Nami was sitting on a bench in the park across from the lab where she worked. Her lunch was beside her untouched in the brown paper bag since she was lost in deep thought about the two males in her life: the orange haired man who had taken her on their second date last night and the damn cat who kept mysteriously disappearing. She did not notice the man who sat down on the opposite end of the bench at first because she was concentrating on her mental ramblings. Ichigo had taken her to a fancy French restaurant last night, then for a walk in this very park where he took her in his arms by the fountain and –
"Excuse me," a deep, undoubtedly male voice said.
Nami felt her stomach clench with arousal from the voice alone. 'What the – oh my freakin' god,' she thought to herself, unable to keep her mouth from dropping open by what she saw. Without intentionally doing so, she leaned toward him as if she were being pulled by a magnet. Curiosity and his unmistakable sexual allure were pulling her in like a fisherman pulls in his catch. She assumed he must work at one of the offices in the area since he was dressed in a white button down shirt and gray trousers.
The blue haired man sitting beside her was looking at her with eyes the color of the sky while giving her a wide toothy grin. An ambient sexuality radiated off his body that made her weak. His amazingly blue eyes reminded her of someone but she could not quite place who. He leaned toward her and she had to move back or she would have planted her lips firmly against his.
'What the hell is wrong with me?' she questioned herself as her body trembled from the silent and thorough perusal of the handsome and stimulating stranger. How the hell can a woman be having a physical reaction like this? But something about him drew her, captured the attention of her mind and body, in a way she could not explain.
"I don't mean to be forward, but what is your name?" he inquired, that deep voice rolling through her body like the aftershocks from a rumble of thunder.
"Uh…um...it's…" Damn, what is it? "N-Nami."
"Nami. A wave. Warm, gentle, flowing," he virtually purred placing his large warm hand on her thigh. "I'd like to drown in you."
"Oh, sh-" Before she could finish, he pressed his finger to her lips to cut off the curse word. She panted as he stared at her, tracing her lips with his forefinger.
"Such a beautiful mouth should never speak such ugly words," he murmured, his tongue darting out to lick her cheek.
'Oh, god, I'm going to die. Right here, right now, of a heart attack,' her mind screamed while her heart quickened and beat loudly in her ears. She could feel a distinct warmth growing and a wetness forming between her legs. She liked Ichigo, he was incredibly handsome but her reaction to him had been nothing like this.
"Excuse me, you are indeed being… extraordinarily over-friendly. I don't even know your name," she huffed while trying to breathe. She knew she should run or at the least slap the hell out of him for being so presumptuous. What kind of man hits on a woman so brazenly in the park? Why wasn't she leaving and running for her life?
"Grimmjow," he blurted before checking himself.
Dammit! She was not stupid so what would she think of that? Surely she would make some kind of connection. Why couldn't he have thought of something completely different? He watched as her expression of confusion turned into one of contemplation like she had upon her face when he arrived. 'Hmmm…maybe she is that stupid,' he pondered silently as he watched her.
"What an odd name," she muttered reflectively, sliding across the bench as far away from him as possible. Her hip pressed against the decorative iron arm halting her retreat. "It reminds me of my cat, Grimmy."
'Oh, Nami, if you only knew. If I could only tell you. Dammit,' he brooded mutely, making a loud hissing sound for his screw up with his name.
Nami flinched upon hearing the sound because once again it reminded her of her cat. The eyes…that was it! How could a human remind her so much of her cat? What the hell is going on? Pressing her hand to her forhead, she was afraid she truly was losing her mind. The cat lady jokes were suddenly not funny anymore.
"It's nice to meet you, Nami. Are you going to eat this?" he inquired, pointing at her lunch that was now beside him. The scent of the ham sandwich inside was driving him crazy since he had not eaten in a few days.
"Oh, take it please. I'm not hungry anyway," she told him, wincing when he tore into the bag with animalistic hunger. "What are you? I-I mean who are you?" she stuttered, feeling her face flush with embarrassment from her Freudian slip.
What are you? That would be the perfect open door to explain...or at least try to explain. Instead, like a craven scaredy-cat, he stopped with a mouthful of sandwich to just stare at her wondering what to say. He chewed a few more times before swallowing the half masticated mouthful.
"I already told you," he muttered, cramming the rest into his mouth. "Would you like to take me home?"
