Summary: Momo Hinamori was born with a terminal heart condition and knows that she will die young. Because of this, she is afraid to form any friendships or attachments to the world, as she knows she will have to say goodbye to them soon. When she meets Toushiro Hitsugaya though, all of that begins to change.

Fearing Goodbye

Chapter One

Toushiro Hitsugaya sat restlessly in the main office of Brady High School. His family had just moved to this town, and this was his first day at his new school. He stared at the walls blankly, counting the bricks, painted a bright white that managed to somehow be even brighter than his own snow-white hair, especially under the bright lights. It was a rather dull and uninteresting place. Here and there were a few decorations put up by secretaries, but nothing significant enough to take away from the very business-oriented office.

He wondered when he would actually meet someone. He had been told that somebody would come to introduce him to the school and guide him to his new classes. Toushiro wasn't looking forward to that, but it still beat waiting around in this office. He felt irritated that he had to go through introducing himself to school all over again. He was an introverted person, and it had taken him a long time to get used to his last school, only to now be made to attend another school! His parents were fairly wealthy, and moved from time to time as their business grew and new partnerships were formed. Toushiro didn't even bother keeping track of it; all that really mattered to him was the effect of this on his life.

He now had to get used to this school, make new friends, and adjust to the new town all over again. Given his icy, introverted personality, this would be no small task. He was certain he could do it, but that didn't make it easy, nor did it make him eager to begin. It was practically as much as a hassle as doing schoolwork. More of a hassle really, given his academic brilliance.

Finally, a man stepped out from one of the rooms of the smaller rooms of the main office and walked over to the set of chairs where Toushiro sat. He looked to be in his fifties, and had greying hair. He was a tall man with a stout body, making Toushiro feel even smaller than usual by comparison. His icy blue eyes, lacking the aqua-green tint that Toushiro's possessed, scrutinized Toushiro as he sat in his chair.

"Toushiro Hitsugaya?" the man asked.

"That's right," Toushiro nodded.

"I am Principal Kuhlman, I will be introducing you to our fine school. First, let me say welcome to Brady High School. We are honored to have you here." Though his words were polite, his tone was formal and business-like. They weren't unkind, but neither did they make Toushiro feel particularly welcome. Of course he himself had been told that his words had that effect on people, so he couldn't really judge Principal Kuhlman on this.

"Thank you sir," Toushiro said, shaking his hand.

"Well, if you come to my office I'll go over the rules and procedures for the school, along with our policies and standards," Kuhlman said.

"Wouldn't it be possible for me to just read the school handbook for those things?" Toushiro asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not," Kuhlman said curtly, "I have to tell you in person. It's one of our rules." Toushiro sighed.

"Very well then…" he said, following the principle to his office.

---

Momo Hinamori sat at the sides of the gymnasium, silently reading a book. The room was filled with the sound of shoes on the gym floor, as the others in the gym class ran laps. Momo did not even wear gym clothes, as she never participated in any activities. This class was required to graduate though, and thus Momo was left with no choice but to attend, even if she did nothing during the entire period.

As the others ran past, they would sometimes give her dirty looks. They didn't want to be running around in circles, and were bitter towards Momo because she got to sit out during all the exercises they had to do. In truth, Momo would love to be out there exercising with them, but her body wouldn't allow it. Not that this would make a difference to them, even if they knew about it.

Things had always been like this for Momo. She was never able to live life like a normal person. Momo was born with a severe heart defect. She couldn't run, couldn't exercise, and couldn't do anything that would cause unnecessary stress. Her heart was smaller and weaker than a normal person's. It had difficulty pumping blood throughout her body, and a deformed heart valve and several narrow arteries made this worse. Several times, her heart had begun to pump too slowly to properly move life-giving blood throughout her body, and she had to be rushed to a hospital. On two of these occasions, she had even suffered outright heart attacks.

She had been told that it was only a matter of time before her heart was unable to sufficiently supply blood to her body, at which point she would die. She didn't know when this would occur, only that it would happen far sooner than she wanted. The doctors who treated her said that it was extremely unlikely that she would live past the age of twenty.

