Chapter 6: Shit!

All Ulquiorra could do at that moment was stare because the situation only called for such a response, it was also the only response he could honestly give the man standing in front of his office, looking as mischievous as ever.

There was Shiro Kurosaki, soaked from the massive storm happening outside, holding three kittens and with a wide triumphant grin on his face.

"Look what I found! Aren't they just the cutest things ever?!" Shiro gushed as he walked closer to Ulquiorra who had the overwhelming urge to hit Shiro up the head. With a baseball bat. A metal one.

"Mr. Kurosaki...could you please explain to me why you are two hours late for work?" Ulquiorra asked, barely controlling the angry twitch his left eyebrow kept showing.

"Hmm? Oh I decided to walk today because it seemed like such a nice day at first! Then I found these guys on the side of the street being bullied by some really messed up kids so I saved them and was like my baby bro would love these guys! Especially the orange one! Looks just like him too! Y'know except the catness. Anyways I had to like take them to the vet to see if they were sick or anything and the line was so long. Then this thunderstorm came out of nowhere! I could barely see through the rain without my glasses so it took sometime to find my way back here! Sorry." He didn't even really look sorry if his grin was anything to go by.

"You cannot keep being late like this Mr. Kurosaki. You've been late for the entire three weeks you've been here! Do you honestly care about your job at all!?" Ulquiorra was so close to snapping. Shiro has given him more frustration than anyone has ever done in his entire life and he's lived with Grimmjow. The man was loud, annoying, laid-back, callous, does not know the meaning of personal space or solitude,...kind, strong, caring, fun, bright, beautiful. It all just frustrated Ulquiorra so much. He had no idea what was going on.

Shiro's smile dropped and now he looked at Ulquiorra with a concerned expression on his face. "Hey. What's wrong?" Shiro asked, an abnormally small orange cat sleeping in his jacket pocket and the other two sleeping in his arms.

That's another thing. This man could read him. Like actually know what Ulquiorra was feeling when nobody else could. Not even his fath-.

"I'm fine. You honestly need to learn the meaning of responsibility. You have to show that you actually want this job. Do you honestly want to be fired because of...animals?" Ulquiorra said looking at the kittens like they were aliens.

Shiro smiled again but it was a small but happy one, like he was fond of Ulquiorra or something, which he was so to speak. They started on the wrong foot but the guy grew on him. Shiro still never thought of him in a romantic way since that first day because he was too busy with Ichigo's future and Ulquiorra just seemed...asexual. There was also the way Ulquiorra mentioned...the incident the first time they met. It struck Shiro hard because he hadn't heard someone mention it in almost ten years only for someone to spring it out on him like that, so callously, like his baby brother's pain meant nothing, which he didn't seriously blame the man for considering he didn't experience it himself but it still pissed him off if only a little. He didn't even want to guess what the man would think of him if he found out what he did that night.

"C'mon my Emo-quiorra! They're so cute aren't they?" Shiro asked as he got closer to Ulquiorra whom wanted to step back but thought it'd look too obvious.

"Could you please not call me that. Animals aren't even allowed in the building so your only option is to leave them outsi- Why are you staring at me like that?" Ulquiorra was trying to make Shiro get rid of the felines but then Shiro's eyes suddenly watered and he started pouting and he looked right into Ulquiorra's eyes.

"C-C'mon, please? I can't just give them up and they'd be lonely on their own and achoo!" Shiro begged then sneezed, even going as far as making his bottom lip tremble. Ulquiorra stared at him for a while longer and then noticed how Shiro seemed to be shivering, as well as the kittens. He sighed loudly. He must be freezing after coming from that storm.

He pulled out a dry towel from the drawer in front of his desk then started wiping his face as much as he couldn't. It wouldn't do to have him sick, the man still had a lot of work to go through.

Shiro stared at Ulquiorra as he gently wiped his hair and face with his soft hands. He wasn't sure what was going on, it felt like something was going on, so he just shrugged it off and appreciated being taken cared of. He felt himself grinning when Ulquiorra even wiped up the kittens the best he could.

Shiro felt that same pang he felt in his chest every time Ulquiorra did something like this during the three weeks he'd been there.

He took it as some kind of heart burn because he would not acknowledge what he thought it was.

"As long as you take them with you when you leave." Ulquiorra said as he held the bridge of his nose like he could feel an impending headache coming up. Shiro beamed at him and his blasted heart skipped a beat again.

"Thanks Ulquiorra! You're the fuck-I mean the fudging best!" Shiro said with a happy grin. He placed a small kiss on Ulquiorra's cheek before running outside the man's office shouting to inform everyone of his new pets.

Ulquiorra...had never felt such warmth. That particular spot Shiro had pecked felt like it was on fire. He hadn't even expected that. Shiro had kissed him. Shiro actually kissed him.

He kissed me...

Ulquiorra placed a hand on the spot gently, scared that if he did touch it without care the feeling would leave.

Then he remembered that Shiro did that to a lot of people. He has seen Shiro do the same to his fellow employees, be they men or women, he even sometimes greets that way and he heard him mention it was how their family greeted friends. He had never even done it to Ulquiorra till that time so it meant that Shiro hadn't thought of him as a friend until then.

