Even as he ascends to your height
And caresses your tenderest branches,
So shall he descend to your roots
And shake them in their clinging to the earth. - Kahlil Gibran
• * •
She couldn't divulge that when he slept, the frown tailored around waking hours softened, making his normally stern countenance fuse into a cherub's facade, one commonly found sculpted in the arches of human churches. His brows curled from various motions, a dream seeping into his face. They were untangled cursive black lines, maturing the appeal of his otherwise youthful visage. Then there was the shallow land of hair over pillows. Rumpled brown-black filling the expanse of his neck and smooth jaw, doubling over the décolleté. His hair grew extensively over the years and while he lay knotted in a rope of half conscious and death, it never occured to him how cutting a single strand of that hair agonized Yuuki.
She held out, determined to preserve the manner of his appearance as he did, himself. A diversion from his disposition was outlandish. She condoned the temptation, figuring he'd tend to his grooming when he'd awake. Of course, he would. If not wake up for her, then wake up to comb his hair. He had to as he inhibited sleeping messily. Each abstruse detail in his posture and breathing deepened with his cognizance of surrounding during sleep.
As it were his senses were insuperable and the pressure to revive tripled than climbing steep peeks in the harshest of weathers. He'd rattle out of the corridor of death because the one holding his life was she.
Yuuki extracted from his embrace and covered him in blankets.
But he had been slightly cruel to her and so had she. He with his absolution to transfer powers to her, and she for giving him reason to.
Yuuki waited on the edge of the bed, balancing the traitorous commotion inside her heart. What resided in the early morning when Kaname crept into bed, transcended into a broad after-morning of slumber. Only she dreamt of being drowned, burned and skinned hour per hour. When she finally escaped the grim land of nightmares, burning with an empty soul she realized he'd safely returned. Still exhausted by grief, by loneliness, by the image of his sleeping soundly in their bed she wondered if he was haunting her again. So often he'd touch her and whisper in her ear, rouse her awake and vanish in the winks of unmemorable moments.
She rose out of the lingering debate and replenished herself with a cool shower. Naked under the water spray, she had a good cry and came out strangely satisfied. She dressed for the day, usually maids fumbled about and since Kaname was back, they decided against intruding. In the mirror she examined her fatigued red eyes, shimmered light powder on her skin, combed her hair and fixed her skirt before slipping on her heels. The day's work summoned her attention. She collected pertinent folders and returned to the bedroom.
Kaname was sitting up when she appeared. At first glance, she swayed in the heat of surprise and swallowed the lump in her throat. Her hand braced the wall that she stumbled against. A good scold later, she numbed her reaction.
He is real, he really is here.
"Good morning." With all the time in the world and mild as butter on bread, Yuuki stopped in front of Kaname. "I have a meeting real soon at the Summit. The Council of Ancients will arrive shortly. Take your time getting ready. I'll see you later in the afternoon."
Kaname didn't speak but moved out of the disorderly bed. His chiming steps stopped to a preeminent loom over Yuuki. "Your schedule seems inhibiting."
She steeled herself, somehow feeling crowded and desperate for shelter. "No, it's not. I have room to do more actually." Making good use of waving her folder to dissuade eye contact relented some waft of control, control she was losing against him and needed.
Blank fingers curled around her forearm with unusually repressed strength. "That's not what I meant. You'll tire easily if you continue pushing yourself. You didn't sleep much, if at all."
She prided herself for not flinching and losing verbal functionality. "What Hanabusa-san says is true, 'nothing escapes Kaname'. I'll be fine. Anyhow today is your day to shine, you'll be surrounded by media for a while. Everyone wants to see you." She ran a feasible glance over her watch. "I won't be at your press conference but Ichijo-san will be. I have to go now." Yuuki allowed him a second to register his resistant grip on her arm. "Usually I'm out of the room by now."
He relinquished the hold in resigned slowness, like a strenuous and burdening task. "Have a good day, Yuuki." If not his arms, his voice surely embraced her until the soles of her feet tickled from its gentleness.
"Thank you, have a good day too, Kaname. Good luck." She whipped to the door as if on a marathon.
• * •
In front of the noiseless suite, Yuuki retracted her knuckles and inspected the door handle that hissed like a viper. Her survey welled with caution and dread but she cleared her throat and knocked before letting herself in.
Rido lay alone on his side, his somnolent eyes twinkled under transient colors from the hall and charcoaled again after the door closed. "Seems you got tired of sending the empty-headed Right Hands to me, so you decided to take try me yourself."
"Come out of your hole." She breezed forward as forthcoming and stubborn as a storm, flinging curtains apart to glorify the room with light. "You have appointments to keep and services to Kaname. He has conferences all week. Accompany him." Her search winded on the sunny world. "Your despicable reputation debases all of us—"
"All the more reason his conference must omit my presence, no?" Rido muttered.
"Lord Kuran obligated all royal members to pledge loyalty and humanitarian effort to society. You are also included. As far as Kaname's conference is concerned, your presence is essential for his return to the throne. You have to support him." Her lustrous glare quelled after a thought. "If Shizuka-sama were here, would you behave this way?"
"Hnh, hnh, hnh, even flowers receive more love from bees than I did from that woman." He gave an elaborate cackle and regarded her with precarious amusement. "Why, you want to bring her back to torture me?"
"She can come when she wants." Yuuki answered. Subconsciously she readied for unprecedented attacks, the poison in the air filled her pores and snaked in her vessel. "Go with Kaname today. No one dares to come tell you what to do. I don't have time to babysit you either."
"Yes, but it's no fun if not watching you try ordering me around." Rido smirked.
Her arms slid to her sides and her shoulders stood out in a dignified stature. "I'm warning you. Kaname is back now. Don't try anything wicked. I don't care if you were once first to inherit the throne, you lost your chance and the person you loved."
"Looks like you still think you have his powers." He came to a gradual stand. "That you can act brazen around me whenever you like."
"Call it what you want. I'm just here to remind you of your assignment." She shifted on her heel, her stare alluring and threatening. "Out of the kindness of my heart, I thought if I supported you you'd stop this nonsense and cooperate. You love making others suffer, it's your forte, I understand. But you can't move on from your lover's death and you can't love your wife either. You belong no where. I might regret helping you later but for now I want you to open your eyes and see that some of us haven't given up on you."
Yuuki crossed the room and held open the door. "Shizuka-sama accidentally mentioned your scientific aptitude. About the matter I mentioned earlier, research and show me your progress. Believe it or not, but it'll hold counsel to the royal family in the future. You're the perfect candidate for this. Don't rush and do what you're told, Lord Kuran and Kaname might start to trust you." She closed the door in a quick snap and waited to catch her breath.
The air inside was similar to knives chipping away her lungs. It was an indelible rule to avoid a whisper of emotion and let weakness creep into the façade. Yuuki had exercised the skill until it was second nature. Of course, behind doors she was a despicable mess, but even the grandest and merciful people held secrets under their breaths each day.
The Elders Council rocked with activity as officials hopped from one project to another, anticipating the Council of Ancients and Kaname's visit.
Yuuki pulled back from the window and fixed the curtain in his office. Spending countless hours hunched over his desk, rifting through paperwork and wearing his chains as commander, now it was time for Yuuki to retreat from the duties she adopted and leave it in the dependable hands of her husband. Although excited for his return, she bled at the thought of dropping unfinished projects. Neither king nor administrator, she would seep back to her subordinate status.
Touching the chair tentatively, Yuuki sighed in the listless shadows that screamed at her to leave. She clenched her jaw and glared at the walls.
Takuma slowly closed the door behind his heel. "To this day I can't understand why people are fascinated by walls."
"They tend to stare and mock you in the face, that's why." Yuuki gritted at a patch of wood.
"Ah." Takuma stopped on her right, intrigued by the polished wall she glared and tilted his head. "You know," He pointed, "After several seconds, it does talk back to you."
Yuuki was caressing her bottom lip thoughtfully. "I know." Displeasure soiled her usual calm tone, she rounded back to the table. "Good you showed up. I have something for you."
Takuma was still having a conversation with the wall.
She unlocked the bottom cabinet of the desk and extracted a large silver urn. Yuuki set it on the edge of the table for his convenience. He craned his glare from the wall cautiously to the large object. Swallowing the numbness in his throat, he locked eyes with Yuuki for a tremulous second.
"I wanted to give it you. Bury it in a safe place."
He let out a short laugh bubbling with scorn and incredulity. "You couldn't have—" Gripped by her stern eyes, Takuma stiffened as if he had been struck on the back of his head. "You did?" He stared again at the urn. "You kept it?"
"I did." Her words formidable like slicing knives. "I thought about you and kept the ashes. I wanted to give it to you earlier but couldn't find the right opportunity. Ichijo-san, I'm not proud of destroying your relationship."
"Why don't you bury him?" His lips twisted in idle frown that matched the dullness of his green orbs. "I have no interest in it so you can do it instead. I don't care."
"Don't be like this." She whispered.
The back of his teeth gritted, and his jaw relaxed before he spoke again. "You know I respect you and am willing to do anything for you and Kaname, but not this. I can't."
She said it because life lessons always brightened the horizons of tomorrow. "I don't want you to live in guilt all your life, that's why I kept it. I'm willing to help you bury him in a safe place. Even if he made immoral decisions, he was your guardian and sole family in the country."
He made a noise in the back of his throat and looked away. "Heh, if burying him forgives the lives he took, I guess it works for you, not me. I can't forgive myself for ever looking up to him. I stupidly waited for him to change, gave him the benefit of the doubt over and over again—It didn't end how I wanted it to. At least less people are suffering today." Looking ashen, he moved to a chair and slumped on the leather.
"Please, stay out of it. Don't interfere in my personal wars." Takuma glared at the table. His knuckles hooded out like white stones on the armrest.
Conversation about his grandfather was undeniably uncomfortable. How many twists, turns, falls and broken bones would he have to go through to sit one day without crying as he remembered the noble vampire? It hadn't been too long ago since he was beheaded and each night Takuma relived the shuddering sound of blood splatter and awoke from sounds of a vampire dissipating into dust.
Half or all of his cheerful self deadened from the incident.
Yuuki turned to the window to avoid prisoning him from scrutiny. "I'm still angry at how my family was taken away from me. I've never felt so helpless, and when Kaname wouldn't wake up, the same disturbing feeling overpowered me. I resent myself when I remember my parents whom I couldn't protect."
Her profile softened as Takuma watched her lips quiver and blink down at the inelegance of her bare hands. "It was out of your control." His weak whisper fell into silence.
"I'll never get over it. Sometimes I convince myself they're alive somewhere, but I can't see them." She bore her heart to him. "It relieves my pain a little."
Yuuki glided in front of his chair and hugged him around the shoulders. When she spoke, he could feel the harmonizing wealth of her hot breath drift on the back of his neck and ear. "Ichijo-san, our hearts see the world through feelings. These feelings get tangled easily. It's better to unweave and loosen then gradually, reversing the ache can take years, but when you finally can sit by yourself without crying, remember you've taken a big step. You know you're doing better, and the reason for executing him will be sound." Her fingers crept through blond hair locks. She brushed them subtly and peered in his longing eyes.
"So bury him." Yuuki encouraged. "It's good to remember and love him. Tell him everything you feel every day, including your hate for his actions. But if you leave these feelings knotted inside of your forever, it'll exhaust you quickly." She knelt by the chair, her fingers fitted a loose chain around his sleeve. "You know, humans believe in spiritual healing. They make temples and tell fables because they're aware of their weaknesses. Even though they live shorter lives than we do, the importance of finding a balance is crucial to all of us. When humans break, they always strive to restore themselves. And so do we, vampires—we can't depend on time to heal us. We have to do it ourselves."
He held her eyes. The shadows of his gaze reflected the waking of his heart. Starting with a voice void of life and meanings, he returned. "We're different. We're not human."
"We don't mourn like they do. They're made of mud and so are we. But why do we only turn to dust?" Ruefully she queried the floor. "Every morning I wake up feeling colder than I did before. In my every moment I remember my family who died because of me." Knuckles rubbed against eyelids before she sharply soared to her feet, face averted and rasping. "Don't become like me. Don't grow cold like I have. Your soul is warm like the earth. Please, don't change."
Takuma grabbed her supple wrist. "How do I let go? Tell me how?"
"Don't sit in the dark alone." She whispered. "Go and bury him. Live out each emotion you feel and accept the truth and why it happened. You executed him to protect all of us, not out of malice. You knew better than anyone he needed to be stopped. If not you, then I would've killed him."
• * •
In his centuries of existence, Lord Kuran had been a respectable son, a stupendous prince, father and later, a king. It was during his reign when vampires began to forcefully transform humans into servitude. Murder and war spiraled into catastrophic horror. All of which at the time could be dissolved if he created a border and controlled unruly vampires. So he did, and the Hunters Association was formed, administered by the palace's Right Hand Lord Kiryuu and other selected individuals to eliminate the creatures. He was horribly obligated to separate families who were half human and vampire. Although the cost was immense, the death rate decreased, and that was what mattered most. To save humans and keep them from dying despite the innateness of short life.
Soon humans sprouted like larvae in thousands and millions, most considerably well off not remembering the portion of families who lived beyond borders in the form of inhuman. It had been Lord Kiryuu's idea to lock out memories of humans who previously shared life with vampires, at the expense of living insufferably. They didn't need to remember which vampires they had children or grandchildren with. Though a suitable solution it was as it'd be deplorable to let them live miserably in their already limited life span, longing for lost ones.
The stubborn and pernicious vampires who craved power, cheated humans out of their livelihood were eliminated at the Hunters Association. Their remains purposefully locked in a museum, set to remind society of their horrific conclusions. The loosened and disorderly seams of history were rewoven with a hope of no recurrence.
Lord Kuran, now Great Great Pureblood King, stared in short wonderment at the radiant cerulean sky draped over the palace where servants scuttled from and into corners while the household slept within warm blankets, hiding out from the sun. He had reason to follow the norm. His weary body thoroughly desired to relinquish into the habit of sleep until late afternoon. Yet thoughts, historic visions, foiled plans and unprecedented transformations kept dreams at bay. He was beginning to realize what a struggle it'd be to pull away from musings regardless of rancor each thought produced. The longer he gazed out the window, the elongated and corrosive thought patterns became.
He sank into a chair, pounding temples with cold fingers as dark-red eyes hunted inanely at the rug under bare feet. He looked for run-on seams, tugged and cut from overuse. It appeared well maintained. He squinted his eyes harder and clenched his jaw. Upheavals initiated when all seemed worthwhile; he was no novice and knew the signs beforehand. Around the corners of his fermented thoughts, he heard steps toward his doorway.
As he looked up dark-eyed and sagely, his grandson lingered on the threshold of his suite. He relaxed merely in the helpless venture of meeting him again after years of absence. He wanted to scold, make him repent and beg for forgiveness in shambles of shame and despair. Instead Lord Kuran waited quietly for him to close the door and join him in the living room.
"Kaname," Lord Kuran practiced the pronunciation with a lengthy scrutiny at the elegantly attired pureblood. "Do you know what your name means?" He relented his search and sighed, "When Sora was told by the palace elders to have a child, she fretted but grew to accept the conditions. Once you were born, she kept asking me about a name. You were our first child after four centuries. After we met you, we were happy."
He glanced at the smoky cloud hanging over the roof of his window, battling lingering affection that seemed soft and rich as pain. "We felt comfortable leaving the monarchy in your hands. Not because it was tradition, because you saw the world differently. Your parents and I, together, we named you, Kaname, the key that hold things together. And in so, we heavily depended on your growing up and becoming enthroned."
Lord Kuran ceased in the hallow echo of his words. Alive yet breathlessly still, as if arrows were primed to rain on his head. "What do you think happens when an important key like yourself disappears? I'll tell you. Everything reverts to into a dysfunctional piece. And that's what happened when you were gone." He reflected in stark resumption of his truer self, his obligations imprinted in his body since birth. "She tried to mend things, regardless of how weak she was she showed me her true nature. In that she earned my reverence and loyalty."
Now remorselessly he looked into Kaname's shadow-tainted eyes, claimed by pessimism, self-torture and regret that stretched longer than his life. "You don't suppose what you did was best, do you?" A silent, cold shiver imbedded in the question, he waited for an answer in the snowstorm traipsing in the closed room.
In his eternal fixation of Kaname, he caught profound hints of his son's qualities glimmer through the dark. The doubtful straight frown setting in with grieving but slightly dawned and absent pair of eyes that resented being probed, pushed, and hounded for answers between the cracks of his oppressed soul. So many secrets, voices, ideas and prayers lay under cover, leashed and guarded inside his heart. Lord Kuran knew it was unimaginable getting Kaname to open up. Since childhood he was fairly secretive, repressed, and resented attention. It was a lost cause, Sora learned. Then he met a friend, whom he admired and was taught from where rivers drained and why birds soared.
