Disclaimer: The only rewards I receive for writing this story are your wonderful reviews. 3


The two days that made up the weekend went by uneventfully. Aidou was at least happy that he had a couple of days away from boring classes where the teachers couldn't possibly teach him anything. He wondered how Yori was doing in that pathetic excuse for a house. He'd suggested to Kaname to send scouts to the area routinely to check for Level E's. Kaname had only nodded gravely. Aidou had no idea if the pureblood would take up his suggestion.

Why did she even want to return there? The day class dorms were so much nicer. Well that was quite the understatement. Compared to Yori's house, the day class dorms were an elaborate palace. Hell the school's tuition for one semester was probably more expensive than her entire house and then some. He wondered how she payed for it.

Come Sunday evening, he found himself again in the black sedan with his cousin. As to why Kaname felt it was their job to go pick her up, he had no idea. They had been forced to wake up at freaking 5pm on a Sunday!

"Why the hell did Kaname send both of us to pick her up?" He asked Kain. Aidou was annoyed and groggy from lack of sleep and it came out in his voice.

Kain failed to suppress a yawn, "Because he wants me to keep an eye on you," he said sleepily.

"Then why didn't he just send you?"

"Because he wants me to keep an eye on you," Kain simply repeated.

Aidou rolled his eyes. Didn't Kaname know that his cousin spent most of his time helping Aidou keep from getting caught rather than preventing the trouble in the first place? Apparently not. Or maybe he just didn't care. Who knew what went through Kaname's head.

The car pulled up to the run down house and stopped. Aidou became annoyed when he noticed Yori wasn't outside waiting for them. He looked over at Kain who was just looking back at him expectantly.

"Fine! I'll go get her." Aidou was exasperated as he got out of the car. He slammed the door shut and headed up to the front of the house.

He knocked at the front door and waited for someone to answer. He felt completely out of place here. His expensive sweatervest, white jacket, and dress shoes certainly didn't match the locale. The poor surroundings totally didn't suit him.

The door finally opened and Yori stepped into the entryway. She was wearing a soft blue sweater that fit to her form perfectly and a skirt that he couldn't help but notice was quite a bit longer than the one that was part of her school uniform. It hung just above her knees. She was way too elegant to live in a house like this.

Curiously, he noticed there were two tiny hands wrapped around her left leg.

A little boy shyly peered around the outside of her thigh. His head came up to just above her knee. Aidou was immediately struck with the resemblance the child had to Yori. His face had delicate features and his eyes were exactly the same as hers – large, brown and innocent. Probably the only real difference between the two was his almost white blond hair that sat in a mop on top of his head. The boy had snot running down his noes and seemed totally unaware of it.

Aidou looked back up to Yori who was now smiling down at the boy affectionately. Something about her seemed different, and it took a minute for him to realize what it was. He had never seen her smile before. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Yori absentmindedly pulled a tissue out of her skirt pocket and bent down to wipe the snot off the boys face. "Alright Simon, I have to get going back to school now. You be good while I'm gone okay?"

The child's already wide eyes grew even wider and started to well up with tears. "But I don't want you to leave!" he cried out as he started to sob.

The kid's crying started to make Aidou uncomfortable. The little boy obviously adored Yori. The scene really was quite heartbreaking as Yori tried in vain to calm the boy down.

An idea occurred to Aidou as he remembered he still had a leftover package of pocky that he had managed to keep hidden from Rima. He didn't want to give it away, but if it would get the kid to be quiet then it was worth it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the package.

"Do you like pocky?" he asked the child, bending down to reveal the candy he had in his hand.

Simon's sobbing grew quieter as he looked at the man in front of him who was opening a package of delicious candy right there in front of his nose.

Aidou took two sticks of chocolate pocky out of the package and reached out offering them to the boy. "If your good and say goodbye to Yori-chan nicely, you can have these."

Yori looked at Aidou gratefully. Apparently, like most kids, candy was this one's main weakness.

The boy nodded eagerly agreeing to the deal and tentatively reached out a hand taking the offered pocky sticks. He then proceeded to place them both in his mouth obviously elated at the taste.

"Simon make sure you brush your teeth after you finish those, okay?" Yori said looking down at him.

The boy named Simon simply nodded since his mouth was already full with candy, chocolate stains covering his face. The boy certainly didn't waste any time when it came to sweets.

Yori grabbed her bag off the floor, saying goodbye to the child as her and Aidou made their way back to the car. Again Kain moved into the passenger seat. Aidou opened the car door for Yori and she stepped inside, then followed behind her.

