A/N : I'm sorry it took me awhile to update this. It's not that i haven't got any ideas for it, creativity blockage and all... You know what i mean.
*Characters mentioned in this story are quite OOC, you've been warned.
My apologies for the errors unintentionally made in this chapter, will be corrected soon. I don't and will never own Bleach.
Nonetheless, enjoy!
Chapter Two : Popularity
The weather was incredibly nice, bright spring with cool, refreshing breezes of the very first few weeks of school. Perfect for some healthy exercises, to which most of the Karakura High students were currently doing.
Above every subjects known to them, physical education was one of the most favourite moments of their school lives. No stressing out with calculations and all, just plain free energy booster. While having some good and friendly match of soccer between classes, the school's most popular 3rd-year bachelor just starting his favourable spotlight.
With his threatening stares, deadly speed and his 'demotivating' smirks, his opponents were left stunned on their places as he easily passed them and shoot. They were already on the winning team, where most of the goals were because of him alone of 25 to 0, what else? Girls were cheering for him, screamed his name and blushed bright pink while getting nosebleeds whenever he glanced over at his fans.
Though it wasn't really a very fair play, it was just an advantage.
"Hey, Ichigo! Good job! You practically handled everything!" Shuuhei praised, smacking his hand on the orange-haired's back.
"Yeah... He didn't even bother passing the ball to his team-mates," Uryu mumbled, as he passed by them, walking towards the benches.
Ichigo grinned, stretching his legs, "Piece of cake! They just couldn't handle how awesome i am!"
The whole victory team laughed, Ichigo was the 'expensive gold' in their class. Had many friends, a very good young man among the teachers, could blend in any kinds of attitudes, excellent grades and sports, and even had his own fan club. The others just couldn't afford to lose him.
The audiences who watched the whole astonishing match applauded and cheered for Ichigo's starlight class as they shook hands with the opposite team. Ichigo smiled at the leader of the soccer team and said, "It's just a game. Beat us next time, all right?"
And those who had witnessed and heard it, suddenly became determined. That's right, Ichigo's smile fooled everybody.
'Let's see if you can beat the great me, stupid,' he thought wickedly.
Then, all of a sudden...
"Outta my way!" a voice shouted.
Girls were screaming at the figure's sudden appearance of barging through the crowds, though it seemed like he had leapt out of nowhere. When Ichigo turned to his back to see what's all the raucous about, a familiar blue figure ran passed him like a bolt of lightning.
In a split second, Ichigo stole a glance at the running blue, he had something on his hand. It must've be something trivial... he guessed.
"Grimmjow! Give me back my yakisoba*!" shouted a short black-haired girl who sprinted through the football field as she chased the 'thief'.
"Rukia..." sighing to himself, Ichigo shook his head.
He listlessly watched the two disappeared from his sight and the field. Grimmjow must've stole Rukia's yakisoba back at their class, which is a very long route to run all the way down to the field.
"That guy... Always making troubles. I don't know why the principal didn't expel him," Shuuhei interrupted, gesturing a hand to Ichigo as the match had ended a few moments ago.
The orange-haired followed him, silently listening to the gossips surround him. Grimmjow this, Grimmjow that. And all Ichigo ever did, was being quiet.
Walking on the pavement of the street, his usual route towards school, he walked alongside three of his friends. Every morning, they would gather at one place and went to school together.
Then, the small group heard the sound of metal pipes clanging on the ground and rubbish scattering. They halted exactly in front of the dark alley where they saw a student in their school uniform wiping the sweats forming on his forehead.
Groaning and coughing voices rings through the silent, dark alley of the town.
A fight just ended.
His friends sighed, and ignored what just happened. Within a second, Ichigo knew who this guy actually is. Their eyes met, apologetic brown and egotistical blue in that one second. But Ichigo shrugged it off, following his few friends to school.
"Ichigo! Were you listening?" Uryu called out, waving a hand in front of the orange-haired's face.
"Oh...Uh, sorry. You were saying?"
The black-haired sighed, wearing his glasses, "I said, you wanna hang-out with the others in the cafeteria?"
Wearing his uniform after his shower, he replied, "Nah, you guys go ahead."
