OMG!! I'm soooo sorry! I haven't updated in a while because I had stupid writer's block! Hopefully this chapter will make up for it!
Oh, yeah, and just for the sake of the story: We don't know how old Yuuki's brother was when Rido killed him, and everyone's been assuming he was a kid, but for the sake of this story he was an adult in vampire years. Also, I'm kind of slipping back into my normal style of writing, making lot's of little implications that hopefully you guys will understand :p. The end of the chapter was a little rushed, but I'll fix it at some point. Not in the mood right now.
Yuuki sat on the floor of Kaname's bedroom in her shift, toying with a little plastic ring. She found herself absentmindedly humming and slipping the plastic ring on and off her finger. Luca sat on his oversized bed, sewing a new zipper in her dress.
"Yuuki-sama, if you keep doing that your finger's going to turn green. I don't understand your fascination with it." Yuuki tilted the cheap ring above her head in the lamplight.
"I don't either. I've just got this feeling…" she turned towards the older girl. "Something major is going to happen tonight. Something either good or bad." She raised her voice. "It really doesn't help that someone is keeping some of the plans to himself!" She was annoyed because her brother was keeping about a half-hour of the nights plans to himself, and everyone in the dorm knew it. The only clue she had was from the one time she asked him about it, and all he said was "Don't worry. I have both of your father's approval."
Luca stood up and walked over to Yuuki. Sighing, she stood up to allow her to slip the dress over her head. She walked over to the bathroom door and knocked. "You can come out whenever you are finished preparing, Kaname-sama."
There was silence on the other side of the door before he entered the room confidently. "We appreciate your help, Luca. You may go to the party now with Cain. Tell Curtis that we'll be there in fifteen minutes, and don't forget that you're a host tonight. Circulate through the crowds and sow as many seeds as you can. We need you to pull this one off."
She bowed her head and curtsied, then left the room. Their sharp ears picked up the reaction when Curtis, one of the foreign students, announced them. Seeing 'Wild-sempai' with the prettiest vampire they'd ever seen crushed more than a few dreams.
Luca and Cain moved towards Shiki and Rima. They quietly whispered "Fifteen minutes" then raised her voice. "They got into another shouting match. We should steer clear." They walked away through the large ballroom attached to the back of the Dorm.
When Cain entered with Luca, Yori became extra alert. She was the only one in hearing range of Shiki and Rima, so she walked over to the bottom of the stairs. She met the eyes of Hikari and frowned. She would need to be watched carefully.
Hikari watched Yori move towards the stairs. Why? All the chairman had told the prefects was to be on extra alert, nothing more. According to him, Yori was the one with the details.
Cornering the blond had done nothing, to say the least. She flat out refused to give anything away. She was alert now, her eyes shifty. Not watching the Night Class, but the Day Class.
At least she wouldn't have to worry about Cross Yuuki getting close to her beloved Kaname-sama. It was a balm to her sore heart when she found that Yuuki had been turned.
Curtis watched the purebloods with wide eyes when they stopped right beside him. It was probably the first time he was ever so close to a pureblood, let alone two. Poor guy.
Yuuki had to give him credit. Despite his nervousness, he stood and announced the couple with a clear voice. The entire hall heard him utter those fatal words, "And now I present to you the main hosts for tonight, Kuran Kaname and Cross Yuuki."
Even the people who had flocked to Aidou, single as always, paused for a moment. As they descended down the stairs, Yuuki watched the crowd absorb this information. Aidou fans crowded closer, realizing they had the only single male from the original Night Class. The new students didn't have time to establish a fan base yet.
There was a gentle murmur, as the Kaname fans hadn't come out of their state of shock. There would be an explosion soon, and the other students noticed. Some edged towards the doorway, but couldn't exit because Shiki, Rima, Cain and Luca just happened to be talking animatedly in front of it, as if nothing had happened.
Kaname 'pulled' the trigger. "Yuuki, love, why don't we get ourselves a drink?" His eyes swept over the room.
Yuuki allowed one side of her mouth to turn up. "Yes, why don't we?"
Yori watched as a surprising amount of girls-almost half- just sniffed and walked away. She now remembered that Kaname fans never got as excited as the other fan girls. Mimicking their crush, she guessed, though they were probably weeping inside.
The rest of the girls looked like they wanted to kill someone. A few of the fanatics even began pulling each others hair out, though surprisingly no-one went for the 'problem' herself. On further thought, maybe it wasn't so surprising, considering the situation.
The vampires guarding the door let the broken down fanatics stumble out the door before it turned to a general riot. The composed ones stayed behind, determined to find out what would unfold.
A stone-faced Hikari stalked out of the building as if she was personally insulted, which she probably was, irrational as that sounds. Hikari joined the prefects just to be close to Kaname. She really would have to watch Hikari carefully. Unfortunately, she couldn't ask the Chairman to temporarily confiscate her weapons, since it might set the girl off.
There wasn't anything stopping her from warning Cross that there was a possible danger to his precious daughter, however.
Yuuki glanced around the large room quickly. There were so many people!
Entering the room, her mind had gone blank, but it now had time to be as active as it wanted. She kept her face smooth, but every time they stopped to talk to someone, she wanted to scream. Not only was she extremely nervous, but they treated her so differently. Every time she opened her mouth, she could almost feel them staring at her teeth, and the couple times she dropped a few blood tablets in her fruit punch, she saw at least one person shiver. She didn't want to be treated differently; she was the same person, right? Overall, the experience was very sobering. That's probably when she realized that she could never fully return to the human world.
