Chapter 6:Roommates

"What's up with you?"

Angel looked up from her slouched position on top of her desk to see Bia leaning down at her. "Huh?" was her only response.

"Honey, are you sick?" Bia asked as she placed a hand over Angel's forehead.

The petite woman frowned, swapping her friend's hand away. "No, I'm just tired."

Suddenly, Bia's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Why? Did a sexy hunk keep you up all night?"

The image of Ichigo's warm lips on her cheeks suddenly smacked her against the head. "NO!" Angel shouted a bit too loudly and couldn't stop a blush from slowly appearing across her cheeks.

"Eh, then why are you blushing?" Bia snickered.

"It's because—there's nothing—Shut up!"

"What are you two blabbering about so early in the morning?"

Angel silently thanked God when Jane suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Angel stayed up all night because of a guy," Bia quickly replied with a grin.

"WHAT?!"

Angel silently cursed God when Justin came in, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" he yelled so loudly that Bia's hair flew back from the intensity. The red head's glare suddenly turned to his oldest friend before he grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her in midair. "Angel! What is this about a man keeping you up?! What the fuck have you been doing this weekend?!"

Jane came over and patted Justin head. "Geez, calm down Tan; it's not like she dating you or something." The tomboy then looked at Angel, who was still being shaken, and grinned. "But I wouldn't mind knowing more about this mysterious dude."

A clear vein was popping on Angel's forehead. "There is NO GUY!" she shouted as she kicked Justin in the shin. He doubled over in pain, finally releasing his strong grip on her shoulders. Once she got back her footing, Angel straightened her clothes before sitting back down. "Bia was just joking."

"WHAT?!" Justin jumped up to his feet, this time turning his glare at the strawberry-blonde head.

"Geez, Bia, you sounded really convincing there for a sec," Jane smirked.

Bia grinned. "Thanks. I'm thinking about trying out for the drama club soon."

Ding Ding Ding!

"Alright you guys, sit back down!" Ichigo yelled as he came through the door once the bell rung. He stepped into the classroom, closing the door behind him, and made his way to the podium.

Like any morning he started off with attendance. A name was called and that student was expected to say 'hai.'

That's the easy part. Anybody with a sensible brain could do it.

But Angel was having a hard time trying to keep her voice from cracking up when Ichigo called her name.

"Angel Bushū ?"

"H-hai…" she answered.

Hearing her stutter, Ichigo looked up for a second but immediately looked back down at his attendance sheet after his amber eyes made contact with a pair of violets. Thankfully their little interaction went unnoticed as class continued.

"Okay class, today we're starting a new book," Ichigo announced as he placed the attendance sheet aside and grabbed his book, "Today, like all the other times, we'll start by reading the first chapter together—"

"Oi, Ichigo!" Jane suddenly interrupted.

Ichigo let out a frustrated groan. ", Bieber I thought I told you to address me formally during school hours."

"Psch, as if you care for formalities," she scoffed . "I just wanted to remind you about that thing you told me about last weekend at your place."

There was a sudden gasp throughout the class.

"What about it?" Ichigo groaned.

Yet again, another unified gasp, but this time whispers were being passed around as well.

A student? At a teacher's place? On a weekend?

Don't you just love high school gossip?...

But Angel wasn't thinking about just that. Her body suddenly went rigid when she thought about what happened that weekend.

Clearly she was the one at his place on Saturday until late at night. Then Fernandez and Ramos appeared, making clear that they were going to spend the night over at Ichigo's apartment. So when did Jane go over there? On Sunday? But Ichigo barely stays home on Sundays… Why the hell does she know this and why does this even matter?!

But she still couldn't get rid of the weird tightening in her chest.

"Well?" Jane frowned, "Are you going to bring it up?"

Ichigo sighed, scratching the back of his head, which Angel noticed was a habit of his when he was either embarrassed or annoyed by something. She was silently hoping it was the latter.

"Fine," he nodded before clearing his throat. "Anyways, before you guys start taking Bieber's information to a whole new untrue level of gossip, I would like to announce early about the festival that will take placed during this fall." (*A/N)

A huge cheer exploded from the students.

Ichigo waited until the screams subsided to continue his announcement. "From what Fernandez-sensei told me, this year you guys will be responsible to recruit as many new students for next year before you graduate. So start thinking of a theme, and no—" he glared at Jonny who was about to jump up, "—I won't tolerate to see this place being turned into some pornography theater or anything else that's related to it." He immediately got a groan of defeat from the young man in the back of the room. Ichigo rolled his eyes before looking at Angel. "And Bushū?"

Angel jerked to attention when he suddenly called her name. "Yes?"

