Thank you for all of the reviews :) Your enthusiasm for this is so inspiring.

#

"Happy Birthnight, Kaname-sama," Nancy congratulated as she approached his bed.

Technically, it was a crib, but Kaname repressed thoughts like those.

Grumpily Kaname rolled over and tugged his blanket up over his head. It was twilight and time for any proper vampire to get up, but sleep.

"None of that now," Nancy chided. Unwilling to actually take away something he clearly wanted, she bribed him with tea. When the hand clutching the blanket darted out for the scalding hot cup instead, she slid the blanket out from his grasp as quick as any magician.

"You're learning," admired Kaname with disgust, temper evening as the tea eased him into wakefulness.

"It has been a year," Nancy commented dryly.

"Yipee."

"Dare I ask how old you really are?" Nancy continued, as she settled the breakfast tray down on the table, picking Kaname and his tea up to sit him at it too. Eating breakfast in the crib worked out for precisely no one and Nancy had learned that the best way to keep Kaname on a schedule was to physically move him. He was fine once he was up but getting him there was a trial and a half on a bad night.

"I have no idea," Kaname replied, eyes still closed as he inhaled the fumes and Nancy decided whether or not his pride would allow a bib or not. One look and she decided on not.

"Ah, of course, I suppose it's a little rude to ask, isn't it?"

"That wasn't a deflection, Nancy. I really have no idea."

Nancy laughed, checking the lid on his cup before setting it before him. "Why ever not?"

"Think about it. How often do humans change how they measure time? When I was young, we didn't bother outside of night and day. Then we had four seasons, and then moons. The Mayan calendar used three circles, but the Aztecs only had two. Greek philosophers thought they had a new way to judge time and created new units of measurement. When Rome conquered, they changed the time to reflect their politics, adding two months to the year as well as introducing foreign measurements."

"Can you not calculate it using modern methods?"

Kaname scowled.

"Modern methods? What methods are those? The ones that add an hour to the day because of a war then take it off in winter? The Chinese have a different calendar to the rest of the world, and other communities have their own cultural preferences," Kaname continued waving a hand, "Oh, and don't forget that even if I add it all up, the current framing of time relies on certain astronomical assumptions that aren't stable. The national standard invented leap years for a reason you know."

"Alright alright!" Nancy held up her hands in surrender, but Kaname wasn't finished.

"And," he insisted, on a roll, "I travelled extensively, and without the precise coordinates, I'd never be able to calculate the time spent in all of the different time zones that modern methods rely upon, and then there are all the times I was distracted, unconscious, or otherwise unable to track time," he finished with a sharp nod.

"Why do I feel that you've debated this before?"

Sniffing disapprovingly, Kaname reached for his breakfast, consisting of soft fruit mash and yet more watery pink excuse for blood.

"The Eldest of us," Nancy noted the slight stress on the word, "liked to complain about humanities eternal confusion, and mock each other's supposed ages by the different counts. It's always funny to realise someone lost a millennium in the conversion and are now younger than the rest of us."

"I see. Well then, Young Master, happy first birthnight."

Kaname scowled, Nancy grinned, and the night began.

#

Given the secrecy of his birth, there was no formal party – thank the Night.

Unfortunately, all of Juuri's ladies knew, and they descended upon the Castle like vultures on a corpse.

"Oh my!" Miki cooed, her too-blue eyes alight with mischief and joy, "Look how much he's grown!"

Not enough.

"Here you are, Kaname-sama, a present for you!"

Since when had they become so familiar?

"It's a shame I couldn't bring my daughters with me, I'm sure you'd be good friends."

Huh. Kaname couldn't decide if that was a genuine thought or if it was a prelude to politics. The benefits of a childhood friendship with a pureblood were enormous, of course, and the chance to influence one before they were wise enough to defend against it equally desirable. Still, this was Aidou's mother… and Hanabusa had been incapable of deception. Then again, Nagamichi was a politician canny enough to stand against Ichio for centuries. He'd also tried to press a mistress onto Kaname in the other timeline during a politically sensitive party, and he'd never treated Yuki very well even before she'd gone completely insane.

"Children can't keep a secret," Ren interrupted her sister. "Kaname-sama's existence must be hidden for as long as physically possible, you know that."

Kaname's gratitude for that spot of common sense was soon erased when Ren bent to pick him up without so much as a by your leave. Kaname tolerated it was because she was pregnant, and he'd never hurt a pregnant vampire. Except for once or twice, oh and there was that cult, and that particularly sneaky assassin and – well alright, the numbers added up over the years.

