Cheese with that Whine

Disclaimer: Do not own VK and its characters, "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, "Don'cha wish your boyfriend was hot like me" I dunno… ;)

-X-

The sky was dark. The sun had left him, and this had been the only time at night where he was really beginning to miss that bright, lively ball of a fan-girl bitch of his.

It shone the place, making it seem happy and making him feel less and less like a dickhead. She had left, of course, just like it did.

But he didn't go after her, no. Of course not. He was powerless. He was caught off guard, he was unarmed.

His excuse sucked, but he was more than satisfied with it as he ventured around the forest with his arms at his head and very nearly at the bridge of crying. No, not really...

After all, he did feel pathetic, and he thought that was good enough.

-X-

The clock struck 9 pm that night, and Aido instantaneously woke up with a fright, his body suddenly willing itself to sit up automatically.

It was weird, how he did that sometimes. He wasn't really used to the built-in alarm clock yet, considering how he didn't need it before back at Cross Academy, even though he'd had plenty of time to perfect the art of corpses rising from their graves like someone had desecrated it.

It was like, what the hell? One second you're sleeping, lost amidst that deep, deep slumber then all of a sudden your body's internal clock had to go BEEP! BEEP! And fucking scream "The moon's out! The chicken's dead, the cricket's a-chirping and wolverine's a-howling to Luna, screamin' "Why do I have this fuckin' urge to chase my own ass and then sniff it!? Why am I howling at you?! You wanna shake my paw!? I can play dead! Wake up, bitch! You're dreaming!"

And then like that, instantly! It's like a snap, before you even knew it, you're sitting upright at your own bed--or whatever crap that thing is you're lying on right now. What? A sleeping bag? What the hell, man? I thought you were cool! -- and wondering what the hell happened.

Because it happened automatically.

You have seriously got to come up with better introductions than that. Like, seriously.

...

What the hell am I even talking about? Where am I? Am I all alone? Hello!? Mom, I'm scared!

It was then that Aido finally snapped out of his reverie and pulled himself together. Or as much as he could, without the passing need to shove a stick up his ass and beam madly at the sun until he combusted into flames.

Because stop, drop, and rolling wouldn't help you when you were in hell.

He didn't know why, but there was a feeling there that told him he wasn't exactly the nicest guy around… It was unknowing if he could even get killed, but um. Yeah. Hell.

And then Aido jumped up to his feet. He was seriously scaring himself.

"Maybe I just need a shower," he mumbled half-heartedly.

His feet led him into a stall, his night vision allowing him to not smack his head at the door or drown at the lake. The stall looked red under his gaze, when he lastly recalled that it was blue.

In fact, everything was tinted red from his eyes.

Aido grinned. That was random. He, meanwhile, was fucking hilarious.

He opened the stall and promptly screamed.

Everything was in horrible detail.

If it smelled like shit, looked like shit, and probably tasted--though there was NO CHANCE IN HELL that he was taking any risks-- like shit, then what could it be?

The toilet.

Things didn't seem funny anymore.

And dammit, he was about to wash his hands there, fucking thinking that it was the sink!

For a guy who could see well at night, he sucked at it.

Aido cringed, walking away fast and trying to prod that image away from his memories. Jab! Jab! Jabjabjabjabjabpokejabjab!!

He thought about freezing it, and then thought harder upon the subject of the ice melting afterwards and then what would've happened? He pulled his hand back.

If there was another being that could manipulate ice, and then froze that thing inside there… bitch, hellz no. That mothereffer'll be answering to him.

Unless of course if it were Kaname-sama. Or the supernatural entities that enjoyed prodding at his life and making him miserable.

Oh God, not once in his life did he ever consider the bathrooms at Cross Academy to be ever nice or elegant, but shit, after being forced to use this... this fucking crap here, the bathroom over in the Academy was frickin' beautiful.

He'd thought that he'd be near to tears of joy, if he ever survived to see the marble floor and the soft cushion of the toilet again.

He had the sudden urge to go off and run crying to whatsherface's tent and tell a sympathetic sob story about how he saw someone else's crap, which was an image too horrible to be NOT flushed, dammit, have some effing manners!

Aido paused. He shook his head suddenly, shaking whatever it was off.

"Now, what to do… what to do…" he sang to himself, mainly because he was SO GOOD at falsetto.

He didn't really, exactly wanted to go off and see whatsherface right now, because the feeling that was there somewhere, the same one that had told him that he wasn't the nicest guy around, confirmed Yes, you don't want to meet her.

And then everything felt hot… or cold, in this case. The ice had started melting—I mean, freezing, or whatever—and Aido had tried to skip a rock off the surface of the man-eating lake, trying to distract himself but failed. On the skipping rocks thing, not the distracting thing.

He was horrible at it, to put it simply. Though it was probably a good thing since the thought of him actually sucking at something made the vampire a little sour.

But the ice was still melting.

Avoid her, dammit.

Why? Aido knew why. Secretly, he did. He was just forcing himself not to because that made so much sense.

