Chapter 25

The concept of marrying Ayato had never crossed Yui's mind and when it had been ordered of her, she let out a reaction that surprised the pair both equally. Laughter. When the fiery vampire had uttered the words, it only took a moment for Yui to throw her head back and her arms in the air in a fit of hysterical laughter, to the point that tears dripped down her searing cheeks and she even snorted from her lower throat. She was barely able to contain herself, even when Ayato grabbed her by the shoulders in a new found anger and began to shake her. "Mortal women would faint in glee just at the thought of marrying Yours Truly, and you laugh?" His fingernails dug down into her shoulders as he shook more violently to silence her laughter, but even then the hysterics only faded into a strong fit of unintentional giggles. "Ayato-kun," Yui laughed. She struggled to contain herself and planned on saying in a slick tone I would never marry you until a morbid thought fluttered across her swirling mind. Her only to ever protest him to begin with was to be with Azusa, but he was the one who had dropped her off literally at Ayato's door step. He didn't care what happened to her. "See?" Ayato hissed, "Just take a moment to let it sink in." He watched closely to the changes in her expression and watched as sad tears began to fill her eyes. He smiled and said even quieter, "I knew you'd see it my way eventually."

That night Yui was pleased to find out that she wouldn't be forced to sleep with Ayato and instead was forced back into the quarters of her old bedroom. Perhaps he was old school and wanted to wait until marriage for them to share a bed, she thought to herself. Married to Ayato. As she sunk down into the silk sheets, Yui couldn't help but allow her mind to slip away into a safe place and instead focus on her close surroundings. How much she missed the desk with the small mirror attached and a silver hairbrush to take care of all her snarls. She had missed the lace canopy that hung over her head and protected her from the night time monsters as she slept. But most of all, she missed the sheets that had always held the perfect temperature and allowed her to sink into a superficial bliss even if it only lasted a few minutes. She was back to square one. No Azusa. Just her on her own against the monsters that lurked in the halls just outside her bedroom door.

The Mukami boys rarely walked together across the school yard but today Kou, Ruki, and Yuma Mukami all walked side by side with the littlest of the brothers trailing along behind them. The smallest, the quietest, and easily the most human out of the four was Azusa Mukami. The girls often overlooked him and instead gawked at the famous brother, Kou, but he had always expected that. Everyone had always overlooked him unless they were looking for a problem. The boy always looked so sad, as if he was constantly swimming through the darkest of depression and was barely keeping afloat. His eyes were sad. And when he spoke, the sound of his voice was enough to make you weep. He was meant to be left behind, even as his brothers strode across the school yard and headed to class.

Though almost nothing phased Azusa, he had to admit to himself that first period was always a bit uncomfortable. He shared it with Subaru Sakamaki, a boy who hated everyone and everything, and knew deep down that he was the boy that loved the girl he did more than anything. Yui. He had tried to not think of her in the past few days but it was nearly impossible, especially when he could feel the colorful eyes of Subaru searing at him from across the classroom during the entire lecture. Once the class was announced over, he could not get out of the room fast enough but was quickly stopped by the hot headed vampire who had been staring him down. Subaru stood above him with a look of pure hatred on his face. His bottom lip quivered in rage as he finally said through bared teeth, "She should have killed you with that knife. Maybe then she would have had a chance." Azusa gazed back up at the vampire was lazy eyes, keeping his composure and not wanting the words of Yui to phase him. "I say she's dead in the next three days. And that's if she's lucky."

The words of Subaru felt like a bullet had shot through Azusa's chest. He wanted to protect her but no matter what he did, he was always the reason for the danger she was in.