"Come to my office during lunch so I can give you further information. After all, you are the class rep. so you should know all the information." He turned back to the rest of the class while pointing at Angel, "She'll have all the information from now on so please go to her if you need to know anything; don't bother me."

"Okay!" They all answered with big grins.

"Good, now let's get back to the book," he said, opening up to the first chapter.

Angel was quiet during the entire time the class read along with Ichigo the new book. Time quickly passed without her being aware of what was happening around her. For some reason she felt like something was bothering her, deep in her chest.

"Oi."

Maybe she was just tried or something. After all, she had to stay up most of the night finishing up her homework.

"Oi! Why are you ignoring me?!"

Or could it have something to do with what she ate this morning? Even though Ichigo taught her how to cook, she still ate nothing but junk food because she didn't have enough ingredients at home.

"OI!"

Maybe she should get a check up—

"ANGEL!"

"WHAT?!" Angel snapped back. It was then she realized where she was.

It was already lunch period and she was in Ichigo's office, with the man himself glaring at her with great intensity. "I've been talking to you for the last few minutes but you've been ignoring what I've been saying!"

Angel blinked before shaking her head to get rid of whatever daze she was just in. "Sorry but I got a lot of things on my mind."

"Well you better start paying attention." Ichigo shook his head in disappointment as he went through a stack of papers. "Anyways, I'll give you the information about the festival so make sure to—"

"When did she come over?"

Ichigo stopped in the middle of his search before turning around to stare at Angel who cut in the middle of his sentence. "Huh?"

"Jane," she continued, "When did she come over to your place?"

Ichigo stared at her before smirking. "Why? Jealous?"

His questions suddenly threw her off. Angel quickly retorted by crossing her arms across her chest and glaring off to the side. "Psch, as if."

Ichigo chuckled as he returned to the papers. "I met her while working out at the gym I go to on Sundays. She was with her dad who used to teach me karate when I was a kid. So they both came over to my place and that's when she brought up the topic of the festival."

"Oh," was all she could say as a reply, suddenly feeling stupid for feeling bothered by it.

"So you can go tell your classmates not to start any stupid rumors," he added, "I hated them when I was a student and I hate it even more now."

Angel nodded her head as she grabbed his chair and sat down on it. "So what did you want to tell me about the festival?"

"Just a second, I know I left it here somewhere…"

Angel sighed. "You're clean at home so why can't you keep things organized here?"

"Shut up," he groaned, "I just have way too many papers here."

That's when Angel peeked over his shoulders to see exactly what kind of paper he had on his desk. "Are those the ones I graded?"

"Yeah, and some more shit," he said before looking at her with a grin "By the way, you are coming over tonight, right?"

An eyebrow slowly rose up as Angel tried to scoot back with the chair. That grin was really annoying her. What the hell does he have planned behind it? "Maybe…?"

But Ichigo leaned forward, dangerously close to Angel's face. "Because tonight things just might get ugly."

"What are you talking about?"

He pointed to a large stack just behind him. "We need to grade that."

"WHAT?!" she jumped up and ran over to the huge stack. "Why the hell are there so many papers this time? This stack is more than what we've been doing so far…times five!"

Ichigo chuckled. "It is. Two of my other classes had some stupid dumbasses that wouldn't do anything I tell them to do so I decided to assign the entire class a report on one of Japanese most famous poems."

"Eugh," Angel groaned as she continued to scan the stack. "This is going to take forever."

"Not if you stay up all night," Ichigo teased. She turned around and glared before stomping on his feet. "OW! What the fuck?!"

"That's what you get for assigning something as stupid as that. Why do something you're going to regret?" she huffed, crossing her arms in front of her again.

Ichigo glared. "Sorry but that's what teacher's have to do in this day-and-age." He sighed as he finally located what he's been searching for. "Here"

Angel took the paper from his grasp and scanned it. "Okay, I'll talk this over with the class before I go to the student council meeting." Angel folded the paper and placed it in her pocket. "So I'll see you tonight?" she sighed in defeat.

Ichigo nodded again. "Yeah. See you later." Angel quickly left Ichigo's office to join her friends for the remaining few minutes of lunch.

The rest of the day went well…better than expected.

Angel  was able to turn in all of her homework, even though she spent most of the weekend slacking off. She got praises left and right from her teachers. Heck, even Montes-sensei was nice to her.

In fact, when she got back her first calculus pop quiz she got her very first 100 percent in his class!

Angel nearly jumped out of her seat when she got back her quiz.

"Psst. Oi, Angel!"

"What?" she asked with a smile.

"What you get?" Justin whispered, "I didn't get mine back yet."