Ulquiorra placed a hand over his overbeating heart. It hurt him but he wasn't really sure why. He knew that nobody would ever really want to be his friend. Why would Shiro be different? Why would someone as full of life as Shiro want anything to do with someone as boring as Ulquiorra?

He just couldn't wrap his head around it. He wondered maybe Shiro was using him, or the man was just enjoying messing with his mind and emotions.

That also got Ulquiorra off his guard. He had never come across anyone that could read and mess with his emotions, but then Shiro does it off the bat like they grew up together or something.

My cheek's still so warm.

"He really got to you didn't he?" The sound of his secretary brought him out of his mind.

"What do you mean Mrs. Starrk?" Ulquiorra asked trying to come off as composed but his heart just wouldn't calm down at that moment.

"Oh nothing. Just that dazed look you had when I came in." She stated like it wouldn't hurt his pride at being caught in such a degrading state.

Ulquiorra stayed quiet because he had no idea what to say to that.

"And no one can believe you let him keep his little kittens in your building just because he asked. If I didn't know you better I'd think you actually-"

"Please excuse me Mrs. Starrk. I'm very busy." Ulquiorra cut her off, he didn't know what she was going to say but he knew he wouldn't like it.

"Y'know emotions aren't as scary as you think." Was the last thing she said before leaving one of her bosses' office, it was a comment he completely ignored.

Ulquiorra slowly sat in his seat (he is too composed to slump) as he took his seat in front of his desk.

"I must be getting ill." He sighed again before getting back to work, thoughts of his adorable assistant leaving his mind for a moment.

His head shot up so fast in shock he half expected to fall off his seat.

Adorable...?

Shiro's smile was fixated on his face.

Everyone in the building had been so nice to him since his first day here, well except some closed minded idiots that have tried tripping him and sneering at him and calling him names but that stuff never mattered to him.

He was in his office's carpeted floor as he did his paperwork, changed into his dry blue jumpsuit because of how messed up his suit got though his hair was dry it started curling at the ends the way it usually did after it dried when hit by rain, and his kittens were climbing all over him and playing with his hair and also sleeping on his arm.

Funny enough it was little Ichi cat that was sleeping on his arm. It was the one kitten that seemed to hate being away from him. The white one seemed to love the flowers Shiro had in his office that was given to him by Ichigo and the black-bluish one just seemed like an independent little guy.

"Ichigo's gonna love you guys. Especially you Snowball since you love his flowers so much. Ichi-cat you is mine just like I is you. Star Wars tonight we watch. Hmm not sure if I should call you Blacky, Grimm-kitty cause you're feisty like him, Ulqui-Cat cause you is stoic and mysterious or Batman just cause. Hmm decisions. Oh I need assistance!" Shiro whined dramatically as he flopped on his paperwork.

"Uhm sir?" The sound of a familiar voice made Shiro turn towards the door to his office. There was the young intern he had met being heartlessly butchered by Ulquiorra.

"Yo!" Shiro exclaimed with a boyish grin and the intern looked away with a blush. He was embarrassed that this man had caught him during that time of his worst rejection ever.

"Uh Mr. C-Cifer asked me to assist you." The intern said feeling that pain in his chest at mentioning his crush's name.

Shiro hummed under his breath as he inspected the intern's tense stature.

He carefully got the mewling kittens off him so he could stand up then he stood right in front of the nervous young man standing right in front of him, staring at him intensely. The intern could feel his face burning up. Here's this ethereal, enthralling creature standing right in front of him, staring at him with such strange yet beautiful eyes. The intern could never really stay calm around good looking men.

"He really hurt you didn't he?" Shiro asked as he gently patted the younger man's raven hair the same way he would to Ichigo to try comforting him.

The intern's eyes widened but then tears threatened to fall. He wiped his eyes with his arm before the tears actually fell. Ulquiorra broke him for a bit because he genuinely liked the man.

"Hey what's your name?" Shiro asked pulling the kid into the room before he closed the door to give the sad guy privacy.

He had seen the kid around and he usually saw him smiling but it was fake, Shiro could always tell when a smile was fake.

"I-I'm Luppi." He said in a shaky voice.

Shiro hummed again, wondering how he was going to comfort the guy. He shrugged then decided to just give him a hug which stunned Luppi but then he just hugged the man back anyways, burying his head on his chest. The man made him not feel worthless. He was so warm too.

"Don't blame him okay." Shiro murmured.

Luppi sniffed. "Why not? H-He was so cruel. Brushed me o-off like I'm n-nothing."

"You're not nothing. It's not his fault either. He's...not really into emotions. Something...must've happened to him, his business so I wouldn't even think of asking. Not a lot of people can tell but I pay attention since I'd honestly like the guy to be my best friend, I think he's funny, but I can tell when he's avoiding anything involving emotions. So yeah, just don't blame the guy. I don't know how to explain it. Now sit with me! Ichi-Cat seems to like you!" Shiro said pulling Luppi on the ground, the orange cat immediately climbed on Luppi's lap making the young man smile slightly.

