Thanks to Kikii, again, for helping me! He's a lifesaver, he even listened to my crackheaded ramblings cause I had too much energy.
Disclaimer (wow I've been forgetting this...): I do not own Bleach.
*~Narrators Verse~*
Grimmjow woke the next morning, still in the same position as he was last night. Graciela looked eerily serene laying in her bed, cuddled to one of her pillows.
Yea, she even got more than one pillow.
Grimmjow shifted to move, but when he did so, Graciela twitched uncomfortably in her sleep. Now if this was any other girl, Grimmjow would have gotten up no problem and left, but after all of the information she managed to get out of him last night; he just couldn't bring himself to do so.
All thanks to that stupid question game. Now he was emotionally attached, per se, to his target in Aizen's given mission. Now not only will the end hurt her like it should have, but it will hurt him as well.
'This shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have answered any of her questions.'
What surprised Grimmjow the most is that even though she only asked small, normally insignificant, questions; she got more information on him than any one else.
From him.
That's saying something.
Grimmjow shook his head to clear his mind of unwanted, well more unnecessary, thoughts. While shaking it he got a glimpse of Graciela's… assets. With the way she slept, her boobs practically fell out of the v-neck.
Again, if this was any other girl Grimmjow would have most likely taken a sort of advantage over her. But after breaking down some of her protective layers, he found that she has a really innocent personality. All crude jokes, excluding the shit Nnoitra says to her, goes right over her head. So of course, he would not, and will not; take advantage of her.
Although, ideas started to form in Grimmjow's, sometimes, convoluted mind. Last night, she unintentionally asked him some very personal questions. She phrased them innocently, for she couldn't express them any other way. There was one question that pretty much broke all awkwardness and brought on a whole another wave of sexual tension the two never noticed before.
-So have you been with anyone Grimmjow?-
Her perfectly even handwriting on the paper, the shock he felt, he remembered it as if it happened mere seconds ago. Not almost 12 hours in the past. Needless to say, Grimmjow answered the question truthfully; like all the others. But it was in the wrong sense, he misinterpreted the innocent enough question.
-Only twice. Last time it wasn't great, she was easy and I was pissed as anything over Luppi.- He actually growled when writing out the name.
He even remembers the gasp he heard from Graciela and the crimson red that plagued her otherwise perfectly tanned complexion. Her eyes showed shock and Grimmjow shook his head to rid it of the images; again.
"I didn't mea-"
"Shit!"
He sighed, that was how their conversation ended. Gracie folded the papers and placed them under her mattress, a temporary spot, she assured him.
He shook his head, finally clearing his mind of last nights incident. Now, Grimmjow peered over at Graciela condescendingly, he began to plan. She caused the tension so surely by asking other questions of those means, it will eventually ebb. His logic seemed sound enough to him so he shrugged in acceptance. A few awkward questions a day, eventually it will go away.*
'But then you will have to complete your job…' he thought. Half scolding himself for getting attached to an innocent girl and half for what he should really be preparing for.
Grimmjow's gaze inadvertently shifted back to Graciela, well the chest of the aforementioned any way. Little did he know but two weeks ago she was 5' 2", flat as a board and had a very stable life.
*~Graceful Melody~*
I opened my eyes and without moving looked up towards Grimmjow. His head is facing away from mine so he must still be asleep.
When I looked back away I blushed, all thoughts from last night came rushing back into my head.
I can't believe I ended up asking him such personal questions. I thought that the whole first kiss question wasn't bad, but asking him is he dated anyone? My face reddened even more and the feeling of being an even larger prude washed over me. I've only kissed and he's had… bedroom relations with people. I mentally slapped myself in a vain attempt to put that to the back of my mind.
I felt this nagging sensation to move from her position, as if it was compromising in some fashion. Twitching a little, I noticed Grimmjow's head turn towards me, so he is awake?
"Tch, about time you wake up," ah, I miss the quiet Grimmjow already.
I groaned, and turned my head farther into my pillow. Mere seconds later, I felt a stare on my body. Confused, I turned to Grimmjow. When I noticed where his eyes had shifted to I squeaked and covered myself with the extra pillow; fully awake now.
"Grimmjow!" I scolded from behind my pillow. Though it didn't really sound all that clear, the pillow muffled my voice. I didn't need his mocking expression to know that was blushing like a mad woman.
