AOS Chapter 8

Angel of Silence

Another chapter out guys

Chapter 8 – Twenty Questions and Papercuts

AUTHORS NOTE IMPORTANT

Hey guys I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in a while I just finished my finals. I've got to be honest here I am really not going to be focused on writing for the next year as I live in Australia will be in year 12 and sitting my HSC exams so I really need to focus on school work as for the course I'm aiming for I need to get at least 99 for my atar oh joy so yeah if I get free time like over these holidays and the summer holidays I will write even if I'm not on my laptop *cough* daydreams *cough* but yeah I am not going to abandon this story I fully intend to finish it as I have plenty of plans for Hotaru and her friends. Also remember to check out my tumblr angelofsilencesaturnia I have lots of short snippets and headcanons up there for you to check out.

Also important in case I didn't clarify it earlier it has been a year for Zero and everyone at Cross academy but it has been three years for Hotaru since she left due to the time differences of different planets/worlds. Raven joined Hotaru a year after she left the academy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, Vampire Knight or Princess Tutu

Hotaru sighed as she finished copying down her notes on Schliemann's work at the site of Troy.

"Hey Z you done with question 3 yet?" she leaned over to look at the silver haired boy's surprisingly neat print.

"Almost," he muttered his right hand moving over the lined page quickly as he wrote down a final dot point.

Hotaru glanced down at the top right corner of her laptop screen and saw the black numbers 5:00 standing out against the grey bar. She knew that curfew would start at 6:00 but Zero needed to be at the moon dormitory by 5:45 to deal with the fangirls. She put her laptop to sleep and closed it with a soft thud before slipping it into a slim black laptop case and zipping it up. Looking up at the soft blue sky changing into a palette of amazing hues as the sun steadily dropped lower she sighed.

"You know it's really peaceful up here," she smiled at his acknowledging grunt "we should study here more often."

"Yeah but I think the rain might destroy your laptop not to mention its hot, there's almost no shade and weren't you the one that said you would turn red as Sebastian from the Little Mermaid if you were in the sun for more than five minutes?" he stated with a raised eyebrow.

Hotaru grinned as she climbed and spun around in the warm golden light "That doesn't mean I can't still enjoy sunny days baka."

She walked over to edge of the rooftop and leaned her elbows against the wall, looking down across the academy grounds.

"I know I've only been here for a few days but this place just seems really amazing."

Hotaru sensed Zero right behind her and tried to ignore the feeling that this scene was a bit too familiar for comfort as her eyes drifted over to his taller figure.

"Anyway," the purple haired girl turned around abruptly "want to play Twenty Questions?"

"What?" the vampire hunter asked surprised at the sudden change of subject.

"Do. You. Want. To. Play. Twenty. Questions?" she repeated slowly.

"Why?" he sighed.

"Because we're going to be study partners for the rest of the year aren't we? Might as well get to know one another," she rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

"Ok master of monosyllabic sentences lets start off easy how old are you?" she said leaning back against the railing.

"17 turning 18 this year" he answered.

"Ooh 5 words. See we're getting closer already" Hotaru winked.

"Ok then what about you? How old are you?" he asked.

"Now come now Zero don't you know its rude to ask a lady her age?" she fanned herself dramatically,

"You're a lady? I thought that you were a wild child that loved splashing in puddles and dancing in the rain?"

"You saw that?" Hotaru turned the bright red colour of embarrassment.

"Pretty sure many people saw you when you were coming back to the dormitory spinning around like there's no tomorrow. I saw you from a window in my dormitory" he answered.

"Believe it or not that's more Raven's thing then mine she loves the rain. I'm not normally one to dance around in it" she said not meeting his eyes.

"Really?"

"Yeah anyway, 16 turning 17 this year" Hotaru said.

'Well that's the age I'm meant to be turning this year on this planet. Time differences between planets and solar systems are so annoying,' she thought.

"Favourite colour?"

"Not sure I don't really have one" the silver haired boy replied.

"Come on gun to your head no way out what would you say is your favourite colour?"

