A/N: I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who favourited/followed and reviewed the last chapter. You're all lovely 3
As always, if anyone has any constructive criticism or comments on the chapter then feel free to let me know. All my stories are un-beta'd so extra eyes are appreciated.
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The next few weeks passed quickly.
Or, at least they did for Knight who's dizziness and nausea hadn't abated in the slightest and left him dipping in and out of consciousness at the drop of a hat.
He spent most of the time sleeping or throwing up. Yuki probably had a more difficult time of it, having to re-learn how to talk and eat and dress herself like a goddamn two year old. She couldn't read or write either and the lessons that Kaien were starting her on to get her up to scratch with other five year olds were a bitch.
Or at least that's what Knight told himself as he hunched over the toilet bowl and urged his stomach to calm down.
He just couldn't seem to keep anything he ate in his system - something he'd learned the first night after all the fish and rice and whatever else he'd eaten at breakfast had fast-tracked back up his throat hours later.
Initially he'd thought it was just Kaien's funky cooking – seriously, fish for breakfast? But he couldn't even keep things like apples or dry cereal or toast down. Fucking toast! The king of all sick foods!
Knight groaned and pressed his sweaty forehead against the cool porcelain of the toilet in an attempt to appease his pounding headache.
He thanked what ever God was listening that he'd been given his his own room and en suite because the idea of Yuki seeing him like this made something small and shameful uncurl in his chest. So much for being her 'knight', he could barely keep himself upright half the time.
He gave one last dry heave and then spat out whatever remaining bile remained in his mouth, face crinkling in disgust, before laboriously getting up and rinsing his mouth out at the sink. He had to stand on a little box to reach the faucet - it was hilarious watching Yuki delicately climb onto the tiny step but infinitely less so when it was himself that had to totter unsteadily up onto the pink block.
Also, yes, pretty much everything he owned now in this world was pink. Or cream. Or some satanic mixture of the two.
Knight had never thought he'd long for a plain blue shirt or a pair of orange socks before in his entire life and yet here he was. Kaien seemed to be of the mind that children's clothes needed to be impossibly gendered lest anyone forget that he and Yuki were inhabiting tiny female bodies. Just in case the girly faces and arse-length hair didn't give it away at first glance.
It was an ongoing struggle to get Kaien to add any colour to their wardrobe though Knight was now the proud owner of a brown coat and a pair of green winter boots after five whole days of protest wherein he'd played the 'sick little girl' card for all that he was worth.
Trousers were the ultimate 'holy grail' that he was working fervently towards.
"Knight?" a soft voice called out from beyond the door and he wiped his mouth clean with a sigh.
Yuki had taken to shadowing him, despite their separate rooms he'd often wake up to find her curled around him during the night. He didn't mind but it did make it so much more stressful when he had to try and extricate himself to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without waking her. She also got kind of anxious when he was out of sight for more than a few minutes. Kaien distracted her the best he could but Knight had gotten himself used to hearing her voice calling out for him down the corridors of the mansion.
"I'll be out in a second." he called, hopping down from the step and rolling back down the gauzy cuffs of his sleeves.
As expected Yuki was waiting for him outside the bathroom door with a tiny furrow between her brows. She wordlessly hooked her fingers through the material of his shirt and stepped in close enough for Knight to be able to make out the freckles that had broken out along her nose after their sojourn in the sun yesterday.
"You're being even less talkative than usual, what's wrong?" he asked, untangling her fingers from his shirt to lace their hands together. He felt less like a toy doll that Yuki liked to drag around this way. He still got dragged but it was less humiliating to be pulled by his hand than by his shirt sleeve.
"Guest." she said and Knight felt both his eyebrows rise up to his hairline. A guest? Well that was unusual. Kaien hadn't exactly taken pains to hide the two of them from the rest of the world but they had been restricted in their access of the outside and all the windows in their bedrooms and the rooms they tended to frequent were covered in thick curtains.
Knight also hadn't noticed so much as another soul in this gigantic mansion since he'd arrived.