"Shut up brat, you're too loud."
I rolled my eyes at him. Why did he always have such snide and short retorts? Even when we were writing back and forth to each other his answers were always short and somewhat indirect. I moved the pillow away from my face now that my blush died down to only a slight red, no longer a ripe tomato.
Grimmjow looked like he was going to ask me something but my stomach interrupted him. It figures, just as my blush dies down I do something to make myself blush again. I mentally sighed while Grimmjow began to say something else.
"Come on, I'm getting food."
I rolled my eyes at him. Of course, when it was my stomach who rumbled, he can't look like he's caring for someone else.
I shut my door on the way out and walked next to him to the kitchen. I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eyes just yet after what happened this morning. Just thinking about it brought another blush onto my face.
More sooner, than later, we ended up at the entrance to the kitchen, apparently I was lost in my thoughts because Grimmjow called my name without an answer multiple times.
This time, thank god, we are alone in the kitchen. Though most unfortunately, there was barely any food left after the morning rush. Rummaging through the remaining basket of breakfast goods I found my favorite type of bagel; blueberry. While putting cream cheese on it, Grimmjow made his way over to the bagel basket for he finally realized there isn't another other food. I smirked when he pulled out his favorite kind; poppy seed. A fact that I found out last night.
Walking back to my room I thought of a few more questions to ask him once we got back.
Though all of mine were silenced my his only one, "who was your first kiss?"
*~Narrators Verse~*
Sneezing, Hitsugaya Toshiro walked out of the shop to resume his position on the back lawn from the night before. Hitsugaya may have been cold before, but never sad or melancholy; for he found no reason to be. Sure he may have been possessed by Aizen and had no control over his actions, but he knows that Graciela wouldn't believe him if he ever received the chance to tell her.
He sighed in anger but then an ingenious thought all but slapped him across the face.
'Perhaps this is a good thing. Before Gracie was talking about starting over, well now is our chance to really do so.'
'There is a problem with that, master,' Hyourinmaru interrupted Hitsugaya's hopeful thoughts, 'to truly start over you would have to have your shields up as well. But if you plan to get her to talk with you again, there is no way that you can put those up for her to break down.'
'Then I won't. I'll just break her defenses. As soon as we rescue her I'll start explaining.'
'Speaking of which, when will Urahara complete the garganta?' Hyourinmaru asked.
Hitsugaya jumped for any chance to get his mind of of Graciela, even for a minute amount of time, for the same thought would always be his answer and crush his hopes:
'Why get my hopes up, what if she doesn't forgive me?'
He shook his head to clear the pessimistic thought, surely checking on Urahara would get his mind off of her. In spite of the fact that visiting Urahara would lead to talking about the garganta, and the garganta would lead back to thinking about Graciela; Hitsugaya went anyway.
"Hitsugaya Toshiro," Graciela responded with. Using every ounce of power within her body, she forced the tears that formed from flowing over. All thoughts that were swirling around in her head completely stopped. By mentioning his name it's almost as if the world is ending; her world anyway.
Grimmjow got up and closed her door to give them privacy, although he didn't show it; he truly was worried about Graciela. His personality on the other hand, won't let him voice his feelings, so he settled for a concerned look. Blue eyebrows raised in shock as well.
"Don't ask, just drop it," Gracie said and shifted on her bed until she faced the wall and had her back to Grimmjow.
Not knowing what to do, he walked out of her room and just sat by the door. He knows enough to give her her privacy and to not ask anything; yet. Inside, his mind spun and tried to form coherent questions to ask her, though he doubts that he will receive any answer from her. Somewhere deep inside his mind, he even swore to get a few good hits on the white haired Captain for doing what ever he did to make Gracie react in such an uncharacteristic; sad manner.
On the outside, his face set itself in a deep scowl and he used all his remaining will power to prevent him self from hitting something. Sure, Grimmjow cares about how Gracie is feeling and wants to know why she is like that, but he is mostly disgusted with himself. For he knows that when he completes his mission, the state Gracie is in now is most likely the state she will end in.
'No,' he corrects himself, 'she will be worse.'
*~Graceful Melody~*
Silently, tears fell down my face.
'At least you managed to hold your tears until Grimmjow left,' Ry tried to reassure me.
But I'm still crying, don't you see this is a battle and I'm losing terribly?
