A/N- Whoopee, another fanfic that I've managed to kick out of my scatterbrained mind and onto the computer! It's been a while, so I'm not sure whether it's all that good or not. Please tell me whatcha' think in a review please. Oh, and the story is set somewhere in between the time that Rukia and Renji were living together back in the Rukongai with their friends, so yeah.

Rated T for…cursing, violence/blood, romance, and some other stuff yet to come.

Disclaimer- I don't own Bleach *sigh* Curse you, Tite Kubo.

"These few cherished moments that I spent with you are some of my greatest treasures. However now, they're just lost memories that I can never retrieve, no matter how hard I try."

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Chapter One- Hollows in the Forest

Rukia ran feverishly through the forest, ignoring all the cuts and scrapes on her arms and legs she'd gotten from doing so. Her eyes scanned the dark trees hurriedly along the way.

"Renji! Where are you?!" Rukia shouted as she ran. She and Renji had come to the forest earlier to search for some herbs for one of their sick friends. But, somehow the two had gotten separated as they searched and with the sun already set, the situation was starting to make a turn for the worst.

Rukia made a left turn and paused to look around. "Wait, didn't I just pass by that tree…and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing that rock over there. I think I'm lost…" she bit her lower lip worriedly. A cold wind brushed by her, making the girl shiver. "There's no use in just standing here. I've got to try and find a way to find Renji and get out this place." Rukia glanced up at the sky, some twinkling stars were starting to appear, not a good sign. Once it was completely dark in the forest, it'd be practically impossible for Rukia to find him, much less see. She took a deep breath and started to run again.

Finally she reached a small clearing and stopped to attend to a few of her more urgent injuries. Taking the edge of her worn yukata in hand, she carefully ripped a decent sized band of it off and tied it firmly around the bleeding cut on her left leg. Rukia then stood up to test the leg out. After jumping on it for a bit she deemed it good enough to at least run with.

"That should do it. Though I'm not sure it'll hold for long. " she thought. "If I don't hurry up and find…"

RAAWWRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!

Rukia froze then turned around. "What was that?"she asked herself.

"AHHH!" a boy yelled. Rukia's eyes widened.

"Renji?!" she yelled back trying to get a reply from the voice before.

"No! Stop!" it came again. Rukia quickly looked around for the source of the voice, finding it she quickly raced over to the source, which was another small clearing of trees. When she saw what it was Rukia was frozen in horror. It had been Renji's voice she'd heard before, however that state that he was in wasn't anything that Rukia would be glad for. An immense creature with a haunting, milky-white mask was holding an unconscious Renji tightly in its claw-like talons. The monster roared again making all of the trees surrounding it shake in its echo. Rukia flinched at the sound and raised her hands to cover her ears from the noise.

"It sounds like thousands of people screaming…" she thought. Suddenly, Renji regained consciousness and began squirming around trying to get free from his captor's grasp. The monster noticed this and squeezed harder on him instead. Renji let out a cry of pain. Rukia's eyes widened.

"Renji!" Rukia screamed, quickly put a hand to cover her mouth. To her horror, the monster had heard her and twisted its head around to see her. Rukia felt her stomach begin to churn at the sight of the being up close.

Its mask was in the shape of an eerie-looking Noh mask with a twisted smile and slanted eye holes with dark orange irises that seemed to be perpetually enraged. Its body was a sickly green color with upward-pointing bone-like scales running down along its spine. Two humanoid arms acted as the grotesque creature's support, while four crotchety limbs stretched out from its middle, each were in the shape of a bird's feet, but with longer and much, more jagged talons. A long snake-like tail protruded from its abdomen, flicking and twisting about. Finally in the center of the beast's chest was a round hollow hole in the shape of a circle.

"Why…it's another delicious looking soul, how grand." it said with a small, mocking chuckle. Rukia felt her heart pounding with fear.

"Y-you let Renji g-go…" she uttered. The monstrosity tilted its head and looked over to the young boy he had held in his 'hand'.

"Renji? Is that what this boy's name is? How wonderful…I've learned something new about my dinner." the creature remarked. Rukia stared up at the being in terror. "He's going to EAT Renji?!"

"I m-mean it, If y-you don't let h-him go, t-then I'll-" however Rukia was interrupted by the monster.

"Then you'll what? What could you, and insignificant little soul, such as yourself, EVER hope to defeat the likes of me? A Hollow?!" the being began laughing, an act which chilled Rukia's spine. "A...Hollow?" The Hollow stopped laughed and bent down to close to Rukia and inhaled deeply. Rukia stood petrified, not sure if she should run for her life or attempt rescuing Renji. "What am I thinking? Of course, I have to rescue him! He's my friend!" Rukia, however, was snapped out of her thoughts by the Hollow's booming voice.

