Chapter 3 - The innocent and the devil
Summary: Intro: Hirako, Hiyori, Aizen, Orihime, and a little bit of Renji!
How did Ichigo and Toshiro meet? Well, it wasn't the typical fighting the hollows and working together to defeat Aizen, that's for sure. Ichigo Kurosaki's father was a shinigami, a captain to be more specific, but he left that position for Toshiro to take after he realized that Toshiro had so much potential and he needed to focus on raising a family. Ichigo's father is now just a doctor, running a clinic with his wife and his family. That's why Ichigo wants to go to college and help his dad out. Unfortunately, Ichigo's father, Isshin, already assigned him to work under Toshiro and Rangiku as the first seat. Things escalated after that and now they're close.
There was more to the story, really. But we'll get into that later. The important thing is how much the two boys value each other; Ichigo really cares about Toshiro and Toshiro cares about him just as much. Unfortunately, Toshiro has problems expressing his affection towards others; the good thing is that he's trying his hardest to do so. Ichigo's value towards Toshiro is immeasurable but right now, it's not in the level of friendship. The strawberry knows at least that much, so he distances himself to the point where he doesn't push the small captain's buttons. Love does take time after all.
It was Ichigo and Toshiro's first day in class at Karakura University. Even though they live together, they had to part ways after the parking lot because their schedules were entirely different. The deal was, as long as they start and end classes at the same time, Ichigo had no problem with being separated from him. Toshiro had faith in the orange head, so he cheered him on, saying that he'll be fine with first day of class because like he said, it's all about syllabuses and introductions right? Making friends should be no problem for the two boys, the issue was… Ichigo was not in the mood, and Toshiro was too tired from all the whining that Rangiku gave the other day.
First class, starts at 9:45am. Ichigo looked at his watch when he entered his class and sat on the seat that's nearest to the window. He likes to look at the scenery or the activities happening outside just like his high school days. With a sigh, he placed his bag on the ground, taking his notebook out and flipping the page all the way to the back to start sketching.
"—Hiyori, looks like someone beat you at going to school early!" An eerie voice came from the front door.
"—Seriously!? Who the fuck is it let me see—oh."
Ichigo turned to see where the two loudmouths were. A tall blonde man wearing gray khakis and black long sleeve and a red shiny tie stood by the door, digging his ears with one hand and another shoved in his pocket. The girl next to him was tall enough to be next to his shoulders; besides her flushed face at the site of Ichigo, her blonde hair was tied back with spikes coming out and she wore a white shirt inside her pink jogging coat with black joggers. The strawberry's eyebrows twitched in annoyance after looking at the three freckles under both of her eyes; so there are people like them too…
"He's hot," the blonde girl nudged the dude next to her.
"Wow, I thought you were mad at— UNF!"
The girl punched her partner in the gut and she approached Ichigo with a grin on her face. It wasn't a flirtatious smile, thank god, but she smacked her chest like a guy and waved at him.
"So you're taking psychology too? My name's Hiyori Sarugaki, the guy at the back with the faggot looking hair is Shinji Hirako."
Shinji sighed exasperatedly. "You're too much, I'm not a faggot."
"You are what I say you are! Don't make me punch you!"
Ichigo laughed nervously, flipping another page to cover his sketch. "I'm Ichigo. Ichigo Kurosaki, nice to meet you guys."
"Well I hope we could be good friends, Kurosaki-kun," Shinji greeted sarcastically. "I know Hiyori would definitely want to."
"Just call me Ichigo," the strawberry replied with a small laugh. "Nice flip flops, Hiyori."
Shinji Hirako gasped and the air grew cold for a few seconds. No way, he did not… He stared at his friend and his eyes widened with Hiyori turned red with a puff of smoke coming out of her ears. The smoke was too much, but it got even worse when he heard a loud thud on her chest. Shinji facepalmed himself really hard and grabbed Ichigo's shoulders to say: "you shouldn't have said that compliment."
Ichigo was confused, "why not?"
Hiyori jumped on the orange-head and hugged him really tight. Her face was truly flushed, but the wide grin on her face was showing that she liked what she heard. "You are a devil, Kurosaki Ichigo. I think I might be in love with you~"
"Oh no, oh no you don't. You say that to every single guy that compliments your slippers."
