The next day, late afternoon as Sunako discovered later, Noi lifted the lid off Sunako's coffin and rudely shook her awake.

"What's wrong with you?" she demanded.

Sunako rubbed her eyes, wondering briefly if she was mistaken about Noi being a vampire judging from the way she was glaring. "What do you mean?" Sunako asked with a yawn.

Noi growled. She threw the lid of the coffin to the ground, pulling Sunako out of her bedroom and down the hall. In a room Sunako had only seen once during her exploring was a large television that hung on the wall. The four vampires were scattered around the room, eyes intent on the screen.

Noi pointed to the moving picture. "That is what I'm talking about!" she shouted, still glaring at the confused girl. "How could you do that?"

Sunako walked towards the television to get a better understand of why Noi was ranting.

Then there was a picture she recognized all too well—her student ID photo. "Oh," she whispered. Next, the display flashed to a new scene. It was her aunty, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief and still managing not to smudge her make-up.

"The last time I talked to her, she said a boy had rejected her advances," her aunt said. "I knew she was sad, but I never expected her to run away."

Oh.

"I just want her to come back home. I need her here." She turned to the camera. "Sunako, if you see this, please come home. Please."

Oh, Josephine.

The newscaster came back on, tapping her papers on the table before her. "Nakahara Sunako has been missing for two days from her home in Tokyo. If you have seen her, please call the number below."

"It's a sad story—a girl running away," the other caster added.

"Yes. We've reports coming in saying that her parents are flying in from Africa and will be joining the search tonight when they arrive."

It showed a family picture they'd taken before her parents left; her father and mother, even her aunt in all her glory, and her, all looking happy together.

Damn.

"Sunako, look at what you've done!" Noi complained. She sounded less angry, but more upset. "You've made your family worry. Why would you do that?"

Sunako turned to the other girl. She was at a lost for words.

"Do you still think this is all worth it?" The melodious voice asked. All the heads in the room turned to the dark-haired master of the house sitting in the corner. "You saw them—they love you. Why would you trade that in for anything?"

Sunako blinked. She didn't have a adequate answer. It would have been easier if she could say they abused or neglected her, but that was a lie. Her family doted on her, as she was the only child. Gave her anything she wanted, even if they disagreed with her preferences. When she wanted to stay in Japan, her parents let her. When she wanted to paint her room black, her aunty bought the paint. It was the life anyone would ask for, and here she was throwing it back in their faces for something she thought was better.

Takenaga stood and walked towards her slowly. Today, he was dress casually in a dress shirt and jeans, and again Sunako felt the wrongness of it fill her, and yet there was no way she couldn't see him as a vampire.

"Do you have an answer to my question?" he asked, stopping before her.

Sunako looked him evenly in the eye. She could feel the drop at her neck react to his close presence. "No, not yet." She answered firmly, refusing to give in any.

He smiled, but she couldn't tell if it was just for show or because he was amused. "The clock is ticking," he responded before he started for the door. "I'd hurry up and figure out what you want if I were you. Noi, thank you for the notice."

"Of course," Noi replied quietly. She glanced at Sunako once more before following the vampire out.

Sunako turned back to the television. The news had already moved to the next story, but there was a caption at the bottom, alerting people to search for the missing girl.

"Well, you certainly were loved," remarked the velvet voice. Ranmaru was lounging on the couch, his head propped up by his hand, looking deeply bored. Sunako's eyes flashed to him as he turned to look at her. She couldn't help but feel that there was something more in his words that just a observation.

"My family is very close," she answered back. "They try, but I always stick out. You saw them."

Kyohei rolled his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean? Is this where you start in on how horrible your life was? Poor, poor you?"

Sunako glared at him. "No. I love them, but it was so hard to fit in. My father and aunty were raised in a very narrow-minded environment. They've changed a lot and opened up, but they find it difficult to except anything that doesn't fall in the realm of what they consider normal. They always tried to change me. My mom was the only one who accepted me for me. I'm not saying that they mistreated me, but…I sometimes felt like I was disappointing them somehow."

"So you run away to be a vampire?" Kyohei asked sardonically. "Yes, that will solve all your problems. I'm sure they'll accept you then."

