Author's Note: Whoo, another KusaHitsu fic-thingie. This is going to be a five-shot. No, these events did not actually happen. They are based on actual events though. I don't want to give spoilers for the DiamondDust Rebellion anyway.

As Kusaka Sojiro had put it, class at the moment was…well, boring.

Tall, thin, pale-skinned and dark-haired, the teenager was considered by his classmates and instructors to be what one would call "gifted." He had a natural talent for the stuff that the academy taught, be it kido or swordsmanship.

He'd rather be practicing either of those two.

Instead, along with the rest of his classmates in the advanced class 1-A, Kusaka was grudgingly flipping through a dull textbook on the laws of Soul Society, filling out the worksheet that accompanied the reading assignment. It was tedious, seemingly pointless, and despite the fact that he was already done, he had found himself becoming extremely bored.

He let out a long and tired sigh, absently twirling his pen with his fingers and gazing out the window.

This had become a usual routine. Everything in the academy, for Kusaka, was either too easy, or just plain boring. Being at the top of the class, ranked number one, he was never faced with an interesting challenge, and as a consequence, he'd usually be seen yawning, daydreaming, or struggling to stay awake.

"Psst! Sojiro! What did you write down for question twelve?"

With an exasperated roll of his eyes, the raven-haired youth turned in his seat to give the student behind him a reproachful glare. It figured. Naturally, other students of the academy would often ask him for help, offering money bribes even at times. But he never ended up assisting them like they hoped. The work was unbearably easy, in his opinion anyway, so he saw no reason why he needed to help them at all.

"Come on, Sojiro! You're a good guy, right?"

"Maybe I'm not," he responded evenly, turning back around. It was a waste of time to deal with those lazy bums who couldn't figure things out on their own.

"Time!"

The instructor held up his hands, signaling for the class to stop writing. "Put down your pens and pass your papers up, I don't care if you're done or not!"

The classroom was instantly filled with the sound of shuffling papers, frantic last-minute scribbling, and groans of protest.

Amidst the chaos, no one noticed when the classroom door opened. A young boy with startling aquamarine eyes and snowy white hair stepped into the classroom, clutching an armful of textbooks to his chest. He couldn't have been very old at all; he was wearing the smallest uniform size offered, and yet, it still hung loosely on his thin frame. Eyes wide and unblinking, the boy hesitantly took a step towards the instructor.

The instructor looked up at him, an expression of doubt on his face. "Are you lost, young man?"

"I don't reckon I am…This is Advanced Class 1-A…right?"

"Yes, and you are…?"

"Hitsugaya Toshiro, sir."

The instructor's expression lit up. "Ah, I remember now," he answered, "I received notice that you would be joining our class today."

"I suppose so."

There was a brief pause before the instructor cleared his throat, clapping his hands loudly to get the attention of the chattering class.

"Everyone, we have a new student today. This is Hitsugaya Toshiro. Please treat him with respect."

The volume in the classroom once again began to swell as a chorus of low murmurs filled the air. Was this some kind of joke? Who the heck did that little squirt think he was, traipsing into the room, expecting everyone to believe that a kid like him had been placed in the advanced class?

"Sensei!" one student spoke up, a scornful smirk plastered on his smug face. "Are you sure there isn't a mistake with that kid's registration? There's no way that little punk could have gotten into the academy, period, let alone in our class."

The instructor coughed, facing the student who had spoken. "I don't see why you should be complaining, considering the fact that Hitsugaya-san here scored over ten times higher than you did on the entrance exam."

A hush of disbelief fell over the classroom, the student who had spoken scowling, rather humiliated.

Kusaka raised an eyebrow.

Hitsugaya Toshiro, eh? Well, he was certainly going to prove to be an interesting person…

"You may choose any of the empty seats in the classroom's rear."

With a brief nod, Hitsugaya slowly made his way down the aisles of desks, his eyes downcast, seeming a little abashed at the whispers that arose as he moved through the groups of students.

"Hey, brat," the student who had spoken earlier hissed as he walked by, "I wonder how a midget like you is going to be able to see the board from all the way back there."

"I'm a little concerned about that myself," Hitsugaya retorted coolly, continuing to make his way calmly past. "It appears that your fat head will be blocking my view."

There was another stunned silence.

The student opened and closed his mouth like a mentally retarded goldfish, unable to think of anything to say back until he finally spluttered, "Well, maybe you're just too short!"

"Perhaps. And maybe you need to cut down your calorie intake."

Laughter erupted through the room. Muttering to himself angrily about getting back at him later, rather red in the face, the student turned back around in a huff. Hitsugaya, on the other hand, simply found and empty seat and sat down as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Kusaka had to admit he was a little surprised at this. That particular student was known for being a troublemaker who enjoyed mercilessly taunting students that he found did not suit his tastes. He even looked intimidating, and this Hitsugaya kid had guts to speak to him like he had. At any rate, he could tell that the belligerent fool probably had already taken a strong disliking towards the new student, and this couldn't end very well for either of them.

Shortly afterwards, the bell rang, signaling it was time for the students to take a brief break before the next class would begin. With a sigh of relief, Kusaka scooped up his papers, cleaning up his things and readying himself to leave.

As he started out the door, he suddenly heard the instructor speaking to him.

"If you want to stay number one in the class, Kusaka, you'd better step up your game. That new kid's something special. He'll surpass you in a matter of days if you aren't careful."

