A/N: Finally another update! And here comes the end of an arc, I hope you all enjoy it!
AnimeFreak1145: Here's the new update! I hope your heart is good and fine for this new update though...
The Translator001: I'm sorry, I just got on a role that time. So you're resining yourself to the never ending horror? That's fine I think everyone has at this point.I don't think there's a proper happy ending to this story...Maybe. You really over estimate on what I can pull off, not everyone I throw into this story is actually important you know. XD
...
"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing." Tsuna admitted as she watched two boys hang up a black banner that said 'Happy Halloween!' on it in bright orange block letters.
"Just tell us if it's crooked." The blonde said.
"And if it is we'll move it." A brown haired boy finished.
She nodded and they began maneuvering the bit of cloth above the door. "L-lower, wait too low! Up a little more...more, more, more...Right!"
"Ha, thanks, Tsuna-san!" The brown haired boy said as he stuck a pin into the cloth in order to keep it in place.
"No problem."
She turned on her heel and all of the excitement she just had slipped away into fatigue. She had been helping the decorators for the last three hours and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into her bed and fall asleep. Why couldn't be this be one of those times where reiji just punished her and got it over with? This entire thing was just torture! Her 'boss' was just rude and crazy, she was tired, and she couldn't even remember the last time she had something to eat.
Huffing she made her way back to the boss. "Mrs. Callahan I helped Kaito and Rue set up the banner."
The woman looked up from her cellphone. "Good, now I need you to go to the library and retrieve a box for me. That idiot Pollyanna left it when I asked her to go grab a notebook earlier this evening."
"Is that all?"
"For the night or your trip?"
Tsuna cringed at the amused tone and instead of answering she silently walked away, her feet screaming in protest as she went. Exiting the crowded and messy hall she was suddenly hit by how late it had gotten. The schools normal thrums of chatter and scoldings had dimmed down to just the clubs casually meeting together before going home. It was a lonely atmosphere that she wasn't exactly comfortable in. It reminded her of the mansion with its mysterious noises that produced shivers down her spine and creepy lighting during after hours.
Screwing up her lips she opened up the library just to find a ton of boxes littered all over the room. She raised an eyebrow and picked her way through them, not even sure which one she should pick up. There was literally over sixty of the boxes just strewn around like loose pebbles on a sandy shore. "Which one did she even want me to bring up here?"
"Tsuna, is that you?" Behind a corner peeked Ishiyo, an eyebrow raised. "Looks like I was right. What are you doing here?"
"I bailed on school and I had to help the decorators."
Ishiyo sighed and removed herself fully from the corner, revealing that she had a box in her hand. "Good, I was tired of rearranging these god forsaken boxes every time I had to go through here."
"..." She kicked a box next to her. "I was told to take only one."
"Hm." She dropped the box unceremoniously to the floor, the box falling with a heavy thump that echoed through the nearly empty room. "I hate these people."
Tsuna could only give a sheepish smile as Ishiyo walked away, muttering to herself about the evils of social events. Kneeling down she scooped the box up from the bottom and with some effort she heaved it up, her arms wobbling as she shifted forward, nearly falling. However the massive box's lid opened and out dropped a clear baggy filled with a bright red liquid.
"Huh?" She nudged the lid open and stared down at the duplicates of what had just fallen to the floor. "Is this...?"
...
Peter stared down at his fingernails instead of at the smirking boy in front of him. He wasn't afraid of the Japanese speaking guy in front of him, years dealing with bad tempered horses had given him the patience of Job. "I already told you, Tsuna and I were friends in America. Because of that I think I'm waaay more qualified to tell her who is good for her to be around than some girly Japanese guy that she just happens to live with."
He looked up from his nails. "Basically I'm telling you to leave Tsuna alone."
Grey eyes narrowed slightly before he repeated what was said in Japanese. The fiery red head next to him glared and shouted something, taking a step closer to him. The grey eyed boy gave a curt nod. "I agree with Ayato-san, if we just got rid of you then she wouldn't have anyone else to look at. However then she would complain that we took something away from her and she would become noisy..."
Peter's eyebrows furrowed. "Why're you talking about Tsuna like she's some...thing. She's a person not a old bag that your mom gave you."
The grey eyed boy tilted his head. "Mother would never associate with the likes of that girl, would she Teddy? She only likes good things and you were one of them, weren't you?"