He had tried skipping another rock into the man-eating lake. It sunk with a "plop!" and then started floating. That was when he ditched the scene.

He tried to remember his made-up lyrics of "Don'tcha wish your boyfriend was hot like me?" but then immediately paused and just left it hanging.

He was still avoiding whatsherface. With much effort, he could even forget her name!

He had tried to find the freshwater dolphins.

Unlike most of his other attempts at trying things, like doing a simple trick like skipping rocks and such, this was a success, which had surprised him.

He left when they started squeaking at him, though. For a horrible moment there, he thought that he had understood.

…

…okay, so maybe he'd admit that he played along with the idea of being able to communicate with mammal fishes.

The freshwater dolphin was the first to start the conversation. "Sqeeeek squeal aaakk chchch cheeoow cheeeow!" Hi.

"Um. Squeak Squeal chrrr-chrrr ach-ach…?" he had replied.

"Eeek eek Iiik-Iik kcca-ka!" Actually, you don't need to say Squeak Squeal. What you said after that is fine.

"Oh… okay."

"Ccca-ccca, ch-ch ch eek!" Habla no japonés.

"You can speak Spanish?"

"Ccca-ccca, ch-ch ch eek, acckka-kkka!" Habla no japonés, you asshole.

"Oh… Uh… click, click." Err… sorry.

"Cliclicliclicliiick! Aaaakk!!" No problem. You wanna play imitation?

"Cliee cliee kkkaa." How do you play that?

"Crrrk squeal squeal squeak Aaa Aaa Eeeiiiieeeiii!" Oh it's easy. We play it all the time upstream. You name any celebrity, and I imitate their trademark signature.

"Crrrch crrch Ikk-iikk cla-cla click click!" But you can't do that! You're a dolphin for Heaven's sake!

"Clack, clack!" Yes I can! "Crri crii ak aaaah-iiiieeeeh. CCCRRRRIIIICCCKKK!!"
Watch, I'll do Ozzy Osbourne. SHHAAAROOON!!

Then Aido ran away.

"Crii! Breeow Breeooww! Twiiieee Twiieee!" Okay, I'll see you around buddy!

What? Was it like friggin' impossible for him to at least find one tolerable little entertainment here!?

Was it illegal for him to be happy?!

After that, Aido had tried skipping rocks again. The minute the rock touched the water, though, something had resurfaced.

At first he was scared shitless, and then he remembered himself, and instantly toughened up.

"Hey, douchebag! Stop polluting the water! It's assholes like you that make living here uncomfortable!"

"It's not my fault, shellface!"

"I will eat your ass!"

"Let's see you try that with my foot up your throat!"

"Well you don't gotta be so mean about it!" the thing had cried, and then retracted back into the water with a soft, peculiar draining noise.

The 4th time he had thrown a rock down there--he just couldn't help himself. It was like giving birth-- you never really knew what'd pop out, but it was a surprise everytime. Don't get him wrong, he'd meant that in a good way.

Anyways, the 4th time he had tried to skip a rock there, three beings shot out of the man-eating lake like water slipped off ducks.

They were dry, which was like… weird, and looked like they had literally just stepped out of a pastel box and decided to take a dive there.

The pretty one carried a gold lump with both hands; the prettier one had a silver lump, and the prettiest one held the original rock he had thrown just 3 seconds ago.

"Kind sir," the prettiest one spoke. "You have seemed to have lost quite a number of pebbles from skipping it on the lake. Can you tell us which one it is?"

"Screw this," Aido had murmured, and went marching back to camp.

He was a vampire. But there was a limit.

Maybe he was hallucinating. Maybe he had a fever. All these reasons seemed well enough because he had just been practically mauled by a bear not too long ago.

The bear must've mauled him good.

Avoid whatsherface. The feeling still insisted.

-X-

Yori had woken up long ago. Probably 2 minutes after the vampire decided it was time to sleep, she had woken up.

Now she just sat outside her tent, reading a book that had long paragraphs and no pictures in it, enjoying the bright sun tanning her skin.

Aido-sempai was still unconscious, probably. If it weren't mentioned before, the students had agreed to let him sleep till at least 6 pm before bothering him. At the meanwhile, his fan girls worshiped the tent he slept inside in and visited the lucky bastard like flies on a bug-zapper.

She had spared his tent a glance. It looked like all the other tents around the camp ground, but somehow more special-- sophomore girls littered it. Remembering the owner of said tent, she touched her lips vaguely and then retracted it like something was living there and bit her.

Yori buried her nose at her book again, trying to misplace her thoughts.

The kiss... if you could even call it that. A peck, maybe... Yes, a peck, made her flutter a little. Flutter wasn't even the right feeling.

She wasn't even ready. She was appallingly embarrassed by it, and hoped to Dear God that something like that won't ever ever ever happen again.

She'd rather choke on her own spit than face that kind of situation again. It wasn't that she was feeling unsatisfactory about it. Uhm. No.

It was just that... it was with the wrong person. The wrong person entirely. Although something in the pit of her stomach begged to differ, she told it to hush up.

