Ok, Chapter 2!

This story will essentially be about the develop of the relationship between Ichigo and Toshiro over the school year, so after this chapter, most future chapters won't follow straight on from the last, but will be set anything from a few days to a few weeks apart, and each will be about significant moments in the Ichihitsu relationship as it evolves from strangers to … ;) So stay with me, it'll come all in good time.

This chapter isn't all that thrilling because I just wanted to introduce Ichigo to college life, but I promise more exciting chapters coming soon!

…

Chapter 2: First Day

Ichigo's alarm clock sung its loud and annoying tune to rouse its' deep sleeping owner. With a muffled grunt, said owner lifted his hand out from the covers to his bedside table, hitting the furniture blindly in search of the offending noise. After almost losing his charging phone off the edge, Ichigo found the alarm clock and turned it off. He was now wide awake and in no need of the extra 10 minute snooze.

The first day of college! Ichigo remembered with a jolt. A wide smile erupted over his features. He was excited, and nervous, but mostly eager to start classes and make new friends. He'd made two last night – three if you counted Toshiro – and couldn't wait to catch up with them again.

Peeling the covers back, Ichigo forced himself out of the warm comfort of his bed and stood up, stretching the last of the tiredness out. He grabbed a bath towel and padded out into the living room.

Toshiro was already up, dressed and sipping on a rather large mug of tea. He was packing his books and reading glasses into his bag. He was clad in a pair of tight-fitting blue jeans and an old, oversized athletic hoodie with self-made thumb holes. It was charcoal grey in colour, and really pronounced the colour of Toshiro's stunning cerulean irises.

"Good morning, Toshiro," Ichigo almost sang in delight, "You're up early this morning."

"I'm going to the library," was the blunt reply, "And I'd prefer if you called me 'Hitsugaya', Kurosaki."

Ichigo supressed a chuckle; Toshiro was so tightly wound. He wondered if this was just a morning thing or whether Toshiro would be like this all day long.

"Are you coming down for breakfast, Toshiro?" Ichigo asked, clearly ignoring his roommate's last request.

"It's 'Hitsugaya', and no," The boy glared.

Ichigo sighed and shrugged mentally. It was possible that Toshiro was going to take a lot of warming up, but he was prepared to meet the challenge. There was just something about him that Ichigo found special. He didn't know what it was the compelled him to the boy so much, but he was going to take the time to find out. He had a feeling –call him crazy – he had a feeling that he and Toshiro were meant to meet; destined to be roommates for a greater reason.

On the other hand, he hadn't had his morning coffee yet and that last thought could very well have been nonsense.

Toshiro stood to full height and, this being the first time Ichigo had stood next to him, Ichigo realised the boy came up to just below his shoulder. So small, Ichigo thought, but perfect for cuddling. WAIT WHAT?! Ichigo was shocked at himself for even thinking about his roommate like that.

Was Toshiro cute? Yes. Was he gorgeous? Of course…but that didn't mean Ichigo could cuddle him, or even entertain the idea. This was his roommate, for god's sake, not his boyfriend. Ichigo barely knew him; this was only their second conversation after all since Ichigo hadn't seen him after dinner last night. In addition to that, he probably wasn't even gay! In fact, there was a real chance that Toshiro might not even know what his preference was; Ichigo certainly didn't at that age.

The worst part was that despite all that, Ichigo still had the urge to pick up the boy and cuddle him anyway. Well, not just cuddle, but also kiss and…

"I'm going to have a shower!" Ichigo exclaimed suddenly, whipping around and striding off in the direction of the bathroom. Feeling as his face heated from top to bottom, he didn't miss the odd look his new roommate had given him.

From the safety of the bathroom, Ichigo could hear the heavy dorm door open and close again as Toshiro left for the morning. He took a deep breath to calm himself. What had gotten into him lately?

…

I'm so fucking lost, Ichigo bolted along the hallways and up and down stairs with next to no idea where his morning lecture was. He had a room number and a map of the school, but unfortunately geography was not one of his better skills; he wasn't even sure if he was holding the map the right way around. He was in the right building, he knew, but he was having trouble locating the actual lecture room.

"Hey you!" A feminine voice called as he sprinted by.

Ichigo turned around and back tracked towards the voice. A rather short girl, probably only a little taller than Toshiro, stood by one of the classroom doors in a white dress and denim jacket, with a tiny backpack hanging over her shoulders and a laptop tucked under her arm. She was quite pretty, with shoulder-length ebony hair and striking violet eyes.

