In super awesome, fuck yeah, kick-ass news D. Gray Man is back! If you're a fan and you haven't found the new chapter yet I suggest you do! It is a holy shit bomb shell of new information to the story!
-This has been kick-ass news with Amelie'sHuman
Sorry for the wait! I was having trouble deciding how to start then end the chapter, and ended up totally rearranging the events in it. Oh well. Here we go for chapter 4!
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its character. They are the creation of Tite Kubo
Chapter 4: Art and Encounters
Not long after they ate their lunch Yukiko wrote to the cat that she was going to take a nap, then she unfolded the futon that was sitting under the now closed window and quickly fell asleep. For a moment Grimmjow was angry about being trapped in the little apartment but then decided it didn't matter as he wouldn't have gone outside in the continued downpour anyways. Feeling bored, he felt a huge yawn come over him. First I'm bored shitless in Hueco Mundo. Now I'm bored shitless in the World of the Living. Stretching his whole body down and forward, he released another yawn. Maybe I should just take a nap too. Grimmjow stared at the futon, looking for an open space on the soft material for him to lay on. Then curling up at a corner at the foot of it, he closed his eyes for his own nap.
Breathing in and out evenly, Grimmjow was easily being lulled into a comfortable sleep. His mind started fading from coherent thought as it hazed over until it faded from being aware of the world around him. Just in time for him to be kicked about a foot and a half off the futon. He sailed over the floor with startled yowl then landed on the tatami floor. Pissed off, Grimmjow was about to attack the person who just kicked him but when he realized that the person in question was a still sleeping woman. As psychotic as everyone considered him to be, Grimmjow was not one to attack a defenseless or wounded person.
No longer in the mood to try and nap, the Arrancar took this as an opportunity to inspect her room a bit more thoroughly than he had the first time. There wasn't anything new or that had gone unnoticed about the room, but this time he did look at the something hidden under a white sheet with curiosity. Trotting to it, he began pawing at it only to become annoyed at not being able to properly grip it. Adjusted or not there were still some moments of trying to use his hands as hands. Using his claws to snag onto the cloth, Grimmjow successfully pulled the sheet down, revealing a tree crowned with pink flowers looking like it was glowing before a golden-orange sky. Holy shit. This is a painting, right? Sure enough, when he placed a paw up to the picture it was a canvas. Did she make this? Now his curiosity was in overdrive. As he looked over the painting he saw a bunch more leaning up against the wall behind the tree one.
Wedging his paw behind the first canvas, he pushed it down and it hit the floor with a dull thud. The Next painting was a black butterfly with red edging the bottom wings and a black cat with golden eyes. The butterfly standing on a strawberry while the cat lay curled up watching it peacefully from the side. Quickly losing interest in this picture Grimmjow started pushing his paw behind it to pull it down, but just as he got his fingers hooked onto the wooden frame a loud knock was at the door.
The loud noise stopped him and he heard Yukiko shift under her blanket before she sat up with an irritated look on her face. He watched as she glared at the door before jumping up to open it when the loud knocking came again. Behind the door was a smiling man in a white shirt and brown suit jacket. "Hello Yuki-chan. How are you today?"
Grimmjow couldn't see her face but he could still see the rigid posture from her irritation. Then the man took a tone that sounded mockingly hurt to him. "Don't tell me you forgot about today's lesson."
At the question Yukiko seemed to have crossed her arms, prompting the man to say in a joking tone that kind of sounded creepy in Grimmjow's opinion, "I'm just joking. I'm here to drop off your month's allowance."
As he was saying that he dug into a pocket in his jacket and held out an envelope, which she took quickly and roughly. Then the man paused and looked at Grimmjow. "Why is there a cat here?"
He sounded a little annoyed, which in turned annoyed Grimmjow. To both the man's and Arrancar's surprise the girl abruptly pushed him out of the doorway and closed the door in his face. She locked it and walked over to the table. Sitting with her legs crossed, Yukiko opened the envelope and pulled out a stack of small paper. Curious, Grimmjow left his place at the paintings and sat on the table to get a better look at the material in her hands. So that human money. Why give something as frail as paper any value? He wondered. Money. Television. Most of the foods he'd seen the past few days. So many things about the World of the Living were just pointless to him.
Grimmjow's eyes followed one of her hands, curious at what she was doing, as she tucked a handful of her reddish tinted hair behind her ear and began quickly flicking through the stack money. The Arrancar barely glanced at her hands now as he was preoccupied with looking at her face. He had been too impatient and irritated with his situation earlier and the first time they met to really take any notice but now that he was calm and not going anywhere for the time being he saw that she was actually very pretty. Beautiful even, if he ignored her temperamental seeming personality. Because he was watching her face Grimmjow caught her lips moving when she silently said to herself. {"Tch. This is less than last month asshole."}
She took the money with her to the refrigerator and when she opened it, Yukiko shoved most of the cash into a small milk carton. When she turned back to face him, Grimmjow cocked his head to the side in confusion. He may not know a whole lot about human living habits but he was certain that putting money into a refrigerator is not normal.
