Chapter Text
Footsteps echoed through the halls of Karakura University of Medicine's residencies, loud and undisguised in the otherwise lonely silence. Few students were dispersed through the dorm buildings, most of them at their entrances, smoking without anyone objecting to it. Funny how those young people studying to save lives seemed so unconcerned regarding their own health. Ichigo's own father was a doctor who used to smoke too, and when he or his younger sisters urged him to stop, his mother would chuckle before adding in her own settlement.
“Blacksmith house, wooden spoon.”
He smiled at the memory. All those years ago, moments like those seemed small and trivial, but now he relished them more than anything. It was a lesson life gave him early on – nothing is trivial.
His old friend Chad walked next to him, effortlessly carrying his own bags to their soon to be shared dorm. His presence never went unnoticed by anyone. He easily stood out with his tall height and dark skin, carrying himself with pride and a soothing presence. There were not many people Ichigo could settle with in comfortable silence without small talk getting forced in, but Chad and him had known each other for so long that keeping quiet didn't really matter. He was sure he could spend his entire life with his friend without ever getting tired of the company.
And he meant that in the most friendly, non romantic way possible, mind you.
They had made a point of being roommates, and because of that got sent to a recently reopened and therefore relatively unrequested corner of the campus that had been closed for renovations not too long ago. Although classes wouldn't start for another week, Chad wouldn't be around for the first fifteen days, having to make a trip to Mexico to clear something about his grandfather's inheritance or estate. The explanation Ichigo was given was a bit vague, but he didn't press it. His friend came today anyway to settle his things without hurry, and he was thankful enough for that. The first few days where everyone was a stranger were always the most awkward, and it was good to at least not move in on his own.
As they walked up to the fourth floor, a light dust started to fill the air. Some dorm doors were open as other students moved in, but none seemed to mind the clogged atmosphere. It looked as though the further up the building they went, the denser the dust got, likely from the fact the last floor had just been remodeled.
It was just a small annoyance anyway, nothing to make him consider a relocation. They had already carried their heavy bags for three floors, and Ichigo wasn't willing to do it all over again just to complain about the typical dirt. He barely noticed the flash of blue walking towards him at the last round of stairs until it was too late, making him trip on his own feet as he tried to avoid a collision.
When he looked back clumsily at what he barely dodged, he saw that the man he almost crashed against avoided him with ease, moving like a feline, and for a moment every step of his seemed to gracefully float more so than touch the ground.
By contrast, everything else about him screamed of abrasiveness, from the long legs and broad shoulders covered by black leather and studs, to the spiked blue hair that looked too loud to be real. Ichigo almost laughed at the character. He knew he was bound to find a few interesting looking people in a big University like this one, but that was a misscolored Billy Idol impression if he's ever seen one, as stuck in the punk-rock 80's as one could look.
Yet, ichigo didn't make a sound. He couldn't even smirk as blue eyes met his and the air suddenly felt that much colder.
“Ichigo?” Chad's voice brought him back to the present, having noticed the sudden distraction.
“Yeah... Let's go.” Ichigo nodded at his friend and moved, briefly glancing at the blue-haired man again to hear him snort, finding his icy eyes still fixed on him with a mocking smirk on his lips.
If his little distraction hadn't been so embarrassing, he would have snapped back at him.
“Did you know him?” Chad asked as they left the stairs and moved forward into an empty hallway, now carelessly dragging their bags behind them.
“Never saw him before.” Ichigo looked at each door, looking for the number 48.
“He's a memorable one.” The words made Ichigo chuckle, as he finally spotted their dorm room number.
Much like the rest of the floor, there was nothing particularly remarkable about the location of their soon to be second home. It stayed next to the end of the hall, being the second to last room of the fourth floor, which made it easy to remember. He unlocked the door and entered, seeing the interior for the first time.
“At least the windows are large. We need them with all this dust flying around.”
Ichigo commented. Two large windows showed the view to the campus' gardens, opening up an otherwise spartan room, with a small closet, two beds and a single desk for both of them. Dropping his bags by the side of one of the beds, he moved to a door adjacent to the wall, that lead to a small, almost claustrophobic bathroom. The shower and toilet barely seemed to fit the space, and the fact that division had no window was a sure promise of humidity.
Then again, neither of them had been expecting a five star suite. What they got was more than enough for them.