"Why didn't you compliment my slippers then!?" Hiyori growled.
"Isn't it obvious? Cause I don't want you to be in love with me! I like pretty girls!"
WHACK. Shinji fell on the ground when Hiyori released Ichigo from her hug to slap the shit out of Hirako's face with her flip-flops. Ichigo stood up from his seat with a worried expression glued to his face, looking at Shinji on the ground with a pained look on his face. There was a red mark on Shinji's face and it looked rather something he was used to because Shinji just sat up laughing like it was some kind of joke. "Dude, are you okay?"
"I'm okay, Ichigo. Hiyori always does this to me."
"That's because you're such a shithead! It's so hard to resist to punch the shit out of you!"
"Now that's just mean, not in front of our new friend, c'mon."
Before the three even knew it, there were other students who already took a seat. They were causing so much noise that the other students looked extremely uncomfortable and Ichigo couldn't help but feel bad for ruining the first day of class like this. Ichigo sat down on his seat and closed his notebook, motioning Shinji and Hiyori to sit down next to him.
"Other students wouldn't look so excited taking this class if they see the three of us making trouble now."
Hiyori turned to scan the room but it didn't change her opinion. She rolled her eyes and furrowed her brows even more like she didn't know what the strawberry was talking about; she stepped on Shinji a couple of times, cleaning her ears to pretend like she was deaf. "What was that, Ichigo? I couldn't hear you."
A vein popped on Ichigo's forehead, "You little bitch—"
The crush Hiyori had on Ichigo for like two minutes completely disappeared. She aimed her flip-flops at him, "SAY THAT AGAIN YOU LITTLE SHIT."
"Now, let's not get into a fight on the first day, shall we?" A deep voice said at the front of the board.
All of the students looked up to see a professor walk in with a laptop on his hand. His brown hair was swept back with a strand hanging down his face and despite his black square glasses, his menacing brown eyes was fixated on Ichigo. At least that's what the strawberry assumed because the professor placed his laptop on his desk and smiled straight at him. Ichigo felt a thug on his chest and his mouth was slightly open, the professor was a little attractive, but there was something scary about the way he looked. Something… ominous.
Ichigo's phone vibrated a few moments after; Ichigo slightly jumped by surprised and opened his phone. My one and only, the strawberry snorted and remembered the eventful night three to four days ago. He unlocked his phone and read the text: Hi, how are you doing in class?
He replied. Uh, pretty much destroyed my first impression in front of the professor.
Wish I could save your idiot face in class right now, Kurosaki.
He snorted. Maybe a kiss might save me for the rest of the day.
"Oi, Ichigo," Shinji nudged his new friend. "The professor wants us to introduce ourselves and it's almost your turn."
"Oh shit, what do I say?" Ichigo hid his phone for a bit.
"Name, where you're from, favorite color."
It was Hiyori's turn to introduce herself. "My name is Hiyori Sarugaki. I'm from Karakura Town and my favorite color is pink."
A couple of students let out an 'ooo' sound because they were amused that her favorite color was pink for someone who seemed so tomboyish. The professor nodded at her with a small smile, "that's a wonderful name Hiyori. Are you sure pink is your favorite color?"
"Yep, proud and true."
"Interesting. Okay, the boy in the orange-hair behind Hiyori, it's your turn," the brown-headed professor said with curiosity and interest sparkling a glint on his eyes.
Ichigo stood up and scratched his head hesitantly. "Uh, hey guys," he started with a small wave to his peers. "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki; also from Karakura Town, and my favorite color is red. Red like break of dawn."
"A fiery type of red huh?" The professor thought aloud. "Alright, that's everyone. I'd kindly ask for you guys to make name tags because there are forty students in here and I like to remember all of my 176 students. If you guys have any nicknames you'd like to be called by, you can put that on your name tag instead."
The class' silence gave him permission to proceed.
