"Orange hair?"

"I've seen that hair before… You must be Ichigo Kurosaki."

"I was hoping you would sign up for this."

"You must think you're so cool."

"Let's see how well you do on the ice."

"We'll show you who the best skater really is."

"See you around, Ichigo."

"Ichigo."

"Ichigo? Earth to Ichigo…"

"Ichigo!"

The sudden shout broke Ichigo from his thoughts. He tore his chocolate brown eyes from his bedroom closet and focused his gaze to the doorway, where Keigo's brown eyes were peering at him with concern.

"Are you okay?" Keigo asked, his eyebrows knitting together as he stepped into the room.

"I'm fine," replied Ichigo with a sigh as he returned his focus to the closet before him. He had to remind himself of what he was supposed to be doing, which was fishing out a coat to wear. He should have already been on his way out of the apartment he lived in, but he had gone and gotten himself distracted by his closet of all places.

A frown made its home on his roommate's lips as the brunette stepped closer. "That doesn't sound very convincing."

"Don't you have homework to do?" Ichigo retorted, shooting Keigo a sour glare as he finally pulled out a jacket and threw it on.

Ichigo wasn't really angry at Keigo – he was glad that his roommate was concerned for him – but it was the questioning that irritated him. He was already running late because of some foolish memory from long ago, and he didn't have time to answer a round of questions.

Keigo never answered, as his eyes had landed on something in the closet. Ichigo could see curiosity sparkle in his eyes as he asked, "Why do you have a pair of ice skates in the closet? And were those what you were staring at when you blanked out?"

A sudden, dull pain flared up in Ichigo's ankle at the questions, and a scowl formed on his face in response. He closed the closet door a little too hard, not wanting to answer.

Thankfully he was spared from answering, as Chad appeared in the doorway. His other roommate jerked his chin behind him. "Ichigo, shouldn't you be going?"

Swiping his keys, wallet, and phone from his bed, Ichigo gave a nod.

"Bye, Keigo!" he called out as he hurried out the room. As he passed by Chad, he whispered, "Thank you," and continued on.

Checking the time on his phone, Ichigo stepped out of the apartment he lived in with his three roommates: Keigo, Chad, and Uryu. Despite having spaced out for a bit, he was not running late like he had thought; he was still on time for the event.

Ichigo was a journalism major, in his third year of college. Being a journalism major, it was only natural that he had sought out a job with the school's newspaper, which led him to the story he was currently working on: a review on their university's talent show.

The posters had advertised that the school had recruited a multi-talented student body for the performances, which he hoped would be true. He was never one for a talent show, but at least it would be bearable if not everyone's talents were singing, dancing, or someone playing an instrument. There were nothing wrong with any of those talents, but Ichigo thought they were so common and overused that it made the show boring.

It wasn't long until Ichigo arrived at the school and took his seat for the show. His editor had scored him a ticket in a middle section, far enough away from the stage that he wouldn't distract the performers as he took notes, but he was also close enough to have a good view. However, he was wedged between a girl about his age with pungent perfume and chatty lips and an older gentleman who would shoot the girl glares and mumble for her to shut up every time she spoke.

The dimming of the lights for the show couldn't come quick enough, though if Ichigo thought it would be enough to shut the girl up, he was wrong.

She leaned close to him, lowering her voice as the MC of the event appeared on stage. "Ichigo, right? You work for the newspaper?"

Ichigo gave a low sigh as he grunted, "Yeah."

"I guessed it from your name badge if you were wondering!"

"I wasn't wondering," he mumbled, keeping his gaze focused on the stage before him. He was trying to listen to what the MC was saying, hoping their voice would drown out the girl.

"Oh… well, how long have you been working there? Do you like it?" she asked, her eyes trained on him.

The man next to Ichigo cleared his throat to draw the eyes of the girl, bringing a finger to his lips as he pointed towards the MC on stage, who was now introducing the first act of the night.

To Ichigo's relief, that seemed to shut the girl up, as she whispered, "Let's talk more after the show!"

He never answered her back, though, as he was enjoying the fact that he could finally do his job.

He sat back in his seat, jotting down the name, year, and talent of each performer that walked across the stage. As each person would perform, he would jot down notes about what they did with their talent and his thoughts. His thoughts, however, were usually about how unique the performance was (juggling tomatoes, singing the school fight song backwards, using your toes to paint a landscape, and performing a dance with a pet squirrel weren't something that he saw every day) or about how repetitive and standard other performances were (though there was an occasional dancer or singer that blew everyone away).

It wasn't until the second half of the show that his rhythm changed. After countless subpar performances that were barely keeping him awake, the MC stepped up to announce one of the final performers for the night. She was a girl about his age, named Rukia Kuchiki, who was to put on a dance performance.

Ichigo didn't have high expectations at the announcement, as a majority of the dancers who had come before her had seemed liked they had thrown together the dance the night before. His expectations didn't change much either as he saw her small figure appear on the stage. She had swept her hair up in a bun and wore a sparkly, flowy light blue dress that fell to her knees.

The white lights darkened for a moment, replaced by a dark blue illumination upon the stage as the music started up. The melody was a soft instrumental, evoking fluid movements from the girl. To his surprise, Rukia was not one of the dancers that seemed to have thrown together a performance last minute. If anything, he thought that the girl must have put weeks of practice into the performance. Each move she performed seemed to have reason and emotion behind it. She was graceful and beautiful, and Ichigo lost himself in her choreography.

Without realizing it, his feet would twitch as he unconsciously would try to mimic some of her movements. Even his fingers were moving along with her, as he had abandoned his pencil and notebook to focus on her. He hadn't felt so invested in a performance in years, not since his accident six years ago.

He only realized her performance had ended when the audience around him burst into a roar of cheers and applause, snapping him of whatever trance he had been lulled into. He shook his head to clear his mind and joined in the applause. His eyes were still trained on her as she bowed to the crowd and quietly walked off the stage.

I need to talk to her, he decided without really thinking about it.

No other performance even came close to hers for the rest of the night, and he spent most of his time comparing them to the beauty that had been Rukia. In his opinion, she had been a clear winner for first place, though the judges had barely awarded her with third.

As the MC thanked everyone for watching and dismissed them all, Ichigo stood up from his seat. Without thinking, he started walking over to the performers, as some of them had waited at the front of the stage for friends and family to visit them.

He had hoped that would be the case with Rukia, but as his eyes scanned around the stage and the audience, she could not be found.

So with a sigh, Ichigo left the auditorium.

A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter of this fanfic so far! This is for the IchiRuki Big Bang (Which can be found on tumblr). Along with me in this event was my wonderful partner, Yume, who created the cover art for this fanfiction! Please check it out here: post/158088049556/hearts-adrift-by-supernaturaldreamer-college-au. Feel free to leave a review with your thoughts! Thank you for reading!