I should've drawn his fins fluffier but we can pretend that they flatten whenever he's out of the water<3

Behold, the four BettaMer!Grimmjow emotions:
Curious, Pouty, Cuddly and Horny

I tried really hard not to lewd him- I didn't have to; but I really wanted to u_u

+hc thread+
OG Betta Merman Grimmjow—

Ok— now onto the headcanon thread~<3 https://twitter.com/wulverc/status/1257499114805354497
I lied- I wanted to show you a closer look:

He's baby, your honor... đŸ„ș

Okay, NOW we're ready- @Vikishus helped me lots (and even provided me) with lots of these ideas btw<3 so shout out to them<3

+
So after the whole mess of finding Grimmjow and getting him a new /proper/ tank, (which Grimm is ECSTATIC about) Ichigo learns that Grimmjow is actually a “fish fairy”.

But not really a fairy though, just a subspecies of Merpeople who are /very/ tiny; +
the actual reason why people call them ‘fairy’ is for their mischievous and slightly petulant nature.

They /love/ having little shiny or interesting knickknacks just for the sake of it— specially if they stole them. They’re also a little vain and /thrive/ while having their way+
Grimmjow is finally settled in his new tank— and it’s HUGE in comparison to the little bowl. It’s got lot’s of hiding spaces a cave-like structure for his ‘nest’ and a sun-bathing area.

Grimm is /over the moon/ bc WhY would this giant be so nice to him??? +
He’s sure the giant wants something in return— but he has nothing to give that he can think of, so what?

He spends the first week in his care waiting for him to ask something from him— but it never happens!

The idiot giant just feeds him (really nice food) and sometimes+
sticks his fingers just far enough to show him a little extra treat— an offering maybe? He doesn’t take it until after the second week.

The giant doesn’t understand his language— to Ichigo, it all just sounds like an Orca clicking— so he can’t tell him he liked the treat.+
When Grimm finally accepts the little piece of tuna Ichigo has to bite his cheek really hard to not exclaim in victory. He’d read a little tutorial on how to get closer to a new Betta and he was honestly about to call bull.

But it worked! So he did it a couple more times,+
his hand slowly going in further into the tank without Grimmjow seeming threatend or trying to bite him.
.
(Because he had /very/ pointy teeth, and he knew from experience from the day he’d tried to feed him for the first time.)
.
Eventually he’d reach in without any treats— +
even swishing his fingers a bit in a gentle motion. And Grimmjow didn’t bite him! He actually touched him in confusion and stared up at him in a slightly judging manner; but didn’t at all bare his teeth or hiss.

It was big progress and Ichigo was honestly very proud of himself+
But he doesn’t push too much still.

He sticks his hand in there for a couple minutes a day, feeds and cleans the tank as quickly as he can; but generally leaves him be.

Grimmjow is still adjusting to the change, but by now he looks much healthier— +
his scales look more colorful and shiny, and he looks full of energy.

Ichigo often catches him picking eveything up and turning it this way and the other— a curious little frown in his brow.

It’s adorable really.

But don’t say that in front of him! +
Ichigo learned while he researched, that the tiny Mer understood human speech almost perfectly— even if they couldn’t replicate it. +
It was approximately a month later when their relationship seemed to give a big 360 towards the better.

Ichigo was rutinely sticking his hand in the tank, now even making some sort of small talk to try and seem even friendlier; but never expecting any sort of answer. +
He was pulling his hand out when a little hand grabbed his finger and he heard the chirpy clicking sound.

Grimmjow was calling him! He kept his hand in and let Grimm to what he pleased.

He seemed so curious about his hand for some reason; +
Looking at it from every angle and comparing it to his own.

He even placed his hand right in the middle of his palm— almost weighing the huge size difference between them.

Ichigo was amazed by it.

Right until Grimmjow frowned and bit him.+
“BITCH!” Ichigo withdrew his hand immediately, assesing the damage -“What did I do?!”

But the little bastard just pouted and crossed his arms like a child.

/What?/

“Dude, why?” at least then Grimmjow had the decency of looking a tiny bit remorseful. +
Turns out (from what he understood from the elaborate clicking and tiny hand waving) Grimmjow got mad that he was larger than him.

