Dessa's Note: Hey! Omg I'm writing a new fic! I've had this idea for ages… since Christmas! It's not going to be anywhere near as long as Misinterpreted First Impression, so don't worry (I will update that sometime soon as well), I'm trying to keep a maximum of 5 chapters on this one. I wanted to write a childhood story with kids actually acting like kids because I've realised modern children are acting more grown up than they should be, and manufacturing padded bras for 7 year olds doesn't help the situation. Neither is it very kiddy when 11 year olds type in 'free porn' into google. So I wanted to write about kids being kids as a celebration of the innocent care free attitudes most of us once had as children. I hope you like it!

Setting: in a Karakura with a forest and in a time where there was no internet.

Disclaimer: applied.

My New Neighbour

Chapter 1

A ten year old boy strolled down the woodland pathway with a roughly carved wooden stick in his hands, which he used for beating away branches and twigs that impeded his way. This boy, Ichigo Kurosaki, like most boys his age, disliked the female species. This distaste for girls he shared with his friends; Yamada, Keigo, Mizuiro and Suzuki. When they had first aggregated as friends, they decided to name their group 'the stick boys' not because they were skinny like stick men, but because each member carried they're own personally carved wooden sticks.

Ichigo was in a disastrous mood because his next door neighbours had a little girl who insisted on pulling his uniquely orange coloured hair.

'Stupid Yachiru,' grumbled Ichigo as he arrived at his friends' secret hideout; which was a simple tree house. 'Giving me a headache, why can't she pull out her own pink hair!'

'Good morning to you too,' replied Mizuiro lethargically while flicking through some manga. Ichigo just scowled for an answer, too much in a bad mood to offer much coherent conversation.

'Okay, spit it out, what's eating you Kurosaki?' asked Suzuki with a certain lack of eye contact. He was a rather tall boy with glasses, who was reading a car magazine he managed to steal from his older brother.

Ichigo glared at his friend, was silent for a moment but then erupted as suddenly as a volcano. 'I HATE GIRLS! That stupid Yachiru was pulling my hair… AGAIN! I would have punched her if her crazy dad wasn't watching the whole time. Is the whole summer holiday going to be like this?'

'Not all girls are bad' piped in Mizuiro suddenly.

'How would you know? We go to a boys' school!

'I have sisters.'

'So do I!'

'But they're five Ichigo, they're still babies'

'No they're not!'

'Would you give it a rest already!' interrupted Keigo uncharacteristically, annoyed that he had to pause his manga reading.

But Ichigo was still seething and massaging the top of his head where little tenacious Yachiru had concentrated her attacks.

'I don't understand why we have to marry girls when we grow up,' mentioned Yamada, a small boy with rosy cheeks and red curly hair.

'Me neither' said Keigo.

'They're so annoying and always dress in pink, it hurts my eyes' contributed Suzuki plainly.

'Alright, then lets make a promise that we never get married when we grow up.' suggested Ichigo resolutely, a serious scowl set firmly on his forehead.

'But how are we going to buy a house and keep a dog without getting married?' asked Keigo worriedly.

'And if we don't get married… will that mean we can't have kids when we grow up?' asked Yamada innocently.

'No, you don't have to be married for that,' said Suzuki nonchalantly.

'Eh? How come? How do you know?' asked an intrigued Ichigo.

'I overheard my brothers talking about it,' replied he with the faintest of blushes on his usually stoic face, this was a rare sight to the remaining boys and they were only too keen to hear on more of this mysterious "older-boys" conversation.

'What else did they say? What else? What did they say?' persisted Keigo like an over-excited golden retriever.

'I don't want to say!' shouted Suzuki, now blushing fully with mortification in his eyes. If it was rare for the stick boys to see Suzuki blush, it was very rarely indeed that he ever shouted, and as one the boys took a step back from their angry friend.

'Okay, now that kids are not a problem, let's pledge to never get married.' Said Ichigo with finality. After some further debate, and settled conditions for betrayal, they each swore a ridiculously long oath, with their wooden staffs in hand, never to marry a single girl in their whole lives.

