A/N: I think of weird AUs in my Psychology 1010 class. This is one of them.

She wasn't far from normal, not really. She had a family she loved and regularly bickered with, and she had her group of friends at school– it could've been argued that she was popular even, her phone regularly blew up with text messages and she wasn't ever alone at lunches and it was difficult sometimes to pay attention in her classes because somebody always wanted to talk to her–, she participated in sports, she procrastinated her schoolwork most of the semester before she crammed at the end and complained about it over Twitter, she even had a crush on a boy; Toushirou Hitsugaya, student body officer and possibly the most handsome sixteen-year-old on the god damned planet.

Yes, she thought as she slipped the elastic bands of eye patch behind the shells of her ears, she was a perfectly normal highschool girl, and normal girls her age asked the boys they liked out on dates and she was no exception. Her brother said she'd always went after what she wanted– and she intended to live up to his compliment for the rest of her life–, but if in the end her attraction wasn't mutual, then she'd call up a few of her girlfriends and they'd watch the angstiest movie in her father's collection and eat an entire tub of licorice ice cream together and make as much fun of Toushirou as they possibly could've. It was what they did after Midori's date stood her up in June; it was the normal thing to do. And she was normal.

Yes, she thought, she was completely normal. The only not normal thing about her was the eye defect she inherited from her father, though her siblings didn't share it. The orbital muscles of her right eye were weak and flimsy; her eyelid was partially paralyzed and her socket couldn't hold in her eyeball so it popped out if she wasn't careful. She still had sight in her so-called 'bad' eye as her optic nerve was perfectly fine, and it wasn't painful when it popped out but it resulted in double vision that gave her a migraine, and it wasn't particularly bloody either; it was viscous and oozed, she compared it to a capillary bleed to her doctor. Outside of it however, she was perfectly. Normal.

She collected her bag and phone– she had five text messages, two from the soccer team's group chat about practice, one from Ururu about their homework due their third period, another from Momo about how much she needed a latte the size of her face, and the final was from Ichigo hours ago when it was a decent time for him– he'd decided to study abroad in Tokyo his senior year since he didn't remember much of their homeland before they immigrated to America. She didn't remember anything as she was only two, but he was four at the time so he recalled vague snapshots of it– with reassurances that she didn't need luck to pass her biology quiz and she would do just fine. She smiled to herself as she messaged him back that he was the greatest big brother ever– because he was, Ichigo would help her bury a body if she asked and say they deserved it even if he didn't know what happened–, and she clambered down the stairs as she called for her sister that it was time to leave.

"God, Karin, at least eat. You're an athlete, you need to keep yourself in good shape and skipping breakfast isn't healthy." Yuzu scolded her as she shoved a thermos into her hands. "I reheated the soup from last night since you said you liked it. I hope you don't mind." Her twin smiled at her as she passed her yet another thermos. "And your coffee, sans sugar and black as your soul."

She snickered then as she took both mugs from her sister, and they ventured out of their home. They arrived at their high school sometime later– Yuzu had only been able to talk about Ururu nearly every minute of the day for the past month, and as adorable as her twin's crush was she'd heard all about it at least twice by then so she merely tuned her sister out along the way–, and she'd finished her coffee and her breakfast along the way. She washed the mugs in the locker room since she'd left her anatomy book in there Monday and she needed it then, and as she opened her locker, she felt a pair of sturdy arms drape over her shoulders.

"G'mornin,." Momo grunted, and she smiled as she turned to her best friend.

"Morning, Momo." She arched an eyebrow then. "You look absolutely miserable." And she really did, she thought, almost sickly; with dark circles under her eyes and disheveled hair from morning practice, a little pale end and her sharp, dim gaze testified to the combination of her caffeine withdrawal– she'd only started to drink coffee so she could wean herself off cigarettes, she recalled, told her it curbed her cravings and soothed her withdrawal symptoms. However, her virtual switch backfired and she normally ended up crabby and tense without it for a few hours, and because of the caffeine she rarely slept–, and her emotional exhaustion from her classes, a culmulation of fifteen credit hours.

"Do you think the state would allow me to marry a cappuccino?" Momo muttered as she buried her face under her hair, and she snickered to herself.

"You'd have more to worry from Izuru. He'd be so jealous." She argued, and she pulled her anatomy book from the bottom of her locker and balanced it on her hip.

"I'd share." Her friend chuckled then. "I always wanted to try that straw thing– you know, where you share a drink and just stick two straws in there. Sousuke never wanted to, he was so territorial…" Momo trailed off quietly then, and she turned in her friend's arms and wrapped her in a tight embrace.