Angel proudly displayed her paper, earning her a groan from her childhood friend. She smiled proudly. Maybe she should make Ichigo dinner again this weekend? After all, he did help a lot. He actually stayed with her for hours-on-end, teaching her and giving her short cuts to solving the difficult calculus problems.

But that wasn't important at the moment. Angel just couldn't help giggling the more she looked at the red '100 percent' that was circled with a red marker. She didn't even care when she heard Justin groaning in defeat behind her.

"I'm pretty disappointed by your overall grade on the quiz,"  Noe said as he returned to the front of the room. "There was only one student who got a full 100 percent." He paused to look at Angel and raised an eyebrow when he noticed she was still smiling at her paper, "And it was the most unexpected person at that."

He turned around and wrote '55 percent' on the blackboard. "This is the class average," he announced, earning him a collective groan. "And this is the lowest and highest grades." He wrote down (Angel's) 100 percent and a 3 percent right below it.

"Phew. And I thought I was fucking bad," Justin snickered, looking at the red '15 percent' on his own paper.

"Is there something you would like to share with the class, Tan?" Montes glared at the red head.

Justin tensed and shook his head. "N-n-no sir. I'm just glad I didn't get that low of a score," he stuttered, suddenly feeling like the room got a lot colder with the teacher's fierce glare. How could he forget that that child-genius teacher of theirs was fucking strict; heck, nobody would be surprised to find a six-foot pole up his ass because of how serious the man was.

Noel rolled his eyes. "Choose your words more carefully next time; I don't think Lopez wants to be further embarrassed in class."

"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO TELL EVERYONE THAT IT'S ME!" Jonny shouted from the back of the room.

"Please, I'm sure everyone already knew it was you," Justin snickered back at him.

Montes rolled his eyes. "Anyways, it's already the second month of school and you guys learned absolutely nothing. Looks like I'll have to assign you more homework."

Again, a loud collective groan filled the class.

"Clara! Do something!" Bia cried to her friend.

Rodrigo blushed at what her friend. "W-what are you talking about Bia-chan?!"

"That's right!" Jonny joined in, "The entire school knows you and Montes-sensei are engaged because your grandparents arranged it years ago, or something like that." Clara's blush reddened even more as the class pervert continued, "So why don't you help out your classmates and persuade that fiancé of yours to lighten up the load. I'm sure a kiss would suffice—"

"Enough," Noel groaned, "My private life has nothing to do with you group of idiots so don't bring her into this."

"Awww," Bia cooed, "I can't believe you're protecting her!"

"Santos!" Noel shouted as his face started to turn red, though from embarrassment or anger nobody was really sure.

The strawberry-blonde just smirked. "No need to be so shy, sensei. We all know how you might act cold to Clara but deep down you really care about her. Heck, I saw you protecting her from a group of boys last year when they tried to hit on her. I thought it was really noble of you to take that punch for her."

"AWWW!" most of the females sighed, hearts in their eyes.

"EUGH!" most of the males groaned.

Clara, no longer able to keep her head up, lowered it and slumped down into her seat, hoping to hide herself from her classmates.

Noel quickly turned around to hide his blush. "Ahem. Let's just start class."

Angel smirked.

At first she hated this class but now she loved it. Not only was she able to follow what Noel was teaching in class, but it was cute to see him blush whenever someone—mostly Bia—brought up the topic of his engagement to Clara.

Apparently their families knew each other from generations back. And they've been arranged to be married since they were little. If it were someone else, they might not have liked this arrangement; but the two have been seeing each other since their infancy and soon a special relationship exploded between them.

They were really in love.

It still seemed odd to know that one of her friends was not only in love but also engaged. Angel and Clara known each other since middle school but it hadn't been until last year that she, along with everyone else, found out that the two were engaged. And at such a young age too. Luckily the school already knew about their relationship and allowed it in school because of their circumstances, as in not really having had any say in their engagement…not that they really had any.

I wonder what that feels like… she thought to herself while taking notes from the board.

"I expect you guys to do better next time," Noel said while preparing to leave class.

"Yes," the class replied in a defeated tone.

He rolled his eyes at the lack of response. "There will be another test in two weeks." He waited for the groans to subside again before continuing, "Most of you guys will need an 80 percent or higher to do well in this class…And don't even think about bothering Clara about the test," he said and quickly left the class as the bell rung, leaving the classroom as the girls squealed and the guys hooted.

"Oi, Montes," Ichigo called out.

Noel stopped in his step and turned around. "Walker," he greeted with a nod.

Ichigo walked over but stopped before saying anything. He looked over to the class that Noel just came out of which was still loud. He smirked before looking back at his friend. "What did you do now to embarrass that little fiancé of yours?"

