the keeper
4.

Nene is grateful. Yuu is reluctant at first but soon follows his sister.

Kiriha is surprisingly resistant. 'What's wrong with Taiki?'

'He's busy.' Akari shrugs. 'Overworked with all the clubs in the finals this year and he doesn't know how to say no to anyone. And I can't play on the boys teams – or even as well as Taiki can for any sport at all – so this is all I can do.'

'So you can't say no either,' he snorts.

'Who do you think keeps his schedule at least somewhat manageable?' she fires back. 'I cut it any more, he'll start fighting me too.'

Kiriha snorts again. 'So you're his keeper.'

'You can do better?' she asks.

'…that's a trick question,' he scowls. And Akari had half-hoped he'd fall for it. 'He's stubborn about grinding himself raw, and for what? What's he done in his life that's worse than ripping your family to bits in a bloodlust?'

And he says that in such a matter-of-fact tone that Akari can't help but stare at him. 'Bloodlust?' she manages, finally.

He sighs. 'Didn't mean to say that.'

'Too late now.' Why is her mouth even moving? Why isn't she running right out the door? Ripping people or a family apart is not nice. At all.

'Bloodlust is pretty cliché, as far as tales about vampires actually being true go. Basically, we smell blood and lose control. Not any sort of blood, like papercuts or what-not, but blood full of emotions. Anger, usually. Our own anger. Or fear. Our instincts have an iron hold on us then.'

'So anger management and we're okay for the most part,' Nene chirps, swooping in with more cake. 'But human and vampires were once one and the same. I suppose you can say that, in certain areas, we lose our restraint more easily. It's like how some girls are on their periods –'

It's funny to see Kiriha – stern, stiff Kiriha – blush bright red at that. Akari's family doesn't, but that's because they're used to her complaining (and it hasn't even been that long).

'So fangs and claws instead of punches that break jaws,' Akari surmises, after she manages to swallow down her laugh. There's no particular reason to antagonise Kiriha. Rather, she wants to see if he and Taiki can get along better, because they both admire and dislike the other and it's a mess, really, without adding Nene's crush theory to the mix.

'Girls have claws regardless,' Kiriha murmurs.

And Akari wonders if that's how Kiriha has joined the Amano siblings. Nene doesn't look particularly threatening, but she has that sort of presence (and looks) that makes people look twice at her. And then there's the cake, courtesy of her brother.

Really, she has trouble believing Nene can't find humans to feed of. Surely drunk men at a bar looking for school-age girls to proposition are easy targets.

But the emotions… They'd explained that before. 'I'm guessing alcohol in blood tastes crap.'

'That, and it's like breathing second-hand smoke: worse than actually drinking from the bottle.' Nene shrugs again. Her dress-strap slips. That's got to be deliberate or else very annoying for her, Akari thinks. 'You're a sharp one, aren't you?'

'Have to be to pin Taiki down.' Akari shrugs herself. Her straps stay firmly in place. 'Of course, times were different twenty years ago.'

'Or a hundred.' Nene laughs. 'We'd have been skewered on crosses and strung with garlic cloves. Not that garlic does anything other than spice up the food.'

'And vampires aren't supernatural beings from another world but people with blood borne infections,' Kiriha scowled. 'At least society's past the whole "it's the second coming of AIDS" thing.'

'Or syphilis. There's too many, really.' Nene shrugs again. The strap slips again. 'And if we were given access to blood like people anaemic for other reasons, we wouldn't have the problems that are still around. Maybe another twenty years.'

'I don't plan on waiting twenty years.'

Akari wonders if that means Kiriha plans to do something about that himself.

'I'm fine with waiting.' Nene, on the other hand, seems to have a different agenda. 'We're fortunate. We have Taiki… and Akari-san. There are more urgent concerns. People and vampires who shouldn't be on the streets, who'll undo all the progress that has happened.'

'It's not that easy,' Akari interrupts – and why is she interrupting? They've clearly argued about this before and they seem to have forgotten she's there. 'Surely. Laws are in place.'

'Laws are not in place,' Kiriha corrects. 'They're state policies, and all it takes is the wrong person in the government to shut them down once and for all.'

Okay… Akari thinks. That's a really big problem… but what can three kids do about it? 'Please tell me you're not planning to assassinate someone.'

'It was tempting,' Kiriha grumbles… and Akari doesn't know if he's serious or not.

'I have better resources,' Nene shrugs. 'Why risk a new person in the empty spot if we can string the ones already there?'

'Buy the government?' Akari gapes.

Just what has she gotten herself into?