Cerulean Palace Chapter 1: Prologue, a vampire knight fanfic

Cerulean Palace

Prologue

For as long as he could remember, she'd always bested him when it came down to one thing – aerobics.

Shiki grumbled. Hey, it wasn't his fault that males were stereotypically less flexible than females.

But then again, he wasn't exactly a stereotypical male, was he?

…And it didn't help, that Rima loved to lord the fact over him. Well, could you blame her? It was probably the only thing she was better at. Besides acting like a brat, he added to himself mentally.

For as long as he could remember, she had an alter ego called Rika. Or so she claimed.

There were times, instances, where Rika would come out and become the warm and bubbly and chatty person that Rima never was. Rima was nonchalant, was sarcastic.

Shiki knew that Rima liked neither her name nor her personality. But he calls her Rima because it's her name.

For as long as he could remember, she was an avid fan of indulgence – like chocolates. It was one of the main reasons she'd bothered to work in the modeling industry.

Her fans would send packages from nearby and overseas, gifts of jewelry and silver trinkets and Belgium truffles. She would accept the presents gracefully like the lady she was wont to present herself as.

But Shiki knows that when she arrives back at the dorm, she would immediately throw off her coat, not caring where it had landed, and rip off the exquisite wrapping paper to the treasure.

And he doesn't mind, anyway, because he always manages to get better gifts.

For as long as he could remember, Rima was obsessed with extreme sports.

She was a vampire, so the thought of sustaining injuries did not bother her much – well, not enough to deter her from trying to surf in the sky with only a glider to support her. And Shiki knew that she was not dazed enough to slip off the bars.

Still, he watches her with a half-alert expression and a hawk eye, in case she lets go.

For as long as he could remember, both of them were forced to take ballroom dancing lessons together.

It didn't help that their mothers – best friends – were both frightfully romantic, and had regular delusions of a child with messy chestnut hair and mesmerizing blue eyes. It didn't help that he's once overheard them arranging things for the future that involved the both of them.

But when he captures her pale fingers beneath his darker ones and her azure eyes lose themselves in his, when he slips an arm around her waist and feels the warmth of her body pressed up against his, he thanks the two hags for being meddlesome in the back of his mind. He concentrates on guiding the suddenly frail person over the polished marble floor. There is a barely noticeable flush on Rima's cheeks and Shiki forces himself to belief that it's just a play of light.

For three months, they have been attending the Cross Academy's Night Class. Shiki is unwilling to admit that he's afraid – afraid that Kaname Kuran would steal Rima's attention from him.

Rima refuses to acknowledge the sudden twinge in her chest when she spots him chatting casually to Ruka, because three months ago, it had only been her that would talk to him without formalities. And she couldn't deny that Ruka was so much more talented and beautiful than she could ever be.

End. Prologue