Because if she made the unmistakably bad choice to fall for someone like Aido-sempai, it'd be difficult.

She'd be so used to him, always being there and always making her feel... err, things… Except—all of a sudden—what if this hellish paradise ended faster than you'd think, and then what?

And then the girl remembered the other parts of the night.

That the boy she wasn't supposed to fall for, was this kind of… person—thing, that was always everywhere.

He heard you, even though you're miles apart. He saw you even though you weren't even there at all… it was like, he didn't belong. He was something that she didn't understand.

Yori sighed desperately, rubbing the sides of her forehead. She was at the verge. She was scared. This… it made her head hurt, which wasn't a common thing to happen.

She looked up from her book again, not realizing that the sky had already darkened and that she couldn't read the words at her book anymore. Had she been thinking about that too much?

That was a stupid question.

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.

Oh, God. She didn't want to become an idiot now, above all else.

She was alone, Yori noticed. She blinked, getting up and leaving her book at the blanket.

Where was everybody?

She had walked not too far away from the campsite, only to the entrance of the forest where everybody was, flashlights in hands. They lingered about the woods, as if waiting for something.

Well, it wasn't really that dark outside yet. The sun still hadn't exactly set; rather it was covered by the mountains that surrounded the forest, which suddenly seemed ominous and looming, giving things a slight dusky, afterglow effect.

Twilight.

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

"What're we doing?" she spoke in a soft tone, wincing as everybody turned to gaze at her. She hated being in the spotlight.

"We're bored. We're playing a game." One of the boys who sat on a log answered.

"How come I wasn't told?" Yori had asked in a serious tone. Another boy shrugged.

"We had to?"

"Uhm… it'd be nice," she murmured lowly. The girl was unfazed. She knew they didn't contain any malice, just a simple inquiry.

But yes, a chaperone? A freshman student? How silly Chairman Cross must've thought sometimes.

"Join us, Yori-chan." One of the girls smiled at her. Yori was taken aback by the offer.

"Uhm. I'll be fine."

"But you're always alone. It's sad."

"Oh."

"And besides, we need one more. We can't play manhunt with an odd-numbered group."

"We're playing manhunt?" she had panicked a little. A boy looked at her.

"Yes. Why? You're a chaperone, we can do it. We don't have to go and ask Aido, do we?"

About twelve pairs of head spun at the boy's direction.

"We totally should!"

"I'll volunteer!"

"No, I'll do it!"

"You wish! I'll do it—"

"No, we can play!" Yori had cut in with a tone two octaves higher than her normal one. Her eyes widened at her outburst, suspicions creeping in among the students.

"I-I mean, we don't need to bother Aido-sempai, after all…"

"Oh yeah, Idol—I mean, Aido-sempai is probably sleeping."

"Like he needs the beauty sleep. He's hawt!"

"I know, right!"

"Wow. We're ditching Aido? I'm in!" one of the boys roared with glee, laughing.

Yori sighed, her muscles relaxing. She probably would've been slaughtered by the fan girls if they found out she disliked their beloved Aido-sempai for the time being. The boys were no help; they'd have probably just egged them on.

-X-

There was a hard time deciding on whose team Yori should be in. After all, she was a freshman. And she wasn't really the one to excel in sports.

She sucked so bad at hand-eye coordination. Throw a football for her to catch and it'll surreptitiously land at her face without question. It was like a law.

If she could have a nickel every time she'd been hit with some kind of ball, at some kind of sporting event... well, so to say she'll be like, 12 bucks and 5 cents richer.

But it was okay. If there was one game made especially for her, it was manhunt. She was very good at hiding, and she blended in quite easily.

In fact, when she was a child, there would be times where she was so good at hiding, nobody would find her until the game was over. And she found other people effortlessly too. They didn't notice that she was looking at them.

She was picked last. But it was okay.

They began playing, and Yori's team had the privilege to go and hide first because she had won a coin toss. The girl's luck was sometimes astonishing.

There was a bet though, to make things more interesting.

The bet was that the losing team had to spend 15 minutes in the pond located at the far right end of the forest, with only their undergarments. Yori had been horrified by this, but everybody thought that it was a marvelous idea.

How people thought sometimes was beyond her.

-X-

Aido woke up again. This time, his back hurt like hell. .

He stood up, muttering a few things. He cupped a hand over his mouth and yawned, slapping the flap of the tent rather forceful than necessary away from his face.

He paused, and did a double-take over on the whole camp grounds.

Where was everybody?

The forest was unnaturally quiet, which was really not all that unnatural.

NORMAL forests were quiet. They were also misty, and simple and definitely not all that sunny.

And come to think of it, NORMAL forests didn't have frickin' rampaging bears going 'round and scaring the mess outta everybody.

And NORMAL forests had friendly lakes that didn't like to swallow girls with big brown eyes.

And NORMAL forests didn't have squirrels that liked to devour little raw unborn chicks that fell from the sky, and NORMAL forests, lastly, didn't motivate the students to be such dumbasses.

