Author Note: First off, honorable mention to Zero kiryu's girl again, because the last chapter felt horrible to me, and she praised it. Second of all, soon I'm going to be picking a fiction project and adds may start coming slow if I can't strike a balance. Sorry in advance. Is it weird I thought of the song "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child as I wrote this?
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight or make any profit from this.
Class wasn't exactly normal. Everyone seemed tense, especially Ruka, Kain, Shiki and me. When our teacher dismissed us, Shiki looked at me as if he expected me to attack him.
"You wanted to talk?" He asked, but even though everyone had already left, he didn't move from his seat.
"My room." I elaborated. "Come on."
The tension between us was unbelievable. We had always been fairly easygoing around each other, just let whatever we had to say fly, but now it was like we were both walking on eggshells.
I shut the door to my room behind us. I couldn't say it. I didn't want to say it. I had to say it.
"Shiki..." I mumbled, gave him a glance and then looked back at the floor. My chest ached, but it was no longer from my old injury. I needed to say it. "You may have noticed I've been acting... strange around you."
"Everyone has noticed that." Shiki regarded me with worried blue eyes. "Are you alright, Rima? Is something happening at home, what's going on with you? You've never kept anything from me."
"I'm sorry." The apology was automatic, but I really was sorry. I felt horrible for keeping something from Shiki, especially after what we'd been through lately.
"I know you are." His eyes traced my face, landing on my lips. He wanted to kiss me, it was obvious, but he was just as scared as me. "I'm not mad." He added quickly.
"You don't even know what's going yet." I protested.
"Am I ever mad at you?" Shiki finally came over to me, but instead of holding me, or kissing me, he just took my hands in his. "Why don't you trust me like you used to?"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..." I mumbled, looking down. I could name quite a few guys who would've been out of there at that, thinking it meant we were over, but Shiki stayed.
He squeezed my hands gently.
"I... it's just fear." I looked up into his eyes. "I still love you... I'm just scared... of all the things that could happen... Like someone else trying to use you like Rido did..."
"I won't let anyone else win, ever." Shiki was staring me down, his gaze as unbreakable as a cat's.
"I'm worried... about things changing." I shuddered at the mere thought of it. "I don't ever want to be apart from you, but I'm worried... what if things, circumstances, feelings, change?"
Shiki blinked, looking at me blankly for a minute. "Have your feelings for me changed?" His voice was cautious, guarded, something it hadn't been towards me in years.
"No. I couldn't love anyone else." I squeezed his hands gently. "But I'm worried about yours changing..."
"Never." The word was a whisper on his lips. "You know I always want to be with you. We met when we were 10, Rima, I don't believe our feelings for each other will ever change."
I slowly started to feel better. Things would change, but we wouldn't. We were indifferent to time; no matter how much passed, we were desperately in love.
I pulled Shiki's arms around me and tugged him down for a kiss.
Yes. We were in love.
Author note: Alright, now I'm completely Writer Blocked on this one. There should be more, I just can't tell what. Suggestions welcome, but for now, you can keep checking my other ShikiXRima, a one-shot collection called "Of Sunburns And Pocky", which I will be updating because it's much harder to get writer's block on that. Thank you for reading this, it means a lot to me!