Here we go again!

Disclaimer and warning thing:

Don't own the recognisable characters. Will contain abuse and noncon, probably nondescriptive as well as consensual boyxboy stuff. Don't like, leave now.

Prologue

Twenty five little desks and chairs filled with twenty five little bodies, all eagerly sticking their hands up, some straining to stay in their seats as the desperately tried to gain the attention of their teacher. The young woman at the front frowned, her other hand on her hip as she deliberated, drawing it out to make her pupils squirm that bit more. Miss Grey had asked for a volunteer to help her with the lesson, something that every child wanted, the chance to stand at the front and help. Even the littlest member of the class, standing out due to his bright hair had his hand up, even if he didn't quite have the confidence that his peers were showing.

"Hmmm, well I guess no one really wants to help me. I guess I'll just have to do it myself." That made some of the bolder ones start to whine, standing in place, little bodies leaning over their desks as they used their other hand to try and get their hand up that big further than the rest. One of the taller members of the class, also gifted with bright hair, though his was even more remarkable, was kneeling on his seat, bringing his hand up and waving it at her, smirk in place. Grimmjow had all the confidence in the world, too much for a six year old in school, and he had on occasion used it poorly, other children suffering due to his ego. The teacher's eye quickly drifted around the children in the class, little Rukia Kuchiki bouncing in place with her hand up; Szayel, with his pink hair, sitting fairly straight with his raised but that was nothing compared to Uryu, his posture perfect and his face expectant.

"Ichigo, why don't you come and help me?"

The smallest in her class was a little orange haired boy, with big brown eyes that warily gazed over his classmates, seeing the jealousy in some of the faces, but his friends, big Chad and the pretty Orihime smiled at him encouragingly.

Ichigo couldn't believe he'd been picked; he never got picked for anything. He went with the teacher, the class getting left in the care of the teaching assistant, and they walked down to a store room, which the teacher unlocked with a small brass key from her pocket before opening the door and handing the little boy a big box of crepe paper. She lifted a crate of glue and scissors before locking the door back up again, smiling down at the boy before placing the crate on her hip and laying her other on the child's shoulder, guiding him back to the class, smiling slightly at the little one's determined look.

Ichigo was put in charge of giving everyone three pieces of paper, different colours as the teacher handed out two pairs of scissors to each of the groups. Ichigo made sure to give Orihime two different colours of pink, knowing the girl's preference for the colour, and he slid Chad an orange in among his, the big boy having always liked the colour of Ichigo's hair. The rest of the class just got what came to his hands first, except Grimmjow's group where he stood and pretty much let them rifle through the box, taking what they wanted. There was no point in arguing with them, he'd probably just get a kick under the desk, or something nasty dropped in his lunch. He put the box of paper back at the front before going back to his desk, pulling his three pages, one blue, one red and the other black. He'd noticed there wasn't much black, and made sure to get himself one, black always came in useful, plus he'd always thought it was an interesting shade.

It wasn't a colour, he'd been told that many times by his mother, the woman designing for a living. White was all the colours mixed, and she'd shown him a crystal breaking white light into a spectrum; and black was a lack of colour. Ichigo didn't quite understand, he just knew it made things look brighter, when put with them. One of the reasons he liked black tops, they made his hair look brighter, and his mother loved his bright hair, forever playing with it.

The children started their task, little fights over the scissors breaking out in the class making the teacher have to go and talk with them. Ichigo cut his shape out, passing the scissors to Chad before he took a glue stick and attached the hat shape to his man. The task set was to make an image of themselves in twenty years' time, thinking about what their job would be, how they would look and what they would wear. Ichigo had drawn himself tall, and in a doctor's jacket, with a little blue hat like the doctors at his dad's work wore to cover their hair. The teacher called for break, telling them to put the lid on their glue and to make sure the scissors were left in the middle of the tables before anyone got up. The children hustled over to their bags, hanging from labelled pegs at the back of the room to fetch their snacks. Grimmjow bumped into Ichigo, their pegs right next to each other after all with no one starting with H in their classroom. "Hey baby carrot, you need to get some orange onto your picture, otherwise it can't be you." Grimmjow wasn't really cruel, he just liked to tease and knew he had to tread lightly with the small boy, he was so sensitive but it was just too easy sometimes.

