Work Text:
"A Tail to Tell"
A oneshot fanfiction written by FicticiousDelicious.
At a popular coffeeshop on the corner of a busy suburb intersection a customer, who was so cocksure of himself that he could have owned the world for all anyone knew, walked in with the intent to order anything but coffee. He hated the stuff for the way it tasted and how he felt after drinking it; at least he’d tried it a few times but the bean juice was just displeasing and acidic. As this man of a generous six-foot plus height and broad muscular build waited in line he studied all of the place. The coffeeshop was humble but packed. They had sweets and snacks in a case up on the counter by the register where there were some bags of coffee beans and gift cards for sale. No this was not a chain store, it was a mom and pop business of some kind. The floors were tile and the air was cool, a nice break from summer’s heat, and around one of the people in line ahead of him this man could see hand-decorated coffee mugs stacked for sale. Even if their bread and butter was something he distasted and having walked by this place many times he’d actually written it off before but now he was having second thoughts, especially as he looked up at the long menu of drinks. He was reading and mindlessly inching forward in line. Grimmjow was this man’s name and he was a well-groomed and manly handsome fellow. He put his large hands into his faded jean pockets as he read the clear chalk printing of their drinks-
“Hi,” the sweet voice of the barista working at the register broke through.
He was next. Grimmjow’s blueish eyes popped for a second as he looked over and then down as a shorter man peered up at him.
The barista’s eyes got wide.
Grimmjow noticed a cast on his right forearm.
“What would you like?” this working man asked, looking less surprised with every passing second. Eye-contact was easier if you could expect what you might see…this was without a doubt a good-looking customer and this hard-working fellow wasn’t ready for a customer like that. Holy wow…
It only took Grimmjow a half a second to adjust and his eyes got easy but he smirked at the cute man behind the counter. “Hot tea,” he started to reach for the hand-decorated coffee mugs for customers and holding his large hand over the mouth of one moved it and put it in front of the barista, “in that.”
Ichigo, his nametag said ‘Ichigo K.’, immediately blinked down at the register screen and started tapping away with fast clicks and clacks. He wasn’t really smiling yet but he also wasn’t frowning, sort of a focused expression; he did have a lot of customers to get through even if this one was handsome. “What kind of tea?” He blinked his hazel eyes back up.
Grimmjow was not allowing his eyes to bore into this poor guy’s soul but he hadn’t looked away since getting up to the counter, aside from choosing a mug of course. He marked the price of his purchase already. Thirty dollars for a mug was expensive! “Hmmm, what type of tea do you think I drink?”
Now on the spot Ichigo held in a sigh as he realized that this guy had just done one of the most testy things imaginable when the place was packed with customers. Quietly Ichigo studied his customer's bouffant of blue hair. “U-Uh…” he faltered.
Grimmjow was already getting out his wallet. “Sorry. Just give me something green and basic. I don’t like coffee much. Tea’s better.” He’d done his little experiment to see how this cute guy with short hair the perfect color of an orange would react, he didn’t have to be an asshole about it.
“Ok.” The reaction was relieved and instantaneous. Ichigo was tapping away again with one hand, his forearm’s cast just rested on the counter with his fingers laying there. Before he could say the total his customer just handed him a credit card and Ichigo said the total anyway then gave a second’s pause before running the card. He handed it back with a smile and a receipt, hazel eyes blinking back up to look the customer directly in the eye again in case he wouldn’t get another chance from being trapped at the register.
Smiling back Grimmjow picked up the cue as he was taking the card back and receipt and managed to put them in his wallet without looking down. “Hmm. You look nice when you smile. I hope your arm gets better soon.”
The barista felt his body heat up, “Uh, thank you! I hope so too.” Nervously he was picking up the mug that this man had bought and handing it off to the other staff who were making the drinks and briefly told them the customer’s name…though he hadn’t asked. Ichigo had a photographic memory and he had an accidental habit of reading people’s credit cards for their names instead of asking for them. It had gotten him in a little trouble more than once but not badly. He wished, as his customer moved away, that the man would stay closer to the register but the pick-up area was many feet away. Reality set in as Ichigo refocused on his other customers and thankfully any time he wanted to he could just revisit that man’s image in his head, preferably when he had time to focus on it.