That important person was suddenly murdered.
He'd wait for years to win back his memories and terrified heart, to finally fall for Yuuki.
Although Lord Kuran was centuries older and endured turbulences, hardships over the years, he hadn't ever left his wife's side. Not handled by virtues, or succumbed to uncertainty, he simply never thought of leaving her at all. In this lifetime it was obdurate and obscene to negotiate whether she should've died or not. His ending bargain would be to keep her alive for as long as possible, obviously, but it didn't change the fact that she left him anyway, and he was sitting like a pathetic man with paper-skin and stony eyes, shuddering at the knowledge of Kaname leaving his newly wed, young wife for three powerful years.
He pitied Yuuki.
As he stared at the gloomy silhouette of her husband, Lord Kuran felt a chill in his heart, a feeling he hadn't remembered since he was five years old.
He pitied Kaname too.
Damn pitiful grandchildren.
"Are you going to leave her again?" He muttered. Kaname's stare was one of profound, stomach-churning glares the Lord's ever seen. He didn't inherit the glare from Kirrin, must've been Sora, Lord Kuran decided.
"I assume it's a no." He deduced.
"Assume away." Such a distressingly indifferent response, it caved and suffocated Lord Kuran with unease.
The wad of wires in his working mind crackled and popped impatiently. He rigidly balanced on his feet and sentenced Kaname a callously demanding glare. "My point being, anyhow, is leaving that child with your powers will not be beneficial, if you do it again, that is."
"Who says I will?" He was standing with arms folded, leaning and blending in the irrepressible darkness of the wall behind him.
His vision strayed from one wall to the next, trying to pin Kaname's silhouette to a center, as if a blind man left to catch flies, or if he'd been walking in an ageless black tunnel for years. He was obscure, like finding identical clouds in the sky. An illusion that fades in the form of unregistered thought, never understood or used.
Lord Kuran changed the subject. "Today is your first appearance. Following this, we should proceed with Yuuki's coronation. She has put it off for too long. I leave it to you to change her mind."
Kaname lowered one of his folded arms. The first move administered since his entrance captivated the Lord, who gave him another vexed study. "You don't want to?"
He said nothing, and this piqued the elder a smoldering, undesirable degree that blanked somewhere between restraint and hitting Kaname in the head several times.
He heard humans disciplined children, but Sora and Kirrin never laid a bruising hand on him. In the shadowed corner, he resembled a petulant nine-year-old than a king, and Lord Kuran was never known for patience. Mind thinned by lore of actions, he passed a wavering hand over his tired eyes and resorted to reclaim his chair. The outcome was less satisfactory than hitting Kaname, but he had managed to calm by a miniscule amount.
"The sooner we schedule the ceremony the better." He clenched his annoyance toward his unresponsive company.
Not insensitive to the Lord's struggle, Kaname switched gears to speak. His tenacious detachment from conversation and others left everyone uncomfortable. His Right Hands were perfect examples, and it had been only for Yuuki whom he waited for vowels, syllables, breaths and sighs to leave her lips.
"I'll talk to her. If willing, we will continue with the plans."
"If willing?" He took off in a disastrous whirl of scenarios, "Does she have reasons not to? She is capable, the title is practically hers." Prattle if he could and he would've if not for Kaname's alienated expression. "What? Did she tell you she changed her mind?"
"She hasn't made her mind." Was the whisper between the crumbs of hope and tailored happiness that should've been measurable and catchable in the herd of unknown future. He didn't read lives like pamphlets or fan his desires. There were irredeemable consequences when he did, which seemed to be always. He didn't care to ruin what waited uncomplaining and quietly for him.
"I leave the matter to you." The Lord murmured, unwilling to probe the eerie discomfort in his words. "You are best solving it by convincing her either way."
"We'll see."
"Kaname—" He paused and relaxed in the chair. "I wouldn't want you to go before me. It's hard for someone older to watch someone younger pass away. Let me go first and hold out a bit longer."
He only nodded and stepped out of the immeasurable darkness, his shadow cascaded to the hall into effervescent gray dots, gradually molded in the shape of his back and shoulders as he crossed corners and made a turn.
Kaname expected the ordinary celebration that lurched a victorious war. Praising and screaming people stood on streets, businesses closed to honor his return and endless interviews, press conferences mandated visibility. In all of the regular formations he drifted from cameras, answered questions, demonstrated he did rather well for someone waking from coma or 'sleep' as most preferred.
"How are you feeling today?" A microphone was presently shoved to his chin by an anxious, cockroach looking reporter.
He gravely looked at the individual, a citizen, a normal worker who received wages by bringing news from one to another, and it did less than nothing but dawn on him that despite the man ignored his discomfort or how Kaname resented spot lights, he was a creature whom he was responsible for, someone whom Yuuki obligated to care for when he wasn't around. The beckoning ire trampling over control silently backed away in the shallow hole of patience.
"Better." He replied, affably than was reasonable. The audience stood awed and titillated by his smile.
"Ousama, during the time you 'slept' Joousama solely looked after all parts of the monarchy and the people. She has received positive feedback. What do you have to say about her work?"
He closed his mouth, and with all the time in the world, began straightening any hidden wrinkles on his leather gloves. "You ask me such a simple question. My answer lies with the public; you are the judges of her work, not me. It was over your concern why she made alterations in our society. If you feel things were managed unfairly, voice your objections. We'd rather know now." He waited and let his expectations summarize in the silence. Not a soul doubted Yuuki.
Bashful reporters nodded from their seats. Except for the ticking and eye-numbing camera flashes, the world waited on his word, for his movement, for another execution of his smooth voice to spill, blanket the air with ripples of incandescence tranquility. Before the voice was heard, instincts expanded into a tough wand, ready and impenetrable for the movement he caught out of the corner of his eye.
He had turned in the man's direction before anyone else, including the half-risen subject from his chair who nervously situated his camera and microphone.
"Ousama." The man cleared his throat and deposited a deep bow. "Welcome back! What are your thoughts about Asato Ichijo's death sentence? The Elders sentenced Ichijo-sama to imprisonment in Rome but it has been rumored Joousama ordered his death. Was this handled correctly?"
More cameras flashed, once again he had to disguise the disease eating him from the inside at the memory that should have decayed and dissolved like the years he slept away.
"I have witnessed the crimes conducted by Asato Ichijo. It would've been my wish to eliminate the crimes altogether, and the passable method of elimination is to remove the instigator."
"Then is it true the reason behind your 'coma' was because you were attacked by councilmen?"
His leather gloves tightened around his palms. Destroying the proof of violent emotion, he watched the room composedly. At these times, his levelheaded upbringing was more valuable than straightening the jagged teeth in the reporter's mouth that opened, eager and hungry for his answer. If drops of emotion or candor were desired, Kaname could promise the latter only. His cold stare rode over the vampires, steady, stalling, considering telltale details that won't matter tomorrow or the next day, but they fumbled into his focus like sheen of pale light.
"I was attacked." Kaname said in the suddenness that rocked his words and blasted back to his own ears. He waited for common gasps of shock to expire. Regarding them broadly, his spellbinding words wove around each significant shape and statue in the room that even the cameras waited in half daze for him to continue.
"My attackers are not to be named. The intention behind it was to dilute the crown. This cements the necessary need to empower our techniques to protect the royal family. In due time, we'll have achieved this much, but the rest remains uncertain."
The missing years were as unfathomable and unlived like a dream roared in biting resolution. Yuuki worked hours upon hours holding onto him, crying while he slept, waiting, waning, wishing and wanting. Suddenly she stopped crying and looked at him with a pair of untouchable eyes that were crystalline and unnatural, hated seeing what it saw. Although he was inside her subconscious, he stripped her of the innate quality she bequeathed, and the comfort of familiarity.
"We'll continue to improve our security and impose rectification where necessary. In the meantime, security measurements and reestablishment of the Elders Council has been increasingly effective." He cleanly decided against further questions and was escorted to his vehicle.
Takuma edgily shifted by the window, peered in the glass and pulled back with a forced sniff and let his lips move into an exuberant smile.
Immobile in the transversal seat appeared the shape of Kaname's coat, the dark material flared half of his seat and polished black shoes gleamed in the fluttering, escaping light of the passing world from the window. His expression was unreadable but the manner of his stillness suggested a perilous calm teething beneath Kaname's skin, waiting to rip out of his body and free itself.
"Don't force yourself." Drove the detached, chilling forewarning that sounded nothing like a warning but a sheer order unless he liked having his heart torn out.
So Takuma complied, dropped the overly done smile and let the anchored emotions of his heart besiege him. He witnessed the slow but dangerous battle between his power and Yuuki, remembered vividly how she collapsed from lack of control. It was vicious, spawned incorrigible waves of terror, disparaging hunger, carved needs birthed from blood alone. She grew hungry easily. Her senses were sensitive and though she composed for seconds, he caught her waver every now and then. It was too dismissible he wondered if he imagined it the whole time.
A week's time confirmed how remorseless Kaname's powers on Yuuki were. She barely escaped attacks, injuring him more than three times.
Knowing the surpassing danger curled inside the pureblood, Takuma couldn't evade the illusion in what manner, what control Kaname effused, still able to look sublime and impeccably insurmountable and harness the forces in his blood. Yuuki was not strong in comparison.
A fractured part of his inner self shattered to irreversible pieces. He thought he knew Kaname in the silences they wore, but everyone at the palace questioned the notion and found it unattainable.
He was unreachable. He preferred to be. Whether it was for other's safety or opposition from attaching to someone after Kaoru's death, the answer remained undetermined. Steady conversations with Yuuki implied he was secretive with her. Another turmoil to their barely reconciled relationship.
Takuma lowered his eyes to the floor. "Where are we headed? You cut the conference short, any particular reason?"
Mouthful of reasons gnawed at Kaname, all the more reason for him not to voice them aloud. Shivers fired up from the bottom of his spine, sucking on each vertebra and hung on his shoulders like metal weight. He felt heavy but feather light. Something called to him, chained him by the arms and legs, tugged him closer from shadows. The swallowing ebb of something familiar, a need to cover and execute his impatience.
He was anxious.
He couldn't wait to get to the Elders Council, take back what was his and relieve Yuuki of unquenchable tasks and cure her scarred hands already. He had been absent, lost and insecure under the weight of Yuuki solely leading the monarchy while chained underground. Set fire to those ridiculous delusions because he worried no more.
Elders from the Council of Ancients had arrived and waited in the Chamber. He stepped through the door with Takuma on his heels and lifted the anticipated atmosphere with his presence. From around a table, guests reared their heads with known expression.
"Welcome, Kuran-sama." Invited a severely tall Elder who rose from his chair and bowed.
Kaname returned the gesture and exchanged greetings across the table. His gaze paused in slight marvel and question upon his spouse. She passed him a cordial smile, nothing super and turned back to the Elders whom she had been keeping company.
"The matter of transferring your powers to me has been top secret. Certain council members know, and I was recommended not to tell outside parties." He heard Yuuki say as she leaned forward, her forthcoming words tugging all parties by the ear. "Before we head to the Council Office, I'm glad we can get together in private to sort critical issues." She rose and pushed folders toward Kaname, scanned the room and respectfully asked Takuma to step outside.
He obliged and closed the door.
She was everything he hadn't imagined. Professional, silver tongued, wary and excellent with wading discrepancies. He almost found it artificial, that it was someone else with Yuuki's face talking to him, like they hadn't met before. Kaname regarded the folder she dispensed and waited for her to finish.
"On the accounts of your imprisonment, the council decided to revisit the case a year later. However you were unconscious and the case couldn't be continued. As a result, verdict couldn't be reached. Former Council Head Asato Ichijo's death affected your case considering he was the plaintiff. There were no other claims brought to the court. Your imprisonment was rescinded for there was no proof of illegal activities in the palace since your status as king.
"The Council of Ancients ruled the evidence of the Sacrifice should be voided because the quintiessential logic of pursuing the 'Curse' mandated a 'born' sacrifice, not a candidate created through murdering members of the inflicted clan. You hold all rights to precede the tradition or to annul it completely. The Ancients have declared that you followed the latter solut—" She stopped so spontaneously, the parties lurched forward in their seats.
Her vision moist and grip giddy on her report, Yuuki held on to the paper tightly, unable to deviate from the lucid ache that hovered over her like sacks of bricks.
"Joousama." An Elder called, "Will you be able to continue?"
She sniffed. Her sparkling eyes nipped the Elder and the report. "Ah..." Heaving, she snorted at herself and shook her head, fearing her voice.
The horror of the situation was not about her inability to resume, but that she was inches from becoming a sobbing mess from the data. It wasn't merely business, or hide and seek political games, it was no ordinary crime. It was her life. Her family's life and everything she let trample in her life. All of it which led her to step up, overcome, despair and agonize over what she was and what she wasn't. It made her sick to her stomach, like knives twisting in her rotting corpse, and she was still breathing, watching the blades flounder in her distorted flesh.
Tears didn't fall. They stayed glued to her eyes. "Sorry." Yuuki finally shook her head. From the tangles of her throat and the rust irons in her chest, a short laugh fell through her mouth. She blinked, not realizing she had laughed in the first place. "I lost my place."
"I will continue." The Elder on her left offered.
"No, that won't be necessary." She straightened the paper and restarted.
The closer and deeper she mauled over the contents dripping off her dry, poisoned tongue, the darker, palpable and hostile memories loomed in her mind. It progressed through her veins and reached around her throat with claws, choking her. She made sure not to dissolve the composure she strived to maintain, at least not in front of the Elders and especially in front of Kaname.
He'd try more favors on her behalf. Favors she feared would run along the lines of giving her other aspects of his powers. Then a second coma. Tears. Blood tablets. Limp pillows. Screams. Another twenty years. No, this time it might be six hundred years, and she didn't have that many years to live because she was a noble. Better yet, some vile murderer successfully finished her off with a slick twist of the knife.
Slamming her fist on the table, she pushed out of her chair. "That's it." Anger spiked as her red eyes screened the men. "Any questions?" She felt the slightest of relief finger her mind for completing the report without bursting.
Gazes suspended on Kaname. He sat with arms locked over his thighs, one hand tucked under his chin and gaze coiling around Yuuki like raining towers.
She ducked. He watched waves of discomfort radiate in black ravishing clouds from her head and shoulders.
"Hmm. In the eyes of law, that makes me a free man." Kaname pinned Yuuki a hard, grueling stare.
"It does." She avoided him, and it didn't hurt or surprise him. Yuuki closed the folder and nodded to the others. "Well, gentlemen, I'm being summoned to the Council Office. Please, excuse me. I will meet you there in an hour." Sprinting for heaven, the door, she flung it open and footed out of sight.
He found her behavior odd, questioned the whys and whats at the back of his mind. She continued to push, block, and prevent confrontations with every fiber in her being. They resorted to silence instead. It was good for both.
When she ran into him as accidentally as the devious maids concocted in their candle lit room, which unexpectedly sported a silk laden bed, flower scattered hand basin and bathtub, outrageous clusters of exotic blood-tinged wine bottles, quixotically displayed lingerie's instead of her boring night robe. She clenched her fists and turned around.
Kaname stood with folded arms, looking puzzled but plagued by the dimension of thoughts the lingerie incited.
She crumbled the lacy garments and stuffed them in her drawer. It turned out the world mocked her because her drawer was overflowing with disastrous quantities of coquettish confections the maids believed would lure out her feminine fox. The maids never learned, and the surprise continued for weeks, to a point it was routine to trudge in the heavily candle lit room and sleep in silk after bathing in leftover flower pedals. A toiling workday at the Elders Council rendered in essential rest. They were mildly grateful for their demanding work schedule.
Kaname was always traveling and meeting appointments while she bustled around the council with Aidou. The schedule was functional, and both acquired a selfless responsibility to measure up individual tasks instead of a joint commitment. When she returned to the palace late at night, he'd steer through and show up three hours after, spend another two hours in his office and retire for the night. Side-by-side they'd both lie voiceless, motionless. A secret symphony and pact not meant to be broken from touch or talk. He'd sleep or wait for the candles to die. She'd recline because she was fatigued.
Except he smelled great and it haunted her when she closed her eyes. And he looked delicious with his hair dripping over the pillow in straight, fixed lines. The white collar of his shirt rubbed his soft throat, lucky enough to tickle the micro pores boring into the back of her eyelids. She couldn't skip out on the faint glow of his hands in the feverish moonlight. Each rested on his side, limp or ready on sheets. Her deviations forged for hours over countless things to do with his hands. Suck them, bite them, slip them within her labial lips, mold them around her breasts or simply let them run over her for hours in exploration. She could think for ages because sleep and she had become fast rivals where Kaname was concerned. She did imagine many things, new or old thoughts while gazing at his soundless, sleeping profile.