"Are you looking for 'Introduction to Anatomy'?" She asked, a kind smile gracing her lips.

"Yeah," Ichigo puffed, trying to regain his breath after all that running, "Do you know where I can find room L12?"

"Yep," The girl answered, tapping on the door frame beside her, "This is it. Apparently they renamed it at the end of last year but haven't got around to updating the m]aps and timetables yet."

Ichigo looked at the sign on the door which read 'S6' and frowned. How could the university not have updated the timetables and maps for all the new students? He prayed that this was the only room to be renamed otherwise he was going to have a long week trying to find his classes.

"Thanks," Ichigo smiled gratefully at the girl who'd helped him, "Are you in this class too?"

The girl nodded, "I'm studying medical science."

"Me too!" Ichigo exclaimed.

The girl smiled in return and gave him an enthusiastic high-five. Ichigo laughed in response. He was glad to have made a friend in his course so early.

"I'm Ichigo, by the way, Ichigo Kurosaki" He said as he led them into the lecture hall.

"Rukia Kuchiki."

"Kuchiki? Any relation to-"

"Byakuya Kuchiki?" Rukia grinned, appearing to already know where this was going, "Yeah, he's my brother."

Ichigo's jaw dropped. Byakuya Kuchiki was the CEO of Kuchiki Industries having recently taken over from his father. As one of the biggest Japanese companies, the Kuchiki family were royals in the business world. They were said to be the richest family in the country.

"No way!" Ichigo whistled, "Remind me to introduce to my friend, Renji. It's like his dream to work for your brother."

As the lecturer finally wrapped up his presentation 2 hours later, Ichigo felt as though he had just been punched in the face with information. There was so much content to learn in this subject, he was suddenly nervous that he'd never be able to retain and remember all the information being thrown at him.

Rukia sat beside him with a similar expression. At least he had her; doing the same course meant all of their core subjects would be the same. They could study together. She seemed smart and focused; she'd be able to keep him on track.

The lecture had been interesting, which was another thing he was grateful for. Ichigo was passionate about this course so he was motivated to keep up with the class and pay attention. His only problem was that he would often get fidgety if made to sit still for extended periods of time, and longed for when this class finally turned practical next semester. Ichigo was all too keen to don the white lab coats and play around with the cadavers. A little sick, he supposed, but the best way to learn.

"Are you thinking about joining any clubs?" Rukia asked as they packed their bags and shuffled out the door slowly with the crowd.

"Clubs? I haven't really thought about it," Ichigo replied, scratching the back of his neck in thought.

"You should consider it. Extracurricular activities always look good on a résumé and the university has quite a wide range."

"Which one were you thinking of joining?" Ichigo asked.

Joining a club would be a good way to make friends, Ichigo considered, and also a way for him to get away from his studies when he might need a break. Rukia was right too; it did look good to employers.

"I don't know," Rukia responded, tapping her chin lightly, "I've always liked drawing so perhaps an art club? My brother is fond of calligraphy clubs so that's another idea…"

Ichigo fought back a chuckle. He didn't know Rukia all that well at the moment, but if her drawings were anything like the doodles in the margins of her notebook than the art clubs were in for a massive shock.

"The clubs have set up information stalls in the quad today," Rukia continued, "Maybe we should go down and check them out during lunchtime?"

"Yeah, that'd be great," Ichigo beamed.

…

"Oi Ichigo!" The way too loud voice of Renji boomed behind him, "Over here!"

Ichigo swivelled around from his spot beside Rukia. They were standing in front of a stall set up by the 'Manga Club' – a club dedicated to reading manga and writing/drawing their own. Rukia had yanked him over there; apparently she was quite the anime fan, and when combined with art it seemed like a dream come true for her.

He spotted Renji's wild hair a few stalls over as the budding electrical engineer waved enthusiastically at him.

"Hey Rukia," Ichigo turned back to his female companion, "I'll be just over there, okay? Come over when you're done."

Rukia looked at where he was pointing and gave a sharp nod before returning to her discussion with the club leaders, her face lit up in excitement as she got the full run down of the club's activities. Grinning to himself, Ichigo left her and made his way up to Renji.

"What's up, Pineapple?"

"Not much, Strawberry!"

Ichigo's head snapped up in Renji's direction. He had been expecting Renji to over-react and growl out a few choice swear words, but instead he'd come up with his own awful nickname. Ichigo pouted; it wasn't the first time he'd been called that in his life but he still hated it. His brightly coloured orange hair did not help his case in any way either.

