"Your family shall perish. You shall no longer be under the protection of my kind. Do you know what that means? All your power is gone Kaname. This ends here, with you and me. The last of my kind and you. Takuma, please hand me your sword." My words dripped with malice as I reached towards Takuma's sword.

Just as my fingers touched the hilt, Kaname jumped up and dove from the window.

"Shit!" I ran to the window and looked out, prepared to jump after him but he was already gone.

"It's alright Kie, we'll find him," Kiyo growled from behind me.

"She's right Kieko-chan. We'll find him, he can't have gotten far." I felt Takuma's hand on my shoulder, his sword already put away.

"We'll have to hunt for him. He's smart enough to be well away from here and will be going into hiding," I sighed, shaking my head and leaning closer to Takuma.

Suddenly I heard Kiyo giggle from behind us.

"I'll meet you two downstairs when you're ready ok?"

Before either of us could respond she was gone, the door shut tight behind her.

I looked up at Takuma, remembering my revelation. He loved me. A heavy blush overtook my cheeks and I bit my bottom lip, stepping away from him a bit.

"Thank you for helping... for fighting Kaname. I know it must have been hard becau..." I was cut off by his lips pressing to mine.

At first I was shocked. I just stood there for a second before I threw my arms around his shoulders and returned his kiss with the same fervor.

When he pulled away, his face was as red as a tomato.

"Forgive me Kie-chan I just... when I thought you were going to die I thought I would never get the chance to tell you how I feel and I just... I'm so glad you're still alive." His voice shook like he was on the edge of tears and that brought me to tears.

"It's alright," I smiled, wiping at my eyes as I lay my head on his shoulder. "Everything is alright now. It will all be ok."

He let out a short laugh and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist, keeping me pressed to his body.

"Shouldn't you be the one crying and having me console you and tell you everything will be ok?

Laughing, I nodded. "Yeah, that's generally the way things go. But we should get back to... Oh god you're skipping classes!" My eyes widened as I pulled away from him a bit.

"Does that surprise you?"

"Um yeah. A lot! We have to get you back to classes and Kiyo and I need to plot. I never thought I would be grateful for going through all those wars with her." I shook my head, a wry smile on my lips.

"Wars?" Takuma looked at me with a mix of fear and confusion on his face.

"If I'm not against vampires I'm a pretty formidable fighter. But yes, wars. I'll tell you some other time." I grabbed his hand, interlacing our fingers and pulled him along behind me as I made my way down to find Kiyo.

We found her hunting through the closet we once kept our coats in.

"Kie! All your things are still here! Do you want to take some back to the academy? We could use some of this!" Her head popped out with a lopsided grin on her lips. She held up a trench coat that was once my fathers and offered it to me.

"I know you miss him," she said, smiling serenely, "and I remember seeing some of your favorite memories were with him in this coat. We're pretty much going to war again and I think it's fitting that you wear this coat."

I tensed slightly, smiling sadly. "Yeah, you're right. He went to war so many times in that coat..." I trailed off as my hands reached out, taking the smooth leather from her. Pressing it to my face I inhaled deeply, I could still smell his cologne.

*~*Memories*~*

"Kieko! I bet you can't find me!" My father's rich voice floated up the stairs to where I lay on the library floor.

With a laugh I jumped up and ran down the stairs, already knowing where he was.

I made my way to the garden to find him in another trench wearing the leather coat.

"Daddy! Mommy told you not to dig any more trenches. You know she hates when we play war!" I scolded him, my hands on my small hips as I stood a few feet away.

His only response was to fling dirt at me before changing forms to that of a black dragon the size of a large dog.

I laughed before changing to my own, smaller dragon form and charged into him.

*~*Present*~*

I laughed as the memory flashed through my head, knowing Kiyo could see it as well. Father was the reason I caught on so quickly to the things Kiyo taught me. I had forgotten them when we were attacked simply because they had been play back then. I hadn't had to rely on them to survive. Now I had a whole no ordeal to survive and Daddy wasn't here to help but I was going to make him damn proud of me.