Akane wasn't angry, per se. Her harsh tone stemmed from confusion and a heavy dose of fright at what had happened less than half an hour ago. She was scared but far too logical to allow her mind to drift to the fanciful. Even so, other than the one word flashing in bright, neon lights behind her eyes, she couldn't fathom a more fitting explanation for the woman's unnatural behaviour or Aido's changing eyes.
Ridiculous! She deposited Miu's gift bags in their room then decided to distract herself with the pursuit of a meal in The Sun Dorms breakfast room, exasperated by such an absurd notion and even more annoyed she couldn't shake the thoughts that one flashing word invoked in her. Akane spent the rest of the day reading textbooks and flipping through magazines in the library, trying to occupy her mind. That is until she was ushered out at 9:15 p.m. by the elderly librarian, Mrs Honda.
On her wanderings back to her room, Akane heard the jovial giggles from the sleepover in Kimiko's room, probably deep in discussion about their most beloved Night Class students. She stopped to listen to the ruckus for a minute before walking the last few steps to her door and upon reaching for the handle, her hand stalled.
The door was open a crack when she knew she'd closed it that afternoon when she'd left for lunch. Tentatively, Akane grasped the handle, and slowly eased the door open, peering cautiously into the darkness.
"What are you doing?" a voice asked from the hallway, causing Akane to jump and turn breathlessly to find Kimiko stood in her doorway. Her long hair was braided loosely and rested messily over her shoulder, dressed in a long, white, cap-sleeved nightgown. Her arms were crossed as she leant casually against her doorframe, sending a puzzled look at her friend.
"N-nothing," Akane squeaked then cleared her throat before she continued. "The door was open. I think the latch is broken," she lied, feeling her cheeks redden while scratching the back of her head nervously.
"Hmm? We had the same problem last week. Just go to the Dorm Leader, she'll get it fixed for you… You were out late?"
"I was reading, lost track of time," Akane explained, receiving a raised brow from the blonde. Thankfully, at this, one of her friends called her back into the room.
"Well, don't make a habit of it, sleep is important. Goodnight, Nakamura." With that, Kimiko closed and locked her door, re-joining whatever debate was currently going on inside. You have no room to talk, Sleepover Queen.
Akane let out a shaky breath before turning back to her ominously quiet room and warily stepped through the door. She reached for the light switch, flicked it on and snapped the door shut, closing her room off from the corridor. The room appeared empty, just as she and Miu had left it. Their beds were made, Miu's hairbrush was thrown carelessly on her mattress, and their nightgowns from the night before were still folded neatly on their pillows. Miu's mother's present still rested against the wardrobe, and the bathroom door was still tightly closed.
Feeling less cautious as nothing appeared to be out of place, Akane moved to the bathroom, opened the door and pulled the cord to turn on the light. Maybe the latch is broken, she thought as she peered inside. Again, everything was where she'd left it. No ominous shadows could be seen from behind the frosted glass of the shower, no dark reflections in the mirror. The latch must be broken, Akane concluded as she pulled the cord again, plunging the bathroom back into darkness. However, before she could turn back to her bedroom, arms snaked around her waist and a chin was laid on her shoulder.
Akane started in fright, which rapidly switched to annoyance once her intruder spoke.
"I've been waiting a while," Aido sighed into Akane's ear, triggering an uncomfortable shiver to travel down her spine. He allowed her to wiggle out of his grasp and watched, amused, as she glared at him with a deep frown and clenched fists at her sides. "Even when you're mad, you're cute." Surprise widened Akane's eyes before they shrank to mere slits just as quickly.
"Why are you in my room, again?" She clipped.
"You invited me," Aido replied, sauntering to Akane's bed and flopping down to lay on his back, resting his arms behind his head.
"I did not!" Her arms were still folded, her eyes narrowing even further at his nerve.
"Yes, you did. I said: 'we need to talk about today', and you said: 'you found your way into my room once, why don't you try it again'?"
"In what world is that an invitation?!" Akane burst out.
Despite the nagging curiosity she'd endured all afternoon, she'd decided she didn't want anything to do with what happened today, or the last time Aido had been in her room. She didn't want her mind roaming to the thoughts she'd been plagued with for the past week. She wanted to forget the nightmares she'd had of sharp teeth scraping against her skin.
