Her lips parts in a small sigh.
He turns to her, a small smile gracefully lights up his expression.
She watches the way his eyes slightly creases at the sides.
He notices how her right fist tightens ever so slightly.
The air stills around them.
Her eyes notices – the smallest movements, like the shifting of his clothes.
But there are times, when she could see his lips moving but never understand the words he was saying.
"Come back to me…"
He perceives all the human emotions on her face, maybe even the concealed ones.
But never the thoughts of her heart, the thoughts she expected him to already know.
"I want to be with you…"
So still they wait, until one of them starts to notice.
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Chapter Three – Between Lovers
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What did she want?
Yuuki couldn't rid herself of the annoying question buzzing around her head. She shook her head again – the forth in a row – before her own mind would betray her and answer the question.
What did she want from him?
She refused to let the image of the broodingly handsome vampire enter her mind, refused to admit to herself that his presence was constantly in her mind.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Zero asked, obviously annoyed.
Yuuki's brows furrowed together, her expression matching his, "What the hell is wrong with me?!" she repeated then huffed, turning away from the pale haired ex-human. "You're the one who's been ditching even more lately."
From the corner of her eye, she could see him stiffen, "You don't have to run away from it you know," she said in a softer voice.
He answered her with an annoyed noise, "Shut up."
She was about to protest when his pained expression stopped the harsh words from spilling, "Fine," she sighed.
A few quiet moments settled between them and the rustling of the leaves sounded like beating drums against the silence. Zero shifted in position, his feet crunching on the yellowed leaves that had fallen on the ground and Yuuki lifted her face up to him in response.
The ex-human stayed silent, observing the shorter girl's expression with a hard light in his eyes. "You're thinking of him again aren't you?" he asked in a low voice.
Something in the way he looked angrily at her made her heart thump louder, was she afraid? She wondered, but then she couldn't feel the cold fingers of fear anywhere on her body.
"No," her eyes tightened as the answer slipped past her lips, she knew that he knew she was lying - she knew it herself - and it surprised her, that she would feel this shame regarding Kaname. "I'm not thinking of Kaname-senpai," she finally said with more conviction which received a curt nod from Zero, but she wondered whether or not the tone of her voice added to his doubt or relieved it – because Yuuki couldn't bring herself to truly believe what she had just uttered.
"Do whatever you want," Zero said, walking away.
Her lower lips trembled and she took a deep breath as the darkness around her deafened Zero's footsteps. Her hand fisted around the cloth on her chest, why had she lied? She shook her head again, that wasn't the real question, she realized.
She had been afraid to tell Zero, why?
Her throat clenched tightly, it was because she wanted to protect him. For her, it didn't matter whether of not Zero was human or vampire, because either way, Zero was Zero.
Her last train of thought curved a small smile on her lips and she sighed – a happy one.
Zero was Zero, always.
But still, at the back of her mind, the small taunting voice didn't disappear.
"What do you want from Kaname?"
She started to walk aimlessly around the campus grounds. Inside her head, she could hear an even softer voice whisper an answer, "I want him to love me…"
No, she contradicted, holding her hand above her heart.
"I want him to be protected from my selfishness."
Do you?
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"You seem to be at ease tonight," boomed Ichijou's cheerful voice, cutting thorough the gloom that seemed to shroud Kaname's room. The pale haired vampire smiled and walked into the room, seemingly unaffected by the aura emitted by the pureblood.
"Do I?" replied Kaname's half-irritated voice.
The dim moonlight flitted through the thin curtains, spreading its pale fingers across the smooth contours of Kaname's face.
"Today feels longer than usual doesn't it?" Ichijou asked, good-naturedly, "I wonder why."
Kaname ignored him, letting his mind wander back to the subject of his thoughts before Ichijou interrupted. He was casually leaning against the windowsill in the half darkness in his room. He had made a habit of standing near windows, he realized, so that he could get a glimpsed of Yuuki while she ran across the school grounds. It wasn't that he constantly needed to see her, but it served as a reassurance because he couldn't protect her all the time.
He at least wanted to watch her.
He had seen her, earlier tonight. She was standing on the second floor balcony of the Night Class school building, walking briskly for a few meters then stopping then walking again, stopped, walked before finally jumping down the balcony and out of his view.
It amused him to no end trying to decipher how her mind worked.