"Kyohei, knock it off." Yuki said, but it lacked any feeling. It was clear that he was back to the Yuki she had come to know, but he wasn't smiling like always.

"I don't know why Takenaga is even putting up this front for two months," he argued. "She's immature and annoying."

"So are you," Ranmaru cut in, his tone like a whip.

Sunako stood still, her eyes wide as she watched the three go back and forth with each other.

"So are you." Kyohei mocked in a babyish tone. "That's the best you got? You're getting soft, dirty old man."

Ranmaru smirked and stood up, impossibly thin and tall. "You want to see what I got, huh?"

Yuki laughed, his smile finally returning. "I've got 500 on Ranmaru."

The redhead turned to the small one, appalled. "500? That's all I'm worth?"

"HA!" Kyohei laughed while holding his stomach. "He has no faith in you."

Ranmaru sighed. "Yeah, well, he bet on me. So what does that say about his opinion of you?"

Sunako slowly slid back and out the door, letting the three continue. It was the first time she'd seen them have fun together and she didn't want to spoil it.

Feeling her stomach rumbling, she headed towards the kitchen hoping that she could scramble up something from the scraps she found in the cabinets the day before. Much to her surprise, when she entered the kitchen, she found Noi at the counter with ingredients spread around her.

"Food," she said with happiness.

Noi smirked. "Yeah, I went shopping this morning. I would have invited you to come, but you I couldn't get you up. I swear, you sleep heavier than the boys and they sleep like the dead, if you don't mind the pun."

Sunako smiled, coming to stand next to her to see what she had gotten out. "I don't mind it at all." She snickered. "What are you making?"

"Nothing special," Noi shrugged. "I'm not exactly talented in the kitchen, but it doesn't matter; they don't have taste buds."

Sunako lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "They don't?"

Noi shook her head. "Nope. I mean, they taste blood, but that's about it. They say everything else is tasteless, but they sometimes eat anyway. I think it's because they like the feeling of chewing."

"That's interesting," the dark-haired girl commented.

Noi rolled her eyes playfully. "You think everything about them is interesting. Trust me, though, it's not."

Sunako gave a small smile. She knew that it would be hard for someone like Noi, who had been around vampires all her life and didn't think they were anything special, to understand her.

"Why don't you let me cook for you?" Sunako offered, effectively changing the subject.

Noi waved her hand in dismissal. "I couldn't do that—you're the guest. Besides, my cooking's not that bad."

"I'm sure it's not," Sunako replied quickly, "but I love to cook. You'd actually be doing me a favor." Sunako could see the girl wavering. "Please."

The blonde-haired girl pursed her lips and glanced at the other. She sighed, giving in. "Fine. Make what you'd like, just put everything away when you're done."

Yes! Sunako cheered. Cooking would be the best thing to take her mind off her family. She quickly tied on the apron Noi passed her and got everything set up, mixing the ingredients and preheating the stove. She grinned in pleasure as she picked out one of the very well cared for knives and set to chopping. She'd finally gotten into a good rhythm when she was joined in the kitchen.

"You look like you know what you're doing," Ranmaru stated, sitting at one of the stools on the other side of the island she was working on. Sunako nodded, not wanting to lose focus. She emptied the vegetables into the pot she was using and stirred them in slowly. Next, she set to work on the meat.

"I like cooking," she offered lightly as she got everything ready. "It's relaxing."

He watched as she sliced evenly and with care. "I'm sure it is for you. Surely, you've dreamed of being the victim of an axe murderer."

Sunako paused, looking at him. "Do I bother you that much?"

Ranmaru laughed. "You don't bother me at all. When you've lived as long as I have, a little girl with bizarre fantasies doesn't even register on your radar."

"And how long have you lived?"

"I'm a couple hundred years old," he shared, "I'm young compared to Takenaga and Kyohei, but Yuki's younger than me."

Sunako set the knife down. "Wow," she said pensively, "the things you must have seen; the things you must have done."

Ranmaru shrugged. "I've never done anything of importance."

Sunako swept the meat into the pot and stirred it again. Turning around and leaning against the counter she stared at him. "Who were you?"

