This is set when Rukia was just sent to the Soul Society when she was a child, only a little while before she met Renji ans the others. No spoilers besides what I just said there, which wasn't much. It's about her first encounter with a Bunny, and how she came to obsess with them like she does.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rukia. I do own Speckels, though.

The Beginning of Bunnies

Rukia hit the snow hard, her eyes stinging with tears as the older boys who had pushed her down laughed. She stuck out her lower lip, picking herself shakily up off the ground. The oldest boy in the group pushed her back down before running off to join the rest of the group. Rukia just continued to sit on the ground, her light blue dress slowly getting soaked with water from the show melting against her body.

Shivering, she crawled into a corner against the nearest house, one she knew to belong to a nasty, old man. He got mad whenever he saw kids playing around. But huddled up against the hard wood of the front of the house, Rukia felt a little safer.

The snow soon began falling again. As rukia tried to push herself further into the wood to escape the wet, falling snowflakes, she saw a beautiful, white animal walking across the snow. The body of the animal was so small that it walked upon the hardened snow from days before without falling in. Soon, a second small animal followed the first. Rukia smiled, forgetting all about the cold, and slowly inched closer to the animals.

Soon a third followed, then a forth. Rukia was clapping her small hands in excitment now, her tongue sticking out between her teeth. Behind the forth animal followed a fifth small one, then a larger one. Much larger than the others. Surprised, Rukia fell back in the snow, her head landing softly in the weeks of built up snow.

Suddenly, one of the small animals fell through the snow. The bigger one, whom Rukia guessed was the mother, raced to her baby and quickly pulled it out of the snow with her mouth, lifting it back up and giving it a gentle nudge to keep walking. Rukia smiled, watching as the animals, who she had heard called bunnies, walked across the snow. Several more fell in, and the mother continued to pull them back up, setting them straight again before walking on behind her baby bunnies.

All too soon for Rukia, they were out of sight. The mother followed the babies, pulling them up when they fell down, and urging them on through the snow, anxious to get back to where they were going; probably home.

Rukia smiled sadly; she didn't have a home, and she didn't have a mommy to pick her up when she fell, or to urge her forward in life. She was just Rukia, with no one to look after her.

As Rukia pulled herself to her feet, wanting to get someplace warm, she looked down in surprise when she saw something move.

It was one of the baby bunnies!

Excited now, Rukia picked up the tiny baby with her fingers, placing it in the palm of her hand, careful not to hurt it.

"I'll take you back to your mommy!" Rukia exclaimed, pulling her torn jacket so it would cover the bunny. Rukia then began running through the snow, trying to find where the other bunnies had gone. Several times, her bare feet slipped in the snow, and she fell forward, but continued to shield the little bunny. She didn't know why she did it so naturally, but she guessed it was because she had never had someone to protect her. So, instead of being protected, she wanted to be the protector. It seemed right . . . right?

Shivering badly, Rukia gave up looking for the mommy bunny and finally walked inside a small barn; her feet were bright red with the cold, and she could no longer feel them. Her nose was running, and her hands were going numb around the warm body of the tiny bunny.

"What should I call you?" Rukia asked, looking the bunny over. Unlike the others, it was different. Instead of being a pure, white snow bunny, it had a small, brown mark on its head. The mark was in the shape of a diamond. There were also several dots on its stomach. "I think I'll call you ... "

Rukia was deep in thought, trying to force the cold fog from her brain so she could come up with a name for the little bunny. Finally, a smile lit her face as she brought it up to eye level. The bunny just blinked its tiny eyes.

"I'll call you Speckles, because on your tummy, you have little dots!" Rukia announced, giggling. Nodding her head, she leaned back against the hay bale she had sat down by. The tiny bunny clasped tightly in her hands, she closed her eyes for a second, wishing the cold would just go away.

Soon, she could no longer feel her hands, and her grip on the bunny started to loosen. Her eyes slipped closed as her hands fell to her side. The bunny slipped out of her grasp, and Rukia thought fleetingly, thought she could do nothing about it, that a drop like that, though only a foot, would kill the baby bunny.

But it never hit the ground.

Rukia looked up to see a small boy sitting beside her. He had strange colored hair, and he was missing two front teeth. He had caught the bunny in his bare hand. He smiled and held out the bunny to her. She blinked her eyes, trying to keep them open.

"W-who are y-y-you?" Rukia stuttered, her lips frozen with cold.

"I'm your protector. And Speckles's, too, I guess."

That was all the little boy said. He took of his jacket and wrapped it around Rukia's body, setting the bunny in her lap before walking to the door.

"No, p-p-please don't leave me," Rukia stuttered, reaching out. He just smiled.

"I'm always with you. I will always protect you. But someone is coming to help. I told them where you are. You will be fine," the little boy said.

As Rukia strained to listen, she heard two voices. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but they were there. And they were going to help her.

Rukia looked back to see the little boy smiling widly, his missing teeth showing clearly. His orange hair was speckled with white snow.

"Bye for now, Rukia."

Rukia glanced back at the barn door, then, when she saw a bright light, back to the boy, only to find that he was gone. The two people walked inside and picked her up, wrapping her in their coats to keep her warm. One of them spoke to her, trying to ger her to respond, then yelled to the younger man to go get the doctor.

Rukia didn't hear anything after that. She fell into sleep, the bunny still grasped in her hands.

She did have a protector, and he was always watching out for her.

Well? What did you think? I have always wanted to write something about how Rukia came to love bunnies SO darn much! LOL. Anyway . . .

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