How does one sum up Karakura High in just one word?

Gigantic? Hardly.

Cozy? As cozy as a slimy octopus.

Welcoming?

Grimmjow snorted. In a parallel universe where he was blonde.

Alright, so Karakura High wasn't that bad. But it certainly wasn't like his old school. His school looked quite sophisticated on the outside. The architecture was state-of-the-art and perfect angles everywhere. And don't get him started on the inside!

Karakura High was just…well, a building. Like someone had stuck a single square of indescribable architecture and called it a school. Then they had planted a number of other buildings round it as 'facilities'.

Wow. Just…wow. How advanced was Japan again?

A girl hurried past Grimmjow and accidently bumped his shoulder. The orange-headed girl paused momentarily to gush something in Japanese to him. He just blinked at her, not knowing what to say. He sort of felt embarrassed that he couldn't say anything back since he didn't know Japanese OR English. Well, at least the school offered to give him a guide.

One time when they had been talking, his father had mentioned that he had informed the school of the communication problem but they had waved it aside stating that they will assign him a translator and an all-round guide in the school.

He hoped his father could tell him whether it was a boy or a girl. He'd be comfortable with a boy because being around girls made him nervous. They were always whispering to each other while travelling in packs, sometimes even pointing at him and then giggling. It was damn annoying and if his guide was a gushing girl he was going to walk out of the school right that minute.

He would have asked his father before he left but the man was snoring away on the couch and he didn't have the heart to wake him up. After all, he had a rough night what with all his drinking and strange antics.

Grimmjow shook his head at the thought of his father, wondering if he would be able to wake up in time for work though. When he looked back up, he noticed that the girl had disappeared, probably hurrying to her class.

He looked up at the tall building he was now supposed to call his school. He sighed, hefted his school bag even higher up his shoulder and made his way in, pondering on what his guide might look like.

'You're what?' Ichigo demanded and slammed his palms on Uryu's desk. The spectacled boy pushed his glasses up his nose, an annoyed expression now plastered on his face.

'No need to yell, Ichigo,' he said coldly. 'I've been assigned to assist the new German student, Grimmjow Jaeguerjacques, and be his personal guide and translator. Do you understand? Or do I need to repeat myself again?'

'Fuck you,' Ichigo muttered as he returned to his desk and slumped forward on it. If he'd known that the school had a program for helping out foreign students then Ichigo would have learnt German a long time ago and signed up. Plus, if he knew a student like Grimmjow was going to show up…

Ichigo blinked in surprise and tried to keep his blush under control.

He couldn't believe he was thinking of Grimmjow like that! Since when was he interested in guys? Okay, so Ichigo had never questioned his sexuality like this before over anyone. If he liked someone, he'd just go for them. But that was because all his interests had been girls.

Was it supposed to feel wrong? To like someone of the same sex? It was a possibility for a guy to like a guy and a girl to like a girl. There was nothing abnormal about the way Ichigo liked Grimmjow. Wait, did he just admit that he liked Grimmjow?

Ichigo frowned. It would explain why he was so bent on the German and what he did. It was like every little thing Grimmjow did, Ichigo wanted to know about it to the last detail. There was something about the German that just pulled Ichigo to him. Maybe it was just infatuation. It couldn't be deeper than that. Right?

'Kurosaki-kun, ohaiyo gozaima!' a chirpy voice rang out. Ichigo was abruptly pulled out of his thoughts to see Orihime standing over his desk with a bright smile.

'Oh, hi, Orihime,' he answered simply. She tilted her head to the side, her smile slipping away.

'What's wrong?' she queried.

'Huh? Nothing.'

'Something seems to be wrong. You look troubled.'

'I'm not troubled!'

'You've got that look. The 'I can't stop thinking about it because it's all I can think about' look.'

Fuck, why was Orihime so good at reading people?

Before Ichigo could answer, Tatsuki walked up to them from across the classroom.

'Don't tell me you're still thinking about him, Ichigo!' Tatsuki groaned.

'Who's him?' Orihime asked in surprise. Tatsuki rolled her eyes.

'That blue-haired German kid who lives in our apartment building,' she replied. 'He got into a fight with Nnoitra people yesterday and jackass here decided to join in! You should have seen the German kid! He was furious at Ichigo for intervening! And now Ichigo can't stop thinking 'why is he mad at me? What did I do wrong?' You helped when your helped wasn't wanted, dumbass!'

Ichigo glared daggers at Tatsuki while Orihime tapped her bottom lip in thought. Then she snapped her fingers.

