I am sorry I did not update sooner, I will try to do better. To make it up to you I am trying to prepare a bonus chapter that would be way longer than what I usually post. I should post it between now and Thanksgiving (for non-Americans like me it is on the 22th of November).

I do not own Vampire Knight.

Chapter 26: Questioning

Before entering the building, Yuuki took the Toma blade, just in case. Arisa could not accompany her inside, she was already in too much danger simply by being in this city, and besides, a vampire could not get in uninvited, and she was not invited. Alone, Yuuki climbed the steps that led to the gate. Once inside, one of the hunters came directly to her, asking her to follow him. He led her to a dark meeting room. As soon as she saw the man dressed in a woman's kimono that was sitting at the end of the table, she knew he was the president. She had heard Zero talk about him. He appeared to be a cold man, looking slightly foolish but that only made him more frightening. She watched him study her from head to toe and she kept a defying face. She decided not to talk first, waiting for the hunters to do the first move. After a few minutes that felt like hours, the president raised his voice.

"Miss Cross, what an annoying little girl."

"If I annoy you why am I here?"

"You're here precisely for that."

Yuuki did not answer, there was no point in getting angry too soon and she wanted them to get frustrated. It worked, there was a hint of unease in the president's voice when he said:

"We heard you're the new holder of the Toma blade."

"I am." Again, calm voice and short answers.

"You shouldn't be. It was supposed to be a hunter."

"It's supposed to be anyone the Tomas see fit."

"You're a weak little girl how could you use it?"

"What makes you think I'm weak?"

"You don't know how to wield a sword."

"I know enough." Yuuki was getting angry and the tickle she felt at home returned.

"Fine, let's forget this matter for a minute. You stopped an action of the Guild, or so we heard."

"I didn't want you sniffing in my school. And my father or the Kurans cannot know about my actions."

"Is that why you stopped Kaito from coming?"

"Primarly."

"You realize we can't let a little girl rule a pureblood and a hundred of vampires on her own?"

"You realize I don't care?"

"I could have you executed and make it look like a vampire attack."

The tickle intensified. Yuuki noticed a few electrical arcs between the sword and her fingers. She quickly hid her hand behind her back.

"I am not giving up on the blade and neither on the presidency of the school. And you do realize I'm protected by an army of vampires?"

"Let's make a deal, after all, reckless as you are, you won't last long, so let's say you keep the blade and the presidency. But I'm sending Kaito and another hunter to your school."

"I will accept only if the Kurans and my father hear nothing about my life here and the Senate doesn't know about our deal."

"The Senate will know eventually but fine, let's make this deal. I don't like Kaien anyway."

"And I want this deal written, sent to me and kept in your archives."

"You're definitely smarter than you look young girl." he smiled.

"Do we have a deal?" Yuuki asked still cold.

"Yes, we have, we'll send the deal to you. See with your directress to have our two Hunters in. I'll have one of my men escort you out."

On her way out, Yuuki thought that this meeting was half of a defeat and half of a success, she had had to compromise but she would have plenty of time to work around this unwelcomed surveillance.

She met with Arisa who had waited for her in the car. They drove silently to the Toma Mansion a few hours away. Yuuki thought she would have to call her Dad at some point. But not today, she needed time to design a make up story. They arrived at the house.

Home, finally, Yuuki thought.

Aruto, Lady and Lord Toma were waiting for her in the entrance. The couple had delayed their departure to meet her. Lady Alana hugged her, and they asked her what had happened. She told them about her compromise, and they seemed to agree with her, better not start a war now. Aruto's mother also wanted to know how the Cross Ball went. Aruto had therefore not told her about their meetings. She willingly explained this remarkable event and described with a little humor what faces her family did.

The two adults left. Yuuki unpacked her things, sent an email to Mr Mori about the hunters and looked at the papers that required her attention. Soon enough, she felt Aruto's hand on her shoulders, he started massaging her shoulders and the back of her neck. He untied all the knots in her muscles. She relaxed totally and did not object when he started slowly kissing her neck and her shoulder. She got up and hugged him. She buried her head in his chest and held onto him tightly. He gentle rubbed her back, giving her kisses soft as butterflies from time to time. They stayed like that for a long time, simply holding each other. Yuuki could feel the heat of his body, feel his steady heartbeat through his shirt and get a quick view of his love. Here, she felt vulnerable but in a good way, she did not mind being weak when she was in his arms, she knew she did not have to look strong for him to know how strong she was. At some point, they kissed. Yuuki wrapped her arms around Aruto's neck and pulled him down to her, she pressed her lips softly against his.

Later that night, they got to bed together, just as they had before his parents came. They had just played the piano together and talked about their holidays with their families. They kissed again in the bed for a little while. It felt natural and great. Neither of them could pinpoint the exact moment they fell asleep in each other's arm. The only thing they knew was that it was right, with Aruto's head on Yuuki's stomach and her hand in his hair.

