Love Fangs

Chapter 1: New Student

Everything was so large, and so regal, that I felt a strange sense of unpleasant familiarity; though, as usual, I tried as hard as I possibly could to disregard it. Cross Academy stood taller than I'd ever imagined, and the mush of people I could hear talking added to it's appearance of a school for the wealthy, something I hadn't been for a long time. Back in my 'hometown' of Kyoto, I got into this place the old fashioned way, studying until my eyes were about ready to fall out and disintegrate into nothing, and it paid off, and I passed. Just barely, but passed nonetheless. My friends begged for me to stay, but somehow, this move felt right.

"Eri-san! M – Miss Sasaki Eri-san, please wait!" I turned to see a short girl sporting a short brown hair style running towards me, waving her arms to further enhance my awareness of her presence. The welcoming committee, I thought sarcastically.

"Hello, you must be Yuki-san, correct?" Headmaster Cross told me that I was going to be shown around by either his daughter Yuki, or her partner Kiryu Zero, but he specifically stated it was highly unlikely Zero would be the one. I hastily took off my mp3 player, placing it in my bag.

"Yes!" Her smile practically blinded me. "How was your trip over here?"

"Fairly mild," I mused, shrugging, "this man on the train tried to put his hand on my butt, and I broke his wrist in two places." I smiled a bit at her expression of confusion and surprise. "Well, shall we?"

"Oh, uh, yeah! This way, please, Eri-san." I silently trailed behind the girl as she rambled on about the school's commodities, pointing to different corridors and showing me where my classes are. From what I could deduce, people were screaming – girls, obviously - as if the school was being invaded by a boy band. Yuki's expression suddenly grew very worried.

"I'm so sorry, Eri-san, I didn't even notice it was almost night time, please come with me, this will only take a minute." She lead me over to a large gate, abandoning me to the side while she pushed back hundreds of screaming girls back. My eyebrow rose slowly as the large wooden gate opened, and out strode beautiful people. My heart skipped a beat, and I began to panic. I can't let any of them see me, oh gods, why are they here!? Even my ex-fiancée, of all people, was walking down between that screaming line of girls, too. I ran away right then, refusing to deal with the rude awakening to my new, serene life that I absolutely adored. My clever escape was interrupted by a hard, cold surface.

"Didn't Yuki tell you to wait there?" I looked up and saw a cold face with silver hair and violet eyes glaring straight down at me, and I assumed this boy to be Kiryu Zero.

"Yes, I'm aware of that, I just couldn't hear myself think with all of that noise." I murmured, looking down to the floor.

"I deal with it, so you do you too, now come on, you've probably worried her." He roughly tugged my arm, attempting to pull me back.

"No!" I immediately ripped my arm from his grasp, my eyes unexpectedly wide. "I can't, alright? I just – just don't want to go back there!"

"What the hell's wrong with you?" I let out a sigh of relief when Yuki showed up, stepping back a bit further from Zero.

"Zero, stop scaring poor Eri-san!" Yuki scolded him like a mother, pulling me back towards the Day Class dorms, and she finally lead me to my room, which, horribly enough, was closer to the Moon Dorms than I preferred by far. As soon as Yuki left, I groaned and slumped against the wall. A hundred years, a hundred years of never having to deal with the past such as this, and now it practically lives at my door step! I always assumed luck wasn't always at my side, but to this degree!? I paced back forth in the dim room, damn near ripping my hair out. Through my hysteria, I realized I'd dropped my bag with everything inside it when I'd run away.

Cursing under my breath, I took off my shoes and slinked out of my room, being as silent as I possibly could. Surprisingly to me, I manged to tip toe my way straight down, almost home free when I saw two boys dressed in white rummaging through my bag curiously. I growled at my horrible luck tonight, rushing over, keeping my head down at all times.

"Senpai, could you please put my stuff back and give me my bag?"

"Oh, my, my, how irresponsible of you," His voice was horribly familiar. "I apologize, truly, Akatsuki and I just got so curious."

"Then do proceed to mind your own business then, Senpai, and not look through other's belongings." I kept my voice safely emotionless.

"Such a cheeky girl," he mused, "it's very rude to speak to me in such a way, don't you think? Look at me and apologize." Hanabusa hadn't changed a bit, always trying my patience with his annoying little games, sadly for me, this time I couldn't hit him upside the head.

