Haru: Okay, everyone. This is what you've all been patiently waiting for . . . the real first chapter of Starlight Rising! Enjoy! And please review.

Disclaimer: Obviously, I do not own Bleach. If I did, Neliel would have made a comeback by now.

Fever Dreams

January third. That was the day he found her.

He had been lying in a snowdrift, enjoying the serenity of the first snowfall. Looking up at the gray sky, he blinked away the delicate flakes dusting his pale eyelashes. A white blanket of snow covered his small frame. He sighed as a cold zephyr ruffled the tips of his spiky white hair.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream rent the frigid air. He sat up hastily, sending up a flurry of snowflakes. Hearing the scream again, he turned in its direction and began plowing through the ankle-deep snow.

A puff of snow swirled above a patch of ice a while off, and he began trudging in that direction. As he approached the drifting cloud, he saw a prone figure lying face-down on the ice, her hair splayed out around her head.

He had rushed to her side (well, slowly plowed through the ankle-deep snow) and knelt at her side. Turning her body over, he observed the blue tint of her lips and the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

"Oi (Hey)," he said softly as he began to shake her awake. "Oi! Wake up! Are you alright?"

The girl's eyes snapped open. He gasped in surprise as violet eyes met teal.

" Where . . . where am I?" whispered the girl as she looked up at him.

"You're in the 1st district of Rukongai," he had explained, shifting to a more comfortable position. She was probably just sent here, thought he as he said, "What's your name?"

"Haru." The girl winced slightly and grabbed her head.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's nothing," muttered Haru. She propped herself up on one elbow and shivered. "Wait . . . where-"

"Rukongai. Oh, sorry, my name's Hitsugaya Toshiro." He stood up and looked at her appraisingly. "Can you stand?"

"I . . . I think so . . ." She took the hand Hitsugaya offered and pulled herself up. Almost immediately, she began to sway and grabbed Hitsugaya for support. "Ohhhh. . . maybe not . . ."

"Look, we should get you inside," Hitsugaya pointed out as he ducked under her arm and wrapped his arm around her waist, supporting her.

"Oh . . . I-" Haru stiffened, clutching her head. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath.

" Are you alright?" cried Hitsugaya as he knelt down beside her (again). He could see her eyes moving rapidly behind her closed lids. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, staining the snow bright red.

Haru had screamed, a horrible, desperate sound that echoed around the two. She slumped to the ground, unconscious, in front of a frozen Hitsugaya.

He had sat there, unable to move for several minutes. Finally, he blinked, shedding his paralysis. He remembered having to half-carry, half-drag the girl into the house. His grandmother had helped him settle Haru on their spare pallet. Two days later, the girl developed a raging fever. Hitsugaya remained at her bedside, feeling a strange need to protect this girl he had found in the snow.

Seven days later, she woke up.

(o0o)

Haru floated in a sea of darkness. Where am I?, she thought as she closed her eyes again.

Suddenly, a dagger of white-hot pain seemed to pierce her skull. Crying out in pain, Haru instinctively curled up into a ball.

"Please . . ." she whispered as the pain synapses in her brain fired off in quick succession.

A set of features – no, a face formed from the darkness around her body. Warm brown eyes, a delicate nose, a decided mouth. A pair of rectangular glasses perched on his nose. The corners of his mouth curved upwards into a sinister smile.

"Who-" Haru croaked, trying to filter out the pain, and failing.

"Hello, Haru." The voice filled her with a horrible sense of foreboding. In an instant, Haru somehow knew this man was responsible for all the pain she could remember.

"But you can't remember, can you?" The man's smile widened to more than what was humanly possible.

"How . . . would you know that?" Haru screamed again as pain arced through her body.

"Goodbye, Haru." The smile was gone, only to be replaced by a cold, calculating look. Darkness swirled across the face, until there was nothing left but memories.

"It's time to wake up, Haru," whispered the voice. "Welcome to your living nightmare."

(o0o)

Hitsugaya stared at the troubled face of the unconscious girl lying in front of him.