Kaien cooked all the food they ate and also appeared to do all the washing and cleaning. Knight once had the misfortune to come downstairs a little earlier than usual and had been treated to the sight of a humming Kaien in a frilly apron dusting the shelves in the main sitting room.
No maids, no cleaning staff, no cooks and no-one to see the two strange little girls that he'd taken into his home. Knight couldn't help but feel like they were being kept a secret for some reason. It was probably connected to the whole 'vampire thing'.
Oh yeah, vampires were a thing in this strange new hell he'd been thrown into. Just in-case the crazy blood-sucking guy in the snow and then the crazier blood-sucking guy in the snow didn't give it away.
Speaking of Kaname, the 'guest' was probably him.
He'd been to visit a few times, the only other person who seemed to know of Knight and Yuki's existence in the whole wide world and wasn't that disconcerting. It was only because of the strange hours Knight's illness forced him to keep that he even realised that Kaname was there at all.
Kaname hadn't spoken to him, as such, just given him a weirdly tender smile and walked away as Kaien ushered him back to his room, babbling about how sleep was good for curing colds and scolding him for walking around on his own.
The second time he'd caught Kaname leaving the teenager leaving he'd gotten nothing more than a sombre nod in response to his presence and Kaien had, once again, bustled him back to the upper floors with warnings not to wake his sister.
Yuki had apparently met him again in the second week of them living with Kaien. Knight didn't know much about it as he'd slept through the entire thing but apparently Yuki broke Kaname or something. Whatever it was that she'd done to make Kaname 'break down' Knight whole heartedly approved and treated Yuki to his desert that night as a reward. But he himself had yet to see Kaname and actually talk to him since the first night.
Yuki trundled cutely down the corridors, dragging a blank faced, ruminating Knight behind her, until they reached the solid wooden door that marked Kaien's study. It was the only door that was ever locked, Knight had never seen the inside without Kaien physically letting him inside, but it swung open now at the barest touch of Yuki's free hand.
Unsurprisingly Kaname was seated inside with a cup of something that had better be coffee nestled in his palms.
Knight stared dully up at Kaien and Kaname and tugged Yuki to a stop when she made to walk closer.
Kaien looked at their joined hands with unabashed glee, ignoring Knight's hostile stare, and stepped forward to embrace the two of them in a swinging hug.
"Oh my cute little girls! Papa's got a surprise guest for yoooou~" he sang, up until Yuki went boneless and slithered out of his hold like and eel, leaving Knight resting resentfully against Kaien's hip. Kaien mock sobbed for a moment before theatrically wiping away his non-existent tears and slumping dejectedly into a nearby chair with Knight trapped on his lap.
"At least Knight loves me! Yes you do! Yes you do!" he thrilled, rubbing his cheek against Knight's, ignoring the pained look that the child displayed in response.
Knight bemoaned the weakness in his limbs that refused to allow him to preform the same evasive manoeuvres as Yuki. She was a regular Houdini whereas Knight's limbs had a terrible tendency to lock in place or tremble when he tried to exert too much force. Yuki blinked up apologetically at him from her nice safe spot on the floor before she turned her gaze to Kaname, curiosity and fear warring in her big Bambi eyes.
Kaname smiled gently and Knight could actually see the fear draining to be replaced with delight as Yuki gifted him a wide grin that made even Knight's sour expression start to lift. Knight fought down a sliver of jealousy that reared it's head at the sight of Yuki smiling up so innocently at Kaname, with mixed success. He cleared his throat.
"What's going on?" he demanded, wincing at the high, lisping voice that carried his words out into the room. Fuck, he sounded like Draco Malfoy.
"Manners" Kaien reprimanded gently before settling him back onto the ground. "Kaname here just came to see how you too are getting on, seeing as you've been so eager to see him the past few weeks I thought a day-time meeting would be appropriate." he said.
