Silent as the Knight

Aidou x Senri

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AIDOU HANABUSA looked back from the last gleaming sunbeam cascading from the bell tower of Cross Academy. His cousin excused himself from the spot his back claimed against the railings of the grand staircase and made way for the stairs.

"Good day," Kain mumbled with a yawn as the majority of the night class rose from their seats. "Are you coming Hanabusa?"

"Yes, yes, I'll be up soon Akatsuki," Aidou waved an impatient hand at his cousin's retreating back.

"I'd better turn in, too. Wake Shiki up for me," Takuma Ichijou gently slid said boy's head off of his shoulder. The emerald-eyed Ichijou allowed his fingers to momentarily tangle themselves in Shiki's stray bangs before they departed to scratch the back of Ichijou's neck. Shiki's head flopped against the side of Aidou's thigh. The latter found himself moving leftward a bit so as not to upset the sleep-loving boy beside him.

"Good day, Aidou," Takuma tossed one of his award-worthy smiles as he made his way toward his bedroom.

The Night Class slowly filtered out of the Moon Dormitory's great hall to retire to their bedrooms – most of the students left along after Kaname had announced his retirement to bed. This included Ruka, notably Kain, and the Vice President Takuma Ichijou. As for Takuma's room mate Shiki Senri, he had been asleep since the moment he had come in contact with the red velvet couch. The young model lay , abandoned by his room mate and co-worker Rima. The reddish-brunette hair fell placidly over his lavender-tinted eyelids, cruelly hiding his mercury-blue orbs from the materializing moonlight. Takuma's scent was fresh, overpowering the vanilla-bean shampoo Senri used often – a trademark scent of sorts – something Aidou used to identify Senri.

Likewise, Senri used Aidou's lavender-scented clothing to discriminate Aidou from the nursery of smells Cross Academy harbored. The only Vampire blood that graced his lips was that of Rima and Takuma.

The stereotypical vampire from the manga that the Vice President shoved down Aidou's throat was said to have an insatiable craving for the blood of a human.

For the most part, the covet for human blood existed; versus that of a vampire which, to a human, was the difference between eating vegetables – nutrients – and chocolate – un utmost craving. Moreover, human blood was something the body needs rather than what it desired. Vampire blood was a delicacy, but the sharing or offering of blood between two individuals who were not intimately close (or giving it as an offering to a pureblood) was looked down upon, if not scorned, in the vampire society.

Unlike Senri – who bore Ichijou's bloody fragrance on his breath – Aidou had only the pleasure of blood tablets and that single, alluring drop of Yuuki's blood. The brunette and his manga-loving room mate had a surreptitious relationship built between them since the dawn of second semester. He and Takuma had enough stable trust between each other to confide more than a drop of their precious crimson bodily fluids.

As these strange and unwelcoming, but oft thoughts surfaced Aidou's mind, that impossibly satisfied curse of thirst made his mouth start to water.

The blond quickly noticed the shift in weight distribution on the couch. His eyes, as if on cue, snapped awake to catch a glimpse of the troubled look on the other vampire's face.

Aidou passed it off with a scoff, fighting the urge to upset the table in his frustration; he was always the kind of personality to leap before he looked, unlike Senri who so casually and calmly assessed situations with that unperturbed visage his modeling career permanently scarred his smile-foreign lips with.

"Aidou-san," the brunette's voice was soft, but laced with his trademark bothered tone, as if saying those few syllables were more trouble than they were worth.

Shiki has been force-fed the reality of his age difference, which only mattered among peers of the same class, and Shiki, being the youngest of all of Kaname's closest, learned to address most of the night class with the suffix "-san", apart from those select few behind closed doors.

One being Takuma.

"Shiki?" Aidou replied, twisting his face into an expression that matched a child about to be scolded by their mother. The latter got to his feet, his posture somewhat obscured by the sudden rush of blood to his head. He quickly regained his composure with a shake of his head.

A grey cloud dispersed and flooded the room with a dismal, pale silver glow. Shiki's eyes reacted like a chemical reaction and gradually turned the color of blood. The exposed porcelain-like skin got caught in the moon's wake – the skin of a predator in its true light.