"My, my, my…your soul, it smells absolutely delectable. In fact…" his twisted smile growing even more so, one of the Hollow's limbs was slowly making its way towards the stock-still girl. In the Hollow's grip, Renji re-regained conscious and saw the monster's talons reaching for his friend.

"RUKIA! GET OUTTA THERE NOW!!! HE'S GONNA-"

The Hollow's eyes narrowed. "You talk too much." He said as he squeezed the injured boy in his 'hand' tighter.

"Augh!" Renji choked out, his expression painful. Rukia finally managed to snap out of her trance.

"Renji!" she cried out. Rukia didn't notice in time the claws that had silently wrapped around her. "Ahh!" she started to scream but a claw came up to silence her.

"Rukia!" Renji shouted, but he too was silenced by a outstretched claw.

"Now, if you will both please relax, it'll make the whole ordeal a much, much, pleasurable for us all." Both Rukia and Renji began squirming around in an effort to somehow be released. The Hollow's mouth opened, revealing a second set of teeth, these ones more human-like and slightly stained with some pink-reddish substance. "Human flesh…" Rukia thought horrified. She glanced over at Renji, who was still struggling with all his might against the 'hand' that confined him. "Is this how I'm…no, we're going to die?" Rukia asked herself miserably. The stench of decayed raw meat coming from the Hollow's mouth was starting to make her dizzy and cloud her mind.

"Only if you choose it to be…" a small voice inside her replied. "Great, I'm talking to myself, moments before I die…" Rukia thought bitterly. The 'hand' holding her was beginning to lower itself ever closer to the outer mouth of the Hollow.

"Have you given up?" the voice asked. "Well, what other choice to I have?" she thought back, watching a slimy tongue rise with anticipation at its next meal.

"You can choose to fight." Rukia would have snorted, in not for the claw covering the bottom portion of her face. "How? This thing-" Rukia stared up at the Hollow in contempt. "Already has me trapped and is about to eat me."

"How come he's still fighting?" the voice inquired. Rukia raised an eyebrow. "Who? Renji? Because it's his nature to fight." she stared sadly at Renji who was beginning to get weary from all the struggling. He noticed Rukia looking at him and gave her a strong look. 'Don't worry. I'll get us out this!' it said. Rukia felt her expression soften. "Baka. How can you? You know as well as I do that we don't stand a chance." she thought ruefully. The stench was becoming unbearable to her as she was lowered into the Hollow's mouth and less than two feet away from the creature's inner mouth. Rukia felt her senses numbing over and eyes beginning to slowly close.

"I'll ask again. Do you wish to give up?" the voice asked again. The Hollow's slimy tougue slid over and brushed itself against Rukia's cheek. "I…I…" Rukia thought helplessly. She'd lose conscious any second now.

"RUKIA! DON'T GIVE UP!" Renji shouted, he gotten his right arm free and had managed to push away the claw covering his mouth. Small tears formed around the edge of his eyes as he watched his closest friend disappear. Rukia wasn't sure what Renji had meant by that, whether it was about her mysterious conversation with herself during the last moments of her consciousness or if he was just saying that because he couldn't find anything else to say, but it gave Rukia…hope.

"I don't want to give up, I want to keep fighting…" she thought happily. It was strange for her to feel happy at a time like this, but strangely, she did. Rukia was happy as the 'hand' encasing her released her and she fell into the wide open mouth inside the Hollow, and she smiled when she felt a trickle of blood flow down her arm as a few teeth bit into her shoulder. A few seconds later she heard Renji yell out her name again, she closed her eyes this time, and still smiling, lost conscious.

"Good." The voice replied, but received no answer. "Because I have no intention of letting us die in such a wretched place." with that, Rukia's entire body began glowing slightly and from her hands ice began creeping out and onto the teeth that had been biting into it, freezing them along the way. Soon the ice spread around the Hollow's entire body, encasing the entire thing in a chilling frost. Then, all of the sudden, the ice shattered, and along with it the Hollow inside of it.

"RUKIAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

"Oi! Gramma! I'm going out for a bit, okay?" a young boy yelled as he walked out the shoji door. The old lady inside sitting Indian-style and drinking homemade green tea simply nodded.

"Toushirou, remember to be careful when you're walking around the edge of the pond." she quietly reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" he said, closing the door behind him. "Jeez, how does Gramma even know that I'm going out to the pond? Am I really that repetitive?" he asked himself as he walked along the porch. Toushirou stopped then paused to look around to see if anyone else was there. "Shortcut…" he thought, jumping over the railing and running over to the wooden fence. He bent down then quickly jumped up, catch the edge of the top of the fence and pulling himself up and over it. Unfortunately, Toushirou, tripped on his landing and fell over. "Ow…" he muttered, standing up then dusting himself off.

