Hi again all, I have a new chapter for you! Sorry about the delay, I just had to get through finals/final papers. I know that after my melodramatic rant after the last chapter you were probably worred that I had dropped it, but I promise I didn't. Enjoy.
\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/
Now dressed, Kaname and Yuuki headed down to the kitchen since Kaname had the strange desire for a cup of coffee. He didn't usually indulge in the dark, bitter beverage, but for some reason he could tell that he was going to need the added boost the caffeine it contained would give him. Yuuki looked at him oddly as he put the coffee pot on the stove to boil.
He ignored her for a moment but when she continued to stare he decided to ask her what she found so intriguing about him making a pot of coffee. But it was unnecessary, no sooner had he decided to ask her than she said slowly, "I didn't know that you drink coffee."
He sighed slightly and looked at her with a small smile on his face, "I don't usually. But for some reason caffeine sounded good today." He was slightly dismayed to see her blanch slightly at his statement and could have kicked himself. Great going, he thought to himself. She's already nervous and you have to go and make it worse by admitting that you are going to need caffeine to get through the day. Just brilliant.
"Do you think the day is going to be that difficult?" she asked breathlessly. She was already worried about remembering the lie that she was going to have to tell and not caving under the pressure of any questions that they might ask, but she thought that Kaname was unaffected and would be able to take control of the situation if it started to get out of hand . . . but if he was needing coffee that he didn't usually drink to get through it, then they just might be in trouble.
"Relax," he said gently pulling her into his arms. She closed her eyes and laid her head on his chest, comforted by his warm presence. They stood like that for a few moments until the sound of hissing from the stove shocked them out of their peaceful moment. While they had been ignoring it, the coffee had decided to boil over. Kaname sighed and pulled away from Yuuki to move the pot off the stove for a bit to let it stop boiling over, but pulled his hand back with a curse as it the pot burned him.
I really need to pay better attention to what I am doing, he thought glaring at his burnt hand. Even though there is nothing dangerous here at the moment, we cannot afford another slip-up in front of the nobles. Not so soon after the last one.
Yuuki deftly reached around him to grab the potholder before she moved the pot off the stove for him. "Kaname," she asked gently taking his wrist above his burnt hand and looking at him carefully, "Are you sure everything is fine? You seem a little off today."
"I'm just a little distracted," he replied stroking her face, "Don't worry so much."
She wrinkled her nose at him and was about to say something semi-rude in response but was cut off by Aidou shuffling into the kitchen like a zombie. "Do I smell coffee?" he mumbled sitting down at the table.
"Nearly," Yuuki replied in what Aidou thought was way too chipper of a tone for that early in the morning, no matter what day it was. "Would you like a cup?"
"Yes," he replied gruffly, aghast that she would need to ask a question with such an obvious answer. "Cream and sugar please."
"No problem," Yuuki chirped moving around the kitchen like a little tornado gathering up mugs, cream and sugar and setting them on the table before Kaname could tell Hanabusa that he should just do it himself. Once she had finished, Yuuki looked at Kaname with a smile on her face that fell slightly in response to his raised eyebrow.
"What?" she asked. "Did I do something wrong? Should I have waited until the coffee was done?"
Kaname smiled indulgently at her question and was about to reply just as Aidou realized what he had just done. How am I still alive? He wondered to himself feeling all the blood drain from his face. I just asked—no TOLD—the pureblood queen of the vampires to give me a cup of coffee with all the fixings. Even if she doesn't care, Kaname is going to kill me. He closed his eyes and waited for the punishment that he was sure she was going to inflict, and if not her then that Kaname would.
"No, Yuuki-sama," Ruka said from the door. "You didn't do anything wrong. It's just that that idiot at the table should have offered you a cup of coffee. As both a pureblood and a lady he should have been a gentleman and gotten you whatever you needed."
"But that makes no sense," Yuuki protested. "This is my home. If I had made him set everything up, then I would have had to explain where everything is kept and it would have taken twice as long."
"But—" Ruka began only to notice Kaname give an almost imperceptible shake of his head. She just sighed. "That is true," she admitted figuring Kaname wanted to explain it to Yuuki later in private. Even knowing that, she couldn't resist making one final dig at Aidou. "But he's still and idiot" she said with a feral smile.
"Ruka, can't the insults wait a few hours?" Kain asked walking into the room covering a yawn with his hand.
Ruka gave a delicate snort in response before she said, "It is never too early to knock egotistical jerks down a few pegs."
At her words, Aidou forgot his brooding thoughts about the punishment that Kaname was going to inflict on his for not treating Yuuki with the upmost respect and leapt to his feet pointing at Ruka. "I am not an egotistical jerk!" he yelled at her. Ruka rolled her eyes in response and had just decided not to dignify him with a response when Yuuki suddenly started laughing.
