Chapter 2: Of Baby Genius and Meeting the Roommate

He continues to stand there, repressing the teal-haired lad's bewitching presence. Feeling so small and distant, he remembers having always been unceasingly proud of what he can do on a basketball court. But what the sight before him now presents now rings plain: he, after all, is no more than your regular teen. A regular teen that has no arsenal to match a game of this caliber. Realizing that much, he felt as though nothing could've been more painful to admit.

The school bell rings to announce lunch break, whereby he finds his feet carrying him to the nearby cafeteria.

"Why're you spacing out?" A familiar voice intrudes his trancelike consciousness.

"Ah, Toushiro. I'm, uh, I'm just hungry, that's all." Ichigo denies.

"Lucky you. I'm fucking starved."

It turns out that Toushiro's stomach's capacity is acutely disproportionate to his miniscule size. He orders two milk cartons, one bottled water, one cheeseburger, one spaghetti, one serving of large fries, and one sundae. As it is, they find themselves a table somewhere in the center of the great room.

"You sure you can finish those?" Ichigo asks in mild disbelief.

"Watch me."

Just then, a group of rowdy freshmen walks in. Ichigo recognizes the redhead someone who is leading them on. Mentioned redhead pulls to a halt upon spotting Ichigo and Toushiro.

"Hi." The redhead greets as he sits down and clumsily budges the table, occasioning Toushiro's milk to spill a few drops.

"Hi." Ichigo and Toushiro greet back.

"You guys are freshmen, right? My name's Renji." He introduces himself, trying to sound as formal as what's possible for him. He continues, gesturing to his companions, "These are my buds; this is Yamada Hanatarou; this one's Ryotaro Ikeda; and this last one is Kasuga Masashi."

"Hi." His entourage greets in unison, to which the two curtly nod in acknowledgment.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. This one here is Toushiro Hitsugaya."

Renji peruses the younger boy from head to toe, "Nice to meet ya, fellow freshmen. See you guys later." He, then, winks at them before smoking out.

"With the signals he's sending all over the place, he's most likely off to be a regular in the detention room, if ya know what I mean." Ichigo comments after ascertaining that the group has gone out of earshot.

"Most likely."

They continue to munch down their lunch.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask; You look, uhm, no offense—"

"—young?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I get that all the time." The silver-haired answers casually. "I'm thirteen, if that's what you wanna know."

Ichigo's mouth gapes open in a wordless astonishment. "You're kidding, aren't you?"

"Nah. Just turned thirteen last week, in fact."

"So, what are you, some boy genius or some prodigy?" Ichigo asks incredulously, vigorously trying to maintain a straight face.

"Got accelerated by two grades. The school board suggested three, but that would be difficult for me, seeing as I'm three years younger than my batch-mates already."

"Really? Well, you must be amazing." Ichigo smiles weakly.

Toushiro looks away to avoid being compelled to have a say to that remark.

Before the silence turns into an awkward one, a fair-skinned boy with blond hair, who's looking quite as though he's lost in a jungle, approaches them,

"Is the seat taken?"

"No."

"May I?"

"No problem."

He dumps his food tray on the table with a remarked gentleness that one might think he fears making the slightest of rustles. Taking a seat with such a special gracefulness, he struck Ichigo as someone to be suspected of something.

"My name's Kira Izuru, and I'm a freshman too, just like you." He says. Among the things remarkable about him, his accent has an exquisite ring to it.

"I'm Toushiro Hitsugaya. This orange-head is Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Dazzling to meet you."

Ichigo and Toushiro shoot a pair of sidelong glances at each other upon determining the peculiarity in the other boy's choice of words.

"Which school are you from, Kira—may I call you by your first name?" the youngster asks.

"Please, I'd be more obliged if you did. I'm from Seretei High. It's located in the Nagoya district—"

"—I've heard of that one. It's where the business tycoons throw their children. It's a rather elite academy. Rich kids's academy, in short." Toushiro says, finally unraveling the mystery behind the civility of the boy's actions.

Kira blushes a little, "It really has that kind of reputation, hasn't it? What about you? Where did you go in your junior high?" he asks the boy.

"Yokahoma Science High." Toushiro answers.

