Chapter 28

At dinner time the vampires had been invited to sit down along the tables surrounding the kitchen walls, inside of which Morten and Finn were preparing the meal, cause of the inviting scent that had intrigued even Kanato, although it wasn't a sweet.

Theo was chatting happily with Kou, Azusa and Laito, dwelling on hilarious episodes of his childhood (which had also involved the Flyer twins); at first silent, Anna was giving Reiji some more details about the vampire sisters who had moved there about a year before, occasionally glaring at Yuuma who was looking at her sternly, still annoyed by the quarrel they both had had with Morten; the giant was listening with little interest to the conversation between Claire, who had just returned (breathless and emanating a scent that the vampires had recognized with disgust), and Yui, whose waist was hold by Ayato's, jealous; Kanato was having a few words aside with Teddy, as Subaru and Shuu were distracted by Isa about the extra activities they would do in the afternoon, in particular the music course managed by Mark for the younger ones and the martial arts one managed by the Mrs Lalla, Finn and Morten's aunt.

The twins were both gone into their bedroom, her to tidy up her personal belongings that she hadn't touched for almost a year and a half, him to keep her company, after all the time he had been without her reluctantly (and no, telepathic contact hadn't been enough); at last, sitting on a chair, Ryan was staring at everyone with his lips curled, sulking and feeling completely ignored and isolated. And maybe he wasn't wrong.

- And then in the afternoon, at the sea, Markucchi and I had gone into the water and...

- You idiots had been pricked by a jellyfish - Anna snapped as she heard him, and turned to glare at him – You felt your legs hurting so badly that I had to drag you out of the water, and thanks to you the jellyfish had attacked me too!

The vampires and the other girls were silent, those who were listening amused, those curious and those indifferent.

- And me! - Morten shouted from the kitchen - You had yelled at me that I should have kept an eye on him and we both had fought and then fallen in the water! AMONG THE OTHER JELLYFISHES!

- Maybe you two are the idiots... - Claire murmured, massaging her jaw, making Laito and Kou giggle and bothering said "idiots".

Suddenly they heard a shriek followed by a thud; the vampires exchanged confused glances and widened their eyes out of confusion at seeing Mary the ground in pain, while the others let out an exasperated sigh.

- Here we go again... - Anna facepalmed, as Morten made his theatrical exit with his apron on and a frying pan in hand, his face annoyed and as if to say "I hope this is a joke, it's not possible!", before returning inside the kitchen while shaking his head.

- Mary-senpai! - Isa called her, standing up worried and running towards her; Shuu and Subaru were staring at her in bewilderment, not understanding what had happened.

- Aaa~ha, she has always had a poor balance! - Claire said, explaining to Laito and the other that Mary would often fall from ladders or similar structures; she also added her phobia of heights, a detail that made most of them speechless.

- Claire - Mary hissed darkly, approaching them with a staggering step and sitting next to Shuu, ignoring his sneering expression - Please, shut up.

Her friend smirked, moving her fingers along her lips mimicking the gesture of closing a zipper; Anna mumbled something about her falls being a possible cause to some dysfunction in her brain, ignored and then scared by Mark's presence behind her.

- Mo-senpai, I have to go, there's a job to do at the studio... - he said in a sorry voice; the blond exited again, placing dishes full of spaghetti Bolognese in front of Kou, Theo, Laito and Azusa, as his sister did the same for Anna, Reiji, Yuuma, Claire, Yui and Ayato.

- You should have told me sooner! Okay, your dish will be eaten by...

- Meee~! - Ryan raised his hand, cheerfully, before avoiding a flying picture.

- ZOMBIE DO NOT EAT PASTA! – Mary yelled at him, almost breaking Shuu's eardrum, who shifted his eyes from her to the other with obvious annoyance.

- Theo - Morten muttered, rolling his eyes at the interruption.

Mark nodded faintly and shook his hand to greet everyone, before heading for the entrance and leave at the speed of sound; in the meanwhile the two siblings had brought the rest of the dishes to Kanato, Isa, Subaru, Shuu, Mary and for themselves.

- Hm? Where's... - Mary refrained from using the nickname, coughing - Ruki-kun?

- He's resting in his room - Yuuma replied nonchalantly, giving a disgusted look at Kou who was already devouring the meal, amazed by its tastiness.

Mary nodded, looked at the plate and smiled: she had missed Morten and Finn's cooking.

