Chapter 6

Warnings: Quite a bit of language, blood, fighting, injuries.

Disclaimer: See profile

Note- Once in a while, I'll have the Grantz's interact in what I call "Itanglish" (Italian/English. Get it? Like Spanglish, but, with… Italian- you know what, just forget it) so I'll translate it at the bottom with the Japanese (if there is any for the specific chapter). I wanted them to have some kind of separate language, and I chose Italian because IlForte means the strong one. Some of it will be correct from my own (limited) knowledge, but some of it comes from Google translate, so I'm not sure about it. Some things I tried to have them say in Italian, but I knew that the Google translation was wrong or I wasn't sure about, so I couldn't do that.

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Reino Grantz wakes up at the sounds of loud bangs and yells of fighting out her window in the baron sands of the training grounds. Groaning, she sits up in her bed and checks the time on bedside clock.

3:27 A.M.

Much too early for anyone to be fighting like that outside, or even awake for that matter. She was ready to go up to her window and scream 'Shut the fuck up!', but upon seeing that the participants of the fight are the 4th and 6th Espada, Ulquiorra-sama and Grimmjow-sama, she decided against it, seeing as she didn't need more than one Espada on her back; Nnoitora was enough. It wouldn't do good to be in any kind of trouble, as that would take time away from her sciences. She couldn't possibly miss any opportunities to finish her lizard reproduction experiment without a crater forming in the tiled floor of her section of her *otouto's laboratory.

She yawns. Maybe some caffeine would wake her up for a bit, because it didn't look they were going to stop for a while, which in turn meant she wasn't getting anymore sleep unless she slept in one of the examination rooms. The only problem with that was that those tables were hard as damned rocks.

She goes over to her small closet and retrieves one set of her daily clothing. She strips off her sleep-wear, which consisted of a plain black tank top and fuzzy dark purple pants, and puts on her black and white uniform. She decides to only put on the bottom layer for now, since she was only going to get a drink from the kitchen, and there was most likely going to be no one around to see her anyways (no point in a jacket just for that).

Another loud bang sounds, and she decides to see what exactly they were doing. Perhaps this would be a good time to see their fighting styles. Some good intended observations. Nothing wrong with that, right? After all, they had waked her up after getting only about 2 hours of sleep.

Walking up to the skinny but long window, she pulls back the thick, black velvet curtain just enough to poke her head through to take a peek at the ongoing action.

The Cuarta was mainly stationary in one spot, without a single scratch or rip in his uniform. The Sexta was in his resurreccion state, resembling a panther. He was full of scratches, and covered with blood. He was panting, and heavily hunched over, but still in a fighting stance. He began running up to the 4th and went to claw at his chest. The maneuver was dodged effortlessly, and 6th received a blow to his side. An array of punches were thrown at the stoic Espada, but he just moved his head out of the way at each one, not bothering to attack back. The blue-haired man started getting frustrated, and went for a quick hit to his ribs. The move was blocked without a second thought from the Cuarta, and he landed a strike on the larger man's chest. They both skidded away from the force of the blow.

He looked intriguing. Drenched in sweat, his beautiful blue hair matted with blood, he was mesmerizing.

This continued for a few minutes. She could see her large, deep amethyst eyes reflecting off of the glass of the window as she watched the battle between the two Espada.

As Grimmjow went in for another hit, he saw Reino, and the two of them locked eyes for a short moment, but their gazes were cut off by Ulquiorra getting him square in the jaw with his fist. The 6th flew back about 10 feet and landed on his back.

"You are useless, trash. We are finished here."

He looked back to see what the Sexta was distracted by, and spotted her. She met his eyes for half a second, and then jumped back from his chilling gaze. Startled, she leaned against the wall, her heart racing. But her heart wasn't pounding just from how the Cuarta's scared the crap out of her. No, it was because of the way the Sexta looked. There aren't words to express how... attractive he looked just then.

She shook the thought out of her head. It didn't matter; she was probably just tired. Yea, that was it. Just very tired.

She gathers herself and leaves her quarters to make her way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was only used by the Espada and their fraccione. The numeros had their own separate kitchen; it was one of the few perks of being Nnoitora's fraccione, seeing as the food in the numeros' kitchen was disgusting. Before she had met the Quinta, she would rather eat the hollow lizards in her lab than any of the food in there. The bread was basically wheat paste, only as hard as steel. She shuddered at the disturbing thoughts of what she previously had to endure. The Espada kitchen was much better; the food was very luxurious, and there was a large selection of beverages, many of them from the human world. Many arrancars were fascinated by human food, so that was what the majority of the kitchen was filled with.