Ichigo opened his phone again to see that Toshiro replied and two more messages; that's a total of three. He unlocked his phone to read his messages: "You're never getting a kiss from me again." "I have psychology after this so let me know how your teacher is." And "Did you get in trouble?" The strawberry chuckled and replied to all three in one: Fine, I'll just keep getting in trouble. The professor's okay, and no I did not. Have more faith in me!
Toshiro replies quicker than he thought, but hey, Toshiro has a habit of always being on his phone ever since he received one. Don't get in trouble, dumbass! Okay, I have to go. Ja.
When he put his phone away, his professor was writing out his name on the board in kanji. The professor adjusted his square glasses for a moment and scanned his students, spotting Ichigo once more. He smirked, then took out his glasses in which he received a couple of gasps from the female portion of students (Hiyori included). Holy shit, the professor is hot. Too bad the only person that's hot in Ichigo's eyes is… well, we all know who it is.
"My name is Sosuke Aizen. I hope you all enjoy our time here in psychology."
"OH FUCK!" Hiyori hissed out loud to her two friends. Ichigo and Shinji leaned in closer to the blonde girl. "That's Aizen-sensei! He's like, the hottest professor here in Karakura University. He's like shitload hot. A lot of girls want to ask him for tutoring every time they have him because apparently, he really focuses on just you. I think he's seeing someone right now though, some girl named Ookihime or something." (A/N: She said "ooki" because she was referring to Orihime's large breasts. Hiyori refers to her as the large "booby" queen.)
"It's Orihime, moron."
Hiyori cracked her knuckles. "The fuck you just said?"
"I didn't say anything, I was talking to Ichigo." Shinji said quickly.
"Yeah, you better not have said anything," Hiyori slapped her flip-flops on the ground.
"Orihime though," Ichigo was a little interested. "Is she in this class?"
"Orihime Inoue?" Shinji looked around. "She shouldn't be, she fell down the stairs a couple of days ago."
"WHAT?" The strawberry choked, "is she okay?"
"Yeah, besides the fact that she's Aizen's bitch, she's really clumsy too. But who knows? Her falling down the stairs might just be a rumor and she was actually beaten up by him."
"What?" Ichigo was bewildered.
"Yeah," Hiyori butted in, bored. "Some nasty rumor going around that she gets fucked both ways, if you know what I mean."
"Is something wrong going on back there?" Aizen called out from the front. The trio looked up and shook their head with smiles on their faces.
Aizen smiled, "very good. Now I'll be passing out the syllabus…"
"Hitsugaya-kun, see you at soccer trials okay!?" A redheaded guy with tattoos shouted before he ran out of the room.
Toshiro sighed hopelessly and nodded, "I told you, I'm busy, Abarai. We'll see."
"Oh my god, he's hot," a girl passed him. Toshiro shrugged.
"He is but like, he looks like an elementary student, don't you think?"
"True, but if he's here then that means he's not! Stupid. Let's ask him out~"
"Get to know him first, stupid. We'll see him tomorrow."
The two girls' chat faded out when they walked out of the door. Thank God, Toshiro thought, he felt like he was about to snap out of annoyance of those girls continued talking about him. His head perked up when he heard a commotion outside; curious little bug that he is, he put his things together and walked out of his classroom to find a group of girls circling around Ichigo. Ichigo was leaning on the wall, trying to get out of the crowd of girls that circled around him and casually glanced at the classroom that Toshiro was supposed to be in. When he saw a tuft of white spikey hair, he knew that it was he.
"Toshiro!" Ichigo grinned, breaking away from the crowd of girls. "I came to pick you up."
Toshiro was surprised, holding a binder with his hand and his backpack hanging on his right shoulder. "You didn't have to come get me, Kurosaki. I could have just met you at the parking lot."
"Do you think I'd wait for you at the parking lot?"
That was true, if Toshiro wasn't so busy paying attention in class, he probably would've considered the fact that Ichigo might have been waiting for him outside after class finished. The white-haired boy smiled slightly and grabbed him by the hand to lead him out of school. The group of girls' attempt to get into a conversation with Ichigo has failed but there was a mischievous grin that was plastered on the small captain as Ichigo obediently followed him to the parking lot.
"Those girls have been following me since psychology…" was Ichigo's way of apologizing for causing such a crowd.
