The air is cool.

It doesn't bite at the skin but Ichigo knows if he touched his face, it would feel as if a mirror was moulded beneath flesh, alien, numb and excessively smooth. His breath streams above him like smoke from a faulty cigar and he leans his head backwards, eying the disarray of clouds. His lunch lays unfinished beside him and the chatter of his friends can only be heard as distant buzzing.

The Quincy's refusal in the past hadn't bothered him as much as it did now, now that it was paired with something else.

Ishida had always blown him off for the sake of pride (usually after an argument) or his sewing club, but today's occurrence had him seemingly doing it for someone else's sake. It pissed Ichigo off, being brushed off like that, well that and the way Ishida had been staring at the message on his phone as he hurried away. What was so great about this Kenji prick anyway?

"Oi, oi Ichigo." Something pokes hard into his arm and he turns to see Tatsuki glowering at him behind an extended chopstick. "You tryna escape into the clouds or something? Stop sulking, you can't have done that badly on the exam, right? Knowing you, you'd probably get good grades without revising."

"Ah, I'm sure you didn't perform as badly as Asano-san." Mizuiro chimes in, smiling sweetly at the boy sitting next to him, who squawks indignantly, beginning to flail.

"What are you even saying?!" The smile remains on the small statured boy as he's shaken by the arm. "I actually did well and I revised beforehand. Stop acting like I'm stupid!"

"Ha, but you are!" Tatsuki taunts, pulling the brunette away from Mizuiro and into a headlock. "We all know you're dead last, perv."

"You're just jealous I won't perv on you. It's because you look like a man. A man! Kyaa-" His voice transforms into a cry as knuckles rub hard into his scalp.

Orihime looks worriedly between the squabbling pair and himself, caught between soothing Keigo and Tatsuki's egos or asking questions. Already, she had seen through him and guessed the cause of his bad mood. Looking to her right, she fixes Chad with a pleading look, who nods, standing up slowly.

"Class will be starting soon." With those words said, he makes his way to the rooftop's door and soon, the others follow, Keigo's head still trapped under the martial artist's arm.

Last to leave is Orihime, lingering by his side, hands clasped together.

"Kurosaki-kun. Um, you know, Ishida-kun has been very busy lately. With the sewing club and his archery classes, not to mention exams. It must be stressful, because he always wants to do his best, even be better than best." Bright eyes look at him hopefully. "But I'm sure he'll join us for lunch soon, when he's not busy. I'll make something yum too, that way he'll join us every day!"

Looking at her beaming smile, Ichigo doesn't have the heart to tell her Ishida is more likely to get food poisoned then change schools to escape.

Instead, he smiles back.

"Yeah, I'm sure he will."

Glad to have cheered him up, Orihime twirls to the door with a wave, telling him he should get to class soon. Spirits raised, Ichigo reasons that Ishida really must be busy and that this Kenji guy is just someone he's helping with homework.

Peering through the rooftop railing, he takes a moment to watch students re-enter the school.

Something catches his attention.

Eyes zeroing on the familiar flash of lens and windswept hair, his mood instantly plummets at the sight of another figure. This guy is obviously in his personal space, yet Ishida doesn't seem to mind, allowing the closeness with a smile. A smile! Ishida rarely smiles at him, yet this person has easily instilled a good mood from…taking his glare from the Quincy's lips, he notices how the two are holding hands.

Wait, what?

The dark-haired stranger stands with his back to Ichigo, Ishida's bare hands grasped within his own, which are adorned with brightly coloured gloves. The two speak for a bit, the stranger rubbing Ishida's hands to keep them warm all the while, making Ichigo seethe, he knew that the Quincy got cold easily but wasn't he annoyed, being babied like this?

Maybe he likes having his hands held a voice slyly glides at the back of his head. He ignores it, keeping his attention on the duo.

Ishida's companion says something that makes his eyes widen and to Ichigo's oddly misplaced relief, the two break away from one another, heading into the building for class.

Ichigo remains on the rooftop, pulse rushing as anger commences to empower his thoughts.

So, Ishida hadn't been hard at work at all. Instead of being with his friends, he ditches them to hold hands. Instead of accepting his invitation, he was acting all cosy with some shithead - someone who the Shinigami now realises must be Kenji.

