"Hichigo. Shirosaki Hichigo."
Ichigo hummed thoughtfully, repeating his name softly and it just rolled off his tongue so easily.
"Better stand up before Grimmjow starts cracking jokes more shitty jokes about how awesome he thinks he is," Ichigo said as he stood up, offering Shirosaki a hand.
"That's mean, Ichigo. It hurts right here," Grimmjow chortled, jabbing with a thumb at his heart. Ichigo rolled his eyes, oblivious to the increasingly wounded pride of Shirosaki Hichigo.
"I don't need yer help!" Shirosaki swatted Ichigo's hand away, much to his and Grimmjow's surprise and stood up swiftly. He stumbled and swayed on his feet, dizzy from having his ass kicked.
"Says the one on his ass a few seconds ago," Grimmjow said, a grin growing in size on his face. Ichigo nodded, smiling slightly because he had warned Shirosaki about crappy jokes and there it was.
"And your stumbling isn't the least convincing either," Ichigo added, keeping his smile swwet and polite. Shirosaki clenched his fists.
"Shut-up ya bastards!" Shirosaki said glaring at each of them in turn only to lose his flare when he looked at Grimmjow. It didn't slip past Ichigo's notice and he understood exactly what it was that was so distracting. It seemed like those cerulean orbs still worked their magic even when you had golden eyes.
"They're really pretty aren't they?" Ichigo asked, crossing his arms and as he did, Grimmjow's grin widened until he flashed a set of perfectly white teeth.
"Ichigo cried when first saw 'em," Grimmjow sniggered and when Ichigo went to smack him, Grimmjow easily deflected it. Shirosaki pulled his gaze from Grimmjow's eyes to look at Ichigo as the teen tried again, this time aiming for the shin and connecting.
"Ow, ya asshole! What was that for?" Grimmjow protested, shaking his leg off and reminding Ichigo and Shirosaki both of a wet dog.
"Don't tell people that, it's embarrassing!" Ichigo growled in reponse.
"But it was really cute!" Grimmjow complained and Shirosaki watched in amazement as Ichigo flushed all the way to his ears, looking a bashful mix of both pleased and angry. Shirosaki shook his head.
"Yer really weird bastards, ya know tha' right?"
About a month had passed since they met Shirosaki, and they got to know each other quite well. As it turns out, Shirosaki went to their school, they just never saw him because he never showed up. They figured this out when, a few days later when Shirosaki transferred into their class from his other one. As it turns out, last year, Shirosaki had moved here from the other side of Japan, his Japanese heavy with a different accent. But one thing had led to another, which Shirosaki refused to talk to about, and he had stopped coming to school.
But after learning that Ichigo and Grimmjow went to the same school, Shirosaki had finally made the effort to start coming to school again, somehow or another, pulling some strings to change his entire schedule to always have at least Ichigo or Grimmjow in all this classes.
About a three weeks ago, Grimmjow had randomly started calling the albino 'Shiro' and since then it stuck. Shirosaki had become Shiro. And although Shiro had been intimidated at first about how close Ichigo and Grimmjow were, he found his place quickly enough. In fact, without Shirosaki there, they probably would have destroyed something, possibly each other.
Shiro would stop their fights, but only if they were going to escalate to a physical level. By the end of the month, the three were the big shots of the Karakura High School. Probably because with Shirosaki there, people weren't afraid of being dragged into their fights anymore.
Yep, they were the talk of the school. It's easy to become famous when the three of them stood out like some sort of homing-beacon by just walking down the hallway. The whole thing just made Ichigo really uncomfortable, but Grimmjow didn't seem to care and apparently Shiro was used to people talking about him.
"Hey, who're those three? They're really hot!"
"You don't know?!They're only the most gorgeous and most talked about people in the whole school."
"Eh…. Really?"
"Yeah really. There's even newspaper arctiles about them. They're on the top of the 'guys I want to date' list. Ichigo, that's the orange haired one, wasn't very popular until he started hanging out Grimmjow, the one with blue hair. Because Grimmjow already got a lot of attention, people started noticing Ichigo more too. He's a total beau-"
"I heard that blue and orange are complimentary colors. Maybe that's why they look so good together."
