Doomed From the Start

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Lima Syndrome
Theme #24: No Future

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“Hey Grimmjow?” Orihime asked out of the blue one day as Grimmjow paid her one of his daily visits. As much as it was a pain in the ass to saunter over to her room every day, he didn’t have a choice in the matter after Ulquiorra had been relieved of his supervisory duties with the girl.

“What do ya want now?” Grimmjow asked with an annoyed tone, knowing that when Orihime usually asked him something, she wanted to know some irrelevant information, like what day it was.

“When’s your birthday? I’ve never asked.” Orihime answered and scratched the back of her head as she gave a silly look. Grimmjow glared at for her a couple of seconds, but when he saw that she was serious, the scowl on his face went deeper.

“I’m dead as it is, why the fuck should it matter?” Grimmjow answered. By now, Orihime was used to his rude answers, so his reply didn’t bother her any. However, she still didn’t look satisfied with his answer.

“Well, when was your birthday when you were alive?” Orihime asked after some thought. This time Grimmjow didn’t look annoyed, but gave a little sigh as he leaned against a wall.

“I don’t remember jack shit about my life, and honestly, I like it that way.” Grimmjow commented. “I don’t see what the big deal is with birthdays anyways. I mean, all you do is celebrate the fact that you’re one year closer to death.”

“I guess you could think of it that way.” Orihime said thoughtfully as she pondered Grimmjow’s words. “But most people celebrate the fact that they lived one year longer, instead of advancing closer to their death. It might not sound that exciting to you, but last year, all of my friends got together and threw me a surprise birthday party.”

With the memory fresh in her mind, Orihime gave a faint smile.

“It was really great.” Orihime finally said after a short pause. Grimmjow glanced over at her briefly as she continued to smile. He had seen her smile quite a few times, but this one actually seemed genuine, where as the other smiles he had seen had just seemed forced.

“Why the hell are you thinking of birthdays all of the sudden anyways?” Grimmjow muttered. Upon hearing the question, Orihime turned to the window in her room as a more melancholic look integrated itself in her smile.

“My birthday is next week…September third.” Orihime said quietly. “I should be happy that my other friends are safe, but I guess that I’m a little sad because I can’t spend my birthday with them if I’m here.”

“It’s just a stupid, meaningless day anyways.” Grimmjow said as he pushed himself from the wall. “Just like every other day.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that everyday is meaningless…” Orihime frowned slightly.

“Heh, try livin’ here for a while.” Grimmjow said bitterly.

Looking over at him, Orihime scolded herself for being selfish when he probably had it a whole lot worse than she ever did. She was sure if she spoke about Grimmjow to any of her friends, they would tell her how much of a homicidal maniac he was, but she couldn’t help but feel a little sad for him.

“Well, if you can’t remember your birthday, just make one up!” Orihime said, brightening her expression. “Is there a day you do like?”

“I’m dead. That kind of defeats the purpose of a birthday, don’t ya think?” Grimmjow said flatly.

“You’re always so difficult.” Orihime sighed. “Fine…let’s see…you’d probably be a Scorpio…and you’re number six in the Espada…so how about November sixth?”

“I already told you, I don’t give a shit!” Grimmjow said in an exasperated tone.

“Yeah. Definitely a Scorpio.” Orihime said under her breath. “Alright, then your birthday will be November sixth.”

“Fine, whatever.” Grimmjow said with a roll of his eyes. “I’m leaving, so you can think about all this birthday stuff by yourself.”

He flexed a little before turning around and leaving the room. When she thought that he had completely shut the door, she once again turned to the window, basking in the moonlight that accentuated her mourning expression.

Unknown to her though, Grimmjow had kept the door open just a crack, as her behavior seemed a little suspicious today. However, when he saw her turned to the window, he knew that it was nothing that he should worry about, she was just angsting again. Sure, he couldn’t see her expression from his position, but he had learned that if she looked out the window, she obviously was disheartened about something.

The first time he noticed it was after Ichigo and his gang had attempted to save her, but Orihime only drove them away after seeing them all get gravely injured in battle. Grimmjow could tell that she wanted to go with them, but knew she couldn’t for their sake.

The second time was a few months later when Orihime was in an especially chatty mood and talked about the silly dreams she had for the future. Although Grimmjow was usually annoyed with her babbling, even he stood in stupefied silence as she talked about her former ambition of being a giant, destructive robot. When she moved on to her realistic dreams for the future though, she had turned to the window as her smile neutralized.

Now once again, she was turned to the window, but Grimmjow was mystified as to why she’d be so damned depressed this time. Why the fuck should one day out of the entire year mean that much? More importantly, why the hell was he still thinking about it?