"Did you really just ask me that?" Nami demanded, beginning to grow irritated by the enticing but way too bold hunk of manliness sitting on the bench with her.
DAMN! Grimmjow cursed himself inaudibly. He had done it again. It was too easy for him to forget he was in his human form because he still had the same thoughts and impulses as when he was a cat. He was swiftly reminded of some of his other basic urges when his eyes drifted down her chest to the low V of her shirt that was unbuttoned enough to show a nice amount of cleavage. 'When did she start dressing like that?' he pondered, licking his lips while keeping his eyes on her slightly heaving breasts. Then he remembered that damn orange haired man. She had been out with him last night. He had to be the cause of this change in her. Biting down hard on his lower lip, a stabbing pain and a warm trickle of blood down his chin jogged his memory that his incisors were still incredibly sharp in his human form.
"Oh, my goodness!" Nami exclaimed when she saw the blood. She grabbed her purse and dug for her tissues while sliding over to him. Finally finding them, she snatched them out and pressed one to the line of blood flowing down his chin. Without thinking, she leaned forward to lick the blood from the edge of his lip.
"Nami," he gasped, grabbing her by the wrist of the hand that was dabbing at the blood.
"I don't know what came over me. I don't know why I did that," she whispered, unable to look away from his eyes. Her body started shaking and she closed her eyes when he leaned forward. They popped back open in surprise when she heard him sniffing her in rapid little inhales. 'How did I get here and where is this parallel universe?' she questioned herself. 'Why in the hell does this man remind me of my cat and why is he sniffing me? Just when I thought this guy could not possibly get any weirder.'
Grimmjow buried his nose in her hair and breathed in deeply. Sighing audibly with relief, he sat back with a big smile on his face. She was untainted; that man had not staked his claim on her yet by having sex with her. He had to move fast to win her heart and so far he was not off to great start. Guessing by the look on her face, all he had accomplished was scaring the hell out of her and making her think he was totally out of his mind.
"Nami, I'm sorry for acting so crazy and scaring you. I'm really not a bad guy. I've just been living a very isolated life and sometimes I forget how to act around people. Around a pretty woman such as yourself, I can just lose my head. I'm sorry," he apologized, running his fingers through her long brown hair.
Grimmjow resisted the urge to bring the hair up to his nose to smell it again. She had the most delightful scent of vanilla and lavender. Everything from her shampoo to her laundry detergent carried that scent. It permeated her body and it was stuck in his mind as being the scent of her and no one else. Nami – his Nami who loved him…but as a cat.
"Grimm…can I call you that?" she inquired, reaching up to run her fingers through his blue hair that was just a shade lighter than his eyes. It was so soft and silky, reminding her of the smoothness of Grimmy's fur. Looking into his eyes, she felt a spark within her that was something akin to recognition.
"I would love for you to call me that," he replied, giving her a big toothy grin as if he wanted to bite her.
"You're a really strange man," she giggled, looking at her watch. "Oh! I've got to get back to work."
"Can I see you here again tomorrow?"
"Of course. I'll meet you here for lunch. 'Bye!"
Grimmjow watched her trot through the park, enjoying the nice swing of the lovely hips that he knew so well. He had lain across those hips many times before as a cat. He also particularly enjoyed nestling his head between those breasts that she now displayed for other men to see. A growl erupted from deep in his throat. Tomorrow he would make it a point to not act like such a freak so she would not be afraid of him. He needed her to fall in love with him.
...
"Nami? Nami!" the blond headed flirt of a boss yelled at her to get her attention.
Kisuke Urahara had put off calling her back from whatever reverie she was lost in because standing above her he had a fantastic view down her shirt. He noticed that lately she was dressing a little sexier and made the assumption it must be a new boyfriend. The woman, who was usually so modest and tight assed he had joked with the other guys he could shove a lump of coal up her ass and it would become a diamond, had shocked him by loosening her buttons and raising the hems of her skirts. She no longer looked like a demure little mouse and seemed to be making some transformation into a sex kitten. He liked it and considered asking her out himself. However, his partner Mayuri Kurotsuchi would not approve of him dating one of the lowly paper pushers they hired to type up all of their research notes, requisition forms, and other meaningless paperwork. The man did not want him dating any of the employees, but he did anyway. Kurotsuchi had pushed for experimenting with monkeys first to teach them to type. Urahara insisted on having real women; they were prettier and smelled better so it was a win-win situation.
