CHAPTER 2: Lost Scenes, Degrees, and Seizing the Day

"But I don't wanna go."

A sad smile graced her face and she brushed the unruly bangs from her boy's forehead. "I know, sweetheart. I don't want you to go either. But I can't take care of you right now so you have to go live with Grandma for a while, okay? You remember Grandma? She lives in Las Noches."

The boy's forehead crinkled as he tried to remember. He had faint recollections of a small old lady, surrounded by a backdrop of lights and noise. "But I don't like Las Noches. It's big and there's too many people and it's loud." He tugged at his mother's skirt and looked up at her. "I wanna stay here with you."

"Oh, I know, I know. But think about Grandma. She's all alone in that big city. She needs someone strong like my little Grimmy to take care of her," she said cuffing him playfully on the chin.

The boy hummed. She made an excellent point. He was, after all, going to be a Power Ranger when he grew up. Who better to protect Granny than the Blue Ranger? "Okay," he said reluctantly. The life of a hero was a lonely one.

Grimmjow pouted. "But why can't you come with me, Mommy? You can be my sidekick."

"I'll always be your sidekick," she knelt down to his eye level, "but I can't take care of you and keep my job at the same time."

He pursed his lips together and dug his fingers into his palms. He could feel tears pricking his eyes and a lump in his throat. "You can get a job in Las Noches too, and then you could be with me forever and ever. Don't you want that?"

She looked away so that her son couldn't see the tears in her eyes. "Baby, trust me. You'll understand when you're older; I need to stay in Karakura," she caressed his chubby cheeks with her hand and brushed away the tears. "If Mommy could choose, I would never let you go."

He pushed her away. "You're lying! You care more about your job than you care about me!"

"No! No, please, Grimmjow, I love you-"

"You're lying! I hate you!"

The car drew to a stop outside of a small house. Grimmjow had his arms crossed and head faced towards the window for the whole two hour car ride, refusing to talk to or even look at that traitor.

His mother looked at his hunched over back. "I know you don't like it, but it's only for a little while, okay? Just until Mommy has enough to get a nicer place and move you and Granny to Karakura. We'll still see each other on the weekends."

He didn't respond.

"Grimmjow, sweetie, I know you're still mad at me and I don't blame you. I'm angry with myself. But please, don't take this out on Granny, okay?"

He didn't respond.

His mother sighed. "Alright. I guess I'm not getting any words out of you today."

She honked twice so that her mother would know they had arrived. A few minutes later, a little old lady came out of the house, accompanied by a pretty teenager.

Grimmjow's eyes grew at the sight of her hair. It was long and curly and orangey-brown. He never saw hair like that before in Karakura. He had never seen anyone so pretty before. He always thought girls were kind of icky with their cooties and all, but now he was beginning to see what everyone was talking about with "love" and all that.

His mother unlocked the car doors and the two of them stepped out of the car. She kissed Granny on the cheek, "Hi, Mom. Thank you for this, really."

Granny grasped her daughter's hands and smiled. "No, dearie, thank you. I need a big, strong man in the house," she said with a wink in Grimmjow's direction.

For the first time since the funeral, Grimmjow grinned. She was cool. He liked Granny already.

His mother opened up the trunk and started unloading the boxes. Taking the big ones into the house, she waved at the girl, who took the rest of the luggage. "Hey, thanks for helping out. I didn't know you would be here today."

The girl smiled at his mother. "What? I wouldn't miss it for the world!" She noticed Grimmjow watching her and he immediately looked away. She waved at him. "So, you must be the infamous Grimmjow."

He wrinkled his nose. "What's 'infamous' mean?"

"It means your mommy tells me a lot of stories about you. Like you breaking the windows, or breaking bones, or getting into fights. You sure get into a lot of trouble for a kid, don't you?"

"Hey! I'm not a kid! I'm six and a half years old!" Grimmjow frowned. He may get into a lot of trouble but it wasn't his fault. He wasn't a bad kid.

"That's not very impressive to someone sixteen years old, you know," she said with a mischievous smile.

Grimmjow glared at her. "I don't like her," he announced to his mother as she came back out of the house. "She's mean to me."

His mother smiled appreciatively at the girl for getting her son to speak to her before she left. She put her arm around the girl's shoulders and smiled. "Well, Masaki here is a good friend of mine, so you be nice to her too, okay?"

He crossed his arms and grumbled.

She ruffled her son's blue hair affectionately before standing. "Alright, that's the last of Grimmjow's boxes. I have to get back now."

Granny and the girl nodded while Grimmjow frowned. She was going. She was really going. She was going to go and never come back, just like Daddy.