The red headed boy pushed the grey eyed one to the the side and came only inches in front of his face. In slow and deliberate Japanese he said something, his green eyes narrowed and every muscle in his body stiff. He wasn't quite sure what this guy was saying but he quickly deduced to be some kind of threat.
Getting off the wall, nearly bumping noses with the red head, Peter gave a shrug. "Look I don't even know what you're saying, but don't either of you think that Tsuna is just some toy, because if I ever hear that you are hurting her..." He gave a sharp laugh. "Let's just say that I'll make your lives miserable."
The deep dongs of the bell tolled over them making Peter put his hands in his pockets and walk down the sidewalk, however the grey eyed one grabbed his arm. The boy;s cold body was close to his own and for the first time he saw how strong this boy way. His nails digging into his jacket and almost drawing blood. "You should be more careful for now on. It would be terrible if we had to hurt her because you wouldn't leave her alone."
"...Right..."
...
"It's all done!"
Tsuna watched as the decorators congratulated each other on another job well done. She had to admit the room looked pretty cool with the blown up orange and black balloons, fake spiders and cobwebs hanging in the corner, thorny black roses, and that god forsaken banner. All in all it looked like something that would be set up back home.
Shifting the box in her arms she slowly went over to Callahan. "Um...I brought a box like you asked."
The woman grinned and pointed to a table. "Just set it right there, I'll get to it before the party."
Tsuna's eyes narrowed when she saw exactly how far away the table was, but did as she was told anyway. There was no point in making the woman upset, if she was then there was no way for Tsuna to ask her question. The fact that there was a blood packet in the box had actually terrified her when she found it. However this had all been reinforced with even more fear when she discovered that all the boxes were filled with blood packs. Each box was labled with a blood type and had specific instructions in handling and storing them.
After reading nearly a hundred books on vampires and vampire behavior, Tsuna couldn't even bring herself to find it all that strange. In fact it sounded pretty interesting that a bunch of vampires pretended to be decorators but were actually running blood over the different prefecture borders. Maybe its laced with drugs?
However her thought bubble was popped when Pollyanna draped an arms around her, nearly causing Tsuna to drop the box. "Wow, that was some hard work, you wanna go out to get something to eat after this?"
Finally getting to the table Tsuna dropped the box. "No, I need to get home and sleep."
"Oh, alright then." She tilted her head to the side. "You look like you could use some sleep. Anyway, I'll be here working on the lights and sound system with a couple of guys during the party later so if you wanna hang out then..."
"Yeah, I'll see you."
Pollyanna grinned. "Cool! See you around then."
Tsuna grunted and slowly began to amble straight back to the front of the school. SHe didn't care if there wasn't a vampire to drag her back home, she was planning on sleeping even if it meant going to the nurse's room and lying in the hard metal cots! Finally getting through the many twisted hallways she made it to the front of the school just to see Ayato sitting in the chair, his eyes shut as if asleep.
It was actually strange, Tsuna had never seen Ayato sleep and if she didn't know better he'd look like a normal boy. Her nose wrinkled at the thought and she immediately banished it from her mind. It was moments like these that would make her think that maybe they could all get along, but it was always dashed to pieces when they bit her and tried to hurt her.
Walking over to him she flicked his nose. "Come on, let's go."
The vampire grunted and opened up one eye to look at her. "You finally done?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm so tired I'd use you as a pillow and just fall asleep right here."
The vampire's other eye opened and a smirk curled on his lips. Without warning he grabbed her and brought her to his chest. Tsuna didn't say a word and just let her body weight rest on him, not even bothering to feign surprise at being in his iron maiden. Yawning she snuggled her head deeper into his cold chest, her eyes beginning to shut on their own. However she was still aware of the things around her.
Ayato's arms around her, his cold breath over her ear, and the non-existent beating of his heart. Slowly her breathing began to even out as she began diving headfirst into sleep, but the quiet murmur of her name dragged her out of it. However she couldn't bring herself to answer him, her entire body was just too tired to re-awaken properly. However in the close confines of warmth and cold she felt a flutter on her forehead, it was soft and hesitant almost as if it didn't even want to be there. The touch came from a foreign person but she had felt something like it before, and with that thought a smirk tugged on her lips as she finally succumbed to sleep.
...
Tsuna hissed and moaned with Laito behind her. Her fingers curled against the curtains and she gasped as she tried to block out more of the pain. Everyone told her this was supposed to make her feel good and she ought to be excited but..."Gah, Laito stop!"
The vampire laughed and gripped her hips a little tighter. "I'm almost there, Slut-chan."
