okay soo thanks to all those who keep commenting and I hope that you enjoy this chapter. :D I'm sorry it took so long so I decided to make this chapter longer instead of cutting it off at a big part :)

RIMA

Chapter 4: Dreams and celebration

I heard him say it and it hurt a lot.

I wish you hadn't tried to attack her... These were words that were similar to those that I was afraid to hear. I had to leave before he said anymore.

"I'm going back to my dorm. I shouldn't have left." I managed to almost whisper before I quickly turned to walk away from him.

It seemed now that he had tried to protect. To protect her from me. Before i could get any further he appeared quickly in front of me like a blur at first, he was so fast.

I was surprised when I saw him standing there and could feel my eyes widen a little. I hadn't imagined let alone expected him to try and stop me from leaving. His stare was too intense for me and I had to look away. He seemed to be a bit sad and before I was able to focus my sight on anything I felt his finger under my chin again holding me and gently making me look at him.

For the second time tonight he touched me, and I was too scared to reach out for him not knowing what to expect.

"Ne, Rima. Why wont you look at me?" he questioned, his beautiful eyes seemed to look hurt. I hated anything that hurt him and would do almost anything to take that look away in his eyes.

I was going to tell him the whole truth. The truth about how I felt about him, that I was jealous, and I wanted to ask him the most vital thing to me. What did I mean to him?

I opened my mouth to tell him but the voice that called out to him wasn't mine. And I knew whose exactly it was.

"Shiki! There you are. Kaname~sama asked me to come look for you and see if you were alright." She sounded amused.

I couldn't help but smile. Of course it would be her to ruin a moment like this.

"You should get back to class." I said shaking my head a little. Too bad I couldn't fight here here and now.

Not bothering to look at Kaori he still stared into my eyes.

"Rima are you alright?" I got a warm feeling when I realized that he was truly worried about me.

"Yeah. Shiki I'm alright. I'll see you tomorrow in class if Kaname~senpai says I can go" I added before I turned to leave, aware that he was still watching me.

Back in my dorm I sat on my bed thinking about Shiki. He has never looked at me like that before or touched me. He never showed much emotion and this was a first to him. The look in his eyes told me what his lips would not say. He cared about me and was worried about me.

I wondered over and over again if it meant something important to him. If I meant anything important to him. Finally laying down and still trying to sort out my feelings I closed my eyes and before I knew it I was asleep because the next thing I saw was me as a little girl. It was a dream about my past.

My parents are aristocrats and very well respected and known. They only wanted one thing when they had me. A perfect daughter. They were disappointed when they found that they didn't have a son to be named an heir so they decided that they would make me their perfect daughter and feel like I could be their right heiress.

From the minute I was born they did nothing but gave me the best. The hired the best professors around. I was made to learn many different languages but for a vampire learning isn't hard. It comes natural to us. I've had over 75 professors in my life and over 36 babysitters and servants hired to keep me company all day long.
Although my parents themselves were always busy and I had no siblings I was never alone. I was taught to have perfect manners and taught to get rid of my emotions fore my parents viewed them as a weakness and said that others would try and control me through them. Since a child I never played with other vampire children only saw them occasionally at parties. They would invite me to play with them and when I refused they would go on and play with each other.

My parents in the end viewed me as their perfect child and I couldn't have cared less. After years of not feeling anything after a while things seemed pointless and boring.

The day that I discovered my elemental control was electricity my parents were ecstatic.

They called for the best professor to come and help me to control it but the same day I made my discovery I also learned how to master it. They were amazed when I showed them how perfect my control over it was, but told the professor to come anyway to see for himself if I needed any help or improvement.

They were even more proud when he said that there was nothing that he or anyone else could do to help me improve because though I was only still a young child he had never seen anyone control their element so well. Especially on the very day that they discovered out what it was that they specialized in.

It wasn't long before that where other parents started to view me as the perfect daughter and envied my parents.

