This might seem a little strange to talk about another one of my fics, but then again it's kind of free advertising, too...hehehe...
VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE for readers of THE INNOCENT ONES: I am still writing it! It's just taking me a really long time, but I'm still writing and I'll still post it! Your reviews were great - just what I was looking for! Please don't give up on me the story is still active!!!!!
That was very important to get out because I threatened to stop writing the fic if I didn't get a minimum amount of reviews. BUT I WON'T HAVE TO DO THAT FOR THIS STORY BECAUSE I'LL GET ENOUGH REVIEWS WITHOUT USING THREATS, RIGHT? RIGHT?!?!
Ruka had a restless sleep for the remainder of the day. She pled with Atkatsuki to convince him to go get some shut eye and, after about the 20th time, she had to raise her voice. He complied, but wished her good dreams and told her to wake him should anything happen at all. She let him believe whatever he wanted, knowing the truth that there was no way she could sleep now, ensuing no more nightmares to awaken him for.
At around four in the afternoon, all day classes had finished and Ruka could stare at the ceiling no longer. She lazily dressed in uniform and slipped on her shoes, catching a glimpse of the current date on that floral wall calender. November 27; a Friday. Finally. Two full, restful days to do as she pleased and forget about those dreadful visions. And being that it was nearly December, perhaps it would snow.
Ruka felt like if she was sneaking out of the Moon dormitory as she tip toed down the hall. Not that she wasn't allowed to exit the building, but she though Kain would pop out of nowhere and tell her to get some sleep - kind of like she did to him. But no one said a word to her as she wandered out the tall wooden front doors.
She strolled to the tree line and disappeared into the foliage. She didn't know what she was doing or where she was going, but her mind was clear and at ease, and that's all that mattered. When she saw an opening, she popped out of the woods. She stood in the courtyard of the Moon dorm, the same that had starred in her present dreams. It was like a back yard to the dorm; a large square of grass with a few cultivated trees, surrounded by wings of the building on all but one side(that was where the forest was, of course). She must have walked in a circle to end up on the other side of the dorm from where she exited; perhaps her mind wasn't as clear as it seemed and she was drawn here by intrigue.
Anyways, Ruka took hold of the situation at hand. She carefully glided to the middle of the courtyard, looking all around the lawn in search of proof, proof that her dream wasn't one at all and that maybe she going crazy. Unluckily, or luckily, depending on how you look at it, she found no blood stains, wet earth, or crimson drops soaking or dripping off anything. She knelt down and felt the grass. Dry as ever grass normally was.
"What are you doing out, blood sucker?" A brooding voice sounded from behind her. Ruka stayed down, but turned around on the balls of her feet to see whom it was. - Kiryu?
"I am allowed outside, Nazi. Don't talk to me."
"The Night Class isn't permitted out until classes, Souen." His silver hair hung and framed his pale face, not a breeze to sway it. "Get your spoiled ass inside."
"Excuse me?!" Ruka stood and stomped over to him at the tree line and got very in-his-face. "I am still on the Moon dormitory's property, Kiryu, it's you who needs to move your ass." She pointed to the trees from where he most likely just appeared. "So? Leave!"
Zero grabbed her outstretched wrist tightly. "Do not think you can tell me where to go and what to do, vampire freak. Believe me, I'm not here for the entertainment of you and your precious President."
Ruka didn't know quite how to react. She was always the first to defend Kaname-sama's honour, but the dreams...the made her think twice - what was she thinking? Kaname-sempai was a pureblood, he deserves utmost respect! She should not be doubtful because of a few measly dreams...or was that why she had the dreams? Had she been disloyal to Kaname-sempai before? Oh, what was she getting all worked up about? This was Zero Kiryu; Chairman's pain in the neck sinking-to-level-E vampire emo foster kid and secretly the pity party of the Night Class. How could she get this worked up over him?
Ruka lurched her hand out of Zero's grip. Damn, he was stronger than he looked - Ruka rubbed her wrist and gave him a dirty look. "What are you even doing here, Kiryu? Lose your shiny cowboy gun or something? Don't feel like a man without it?"
