Chapter 1:

Takuma Ichijou sat in his room as he read a book. Reading was one of the best ways he got his mind off of things that were troubling, and tonight was definitely a troubling night. Takuma laid back on his bed, his emerald green eyes stared at the ceiling as he ran his fingers through his light blond hair. It was the night after his nineteenth birthday party and the whole night class of Cross Academy had been there…well except for Kaname Kuran that is.

Kaname had left with his wife and adopted sister, Yuuki Cross about a week before and Takuma couldn't let it go. Maybe that was because he had always had a thing for the brunette that used to be the president of the Moon Dorm. Or maybe because Kaname wasn't there to stop Takuma's friend, Senri Shiki, from acting up and cutting him again. Yes, again. Takuma sighed and rolled over on his side. His mind trailed back to his eighteenth birthday last year…

Flashback:

It had been a normal day for Takuma as he slept soundly in his bed. A soft knock on his door had woken him so he got up and opened the door with a yawn. Kaname stood there, smiling at him, a mysterious look in his dark eyes. "Did I wake you?" Kaname asked, placing a hand on Takuma's head.

Takuma shook his head until the hand disappeared then looked up at Kaname. "Not really," the blond replied. "What's up?"

"Well…there's a Level E running around somewhere in town and I want you and Shiki to go deal with it. Okay?"

Takuma nodded. "Yes, Kaname. Oh, you did remember my birthday's today, right?"

Kaname had turned to walk away and now looked back at the blond with a knowing smile. "Of course, Ichi-kun. Why would I forget something like that?"

Takuma blushed slightly and turned away. "I…nevermind."

Kaname smirked then walked away, closing Takuma's door behind him.

Takuma looked up at the door and frowned slightly. 'Ichi-kun' was the nickname Kaname had given him when they were kids. It usually meant "Just go do what I said, please" or "I need to talk to you about something important". Now was one of the times it meant "Just go do what I said, please" so Takuma merely sighed then walked over to his closet and pulled out a silk, collared white shirt. "I think this will do," he said as he unbuttoned his pajama shirt and pulled it off. Before he had a chance to pull the other shirt on, there was another knock on he door. "I'm getting dressed now, Kaname," he called.

The door opened and Takuma saw a maroon-haired teen standing in the doorway. "Yeah, too bad I'm not Kaname," he said with a small smile.

"Oh, hi, Shiki," Takuma greeted as he pulled on his shirt. "What are you doing here?"

"I was coming to see if you were ready yet. Kaname-sama says that he wants us to go as soon as possible," Senri replied, walking over to Takuma. "You're buttoning too slow," he said, buttoning the last few buttons.

"Thanks," Takuma mumbled, looking away.

Senri's gaze wandered from Takuma to the window. "A little early to be 'E-hunting', huh?"

"I guess," Takuma replied, taking a blue sweater out of the closet. "Let's go."

"What's with the rush?" Senri asked, picking up his pace slightly to catch up to Takuma.

"You were the one who said Kaname-sama wanted us gone as soon as possible," Takuma told him with a raised eyebrow.

Senri shrugged. "Yeah, well, we can't rush too much or it'll become really troublesome."

"You say everything's troublesome," Takuma said, looking back ahead of him.

Senri smiled and placed a hand on Takuma's shoulder. "Not everything," he said.

Takuma sighed and shrugged Senri's hand off. "Please don't say it like that," he said as they walked out of the dorm building.

A little while later, Takuma and Senri were walking through the town, secretly keeping an eye out for their target.

"I was just saying," Senri said with his hands behind his head. "Being a vampire model is such a pain."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't say the 'v' word as if we were still at the dorm. You'll give us away."

Senri shrugged. "Do you really think people are listening?"

"You never know," Takuma responded. He was about to say something else, but was cut off by deranged snarling from nearby.

Shiki stopped and looked around. "I think that's our man…woman…E thing…"

"Come on, Shiki!" Takuma called, as he ran to a nearby alley. "Oh, look, Kiryuu-kun and Yuuki-chan."

"Great," Senri replied, his face suddenly adopting an unenthusiastic look. "They just get in the way."

"Well, right now it looks like they're in trouble so come on."

Senri followed Takuma down the alley until they got to where the vampire was and saw it bearing down on the two prefects. Takuma quickly drew his sword and sliced the vampire down the middle just in time. The creature yelled and exploded into dust then floated away in the air. Once the dust cleared, Zero and Yuuki gasped in surprise to see Takuma and Senri.

"Ichijou-senpai! Shiki-senpai!" Yuuki called out.