Although I had a servant who was always with me I would occasionally tell them to leave my room or leave me alone. I didn't want to have company most of the time because I didn't want to be surrounded by people who only did what I told them to because of fear. I didn't have a best friend like other girls my age did and preferred to eat cookies with jam while others wanted to play with their dolls.

To everyone around me I was the perfect golden child but on the inside I didn't fell anything, and never showed any weak emotions to anyone. I never cried, I never fussed, I never threw my self and screamed that I wanted something because the truth was that even I didn't know what I wanted. I had become a living empty shell on the inside.

Then that one day came. The day that I never thought would happen. The day I met Shiki.

It was the party my parents had thrown for me, their perfect daughter to celebrate my birthday. In human years I would have appeared to be turning eleven.

My parents were well acquainted with his family so naturally they were invited and brought Shiki along with them. I had never met him before that but heard that they had a son though the father wasn't around anymore. Of course talking about why the father wasn't around anymore was a taboo, forbidden to be talked about.

It was a party that I was against the whole time. I hated attending one much less throwing one. It created to much of a fuss and caused too much noise. Against my will they decided to throw one and I didn't stop them.

At the celebration everyone that my parents had invited attended bringing their child or children along, except for Kaname~sama. He was invited also but everyone knew that he never showed up to parties. Not after what happened to his family. Everyone invited him anyway out of courtesy but most had very high hopes that he would show up to their party. Though he never did.

With tons of vampire adults and children running around I decided that it was my Que to sneak out. They wouldn't really notice anyway, the party was in full swing.

Walking over to the elevator that led to the mansion above ground and looking back every few minutes to make sure no one was following me I safely made it out of the party. It was still daylight outside which meant that I would have to hide somewhere away from the sun and some place where they wouldn't be able to find me. Mindlessly walking into the forest of my backyard I heard a sound that sounded like a branch breaking. It seemed someone had followed me out here after all.

I wasn't sure if it was an enemy or servant and there seemed to be no wave of senses that were good or evil in the air around me making it more difficult to decide. Regardless I did what my attacks and strategies teacher taught me to do in a similar situation. I spread my legs a little for a better balance making sure nothing would catch me off guard and made my small bolts of thunder appear around me like a barrier protecting me. It was meant to show that I wasn't defenseless but rather quiet an opponent even for my size.

I looked around trying to find where the stranger was when I heard another noise to my right. Meer seconds away from striking out walked a young boy with red spiky styled messy hair. He slowly made his way towards me with his hands in the air while looking a bit bored.

"Don't shoot." was all he said before putting his hands in his pockets and yawning. He looked at me with lazy eyes and I could tell he was different than the others. His blue eyes said it all. Of his unknown pains to me.

"What are you doing out here?" I questioned harshly and clearing the air around me.

"I'm just ....... looking for my contact" he lied. It was so clear he lied I couldn't help but smile a little.

"You are a vampire. You don't use contacts. What were you really doing out here?" I asked again less coldly this time.

Sighing and scratching his head he smiled too a little.

"I saw a girl escaping from the party so I thought that she might need someone in case something happened to her at least she wouldn't have been alone." he admitted looking away from me.

I didn't say anything. I was speechless. This was the first time that anyone had ever done anything for me because they were worried something might happen to me. Even my own parents who gave birth to me didn;t know that I was missing. Since I didn't say anything he broke the silence.

"What were you doing out here?" he asked looking at me.

"I...I was looking for someplace to hide."

"Why?"

"It's too noisy in there and I hate going to parties so I decided it was my opportunity to sneak out."

"hmmmm. I also dislike parties." he stated.

"I know." was all he said before pointing his chin into an opposite direction indicating that I follow him.

With the sun starting to bother me and not wanting to go back into the party I followed him. He walked several minutes with me following behind in silence.

"Here it is" he smiled showing me a garden with a huge marble water fountain spitting out water.

"You took me to my front yard?" I asked confused.

