Characters: Yachiru, Lilinette
Summary: Sometimes, children see far more clearly than the adults who surround them.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Hueco Mundo arc
Timeline: Before Kenpachi and Yachiru meet up with Ichigo, Orihime and Nel
Author's Note: The idea of Yachiru and Lilinette meeting up was just too good to resist. Of course, this ended up much more serious than I thought it would. Now if only Starrk and Lilinette hadn't died; excuse me while I go off and cry in the corner.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

Yachiru was lost again. And this time, Kenpachi wasn't around with her.

She'd gotten separated from Kenpachi in the whitewashed, labyrinthine corridors of Las Noches, after he put her down to do battle with a couple of low-level Arrancar who had been blocking their path.

Kenpachi had told her not to run off in the half-interested tone he used whenever he was about to start a fight with someone he actually thought could pose a halfway decent challenge, not so much as sparing a glance towards his tiny lieutenant. Yachiru had only wandered off a little bit, honest; she hadn't meant to get so hopelessly lost.

"Gosh," she mused aloud, staring with wide pinkish eyes, staring up at the high, vaulted white ceiling. "I hope Ken-chan doesn't go off and fight some more without me. I told him I wanted to see Icchi first!"

As Yachiru continued to wander around, a light, childish and feminine voice came to her ears. "Hey… What are you doing here?"

A girl who, by all appearances seemed to be about ten or eleven, was sitting in a thick windowsill with no pane, silhouetted by the darkness of the room within. She had light, translucent skin that plainly saw the sun but rarely, and was scantily clothed. She was an Arrancar; she had her Hollow hole in the middle of her belly, and her Hollow mask, one of the horns apparently chopped off, capped short, sea foam green hair and covered one of her eyes; the visible eye was just as pink as Yachiru's own.

The little Shinigami lieutenant smiled hugely and waved to the girl, despite knowing that she was an Arrancar. "Hi! I'm Yachiru, and I'm…lost," she finished, her smiling dropping from luminescently bright to rueful. "What's your name?"

The older girl shrugged. "Lilinette." She took in Yachiru's black shihakusho with a slight widening of her visible eye. "You're a Shinigami, aren't you?" Her expression grew slightly critical. "Wow, you're a little one." She tipped her head, the widened eye narrowing noticeably. "You wanna fight?"

Yachiru shook her head, her smile fading into a bewildered but still cheerful look. "Not really. Ken-chan told me not to get in any fights. Besides, Ken-chan always says that getting bloody isn't a good way for kids to make friends." Her brow furrowed in concentration. "At least, I think that's what he said… Why do you wanna fight?"

Again, Lilinette shrugged noncommittally, lips quirking. "'Cause that's what Arrancar and Shinigami do when they meet up. They fight. But if you don't want to, that's alright too." She moved her legs, and pointed to the opposite end of the sill. "Why don't you come sit up here with me?"

"Okay!" A little clumsily, Yachiru clambered up onto the sill beside Lilinette, grubby, sticky hands clasping the edge desperately until Lilinette reached up and grabbed the back of her kimono.

Yachiru stared into the darkness within, where she could hear something that, after a second, she realized was the sound of a man snoring.

Lilinette grimaced. "That's just Starrk. Don't mind him; he wouldn't hurt a kid like you. And don't worry about him waking up; Starrk's pretty much dead when he sleeps." Leaning in for a conspiratorial whisper, the girl murmured, "I kicked him a couple of times a few minutes ago, but all he did was roll over and tell me not to bother him."

"Gosh, he sorta sounds like Ken-chan when he's taking a nap."

Frown adorning her face, the green-haired girl asked, "Who's Ken-chan?"

Yachiru grinned. "He's my captain. He's really big; bigger than you and me put together. He lets me ride on his back, and sometimes he gives me candy!"

"Candy? Chocolate's the best."

"Jolly ranchers!"

They both dissolved into helpless giggling for a while, before Lilinette's face sobered, and grew serious and somber. "You wanna know a secret, Yachiru?" she whispered. Her small shoulders hunched up, making her look far older than she had a right to.

Though Yachiru wasn't quite aware of the full extent of Lilinette's change of mood, she felt the wash of metaphorical cold water just as keenly, while whispering, eyes wide open with the smile completely gone from her face, "Sure."

They leaned in close, Lilinette casting an uncharacteristically nervous eye to Starrk before answering. "Starrk doesn't really want to fight. And neither do I. I don't see why we have to fight." Her face grew troubled. "Has anyone ever asked 'why'?" Why do Shinigami and Arrancar have to fight?"

Yachiru frowned, biting her lip. An unfamiliar, heavy-as-lead sensation settled in her stomach. "I…don't know. Everybody back home says Arrancar are bad and evil…but you seem nice."

This provoked a shrug from Lilinette. "They say the same things about Shinigami. You're not that bad yourself." She turned her head, flicking eyesight down the halls warily. "You should go. You really will be alright if Starrk wakes up, but if someone else catches you here, there'll be trouble for sure."

"Okay." As Yachiru started to walk down the hall, again looking for Kenpachi, she turned back and waved weakly at Lilinette. "It was nice meeting you, Lili," she said to Lilinette, bestowing upon her the nickname of Lili. "If you want to wake up Starrk, you should try sitting on his stomach and screaming that everything's on fire. It always works on Ken-chan."

"Thanks." Lilinette smiled weakly, and slid off the windowsill into the darkness of the room beyond.

Yachiru puffed out her lip pensively as she searched for Kenpachi, thinking probably the hardest thoughts of her life.

The other girl seemed so nice.

If this didn't make you at least a little sad, then you have no soul.