"It's true, you are a good woman. Then again, you may be the antichrist."

Tombstone – Doc Holiday

Night had descended on the town of Rukongai and Uryuu was finding it hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in. Having a gash in your side and shoulder will do that. He twisted on the bed he'd procured in the saloon and winced as the motion pulled at his muscles.

They had come into town like refuges from a natural disaster, cut and bruised beyond belief, and to his surprise Orihime had run out to him. She had gotten tired of waiting and had come into town to speak with Rangiku.

It had been quite a blow when she'd found out that her friend was dead. Josie and the other girls had immediately hustled them into the saloon and fetched the doctor and Orihime had disappeared with a very subdued Sally; he hadn't seen her since.

Uryuu twisted again and cursed, which is why he was wide awake and staring at the door when he heard the handle jiggle. Orihime slipped inside a moment later, dressed in a thin camisole and a simple skirt. Her bare feet padded slightly towards him and he felt the mattress dip slightly when she sat down.

"Hi," she whispered.

He smiled softly.

"Hi," he greeted back. She bit her lip and sighed when he pulled her down next to him. She snuggled against him.

"You gave me a scare, Uryuu. When I saw you slumped over Quincy like that I thought you were…" He kissed her gently, stilling her words.

"I'm fine…I swear. How's Sally?" Her eyes clouded.

"He raped her. I-I just can't believe it. I-I w-wish Rangiku was still here she'd know what…" She trailed off and sighed. "Josie's going to stay with her tonight, I just wish…"

He brushed his lips over her temple and tightened his hold on her. He knew what she wished.

"Uryuu your wound," she admonished. He smiled.

"It's fine, it's the other side, and I want to hold you." If it pulled at his shoulder he didn't care, he wanted her in his arms.

"How are my brother and my sisters and the others?"

She bit her lip again. "Ichigo's still in the saloon, brooding and drinking whiskey. Rukia is with Renji, he's hurt bad but the doc thinks he's gonna make it. I put Karin and Yuzu in a room down the hall from Chad; their injuries were pretty minor. I think they're all asleep by now."

They lay there silently for a moment, but his hands grew tired of being idle and he started rubbing her back, smoothing his fingers down her spine, up her ribcage, to gently caress the underside of her generous breasts, and back down her abdomen, over her hips.

She sucked in a breath, and closed her eyes; enjoying his touch. "Uryuu, we can't…you're injured."

He smirked. "Not that injured, never that injured."

In fact, he'd probably have to be dead, or near it, not to want to touch Orihime when she was this close to him. He claimed her lips, coaxing them apart and slipping his tongue deep inside. She moaned and sucked lightly on his invading appendage, causing him to shudder. He broke the kiss shifted slightly and kissed a languid path down her slender neck, gently pulling her camisole up and over her head freeing her unbound breasts.

The sensitive peaks puckered in the chilly air, and he dipped his head sucking one sensitive nub into his hot mouth. She moaned as Uryuu spent an inordinate amount of time simply suckling her breasts. When he was finished with the first one he placed a gently kiss on the distended tip and moved to the next one, taking as much of her tender flesh into his mouth as he could, gently sucking and swirling his tongue around the tip.

She felt heat shoot straight to her rapidly dampening sex and whimpered.

"I-I l-love it when y-you do this."

He didn't say anything, just continued his sensual assault while his slim, aristocratic fingers pushed her skirt off her hips, parted her soaked folds, and plunged into her warmth. She yelped and white flashed behind her eyes while he suckled her tit and brushed those masterful fingers over the distended bundle of nerves between her thighs.

In and out he pumped, adding all four of his appendages and brushing her clit with each languid stroke; slowly increasing the pace while he switched his mouth back to her other breast. He tongued the nipple and the combination caused a steady heat to build in her stomach. Orihime was mewling, moaning, and withering next to him.

She had the vague thought that she loved the fact he liked to make her come. He seemed to see it as his manly duty, and she wondered how she had gone so long without ever feeling this bone deep pleasure before.

All too soon the delicious pressure between her thighs started to reach a crescendo. Two more thrusts of his masterful fingers and she felt her stomach clench as moisture leaked out and coated his stroking hand. He pulled them away from her, and kissed her long and deep as her body calmed slowly from her delicious orgasm.

He pulled his lips away and murmured. "Never too injured, never too tired, not when you respond like that. You're beautiful Orihime and I love you."

She started and tried to pull away but he tightened his hold on her. She blushed and turned her head away.

"Uryuu you don't…you can't…have you…have you forgotten what I am?" He gently turned her head back towards him and his blue eyes bore into her gray ones.

"Orihime Inoue, do you honestly think that matters to me? Besides, that was something you use to do, it was never who you were. Marry me?" he whispered. She bit her lip.

"Uryuu…you don't mean that…you don't want me." His blue gaze flared.

"Don't you love me?" Her eyes widened and she blushed.

