It was strange, Yui thought, to have someone speak to her at school. Usually, her classmates only ever spoke to her when they needed something, or as a middleman to one of the Sakamakis. To have someone talk to her - for her - made her feel strangely pleasant. She had guessed no one looked to her for company out of her association with the Sakamaki family. They must have had more of a reputation in the school than she realized before she started attending. She was never sure if the students avoided her out of fear.. or envy.

To her surprise, Minako didn't seem bothered at all that Yui had an affiliation to that family. The following day, she had sought her out again with a question involving the homework assignment. And again during their home ec class as they were paired to make a several side dishes. Whatever she might have felt after having met Minako always drained away when classes ended and everyone went home. When she had to return with the Sakamakis to a suddenly unwelcoming house.

There was an odd tension in the air. No one liked their spontaneous uninvited guest and were even less fond of them whenever they began to act up indiscriminately. Items would still teleport around the house and the previous day, all of the faucets had been turned on just enough to cause a steady drip. Small pranks was all they were, but if they were capable of such feats on a small scale, going unnoticed until noticed, Yui worried what might happen if they were angered one day. With the building tension of the family, she had the sinking suspicion that day might be soon. She'd never seen the brothers in such a state of loss. They were used to a physical problem they could threaten away with force. What they were dealing with was beyond physical.

She recalled what Reiji had said, "It'll be in our best interest not to anger our guest. No throwing threats or aggression. The last thing we need is them going on a rampage around the house turning everything upside down." Seeing the boys forced to stay in some form of a line was... interesting.

It was draining to go home and a relief to leave for school. She had something to look forward to now. How strange. Something that was undoubtedly normal to everyone else was a rare luxury to her.

Yui was once again in the company of Minako while they were going over their math assignment in the school's library. Minako was leaning on the table's surface with her head propped on her fist as Yui was explaining the equation in their workbook.

"Oh, so that's how you do it?"

"Yes, and then you move this over here and that's how you solve the problem." Yui smiled. She never thought helping someone else with their homework would be a fun task, especially since math wasn't one of her strong suits.

"Right, right," Minako nodded down at the paper thoughtfully, then added, "what's the 'a' for?"

She didn't understand the equation at all, Yui thought. "That's for-"

The bell rang, announcing their dinner break had started. Minako stood up with her hands raised in triumph. "Saved by the bell! I'm starving!" She had completely forgotten about the homework they were just working on.

As Yui closed her workbook and put it away in her school bag she asked, "Do you eat in the cafeteria?"

Minako had her hands on her hips, looking rather proud of herself. "Only if I'm too lazy to get something to eat before classes start." She pulled out something that had been sitting at her feet. "But today, I have this!" She was holding a lunchbox, wrapped in a light blue handkerchief. "I've been looking forward to eating it all night."

Yui was amused by the girl's enthusiasm, something she had been lacking lately. Her only company thus far had been six vampires, who didn't have to eat regular food to survive, unlike her.

"It's nice outside. Would you like to eat with me on the roof?" She offered as the two stood from the table. Minako's smile changed only slightly.

"Really? Can I?"

The question worried Yui. "Of course! Why wouldn't you be able to?"

Minako had about to reply when she glanced at something over Yui's shoulder then quickly smiled again before Yui could notice. "No reason! I just don't want to impose is all."

"Not at all. I love your company."

Minako hurried her from the table. "Let's go before my stomach becomes sentient and eats itself." The two set off towards the library's door, but Minako stopped, looking down an aisle to her right. She regarded it closely, not seeing anything, which was exactly the problem. She made a small noise, writing whatever she thought she saw off and kept walking.

On the roof, the two sat to one side where they had a perfect view of the downtown skyline of business buildings and lights.

"Whoever decided letters and numbers needed to be together really needs to get their head checked.." Minako popped the lid off her lunchbox and Yui had to look in awe.

"Wow, did your mom make you that?"

Minako looked taken aback slightly at the question. "No, I did."

"You cooked all of this?" Within the lunchbox was a section of rice, two hamburger steaks, and two side dishes of what she guessed was spinach and stewed carrot, plus two pieces of rolled egg. The uncomfortable look on Minako's face vanished into pride.

"Yep! Cooking is one of the things I'm actually good at. Although, working at Gran's place probably influences it."

"Where do you work?"

"My Gran owns a local restaurant in town. I work there part time during the day."

"Oh wow. How nice."

"So I make most of my dinners for school. It's way cheaper than the stuff they offer here. Just walking into the cafeteria makes me feel dirt poor. This school is somethin' else." Minako looked over at the item in Yui's hand and held an expression of confused disbelief. "Is that all you're eating? Are you kidding me? Please tell me you're kidding."

"N-no? This is all I brought. Is there something wrong with it?"