His mother was heading back to the car when Grimmjow ran after her. "Mommy, don't leave me!"

She caught her son with surprise. He buried his teary face in her shirt. "Mommy, don't leave me! I'll be good! Don't leave me!"

Familiar arms wrapped around him and his mother buried her face into his tiny torso. Grimmjow could feel his shirt get wet from where his mother's tears seeped in.

"Hey there, little guy." Masaki peeked her head into the boy's bedroom and found him lying despondently on the floor. "How you holding up?"

He shrugged.

"Yeah? Okay," she nodded. "You need any help with unpacking?"

"No. Go away."

"What?! Hey! Didn't your mom just tell you to be nice to me?"

"Yeah? Well, too bad! Mom isn't here now, is she?"

Masaki closed the door behind her and laid down next to him. "You know, you shouldn't be so hard on your mom. She really does love you."

Grimmjow stared up at the ceiling It was weird. When he was living with Mom, he had always bugged her about putting up posters on his bedroom ceiling and she shot him down every time. Now that he was living with Granny, who he could already tell would never tell him no, he didn't really want to anymore.

"I miss Mommy."

Masaki nodded. "I know."

"I miss Daddy too."

"I know."

"Daddy said that he loved me too, but then he went and left me and Mommy all alone." He folded his hands over his tummy. "Mommy could do the same thing. No one's stopping her. I wouldn't even know if she did."

"Alright, kid. Listen here. Your dad didn't leave you because he wanted to, okay? He was sick for a very long time and he couldn't help it but leave you guys. Remember how the last few times you saw him, he looked really tired and sad?"

Grimmjow nodded.

"Just know that where he is now, he's not so sad anymore. And you guys aren't alone, he's always watching over you.'

"Hmph."

"And your Mommy would never leave you. She loves you."

"Hmph."

Masaki sighed. "Alright, your mom tells me a lot of stories about you. Not all of them are about you being bad, though that does come up a lot. Some of them are about when you were a baby, or things you do at school, or things you say. If I want to talk about school, we end up talking about your grade on your spelling test. If I want to talk about boys, we end up talking about you having a sleepover with your friends. She's one of my best friends and we used to be able to talk about anything but ever since you were born, all she ever talks about is you!"

"... Really?"

"Yes, really," Masaki rolled over so that she was facing the six year old and Grimmjow noticed that her eyes were brown.

"Why?" he whispered.

She smiled at him. "Why do you think?"

Grimmjow waved goodbye to his mom with a big smile. Once the car was out of sight, he ran back into the house and found his grandmother in the kitchen.

"Grannnyyyyy!"

"Yes, Grimmy, darling?"

"Play with me!"

"Not right now, sweetie. Granny's making dinner."

He whined, "Grannnnnyyy", tugging on her apron.

"You've been here two months now. You haven't made friends with any of the neighborhood kids?"

Grimmjow frowned. "There are no neighborhood kids! It's just me! And school isn't going to start for another two weeks, so I can't make any friends at school yet!"

"What about Masaki? She's a very nice girl, and she's right next door."

"She's a girl."

"Aw," Granny turned around and kissed her grandson on the forehead. Ruffling his hair, she pushed him out the door, "Go give her a chance."

Groaning, he stomped his way over next door and jammed his thumb into the doorbell.

A few moments later, Masaki opened the door and looked at him expectantly. "Yes?"

Grimmjow crossed his arms with a pout. "Granny wants me to play with you."

"Hm, really?" She picked at her nails. "That's too bad. I don't feel like playing right now."

He stared at her in shock. "What?! You can't do that!"

"Sure I can," she grinned. "See ya."

"Noooo," Grimmjow stomped. "Play with me!"

"But I thought you didn't like me? You said I was mean. Come to think of it, you've been pretty mean to me too. And I don't like playing with mean little kids so... see ya."

"No no no, I'll be nice!"

"Really?"

Grimmjow shuffled his feet. This girl was so mean. He didn't know how she managed to trick both Granny and Mommy into thinking she was nice, because she wasn't. She was mean.

"I don't hear an answer," Masaki said sing-songly.

"Yes, I'll be nice," he whined. "Can you play with me? Please?" Grimmjow tried very hard to be earnest but it was hard.

Masaki hummed and tapped her chin. "No."

"WHAT?! You lied?!"

"I'm just kidding, calm down." She smiled and headed out towards the street, "Sure, I can play with you. Let's go to the park."

"Masaki! Masaki, help! Masaki!" The almost-seven year old barreled towards her once he spotted her among all the parents. Thank god she was picking him up from school today. He hugged her legs. "Help, help, help!"

"Grimmjow?! What's wrong? Grimmjow!"

