Title: Scapegoat.
Characters: Little Rido, little Haruka, little Juri. Not quite pairings since it's fluff and they're kids.
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight, this is a fanfic written for fun and for love of the series. I'm not making any money with it.
Warnings: Yet another Rido fic. D: Chapter 43 brainwashed me. XD;
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The two boys walked back into the manor tiredly.
They had been outside until a moment ago, Rido practicing his powers and Haruka watching and wondering when he'd ever be able to get anywhere near his brother's level.
Haruka had recently turned seven years old, but he felt like there was still a world of difference in the level of their ability, even if Rido himself was only nine.
Rido was in a rather pleasant mood today, and had been showing Haruka how to do various things, which was a rare enough occurrence to make the younger brother thrilled the times it happened.
Often enough, Haruka ended up being ignored, not just because he was the middle child and quiet by nature, but because Rido visibly favored their little sister Juri, a bubbly five years old who had everybody's attentions.
Haruka was still young enough that he wished their older brother would be as cuddly to him as he was to Juri, but he couldn't bring himself to feel jealous of her; he adored Juri as much as Rido did, and together the two spoiled her thoroughly.
The only thing that Haruka regretted was that Juri seemed to also very much favor Rido, so sometimes he felt a bit left out when the two were in their own world.
And right as Haruka's thoughts strayed to Juri…
"Rido oniisama! Rido oniisama!!"
The two brown-haired boys were on the stairway leading upstairs when they heard their sister's worried calls, and both ran the rest of the way up to meet her.
The little girl's hurried footsteps echoed across the corridor as she ran up to them and threw herself into the safety of her oldest brother's arms. It was always him that she ran to whenever something was wrong, or –often enough – when she'd done something bad.
Currently, it was quite visibly the latter, Rido quickly realized as he saw the ink stains her little hands were leaving all over his jacket as she clung to him with the desperation of a small child who feels like all the worries in the world will go away if she can hold hard enough to this one person.
She'd apparently been playing with ink…?
It was a miracle that her own clothes were clean and the ink was only on her hands.
"Juri, oh Juri, what did you do this time?!" He held onto her little hands in a reassuring manner, paying no heed to the ink she was putting all over him.
She didn't need to answer, all three children immediately heard the powerful voice of their father, the king of the vampire world, exploding with anger from around the corner of the corridor, apparently coming from his personal study ...which happened to be a favorite place Juri liked to sneak in for "treasure search", as she called it.
The king was very ancient, and had over the millennia accumulated interesting objects from across the world, a great number of which were preciously stowed away in the drawers and cabinets of his study.
So whenever he was out, little Juri would sneak in to look at the beautiful things. Sadly, she had a habit of looking with her hands, and occasionally carrying stuff away, with the intention of returning it after playing with it outside, and other such ideas that were so very prone to disaster when it came to the precious collection of a rather irritable vampire with already too much on his mind.
The three kids turned the corner of the corridor carefully –although Juri looked very much like she'd prefer to just go the opposite direction—and tried to get a glimpse of what was going on.
The king was in a horrid mood.
He had been expecting representatives from different regions of the kingdom, to ratify a treaty sealing an alliance between some of the larger vampire clans and ensuring peace among them without the need for his regular intervention to part their fights.
Said treaty was already prepared and approved by the various parts, and would be signed today. Naturally, it couldn't be replaced on time.
Sadly, it was on top of the king's desk when he left his study for a moment.
And sadly, little Juri had been curious, walked in and climbed on a chair shortly after her father left. A chair which happened to be unstable and placed much too near the inkpot the king had left open.
It was a tragedy waiting to happen.
As the two boys saw their father yelling with the stained treaty in hand, both connected the dots and immediately understood what had happened without Juri having to explain anything.
She was currently clinging to Rido's jacket like there was no tomorrow, partially hiding behind him as if that could prevent her father from seeing her and dishing out the inevitable punition for the ruined treaty. Punishment wasn't really something avoidable with him. Even if Juri had ran, he would eventually have gone for the culprit, and punishment would come forthright.
