Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight or any of its characters.

Aidou sat at his desk looking over Yori's tuition bill. Earlier that day he had let her think that she had left the moon dorms on her own, but he had followed her at a distance. He couldn't help it. He still felt the need to watch her. She had seemed honest, but he was still worried about her. He'd watched as she walked into the day class dorms, and then he'd walked to the side of the building to watch her through her window. She stayed there the entire day and it seemed that she wouldn't try to sneak out. At first he thought he would just give her some time alone and then go talk to her anyways, but then he thought that maybe being around him somehow made her unhappy. It had honestly never occurred to him until that morning.

When he went to the Chairman's office and explained that he was there to pay for Yori's tuition, the chairman had literally fallen out of his chair. The irritating man had proceeded to bombard him with questions asking why he wanted to, but Aidou had been unwilling to answer any of them. He simply told him that he had made a deal with Yori and the results were that he would be providing the money for her school. The chairman had instantly worried that the deal was something unseemly that involved blood or something worse, and Aidou had spent over an hour convincing the fool that he wasn't going to do anything to hurt her.

He didn't bother going to school that night. He just didn't feel like talking to anybody and he knew the other vampires would ask him questions. They all knew that she had stayed here. They would have smelled her blood the day before he had walked in the front door with her after she'd tried to leave. He didn't care though. They could think whatever they wanted. He wasn't trying to hide anything.

At that moment the world must have had it out for him because there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." he said reluctantly.

He shouldn't have been surprised when it was Kain that entered.

"You don't have to knock on the door to your own room." Aidou sounded irritated for no reason.

"Lately it seems like if I didn't I'd be interrupting something." Kain didn't avoid the obvious as he gazed down at him.

"Well you don't have to worry about that anymore." Aidou tried to use a tone of voice to let his cousin know he did not want to discuss it.

"You still pissed about the whole thing with Kaname?" Kain had apparently mistaken Aidou's annoyed tone.

Aidou let out a sigh, "Whatever that's history."

It was true. He had realized awhile ago that if his cousin hadn't stopped him, he would probably be dead right now. It had been the only time Kain had ever really interfered with his actions and now he was secretly grateful for it. He still wasn't about to thank him though.

"So, what did you do this time?" Kain asked.

"What do you mean what did I do? I didn't do anything!" Why did everybody always have to assume he did something wrong?

Kain just huffed apparently deciding not to bother asking anything else of his grouchy cousin. He simply walked to his bed grabbed one of his boring history books and laid down to read.

It was quiet for a long time, but eventually Aidou put down the bill and broke the silence. "She doesn't want to see me any more." It was all he could think about. He just couldn't help but bring it up.

Kain looked up from his book and rolled onto his side to look at him. "What did you do?" he asked again.

This was starting to really piss him off. Why did his cousin have to assume it was his fault? "I didn't do anything so stop asking me that!" he snapped.

At this Kain was silent again, before just shrugging and going back to his book. Honestly, Akatsuki was so frustratingly calm sometimes. Maybe he was actually related to Seiren. Aidou shook that thought as he set his elbow on the desk to rest his head on his palm.

"If I didn't agree to stop seeing her she was gonna try to go back." Then he paused and added softly, "And now I'm paying for her to go to school." He said it quickly and under his breath. He hadn't really wanted his cousin to hear that part.

Unfortunately, there was no way a vampire's ears wouldn't be able to pick that up. Kain put his book down and sat up looking at him with a raised eyebrow. He seemed surprised but didn't say anything.

"What?!" Aidou said, exasperated by his cousin's stare.

Kain just shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm surprised you gave in to that."

Aidou let out a deep breath and closed his eyes. "It was the only way she would agree to not go back." He tried to make it sound like it wasn't bothering him.

"I'm just surprised you're giving up so easily." Kain responded, looking at his cousin curiously.

"You're one to talk." Aidou said. "I never see you even trying with Ruka, you just follow her around like a puppy." He knew he was being cruel but Kain was annoying him, although secretly he'd always kind of felt sorry for his cousin for having to deal with that.

Kain seemed unaffected by Aidou's words. "Just wait 'til she falls for someone else, then you'll understand." he said coldly and went back to his book.

Those words shook Aidou terribly. The thought of Yori looking at someone else the way he so desperately wanted her to look at him made him want to kill someone. He vowed to take out that urge on any guy that tried anything with her.

That was when he realized something. He didn't even have the right to be jealous. She had decided she didn't want to see him and he had swore to stay away from her. If she wanted to allow some one else to touch her he couldn't stop her.

Dammit! He couldn't stay in here with his stupid cousin anymore. He instantly got out of bed and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Yori laid on her bed in her room staring out the window. She'd left the lights off and decided to lay with her head at the foot of the bed so she could gaze out at the stars. She'd stayed like this ever since she got back from the moon dorms earlier that day. She hadn't even bothered to change out of the sweatshirt and jeans she had been wearing for days now. She was exhausted and she just didn't care.