He looked up at her. "There's a girl in my class who told everyone today that she likes me and she's so weird and gross and everyone says I have to marry her now! I don't want to marry her!"

"Is that all?"

"I DON'T WANT TO MARRY HER!"

She stifled a laugh. "Aw, come on. Don't get all pouty. I think it's adorable! Show me, which girl is it?"

"Cirucci. She's the one with purple hair and pigtails."

Masaki searched in the crowd of parents and children before spotting the aforementioned girl. "I don't get it, she's cute."

"Nooooo," he whined. "Argh, I can't talk you about this! You're a girl!"

"Hey," she said, affronted. "I thought you said I was cool!"

"You are, but-" he gasped. Grimmjow suddenly thought of the ultimate solution. "Masaki! I'm gonna marry you!"

"What?!"

"You're the only girl I know who is cool so I'm going to marry you and then I don't have to marry anyone else! Can you marry me? Please? Huh? Pleasseee?"

"Uh, Grimmjow, it doesn't work that way."

He stared at her with big, sad blue puppy eyes. "Masaki nee-chan, do you hate me?"

"That's not- no, I meant-"

He sniffled. "You hate me!"

"No! No, that's not true! I love you! Just not like-"

"You don't want to be with me forever and ever?"

"No, I do, it's just that-"

"You don't want to marry me?"

"I- I- I didn't say that, I just-"

"Cool, thanks!" he ran off to break the news to Cirucci. Sorry, ladies, but Grimmjow Jeagerjaques was off the market.

As he heard a car park outside, Grimmjow jumped out of his bed with a start and a big smile on his face.

Today was the day. It had been a long two months since she left for college but Masaki was finally coming back to visit. And he decided he couldn't wait any longer; today was going to be the day he made her his girlfriend.

He ran down the stairs, nearly tripping himself in the process and slid down the banister. His feet hit the ground, and right on cue, the doorbell rang.

He hastened to open it and launched himself into the arms of his third favorite female (first being Mom, second being Granny).

"Masaki!"

She laughed and caught him. "Hey there, kiddo. You're getting pretty big, aren't you?"

He smirked as she ruffled his hair. "Masaki, I have something I need to tell you!"

"Oh! Me too!" Masaki said, clapping her hands together in delight. "There's someone I want you to meet." She stepped aside and revealed the tall, scruffy man standing behind her. She let go of Grimmjow and shyly took the hand of the man. "Grimmjow, this is my boyfriend, Isshin Kurosaki."

The man smiled at Grimmjow and extended a hand, but all Grimmjow noticed was the sound of his world crashing around him.

"Oh, sweetheart, you look beautiful." Granny affectionately caressed Masaki's cheek as the two stood in front of the mirror.

The now twenty year old woman smiled nervously and smoothed out the wrinkles in her wedding dress. "Do you really think so?"

Granny scoffed. "Honey, if there's one thing I know, it's that that boy Isshin would marry you even if you walked down the aisle tomorrow in a garbage bag." She waved her grandson towards them. "Grimmy, tell Masaki how pretty she looks."

"Hmph." The ten year old glared at them and went back to sulking in his corner.

"Grimmjow Jeagerjacques," Granny warned.

Grimmjow pouted and reluctantly admitted, "You look nice."

"Just nice?"

"No," he rolled his eyes. "You look pretty."

Granny nodded approvingly while Masaki beamed and fidgeted with the sleeves of her dress. "Gosh, I can't believe you're getting married tomorrow! I remember when you were just a little girl, running around the place with a pillow case over your head, pretending you were a bride. And now it's finally happening," the old lady wiped her eyes and chuckled.

"Oh, dear. Look at me, getting all emotional." She grasped the hands of the girl she thought of as her own. "Let me just go dry my eyes. I'll go see what I can help out with downstairs."

Masaki turned this way and that way in the mirror after Granny left when she noticed a very unhappy Grimmjow through the reflection. "Hey kiddo. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Yeah right."

Grimmjow sighed and plopped down on her bed. "I just don't know why you have to get married so fast, that's all. You're not even done with college yet and you're getting hitched. Are you that desperate for a man?"

She slapped the back of his head and glanced down at her stomach, pressing her hands flat against it. "It's not about being desperate. It's about loving someone so indefinitely that you just know no one will ever be able to take their place."

The boy rolled his eyes. "And this person just has that doofus?"

Masaki raised an eyebrow at the little blue boy. "What do you have against him anyway? You've never liked him, ever since you first met him, even though he's been nothing but nice to you."

"He's so weird! And lame!" the boy complained. "He's always running around the place, being an idiot- don't you find it embarrassing when you have to be seen with him? And that beard! What's up with that anyway? Does he think it's cool or something?" He crossed his arms and mumbled, "You're too good for him."

