Chapter #4

As soon as Zero spotted me up the path, he shot me his usual dull stare. I think it's his silent way of saying 'hello'. I ran faster and almost crashed into Yuki. Zero then struck me upside the head. "What was that for?" I hollered, looking up at him. Damn him for being a friggin' giant. "You're late." His voice was monotone.

"Yeah, well, you know what? You know what?" I retorted. He looked down at me with a 'what the hell' face. "I karate chop you back!" I said before jumping and smacking him in the back of the head. He glared at me. I glared back. Yuki's laughing caught us both off guard. "You two act like dogs and cats!" She giggled. "It's as if you've known each other forever."

I smiled, then looked up at Zero and found him smiling slightly! My eyes widened. "THE HARBINGER OF ALL THAT IS DOOM AND GLOOM SMILED! ALERT THE MEDIA!" I was silenced by another laugh, but it wasn't Yuki this time. This laugh was heartier and louder. I turned around and saw Hayate leaning on a tree trunk a few feet away, laughing as if Russel Peters was doing a Jackie Chan impression.

"Matsushita?" I called. He looked up, still laughing hard. "You guys are hilarious!" He gasped between chuckles. Zero stared at him. "Dorm President? What are you doing here?" He asked. I punched him in the arm. "Don't be rude, Zero." I flared. He rubbed his arm. "What the hell was that? Are you trying to snap my arm in half?" He fumed.

God, what was eating him now? "What?" I raised my hands defensively. "You almost busted my arm, Hercules!" He snapped. Whoops. I bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry! I can't control my strength!" I explained.

I took his arm gently -as gently as I could- and examined it. Zero seemed surprised. "What are you doing?" He asked, but didn't pull back. "Just making sure I didn't actually fracture anything." I answered, leaving out the part that it's happened before. He didn't seem to be all that trusting.

I sighed. "You would relax? I have training in this for this exact reaso- STOP SQUIRMING!" I had to yell the last part because his constant moving was pissing me off. He huffed and gave in. Good news: I didn't injure him at all! Bad news: After I finished examining his arm, we could hear them. It sounded like a stampede of freakin' rhinos. Attack of the maniac fangirls. It's sad really.

Zero clenched his fists. Yuki took a deep breath and put her "game face" on. I gave a deep, bored sigh and glared off in the distance to where the sound was coming from. They got closer and closer until we could see their silhouettes. NO ONE could miss them. A horde of girls whose ages varied, running like a pack of wild boars towards their prey. I didn't know if that would be us or the Night Class. Or both.

As soon as they were close enough, I took a step forward and screamed at the top of my lungs. "STOP!" They all halted instantaneously. I smirked. This would be fun. "IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE NIGHT CLASS, STEP ASIDE! REFUSE AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE ANYTHING AGAIN!" That got them. They parted and clumped together on either side of the pathway. Zero took his side, he was so scary that he pretty much formed an invisible barrier for the girls.

Yuki and I handled the other side. She spread her arms out to contain the girls. I merely turned around and shot them a death glare so venomous that when they stepped back, I caught Hayate also stepping back once, even though he was about 300 yards away from me and my glare wasn't directed at him.

The gates opened and the real shrieking began. I had already seen all the vampires, didn't need to see 'em again. I concentrated on improving the scariness of my glare. If I could master Zero's invisible barrier technique, I wouldn't have to strain myself. I stared the girls down, none of them moved, a couple tried to sneak past me, but I had a trained eye (From my Vampire Hunter training), they couldn't get past me, and even if one did, Zero would catch her. Maybe we weren't to bad a team after all.

Hayate was still here. He was either waiting for me, or waiting for Zero (He WAS the Boys' Sun Dorm President). The Night Class had just got out. Their footsteps were almost soundless behind me. I could feel eyes boring into the back of my head. It wasn't fun. Feeling like I had everything under control, I turned on the ball of my foot to tell whoever was staring at me to keep walking.

I found myself almost face-to-face with that honey-blonde vampire. The Vice President of the Moon Dorm, Takuma Ichijou. He was smiliing brightly at me, but I didn't see what he could be so confoundly cheerful about. "Good evening, Satake-san." He chirped. I glared up at him. "Good evening..." I replied. I couldn't help it, I was raised to be polite, even if I was pissed.