Who are you?, he asked silently for the thousandth time as he gently wiped her brow, which burned with the heat of fever.

The image of her screaming had seared itself onto his consciousness. Every time he closed his eyes, her tortured cry echoed through his mind. At night, he would lie on his pallet, staring up at the ceiling, until the sun cast its blinding rays on the snow-covered ground outside. He hadn't left in a week, unable to look at the snow in fear of seeing the dark stain of blood tinge the white.

What did I do to deserve this guilt I feel?, he asked himself, watching the steady rise and fall of the girl's chest. Incoherent words spilled from her lips as she tossed and turning in her comatose state, trapped in her fevered dreams. Hitsugaya shook his head sadly. At least it's cold in the house.

Haru moaned softly, curling up into a ball. Hitsugaya's eyes flickered to her pale face. And she screamed.

Hitsugaya flinched, as memories of that day resurfaced unbidden. Her violet eyes gazing deep into his. Her body, lying still on the ice. Her face as she fell back to Earth. Her. Haru.

Haru's back arched up off the sheets as she struggled for breath. Hitsugaya reached for her just as she slumped and began breathing normally again.

"Haru," Hitsugaya whispered, "who are you?"

Her eyes snapped open. Hitsugaya's eyes widened, the only indication of his surprise.

"Where . . . am I . . . this time?" whispered Haru, staring at Hitsugaya as if he were the only thing anchoring her to reality.

"My home," said Hitsugaya, trying to keep the relief out of his voice. "I thought-" He choked up. "We thought . . . you'd never . . ."

"Wake up?" finished Haru softly. Hitsugaya nodded numbly. "Oh."

Hitsugaya was silent for a while, drowning in the fact of her being awake; being alive.

"Anyway, how are you feeling?" Hitsugaya finally asked.

"My head is still pounding." Haru winced, and sighed. "How . . . how long was I out?"

"A couple days."

"A couple . . . days?"

"Yes." Hitsugaya leaned over and felt her forehead. Finding no trace of fever, he withdrew his hand, only to have it seized by Haru.

"Please." Haru looked up at him pleadingly. " Am I really . . ." She swallowed convulsively. "Am I really . . . dead?"

Hitsugaya flinched. "I'm sorry, Haru."

Haru's eyes widened. She released Hitsugaya's hand and shrank back from him. "So I am dead." She squeezed her eyes shut, clasping her shaking hands together. "But I don't remember how I died . . . is that normal?"

"You don't remember?" Hitsugaya said, not bothering to hide his shock.

"No." Haru shivered. "It's like there's a big, empty hole in my memories."

Hitsugaya practically was dying from curiosity, but managed to stop the questions dancing on the tip of his tongue. "Ano (Um), are you hungry?"

"Ano-" Haru's stomach growled.

Hitsugaya smirked. "I'm guessing yes." He stood and moved out the door.

"Hitsugaya-san." Hitsugaya froze. Hitsugaya-san? That one was new. He almost blushed as he turned to look at Haru.

"Yes?"

"Thank you." Haru smiled sadly. "You brought me to your home and took care of me for so long . . ." She sighed and glanced at the floorboards. "I'm sorry for depriving you of your much needed sleep."

"It's fine," said Hitsugaya said gruffly as he promptly left the room. Do I really look that bad? He rubbed his eyes and yawned, padding across the wooden floorboards in his bare feet. Hitsugaya poked his head into the kitchen, when he found Obaa-chan stirring something in a pot. When he entered the room, his grandmother shivered as the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

"She's woken up, hasn't she," said Hitsugaya's grandmother, without turning around.

"Yes." Hitsugaya leaned against the doorframe. "is the soup done?"

"Just about." Obaa-chan grabbed a waiting bowl and ladled steaming broth into it. She sprinkled minced scallions atop the swirling liquid and handed it to Hitsugaya, who almost dropped it. "Take it to Haru-chan, hmm? It's going to be nice to have a little girl running around the house again. Ever since Momo-chan left, the house has been so quiet without you screaming at her." Obaa-chan winked, and Hitsugaya flushed.