"Psh, were did you learn that? Art class? He'd be just as gorgeous on his own!"
"Shut-up! Anyway, what about that white haired one?"
"Eh…Shirosaki? I thought he looked kinda creepy. I mean…I get the attraction, but he's….albino."
"What? What's wrong with being albino? He's a total dream-boat."
"Eh…I still like Ichigo the best."
"Really? I thought Grimmjow was the hottest of the three. He's super hot."
"Everyone thinks so—"
"Ahem."
"God, what do you want?"
"Would you mind not talking about my friend and his friends like they have no other value than being the topic of your gosip?" Rukia asked, hands on her hips. To her left was Renji, and to her right was Chad. Orihime was there too, but since she wasn't intimidating, Rukia had her stand off to the side.
The girls took one look at tattooed Renji, and tall, muscular Chad and said "Shit, let's scram!" gathering up their things and bustling from the cafeteria.
"Ho ho ho! See? I got a table! Ichigo does have his uses. Now, let us watch Ichigo is his natural habitat," Rukia said jokingly and sat down at the table, joined quickly by Orihime ather left, and Chad and Renji at her right.
Ichigo, from where he sat at a secluded corner of the cafeteria, sneezed.
"Huh, better not be getting sick. That'd suck," Ichigo said, rubbing at his nose. Grimmjow snickered.
"As if someone as stubborn as you could ever get sick," Grimmjow grinned and Ichigo had to suppress the shiver that he always gets when Grimmjow grins at him that way. That damned grin that makes his heart do flip-flops.
"Dammit, it keeps happening though! Are you sure I'm not sick?"
"It's probably jus' someone gossipin' about ya, we do seem to 'ave quite the reputation around 'ere." Shirosaki said, leaning back so that two of his chair legs were off the floor, and pushing his food away from him. He hardly had eaten any of it.
"Yeah right Shiro, I don't stand out nearly as much as you or Grimmjow do," Ichigo snorted in disbelief. These two were always praising his good looks when, standing next to them, Ichigo felt his 'good looks' were far inferior to theirs.
Grimmjow and Shirosaki exchanged a look.
"Ichigo," Grimmjow purred "Yer not giving yerself enough credit."
"Ya don't really think ya got yerself a spot in on the 'I wanna bang him so badly' list do ya?" Shiro questioned, allowing his chair to fall forward again and Ichigo sputtered.
"Well it's true, 'm pretty sure tha's wha' it should be called instead o' 'top guys I wannadate'. It'd be a lot catchier tha' way," Shirosaki said and Ichigo was perplexed.
"I don't know, it's just… compared to you guys, I'm definitely an average joe," Ichigo said, pushing his food around the plate.
"I used to hate standing out, but I feel like I'm…." Ichigo trailed off. He didn't want to pursue the topic or that line of thought. It just made him depressed. But he knew how it would end: He felt like he was going to be left behind.
"Like I said, not enough credit," Grimmjow said and Shiro's head bobbled in agreement, making Ichigo's head shoot up.
"Do ya seriously not know how crazy my heart beats when the sun strikes yer hair?"
"Or how yer eyes can warm a person down to the depths o' their tar black soul?" Shiro added and Ichigo could feel his face burning. Grimmjow could practically smell victory.
"'Ey Shiro," Grimmjow said, turning to look at the albino, "I think we should start dating."
Ichigo felt something drop, deep inside of him. Here it was. The moment he feared. But did it have to come so soon? Sneaking a glance at Shirosaki, Ichigo was surprised to see Shiro's unresponsive face.
"Me too," Shiro agreed calmly, his hand twining with Grimmjow's. Ichigo thought about flipping the table over. It wasn't fair. What would happen to him now that they were dating?
"All three of us."
"What?" Ichigo froze, mulling those words over his head, turning it around and analyzing it closely and trying to figure out what it meant for him.