“Hey.” A stranger's voice called through their still open door, and the two boys looked to see a doleful looking blonde man. “You're moving here right? I'm from the student council, name is Izuro Kira.”
“Kurosaki Ichigo, Yasutora Chad.” Ichigo introduced himself, watching the blonde smile almost shyly.
“I'm checking on all the freshmen moving here, making sure everything is alright, or if you need something.”
“We're fine, thank you.” Ichigo answered. “So you're from this building?”
“Yeah. You're the first students I've seen on this floor yet. You should drop by the lounge room if you ever feel a bit isolated. Oh!” Kira added, retrieving some flyers and handing them to the two other men. “There's a student party tomorrow, if you want to drop by.”
“Thanks.” Ichigo took the flyer, a simple little thing with the location and time for aforementioned party, unsure if he wanted to go yet or just laze around for a bit. Unexpectedly, the blue-haired man he had seen before came to mind and urged him to say something. “We're really the only ones here yet? We crossed this guy on the way here. Blue hair, leather jacket?”
“Blue hair? Don't think I know anyone like that...” Kira replied, his voice seeming permanently solemn. “Might have been a new student too. Older ones try to avoid this place.”
“How come?” Ichigo frowned.
“Old urban legends... I thought maybe you knew about it, but you really shouldn't worry about them anyway. Thirty years ago or something there was a murder on the last room next to this one... And a few people who moved there after committed suicide too...” The blonde tensed at seeing Ichigo's and Chad's stunned expressions. “Students say it's haunted and some used to try to sneak in here on Halloween, but it's all urban legends. To be honest I never checked if those stories are real, and the University uses that room as a storage one anyway, so nobody gets assigned to it.”
“Don't worry about it.” Ichigo reassured him. “It's a bit morbid, but that's about it. I don't believe in ghosts or any of that.”
“People usually like to embellish things too.” Chad added, having kept quiet throughout the conversation.
“Exactly.” Kira nodded, seeming a lot more relaxed. “Anyway, like I said, if you need anything just ask for me at the reception. They'll let me know.”
“See you.” They said their farewells as the blond left to the hallway once again with a muffled cough.
Ichigo wordlessly went back to retrieving things from his bags, only stopping once he noticed Chad smirking at him.
“What?” He asked, his voice amused despite the frown on his features. “You know I don't believe stories like those.”
“That's not it.” Chad murmured, making Ichigo pause. For a few moments he only looked at him questioningly, but soon enough a red tinge spread through his cheeks.
“Shut up, I just wanted to know if that guy would be our neighbor or something.” He hadn't meant to look forward to seeing the blue-haired man again when he asked for him, but apparently Chad read his curiosity as such.
“Maybe he'll be at tomorrow's party?” The taller man offered, turning his back against Ichigo to hide his amusement.
“Very funny. Doesn't really matter.”
“Will you be going?”
“I'm not sure. I'd be going alone.”
“Then you could introduce me to some people you met when I get back.” Chad smiled.
“Right, leave all the work for me.” Ichigo chuckled.
Still, it was probably a good idea to go, blue-haired stranger there or not. Regardless of the party animal he wasn't and was unlikely to ever be, Ichigo was somewhat skeptical of the old stories of drunken college kids, fraternity initiations and all the stuff that was either too movie-like to be the norm or just plain shocking to tell. He was positive things weren't as wild as people made them out to be.
Without much thought, he made up his mind on going, hoping to meet up and socialize with some people before studies completely took over his time.
Life was a thing full of positive expectations, things you'd anticipate and place your bets on. Then there was the reality check to bring people back down to earth.
That hadn't exactly been an easy-going party. It was loud, surprisingly crowded for the small amount of students Ichigo had seen so far, and seemed to have an endless supply of booze, with a loud and boisterous red-headed man continuously encouraging people to “chug it all up” and get into drinking games.
It wasn't as though he wouldn't drink or participate, but he was either more responsible than he thought he was, or just a massive lightweight. As the acquaintances he made so far continued to drink and indulge, he was already feeling a familiar warmth spread through his limbs and warning him not to push it. The feeling of alcohol warming his skin always had the same two effects: one of making him extremely lazy, the other for causing a lot of bathroom trips.
The two were not in peaceful coexistence.
