hehe, something new again XP anyway, this would most likely be a twoshots (second part unwritten yet though, and hopefully it won't take too long) erm, a warning first, take note of the genre...

i started writing this quite a long while ago, as an attempt to clear my writer's block and to get into the flow of writing again, unfortunately, it seems the rust of not-writing had set in real well :(

oh wells, hope you enjoy :D

disclaimer: i don't own Bleach

Vodka
I

"Oi bartender, one vodka!"

Ah, he's here today, "Coming right up!" Ichigo grabbed the vodka bottle off the shelf as he turned around to face the counter.

The blue-haired stranger was drumming his fingers against the marble top, his head nodding to the beat of the club music while looking around nonchalantly. Ichigo reached forward for a shot glass, peeking surreptitiously at the man as he did so.

"Here you go, your vodka, sir," He placed the glass on the counter with a soft thunk.

Raising the glass in thanks, the man shuffled off to find his friends who were gathered at the other end of the club.

"Lover boy is here again?" A teasing voice came from behind him.

"Renji!" Ichigo jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of his friend who was the other bartender on duty for the night, then he scowled, "And he's not my lover. I don't even know his name!"

Renji snorted, "Liar, you do know. He just never officially introduced himself to you,"

"Yeah well..." Ichigo mumbled, his voice trailing off as he caught sight of the man moving onto the dance floor.

Vizards, a nightclub right at the heart of Shinjuku, was one of the most popular in the area and was always packed to the brim on Friday and Saturday nights. And it was these two days that the owner had asked for Ichigo's help to bartend the busy counters. It also just so happened that the blue-haired stranger only appeared on Fridays and Saturdays.

Ichigo had first met him four months ago, when he agreed to help Shinji with the Vizards. His order for that night, a plain simple vodka, had Ichigo looking up at him properly. Customers rarely go for simple drinks in a club as fancy as the Vizards and after a whole night of mixing, Ichigo was rather surprised at the order. And when Ichigo looked up and right at him, he was immediately caught. The blue hair, the arrogant attitude, the self-confidence and the body to die for. Ichigo had to constantly remind himself that employees were not to jump customers. Needless to say, Ichigo had quickly found out his name, not that it was difficult considering his crowd of friends were constantly yelling and catcalling it.

Grimmjow.

Ichigo had never heard a more exotic and sexy name.

Four months ago, Grimmjow could not really be considered a regular customer, perhaps appearing only once every few weeks. That slowly changed and increased until he was here twice a week. Each time appearing earlier and earlier than his previous visit until he was now one of the first few to step into the club when it officially opened for the night. And his routine when at the club had never changed. He would come in with his crowd of friends-of-the-week before making his way over to the bar and proceeding to order a shot of vodka. It did not seemed to matter to the man whether he had company with him, sometimes even going as far as to shake them off.

Not that Ichigo was a stalker to know that much... Grimmjow just stood out. At least, that was what Ichigo constantly told himself.

Whenever Grimmjow was at the counter, it seemed that Ichigo always got to serve him. Somehow, his fellow bartenders would just so happen to be busy when Grimmjow entered the club. Ichigo had no idea if that was a coincidence, but he was not one to question good things.

He had never really talked to Grimmjow before though, barring the customary greetings and the order-taking, since Grimmjow never stayed at the counter long enough for Ichigo to start any idle chats. And he would never appear again at the counter for the rest of the night, instead letting his friends get his drinks for him.

So it was just once a day for two days of the week that they would speak a few simple words. Grimmjow was just a stranger to him, and him to Grimmjow. The only thing that held them together was that one plain shot of vodka.

"Hey, bartender, one vodka!"

Ichigo let out a small imperceptible sigh of relief as he reached to fetch the shot glass. It had been a rough day at the hospital and all he wanted the whole time was to hear Grimmjow's voice, even if it was only a few simple and routine words.

"Here you go, sir," Well, he could stare at him all day too.

Keep dreaming. Ichigo frowned and scowled at that sudden thought that flashed across his mind. He fidgeted with the bottles lining the edges of the counter, just so that he could stay near the man for awhile longer. And since business was still rather slow as the club had just opened for the night, Shinji would also be less likely to scold him for slacking off. The teasing part though... probably could not be avoided.

"Oi, what's your name?"

Ichigo looked up, startled at the sudden question. Grimmjow was still standing at the bar counter, staring at him and casually twirling that shot of vodka as he waited for Ichigo to reply.

"Ichigo," He replied, pointing to his employee's badge as he said so.

Grimmjow snorted, "I'm asking for your real name, not your stage name. I already knew it. Why the hell do bartenders even need stage name,"

"It is my real name," Ichigo said tersely before scowling and picking up a rag to clean the glasses, turning to the side as he did so.

