Disclaimer: In my heart and mind, Vampire Knight belongs to me. However, I've been advised not to say that in public... Enjoy!
Hello. My name is Akatsuki Kain. To introduce myself, I'll tell you a couple things about myself. For starters, I'm a vampire and my cousin is the ever-popular Hanabusa Aido. Also, I've been hopelessly in love with my fellow vampire, Ruka Souen, for at least 10 human years (1). You know who I am, don't you? Well this is the story of my life – and not just in Cross Academy. Oh no, I'm going back much farther…
Chapter 1
I woke up just as the harsh light of the sun disappeared from the window of my room, which was un-curtained. Sighing, I sat up and rubbed my eyes wearily, wondering if he had been the one to leave the window open and cause those unpleasantly bright nightmares. A loud snore interrupted my thoughts. Yes, it had definitely been him.
"Hanabusa, you idiot!" I groaned, and kicked his sleeping form, huddled underneath a mound of blankets.
"Hehehehe, you smell nice," my cousin laughed in his sleep. "Can I have your blood?"
Oh yes, my cousin practically rehearses these lines for when it's time to go out and give our greetings to the Day Class girls. Day Class girls… why did that phrase seem to be setting off those little alarms in my mind…? Day Class girls!
Tripping over a stack of books my cousin had ever so conveniently placed at the foot of his bed, I stumbled over to the window, still trying to shake off the haze of sleepiness that seemed to hover around me.
Cursing, I realized my earlier observation had been true: the sun was setting, which meant that…
Senri Shiki opened the door to the room I shared with my cousin, already dressed in a uniform, though his tie was missing. "Akatsuki? Do you know where my tie is?"
"You came to my room to ask where your clothing is?!" I growled, struggling to pull my shirt on, but not bothering to fully button the jacket or shirt.
Rima Touya stepped into the room delicately behind Senri and plucked my tie from where it was hanging on a chair. "Are you using this, Akatsuki?"
My hand, which had been poised to grab my tie, fell to my side and I gave a small sigh. "Like I need it," I chuckled, and ran my free hand through my messy hair, probably doing nothing to brush it back into place.
Senri sighed in submission but the corner of his mouth was tilted up as he obediently bent down a little so that Rima could place the tie around his neck, arranging it with the utmost care.
"I can do it myself," he mumbled quietly, but he seemed content to allow Rima to continue.
"We'll return it later, Akatsuki," Rima said, smoothing out Senri's jacket, now that she'd finished with his tie. "After we find Senri's, that is."
"Yeah," Senri added, eyes locked on Rima's.
"Knowing that Senri has never found a single item he's lost in the history of this school," I replied, tugging at my cousin's still sleeping form, while my two friends had a little moment. "I doubt I'll be getting that tie back."
"We'll scour the dorm if we have to," Rima said turning away from Senri and facing me about ten seconds after I'd made my comment.
"I could find it if I wanted to, Rima," Senri scowled.
"Like I said earlier, I don't need it," I grunted, beginning to think my attempts at waking my cousin were futile and we'd all four of us be late (2).
"But I'm thirsty-y-y-y-y-y!" Hanabusa called out in his sleep, licking his lips hungrily.
As if on cue, though, Rima and Senri both appeared out of no where on either side of Hanabusa's bed and they each emptied an entire pitcher of water on my cousin. "Drink this, Idol-senpai," they said mischievously as Hanabusa awoke, spluttering and completely, drenched from his slumber.
"I'm going to kill you guys!" Hanabusa screeched, jumping out of bed and lunging at the pair but tripping over the same stack of books that I'd tripped over, and falling. In the meantime, Rima and Senri made their getaway, tossing the now-empty pitchers at Hanabusa's head. He cursed angrily but began stripping off his wet pajamas.
"Hanabusa," I reprimanded his curses but he shot me a dirty glare and I pressed my lips together, silently handing him his shirt.
"What?" he asked grumpily after a few moments.
"We're going to be late," I shot back impatiently, pointing outside at the waning sunlight.
Hanabusa yelped and began dressing with a renewed vigor; just as I'd thought, my groggy cousin hadn't realized the time and was probably still stuck in his dreams of sipping real blood for the first time in 6 years (3).