He left the room, closing the door behind him and feeling the rhythm of the music across the wooden surface before leaning against the wall and sliding down to sit. Sound traveled easily through the building, as he could attest to after just one night spent in it. He had stayed up late the previous evening, distracting himself with his laptop, and it seemed like the footsteps from the floors below were never ending.
Having lived with two younger sisters before meant that didn't really bother him too much. Those were sounds that were simple to tune out.
What hadn't been so easy to ignore was the screeching opening and closing sound of the next door's windows. The ones from the so-called haunted room.
Ichigo wasn't scared off by it. At his age and with basic common sense, it wasn't something that worried him too much, but he couldn't quite shake off the eerie feeling the noise gave him, most likely because he was completely alone in the entire floor, Chad having left earlier that day. It was around 3am when he decided to get off his bed and walk down to the neighboring door to close the damn thing and silence it for good.
The moment his hand rested on the door handle, the grinding sound of the window halted. His very instinct told him to get far away from Room 49, almost making him laugh to himself. He pushed that sensation back and turned the handle, only to find the door locked.
In any case the wind that likely caused the window to open and close seemed to have dwindled, leaving him once again in silence.
When he left the building to grab some breakfast at a nearby cafe the next morning, he looked up to see the windows of the storage room closed. Maybe someone had gone there before he woke up to take care of it, or maybe they just shut properly somewhere throughout the night. During the rest of the day he hadn’t thought of it, but as the time to go back to his room and rest was approaching, he felt something like unease at the prospect of having to deal with that again, on his own.
He was mostly hoping it'd be easier to fall asleep with all the alcohol in his system.
His thoughts were interrupted when someone sat down next to him, and he found himself staring into vibrant blue eyes again. His lips parted in surprise when he realized it was the same blue-haired man as before. He hadn't seen him since their first encounter, and hadn't really been searching for him at the party, but it was still somewhat nice to come across him.
Like other students he had seen, the blue-haired man had a lighter in his hand and a cigarette box in the other, pulling one out and offering it to Ichigo. Never having been a smoker, the freshman was almost tempted to accept the offer.
“No thanks.” At that, the man lit the cigarette and brought it to his own lips without insisting.
“You think you're gonna live long?” When Ichigo only frowned at him, he continued. “Heard you moved into the haunted room.”
“You heard?” Ichigo's frown deepened, not liking how quickly that information was being passed, however harmless it might have been. “The haunted room is the one next to mine.”
“Right, right.” The blue-haired man shrugged.“News travel fast around here.”
“What's your name?”
“Grimmjow. Don't comment on it.” The other added once he saw the curious look on Ichigo's face.
“I've heard weirder.”
“Oh.” Grimmjow snarled. “Thanks for the backhanded compliment.”
Ichigo only snorted, unconcerned at the reaction. He didn't intend on adding anything else about the foreign sounding name anyhow.
“You live in this building, don't you? I've seen you around.”
“Why do you want to know?” Grimmjow grinned, sharp teeth showing in a taunt. “You wanna take a trip to my bedroom?”
“Forget I asked...” Ichigo mumbled, not pleased with the implication.
“You should tell me your own name first. At the very least.” The other glanced at him, taking a deep drag from his cigarette and blowing the smoke in entrancing swirls. “And buy me a coffee.”
“Right, I forgot. Kurosaki Ichigo.” He offered, ignoring the rest of Grimmjow's words and smirking. “Don't comment on it.”
“There are worse fruits out there.”
“Tsk.” He scoffed at the usual taunt that came with his name. It wasn't its actual meaning but Ichigo got tired of explaining himself over and over again. Strawberry, yes, he'd heard it before. No creativity points for Grimmjow.
“Didn't you have a roommate with you?”
“He's out for the rest of the week. You only get to meet me for now.” He answered.
“Oh, what a privilege.”
Ichigo wasn't even sure whether those words were flirtatious or plain sarcastic, but his hazed mind didn't really care.
“What are you studying?” He asked, more for the sake of small talk than actual curiosity, although the image of the man digging through corpses at an autopsy room didn't seem to be unfitting out of all the options he could think of.
Then again, what did he know of Grimmjow besides his looks? And they did say not to judge a book by its cover.
“Nothing relevant.”
“Is it such a big secret?” He frowned.
“Nah, just none of your business.”
Well, at least now he knew he was rude too.
“You ask a lot of questions for someone who doesn't answer any.” Ichigo snapped, standing up and still feeling drowsiness on his limbs from the alcohol. “I'm gonna get going.”
