Her breath was coming in short, quick huffs; barely releasing any, and taking in even less. Yui had been running the Sakamaki mansion for over an hour now, lost and uncertain as to where her perpetrator may be. Light raspberry colored irises skittered the dark recesses of the corridors corners and turns, not for a moment trusting that Ayato had given up on his pursuance of her.
She was frightened, lightheaded, and could barely even hold her own weight on quivering legs; having been used as a blood bank for five of the six Sakamaki brothers, and still being chased after by the most recent for another tasting. Of course, none of this circumstance was new to her, but it did not stop the fear from paralyzing her as she was held down and drank from, or her meek pleading for them to stop; as if it would really influence them taking what they believed to be rightfully theirs.
Finally unable to stumble her ways blindly through dark corridors, Yui ducked into the nearest room to her. The door clicked shut quietly behind her, and with misplaced relief her small body rested against the solid state of the door behind her. Between the quite audible sound of her panting and the not as loud pounding of her heart against the restraints of her rib cage, the blonde girl missed the faint sound of a violin melody from near the window.
"What are you doing in here?" The voice that had come from seemingly nowhere startled her from the calming of her body; the frightful throbbing of her chest picking up where it had left off only moments before.
"Sh-Shu-kun..?" Her voice came in a painfully meek whisper after a few moments of silence as she struggled to find her voice. It wasn't often that Yui encountered the eldest of the brothers, and the master of the house, but she was rightfully frightened of him. Not like his siblings, of course, as she had never been subjected to the blonde male being painfully forceful to her to gain what it is he wanted, but because of their past encounters.
There was a heavy sigh from him, one of annoyance. There was a slight shuffling that, to Yui's ears, sounded as if Shu was moving about and the room was filled with the dim lighting of an antique lamp. "Are you going to answer why you are in my bedroom, or continue to stand there like a fool..?"
With that, she quickly stumbled over her words to force out an answer. "I-I was running fr-from Ayato-k-kun.. I di-didn't r-rea-realize this was your room I-I just w-wanted to get a-away.." The way she spoke was almost pitiful, with her uncertainty and apparent fear. Irritating even, to Shu, who had been awoken by the sound of her heartbeat the moment she had stepped into this room. "I-I-I'm sorry..!" After a pause she tacked the two words onto the end of her entire sentence, not wishing to further infuriate the brother she had undoubtedly disturbed.
From where Shu rest in a window side chaise, his eyes were open to gaze at the brothers human 'pet'. There was another exhale from him to hint how deeply his irritation with her went, and one of his hands rose to absently run his fingers through the messy front of his ash-blonde hair. ".. And you thought it a good idea to take refuge in a room that, under the best of circumstances, held chance to be housing another vampire that may or may not wish to drink from you?"
Her already tense body became rigid with a mixture of fear, and a realization that he was completely right. Though she feared Shu due to his stating it would be best for her to never reach out for him again and to not mess with him, he was the least of her worries. "I-I didn't.." She couldn't seem to formulate a response. He wasn't interested in her, Yui knew as he had made such quite clear the day he had 'won' her, but the others were— interested in her blood, and eventual death the day they were to drain her body dry.
"Allow me to take a guess here,.." He drawled out in a bored, leisurely tone. One of his eyes shut to show his level of disinterest in this entire scenario; of her standing against his door engulfed by apprehension, unable to formulate and speak a coherent sentence. "You 'didn't think of that'."
Her eyes fell downwards as he spoke. He was right, Yui hadn't put a single thought into what she may do if the room she had hidden within had any of the other Sakamaki brothers inside. If that had been the case, right now she may have been someone's meal or even possibly dead, depending on the brother and what mood they were in.
Thinking this, it made Yui realize that in some morbid, perverse way, she was actually thankful for it being Shu.
"Tch.. You're completely hopeless.." The blonde male in the room sounded vaguely amused by the fact that she seemed completely unsure of her own actions now that he had brought them to light.
"I-.." Her words caught in her throat as she looked up to confront him, but instead of meeting cold beryl across the room Yui was met with those eyes right before hers. It shouldn't have been shocking for him to be so close in a matter of seconds; it was an ability that all the brothers had, yet it had still caught her off guard and taken the breath she had finally managed to catch. "I-I.. Um.." Trying once more to voice a response for his 'statement', Yui found that again he was right. Against his brothers, she was exactly that; hopeless.
A soft chuckle came from Shu, such a foreign sound that it had caught Yui off guard. As much as the man had no interest in this human girl, she had become such the source of amusement tonight. "Admit it. I am, as I have been all evening, correct."
Her head drooped, hiding the quiver of her eyes from view. Her throat felt like sandpaper, and from his close proximity her heart was giving a fearful flutter. "..." He was right. Internally, Yui could admit that Shu had been right the entire time they had been speaking, but she refused to mutter such a thought aloud— to do so would be allowing the eldest of the brothers to break her; something that none of the others had been able to do, no matter the topic they had attempted.
Quietly he snickered. Lowering his head, Shu whispered against the shell of her ear in a subtle manner of mocking the squeamish human girl. "How can you be so loud whenever my brothers torment you, yet cannot even manage to answer the most simplest of questions..?"