Baby Carrot was one of many names Ichigo had been called, Strawberry being the obvious one. He felt his eyes sting, and sniffed, trying to be brave like his mum had told him. "You've got to have your hair up if you are a doctor, to keep it from falling into cuts and stuff. My dad told me."

Grimmjow just sniffed. "And you reckon you'll be a doctor? I'm going to be a race car driver, or a lawyer like my dad, maybe both. Catch you later Kurosaki."

Ichigo just waited till the bigger boy left, getting his little tub of grapes out of his bag before he left the room, one of the last but Chad had waited for him. The boy was the joint tallest in the class, Grimmjow's friend Nnoitra being equal, but a lot skinnier. Chad was chunkier, and had deeper skin as well as a much more pleasant personality. He'd helped Ichigo up when other boys had knocked him down, the large boy scaring them off and they'd formed a friendship then, Ichigo able to enjoy the calm quietness of the boy and Chad liked having someone who didn't play as rough as most of the boys their age.

They sat together, others drifting by occasionally as the young children played in their area, the concrete marked with hopscotch patterns and the grass area to the side was big enough for groups to run around. It was in the corner between the areas that held the little bench where the two boys sat, munching on their snacks as the talked about a television programme they both liked until the bell rang, the two boys streaking over to their line, ending up fourth and fifth. Grimmjow and his friends hadn't run as fast, not bothered about their positions and they joined just as the teachers came out, calling their classes in, the four lines taking turns to enter the building in an orderly fashion.

Ichigo was just finishing his name on the bottom of the page when the classroom door opened, their head mistress coming in and asking the teacher to step outside for a moment. The tension was clear, even the little six year olds knew something was wrong, the police man in the corridor being a clear sign. Posters were forgotten about as the children started whispering, wondering what was happening. The teacher assistant tried to get them to focus back on their task but she was as curious as the pupils.

The door opened again, Miss Grey having a strange look on her face, somewhere between grief and worry as she looked at her class, her eyes staring at her littlest pupil as they became glassy.

"Ichigo, can you come here for a minute please?"

Ichigo froze in his chair, panic settling in as he glanced round at his friends and his other classmates. He saw Grimmjow frowning, leaning around in his chair to look at the smaller boy. He got up, pushing his chair back in before walking to the front of the room, the teacher holding her hand out as he approached. He automatically took it, and was led out of the room, glancing back quickly to see his friends craning their heads to see out the door. It was shut after the boy though, and the members of the class started talking once more, louder this time.

Ten minutes later the door opened again, this time it was just the teacher who walked down the classroom and picked Ichigo's bag off his peg, putting his lunch box in it from his little cubby underneath. She carried the bag out of the room again, not looking at anyone.

That was the last time any of the children saw their classmate, the little boy having to go away to live with relatives in a different town. The story of what happened was circulated around, starting with the teachers and the parents and eventually filtering down to the students. Ichigo's parents had been involved in a car accident and both had been killed, leaving their only son an orphan.

Chad and Orihime had tried to get in contact with their friend, their parents petitioning the school to get them details but they had been unsuccessful; no one really knew where he had gone.

The picture of him dressed as a doctor had been hung in the classroom, the name unfinished but clear enough; Ichi.

Chapter 1

High school, purgatory or hell, depending on your point of view. Of course there were those who thrived in the bitchy, self-obsessed environment and usually those were the ones who were the bitchy, self-obsessed ones.

Grimmjow Jaeggerjackes didn't consider himself either of those things, he knew plenty of others did but he deemed them beneath his care. Captain of the basketball team didn't have to worry about the little people when he had an entourage of team mates and cheer leaders to buffer them away.

