Grimmjow made it a point to only ever come around when Akito was at home. There would be no point in hanging around when he was at school after all. Conversations between them started off as no more than Akito asking questions about the supernatural world while Grimm answered whilst throwing as many insults as possible. Turns out, Grimmjow had to consciously suppress his spiritual pressure whenever he was around humans. If he didn't, they would crumple to the floor and probably even die. For the first time, Akito found himself seeing the violent man in a slightly better light. He never would've thought he'd have it in him to look out for others.
"The only human I care about slaughtering is that fucking Ichigo!"
Aaaand, his tiny bit of admiration was gone.
A hurdle Aki knew he would stumble over was the return of his family. He didn't want his mum to think he had gone insane by catching him speaking to an invisible entity. It was natural Grimmjow would eventually ask about them.
"Is she hot?" Grimmjow asked, throwing and catching a ball on the boy's bed.
Thoroughly distracted, Akito winced at the question. Grimmjow truly gave zero fucks about what came out of his mouth and it bothered him a little bit. He was just glad his mother would never have to interact with him.
"I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like it if I asked how hot your mum was." He shot back, eyebrow twitching.
Catching the ball, light blue eyes squinted up at the ceiling in thought.
"Judging by my features, my mum must've been fuckin', bangin'"
"Oh my god, there's actually something wrong with you." Akito groaned, covering his flushed face with his hand.
She would be returning tomorrow. He hoped Grimmjow wouldn't use his invisibility to do dumb things like pretend to be a poltergeist. Finishing up his homework, he decided to indulge in some leisure time.
Without warning, he left his room, much to the displeasure of the other male who hated nothing more than being ignored. Booting up his console, Akito sat back on the couch, not even flinching upon seeing Grimmjow already in the seat beside him. Glancing at the other, he handed him the other controller.
"Don't mash, you won't win." Aki said, unable to stop the grin from spreading on his face as he destroyed Grimmjow's character.
The ex-espada continued to hit as many buttons as possible in no particular order, growing progressively more frustrated as his character kept dying. He never thought pixels in a screen could make him feel such unbridled rage. The controller came close to getting smashed as his HP fell to zero.
"Again! You're a fucking cheat!" He growled, elbowing the other.
"Not my fault you're bad at videogames." Akito quietly quipped back, rubbing his arm.
As it turned out, Grimmjow was a rather fast learner, giving the teen a run for his money by their tenth match. Miraculously, Akito managed to beat him with barely any health left. Raising his arms in triumph, he cheered for his close victory. To his surprise, Grimmjow just frowned, eye twitching as he tried to compose himself. Akito grew concerned at the sight of a vein popping up on his temple. He needed to calm him down. Quickly.
"Want some... meat?"
"Fuck you... Yes."
Meat was always the answer.
_._._._
Night time came, meaning it was time for his biweekly nightmare patrol. Picking a rooftop with a good view, he munched on some pocky with his phone in his other hand. Of course, Grimmjow joined him; not passing up the chance to fight something, even if it was just a weak human possessed by a hollow. His eyes trailed down to the phone screen. Leaning down, he watched as Akito scrolled down past a myriad of pictures of a girl.
"What is that? Intel?" He asked, remembering how a certain pink haired espada had images and info of every arrancar present in las noches. 'Good riddance.'
"N-No it's just an app people use to post images." He vaguely explained, closing it down.
A couple minutes later, Grimmjow was laid back on the roof, whining incessantly about being bored. Irked by his non-stop griping, Akito attempted to distract him with conversation. Not that the other was any good at it.
"What did you do when you were bored in Hueco Mundo?" He asked, munching on some more pocky.
That caught his attention. Just the slight inference of violence got him excited. He sat up, body hunched over as he scowled.
"Find wandering adjuchas and fight them. Train. Eat. Piss of Harribel and Nel." He grumbled, positively itching to kill something.
"What a ray of sunshine you are."
He snorted when Grimmjow unceremoniously shoved him, almost making him drop his pocky. Righting himself, he looked over at the hollow man who looked legitimately upset.
"How long have you lived in Hueco Mundo?"
Grimmjow's expression hardened, hand twitching as he sat still. Memories of the place surfaced in his mind. The more he dwelled on them, the more he found himself hating the place. Oppressive, limiting and caging. Those were the words that came to mind when he thought of the barren wasteland, he was unfortunate enough to call home. How long had he lived there? Lived? Existed was the right word. No one lived down there. They just survived like the soulless hollows they were.
Akito never got an answer. No nightmares showed up either.