Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“The fuck do you mean You don’t have time for our weekly sparing session?!”

“Exactly that”, was the dry answer of the Shinigami while he walked towards the bathroom with Kazui on his arm. Grimmjow was following hard on them straight to the changing table. Not soft-footed as usual but stomping and almost exploding on the inside. “Here are the diapers and-”

“You’re expected to take the time to fight me!”

“I will. Next week”, Kurosaki’s weak try to appease Grimmjow only fuelled the fire in him. As if someone had thrown gas on it.

“That’s not good enough!”

It seemed as if the Arrancar was ignored, almost as if he hadn’t said a thing at all, despite the not-even-two-year-old kid flinching on the Shinigami’s arm and burying the face at the shoulder of his father. “Let’s try again: Here are the diapers, the baby wipes, baby powder and fresh clothes in case he needs some. You can see what’s the front and the back of the diaper when you look at the animals. If he’s bitchy hand him the comb. He finds it fascinating, though I don’t know why. Just toddler stuff, you know. Sometimes he wants to inspect the diaper before you put it on him. He’s quite easy to understand, you’ll see. Any questions about changing diapers?”

“Why the fuck should I?”

“Cause he’s going to soil his nappy at one point. And stop cursing in Kazui’s presence. Orihime kills me if he learns swearwords now”, the father and son duo left the bathroom, following the short corridor back to the living room of the little, spartan apartment and going for the kitchen. The entire floor was covered in toys, but despite his rage, Grimmjow circumvented them with feline elegance. He still felt like a dog, since he was at the heels of the two for about ten minutes by now while the Shinigami was explaining useless stuff and breaking up their conversation all the time for it.

“Talking bout Orihime: why can’t she babysit? She’s the mother after all.”

With a swinging kick, the Arrancar sent a plushie flying which had occupied the spot of the kitchen floor he was about to claim for himself. The little dolphin almost hit the kitchen sink.

“I told you about a month ago already. She and Tatsuki are on their engagement trip this week and I have to take care of Kazui. It’s just a stupid coincidence that Uryu got sick and I need to work.”

“What’s with your old man?”

Kurosaki opened the fridge and looked into it with a scrutinizing stare. He knit his eyebrows in an attempt of concentrating on multiple things at once. It had come to Grimmjow’s attention, that aside from fight- or stress-situations the multitasking abilities of the Shinigami had started to faint bit by bit right after his kid was born. And even if it wasn’t entirely Kurosaki’s fault, he still wanted to gut him for the lack of attention.

“He’s at a crochet seminar cause he thinks he has to be a grandpa and a grandma at the same time. And my sisters and Kon have to work themselves.”

“Da?”, Kazui pointed into the fridge and was immediately served some grapes by his father. Happy with that, the little one stuffed the tiny fruits into his mouth one after another and Grimmjow wondered how the other man could ignore the strands of saliva connecting his hand with the kid’s face. Like a disgusting spider web. Because of that, he wasn’t paying much attention to the monologue the Shinigami held about rice cakes and bananas and what else the kid was allowed to eat. Instead, he was wondering if the toddler’s spit had some special powers like Nel’s. He was damn sure it was a valid possibility considering who the parents were. However, when he heard the word dinner his focus instantly snapped back to the words leaving Kurosaki’s mouth.

“Dinner? What do you mean, dinner?!”

“He needs to eat something before you put him to bed. Like some chopped fruits mixed with a bit of jam and yoghurt. Or you could-”

“Wait, how long will you be gone again?”

“If everything works out as I hope, eight. Else maybe nine or even later. But sleepy time is at seven and I highly recommend you sing him a song while he gets his baby bottle. That’s the fastest way he’ll fall asleep.”

Singing? Baby bottle? Sleepy time?

“What?!”, was the single word leaving Grimmjow’s mouth and he spewed it out as resentful as he could. At the same time, his head searched desperately for a way to dodge the babysitter fate.

“Back to dinner. If you feed him fruits-”

“Urahara! He could go to Urahara, right? The guy owns a fucking candy store and kids love candy. It would be like heaven.”

Finally, Kurosaki’s gaze snapped back onto him, with widened eyes and eyebrows almost raised to his hairline in shock.

“Are you crazy?! I once left Kazui with him for two minutes cause I went to the bathroom and when I came back he was already up to feed him only god knows what and then start experimenting on him! And I thought there was only one mad scientist in the Soul Society!”, a visible shudder ran through Kurosaki’s entire body and he held Kazui a bit tighter. “No, Urahara is definitely not suited to be a babysitter.”

“But a murderous Hollow is?!”

“Of course, you’re a suitable babysitter. Most likely a pretty damn good one.”

Kurosaki closed the fridge.

“Oh yeah? What makes you think so?”, Grimmjow hissed like a snake. To his satisfaction, the child hid his face again at his father’s shoulder.

“I trust you.”

Grimmjow clenched his teeth as subtly as possible. His heart beat faster thanks to those three little words and he almost swallowed hard. He found himself struggling to keep his forehead in a grumpy curl and the deadly spark in his eyes as his outrage faded faster than he wanted to admit. Did Kurosaki even know what he just said? What it did to him? He almost thought he was dreaming when-

“And I trust you, that you won’t give him chocolate for your own sake. He is nerve-racking when he eats too much sugar. Oh, and concerning mangos-”

Grimmjow still wasn’t ready to give in. At least not yet. Even if the damn Shinigami was twisting him around his finger unwittingly and he needed a few moments to recollect himself.

He didn’t like being stripped of his weekly highlight, but he could live with that. What he couldn’t live with was the fact, that Kurosaki was attempting to degrade him to a babysitter. With success as it seemed.

“I repeat: why do I have to stay with dwarf-you? You’ve got enough friends who-”

“What? Is the great Espada afraid of taking care of my son for a few hours?”, taunted the Shinigami. The smile had transformed into the dumb grin Kurosaki always had on his lips, whenever he was about to do something stupid. And hell was this idea stupid and Grimmjow wanted to break Kurosaki’s jaw. Yet he solely wrinkled his nose.

“Tsk. As if. Nothing’s easier than that. Just sounds fucking boring and-”

“If you do me this favour you can chase me around for a whole day next weekend in return.”

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes a little more and tilted his head a tiny bit. Warm, hazel eyes watching his every movement for a whole day? It sounded too good to be true. “A whole day?”

“A whole day”, Kurosaki confirmed. “Twenty-four hours. But only if Kazui is in good health when I come back.”

