Title: Fall from Grace
Author: CrescentSnow
Characters: Toushiro Hitsugaya, Rukia Kuchiki
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I wish I did though.
Summary: A rock bouncing ominously off the walls brought her back to the bitter reality. I'm gonna die. AU. Vampire!Hitsugaya.
Notes: So, this is sort of inspired by Hollow Sanctuary's A Lesson in Underestimation ( -man fic). It got me thinking of what-ifs in the HitsuRuki sense…. Also, Vampire Knight played a big role in the setting of this. The other half that inspired me was the loss of internet it's been days, and there's still no internet. Boredom. . .
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Rukia ducked behind a fallen wall in the ruins of an old church, attempting to catch her breath which was coming out in gasps. She focused on the silence intently, listening for the thudding footsteps of her pursuer, or anything- anything- that would signal the retched vampire's presence. She wasn't even sure they made noise when they walked; she was generally too concerned with slashing them before they killed her. Maybe she should pay more attention next time.
If she survived
She's Rukia Kuchiki for goodness' sake! She should've listened to her Brother. Dammit!
Worrying her bottom lip, she checked her surroundings again. Not good. There was nothing but ruins and, guess what?! more ruins around her. She really wished she had not taken Renji and Ichigo's jabs about her femininity. But damn it! She is and has always been and always be a female! Even if she acts more like a man!
Because what the helI is the importance of being girly when she's kicking butt in battle? Not even Brother comments on it. (Though to be truthful, his eyebrows make that tiny pinch whenever she does act like a male.)
A rock bouncing ominously off the walls brought her back to the bitter reality. I'm going to die, and all because of the stupid strawberry and pineapple! The moment she sees them they're going to wish they wrote their wills. If she sees them. No! Don't think like that. Rukia resisted the urge to smack her forehead, positive that would make too much noise, which would then bring the attention back to her.
Just what she was aiming for, really. Please let it be known that she was not being sarcastic, nope, not at all, nada.
Glancing around the wall she was currently hiding behind she pondered how she got into this situation to begin with. Killing the vampire this guy was apparently with was part of it, she was certain. (Because wasn't that what hunters like herself do? End the Hollows - vampires that were beyond saving?)
Not paying more attention to her surroundings was another part. The hollow vampire she just finished off just had to have someone he was with, right? Of course.
Dear gods, why her of all people? Bloody life. Then again danger was part of the occupational hazard. If hunting was an occupational hazard, at all. Which it wasn't. Hunting is a way of life, not a job like those slayers for hire makes them out to be.
But really, it was Strawberry and Pineapple's fault that she walked out on their mission (which led her to finding a solo mission) which again led her to her current situation.
Ok, this mission wasn't supposed to be this hard! (Brother made sure personally that she couldn't take those kinds of mission, which meant that someone messed up the paperwork. Her bet was with the Pineapple) She was sent here because there was a vampire that killed most, if not all the villagers. This wasn't hard at all compared to some of the solo missions she had done in the past. Moving on, when she got to the village, the vampire had holed up inside some old church's ruins.
The hard part came after she had slashed her target to oblivion.
There was another vamp in the premises. Which was why she was here, hiding behind a wall with a bleeding abdomen and multiple cuts all over her body.
And since vamps were sharks when it came to blood, she was sure that running would get her nowhere. At least she was able to take out the other one. Now it was going to go bye bye Rukia. Dammnit!
Her only regret was not telling her Brother how much she appreciated him and his deeds, not telling Lord Ukitake that she was fond of him and all his help to the hunters even though he was a vampire himself (Lord Kyouraku did not count, he was way too perverted for her tastes), and of course, not castrating Ichigo and Renji for everything they had done. Including eating her favourite cake, and ruining her chappy mug, and destroying her chappy collection…
Other than that, she wasn't scared, dying was a part of life, much more to that of a hunter herself.
That was why she was able to gather the remaining strength she had and impale the bastard with her sword. Said move only served to make the vampy angrier and rush at her with a freaking pole and impale her- already bleeding- abdomen with it. Karma is truly a bitch.
Just before she lost herself in the haze of over fatigue and helplessness, she briefly questioned why the vamp stopped short and had a look of complete and utter terror bleeding on his twisted face.
She wasn't sure where that flash of teal came from though.
.
He wasn't one to involve himself in the affairs of another, the other Lords could attest to that fact. He always, always took on the path with the less bloodshed, less hassle, less contact with other beings (He was and will never be a social butterfly). It was not because he was lazy – heavens forbid! – that was all his infuriating second in command, wasn't because he was stupid – he wasn't called a prodigy/genius for nothing, wasn't because he looked hideous – he's handsome and damn proud of it, and it certainly was not because he was gay or asexual – he just knew it was Matsumoto who started those infuriating rumours.
It was simply because nothing interests him anymore.