There were twenty other places to buy crafted beverages ready to drink in this suburb area but Grimmjow picked that humble coffeeshop again. He purposefully came by when he thought it wasn’t busy, near the end of the evening, and walked in alone. Fate was singing his song… In the coffeeshop’s front wearing a lax uniform of casual clothes of browns and whites and an apron was the man he’d met at the register a week ago. The poor guy was sweeping the floors with one arm in his spare time. That tenacity despite injury was commendable but aggravating to Grimmjow for some vague reason; maybe he felt a little defensive, like this guy shouldn’t have to sweep floor with a broken arm.
All alone Ichigo had heard the shop’s door and turned around, face breaking into a smile as he saw who’d walked in holding onto one of their hand-decorated mugs. He laughed out of delight briefly. “I thought you didn’t like coffee?”
“You remember me?” Grimmjow curiously bent a blue brow down as he strolled up while the barista set back the broom and went to the register. He’d figured he would at least have to remind this guy.
“You’re distinct, and I have a good memory…” Ichigo was shy to admit as he glanced down then back up again with energy in his eyes. That broken forearm didn’t keep him down. “Do you want some green tea again?”
Grimmjow set his mug on the counter with a persistently confident and happy response, “Please.”
It was a few minutes until closing, Ichigo noted that the other man had been here for an hour and he’d had the pleasure of talking to Grimmjow alone for that entire time as he was about some duties that needed doing before the shop was locked up for the night. Through conversation about work, philosophies and hobbies – mostly light conversation – Ichigo found this blue-haired looker to be as interesting and confident as he was attractive and Grimmjow, who Ichigo started to realize viewed him similarly, wanted to know how the barista had figured his name. Ichigo told the truth: that he had a photographic memory.
“You barely looked at it,” Grimmjow’s face was one of slight skepticism as he relaxed back against a simple chair set a distance away.
From the counter where the staff exclusively roamed the barista was washing plastic containers out and sanitizing them, mindful of his cast. “Well that’s the thing… I just do that sometimes before asking and I don’t mean to. I don’t tell people since I’m worried they’ll think I’ll steal their information or something but I actually don’t mean to forget to ask.” He was turning some pitchers upside down to dry over a rack as he faced a wall and finished up with that by drying his hands off. Ichigo looked across the space at his company.
“Do you get headaches over focusing on things you want to look at?”
“Oh yeah. Just sometimes though.”
“Can I…test you?”
“Sure.”
Grimmjow took a moment to think, “What’d my shirt say when I walked in here the first time?”
“Nothing, it didn’t have words on it.” Ichigo smirked a little, that one was easy.
“And the last four on my card, since you got a look at that.”
A few seconds of thought passed. “Four. Six… Five. Two. It was blue and silver. The expiration is next year in December the third.” Just for fun Ichigo raised him a few details while he had to think about it.
Grimmjow’s expression relaxed as he double-checked the credit card in his wallet. Ichigo’s description matched. “Holy shit!” That was wild, a photographic memory…never forgetting how anything appeared ever, he could see the sense in worrying; it was probably a bittersweet gift.
“Uum…I don’t mean to be rude, and this was nice talking to you but you’re gonna have to scoot in the next minute so I don’t get in trouble. We’re closing.” What a cold phrase and he didn’t really want to kick Grimmjow out. Ichigo walked up as close as he could to the front counter with an apology. “Sorry.”
Fully understanding Grimmjow shook his head with an easy smile. “That’s fine.” He started to pick up his stuff. Oh how he wanted to ask this man to break the rules and let him stay…
“How do you do that?”
The man with blue hair’s eyes shot up, “Huh?”
“You’re never awkward, when you respond.”