Ichigo took his belongings and bag with him and jogged out, leaving Uryu in the locker room with the others. Shuuhei watched the orange-haired out from the room and sighed, "I'm kinda wondering where he always went off to."
"Everybody does..." Uryu said, shutting his locker door.
Moving passed the bystanders at the hallway, the squealing fangirls when he gave a wink, the glorious time he spent his high-school life could only be completed if he was there.
And that, Ichigo couldn't idle long on walking.
On a rooftop of an abandoned building at the back of the school, where the place used to be a science building for teachers and students - Renji Abarai, the slightly hot-tempered red-haired ate his lunch of taiyaki* silently.
Observing how the situation he was in suddenly became a part of his daily 'forced' routine. He admitted he had nothing to do with this, but he somehow felt some kind of pity.
Brown eyes glancing to the laid-back person beside him, who was lazily munching on the quartered-eaten yakisoba bread.
He sighed.
"Things i do to keep your secret, Grimmjow..." Renji complained, finishing his last bits of lunch.
"You wanna die, asshole?"
That's right, it has always been like this. Renji, accompanying dear Grimmjow up on the rooftop to fool everybody, just so that Grimmjow can have lunch with him.
Both Renji and Grimmjow became the most problematic students in terms of disciplines since their early years of middle-school. They've became Karakura High's dangerous trouble partners, though in acedemic's perspective, they weren't that bad. Higher than average, probably that was the reason why they weren't expelled from school. But then, Renji found out this strange 'friendship' Grimmjow had with the school's most famous person. And it shocked him the most. He was one of the few people to know about it.
He promised to keep their friendship a secret, just to save his one-in-a-million status. And that one-side of Grimmjow that he found very surprising.
"You know, it's funny," the red-haired broke the silence, crumpling the wrapping plastic of his eaten taiyaki.
"What is?" Grimmjow replied, uninterested blue eyes fixed on the sakura tree nearby, enjoying the sweet-smelling of sakura leaves flying and wavering pass them - and kept munching the same bits of the yakisoba over and over again.
"...The reason you want this whole thing to be a secret, it's like you guys are in love or something," pointing his finger on a large cartoned strawberry milk the blue-haired brought.
Grimmjow swiftly smacked Renji's head with his foot, earning a very painful grunt, "You talk too much."
"Oowww..."
When he's about to bring the yakisoba to his mouth for a bite-
"Huh?" Grimmjow's eyes shifted to his hand that was holding the lunch that he practically stole earlier. Making sure it's real, tightening his grip and loosening it back of something suddenly emptied.
The yakisoba bread was missing.
"Where'd my bread go?"
Renji sweat-dropped, sensing an ominous aura glaring behind them. He was the first one to feel the presence before Grimmjow could even notice. Renji mumbled to his blue friend, "...I felt a killing aura right behind me."
When the blue-haired turned his head, a familiar orange-haired was eating the remaining half and a quarter of the eaten noodle bread.
A vein shot on his head, abruptly stood taller than the orange-haired, and in a voice deeper and much threatening than usual, he said, "That costs me courage, you fucktard..."
"You stole someone else's lunch, so this is the only way of paying her back - Meaning! By eating this 'lunch' of yours," Ichigo gobbled down the blue-haired's lunch, ignoring the obvious 'nooooooooooo' on Grimmjow's face.
"Also to repay all the money you costs me," he continued, deliberately burping in front of the other's face.
The blue-haired grabbed Ichigo's collars and smirked, "Yakisoba breads are more expensive than those i owed you..."
Renji once again sweat-dropped, and sighed. He had seen the same things all over again.
"Hey..." Renji said, trying relentlessly to cut off the so-called 'fight'.
But the 'feud' continued.
"Unfortunately the thing you owed me weren't 'food', "Ichigo spat, clenching his grip onto the collars of Grimmjow's rebellious uniform.
"Let me give you a free ticket to hell...!" the blue-haired threatened, sending multiple punches on Ichigo's stomach.
