When a Vampire mourned, they mourned like it was nobody's business. And Gakupo was taking this all too seriously.
At least, that was how it was to Kaito's eyes.
He had been draining a girl dry when the message had come. Normally, he'd have received the message, and gone to him after a few days.
The fact that the messenger was Lady Kamui Gakuko herself sent alarms going off in his head.
"I thought he healed!" Kaito cried out in surprise when she informed him her son was not leaving the room for anything, even blood.
"Not in his heart, it seems," the queen told him, and in her ancient, long-dead eyes, Kaito saw sadness.
Huh. A caring Vampire Dowager Queen. That was a new one.
He immediately took off to Gakupo's castle with Lady Kamui, and when Gumi burst out of the mansion barefoot with frantic eyes, he knew it was really serious. Princess Gumi was notorious in the Supernatural World for not going anywhere until she was properly and primly dressed, decked from head to toe in designer clothing.
Now, she was in a dirty and ragged nightgown that was probably once white, but now was crusted in blood, grime, and something he didn't quite want to find out, although his nose told him a different story.
"Oh, good," she sighed. "He's here."
The maid, Lily, followed her Princess out, and ushered the three of them in. There, Gumi and the Queen patted his back and wished him luck as Lily lead him further down the hall, until they were in front of Gakupo's room.
"Milord," Lily called. "We have a visitor."
"Go away," a muffled voice called back, and Kaito was shocked. The voice, ragged and heartbroken as it was, was familiar to him as the once chocolate smooth baritone of his best friend.
Vampires shouldn't have suffered this kind of damage to their psyche by any physical attack.
"Gakupo, I'm coming in," he announced, and before there could be any protests, he yanked the doors open and barged in. "I'm in."
"Leave," the man leaning on the bed who had turned to face him was almost impossible to identify as Kamui Gakupo, but Kaito managed to find the formerly handsome man from the mass of tangled purple hair and sunken eyes.
He ignored his friend's command. "Now that," he commented, leaning on the doorway. "Is how a Vampire should look. Terrifying, ugly, vicious, and dead."
"I am dead," he replied, and went back to staring at what lay on the bed.
Kaito walked up, and realized just what was occupying the large, king-sized bed. On top of the black satin, the silk, the not-necessary coverlets, blankets, and sheets lay a beautiful pink haired woman, dressed in a flawless white dress that juxtaposed greatly against the pitch black. Her eyes were closed, and she lay absolutely still, in the frozen way of statues.
Statues… or corpses.
His friend was heartbroken because a lady he loved had died.
That, Kaito could relate to. Somewhat. "I never knew."
"I thought…" he trailed off. "I thought that she'd be with me."
"Vampire?" his friend had at least had that.
Gakupo nodded, mute. Tears tinted red pooled at his eyes, but he didn't shed them.
"How long?"
"A year."
"She's been dead for a year?" Kaito couldn't keep the disbelief out of his voice. There was no way it had been that long. Even for supposedly immortal beings, that was just such a long time. Besides, the last time he had seen Gakupo hadn't but been barely a year.
"I've known her that long."
"Great. How long has she been dead?"
Gakupo flinched, and Kaito felt a stab of guilt at his friend's pain. "A week."
Kaito considered the times. Vampires did decay after their second death, just so slowly that it would take over a month for the first hint of rot to show on their corpses. So this woman should still be able to…"Good. Get her body, and come with me. You have your car, right?"
Almost lifeless eyes stared back. "What?"
"Fresh air will do you and your beloved good," Kaito told him, rummaging in the drawers for something Gakupo could wear. Now that he saw, his purple-haired friend was wearing… ick. A black robe, the kind necromancers often wore. And it wasn't even clean. "Change into something nice. And by nice, I mean formal. Really, really formal."
"What?" he repeated.
"You don't mind if I borrow a tux, do you? We had the same size, the last time I checked, so it should fit."
"Kaito…."
"I know someone," he finally admitted, even if Gakupo hadn't directly asked the question. "She might be able to help…. You know."