She arrived at the large silver doors that led to the kitchen and reached up to rub her eyes and yawn. She opens the door and upon entering, she could feel another presence in the room. She opens her eyes to see who it is.

'G-Grimmjow-sama!'

He was leaning up against one of the counters with an unopened can of Sprite™.

"**O-Ohayou gozaimasu, Grimmjow-sama," she says with a small nod. He gives her small, slightly derisive and condescending glance, and goes back to thinking about something. Walking up to one of the many refrigerators, about to open it to get a can of Dr. Pepper™, she noticed all of his wounds. They looked much worse up close than they did through the window.

She quickly walked up to him to grab his free arm, and inspect the damage. Most of it was covered with blood. She then moved to his chest, and then his abdomen. When she moved up to look at a particularly deep cut on his face, he finally decided to ask the question.

"'The hell are you doin'?"

She had barely realized what she was doing until he pointed it out. Sometimes, her inner scientist and healer took over her mind in situations like this.

"Hm? O-Oh! Uh, S-S-Sorry. I just wanted to make sure that those would heal alright." She blushed in embarrassment and took a step back.

"Whatever." He goes to open his can. She speculates that the only reason that he didn't beat the crap out of her is because he either doesn't care enough to do so, he's tired in the morning, or (though very unlikely for him to admit) he's weaker from the fight.

"Ow! Shit!" He shakes his hand as she can see blood dripping from his thumb. She grabs a paper towel and dampens it slightly at the sink, then presses it to his hand. She holds it there for a moment to soak up the blood, and then takes it away to view the damage.

"Damn…" He nicked the artery, and it was heavily bleeding. He looked at her questioningly. "Arterial cut."

She generates a bit of spit in her mouth, then spits onto her finger and rubs it into the cut artery.

"Whoa! What the hell are you doin' spitting on my hand?"

"A female arrancar's saliva, though weak, has slight healing abilities. This should keep it from bleeding too much." Even with her saliva, that wouldn't be enough to stop the bleeding before passes out from eventual blood loss.

"Would you please come with me? I need to fix that before it bleeds too much."

"Hell no. I think I'll survive a damned scratch." Well, if he didn't want to come, then she'll just have to make him to come by injuring the thing that would hurt the most- his pride.

"Grimmjow-sama, if you do not let me fix that, you will pass out from blood loss right here on the kitchen floor. When the others come in here, what will they think when the find you unconsciously sprawled on the ground, see blood on your drink, and realize that you were struck down by an aluminum can? I wonder what kind of ridicule you'd get from Nnoitora." She looks up at him and raises an eyebrow; he scowled at the thought of it.

"Fine, whatever."

He puts down his drink. She nods, grabs his arm, and flashes both of them to the entrance to the maze that is the Grantz's lab. She begins to lead him to the proper examination room; the examination rooms were usually close to the entrance, the reason being that most people wouldn't dare go deep into the barracks of the lab.

"So did I hear you call him just Nnoitora?"

"Yes, Grimmjow-sama."

"So then you must be that new fraccione he was ramblin' about." She wasn't aware that he would have taken the time to mention her presence.

"So he told you about me? I'm surprised."

"Not much. All he said was that you did some kind of freaky science shit, give him pretty much no respect, but kick ass."

So she kicks ass, huh?

"But anyways, isn't this that creep Szayel's lab?"In a sense, yes.

"Did Szayel or your fraccione IlForte ever tell you that they had a sister?" His eyes widened slightly at the revelation.

"Oh, fucking wonderful. We all needed another creepy-ass scientist in our lives."

"Now, now, Grimmjow-sama. Most of my work is healing as a medic."

She arrived at the door to the designated room, opened the door, and they both step in. The room was the almost the same as she took care of Tesla in. A cushioned navy blue table and cabinets filled with equipment. The main difference from that room is that this one has more sophisticated equipment, and has a few different monitors. She pats the table, gesturing for him to sit on it while she got a few things that would be needed. She could already see that he was quite a bit paler and more tired, though he wouldn't admit to that. For the moment, since she didn't want to waste any time, Reino just got out the suture kit.

When she pulled out the needle, he didn't object seeing as he was a bit too weak to do so. She asked him to take off his jacket; he did, and she quickly threaded the wound, finishing it off with a fancy knot. He lost a lot of blood, so she decided to get him an IV of fluids. She got a pouch of fluids and the equipment required for the IV. She put the needle into the back of his hand and put tape on it to keep it in place. She released the stopper and the liquid flows freely into his body. After the IV was properly set up and flowing, she takes out a small washcloth and her jar of white healing powder. She goes over to a faucet and wets the cloth. She then goes over to Grimmjow and start wiping the blood off of his body from his previous fight.

