DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters. I only own any OC's that I create for the story line.

WARNING: This is a YAOI Fan Fiction! If you don't like then please don't read!

NOTE: I gained inspiration for this while watching Underworld and reading my Vampire Encyclopedia, as well as the series 'Vampire Academy'.

Chapter 2

After covering a bit of ground and panting hard, Heba looked over his shoulder to see how far he had gone.

And that's when he saw him.

A man in the woods about fifty yards from him, half concealed by the fog; wearing a long, dark coat. He stood unmoving for a moment, that is, till Heba's gaze rested upon him. Once that happened, he began to run after him.

Until that moment, Heba hadn't known what fear truly was. Shock jolted through him as cold as ice water, and he found out just how fast he could really run, for as soon as the realization set in that he was being chased, Heba bolted.

Heba didn't scream for there was no point. After all, he had escaped V.A. alone. It was the dumbest mistake he ever made, he knew that now, and it looked like it was going to be his last. He also hadn't brought his cell, because there was absolutely no service up here in the hills. It was just him and the man chasing him, and with no rescue coming, Heba had to run like hell.

He could hear the man's footsteps fast approaching behind him, snapping branches, brunching leaves. 'Oh my Ra he's fast!' Heba thought. 'How can anybody run that fast?'

Heba slide under a rather large tree root that had been sticking up from the ground, which was also thickly covered with deep green ivy and thin, dead tree branches. Glancing over his shoulder, he cursed under his breath as the man copied his exact same movement and continued after him. 'Wait a minute!' Heba thought, still sprinting as fast as he could, 'They taught you to defend yourself didn't they? You are supposed to know what to do in these kinds of situations!' But no matter how hard he tried to think, he couldn't remember a thing.

Branches tore at the sleeves of his jacket and snagged on his jeans. And without warning, Heba stumbled over a stone, his teeth sinking into his tongue when his head collided with the ground, but picked himself back up and kept running. Chancing another glance behind him, Heba's amethyst eyes widened in fear, for the man was much closer to him then he had been, too close. He had to go faster, but his legs were aching, his throat and lungs burning from overexertion already.

"UGH!" Heba choked out as the man tackled him. The ground slammed against Heba's back and the man's weight pressed down on him, his legs tangled with Heba's. The man's hand was clasped over Heba's mouth, but he managed to pull an arm free. At his old school, in the self-defense workshops, they always said to go for the eyes. Now all he had to do was gather his nerve to do so, but as terrified as he was right now, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to.

At that moment, the guy leaned down and whispered, "Did you see who was after you?"

For a few seconds, Heba just stared at him, confusion and disbelief prominent in his expression.

The man let a low, deep chuckle and removed his hand from Heba's mouth so he could answer. His body was heavy atop of Heba's, and the world seemed to be spinning. Heba finally managed to say, "You mean, besides you?" He asked arcing a brow.

The man gave him a confused look, as if to say that he had no idea what Heba was talking about. "Me?" He asked, lifting a hand to his chest before furtively glancing behind the, as if on the defensive. "You were running from someone, weren't you?" He asked again, and then turned back around, looking at Heba again.

"I was just running. There was nobody after me except you." Heba spat, becoming annoyed.

"You mean, you thought-" The guy jerked back from Heba for a second, so that Heba was free. "Oh, hell. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to- Man, I must have scared you half to death."

"You were trying to help?" Heba had to say it before he could believe it.

The man nodded quickly. His face was still close to Heba's, too close, blocking out the rest of the world. Nothing seemed to exist except for them and the swirling fog. "I know I must've freaked you out, and I'm sorry. I really thought-"

His words weren't helping the situation; Heba was getting dizzier by the minute, he needed air, quiet, and something else that he couldn't think of while the man was so close to him. Heba pointed a finger and said something he hardly ever said to anyone in his whole life, definitely never to a stranger and certainly not to the single most terrifying stranger he'd ever met: "You - Just - Shut - Up."

