Ichigo Kurosaki doesn't party.

He hates parties. These superficial social gatherings were just an excuse for guests to overindulge in hedonistic behaviour that would only be damaging in the long run. Ichigo wasn't the type of guy to want to invest his time in anything meaningless. He owned a small emergency clinic in Karakura Town which he inherited from his father, and had been running the damn thing since graduating from university. That was about... Uh... Six years ago now? He had about two years until he hit the big three-zero, so that sounded about right.

Anyway.

Ichigo Kurosaki wasn't a fuckboy. Never would be. He never went to these stupid things.

So what the fuck was he doing fucking around in this stupid fucking party?

'Hey, Ichigo!' Renji Abarai, host of the evening and delinquent extraordinaire, greeted his friend from the other side of the living room. The heavily tatted redhead made his way across the floor, clicking his tongue at a couple of hoodlums playing catch with an expensive-looking vase. When he managed to finally make it to Ichigo, he took his buddy in a brotherly embrace and motioned to the makeshift bar on the coffee table. 'What're you doing without a drink, boy?!'

'Grow up.' the clinician growls back, pushing Renji off of him gently. 'Peer pressure's immature.'

'Oh, come on.' he frowned. 'I just wanna make sure you're having a good time. That scowl of yours needs to disappear now and again. Your face might get stuck that way, you know.'

'Don't care.'

'Well, you should care. I mean damn, maybe that's what's scaring all the ladies away-'

'Ok, enough.'

'Rukia!' Renji called out, distracted by a glimpse of someone he knew passing by. 'Rukia!' he motioned for this person to come closer, though Ichigo was too busy shaking his head at the floor to look up and see who exactly it was. Once he finally stopped sulking, he took a deep breath to ready himself to greet whoever it was that Renji had beckoned over.

Ichigo stiffened.

He wasn't expecting a short woman in an impeccably white dress. She didn't look a day over eighteen at most. She appeared out of place amidst the chaos of the house party.

'This is Rukia.' Renji grinned proudly. 'We've been friends for a really long time now. Since we were little.'

'Oh.' Ichigo raised his brows. 'You never mentioned her before.'

'She's, uh... Not from here. So, uh, yeah.'

The orange-haired hothead had been friends with Renji since their freshman year at university. Renji dropped out after their junior year, but they remained close friends anyway. In all that time, Renji had failed to mention this supposedly super special girl.

It's just, you know.

If Ichigo knew her before tonight, he'd probably mention her quite a bit to his male peers.

Rukia was stunning. She looked like she just stepped out of a storybook on Japanese mythology. Her midnight hair was richer in darkness than a starless sky, and these locks of absent light that cascaded down to an impossibly tiny waist contrasted beautifully against skin so pale that it seemed to glow. Yet the most lovely characteristic of hers was a pair of brilliantly blue eyes illuminated by playful flecks of silver-grey. She acknowledged Ichigo with a nod and a bow, but her facial features refused to morph out of their cool iciness.

'Uh... Yo.' Ichigo's words stumbled clumsily out of his mouth. It was difficult maintaining composure in the presence of this beautiful girl. Plus, he was never good at holding lengthy relationships with the ladies anyway. They made him feel awkward. He got attached way too easily and ended up having his feelings hurt by women who may have been attracted to him or the idea of him, but couldn't at all understand him. He supposed that was his own fault. By his own diagnostics, he didn't know how to treat women in such a way that fostered a healthy, lasting relationship between them.

He was pretty good at bringing them home, though.

Just for a night. Beyond that, he was as smooth as sandpaper.

'Yo?' she tilted her head quizzically. 'What is a yo?'

'It's not a thing, it's an expression.' Renji explained as if her inquiry wasn't weird as hell.

'Oh!' her face brightens like she's just realized that she invented the toaster. 'I see! Human speech is so strange!'

Oh.

No wonder Renji never mentioned her.

She was batshit insane.

'Who are you?' her attention turns back to Ichigo, who's about to respond, but is intercepted by Renji once again.

'This is Ichigo. He lives down the street.'

'I can speak for myself, you know.' Ichigo snaps, immediately regretting that flash of heat. His eyes fly apologetically to Rukia, who seems completely unfazed by his aggression. 'Sorry. I'm not always this rough around the edges.'

'Rough around the edges?' she repeats the words slowly like she's trying to process them. 'How could you be rough around the edges? You don't even have edges.'

Ok.

'Haha!' Renji burst into faux laughter, deafening and annoying at the same time. 'You're hilarious, Rukia! Ha! Ha! Right, Ichigo?! Right?!'

'I don't see what's so funny.' she shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. Renji was making her nervous. She already tended not to do well in larger groups, and his behaviour certainly wasn't helping her anxiety.

Usually, her Nii-sama didn't trust her to be out in the night surrounded by so many humans all at once. In fact, she hadn't been this close to them in a very long time. She was skeptical about attending this party at first, but Renji convinced her that it would be a fun experience. Renji, after all, was a human. Surely if all humans were like him, she had nothing to worry about?