Aidou stayed in the shadows. He looked closely at Shiki.

His lips were pressed in a deadpan expression; his eyebrows curved as if in deep thought. It was as if Shiki knew some profound secret that he was dead-set on keeping from the blond, and Aidou, being as determined and stubborn as he was, felt the urge to unlock it.

To his surprise, he heard Shiki produce a strained, dry laugh from the back of his throat.

He knew what Aidou was thinking.

"Aidou-san, if you're out of blood tablets," he began while a single hand juggled his container of blood tablets, but the frown on the blond's face cut him off. He shrugged in response as if Aidou was a pesky fly and pocketed the blood tablets again.

"Very well…" He had another plan.

Then it happened… that smell… that terrible, tantalizing smell.

Shiki's finger was bleeding.

"Aidou-san," the blond's eyes flashed blood red, reflecting that sweet, arousing liquid flowing down Shiki's finger.

His body was reacting to it.

Shiki extended his arm, pointing his bleeding index finger straight at the blond with his hallmark robot-disgracing expression. His voice matched: "Hurry, Aidou, or it'll close up. It would be a pain to have to bite my finger again."

Like a puppet on a string, Aidou found himself being pulled toward his puppeteer. Like a bee to a flower…

He couldn't help but hesitate. This boy, their only common ground being the school they attended, was a stranger to him.

Vampires could live on a short supply of blood, unlike their human prey having it a necessity. The two of them stood in forced silence as Shiki's finger inched close to Aidou's pale, rosy lips.

He wasn't sure how to react at initial contact.

His eyes widened for a brief moment when the addicting, warm fluid invaded his taste buds.

Shiki's blood… it was…

…good.

Like an animal, vampires recognized each other by a distinguishing scent – quite often their blood – but only if the vampire had learned the connection of blood-to-owner. When Yuuki's blood was spilt, Aidou could only recognize its owner immediately, whereas the others would simply smell just blood.

He found himself unable to take more than just a drop – even if he could feel his body thirsting for more, Shiki seemed to understand the mutual discomfort and pulled his finger back to his possession to be rid of the excess before any others would notice the smell.

No doubt Takuma would be asking questions.

Aidou wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as if to signify disgust, although it was the exact opposite of what he really felt, he still refused to show any amount of desire or allow the questions to form on his lips.

And Shiki knew it.

What disturbed Aidou was that he wanted more.

He NEEDED more.

That sweet, impermissible nectar… the son of a Kuran.

The instincts of his ancestors slowly began pumping the adrenaline into his bloodstream. In less than a split-second, the brunette was iced to the floor. Shiki's reflexes forced one of his feet back, but his expression was still calm – deceivingly calm – if not taunting… as if he was saying "bring it on".

The sweater vested vampire approached his prey, resisting the temptation to circle Shiki Shiki like a hungry wolf with a rabbit caught in its clever trap. Instead, he stopped behind the brunette, but Shiki remained soldier-like and kept his eyes forward and his shoulders straight.

Shiki, almost willingly, complied.

In reality, the two of them never bothered with closeness, mostly on Shiki's behalf. He was close only to Rima and Ichijou, and Aidou usually kept to Kain and Kaname-sama. He had never heard Shiki say more than two words.

And now this boy… this silent-spoken, reserved boy… was willing to give Aidou, someone he hesitated to call his friend, his most precious commodity.

Shiki felt a hand slide under his chin and tilt his head sideways. His now silver blue eyes fell closed fell closed as he noticed the heightened rate of his pulse in his neck. Aidou's blood red eyes followed the highway of veins and arteries before he singled out his vein of choice.

A stifling, choked gasp formed on Shiki's lips as soon as tooth met flesh. The pain was transient, quickly replaced with a numbness that allowed him to focus more on the pleasurable feelings arousing in him.

Instantly, Aidou could taste Shiki's blood type: A positive. It was sweet, but there was a certain ingredient that made Aidou feel as if he was being poisoned.

