What you seem is not what it seems

Prologue

"I haven't done anything wrong!" A small boy with messy orange hair put his small, clenched fists on his head, trying to protect himself from the pushing and spitting that fell on him from six bigger kids.

"My mom says you are doomed, that's why you have such a strange hair color and talk to yourself!" A boy with freckles and brown shag kicked the smaller one, who was cornered behind the entrance of the kindergarten.

"Yeah, mine says the same, you are doomed!" A black haired one child joined the group and started to hit the prey harder.

The smallest one crouched, hiding his head in his arms and tried to stop the tears that came to his eyes.

The kicks and punches hurt.

The words hurt even more.

Even if he didn't believe them, because his mom assured him that he is not doomed, it was still horrible, he wished they would just leave him alone.

How will he tell his mommy that he had caused trouble once again? She will be really worried, she would not smile the way she usually smiles, she would wrinkle her forehead and ask Kaien what had happened… he cannot let his mommy worry about him…

"Look at him he's crying! Are you gonna go to your mommy? You can't even take care of yourself, can't you?" The group of boys around him became more aggressive and all he could do was to curl up and wait until they finish and go away. The punches became harder and the orange haired boy started to weep loudly.

"He's so pathetic!"

"Look, he's trembling!" A burst of laugh reached his ears, as the bullies increased the strength of the hits.

"Let's rip his hair off! Maybe it will grow again in normal color!" Somebody in the group shouted and poor child felt many palms pulling his hair.

That was so painful, that the tears became to flow with even bigger stream than they already were. When will they let him go?

"You are so strange, how something like you could even be born just like us? How can you be Kaien's brother?" Children were screaming cruelly while causing extreme physical and mental pain to the smallest and weakest boy.

With every second they became more merciless, finding more and more ways to humiliate the "weird one" or try to make him "normal".

"Hey, leave him alone!" A group of bullies heard the tough voice and stopped the tortures for a minute, trying to figure out who was the one who dared to ruin their favorite entertainment.

A tiny girl with messy black hair and huge glasses on, looked at them defiantly, like she was not afraid of them at all. They slowly turned around and walked in her direction.

She still didn't seem to lose her confidence. She stood in her spot looking at her enemies with eyes unnaturally enlarged by the glasses.

"And who are you, you cobra-girl, to tell us what to do? Do you want to switch places with him?"

"You can't beat somebody who can't defend himself!" She screamed with a strong voice, even though she slowly started to realize that seven boys were intending to beat her. So she did the only thing that seemed reasonable.

She cut legs of one of them, grabbed the hand of the orange haired crybaby and pulled him after her. The boy looked like somebody who didn't know what exactly was happening; he seemed really scared and not sure if he could trust her.

She squeezed his hand harder and ran faster, because the bullies finally realized what had happened and rushed after them, spending a wild cry of fight. She couldn't see how far behind they were because of her weak sight, but thanks to her suppleness she managed to overcome a hole in the fence-forcing her companion to do the same- and then they jumped together into the nearest bush, to hide themselves from the group of angry preschoolers, who really wanted a revenge for ruining their favorite fun.

Luckily, they didn't notice a slight movement of the bush they landed into and passed them shouting loudly, swearing revenge.

A pair of chased kids breathed heavily in the bush, still holding each other hands tightly, too afraid to make even the smallest move. Leaves gave them a perfect shelter and they could not feel safer in any other place.

When the sound of the noisy group disappeared in the distance, the girl finally turned her enormously huge eyes towards her new friend.

"That was close." She noticed his tearstained face and felt really angry. How could he not even try to defend himself?

"Oh, stop crying. You look pathetic, don't you know that? They only look for someone like you." She whispered and started to wipe boy's face off with the dirty sleeve of her sweater. After she had finished, he looked worse than previously, because his face was covered in the smudges of dust. This connected with messy orange hair, a few scratches and scared look in the eyes gave him a look of an orphan, who begged on the street.

He wept a couple more minutes, not saying a word, just sitting quietly between the thin branches of the bush.

Weakling, crybaby, weeper… Those were a few from a sea of words the girl could use to describe him. She proudly thought that she was never like that; even though other kids made fun of her more frequently than of any other, she has never looked this pathetic, and as much as her health allowed, she could take a revenge on those who were teasing her.

But there was something in that boy, what made her want to take care of him; it was the opposite feeling of most of their peers- they always felt more like beating him, to show him how little he's worth, especially compared to his twin brother.

"Hey." She spoke casually, trying to make him focus on something other than his wounds.

Unfortunately he didn't react.

"Hey, look at me." She put her hand on his, which rested on his knees, while his head was hidden between them. He reacted at the touch and raised huge, watery, amber eyes at her.

"Where do you live? I will walk you home. Don't cry." She wiped his tears once again.

"I can't tell you." He replied, while his huge eyes didn't get any smaller; he was still very scared.

"Why not?"

"I can't tell strangers where I live."

"I just saved you, you can tell me."

"But my mommy said…"

"Do you want to meet them again? If they see you again today, they will not be very pleased, you know that?"

"But…"

"Just tell me where you live! Now!"

"Won't you tell anyone?" he asked suspiciously.

"I won't." She sighed so deeply that the heavy glasses slid down an inch on her tiny nose.

"You promise?" He raised his hand uncertainly towards her with his smallest finger and she reached hers.

"I promise." With that she took his hand and they left their hideout.

They walked proudly through the town and people who passed them smiled at the view- a pair of the ugliest and dirtiest kids they have ever seen.

The girl, which was taller for about an inch had raven, uncombed hair, which created an aureole around her head, huge glasses, that extended her naturally big eyes about three times, an emerald sweater, with a hole in the sleeve, dirty with dust and mud; and light, jeans dungarees, also covered with all types of dirt.

The boy walking by her side had messy, orange hair, where two or three small leaves stuck at the back of his head, a yellow T-shirt, stained and torn in a few places; the same went for his brown, corduroy trousers. His look was even more amusing, because his face was covered with smudges of dirt and his nose and cheeks were scratched.

What was the funniest thing, neither of them seemed to pay attention to their looks, they just walked down the street, holding each hands tightly, speaking about some very importing issues, considering the looks on their faces.

"Don't worry, next time I will also protect you." She squeezed his hand harder.

"And one day I will protect you." He squeezed her hand back.

"Ok. So I guess we are friends now." The boy turned his petrified face towards her.

"I don't have any."

"Don't worry, me neither. But from now on, we're gonna be friends forever."

"And you won't make fun of my hair?" He asked with hope.

"I won't. But you can't make fun of my glasses." She replied sharply.

"That's fair. Do you want to meet my mom?" Suddenly he became more energetic and started to pull her harder towards his home.

That day, they had promised each other one more thing: that neither of them will never be alone again.

~Hello! This is just a prologue, starting in Ichigo and Rukia's childhood. This will be totally AU fic, some facts are totally different from manga, but I will try to keep most characters IC as well as I can.

It will be about 10 chapters long and I want to warn you, that the updates might not be regular, since my life is of that type. I never know when I get time for writting.

I'm hoping to find out what you think, thank you a lot for reading!

Take care,

M.