He had better things to do than worry over the girl. In fact it was demeaning to watch over her every day. To say that he didn’t feel something stir inside him though while watching the girl, even if he didn’t quite understand it himself, would be a lie.

The fact that he didn’t understand why he felt something for the woman pissed him off. He was the Sexta Espada, the sixth strongest in destructive power of all Arrancar. Any sort of emotion that could hold him back in battle was detrimental to himself, which was why he knew that he had to cut himself off from the prisoner.

That’s exactly what he did through the week after that. He would still visit her, but his visits reminded Orihime of Ulquiorra’s where he’d make sure she hadn’t killed herself, make sure she ate her food, and then left the room immediately. She would try desperately to start a conversation with the blue-haired man, but he’d only glare at her, or worse, ignored her completely.

With her birthday approaching closer and closer, she tried to move the thought away from her head, but no matter what, the fact remained that it would be the very first birthday that she spent alone. There was nothing she could do about it though. The idea of Ulquiorra, Aizen, Gin, and Tousen getting together to throw her a birthday party was somewhat amusing, but also very, very scary. On that thought, Orihime figured that it was probably best that her birthday would be lonely.

On the day of September 3rd though, Orihime still felt depressed as she thought about her friends. To make matters worse, no one stopped by her room. Not even Grimmjow stopped by to make his daily visit. As much as she knew how much she should hate him, she felt more disappointed that he didn’t even stop by. She knew that she shouldn’t have expected him to, but she was an optimistic type of person.

Seeing no other reason to celebrate the rest of her lonely birthday, she lied down on her bed and shut her eyes tightly. She didn’t feel tired at all, but if she could fall asleep, her birthday would be over sooner. As she droned out her mind, in an attempt to fall asleep faster, she didn’t even twitch when her door creaked as it was opened. Even when the sole sound of footsteps echoed through her room, she remained on her bed. The sound grew louder and louder until it ceased close to her bed.

“C’mon. Get yer ass outta bed.” A familiar voice said impatiently.

Finally snapping out of her trance, Orihime rubbed her eyes and sat up in her bed. Adjusting her eyes to the light emanating from the doorway, she blinked a couple of times, before shifting her gaze to her late night visitor.

“G-Grimmjow?” Orihime muttered.

He didn’t respond as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind him as he headed toward the door. Not liking being dragged around, Orihime caught up to him by hastening her pace.

“Where are we going?” Orihime asked.

“Just shut up and follow me.” Grimmjow replied.

Orihime looked over at him as she continued to walk. When he didn’t even look at her, Orihime figured that Aizen must have sent Grimmjow to fetch her so that he could further use her powers to aid in his destructive plans. She vowed that she would resist him with all that she had in her, but doubted that she could triumph over him. Feeling defeated already, she sighed as she continued to follow Grimmjow through the halls.

Once Grimmjow passed the throne room though and continued to walk through the halls until he approached a door to the outside, Orihime looked over at him with a bewildered expression.

“Grimmjow, where are we going?!” Orihime asked with more urgency.

Grimmjow still didn’t respond as he casually kicked the door open and walked through, pulling Orihime with him. She struggled to keep up with him, as the harsh winds outside of Las Noches blew against her. After some distance though, Grimmjow finally stopped as he made some kind of motion with his hand. A moment later, a gateway appeared and Grimmjow turned toward Orihime with a stern look upon his face.

“Go.” He ordered.

Not comprehending the situation in the least bit, Orihime looked over at Grimmjow as if he were crazy. Had he been avoiding her the past week to try to pull this test on her? Did he want to ridicule her? Upon looking as his serious expression though, Orihime was even more confused.

“Grimmjow, what is the meaning of this?” Orihime finally asked.

“What the fuck does it look like? This is your chance to get the hell out of this shit hole!” Grimmjow answered with a scowl.

“But if Aizen-sama sees this-” Orihime started, but was immediately cut off.

“Aizen won’t see shit! The dumb prick is off doing something else in another dimension!” Grimmjow countered.

“But if we’re both gone-” Orihime tried to reason, but was once again cut off.

“Who the hell said that we were both going? Now get yer ass moving before I change my mind!” Grimmjow answered, his eyebrows furrowing in anger.

“I don’t understand why you are doing this.” Orihime said after some thought. She considered taking Grimmjow up on his offer, but she had vowed to stop Aizen’s plans. “But I still have something I must do here.”

