Chapter I
Six-thirty AM is an ungodly time to wake up when you live twenty minutes walk from your school.
Of course, just walking down my driveway was half that time easy.
You see, I live in this horribly enormous mansion passed down with pride from the slave working southerners of old. How cute, right?
Rooms upon rooms, this thing has. The first time I saw it, I was only five, and I felt like a mouse in a maze. My great grandmother who smelled of unsanitary things and cigarettes (same difference) had just died and who would guess? She left it to my mother; her only surviving relative still in the state, and thus the closest…emotionally, of course.
I can't even begin to describe the old thing other than a few basics; One, it has five stories, not including the basement. Two, it's white with shutters just the right distance from black and close enough but not too close to navy to be considered stylish. Three, the twenty acre yard is surrounded by fences, but the land is also has a surrounding 50 or so acres. I'm not so sure about the math there, but I do know it takes ten minutes just to get off my property in the mornings.
I'm so sorry. I probably sound like a spoiled brat. Tch, maybe I am. I have enough junk to fill up a floor and a half of the creaky old monster.
I mean, honestly; I have a room for office supplies, one for CDs, and another for video games. Then I have an entire floor of the house all to myself.
Spoiled just might be the word for it.
But I do whatever I can to stay away from my house during the week. Today's excuse; English project. I absolutely love having projects because then I can miss whatever I have going on that day. The only problem with THIS day was that I had a piano lesson, and I love piano. The violin is squeaky, and horses are jerks, but the piano is something much more captivating.
And I'm missing it. For English.
Huh...
Let me tell you about the school I go to; it's a college preparatory school. One of the hardest in the south. The curriculum is so evil, cough, HARD that it requires you stay at least one day after school to catch up on your god-forsaken homework. I hear the girls that go off to college from that school, come back and say it's a breeze getting a master's degree. It's also an all girls school, which is pretty great because you don't have to give a damn what you look like unless you like old men, because that school's got plenty. But it also means that we all have to wear these ugly plaid skirts that can be as short as three inches above the knee. Doesn't seem high, right? It is when you sit down, I promise. So I kept my skirts right at the knee, for the sake of decency. Besides, I have thunder thighs.
You know, I cannot wait until someone figures out that male faculty in an all girls environment is NOT A GOOD IDEA! ESPECIALY with those little skirts!
But anyways, enough ranting. I need to get to the point.
My mom got us a nanny, a nice little black lady who's cooking is the closest we'll ever get to heaven on earth. Her name is Stephie.
I also have a little sister, Josey, who is absolutely infatuated with gymnastics. I swear to god, you show her a picture of a girl marred by the sport and she'll brush it off saying something like, "Yah, but I'm more flexible". Well, if you say so...
Josey takes gymnastics Mondays from four to seven, Wednesdays from five to eight, and Saturdays from eleven to two and it's Stephie's responsibility to get her there.
Well, it's Wednesday and no one's home when I get there.
Usually, I feel immensely creeped out by the empty "thing", but today, when I shrug off my pack and laptop bag, I feel this weird electricity course up my spine, making me shiver with excitement and creating the illusion the house is welcoming me home. Tch, yeah right. I could hear the slaves screaming on the way in. Metaphorically, of course…
I left my bag in the entry closet, since I had finished all my homework at the library, and walked to the kitchen. I listen to my shoes clack against the shiny tile as I cross the huge room and wonder who exactly had decided to put this in the entry hall. White walls loomed around me leading up to a gaudy sized chandelier that hung in the middle of the hall. The entire back wall was French doors that swung open to a porch that you'd expect old people to sit on and drink lemonade on hot summer days. This house was such a cliché it almost made me sick. I liked original ideas and sharp corners that made sense. This house had none.
There were two big staircases that curled around the sides of the room. I entered the open doorway under one of them, leading me to the kitchen, which had been moved by my mother from a house a little ways away from the house soon after we moved in.
In the kitchen the highly polished marble countertops gleamed at me as if they were proud of their shine. It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes.
Quickly as I could, I grabbed the No Pulp orange juice from the regular fridge (we have a regular fridge and a freezer, each the size of two football players shoulder to shoulder) and poured it into a crystalline glass I had picked out from my mother's collection, displayed in a black, debonair cabinet. I knew how much she hated it when I used her "good" glasses.
After sipping on my orange juice for a few minutes and contemplating my odd fetish for the stuff, I took it with me to the elevator, which sat where the two stair cases met at the top of the landing. The first thing I would do was go to my main bedroom on my own personal floor, floor three, to change out of my uniform.