"Izuru'd do it in a heartbeat. He's so enamored with you he'd give you his shoes if you asked." She cooed. And he really would've, she thought, if he described her as an archangel– she'd read one of his poems he submitted a few weeks ago for a contest the journalism class hosted, and it was very obviously about Momo. He'd described her as a 'perfect mix of selflessness, sophistication, and the wrath of God'. What the entire poem meant was beyond her, but it was about their relationship and she wasn't them so of course she didn't completely understand, but she understood that part perfectly– and looked at her like she was a stack of gold. He was so much better for her than Sousuke was, she knew it even if she hadn't been close to Momo in her freshman year when it all went down. But she doubted there was anybody who didn't know by then.

Everything was fine with Momo her sophomore year until she met Sousuke Aizen, a senior then and well on his way to valedictorian, and after they got together she began to withdraw from everybody until she flat out disappeared for an entire week in March. It had been Izuru and Toushirou that went to her house to check up on her, found her with several fractured ribs and a black eye after Sousuke beat her. After a long trial– somehow Izuru convinced her to testify, she didn't know the full story and she wasn't about to dredge up bad memories for her best friend–, Sousuke was found guilty as an adult for assault, battery, rape, and kidnapping and was locked away then for two, consecutive twenty-five year sentences.

"I know. I'm just…" Momo sighed then, rested her forehead on her shoulder and sighed. "I'm still in that mode, you know? It's been years, and Izuru even asks to hold my hand, he's done nothing wrong, and I'm so cruel as to think he's similar to Sousuke. I'm a terrible girlfriend."

"Hardly," she snorted as she stroked her friend's back. "You were traumatized, Momo, and it's not like you've been through any therapy for it so I'm sure Izuru understands you still have some disordered thinking."

"What are you, my shrink?" Momo deadpanned, and she rolled her eye then.

"If only."

There was silence between them then– companionable, tranquil, and they swayed to the rhythm of the leaky faucet by the stalls. Momo sighed suddenly and pushed away, and she watched as her friend carefully wiped tears from her eyes.

"Ugh, whoever's texting me better have a damn good reason." Momo snorted as she fished her cell from her bra, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "It's Renji, he's asking if I want anything from Starbucks while he and Rukia are there. He's a saint, I tell you, puts the pope to shame. If I wasn't so taken by Izuru I'd be all over him." They laughed then, and she agreed, though she was more afraid of his girlfriend than she was smitten by Toushirou. Renji was possibly the nicest guy she knew; the perfect balance of adorable dweebiness and maturity, as selfless as Mother Teresa and loyal as a dog, not to mention that he was hot. Tatsuki, she thought, was one of the luckiest girls on the planet to have a man like him.

"Listen, I'm gonna fix my makeup and then we're gonna hunt down my cousin and you're gonna ask him out for a movie date since you wanted to do that today, and if he turns you down and it's because of your eye, I'll beat the shit out of his stupid ass because you'll be the best thing to ever grace him."

She chortled shortly. She'd lied about her 'condition', instead everybody thought that her eye had been gouged out after she caught a fish hook in her eye and she would've worn a glass eye if it didn't feel weird, so that was why she wore her eye patch instead. Momo said it was neat, gave her an air of mysticism and badassery. It made her feel less insecure about it when she was told it, which was probably the reason she was as genial as she was then. In junior high, she was the exact opposite; an anxious, reclusive mess. But her confidence was shaky at best, always threatened to crumble whenever somebody commented about her eye and it would've been destroyed if anybody discovered the truth.

"Momo, I hope you know you can't actually beat him up. That's against the law."

"Not if the body isn't found."

"Oh my god,"

They laughed then, and she texted Ururu back as Momo touched up her makeup and combed her hair, and they looped their arms together and set out to find Toushirou.

They didn't, much to her disappointment, and none of their contacts had seen him about either. She frowned as she and Momo separated as the bell rang, worried that he was possibly involved in an accident or if he was ill. She sent him a text after class began to ease her anxiety, and he explained curtly that he was at a dentist check-up and would be in the building in the next half hour. And he was, walked into class and handed his doctor's note to their instructor before he sat at his desk.

She shuddered then as she prepared to ask him to meet her after school, pulled her hair tie out and combed her fingers through her hair before she retied it. Her heart stammered in her chest in her anxiety as she slipped her cell onto her lap, and she wished her hands wouldn't shake as they did. It was like she was in a confessional with her late mother or something, her every move watched and her every thought laid bare, and it was pathetic. She was sure the caffeine only exacerbated her nervousness too, and she quietly cursed to herself. She'd talked to him hundreds of times before, it wasn't like then was any different. But it was the 'what if's that plagued her; what if he found out about her defect? What if he thought she was a freak? What if he was disgusted? What if he made her into a freakshow for the entire school? What if he tried to hurt her?