And presently, the king had turned towards the door and spotted his three children, whose presence he had vaguely felt but hadn't registered due to the anger caused by the ink-covered treaty. As soon as his gaze landed on the trio, Haruka and Juri's eyes widened in horror simultaneously, while Rido's ones unexpectedly narrowed.
Haruka was clinging to Juri protectively, who was in turn clinging in panic to the back of Rido's jacket, as the two instinctively more or less hid behind their older brother.
"Which of you three did this?!" The king demanded firmly, his tone inflexible as he raised the treaty for them to see the mess.
Rido turned back towards Juri in a quick movement, and gently pried her hands from his clothing, pushing her into Haruka's arms before he whispered for Haruka's ears alone "Stay with Juri. Don't let anyone see the ink."
Stepping into the room, he boldly declared. "I did it, father. It was an accident, I was looking for a pen."
"YOU!"
Rido clenched his teeth but stood still, almost defiantly, refusing to step back when his father's voice thundered in the room.
The king's eyes burned like lit coals. The treaty was ruined, and as a result so would be the audience scheduled for today, possibly endangering months of negotiations.
He had a culprit for it, and he wasn't about to let the culprit off easy.
The king was normally a fair person and a loving father, but his temper could be frightening, and crossing him when he was already in a bad mood was near suicidal.
Young as he may be, Rido had enough pride to not allow himself to flinch even when the king seized his slender arm in an iron grip and pulled him forward, but his sweat did turn cold on the back of his neck when his father's power slammed the door shut, indicating punishment was going to take place on the spot.
Haruka and Juri did flinch though, as they stood in front of the door and heard further yelling accompanied by the loud slap that Rido received immediatly after the door closed.
Little Juri was staring at the door intently, as if it would allow her to see beyond it. Haruka stood behind her, hugging her little shoulders partially to reassure her and partially because he feared she might do something stupid like try to open the door.
"Haruka… I don't understand, why is Rido oniisama being punished?!"
Despite also being her older brother, Haruka was always only "Haruka", either because he wasn't old enough to fit the "oniisama" figure at her eyes, or because she seemed to think the title belonged to Rido.
He was trying to figure out what to answer when they heard another loud slap and Rido's hurried explanations about the supposed pen he had been looking for, his youthful voice quickly drowned by the king's angry one.
"I can smell your lies a mile away!! Have you done this on purpose?! What were your truly after?!"
He was right about Rido lying, but the boy couldn't possibly answer the question, not only because he refused to betray Juri, but also because he had no idea what she had been looking for and what else she might have moved out of place in her search, so the only choice he had was to remain silent about the whole thing and just deny all the accusations. Which unfortunately only further angered their father as he easily sensed the lies in Rido's voice.
"Always you cast a poor reflection upon me! But this time you shan't be getting away with it!!"
Haruka was old enough that he was already developing a pureblood's natural ability to fully sense other's moods and feelings, and he was particularly attuned to Rido's aura due to the training earlier. When he heard his father's words and felt the fear and shame rolling off his brother's usually fiery spirit, he decided it was time to grasp little Juri's hand and get quickly away from that door.
She was still too young to do more than recognize people by their auras, but she would still be able to hear the punishment if she stayed, and Haruka also felt that Rido might not want Juri to see him when he finally got out of the study; the older boy always tried to look his best for Juri, and it utterly ashamed him to be seen by her as anything less than perfect.
They rushed down the corridor and towards the room area, Haruka leading Juri while she kept turning back to try to look at the door, whimpering that it wasn't fair.
"If someone else has to be punished, why should it be Rido oniisama?!" She asked with a distressed look, before adding in a smaller voice "It could be Haruka…"
He stopped and stared at her for a second, vague shock showing on his face as she looked up at him with the disarming innocence only small children can have.
He sighed, but didn't get angry. Neither he nor Rido could ever get angry at her.
"Juri…… I hope that as you grow older you'll realize that there are things you can think and things you can say."
--
The two children waited in their playroom, deciding that it was best to stay out of sight for the moment.