Knight blanched. Kaname was here because Kaien had mistaken his suspicion for interest? He gazed cautiously up at the man-
(vampirevampirevampirepredator remember you're just prey)
-to see that he wasn't even looking at him. Kaname was conversing quietly with Yuki who looked intent on devouring his every word, her little face scrunched in concentration. She'd forgone her earlier caution and was now standing by his knee, perilously close to the hands that Knight had personally witness punch straight through the skull of a grown man.
Well that... that wasn't acceptable at all.
Knight stepped smartly forward and recaptured Yuki's hand, smiling as she absently laced their fingers together without any input from him. He then tuned in to what Kaname was saying, ostensibly to stop Yuki from being drawn in by honeyed words and not because he felt a fraction of the stress that had been burdening him the past few weeks melt away at the sound of his voice.
"-I'll bring you back some, next time I visit, if you'd like?" Kaname said and Yuki clapped her hands delightedly.
"Please!" she chirped. Her vocabulary was limited but she mostly knew what people were saying to her. Thanks in no small part to Knight talking himself hoarse and reading her every bed-time story in Kaien's rather impressive library. He'd never had any siblings in his own world but he was slowly coming around to love Yuki as a little sister. He defied anyone not to love her after three weeks in close proximity though. There was just something incredibly sweet about her that made even Knight's grim scowl melt off his face.
So it was thanks to that that he was sporting a little grin when Kaname finally turned his attention onto him. The man's answering smile simultaneously made him feel like he was standing out under the sun and also a lot like punching him in the face.
"Kishi, Kaien tells me that you haven't been feeling well." Kaname said with a concerned little hum, long fingered hands reaching down to adjust the crooked collar of Knight's shirt. Knight frowned at the mention of the name of the girl who's body he'd stolen and looked irritably to the side. He couldn't be mean when staring into eyes that displayed so much open concern but looking away assuaged some of his guilt.
"My name is Knight. And I'm fine." he stressed, uncomfortable with the hands so close to his neck but unable to move without taking Yuki with him. And she was perfectly content where she was, expression smoothed out with idle contentment as she leaned back against Kaname's legs.
"Mm, 'fine' indeed! Poor little Knight's been throwing up every night this week. And last week. And the week before that-" Kaien butted in and Knight's expression soured.
"Hey!" he protested but was shushed by the gentle pressure of one of Kaname's fingers against his mouth as the teen motioned for Kaien to go on. Knight barely listened to Kaien going into details about his unfortunate illness as he went cross-eyed trying to glare the offending finger into flames with the sheer force of his will alone.
Beside him Yuki giggled and he cast his eyes sideways to see her muffling her laughter with her fists, whatever expression he was wearing on his face was apparently hilarious to her. He scowled, which only made her laugh harder, and then resumed trying to bore a hole into the side of Kaname's face with his ire.
Unable to move backwards with Yuki tethering him here, unable to move his face without admitting defeat, Knight stood there and clenched his free hand into a fist.
"Stop that." Kaname said abruptly, eyes narrowing on Knight's, nostrils flaring.
He didn't even notice the infinitesimal pain of his nails cutting into his palms until Kaname's hand abruptly shifted from his mouth to curl his finger's around Knight's wrist, bringing it up into the light. Knight relaxed his fingers instinctively and was briefly surprised by the smudge of red against his pale skin.
"Huh, must have-" he didn't get to finish his sentence before Kaname gracefully leaned over the wound and cleaned the blood from Knight's palm with two deft flicks of his tongue.
He just... with his...
Knight did what any self respecting man in his situation would do. Taking stock of Yuki's hand in his and Kaname's fingers manacled around his wrist he braced himself... and then reared back to head-butt Kaname in his ridiculously pretty face.
He was left disappointed, however, as Kaname swiftly retreated with a troubled look on his face as he scrutinized Knight's furious face, completely avoiding getting a smack of Knight's forehead.
"Ah, forgive me Kis-Knight. I think it best if you and Yuki go play for now. I'll say goodbye before I go." He promised before pressing a kiss to Knight's palm and then leaning over to do the same to Yuki's forehead. As though his presence was ever going to be something that Knight would be sad to see go.
