CHAPTER ELEVEN

At Dusk

Lord. The Sun. It burns.

I rubbed my eyes, my hands slipping beneath the sunglasses.

When I woke up this morning, the once thin layer of frost grew knee high — and yes, it was beautiful, but it was also blinding. Now the light that bounced back from the glittering snow only made it that much harder for me to decipher the differences. Everything seemed too light and it was all blending in with each other. It was annoying, and bothersome. Needless to say, I was having a bit more than a little trouble navigating my way to the main campus, even with Akira. I supposed it would almost be like staring directly at the sun for those with good vision — everything was just disorientating.

I rubbed my eyes for the hundredth time since I woke up, burying my face closer to my scarf as my other hand slipped over headphones. Everyone seemed to be a bit louder these days, and it was probably because of the upcoming break next week. I was looking forward to it too - it was two whole weeks of absolutely doing nothing but retreating into my parent's home where I would spend my days nocturnal style, and visiting my father in his laboratory.

My father was a scientist — an astronomer, really — from France but moved out here with my home-sick and native Japanese mom, and thank God for it too. During the breaks, I venture to Tokyo where it was absolutely impossible to see the stars if it weren't for my father's job and his high-tech equipment. Now that was something I was looking forward to.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and allowing Akira to take lead. It should be easy — none of the teachers were pushing too much work, mostly exam reviews which I have already accepted a just above failing mark for. And then there would be that annual dance the last day which meant that I would be in my room, also accepting the fact that the washrooms would be deemed unusable due to all the girls getting their hair and makeup done.

Just one more week.

Speaking of one week, it had been exactly that since I had last seen Hanabusa. I guess...I was annoying him. A bother. Maybe I overstepped some sort of boundary that I had not been aware of. I wouldn't have minded this abrupt to our friendship — or peer tutorship, rather — if maybe at least he warned me first.

But I was used to this...being alone. Me, Akira and my teles—

Nope. Not that either. Just me and Akira.

xx-x-xx

"Hanabusa, those sunglasses are not good disguises." Akatsuki sighed as his blond cousin ducked his head out the door, looking for his father's body guard who had been watching him for the past week. Ever since the soiree and the mishap with Akiyama, Nagamichi had tagged a squad of three to look after his son to make sure he didn't do anything to embarrass the clan name. Further, that was. It meant an entire week of being stuck in the dorm, of going to all his classes — no wandering, no leaving to talk to human girls in the forest late at night, and especially nothing that would be deemed inappropriate.

There was only four more days until the break but Hanabusa was already going insane. "They're still there!" he complained, throwing his dark sunglasses aside, frustrated. He ran his fingers through his hair before walking over to the window, pulling the curtains aside.

It was becoming darker earlier these days, and although it was evening, the skies were already navy bordering onto black. That, including the snow, made it clear that Kaede wouldn't be hanging around waiting for him but he didn't like he had ended it off with her the last time he had seen her.

He was jealous of her.

So unbelievably jealous of a human. Who would have ever thought.

She had such freedom to do whatever she wanted, to dream and not be held back by anything. His life was divided into two focuses: his status, and his lust for blood. Things that he couldn't control. And she was there, talking about escaping it all and if she had really wanted to — she could. But he couldn't escape the fact that he needed blood and after tasting fresh blood from the throat, he didn't want to go back to those god awful tablets. Hanabusa sighed, letting the curtain slip back into place.

It was just four more days. And then there would be the annual Winter Ball. He had never seen her there before, or maybe he just had never recognized her, but now this year he would be looking. Nobody skipped out on the dance, it was just one of those customs that you had to attend. Then, he would talk to her.

But about what, he did not know.

He just wanted to see her, that was all.

xx-x-xx

The days continued to slip by and I continued with my monotonous routine with the exception of my art project to distract myself from the lack of star watching. Otherwise then my day consisted of heading to school, sleeping in class, occasionally waking up just to make sure that the teachers were still doing nothing because of the upcoming break and at last, I reached the official day. The last day. For a moment, I thought I stepped into school during the break since there was literally no one in class – well, no girls at least. I blinked and looked around, first at the teacher who had his feet up, and then at the remaining boys who followed suit of the clearly admirable teacher.

I slipped out.

No point of coming to class, really.

I took a deep breath in, feeling the cold air in my lungs and closed my eyes. I was never the rebellious type — ditching class, and whatnot. I made an effort to go to class, even if it's only to go to class and do nothing. But I couldn't lie: I didn't want to be caught ditching. Old habits die hard. I made way to the library where I could at least make a reasonable excuse that I was studying before the break and exams which should make anyone proud considering the majority of the female student body were beautifying themselves for the dance.

The dance.

