AN: Yes, I know, I know, I promised that the next chapter will have the explanation of what had happened to Kaname (as best the characters can perceive it/guess on the reasons of it), but the thing is – the bickering/questioning between Yagari and Aidou (which would be directly followed by the talk with the explanations) got pretty longish, and so will be the explanation talk itself… So – since I, personally, prefer to better get shorter chapters quicker where my favorite stories are concerned – I'm posting this necessary interlude now, and the rest will follow in the next pair of days, OK?
A few more words on the matter of the title for this set of chapters: inclusion – of course relates to several characters being included into… (no, it would be too spoilerish)… let's say – into the active plot; but inclusion also means a tiny bit of foreign matter inside the precious stone (a fly inside an amber piece is an inclusion too), a flawactually, but then a stone with a flaw is sometimes considered even more precious – which also relates to the story and the situation, don't you think?
Big thank you to YenGirl for beta-ing this chapter!
Disclaimer: Haven't I promised not to write any disclaimers? Well, this is the last one: I do not own Vampire Knight in whatever form, all rights for it belong to the respective right holders. This plot here is but a fan fiction written for no profit, just for fun.
The first drag made him dizzy again though in a different, not entirely unpleasant way - and it passed quickly anyway as the cold air outside seemed to sweep through his brain, bringing clarity and peace to his thoughts. That – or rather – he decided to let the problems wait for awhile – just for couple of minutes, for a time of one cigarette, for a time till the sun sets completely over the far side of the valley…
He secretly suspected that whoever had built a cabin on this particular spot – long before Cross had ever appropriated the estate for his school – had done so, in part at least, because it was an ideal place to watch the sunset. What an irony then – that there was nobody now on the estate who had the time and inclination to observe it – since for one part of the inhabitants of the school it was time akin to an early dawn – something either easily overslept or passed through in a hurry of activity before the lessons, and for the other – the Day Class – the evening passage of the Moon Dorm students held far more interest over such mundane a subject as a downward journey of the sun.
He wondered where the hunters belonged in this order of things – neither the creatures of the day nor the night they kept whatever hours were best suited for their purpose. More often than not though the nature of their prey made them use these very dawn hours – either evening or morning – for a safer approach towards the beast…
Ah… but we still are humans… at least the sun doesn't hurt us… nor do we drink blood…
But he wondered whether random human or random vampire would consider them thus. Too many similarities existed with the other species as well – much alike to vampires the very structure of hunters' organization… hunters' community?.. if he was currently in a mood to set them out as a different race?.. depended a lot on the individual strengths – which in turn were too closely tied to bloodlines – just as vampires they had families with stronger or weaker abilities…
…and just as vampires had less and less purebloods remaining in this world, so among the hunters the three supreme lines that throughout the centuries had brought forth the biggest number of great hunters seemed to dwindle and dilute, and now it looked like two of them would be extinguished with the next generation…
…he couldn't imagine Kaien Cross ever getting over his sorrow for a woman he never could have had in the first place - not to the point that he'd take a wife or a lover… at least not a female lover…
…Zero Kiryuu was obviously a vampire now and his brother Ichiru – weaker in talent but a carrier of the same genes – dead… Naturally there were some aunts and uncles, some distant cousins, but the undiluted, the main line as such, would be finished… And it left him, Touga Yagari, the last of the last…
Guess I'll have to marry someone… sometime… so that at least the Yagaris weather a little longer…
And it was an uncomfortable thought – since he never had felt as strong for a woman as he did for his work and his friends… (and the Kiryuu-brothers… but he fought even that for way too long, because a fatherly role was something that freaked him out…) Sometimes he thought that everything would've been seriously easier if he were gay… or bi-sexual as Cross… but the fact was that he was boringly and excruciatingly straight. He just never loved a woman strong enough to consider spending more than a passing moment… well, at times a series of passing moments… in her company… but a life?
His thoughts inadvertently turned back to Cross with his hopeless crush, to Zero who couldn't get over the fact that the one person he treasured had turned into a creature he hated in the course of one night, to the tortured sob that Yuuki's name came like from the sleeping pureblood's lips… ah, no wonder that he at times envied and at times pitied those who seemed to know what love was…
It was all of course just aimless philosophizing – just a moment to let his thoughts roam far and wide… but his cigarette had burned to the butt already – and he still had a problem to deal with, a decision to make and some constructive thinking long overdue…
***
If someone asked Hanabusa Aidou to describe his current mood in one word… that is if someone dared venture close enough to him to ask the question and didn't get frozen stiff in the process… Aidou perhaps would have even volunteered the answer… well, because he just had one handy – as short and concise as one could only wish – he was mad. As in MAD… no, make it M.A.D. for good measure.