….

On his way home later that afternoon, Ichigo delayed rushing into the kitchen for some much needed supper when he noticed a large delivery van parked outside his next door neighbour's house, the one that had been deserted for almost four months. Due to his ever growing curiosity, Ichigo made a small whole in the hedge that formed a guarding perimeter around the neighbor's front garden; he hacked at the branches until the hole was big enough to look through. What he saw surprised him to no end.

Sitting on the green floor was a little girl, she was dressed in an ordinary light blue denim dungaree with matching blue pins in her auburn hair… hair that was so long it fell to the grassy ground while she sat. However, what was most surprising of all was the fact the she held a dark green frog in her small muddy hands and was trying to feed the amphibian grass.

'I guess you don't like grass much do you Mr. Frog?' the frog made no response. The little girl sighed. Then she turned to put the frog back into a small pile of mud; which was coincidentally the instant she saw a pair of brown eyes in the hedge. The accompanying gasp that came from the hedge told her it couldn't be a gnome because they're not accustomed to gasping. Slowly she crawled her way towards the hole in the hedge.

Behind it, Ichigo was about to run away, but if he ran, it would only be to next door, and the girl would definitely follow him… and stalk him… and torture him by pulling out each strand of his hairs. No! It would be much safer if his sleeping locations remained unknown. Due to a lack of any other option, Ichigo stayed put and told himself to look danger in the face like a true man! But what he saw could not be construed as dangerous in the least. The little girl had crawled to face him through the hole in the hedge. She had magnificent, large grey eyes that reflected his own frozen expression, a heart shaped face and pink lips that were currently set in a welcoming smile. She was remarkably pretty despite her crooked and growing adult teeth.

'Hello!' she said, her voice floating towards him like a cloud of warmth. Ichigo instantly frowned, which did not go unnoticed. 'Are you okay?' Ichigo remained silent and frowning, 'Why are you looking through our hedge?' again Ichigo said nothing, though at this question he blushed slightly having just realized he got caught peeking. Despite the lack of responses, she didn't waver in her smile or endeavors at engaging him, 'I'm nine years old, how old are you?' again he said nothing. 'My name is Orihime, what's yours?' Ichigo was surprised, but inched closer to the hole to reply with simply his name. At his simple introduction the girl called Orihime smiled radiantly at him through her delight, which in turn caused him to widen his eyes in some measure of astonishment.

'Yay! I'm so happy you told me your name! Will you be my friend please?' asked she politely, her smile finally faltered at her listener's outraged face. 'I-It's only that I've just moved here with my Nii-san and I haven't made any friends yet.'

'But… But you're a girl !' said Ichigo as though this explained everything.

Orihime was confused, 'I-I'm sorry'

'Why are you saying sorry?'

'Because you don't like that I'm a girl'

'No, that's wrong, I like it that you're a girl.' Before he realized what he was saying the words were out of his mouth and he blushed profusely as a result of them.

'Then why won't you be friends with me?' asked she innocently; completely oblivious to the young boy's blush.

Ichigo frowned darkly at the ground, 'It's not that I don't want to be your friend… but don't girls just play with dolls and pink stuff?'

'Oh' replied Orihime, her face crestfallen, 'Well, I don't always play with dolls, but if you don't want to be friends with me… it's okay, I can still play with Mr. Frog,' and she smiled softly gesturing towards the green bulbous frog still in her hands.

Ichigo found this sufficient encouragement. 'Alright alright I'll be your friend!' his scowl relaxed a few degrees when he saw her wide happy smile, and feeling his toughness leak away from him he added 'But you have to be a good friend, I'm tired of annoying girls.'

Orihime, far from being disheartened nodded her head enthusiastically, still wearing her blissful smile. 'I can be a good friend! I promise!' and she smiled, if possible, even brighter. Ichigo started feeling too warm, thankfully she broke the silence before it really became uncomfortable. 'Do you want to pet Mr. Frog?'

'Yeah okay!' said Ichigo excitedly, forgetting his embarrassment in light of the more interest-catching amphibian.

