Vampire

By: K-promises-fall

IMPORTANT: This was originally supposed to be a five chaptered story (not including Prologue) however, after having gone so long not writing I feel that I might never be able to finish this fanfic. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I stopped writing it at a place that is somewhat suitable (but painful) as a stop-gap/ending. Hopefully I'll one day be able to end this work of fanfiction as I had originally intended, but right now, I feel that my current style of writing is inadequate. This fic will not be labled as complete once the final written chapter is uploaded, but want to make it clear that I might never finish this fic in the way I wanted. That being as it is, after re-reading this, I found that I loved it too much to keep it to myself. I hope you enjoy. All other Author Notes will be from when I had originally written the fic and so will speak with the intention of there being five chapters plus a prologue.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mai HiME. It is owned by Sunrise; a company in a far away land that I have no money to get to.

-Begin

She was so very small. Shizuru reached out a hand to brush knotted hair from her face but froze as the small girl let out a pathetic whine and tried, unsuccessfully, to pull herself further inward and away from her.

Emerald eyes pierced the darkness of the alley and watched Shizuru with unrestrained terror. Again, Shizuru could not help but wonder at how small she was. Holed up in an old crate in a dark, smelly alley and frightened to death, and so very, very small. Shizuru reached out her hand again, and the girl closed her eyes and shuddered violently. Her fingers lightly brushed oily, clumped hair, and the girl cried out with a weak voice and trembled even more. "Shhh..." She brushed the hair to the side and rubbed her thumb against the girl's cheek. It was something Shizuru's mother used to do when she was still alive and Shizuru had woken from a nightmare crying. "Shhh... it's alright." The girl whimpered again and recoiled slightly but did not pull away completely. Shizuru continued to rub her thumb up and down her cheek and shushed her gently, occasionally brushing back her hair.

The girl slowly started to calm, and opened her eyes to look at Shizuru. Her gaze still trembled, and she refused to meet her eyes. Shizuru looked away from the girl for a second to the opening of the alley where townspeople walked by briskly without even a glance in their direction. She looked back at the girl, her eyes stinging slightly from the sudden change in lighting, and saw that she had ceased trembling. 'She can't be more than six years old...'

She wondered how long she had been gone. If it had been too long then Miss Maria would be mad. But then, Miss Maria was always mad. If she brought this little girl with her, then Miss Maria would be furious and would probably force her to leaver her at the orphanage. She was so small, there was no way she would survive there. Shizuru had been in the orphanage a week before Miss Maria had gotten her out of the place, and it had been no better than a workhouse, such a fragile girl had no chance of survival.

So what could she do? She was only nine...

The girl leaned her head slightly into Shizuru's palm, it was warm, and Shizuru felt with disbelief that the girl herself was alarmingly cold. Wordlessly she took off her coat and placed it around the girl's shoulders; she almost seemed to have been swallowed by it. Shizuru looked out of the alley again, still no one had yet to notice her. Slowly, so as to not startle her again, Shizuru reached down and took the girl's hand. The girl tensed for a moment, but after a minute where Shizuru patiently waited for her to become comfortable again, she relaxed and allowed Shizuru to pull her hand forward. Shizuru slowly pulled her from her dark corner, and was only just starting to really see the girl – my, she was filthy – when the girl recoiled harshly and cried out, before stumbling backwards back to her corner, holding her hand as if she was in pain.

Looking back to make sure no one had seen what had just happened, Shizuru hurried after her. "What's wrong?" she whispered. The girl only whimpered in response holding onto her hand, shielding it, flinching backwards when Shizuru tried to reach for it. "Did I hurt you? I'm sorry." Still the girl shuffled backwards rapidly, managing to trip and fall on her back in her effort at escape. Shizuru felt so sorry for her. Tears gathered in the corners of the girl's eyes, but none fell as she clutched her arm to her chest, Shizuru's coat having slid off during the fall.

Slowly, Shizuru moved closer, the girls eyes widened with fear that made Shizuru want to cry, before dulling into surrender. Her shoulders sagged and her breaths came in huge gulps of air that denoted that she was ready to cry. She didn't resist when Shizuru gently touched her arm, below the elbow and lifted it up. And what Shizuru saw then caused her to gasp. The skin on the girls arm was burnt red, and raw, as if from a burn. Shizuru touched it lightly with a finger and the girl cried out and pulled back reflexively. Shizuru could only look up at the girl, whose mouth was opened in dry sobs and marvel at the small fangs poking out. She would have mistaken them for normal canines had they not been so sharp. The skin she had just touched was now hard and stretched, and Shizuru stared in awe as she watched bits and pieces of the skin flake off to reveal new pink skin beneath.