Without a warning, Kurosaki handed Kazui to Grimmjow, who held the kid in front of him like a ball. A disgusting, slimy ball, as if Nel had drooled all over it. When the toddler laid his head back to look at him, the Arrancar could see confusion mirroring his own.

He barely noticed Kurosaki walking back to the living room – straight towards the coat rack – leaving the two of them in the kitchen. It took Grimmjow an awful lot of long seconds and a tiny hand covered in sticky grape juice right into his face until he understood what was really going on. Then he beelined after the Shinigami.

“Kurosaki, what the-!”

“You want to chicken out, Grimmjow?”

“Of course not, but-”

“Great.”

Kurosaki bend down to kiss Kazui’s forehead, a gesture Grimmjow would have been jealous of every other day. Just not today. “See you later sunshine.”

“Dada?”, Kazui reached out for his father, but Kurosaki simply waved and opened the door.

“I’ll be back in a few hours. In case of emergency: call me.”

Call me. The Arrancar was sure that was an attack on his technological impotence.

“Wait, how do I use-”

“You’ll figure it out. It’s not as hard as you think.”

It was unmistakably an attack. A sneak attack!

“You shitty little-”

“No cursing in Kazui’s presence, Grimmjow. Bye. And be nice to each other.”

“Kurosaki!”

Too late. The door closed with a loud slam and Kurosaki was gone. Grimmjow stood there, Kazui in his hands, the disbelief-filled stare set on the smooth, light wood grain of the door.

He couldn’t be serious. How could the Shinigami think for a single second this wouldn’t end in a disaster? And still, he had left. Just like that. Leaving the child in his care. This had to be a damn joke!

“Little fucker…”, a deep growl left the Arrancar’s throat.

“Dada? Dada!”

Kazui started to flounder wildly and Grimmjow almost dropped him. He changed his grip so he could carry the child under his arm like a bag of rice to avert a dent after ten seconds. Kazui’s resistance grew more desperate.

“Dada! Dada!”

“Yes, your dad’s an ass but he’ll be back! So, calm down!”

“DADA!!!”

An extremely high-pitched scream almost made Grimmjow’s eardrums explode, leading to an uncontrollable twitching eye.

“Shut up!”

“DADA!!!”

“I said-”

“DAAADAAA!!!”

“Grrr!”

It took all of his self-restraint to not break Kazui’s neck, but throw him onto the couch instead. A pair of big children-eyes was locked onto the Arrancar who built up in front of him as menacing as if he was Death himself. The toddler seemed to fuse with the wine-red fabric while almost having a panic attack.

“Listen up kid! I dislike this as much as you do and I really don’t know who shit into your father’s brain so he’d come to the crappy conclusion you’d survive a day in my care unharmed – if you’d survive it at all! But it is as it is, so cut it out and behave or I’ll wring your fucking neck like a soaked towel, got it?!”

Silence. A blink. Another one. Then tears started to fill the kid’s eyes. A sniffle followed, the jaw started to shake and Kazui’s face distorted. At first, Grimmjow thought the kid would start to cry but it screamed again. Louder and a lot more piercing than before. Grimmjow covered his ears – a wasted effort since they were way too sensitive compared to the ears of humans.

What had Kurosaki said about how to calm the kid down? He tried to remember but it was no use. The shrieking made his ears tingle painfully and he failed to focus on anything else except suppressing the growing urge to gut the child. When he realised the little one wouldn’t stop, the Arrancar grabbed the first cushion he could get and threw it right into Kazui’s face. With the impact, the child became silent and fell onto his back.

“By Hueco Mundo, stop screaming already or I’m gonna go deaf because of you!”

Kazui rolled back from his back to his belly like a turtle and sat up. Only a few moments later the cushion flew back at him and hit Grimmjow’s thigh. He looked at the pillow, at the child and back at the pillow. Kazui pointed at it.

“Da.”

“What the-”

“Da!”

Grimmjow picked up the cushion and gave the toddler another unsteady look. The little Kurosaki was gesturing in his direction, anticipation in his eyes, confusing the Arrancar further. Shouldn’t that have hurt before? And why was the kid so excited?

“Da!”

Another invitation from the child. Slowly catching on, Grimmjow threw the pillow a second time, aiming for a tiny nose. Kazui giggled when he toppled and sat up again to throw the pillow back. A sky-blue eyebrow twitched up as the Arrancar realised this was some kind of game.

“You serious?”

“Es!”

“I take that as a yes.”

He bent down with a defeated sigh and grabbed the cushion.

“Fine by me. As long as you don’t scream again.”

“Es.”

It flew through the air followed by an amused squeal and was returned to Grimmjow immediately. It landed right at his feet and it annoyed him because he wasn’t going to bend down every ten seconds for some stupid kid’s game.

So, he got rid of his sword – which he carefully put into the umbrella stand – and his shoes and sat down where he was standing before. A grasp to the side and he held the pillow in his hand for barely a second as he and Kazui now started to throw it back and forth. Again. And again. And again!

Grimmjow wondered what was going on in the head of the smallest Kurosaki. Why did he like the ridiculous game? Was it the form of the cushion? Or the absurd amount of neon green fluff that didn’t match the wine-red couch at all? Maybe it was the way it cut through the air? Or more likely the difference between Kazui’s and his own tosses?

For a moment he was tempted to try to crawl into Nel’s head to comprehend Kazui’s thoughts – after all the female Arrancar was the biggest Peter Pan he knew despite her adult appearance – but decided this would be a bad idea and not worth the effort. In the end, he was dealing with a harmless toddler and not a life-threatening enemy he had to analyse in order to survive.

And so, he tossed the pillow back at the child. Time and time again. On one hand, he was glad Kazui let himself get distracted from screaming by a simple game. On the other hand, exactly this made him wary. It couldn’t be as easy as that, could it? If it was, humans wouldn’t make such a big fuss about the childcare topic. At least he had the impression it always got complicated as soon as a child was involved.

His assumption seemed to be validated when Kazui suddenly lost interest after about half an hour. The little one climbed from the couch, looking clumsy as hell, and waddled into the kitchen where he smacked the fridge three times with all his toddler might.

Grimmjow got onto his feet with a lot more grace and followed the kid to open the fridge. In contrast to before, when Kurosaki was still here, he now looked curious at each of the shelves. He didn’t know what he was expecting and yet he was surprised by the fact that he only saw fruits, vegetables, a big cup of yoghurt and some milk. Was the Shinigami a vegetarian?

He could have sworn Kurosaki had been there when Tessai had served sushi at one of the drinking nights at the Shōten. However, he had possibly avoided the fish in favour of the vegetable-filled maki. It really had been a massive sushi plate in terms of size and Grimmjow wanted to slap himself for his lack of attention back then. Not having an answer to his question was bugging him a lot for a variety of reasons. Mostly because it was a painful reminder of how little he knew about his secret crush.

