Uryuu watched the antics of his classmates out of the corner of his eye, wondering what Arisawa and… the orange-haired boy were talking about.

(What in the world was Orange’s name? He knew it, he swore he did. Benihime had introduced them… hadn’t she?)

(Whatever. If it was important she’d shove Orange at him again anyway.)

Whatever their note-conversation consisted of, it seemed to be amusing to Arisawa at least. She left the room, choking back laughter, and suddenly… suddenly Uryuu no longer had anything to focus on.

He let the teacher’s droning words wash over him, attention focused once more on the sky. He wanted to be out there, wanted to be free of this farce—

(‘Education is important, Uryuu-kun! Even if you don’t want to have a job in the human world, how can you help your allies without knowledge?’)

Uryuu grimaced at the memory. Urahara was right but… he could learn more — he had learned more — from the man than any amount of human public school could ever teach him. He didn’t understand why Urahara couldn’t pull some strings and get him listed as home-schooled.

Arisawa returned, sat down, and didn’t resume her thrown-note conversation, which deprived him of that bit of entertainment. Orange’s faces had been amusing and he could understand why Arisawa had broken into fits of laughter. Whatever they’d been talking about must have been good…

(No. He didn’t need to know. He wasn’t friends with them and he didn’t want to be.)

(Damn Urahara for pestering him about it!)

The rest of class drifted by in a haze of boredom; he jotted down the homework he needed to do, ignored the rest, and wondered what it would take to convince Urahara he wasn’t able to continue going to school. It was just a boring waste of time and he hated it. Hated being surrounded by people who didn’t — couldn’t — understand him.

(Who argued over Kingfisher, good and bad and ugly, speculating on who or what he was.)

(He was liked here in Karakura, but only just. Not the way other sentai were liked.)

(It… grated.)

His phone buzzed in his pocket and for a moment he couldn’t imagine why; Urahara was the only one with his phone number after all, and with Uryuu grounded—

Grounded, right!

Uryuu reached a hand into his pocket and pulled his phone out, checking the time and making a face at what he saw. His four-hour timer had gone off because he’d lost track of time again, but… at least the timer was working. He’d rather not face Urahara’s disappointment for missing a dose again.

He reached into his desk and pulled out the bottle of pills, trying to be as quiet as possible while twisting the cap off and fishing out a pill. Still, he garnered a few looks from those around him as he popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed it dry, ignoring the taste from long practice.

(One day, he’d not need Urahara’s tricks to keep him alive. He’d find a way around his body’s deficiencies and he’d never be weak again!)

(He’d never be defenseless again.)

Orange-hair was watching him, Uryuu realized with a start. The teen wasn’t even being subtle about it, openly staring at him with sharp eyes and an even sharper scowl, though… the scowl didn’t seem to be directed at him. It was more like one of Grimmjow’s ‘I am pissed by things beyond my control’ scowls, aimless and (relatively) harmless. Or one of Harribel’s ‘tell me you’re kidding’ frowns when certain things about the human world got brought up.

So he scowled back, put his pill bottle away, reset his timer, and pointedly turned back to the window. He didn’t need some stranger’s concern or sympathy, if that’s what Orange was on about. He wasn’t dying, no matter how dramatic Urahara made it out to be.

Orange only turned back around when their teacher snapped at him, slouching in his seat and propping his chin on his hand so he could stare out the window as well.

Uryuu slumped in relief. Attention like that was… uncomfortable, especially when it was a brand new neighbor doing it.

(Urahara had to know that he was classmates with the new residents. Was that why Benihime had introduced them?)

(Or… was it something else. Something he was missing.)

(Were they…?)

(No. Even Urahara wouldn’t be that blatant!)

(…right…?)

The bell rang.

(Finally!)

Uryuu closed his workbook and shoved it into his desk, shaking away his clinging suspicions in favor of lunch. Urahara’s medicine always affected his appetite poorly, but he’d learned to compensate for that over the years. He ate what he could, when he could, and tracked his meals to make sure he wasn’t under-eating too badly; being a sentai consumed more calories than most people thought and he wasn’t about to tempt fate more than necessary.

His classmates rose and started moving around, gathering around their friends or wandering out of the room to eat. No one gave him more than a single look—

“Hey, you want to come eat lunch with us?”

Uryuu froze and blinked up at Arisawa, her question looping through his mind. Did he… “What?”

“Lunch,” Arisawa repeated easily, one hand on her hip and gaze intent. “We usually go up to the roof to eat, want to join us?”

“Uh…” He glanced past her to the other three, met Orange’s gaze a second time, tried to ignore Inoue’s bright-kind-welcoming smile, and stalled at the sight of two other teens lingering and watching him with curiosity. “No thanks,” he said as he ripped his gaze away and looked up at Arisawa. “I don’t… eat with other people.”

Arisawa hummed, glanced over her shoulder, then shrugged and said, “Alright, if you’re sure.”

Uryuu watched her go, tensing up at the sad smile that Inoue gave him and the thoughtful look that Orange sent his way. Even Orange’s companion, the tall foreigner, looked his way, an unreadable expression on his face.

He had no idea why they were focusing on him; had Urahara put them up to it? They didn’t know each other, so why in the world would they be interested in him? As far as they knew, he was just their sickly neighbor; they didn’t even know if what he had was contagious! Their interest made no sense.

Uryuu breathed a sigh of relief as the group filed out of the classroom, leaving him behind without further bothering him. He hoped they’d give up and leave him be, but those looks they’d given him…

He couldn’t wait until Urahara declared him healthy again.

The less he had to deal with school — and those teens — the better.

(Damn Urahara’s meddling.)

(He didn’t need human friends!)