Yukiko smirked at the cat and pulled the board off the door and wrote, "I can't leave my money laying out in the open, and it could get stolen. But what thief would go through a refrigerator looking for money?"
Can't argue with that. Though I can't figure out what made her think to start doing that. Was the only thing Grimmjow could think of in response.
Yukiko once again started scribbling on the board. "I'm going to have to go out and buy food for dinner. I can't leave the window open because of the rain so if you stay you'll still be stuck in here."
Grimmjow thought about it. Go outside where it's still raining, or stay locked up in this tiny room? As much as he didn't want to go outside, he was bored senseless inside like this, so he walked over to the apartment's door signaling that he would like to go. Besides, it's as good of an opportunity as any to get a good sense of where the apartment was for future references.
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Yukiko walked at a leisurely pace, making sure to hold her umbrella straight up so that it would do a better job of ensuring that the cat at her heels would stay dry. When she said that she was leaving and was going to have to leave the window closed, Yukiko didn't expect him to follow her to buy food. More than anything though she didn't expect that man to come to her apartment. Shit. I was hoping Grimmjow wouldn't be around whenever Shimata would come by. Figures it would happen the first day he's back. Shimata was the government agent in charge of Yukiko and to say she didn't like him was a gross understatement. My monthly allowance is probably going to be less next time after shutting the door in his face and him seeing Grimmjow. She glanced down at the being in question, who was continuously scanning the sidewalks and streets. The walk to the grocery store was twenty minutes and it never bothered her, not even in the rain, though she did wish that she had gotten more sleep.
The whole twenty minute walk was quiet with the exception of the rain and an occasional passing car, no one bothering the girl walking with a cat. When she entered the store Grimmjow did too along with her, shaking the water off his feet when he did. Yukiko stared at him for a moment thinking to herself, I'm pretty sure animals aren't allowed in here… Oh well, not my problem. She grabbed a shopping basket and began walking down the aisles in search of something that looked good. She just sold a painting that she was commissioned to make so Yukiko had a decent amount of money at the moment regardless of the cut allowance, meaning they were going to get a good meal tonight. I'm definitely feeling like salmon tonight. She decided and made a quick direction change to the refrigerated section of the store, Grimmjow followed not too close behind.
Once there Yukiko felt the temperature difference and huddled her free arm closer while she inspected the various cuts of fish, looking for a thick one. While scanning the rows of raw food she caught sight of her tag-along up on his hind feet and stretching his body up as best he could to give himself more height so that he could get a better look at the plastic wrapped red meat. The sight made her chuckle, not that he could hear her. He's really making me want to cuddle him, but he'd try to tear my face off if I even looked like I was going to try. "Excuse me miss?" A young voice from behind her pulled Yukiko out of her mental dilemma.
She turned around to a light brown-haired girl wearing a middle school uniform and waited for her to say what she wanted. "Um… you know animals aren't allowed in the store, right?" She seemed almost nervous about saying something. Yukiko glanced back at Grimmjow, who had gone back to standing on all four paws and was watching the two girls, then she looked back at the girl in front of her. Sighing with a smile, she reached to her back pocket for her writing pad and pen, but quickly became confused when she felt nothing there. Reaching at her other pockets Yukiko came to the realization that she hadn't remembered to take one with her. Looking down at the young girl who was watching her with a confused and slightly concerned look on her face, Yukiko did the only thing she could think to do. She put her index finger to her mouth, which was pulled into a sly smile, and nodded yes. Now the girl looked more confused than before but shifted her gaze to the cat.
The middle schooler stared intensely at Grimmjow, who was staring back, but the silent woman could spot him fidgeting ever so slightly. Uncomfortable at getting stared at like that, huh?
"Hmm…" The girl started. "I'm not sure what it is, but something seems kind of unusual about the little guy." Her words caught Yukiko by surprise, but not as much as seeing said girl start walking closer and reacting for the black cat. She could already see Grimmjow's ear start to pull back reflexively at someone reaching for him, Is there anyone he won't be mean for wanting to touch him? She questioned as she thought about his excessive reactions from when she looked like she was going to touch the cat.
Yukiko grabbed the girl's arm firmly, stopping her in her tracks before she got too close. When she looked up at the woman, she just shook her head side to side to indicate that she shouldn't do that. "Yuzu. What are you doing?"