The girl shut her eyes and sucked in another breath as Laito laced up another bit of the dress. In all senses Tsuna should probably be grateful for such a lovely dress and the fact that Laito was kind enough to lace it up for her, but the thing had a corset on it, and it felt as if it would never lace up!
"Are you done?!"
"Just one more..." Another sharp tug and then all movement stopped. "There. Fufuf, you look lovely, Slut-chan. I might have to take that dress of and do you right here and now."
Tsuna scoffed and slowly twisted around to look at the vampire. He was wearing nicer clothes, if that was even possible, than he normally did. The casual suit jacket over the spiffy white button up shirt and the dark slacks looked good on him, even with that ridiculous fedora he insisted on wearing all the time. However Tsuna had to admit, aside from the hat, that Laito was a good dresser. It was him who found her a dress to wear and said that it held a bit of nostalgia for him. She was a bit afraid to ask what that nostalgia was, but she really did like the dress. It was a long black dress that had bits of white lace along that sleeves, high collar, and hem. The dress was light and had to be made of silk or some other nice feeling material. Tsuna silently wondered if she were to sell it would it get her a plane ticket out of Japan.
Her thoughts stopped when Laito began messing with her hair. "Hey, stop it! I'm leaving my hair down, just stop!"
The vampire didn't even flinch when she scratched his fingers, but backed away anyway with a roll of his eyes. "You're not even going to try are you?"
"I already let you stuff me in this death trap," She gestured to the dress. "don't even think I'll let you anywhere near my hair."
"Fine," He grabbed her arm. "but I get to show off how good I made you look."
Tsuna grunted but said nothing as he dragged her out of the room and downstairs. Her steps were wobbly thanks to the heels he had insisted on putting on her, he actually buckled them up and everything, but since they were thin and tall it was almost impossible for her to walk. Managing to get down the stairs, at the risk of falling, she was presented before a tea sipping Reiji. "Look what I've done with Slut-chan."
Reiji looked her over for several seconds making Tsuna blush. "She's wearing your mother's dress..."
"That she is."
"Um," Both vampires looked at her. "wouldn't your mother get upset I'm wearing her dress?"
Laito gave a sharp laugh and leaned closer to her, a smirk curling onto his lips. "No, mother happens to be dead."
Great so now she was wearing a dead woman's dress. "R-right...I'm sorry about-"
"If she's finally ready Laito then you may follow me to receive your punishment." Reiji interrupted as he set the tea set down on the coffee table. "Come along."
Laito huffed but let Tsuna go, following behind his brother with slow steps. This left Tsuna lone in the living room, giving her a chance to sit down and unbuckle her heels. Humming she stood up again and flexed her toes before walking in the direction of the garden. She wanted to grab a few white roses and fix them into her hair as an accessory. But as she opened up the garden door her thoughts traveled back to what Laito said about his mother. What would be so funny about his own mother dying? With all the vampires she met, a grand total of confirmed seven, she had to guess that most of them were cruel. But a mother couldn't be cruel to her own child...right?
She knelt down before a rose bush and carefully began to remove a white blossom from the stem. As she worked to get the blossom off her fingers would get pricked by the thin needles drawing blood. Seeing the first drop she hissed and tried to work faster before she attracted the attention of the vampires, however it wasn't long before a long shadow covered her and the flowers.
Letting go of the flowers she stands up and turns around just to see Subaru. "Do you want my blood? Take as much as you want, if I'm lucky I'll be too sick to go to this party."
The vampire picked up her hand and stared at the blood. "...Why don't you want to be with the other humans?"
Tsuna's eyebrows furrowed. "Huh?"
"You never seem to want to be with other humans." Subaru said. "You're only a meal in this place...You shouldn't want to embrace being seen as nothing, just filth that can be cleaned up with a well aimed bite."
"...It's not that I want to be here." She said. "It's just..."
Just what? How could she even break it down properly? That she liked to be bitten now? That she was constantly getting slapped in the face with how normal they could be, but then smacked again when they were monsters to her? It was disgusting! How could she grow attached to these creatures?
"Just what?"
Tsuna sighed and shrugged. "I just don't like being around people too much. All I did was sign up for a club to get away from you all. I'm not that thrilled with human, vampire, or anything interaction."
Subaru's red eyes narrowed but he said nothing. Instead he went over to another bush close by and easily picked one of the white roses. Dropping it in her hands he said. "Be careful tonight."
"Why?" She asked. "Do vampires suddenly get more powerful on Halloween?"