An impish knot vibrated in her throat. She looked over the unfiltered black hair on his pillow. A repetitive and one of many thoughts she had was being ready to give up life to stroke his hair, feel him through his clothes, test if he was real or a mirage from her dream, lick his body and watch him catch his breath like she knew he would whenever she touched him deliriously. She trembled and turned over, pushing her back toward him. Once situated, she counted sheep, grabbled for distractions from the apparent wetness between her thighs.
The pureblood senses were sensitive and astute. Chopping her head off was a better option than letting Kaname accuse her of viciously impure thoughts. Yuuki crossed her legs and spelled out nursery rhymes in her mind. It was supposed to be a success. She was sure it would be. Once she stopped salivating at the thought of licking his throat and other places that liked being licked. He was not new to her touch, neither was she, which proved to be a bigger problem. She held her breath and gaped at the walls.
Damn his soft hair, his nostrils and lashes. His indomitable mouth, all hot tongued, wet lipped and soft skinned. Damn the mile-long arms and legs, glowing like moonstones. That muscle padded chest with buttons for nipples and wiry-toned torso that bumped against the receptors of her tongue. The pliable pelvis previously plastered with her kisses and playful fingers neatly hidden from her starved eyes in pants. Damn the silk sheets and bright white walls, vigilantly taunting.
Why, so cruel?
It was frustrating. She wanted to scream.
He was frustrating. His smell, the white buttons of his shirt was frustrating, and his hands—the hands were a bigger culprit. They teased and trained her body of its wares. Knowing and expecting, her body wanted the torture in unwinding hours of endless caress. Yuuki buried her face in the pillow and thought she'd cry and beg him to fling everything between them, including the silence and stir a rambunctious wild mating session.
She jerked up from the bed after a series of position flipping, pillow punching, blanket kicking and distastefully decided it was useless to lie silent when without language or movement, Kaname overpowered and taunted her senses to delirium. No matter what amount of fatiguing work piled in her day, from onward she'd resist and wait out going sleeping next to him.
If he knew about her traumatizing insomnia, he didn't breathe a word. Previous situations on learning about her scandalized dreams compelled Yuuki to hide from him for days. He disapproved similar developments. At that, Yuuki was relieved the aftereffects of her sexual thoughts didn't conjure into a round two of embarrassing confrontations.
A respectable woman shouldn't express the blight of sexual frustration. She was one. So she wouldn't. Partially in fear of Kaname's reaction. Yet again she was positive he knew. The darn pureblood that he was just knew about everything.
It was later she realized he was good in the waiting game. He held out perfectly, patient and calm. If she didn't break the silence arching over their relationship, neither would he. He was stubborn like she, but he was mindful and respectful of her discomfort. And that's what thawed her heart, because his stares remained dutiful and loving across the room, his gentlest smile only lit up for her. It was constant and reassuring; however, lately all she could think about was his smell pervading their bedroom and office. And sex. Lots and lots of it.
One night the omniscient Kaname accidently touched her back. She burned and believed had turned into crisp right then. Her fried imprints glued to the sheets, waiting for him in the morning. The other night, their legs grazed and his breath brushed her left ear. She couldn't take it anymore and darted out of the room. Turning her office couch into a makeshift bed was adventurous. Possibly stunned the household and concerned maids, including spurred Lord Kuran to demand why she slept alone.
"Like you want to know." Yuuki scoffed at the Lord.
He waited in bewilderment, folded his arms and scowled. "Don't be bitter with Kaname."
"I'm not bitter." She threw herself on the cushions, beginning the battle for a comfortable position. "I can't sleep in there."
"Go sleep in your room before rumors spread you are fighting." He ordered.
She tipped her head with dreary eyes, "Don't tell me you always slept with your wife and didn't have trouble controlling yourself when certain activities weren't in order."
For eons his face didn't move. Finally he blinked, not at her, but at his shoes. "Ah. Hm."
"Leave me alone." Yuuki rolled into her cocoon of blankets.
"I will…uh." Lord Kuran gingerly picked his words, "Talk to Kaname?"
"Forget it."
"Well, ahem," Lord Kuran tapped his foot on the door sill, a tuneless, irrational dip of implied and restless thoughts sifting through avenues of solutions.
Although he didn't, she felt he was laughing at her. His tapping churned into a sardonic cackle. Holding his waist, he wheezed into a purplish blue shade from orotund laughter. Thrashing the blankets, she geared up and glared.
He stood stupefied. If he didn't know better, she resembled a beggar than a queen. Sleeping on impractical locations when the tired body wanted, he found the predicament no different than shooing abandoned pets begging for food on his doorstep. The Lord's mouth wrinkled from its steady, clear line. Never in his time had he encountered such discrepancies. Royal females were simple, doted their spouses. Commotions in the brink of the night never visited him where a wife chose a plastic couch over her husband.
Starkly he was reminded of his old, old age. He groaned and rubbed his forehead.
Yuuki lay back down like a tidal wave receding into sea. "Just leave me alone." Too exhausted to continue and too stubborn to change her mind.
"Kaname will disapprove."
She knew he would.
If faithful reason bated priority, he'd understand she was protective of herself. If she knew Kaname, he wouldn't mind her choosing what was best for her body. Not that a bed romp was unhealthy or harmful. The very opposite, in fact, and Kaname wouldn't refrain the implication.
When the sun slashed open the cover of night, Kaname briefly stopped by her office. Seeing her asleep, he leaned over the couch and retreated after moments, leaving her feeling lost and lonely with his dissipating form in the hall.
Duties at the Elders Council weren't onerously trudging. She expedited visits, resumed a studious stride through the day. Her monthly visitations in communities were provident, further enabling Yuuki insight of overlooked hardships.
One could imagine from his luxurious office—or not imagine—the difficulties rural life reaped in the outskirts of the city where cattle, horses and farmlands swept over hills. Councilmen and political executives didn't lend to the eye-opening saga of their troubles.
She was the first queen to manually walk through rice fields barefoot. Her hair knotted messily, locks dripping limply like black weeds over her cheeks and shoulders as she labored on knees and hands akin farmers. Personally she reveled with affection in the feeling of dipping her feet in the soggy, plush warm earth. Though rigorous and straining on the back, she knelt planting for hours.
In the evenings she aided making the elder's beds before her own and slept against the corroded cement. Despite the lack of furnishing in the rural huts, Yuuki felt at peace lying on the hard floor, hair falling in waves around her face and shoulders, gazing into the emptiness of the universe in the night.
There was no sexual frustration or insecurity but pure relief, and it was all she desired. The intense serenity swathed the village into sleep. Silence weaved and rippled over the world. Streaking gray paint over trees and fields. Even though she was sleeping in a man-made hut found from centuries past, it felt strangely an anomaly and at home to be in one. If only the door stopped creaking, she could sleep like the dead.
Glancing at her snoozing companion, her mouth flopped into a rueful frown.
Peering at the unruly portal, she slid up and crawled to the screen. Air fluttered harshly on the paper, she unlatched it open and moonlight tainted the darkness. Ropes of silver patterns dangled from the moon, catching over distinct legs, matt and stained footprints. She hunched over the opening, peering with thirsty eyes over the farmland and sleeping huts under whispers of moonlight.
It was exceptionally euphoric looking out into the slumbering world. Her eyes had accommodated to documents, tables, councilmen, and cameras. Engaging steadfast in the soothing epitome, the milieu nourished her eyes from repetitive mundane sights it had adapted to. She was touched, and it was all right to be so.
Movement accorded like beating rain clouds from inside. Yuuki whipped readily, her knees locked on the ground and fists tensed.
Twinkling silver dazzled over gold hair over a massaging hand on an eye. "What're you doing?" Takuma let out a magnanimous yawn to the world for awaking him from a deep sleep. "Aren't you tired?" He crouched on his knees, blinked over her fists and slapped his forehead. "Ugh."
He looked weak enough to be blown away by a breeze. She suppressed the urge to tip him backward with a finger on his chest and watch in amusement at what happened next.
"Why are you up?"
"Shouldn't I ask you that?" He sniffed, dabbed his eyes to eliminate the veil of sleep. The image reminded her of a lonesome puppy without a destination or name. Repositioning himself beside her on the doorstep, Takuma bolted his elbows on his knees and surveyed the land. "Can't sleep without Kaname?"
She cringed at the direction of the conversation. Sure enough, he caught her weasel around the hole. "What're you talking about?" The intimidating reality in the question deflated her spirits.
She didn't care to speak for her reaction was apparent like daylight, but Takuma wasn't a creature whose conceptions were devastating. He was chained to the identical dull ache as she. They were likeminded about certain arrangements, but still overcame differences through horizons and sunsets.
"I heard you don't sleep in the same room anymore." Casting her a wry look, baited by amusement, the corners of his lips shifted up at the touchy subject.
Narrow eyes sourly oozed on his profile in return. "People sure love to talk about our sleeping habits."
"Of course!" He nodded, not an inch of compassionate shame in the jeer. "We have to know whether our king and queen get along. Not only in the office but particularly in the bedroom. Specifics are important. You hold the future of our city." Takuma gestured to her waist, "The future of the Kuran clan too."
"It's no one's business." She miffed.
"Then…" Takuma raised his head to peer at the blinding stars. "What's different now? He is the same person he always was. His physical exams are normal. He… functions there proficiently."
"Ichijo!" She shoved him sideways, watched the well-deserved punishment when he railed into the wall.
The sound of skin peeled from wood tickled her ears. He dizzily returned, cradling his cheeks. "It's mandatory to deposit specimen at the Royal Health Service's order. To ensure his semen is... effective. You'd believe purebloods can outstand physical ailments but there's caution about reproduction. And Kaname is the last Kuran heir, it's important to him." Takuma defended.
She didn't want to inquire how the information was dispensed to him, yet if one was a member of the royal facility it was norm. Her own experience with the palace hospital was plain awful. Each visit imbibed needle prodding, uncomfortable inspection, comparing secretion colors, and the taxing maneuver to energize hormones through fertility medicine. The tactics were evermore shameless, each one overbearing and stupendously out casting the other. Kaname couldn't escape their gasps too.
"They sure know how to torture people." Yuuki mouthed, the soundproof wisdom of her words sprinkled for seconds and relaxed into seeds of truth. She looked at the web of stars.
A breeze flooded the farm.
"It's not that he is different." She whispered secretly into the night, the life of her words would terminate in the deft of early morning and light. She continued heedfully, taking care of each phrase. "I was happy when he came back, I still am. Seeing him every day is a gift I won't take for granted. He says he was in my subconscious from where he watched me struggle. He saw me from the inside, Ichijo. My weaknesses, my scars, my hates and fears. Things I can never say aloud. Things I don't want to admit."
"How is this bad?" Two stars pedaled into his vision, latched together into a single shimmer, ripping apart the black inked night through flashes of brilliance. Somewhere in the universe he imagined fireworks erupting. "He knows you better than before."
Hands from her heart turned the knob of her smile. She caressed the step with a fingernail. The back of her eyes felt full with sand. "I don't want him to do it again. Between us, he gets to do what he chooses without telling me. I did the same and confessed to everyone about my identity." Her nails caught the skin of her palm, flicking blood spots over the stair. "I can still feel his anger." The soles of her feet were torn, as was the muscle, the bone was beginning to melt. His fury was similar to walking barefoot on coal for seven hundred years.
The scent of tears and blood pinched his nose. Takuma looked to the side. "He forgave you, didn't he?" Eyes steering on the shadow spots next to her bare foot, the air ate away the blood in seconds.
"I want to confront him." She pressed her chin to her chest. "I want to tell him how much it hurt being away. How much I hated his giving me his powers. How cruel it was to be without him around. But…" The tears gushed, pooling over the dried blood, tinged with regret, ache, and all the guilt clobbering her heart. "He knows all of it. What can I say to him? What do I ask of him now? He has shown me he'd do just about anything to keep me safe—and I haven't done a thing!"
Takuma grabbed her shoulder. Stensed and pushed her head up.
Guilt stretched and morphed into her, becoming a limb of her body, always a part of her, always next to her, forever filtering its influence in her system. "I want to slap him!" She wailed to the stars.
"Shh, shh." He waved in placation, "You'll wake up the village." Hopping over the entrance, he dutifully searched for movement in huts and slipped back to her side.
Yuuki was doubling over in her hands, her tiny shoulders trembling and long hair bobbing back and forth. She continued uninterrupted, and it seemed until the stars' glimmer began to wane when she lifted her mucous smeared face to the inclining aurora. Takuma offered her his sleeve, but she politely wiped the moisture on her own arm. Sitting on her left, he hunched over with the weight of the world on his back, eyes solemn and jaw taut. They sat for a long time, if not in comfortable but companionable silence.
She didn't cry again, but he wasn't in a state of mind to make demands and didn't care if she did. Yuuki grounded her teeth and wrapped her arm around her waist.
"Why are we here?" His shaky question tickled to silence as dying fire on a metal.
Dragging him was crucial to her obligations. Her expeditious tasks left her zigzagging from one place to another. Unhesitatingly she barged in Kaname's office with Aidou, stopping mere inches from the table. Gaze stern and aloof from practicing in the mirror, a glaring misrepresentation that almost seemed juvenile and comical, strikingly incomparable to Kaname's perpetual self-discipline. Feeling revolted by her pretentious imitation, Yuuki magnified the distance from his table.
"Yes, Yuuki?" Kaname lowered the document he had been holding, pouring her with his complete and enamoring attention.
She didn't notice. "I'm taking Takuma!" Bellowing her war cry, she pranced in the lounging area and plucked the individual lolling in a chair. "We're trading Right Hands. Take Hanabusa!" Booting the blue-eyed in the office and snaking Takuma outside, she hoped she didn't come off too strong.
Takuma sulked the entire ride to the village. "Why do I have to go?" He pouted.
"This is good for you." Somehow resembling a domineering elder forcing a young one to follow in their footsteps, the situation was primarily relatable.
"I don't want to." Takuma tugged her arm piteously. "Let me goooo hoomee."
"You're coming with me, and that's that!"
He decided he never wanted to acquaint with her tyrant side. Takuma curled his hands sulkily, folded himself around his arms and slept against the window. There was no talk but the reposing ride prepared them for the hard work ahead.
He couldn't believe it at first. She was kneeling, slobbered in mud, looking atrociously disgusting in grime and worm residue. Hours of whimpering, stumbling around the farm, Takuma ached and twitched for a comfortable bed rest.
The amount of work hosed on him sucked the blood out of his eyes. He swayed with pails of water, floundered around squawking chicken, scampered from angry bulls and worst of all had to adapt to using a depression for a toilet. At first he couldn't move because he thought the villagers were playing a trick. They turned and walked away. Takuma eyed the hole meant to excrement deposits.
Late afternoon, he was begging Yuuki to take him back.
"I can't live here! Take me back." He shook her rougher than any earthquake known to land.
Yuuki pushed him on the matt and threw blankets over his head. "Sleep already, we have to wake up early."
For a nobleman he was awfully petulant and tugged her arm. "Please, take me back. I can't take it anymore. They told me to use the hole in the yard for...for...you know."
Yuuki folded her legs on the floor. "Don't you see the poverty of our people? These are the conditions they live in this century. And look at us "
"Look at me!" He clawed his head and eyes. "I can't take it anymore!" He shrieked.
She knocked him on the back of the head and settled it in her lap. "You're going no where unless I say so."
"Say it, say it," He munched grudgingly as she began massaging his scalp. "If I get out of here alive, I'll tell Kaname never to do what you want. I'll come between you two and consume his time away from you."
"Don't be ridiculous." She drove circles around his pulsing temples.
He clenched his eyes and focused on the motion. "I know..." Takuma tiredly sighed. "It's not fair of you to drop me here and let me suffer. I wasn't prepared."
"But are we ever prepared for tragedies to begin with?" The summation was despondent, drilling a hopeless attachment in each. He stilled in her lap, eyes cranked shut, and she figured he fell asleep. His silence said enough as she felt his shoulders unwind as well as the pulsating knot on his temples slip into remission.
Now sitting wide-awake in meager sunlight and distancing night, many questions delicately decorated their thoughts. Seas and galaxies entwined, loped, sprinted and forever sealed on polar opposites. She nudged her feet on the side of the stair. Mulishly Takuma waited for the scenery to illuminate in the balmy sun.
"I miss my parents." Yuuki greeted the rising cylinder of ray over the hills.
"I'm very angry and hurt because he didn't leave behind happy memories." Takuma said to the glowing clearing.
