Yuki looked around the wedding reception for the bride and groom, both of whom she had only recently met, and wondered for the umpteenth time just what the hell she was doing there. Sure, she had been invited by Shiori in the hopes that she would run into the woman's son, Shuichi. The young man that Shiori and her new husband were trying to arrange for her to marry sometime in the near future.

But aside from that, she didn't really know why she was there.

Blowing some of her long bangs out of her face, she felt her head starting to ache some from the half up, and half down intricately knotted hairstyle/braid that fell down her back nearly to her waist.

Looking down at herself she scowled slightly at the modest knee length pastel pink dress with the hand embroidered top with mint green interwoven vines and aquamarine, pink and white flowers and the layered chiffon skirt and pastel pink heels with little straps that went around her ankles.

She hadn't bothered to wear any jewelry aside from the little dangle, pearl earrings and a three strand pearl bracelet.

"Yuki!" She heard the familiar, friendly voice of Kazuya Hatanaka as she looked up from her feet and met his eyes. "How are you sweetheart?"

Pasting on a smile, Yuki replied. "I'm well. And you and Shiori?"

"Ecstatic." He said with a big goofy grin.

"Well what's not to love? You've got your woman. You're new family..."

"This lovely wedding that Shuichi helped put together- That boy could be a wedding planner/co ordinator. He did pretty much everything including the floral arrangements! And that was on top of a full work load from work."

Yuki gave him a more genuine smile before saying, "He sounds amazing."

"He is. Quite so. I've never met anyone that could take on such back breaking work so easily without complaint. Speaking of, he should be around here somewhere. Have you had a chance to meet him yet?"

Yuki looked a little bit startled by the question before saying shyly, "I- um- No. Sorry."

Kazuya waved her apology off knowing that she had nothing to apologize for. Shiori's boy had a knack for running off and disappearing for extended length's of time. And never bothered telling anyone where he was going or why.

Shiori thought it was charming that her son had such a mysterious side.

But to be honest, Kazuya thought it was a little bit irresponsible of the boy to pull vanishing acts. Especially so frequently. He no doubt worried his poor mother sick on a number of occasions. However after meeting Shuichi for the first time and watching him interact with his mother, Kazuya came to the conclusion that the boy was charming.

Very much so.

And suave.

Damn he got so envious watching the younger man work people over to his advantage. However he had also came to the conclusion that if he had been a woman and witnessed the whole Shuichi 'charm' thing, he probably would have handed the boy his pants and his neatly folded tighty whiteys within the first few minutes of saying 'hi' to him.

Kurama rejoined the reception shaking his head at his mother's antics thinking that she wouldn't make a half bad kitsune youkai when he was suddenly hit by the subtle, yet incredibly pleasant scent of roses, vanilla, sandalwood, and orange blossom's. Pausing in mid step, he took a moment to scan the crowded room and stopped for several moments when he found his new step father talking up some pretty little thing in an eye catching pastel pink number.

Feeling curious, and as if he should pull his new father away from the young lady before his mother caught him flirting and decided to remove some much needed body parts, he started walking again. Quietly and stealthily sneaking up on the his new father and the temptress that he was speaking too.

However he was beginning to think that he misunderstood the situation some as he caught some of the conversation between the two as he steadily got closer to them.

"So you really haven't seen Shuichi any? Like at all? He's hard to miss- Tall, has a long mane of long red hair, wide green eyes. Almost looks like a lady- except not. " Kazuya asked in a bewildered tone as he rubbed the nape of his neck and began to look around the room.

Kurama made a mental note to play a horrible trick on his new father for saying that he looked almost like a lady. The hater. Didn't he know that long hair was back in style on men all over the world? Or at least that's what he had read from one of his mother's magazines when he had been helping plan the wedding- not that he'd admit it to anyone though.

No, he'd rather die first.