There! A spark! FINALLY!
"But she will refuse if you are wearing that," Kaito added. "And take a shower, put some expensive cologne on, hell, brush your hair!"
Gakupo ran off to do so, and while he did, Kaito rummaged his closet. "Why the Hell are there only purple ties?!" he roared out the door, and was rewarded with a blank-faced Lily coming in with a selection of various coloured ties. "That's better."
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Queen Gakuko's efforts at trying to make her son better were rewarded when her son finally came down the stairs, dressed in a crisp, clean business suit. She sighed in relief and actually smiled, something which was gawked on by her servants. The Prince coming out of the mourning they thought would never end. The Princess going around dressed in rags. And now, the Queen actually showing emotion. It was an odd time, to be sure. Perhaps the world was really ending.
Her smile became a little strained when she noticed Kaito wearing something similar that she swore belonged to her son. And finally, it became all too nonexistent when she saw servants carrying the dead Healer down. "What?"
"Apologies, mother," her son swooped in to kiss her cheek hastily. "But we've no time for explanations."
"We have plenty, actually," Prince Shion piped in, but cowered at the glare her son shot him. "No, on second thought, we're on a very tight schedule. Hurry, rush, we're sure you understand. Don't mind me, I'm just an idiot. BaKaito, they call me."
She ignored him. "Where are you going?"
He barely glanced at her, just kept walking forward. "I don't know."
Kaito, muttering excuses and apologies, ran after them, while their servant ran after them, trying to walk both fast and slow to not damage the dead girl.
Gumi walked out of a room, eyes widened to the point where it was unladylike. "Was that…?" she couldn't finish, it seemed.
She nodded.
"What…?"
"I don't know," she repeated her son's last words to her. "And apparently, neither does he."
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"And now you're not the classic Vampire," Kaito commented. Gakupo kept his mouth shut. "Although, nowadays, the 'classic' Vampire seems to be some kind of sparkling abnormality. Something about twilight, I think."
"Thank you, Rei," Gakupo nodded to the black-haired boy, who simply bowed after placing Luka into the back of his car. He began to get into the driver's seat, but Kaito laid a hand on his shoulder.
"You don't know the location. I do."
His favorite car… or Luka.
Gakupo went around the car to sit in shotgun, while the drive maniac got behind the wheels.
"I always wanted to see how fast we could go in this," he mused dreamily, and before Gakupo could get his seat belt on for safety, he stepped on it.
Hell hath no fire like the burning wheels of a sports car with a Shion Kaito behind the wheels. One of Kaito's many brothers had told Gakupo that once, and now, he saw just why.
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After the ten hour drive, where Kaito stopped only twice for gas, they were finally 'there'.
Or so Kaito claimed. Gakupo thought they were in the middle of nowhere.
"We're in the middle of nowhere," he deadpanned.
Kaito frowned. "We're in a forest," he corrected. "And we're near a mountain."
"How is this going to help her?"
Kaito didn't quite answer. "Take her out of the car, please."
Gakupo stared at his friend, trying to see what he was up to. When he couldn't' catch anything, he silently walked over to the car and gently tugged Luka out.
"You up for a little hike?" Kaito asked him once he had her in his arms.
"We're definitely in the wrong clothes for that," Gakupo said wryly, glancing down at their attire. They looked like lawyers.
"We'll live," Kaito said. "Oh, crap, sorry," he added hastily when he saw Gakupo flinch.
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"Where are we going?" Gakupo had been asking this question for the past hour. Apparently, there was some rule that you could not magically float, or flit up this mountain. Which meant the two Vampires had to go up this mountain the hard way; by climbing.
Kaito did what he had done for the past hour. He stayed silent.
But this time, he began to talk after a moment. "Did I ever tell you that I fell in love once?"
"With ice cream-flavoured blood?"
"Not that kind of love," Kaito said defensively. "The kind you had with the pink chick."
"No."
"It couldn't have been long ago," he mused. "About twenty five years ago, if I'm right.