"It's jus' that, what we've been doin' so far could be considered datin'," Shiro said "So why not jus' make it official an' be done wit' it already?"
"Well this is news to me dammit," Ichigo snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.
"That's 'cause nothing ever gets through yer thick skull," Grimmjow said.
"Excuse me?" Ichigo asked, affronted.
"Ichigo, I see the way ya look at me and Shiro. But ya never seem to notice it yerself. So we thought we'd tell ya for ya," Grimmjow brushed off Ichigo's increasing anger with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Is that so? Well what exactly is it that I'm not getting then?" Ichigo asked, gritting his teeth.
"Ya love us, Yer attracted to us. Ya want to bang us. The only part of ya that doesn't understand that is yer brain," Shirosaki answer and as soon as he said that, Ichigo was standing up.
"I can't…..I can't do this right now," Ichigo said and, feeling like a coward, he ran from the room, as fast as his legs would carry him. He wasn't sure why he had to get away from there, just that he really needed to. Words like love were echoing through his head and it scared him.
He just had to be somewhere…not there…right now. He needed time to think.
How come he's never noticed this before? He had been so sure that he hated Grimmjow's guts. He liked Shiro, but he had never thought that it was the romantic kind of like. But damn, when he was with them, his heart fluttered like crazy.
It was so stupid. So stupid that he didn't know why he was running away from them instead of towards them.
He bumped into someone them, stumbling in a circle and muttering an apology under his breath. After running into something, a thought struck Ichigo that made him stop running.
Was he scared of love? Kurosaki Ichigo, scared of love? Don't be ridiculous! He refused to let something like that run his life. He was going to turn around and go back to Grimmjow and Shiro right now.
Right…..right now. Dammit, he feet wouldn't move. He bit his lip, sighing at how pathetic he was acting right now.
"Dammit…."
"Dammit is right,"Grimmjow growled, making Ichigo jump and spin around.
"My shoulder really fucking hurts where you slammed into me," He said, rubbing his shoulder. To his left stood Shirosaki.
"Ya know, ya scared the shit outta us when you ran out like tha'," Shiro said, chin tilted up indignantly, "Even though we already know the answer, it'd be nice ta hear ya say tha' you luv us fer sure."
Ichigo's mind was racing out of control, he couldn't think a proper thought, he could only lamely say, "You guys…have feelings for me?"
"Uh… Yeah. We just said so. That's why we asked ya out," Grimmjow replied and the poor you look he gave Ichigo made him bristle.
"Well, so sorry for asking then," Ichigo snapped, crossing his arms and looking for a fight and he got one.
"If ya didn't want the answer, ya shouldn't have asked," Grimmjow said, sparking Ichigo's quick temper and igniting another argument between them. Shiro only watched them as they bantered, throwing insults and bitching about pointless things that wouldn't seem important five minutes from now.
It was hard to keep up with the conversation, Ichigo and Grimmjow having perfected the art of arguing by this time. Even before speaking, Ichigo knew what Grimmjow was going to say, and vice versa, they could argue the same argument with just their eyes. But still, they said what was on their mind and the other would say what was on their mind.
"Oi, oi, lets jus' calm down, ay?" Shiro stepped in, even though he knew they would be okay since the fight wasn't physical yet. He just—
"Shut-up!" They shouted in sync, and Shiro shrugged, backing off. Apparently Ichigo was determined to argue his troubles away and Grimmjow as well…too Grimmjow'y to back off when Ichigo wouldn't.
Shirosaki sighed. It was time to take drastic measures. He was sure he could take them now with their new found dating status. Stepping forward, with a coy look on his face that made Grimmjow stop in his tracks, Shiro slid his fingers along Ichigo's jaw and forced him to look at him.
"Wha–" Ichigo protested, but when Shirosaki pressed their lips together, his thoughts stopped. And it wasn't just his thoughts the kiss stopped, Grimmjow, too, found himself rather brain-dead when Shiro slipped his tongue into Ichigo's mouth. He hummed at the sweet taste of Ichigo and when he pulled back, it was with a laugh.
"Tha's so ironic Ichi."