- Sage, basil, chives, thyme, oregano, marjoram and a pinch of paprika.

- YOU HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED TO EAT, CHO-HIME!

And she had also missed the guess-the-spices challenges with Morten and his looks of bewilderment at her guessing everything without even tasting the food.

The Sakamaki brothers looked at each other a bit disoriented, not used to those bizarre situations; on the contrary, the Mukamis smiled a little amused and at ease.


Kanato was quietly laying on the bed and whispering to Teddy, without complaining or annoying the other two brothers; and they would have had to thank Saint Finn, who had quickly stuffed the purple-eyed vampire with lots of sweets after hearing him moan sadly that he would have liked a dessert after dinner.

Reiji was enduring the grumbling coming from the covers wrapped around Ayato, not tolerating the thought of having been separated from Yui and that the latter was chatting so cheerfully with the other girls, in the next room.

At the same time, the vampire who had just put the glasses on the night table next to him, reflected on what had happened during that day and remembered the descriptions of those two vampires that Anna had told him about, wondering who they could be, since he had understand that they were of noble lineage.


Yui, on the other hand, was feeling at ease with those four witches who had welcomed her into their room, Finn sacrificing her bed for a futon on the floor in order to let her sleep comfortably; Anna had given her a few pats on the head, listening comprehensively to her long adventure started by meeting with the Sakamaki, occasionally making fun and snide remarks about them.

Claire was listening and giggling, then she had winked at her as the others had annoyingly hinted at the relationship she had already established with Laito; Yui deduced that the half demon was similar to the vampire more than she had thought... and certain details made her realize that far darker things had involved her in the past.

Isa, who seemed the most enthusiastic about making friends with her, was squeezing her hands between hers, chatting about this and that, particularly focusing on the great admiration she felt towards her senpai and jumping with joy knowing that Yui was sharing her opinions (albeit for different causes).

At last, she was in a (more or less) normal situation, with (more or less) normal friends, behaving in a (totally) normal way.


The giant was enjoying making snide remarks at Morten, who kept himself from attacking Yuuma for his impudence, occasionally giving vent to his sharp tongue when it was appropriate, with almost drastic consequences if it hadn't been for the Theo's interventions, as he broke out in a sweat cold while assisting at their exchange of poisonous jokes, imagining in their place a T-Rex and a Velociraptor, set in a comic.

At one point he had had enough and, attracted the attention of the vampire, had asked him if he had known anything new about the possible kinship with Mary's father; the other, after a few seconds of silence, had shaken his head, negative, and then widened his eyes pleasantly surprised to know from the wizard that Mr Flyer was also passionate about gardening, hearing about the plantations of aromatic herbs, vegetables and trees fruit he took care of in the garden of his own home, in the other part of the island.

He added that Mr Flyer was much taller than Yuuma, but neither he nor the other vampires would have truly realized his height until the eventual meeting.

That night Yuuma dreamt of vast fields of orchards and orchards, and some nightmares about the possible blood tie shook him, but not too much.


Kou and Azusa had some difficulty falling asleep, therefore, the second laying down next to the other resting on his stomach, had begun to talk about the new people they had met, exchanging opinions with each other, and in the meantime recalling a little gloomily the old days at the orphanage, as they were sharing a room again.

Ruki had been sitting on the bed with his back to the wall since even before, reading some books he had borrowed from the bookshelves, including an old notebook that Theo had told him being one of the those which Mary had used for her studies of plants, animals, machines or other.

Leafing through the latter, he realized how much passion and dedication the half-witch had dedicated to those self-educational activities, at the same time cracking a smile at seeing the sides or corners of the pages full of scribbles and random writings, out of the fervid imagination the young girl had had (and would always have?); he almost let out an amused laugh at reading a very brief comic she had drawn at the notebook's bottom, illustrating one of her adventure at the sea.

This didn't distract him and prevent him from reproaching his brothers who had been about to exit, headed towards the Flyer twins' bedroom to snoop.


Subaru was swearing on all the gods he didn't believe in: sooner or later he would have strangled that vampire who was constantly harassing him, hinting with mischievous comments at the attentions which little Isa had addressed towards the albino; Laito kept on repeating, sure of it, that the witch was interested in his little brother, whose shoulders were wrapped by his arm, saying it was time to do some "serious" chat about certain stuff...

