AN: Thank you all for reading!
000
In less then twenty minutes time Yuki had returned to her room, which was vastly empty because the Ball was still going on. It would continue until two or so or until a fair majority of both Day and Night teachers became drunk enough to lose control of the equally excited students.
Trembling and numb all at once Yuki took a shower throwing her pale blue dress into a bucket of soapy water to soak and changed into her pajamas determined not to cry, not to feel anything….
Buttoning up her night shirt covered with clouds she stared into the mirror, she looked pale and haggard…And with sudden shock she pulled back the hair from her neck and flushed deeply. Little red marks decorated her neck as well as her collarbone and there in an unscarred patch of skin was two faint slightly red marks. She ran her fingers over them, there was no pain, no blood had been drawn… There would be no scar…
She would not become a vampire… But two things bothered her now; after Kaname had professed to never turn her… To make her his human Queen… Then suddenly she was then trapped in his embrace wanting nothing more then to live forever, together with him.
Angrily she spun away from the mirror feeling something leaden begin to form in her stomach. What had happened on the balcony? It was as if a Beast had awakened in Kaname. A moment before his seduction he was sorrowful, all at once disgusted and in pain.
What had driven him to… Her face was turning red again and she flicked on the lamp, wearily rolling onto the covers of her freshly made bed, wishing that if she closed her eyes and slept she would wake to find it a dream.
"No matter how you wish that it shall never be," a voice replied to her inner thoughts. Yuki yelped as Tsuki now in his human form hovered over her bed sitting once again on what seemed like an invisible ledge.
"What are you doing here?" she snapped pulling up the covers to her chin. Nicodemus looked at her thoughtfully for a moment before answering
"I'm here to see how my little pet is doing."
Yuki's temper was short; the numbness that accompanied shock was fading away, now there was a dull ache inside her soul. A hole….
"Miserable and I know that somehow you are connected to this!" she exclaimed wanting to pummel him.. If only she could reach that high…
Nicodemus feigned shock, "Me involved?" he pressed an elegant hand to his chest looking hurt.
"My dear I would never do anything to endanger your happiness, but I will say that you are much more beautiful when you are angry." He dodged the pillow that was launched at him.
"Leave me ALONE!" she shouted
Nicodemus now had conjured one of those odd cigarettes again and lit it with a flick of his wrist. Inhaling deeply he hid a wicked smile and blew out the blue smoke forming little O's as he did so.
"What are those anyway?" she asked her anger abating for a moment
"Opium"
Yuki's eyes widened
"Nani?"
"You heard correctly my turtledove, opium"
Yuki's mouth dropped open a little.
Nicodemus smiled sweetly at her "Have you forgotten I am a demi-god, and gods are allowed to indulge… Vampires as well since they are immortal, though their immortality is a two edged sword… But you already know that."
Nicodemus floated down to her bed where he perched lightly at her foot side smoking the rest of his cigarette pensively. Yuki was tried of arguing, all she wanted was to sleep
"Do you want to know who she is?" he asked then in the stillness of the empty room.
"Who?"
"Kaname's betrothed" he supplied silkily gazing at her with his brilliant sky blue eye, blowing a thin thread of smoke her way. The smell of roses surfaced making her drowsy once more. Her lids grew heavy with sleep
"Her name is Kotori, the last in the line of the Higuri clan. She is in the second family of the three pureblood vampire families that still exist… But then I suppose that Kaname must be related to her somewhere on that dizzying family tree…"
Nicodemus leaned close to her and wiped the cooling tears on her face, he gathered the few that escaped him and brought them to his lips.
"Your sorrow is ambrosia to me Yuki, likewise your longing is nectar to Kaname. Your scent is becoming so dangerous to him now. The scent of roses… the scent of your innocence"
Yuki's dulling brain snapped a little to life at that statement "So you did that to Kaname!" she sputtered sleepily
Tsuki grinned covertly
"I opened the door for him it was his chance to walking through. And readily he did so, with you being such a tease." He chuckled when her eyes widened briefly before fluttering heavily.
"I didn't DO anything…" she gave a wide yawn.
"Yes you did, you let it happen you wanted him to taste your blood."
Despite herself, her face was a deep plum by the time Tsuki finished speaking. His dulcet toned voice was the same all silk and velvet clouding her tired brain….
"But, I have nothing further to say on the subject. Other then I am quite happy you enjoyed yourself, Kami knows it was quite overdue."
