Sakura stood on the balcony, softly crying. The night pitied her and tried to hide her weeping, but the cruel full moon shone upon her like a spotlight, making the tears shine against her white cheeks mockingly for the entire world to see.

The tiny village that the castle oversaw was slowly putting out its candles in the event that the inhabitants of each house may get some sleep. Unfortunately, Sakura would not be joining the lucky humans in their quest for dreamland.

She had become a vampire, and therefore must stalk the darkness in search of their next meal of human blood every other night for eternity. It was a cursed life she had not even considered of choosing in all of her years as a mortal, and yet here she was, standing here, looking over all the potential prey that would satisfy this thirst that burned Sakura so relentlessly where her absent soul would be.

A Fall gust of wind blew through the village savagely, chilling the few people still outside and sending them scurrying back into their safe, warm homes as Sakura watched. The cold breeze picked up dead leaves and carried them through the dark night sky to the pink-haired vampire, who continued to stare out into the open with obliviousness to everything else around her.

The leaves danced around her beautifully perfect form, swirling around in a centuries-old dance and seemed to bow in midair to her majesty. The white silken dress Sakura wore rippled around the hem at her ankles, though she felt no discomfort. The tears dried themselves as the wind blew kisses on her face, comforting her with its friendly nature. Sakura let herself smile a tiny bit at the new friend she had made. Granted, it wasn't really a friend, and she was just kidding herself into thinking otherwise, but loneliness can make a person think, say, and do weird things.

She raised a pale arm to the awaiting wind, which seemed to have suspended it in midair, air kissing the hand like a gentleman would. Sakura closed her eyes and felt her body sway in tune to the wind. The leaves whipped around her feet as she danced on the balcony with her invisible partner. She twirled in and out, in and out, in and out.

The third time was the briskest, and when Sakura whirled back in he was there, leading them both without breaking stride, as if he had been with her this whole time.

"My dear Sakura, you are the most talented dancer I have ever seen." Sasori said, dipping her.

The corners of Sakura's mouth slid down in a tiny frown as she gazed into the vampire's eyes.

The brown pools, which were bright and dancing merrily dimmed and became gloomy at the realization that his partner was finished with dancing.

Sasori cursed himself in his head: If only he had stayed in the form of leaves!

The redhead pulled his flower out of the dip and turned away, feeling slightly rejected.

"I leave you," he announced in a mumble, "feel free to do whatever you want, as long as it is within the castle grounds. Remember to be in your coffin by morning." And before Sakura could respond to his morbid words, the vampire had already scaled the ivy-grown walls to the roof and disappeared.

Sakura was swamped with guilt; she didn't mean to hurt his feelings, but it wasn't her fault. She didn't want this. Any of it. It was his major blunder to think that she would want to share his curse when in fact the two of them were mortal—err, immortal---enemies.

The pink-haired vampire sighed. Still, there was no reason to be rude to her host. Neither she nor Sasori had any power of changing her back to what she once was so she would just have to get through the eternity she had to spend with these new powers and---Sakura forced herself to think the word---friend she had acquired in the process.

Sakura turned to stare at the beautiful moon high above in the black sky. Somewhere she knew that a certain redhead was probably watching the same moon as she and, like her, all alone.

'No reason to be lonely on a night like this,' Sakura thought, 'even if he is a bit manipulating. And egotistical. And over-controlling.'

Sasori sat on the roof with his knees drawn up to his chest, staring up at the full moon. The large white orb and he, oh how they were so much alike and yet so different!

The moon was eternal, like him. It would always be there, gracing the earth with its presence every night, like him. The allure and mysticism it gave people was nothing short of a wonder to forever marvel. Sasori himself was mysterious and alluring to humans in his own right, using it to his advantage for his next meal.

But the beacon of white light and he had their differences. The moon was surrounded by millions of stars---millions of friends---that always crowded around it in adoration of its brightness that drowned out their puny white specks of nothing.

Sasori, on the other hand, had no one.

When he saw Sakura for the first time, it was a battle to the death. She was fighting against his kind from another village, he for his. He had escaped, but not before setting a goal: The girl was to be his.

As they fought, he couldn't help but stare in awe at her strength, her speed, her endurance, her intelligence, her beauty…

"I will make her mine," he thought to himself as he glided away from the girl, "we will live together, love together, forever…"

Unfortunately, it hadn't worked out the way he'd hoped. The redheaded vampire had miscalculated one crucial detail. Her free will. Apparently, becoming a vampire was not everyone's dream, as he had come to believe. The first night of her being a vampire was disastrous. Everything in the castle was almost completely destroyed by the time he had subdued her.

