Vampire's Valentine

A very Happy Valentine's Day to you (or if you can't stand it, may it soon be outlawed hehe!)! :P If you've read or remember my AU fanfic Rose and Fang, this oneshot is just a gentle conclusion to a day that most of us see as a joyful one. It follows on from the ending of that story - life must go on for Yumi, even as her heart aches night in and night out for her long-gone mistress. I'm briefly revisiting this AU partly because I enjoyed it so much, so forgive the self-indulgence. I hope you like it. (^_^)

The hilltop was quiet in the winter morning, safe and sound from all the bustling noises of Tokyo stirring to life. The dew was fresh, glistening on the grass that surrounded the tombstone. Meticulously kept, cleaned well, and maintained without fail, Ogasawara Sachiko's grave might have been a lonely one, but it stood overlooking the distant capital city with the same dignity and honour that she had in life.

Today, the dead woman was receiving a bunch of new flowers. Her favourite - a bouquet of blood-red roses.

The sunkissed wind blew gently, loose leaves brushing by the grey stone and announcing a supernatural presence.

"Ohio, onee-sama. I'm here again," murmured the vampire quietly.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

She bent her legs and crouched, laying the bouquet before the stone, before placing a small, plain card on it in silence.

It read:

From your eternal admirer. Loving and missing onee-sama always.
- from your sweet and devoted Yumi

She was such a big and strong vampire that she could move about even in daylight. Her grande soeur would have been so proud. She smiled dreamily, thin hands folded on knees. She had dressed up for this occasion, in a white blouse with the rosary Sachiko had given her more than a hundred years ago, in 1901. She had done up her pigtails too, as if to look more familiar.

"Sorry for not coming since New Year's. Beautiful morning, isn't it? I've been keeping busy. I polished your old weapons last week, onee-sama. Your swordstick, Flower Stalk, was getting rusty. I cleaned up your pistol too, Vermillion. I know those anti-undead tools are of no use in this century, but I know you wouldn't have wanted them to waste away."

Ogasawara Sachiko, once feared and respected in Japan and England as a powerful vampire huntress, left London in 1903 and died in 1962. At the turn of the twentieth century, while she was still a young woman, she failed to stop an undead monster from making Yumi one of their kind. They had met in a dark alleyway on a rainy night, with the newly turned vampire weeping and terrified that Sachiko might slay her. But instead a most peculiar but special relationship began, with the huntress inviting her intended prey into her warm flat, Number 9 Lilyston Square. But Sachiko gave Yumi more than warmth and comfort; she gave her nourishment, which for a vampire could only come as blood. How could Yumi not have loved the human being who not only decided not to kill or reject her, but actually feed her with her own delicious blood?

They had spent very happy nights there indeed.

After a tragic war against a traitor in their midst, Sachiko and Yumi returned to Japan, with Yumi watching Sachiko grow into a mature lady, and then into a middle-aged aunt, and then into a wrinkled old woman. All the while, Yumi's young, gentle face never changed a dot. Her hair never lost its once-lustrous colour. Her eyes never faded into helpless blindness. Her back never bent painfully, and her limbs never creaked with arthritis or bone marrow deficiency. But she had to watch her human beloved suffer all this. It was hurtful, extremely humbling, to observe the fragile old granny that Sachiko became.

This woman, who once cleaved apart vampires with little effort, who made love to Yumi with all the possessiveness and longing a human can offer, who helped to save London itself, insisted that Yumi simply let nature take its course. Just as she had decided to allow Yumi the dignity of vampiric life, Yumi had to allow her mortal mistress the dignity of a human death. To her very last breath, Sachiko refused the possibility of having Yumi make her immortal... even as she died with loving words for her sweetheart vampiress.

They could have enjoyed forever with each other.

"It's 2012," murmured Yumi, her finger tracing the ground's soil absently. "It's a world you wouldn't recognize, onee-sama. There was a really cool band in the sixties, you know, called the Beatles. They became really popular just after you died. They toured the world and even came here. Our homes are safe now and everyone has super cool technology, stuff we'd never dreamed of. Lots of things happened after the Second World War... happy things, but also sad things..." Yumi pursed her lips, behind which gleamed sharp canines. "You'd be happy, though. Tokyo is still a wonderful place. It's strange though, night doesn't seem like night anymore. So many bright lights and neon, completely different to when we were living in London."

She continued to talk and gossip, as if it was still 1962, as if it was still 1902. As if Sachiko was right before her, sitting there with her on this hilltop. Yes, that was it! Here they were, enjoying a picnic together. Yumi had baked cake and made chocolate. Sachiko didn't need to bring anything, because Yumi was happy to feed from her wrist, to bite and suck gently. And then Sachiko would sigh and groan, so vulnerable, so lovable. They would laugh and cuddle together, and Sachiko would tell her off for small things. It was a perfect scene, one that Yumi would never see. Ever.

Her throat felt dry. "Things have changed so much, onee-sama. And I would have loved to show you what's new here."

But not all was well. "Still, people hate and fight each other. I can't stop every war on this planet. Especially when these tragedies are made by humans alone, an undead like me can't really help. They need a human being for their human problems. They need you."

Oh, who on earth was she trying to lie to? She was saying all this just to express her own longing. There wasn't even anyone to gossip about with her departed love. They were all gone, they had left her long ago. "I..." The immortal undead shuddered, struggling to hold back the welling tears. Her entire body felt painful, prickly. Her heart had tightened like a clenched fist. She suddenly hated the rose bouquet she had brought, now lying on the ground and sneering up at her, as if mocking her for talking to a lifeless body. Was this all she would get to do this Valentine's Day? When she had spent the last fifty Valentine's Days doing the same thing over and over again, tending to this decades-old gravestone, wiping away any moss on the slab and replacing the flowers, with her one true love resting six feet under her sandals right this very moment?

