Reiji pulled the white glove out of his pocket, and returned it to his hand, before he slid one arm beneath Hoshio's neck. The intricate crown and braids Reika had done up so nicely remained perfectly intact, as Reiji was meticulous to keep her appearance worthy of the upcoming partyーbut her skin was dappled with bits of grime and browning blood.

Most of Hoshio's wounds were already healed, however the two gashes Reiji had inflicted were still very apparent. He did not say a word though as he slid his other arm beneath her knees, and lifted her from the alley's ground.

"Honestly..." he sighed. He ran his eyes over her hair, checking for any loose strands, and traveled his gaze down to her ballgown which stuck in awkward folds. He smoothed those out too before he turned back toward the cuts on her neck.

"A lady should not appear so indecent just before a soirée," he said, as if it was her own fault that she had those two ugly wounds peeling from her skin.

Nonetheless, he carried her back to the restaurant building. Reiji did not feel any sort of annoyance now, and continued to walk down the streets curtained in darkness. Hoshio did not move at all while unconscious. Not even her chest rose to breathe, like she would normally have it do.

When the restaurant approached, Reiji came inside without using the door. These sorts of buildings were common in a vampire's townーsome rooms were only accessible if one could teleport. The restaurant was a ruse, of course, with a ballroom hidden underground, and an array of private rooms up on the third floor. Neither the ballroom nor the upstairs could be accessed by foot. And as such, only the weakest of vampires came solely to dine.

Of course, these rooms were not so legal with the human government, but that was entirely the point. Without the aid of a vampire, or other heavy machinery, no Hunter could ever access the hidden rooms. It made them much more dangerous for those unable to teleport.

Reiji entered a room on the uppermost level, but Hoshio had already begun to stir the moment they came into the building. There were certain smellsーsomething coming from the ballroomーthat depleted her thirst all over again. She could not keep her nose off, even unconscious.

So when her eyes fluttered open once more, the first thing she noticed were those maddening smells, which she had since come to recognize as human blood. However she then became conscious of the arms beneath her. Hoshio stared up at Reiji for a few silent moments, before she remembered what he had done just moments agoーand attempted to lunge out of his grasp.

Reiji's grip remained firm.

"I would return you to Kanato," he said, and Hoshio's lips twisted down in disgust. "However, it seems that our father will be attending this soirée as well. ...So the other guests say. I was not informed of this beforehand. Due to the possibility of his being here, though, you will not be leaving my side for the remainder of this evening."

Hoshio clenched her teeth, staring hard at Reiji as she let her thoughts wander. What was this feeling? She wanted to loathe Reiji, or fear him at least—but the longer she stared at him, the more he grew on her. Somehow... she didn't want him to let her go. However she ignored her own desires, blaming it on some sort of disassociation, and thrashed about with all her might.

"Reiji-san..!" she grumbled out, kicking her legs and attempting to pull herself up by pushing down on his shoulder. Her ballgown was much too heavy; it strained her limbs more than it should have.

"Stop that," Reiji said, though he did not have much of an advantage—if he wanted to stop her, he would have to put her on her feet. So he stood still, watching his grip to ensure she couldn't thrash her way out.

"You brute!" Hoshio cried. "How dare you?! Why would you—" Fumbling over her own words, she finally came to a still, and hissed out, "I don't like you." A childish insult, she knew, but there was nothing else she could think of. She no longer felt any pain, as for the most part her wounds had all disappeared—and, truthfully, she couldn't remember his assault all that well at all. Was there even anything to be angry about? She didn't know.

"This is certainly displeasing. You've become so dramatic," Reiji noted. His voice was dry; not angry, but not pleased either.

"Oh, shut up. You would be too if you were being carried around like a baby by a strange rose-eyed man who angered you for some reason but you can't even remember what made you angry!" Hoshio snapped, and Reiji had to pause to digest everything she spat at him. She was disgustingly blunt.

"You were unconscious," he explained. Her brows furrowed.

"Because of you! You attacked me, that was it! If you don't get your disgusti—"

"Hoshio."

The use of her name promptly shut her mouth. Reiji had used a tone she'd never heard before, but it was dangerous, and she knew if she said anything to strike a nerve he might repeat what he did before. And that, as nonchalant as she was acting about it just now, truly did terrify her. She became even more aware of the fact that his hands had complete restraint of her body. She swallowed, worry pulsing through her. ...This had taken a darker turn. She should have known better.

