Ulquiorra whispered to the comatose Espada before him. He should be sleeping, but his mind didn't stop straying back to the lower ranked Espada. So here he was, in the middle of the night, watching over the Sexta, the low-life trash. "I'm so stupid. I know you can't hear me, because if you could, I wouldn't be here. Still, you have to follow my voice and wake up, Grimmjow. You promised…" Ulquiorra whispered, squeezing the trembling hand in his own.
--||Inside the mind of Grimmjow Jaeggerjaques, who is still reliving the moments of his death and the emotional tethers of his past life.||--
"Uhn...no...n-no…" The raven-haired teen groaned subconsciously. His body twitched and his muscles spasmed. Grimmjow heard the small groans and pleas and felt that Ulquiorra was really having trouble, only to find that, once again, the younger male was having a frightful nightmare. The young man would always jerk his limbs and mumble some clear words but mostly incoherent phrases. His body would arch and his body would rise in temperature. The most frightening of all these times that Grimmjow had seen was the tears--the streams of tears that would run rampant along those pale cheeks.
"Calm down, Ulqui, it's only a dream…" Grimmjow sighed, sitting beside the quivering form. The younger man beside him seemed to relax slightly and he turned, front facing Grimmjow. Grimmjow swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to go back to his room when he heard a small whimper. It was low, almost unheard, but all the same clear as day and as light as a feather.
"Ngh. Don't…" some mumbles mixed in there and then some more legible words, "please…don't go…Grimm…jow…"
That is when it hit him. The power of those simple, sleep muttered words had his sitting against the wall of Ulquiorra's room. It was as he had feared…he was so hopelessly in love with the raven-haired young man there, in that bed before him. When? No, he didn't even ask himself that. It was so simple: the day he had seen that faint smile on those thin lips, the faint gleam of light, happiness in those abandoned emerald eyes. It was on that day, five, maybe six years ago that he had fallen in deep.
Grimmjow sighed and cradled his head on his arms as he folded his knees against his body. He shook--in both fear and anger. Fear that he would lose Ulquiorra if he found out and anger for doing the one thing he knew he would pummel anyone else for doing: hurting the ebony haired teen. He wasn't doing it on purpose, and that was what scared Grimmjow the most. He attracted...monsters, beasts that seemed to bent on killing both Ulquiorra and Grimmjow himself.
It was the next afternoon Grimmjow knew his life would never be the same. It was the next afternoon that Grimmjow knew that he and Ulquiorra could never be. He and Ulquiorra were walking down the street, on their way to the park for a little time off of work on Grimmjow's behalf and School on Ulquiorra's side. He heard a low grumbling, he felt the earth grumble beneath him and then everything went deathly quiet and still.
Grimmjow turned around slowly when he heard a deep, quiet growl. He saw the monster, huge and lizard-like. Its body was white as bone and its eyes seemed to glow an orange hue. It crawled on its belly towards them, bone like body grinding against the concrete.
"YOU!!" It bellowed, and got up on its hind legs. It ran faster now, tail swiping at the nearby trees and buildings. Ulquiorra fell from the immense power emanated from the impact of the swipes and Grimmjow stood, simply frozen. He turned and grabbed Ulquiorra by the hand and lifted him, taking off as soon as the smaller teen's feet touched the ground.
They had to get away! That…that thing was so close! Too close to them, bellowing at the top of its lungs, chortling away as it flicked it's wrist; hitting only Grimmjow as he pushed Ulquiorra and raised his arm to block his head. It seemed to grow needier as Grimmjow's blood splattered on the floor.
"Why are we running!! Grimmjow! Are you hurt?!" Ulquiorra shouted, getting pulled once again. His eyes went wide with the sight of the red blood gushing out from the deep wound on Grimmjow's bicep. "Stop!" Ulquiorra shouted before pulling his arm out of the bloody grasp. "Why are we running?!"
"You can't see it?! That monster that we're running from?!" Grimmjow shouted, exasperated. Ulquiorra shook his head, eying the blood that seeped through Grimmjow's fingers as he tried to apply pressure to the cut.
"I-I didn't see it, all-all I could see is a big blur…b-but it hurt you, Grimmjow, it really hurt you badly…!" Ulquiorra stammered. Grimmjow whipped his head around and pushed Ulquiorra. His own body was sent flying until it crashed against the wall. His body was in pain, blood seemed through his mouth as the hollow loomed closer.
"U-Ulqui r-run…" Grimmjow choked out. Ulquiorra stared at him, taking slow steps closer. The hollow turned it's head and roared menacingly at Ulquiorra. "Idiot! Run!" Grimmjow shouted.
"I won't leave you!" Ulquiorra ran, ducking the blur that went dangerously close to his head and almost made it, his hand brushing by Grimmjow's hair. Grimmjow watched in paralyzed fear as the large hand swept Ulquiorra aside like common trash , the unconscious body slamming against a far off building.
The large hand went forward, covering Grimmjow's vision scope until it was all he saw--that eerie white. Grimmjow held his breath and braced himself for the pain he knew his body was about to feel, he clenched his jaw and shut his eyes, unwilling to look up at the great beast that would become his reaper. There was a howl, loud and boisterous that seemed to shake him to the core. When Grimmjow opened his eyes there was a man in front of him, wearing a black hakama with a white haori. In his hands was a long sword that seemed to gleam in the afternoon sun.
"Ah, and what are you doing, looking at me like that?" Said the man as he smiled. Grimmjow took a good look at the man's face, taking in all the features from the slightly messy brown hair to the chestnut eyes behind the square glasses. "Ah, pardon me, where are my manners? Sousuke Aizen, Captain of the 5th division, at your service."