A.N.:
Just to be clear, when I state a time of the day I mean it in a vampire sense. For example, night means it's about 6 A.M on a clock. I just wanted to make sure you know that. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Good reading!
Recap:
"I do, Hiro. I miss him every day as much as you do." answered the older softly and Kaname never thought he could sound so vulnerable, like this. Toshi built up a hard barrier around himself and he was extremely protective of his brother. The same could be said about Hiro, but he at least acted as if he was more open. However, Kaname noticed how Hiro never truly opened up to anyone but his sibling and maybe Zero a little bit. He reminded Kaname of himself a little in that aspect. He noticed a few stray tears on the Inume brothers' face and decided to leave them to their grieving. He also didn't fail to notice his inner circle around the close proximity of the garden.
The twins truly were wonderful at charming people by their indescribably charming personalities, Kaname concluded with amusement as he felt the worry the nobles emitted.
Chapter 7
It was another noisy day for the twins to wake up to. It was another day for the Night Class to see a cuddly pair of twins. They noticed that over a certain level of loudness, they couldn't sleep and wake up early. The vampires got uncharacteristically competitive about having the luck of being the cuddle partner for them, but they were cut off by the pureblood of the dorm. He told them that he would take responsibility for that for the day and all arguments were shot down. Kaname sat down on the sofa closest to the stairs since the twins mostly laid down on that one out of laziness. Now they just had to wait for the siblings to come down. Then they did.
The boys slowly walked to the sofa in a daze and they almost laid down on Kaname's lap before they looked up at the pureblood. He smiled at them and pushed their heads down gently but surprisingly firmly. Even if they were fully awake they wouldn't be able to resist, so the twins accepted this to happen. They felt the tentative stokes on their heads and decided that it was pleasing, so they fell into a sedated state again.
During that time, Kaname understood Shiki's fixation with the twins' hair. It was a truly pleasing feeling to touch it, he decided. With that, he waited until it was time for class exchange. The Night Class didn't know who to be more jealous of. They wanted to pet the twins but they wanted to be pampered by the pureblood too. Shiki instinctively moved his hand in a petting motion and imagined the feeling of soft hair under his hands. He sighed and smiled in contentment. The vampires around him found it enraging and disturbing in the same time.
Aido then stood up, and walked towards the trio and stopped in front of the sofa. He reached for the sleeping(?) boys' heads and became aware of the burning stares he got from everyone. He gulped and started to pet the hair of the twins'. He sighed and smiled a little, as if he was in heaven. The stares got hotter when the boys started to move towards his hands. This made Aido uncaring about the death-glares. Kaname ordered him to stop (so that he could do the petting instead) and the noble snapped out of it.
This went on until the exchange then they woke the brothers up and walked to the gate. They opened and since they heard the girls talk about the ball, the twins decided to force Zero to go with them and no one else. Girls would only be annoying. They walked out and the boys immediately went to hug Zero. He patted them on the heads and greeted them. He was about to send them to class but Hiro was quicker.
"Ne, Zero! Would you come to the ball with us?" asked the younger brunette, making everyone stop. The girls had nosebleeds at the image, Yuuki was shocked at how different they were with Zero than they were with her and the vampires all looked at Zero as if they would kill him right there if he rejected them. Zero was on the receiving end of the death-glares now, but he made a smug face as he accepted the invitation.
Zero knew exactly how popular the two brothers were with the girls. He also saw some males (who were apparently the Inume boys' fanclub) in the distance watching the twins. He noticed the vampires' glares and noted that even the stuck-up pureblood watched him murderously. He was happy and smug at the same time and he HAD to smirk.
He couldn't not smirk at everyone there and then. The twins nodded and went ahead and didn't see the left behind crowd in their bless. It was Aido, who stomped to him and grabbed Zero's tie.
"Touch one soft fluffy hair on their heads in the wrong way and we will kill you!" he threatened the hunter and for once Kaname didn't object to it.