Like a toddler. +
So now Ichigo had to look out not only for an extensive list of fish care rules— but for random (and possibly unjustified) /tantrums/ too.

He hadn’t been taking the ‘petulant’ part of the species description quite as seriously as he should have.+
After that, Ichigo tried a little harder to work with the info he’d researched; and seeing as Grimmjow had been very curious about everything in his tank (at least until he’d examined every single rock and plant), he decided he’d provide more stuff every now and then. +
It started with shells and other simple items; Ichigo would leave them as an offering on his basking rock and soon found them either completely gone, possibly hidden in Grimm’s nest, or on the floor next to the tank.

“I don’t want this shit” was what that said. +
Then it got a little more elaborate; specially after he told Yuzu and Karin over the phone about him.

His little apartment was rather far away from his childhood home, so they demanded lots of pictures every now and then, and in exchange they’d mail Ichigo stuff for Grimm.+
It’d started with little toy things (that were non-toxic, Ichigo had them check beforehand) like little Barbie accessories and other miniature stuff.

Grimm’s favorite had been a small actually functional life-saver.+
It took him a bit of examining (and getting stuck twice while angry clicking at Ichigo to PULL IT OFF!) to get the hang of it— but he’d soon lay belly down on it floating around while he flicked his tail lazily.

Most Grimm’s time now was spent playing around with all the stuff+
It was great, Ichigo could study or do homework or just do his thing while Grimm did his own—
.
.
Until fishy got needier.

All of a sudden Grimm was clicking in distress everytime Ichigo tried to leave the room after feeding time— or held his hand and /cuddled/ into it,+
Ichigo couldn’t find ANYTHING online about it. Apparently most Betta are happy with the new things to explore and the alone time.

NOT Grimmjow. Ichigo was at a loss on what to do about it; he couldn’t just spend his whole day in the small living room where Grimm’s tank was.+
And he could just take him with—

Unless, maybe he could?

Ichigo had the amazing idea of just— using the old bowl! It was big enough to kinda fit Grimmjow but small enough for Ichigo to bring him with to the kitchen or his room while he studied.+
And Grimmjow LOVED IT.

At first he’d been nervous about getting in back in the bowl— but once Ichigo explained he was really eager to try.

He’d guided Ichigo around the whole place— pointing where to go so Grimm could look at everything.

It became their new normal.+
Grimmjow resigned himself to less tantrums when he left for class, but he /had/ to follow Ichigo along everywhere when he came back.

While he studied he sat in his bowl, often looking at him— and Ichigo would tell him about whatever it was he was studying about+
Grimm didn’t quite get it, but he liked listening to Ichigo talk; and he’d chirp when he recognized some of the same terms or definitions.

He came with too when he prepared dinner and his food for the next day. Grimmjow always wanted to try /EVERYTHING/ if Ichigo was having it+
And most often than not he couldn’t have it because the food could kill him.

And Ichigo tried— he really tried to explain why he wasn’t getting any of the spicy curry; but the stubbornness of a childish Betta is vast, and Grimmjow clicked and waved his arms indignantly anyway.+
It even happened once that Ichigo had to answer the phone while in the middle of chopping some veggies— he left for a mere couple minutes, Orihime had found a friend who needed a place for the vacant room in his apartment.

When he got back Grimmjow Wasn’t. In. The. Bowl.+
/He was eating the veggies/

He’d jumped out of his bowl, and crawled all the way to the cutting board and served himself the pieces he’d already chopped of the carrots.

And even had the audacity of pointing at the knife and then at the carrots with annoyed clicks+
as if to demand he cut him some more of that.

Grimmjow did get some more carrots, in the end; but not without a little talking to. Lecturing him about foods that could poison him and what being outside the water for too long could do.+
All while Grimm munched on the snack, grinning like the cat that got the cream.

It felt like having a spoiled child more than a pet; but Ichigo couldn’t really find it in himself to be angry.

He did however, place a heavy book on top of the bowl the next time that happened.+
Things were pretty easy-going between them; they had their routines and understandings. It was pretty great.