"Do you honestly believe that you're allowed to speak with me that way, Hoshio?"

Oh, but every word that left his mouth changed her mind again! He was making her unstable. She narrowed her eyes again, and blurted her thoughts out without a moment's hesitation.

"What do you mean?! I'm allowed to speak however I want—you're the one who needs to rethink his words! You act like such a gentleman but you lack common sense!"

"...Excuse me?"

Hoshio felt the ice splintering out from beneath her, but she continued with her rant regardless.

"You do not get to force me into things I refuse to do—this soirée was an exception, I know, because Reika..." Hoshio trailed off as she tried to remember how exactly Reika convinced her to attend tonight's party. However she feared if she wasted too much time thinking, Reiji would take the chance to interrupt her. So she hastily continued. "Because of Reika. And attacking me because I'm 'too human'—what does that even mean?! Aside from the bloodlust, what difference is there between us and humans?!"

She then huffed out, and shut her eyes, while Reiji remained silent. She couldn't tell what he was feeling now—if he was angry, he wasn't showing it. He looked resolute, yet unreadable, but Hoshio wasn't eager to see what he would do.

"..."

He didn't say a word still, only thinking—that Hoshio was off. Incredibly off. She was not thinking straight; she wasn't supposed to be like this. She'd forgotten that initially, Reiji was not the one who forced her into this soirée. The opposite, actually; he was strongly against it. But he didn't correct her, and instead began to move. Situated in the back corner of the room was a bathroom closed off by a large, frosted glass door. He entered, and shut said door promptly behind them both.

Reiji then sat Hoshio on the vanity top, and dampened a clean rag he found to wipe away the bits of dirt lining her face. She did not move at all, keeping her gaze firm on his own as he worked.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" she asked. He ignored her. He moved to squeeze out water from the rag, then wiped her face again, while Hoshio was internally dying over this silent treatment.

"Reiji-san, talk to me."

A few more moments of silence passed. Hoshio was impatient with it, and couldn't stand listening to just the muffled orchestra from the party below. It was driving her mad.

"I know you can hear me."

He spoke not a word. So she glared at him.

"If you won't speak with me, then I'll talk to you," she decided. "You said your father will be here. I don't know what kind of person he is, but surely he'd be disappointed if he found out what you're doing to me right now. There! Did that strike a nerve?"

Reiji didn't even bat an eye. But discussing his father made Hoshio think of her own, as everything always tended to lead back to herself lately. She momentarily forgot that Reiji was ignoring her to ponder aloud.

"Wait, if your father is here, does that mean mine will be, too? Do you know my father's name?"

Nothing.

"This one, I'd really like to know. Please," she added. "...Hey." She waved in front of his face.

Reiji moved the rag over her mouth, so that her voice became muffled, but continued on with washing her lips as if nothing was wrong. Hoshio cringed as the taste of floral soap swept across her tongue. She swatted his hand away, before glaring up at him once more.

"Is my father alive still?"

Reiji took a fresh towel from the cupboard, and cleaned off the remaining soap from her face.

"Will I get to meet your father?" Hoshio asked. She was merely blabbering away whatever came to mind in order to elicit some sort of response from him, but once she realized that meeting Reiji's father was a possibility, she perked up. Of course, she probably would have to meet him. It would wound the family's image if a son failed to greet his father at an event like this. And Hoshio, as Reiji had declared, was not allowed to leave his side.

...She was anxious about it. Surely a father would have more maturity than his son, especially one in such a noble family as this. He'd be able to knock some sense into Reiji, she imagined. Maybe he could even help her escape. But, if not, she would just go along with this soirée and make her grand departure the moment it ended.

When she noticed Reiji had stopped tending to her face, Hoshio turned to look in the mirror. There was significantly less makeup caking her features, but she didn't exactly look bad. Reiji had skillfully removed just what was necessary.

But then she saw the two wounds in her neck, and how they still had not yet healed. If anything, they were progressively getting worse.

"Why aren't those healing...?" She questioned, and placed a hand over the gashes. Without answering her, Reiji moved aside her limb to lay a water-soaked rag on the wounds. He brushed the remaining blood away, and put pressure on the gashes themselves. When he finished, the marks were still obvious and vibrant, but Reiji left them as they were. Given how meticulous he was about keeping her appearance intact, she was surprised he'd just leave it like that.

