Shu couldn't tell you what time Yui Komori initially stumbled into the Sakamaki mansion. After all, he couldn't even tell you how long he had been lying limp and silent on the chaise longue in the corridor adjacent to the grand foyer. If he were asked -and the languid notes of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos were anything to go by- he'd guess northward of four hours, but that would be troublesome. Though, he had to admit, it would only be half as troublesome as the irritating and ceaseless racket coming from the downstairs parlor.
He tried to ignore it. He always did. Clenching his eyelids until there was nothing but black, he tried to focus on the ethereal movements of the music and tune out the din of his brothers' voices. The melody swelled and faded like a tide, followed and complimented by the countermelody- deftly, slowly, softly, and solemnly. Just as the piano peaked in a chord of harmonious ecstasy, the trance was broken. Shu fought the urge to snarl as the sound of Laito's garish chuckles reverberated from the parlor, up the stairs, and into his unappreciative ears.
Feeling a tight knot of annoyance well up in his chest, Shu gracefully lifted himself off the sofa in a manner that somehow managed to look both standoffish and nonchalant at the same time. This was such a pain, but nothing irked him more than great music spoiled by his brothers' existences. How aggravating. Heaving an exasperated sigh, Shu slouched as he sauntered slowly down the steps of the grand foyer.
As he stepped off the final stair, he noticed the unmistakable echo of frantic footsteps rapidly coming towards him from the parlor. Vaguely interested, the listless vampire turned his head towards the incoming person. And for a moment he was taken aback. He was unsure which hit him first: the surprise of a human girl running like a chased pig through his house or the remarkably sweet aroma of her blood. Even from this distance it smelled delicious.
"God, please save me!" cried the girl, presumably to herself, as she ran wildly towards the front door. Her voice -emanating panic and fear- was amplified by the harsh, sharp walls of the entrance hall, much to the displeasure of the blonde vampire.
"Oi. That commotion is noisy," he complained dully, already bored at the sight of her. Mortals are so bothersome.
Clearly not noticing his presence beforehand, the fearful human girl's head snapped towards him in alarm. Eyes widening in surprise, she stuttered out, "A-are you also… friends with those people?"
Shu narrowed his eyes in subdued disgust. The relationship he had with those guys would never be remotely companionable. Just the thought made his stomach churn.
"Friends…" he replied coldly, "You saying that is greatly upsetting."
She looked visibly stricken by his blunt dislike for the other members of his household, but with slight hope in her eyes started, "T-then-"
"If I have to say anything, I'd say they are an undesirable, but unbreakable relationship," he continued not particularly interested in what she had to say.
She repeated his words in confusion before a thought occurred to him: why was she even here? Humans are stupid, but it was common superstition among the locals that to enter this place brought about curses, misfortune, and death. These horror stories had been more than enough to make the humans keep a respectable distance from the manor, so that option was off the table. After racking his brain for a few moments, he recalled the message he received from his father. Ah, so this was to be the new Bride, then. How mundane.
"Are you the girl that person spoke of?" he asked lethargically, already anticipating the answer.
"Oi, Shu! You know about this girl?" Ayato boomed as he strutted into the room.
Put off by his younger brother's haughty aura, Shu deadpanned, "… Sort of."
"Ugh." groaned Kanato irksomely, "Don't just say 'sort of'. I want you to explain the meaning of this in detail."
For a brief moment, Shu considered ignoring the hysteric triplet. After all, it would be such a bother to have to explain the whole thing to them. He hated the very thought of the effort. But then immediately thought better of it for the sake of his eardrums. That brat can cry to shatter glass.
"That person…" he began, trying to decide the most concise way to explain, "contacted me the other day. He said, 'you all have a new roommate. Get along with them as much as possible.'"
"Huh?!" Ayato's eyes widened, utterly gobsmacked, "In other words, the house that Titless was talking about is…"
"Aha! This is a godsend isn't it!" gushed Laito, finally making his presence known to the room.
"It appears you weren't mistaken about this place." Reiji stated politely. It amused his blonde, older brother that he resembled a butler more than he did a master's son.
The girl shouted out her disbelief before being quickly reprimanded by Ayato, who reminded her that there was no reason to lie to her. Still clinging to her last strand of hope, she retorted weakly, "B-but it's strange, isn't it? My father is a member of the church, and for a member of the church to refer this place…"
"Isn't it fine for a member of the church to refer this place?" Shu provided gently indicating his desire for this ordeal to be over. Kanato inquired if there was something strange about it while he pouted in feigned innocence.
