The slam of car doors was what first woke Ichigo up. But it wasn't until he heard his father's voice several minutes later that he finally got moving.

As he listened to the snippets of conversation drifting through the open window, he gathered clothes that had been tossed to the floor over the time of the last week. Judging by the number of voices and their unfamiliarity, he guessed that the new neighbors that his dad had been prattling on about were finally here.

It was still far too early to even think of going down to meet them, so Ichigo headed to breakfast and decided to let fate choose when they would cross paths.

"Good morning, Ichi-nii."

Ichigo mumbled 'good morning' to his sisters and sat heavily at the table, allowing Yuzu to serve him an omelet.

"You're looking as gloomy as usual."

"'m not gloomy."

Karin just shook her head and went back to eating toast. It wasn't for another five minutes before their father burst in and tried attacking Ichigo.

"Gah! What the hell?!"

"You must always be ready for someone to jump you, Ichigo!"

"You freak, can't you at least wait until I'm done eating?"

"They won't stop for food~"

Neither quit until Ichigo finally got his father in a headlock.

"Hey, are you guys done yet?"

"Yosh! Now then Ichigo, get off of me and we'll go meet the new neighbors!"

"Not interested." Ichigo said after letting his dad go.

"Not getting off that easily!" Issin yelled as he, successfully grabbed and pulled his son towards the door.

"Oi, oi! Why aren't you taking Yuzu and Karin too?!"

"We already met them, have fun Ichi-nii!"

"Traitors!" he yelled back to them as he was yanked outside.

His father explained on the way to the other house that they had a son that was a year older than him. And that it would be good for him to make friends with the kid. Ichigo pulled him off and walked the rest of the way with no help, barely listening to what Issin said.

"Hello!"

"Oh, hello, Issin! This must be your son, Ichigo, right?"

Ichigo nodded and shook the two adult's hands that were offered to him. They both looked like normal, hard-working people. He felt bad for them having to live next to his weird ass family.

"Now where is that boy? Grimmjow!" the woman called.

"What?" the reply came from the back of the moving van.

"Come and meet your neighbors!" the man yelled.

"Alright, alright." the van roared back.

After a moment a head could be seen from behind the vehicle, the rest of the body soon followed.

His first thoughts on the guy was that he had weirder hair than his own.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"..."

"Well that was a great greeting." the woman said, sarcastically. "I just don't see how they couldn't want to get to know each other more." She said to her husband and Issin.

The teens rolled their eyes in unison.

"Right, I'll introduce my son then."

"Oh god." Ichigo groaned.

"Grimmjow, this is Ichigo; an antisocial, irritating, semi-genius."

"And this is Grimmjow; a troublemaking, back talking, socialite."

The two boys shared a look of irritation and boredom at the whole situation. This stemmed a feeling of comradery and the two shook hands.

"Aha! Contact, blessed be!" the woman exclaimed.

Grimmjow rolled his eyes again.

"Issin-san, would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?"

'Sounds great! You boys play nice now."

Ichigo and Grimmjow watched as their parents entered the Jaegerjaques' home. The door shut and they looked at each other.

"They're subtle." Ichigo said with a straight face.

Grimmjow chuckled, slapping the orange head on the back. Ichigo shrugged the others hand off and smirked.

"So how 'bout showing me around, Ichi?"

"Look by yourself." He answered, then turned and headed back to his house.

"Not so fast, orange-fuzz." Grimmjow said lurching forward to wrap and arm around the younger man's shoulders. "Our parents said to be nice, right?"

"...Orange-fuzz?"

"Yeah, Orange-fuzz." Grimmjow said, slyly. Reaching out his free hand, he rubbed Ichigo's head violently.

"Oi, stop it you bastard!" Ichigo struggled to get out of Grimmjow's clutches, to no avail.

"Like you could do anyth-" He was cut off by and elbow to the stomach. Doubling over, he let go of Ichigo, who quickly stepped away.

"What was that you were saying?" He taunted.

"Oh, you're so dead." Grimmjow said as he stood straighter. Without warning, he leaped forward to tackle the smaller man.

Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise, but he could do little more than brace himself. As soon as he felt the other's body hit him and the ground rush up to meet them, he twisted so he would land on his side and not underneath the bulk of Grimmjow.

Then the punching started, neither putting their full strength behind the blows as there was no reason to.

At some point they had managed to get to their feet and now stood, breathing heavily and a little sore, but otherwise unharmed. The lingering tension in the air was immediately dispersed by laughter and after a beat Ichigo joined in as well.

"You're not bad, Ichigo."

"Back at you, Grimmjow."

"Call me Grimm."

They smiled; Grimmjow's looking more like he was baring his teeth and Ichigo's a cocky smirk.