Don't own VK. Everyone, thanks for your support :)
# CHAPTER 24
Blam!
The Kaede pureblood spun around, her fingers barely grabbing her blouse to cover herself and the other held an orchid dart –
to see Zero rooted at the doorway of the bathroom, his face bright red.
"Sorry, I'll leave you to dress yourself!" The bathroom door slammed shut once more.
Seiran's grip on her blouse loosened as she sank to her feet. Did Zero just – ? She looked at what she currently was wearing: chest bindings and underwear which had been covered by the blouse earlier. Get dressed, Kaede! she firmly reminded herself, knowing her entire face was heated up.
Shit, what the fuck did I just do? Zero slammed his face into his pillow.
Prefect duty had just ended so he headed back to the Sun Dorms when he felt a slightly panicked pulsing in his chest. Seiran! Something was off about her, so he hurried back to their room. She's in the bathroom! Without thinking further he forced the door open to see –
No, I'm not going to think about that stupid scene from earlier! He scolded himself. He had freaked out at the thought of there being something wrong with Seiran. And look what had happened. I don't quite get why I'm feeling so jumpy about this…it's not like I've never seen Yuuki in that state before, but why with Seiran, I…?
"Zero…the bathroom's yours if you need it…," Seiran hesitantly spoke, forcing herself to calm down and not blush again. Zero had his face buried in his pillow. He swept his hair away, using one eye to peer at his girlfriend who was now dressed more respectably in a shirt and three quarter shorts.
"S-Sorry about just now." He pushed himself to sit up beside Seiran who was trying her best not to get stiff.
"I felt your heart beating a lot faster and I…just freaked…"
"Everyone's really worried about me, aren't they?"
Zero's words were lost in his throat as Seiran asked him that without looking at him. "We're supportive of you, Seiran," he eventually answered.
He didn't answer my question.
"Why did you feel panicked earlier at class? Did…anyone disturb you?" The male prefect refrained from saying a specific name, seeing how she twitched at his question.
"I just felt overwhelmed at the things I'd missed in class, despite Kain senpai and Aidou-kun's notes. The lecturers are very kind to offer me some extra classes if there were things I didn't understand." She wasn't really lying – she had missed three to four chapters of each subject and had been working to catch up.
She didn't answer my question.
Have we always been like this? They both wondered.
"Aww, come on, it'll be fun!" coaxed Mia, holding onto Seiran's hand eagerly while Yuuki, Yori and Yuka nodded. Rima merely smiled when Seiran looked at her. Seiran's eyebrow was twitching at the Night Class girls and Yori's enthusiasm. It was when the ever-hyper Mia suggested a sleepover during a free period when their lecturer suddenly couldn't come to class, Yuuki got enthusiastic and Yori agreed it would be nice to spend time with her best friend like the good old times. Thus Yuuki roped in Ruka and Rima. And then their eyes landed on Seiran who was sitting in a corner reading through some notes… How exactly is a sleepover fun…? Isn't it just a bunch of girls sleeping together? And with my homework, research and the nightly patrols because of the murders…
"It will really be great fun, Seiran-chan. We'll be talking about girly things – "
Ugh…Don't you already talk about girly things in class?
" – putting make-up on each other – "
More ugh…Wasn't this a slumber party, as in I'm aware slumber means sleeping? Make up?
" – wearing frilly nightgowns – "
What…? Frilly nightgowns?
"You'll enjoy it. Definitely!" finished Mia with the biggest smile ever.
Never!
"I…I have many things to do…I haven't finished my schoolwork, and I have the night patrol…and my invention requests which I need to go through…" And those visions I keep having but can make not much sense out of them…And a million other things…Damn, it's not like I can say I'm working on that case either!
"You've been working so hard, surely you need a break once in awhile, Seiran-san," Ruka said.
"Yeah, and besides it's only these few times when us girls can get together to have a nice time…," chimed in Yuuki.
"Don't you girls see each other everyday in the Moon Dorms?" questioned Seiran, disliking the idea further. What's there to get together?
Rima laughed, her sound like the gentle peal of bells. "Seiran-san, despite us seeing each other everyday, we don't really have time to bond…Sometimes we spend more time with our boyfriends, so it's nice to be in the company of girlfriends so that we can talk about girl things in private."
Wow…I think that's the longest Rima has ever spoken to me before…But then again, I hardly spend time with Zero anymore now, because of the case. The case. The. Case. Her eyebrows twitched.
Yuuki, sensing Seiran's hesitation, added, "Oh, come on, Seiran-chan, you've always been stuck around Zero! Spending time away from him sometimes won't hurt your relationship!"
"Have you asked Seiren to join this…sleepover?" Seiran hurriedly changed the topic.