"I guess blue?"

"Ok then so you don't have to waste a question my favourite colour would be," she looked up at the sky in thought "either midnight blue or a dark emerald green."

"Why?" he asked.

"Why what?"

"Why are those your favourite colours?" he expanded.

"You sure you want that to be your second question?" Hotaru raised an eyebrow before shrugging.

"Midnight blue I guess because it's the colour I always associate with the night sky. I think it's beautiful, dotted with the stars. Entire galaxies and universes as far as the eye can see. It's amazing. I suppose dark emerald green is because I've always associated green as the colour of life. It's the colour of chloroplasts – the colour of nature. It's an awesome colour. That and it doesn't clash with my hair."

"Let's see…do you… like chocolate?" she asked.

"Yeah I guess?" he shrugged.

"Oh thank the Lord I would have said we couldn't be friends if you didn't like chocolate" she said clutching her heart dramatically.

"Although I do have some bad experiences with homemade chocolate."

"Really?"

"Yeah I had a friend. On St Xocolatl's Day she gave me this chocolate and it almost made me throw up," Zero chuckled.

"Well I'm sure they didn't mean to give you food poisoning" Hotaru smiled tightly.

"Yeah but I'm pretty sure that her cooking would make a terrifying biological weapon," he said.

"Late, early or right on time?" the silver haired boy asked.

"A wizard never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to" she says sagely.

"Lord of the Rings?"

"Of course I love Gandalf and Aragorn is pretty amazing" her eyes lit up excitedly.

"Orlando Bloom fan?"

"Yes in Lord of the Rings, definitely not in the Trojan War. Paris is so wimpy and cowardly, that and he is the reason Eric Banner and Brad Pitt die" she says immediately.

"Ok favourite four legged creature?" Hotaru inquired.

"Don't really have one I'm not exactly what you would call an animal person. But I do like White Lily, she's a horse in the stables" he tells her.

"Really the death horse?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Death horse?"

"Yori told me about her something about almost trampling people half to death? She's the white horse right she's actually pretty sweet" Hotaru explained.

"Sweet? When did you meet her?" he asked.

"Oh my first day here I was wandering around and we spent some quality time together. I hope you're not jealous the stable caretaker called her your girlfriend" Hotaru smirked.

"Don't worry I think your safe. Rainy days or snowy winter days?"

"Hmm tough one I would have to say rainy days the sound of the rain is soothing."

"If you were a superhero what powers would you have?" Hotaru asks curiously.

"Hmm I guess the ability to control time" he says simply.

"Let me guess too many regrets?" she states "I would totally have the ability to conjure illusions. I think it would be interesting."

"Illusions? But they're not real" Zero replies.

"I guess" she looks up at the sky "but the ability to control time is too flimsy for me. There's far too many repercussions for doing so one wrong move and you'll prevent too many things from happening, too many people from existing. You might save some but you'll lose a lifetime of happy memories with others. I don't think it's worth it. I think pain and suffering are important parts of who we are and I wouldn't change anything…"

"That's quite morbid of you."

"Well I never said I was the sugary sweet cotton candy type of girl."

"Ok then favourite hobbies?"

"Sketching obviously," she gestured towards her sketchpad "gardening, ice-skating and playing the piano and violin are the first things that come to mind. I like swimming as well and mystery/crime./thriller novels."

With that Hotaru stretched her back and checked her phone to saw what it was. 15 minutes to 6 o'clock. Damn.

"This was fun Z we should do this again sometime we still have fifteen questions," she winked "but I'm afraid unless you want to handle complaints from the night class about being sexually harassed by dozens of screaming fangirls it would be best for you to go."

She waited a minute or too still looking up at the sun finding the view peaceful, her left hand itching to sketch it when she heard a bored cough.

"Need a cough drop Delores?" she asked spinning around surprised to see Zero still standing there waiting by the door.

"It's technically illegal for you to be up here and seeing as I'm part of the disciplinary committee I'm going to be the one in real trouble if I left you alone up here" he raised an eyebrow.