Minako leaned in to Yui's face so quickly she leaned back and nearly fell over backwards. Her glare was so severe Yui felt a strange trickle of unease rise in the back of her mind.

"Of course there's something wrong!" Minako huffed. "Everything you eat is important and vital to your body. A riceball and a box of juice aren't going to cut it! Geeze, I feel sorry for your body if that's all you're putting in it regularly. Here, have something from mine. In fact, have half of it." She scooted her box over.

"Oh, no! I couldn't! It's your dinner. I'm fine, really."

Minako wasn't having it. "I'm surrounded by food everyday. I pack enough carbs to pull a bus. You, on the other hand, look like you're missing some vitamins. Eat up."

Yui wondered if she really looked that bad. What did a vitamin deficiency look like?

"I'm packing you a dinner tomorrow loaded with stuff your body sorely needs."

"I couldn't ask you to do that."

"You don't have to, cause I'm doing it anyway." Her voice was so casual and decided that Yui figured she wasn't going to get her to change her mind. "You're getting a one of a kind dinner from me every night, and it's for free to boot. Are you sure you wanna turn that down?"

Once again, Yui found herself smiling, feeling that strange warm and fuzzy kind of comfort from Minako's doting.

Minako did as she promised. The following day, she was treated to a lunchbox packed with all sorts of things. Though she enjoyed it to the fullest, Yui had a small niggling feeling of guilt. It was so much work to go through just for her. When was the last time she experienced that level of kindness? She hated to admit it, but Minako had been right, she hadn't been eating well lately and it was showing in more ways than she realized. The dinner alone gave her a rather enthusiastic energy boost that carried her through the last couple classes and into cleanup.

Yui was sweeping the homeroom floor while the other students cleaned the chalkboard and desks. Minako had had to leave early to drop off her friend's homework before it got too late in the morning.

"Hey, Komori?" asked a male student.

"Yes?"

"Could you put the brooms back in the closet when you're done?"

Yui agreed as she finished her part of the classroom. Her mood had been so uplifted, things were starting to feel almost normal. Almost. She hummed a tune to herself as she put the brooms in their cabinet inside the walk in closet down the hall. She closed the cabinet doors and turned to leave, only someone was blocking her path. Maybe her jovial attitude caused her to lower her guard a little too much.

Silently, as he usually enjoyed to do, Ayato was standing within an arms reach of Yui. She started, staggering back into the cabinet with a loud clang as her elbow hit the metal doors.

"A-Ayato? What-" The feeling of warmth seemed to ooze out of her as it was replaced by instinctual fear. She was cornered and Ayato had closed the door behind him.

"Everyone's gone home. Cry out for help if you want, Pancake."

"Wait-!"

Ayato went on under his breath. "And there's no books to throw in here."

"B-books?"

"Shut up and hold still."

Needless to say, her neck hurt for the rest of the evening. She couldn't look anywhere too quickly, and if she did anything to raise her pulse it ached. She didn't want to give Ayato the satisfaction of hurting her but she couldn't help it. Regrettably, she had returned to her room the moment she set foot in the house, and had remained there through the following hours until she felt the first hazy tugs of sleep. As a result, she hadn't had anything to eat since dinner time at school.

Her stomach ached so fiercely, she thought she might be sick, but she didn't dare leave her room. Not with the vampires lurking around outside, and now with their guest, she felt less inclined to go wandering around the hallways of the mansion, whether it was day or night. The internal war between remaining hungry and risking venturing out for something was balanced on both ends for their pros and cons, she couldn't decide which would win her over.

Her stomach gave a painful gurgle as she huddled on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest.
If only she could just fall asleep and not have to worry about being hungry for a few more hours, but the ache was so loud in both her stomach and her neck that she would find it a miracle if she could even doze off.

There was a knock at the door, pulling her out of her thoughts. Her heart sank into her empty stomach. She could see a shadow underneath the crack between the door and the threshold. She had to answer, rather than risk the ire of whoever she might have ignored. She pulled open the door and looked out into the hallway.

"Yes?"

No one. The hallway was completely empty. But she had been sure the shadow under the door hadn't moved as she approached. Slowly she looked down left and right to see if someone might have been leaving, but no such luck. She took a shaky breath, knowing for certain she had heard someone knock. Either they had left.. or worse.. she just couldn't see them. She was about to close the door and retreat to her bed when she noticed something near her feet. An apple, which certainly hadn't been there before, was sitting near the door frame.

"Who left this?" She couldn't imagine any of the boys being sympathetic to her plight enough to leave her anything. Maybe one of the servants had left it. Yui was always polite whenever she ran into them in the mansion or had a request. If not them... then who?