"I..."

She didn't want to read those words, those heartbreaking words. She didn't want to read them anymore. But they forced themselves on her prickling eyes, just like every single time she came here.

In Loving Memory of Ogasawara Sachiko, Loyal Subject of the Chrysanthemum Throne - May She Rest in Peace.

"It hurts more and more every year I live without you. I spend each night remembering how you'd caress my hair, how you'd kiss my forehead. How you would feed me with those cool but gentle eyes. I miss you. So very much," sobbed Yumi. Her legs had given away regretfully. She crawled forward, all pretense at propriety forgotten. The grass smudged her knees and legs. Her white dress was now smeared and streaked with dirt, but who cared? She clutched the edge of the tombstone, sniffling as vampiric teardrops fell to the soil. She almost expected a reply, as bizarre as it might have seemed, but when there was naturally no response, she felt even angrier and unhappier.

"Do you have idea how difficult the last century has been without you? Can you imagine living on for fifty years after your true love has gone to heaven? No, no human can possibly imagine that. But I can! I've seen more wars and deaths across this world than I have spent nights in your arms. I hate that. I hate knowing that!" Her trembling voice grew more violent. "You'd say it was worth it, onee-sama, and I still believe you. You told me not to live my life as if I'd rather join you, and I still try to. But faith doesn't come easily: I'm tested every single day by the follies of human beings. By the criminals I catch on the streets, and by those who abuse their power and bully others. Yes, I've protected the night in your place, onee-sama, but I think some of these humans are worse than vampires. I need a human being who I can trust. There's no one but you. And you're here instead... listening to me go hysterical."

Yumi slumped in emotional exhaustion, her hand stroking the gravestone yearningly. But it could never replace her grande soeur's touch.

If only you had let me bite your neck...!

"Last year, I told the Countess that I was tired of living without you and the soeurs," she murmured bitterly, gritting her fangs. "I told her I miss Sei-sama. Yoshino-chan, too. And Shimako-san... God, it still hurts just to think about it. And the Countess's sad smile... she understood, onee-sama. She knew the pain that vampires felt after a human they love leaves. Just like she misses Sei-sama as Kubo Shiori, I miss you."

Yumi let out a sullen chuckle, staring at the ground. "It seems I'm even more tired than I thought." Her voice was hoarse now. Great. "What a Valentine's Day. And it's not even ten o'clock..."

Her eyes suddenly widened as she felt two arms wrapping themselves violently around her. She gasped, choking on her ragged breathing. "Who is it?"

"Who are you, more like? This isn't Yumi-sama," came the calm voice. "This isn't the Yumi-sama who turned me and made me an immortal creature of the night."

"I'm sorry," whispered the haggard Yumi, recognizing at once the person behind her. "I did ask you not to come, though. I didn't want you to see me like this. Please understand. It's been getting more painful every year. Every year that I come back to remind myself that onee-sama isn't, and will never be, by my side... the only reason why I didn't stop drinking blood and just die was because onee-sama wanted me to continue loving life, even without her."

"The curse of the undead is not to be killed by humans, but to live without them," replied the girl embracing Yumi. "That's why, in desperation, vampires will resort to biting humans and making them fellow creatures of dusk. It's not because they're malevolent. It's because their souls are ravaged by loneliness."

She had peculiar, darker pigtails, and her smile was almost cruel. Her pupils were once black, but now they were tinged with crimson. "After all, you turned me, but I knew you could never be a malevolent vampire."

Yumi's tears still trickled down her damp cheeks, but her thumping heart had relaxed slightly. It didn't feel so tight, so suffocating. She closed her eyes again, clasping the hand around her shoulder.

"Thank you, Touko-chan."

Regaining herself, she gently guided her vampiric familiar aside, standing unsteadily. She stared at the silent tombstone as Matsudaira Touko, dressed in a beige top and green skirt, gazed at her mistress."This is Touko-chan, onee-sama. I saved her from the streets, not unlike how you saved me. We have our moments, and I'll never be happy without you... but funnily enough, I'm not unhappy about that."

"Yumi-sama," murmured Touko.

"Vampires have long memories, especially for someone they love... and even more so when that someone willingly gave you their very own blood." Yumi looked at Touko. "Think about that, Touko-chan. There's something amazing, awe-inspiring about that. And that's what onee-sama did for me."

Touko remained silent, observing Yumi sombrely as the latter joined her palms, bowing her head and closing her eyes. Nothing passed between them as Yumi said a silent prayer, before returning her attention to her junior. "Come on, Touko-chan. Let's fly with our bats up north. I want to see the aurora borealis. Will you come and watch it with me?"

Young Touko nodded. "The northern lights," she murmured. "Maybe Sachiko-sama is watching over you from there. For her, you should stop your crying."

Yumi smiled as she looked at the tombstone. The rose bouquet was suddenly beautiful again, and she didn't regret bringing them here for a moment.

"Onee-sama. I will stay strong. No matter how long I live, I will keep your memory alive." She let out a teary chuckle. "Sorry for losing myself today. I'm not like this, usually. I promise I won't be so loud and fussy next time. But at least I'm still sane. I think."

A deep red, ruby glow illuminated the vampire's eyes as she bent her knees slightly. In a heartbeat she was soaring in the bright blue sky - and it might have been strange for a Nosferatu to say this, but bright blue skies were her favourite. She and Touko catapulted themselves into the morning empyrean together, soaring amongst the Tokyo clouds. She looked back at the shrinking gravestone on the hilltop, and she smiled.

You are my home.

"Till death do we part, onee-sama... and since I am deathless, we will always be together."

THE END, BUT YUMI BRAVELY GOES ON.