"Fuck off," Ichigo barked, although not really mad; he did kind of deserved it for calling his new friend a pineapple.

Renji only grinned in response and gave him a firm pat on the back.

"Thinking of joining a club?" Renji asked.

"Yeah," Ichigo responded, scanning the stalls around him, "Not sure which one though."

"What are you interested in?"

"I was thinking a sport or something else physical," Ichigo responded having thought about it all through his second morning class, "I want something to do when I've been sitting at my desk for too long."

"You and I have that in common," Renji laughed, "I joined the basketball team last year for that reason, and then karate when I felt like getting all my anger out."

"Anger?"

"Girl troubles, y'know?"

Ichigo had to grin. No, he didn't have girl troubles, but he knew what the redhead had meant.

"Hey, maybe you should join the karate club!" Renji suddenly exclaimed, mischief gleaming darkly in his eyes, "We could hang out and you could stare at Hitsugaya's ass…"

Ichigo clapped a hand over Renji's mouth and pulled him into a choke hold. The second year student was laughing uncontrollably, so much so that tears sprung from his eyes and his face turned a deep shade of purple from a lack of breath; a lack of breath that had nothing to do with Ichigo's arm around his neck.

"Would you shut up?" Ichigo hissed, "I told you I don't like him! I barely know him!"

After several more minutes, Renji eventually calmed down enough to apologise, although very unconvincingly, to Ichigo. Ichigo ignored him and gave joining the karate club some serious consideration. He'd done karate as a kid, but he'd been utterly terrible at it. Of course, he'd actually become a fair fighter now, what from all those 'lessons' from his father and the trouble he ran into as a young teenager, but he felt like he needed something else; a sport that was far less disciplined and more fast-paced, perhaps?

Explaining this to Renji, the tall redhead suggested a number of sports.

"Basketball?" – It was true he had the height for it and the stamina, but he'd only ever played it during P.E. at school.

"Soccer?" – Definitely more his sister's area but still quite an energetic sport.

"Baseball? Rugby? American football? Tennis?" – None of these screamed out him.

"Look Ichigo, I think you should seriously consider trying out for the basketball team," Renji sighed, seemingly giving up, "You'd be great at it. Quite a few of the players last year graduated, so there are heaps of spots open."

"Maybe," Ichigo shrugged, it was his best option so far.

"Just think about it this afternoon," Renji pleaded, "The stalls are open all day today and tomorrow as well, so you've got plenty of time to decide."

Ichigo sighed; yes, thinking it over was a good idea. He had to admit, basketball would probably be fun. He knew Renji and Izuru from the team already, so making friends might be that little bit easier. Still though, he'd never really been interested in basketball, having only played during sports class. He hadn't been too bad, if he recalled correctly, but he'd always been quite good at most sports.

…

It wasn't until around 10pm that Ichigo heard Toshiro enter the dorm room – correction; it was around 10pm that Ichigo didn't hear Toshiro enter the door, which was a significant factor in how he wound up in the situation he was in.

At first he thought that maybe the prodigy was studying in his room, but when he had returned from dinner and still not heard anything from Toshiro, he decided to check. He'd knocked and received no reply. Thinking that, perhaps, Toshiro might have been listening to music through earphones, Ichigo then figured he better open the door and see for himself whether his roommate was home or not.

He was greeted to an empty bedroom. At this point, any normal roommate would have shrugged and closed the door, but for some reason Ichigo lingered in the doorway taking in the appearance of Toshiro's bedroom. They say you can tell a lot about someone from the look of their bedroom, Ichigo grinned; this might be an opportunity for him to learn a little more about the young genius he lived with. As it turned out, this was another reason for his current predicament.

The first thing Ichigo noticed about the room was just how immaculately clean, tidy and organised it was. Ichigo couldn't see a speck of dust anywhere. Furthermore, the boy's desk was completely organised, which Ichigo considered to be a great feat considering the amount of books on it. Also on the desk, Ichigo saw a laptop, a framed photograph and a – is that a boomerang?

Doing a double take, and then forgetting his manners, Ichigo took a cautious step into the room. Slowly, as if expecting something or someone to jump out of him, he made it to the desk and began inspecting the items on it. He could hardly believe he was snooping around Toshiro's room; he usually appreciated people's privacy, as he liked his own to be respected by others, but here he was checking out Toshiro's room with no good reason for his actions.