“Da! Da!”

Kazui reached out for the Arrancar and by doing so pulled him out of his thoughts. He needed a second to process, then he picked the kid up to spare his ears another infernal screaming attack. He tried to hold Kazui the way he saw Kurosaki do it which took a few moments but was quite comfortable. Plus, the kid didn’t seem to bother him fiddling with the right way to carry him. It was too fixated on the contents of the fridge searching for something.

“Da!”

The moment the word left the child’s lips its hand darted forward, pointing at a green and red fruit in the shape of a kidney that was unknown to Grimmjow. He grabbed it and closed the fridge with a heartfelt kick. It didn’t take him long to plant Kazui onto the bench and find the tools to cut the fruit into pieces. It surprised him that the flesh had the exact same orange colour as the hair of the two Kurosakis and he got furious when it seemed as if the core of the fruit was immune to the knife despite his superhuman Hollow strength.

Kazui munched on the bright dice with high speed while Grimmjow took the brownish core between his teeth – he needed to know if he could break it or not. The core could stand a chance if it happened to be harder than a bone. Turned out it wasn’t. One strong bite and it split into about twenty pieces, leaving a bitter flavour in Grimmjow’s mouth.

“Tastes like shit…”

“Da”, agreed the toddler.

The Arrancar still chewed and swallowed the stuff. Afterwards, he leaned forward, eyes fixed on Kazui, who put three additional pieces of questionable fruit into his mouth.

“Do you know any other words besides Da, Es and Dada?”

“No no”, this sounded like Orihime’s doing.

“You misused the meaning, but ok. Anything else?”

“Mama.”

“As expected. Go on.”

“Da.”

“I said go on.”

“Da.”

“You kidding? Five lousy words?”

“Es”, the kid grinned.

“That’s nothing to be proud of.”

Kazui threw a piece of orange fruit at him. It slipped over his forehead all the way down to an eyebrow before it dropped onto the table, leaving a sticky trace on Grimmjow’s face. A snarl was the answer and blue eyes were locked with brown ones, but this time the kid’s countenance was a grim mask like the Arrancar’s. For some long-lasting moments, they stared at each other and as if there had been a mute agreement, an unspoken plan for revenge, Grimmjow made a decision.

“Ok, I’ll teach you a new word.”

“Es!”

“As payback for your old man, 'cause he left us alone.”

“Es!”

“Use it when you want to piss him off.”

“Es!”

“Or when your mom and the murder-lesbian annoy you.”

“Es!”

“It’s gonna be your first curse, so listen up.”

“Es!”

“Fuck.”

Silence. For a whole minute, neither of them said a word. Grimmjow wasn’t sure, if the little one had understood him, so he repeated himself.

“Fuck.”

“Da.”

“No. Fuck.”

“Da.”

“Fuck.”

“Dat.”

“Ffffffffuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkk”, the Arrancar emphasized every single letter of the word.

“Duck?”

“Come on, say it with me. Fuck.”

“Duck!”

“With F.”

“Duck.”

He rubbed his temple. It wasn’t such a complicated word. So how could the kid struggle like this?

“Duck is an animal, not a curse! Say fuck.”

“Duck!”

“You stupid or something? Fuck. F. U. C. K. Fuck.”

“Duck.”

Grimmjow’s head hit the table hard. So hard, any other person would have been hurt. Not the Arrancar. He barely felt it.

“Can you do anything at all?”

“Duck.”

Kazui leaned over to Grimmjow, placing his hands on the Hollow mask and his bare cheek. In an instant, the Arrancar sat up straight and started to rub the slimy drool out of his face. He hadn’t considered he would have the stuff on his hands by doing so.

“Buah! Disgusting!”

He grabbed Kazui without an explanation and carried him under his arm towards the bathroom - it wouldn’t be of any use if he only cleaned his own hands.

At first, the kid was squeaking in joy, then in agony and then a completely different sound left its mouth. A sound Grimmjow hadn’t expected, but was a herald to what had to come next: he felt something wet and warm running down the outside of the right pant leg of his jumpsuit, over his sock and eventually onto the floor. He stopped and simply stood there for a long moment, not daring to look down. Instead, he took some deep breaths to at least try to stay calm.

“You didn’t just puke on me, did you?”

“Da.”

“Fuck!”

“Duck!”

Suddenly in a great hurry and in order not to scatter the vomit any further, Grimmjow used Sonido to get to the bathroom. Without thinking twice he stepped into the shower, with the kid, clothes still on, and turned it on. Kazui screamed like a harpy as cold water hit him, and the Arrancar shifted the tap to warm water – just for the sake of his ears.

There he stood. Grimmjow Jaegerjaques. The former sexta Espada. Downgraded from a deadly sparring partner to a soaked babysitter. If he wasn’t absolutely sure Kurosaki would terminate their friendship – or whatever one wanted to call the questionable relationship status they had – he would take off after the shower and leave the child to himself. Since he didn’t want it to end like that, he had no other choice but to stay and endure whatever this day would throw at him. No, he wouldn’t simply endure it, he would find a way to turn the shitty situation around and use it to his own advantage. One question remained though: How?

Since Kazui started to give him unmistakable signs that he wanted to get out of the shower by kicking and hitting the Arrancar while fidgeting around, Grimmjow gave in and turned the water off. He still felt filthy, not to speak of the nauseation lingering in his body. At least most of the vomit had washed down the sewer and the kid seemed to be a lot cleaner too. Both of them were dripping wet and Grimmjow had a bad feeling about what would come next.

His gut shouldn’t betray him. After he had stripped and dried himself – including his hair, which had received some special treatment – wrapped a towel around his hips and hung his clothes to dry as well, it was the kid’s turn. And it was pure torture to get Kazui out of his soaked clothes. The kid was more than uncooperative and put up quite a fight no matter what part of the child’s outfit he was trying to get off. It almost seemed as if Kazui wanted to stay a little leaky water balloon. Letting him run around like that wasn’t an option, because Grimmjow would have to wipe the floor behind the kid and that was something his pride wouldn’t allow – he wasn’t a cleaning lady and getting rid of the puke on the floor later would already be a hard enough hit for his ego. Besides, he wanted to prove to Kurosaki that he was able to take care of his son, without the child catching a cold, even if he wanted to knock said son unconscious. With an iron grip, a little skill and lots of screaming from both parties, Grimmjow succeeded in his quest in the end and after five minutes of wrestling on the changing table, there was nothing but a diaper left on Kazui.