Kaien wasted no time in bundling the two of them out into the corridor though, before Knight could get around to articulating the thoughts in his head. And then, with a cheery reminder for Knight to get the first aid kit out of the kitchens and wash out his palm, he locked the doors behind him with a click of finality.
Knight looked over to see Yuki with her hands pressed to her forehead and a bright blush flaming across her pale cheeks like a beacon. She was staring unblinkingly at the closed door as though she could see Kaname through it and Knight groaned.
"No. No crushes on the big, scary vampires until you're at least thirty! At least!" he ordered, grabbing her by the arm and, for once, pulling Yuki down the corridors and away from the study. And Kaname. Mostly Kaname.
Knight only stopped his hellish pace when his chest began to get tight from the lack of oxygen and he was forced to slow down or risk having another dizzy-spell.
"Gone." Yuki said solemnly and Knight looked up, trying to tame his breathing so it sounded less like he'd just run a marathon.
"Wh-what?" he wheezed and Yuki picked up his hand in answer, turning the appendage over until Knight could see his palm. It was clear of any blood with only the barest of silvery lines to denote where Knight's nails had broken the skin. It looked nothing like the fresh wound it should be.
Kaname had... healed him? Knight shuddered at the memory of the wet swipe of that tongue on his palm and decided that he'd much rather live with the wounds.
"Yeah, Yuki. The cuts are all gone." he answered eventually.
Yuki poked curiously at the healed scars and Knight curled his fingers around hers before dropping her hand and continuing on towards the kitchen.
"Ah ah, that's dirty Yuki. Let me clean it off first, we don't know where Kaname's been!" he said, shaking his hand for emphasis.
Yuki giggled again and then looked embarrassed.
"K'name's not dog!" she said, trying to stifle her smile and Knight harrumphed as he threw open the doors to the kitchen and began to hunt around for the first aid kit.
"Oi, less defending the man who just licked me, like a dog I might add, and more looking for plasters please and thank you." he said pointedly and Yuki stuck her tongue out at him before helping him in his search.
Eventually they found the kit buried in one of the upper cupboards with Yuki balancing precariously on Knight's shoulders to get the cupboard door open and the kit out.
"Trust Kaien not to put the damn thing anywhere handy, ugh." Knight bitched as his knees threatened to buckle and Yuki smacked a gentle hand down onto his face in reprimand.
"No cranky." she admonished and Knight grinned ruefully as she passed down the kit with the air of someone passing on a holy object.
"Alright, alright. No cranky" he promised as he knelt down so that Yuki could safely get off his shoulders and then sat on the floor, feeling winded from the small amount of activity.
Yuki stared down at him worriedly for a moment before plopping onto the ground and taking the kit back off him, opening it to rifle through it's contents.
"What?" she questioned, peering confusedly into the box and picking up a roll of bandages to squint at suspiciously.
"Antiseptic, you're looking for antiseptic. It should be in a little bottle." Knight said, resting his head against the cupboard at his back and closing his eyes against the headache he could feel building behind his eyes.
He could hear Yuki shifting through the box's interior before she made a little 'Aha' sound and took his hand in both of hers.
"Knight. Ana'spetic." she said proudly and he cracked open his eyes to see the small clear bottle of antiseptic that Yuki had found and put aside. He grinned tiredly at her.
"Antiseptic, Yuki. Anti-sep-tic." he sounded out slowly and Yuki mouthed the word along with him.
"Anaseptic?" she tried and Knight laughed.
"So close." he teased and picked up the bottle, squeezing out a healthy dollop of the clear gel into his hand and vigorously massaging it into his skin. It wasn't like he thought Kaname had rabies or anything but it would be just his luck to end up contracting some kind of vampire ultra virus from the saliva-to-blood contact or something.
He'd contracted a goddamn vampire motherfuckingultra virus.
Knight screamed into his pillow for ten long seconds before taking a deep breath... and returning to screaming.