The younger man snorted as they made their way down towards their offices. "I just told them to not bother her about an upcoming test."

Ichigo chuckled. "You really have an odd way of showing your love."

"…Shut up," Noel snarled as he turned right to the main staff room.

Ichigo smirked as he continued down the hall to his own private office.

To be in love…I wonder what that's like, he thought.

Angel skipped down the street as she turned the corner and slid open the door. "Hello!"

"Irasshaimase!" Mark greeted. He was standing by the door and when he noticed Angel's cheery mode, he couldn't help but hop around with her. "Did something good happen, Bushū-san? You're here when it's not even Friday!"

Angel nodded as she hopped around the store, going on her usual snack escapade. "Yup! I just passed my calculus quiz with a 100 percent."

"REALLY?!" Mark, who's been following her the entire time, suddenly threw confetti into the air. "Congratulations! We should celebrate."

"Just give me a discount and I'll say that'd be good enough," she grinned.

Mark suddenly stopped hopping and started to pout. "But then how am I suppose make a living?"

Angel merely shrugged her shoulders as she brought everything over to the register. "So, how about 50 percent?"

Mark nearly fell over at the sudden proposal. "Bushū-san," he nervously chuckled and looked at the content in her hands, "That would mean you would only pay 1000 yen."

"Exactly," she smirked.

Mark was about to retort but Lucy appeared out of nowhere and smacked him over the head. "Just let it go for today; she did pass her test."

"Thank you," Angel smiled at the tan woman.

Few minutes later Angel was out of the store with a bag full of sweets to last her several days. Of course she was going to go over to Ichigo's place later to get some real food, but who said it's bad to sedate a woman's sugar craving?

Definitely not her.

Angel hummed a small tune as she walked towards her apartment. The sun was already starting to set and she was ready to just fall into her bed and sleep. But there's no way she can sleep, especially since Ichigo would most likely drag her back to his apartment for work.

She scoffed when she remembered what she had to grade later.

Angel neared her apartment with a scowl when she saw something off. She stopped and looked around her.

Nothing seemed wrong. But that was the problem: it felt eerily quiet. Suddenly, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She looked up only to see a shadowy figure suddenly emerge from what appeared to be her apartment. Her breathing quickened as did her heartbeat.

She was getting robbed…IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY!?

Her eyes widened as the person ran down the stairs and out into the streets, his arms and pockets full of many items.

She should have followed him; Angel knew she should have gone after that bastard and stop him. But her brain wasn't functioning correctly. Instead, she looked up to her apartment where the door was still wide open.

Without thinking twice, Angel quickly ran towards her apartment building and up the stairs. When she reached her floor, she noticed that that person indeed came out from her place. With her shaky legs, Angel made her way to her apartment and looked inside.

Angel gasped, dropping everything that she was holding as she looked around her home.

Everything was in ruins.

The couch was ripped up, it's cotton spewing out; the TV screen was shattered; tables and chairs were upturned and broken; several of her dishes were broken on the ground; her mattress were flipped over; her clothes all over the floor; the drawers opened and some upturned; and many of her jewelries and hidden money were gone.

Nothing about her apartment felt homey anymore.

Angel didn't know what to do or how to react. She couldn't scream as her throat closed up from the shock. Her body wouldn't move from where she was standing. Her mind couldn't fully register what was happening.

Everything was just so fucked up!

In the end, the moment she got some feeling back in her legs, Angel ran out of her apartment and quickly made her way to the building in front of hers.

Ichigo whistled a small tune as he walked up the stairs of his apartment building. Today started out nice. His classes went smoothly: everyone turned in their homework and even Jonny kept his stupid comment to himself. Not to mention Andrew lost a bet with him so he has to buy him some drinks that weekend.

Oh yeah, today was a good day—

Ichigo's thought suddenly stopped when he noticed a familiar figure sitting in front of his door, her knees up to her chest and her head resting on top of them.

"Angel?" he approached her.

As soon as she heard her name, Angel looked up to see Ichigo standing in front of her.

Ichigo was shocked when he noticed her tear-stained face. Then it was even more unexpected when she suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms around his waist, hiding her face against his chest.

He didn't know how to react at first. Was this really Bushū Angel or some imposter? But then he slowly relaxed and held her tightly against him. "Hey, what's the matter?" he asked in the most soothing voice he could muster.

Angel's shoulders jerked up as she hiccupped. "Ichi—huck—go," she whimpered, "I don't know—eugh—what to do."

Ichigo rubbed her back up and down to calm her breathing. "What are you talking about? What's wrong?"