What started out as a giggle soon became a full blown convulsive fit of laughter that had her grasping the counter in an effort to stay up-right. All of the other vampires in the room looked at her as though she had lost her mind and Aidou looked like he wanted to get out of the room before she exploded.
"Yuuki?" Kaname said cautiously, stepping towards her wondering what had caused her to go into hysterics.
"I'm sorry," she said catching his tone and the worried look on all their faces, "I didn't mean to startle you all."
Kaname watched as her face fell, knowing that she was remembering what had happened the day before. "It's fine Yuuki," he reassured her. "We just overreacted. What was so amusing?"
She smiled at him and then gave a small laugh before she said, "It was just that Ruka-senpai and Aidou-senpai reminded me so much of you and Zero just then. If the two of you were louder and more outspoken I could see you having the exact same argument."
Kaname and the others looked shocked. It had never occurred to any of them that Kaname would ever behave like Ruka or Aidou. They were further shocked when there was another laugh from the door. They turned and there shock intensified as they saw Seiren standing at the door laughing.
"So you agree with me?" Yuuki asked smiling at the other woman's mirth.
"Yes," Seiren managed to gasp out between spasms. "You should have seen them the night that they fought earlier this week. I didn't realize until now who it was that they reminded me of."
Reactions around the room varied. The nobles were shocked that Seiren was speaking, let alone talking that way about Kaname. Yuuki was happy that someone was agreeing with her and that Seiren seemed to be loosening up a bit. She had always thought that the other woman was too uptight. Kaname, while happy that Yuuki was happy, was frustrated at being the butt of the joke.
He allowed them to continue their antics for another couple of seconds, and then he said, "I am glad that you are all here. We need to discuss what happened yesterday."
"Kaname," Yuuki said gently, "at least let me get the coffee passed out before we start on business." In truth she was delaying him because it was a conversation she wasn't really looking forward to having. She was not looking forward to asking the others to lie to their families for her, but she knew that she had to do it and that they would do what she asked: a part of her hated it. She ignored the look that Kaname gave her and busied herself in passing out cups of coffee.
Even though he knew that she was stalling, he allowed her to do it. He could have insisted that the conversation begin while the coffee was distributed, but he let her have her brief reprieve. Besides, it was amusing to see the shocked looks on the nobles' faces as they were handed coffee by a pureblood. Even though most of the nobles and all of the remaining purebloods would agree that no self-respecting pureblood would be seen serving another, and would be embarrassed to see it happen, he wouldn't change her for the world. The things she did, like hand out coffee, where behaviors that showed her care for others was what made her Yuuki, and since they didn't put anyone at risk there was no reason for him to ask her to change.
The nobles despite their discomfort, because it would be ruder to refuse her than to take it from her. . . they thought. The entire situation was making them uncomfortable though. Not only was one of their pureblood leaders handing out coffee, the other was willingly giving them information. The fact that Kaname was divulging anything was odder for them than Yuuki since they could discount any of her strange behavior due to her having been raised human. But they couldn't find a logical explanation for Kaname's behavior.
Once everyone had a cup, except Seiren who had no interest in coffee, Yuuki handed Kaname a cup and leaned against the counter next to him. She heaved a sigh and turned to face the nobles. Kaname put an arm around her shoulders and spoke, "Since we are all caffeinated, it is time to discuss business. Unless," he added with a fond smile at Yuuki, "you can think of another reason to delay us."
She smiled back and replied, "Oh I can, but I won't."
He ruffled her hair and continued, "Today we need to discuss what happened yesterday. As Aidou realized, yesterday Yuuki lost control of her powers and almost lost her life. We need this to remain a secret. The official story, and the one that you will tell anyone who asks, is that when she attacked Sara her neck was broken. Does anyone have any questions?"
The nobles fidgeted uncomfortably one question on all their minds but no one brave enough to ask it. Finally Seiren decided that she needed to know.
"Is that possible?" she asked. "Could a pureblood actually survive having their neck broken?"
"We don't know," Yuuki replied. "But Rido did survive being blown to bits, so we think it is possible."
"I, for one, do not volunteer for the experiment," Kaname said. It had the effect that he had wanted since there was a weak chuckle that went through the room at his joke. "While the scenario is not definitively possible, it is a good fit for what the others would have seen. And it is the best fit that we could come up with. It is also easy to remember. This evening we will hold a meeting with your parents and the other nobles to discuss this and other things."
"I have something that you will need to discuss with them," Kaien said from the door.
\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/:\/
So what did you think? Again sorry for the melodrama at the end of the last chapter. I was just having a rough week. And on that note thank you for the plethora of reviews that ya'll left for the last chapter.