A/N: Well. Here it is. It's been an epic ride, and there are even some of you who've stuck around since the very beginning. I can't thank you enough for welcoming my love for this crack pairing so warmly and for supporting me through the trials and tribulations of completing a Fanfiction. I still can't believe Coronado passed 100 faves and 300 reviews. Y'all are absolutely amazing.

As promised, there's a link in my Profile to some stabs I've taken at doodles for this fic. If you're keen to contribute, please let me know and I will be sure to promote your art in my profile.

Pretty blatant worship for that elusive former Fanfic I've raved about in the past here called "Nine Tales" by BovineOrbiter; alas, Grimmjow's trip to the salon was first executed by that brilliant author. I simply raved in reviews that I was one-hundred-percent in concurrence with all the proposed theories and was forever sold. Now you're all victim of my headcanon.

Bittersweet to end this, but thrilled that I could actually bring it to completion. I am not even going to entertain the thought of writing a sequel, but I'd never stop anyone out there from trying their hand at one. Most you'll get out of me is an omake one-shot of sorts.

Please enjoy this series of vignettes concluding Coronado.

Disclaimer: Bleach and all associated characters and locations are the creative property of Kubo Tite. I'm just here to flail with all my newly found free time.

Coronado

Chapter 32: Epilogue, or "Nothing Else Means Anything"

Orihime resisted a flinch as she watched Grimmjow's clawed ebony hand impale his opponent through the center. Her own shield clanged as the spiked tail of an attacking Adjuchas crashed down on it from above, and she sent Tsubaki blasting forth through the attacker.

She never assumed that Grimmjow's evolution would mean an end to their battles, but she was hoping that peace would be a little more prevalent once Grimmjow rose to position.

Unfortunately, Grimmjow's ascent to power was not guaranteed by his transformation into a Vasto Lorde, and his campaign continued. She made a grateful noise as another attack from the side was deflected by the tremendous Hollow warhorse accompanying her. She was comforted to know that, whether or not he actually liked her, Grimmjow's former Fracción was at least content to fight at her side.

Grimmjow roared at the line of opponents charging him, the gesture abundantly intimidating and a perfect rally cry for his supporters. As she watched him launch himself at his attackers, ripping through them without abandon, she steeled herself for the future she promised to help him achieve.

He was wilder as a Vasto Lorde than as an Arrancar, Orihime observed.

She noticed that in the months since he'd undergone the transformation. She had no problem with it, although it took some getting used to. The young woman had mentally prepared herself for a more significant change in his personality once he'd shed his Adjuchas form, more in keeping with how she'd remembered him as an Espada. Instead, he was more impulsive and unpredictable, and full of boundless, animalistic energy.

It was… refreshing.

"What's that?" he asked eagerly, startling the girl slightly from her intense focus on the pastry in her hands. He had appeared before her quite suddenly, the dust kicking up around him. He sniffed curiously at the treat, and she shifted to keep it away from him, certain of his greedy intentions. He followed it with his nose.

"It's my snack. You already ate the rest of my food; at least let me enjoy this!" she complained. Grimmjow curled his lip over a sharp canine and sneered.

"Not my fault that you can't protect your own stuff." His mouth was open and his tongue was sticking out as he chased the pastry in their latest game of keepaway.

It probably wasn't very smart of her to hold it aloft in an attempt to keep it from his reach, given that he stood so much taller than she did.

Her head spun around quickly when she felt a tap on her shoulder, somewhat embarrassed to be caught by someone in this compromising position.

There was no one there but Grimmjow's white tail, curling around to distract her, and her stomach sunk when she felt the telltale shift of someone taking a bite of her treat.

She looked up at Grimmjow with an annoyed frown as he chewed thoughtfully on the pastry, contemplating its flavor.

"What the hell is this?" he asked around his mouthful. Orihime bemoaned the fact that not only did he just eat half of her favorite food in a single bite, but he didn't even have the decency to enjoy the delectable snack.

"It's filled with red bean paste. It's my favorite," she pouted.

She was disappointed that it was under these circumstances that he was finally trying it, and peeved when he took a second bite, finishing the treat.

"Tastes gross," he declared as he chewed the rest of it and swallowed. Orihime moaned, and Grimmjow grinned.

"You know, I think you're actually bigger right now than you were as an Espada," Orihime observed of the Vasto Lorde's new form aloud one day.

"Oh?" responded Grimmjow, his unusual ears quirking slightly at her comment. He paused for a moment and thought on her words before quite characteristically plunging into the gutter with them. His eyes looked down at her with shrewd calculation. "So you're saying you knew how big I was back then?"

Orihime's blank look of incomprehension was met by a raised eyebrow on Grimmjow's part.

Her look of processing was met by the spread of a lascivious grin.

Her indignant reaction was met by a childish raspberry, his long tongue sticking out at her teasingly through his fangs.