I mean, c'mon. The forest must've at least been doing something to make them all this frighteningly stupid.

But that was NORMAL forests, if you didn't notice the capital letters. This godforsaken forest wasn't at all natural.

Usually, birds and crickets would be chirping and singing and annoying the hell out of him right now as if they were on crack.

And where was the sun? Along with the rest of the world, the sun usually liked to extend its stay here on Earth just to bother the hell out of him too.

And that, kids, was why Aido hated Daylight Saving Time. At least there was none here.

He scratched his elbow. Something was up.

The blonde heard vague laughter ringing around the forest like kids shouting on a carousel, but that usually made them sick and throw-up... so nevermind.

Though it was creepy... the closer he walked into the forest entrance the louder the laughter were.

What the hell was going on inside there? Were the trees frickin' laughing now? Oh, that's good. The fuckin' plants had to tag along and get drunk now too.

For God's sake, this forest made the one in Alice in Wonderland look somber. But that wasn't the point.

The point was that freakish conversations were emanating from the forest, and that he was about to walk inside it when he was supposed to be leaving at strange times like this, and maybe even ditch the place.

Aido entertained the idea for a second. Then remembered his lord's words. Oh, whatever. He'd just whisk Yori away with him. It'd be romantic.

Oh, damn.

-X-

She was doing a marvelous job at hiding, if Yori could say so herself. In fact, numerous of her peers had already ran past her, screaming and chasing the girls and pouncing on the guys to "Stop moving, you cheater!"

Her team was ineptly losing... like, horribly. They had already caught numerous of her teammates. Perhaps there was only a little bit left.

Though they didn't seem to notice her, for a girl to just be hiding behind a tree and peering over every few seconds to reassure herself that Yes, you're still part of the game. You're just very good at it.

They hadn't forgotten her, had they? That would just be embarrassing… Of course they didn't forget.

It would be wrong to be already judging people she didn't even know, even if they did… sometimes, unknowingly pretend that she wasn't there…. Right?

Yori awkwardly rubbed the tip of her flats on the back of her leg. A look of uneasiness swept across her face.

She knew that it wasn't a good idea for her to join them. Group activities just weren't her cup of tea.

Maybe they were just trying to be nice to her. Maybe, they were trying to be so nice to her, that they let her play out of pity. Perhaps that was it, since it hit home so closely.

But there was something in this forest that just made her feel so... self-conscious about herself, she didn't know why. Maybe she was just paranoid.

Yes, that's it. She bit her lip as she heard another ruckus that was of a sophomore boy chasing another shrieking sophomore girl and ignoring her.

She was just thinking a little paranoid-- but really, did she seriously blend in with that tree like a crocodile blended in with alligators?

Silence. AAAAAAAHH!! "OhmyGod, stop that!! You already caught me, you pervert!", "I know, I know. Jeez, I was just having a little fun... ... ... ..." Bristle. Step. Step. Voices fading away.

Yori waited, gleeful inside that they still hadn't found her. She wrestled her lips from smiling in satisfactory.

Her heart pace quickened as several footsteps once again reached her ears.

She could even almost picture another sophomore boy, looking over bushes and up trees and scratching their heads. "I thought I saw somebody here," they'd say, and hearing them say that was the only fun thing she could get out of this game.

1 minute developed into 4, which developed into 6.

Her heart rate calmed down, and there was a wistful part of her brain that told her it wasn't going to happen.

She had been hiding for too long. Too long, or that nobody really cared enough.

Yori stepped out of the tree, her hand placed on its trunk and looks over just to check. She huffed shakily, feeling disappointed.

Nobody was there. Figures. Did they just pull a prank on her? It wouldn't be the first to happen...

Her gaze cast downwards towards the little anthill that climbed in sequence, carrying little bits and pieces of food to their queen.

Wait. No. No, she wasn't alone. Her eyes snapped to a girl in front of her, staring at the brown-eyed girl with a dazed expression.

"Yori-chan! You're--"

A deer cuts her off, jumping off her foot in a way that said it was being hunted. It stopped all of a sudden, pausing and taking a precautious look behind the forests of trees.

Its body seemed tense, ready to spring forward once again should there be any danger. Its beady black eyes were deep and immersed. Then, a bristle-- its ear twitched and it bounded off, alarmed.

They had looked at each other for a moment, wondering what each thought. Then the sophomore girl grinned and sped away, following the deer.

Yori only sighed and stepped back into her hiding place.

A frightened deer had been more interesting than teaming up with her, and maybe-- oh, she didn't know. Winning the game and not flashing their undergarments in the pond for fifteen minutes?

The girl snorted, pulling a blade of grass from the ground and shooting it off somewhere.

Surely, if the older girl was near then maybe someone was here too, hopefully mindful of winning the game.

...

... and then 1 minute developed into 4, which developed into 6 like a repetition. She had been left alone again.

Yori chewed on her inner cheek, stood up and ventured out into the forest, planning to say "Hey, do you need some help chasing that animal?" quite awkwardly.

