Yay!! woohoo!!! OK, this chapter is... well... pretty short.. but I really thought it was better of on its own :D

So, I'm still undecided on whether or not to make a sequel... I'm really afraid it'll cost me lots of hits...

"Go," Rin said softly, her face blank. Only her lips showed emotion; slightly pinched with regret as she bid farewell to Kain as he left for the nobles' banquet with Ruka.

Kain looked back at her, worry and regret open on his face. He inclined his head sadly at Rin before leaving. Neither of them spoke of the distance between them that grew.

Rin watched Kain and Ruka grow smaller as they walked away, feeling the gap between her and Kain grow, and not just physically.

"Are you okay?" Ruka asked quietly, looking at Kain with an awkward kind of concern on her face. Kain looked back at her, his eyes worried and concerned, but not for the same reason.

"Ever since the dance, Rin's changed, hasn't she?" Ruka continued on, truly worried now about her two friends.

"But you two seemed fine… I mean, you danced," she added, even quieter and more wondering. Kain sighed, looking down at the ground morosely as they kept walking towards the car that waited patiently to take them to the banquet.

Rin woke in the darkest part of morning to see Kain off before he left for the Aidou mansion. She wasn't surprised to open her door to his face. Apparently he had stood there, fretting the time away, waiting for her to open the door.

"Good morning," Rin said, sarcasm evident in her voice. Kain stood there, looking down at Rin worriedly but not moving to let her pass. With a determined sigh, Kain took Rin by the shoulders, pushing her back into her room while shutting the door behind them.

Rin crossed her arms over her chest, turning her head to look elsewhere.

"Can't we talk?" Kain asked of her imploringly, putting one hand on her shoulder and cupping her face gently with the other, turning her face to look into his eyes. Rin let him turn her head, appearing unmoved by his pain, building an ice wall with her hardened eyes.

"Please?" Kain put his other hand to her cheek as well, cupping her face fully now, leaning down to put his forehead against hers. Rin shut her eyes slowly, her face still impassive, though Kain could feel that she was as tense as a stretched bowstring.

Rin sighed frustratedly through clenched jaws.

"Dammit, Akatsuki! I offered Kaname help to defeat his enemies, nearly offered him what I've given you so far-" Rin's voice rose by several notes, though her eyes were still shut and her forehead still pressed to Kain's- "and I was turned away from the door like my help was nothing but a piece of shit lying in the middle of a damned road! I've taught you to value what I'm giving you, but tell me, Oh loyal noble, did you learn your lesson?!" Rin opened her eyes, taking a step backwards and piercing Kain with her eyes.

"Are you going to blindly believe that Zero and I were the ones who killed Shizuka? You'd believe a person who had more chance of killing her than either of us did?" she hissed quietly, her words a falling hammer to strike a nerve in Kain, like the chords in a piano. Kain jerked his head back in shock, his gaze stumbling towards Rin's in a desperate attempt to see the truth in her eyes.

Then he saw; she was crying.

"Will you not trust me as much as you trust him?" she whispered quietly, hot tears pouring over her coal lashes and lining her pale cheeks with silver water.

The two of them stood facing each other for some moments, the pain in both their hearts and the silence in the room stretching a suffocating atmosphere over them both. Finally, Kain stepped between them, taking Rin in his arms as gently as if he were afraid of breaking her. He wasn't prepared for the blow Rin dealt him to the chest with her fist, knocking the air out of him and making him gasp as he lurched forward. He sealed the embrace with that stumbling step forward, and this time, Rin didn't resist; she held onto the fronts of his shirt and let her tears soak into the fabric quietly.

"I'm sorry," he said, the pain and love in his voice cloaking them in sorrowful relief that they were able to face the pain they caused each other. They clung on to each other like shipwrecks afraid of drowning in the deeps of the sea.

"Akatsuki," Rin said, barely breaking the silence, her voice soft and muffled like the sighing of wind through the highest branches of the tallest trees, lush with growing leaves.

Wordlessly, she put her hand to her sash, and worked the knot, letting it come loose and fall softly to the floor. She moved forward, and Kain felt her thighs pressed against his. He responded, clasped her to him as their lips met in a soft, but passionate kiss of reconciliation. He moved his hands up against the weave of the kimono to cup her face, then let his hands travel down once more, feeling himself quiver with the cool stroke of silk between his fingers and her flesh. The kiss continued as he slipped his hands to her slim waist, while one hand traveled lower. Then, in one, fluid motion of passion, he eased the folds of her kimono apart, letting his hands go under the silk, feeling her flesh warm at his touch as he explored her back in soft strokes, cupped and covered her heaving breasts.

Rin went taut as they kissed endlessly and he explored her, pressing herself harder against him. She pulled her lips away slowly, and let herself see the question in Kain's eyes as she allowed him to continue exploring her, as she let the silk slip off of her shoulders in one cool stream, revealing everything she was to him.

Kain looked wondrously at Rin's face as she ended the kiss. She was bathed in a strange light, every single hair and eyelash standing out, every crease in her eyelid and spot in the blue of her eyes, every detail looking so sweet as he gazed at her with longing. He was caught like a bug floating in amber, bathing in this vampire, this woman, this Rin. His Rin. He was transfixed as he watched her lick her lips, watched those lips part to reveal her fangs, watched them come closer and closer to his neck. He gave his blood with all the ecstacy of feeling her pierce his skin and drink; drink him lovingly, him and no one else.

While she drank, Rin unbuttoned Kain's already loose shirt, slipping it off his shoulders and taking her turn to know his body with her touch. They kissed again as she finished drinking, and completed bridging the distance between them in a bloody cycle as he trailed kisses down from her lips to her neck, sinking his fangs in and feeling his heart lift with the gasp that flew from her lips.

It was too easy to go on after that. They sealed their love and closed the distances between them in that dark hour, that alien time, where there are neither moon nor stars nor sun; the deepest of night and the earliest of morning. And for both of them: the time out of time.

K... I guess since this chapter was pretty short I'm gonna have to write the next one quickly, right? heheh, no problem... unless I'm busy, that is.. :D hey, hey, I need reviews ok? and in case whoever's reading this doesn't have an account, I accept anonymous reviews!!