"We tried, but then…," Mia mimicked Seiren's monotonous voice, "I am sorry. I have to do something for Kaname-sama…" That made the other girls laugh except the red haired pureblood who forced herself to smile. Damn…I'm pretty sure Seiren managed to escape…Right now even I would be willing to do anything to get away from it.
"Look, it isn't so bad to have personal time away from your boyfriend, Seiran-chan. You're already living in the same room as he is…," said Yuuki, hands on her hips, wondering why it was so difficult to convince the other pureblood to join them.
"Wow, you're living with RoRo senpai?" squealed Mia. "I'm so envious! I've always wanted to stay with Kuma-kun, but then he said maybe we can't control our bloodlust…"
'RoRo' senpai…of all the names? Kuma-kun? Bloodlust? Seiran didn't know whether to laugh, get annoyed or blush at Mia's frankness. She noticed pink tinges on the rest of the girls' faces. So…they've been doing 'things' with their boyfriends… What things she forced her mind not to stray there. Another unpleasant thought occurred to her. Maybe they think Zero…and I…No! No thinking about what happened the other day too, Kaede!
"I'll think about it, alright? I really have a lot of work to handle and it's not because I'm glued to Zero or anything…," Seiran finally said when they were looking at her with some expectations on their faces. Maybe I should just go once so that they won't keep on calling me or get suspicious about my class absences. I should have time to handle my studies, but the murder cases…
"Okay…but you'll have to come, at least once…otherwise we won't let you off! Remember, it's this coming Saturday!" Yuuki playfully warned.
Seiran nodded and stood up, aching to make her escape. "I'll see you later at class, then. I need to go to the lab. Bye, minna."
It was when the other female vampires heard Seiran leaving the Moon Dorms when they dared continue their conversation. "She's really attached to Kiryuu, isn't she?" remarked Rima, looking at Yori since the latter was the one who could see their interactions during Day classes.
"Well, they didn't really interact much since most of the other girls had their eyes on them – the hottest yaoi couple there," giggled Yori.
"Yaoi…?" Ruka questioned hesitantly, wondering if she heard wrong. She realized she was used to seeing Seiran-san in both uniforms of each classes that it was only now that the thought occurred to her that Day Class students still thought the pureblood was a boy. "Oh…"
"You mentioned everything in past tense. What do you mean by that?" asked Mia.
"Oh, didn't you know? Seiran's no longer in Day class."
"Hang on, she's no longer in Day class? Since when?" Yuuki demanded.
"About a few weeks already. All the Day class teachers were pretty upset, though. Their star student being no longer in their classes."
Thinking about it, Zero has been doing Prefect rounds all by himself…But then Seiran said earlier she was busy with many things…so Zero must have decided to do the rounds by himself so that she could have more time for her matters…At least he's more willing to do duty now compared to last time! "It's a good thing, isn't it? Ever since Seiran-chan appeared in Zero's life I think he's been much happier…" Yuuki had a tender smile on her face. Yori and Mia agreed.
Ruka nodded, despite her slight dislike of Kiryuu whom she had always thought was rude and uncouth – an unfitting match – for Seiran-san, but she also wanted to see the pureblood she was in gratitude with *for murdering the Orchid Murderer who killed her distant cousin*, happy.
Friday came and Seiran was reminded of the sleepover – which she had forgotten about, briefly – by Yuuki when the Night Class were walking over for lectures. "Don't forget about our plans!" Yuuki reminded softly and winked while Seiran hurriedly curled up her lips to smile after an exasperating day of failed experimentations.
What? Oh, right, the sleepover…Cripes, I forgot! "S-sure," she mumbled, feigning interest. I'll have to tell Zero about it. She nodded at the others she knew before heading in her boyfriend's direction. The silver haired youth was looking at her once he finished shooing the Day Class students back to the Sun Dorms.
Together, both of them walked back to their room to keep their books before heading in separate directions some hours later – Zero doing the nightly rounds while Seiran would be going over the progress of the case with Chairman Cross and Sensei Yagari before patrolling with Sensei Yagari. "Yuuki and the other girls asked me to join them for a sleepover tomorrow," she said.
"What?" Zero was surprised. His brows furrowed. Aren't sleepovers usually when girls get together and gossip the entire night…? It's not something Seiran would like to do…And she has got so much work, with not enough sleep…
"Kaede….Kiryuu."
Both of them spun around to see Sensei Kuu Moburu, the home teacher for the Day Class behind them. Zero silently swallowed, guessing the reason for Sensei Moburu wanting to meet Seiran.
"Sensei," both of them bowed, feeling awkward despite not doing anything wrong. At the corner of her eyes, Seiran spotted the lecturer's eyes narrow for a moment when he was looking at Zero. Huh?
"Kaede, I want to speak with you for awhile, if that's alright?" spoke their home teacher. He nodded at Zero to show that the boy was dismissed.