"Honestly, there's no need to be so dramatic. It's not the end of the world." Kaien placated from the doorway.
Knight flipped him off and, ignoring Kaien's affronted gasp, continued bellowing his rage into his pillow with single minded focus.
Un-fucking-believable!
The day had started the same way they usually did in the mansion.
Knight woke up ridiculously early with Yuki wrapped around his middle like the world's most adorable humanoid octopus.
He then had to spend fifteen minutes gently untangling her arms from his waist so that he could sneak into the bathroom to (very, very quietly) throw up what ever supper his 'middle of the night bathroom break' hadn't managed to purge from his system.
Knight then rinsed his mouth out, looked forlornly down at how unhealthily thin his body was becoming from a lack of proper nutrients, and then went back outside to dress himself and wake Yuki. Which was... difficult.
Yuki was emphatically not a morning person.
Knight deftly avoided another of her irritable hand swipes as he tore off the covers. Her tiny hands were like claws this early in the morning and, more than once, Knight had lost skin and hair to her tiny wolverine nails.
"Wakey wakey! If you're not up and out of bed in three seconds I'm going to pour a glass of water on you!" he threatened cheerily and Yuki blinked blearily up at him from the pillow nest she'd cultivated up near the head of the bed.
Knight raised an eyebrow warningly and Yuki let out an explosive sight before she slithered right off the mattress and curled up mutinously on the floor with a groan.
It had taken him nearly a month to get this kind of quick response in the morning. At the beginning Knight did actually have to upend whole pitchers of water on her face to get her up. Yuki now had a healthy fear of what her otherwise docile 'sister' would do to get her out of bed.
Knight, content that his job was done, abandoned Yuki to her foetal position and threw open his wardrobe and began picking out their clothes for today. They shared the same size so, even though Yuki had a whole wardrobe full of clothes in her own room, it was easier to just pick out things that Knight didn't want to wear and give them to Yuki instead. He didn't feel too guilty, all the clothes Kaien bought were adorable.
Adorable just wasn't the look Knight was particularly keen to go for. 'Intimidating' or 'fierce', sure. But adorable? His masculinity had taken enough hits as it was. There was no way he'd voluntarily go out wearing the pastel pink monstrosities that he regularly stuffed Yuki into.
And hey, don't get him wrong, he didn't think that there was anything particularly wrong about wearing the occasional bit of pink. He owned a few pink shirts and socks and even a pink tie back in his own world. But there was just something about an entire wardrobe stuffed to the brim with pink that made his non-existent testicles shrivel up inside his metaphorical body.
Yuki leaned against his back with her bony little chin jammed straight into the junction of his neck and shoulder so that she could see into the wardrobe.
"What wanna wear?" she asked and Knight crinkled his nose at her morning breath.
"Go brush your teeth, I'll surprise you with something cute." he promised and Yuki nodded sleepily, digging her chin in further, before wobbling towards the bathroom on spindly deer legs. She really was incredibly uncoordinated in the mornings.
Knight picked out a dress at random, something simple with short puffed sleeves and little bows instead of buttons at the back, for Yuki along with some underwear and socks and then set about the much harder task of picking out clothes for himself.
There was a depressing lack of cream in his wardrobe now. He'd worn most of it and Kaien had yet to return them from the washing room. Knight got the feeling that Kaien didn't actually wash the clothes and instead just threw them out and replaced them with brand new ones. It would certainly explain the new additions to his wardrobe.
Like the blessedly blue dress that Knight reverently plucked out of it's hiding space sandwiched between two winter coats.
Blue... Knight swooned gently as his fingers trailed across the velvet slip.
It still had a tag on it, fancy script in what looked like French scrawled across the plastic, though the price had been ripped off. Like all the other clothes in the wardrobe it was brand new. Granted it was still a dress but it was blue and that was all that mattered.
Knight quickly shed his sleep-clothes and changed into his prize before Yuki managed to drag herself out of the bathroom, toothpaste still smeared on her cheek.
