Chapter Eight
And They Are...
"Fear: (Noun) A state of terror! AAH!" - Daffy Duck, Looney Tunes: Back in Action
"For the last time; no I am not a ninja!" Ichigo exhaled an exasperated sigh while dragging a hand through the front of his hair. "How many times do I have to repeat that before you believe me?!" A rather tired and unamused amber-eyed stare turned up to glance at the returned stare of the twin brothers who of course had made it their business since the lunch bell to place a Hitachiin Inquisition upon Ichigo.
A scowl had worked itself across Hikaru's face as he stood in front of Ichigo's desk, arms crossed over his chest as he stared down his nose at him. "If you're 'not' a ninja;" It was here that Hikaru uncrossed his arms and formed quotation marks in the air before jumping right back into his accusations, "Then what the hell are you, and how the hell did you get into the classroom without being seen?!" Hikaru made it a point to jab a finger at the orange-haired boy, his annoyance to the fact that he was not receiving an answer of any kind began to gnaw away at whatever little patience he had in the first place.
From his place off to the side, and perched upon the lip of his own desk, Kaoru lifted a brow as he watched his brother nearly throw a temper-tantrum as Ichigo refused to give into Hikaru's ninja-theory. A faint trace of amusement flickered across his expression as Ichigo matched the glare Hikaru was dishing out. Neither side was obviously going to be backing down any time soon from their side of the argument, and while it was all the more entertaining to watch his brother quite possibly meet his match in the category of stubborn personality, Kaoru's stomach rumbled quietly but loudly enough to clarify his own need to at least eat something before class resumed. Exhaling through his nose in a soft sigh, Kaoru shook his head while slipping down off the desk to stand on his own two feet.
"Oi, Hikaru, I'm hungry." Kaoru set a hand over his stomach for show as he spoke. "Let's go get lunch before the bell rings."
As if timed perfectly, Hikaru's own stomach let out a small growl as the boy opened his mouth to retort back to his brother's suggestion. An odd air of silence suddenly passed between the three First-Years; both Ichigo and Kaoru holding somewhat dumbfounded expressions before exchanging looks with one another from the corner of their eyes. It took only three seconds for Ichigo and Kaoru to suddenly burst into a fit of laughter that only served to fuel Hikaru's originally annoyed state.
"What the hell's so damn funny?!" Hikaru hissed through gritted teeth as he watched his brother laugh hysterically with "hedgehog head".
"Y-You're face!!" Kaoru choked out while clutching at his sides with tears in his eyes.
"It was priceless!!" Ichigo added in through his own laughter, while slapping a hand atop the desk while his other arm attempted to hold his sides as they were beginning to hurt now from laughing so hard.
Hikaru growled lowly as he turned on his heel and stomped of towards the classroom door. Throwing the door open, he glanced over his shoulder, eyes narrowed on his brother who was beginning to gain control over himself and straighten up a bit more in his posture. "Let's go Kaoru, before hedgehog head rubs off on you even more and turns you into a commoner as well!"
At this, Ichigo's laughter end abruptly, amber eyes turning into angry triangles that attempted to set Hikaru ablaze with their glare. "What was that?!" Ichigo hissed, fangs bared and hackles bristled.
A quick tap to the end of Ichigo's nose pulled back the sudden rush of irritation and anger towards the older twin, and at the same time it earned Kaoru a rather surprised and puzzled look. Shaking his head the younger twin merely offered his classmate a teasing smile. "Don't pay attention to him Ichigo-san, he's just grumpy from being hungry." Kaoru turned away to follow after his brother, who was currently fuming at the door and looking as though he were about to erupt into a flaming aura. "Besides, there's no way any part of your commoner traits would rub off on me anyways, hedgehog head." He called back over his shoulder before walking out the door with his brother to leave Ichigo in a state of irritated confusion.
"Bastards." Ichigo muttered under his breath while crossing his arms and slouching low in his seat. The nerve of them saying such things! Just because I'm not rolling up to school in next year's car model and not eating in the cafeteria doesn't mean they're better than me!! ...well maybe in a social ladder kind of status, but still!!