"..."
She frowned. "W-wait, you do?"
Instead of answering Subaru began walking back into the house. Tsuna called after him, but the albino didn't answer, leaving the poor girl even more confused than she was a moment ago.
...
Back home Tsuna would have done everything possible to skip out on a school function. It wasn't that she thought she was cooler and more enlightened than all the poser people going out on the dance floor. It was more because she simply found the things boring and having bland food. Thus she would stay in her house until Peter dragged her out so that way he could sketch the people there.
Seeing Peter in a corner with his sketch book brought back this memory as well as a pain in her chest. Huffing she shuffled over to a chair on the wall, far away from Peter, and hunkered down in it. The only thing she could appreciate about this party was the fact that she helped design it, the lights and decorations looked even better in the dark and a hint of pride welled up where the pain was. It was a strange concoction that made her snort, honestly human emotions were such a pain.
For awhile she listened to the fast paced pop music that would occasionally change to an all instrumental dance track. The people on the dance floor would move and dance with each other, somewhat weary of the chaperons that stalked the sidelines. All of this seemed like a normal setting, even with the vampires thrown into the mix. The Sakamaki brothers interacted with the people they knew and looked like normal high school students. Irritated at times but students none the less.
"Hey, are you enjoying yourself?"
Tsuna looked up just to see Peter. He had a backpack in one hand and a bright red rose in the other. "...What are you doing?"
"I think I'm trying to give you a rose." Peter said. "It's either that or I'm doing a terrible impression of a statue."
"But I'm-"
"My best friend." He said. "I've known you for a long time. I noticed that when ou lie your body slumps over slightly. So yeah, you're not a whore just someone who clearly doesn't want to be around me."
Tsuna could only stare at the smirking boy with wide eyes. If he knew that she didn't want to be around him, went as far as to call out her bluff, why wouldn't he just leave her alone? Didn't he realize that she was trying to protect him from the vampires' wrath? Standing up she snatched the flower away and threw it as far as she could. "Look! I don't want to be around you Peter, I'm avoiding you for a reason! Why can't you get that through your head?"
"And what reason is that?"
"H-huh?"
"Tell me." Peter said. "Why do you want me gone so badly?"
"..."
She didn't even know what to say. Peter's green eyes held determination as if he knew he was fighting an impossible battle. And the battle was virtually impossible! There was no way Peter could just waltz into her life and the brothers be okay with it. Equally there was no way for her to tell Peter that she was living with a bunch of vampires as some kind of sacrifice and him to believe her.
"So that's it then? "No? Then why won't you tell me? Unless..." His eyes narrowed. "I get it now. Honestly I can be really stupid, ya know?"
"Peter?"
The boy grabbed her and without any warning kissed her. It wasn't especially passionate and had little feeling behind it. However it was certainly there and the longer it went on the more that Tsuna was sure she and Peter could only be friends. Just when she thought that she wouldn't be able to breathe she was yanked backwards by a cold hand.
"You really are a whore, eh, Chichinashi?"
Tsuna opened her mouth to argue but stopped when Peter raised a hand. "It's alright, Tsuna. I'm glad I could get at least one guy's him to meet me outside...We need to talk."
She glanced at Ayato and repeated what Peter told her. The vampire smirked and dug his hands into his pockets following behind the human. Tsuna wasn't even sure how the two of them would talk, Ayato knew nearly zero English. Unless...Her eyes widened when a thought crossed her mind. She began running after them, but stumbled, a sharp pain making its way up her leg.
Shrieking she stopped where she was and knelt down, holding her ankle. "I'll never listen to Laito again!"
Carefully unbuckling the shoes she took them off. She then proceeded to stand up properly and limp over to the chairs again, the terrible shoes in hand. Easing into the uncomfortable plastic she brought her ankle up and inspected it, her lips twisting into a grimace when she saw that a bruise was forming.
Looking up from her excuse to go home she looked around in the crowd for a vampire, but instead noticed Pollyanna walking around in the crowd. Cupping her hands she called out to the young woman. "Hey, Pollyanna!"
The woman waved and made her way over with a drink in hand. "Hey, told you I'd see you tonight."
She eyed the woman wearily. Even though she wasn't sure about the whole thing with the blood bags, she didn't want to drag herself through a, willing, relationship with another vampire. That entire thing with Ichigo was finally stopping to just the occasional nightmare and constant guilt. "Um...I think i hurt myself, do you mind helping me to the nurse's office?"