Unlike most of the girls, I despised the thing. We had to wear a pair of shorts underneath the skirt as a rule, and knee socks with white tennis shoes. When it came to shirts all we had to chose from was a button of white-collared deal and a blue polo with the school logo in the corner. Blessedly, though, they allowed hoodies, as long as they had the school logo. So I basically always wore one, unless the day was just too unreasonably hot to even imagine it, and lately the weather had been playing havoc so I just carried one around with me everywhere. By this time I had left it in all of my classes at least once.
The elevator dinged at me, as if it was annoyed that I wasn't fully engrossed with its decent through the levels. This time I did roll my eyes.
I walked into the still white interior and, after pressing the big "3" on the panel, I leaned against the back wall, letting myself rest for a moment while the soothing sounds of a waterfall played around me; at least SOMEONE had had good taste.
If only they had chosen a better ding. Maybe a bird squawking or nails scratching on a chalk board. That little ping sound was just too annoying.
I flinched when I heard it, and hurried out of the elevator doors to the long, familiar hallway.
One reason this floor had been dedicated solely to me was because I there were five floors and my mother and father could only fill up one no matter how hard they tried. The second reason was that this hall was lined with book shelves, and I LOVED books.
I had each row organized like a library. When we had moved in my mother had given me a label maker, and I had gone crazy with it. Each book had a neat little label with the first three letters of the author's last name on it. The right side was fiction, the left non-fiction. The right side was not nearly as full as the left. Soon I'd have to expand over to the right shelves. I even had an ancient computer, courtesy of my father's office, which was as old as the dinosaurs themselves, on which I kept up with my collection. One day, I really wanted to open a library. It didn't look like I'd have any trouble with it either.
The last door in the hall was the one I had chosen for my main room. I liked that it faced the elevator, like the head of the table in an ancient castle; the place where the king sat. At least that's why my mother thought I had chosen it. Really, I just like the symmetry of it all; the center made so much more sense to my sometimes analytical mind (you can thank my dad for that one too, bless his little number-loving soul).
I placed my hand on the door knob, more cautious than anyone should ever be when entering their own room. I hesitated for a moment, wonder why I was hesitating, then mentally laughing at the oddness of my wondering.
So why was I loitering?
There were voices on the other side of the door.
I went through the options quickly; I could've left my radio alarm clock on, or maybe someone had broken into my room. That was really all it could be, so I analyzed these two.
In the end, I decided it was the first, since my house couldn't be seen from the road, and my room was on a pretty high floor.
"Are you coming in or not?" said an impatient voice.
I froze.
The voice was from the other side or the door, and it sounded freakishly familiar; smooth as silk, but quirky, and male.
But I didn't know anyone with a voice like that.
Oh, don't you? Some part of my head asked me.
"No…" I muttered to myself.
"Why not?" the silky voice asked again.
Before I could stop myself, I shot back a reply, "Because this is just too…"
Ever have those moments when you don't plan on speaking, but you do anyway, and you end up with nothing to say?
This was one of those moments.
"'Cuz I… and your in… my room… Not normal…"
A sigh sounded from the other side, "I bet if you come in here, we'll get it figured out that much quicker."
"I don't th-"
Suddenly the door was thrown open and I shut my eyes, waiting to be stabbed or mugged or something violent done to me. But nothing happened. No one touched me. The voices had stopped.
"Come in," said a different voice, still silky, but female and young. Like a child.
And, with my eyes still closed, I entered my room.
I sweat there could've been a boom when I opened my eyes for the impact it had on me.
"Hmm," I choked. So many eyes… so intense… How was I to bare it?
My knees gave way and I fell to the floor, knee-caps throbbing from the impact. At the same time my eyes dropped to look at my bare knees; my skirt had pulled back slightly when I fell to expose just an inch more of my legs. No one made a move to help me up, but I had not expected anyone to do so in the first place.
I spoke the first name that came to mind, "Hana…busa…" I wasn't sure if I should put a question mark on the end, so my voice simply trailed off.
I was quite aware of how rude it was to call someone socially above you by their first name, but ever since I had heard that name I had loved it. It just rolls off the tongue, but I probably didn't even pronounce it right.
Someone coughed, Aidou-sama, maybe. It didn't matter much anyway.
"Edward…" Something dragged along the carpet, and a small clinking sound drew my attention, but not enough for me to exert the effort to look up.
I bit my lip; I had no idea what to do.
I knew these people, but… I still didn't have the slightest clue what to do in this situation.
"Uhm…" someone offered. That one word got me going.