Diaper. Nasty wet diaper. He had to change this thing and he cursed himself for not paying more attention to Kurosaki’s explanation earlier. After scolding himself in silence he eventually got back to his mission.

Opening the diaper was the easiest part, though he ignored the disgusting sound of parting nappy and skin on purpose. Searching for a replacement for the imbued monstrosity, he spotted a bucket on one side of the changing table. Lifting the cab, he detected a mountain of used diapers in it which emitted an extremely unpleasant smell, that almost made his toenails roll up. His nose commanded him to close it again immediately and he did so in the blink of an eye. At least the Arrancar now knew where to dispose the stuff.

Grimmjow found what he was looking for on the other side of the changing table: a pack of fresh diapers. He grabbed one, straightened up and got hit in the face by a wet, warm jet.

A blue eye twitched, desperately trying to stay calm, while an unreasonable cute toddler face smiled at him. As if he had handed the Arrancar a wonderful present rather than piddling across both of Grimmjow’s cheeks and the nose, almost striking his mouth too.

“The fuck is wrong with you?!”, the literally pissed question was accompanied by a deep growl.

“Duck!”

“Don’t duck me, kid!”

As a response another glorious ray of pee launched into the air, followed by a giggle. Quick-witted Grimmjow crouched down to escape the liquid. There was only one thing he miscalculated: the missing pressure of an already half-emptied toddler bladder. Because of that, Kazui’s fluid missile didn’t hit the floor behind the Arrancar, but his hair.

His hair. His fucking hair! The sky-blue velvety mane he was secretly so proud of, soaked with piss. It was absolutely humiliating. Grimmjow was on the verge of shredding Kazui to pieces and tearing down the building right afterwards to disguise his outburst. Yet he didn’t. He didn’t so Kurosaki wouldn’t hate him.

In his despair he used the breathing technique he had read about in Jinta’s self-help book with the title How to allure the woman of your dreams, that was lying in Urahara’s bathroom occasionally – in which he had browsed for the sole purpose of making fun of the redhaired teenager and his ridiculous attempts to win Kurosaki’s sister over. Of course, he hadn’t felt addressed by the chapter How to get the single mother. And of course, he hadn’t devoured the aforementioned chapter in the hopes of finding some sort of advice to probably get closer to a certain orange-haired father, because he had no clue about the way humans actually flirted, despite the fact that Harribel had already advised him years ago to do some research on the matter. Ultimately the book hadn’t been helpful at all, since it was only dealing with the importance of the child and by doing so had proven itself useless.

Getting the kid to like you in order to get the mother – or in his case, the father – had to be absolute human bullshit. Grimmjow on the other hand was an Arrancar. A Hollow. More carnivore than anything else. Actually, he should kill Kazui like a lion would do with the cubs of his predecessor when he took over the pride. It’s what his instincts were telling him. He omitted it though because damn, Kurosaki seemed to really love his son and even Grimmjow understood he would have to adapt to it and at least tolerate the child if he wanted to win this game. To his luck adapting to something usually was kind of his speciality.

A last deep breath and he dared to glance onto the changing table. The little Kurosaki was still lying there, staring holes into the air and waiting for someone to dress him.

Dependent brat… Grimmjow thought. At least the little one hadn’t moved from his spot. As soon as the Arrancar came back into Kazui’s field of vision, the child began to smile, as if the sun was rising. Like before when Kurosaki had smiled at him, Grimmjow was struggling to stay mad. He knew why the father pulled this reaction out of him but it was cryptical to him how the kid could do it as well. And it somehow bothered him. Was he growing weak?

For the moment Grimmjow didn’t waste any more thoughts on his inner chaos. Right now, he had a mission and on top of that he had to concentrate to keep his grumpy face.

“Just to be clear: if you pee on me again, I’m gonna break these shitty tiny legs of yours.”

“Es!”

Kazui seemed way too happy about the threat. Either the child wasn’t taking him seriously or the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. At least he had the impression Kurosaki was having fun whenever they fought each other.

“Then that’s settled.”

Grimmjow dropped the soaking wet diaper onto the bucket, not bothering to put it into it. Then he grabbed Kazui’s legs a little rougher than needed to lift him up and slide a new one under his tushy.

“No no.”

“What?”

“Da!”

The child pointed at the baby powder. Eyes rolling Grimmjow took it, aimed for Kazui’s butt and almost broke the bottle when he pressed it, resulting not only in a thick layer of powder on the kid but also in a white cloud filling the air for a few moments making the Arrancar cough. Then he attempted to close the diaper earning even more protest from Kazui.

“What now?!”

“Da!”, a finger pointed at the diaper.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“No no. Da da.”

“Use real words!”

“Da. Da!”

“What the hell do you wa- oh…”

He recognised there was a cat from behind on the diaper’s side Kazui was wearing frontwards and at least that he remembered: You can see what’s the front and the back of the diaper when you look at the animals. So, he opened it again, turned it around and then closed it a second time – now without protest. Afterwards, he fished for some clean clothes which Kazui let him put onto him no questions asked. As if the kid could actually ask questions…

Having completed his mission, Grimmjow let Kazui down to the floor and the little boy immediately ran away giggling, leaving the Arrancar behind. He used his chance for a second round of showering – the piss wouldn’t wash out all on its own! – and took a hand full of Kurosaki’s shampoo. He still was mad at the kid, yet the subtle berry scent, that started to fill the air, helped him to calm down slowly but surely. After all, it unmistakeably belonged to a certain Shinigami.

Grimmjow took a closer look at the shampoo bottle. Berrywonder. Didn’t sound like something a lot of men would choose, but he liked the fact that Kurosaki didn’t give a crap and used whatever shampoo he liked. It was somehow impressive. And he had to admit, he liked the berry note too. In fact, he really really liked it. A thievish grin decorated his face when he thought about taking this scent home like a goddamn trophy and by doing so keeping a piece of Kurosaki with him for a little while longer.

Considering this, the whole babysitter thing probably wasn’t so bad at all and a part of him hoped it wasn’t a one-time thing. The Arrancar wanted another chance to take a look at Kurosaki’s human life. Get to know the orange-haired better without asking a bunch of random and eventually weird questions and to win him over in the end. He didn’t know how exactly he would pull it off, but something would come to his mind, he was sure. Until then he just had to keep the kid alive. It was as simple as that, right?