Though it looked painful and very fatal, knowing how skilled Grimmjow is on fights, the orange-haired managed to counter Grimmjow's attacks. It continues on a few minutes later, as they both doesn't seem to tire out yet. Though the red-haired firstly thought of ignoring it for awhile until they both calmed down, but when they 'accidentally' sent their flying kicks on the innocent Renji's face -
- he snapped.
"Mother-fucking bastards! What did i ever do to you guys?!" throwing his shoes directly on the two rivals' faces.
Grimmjow moaned at the sudden sting on his cheek, losing his balance down to the stoned rooftop.
Rubbing his sore face, Ichigo grunted while smirking, "Since when you're here, Renji?"
"You wanna pick a fight, huh? Strawberry?!" Renji spat, taking his shoes back.
But he gave up when he noticed that one familiar bag of bento on Ichigo's hand. Oh right...
He added as he smiled in defeat, "I'm gonna leave you two now, enjoy your lunch."
"Hey, give this to Rukia," Ichigo uttered, throwing a yakisoba bread towards the red-haired.
Renji caught it, and shook his head. To repay back what Grimmjow had stolen it seems. The red-haired waved his hand as he gone out through the exit from the rooftop. And the atmosphere was a bit silent after that.
But then, Ichigo chuckled.
"Sorry i'm late," he smiled, settling down beside the blue-haired.
"It's fine," Grimmjow replied, shrugging off Ichigo's apology.
They were the best of friends, from their childhood days until now, there was nothing everybody could do to separate them both. They wrote their stories together, grew up together, enjoy the happiness and suffer together, and they even sacrificed for each other. And the most obvious sacrifice was the current situation that mainly, Grimmjow had to keep up an act everyday.
Letting himself being 'bullied' by the well-loved Ichigo, just so that it will not ruin his friend's reputation.
"You had a fight this morning... You okay?" Ichigo asked worriedly, cupping his best friend's face, looking through the admiring pair of blue-eyes.
"I'm okay... They're the ones who picked a fight with me," the blue-haired answered, pulling away Ichigo's hands.
"Ah, i see. Oh yeah, i made your favourites, Grimm!"
Taking out their boxed lunch from the extra bag Ichigo always carry around - where they fooled everybody of thinking he's just a smart-ass.
"...Geez," Grimmjow blushed silently, taking the octopus sausage and gobbled them down.
"Hey!"
And every lunch, they made full use of Renji as their most trusted 'wall of deception'. Eating the bento with only a pair of chopsticks like they're used to since kids. Considering that Grimmjow always biting on something before lunch and Ichigo always had his light brunches, they couldn't even finish a lunch alone. As they had minimal amount of spending time between two childhood friends, through lunches at school was the only free time they had.
Grimmjow didn't mind sharing chopsticks and drinks with Ichigo, just so that it was someone he's comfortable with, it's fine.
"You have to stop drinking milk, you know?" Ichigo said, taking a broccoli with the chopsticks as he brought them to Grimmjow's mouth.
"Why?" biting on the broccoli the orange-haired offered.
"Because you're not the Grimmy i used to tease at! You used to be so fat... and chubbier and smaller than me!" Ichigo cried, hitting the ground with his hands.
And he continued, raising his head up to look at the irritated blue-haired, "Now look at you! All masculine and huge! Give me back my Grimmy!"
"...Fuck you," he said coldly, drinking the strawberry milk he brought earlier.
"You're even foul-mouthed!"
"Look who's talkin'! " Grimmjow shouted, practically shoving a strip of chicken into Ichigo's wailing mouth.
But he was glad somehow, handing out the cartoned milk to the choking orange-haired. He curved a smile and said, "At least i haven't forgotten who my bestie is..."
Ichigo sighed, coughing a bit. Whenever Grimmjow said that, he'll lose the argument. That one smile, the blue-haired rarely showed them to the others, but frequently to him...specially.
He loved it. It was one in a million smile.
"Yeah, you're right," Ichigo smiled in defeat, enjoying their lunch time together.
Ready, online!
*yakisoba : a japanese bread with fried noodles as the toppings. it's really-really delicious!
*taiyaki : fish-shaped cake with red-bean fillings.
So, ummm... yeah. Hear me out, don't throw that chair! Ouch! Author's block is a pain... really.
Ready! *whispering* offline~