"I was visiting the Fair Folk. You know, doing Prince Duties in case father died somehow. Not that he ever would. Old man's just got too much life in him, you know?"
"He's your father," Gakupo reminded him, shifting Luka in his arms so she wouldn't slip off. But he didn't blame Kaito. The Northern Vampire King Kikaito could be… odd. "But continue on."
Kaito took upon that order. "So there I was, chatting with a few green haired folk – your sister would like them, I think. Similar sense of humour – and there she was. A goddess, chained on the earth among unworthy mortals. She was green-haired, too, but hers were more blue-tinted. Teal. Aquamarine. Whatever you want to call it, because it just kept changing. It didn't stick to one shade, her hair. It was almost flowing, like a slow, gentle stream of water with sunlight bouncing off the surface. And it was long, down to the back of her knees. Her hair caught my eye, and then the rest of her just wouldn't let me go.
"I went up to her. Managed to say something absolutely stupid, and there I stood, thinking I messed everything up. Instead, she just laughed, and told me I was the best Vampire she'd ever met in her long life.
"We hit it off rather well. She came as the ambassador for the Fey Queen a lot to the Northern Vampires. After the official meeting, I'd escort her around, and she'd call it a date. It was a nice romance."
"What happened?"
Kaito's eyes were glazed in memories. "Three years later, she came to me and told me that she had a secret she needed to share with me. I thought it was something like a skeleton in the family, a scandal, or anything like that.
"Instead, she told me she was a god."
Of course Kaito would fall in love with a god. The one true immortal beings in the world, they generally stayed out of everything and went on living, doing whatever the gods did.
"It clicked to me then. She'd told me to call me Miku, but since that was such a common name, I didn't figure it out. Long, teal hair, friend to the Fey… Hatsune Miku, the goddess of fertility. When I had thought that she was an earthbound goddess with all her beauty, she had actually been divine.
"She told me that she wasn't allowed to be with me. Something about a rule amongst the divine ones that keeps them from mortals. But since I was something that would live for a really long time, she gave me this."
Kaito stopped, and from under his shirt, he produced a teal crystal. Gakupo had never seen it before, but Kaito obviously cherished it. "It'll always lead me to her," he said quietly. "Always."
He tucked it under his shirt again, and began the trek once more. Gakupo shifted his hold on Luka a bit, and followed.
It was like the mountain had heard Kaito's story, and decided to let them in. Within moments, they were at a clearing filled with flowers from all seasons, blooming spectacularly in one impossible gathering. At the very end was a small cave that was clearly used as a temple.
It was also like love was in the air. Animals, from the helpless rabbits to the vicious wolves lay around contentedly, playing with their young, cuddling with their mates, and coexisting harmoniously.
All in all, it put Gakupo on edge. This was unnatural.
Kaito didn't seem to mind. He just walked right through until he reached a path, and began to follow the little trail.
Not seeing a choice, Gakupo followed.
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The cave was much larger than he had thought. Inside, it was quite bright, which did not help his eyes at all. Statues of a woman with long hair tied back into two lay around, each varying in size and pose. All of them had the woman smiling. All of them were recognizable as Hatsune Miku.
There were several rooms they had to go through. Kaito seemed extremely sure of himself, but Gakupo was nervous. He didn't belong in this place, where everything was obviously of light and life. He was a creature of darkness and death.
"She's here," Kaito told him, pointing to a plain door. Reaching out, the blue-haired man knocked firmly.
"Come in," a clear, sweet voice said, giving them permission to enter.
Kaito held the door open, and Gakupo entered the room, only to snarl seeing one of the inhabitants. "You!" His fangs descended, and all of his body began to vibrate slightly from the dark magic he was calling to him.
One of the women sitting at the sofa also leapt up, a dagger in one hand and a stake in the other. "You!" she also cried out, eyes just as shocked and hateful.
Ring Suzune. The Hunter that had led to all this. In a blindingly fast, fluid movement, he put Luka gently down onto the ground and leapt at her throat, fully intending to kill her at any cost.
NOW it's complete. I lasted three months, but I couldn't resist.