A fiery glaze of sunlight dribbled over her arm. Her eyes may have turned inside her body following the uncurling and uplifting heat that sedated and replenished her tormented soul. The burning colors pooled and formed clusters upon clusters of saturated delight, milking away the aches of her bones and muscles, tightening gashes of wounds and patching other irregularities. She opened her eyes to the bluish sky, reborn and tremendously warm.
Compared to her, Takuma wasn't fairing well with the sun. He flinched, shielded his face and averted, cringing from the brilliance. Her hand skipped over the empty porch and wrapped reassuringly around his wrist.
"Don't focus on the light, focus on the heat." He heard her say through the peevish spasms of discomfort he attempted to hide. He chose to relax in the comfort of her words and loosened his taut arms, kept his head lowered with closed eyes and let the sun bathe him completely.
She watched the colors of his hair shimmer brighter than the sun itself and smiled.
He stiffened, capriciously alert and stumped. Ordinary vampires only rarely when compelled lingered in the sun. He freed from his usual demeanor and stayed put, in spite instincts bit him in the back of his mind to run. True to that, an instinctive creature like he would scramble out of the sun as quickly as possible for shelter. Takuma felt rather odd in the radiation.
Her encouraging compliment lifted his spirit nonetheless. He hoped his actions weren't sardonic toward his old habits, but it was normal to avoid sunlight, and Yuuki being the single creature who adored it from the first day. Her genes were variably different most believed. Sunbathing beside her, silently, Takuma consented to the theory.
Heat dug into his skin like claws, a sensation uncommon and strange to him. Takuma rubbed his arm lazily, testing the temperature.
"I said we're made of mud. Look at the ground, it needs sun for nourishment too."
Takuma dropped his hand; the sound of his nails scraped the stair. "Is it because we drink blood why we turn to dust when we die?" He tried to answer her previous question from days ago.
Yuuki hesitantly smiled, "Who knows, we also live longer because of blood. Some have extreme powers and some don't." She watched his shoulders hunch even more. The strength in them weakened by the weight of her observation. "Did I say something disturbing?"
"It makes me wonder," He pondered over the flowers balancing in the breeze two yards away. "Is it because we live long why we start to hurt others?"
"Kaname says, you have to be skeptical. I don't know why some hurt others. I don't know why my onii-sama had to be a victim, but we have to remember the good things to stop ourselves from following in their steps."
He looked ready to weep and ducked her stare.
Yuuki inhaled deep in her lungs, the air was empowering and full of life again. "I brought us here because we need to heal. The best way to do it is by giving. Give all you have from the bottom of your heart, even if you happen to cry it's good to know you don't have to do it alone."
Even though he wasn't willfully invigorated by her resolution, he grew to understand the crucial weight in the meaning to why they came to the village inundated with deprived and poor vampires. Next to blood, the indigenous tribe exercised cultivating lands and grossly dependant on iron-fueled foods. Their innovative standards facilitated the necessities in living and acquiring blood, instead of solely depending on blood tablets, a secondary rescue meal to vampires in the city, including the Royal Palace.
Since most involved in strenuous tasks during the day, they retired in the night. Another astonishingly adaptable schedule licking Takuma's eternal surprise. A fool for not giving their way of life a good hearing at first, Takuma gradually accepted all challenges, mainly work suitable for the muscular gender and aided with a humility and nobility that exceeded custom. It came to be the more services he offered, the more they cared and loved him. Within the tremulously tiring hours he stayed in their company, the capsule of pain enclosed around his heart melted, succumbing to Yuuki's advice about staying in company when the soul was wounded.
During those hours, he processed mind-crawling facets never occurred to the likes of noble vampires. All of the villagers were blind to hate, vengeance, even anger as if their souls were cleansed and incandescent pure shimmering through darkness with its pale emptiness.
He was vaguely turned off by the conclusion, sprouting lumps of indebt confusion for living a life attached to feelings nurtured by controlled negativity, the security in insecurities was easily terminable if he saw fit, only that it was reigned by a tenacious guard from outside intrusion. He found no significance in covering the insecurities any more. If by living a life seasoned by man-made hatred was his purpose, it made living all the more worthless and repugnant. He wouldn't have lived at all were he a pawn to someone else's acrimony.
Stunned for the first time, Takuma realized that it was how he had lived all this time. Tweaked and turned like a tie around a rope, stretched and suffered from another's controlling hands. A sour feeling embedded in his bones, rotting his organs as he sat immobile in a hut far from the palace, far from his childhood, in a place that held no memories but restrung, replayed, rewound everything that needed a second appraisal and chance. He was sick to his stomach, but he was patient with solid legs and fluid hands that was always needed in the farmland.
Under the shade of his hat, Takuma looked up to find Yuuki. So much like himself, tired but trying to sow wounds.
I hate flies. Yuuki swatted the infernal insects off her clothes and hair.
The skin on the back of her neck was raw rouge from sunburn. No matter what layers of hat and scarves adorned, the radiation permeated and scraped her sensitive skin. Another buzzing bacteria on wings whizzed by her ear.
A frustrated howl later, the queen dwelled in a fistfight with the wind, muttering unintelligently all the while. If spectators were curious, they merely stood back, admiring her skills. She plopped like a deflated balloon on the floor in futility, shoulders and chest heaving and locks of hair whipping from breaths.
Hesitantly examining her neck with palpable fingers, she grunted miserably. It was not her day but it was one day out of several days spent ailing about how torture snuck hour per hour, taunting and shredding her control to idle dust, never meant to be and pointless. She bent over her to inspect her manure-covered boots and hissed at the sharp stench of what was the horse's dinner and breakfast after digestion and excretion.
Hate horse shit too! She wanted to kick something. Unwisely hissing and mumbling, slanted her foot and rammed it repeatedly against the box she'd occupied prior.
She continued for a good thirty seconds and let her fury relapse. Truly she wasn't molded for labor despite it was self-inflicted. She hadn't been wired for the tough out doors. However the effort paid off when the people beamed and slept happily in huts.
One of the girls was sweet enough to apply ointment on her burned skin. She bent forward on the floor at night, head between her knees, and let her thoughts twist in circles she drew on the floor as the girl massaged her skin gently. Grateful though she was but still unable to sequester and sodden the thoughts of Kaname if he were to extend a simple stroke of his tongue, rendering her good as new. Slick, wet and warm memories nibbled the corners of her thoughts, roaring and bombarding every bit of sentinel gathered with Kaname over the weeks. She gave a wistful sigh to the creeping night and forced her mind to blank.
"It's done, Joousama." The generous female came to a stand, dipped into a dance-like bow and smiled luminously in the cast of firelights. "If you need anything else, do let me know. I'll be happy to assist you again."
Something about the characters in the village was smartly creamed with sincere helpfulness and love toward strangers. The girl made true to the thought. "Thank you, Ari-san." Yuuki relieved the girl of services and watched her divide from the somnolent flickering candle and pricks of moonlight through the doorstep. Her throat felt scratchier than sand paper.
The stay hadn't been irksomely longer than her previous stops. In resignation she came to wonder every now and then whether it was too late to sneak back into the palace, in the sheets Kaname's occupied and hug him before sunrise relinquished her secret. The smell of hay, dung and sweat would stain his clothes, without words or symbolism he'd understand the quintessential desperation of a haggard wife missing her spouse in a rural village in the outskirts of the city. Still, doubt blazed like a fever, and she questioned if purebloods felt limited and sensitive when separated from significant others. From the shallow waters of memory, Yuuki remembered Shizuka-sama remarking purebloods didn't have these so called affects.
Then, Kaname was probably doing super by himself. Hmph.
Yuuki growled uncharacteristically, began to rid her self of filthy clothes with strength too destructive for the tedious task. She moved in silence alone, wading through firelight as if moving through deep waters, gravity chaining her body, sank in her fresh hakama on her matt grouchily. What an outlandishly bad day.
Wet feet padded up the porch and through the entrance, Takuma didn't announce his presence and resumed going about his nightly routine of drawing his matt, pulling over blankets and lay in a daze in the corner. Sharing a hut with the wife of a revered friend was odd. Their camaraderie flourished but he felt starkly responsible for the arrangement thanks to his unrelenting mistrust on their first day in the village. He didn't want to be away from his charge, Yuuki.
Similarly weeks rolled afterwards but now the trust invested in the villagers was guaranteed, and he didn't need protection or Yuuki's tranquil conversations. Habit haggled and won lastly. Prompting him to return to the shared hut, but she was mute and it reminded him so much of him-self from the earlier week. Takuma hoped his presence lent her some form of support. True to that, their relationship was one like brother-sister, each protective of the other.
He started by tossing the blanket and sat up. In the rustle Yuuki chose to scoot in her mat, a drained sigh leaked out of her quivering soul. Permanent silence crowded the room, and then Takuma spoke.
"Are you all right?"
She answered the question many times before and gave the same ones to him during the stay, the question itself profited as a familiar song from childhood. "I'm fine. You?"
He tilted his head in thought, finally conjuring an answer, "Not bad. Are you sure? You don't look ok."
"It's nothing." Yuuki rolled over, away from his eyes and the fire. Another silence poured and popped like blisters. She saddled up and looked intently at Takuma. The firelight tinged his usual pale façade in orange. "Can I ask you something?"
Readily leaning forward, he nodded, "Sure."
"You always accompany Kaname. Have you ever heard him say he missed someone?"
Takuma scratched his nose and sniffed. "That's a hard one." He admitted after contemplation, "I suppose he does but doesn't say so."
"Suppose?" Rang Yuuki's flat, dubious call from the other side.
"I wish I can read his mind. He doesn't expose feelings, only speaks in tangents and abstracts it takes time getting used to." Breath held, he layered his eyes on the floor, sighing. "Sorry, I'm not much help." Trying to redeem the morose conversation, he added empathetically, "But he loves you ver—"
"I know." The sound of Yuuki's voice buried in pounds of lack-luster memory and sadness lanced the room, breaking his lithe bones into immeasurable pebbles.
"Don't worry." Takuma tried again. "Trust him."
"It's not about trust," She lingered over her words, looking up with saturated eyes, "I've never doubted him. The day he broke his engagement with Sara Shirabuki and came to me, he showed me where he wanted to be. I was scared for him. To be honest, he really has a feral nature and comes off irresponsibly nonchalant it can get annoying. He does frequently, and I just wish he'd care about himself more." Her nails were intriguing as it occupied most of her attention while she continued, "He never talks about his parents or hidden things, and it makes me curious what he thinks. He had the opportunity to get inside my mind. I have to keep guessing what's inside his."
"You shouldn't worry, Yuuki-sama." He sounded older than he truly was, "No one can force another to open up if they don't want to. You have your entire life to uncover and learn about him better, what's the rush?"
A burning emotion hooked high in her throat, she coughed in the stillness. "We, noble-blooded vampires, don't live longer than purebloods."
The sheen in his eyes ignited in glitters in the light. Silently waning, he turned away as if he glimpsed something he shouldn't have. "Those things shouldn't matter. There's nothing we can do about how long we live. Kaname will be fine." The air in the room twisted and growled lowly, a crouching cat waiting to execute a life-snatching blow on its prey. He shifted uncomfortably on the matt, dampened by the dour, tensed air. "Is... Is that why you came to the village?"
She held her head in trembling hands, uneven shoulders covered beneath the large hakama. She looked and felt small, smaller than a depleted worm gliding in mud, seeking shelter. "I'm avoiding him."
His reaction wasn't a reaction, holding him self lifelessly in the corner, ingraining and tearing the statement for solutions. Nothing came to him, so he asked suddenly, "Why?"
"Don't ask me why." Fatigue shouted from her broken vocal cords. Yuuki frowned at the ceiling, her toes curled, and fingers clenched the blanket, trying to seep any elements of Kaname in the material. She remembered his shoulders, liquid black-brown hair dripping through her fingers, his warm mouth and soft voice. Both her body and mind begged for him like food. She dumped her head in her arms, wallowing in its cradle, "I miss him."
• * •
Hours and days spun reluctantly at the council. The news, or the lack of about Yuuki and Takuma's return from their extensive stay in the village made days plow around unusually longer. Excessive public attention zoned on Kaname, no surprise there. Whether good or bad, his deeds to the council snapped outstanding duties to full circle, enabling Kaname to accomplish all he desired, including regaining his seat in his office, mastering the skill of relearning the representatives and motions of his Chamber, as well as the new Royal Cabinet administered by Yuuki's trusted ally, Masaru.
Unending hours of meetings with political reps fused days into light and dark, making the difficult passing of time less prolonged. He relegated sleep to spend time working at the council and barely left his groomed office. Yuuki's possessions waited around his desk watchfully. Pinning him down into depression he had no time to be in. The ordeal drastically worsened the already resistant time, and his mood turned bitter and blacker.
Still no damn news about their return.
He drew loose circles at the notion of landing on the village site. Intrigue numbed responsibility at the aspect of what held her there. Whispers barked from councilmember's about her refusal to return. Sparked by the resentful rumor of their sleeping arrangements and finalized into a malice echo of a rocky marriage.
Returning from resumption caused their relationship to be awkward, or she lost interest waiting for him. Kaname was not one to believe illogical rumors spurning value and consideration of its subjects and resumed his duties. Yet the vulgarity in the whispers sunk viperous fangs at the back of his mind, disabling him of innateness of forget and remaining apathetic about such nuisances. Only the rumors were about his wife, mocking him in irreverent designs he never experienced before. This made it all the more infuriating.
And so the majority of council avoided his office due to his pernicious aura for weeks. Aidou was value-proof to him as he moped like a lost puppy, betrayed and traded for a newer item in the market. He stayed by Kaname's side, nonetheless, his favorite place to be, but the shadow around his dead-blue eyes suggested he disliked being abandoned in the manner Yuuki had magnificently done to them both.
"Order them back and lock her up." He spat one day, chewing on venom at the thought of how she took off with Takuma. "Put her in the territory. You did it before, no problem doing it again."
Kaname was gracefully penciling something over a previous mark Yuuki appended. He lingered over her touch soundlessly, absorbing remnants of her scent and emotion on the day he drank her thoughts from her subconscious in a time so angrily lost and unfulfilling he tasted misery on his tongue.
"You just returned from a coma. She shouldn't be going off to places without consent. Who knows when they're coming back?"
Evenly measured movements turned the documents over and skimmed another. Lost in the wilderness of ink on paper, Kaname designated certain amount of minutes on clauses in the report and checked it off with another signature.
Aidou sulked in a chair somewhere in the depth of shadows, his efforts rendered fruitless. Silly as the colors of his jealousy ran, the intransient objection regarding her insensible actions defeated the original genesis.
In Kaname's absence, she depended on Aidou and hadn't chosen someone else over him. His rightful place was to watch over her, and she'd never dismissed him. A chain of emotions strapped him in the chair, he didn't have the power to move or solve the bleeding feelings ebbing into his veins. Redemptive, angry and hurt, it scaled and punctured him from front to back. He caved inside his skin, feelings his bones shrink.
Kaname's nose tickled in the known scent. He didn't look up when he broke the silence. "You like Yuuki."
His nails drilled holes through the leather armrests. Sweeping the patches a scorned look, he listened to the secret sigh escaping his lips. "Everyone likes her, don't they? Not to sound arrogant but she preferred me than other Right Hands, turned to me for help. I was the first person she came to. What changed?"
In three years she transformed into a candidate noble of her role. He had found her jagged in clusters, took her and sharpened her into a sculpture. Allowing her the degree of independence was mandatory for her job, but she was also very personal with adoring citizens that regular appearances were a wise investment. An entire city and Council of Ancients were vigil of her actions from morning to sunset.
It was impossible to own someone of high demand, and in that, Kaname didn't object, as he was an immediate example. However she became more of a political depositor than a wife. He was crossing fingers in anticipation to have his wife back, not someone obligated solely to the public. The wait was long, but he wasn't one to ridicule about a time to reap his rewards, which could be tomorrow or a century, and she made time hard to endure for him.
"She changed." Kaname whispered.
"I didn't trust her at first." Aidou slowly muttered. "But you kept helping her."
"Am I someone in need of your permission for certain actions?"
Aidou jumped, "No!"
"Do my motives traipse beneath your expectations?"
Astonished, the Right Hand frantically adjusted his tongue for proper speech and avoid stuttering. "Kaname, never!"
"My purpose for refusing to kill and instead marry her was sound."
His lungs shrilled as he choked for a breath. "Yes."
"Clearly she's a queen who can dismiss any one at will."
"Yes?"
Kaname lanced him a cool red stare. "Get out."
He balked. "Wh-why?"
The stare steeled, and Aidou felt the floor underneath him whimper. He bowed out of the office wordlessly.