Deciding that Hanabusa could more or less dress himself, I ran down the stairs two at a time and burst out of the Moon Dormitory, jogging over to the area in front of the gate where my classmates were gathered in preparation for our commute to class.
"Ah, Akatsuki," Vice-President Takuma Ichijou said, greeting me with that perpetually charming face that almost all the Day Class girls fell in love with. "You finally got out of bed?"
"I hope we didn't hold back the class," I bowed my head in apology.
"No problem," Takuma replied cheerfully. "It seems that our guardians are running a little late as well."
Now that he'd mentioned it, amidst all the cheering girls, I heard the steps of Yuuki Cross as she ran towards the gate.
"Where's Aido, Kain?" Dorm Leader Kaname Kuran asked, appearing calmly at the head of our class.
"Right here, Kaname!" Hanabusa yelled, sliding to a stop right in front of the gate.
"You were almost late again, Aido," Kaname noted.
"I apologize, Dorm Leader," Hanabusa said, formally bowing to our pure-blooded leader, but Kaname had already turned away.
"I almost didn't think he'd make it in time," I muttered, watching Hanabusa preen as the gates opened with a creak.
"Well, if he'd been late (… again…) Kaname would have surely punished him (… again…)," Takuma laughed.
"With all due respect, Takuma," I sighed and braced myself. "I doubt that a slap on the head would rush my bone-headed cousin. No, he's here for…"
And there was the squealing of girls.
"Good MORNING, my lovely ladies!" Hanabusa waved. "Still as pretty as ever, I see."
"He's here for the girls, his adoring fans," Takuma finished with an amiable smile.
I sped up and placed a restraining hand on Hanabusa's shoulder. He ignored it, but I whispered, "Hanabusa, it's not morning; night is falling. If you had closed the curtain, we wouldn't have been late, and you would probably have recognized that already."
"Akatsuki's just cranky," Hanabusa called out loudly in a sing-song voice, causing several people around me to glance in our direction suspiciously.
"Of course I am," I growled. "I woke up five minutes ago. You're always getting us into trou-"
"Kaname!" I heard Ruka cry out softly.
Turning, Hanabusa and I caught sight of our dorm leader placing a gentle hand on Yuuki. Nothing surprising though. All of us in the gang – just what I call Hanabusa, Ruka, Seiren, Takuma, myself, Kaname, Senri, and Rima – knew that Kaname had a soft spot for our favorite prefect. Fewer knew that Ruka held an unrequited love for our cold gang leader of sorts. Only two of us knew about the much similar love I had for Ruka.
I slowly took in the soft, waving chestnut hair she kept at waist length and acknowledged the scowl darkening her angel's face. Of course. Ruka was jealous, and of human at that. SO typical of Ruka. I was about to say something to her, to touch her arm and ask her how she could bear to grimace so early (figuratively) in the day, when my cousin called me back to the present, urgently.
"Akatsuki, look!"
Ah, so now the other prefect shows up. Zero Kiryu, looking dark and angsty as ever, had suddenly grabbed Kaname's hand away from Yuuki. Speaking of the jealous… Ruka and I weren't the only ones.
"Class is starting, Kuran," Zero spat.
The whole of the Night Class seemed to tense then, though our screaming fans seemed unable to notice. Sensing what would happen next, I protectively grabbed Ruka's arm before she could launch herself at Zero. From the corner of my eye, I could see Takuma had edged in front of Hanabusa and appeared to be holding him back as well. Luckily for us, Seiren seemed to be restraining herself well enough but she was coldly eying the crowd surrounding us, as if calculating how quickly she would be able to take care of the Day Class and if it would be fast enough to also possibly dismember a certain prefect.
Kaname jerked his hand free. "You're really scaring me, Mr. Prefect." He seemed perfectly calm, walking back towards his awaiting escort (us).
Ruka relaxed slightly as Kaname joined us, but turned towards me and reaffixed the scowl to her face. Snatching her arms out of my loosened grasp, Ruka snarled, "You should've just let me get rid of him, Kain."
I flinched and backed away, though not at her scowl; so it was back to using my last name? Ruka would, every once in a while, switch from using the more familiar first name to the cold-hearted and stranger-like last name. If you think about it, it's an easy was to keep track of my status with her at least.