Zero looked at her strangely, then his eyes got angry. He grabbed the collar of Ruka's uniform. "What the hell did you dirty leeches do with it? It's been gone since my last patrol yesterday and I was here! Where did your nasty little friends hide it?"
Ruka latched onto his arm and dug into his skin with her nails. "I didn't touch your god damned vampire slaughterer, Kiryu. Get the hell away from me or your pretty little face will have my name carved all over it."
Zero snarled at her maliciously, but let go of her collar. She detached her fingernails from his flesh as he pulled away, turned and disappeared into the trees. Strange, thought Ruka, he just...walks away?
"What was Kiryu doing here?" Hanabus's familiar voice muttered beside Ruka. She hadn't even noticed him arrive, but was thankful for it - for once. Perhaps he was why Kiryu stepped off - still, she didn't need anyones help with a mutt like Zero, especially Aidou's, which usually just got in the way.
"He lost his toy." Ruka murmured.
"Huh," Aidou scoffed while running a hand through his styled blond hair, a sign that he was bored with the current topic and would now change the subject. He was typical like that. "So what's the news, Souen? Any more dramatic, attention-grabbing nightmares?"
Ruka couldn not believe her ears. She looked at him furious disbelief. "What, you think I'm faking it?"
"I think you're a diva who hasn't been in the spotlight lately."
She scoffed. "That means so much coming from you, Aidou."
"Hey, don't hate me for telling it like it is!" He smirked triumphantly. "L8r." He turned and started walking in the direction of the back door of the dorm(which was on the courtyard side).
"Hey, wait - I'm far from done with you!" She fast walked until at his side. "You're, like, Kaname-sama disciple, aren't you? Has he been acting strange lately?"
"Like you don't follow him like a lost puppy! That means so much coming from you, Ruka."
"Very funny." She growled.
Now they were inside. He quickly slipped away from her, up the stairs and into his room. Ruka chased after him, not even thinking that Kain was asleep.
Well, Aidou had tricked her anyways. Once she ran into the room, her shut and locked the door from the outside. Real mature, Hanabusa. She groaned in her head.
"Ruka?" Kain was very much awake, standing in front of his closet, only half dressed. Ruka blushed and looked away, but Kain really didn't mind - especially because he though she was there because she'd had another dream.
Kain rushed to her side in his shirt-less glory. "Ruka, another? What happened this time?"
"N-No," She stuttered nervously and quite twitterpatedly, trying not to look at his flat abs and defined arms. She couldn't decide if she had walked in at a good time or not. "It was...Hanabusa...well, actually..." She sighed and wandered to his bed. He followed suit and insisted she sit down an tell him about it. She spealed all about Zero and his missing Bloody Rose, how convenient and suspicious the timing of that was, how she hoped she was not betraying Kaname, and, just for the heck of it, how rough Zero had been with her, in slight hopes that Kain would slug him next time he came around on patrol . Kain was a very good listener through out the story and gave his promise to have a few choice words with Kiryu soon.
A knock pounded on the door, attracting both their attention. "Ruka? Ruka, are you in there? Come out and tell me what happened with Kiryu - hey!" It was the soprano voice of Rima, followed by sounds of a scuffle just outside the door. Instantaneously, those two inside flew to the locked door.
"Yes Rima, I'm in here. What's happening?"
"It's - ow! - Aidou, he won't let me in!"
"Hanabusa!" Kain hit the door with his fist. "Stop your foolishness, unlock the door and let her enter!"
"But you two-"
"Now, cousin!"
They could hear Aidou grumbling as the thumping stopped and the door knob clinked and twisted. At the sight of a crack in the doorway, Rima slammed the door open and pushed past Aidou, who(once again) wandered in, too, and shut the door.
"Ruka, what was with Kiryu just now?" She exclaimed.
Ruka sat back down on the edge of Kain's bed, followed by he himself close at her side. "He lost lost his gun and he assumed we stole it, y'know, because us nasty leeches do that all the time."
"Maybe we should try that sometime!" Everyone stared at Aidou. "What? Why wouldn't torturing Kiryu be fun?" He crossed his arms and smiled smugly, leaning on a wall. Although it was true, that was not the point. Kain promptly elbowed his cousin in the ribs.
