Snack Attack
...
It's 8:30 in the morning, but the vampire enforced taboo of staying out of the sunlight just isn't flying for her. And not that
she would ever admit it, but she has a craving for pancakes.
...
Yui was hungry.
To most people, it would be a normal occurrence for a human being to get snackish around midday, but considering midday had become her midnight in a house full of moody vampires, a casual walk to the kitchen for a snack had become a war zone.
In fact, it wasn't even noon yet; a quick glance at the giant Grandfather clock told her that it was only 8: 26 in the morning. The rest of the house was probably asleep by now. Reiji had made it a strict rule in the last few months to make sure that everyone was in bed by 7:00am since it seemed to help improve everyone's attitudes, even Mr. Cranky himself.
Recently though, Yui found the backwards schedule that the vampires followed was hard to stay on track with. As a regular person, Yui still found it natural to wake up with the sun and to relax in the evening. Even after several months living the nocturnal life, she wasn't entirely used to it.
Even though it was technically taboo, Yui made it a habit to stay up until dawn, just so she could see the peak of sunrise. Sometimes, when she was feeling really rebellious, she'd wake up around noon and sit on her balcony in the sunlight. She had an odd suspicion that both Shuu and Subaru knew what she was up too, but they never gave her any reason to believe that they would tattle on her to Reiji.
Yui's stomach growled and she rolled over onto her stomach in an attempt to silence the cacophony from within her. Surely it wouldn't be that big of a deal if she slipped down to the kitchen for a few minutes? All she wanted was to have a snack before being forced to sleep through another beautiful day….
Her stomach scowled at her again, but this time it even made her bed vibrate. Ah, who cares? She was hungry at this point and that was that. If they had a problem with her grabbing a bite when they did it to her all the time, then they had a new thing coming. Besides, if she managed to stay quiet then there was a good chance that none of those demons would wake up….
Yui flung back her covers, taking careful precautions to make sure her footsteps were as muffled by the carpet as they could be. Kanato's room was just below hers and he was the last of the six she wanted to run into.
Sometimes Yui felt like she was the four children before discovering the wardrobe that led to Narnia. The only problem was that there was no magic wardrobe leading to a magic land; all the magic that she had to experience were six perverted, mentally disturbed vampires. Not exactly fairies and talking lions.
Reaching the bottom of the staircase, Yui hesitated to touch her barefoot to the tile of the main floor hall. In a way, she felt it was more dangerous than the carpet she had glided so carelessly over. It was like if she stepped on it, one of the brothers would know she was out of bed and come to give her a hassle, drink her blood.
The thought made her shiver; no matter how many times they would forcefully handle her and suck her blood, she would never get used to it.
And yet, worrying about it wasn't going to stop her own hunger so Yui closed her eyes and rushed to the kitchen as quietly as her tiny feet could be. The kitchen was dark like the rest of the house.
She didn't spend too much time in the kitchen since the lone creepy butler made it a habit of hanging around in there, but she couldn't help but admire the immense size and functionality of the room. She especially loved the marble countertops and the oversized windows. They reminded her of the house she grew up in with her father….
There wasn't a huge selection- the fridge was nearly empty except for a carton of eggs, milk, and half a container of mushy strawberries. "Well," she muttered, reaching for the eggs, "I guess this is better than nothin-"
A bat screeching up in the far corner of the room made her jump, dropping one of the eggs in the process. It wasn't uncommon for the little creatures to be inside- Kanato had an obsession with them.
Recovering from her shock, Yui felt her cheeks go pink from the embarrassment, even if there was no one to witness it. She could already hear Ayato's voice mocking her,"Are you really going to let a little bat make a fool out of you Pancake? You're beyond pathetic!"
Pancake...oh great. Now she had a craving for pancakes! Why couldn't she have just settled for the mushy strawberries?
But the mushy strawberries would taste great in a pancake! She shot back at herself. Her stomach growled at that same moment, as if to agree with her subconscious.
"But, what about it being the middle of the night?" she whispered to herself as she wiped up the broken egg yolk that was on the floor. Even she had to laugh at that thought; clearly it was daylight out and she had to admit, the thought of having breakfast in the sun was almost too exciting for her little heart to handle.
In fact, she was so happy at the thought of the sun kissing her cheeks, she went ahead and pushed the drapes guarding the windows open.
The warm sunlight poured into the kitchen, lighting the entire room with a cheery glow. It felt almost foreign in this prison of a mansion, but greatly welcomed simultaneously. Yui wasn't sure how long she had been standing facing the sun with her starry-eyed smile when a pair of arms circled around her waist.
At one point, she would have been frightened just because she had no way of identifying her capturer, but so many months living with them had taught her about the boys and their own body language. This had to be Ayato; he was the only one who was this gentle when hugging her from behind.
"Ayato?" she mumbled.
"What the hell is this?" He responded sharply, ignoring her question. "Why aren't you in bed?" He flipped her around to face him, green eyes hard and distrusting. "You weren't sneaking around with one of them were you?" His lips curled into a smile as he shifted his mouth closer to her shoulders. "Because if you were, you know what that means-"
Yui shook him off, covering her chest with her arms. Her back felt warm in the sunlight. "I am appalled that you think I would do something like that! If you're going to be rude, then you might as well just go back to bed."
Ayato sneered at her slightly, almost a cross between a smirk and curiosity. "Don't get your panties in a twist. And what do you think you're achieving with crossing your arms anyway? It's not like you have anything to cover up."
