IV.

After chatting a few more minutes with Takuma and Kaname, Ayana politely bid the two of them good night and headed up the stairs to her room. Her room was on the third floor. There were only two rooms on the third floor. Both were two large suites with a bedroom, living or study area, and a private bathroom. The other suite was of course occupied by Kaname and faced the north side of the academy's campus with views of the surrounding forests. Ayana's suite faced the south side of the campus and overlooked the Moon Dorm's outer courtyard and main gate.

The maids had been busy for the last several hours cleaning and unpacking Ayana's belongings that she had sent ahead of herself before arriving at the academy. When she arrived in her room there were two maids still fluttering about her study as they unloaded great heaps of books, organizing them on the built-in bookshelves that took up an entire wall of the room. The maids paused in their work and bowed their heads low. "Ayana-sama," they said.

Ayana smiled warmly at them and told them that they were free to go to bed and that she would finish the unpacking. They bowed again and exited out of the room, leaving the pureblood woman alone. She looked around at the dark shapes of the furniture. A chaise lounge sat by a large double-pane window with the thick heavy curtain drawn to block out any light. She walked up to this curtain and pulled it aside to allow the room to flood with natural sunlight from outside. The golden rays reflected off the strands of her hair giving the inky locks an almost bluish tint. She watched curiously as the black uniforms of the Day class students passed by on the other side of the main gate heading towards the main campus building.

A pensive look came over her face as she watched the bustle. She stood there for some time staring, but not really seeing. Then with a heavy sigh that told of the great burden she had on her heart, Ayana turned away from the window leaving the curtain open.

She spent the next fifteen minutes under the warm spray of the showerhead, ridding herself of all the grime that she had picked up from traveling and leaving herself feeling fresh and smelling strongly of floral shampoo. She quickly dried herself off with one of the soft white towels and changed into a light-weight pajama set that included a pair of rose-printed silk shorts with a white lace trim and a matching camisole top. Then moving over to the medicine cabinet, she filled a glass of water and dropped in two blood tablets.

Ayana watched the tablets dissolve with a look of childlike wonderment. Knowing just how much thought, time, and effort went into making these things allowed her to hold a certain amount of appreciation for the small pills. For many blood tablets were something to be scoffed at, even repulsed by for they left little to be desired in terms of taste. But from the viewpoint of a scientist herself, Ayana was able to appreciate just how difficult and tortuous the task of creating an artificial blood substitute had been.

It had taken the Night Class two years to create these miracle tablets—Yes, miracle tablets. To create a blood substitute that a vampire's body won't reject was nothing short of miraculous. It had been simple enough to engineer the pills with the necessary nutrients that vampires needed, however when it came down to those nutrients being absorbed into the body that was when the Night Class had hit a snag. A vampire's body is unique in that it has an almost impenetrable immune system. This had in part to do with the increase in white blood cells in their blood as vampires had almost double the average human white blood cell count. As a result of this superhuman immune system, most modern-day medicines were ineffective on vampires as they were quickly isolated as threats and expelled from the body. The trick of the blood tablets was that Night Class had found a way to infuse the tablets with a diluted source of pigs blood, thereby tricking the body into accepting it. Still, on the rare cases, the tablets were still rejected by some vampires, although this phenomenon seemed to be more common with ex-humans than it was with natural-born vampires.

She raised the now translucent red liquid to her lips and drank. It had a bitter taste, salty with a hint of something coppery and acidic. It was a taste that she had been told was very similar to how blood tasted to humans. Although it wasn't the taste that most found unpalatable, as horrible as it was, it was the texture sticky, but gritty like sand with a soggy wet papery feel on your tongue. It had taken her at least four tries to get used to it, but even Ayana had to admit that she had to force herself to drink it.

