FEN: I rephrased and added a few scenes, things that really doesn't have a direct connection with the story, so it's your choice if you want to reread it. It's basically just Shiro being pervy and messing with Grimmjow's clueless mind, making the long conversations livelier and Grimmjow a little more expressive. No changes on the third scene and onwards though. I just had to do this to regain the flow of story because I had been inactive for such a long time that I actually forgot how to continue this.

In all of my fics, I refer to Shiro as Kurosaki Koichi, but everyone would mostly call him Shiro still as a nickname for obvious reasons. I think only Ichigo would call him by his name... because I don't remember any time in the manga/anime when he refered to someone with anything else. Koichi means the pure one. Separately, Ko could mean sin/fault, child, or the late/latter depending on how one would write it. He's the younger twin, by the way.

No GenBen (Gender Bending). Even Hollow Ichigo and Grimmjow can make mistakes.

Co-Existing.
Chapter One.

Grimmjow grumbled in his seat, crossing his arms and legs as he sunk back to the high chair that was generously offered to him and to his partner by the humble servants of the large mansion. Despite the adjective he chose to describe it with, he still thought it was an understatement, because the place looked as if it could get its own zip code! Getting inside didn't help his fidgeting either. Everywhere he turned, he could see millions of things that were more expensive than his own life tenfold. The mansion was really, really... humongous!

Humongous? Grimmjow still felt it was an understatement, mind you.

"Quit yer fidgetin', school girl." His partner muttered with a wide grin.

"Shut it, shiro." He growled, sending a death glare to the albino's location, and shifted to what he thought could be a more comfortable position. Grimmjow had been restless ever since he was granted access to pass through the heavy gates of the gigantic mansion. "Just do me a favor and make the chit-chattering quick."

"As the kitty cat commands."

Grimmjow rolled his eyes, untangling his limbs and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. He intertwined his fingers and started twiddling his thumbs in hopes of relieving some pressure that was making him sweat coolly. "What's this job about anyway?"

"'Ere gonna be stakin' our ass fer a non-seein' brat."

"A live one?" He whipped his head to the side, "I thought I've made it clear enough for you guys!"

"Ya did an' I know, bu'," the albino paused, leaning back to his chair, "Ya ain't gonna earn nothin' if ya ain't flexible, ya know."

"Tch!"

Grimmjow scowled but said nothing more. His partner obviously wanted to piss him off, and fuck, was it working! He was never one to socialize, and that was because he hated everyone else than himself and his all-time partner. In spite of their frequent exchange of harsh words, Grimmjow was only comfortable with the albino and no one else. He hated everyone else with all his might, and it was impossible for him to befriend with someone without ripping their guts out.

"Lighten up, kitty. Ya know 'ow big we're gonna get fer this."

"I don't care about money! You know how it is for me!"

"Don't be an ass. It's just fer a year."

"A year means twelve months, you dumbfuck. Twelve! I'd want to show you stupid freak just how many that is but I can't unless I grow an extra finger in each of my hands!" He slammed his fist at the wooden armrest, growling at the albino who was simply ignoring his awful predicament with a smirk. "A month means four weeks! A week is seven days! An' a freaking fucking day—"

"I get it, kitty cat. I can do math." He waved his white hand dismissively in the air, "An' if ya really wanna hear me say it, then lemme' say it: I don't give a shit. Ya know sooner o' later this is bound ta happen."

Grimmjow's left blue eye twitched. So this was what he's gonna get after sticking around this long with this freakin albino? A lecture? A god forsaken lecture?! A lecture about life and all that crap?! Who was this guy kidding? This freak is crazier than him!

"How can you not give a shit, you shithead?!" He shot up.

"Well, I jus' fuckin' don't, ya blueberry alien wuss!"