"It's me who should be worried about you 'touching one soft fluffy hair on their heads', Aido-senpai. And how do you know if they are soft?" asked Zero protectively.
"I know that because I touched them a few minutes ago. It was so…" here Aido trailed off with a content smile but snapped back quickly. The girls started to ask how soft their hair was but the vampires already walked to their classes.
-Time skip: some classes later-
The twins were bored with classes but they heard that a transfer student would come that day so they couldn't ditch the class, as per Kaname's order. Suddenly, they heard the annoying blonde's voice, complaining that the models ate his Pocky, but filtered his voice out.
They sighed and suddenly felt a faint smell that was almost identical to Zero's base smell, lilacs and roses. They sat in the far back in the room so they couldn't be too sure, though. They looked to the front of the classroom and saw a giggling girl sitting on the teacher's desk. The girl was starting to piss the twins off for some reason, but they didn't want to cause trouble for themselves with picking on an unknown vampire who smelled like a noble at least. As she quite literally flew to the back of the room the twins felt the familiar smell stronger. Then the girl (Kurenai Maria) flew to Kaname, who stood behind them, they smelt the aroma better. They didn't notice it, but they grabbed her hands before she could fly out of the room.
The vampires were surprised. The two of them never reacted to anyone like that. The inner circle and Kaname didn't know if that is a good sign of not so they tensed up. The twins sniffed her hands and looked at her coldly.
"Who are you? You smell almost like Zero, but not quite. (Toshi) It's almost like Zero's twin's scent, so how? And why do smell like an older pureblood when you are clearly young? (Hiro)" they asked Maria and everyone was shocked even further. Their noses were good. She definitely smelled older than she looked, which is impossible even if you take vampire aging into consideration too. Kaname was impressed by the senses of the two young vampires. Maria's interest was piqued.
"Wouldn't you like to know, young men?" was her only reply before she left. The twins were left to be agitated and Takuma patted their shoulders to calm them down. They looked away from him and laid down on their desk to sleep until they could. Then they sensed bad things happening to Zero and ran to jump out of the window. The vampires wanted to follow them but the pureblood stopped them. He told them to leave the twins alone for now.
-With the twins-
The boys felt like Zero was in trouble or something bad will happen to him, so they followed his scent and found him with the new transfer student, with him pointing Blood Rose at her. They noticed Aido standing a few steps away from them, so they nodded at him and stepped closer to him to listen to the events unfolding together.
Yuuki, the naïve girl she was, shielded the fishy pureblood and Zero asked who the girl was. The new vampire answered and after a few words to Yuuki she left. The two prefects talked for a bit longer and went to patrol around the campus. The three Night Class students looked at each other and started to share ideas.
"His reaction was pretty obvious, wouldn't you say so?" asked the sole noble of the trio. The other two nodded.
"This vampire turned him. And we know who turned him, don't we?" asked the older twin.
"It could only be 'that woman'. It would explain why she smelt so old." continued the younger brother.
They all stayed silent for a bit before Hanabusa proposed that they should talk to the Kiryuu boy about that matter the next day. They all agreed and went back to the classroom.
-In the school building-
"Now that's a group I didn't expect to see talking peacefully to each other." Takuma commented as he looked at the trio deep in thoughts.
"I agree, Takuma. I never thought I would see Aido talk civilly to D Class vampires. I assume it's an important matter, if we take his dislike towards low-class vampires in consideration. Interesting." Kaname added and left, Takuma following him dutifully and worriedly.
-Time skip: next day-
The twins felt the tension in the Night Class rose minute by minute since the new girl arrived and they themselves felt like their instincts were on constant alert. They looked around the room and saw Rima taking a letter out of Shiki's jacket pocket.
"It says: 'Please take me to the ball with you!'" Rima read the letter out loud in a bored tone as always. Shiki hummed and shook his head.