"Too bad. I'm here now, and we need to talk," Aido argued, thankful he'd brought a full box of blood tablets. He decided he'd take one now as Akane's aroma was already starting to affect him.
He stood in one fluid motion, walking past the girl as she sidestepped out of his path on his way to her bathroom. He filled one of the glass tumblers on the counter with water and took it back with him to Akane's bed. Aido set his glass of water on her bedside table before fishing out his pillbox from his inner breast pocket. He thought it best not to mix the tablets with the water right now, it might have made the Human uncomfortable since she'd already seen more than she was supposed to.
"You sick?" Akane asked, stepping closer to her bed. She still had an aggravated tone, but now, tainted with curiosity as she stood at the foot of her bed, waiting for an answer. Aido took a long time to drink his water. Akane's frown was deepening. He put down the empty glass and laid back on Akane's bed, much to her exasperation, before he decided to respond, taking the conversation in a more suitable direction.
"That woman was odd, right?" Akane stiffened at the mention of the crazed woman who'd attacked her. "I mean, her eyes were weird, don't you think?" Aido turned to Akane with a smile that seemed ominous, cunning, and impish all at once. Overall, it made Akane uneasy. In response, she stepped back, her eyes angled to the floor as she held one arm, protectively over her chest, clutching the elbow of the other.
"Contact lenses..." she offered, completely unconvinced by her own explanation. Aido watched the girl as she became less and less comfortable in her small dorm room. He stood and slowly advanced towards her, amused by her heart quickening and her breath hitching as he approached. She was afraid, but the confusion in her eyes revealed to him she probably didn't know what she should be afraid of, or she was denying what she already knew.
Aido had done some discreet investigating into Akane Nakamura's records and found her schoolwork and test scores far surpassed some of the brightest in the Day Class. Her truancy highlighted how much she'd truly grasped her subjects, that even with her absences, she was still one of the highest-ranked amongst her Day Class peers. She was very clever, but perhaps too conventionally logical for her own good, he mused as she struggled to keep her composure.
He circled the Human, causing her to lift her shoulders and bow her head, unconsciously hiding her neck from her natural predator.
"Is that what you think I did?" He could hear as heart stuttered in her chest at the reminder of what she saw the last time he'd been in her room.
"You s-scared me, sneaking into my room like a stalker. Just a hallucination. Nothing h-happened!" Akane stumbled in her attempt to convince herself.
"Are you hallucinating now?"
Akane's heart stopped. She tried to breathe but her lungs refused to take a breath. Slowly, and against her better judgement, she lifted her head to see Aido's face mere inches from her own. His blue eyes seemed to stare into her. She could only watch, transfixed as the azure blue before her, bled into a deep crimson. Taking in the spectacle, Akane's mind also highlighted the discrepancies and moments she'd tried to disregard as impossible in her own life. Everything she'd seen, felt and denied because it had seemed too inexplicable, too unnatural. Yet here it was. She couldn't run from it, no matter how much she wished to.
"That woman was a Vampire, and so am I." Aido expected the typical reaction from a Human to his revelation. Shouting, maybe some crying or begging for their life, or even not believing him. But this girl, this strange Human, just stood in a daze, staring right through him before she mumbled something that instantly piqued his interest.
"He's a Vampire." Her tone was quiet, distant. It was obvious her mind had taken her far away and hadn't intended to speak her thoughts aloud. She unconsciously brought a hand to the back of her neck, rubbing over her skin which pulled Aido's attention even more.
"He?" he inquired. Akane's eyes widened as her wandering thoughts were dragged back to the present.
"I-I mean you're, you're a Vampire," she stuttered, hurriedly removed her hand from her neck and stepping around the Vampire to sit on her bed.
Aido raised a brow, returning his eyes to their original colour then sat on the bed beside the Human, blocking the door, her only exit. This did not go unnoticed by Akane, causing her to visibly tense.
"Who's he?" Aido leant back casually, watching the girl sat as far away as she could get from him on the small bed. He wasn't known for his patience but knew Akane's anxiety level would peak before he gave in to frustration. Her nervousness only served to excite his predatory nature anyway, so, he waited.