"O-obviously it's strange!" she yelped indignantly. Her voice held courage but her eyes betrayed her fear. Shu hated to admit it, but it was admirable. It had been a long time since a Sacrificial Bride had the gall to talk back the way she did. Her eyes swept the room restlessly as she clumsily tried to hide her trembling hands. Taking a deep, shaky breath she attempted to finish her thought, "Because… You guys…"
As her voice gave out mid-sentence, Ayato prompted her impatiently with a predatory smirk, "'You guys' what?"
Her courage had forsaken her at the unsettling jeer in his eyes. She fumbled her words, stuttering and tripping all over herself to scramble for the right thing to say. But the game had already gone stale for the eldest son. He just wanted the farce to end, after all beating around the bush is too much of a pain.
"Because we're vampires, right?" he asked bluntly as if stating the decency of the weather.
As was becoming standard, she stuttered her disbelief. And, in that moment, Shu learned that it was indeed possible for her eyes to get even wider. He absently wondered how before dismissing it as an unnecessary thought.
"Ah, you spoiled it too quickly." Ayato huffed in disappointment. The two eldest siblings fought the urge to roll their eyes. Ayato cared too much about meaningless teasing.
"S-spoiled it? " cried the pink eyed beauty, "Wait, I don't really understand what you're saying…"
"That's all there is to it," Kanato drawled, managing to sound almost as bored as Shu felt, "We're a family of vampires. Nothing more and nothing less."
After hearing her stutter her disbelief for what felt like the millionth time in the some five minutes they had known each other, Shu tiredly closed his eyes, deciding he had had enough of this non-sense. Honing into his well-tempered selective hearing, he faded into his own land of violin music in the contours of his mind. Leaving the voices of his brothers and the new sacrificial bride nothing but an annoying buzz in the corner of his consciousness.
But, as always, the five younger Sakamaki boys had a talent for being so incredibly noisy that they won out over Shu's zealous attempt to ignore them. The particular noise that jogged him from his catalepsy was the sound of something plastic snapping in half. Not entirely willing to reinvest himself into the conversation, he lazily opened one eye in a manner that vaguely resembled resentment.
His eyes met with the sight of the girl on her knees beside a smashed, pink cell phone at Subaru's feet.
"You're terrible!" she exclaimed as the incredulity slowly drained from her eyes and anger began to take its place. Not that it served to intimidate anyone in this lot.
"Now, now, Bitch-chan," cooed Laito in his typical lofty tenor, "You should be trying to get along with us residents of the night."
His light smile developing into a mocking grin, he placed his hand gently on the edge of her shoulder in an empty gesture of comfort, "You don't need a boorish thing like a cellphone anyway, right?"
Anger and rebellion flashing strongly in her eyes she leapt off the ground, brushing away from the pervert vampire's hand and demanded, "Wh-who… Who do you guys think you are?!"
Not even waiting for a reply she began to march towards the door in heavy steps emphasized by her anger. Mildly amused by her tuff, a small smirk rose to Kanato's face, "Then you are leaving this place?"
"Of course I am!" she turned back to snap before continuing her stomping, "I don't need to rely on you, I'm leaving!"
Kanato's smirk doubled in size, "Ah, I see. Then it is just right."
She stopped dead in her tracks. She slowly turned her head back towards the brothers confused, "Just right…?"
The purple haired vampire clutched Teddy closer to his chest in anticipation as he began to take slow, unhurried steps towards her, "I was already starting to become hungry a while ago."
"So?!" she shouted, too blindly irritated to take note of the small triplet's horrific implications.
Kanato's smirk faltered a little as he stated with distain, "You really are an idiot aren't you? When a vampire says they're hungry, there is only one thing they will do."
The small blonde let out a scream of surprise as the purple haired vampire suddenly lunged, closing the small distance between the two. Shoving her hands above her head, he pinned her down before Ayato grunted in discontentment.
"Wait a second Kanato, this sort of thing has seniority levels!" the red haired vampire growled at his triplet, who only laughed at his lame excuse, "What kind of idiotic things are you saying? There's no such thing as that."
Turning back to face the terrified human girl beneath him, he flashed a wolfish grin before whispering lowly, "It's to late to regret, you know? Your blood should be reasonably sweet and delicious."
Chuckling bemusedly, he lowered his face to the girl's neck, ready to bite. Shu hurriedly shut his eye again. He felt a sudden wave of self-hatred and helplessness at the sight, which was then flooded with an even larger flood of self-hatred and frustration. She's just a human. They come into your life and die faster than you can even blink. Mortality is much too fragile a state, so her life is worthless.