He was a pureblood king commendable enough to win the favors of councilmember's, a nice treat for his recent resumption, if real. As he assessed each member in the boardroom, he sank in the vagueness of being ridiculed by a fair share. The smell of mockery bleached inanimate objects, nervously breached his nose, and despite the day started in usual blandness with members conscious of duties, not needing his instructions, he could've walked off inexplicably and refused to sit amongst those looking down on him, which they were.
Perhaps it was letting Yuuki take over on his behalf. His defective prowess linked to letting adversaries render him comatose, or biased suspicion he lost his powers. Surprise as the public and council was when he admitted being attacked, this by proxy, stirred speculation about his powers, hence, expounding ridicule.
Mountains and geysers of terribly brute modes of discipline warped to mind; he had good reason to, no king worked with scorning people.
Stoically Kaname reviewed the group and stilled. The dense scent slithered, peeled open its poison in uncontrolled explosions. Someone was nervous. Not just someone but a fellow and endearing comrade of the former Council Head.
He shrank little ways out of Kaname's scrutiny, eyes burrowed on the fine print in paper, rotting with deceit right before his eyes. He waited like silkworm coiling silk or for a moon to bellow over darkness. A long smirk twinkled on his grim lips at last. His objective became unimaginably easier.
"Good evening, Lord Kichiro." Greeted the pureblood king in sardonic marvel. "It's been a long time."
The Lord whisked his nose low in response, "Hai, good evening, Kuran-sama."
"I trust you've been holding up well in my temporary absence. You see I look forward to improvements a great deal around here. Don't you agree?"
Refraining from fidgeting, he replied as collectively as possible. "H-Hai." The nervousness emulated from the vampire, black ink over pure water, and him drowning in tugging waves circulated by hungry sharks.
"What are your opinions on Yuuki's work?" Kaname picked his wires with delicate perfection.
"She has performed well, Kuran-sama."
"Really?"
The Lord squirmed at the rancor swimming in Kaname's voice. "O-Of-Of course. She has been splendid."
He protruded an elbow on the table, draped a knuckle under his chin, watching the color in the Lord's face drain. "Hmm, unfortunately I don't agree." The room came to a stop but he took no regard. "Certain missions in desperation for attention were neglected. Certain pretenses were overlooked. Certain spoiled hands were left untouched. And certain people who shouldn't be here remain to be."
Members shivered in seats at the remark. The nervous scent spilled unstoppably as the Lord hunted for a handkerchief to wipe the stream of perspiration on his eyebrows. Steadily returning the king's pointed stare, the Lord waited with clenched teeth, listening to the thread of life as it shot off into unknown waters baiting something traitorous. He waited for the brush of blade hovering the thread, a meager touch, and he'd be good as dust.
Kaname's cold eyes lapped the man, in one moment he looked to the side, attention engaged in other matters, let the Lord return to stable breathed calm, hoping for too much too damn soon. Out of the corner of his eye, Kaname noticed him relax, and his mouth curled far back to reveal the width of razor fangs. The Royal Cabinet leaned knowingly away from the grimacing aura above the pureblood with potency for death. Somewhere in all the motionlessness, the white of his fangs glinted.
Lord Kichiro felt his skin rip like paper. The roar of life faded out of his ears and the room melted into darkness.
Several seconds leaped, fear smothered the room occupants as the heap of dust in the chair appeared in a river of smoke. There was a forceful silence pleading for answers at the carcass, but none composed courage to ask the king for his actions. In the end, the silence recounted by gentle rustling of papers and those in Kaname's eye range refused to move a muscle.
Masaru looked dreadfully at the pureblood, fists clenched and fangs bared in the struggling bout of what had just occurred. It proved to no one to speak but sit in terror around Kaname, who still had fangs hanging over his mouth, and the deadly sheen in his dim eyes holding them prisoner.
"You all seem abject by what was simply a demand I made clear." Kaname said to the intricately motionless councilmember's who merely seconds ago raised eyes of illogical mockery his way. "It would be your queen's prudence to avoid debauchery by depending on these persons who aren't welcome in my board room." A judgment was passed and the room inspected themselves. Kaname smirked against a knuckle, an unhealthy sinister smirk jerking their guards to surface. "I know which of you is my rival and which is not. The consequences speak for themselves and your queen exerted a filtering system before my return, some passed guilt-free and others weren't challenged enough. I will right those wrongs."
No more was it a question about profusion and power. Kaname was indeed snake-skinned and wintry. Easily adaptable of climatic ordeals that would simply blow away millions of low-leveled vampires. No more did doubts and suspicions brew because he'd denigrate it into paucity the council and cabinet could live without. Somehow it was about time a host of his caliber outsmarted the system. Yuuki was commendable and lovely, yes, nothing wrong with those attributes, but she could never conquer the boardroom as sufficiently and ingenuously as Kaname. For it was a right, and he worked his talents with inscrutable grace, overwhelming threat, taunting nerve and invigorating gallantry.
As the ropes of Kaname's authority resurged, tying around the city and politics, Lord Masaru contemplated the existence of his role in the cabinet and council. By far he was up righted by Yuuki's courage and vision. However since Kaname's resurface his reason for staying shriveled. Yuuki would be disappointed but he was in his state, an old ruined vampire who witnessed a plethora of revolutions. She wanted a cohabitation with humans and vampires. One damaging and frightening dream to dream, nonetheless, Yuuki was young and bright like her brother, and it was not lost on him how devastating deaths could be. He wasn't interested in Yuuki's or the fall of their kingdom by any means.
As Kaname bolted the locks on the council with wicked diligence, Lord Masaru wondered if the king and queen were in their right minds. In her absence, Kaname was downright upset, annoyed, a little tarnishing toward all presence.
"Lord Masaru." Ruby eyes crept from the document upon the aged vampire as Kaname tipped his chin against a digit. "You are the one Yuuki left in charge and sought advice from?"
He doubled into a bow. The energy of the room nervously nibbled the back of his hands and neck. His presence wasn't receiving particular appreciation from the king either. "Yes, Ousama."
"Yuuki has written about you highly in her reports. You are one of her first resources." He remarked, returning back to the document passively. "How do you feel about it?"
Lord Masaru uncertainly looked up, searching for the spoken words on Kaname's face. His stare was steep as trails and immutable as mountains, difficult to maneuver and discover. "Honored."
"Considering you're affiliated with the clan that contributed to the curse eradication, she had legitimate reason to trust you."
"I've done everything in my power to treasure that trust."
Kaname's porcelain features shattered into a smoldering mix of disgust and rivalry. "How did you remove Asato's alliance? Some are deeply rooted in the council and remain invincible. I see here you only fired them, an arbitrary conformance plan you administered."
"Yuuki-sama and I believed it was best not to subject these members to any punishment. A simple disengagement from all ties with the council and political system seemed fit." Masaru endured the crippling glare for another second before memorizing the detail of his leather shoes.
"Do you know why I'm not pleased with your arrangement?" He leaned slightly in his chair, one hand hung upon the armrest while the other stayed over the parchment. Light flashed and flames burst over the report pile.
Masaru meagerly retreated from the table at the fire.
"By letting these people live, you've given them an opportunity to continue their objective. The crown is their enemy. Yuuki and I are their targets. They touched me and damaged me while they could, and it'd be foolish of me to let something as ridiculous as my death or Yuuki's occur because they weren't eliminated. Do you understand?"
"I sincerely apologize for my mistake, Ousama." Masaru shuddered. "I hadn't thought of that."
"Find the remaining members of Asato's alliance and kill them immediately."
Masaru bowed on one knee, "Yes, Ousama."
• * •
For the longest time, she looked as if she were bloated with humor and forgotten accordance in new company. The laughing lines around her mouth darkened in tension as a dignified glow seeped in her silver eyes. In that stark second, she dwelled in silent inner laughter. Schemes of her heart loosened its frigid tightness, like ropes uncoiling, letting the finality of amusement magnify in her body. Only that there was no hint of laughter and her posture on the couch was immobile as the rest of the room, and it would be the company's own imagination of her laughing her heart out.
Shamefully Yuuki dusted the leaves and dust from her collared shirt. Her mud-stained slacks reeked of earthly saliva and bugs, looking more like a country nutcase than queen.
"I thought about coming to see you before heading back to the palace." She reasoned in the ticking silence. Sharply clearing her throat and steadying her shoulders, Yuuki bore a look of determination at the milky haired female. "Kaname is awake. You said you'd come back when he returned. Isn't it time you hold up to your word?"
Shizuka cradled her chin in one hand and turned away.
"Haru oji-sama is also waiting for you earnestly. It would be great if you could see Kaname. He'd like that."
"He is no child." As if her words had screeching wings, they rained over Yuuki like pebbles. "After deciding to turn himself in to protect you, both of you lost my support. I have no wish to go there. He can do whatever he likes."
"Three years..." Yuuki mumbled, "It's been three hard years. To you it was nothing but it was awful for me. We have need of you, Great Queen."
She had settled in the country. A great distance from scrutiny and her delirious husband. For the most part, she was comfortable in the peripheries. Upon removing herself from the royal family, Shizuka waited quietly in peace. Then Kaname's return was announced and she hesitated running back, but Yuuki's steadfast appearance in her country home was something unordinary and unimaginable. She didn't think the queen cared anymore nor had expendable time to scout her out for hours of persuasion.
"Don't take your promise back." Yuuki raised her voice in warning, "You can come back now. I was hoping you'd reply my letters. Although I was the catalyst of Kaname's downfall, you have to understand I was willing to turn myself—"
"Leave." Shizuka barked. "I can't give you the respect you haven't earned. Your wanting to turn yourself in isn't important. Kaname threw himself in the fire while you continued living lavishly. Do you think it can be repented? You should apologize to Kaname instead of rubbing your face on my feet."
Out of the corner of her eye, she noted Yuuki tremble. "What does it feel like pushing someone to their limits, tearing the life out of them and living after they're gone? He resorted to give you the perfect punishment and let you suffer alone—isn't that what you wanted? Suffer for being alive? To pay for the sin for lying about your identity?" Smirking snidely in the pause, her gaze narrowed on the queen's downturned face. "Can't stand listening to what I'm saying? If it's too much then get out."
"No." Snagging courage, Yuuki lifted her moistened eyes toward the pureblood. "Please continue."
Shizuka cackled for once. "You have no pride."
"Yes. I stayed alive when Kaname wasn't conscious. I was fine when he wasn't. It's true. But I lived harshly. Pushing myself everyday until I collapsed, refusing blood but hurting those I care around me in order to acquire it. I never slept. I hated returning to our room or using his office. Everything constantly reminded me of what I did to him—
"I lived in that burden every second. I'm not guilt free, but this incident will scar us forever. Who are you to judge our relationship? Each crack in this marriage is because of our decisions, and we'll manage it ourselves. If there is anything good that evolved, it was to make me stronger. And I have become what he needs." Never mistaking her anger, she marched out of the parlor without another word.
Leaving was the best feat on her behalf. If she lingered exhausting in what feasible proof to whisk Shizuka back, she might as well trudge into the seven seas and drown. At first she walked in beaming vivaciously to drag the pureblood back to the kingdom she abandoned. Her fluency in indifference didn't flatter her overall appeal. Though immodestly powerful, Shizuka ought to invest a great deal of time in personable activities to shape her communication with others. It was one fact that purebloods were blood curling arrogant and evil, but it was another witnessing it frequently.
And so Yuuki indulged in the calm and nurturing presence of citizens then, finding various resources and outlet into lifting her own spirit that was otherwise doused by increments of black pureblood mood. About now she didn't have patience for like-minded purebloods such as Shizuka, and if Lord Kuran taught her anything over the years, his continual insistence on being avant-garde with spectators was to result in something positive. She didn't know what, and he'd break an arm rather than divulging.
Reputation was gold, silver and gemstones to the prolific, needing care and kept in prime condition for it to glimmer and accentuated the individual. If worn correctly it'd have the desired effect. Yuuki had concerns for glamorizing her profile. Being an elite and on good terms with the Elders Council, not only citizens but the world also preserved her in their watch, all attesting a non-pureblood queen's limit. The attention made the pit of her stomach steam and thaw to goo. She was nervous, no more a tenacious habit before a great performance.
The fact that half of Japan and Pacific Ocean was under the cohabited authority of Kaname and Yuuki painted overseas in curiosity about a pureblood taking a noble wife. At least this broadened conventional barriers and that a noble blood didn't need to avert from elite roles.
If she was willing to coronate only then was the title of queen official hers. She was one by name because it satisfied an impulse when signifying her as Kaname's wife. Lord Kuran graciously reminded he wouldn't orchestrate the event since Kaname's return. Knowing his terse nature, Kaname would swing on full motion, hauling her to the event whether she liked it or not. If she stated her aversion, she'd bring herself self-infliction, and for reasons Yuuki didn't want to admit, his reaction would justify her disadvantages.
When her thoughts ruled on Kaname, her world clouded with visions and dreams. Living in the village for nearly a month, her odd subconscious concocted a range of visions of Kaname as the wealthiest farmer with the largest crop land who caught eyes with a lonely servant girl named Yuuki and kidnapped her to make her his. Then, he was a scarecrow, and she a crow who fell in love with him. Suddenly he was a foreigner venturing into new land and a Pocahontas Yuuki protected him from her village father. Once he was a thief who stole her out of her home in the dark of the night. When gathering firewood Yuuki came upon a wounded solider and helped Kaname regain his health. A soft touch, short glances later and they fell in a hot love affair—later learning he was already married!
She was going to have an ulcer with these shameless dreams.
Groggily, Yuuki sat up in her makeshift cot and hissed. "This is worse than hot steamy dreams I usually have!" All of her dreams revolved around him. "I think it's time to go home."
"Do you know you talk in your sleep?" Takuma mumbled from the other hemisphere of the room.
Miserably covering her face, Yuuki whimpered. "I'm sorry if you heard anything strange."
"Makes me wonder if Kaname is used to this sort of thing." He chuckled. "He's not very lenient and nice toward us. What is his reaction when he finds—"
She slung her pillows and hit him on the head. "You won't tell anyone of this."
"I won't tell anyone of this." Takuma nodded innocently and flipped over.
Kaname's reaction never complimented her dreams, not in the beginning at least. He'd accuse her of lascivious thoughts, wryly smirk and walk away. When she least expected him to be concerned and without consideration of time and place, he'd debrief her on obvious scenarios and take advantage of her. Deep inside of her body, her organs shivered in a fading thought of being close to him. Ruefully tossing bed scenes out of her head, Yuuki glared at her comrade.
Takuma's mood alleviated when it was departure time the next afternoon, but leaving behind the pleased but sad people made her bones tremble. She had been well loved and returned the favor through labor work and story telling.
Takuma slanted his cheek against a hand and studied Yuuki for half a minute. "What happened to your clothes? The chauffeur didn't pack your suitcase in the truck."
"I gave them up." She shrugged.
"What?" He sat up.
"I distributed my clothes and jewelry between the girls and women. Seven of them are getting married in the next few weeks." She exclaimed. "I had to give them something." Sitting back she confessed shyly. "They kept blushing and asking me nervously what marriage life is like. Hehee, cute."
Takuma couldn't help but raise a brow in intrigue. "And what did you say, Joousama Kuran Yuuki?" He leaned forward. "Mention any dream side affects you suffer from?"
She chewed her bottom lip and blinked glaringly his way. "If you bring it up again, I'll kick you out of this car."
"No worries!" He waved, "I won't tell a soul about your dreams. Proomise!"
For lack of a better reaction, Kaname's eyebrows continuously kept inclining as he digested the information. Coming face-to-face with his honorary Right Hand after a month, he waited composedly for Takuma to finish. With untouched yet amused eyes, Kaname watched the blond stream into details.
Then he smiled so quietly, so mysteriously, so uniquely self-indulgent that it seemed to be something only Kaname could do. It wasn't almost even a smile. A faint wiggle of the mouth, the corners tickled by Takuma's elucidation and fell back in its original thin line.
"Please don't tell Yuuki-sama I told you. She'll kill me." Takuma emphasized, "I promised not to tell. But I felt the subject should be brought to your attention considering it involves you." Blushing hopelessly with distraction, he added, "You can use this to eliminate nuisance rumors about your troubled marriage."
Although it was not his habit to talk behind other's backs or gossip, Kaname was noxiously tempted to tease Yuuki with the delicious information. She won't weather nicely about the patterns of his discovery but it may soothe wrinkles of distance wiring around their relationship.
"Thank you." Kaname resumed perusing a letter. "You may go."
"You're not upset I left?"
"The less distractions, the better."