A small smile lifted the end of his lips, followed by a burst of red burning his veins. His throat suddenly felt parched, his eyes brightening to a red evident in the darkness. He relished in the rush of bloodlust, the pleasurable pain it brought him, the sudden surge of life in his veins. He used his nail on his middle finger to cut a deep gash on the outer side of his thumb and raised the bleeding finger to his lips before the self-inflicted wound healed. He heard Ichijou chuckling at the background, but his senses were all concentrated to the liquid dribbling down his throat.
It tasted bland, felt too thick. He rolled a few drops of blood on his tongue; he absently wondered how delicious Yuuki's blood would taste. The image he desired emerged from the fog in his mind, dark pleasure.
Tainted pleasure.
"Kaname?"
"It does feel oddly long. Too long to be enjoyable," Kaname said.
Ichijou chuckled again, walking towards the pureblood. Keeping his hands behind him, he asked, "Would you want some blood?"
"Are you giving yours to me?"
"I'm sure Ruka would be more willing."
Kaname frowned, "I'm tired of her."
"What about her?"
"What about her?"
Ichijou glanced out the window, "You're worried aren't you?"
Kaname kept silent then sighed – he was starting to get annoyed again. "Why did you come here?"
Ichijou beamed, "So you are worried!"
"This isn't the first time you've pointed this out to me."
"So it seems."
Another sigh, "Leave Ichijou, now."
The other vampire nodded in response to the command, "Good night then Kaname."
Kaname turned his attention to the moon, vulnerable in the cloudless sky. It was only a matter of time, he thought, until fate caught up to them.
To Yuuki, most especially.
He could already hear it, the clawing of the beast, getting louder and louder – every second, every minute, ever hour - every beat of her heart. The most unstoppable evil. He paused, catching himself on his thoughts and wondered in mild amusement whether his growing lust or the monsters lurking in the shadows was the more feared of the two evils.
The thought of fresh blood returned the bright red luster to his eyes and he took a blood tablet on the table in front of him and dropped it in a wine glass filled with water. There were only a few more pawns left to put in place, a few more long night like this.
Before that time would come.
He wasn't looking forward to it, nor did he dread it. He just wished that it would be over soon.
"Kaname-sama?" a female voice inquired, followed by a timid knock on the door.
His brows furrowed together as he drank the blood meal. That Ichijou… he thought in irritation.
"What is it Ruka?" He made his way to the door, opening it slightly. Dim yellow lights flooded from the hallway into his room and Kaname watched with uninterested eyes as the shorter female fidgeted under his stare.
"Ichijou-san, said that…"
He leaned then casually against the side of the door, his unbuttoned shirt showing off perfectly flawless skin. He smirked with hidden menace, "Are you giving yourself to me Ruka?" he asked.
Ruka's eyes widened and she bowed her head, her usual spunk suddenly disappearing. "Kaname-sama…"
"If you can't do that…" he turned to close the door, he didn't know why he was lengthening this game when the final answer would have been the same.
"Wait-"
"Yes?"
There was something different about him, Ruka realized. It wasn't like before when she first came to the academy. The aura about him was much more overwhelming now and his presence in her life stronger. It hurt to love him like she did.
"Nothing, I shall take my leave then Kaname-sama."
He didn't want for her to finish before closing the door. He didn't want her blood, her blood tasted too excited, too proud. He didn't even need it. Ichijou, he thought, might have been having his own fun in this set-up.
What he wanted was Yuuki's light. He wanted to strip it away, the finale of marking her, his.
"Lust," he whispered aloud to himself, "Is such an aggravating human emotion…"
But he indulged himself in it – the slow burning fire – because he intended to satisfy himself, until lust was no more than the whispering of ghosts.
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end.
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Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay!! School is nearing (as if we have assignments already) and our production (theater) is on next week, so things are a little hectic.
Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter though it wasn't any longer than the last. I just was to give an advance 'warning' for the following chapter. As you can see, this chapter isn't very 'wholesome' anymore, with Kaname thinking about lust and all that stuff (the reason why this fic is under Rated T).
For chapter 4 – The Castle in the Sky, (I'll give a little preview) the chapter would tackle deeper – in a way – into Kaname's lust (because it seems interesting and also because there would be other readers who would want to explore the subject) so there will be suggestive themes included.
If you are not comfortable with reading such things, as I said before, this is a collection of short stories which are only weirdly interconnected, so it won't hurt if you skip the next chapter, but only for those who are too young. It hurts to see the hits lower. Kidding!!
Thank you to the support of all the reviewers!