"Wait, who said she was-"

His grandmother looked at him meaningfully, and Hitsugaya shut up. Bed-wetter Momo had left for the shinigami academy a month ago. She came back to visit every week, but Hitsugaya almost missed being called Shiro-chan. Not that he'd ever admit it, of course. Still, things just weren't same without Hinamori.

Returning to Haru's room, he saw her gazing up at the ceiling. Sensing his approach, Haru propped herself up on her elbows and tried to smile.

"I brought you some broth," he said unnecessarily as he sat down beside her pallet.

"Thank you." Haru attempted to push herself up into a sitting position, but grabbed her head with her other hand. She fell back with a thump; Hitsugaya could hear her breath leave her body with a whoosh.

"Are you alright?" cried Hitsugaya in alarm.

Haru's eyes remained shut. She lay like that for about a minute, Hitsugaya hovering over her worriedly.

When she opened her eyes again, they were red.

(o0o)

She had been remembering her vision of him when it came.

As she pushed her body off the ground, the haze cloud across her vision. Tendrils of the darkness snaked across her perception; the pain ripping through her thoughts. She had grabbed her head; did she cry out? But everything else flew out of her mind when she saw him. Her heart dropped as she stared at his face.

"Why?" she whispered through the pain pounding against her temples. "What do you want?"

"Why bother asking?" inquired the man. "You know why."

"I don't . . . do I? Haru gritted her teeth in frustration. "Did I?"

"You'll be dead soon, Haru." The man smiled at her with no trace of emotion in his eyes. "Just as soon as I exhaust your usefulness, then I'll come for you, Haru." The face faded, and the pain subsided.

"Haru? Haru!" The pale face of Hitsugaya Toshiro floated above her consciousness.

Holding onto that image, Haru relaxed, letting her body uncurl from the ball she held it locked in. She looked up into his teal eyes and gasped for the breath frozen before her. And then she knew. I have to get out of here.

Pushing him aside, she stood on shaky legs. She took several unsteady steps, and broke into a run. Down a corridor, through a door, and she was outside. Stumbling through the snow, nausea hit her like a blow to the head. Haru fell to her knees as blood was brought up from somewhere inside her body and spilled from her cold lips.

Haru watched her life's blood pool atop the snow with a feeling of panic, watching as it melted the flakes down to the dead grass below. As the flow ceased, tears dripped off her nose to mix with the blood around her.

Am I going to die here? She hung her head and rolled onto her back so that she was lying in her own blood.

"Haru?" She heard him running out of the house behind her.

Go away, thought Haru. You're too late.

She saw him skid to a stop next to where she lay. "Haru." He looked horrified at the sight of her body.

"Hey." Haru's voice gave way to a strangled moan.

"You . . . just woke up." Hitsugaya Toshiro surveyed the scene in obvious shock.

"Please . . . leave . . ." Haru heard desperation creep into her tone. "Just . . . let me escape this life." As she uttered the words, she felt their crushing reality settle upon her. He said he was coming for me, she thought sadly. Better to die on my own terms.

"And death is an escape?" His cool teal eyes softened slightly. "Please, Haru, don't leave us- me. How can you just throw your life away? Don't you see any value in life at all?"

"He's going to kill me anyway," whispered Haru, eyes closing as she recalled the terror that had filled her as she looked into those warm brown eyes. "Why not now, before I get hurt again?"

"Haru." She felt pressure on her shoulders and opened her eyes to see Hitsugaya gripping her shoulders, looking at her with pleading eyes. "I can't let you leave. We- Obaa-chan and I . . . why do you think we took you in? Why do you think we didn't leave you to freeze to death in the snow?"

Haru felt her resolve slip away. I was so ready for death just then, she thought, but he broke my resolve. I want to live again. He saved my soul with a couple of words . . .

"Thank you, Toshi- Hitsugaya-san," said Haru right before she let herself fall backwards into the abyss of unconsciousness.

Haru: So how was it? Please let me know and I'll post the next chapter as soon as possible.

Next chapter: Shiro-chan gets a make-over . . . stay tuned!