* I do not own DL. Just a fangirl.

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Previous Chapter Summary:

Reiji visited Yui's room, bringing some bad news- his potion might not be what it's supposed to be.

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Night 10

"The One Behind The Sabotage"

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"That's... That's not true, is it?" Yui's complexion turned deadly white as she heard Reiji tell her she's gonna die.

Sure, she might have stabbed herself once before but that was only a spur of the moment. Having a second chance at life made her more appreciative of her own.

"It is. Although it's just a probability." Reiji leaned his back against the chair, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm still figuring out the wrong ingredients I used to create that defective potion, and the devil that messed with the labels. Once I get a clue of those things, I can further study the possible consequences of the one I gave you."

"S-So I'm not going to die?"

"There's no assurance to that. I might have, by mistake, mixed a substance that came from the Underworld. Most of those things are lethal to humans, but since you have a demon's heart, the chances that you might die from it would lower down. But that would not necessarily mean that it would not have an effect on your body. Other than the ones you have told me, there might be other side effects that would manifest later on. If that became so, it's best you come rushing to me."

Yui simply nodded at that. Terrified with the vagueness of his answer.

"Ayato."

"Hm?"

"Don't drink from her blood. Warn the others as well."

"Why?"

"You told me the scent of her blood had changed, correct? I trust your nose. Her blood might be contaminated with something poisonous for us. But then again, I could use you to confirm this theory."

"No thanks. I don't want to be used by you. Just hurry up and do something about that defect you've made."

"Seriously, you talk as if you're not the root of this problem."

"Hey, I'm not the one who made that potion."

"You didn't, but you're the reason why I had to make a potion. Your reckless actions led us to this situation. Now what do you have to say to that?"

"Tch!"

"Well then..." Reiji stood up from his seat, patting his pants off with the minule dust that got stuck on it. "I shall be in my room studying the faulty potion. I will inform everyone if I already have the results. I'll create a cure if it's something lethal."

"How long will it take you?"

"I don't know. Best be praying to your god that you're still alive when I'm done."

Yui felt a little bit relieved by Reiji's answer, but it did make her feel that something was wrong. Regardless, she still nodded and whispered, "Thank you."

"What are you doing, Chichinashi?" Ayato responded as if she had just said something rude.

"W-What's wrong?" The poor girl furrowed her brows, frustrated with the younger Sakamaki, but when she turned her eyes towards the older one, she had finally understood why. Reiji had a smile on his face, and it's not something to be happy about.

"Mortals are such strange creatures. They prefer to live with more suffering rather than end it swiftly." Reiji sneakered. "You're thanking me for keeping you alive? How perfectly naive of you. You should know that the only reason why you're still alive is because you have a purpose for each of us in this house. You're merely food to the others, but you're simply a test subject in my case. A human with a demon's heart is something rare- something I have the most interest on experimenting on- so do not ever commit the mistake of misinterpreting my actions as kindness."

Yui was silent with her head bowed down and her hands clasped together. She felt it again- the cruelty contained in this manor. She had hoped they'd treat her more kindly since she's been trying to get along with them- even though it means subduing to their wishes from time to time. But nothing really changed. And it made her more depressed of her situation.

"Regardless, I think we all said what we wanted to." Reiji then turned to the other. "Ayato, we've overstayed our visit, wouldn't it be polite if we already left?"

Ayato stood up from the bed, following Reiji as he moved out of the room, and gently closed the door behind him.

With the two Sakamakis out, the room was deadly silent. None can be heard other than Yui's tears that finally fell down and tapped the floor.

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- - - Ayato's Room - - -

"Yo!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ayato shot back as he saw Laito sitting on top of the iron maiden, mentally alerting him that Julia was still inside it.

"Welcome back, Ayato-kun. I was actually just waiting for you." Laito grinned as he watched Ayato walk across the room towards him. "You look like a mess. So you actually succeeded in killing the girl? But I wonder why it took you this late in the afternoon before you were done with her. What have you been doing exactly?"

"I didn't kill her. Something else happened."

"You didn't kill her?" Laito wondered, but the smile on his face grew wider. "Why didn't you call me if you were planning on doing her? Aah~ we could have had a wonderful threesome."

"Stop right there! That's disgusting. And would you get your butt off my iron maiden!"