"Fine" she sighed before going downstairs into the dormitory.


Raven recalled the words that had been scribbled on the sticky note that she had found tucked away inside her school bag.

Meet me in the library at 5 o'clock. Come alone.

She instantly got a bad feeling when she read the contents of the note but curiosity got the better of her and Raven needed to go to the library anyway for the history project. Raven, seeing Hotaru so cheerful for the first time in months regardless of the hate filled message that someone had left in her sketchbook earlier chose to hide the note from her friend. Hotaru already had enough things to worry about.

A horrible scraping sound cut through the expected silence of the library as someone took the seat need to her and propped their feet up on the table with a thud. Sky blue eyes flicked over to glance at her phone which was lying on the desk next to her she saw that it was exactly 4:59.

"You're early" she noted still not bothering to look up from her paper.

"Well I was looking so forward to our meeting that I couldn't resist" a voice purred mockingly "you don't mind right."

"Wow" Raven finally looked up at the narrowed hazel eyes that belonged to the owner of the mocking tone "I almost took that as a compliment."

"Really what gave me away?" Kaito leaned back in a show of nonchalance.

"I don't know" she paused with shrewd eyes "maybe it was the incredibly auspicious note that you left in my bag?"

"Oh come on Miss Hakuchou maybe I simply wanted to confess my love to you and my admiration of your beauty" he cradled one of her hands gently in his own for a single second before she snatched it back like she had been burnt.

"Well if you're here to do so I know it wasn't my lovely personality that's keeping you here. Normally most guys tend to be put off by it," still putting on a mocking mask to keep up appearances.

"So" she locked eyes with him suddenly catching him off guard with her sudden change of attitude "let's stop with this boring charade and get down to real business. Why did you summon me here in the first place?"

"Well I was wondering if you would be willing to tell me a few things about Miss Tomoe" he leaned forward "she's such an interesting girl."

"First off when you say things like that it makes you come off as a total creep regardless of how cute you may seem-"

"So you think I'm cute?" he smirked.

Not pausing to show any sign that she was listening to what he had to say she continued "second why don't you ask her yourself sir."

"To be honest she's quite the anomaly Miss Hakuchou" he leaned back in his chair once more "you see I don't know if you've heard about this seeing as it's been almost a year and you're new to the school but you see old man Cross had an adopted daughter. A miss Yuki Cross or Yuki Kuran which is her birth name, she disappeared a year ago. And your friend looks an awful lot like her so forgive if it seems like an awfully big coincidence that she would turn up at this academy looking just like that missing girl. Of course there are some things that contradict the theory that they're connected. I seriously doubt that she is stupid enough to come back and only change her hairstyle and wear coloured contacts."

"Well I can honestly tell you that I've known Hotaru for a few years now. In fact I've been living with her for the past two years and that her hair and eyes are completely natural," Raven told him seriously.

"Well that changes things immensely Miss Hakuchou. Thank you for volunteering that information," he stood up and tucked the chair back in.

He began to walk off raising a hand in farewell before pausing and turning his head to look back at her "I do hope you're being truthful Miss Hakuchou. That girl, Yuki, she's dangerous. It would be best if you find any information on her to tell me, Yagari or the headmaster immediately. And of course this stays between us. I'm sure Hotaru wouldn't enjoy hearing that you've been talking behind her back."

"I don't know what you're talking about sir. Nothing happened, I was just calmly doing my work and you came over to see if I needed any help" Raven said blankly as she crouched over her books once more.

"Don't stay here too long Hakuchou, the night class is about to start and curfew for the day class is about to begin," he called to her once more as he left the library not waiting for a reply.

Looking at the time Raven saw it was 5:15. Setting an alarm to go off at 5:45 so that she could get back to the dormitory by 6 o'clock Raven went back to studying. Raven yawned as she continued to scribble down notes.