"And you just let him grab you like that?" Rima continued the important conversation as she put a hand on her hip and lifted on eyebrow at Ruka.
"Hey - I didn't let him totally push me around!...I just didn't think there needed to be anymore unnecessary blood spilt on that grass."
Rima's eyes softened in understanding. "Oh...you mean your dream?" She murmured, casually sitting on the edge of a bedside table.
"Dreams," Aidou laughed under his breath. "Freak."
Ruka stood quickly and fiercely, like she was about to pounce across the room and dismember him, but Kain courtly grabbed her shoulders and sat her down again. He kept his hold like that.
"You...had another one?" Rima continued, nervous about the emotional subject.
"Yeah..." Ruka sighed sadly. "Whatever, though, I guess. There's nothing I can do about it. I just have to keep telling myself that they're not real...I wish I knew what caused them, though."
"Ruka, please, you've done absolutely nothing wrong." Kain soothed, rubbing her arm with his conveniently placed hand.
"Um, hi everyone!" The lot was surprised by a happy Ichijou peaking into the room. "Anyone for breakfast?"
The group drained out of the room after Takuma(after Kain had put on a shirt, of course) and ate and drank together downstairs in the entrance hall/room/lobby type space with chairs and a couch and such(you know where I mean). Eventually, the time for class came and they all walked to studies as a pack, Ruka staying especially close to Kain whenever on the Day Class's turf, incase Kiryu should appear.
A little after five a.m., Ruka found herself melting into an armchair in the entrance hall of the Moon dormitory. Classes were finished for the weekend. Fi-na-lly. She and Rima had already completed all their assignments for the break together, like good little students, so 'finding where she went wrong' was all that was left to dwell on.
Well, Kain wouldn't give her time tonight to dwell. He wanted to understand more about her dreams, perhaps so he could make advice - if any was even possible in a mental situation such as this. He would try anyways.
Kain swept Ruka off to her room. He told her that he would monitor her while she dozed off to see if anything outside of her mind was affecting her dreams. He would also wake her at hourly intervals to ask if another nightmare had appeared, how it had changed from the previous two, etc. A very black-an-white plan, but hopefully it would prove effective. He wished her good night for the first hour.
She blinked her eyes open at Kain's touch. The first period had finished, and Ruka had not awoken by herself. A good sign, one perhaps displaying that the dreams were finished, but it was much too early to conclude such a large deduction. She snuggled into the purple flannel sheets of her bed again.
Another period gone by without disturbance, than another, than another. At eleven Saturday morning, they'd gone through six naps with no nightmares. Kain hadn't noted anything going on to the exterior of Ruka, which didn't rule it out as a possibility because there were no dreams. It seemed like until Ruka had a nightmare, they could be sure of nothing. So Ruka cast him off, telling him to get some sleep, himself. She thanked him for his idea and for watching her over the past six hours. He said it was no hassle, and truly, to him it wasn't. Ruka at peace; not screaming, not being terrorized by horrid images, just sleeping. It was all Kain had wanted for the past few days.
Ruka finally changed into some real pajamas once he departed. Dressed in her favorite outfit, a short aqua nightgown with white lace and tie in the back, Ruka danced to her school bag and pulled out a black laptop. She wasn't very tired due to numerous cat naps, so she surfed the Internet for a while. Still, she couldn't find a Wikipedia page for the Bloody Rose gun. Humans could be so dense about those around them - did they really think everyone was human like them?
Somehow, Ruka felt drawn to her bed. She still wasn't tired, but she gave in anyways.
If she were aware that she'd fallen asleep, she would have been surprised. Of course, the only way to tell you've been asleep is to wake up.
Still frozen in that one spot, Ruka viewed the bloody scene for the third time. Her friends, classmates, dorm mates were once again sprawled across the lawn creating bleeding, moaning heaps everywhere. The feeling of disturbance lingered at the base of her spine, but Ruka kept together because she knew it was just a dream. More death, the lights go out, poof. She would wake up.
Her great Kaname-sama still stood proudly in the center of the field. Ruka couldn't help but start to wonder what his problem was.