The berry scent filled the air quite intensely by now and Grimmjow almost lost his sanity to it. Oh yeah, he liked to envision being here on a regular basis. And with here he meant Kurosaki’s apartment not specifically his shower. Though he wouldn’t say no to some shared body hygiene. Not at all. On the contrary, he would love that after some action varying a lot from what they usually did.

Before he knew it his thoughts wandered off to the sweet fantasies in which he and Kurosaki fought with a different pair of swords. Swords they would run through each other’s flesh without cutting. He imagined how it would make his blood boil, what a prickling excitement would run through his body, eventually making him shudder with joy. How would it sound when Kurosaki moaned Grimmjow’s name? What were his preferences? Would he favour to top or to bottom or was he a switch like Grimmjow himself? Where would he-

“Da!”

The Arrancar jumped in shock and almost slipped on the wet tiles, biting back a yelp. He had been too lost in his wish thinking again – to his shame he had to admit that this happened more often lately. He shot Kazui a furious glare and was about to scold the child. Then he saw what the little one was holding with his tiny fingers and he tried to speak as calmly as possible.

“Put the sword down.”

“No no.”

“Put. The sword. Down!”

“No.”

“I said-”

Kazui stampeded away. Giggling. With Pantera in his hands. A drawn Pantera. A ridiculously sharp Pantera. A Pantera, that would kill the kid in case it tripped and fell and by doing so cut its throat on the blade. Grimmjow saw the scene play out in his head. Kazui on the floor, stertorous and spitting blood in a wasted attempt to breathe, a growing pool of red fluid underneath him. He would move in vain for another minute or two until he would lose consciousness and die soon afterwards. The Arrancar had to do something to prevent that from happening, no matter the cost.

He didn’t take the time to turn off the water or to dry himself. He didn’t even think about how wet the whole apartment would be if he ran after the child right away, butt naked as he was. He had wasted too much time already and jumped out of the shower, hurrying to the living room where he suspected the kid. Kazui wasn’t there, but his innocent laugh rang out of the bedroom and Grimmjow immediately beelined for it just to almost get hit bis his own sword which Kazui was playfully swinging around. He dodged on instinct.

“You lost your mind?!”

“Es!”

The kid missed Grimmjow’s thigh by a hair’s width since he stepped aside in time – though it wasn’t really necessary because of his Hierro.

“Stop it or you’ll hurt yourself!”

“No no.”

A header from the Arrancar lead to another stroke to the air and he rolled onto the floor beside the little Kurosaki from where he could grab Pantera’s hilt.

“Be a good boy and let go.”

“No no.”

“Let go!”

“No!”

“Fucking shit, take your hands off!”

“Duck!”

“Duck yourself!”

Grimmjow ripped the sword out of Kazui’s hands, hoping a second later that he hadn’t hurt the kid. Yet the screaming stayed away in favour of him sharply sucking in the air, as the kid started to climb over him to get Pantera back and by doing so stepped right into the Hollow hole in Grimmjow’s stomach. The one spot without Hierro!

This was everything but what the Arrancar had pictured when he had thought about what would happen as soon as he entered Kurosaki’s bedroom for the first time. He had expected they would savage each other like starved animals. That they would scratch and bite as Hollows should – or at least half Hollows or whatever Kurosaki actually was. Damn, he had expected to be wrecked so hard that he couldn’t move the next day. Unless this wasn’t what the Shinigami wanted, in that case, Grimmjow would adapt to whatever fantasies the other had. At least at first. Anyway, he had expected sex in one way or another. And most notably he had expected Kurosaki to be present!

But instead, he was here with a midget who couldn’t speak ten words not to mention he didn’t have a clue about how deep he was invading Grimmjow’s privacy by putting his shitty little foot into the Hollow hole and driving his quiet harsh toenails right into the sensitive flesh.

It hurt. In more than one way. And he grew angry. For more than one reason. He gritted his teeth to neither demolish Kurosaki’s apartment nor shred Kazui into pieces and he took a few deep breaths before he shoved the child aside with only as much force as necessary. It led to some giggling and more climbing attempts this time focused on Grimmjow’s arm. At least the kid seemed as if it had forgotten about the sword and the Arrancar let it be until Kazui lost interest all by himself and ran back to the living room. So far so good.

Grimmjow thought about following him until he remembered being naked. So, he did what everyone in his situation would have done: he threw Pantera onto the bed and opened Kurosaki’s way too huge wardrobe to take whatever he needed.

During his search for something that would fit him, he encountered an unholy number of skinny jeans – did Kurosaki even own other pants? – and almost as many T-shirts and sweatshirts with strange pictures or funny meant slogans on them, which seemed like the clothing of a teenager. In the Shinigami’s defence, there were lots of other clothes too. Clothes, that were a lot more suiting for a twenty-five-year young doctor. They were modern. Serious. Not only by their colours, being pastel, white or dark tones but also by their cut. Kurosaki had a big clothes rail full of carefully ironed shirts, trousers, vests, and more than one fancy jacket or however all the stuff was named.

Grimmjow didn’t know shit about human fashion and didn’t care for trends – in his opinion, nothing could outdo a jumpsuit and some sturdy belts one could use as a weapon in case of emergency – yet he was fascinated by what he found in Kurosaki’s wardrobe.

Before he could take a closer look at the broad variety of accessories, he spotted some sweatpants at the bottom of the cabinet. The first one he grabbed, seemed to be fitting his size and he put it on. Now he only needed a suiting top so the kid wouldn’t repeat its stupid idea concerning his Hollow hole. But one thing after another. At first, he gave in to his curiosity and continued his fact-finding mission.

Why would Kurosaki need so many bracelets, necklaces, rings and scarves? And why did the man own five pairs of sunglasses, four of them with at least one cracked glass? Was this some sort of acquisitiveness? Probably. Everyone had some weird ticks and Grimmjow decided to file it away for later. Maybe this knowledge would be of some use one day.

However, he didn’t find the thing he had actually hoped to discover, aside from a very much-needed top. Sex toys. They would have given him a decisive hint about being in Kurosaki’s prey pattern or not because from all the things he didn’t know about the Shinigami, this was probably the most annoying one. He simply wanted to know if he had a chance at all or if he would be ruled out right away because he had something swinging between his legs. Was a tiny bit of clarity too much to ask?

“Es!”

The child disturbed Grimmjow’s thoughts again and as he turned his head, he saw Pantera flying at him again, giving him barely enough time to roll to the side. He couldn’t believe his mind had once more wandered off so far, that he didn’t even notice the kid coming back into the room and stealing the sword from the bed.

“Damn brat, that’s not a toy!”

“Da!”, Kazui flew the room. Grimmjow got to his feet and followed him, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants.

“No, it’s not!”