He lifted the extremely tiny cat and started making baby noises. "Aren't you the cutest little thing. Aw! Did you see that?! He licked my nose!" Luppi was suddenly so excited and animated Shiro couldn't help but laugh which made the other cats scuffle to Shiro. 'Snowball' was trying to climb to his hair, Shiro thinks it's because of the similar colors, while the black one just started sleeping on his lap.

"Aww! I love you guys too! Yes smother me with your affection! I am your loving savior! HAHAHAHA!" Shiro said after he placed 'Snowball' on his head then laughed loudly and maniacally and this in turn made Luppi burst out laughing which made him drop Ichi-Cat on his chest by accident but the cat was okay.

"You sound ridiculous." Luppi said while laughing.

Shiro grinned at him mischievously.

"Just glad these little guys and I could get a real smile out of you. First one I've seen since I came here. Feeling pretty proud of myself." Shiro said, a smug smile on his face.

Luppi smiled back. "You're a really kind person Kuros- I mean Shiro."

Shiro laughed at that. "No. Trust me, I'm not." Shiro said, a sadistic and bitter smile on his face. Luppi was confused for a moment but then before he could ask what he meant, the office door opened and in walked Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra didn't know what to say. The weird intern that usually stared at him and his assistant were sitting on the floor like they were at a slumber party with kittens all over them. He looked down with his big green eyes and noticed how close the two were, even their knees were touching.

For some reason, Ulquiorra snapped, not the blow up in anger kind of snap but the kind that turned one cruel and wicked.

"I do believe I didn't send you here to play around did I?" Ulquiorra said coolly looking at the slightly trembling intern, he felt some satisfaction from making the young man squirm.

"I-I-I" Luppi started stuttering terribly.

"Hey Emo-quiorra! It's my faul-"

"Do not call me that." Ulquiorra cut him off, he was secretly pleased at the wide eyed reaction he had gotten from the albino.

"You are an incompetent man that is too lazy to do the simplest job in the entire building. If it wasn't for your considerable talent with anything involving mechanics you would've been fired a long time ago and you wouldn't be able to provide for the only person in your life. You did not come here to have fun or make friends. You are here to aid me in any way I see fit. Now get back to work. Trash." Ulquiorra said without missing a bit, hitting Shiro with his words as hard as possible.

The black-bluish cat hissed at Ulquiorra like he was his worst enemy. Ulquiorra merely glanced at it and made a disgusted face before it went back to his usual bored expression. "If those dirty creatures defecate on anything, floor or furniture, it would be coming out of your pay." Ulquiorra said finally before leaving, completely forgetting about Luppi.

Shiro sat on his spot without saying anything, his usual grin gone from his face as he used his hair to shield his eyes.

"Shiro..." Luppi called out, worry evident in his voice. Then he stared at Shiro like he had completely lost it when the albino just suddenly started laughing.

"Man! That guy really knows how to use his words as weapons. Half the shit he said actually hurt." Shiro said, his laugh filled with nothing but amusement.

Luppi was completely thrown off then he was suddenly pissed at Ulquiorra. "He had no right to talk to you like that! You're such a kind and hardworking person! Why aren't you pissed? That fucking pompous piece of shitty unicorn crap!" Luppi yelled not even sure of what he was saying.

"Wow. Your mouth turns really dirty when you're pissed!" Shiro said with an amused chuckle which turned into a laugh when Luppi blushed at his comment.

"But really, why aren't you angry with him?" Luppi asked genuinely curious.

Shiro shrugged smile still in place as he gathered the files he had already finished before Luppi came in. "I can't be mad at him for saying the truth." Shiro said simply as he stood up and walked to his desk to put the documents in their respective file holders, the kittens at his feet.

Luppi got up quickly, "No he's not!" Luppi protested trying to defend the kind hearted man that comforted him.

Shiro chuckled. "Yeah...he is." he said with a tired sigh falling from his lips as he rubbed his face with his hand. Trying to be happy all the time is really taking a toll on me.

"Hey Luppi? Sorry to cut this short but I like to work on my own y'know. I appreciate you wanting to help and all but yeah. Hey we should hang out tomorrow in the lunch room! It'd be so much fun! I could show you videos of my baby brother rocking that sax of his." Shiro said turning around, a fake smile plastered on his face that time but no one would ever be able to notice, only Ichigo could tell when he was faking it.

Luppi still looked worried but then decided to leave because the man seemed to want to be on his own. "Okay...if you're sure." Luppi said before he hesitantly left the room. When Luppi had shut the door after him, Shiro leaned against his desk, a hand on his face as well as a bitter smile. The kittens were sleeping huddled together under his desk.

"Damn Ulquiorra." Shiro sighed as he folded his arms behind his head.

"You really hit home with that one."

Once Ulquiorra got back in his office, he locked the door, walked to his desk, sat on his chair then slumped against his desk, head in his hands, then he said something to himself no one, not even himself, would've even expected him being even capable of thinking...

"Shit!"

Here's an update!

Just finished my work experience and it was amazing! Except the waking up extra early part but other than that I had fun!

Tell me what you guys think of this update with your wonderful reviews that keep me alive!

Ciao from,

Grimmjowislife.