By now, I've learned to cry in silence as not to arouse suspicion, nor to give others a reason to pity me for things they wouldn't ever understand.
'Gracie, don't you dare get yourself worked up over him again. He's worthless, a piece of sh-'but that only made me cry harder. A small whimper left my lips and somewhere outside my room I heard a grunt. That resulted in another whimper and my thought process to return to me.
No, no, no! He was supposed to stay an enemy! Now he's sitting in the hall wanting for me to calm down and is concerned for me! I need to call him in here, to explain my I'm like this.
'Graciela, no. Calm down before you do anything of the sorts. You know that Grimmjow is one to get angry very easily, so telling him while you are like this won't result in anything good.' I nodded in agreement to Celest's words.
I tuned them out, and stopped my thoughts again. Well all but one, 'if you want to come back in you can.'
Now that my sobs died down at least I will know that while he's in my room, he won't hurt any one. I would hate myself if someone got hurt, or even killed; for my sake.
I heard the door open and close again, as well as the footsteps leading to my couch. Assuming that's where he will stay, I allowed myself to relax a little. It may be midday, and my breakfast is still sitting on the end of my bed, but emotional breakdowns are tiring.
Before I knew it, I had cried myself to sleep.
*~Frozen Harmony~*
"What the hell?" I said when I reached the training area.
Ever so slowly bits and pieces of the garganta began to zipper together again. I heard a chorus of other voices saying exactly the same thing, and I thought to myself, why did he call us all down here?
Yesterday, when Ichigo, Uryu and Chad went back to school; it was still stable. Kisuke's calculations said that it should have been fully opened by today so I thought we were called down here to leave.
"It worked!" Kisuke said, while hiding behind his fan.
"What do you mean 'it worked'? It's zipping back together! How are we supposed to leave now?" Ichigo called out.
"I told you that it would take upwards of two weeks. Honestly I kind of expected it to break down on the first try."
"When can you retry to create it?" I asked. Though I know that if I didn't ask the question, someone else would have; it was obviously on everyones minds. Everyone is jumpy at the fact that we have the chance now and just want to go save our friends. We all know the risk of leaving them there this long; the higher chance they could end up dead.
"Tomorrow around midday," everyone sighed heavily. A days delay could end up with dire consequences for or friends held in Hueco Mundo.
It's not like I doubt that Gracie can take care of herself, but Inoue seemed very frail and weak when she was in Soul Society. So I believe that is safe to assume she is fairing worse there than she did with us. That in itself is a relatively scary fact.
Urahara dismissed us so I retreated back to my room with a cup of tea. No sooner than I sat down on my bed did someone knock on my door.
"Come in," I called out, too lazy to answer my door formally. Not only does Gracie's absence take a toll on my mental state, but my actions and manners seem to be effected as well.
"Matsumoto," I said surprised. She was the last person I expected to see walk into my room.
She shut the door behind her and walked to stand in front of me; obviously ready to talk. In response I offered her a seat on the bed, albeit awkwardly, though she took it and turned so that she faced me.
"So I've been thinking," pause, "you say that you were trapped in your own mind by Aizen."
Taking a sip of my tea I nodded, not sure of where Matsumoto is going with is.
She stood up and began to pace around the smaller room, as if carefully calculating what to say.
"Well Aizen has an illusion zanpakuto, couldn't you have broken the illusion? I mean Grace is the elemental after all so if you called out to her, even though it would be mentally, wouldn't her powers kind of overrule Aizen's?"
I stuttered, not sure of what to say. I never really thought of it that way. I guess I was so mad at Aizen at the time, and wanted to console Gracie so badly that my logic never really pulled through.
"I know that when you are mad you never really think logically, but did you even fight against the bonds? Or did you just accept it and sit there watching Aizen torture Gracie through your body?"
Shocked, I raised my eyebrows. "Of course, I fought!" But then I got to thinking, I struggled with his powers and even swore a death threat type of vendetta against him. But then I just sat back and watched everything happening. Was I really as powerless as I felt? Or is Matsumoto right?
I hung my head in shame and Matsumoto came to sit back down on the bed.
"I just wanted to let you know that you aren't the only one who misses her. Sure yours may be worse because you are basically the reason why he left in the first place," I felt deep regret swell inside of me.
