The Mirror and the Mask
Chapter 4: White Ash
Zero ran through the darkness with the only thing guiding him was his own sense of where each tree and building was. He didn't look back. Not even when he ran into another person did he look back. Zero just continued running. On and on until he reached the sanctuary of the Chairman's House.
He threw back the double doors and raced up the stairs.
"Zero?"
Since the moment Zero ran out of the little courtyard he never stopped until now. The voice of the Headmaster, Mr. Cross.
"Zero, are you alright?!" Mr. Cross walked down the carpeted hallway with his flashlight in one hand, and a droopy beanie baby penguin in the other. His pajamas were even more outrageous than the things he carried. Zero could tell under his velvet robe he wore silk pj's with sheep on them along with a matching night cap. He looked like he came out of a Harry Potter novel.
"Yah." Zero was about to turn around until Mr. Cross took hold of his shoulder.
"I heard you last night. Running up here in the same manner." He looked at him hard. "Zero, what is going on with you? You're not acting like your usual self today. You left Yuuki twice to patrol and escort the students, you've been sleeping in math class, and you come in here at late hours of the day, running and locking yourself in here."
"I know, Headmaster. I just…''
"Yuuki has been worried about you as well."
"I know!" Zero hissed, causing Mr. Cross to back off. "I'm…" Zero looked at him ashamed. "I'm sorry Headmaster. There's just so much going wrong." A firm hand was placed on his shoulder.
"Here." In Mr. Cross' hand was a prescribed bottle full of little pink tablets. Zero's stomach turned at the sight of them. "I know your body is having a hard time adjusting to them but please continue trying. They are you're only chance from becoming a Level E." Zero stared at them again, remembering the ill feeling he would get after taking them. It's been almost two weeks since he's last swallowed a tablet thanks to Yuuki's generosity in offering her own blood.
"Go ahead, Zero." She pulled her hair back to one side, exposing her slender neck. "Just try not to spill."
Zero shoved Mr. Cross' hand away.
"I gotta go!"
"Zero!" But Zero never stopped. He was to far away from any cries of saving mainly because he believed he was already damned. The silver hair boy found his bedroom and locked the door; locking away his life from entering. He opened the bottle and frantically pulled out two—no three tablets to take!
I've gotta find a way to suppress this monster inside of me! He thought to himself. Without any water, Zero forced himself to swallow all three, feeling the pills tumble roughly down his throat. After he felt each one dissolving within him, Zero leaned against the frame of his door and slowly slid down to the floor.
"Why me?" He asked to himself. Not even the ghosts that haunted him answered his questions.
"Why must I be made to survive…to live like this?!" He curled his knees to his chest, a place for him to hang his head and hang the weight within it.
It was nearly four in the morning when the night class arrived in their dorms. Around that time, Kain opened the door to his and Adio's bedroom.
"Aido! No—''
"Wheeeeee!" Aido ignored Kain's warnings and landed on his down feather bed causing the room to rock.
"You can't do that anymore." Kain huffed but his cousin only laughed. He slowly closed the door before crossing to his desk.
"Do you have it?" Aido propped his chin on his hand.
"Yah. They're early this year which means next shipment won't come around until much later." Kain opened his drawer and took out a wooden box. He opened it with much care and within its contents was a plastic bag of a white substance.
"Blood and cocaine! My favorites!"
"Hey Kaname," Ichijou glanced over at the pure blood who continued looking down from the tall windows. "My Grandfather wishes you to take care."
"That's nice of him." Kaname answered.
"Still trying to win into your good graces." Ichijou shook his head.
"He shouldn't. It's not like I despise him." The blonde vampire just sighed in response.
"Did you receive any mail tonight?"
"Only a letter from Sara."
"Sara Shirabuki!"
"Same one." Kaname wasn't nearly as thrilled of the writer as Ichijou. "She had nothing interesting to say worth discussing between us."
"Oh." Ichijou sat deeper into the couch with a weight in his heart. For a moment only a comfortable silence occupied the room until Ruka knocked herself in.
"My Lord Kaname." She bowed her head.
"What's wrong Ruka?" Ichijou stood from the couch, alert and worried.
"I've only come to see how Kaname is doing?" She sneered at Ichijou. "You can't be the only one whom he can talk to, right?"