Letting go of the young girl's, of Yuzu's, arm they both looked down the aisle to see another girl in a middle school uniform, though this one had black hair pulled into a ponytail and an almost bored expression. Yuzu answered back, sounding like she was caught doing something she wasn't supposed to, "Nothing." She nodded goodbye to Yukiko than trotted to the black haired girl and began talking in what kind of reminded Yukiko of a motherly tone. "Did you find the green onion Karin?"
"Yeah. And some leeks." The girl, Karin, answered, in a tone that sounded as bored as she looked. But she did give Grimmjow and Yukiko a quick, inquisitive glance.
With the two girls walking away from her, Yukiko couldn't help but look more closely at the first one with all of her senses. She sensed something different about Grimmjow, so she must have some spiritual power, right? Focusing a little more Yukiko could feel a small amount of power from the girl, not even enough to normally be worth noticing. The other one, Karin, however had a surprising amount of raw power in her, though it seemed to be going untrained. The woman turned her attention to the cat with a glaring amount of power, especially by comparison, and he was wiping his paw over one of his ears roughly. What's he trying to do? Because from this end he's just making himself look really cute. It was borderline irritating that Grimmjow would react so violently to people trying to touch him despite the fact that he's just making himself more appealing to being plucked off the ground and snuggled violently by anyone with a love of cute things. {"Makes me wonder what he really looks like."} she thought out loud.
She was so caught up in her thoughts that Yukiko didn't notice the creature occupying them had stopped his grooming and was staring at her; when she mouthed her thought though he did something that caught her attention. Grimmjow stood on his back feet again and inhaled deeply, giving himself a bigger chest and taller appearance, and held his arms out slightly. The sight made Yukiko burst out laughing her pathetically silent laugh but she was too entertained to care about being self-conscious about it. She laughed hard and the cat put his body down and started what was probably glaring at her. After she calmed down a question crossed her mind, and she knelt down to be closer to Grimmjow's eye level and asked him, {"Can you read my lips?"}
He nodded yes.
She closed her eyes and silently hummed in thought over this new information, until she heard the sound of laughing boy and a growling cat. Looking back down to Grimmjow, she saw that he was growling and ducking away from a young boy who was running straight for him and apparently ignoring the obvious fact that the cat did not want to be approached. Yukiko once again found herself stopping someone from getting torn up by the small creature, grabbing his wrist and shaking her head no before pointing him towards a woman who seemed to be looking for someone. He wrestled his hand out of her light grip and stuck his tongue out at her and ran back to his mother calling out, "Meanie!" as he left.
Grimmjow was crouched down low, with his tail whipping violently as his tolerance for people seemed to be at its end. I warned him people would try to treat him like a cat. Though people constantly trying to pet you and pick you up has got to be grating on the nerves. Yukiko looked down at the salmon in her hands and looked over to the cat then sighed knowing she was about to lose out on her first choice meal. Picking up a cut of the red meat he was looking at earlier, she held them up to him to get his attention. {"Which do you want? Meat or fish?"}
Sure enough, he pawed at the meat cut and so the salmon was put back in its place and she started thinking out the meal they were now going to be having that night. He better appreciate this. She thought to herself. Looking down at the cat at her heels she could see that he was holding his head and tail a bit higher. While his appreciation level was up for debate, he was obviously pleased at having his choice of dinner. Lucky you. She thought slightly irritably as she finished her mental list and exited the store with her satisfied companion.
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Grimmjow followed the girl back to her apartment under the safety of her umbrella, taking special care to memorize all of his surroundings both on the way there and back. He was happily surprised that she had given him the choice for what they will have for the meal. After all the shit he'd been through lately, he felt he deserved a lot more than just his choice of food, but it was a start.
When they came back to the inside of the apartment building, Grimmjow shook the water out from his paws and followed her to her front door. Unit 15, with her name "Yukiko Ametsuchi" on the unit number plate next to the door. Best to remember that too I guess.
Once inside the girl went straight to the kitchen, two steps next to the door, while Grimmjow sat thinking about what he should do. Remembering that he was going through her paintings before getting interrupted he decided to resume that. Staring at the butterfly, cat and strawberry painting he finally pulled it down to look at the next one. The next one however left him shocked. It was a picture his, partially sheathed, Pantera.
Yay Comments! (´｡• ω •｡`) :
XD-kaycee: Thank you for saying my story is unique. I know what you mean about stories being similar, a lot of the time I feel like I'm reading the same story multiple times with different names for the OC. (nothing against the authors to those stories, I know it's a lot of work)
On a side note, I love your Memories of Somebody story and am excited to see where it goes (●'◡'●)
Ensavondel: I know the story flow is a bit wonky. It took me a few chapters to get a good flow on my other story too so hopefully I'll be able it get a comfortable flow going. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. :)