Snow was beautiful. It was one of Orihime's favorite things about winter. But the weather wasn't always so kind in a more temperate climate like Japan...sometimes all the city got was frigid, slushy, freezing rain. While the crystallized trees were absolutely breathtaking to look at from her bedroom window, Orihime was far more focused on the sheer ice that covered the entire ground. The streets and the sidewalks were especially bad. While she could make good time on people's frozen lawns, navigating that treacherous strip of open sidewalk from someone's driveway was extremely difficult. She'd fallen twice today already.
Just put one foot in front of the other, she told herself, sliding half a step forward rather than lifting her shoe and risking a spill by upsetting the even distribution of her weight.
The downward slope of the driveway combined with the cruel consistency of gravity meant she went skidding sideways instead of forward. She threw her arms wide, wobbling uncertainly, and tried to push onward just the same. Her foot shot abruptly behind the other one and down she went, banging her hip on the ice with a grimace of pain. Wincing, she heaved a deep sigh. "Maybe I shouldn't get eggs on this trip," she admitted to herself. Honestly she wouldn't even be out here if her cupboards weren't starting to look a little barren. A girl needed to eat to stay healthy in weather like this, especially with Orihime's mysterious metabolism. It was too bad, since an egg soup sounded heavenly on a cold day like this, but she could cobble together some sort of curry instead.
As she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, looking for something to grab onto to get back to her feet, she felt a sudden flash of reiatsu close by, and recognized it immediately.
What was Grimmjow doing outside on a day like this, she wondered? Maybe he was curious about the snow. She wasn't sure if they had anything like this in Hueco Mundo, so it was only natural that he might want to see it for himself. Or had he grown bored and decided to track her down for some company? She could never really tell. His motivations were always so unpredictable to her, mild and relaxed one day, uptight and cranky the next. She was kind of hoping for the former. He might even decide winter was his favorite season! Nothing wrong with being optimistic, right?
What was he doing out on a day like this? Well, he was out because he had sensed her own reiatsu around. He had been lazing about, walking around the town and inspecting all of the snowy sights when he had also felt her distressed reiatsu. That was when he moved to action and decided to use his sonido in order to teleport much closer to her. He couldn't just let his woman get hurt like that, but he was also annoyed that she was so goddamn fragile. She was able to heal, wasn't she? She was extremely valuable, she should be more careful.
Grimmjow then appeared before her with a flash and a low sound, the snow crunching under his feet once he landed. He saw her on the ground still and he just raised an eyebrow, now realizing what had distressed her reiatsu. What, it wasn't even another Hollow? Just her own clumsiness? Figures.
The Arrancar walked over to her, now crouching down with his hands still in his pockets, but he was at least at her eye level now.
"You need to watch where you're goin'," in other words, stop getting hurt jeez. Grimmjow then reached out to her, grabbing an arm and hoisting her up to her feet. He kept his hand on her arm, keeping her in place at his side.
"I guess I can't argue that, ha ha!" She was grateful for the help up, for keeping her balance just to get upright was proving more difficult than it should have been. She clasped his extended arm in return, looking up at him with a grateful smile.
Next time she'd tell him she was watching the ground very carefully as she fell on it again and again...but the joke needed some polishing. It was not yet ready to be unleashed upon the world.
"Sorry for worrying you. I wish I could use reiatsu the way you guys can, then I wouldn't have to worry about it." She brushed some of the errant snow and slush from her coat before heaving a sigh of contentment. "I was headed to the store to stock up on groceries for dinner tonight. I probably shouldn't buy any eggs if the streets are this slippery thought, ne?" she beamed. "What about you? Are you enjoying the weather?"
Honestly, he most likely wouldn't get half of her foolish jokes.
Grimmjow definitely thought that she was much too fragile, even for someone that possessed powers to literally erase someone from existence. She was so strong in so many ways, and yet he was always worried that she would somehow break.
"I'll just carry your stuff then, so you won't fall all over the place," there, problem solved, and he isn't going to slip around or anything.
"...This weather is weird. Kinda reminds me of Hueco Mundo, though. It's white everywhere," it may not have been sand, but the white snow did remind him of that vast space back home, for sure.
'Weird' means 'good' right? He wasn't declaring his undying hatred for the snow in any case, so she took that as a positive. Her smile warmed at his offer and she gave a sharp nod of agreement. "I'd appreciate that a lot. Thank you!" It meant he'd have some say over what they ate tonight too, so everybody was a winner.