Hanabusa poked my arm, looking more or less happy now that Kaname's offender had been dealt with, and we heard two foolish girls come chasing after our gang, the last students of the class.
"Kaname!" the girl called nervously to Kaname, a delicate, blood red rose cradled gently in her hands. "Um… Please, Kaname, would you accept this?"
"Yes, of course," Kaname thanked the girl, taking the rose and stroking the ribbon tied lovingly onto it. "Thank you."
The girls ran off giggling, back to their dorms most likely, looking as if handing Kaname the rose had been the sole purpose of their lives. It probably had been.
Takuma clapped his hands cheerfully. "That was very kind of Kaname."
"Mm-hmm," Kaname agreed, his thoughts obviously elsewhere as he cast a last glance at Yuuki, who herself seemed to be lost in thought before her partner poked her and said something obviously displeasing. Kaname averted his eyes - almost too quickly for any of us to register he'd even been looking at Yuuki, but our vampire eyes were used to that. He didn't seem to want to walk away just yet, merely staring desolately at the rose in his hand and so we stood for a moment, lingering just outside the doors to our classrooms.
"WHAT?" Ruka snapped, tensing under the stares of everyone but Kaname.
"Oh, nothing," Takuma soothed, in that calming voice of his, though Ruka glared.
"You look angry," Senri shrugged.
"And possibly jealous," Rima noted, almost too softly to hear.
"We're going to be late," Ruka shot back coldly. She stalked past me, looking absolutely furious and even a little hurt so I quickly grabbed her wrist. Ruka narrowed her eyes and was about to yank herself away, but I motioned silently with a jerk of my head towards Kaname.
The rose was held tightly between two fingers and his eyes seemed to glow dully as the petals of the rose slowly unfurled, turned a decayed, brown color, and wilted. He twirled the stem slowly between his fingers and the petals fell gently and flew away on a breeze.
"Thank you, Kain," Ruka said, allowing me to walk with her into class despite her earlier annoyance with me. She was still using that damnable last name of mine, but I'd settle. I always did, didn't I?
The next night I remember sitting in ethics class, the old vampire teacher preaching to us about how special we were.
"But we already know that," Hanabusa yawned, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"We here in the Night Class are the first of our kind in the world to test these newly developed blood tablets," our teacher droned on.
"I suggest they come in different blood types," Senri sighed, licking his lips forlornly. "Regular old O positive gets boring after a while."
"Senri, here," Rima reached into her jacket pocket and dug out a packet of tablets, holding one to his lips until he eventually swallowed it, tiredly.
"Not only are we the pride of this school, we are also the pride of the entire vampire race," the teacher continued, choosing to ignore any and all interruptions in our class.
"Somehow I really doubt that," I heard a younger student murmur.
"We're just a study group anyway," another young vampire acquiesced.
"I don't know about that," Ruka interrupted. "After all, co-existing with humans like this is a big step forward, right Kaname?"
"That's right," Kaname chuckled.
It was at about this time that I noticed a figure standing outside the window behind Ruka. Studying it closely, I was able to distinguish the short thin figure of Yuuki Cross. Feeling perplexed, I was pulled back into the classroom by a nudge in the ribs courtesy of my cousin.
"So you finally noticed her, huh?" Hanabusa whispered. Right, because it made absolutely no sense for my cousin to actually pay attention during class, did it?
"How long has she been standing there, Hanabusa?" I asked through the corner of my mouth.
"Oh, couldn't have been more than half an hour," Hanabusa said off-handedly. "Kiryu would've noticed if it had lasted any longer. Oh wait; maybe it was more than half an hour…"
Turning back to the window, I noticed a much taller figure join Yuuki on the roof top; Zero Kiryu, of course.
"Want to investigate a little after class ends? We have a break in between classes," Hanabusa suggested, looking mischievously excited.
"Another one of your plans? I'm not getting in trouble again," I shot back, frowning.
"That's too bad, Akatsuki," my cousin pouted. "I just thought you might want a break from that." He motioned with a jerk of his head to the scene playing out in front of the window; Ruka sat, practically at Kaname's feet, saying whatever she could think of to bring herself back into his graces after yesterday's little incident (last night, Kaname happened to catch Ruka in the act of saying some rather, er, rude comments concerning Yuuki). Kaname did nothing more than smile gently at Ruka's efforts, but I felt something harden in my throat and my grip on my pencil tightened considerably. Only the sound of it snapping in half brought me back to myself and I turned back to Hanabusa.