"Raito!" I called, zipping to my feet and into the crowd of people. "Where's Raito? Hey! Misa… Ah! Raito!" I said, smiling at the young man who stared down at me with cynical eyes. I held out my hand, "I'll be needing your Death Note, please."
Shock flitted across his face, I was sure, then indifference took its place. "Excuse me?"
"Don't you dare play dumb with me Yagami Raito. Give me your Death Note now or, so help me…" I trailed off in thought, trying to imagine what I could do. Out-smarting him was out of the question, so…
I attacked him; I reached each of my hands into his pockets and pulled out whatever I could, then I patted his shirt with the hand that hadn't gotten anything out of his pockets and took something out of his shirt pocket. Then I stole his bag.
A hand reached out for the bag handle, but I grasped it tightly between my arm and side. Instead, I surrendered the cell phone I had found in his shirt pocket by creatively throwing it in the air, just so that it came down on Raito's head. Oh ya, he'd hate me for this. Then I ducked down and crawled under someone's legs or between two people, couldn't really be sure, until I thought I was far enough away. I sat down and opened his bag, shuffling through the contents; nothing. Hadn't thought so.
I tossed his bag in a random directions, and went on to his billfold. I suppose you should probably know that the crowd around me was mayhem, but it had been since I had charged into it, so I won't dwell on that fact.
Hurriedly, I fished through his card slots until I found what I was looking for. At that exact moment, someone yanked my collar so hard that I had no choice but to stand. Even as I did so I grinned triumphantly into the hazel eyes of Raito.
"Give. Me. Back. My. Wallet," he hissed. I slipped it into his shirt pocket.
"Got what I wanted anyway, Mr. Yagami. Eh, Ryuk?" I smiled, waving the little slip of paper I had stolen, not getting around that fact (it was theft okay? I ADMIT IT), from him under his nose. He grabbed for it, and I panicked and did the first thing I could think of…
I swallowed it. Whole.
What felt like five hundred pairs of eyes bored into me. I gulped.
Next, what's next… My heart began to race as I thought about what I should do next; the Bloody Rose.
Raito was still glaring at me like he couldn't decide if he wanted to stab me to death with a chopstick, or cut my head off with a toothbrush.
"Er… Uhm… Look, I'm real sorry, Yagami-sama, but I just can't have you killing people."
"I knew it!" someone yelled; don't need to look to know, do I?
"Yes, L, you knew it. Good job," I gave someone a thumbs up. I didn't really know who, since I was still having a staring contest with Yagami-sama.
"And…er… Misa?"
"What?" a female voice snapped.
"I'm real' sorry, but, if you please, just don't tell Yagami-sama my name, and I'll make sure you get a room with him."
"No."
"Please? It's not like I'm really being mean; I just want to protect the people here. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if, say, Elric-san perished."
"Why don't you call ME "sama"?" That would be Elric himself.
"I'm not going to answer that because I don't want to get fatally wounded," I laughed.
"OH, I GET IT!! WHO ARE YOU CALLING A-"
"YOU! NOW SHUT UP I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF A COUPLE MORE THINGS!! YAGAMI-" I cleared my throat; I was still yelling. "Yagami-sama, I am not the lightest person in the world, and, if you'd be kind enough to notice, your arm is sure to be killing you by now. If you'd please put me down I'd be thankful to no end."
Brown eyes narrowed skeptically, and I sighed.
"You don't really need it anyway do you? No one here is that bad, I promise."
My feet his the ground, and I only barely escaped falling over again, because an arm lashed out and grabbed my elbow. I didn't look to see who.
"Arigato," I muttered. Wait, that was Japanese…
Ah, too much manga…
Wow, that was obvious.
"Now," I muttered, "'Scuse me…" I said pushing softly through the crowd, with no idea where I was going. "Kiryuu-sama! Kiriyuu Zero!!"
"Here!" someone called, in the opposite direction I was going. I spun around and a rough path opened before me; I refused to look at anyone as I rushed down the path towards what I hoped would be Kiriyuu-sama; I was afraid I'd go into shock. I had just met Kira. KIRA. Raito. Light. Yagami Raito.
Smack! Two hands grabbed my wrists when I crashed into something warm and semi-soft.
"Ouch…" I muttered, and looked up into solemn eyes. "Ah, good." I smiled.
A sliver eyebrow rose; I couldn't force down a giggle. Lavender eyes narrowed at me.
"What do you want?" said the hard voice of Kiriyuu-sama.
"Your Bloody Rose, please," I said cheerfully.