But ooooh, yes... they were good friends, and you know what else? This could go on for hours. Yep! Hours, and it never failed to amaze everyone else how they could act like it was nothing afterwards. Everyone simply assumed that this was their own kind of bonding, so nobody ever cared even when they were already at each other's throat. Even Ichigo, Kurosaki Koichi's older twin brother, had given up on them.

"What in the hell did you just call me?!" He lunged forward and fisted his partner's white open coat, snarling at the still rather amused face as he pulled it close to him.

"A fuckin' wuss." The Japanese slurred, savoring the amusing feeling it had on his lips as he said it slowly and how those bright blue eyes burned and bore holes into his pale skin. "Ya deaf or somethin'? Chickie?"

Grimmjow glared as hard as he could, grinding his teeth to the extent that he felt that he would actually lose them. A familiar fire burnt up his chest and a begging itch in his knuckles clawed through his resolve not to hurt anyone, swallowing his mind into an instinctive pit. He didn't want to fight, but the albino was just begging for it. It was annoying, but that wasn't the worst yet.

"I'm gonna bloody murder you!"

"Ha! You? Murder me?"

What annoyed him the most was that the albino knew very well how hard he was holding himself back from acting this way, and despite that, Koichi still did everything for him to actually lose it. Grimmjow didn't understand the reasons himself, but the albino wasn't always like this. The man just had his own weird ways he supposed. Everything always turned out well in the end anyway.

"Excuse me," a female voice called. The two males, who were at each other's throat, grudingly pulled away from each other with a hateful snort but their blazing eyes kept their line; nonetheless, the woman dressed in a maid's uniform went on and bowed down to present another woman sitting on a wheelchair. "This is the young master, Ulquiorra Schiffer-sama. Please take care of the young master to the best of your abilities." With another bow, she left quietly.

Two pairs of awestruck eyes glazed over the pale skin of the young master that was made even more to shine with the expensive jade kimono wrapped around the lithe form along with the unevenly cut ebony hair that was simply left to flow freely like the river, the tips just barely touching the narrow shoulders.

"Tha's... 'er?" the albino blinked. "She's fuckin' hot."

"That's your dick talking." Grimmjow nudged his partner's head, anger seemingly already forgotten. "Shut it up."

"Wai'aminute." The blue-haired raised a brow as the albino stalked towards the female sitting innocently on her moving chair. Koichi bent down and stared close to her face for a moment and then started walking around in circles around her with his thumb pressed against his chin. Seemingly serious for once in his life, Grimmjow crossed his arms and let him do whatever that was floating around his crazy mind. "Oh!" He jammed his fist on an open palm as his lips formed a small 'o'.

"What is it?"

Koichi smirked and stood behind the emotionless female. "Ya ready?"

"...yeah?"

The albino chuckled as he threw his arms forward, clutching at Ulquiorra's chest. "No boobs."

Grimmjow flushed and flinched in place of the impassive female who had just lost her chest's virginity if she hadn't already... or if there's actually such a thing. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"

"...gropin'?" he unworriedly answered, even repeated his fumbling at the breastless woman to even accentuate his point.

"Quit that!"

xxx

So maybe he really did hate the albino. Maybe... did. Ugh...

Grimmjow groaned and stopped on his tracks, leaning forward on the wheelchair's backrest to massage his aching head. How did he get into this again? Wait, scratch that. He didn't want to remember. His headache was strainful enough as it is. No more need to add more oil to the freaking fire.

Raising a piece of paper, he reviewed the list of schedule given to him by the pig-tailed servant and twisted his wrist a bit to check the time. This was such a mundane task, and yet the pain in his head didn't seem to have any plans of letting up throughout. Oh, how he hated his life right now... and curse that stupid freak! Really! How more inconsiderate and annoying can one person get?!

He turned back to the paper and skimmed through the bloody list. What the heck was this for anyway? Everyone should have the right to decide for oneself and freely do what he wanted to do! Wouldn't anyone feel too cramped up with this list going on? C'mon, even if it's a life of a blind person, she still should have her freedom to do whatever she wants, right?