To their kind, blood was more than a substance offered as food, in was a story. Once the blood enters the mouth, all of the emotions of the victim become one with the taker: The pain, the fear – their deepest, vain secrets. Those recondite feelings one tries to keep locked away; when Aidou had a taste of Yuuki, he was overwhelmed with her strong feelings for Kaname-sama and her burdening concern for Zero Kiryuu.

So… why was it that the only emotion being drained from Shiki's veins was melancholy? He could feel every cell in his body flood with regret and a disconcerting burden crash down on his shoulders. If it weren't for the sweetness of the blood itself, Aidou would have pulled away sooner than he had.

Shiki had the exact same thought in his mind. He quickly pushed against Aidou's shoulders, an uncharacteristic fear-like emotion creeping into his eyes – not of Aidou, of course, but fear of him possibly discovering something. The blond grabbed onto Shiki's protruding arm and watched the younger vampire's face fill to the brim with appall. His foot still frozen to the floor caught his imbalance and sent him toppling like a domino onto the couch. Aidou quickly became a reactant in the equation and the two vampires plummeted onto the red velvet couch with Shiki's hips enclosed by either of Aidou's legs, and his lips blockaded by the few centimeters of space between them.

Shiki swallowed, his heartbeat throbbing his neck. Aidou's expression was priceless; he looked as if Shiki was holding the Bloody Rose to Aidou's forehead. The only person who could rival his visage was Shiki himself; it was the most emotion seen on the younger's faces.

"Aidou-san," Shiki managed to get his voice to cooperate, but it cracked when he noticed the contracting gap between them. He allowed for his eyes to lazily narrow in compliment to every centimeter of space conquered by the blond.

"Shi…Shi…ki..." Aidou's animalistic instincts began compelling him forward. Shiki stretched his neck back to buy for a little more time.

Did he want this…?

Vampires were driven by instinct, regardless of the consequences. Pleasure was first and foremost all that mattered. Aidou knew it. Shiki knew it as well. Perhaps that was why they were caught in such a hopeless entanglement. Neither of them seemed all that bothered by it.

The model felt his heart skip a beat the moment Hanabusa's lips came in contact with his. They started off hesitantly to allow for second thoughts. After a few seconds of the initial taste of contact, Shiki found his immobilized state fall out, allowing him for the ability to slip his fingers into the blond's lavender-scented locks in order to progress the contact further.

Hanabusa lived up to his infamous ability; each stroke of the finger was cold as ice and sent pleasurable shivers down Senri's spine. Hanabusa could feel a tug at the back of his mind that was begging him to stop. That same impulse was only feeding his curiosity and coercing him closer to this boy.

His lips were sore as his heart; he dreaded getting too comfortable in his moment.

It was the forbidden fruit; that smooth, milky texture that could put the finest of silks to shame… that impregnable fortress of a heart beckoning Aidou's curiosity. Shiki Senri…

…he was bringing out the strangest of feelings in Aidou… feelings he never known to have existed.

He felt a fang scrape across his lip; their kiss escaladed into a violent tangle right when Aidou's blood became a factor. A tongue quickly lapped up the residue before the wound was able to heal, sealing off the precious liquid the male model developed an addiction to. A craving anew he intended to satisfy.

Senri's clothes were getting tighter on his body with each secret moan seeping through the kiss. Shiki hadn't a problem when Aidou so carelessly tossed his designer suede jacket onto the floor; something he usually scorned Takuma for.

Intercourse was a foreign to Hanabusa, and it showed. Senri knew he had to take temporary initiative, compelling Aidou a step closer by stripping him of his sweater vest.

He needed to feel Aidou's flesh. When he could feel bruises forming on his lips, Senri pulled back an inch while subconscious thoughts of his angry modeling agent replayed like a broken record (it took a lot of makeup to cover up the purple and black bruises Takuma's fangs often left). Aidou's violet-tinted eyelids flew open just in time for Senri to witness the color change from red back to ocean blue. Shiki managed to use his mask to hide his concern with the possible abrupt ending of this moment. Hanabusa looked as if Shiki was a mirror reflecting his regret.