How could he throw everyone away like this? Why would he throw everyone away like this? They were his subjects, his followers; who would take his orders now? Certainly not the Vampire Council and, of course, not the oblivious-to-our-existence humans. How is he so mighty, anyhow? What really makes a pureblood better? They might have more powers then us others, but what does it matter who your great-great-great-great-grandparents were? Perhaps there are not that many in the world, but there aren't that many Giant Pandas left, either, and we don't get down on out knees and worship the remaining ones! In fact, we're basically letting them go extinct!
Ruka felt the familiar tug on her ankle and whoosh - out went her legs from under her. She hit the blood soaked earth with a much colder thunk than she expected. Before she looked to her feet, she eyed the ground. Snow? A light layer of flakes was strewn over the lawn, quickly absorbing the crimson and turning into red, lusciously smelling slush.
Okay, now she looked back. Hanabusa had here ankle the third time around. "W-why'd you even g-go to s-sleep," He threw up a gush of bloody sick. "Withou-out..." Another cough and bam - he was dead. Again.
The high pitched, girly laughter began. Ruka dared to gaze for the third time at what she knew was Yuuki braced all around Kaname - arms wrapped over his chest, a leg around his hips, hugging him from behind and looking over his shoulder at Ruka struggling to free her foot from a body's dead grasp. She giggled again as Ruka finally pulled free and balanced on her hands and knees. For the first time, though, the laughter halted and Yuuki actually spoke up.
"Why won't you leave my Onii-sama alone?" She purred, the fangy smile never wiping from her face. "Can't you see he doesn't need you? He doesn't want you, filthy Souen. You're just as rotten as your friends corpses." She detached from around her brother's torso and danced her way a little closer to Ruka. She paused and put her fists on her hips, smiling, smiling, smiling. "Why can't you just give up, slut?" She giggled, reaching down to the nearest corps - Rima, who hadn't moved since the first dream; Kaname had simply moved farther back. Yuuki laughed again before laying her tongue over the gash in Rima's throat. For the first time in the dreams, in reality, in Ruka's whole life, she threw up at the though of drinking someone's blood.
Yuuki let go of the mangled corps. "You are nothing to Kaname, you can't even stand a little death!" She licked a trickle of blood that ran from the corner of her mouth. Then, Yuuki turned and skipped back over bodies to her brother's side. "Can I do it, Onii-sama? I want to shoot the whore!"
Kaname-sempai gracefully pulled out Kiryu's Bloody Rose from an inside pocket of his Cross Academy uniform coat- the white fabric now covered in red stains. He handed it to her and - smiled. He was...happy? He was proud of his little sister asking to kill her? Even through the nightmares, even through the cold looks, the avoiding, the nobility, the pride, the respect, the duty - Ruka still thought that maybe...maybe...somehow...Kaname liked her. And through everything just the same, she still liked him.
It broke Ruka's heart when Yuuki trotted back. She felt it crack, snap, tear and crumble when Kaname smiled at the sight of his overjoyed sister. By the time Yuuki smiled the last smile Ruka would see, giggled the last giggle Ruka would hear, raised, cocked and aimed the gun, Ruka's heart was a black hole. An empty, irrepressible space that would suck anyone in and smother them in emotionless tears.
Another wave of fluffy snow drifted from the sky as Ruka begged inside to be shot, already.
As Ruka bolted up in her bed, a wave of anger flooded over her like a wave crashing on the beach. She flew out of bed, crammed her feet in a pair of fuzzy slippers and quickly tied a short, silk kimono-styled housecoat over her skimpy nightdress. She was out the door in moments, running down the hallway, down the staircase, out the door. She didn't care who saw her, how cold it was outside, or what time it was. She found herself in the courtyard a mere minute or two after she had awoken.
Snowflakes poured down from the clouds, even heavier than in the dream. Just the fact that it was snowing like in the dream made Ruka want to claw out her eyes. How could those stupid dreams be so real?How could they be so accurate about things that hadn't happened yet? First the visit from Kaname, then Zero's lost gun on the vampires' territory, now even the weather?
That chill at the base of Ruka's spine? It stung all the way through her body. If her dreams were somehow hinting at the future...were they really all going to die?