"Well, that's finished!" Takuma said with a smile as he sheathed his sword.

"I wasn't really of need," Senri said, a little disappointed.

"Why did you two do this kind of thing?" Yuuki asked confused.

Takuma switched glances with Senri then looked back at the other two. "If it interests you, come to the Moon Dormitory tonight. I'll tell you why we disposed of that Level E then."

And after that, Takuma and Senri left, leaving Yuuki and Zero standing in the same place. "What did you do that for?" Senri asked Takuma as they walked back to the school grounds.

Takuma looked over at him and smiled. "I want them to come to my birthday party tonight!"

"Your…b-birthday?" Senri said, suddenly stopping.

"You forgot, didn't you, Shiki?" Takuma asked.

"Of course not!" Senri replied, forcing a smile. "It just…uh…slipped my mind."

"Of course," Takuma responded disbelievingly.

Later that night, Takuma stood at the concession table, looking at the blood-substitute in his wine glass. Senri walked up behind him and placed his chin on Takuma's shoulder. "Hey, what's up."

Takuma jumped and hopped away from Senri. "Shiki! Don't do that!"

"Not my fault you're jumpy," Senri replied, walking over to a red-haired girl with her hair in pigtails. "Hey, Rima…"

Takuma watched him go then set his glass down happily as he saw Akatsuki Kain, a red-haired guy with red-orange eyes, and Akatsuki's cousin, Hanabusa Aido, a blond-haired, blue-eyed guy leading Zero and Yuuki into the party.

"Welcome, Yuuki-chan! Kiryuu-kun! Tonight is my birthday party! Please enjoy yourselves."

"We didn't come here to play, Ichijou-senpai. We wanted to ask you about today."

"Eh?" Takuma looked at Yuuki confused.

"Why did you dispose of the Level E, even though you're both vampires?"

"They're not the same as us," Hanabusa replied, walking over to the table.

Takuma smiled and picked up two drink glasses: one with a yellow-colored fruit drink and the other with a blood substitute. "Yuuki-chan, the society of vampires is ruled by a few purebloods and a handful of Noble Class vampires. However, those in the Night Class are all part of or above the Noble Class." He paused for a moment and handed the punch to Yuuki then held the other glass in front of Zero. "Even lower are the vampires who were once human."

"And the beings who have even fallen out of the ranks are…Level E," Shiki added from behind Yuuki. Then he walked over to stand behind Takuma.

"Vampires who were once human gradually ignore reason and will at some point inevitably end up at Level E," Takuma continued as he closed his eyes in thought. "End, destruction, and ruin."

"Those born as vampires and vampires who were once human are completely different beings," Hanabusa told Yuuki as he turned back to the table. "I don't want you to put us together."

"That way of speaking is cruel!" Yuuki broke in. "Level E's didn't become that way because they wanted to! To start off with, it was you guys who—"

"That is exactly why me must manage things," Takuma said. "Before they attack humans at random because of a hunger for blood."

"I ordered it," a voice spoke from the Dorm entrance. Takuma turned around and saw Kaname standing with an arm against one of the dorm's support pillars.

"It was you, Kaname-senpai?" Yuuki asked, looking over at Kaname.

Kaname ignored the question. "Yuuki, coming to such a dangerous place as Ichijou told you…"

'Okay so now that's my fault. She didn't have to come,' Takuma thought.

"I wanted to check personally," Yuuki replied looking down.

Kaname ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "Personally, huh? Come here, Yuuki and Kiryuu-kun." Kaname told the two as he turned around and sat on the couch behind him.

Takuma took the drink from Yuuki then watched as she and Zero walked over to Kaname.

"Yuuki, come sit next to me," Kaname told her suddenly. Yuuki looked up at him nervously as the other vampires around them gasped and began murmuring to one another. "It's all right," he sighed.

Yuki forced a smile. "I'm fine!"

"Yuuki," Kaname said again, this time a little annoyed. Yuuki finally sat down next to Kaname and he pulled her over to him. "Next to me is the safest place," he said with a glance in Zero's direction.

Takuma turned away. He really wasn't interested in listening to the whole "Level E's are actually forbidden to be created, but because of history, they were" speech that was coming; he had heard it enough times already in his life and he had a feeling that this conversation was going to end abruptly anyway. He couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, something about disposing and sympathizing and little bits like that, but he had guessed that whatever Kaname was saying was pissing Zero off badly. His suspicions were confirmed when Zero pulled out a gun and aimed it at Kaname's head. Seiren, Kaname's bodyguard, acted quickly as well, barely thrusting her nails into Zero's neck, causing him to bleed but she lowered her arm at an order from Kaname. Hanabusa's temper acted up and he glared at Zero. "That was scary," Takuma mumbled to himself.