"Hehe~ if that's what you say so." Laito shrugged as he stood from where he sat. "How is she anyway? The girl you were with last night?"

Ayato's face grew pale at the question. "W-Who are you talking about?"

"Bitch-chan, of course. She went to Reiji's room last night, didn't she? That guy must have already given her a cure for her wound."

"Ah..." Ayato felt relieved to hear that his secret hasn't been revealed yet. "She drank one of Reiji's defective potions so her body has been undergoing some unpleasant changes."

"Defective? I guess Reiji does commit mistakes from time to time. Bitch-chan should have gone to my room instead."

"I wonder about that. Something tells me that you had something to do with it."

"Hm? What made you say that?"

"Reiji told me someone broke inside his room and messed with the bottle labels inside his cabinets. And since you seem to have the habit of breaking into someone else's room, it's likely that you're the culprit."

"Is that so?"

"I told you not to mess with her. It's your fault I can't even get a taste of her blood."

"Eh? Why is that?"

"Reiji says it may have been poisoned. But until he hasn't confirmed it yet, we're to stay away from drinking out of her. Thanks a lot genius."

Laito simply smiled at that and said. "That's quite troublesome then. Her blood tastes too good to even resist. She should have died so we wouldn't have to restrain ourselves like this. Ack!"

Ayato suddenly gripped the other's arm, tugging at it like he was intending to dismember him. "If the girl dies, I'd kill you."

"Oh, my~ You've grown quite fond of the girl. Don't tell me you're falling in love?"

"Love has nothing to do with this. If she dies, I'd be bothered to look for a new long lasting supply."

"Alright. I'll take your word for that. But truth be told, I wasn't the one who messed up Reiji's room last night." Laito then pulled his arm away from Ayato and started walking out of the room. "Ah yeah, since you can't feed on Bitch-chan, it's better if you go out tonight. I heard the humans would be holding a fireworks festival in town. If you ever get hungry, you can simply attend and choose among vatieties of food there. Blood and takoyakis are human specialties."

"I'll see if I can go."

"Oh... and also..." Laito gave one last look at the iron maiden as he stopped under the doorway. "You can start feeding whatever's inside that iron maiden of yours. I think its hungry."

"Wait! Did you open it?"

"Nah... I just heard a bit of grumbling when I first came here awhile ago. You secretly snuck something inside it, didn't you? Is it a pet?"

"Mind your own business."

"Haha. Now I'm curious. But whatever it is, you shouldn't let Reiji know about it. That guy forbids pets inside the manor. You should probably hide it in the warehouse. It hasn't been used for awhile."

"Ah! Yes! Yes! I'll take note of that. Now just get out of here." Ayato then pushed him out of the door, knowing that Laito was only stalling time so he could get a chance to know what he was hiding.

'BAM!'

Ayato never left the door after that. He had raised Laito's curiosity and it wasn't a good thing.

'I should have set up a territorial barrier before I left her here. But that would attract more suspicion, and I doubt it would be strong enough to keep anyone from entering. I've exhausted most of my energies with kidnapping Julia. I haven't recovered much of it to even use a teleportation spell. If only I had the chance to drink Chichinashi's blood, but that Reiji made her consume something weird. Tch! It can't be helped. I should take her out of this manor before anyone discovers her. All I have to do now is to wait for this guy to leave the premises.'

Ayato stayed patiently by the door, waiting for the right chance to take Julia out of the iron maiden. But during the time that passed, he could still feel Laito's presence lingering outside his room.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Ayato finally stormed out of his room, threatening to punch Laito's face. He knew that Laito hated resorting to violence above all else, so perhaps it would make him leave.

But as soon as he stepped out into the hallway, he didn't see a trace of his brother.

'That's weird. I know he's still around but where is he now?'

He then decided to quickly get back to his room. He shouldn't leave his eyes on the iron maiden since Laito's suspicion has been ignited. Knowing him, he knew he's the type of person who would stick his nose in other's business and use it against them. He'll do anything to discover what he so desperately hides.

And Ayato was right...

'Shit!'

For Laito was already inside his room, standing beside the opened iron maiden, and staring down at the great secret it contained.

"Ayato-kun~" Laito purred as he met his brother's wide green eyes. "You found a really nice pet here. I'm sure someone would be furious with this."