"You didn't need to remind me…"
"Actually I did. I just need you to know that what you're feeling right now will go away once we save her. Know that when we do go to save her, I will be behind you no matter what. Don't tell me 'I can handle this you go!' or things like you normally would; I just won't accept it. We are going to get Gracie back, and when we do we can have our happy little division back and I will forgive you."
She walked to the door but stopped, "I felt like when I was with Gracie, a lot of the stuff we did I've done with her before. Like there is almost a strange sense of déjá vu surrounding her. As strange as it is, I find extreme comfort in that familiarity and when we rescue her; finally things can get back to normal."
With that she walked out. As random and kind of awkward as the conversation was, she had some good points. Oh and she succeeded in making me feel like shit and might be getting back old memories but hey, what can you do?
Finishing my tea, I slumped back onto my bed and decided to plan out what to do when in Hueco Mundo. As a type of 'team leader' I haven't been doing a great job. After Matsumoto's speech, how could I not start?
*~Narrators Verse~*
"How long has she been like dat?" Gin asked Grimmjow.
Gin unexpectedly popped up to have a little chat with the two, like he did with Ulquiorra and Orihime just minutes before.
"A day, give or take."
"Do ya know why she started ta act like dis?" Gin asked in his southern-esque drawl.
"I asked her a question and she got all teary eyed when she answered," Grimmjow said. Though he does need to report back to Aizen all the information he has gathered, he still feels weird about telling Gracie's secrets. Especially since she is in the room right next door and the walls in Las Noches are pretty thin.
"What question? What was her answer?"
"I asked who her first kiss was," Gin's eye brows rose in a questioning glance. Though it went unnoticed because of the way his eyes and cheshire smile normally are.
"She answered that it was Hitsugaya Toshiro then got all upset."
"Welp, when she calms down talk wit 'er and try ta get her ta tell ya 'bout wha happened. Then tell her I needa speak wit 'er."
"Yes Gin-sama." Grimmjow spat out begrudgingly.
"Is it going to work?" Rukia called out excitedly as Kisuke started to open up the garganta again.
"Of course, I just need to.. ah! There we go!"
Before their eyes (Rukia, Matsumoto, Urahara and Hitsugaya) the garganta started to unzip and open up. A small cheer was heard from the girls before they headed back up the stairs.
"Kisuke, we need to talk, Hitsugaya said, with a stern look on his face.
"Very well then, follow me."
Follow the, not so little any more, prodigy did. The two of them ended in the dining room, or the room considered as such. On the table, two cups of tea which were previously poured by Tessai, awaited them.
"So where are we going to end up when we go through the garganta?" Hitsugaya went straight to business.
"Nowhere where you all will be in immediate danger. Most likely somewhere in the sands of Hueco Mundo, though not that far from Las Noches."
"When there I plan on allowing groups to form, two specifically. That way more ground will be covered, I have no doubts that they would be able to fend for themselves."
"Very well then, do what you must. Just know that Hueco Mundo is an unforgiving place and be prepared for anything." Although Kisuke said that somewhat off handedly, underneath the surface of the words is a warning that should be heeded.
'Graciela you have to get up.'
'Yea, you've been wallowing in sadness for nearly four days now.'
'Grimmjow surely can't be happy. Watching over a girl who just lays in bed all day.'
'Ella enough, don't get her feeling worse about herself,' Celest scolded.
'But she needs a wake up call!'
'Gracie, during that week, did you ever once think to get into Hitsugaya's mind?' Ry questioned, randomly.
Though for Ella it wasn't random, while Matsumoto had this same conversation with Hitsugaya, Ry was with Hyourinmaru. Which for once; went unnoticed by Toshiro.
No.. should I have? Gracie asked somewhat dazed and confused. Never had she thought about going to his mind.
'Ry has a point, you could have see what was going on,' Celest added; catching on.
'And you might have prevented him from going ape shit on you,'Ella pointed out bluntly.
'Ella!' Celest and Ry shouted at the same time.
You know guys, I hadn't even thought of that. I never really use the power so the thought honestly never crossed my mind.
'Ya know, maybe you're at fault for this whole mess just as much as Toshiro is.'
'Yea, what if you just looked into his mind, what could have happened…'
Well, you guys succeeded in making me feel even worse now. But you have a point, also a reason for Toshiro to hate me even more. What if he did all that just to get attention?
'Do you really think that he is the kind of person to do that?' Celest asked.