The redhead blinked, his eyes shifting down and losing focus. "I was the heir of an empire, my father's company. Blessed from the day I was born with good looks and money, I had anything I could every want, without having to ask for it."

Sunako watched as he paused in his story. "Sounds nice."

Ranmaru smiled, but didn't look up. "It was. It was the best life, probably much like yours except multiplied. I was very privileged. And I threw it all away."

The girl noted the change of tone in his voice, as well as the words. They were words she heard thrown at her many times as of late. That's what they all thought about her, after all, that she was throwing her life away.

"How?" she pushed, eager for his story.

"I was used to getting my way, getting all the girls. One night, there was one in particular. Oh, she was a firecracker—witty and fun and beautiful. She set herself apart, and she didn't fall all over my charm. By the third round, I fancied myself halfway in love with her.

"I watched her leave the party we were at and followed her down the street. I stood be hind a corner as she persuaded a dirty man into an alleyway. When they didn't come out, I approached slowly thinking that I could sneak a peek at what they were doing. I mean, this dirty beggar she invites in, but me she turns down; my pride was wounded." He gave a small, humorless chuckle at this.

"What I saw changed everything. It was terrible, the blood that stained her dress and covered her skin. The man she had drained. But she was beautiful, still, I couldn't deny that.

"She wanted to kill me for following her, but I convinced her, somehow, that I loved her and I was willing to do anything for her, if all she kept me alive. I told her about my family's fortune and how it could help us. I begged her to change me, to bring me with her everywhere she went. And eventually, she did."

"You hypocrite!" Sunako shouted.

Ranmaru jumped at the sound of her voice, pulled from his memory. "What?"

"You…hate my reasoning, the fact that I want to be a vampire—that I'm begging for it—when you did the exact same thing."

Ranmaru blinked. "No. I made my choice because I thought I was in love. Your say it's simply because 'you want it'. See the difference?"

"Not really."

"Yours isn't really a reason."

Sunako opened her mouth to respond, but he held his hand up. "I'm not the person you need to persuade."

She nodded. "So what happened?"

"Like I said, I only thought I was in love. Half a year later, I realized what I had become, and I realized that she wasn't who I thought she was. Sure she was fun, and we had a great time together, but she was greedy and self-centered and all too much like me. Therefore, we went our separate ways, and ultimately I ended up here. End of story."

Sunako felt her shoulders fall. "That's all?"

Ranmaru smirked. "We can't all have remarkable stories like Takenaga, Kitten, now can we."

Sunako moved before she could think. She grabbed the knife and threw it at him with trained accuracy. She heard sound of it sinking into the countertop. Straightening herself, she observed the scene before her. The knife was sticking up from the counter just in front of the frozen vampire, the tip nailing his sleeve in place.

She glared at him. "You do not call me kitten."

Ranmaru shook his head. "I'm sorry. My mistake."

"I'd never thought I'd see the day a woman had Ranmaru whipped," Kyohei's voice called from outside the room. Seconds later, he was standing in the entryway, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a smirk in place.

"She threw a bloody knife at me!" He held the offending object up, showing the blood left on it from when she cut the meat.

Kyohei laughed loudly. "What? Did you think it was going to kill you?"

Ranmaru glared at the laughing boy. "It's not funny! You stop that right now! Kyohei, I swear"—His words were cut off as another knife whizzed passed, landing securely in the wall directly next to Kyohei's ear, efficiently ending his laughing bout.

Kyohei blinked in shock as he turned to look at the sharp instrument. "Have you been trained?"

Sunako smirked and said nothing. Instead, she turned back to the dinner she was preparing.

"That was awesome!"

She dropped the spoon and whipped around again. Kyohei was staring at her in amazement.

"How come you never said you could do that? Do it again! Do it again!"

"No." Sunako said, "It's a waste of perfectly good knives."

"That's no fun!" Kyohei whined. "I bet my aim is better than yours."

Sunako shrugged, not taking the bait. "Considering your eyesight is better than mine, it probably is. One day, it'll be a fair fight." She heard the vampire growl as he stocked out of the room. Suddenly, Ranmaru burst out in laughter.