Once the car began moving he glanced over at her. "Cute kid," he said conversationally.

"Yeah," she sounded like she'd heard this a lot.

"You two related?"

"Yeah."

He waited for her to say more but when she didn't he finally asked, "Well, how are you related?"

"He's my brother."

Well that explained why they looked so much alike. Another question popped into Aidou's head. "He lives with your parents?"

"No"

"Then who takes care of him?"

"You ask a lot of questions." She obviously didn't want to talk about herself.

"Something wrong with that?"

She looked tired and closed her eyes. "He lives with his father."

"His father?" Aidou asked, wondering what that meant.

"He's my half brother. Same mom, different dads." She gazed out the window as she continued to speak. "He'll only be there for another two weeks before he's moving away."

"Where's he moving?"

"Far."

Damn it was impossible to get information out of her! He just wanted to know more about her. How hard could it be to answer a few simple questions?

"So where's your mom then?" he figured he'd try a different angle.

"Not around," she evaded again.

Unlike just about any other girl he had ever met, Yori obviously did not want to talk about herself. It was even more irritating since she was just about the only girl he had ever been interested in learning anything about. Life was having a weird way of screwing with him.

He wanted to press her for more answers but then he noticed her frowning as she gazed out the window.

Aidou's hand seemed to have a mind of its own as he reached across the space between them to place it on the skin of her thigh just above her knee. He had originally meant the gesture to be comforting but her skin was incredibly soft. He wondered what her it felt like under her sweater. His eyes wandered along her body to the two mounds on her chest, staring as they rose and fell with each breath she took.

Ugh why am I thinking about this? He needed to move his hand. Now. He stared at the place on her leg where he was touching her. He mentally commanded his hand...Move!

But to his dismay, instead of moving off of her, he watched his hand start to rub the skin of her thigh. It was ignoring his brain and behaving completely of its own accord. His fingers starting brushing lightly back and forth, slightly disappearing under her skirt. She felt so good he didn't even care that Kain and the driver were only feet away from them.

"Don't do that," she said curtly. But the flush in her cheeks betrayed that she was at least enjoying it on some level.

He scooted himself a little closer to her and whispered in her ear. "I don't think you want me to stop."

This close to her neck he could see the pulsing of a blue vein underneath her skin. He began to imagine his fangs sinking into her flesh and her blood flowing into his mouth. Bloodlust was slowly starting to creep into his senses. He felt his fangs lengthen...

"Aidou?"

When he heard her voice his name, he realized how close he was to her, staring at her neck like it was his dinner.

Reluctantly, he forced himself to pull his head away before he bit her right then and there. He still left his hand on her leg though. He'd given up on making it move. It felt too good to touch her.

He couldn't help but give her leg a tight squeeze and was delighted when she jerked in surprise. It was just too much fun to tease her! He loved how she reacted so openly to his every touch. He wanted to hear her make the same noises she had made that night in the library. He wanted to hear her cry out his name.

He looked down at his hand that was rubbing against her knee and stopped when he noticed there was something different about her skin there. Looking closer he saw that there was a dark bruise almost completely covering her knee cap. Why had he not noticed that earlier? Because other parts of her body are so much more interesting...

Ignoring that thought, he gently rubbed his index finger over the bruise, careful not to put enough pressure to hurt her. Her skin felt hot and it was puffy and swollen under the darkened flesh. He looked up to her face and gave her a questioning look.

"I fell the other day," she said quickly, looking away from him.

Well that explained that anyways. Aidou sighed. Humans really were so pathetically weak. For a vampire, a bruise like that would barely even last a few minutes and that was only if they even bruised in the first place.

Just then Kain decided to turn around and give his cousin a meaningful look. Aidou understood it as a warning and he moved away from Yori guiltily. Stupid Akatsuki. Why is he here anyways? Aidou thought as he crossed his arms and sulked, wishing his cousin would just disappear.

The three spent the rest of the ride in silence.


oh Aidou, your so dense sometimes. *facepalm

There's no reason for Yori's brother's name being Simon instead of a Japanese one. I just thought it was a cute name for him.

And on a longer note: I actually have an entire chapter that was supposed to go before this one, which is devoted entirely to Kaname's creative punishment for poor Aidou. I'm so sorry, but I ended up deciding it doesn't belong in this story. I felt it was too comedic for this point in the plot, and it doesn't make sense to add it in later.

I could turn it into a oneshot or something though...

The next chapter will be titled, "A Kiss by Moonlight." So sappy and cliché I know, but it accurately describes the content. =p