“How fuckin’ stupid can you be?!” Grimmjow yelled in an exasperated tone. “If you plan to stop Aizen, you’ll be defeated, it’s that simple. The guy isn’t stupid though, so he won’t kill you, as he still has his uses for you. So instead, you’ll be trapped here forever.”

“I guess that’s a risk that I’ll take then.” Orihime said with a sigh.

Grimmjow, however, was not satisfied in the least as he was now visibly gritting his teeth.

“What the fuck?!” Grimmjow growled as he resisted the urge to strangle the woman out of pure frustration. “I had to endure hours of you talking about the god damned future. Do you really think you can start the family you want so damned bad here? First of all, all of us are dead, meaning there will be no goddamned brats of your own running around here. Second, do you have the faintest fucking clue how most of the Arrancar look at you here? Do you even know how many times I’ve had to tell Nnoitra to go fuck himself after hanging around your quarters? If you stay around here, you’ll be nothing!”

Upon hearing Grimmjow’s outburst, Orihime’s confused expression softened as she started to understand why he was doing this for her. She had babbled practically her whole life story to the man in an attempt to alleviate her loneliness, but she hadn’t expected that he actually listened to her.

Grimmjow calmed himself down a little, but still looked at her somberly.

“There is no fucking future here, don’t be so naïve to think that you can change that fact.” Grimmjow muttered. “Go now, while you still can.”

“Grimmjow…thanks.” Orihime said as she humbly put her head down. She turned around to the portal and stared at it before turning back to him. “But I told you already, I’m not going.”

“You said how great your birthday was last year, so quit being so damned depressed about it and go spend it with that damned Shinigami and your other damned companions.” Grimmjow suggested, not wanting to have to use that card, but it was the only one he had left.

“So you did remember my birthday.” Orihime said with a slight smile.

“Well, when you jabbered on about it for a damned hour, it would be pretty fucking hard to forget it.” Grimmjow replied.

Orihime knew she didn’t talk about it that long, and she had only mentioned her birthday once, so she knew at this point that the Espada was just trying to cover himself. However, she knew it was best to not press the issue any further, as she knew his tendency to snap when he was frustrated.

“I’ll miss my friends this year…but I’m okay with celebrating it here.” Orihime explained. “I’m happy just knowing that you would do this for me.”

“You’re really not going to go through, are you?” Grimmjow said with a defeated groan. Orihime shook her head in response. A minute later, Grimmjow closed the portal. “Fine, but remember that you were the one who chose to stay here. Not Aizen, not Ulquiorra, not me. This is all you.”

“Yeah, I knew that from the start.” Orihime responded.

“Tch. C’mon, let’s go back then.” Grimmjow said as he turned around. Orihime did not move though as she stared at the moon.

“Can we stay here just for a couple of minutes?” Orihime asked.

Grimmjow gave her an annoyed look, but only grunted in reply as he walked over to stand by her side. After a couple of minutes, Orihime noticed that she felt a little chilly, even with her long sleeved outfit. She shifted her gaze away from the moon and looked over at the man beside her.

“Don’t you ever get cold?” Orihime asked, noticing that he didn’t seem the least bit affected by the cold, despite wearing nothing under his opened jacket.

“Nope.” Grimmjow answered simply, not moving his eyes from the moon.

Orihime was still curious though, keeping her gaze on his face. She started to raise her hand, but hesitated, as she knew that Grimmjow probably wasn’t too keen on physical contact that didn’t involve dismemberment. However, her curiosity got the best of her as she raised her hand to touch his face. As she had thought, his skin was freezing to her touch.

Upon feeling her gentle touch upon his face, he looked down at her face, which looked up at his with concern. Feeling flustered by his gaze, Orihime looked away. When she felt his hand brush against her cheek though, she looked up at him again. She blushed slightly as he gazed intently at her. Then when she noticed that his face descended slightly, she felt her heart beat in her chest. Grimmjow moved his face a little closer to hers, but then blinked once, as if he had a sudden realization. He then promptly moved his hand away from her face and turned toward Las Noches.

“Your skin is freezing. If you get a damned cold, Aizen will suspect something.” Grimmjow said as he walked ahead, leaving a very flustered Orihime to follow behind him. Glancing briefly at her, he chastised himself for nearly kissing the girl in the open. He could at least admit to himself that there was a part of him that desired her, but he could not let himself act on those impulses.

It was strange to him. Normally he wouldn’t give a shit and just do whatever his instinct told him to do, but there was another part of him that felt something deeper than just raw lust for the prisoner. Because of those feelings, he could not allow himself to make a move on her, as it would further doom her to the world of nothing that he lived in.