"Got it, sensei," the raven-haired teen muttered as he exited the room. So, the instructor obviously thought that this new kid was going to be quite a challenge, huh? Well, they'd have to see about that.

Clutching his books to his chest in fear of dropping them and losing them, Hitsugaya slowly made his way across the campus, surrounded by groups of students chattering away. They had someone to talk to and relate to, he realized with a small ache in his heart, whereas he was quite alone in the vast sea of friends talking happily with each other.

He promptly tried to shake the thoughts out of his head. Who needed friends, anyway? He needed to concentrate on his studies if he wanted to become a shinigami and do well as one.

As he continued to weave through the crowds, slipping easily past people because of his small size, his personal contemplations on his social life (or lack thereof) were suddenly and quite rudely interrupted by the obnoxiously irritating sound of someone whistling at him, the source of the annoying gesture coming from the general direction of a group of unsavory-looking students skulking around by a building, leaning against the wall with scowls plastered on their faces in a sad attempt to look cool.

"Lookin' good there, newbie!"

Disliking being addressed by the term "newbie," Hitsugaya turned to face the person who had decided to speak to him, recognizing him as the student who had tried to insult him earlier in the day.

"And you're not looking so good yourself," he snapped, not wanting to bother dealing with him or his grubby-looking cronies. After all, he wasn't very fond of any of them at all.

"That wasn't very nice of you, was it?" the student frowned, moving away from the wall and towards the severely annoyed Hitsugaya. "Look, newbie, we got off to a bad start earlier today, didn't we? Want me to make it up to you?"

"No," Hitsugaya answered plainly. "What I would want you to do is to stop bothering me."

"Aw, don't be like that!" he protested, "It's really a pity that your words aren't quite as pretty as your face, huh? Maybe you should consider being nicer?"

"I will when you consider not being such an ass," Hitsugaya huffed, turning away and starting off. He was so not in the mood for this right now.

That seemed to be just the thing to do to tick the student off.

"Hey, brat, just who d'ya think you are, trying to ignore me!?" He reached out and roughly grabbed the white-haired boy by the shoulder, trying to redirect his attention.

"Don't touch me!" Hitsugaya hissed, wrenching away from him angrily.

The time bomb was ticking.

"And why shouldn't I?"

"Because there's a possibility that your idiocy might rub off on me. If you don't mind, I'd like to go spend my time elsewhere where there will actually be a point."

This seemed to be the last straw for the student.

"Why, you…You little bitch!"

Without warning, he struck Hitsugaya viciously across the face with all his strength, sending the smaller boy sprawling to the floor, his textbooks scattering every which way.

"You like that? D'ya want some more, huh, little bookworm!?"

Silence.

"I asked you a question, brat!" the infuriated student yelled, grabbing Hitsugaya by the front of his kimono and jerking him into an upright position. "Are you stupid or something!?" He pulled his hand back, ready to slap him again when he felt someone's hand resting on his shoulder.

"Leave him alone."

The student turned around, nearly jumping out of his skin when he found himself facing none other than Kusaka Sojiro, who did not look like the happiest camper out there.

"Cheh! What're you gonna do about it, Sojiro?"

"If I were you, it'd be in my best interests not to find out," Kusaka answered coldly. "Now let go of him."

Muttering, he released Hitsugaya, turning to his group of cronies. "C'mon guys, let's get out of here," he grumbled, and they all shuffled off like beaten dogs with their tails between their legs. Though none of them admitted it, it was actually quite obvious that all of them were actually quite frightened of Kusaka.

As soon as they were out of sight, Kusaka turned to Hitsugaya, who was staring up at him with wide eyes.

"You alright?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," he murmured, quickly looking away, his cheeks tinged slightly with a rosy shade of pink. He knelt down onto the ground, collecting his scattered textbooks.

"Here, let me help you," Kusaka spoke quickly, kneeling down next to him and helping him pick up the displaced books until a neat stack had been reformed.

"Thank you," the somewhat flustered boy managed to whisper out shyly.

"No problem," Kusaka replied. Despite himself, he couldn't help but smile at him. The student he had scared off a couple of seconds was at least right about one thing: the young boy was extremely pretty. "Hitsugaya Toshiro, right?" he inquired as both of them stood.

"Yeah."

"Winter, huh? That's a nice name."

"Thank you. And…um, might I have your name?"

"Ah. Well, I suppose there'd be no harm in that." The dark-haired teen stuck out his hand for a shake with an amiable smile. "Kusaka Sojiro. It's nice meeting you, Toshiro."

"It's nice meeting you too, Kusaka…And, erm…I'd prefer it if you'd call me by my family name…"

"Oh? Well, I'm not that kind of person who bothers with honorifics and all that. I hope you don't mind. I'd actually like it if you'd address me by my given name."

"Oh…but you see, 'I'm not that kind of person.' I don't like to speak so informally."

"You got me there," Kusaka chuckled. "Fine, I'll make you a deal, okay? You can call me by my family name if you insist on it, but in exchange, I get to call you by your given name. Is that alright with you?"

"I suppose that'll work," Hitsugaya answered.

"Great," Kusaka smiled. "Well, both of us had better be going to class now…You know, it would be really nice if I could…Well, if I could see you around some other time, alright?"

"Y-Yeah," the white-haired boy stammered. "You too."

"Alright, talk you later then!"

"I…I suppose." With that, Hitsugaya hurried off, not wanting to be late to his next class.

Kusaka, on the other hand, had already decided that he had taken quite a liking to the strange new student.