"Yes," she whispered. He grinned.

"Marry me," he entreated. She shook her head.

"You're crazy, you know that right?" His grin got wider.

"Marry me anyway."

She worried her bottom lip again and her eyes clouded.

"Uryuu, you say you love me now, but what about when I'm old? I-I'm not always going to look like this you know. One day these boobs that men seem to love so much are going to sag and my skin will wrinkle and I won't be beautiful anymore."

Uryuu ran one slim finger over her cheek, down her slender throat, and rested his open palm between those generous breasts, over the one feature he loved the most about her. He could feel the staccato beat against his hand.

"That may be true but this, right here; this is what I love about you. It's where all those fine, generous qualities of your spirit reside…and those never change."

Her breath caught as she gazed helplessly into his impossible ocean deep eyes. She felt her heart skip and a shift deep within her soul.

Uryuu loved her, really and truly loved her. A moment stretched into a minute and a minute into five and she finally released the breath she had been holding. He loved her and that made her decision easy.

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes I'll marry you, you lunatic."

"Good," he said. He smirked, rolled her under him, and plunged deep inside her. She gasped.

"Uryuu no, you'll open your wounds!"

"Don't care," he whispered back and started moving over her, passion and love building with each sensual thrust of their straining bodies.

When they went over the edge together Orihime clung to him and knew that from this moment on her life would never be the same.

Ichigo poured another shot into his glass, his hand none too steady as he slammed the half empty bottle back down on the table. He looked around the vacant saloon and lifted his shot glass in a toast.

"Here's too you Rangiku, I promise to track the bastard down that killed you if it's the last thing I do."

He tossed the shot back and poured another one, a slight frown on his face. He couldn't believe that bastard Aizen had escaped him. In the cosmic scheme of things it wasn't fair and it wasn't right that the son of a bitch still drew breath, and Ichigo was a firm believer in righting the cosmos.

When Sally had told him that Rangiku was dead, well it just made his decision to run the sadistic bastard to ground that much easier.

There was just one problem. There was an indigo eyed midget that he would have to leave behind and he really didn't know what he was going to do about that. If he told her his plans he knew as sure as he breathed that she'd try to come with him, and that was not going to happen. Aizen was just too damn dangerous.

He scowled, tipped the whiskey back, and poured another.

He wasn't really sure when he started loving her. He just knew that he did and it would tear his heart out if anything happened to her.

He could try to forget about Aizen, ask Rukia to marry him, and spend the rest of his years fighting with her, making up, making her moan, and hopefully making a couple or a dozen babies with her in the process, but then the big 'what if' would tumble through his whiskey soaked mind.

What if Aizen came back? What if he came after Rukia again? What if the next time he wasn't fast enough or strong enough to save her?

His drunken mind paused, and with the randomness of the inebriated he frowned and wondered what a kid with his and Rukia's genes would look like. He snorted, if God was kind they'd look like their mother.

"Speak of the devil," he murmured when he caught sight of the raven haired beauty stalking towards him, a deep scowl twisting her features. She stopped right in front of him.

"Shit, I thought Orihime was mistaken when she said you were down here drinking, but damn if she wasn't. Fool, you've got a hole in your thigh, a sword wound down you're chest, not to mention all the other cuts and bruises you've managed to accumulate in the last few days. What the hell are you thinking, sitting down her and getting piss ass drunk?

Ichigo smirked, snaked his arms out lightening fast, lifted her by her hips so she was sitting on the table, and moved to stand between her legs.

"Damn, but you really are sexy as hell when you're tearing off my leg and beating me to death with it."

She blushed and glared.

"Don't think you can distract me, Kurosaki. What the hell is it with you men! I could hear Uryuu and Orihime through the damn door, and believe me what they were doing is gonna be hell on his wounds. Renji's being a damn fool trying to get up, telling the doc he's fine and it just a fucking flesh wound and you, you're down her drinking enough whiskey to poison the town drunk!"

Ichigo grinned wickedly, bent his head so he could suck lightly on the pulse point of her slender neck, while his hands pulled her shirt out of the waist band of her cords and crept over her ribcage.

She hissed and tried to pull away, but he was now kissing his way up her throat to her lips.

"Ichigo!" She huffed, just before his mouth took hers and his tongue slipped between her delicate folds. She moaned and he moved closer, unbuttoning her shirt. She gasped and pulled away, trying to push his hands away.

"Ichigo! We're in the saloon!" He smirked.

"So what, it's closed, thanks to Josie, and everyone else is asleep."

While she was distracted he finished unfastening her buttons and cupped her small, pert breasts in his large hands. She squeaked and he started gently massaging them into aroused peaks.

He leaned in to whisper into her ear. "I love your tits; they fit in my hands perfectly."

She mewled when he rolled the harden tip between his fingers and bent to kiss her again. She parted willingly for him and let her tongue run along his, sucking gently. He groaned and pulled away.