“Sometimes I’m very awkward,” Grimmjow corrected, taking his jacket up off of the back of his chair near last and whirling it around himself to put it on. This guy had only met him twice, how could he know?
“The fact that you admit that just proves my point even more! I don’t think you’re awkward at all. What could ever make you awkward?”
Considering the fact that Grimmjow kind of wanted to ask this cute barista out on a date eventually he thought he might bare himself a bit and see how that went. The tall, muscled man straightened up, positioned by the doors out, and with his emptied mug hanging from one hand’s grip and the other hand stuffed in his jacket pocket he looked right across the twelve feet separating them. “Telling you that I’d prefer to be walking around in a suit made out of fur might just do it.” That was indeed quietly awkward to explain to a relative stranger. Heck though…if this guy didn’t like him for that they didn’t have to talk anymore.
The cute barista pushed some of his short orange hair away from an eye with his undamaged arm and leaned gingerly on the counter. “Oh. I…can see why that might.”
Not much of a reaction. Well he’d tried. Grimmjow packed away his feelings and shrugged with a light smile as he turned to push open a glass paneled door but the barista’s voice caught him as he had a foot out the door.
“You’re so honest! Thank you…if you come by in your fursuit thing tomorrow around noon I’ll tell you how I broke my arm,” Ichigo tempted with a tone of voice that got a little higher. He wasn’t put off by a furry; he wanted to talk more to this interesting stranger! “You like talking to me right?”
Calmly pleased to hear this Grimmjow was successfully baited and waited in the partially open door with a blue gaze turned back into the coffeeshop with eyes fixed on the sweet expression of the barista. He judged the words to be genuine. “I like you a lot, yeah.” With a smile between them a nod on his own the man who didn’t like coffee was gone…out into the nighttime world of the suburbs and left with a thrilling tingle of hope. Time would tell by tomorrow…
Saturday. A busy day for everything bought and sold, especially around noontime. Lunch and the weekend! It was a wonder why Ichigo had wanted him to show up during all of the buzz but Grimmjow was a ballsy man, even though he still held a little bit of an awkward feeling as he stepped along the sidewalk walking toward the coffeeshop. It was too hot for the whole thing but…he had a very elegant and long boofy blue and white tail attached to the back of faded blue jeans, blue synthetic fur sleeves, puffy blue and white paws with black plastic claws and bright blue toe beans, a basic dark blue t-shirt and of course his furry head – complete with mostly blue fur but some accents of white fur on snoot and c-shaped ears plus a black nose and plastic fangs in his mouth. The partial suit was well made but he hadn’t made it himself – no skill with crafts. The head’s big blue eyes cleverly seemed to follow wherever his head turned to and he could see through where he was going of course. He looked like some large mystic, two-legged space cat. Damn it was hot! He tried not to pant and didn’t walk slow. People moving by him definitely gave him second glances, good and bad, but no one from these suburbs seemed scathing. Regardless Grimmjow tried not to give a shit about them but it was hard; he didn’t usually show off his fursona outside of conventions or arranged gatherings. The crap he would do for a good date…well…it was kind of a date? Hopefully a date…if his barista buddy took a break and sat with him he’d embellish and call it a speed date.
Up to the coffeeshop the white and blue cat held the door open for a couple and their children, the wife smiled appreciatively while her husband glared and the children declared ‘kitty cat!’ loudly. Grimmjow’s head was designed to look happy not menacing but he was smiling under it too. A double smile! He wandered in after the family and lingered by the door; aaaah that cool, cool air conditioning was a relief after his walk… Oh crap…he’d forgotten his mug. If one problem wasn’t enough he leaned to look around the line of people who were waiting for coffee and didn’t see Ichigo at the register. He didn’t see his barista working on drinks or buzzing around anywhere either. Grimmjow’s nerves started to tingle…it was easy to allow when he was already going to a length to meet this guy- Grimmjow’s anxious glances around and slight thoughts telling him to leave paused as an orange form waved at him from across the coffeeshop.
