So... this is a Blood+ story I've been working on for a while...

It's kinda a "what if" story: what if Saya basically went into heat once a year?

This is by no means cannon. All of my favorite characters -minus Moses, sadly- come out to play, and they can't do tht if some of them are dead, now can they?

So, enjoy!

~Sins~

Long hair tends to be the bane of a runner's very existence. So they either pull it back or cut it short. I was a part of the second group, even though I love long hair. That was probably the number one reason I loved having Haji as an almost constant companion. The quiet cellist let me play in his long dark hair whenever I wished.

However, some days, his silence was the bane of my existence. Like it was today. I was braiding his hair and fighting the urge to hurt him intentionally, just to hear some sound from the overly composed man. He hadn't spoken a single word to me all day. He'd spoken to my father, both of my brothers, and my best friend, but it seemed he hadn't had a word to spare for me.

"Saya."

"Hmm?" I asked, startled. The first word he said to me all day and it was my name.

"You do remember what tomorrow is." It wasn't a question.

I sighed. Trust him to bring up the day I hated most. "Yes, I do recall it." I hate it, but I recall it.

He was silent for a moment before he told me quietly, "Saya, you're pulling my hair."

I released it suddenly, his hair coming unbraided almost instantly. "Sorry." I got up and left the room quickly, heading upstairs to hide in my bedroom. God, why did I have to fall in love with him? Haji had been given to me as a young boy, so all he ever saw me as was a companion, sometimes one who needed to be watched over a lot. But I'd seen the boy grow into a man, and stay that way, time stopping for him when he was about eighteen. I'd had decades to become infatuated with the handsome man.

"Saya? It's time to eat." Kai stuck his head into my bedroom.

I smiled at him. "Tell Dad I'll be down in a minute."

He nodded and gave me a smile before leaving to get our other brother, Riku. I pressed my face into my pillow and yelled in frustration. I stood up, composed myself once more, and went downstairs again.

Haji sat in the kitchen, playing his cello as Dad served up supper. He was the only being in the house with no need to eat, so he played music throughout dinner, usually without speaking to anyone.

Dad and Riku talked, but Kai and I ate in silence while Haji played a soft melody. I currently didn't want to be anywhere near Haji, so I ate quickly and excused myself from the table. I felt my families eyes on me as I retreated, making some excuse about homework.

"What on Earth is wrong with her?" George asked me.

I looked at him. If I knew, I'd tell you, I thought. Her memory was still incomplete, so I'd just wanted to make sure she was aware.

Kai rose and excused himself from the table as well.

I knew I needed to check on her, but she wasn't in the mood to be receptive to me at all. She'd be much more receptive to George.

Riku finished eating and excused himself from the table, leaving only George and myself in the kitchen.

"What on Earth is wrong with her?" George repeated, collecting the dishes from the table and putting them in the sink as I put away my cello.

I shrugged. "Will you check on her? I get the feeling she's mad at me."

George nodded. "Of course. I heard her storm upstairs earlier. Is that what this is about?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure." I set my cello case in the living room and returned to the kitchen to do the dishes. He nodded and headed up the stairs.

He returned a few minutes later. "She's locked her bedroom door and is playing one of those angst-y teen CDs. She refuses to speak to me. Will you try your hand?"

I blared music, anything I could find without a cello involved. Although I played it once –had even taught it to Haji- I couldn't stand to hear it right now, not when I was so angry at Haji for bringing up tomorrow.

I always wonder why I never ask him to take me to safety, away from anyone else. And I've decided the answer is simple: he wouldn't leave, and I'd never be without him. His presence rubbed me raw ever since I figured out I was in love with him.

The worst part of the whole mess was that he was technically mine to order about on a whim, technically a part of me. the only time I was free of the blasted man was when I slept, and even then only sometimes. He saw me as his master, someone he owed servitude to. I would have been just as happy if he took off to see the world while I was awake for once.

A knock sounded at my door.

"Go away, Dad." I stared out the window, trying to fill myself with the music.

"Saya."

I stared at the door. Haji. He put so much into the one word, as always. "What do you want, Haji?" I demanded, fighting the urge to turn the music up louder and pretend I hadn't heard him call my name.

"Is this about what we spoke of earlier?"

"Kind of yes, kind of no. My memories are now fully intact. Please do not state the obvious." I kept my tone clipped and formal.

"What else is wrong?"

I sighed heavily. "You wouldn't understand."

I almost heard Haji give a short nod and walk away. Damn me for only having one chevalier! He was my only one, so I knew his reactions and his way of thinking almost better than my own. If I had another, I'd actually spend some time away from the blasted man. But I would never be like my sister Diva. I could never take a human who is perfectly healthy and turn them into a chevalier. The only reason Haji was my chevalier was because he died. The power of the Queen's blood can bring back the dead. It was prompted by the fact that I'd been the actual cause of my companion's death. So I brought him back, only to find out I'd forever changed the man I'd watched grow up.

While my sister had no qualms about doing this to the living, I only wished this state of un-death on the already dead. Haji didn't eat or sleep. He existed wholly to serve me and keep me safe during my decades of sleep. It disturbed me to know what I'd done to him by simply giving him my blood and trying to save his life.

Damn it! Why can't I stop thinking about him? I buried my face in my pillow and prayed for sleep. Hopefully, in sleep I could find some refuge from him. It just was not fair that every thought led back to him somehow.

A knock sounded at my door again. "What?" I asked, my anger having cooled.

"Saya."

Haji again. I smiled in spite of myself and rose from my bed, then crossed the room and opened the door. Haji's hair looked a little more mused than usual, and he wore a look I rarely saw on his face: surprise.

He composed himself quickly, even though –rarest of rarities- his hair was lose around his face, his jacket shed elsewhere, and his shirt half undone. He leaned into me and brushed a kiss to my cheek, murmuring, "Sorry."

I stared at his blue-grey eyes, startled. This was new. Haji had never kissed me anywhere but on the hand, except when desperate times called for desperate measures. And even weirder: he never apologized.

His cheeks turned pink and he bid me goodnight, hurrying downstairs to the living room, my hand sliding up to cup my cheek as I made my way to my bed in a daze.

I know who I'll be dreaming about tonight, I thought, sighing. I get angry at the man and then he has to do something ridiculously sweet, like apologize. And kiss my cheek.

I fell into the waiting arms of sleep, thinking about the sexy image he'd been, his dark hair down around his face, in a state of undress I never saw him in, him being the perfect Victorian gentleman he'd been raised to be at the Zoo. What possessed him to apologize dressed like that? was my last coherent thought.

What in the hell was I thinking? I wondered, pacing the living room like a caged animal. I'd been unwinding, had taken off my jacket and undone half the buttons on my shirt, as well as untied the precious blue ribbon, a gift from Saya ages ago. What possessed me to even think about apologizing, I do not know. Next thing I knew, I was at her door, knocking.

She's opened it with a smile on her face, even thought she'd been angry at me earlier. Then, apparently, I just went for it, leaning into kiss her cheek and apologize. It had to have been the shock in her gaze that brought me back to my senses.

How do you tell your Master, whom you've been with for over a century, that you're in love with them and have been since before you died trying to help them? I wound a curly strand of hair around my finger as I pondered this, puzzled. Then again, this question has always been at the top of my mind, and I hadn't answered it yet.

Dear Lord, tomorrow will be hell, I thought to myself.

I'm just setting things up, so far... but doesn't it sound like fun?

Read and review, pretty please!