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- - - Hallway - - -

"Hhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

Subaru had gone out of his room with a yawn. He had woken up early from his sleep. It was a Saturday night and it was 6pm. He could have slept all the way through midnight but his thirst for blood had been troubling him too much. It was approximately 3 days when he last filled his body with human blood, and his innards were aching for some. Good thing there's always a free supply inside the house or he would have gone through the trouble of hunting a fitting victim from the streets.

He stopped briefly infront of Reiji's door as he passed by it. A smile of mischief crept upon his lips, as he pondered upon the prank he had made on the owner of this room.

"Serves him right." he muttered to himself as he continued his pace.

A few days ago, Subaru went home with a killing aura surrounding his being. And as usual, he'd choose destruction to dissolve his anger. Too bad he chose to commit his tantrums in the garden where he violated almost all of the roses which Reiji had been diligently tending all these years. Thus, as punishment, Reiji had confiscated Subaru's knife promising to return it only if the garden had gone back to normal.

The task was difficult. Subaru would sometimes spend his time staring at the white roses in the garden but he was no gardener. And yet he, against his will and mostly because of his fault, planted new rose bushes to replace the dead ones. He was doing this every time he went back from school up until last night when Laito came to visit him in the garden. Subaru hated seeing Laito's face, but that night was different. Laito brought with him a silver knife to which Subaru was familiar of. It was odd that he'd do something like this so he cautiously asked why. Laito simply smiled and hinted that Reiji had just left his room and was busy at the library before he finally disappeared infront of him.

Subaru didn't know what that meant but he took this as an opportunity. Now that his knife had been returned to him, he could finally take his revenge on Reiji. He'd been bossing him around recently, and he didn't like it.

The younger Sakamaki knew that Reiji would return shortly so he quickly snuck inside his room and interchanged the bottles contained in one of the cabinets. He would have chosen to simply destroy everything inside since it's easier, but doing so would only point all fingers on him. And so, even if the other option is quite a petty crime, it's still equally satisfying, considering that it would undeniably sabotage Reiji's years worth of research.

"Ah... Here it is." Subaru grinned as he reached Yui's door. He was fairly hungry tonight and her blood was more than enough to satisfy him.

He teleported himself inside, deciding that it would be more gratifying to scare Yui before he drives his fangs into her skin.

The room was dim. No lights were ablaze, just the rays of the moon struck the walls. Even so, he could clearly see Yui sitting at the edge of the bed with her back faced towards him.

He moved silently to her place. A grin adorned his face as his mind began to be filled with the adventures he was planning on doing with her.

"Gotcha!"

He viciously pinned Yui on the mattress, caging her under his arms and legs. He gazed upon her face expecting to see nothing but terror in her eyes.

But sadly, he saw something else.

She wasn't scared. She was grieving. What reflected on her eyes wasn't fear. There were only tears.

- - - End of Night 10 - - -

Author's Blabbering Nonsense:

As promised, but this chapter is quite short. And praise to the following people:

Neko-Kittens: I thank you also for waiting for an update considering that the last one was months ago.

DianaDede: Ahahaha. I'm glad to hear that. Thank you for reading this story.

DTphantom: Thank you for appreciating the way I'm writing, although I still have to re-read the previous chapters to correct some errors I might have overlooked.

Aroosa: Wow, for a minute there, you sounded like Sakura (from Naruto). XDDD Thank you for waiting for an update.

Esterpeskova: Thank you for that review. I really am rooting for these two. They're a lovable and playful pairing.

Mrs.1DJessup: I will do my best. I'm just stuck where I could finally let Subaru enter the scene. He's been missing for the last 9 chapters. And so here he is!

GwynethSy: I will hug and kiss you back! Thank you so much! I shall take note of more Ayato x Yui moments.

GreenMoonLight: I was also excited to continue this story. I'm really glad you feel the same way.

Angelic123: It will be my pleasure to give you more. Just pray that I can get the words to pour out of my head and into the keyboard. XDDD

Guest: Yes, Reiji's cold. But there's a soft side to him... Somewhere... I think. XDDD

To the many others: Thank you for adding this story to your list. I shall do my best to continue and hopefully finish the next chapter soon.