Yuki attempted to feebly retort something, to defend herself instead her lids fluttered and closed for the last time… And Tsuki sat back knowing that Yuki was now deeply asleep thanks to a bit of his power. She would need all the sleep she could get, because tomorrow is would be as if the very fires of Akuma would rain upon her and Kaname….
000
It was Yori's clock that now woke Yuki early in the morning "Turn it off Yori…" Yuki muttered rolling over.
"S-sorry I forgot to turn the beeper off" Iori stuttered and rolled back over to sleep, a moment later Yuki heard the soft breathing of her friend and she quietly sat up. It was 6:30 in the morning her father was just getting up.
Yuki felt her stomach twist, and finding that all sleep had left her she slid out of bed and into the shower.
A half hour later Yuki left her dorm room and slipped down the hall, everyone was still sleeping from the previous nights festivities including Saiki.
"Cross!" a voice snapped, Yuki turned to see Mira Saiki the RA of the first and second floor of the girls dormitory poke her head out of her room, pink curlers in her hair.
"The Headmaster wants to see you in his office ASAP."
"Thank you" Yuki bowed politely and the door shut leaving her dreading the short walk to her fathers private apartments. Come noon the whole school would be buzzing about last night..
Oh Kami help…
000
She rapped softly on the Headmaster's door
"Enter" came the tired sounding voice of her adopted father. Timidly she opened the door halfway and poked her head in.
Her father wore no smile today something she dreaded more then anything in the whole universe, the one thing she had learned over the years of staying with her adopted father was that when he stopped smiling… Things would get ugly…
"Headmaster" she stepped through the door and bowed dressed today in simple jeans and a thick sweater to keep back the early morning chill. The receptionist had taken her coat and gloves downstairs…
"Sit down Yuki" he motioned to one of the plushy chairs that sat in front of his desk. There were only three other times in her life that she was called to his office like this… Gulping she hastily walked over and sat down. She couldn't look at him; she merely just stared at her hands.
There was a long silence in which Yuki could feel her fathers eyes boring into her head, she was starting to sweat the silence was deafening….
"Did he bite you Yuki?" Headmaster Cross began quietly, the squeak of his chair told Yuki that he had sat back, waiting.
"Barely Sir, the skin was only lightly punctured… N-no blood was drawn." She stuttered the last few words.
She heard her father sigh with relief "Least there is one thing I can be pleased with." He muttered.
"What happened last night, what did he tell you Yuki?"
Yuki was silent her mouth had gone dry, "ANSWER ME!" he barked
"Kaname-sama-er I mean Kaname-kun told me that his betrothed was coming to Cross Academy and that…" she trailed off
"that he loved you?" the Headmaster finished with a sigh.
"Yes Sir" she replied eyes firmly fixed at her hands which was starting to unconsciously wring in her lap.
"And?"
"And what?" Yuki made the mistake of looking up at her stepfather and froze
"He said he would make me his human Queen, go against his families wishes…" her brow furrowed "then something happened, something having to do with Tsuki… And he began too…" her mouth opened and no sound came out… She took a shuddering breath and continued
"He began to kiss me, d-differently then before" she watched her father's blond brow rise high above his glasses, hastily she plowed on
"I don't know what happened, I became l-lost in his embrace before I new it he was in the process of…Er-then you came Sir" she bowed a bit and then put her head swiftly back down.
"You said something about Tsuki? Why do you think he was involved?" Yuki tried to hide her shock. The Headmaster knew nothing of what he really was…
"I thought it was Tsuki because the balcony smelt like him, like roses. There are no roses in the dead of winter Sir… Besides that is what Tsuki smelt like to me, all the time…"
There was a longer silence then before and Yuki looked up again to see that her father was staring distantly past her shoulder.
"So far your story has matched up with Kaname's. Though he was a bit more vague when it came to loosing his self-control…Maybe as you said it could have been some spell."
"Headmaster Cross you KNOW what Nicodemus is?" Yuki cried suddenly aghast
"Yes and I also know that Zero is no longer a vampire, how did you accomplish that Yuki?"
Yuki bit her lip "I didn't do anything"
The Headmaster nodded "I understand, so now we have more then one mystery to unravel. You are dismissed Yuki with the same punishment I gave to you last night. No Night Rounds past midnight until Valentines Day. And Kaname will once again be reinstated as President after a month's suspension. Though this is a school where vampires and humans coexist. I will not have the President and a Member of the Disciplinary Committee flouting my rules. If I see the two of you together like that again, I will remove you from this school."
The Headmaster voice was a deadpan of seriousness and Yuki nodded
"You are dismissed" Yuki quickly stood and slipped quietly out of the office. All the while wondering what did her stepfather really know?
000