Chapitre 27: Aruto

There was still two days of holidays left. Yuuki spent it mostly with Aruto. Sosuke came the first morning to train with her. They had been practicing their skills for two hours when Aruto came watching. Yuuki was now pretty good with a sword, she was able to defend herself against Sosuke and sometimes even hurt him. At some point, Aruto asked Yuuki if she could use the Toma blade. They had discussed the tickling and electrical arcs at breakfast and Aruto was curious about these symptoms. She started swinging the sword, alone of course, they did not want to hurt Sosuke. After a few strikes, electrical arcs started to appear. Yuuki stopped but they stood. She felt it between the blade and her, she could hold it in her hand. As soon as Aruto came closer to examine it one of the arcs struck him in the arm. He shouted in pain and whispered:

"It's pure anti vampire energy."

They decided to stop here for today and Aruto said he would talk about it to his parents to know if that had ever occurred.

They basically spent the end of their holidays cuddling, in bed or in one of the sofa, in the garden or the library.

A time came when it became vital to call Kaien. Yuuki anxiously picked her phone to talk to her father.

"Yuuki I think you owe me an explanation." Were his first words.

"I know." Yuuki said while trying to figure out what to tell him and what to leave out. Finally, she decided to tell him about the presidency but not the vampires. "Well, Dad, I didn't tell you because I thought it would upset you but I'm the student president here. And yesterday, one of the members of my council had a problem so I had to come back quickly."

"How is that supposed to explain that a vampire came and that you already knew about her coming?"

"I didn't know she was a vampire." she lied "And I used my cellphone."

"Well the problem of that vampire girl is solved, Kaname asked her father to transfer her to the night class."

"What? You can't force Arisa to come to your school."

"And you can't lie to me like you did young miss." he replied.

When the call ended Yuuki was mad and immediately messaged Arisa to ask her not to go, but there was nothing she could do, the order came from her father and the senate and she could not defy the hierarchy. The good thing that could come out of this misfortune was that now Yuuki had a spy in the Night Class. There was nothing she or Aruto could do without exposing her secrets.

They got back to school without Arisa, her father had been really quick to do the changes. The two hunters were there too. There was Kaito, tall, slender and auburn hair. He looked maybe five years older than Yuuki. The other one was named Sam, he was probably around forty, his hair were starting to go grey and he looked muscular. On the first day, Yuuki summoned them in her office. She was alone with Aruto in a sofa when they knocked on her door. She invited them in. She spent an hour reminding them their promise not to say a word about what was going on in this school. While doing so, she was casually playing with her sword. She also explained to them their system of watch duty and was pleased to realize that contrary to their president they seemed open to the proposition of working with the vampires even though they were not exactly thrilled.

Once they were gone, Aruto had to go, his parents were supposed to meet with the Kurans and they wanted him to be here. This had been planned the week before. Of course, Yuuki had heard nothing about it from the Kurans but since she wanted to know what would happen during this meeting, Aruto's parents had taught their son how to use his bats to allow Yuuki to see with only two of them and not an army. To do so, she obviously had to drink a lot of his blood and therefore, they had shared blood and trained every night since Yuuki got back. She was now able to see perfectly everything Aruto wanted her to see. They used this technic during the meeting.

The bat that was carrying Yuuki's sight stood casually on a light in the Kuran mansion where the meeting happened. She saw Hayato, Haruka and Juri in three big armchairs and Kaname standing behind them. They had prepared sofas for the Tomas, undoubtedly in an effort to show them that they were inferior to them. Aruto and his parents took place on the sofas as if nothing bothered them but, in that form, Yuuki felt everything Aruto felt and right now he was already angry. They talked about politics and the senate which was boring but still, Yuuki careful learnt everything she could because she was always better off knowing everything she could about the vampire system. Apparently, Kaname's family wanted to meet primarily to know where the Tomas stood in politics but once they were done talking about that, the conversation shifted to more casual matters. At some point, Kaname who had remained mostly quiet until then talked to Aruto.

"Tell me Aruto, where do you live? I understand you're not always with your parents."

"I go to a human school." Aruto only replied.

"Where?" Kaname pushed.

"Shinrinchi" Aruto let go as if it was nothing but Yuuki knew he could feel her anger.

"Do you know a Miss Cross?" Kaname asked aggressively.

"I don't know her personally, but I must have seen her." he lied but rather than calming Yuuki down, his lie only made her angrier.

"You stay the hell away from her!" Kaname menaced.

"Why? From what I saw she looks delicious." he teased him. Yuuki was getting madder with every minute that passed.

The floor cracked, and the windows exploded. Aruto put his hands above his head as a sign of reddition.

"Fine, fine, I'm just teasing you, I have no intention of harming any human."

This arrogant version of Aruto annoyed Yuuki almost as much as Kaname's behaviour. In her real body, she felt the tickle come back and all of a sudden, electrical arcs started forming around her bat. This wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't supposed to be able to control the bat physically. Thankfully, only Aruto saw what happened and Yuuki felt him pannick. With all her will she did what she was not supposed to do, she started flying, without Aruto's help. She must have drunk a little too much of his blood. She flew around the house, got lost and finally got out. Once she was out she had two certainties. First, Hayato had seen her bat, she could still feel his glance on her and second, she knew this house.