Fem Ichigo/Malleus. The first few chapters are her being a NORMAL girl, and then Rukia showing up. It does not end well for Rukia.
The first time Ichigo met Malleus, she could hardly believe someone that inhumanly beautiful existed. Much less took such a fast interest in her.
She didn't regret it though. Malleus had seen her beating up several delinquents who failed to show proper respect to the recently deceased and had looked more bemused than anything. The fact he took the time to help her fix the small shrine had cemented her initial interest.
Seeing him waiting patiently by the gate, Ichigo didn't bother suppressing the smile on her face. Today was the day she planned to properly introduce her friend to her family. Depending on how things went, she wouldn't mind upgrading him from "friend" to "boyfriend".
As she walked home with Malleus, she shyly took his hand. He made no overt sign of it, but there was a slight smile on his face.
Karin was outside, and noticed them first. She stared at the fact her sister was bringing a guy...one who was clearly college-age at least...to their house.
"Dad is going to have kittens, you know," she commented.
"Don't remind me," said Ichigo exasperated.
Isshin had gotten even more ridiculous since her mother passed.
As predicted, the second Isshin registered "older male holding hands with his eldest", he went into overprotective mode.
Malleus looked more bewildered than anything at the sheer theatrics Isshin displayed over the sight.
"So how exactly did you meet Nee-san anyway?" asked Karin, drinking a soda. Yuzu was busy cooking, but kept a sharp ear out.
"She was disciplining several fools who showed a callous disrespect to the recently deceased," said Malleus.
"Some local thugs knocked over a vase to someone who died recently and I beat the crap out of them," she translated. "I may have reminded them to be a bit more...respectful, and he helped me put it to rights."
Karin snorted, as that wasn't an uncommon occurrence.
"What school do you go to?" asked Yuzu.
"I attend a local university about ten blocks from the high school," said Malleus. "My major is architecture, though I seem to have been adopted by another department."
"The tech geeks took one look at how bad he was with technology and all but adopted him. From what I understand they made a cell phone case just for him because he kept breaking his phones without meaning to," said Ichigo, grinning. "How you were able to keep a tamogatchi alive and not a smart phone I'll never understand."
"Wait...tamogatchi? People still play with those?" said Karin incredulous.
Hearing a light beep, Malleus took out a clearly old, but well loved toy to feed his pet. Karin looked at him incredulous, but said nothing.
"The computer students have been working to help me 'liberate' my pet so it would live longer than a month," admitted Malleus. "So far it had been slow going, and I will never understand the importance of this snake or coffee they keep citing."
"Python and Java," clarified Ichigo. Karin snorted.
"How long have you been dating my daughter?" said Isshin, having returned after Ichigo literally tossed him out of the window.
She did it every morning. He was used to worse by this point.
"We have not officially begun a proper courtship, however we met about a month ago," said Malleus.
Karin and Yuzu stared at him, before Karin grinned at her sister.
Suddenly Ichigo's interest in him made perfect sense. Ichigo was a major fan of Shakespeare, among other things, so having a boyfriend that spoke like that would appeal to her greatly.
"I wasn't going to begin anything like that until he had gotten everyone's approval first," said Ichigo.
Karin looked at the way her sister was acting around this guy. Her aura felt calm, almost relaxed in a way she had never really seen before. There was also a slight nervous energy, because she really wanted this to go well.
To be fair, Malleus would be her first actual boyfriend. Whatever misgivings Isshin had about his eldest finally getting into the dating scene, he felt oddly at ease with the older boy.
Malleus clearly wasn't interested in a brief fling with Ichigo. He had been raised on the idea of a proper courtship, which meant actually getting to know one another before actually having sex. There was a sort of old-world charm about him, which set Isshin mind slightly at ease.
He got along with the twins well enough...they were happy so long as Ichigo was happy, and they trusted their elder sister not to bring some creep around.
Ichigo was helping Yuzu clean the dishes while Isshin took Malleus aside to question him.
When he left that night, Ichigo was rather pleased she could legitimately call him her boyfriend to Tatsuki and Orihime. Malleus had seemed more bemused by the modern idea of courtship than anything, and rather enjoyed the small dinner at the Kurosaki home.
It was certainly leagues above what he could produce himself.
A week later...
"So you and boy-toy are finally going out? It's about time!" said Tatsuki, punching Ichigo lightly on the shoulder.
"He's an absolute sweetheart, even if he's absolutely clueless about the weirdest things. Then again he did say he was raised by his grandmother in a remote area," said Ichigo. "Really good taste in books though."
"You love the fact he gets your Shakespeare quotes and doesn't act sarcastic about it," said Tatsuki.
"He read Midsummer Night's Dream and was able to quote the remainder of the line without flinching. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a guy who not only reads English fluently but can quote old plays like that?" said Ichigo seriously.
Orihime and Tatsuki shared a look. Ichigo looked really happy, finding a guy who just understood her.
While Ichigo did enjoy the quiet dates with Malleus, she did occasionally want to try new things. To that end, she looked at the events happening around town and found something she thought would be interesting.
To that end, she introduced Malleus to the concept of public transport...namely a bus.