Her body, despite the fear that coursed through her veins, gave a small shiver as his warm breath assaulted the sensitive skin of her ear. She may have been able to come up with some sort of witty response that denied his statement, if it weren't for the fact that she had never felt so utterly terrified. Not because of this close proximity, which most would be, but of the fact that she had never bore witness to such a person before; one who typically took no interest in his own life, but was just as cold as those who were outright tyrannical.
There was a sharp fit of laughter from Shu's lips. "Really now.. And I thought that you could be of some source of entertainment.." Without further bothering of the petrified human, he pulled away from her; leaving in her heart a most haunting of fears that refused to relinquish its hold on her.
"I-I.. Thought you were different.. E-Even after th-then.." Her quivering words stilled Shu, clearly not anticipating such a response from her. In fact, he hadn't been anticipating a response at all; fully having expected her to, without utterance of another word, turn and escape his quarters.
"I have told you before.. I am still a vampire, and in the end we are all the same; seeking out blood from a source we know can bring us amusement and pleasure." His voice which had been insulting only moments before, now came automatic with detest. This subject was one he did not wish to speak of, and most certainly not with her of all people. "I am no different than any of my brothers, so do not expect such from me."
"But you aren't..!" Stubbornly still, she insisted that he was. She didn't want to believe that all the brothers were of such a nature. She wanted so terribly to see that, if perhaps there was an aberration amongst them, there was good to be found here.
"... You know not a thing…" Within less than a second, he was before her once again, his hand covering her mouth as to smother any more of the lies she felt the need to speak. "You do not belong to this world, you have not seen the things that we— vampires, and even my brothers and I —are capable of."
Yui struggled beneath the grip covering half of her face, trying weakly to escape. The attempts were, of course, futile against strength of vampiric nature and only resulted in the room spinning from lack of oxygen. Had he covered her nose, also..? She couldn't tell. It was becoming much too hard to tell anything. "Sh-..Shu-k..-kun.."
The name, uttered with what breath Yui had left to spare, shattered the antagonized state Shu had managed to put himself in. Instantly his hand on her released though he moved not as her recuperating body crumpled to the floor; chest heavy as she attempted to drag in a breath that could soothe the aching in her lungs.
".. Get out…" He finally spoke after a few minutes of just watching Yui gather herself off the floor.
"S-Shu-kun.." Her voice was pleading; begging him to believe in her words as much as she did. She didn't want to believe he was truly like this, just as cruel as his brothers. He had seemed so much different to her.. Why couldn't he just see that also?
"Get out!" His voice that was so typically pitched with disinterest and boredom— stoic, even —was now full of barely repressed fury. Yui should not have been in his room to begin with. Better yet, she shouldn't have even been brought to this God forsaken mansion to begin with, and his sending her away was the only way to keep him from doing a list of regretful things; drinking from her, harming her, and even perhaps killing her.
There was a squeak of shock from her to be seeing Shu in such a state. It spurred her to scramble blindly for the handle that was somewhere behind her. "I-I'm so-sorry..!" Were the stuttered words she gave the infuriated blonde before her palm hit the cool metal of the doorknob; efficiently turning it downwards and sending her sprawling out into the hallway in a graceless manner.
"..." He offered no response, merely watching as she scrambled her way back to her feet before headed off in the direction opposite of her own room. ".. Idiot…" The three syllable word was only muttered— accompanied by a haggard sigh and a rather aggressive ruffling of his already mussed bangs —when Yui had disappeared from his sight and the door was shut, as it should stay, in Shu's opinion, again.
It wasn't until much later in the evening when Shu found himself unable to sleep that he began to muse over in his mind the situation of which had played out in his room earlier. Or, to be more exact, his actions and responses to the frail woman who had been a distraught mess. Since when had he begun to express any form of emotions? And to such a loud, meddling being like her?
Okay, yeah, hi there. I haven't been around for some time (despite my saying I would be more active while doing editing of my other stories) annnnnnnnnnd I have no excuses to offer other than LIFE. Which really isn't much of an excuse, as writing is a big part of my life. I guess I just haven't been posting anything. Because really, I have four or five other drafts that I've yet to post. Bleck. I know, I am a complete failure when it come to keeping promises, I just get busy! Gomen, gomen. I'll (attempt) to start updating more, even if it is just this story at first.
BUT HEY. Now that I've gotten past the part that I'm sure you all are going to just skip over, little tidbits and announcements.
1: If this doesn't make complete sense to anyone, I will be more than happy to clarify the events of certain parts, or even make subtle changes if you have any suggestions to as how I can fix it. Just PM me.
2: I DID NOT have time to read through this entire chapter before posting it, as I did not have the time after taking three days to write it, and I am currently out a BETA reader. (I would love if someone could offer to help me with BETA'ing.) So don't kill me if there's a grammatical error, or typo somewhere that you notice. Please just point it out in the comments or in a PM with its location, and I will fix it when I have to time.
3: If you're any interested in seeing me about other than my hectic postings on here, feel free to check under WalkTheDarkAlone on deviantART. I have a few short drabbles and some art bits on there, if you're interested.