He fought tooth and nail to ignore the memory of a little human boy with a rifle gnawing at the back of his mind.
"Eat THIS!" she yelled from below the hysteric triplet. The entirety of the room was incredulous as she boldly thrust out a small pink cross towards her attacker. For a moment, there was silence.
"Pff… Hahahaha… Bitch-chan, you're so interesting! You have a rosary?" Laito howled in amusement, holding his sides to prevent himself from laughing too hard.
"It seems," Reiji sighed as if tired out by her stupidity, "like you are the type to use surprisingly classical methods. How idiotic."
The despair returned to her eyes as she deflated noting that her last ditch effort was laughably ineffective, "But vampires should hate the cross, flowing water, and garlic…"
"What kind of fairy-tales are those? Worthless." Ayato scoffed, rolling his eyes in a rather offended fashion.
Kanato's face screwed up in aggravation as she yelled her embarrassment –vaguely disguised as anger- back at Ayato.
"Annoying." The smallest triplet growled, "The feeling of my feast and the dining table being nonsensical… What is the meaning of this?"
Returning once again to her rebellious attitude, she huffed, "F-feast?! Don't say such outrageous things! I'm a human, you know."
Shu finally saw fit to speak, hoping -almost futilely- that it would end this horrible rouse, "Haa… Troublesome. That's why humans are our meals. Haven't you been tasted?"
"You're a real idiot." Ayato teased, almost sounding completely genuine. Almost.
Just when Shu thought this girl would finally lie down and accept the terrible hand life gave her, she only proved her stupidity tenfold. She started yelping something about not accepting the existence of vampires, which provoked Laito into action to "prove it to her". Shu almost felt sympathy for her. Almost.
When she stuttered at the hat-wearing brother to wait and not suck her blood, he refused out-right. But then she said something really surprising.
"My blood isn't that cheap! I-if I'm going to get my blood sucked by someone then… I want to choose myself!"
"Heh?" Ayato blinked incredulously voicing everybody's disbelief. Even the girl herself looked like she could hardly believe the words that came out of her own mouth.
Reiji stared the girl down looking mildly amused, "How displeasing. You don't know what kind of blood you possess, but it's as if you were pretending to be a high class prostitute."
Normally, Shu hated agreeing with his stick-up-the-ass brother, but when he put it that way, that's basically what she was. Whether she liked it or not. Not that any of that mattered to anyone here.
"Stupid." Subaru scoffed, "Isn't if fine though? If she wants to choose, let her choose."
Grinning wickedly, Ayato exclaimed mockingly, "Oh! How unusual for Subaru to join in!"
Subaru didn't dignify Ayato's mocking with a response. Reiji tapped his chin thoughtfully before declaring musingly, "Hm, I agree. It's been quite a long time since I disciplined an unmannered girl."
Bringing Teddy close to his chest, Kanato gazed up at the pink eyed girl through his eyelashes, "If you don't select me… Hey, Teddy? Let's rip her apart together?"
"It's getting interesting," Ayato grinned, pumped up from the idea of competition, "Naturally, you're gonna choose me, right? Isn't it obvious?"
If Shu had a patience fuse or anything resembling a temper, he would have lost it ages ago, "Whatever is fine. Let's just hurry up and end this farce."
Laito chuckled before leaning forward and seductively narrowing his eyes, "Bitch-chan? If you don't choose me, you'll definitely regret it later, you know?"
Her face gaped in astonishment, obviously not expecting to be allowed her way as simply as that. But then a new fear washed over her features as she ran over the six brothers with her eyes quickly and frantically.
The eldest Sakamaki found the whole gesture exhausting. He already knew whom she was going to choose. Laito-apart from the insulting nickname- did certainly seem the most friendly, on top of his stellar good looks, so all the sacrificial brides chose him. Even if not initially, they eventually would. So why his brothers were being so unnecessary was beyond him.
Giving one last glance over the group, she shakily lifted her little pointer finger to point, "uh… I choose…um… You…"
To the entire family's astonishment, he finger was unmistakably pointed at Shu.
"Huh? Me?" Shu felt a jolt of surprise, which quickly soured at the thought of her hanging around him all the time, "What a pain."
Ayato appeared decidedly miffed at being out done by Shu of all people, "Why'd you choose him? You have no taste, Titless."
"Yeah, yeah!" Laito chimed in, bright green eyes flashing smartly. He already had her thinking figured out, "This guy might seem unmotivated, but he's pretty bad!"
"Hah… Shut up." Shu grumbled, hating the thought of being mocked by a lowlife pervert like Laito, "Well, if there's a meal that comes tumbling in without me doing anything, then I'd welcome it."
