AN: My story is currently unbetaed so there might be a few mistakes here and there. Still trying to figure out formatting.

Chapter 1 - Moving In

Ichigo sighed as he set the last box down and cursed Rukia for leaving him to do the heavy work. He loved her, truly, but she was a pain in the ass when she wanted to be. He could still picture her smirk as she walked away, telling him that he was lucky that her brother owned the building. Cursing her name, he sighed again. It was thanks to Byakuya, her brother, that he was able to get a place on his own to begin with. As he and Rukia were friends for as long as they could remember, they were practically family, thus Byakuya treated him like his little brother and allowed him to have the loft for cheap, much cheaper than it would have been for someone else.

At the time, he was between jobs, fresh out of designing school. He was smart, don't get him wrong, but there's only so much that could be earned through freelance projects. If it were up to him, he would have stayed at the previous apartment near school but he had horrible luck with men. His ex, Shuuhei, was nothing but bad news.

At first Ichigo was happy with the older man. A few years older with a stable job at the time, Shuuhei seemed like the perfect man. He worked at the bookstore a few blocks away from Ichigo's college and had met him while Ichigo was looking for a required book for one of his classes. Bit by bit, Shuuhei had coaxed him out of his shell and a few months later, they began to date. A few months later, they decided to move in together and Ichigo was happy but then one day Shuuhei lost his job and that's where it all went downhill. At first little things, he would say things like "it's only temporary, I have a friend who is going to hire me", but then things began to go missing here and there. Ichigo was confused but he wrote it off as just his clumsiness but then bigger things began to go missing like his watch. This lead to the first big fight between him and Shuuhei, who would deny over and over again that he had touched it, even accusing Ichigo of mishandling it himself. It got to the point where Ichigo began to doubt his own sanity, maybe he really had misplaced it, but it was a gift from his late mother and he always kept an eye on it. He really did love Shuuhei or so he thought so he decided to drop the matter. After a few months of supporting his jobless boyfriend however, he was frustrated and decided that enough was enough and began hinting that he should try and apply for more jobs instead of moping around at home.
Shuuhei didn't take this well however, and began drinking more and more excessively, even coming back in the early hours of the morning reeking of alcohol and something else that Ichigo couldn't place. It wasn't until a few weeks later that he'd realized what he smelled like: sex and cheap perfume.

His brother Shiro had been in town visiting him over the weekend and had decided to check out the nightlife, dragging a protesting Ichigo with him when they found Shuuhei in an alleyway hip deep in a voluptuous woman with bright orange hair. He hadn't known it was him at first but he moved just enough into the light that his face tattoo was recognizable. Ichigo gasped and as if he'd heard him, Shuuhei turned his head and made eye contact with him. Ichigo blanched as his brother asked him if he was alright and began to run. He still remembered the way Shuuhei had responded when he confronted him the next day, talking as if it was Ichigo's fault for not "putting out", as he had eloquently put it, and that it was "completely normal" for him to go find other ways to release his sexual desires because of that. After that, Ichigo saw red. Eyes stinging with angry tears, he grabbed his most important items and left to Rukia's place after shouting that they were over. After that, he got Rukia to grab the rest of his important things, swore off dating and any of that lovey-dovey crap, and threw himself fully into his studies, graduating a few months later at the top of his class but with a hole in his heart. He was shaken out of his bitter musings by a loud knocking on his door.
"Ichi, I swear to God, if you don't open up this door I'll get Byakuya to give me a spare key so I can enter whenever I want to. I don't care if I'm interrupting your stupid monologue or something, you know I'm serious!"
He heard a thump as she presumably kicked the door and dashed to open it. No need to have to explain to Byakuya why the door was dented.
"Damn it, Rukia, I was just unpacking my things, no thanks to you!"

She smirked and replied, "You sure you weren't just dreaming about a new boo? I've seen some pretty attractive guys in this building you know, and they're rich, if you're into that." she winked.