"Ugh, ew!"

"Hmm. I'm not showing any signs of life..." he growled as he looked into her eyes suggestively. "You should try mouth-to-mouth," he said with a smirk.

Orihime laughed at the terrible joke even as her hands came down to rest on his arms that were wrapped around her waist. She sobered somewhat, though, as she thought too hard on the subject matter. Grimmjow noticed the mood swing. "What?" he asked, bracing himself.

Orihime looked away as she toyed with her unhappy idea. She began cautiously.

"It's just that... You're right, you know."

Grimmjow scoffed slightly. "Of course I'm right. I'm always right." Then, "... About what?" Orihime smiled fondly up at his characteristic response, but he could detect the trace of melancholy in it. He narrowed his eyes above the thick slashes of teal marking him and lowered his face to hers, so she could not look away. "What?" he demanded softly.

Biting her lower lip, she stared back and forth into his blue eyes, no longer shying away from their intensity as she once did. "Is this... Right?" she breathed. "I mean... Is it okay for us to be... 'us'?" She caught the obvious confusion in his look and struggled to word her dilemma.

"Are we... allowed to even be together, like, naturally? I mean... I'm alive and you're... not. Do you... Does that make sense?" She could not find the words she needed and hoped he understood what she was trying to say. Her gaze finally fell to the side.

She felt Grimmjow's arm shift before she felt his fingers around her chin, firmly turning her to face him again. He was careful with his dangerous claws. The Vasto Lorde touched his forehead to hers as he glared into her eyes, his crown of bone cold against her brow.

"Do you love me?"

Orihime's heart stopped.

Is he… What? Is he seriously asking me this? She had always been so careful to tread lightly around the subject of emotion around him. All this time, she'd worried about what he'd consider himself capable of feeling; a Hollow's soul was incomplete by nature, after all. And now he could just… ask her? Just like that?! It was so unfair!

But he was waiting for an answer. And while she thought at first that he had no right to just drop the question on her, heedless of the time she would need to truly figure out what to say, she came to the sudden realization that she already knew. She'd known for a very long time.

"Yes," she whispered. Then again, stronger, "Yes."

His gaze softened as he leaned in to meet her lips, hissing as he made his approach.

"Then that's all that fucking matters, Orihime."

She smiled and blinked away her tears before she kissed him back.

There was little Grimmjow wouldn't do for her. He had always doted on her, even before it was the safe thing to do, before he even realized he was doing it.

In the end, he did something about her misgivings.

Orihime could tell he was nervous. She could practically feel the hostility radiating off of him in waves as Urahara's two smallest shopkeepers fluttered about him, taking measurements. She wondered if it was even necessary; she knew the Gigai had been ready for days now. They were probably doing it on purpose just to toy with him.

That was a dangerous thing to do, but she stayed silent on the matter. It was a little funny, after all. She actually suspected Ururu had a tiny crush on him. She hid her smile with her hand. The mischievous glint in Jinta's eyes left her certain that they were taking a particular pleasure in torturing the Vasto Lorde.

When Urahara floated into the room, he shooed the giggling children away with a swift wave of his fan, the tiny grin on his face belying his own amusement.

As the two scampered off and the shopkeeper closed in, Orihime watched Grimmjow's discomfort paralyze his spine, his rigidity forcing him to follow Urahara's movements with his eyes alone. When she snorted, Grimmjow sent a scathing glare her way. He was being ridiculous.

"Ah, Mr. Lorde. Or would it be Mr. Vasto?" Urahara started in greeting.

"Grimmjow," the Hollow responded unnecessarily. He knew the shopkeeper was only trying to get a rise out of him. The young woman internally commended his uncharacteristic patience.

"Of course," he said. "Well, let's get this show started, then, shall we?"

Grimmjow grunted in response, then proceeded to stiffly follow him toward the sliding shoji door, the light wooden frame clacking in a friendly fashion as it was opened and the shopkeeper whooshed through. The Hollow paused before the step up, eyeing the wooden sandals left behind by Urahara with a heavy glare, pinning them as he contemplated his decision again for a final time.

"Grimmjow?" said Orihime, softly, breaking his train of thought.

His eyes popped up from the object of his scrutiny and landed on the young woman standing a mere few steps away. The tension in his shoulders melted slightly at the sight of her soft, ashen eyes looking at him in gentle inquiry. His gaze trailed down the sight of her silky hair as it poured over her shoulders in waves. His fingers twitched with the urge to touch it.

He met her gaze again.

Without changing his stoic expression, he winked.

Orihime smiled slightly. Grimmjow walked through the door, then slid it shut behind him with another clack, his flicking tail disappearing last.

Orihime released a breath then leaned against a shelf.

She hadn't realized she'd dozed off until she heard the slide of the wooden door on its runner.