The man shut up.

Heba blinked. He didn't think that would actually work. After a moment, he sighed heavily and let his head flop back on the ground. He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes, pressing down till he saw red. The taste of blood was thick in his mouth, and his heart was still thundering so hard in his rib cage that he thought he almost seemed to shake. He would've sworn that he could've peed himself, which would have only been just about the only way to make this situation more humiliating than it already was. Instead, Heba kept taking deep breaths, one after the other, until he felt like he was strong enough to sit up.

When he did, the man was still there beside him. Taking another deep breath and letting it out, he managed to ask, "Why did you tackle me?"

"I thought we needed to take cover. To hide from whoever was chasing you, but that turned out to be, uh-" he looked away embarrassed, "-it turned out to be nobody."

The man ducked his head, and that's when Heba got a good look at him for the first time. There hadn't been time for him to notice anything about him before; when your first time impression of somebody is "Psycho Killer", you don't take time to analyze the details. Now, though, Heba could see that he was not quite a man but not quite a teenager either. He looked more somewhere in the range of his early to mid-twenties. He was tall and broad shouldered. He had spiky, tri-colored hair, black base with crimson tips; and golden bangs that framed his face while a few others stood on end, conforming with the other spikes. His skin was sun kissed and his jaw was strong and chiseled. His body was a solid, slightly muscular yet slender build and his eyes were an amazing dark crimson.

But what stood out the most to Heba was what the man was wearing. For beneath his long black coat, the man was wearing black leather boots that reached up to his mid-calf; dark was jeans that when inside his boots; a dark red V-neck t-shirt stretched over the man's broad, toned chest and around his neck hung a pendant of a crest, two ravens embroidered on either side of a silver sword. That was the crest of Vampire Academy.

Heba swallowed thickly, "You're a student? Here at the school?"

The man blinked then nodded, "About to be." He spoke quietly, as if he was worried about scaring Heba again. "You?"

Heba nodded slowly as he shook his head, throwing his own golden bangs out of his face and straightening his hair. "This is my first year. My mother dropped me off here a year ago. So, I'm kinda stuck."

That seemed to strike the man as odd, because he frowned at Heba; his crimson eyes were suddenly searching and unsure. In an instant, though, he had recovered and held out his hand. "Atem Sennen."

Heba hesitated for a moment. It felt weird; introducing himself to somebody he'd thought was trying to kill him five minutes ago. Taking a deep breath, Heba stretched out his hand and grasped the man's waiting one. "Heba Moto." He said as they shook hands; noting how cool the man's hand felt.

"Your pulse is racing," Atem murmured. He studied Heba's face intently, and Heba felt nervous again-but in a much better way. "Okay, if you weren't running from an attacker, why were you running like that? Because that didn't look like a morning jog to me." Atem asked as he arced a brow.

Heba would've lied right there if he could thought of any plausible excuse, but he couldn't. So he decided to confess to this man who, just a few moments ago, was a complete stranger to him. "I got up early to-well, to try and run away."

"From Vampire Academy?" Atem asked again, tilting his head.

Heba nodded. "I don't want to go to school there. I liked our old hometown, and besides, Vampire Academy is so...so..." He tried to search for the right word but was coming up blank.

"Spooky beyond all hell?" Atem asked with an arced brow and amused smirk.

"Yeah!" Heba agreed full heartedly. "And all the students there, I know what they do to the human students there and I refuse to let them do that to me."

"Alright so where were you going to go? Do you have a job lined up somewhere?" Atem asked, his expression serious now.

Heba's cheeks flushed, and not just from the exertion of the run. "Um, no. I wasn't really running away. Just making a statement. Sort of."

Atem blinked for a few seconds, and then started to grin. His smile changed all the weird, pent-up energy inside of Heba, transforming it from fear into curiosity, even excitement. He stared at Heba like that for a moment, not saying anything and not moving. As if he had frozen into a statue. Heba blinked, "What?"