Malleus was fascinated with the idea of a crowded public transport, as cars weren't that common where he was from. It didn't surprise her in the least he had no license, since he admitted to being from a rural area, and everything about him screamed "old blood, old money".
"So where is it that we are going?" asked Malleus.
Ichigo had a grin on her face.
"You'll see. I was watching a program last night and I saw something I thought you'd enjoy."
Malleus was intrigued by this, and allowed his girlfriend to lead him to a small studio. Inside was ridiculously warm by human standards, especially since there was a slight chill in the air due to it being spring.
Closer inspection revealed there to be several furnaces blazing near the back, and several rods of different sizes. Malleus watched fascinated as one of the people with thick gloves took a few of these rods and put them into the furnace, until they were clearly too hot to touch directly.
"What is this place?" he asked, openly fascinated.
"A glassblowing workshop. I noticed you had an aversion to metal, so I thought this would be a fun way to spend the day," said Ichigo cheerfully. "I checked and they occasionally hold programs for beginners to learn the basics, though they don't allow casual observers to actually do anything."
Malleus was beyond intrigued, and followed Ichigo to a different section nearby. Inside, a few people were observing the glass blowers work their craft with expert precision. The master of the workshop explained how each tool was used and how they were able to turn glass rods into beautiful works of art.
It was a rather enjoyable afternoon, and both of them had a lot of fun. Malleus was rather pleased with his new gargoyle-shaped sculpture. The glass workers had been intrigued at making a functional version, not a "grotesque".
"So what did you think?" asked Ichigo.
"I never knew that so much work was put into making art pieces," admitted Malleus.
"Right?" said Ichigo. "The program I was watching was about glassblowers putting their best effort into making the best piece. I think it was called Blown Away."
"I wonder if there are any programs at the school I attend for learning this art?" mused Malleus.
He was rather curious what he could create with his own flames, as he knew for a fact they could become rather hot.
"If it helps, I know for a fact you can find damn near anything on the internet."
Malleus pouted, there was no other word to describe it. He still couldn't get the hang of using the computer his new friends had tracked down for him. He wasn't sure what apples had to do with anything, or why they had to 'upgrade' this...soft-ware...to make it usable, but he appreciated the gesture nonetheless.
Ichigo looked at him and realized the problem.
"Still having trouble using the computer?"
"I do not understand why they put such importance on such fragile items," pouted Malleus.
"Want some help?" she asked. "I'm not an expert, but I at least know the bare basics and can do more than hunt and peck at the keys."
Malleus perked up at that.
Ichigo was struck at how clean his apartment was...and how it lacked a lot of the little things that made a house a home.
"Where is your computer?"
"They set up in the den," said Malleus, putting his new prize on a shelf with care.
Ichigo found it, as well as the passwords to log in. Even his handwriting had a lot of elegance to it, though the wording was a bit hard to read.
Malleus sat at the computer, and Ichigo slid the keyboard over to make it easier for her to type. It took a bit before she had Firefox loaded.
"So what do you want to search first?" she asked.
"You said they had lessons on this device on how to make glass art," said Malleus.
Ichigo made sure to show Malleus exactly what she was doing and explained why. Once she had the search page loaded, she types in "Glassblowing for Beginners" and let the website do the rest. She had results in seconds, to the fascination of Malleus.
Then, on an impulse she typed in "Gargoyles" and saw him absolutely light up at the sheer number of pictures...as well as a link to a certain show.
"What's that?"
"Oh, it's an American cartoon. I think it's about gargoyles that come to life when night falls and turn to stone during the day. I think I've heard of that one," said Ichigo.
She was not surprised to find Malleus now fully addicted to the cartoon, or that her sister Karin would end up arguing with him over who was the best character. She was firmly a Demona fan, while Malleus was rather fond of Goliath.
To be fair the only reason Ichigo even looked up the cartoon in the first place was because she heard that one of the characters was the actual Macbeth and that there was an appearance by Titania, Oberon and Puck of all things.
She was however rather amused when she came to visit one night and found several new, if poorly made, glass pieces. Clearly, Malleus had found a new hobby to play around with. Though she was highly curious as to how he managed to get those hand marks on the glass. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear there were claw marks on them.
Some time later...
Ichigo didn't know why, but Malleus looked highly amused when he briefly entered her room and saw the posters on her wall. She had gone up to find a book he had expressed interest in, and he had come in after being given permission first.
He observed the many posters, with a look of open bemusement on his face.
"You like faeries?"
Ichigo wasn't ashamed of her hobby, or the fact she was a low-key magical girl otaku.
"I find the older stories fascinating, and the art is often really good," she admitted. "That and the older fairy tales are way more interesting than the modern variants."
Malleus' eyes were drawn to another picture, this one of a massive black dragon that he found all too familiar.
"What about this one?"
"That's Maleficent. Normally I'm not a huge fan of Disney films, but they really had to clean up the original story to make it remotely acceptable for children. That and I kinda felt bad because the king invited three minor fairies to the christening instead of one that could give his kid an actual boost in regards to a blessing," said Ichigo. "Not to mention her dragon form was badass as hell."
She didn't know why he had that look in his eye, but she was sure he'd tell her...eventually.