A/N: So hi everyone. I just want to let the people reading this know that of the Sakamaki brothers, Kanato is my favourite and that I think this site deserves more Kanato fanfics. There are shockingly few of them out there so to everyone reading this who also love Kanato best, I dedicate this story to all of you :)

Also, just letting you all know that is roughly based around a time after the second season of the anime.

Chapter 1

I hadn't really noticed it at first. If anything, I thought perhaps he had finally welcomed my company but after several days it became undeniable; Kanato was clinging to me.

Since losing his precious stuffed bear, Teddy, to the inferno of the living room fireplace he had been listless. Part of me had felt terrible pity when I saw him wandering about the house with nothing clutched in his arms. I even caught him talking to himself a few times before he would properly realise that his bear wasn't there to listen to his words and he'd stop mid-sentence with a pained look on his face.

Of course another part of me had understood that carrying a toy around with you at all times wasn't exactly what some people would call normal but since Teddy had left the living world it just felt like something was missing. I felt bad for Kanato because I think perhaps Teddy was the only person – or object shall we say? – that really listened to him and understood him.

Naturally I wanted to ease the pain of his loss so whenever I could spare the time and I found Kanato sitting sadly by himself I would approach and talk to him quietly. I didn't say too much. Most of the time it was merely a small greeting or I would ask him if he wanted to eat with me.

He'd been a little reluctant to accept me at first but I was grateful that he didn't completely reject my attempts to cheer him up. Most of the time he sat silently next to me while I talked about school or the kind of sweets that I liked. I hoped that by talking about the things that he liked he would respond to me and eventually he did.

He didn't say much to begin with, just that his favourite dessert was cake, and not just any cake, it had to be a strawberry cake. He liked to eat the strawberries last. It was only a small piece of knowledge and he hadn't said much after that but it had me pleased for the rest of the day. I figured that if he could open up to me then perhaps he was slowly getting over his grief.

As was only to be expected, I promptly taught myself how to make a strawberry cake and the next day I presented it to him at school during our lunch break. He'd looked at me like I was an idiot but he accepted it all the same. He didn't give and word of thanks and he'd complained about the taste but he still ate the whole slice I gave him. On returning home I remembered passing the kitchen and seeing him cutting himself another slice but I didn't want to embarrass him by walking in on him but it made me more pleased.

After that Kanato seemed to improve significantly. He no longer looked annoyed when I found him sitting around the house and he let me talk to him and he talked back to me. The conversations were never truly significant, just small talk about the weather that day, or how the garden was looking and ever so often a small anecdote about his childhood.

Things continued on in that manner and it wasn't until several weeks had passed that I realised something strange had happened. I had been sitting with Kanato in one of the parlours while we talked and he'd leant forwards and wrapped his arms around my waist in much the same way as he had used to hold Teddy. I realised then that maybe I really had made myself the replacement of his stuffed bear. After all, I had let myself get close to Kanato. Perhaps it was his way of showing me affection. All I knew was that I had made him feel better and I wasn't going to stop now.

...

At the Sakamaki mansion we ate our meals together promptly at 7pm. Or at least we tried to all arrive at 7. I was running a little late because I had been caught up in doing homework in my bedroom. It meant I was forced to run down the flights of stairs and dash into the dining room.

Luckily it seemed that no one had begun eating yet. I walked over to the table and was suddenly surprised to find that my chair wasn't in its usual place. At first I thought perhaps that one of the brothers had removed it as a kind of punishment for being late but then I saw that it had merely been shifted over to be pressed directly up against Kanato's seat.

I approached him and gave him a warm smile before sitting in my chair. He immediately looped his arm through mine but stared at his plate as if he had not done the action at all. The other brothers all stared at us with baffled looks. Apparently they weren't used to Kanato showing more than a vampire-like interest in people.

I ignored them and began to eat my food silently. It was difficult because with my right arm linked with Kanato's, I only had use of my left hand. In my attempts to try and cut up my roast potatoes with the side of my fork I only succeeded in making a mess. I nearly jumped when a dinner knife came soaring down and stabbed firmly into one of the potatoes on my plate. Kanato's own free hand held the handle so tightly that his knuckles had turned white and when I looked up into his face I saw a devilish smile. I think perhaps he liked to make me jump.

"I'll cut the food" he said to me. I opened my mouth in thanks but the words caught in my throat as I could only gape at the spectacle of Kanato trying to cut the vegetables on my plate. He seemed nearly as useless as I had been and my food got crushed.

I had to laugh though at how silly we must have looked and eventually managed to persuade Kanato to stop stabbing at my plate. With some effort we managed to work together, each using our own utensil to cut up one of the nearly flattened pieces of roast potato and I could finally pick up a bite-sized piece of the food onto my fork.

As I moved the fork to my own mouth I suddenly felt Kanato's eyes on me and a quiet protesting grunt come out of his mouth. I looked back at him and then smiled again.

"Do you want the first piece?" I asked of him. He opened his mouth in reply and I feed the food to him. He ate it quickly and then brandished his knife to show that he was ready to try again.

With the next piece he allowed me to take the mouthful and we proceeded in taking turns to work through the meal. Never once did we try and free our arms from each other. I didn't want to let go for fear that it would make him angry, or worse; sad.

I could still feel the other brothers watching us silently from their seat although perhaps not Shu as he rested back in his chair with his eyes close. I could practically feel the disdain coming from Reiji due to our poor table manners and the other three still sat there and watched us with varying amounts of annoyance, perplexity and curiosity.

Subaru made a noise of disgust and I looked over to him with a frown.

"Don't you have any pride?" he asked me, "Are you just going to let that loser treat you like his pet?"

I looked back to Kanato to see that his gaze had dropped. His expression had become gloomy again and it sent a pang running through my heart. I snatched his hand under the table and squeezed it in reassurance.

"If I was a pet," I replied to Subaru while still keeping my gaze fixed on Kanato, "I would want Kanato to be my master any day."

Everyone seemed rather shocked by my statement but I figured that if I said anything less encouraging to Kanato then he would perhaps start avoiding me all over again. I needed to make it clear to him that I wanted to stay by his side and aid in his recover by doing whatever it was that he felt he needed to do.

My words seemed to sink into Kanato and eventually I saw his eyes lift a fraction so that they could just meet mine and a small ghost of a smile played over his lips before disappearing again. The action sent a small, excited, chill running down my spine because I had made this miserable vampire happy again and right then that was all I really wanted.

P.S This is rated M for later chapters that I'm sure I will get around to posting eventually.