Chapter 2

Uryuu stifled a yawn as he opened the door and entered the classroom. After a quick glance at the clock he let out a sigh of relief. It was one of those rare times were he had been running late having not slept well the night before. As he had trained himself to wake up at a certain time each morning he didn't bother setting an alarm. However, after an almost sleepless night he had found it almost impossible to drag himself out of bed that morning. He blamed Kurosaki and his unanticipated visit the day before.

He glanced over to the other side of the classroom where Kurosaki was sat surrounded by his usual group of friends. He didn't quite get it but somehow Kurosaki seemed to attract people; as if his bright orange hair was the some sort of beacon that drew people towards him. What was more was that it wasn't something he even tried to do. In the end, it was all natural.

He quickly turned away before anyone noticed him staring, and started to take his books out of his bag. He knew what Kurosaki had said the day before was ridiculous but when it came down to it, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

'Do what makes you happy'. Seriously, what kind of world did he think they lived in? As if things were ever that simple.


The morning went by at a relatively slow pace, so when the bell rang for lunch Uryuu let out a sigh of relief. Finally he could relax a little bit.

However this turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking on his part.

"Hey Ishida!"

He cringed as he heard that voice calling on him.

"What is it, Kurosaki?" he asked as politely as he could muster.

"We're about to eat lunch. You should join us."

"Um, I actually forgot to pack my bento today," Or rather he hadn't had the time to make one up. "So I'm just going to grab something from the school store." he answered, standing up to leave.

"Hmm." The orange haired boy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Oh well, I guess I'll come with you then."

Uryuu's eyes widened. "Huh? But wh-"

"It's been awhile since I've eaten anything from the school store so I'll join you." He then turned to Tatsuki and Orihime. "Here, you guys can have this." Ichigo said, holding out his lunch.

Blinking, Tatsuki looked surprised. "Uh, thanks, I guess."

"Ku-Kurosaki-kun, is it really okay?" Orihime asked stammering as her cheeks reddened.

The boy shrugged. "Sure. No problem."

"Hime-chan, please take my lunch too!" cried Chizuru, randomly appearing out of nowhere. "I put all my heart and soul into making it!"

"Oh, th-thank you." replied Orihime looking slightly bewildered.

"Heart and soul my ass. Your Mum totally made it for you, didn't she?" Tatsuki muttered, earning an intense hate filled glare from the bespectacled girl.

"Ah! Ichigo!" a distressed Keigo yelled. "What about me and Mizuiro!? Don't we get any of your bento?!

"Actually the bento I have is more than enough to fill me up." Mizuiro chirped in with his usual smile.

"Traitor!" Keigo yelled at the smaller boy before turning back around. "Then what about me!?"

"Honestly? Well, I guess I just don't want to waste my lunch on you." Ichigo replied bluntly.

"Ah! Ichigo's being cruel to me, Mizuiro!" the boy wailed, his hands on his head.

"Now, now, Asano-san. Please calm down."

"Ah! Now you're being mean too!"

A bead of sweat ran down the side of Ishida's face as he watched them all.

"Should we go?" Ichigo asked, appearing beside him.

"Uh, sure..."

It had been awhile since either of them had gone to the school store and in that time both had forgotten about the massive rush and bustle of students trying to get their favourite type of bread or whatnot before they ran out. A bead of sweat ran down the side of their faces as they watched what almost appeared to be a fierce battle for survival. As such, it took awhile before either of them was served and what remained was what was referred to as 'leftovers' which was basically the crap that no one else wanted.

Ishida felt slightly annoyed. If Kurosaki had just let him go by himself in the first placed he could have gotten there sooner instead of having to watch him deal with his friends. However, he did take a slight pleasure in Kurosaki having given up his sister's no doubt yummy homemade bento for some stale old bread roll.

Deciding that they both needed some peace and quiet after witnessing the bizarre lunch ritual that many of students participated in each day, they went up to the roof. With winter drawing closer, there were no other students there, most, wisely choosing the warmth of their classrooms.