Aggravated thoughts turned into incoherent mutterings as as Ichigo sat up and retrieved his lunch from the school bag hanging from its side hook along the desk. With irritation clouding his train of thought, Ichigo slid open his o-bento box and extracted the chopsticks he had shoved inside that morning before dashing off for school like a bat out of hell. Fuming, Ichigo paid little attention to how he handled his eating ware until till it was too late; as was announced by the ominous crack of wood splitting awkwardly.
Ichigo froze immediately, eyes slowly turning down in a near too terrified manner to see what had exactly happened. Instead of the standard break into two long pieces, the chopsticks had been busted into two thick stubby bits that were going to serve no purpose to the hungry student. Utter aggravation flared across Ichigo's face before those stubby pieces of wood were slammed down on the top of the desk in a haughty manner.
"Dammit." Ichigo muttered under his breath while leaning back in his chair in an attempt to recline somehow, head dropping backwards to stare at the back wall of the classroom. Those two do it on purpose. His eyes narrow slightly at the wall in response to the thought before an exhale escaped through nose as the amber-eyed gaze turned to stare out the wall of floor to ceiling windows off to the left.
There were a few clouds drifting lazily across the pale blue sky and even several birds fluttered passed as if cued to do so. The look on Ichigo's face dropped from annoyed to somewhat melancholy for a moment as he stared out the windowed wall. I wish I were at my real school with my friends right now. Hisana would have dragged be out to watch the clouds on the roof right about now while we ate lunch; Hiro would be complaining about how stupid of an idea it was even though he'd follow anyways; Ito would have smacked Hiro upside the head for some rude comment at some point during our lunch; and Minato would just be Minato, smiling away at all of us like always. Another sigh escaped the orange-haired boy as he closed his eyes to the world for a moment and contemplated a bit on just what he gotten himself into here at Ouran Private Academy.
Royally screwed came to mind every time, and every time Ichigo's face pulled into a rather stretched and sour expression. Huffing under his breath as huger was now starting to chip away at whatever annoyed resolve he had at the moment and he sat up to stare forlornly at his o-bento box.
"... crap."
Now here in part was the real challenge – would forgoing manners during an in-classroom lunch be justifiable by the fact that if Ichigo ventured out in the maze of hallways from hell, he would become horribly lost for possibly days on end before anyone found him? Was being lost for that long, even possible?
Why risk the chance? Ichigo nodded to himself as he did in fact justify the absence of manners. Grinning happily with his reasoning, Ichigo prepared to pluck one of the pickled radish chips up from his o-bento box when a small tapping noise suddenly picked up through the classroom. Ichigo paused in mid-reach for his food, eyebrows lifting in curious gesture as the tapping sound stopped. Casting a quick glance about the room to make sure he was in fact alone, he shrugged to himself and picked up a pickled radish chip. As if on cue, the tapping sound started again.
"What the hell?!" Ichigo glanced about again, now becoming slowly open to the fact that someone was possibly playing a trick on him, and all thoughts immediately centered around two ginger-haired brothers (who at that moment sneezed simultaneously in the cafeteria). A frown settled upon Ichigo's face as he yet again found that no one was in the room with him, but even before he attempted to eat his lunch again, the tapping noise began once more, and this time Ichigo found his attention taken to the wall of windows off to his immediate left.
The sharp tap, tap was coming from the windows; particularly coming from a small sparrow that was sitting perched on the window ledge and looking into the classroom. The little bird cocked its head as it realized it was being stared at, and then immediately began tapping on the window once more.
Now, by all means, Eniwa Ichigo was no where near being superstitious like his father, uncle, and grandmother were; however, he was a subscriber to unlikely coincidences, and this whole bird tapping on the glass thing and keeping him from lunch was definitely a renewal of that subscription.
Quirking a brow, eyes wide nonetheless, Ichigo watched the little sparrow that seemed to be staring directly at him for a good two minutes or so before it seemed to loose interest and fly off elsewhere, leaving the orange-haired teen to his own jumble of thoughts. A moment of silence passed before the thud of Ichigo's forehead hitting the desk resounded in a deaf echo through the classroom. A second later and the chair Ichigo was sitting in, scraped backwards across the hard floor of the room, stopping at a place where Ichigo's forehead could continue to sit on the desk lip for a moment longer before exhaling heavily.
