human!au snippet
Ichigo's 16-18 in this fic, so in England he'd currently be taking his A levels... As his birthday's in July he's one of the youngest in the year group, so while taking his AS levels exams I believe he'd still actually be 16. I think that's right anyway. Also, I don't know if Chemistry is a requirement for all Medicine courses across the country, but oh well.
Warnings: Light language at the end
Pairing: Ichigo/Toshiro
Having a whiteboard in his bedroom was pretty useful from time to time. It wasn't as large as the ones at his school but it was big, and most of the time he only used a corner to write himself little notes or checklists for things he had to do. There was a drawing at the bottom though, of a tiger peaking over the edge of the board, and it had been there for so long that it might as well have been drawn in permanent marker - he didn't know if it would come off now, if he tried, but he wasn't ever going to. He was a sentimental idiot sometimes but the tiger reminded him of his mother. He couldn't bring himself to rub the small doodle off.
Generally the whiteboard was only used when he was revising for an exam (it was an ideal place for mind maps after all), which probably explained why it had taken so long for the four multi-coloured pens to run out - exactly when he needed to use them. The green one lasted about ten minutes before he could hardy make out his writing anymore, and Ichigo cursed, throwing it down onto his bed and picking up the blue one instead. This lead to him noticing that his phone's message alert was flashing, and he picked it up and unlocked it, smiling when he saw it was Toshiro on Whatsapp.
But then he frowned, sighing down at his AS Psychology notes, and figured this probably wasn't the best of times to be chatting. His exams started in just over a week and he really needed to crack down on his work - Toshiro was only be a distraction to his resolve. He agreed to go on Skype anyway, not being able to deny Toshiro when he asked so nicely, and soon he was waving into his webcam, sitting cross-legged on his bed in the centre of his class notes, like an unwitting sacrifice to a dark magic ritual.
"Hey," he said. "I warn you now, I dunno how interesting I'm gonna be to talk to today - I've got loads of revision to do." He stuck his thumb in the direction of the whiteboard on the wall, smiling apologetically. "I can't talk long, to be honest. Sorry."
"That's fine," Toshiro replied, rummaging around for something off-screen. "You go and work, I've got stuff to do anyway."
"Ah, okay," said Ichigo, surprised. He pulled out his headphones from the laptop and turned the speakers up so that he could hear Toshiro from across the room. "I don't want to ignore you though," he admitted.
Toshiro pressed his lips together, but he looked more amused than anything. "You won't be ignoring me. But if you do, I'll shout down the line to grab your attention. Now go work - " He made a shooing gesture with his hands. " - or you'll fail."
"I'll fail anyway," grumbled Ichigo from the middle of the room, catching the glare of exasperation from the laptop.
"Ha ha," Toshiro said dryly, apparently considering that to be nonsense. "What subjects are you taking?" His voice lifted at the end, but Ichigo knew that Toshiro was fully aware of the classes he was taking, so it wasn't in an honest curiosity he usually heard from his friend. His face must have shown his confusion for Toshiro rolled his eyes, leaning his sharp jawline into one of his hands. "Humour me."
Wondering what on earth for, Ichigo said monotonously, "Psychology, Maths, Biology, and Chemistry."
The other teenager hummed. "And what grades are you getting in all your - your... What's the word?"
"Mocks," said Ichigo, blushing. He picked up the blue board-marker again and turned back to his revision, shaking his head. "Yeah, yeah, alright, I see your point." He was getting A's, though he did have to drag himself kicking and screaming through the Chemistry course. He couldn't understand why it was a requirement for degree level Medicine - he'd always thought that Biology was more appropriate.
Toshiro made a satisfied noise behind him. Smug prick, thought Ichigo, but he was grinning as he started to write.