“Hey Grimmjow…” Orihime finally spoke as they approached the doors of Las Noches.

“What is it now?” Grimmjow replied.

“There’s another reason why I wanted to stay here, you know.” Orihime said and gave a smile. “We still have to celebrate your birthday too!”

“I told you already that I don’t need a damned birthday!” Grimmjow fired back, regaining some of the characteristics that Orihime was used to.

“You don’t have to be so difficult all the time.” Orihime said with a sigh. “It’s not like I’m going to tell everyone else about it.”

“Fine.” Grimmjow breathed as he approached the door to Orihime’s room and opened it. “But don’t you dare make a cake. The first and only time that Aizen let you cook, you gave everyone indigestion who was stupid enough to eat your food.”

“Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t cook around here anymore, should I?” Orihime said with embarrassment. Grimmjow snorted in response as he turned around to go out of her door again.

“Grimmjow…” Orihime called out. He stopped, but didn’t turn around, so she continued. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” Grimmjow replied. “I didn’t do shit.”

With that, Grimmjow left the room. Orihime smiled a little, but as the thoughts of the near kiss flooded her mind, she felt her face redden. She had long thought that he was the enemy, but the fact was that she had felt disappointed when he had pulled away. But then again, she had set his birthday about two months from that day.

Perhaps then, not only would she have found a way to triumph over Aizen and give Grimmjow the freedom she knew he desired so much. But also, maybe she could have the courage to make the first move.

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Author’s Notes

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Happy birthday, Orihime (well, it was her birthday when I originally posted this)! Despite all the trauma I usually put you through in my fanfics, I heart you~! <3<3<3<3

The most fun part about writing this entire thing was creating the argument. Seriously, I never realized how much fun arguments are to write until now. <3

Concerning the title of this piece, I have a feeling that there will be some confused people. As a person deeply interested by psychology (as I was diagnosed with Autism when I was five, although it might actually be Ausperger’s Syndrome), I constantly read upon interesting disorders and such on Wikipedia. But anyways, Lima Syndrome is basically the opposite of Stolkholm Syndrome (I’m sure most of you must know what that is by now, look it up if not) in which the behavior of kidnappers becomes more sympathetic to their hostages.

Because I thought “Birthday” was a really boring title. ^_^;

And concerning Orihime’s choice for Grimmjow’s birthday, I immediately knew that he had to either be a Leo or a Scorpio. But if he were a Leo, that would mean he’d have to wait almost an entire year for his birthday. And that would kind of suck for him. Besides, Scorpio is considered the sexiest of the signs, so I figured it suited him. XD

And guess what? Supposedly Virgos (Orihime’s sign) and Scorpios are supposed to be pretty compatible with each other. :D

Yeah, I’m an Aquarius/Pisces cusp, so the Pisces side of me loves weird stuff like astrology. >.>;

But yeah, the brainstorming meeting for this oneshot went something like this.

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Brainstorming Meeting

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Renegade Raine: So basically, the story will go like this… *hands out two copies of oneshot*

Orihime: Aww…I like this one! I especially like that I’m not being forced into borderline rape this time! <3

Grimmjow: … *scowls*

Renegade Raine: Well, Grimmjow? *evil grin*

Grimmjow: *reading* “He could at least admit to himself that there was a part of him that desired her, but he could not let himself act on those impulses?”

Orihime: I didn’t know you felt that way about me, Grimmjow. *blushes*

Grimmjow: Bullshit! You know damned well that if I wanted to bone her, I would have!

Renegade Raine; Well…yeah. But it’s her birthday, dammit! You can afford to be nice for once. Besides, that’s what you usually do in my other oneshots anyways.

Grimmjow: *Grins at the memories*

Orihime: *tries to hide under the table*

Renegade Raine: Anyways, the next oneshot will probably make you pretty damned happy anyways. It’ll be dirty, and kind of kinky. *smirks*

Grimmjow: ORLY?! >:D

Orihime: …how dirty? D:

Renegade Raine: …I’ll just apologize to you here and now.

Orihime: …

Grimmjow: >:D

Renegade Raine: I wouldn’t get too smug, Grimmjow. I still have to make the sequel to “Vessel”, y’know…fufufufufufufufufu…

Grimmjow: >:D … :| … *pales*

Orihime: *blushes*

Renegade Raine: On that note, this meeting is adjourned. Now go smex canonly, so I don’t have to write these kinds of things anymore! -_-… *leaves*

Orihime: But it’ll never happen! I’m doomed! T_T

Grimmjow: Damn you, Kubo! I don’t think I can take another “Vessel”! T_T

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