"Please except this invitation to my birthday party." He said, opening my hand and placing a small envelope in my palm. What. The. Hell. I arched an eyebrow. "Why are you inviting me?" I asked, holding the envelope between my middle and index finger. Ichijou seemed surprised I would ask such a question. "I thought it would be a nice way to welcome you to Cross Academy." He answered. Yeah, right. What was he plotting?

I looked over his shoulder to find almost all the vampires were shooting me dirty looks. I looked over my own shoulder to find the fanatic girls doing the same. Meep. "Please, promise me you'll at least consider it, Satake-san." Ichijou took my hand and kissed it. It took every ounce of my energy to hold back my blush and keep my blood pressure from going off the charts. As he raised his head, I whispered so only he could hear. "Is this... what some would call a 'warning-bribe'?"

Ichijou looked befuddled by my question. Then he smiled. "Of course not, it is purely from my heart's desire to wish that you would be so kind as to grace us with your presence." He said, then bowed and joined Kaname Kuran, the President of the Moon Dorm, at the front of the crowd.

I stared at the envelope in my hand. Two arms wrapped around me, yet again. "Reina-chaaaaan!" Called the painfully familiar voice of Hanabusa Aidou- a.k.a. "Mr. Pervert". Great, now I'd have his scent all over me. AGAIN. "I'm SO glad you joined the Disciplinary Committee! Now we can be very best friends!" He said in a sickly sweet voice, nuzzling into my shoulder. Oh, so that's how he's gonna play it?

Then he leaned so his lips were right at my ear and lowered his voice. "You won't last with all these rather possessive girls, Reina Satake-chan. They will torment you continuously out of jealousy from your 'closeness' with me... and the others." I smirked. "I wouldn't be too sure, vampire." I whispered back, twisting out of his reach and distancing myself from him. He seemed confused by my reply, so I turned towards the girls and sicced the most vicious glare I could muster on them. They cowered back in fear. I turned back to Aidou with a smug sneer on my face. He was definitely angered for failing to emotionally scathe me.

I waved cheerfully for him to rejoin his precious cult. He shot me a glare, letting me know he probably wasn't giving up soon, and caught up with his cousin, Akatsuki Kain. I raised my sleeve to my nose and inhaled. "Dammit..." I muttered. He had hung on to me for too long and now I smelled exactly like him, again. It wasn't a bad smell, it just pissed me off because it reminded me of him.

After the rest of the Night Class had passed through, the girls left, leaving Zero, Yuki, Hayate and I. Yuki turned to me. "You seem really close to some of the Night Class students." She giggled. I gagged openly. I sort of understand Ichijou being nice (supposedly), but that pervert had no right sexually harrassing me in public like that. Just remembering it was pissing me off.

"Are you going to Ichijou-san's birthday party?" asked Yuki. I did a double take at her. "Huh?" "Ichijou-san invited you to his birthday party, right?" I nodded. "Are you going?" She looekd at me expectingly. I sighed. "Might as well. Someone needs to go patrol them." I decided. "Were you invited, Yuki? Zero?" I asked, hoping they would say yes. Yuki nodded brightly, my guess, for the both of them. "We're going, right, Zero?" She said, smiling at her friend.

Zero nodded solemnly, then when she turned around, he gave a sad sigh. Poor guy. I patted his head sympathetically. Hayate poked my temple. "So, I suppose you want to go get ready for this party?" He said, smirking. Somehow he knew that would make me feel guilty. "I'm really sorry!" I bowed again and again. He raised his arms. "It's fine. It's not like you and I made plans or something anyway." He said, and I could have sworn he went a bit red.

I nodded and waved to him and Zero as they returned to their dorm, then followed Yuki back to the girls' dorm. "What are you going to wear, Reina-senpai?" Yuki's smiles were so innocent that it hurt to see her in a place like this. "Nothing special. I'm just going for patrol, after all." I answered. Though, I should bring something. It's a habit of mine. My mother taught me never to go to a party empty-handed. It apparently brings bad luck to the host and the empty-handed person. I also wanted to see if I could get the chance to talk to Ichijou, there was something that was bothering me.