He was mad at everyone and at everything, at the universe and the order of things in it… if his logical mind did accept the concept of God – he would've probably be mad at Him as well… but, c'mon, he was very nearly mad at Kaname-sama, and in his world picture this came so close to God that the difference was beyond the point altogether.
He was mad at the stupid fire for erupting just when he was around and everybody else was… well, elsewhere… and he was mad at the stupid day time students for not noticing it smoldering before it was almost too late.
He was mad at his classmates for not removing the above-mentioned day class from the dangerous area faster, and at himself for holding the ice-barrier till the last of them was out of harm's way…
…outside of himself – obvious!..
The alternative version of this part – since the whole reasoning for his current disposition seemed to make rounds in his head as he walked the path – quoted him being mad at himself for not holding out for a few moments longer till someone had the mind to fetch Akatsuki, who quickly controlled the raging inferno and eventually put it out altogether… just a little too late for one Hanabusa Aidou… eh… did he mention that he was mad at his cousin for lingering way too long?
And he also was mad at Cain for… well, being mad at him… out of worry, granted, but couldn't he see that it was completely logical of him to ask that someone goes and checks on Sayori Wakaba… on Yori-chan… before he is treated, because he knew that after his wounds are taken care of and he gets some blood he'd pass out like a stone? And what if he didn't wake till noon (which he didn't by the way) – and the poor girl ran out to the city, with nobody who'd know where to find her? And what if something happened to her?
Only, yeah, of course… sending Luca was not the brightest idea… actually right now Luca was in a close tie with Cain for who's topping his "being mad at" list… himself following just a trifle behind. For one – all he really asked her to do was "go and check on her" – not "bring her here", not "almost kidnap her and carry her bridal style vampire speed without a single explanation"…
…and "stupid twit refuses to be helped until he sees you're alright" is no explanation, you hear me?
…and most certainly NOT to bring her right into the infirmary…
He shuddered…
…he most certainly didn't want the girl to remember him as he had been then. Now was bad enough – with all this new skin way too rosy and smooth, and whatever Akatsuki said it did show, and if he stayed on blood tablets only it would show at least for another day (and he couldn't drink any more from his cousin, and he wouldn't drink from Luca if she poured it into his mouth – which she won't – because he was so mad at her he would puke). And his hair was a complete mess, and even combed to one side it absolutely didn't cover all the singed ends…
And as if the appearance was not enough the new skin itched, which would've been bad if he had a single scar, but considering the amount of new skin that he had, it was like his whole left side was itching – and it alone could drive a person mad without him having other viable reasons to be so… Now, where was he?.. oh, right…
Now, someone would think that Cain at least would have understanding enough to stop Yori-chan… no, scratch it, what could she do… to stop Luca from bringing her right to his bed, eh?..
But of course no!.. His stupid cousin just had to continue licking his burns… (oh… uh… licking his burns!!!!... though, if he were completely frank he had to admit that he had been practically going crazy, practically fainting for pain… so he didn't particularly mind Akatsuki tending them at that particular moment)…
But then someone of them – smartasses – just had to bring up the whole notion of "him needing blood", and – naturally – the girl had to offer…
…which was just so not how he had planned it… uh… imagined it… uh… no, we are not going into this direction altogether…
…well, anyway, he declined… yes, he declined… (He suddenly felt an urge to bang his own head on the nearest tree – viciously)… oh well, he was practically incoherent at that moment… and his mental powers were not on their very best… eh… did he mention he was mad at himself again?.. and at her – just a little?…
And then stupid Cain just went and did THE STUPIDEST THING EVER… that just was making Hanabusa like UBER-MAD:
He!
Told!
Yori-chan!
To "go for a walk… or something"!!!
And!…
She!…
Went!…
And!…
Nobody!…
Stopped her!…
And here he was now – sleepy, exhausted, not nearly recovered enough, looking like shit, itching all over… (Has he listed all of that already? Well, now he has) …pretending to look for stupid… eh… no, of course not stupid… very clever, and capable, and damn too mysterious Kaname-sama…
eh… do you think "having his own reasons" might be a better epithet?..
… and who'd told anything about "pretending"? He was just looking for Kaname-sama and Yori-chan… or maybe for Yori-chan and Kaname-sama… who said he couldn't be…
"Stop where you are, vampire!"
Rudely snapped out of his reverie, Aidou stopped at the very edge of the clearing, only now noticing Yagari-sensei, nonchalantly standing with his back to the door of the cabin, squinting at him in the dusk but with a gun aimed steadily right between his startled blue eyes.