Chapter Four: Two Lonely Lovers

Shiki met Kain again on his way back to the Moon Dorms as the Day Class began getting ready for their classes. It wasn't hard to spot Kain since he was usually the only one in the Night Class that was approaching 6'5" and that his annoying cousin attracted all the attention of the Day Class girls.

As Shiki approached them, he heard Kain scowling at Aidou, "Shut up you idiot! I don't want Kaname-sama to suspend me again just because I have to take care of you!"

Ruka, who was walking alongside Kain rolled her eyes, "Some of us still need to grow up around here."

"Are you referring to yourself, Ruka?" Aidou shot back at her.

"Hanabusa," Kain warned, "watch yourself if you want to sleep peacefully tonight."

As soon as Kain noticed Shiki, Ruka took off to walk next to Kaname and Aidou went back to flirting with the human girls.

"So?" Kain began the conversation, "Did you and Rima get a chance to talk?"

"Yeah, she found me in the garden tonight."

Kain chuckled, "Ha, I didn't buy it when she said she needed to go to the bathroom and never came back."

Shiki looked among the Night Class students, "Is she still gone?"

"Yeah."

"But Ichijou is still here."

"She probably went up ahead with Ruka."

Silence.

Kain cleared his throat, "So, did you discuss the…um, situation?"

Shiki scratched the back of his head, "Yeah…"

Kain looked at him and sighed, "I'll assume it didn't go as planned tonight?"

Shiki slouched in his seat. "Yeah. Rima doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I mean, she knows I like her now, but she doesn't want to have something between the two of us since she's already dating Ichijou."

Kain looked ahead at Ruka, "Too bad you didn't get there first."

"Yeah…" And the memories from the conversation Ichijou had last night with him flooded in his mind. Was it possible that Ichijou did this on purpose? Was his friend really cruel enough to use his only weakness against him? And what if Ichijou and Rima stay together…forever?Shiki gagged. That's probably when he starts thinking about moving out of the country.

Shiki and Kain both stayed silent in their own thoughts. Shiki rubbed his face in his hands as if stressed or tired. "I just didn't know that I actually cared about Rima, you know, that way before. And by the time I do actually feel something for her, it's too late."

Kain smiled sadly at Shiki, "What can I say? That's how people usually find out they're in love. They're fine until they see their friends with someone else." There was a slight pause and then Kain asked, "How long have you two known each other?"

Shiki chuckled, "Human or vampire years?"

"Vampire."

"Then I would say around eleven years. I first met Rima when our mothers hired the same tutor for our lessons and we somehow ended up sharing the lesson time." Shiki smiled at the memory.

"Yeah…that's what happened with me and Hanabusa, except we didn't fall in love." Kain added in a sarcastic tone.

Shiki laughed, "I can barely imagine you and Aidou sharing the same room together. How do you manage it?"

"Hundreds of years of practice, and threats to burn up his stuffed animals if he doesn't leave me alone."

Shiki laughed again; he was beginning to find an amusing friend in Kain, who he always believed to be too close to Kaname to even bother with the likes of him. "So…what about you and Ruka? When did the two of you meet?"

Kain scratched the back of his head and tried to think. "Er…I'm not sure. I think I've known Ruka all my life. We were practically born and raised together."

"When did you first…um, start liking her?"

"When I first met her." Kain didn't hesitate to answer this question. "My mother was giving me a timeout because idiot-Hanabusa fell out of a tree…"

Shiki interrupted Kain, "That doesn't make any sense. Why did you get a timeout for something that Aidou did?"

Kain rolled his eyes, "Who knows? My life has been this way since I was born. Basically, if Hanabusa gets into trouble, it would be my fault because I let him do it."

Shiki felt bad for Kain for not getting the girl of his dreams and having to deal with an idiot for a cousin. "Okay, so how did you meet Ruka?"

Kain stood by himself at the corner of the dark room. He was so mad that he almost had to keep himself from setting the entire house on fire. "It's not fair," he muttered to himself under his breath, "I am always blamed for Hanabusa's stupidity. Now he's perfectly fine, playing with the Souen family and I'm stuck here." He could feel his eyes begin to fill with tears and he had to bite down on his lips to keep himself from crying.

Suddenly, he sensed another presence approaching the room, a new scent, one he didn't recognize before…

"What are you doing here?" A small girl with light blonde hair entered the room shyly. "Everyone else is playing outside already."

"Mama is putting me on timeout, so I can't go outside and play." Kain looked down, ashamed.

The girl put a finger to her lips, "Well, we can play something in here. I'll go get us some cake and we can have a tea party!"

The girl left before Kain could utter a syllable of complaint or thanks and returned with a platter full of desserts and a china tea set. There was also a stuffed animal under each of her arms. Kain quickly went over to help her relieve of her load.

"So," the girl began, "This is Mr. Raspberry and this is Sprinkles. My name is Souen Ruka, what's yours?"

"Kain Akatsuki."

"Well Akatsuki, here is a piece of cake and a cup of tea. Enjoy." Kain ate the small piece of cake whole and drained his cup.

"That's not tea; it's just hot water!"

Ruka shot him a glare. "What are you talking about Akatsuki? Of course it's tea! The liquid came from a teapot, right?"

Kain, afraid of losing his new friend, went along with the blatant lie which brought a smile to Ruka's lips.

"So Akatsuki, would you like some more tea? Or would you like another piece of cake?"