Haruka had been trying unsuccessfully to focus on the book he'd been attempting to read for what felt like hours now. He was ahead for his age, even for a pureblood, but it was a difficult book, and in his current state of mind that didn't help.
Juri had gotten tired standing staring at the door waiting in vain for it to open and for Rido to walk in. She'd eventually climbed in one of the comfortable divans in the room and had fallen asleep out of boredom. It wasn't easy to muster the will to play with her toys when she was feeling so mixed up with both worry and guilt.
She was sleeping deeply enough that she didn't wake up when the door quietly clicked open and Rido entered, a uncertain look on his face as he checked the surroundings first before fully stepping in.
Haruka instantly dropped the book over which he had been close to dozing off.
"Rido!"
"Shh… don't wake her."
His voice sounded raspier than usual, but Haruka couldn't tell if it was because Rido was speaking very quietly to not disturb Juri or what.
"Are you okay? What did he do?!"
"I'm perfectly fine. I don't know what you are talking about."
Rido's gaze was dangerously hard, and told Haruka to stop prying now.
But from the stiff way he was standing and walking, Haruka could tell he'd most likely gotten the cane, and not lightly either.
Pureblood healing or not, the punishment had also been applied with pureblood strength, and Rido would be feeling it for a while. At least the burning in his face had died down to a mild flush, so anyone seeing him would merely think he stepped outside under the sun for a bit. Rido had rubbed his own cheeks roughly on the way to the room, in hopes of evening the flush in case there were finger marks making it obvious he'd been slapped. He'd rather look like he'd been boiled alive than walk around sporting such humiliating marks.
Haruka got up and started to pull Rido's favorite chair towards him, but the older boy quickly motioned for him to stop.
"I'm fine standing, thank you. I don't feel like sitting down."
The truth slipped out of his lips perhaps a little too fast, and mortification briefly flashed in Rido's eyes as he couldn't believe he'd just said that.
Haruka kicked himself inwardly. Rido was looking even less pleased now that this semi-confession had been accidentally more or less extracted from him.
Trying to make amends, the younger boy offered "Can... I get something for you?", to which Rido stopped to think for a bit and finally asked for a particular herbal tea – neither of them said anything of the fact that said tea was most often used for its calming and pain-inhibiting properties than for its taste-- and Haruka quickly went for some.
Blood would be more effective, but that would be an even bigger confession of his current state, and Rido's pride would not suffer that.
The other boy finally out of sight, Rido allowed his shoulders to sag a little as he sighed heavily and let some of the pain finally show on his face.
He wearily walked up to the divan where Juri was still sound asleep, and carefully lowered himself onto it to lay next to her – on his front, naturally.
He could really use some blood about now to ease away the pain, but she was too young and he didn't want to take from her and weaken her, so he just rested next to her and admired her delicate sleeping features, marveling at the cute smile that spread on her face while he slipped his hand around hers. Lowering his guard for a moment, he whispered softly, so as to not awake her "Do I really cast such a poor reflection on him, Juri?" There was an uncertain tone of something akin to sadness in his voice that surprised even him. He hadn't thought it bothered him that much.
She stirred softly, smiling happily at the sound of his voice and curling up closer to him, but didn't wake up. He couldn't help but smile back at her, and just watched her sleep.
He nuzzled the top of her head and whispered into her hair "As long as you love me, I couldn't care less what he or anyone else thinks."
He closed his eyes tiredly and was already asleep by the time Haruka returned with the tea.
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- The End -
"Always you cast a poor reflection upon me!" is a line from Lord of the Rings. It's a line from Denethor to Faramir. ;)
I had a mind image of King Kuran saying that to Rido, and the whole fic was written to house that line, it was a spur of the moment thing. XD;;
I'm still poking at Haruka's characterization in my plot bunnies, since we've seen so little of him and it's hard to guess how he'd behave as a kid.
Maybe a possible bet for Haruka and Rido might be Aram & Jeile from MeruPuri, Hino-sensei's previous series before VK. And Airi as Juri. XD lol
Although I get the feeling Haruka is a lot more level-headed and cool than Aram. Maybe.