There was silence then and Ichigo assumed Grimmjow had walked off. He suppressed an irritated growl and continued wiping the glass with more force than necessary. Their first real conversation and it had to end that way. Why could he not just kept silent and not respond to the implied jab at his name? But then again, he had always acted that way towards any other who had made fun of his name, so why would Grimmjow be treated any differently?

Because you have been dying to talk to him for ages. A nice proper conversation. And you just officially ruined it.

Shut up. Ichigo scowled viciously at the stupid voice in his head, giving it a mental stab. He really did not need the preaching. Or rather, the mocking.

"Sorry,"

Ichigo's head whipped up at that one small softly spoken word but Grimmjow was already gone. His eyes followed the confident gait of the man before quickly snapping back to the glass in his hand. He wiped the glass again as he tried to control his breathing, forcing his racing heart to calm at the small sincere word.

An uncharacteristic pink tinged his cheek a few seconds later when he realised that Grimmjow had already known his name before, even if he had thought it was fake. The pink got darker when the fact that Grimmjow had wanted to know his 'real' name sank in. He could have been satisfied with the 'stage' name like every other customers, but no, Grimmjow had went further than that.

Ichigo coughed and forced the pink down, turning his head to pick up the empty shot glass on the bar counter.

Then he paused. It was Grimmjow's empty vodka glass. That was really different from the usual routine. In fact, Ichigo frowned, this Friday had so far been vastly different from the norm. Was things changing between them? Ichigo's head jerked up at the thought and focused on the damning figure in the centre of the dance floor.

Then he scoffed.

What would a name or an empty shot glass of vodka change when there was nothing in the first place to change? He was giving himself too much credit, thinking that Grimmjow had, like him, thought the glass of vodka as something that bound them. So naive.

Ichigo shook himself to get his thoughts away from his fixation. He cleared the vodka glass off and turned to greet the next customer.

"Oi, Ichigo! One vodka,"

This time Ichigo was not as surprised as he probably should have been. On some level, he had already expected something of this sort to happen when he told Grimmjow his 'real' name.

"Coming right up!" Ichigo grabbed the glass and poured a shot, "And here you go, your vodka, sir,"

"Grimmjow,"

That did surprised Ichigo and he stopped in his motion altogether. They had been sir and bartender for the past few months but suddenly, over a weekend, they became Grimmjow and Ichigo. That was rather disconcerting.

"Ah, er, right then," Ichigo hesitated before he took a deep breath and went for the plunge, "Your vodka, Grimmjow-san," Ichigo's voice stumbled a little over the name, unused to saying it so casually to the man in question.

"Drop the '-san',"

Ichigo blinked and frowned at the command, wanting nothing more than to follow it, "I'm sorry sir, you are still the customer, I can't address you so informally," Ichigo considered that to be one of the most unfortunate thing that could happen to him.

Grimmjow seemed to scowl at the reply but said nothing. Instead, he raised his glass in thanks and drained the content as he remained seated at the counter. Ichigo stood awkwardly near him with nothing to do. He had already cleaned the counter and the glasses earlier so it would be too strange if he did it again. Shuuhei was also tending to the other customer at the counter and there were no other customers during the early hours.

"You free tomorrow?" Grimmjow asked abruptly.

"Er," Ichigo floundered for an answer, mind still reeling from the unexpected question, "I'm not on duty tomorr -"

"Great, see you there," Grimmjow interrupted as he threw something onto the counter and walked off.

Ichigo scowled at his rude behaviour. Asking something so randomly and not exactly waiting for an answer. He picked up the piece of paper that Grimmjow had left on the counter and, after realising it was not a tip but a ticket to something, glanced at the date written on it. Then he snorted, even if it was a Sunday, it did not mean that everyone was spared from work. Grimmjow was lucky that he was not on duty at the hospital the next day. Well, unless Ishida did the Ishida-stunt and call him in, something which seemed to always happen at the most inopportune time. Ichigo's mood darkened predictably at the thought of Ishida.

Feeling a prickling sensation at the back of his neck, Ichigo tore his attention away from his thoughts to meet Shinji's accusing glare. Guiltily, Ichigo hastily stuffed the paper into his pocket and turned to the next customer with a fairly professional smile on his face.

It was only later in the night when the counter was free again did Ichigo remembered the issue. After making sure that Shinji would not see him and accuse him of skiving, Ichigo quickly took the paper, which he could now identify as a ticket, out from his pocket and examined it. It was a ticket to a baseball match, one between Karakura and the neighbouring town. Ichigo frowned, he was not really a fan of baseball and only know just enough of the game to not be called a fool. It was going to be a terrible experience. Ichigo scowled viciously, Grimmjow should have asked for his opinion instead of just getting him tickets and expecting him to turn up.

Then Ichigo's brain combusted at that very moment. He was going to go out with Grimmjow.