Knight gave her a hopeless look before handing her the underwear and dress and walking into the bathroom to brush his own teeth again. Something about throwing up always made his mouth feel scummy for ages, no matter how many times he cleaned it.
When he came out Yuki was sitting at their shared vanity table and was attempting to brush her hair. Knight noted with no small amount of pride that she'd managed to put the dress on the right way 'round, though two of the bow buttons at the back were still unopened.
"Here, let me-" he offered, nimbly closing the buttons and then liberating the hairbrush from her chaotic hands. Knight then proceeded to try save Yuki's hair from the bird's nest she'd made of it. It was kind of nice, soothing even, to brush out her hair and braid it into a neat plait that ran down the centre of her back. Knight may not have had any sisters in his own world but he did have female friends and it was a skill he came across naturally.
He was a little less precious with his own hair and only brushed it absently before he helped Yuki tie her shoe laces and then allowed her to drag him out the door and down to the dining room for breakfast.
Ah breakfast, once his favourite meal and now a daily challenge.
He had to eat, he knew that. Eating and hoping that his body managed to consume enough to sustain itself before throwing up the rest was all that he could do. But the inevitability of it took away all of the enjoyment out of consuming food that he used to love.
The breakfast was already laid out and waiting for them along with Kaien who had a comically large newspaper spread out on front of his face.
"Good morning!" he said without looking away from the paper. Yuki and Knight shared a glance and then shrugged it off, well used to Kaien's eccentricities at this stage.
There was the usual cereal along with stacks of pancakes, bacon and a bowl of what was probably scrambled eggs in the centre of the table. One could never tell with Kaien. Knight still had nightmares about the ham sandwich that turned out to be full of pop rocks and the bowl of porridge that was actually mashed potatoes.
Kaien was a terrifying cook.
There was also a pot of tea and two fresh glasses of cranberry juice laid out at their respective seats – Knight closest to Kaien with Yuki placed at the end of the table and closest to the door for safety.
Yuki scrambled into her seat and then immediately necked her entire glass of juice before reaching absently for Knight's. Kaien, who had been pretending to ignore them for some reason, suddenly came alive and swatted her hands away with a distinctly nervous sounding laugh.
"Ah aah, that's Knight's juice! Here, I'll pour you another glass, ahaha, stealing it wrong, Yuki!" he said, trying for solemn but winding up somewhere around psychotic. Yuki looked unreasonable chastised and Knight felt irritation bubble in his chest.
"It doesn't matter, she can have it. I'll just have tea." he said and reached across to pour himself a cup but was stopped by another chaotic flap of Kaien's hands.
"It hadn't finished steeping yet, I only put it on!" he said.
"I don't mind, I prefer weak tea-" Knight said, reaching for the pot again only to have Kaien take it right off the table.
"Nonsense! This tea needs to be steeped for exactly ten minutes, otherwise you'll never be able to experience the full breadth of the flavours and it will have been a complete waste of time!" Kaien insisted, placing the pot on a high shelf and dusting off his hands.
Knight looked at him and then back to the pot and decided that it was entirely too much effort this early in the morning. The walk from his bedroom to the dining room was wearing heavily on his weak limbs and he needed some food in him before his body decided to try and destroy itself again.
Yuki was already digging in to her food, Kaien's weirdness not nearly enough to distract her from the prospect of eating, and Knight decided to take her lead and just ignore their weirdo guardian before he got another headache.
He spooned himself a helping of the scrambled eggs and, after thoroughly sniffing everything on his plate to make sure there were no 'surprises', dug in with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.
Which, thankfully, was not much as the first mouthful he took in was so heavily laden with salt that it made him want to gag. Yuki set down her cutlery with a clatter as he began to cough and splutter and Knight blindly reached out for his glass of juice.
"Ugh, too much salt! Oh my God!" he gasped as Yuki helped press the glass into his hands. He shot her a thankful grimace before taking a long draught of the juice to try and wash away the overwhelming taste of salt in his mouth.