Still, he couldn't hurt this one. It was Kain in there, and Kaname missed Kain's steady presence and cool reason. He made a mental note to do something about the whole unrequited love business though. He wasn't putting up with all of the angst this time around.

"Ren!" Suzume scolded. "You shouldn't strain yourself in your condition, here, give him to me," she held out her arms to take Kaname, but Kaname was putting his foot down.

Very deliberately, he met Suzume's eyes and then turned his head, burying it into Ren's neck where he could scent Kain properly, and proceeded to ignore the other vampire.

Ren chuckled, "You've been told, sister. Kaname-sama, would you like to open your presents?" She asked him, stretching back to look at him properly.

"No," he said.

"Would you like some cake?"

"No."

"Want to play a game?"

"No."

"Who woke up grumpy," Juuri laughed, and Kaname was really getting sick of being manhandled all the time. "Whose a grumpy-grumpy-goo?"

Kaname gave that the look it deserved and looked over her shoulder to search out the only sane vampire in the room.

Nancy was standing unobtrusively to one side, pouring wine into golden goblets. Apparently, his birthnight required the good crockery. She was too far away to save him.

"Seiren," Kaname said, latching desperately onto his only hope.

Being of an age with him, and for more of Juuri's 'bonding', Seiren was in attendance, though her mother was not. Mina was shadowing Haruka who was on business in Saudi Arabia all week. Haruka had become very industrious of late; Kaname tried not to be too pleased - It had to go wrong soon, no need to encourage it.

"You want to play with Seiren, honey? Alright then," Juuri carried Kaname to the fire where Seiren lay on a colourful mat, batting at a toy over her that played awful sounds with every hit.

For a child only a few weeks younger than him, her accuracy was alarming. Kaname approved. His Shadow would be fearsome. It was only proper after all.

Kaname examined the other toys and to his delight found an obnoxious multi-coloured toy piano as well as a host of other horrendous contraptions whose only purpose seemed to be inducing headaches in the surrounding adults.

And humans called them toys, how delightfully vicious of them. Honestly, they could be so vampiric at times.

They were right too; why should he be the only one to suffer?

#

"Loud, isn't he?" Ren commented weakly as the fifteenth balloon found it's way into the young prince's arms and was popped with childish delight.

"At least he's stopped playing with that infernal device. Honestly Miki what possessed you to buy him a musical dog."

"The shop assistant assured me it was suitable for a baby! It stimulates the mind," she defended stoutly, looking away from the baby whose birth they'd come to celebrate. He was only a baby, and yet, and yet…

"He doesn't need stimulation," Suzume muttered dourly, "he needs pacification for blood's sake someone hand him a teddy bear instead."

"You can't take away something he's enjoying!" Miki said, scandalised.

"Oh, isn't he precious," Juuri commented wistfully as she approached their little group. "So talented."

"Yes, Juuri-sama."

"Of course, Juuri-sama."

They all agreed instantly, company smiles covering their winces as the youngest Kuran started slamming the buttons again, prompting tinny mechanical music to play in a discordant cacophony.

Juuri smiled, stars in her eyes.

"He's just perfect, and look, he's teaching Seiren how to play! Oh isn't that sweet, Nancy darling, where did I put my camera?"

After giving her a few seconds to get clear, Ren whispered, very, very quietly. "Thank the stars they only breed once every three centuries and grow up quick."

"Hear, hear," came the fervent reply.

#

"Young master," Nancy called, striding over the scatted bits of brightly coloured plastic and strips of wrinkled rubber like a veteran wading over the corpses of fallen comrades, "Time for a snack, sir."

"'Kay," Kaname replied, admiring the twitching vein above Nancy's eye. Score one for him. Ha! That'll teach her to abandon him to this load of females again. With insulting casualness, he rolled out from under the musical safari gym and accidently broke it with a flailing limb.

There were sighs of relief from the farthest corner.

"Why didn't I think of that?" One female muttered resentfully.

"Whoopsie," he lied, crushing the speaker with a well-placed foot. "I brokes it."

"Not to worry young sir," Nancy soothed, hastily picking him up and away from the other, louder, toys and swinging him around onto her hip. "There are other toys. Time for cake."

"But I liked this toy," Kaname pouted, the wicked gleam in his eyes for her alone.

"There there," Ren said, hurrying over. "There's plenty more where those came from, Kaname-sama. Here, I'll take him."

Reluctantly, Nancy handed him over, Ren being higher ranked, and Kaname idly fantasied about turning all of them into children when he had the power and making them endure this torture.

