The sight of Ishida sitting so primly at his desk pissed me off. It's as if nothing we do actually has any effect on him. Like his body and mind can't be touched by anything I do or say. Like I don't exist.

Chad was looking at me, I could feel his eyes burning through me. I turned to him, raising an eyebrow. He just moved his eyes to my hand. I followed them to see two halves of a pen, ink splattered on my hand, notebook, and the desk. I had broke it.

Mrs. Ochi cleared her throat, sending me a sharp, but not serious, glare. Silently telling me to deal with my own mess. I stood and left the room, heading to the bathroom with the permission of the teacher. Ishida didn't pay me any mind, but I swear I saw a smirk flash across his face.


"Kurosaki-kun?" I turned towards her, trying to force a gentler expression on my face. She saw through it, but didn't comment. "Would you like to share my lunch? Or we could switch..."

Lunch? I looked into my lap, at where my untouched bento was. Yuzu had made it for me this morning, I think. The problem was that I didn't remember anything after going to the bathroom to scrub at the ink on my hands.

"Uh, no, I'm good. I was just... spacing off, I guess."

Her face light up in a bright smile, but it was somewhat forced. It had been like that ever since Hueco Mundo, I guess. She picked up a… whatever the hell she was eating and stuffed it into her mouth. My mind seemed to come back to me as I processed Keigo's incessant whining about a new movie, Mizuiro's text tone, Chad's silent presence, but mainly Uryu's absence.

"Is something wrong, Kurosaki-kun?"

She could be pretty perceptive at times. Ditzy as all hell at others.

"It's just… Where is Ishida? He normally eats with us, so…"

Her surprise showed clearly on her face, making me regret my question.

"He said earlier that he had a student council meeting at lunch. Are you sure you're okay, Kurosaki-kun? You aren't really acting like yourself."

I felt Chad's eyes again. Burning intently on me, asking me too many questions at once. Quickly, I glanced at him. Telling him that I'd explain later, even though I wasn't really going to.

"I'm fine, just tired."

She nodded, but didn't really believe me. It was clear as her eyes looked to her lunch, purposefully looking anywhere but at me. I stood, muttering a 'bathroom' and shaking my head when Chad looked like he was about to follow. Down the stairwell, through the hall. I stopped at the sound of my name.

"Ishida?"

He smirked at my dumb expression.

"I do go to school with you, or have you forgotten?"

I frowned at his snarky tone.

"Aren't you supposed to be with the student council?"

"We finished early. I was just heading to join you guys on the roof. Where are you going, not paying attention to anything else?"

"Bathroom, but just because I needed to walk around a bit."

He frowned, concern bringing warmth to his cold eyes. I blinked, then tried to ignore the tired bags that were cleverly hidden under his glasses. Like he hadn't slept properly in months and I somehow had yet to notice.

"Is something happening that I should be aware of, Kurosaki?"

Are you okay, Ichigo?

"No, I just wanted to walk around. It's nothing serious." I paused when I thought I heard him start talking. But, when I looked, his lips weren't moving. At seeing my hesitation, his eyebrow raised. "Uh, sorry. Just blanked for a second."

His eyes rolled and I heard a laugh, but it wasn't his own.

"Well, I will be on the roof."

I nodded and he walked past me. I didn't move until his footsteps were gone. Crouching down, I held my head to my knees.

Breathe in, breathe out. Keep it together. Don't do anything stupid.

Just talking to him, seeing him smirk, was enough to make something happen to me. Like I wanted to hold him to me and just breathe in his sent. I needed to keep it together or else he would surely beat the living hell out of me.

It's harder than it seems to keep your hands to yourself.

What?

I looked around, but no one was near me. Bolting up, I backed against the wall to look again, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Shutting my eyes, I rubbed at my forehead with my hands and sighed.

Fucking delusional bastard.


Obviously, Ichigo has a little more issues in this story than he does in the normal Bleach. So does Uryu and some of the other characters. To me, parts of Bleach felt almost like the characters were all perfectly fine. Like they had never experienced the horrifying things they have. So, the personalities in this story will be adjusted, but not too much.

Another thing is, with each chapter, a new day is shown. Every chapter you read will be the next day or a few days later than the previous chapter.