He sputtered and glared at her, "Rukia, you know full well that I-".
She interrupted waving her hand around, "Yeah yeah, I know. But don't you think it's time to look for a new man? You're young, you're intelligent. You and I both know you're quite the catch, or do you want me to set you up with Byakuya?" as she waggled her eyebrows at him. He snorted and replied, "Hell no, you know he has the hots for Renji, he just hasn't come to terms with it yet. Besides, that'd be like, incest! No way. Anyways, what did you come over for?"

She smiled and retorted, "Well I knew you would probably be thinking depressing thoughts and I wanted to make sure everything is ok with the place." She leaned forward and whispered, "And I also wanted to 'accidentally' bump into that cutie who lives in this hall. He's really hot you know, like supermodel hot." Ichigo rolled his eyes at her but he laughed all the same.

"Rukia, you say that a lot. I'm beginning to doubt your taste in men." She scowled and punched him in the arm.
"Shut it! Anyways, the gang is thinking of heading to Las Noches tonight to celebrate your new place. New place, new you, am I right? And before you say no, Hime and Ishida are going to be there tonight. They just got back from their trip and they're excited to see you again!"
"Augh, fine, you mean she's excited. I'll go tonight if you leave. When are you guys meeting up?"
"I'll be here to pick you up at 7 so be ready! Maybe you'll finally meet your Prince Charming, or at least get laid! Heaven knows you need it, you prude. Love you, Ichi!", she shouted as she blew a kiss and walked away laughing. He scowled at her for shouting the last part, hoping none of his neighbors heard it. Just his luck however, the resident at the end of the hall was at his door, kissing a beautiful woman with seafoam hair on the cheek. True to his namesake, he blushed bright red when he made eye contact with him and slammed the door as quickly as possible.

"Grimmy, who was that?" the curvaceous woman asked, looking at the recently closed door with curiosity.
"Dunno, probably the new resident", he responded with a lick to his lips.

"Oh no, Grimmy, I know that look. Don't you go dare go around breaking hearts."

"I know, I know. No promises though. What do you say we hit up Las Noches tonight though, Nelly?" She laughed and slapped his bare chest lightly, "Sure why not, I think Ulqui is working tonight!"

Ichigo leaned against the door with a wheeze. As much as he hated to admit it, Rukia was right, there really were attractive people living here. As soon as he had made eye contact with the man, his heart began racing. He couldn't see too clearly from where he stood but he could tell that the man's hair was a haphazard cotton-candy blue mess that screamed sex. Offhandedly, he licked his lips as he recalled how the man was shirtless and only had on a pair of ripped jeans. Ichigo scowled. That woman was probably his girlfriend. He was gay but it didn't mean he couldn't recognize hot women. He sighed for what seemed to be the millionth time that day and sunk down to sit and ran his hands through his hair.

'Okay Ichigo, you swore off dating and all that remember? Besides it's not like you even have a chance. Someone that hot is definitely not single, even more unlikely that he's not straight. Don't even think about it.' He got up with a grunt and frowned at the clock. He had a ton of unpacking to do but he wouldn't be able to do much before Rukia was back to pick him up so he decided to just get dressed nice for the club and deal with the rest later.

"Come on, Ichi, loosen up will you?" Rukia shouted over the music, "it's not often that we get the entire gang together. Everyone's always so busy!" Ichigo grunted as he nursed a glass of whatever Rukia had gotten him, a blue motherfucker or something like that. He rolled his eyes as he took another swig of his drink. Whatever it was, it was pretty strong and he was on his way to being pleasantly buzzed, which he definitely needed if he was going to deal with his friends. Like Rukia, they all thought that Ichigo needed to open up a little and rejoin the dating scene. He gazed fondly around the table just enjoying the presence of his friends. Rukia was right, he really did miss the crew. Chad was quiet as usual, offering affirmative grunts every once in awhile as Rukia chattered away with him and Renji. The brash redhead was laughing loudly as he took another swig of beer. Ichigo snorted to himself. Even though he wasn't paying attention to their conversation, he could tell that Rukia was grilling him about his love life. He turned as he heard his name shouted, preparing himself mentally for the knuckle rubbing from Tatsuki. She was his childhood rival and friend and had been with him for just as long as Rukia and Chad. He pretended to scowl as he ducked to avoid her swipe and instead stood up to hug her.
"Tatsuki!"
"Hey there, you mopey strawberry", she laughed as he scowled, then turned to embrace Orihime who had just arrived with Ishida and nodded at the man in acknowledgement. As his friends began to migrate to the dancefloor or shifted seats to chat, he moved to the bar to get another drink. He sat alone feeling pleasantly buzzed, waiting for the sleepy-eyed bartender to make his drink. Unbeknownst to him, two sets of eyes watched him as he sat alone.

