The story is based on concepts and characters created by Kubo Tite-sensei for his international hit manga Bleach. It sets in an alternative timeline in which Hueco Mundo Arc is stretched and the war is prolonged together with the rescue of Inoue Orihime. It is rated for future references of homoerotic contents and usage of coarse languages. Reader discretion is, therefore, advised.

This is my third contribution to G/U pairing, but it is the first to be released in multiple chapters. To be honest, I have a mixed feeling about publishing it because I really don't know when I'll be able to update, but I was so happy to write GrimmUlqui fic again that I decided to post it anyway, so please be patient with the update. As always, all kinds of comments are appreciated, so do not hesitate to give me feedback even if you do not have anything positive to say. Now before this note gets any longer, I'll let you read the story and pray that it won't come out as a disappointment.

Affectional Experiment

I

Grimmjow sleepily lifted his arm up to block the golden sunlight that shone through the window into his private quarters. Once again, he had to wonder if his master's sole purpose for creating an artificial sun under the roof of the palace was to wake all Arrancars from their slumber, but since he knew better than to hope for an answer, he lazily sat up and stretched himself.

He took a moment to search for the shirt he had discarded before he went to bed, and once he found it and put it on, he got up and moved to the dresser. It was after he had styled his electric blue hair with his fingers and was about to move on to polish the remains of his Hollow mask on his right cheek that he heard someone at his door. However, instead of knocking or announcing his or her presence, that person simply slipped something under the door and walked away before Grimmjow could even think about opening the door to see who that person was.

Although he could have ignored it, for it would not go anywhere until he picked it up; his curiosity got better of him and forced him to go to the door and see what the object was and who it was from. Thus Grimmjow got on his feet and headed to where the object was.

On a closer look, the Sexta Espada of Aizen Sōsuke's army realized that the thing was a harmless-looking envelope which was addressed to "Grimmjow Jaegerjaques-sama." He partly wondered why someone would bother to write him a letter and slip it into his room when it would be much easier to knock on his door and speak to him face to face. However, since there was a heart symbol right behind his name on the envelope, he figured that it could be a love letter, and the sender was probably too shy to say it to him directly.

"Hmm. Why bother?" he muttered to himself. "Everyone knows I won't mind bedding anyone, granted they ain't too ugly."

Rolling his cyan eyes at the thought, Grimmjow tore the envelope open. He made a face when he pulled out a card and saw a figure of a smiling blue cartoon tiger drawn in the front in a chibi style.

"Is this supposed to be funny?"

However, if he thought the cartoon was bad, he had to be astounded when he flipped the card over to see what was written in the back. Now all he could say was, "What the fuck?"

He would have checked the calendar if there were one in Hueco Mundo; however, since there were none as Hollows had no use for such a thing, he could only wonder if it was an April Fools' Day, and it was a bad joke from someone in Las Noches.

After all, a prank was the best way to explain why he received a card which read:

Dear Grimmjow,
Happy New Year
We may not get along well in the past
But let's be friends from this year onward
Love,
Urukiora

It was already hard enough to believe someone like Ulquiorra would send him a New Year greeting card, much less with such a message. And it didn't help the matter at all when the message was written in a girly handwriting using green color pencil. To be fair, he had never seen Ulquiorra's handwriting before, so the stoic Espada might have that kind of handwriting, but there was no way the guy would use the honorific "sama" after Grimmjow's name even if it was to follow Japanese norms of addressing a letter. And even if those were possible, there was definitely no way that the guy would spell his own name incorrectly.

Crumpling the card in his hand, the Sexta Espada rushed out of the room. He would find the culprit behind that stupid prank and kill whoever that was. Now who should he interrogate first?

Grimmjow would have tried to sniff the envelope for the scent of the sender if he was from a canine family; however, since he was from a feline one, all he could do was to go to the place he believed everyone would go to after they left their private quarters – the kitchen. One had to eat, or in some Fraccións' cases, cater food for their masters. Therefore, it was possible that the cook would be able to tell him who had already been awake by that time, so he could narrow down his list of suspect.