Kira's eyes magnify to a considerable degree, "I've heard of that one. I mean, everyone has heard of that school. No wonder you're still young. It's a special academy where the most intelligent kids in Japan attend—"

"I would disagree with you on that. That place is stuffed with all sorts of morons that you'd think you walked into the wrong establishment." Toushiro intercepts as if defiling his former school's reputation merely serves as a passing statement. He takes a sip from his milk.

Kira Izuru and Kurosaki Ichigo laugh heartily. Hitsugaya cracks a smile.

"Yosh, Kira-kun!" A voice pierces across the cafeteria, suspending their merry activity. They turn their heads to the voice's origin, to find a tall, spiky-haired boy waving his hands in the air as though he hasn't made himself apparent enough already.

"Oh." Kira says involuntarily.

"Who's that?" Ichigo asks.

"My roommate. He's a sophomore. He's nice, though."

The sophomore pushes his way to their table, unmindful of colliding shoulders with the other students.

"Hey, Kira, you cruel bloke. I told you to wait for me to finish in the showers so we could go down here together." He reprimands rather insincerely.

"I'm sorry, sempai, but the bell rang and I thought I'd—"

"Silly boy, they don't check attendance at lunch breaks." He says and ruffles the freshman's hair that it now almost resembles his.

"I apologize, sempai. In any case, I'd like you to meet my fellow freshmen. This is Kurosaki Ichigo and this one's Toushiro Hitsugaya. This is Shuuhei Hisagi-sempai, my roommate."

The two freshmen nod indistinctly. But, for some reason, Hisagi Shuuhei is staring pensively at Hitsugaya.

"You're that baby genius Ukitake-sensei is blabbering about." He says as he examines the young boy in obvious fascination, sitting down without awaiting invitation. "So, how's your first day?"

Ichigo's mind soars off somewhere else, because the teal-haired lad, whom he earlier duly assumed to be the basketball team captain, has entered the hall, consequently eroding his peaceful concentration. With him is a company of sweaty basketball dudes who are explicitly implying the importance of their presence by being too loud in their happy conversation. Quite apart from the rest, only the teal-haired guy appears to be disinterested.

He can faintly hear Toushiro narrating to the sophomore a not-so-detailed account of his first day adventures at school. Then he hears himself ask Hisagi Shuuhei a question he would have been reluctant to ask on any given day,

"Uhm, Hisagi-sempai, would you happen to know who that guy with the teal-colored hair is?"

The three look around to locate the object of Ichigo's interests.

"Him? Didn't they make an introduction on your orientation tour?" Hisagi asks before continuing, "He's the captain of the Basketball Club and is a member of the Council Four. He is the Dormitory Head of the fourth floor. Grimmjow Jaggerjack is the name."

"What?" Ichigo says in utter incomprehension despite having heard the introduction perfectly well.

"His name's Grimmjow Jaggerjack." Shuuhei repeats with a delicate pronunciation of the bizarre name, "And, mind you, he really has a knack in gathering attention without lifting a finger. Proof of that is your uncensored curiosity." Hisagi teases the orange-head and lightly nudges him in the ribs.

"What? No way, it's nothing like that. Jeez. But…"

Kira and Toushiro are staring at him, mildly perplexed by his scattered behavior.

"But what?" Hisagi pursues.

"If his name is Grimmjow Jaggerjack-I mean, it's not a common name, is it?-then he must be my roommate. That's what the list in the main building states." Ichigo says absent-mindedly.

"Oh."

"Oh."

"Oh."

"I guess I'll have to live with it." He says despondently, the weight of the newly-discovered reality sinking mercilessly in his head. He feels especially uneasy with the thought of becoming so closely associated with that person in a matter of hours. He's his roommate, for Christ's sake.

"Live with what, exactly? Jack-sempai ain't that bad. In fact he's the best thing that's ever happened to Council Four…next to Stark-sempai, that is. Would you like me to introduce you to him? He'd be delighted." Shuuhei offers in an innocent directness.

"Me? —no please, I'm, er, I'll have plenty of time for that later."

"Whatever suits you. Anyway, before I forget, I'm recruiting new members for my band club; I'm the club's president, by the way. So if you can play a thing or two, please show up in Room 104 of the School Building proper anytime between four in the afternoon until nine in the evening. Every slot is available, especially the vocalist's. Well, mostly because Stark-sempai is starting to drive me nuts with his famous procrastinating quirks. Tryouts end in two weeks, nevertheless. Better grab your chances when they're available" He winks at the three freshmen before wheeling around to take his leave. Upon reaching a short distance from the three, the sophomore pulls over and turns his head back at them, "I'll be expecting you, Toushiro-kun. I've heard so much about you, and I wanna know firsthand what you're really made of. Ja ne!"

