The forgotten encounter

Author's note: It's written as a Christmas (2008, LOL, how outdated) exchange in the FLOL forums, and this is written for EternalDream, better known as AngelCat HellFire here at FFnet. Dumping it here for general enjoyment.

Kurosaki Ichigo somewhat liked the white layer of snow lain on the ground as the celebrations for Christmas were taking place.

He had learnt to see weathers and seasons in different lights ever since that fated incident when he was nine. The downpour of rain which seemed to drown him in all his misery; the sun-kissed summer mocking the false hope that he seemed to cling onto that his mother was somewhere near him; the flowers blossoming in spring echoed the one wish he never seemed to be able to get granted; the falling leaves of autumn counting down towards the imminent arrival of icy winter.

Then, the cold, white barren winter, which was one he hadn't actually decided his opinions on – even though the drops of snowflakes resembled the downpour of rain sans the occasional threats of thunders and lightning. Ironically, he had actually enjoyed the snow. The falling snow to the white ground somewhat cleanse his heart, as though there was a sign, a premonition of something awakening after the freezing days of winter.

And then something caught his attention.

In the middle of the park where he was wandering aimlessly, while trying to think about useless things such as the ramifications of the winter season –

There was a girl with hair the colour of chestnut. Her physical features were strikingly outstanding – nothing weird considering that children with unnatural hair colours (by natural, the Japanese meant black) often garnered more attention than were contented for.

She was humming by herself to a rhythm that only she seemed to be able to identify, while her hands were busy collecting the snow that was accumulated since a few days before and mold them into the shape of…

Something Ichigo assumed to be a rabbit.

He was fascinated by the girl not because she was somewhere near creating a genuine masterpiece of a snow-made figure that would make the grounds shatter; but because she seemed happy doing them, as though she was radiating some sort of sunshine to her surroundings.

She spotted him. She waved for him to come nearer, and as he walked a little closer, getting a clearer view of her face, he felt that she was familiar. For that moment, every detail about where or when he might have seen her inconveniently escaped his mind.

"Nice to meet you!" She greeted him with a wide smile.

Ichigo merely smiled back as a response, and also because he didn't know what else to respond with.

"What were you trying to make?"

The girl looked back at her creation while adjusting her gloves (her hands were shivering from the exposure to the low temperature of the weather). "Oh, that?" She pointed towards the now-misshapen clump of snow she was molding just a few moments ago.

Ichigo nodded.

"It's a rabbit!" She gleamed, as though happy that anyone was curious about her creation.

Bingo, Ichigo thought. He guessed right, it was a rabbit after all.

"But I can't seem to make him interesting, Mr Shiro would be mad if I don't make him as handsome as possible."

"Mr Shiro?" Ichigo blurted out in confusion.

The girl squatted to be on the level of her snow-rabbit, and adjusted some clump of misplaced snow. "It's his name. I gave all my snow rabbits names! It was Ms Long Ears the year before and the then before that was –"

"But they would melt, won't they?" Ichigo interrupted her.

She looked up at him. "They wouldn't."

Her attention was back to the snow-rabbit. "Not in my mind, they wouldn't melt. Ever. You see, I gave him a name and he's going to be forever Mr Shiro to me, so he wouldn't melt!"

For many reasons, Ichigo couldn't understand her optimistic logics, but he felt that someone like her would probably be someone blessed with happiness.

"Wouldn't you be sad if you realized that you forgot all about Mr Shiro later?"

She caught some snow in her hand, and replied while making small little balls with her gloved hands. "I wouldn't, I would make sure that I wouldn't."

"If you put your heart into something, it would never be forgotten."

Ichigo decided that he liked talking to the girl.

"Where are your parents?"

"I'm alone here. I decided to spend these few days of Christmas by myself since my best friend went somewhere with her family and I didn't want to trouble them by following."

The revelation shocked Ichigo. Just a minute after he assumed that this girl was someone who had the grasp of the world in her fingertips, she told him that she had nothing.

He began to feel disgusted with himself, here's someone who had none in her family to turn to, occasionally needing to worry about troubling others –

And he was occasionally sulking because his father was being an idiotic goof. Or that his mother's death anniversary is coming soon.

"I'm sorry.."

"It's nothing," the girl kept smiling. "I don't even remember how they look like. It was always me and my brother from where I could remember. But he…well.."

"Yes. I think I understand that." Ichigo stopped her abruptly. He didn't feel as though he could stomach any more personal tragedies. He felt unkind for thinking such a thing, and for a moment he was revolted at himself.

"I'm sorry for imposing my own life stories onto you, when I just met you," she was sincere in apologizing.

"Making snow rabbits is something I always do with my brother, so I don't mind being alone," she scratched her head and giggled awkwardly. "I'm even planning to add some mistletoe to Mr Shiro's head," she said as she was pointing to the cluster of small snow balls the size of marbles that she was making earlier.

Ichigo was puzzled. Mistletoes? Snow-made? On a snow rabbit?

He managed a small laugh. It seemed like only this girl could figured out something like this.

He couldn't remember anything else beyond that, what else was said, and what else did he do.

The incident that happened when he was 12 just managed to be kept hidden after all these years, while by doing that he had just proved why he was reputed to have poor memory, it just didn't make sense for him to have seen someone that many times and yet not realizing the impact that certain someone had on him until recently.

She was the one that he had witnessed a personal tragedy of – no matter how much time passes by, he could never get that miserable sobs of a little girl over the death of her brother away from his memory. And he also wouldn't try to forget how the very same girl grew up to be someone who had encouraged him to his road of self-discovery as he fought for Rukia. The very girl that he rescued from the depths of hell that Aizen imposed her into.

"Inoue!"

He called her, and she was in a group together with other people, ready for an ice-skating trip – four years after the forgotten encounter.

End-of-story Note: It was something that came up after throwing the idea I was working on for a few days thinking the outline for. Thus, it's kinda short and I sorta rushed it because I was going away from the 22nd until Boxing Day, which was only a few days before the deadline. Belated Christmas everyone, hope you've enjoyed it.

Have a nice day!