Reluctantly, Ichigo left the safety of the classroom behind and wandered off into the massive halls to find the cafeteria. With hands tucked into the pockets of his black pants, Ichigo huffed quietly while attempting to remember exactly where the cafeteria was from memory recall of the map he had been given on the first day. Unfortunately for Ichigo... his known sense of direction inside of confusing maze-like buildings was absolutely horrible, as was now relavant to the fact as the orange-haired teen how somehow found himself out on one of the open-air patio decks. A patio deck located way on the other end of the South Building.
For a moment Ichigo remained quiet, eyes slowly roving over the area that matched not only the décor of the building's architecture, but also the color scheme. Slowly, a frown started to form upon his young visage before turning into a complete brooding scowl as his shoulders hunched forward. "Where the hell am I?" He muttered sourly while narrowing his eyes in annoyance.
The patio deck he had stepped out into was rather large with a black rod iron set of patio furniture arranged around the spacious area in manner that suggested it was more of a place to rest and relax than anything else. Beyond the banister railing of the patio was the massive stretch of manicured lawns that surrounded the sprawling grounds, patches of neatly trimmed flower beds circled about the main center piece of the South Building's campus – a marble mermaid fountain/pond. It was all rather beautiful, elegant even, if the word happened to come to Ichigo's mind.
Exhaling an irritated sigh, Ichigo rubbed at the back of his neck absentmindedly in an attempt to quell his building frustrations. I really should have known better. In fact, I should have just ignored that damn bird and just eaten my lunch when I had the chance. His brow furrowed as the self-berating thoughts plagued his train of thought for the moment. Another exhale and Ichigo shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants before plopping himself down on the nearest chair, which happened to be closest to the banister railing. Both feet were soon propped up on the lip of the railing, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, while amber eyes stared up at the sky high above.
So, what do you think mom? How do you feel about your daughter, your only child, cross-dressing to save her cousins' future? I feel like a complete idiot myself to be honest; pretending to be someone that I'm not and fooling everyone around me. What happened to me mom? Ichigo continued to stare up at the sky, eyes narrowing at his own thoughts while biting back a growl he wouldn't even allow to get anywhere passed his throat.
The rather mute but still distinctly heard creak of the patio double doors opening only on one side caught Ichigo's otherwise detered attention from the sky. Merely turning his orange-colored head, Ichigo was immediately met with a rather large pair of bright brown eyes that were staring back in what could only be described as child-like wonder. For a good ten seconds Ichigo forgot not only the ability to speak, but also the ability to blink apparently before shock finally set in. Twisting about in a flurry of blue and black movement, Ichigo had scrambled up out of his seat and whipped about to stare down at a blonde-haired and brown-eyed boy who couldn't be any more than four feet tall.
Like his eyes, the boy expressed a look of complete wonder at the High School student before him, whom of course was staring at him with a horribly confused and dumbfounded look. Silence passed between the two parties for about two seconds before the blonde cracked one of the largest smiles Ichigo had ever seen, and then proceeded to fling himself at the amber-eyed boy, wrapping small arms about Ichigo's slim waist while giggling. With a few awkward steps backwards in response to the sudden hug from the completely unknown boy, Ichigo bumped into the banister railing behind him and immediately went rigid with arms held up and at his sides to keep them from being pinned at his sides.
"Ichi-chan! I can't believe we found you out here!!" The blonde boy chirped excitedly as he beamed up at Ichigo, using a nickname without even having had an official introduction between the two.
"I-Ichi-chan...?" Too dumbstruck to actually comprehend anything that was going on right now, Ichigo could only stare with a very much confused expression on his face and stutter out the nickname in question. Wait a minute... we?! Whose this we?!
"See, Takashi? Tama-chan was right, he does look cool with that orange hair!" The blonde giggled while looking over his shoulder towards the patio doors.
Immediately, Ichigo's gaze snapped up and at the patio entryway where he had apparently missed the towering dark-haired boy standing just one step in on the patio deck. Oh... 'we'... WHO THE HELL'S THE GIANT?!