Ichigo tugged self-consciously on his shirt as he waited near the entrance of the stadium. There was no seat number on the ticket and he did not exactly have any means to contact Grimmjow, so his only solution was to appear at the venue early and wait for Grimmjow to appear.

At least, that was what Ichigo was trying to convince himself. His early appearance had nothing to do with his anxiousness and nervousness.

...who was he trying to fool. Ichigo snorted mentally as he fingered his belt once more. He had not been too sure of what attire was appropriate. One look at the plain work shirts in his wardrobe had ruled out more than three quarters of his available choice. That had left him with only his punk street clothes that he had from several years back, random pieces which had caught his eyes and that he had bought but not worn before, and some other clothes that Shinji had randomly thrown to him to wear for the club's special events. His lack of clothes had thrown him into a sudden depression that lasted for a good hour where he pigged out on ice-cream and lamented on his lack of social life. He loved his job, really. Just not the impact it had on his social life.

"Hey,"

The sudden voice caused Ichigo to jump and he whirled around to face the speaker, "Hey," He replied, somewhat distractedly as his eyes roved away from Grimmjow's face and down to his body and the way the simple shirt clung to every dips and ridges.

"Let's go in," Grimmjow said after a short bout of awkward silence and inclined his head towards the entrance.

Ichigo nodded and they walked silently beside each other. Next to Grimmjow, Ichigo felt very inadequate. He had always considered himself to be rather fit, with nicely built lean muscles. But now... He started wondering when was the last time he actually had a chance to even jog, much less work out. Any free time he had from the hospital was spent lazing around in his apartment and spoiling himself silly, too mentally and physically exhausted to do anything else.

"Grimmjow-san," Ichigo said at length, after they had finally seated themselves, "...why did you -"

"Ah, the game is starting," Grimmjow interrupted.

Ichigo scowled. Was that interruption on purpose? It seemed too much of a coincidence to not be. Still inwardly snarling at the way Grimmjow interrupted and proceeded to ignore him, Ichigo turned his attention to the baseball game going on in the diamond. His irritation only got worse as he watched the ball being hit and the players frantically trying to catch the tiny ball and out the other team.

"I'm not your customer here now, am I?" Grimmjow said suddenly, just as Ichigo watched with disdain a 'homerun' that resulted in much celebration from the team and the audience.

Ichigo's eyes found the azure ones of Grimmjow's and he frowned, not understanding what Grimmjow was getting at, "Wha -?"

Ichigo's mind short-circuited then.

It restarted a few seconds later and his first thought - Was Grimmjow kissing him? - was quickly followed with a swift punch to Grimmjow's face.

"Ow! What the fuck!" Grimmjow grabbed the left of his face, the skin tender and throbbing from Ichigo's fist.

An inexplicable wave of anger rose in Ichigo and he stood, fuming, "I'm outta here,"

"Hey, wait!"

Ignoring the man, Ichigo got off the bleachers and moved to the exit. His steps were precise and hard as he moved mechanically. He knew that if he were to turn around then, Grimmjow would be getting more than just a fist to his face. How dare that man just kiss him out of the blue! He thought Grimmjow was probably just some strange and eccentric man. Never in the four months of fantasizing did he thought that Grimmjow was a pervert who would make a move less than five minutes into a non-date.

Then again, Ichigo scowled heavily, he met Grimmjow in a notorious club. How decent could the guy be?

"Oi, I said wait,"

Ichigo's arm was grabbed roughly and he was forcibly yanked around. Growling in irritation, Ichigo raised his free arm and made to punch the guy once more. This time though, the fist was grabbed before it could make contact.

"Oi, look at me, damnit," Grimmjow jerked Ichigo's arm until he forced Ichigo to stop struggling and focus on him, "I'm sorry alright? I didn't exactly mean to move that fast on the first date! It was supposed to be for the third or something, which I had hoped we would eventually get to. But today, just now, you were - argh!"

The anger that was building in Ichigo was abruptly replaced by surprise at the rambling and the last frustrated sound Grimmjow made, then he frowned, "You are doing a shitty job at this whole non-date date,"

"Yeah, well, let's see how much better you would do if you were in my shoes," Grimmjow shot back, "And what the hell is a non-date date. A date means a date, period," He snorted.

Ichigo shook Grimmjow's grip off and folded his arms across his chest, "This is not a date. You don't ask someone on a date by throwing tickets in their face and expecting them to say yes. Who the fuck do you think you are?"

He was so silly, thinking that Grimmjow's way of asking him out was him being shy and romantic or something. A romantic? Ha! Ichigo scoffed and rolled his eyes inwardly. Now he realised that Grimmjow did not do shy nor romantic. It was just Grimmjow being an asshole. All the hesitant conversations were probably just him setting up a trap to lure Ichigo in.

"What are you then?" Grimmjow retorted, "A pansy? What were you expecting - wines, roses and dinner?"