Though what she saw surprised her. Like, no, seriously. It wasn't like, anything little or metaphorical or something like that-- it was big. It was HUGE. Massive. Stop.

She gasped silently, her eyes widening. Yori hid inside an opening of a tree, crouching and holding her breath.

The sophomore girl who was with her a moment ago shrieked in terror, clamoring away. She saw her feet passing by like thunder. She also saw another pair of feet chasing the girl-- it was a man's.

Yori shut her eyes tightly. The deer was dead, and he had a trail of fresh blood on his lips.

More ironic than their twilight setting and the fact that things could absolutely go wrong with a story like this, the real game of manhunt had started right now.

-X-

Aido heard the shrieks, like definitely. His head had turned around.

Whiplash.

Ow...

What the hell was that? His eyes narrowed, running in towards the forests of trees which didn't make sense because he was already inside a forest.

His gaze stared around, trying to remember where and when the shriek had bounced off.

Birds flew off the trees, making shrill chirpings. The spooky kind though, the one where the birds shrieked an earsplitting "Ca-caw!!"

He had just realized that the atmosphere right now couldn't even be more perfect for a vampire like him, and that made him smile a little bit inside besides the fact that a student-- girl, most likely, would be killed in an instant if he didn't make a move soon. And the smile said before had turned into an irritated scowl.

Seriously. That cycle was getting on his nerves. Couldn't the humans here be more like the humans he saw in the movies? Or are they just seriously doing this because they expected him to save them? Damned Homo sapiens.

Aido gritted his teeth, walking along a-- errr.... which path should he take?

"Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,"

Tch. Whatever Robert Frost-- okay, okay. I'll take the one less traveled by. Pfft. That sounded so weird to say.

"AAAAAHHH!!" A high-pitched scream seemed to ring around the forest, pounding and pounding and pounding his eardrums. For heaven's sake!

A girl came scampering out of the dark green forest, almost tripping at the roots from running nonstop. Her breath was shaking, her eyes were full of fear and she skidded to a halt, seeing Aido's figure just 3 steps ahead of her.

"AIDO-SEMPAI!" she screamed with euphoria, her face expression changing drastically.

A bristling of leaves, and suddenly, out came a horrid man with-- really, he wasn't that horrid even. Well, at least not as ugly as the homicidal bus driver.

Aido's brow rose to the man. The girl's stare had snapped to the stranger. Her eyes widened absolutely, her hands covering her mouth as she let off a horrible shriek once more.

"God, stop that--!"

"I-I... we have to run!!" she cried, her face wild with panic. One look at the man's tainted red lips and she took a step back, suddenly bolting off.

He had prevented himself from stopping the girl and saying, "What's the matter?" because he had a lot of experience by now.

Truth be told, when saving damsels in distress, the thing that always got you killed was the girl. They just had to get in your way. It was better to let her leave than go about pressing the matters worse.

His gaze turned to the man with the red liquid trickling down his mouth. It didn't excite his vampire-self because, eww.

Have you thought about it? It was like wiping chocolate on baby crap and then shoving it down your-- dammit!! That is disgusting!

Aido shook his head feverishly, trying to rid of the nauseating thoughts. He looked up, glaring at the man. He was just about to say something really cool too when his voice was cut off with a swift whooshing sound.

The next thing Aido knew, throughout all his musings, the vampire had tackled him on the ground.

Aido's head swerved to the right crazily, avoiding the horrible fate of the man's outstretched nails clamoring into his handsome face.

They rolled on the grass, the aristocrat dodging the presumably level E vampire's holds and shaking off the hand that was choking his neck.

His back had hit a tree. Aido's head had turned only to figure out that there was no way of escaping. The other vampire had grinned, not wasting any chances at aiming a closed-fist at Aido's face only for the noble to duck.

The wood above his head had splintered, revealing a beautiful little hole that had been carved into the trunk.

He gazed at it, eyes wide. And that was it. Something inside him just snapped. His lips snarled and he got up, pulling the level E's outstretched fangs away from his face.

"Get the hell away from me!" Aido's voice growled, keeping the other man tame.

The man tried to shake himself from Aido's hold, his body jerking in all directions. But the noble had other plans.

If he didn't upchuck first at the actual procedure, he'd intended to crush the other vampire's face with his hands.

The Level E roared at him hatefully, struggling to escape as the elite student's hold became stronger and stronger, clenching at his jaw until they crumbled at his fingers.

The man grunted, until finally the pain became too unbearable. His eyes were popping out of their sockets. Aido held fast to his stomach, and the man screamed, frothing.

He suddenly banged his head at Aido's then, as a last resort, and rolled away. His breathing was ragged, though he stared at the boy with murderous intent.

The older vampire's upper lip curled into a loathsome snarl.

Aido looked at the level E, indifferent about the gash on his head. Oh, he knew it was there. It was just that he didn't really care whether it hurt or not. But he was aware that it could temporarily imperfect his perfect looks, and that reason alone usually pissed him off enough.

Aido was NO damaged goods. That bastard was just really lucky he didn't go Idol on his ass just yet.