No I never took him as such, but I took Momo to be a good true friend. Look how that turned out. Gracie argued back with.
'Point.'
Annoyed, Gracie finally had enough.
Bye guys! Gracie called, while blocking out the voices of her inner spirits.
Though that is exactly what her spirits wanted her to do. They all high fived at the success of their plan, though it was rather quickly made on the spot and improvised, it still worked perfectly.
Shifting in the bed she turned around to face Grimmjow and smiled lightly.
"Took you long enough," Grimmjow said.
He got up to talk over to Gracie, to actually see if she was awake. Over the past three days he actually started to feel lonely and more or less like the way he was before Graciela became his assignment.
Lethargically, Graciela sat up on her bed and eventually faced Grimmjow fully.
"You know you were out for three and a half days."
'WHAT?' Three and a half days!' Gracie couldn't believe it. It felt so much shorter to her. But then again she drifted in and out of consciousness and the amount of self pity and replaying of events made time pass faster for her.
"So what day is it? What time is it? Wait.. I'm still in Las Noches right?" Gracie kind of rambled through her confusion.
'It's Friday now.'
'Midnight ya dunce.'
'No we're in Timbuktu. Are you stupid?'
Grimmjow just smirked, unaware that Ella has been answering the pointless questions all along.
Then suddenly Grimmjow's expression grew serious, in response so did the atmosphere in the room.
"So why did you react like that?" Grimmjow finally asked the question that Gracie knew would come out of his mouth sooner or later.
"Hitsugaya, when I was recovering, wanted to try something," Gracie changed the story around as not to give any information about the original universe.
"He came over to me and kissed me. Right on the lips, I pushed him away and told him that it was uncalled for."
"That's it?" Grimmjow asked.
'No way is that the whole story, a simple incident like that, or the reason for her to be out cold for three and a half days.'
"But that's not it," Gracie continued. With Grimmjow's full attention and incredulous look on his face,she further divulged the information.
"A few days later, he stated acting really weird. He would yell at me for nothing, and he started to become more cold and definitely not himself. One day in the office I was being scolded by him again and out of the corner of my eye I saw Matsumoto's lips purse in frustration. I shook my head to her, though Hitsugaya thought that I was dismissing his statements. After that he started to yell at me and…" Graciela stopped here for a moment, to recompose herself. Durning the past speech was was loosing control over her emotions ever so slowly. She shook with the effort of suppressing everything, but it didn't hold up; she started to cry again.
"He just got so mad, I didn't even see what was happening. Well I saw but I didn't, no, I couldn't comprehend it!"
Practically wailing now, "he.. he.. he slapped me!"
Shaking a little more she held her hand in her hands and Grimmjow looked like he was ready to kill. Though the murderous intent isn't directed towards the white haired captain.
"Slapped me! Grimmjow, he slapped me!" Gracie latched onto that one phrase during her cry.
"I just.. I did my best to listen to him but he was so mean! I did my best! I did my best!"* Gracie, by now, just laid on her bed in hysterics. Her loud sobs echoed through the bedroom.
Grimmjow was just about ready to kill someone, that someone being Aizen. Thanks to Aizen revealing his plans, Grimmjow knew that Aizen was going to take over the mind of someone close to Gracie to persuade her to come to Las Noches.
Grimmjow did his best to suppress his anger. After succeeding and actually listening to his better judgement for once, he started awkwardly at the broken girl before him. In no way is he experienced with comforting people. Especially people who are crying. Especially girls. Especially a girl who he now considers to be a friend.
So, not knowing what to do really, he sat down next to Gracie. Who, in return, threw herself at him and latched on; like she latched on to the other phrases. Awkwardly, he put and arm around her waist and patted her back. She, lost in hysterics, missed the one time Grimmjow actually looked clueless, weak, and venerable.
Of course, someone saw. Las Noches is notorious for the walls having eyes and ears. Not too soon after Gracie calmed down and wiped her tears, does the eyes an ears pokes his head through the door.
"Ya'll are needed fer a meetin'."
"Okay Gin," Grimmjow called for both of them.
*Omg I rhymed! XD
*again with the dark humore; 'I did my best' is the line Dane Cook used when he did his skit on 'Crying.'
Sorry, I personally don't think this chapter was very interesting and the emotion was in no way delivered but I still hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.
Friday July 23rd 4:49 am.