Ichigo joined his new friend on the other side of the hedge. He noticed that with the closer proximity, Orihime had very shiny hair, it looked really shiny and he wondered if it would ripple at his touch. Before he knew what he was doing, he had poked the little girl's head, she had not expected such a manoeuvre and as a result ended up lying on her side on the grass from the impact.

'Owwie…' she now sat up wobbly 'Ichigo-kun, why did you do that?' asked she in nothing but confusion.

Ichigo was at a loss… how could he say the truth when he thought something stupid and girly like 'I wonder if her hair will ripple', perhaps it was exposure to the girl itself that caused this very silly thought, could this be a side affect? Ichigo blinked and saw she was still patiently waiting for an answer.

'There was a butterfly on you head, I got rid of it for you before it laid eggs,' Ichigo thought she would shriek in disgust at the thought of an insect on her head, but she squealed in delight and clasped her hands together.

'Really? Really really? There was a butterfly on my head? Maybe my wish will come true!'

'What?' Was Ichigo's intelligent question.

'Do you know the story of the Queen Butterfly?'

'No…' answered Ichigo, feeling suddenly vulnerable. But he need not have worried, Orihime did not tease him about his limited knowledge of the story, but she went out of her way to detail the story for him, complete with rapid arm gestures and booming sound effects. Ichigo managed to decipher the main points; which involved a queen butterfly, some evil warlocks, a horse and a very important daffodil. By the time Orihime was dictating the ending Ichigo had completely forgotten the beginning, but never before had he ever enjoyed listening to another's story telling as much as he enjoyed Orihime's.

'The END!' announced Orihime with a classic Orihime styled grin spread across her face. Ichigo was rather impressed.

'You're a good story teller you know' said he nonchalantly, performing a small smile of appreciation. Orihime blushed healthily and averted her gaze.

'You think so?'

'Yeah, I wouldn't have said it otherwise.'

At his answer, Orihime graced him with a blinding smile that managed to enhance her missing and crooked teeth. 'That's really good because when I grow up I want to be a story maker.'

'You mean an author, right?'

'What's an author?'

'They write stories,'

'Okay then I want to be an author! What do you want to be when you grow up Ichigo-kun?'

'I don't know…' before Orihime could try and understand him further Ichigo had changed the subject suddenly 'Do you want to come to my tree house?'

'Wow you have a tree house?'

'Uh-huh, wanna come with me to it? You tell more stories.'

But before Orihime had the chance to reply, a tall man exited the house and walked towards them.

'Is that your Dad?' asked Ichigo curiously, his scowl in place for he didn't think much of Dads in general, only because of the wild behavior of his own.

'Nu-uh! That's my big brother, he's the coolest person in the whooole world!' for some reason, Ichigo didn't like that answer.

'So where's your Dad then?' but before she had a chance to stammer an answer Orihime's brother glanced down at the orange haired boy who seemed to be talking with his sister.

'Whose your new friend Orihime?' said the man, who seemed all of a sudden… very tall.

'This is my new friend Ichigo-kun! He lives next door Nii-san!' the man gazed down at Ichigo… who swallowed, audibly.

'You're Kurosaki-san's son?' Ichigo nodded, the man smiled slightly, 'You're a lot quieter then I thought you would be.'

'Can I go to his tree house with him?'

Ichigo could feel himself perspiring slightly as Orihime's brother continued to assess him non-verbally.

'You have your own tree house?'

'Its mine and my friends,' replied Ichigo shakily, finding trouble maintaining eye contact with this very tall man.

'Can I go Nii-san? Can I? Can I?' continued Orihime.

'I see no reason why not… just stay out of trouble Orihime.'

And with that, the tall man walked off. Ichigo felt himself breathe again.

'Always!' shouted back Orihime to her brother's retreating back.

'Your brother is really tall…'

Orihime nodded her head proudly, 'I told you he was the greatest! Shall we go to your friends' tree house now?'

Ichigo scowled again, 'It's my tree house!'

Dessa's Note: You have no idea how British it is for boys to stay faaar away from girls when they're young, like they're diseased or something. So what did the audience think?