Ichigo flushed at those words, "Obviously not. But whatever it was, it was definitely not a baseball match. I hate baseball!"

Whatever comebacks that Grimmjow had died then and he fell silent.

"Yes, dipshit, I hate baseball," Ichigo rolled his eyes, "But I came. Why? Cause I thought it wouldn't be too bad coming here with you. Who would expect that you would be such an ass,"

"I'm always an ass," Grimmjow replied, almost automatically, "You're already lucky that I wasn't more, otherwise I would have just immediately propositioned you,"

"Then why didn't you," Ichigo said before he realised just what he was saying, "Wait, shit, I didn't mean anything,"

"Oi, let's go to a hotel," Grimmjow propositioned before missing a beat.

Ichigo fell dumb. Was Grimmjow an idiot or what? Though Ichigo could say the same for himself. His heart actually thumped in excitement for one second when Grimmjow had bluntly and gruffly invited him. He tried to give the arrogant man his best incredulous expression but even he could feel that it felt fake. Some parts of him do seemed to like the bastard.

"So?" Grimmjow prompted.

Grimmjow's posture was relaxed and so utterly confident. It made Ichigo tempted to flat out refuse and he was cursing himself for every second he took to say no.

Ichigo tucked his hands into his jean pockets as he scowled and replied lowly, "Let's go," He turned and walked off.

He could practically feel Grimmjow's triumphant grin as he caught up. Ichigo's scowl deepened. If it was not for the four months of fantasizing and drooling over the guy beside him, Ichigo doubted he would have accepted the invitation as quickly as he did now.

A hand slipped onto his shoulders and Ichigo slapped it off, "Don't touch me,"

"Not yet, you mean," Grimmjow leered.

Ichigo scowled deeper. How did he get stuck with such a pervert?

"Woah woah woah, back up for a moment. What did you just say?" Renji said in disbelief, the cloth that was cleaning the glass in his hand now dangled uselessly from his immobile fingers.

"I said, I slept with the guy," Ichigo huffed out, his cheeks flushed from having to repeat such information again.

"And he hasn't contacted you since? Dude, it's been five days. You've obviously been played," Renji paused, "That's... quite a lot of effort he put in for a one night stand. And I can't believe that you would just sleep with him like that,"

"Yeah well," Ichigo mumbled.

Honestly speaking, Ichigo was more angry with himself for being so foolish to go ahead and sleep with the guy. He was even more angry at the fact that he was infuriated with himself instead of with Grimmjow. He was not even sure why! Where was the logic in that? And even though he felt that he should have regretted it, the truth was that, Ichigo felt no regret.

Now though, he was irritated that Grimmjow still had not show up for the night. Of course, he had been angry and upset that Grimmjow had not contacted him during the week, but when Wednesday rolled by and there was still no hide or hair from the man, Ichigo pretty much knew where he stood. Nonetheless, it left him wondering if their previous status quo would still stand. When twelve midnight came, Ichigo found himself realising that he would not even mind if Grimmjow just came and not even acknowledge him. It made him seriously dislike himself that he was that attracted to the bastard of a man.

Ichigo started clearing up the place when the nightclub suddenly emptied of people who needed to catch the last train home. The faster he cleaned it up, the earlier he can get home. Well, there was still at least two more hours to go, but with nothing better to occupy his time -

"Sorry I'm late, one vodka, Ichi,"

Ichigo visibly jumped at the unexpected voice. He raised his gaze away from the sink and met the tired face of Grimmjow. Automatically, he grabbed the bottle and a shot glass, pouring the correct amount out and pushing the glass to Grimmjow. Ichigo noted the way the man was slumped in his seat, his hair messy and his clothes disheveled. He frowned. Was Grimmjow late and tired out because of work? He never placed Grimmjow as someone who would work so hard.

"Are you alright? You should be at home, sleeping,"

There was a long silence before Grimmjow replied, "Hey Ichi?"

"Yeah,"

Grimmjow shifted his face up to meet Ichigo's eyes from his slumped position, "Spend the night with me?"

"...what!" Ichigo visibly bristled.

How dare the man proposition him again! Especially after practically disappearing for a week. He should just punch him in the face and then kic -

"I mean," Grimmjow quickly said when he saw Ichigo's hand shaking in anger, "I mean, just sleep beside me. I just need someone beside me tonight,"

"Then get a whore," Ichigo snapped back.

"No. It has to be you, and only you," Grimmjow said pleadingly, "Come back with me,"

Ichigo fell silent, his eyes taking in the exhausted figure that was practically lying on the bar counter. Was he really going to just give in like this?

"Please,"

Yes, it seemed so. Ichigo turned around so that his back was facing the counter. He could feel Grimmjow's disappointment at his actions.

"I end at 2. You'll have to wait for me,"