Momo was already fifteen, almost sixteen. Going by the word of her doctor, she had at most a little over four years to live. It was too soon. She wasn't ready to die yet. She sometimes cried at night, unable to think of anything but her approaching death. She was horribly scared, but over time had begun to slowly accept the reality. Even though she was still frightened, she did not try to deny the fact that she would die. She didn't cling to false hopes or seek the comfort of others; she had to face death on her own.

Because of this, she didn't socialize with others. If she made friends, she would end up having to say goodbye to them in just a few years. It was much easier just to live without attachments to this world. It would make dying a lot easier, as she would not be leaving anybody behind. Not that she really believed there were people who would actually want to be her friend. Most either ignored her or disliked her for her unusual behavior. A few made friendly gestures, but Momo always turned them away. It was kinder to them as well. Why make them her friends if she would be leaving them so soon?

Momo looked over at the clock. There were ten minutes left to class. Soon the others would be called back to the locker rooms to get dressed in their normal school clothes. Momo wanted to leave before then, so she quietly crept into the girl's locker room where her backpack was stored. She slung it over her shoulders when a voice yelled at her.

"Hey! Where are you going so early?" Momo turned to see two female students had followed after her. Momo gulped nervously.

"I was about to leave for lunch," she said quietly.

"Oh were you? That's funny, class doesn't end for another ten minutes."

"I always leave a little early," Momo said.

"I know that you dumb bitch!" the girl yelled, "What I want to know is why! Why are you always sitting out in gym while we work our asses off? Why do you get special privileges to leave early for lunch? Do you feel entitled to all this special treatment?"

"N-no, I just…" Momo turned and began to walk away, but one of the girls grabbed onto her backpack.

"Going so soon? What's the rush?" she snickered.

"She's probably being repelled by your awful smell," a third voice said. They turned to see Rangiku Matsumoto walking up behind them.

"You again? You really want to defend this idiot?"

"I'd defend anyone trying to get away from someone as smelly and ugly as you," Rangiku said with a smile.

"You…" the girl growled, letting go of Momo's bag and walking towards Rangiku. Momo took this opportunity to get away, running as fast as her weak body allowed. She went out the door on the other side of the locker rooms and ran off to lunch.

---

"Well I think that about does it," Principal Kuhlman said to a weary Toushiro. He had just finished reading Toushiro all of the school's rules and policies, most of which he already knew. It was now nearly lunch time.

"So can I see my class schedule? I'm not sure where and when my classes are," Toushiro said.

"I'll have the Vice-Principal handle that. He already has the information, just go over and knock on his door. His is the fourth room down." Kuhlman dismissed Toushiro back to the main office. Sighing (as he had done many times that day) he walked over to the door of the Vice Principal and knocked.

"Come in," a voice on the other side said. Toushiro walked in to see a man behind a desk. He was younger than Kuhlman, and had a more welcoming appearance. He had dark hair cropped close to his scalp and a short goatee. He had keen brown eyes behind a set of glasses. He stood up to greet his visitor, revealing himself to be not much taller than Toushiro.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" he asked, extending a hand to him.

"I'm, um, Toushiro Hitsugaya. I was told to come here for my class schedule," Toushiro said, shaking his hand.

"Ah yes, I was told you might come by. I am Vice-Principal O'Neil. It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, "Just give me a moment to pull up your schedule."

He sat back down and turned to the computer sitting on his desk. For a minute, he silently moved the mouse and typed on the keyboard, and then turned back to Toushiro.

"Okay, it seems that your first period is biology, your second period history, your third period algebra, your fourth period English, and your fifth period computer science. Here, I'll print off a copy so you can see which teachers you have and where your classes are located," he clicked the mouse a few times and a printer on the other side of the room came to life, printing out a list of his classes and teachers.

"Thank you sir," Toushiro said, gratefully taking the paper. He already knew that he much preferred Vice-Principal O'Neil to Principal Kuhlman.