Right... what in the fucking hell happened to him that now he was worried with someone that wasn't himself? He hated people! He hated those cursed selfish and greedy bastards...

Tch.

"Garden, right?" Grimmjow dully asked, not really waiting for any answer since none would come anyway no matter how long or how nicely he'd ask. Not that he'd ever ask nicely. He was just doing his job... but hey, so what if he chooses to ignore the schedule and wing it? It wasn't like Ulquiorra would see where she was brought to. Regardless, the blue-haired guardian made their way towards the... waitaminute.

He dilligently fought back against his eye to twitch, seriously, but failed miserably. Slapping his annoying eye, he cussed, "Damn it!!!"

What was he thinking about? He didn't know where the garden is! Sure, he was given a good tour earlier by the woman called Lemoney. No, wait... Nolemey? Molonomy? Nomony? Nomonominy? What's that girl's name again? Oh, whatever! It didn't matter. What could've mattered was that he should've paid more attention to... whatever the woman's name was. But even if he was there listening only half-assedly, he still should've been able to pick up a thing or two from it, right?

Twitch. Twitch.

Oh, curse it all! Where was that annoying partner of his when he actually needed him?!

"Shiro!" he irritatingly screamed, but only his own voice echoing down the hall answered his devasted call. How lucky he was to be lost in a stupid mansion with only... wait. Ulquiorra should know where they were, shouldn't she? But come to think of it, she had not moved nor talked ever since he had seen her. Was she even alive? Maybe she was kind of brain-dead? But those kind of people can't go around without those big machines, right? Or maybe...

"Hey," Grimmjow started, "Are you deaf?"

Oh, great, Grimmjow. He groaned, What a smart question. A deaf would probably be able to answer that.

The blue-haired guardian rolled his eyes, turning his back at the blind and assumed deaf woman. If the woman was just mute, she could just nod her head or something, right? It wasn't also impossible that she was mute and deaf at the same time. Ulquiorra was also on a wheel-chair, perhaps she was also crippled?

Grimmjow turned his eyes down to the floor. He had never thought it was possible before: common capabilities of humans all absent in one person. He furrowed his brows as he tried to imagine what it was like to see and hear nothing... that could be likened to death itself, right? No day and night. No images and sounds. No nothing. It was a life of nothing—that is if you could still consider it living.

I really shouldn't have agreed on this. He sighed, rubbing circles on his temples and fighting off the shaky feeling around his eyes even before it turned into full force twitching.

Sure, Grimmjow hated people, but that didn't mean that he was heartless. One reason why he hated interacting was because he always found it hard to get along with other people. Most of the time, his attempts to socialize would either get recognized as a way to get someone into bed or to coax a no holds barred fight—not that he hated getting into fights, he loved it more than he would ever love himself as a matter of fact. He had just gotten tired of trying, and truth be told, it was kind of insulting for him whenever he tried.

He flexed his shoulders and neck, straightening his back. That was enough thinking for the day. He should get on with his job.

Schedules aren't made for nothing. Grimmjow told himself, looking one last time at Ulquiorra's list of schedules. Still, though, he wasn't sure what to feel about the god damn list that was as long as his arm-length, but he supposed it was there to make the illusion that Ulquiorra was normal...

Damn it.

...and somehow alive.

xxx

The first day was over for Grimmjow and his partner in guarding the only daughter of the Schiffers, and so far, it was going surprisingly well. Not to mention Grimmjow hadn't gone crazy with all the people he was forced to associate himself with which was something the albino was still disbelieving of. The way he had known the hothead, this was something he never imagined that would come true. Grimmjow was just not someone who surely didn't even know how to use we and our.

"Hey, Shiro." The bulkier man grumbled, lying down to his bed which was situated just a few doors away from Ulquiorra's own. He crossed his arms underneath his head and stared up to the ceiling where shadows danced with the weak light of the radiant moon.