Holding to his arm, she resumed her journey, conversing with him as they went. She couldn't tell if he was wearing a gigai or if other people were going to assume she was crazy talking to no one, but it didn't really matter.
"Did you like it there?" she asked, genuinely curious. "It was where you lived for so long." Not like he had much of a choice, since dwelling in the world of the living just meant he'd have shinigami hunting him down.
He was wearing a gigai, much to his annoyance. It was hard to move around in it, he felt so sluggish, but he needed to be in one in order to properly be around Orihime. Really, the things he did for his woman...
Hah, asking him that made him grin to himself, however, "fuck yeah- it was pretty great. Got to fight all I wanted, kill anythin' at all, and got to prove how strong I was." Nothing like how he had to behave here. He had to be nice, he couldn't just kill anyone... and that was definitely annoying.
"What was it like for you there?" being a prisoner and all.
The question surprised her. She hadn't thought any of the Arrancar in that realm gave a second thought to how she felt in that place. She was simply there because Aizen wanted her to be. Grimmjow had really grown a lot since those days.
"Well," she began, tipping her head back thoughtfully. "It was uncomfortable at first. I was suddenly surrounded by all of this hostile reiatsu, even if it wasn't directed solely at me. It took a while to get used to that." She risked a glance up at his face while she tried to give proper form to her thoughts.
"I didn't realize I was sad at first. I thought, maybe I could find a way to be of use, if I found an opportunity to destroy the Hougyoukou with my abilities. I probably would have been little more than a depressed lump if I didn't have a purpose!" she grinned wryly. "But then when I felt the presence of my friends breaking through...I don't know. I was really happy." Her smile was quiet and subdued, but hinted at the sincerity of just how touched she'd been. "They were willing to risk their lives for my sake. I'd thought I was just a burden to them, so...it proved me wrong, I guess!"
To him, her friends coming and trying to rescue her was just a good way for him to get back at that idiotic Kurosaki. He just wanted to fight him, and using her in order to do that had really worked in his favor. However everything had changed after he realized he wanted her, and he wanted to be with her, so of course he had begun to change and grow because of it as well.
This woman, she really was so interesting to him.
"Don't know why you humans all want to save people like that," he grunted to himself, trying to put himself in that situation but it wasn't exactly working. Well, there really was only one way he could relate- "if you were in any danger now though, I'd rip apart the people that kidnapped you."
Really, he was trying to be sincere and nice.
"But ya ain't there now though, you're here with me," where it's obviously much better.
"Yeah, I am!" she perked up almost immediately. Her smile was bright and genuine. Grimmjow had given her a lot of reasons to find happiness (admittedly in a completely strange and unexpected way), and it was refreshing to feel like she didn't have to mask her loneliness with a happy grin all of the time. It seemed like there was still a lot he didn't understand, but he was really trying to figure it out, and to her that was all that mattered.
Her grip on his arm tightened for a moment as she clung to him for support, in order to raise herself up onto her toes and kiss his cheek. The way everything seemed truly peaceful now, he wouldn't really have much reason to tear anyone or anything apart. She was safe. Safer still if they were together.
Rubbing the back of her head, her grin turned sheepish. "I'd say I'll try not to get kidnapped, but I think you'd probably have fun if you had a reason to go all out in a fight again." Orihime tried her luck again with the ice, carefully putting one foot in front of her, then the other. With Grimmjow there beside her, it was much easier to keep her balance. "You're not too bored here, the way things are now?"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Just put one foot in front of the other, she told herself, sliding half a step forward rather than lifting her shoe and risking a spill by upsetting the even distribution of her weight.
The downward slope of the driveway combined with the cruel consistency of gravity meant she went skidding sideways instead of forward. She threw her arms wide, wobbling uncertainly, and tried to push onward just the same. Her foot shot abruptly behind the other one and down she went, banging her hip on the ice with a grimace of pain. Wincing, she heaved a deep sigh. "Maybe I shouldn't get eggs on this trip," she admitted to herself. Honestly she wouldn't even be out here if her cupboards weren't starting to look a little barren. A girl needed to eat to stay healthy in weather like this, especially with Orihime's mysterious metabolism. It was too bad, since an egg soup sounded heavenly on a cold day like this, but she could cobble together some sort of curry instead.
As she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, looking for something to grab onto to get back to her feet, she felt a sudden flash of reiatsu close by, and recognized it immediately.