Like a predator, Grimmjow began to stalk towards the redhead from across the room, shrugging off the dancers pawing at him thinking they had a sliver of chance with him but before he had fought halfway through the men and women, a man with even brighter red hair slung his arm around his prey, causing him to snarl and startle the club goers into giving him a wide berth. He narrowed his eyes as the man known as 'Ichi' laughed. Grimmjow advanced again but was interrupted yet again as a man with dark purple hair yanked 'Ichi' out of the embrace of the redhead.

Ichigo was startled by Renji when he put his arm around his shoulders but he quickly relaxed once he realized it was him. *Renji was his old roommate from when he was dorming on campus and they'd gotten along quickly with a friendly rivalry. Ichigo was the one who unintentionally introduced Byakuya to Renji when Rukia had stopped by with her brother for a visit. Renji was infatuated at first sight and from then on had dedicated his free time to trying to get closer to the man whose gaze sliced like cold steel. As they bantered back and forth, Ichigo was jerked roughly away from Renji and nearly fell. If it weren't for his fast reflexes, he would definitely have fallen. With a begrudging mental thanks to his father, he turned with a glare to shout at whoever it was that had touched him when his heart dropped.

"What are you doing here, Shuuhei, I told you we were done."

"Hey baby, you're still looking fine as ever."

"What the fuck, you're drunk. I told you not to contact me. What are you even doing here?" Ichigo narrowed his eyes as he noticed a certain orange haired woman standing nearby. He vaguely recalled her as the woman he had cheated on him with. One of several, to be exact.
Shuuhei swayed and rolled his eyes, "Look, I miss you ok? I even have the watch you lost." He groped at his pockets before finding it and showing it to Ichigo. "I'll give it back to you if you give me a kiss" he leered.
"Shuuhei, we're done. I'm not going to give you a kiss, just give the watch back!" Ichigo shouted. Grimmjow was a few feet away as he watched the exchange. Clearly something was up so he began speeding up his stride. Shuuhei grabbed Ichigo by the arms and forcibly tried to kiss him while Ichigo tried to push him away. Furious that he was clearly unwelcome, Grimmjow was about to grab the man, Shuuhei, if he heard correctly, when the redhead intervened.
"Shuuhei, back off right now before I call security. Hand over the watch and leave. You aren't welcome here", he snarled as he reached for the watch.
"NO, I told you. If you want this watch back, you have to come back, or else I'll pawn it. I'll do it, you know I wi-". He was interrupted by Ichigo's fist in his face. A sickening crunch was heard as his nose crumpled under the force. "Fugg you, Ichi! You're noh gedding this watch back. You're going to regreh thah!" he barked as he ran off clutching both hands to his bleeding nose. Grimmjow stood awestruck at the furious redhead. In that moment, he felt like he had fallen hard for Ichigo. The way his eyes lit up with fury made it look like his eyes were glowing gold. Before he could approach the man however, Ichigo took the proffered shots from the other redhead and downed them like a man stranded in the Sahara and left without a word leaving the redhead to gaze at his back with an emotion Grimmjow couldn't place. He looked scrutinizingly at the man before turning to find his cousin Nel who was probably by the DJ booth, chatting with Ulquiorra.