My biggest issue with shipping Vlad and Ingrid is that they don't have a smush-name. So I loosely refer to them as Drac-cest.

-YD-

Pinned to the wall with her teeth in his neck, Vlad was definitely surprised. Happy, but surprised.

It was one of their random chats, but he could see the tension in Ingrid's shoulders. The way she clenched her jaw. Hear the timbre of her voice shifting in preparation of a primal creatures call. She couldn't stop prodding her teeth with her tongue, and the sight was getting to Vlad. The wet muscle gliding over sharpening points, the way her silver-blue eyes darkened...

She noticed. Ingrid had always been intelligent, aware of others and how she affected them. Used it to her advantage, more often than not. Even so, Vlad wasn't expecting her to launch at him, teeth biting urgently at his throat in broad daylight. She was stronger now, easily capable of pinning him.

Vlad hadn't expected it to feel so good. Blood, it felt wrong to let someone suck at his throat like he was a Transylvanian peasant, but it felt so incredibly good that Vlad didn't care. His knees threatened to buckle as Ingrid sucked harder, bit so sharply he expected his skin to tear. Ingrid seemed incapable of stopping herself, only letting him go when Vlad's legs gave way and he scrambled for stability against the wall behind him. She stared, very clearly shocked with herself. Vlad was too overwhelmed to speak, saliva cooling on his neck over a pulsing, throbbing bruise he couldn't wait to go and admire, to prove that had actually just happened.

Ingrid took off; he wasn't surprised by that, since it was how all their conversations ended. Letting his head fall back against the solid brick behind wasn't the smartest idea. Now his head and his neck hurt. Tugging at his collar was futile in an attempt to cover up, so Vlad had to just hope his father wasn't awake when he got back. Thankfully, there was no sign of life - or unlife - in the castle when he got back. Scuttling up to his room, Vlad hunted out the mirror and twisted his head, impressed by the sheer depth of bruising as much as anything.

As brutal as any full blood biter, that was for sure.

"Vladdy!"

Oh no. Vlad hunched down, but there was no hiding Ingrid's handiwork.

"Hi dad."

"What in the name of Nosferatu have you been doing?"

His dad gripped his hair, shoving Vlad's head to one side to get a proper look at the massive bruise. Vlad closed his eyes and prepared to lie.

"I was fooling around with a girl at school. Breathers like lovebites too."

"That's my boy! A ladies man just like his father! Wait a moment. This isn't why you were asking all those things about half-breeds was it?"

Vlad rolled his eyes.

"Dad. I'm untransformed. I can't get anyone pregnant."

"Oh. Yes. Of course. So long as you stop playing with your food after your sixteenth birthday!"

Well, at least his dad was off his case - and off his hair, more importantly - so Vlad could get back to his sandwich. He half wanted to play with the sandwich for his dad to see - to play with his food, as it were.

"Whoa-oh-ohhhh! What happened to you Vladdo?"

"Yeah, that's a beauty!"

Vlad stayed tight lipped the next morning, meeting Robin to go to school and being wolf-whistled by the Branagh twins for the deep bruise on his throat. Robin looked no less stunned, but at least he waited until they were alone to ask about it.

"Who did that?"

Luckily, he already had an excuse thought up.

"Another vampire. Fly by visit from a friend of dads last night, but because of my tests, there was insistence upon biting practice."

Robin was mostly annoyed that he missed out on meeting other vampires - and meeting a vampiress, specifically. His dream death was definitely being drained to a bloodless corpse by an attractive vampire female.

Which was why Robin wasn't going to find out about Ingrid. Gorgeous, with a heart of ice and impending fangs... she was his ideal.

Vlad was trying to ignore that she was pretty ideal to him too, despite his gut-deep hatred of vampirism and anything to do with it. His neck throbbed as a reminder, wondering if she'd look at it and know, look at it and remember.

"Damn though. Was she cute?"

"Uh, she was ok. For a biter."