Once he got into the kitchen, the chef bowed at him before he greeted politely, "Happy New Year, Grimmjow-sama."

"Yeah, yeah," the Sexta Espada replied. So at least one thing about that card was not a joke. It really was a New Year's Day. Now to his question. "Who else has come here already?"

The cook blinked. He was a bit surprised by Grimmjow's inquiry, since all other times the Espada was there, he only asked about the menu and never about other Las Noches dwellers. However, he still knew better than to say anything back to the ruthless Espada, so he replied, "Excluding Grimmjow-sama, I believe there were Loly, Menoly, Tesra, Cuuhlhourne, one of Szayelaporro-sama's Fraccións, Zommari-sama, and Ulquiorra-sama."

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes. "I see."

He had already ruled out Ulquiorra, and he could say Zommari was also not a type to pull a prank on anyone. He doubted any of Szayelaporro's Fraccións was modified to have enough brain to write or enough guts to pull something like that, so they could be ruled out as well. So that left him with Aizen's bitches, Nnoitra's lapdog and Barragan's drag queen.

"Any of them acted out of ordinary?"

"No, Grimmjow-sama," the chef replied. "Why?"

"Nothing," said the Espada. "Now what's on the menu?"

Since he was busy plotting how to squeeze a confession out of the culprit, Grimmjow failed to realize that a certain silver-haired Shinigami entered the kitchen and took the liberty to sit down right next to him until said Shinigami reached out for the crumpled card he left right on the table.

"Oh, so you've received a card, too," the Shinigami remarked as he straightened the card up a little. "Shouldn't you look happier?"

Grimmjow turned sharply to face Aizen's right-hand man, Ichimaru Gin.

"What do you mean I've received a card too?"

"Oh, so it isn't a New Year Card from Orihime-chan?" Gin asked. "Well, my mistake then. I assumed it was from her. I mean, the cartoon was in the same style although in my card, it was a white fox instead of a blue panther."

Snatching the card back from the Shinigami whose smile never faltered, Grimmjow asked, "So the woman sent you a card, huh?"

"Yes, and she sent one to Aizen-taichō and Tōsen-san as well," the former captain of the Gotei 13's Third Division noted. "At first I thought she would only send a card to us Shinigami, but seeing that she sent you one, I guess it means she also sent a card to each Espada as well. Isn't it nice? She's finally stopped seeing us as her enemies."

Grimmjow wanted to say that he doubted the woman's intention was any good, considering she sent him a card with that kind of content, but he held his tongue. The sly Shinigami didn't need to know everything.

With that thought, he simply chose to ask, "Did she deliver a card to you in person?"

"No, no, of course not," Ichimaru replied. "She is still forbidden from going around the palace unsupervised. It was Ulquiorra who delivered it on her behalf. But shouldn't you have known that already?"

The blue-haired Espada didn't bother to reply, and it seemed Ichimaru didn't care much for an answer because he simply turned his attention to his food.

Meanwhile, the frown on Grimmjow's face was deepened. If he could believe in Ichimaru's words at all, there was a chance that Ulquiorra would be involved in the plot, which didn't really make any difference to him, except that it would be a little more difficult to kill the person who sent him the card.

At the same time, completely unaware that a certain aqua-eyed Arrancar was about to head to that place, Ulquiorra entered the room where a certain ginger-haired human girl was held captive. An unnamed Hollow wheeled a food cart in right behind him and then left quietly once he finished his task. It seemed Inoue Orihime had already been used to having someone entered her room without any prior announcement, since she no longer showed any hint of surprise or fear when he suddenly made an entrance.

In fact, the girl seemed to be chirpier than ever as she greeted him in an enthusiastic tone.