The cloth quickly became stained with blood as most of the water and dried blood drips down onto the table. After finishing his arms, she starts working on his chest and stomach, which had taken the most damage. She blushed slightly at the thought of being so close to an Espada like Grimmjow's chest like this, cleaning him and tending to his wounds. Not to mention how his handsome features were more apparent up close like this. He seemed to notice the faint dusting of pink across her cheeks, and gave a low chuckle, which only made her blush harder. She forced the blush down and tried to focus as she moved up to his face and cleaned away more of the crusted blood, dirt, and sand. Again, she noticed how her face was so close to his as she determined the severity of that deep cut on his forehead.

'That'll need stitches as well.'

She pulls a clean needle of the kit again, and repeats the procedure as she did to his thumb for the wound on his face. He didn't appear too pleased to have stitches on his face, but didn't say anything against it. She finished it off in the same fashion, and then put away the needle and the suture kit, seeing that he wouldn't need any more stitches. He looked significantly better, though there was still a little bit of fresh blood dripping out of the cuts.

Putting the cloth down, she went to get a small ceramic bowl and a pair of latex gloves. After retrieving the items, she got to work and opened the jar of powder. She put a very generous amount in the small dish and mixed it with water. After turning it to the paste, she headed back over to Grimmjow who was waiting on the now blood-stained table patiently. She dipped her gloved middle finger in the paste and brought it up to rub it into his wounds.

"Hold it. What the hell is that crap?"

"This paste is made to make wounds heal faster without leaving any kinds of scars. It can also be used to lighten old scars, but I use it primarily to heal shallow cuts and scratches like yours. I keep it in a powder form so that it's easier to store and stays fresher longer." He leaned away from her finger.

"What's wrong? Afraid it's going to hurt?"

"Che. As if."

He lets her apply it to the wounds and cuts on his face, arms, and chest. By time she got to his arms, the majority of his face was already healed.

Unable to stand any more silence, she tried to start up a conversation.

"So, may I ask why were you fighting with Ulquiorra-sama?" He appeared in deep thought for a short moment.

"Because I'll beat him. One day. I don't care how long it takes, or if it kills me, which it probably will, I'll win. That's all there is to it."

She can feel the vibrations of his vocal cords while putting the paste onto the cut on his neck as he speaks.

"Why do you want to beat him so much?"

"Because he looks down on me. Just because I'm a lower rank, he constantly calls me trash. And I swear I'll crush every last person who looks down on me."

'Wow… For someone who seems so vulgar, he sounds so profound. He actually has a reason for fighting, unlike Nnoitora. Nnoitora fights because of instinct; Grimmjow is definitely worthy of the title of Espada.'

She smiles and gives a small chuckle.

His eyes narrow. "The fuck are you laughin' at?"

"If you have that much determination, then I'm sure you'll win. Fighting isn't about strength, or power. It's about motive, and determination. If you believe that strongly that you'll kill him, then I'll believe in you." She gave him a sincere smile.

She finished putting the paste on his body; she put the small ceramic bowl in the sink to be washed later, and disposed of her gloves. He makes a move to get up.

"Hold on, not just yet. There's one more thing I'd like to do." She gets out a small bottle of what resembles grease and puts on a fresh pair of gloves. She unscrews the cap, and applies some of it onto her thumb and walks towards him.

"This, I use for the deeper cuts. It works better than the paste, and is also made to help stitches dissolve faster." She grabs his hand and starts rubbing it into the wound on his thumb.

'Even his hands are so muscular.' She put the oily substance onto his cheek, while closely inspecting it to make sure the stitches were done correctly. Even though she near always executes medical procedures perfectly, it never hurts to check. Besides, with how nervous she's been, there's no telling how bad she could have messed it up.

"Alright! I think that should do it." She peels off her gloves and disposes of them. "So with the help of this," she gestures to the jar of grease, "the stitches should dissolve and the cuts should heal between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the severity of the wound. Yours, I would estimate… 40 minutes to fully heal. Just let me take the IV off." She slowly peels the tape off of the back off his hand and pulls the needle out, setting it aside.

He slides off the table and onto his feet. "Cool."

Just before he opens the door, the young Grantz stops him.

"Now hold on a minute, Grimmjow-sama. What do you say when someone does something nice for you?" She doesn't care how high-ranked or *cough* hot he is. It is unacceptable for people to take up over 30 minutes of her time to heal them and not say a simple thank you.

"Thanks." He spits out. He then opens the door. She started putting everything away as he finally walked out of the room. As soon as he closed the door behind him, she put down the ceramic bowl that she was cleaning, slid down the wall, and sat on the ground with her hands cupping her mouth as she took deep breaths and closed her eyes.