"It seems you've gained his approval," he said, his smile wide. "Congrads."

Again, Sunako shrugged. It wasn't his approval she wanted. Leaving dinner to simmer a little longer, she turned back to the other vampire.

"So, Yuki kills old people," she said, "who do you go after."

"You've got guts," he countered, leaning back and leering at her. "I like that. And isn't it obvious?"

Sunako studied him, trying to figure out what he was hinting at. "No, it's not."

His charm seemed to leave in one swoop. "Women, of course. My God, you're dense sometimes."

"Women?" She asked. "Just any woman?"

He looked at her. "No," he said, standing. "No. I'm not having this conversation with you. If you can't figure it out, you're not old enough to know."

Sunako watched as he left, wondering what he was talking about, but decided it didn't really matter much.

She finished dinner in silences, calling for Noi when it was finished. They enjoyed it together at the table, talking about light topics. Noi revealed that she had been flipping channels when she was Sunako's picture and woke the others up. They were at a lost of what to do, because if she went outside people were sure to recognize her now and they couldn't have people snooping around the house.

"I don't mind staying inside," Sunako told her.

"You don't want to be trapped in here all the time," Noi explained. "You could go out back in the garden, but that will get boring quickly. I guess we can take you out in disguises from now on, but I don't know how well it's going to work."

"It's not a big deal. I like staying inside."

Noi looked at her, a sad look shinning in her eyes. "Right now, yeah, but eventually you'll want to get out, even for a just a bit. Trust me, I've lived with Takenaga since I was born; I see how he looks pass the gates. You don't want to be trapped here."

"It'll only be for a little while," Sunako argued. "In two months, both of us will be able walk pass those gates."

Noi straighten in her seat. "You're right," she said. "I didn't think of that. Takenaga will be free."

"Right," Sunako agreed. "So, I can stay in the house for two months. I'm sure I won't get bored."

But Noi wasn't listening. "Takenaga will be able to leave."

Sunako paused. "Yeah?"

Noi looked at her, fear showing on her face. "What he if he doesn't take me with him?"

Sunako didn't know how to respond to Noi. "Then you can do whatever you want?" she tried.

"I've tried that already," Noi argued. "I need them. If they leave, I'll have no one."

"I don't think he would leave you here by yourself, Noi," Sunako offered weakly, "they seem to like you."

Noi put her head in her hands. "I could handle a few months without him, but who knows how long he'll be gone. He's been fenced in for so long, he could be gone for years. What would I do then?"

Sunako reached a hand out. "Noi, calm down, he's not going to leave you."

Her head snapped up. "You think so?" she asked desperately.

Sunako shrugged and nodded. She wasn't sure what the other girl was worried about. Sure, he might leave, but this was his home; therefore, he'd always come back here.

Noi brightened then. "Sorry, Sunako," she giggled freely, "I guess I freaked out about nothing. I just don't know what I would do without my family."

Sunako nodded again, accepting her response and turning back to dinner. She still wasn't sure what Noi was talking about, but she seemed over it.

They finished the reason of the dinner and put the remaining stuff in the fridge. When Sunako glanced at the clock on the wall, she was shocked to find that it was nearing eleven o'clock.

"What time did I get up?" she questioned.

"I woke you up around five," Noi answered, "Why?"

"I slept all day," Sunako responded.

Noi laughed. "I know. I tried to get you up, remember. And you slept all day because you stayed up all night," she ended her sentence with a yawn. "I, however, went to bed at a normal person's bedtime and woke up around eight this morning. I'm tired."

Sunako smiled. "Good night, then."

Noi waved and headed down the hall. "'night," she yawned again.

Sunako stood there for a moment, wondering what she should do. She wasn't tired enough to go to sleep and she was done putting her room together. She supposed she could wander the house some more, opening odd doors, but that could only entertain her for so long. A part of her wanted to go find one of the boys and see what they were up to, but she wasn't sure where to look, as she'd never been shown to there rooms.

The last person she wanted to talk to was the loud one. So far, the only thing he'd been good for was making her faint and annoying her.