Nadashiko took off her glasses tiredly and placed them on the small table next to her bed. Her fingers on autopilot dragged the elastics off of her twin plaits and combed them through her hair searching for obvious knots and tangles. She had already changed into her pyjamas – a simple blue singlet and grey sweatpants. The human girl paused, her hands flying towards her mouth as she coughed.

Assuming that she had simply caught something from Raven she shrugged and dug into the suitcase under her bed for some cough medicine. Nadashiko glanced at the clock on the small table and saw red lights illuminating the numbers 5:40 against a black screen. Grimacing down at the small plastic cup in her hand filled with a red liquid she tossed her head back and gulped the supposedly cherry flavoured cough medicine. Coughing at the horrific taste and forcing herself not to spit it out she reached for the glass of water next to her and greedily gulped it down.

The girl yawned after that – the cough medicine normally made her sleepy. So she slipped under the plain greyish white sheets, reached a hand out to turn off the lamp next to her and closed her eyes.


Raven jerked awake all of a sudden, rubbing the painful feeling in her back and shoulders from her awkward position leaning on the desk. She yawned once more and rubbed her eyes, cursing herself for falling asleep while studying again. Blinking once more she tiredly look around, her eyes widened for the few seconds it took for her to recognise where she was. She was still in the library at Cross Academy.

"Damnit Hypnos! I slept in again" she cursed the god of sleep.

Beginning to get up from her seat, her muscles cried out in protest due to the uncomfortable position that she had slept in. Her chair began to scrape painfully against the hard wooden floor, causing the sound to echo through the library like nails against a blackboard. Raven immediately stopped moving, her heart thudding painfully in her chest as her ears strained for any sound of the night class or disciplinary committee approaching. She sighed in relief when no one followed the noise. Much more gently now, Raven picked up the chair as she stood up and laid it on the floor with a much softer thud.

The swan girl hurriedly began to sweep the scattered papers into her open backpack, picking up the few that missed her bag and crashed to the floor, scattering like snow.


Aido leaned back in his chair, pushing his feet against the desk he swung precariously on the edge. His hands folded back to cushion his head he ignored the droning, monotonous sound of the teacher droning on once more about the noble history of vampire aristocracy. The slight whistle of the wind from the open window next to him, caused a slight chill in his spine but he refused to close the window because he found the cool air soothing. He barely noticed when their teacher finished his lecture and left the room.

"You know you really should pay more attention in class Hanabusa" Shiki said boredly accepting another pocky stick from Rima.

"I don't have to listen to any of his babbling Shiki" Aidou rolled his eyes leaning further back "it's not like we don't know anything about vampire history."

"Not everyone is an academic prodigy like you Hanabusa" Ruka rolled her eyes.

"So you finally admit I'm a genius!" Aido pointed towards the girl in triumph.

"No I called you a prodigy" she said flatly refusing to rise to the bait.

"Aido" came the cold voice of Kaname.

"Lord Kaname, sir" Aido struggled to straighten himself up on the wobbly chair and ended up falling off with a sharp cry.

Kaname ignored his subordinate's fumbling, continuing to talk in a cold voice "Regardless Aido, we are vampire aristocracy. That means that everything we do is making history. This academy is a step towards vampire and human relations. You agreed to come to this academy that means following the rules including listening to the lectures."

"Yes Lord Kaname" the blonde vampire responded.

"Hanabusa could you at least close the window? You're letting in a draft" Ruka scolded with crossed arms hugging her for warmth.

"The cool breeze feels nice" Aido ignored his cousin's complaints.

"Well we have a study period now anyway so it doesn't matter" Rima pointed out boredly as she continued to feed pocky sticks to Shiki.

"Well then I'm going to go to the library" Aido jumped off the floor "you coming Akatsuki?"

"Fine" sighed the taller vampire getting up from the chair he was lounging on, glancing at Ruka who stubbornly ignored his gaze before strolling out of the room with his cousin.

"Ruka," Kaname called causing the girl to startle out of her thoughts.

"Yes Lord Kaname," she answered refusing to look him in the eye.

"Please go with them Aido has been getting quite restless lately and I don't want to give the hunters any excuse to shoot him," he said simply.

