The diner was cutely placed outside the small area of the "run-down" part of L.A. To the strawberry, he thought all of L.A was run-down, but he was sadly mistaken. The car ride to the diner was filled with subtle conversation about the place where Ichigo and Shinji grew up. Shinji turned out to be 3 years older than Ichigo, who was 20 years of age and a freshman of this college.
"I must warn you, though," The blonde began as they pulled up into the parking lot of the small diner. The fluorescent light glowed against the graying sky above their heads. "my friends aren't the nicest bunch in the world, but they'll get use to you. You just gotta take the teasing and mocking for the first few weeks or so until they start to like you."
Ichigo smiled grimly at the fact as he followed his new found friend into the diner. Apparently, most of Shinji's friends were already seated at a large semi-circular booth. Of course, the skin-head from earlier hadn't made it yet, which made Ichigo sigh with relief at the clarification. Although, he may never know, the men before him could be worse than Ikkaku.
He awkwardly took a seat at the edge next to Shinji on the booth, catching every eye of the men sitting at the booth. There were a total of four men, excluding him and Shinji, sitting at the large booth. One man, who seemed to be about Shinji's age, or maybe older, was blonde just like Shinji. His hair was short, with a long portion of his hair covering a part of his face and one eye.
He looked timid, which fit his physique. His eyes were calm and soft, and his smile was shy and kind. Ichigo took a liking to him already. The man sitting next to him on the edge was a man with maroon hair. It was long, and had to be kept in a spiky pony tail. Tattoos covered his body, forming interesting eyebrows with the shapes. His eyes were stern and almost cold, but the smile on his face only foreboded the teasing that would take place in the future.
The man sitting next to Shinji was an eerie man. He has older than everyone else, almost in his 30's it seemed, with dark brown hair that was rubbed back against his head and slicked down smoothly to the back of his neck, except for a strand that flicked in front of the man's gaze. He was looking at a menu, not meeting eyed with the strawberry.
But it wasn't him that caught his eye the most. The man seated to his left was what made his eyes lock with his for a couple of agonizing moments.
The man was bulkier, with a very nice physique in his clothes. His hair was a sky blue, which sat upon his head wildly, going in all places. His eyes were bright blue, and his smile was slinked like a smirk. Something about the man made Ichigo's heart race and his breath become choppy, and he had to muscle up a lot of will power to tear the man's gaze from his.
The tattooed man was the first to say something, "So, kid, what's yer name?" He asked, his sly smile slowly increasing as he asked the question. Ichigo shyly glanced at the table, twirling a cheap paper napkin between his fingers.
"Ichigo." He mumbled, gazing out at all of the people seated there. The man with the brown haired showed no interest to the new addition, but silently flipped pages of the menu and humming to himself.
"Ichigo…so…yer name's Strawberry?" The tattooed man smirked, his eyes gazing down at the smaller man. "Pretty damn funny." He added. Ichigo clenched his jaw, his hands clenching and unclenching underneath the table. "Don't listen to him, Ichigo. He's just a big fat bully." Shinji retorted back at the larger man.
"Renji's just scared to get his words thrown back in his face." Mumbled the brown haired man as he set the menu down and crossed his arms stiffly across his chest, leaning back against the booth. Renji narrowed his eyes at the older man, his fist slamming down on the table. "Shut the fuck up, shit."
The man rolled his eyes, "Very educated name-calling, kid." Shinji's facial expressions became more uncomfortable with each second that slowly rolled past by. "Please don't do this now." He whined.
As if on cue, the door to the diner opened, and Skin-Head the deuche bag himself waltzed in, clipping his sunglasses to his tank top. Renji whooped toward the man, his smile resuming its usual placement on his face. "Thought you wouldn't come!"
Ikkaku chuckled, stopping to where Ichigo was seated on the edge. "Hey, kid, what the fuck you doin' in my seat?" The bald man growled, casting his cold gaze onto the younger kid. Ichigo felt anger, instead of fear like Ikkaku had wanted, bubble up in his gut and he stiffly stood, shoving into the man's shoulder.