The other vampire just grinned at the boy's disdainful expression, and then suddenly disappeared.

It was like his body just materialized along with the breeze that casually blew the blonde's hair.

Aido bared his teeth, never keeping his eyes off of the man's blurring shape, growing more and more irritated as the man's face seemed to multiply around him.

Until finally he stopped and flung upwards, the speed with which he was going and the sudden halt making the outline of his body ghostly, warped. As if he had a twin following closely behind.

The man's figure flickered at the air, grinning as he swung down a fast leg at the noble's shoulder.

The blond caught it with ease before it had hit him, twisting the man's foot as if to crack it. The man wasn't fazed at all, instead, his grin widened and he jerked sideways, his leg thrusting to hit Aido down there.

And then that was what caught him off guard. The aristocrat's face immediately tore as his mouth formed into an 'O' shape of terror. His eyes widened, and he would've shrieked girlishly if he didn't remember himself.

He let go of the Level E's leg in an instant, unable to dislocate the ankle and moved to block his down there instinctively, only to realize how stupid that must've looked.

The man flipped backwards at a safe distance away from him, and it took a while for the boy to compose himself, panting in fright and fear.

Of course, the thought of the -ahem-, thing, being kicked scared the crap out of any guy, so it was understood. Aido finally calmed himself down. When the man's smug face came into his view, his chin jerked up intimidatingly, an angry feeling burbling at the pit of his stomach.

He promptly pointed at the man, screaming hysterics, "HEY! No, no wipe that damned grin on your face! Hey you bastard! What the hell is wrong with you?! You don't know that hitting me down there is SERIOUSLY an unforgivable crime!?"

The man spat at him in response. Aido quickly moved his head to the right, wide-eyed as he stared at the spit flying over his hair. He turned to the man menacingly.

"Alright, that's it." The noble hissed, pulling up his shirt sleeves. "I will beat your ass, you mothereffer!!" Aido screamed, pouncing him.

It was an inelegant thing to do, pouncing somebody. But elegance didn't matter to him right now.

The man had disrespected his face, his space, and whatever the next rhyming word was. It was like tapping somebody's shoulder and asking them to piss on you. And he was beyond p.o'd.

His hands had circled along the man's neck, digging his nails at the pulse. Die, bitch, die! The man had started to hyperventilate, then screamed, his legs kicking upwards and his hands holding Aido's neck too, trying to gag him.

But the blonde only smiled viciously, his eyebrows furrowing in anger. His face defined an oxymoron. "It won't work," he answered the man's confused stare and maddened eyes, wondering why the hell this boy's face wouldn't turn blue. The Level E tightened his hold, his fingers shaking.

"I told you, it won't work." Aido repeated, and ice danced across the man's chest, to his arms and legs and edging towards his mouth, where breathing was the only able thing to do.

It closed finally and Aido let go, satisfied and grinning. He stood up and left the man dead, walking away with bottled up glee.

That's right, jerk! Nobody messes with--

A gunshot scuttles past his ear suddenly, just as he was about to make a comment on jinxing.

The blond had turned around to find that his ice had shattered in no more than 5 seconds and that the man was free again, not madly grinning anymore but snarling scornfully.

He stared at the aristocrat with hate, leveling the gun at his head.

Aido's gaze met the man, stunned. "... Where did you get that?" His wide, bewildered eyes gestured to the vampire hunter weapon.

The man had only twitched, grinned and reloaded his gun, firing another shot at the boy. Aido briskly moved to the left just in time, catching himself. The poisoned bullet had almost hit him.

"You better run away, sire." the man ignored his question, smiling hysterically.

Aido hesitated, provoked at how the Level E had mocked him like that. Although the twitch of the man's hold on the trigger forced him to shut up.

Multitudes of emotions ran through his features, but the man did not wait for him as he racked the slide and cocked the pistol's open barrel at the young noble, and shot.

Aido finally decided on one.

The blond grinned in remorse, flicking the man off. "Kiss my ass."

-X-

BANG!

Yori's eyes widened with horror, her gaze tearing off from the ground and deep into the woods.

The loud, angry sound of a bullet darting off rang around in her ears, swimming into her brown eyes.

She circled both arms at her stomach, squeezing it as if to force breath into her mouth. It caught into rags at her throat nervously, the air choking her lungs like it didn't know what to do.

She felt dizzy, horrified at the thought of her being left alone with a trigger-happy maniac. Who would own a gun here? A hunter?

She told herself to calm down, relaxing in the idea about just another man gaming. Gaming for what, exactly? It wasn't even hunting season yet, was it?

A petrified scream from far away told her otherwise, snapping her out of her own thoughts.

Yori momentarily stopped breathing, just for a second, and then started again. It came in short, uneven gasps. Her hands trembled as she successfully remembered the man with the fresh trail of blood in his lips, making it seem crimson red.

Her stomach felt sick, nauseated at the memory, burying her face deep into the warmth of her knees.

What if he had came here? A chill crawled at her spine, making her shiver.

