Chapter 3

Inside a room, a man with brown hair can be seen sitting behind a mahogany desk busily writing and finishing the huge stack of paperwork that filled the table. With a sigh the man put down his pen and leaned back in his chair. Massaging his forehead, he looked at the time and decided it was time for a break. It was late. And he still hadn't finished his paperwork.

Closing his eyes, he relaxed for a moment before a knock echoed across the room, disturbing his moment of peace. Resisting the urge to grumble, he instead opted to glare at the door as the knock came again, this time louder than the last. 'Great. More paperwork.'

"Come in"

In came a blonde man with an easygoing smile on his face instead of a maid carrying more piles of paperwork as he had expected. He almost breathe a sigh of relief when he saw who had been the one to interrupt him. Almost.

"Kaname" greeted the blonde man.

Giving a nod to acknowledge the man before him. Kaname looked at the blonde and inquired, "What is it?"

"You've been cooped up in this room lately. I just figured you needed a break." The man answered in a suspiciously happy manner.

"Ichijo" Kaname said in a carefully neutral voice, already knowing that nothing good will come out of this conversation.

The blonde haired man, Ichijo, only smiled and laughed sheepishly at him, "Well, we all thought you needed a break and decided that a vacation away from work is the best way for you to relax!"

Kaname looked at the man with a raised brow and opened his mouth to say, "No"

Ichijo visibly wilted at the refusal but tried again, determined to accomplish his mission.

"But Kaname, you've been staying in this room for the past weeks now and we barely even see you! The Night Class is concerned about you."

A sigh escaped the brunette as he mulled in the blonde man's words, a headache already forming in his head.

"I'll think about it." Kaname decided after a few moment.

The blonde could only nod in agreement, knowing not to force the pure blood on the subject lest he risk being on the receiving end of the pure blood's ire. Don't get him wrong, he may be the man's best friend but he knows not to overstep his bounds. He is still a rank higher than him after all. And aside from that, he knows the real reason for the pure blood's busyness lately.

Changing the subject, Ichijo was about to ask about the news from the council when a knock on the door interrupted him. Ichijo looked at Kaname silently asking him if he shall open the door in which the brunette answered with a nod of his head.

Walking towards the door of the study, Ichijo opened the door to let the person inside the room. This time instead of any of the Night Class students it was a maid who is carrying a trolley filled with papers. Ichijo stared at it then looked back at his best friend, sending him a look of pity. 'that's an awful lot of paperwork, no wonder Kaname looked stressed than usual.' Ichijo thought while he silently prayed for his best friend's sanity.

The maid stopped in front of the desk Kaname was sitting. Giving a curtsy, the maid then greeted the man in front of her politely, "Good Evening Kaname-sama."

When the said man acknowledged her greeting, the maid proceeded to tell the pure blood about a summarized report of all the things Kaname wanted her to take tabs on. After that was done, the maid then handed to him an envelope that she separated from the rest of the papers clearly indicating that it was to be prioritized, "The council sends this to you Kaname-sama. They requested that you finish them quickly as you can as they are in need of them. I believe they said it's about your sister's... situation." the maid finished albeit with a bit of hesitance.

The room then went silent and the temperature seemed to have lowered a few degrees. This caused the two people inside the room to shiver. The pure blood which still have said nothing, only dismissed the maid with a gesture. With a curtsy, the maid hurriedly went out of the room.

When the door of the study closed and the maid gone. Kaname let himself relax and all the tension that filled the room earlier, vanished.

He then closed his eyes and leaned on the table with hands in front of his face thinking deeply.

Ichijo who kept silent during the whole ordeal decide to say, "So... the council is trying to pressure you into changing your mind about breaking off your engagement with Yuki?"

Kaname sighed and said, "Yes. They've became an annoyance as of late."

"It's not like you can do anything about it Kaname. The one who decided to break the engagement was Yuki after all." Ichijo said the last part thoughtfully.

