(no subject)
Warnings and disclaimer in prologue.
Monstrous Ideas
“Grimm-Kitty, my new brother’s mate is noisy.” Grimmjow considered telling Neliel, again, that his name was Grimmjow, not ‘Grimm-Kitty’ but he suspected it would do little good. “He is,” Grimmjow replied instead. “Are you going to be noisy with him?” Neliel asked looking up at him with wide eyes. “I think Aizen hopes I will,” Grimmjow muttered as he tried to find a way into the Shoten without running into anyone.
“Why hello there,” came a voice from behind and Grimmjow whirled to face it. “I wonder what two arrancar would be up to, spying on my shop,” Urahara mused as he reached for Benihime. Grimmjow was tempted to try and kill the interloper but he had a feeling that if Aizen didn’t kill him then Kurosaki would. He decided that he would try and convince Urahara that they were not here to hurt anyone and if that failed he would find another way to approach Kurosaki. “What would I do with a shop?” Grimmjow said. “No, I need to talk to Kurosaki.” “Well he is mighty popular lately,” Urahara said. After a moment of eyeing the pair, Urahara sighed and offered to let them come in and wait for Kurosaki to wake up. Grimmjow nodded, he hadn’t expected his assignment to be this easy. “Normally I would wake him up, but he has come very close to attacking me twice today.” Grimmjow sighed, ‘Well at least getting into the shop was easy.’
When Grimmjow walked into the shop his nose was hit with the strong smell of sex and dried sweat. He was forced to shift and arrange himself to keep his problem from showing. Kurosaki and his mate smelled good, and he had the urge to find them so he could lick the scent off of them. He shifted again and waited for Urahara to come back with tea of all things. Grimmjow smirked as he watched Neliel try and take the white and green monstrosity off of Urahara’s head. “I was surprised to see a child arrancar,” Urahara began “because I don’t see what good that would do Aizen.” Deciding that Urahara could be a good ally in gaining Kurosaki’s trust, he explained about the ‘accident’ “though with Nnorita involved, I doubt the accident part.” Urahara nodded, “So why bring her to Ichigo? Surely there are other hollows that could watch her.”
Nel piped up then, “Aizen said the other Espada would try to eat me if I stayed. He said that with Grimm-Kitty and brother Ichigo to protect me, none of them would dare hurt me. They want to be ninja sneaky,” Nel finished looking at Urahara with huge watery eyes.
“You mentioned Espada. Who are they?” Grimmjow snorted, “The Espada are the top ten of us. We all have resurrection form and are basically Aizen’s generals.” Urahara nodded. “That makes sense I suppose. Which are you?” “I am six,” Grimmjow said “and Neliel here used to be three, until this happened.” Even if Neliel was not her usual self she deserved the respect that she had earned. Hearing footsteps, Grimmjow turned to watch as Ichigo and his mate came in. Ichigo looked like he was ready for a fight, his reitsu obviously agitated. The shopkeeper stepped in then to explain and defuse the situation. “This is Grimmjow and Neliel, and apparently you get a new little sister conveniently equipped with her own babysitter. Congratulations,” Urahara said with a wide smile. The look Ichigo gave him in response could have melted steel. “And why exactly am I getting them?” Ichigo huffed. “Because Neliel here will be eaten if you don’t,” Urahara replied bluntly.
Grimmjow tensed and waited to see what Kurosaki would do next. While he knew Ichigo had two younger sisters, he didn’t know if he would be able or willing to transfer that familial mindset to encompass Neliel. When Ichigo sighed and accepted, Grimmjow was unable to suppress the barely audible sound of relief. Ichigo let out a soft groan and addressed Grimmjow “Okay so I get why she has to stay, what about you. Why are you here?”
“I know the way the people after her think. Also, I can watch Neliel when you have to go do human things and can’t have her with you.” Ichigo narrowed his eyes, “If I or mine gets hurt because of you, beyond protection detail, you die.” Grimmjow believed him, this was not an attempt to brag or impress as Nnorita or Yammy would, but it was a simple brutal fact. He was starting to like Kurosaki; he had guts. Grimmjow gave a shallow nod to show he understood. As soon as he did Neliel was smacking into Kurosaki demanding ‘Itsygo’ pick her up. Better you than me Grimmjow thought as Kurosaki picked Neliel up and slung her on his hip.
Grimmjow turned his attention to Kurosaki’s mate as the tension level decreased. The shinigami wasn’t exactly what he had expected. There was none of the trademark arrogance and a complete lack of the air of superiority that Grimmjow had seen. The shopkeeper clapped his hands and Grimmjow returned his attention to Urahara. “Introductions then,” Urahara stated “I am Urahara, bright red hair and tattoos is Renji, and Ichigo obviously.” “Right, now what?” Grimmjow asked. He watched Kurosaki because he had the feeling that the big decisions were Kurosaki’s to make. “I will take Grimmjow and Nel to my home,” Kurosaki said.
“Are you entirely sure that is a good idea?” Urahara asked “your sisters…” Ichigo shook his head, “Not their house, mine. I got a separate house when we didn’t know how −he− was going to affect me.” Grimmjow’s eyebrows rose. He who? The house was a gap in the intel, but it probably would work out better if he didn’t have to worry about anyone besides Kurosaki, and Renji. That combination alone was just begging for trouble. Hopefully it would come in the form of a fight, because he could totally deal with that.