Ichigo found that it was, in fact, a boomerang that sat upon his roommate's desk. Running a finger delicately over the fine pattern on its upward face before gently picking it up and flipping it over in his hands, Ichigo wondered why on Earth Toshiro kept this on his desk. Perhaps he'd recently been to Australia?

Shrugging if off for now, Ichigo continued his inspection of the desk. He picked up the framed picture next. The photo was of a much younger, but definitely unmistakeable, Toshiro – probably close to 3 or 4 years old – sitting in the lap of an old woman whom Ichigo assumed to be his grandmother. They were sitting together on a wooden porch of a small house and eating watermelon. Ichigo chuckled quietly as he took in Toshiro's expression – the young child was grinning ear-to-ear, with a missing tooth at the front of his mouth, his eyes were lit up in pure joy.

With a fond smile upon his face, Ichigo gently returned the frame to its previous position, and turned his sights to the books the lined the back of the desk. They were mostly textbooks on science – most specifically, physics – and maths, but there were also a number of other books of various other genres; fiction, history, biography, sport. Ichigo realised that Toshiro was quite the soccer fan, with a few books on it and a large poster of the Japanese world cup team stuck to the wall above his bed.

Around his desk, Toshiro also had several more posters, but they were strictly science based by the looks of things, and obviously home-made. Ichigo ran his gaze over the different tables and diagrams that Toshiro had drawn and couldn't help but admire the boy's intelligence and dedication to his work.

"What are you doing in my room?" An irritated voice snapped from behind him.

And this was the problem he'd caused for himself.

Ichigo – whom had been leaning over the desk in order to get a better look at Toshiro's periodic table – jumped back in shock of being caught red handed. In his haste, he'd knocked over Toshiro's jar of pens and other miscellaneous stationary.

Ichigo shot forward again as he tried to catch the pens as they rolled over the desk, some threatening to fall off the edge. His mind was whirling in an attempt to find a good excuse for being in Toshiro's room. The prodigy himself was standing in the door way; arms crossed and glaring, waiting patiently for an answer. Silent but deadly.

"I, um – Well, I-" Ichigo fumbled around with the pens, trying desperately to collect them all and replace them to their former position, "I wanted to borrow a pen!"

Ichigo had blurted out his excuse, and held up a pen to Toshiro's scrutinising gaze as if it was all the evidence he required. To be honest, he was quite proud of himself for coming up with it.

Toshiro remained silent as he looked Ichigo up and down, seemingly trying to decide whether or not to trust the inwardly panicking strawberry.

"Get out," Toshiro growled, apparently not entirely convinced.

Ichigo's heart sank a little. He didn't understand why the guy seemed to hate him so much. Toshiro was yet to say something nice to him, or even smile. He always just seemed annoyed at him. Ichigo was a likeable guy, usually making friends off first impressions alone, but Toshiro seemed to think he was just some inconvenience he was forced to bunk with.

Ichigo let his smile visibly drop and sighed; placing the pen he was holding back into the jar and making his way out of the room, head hung. Toshiro said nothing as he side-stepped out of the way to let him through the door

Half way out the door, Ichigo heard Toshiro sigh behind him.

"Kurosaki."

Ichigo turned around slowly to face his roommate. Toshiro eyes were closed, and he was pinching the bridge of his nose. Ichigo waited patiently for the boy – who seemed to be in the middle of a mental debate with himself – to speak again. Instead of talking, the white-haired prodigy stepped forward and plucked a pen out from his jar, and held it out to Ichigo.

"Keep it," He said; his voice was barely above that of a whisper.

Shocked, Ichigo numbly lifted a hand to take the pen from Toshiro, and thanked him quietly. Slowly, ever so slowly, Ichigo could feel his heart warming and the corners of his mouth turning back up. Was this Toshiro actually being nice? Ichigo beamed at the genius who was refusing to meet his eye. Maybe there was hope for him yet…

"You can leave now," Toshiro uttered, returning to his previous cold attitude.

"I'll remember this," Ichigo grinned stupidly, knowing that Toshiro's brashness was just a façade to cover up his genuinely kind heart. Well, at least that's what he assumed was happening.

"I doubt it," Was the instant retort, "You didn't even remember to bring a pen to your first day of college."

Ichigo smirked at Toshiro's sarcasm-laced response. So the guy does have a sense of humour.

"Good night, Toshiro!"

"Get out of my room, Idiot, and its 'Hitsugaya'!"

…

Shameless Australia reference? Ah well.

Thanks for reading and please, please review! Xx