"Yes, Sir." Seiran followed the older man, wondering what it was about. She heard Zero sigh as his footsteps went in the opposite direction and once again she was curious. Zero…?
"Sir, is anything wrong?" she asked when they reached his office.
"It's actually about your room mate, Kiryuu. Naturally I would tell the Chairman about him, considering he's under the Chairman's guardianship, but since you're his room mate and with your excellent marks I think you need to talk to him. The finals are in a few months and despite this being a private academy, he will still need good grades if he wants to get a stable job in the future after he graduates."
True…The Day Class students are leaving the academy this year. I'm not sure about the Night Class though…and what about Zero? Or even me? "What's wrong with his grades, Sensei? I've seen him working hard…" Her voice faded away when Sensei Moburu looked at her, wondering if it was just a friend covering up for a friend, or Kaede was telling the truth.
"His homework has been left unfinished for a few weeks already, and to add to the old record that he has been sleeping in class more often…Based on his previous records, Kiryuu is an above average student who is good in some subjects, but with his performance now the other teachers are worried he'll barely scrape through the finals."
"I'll talk to him, Sensei. I don't think the Chairman would like it if Zero doesn't do well either." She kept her voice neutral. Zero…why didn't you say anything that you couldn't catch up and were exhausted with your duties? And to top it off your occasional rounds because of the case…
"Very well. Thank you, Kaede."
"Not at all, Sensei." She bowed slightly before rapidly striding away.
"Zero…," her voice was soft as she entered their room and saw Zero scribbling down something in his reference book. He turned to look at her worried face and he knew his problem had been highlighted to her. What a joke, Kiryuu. Wasn't I the one who suggested that she be removed from the Day class and Prefect duties? But I'm the one who seems like I can't cope? Silently, he was annoyed with himself. Angry at how dependent he was on her in studies when she had her own work to handle and had never asked for his help. He looked down, ashamed as he felt her approaching him.
Seiran put her arms around him in a hug. "It's okay, Zero…it's okay…Just why didn't you tell me anything? I'll tell the Chairman to reduce your patrol duties, I'll help you with your homework…"
"No." He removed her arms around him, feeling an angry lump down his throat. "I can handle everything myself." His voice was firm and so was his gaze. I'm not going to ask for your help! He himself didn't understand the lack of energy that he had been having recurringly. It was as though he had been exercising while he was sleeping – something like that – but it was not possible since Seiran would have caught him sleepwalking, if that was the case…
She hesitantly reached out to touch his cheek, to feel his smooth skin with her fingertips. "Zero…I understand you don't want my help, but when I'm free, I can always – "
"That's not it!" he cut in, startling her. "You're the one who has been working harder than me, sleeping on average four hours a day…and you still want to help me? You've got your own worries regarding the copycat murders which you don't say a word even though I know you sometimes have sleepless nights – " which you won't even tell me about them…
Seiran went slightly stiff at his words. Did Zero know about the disturbing visions she'd been getting? "I'm fine, Zero," she hurriedly assured, "Just that even the Advanced subjects' questions occasionally have my head spinning, so I think about them. Don't worry about me…"
It was a white lie. They both knew.
Don't worry about you? "I…," Zero ran his fingers through his hair, "I'll handle my own problems. I don't want to add to your burden – " His sentence was cut off as Seiran suddenly pressed her lips against him as she hugged him tighter, her blazered chest pressing onto his own clothed one, enough to send heat coursing through his body. His fingers wrapped around her waist and softly stroked her back.
Both only pulled apart when they almost toppled over, Seiran grabbing at Zero to steady him while she caught her own breath. "You're never a burden, Zero, remember that…I'm always here for you…"
"I'll work harder, so that you don't have to worry about me, I promise…"
"Then you don't worry about me either, okay? It's getting late. Get some sleep, Zero…I'll do the rounds tonight using my senses before going to see the Chairman and Sensei. " She smiled, deciding to tell Yuuki on her way over that she couldn't go for their silly sleepover tomorrow. Zero's studies problem was more important that spending the night gossiping. Even if Zero didn't want her help in studies, she could do something else that would give Zero more time to study.
"Hang on, Seiran…What about the sleepover you were mentioning earlier before Sensei interrupted?"
"I'll tell Yuuki I'm not going after my rounds. I could cook or help you do laundry so that you have some extra time to complete your homework."
"Seiran…you should go and have fun…" Although he was sure it wasn't her idea of fun, but he had thought before that she ought to mix with some female friends at least since she'd been with male company almost her entire life. If not for the things she were stuck up to her neck with…the timing was just wrong…
"Zero…"
"I'll finish my homework during this weekend. Don't disappoint the girls." He faintly smiled.
"…Alright then…," she reluctantly acquiesced.
Lesson no. 25 : When you don't want your loved ones to worry about you, you always hide the truth…