Toshiro shook his head, "it's not your fault. You're good looking."
"…did you just say I'm hot?"
What? Toshiro slightly flushed, holding on to the handle of the car door. He tightened his hold on the binder to hide the embarrassment and refusing the implication that came out of his mouth. "T-That's not what I said."
"That's what you were trying to say."
"S-Shut up."
"So you do think I'm hot!"
A vein popped on Toshiro's head. "No! Now shut up before I call you an ugly beast, shithead!"
"Ouch… just when I was gonna take you out to dinner."
"WAH!" A girl cried in front of the two boys as she tripped on her crutches. Toshiro ran towards the fallen girl to help her up and support her body because her legs were limping; Ichigo raised his eyebrow, thinking about the conversation that Hiyori and Shinji had with him this morning. The strawberry shrugged it off, went after Toshiro and supported him with helping her (you know, because he's small. HEH).
"Are you okay?" Toshiro asked, full with concern.
The girl laughed shyly and smacked herself on the head. There were gauzes wrapped around her right leg and her arm; her long orange hair were messy from her fall earlier and her uniform was a little stained from the dirt, dusty from the tires that transported the dirt here and there. "I'm okay, thank you."
"Inoue right? I saw you walk out of class earlier and I wanted to help you but you were gone by the time I got outside the door." Toshiro was blaming himself for the girl's fall.
"Oh, no, please; it's not your fault! I had to see someone before I went home and I was kind of in a rush because I have to cook for a friend. And yes, I'm Inoue; Inoue, Orihime! Toshiro-kun right?"
Toshiro nodded and smiled. Ichigo gawked, "HEY, you don't let me call you Toshiro!"
"You call me Toshiro anyway," the whitehead replied, annoyed. "Oh, Inoue, this is Kurosaki. Kurosaki, Ichigo."
The orange girl turned to the guy standing behind her and bowed, "hello, Kurosaki-kun!"
Ichigo beamed a smile and the girl swore to herself mentally that he probably would have stolen her heart at that second. Orihime slightly blushed, looking away which Toshiro noticed, then looked at the orange man who was now confused by the sudden action. The strawberry grabbed her crutches and unlocked his car; "come on. We'll take you home."
Toshiro's eyebrow twitched at Ichigo's blunt offer. He just met the girl and now he's offering her a ride? Did he not consider that the girl might think it's awkward and uncomfortable for her to just accept a ride from some guy she just met? She's not like Hinamori from the restaurant who gladly took their offer because she knew them the whole lunch. Orihime was just introduced to him a few seconds ago and now he's asking if he could drop her off? Lord kami; help him, for Ichigo does not know what he does sometimes.
"It's okay. Thank you, Kurosaki-kun, Toshiro-kun, but I have a ride," Orihime smiled. "He's right there."
She pointed at a white sports car that caught every student that was in his or her car at the parking lot. Ichigo and Toshiro looked at each other and raised their shoulders to shrug it off, watching Orihime walk towards her mode of transportation. The windows rolled down, and revealed a smiling Sosuke Aizen on the driver's seat. The strawberry's brown hues widened and Toshiro looked at Aizen with a frown, he didn't think Orihime was safe with him for some reason.
"Kurosaki-san."
"Uh, hello, Aizen-sensei."
"Please, just call me Aizen outside class. Orihime, come. I will take you home."
The golden haired girl nodded and bowed to the two boys before she entered the car and placed the crutches at the back of the car. They waved at her goodbye as she did the same until she resumed talking to the professor with an apologetically look on her face. Toshiro would hate to admit it, but he could have sworn that Aizen was glaring at her and was about to hit her. He couldn't say that to Ichigo though.
"Hey, Toshiro."
A vein popped. "It's Hitsugaya to you."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go home."
Little did they know that Orihime Inoue cried breathlessly in Sosuke Aizen's car, beaten up and bruised from his abuse.
Author: I need a life.
Ichigo: You don't have one.
Author: Shut up before I make you do something with Shiro real soon.
Toshiro: Something like what?
Author: Birds and da bees, duh.
Toshiro: *shocked* You wouldn't...
Author: *grin* I would~