"Oh, yes, I see, true." He retreated from the desk, humming in speculation with him self. "But you did miss—"
If it had happened at a later time, Takuma wouldn't have a clue about the sources of Kaname's current events. Shortly after returning to the Elders Council, he harped about his new knowledge of Yuuki's dreams and spontaneity while sharing a hut in the village. Expectedly they grew close like brothers and sisters. Yet an ounce of fear spawned in Takuma's heart at the transpiring glare from Kaname, he admitted to amending the situation and had offered to let her stay in the hut alone. Yuuki disagreed and requested him to stay by her side. Kaname only calmed after the last remark.
Now there were other primarily unfortunate and disturbing news stalling around the council since his leave. With Kaname's return, imminent adjustments sparked council regulations and systems. Compliance laws were amended, more specifications in departments were appended, and each employee received furious scrutiny. Those with previous affiliation with Asato were brought to Kaname particularly. Almost all of those who were called were never heard from or seen again.
Takuma finally understood why it happened to be so.
The entering individuals were two prestigious and committed Noble vampires whose ancestors, at some point in the past, were the founders of the Elders Council. Their usual grace appealed to those who cared, and Takuma felt his knees sink a little in a soft bow before the esteemed creatures. Something about their gritty and immaculate bearing set a different tone to the sudden meeting. Kaname hadn't indicated earlier about the appointment.
Lord Masaru slowly entered and closed the door. He locked hard eyes with Takuma briefly and towed toward Kaname's side.
"As you requested." Lord Masaru bowed and retreated sharply to an anonymous corner.
Fazed to be in the scene, Takuma searched the occupants and rested eyes on the daunting noble vampires.
"To what extent did your association with Asato breach?" Kaname questioned, not a silver of patience or delicacy in his growl.
"Ousama!" The larger of the nobles wagged his palm over the desk, "Asato Ichijo was a dutiful Head who led us through trying times over the years. His philosophy reinvested in the council's mission. It was you who overstepped boundaries. He was right to put you in prison! Since his death, the council is straying from its original purpose."
"He is right, Ousama." Agreed the second noble immediately, "We can't understand what's happening to the council, it's not the same it once was."
"Were you or were you not affiliated with the attack in the cellars?"
They gaped at Kaname for a moment, finally one whispered. "No."
"Why is that?"
"We wouldn't dream of hurting our king in spite of past disagreements you have with the council." Answered the creature on the left. "It was a secret mission not even Asato knew."
Kaname speculated them for several seconds, gaze straying back on the table. "Pray tell who was the original nemesis."
"Your weakness is your wife." Snarled the taller noble, "And she is nothing without you. The fact alone set forth the course of actions. You were attacked because you're her cage. Disabling the cage to get to the cub inside was the motive from the beginning. Asato only wanted to continue the legendary curse. Due to your determined protection of your wife, you also became a target."
"This I know." Kaname had turned his chair around and gazed out the window.
"They willingly agreed to die if the plan wasn't successful."
"Hmph. They did succeed. Except no one was able to touch her in my absence."
The nobles watched intently as the chair turned slowly.
"We've been curious why that was." Whispered the second noble, "She exhibited an unnatural phenomenon of power. Palace Elders and Lord Kuran sent scholars to her aid, encouraging her to take endurance training. We believe she has not been herself."
"Really." His eyes seemed sunken from their observation. "If I tell you why, then I'll have to kill you."
They had no chance to escape the moment they entered his office. Not a spark of animosity, not a halt in preparation, not even a warning glance and the nobles' carcass dispersed over the carpet in seconds. Wearily Takuma reached around the back of his mind to connect the dots of the incredible transformation. As he examined the clothes of the executed nobles who stood winsomely and boldly in front of Kaname moments ago, he felt his mind blank and he still couldn't understand what he had witnessed or how it had come to be.
Kaname didn't even demonstrate any difficulty in killing them. The knowledge alone sent tracks of shivers and fear through his body. Takuma swallowed the dryness in his throat and looked away. Lord Masaru urgently began confiscating the strewn coats of the deceased and ordered someone out of the office to clean the mess.
"Kaname." Takuma tried worriedly, "What just—what happened? Why—"
"What." Kaname regarded piercingly, waiting for him to challenge. "I did something only I can do." Then he returned to his work. "If you don't have anything else to say, now is the time for you to disappear."
Uneasily he dipped into a reluctant bow. "I...I understand." Frantic feet led him out of the office; he slowed after a great distance in the hallway and looked back.
• * •
"I suppose congratulations are in order." Sayori beamed at Yuuki. The dark hat draped around her moon face filtered shimmering sunlight darting from all direction. Her feet crept over the grass alongside Yuuki's. The garden was flushed with fruits and busy workers crouched in designated sections. "Kaname-san luckily came back. I hope things go well from here." She sighed hopefully and deposited a wary scrutiny over Yuuki who strolled on in silence. "What?"
"Mm?" Yuuki turned back from her reverie.
"Missing your husband?" Sayori grinned. "It's your fault for getting preoccupied and neglecting him. Take my advice. Marriage is prominently dependent on communication and physical contact because it requires using our five senses—of course he has more senses." She flung Yuuki around and berated loudly, "Use everything you have to fill up your distance."
"I know," Weakly Yuuki pried away and walked ahead, "We'll be fine. We don't have trouble except we haven't spent time together, which is normal since he just returned and all duties mandate his attention."
"Do you miss him?" Yori prompted.
Yuuki gulped. "Uh."
Yori gaped at her twiddling fingers and smacked her hands apart. "You're holding back!" She accused.
Yuuki blinked frightfully, "Does it make sense if I jump him? Do I look like that kind of person who'd do it effortlessly? I can't imagine what he'll do!" She covered her burning cheeks as fantasies assaulted her rational mind.
Yori grinned even more. "Just do it, woman!" She ordered, shaking her by the forearms. "Stop being an idiot. He's probably in the same boat as you."
"Are you crazy?" Yuuki hissed under her breath and warily scanned for observers. "He's not like that."
"Do you want him to?" Yori charged.
Yuuki flew away with a snarl. "Oh—damn it, Yori!"
"You do, don't you?" Yori pointed.
She started jogging back to the halls. "I don't want to talk about this! I'm a sophisticated noble woman who can't forget norms a woman of my status must adhere by! Don't you know?" She gushed at the snorting woman. "Sexual frustrations are nothing on someone like me. I am strong. I am in control, I can handle it. I am queen." Yuuki hitched up her shoulders and strode elegantly through the garden. "That's right."
Yori cackled harder and almost tripped over the grass at Yuuki's babble. "Sophisticated? Hah!"
Yuuki swarmed around with curled lips. "Yes, I am. You have a problem?"
Yori leaned into her small face with another laugh. "Of course not, Joousama of Sexual Misery."
Red instantly shot under Yuuki's skin from her arms to her face. She swung back and darted as the noble woman doubled in unrest laughter. She stomped into the halls, scandalized by the revelation at her own expense. It wasn't like Yori would tell the world about her situation, or else Yuuki would bury herself alive from embarrassment. She slapped her cheeks and inhaled three times, letting air stretch her diaphragm and pool in her lungs until the back of her throat burned and moisture creamed in her lenses. Yuuki waited for three seconds and exhaled, the world spun and she steadied against a wall.
It wasn't a big deal. She was a grown woman capable of handling matters regardless of how shameless it was. Inside her skin and within her organs pulsed a basic instinct standard of an animal that feasted on impulse and moved to gain or satisfy senses. Except she needed to have better control of herself. Not because she was a woman but her surrounding called for a decorum to model the prestigious language of royal purebloods.
"Yuuki-sama?" A shadow slipped through the corridor in to view.
She gasped and gaped at the noble widely. "Lo-Lord!" Yuuki wiped her lips with the back of her sleeve and patted her stammering heart. "You scared me."
"Why are you standing in the dark?" Lord Masaru peered through the glass door then at her. "Something wrong?"
"Uh, no." She shook her head intensely that her hair unbounded from pins and bounced around her neck and shoulders. "I'm fff-fine."
"It's good you're back. I wanted to speak to you about..." Pausing, he studied the halls. "Why don't we speak in private? It's important."
Regaining a good half of control over her mobility, Yuuki escorted him to her quarters. She welcomed him to a chair and stood still when he declined.
He lingered by the door instead, picking at his watch. From his downcast profile, the grayish hair on his scalp glistened from the lamplight. Masaru looked up hesitantly, wiping the stream of sweat on his upper lip. "How fortunate I ran into you, I came here specifically to see you." He refused to part from the door.
Yuuki sank in her chair behind the desk. Her elbows rooted on the table edge and eyes narrowed in patience. "Proceed, Masaru-sama. You can speak with confidence with me. Don't hold back. My office is secure. Whatever we discuss will not be mentioned outside of this room, I promise you."
"Yes, yes." Masaru held his breath and started. "Actually while you were gone, I was ordered to be a personal investigator for Kaname-sama. He is searching for Asato's networks that are connected to his attack. The thing is..." Drawing from the door, he stopped abruptly in the middle of the room as if a ghost seized him by the throat. His eyes glittered over Yuuki and the walls hovering over her chair.
"Yes?" Yuuki waited.
Wavering, he blinked alertly. "The thing is...The manner in which he is handling the case is...alarming. He is killing each person who is in connection with Asato. I accepted the position at the Elders Council because I confided in you. But working with him concerns me. He doesn't hold back and will not be stopped."
Yuuki flattened her hands on the table. "Kaname has a different approach on business." She agreed, "He's being cautious."
"This is extreme!" Masaru shrieked. "He killed over thirty members who were simply part of the council when Asato was an administrator. I know what you're going to say, but I'm unnerved. My fear is if he continues, the council and cabinet won't be pleased with him and will vote for an abdication."
"Thank you for coming clean, Masaru-sama." Yuuki stood up and circled the desk. "I'll talk to him about being careful about his actions. Everyone is watching him because of his return. He doesn't want another attack. Plus, for him to work, he needs to invest complete trust in the council."
"Certainly, I agree it's crucial." He nodded, "Yet his elimination process is unhealthy. More than ever, the council and cabinet are wary and nervous to work with him. The sooner you come to the cabinet meeting, the better."
Yuuki chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll be there real soon."
"Anyhow, how was the trip to the village?"
"Enlightening like always." She smiled. "Thank you for letting me know, I'll be sure to speak to Kaname as soon as possible."
"Yes, you should." He tapped her shoulder awkwardly. She walked him out to the front of the palace.
"It's really unfortunate you moved out of the guest quarters." Yuuki murmured. "If something comes up, you're welcome to stay at the palace again."
"The new apartment is decent. I'm still adjusting to the change, and I'm enjoying the city again. Where is that nuisance Right Hand of yours?" He remarked suddenly. "While you were gone, all he did was whine and complain endlessly that you scampered off with some other Right Hand. He felt severely betrayed." Masaru turned around from his vehicle in the parking lot. "Most likely Kaname-sama got tired of listening to him and sent him far away on an errand. You better talk to him when he comes back. That petulance of his sure is something."
"Hanabusa and I have a strange relationship. Sometimes I don't even know what to call it." Yuuki mumbled, creaking her eyes. "He doesn't act like my Right Hand much."
"Depends, do you ever let anyone around you act like themselves?" Masaru tipped her chin playfully and gave a short laugh.
"You have a point." Yuuki stepped back as the chauffeur opened his door. She watched him sit inside and disappear behind the window.
The rest of the council echoed similar sentiments. Everyone worked timidly around Kaname, and only when he stepped out for conferences or public appearances did members breathe easily. Yuuki bustled about her own obligations as they tiptoed. She wouldn't have noticed the dangerous underlining in his actions weren't it for the day she visited him.
Perhaps it was because she entered without knocking, or she should've informed about her coming in advance. Yet the victim stood in front of Kaname's desk and dissolved into dust so soundly she noticed Kaname didn't bat an eye or demonstrate a semblance of interest, and the fact that there was already a pile of dead vampire remains from an earlier event did little to alleviate her nerves.
She released the door and moved further in his office. Catching eyes with Lord Masaru, Yuuki softly requested him to step outside. He made no objection and closed the door. Despairingly Yuuki eyed the evidence of what caused council members to shiver in fear.
"Why are you doing this?" Quietly Yuuki stopped by his desk. The same furniture she used when he wasn't around. Standing away from it, she couldn't believe she once sat in the same place. Kaname suited the seat remarkably than she did. He was at home.
He looked up from whatever held his interest with triumphant eyes bursting with electricity and black fire. The power of his gaze ghosted over Yuuki like exploding vapor, snapping like canines against her earlobe and scratching roughly on her skin.
She refused to fall back and demanded. "What's the point of this?"
"Do you want to die?"
Yuuki clenched her jaw and stared down at him. His hands gracefully hung on the armrest. One lifted and sprinkled long digits through his long dark hair and curled into a fist on his temple. "Do you want to die?" She asked succinctly.
The corners of his mouth quivered for a second and froze. "Glad to see you're back."
"Too bad I can't say the same. Among the first things I found are dead noblemen cropping on your carpet every minute. This isn't normal, Kaname."
"I'm touched by your observance." He quipped with diabolical cynicism.
Yuuki pretended not to be alarmed. "Are you angry with me?"
One of his brows lifted, soon dropped back to its straight frame over his maroon eyes. "I'm sorry, is that how I seem like?" He didn't sound apologetic. Kaname picked a folder and began leafing through it.
"Yes, among other things." Yuuki whispered, lowering her face.
"There is a Regional Dinner at the Naruto Resort tonight. Immediate meetings and scheduling won't allow me to pull away until the last minute. I have a lot of work to do. I'll meet you there." The sound of his pen raking over documents blasted.
Yuuki wondrously watched his moving hand dress the parchment in jet-black calligraphy. Unable to cope that for the first time she had been dismissed like an irrelevant servant.
I've really been spoiled. She realized, looking at the pureblood longingly. "If you need help with anything, I'm avail—"
"That won't be necessary." Kaname cut her off without looking.
She ought to save her pride and walk away, do as she was told and avoid his glare. She should leave because he didn't want to see or talk to her. It was an irritating conversation nonetheless. All they'd continue to do was bark smart comments until one aimed at a tender wound on the other and won. She ought to just disappear.
Except, she couldn't move a muscle.
Kaname gave her an askance look. "Have something to say?"
Her throat burned from erupting emotion. It seeped and burst from her stomach, directly up her lungs and behind her eyes. Yuuki blinked without breathing. "I..."
His grip on the pen appeared loose but very collected. Yet his eyes motioned something else. They were pitched black, hooded and narrowed beneath jagged brows, and the curve of his mouth kept spiraling down with passing moments.
"I..."
Kaname broke their gazes and scoffed at his work. "If there's nothing else, leave. I don't have time to waste."
"—Missed you." Shakily she clenched her skirt and waited for the rasped words to make room for themselves in the negative aura.
Her mind screened for reasons. For answers to why it was happening. What had transpired just now? Why was he angry? Why was he killing? Was he tired of her? Did she annoy him? Was he unhappy? Was this considered an argument? There was terrifying tension between them. It scaled and flapped its poisonous wings, screeching over their heads, nurturing negativity and frustration. Wait, was he frustrated with her? What had she done?
Hell, I've done it now. Whatever it was she did.
Yuuki rushed out and slammed herself on the door from the outside. Lord Masaru came to her and glanced at the door. "Were you able to get through to him?" He inquired, turning still, "Why are you shaking?"
"I don't know." Yuuki quivered at the floor. "I don't know what I did. I don't know what's wrong."
Scenarios haunted Yuuki all afternoon and well into the evening. She wasn't properly armed for a social engagement since her attention was solely tailored on Kaname who conformed to an endless but repetitive oration between groups and tables. Not once did he reach for her, nor look at her, which worried Yuuki like sores on her feet.
"You must be ecstatic about Ousama's return." Commented a guest to Yuuki.
She nodded before excusing herself politely.
All guests surrounded the dinner table under one light. The sound of the ocean sprinkled in the background of conversation. Numbly Yuuki organized ornaments of architecture on her plate, winning the affectionate attention of her neighbor. The closest she came under Kaname's eyes was when one of the Lords remarked on his recent activities at the council.
"Doubts are spreading about how you're manhandling the council. Several members are complaining about how you're eliminating Asato's associates. Are you not going to do something about it? How can we sit back and let someone who doesn't care about his council's reactions? Ousama." The Lord matched glares with Kaname. "Have you nothing to say?"
"My apologies if you're not comfortable with my methods."
"I definitely am not comfortable!" The Lord roared. "Killing council members doesn't solve the issue. Asato has long been gone. Joousama did us the honor of sending orders to kill him."
Kaname's red eyes flickered on Yuuki. It just so happened her heart shot up in her mouth by locking eyes. Even at that she choked on the single bite she had the entire night and dropped her fork.