"I…uh…" Ichijou's loss for words began to bore Ruka. So she turned towards Kaname.
"That's a pretty nice jacket you have there Kaname." She leaned against the back of the couch which Ichijou sat. The blonde vampire popped his head from behind the couch.
"Jacket?"
Kaname looked down and noticed he was still holding his jacket. Zero's jacket.
"Hey, isn't that a Day Class' jacket?" Ichijou pointed causing Ruka to grin slightly since she expected to catch Kaname in the corner. No secrets could be kept from her.
"…Yes, it is." Kaname finally answered.
"What are you doing with a Day Class student's jacket? It isn't Yuuki's is it?"
"No it's not." Kaname replied as he looked down at the black fabric.
"It's Kiriyuu's." Ruka answered for Kaname. "I can smell him off of it." Kaname looked at Ruka hard. He knew what game she was playing at. But the vampire girl only looked at him with love and devotion; hiding the lack of innocence within her soul.
"Zero's!" Ichijou stood up from the couch and walked. "Kaname what are you doing with Zero's jacket? You didn't get into a fight, did you?"
"Nonsense. I just found it lying around somewhere." Kaname tossed it to Ichijou.
"With him in it or out of it?" Ruka twirled her foot along the marble floor. Both boys caught the undertone in her voice.
"What do you mean?" Ichijou was the only one of the three who didn't understand the complete story. Kaname knew Ruka understood there was a meeting between him and Zero, but the pureblood doubted she knew what they did together. His only chance of keeping Zero safe was her ignorance of their heated moment.
"I don't mean anything!" She giggled as she twirled around.
"Do you want me to give this back to him? He'll be pissed to find that we have. Hell he'll jump to the conclusion of us stealing it!" Ichijou held out his hand, offering to take the jacket from Kaname but the pure blood ignored him. Instead Kaname continued staring Ruka down with a sense of malice.
"Ichijou—''
"Yes!"
"Could you please leave me and Ruka alone together? We have some matters to discuss." Ichijou couldn't help but show his strained face.
"But ah…" He leaned in closer to Kaname. "I thought you stopped doing that with Ruka."
"Relax." Kaname patted Ichijou's cheek. "I just need to talk to her about something." Ichijou could see the honesty in his friend's eyes so he decided to leave him be.
"I'll be here if you need me." With that Ichijou left, closing the double doors behind him. Ruka watched him leave, seeing how slowly the double doors seemed to have move and how long it took for them to close.
By then she felt a hot breath upon her neck.
"Ah!"
Kaname held her fast and threw her upon the couch, his icy hold hands clasped over her mouth.
"What are you planning Ruka?" He hissed making sure he would bare his fangs.
"Nothing my Lord!" She pleaded.
"Lie!"
"No I swear!"
"Then what were you trying to pull with Zero's jacket?!"
"I saw Zero emerge from the hidden courtyard and a moment later you came from there as well. I couldn't help but worry if he'd done something to you!"
"You mean, you couldn't help but be jealous that he was with me instead of you?" Ruka looked at him, her eyes searching frantically for a sign of tenderness but she finally realized how cross she made him.
"Yes." She nodded, her chest rising and dropping frantically. It was then, at her moment of honesty and humiliation that his hard eyes soften.
"Don't worry about me, Ruka. It's my job to worry for you."
Ichijou was dragging his feet along the carpet, wondering what Kaname had to talk about with Ruka and not him. Why can't no one confide in me? Doesn't anyone trust me?
Just than, as he walked past a door, Ichijou was seized by the collar and pulled into the room by force. Before he could scream he saw his assailant's face.
"What tha—''
"Shhh…" A pair of crimson eyes stared back at him, the face of Shiki who was now holding his finger to his pursed lips.
So close. Shiki didn't back away from Ichijou, he continued pinning him against the door; crushing him with his body.
"I said for you to meet me here after classes." Shiki said softly, brushing the blonde's fair cheek with the back of his hand.
"I had to check on Kaname first beforehand." He answered. Ichijou was still slightly shaking after Shiki's rough entrance.
"Well…"Shiki smiled. "With that out of the way, why don't I get something to wind you down?" He finally pushed himself off the door and walked over to his night stand. Ichijou couldn't help but follow the movement of his hips as he walked away.