"Dammit midget, the things you do to me. I have no fucking control," he growled and replaced his hands with his lips, sucking one pink tipped areola into his hot mouth and twirling his tongue around the peak.

"O-Oh G-God, Ichigo."

He growled again and moved to the other breast and whispered, his hot breath fanning the distend peak.

"Shit, say it again; say my name. I fucking love how you say my name when I've got you hot and bothered."

He took her other breast into his mouth, nipping the tip lightly with his strong teeth. Rukia saw stars.

"Ichigo!" she screamed and he quickly undid her cords, yanked the zipper down, and pulled them off her hips. She had somehow yanked his shirt out of his pants and unbuttoned it while he hadn't been paying attention, and was running her small hands over his chest while he moved back to suckle her other straining peak.

He moved his hands and quickly unzipped his own pants, freeing his straining cock from the fly. He then moved her legs further apart and tested her readiness with his fingers.

She bucked when they invaded her soft core and teased the throbbing button near the top of her sex. He was pleased to find her slick and ready for him. Bending her back on the table he pulled her forward and plunged inside her with one deep thrust.

Her indigo eyes went wide as she screamed, "Ichigo."

He smirked and started thrusting into her, coming all the way out before driving back in with long, hard, and deep strokes. Her eyes rolled back into her head and when he moved his fingers to rub her clit she thought she might burst from the pleasure.

"Oh G-God, d-don't stop, please, d-don't ever stop," she mumbled and started shaking when he took her breast back into his mouth.

The combination of his hot mouth, his hand, and his sex driving inside of her was too much and she screamed his name as a blinding orgasm ripped through her body.

Ichigo didn't stop, he kept up the sensual assault on her senses, still hard and pounding into her, and she was shaking when another orgasm crested on the waves of the first. She could feel her inner muscles clenching him to her and suddenly he shuddered, groaned, and muttered her name as he came deep inside her.

He collapsed on top of her on the table, his head resting between her breasts. Her hands immediately went into his sweat soaked hair and started gently running through the tousled strands.

"Can you move?" he whispered. She smirked.

"No."

He looked up at her through hooded eyes.

"Good," he said, and moved just enough to claim her lips in a deep kiss before resting his head back on her chest. A few moments passed and Ichigo collected himself enough to adjust himself back in, fasten, and zip his pants. He then gathered Rukia's clothing and swept naked Rukia into his arms so he could carry her up the stairs.

She would have protested, but her muscles and mind seemed to have turned to jelly so she simply rested her head on his bare chest.

He carried her down the hall, fumbled with the door, locked it, and tumbled them both into the nearest bed. He shrugged his unbuttoned shirt off his lean shoulders and shucked his pants before crawling over her and kissing her again.

Rukia's lips twisted into a smile as his lips moved over hers.

"You're insane," she breathed between kisses. "You should be resting not doing…this."

He smirked and rained butterfly kisses over her lips, her cheeks, her chin, down her neck, and nipped lightly at the pulse point. She gasped.

"I'll have plenty of time to sleep when they plant me six feet under, until then…" he murmured and abruptly moved down and plunged his tongue between her thighs.

She gasped and arched her back, thrusting her hips forward.

"O-Ohh y-yes, you're c-crazy, c-completely in-in…sweet Jesus!"

Ichigo sucked her clit into his hot mouth and hummed a little, making her mewl in delight and thought hazily that maybe he was insane, but if this was the world his mind created then damn him, if he never wanted to leave.

Ichigo awoke early and lay on his side, his head propped up under his hand while he watched the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept. He frowned and gently ran his fingers over the bandage that covered the groove on her side.

"Aizen, you bastard," he growled. It was just one more reason in a growing list of why he needed to kill the son of a bitch.

He scowled as he remembered the moment when he'd heard the gun go off. His heart had literally stopped when he'd though Rukia had been shot.

His expression softened somewhat as he brushed her dark hair out of her face, she murmured and rubbed her face against his palm like a cat seeking to be petted. He bent down and brushed a feather soft kiss against her forehead.

"Forgive me, midget," he whispered, and gently moved off the bed, careful not to wake her.

He dressed quickly, gathered his weapons and his saddle bags, and headed for the door. He opened it; paused, and looked back one last time at the sleeping woman he'd spent the better part of the night making love to.

He placed his hat on his head, turned, and walked out.

Rukia groaned and made the mistake of moving her heavy, satiated limbs, causing a dull ache to spread through her body. She groaned again, stretched like a cat basking in the noon day soon, and rolled over, only to blink uncomprehendingly.

Tentatively and with a growing sense of dread, she reached out and encountered cool sheets where a warm male body should have been.

She snatched her hand back and simply stared at the empty space.

"Damn you, Kurosaki," she growled and that was when the tears came, silent and damning. She hugged his abandoned pillow to her chest and felt her tender heart shatter into a thousand pieces.