Sat in a chair was a man-sized orange and black lizard…dragon…dinosaur…one of those. It was a full fursuit on them and theirs was also nicely made with those big clever eyes that seemed to be looking at whatever the head faced; hazel was the color of the irises.
This is a FicticiousDelicious fanfiction, exclusive to my Ao3.org. This fanfiction is not approved for any manner of AI use. If you’re reading this writing from a source other than https://archiveofourown.org/users/FicticiousDelicious/pseuds/FicticiousDelicious then it’s not the original and it’s not me posting it!
Out of reflex Grimmjow caught himself waving back at the other furry without a second thought then being waved over by them. He was a pretty confident guy but even this made his pulse hit hard beats as he moved away from the door with the padding and tacks of his hind paws going across the tile and his boofy blue and white tail swaying. Even then, there was no lack of confidence in his posture.
“You look nice, but you cheated! I wore my whole thing…” Ichigo was so hot from going out in this! What his fursona dragon suit had going on was some intricate sewing to indent puffy orange cloth to look like scales over the whole thing, there was black fluff over his stomach, slightly puffy orange hands and feet with smooth black pads on the undersides, soft black sewn-on claws on hands and feet, a long tail pointed that he’d curled around his waist to it wasn’t in the way, a red fringe of fur around his neck and some soft baby horns poking up on his head! Ichigo’s form looked a little chubbier like this and his head had a short snoot but was sewn in detail with fangs too – soft ones.
Taken by surprise, Grimmjow’s nerves stopped stabbing him as he recognized Ichigo by voice and the cat fellow happily took a seat at the table with his new furry friend and clacked his front paws’ claws on the surface of the table in a drumming wave or two. He was staring straight at those beautiful hazel eyes, noticing that they had some gold shimmer about them when the light caught them right. “Not so bad yourself, you’re a…”
He admired Grimmjow’s claws. “Dragon. A little chubby one.” Ichigo informed.
“Aaah, scale-butt. Got it.”
It was teasing in good fun and Ichigo could tell. “Well excuuuuse me space cat-dude. Where’s your helmet and what planet do blue cats grow on?”
Grimmjow laughed, and he laughed hard. “Pluto.” He might as well be a space cat, he wasn’t supposed to be any breed in particular. It turned out that baring himself as he was this time had turned out really well.
“Wanna take a walk instead of staying here? It’s not like I’m working.”
“You don’t fly?”
Ichigo turned to show off tiny wings on his back. “Can’t.”
“Aaah, but you’ll get heatstroke outside,” Grimmjow defended nicely, even when he really wanted to walk with this guy.
“I won’t. Dragons are heat resistant. I worry more about you!” Ichigo pressed, getting up from his chair and tapping a soft-clawed hand on Grimmjow’s blue furry arm like a beckoning gesture to come along…and so the other man did! For both of them, this was a fun opportunity for some casual roleplay, mixed with a little real interaction. The coffeeshop was just a familiar and safe place for them to find each other at first, now to other places! Sans his suit’s head Ichigo drove his car with Grimmjow as a passenger, with the air conditioning blasting, over to a park outside of the suburbs and they got out and walked around the lake shaded by trees. The concrete of the sidewalks was pretty clean and the trees were beautiful green with occasional breaks that let sunlight down on them. The shade was cool though. This was a really good place; Ichigo had come here before to walk by himself like this. “No one bothers me here because it’s not a really big park. This time it’s nice not being alone.” The puffy orange, black and red dragon sighed toward his space cat friend; his little wings bobbed as he walked along. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I knew exactly where you were coming from at first.”
“It’s not like I’m upset, but why didn’t you?” Grimmjow let his furry arms swing, the breeze over the lake and extra movement was helping to keep himself cool; the weight of his paws assisted and he tilted his head to look at Ichigo as wind blew through his fur and whisked his elegant blue and white tail toward the other man.
“Because I wanted it to be like meeting up with a friend, and surprising you!” Since Grimmjow had bared himself a bit Ichigo had felt like he could count on Grimmjow’s honesty.