"She did the council an immense favor by eliminating the chameleon who leapt with any advantages he came across and killed because he sought fit."
"Sounds a lot like you." The Lord sneered.
The testimonial silence purged the dinner of furtive peace. Kaname never had an appetite to begin with. He'd only touched his wine glass in the duration. His fingers were loosely chained around the drink. It was a quite a surprise for the attendees to register cracks on their glasses and plates after the Lord's accusation. His intense black eyes coated the Lord with stinging anger. The table trembled and the carpet on the floor jolted with electrical sparks.
Several jumped out of their chair and darted off the rug. All glasses on the table shattered to shambles, but the Lord sat pinned to his seat under Kaname's punishable eyes.
"You make quite an interesting remark." Kaname muttered scathingly, "I've just been eliminating any prospective threat from my council and cabinet that previously wormed their way with permission and encouragingly by Asato. It was my failure for not paying attention as well as I should have. Because of someone who lost views and craved power, I don't consider it probable for someone in my position and knowledge to trust the living alliance Asato treasured." Kaname noticed the Lord shiver and recline fearfully. "Sources tell me you also were engaged with Asato a few years back. Am I correct?"
The Lord averted. "Those are rumors. I've strictly dedicated myself to empower and guide the council on its original mission." His eyes cast warily on Yuuki and back at Kaname. "If you ask me, it's you who has changed everything."
"So you're admitting you were in cahoots with him?" Kaname implied.
"I never said such things, don't be ridiculous! I've been a respected elder of the council. Accusing me of treason is similar to cursing our clan who has supported your forefathers for centuries!" He shouted.
"I see." He had heard the song too many times before. Now it was laughable to his ears. Kaname smirked unconvincingly. "No reason to get emotional, Lord. It was a simple question."
He gruffly cleared his throat and shot up from the table. "I've lost all appetite. I'll see you at the council soon, Ousama." He didn't bow but glared in Yuuki's direction as he stormed to the foyer.
The respective party who held back giddily watched Kaname climb to his feet and leave the table. Yuuki threw her napkin on the broken plate and followed his example.
"Kaname!" She skipped over stairs and marched after him in the dim corridor. "Wait for me."
He merely looked over his shoulder. "I have an appointment, take the car back to the palace."
"I'm coming with you." She firmly declared.
He halted with authority to reprimand, and she believed he intended to force her away. Kaname's eyes narrowed even more. "Why?"
Yuuki blinked, "What do you mean, why? Because I want to."
"It's unnecessary."
"I don't care."
He blinked back at her large eyes. "You look like you have something else to say."
Yuuki frowned but found the opportunity better than none at all. "Of course I have tons to say. What just happened? What's wrong with you? Why are you pushing me away? You say one thing and do something else."
"I don't know how I've made such an impression." Kaname murmured. He was calculating with each move and if something didn't stir inspiration, he wouldn't care to act around it.
"Then what was the conversation in your office about?"
"I told you to meet me here."
"You weren't very nice about it."
"I find sugar coating words a waste of time."
"What's gotten into you?" Yuuki cried frantically.
Kaname debated her words for a moment. "Are you upset sugar coating words is taxing for me?" He stonily turned around and proceeded to walk away.
"Not that! No—!" She was two steps far and forced him around, holding him grittily by the cuffs. "I've told you I'm here for you if you need anything. You can count on me if there's no one. Whatever it is, I don't care! But don't push me out or forget you have someone who wants to be part of your life."
His eyes shimmered with mockery. "You just said something really strange now." His lips repressed in a dash line, vanishing in the weight of words. "What I need is a queen."
She flinched as if he smacked her.
Kaname cradled her chin and propped her visage in view. "A woman who isn't afraid to take the throne with me. Not someone who hesitates for years, worrying if she is the right fit for the role. You sure press some strange suggestions. Either way, it's fine. Do whatever you like. Follow me if you wish to do so." His fingers glided under her chin and briskly floated back to his side.
"I...worked hard and did everything I can think of." She whispered as he pulled away, clenching her wrists together. "Even forgotten how to be normal. Does it make sense—no matter how far I come, or how hard I try I still feel insufficient? The gap between us keeps growing. You're already there. I'm no where close."
"Go home, Yuuki." Kaname softly said.
"But I'm not even tired of you yet. I can't bear living without you and I keep pushing myself—" Yuuki clawed his suit, her fingers knotted on his cravat. "Try and get rid of me, just try it!" She trembled in the sound of her raspy voice. Something pulled her down and pushed her on the ground, some place deep in the womb of the earth where she curled in herself and clenched her eyes tight. Yuuki blinked through tears at his ribbon.
"To be honest," Yuuki tugged the cravat apart, undressing his neck and let her eyes swallow the sight. To take him now would be a dream come true. She touched the smooth palpitation, the beat whispered against her fingertips. "I am all you have, and you're all I have. Like it or not but that's how it'll be from now on."
"Then do you have a right to pull away from me?" Kaname hissed between fangs.
Her skin became conscious of his eyes. It had an amorous affect, filling the pale glow of her face and neck with rosiness. She felt a ripple of sweat glide from her temple. Just staring at him and being stared by him made her sweat and catch her breath.
"We're two funny people." Yuuki whispered, "Like we enjoy tugging and watching each other trip and bleed."
"So far you're the one who tugs." Kaname stated, "And you keep avoiding me. You seem to enjoy it well, good for you."
"Are you even listening to yourself?"
"Isn't it true?"
She flinched at the snappish accusation. Then quietly, surely the evidence in his words bled like a blanket of truce, draining her heart and flooding her mind. She had been avoiding him. She had pushed him at her own convenience. Right when he needed her by his side she kicked him, stormed to the village for a month. Evenings spent sleeping in the office instead of his side also keyed to the situation.
Yuuki scoffed and bumped her head in his chest. He didn't touch or move to stop her, instead stared down in the nape of her neck.
I am the bigger idiot between us. She accepted. I deserve his stern, condemning glares. So be it, I have been pushing him away for the sake of my own sanity. If only he knew the hunger inside of me.
Yuuki pulled her head up to study his whole face. "I'm sorry. Go ahead, push me away and yell at me, dismiss me." She bit her lip and sank into a pool of shame. "But to tell you the truth, I wasn't trying to get your attention or hurt you, I've just..." She clenched his shirt desperately, feeling his warm chest pound beneath her palms. I want you so much.
"It's a female problem."
He didn't look convinced. Dutifully relinquishing her grip off his shirt, Kaname straightened her and put her aside. "You seem tired, go home and rest."
"I'm serious." Yuuki breathed.
Kaname moved away.
"Fine, I won't ever sleep anywhere else but next to you. Happy!"
An unruly, unsophisticated snort ebbed into the wind. Kaname blinked inanely at his wife. "You should know I resent repeating myself."
"I won't leave you again."
His jaw clenched and the corners of his eyes wrinkled. "You're holding up—"
Her arms slipped inside his jacket, circled his torso and buckled on his back. Her dress slid against his clothes followed by the sound of her hot drumming blood beating like lightening at the back of his eyes and ears. Kaname's mouth shifted unknowingly as hers pressed upon his.
Her lips let room for her tongue to creep and tease his, barging through his mouth and traced a fang. For a second, her aroma filled him from the inside and knocked open the cage of his inner beast. In that second, he rolled over and howled at the intensity of tasting her, let himself catch fire and drown in her power. Then she pulled back with hazy eyes.
"Tonight..." She mumbled against his lips. "Tonight, Kaname. Tonight."
He blinked rapidly, grabbing any ounce of composure lurking in him. She repeated it two more times, her face stark red, but she didn't look at him and tugged her décolleté. Beads of sweat supply dripped over her skin and slid under her dress. His fingers traced one bead. The hot moisture bubbled and coated his digit. He licked it. From her skin alone, the sweetness filling his tongue screamed for him.
He stood stunned, but his expression hinted nothing of the sort. "Go home and rest." Kaname simply said.
• * •
Yuuki wouldn't be happy. She was probably upset or furious, and perhaps inducted punishment through silent treatment, distance and avoidance all over again, purposely mess up his work and schedule, test his patience. At this point, she might even divorce him.
Kaname glared at the sunrise peeking through the window.
The night was spent at an urgent meeting at the resort. He didn't submit to the temptation of his sultry wife, even if he wanted. He wore his best self-control suit and ignored all sexual connotations. If it took him hours to concentrate on political subjects instead of Yuuki's flushed skin or her nightdress, which it did, he wouldn't be lured. He was Kaname, superior king and emotion would only damn him for it was largely based off of expectation and a divine determination to have what he was rightfully his.
And it was Yuuki. His and only his.
As she rambled hotly against his lips, sweaty and thwarted by physical craving, hinting about seizing the night.
He did not go. Forced himself, waited for the sun to soar and light the world, he dare not go. For the past months, the palace assessed them from shadows on end, anticipant and hopeful for something to explode. No more could he consider his room a place to rest.
It was a mating den fixated over a woman's seductive curves and the heaven between her thighs. For reasons unknown they were coaxed to dive in each other's arms in some display of erotic satisfaction. The Elders were pushing them to mate at any cost. On several occasions he found his food drizzled with herbs to inspire his sexual drive and mood. Only that he didn't need artificial flavoring to fuel his desire. Yuuki alone did that to him.
By now the pot plant in his room absorbed nutrients as it always came to when Kaname discarded herbal drinks the maids brought. There was little to imagine how Yuuki digested vast fertile ingredients. Like he, she might've tossed it out and reprimanded maids for bringing the medicine in her vicinity.
Kaname frowned at his signature and paused the moving pen. Or that she lacked knowledge about the devious palace kitchen and trustfully gulped all medicine, as she diligently should. After all she was pressured to rectify her health and weight greatly, and this imploded a gaping quantity in her absolution to meet palace standards and bear an heir.
"Something wrong, Kaname-sama?" A Lord leaned forward inquisitively. "The contract meets all requirements satisfactorily. Are you still displeased?"
Remote eyes scanned the document before pushing it back in the folder. "No, it's exactly as I requested, thank you."
If she mentioned having female problems, did it denote she was sick? Her recent medical reports were normal, and she magnificently retained weight over the years by staying active and eating healthy. There was a feverish glow about her when she kissed him. Was consuming fertile ingredients the cause of her amorous deliverance? Did it have side affects? After stubbornly avoiding him was she trying to warn him about abnormalities?
Impenetrable questions spun him around and knocked him behind the knees. Kaname wearily held his temple in his palm as he rode back to the palace. Her health history wasn't impeccable, which didn't ease him by a bit, and the single reprieve from his fury was murdering the kitchen staff.
She was neither in their room nor her office. A curt demand of her whereabouts from a maid supplied that Yuuki left early morning to her duties. Suddenly a burst of excruciating vehemence fanned around the loosening strands of composure, he could break metal with his teeth if he could.
Yuuki was now a permanent and honored councilmember. Her authority no less philanthropic than Kaname's as she invested copiously in improving economic fluctuation and social pressure. Due to her significant popularity and optimistic leadership, she earned a vital spot in the Royal Cabinet among senior members such as Lord Kuran, a previous king.
Meeting her in the council office was a feasible approach to lessening his inner consternation, and he felt arduously incompetent in his endeavors for seeking out the truth. Asking her directly would be productive only if she cared to talk to him after he spurned her. She may never let him touch her again for a prideful woman was unforgiving like a twenty-year drought.
When she started to head out he promptly called her, dismissing any palpable audience. Yuuki reseated and folded her dainty hands on the table. Her mouth firm and sanguine eyes burning with distrust.
"Let's talk."
"Isn't that why you asked me to stay?" She tapped her heel against her chair. Chin on a knuckle, giving a fulfilling view of her ravishing neck.
He ignored the sterilizing grittiness teething in her glare and words. "I've been occupied at the council and couldn't pay attention to your health, I'm sorry. Are you not feeling well?"
"I feel great." Yuuki droned in sarcasm.
"What did you mean by female problems?"
In the motionless room color swept in her pale cheeks. "Doesn't matter. It's already been taken care of. I have a meeting at the Southern Port today. I need to get going." Quickly she hopped out of her chair.
"I...Yuuki. I didn't spurn you, Yuuki." Kaname tried, milk and honey wedged in sweet declaration. "I'd never spurn you."
"Oh? Not showing up because work takes priority over your wife who stayed up all night hooting like an owl for when her husband'd show up—that's definitely not spurning. Never!" True, she hadn't squared details to the last alphabet and exaggerated a bit, but the gist was genuine and bitter. And Yuuki was bitter than hungry men chewing salt.
She flung open the door, stumbled in the powerful lump of wind that hurled the door back in the lock. He made no sound of movement or an illusion to welcome her through touch, however, Kaname was upon her instantly, clenching the hand she used on the door. She twisted out of the chasm of his embrace, slung against the wall and rammed inadvertently into the stout table by her thigh.
"Let go, now I am spurning you forever and ever and ever." She wrestled within the arms that stuck to her body like glue and algae.
"Like I thought, you do take these things to another level." Kaname turned her face toward his and leaned in, inspecting each pore.
She turned abnormally red. "How can it not be personal?" Yuuki had the urge to snap, and she did. "Last night was supposed to be our night. You didn't come home. You could've told me! Was giving me an answer like pulling teeth? Answer me!"
Kaname buried his face in her hair, inhaling as he whispered, "Because we're individuals holding immense responsibility, we'll have to make our personal lives subordinate to our work."
"What the hell is that?" Yuuki hissed before he finished. "That doesn't explain why you didn't tell me you weren't coming." She tried to lunge into the wall, "You've lost all access to my assets, hands off!"
If he dared, he'd give her the perfect demonstration on what patterns of thoughts reigned on him all evening and morning. Lascivious wasn't even close. There was a hunger building in the bottom of his spine, cracking into his vertebrae and thundering each time Yuuki came into view. He was not afraid of making the council embarrassed and watch them scatter in fear as he claimed Yuuki. He could do it. He would when the time was clear.
"Don't ruin yourself over silly things." Kaname placated.
Angrily Yuuki twisted her face to the side. "What do you want from me?"
His stare hardened. Her eyes were glowing strangely, brimmed with hostile hunger, wretched like a monsoon. Kaname gulped a little loudly than he wanted. The power of her stare stabbed the roots of his sturdy self-control, shredded it out of its home with glorifying want.
"I told you." Fangs caught several strands of her hair as they brushed her earlobe, "A queen..." Panting in the words, Kaname squirmed in himself. "Not someone who wears the title like clothes and discards it at will. It's an eternal designation."
Fiercely she pulled away and seized the door handle. "Find your queen, I don't care." The door opened two inches and relapsed into the lock. Yuuki hissed spitefully, "Open the damn door already."
He couldn't breathe the same any more. Kaname ran claws through his hair, glare pinned to her heels. From the roof of his mouth, his fangs throbbed and the tightness of his belt sent pressure into his loins. "Yuuki, this matter won't be resolved unless you make a decision now." He stood silent and unconscious of anything but her hair on shoulders. The clear skin on the nape of her neck drizzled by layers of dark tresses, each pore magnified and beckoning.
Something in him leapt.
Roughly Kaname ripped her from the door.
He wasn't prepared for her to trip on his shoe and slump against him. The sharp gritting of her fangs flicked by tongue tickled the air for minor seconds. She wrestled for control and slapped his hand that caught her around the hip. The sound of her furious shuffling made him anxious, upset, ravenous, and he suddenly knew what a feral lion felt in the presence of his prey.
Kaname gripped her tighter and slung her off the floor altogether.
She let out a ceremonial scream as her feet went flying and the rest of her body came upon the marble table. Panting dizzily, she swallowed her tongue. "I'm not a table lamp! You can't pick me up and put me anywhere you want." Kicking her legs around, Yuuki struggled to get down.
He ought to just take her right there. No more complaints, no more avoiding. She was hungry for him. Her blood raced due to his touch, and it knew in itself how valuable it was to him. He captured her flapping arms. "Stop being unreasonable." Kaname panted over her head, dulling the sounds of her breathing and the sliding material of her skirt on the table.
"Stop confusing me!" Her claws injected in his shirt, jaggedly shaking the furnace of his chest. If willing, her fingers may have melted into his skin, coming part of his blood and bones. Her tongue dribbled against her fangs, muddled, wanting words, wanting movement, wanting to taste his. She whimpered in the futility of her actions, as he stood irrefutable as a mountain.
"Prepare for the coronation." He said abruptly.
The wall behind Kaname became a diaphanous aura of white smoke. "I don't want to."
His fangs clicked in his mouth.
Her spine turned erect in the sound.
Under her hands, he burned. "Why not?"
"There's no point if I'm already an active queen by name." A sinister glint shimmered in his eyes. One she was vaguely familiar with and let herself fall under its spell.