"You said you had something to show me?" Shiki glanced over to Ichijou and smiled.
"You can say that." He opened the drawer and signaled the blonde to come over. Ichijou loosened his tie and unbuttoned the tight collar around his neck. As he stood next to Shiki he saw a bundle in his hand.
"Isn't that coke?!"
"Not so loud!" Shiki warned.
"But that's illegal!" Ichijou held up his hand over his mouth from gasping to loud.
"So is 'us'." Shiki held Ichijou's hand in his.
"You ever tired it before?" Ichijou shook his head 'no'. "I thought so." Shiki smiled as he took out the bundle along with a shard of a mirror and a razor. He laid them on the night stand and sat on the bed beside it. Ichijou watched as Shiki prepared the coke, his eyes calculating the size and portion of the substance with precision.
"Are you a virgin to everything?" The brunette looked up at Ichijou, with a dangerous glint in his eyes. The younger vampire grabbed Ichijou from under his ass and pulled him sit upon his lap; thigh on each side of him.
"You're going to get me in trouble, you know that?" He said to Shiki.
"You're already in trouble."
Ruka silently closed the door behind her. Kaname left their conversation at that, not apologizing nor caring what she wanted in the first place. She allowed her hair to shield her solemn face, a curtain from the world.
Morning was around the corner but she could feel a buzzing of new found energy within the mansion. As she walked down the corridors a waft of a smell breezed through her senses. That smell…
"Wanna a line?" She turned around to find Kain leaning against the frame of his bedroom door. His uniform was wrinkled and his hair a mess but as she looked into his eyes, they seemed spontaneous, agitated, and wild.
"Ahh" She sighed. "Kain don't tell me that you're using that stuff again."
"Common, Ruka. It's not like I'm addicted to it. Only humans do that." He walked over to the blonde girl, smiling at her with a cocky wobble in his stance. "So wanna have some fun." A stray finger reached for one of her loose strands of hair; riding on the waves of her golden locks. She looked up at him, knowing the desire in his eyes but she pushed his hand away.
"You better sober up until I tell Kaname." She back away and turned towards her room. Disappointment flooded within Kain.
"Yah, go ahead. You're always doing that!" Ruka stopped at Kain's words.
"I'm always doing what?"
"Chasing something you can't have…You can't have him, Ruka." He smiled before walking back to his room; slamming the door.
Ruka stood there in the middle of the hallway, contemplating on how true Kain was. Even high, he still has common sense.
The vampire girl continued walking down the hallway until she heard a distant bang in one of the spare rooms. The noise made her stop and grow curious. Step by step she inched her way closer to the closed door until hearing wasn't enough for her.
Quietly she opened the door but came completely to a halt at the scene in front of her, and stared with her mouth wide open.
On the grand canopy bed inside the room laid a very naked Ichijou. His ever-tamed polished blond hair was a mess now on the pillow, soaked with sweat. His face a mask of pure ecstasy, if the breathy moans escaping from his lips were any indication. He was wrapped around an equally naked brunette, fingers entwined in the mass of layered brown hair, as his arms stretched across his lover's back. The vampire on top had his face buried in the blonde's neck, probably leaving trails of marks on the junction below one ear. He was on his hands and knees, sprawled on the bedspread and rocking back and forth, as the blonde's legs under him tensed in sync with the rhythm. A thin film of sweat covered both bodies, making their skin shine dully under the filtered sunlight. Labored breathing permeated the room. The bed creaked steadily, the covers were strewn to the side, one end dangling onto the floor as the air surrounding it drank in the heavy scent of sex floating above the once-clean bedspread.
Ruka was so shocked she couldn't gasp but even though she was surprised she didn't want to move. A sight like this didn't come every day, and for a while Ruka wished to relish the possibilities this amount of knowledge was gain her. Imagine; Noble Vampire Ichijou caught in bed with the armature model, Shiki. Such sin was too good to be true to Ruka.
PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for the comments everyone has given me. Each one gives me a boost of energy to write!
I know that I didn't put in a lot of Zero/Kaname action but I hope the Shiki/Ichijou bit would make up for that. Also you have Kain's affection towards Ruka to consider. The plot thickens with each chapter and even I'm wondering how it'll turn out!
Please send me your comments! Thank you!!!