And since he was in love with her, he needed her to be comfortable around humans before he could confess his feelings for her. If she was going to live with him, that is. Knowing Byakuya Kuchiki, he would never allow Renji to live amongst their people. Hence, Renji would ask Rukia to leave her home behind to stay with him.

From an outsider's perspective, it was undoubtedly a selfish request of him to make. But in Renji's mind, he had rightly earned the right to ask this of her. Unfortunately, Rukia was completely ignorant of Renji's feelings. What's more, is that she herself didn't see him in any romantic light. She would never see his proposal coming.

Speaking of which.

Where was that ring?

'Anyway...' Renji continued. 'Ichigo, could you stick with her for a bit? I, uh... I need to find something.'

'What?!' he hissed at the redhead. 'Renji, where-'

But Renji was long gone. He beelined for the staircase, practically hopping all the way up to his room. Ichigo assumed that he probably needed to pee very, very badly or maybe he needed some space from all the chaos at the bottom floor of the house. Though that would have been uncharacteristic of Renji, it certainly wasn't a possibility. Ichigo himself felt like he needed to get the fuck out of here or he would suffocate.

'So...' Rukia's voice broke into Ichigo's thoughts. 'What do you do for a living?' she ran a hand up his forearms to squeeze his biceps, just like she saw Rangiku Matsumoto do to Shuhei Hisagi earlier on in the evening. Rukia didn't know how to approach humans properly, and she had been told by Renji that vampiric tendencies were often regarded as cold in human society. Therefore, Rukia thought that she could do no wrong by mimicking the gestures of a well-liked human female. Surely if Rangiku could get all these people to like her, Rukia could achieve the same outcome just by copying her. After all, although Rukia was trying to be unsuspecting, she also desperately wanted to form friendly connections with humans.

Byakuya always said that humans were vicious, and that's why he separated Rukia from them at an earlier age.

Rukia wanted to prove her brother wrong.

Unfortunately, Ichigo misinterpreted Rukia's advances. Renji's quick exit and Rukia's forwardness prompted him to hypothesize that Rukia had probably asked to be introduced to him earlier on in the night, which is why Renji brought them together.

Well.

How flattering.

But there was still something bothering him.

'How old are you?' he asked calmly. She appeared to be not a day over eighteen, but he hoped that was because she was short and had a youthful face. It wasn't in him to engage with girls substantially younger than him, even if they were technically adults. For fuck's sake, Yuzu and Karin were already twenty-five! He frowned deeply at the thought of some middle-aged sleaze bag partnering up with either one of his sisters.

'Hmm?' Rukia feigned miscommunication, panicking inside. Should she tell him the truth? What if he didn't believe her? How old could humans live up to again? She couldn't even properly gauge.

'How old are you?' he pressed, and it was obvious he meant business.

The truth, then.

'A hundred and eighteen.'

He laughed boisterously. 'You're really fucking crazy, aren't you?'

Rukia's eyes widened and her gaze fell to the floor. She opened her mouth like she wanted to stay something, but sealed her lips as quickly as her mood had changed. His question obviously sparked a deep-seated loneliness within her, and he felt a sickening lurch at his stomach. Ichigo might not have been the most outwardly caring guy, but he hated upsetting others.

'S-Sorry.' he cleared his throat. 'I didn't mean it.'

'No?' she looked up at him with sad eyes. 'Crazy is bad, isn't it?'

'N-No! Crazy's great! Like, uh... "It's a crazy night!" or "What a crazy day!"! Crazy's good!'

'Eh?'

'Look, crazy nowadays is a good thing! It's a compliment!'

'Really? Says who?'

'Says... Says the Mad Hatter!'

'The who?'

'The Mad Hatter.'

'Oh!' she smiled. 'I want to meet this Mad Hatter!'

'O-Ok...' he chuckled nervously. Boy, was this chick insane. But she was also lovely, and if she wanted to hook up with him, he wasn't going to refuse. 'Anyway...' he leaned in to whisper into her ear. 'Do you want to see my place?'

Rukia's eyes lit up. Her plan had worked! She just made a new friend! He was inviting her to his place, and they'd be able to form a friendship, and she'd be able to show her brother that vampires and humans didn't need to live in separate societies!

'Rukia...' he tried again, his fingertips trailing up behind her back. 'Do you want to-'

'Yes!' she hugs him around his neck, and he reciprocates by pressing his body against hers. 'Yes, take me-'

He didn't need to be told twice. He led her out of the house gently, taking her hand in his. She followed him without a second thought. If anything, she was ecstatic about having made a human friend besides Renji.

When they arrived at the Kurosaki residence, the entire household was pitch black. Ichigo knew that no one would be home as Yuzu and Karin were out on a road trip with their friends. Rukia made small talk, and he happily obliged. She was always curious about something or the other, but he chalked all that up to a highly probable problem up in her head.

'Your room's pretty small.' she commented callously, not thinking twice about how rude she was being. Her kind didn't mince words, and she hadn't really yet learned the social etiquette amongst humans.

Under normal circumstances, Ichigo would have been offended at her words, but he was dying with anticipation to get her underneath him.

She sits on his bed and kicks off her shoes. Her white dress hikes up to her upper thighs, and he wastes no time sliding beside her. He thinks silently to himself that she's quite forward. But he can be forward too.