She pinched the web between her fingers as she internally scolded herself. Those were excuses, she thought, and hurtful at that. She should've just collected her nerves and went with it. And she did then, quickly typed out a text and sent it before she changed her mind. He responded moments later that he was available for a few minutes before he had to help set up for the play that night, and to meet him by the gym. She grinned widely, her leg bounced in her elation as she sent a group message to her sister and Momo about it.

She couldn't concentrate the rest of the day, texted Momo and Yuzu about her excitement and what she should've worn if it worked out and maybe she got a little bit ahead of herself a few times but they seemed as excited as herself. She and Momo escaped from their last classes a little early, and Momo made sure she looked presentable– which she was, Momo was just motherly and almost as eager as she was– and she rushed to the gym and waited impatiently for Toushirou.

"Hey, Karin," she heard behind her, and before she could even react, her eye patch was plucked off her face and she squawked, and in her surprise, her eye popped out of its socket as the perpetrators ran away. Her hands flew to cover her eye, and she would've run after them for their heads if Toushirou wouldn't arrived soon and she needed to text her sister to bring her another patch before then and—

"Karin?"

Her heart dropped to somewhere around her knees then as she turned and saw Toushirou approach her with a worried scowl. "Karin, are you alright? You needed to– is something wrong with your eye?" His eyes bugged out of his skull then. "Oh my god, and you're bleeding! Come here, let me see." He grabbed her wrist and tugged, and she tried to pull her arm back as she stammered pathetically. He succeeded however, and she felt her eye bounce against her cheek and blood dribble down her cheek as he jerked her arm away.

She felt sick as he gawked wordlessly, and she hung her head and whined as she cried, vision blurry from the mismatched perspectives. She was humiliated– he stared at her like she was a freak–, and she was afraid of what he might've said as soon as he collected himself. Her life was ruined, absolutely ruined. She would become the freak girl that nobody wanted to talk to or love, even Momo would think she was gross, she thought.

Toushirou stammered in his bewilderment, and it only made her feel worse about herself. She didn't know what she expected– it was foolish of her to even consider he'd like a freak like her, and she sobbed. "I'm sorry for wasting your time. Please don't tell anybody about this." She blubbered, and she cupped her hand over her eye and nearly sprinted out until he caught her wrist.

"N-no," he said. "No, come here. I was just… taken off guard. I won't tell anybody, I promise." He assured her, and she sobbed as relief flooded her; he was so nice, she thought. "No, don't cry. I-it's okay. Let's get you cleaned up real quick. The nurse isn't in today and there's an extra shirt in her office you can use."

"Can we stop by my locker real quick so I can grab another eye patch? Some kids ran off with mine." She muttered, and he nodded.

"Of course."

He led her to her locker first, even opened it for her and quickly led her to the nurse's office. When asked by the the secretary, they said she'd cut her eyelid and just needed it treated, and after they were alone they shut the door behind them.

"So uh… how do you get it back in there?" He inquired as he wet a rag, and she pulled her hand from her eye and sat on the bed.

"Like this," she mumbled as she tilted her head back, and she pulled her eyelids apart with one hand and held her eyeball above her socket with the other, and she simply dropped it back into her orbital. He was in front of her in a split second, wiped the blood off her face and chin with a rag. Her lip wobbled as he doted on her– she'd never been so humiliated in her life and he was fairly indifferent when she considered the situation. It made her emotional.

"Do you think badly of me, Toushirou?" She blurted, and she bit her lip in her nervousness.

"No, I'm just… blown away, I wasn't aware that was possible." He explained, and he sighed as he gingerly stroked under her lid. "I'm sorry for my insensitivity earlier. It was rude of me and I understand if you're upset with me. Please forgive me, Karin."

"You don't think it's freaky or gross or something?" She inquired hopefully.

"I'll confess that it's a little macabre, but I don't think I have any room to judge you. You're still Karin, my classmate and friend, your physical appearance doesn't, and shouldn't for that matter, change that." He explained, and she was so touched she almost started to cry again. "But… was this what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No, I was hoping that I could ask you out on a date, but I think my chances for that have plummeted to zero." She responded gloomily.

She watched as Toushirou's lips spread into a smirk, and she hated how cute he was then, it almost broke her heart again. "Hardly, it's always been pretty much the same. I'm just embarrassed I didn't get to it first, damn my cowardice." He scratched behind his neck. "Do you wanna see the drama club's play tonight together? And maybe grab some Denny's afterwards?"

It took her a moment to process what he said, and then her heart soared. She flew to her feet and tackled him, hugged him as tight as she could've because she was so happy and would've kissed him if his phone hadn't rang.

"I've gotta get back now, otherwise I'm pretty sure Uryuu will have my head. I'll pick you up at six tonight." He said, and she watched as he ran off.

She immediately dialed for Momo. She had something to tell her. A lot of somethings.