"I have no time for this, Senpai." I said as politely as I could. "I apologize for my rudeness, but it wouldn't be a wise thing for me to get in trouble on my first day."

"Just give the girl the bag, Hanabusa." Kain finally told him with a sigh. "It'll save her and us a whole lot of trouble once you do."

"Very well," he agreed gruffly, "but first, tell me your name." That would reveal too much, I knew that before he even ended the questions.

"My apologies once again, Hanabusa-senpai, but that is indeed none of your business." I quickly snatched the bag away, and hopefully all of its contents from the start, and ran as fast as possible, ignoring the sharp hey! Hanabusa had shouted out. I made my way without any more interruptions, entering my room once more and sighed with acute relief and happiness, finally plopping on my bed for a well-deserved rest, and what I feared to be an increasingly unlucky day.

The next day, to my sheer joy, was quiet. I didn't have another forceful meeting with one of the night class students, and I met some new, nice people who treated me well. Though, to my utter chagrin, Satsu – the first one I became friends with – forced me to come with her to the Night Class opening again, and as much as I protested, she merely stomped her feet stubbornly and pulled me closer and closer.

"You won't regret it, I promise!" Satsu excitedly vowed. "They're all so hot, especially Aido-senpai and Shiki-senpai!" Although I begged to differ, arguing with her surely wasn't going to get me anywhere, so I just kept my head down and attempted to blend in, which, admittedly, wasn't that hard due to the fact that the screaming girls were quite distracting to the naked eye. I finally told Satsu I had homework to catch up on, and I slinked backwards desperately keeping my head down to make sure I wasn't seen, and I began to fear this would become routine. I bumped into another hard surface, and for once I silently prayed it to be Zero.

"The cheeky little girl from last night, eh?" Gah! The gods are out to get me. "How unexpected, now where are you off to in such a hurry, hm?"

"Back to my dorm, Hanabusa-senpai." I said through my teeth, hating that I had to memorize the ground. "Good day." Attempting to walk away was damn near impossible, but I felt I at least had to give it a try. Of course, his cold hand shot forward and latched on to my wrist.

"Do you have any manners?" He commented in a dry voice. "Now, look at me and I won't be tempted to shout out to all of those girls still outside that you're assaulting me."

"Hanabusa-senpai is this really necessary?" I growled, but his finger was already under my chin, forcing it up with his sheer strength, and finally, I saw his icy blue eyes again for the first time in over a hundred years.

"Tell me your name." Hanabusa demanded in a low, ferocious whisper. "Tell me!"

"Sa – Sasaki Eri." I couldn't control the unrelenting amount of happiness I felt to see my oldest, and dearest friend.

"That's Hamada Eri, you liar." And his arms crushed me in a vice tight hug. "How are you alive? Kaname – Kaname-sama told me he witnessed your death! He told me you killed yourself!" I almost smiled, Kaname wasn't lying in his own little way.

"Hanabusa-senpai –"

"No! You're not allowed to call me that, you selfish, selfish girl! Call me Hana, like you did before." He'd gotten taller since the last time I'd seen him, and as he held me against him, my feet weren't touching the ground. "Are you aware of the anguish you put us through!?"

"I know, Hana, I –"

"No, you don't." Aido's tone grew dark. "The only ones who seemed to know anything were Kaname-sama and Shiki. Kaname-sama simply looked like he shrugged it off, but Shiki …" My heart froze, and I slowly began to feel more and more horrible, but letting it show would be against everything I'd worked for, and I sure as hell wasn't going to blow a hundred years of struggle in two days.

"I was selfish, but I just couldn't stay there."

"It wasn't as if you were going to die –"

"Enough!" The authority in my tone was given to me at birth, and I detested it. "Put me down." Hanabusa obeyed, his eyes shrouded with astonishment and confusion. "You have absolutely no idea what happened, so don't jump to conclusions! I know of my sacrifice, and the effect it was going to have on those that I loved and loved me, but the situation at hand called for it, do you understand?"

"Ye – Yes." His head lowered.

"And you will mention this meeting to no one. Not a soul. You thought I was dead before, and you'll think I'm dead now, okay?" He nodded slowly, and I felt like what I had escaped. Hesitantly, I placed a delicate kiss on his pale forehead and wrapped my arms around him. "I could of never asked for a better friend, Hana. Never forget how much of a place you have inside me, alright?" I ran off, hoping he'd keep his word, and at the same time slightly hoping I could catch a small glimpse of Senri again.