Shiki had an incredulous look on his face, "So you like her because she gave you cake and hot water?"

Kain gave Shiki a glare and then softened his eyes, "No. I liked her because she was willing to take care of me and play with me when no one else would. Of course, that all changed when we met Kaname-sama."

"I'm sorry."

Kain pulled the heavy door to the Moon Dorm open and motioned for Shiki to go on ahead. "Yeah, I don't know how long I've yearned for Ruka to look at me the same way she looks at Kaname-sama. And I know what you're basically going through. I mean, I want Ruka to be happy too, but I sometimes wonder why she can't just be happy with me. Kaname-sama doesn't even bother to treat her right, and if…if she were somehow able to like me, I swear, I'd treat her ten times better than how Kaname-sama has been treating her." There was such deep passion in his voice that Shiki felt like his problem was incomparable to Kain's.

"Yeah…" Shiki forced a small laugh, "Until then, both of us are just stuck here."

There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them, and then Shiki asked the question that was hovering over both of the guys' minds, "So…do you think that someday they'll be able to, I don't know, come around?"

"With Rima, probably."

"Why not Ruka?"

"Because Rima likes you and you are able to reciprocate that feeling. Sooner or later, she's going to realized that she's not as happy when she's with Ichijou as when she is with you. With Ruka…well, the only way she's going to like me is if Kaname-sama command her to like me."

"I don't think—."

"Shiki," Kain cut off his contradition, "You honestly don't know Ruka. She has been in love with Kaname-sama since she first laid eyes upon him. And do you know what it feels like when she complains to me about him? To her, I am her best friend. And there's no way I'm going to risk that friendship so that there might be that sliver of possibility that she might like me more than Kaname."

Shiki didn't answer. This was way too touchy of a subject for him to introduce his opinions.

But Kain continued, "When Kaname-sama is around, I don't think she even remembers who I am." His fists tightened, "But like her, I am not even looked twice by the person who I adore."

Shiki didn't know what to say. Compare to the complications between Kain and Ruka, Rima and his problem seemed to be child play. "Why don't you just give up on Ruka?"

Kain raised an eyebrow at Shiki, "It seems so much easier to say it than to actually do it. Tell me Shiki, why don't you just 'give up' on Rima? Can you actually do that?"

"No."

"Why?"

Shiki hesitated, "Because Rima's Rima. And as long as she's living in this world, I can't control myself; I want to protect her and to love her."

"Exactly."

They were both silent now, with too much on their minds to concentrate on the last lecture of the day [night]. Shiki now felt bad about complaining his problems to Kain when what he had to go through every day was probably one-tenth of the pain that Kain had to go through. He always thought Kain to be a strong, brotherly figure, but now understanding the other lonely, and self-denying side of him, he felt like both of them had developed a new form of respect for each other.

Shiki silently followed Kain up the stairs until they reached the hallway divide between the boys' rooms and girls' rooms.

Shiki looked at Kain questioningly, to which Kain answered, "I'm going to go check up on Ruka. You can head back to the boys' side if you want."

Shiki smiled genuinely, "It's okay. I'll come with you."

The two followed the crowd of girls to their side of the dorm and Kain reached out to knock on Rima and Ruka's door.

The door flew open before Kain's knuckles came for the second knock and a disheveled Ruka looked out from the room.

Kain's face frowned in concern immediately, "Ruka," he grabbed her around the waist and ushered her inside to talk while Shiki followed, "What's wrong? Did Kaname-sama do something to you?"

Ruka shook her head, "No…Rima…I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her all night and I've tried calling her phone. I've even looked for her out in the courtyard and throughout the entire dorm. Something's wrong. Something happened to her when she went out to talk to…" She spotted Shiki in the door way and gave him a dirty look. "You! You said something to her, didn't you?"

Shiki was frozen in place, trying to process the panic of this situation all at once.

Ruka shoved Kain aside and strolled toward Shiki, "What did you tell her?"

Shiki was still too shocked to answer.

"You know, if something bad happens to her, it would be all your fault!" Ruka's eyes were deadly now, "Do you know how much she cares for you?"

Shiki dropped his gaze and stared down at Ruka's blue slippers. "I didn't know until yesterday night."

"Well, if you really cared for her, you should tell us what you said to her tonight," Ruka's words were sharp and her eyes were bright. Kain rubbed her left arm to calm her down.

"I told her that I liked her, that I had feelings for her."

"And then?"

"Then I left her in the garden."

"You left her in the garden by herself?" Ruka's voice rose a couple of octaves, "What kind of gentleman are you?"

"I wasn't thinking right back then, okay?" Shiki met her gaze with his eyes, "I didn't think there would be any issues with safety in Cross Academy."

Seeing Shiki's frustrated look, Ruka softened her voice, "There's usually not a problem, unless you're in the garden."

"What do you mean?"

"If you look at the border of the cement wall that surrounds the garden, there's a tiny strip along the western wall that allows people from the outside to sneak in." Ruka suddenly looked embarrassed as she continued, "Akatsuki and I used to use that escape to go out into the world without permission."

"So you're saying Rima could have been abducted?"

"Quite possibly."

"Shit," Shiki turned around and already started sprinting out before Kain caught his arm.

"Ruka and I will come with you. There might be trouble."

Muwahaha! And I'm stopping right here! Wanna see what happened to Rima-chan? Wanna see Shiki be the chivalric hero?

Review!