(Or in his second's words: Bored out of his mind)
It may seem outrageous; surely he could find something to amuse himself with, no? But then again, he was a vampire Lord, he may be the youngest among all of them, but that still doesn't change the fact that he had lived for more than a hundred years. Very few things surprise him anymore (which was why Matsumoto made it her personal duty to surprise the hell out of him, his reactions were very, very funny after all), and even fewer people could (namely, his second in command).
Which was why he was not only surprised but intrigued as well when a petite woman (she almost seemed like a girl with how small she looked) had managed to do the impossible – irrevocably capture the whole of his attention, during one of his strolls across the town (he wasn't even sure why he went to the ruins of the Church).
She was nothing special, just one of those hunters about to die due to either sheer stupidity or recklessness. With short black hair, pale skin (which he wasn't sure was her natural complexion, given the amount of blood on the floor), but it was her eyes that had drawn him in. They were an unnatural colour, almost like how unnatural his teal (or aquamarine, depending on whose point of view it) eyes were. They were a deep shade of lavender.
Glacial blue even, as she fought to stay conscious despite the amount of damage her body had taken.
With blood all over her like a morbid halo and her eyes that enchanting shade looking straight at him (she was obviously dazed) he felt his very core writhing and growling. Moments before death and the hunter managed to look breath taking and he could not, would not take his eyes off her.
He knew himself inside – out, his character and preferences, his ideologies and passion. He knew when a woman was attractive – their beauty he acknowledges, but other than that there wasn't much to draw him in.
So he was pretty surprised with what a half dead woman was eliciting from him.
The growl of the hollow brought him back to reality.
Before he could think about it, before his mind had registered what he was doing he had already finished off the low level vampire and scooping the hunter in his arms.
Nuzzling the hunter's neck and inhaling her sweet scent (soon, very soon she would possess his scent too) he smirked, dark and feral and possessive. True, very few things interests him, but when they do, he doesn't let them go. Ever.
He didn't know what possessed him. He just had to have her for himself. He knew it was his instincts and while he was a very logical person, he also knew that there were things that cannot be answered. Letting his instincts guide him and throwing all logical thoughts outside of the proverbial window (for the time being) and just allowing himself to act as his desires dictated was something he would thank for the rest of his life.
Getting back to his mansion fast wasn't a problem. Not even striding through it to his chambers with an almost dead hunter a chore. His servants new him and his temper, nobody would dare say a word against him (except Matsumoto, and he couldn't exactly rebuff her, she was practically his mother). Setting her to the bed in the only other chamber in this floor of the mansion with care and gentleness others assumed he didn't had. Taking stock of her injuries with a frown, he swiftly concluded that he should change her now instead of waiting for her to recover like he originally planned lest he wants her to die.
Positioning himself above her on all fours, he took in her scent knowing that this would be the last time he would be able to. After he was done transforming her, giving her a part of him, Toushiro knew that she would be carrying his scent for all eternity, something he had not bestowed to anyone else (other vampires make a big deal of it on their society, the more number of person that has your scent, the more powerful a person was, a load of bull).
Gripping the hunter's neck with his left hand and her waist with the other, Toushiro gave her a lick before expanding his fangs and sinking it on her delicate and unmarked neck.
.
Waking up with colours bursting behind her eyes with a foreign feeling of something on top of her and restraining her movements was certainly panic inducing, she justified for the tears welling at her eyes. She could feel her life-blood being drained and replaced with something that felt so wrong, wrong, wrong, wrongwrongwrong! And it seared as it flowed through her veins. She could feel her body shutting down, she was dying, dyingdyingdying!
It hurts, gods, it hurts. It feels like a bucket load of ice was dumped on her, like every vein she had was freezing as fast as her blood was. It hurts.
Moaning her pain for the torture she was being subjected to, and uselessly grasping at the thing practically lying on top of her and grabbing whatever she could to make the thing stop, because gods above, it hurt, and she wasn't sure she could take more of this.
It hurts and she was bleeding and dying and she didn't know what to do anymore and, and-
It stopped- all of it.
Dizzy as she was with it, she couldn't help but be thankful that someone out there and heard her pleas (as pathetic as it sounded).
Teal was the first thing she registered.
The next was the strangely electrifying effect those orbs had sent to her spine and straight to her core. There was something mystifying about it. It sent her muddled brain into a frenzy of whats and hows, all of which ended by the growing pressure at her hips.
(She belatedly realized that it was not a something that was on top of her but someone- someone!- anddeargods what would her clan say? What would her Brother say?)
"Try not to move too much, your mind hasn't yet adjusted to the changes in your body."
"Uh…"
"Go back to sleep, butterfly." Pressing cold lips to her pulse point, and she was out like a light.
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The next time she woke up was thankfully not pain induced; she's had more to last a lifetime, thank you very much. A few seconds and her training kicks in. Taking every detail and compartmentalizing them, trying to make sense of anything and everything at once. The deep red covers of the bed she was laying on, the white mantles, the lavender draperies of the four-poster bed, and the strangely comforting combination of the light and dark accent of the room. Over all, it reeks of money, just like back home.