For the first time, he really turned to look at her. She was small, cute, and had pure, unmarked skin. She smelled delicious and she looked like a masochist. The lazy vampire prince gave a discreet, sardonic smile. Yeah, he'd give her about five days here, "If you still want to be sucked by me… Then offer your neck to me."
The human girl raised her eyebrows. The expression looked outwardly confused, but almost glistening with a sense of relief. At his blatant lack of motivation, she was beginning to feel safe.
Not particularly wanting to deal with "house training" new bride, and ultimately wanting to pass her off to a more willing brother sooner rather than later, Shu announced, "Oi, you guys. Listen carefully. If you're laying a hand on her… Well, do as you please, but killing her is no good."
Everyone- including the girl- started a little at the late announcement. The eldest casting an annoyed glare at the collective, loud 'EH?!' that resounded off the hard features of the room. However, unsurprisingly, he made no move to explain himself.
"We can't? Why?" whined Kanato, clearly annoyed his aforementioned plans of ripping her asunder were suddenly dashed. From the look of it, he must have come up with about ten different ways to go about it, too.
"I don't know," the listless blonde continued disinterestedly, "They're his orders, 'Treat the guest hospitably.'"
As the word "hospitably" rattled off his tongue, Shu almost followed it with a chuckle. The old man had to be joking. Had he seen what they had done to the last dozen or so brides he had unceremoniously chucked into their lion's den of a mansion? But then, that guy had never sent any of the others along with a note specifically banning her death. She must of some kind of value if he went to that trouble. Not that any of that-or her- mattered one way or another to him.
"Please say that sort of stuff earlier!" the pink eyed human exclaimed exasperatedly relieved at being assured that she would not be killed, but a bit grudging that she could have known that sooner.
"It was a pain." Shu explained curtly.
She repeated his words offended, before Ayato cut in, "What the hell is he thinking? Why do we have to treat this boring human girl well?"
Clearly, Kanato was not the only one around who had been fantasizing about brutally murdering the girl in a bloody and probably torturous fashion. Even Subaru appeared more angry than usual.
"So annoying," the white haired vampire started with a snarl in his throat, "That person… She's an eyesore, darting about."
"…Impudent talk. Then why don't you kill her," Reiji matched Subaru's snarl with a leer, "That is, if it's ok to disobey that person, Subaru."
The youngest narrowed his striking red eyes and clenched his fist until his knuckles were white in a sudden, hot burst of anger. Suddenly, the other five Sakamakis felt great fear for the inanimate objects surrounding white haired boy and his Hulk-like rage. Shu, mostly because he didn't feel like writing the letter it would take to replace whatever that bastard broke.
"Tch, Dammit." the enraged brother grunted, "I'll kill her one day. Along with him."
The teenage girl's eye twitched. Obviously putting herself back on high alert and making a mental note to steer clear of that particular brother. Shu almost felt the urge to call her a smart girl.
"Hmmm, it's like there's meaning to it," Laito mused in an attempt to return the conversation to the truly perplexing aspect of this situation, "I wonder if this guy's planning something…"
"Do you mean that there's something about this girl?" the purple haired vampire inquired, earning him several dubious looks from his brothers.
"I wonder~" the pervert brother continued, tilting his fedora thoughtfully, "I don't understand that guy's way of thinking at all."
"I don't understand." The fair-haired girl deadpanned, exhausted from trying to keep up with the conversation, but failing miserably.
"Shut the hell up, Titless. This is a family matter." Ayato snapped at her wanting no association with someone that had such ambiguous and mysterious protection from the head of the family.
"Anyhow," Shu asserted, "It's like that, so keep it to the extent that she doesn't die."
Swiveling his head to the right, his steely, blue eyes met her warm pink ones for the first time. She instinctively shuddered, as if she could physically feel their coldness. He kept her gaze as he finished lowly, "Don't make a ruckus that disturbs me."
Heaving a weary sigh and pressing the play button on his mp3 player, the oldest Sakamaki turned on his heel and began to slowly ascend the grand staircase. He considered returning to nap in his chaise longue in the hall, but quickly exchanged the location to his his bedroom; correctly assuming that the girl would find him and try to bug him.
As he made a right at the staircase's final banister, he caught one last fleeting glimpse of the new bride, still staring after him aghast. Her bright pink eyes shimmering with despair and unshed tears, she disappeared behind edge of the corridor wall. He could have sworn he saw one of them fall as the final bitter chord of Musetta's Waltz died on his eardrums.