What was Grimmjow doing outside on a day like this, she wondered? Maybe he was curious about the snow. She wasn't sure if they had anything like this in Hueco Mundo, so it was only natural that he might want to see it for himself. Or had he grown bored and decided to track her down for some company? She could never really tell. His motivations were always so unpredictable to her, mild and relaxed one day, uptight and cranky the next. She was kind of hoping for the former. He might even decide winter was his favorite season! Nothing wrong with being optimistic, right?
imma say theyre already together here
Grimmjow then appeared before her with a flash and a low sound, the snow crunching under his feet once he landed. He saw her on the ground still and he just raised an eyebrow, now realizing what had distressed her reiatsu. What, it wasn't even another Hollow? Just her own clumsiness? Figures.
The Arrancar walked over to her, now crouching down with his hands still in his pockets, but he was at least at her eye level now.
"You need to watch where you're goin'," in other words, stop getting hurt jeez. Grimmjow then reached out to her, grabbing an arm and hoisting her up to her feet. He kept his hand on her arm, keeping her in place at his side.
"What're you up to today?"
Works for me!
Next time she'd tell him she was watching the ground very carefully as she fell on it again and again...but the joke needed some polishing. It was not yet ready to be unleashed upon the world.
"Sorry for worrying you. I wish I could use reiatsu the way you guys can, then I wouldn't have to worry about it." She brushed some of the errant snow and slush from her coat before heaving a sigh of contentment. "I was headed to the store to stock up on groceries for dinner tonight. I probably shouldn't buy any eggs if the streets are this slippery thought, ne?" she beamed. "What about you? Are you enjoying the weather?"
no subject
Grimmjow definitely thought that she was much too fragile, even for someone that possessed powers to literally erase someone from existence. She was so strong in so many ways, and yet he was always worried that she would somehow break.
"I'll just carry your stuff then, so you won't fall all over the place," there, problem solved, and he isn't going to slip around or anything.
"...This weather is weird. Kinda reminds me of Hueco Mundo, though. It's white everywhere," it may not have been sand, but the white snow did remind him of that vast space back home, for sure.
no subject
Holding to his arm, she resumed her journey, conversing with him as they went. She couldn't tell if he was wearing a gigai or if other people were going to assume she was crazy talking to no one, but it didn't really matter.
"Did you like it there?" she asked, genuinely curious. "It was where you lived for so long." Not like he had much of a choice, since dwelling in the world of the living just meant he'd have shinigami hunting him down.
no subject
Hah, asking him that made him grin to himself, however, "fuck yeah- it was pretty great. Got to fight all I wanted, kill anythin' at all, and got to prove how strong I was." Nothing like how he had to behave here. He had to be nice, he couldn't just kill anyone... and that was definitely annoying.
"What was it like for you there?" being a prisoner and all.
no subject
"Well," she began, tipping her head back thoughtfully. "It was uncomfortable at first. I was suddenly surrounded by all of this hostile reiatsu, even if it wasn't directed solely at me. It took a while to get used to that." She risked a glance up at his face while she tried to give proper form to her thoughts.
"I didn't realize I was sad at first. I thought, maybe I could find a way to be of use, if I found an opportunity to destroy the Hougyoukou with my abilities. I probably would have been little more than a depressed lump if I didn't have a purpose!" she grinned wryly. "But then when I felt the presence of my friends breaking through...I don't know. I was really happy." Her smile was quiet and subdued, but hinted at the sincerity of just how touched she'd been. "They were willing to risk their lives for my sake. I'd thought I was just a burden to them, so...it proved me wrong, I guess!"
no subject
This woman, she really was so interesting to him.
"Don't know why you humans all want to save people like that," he grunted to himself, trying to put himself in that situation but it wasn't exactly working. Well, there really was only one way he could relate- "if you were in any danger now though, I'd rip apart the people that kidnapped you."
Really, he was trying to be sincere and nice.
"But ya ain't there now though, you're here with me," where it's obviously much better.
no subject
Her grip on his arm tightened for a moment as she clung to him for support, in order to raise herself up onto her toes and kiss his cheek. The way everything seemed truly peaceful now, he wouldn't really have much reason to tear anyone or anything apart. She was safe. Safer still if they were together.
Rubbing the back of her head, her grin turned sheepish. "I'd say I'll try not to get kidnapped, but I think you'd probably have fun if you had a reason to go all out in a fight again." Orihime tried her luck again with the ice, carefully putting one foot in front of her, then the other. With Grimmjow there beside her, it was much easier to keep her balance. "You're not too bored here, the way things are now?"