He was three large gulps in when he noticed the odd coppery taste to the drink and he had almost finished the glass by the time his tastebuds had recovered enough to recognise it as the taste of blood.
Knight dropped the glass in his surprise and it shattered on the floor, crimson liquid spilling across the beige carpet. He looked down at it in shock and then raised a shaking hand to his mouth where a stray droplet of the drink was threatening to roll down his chin.
Yuki was yelling something but he couldn't hear it through the sudden ringing in his ears. All his senses were focused on the spill off red beneath his feet, soaking into the carpet, staining it irrevocably. He felt like he'd been strained irrevocably, mouth and throat soaked through with the taste of it. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth and Knight felt a scream building up deep in his chest.
"-ight! Knight! Look at me!" a voice yelled and strong hands gripped onto his shoulders, shaking him out of the trance he could feel himself falling into. He could smell the sick, sweet cloy of blood rising up from below him.
"Wha-" Knight said dazedly, eyes refocusing to take in the sight of Kaien crouched on front of him, blocking out the sight of most of the red, with worry etched into the lines of his youthful face.
"There was blood..." he began but Kaien's expression didn't even flicker and suddenly everything snapped into place. His weird insistance that Yuki not drink his juice, the thing with the tea...
"You put blood in my drink!" he yelled and angrily shook Kaien's hands off, slipping off the chair and putting as much distance between them as humanly possible, only stopping when his back hit up against the far wall. He felt his chest heaving with a strange emotion and it took him a second to identify it as betrayal.
He felt betrayed.
When had he begun trust Kaien Cross? When had he begun to care enough that this betrayal cut him so deeply?
"Calm down Knight, I can expla-" Kaien began, hands held out on front of him as though to calm a frightened animal. Knight did not appreciate the comparison and sneered.
"The hell you can, you psychopath!" he spat, arms crossed on front of him, eyes flicking around the room for some kind of weapon or escape, whichever came first.
What his eyes eventually landed on, however, was Yuki.
She was still half-in, half-out of her seat with one hand outstretched towards him and the other desperately clutching onto the table-cloth. Her eyes were wide and frightened and even from this distance he could see the tell-tale wobble of her mouth that meant she was holding back tears.
A wave of shame crested through him and he tightened his arms around his middle in an attempt to stave it off. He was making Yuki cry.
Kaien had crept closer and was now about a foot away, arms still outstretched, with an earnest look on his face.
"Shh, shh Knight. I promise you that I only had your best interests at heart. I promise." he said, sincerity writ in every line of him. Against his will Knight felt the tension begin to leak from his bones.
"You... I don't care who's interests you had in mind! What made you think that would be okay? Are you crazy?" Knight croaked, unwinding one of his arms to scrub furiously at his lips, almost prefering the taste of vomit to the thick, copper flim that had settled across the roof of his mouth.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you." Kaien admitted, voice gentle and soft as he tried to coax Knight away from the wall. "I forget sometimes how intelligent you are for your age, I'm sorry Knight. Really."
Knight sniffed angrily and felt another shiver of shame at the realisation that he was crying. Big, traitor tears streaked down his face and he spent a second out of glaring at Kaien to furiously swipe them away.
"Well I don't accept!" he bit out, voice gone high and warbling in a way that made him want to hit something. Preferably Kaien.
"That's okay but, please, come away from the wall. You're scaring Yuki" Kaien said, still in that soft voice.
Which, low blow. Knight glanced back over at Yuki who was now actually crying and he bit back a wince.
She looked like she wanted to run over but also like she didn't know how her affection would be recieved and he hated seeing that worried look on her little face. He'd promised to protect Yuki, and that meant even from his own anger. Letting her see him like this was unforgivable and Knight swallowed his rage down until it was just a burning ember in the pit of his stomach and he felt hollowed out and exhausted.
Knight forced a smile onto his face and then opened his arms up towards her.
"C'mon." he urged and that quiet encouragment was all it took.