What if... what if he had found her? The girl's face jerked forwards in fright, instantly almost slapping herself for nearly letting off a scream.

It would be the stupidest thing she could ever do. Though she couldn't help it, her fingers were shaking and it felt cold in here, even though it was the summertime.

Her eyes traced into the open forests, scanning the area anxiously. Her hands felt clammy, sweating.

She told herself that everything would be fine, shaking her head. No one could possibly spot her here, in this little hiding place of hers. The insides of a hollowed out tree, long since uprooted to the ground.

The wind crept inside the trunk, whispering sweet threats and promises to her.

Yori hiccupped, having put up with enough melodrama and she narrowed her eyes, hissing to the breeze that this was getting ridiculous.

There was a rustling noise that followed, as if taking her up on her dare. She immediately shut up, paling as blood rushed out of her system like car leak.

There was a step. And another one, the crunching of the grass and dry leaves.

Her breath quickened. Something stirred, out in the very front, moving until finally she saw a pair of shoes just dangling in front of her.

Yori's heart pace pounded in her ears, and pounded and pounded like a warning beeping noise. She couldn't slow it down.

Her eyes blinked rapidly, stinging from holding back panicked tears. Her lips pressed hard into a thin line so she wouldn't cry out, burying her face at her hands and to her knees until a strangled whimper came out.

A soft, sobbing noise escaped from her throat, and her shoulders quivered, her gasp shaking. He heard. And she knew it was the end of it.

The man instantly crouched down and pulled her up to her feet forcefully, grabbing her shoulders as she rocketed into his torso.

She momentarily froze and then started crying angry tears because she had let herself get carried away. It was the sound of bells ringing beneath waters, muffled.

She waited for the painful bite, eyes darting upwards to look the man in the face and glare daggers and swords and piranhas and what else was horrible?-- and glare piss at him, hoping that he'd wet his pants. She would do that, if it was the last thing she could do.

And she gave him the most horrible of looks, her eyesight hazing as the tears blurred her vision.

She couldn't tell what he would do-- what he even looked like, but she instantly recoiled at his touch and slapped his hand away, flushing hotly, effervescently.

He took her face, cupping it and she forced away, squirming under his strong grasp. Her fingers circled his hand, trying to pull away. The man held her cheek forcefully, jerking her chin upwards.

Yori writhed and fresh batches of livid tears crashed down her face. She'd be damned if she died anywhere in his arms.

"Don't touch me!" Her voice rasped, high and threatening as she twisted under him, jabbing his gut accidentally.

The mild cry of the man made her eyes snap open, and for a moment, she thought that she had gone crazy. Instead of the presumably villainous man with the red lips--instead, it was Aido-sempai.

She burst out in tears then, sobbing quietly as he scowled at her, wiping away the tears that had slid softly to her cheeks, one by one.

She felt so relieved, so tense and overwrought and distressed and confused. What the hell happened there? Why was he here?

And to think that she'd actually almost wanted to slap him. He was the first one to stay by her side during all this, and he continued to wipe away the tears sweetly.

It was the first time that he'd seen her crying, and to put it clearly, Aido was shocked. He didn't even know that the girl could really and truly compute human emotions, much cry out in front of him.

But crying was good. And as soon as he'd said that to her, she forced herself to stop, sucking in her shaky breath and exhaling it more calmly now. Her frame shook; her tear-stained face was wet and smelled salty.

He held her awkwardly, not sure how to exactly try and comfort someone. He knew that his attempts at trying to wipe away her tears probably just pinched the girl's cheek. And he didn't even smile.

Yori looked at the noble vampire for the first time, steadying herself as silent tears still kept on falling persistently, though they decreased each second.

She gazed deeply into his face, unable to stifle a soft weep.

He looked exhausted and sleep-deprived, drained out of all his lively energy and tired. Aido stared back at her through fatigued eyes, and she could see the soft black circles that indicated he hadn't really slept throughout the past couple of days.

But there was something else in there, something that made him look like he was praying to God... something she couldn't spit out because it absolutely seemed ridiculous to her.

She thought he looked anxious, as always, and then scared.

A pistol was cocked at his head suddenly, as Yori made the slight turn to see what was wrong besides this whole shit already. Her eyes widened, and her gaze flew to look at the boy horribly.

His back had stiffened as the cold object pressed to his temple, his muscles tensing. He tried to mask it in a blank, emotionless sheet. The blond turned to the man with a hissing face, covering the girl behind him with a quick shove.

He didn't want that bastard to see her, goddammit no.

The man snarled at him, unknowing yet. It relieved him to see that at least something had paid off.

"You thought you could kill me, huh?" The man's raspy voice crawled through his ear, low and croaky.

"Oh please," Aido scoffed back, edging Yori to stay behind him. "If you didn't have that damned thing in your hands, then I would've already kicked your ass."

"Then why did you run away?" The man grinned viciously, his teeth shinning as dried blood caked his lips.

"Did a scumbag like me scare a noble like you? Oh, what would your pureblood leader say?" The man cooed, enjoying the look that had passed through the aristocrat's face.

