AN: Hey guys :)

I'm trying to write a multi-chaptered Bleach story lately, never did it before so I'm really looking forward to how it goes, haha. Please be patient with me. College is haunting me in my dreams, in my life, just everywhere! So I can't promise a constant updating. Doesn't mean I won't try :)

For any suggestions or ideas about this work I'd be grateful.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach and its characters.

Please enjoy

Rukia

Prologue

It would be a lie if I say this moment wasn't one of the best moments in my entire life. One of the most beautiful and happiest I ever had the luck to experience. Truly experience with all its facets and colors. Not only being a witness to something someone else lives to see. Not like being a bystander who's damned to observe the other's beautiful moments. Always only getting a glimpse of happiness, but never getting a hold of it. It would be a shameless lie if I say this wasn't one of the best moments in my entire life.

The blue of the sky is a shade I've never seen before in my life, at least not in real life. It is one of those blues that reminds you of wide, white shores and pretty light blue water with a soft shade of green. Not a single cloud. The sun shines through the window and the curtains are sluggishly swinging in the soft, gentle breeze. It doesn't rain, which is so important to me. And it is just for this moment, that I actually realize how much.

She has fallen asleep. And I momentarily almost feel guilty because I didn't notice that she was that tired for the past few hours. Just momentarily, because it doesn't bother me that much how it actually should. But there is a smile on her face and I know she's happy, so it really doesn't matter. And I really just don't care.

I am, too. Happy I mean.

Slowly I tear my eyes from her and cast my glance down to look at the little infant in my arms. Her chubby cheeks are slightly painted red and her tiny little fingers are closed around my index finger with such a strong hold I never expected from a little newborn. As I look in her little face with her closed eyes, I carefully run my hand through her soft black hair. I am happy. I really am. But even if this moment is one of the best of my life, one of the most beautiful, one of the happiest, it is not the best. It is not the most beautiful and unfortunately by far not the happiest.

And I am not able to stop the memories that are flashing in. Am unable to stop myself from thinking about her, because it's she whom I owe this. This moment, this child, this life. This all. And it's her. She, who is my best moment in my entire life. The most beautiful and the happiest.

I met her down in my hometown, almost ten years ago. Honestly, I actually don't remember much of that day, because everything before her seems like a blur. Fragments of memories, which I know are there. Pieces of pictures that begin to whirl and getting hazy every time I try to focus on them. Always slipping away from my grip. But it wasn't raining, either. Which was a little wonder those days. I was in a real foul mood lately, since it was raining for weeks. And weather report said it wouldn't stop for another. And yeah, I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but it didn't rain that day. I felt a little lighter then usual.

There is this memory of me waiting for the bus to bring me finally home. School was done for the day and surprisingly hadn't been as horrible as usual. But I wanted to go home, badly. I was tired and starving and just sullen. However, because I've always been the lucky guy, the bus was of course running late. Annoyed I ran my hand through my hair and let out a heavy sigh.

I don't know exactly why I had my guitar with me that day. And every time I try to remember the reason my head starts hurting, so I gave it up years ago. Slowly I pulled it out of its bag after checking that the bus still hadn't come. When I was younger my mom send me to lessons but I stopped going the day she died. But for some unknown reason I never stopped playing. Somehow, I always liked the sound of it and the thought that my own hands were able to create such timbres. I positioned the guitar on my lab and started playing a tune I picked up some days before. Sitting there for who knows how long, waiting for that damn bus that was supposed to bring me fucking home. It was just a little pathetic. And suddenly someone put 1500 Yen on my guitar bag.

She was so tiny and looked so fragile. But everything in her appearance told me that she wasn't. Her black hair was short and reached just down to her chin. Her bluish eyes shone in the light of the sun. A white sun dress. She always wore white, how I should learn.

She smiled lightly. It was small and soft, but real. I stared at her and the money she just gave me. I really believed she was just trying to pull on my strings.

"I'm not a drifter." I told her as she turned and sounded only a bit angry and offended. She looked back at me and pulled one of her eyebrows up.

"And I'm not stupid, you fool." Her voice was surprisingly deep. Raspy and hoarse. Incredibly strong for such a tiny thing. It suited her. She pointed her small hand in my direction. "You're still wearing your school uniform, unless you stole it." A pause. "Thief."

I must have looked really dumbfounded, because she started laughing. Soft and low.

"My only love lies in the things that inspire me", she explained softly and turned to go.

I didn't know what exactly she was trying to say, but somehow her words hit a spot right inside of me. There was something about her that made me panic, as she turned her back to me, and without a second guess I called after her.

"What's your name?" She stopped and casted me a questioning look. For some reason I didn't know what to say, so I just said the stupidest thing I could muster.

"Mine is Ichigo. So what is yours?"

Again that smile. Real and honest, so I could see in her eyes that she was trying to mock me.

"I tell you the next time we meet."

What a stupid answer.