Robin continued waxing poetic about how much he would have loved to be in Vlad's place, and how a vampiress wouldn't be able to resist him. Given Robin's aversion to personal hygiene, Vlad suspected most vampires would have to be pretty thirsty to go for his neck. Or holding their breath and going very, very quickly. They approached the school like every other day, and Vlad heard wolf-whistles from the odd student as they saw his bruise. Teachers gave him judgemental looks, tutted.

Mr Van Helsing practically had a stroke.

He wondered what the slayer father-and-son pair thought had happened to him, what possible reason there could be for the vampire himself to be bitten. Vlad wondered how jealous Jonno would be to know it was Ingrid. Ingrid who'd pinned him to the wall, teeth rough on his neck and strong hands on his shoulders. Her bite imprinted on his neck, the first hints of fang scraping...

Vlad needed to stop thinking about it. Ingrid's senses were still growing, still refining, but he doubted she wouldn't be able to tell he was aroused. It was constantly sending warmth pulsing through him, that feeling only increasing when he caught sight of the vamp-to-be in question. She was subtle, but Vlad felt her eyes on his neck. Knew Ingrid could see the stark evidence that her mouth had bit and sucked at his throat, that when she lost control, he was the target.

"Did it help?"

For the first time in weeks, Vlad felt brave enough to approach her. He caught Ingrid loitering on the field in the shade, scratching at her arms and the irritation from her long nails was clear.

"Did what?"

"Biting me. How are your teeth?"

He watched as Ingrid ran her tongue over her front teeth again, before a tiny nod.

"Better."

"Use aftersun on your arms. Eases the UV irritation. And apply more sun block."

"I'm wearing sun block."

"Not this one."

Knowing her birthday was in summer meant Vlad knew Ingrid would be suffering, so when he saw the sun shining that morning he brought out a tube of Sun Block 75.

"It goes pretty far. Vamps wear it if they have to make a quick jaunt. It won't last long after you change, but for now it should stop you scratching off your skin."

Ingrid eyed him suspiciously.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you have nobody else who understands. Call it an early birthday present, since the one you'll be getting is no fun. What are you going to tell your family? You won't be able to come back to school."

Ingrid sighed, taking the tube of sun block from him.

"I have no idea. How do you even tell somebody this?"

"If you want, I can... it's unorthodox, but I could help."

That won him more wary looks, but Vlad supposed it did sound quite suspect.

"Doing what?"

Vlad explained hypnotism - it had been in the information he gave Ingrid to read, but she might have skipped it as nonsense in favour of learning about more serious things like fangs and bloodlust.

"That sounds ridiculous."

"It's true. I once accidentally hypnotised my dad. Convinced him he loved bright colours and wasn't a vampire."

Ingrid let out a short laugh.

"How did that work out for you?"

"Well, I was grounded and flown into a tree. I had to reverse it when Mr Van Helsing came over and I realised dad might get slain because he wouldn't be able to fight back."

Leaning against the wall, Ingrid quirked an eyebrow.

"How do you screw anything up that badly?"

"It was an accident!"

They actually talked; Vlad told her more of the antics caused between he and the slayers. Ingrid laughed, responded, asked more questions. Vlad felt oddly... engaged by her, unused to such an interactive Ingrid.

Only when the bell rang for the end of the school day did Vlad realise just how long they'd stood out there chatting away. He wondered if Ingrid biting him was the trigger to making her open up; biting was functional, but a vampires first bite was important, often intimate or a sign of their becoming themselves. Most didn't do it before they transformed, but Ingrid was on the cusp - and dimidius. Her two sides were at war.

"You could come over to the castle sometime you know. My dad already thinks I fool around with breather girls for fun."

"Why?"

Vlad turned his head, exposing the deep bruise on his neck.

"Not exactly easy to hide,"

"Oh."

He didn't miss the way her eyes followed the motion, watching Vlad's neck arch. Trying to keep his heart rate under control, Vlad waited to see if Ingrid said anything in response to his semi-invitation.

"Well?"

Vlad frowned.

"Well, what?"

"Are we going?"

He blinked. Did Ingrid just agree?

"Uh. Ok then. Let's go."

-YD-

Oh I wonder what could possibly go wrong here...