Yui blushed angrily, and Ayato's smirk became more defined. "Why are you so mean to me all the time?"
Ayato seized her by the waist again, earning a surprised whimper from Yui. "Who do you think you are to ask me all of these questions? And you have the nerve to refuse me your blood?" He smiled menacingly, showing off his fangs. "I think you need to have a lesson-"
"Strawberries!" Yui cried out right before he could pierce her skin. Her plan worked because Ayato regarded her quizzically, loosening his grip on her in the process. His eyes lost that glint that made her fear for her life. "S-strawberries?" she repeated in response to his questioning stare. "Do you like them in your, uh…"
Did she really want to admit that she was going to be making pancakes? What if it gave him the wrong idea? But now he was staring her down with such an intense demanding that she had no choice but to whisper, "uhm, pancakes?"
Ayato released his hold on her altogether. "You woke up in the middle of the night to make pancakes, Pancake?"
Yui flinched. She really hoped his loud voice wouldn't bring any of the others downstairs too. "Yes, and if you wouldn't mind, could you keep it down? The others are trying to sleep." She turned away from him and stepped toward the giant blue bowl that she had found for mixing ingredients. "Besides," she said boldly, "it's only 8:52 in the morning. I'm still a mortal being as you like to eloquently remind me and we mortal beings do rise with the sun, so to speak."
"Just stop talking will ya?" The redhead slumped over to the bar table connected to the counter so that he was sitting directly across from Yui as she measured out the flour. "The sunlight is already giving me a headache and I don't need your yapping to make it worse!"
Yui stopped her measuring and regarded Ayato who was face-down on the countertop. He looked exhausted and she had no recollection of ever seeing him tired at all before now. "Ayato?" she hummed, walking around to his side of the counter. She held her hand up above his back hesitantly before carefully touching two fingertips to his shoulder in what she hoped was comforting to him. "Are you alright?"
"No," he snapped, keeping his face pressed to the counter. Yui withdrew her hand, startled. "Of course I'm not fine. I'm tired and this sunlight is giving me a huge migraine right now."
Yui scrunched up her eyebrows. "The sunlight gives you headaches?"
Ayato sat up in such a way that Yui was afraid that he was going to hit her. Instead, he just hit her with the dirtiest, most unamused look she had seen any of the vampires give her yet. It almost looked...jr high juvenile. "If course it does, Pancake," he hissed. "Sunlight doesn't kill us like your stupid fairy tales say, but it did derive from the truth that vampires get nausea from being in the sun too long!"
"Hmm. Kind of like car sickness, huh?"
"I don't give a damn what you relate it too. I'm in pain and that's the bottom line."
Yui frowned at him, returning to her side of the counter as he rested his head back down on the counter. "Why don't you just go back to bed then if you're so miserable? I'm not stopping you!"
Ayato didn't respond for a long time and each passing minute of silence just upset Yui more. She was about to stomp over to the window and draw the drapes just to stop his dramatics when she heard him mutter below his breath, "I wanted to have breakfast in the sunlight for once."
She wasn't sure why that struck a chord with her. Ayato was cruel and degrading to her on a regular basis and yet...she felt sorry for him. "Strawberries?" she asked again.
Ayato grunted, trying to look up at her. She couldn't help but notice he had sweat forming along the top of his eyebrows and he looked paler than when he had first entered the kitchen. "What kind of question is that you miserable woman?"
Yui rolled her eyes. "The least you could do is pretend to be grateful."
"I can't believe you just said that to me."
"I can't believe half the things you say to me, so I guess we're even!" Yui slapped down a plate piled with pancakes topped off with strawberries and brown sugar. "We don't have any syrup so you'll have to take that up with the board of directors."
"Damn it, Reiji." Ayato didn't even glance up at her as he dug into his food. And despite the scowl he maintained, Yui could tell that he liked it.
She was about to take a bite herself when Kanato walked into the kitchen. "Look, Teddy," he grinned eerily, "I told you that I could smell something burning."
Yui regarded him suspiciously. "But Kanato, there's nothing bur-"
Suddenly, he snatched up her wrist and pounded her palm down towards the hot stove. She felt the hot of the burner, but right before her flesh made contact, a different hand snagged her wrist from Kanato's grip.
"What the hell are you doing?" Subaru shoved Yui behind him protectively and she fell backwards, only to fall right into Laito's outstretched arms.
"I really do believe you just fell for me, Little Bitch," the redhead purred, running his nose along her jaw line.
"Laito, no." Yui pushed at him but he wouldn't budge until Ayato roughly grabbed her out of his brother's grip.
"What are you doing? Or did you forget that Yours Truly holds the only entitlement to Pancake here?" Ayato demanded fiercely and Yui couldn't help but notice that he didn't appear as vulnerable as before.
"Excuse me," she said hotly, "I'm not entitled to any-"
"Will you all keep it down in here?" Shuu drawled, appearing in the kitchen doorway. He wrinkled his nose at the open windows in distaste. "And someone close those blinds."
"Shut up, Shuu!" Subaru barked.
"You're all upsetting Teddy!" Kanato shrieked.
"You need to share, Ayato," Laito purred suavely.
"To hell with sharing!" Ayato snapped back.
"What is the meaning of all this?" Reiji raged as he entered beside his brother.
Yui sighed, wishing she could just melt into the floor. She should have known that a midnight snack would somehow lead to this.
And to top it all off, she was still hungry.
...
i have many more ayato x yui things to come so stay tuned
11/15/16