A/N: This is for tiuannemei, who asked for a ShikiRima fic a while back. I'm sorry it took so long, but here it is!
Pink Parasol
He was asked to model first.
Some days she'd come along in the car that came to pick him up, to that flashy building with lots of glass. Shiki must hate all the light, she thought, idly tapping her nails on the tinted glass of the limousine.
Bored with waiting on a windy Tuesday, Rima went to look for him. Inside the automatic glass doors, she glared at anyone staring at the pink parasol she still held over herself as she walked deep into the lobby, past the visitors desks, and around the rim of a large fountain.
"Hey, you don't have a pass!" A woman's voice rang out behind her. Rima pivoted, red hair swishing, sepia boots light on the royal blue carpet. She stayed silent for a moment, then decided that if she was ever going to find her wayward friend, it would be easier to ask directions.
"I'm looking for Shiki Senri."
Her statement was virtually ignored.
"So you don't work here?" The woman stared. "God, do you want a job?"
"A job?" Rima raised one fine eyebrow into her bangs. People in suits walked past, sparing the two a glance before moving on. They were used to beauty, she thought. Her jade eyes scanned the crowds, in the lobby and on the terraces of each story as the wide open space soared upwards, too bright and rather loud.
He was up ten levels, walking along the tenth floor balcony as if he had all the time in the world. When he glanced down, their eyes met with a jolt that traveled from her throat to her stomach to her fingertips. Outwardly, her slender shoulders tensed.
It happened more swiftly than half a second, with the keen eyes and swift thoughts of two ageless beings in this place where the sun beat down on her pink parasol.
So she began to work with him.
It took two weeks for them to get a job together.
He wasn't late, for once. In fact, she had to fill out enough paperwork that he got to the shoot first, and she walked in after he was in costume. Half of the room was draped in white fabric, with reflective foils and a camera already set up on its tripod. In the midst of it all lay Shiki.
Even Rima, who lived in a world of inhuman beauty, felt her thoughts tumble, and stared at his eyes and his bare gleaming chest and his eyes and his crimson glossed lips and his eyes.
Suddenly her fingers were damp and the pink parasol in her grip slipped a fraction. Rima swallowed. Something was squirming deep in her belly as she took in his pale skin, sprinkled with multi-colored glitter that twinkled in the light, and the sepia hair that spilled over the snow white fabric.
Then Mitsura-san, the woman she'd spoken to her first day in the lobby with her pink parasol, brought Rima a pile of clothes and they stepped into the changing room. Dressing took minutes, her hair took fifteen, and her makeup twenty. Each moment scratched under her skin, as if the tedium was fighting to get out of her body.
Through the door and she was out again, and ready to stare into black pit of the camera lense. It was too bright and she was sleepy, but posing next to Shiki, putting her hands on his chest and feeling the fire in his eyes was worth it all, even the stupid glitter that would be impossible to get off her eyelashes.
"Perfect," the photographer would cry, delighted with his subjects. "Turn your chin a little to the left, Rima. Shiki, don't space out... yes! That's it!"
And the shutter would fall like music.
After a month, Rima and her pink parasol were well-known throughout the building. The cafeteria was part of the large lobby, set next to the fountain and warm in the sunlight. Rima sat in the few shadows, where the second floor balcony extended over the first floor for about six feet. Aside from herself and Shiki, there were five other vampires working for the company.
All seven of them sat in the murky shadows over lunch break, and their managers noted that all seven diligently took vitamin pills every day. Then they traded wary glances, hoping their most lovely models were really only taking vitamins, and nothing illegal.
Seven pairs of eyes would watch them from the shadows as they nervously joked, then laughed at themselves for worrying about nothing.
When their schedules collided, Shiki and Rima would eat together. She liked the deli sandwiches with pepperoni cold cuts and swiss cheese, and water stained red by a little white pill.
Shiki sometimes forgot to eat, or would just have a peanut butter sandwich and swallow his tablets down with 7Up.
One gray Thursday, the shadows were even darker than usual with the heavy mat of clouds that roiled overhead, imitating the ceiling through the glass. Shiki and Rima were the only two who stayed in their darkened corner, instead of moving to the comfortable chairs of the main cafeteria. Shiki thumbed through his wallet, while Rima looked on, calmly munching on her salad, taking a last sip of a drink the color of wine.
"Ah."
Rima raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"No blood tablets."
She twirled the pink parasol that lay on the ground next to her, alarmed.
"I don't have any extra, Shiki. Maybe you should go back to the school. Or will you be okay?"
"I don't want to go back..."
"You might have to." The parasol was twirling faster. Thunder boomed overhead. Rima felt more awake than usual, with the sky black above her.
"Well then." She stated, holding out her arm, wrist close to his face. Her green eyes were nonchalant, and his blue ones curious. With her other hand, she lifted her pink parasol so that they were immersed in the shadows, any view of their actions blocked by pink fabric and lace and ruffles.
As his fangs pierced her wrist, a human screamed as a bolt of lightening streaked across the sky, the sound exploding and crashing around them, falling on deaf ears as her blood flowed like the rain on the glass, and he finally, finally drank her in.
A/N: Keep in mind that drinking another vampire's blood is supposed to be their main path of intimacy. Let that have whatever meaning you like, but that's why I had them do it instead of kiss, or something. Please review!!