"Yah?"

"Let's switch jobs."

"Nah, I dun' like boobless chicks."

"We're not here to get you a good lay, you sick perv." Grimmjow groaned, resisting the urge to jump out of his bed and attack the albino who was sitting by the window pane. "Lemme do the patrolling for this one."

"An' miss th' chance of seein' ya blow yer head of? No way." The albino snickered, "Wha'? She a chatterbox?"

"She's mute."

"Oh?" the Japanese turned his head to look at his partner's form shifting on the top bunk of the bed, "Then wha's yer problem? If she's mute and she's blind, 'lso prob'ly deaf... is gonna be like takin' care of a thing."

"She's not a thing." the blue-haired guardian turned to his side, "She's just..."

"Is what?"

"Don't know... unlucky, I think."

The albino stood up and left his place by the window to take his bed, "Then maybe ya should bring 'er to Ikkaku an' get some luck from 'im." He snickered, waiting for his partner to somehow lighten up and do the same... but what answered this attempt of comforting of his was a long and awkward moment of silence.

"Yeah..." was Grimmjow's weak reply, wiping off the large grin on the albino's lips. "Maybe I should..."

"Don't tell me ya like 'er." Came the albino's rather serious counter after a long pause. "Ya know 'ow it is when that crazy bastard finds out 'bout things like this."

"I don't care what Zaraki thinks."

"Then yer admittin' tha' ya like 'er?"

"...No."

"Yeah, sure. Fuckin' deny all ya want, ya pussy."

Grimmjow no longer replied. He bit his lip and furrowed his brows as he remembered how Ulquiorra looked, sitting on her wheelchair completely immobile. Her greenish gray eyes were really beautiful, Grimmjow noted and noticed, but she always looked past everything. He assumed that it was because she was blind, but he could still get this uneasy feeling with her like she was already dead. The daughter of the Schiffers was also kind of cold, not that surprising with how pale her skin was, but it seemed as if there was just one last lit up candle somewhere insider her that was attaching her to the living world. It was as if she was just waiting for someone or something to happen before she...

"Grimmjow." The albino called, snapping the blue-haired guardian out of his thoughts. "Something's happening."

xxx

The very second his partner's words reached his ears, he found himself scrambling back to the blind female's room. It didn't matter that he ran into closed doors and sharp corners with his partner's healthy laughter echoing behind him, because the only thing that his mind was able to comprehend was that Ulquiorra could be in danger.

He couldn't let that happen.

Grimmjow slammed the door open, vehemently searching for the light switch against the wall. He pressed the indent that he felt on the wall, almost slamming, and then the lights flicked on, revealing the lithe form of the raven-haired curled up on the floor.

Shit!

He ran inside, scooping the form gently in his arms. Grimmjow quickly checked if the woman was breathing, raising the body up to his ear and feeling the breath on his skin. Good enough, it was there, slowly and smoothly. It washed Grimmjow with abundant relief, inwardly showing with a deep sigh.

Ulquiorra's dull green eyes slowly opened.

"Are you okay?" he worriedly asked, pulling the frail body closer to his own until it was easy for him to stand without letting go of her. Not really intending for the daughter to stand, Grimmjow was surprised to see that she was well balanced with her own two feet.

"Well, wha's cookin' here, Grimmy?" came the albino's slightly screeching voice, "Aggressive much?"

Grimmjow blinked, the words of his partner coming to him rather slow this time... and then he realized his arm went around the blind daughter's small hips while his other one was wrapped around the shoulders. Reality hitting him quick, Grimmjow jerked away from the female with a violent blush, growling at his hysterically laughing partner.

"Fuck you."

The albino shrugged, the large grin still present on his features, "I'd rather have ya tellin' tha' t' 'er."

"Shut the fuck up, Shiro." He growled low, sending off his best death glare. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Wha'? Ain't I allowed t' worry 'bout ya no more now that ya found yerself a girlfriend?"