"To point a gun at Kaname-sama…even tearing him apart wouldn't be enough." He stood his ground when Zero turned to glare at him. "We won't be doing that!" the blond said. "Not whilst in this academy anyway. I don't want to go against Chairman Cross's pacifism. But don't forget that it's because of the pureblooded vampire, Kaname-sama is here that we gathered here at this academy."

Takuma noticed Yuuki look over at Kaname in shock. 'Something tells me that's the first time she heard that,' he thought. Takuma sighed and shook his head to get the smell of Zero's blood out of his nose. Yuuki and Kaname had started talking again and Takuma was beginning to feel a little neglected. 'Okay, that's enough,' He clapped his hands loud and everyone looked over at him. "How mean everyone! Tonight's my birthday so we must celebrate properly for me! Yuuki-chan and Kiryuu-kun are also my special guests."

The gathered vampires seemed to agree and continued talking to each other and some got together with one another and began dancing.

'I think it's time for the cake,' Takuma decided, as he walked back over to the table. There was a large, sharp knife sitting on the table and Takuma picked it up and began cutting slices of the cake. Senri was suddenly at his side. "That's a big cake," he said. "Are you going to ear it by yourself?"

"It's for everyone!" Takuma said with a smile. "Would you like to cut it, Shiki?"

"Sure…hold the cake for me, Ichijou-san."

Takuma held out his hand toward Senri who took hold of the knife and quickly pulled it out of Takuma's hand, moving it at the last minute and slicing the blond's finger.

The two stood there for a moment, looking down at the bloody hand. "You cut me…" Takuma said as the blood dripped off his hand.

"I'm sorry, " Senri told him, just as captivated by the blood on his friend's hand. "Don't waste it, though," he said, taking hold of Takuma's hand and licking the blood off.

Takuma just stood motionless and stared at Senri as he began sucking the blood out of Takuma's hand. "You did that on purpose, right, Shiki?" he asked calmly.

"Eh?" Senri replied, totally absorbed in enjoying Takuma's blood.

Takuma smiled slightly. "I just hope you don't have any intentions about abusing me personally," he said softly. He suddenly looked up as he saw Zero run off and a little while later, Yuuki ran after him. "Ah, this definitely agitated him," the blond said, pulling his hand up.

"Hm?" Senri looked up in time to see Yuuki disappear. "Oh, him," he said, a trail of blood running down his chin.

Takuma looked at him and shook his head. "Shiki, my blood is dripping off your face."

"Hm?" Senri looked over at Takuma then wiped the blood off with his hand. "Guess I got carried away," he said licking his hand.

Takuma shook his head and handed a glass of water with two blood tablets to Senri. "Here, Shiki, drink this instead."

"This is boring to drink," Senri whined, twirling the liquid around in the cup.

"Oh well."

"I can't help that your blood has a nice taste," Senri mumbled, taking a small sip of the drink.

"Only you would know," Takuma replied, picking up two pieces of cake and carrying them to Kaname and Seiren.

Senri stood watching him with a smile on his face then turned to go talk to Akatsuki and Hanabusa.

Reality:

Takuma opened his eyes when someone knocked on his door. "Go away, Shiki," he called.

Senri opened the door and walked in then closed the door behind him. "Why? You're not upset over what I did last night, are you?"

Takuma sighed and hid his head under his pillow.

"Oh, it's not like I haven't cut you before."

"That's not the point," Takuma said, although his voice was muffled.

"Cut it out, Take," Senri told him as he sat on the bed next to the blond. "I know you liked it. Your blood had that kind of sweet taste."

"You're disgusting," Takuma told him, but deep inside the blond knew that Senri was right and he blushed. "Why would I like a guy drinking my blood?"

"Okay, then," Senri said, sticking his head under the pillow with Takuma's. "Why didn't you stop me?"

Takuma groaned slightly then turned around on his other side with his back now facing Senri.

"Aw," Senri sat back up and looked down at the blond. "What's wrong now?"

"Go away, Shiki," Takuma said softly.

"You're mean," Senri told him, leaning down and wrapping his arms around the delicate form. "But if you want me to, I'll leave."

Takuma felt Senri get up off the bed and soon he heard the door open then close again. Takuma lifted up the pillow slightly to make sure Senri was really gone then sat up. He wrapped his arms around his waist and stared at the ground. 'As if I could ever admit a thing like that to you,' Takuma thought as he got up and headed to his closet and took out his uniform.