The vampires circulated the room, talking with many curious Day Class students. They would answer questions about their relationship-subtle and not so subtle- vaguely, but jumped on the most trivial, unrelated conversation they could. This confused the vast majority of people, considering that their body language was saying something completely different. Yuuki kept her eye out for those quick enough to understand the many implications, committing their faces to memory.
The average conversation went like this:
"So, you and Kaname, huh?"
"Mmhm…"
"You've got a big ballroom here."
"We got it during the renovations last year. We actually use it quite a bit."
"What for?"
"Soirees and sometimes to welcome new students."
"Soirees?"
"Vampire soirees. Basically a big party full of vampires."
"Oh."
Over the time Yuuki had been away she had changed quite a bit. She had matured, but she had also learned the value of loosening up once in a while. Yuuki was glad that ever-serious Yori had also figured out that it was alright to have fun just for the sake of it sometimes.
Kaname smiled to a Day Class couple, secretly laughing at them. The girl was very determined, and the guy looked more than a little wild around the eyes. He guessed he had just been asked out by the girl of his dreams, only to find out that she was using him to get close to her own crush. Humans were cruel in their own way.
Humans thought vampires were monsters just because they drink blood. Yet, humans ate animals and plants, and when you really thought about it, were animals as well. At least vampires didn't have to kill their prey. They just happened to be higher up on the food chain.
Yuuki almost swooned when they caught sight of Yori, arms linked with a tall Night Class student. He had dark blue eyes and short blue hair. That has to be dyed, she thought to herself.
When they saw Yuuki and Kaname they approached. Yuuki's eyes widened and she threw Kaname a look. One of those "If this goes wrong, I'm going to kill you" looks. He just returned it with a smile.
"Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you about Ryuji. You never met him, but at one point we had an older brother who was married to a Shirabuki. Ryuji's their son, so he's our nephew."
"How could you forget something so important? No, never mind. How could I not sense it until now?"
"He wasn't sure how you'd react to him, so he was avoiding you. I also have the sneaky suspicion that he wanted to surprise you."
When the couple halted in front of the siblings, the three purebloods nodded their heads, acknowledging each other. The tall man took Yuuki's fingers and kissed them.
"Yuuki, I'm glad to finally have met you. I'd imagine Uncle has already told you about me?"
"Yes, Ryuji. It surprised me quite a bit, actually. Hello, Yori."
Her best friend looked at the two of them, obviously confused. "Hi Yuuki. Um, this is my boyfriend, Ryuji." She rushed to say it, as if she was afraid she wouldn't be able to get it out otherwise.
"What gave you the change of heart? I thought you didn't like the Night Class, especially the new kids." Yuuki teased.
"Well… Now that their secret is out, I understand why I was intimidated before. We kept running into each other before school began and I knew he was a Night Class student. We had a few conversations, and I've begun to see the real person, not just a vampire. It also helps that we don't have the same problems you do with fan girls and all that."
Yuuki smiled and had the urge to hug Yori, but instead grasped her hand tightly.
"Uh, Yuuki? Ouch."
"Oh, sorry."
A little while later the music started playing. The speaker system in the walls were of such quality that the music sounded like it was being played live. After 'Weeping' by Josh Groban played, the grand piano was rolled out and one of the Day Class girls sat down, hands ready. Yuuki recognized her favorite piano concerto as the orchestra came in through the speakers.
Kaname swept her into the middle of the floor. As she spun, guided by his gentle hands, she didn't think she would ever have so much fun dancing again.
"Rachmaninov's piano concerto number two in C minor, opus eighteen. Thank you. You know I love this song." He smiled down at her. "You've been happy a lot lately, Kaname."
"What isn't there to be happy about? We're here together."
The purebloods glided to the music, lost in their own little world. Yuuki regretted hearing the music end.
Her brother let go of her hand, bringing her back to the real world. She stared at him blankly as he dropped to one knee. Comprehension dawned on her as he held up a small box and opened it.
"Yuuki, will you marry me?"
"…"
Silence.
"Yes!"
Kaname slipped a white gold ring on her finger while the ballroom erupted into cheers. On it were four gems. Two small gems, a ruby and a sapphire, were positioned above two larger colours, baby pink and baby blue. Yuuki grasped the significance immediately, though she wasn't sure many others in the room would.
Some more bubbly songs started playing, starting with 'Around the World' and then '500 Miles' by The Proclaimers. There was a big group dance for that one, and Yuuki had fun just goofing off with her friends.
When the clock struck quarter to twelve, the room hushed expectantly. Silently, Yuuki and Kaname linked arms and walked up the stairs. At the top, they turned to survey the crowd, then parted to walk to their rooms, the doors on either sides of the staircase.
I've been trying to not make my authors notes too long, but it's just so hard... BTW, '500 Miles' does have a pretty cool group dance that goes with it. I found out about the dance at a wedding :D. Definitely check out 'Weeping', because the lyrics just work perfectly, and Josh has a great voice. And yes, Rachmaninov's piano concerto no. 2 is my favorite classical song X|. Sorry Yuuki, couldn't resist, since it came on my iPod just as I was writing that part. And before anyone asks, I did watch Toradora recently :p, though Ryuji looks more like Ikuto from Shugo Chara.
I want to get the next chapter up asap, but then again, I've been trying to do that with all my chapters. I might be writing a couple one-shots soon. I do know that part of the reason I broke out of my writer's block so soon was because I was feeling guilty about not updating, since I know that frusteration myself. Thank goodness it didn't last as long as my last writer's block (three or four months. Yeah, it sucked) Please review, and constructive critisicm is welcomed! *winces* No, seriously, I want to know your true opinions :). I'll see if I can find the time at some point to reply to reviews!