Shuu was snorting uninterruptedly, unbearably annoyed by all that noise; only the thought of Mary could distract him and, after half an hour since the two had begun to fight, he teleported.


Mary was sitting in front of the shelves full of books and looking at the photo albums, commenting them with her brother, next to her and with his head resting on her shoulder, both wrapped in a large blanket; her sister would describe the photo and her brother would tell about that day, chuckling melancholy or sighing relieved.

Hey, I don't remember this picture...

Which one?

I think it was taken secretly, it portrays me at school during gym class...

Ah, yes... it was Theo, he took it because that day you had been able to handstand.

Ah, it's true! Hey, there's the one when I was assigned as a senpai to the girls. Anna has an hilarious face.

When she pouts, yes. Isn't there the one where you're having a fight with someone?

That someone is Mo-senpa; yes, it's here. Pfff, his black eye.

The twins, tired of looking at the pictures, then lay down on the bed, facing each other, for a last chat.

Aneki... I wanted to tell you earlier, about Ryan.

Don 'worry. That's not what worries me now...

Her?

Hm... yeah. If she's around again, we are in trouble. She was one of the best, after all.

... that punch you gave Ryan while he was trying to reassure you, though.

He deserves it, he could have avoided the joke about "entertaining the maidens again".

His shocked reaction was epic.

Ehehehe.

The brother wrapped his arms around his sister who had begun to sob.


- Oh, Shuu-san - Mark murmured as he perceived the presence of the vampire in front of him - Aneki went out... she's at our shelter.

- Shelter? - Shuu repeated, sulking since he didn't find her in her bed as he had hoped.

- Hm. It's located in the forest, along the river, in the area where it gets underground.

The vampire nodded and, whispering a thank you, he disappeared again.

The half wizard was silent for a few seconds, getting comfortable in his hammock.

- I think Aneki will bond with another man tonight... uh, it's too early - he moaned in a weak voice, curling his lips and puffing up his cheeks.


- I swear I didn't want to upset your life...

- Ryan-senpai, stop it. It's not your fault - Mary sighed, looking out at the clear, starlit sky whose light painted the trees and the stream's ripples with silver.

- You've changed though - the other whimsically complained, resting his chin on the hand in a melodramatic gesture - You're no longer my sweet and shy kohai... you seem even less curious...

- More cautious, you mean - she chuckled, scratching her head, embarrassed; Ryan smiled back, going on with his complaints and earning some dirty looks and fake kicks.

- You've more mature - he finally said, then narrowing his eyes and staring at her - Maybe something is still missing.

Mary returned that look, breaking in a cold sweat.

- Mary-chan... every day is a good opportunity to deal with your own demons, to try and find a solution to what is bothering us. Since I was "resurrected", I can tell you that it isn't nice to die with lots of regrets. Do what you have to do. Give it a try; results are important, of course, but if you don't start now to react, when will you do it?

The girl had lowered her head to the water pouring into the ground through a crack beneath the rock where they were sitting on, reflecting on what he had just told her: she believed she had turned her back on her insecurities, yet Ryan had found something that was still tormenting her; what was missing, though?

- I must go... maybe he'll help you find an answer - the zombie young man smiled, winking at her, and he disappeared into the shadows.

Mary turned around and saw Shuu in front of her, frowning out of jealousy and staring at her, eyes full of lust; the girl her heart beating faster at that intense feeling coming from the vampire and stood up, reaching him with a hearty smile.

The blonde grabbed her wrists with his hands and bowed his head, placing his forehead against hers and closing his eyes.

- You're mine, you can't leave me - he said, a little coldly; she giggled, rubbing her nose against his.

- Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere... and I want to be with you - she murmured, closing her eyes.

Shuu loosened the grip and raised his hands to her face, kissing her lips gently at first, then pressing hard and surrounding her waist with his arms; though embarrassed and restless, Mary felt safe and at ease.

In the arms of her beloved, and at her home.

She belonged there.


- Sh-Shuu ...! N-Not here! And then I told you that before ...!

- Your brother told me that you have a tree house around here... and I can't wait any longer. Or maybe... do you want to proceed with that ritual you were talking about... that way you'd be ookay with it, right...? Hehehe, look at you, blushing so much.

- Sh-Shuu...

- Your parents know, right? And they're not against it. You told me on the train.

- But you…

- I want you. I have no doubts about this.

- ... yeah. Me too.


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