Akane sat frowning in frustration, fear, and incomprehensibility. A whirlwind of thoughts rushed through her head as her life was rewound and rewritten, changing everything she thought she knew and understood. She'd known he wasn't like her. That, what he was doing wasn't normal, but she never let herself think about it. It had been much easier to think she'd been sick all the time, that he was overprotective and a little obsessive, and just didn't know his own strength. That all those nights had just been vivid nightmares that she could leave behind when the sun came up. But to finally have the proof staring her in the face (sitting on her bed even), she had no choice but to accept it. He's a Vampire!
"Nakamura, show me your neck?" Aido asked, having to gain Akane's attention for a second time after she'd got lost in thought while her hand found its' way to the back of her neck. She dropped her hand back on her lap, shaking her head, not trusting her voice to answer. Aido advanced causing Akane to jump to her feet and clamber over Miu's bed.
"S-stay away y-you, Vampire!" He held his hands up, palms out in a placating gesture, hoping to reassure the skittish Human.
"I won't hurt you," he assured in a soothing tone, making sure to move slowly as he walked around the bed to meet her. He treated her like a cornered animal, knowing her flight instinct had taken over at this point, causing a flood of panic to rush through her system. The threat of being caught by those terrifying teeth was strong. She ran.
"Liar!" she yelled, jumping back over Miu's bed but the Vampire was, of course, faster. He pinned her to the wall between the bathroom door and the wardrobe, forcing her face into the wallpaper to have better control of her. "No, don't!" She protested as he moved the soft, black veil of hair from her neck and stared in shock at what it had covered.
He'd thought, maybe, Akane had been attacked by a Vampire before, or the Level E from earlier had marked her somehow. But the scaring he saw, hidden just under the collar of her nightshirt, was a mixture of old and relatively new, going down from the back of her neck and lower. He had to pull her shirt back to follow the scars to where her shoulders joined to see them, and there were more he couldn't see further down her back. So many! Telling where one started and another began was impossible, even for his keen eyesight.
"Someone's been feeding on you, for years!" he gasped spinning her around to face him. He knew a Vampire would someday kill Akane, which was the fate of all Unfortunates, without exception. But to find she'd already been scared so badly, it annoyed him, but he couldn't understand why. For the first time in his life, he was baffled by his own emotions.
Akane watched Aido, confused by his sudden anger.
"You're a Vampire. What do you care?" Aido was thrown by her simple question because she was right, why did he care? He released her, stepped back, and slumped onto her bed, pinching his nose. The prolonged exposure to her scent was affecting his senses again. Perhaps, the more agitated I get, the faster the effect of the blood tablets wears off?
Akane watched as he sat in obvious discomfort for a moment before she slipped into the bathroom. Just as the water started running, Aido lifted his head. He watched as Akane filled another glass with water and brought it to him.
"Here, those tablets help, don't they?" she said, holding the glass out to him. He took it and swallowed another pill before dropping the box and the half-full glass on Akane's bedside table. She sat facing him on Miu's bed, eyeing the pillbox, contemplating whether to pick it up and inspect it further. Aido could see her looking at the box and placed it back into his blazer pocket. He couldn't afford to have them out of his hands while he was with Akane. His thirst was just too unpredictable around her.
"What are we going to do with you now?"
"We?" Akane frowned at Aido's tone, which was happier than was polite due to the circumstances.
"Yeah, see, if it was just what happened last week, and that woman today, it'd be easy to erase your memory."
"Erase my memory?!" Akane exclaimed, shooting to her feet in shock and defiance. "You are not erasing my memory!"
"Relax. I couldn't if I wanted to. Erasing a week, the Human brain can just about cope with. Years, not a chance. If all your memories relating to Vampires was erased, it would leave you with the mental capability of a marble."
Akane was still shaken, eying the Vampire and judging the distance between herself and her door, contemplating whether she could make it to the corridor before he decided to attack. However, his nonchalant manner in this situation really bothered her. She continued to listen in dulled shock as the Vampire sat on her bed, and unprompted began to explain the procedures for the eventuality of a Human learning about the existence of Vampires.
"Your kind, actually has measures in place for this?" Akane said, mild amusement playing across her face at the absurdity of this turn of events.