“Huh…well…alright…” that was kinda nice, but he did have goals slightly past ‘friends’, “…but am I friend-zoned?” Grimmjow laughed nervously and glanced at the lake before more carefully watching where he was going on the path; it was clean but there were still sticks to avoid.
“Well…”
“I’m sorry. We just met, I shouldn’t do that.” There was his awkwardness, plain as day. “So…you’ve got a tale to tell me still.”
“A tail?”
“A tale! Not tail.” Grimmjow pointed at Ichigo’s triangular tail bouncing up and down behind the puffy dragon. “How did you get the cast?”
Folding his hands behind himself carefully Ichigo slightly wiggled his soft body as they kept walking along the shaded pavement like he was embarrassed about something. “Promise you won’t laugh?”
“I won’t laugh.”
“I was trying to lick my balls, and I fell off the bed on my arm.”
Grimmjow struggled and lightly bit his tongue then covered his eyes with his front paws and shook his head with a swish of fur. Oh he was trying…he was trying so hard…
Ichigo jabbed a soft-cloth claw at the large cat's not furry side. “You’re laughing! Darn cat! You should be a chuckle-bunny!”
“I’m really trying not to, ok?! You should be an elephant, never forgetting.” Not minding being poked harmlessly and joked at Grimmjow let his front paws down. “I wish I could lick my own balls…but I’m not a flexible kind of cat.”
“You’re a muscly cat,” Ichigo chirped, and was glad that he’d never forget these silly memories.
“Yeah.” Grimmjow also hated to admit it but he was really starting to get hot from walking, even with just partial amounts of fur…one only know how Ichigo was fairing without complaint. The blue and white cat nudged his friend over toward a nice bench with a space under its backing.
Without question Ichigo, the puffy dragon, sat down with his tail slotted through the back space and folded his soft-clawed hands on his lap and shyly kicked his feet. He was glad to get a rest and they could talk and look at the lake and the park’s greenery. Being in nature felt good. He wished there were forests around here.
Grimmjow sat down with his boofy tail curled around his hip next to Ichigo all relaxed-like.
“I like you both ways…or three ways…” Ichigo mentioned out of the blue.
“Eh? What about a three-way?”
“You’re dirty!” the dragon scolded humorously.
Grimmjow tilted his furry head side to side in a so-so accepting manner; Ichigo wasn’t wrong, he could be a little dirty. He relaxed back against the bench. “What’re the three ways?”
“You know…a cat, a man and your personality.” Ichigo stopped kicking his puffy dragon feet for a second. “Do you still like me?”
To reinforce the fact Grimmjow dared put an arm around Ichigo. “Yeah, I like ya a lot, lil’ dragon. You’re cute and understanding.”
Ichigo was actually happy with that arm back there and the kind words. “If you hadn’t come by today I would have been really sad. I’ve been stood up a lot when people realize that I’m not all human like them.”
“That’s fine, fuck ‘em. You don’t need people like that.” Grimmjow pawed comfortingly at the side of Ichigo’s shoulder, careful of his dangerous claws not raking the scale pattern. So did that mean Ichigo was thinking of this kind of like a date too?
Self-consciously Ichigo fluffed up the red fringe of fur at his own neck then smoothed his hands over his puffy stomach and its black fur. “You’re really cool about this, haven’t you ever been stood up?”
“Lots. People are just chickens like that. It’s nothing personal if they barely know you.”
“I know a lot of nicer chickens than regular people…but you’re the first cat that’s not catty that I know.”
“‘Cause I’m from outer space.”
Ichigo just hugged Grimmjow at that point and they stayed happily cuddled on the park bench, silently wishing it wasn’t so blasted warm but not overwhelmed as they continued to enjoy themselves. Sometimes it was just life’s furry things~
Read ALL my fanfictions on ArchiveofOurOwn.org. Art via: DeviantArt.com/FicticiousDelicious or FicticiousDelicious.Tumblr.com