Grimmjow eyed Urahara for a moment debating on asking a question and then decided he wanted to know. “So why is it you just accepted that we were not going to hurt anyone? We could have done a lot of damage before you could have caught me.” Kurosaki turned to look at Urahara obviously wanting to know that answer also. Urahara snorted, “You were either being truthful and there would be no danger, or you were lying in which case I have access to a lot of things in here that nullify threats. Or Ichigo could have decided that you were a threat to Renji and decided to deal with you personally.” Grimmjow blanched and decided he was glad he had resisted the urge to get into a fight with the deranged shopkeeper. The idea of facing Kurosaki who thought his mate was in danger was not appealing. “Fair enough,” he agreed.
Looking over Grimmjow saw Neliel sleeping on Kurosaki with his sleeve in her mouth. He rolled his eyes and reached over, grabbed Neliel and put her back by him. Renji started snickering, and in response to the look Kurosaki shot at him muttered “Strays” and went back to laughing. “I don’t think you are in any condition to comment,” Urahara pointed out. “Oh, I think I am in the perfect place,” Renji replied. “Let’s count: me, Rukia, Chad, Ishida, Kon, and now these two.” Grimmjow made note of the names. He would hunt them down later so he knew who they were. He really didn’t want a homicidal Kurosaki out for him. They would also give him an idea about what drew Kurosaki and he could tell Aizen. This didn’t seem so bad, even if he was obviously out of his depth.
P.O.V.
Renji watched the Espada, ‘Grimmjow and Nel, he reminded himself, as they finalized a watch schedule for Nel. Grimmjow didn’t act like any of the other hollows he had encountered before. He wasn’t mindless or blood thirsty… well not anymore than Captain Kenpachi was anyway, and he seemed to be capable of caring for others. It was supposed to be impossible, for any hollow, to feel anything beyond hunger and the violent emotions that came with that hunger. Obviously that wasn’t true though and he couldn’t help but wonder if the 13 were deliberately giving false information. He wondered if the captains knew and it was an effort to not spook the new shinigami by telling them that they were killing fully sentient beings. Maybe they didn’t know. Very high level hollows were not seen often and low level hollows were nothing but ravenous monsters. That much he had seen for himself.
Renji was not happy about the lack of information, but if they were being kept in the dark he didn’t want to draw attention by asking ‘dangerous questions.’ His best bet would be to get Yoruichi to ask Toushiro because if anyone could find out, it would be him. Maybe Urahara knew where he could find Yoruichi. Renji’s attention was brought back to the present when he felt Ichigo shift next to him. “You ok?” Ichigo asked. Renji nodded and explained what he had been thinking about. Ichigo frowned, “I’ll contact Yoruichi later and let you explain.” Renji nodded, relieved that at least this part had proved easy.
“What are you planning to do once you get your guests settled in?” Urahara asked Ichigo. “Gather information,” Ichigo said “but other than that, nothing specific yet. Why?” Urahara looked uncomfortable for a moment before replying. “There are a group of people, the Vizard, who would like to meet you.” Renji paid close attention to the conversation then because what he remembered about Vizard was that they were shinigami with hollows inside them. Standard procedure was to nullify Vizards on sight do to their instability, however normal they seemed at the time. A black thought crossed Renji’s mind ‘How true is that information?’
Ichigo turned to look closely at Urahara. “Who are these Vizard, and what do they want with me?” he asked. They probably want to test you and see how you are dealing. They may also want an alliance if all goes well.” Ichigo frowned but nodded after a moment. “I will speak with them but, I can’t promise anything else.” Urahara nodded, “I will make the arraignments.
Renji turned his attention back to Grimmjow with some effort. If they were going to be staying in close quarters Renji was going to have to get used to him. Not that he actually trusted Grimmjow or anything. Renji couldn’t help thinking that there was another reason for them being here besides what Grimmjow had said. It wasn’t necessarily violence but that wasn’t as reassuring as it could be with Aizen being involved.
Renji wondered what Soul Society was doing. His absence would definitely have been noticed by now, and Rukia, at least, was probably wondering where he was. Renji winced as he reminded himself to explain to Byakuya what had happened. It wasn’t going to be pretty, and the fact that he was Ichigo’s was not going to go over well. Hopefully, Byakuya would be angrier at whoever had infected him. If Ichigo didn’t find them first, because Renji had the feeling that Ichigo wouldn’t leave enough of whomever it was to be angry at.
P.O.V.
Ichigo could tell that Renji was nervous, but he couldn’t tell what was bothering him. Not that he was real thrilled about an enemy in his home, much less around his friends, but his options were limited. If he took the Espada to his father’s house the risk of his sisters getting hurt was far too high. Even if Nel and Grimmjow didn’t hurt them, the chance of Karen and Yuzu getting caught in the crossfire if another shinigami did was unacceptable. He wasn’t willing to leave a child to be harmed either, so his house was the only option, though Ichigo was annoyed that a part of his contingency plans was going to become public knowledge.
Ichigo made a note to tell Chad about who else knew about the house when he introduced Grimmjow and Nel to his friends. Ichigo fought not to sigh at the thought of introducing Ishida to a couple of Espada. Maybe if he tied Ishida down first it would help. It would keep the hostility to a minimum for sure but again there was the issue of getting close enough to Ishida to do so.
Urahara shifted and Ichigo returned his attention to the crazy shopkeeper. “Ok, so I’ll get everyone settled in and talk to these Vizards in a couple of days.” Urahara nodded and Ichigo stood. “Time to go,” Ichigo said as he herded Renji, Grimmjow, and Nel out the door.