“D-A!”

“No!”

At this moment, he realized the catastrophe was approaching. The exact catastrophe he originally wanted to prevent from happening. Kazui ran towards the puddle of puke, slipped and fell, lost his grip on the sword and sent it flying. The way the blade was about to take back down was crystal-clear and more than lethal for the kid.

Since he was only two long steps behind, Grimmjow jumped forward, down on all four and by doing so slid through the puke with his right pant leg and foot, all to shield the little one with his own body. A few split seconds later Panteras sharp side hit his back. Thanks to his Hierro the cold steel didn’t leave a scratch. Then the blade hit the floor. Kazui was staring at the Arrancar in disbelief.

“You lost it, kid?!”

“Duck.”

“Yeah, fuck! You can say that out loud!”

Kazui twitched because of Grimmjow’s angry tone, much to the Arrancar’s contempt who changed his quadruped position to a relaxed sitting one.

“You almost killed yourself just now! Damn, do you even know how sad your dad would have been?”

Wait, what was he saying? The problem would have been, that Kurosaki would have been mad at him. So why was he saying something so- considerate?

The kid grimaced and sniffled.

“Oh no, don’t you dare to cry! It’s your own fault and-”

Grimmjow interrupted himself as Kazui sat up too and hugged him. The small unexpectedly soft face was pressed against his chest and the short arms tried to reach around the Arrancar’s neck, but only made it to his shoulders.

He was utterly confused, not solely because of the gesture of the smallest Kurosaki, but because it woke something inside him. Something he didn’t even know he had until now and for that he couldn’t label it. He was following an impulse, as he put a hand on Kazui’s head and started to rub gently through the orange hair.

“Hey, everything’s fine, ok?”

“Es…”

“Good. Let’s clean you up and then we’ll get rid of the- well… death trap over there.”

“Es.”

Holding the little one on his arm Grimmjow used Sonido to get back into the bathroom like before, where the shower was still on. This time he stripped both of them first – hell he wasn’t going to fight the kid over its wet clothes a second time! – then he took the third shower today.

After giving his hair another washing program for the sole purpose of hair-drying it properly afterwards, the Arrancar kneeled down, shampoo and showerhead in his hands, to soap the kid’s hair too. After all, Kazui hat met the puke with his butt, his back and also his head. In other words, there was orange, smelly shit in otherwise pretty hair of the same shade as Kurosaki’s.

As he started to wash the strands thoroughly Kazui stretched out for the broken mask on Grimmjow’s right cheek. While the child had done that earlier it was different now. He inspected the mask with immense interest, tracing its overall outline and the contour of every single tooth with a finger. Almost as if the kid wasn’t terrified at all. If the Arrancar thought about it, he hadn’t really given Kazui a reason to fear him – except for yelling at him which didn’t seem to impress the kid anymore – and so he watched the little Kurosaki with almost as much curiosity as the smaller one was paying to his mask. Grimmjow opened his mouth wide, to demonstrate that the jaws of his mask were opening as well. At first, Kazui withdrew his hand, but then his eyes brightened and he touched the tip of the first fang as carefully as he could.

Bright brown eyes. Just like Kurosaki’s whenever he and Grimmjow crossed blades. He sighed deeply and wished the Shinigami would be here and not running around in the clinic saving the lives of strangers. Barely a quarter of an hour was nowhere near enough to satisfy his craving for the other’s attention. Something their nor-so-regular weekly sparing sessions had been failing at as well lately.

“Da?”

Kazui tilted his head, the soap bubbles of the shampoo looking like he had a crown, and mustered Grimmjow with a questioning look.

“What?”

“Dada?”

“I’m not your old man, stupid.”

The little one shook his head and tipped Grimmjow’s nose.

“Da.”

Then he spread his tiny arms as far as he could, almost as if he wanted to hug him again.

“Dada!”

At this moment the Arrancar understood – the kid’s gut feeling was quite good as it seemed. His gaze shifted to the side though.

“Yes, I like your dad, like- I like him a lot. But I don’t know if he likes me the same way.”

Kazui’s eyes were getting even brighter and with all the confidence a little kid like him could muster he spoke one of the five words he knew. “Es!”

The attempted validation made Grimmjow laugh. A bittersweet laugh, almost tearing him apart on the inside.

“Tsk. As if you would know anything about that stuff.”

“Da?”

“Forget it. Let’s dry your little ass. You’ve had enough water for today.”

And with that Grimmjow washed the shampoo off Kazui’s head and did what he had announced right afterwards. The second time it was a lot easier to put a new diaper onto the child and like before the little one was very cooperative in terms of getting dressed. For now, Grimmjow went with towel style once more – he would have to take another look at Kurosaki’s wardrobe to get puke- and waterless clothes. After taking some care of orange and blue hair, they were good to go back to the living room.

It was about time to get rid of the killer puddle of sugary tummy excretion. The Arrancar crouched down beside it and there was no way in hell he would actually touch this shit, be it with some cloth or with his bare hand. So, he did the only right thing: he started to load a Cero, but didn’t shoot it. Instead, he held it closer towards the orange remains of Kazui’s last meal until they started to evaporate or turn to ash.

Kazui observed from the couch. At least Grimmjow had planted him there, assuming the kid would stay put. Of course, he didn’t and the Arrancar accidentally shot his Cero right through the balcony door and the balcony railing, leaving an unmistakable black burn on the floor as well, as Kazui stepped into his Hollow hole once more to abuse it as a ladder while trying to climb onto Grimmjow’s shoulders.

“Au! You shitty little-”

“Duck!”

“Oh, fuck yourself!”

The Arrancar grabbed the kid and threw it back onto the couch, hearing another giggle from the little Kurosaki as a reaction. He wanted to go back to business and started to load the next Cero, as-

“Hng! You’re fucking serious?!”

“Es!”

-the same as before happened. Kazui tried to climb up Grimmjow’s back, taking a step into the Hollow hole just to be thrown back onto the couch laughing. At least the Arrancar had managed to cancel his Cero without ripping another hole into a wall or whatever would have been in its way.

“Now stay put or I’ll make sure you’ll regret it!”

“No no.”

Rolling with his eyes in his mind he started a third attempt with the Cero. He was allowed to braise the vomit away this time but had Pantera flying around his ears in return. A hit on his upper arm was the result, still not leaving a scratch, but making him angry, to the point he started cursing. Grimmjow held on to the blade of the sword preventing the kid from swinging it another time.

“How often do I have to tell you? That’s not a toy!”

“Da.”

“No!”

“Da!”