Ranmaru seemed to be done with her for the night, and she wasn't too keen on finishing their conversation.

Yuki seemed like the logical choice. Then again, what would he be doing that would entertain her?

What she really wanted to do was find Takenaga's room and sit next to him. It seemed weird, but he was the only one that gave off vibes that sent chills down her spine—the good ones.

Instead of all that, though, she settled on watching some television. Sunako headed back to the room she entered earlier that day and sat down on the couch. She started flipping channels, hoping to find something good to watch for a while. Finding nothing, she threw the remote down. Standing, she decided to search the rest of the room for something to do.

Opening the first wall-unit she came to, she gasped. Seven shelves were inside each neatly holding organized DVDs. She opened the next unit to find the same thing. Looking around, she noticed a total to ten units lining the wall.

"They must own every movie ever made!" She whispered in marvel.

Sunako quickly figured out how they had the DVDs organized and found the horror section. She had always known her own collection had holes, but it was a good collection. What these guy's had was not a good collection.

It was astounding.

Sunako pulled out case after case, wondering which she should watch first as there were so many at her fingertips. Instantly, she knew how she was going to entertain herself for the next two months.

Sunako set the stack she had gathered on the table in front of the couch and located the DVD player. She settled into the couch as the movie started playing. It was one of her favorites; an old black-and-white, but it had some of the best scene ever.

A good amount of time passed, and Sunako had been drawn deep into the movie, but she didn't jump with a figure settled in quietly next to her. Looking over, she saw it was Kyohei, the loud one. He was quietly watching the movie though, so she didn't bother to tell him to leave. As long as he stayed that way, he could watch with her.

"I suppose it shouldn't come as a shock that you'd pick this one first," he whispered loud enough for her to hear. Annoyance shot through her, but he wasn't talking through an important scene so she let it go. "It's a good movie."

"It's my favorite," she answered, unable to stop herself from telling him.

"Mine, too," he agreed. She looked at him from the corner of her eye and he smiled. "Do you want to see something cool?"

She didn't know. Was it going to distract her from the movie?

Kyohei grabbed the remote and pressed pause. The movie froze on a scene that looked out onto a busy street as the murder was just leaving his house with his back to the screen.

"Do you see it?" He asked fervently.

Sunako studied the scene closely, wondering what he could be talking about. She'd seen this movie over a hundred times and had never noticed anything interesting about this part—

"Is that you?"

He laughed. It was undeniably him, now that she saw it. Walking in the opposite direction of the killer, just passing him, was the vampire sitting next to her. His head was down and his hands were stuffed in his pockets, but the shape of the body was the same, and no one else could have that hair, even if she couldn't tell the color.

She turned to him. "How?"

Kyohei smirked like always. "I stumbled on to the set one day and the director loved me," he announced, arrogance dripping from every word. "He wanted to make to me the main character, but I told him I couldn't. He wouldn't stop pushing and wouldn't let me go, so I agreed to be in one scene, but only if it wasn't a close up. He thought I was a criminal on the run."

Sunako had since turned back to the screen. "Wow. So thrilling."

Kyohei looked at her as she gazed at the screen. "You could be in a horror movie if you wanted to. You've got the perfect look. I'm sure you wouldn't even have to act."

Sunako smiled. "I'd rather have the real thing."

The vampire groaned and pressed his face into one of the throw pillows. "There you go again," he sighed once he came back up, "ruining a good moment by saying something stupid."

Sunako hadn't been paying attention to what he was saying. She pressed the play button and watched as the vampire walked out of the scene. A second before the picture cut though, he looked up and Sunako could see his face perfectly now. A face she'd never paid attention to before; a face that didn't look any different now, sixty years later.

I'm not sure why this chapter also ended up with her being alone, talking to Kyohei but the outcome is different. So, I tried to put some funny in this chapter to lighten it up. Hopefully, you guys think so too. In the next couple of chapters, I hope the story will actually start moving a little more. I finally have the path I want to take this story down in my head and where I want to end up. At this point, it's just a matter of getting the characters there. It's going to be very interesting…with any luck.

See a mistake, let me know!

Reviews=love. Just a heads up.

Thank you for reading!

K'onix