Sakura's actions and words toward Sasori hurt him like the sunlight which he had come to despise and hide from. For some reason, he could just not take her cruel and nasty words that were spoken to him from those cursed lips. It hurt him in the one place where he could not control the pain aimed at it: his heart.

No one for him to love, or love him drove the sunny future that Sasori had during childhood into the darkness, forcing to turn to the Devil for power to distract him from all his mortal sufferings. But not even all the witchcraft and voodoo Satan had control over the human body could protect Sasori from the lingering agonizingly slow torment that the lack of love could give him.

If only she would love him! Then this seemingly never ending life would be complete.

"Dear Sakura," he whispered, "show me how to love."

"Sasori?" A timid voice asked from behind. He turned his head to see Sakura in all her radiant magnificence. The white dress he had given her fit every curve so perfectly it was as if it were made for her. The girl was so beautiful that Sasori found himself looking down so that she would not be able see his perverted thoughts through his eyes.

He could hear and feel every movement she made as the air around her changed their currents in the atmosphere. Without looking, he could hear Sakura hesitating, but overcome that and begin to take steps forward. Her sighing was breathy music to his extra perceptive ears as she sat down next to him on the roof.

It was utter silent as the two vampires sat, but it didn't last forever.

"Sasori?" Sakura watched as the redhead slowly turned his head to the sound of his name called.

"Yes?" he whispered. Sakura opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She thought really hard of something to say, but her mind was blank of any issues to talk about.

So she said the thing that had been nagging her all this time, ever since she had been turned into a vampire (which was more than a week ago):

"…I'm hungry." It was more than that, actually. Her insides were on fire, but she had learned to deal with physical pain, so she pushed the discomfort in the back of her mind. Now, for some reason, it trickled back into consciousness like molten lead under her very skin, slowly filling her up to the top.

"Are you now," Sasori asked her, giving Sakura a polite smile, "is the burning becoming to much for you?" She nodded her head once, wondering if he was mocking her or not. Sasori crossed his legs and turned his body so he sat facing her. He held his arms out to her, as if requesting a hug.

"Come, my dear Sakura," he cooed, as if she were a little child, "I'll make the burning stop." Rubbing her parched throat with a pale hand, she did as he bid. Sakura lay in the redhead's comfy lap, waiting anxiously for him to take this torturous searing hotness away.

Sasori took her face in his white hands and leaned her face into his even whiter neck. Sakura's lips felt like they were touching smooth cold marble when in fact it was his bare skin. She could feel something moving under the skin like a small river of rushing water. Only it wasn't water…

"Bite me," Sasori instructed, still holding her face to the spot, "and drink the blood that flows from my wound." Sakura pulled back after a minute and stared into his dark brown eyes.

"I—I—can't," she whispered, "I don't—know—how." She looked down, waiting for him to laugh at her stupidity. What kind of vampire doesn't know how to drink blood, honestly?

And he did laugh, but it wasn't jeering or raucous. It was soft and gentle, something she had never expected to pass from his lips.

Those same exact lips kissed her forehead lightly then pushed her away from himself. Sakura's jaw started to drop as she watched him take off his coat and then his shirt, revealing his very pallid toned chest.

He brought a hand to his neck, and with one scratch of his long nails against the skin, precious blood began flowing freely from the wound. Sasori beckoned her to come closer, and she did. Half an inch later Sakura felt the scent of the blood hit her like a brick wall. Her eyes grew large at the sweet stream of red that dribbled down Sasori's chest.

Not helping herself, she jumped on Sasori, sending him to the floor. Or more accurately, the roof. Sakura buried her face into her fellow vampire's neck and began greedily sucking and lapping up at the blood.

Sasori grinned at the sensation of Sakura's mouth on his neck. He scrunched up his face to prevent a satisfied groan from escaping his lips as she bit him a little too hard. His hands found her pink hair, and he forcibly pushed her head farther into the crook of his neck, silently begging her to keep going.

And then, she was finished.

Sakura pulled away from Sasori, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Thank you, Sasori." she whispered.

"It was nothing, my dear." Sakura smiled slightly in spite of herself. Then she thought of something.

"Sasori?"

"Yes?" He saw her take a deep breath.