Yuki let out a big sob and then flung herself across the room and into his arms, tiny form shaking with the force of her cries. Knight clutched her tight and tried to rub calming circles into her back while glaring furiously at Kaien from over her shoulder.
"Shh, Yuki. It's fine, I'm fine" he lied and rocked her side-to-side. He would be find, he'd have to be fine, for her sake if nothing else. The more he said it in his head the less it sounded like a lie.
Kaien stepped forward after a moment of letting them hug it out and, ignoring Knight's warning growl, picked the both of them up and settled them against his chest.
"Papa's sorry, sweethearts. Papa's so sorry." he said, resting his cheek against their heads. Yuki hiccuped miserably but obligingly nuzzled into his cheek. Knight just set his face into what he hoped was a blank mask and frowned up at him.
"You said you could explain. So explain." he said.
Kaien heaved out a huge sigh and then nodded.
"I suppose I owe you that, my dear." he said and then carried them into the sitting room before sliding bonelessly onto the large sofa. He dragged a knitted quilt over the three of them and nestled back into the cushions before addressing the ceiling.
"There are some things I would have liked to wait to explain to you when you are older. You're doomed to become entangled up in this dark world but I would have liked to spare you by at least a few years." Kaien said, a little sadly.
Knight almost wanted to interrupt and tell Kaien to get a move on but something about the tone of his voice and the serious expression on his face made Knight hold his tongue. He tucked a swathe of hair that had escaped from Yuki's braid back behind her ear and then tilted his head up to stare at the same ceiling fixture as Kaien.
"There are creatures in this world called Vampires-"
"Like K'name?" Yuki interrupted.
"Yes, Yuki, like Kaname. He's a very special kind of vampire though, he's a Pureblood. A vampire who's lineage has not seen a single drop of human blood. One of the unique... abilities of Pureblood vampires is the ability to turn others into vampires." he said, voice monotone.
Knight emphatically did not like the way this was going.
"These vampires who were once human are the lowest in the vampire hierarchy. They are unable to deal with their bloodlust, bodies and minds ill-equiped for the stress of the transformation and they often go mad. The vampire who attacked you on that fateful night was one of these vampires, a Level-E...
We think, that is Kaname and I, that you, Knight, might have been attacked by one such Pureblood before you were found. Your sympthoms match and when Kaname tasted your blood last week and noticed that it was not entirely human." Kaien said as he began to slowly stroke his fingers through Knight's hair, deftly working out the tangles that had been caused by the earlier pandemonium.
"So you think I'm one of these... these Level-Es? Am I going to go crazy?" Knight asked, feeling oddly calm after forcing down his rage from earlier. His hands trembled against Yuki's cheek though, betraying the fear he felt at becoming a blood-thirsty monster like the freak who'd attacked him in the snow.
"Yes and no. There is a solution, however temporary. The blood of the Pureblood who bit you can stabilise your condition. We don't have that but we do have the next best thing." Kaien said leadingly.
"Kaname." Knight said, feeling very very tired.
"Well, yes. He's agreed to provide you with the necessary amount until we figure out another way to stabilize you." Kaien said and Knight fought to keep the bitterness of his face at the sight of Yuki's wide eyed curiosity.
"So Knight's a vampire like K'name?" she said wonderingly and Kaien chuckled, though it sounded a little sad.
"Not quite. Sweetheart, not quite."
And, abruptly, Knight had enough.
It was bad enough that he'd be transported into this strange world, bad enough that he'd been ripped away from his family and friends and his life. It was bad enough that he'd been shoved into the body of a child, a female child.
But this... this was the last straw.
Becoming a goddamn vampire was the last straw.
"I'm going... I have to go." he said and wormed his way off Kaien's lap, almost dislodging a worried looking Yuki.
Kaien, bless his evil little heart, kept Yuki nestled against his chest and gently shushed her protests as Knight walked robotically out of the room and up the stairs.
He needed some time to think without having to worry about her, just for a second.