Toushirou continued running through the woods, occasionally making a few turns here and there, but otherwise, running straight through the woods until reaching a small pond. Toushirou smiled slightly at the small area, it was the only place when he could truly find some peace and relax, if only for a little.

The main attraction about the place wasn't the pond, which was crystal-clear and shimmering slightly from the sun's warm rays, it was the aura it gave off. Something about it just dumbfounded Toushirou and made him want to just lie down on the soft, green grass and watch the clouds pass by. Even though, the place seemed quiet enough, in reality it really wasn't. Dozens of small forest creatures (squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, etc.) were busy scurrying around looking for food. Almost every tree surrounding the pond had at least one bird nest with a happy family of constantly chirping fledglings to take care of. The pond itself was home to hundreds of small and medium-sized fish. On summer days the area would be buzzing with dragonflies and during the night, twinkling little fireflies would accompany the stars. It was Toushirou's own special place and he was content on keeping it this way. He hadn't even brought Momo there before. But, today it seemed that two young kids already found the place on their own.

"What the…? Who the hell are they?!" Toushirou asked to particularly no one. He strode over to were two people, a boy and a girl looking to be around his outer-age (Toushirou didn't know his exact age since arriving in the Rukongai and doubted anyone did.) , prepared to give them a long 'talk' about intruding on other people's private property. (Even, though it wasn't exactly his property, though Toushirou liked to think it was so.)

"Hey! Who are you and wh-..." Toushirou's voice faltered off. He stared in shock at the two figures lying on the grass. One of them, the boy with strange, bright red har, was lying off to the side, his right arm was dislocated and his whole body was battered and bruised. A deep gnash on his left thigh was still bleeding and creating a small puddle of red on the otherwise green grass. His face was pale from the blood loss and was barely breathing.

The other one, a girl with raven hair with a small lock of it strewn across her face, was in a slightly better condition. Like the boy near her, she was also battered and bruised all over. On one of her shoulders was, what seemed to be bite marks that reached down into her skin and was also bleeding, however, not as much as her friend (Toushirou assumed that they were.). The girl's face was pale as well from blood loss but her breathing seemed to be better and much more even.

"What the hell happened here?" Toushirou asked himself out loud. He knelt down to get a closer look at the one that was nearest to him, the girl. He carefully bent down and checked for a pulse on her neck. "Her pulse is even…" Toushirou gazed softly at the girl then at the boy wondering what could have caused this to happen.

"Eghh…." the girl murmured, moving slightly. Her hand landed on Toushirou's barefoot.

"Huh?" Toushirou jumped up, startled. He saw the girl's hand then exhaled, making the connection. He then walked over to the redheaded kid and checked for a pulse as well. "His pulse is faint…I better get help. But it takes fifteen minutes just to get from Gramma's house to here….ah, screw it." he said, taking the boy's arm and using it to pull him over his shoulder, careful not to touch his gnash too much.

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Seventeen Minutes Later…

Toushirou pushed open the shoji door, carefully walking in. "Gramma! I need your help! I found two injured people down by the pond. This one is really hurt bad, and his leg won't stop bleeding." He shouted as he walked over to a nearby futon and placed the wounded boy down gingerly. Gramma immediately came soon after she heard all the news to begin attending to the boy.

"Toushirou, thank you for bringing him here. Change your clothes later okay?" she said as she took out a roll of bandages. Toushirou looked at his yukata, the lower portion of it was caked in blood. He frowned but shook his head.

"But, I can't. There's still another person back at the pond that needs help!" he exclaimed. Gramma pursed her lips but nodded.

"Fine. Hurry back and be careful." she said, wrapping the boy's leg firmly with bandages and adding in some medicine. Toushirou nodded quickly and exited, running out into the woods again.

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Fifteen Minutes Later…

Toushirou huffed and puffed as he made it to the pond. He wiped away the sweat on his brow and walked over to where the injured girl was lying. She hadn't moved since last time and looked a bit paler. "I can't carry her like I did the other one, if I do then I might break the blood clot and she'll start bleeding again." Toushirou thought. After a few more minutes of thinking he bent down and picked the girl up bridal style with a small blush on his face, obviously not used to an act such as this. He began walking through the woods again, though careful not to disturb the sleeping girl. Toushirou walked in silence for a while until he felt the girl start to stir. He stopped.