"Hey, I happen to like his beard. I think it's quite handsome," she said defensively. "And I find it admirable that he always stays true to him, no matter what other people may think of him."

"You're just saying that because you're blinded by love."

"And you are just saying that because you've never been in love."

Grimmjow huffed. That could not be further from the truth.

Masaki sighed. "Grimmjow, I thought you were my friend. Why can't you be happy for me?"

Grimmjow frowned. "...Once you get married, you're going to move to Karakura, right?" It seemed like the universe was playing a joke on him. He left everything behind in Karakura and right when he was beginning to like Las Noches, Masaki was deciding to move to Karakura.

"I'll come back to visit. I promise," she said indulgently.

The boy scoffed. "Promises aren't worth jack." People left, and that was a fact. They just leave and never come back. They might try, but ultimately, all promises are broken. He looked away and mumbled, "You were supposed to marry me."

Masaki sat down next to Grimmjow and took his hand. "I know. I'm sorry, Grimmjow. One day, you'll find someone you really want to marry. When that day comes, I will be so happy for you."

"What if I don't?" Grimmjow looked into her big brown eyes and felt as though he would cry. "What if I never fall in love with anyone? Or even worse, what if the person I love doesn't love me back, or leaves me? What then?"

Masaki put her free hand on her stomach, touching it absentmindedly, and squeezed his hand with her other hand. "That's a risk we all have to take. Grimmjow, if you ever think you've found that person, the one who makes your heart skip a beat and puts a smile on your face just at the thought of them, you have to hold on to them and never let go." She whispered softly, "Seize the day."

Grimmjow leaned his head against her shoulder and she leaned her head against his head.

The two young friends sat there quietly, holding hands and tuning into the gravity of standing on the precipice of their lives. Everything was changing but in this one moment, the two could be at a standstill. In this moment, they had each other and whatever happened tomorrow was miles away.

Grimmjow woke slowly as those lost scenes of times past retreated back to his mind. It wasn't that he didn't like remembering his mom, or Masaki, or Granny but dreams in general just put him in a weird mood once he woke up. It was as if he couldn't differentiate which worlds or time lines were real and which were just part of his imagination.

The heat painting his inner eyelids red was starting to bother him and the dusty air of the apartment was getting too stuffy. It must have been at least 100 degrees in there. He blinked a couple times to adjust to the light and then winced. He touched his eye gingerly and cursed when he felt the swollen bruising.

Hobbling over to the bathroom, Grimmjow stubbed his toe on a box of something. 'Damn it, why do I have so much crap anyway? Didn't feel like that much when I wasa living in my old place.' It was counterproductive to making way through his apartment when aided with a hangover.

He groaned and shoved the door open. Gripping the sink for balance, Grimmjow squinted at the mirror.

A disheveled man was staring back at him. His hair was sticking up some places and smushed flat elsewhere. One eye was bloodshot and the other one wasn't even open because that's how bad his black eye was. There was a fist-sized bruise where his left eye should have been. Blue-ish purple with red and black spots, ringed by green and yellow. 'It's like staring in a fucking rainbow.'

He poked it. He just had to.

"Ah, shit!"

He groaned and clutched his eye. "Fuck!" He punched the wall and cursed some more.

Grimmjow had gotten into a more than fair share of fights before, and had been on both ends of a black eye though the older he got, the less he was on the receiving side. Maybe it was because it had been too long since his last one, but god damn it, this one hurt like a bitch. He couldn't even remember how he got the damn thing.

He hobbled over to sit on his bed and rubbed his temples. 'Let's see. I was at some bar, drinking scotch. Lots and lots of scotch.' Right on cue, his head throbbed, reminding him that his hangover wasn't ready to leave yet. 'I was talking to the bartender...' Grimmjow frowned. 'No, I was flirting with the bartender and he was flirting back... Alright, maybe he wasn't "flirting back" but he wasn't offended by it or anything.'

'Anyhow. Talking, flirting, drinking. Then he put me in a taxi and I kissed- oh.'

So Ginger was the one responsible for putting the color on his face. Huh.

Well, he couldn't say he really blamed the guy.

Grimmjow touched his eye again (he couldn't resist) as he pondered this newfound subject. At least this meant he was right in his first assessment of the guy. There was some ass-kicking muscle behind that pretty face. He recalled parts of their conversation. 'And apparently, a giant nerd brain too.'

A brown-eyed ginger with an attractive face, well-endowed brain, and a mean left hook.

'Interesting.'

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I feel kind of proud of myself for not taking months to update this, but then again, other writers update weekly. Or even more frequently. *sigh*