'Rukia...'

'Hmm?' she faces him, and he leans in to kiss her.

Confused, but also excited, Rukia's pupils dilate to an alarming size. Instantly, she understood that she had completely misinterpreted the situation earlier. This man didn't want to be friendly with her; he wanted to take her home to fuck her. Though she was surprised, she wasn't against the idea of sleeping with him. Actually, she was more than willing to participate. She was attracted to this man and he had been the only human in a long time to treat her with kindness. She was just shocked that humans had the ability to desire physical intimacy after such a short time. Her brother always told her that although humans had much shorter lifespans, they craved deep, meaningful love, and thus it took them eons to be able to let another being share their body with them.

Without leaving his lips, she undoes the back of her dress and kicks it off of her. He follows suit, unbuttoning his shirt and tossing it to join her own garments on the floor. Her bra follows, and his hands roam all over her skin like he was searching for something. It may have been because he hadn't been with a woman in a long time, but he found himself totally seduced by the unusual softness of her skin, the coolness of her touch as she worked to unbuckle his belt, and the sugary but almost understated fragrance that grew stronger the more she revealed himself to him.

He broke the kiss, ambers smouldering in hot, hot desire. His head is spinning, the world around him is blurring, but she is the only focus. Her image is sharp to him, commanding his total attention (not that he'd look anywhere else right now). He cups her face and leans in to give her another crushing kiss. She tries to match his expert passion, but he's more experienced than she thought he'd be.

'Ichi... Ichi...' she tried making his name out between breathless kisses, but he pushes her onto her back.

'You're pretty.' he whispers subconsciously, brushing her hair away from her face. Flattered, her lips pull up into a soft smile and her sapphire stare gleams with an innocent happiness that seemed almost out of place in their current predicament. He realizes what he's said and blushes a mad shade of red, pulling his hand away from her and settling his palm on top of the pillow behind her to support his weight. His free hand is on her knee, pushing to spread her legs to uncover glistening, need heat.

He can't wait anymore. He knows he could tease her more, but if she's this wanting, and if he is to retain any sanity for tonight, he would have to attend to both their desires immediately.

He enters her and she howls in pleasure.

He's salivating. She's too appetizing beneath him, sweaty and writhing around in his sheets like she couldn't get him deep enough inside of her. His fingers ghost over her lips, and she kisses them innocently before taking two in her mouth. She sucks on them like she's trying to mirror how he's fucking her, making the bones of her neck and collarbone all the more prominent to him as her head bobs up and down the length of his fingers. His gaze is drawn to the pale, exposed skin of her nape, and although it isn't the most vulgar part of her, he finds the urge to mark it.

He withdraws his digits from her to cup her by the cheeks firmly, holding her in place.

'Ichigo...?'

His head dips down to her neck, where he bites down hard.

'Ichigo!' she cries to the ceiling in half-pain and complete pleasure. Her hand flies up at the back of his head, pressing down so that his teeth dig further into her flesh. He's suckling on her now, alternating between slow slurping and harsh nipping. Copper blood hits his tongue, but that doesn't deter him whatsoever. She claws at his arms and he almost lets up because he thinks he's hurting her, but the shrill words torn from her mouth are more than enough encouragement to keep going. 'Anh, yes!'

'You're really fucking crazy.' he grins at her when he finally lets her go. He glances at the angry, bruising flesh he's left behind and he can't help but feel like he wants to do it again.

'Ichigo...' she begins in a darkly seductive tone, her pupils dark and large. 'Do you want to be mine?'

'I'm already yours.' he shoots back with a handsome, lopsided smile. He doesn't realize that her question is laced with some underlying intentions.

Rukia wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him closer to her. He thrusts harder, faster into her so that the tension at his groin is tenfold. His eyes roll back and his head collapses to right beside hers, exposing his neck to her this time.

She mistakes this as an offering to be hers.

She bites down on the pulsating vein at his neck. He's so lost in their lovemaking that he doesn't feel any pain when her fangs extend and puncture into his skin, draining him of a bit of his blood. Of course, she doesn't want to kill him - she releases her hold on him after just a few seconds. Soon after she's finished feeding from him, she comes apart screaming his name. He follows her shortly after, refusing against his better judgement to pull out of her.

Rukia is convinced; this man wanted to make her his bride today.

He probably knew that she was a vampire.

How else could he have known all the steps to properly propose to her? First the bite, then finishing inside... There was just one more missing ingredient.

'I think I love you.' he teases her huskily, giving her a lazy, wet kiss.

He meant it in a joking manner, but Rukia couldn't take him more seriously when those three magical words left him.

'I love you too.' she answers, completing their vows.

The full moon shines an alluring spotlight on their entangled bodies. As Ichigo lulls into innocent slumber, Rukia can't keep herself from smiling to herself.

She was pleased with her new husband.

A/N: Thank you so much for your interest in this story! I was really hesitant about writing a vampire AU because I feel like it's been done many times before. Then again, I'd regret it if I didn't write a story that I wanted to.

Thanks so much again for your interest! I can't wait to hear your thoughts.