Author Note: I did a chapter on my KainXRuka and then felt guilty I didn't have a ShikiXRima project anymore. And then I had the idea for this. Also, in the 2nd volume of the manga, does anyone else think Shiki looked anorexic in that hoodie? No? Just me?

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight or make any profit from this.

"What's this?" Shiki asked me, holding up a letter from my modeling agent. "And why is it in the trash?"

"It's about a job I'm not doing." I tugged my uniform shirt off, pulled a tank top from my closet and skinned it on. Shiki and I were together, I didn't care about changing in front of him.

"You never turn down a modeling job." Shiki regarded me with a strange look. "What's wrong with you?"

"I just didn't want to, ok?" I tugged at the tank top a bit. "I don't get why you're making such a huge deal out of this. It's one job that I turned down. I'm not quitting modeling or anything."

"It was a swimsuit job." Shiki muttered, eyeing the letter. His eyes drifted to my chest on the left side. "Is there a scar?" He referenced my fight with Rido, where his blood whip had stabbed through my back, all the way through and out my chest.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "My shirt was just off, you tell me."

"I wasn't looking." Shiki stepped forward, gathered me up in his arms and hugged me to his chest. "They could cover it up. Or photo-shop it out."

"There'll be questions if they see it though." I tipped my head back, looking at him. "You know how nosy those people can be."

"Then you lie." His hand found the exact place where the blood whip had first pierced my skin on my back. The tank top barely covered it, so he slipped his fingers under the fabric and stroked the scar. "Say it was a bug bite or something."

"What was I bitten by?" I challenged, my temper coming into play. "A goliath bird eating spider? Honestly."

Shiki buried his face in my hair. "I'm so sorry, Rima... I've caused you so much pain."

"I'm not mad at you. Quit apologizing." I looked up at him and because of his proximity, our noses brushed. "I'm mad at him. And you didn't do it. He did."

"Yes, but..." He trailed off when he saw my close range glare.

"Don't 'but' me." I didn't let my glare falter, though I felt like crying. "I'm not doing the job, so just leave me alone about it."

"You used to love swimsuit jobs." Shiki's lips pulled up at the corners, he was no longer afraid of me. What had I done wrong? "You told me once, when we were younger, that you secretly loved it when they put you in something pink and frilly. That black was your comfort color, but when forced into something pink and girly, you enjoyed it."

"Shiki, you're not going to convince me to do the job." I attempted to back up, but Shiki kept his arm around me.

"Remember when we were thirteen?" He wasn't going to stop until he got what he wanted. "And we had to do that spring issue and they tried to put you in a bikini?"

"I pitched a fit." I recalled the memory with strong embarrassment but a vague sense of detached amusement. "When they finally got me into it, I ran out of the dressing room and you grabbed me. That was their shot because they were afraid of trying to maneuver me into another pose."

"You told me later that you were embarrassed, but you loved that pink bikini." He paused. "You've never been shy about your body." Shiki ran his fingers through my right pigtail. "So why does one little scar bother you so much?"

"Because there's no solid lie. There's nothing I can say that will make people not wonder." I leaned against him a bit. "It looks like someone stabbed me with a pen and it goes all the way through to my back. How do you think I should explain it?"

"Just say, don't want to talk about it." He held me closer, and ran his fingers through my hair, having untied both of my ribbons. "Or even that you don't remember. There are a lot of things you could say. I don't want to stop you from modeling. I'm sorry I hurt you, Rima."

"You didn't hurt me!" We both flinched at that, I hadn't raised my voice in months. "Rido did, ok, Rido did, just drop it. I'm not mad at you and it's not your fault. Drop it, Shiki."

"Rima..." Shiki murmured and a second later I was pressed against his chest, his heartbeat seeping into every pore of my body.

"Drop it, Shiki, I'm sick of hearing false bullshit." I started to relax against him. "Don't say that ever again. It wasn't your fault that he hurt me, ok? I don't blame you and I never did."

"Would you feel better if I were there to lie for you?" Shiki asked, and the switch of topics was so sudden it took me a second to adjust.

"Yes."

Three days later, I was at the swimsuit shoot, in a green one-piece suit that covered the scars. Shiki was talking animatedly with my photographer for the day.

The lie, you might ask? That I fell on a piece of a broken coat rack. Nobody had pressured for any information after that, which I was sure was because Shiki had told them that I had to go to the hospital in an ambulance after the incident and have stitches, and that I was still traumatized.

It worked well enough, however, and I was glad that I had brought him along.

He would definitely be coming to all of my shoots from now on, whether he was needed for the photos or not.

Author Note: Geez, this one took forever. I just keep thinking, she's a model, what if there's a scar there? Not that she does playboy or anything. Anyway! I love reviews and PMs, so send me some opinions! Last of all; thank you so much for reading!