"No problem. By the way, it's nearly lunch time, so after you've looked over your class list it might be a good idea to go grab lunch. The cafeteria is right across the hall from the office."

"Yes, thank you sir," Toushiro said, going to study his class schedule and then go to lunch.

---

"Oh no! We're late for lunch again!" Rangiku said dramatically.

"What do you mean?" Rukia Kuchiki asked, "We're only, like, tenth in line or something."

"Yeah, but we'll soon be thirtieth in line!" Rangiku said.

"What makes you say that?"

"Don't you ever stand in line? If you're anything more than third in line, someone in front of you will end up letting all of their friends cut in line, and then they'll all let their friends cut in line and it goes on and on and on!"

"Aren't you overreacting?" Rukia asked.

"No, of course not! See, a bunch of those mean girls I told you about earlier just went straight to the front! The nerve of them!"

"It's only a slightly longer wait; it's no big deal really," Rukia said.

"That's not the point! It's the principle of the thing! We have to hurry up to get in line, but they just arrive at their leisure and go straight to the front! It's an outrage!" Rangiku said.

"Well there's nothing we can do about it, so why bother complaining?"

"Look, they've already got their lunch!" Rangiku said, ignoring her, "Ooooh, they make me so mad! We were here first, so why do they think they can get their lunch before us? Oh, and now they're going off to pick on that poor Momo girl!" Sure enough, they were now heading straight for the table Momo sat at, and were certainly going to harass her.

"I can't stand people like that! I'm going to go give them a piece of my mind," Rangiku said. She was about to walk off towards them, but Rukia grabbed her arm.

"Don't, it won't stop them. They'll only pick on her more to spite you," Rukia said.

"But we can't just let them do that to her! We have to confront them! She has to put up with bullying all day long; she should at least be able to eat lunch in peace."

"I know, but what can we do? She doesn't even seem to want our help. Every time we try she doesn't even acknowledge us. We can't help someone unwilling to accept help."

"But…"

"Anything we do will just make things worse, just stay out of it," Rukia said. Rangiku looked over at Momo, who was now surrounded by bullies. She wanted to help her, but knew that Rukia was right. There wasn't much that she could do to help Momo unless Momo herself was willing to accept her help.

Over at the table she sat at, Momo put up with the abuse thrown at her. She slowly ate her lunch as those around her taunted her.

"Eating lunch early? I guess our little princess is too good to deal with a line! Maybe that's why she's excused from gym class too! You must have really sucked up to the teachers!"

"Nah, I hear she got put in the special-ed program, that's why there's all these concessions! Her poor little stupid mind can't take the difficulty of gym or lunch, so they have to help her with it!"

"So is it true that you spend your fifth period just playing computer games? It must be fun to have it so easy!"

"And even with all this special treatment, you constantly skip school!"

"I've never seen her outside of school, so she must just stay home constantly. I bet she doesn't even have any friends."

"You're the most pathetic person on earth, you know that?"

Momo silently ate her lunch as she endured the cruel taunts. She was used to this type of treatment. It was practically part of her daily routine to be bullied like this. All she could do was try to ignore their insults.

Suddenly, Momo felt a tingling sensation throughout her body, accompanied by a shortness of breath. Knowing what this meant, she immediately grabbed her bag and hurriedly ran away from the table, making the bullies laugh, thinking that she had run away because of them. Momo paid them no attention though, hurriedly exiting the cafeteria and running to the bathroom across the hall. She hurriedly reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle, from which she took two blue pills. She quickly swallowed them, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

She had panicked back there, but now that she had taken her medication, she was able to calm down. She still felt tingly, short of breath, and light headed, but it didn't seem like as much of an emergency as it had minutes before. The stress from the situation probably made it seem worse than it really was. Nevertheless, she thought it best for her to go home now and rest for the remainder of the day. It was best not to overexert herself when she was like this. Trying not to think of what would be said about her leaving early, she hurriedly left the bathroom, heading for the office to check herself out.

As she walked over however, a short, white haired boy exited the office, walking straight into Momo and causing them both to fall to the floor.