It wasn't only that, he's on a first name basis with the guy, listing him as 'Kenji' in his contacts. Tch. Knowing Ishida, the damn Quincy probably listed himself as 'Kurosaki' or 'Shinigami'. Or maybe he wasn't in his contacts at all. The thought makes his stomach sink.

Just what is Ishida playing at?

Spirits low, he feels the same way he did earlier. Undeniably over his head.

OoO

A blockade between himself and freedom comes in the form of detention – he'd spent so long on the rooftop – and now his agitation was climbing skyscrapers and getting ready to jump right off. To fall and sink into even more agitation.

He just wants to go home.

Nodding impatiently at his teacher's final reprimands, he makes his way towards his shoe locker. Busy swapping his school shoes for his usual trainers, the Shinigami doesn't take much notice of the student that brushes past him to exit out the door.

"Hey! I hope you haven't been waiting too long, Uryuu-kun." At the mention of his friend, it takes all his willpower not to peer around the row closest to the exit, standing motionless as he listens for a response to the upbeat greeting.

"Not at all. I was speaking with a teacher, so I just got here a few minutes ago." The familiarity in that tone bothers Ichigo for some reason.

"In that case, shall we go now?"

Listening as their footsteps fade, Ichigo emerges to watch them head towards the school gate. The sight of Ishida walking side by side and friendlily chatting with Kenji makes his thoughts buzz unpleasantly with questions. One question stands strikingly bold.

Were they…going on a date?

A better question was - should he follow them?

OoO

What kind of date was this?

He'd been shadowing them for about twenty minutes now and all they were doing was talking, Ishida explaining something by the looks of it, considering Kenji was nodding along and paying attention to the gestures the other boy was making with his hands.

Fighting the urge to yawn, Ichigo tries to quell his boredom. It wasn't very interesting when he didn't know what they were discussing, for all he knew, Ishida could be telling Kenji what colour napkins he wanted at their wedding!

…okay, maybe not. But the point was that Ichigo was starting to regret his current life choices. The two of them were doing nothing to confirm his suspicions.

The pair then take a turn towards the shopping district, to which Ichigo speeds up, not wanting to lose sight of them. Turning the corner, he barely stops himself from rolling his eyes when he catches them walking into a certain shop.

Of course.

Typical Ishida. Only he would take his date to a sewing store. Settling down onto a bench half-hidden from the store's line of sight, Ichigo takes his phone out in hopes of looking busy. If Ishida comes out and happens to notice him, then he'd just say that he's shopping for groceries or something.

Glancing into the shop's window he notes how animatedly Ishida was acting, or at least, it was animated for Ishida. With Kenji, he was continuously looking at the other, smiling over the different fabrics, clearly happy.

Ishida must really like him.

He begins jostling his leg up and down, tapping his nails on the bench's armrest, trying and failing to ignore the uncomfortable lump in his throat. With himself, Ishida was always frowning or annoyed, being condescending or distant. Alright, so there were times when Ishida was easy to get along with, but that was usually when they were with the rest of their friends. When it was just the two of them, there was some weird barrier in place.

And more recently, Ishida was being even more distant. It was driving him near insane.

Taking a look back into the store, his resolve weakens at the sight of Kenji crowding Ishida against a shelf, laughing and trying to place a ribbon in his hair. Ishida was pushing his hands away, but from what it he could tell, the attempts were half-hearted.

He gets up, shoving his phone into his pocket.

Right now, he really just wants to go home.

OoO

He collapses into his bed.

After his brief stint of being a stalker, he'd run into a group of hollows. He should be able to sleep easily after that, but sleep just wouldn't come his way.

Since the moment he'd left Ishida and that Kenji shithead, he felt strange, he felt oddly drained. It was starting to become apparent that this tiredness was something sleep couldn't cure. Even though he'd gotten the information he'd come for by following Ishida, even though he'd found out who Ishida liked…

Somehow, it felt like he was giving up.

But more importantly – why did he care so much?

A/N:

ichigo: should I follow them?

me: don't

ichigo: *follows them*

me: wtf man

also me: *casually pretends I didn't take a whole year to update* I'm sorry