This couldn't be an attraction, right? Absolutely not; she is a lady of science! Things as illogical as love do not occur. She could not afford to be distracted by things like this. No. This isn't that sort of thing. Her instincts were kicking in as she was healing him, and since she was touching him, it was only natural, right? It was just the adrenaline, or, hormones, or… something!

All of her medical knowledge just momentarily went down the drain as the memory of those stunningly blue eyes crept back up into her brain. She runs both of her hands through her hair and latched on to the locks at the back of her head, tugging at the follicles.

This feeling would just go away in time. After all, she never really gets any contact with any of the Espada. Even though you are a fraccione, Nnoitora usually sent Tesla to do anything that involved any Espada; she does most of the other menial jobs. If she doesn't see him, she'll just forget the feeling in time. Of course, this won't amount to anything more than a petty little crush. Absolutely nothing more than that.

After feeling calm enough to get back into action, she stood up and looked at the time on the clock.

4:11 A.M.

She sends a message to Szayel's fraccione over a communication system created for the lab to tell them to clean up the mess; she isn't exactly in the mood to deal with it now. She decides to go back to her quarters to get her jacket, which is part of her full uniform, and start her daily run, but she realizes as she went through the door-

She never did get that Dr. Pepper™.

Well that just wouldn't do. Whenever Reino sets her mind to something, she always follows through with it, no matter how feeble the idea. She heads back to her room to get properly dressed and fix her hair with the small clips at the sides, and headed to the kitchen once more to retrieve what she never did.

After a few minutes of walking down the same that same path that she did earlier, she once again opens the large heavy doors. Luckily, this time, there was no one there. She goes to the fridge and pulls out a can of soda. She sees the emptiness of the large table in the middle of the room, and decides to sit down while she sips her drink. The idle activities forced Reino's mind back to Grimmjow. What could happen from here? Maybe the feeling would just go away in time… maybe.

The door suddenly opens, snapping her out of her thoughts. Looking up to see who it is, she sees her older brother, IlForte.

"Hey, Rei'. I know that you have Szayel have screwed up sleep patterns, but what are you doing sitting in here?"

"Hey, 'Forte. I got woken up, now I'm thinking about something, and its making me feel all depressed and conflicted. Sono infastidito (1)." she says with a sullen tone.

"Something go wrong in the lab?"

"No, no. Nothing like that." She let out a small sigh and propped her head up on her hand.

"I wonder what it could be then…" He thinks for a minute to consider wrong could be wrong. He suddenly wears a wide, mischievous grin on his face. She eyes him carefully, curious of his thoughts.

"Un ragazzo! (2)" She suddenly chokes on the sip of soda in her mouth.

"Merda (3), IlForte! N-No! It's, not… like that. A-Absolutely not…" She crosses her arms and pouts slightly as her gaze becomes downcast and she crosses her legs defiantly.

"It is! You definitely have a crush on someone. Well? Who is it? Spill!" She swears, IlForte is the biggest gossip in this entire damned palace.

"IlForte, get this straight. Uno (one) - I'm not even sure if I like him or not. Non lo so (4)! Due (two) - There is absolutely no way in hell I am telling you who I might be slightly attracted to. Tre (three) - you are not going to say a word about anything that I have said. If you say even a word to anyone that I might like someone, I swear IlForte, so help me Aizen, I will shave half of your head and dye the remaining hair puke green! With extremely permanent dye!"

"Whoa there, baby sis! No need for shaving!" IlForte put his hands up in defense.

"E non sono la bambina! (5)" she said, scowling.

"Whatever you say, baby sis." He pats her head playfully as she glared at him.

She raised her can once again, only to find it to be empty; she crushes it in her hand and chucks it into the garbage can. After having a healthy dose of caffeine, she felt invigorated and refreshed enough to begin running.

"I'm gonna go now. See you later 'Forte."

"A presto. (6)"

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Yay, long chapter! Banzai!

*Otouto- Little brother

**Ohayou gozaimasu- A formal way of saying good morning

(1) Sono infastidito- I am annoyed

(2) Un ragazzo! – A boy!

(3)Merda, IlForte! - Shit/Crap, IlForte!

(4) Non lo so! - I do not know!

(5) E non sono la bambina! – And I am not a baby!

(6) A presto- See you soon

Yay pairing! Grimmjow x bilingual OC! Was it too obvious? I think maybe it was… oh well! And I honestly have no idea why I made the Grantz's Italian. Please don't ask me why, because I can give no possible answer other than IlForte's name.

So, I don't really have much to say, other than to please REVIEW! Tell me how badly I am failing at my first full-length story! Please? I'll give you an internet cookie if you review ^_^