…
"Why?" he asked.
"Well, who knows what will happen? I have to make sure no one gets hurt, you know. I'd feel responsible."
He was quiet for a moment, "Do you know what's going on here?"
"No." It was the truth.
His eyebrows furrowed.
"Look, if it makes you feel better, I'm gonna confiscate Yuuki's Artimis, so-"
"Whatever." My hands were released and a cold object was shoved into my hands. I tucked it into my hoodie pocket, then spun in a circle.
"Is Yuuki-sama around here? I figured she'd be near Kiriy-"
Someone spun me around and two kind, dark brown eyes looked into mine.
I squealed, "Yay! Yuuki-sama! I always wanted to meet you!"
She smiled, "Er… thank you. How do you know me exactly?"
Quickly, I decided something, and grinned at the kind little vampire,"That will be answered as soon as I'm finished."
She smiled and drew something out of her pocket; Artimis.
"I actually have a statue of the goddess," I mumbled as I tucked the little silver rod next to the Bloody Rose.
Let me think… Full Metal shouldn't have any weapons, but maybe I should ask Hawkeye for her hand guns… and then I know they can't use alchemy here, so… and then… wait, then maybe Elric-san can help me explain what probably happened… Wow, really hope no homunculi came here. Wonder if Scar made it… Role. I have to take role before I can finish. But I got most of the really dangerous things… I froze.
No. I didn't have some of the most dangerous things.
There were some things I couldn't confiscate.
"Pardon me," someone tapped my shoulder and even through my hoodie their touch felt hard as stone. I turned slowly, having a pretty good hunch who was behind me.
Edward and the Cullens.
It took all my will power not to pounce on the closest one of them.
"Hello, Edward," I said, smiling a huge smile. "Please talk quickly, because I'm holding off a major breakdown."
The grin that spread across his face was dazzling.
Damn, I thought. And I know you heard that.
The smile grew more dazzling. This was going to be hard.
"I couldn't help but overhear, and I think my Bella could be of assistance."
"Yes, for now. But there are a couple of… You know, what? I'll work it out later."
I swiveled my eyes to the side to take in a slightly put off Bella. Understandable, since she had no idea what I was going through.
Well, she kind of did, but that's slightly different.
I tilted my head to the side and smiled at her. She smiled back, so I grabbed her wrist and tugged her forward; she came with me willingly, which was good because otherwise I never would have moved her.
"I'm really sorry, Bella," I whispered, knowing she would hear. "I can't help it. I never had any interest in him anyway. Promise."
"I know, I know." Whoa, her voice really was silky. "It's nothing new really."
I stopped to grin at her, and for the first time I got a glimpse of the ruby red eyes associated with vampires; it was breathe taking.
I tore my gaze from Bella's glowing red eyes, and looked around for the person I needed.
There. The blonde head bobbing over by the bed. Perfect.
"Oi! Elirc-sa-sama!" I called, rushing towards my bed and jumping onto the cushy mattress.
"Whaaaat?!" he yelled at me.
I motioned for him to come towards me, and then I saw it.
A little warping of the air coming from the back corner; straight towards me.
It was skipping over the heads of the crowd, blessedly. It only wanted me.
My grip on Bella's wrist tightened as fear got a solid hold on my throat.
"I see it," she mumbled. "Don't worry. Everyone's fine. I've had practice." She sounded triumphant.
I was still terrified.
"Hey! You! What did you want?!" someone yelled, breaking my reverie.
I gulped and looked down into a pair of obnoxious golden eyes; eyes that made me smile despite my fear.
I knelt down at the edge of the bed to talk to Elric while Bella kept standing, watching the warped bit of air travel over the crowd; totally harmless.
"Yeah, okay. I will," Elric said to me, wrapping up our conversation.
I smiled widely,"Thanks." But when I turned around, I thought of something else.
"Hey, Edward?" I said softly, a little shy.
"Yes?" he said.
"I have… two. Two questions."
His gold eyebrows furrowed, and I instantly thought of the silver ones I had just seen.
"Shoot."
"Alison. Do you know an Aliso-"
"Yeah, she's my girlfriend." He smiled, like this implied something more.
I smiled too; amazed.
Then I remembered my other question; "Oh, and Alphonse. Is he -"
Edward jabbed a thumb back down at the floor; a boy with brownish-blonde hair and gold eyes grinned up at me.
For about the third time that day I giggled; this was just too much to not giggle.
"Alright," I said, slapping my thighs.
Oh right; I was still in my school clothes.