Ruka simply nodded and stood up gathering her papers into a small brown bag.

"I do apologise Ruka," the pureblood said softly as she passed.

"Yes," she said the corner of her lips twitching in what looked to be painful mirth "but you're not sorry at all are you my Lord?"

The elegant vampire tossed her ash blonde hair out of her eyes to stare at the pureblood in front of her unflinchingly.

"Maybe that's why I fell for you in the first place."

With that she strolled out of the room refusing to look back now that she had said her piece.


"You really should stop provoking the others Hanabusa" Akatsuki shook his head at his cousin.

"I was just telling it as it is Akatsuki" Aido shrugged.

They both paused at the familiar hurried and angry footsteps approaching from behind.

"So you're on babysitting duty again tonight Ruka?" Aido smirked at his female cousin.

"Let's just get this over with Hanabusa" Ruka sighed and marched forward leading the way into the library.

"You know you should stop trying to provoke Lord Kaname" an icy voice followed her.

"What did you say?" she said in a dangerously calm tone turning around to glare at her normally easy going and flirtatious cousin.

"Lady Yuki has been missing for a year now. We're no closer to finder her than we were when she first disappeared. The least you could do is not make things harder for everyone with your attitude," Aido accused.

"Like you?" she laughed bitterly.

"If you weren't moping so much about being rejected by Lord Kaname and helping us look for her then maybe we could have found her by now," Aido said clenching his fists.

"You're one to talk Aido always swanning off to flirt with your little human girlfriend" she scoffed.

"Leave her out of this" the ice wielding vampire cut her off with a fierce glare.

A wall of fire sprang up between them all of a sudden; the immense heat and glare from the flames caused them both to stop in their tracks.

"You guys are both acting like children. It's like you guys haven't changed since we were 8 years old," Akatsuki said exasperatedly.

"Stay out of this Akatsuki," Ruka said harshly.

"I would gladly but we have an assignment to finish so either play nice or go back and tell Lord Kaname that you couldn't fulfil the task he set for you because you and Hanabusa couldn't stop arguing like 4 year old brats for five seconds" he said simply raising an eyebrow, daring her to disagree.

"Ugh fine" she said marching ahead to lead them straight to the library wanting classes to be over with as soon as possible.


A single drop of red liquid stained the white papers a spot of coppery not quite red colour.

"Shit" she deadpanned looking at it "well that's just great of all the times to get a fucking papercut great going Raven."

Ignoring the stinging sensation of her sliced fingertip she hurried her stuffing of papers into her bag no longer caring if they got crushed in her enthusiasm. Well aware of the keen sense of smell that vampires have thanks to living with one for a couple of years she knew that she had at the most two or three minutes before she was ambushed by the night class.

"Do you need any help miss?" a friendly voice asked.

He was fairly tall and lean, around half a head taller than Raven. His hair was a golden-blond colour and mussed in a slightly messy way and his electric blue eyes drew her in. From what she could remember Hotaru telling her and the way the room seemed colder by his very presence she would bet her favourite knife that this was Hanabusa Aido.

"No thank you that's alright" Raven stuttered looking away "I was studying in the library after class and I guess I fell asleep and my phone ran out of battery so my alarm wasn't on and I'm rambling aren't I?"

To see a day class student still in the library way after curfew was new Aido had to admit. Generally the teachers and disciplinary committee were very strict in making sure that the day class students were in their dormitories after the sun was down. Still she was cute and from what he could smell of her blood it would be a sinfully sweet taste.

"That's ok it's cute" he said putting on an adorable smile that always melted the hearts of his numerous fans.

"You're Hanabusa Aido right?" she asked "the one that many of the girls in my class call Idol and have disturbing day dreams about?"

"Yeah that's me" he answered as he bent over to pick up a few papers.

"Sorry I'm new here. I actually just got here two days ago so I'm not really familiar with everyone yet" she said sheepishly.