No, that would be silly, probably even conceited as the boys were quick to remind her. Why would she expect their guest to care? Still, it would be rude to refuse it... wouldn't it?

He wasn't sure which was more satisfying. Drinking Pancake's blood or seeing the look of terror she often gave him. Maybe both? He mused over that thought- as well as noting that she tasted unusually better than she had in the past - as he lay on his side on the sofa. The television was on at a low volume, more so for background noise than entertainment. Even then, he watched the game broadcast idly as his mind wandered off.

A splutter of static disrupted the screen and warped the audio. He only noticed the tail end of it, so late, he wondered if he'd just imagined something else. He stared at the screen for several seconds. Nothing else happened, but now his attention was caught. A moment later, the screen static-ed again, and this time the display seemed to double over on itself before blipping back to normal.

He switched off the TV. He wasn't paying much attention to it anyway. He flopped onto his back and closed his eyes to kill some time with a nap. He heard a pop of static. The TV had turned itself back on. The screen was almost obliterated by static and the audio was warped beyond discernible words.

Any emotion within the family of 'fear' was an unknown sensation to the vampire. There wasn't much in the world that could make him hesitate. Yet, as he watched the staticy screen, he couldn't help but notice a peculiar feeling of.. paranoia? Just the thought made him feel distinguished. How could he, Your's Truly, be brought to feel such emotions by something yet seen?

The screen blipped, and through the static he could see the channel had changed. Another blip, the channel switched. The pattern increased until the screen was flipping through channels a mile a minute, filling the room with a horrible, fizz filled distorted sound. Having enough of it, Ayato moved to the back of the TV, yanked the cord from the outlet and tossed it aside. That was that, in his mind.

He turned to leave, one foot barely in the hallway when he heard the distinct high pitched sound of the TV turning on. He slowly looked back into the room. As he guessed, the screen was back on, the outlet plug lying visibly on the floor. Through bursts of static, he could see the goings on of a basketball game.

His attention was ripped from the possessed television by a sound down the hallway. A distinct sound he could easily place. A ball bouncing over and over, just around the corner of the hallway leading towards the back of the house. He wasn't keen on finding out who was playing with a basketball, but he also wasn't going to be frightened off by seemingly sentient air.

He followed the sound, expecting the culprit to be just out of sight - it sounded so close. He rounded the corner in a quick step and was met with an empty hallway. The sound of the ball had moved in that one instant, again out of sight around another corner where a hallway joined the current one in a 'T' formation. Baited by the noise, Ayato approached the gap of the wall when the sound altogether stopped.

His apprehension was replaced with annoyance. "I don't feel like playing games." He warned. Naturally, no one responded, leaving him to feel rather foolish talking to an empty space. He'd rather hit the thing to get his point across than be made an idiot.

Something rolled into view from the joining hallway. A basketball sat innocently on the floor in the middle of the carpet. Ayato only stared. He wasn't falling for a trick like that. He was only mildly caught off guard when the ball suddenly rose about three feet into the air, hovering completely still as if waiting for him. He had the numb realization that, though he only saw a ball floating in the middle of the hallway, he might have been looking into the face of his harasser.

The ball dropped and bounced back to its original height, as if caught by invisible hands. It dropped again and bounced up. Again and again. With each bounce it seemed to move a little closer, and began to bounce a little faster. The sound echoed off the walls and down the empty hallway.

Ayato, hardly realizing it, had begun to raise an arm in defense. He half expected the ball to suddenly hurtle at his head. Closer and closer the ball bounced, louder and louder the sound became. Each bounce almost felt as if it were pounding inside his own head.

"Ayato!" A voice cut sharply from down the hallway. The ball dropped from the air, bouncing and rolling until it stopped at his feet. The voice belonged to Reiji, a rather annoyed one at that, as he rounded the corner. "How many times have I told you not to play with that infernal thing in the house?"

"It wasn't me!" Ayato retorted, but even the honest truth sounded weak when spoken aloud. Reiji only gave him a stern look, looking from the ball, to him, to the empty hallway - with only a flick of his eyes.

"Whatever excuse you might have, the rules of this house are absolute. I don't want to so much as see or hear that ball again. Am I clear?"

Ayato didn't reply, but that seemed to be enough confirmation for the older vampire. Ayato only watched as Reiji took his leave down the hallway he had come from. He clenched his fists and glared down at the ball. Not only was it pestering him, but now it was getting him into unwarranted trouble. In a burst of frustrated anger, he kicked it, sending it rocketing off down the long hallway.

He might have noticed there wasn't a distant sound of collision, were his head not filled with anger induced thoughts, but he certainly heard a nearby sound as he turned to leave. He stopped, looking over his shoulder.

The ball was back on the carpet.. in the same spot before he had kicked it.


Ask and you shall recieve