"I promised myself I wasn't going to care," I muttered under my breath, looking anywhere but at Ruka and Kaname. Instead, my gaze fell on my pleased cousin.
"You'll accompany me?" he asked, cheerfully, knowing fully that he'd perfectly executed his plan.
"Only to make sure you don't get out of hand," I replied darkly, but began surreptitiously packing up my things so we could leave the moment our teacher dismissed us.
Once outside the classroom, Hanabusa's eyes widened and, for a second, turned a bright red. "Do you smell that?"
"It smells… delicious," I agreed, closing my eyes and sniffing the air appreciatively. "Hurry, I want to find out who that wonderful blood is coming from."
"We just came to take a few pictures of the Night Class," a girl's voice said, coming from a small clearing in the brush.
"You're bleeding?!" Hanabusa seemed positively drunk on the scent and was quite content just standing there.
"This is bad, please return to your dorms immediately," Yuuki said urgently, but then she seemed to finally note our presence. "WHO'S THERE?"
I stepped in front of my intoxicated cousin and caught the Artemis rod. It sparked and stung, repulsing my hand but I smirked. "Very close. I'd expect nothing less from the Chairman's daughter, though, would I?"
"We smelled blood and decided to investigate," Hanabusa said, snapping out of his reverie. He slowly approached Yuuki, but I was suddenly confused. What was he talking about? The girl from the day class was still bleeding, so why would he be getting…
"The tempting scent we were talking about, Yuuki," Hanabusa said, grabbing Yuuki's hand. "Is of your own blood."
"Hanabu-" I started, but turned away. My impulsive cousin had already sunk his teeth deep into Yuuki's palm, releasing a heavenly scent: real blood. I admit, my attempts at stopping Hanabusa were half-hearted at best, but I did try. "Hanabusa, Kaname will kill you for breaking school policy. Remember? NO drinking blood on school grounds. Especially not with witnesses here," I said, softly enough for only him to hear.
I could tell he paused for a moment, lifting his head. "But Akatsuki, the girls just fainted," he replied, equally soft. Louder this time, addressing Yuuki, he said, "I want more… Can I take it from your neck?"
"Kaname will kill you for hurting his favorite human," I said, starting to feel a little light-headed. "Hanabusa, are you listening?!"
I turned dizzily, and saw Zero holding a gun to Hanabusa's head. "Drinking blood while on school grounds is strictly prohibited, Aido."
The next thing I remember, a shot had been fired from that damnable gun the Bloody Rose and Kaname was rebuking us.
"Kain."
"...Huh? Me?"
"Why didn't you stop Aido? You're just as guilty as he is." Kaname chastised.
"But-" I sighed. Another plan courtesy of Hanabusa that had gotten me in trouble again.
Later that night, just as the sun was starting to rise, I found myself in the open sitting room of the Moon Dormitory.
"Ten days of suspension?" I sighed. "Thanks a lot, Hanabusa."
"You didn't have to come," Hanabusa pouted.
"You MADE me come!" I snapped.
"It was still worth it for a taste of Yuuki's blood," Hanabusa sighed, completely ignoring my anger. "I don't think I'll be able to live off tablets for much longer."
I kicked his chair and glanced nervously at Kaname, who was sitting only a few feet away, but Hanabusa took no notice.
"Her blood was so delicious…" Hanabusa whined.
SLAP!
"Excuse me?" Kaname asked, looking cold.
"Sorry," Hanabusa said, remorsefully. After Kaname had left the room though, he rubbed the spot on his head where Kaname had smacked him and whined. "Akatsuki, why didn't you tell me Kaname was here?"
I sighed, but went upstairs to retire to my room. What else could I do?
Authoress' Notes:
(1) I used the number ten but it's really however many years (vampire or human) that he's been alive. I never really found that in context so I guessed…
(2) My explanation as to why Akatsuki is NEVER wearing a tie.
(3) I just used six because I didn't now how many years the academy has been open.
Thank you for reading my first chapter! Reviewing would be nice, too.
JaxWin