*This is a fictional story. I do not own Vampire Knight, or any characters from Vampire Knight. Thanks for reading! Please, review! :)*

Chapter One: Warm Memories

"Kiyomi? I'm here...I rushed right over. Where are you?" The voice drifted from the roof. A big grin stretched across my face, and crawled through the cracked and broken window.

"Kaname!"

"Careful, now." Kaname laughs warmly. I run straight into Kaname's arms, lean my head against his warm chest. He runs a hand through my thick, dark hair. So like his. I smile warmly, even if I feel like crying inside.

"You don't look well." Kaname noted gravely. "Have you been eating?"

"What a silly question." I scowled. "He doesn't feed us here." Kaname sighs deeply, and shrugs his black coat onto my shoulders. I wrap it tightly around me, and snuggle up to his chest. "Won't you be cold, big brother?" Kaname shrugs his shoulders, and sits on the slope of the roof. I join him, and we watch cars in the distance.

"I wish things were different." He whispered. I leaned against him for comfort. "I wish we could be together...and Mother and Father were still alive-"

"Kaname...take me away." I begged my brother, clinging to his arm. "He does bad things to me here...it hurts me...why...?" Kaname sighs heavily.

"My dear little sister. I wish I could do something." I look into his eyes, which burned with agony and pain, that I myself felt so intensely. How can I be treasured in my brother's arms, when life seems to kick me to the ground? I hug him tight.

"Kaname...he made me promise not to tell anyone...I told you-" Kaname clutched me tight to his chest. "I'm scared." I breathed, letting a few tears slide down my cheeks. Kaname wipes them away with one gentle hand. He turns his head, eyes burning with the pain I could see him face.

"I am fifteen." He moaned in agony. "My hands are tied...little sister-I love you. Please understand that."

"Are you leaving? Oh, please don't! I risked-"

"A beating to see me tonight? Kiyomi..."

"I had to see you!" I sobbed, laying against his chest. The wind rustles past us on the building's roof. Kaname stares off into the distance, where I can see leaves dancing in the breeze. We sit in a few minutes in total silence, drinking up the comfort found just being in each others presence. "Kaname...tell me the story of how Mama picked out my name again...please?" My big brother laughed warmly, and I smiled.

"Well, it was a spring day." Kaname pulled me to him. "Mother and Father knew they were going to have a baby...Mother knew you were ready to be with all of us. When you came into the world, you stared us all down with those big blue eyes...you weren't a vampire, like the rest of us."

"I didn't have the signs." I muttered, staring at the points of Kaname's fangs. Kaname rustled my hair gently.

"No...but you were beautiful. Such a beautiful baby...with a look of innocence. Almost as if...pure. It fits...my baby sister is as innocent as they come." I laugh, and it bubbles freely from my throat.

"Kaname, don't leave me."

"I wish I didn't have to, Kiyomi. You don't deserve to suffer here." I nestle against his chest. "I wish it wasn't this way. Be careful with that man, Kiyomi. He is so much stronger than you are, sweet sister."

"I promise! Visit me soon?"

"I don't know when I'll be able to come again...but I'll be back. I love you, baby sis. Stay safe..."

"Urgh!" A vase flew past my head and slammed against the wall. I bustled to clean up the mess, feeling so dirty and filthy. "When do you expect me to give you your money? I am freaking broke! You knew that!" The room reeked of desperation, coming from the man yelling into the phone. "Listen, I know you're a trusted friend and supplier...okay, a supplier. But I don't have anything to give you!"

"Damn straight." I muttered. Luckily, the rat known as Tobi wasn't paying attention to me. I had lived there with him and other girls, coming and going. It had been 9 years or so, when my parent's died. I barely remembered them.

My older brother Kaname used to tell me about them...then, he suddenly stopped coming to see me. I haven't seen him in about five years...I was eleven. He was 15.

"I don't know when I'll be able to come again...but I'll be back. I love you, baby sis. Stay safe..."

Those were the last words my brother had ever said to me. Kaname promised to return...but then he never did. What happened to him? I waited outside the room I shared with four other girls...the attic. I waited for his voice to call my name, and to crawl through the cracked and dirty window into the arms of my brother.

Tobi was a rat. He was maybe fifty something, buying girls off the black market for his insane housekeeping and sustaining his own sexual needs. That's been my job, as his 'main girl'...being his little whore since I was seven. Seven...I should even know about sick, perverted things like that! It's so disgusting.

All the girls were terrified of him, since he did the same to them. That used to be me, waiting in the corner, cowering and pleading for Tobi not to rape me again...but, after Kaname disappeared, I toughened up. Manned up. Tobi wouldn't go so far as to kill any of us. Sure, if you tick him off, he might resell you to another nasty rat, but I was so lucky as to be spared.

"No, no, no...maybe I can devise a trade?" Tobi pleaded. "Anything! Of course I have something of value to you..." He trailed away, and I rubbed the filthy window with the rag a few more times before dropping it to the floor.

