6. Once You Had A Dream

[December, three years earlier]

Snow fell silently on that particular Saturday afternoon. The Espada tea room was nearly full, and bustling with life, which had the entire staff on their toes.

"Grimmjow." Ulquiorra spoke, watching the taller man sitting on top of some crates. He appeared to not be listening, "Grimmjow, you're needed inside." Taking a long drag of the cigarette in between his fingers, Grimmjow blew the smoke in his coworkers' face. "Buzz off. I ain't goin' back in there. The boss can bite me if he thinks I'm going to work a straight double bussing his tables and punch out just before my times' up just so he can pay me less."

Ulquiorra stared at him, refraining from starting an argument with the perpetually angry man. He waved away the smoke assaulting his face. "Do you want me to tell him that?"

Grimmjow clicked his teeth, and flicked away the nub that used to be a cigarette. Dropping down from the crates, a spark of determination flickered in his eyes. "Know what? I'm gonna tell him myself." "Are you sure that's a good idea?" "Aren't you sick of working for this asshole?" "Well..." Ulquiorra began to trail off, not really wanting to agree with Grimmjow, at least out loud.

"I'm gonna give that ass a peace of my mind." With that declaration, Grimmjow walked past Ulquiorra, lumbering into the main room. The other employees watched the one-man-commotion make his way to the back room.

"Grimmjow, stop. What do you think you're doing?" Tosen scolded, blocking him from entering the managers' office. A growl came as a response, "Givin' that asshole a piece of my mind." Tosen refused to budge, holding out his arm in hopes to prevent any further commotion. "Aizen is on an important phone call right now. Besides that, you're 20 minutes late. "Screw that!" Grimmjow barked, shoving the assistant manager away from the door, storming into the office with his teeth gritting. Tosen could only sigh in irritation and urge the others to go back to work.

Slamming the door behind him with quite a force, leaving the man inside to stare, with a very unamused expression. "I see you've forgotten how to knock." He slowly placed the phone, that had been on his ear, onto the desk. "Ha-ha, you're not funny. I'm here for a reason!" Grimmjow growled, his hands on the desk. "I hope it's a good one." "Aizen, you can take your stuffy tea house and shove it! I'm done with this shit!" He threw his apron onto the desk in anger.

The wide smirk on Aizen's face only serving to aggravate him more. "Do you think you're not replacable, Grimmjow? Go. Another person will have your spot before you have the chance to look back."

"Y-yeah, well, I'm taking Ulquiorra with me! I'll snatch your business right out from under you!" he threatened. Aizen went quiet, before starting to laugh. Grimmjow scowled at the cackling, balling his fists. "Go ahead, Grimmjow. I'll enjoy watching you try."

In a growing fury of anger, Grimmjow left the office, grabbing Ulquiorra by the back of the shirt as he was leaving.

"Um. Where are we going?" "I just quit for you." "Um... I don't think you get to make that decision for m-" "Too late, dammit! Just shut up!"

"You did what!?" Ichigo exclaimed, causing the bar full of people to suddenly hush. Grimmjow glanced around cautiously before glaring at Ichigo's volume. "You don't gotta sound so surprised! You heard me! I quit. That place fuckin' sucks. So, I left, and I took Ulquiorra with me."

"Why did-" Closing his eyes, Ichigo took a moment to process the story that Grimmjow had just told him. "So, what are you going to do now?"

After pausing to drink from his glass, "We're gonna open a cafe!" "Wait- what?" "You and me. We're gonna take the money I got saved and open our own cafe. We'll make it way better than that shitty tea room, and completely rip that assholes' customers out from under him!" Grimmjow slammed his fist against the bar, turning almost completely to the man at his side, who seemed to be trying to lean away.

"You know this is an insane idea, right? Not to mention, something like that isn't going to happen over-night..." "Don't care. C'mon, Kurosaki! You've got those dumb business classes. You can be the vice-boss. Plus, we've already got an employee!"

A deep sigh escaped. Ichigo stared at Grimmjow for a long time before rolling his eyes. "This isn't gonna be easy, you know. You can't give this up halfway through." "I know that! I'm not an idiot. I actually thought about this."

"That's surprising." Ichigo retorted, finishing his drink and ignoring the glare he was getting. "Do you know where you want to put this place?"

A grin broke on Grimmjow's face, "Yeah. There's this little place that's been unused for a while, and theres an apartment on the second floor. It looks good for a start."

"Alright, alright... I'll help you out."

"Why do you always come back here to sleep?" Ichigo sighed, watching the supposed 'boss' laying on the sacks of coffee beans in the back room. Groaning with frustration, Ichigo gave a swift kick to Grimmjow's leg. "Wake up!"

With a snort and a surprised noise, Grimmjow sat up straight, "Wha- Why'd you wake me up?!" he growled. "Um, because we're busy and you're not sleeping back here to get out of it." "Tch. You're not my mom." he grumbled, getting up and rubbing his face. "Thank god." Ichigo spat back, sarcasm dripping as he rolled his eyes and left for the main room.

Lazily following, Grimmjow scanned the busy cafe. On one hand, he was happy it was busy, on the other, he was sorely beginning to miss sleeping.

"Bad night sleep?" A soft voice called from beside him. Following the sound, Grimmjow found Ai sitting at the end of the bar with her laptop. "I guess." he replied with a grumble. He watched Ai smile softly, "Drink some tea before bed. Chamomile is supposed to be good for the nerves."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Grimmjow leaned on the counter. "I hate tea." "You hate a lot of things." A snort escaped the tired man, conceding to the banter, "Tea doesn't taste as good as coffee." "Depends on the type."

The usual hum of the cafe became a good sound to Grimmjow's ears, telling him that he was getting closer and closer to that three-year dream.