It took the boy all restraint to keep him from snapping the man's head off. He couldn't risk her life like that, and then get shot in the end.

The man looked at him, waiting. And then when the aristocrat didn't go crazy and attack him, the other vampire raised his brows amusedly.

He took a step forward, and the blond edged back. Aido slapped himself then, realizing his mistake.

"What'd you got there, fella?" The man's lips stretched out, grinning.

He took another step closer, and Aido said screw it, taking a step back. Yori was quiet behind him, her eyes wide. The elite student's hand twitched towards her, and the man had found out.

His grin widened. "A girl, huh? You're trying to hide a snack?"

"Shut up," Aido snarled.

"Give her to me," the man cut to the chase suddenly, licking his lips with thirst. His eyes were foreboding and empty, urgent to get his feed.

The noble's throat cut into a sharp growl. "Hell no."

"Give her to me now!" The man had yelled, reloading his gun and pointing it to the blonde's head. Aido's back stiffened. "Give her to me-- or I swear I'll kill you! I don't care about what the damned council will say, boy!"

Aido didn't reply, instead he stared at the gun with wide eyes, into the open barrel where the venomous bullet lay, able to fatally injure him in one shot. A queasy feeling burbled in his chest.

Damn it! His determined gaze finally cracked, his face tight and uncertain now. Did he really want to get that badly hurt for a girl he barely even knew?

The man saw him hesitate. He grinned, flashing a nasty smile before stepping in-- whisking by in front of the elite student within a second .

Yori gasped and Aido snapped from his thoughts, staring at her in alarm. The man grabbed the brown-eyed girl's arm and pulled it alongside him.

The younger vampire immediately held on to the other, a little too late, his fingers suddenly trembling. Shitshitshit, he couldn't lose her!

The man snarled at him, his lips curling back as he pulled more aggressively. Yori cried in pain, cringing, and Aido's hold crumbled at her look, scared that he might accidentally pull her limbs apart. The other vampire pulled again at the chance, and Aido's grasp broke off.

He held her flitting hand tightly, his eyes frantic and confused.

What was stopping him from taking her away from that horrible man's hold right now, what!? The gun?! Oh please! He could endure the pain, he'll fucking live!

What? Did the man scare him?! That ugly bastard right there, petrify him?! The idea was even more ridiculous than stabbing his right eye and eating it!

Then what?! Aido searched himself wildly. There was no time for sudden realizations or epiphanies. He had to know why right now.

Was it because of his secret? The Night Class' secret of actually being vampires, creatures of the night who liked to feed on little brown-eyed girls like her?

That he was a bloodsucker?

Aido strained against the guilt. Really? His conscious supplied, the word dripped in wry disbelief. You're really letting her go, for that? He could've kicked this man's ass up and over already, but he didn't, because he'd been afraid that she won't accept him. You're lying, you sly bastard you.

He just.... he just... Of course he couldn't betray them!

It was their secret, which had been kept for over thousands of years now, generation after generation! And he'd break it!?-- Just for this... this... little... human... girl...?

Of course he couldn't! He'd be bluffing.

Yori stared at his expression, each contradicting one other, a hundred different emotions flickering at his face.

Her lips thinned, and she nodded vigorously, trying not to choke on it. "Of course, of course. I understand." her voice cracks, though she tried to be confident.

The noble looked up at her suddenly, at her face. At her voice. But she wasn't there anymore.

He didn't even bother trying to run after them, or even walk yelling for that damned ugly bastard to stop. He wondered if he'd just imagined her saying that, or if she really did.

Aido gritted his teeth, keeping himself from snapping. He felt just remarkably pathetic, like there was this new kind of feeling made up just for a bastard like him, the guilt nagging at his conscience.

He'd clasped both hands at his face and turned to the darkening sky, as if it was leaving because he had been a total and utter jackass.

His fingers slid off his temples, running through his hair. He felt angry and sad and... and miserable-- dammit, what else do you fucking want from him!? Aido let out a ragging sigh, closing his eyes.

He suddenly didn't know what to do anymore.

-X-

HOLY CRAP! I am so sorry for not updating early like I had said! Like, what? I was over a year late? I'm SO SORRY! I know it probably sounds lame right now b/c this same excuse had been used for the last, oh, I dunno… 8 chapters. Again, I am so sorry.

Aido's a bitch. I know that you want to bitch at him too right now, for betraying Yori like that. I know I DO! Who wants to review!? Oh, you!? Well come on through! Thank you! Adieu!

No, seriously. Please alert and review. Ignore the fact that I barely update and do it because you're so awesome. You are the wind beneath my wings!

P.S: Sorry if some stuff there doesn't make sense… eheheh, I was working on these on various aspects of the year. Like, one part in January. One part in February… eheh. I'm so sorry…

P.P.S: I dunno. Probably I'll get killed if I don't put this on. If you're bored and have nothing to do, or if you're like reading this right now and because you're so AWESOME, you'd go out and check out "White Out". Yes, it's a VK fic. Don't worry. It's funny. Trust me. ;)