'I just saw a blue-haired boy enter school!' she exclaimed. 'I don't think we have many blue-haired boys in Karakura so maybe that's him! He has long hair and this really lost expression on his face! Like an 'I'd rather be anywhere but here' face!'

Ichigo hopped out of his seat so fast he knocked it to the floor. Grimmjow was in their school? Right now?

'Uryu, I need a favor,' he suddenly said. Uryu raised an eyebrow.

'And that would be?' the spectacled boy asked in suspicion.

'Let me be Grimmjow's guide.'

'You've finally lost it.'

'I'm serious.'

'You don't even speak German.'

'I borrowed a German to English dictionary at the library today.'

'You actually think that'll be enough to help?'

'Uryu, please. This means a lot to me.'

Uryu stared hard at Ichigo before he sighed and closed his eyes.

'You're supposed to meet him right now in Study Room 106,' he uttered in defeat. Ichigo breathed in relief as he grabbed his bag on his way out of the classroom.

'I owe you,' he muttered before he left. Uryu rolled his eyes.

'I'd rather you didn't,' he muttered back.

As soon as Ichigo entered the small room with its space littered with tables and chairs, his heart did a backflip. There was Grimmjow seated at one table gazing out the window at the track and field course. He looked at the door when Ichigo entered and his eyes widened in disbelief. He leaped out of his chair, scowling angrily while spewing out German.

Ichigo stood still, stunned. He hadn't mastered any German but judging from the way Grimmjow's words were so sharp and cut, he was angry to know that Ichigo was his guide.

'Woah, woah, calm down!' Ichigo interrupted and used his hands to indicate Grimmjow to ease up. Grimmjow did stop but it was only to catch his breath. He glared at Ichigo as the boy brought a chair with him and placed it in front of Grimmjow's desk.

'Sit,' Ichigo offered and gestured to the chair behind Grimmjow. He flipped his chair around so that he was straddling it. Grimmjow gave him one more deadly stare before sitting down and crossing his arms. Ichigo raised an eyebrow. Who knew he could be such a child?

'So, um, I'll be your guide,' Ichigo began awkwardly. 'So if there's anything you want or need or need to have done, you can ask me. Okay?'

Grimmjow continued to glare angrily at him.

Oh yeah, he didn't understand English.

Ichigo sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought.

A sudden idea popped into his head and he pulled out the German translator dictionary from his bag. He noticed how Grimmjow was observing the book with some interest as Ichigo leafed through it. When he finally found what he was looking for, he smiled triumphantly at Grimmjow.

'Ich kann dir helfen,' he said proudly, though he pronounced it as 'Itch can dear helf fen'.

Grimmjow stared at him. Ichigo's smile slipped a notch. Did he say something wrong? What if he mispronounced something and it was actually 'Suck my dick' or 'your mom is a smelly piece of meat' or something stupid.

Ichigo began to panic internally.

What the fuck was he supposed to do now? Was Grimmjow going to get insulted? Was he going to punch him for messing around with his language now? What was the punishment in Germany for mispronouncing something? Die by overdose of sausages?

Oh fuck, oh fuck, he was so screwed. Why did he force Uryu to let him do this? Why did Uryu agree to let him do this? This was all Uryu's fault. If he hadn't said yes then Ichigo wouldn't be sitting here making a damn fool of himself in front of-

'Warum versuchst du es so sehr?' Grimmjow murmured softly. Ichigo blinked stupidly.

'What?' he said thickly. He didn't think that Grimmjow would even reply to what he had just said.

Grimmjow sighed and pulled out a notebook from his book bag. He scribbled something on in spidery writing, tore it off and slid it towards Ichigo. He then got up, grabbed his bag and walked out of the room.

Ichigo stared at the piece of paper with a single line of German scrawled across it. Suddenly, he opened the dictionary and set to work on deciphering the words, a sort of desperate need to know what it meant spurring him on.

When he was finally done, he put his pencil down and read the words before him.

'Why…try…you…so…hard…' he murmured under his breath. Then he realized what Grimmjow was trying to say. 'Why are you trying so hard?'

Why is he trying so hard to do what? To reach out to Grimmjow? To try to become his friend? To try to…understand him?

'Why am I trying so hard?' he murmured out loud.

And then he realized…he didn't know the answer himself…

TRANSLATION:

Ich kann dir helfen: I can help you

Warum versuchst du es so sehr: Why are you trying so hard?