Except Ichigo could sometimes see frustration in Grimms body language every time he tried to communicate. He tried his best to understand what the different clicks meant+
but it was never a real conversation.

And maybe there was a way he could give Grimmjow that— he decided to take up the sign language course at his uni.

It was the best option; and even if it didn’t end up working, it was a skill that Ichigo could use either way.+
And it worked. Perfectly.

Grimmjow learned at a crazy fast speed —often surpassing Ichigo and asking for more material to learn before he had it.

It opened a /whole/ new world to them.

Ichigo learned that Grimmjow was actually very snarky, and cursed like a sailor+
and all Grimm had to do to get his attention was click a little from his tank or bowl and they’d be able to have an actual conversation.

It surely didn’t feel like a pet/owner relationship; neither of them was very sure /what/ exactly they were.

But it was fine. It worked.+
And that’s all that mattered.

Friends and family who sometimes visited Ichigo, for whatever reason, were often amazed by the whole situation.

Watching them converse was rather fascinating— they acted like old friends, trading jokes and bickering over the dumbest things.+
In which times they got to witness the marvel of them signing faster and faster as their discussion got more heated— to the point where Grimmjow would stop signing all together. Opting to instead click and gesture angrily with his hands.+
“YOU KNOW I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU WHEN YOU CLICK LIKE THAT!”

They’d both end up signing ‘dumb carrot’ and ‘smelly fish’ back and forth like children, every single time.

Even those times it was nice; it all always blew up when one or the other ended up laughing.+
Until Rukia happened.

She would occupy his old roommate’s room; taking a huge load off his back by sharing the rent with him.

They were barely aquaintances at first, but Rukia was easy to get along with and Ichigo and her eventually became good friends.+
Grimmjow was /not/ having it.

He hadn’t been ignored in any way; but Ichigo would include her in some conversations, or they’d cook dinner together while he sat on his bowl on the counter.

(well ‘together’ seeing as Rukia couldn’t cook shit to save her life)+
He hated her. He hated that Ichigo liked her and was friendly with her.

And he hated even more that Rukia was nice to him even if he tried being as much of an asshole as he could.

Why did she have to come here? Why hadn’t Ichigo kicked her out? Why was she nice to them?+
And worse, Ichigo was beginning to notice his discomfort— he didn’t want to talk to him about her.

But the idiot did anyway. He waited for Rukia to leave to class— for them to be alone in the apartment to approach him and ask directly if he didn’t like her. +
He didn’t want to say it upfront— that he wished she’d go. Because Ichigo liked her and maybe if he didn’t he’d get rid of him instead.

Rukia helped Ichigo with this ‘rent’ thing— he did nothing. Now that he thought about it, he was actually more of a drag than any help at all.+
But Ichigo could probably read minds; because he sighed, pulled a chair closer to his tank and assured him Rukia didn’t mean him any harm. That he was not being replaced in any way.

But it somehow didn’t make him feel that much better; and he wasn’t too sure why.+
He signed ‘lover?’, he wasn’t sure why he wanted to know; or if he wanted to know the answer. It just felt right.

But he didn’t get the answer he expected; Ichigo’s eyes widened comically and he laughed.

The idiot /laughed/— “Grimmjow, I’m gay.”

Whatever ‘gay’ meant.+
It felt like he was saying no, and that’s all he cared about.

If Rukia wasn’t trying to steal Ichigo then maybe he could try and be a little less mean.

Wait—steal? Well— Ichigo /is/ his, in a way, right?

Or— or wasn’t he?
.
.
Had he read it all wrong?+
What if this ‘gay’ thing that Ichigo was meant he wouldn’t want him either?

Did— did he want a giant who wasn’t even his same species as a mate? Maybe— maybe he did.

Maybe that wasn’t too bad.

Maybe he could make Ichigo see he could be a good mate. How? Ichigo wasn’t Merfolk+
Merfolk gifted pretty things, and sang...

He’d never seen him collect any shinies— and his ‘nest’ he called room was pretty plain and mostly filled with those books he sometimes read to him.