"Happy New Year, Ulquiorra-san! Have you delivered all the cards?"

"Yes," Ulquiorra replied blandly.

The Cuarta Espada had no idea why he agreed to act as her delivery boy when his duty was only to see to it that she was alive and unharmed until Lord Aizen ordered otherwise. Perhaps he was a little interested as to why humans would do something that served very little to no purpose, like spending hours creating cards for people who would only look at it once before throwing it away.

"So what were their reactions?"

"Aizen-sama said he appreciated the gesture," Ulquiorra remarked. "Ichimaru-sama said he now understood why you requested for those paper and color pencils. Tōsen-sama said he would appreciate it more if the card was written in braille."

Inoue widened her eyes.

"Oh my! I always forgot that Tōsen-san is blind. I mean, he never acted like one," she said before she shook her head. "This is really bad. I should have paid more attention to something like this. Though, I still have no idea how to write in braille. How did people in Soul Society write him a card before? Ah... I see. This must be why he hates the people in Soul Society and betrayed them. They never sent him a card. How not nice!"

Anyone else would have rolled their eyes at how the girl was babbling weird things to herself, but since it was Ulquiorra, and he didn't have much emotion, let alone showed it, he simply ignored her weird behavior and stated, "Be sure to eat your breakfast, woman. I will be back in an hour."

Realizing that Ulquiorra had turned and headed for the door, Inoue widened her eyes and called out, "Ah, wait, Ulquiorra-san."

Ulquiorra stopped but did not turn around.

"You never told me about Grimmjow-san's reaction," she stated. "You did deliver the card to him, right?"

Now that the girl mentioned the Sexta Espada and the card, Ulquiorra had to ask himself again why he played along with her stupid idea. It was one thing to observe her optimistic idea of eliminating her enemies by turning them into her friends instead, but it was another to actually agree to test that method, using Grimmjow.

He didn't really know what exactly was on his mind when he allowed her to personalize a card to Grimmjow and ask the man to be his friend in his behalf, but he knew he had to be completely out of his mind when he actually delivered it to the Sexta Espada's quarters. However, just like the woman said on the day she managed to convince him, there was nothing for him to lose. His relationship or non-relationship with Grimmjow could not get any worse than it already was, and the fact that Inoue took sole responsibility in making the card meant that Ulquiorra would have a complete deniability should Grimmjow reject the idea and try to use it to blackmail him.

"I did," Ulquiorra replied. "However, I doubt he was even up and about by the time I placed it in his room."

"Oh," the girl uttered, somewhat disappointed. However, she later put on a hopeful face. "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and find out later."

Ulquiorra nodded before he continued on his way and closed the door behind once he was out.

Although Ulquiorra was surprised to see Grimmjow leaning against the wall in the hallway near Inoue Orihime's captive cell, he did not reveal it in his expression. In fact, he would have simply ignored the cyan-eyed Arrancar's presence had the Sexta Espada not spoken to him first.

"You sure took your time in that bitch's room, Ulquiorra."

Casting his deep green eyes to the taller man, Ulquiorra asked, "And why should that be any matter to you?"

Grimmjow shrugged and then stood up straight before he replied, "It just makes me wonder what you could have been doing in there. Surely it shouldn't have taken that long just to bring food in."

Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes.

"Now you begin to sound like Nnoitra."

Grimmjow snorted.

"Don't compare me to that perverted bastard. I just meant to say you might have an idea about this, that's all."

By saying 'this', Grimmjow all but shoved the card he had received earlier that morning in Ulquiorra's face. However, Ulquiorra didn't even flinch when he gingerly took the card from Grimmjow's hand and then examined it thoroughly.

Meanwhile the Sexta Espada carefully gauged the other Espada's reaction and tried not to be angered by the fact that Ulquiorra acted as though he was afraid to catch some germs from touching the thing that came from him.

"It is a card," Ulquiorra stated before he turned it to see the message on the back. Frowning slightly, he commented, "And it spells my name incorrectly."