Orihime sat up straight, her back sore from the awkward position in which she'd fallen asleep. She rubbed at her eyes, fuzzy from her nap, and tried to reorient herself.

She was in Urahara's shop. That's right.

Looking around, she tried to find the source of the noise that woke her.

When she saw him, her breath caught in her throat.

She saw his feet first, bare on the wooden floors of the shop. Ten toes peeked out from beneath the cuffs of his dark blue jeans, attached to two flesh-colored feet. He has toes! she thought giddily.

His long legs were encased in well-fitted pants, showing off his slender legs and hips. His dark grey button-up shirt hung outside of his waistline untucked, bunched up where one hand was shoved in his pocket.

The other hand was buried in his dirty blond hair almost sheepishly, ruffling it uncomfortably as his azure eyes looked everywhere but at her.

Wait… blond?!

"You're blond!" she squeaked in shock, her breath caught in her throat.

He merely rolled his eyes, their familiar blue finally landing on her in exasperation. "Astute as ever, I see."

"Why are you blond?!"

He exhaled deeply, his hand finally dropping from his hair to cross with his other arm over his chest.

"The blue came from the circumstances surrounding my death, I guess. Genetically, I was blond when I was alive," he tested the explanation as if it had just been given to him recently as well, rolling the unfamiliar words around on his tongue. His eyes shifted to the side again as a small sneer raised his upper lip. "Is it really that big of a deal?" he asked quietly, unable to disguise his slight unease.

He jumped when he realized how close she had gotten.

"It actually… suits you. A lot." He scoffed, and she defended herself. "I mean it! You look really good!"

At that, he eyed her slyly. "Do I, now?" he asked, the suggestiveness in his tone masking his earlier discomfort.

She did not take the bait, though, instead letting her hands wander over the new crisp gray shirt he wore, straightening his lapel and letting her fingers glide down the small glossy buttons. She looked back up at him, now close enough to feel his warmth. She saw his eyes soften as he looked down at her, all pretenses abandoned.

"Yeah, you do," she said kindly as she felt his arms wrap around her back. She looked back down at his center in shock as she pressed against him. "Your hole…! It's gone!" she exclaimed with astonishment, meeting his eyes when her hands confirmed her suspicions.

Grimmjow grinned, teeth white and human. "Turns out they don't make Gigai with holes in their middles. Hope you don't mind."

Her arms flew around him then, embracing him while a surge of emotions overtook her. "Does this mean…"

A throat cleared nearby, surprising them both and reminding them they were not alone in the little shop. Urahara stepped fully into the modest room.

"It means his Gigai will need to recharge between uses. The only way to turn him into a human, even temporarily, was to give him the rest of his soul. This we accomplished by crafting the body with a small portion of a Mod soul already in it. Because as a Vasto Lorde he is already so close to completion, the fraction of a soul we gave him is negligible, really. The only problem is, it runs out of… charge after a while. He will have to leave the Gigai and return to his true form in order to let it recuperate. He will have five days at a time. Max. Then he needs to leave the body for up to two months before he can return again."

If Urahara expected disappointment from the girl, he did not reveal his surprise when she turned back to the Gigai with unadulterated joy. He found it harder to maintain a neutral expression when the Hollow in the room couldn't fight off a small smile at her exuberance. Inoue-san has him wrapped around her finger. Incredible.

"Do you think the others already sensed his presence here?" Orihime asked, recalling the fact that a Vasto Lorde like Grimmjow could hardly wander the world of the living without someone detecting his massive spiritual reserves.

Urahara assured her that no one could sense him through the walls of his specially fortified shop. The young woman recalled the enormous underground training facility below their feet and knew that claim to likely be very true.

About an hour was spent going through matters with the two of them before Urahara finally allowed them to leave the shop. This Gigai for Hollows was still very much experimental, so they needed to be sure to keep him absolutely up to date on any abnormalities or anomalies.

As they walked out the front door and down the sidewalk away from the shop, Orihime bowing profusely and expressing the gratitude that Grimmjow refused to, the mischievous look glittering in her eyes made Urahara realize that perhaps now she finally intended to reveal him to her human friends. He couldn't wait for the storm that Ichigo and the Quincy boy were likely to stir up as a result. They really were so easy to rile, and this unexpected happening was likely to create a cataclysm.

As he felt Tessai meander up alongside him, he whipped out his fan with a flourish and a snap!

"You… did tell them that the Kurosaki children were born from the union of a human and a Gigai… right?" his assistant asked him seriously.

Urahara's smirked silently behind his fan in reply. Tessai barely contained his groan.

"Now I know why you did this for them for free."

"Come now, Tessai!" responded the shopkeeper from behind his fan, the conniving grin audible in his voice. "It is for the sake of science!"

And with a heavy frown on one face and a twinkle in the eye of the other, the two turned back into the shop, sliding the screen door shut behind them.

The End