There ensues a mildly tense silence.

"What was that all about?" The orange-head asks his young friend when Hisagi has gone off.

"Nothing."

"Come on, tell us!" Kira begs.

"It's not as big as you suspect or how he projects it—"

"Well if that's the simple case, why don't you tell us already?" Ichigo pushes,

"Kurosaki-kun's right. I'm auditioning for the band tomorrow. I play the piano—keyboard, that is. It's nothing much, but I'm not keeping it a secret." Kira announces sheepishly.

Hitsugaya stares at him. Gradually, he gives in. "Oh. Well. I'm-I'm a pseudo-composer. I write melodies, pieces and, yeah, that's it."

The older boys stare at each other in a daze of incomprehension. Kira speaks,

"Would that mean you have a perfect pitch?"

"Yeah, that's partly liable to my success, if I may be allowed to refer to it as such but—"

"What's a perfect pitch?" Ichigo pipes up.

"It is the ability to identify a note easily and accurately. If I hit a note using my voice, boy genius here can swiftly translate it to the chords on the keyboard or the guitar." Kira explains, readily informative about everything when sharing his knowledge needs be.

"Oh." Ichigo gazes at his small companion in wonder. It's hard enough to share a room with the school's basketball team captain who's possibly the most exalted personage in the entire academy, therefore to be friends with a rich and pretty kid and a boy genius just makes his comfort more conducive to thinning.

"So which instrument do you play, Toushiro?"

"Anything."

Ichigo paces up and down the room which is still partially empty because Grimmjow Jaggerjack has yet to make an appearance. It appears that he is either eagerly awaiting his roommate's arrival or he dreads it. Slowly, it seems, the night is gaining height.

At length, the doorknob rotates, emitting a scraping sound. Ichigo watches the door swing open. For his part, he tries to refrain from looking anything below cool.

"Hey there." Grimmjow Jaggerjack says cordially, though rather nonchalantly, as he enters, as if the words came out of him automatically. Having placed a greeting, which he thinks is sufficient enough on its own, he makes his way to his bed and rummages his duffel bag.

Ichigo finds it extremely hard to refrain from staring like a dork. The senior, upon closer look, looms ten times more intimidating and twice as entrancing. He is, after all, very handsome.

"Hi. You must be Grimmjow Jaggerjack-sempai."

"That's me alright. And I'm guessing you're my new roommate." Grimmjow answers, his head spelunking the insides of his bag, his voice somewhat muffled by his activity.

"Yeah, you guessed that right. I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. Freshman."

"Nice to meet you." He hasn't even looked up on his roommate's face. In time, he stands up, a set of clothing in hand, and darts to the toilet, while Ichigo plainly can't take his eyes off him."I ma take a good bath. It may take long, so would that be okay with you?" the senior asks, exposing what possibly is concern.

"Wha—yeah, there's no problem in that."

"I mean, you can turn the lights out if you're going to sleep. I'll just make do with the moonlight when I'm finished. Don't wanna disturb ya or anything—"

"No, it's completely fine, sempai." Ichigo assures him in a nervous manner. Without attending to his conducts, he fails to refrain from staring at his senior, so now he is very near to looking like a gaping idiot.

"Well, it's kinda late, and I'm doing the rounds after bath; ya know, try to make sure the bastards on this floor have gone to bed and are not doing anything funny. I'm the Dorm Head of the floor, by the way." Grimmjow informs him.

It surprises him that the senior is far from what he initially envisioned him to be. He seems normal, responsible, and even kind. First impressions last, or at least they should. And so accordingly, he hopes things won't get sour between them anytime ahead.

"I'll— okay, I'll turn the lights out, if you insist."

"Good boy."

"Good night, sempai." Ichigo reckons his mouth has shifted out of control. That's just fucking gay. He thinks.

Surprisingly, the senior answers,

"Okay, good night, Strawberry." And he has closed the door behind him.

Ichigo's heartbeat threatens to exceed a world record in speed.

TBC

A/N: thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions please send them in.