Kazui pulled with all his might, which was nothing compared to the Arrancar’s iron hold. The stubbornness of the child made him angrier.

“I said: No!”

“Da!”

“No!”

“DA!”

“Grrr! Kishire, Pantera!”

The sword started to glow and Kazui got blown away by a little shockwave almost immediately, hitting the cushions of the couch, as the Arrancar switched into his Resurrección. As usual, Grimmjow felt how his ears and teeth changed their shape, how the mask wandered atop his forehead and how his spine’s and hair’s length increased as he grew a tail together with the flexible, white armour, which Kurosaki had failed to fully crack open until this day.

It annoyed Grimmjow he had to go this far because the child wouldn’t listen to him, but at least his clothing problem was solved. His narrowed eyes fixated Kazui, a growl lying in his throat, waiting to be released.

The little one stared at him. Eyes wide open, jaw almost dropped allowing a thread of drool to run out of it. The whole expression was blank like a piece of paper.

“Tsk, what? Never seen a real Arrancar?”

The taunt gave way to indisposition as Kazui snapped out of his shock, his entire face brightening – no, almost sparkling like the morning sun. Grimmjow could practically see little stars and glitter coming from the child’s face and he was near to actually freaking out because of it.

“Tiddi!”

“Ha?!”

Kazui jumped from the Couch, almost falling to the floor face first, but then he ran towards Grimmjow.

“Tiddi!”

“Wait! What’s that suppose-”

“Tiddi!”

“Stop it!”

The Arrancar stood up straight himself and receded from the child’s reach. Not that this would stop Kazui from trying to get closer.

“Tiddi, Tiddi!”

“I don’t have tits! Your mom has some!”

“Tiddi!”

Tiny hands got a hold of Grimmjow’s leg, not willing to let go and missing the more than razor-sharp appendix there by merely an inch. The kid’s cheek was pressed against the Arrancar’s thigh.

“Let go you little abomination!”

“Tiddi.“

“Let go!”

“Da!”

Kazui pointed at Grimmjow’s ears.

“Oh no! Not over my dead body!”

“Da!”

“No!”

“Da!”

“You’re not going to touch my fucking ears!”

“Da?”

“No.”

Kazui’s face crumbled into a grimace and tears started to form in the wide-opened eyes, which were too familiar despite their cuter form. Eyes, that looked pleading and sad at the same time and that tempted Grimmjow to give in. But he wasn’t going to do so just yet.

“These are sensitive, brat. Besides-”

A sniffle followed by some whining sealed the deal and made the Arrancar curse himself as he got down to his knees.

“Ok fine, but only this once.”

A little hand darted forward, leading to a dodge from Grimmjow.

“And only if you’re careful!”

“Es.”

The hand came closer and touched the lagoon-blue fur tenderly followed by a slow, curious stroke like earlier under the shower where Kazui had inspected Grimmjow’s mask.

“Da”, a small index finger pointed at the Arrancar’s mouth.

Grimmjow opened it so Kazui could see the long pointy fangs. Happy with this reaction, the kid continued with the inspection of the crownlike broken mask and after that, his hair was next in line. Long fluffy sky-blue hair. Kazui seemed to like it and wouldn’t stop stroking it, as if the Arrancar was a domestic cat. If he was entirely honest it wasn’t so bad at all. On the contrary, he actually liked it and so he curled up like one of said domestic cats would do and let the now even happier kid continue with the treatment while his thoughts started to spin some more.

Supposing Jinta’s self-aid book could be right and he needed to be in Kazui’s favour to get a shot at Kurosaki. And assuming he could by some miracle make the kid his partner in crime. He still didn’t know if the Shinigami was interested in other guys – specifically him. That he would do certain things with women was obvious, because how else would he have made the child? His friends were equally male and female, so that couldn’t be representing anything either. But there was the strange mod-soul with whom Kurosaki went through a bunch of crazy adventures, some of them definitely not safe for work. Maybe this was a clue. Then again, the Shinigami was so uptight, Grimmjow somehow couldn’t imagine him having any sexual interest at all. Or interest in anything or anyone. Kurosaki not wanting to share a bath with anybody underlined the thought.

In the meantime, the child had started to follow Grimmjow’s tail with his eyes. It seemed to be quite fascinating how the thing moved in almost every possible direction. The Arrancar didn’t care though. He was still thinking, head resting on crossed arms.

There had to be some bulletproof method to find out if Kurosaki was interested in other guys. It couldn’t be so hard, right? Maybe he should try to run around naked in front of him and study his reaction. On the other hand, that would probably be too much for the orange-haired man. Would it? Or could a feisty confrontation like this be exactly what Kurosaki needed? And speaking of confrontation, maybe he should start to see the whole thing as a fight against Kurosaki, not as a fight for him. Of course. If he made the first attack, it would be Kurosaki’s turn to launch the next one. Or he would try to run off, which would make things clear as well. But- wasn’t that too easy? Maybe it sounded simpler than it was. And most likely this wasn’t how humans flirted at all.

“Da.”

Blue eyes focused back onto the child which pointed at the kitchen.

“Hungry again?”

“Es.”

Grimmjow sighed and got up. He stretched a few moments, leading to some cracking bones, and then he walked towards the kitchen. It made perfect sense that Kazui wanted to eat something. Not only because of the time of the day – it was already past six – but because he had puked out a lot more than he had eaten before. The task was still annoying because Grimmjow didn’t want to prepare some food. He still ended up staring into the fridge, successfully remembering what the Shinigami had told him about the child’s dinner earlier.

The little Kurosaki was watching him from the table, as he cut down some more fruits and mixed them with yoghurt and a bit of jam. A few minutes later the simple meal had been placed in front of Kazui and Grimmjow sat down at the other side of the tiny table. He watched Kazui the same way he did a few hours ago, as the kid went full amoeba trying to put a fruit- and yoghurt-filled spoon into its mouth. The piece of banana found the target. Half of the rest didn’t and met with the T-shirt. The Arrancar observed him in a mixture of silent disbelief and some amusement. 

“Duck.”

“Fuck. It’s fuck.”

“D-uck.”

“With F. Fuck.”

“Duck.”

Another slice of fruit – this time an apple – made its way into the child’s mouth together with a bit more yoghurt. Some of it got spilt though. Afterwards, Kazui started the next attempt. Grimmjow tried not to think about how dirty everything would be by the time the kid finished his dinner. It took the little Kurosaki an awfully long half an hour to eat his food, and by doing so he drove a certain someone’s patience to its limits. During the torture process, Kazui practised his new word every now and then still failing at the correct pronunciation and at one point the Arrancar had started to rhythmically tap his claws at the table only to immediately stop as he realised it distracted the kid.