Realizing what he said, he turned to look at Kaname hesitantly and almost flinched at the glare he received.

"I have honored what Yuki wanted and if she desires to be with that vampire then it is her choice." Kaname said with a bite in his tone.

"Yes, I know that, but shouldn't you have a say in this? After all you received the brunt of her actions and well... you did love her." Ichijo said with a frown.

The brunette only turned to gaze at the window with a faraway look in his eyes. "Even if I cannot stay by her side, I will do everything I can to protect her even if it is in the shadows. Just as I have always done."

The blonde man can only stare at his best friend in sadness which he quickly concealed. He knows that it only pains the man in front of him to talk about what happened with Yuki.

The two fell into silence after that. Which the pure blood decided to break to ask the other to play chess with him. Ichijo agreed with that and they both matched wits. They played for an hour until it ended with Kaname winning.

Ichijo chuckled at the result, "Ah, I'm beat. There's just no winning against you."

Kaname said nothing at that, seeing that he was lost in his thoughts. "I think I'll take you up on your offer of vacation." The pure blood suddenly said.

Ichijo was taken aback at what the pure blood said, he hadn't even expected the man to really agree with it even though he had said earlier that he would think about it. "That's great! When will you want to leave then?"

"After this week perhaps. Since the Night Class' vacation will also be due this week."

Ichijo nodded at that. Already planning on the things they will be needing before he stopped when he remembered something. "Kaname, do you have any preferred place you want to visit?" He asked.

Kaname thought for places he would like before he decided with, "Choose any place you want as long as it's not anywhere near here or the council's favored vacation spots. Preferably out of the country if you would. I've had enough of them in this past few weeks."

Ichijo laughed at that. "Well, I think I could work with that." He then stood up and gave a bow at the pure blood. "I will be taking my leave then." And left the room.

With Kaname left in his study alone, he turned to the stack of papers in his desk again to finish them and sighed deeply, already tired from looking at all the paperwork in his desk. He really needed to take a vacation away from his work.

The pure blood proceeded to worked on them until the sun rose and it's rays peeked in the dark and heavy curtains of the room signaling the beginning of a new day.

—O—O—O—O—O—O

Ichijo hummed as he typed away in his laptop, looking for places that would be nice to visit and at the same time will also meet the pure blood's qualifications. Somewhere faraway and not the usual place that the people from the council visits. He sighed, easier said than done. There's exactly not a lot of place that the council does not visit. But still, he was determined to accomplish this task if it means that his best friend would at least get to relax for awhile and a vacation might be the answer to that.

"What are you doing?" Came a monotonous and a bored voice.

Ichijo was startled by the sudden question. He looked up to see a boy who always had a bored and unemotional face. He sighed in relief. "Shiki! You shouldn't sneak up on me like that."

Shiki only looked at Ichijo. "It was not my intention to startle you, Senpai. But I've been standing in front of you for awhile now."

Ichijo could only laugh sheepishly at that, "Is that so? Gomen, gomen."

Shiki hummed, then lightly shrugged and went to his bed. Ichijo went back to his task at hand and paused when he found an article. He got curious and decided to read it. When he was finished, he smiled and leaned back in his chair satisfied. Finally.

—O—O—O—O—O—O

Somewhere in England, in a heavy forested area far from human civilization, a cave can be found. There lies a girl encased inside a large crystal of ice, sleeping for hundreds of years. But upon a closer inspection, the ice that envelops her seems to have slowly melted throughout the years. Yet the girl still seems to be in a deep sleep with no signs of waking up. Untouched by time and unaware of the horrors that awaits her...

A/N:

Yay! Kaname has appeared! So how was it? Any reviews, comments? Was Kaname and Ichijo alright? Or were they OOC? I hope not, but I would be glad if you point them out for me.

Anyways, this story have or will have grammatical errors, typos and the likes so I just thought I should warn you guys.

I also wanna thank those people who faved/followed this story of mine:) It makes me happy that someone noticed this. Again thank you so much. Ciao~