CHapter 2: Howdy, Neighbor

~Earlier That Day~

It was an especially early Saturday morning when the sound of thumps and soft shuffles invaded Chad's dreams. He turned away from the light glaring through his window with a groan, wishing away the continuing sounds coming from the apartment next door.

'Apartment next door?' Chad groggily thought as he covered his face with a pillow. 'Isn't it vaca— '

CRASH!!!

Chad shot up into a sitting position, his broad chest heaving from the sudden ruckus from next door. Hearing the distressed exclamations through the wall, Chad hoisted himself out of bed, threw on shorts and a tank, and flew out the door, where he promptly bumped into-

"I-Inoue?!"

"Oh, good morning Chad-kun! What are you doing up so early?" exclaimed the busty, orange-haired girl as she rubbed at where her forehead collided with his stomache.

Chad looked over at the open door of the other apartment with concern.

"I heard a loud crash and voices in that apartment. I thought perhaps someone was hurt," then looking at her curiously he said, "Pardon Orihime, but what are you doing here?"

Orihime's eyes bulged as she waved her arms frantically and said, "Um, eh, oh no-nothing at all! Well, sort of something, like…JOGGING! Yeah, I was just in the neighborhood taking a little jog, and thought I'd run up your building's stairs. You have great stairs for working thigh muscles. Don't worry about the noise next door, I'm just fine, er, I mean, I'm sure the person is just fine. Or else I would be out here screaming bloody murder, er, they would be…okay, bye!"

Orihime hoped that considering how early it was and that he'd still be reeling from the confusion of the commotion, Chad would shrug , escort her down his stairs, then head back to his place to crash. But as she turned on her heel to leave, Chad's deep voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Orihime. What's going on in there?"

She turned around and sighed in defeat, "I'm- well, you see-it's like—*sigh* remember when I said I was moving out of my old place to somewhere closer to the university, but anything even 10 minutes away from campus was like renting a house, and I was almost planning to camp out on one of the lawns, but fall is so close, then I saw people moving out of the apartment next to yours, and figured they were the closest thing I could afford, and I'd be near a friend, and so...," She stopped to take a deep breathe.

As Chad slowly nodded, she sheepishly grinned at him and said, "Hello, neighbor."

Though covered by his wild, sweeping hair, Orihime knew they had widened by a fraction in surprise. As silence settled between them, she stilled herself for the barrage of questions.

"Oh. I see."

*Sweat drop* 'Obviously,' Orihime thought, 'I forgot who I was talking to.'

"Hee hee, yeah," she said biting on her bottom lip, "I hope you're not upset, Chad-san. I wanted it to be a surprise, and thought I'd start moving stuff in early so I could invite you over once you got up. Like a backwards surprise party, you know?"

She looked away, blushing and said, "Instead I messed up your morning with all the noise. I'm sorry, Chad."

Seeing how disappointed Orihime was in her ruined plan, Chad instinctively placed a soothing hand on her head. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Don't be upset, Orihime. Thank you for trying to make the move special," Chad said, a warm smile spreading across his face. Hesitantly, he touched her cheek.

Another flush blazed across Orihime's face when she felt the warmth of his large hand and saw the gentle glint of his brown eyes through his hair, making her heart skip. It was doing that a lot lately. She and Chad had been spending a great deal of time together since Ichigo and Ishida starting living at the University on the outskirts of town, Tatsuki was on a year-long martial arts championship tour, and most of their other highschool friends had scattered as well. Orihime had gone had gone through so much with Chad, but she had never really started to connect with him until then. And as she got to know him and he opened up to her, she couldn't help but feel drawn to him with a tinge of something beyond friendship. She would stop in the middle of a sentence when he placed his chocolate gaze upon her. His gentle words and light, supportive touches never ceased to make her heart melt. And the fact that Chad was built like something out of Greek mythology didn't help her stop imagining wrapping her limbs around his broad frame as he did things to her that she had only read about in steamy romance novels.

"U-um, I better get back to unpacking if I want to be done by afternoon," Orihime said, snapping them out of their trance. Chad withdrew his hand, leaving them both missing the light contact.

"I will help you, Orihime," Chad said, making his way towards her new apartment.

"Oh no! Please Chad, I've already ruined your morning. I even told the others to come later so I wouldn't bother them so early. I'll fin-"

Orihime's protests died away as Chad walked through her door. She followed, just to find him standing amongst the overflowing boxes of her things with a very nervous look on his face. He slowly turned to her with a stony face.

"I would rather fight 100 Hollows," Chad said seriously.

Orihime's face dropped with shock. Then catching a small grin on his face, she doubled over laughing.

"And he makes jokes, too," she giggled, wiping away a tear, "How about we get that funny bone to work, then?"

Deliberately grabbing his strong bicep, Orihime pulled Chad over to an especially ominous skyscraper of boxes and immediately dug in. As Chad hoisted up an especially heavy box of kitchen supplies, he glanced down at Orihime as she busily worked. 'Not exactly how I'd spend my Saturday morning,' he thought, 'but exactly who I'd spend it with…'

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*I know this chapter was not awesome and a bit fluffy, but I'm trying to set up the stage. Ch.3 tomorrow and should be a bit more entertaining ^_o

Enjoy!