"No, thanks! You can have it, Rima." he said in an uncaring way and the twins were reading the letter behind Rima's shoulders. They hugged the girl around the waist with one arm each, who blushed a little at that, and they turned to Shiki.
"Popular as always, Shiki-san. I don't envy you. I would be too lazy to deal with girls and fans all the time. What about you, Hiro?" asked the older brother.
"I would be lazy for that too, Toshi." sighed Hiro and nodded his head in a 'yes' motion.
'You ARE ALREADY too lazy to deal with your fanclub. That's the reason they hide in the trees during every Class exchange.' was the collective thoughts of the inner circle as their facial expressions twitched, while Kaname just chuckled quietly. Then the creepy new student just had to break the relaxed atmosphere.
"You all are so amusing. I never thought D Class vampires could get the attention of so many noble vampires." Maria said in a teasing tone and they all tensed. That didn't go unnoticed by her and she giggled as she sat down. 'This will be interesting.' was her thought before Yagari came in and told everyone to sit down.
He looked at the new student and he looked conflicted for a second before continuing the lesson. The siblings noticed that and decided to talk to Yagari after class.
-Time skip: after class-
The students were excused for the next lesson, so the Inume siblings stood up and wanted to follow their teacher, but Aido, who grabbed held their arms tightly, stopped them.
"Where do you think you are going? We have a job to do." the noble hissed at them lowly.
"We want to ask a more experienced hunter, since his senses might be good. We can do the job tomorrow. And if we hear that you went to talk to him alone, we will kill you in your sleep." said Toshi and left the room with the younger brunette. Aido cursed lowly but let them go. He realized that it was a good idea. He frowned and sat back down on his seat angrily.
"Hanabusa, you seem to be really close to the twins all of the sudden. Care to tell me why?" inquired the fire-using noble. Aido hesitated for a short moment before answering.
"We found a shared topic to talk about, is all." he said and looked out of the window.
The vampires found the answer lacking but didn't push it, seeing that Hanabusa will probably keep it a secret between the set of brothers and himself, no matter how much they would pry.
Kaname was interested in what the trio would find out on their own, just because he wanted to see what the unlikely group would achieve. Takuma didn't like the glint in Kaname's eyes, but he couldn't do anything about it, so he just sighed and prayed that the conflict will be solved fairly easily. Any vampire who knew Aido and the Inumes found the union fishy and decided to keep an eye on the three vampires. Maria watched the events unfold and giggled. She found the twins more and more entertaining.
-With the twins-
The boys caught up to the teacher and called out his name. The hunter/teacher turned around and stopped.
"What so you want, vampires?" he asked impatiently, since he was in a hurry.
"Nothing much. We just wanted to know what the new girl felt like to you, Yagari-sensei. We find her very suspicious, so we wanted to know what you think about her." answered the softer boy. Yagari sighed but answered nonetheless.
"She felt like a powerful pureblood. Why?" he asked. The twins looked at him and decided to answer his question with a question.
"Would you say that she felt like a pureblood of our age?" asked the older now. Yagari thought for a moment and shook his head.
"Not really, no. Much older than you. What are you trying to say with that?" he asked the two in front of him. They sighed at that question.
"We have a pretty good idea who she is, but we don't know why she is here if we are right. We want to investigate that situation since we have a bad feeling about this. Her plan could threaten the peace of the Night Class, and it's already too noisy for our taste." answered Toshi and sighed again. Yagari ingested the information and let the teenagers go. He had to think about what was just said now.
-Time skip: later that night-
The boys and Aido listened to the girl's request to sleep in the old dorm the vampires used when they first came to the school and heard Kaname's monotone answer. The girl left in high spirits and they stayed to hear the dorm president and dorm vice-president talk a bit more. The twins stood up from their squatting position and walked to the open door to see Kaname. They stared at the pureblood, who looked at them after a few moments.
"Do you have a request too, Toshihiro, Yasuhiro?" was the soft question he offered them.