It had been so difficult to say those things to Aidou. She had forced herself to make eye contact with him as much as possible. He had picked up when she had lied before, so she had been extra careful to hide it from him this time. It was actually pretty amazing how perceptive he could be. She had faltered for a second, and he had instantly picked up on it and began arguing with her. She was lucky in the end that she had managed to pull it off.

Everything that had happened in the past few weeks felt wrong. She didn't understand why Aidou had been giving her so much attention but she wanted it to stop. It had felt so out of control. She had wanted to be with him but every time he had said something nice to her it had caused sharp pains in her chest. She didn't understand who he thought she was but she knew she wasn't worth the effort he put into talking to her. He would have figured that out eventually anyways. She had just decided not to prolong the inevitable. She was sure he'd be back to his raving fangirls in no time. Her heart twisted painfully with the thought so she pushed it out of her mind, and rolled onto her side to face away from the window.

The door opened and Yuuki stepped in, returning from her prefect duties. Yori sat up on the bed to say something but Yuuki practically squealed when she noticed Yori was there.

"Yori-chan!" Yuuki yelled excitedly as she ran up to Yori and practically knocked the wind out of her with an overly enthusiastic hug.

Yori hugged her friend back. She had to admit, it felt nice to see her again. It had only been a couple weeks but it felt like it had been ages since they'd talked.

She was about to say a greeting, but Yuuki excitedly interrupted her. "You won't believe what happened today!"

Yuuki paused to catch her breath and Yori had a sinking feeling.

"Aidou-sempai payed for your school!" She exclaimed. "I thought something was going on but I didn't know for sure, you should have told me Yori-chan. That's so nice of him, but I guess you knew about it. I can't believe your back already..."

As Yuuki rambled on about Aidou, Yori tried to push back hot tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She had held them back for the entire day, almost numb in the amount of pain she was in.

Yuuki silenced from her ramblings when she noticed that Yori's eyes were beginning to fill. "Yori-chan....what's wrong?" Yuuki's large brown eyes looked at her with innocent concern.

Yori couldn't help it. She burst out crying.

Yuuki, being the considerate girl she was, wrapped her arms around her friend. Yori cried on her shoulder, unable to hold back the torrents of emotion. She couldn't believe she still had it in her, but her body shook with sobs.

"It's going to be ok Yori-chan." Yuuki soothed as she patted her back. Hearing someone say nice words to her seemed to be her undoing and she felt the weight of the world sink on her shoulders. She didn't know what she would do without a friend like Yuuki. She was probably the most caring and thoughtful person Yori had ever met.

It seemed to take forever, but she eventually stopped crying and pulled away from her friend's now drenched shoulder.

"Sorry" she said weakly, as she dried her wet cheeks with shaking hands.

Yuuki gave her a minute to calm down, still patting her back comfortingly. "What happened?"

It was the first time Yuuki had ever asked her to talk, and despite her usual secretive demeanor, Yori found herself telling Yuuki everything. Well, everything except for the way Simon's father had treated her. Aidou would probably be the only person in the world she would ever talk to about that. She did however tell Yuuki about how she had met him and learned about the night class. She even told her almost everything about the past nights she had spent in the moon dorms.

"Yori-chan I have to tell the chairman about this." Yuuki said seriously.

Yori instantly regretted telling her. The last thing she needed was more people knowing about things she felt were private. She hid her face with her hand as she worried about the past events of her life being exposed.

Yuuki must have noticed it upset her because she instantly tried to make her feel better. "Just that you know about the night class. I'm sure it will be fine." she said smiling reassuringly. "You didn't tell anybody right?"

Yori shook her head.

They were both quiet for a minute before Yuuki broke the silence. "He's paying for you to go to school Yori-chan. He obviously cares for you." She said it as if it was the undeniable truth.

"It's not the same." Yori said sadly, even her voice sounded exhausted from the toll of heavy emotions.

Yuuki thought about this for awhile but then said, "You don't know that. Did you even tell him how you feel?"

Yori shook her head. "I can't."

Yuuki attempted to press her further but Yori wouldn't hear any of it. She refused to let herself believe in false hopes and dreams. If nothing else, the past few years of her life had at least taught her not to be foolish enough to believe in happy endings. It was going to be difficult but she just needed to force herself to move on with her life.

Yuuki eventually gave up trying to convince her but still made every effort to comfort her. That night they stayed in the same bed and Yori let her friend hold her until she finally cried herself to sleep.

Bleh...this chapter was uneventful. I used to have it attached to the next one but there simply has to be a break here. I've written most of the next few chapters and they're much more interesting.

The next chapter is entirely from Yori's perspective....that's the best teaser I can come up with without giving anything away. =(