He placed a proprietary hand on her bump, feeling Kain's aura in there, steadfast and strong. That, right there, was why he endured.

"When will he play with me?" Kaname peered up at Ren as she handed him his cake. He'd refused to move from her lap so she had to manoeuvre around him and the baby bump.

"What was that, Kaname-sama?"

"When will he play with me?" Kaname repeated, louder. His question drew the attention of the other ladies, as intended.

"He who?" Ren asked, confused.

Kaname sighed. Was she being deliberately obtuse? He patted her bump, deliberately, holding her gaze. He saw confusion – suspicion – and finally, realisation.

"I'm due in two months, Kaname-sama," Ren said slowly, "And I don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but they won't be old enough to play with you for several years."

Kaname huffed. "Boy," he insisted, looking down at the swell of her belly and running his other hand over it carefully. "Fire." Kaname nodded to himself, and then, goal achieved, used the excuse of childhood to look bored and easily distracted himself with cake.

"…Juuri-sama?"

"Kaname's a pureblood, Ren," Juuri replied quietly. "He's much smarter than other children, and we learn things very differently than lower vampires. I've known you were carrying a boy since the beginning, but I have the tact not to mention it," she added dryly. "He's not a mortal child. Stop expecting him to act like one."

#

"Will you not take a break?" Nancy asked, finding Kaname bent over his desk and journals once more, a pen comically oversized and clumsy in his hand. "It's Christmas you know."

Kaname scoffed.

"Nancy, Christmas is the Christian attempt to eradicate Yule. That child was actually born in July, and I'm older than him by many thousands of years. No, I don't care to celebrate the successful persecution of the Old Ways. What did you want?"

She hesitated and Kaname could just sense her decision to step over the conversational landmine and hope it went away.

"Mara just called me, Haruka-sama is expected back in an hour. I thought you'd want to know."

Kaname let out a long slow breath and made sure his voice was warmer when he spoke next. Alienating his only ally was stupid.

"I did, thank you."

There was a long moment of silence that Kaname vampirically ignored, busying himself with another notation in his journal. (Must do something to rekindle socially acceptable practice of Old Ways)

Yuki would be here in six months. He was not ready, but that was no excuse to snap. He had better control than that. Damned body. At this rate, puberty would be explosive to say the least. Someone would probably die.

"Do you have the list of castle staff who have signed the contract?"

"Yes, sir," Nancy drew out the relevant paper from the file she was carrying. "Of everyone positioned inside, fifteen refused to sign, and ten are delaying. The contract for the guards has just been finalised, and Juuri-sama called the captain to her office last night to discuss it."

"The list of other staff on site?"

"Here."

"The list of other vampires with access?"

"Here."

"Humans?"

"Here."

Kaname sped through the documents, thinking.

Rido was his fiercest enemy right now, and the Council his most insidious one. Their alliance was most unfortunate. Rido would attack, that was as good as inevitable. He needed the power, and the Kuran children would be easiest to access. He could be prepared for, if not anticipated.

The Council required a subtler approach. They had spies in place already, and Kaname didn't have the time to ferret them out, not with all of his other plans.

"Nancy, what are your feelings on counter-espionage?"

#

The first new moon of January rose, and Kaname was ready for it. The darkest night meant the height of power for the vampire, and Kaname would need all the help he could get.

Youth was no advantage to blood magic. The blood in his veins was old, condensed enough that there was power there even if there wasn't much of it. Unlike another infant, his goal was achievable, but he had to supplement his strength with arcane tools and dates of importance if he wanted certainty.

That was why he'd ritually bathed in salt water. He needed absolute focus, and purity of power. He couldn't afford to include the flecks of power and colour his aura had picked up from Nancy, Mara, Haruka, Juuri or even the castle's heavy enchantments.

He sat in a black robe, worn only for this purpose, in a circle of silver set into the ground. The circle was an excellent mystical barrier, neatly cutting him off from the rest of the world, he could work his magic knowing it was as precise as he was going to get.

His goal: a bug.

Haruka was being Haruka. Kaname had neutered him for the moment, but Haruka still had to go out into the world where he was vulnerable and prone to making stupid decisions. In fact, Kaname's orders meant Haruka had to go outside more and spend more time in the company of other purebloods who were his greatest threat and most likely to spot something wrong.

If, when, anything went wrong, Kaname had to know about it instantly.