"They won't be able to find us here." he yawned and started to walk again. When we stopped on the other side of the fountain I understood what he meant. Not only did it provide shade but it was also high enough to hide any evidence that kids were just on the other side sitting on the grass.

"It's the perfect hideout" I said. I started to feel warm inside and funny too. I hadn't had a feeling like this in many many years so it took me a while to figure out that what I was feeling was happiness. True happiness.

We sat on the grass together and hid in the shade while enjoying the summer air.

"I'm Senri Shiki by the way" he said without looking away from the blue sky.

"Rima Touya" I greeted back also looking up at the sky.

We sat there for hours on end not talking much and just relaxing. I had never been this comfortable around anyone. Not even my parents. For the first time ever I had found someone I wanted to be around with.

When the stars were shining in the night sky we heard movements of many footsteps all over.

"It seems that our play time is over." he said not getting up yet.

I only nodded my head. I didn't want this to be over. We had lived in our own little world and I didn't want anyone to take that away from me.

With another sigh he got to his feet and helped me up.

"Will you be my friend?" he asked when he was facing me.

I smiled and that seemed enough answer for him. He smiled back before wrapping his semi small arms around me. Happy birthday Rima." he said before letting me go.

"Let's hang out again." he added before someone appeared at his side almost as if on Que.

"Bye" he waved just as one of my servants quickly came to my side.

"Bye Shiki." I waved back feeling the warmth inside me again.

From then on we were always hanging out together. We even decided to model together as a job but for us it was a way to kill time or a hobby.

One night before leaving to meet with Shiki my parents sat me down saying that they had something important to tell me.

I didn't really know what to say or do so I just sat there waiting for them to tell me.

"Rima. You are old enough now so we decided to enroll you in a private boarding school. They have a Night Class there especially for vampires or our stature or higher. You will be attending and leave in two days time." my father explained.

This was like a slap to the face, maybe worse.

"How far is it?" I asked trying to calm myself. I could feel the heat rushing to my face and almost started to breath in harder small breaths of air.

"You will have to take the vampire underground exclusive rail road. The trip should last about ten hours or so. The academy is called Cross Academy. You will of course have a dorm room and be sharing with Ruka, you know your friend." my mother added.

"And it's very important that you go. Kaname~sama himself will be there watching over the vampires and making sure that all goes well. He's trying to help us build a relationship with humans little by little and we have to be there to support him. I expect that you will be there on all our behalves representing us well."

The academy was very far and I would be living there from now on. How would I tell Shiki was my biggest concern. Wehad been best friends now for years and in two days time I would be leaving?

Swallowing hard I got up and nodded at them and without another word I left my house. Shiki's driver Loen was there waiting for me in the front driveway.

Opening the door for me I got in and sat across from Shiki.

"Your a bit late. Is everything alright?" he asked resting his chin on his hand.

"Yea" I lied. I tried to sort it all out in my head wondering what I should tell him or how to start.

"I have to tell you something Rima" he quietly said.

I looked at him and waited for him to continue, a little panicked.

"My uncle has enrolled me in a private academy and I'm to leave in two days. It's pretty far but they have a Night Class designed for vampires especially. I'll be living there from now on too. Kaname~sama has started it in order to help set up some kind of relationship with the humans." he explained looking from me to the window and the setting sun.

At that moment I had never felt any relief as I did when I realized that we were going to be attending the same academy.

Sensing the relief that was coming from me he asked, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm also going there. My parents just told me right before I came out."

"You weren't going to tell me" he stated in his normal seductive voice. It wasn't a question.

"I didn't know how to" I admitted looking out the window.

I saw him close his eyes and smile. I could sense he also felt the same relief I felt. We were not going to be separated after all. I didn't know if I believed in fate or destiny but I was glad that it seemed to play out that way.

PKK...........PKKkK...........PKKKKKK......

Opening my eyes I realized fully that I had fallen asleep. Hearing the noise again I quickly sat up on my bed.

It seemed to be coming from the balcony glass doors.