They leaned against the railing, neither saying anything as they ate their lunches. It was only when Ichigo had taken the last bite of his roll that he spoke.

"So, still planning on going to Med School?"

"Of course." The dark haired boy replied as he tossed the rest of his lunch into the rubbish bin, deciding that he really wasn't that hungry after all. "Why would I suddenly change my mind in the space of a night?"

"No reason." Ichigo answered, stretching his arms above his head. "Just wanted to make sure, that's all."

"You came with me to lunch just to ask that?" Ishida questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I actually wanted you to join us for lunch. But you had to go and make things difficult by forgetting yours." he said with a devious grin.

Ishida snorted, turning away.

"Why do you care so much anyway? Why should it matter to you whether I become a doctor or attend some stupid fashion school?"

"Cause you're my friend, and like I said before, friends worry about each other." Ichigo replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"We're not exactly 'friends'." Ishida retorted. "After all, I'm a Quincy and you're a Shinigami."

"Substitute-Shinigami." The other boy corrected. "And you know that I don't give a crap about any of that stuff. A friend's a friend and that's that. Plus you can't say that after everything we've gone through you don't care at least a little."

"..."

The bespectacled boy didn't reply but Ichigo knew from the look on his face that he agreed. The taller boy smiled to himself.

"Oh yeah, are you going to go back to the handicrafts club?"

"The handicrafts club? Why?" Ishida asked, turning back around.

"I kind of went there yesterday to look for you before going to your apartment. A couple of the members were asking about you, and while they were pretty damn terrifying, they did seem genuinely concerned."

Ichigo couldn't help but notice the slightly conflicted look on his friend's face as he waited for an answer. "I don't know... My studies... If I'm going to become a doctor then I should probably place all my focus on them."

"Hey, just because you've decided that you're going to become a doctor, doesn't mean you still can't have a little fun. After all, you said sewing and designing stuff was your hobby, right?"

"I suppose..."

"Then you should go."

"I like how you've taken it upon yourself to decide what I should and shouldn't do with my time." Ishida retorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

The other teen gave a small chuckle.

Ishida sighed. "Fine, I'll start going again. Will that make you happy?"

He grinned. "Yep."

Turning around, Ishida stood against the railing and stared over at the courtyard. "Kurosaki, I don't really understand...

Ichigo blinked, confused. "Understand what?"

"Why you care so much. If Sado-kun decided to give up music or Arisawa, Karate, would you go to such lengths to convince them to keeping doing it?" There were a few moments of silence before Ishida suddenly shook his head. "No, forget it. That's just the kind of person you are, right Kurosaki?"

"Ishida..."

"Anyway, I'm going back to the classroom. Lunch is almost over." he announced as he started to make his way over to the roof door.

Ichigo opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. Instead he watched silently as Ishida walked away from him. It was only when the bell rang a minute or so later that he realised that he too needed to return to class.


By the next day, Ishida was joining them for lunch again. Much like before he didn't said much but everyone seemed to be pleased – with the exception of Keigo who for one reason or another had never seemed to like him – to have him back.

"I'm glad that you managed to convince Ishida-kun to eat lunch with us again, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime said to him quietly as the lunch hour ended and everyone started returning to their own desks.

Ichigo couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I am too."

It wasn't until the week after that that Ishida started attending the Handicrafts Club again. Ichigo wasn't sure what exactly possessed him to do so but one day after school he decided to follow Ishida there; without him knowing of course.

Glancing through the small window in the door he saw just about all the members gathered around the desk of the only male member there. With their attention drawn away, Ichigo opened the door slightly and peeked through.

"You have to make sure to knot it this way, otherwise the thread will start to loosen and eventually it'll just fall apart." Ichigo heard his friend say.

"Ah! So that's why it kept coming undone!"

"Ishida-sempai, you're so amazing!" he heard one girl declare.

From what he could tell, Ishida seemed to be giving some sort of demonstration.

