A/N: Not much happens in this fic. Lauren-chan, don't read, because you don't like Yuzu. This fic is totally dedicated to Zaphodiop, who put this pairing in my head. Although, I guess this isn't romance. It's barely even friendship. On a side note, have you ever tried to fix a microwave with packing tape? Let me tell you, it's a bad idea.

"Yuzu!" Karin barreled into her sister, knocking her to the side. The soccer ball that had nearly hit her bounced harmlessly off the chain-link fence outside the school.
"Idiots!" Karin planted her hands on her hips. "Can't you tell us apart? Don't kick it at Yuzu!" The others on her soccer team quailed before her.

"We're sorry, Kurosaki-san! We didn't mean to!"

"Hmph." And then, addressing Yuzu: "Are you ok?"

Yuzu smiled and got to her feet, brushing dirt off her skirt. "I'm fine. Thank you, Karin. I'm sorry, I should have dodged but I zoned out. I don't know why I'm so tired."

Karin glared at her. "What have I told you about the excessive apologizing?"

"Eh…" Yuzu changed the subject. "I have to go shopping and get dinner for tonight. Would you like to come?"

Karin shook her head. "Nah, I have to practice. It would be great if someday I wasn't the only person on my team who could actually play." She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at the retreating backs of her team. "Ya hear that! You all suck!"

"It's not nice to say that, Karin…" Yuzu said quietly, but her twin was already gone, dribbling the soccer ball over to the rest of her team. Yuzu shook her head and left the school yard.

The doors of the subway train whooshed open. Yuzu sat up in shock, looking around. She had fallen asleep on the subway, apparently.

"Uwah!" She jumped up and dashed off the train, opening her purse to tuck her ticket away so she didn't lose it. Something seemed odd, though. Yuzu looked around. The surroundings were unfamiliar.

She had gotten off at the wrong stop.

"Oh no!" Yuzu spun around and tried to run back to the train, but the doors were already closing.

She tripped and fell flat on her face.

"Oww…." As the subway train pulled away she sat up.

Most of her coins had fallen out of her purse and rolled into the tracks. Both of her knees were bleeding, and the palm of her hand smarted too. Added to that was the humiliation of having just fallen down in public. At that thought, Yuzu scanned her surroundings. She saw no one she recognized. Somehow, instead of comforting her, this upset her. She had no idea where she was, she was bleeding, and she didn't have enough money left for a ticket.

Yuzu started to sniffle. "No, Yuzu, come on…." She struggled to her feet, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Be strong like Karin or Ichi-nii…"

She picked up the few coins that hadn't fallen into the tracks—there was no way she was going after those that had.

On top of everything, she still didn't know what she was going to make for dinner.

"Wahh…" But she wasn't going to cry. She shut her purse and looked around. Perhaps if she could just find a pay phone….

Ah!

Just a few stores down the street was a small convenience store with an icon in the window shaped like a phone. Surely that meant a payphone, right? She headed for the store.

Riiiiiiiiiiiing… Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing…. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing…

"Dad…… Ichi-nii… Karin… please, someone pick up…."

But no. Ishiin was probably goofing off. Ichigo was probably off doing whatever he did that took so much time (Yuzu had never been clear on exactly what her brother did, but apparently it involved a girl from his class named Rukia, and occasionally Bosco.). Karin was probably playing soccer.

"Waah…"

Perhaps if she figured out where she was, she could walk home. She left the phone area and walked up the aisles towards the counter. In one of the aisles, she paused.

How much were band-aids?

She checked the price, and then her money. After dropping most of it and then paying for a phone call, she still had just enough for one box of small band-aids. She looked at her knees. The scrapes and cuts were far too large to be properly covered by the band-aids, but it was better than nothing.

Yuzu noticed that blood on her left knee had nearly run into her sock. She wiped it away with her stinging palm, feeling her eyes fill with tears again. Then she picked up the box of band-aids and headed for the counter. She put the small cardboard box on the counter and reached for her coins. There were two teenagers manning the counter. One, the smaller of the two, was desperately trying to tape together a microwave with packing tape. The other was taller, and he was watching with amusement.

"Face it, Hana-chan, the microwave is dead. You've knocked it off the counter six times in the past week. It's not s'posed to survive crap like that."

"Aaah, Boss-san will be so mad…" Another portion of the plastic casing fell off and clattered to the floor.

"Uh… Excuse me?" Yuzu said quietly.

The taller of the two turned around. "Oh, you wanna buy those?"

Yuzu nodded.

"Great, hang on." He picked the box of band-aids up to scan the barcode. Yuzu handed him the coins.

"Ok… Quit it with the microwave and bag this, ok?" He chucked the box at the smaller kid, and it bounced off his head.

"Hai, sorry, Ganju-san," he said, picking it up.

Ganju pressed buttons on the cash register.

"Ganju-san… there's blood on this box…"

"What? So?" Ganju pointed at one of the racks of plastic shopping bags. "Put in it in a bag already."

"Is it… hers?" The two guys looked at Yuzu. Yuzu tried to look invisible and scrub the blood off her hand and onto her skirt.

"Hey, kid, is this your blood?" Ganju asked carelessly.

Yuzu nodded.

"Uwah, are you ok?" The other asked her, "What happened?"

Yuzu tried to answer him. "Uhm, I fell over, and… my knee got scraped."

"I'll be right back."

Ganju rolled his eyes as his friend headed for the back room.

"You just made his day, you know… he's been carrying around this nerdy first-aid kit since we started this job, and now he finally gets to use it."

Yuzu tried to laugh with him, but couldn't quite summon the enthusiasm.

"Here you go…" The smaller guy came out of the back room with a small red bag. He unzipped the lid and took out a large circular bandage.

"Here." He handed it to Yuzu.

She sat down and peeled off the plastic backing.

Ganju put her money back on the counter and tried to scratch the drying blood off of the bandaid box. "What's your name, kid?"

"I'm, um, not supposed to tell that to strangers…"

"Yeah, but if I let a kid totter off alone injured without helping her, my sister will freaking kill me."

Yuzu didn't want to cause anyone's death, but still she hesitated.

He shrugged. "I might as well introduce us. I'm Ganju Shiba, and this wuss is Hanatarou Yamada… Speaking of wusses…" He gave up trying to clean off the box and threw it at his friend. Again. (This time his friend caught it after it bounced off his face and into his hands) "Go put this away, will you?"

Yuzu chewed her lip. They had given her their names; it was only polite to do the same.

"I'm Yuzu Kurosaki."

Ganju gave a guffaw of laughter. Hanatarou, returning from his errand, asked her, "Are you related to Mr. Kurosaki?"

Ganju whacked him on the back of his head. "That's probably what they call her father, idiot." He turned to Yuzu. "Do ya know an Ichigo?"

Yuzu stood up, her task of applying her band-aid complete. "Yeah! He's my brother!" A thought struck her. "If you know him, could you call him on his cell phone? I'm kind of…. lost."

"Of course! Here, I'll let you talk to him."

Perhaps Yuzu's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day wasn't as bad as she had thought.