"Sort of. We would like you to take care of yourself, Kuran-sama. You look stressed. We wouldn't like it if you got sick or something." said Hiro and it surprised all the vampires present.
"It would be really troublesome if the only functioning pureblood was the new girl here. We don't trust her at all." said the older one and after a bow they left with Hanabusa, to talk to Kain. The two high-class vampires nodded and left the comment alone. The newfound friendship of the twins and Aido was definitely the result of the distrust towards Kurenai Maria.
-The talk with Kain-
The taller noble was talking about Kurenai Maria, and after he finished talking, he concluded that her case wasn't strange at all. When he was asked if he met that woman, Hio Shizuka, he answered with slight disappointment.
"I unfortunately never got to meet her." he said and the twins sighed.
"It might not be unfortunate, actually. If she killed a whole family and turned an innocent child into a vampire without giving him her blood, you are probably lucky you DIDN'T meet her." the siblings said, making a comment for the first time during the conversation. Kain looked at them and couldn't keep his curiosity to himself.
"Why do even care about Kurenai Maria, by the way? You don't care about anyone, normally." he said and the brunettes shrugged.
"We have a bad feeling about her, is all." they said and walked back to the dorm to think things through. Kain looked at Aido and sighed.
"Hanabusa, whatever you are doing, don't get these two into unnecessary danger, please!" he said to his cousin. The shorter nodded and they left the place as well.
-Time skip: next day (before class exchange)-
Hanabusa got Zero to talk alone on the roof of the building and they were about to start their conversation, when the twins climbed up as well. Zero looked at them and they told him they are working on a case with Aido. Zero definitely found that strange, but let it go. He needed some information, first.
"Does Kurenai Maria have something to do with 'that woman'?" he asked the noble, cutting the chase. Aido's eyes narrowed along with the twins'.
"That woman?" questioned the blonde to make sure they were talking about the same woman.
"Hio Shizuka." specified the male prefect.
"How rude. Calling a pureblood princess by her name without honorifics. But it can't be helped. After all, she did brutally kill your family four years ago. No matter, though. The Kurenai family is a distant relative of the Hio family from ages ago. That's all." answered the sole noble of the group.
"I couldn't find that woman since that night from four years ago. Could it be that she changed forms?" inquired the silver-eyed hunter.
"I wouldn't know about that. Only a pureblood knows the full capabilities of a pureblood, after all. Besides, wouldn't your feelings be more important? Considering that you share a kind of bond that no one else can have with her." replied the noble and after he stopped talking Zero suddenly turned around, looking at Kurenai Maria. The girl smiled and ran away and the four of them stood there for a few more moments. The twins then made their first comment through the interaction.
"Zero, we thought hard if we should tell you about this since we are somewhat unsure about this, but a smell that's really similar to yours is clinging to Kurenai-san. We suspect that your twin might be here with her. We are not 100% sure, but we think it's possible that Hio Shizuka, if Kurenai Maria is indeed her, kept your brother alive and near herself all this time." said Toshi and watched Zero's reaction. As expected, the Kiryuu boy was shocked and didn't have words for a while.
"You are not joking, are you?" he asked quietly. Aido found that strangely disturbing. The Kiryuu he knew was always strong and violent. To his somewhat mellow side was more disturbing than he thought it would be.
"We don't joke around with thing like that. We wanted you to know that, so you won't have a bigger shock if your twins is indeed here, in this school. Aido-san, we should go back now. Exchange time is almost here." Hiro said and the noble followed the two D Class vampires to the dorm. Zero's mind was stuck on the fact that Ichiru might be alive and near him, but he had to get over it for now, since exchange was indeed near.
-Later that night-
Unknown to the twins, two purebloods decided to include them in their schemes more than they wanted to be involved. One relied on them to keep the other pureblood at bay, while the other just wanted to see how far they would go for her precious Zero.
Word count: 3193 words
So, the twins are somewhat the pet cats of the Night Class, as you can see. I just find that idea adorable so I'm going with that vibe.