"What's the point anymore?" I muttered, sinking to the ground, to my knees. 'Ever since Kaname left..." I let on a fresh round of tears. Tobi slammed back into the room, still on the phone.

"Great! I'll make the exchange with you for tomorrow? Yeah, I can assure you Kiyomi is a prize enough for you!" I looked up, face still stained with tears. "I've used her for years, myself..." Tobi chuckled. "Tomorrow, then?" He hung up the phone. "What are you doing on the floor!" I sat up, blushing furiously. "You realize where you're going to be tomorrow?"

"The insane asylum?" I sneered. Tobi kicked me in the ribs, and I fell back, panting.

"No, you rotten whore!" He roared, sending spit spray into my face. "A very, very rich guy. You've met him once or twice and he's taken a liking to you."

"What does that mean?" I asked, climbing to my feet shakily. Tobi rolled his eyes, and slapped my cheek, making it burn.

"It means, you dummy, that you will be leaving here. And never returning." My heart pounded in my chest, like a racing stallion.

"No! I mean...who will do the cooking?"

"Maria can do it." Tobi waved an airy hand. "You're very replaceable. I got six others where you came from."

"You sick, pervert!" I roared. "Who do you think you are-" Tobi turned, and shoved me to the ground. My head crack against tile, but I kept quiet. Tobi looked down on me, then laughed softly.

"Stupid little girls." He muttered, making my face burn. "You're all the same." He lit up a cigar, and turned on one heel, calling for his other little slave girls to fix him his coffee. I stood to my feet. If I left, how would my brother ever find me again?

That night, I climbed out onto the roof, feeling lost. I sat on the slope of the roof like Kaname and I always used to do. I still had his jacket, and I curled it around my shoulders. My knuckles were white, I clenched it so tightly.

On the horizon, the city buzzed with its normal activity. Cars drove, people worked, lights flashed. On the outskirts, girls were trying to sleep and ignore the screams of another girl...we could do nothing to help her. It stung, but you have to build a wall in this life. Slavery...there's no room to care. By the time you really open up to some girl, she gets resold. Or in my case, traded to repay a debt. You never know here. I tore down my wall for Kaname, and he abandoned me, to sit alone on the roof wishing things were so much different. Wishing for a better future. A better life for myself. In the eleven years of being orphaned, I had always hoped...don't know why I am such an optimist...

"Kaname!" I climbed out the window, grinning from ear to ear. "You came!"

"Of course." He hugged me tight. "I couldn't miss my own sister's birthday. You only turn eleven once, you know." I kissed his cheek.

"I'm so glad you could come! It hasn't been the best birthday." I frowned, and so did Kaname. I knew he knew exactly what I meant. Tobi.

"Anyway. I brought you something." Kaname smiled. "Close your eyes." He commanded gently. I covered my green eyes with both palms. There was a rustling around me. "Open." I did.

"You cooked a little cake!" I gushed. "And...you got me a birthday present! You didn't need to..." Kaname waved off my embarrassment.

"It was killing me that I hadn't picked it out until last week. See how lazy I am?" I giggled, because Kaname would never be considered as lazy. Certainly not by me. "Well? Open it up! I want to see your face." I sat cross legged, and Kaname knelt beside me. Inside the paper was a gold locket, with a fragile chain.

"Oh, Kaname..." I breathed, picking it up in my fingers. I brushed a fingertip against the chain. "It's gorgeous..."

"Open it up." Kaname urged. My fingers fumbled a little with the hatch, but it swung open. A ten year old Kiyomi grinned at the camera, her big brother Kaname's arms safely around her. I remembered the day we snuck out to take it. I had gotten beat, but I didn't care. It was a wonderful day with my big brother. On the opposite side was a even younger Kaname, standing on one side of a dark haired man. The beautiful woman next to the man cuddled a grinning, slobbering baby girl. My breath caught.

"Oh, Kaname!" I hugged his neck, tight.

"This way I will always be with you. Even if I'm not there."

"It's perfect. I love it." I kissed his cheek. He laughed.

"Don't let the cake go cold now! It's chocolate- your favorite!" We laughed, and I knew in my heart it was the best birthday ever...

I leaned against the little window, sighing. A cold chill ripped violently through my body, leaving me with little goosebumps running up and down my arms. Feeling furious with my brother, and with myself, I reached through the window for a pad and a pen. With fumbling hands, I wrote:

Kaname~

If you're reading this, then you've come looking for me. Thanks for the thought...but I'm not here. By the time you read this...well, if you read it...I'll be long gone. I hope you haven't forgotten your baby sister...love you and miss you always.

Hugs and Kisses~

Kiyomi

I folded up the letter with trembling fingers, and tucked it gently under the space between wood and glass. Maybe he hasn't given up...I gazed at the note for a few seconds, as if staring would bring my big brother back...

After a minute, I crawled in through the window to pack up the very few belongings I had on me, Kaname's words ringing in my ears...

"I love you, baby sis. Stay safe..."