I was so happy I had saved clothes in other rooms right then I could've giggled again.
But I didn't. That was just too fangirl-ish.
(Don't you dare say a word.)
"Bella, I'm going to go change… and get a notebook," I said, running my eyes over the smallish crowd in my room. There was enough people stuffed inside the space to press against the walls and make it difficult to move easily. If I was ever going to have any peace, I had to know exactly who was here, and how many. I had inherited a bit of my father's accountant OCD side.
She nodded, but then spoke in a concerned tone, "Is it really okay for you going out of here alone? What if Jane or-"
"Nah, I think I'll be fine." I shrugged, even though I was having second thoughts.
Before I could act on them, though, Elric began to speak.
"Hey! Quiet down! Hush! SHUT UP!!" he yelled, quieting all the chatter in the room.
"I know we're all a bit confused here, but I think I know what's going on. You see, there's this thing called a gate that links the worlds together. Meaning, this world, your world, everything. The Gate can even bend time. For example, I'm from the 1900s and it's currently 2008 in this world. That's over 100 years."
I had ducked down to crawl under the legs of the crowd, so as not to be noticed by anyone who might follow me (aka: Jane or Alec), and was listening to Elric speak as I weaved my way around the corners of the room, when a buzzing chatter started up.
"I know! I know, it's really odd, and you probably don't believe it. But that's the most likely option right now-"
It was at this point I found the door. I reached up for the handle, and, as quietly as I could, I opened it, crawled through the crack, and closed it.
Once on the other side, I pressed the back of my head up against the hard wood and took a deep breath through my nose, attempting to calm the savage beating of my heart and the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach; the feeling something bad was going to happen didn't help either.
But I pressed it back inside me to some place where I could no longer feel it, and rose quickly, zipping down the hallway as silently as possible.
Alright, Josey and Stephie are out, and I had that project so, I'm skipping my piano lesson. What a perfect day for this to happen! I thought as I rushed down the hall and into the still open elevator; I always forgot to close it.
On a whim, I pressed the bottom for the top floor; five. My sister and I shared the top floor; I got half and she got half. I used it for my electronics mostly, which included my music collection. So I kept my most comfy lounging clothes in my CD room since I liked to dance like an idiot so much when I was listening to music.
Then, in my computer room, I kept most of my office supplies, and I had A LOT of that. What can I say? I really just love having office supplies. My favorite store; Staples. I swear it's the truth.
Ding! The elevator announced, and I jerked my head up just in time to see the doors fly open.
And see a flash of white before I was pinned to the wall.
Predictable.
"Let go of me, Hanabusa," I said sternly.
He laughed, "Try again."
"Please?"
I felt a breath against my neck and couldn't suppress a shiver, "I meant the name."
Not Hanabusa, but reminds me o-
Oh.
"Akatsuki," I said, and I was somehow calm.
Then I thought about it and cursed myself; I had to stop calling all these guys by thier first names! "Kain-sama."
"Yes," he said, and I felt something wet run up the side of my neck.
"What the hell do you want? My blood won't be very good, I can assure you."
"How so?"
"I bet my blood's salty. Not like normal blood, but… salty. Like REALLY salty."
"Why do you think that?" His fingers brushed the hair back behind my ear gently; to move it out of the way. It was not done out of tenderness.
"I love salt. I eat it on everything. My sodium level is EXTREMELY high. It'll probably kill me one day."
"Ha, I can understand that."
"So, I'm sure you won't like it."
He sighed, another breath caressed my neck. "Well, think logically about this; what does Hanabusa like?"
"Sweet things," I answered automatically. Damn my fandom.
"Yes, and as his opposite, what do you think I like?"
"Salt," I choked. Shiz; he had me.
I had never particularly WANTED my blood sucked, not even when Kiriyuu-sama made it look so sexy in the manga, and that wasn't about to change in the next few seconds.
I felt his lips on my neck, kissing, and then opening to reveal the fangs I knew were there.
"Please don't," I begged one last time. The warm, wet breath against my neck answered my plea.
Okay then and I brought my knee up to his crotch.
This was secret method I had formed in my mind when I had first seen Kiriyuu-sama attack Cross-sama. I had not understood why no one had ever used it.
Well, I guess this can be considered a field test?
The results were instant, and as he crumpled on the floor I dashed out of the elevator, now open to the top floor, closed it, and pressed the button that would take him to the basement.
"Hmmm, what a shame," I muttered. "I always thought Kain-sama was kinda cool."
End (for now)
A/N: I added a lot, trying to diminish confusion... hope you liked it!