"We hold up your governments, so don't sound so surprised," Aido retorted from his leisurely position on Akane's bed. "And what do you mean by 'your kind'!" he added indignantly. Akane shrugged, unapologetic for insulting his species. Aido huffed.
"What happens now? What do you do with Humans whose minds you can't screw around with?" Aido chuckled and sat back up.
"That will be up to the headmaster, and Lord Kaname."
"Lord Kaname?" Akane said, taken aback.
"They'll tell you everything you'll be allowed to know tomorrow, I'm sure. So, get some sleep." Aido knew he had to tell Kaname about Akane seeing more than she should. Thankfully, the fact she'd already been introduced to Vampires, gave him some cover for his lapses with her.
He decided he'd best get back to The Moon Dorms before he was missed and headed across the room to the door, but Akane surprised him by grabbing his arm and stopping him.
"Wait a minute?" Akane possessed a probing expression. The underlying question he heard in her voice intrigued him. "You said you needed to tell the headmaster and Lord Kaname. I'm assuming you mean, The Moon Dorm President, Kaname Kuran."
"What's your point?" Aido asked turning to her, watching her wrap her arms around herself, eyeing him uneasily.
"He's the one in charge of you Vampires, isn't he? He reports to the headmaster and vice versa, concerning the secret here at the academy. So…" she began as she walked around him to the bedroom door, unsettling the Vampire with where she was going with this. "If it's against procedure for a Vampire to divulge the secret of their kind, and Cross Academy, to a Human, then that would put you in trouble with Kuran and the headmaster."
"You already knew about Vampires, so I'm in the clear," Aido countered with a grin, but Akane tilted her head.
"No, I didn't, you told me. 'That woman was a Vampire, and so am I', remember?"
She took hold of the doorknob and opened the door just enough for someone to squeeze through, but not enough for anyone to see into the room clearly.
"So, you would be in trouble, wouldn't you? I doubt they'd be pleased to hear about you breaking curfew and coming to The Sun Dorms either." Aido had been rooted to the spot, listening to Akane's subtly delivered threat. His handsome face morphed into an unpleasant scowl but Akane held her ground and steeled her nerve.
He hadn't expected blackmail, and by her tense tone of voice, he suspected she wasn't versed in the tactic. However, she would tell Kaname and Kaien about him being in The Sun Dorms, he could see the conviction of her words in her expression. Also, annoyingly, she was right. He had been the one to tell her. Before that, she'd been effectively deluding herself against the existence of Vampires. Clever girl.
He strode to her, forcefully taking the door handle from the Human's grasp and closed it with a thunk. Akane gazed up at him startled, taking an involuntary step back and freezing as her back met a wall. Aido placed both hands on either side of her head, boxing her in and leaning into her. He watched the fear in her eyes, listened as her heart thrummed against her chest. She breathed in quick, shallow gasps, looking into the eyes of a Vampire that nobody knew was in her room. Akane forced herself to calm down. She knew Aido wasn't stupid enough to hurt her. Or she hoped he wasn't.
After seeing her squirm for a moment, he decided this might work in his favour and opted to humour the Human.
"And what do you suggest we do?" He would have laughed outright at the comical way her eyes had bugged out of her head in her surprise. Instead, a vicious grin split across his face.
"N-nothing…" she answered, receiving a sceptical frown for her proposal. "I-if you don't tell anyone a-about me knowing about v-Vampires, I'll keep quiet about you c-coming here."
"What's the matter, afraid they'll ask you about those scars?" he sneered, amused by her spluttering words and the gradual pinking of her cheeks and neck at his closeness.
"My life is nobody else's business, no matter who they think they are!" Akane answered with a hardness and finality to her voice that surprised Aido. Although, he'd already learned that this Human, this Unfortunate, was far more surprising than she appeared. He grunted, amused and nodded his agreement to Akane's deal, pushed off the wall and stepped back from the Human. Akane let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding as he left the room, not grasping the weight of the oppressive feeling that had left with him until it was finally lifted.
In the corridor, Aido swallowed more pills as he leant his back against the door to collect himself. This could be interesting, he mused wickedly as he heard the lock of the door click shut. He exited The Sun Dorms quickly, thanking whatever God was out there, that he made it back to The Moon Dorms without being caught. He didn't spot the set of eyes that following him along the edge of the academy grounds as he went, or even feel the presence of another.