"It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it." The dark haired boy replied, apparently oblivious to the adoration he was receiving from his fellow club members.

"Um, sempai, would you... could you show me how to do it again?" asked a small girl who Ichigo assumed was a first year.

"Of course."

As the young girl's face lit up, Ichigo couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself. He made a mental note to tease Ishida about this at a later date.

Deciding that it was time for him to leave, he closed the door.

He was glad that Ishida was returning to his old self. Nonetheless, it still bothered him that Ishida was basing his entire future on something his father wanted. While he himself was fortunate that what he wanted to do would no doubt benefit his father, if his old man had told him he couldn't, he would punch him in the face without a moment's hesitation. Of course, considering that they got into physical fights pretty much every other day and his dad was constantly attacking him, it probably didn't count for much.

"Hey, Ichigo!" The orange haired boy looked up to see his childhood friend Tatsuki walking towards him. Considering she was wearing her karate gi he assumed she was in the middle of practice.

"Isn't it a little chilly to be training outside?"

"Are you kidding me? A little cold like this is nothing." Tatsuki scoffed. "But we are training inside. I just came out for some fresh air."

"I see."

"Anyway, what are you still doing here? You're not a member of any clubs."

"I actually came to check how Ishida was doing."

The girl blinked. "Ishida-kun? Why? Is something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh no, he's fine. I just wanted to make sure of something, that's all."

"Hmmm..."

Ichigo frowned. "'Hmmm...'What?"

"So that's how it is." she said blankly.

"Huh? How what is? What're you talking about?" Ichigo asked, his scowl deepening.

Snapping out of it, the dark haired girl gave a teasing smile. "Nothing at all! Nothing at all!"

"Hey you! Now tel-"

"Arisawa! Arisawa!"

Both teens turned around to see Tatsuki's instructor yelling for her outside the gymnasium.

"Break's over! Get back inside!"

"Ah! I'm coming!" she called back.

"Oi! Wait a-"

"Sorry Ichigo. Gotta get back else I'll have my ass handed to me!" she shouted as she ran back towards the building.

Ichigo groaned, wanting an explanation. Still, he wasn't going to wait around for Tatsuki to finish and so with an exasperated sigh he started to head home.

Unbeknownst to Ichigo he was being watched. Ishida stood there looking out the window as the orange haired boy started to walk away. He had sensed Kurosaki's presence outside the clubroom earlier but had decided to ignore it. He didn't know why Kurosaki had been there. It was almost as if he was checking up on him or something. And although he knew that if this was the case then he should be pissed him off, he couldn't help but smile somewhat.

"Ishida-sempai, are you alright?" one of the club members asked.

Making his expression neutral he turned back around. "Yes. I'm fine. Sorry."

"We're all so glad that you came back, sempai. We missed you when you were gone." said the tall dark haired girl that Ichigo had encountered before.

"You really are the best at sewing here!"

"Ah! I don't know what we'll do when you gradate next year!"

"Hey Ishida-san, any idea what you're going to do once you graduate?" asked one of the members who happened to be in the same year as him.

"Me? Well, I hope to go-" he stopped suddenly. "I'm going to go..." His eyes widened slightly. Wait. Why was he hesitating?

"You okay?" the girl asked looking somewhat concerned.

"Oh. Sorry, I'm fine." he said, plastering on a fake smile. "I'm not entirely sure yet."

"Well, you better figure it out soon. Times running out, you know."

"Ishida-sempai is the highest scoring student in the entire school. He'll be fine no matter what he does!" the brown haired girl from before defended.

The older girl rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

Ishida walked away and sat back down at his own desk. What the hell was wrong with him? What was with that hesitation? He clenched his fists. He knew what he wanted to do, God damnit.

"Ishida-sempai, do-"

"Sorry, I need to leave!" he said, standing up suddenly.

"Ishida-san?"

Without another word he quickly fled the clubroom leaving the rest of the members looking on after him, confused and bewildered.


Author's Notes: Thank you very much for reading. This was unbeta'd so apologies for any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.