She brushed her teeth afterward in order to get rid of the taste. Then turned off the light and exited the bathroom. As she entered the bedroom, she instantly became aware of the other pureblood perched at the foot of her bed. She paid him no mind as she walked over to her vanity table and sat down with her back to him. Ayana watched Kaname carefully through the reflection of the looking glass as she proceeded to finger comb a styling product through her still damp waves. He was still dressed in his school uniform but had seen it fit to discard the tie, vest, and white jacket leaving him in the black button up and white slacks. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked him.

"No," he said adjusting his position slightly, "I was waiting for you."

"Oh?" She paused raising one of her thin dark brows. "What for?"

"I can't allow you to take both Souen and Aidou away from their current work," he said.

Ayana turned around to look at him, a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth. "You can't allow me?" She repeated those words slowly not liking the taste of them in her mouth. "Since when do you allow me to do or don't do anything? When did you get so authoritarian?"

Kaname was frowning as well, his dark brows furrowing together. "That's not what I meant. Let me rephrase," he said. "The blood tablets are still in its experimental stages. There's a lot of kinks to work out and Aidou is the most capable in that area."

Ayana turned around and continued to finger comb her hair. "So what you're really saying is I can't have Aidou-kun, but you're completely fine with me taking Souen," she inferred. "That sounds a bit harsh, Otouto. Can't you muster up at least a little consideration for a woman who is so obviously in love with you? How do you think she would feel if she knew you cared so little about her contributions?"

Kaname purposely chose to ignore that comment. "As you're well aware, it was Aidou who was instrumental in the current success of the tablets," he said.

"Yes," Ayana's voice sounded bored. "Why do you think I want him? If anyone here possesses the level of ingenuity that my research requires, it would be him." She put away her hair products and stood, closing the distance between the both of them. She sat down on at the foot of the bed beside him, turning so that she could face him. "Clearly what we have here is a conflict of interest."

Her hand slowly began to slide up his arm to the back of his neck and sliding through his soft chocolate-colored hair, her short nails scraping against his scalp. Kaname closed his eyes; seeming for the time to be enjoying her ministrations. "That's not going to work Ayana," he said.

"No?" An amused look passed over her faces as her brother let out an involuntary shiver when her nails passed over a particularly sensitive patch of skin. "From where I'm sitting it looks like it is," she said.

Suddenly, Kaname grabbed her small wrist and spun them so that he was pinning her on her back to the bed. His eyes flashed briefly with a vermillion luster as he leaned down towards her face, however, Ayana was overall insouciant in the face of this obvious intimidation tactic and grinned up at him. "That's not going to work on me," she said. "You have to try this."

Then she flipped them so that she was on top with her forearm pressed down to his neck. Not enough to hurt but it was enough so that he could feel her weight threatening to bear down on him. Her lashes brushed against the sides of his face as she leaned down towards his ear. "You feel how my arm is pressed against your throat…if you're going to try to threaten me, then you have to make me think you mean it. Otherwise, it's no fun." She sat back with a smile, letting him sit up then wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her nose against his cheek. "Can't we settle this like we used to?"

Kaname had a look on his face that said he had grown bored with the conversation. His hands pushed her back slightly so he could see her face. "If we do will you accept the outcome? Even if it's not in your favor?"

"Of course! Rock, paper, scissors is sacred," she said seriously. She slipped her arms from behind his neck and maneuvered her hands into the starting position. "On three, okay?"

He nodded.

One.

Two.

Three!

"Yes!" Ayana cheered as her scissors cut up Kaname's paper. "I win! Aidou-kun is mine. No hard feelings, right?" She placed a chaste kiss on his cheek and slipped off his lap, "Goodnight." Then she crawled up the bed and slipped under the fluffy white duvet and Egyptian Cotton sheets. She fluffed up some of the pillows behind her head and fell against them.

"You mind hitting the lights on your way out?" She told him as she closed her eyes with a victorious smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth.

A/N: Sunday's update is late to (no surprise there). But I'm thinking I might take a break tomorrow and focus on my other VK fic, then update on Tuesday. Anyways thanks to all of you who read, reviewed, followed, and favorited this fic so far!