Chapter 6: His Blood's Fragrance

RUKA'S POV

The following night, I was standing around at the stupid dance, feeling a little out of place. Dances were not my thing.

The Night Class Dance had to be one of the biggest events at Cross Academy. Everything was so fancy and expensive-looking. I bet the Headmaster went way over his budget to go all out on this dance.

All the girls were wearing sparkly bright dresses with their high heels, jewelry, and fancy hairdos. The guys, on the other hand, were just wearing suits, not overdoing anything.

And me? Well I was walking around in a short (but not short enough to be slutty), strapless, layered jean dress with a black belt, a black leather jacket, black fingerless gloves, and black knee-high boots (as you can tell, I like black). Man, I think I looked like some kind of biker chick to be honest. Whatever, at least I didn't look like a sparkly fairy…

I tried to look for Rima as soon as possible so I wouldn't look like a total loner. I scanned the area for a girl with two ponytails and a dress that wasn't too bright. While I searched, I thought I heard Yuuki scream when Zero refused to dance with her, but I just ignored it.

I think I was actually getting a little dizzy from all the sparkliness, so I just decided to look for Senri, who I found in like five seconds. I saw him standing with some girl with two ponytails and a hot pink dress. My jaw dropped immediately. Either Senri was cheating on Rima, or that girl in the hot pink dress was Rima. I decided on the second option, since Senri was a pretty good guy.

"Hey, Senri, is that girl next to you Rima?" I joked and acted like Rima wasn't listening.

"Yeah, at first, I wasn't sure either." Senri played along with me.

"Stop teasing me, you guys!" Rima blushed and roared at us.

"S-sorry…" Senri and I held our hands up in defense.

"Anyways," Rima changed the subject, "I thought you were coming with Akatsuki. What happened between you two?" I flinched when I heard Akatsuki's name.

"That bastard brought up the damn bet." I tried to look mad, but I was kind of over it already.

I heard Senri ask Rima why that was so bad and Rima said, "Whenever anyone brings that topic up, Ruka gains the motivation to kill Akatsuki. It ain't pretty."

"Akatsuki's a pretty insensitive guy, huh?" Senri said, as he looked over at the food table.

"Hell yeah he's insensitive! I bet he even came with some other girl, too (not that that would make me jealous)!" I grew flaming eyes and felt the fire burning behind me.

"Hey, who're you calling insensitive?" Crap, I knew that voice was Akatsuki's. So that's what I thought was burning behind me (Akatsuki can control fire).

I turned around to see Akatsuki with Hanabusa and Takuma. There was no girl with him, though for a second I almost confused Takuma for one since he was wearing a lot of sparkly stuff.

"What happened, Akatsuki? Did you get stood up by your date or something?" I asked like I was joking, but I was partly serious.

Akatsuki laughed, "Yeah, if that girl's name is Ruka."

"Haha. Not funny. I said I wasn't going with you so why'd you come alone?" I looked demanding.

Akatsuki looked at me. "Because I asked a girl, she said maybe, and now here she is in front of me with no date, so I thought that maybe I still had a chance?"

"Umm… What?" I hated when he used his stupid run-on sentences because they confused me.

"Look Ruka, we're both here alone, so if you don't want to be a loner, dance with me." Akatsuki held his hand out in front of me.

"What happened to going just as friends?" I continued to question him.

"Friends can't dance together? You should've seen Takuma and Hanabusa earlier. It was hilarious." Hanabusa blushed and Takuma smiled.

"Whoa, I didn't know about that…" Senri ate a piece of chocolate.

"Congratulations." Rima said, completely serious.

"It's totally not like that! We were just a little drunk!" Poor Hanabusa had to fend for himself.

"We're too young to drink. So what'd you get drunk from, each other's blood?" Akatsuki joked.

"Maybe...!" Takuma winked. He wasn't even trying to hide it.

"ANYWAYS, Ruka, are you gonna dance with Akatsuki or not?" Hanabusa tried to pass the spotlight onto me. Geez, I was gonna defend him, but too bad now.

Everyone was cheering for me to take Akatsuki's hand. I just wanted to kill every single one of them.

"Shut up!" They all looked scared except for Akatsuki. He just plugged his ear.

"Ruka, that shouting of yours is not sexy at all." Akatsuki looked calm until I raised my fist at him.

"I'm kidding… So do you want to dance or not?" He held his hand out to me once more.

I blushed and hesitated.

"Go for it, Ruka-chan!" Takuma still cheered, despite my "not sexy" shouting. My eyes threw daggers at him and he quickly ran to Hanabusa, who pretended to be annoyed, for comfort.

I looked back at Akatsuki, and I have to say, he was pretty good-looking in that black suit.

"Fine…" I said softly as I took Akatsuki's hand. I hadn't held his hand since we were a lot younger.

Akatsuki pulled me in, closer to his body. For some reason, when my body was against his, I felt very safe and relaxed.

Akatsuki leaned close to my ear and whispered something into it. I could feel my whole face turning red.

"Ruka, you're the prettiest girl here." That got my heart beating faster.

"S-shut up and stop teasing me…" I looked down.

Akatsuki gently lifted my chin up so that my eyes were looking directly at his and said, "I'm serious, Ruka. You're beautiful."

My heart raced even faster and I quickly hid my face in Akatsuki's chest (okay, maybe that wasn't the smartest idea). I was so close to his body that I could smell the scent of his blood. I really didn't want to admit it, but his blood's fragrance attracted me to him.

Without thinking, I slid my hand from his shoulder up to his neck. Then I slowly leaned in closer to his neck. I thought about how badly I wanted to taste Akatsuki's blood as I licked his neck.

I was ready to pierce his skin when I froze because I finally realized what I was about to do. I quickly backed off, told Akatsuki that I'd be right back, and walked off.

I, once again, tried to find Rima. This time I found her in a short amount of time, since I knew I was looking for a girl in a hot pink dress. I immediately pulled her aside to ask her a question:

"When was the first time you wanted blood so badly that you couldn't fully control yourself?"

Rima, with her straight face, answered, "When I realized my feelings for Senri."

I think I was showing my "oh shit" face because Rima smirked and said, "So you finally realized your feelings for Akatsuki, eh?"

"No way! I do not have feelings for him!" I tried my best to deny it, but I could tell I was failing miserably.

As I stomped away, Rima laughed and shouted, "We all know you're lying, Ruka!" I made no comment after that.

I passed by Akatsuki, but I kept walking because I wanted to go home.

He must have noticed me because he called out, "Ruka! Hey, wait up!" and caught my arm.

"Where are you going?" he asked with a worried voice.

"I'm leaving."

"Why?"

"Because tonight, I found out something that I should've never found out," I said without making eye contact with him.

"What'd you find out?" Akatsuki kept the questions coming.

"I can't tell you. It's a secret." I blushed at the guy who finally stopped asking questions.

That was the night I realized I had been in love with Akatsuki Kain.

"The love itself was always there, but I just didn't start acknowledging it until now." I told myself.