Right after Kazui finally took his last bite, Grimmjow grabbed him like a disgusting ball once more – in contrast to the beginning of the odyssey it was legit since the kid was covered in yoghurt from head to toe – and went for the bathroom for the hopefully last time this day. He was very careful not to hurt the little Kurosaki with his claws, which he couldn’t draw in unlike the ones of cats they resembled.

He checked his own clothes first – they had still a long way to go until they were dry enough to be worn again – then he changed Kazui’s T-shirt and pants to the kid’s pyjamas, still extremely wary not to leave any marks with his claws. Neither on the child nor on its clothes. Arms and legs were stretched to wherever they needed to be to make fast progress. Since the kid was so cooperative once more, Grimmjow was pretty sure he in fact enjoyed getting dressed. Soon after Grimmjow put Kazui into bed.

“And now sleep”, he ordered, leading to a tilt of the child’s head.

“Da?”

The door closed already and separated the two from each other. While the Arrancar wasn’t sure if he should clean up a bit, he knew he had to think of something concerning the holes the Cero ripped into Kurosaki’s balcony. The door behind him opened before he could take even one step towards the living room.

“Da!”

“Didn’t you hear me? You should sleep.”

“No no.”

And Kazui ran back to the kitchen. This was the moment when Grimmjow remembered the thing with the baby bottle Kurosaki was mumbling about. He followed the kid and opened the fridge, highly doubting Kurosaki meant a bottle filled with beer or sake or something. Maybe juice or probably-

“Da!”

Kazui pointed at the work surface where the Arrancar spotted a package labelled as baby formula. He took it and read the instructions printed onto it: Some hot water and a few spoons of powder and then shake it. That’s it. Nothing more. Every idiot could do it. He raised one eyebrow in scepticism but didn’t question it any further. If it would put the kid to sleep he would do as the colourful package with a smiling cow under a smiling sun and some smiling clouds said and prepare a baby bottle filled with milk.

Not trusting his technological skills, Grimmjow didn’t dare to touch the stove or the electric kettle and rather chose to use the water tab to get some hot water. The wait for the boiling fluid consumed more time than actually preparing the baby bottle and bringing it back to bed together with the kid.

“And now it’s time to sleep. Night.”

He closed the door once more and returned to the living room. The almost countless kid toys turned the floor into a parkour and Grimmjow wanted to prevent Kurosaki would break his neck when he returned home and possibly slipped on one of the toys in the darkness. And yes, it was something he wouldn’t put past the Shinigami when he was tired. Once, after one of their weekly fights, he almost fell from the ladder leading out of Urahara’s underground training room. Cave. Whatever! Anyway, Kurosaki twisted his ankle in spirit form back then and currently the guy was running around in his way more delicate human body in a pretty exhausted condition – even if it wasn’t as bad as it had been right after Kazui’s birth. At least the dark circles around the Shinigami’s eyes, while still visible, weren’t as deep anymore.

And so Grimmjow started to collect the toys and carelessly throw them into the box standing nearby. He still tried to figure out what he should do about the damn holes in the door and the railing. Moving the one pot plant Kurosaki had or even the couch to hide them would be too eye-catching, wouldn’t it?

“Da!”

Grimmjow turned around and an empty baby bottle was thrown right at his forehead.

“Damn you, why are you up again? You should sleep!”

“Da!”

He rolled his eyes and picked up the bottle. Maybe Kazui wanted more milk? Kurosaki hadn’t said a thing about how much the child gets so he could only speculate.

“You get another one and that’s it.”

“Es!”

Said and done. The Arrancar filled another bottle with hot water, put some powder into it and grabbed the kid to bring him back to bed while shaking the bottle thoroughly.

“Good night.”

“Da.”

The door was closed for the third time. Grimmjow still had no clue what to do about the hole and so he decided to pack away the rest of the toys first and afterwards clean up the yoghurt-fruit mess in the kitchen. Using Cero again of course. He was quite fast in doing so and didn’t leave any traces – it was so easy when he didn’t get disturbed by a kid. The Arrancar had finished everything when he heard a door open.

“You fucking kidding me, brat?”

“Duck!”

“What’s your problem?”

“Da!”

Kazui pointed towards the bedroom.

“You just came out of there.”

The index finger wandered to him and then back to the bedroom as Kazui spoke.

“Tiddi, da.”

“I won’t lay down beside you.”

“Tiddi. Da!”

“I said no.”

“TIDDI!”, the shriek hit Grimmjow’s ear as if he had been slapped with a frying pan, tearing a painful growl out of his throat.

“FINE!!!”

He turned the lights off and went back to the bedroom with the little one, closing the door behind him, and slipping onto the mattress. Kazui started to huddle against him right on the spot, confusing the Arrancar more than a bit. He wasn’t quite sure what to think of it. It was absurd and a bit bizarre thinking a cute little kid would voluntarily come near a killer machine like Grimmjow. But Kazui seemed happy and somehow… Yes, somehow it made Grimmjow happy too.

By now he was absolutely sure something wasn’t right with him. He shouldn’t feel like this in the presence of the child. If at all he should only feel like this with Kurosaki around him. Kazui’s expectant eyes reminded him about the kid’s father – as they already did the whole day – making him melt a tiny bit on the inside. And just this once he allowed himself to be crushed by the feeling of security breaking its way to the surface, especially when Kazui started to stroke his hair again. As a response, Grimmjow curled down around the kid like a blanket.

Kurosaki’s words came back into his consciousness: I highly recommend you sing him a song while he gets his baby bottle. Singing was something Grimmjow would never do though. Luckily, he had a plan B.

“Listen, kid. I won’t sing some stupid songs for you, 'cause I’m not your father. I’ll do something else instead, ok?”

He hadn’t properly closed his mouth as he already began to purr for Kazui, leading to the child cuddling even more into the human-cat-nest he was lying in. Like a lion with the cub of his predecessor, which he would never kill for some reason. A little turn or two then Kazui stopped moving except for his slow, steady breaths. Grimmjow was sure the kid already fell asleep.

He played with the thought to get up but discarded it immediately because he felt too comfy in Kurosaki’s bed. The blanket underneath him was quite fluffy and cosy – a thing he would never admit he actually liked – and the scent that seemed to fill every brin of the fabric, Kurosaki’s scent, made him want to stay here forever. Besides, having the kid nuzzle him wasn’t so bad either. And so Grimmjow stayed, purring and eventually falling asleep himself after a while, entering a dreamland where a certain Shinigami awaited him.