the keeper
2.
'…so what now?' Akari wonders, when the silence drops to awkward levels.
'Now we figure out if we can trust you or drain you dry,' the boy replies carelessly, finally – finally! – moving away from the door.
Akari freezes in place at that, because maybe the girl was teasing earlier but he sounds dead serious.
Uurgh, didn't mean that pun.
The boy turns around when he realises she's not following. 'What?' he asks. He looks her over, then rolls his eyes. 'Oh, come on. We're not bloodthirsty maniacs.'
Akari's desire to bash someone over the head with her textbooks returns, and it's perfect timing because a stranger shouldn't make careless jokes like that and these two are the reason Taiki's so tired all the time –
– Taiki's habit of overworking himself notwithstanding, of course.
The boy glares at her and rubs his head where a trickle of blood has run down.
Whoops, Akari thinks sheepishly. Her body's apparently run ahead of her thoughts.
Though don't hits with blunt objects bruise more often than they bleed?
'Not even an apology,' the boy mutters, 'though I guess you held back when we first met.'
'You two did have it coming,' Akari agrees. 'But sorry anyway. I didn't mean to draw blood.'
'Sure.' The boy rubs a bit more at the wound, until Akari's yanked his hand away and stuck a bandaid there instead. She's got a decent first-aid kit in her sports bag, along with a pillow that doesn't appear necessary because someone's left one under Taiki's head already.
The girl comes out again, with a tray of cake and some sort of green shake.
Yuck, green. Must be kale or something.
'Sorry,' the girl laughs, 'but it's full of things to help replenish the blood. Or the shake is. The cake's more for taste, really.'
'More because Yuu loves cooking and always fills the fridge,' the other boy mumbled.
The girl just shrugs and sets the tray down. 'It's polite, anyway. And Taiki did mention your sweet tooth. Besides, sweet stuff's good for a quick boost.'
So it was Taiki who told them her name after all. She's going to skin him for being kept in the dark about all this, though.
She knows, of course, the vampires exist. No-one in Tokyo doesn't know about the cases of unexplained amnesia and the bodies that occasionally turn up in the red light district or the thefts from the blood bank.
Of course, no-one in Tokyo doesn't know about how people crossing roads in the dark are suddenly knocked off their feet with screeching tires just seconds away from having made them roadkill, or the times where girls are saved from being molested on the streets by someone with red eyes and bared teeth.
They're not bad, in the end. They're not good either. They just are, like humans. Society's come a long way like that. They haven't come very far at all, though, in accommodating them. No means of getting blood unless it's through stealing or from somebody directly. No-one's set up a feeding warehouse or something like that, or stock bags of blood on the shelves that they can buy with hard-earned cash.
Akari still doesn't know how Taiki's found these two – three? – vampires, but it's just like Taiki to offer his own blood so they don't have to resort to illegal means anymore.
'Have some cake.' The girl pushes a smaller plate with a healthy slice on it towards her. Another plate goes to the boy, who digs in without preamble, and she's carefully cutting a third slice for herself –
No, wait. She puts that plate aside. Most be for Taiki. The fourth one she sets on her lap.
'How long till he wakes up?' Akari asks.
Maybe she's taking it for granted: their non-aggression, and their hostly, almost kindly, manner. Or maybe they just are nice and unfortunate to live in a world that uses them but doesn't accept them.
They're both pale, and they're both tense even in what should be a safe place for them.
She can't regret her "invasion" though. Someone needs to keep track of Taiki, after all.
The girl shrugs, fixing the dress strap that slides down her shoulder. 'Taiki looked more tired than usual, today.'
'Well, it was a double-whammy with the soccer and basketball clubs,' Akari sighs. The girl was right. Sugar really is energising – and it helps that Akari has a proud sweet-tooth.
The girl smiles around her own spoon. 'He doesn't know how to say no, which has it's own charm, but –'
'It's stupid,' the boy snaps.
'Sit down,' the girl snaps back. 'You didn't drink any, even after he asked you to.'
He hasn't? Akari takes a closer look. He does look paler than the girl.
'They all taste different,' the girl continues. 'Willing blood, unwilling blood. Kind blood, cruel blood. Love is the nicest and most fulfilling and the one we need least of but we're not all fortunate to fall in love.' She laughs shortly. 'And some are too stubborn to accept it's love.'
She's looking at the boy as she says this. He scowls and shovels cake into his mouth.
Akari just stares. 'Oh, you're Kiriha.' Except Taiki doesn't love Kiriha, as far as he's told her. He doesn't even like him (which is rare because Taiki doesn't very often not like people…)
Of course, she knows he's wrong about that in this case, but she didn't realise it was love.
'Taiki never told us you're cute when you blush,' the girl says suddenly.
She blushes harder. 'And you are?'
Now the girl blushes: a pink that goes nicely with her dress and beret. 'Oh, that was terribly rude of us. I'm Nene. Amano Nene.'