"I told you to quit it, you bastard." He muttered, turning back to the unmoving Ulquiorra, and lifted her up to his arms. Grimmjow carefully walked over to the bed and laid the female down gently, fixing the mattress and the blankets to give more comfort to the clients' daughter.

"Aww... ain't tha' motherfuckin' sweet?"

"I told you to shut up!" Grimmjow fumed, twisting around and clenching his fists. He was about to run and tackle his still snickering partner, but he was held back by a hand on his wrist. He turned back at the woman lying on the bed, surprised at the amount of strength that she had to be able to pull him back when he was about to attack.

"Ul...quiorra?"

In the low light, Grimmjow thought he saw those greenish gray orbs move and focus on him. It was the very first motion he saw the woman do, and it surprised him because it gave him the impression that she could somehow see. He met her eyes in a long period of time, leaving Grimmjow there standing awkwardly silent.

"Wha' happened?" the albino cocked his head, noticing the hold up. He made a move to get closer, but Grimmjow signaled him not to come, so he kept his ground.

The orbs that were once so lifeless soon closed as the small hand that held Grimmjow's was slowly letting go. Ulquiorra was falling asleep, but Grimmjow still couldn't get over the shock of it. Once Ulquiorra had fully released his hold, the blue-haired guardian willed himself to leave, turning around and meeting his partner who was standing by the door way.

"So?"

"Nothing." He muttered, passing through the albino without sparing a glance.

"Don't give me tha' shit."

Grimmjow stopped on his tracks, sighing, "Fine."

"So wha's up?"

"I just..." he turned to his side and leaned back to the wall, rubbing the back of his neck as if he was put in a very uncomfortable position. The albino eyed him warily but said nothing of the awkward attitude he was displaying. "For a moment, I thought I heard her speak."

The Japanese raised a brow, "I thought you said she was mute?"

"Yeah," he said weakly, "I did."

"Okaaay..." the albino drawled, turning away for a while to hide his awkward reaction from his partner, "So what did ya think th' mute told ya?"

"She..."

"She?"

Grimmjow furrowed his brows, "...forget it."

"Wha'?"

"I was being stupid." He shook his head and walked back towards the Schiffers' daughter's room, "Forget about it"

"Oi, where are ya goin'?"

"I'm gonna spend the night with her."

"I was jus' kidding with the fuckin' thing, Grimm! Dun' do it!"

"Asshole, I'm not like you."

"B-but..."

"Good night, shiro." He muttered before walking back inside the room and closing the door behind him. Grimmjow, at first, just stared at the form on the four-poster bed that was softly accentuated by the light coming from the glasses that served as the wall on the opposite side. He had found Ulquiorra on the floor as if she wanted to crawl out to the large veranda. There was some ruckus a few moments ago... perhaps she saw someone out there?

Grimmjow furrowed his brows. Saw someone?

"Stay." He remembered the soft voice of the pale woman that sounded as if it was whispered directly into his ear. Surprisingly, it wasn't the common pitch of female voices. It was actually kind of low like she wasn't... a she.

Grimmjow shook his head at the absurd thought. First the crippled got to stand, next the mute had talked, and now females were growing things they shouldn't grow. Had he truly been this affected with having to spend time with people beside the albino? Oh, c'mon, even how much he hated people, he knew it shouldn't be this bad.

He sighed and looked around, searching for something to sit on.

Well, the daughter of his clients asked him to stay, right? So there's nothing wrong in doing just that. It wasn't like he was developing feelings for the blind! He was totally not like the perverted albino, right? He was just trying to hold Ulquiorra carefully, and he was so not trying to grope her or anything. His arms just happened to be there!

Tch.

No, really! He wasn't.

FEN: Eye twitching can be caused by eight things: stress, tiredness, eyestrain, caffeine, alcohol, dry eyes, nutritional imbalances, or allergies. Guess what's causing Grimm's. XD