She breathed deeply. "You're a vampire..."

The girl only stared at her dress with the same defeated expression, still managing to not look her in the eyes, and the small bit of fear Shizuru had previously felt towards her fell through. The girl was sniffling now, but tears had yet to fall from her eyes and Shizuru thought that despite her seemingly timid nature, the girl was very brave. Letting go of the healing appendage, Shizuru again picked up her coat and placed it back around the girls shoulder, taking care to gently place her arms through each sleeve so it would not fall off. Then, reaching into the pocket of her dress, she took out a piece of bread wrapped in a handkerchief and gave it to the girl, unwrapping it slightly so she could see what it was.

The girl held it, and stared at it for a moment, unshed tears still in the corners of her eyes, before looking back up at Shizuru with distant, confused eyes.

Shizuru smiled. "Eat it." The girl only looked at her blankly, her mouth opening and closing in wordless speech. Shizuru had no idea what she might have been trying to say, but picked a small piece from the bread and ate it, swallowing. She then motioned for the girl to do the same. The girl looked at her, then at the bread for several seconds before holding it out to Shizuru. She could only laugh lightly in response and shook her head, pushing it back to the girl who looked at her with puzzled eyes. "You eat it," she explained, pointing at the bread and then to the girl.

The girl stared at the bread, with what Shizuru took to be suspicion, and then took a small bite. What Miss Maria would have called a nibble "Stop nibbling at your food and eat it, Miss Shizuru." She only smiled at the memory and watched as the girl nibbled at the food slowly, before slowly beginning to take larger, more daring bites.

Distantly, Shizuru heard the evening bells starting to ring, and looked behind her again. There were only a few people still passing by. Miss Maria would be very mad indeed. Shizuru looked back at the little vampire, eating the bread almost viciously now, and reached her hand up to run it through the girl's hair. The girl stopped eating to stare at her, flinching only slightly as Shizuru fingers ran as far as they could go before meeting one of the more complex knots. "I have to leave now. It's late, and Miss Maria will punish me if I stay much longer." She would probably punish her for staying as long as she had. But the girl didn't need to know that. "I promise I'll come back tonight though. Miss Maria goes to sleep really early and has to take medicine to keep her asleep through the night. You can come and live with me instead of in this alley." After a brief pause, she added. "And it will be dark, so the sun won't hurt you, and no one will be able to see me taking you home."

The girl didn't respond, but Shizuru wasn't disheartened in the slightest by her silence. She was going to help this girl; this vampire would be her own little secret that not even Miss Maria would know.

Her cheeks pinked slightly as she remembered something, a distant memory from her mother, "Always introduce yourself when meeting new people Shizuru. It's the polite thing to do."

"I'm sorry. My name is Shizuru. Shizuru Viola."

The girl didn't respond, though her gaze slipped upwards to glimpse at her face before settling back on the front of her dress. Tentatively, she started eating again. Shizuru smiled at that.

"I'll be back," she whispered again, and then stood up and ran out of the alley and down the road away to where emerald eyes could no longer see her. In the dark alley, back under the protection of her crate as dusk fell and men walked home, the young vampire opened her mouth and moved it in failed attempts to form words. The only things her voice produced were broken syllables as she repeated the name of the strange human she had met today. "Shizuru," her mind said. But the only thing that uttered from her lips was a dry wheeze and a broken "S...i-ru".

Night fell, with the only sound being the same broken "S...i-ru" being repeated again and again in a dark alley.

-End Prologue

Ah yes, the fresh smell of a new story, just waiting to be written. I like the idea for this one. It probably won't be long. Maybe four or five chapters... I don't know. Its a fairly simple idea, perhaps too simple as I've yet to see anyone write anything like it in the Mai HiME section, though I admit while I have read many of the Shiznat stories on , I have not read them all. Most shiznat vampire stories (all of those that I have read so far) have Shizuru being the vampire. I thought that I'd twist things up a bit. I admit to finding one other story where Natsuki is the vampire, but I have not read it, only peaked in on the first chapter enough to conclude that it is nothing like this story.

I hope I got you somewhat interested with this little prologue, and I hope to keep you interested during the course of this short story.

Reviews would be very welcome.

'Til Chapter One. ;)

~K-promises-fall.