"Re-renji…." She muttered in her sleep. "Renji? Is that the name of the boy I took to Gramma's house?" The girl's head tilted to the slide, bumping against Toushirou's arm. A few locks of her hair brushed against his arm, along with her small breaths. Toushirou's blush grew as he continued walking (only this time slightly faster) towards Gramma's house.

"Jeez…why me?" he thought.

Later that Evening…

"Toushirou, can you please take this wet towel and place it on the young girl's forehead? When I checked her earlier she had a slight fever." Gramma said while handing Toushirou a damp, folded-up towel. He nodded and took it, then got up and started walking over to the girl's room. He'd brought her to Gramma's house a few hours ago. The two were sleeping in separate rooms, the redheaded kid in the spare room and the raven-haired girl in Hinamori's room. At first, Toushirou had been against the idea but Gramma managed to persuade him that Hinamori probably won't mind since she was going to be gone for the next two weeks staying over at a friend's house, much to Toushirou's displeasure. "She hardly ever stays here for more than a few days or so anymore." he thought bitterly.

Toushirou slid the shoji door open and took a look inside. Everything was as Momo had left it, neat and orderly, as always. Except, instead of Hinamori lying asleep in the futon, a bandaged-up stranger was sleeping in it. He walked in, quietly sliding the door behind him shut; he walked over to the sleeping girl and bent down, placing the wet towel on her warm forehead.

"Egh…" the girl murmured. Toushirou stood up in surprise. Slowly the girl's eyes opened and blinked a couple times. "…where am I?"

Toushirou wasn't sure how to react, but he decided that freaking out and asking a bunch of questions wasn't the best way to go at it. "Um, hi…you're at my Grandmother's house." he said calmly. The girl turned her head over to look at the boy talking to her, making the wet towel slide off her face.

"…oh…I see. Arigato…" she muttered, turning her head back to stare at the ceiling. Toushirou bent down and picked up the towel.

"Uh, here you should put this on your forehead. My Gramma says that you have a fever…" he said, his hand outstretched trying handing her the wet towel. She simply turned her head the other way. Toushirou's eye twitched a bit. "Um, you were passed out near a pond in the center of the woods, well you and that other redheaded guy…" The girl's eyes shot open and she suddenly threw the covers off.

"Where is he?! Where is Renji?!" she shouted, grabbing the shoulder of his yukata, Toushirou's eyes widened in surprise.

"Huh?" he replied, still at a loss for words. The girls scowled and glared at him, her violet irises burning with frustration.

"The boy, where is the boy!" Toushirou blinked then understood.

"If you mean, the redhead, then he's a couple rooms-" the girl didn't let him finish. She quickly dropped him and raced out the room. "Hey!" Toushirou yelled, picking himself up from the floor.

"Where is he? Where's Renji? Is he okay?" she thought aimlessly as she stumbled down the hallway, her physical condition was starting to make it hard on her to run. Finally, the girl felt the wound on her shoulder re-open. She grimaced in pain then fell crumpled on the ground panting. "My whole body feels so heavy…and my head hurts so much…" the girl thought, trying to get up using the wall as a balance. Her knees wobbled a bit, as she managed to stand. She coughed a bit and continued to hobble down the hall. She came to another shoji door and slid it open; there in the center was a young boy with bright red hair sleeping in a futon. "Renji…he's okay…I'm glad…" the girl thought as she fainted.

"Jeez. You're a real pain…" Toushirou complained as he walked over and picked the girl up and carried her back to her room. In the girl's sleep she frowned a bit.

A/N- YAYAYAY!!! Finished! *happydance* I'm surprised. It only took me a few days to come over to the computer and type it all down. Usually, I have to nag myself to even come near Mircosoft Word. XD

*looks over description of Hollow* Hmm, now that I think about it, I think I enjoyed typing up the Hollow's appearance a little too much…oh well. *hahaha…*

I make it sound as if the ending's gonna be sad and tearful (which it may be…) but, don't lose hope, I haven't finished planning the entire story yet. There's still time for a turnabout! (reference to PW: AA)

There is definitely going to be some HitsuRuki fluff going on in the later (next) chapters, so stay tuned. I tried my best to incorporate as much HitsuRuki goodness as I could, but this is the way it turned out. Love is a complex-icated thing, if it wasn't then I would've just had To-kun-chan (ma' new nickname for Toushirou) tongue Rukia's brains out already. Too much? I think not. *bwahahaha~*

I didn't manage to get my beta-reader (Paper Bullet) to edit it this chapter, though I sent it to her a while ago. So, I just edited it myself, sorry if it's not the best…

Well, hope ya'll like it. ReVIeW PLeASe!