I sighed, I nearly forgot about it. For a moment, I amused myself with the fantasy of arriving at the dance in a beautiful dress and making everyone gasp as they whisper among each other is that the blind girl? But then I laughed at the idea and the ridiculousness of it. Right – because that would ever happen. My life wasn't a movie, and even it was – it would be one of those horribly boring black and white ones from the 1900s.

xx-x-xx

"Hanabusa, for goodness' sake – stop fidgeting!" Ruka snapped and even with the movement, not a hair went out of place from her beautifully crafted bun. Soft, wavy strands framed her face, but her narrowed eyes were anything but gentle. "You're behaving like a twelve year old."

The young blond man stopped midway, his curled fingers hovering over his mouth before he rolled his eyes at the girl in the strapless, mauve dress. The skin from her shoulder to shoulder was exposed and Hanabusa could have sworn that he saw Akatsuki's eyes lingering but he thought nothing of it as he stood up with a large inhale. "Is it time yet?"

"The dance just began," Ruka said as she stood up straighter. Her deft fingers were running through Rima's hair, who was sitting in front of her with a passive, doll-like expression. She didn't look at the mirror, only down at the book on her lap. "Do you want to show up early?"

Hanabusa crossed the girl's room to look out the window, ignoring Ruka's protest and the way Rima's eyes slid over to him with a twinge of annoyance – and he could see the Day class making their way to the ballroom located in the central building of Cross Academy. He didn't see Kaede among the crowd but, then again, he didn't expect her to. And yet his eyes followed the group of laughing girls who were pulling their coats closer to them, fighting against the wind and snow – until he felt something hit the back of his head. "Hey!"

"Get out of our room!" Ruka demanded, holding up another brush, glaring at him. He muttered something incomprehensible as he sauntered out – stopping when he saw Kaname leaning over the railings, peering down to the ground fifteen feet below them. His garnet eyes moved to Hanabusa and ran down the man. He was already dressed, wearing a grey suit lit up his blond hair and even his readiness surprised the pure blood.

"G-Good evening, Kaname-sama." He bowed his head slightly.

Kaname's eyes stayed on him for a second longer before he straightened up. He still wore the black button down uniform shirt and didn't look as if he had any intention of going to the Ball. It was a tedious event, one he only attended for Yuuki's sake and in the true Night Class fashion, he was not making any effort of arriving prompt unlike the aristocrat before him.

"Has the surveillance been that restless for you?" Kaname asked, although he did not sound too curious. Hanabusa shook his head although in truth, it nearly drove him to insanity. "I don't have to remind you to behave tonight, do I?"

"Not at all, Kaname." His voice was low. Because it didn't matter. Whatever was going to happen, will happen.

xx-x-xx

Nothing happened.

His blue eyes scanned over the crowd again and yet, there was no burgundy-haired girl in sight. He saw some beauties, of course, or as beautiful a human can get when in the company of vampires. But every single one of them was wearing too much make up, too much perfume for his heightened senses and he wondered if they could even recognize themselves behind all the cover. The vampires were opposite. They were aloof, they didn't care either. But their exquisiteness was lost simply because of the sheer multitude of it — perfection was boring, and he was numbed to it. His finger tapped his crossed arms and he sighed before losing his posture but as he walked over to the bar —

"Hanabusa, stop."

He looked up, his glass still empty and without even a single drop of bland tasting champagne and frowned. In front of him now was his very own cousin who was peering at him with a peculiar expression. Not curious. Suspicious.

"What, what am I doing?" Hanabusa blinked. And like everyone else that evening, Akatsuki's gaze remained on him, trying to read his thoughts and at last he understood. With a sigh, he ran his fingers through his bronze coloured hair and shook his head, dismayed.

"You're waiting for that girl. That human."

"Is that a question?"

Akatsuki narrowed his eyes and looked past his shoulder at the girls that clung to each other's shoulders, their eyes exaggerated with liner and lashes as they ogled at the two cousins, whispering – trying to urge one another to go first. Akatsuki couldn't possible understand what his cousin saw in some human. Granted he had not really met her before, he couldn't understand what was possibly appealing from something as fragile as humans when offered with something sharp, something bright as a vampire...

But then again, he was biased.

He looked back at his cousin. "What do you think is going to happen," he began, "that some crippled -" Hanabusa's jaw tightened at his words, but he continued anyway, "girl will arrive here, all dressed up with a sudden make over to impress you?"

Hanabusa bit down on the corner of his lip. "I don't see why not."

Hello! I'm always curious if people are still reading this - and in case you are, hello again! I'm finally back into the mode of working on this story, now that I have more ideas. But with all the things going on in the manga - that I've heard of, I don't keep up with it, I only watched the anime and skim through the manga very, very occasionally - but I suppose this is taking in the VK anime world since Aido isn't interested in Yuuki whatsoever...

Thanks for reading! If you guys still care, reviews would be lovely :)