He wasn't a bad guy, he didn't throw iced drinks at people, or flush their heads down the toilet; he just watched as other people did. He leaned against his locker, his uniform blazer clearly showing the badge of team captain and he overlooked the masses milling about in the corridor on the way to classes. The locker bank was for his year group only, other ones being dotted around the school, but these ones were the best for spectating, being between the math and English classrooms. He propped one leg up behind him on the locker below his, his polished shoes gripping on to the metal slightly. He cut a fine figure in the uniform, the navy blazer blending nicely with his shock of tousled blue hair and the red piping round the lapels standing out. His white shirt was tucked in to his black trousers, his tie loosely tied and hanging round his neck. He winked at a couple of younger girls who were staring at him, making them blush madly before turning away and continuing to walk. He caught a glance at one girl who wasn't impressed by him, big brown eyes rolling as she approached. She slapped her folder in his raised knee, making him drop it down with a scowl. Throwing her sea green braid over her shoulder, she just raised her eyebrow in reply, turning to lean on the locker next to him.

"Hey Grimmy, stalking anyone in particular?" Nel was Grimmjow's step sister, his father having left his mother years ago and his mother remarried. Grimmjow liked to pretend he didn't like her, and did find her annoying but she was one of the few who called him on his bullshit, and could make him smile.

"Nah, just scouting for a new girlfriend. Any of your friends hot and easy?" He laughed as he got hit by the folder again, this time in the stomach, making him clutch it for a second.

"Like any of them would even look at you. Well they would look, but they know better than to do anything else." Nel knew her brother was hot, she wasn't blind and they weren't related by blood but still it was an icky thought. "Who's the new kid?"

Grimmjow frowned, looking over the crowds for someone he didn't recognise. It wasn't that he knew everybody in the school, but a new face should stand out, even if it was only by their awkward behaviour. He spotted his old friend Ulquiorra standing down the end of the hall by himself. They didn't hang out so much now, having drifted into different groups as they got older but they still acknowledged each other. The smaller boy had got into a more gothic scene, wearing as much black as the uniform code allowed and painting his nails. He had one of those ear stretchy things, to make a big hole in the lobe and listened to a certain type of music, some of which wasn't bad Grimmjow had to admit.

Trailing his blue eyes over the rest of the crowd, he spotted a crouching frame, one hand holding a locker door open as the other placed books and folders into it. What made this person stand out was the black hat in his head, hats were against the dress code, and the hands had leather half gloves on, covering the palms but not the fingers. Grimmjow started to frown, he'd not heard of anyone joining his year group, clearly this person was though or he wouldn't have been assigned a locker in this hallway. The two against the lockers were quickly joined by Nnoitra, the tall gangly male slamming his fist against the locker at Nel's head, leaning forwards, a lecherous grin on his face. "Hey Nel, you changed your mind about us?"

Nel just cringed back, holding her folder in front of her chest in defence. Grimmjow rolled his eyes, pulling his friend away from his sister and shoving him back. Nnoitra just grinned; shrugging his shoulders as he went to stand on Grimmjow's other side. He spotted the guy they'd been staring at, eyes brightening at the prospect of fresh meat. He sent a quick wink to his friend before stalking over, being light on his feet for such a tall man. The one on the floor was just closing his locker and zipping up his back when Nnoitra's overly long fingers snagged onto the black beanie hat on his head, whipping it off and holding it up. Long, bright orange hair fell, sitting over the collar of the blazer at the back, but cut shorter at the front, the spikes conjuring memories in the minds of the spectators.

Even Nnoitra stared down, his hand dropping for a second as his gaze was met by a pair of furious brown eyes. "Ichigo?"

The man in question straightened slowly, leaving his bag on the floor as he gripped his hands in fists. A fierce scowl was set into his eye brows and he struck, fast and hard. He grabbed the taller boy's lapels, dragging him down to his eye level and slamming him into the lockers, fisting the fabric. He didn't say anything, just glared at the boy, making him drop the hat. Ichigo released him, reaching his long arm down to snag his bag and hat off the ground before straightening, pulling the stretch black fabric back over his head, tucking the longer strands up.

He walked past Grimmjow, face still set in a scowl, one dark blue eyebrow rising in response. Grimmjow was surprised by the face, seeing the chubby young boy who'd left to suddenly eleven years ago suddenly grown up and in front of him, with black eye liner round his brown eyes and a small cog shaped black ear tunnel in his left ear. The boy didn't stop, and left him scowling in return, not liking the surprise. Nnoitra returned to his side, a matching scowl on his face.

"What the fuck happened to the little midget carrot? He still can't take a joke."

"He is certainly not a midget anymore."

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