At that moment, Atem asked a question that astonished Heba, "Do you want out of here for real?"

"Like-run away? Really run away?" Heba choked out, still in disbelief.

Atem nodded, his expression was completely serious.

Heba thought that Atem couldn't be serious. There was no way. No doubt he had asked him to snap hi back to reality. Heba admitted, "No, I don't. I'll go back. Get ready for school like a good boy."

Atem grinned again. "Nobody said anything about being a good boy."

The way he said that made Heba feel warm and soft inside. "It's just-Vampire Academy-I don't think I'll ever belong there."

"I wouldn't worry about that. Might be a good thing, not belonging there." Atem looked at Heba, serious and intent, like he thought he had another idea about where Heba might belong. Either this guy really liked Heba, or Heba was inventing thing in his head because he wanted him to like him. But Heba was much too inexperienced to guess which.

Hurriedly, Heba pushed himself to his feet. As Atem stood, Heba asked, "So what were you doing? When you saw me?"

"Like I said," Atem grunted as he pushed off of the ground and stood fully. "I thought you were in trouble. There are some rough characters up in these parts. Not everybody has self-control." He brushed the pine needles and dead leaves off of his coat and jeans. "Clearly, I shouldn't of jumped to conclusions. My instincts got the best of me. Sorry about that." He said, chuckling lightly.

"It's ok, honestly." Heba said with a shrug and smile. "I realize you were trying to help. I meant, before you saw me. Orientation doesn't start for another few hours. It's really early. They told students to arrive at ten a.m."

"I've never been very good at playing by the rules." Atem said with a dark, playful grin.

That was interesting. "So-you're a morning person, getting a jump on the day?" Heba asked, awkwardly.

"Hardly. I haven't gone to bed yet." Atem had a fantastic grin, and Heba already noticed that he knew how to use it. But Heba didn't mind and patiently let the man continue. "Anyway, my mother couldn't me here herself. She's away on...business...I guess you could say. So, I caught the red-eyed train in and thought I'd walk up here first. Get the lay of the land. Rescue any damsels in distress." He glanced at Heba then and winked with a cheeky grin, causing the young one to blush and become annoyed.

But then he remembered how fast Atem had been running when he was chasing him, and realized that he'd been doing that in an attempt to save his life. At that thought, the fear of Atem went away and instead caused Heba to smile. "So...Atem?" Heba asked, clasping his hands behind his back.

"Hmm?" Atem responded, looking at him.

"Why did you come to Vampire Academy? I'm stuck here because my mom left me here, but you could've gone anywhere you wanted. Someplace better than that dreadful school."

The expression on Atem's face confused Heba then. For it seemed as if Atem didn't know how to answer his question. The man pushed branches back as they kept walking through the forest, keeping any of them from scraping Heba's face or snagging his clothes. Heba blushed lightly. Nobody had ever done anything that nice for him before. After a moment, Atem let out a heavy sigh, "It's a long story."

"I'm not in a hurry to get back. Besides, we've got hours to kill before orientation." Heba said.

Atem lowered his head, but kept his crimson eyes fixed on Heba. There was something undeniably sexy about that move, though Heba wasn't sure if Atem meant it that way. Atem's eyes were intense, yet with an underlying softness. "It's also kind of a secret." He said finally.

"I can keep a secret. I mean, you're going to keep this whole incident a secret for me, right? With the whole running away thing and the freaking out-?" Heba asked, giving the man slight chibi eyes.

Atem chuckled, "I'll never tell." After a couple more seconds of consideration, Atem finally confessed, "An ancestor of mine tried to go to school here almost a hundred and fifty years ago. He washed out, I guess you could say." Atem laughed, and it felt like the sunlight had broken through the trees. "So it's up to me to 'restore the family honor' so to speak."

Heba pouted and furrowed his brow, "That's not fair. You shouldn't have to make all your decisions based on what he did or didn't do."