"Why isn't it going away..?" Hoshio asked again. It didn't hurt her at all, truthfully—but the wound was still there and it was distracting.

But Reiji continued to ignore her and went to fold the towels, stacking them beside the sink. He then returned his gloves to his hands, which he had removed earlier in order to deal with the sink water. Hoshio blinked at his movements, before realizing he had finished what he wanted to do, and was heading back toward the door.

"You're leaving?" She furrowed her brows. Being left behind in here wouldn't do her any well at all! She couldn't teleport back to the restaurant; how would she be able to escape? ...Or maybe Reiji knew that. As he passed by her, Hoshio shot her hand out to grab the back of his blazer. Still sitting on the marble ledge, she held onto him, bringing him to a halt.

"Reiji-san," she said sternly. "Tell me something at least! I need to know... Are any of my relatives here? My father? Am I really a prospective bride—for who, if I am, you?"

Another moment of silence passed. Reiji gazed down at her, seeing the desperate look in her eye, and finally opened his mouth to speak.

"I suppose I've entertained you enough," he said, and Hoshio's lips parted. Entertained..? "No, you are not a prospective bride."

"No...?" Hoshio was taken aback. She couldn't draw the line between reality and falsehood anymore. "What was the point of saying that, then?!"

A gentle smile crossed the second-eldest son's lips, and he leaned down close to the amnesiac. Her cheeks tinted pink at the close proximity. Reiji was nothing short of vile; he had lied and physically abused her body, suffocating her to the point of passing outーbut Hoshio would not hate him. She even blushed at his touch, for he was gentle with her now, and the only proof of his previous attack were those two numb, jugular cuts. ...But those, as much as she minded them, did not deter her feelings in the slightest.

She just wanted answers, and that was all she felt towards him.

"I'll remind you again what it means to be a vampire," Reiji said, "especially someone of your class. You are a luxury. The lower-class looks on at you and despairs. There's not a single vampire in this world who wouldn't desire your bloodーwhether to drink, or to have themselves."

"...You haven't drunk my blood though," Hoshio murmured. Her fingers rose once more to brush on her wounds. "I'm bleeding out right here and you didn't even bat an eye."

"...Are you offering yourself to me?" Reiji's smirk grew wider, and he leaned down into the crook of Hoshio's neckーthe side opposite of the gashesーand planted his lips onto her skin.

"I was just making a poiー" Hoshio began, cut off when she felt Reiji's hot breath on her skin. It sent shivers down her spine. She moved her hands to his jaw, trying to push his head away from her, to no avail. "I wasn't sayiー"

But Reiji took her hands in his, and intertwined their fingers, before leading her downward. He laid the upper half of her body across the marble counter, while one leg burrowed between her own, preventing her from slithering away.

"And for you," he continued, "whose aristocratic blood is so desired, the lower-class beasts will drive themselves mad in their attempts to take you, to take the information stored within you. Vampires, after all, are not from this human realm; compared to what you might believe, Hoshio, we manage this world in a manner unfathomable to the average human. So if I told you who you were, and the vampires here tried to take advantage of your frail conditionーtried to obtain youーwould you be able to stop them?"

Hoshio blinked. Even through her mask, many had already recognized her on sight. It was obvious she didn't need to know anything about herself for others to 'obtain' her identity. ...Er, that was what he was referring to, wasn't he?

"I don't undー" she started, only to be interrupted yet again.

"You can't even stop me," Reiji pointed out. His fangs then plunged into Hoshio's neck, sinking deep enough that her mind blacked out for one quick second. It took a moment to gather herself, to register the pain bustling up from her neck. She couldn't bring herself to scream, however, and instead groaned through pursed lips. Reiji drank generously.

He moaned against her skin, letting the bloodlust completely take over. He sucked from her without much mercy, letting her blood stain his teeth and melt across his tongue. He savored every bit of it, while Hoshio herself wasn't even sure how she felt. And then Reiji pulled away, those crimson fluids pooling between his lips. There was nothing trailing down his chin, however, and with a quick lick of his lips all signs of his last meal were gone.

Although his bite marks healed within seconds, those two gashes still remained intact. They were cleaner cuts than they were before, but still wholly obvious.

However those were since forgotten. Hoshio continued to think about the bite, and the feeling of Reiji's fangs lodged in her neck, and how...

Somehow, she... sort of missed it?