The very thought of home was all it took for the tears to appear. How was she supposed to face her Brother? It was just a simple mission, and she messed up- big time. How was she supposed to report back? How was she-
How was she alive?
That alone captured the whole of her attention. How was she alive? She definitely remembered that freaking vamp impaling her like she was a freaking barbeque, so then how? That wound alone should have finished her off, not to mention the other injuries she sustained prior form it. She was supposed to be a goner, so then how in gods name did she survive, mind, not that she was ungrateful. Because she was! But still-
The opening of the door, gathered all of her attention. A man with a white something- cloth of some sort, she assumed- emerged and pinned her sitting on the bed with his teal eyes alone.
"I'm surprised you're awake, most take weeks to recover." Hiding his surprise behind the icy façade he was known for, Toushiro Hitsugaya, youngest Lord in the extensive history of the Vampire Kingdom, (which was quite extensive, mind, considering the average number of years that they can live) closed the richly furnished bedroom door behind him.
Briefly moving his eyes over her petite form, he was even more impressed and a little bit intrigued at the hunter - not anymore you made sure of it, after all, hismindwhispered- and how well she seemed to be adjusting. She wasn't flinching with every movement, there wasn't even the showing of the slightest bit of strain in her body, and her eyes, those deep violet pools that enthralled him for some unfathomable reason, were following him, rather his blood. Good instincts.
He was saying something, talking to her about something or another, but she couldn't concentrate. Not when all she could see was his pulse and veins and blood, and dear gods, his scent was overwhelming; it was something she could only describe as purely and utterly male.
He was coming closer to her making her body shake in anticipation; if she was standing she was sure she would have fallen with how badly her knees shook.
"Don't fight it" moving closer, and closer still. Closer, until all she could see was his rich blood flowing around his body; all she could hear was the steady thump-thump-thump of his –undeaden (she realized only after a couple of hours- heart. "You'll end up destroying yourself otherwise."
Reaching for him with speed and strength she didn't know she possessed, pinning him underneath her was easy – way too easy- the operational part of her brain said-her instincts. He didn't fight her. Not when she ripped open his immaculately pressed dress shirt. Not when she straddled him. Not when she pinned his lean but firm arms above him.
Not when she sank the fangs she didn't know she had at his neck.
Barely registering the fact that there was an arm at the back of her neck and at the small of her back (she was pretty sure she had them pinned before) that was pressing her closer- impossibly closer- to him, but could anyone blame her? She didn't think so. He tastes very much addicting, and he was cold, so cold, like ice that it sent shivers down her spine. She just couldn't get enough of him. She wanted more, more, and more. She wants his blood more than anything in the world.
His blood. . .
Violently jerking away from the male that was lying underneath her- She drank his blood, his BLOOD! Gods above! - And simultaneously trying to flee from him didn't work. While she had the element of surprise –or shock, depending on who was asking- on her side, he had obviously anticipated her move.
"What's the matter?" does his voice needed to be that husky?
Sitting up and making sure that she wouldn't accidentally tumble from his embrace. The white haired man inspected the petite woman once more. Taking in her panic expression and the wild look in her eyes, he could safely assume that what she was doing had finally caught up to her. That was fast.
"I…I…" She drank his blood… No! nononono- it can't be! Not a vampire! She'd rather be dead than be one of those mindless creatures! No! Furiously blinking away tears that she felt collecting at her eyes, she reminded herself of who she was – is – Vampire or not, she's still her.
Still the sister of Byakuya Kuchiki, head of House Kuchiki
Still the faithful hunter
She's still Rukia Kuchiki
"It's alright." Grabbing her chin and forcing her eyes to look at his, to look only at him, and no one else. "You're safe now little butterfly, no one will harm you." Closing his eyes at the feeling of triumph, of finally, finally having her for himself. Of having saved her from the cruel fate of death by that dirty vampire. "I made sure of it, personally."
Ripping her hunter uniform to shreds was easy considering her state of shock, but once she had recovered and actually started fighting against him it took even him an effort. Ah, but he was determined to see her out of that uniform and into his clothes (he didn't have any clothes for female, and he doubted that Matsumoto's would fit to her) so taking his dress shirt that he had brought earlier, he wrestled her out of it and into his clothes.
His dress shirt only reached her mid-thigh and kept falling on one of her shoulders. While she wasn't what one would call a knock-out, he could safely say that there was something endearing seeing her that way, or maybe that was because she was wearing not only his clothes but also his scent. The very thought made him smirk.
Trembling from the shock, and at the unholy light emerging from his gaze, she could do nothing as he pinned her to the bed (the same way she had done so mere moments before) and forcefully claimed her lips.
"You're now mine, for ever and all of eternity. Nothing will separate us now my butterfly. We'll be together Ru-ki-a~"
Or maybe not.
NOTES: Wow! 7 pages and 3k+ words! Pretty long for my standards Anyway, tell me what you think, I really appreciate them Oh, and I don't have a beta so tell me if there are mistakes and I'll fix them asap. Depending on the feedback I get I may or may not write another one-shot following this, you know, the what happened after her turning…