Getting up I walked over not knowing what to expect or who I was going to see.

Looking through the glass doors I saw a mesh of blue hair that fell around nicely on a face and a set of purple eyes. It took me a second to realize that it was Rokoru.

I stood there on the other side of the glass doors watching him. He was leaning against the balcony railing. He pointed his finger towards the doors golden knob and indicated that I opened it. He didn't look crazy or dangerous but like he just wanted to play around. He smiled more when he saw me walking to the door and reaching my hand out to pull on the knob.

Walking out and closing the unlocked doors behind me he stood up straighter with his hands in his pockets.

"What are you doing here? You should be in class"

"I'm not supposed to start until tomorrow. Think of it as a semi day off. Considering that I am in uniform and got a tour of the academy but still was free from going to class." he explained jokingly while still smiling.

"What about you? You decided to take a semi day off too?" he asked looking me over.

"Something like that" I said not wanting to explain to him the real reason as to why I was wearing my uniform but not in class.

"Is there something you wanted?"

He seemed to think about what he was going to say before answering me.

"It's not what I really want but you need." he smiled a dazzling smile.

"You need some fun. I figured it out after the first time we met. When I saved you from what could have been your death. It would have been a tragedy too." he said slowly shaking his head. He seemed to make it a joke.

"I was not going to die. I-"

"Yeah I know I know you had it all under control right?" he laughed seeming amused. His easy going nature charm made me smile at that too a little.

"So come on. Lets go have some fun." he said reaching out a hand for me to take it. Him standing there like that with the light of the moon made him seem more beautiful.

"I don't think I should go. Kaname might get mad if he -"

Not waiting for me to finish he quickly grabbed my arm and in one swift motion he had me safely cradled in his arms.

"What are doing?"

He quickly winked at me before he hoped on top of the railing and lightly jumped off. When we were on the grassy dry floor again he put me down.

"Wouldn't have wanted you to get hurt." he lightly laughed letting me know he was joking.

Grabbing my hand again he started to lead me through the school and to the entrance or in our case exit.

"We're not allowed to leave school grounds." I informed him but he didn't stop and continued to pull me along.

"Don't worry. I got permission for me and a friend or in your case tour guide to show me around town." he said

"And I got it straight from both Kaname~sama and the academy's head master so we're safe."

"a-ah" I said knowing he wasn't going to let me turn back now.

"So where are we really going?" I asked curious.

"You'll see soon enough"

We walked for another ten minutes in silence while he held onto my wrist. He seemed exciting to be going where ever it was that he was taking me.

The whole time walking I wondered who he really was and why he transferred in so late. I only knew his name and that he was Ruka's cousin but that was it.

When I looked up again I could see light coming from a distance which was odd for a town like this where everyone was supposed to be asleep by now. It was like seeing light at the end of a tunnel and it made me more curious when I heard laughter coming from the light. Getting closer and closer I started to see people and many stands with food, hand made trinkets, music, and games of all kind. It was crowded and seemed that the whole townspeople came out to celebrate. But I didn't understand what they were celebrating. For the first time in my life I felt like I was on the outside looking in. I felt lost.

Seeing my expression he turned to me a little worried.

"Are you alright?" he asked. The instant he said that I saw Shiki standing in front of me instead of Rokoru. He had asked me that same question about three times tonight and he had been worried about me. I felt my eyes widen.

"I'll take you back home right now if you don't want to be here." I nodded my head.

"No. I'm fine, I just....." I trailed off not sure what to say next.

His expression of concern became one of happiness. "I told you you needed some fun."

I barely knew anything about him but his excitement seemed to affect me. I didn't want to have to leave and have him miss out on the fun he was expecting to have.

"What is all this?" I asked.

"Its the town celebration for me." His smile was beautiful and warm.

"No I'm just joking. Its the towns celebration for the night that they were all officially declared a town almost 400 years ago tonight." he explained.

"Their celebrating the accomplishment of their ancestors." I stated.

