Chapter 26
The strained contact between the two boys hindered enough tension to be sliced through with a knife, but even that wouldn't separate them. Perhaps Subaru had seen through Azusa's classic act of being nonchalant or had maybe even sniffed an ounce of the fear on him, for he stared him down which such intensity that finally the dark haired vampire broke the silence. "I did... what was best for her. For Eve..." His words were quickly cut short by the banging of Subaru's fist on the desk that stood beside them, which cracked straight on impact and rattled against the ground. "Enough with the bullshit about Eve! She is Yui. Say it with me. Say her name. Say Yui!" Their eye contact ceased to break, even as flecks of spit flung at Azusa's pale face, and the emotion bubbling within his chest was almost too much to handle. "Yui..." Azusa said gently, "I want Yui... to be safe."
Subaru thrusted the quite smaller and less violent vampire boy to the side, and then proceeded on to leave the classroom and go on with his usual day. The air was thick and as Azusa sank to his knees, he struggled to find a proper breath. How odd, he thought to himself, to find myself in such a manner. He had figured with Yui gone, he would be able to move on. Without the constant distraction of her innocent eyes, sweet skin, intoxicating blood... but she was still on his mind every moment. And with every moment, he found himself diving deeper into the depths of some place he had never faced before. Pure despair. He needed her.
It was difficult to avoid the Sakamaki boys but even harder to walk around his own brothers. It was obvious that Ruki wanted nothing to do with him, as he had hoped, which meant Yuma and Kou were meant to follow him like the true ducklings they were but that wasn't the case. Yuma tended to him but there was a certain look about Kou that showed this wasn't the case for him. When they were to pass in the hallway and manage to catch a quick glance over the heads of the squealing fan girls, Kou flashed him a brilliant grin and simply gave him a nod. Azusa wasn't able to return the smile but did his best to give him a small head nod. Something about the smallest little action was enough to spark a fire within Azusa and he was ready.
"I know you're there, little one!"
The voice that greeted Azusa from below, who was attempting to stalk as quietly as possible from the trees hanging overhead, was not the one he was expecting and was enough to infuriate him all at once. The height had been right, the hair, even the scent of him. How could he have gotten it wrong? "Come on out!" The menacing voice chuckled. Azusa watched dreadfully as the vampire boy turned himself around and peered up over head, revealing himself to not be Ayato Sakamaki but instead his even more perverted triplet brother: Laito Sakamaki. His smile was mocking and flashed two extended canines, which he plucked against with his tongue before nodding his head in Azusa's direction. "I know you've been following me. Walk alongside me like a good boy."
It was a rare occurrence for him to speak with a Sakamaki boy, let alone two in one day, but somehow Azusa had plopped himself into the very situation. "I don't think we have ever talked! You do think that we're brothers, don't you? You always did follow around my father like a little puppy dog." Laito was clearly attempting to intimidate with his size, for he placed his hand onto Azusa's head and ruffled up his hair from beneath his hat. Being spoken to like a child was the least of his worries. "Won't talk, huh?" Laito chuckled, "No matter. Suppose I wasn't the one you wanted to speak with anyways." A grin had spread across his cheeks and he ruffled Azusa's hair once again before releasing a full blown laugh. His obnoxious amusement echoed across the darkened sky and he finally contained himself enough to say, "Speaking is hardly the way to put it. You're just lucky I don't feel for my brother at all, or else I would have killed you already." Laito and Azusa had parted ways without exchanging a single word back and forth, only the taunting of a playful Laito and then a fake whine when Azusa had sped up ahead of him. "Didn't realize he could run that fast," Laito said to himself in the dark, "you'd think he would try talking a little quicker, too."
The smell of her was strong, the sweetness enough to knock him off his feet, just by the time that Azusa had stepped onto the Sakamaki property. The scent of Yui always made his head feel dreamy and being apart from it for so long felt like an addict seeing cocaine for the first time after a ten year long sobriety. He found himself salivating. But he quickly came to the realization that even being apart from it for so long wouldn't make Yui's presence be so strong from so far away; she must have been bitten. Bleeding.
Sneaking in was hardly the way to put it. By the time that Azusa had gathered the courage and wits to find a way in, Laito had caught up with him and cooed out "Ooooh, Azusa-kun!" Being quiet about it was pointless and he instead found himself striding into the mansion beside Ayato's triplet brother himself, personally delivering Azusa to confront his brother.