"Yes, sir, Mr. Urahara, how can I help you?" Nami inquired dutifully, her voice slightly breathy.
"I sure hope so, my dear. But first I must tell you that you look absolutely gorgeous today," he complimented, enjoying the light blush that spread across her cheeks. He was pleased how the company wallflower had really blossomed. Setting the thick stack of paperwork down on her desk, he decided he better get to work before that make up wearing freak Mayuri came to find him.
Nami smiled pleasantly at her boss with the light blond hair, cute face, and flirty grin. She had developed a crush on him soon after beginning work here. He had flirted mercilessly with every woman here except for her naturally. It did not surprise her but that did not keep it from hurting her feelings. She shrugged it off, telling herself she would not want the attention of a relentless Romeo speaking meaningless, flattering words to her constantly. Recently, her silly school girl crush had disappeared, and she was impervious to his flattery.
"I need you to get this typed up quickly for me. I should have brought it in here to you months ago so if anything is said, blame me," he told her, his gray eyes meeting her brown ones.
'Ah, so this is what it's like to be played,' she mused to herself as he stared longingly into her eyes. She would type the report without all of this crap if he would just hand it to her. It was her job after all. She had every intention of blaming him if someone tried to hang her out to dry over the late report.
"This is the information on that experiment that got loose right before you started working here. It's confidential so you can't say anything to anyone. Don't forget you did sign those disclosure papers when you began working here," he reminded her, turning very serious.
The lab required all employees to sign these 'gag orders' to ensure they would keep their mouths shut about what happens here. They handled high risk experiments sometimes, and this had been one of them. He had barely escaped with his life after this incident because Mayuri was determined to kill him for allowing this subject to escape from the lab. It had been a genetic triumph and somehow it had gotten loose. They had been searching ever since then and had yet to find it. There were no traces and no clues at all.
"Yes, Mr. Urahara, I'm well aware. I'm one of the few people who actually read the document before signing it," Nami snapped, unable to keep the annoyance from contaminating her voice.
"Oh, feisty," he hummed, licking his lips.
Nami sighed with aggravation when he lowered his eyelids in his patent sexy look he used just before asking a woman a wildly inappropriate question. She was not having that. Her experience in the wonderfully weird had begun and ended at lunch if she had anything to do with it. She decided it was best to stop him before he got started. "Mr. Urahara, I'd get this typed faster if you would leave me alone."
'Damn, what a smart ass. I want her so much right now,' he thought as his member leapt to life in his already tight jeans. How inconvenient – and painful. There was something different about her besides the way she dressed. What had made the change in her? This was more than getting laid by a new boyfriend. They had enhanced the experiment with pheromones and maybe there were some residual ones floating in the air around here. Whatever it was, he liked it.
Nami ignored him, pulling the stack of paperwork toward her. She would swear she heard him groan when she leaned over to retrieve the papers, but decided it best to ignore what she thought she heard and who she knew was still standing at her desk. Flipping through the short stack of papers swiftly, she tried to come up with an estimate of how long it might take to finish.
"I can have this done by the middle of next week," she said, gritting her teeth when he poked out his full bottom lip in a shameless pout.
"There's no way you can have it done by Friday?" Kisuke questioned her using his big charcoal gray eyes to the best of his ability to plead with her.
"Sir, it's already Wednesday and almost quitting time at that. The middle of next week," she repeated firmly, almost laughing at the disappointment registering on his face. It was not her fault he screwed up and she was not going to take the fall for him either. She had watched too many gullible assistants fall prey to his charms and they no longer worked here. That was not going to happen to her.
"Oh, all right. Have it on my desk first thing Wednesday morning," he conceded, verbally waving the white flag. She was tougher than he had thought.
Nami smiled happily to herself, proud that she had stuck to her proverbial guns. Where had that burst of self-confidence and bravery come from? Her mind thought back to the strange encounter during lunch. She had felt so powerless and mesmerized by the amazingly beautiful blue haired man. If she had not quit believing in fairy tales so long ago she would have thought she had been under a spell, his spell. Shaking her head, she scanned over the information in the papers, curious as to what experiment could have gotten loose. A white cat? How interesting.