"Smart girl" he smiled. His purple eyes seemed to glow more in the light that surrounded us a couple of feet away from the entrance.

"Come on" grabbing my wrist again he started towards the entrance. When we got there everyone turned to look at us almost as if they felt the air around them change.

They looked at us in admiration and smiled. Some even walked up to us. It was a group of three teenage boys and two girls around the same age.

"Are you from the Night Class at Cross academy?" they asked looking over our uniforms.

"Thats right." Rokoru said in a warm friendly way.

"Wow! We knew that you guys seemed to cool and the uniforms are great!" gushed the two girls.

"Thank you." Rokoru said before he walked away smiling pulling me along.

"Are you always this nice?" I asked.

"Yeah. Aren't you ever happy?" he asked looking me in the eye.

I looked away not wanting to tell him the reason as to why I always seemed nonchalant.

"You don't have to tell me. It's okay." he said in a more serious tone.

Without another word he led us toward a stand with jewelry. They were beautiful most of them and came in had many brightly colored stones that shone brightly and beautifully. I caught a glimpse of a red stone with little white stones surrounding it. It was set in a shape of a red rose and white pedals around it. It was the most beautiful one there and came in a pair. He must have seen my small smile because next he asked to buy them.

"Let me get the red rose with white petals, please" he asked taking out a couple of bills from his pocket. The elderly women behind the stand pulled it out and smiled.

"Great choice. The red rose is three carets and the white petals are one caret each with melted 14 caret gold to hold them up." she informed us while gently putting them away in a small white box with fluffy material inside. Tying a bow on the box she handed me the box and Rokoru handed her the bills. It must have done alot more than cover the price since she gasped and almost jumped.

"Keep the change." he smiled before walking away.

I didn't believe that he really just did that and it made me feel warm inside.

"Thank you" I said smiling more.

He reached for the box and gently took it from me untying the red ribbon from the small white box. Lifting the lid he gently took one out and smiled at me beautifully as he put one on each of my pony tails perfectly centered where all could see them.

"They look beautiful on you." he complimented starting at me with hypnotic cat-like eyes.

Next he led us to a stand that had food. I looked curiously at him.

"You're going to love the ice cream here." he said pulling out a chair for me and he was right.

They did have the best ice cream that I ever tasted. They served the best Dark sugar ice cream and had the best jam with cookies. I had never felt so free with anyone like this aside from Shiki.

I liked the feeling and had to admit I was having a great time in the town celebration.

Stopping at stands to eat sweets drink different teas from around the world and even dress up in traditional Japanese wear. I would have never thought I'd do any of these things. We even made our way to some of their rides that included miniature Farris wheels and a large carousel beautifully decorated with horses in many colors and lights that glistened beautifully.

I wasn't sure what time we had left but it seemed to be passing by quickly. Deep down I did feel a bit sad that this night would have to end.

I hadn't stopped smiling the entire time.

"We should get back now. It's getting pretty late, well for us early." he said after buying two candy apples on a stick for us. Handing me mine I looked at it. I didn't want to leave but I knew I had to.

"Yeah" was all I said before he took my wrist again and led us towards the academy under the moons glow.

By the time we got back it seemed that it was about time for classes to be done for the night so I decided we take a path that was clear of any students, or so I thought. We were still eating our candy apples and he was still grabbing onto me when we were walking by classes that seemed to be empty now until in the middle of the hall Shiki walked out with a book in his hand.

I felt my self freeze at that instant letting go of my hold on the apple but before it hit the floor Rokoru released me and caught the apple in time.I felt my eyes widen at the sight of him standing there.

"Sh-" I couldnt bring myself to say his name. What must he have thought at this exact moment? But I already knew the answer to that.

"Hey Rima" he said after a few moments and walked right by me. I could smell his scent and it reminded me that I hadn't drank blood in a while but the reminded thrist was nothing compared to how bad I felt at that exact moment.

~I'll show you another sweet dream~