"Well that explains why I haven't seen you around. It's a tragedy that I have not been able to gaze upon such beauty for so long" he said dramatically.

"They said that you were good looking but they didn't mention anything about you being such a drama queen" she nodded in thanks as he handed her the papers.

"Drama queen, me?" he asked in mock surprise flamboyantly gesturing towards himself.

"Yep" the girl said popping the 'p' as she stood up straight and gave him an exhausted smile.

"See you around drama queen" she tossed over her shoulder.

"I would love to stay and chat but I'm pretty sure I've broke fifty school rules due to being out so late and whilst I was hoping to break a school record I didn't plan on it being so soon-"

"Well hello there Miss Hakuchou," came a pleasant voice which made her stop and turn to the left noticing the headmaster standing in the shadows.

"Good evening sir" she chirped with as much energy as she could muster "I suppose there isn't any chance that you didn't hear any of that is there?"

"I'm afraid Miss Hakuchou that at my age I often experience sudden bouts of temporary deafness so I have no idea what happened" he smiled calmly.

"Ooh a Harry Potter fan sir," Raven inquired.

"Quite I've found Dumbledore to be quite a marvellous example of what a headmaster should be like" Kaien said.

"I see that you've met Hanabusa," he gestured to the vampire who was still standing there "I hope that he was behaving like a gentlemen?"

"Of course sir the epitome of perfect manners" the swan girl said.

"Well thank you Hanabusa for helping Miss Hakuchou with her things. I'm sure you have plenty of assignments to work on yourself" dismissing the blonde.

"Yes sir," he nodded "see you around Miss Hakuchou."

With a final wave he turned on his heel and left towards the other side of the library where Raven could spy the elegant forms of two other vampires, a tall boy with burnt orange eyes and brownish-orange hair and a beautiful young woman with ash blonde hair and brown eyes. Remembering that she had company Raven turned back to the headmaster with a bashful expression.

"I'm so sorry sir. I was doing research for the Trojan War assignment and I guess I fell asleep" she bowed.

"Make sure it doesn't happen again now go back to the dormitory quickly and don't mention this to anyone unless you want to be harassed by Hanabusa's more enthusiastic fangirls" he told her.

Nodded her head yes Raven quickly walked out of the library with a bowed head.

"Oh and tell your friend Miss Tomoe to try and keep her midnight visits to the kitchen to a minimum" he added before she was out of ear range.

Raven as soon as she was out of range quickly picked up the pace and hurried over to the sun dormitory. She had just turned a corner when she spotted two unfamiliar figures in deep conversation up ahead. Her curiosity got the better of her so she hid behind a column hoping to overhear more of their conversation.

"Should I send a confirmation that you will be attending the ball in two weeks my Lord?" a tall woman as pale as a ghost stated in a monotone voice.

"Yes hopefully we can find some leads as to where she is" replied tall lean handsome young man with brown hair and red-brown eyes "besides there have been far too many unpleasant rumours circling around about those demons".

'Demons?' Raven thought as she quickly darted behind the wall hoping that she hadn't been spotted. Her heart shrank into her chest as they started getting closer. Holding her breath she waved her hand over her head and cast a chameleon charm on herself. Her entire body and clothing faded into an illusion of the wall behind her and her heart thumped painfully in her chest. Thankfully they passed right by her and she let out a deep sigh of relief once they were out of sight. With that Raven rushed towards the sun dormitory to wake up Hotaru to tell her about their new lead.

Looks like we're going to a ball guys . Aido has a human girlfriend? Ruka's losing her shit at everyone and Akatsuki's is just sick of it all. I'll be honest this chapter was going to focus a lot more on Raven but I thought it would be really cute to have twenty questions with Hotaru and Zero and I couldn't help myself. Remember they both still have fifteen questions left and they can pretty much ask each other anything ;) Also it would mean the world to me if more people checked out Planetary Guardian Escapades because that is where a lot of sneak peaks and more short stories about Hotaru and Raven are you so much to those of you who favourite and follow this story it means the world to me.

Anyway till next time my friends and always please review

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