"S-Senri," Aidou's voice cracked, only reassuring the doubt forming in Shiki's heart; he clung onto the fact that Aidou had called him by is first name. Perhaps this was his chance.

"Hanabusa," he cooed in reply while a hand flicked away the curtain of bangs cascading Aidou's face.

"Shiki, I—" Aidou began. He wanted to apologize, but Shiki didn't seem willing to accept such a ridiculous thing.

There wasn't anything to apologize about in his eyes. He was used to intimate activities like these since his recent sexual embarking with his room mate; he was surprised at Aidou, being one Senri would never associate with such activities.

The thing that bothered Shiki the most was the utmost hunger he was developing for Aidou's blood.

He had the pleasure of sampling the blood of Rima mutually when they were younger and frequently drank from Takuma's sugary flesh, but the feeling of taboo – of the possibility of being discovered – excited him. It just made the craving grow more desperate. Even know, his eyes were honing in and zeroing out his vein of choice. He could see Hanabusa's heart rate hasten when he noticed Shiki's stormy blue eyes fade into red again.

The ice-wielder's contrasting eyes clouded over with desperation and worry: worry that he was actually begging Senri to bite him, and worry that Shiki expression read that he had caught on to his silent-spoken prayer.

The model was an expert in taking orders. Being in the career he was in, he learned what orders to follow and the proper etiquette for following them. The vampire society did nothing to better his inferiority either. True, he and Aidou were both a tainted drop away from being a pureblood, but that impurity was enough to push him down the hierarchy. Aidou was younger than his cousin, though they were both seventeen. Age, even if it was by a few days, mattered when subdividing the classes. Even if Shiki's blood was purer, their one year difference kept Aidou at a superior advantage.

Aidou had the leave to bite an inferior, and Shiki, unlike when he was with Takuma, had no choice but to request the partaking of Aidou's blood.

As far as Shiki could tell, the question wasn't necessary.

Still, he had to.

"Aidou," he cooed. Aidou deviated his attention to one of the paintings hanging on the nearest wall.

"Mm," the blond replied while a hint of blush crept onto his paling cheeks.

Without a moment's hesitation, the younger vampire seized his superior's neck in his teeth. He savored the delectable sanguine fluid flowing from flowing down his throat. He was careful not to keep the excess from escaping his jowls in fear that the others would detect the scent. It was enough that one's blood was spilt, but to have another's spilt a few seconds later was equivalent to hanging a flashing neon sign over the couch. Someone would come to investigate.

Not to mention the fact that the others would sense Aidou's scent on Shiki and vice-versa.

It was far too captivating – too fascinating to abandon now. How many times had Shiki seen his face in the latest gossip columns? He didn't much mind the gossip, but Aidou was a different story entirely. He lived up to expectations and had a reputation to maintain. Getting caught with Shiki Senri would stir up some interesting conversations.

Senri pulled away and ran his tongue along the sides of his mouth to rid his lips of the inevitable blood stains. The entry wounds on Hanabusa's neck sealed themselves shut and rid of any sign of puncture. The crimson evidence was devoured moments after.

Still, the mutual awkwardness had all but left. The warmth orphaned Shiki's chest as Aidou proceeded to sit up, placing an inconvenient pressure on their hips that brought a burning sensation to Shiki's already red cheekbones. He noticed Aidou had to bite his lip to fight a groan from getting past the back of his throat.

Shiki never intended the situation to get any further than the present moment permitted, but the circumstance only begged for more contact.

Aidou's elbows quaked in attempt to keep him from collapsing. Shiki's hands were fastened against the barrel of Hanabusa's chest when he noticed his strength fading on contact.

A moan oozed from Senri's parted lips that brought a gut-wrenching feeling to Aidou's stomach… and it wasn't from the blood. He knew this was far from over. Aidou wanted it otherwise.

"Hanabusa-san," Senri begged while he charted Aidou's neck with his lips, teeth, and tongue. His only reply was a long cat-like purr. Senri's hand gripped onto a truss of Aidou's hair and angled his lips so they united once more.