The man stumbled back in sarcastic shock and furrowed his eyebrows, "Watch it, fucker." Ichigo ignored the statement as Ikkaku took his seat next to Shinji. He sadly took a seat next to Renji, noticing the man's gaze locked on his head. "So…you from Japan too?" The tattooed man asked.
The other blonde smiled sweetly and stated, "Oh, we're all from there too!" Renji laughed and smacked the man against the back, "Yea, me and Kira lived in the same neighborhood. We're roommates as well."
Ichigo nodded, fiddling with the plastic menu in front of him. Ikkaku shot the strawberry a straightforward glare and stated, "So…strawberry, you got a roommate?" Ichigo shook his head, not meeting eye contact with the older man.
He heard the brown haired man in the middle of the booth chuckled and look up at the strawberry blonde male. "Living all alone? Yer a loner?" He asked. Ichigo shrugged, flipping through the pages of the menu.
"Yer just like Grimmjow. Hates anyone in his space." He stated. Ichigo looked over to the blue haired male to his side, his eyes fixating on the man's perfectly constructed face. So that's what his name was…Grimmjow…how…seemingly perfect.
He didn't know how, but the name suited the blue-haired Sexta. Grimmjow ran his fingers through his hair, eyeing the brown haired man. "Do ya blame me, Aizen? My last roommate told you himself he hated living in the same room with me." Aizen sighed solemnly, eyeing Grimmjow down with his gaze.
"Your last boyfriend was lucky to get away. Ulquiorra couldn't take your rebel-like attitude." Aizen stated, defending the man Ichigo didn't know. But the strawberry was partially shocked. So the man was gay…nothing against that at all! He just never assumed he was. He never got a vibe.
Shinji let out a chuckle and stated, "Alright, no need to get into an argument! Aizen you remember how hot-headed Grimmjow is! He's worse than Renji!" Aizen glared down at the blonde man and scoffed. "He should know I've had practice in fighting on the streets. I'm not all 100% sophisticated gentleman."
Grimmjow laughed, as did Renji. Kira and Shinji only awkwardly bowed their heads, and Ikkaku mumbled a curse word under his breath.
An awkward silence rippled through the group, which only ceased when a waitress walked up and asked sweetly, "Hello, how may I help you?"
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"So when did ya move here?" Grimmjow mumbled as they all left the diner. Ichigo looked up at the taller male and bit his lip. "Well…I practically just came in an hour ago. Shinji was the first guy to come to the house and greet me."
Grimmjow laughed and cast a glance toward the blonde as he walked alongside Ikkaku, "Yea, that kid sure is friendly. It bugs Ikkaku, though. The man thinks Shinji might as well be cheating on him."
"Eh?" Ichigo asked, his face paling, "He's gay too?" Grimmjow shot him a glare and stated, "Well, yea. Me, Shinji, and Ikkaku are gay. The rest like women." Ichigo's mind fumbled back to Kira, but he shrugged the thought away and walked to Shinji's fancy Porsche.
As he was about to hop inside the passenger's seat, Ikkaku pulled him back, almost making him stumble to the ground. "No thanks, I'm driving with him now." He stated coldly, climbing into the seat and waiting for Shinji to come over around. The blonde cast a worried gaze on Ichigo and smiled, "Sorry, it's only fair. Catch a ride with someone else!"
Ichigo looked around at the others. Renji and Kira were getting into a dark blue truck, and Aizen was going over to a 350Z. That left Grimmjow, but the strawberry's gut clenched to the thought.
The Sexta eyed Ichigo up and down and smirked, "You afraid of me or something?"
"No…wh-why would you think that?"
"You're face grimaced when you looked at me." His voice had no hint of hurt in it, which halfway surprised Ichigo.
"Oh…didn't mean it."
"It's fine, it's fine." Grimmjow stated, almost laughing. The Porsche drove off down the road, as did the truck right behind. Aizen was busy lighting a cigarette in the car. Other than that, they were the only two people still around.
Grimmjow nodded a moment, biting his lip. "Get in the damn car."