Singing was also out of the question— the giant couldn’t fit in his tank to listen.+
So what?? He came to the realization that he didn’t know much about Ichigo’s species— and he seemed to know a lot about his.

Think— he’d seen him interact with some if his own before... there’d been pats and food gifting— but that was his sire and siblings. He could smell it+
Some other people came, “classmates”; Grimmjow wasn’t sure of those. They often sat together by the living room and worked on those books.

Nothing exciting— nothing at all.

Oh! There’d been these movies Ichigo had shown him—they told stories of his kind, maybe that could help?+
Grimmjow tried to go through every story Ichigo had shown him— the interactions.

Some of those were different than what he’d seen— like holding hands, and weird mouth touches.

Then they would remove their weird cloth layers and Ichigo always covered his view after that.+
Grimmjow never wore those cloth layers— was that helping?

And why were humans mating such a big deal? Was Ichigo embarrassed?

Maybe his kind were generally more shy about that? Was that why they wore so many layers?

Was he offending Ichigo by his lack of layers, instead?
Maybe he should cover up? To be more like Ichigo’s kind... that’d show his interest right? Well, he had nothing to lose.

But what exactly could he use inside his tank?

He had a bunch of stuff hidden on his nest— all gifts from Ichigo and his siblings— +
but he wasn’t sure how to use any of those things the same way he wore his.

Ichigo was currently reading on the couch— like he usually did, it was a good opportunity to observe. The ‘shirts’ he wore were weird— maybe he could just use some of the plants on his tank?+
He had a nice rock that he liked to bite to sharpen his teeth; it had enough edge to cut through the plants—

He played around with a few, discarding some pieces and picking up new ones. Just a few more details—

“Grimmjow?”

EEEK-! +
His tail propelled him forward and quickly hidden behind the still dense foliage— FUCK — what—!?

He heard laughter— “I’m sorry— shit, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Ichigo was still laughing— ‘didn’t mean to scare you’ fucking bullshit.

He slowly left his hidding spot;+
an angry frown between his brown and the make-shift clothes still clutched between his hands.

“I’m really sorry, Grimm I— oh? what’s that?”

ah— the ‘shirt’ thing— he wasn’t even wearing it yet... He somehow felt embarrassed, in a way; not only about being caught,+
but about being caught /not/ wearing it. Specially after his former realization.

It was stupid. He knew that. Ichigo had seen him plenty already and, somehow, knowing that it meant something different to his kind felt weird.

His face felt like it was boiling.+
fuck, why had he even tried to do this in the first place?

He turned his face away, still hot, and dropped it as /sneakily/ as he could. Fuck— now what?

He peaked at the glass; !!

The idiot was still looking, a brow raised quizzically at him.+
Ichigo didn’t understand one bit; maybe he’d interrupted something personal? He dropped it pretty fast when he asked; and also looked pretty embarrassed. He wasn’t even aware that Merfolk could blush.

It was kinda cute.

But at the moment he was more worried about Grimmjow,+
he’d never acted that way before. Always very sure of himself to a point where it was a hazard to his own wellbeing.

So why, this? What exactly was that?

Oh—maybe he was staring to much—?

Wait, Grimmjow was—hiding his chest? Or trying to at least.

Why? He was always naked...+
Oof— don’t think about that...

Grimmjow should probably realise he wasn’t hiding anything at all— and he couldn’t look away for some reason... Grimm was pushing his arms together—

Why would a guy fish need such large pecs? — oop— no,, no no no don’t go there...+
Was his face getting hot too?

Fuck— “Uh— I’ll leave you to it then—I—“

He tried, stepping back and promptly stumbling and falling into the couch with the grace of a newborn deer. Classy. Real classy, Ichigo.

Even Grimmjow had forgotten his own timidness to watch the spectacle+
That was a week ago— Ichigo thought maybe, thanks to his sophisticated performance, things wouldn’t be too awkward.

He was wrong; Grimmjow hadn’t gotten into his little bowl in days and whenever they tried to talk he wouldn’t meet his eyes anymore.

Maybe he should apologize...+
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