"Not all of my decisions. They let me pick out my own socks." Atem grinned as he held up his booted foot. "I'd show you but these things are really hard to get on."

Heba giggled lightly at that. At least the guy had a sense of humor about his situation. "So how did your great-grand-whatever wash out?" He asked, tilting his head.

Atem shook his head ruefully. "He got into a duel during his first week.

"A duel?" Heba blinked, "Like, somebody insulted his honor or something?" He asked as he tried to remember what he had learned about duels from romance novels and movies. All he knew was that Atem's history was definitely a lot more interesting than his own. "Or was it over a girl?"

"He would've had to move fast, to meet a girl in the first few days of school." Atem chuckled darkly.

Suddenly, Heba felt this strong tugging sensation. As if some invisible force was practically pulling him to lean toward Atem-but then Atem turned his head and glared at the towers of Vampire Academy that were just visible through the pine trees. It was as though the building itself offended him. "Could've been anything." Atem started, in a tone that Heba thought sounded almost like a low growl. "Back then, they'd duel at the drop of a hat. Family legend has it that he survived but not without breaking one of the stained glass windows in the great hall."

"So that's why one of them is clear glass. I never understood why that was." Heba said.

"Now you do. Vampire Academy has been closed to my family ever since." Atem said, still glaring at the building.

"Until now?" Heba asked, leaning slightly wanting to look into the man's eyes.

"Until now." Atem sighed as he turned back to the little one and smiling softly. "And I don't mind. I think that I can learn a lot here. Doesn't mean I have to like everything about it."

"I'm not sure I like anything about it." Heba confess. 'Except you.' A voice in his head added, which had turned awfully bold all of the sudden.

Atem seemed to be able to hear that voice. There was something knowing in the way he gazed back at Heba. With his chiseled features and edgy clothes, he should've looked like that all-American bad boy, but he didn't. During the chase, and in the moment's afterward when he'd thought they'd be fighting for their lives, Heba glimpsed something a little wild lurking beneath the surface. Atem smirked, "I like the gargoyles, the mountains, and the fresh air. That's it so far."

"You like the gargoyles?" Heba asked in disbelief.

"I like it when monsters are smaller than me." Atem shrugged with a smirk curving his lips.

"Hmm. Never thought of it that way." Heba remarked as they reached the edge of the grounds. The sunlight was bright now, and Heba sensed that the school was waking up, preparing to receive its newest arrival of students, to swallow them through the arched stone doorways. "I'm dreading this." Heba groaned.

"It's still not too late to run, Heba." Atem said lightly.

"I don't want to run. I just don't want to be surrounded by all of these strangers. Around people I don't know, I can never talk or act normal or be myself at all-why are you smiling?" Heba asked, eyebrow raised as he had watched a grin grow on Atem's face.

"Seems like you know how to talk to me." The older said with a shrug.

Heba blinked, astonished at himself. Atem was right. How was that even possible? "With you-I guess-I think you scared me so badly that I got all the fear over with right away." Heba stammered.

"Hey, if it works I guess it's a good thing right?" Atem asked with a playful smirk again.

"Yeah I guess." Heba already sensed that there was more to it than that. Strangers still terrified him, but Atem wasn't a stranger. He hadn't been since the first moment that Heba realized that Atem had been trying to save his life. He felt as though he'd always known Atem, as if somehow he'd been waiting years for him to arrive. "I should go back before my roommate wakes up and realizes I'm gone." He said as he took a couple steps back from the man.

"Don't let him hassle you." Atem said as he turned to face him.

"He won't. He's pretty understanding." Heba lied.

Atem didn't seem too sure of that, but he nodded and bowed as he took a step back, "See you around then." He said as he turned his back on the young one.

Heba raised one hand in a farewell wave, but Atem was already gone. He had disappeared into the shadows of the forest as fast as if someone had snuffed out a candle flame. Sighing heavily, Heba turned and stepped into the light, preparing to be soon bombarded.