“Already? You're trying to run away from me?” The mocking on Grimmjow's voice was clear, making Ichigo snort at the words.
“Think highly of yourself, don't you?”
“It is what it is. You didn't even answer my coffee question.”
“You didn't ask me anything.” Ichigo frowned, having to pause for a moment to remember what the other was talking about, and feeling unsure whether to be annoyed or amused at his nerve. “You tried inviting yourself into coffee I never offered. Don't tell me you were serious then?”
“You're not very good at this flirting thing, are you, Kurosaki?” Grimmjow grinned. “I'm adding a muffin to the coffee for that.”
“It's not flirting, it's just you clearly wanting to get a free meal out of me.” It was barely a second after those words left Ichigo's mouth that Grimmjow's eyes darkened, his tongue brushing against his lips in a taunt.
Ichigo was reportedly oblivious to many things, many crushes, many advances. He wasn't oblivious to that, however, and he was embarrassed to feel his cheeks heating up at the other man's nerve.
“Maybe if you're free tomorrow you can get me that coffee, and I'll tell you where my room is.”
“Look, I think there's a misunderstanding here...” Ichigo started, not wanting the other to assume he was up for anything. Yet, he was promptly interrupted.
“How's five?”
“What?”
“Five in the afternoon. I'll meet you up at the lounge room.”
Before Ichigo could object to it, Grimmjow stood up and opened the door, returning to the party and leaving the other outside in a dumbfounded state.
It was only after someone else left the room that Ichigo finally moved, blaming the drinks he had for his state of mind. He pushed the plans Grimmjow forced on both of them to the back of his mind and walked back to his room, one floor at a time.
He still had half a mind to curse the amount of stairs in the old building before reaching room 48 and fumbling with the keys until he managed to open the door and get inside. He collapsed into the bed right away, but sleep evaded him.
His body might have been tired, but his head sure wasn't. He didn't know for how long he laid spread on the sheets, staring at the dark ceiling until he heard the hinging of the storage room's window again.
“Fuck...” He mumbled, suddenly angry at the noise. The words Kira had told him on the day they met made their way back to his thoughts. Some students apparently thought it was funny to head there and scare each other, and it seemed as though now he was being the victim of those childish games.
As if he'd be the one to believe in ghost stories and old urban legends. Figuring they'd stop messing around if he ignored them, he stayed in his bed for a good twenty minutes, gritting his teeth in growing frustration, before finally getting up and heading out again.
Much like the previous night, the moment he touched the storage room's door handle, the noise stopped, and once again he twisted it to find the door locked.
His head was certainly getting clearer, but a haze still washed through him, dulling his instincts and the thundering beat of his heart. He knocked on the door, getting no response.
“Whatever you're doing in there, I'm trying to sleep, so shut it.”
Still no sound answered him.
“Oi, you must think this is funny? Keep it down or I'll call the receptionist to drag you out.”
Although his body was screaming at him to leave, Ichigo ignored the urge, thinking rationally. Annoyed at the lack of response, he knelt on the floor in front of the door, and leaned against it, trying to peek through the small keyhole.
It was his first time looking into the room, although it was too dark to see anything in great detail. There were a few boxes and chairs piled up in a corner, a couple of brooms and not much else that he could make out. However, the one thing that caught his attention were the windows through which the moonlight entered and lit the room.
They were closed.
He stared attentively, looking for any sign of movement to find nothing.
Suddenly, his vision got obstructed, as if something just stepped in front of the keyhole at the other side of the door, startling him. The two seconds it took for the image to become clear felt agonizingly slow, but when they passed, Ichigo clearly saw someone's eye, wide and meeting his own in an endless gaze.
The moment he realized what happened, he fell back to the floor, backing away until his back hit the corridor's wall – a dead end. He rushed back up, wanting to leave the floor as quickly as he could, but having nowhere to head to. As he hurried into his room, he felt as though his heart would pop out of his ribcage any moment.
Part of him tried to laugh, finding confirmation that someone had indeed locking himself inside to mess with him, but the chill in his body wouldn't leave. He went back to his bed wide-eyed and alarmed, unable to do anything but grasp the sheets, his entire being screaming at him that something was horribly wrong.
Just moments later, a new noise swam from the storage next door, this time much closer, like that of nails dragging through the wall that separated both divisions.
His own room didn't feel the least bit safe.