"Yeah, that's the first thing I noticed too," Grimmjow remarked in a sarcastic tone. "Now shouldn't you act a bit more surprised?"

"Why should I be surprised that someone misspelled my name?" Ulquiorra returned in a dull tone. "It has happened far too many times that I have ceased to care."

Grimmjow scratched his head as he couldn't quite understand why the other Espada could stay calm in all kind of situation.

"Oi. Someone forged your name and sent me this card. You should be more upset."

"Why? It is not as though you actually believed it was from me."

Although Ulquiorra had his point, Grimmjow couldn't help getting even more frustrated to the point that he wanted to bang something into the wall, preferably Ulquiorra's head. How emotionless could one person be? Anyone would be mad to find out that their names were forged, but the Cuarta Espada still acted as though it was nothing.

"You know," the Sexta Espada began, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "I was told that the same style of card was written to Ichimaru by that woman of yours and that you were the one who delivered it."

Although he did expect that he would finally get some reaction from the other man, Grimmjow never expected that Ulquiorra would simply admit, "Yes, I did deliver a few cards for her this morning."

"Oh," Grimmjow cried. "So the fact that you didn't show any kind of surprise isn't because you're that emotionless. It's because you're in on this prank, aren't you?"

Grimmjow expected Ulquiorra to deny it right away or laugh at him for getting so frustrated by something as stupid as that. In fact, when he came to think about it again, he didn't know why he had lost his composure over a small prank. It wasn't as if he actually wanted to befriend Ulquiorra and was disappointed that the card turned out to be a bad joke from someone else.

Yet once again, Ulquiorra managed to surprise him when he stated, "It was not a prank."

"What the fuck?"

"That woman and I are testing out a theory."

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes. "Of how to annoy me, is that it?"

"No. That woman believes that the best way to eliminate an enemy is to befriend them, but I doubt you can befriend those you dislike, so now we are testing out who is right," the Cuarta Espada explained. "I guess now I can just tell her that her idea is too far-fetched."

With that said, Ulquiorra turned away from Grimmjow and would have continued on his way had Grimmjow not called out, "Oi, wait a sec, Ulquiorra."

Just like he did with Inoue, the ebony-haired Espada stopped but did not turn back. "What?"

"Even I know that you can't expect someone to stop hating you just because you gave them one card."

"Oh."

"But I wouldn't say it was a bad start."

"I see."

Later Grimmjow would have to wonder what had inspired him to say the line he was about to say, but it would be too late to take it back once he asked, "So, are you serious? About this experiment of yours, I mean."

"Does it really matter?"

"Not really," the blue-eyed man replied with a shrug.

Frowning, Ulquiorra wondered, "Then why did you ask?"

The Sexta Espada rolled his eyes up. It was difficult to explain why when he didn't quite get his own reason at that moment. However, he chose to use the first thing that came to mind.

"Let's just say that I've nothing better to do around here," Grimmjow noted, "so I'm a bit interested to see what kind of method you'd use to make me stop hating you, that is, if you're still going to keep on with that experiment of yours."

Ulquiorra furrowed his thick brows for a moment before he replied, "Then you'll have to wait and see."

Grimmjow was a tad surprised to hear that kind of answer since he was very positive that Ulquiorra would simply call the idea ridiculous and dismiss it, so he couldn't fight down the urge to smile. He never knew the Cuarta Espada had a competitive streak.

Grinning lopsidedly, he said, "Yeah, I'll have to do that, won't I?"

And with that he waved Ulquiorra goodbye and headed back to where he came from, leaving the Cuarta Espada to watch him with a strange expression.

It was difficult to say what was going on inside the head that was covered by a helmet-like mask of Ulquiorra Cifer at that moment, but regardless of what those thoughts were, there was no denying that that morning was when his experiment on friendship with Grimmjow began.

End of Chapter I