This one was slow, pleading, and almost apologetic. Their lips lolled about and locked in place for minutes a time. "Passionate" was too strong a term for the moment.

The two of them snapped back into reality when Aidou abandoned his plans and the man below began shaking his head in disbelief.

Shiki made an expression that made Aidou look like a very difficult equation he wanted nothing more than to solve.

It still felt like a dream. Shiki was an emotionless doll with the plastic, stagnant expression to match. Every hair on his body was reacting to Aidou's touches in a way that the blond was uncomfortable with, but the sadness swimming in Shiki's eyes gave a tug at his heart.

It was an unbearable feeling of attachment – a commitment Aidou was in no way prepared for tackling.

"I'm sorry, Shiki," he began while his hand unconsciously played with the few golden hairs sticking up on the back of his neck. The redhead hadn't a moment to register his words or prepare for Aidou's abrupt departure.

"Hana—no—Aidou-san…"

Aidou turned on his heel to face Senri.

"Will you… wait for me tomorrow evening again?" Shiki face flushed pink as he spoke, mirroring Aidou's reaction to his request.

As per usual, Aidou tried his best to remain disillusioned by the feelings building up in unfamiliar parts of his body.

"Y-yeah," he replied while curving downward to grab the discarded clothing.

Aidou carelessly threw on his plaid sweater vest and gave the younger vampire a dazed look before he climbed up the grand marble staircase and into his room where his cousin would be waiting for an interview's worth of questions.

The younger vampires forced a laugh into the cold depths of the night as his hand perched over his closed eyes. It was as if he was playing hide-and-seek and when he removed his hand, Aidou would be standing there with his devious little smirk. With a great amount of difficulty, he lunched off of the couch and took his sweet time climbing down the stairs to his room mate's bedroom.

The familiar scent of old books and tea leaves invaded his nostrils, and for a while, Shiki questioned why it wasn't lavender permeating his senses. Takuma was already asleep, obviously fed up with waiting for Aidou to fulfill his promise of waking Shiki up from his slumber. He had a nameless manga strewn over his closed eyes, revealing only his slightly gaping mouth as his chest rose and fell in synch with every other tick, tick-ing of the clock on the opposite wall.

Senri stole to his bed and turned to the pale, nightly body shining through a crack in their thick, rosemary-colored curtains. With a doubtful feeling in the pit of his stomach, and a pin in his heart for every sepia-toned image of Aidou flickering on his eyelids, he fell into a halfhearted sleep.

His partner was having no such luck.

"Busy?" the flame-haired night class student asked his incoming cousin. Aidou jumped at the astounding fact that his cousin was still stirring.

"Y-yeah, I just got a little sidetracked," he admitted, though it was a vague truth of his earlier matter. Kain left it at that, but quickly noticed the change in clothing.

"Why are you wearing Shiki's jacket?" Kain asked with his index finger directed at the suede hide adorning his back. Aidou, too, had just noticed that he adorned himself with Shiki's prized vintage suede jacket. He hid the pink on his cheeks from Akatsuki in case it would trigger Kain's hunger for more answers.

"Do I want to know?" Kain rhetorically asked his cousin who was collapsed on his bed without bothering to remove that Shiki would be asking for the next morning.

"No," the blond muttered while his nose found a comfortable spot in the collar of the jacket. For a brief moment, he believed that he was five minutes past, his hair still burrowed against Shiki's neck; that cold, pale skin of the petty model that turned exquisite silk into unsheathed sheep's' wool.

Kain shrugged, his eyebrow still questionably raised, and turned his back to his relative without another word.

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Author's note – I think this may the first and only story under the AidouxShiki category. It was more of an inside joke among a friend and I when we mutually noticed that AidouxShiki was empty, so I jokingly told her that I would write one, much to her dismay. Coming soon, I will be adding more stories under the Vampire Knight category, and a few under Axis Powers Hetalia. I know that many of you are questioning where the next chapter of Tuesdays with Sasori is, and I assure you that it will be on its way soon… I'm just having a bit of a writer's block.