Prompt: Show a scene that left a mark on Ruka and Akatsuki when they were younger.
Author Note: I haven't added over here in forever, I'm sorry. If you don't read Of Sunburns and Pocky, I'll give you a quick update. I'm officially on the third part of a four-part fiction project, which is why I've been so completely absent here. But I'm going to try and add at least every weekend, if not more often! Promise, I will try my best. Also, I hate 3rd person with a passion, but I found it the best way to write this, so I'm sorry if it's bad.
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight. I don't make any profit from this. We good?
"Hanabusa! We don't hit girls!" 8-year-old Akatsuki screamed at Hanabusa as Ruka cried in his arms. Tensions were at an all time high between the three, as Ruka and Aidou had been getting in even more fights than usual.
"She started it!" Hanabusa crossed his arms over his chest and turned away from the two, visibly annoyed with both of them.
"Let me see, Ruka." Akatsuki murmured, and tried to tip Ruka's chin up so he could see her eye. Hanabusa had punched her in the right eye as far as he could tell, but Ruka had refused to let him see it so far.
"No!" Ruka hid her face in Akatsuki's shirt further, refusing to let him see her eye.
"Hanabusa, I'm going to have to kill you." Akatsuki muttered, and the aforementioned boy genius took off running. With Akatsuki in that bad of a mood, it was best for him to keep a safe distance. "Does it hurt, Ruka?" The orange haired boy tried again to tip Ruka's chin up.
"N-Not too bad..." Ruka let him tip her chin up, but she quickly covered her eye. "I just... don't want you to see it... you'll think I'm ugly..."
"Ruka, you are not ugly. You could never be ugly." Akatsuki wrapped his hand around her wrist and gave it a gentle tug. "I just want to make sure it's healing ok. I promise I won't think you're ugly."
"Promise?" Ruka asked, but she let him tug her hand away.
"I promise." Akatsuki studied her eye. The eye itself looked fine, but around her eye and her eyelid were a light shade of lavender that was rapidly fading. "It's almost better."
"Mother is going to mad at me for getting into a fight." Ruka started to tremble and leaned against Akatsuki more. "I'm going to get in trouble again..."
That was when Akatsuki Kain did something he had never done in the midst of a Ruka-Hanabusa fight before. He took a side.
"I'll tell them he started it." He pulled Ruka close as she shook with fear. Ruka's parents had always been strict, and she had always had a genuine fear of them, a fear only Akatsuki ever saw. "Don't worry about it, ok?"
"You're so nice, Akatsuki..." Ruka looked up at him. "How come you're so nice to me when you're supposed to be Hanabusa's friend?"
Akatsuki felt a blush creeping up his face. Should he tell the truth or formulate a lie? Ruka was looking up at him so earnestly, the only thing he could think of was the truth, so-
"Because I love you." The orange-haired boy blurted out.
Ruka's eyes betrayed her shock. She stared up at Akatsuki as if he had just grown three more heads. This was clearly not eight-year-old girl territory, and it wasn't normal for eight-year-old boys either, as far as she knew. After all, Aidou wasn't in love with anyone right?
"It's ok." Akatsuki pretended he wasn't as hurt as he felt by patting the girl on the shoulder and turning back towards the house. "You don't have to say anything."
"I'm sorry..." Ruka felt as if she was going to cry all over again, but she knew that she shouldn't, not right now.
"Don't be." Akatsuki took her hand in the gentlest way possible. "Come on. We should go tell on Hanabusa."
That day marked the end of an era, and the beginning of a new game. The game of cat and mouse between the two, the one that would last 10 years.
"Akatsuki!" Came 18-year-old Ruka's voice from her room. She had been struggling with this for nearly half an hour, and, exhausted, she was giving in and calling Akatsuki to her room.
"Yeah, Ruka?" Akatsuki appeared in the doorway, as he would at all hours of the day or night when she called him. He leaned against the doorframe and looked at her, waiting.
"I can't get my dress zipped." Ruka struggled to keep her mouth in a straight line. She was in a good mood today, she was almost always in a good mood when she was invited to a soiree, but she had been left alone to get dressed and... Well, sometimes the best-laid plans go awry.
"Your Mother wouldn't approve of me doing this for you." Akatsuki muttered, but made his way over to her and zipped her dress for her anyway.
"Shh, Akatsuki, if you call the devil, she will come." Ruka put a finger to his lips and giggled.
"Please tell me you're not drunk or high." The boy watched Ruka struggle to get her hair just perfect. "And don't put those bobby pins in your mouth."
"I am not on any substance. Promise." Ruka muttered around the ten bobby pins in her mouth. "And they're perfectly clean."
Akatsuki ended that conversation when he forcibly took the pins out from between her lips. "I believe you that they're clean, I just don't want you swallowing them."
"I've never swallowed one before." Ruka bonked him on the nose and smiled at him, a smile he hadn't seen in a long time. "Don't worry so much, silly."
"Alright, what's going on?" He grabbed her by her shoulders and stared her down. "You're never this happy. Not that I don't enjoy it, but something is weird here. What's going on, Ruka?"
"Oh, alright, if you must know." Ruka stepped away from him and did a little twirl, her dress flaring out as she did so. "I'm in love."
"With Lord Kaname?" Akatsuki felt his heart drop from his chest to somewhere beneath the basement of the house.
"No." Ruka froze mid-twirl and smiled. "Someone I know better."
"Hanabusa?" Akatsuki knew it had to be anybody besides himself. Ruka could never like him; he had known that back when they were 8.
"Are you on drugs?" Ruka laughed, but didn't wait for an answer. "No... It's someone I've always kind of... admired. Someone who always took care of me. Someone who was always there for me."
Akatsuki's heart danced in his chest. Who else could she mean? He slowly allowed himself to get his hopes up. Had she finally realized how much he meant to her, and how much she meant to him?
"Don't stand there like you're confused." Ruka smiled and for once, it reached her eyes. "You know it's you. It's not egotistical to think so, you're the only one who's ever taken care of me and been there for me."
Akatsuki swept her up in a hug and lavished her with kisses, and for once, the love inside his heart wasn't on the back burner anymore. His love for Ruka was front and center, and always would be.
Author Note: I'm actually debating about doing another Rukain tonight while I'm at it. I don't know, we'll see. A lot of things got changed in the writing process of this story, just so you know. Drop me a comment? I love your opinions.