"Well, you sure are back late, hmm?" Tawny asked, waking up from her sleep. "Or…should I say early?"

"Um…yeah. I guess," I said, glancing at the clock. One in the morning. I yawned. "Relax, I've been here the entire time, though. I just went to the bathroom a little while ago." I lied through my teeth, but if you couldn't tell, I wasn't in the mood for dealing with her. The whole shock of the incident was wearing off now, and my anger was bubbling up inside of me now.

"Oh…were you? Because I remember waking up some time, like, by some time I mean like an hour- ago, and your bed was…empty. And, well, let's face it. If you had just gone to the bathroom, then may I ask why your pants are wet?" She said, pointing to the bottom of my pants, which were wet from tramping through grass.

I caught my breath. If Tawny was nothing else- she was smart. She wasn't easily fooled, I had to give her that much. Maybe I was underestimating her by assuming that she was simply another dumb blonde. I felt a defeated smile make its way across my face with the last of my energy. "Right. Of course you'd notice that," I looked at the ground, hoping she wouldn't notice the blood that had soaked into my clothes.

"Woah," she said suddenly, mouth dropping open as she flicked on the bedside light. "That is one hell of a hickey, Midori."

Oh, no. She'd noticed the bite. No, no. No no no no no no no no no! I couldn't let her see that I was nervous, though. She just had to think exactly what she already thought. She didn't know it was a vampire bite, and as long as she assumed that I'd just been playing a little rough with my boyfriend tonight, then everything would be fine, no? Well, halfway fine anyways. Sure, she would have some serious ammo against me in the social world that I'd suddenly found myself at the inner circle of through endless fights and unfortunate events. But it was a lot better than having her going around blabbing that Zero was a vampire, that was for sure.

"You don't miss a thing, now do you?" I asked, giving her a glare. "What I do with boys, however, is none of your business. Make of that what you will." I climbed into my bed before she could say anything more on the subject.

"I'll never understand you," Tawny spat, with an overdramatic sigh.

"You wouldn't be the first person to say that," I said into my pillow. "Now please, give me some sanity and shut up, will you? I'd like to have some sleep tonight." I was ready to begin the silence of the night, until something else occurred to me. "Hey, Tawny, by the way, if you tell anyone about this, than you will wake up a very sorry little witch one morning. Got it?" I meant every word of that. Nobody messed with me without consequence.

"Whatever," was the last sound I heard from her. Well, aside from the snoring.

I could have done without the attitude. She was just digging her grave deeper with me, let me tell you. It seemed like every second that she was breathing, I was hating her more.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The next morning, I woke up very confused, and very sore. My head was aching, my neck was stinging, and I just wanted to stay in bed. But I had class, so staying in bed wasn't an option. Tawny was already gone, probably in the bathroom taking her three hour long shower. I looked at myself in the mirror, only to find myself looking like I'd fallen in a hole and hadn't come out for a year. I dragged a comb through my hair, which helped my case a lot. There were still dark rims under my eyes, though. And there were still two puncture marks, red and small, that were pretty visible. Ugly. I was ugly. Almost ugly enough to want to slit my throat and skip school for the rest of my pathetic high school life. Certainly enough to avoid Zero. I was definitely angry enough at him now to have the urge to slap him. Under normal circumstances, I would have wanted to kick him and scream at him and tell him that he was the biggest idiot I had ever met.

But love was not normal circumstances. And by some miracle, I wasn't angry with him. Some part of me…well, oddly enough, the majority of me, sympathized with him. Why this was I can never be certain. My only explanation was, again, love. And even that just didn't seem to match up with me. What was I turning into?

I pulled on my uniform, dreading going to class. I dragged my feet as I walked around the room, preparing myself for the day that would ultimately end in tragedy.

However, when I walked into my first class, Zero wasn't there. My heart skipped a beat. Was he just late? Or… was he…avoiding me now? I took my seat, relieved I wouldn't have to face him today. I didn't think I could do it, with my emotions so undecided. I was angry, and I was worried at the same time. Why hadn't he come to class today?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Zero!" I slammed on his door, ignoring the looks I got from the other students who were milling about the dorm hall. I wasn't supposed to be in the male dorm, not even in the day, but it didn't seem as though anyone was willing to oppose me, either. "I need to talk to you."

No response. There was nothing but absolute silence from the other side of the door.

"Zero?" I tried again, some of the determination gone from my voice. Now I was more worried, than angry. What if he…what if he'd…done something that couldn't be taken back? I felt my heart stop beating. What if he'd…what if he'd…no…he wouldn't…would he?

Was this how they'd felt when I'd tried to kill myself?

I jiggled the door handle. Locked. I threw my hands up in the air, out of options. "Zero, if you're in there, at least give me some sign of life. Let me know you're okay!" I slammed my fists on his door with such a force, that the entire dorm went dead silent. Everyone was looking at me, now. "What are you all looking at?" I screamed, dashing out of the male dorms. Maybe he wasn't there. There was no need to panic, right? There were lots of other places he could be…he didn't have to be in his room. He didn't have to be in his room.

The stables. Maybe he'd be there. He seemed to turn up there an awful lot, lately…

I searched Lily's stall, but I didn't find him. Where else would he be? I couldn't think. He had to be somewhere though, right? He wasn't dead. He wasn't in his room. He couldn't be. No. There was no way. When I turned around, ready to leave, I saw a comforting sight, and I had never been more happy in my entire life, to see Zero standing there.

Until I realized that it wasn't Zero. But…there was no other explanation, either…unless…this was…a twin? I felt a brief surge of anger. Just another thing he hadn't told me.

"Who are you?" I asked, shocked. Oh, this was just getting better and better.

He smiled, an eerie, discomforting smirk. "I'm Ichiru Kiryuu. And may I say that, my brother has extremely good taste in girls these days."