There was also the fact that in the last timeline, Ichio had pretty much destroyed all of the Kuran's traditional holdings, or integrated them so much into the Ichijo's business that it proved impossible to separate them. By the time he'd managed even a fraction, much of the value was lost, items of note had vanished onto the black market and his political power had been scuppered. It hadn't helped that Kaname had had so little knowledge of what was his in the first place.

The bug would correct that.

Kaname knew that Haruka swept his office for regular electronic bugs, Kaname thoroughly approved, but Haruka hadn't either didn't know or didn't care about the other sort of bugs.

A shade would have been Kaname's preference. It was easy enough to pluck out a bit of your shadow and give it orders to spy. Most purebloods did that, or borrowed the eyes of an animal. Embarrassing as it was, Kaname couldn't do it yet. Too young, too weak, it was humiliating.

He banished the thought as it appeared. He had to focus.

A body of ink; for the memory of writing and fluidity of movement; Eyes of mithril for power and memory; Legs of mahogany splinters for strength and grace; Wings of spider web silk for speed; A drop of his blood, for loyalty and resonance.

Kaname assembled all of his reagents in his cupped hands, and raised them to his lips, gathering his energy into his mouth and breathing life out in one slow breath.

When he opened his eyes, he held a tiny creature in his hands, no bigger than his fingernail. It looked back at him with silver eyes, and Kaname grinned, feeling the connection spark to life in his mind.

"Well hello there, my dear," Kaname crooned hoarsely, "Your name is Cricket."

Cricket floated silently around him, lightning fast, and Kaname only had time to laugh in delight once before the energy-debt caught up to him and he passed out.

#

Nancy and Mara were having one of their more informal chats, idly talking about their colleagues, and what they'd been getting up to lately when The Thing interrupted them.

Mara shrieked in surprise when The Thing landed on the rim of the wine bottle.

"A fly!" She scowled. "I'll need to have a few words with Cook if we've got flies about the place."

She reached around and finally found a newspaper, swatting it with one sharp flick.

The body splattered over the table.

Nancy blinked down at the mess; black sludge splashed everywhere. As one, both she and Mara turned their eyes to the newspaper suspiciously, Mara turned it about in her hands, shrugging.

"Now, John," she continued their earlier conversation even as she rose to find an antiseptic wipe. "Some of the girls have been muttering about him. Nothing concrete yet, but I'll get it out of them soon."

"The guard, I – wait, it's moving."

Nancy stared in bemusement as the little black entrails started rolling back to the table, and the fly re-formed, staggering upright.

Mara, no slouch, swatted it again, hard. This time bits reached the ceiling. It re-formed faster too; Black balls sluggishly heaving themselves into a ponderous trundle.

"Wait," Nancy said, "Let's see what it does."

"I don't care what it does," Mara muttered, but she didn't thwack it again. The Thing burst into the air, silently, and hovered about going in drunken circles until it settled on Nancy's nose. She went cross eyed, trying to keep watching it. It staggered about on her nose and then flew to the door. It came back to her, and went to the door.

Nancy sighed, "Do you think it wants me to follow it?"

"Yes, I do," Mara said warily. "Here, you better have the newspaper."

#

The two females followed the not-a-fly out of the servants quarters, past the wine cellar and the mizuya, into the main corridor, around the base of the front tower, past the conservatory, the computer room and the gym before it headed upwards.

"Oh dear," Nancy muttered, when she realised where it was heading. "Mara, I think I know what this is, I'll go alone from here."

"I'm not leaving you alone with it," she panted as they hauled themselves up the third staircase. "It might be dangerous."

Unable to find an excuse, it was two vampires that stumbled into the workroom, finding the not-a-fly circling Kaname, unconscious on the floor amidst a silver circle, bunches of herbs, a candle, a pot of earth and a seashell.

"Kaname-sama!"

Nancy went to him, carefully, feeling something in the air. Nothing stopped her from picking him up however, and she instantly felt tired.

"I'll call Juuri-sama," Mara rushed, lifting a hand to her earpiece.

"No!" Nancy snapped. "I know what this is. There's no need to bother her. Here, hold him for me."

She shoved the unconscious toddler into Mara's arms. Mara had no choice but to hold him, and thus got the full brunt of Kaname's feeding. She went from peering reverently at the child to needing to sit down, right there, to taking a nap with her head lolling back against the wall.

Nancy ruthlessly gave it another minute to make sure the other female was well and truly out before she removed the young master from the other vampire.

"What have you done now, Kaname-sama?" she murmured, bobbing him slightly on her hip. "And how am I going to fix it?"

#

Thoughts?