Moving in closer to the two, he continued to listen when the scent from before stopped him again. It was stronger here and gaining strength the closer he moved to towards them. Narrowing his emerald eyes somewhat at the young woman, he tipped his head back a little bit on his neck and inhaled deeply.

Trying to locate the source of the scent before he jumped to conclusions of any kind. Using Yoko's sharp sense of smell to help him, he finally managed to locate the enchanting scent's source and let out a low growl before he lowered his head and then rolled his shoulders before he began zeroing in on the young lady that his father was conversing with as he heard his father say, "Well if I find Shuichi, I'll send him your way. Until then- help yourself to some food from the buffet, some punch and just enjoy yourself."

"Okay." The young lady said in a soft tone that reminded Kurama a little bit of Yukina. Hiei's twin sister.

He watched her shift slightly on her heeled feet, looking more than a little bit uncomfortable once his father walked off to rejoin his mother, leaving the young lady to her own vices. Or so it would have seemed if he hadn't have plucked two glasses of punch from a nearby server's tray and continued on his path figuring that taking the woman some punch to drink would give him the opening needed to speak with her.

Finally he reached her side and calmly stopped in front of her as she had been looking down at her feet or something.

Seeing a pair of shiny black shoes come into her line of vision, Yuki slowly looked up, following the trail of black until she reached the face of the person standing in front of her.

The male in question must be the infamous Shuichi because he was exactly as he had been described to her. Wild looking long vivid red hair, big green eyes- weirdly pretty. He would have looked feminine if not for the fact that he was more masculinely beautiful than girly.

Well, to her at least.

"Hello," He said, his expression difficult for her to read. But appeared to her to be somewhere along the lines of bemused as she continued to stare at him for a moment before he startled her slightly by holding out one of the cups of punch to her. "Drink miss?"

She hesitated for several heartbeats before slowly and tentatively reaching out and taking hers from him while muttering a gentle sounding, "Thanks."

"My name is Shuichi. What's yours?" He asked curiously as he studied her.

"O-Oh. Um, my name is Yuki."

"Yuki... That's such a pretty name," He said with a slight curve of his lips before he asked, "What's a lovely young lady such as yourself doing over here in the corner? Shouldn't a beauty like you be...mingling?"

"I'd rather stand here and be one with the wall than be out there getting groped by someone I don't know and really do not like."

"Oh?" The word was softly spoken, but there was no mistaking the weird sense that there was more bite to it than there should have been as he asked, "Has someone done something to make you think ill of the guests?" The words, 'If so then I can find them and break something off of them.' pretty much went unsaid between them. But the way he suddenly turned to the partier's and began to search the room was more than enough to make her feel...well, kind of stupid for saying something at all.

"Um n-no. It's not like that!" She suddenly said in alarm, worried that if anyone else decided to come over and try chatting her up that he might hurt them. "It only happened once, and it wasn't even here. It was at my friend's wedding reception and the experience was just very traumatic is all."

He hummed and shifted his attention back to her before saying in a gentle tone, "I see. That is a relief then."

"Uh, yeah." She said awkwardly as they lapsed into silence for several moments before he asked her.

"Have you had anything to eat yet?"

"No. I wasn't sure if I would be staying for long."

"Would you like something?"

"Maybe, but not here. I was actually planning to grab something on the way home."

He hummed again and tossed back his punch, downing the whole glass of it like it was vodka shots or something and then set the empty glass aside and slowly licked his lips before asking, "How about I take you to dinner?"

She frowned and glanced up at him and asked, "Now?"

"Yes now. I've put in my time here, so no one would think ill of me for doing so. If you're game that is."

Mulling it over for a moment, Yuki weighed the pros and cons carefully before finally sighing and muttering that she would like to join him. Parties just really weren't her scene.

He smiled down at her and carefully took the punch that he had handed her from her hand and set it down on a table several feet away and then moved back to her side and offered her his arm. "Milady." He said oozing charm as she slowly took his arm in her hand and let him lead her towards the door.