Chapter 1

The days soft breeze lightly brushed against the soft green leaves, branches dancing to their winds melody - the day was cool and just the perfect temperature to take a nap.. perhaps for too long. "Toshiro..Toshiro!" The voice was feint at first, but quickly grew louder and rang through the ice dragon's ears as his frame quickly shot up in shock, heads bumping against one another with slight wincing. "Dammit.. don't startle me like that" Teal orbs quickly glanced up to see Ichigo's big frame, rubbing his equally pained forehead. "Yea yea my bad, good to see your skull toughened up after all those years" he joked lightly, looking back towards the school before grabbing Toshiro's wrists, pulling him up to his feet. "The bell rang, last thing you want is to be late" amused with the wonderkid's shocked expression, he did not hesitate to bolt on ahead, leaving Ichigo to catch up. "You should've said so! ah.." He was not the kind of guy to be late or miss any work, to him school gave structure, it was laid back and in a way it did teach him some new things that would become useful in his other lines of duty.

"Hey look, do you guys want to go talk to him? maybe he can help us?" "Oh I don't know he look's busy.." "girls c'mon! it's not everyday we can ask the ice prince for help" A small group of girls were giggling, ogling over at Toshiro who was deep in thought among his work, scanning over the paper as his fingers moved quickly to fill in the missing pieces. 'Jeez... do these girls ever stop? then again... isn't this what girls do' Ichigo scowled, dark orbs looking over to the hungry group before resting at the wonderkid's figure. When you think about it, Toshiro did hold some kind of... royalties to him, his posture, the way he would talk to you, even his presence was that of a noble - not that he ever heard of such a thing up in soul society but he wouldn't be surprised if Toshiro ended up being of royal blood, it suited him well with his workaholic nature.

"Um excuse us, pri-I mean.. Hitsugaya, do you mind helping us with some of our paper? we're confused" The three girls enclosed the young man, eyes gleaming with fawning nature that quickly went over Toshiro's head. "Even though there's three of you, you can't figure it out?" He stated bluntly, glancing at all three for a second before his eyes turned to their papers in hand. "Aha... yea.. so your help would be so great, pleasee!" They pleaded, giggling to each other as Ichigo watched from afar, eyes twitched with irritation, head banged against his desk as Toshiro easily caved in to their reluctant request. 'He was never someone to turn down help when needed, so it was to be expected, but why did he always have to do it.. especially when they ask in such a dumb manner..' the thought seemed like it came out of nowhere, a bit surprised at himself that something like that crept up. 'What is that supposed to mean... whatever' Ichigo pushed away his thoughts, gathering personal materials together into his bag before letting himself out of the room, hands locked into Ichigo's pockets as he slowly made his way towards the door. Some days thing's would come up that he never even thought of before, ideas that would seem so out of character, it was becoming to feel more frequent these days, the feeling was building and in a way, Ichigo wasn't sure if he should be worried or not - maybe its part of just a man growing... seems about right.

"Oy! Ichigo, I was looking for you. Earlier today you said you wanted to ask something?" Toshiro popped up from behind the school doors, big bright orbs reached out to meet Ichigo's dark features. "Oh.. y-yea, mind if I come over today? I wanted to play that game" He asked casually, getting a light sigh out of Toshiro in exchange. "I'm not surprised, you come over a lot just for that game, but I don't mind. I just got a bit of catching up to do from Cram class so, I might not be very entertaining" "When have you ever?" He teased, getting a jab in the stomach for payback. "Ugh... Toshiro.. why" Ichigo coughed a bit, over dramatizing the initial blow for a moment. "That's what stupid giants get for being.. stupid" He retorted, turning back around to walk back into the building. "I'll see you later!" The wonderkid called out, waving his hand back to the Dark Sun Carrot Top before disappearing into the school once more. It was becoming frequent that Ichigo would go over Toshiro's place to hang out, he had gotten a new game awhile back and seeing as the genius never even uses his system and such, why waste the money to buy it when he could go over and play it for free, plus his place was nice and it was away from his family which sometimes... he just needed to have some room from - though in his heart its really just to get away from his dad's crazy hyper attitude.

"Ichigooo!" A familiar redhead called out, quickly catching up to his familiar friend. "I was looking everywhere for you dude. Want to go out to eat after school today? I am craving for a good meal!" Renji's hand clenched into a fist, eyes gleaming with stars at the thought of something big and delicious to eat.. which usually ended up being burgers or steaks. "Ah.. sorry Renji, not today I'm going over Toshiro's again" His hand raised up defensively, quickly taking in the pineapple's drop in expression. "Again?! man... is that game really that good? All you ever do is play that game." He pouted slightly, eyes glared into Ichigo's for a moment. "Fine. ya owe me, carrot!" His long finger poked into Ichigo's chest, leaving as quickly as it appeared. "Then let's eat here since we still got some time left for lunch" "Sounds good to me.." Settling down into the grass, Ichigo pulled out his lunchbox and began to pick at the different little meals it carried. "Hey Renji I have a question for you.. do you ever think about Byakuya in a weird way like... seeing him around others gets you mad or.. something like that" He wasn't sure exactly how to express what he was feeling or how to go about it, all he knew was that the feeling was getting to him more and more over time. "W-What?! well he IS my captain.. It's only natural to feel some kind of.. protective nature with him, but that's my job ya know!" Renji's face trickled a light shade of red that complimented his tan skin, a look that went unnoticed by the other. "Oh, I see" Glancing from Renji back to his food, he picked another bite up. "Well maybe it's just me over thinking it then".

It's been years guys, sorry for all the cliffhangers! I know how you feel and that just sucks. I posted this because... this is the new story I want to go with. With a lot more writing experience under my belt I want to try out this new fresh idea - high school years. Volume 2 will be updated too so stay tuned for that! Thank you for the patience!