Pollyanna stared at her for several moments before nodding. "Sure, let me help you up."
She grabbed her arm and hauled her up. Tsuna hissed and quickly brought her leg up, not letting it hit the floor and instead leaning nearly all her weight on Pollyanna. The two went out of the main door and down the hall. However when they passed by the nurse's office Tsuna's heart began to beat faster. "Hey we just-"
"Yeah about that..." The young woman gave a lop sided smile. "So, I have my boss here and I was ordered to take you to her."
"So you guys really do sell blood!" She shrieked. "I knew I should have just stopped my plan or do something else-"
The woman kicked a door to the side and dragged Tsuna in, trying to put a hand over her mouth in order to shut her up. Pushing her into the room she released her long enough to shut the door behind her. Tsuna struggled to her feet just for her twisted one to send a shock of pain through her, sinking back onto the ground she held her injury.
"Wearing a vampire's dress really doesn't suit a human..."
Tsuna's eyes widened and she slowly looked up. A tall woman sat on a chair, her hair was a dark blue that was bound behind her in a long braid with fancy crystals keeping back her bangs. Her skin was dark and had marks all over them that were scabbed over and healed, most of them all over her neck. She had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth that was lit and had a river of smoke coming from it. Her pale grey eyes stared her down and a smirk began forming on the woman's lips. "Now, I know I taught your mother that it was rude to stare."
...
Tsuna couldn't believe that she was talking to her grandmother. The two were sitting in chairs across each other with plenty of ginger ale in fancy crystal champagne flutes. Her grandmother didn't like any other drink aside from ginger ale for whatever reason and would often burn tea like one would incense. But back then her grandmother looked old with gray hair and wrinkled skin, yet here she was not looking a day over twenty-five.
"Umm...Grandma, I know you said that you'd explain everything another time..." She set down the cup. "But could you at least tell me why you're so young looking?"
The woman hummed. "Well, simply put a silver blood has the ability to kill a vampire. What do you think happens to that life force?"
"Oh."
Jane set down her mug and leaned forward, grabbing her granddaughter's hands. "What's wrong dear? I haven't seen you in over a year and now you act as if I'm some stranger...Is it my looks? I suppose I could change them with a spell."
"N-no it's not that." She sighed and gripped her grandmother's hands. "I just don't trust you. I mean you know about vampires, which do exist, and then claim that you absorb vampiric energy. On top of that everyone who's mentioned you makes it sound like your're dangerous. And..."
"And what?"
She took a deep breath. "My family gave me up to the vampires."
Jane's eyes narrowed. "I know and they shall be punished accordingly, but please know that I would never hurt you like they have. I wanted all of my grandchildren to come into their own as silver bloods, but your mother wouldn't stand for it. However when I heard that they sent one of you to the Sakamaki family...Let's just say that I no longer speak to my daughter."
"Then you-"
"Yes," She gave a nod, "I'm here to help you. And your first lesson is simple..."
She slipped a black bottle out of her pocket and handed it to her granddaughter. "Inject this in your body and survive."
...
Tsuna gripped the bottle in her hand as she watched Reiji scold Ayato as they sat in the limo. The party had ended, thanks to the chaperon falling asleep, and Pollyanna had brought her back to the limo. The vampires had been mildly surprised by it, but said nothing as she slid into the car with a little help from the woman. When she was sitting properly in the car Pollyanna gave a half hearted salute before walking off.
"Who was that, Chichinashi?"
The girl leaned her head against the vampire in order to look up at him properly. "What were you doing with Peter?"
"Heh, why you want to know?"
The girl frowned but couldn't find a good come back, but in the end it really didn't matter. After the weekend she would go to school and interrogate Peter then, and of course there would be arguing about how dangerous it was to be around the Sakamaki brothers. Her idiot friend wouldn't believe her and think that she's delusional, but that was fine too. With her grandmother by her side and her flood of sudden courage she would do anything to keep Peter safe.
...
A/N: And finished with another arc! Ha, I bet you're all squirming in your seats to figure out about Tsuna's Grandmother and those bloodpackets! Anyway... Can you believe it's almost been a year since I began writing this story? I mean time has just really flown for me and this fandom. But most of all I REALLY want to thank you guys for all of your support, I couldn't have done any of this without you!
So now I have a question for all of my fans: What one-shot omake would you like me to do for the next update? Just throw out your ideas in the reviews or my PM Inbox and I'll try to find the best and most creative one. Thanks again guys!