He clamped her hair and tugged her forward in a violent motion, hairpins scattered. "They've accepted you. I married you."
Yuuki clawed open his shirt, ghosting on smoldering wet skin. Her frustration, sharp and crude as her claws, birthed for reasons ignorant of the conversation. "You were gone for so long, what do you know?"
"I was conscious through you." Kaname wrenched her halfway off the edge, cradling her smooth and supply moist hips under the skirt. "No one will defy my decision. Making someone else a queen is senseless."
She opened her thighs. "How long do I have to keep proving I'm innocent? I'm still looked as a criminal."
He pressed into her and hauled her thigh up. She shivered deliriously. Between words, so did he. "Shall I be a criminal too?"
Drops of sweat fingered her cheeks and forehead, her hair flinging about as she wailed in pleasure. She looked up, shaking through clothes, tongue tied with moans, at Kaname—at his large fangs. He didn't stoop to warn her as a mouthful latched the left side of her throat. Her thigh clenched around his waist in response, hoisting him on the table and rubbed against him frantically. This wasn't an argument but a battle forged with words of spite and bodies grueling with preposterous hunger and lust.
Yuuki ran snaring claws from his chest to his back, ruining the pallid complexion with streaks of red, an inherent harmony between brush and a blank canvas. She let her vision shiver in disbelief at the black ceiling, listened the sounds of Kaname's slurping purr over the Council Office and the twitching of the marble table she was pressed on whilst rubbing against him. His fangs anchored on one location, sucking on druggish blood through lips.
Kaname rubbed into her. She dissolved in absolute reciprocation, turning to white smoke, clinging to him with both arms and legs.
Stumbling in the whirlwind of pleasure, Yuuki worriedly gulped air. Feverish in the echo of Kaname's drinking, of her rough moans and the banging of her heels on the chairs around him. Kaname suckled on her blood louder, licking the residue. She had trouble breathing when he withdrew. Still warmly locked within her thighs and arms, he leaned and claimed her lips.
This is not spurning. Yuuki shuddered in the sweltering kiss, squeezing him around the shoulders to feel more of him, tender and firm, rough and soft, everything in between. Kaname's hand strummed up her side, pressed down her rib firmly.
She pulled back, whispering against his lips, begging. "Don't go into slumber again, don't flaunt you're indomitable."
Kaname pressed his mouth on her eyelids. She made a sound from the back of her throat, nuzzling his collar bone.
"And you definitely can't be a criminal. It doesn't matter you married me. I'll always have to work twice as hard to earn their trust, because I'm not a pureblood but an outsider. That's how it is."
He traced the medial side of her thigh and rubbed the moist folds at the conjunction, loving the desperate red draping over her chest and cheeks.
"Do it again." Yuuki shivered, rubbing against his fingers and closed her eyes in relief. She was more than ready to burn her clothes and take him.
He followed her decree. Massaging the moist apex that thickened in wetness from skillful fingers. Footsteps barked outside of the door. Kaname pulled his wet fingers from her folds and licked them. "Your ride to the meeting..." He felt dizzy and labored talking about normal things all of a sudden.
Yuuki hesitantly unbuckled her arms and legs. She sat up to arrange her blouse and disheveled hair. The wound on her neck, a proud accessory winked from under her hair.
Kaname's fingers crept over a tress and fixed it behind her ear. "I won't hold you back. You're free to do as you wish." He said.
Yuuki eyed the holes spoiling his dark shirt. "I'm sorry." Her insides puddled and her legs were as good as jelly.
He trailed a listless, wandering finger over her knee and down her ankle as he moved off of her. Slowly Kaname looked up, taking in the blood spot on her blouse, the sheet of red outlining her neck and cheeks, and the accidental bite on her lip from his kiss. It was more than that. It was always more than what she brought to the surface.
"You're the only one." He whispered in the calm of her blood now transfusing with his. "The only one I consider my equal, an entity I trust with my life. That's why I figured you were an apt queen. You lived in my shoes. Isn't it best for people likes us to fulfill inconsistencies the other has?"
Yuuki slid off the table. "I'm your other half."
Kaname chuckled under the hand passing over his eyes and mouth. "Normally I don't think in those conventions. Now it's apparent I do."
Her warm hand brushed up his back, absorbing the apparent heat of his body. She thought she could crawl inside his clothes and make a world of her own on his body, sleep and live there for ever. A miniture island just for herself thrived on his back, and he wouldn't have a say about it.
This thrilled her.
Kaname stiffened in the gentle caress. Her claws bunched on his shirt, and she stood disorientated.
"Did it take you this long to figure yourself out? You live and breathe with pain so that's all you're used to. If I'm the half you're not, then there's a part of you hoping for a journey without pain." Yuuki touched the generous firm muscles making up his back. "I took care of your body like a prized gem so you better be good to yourself. You're not just living for yourself." She sensed the guards outside turn restless.
One of them moved to the door.
Knock Knock Knock
She barely turned when a Lord stepped in the room. "I apologize for intruding." He bowed. "You were both in here for a long time. Joousama, your vehicle is waiting outside. We've gone ahead and informed the Port there'll be a short delay."
"Thank you, I was just heading out." She absently brushed the tender wound on her throat. Despite his insatiability of her blood, he didn't pressure her further. "Kaname...?"
He turned, a hand extended to cradle her head for a second. The time for whatever emotion and hunger the body bated was long gone. "Have a safe trip." Kaname let go in the soft murmur.
• * •
Were it a national event, he would've been praised for his premonition. Kaname might have even looked upon him instead of disdain but favor. An expected likelihood of the matter turning into a national precaution roamed the horizon, and he wouldn't allow fatigue ruining his chance.
Aidou fidgeted in the crouched position and waited for the lights to fade. He let out a whistling breath from his lips and clenched his eyes from the bitter night wind. The wind felt like knives stabbing his body, and the pernicious quantity enflamed his lungs with toxic. The back of his eyes dulled, subsequently waning his vision. He could only move by mapping texture and sounds from his surroundings. The hour unfurled into a massacre of dangerous signals, and now his condition was twice as worse, sitting on quaking knees with the back of his neck wet from cold blood.
Movement loomed from behind. Whether imaginary or not, he leapt for the risky discovery and fumbled hopefully for his dispatched comrades coming for his rescue. Now that was an event the most contributively respected Right Hand wouldn't dream of. Although for years he expended energy and sleep to be Kaname's useful Hand, the title was lost to him because of a certain blond, green-eyed Ichijo. He was damnable for being bitter and ravenous of loyalty, but even with his scraps and minuscule work over the years ought to merit Kaname's trust.
By far no one, expect Takuma, had his trust. And Yuuki, of course.
Probably throwing himself at any opportunity to stand apart in Kaname's eyes was the kernel of his dismal.
Metal creaked from above and slimy moisture lapped over his cold cheek. Aidou mumbled incoherently in the tangible aura dashing through the opening and inundating the crib. Shadow spies floated and morphed in a statue on his left. Unwinding his stiff legs, he stood up to greet the visitor.
Even before the creatures evolved into its recognizable shape, a voice edgy with power and fury barked from the darkness. "How many?"
Aidou felt his pride shrink in the glowing red eyes of his superior. "Ten. All of them came directly from the council."
Kaname's lithe silhouette slid between crouched walls of the concaving den. Stumbling around his ankles, Aidou wheezed in discomfort, possessed by weariness. He had trouble designating one foot in front of the other. Within the immeasurably obscure tunnel, Aidou felt the light of his vampire eyes adjust to the thickening shade of black he wasn't used to. In front of him, Kaname halted so deftly and soundlessly, he nearly rammed into the pureblood. Tossing himself against the wall to avoid touching him, Aidou gagged in fear.
"Stay here." Kaname's soft melodic voice ignited. "Your services are complete."
Since he was a noble requiring supplementary air and water to invoke powers, Aidou was inhibited in the cave. Waiting around for Kaname and other Right Hands for almost three day left him incapable of participating in further obligations. He did as he was told, sank hesitantly on the floor. His blind blue eyes banging all corners of the area, attempting to swallow Kaname's silhouette unsuccessfully.
He had a good idea what was to take place beyond the darkness. Aidou shakily touched the back of his ears. There would be sounds of unwelcomed torture from council members who were promiscuous with duties at the council with plans to annihilate the crown. Sitting irregularly motionless, Aidou waited about ten seconds for Kaname to pass through the narrow opening. His scent and aura proliferated the region, alarming the traitorous occupants inside.
And the sounds were upon him like a hurricane.
Screams of surprise.
Screams of fear.
Screams of death.
• * •
Yuuki knew Kaname had limited patience for council members. He suffered an entirely alienable understanding for her. That compassion stretched solely for her before depleting in the presence of his council, making it as if he were incapable of such tributes. Were he a vampire who'd treat her akin his council, she wouldn't stand a chance.
This did not scare her.
What scared Yuuki was his unflattering habit of doing unsusceptible things without telling a soul. She imagined he even surprised himself at the last minute. It was not the best of things to be proud of but he didn't care. No, he did what he wanted or manipulated what was in his control. It was no wonder she didn't feel comfortable when he was alone, formulating only he knew what potentially could hurt or save the monarchy. His ultimate satisfaction was watching the crown grow.
Yet the way in which he went by realizing the plan made Yuuki terse and frantic. She couldn't sit still as she watched the news layout the disarray of deaths of council members, and the instigator looked remotely calm in the camera during the interview. She feared what transpired in his mind. His return had been promising, citizens felt empowered under his rule. As of now, it was anything but positive.
Yuuki clenched her fist and glared out the car window.
"This is a live recording," Takuma pointed to the television, "We're passing by the location."
Her neck twisted abruptly, and the clenched fist latched the back of the chauffeur's seat. "Stop the car." She cried.
"What're you doing?" Takuma exclaimed.
"Stop the car right now." The breaks had yet to suspend, but she threw open the door.
"Yuuki-sama!" Takuma grabbed her arm.
"It's not far from here right?" Yuuki swatted his hand and jumped out.
Her legs slid under her, and she came to a disgracefully, bruising drop on her side. Yuuki rolled in the aroma of burned rubber and mud. Confusion fingered over what took place, and she bolted her scarred knees up, plunging like a phoenix.
Takuma slammed the door and jogged worriedly to her side. "Are you out of your mind? He was about to stop the car."
She gave him a curt shove and sprang into the street, taking all injuries and unsightliness of her fall with her. There wasn't much traffic but islands of spectators roused the perimeter of the hall. Yuuki darted through one tangle of people after another, ducking, tripping, shoving and getting shoved—all of this took place without much apprehension by the receiver who modestly covered her grime-colored face.
Takuma burst into the crowd, calling anxiously. "Yuuki-sama! Wait, not there! Wait for me!" A fair amount of heads turned and raised brows at him. His winsomeness was affective and promptly a gallon of crew parted ways to guide him through.
Yuuki cursed between fangs, pried through two bodies and lurched into the open. The press engulfed her immediately, zooming cameras and microphones up her throat and nose. Takuma launched over her and covered her in his arms.
"Apologies, but Joousama is unable to talk at the moment!" Tucking her firmly under his arm, he barricaded her from the violent crowd.
"What happened to her face?"
"Why can't she talk?"
"What brings her here?"
Yuuki ducked under the battling people and skimmed through layers until she reached the farther end of cameras reach. She toppled over her heels but craftily groped a wall and arranged herself again.
"Joousama, were you informed Ousama killed several council members yesterday?"
"What do you have to say about this?"
She hid her face against the wall and slinked. The attention swerved from her to the departing individuals from the hall. Kaname appeared outside, escorted by guards and Aidou, also encumbered by an army of press.
"Is killing all you can do?"
"Do you have ulterior motives against the council because of the attack?"
As cameras stopped over Kaname who had little room to maneuver to his vehicle, Yuuki crossed the threshold and swarmed in front of the cameras. Her tattered and dust-draped face shimmered on lenses. She grabbed Aidou by the elbow. The Right Hand stood by her in a stupor of disbelief, letting shock ring from the walls of his soul and echo in his bones.
"Please, Hanabusa." She pleaded softly.
"Joousama, do you think it's right of Ousama to continually kill council members without informing his cabinet in advance?"
"How can the public sit silently while members of the council get killed?"
"Handle them for now, please?" Yuuki whispered. She dove toward Kaname, tugged him from the wall of guards.
The stubborn mess of people shrieked from all direction, spitting fiery words over the two. Yuuki clenched his sleeve tighter.
Aidou molded a wall of ice over the screaming press, sealing a colossal sculpture in between. She wouldn't have thought a large body of ice held restraining powers, and when it did, something deep within Yuuki pounded up her chest. She heaved and thanked the Right Hand, not forgetting her grip on Kaname's jacket and pulled him impatiently to the larger streets and buzzing cars.
His vehicle came into view, and she peeled open the back door, shoved him in and jumped as well.
"To the palace?" Asked the terrified chauffeur.
"No." Yuuki sharply returned, "To the border."
Lazily Kaname draped a hand on a knee and a fist under his chin, head leaning into the twist of his hand as he admired Yuuki from the corner of his eye. "Well done, Yuuki. You've succeeded in kidnapping a pureblood on national television." He remarked.
She solidly leaned back on his right, her torn knuckles folded in her lap. Kaname felt himself turn into a breathless statue at the ghastly sight of fresh scars on her bare knees. Dirt smudged her white coat and colored her long hair. A lofty portion padded her cheeks and temples. What costly endeavor did she submit to in order to whisk him from the hall and into the car? He decided not to question because doubts tickled his streaming thoughts, and the manner in which Yuuki held herself inferred she was not in the mood for light conversation.
Her fists trembled in her lap. She was going to hit him.
Kaname cleared his throat and waited, dry-mouth and nervousness, only a meager of sentiments depriving him of composure.
They proceeded a good distance from the city to the border. After a few minutes, Yuuki asked the chauffeur to slow down. She waited another good handful of minutes, tension scratching on the windows and leather seats.
"Get out." Yuuki said to the chauffeur.
A phantom of contradiction flooded the chauffeur, before he nodded mutely and stopped the engine, altogether aborting the vehicle.
Yuuki breathed until her lungs filled and crests of tears fogged her vision.
Kaname flinched under his skin when she reared blazing eyes on him. "Get out."
Without waiting, she opened her own door and slammed it behind her. Giving into her demands, he did what he was told.
Not a tree swayed in sight. Civilization loomed miles where they had come from. Yuuki moved to the chauffeur and told him to leave. "Don't tell anyone of this."
He bowed to his knee and dissolved into an array of shadows, inscrutable and untouchable like multiple creatures of their city.
Kaname folded his arms patiently from the side of the vehicle.
Kidnapping him wasn't specifically what she intended, but it wasn't an awful approach either. At this time, she needed them to be away from the world monitoring and despising them for their actions and beliefs.
"Yes? Yuuki?" Kaname lifted a brow as he looked down at her scowling expression. "You must be angry with me after learning what I did."
"Do you trust me, Kaname?" She looked up.
He let a sweep of a smirk tango on his invisible lips. "Did I not make it clear already? You are my only confidante."
She glared at the ground. "I'm asking you all of a sudden because it's hard for me to trust you right now. It's always been an obstacle to understand what you're thinking or what you're planning. While I can't be a step ahead of you, I decided at least I can make up for it by being next to you. I made up my mind years ago to support you regardless of the eccentric and shocking nature of your work."
"Your dedication is appreciated." He murmured.
"Don't talk to me like I'm your employee." Yuuki hissed. "Like you're indebt to me, or I'm a stranger."
Kaname lowered his arms and gripped her elbows as if he handled a mangled body. She clenched her jaw and stared into his eyes. "In the end, you're all I have. Just as you wanted." The deeper his claws sank into flesh, the faster she breathed. Yuuki closed her eyes in the satisfaction of pain.
"Let's go to the human city." Her vocal cords quivered. "When you were gone, all I could think about were things I couldn't do with you. We've always been living from one unexpected and angry incident to another." She pushed his hands away and stepped back. "You've crossed the border before." Yuuki slowly strolled toward the towering wall. "When I was little, the wall wasn't brick-made. It was easier to trespass."
"What will going there bring?" Kaname said aloud, his voice softer than a rustling wind, graver than a plague.
"Nothing." Yuuki shrugged, gazing at the graying sky.
Kaname paused on her left, searching the mountain of clouds that had nothing yet everything to do with questions. "Hmm."
Gently he gathered her in his arms, folded himself around her, enshrouded her in the energy of his transformation and soared into the seamless clouds of emptiness. To a place stranger than the strangers they had become in each other's absences. In that world, they would belong to one another more than they did each day.
• * •
© Nur Misurr • Read & Review • Thank you!