"I just want to say, that I think you are an evil bastard for turning me into a vampire when I had no intention of even wanting to become one, and you manipulating my body to drink my blood,"----Sasori looked down in slight embarrassment at the mention of his past actions, "but…----" he looked back up again into her green eyes, "----I want to say that I forgive you and I'm sorry if I made you feel bad or guilty in any way. What happened happened, and nothing is going to change it, right?"

Sasori nodded numbly, not having anything to reply to Sakura's words.

"I think, maybe, if we don't get on both of our nerves and try to kill each other first I mean, we could probably be…friends."

"What?" Sasori couldn't believe his own ears. Friends? As in, she didn't hate him anymore? Kinda?

"If you want it to be that way," she said quickly, "I mean, you changed me and I think that entitles you as my master, so I---" Sakura was cut off by ecstatic lips pressed hastily against hers, sending her sprawling on the roof.

Sakura eagerly kissed back, wrapping her arms around his strong neck. Sasori broke the kiss after the longest of times, staring into his new partner's jade green eyes.

"So does this mean…" His rasping voice could not finish the thought aloud. Sakura leaned forward, recapturing his lips again for a quick kiss.

"We're friends." She finished for him.

"Yes…" he murmured, brushing his lips against her jaw, "…friends. Forever?" Sakura smirked.

"As long as you behave." They both laughed, but it was cut short by the sound of the cock crowing, warning the villagers that the sun was about to rise over the dark mountains surrounding the valley in which they lived in. Sasori looked over his shoulder then back down at Sakura in fear.

"Run." He whispered.

The two vampires raced over the roof, hiding in the shadows of the ledges whenever they could. Sakura ran up ahead, but tripped over a loose shingle, sending her over the edge. Sasori's hand grabbed her wrist, catching her before she fell three stories to the yard now bathed in sunlight. Sakura was still in the shadows of the edge of the roof, so she remained unharmed.

Sasori, on the underhand, could feel his unclothed back burn from the sun's rays. He clenched his teeth, his fangs gnashing against his cold lips to keep in the scream building up inside of him. With a pained grunt he heaved her up onto the roof, falling back on his butt in the line of the great ball of fire's light that he and Sakura were trying to hide from.

Sasori screamed as his back was ablaze in flames, charring his snow white skin black. Sakura quickly kneeled next to him, threw one of his arms over her shoulders, and began running to the balcony.

She skidded to a halt on the edge of the roof above her goal. She leaped onto the marble floor, catching some of the sun herself as she did so. Sakura felt her face and slender arms burn a little, but it slowly faded away as she ran into Sasori's room.

Sakura gently laid Sasori on his face in his coffin and speeded to the open doors. She slammed them closed, again catching the cursed sun's light full in the face. She felt her lips pulled back in a hiss as they swung shut, feeling her extra-sensitive eyes squint at the brightness.

Then…Darkness.

The pink-haired vampire relaxed. The whole room was black and cold, perfect for her sunburn. Sakura navigated her way to Sasori's coffin without any trouble, standing next to it.

"Sasori, I'm sorry." She whispered. Sakura heard him groan as he struggled to lean on his elbows. After much effort and pain, Sasori managed himself into a hunched-over sitting position.

"It is not your fault, my dear," he assured in a low voice, "neither of us knew when the wretched sun was going to rise. But from now on we must keep track of the time." Sakura nodded, not sure if he could see her or not.

"Is there anything I can do to help relieve the pain?" Sasori grunted as he laid himself down back into his coffin.

"There is nothing that can heal these burns except time and darkness." He replied solemnly, his words muffled by the wood and cushion that surrounded him.

Sakura just stood there next to his coffin numbly. The pain he must be in; she had had only a little taste of it, he got a whole damn backful!

"Sakura…" Sakura quickly kneeled down next to his coffin.

"Yes Sasori?" she asked him anxiously.

"Do us both a favor and rest. The burning will spread if you don't let your body heal itself." Sakura bit her lip, but gave in. She had barely any burns anymore, but if she defied him he could probably take her out, injured or not.

"I will, Sasori." Sakura promised, climbed into her own coffin. She immediately felt peace inside this long private box.

"Sakura?"

"Yes Sasori?"

Silence, then:

"Uhm…I like you, goodnight." Sakura's forehead creased in confusion, but then she smiled.

"I like you too, goodnight."

The two vampires both closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep, both knowing although that they didn't love each other, liking was the start of a fruitful relationship.