"Ichigo," she breathed out, "Some—somebody broke into my apartment—"

Ichigo quickly grabbed her arms and pushed her off him to look straight at her face. "What?!"

Angel's lower lip trembled as fresh tears started to flow out. This was the first time he saw Angel in such a vulnerable state. In fact, this wasn't the Angel he knew the last three weeks. No matter how tough the situation was, she's the type to push through them and come out with that cocky grin of hers. But seeing her like this…

It was nerve-wracking.

Ichigo forced his tense body to calm down before he opened his apartment door behind them and he lifted her into his arms, his arms under her bent knees and shoulders. Angel watched him under hooded eyes as Ichigo brought her inside, passed the living room, passed the kitchen, and into his bedroom. He carefully set her down and kneeled in front of her.

"I'll go over to your place and call the cops. Just stay here and rest, okay?" he said, brushing away some of her midnight hair from her face.

Angel slowly nodded her head before lying down on Ichigo's bed. He silently covered her with his blanket before quickly leaving. He closed his bedroom door and made his way outside. As he closed the door, he double-checked to make sure the door was locked before running off to Angel's apartment.

He arrived at the front door, which was left wide open, and stepped in. If he had anything in his hands he would have dropped everything from shock.

The entire apartment was turned inside-out.

He carefully walked inside, making sure not to step on anything or move anything in case there's something the cops could use.

Speaking of cops…

Ichigo pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and quickly dialed a number. "Hello? I'd like to report a robbery…"

The next hour was a blur to Ichigo. The cops arrived within five minutes and quickly inspected Angel's apartment. It seemed most of her jewelry and small stack of money that she had hidden in her drawer were mainly stolen. Some small items were also gone while the rest were destroyed. Nothing was found that might pass off as evidence against the criminal so the cops left, leaving with only a promise to look for the thief.

Ichigo sighed as he looked around the remains of the apartment.

It was still a complete mess after the investigation.

He shook off his jacket, tossing it to the side, and rolled up his sleeves. He grabbed a large garbage bag and started to stuff it with the debris of glass and wood. He cleaned up as much as he could of the living room and the kitchen, though there was absolutely nothing left that could make the place look homely again.

He sighed as he sat down on a torn-up couch cushion, looking around the apartment.

There's no way Angel would want to live here now, not after all this happen…Not to mention how he won't let her live alone if he had a say in it too.

Why?

Ichigo cursed at his inner thoughts and ignored the single-word question. They only brought unnecessary thoughts into his head.

After getting rid of the remaining kinks in his back and arms, Ichigo jumped back to his feet to start cleaning again. He grabbed a new bag and went to her bedroom. He reached down and examined the clothes on the floor. Those that looked decent he stuffed them into a bag while the others were tossed to a corner.

Dresses, pants, shirts, blouses, school uniforms…bras…ahem, panties…skirts, socks, etc were collected into the bag.

After another few hours Ichigo had the apartment almost all cleaned up. Things that could still be used were placed by the door while the others were neatly placed at certain corners of the apartment.

"Finally," Ichigo stretched his arms over his head before lifting a few bags over his shoulders. The sun was starting to rise as he quickly made his way back to his apartment.

When he finally reached there, he wasn't shocked to see Angel still sleeping in his bed. He set down the bags in the guest room before going back to her. "Angel," he whispered, gently shaking her shoulder. "Oi, wake up midget."

Angel groaned as she turned over to the other side. "Leave me alone."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Stupid midget. Don't tell me you already forgot what happened last night."

"What happened?" she moaned, still half asleep.

Ichigo leaned down and whispered, "The robbery."

Angel immediately sat up, barely missing Ichigo's head. "Oh shit, what happened?" she looked at him with wide eyes, "Did anything happen while I was out?"

Ichigo nodded. "I called the police while you were asleep. They looked around the apartment and only items that possessed some value seemed to be missing. They said they would look out for the bastard, but I'm not sure what's going to happen."

"Oh," Angel looked down at her hands that were tightly holding the blanket that was half on her.

Noticing this Ichigo placed his warm hand over hers and gently stroked it. "Don't worry too much about it; at least you didn't get hurt."

Angel nodded her head. "Yeah…" she whispered. After a moment of silence she took in a deep breath before looking back up. "Well, I guess I should go over and clean out the place."

"There's no need, I already did it," Ichigo smirked.

Angel blinked at him. "What?"

"If you haven't noticed, it's already six in the morning. I spent the entire time cleaning out your place and bringing back the remaining decent things over here."

"What do you mean?"

Ichigo pointed at the open doorway with his thumb. "I already called the landlord; after today you're officially living here with me."

"WHAT?!"