AN: I could drag this story out potentially forever LOL, but in the favor of action, let's speed things up a bit...
The day of the dance had at last come, and of course Yori had come down with a massive cold. Her nose was a state of constant drippage, her lungs rasped with each cough, and her forehead was hot enough to fry an egg on. She was still wearing her dress out of obstinacy, but there was no way she could attend the ball. She was more than a little disappointed... She'd been looking forward to that dance with Aidou...
She stepped out of the bathroom, where she had guzzled mouth wash in an attempt to chase off the scratch in the back of her throat, and asked, "Are you ready, Yu-" She stopped. Her roommate had not made a single move to get dressed yet. "Eh? You're going to the dance party in the uniform? Although you're a backstage worker, you can take turns with the others to dance, you know."
Yuki sighed. "Yes, but the Chairman has told me over and over that he's counting on me to keep the hallways safe. So I can't prepare the backstage anyway..."
"Keep the hallways safe from..?" she trailed off, voice a question.
"I think you know, Yori-chan."
The caramel-haired girl gave a weak laugh. It was nice not having to pretend that she didn't know what Yuki protected the school from, anymore. And nice that Aidou hadn't overreacted more than expected when she'd told him...
"Yuki Cross knows about us?!" his voice was shrill and horrified.
"Hanabusa-kun...it's okay... She promised to keep our secret...as long as you don't hurt me," she reassured him.
"Hurt you? I would nev-no that's not the point! Yori-chan, if Yuki knows about us...if she says anything at all..." He wasn't able to finish the sentence.
"I know. But she's my friend and we have to trust in her now. It's the only way."
"I don't like this. I don't trust Yuki not to accidentally say something...but you're right, there isn't another choice now, so alright."
And that was the last they'd spoken of it.
Yori snapped back from the memory and asked, "Your father is too cruel... Does that mean you can't have fun?"
"No, it's not like that... You know that," her friend protested.
"Oh, before I forget, this is for you, Yuki-chan." Someone had dropped off a box earlier for the prefect, and between a fit of coughing and making her way through an entire box of Kleenex, she had nearly forgotten. Yori picked it up and brought it over to the dark-haired girl, who took it with interest.
"From who?" Yuki peered at the tag, then flushed happily. "It's from Kaname-senpai..."
"Speaking of Kaname-san...who is he really?" Yori inquired hopefully.
"What do you mean? He's my brother..." Her friend shot her a puzzled look, holding up a gorgeous white dress in awe. "Wow, it's beautiful... I guess I'll be going all dressed up anyway!"
"But...isn't he a..?"
"Huh?"
"You know...a vampire." Her voice dropped off to a whisper.
"Yori-chan, I don't think we should be discussing these things..." Despite the warning tone of the prefect's voice, she was scarcely paying attention. Already, she was hastily stripping off her uniform to eagerly try on the gown.
"I just don't understand. You're not...that...and he is?" she tried again.
"He's my brother," was all the prefect said.
Yori sighed.
Hanabusa had a lot on his mind. Maria Kurenai's arrival on campus had disrupted the entire Night Class and Kaname very suspiciously had asked everyone to stay out of it. Hanabusa had done the opposite. He was quite certain that Maria was actually the host body for a pureblood. As for the pureblood's true body, he was convinced it was on the academy grounds. Quite probably, it was in the basement of the academic building, a place very few ever ventured. So, while everyone was distracted with the ball, he planned to take Akatsuki there to investigate.
First and foremost, however, he wanted to dance with Yori. It had been difficult to slip away from his fans, but if Yori couldn't come to the ball because of her cold, then he would just have to bring it to her. Even if only for a few moments. He lifted his hand and softly tapped on her dorm door. A moment later, she opened the door, red-nosed and clasping a tissue. For some reason, he found the sight endearing.
"Hanabusa-kun!" Her surprise was apparent as she stepped aside and let him enter.
He smiled. "Did you really think I wouldn't keep my promise to dance?"
"Thank you," she murmured. "I wish I wasn't sick..."
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"No, not really." She shrugged forlornly.
"You really wanted to go, huh..."
Before, he'd always looked down on humans when they were sick. He'd thought it proof of their weakness, their fragility when compared to vampires. But, standing in front of Yori and seeing that, in spite of her illness, she still wanted to dance so much that she was wearing her dress anyway... Well, maybe sickness wasn't proof of inferiority, after all. Maybe, it was a sign of resilience. Of strength.
"I wanted to dance with you," she told him and flushed his favorite shade of dusty pink.
"Then...may I have this dance?" He extended his hand for her.
There was no music, but she took it, and they danced slowly around her room for a while. It was nice to simply have her close, and he wished once again that they didn't have to keep their relationship a secret. He wanted to openly spend time with her, to introduce her to his friends... Who knew when he'd finally be able to do those things.
In spite of her congestion and fever, at the end of the dance he kissed her. He, Hanabusa Aidou, was kissing a sick human. Yet, when he pulled back and looked into her eyes, he wondered if this was what falling in love felt like.
"I have to go," he told her at last.
"So soon?" she asked.
"I'm sorry... There's something I have to do tonight..." He hated that he couldn't tell her more.
"Something involving Maria?" she queried astutely. Yori really was a very sharp girl.
"I can't say. I'm sorry..."
"Okay." She nodded, leaving it there. He was grateful that she didn't press the issue. "Thank you for coming to dance with me." Her eyes sparkled up at him, and he wished that he didn't have to leave her here. Wouldn't it have been better if he could have stayed and tucked her into bed? Brought her some soup? He shook away the thought. Now there were more pressing issues to attend to.
"Good night, Yori-chan," he bade her. "Rest well. Drink lots of fluids."
She rolled her eyes. "Okay, Dad."
He laughed. "See you soon." They exchanged one last, brief kiss, and then he was off to find his cousin. The mystery surrounding Maria Kurenai was about to be solved.
Yori waited five minutes before following the blond. Something was happening, something big, judging by the serious expression Aidou had worn throughout his visit, and she was determined not to be left in the dark once again. Unfortunately, her dress was not equipped for espionage, so she stuffed a few tissues into her bra, took an Ibuprofen as precaution, and slipped on her sneakers. She doubted anyone would notice that her shoes didn't match her dress.
The caramel-haired girl saw the flash of Aidou's uniform ahead across campus, heading back in the direction of the ball, so she made her way over. Inside, she could see the students dancing and mingling happily, and from her location near the bushes she could hear the gentle notes of a waltz. For a moment, she felt a rush of disappointment for missing out on the night, but then just as quickly she realized she probably would never have had a chance to investigate what was going on if she had.
Yori lingered in the bushes, keeping tabs on the doors, and after a while she saw Aidou and his cousin Kain exit the building. Carefully, she inched along the bushes, and promptly stubbed her toe on a tree root. In the dim light, she hadn't noticed that her shoe had come untied. With a sigh, she knelt to tie it. Before she rose, however, she saw a familiar shape in white dart by.
"Yuki-chan?" she asked incredulously, although the words obviously did not reach her friend.
For a long interval, Yori was torn between shadowing Aidou and his cousin or chasing after Yuki, but a few seconds after someone else walked into view. The silver-haired prefect was headed in the same direction as Yuki, hand over his gun, and from the grim set of his mouth, Yori suspected something was going on. He did not see her as he passed, and a moment later Yori made the decision to follow him.
"It's chilly. It must be here," Hanabusa murmured, trailing a hand along the cold stone of the stairwell. To think that a pureblood was keeping their body here on the academy grounds... And here, in the basement... Sometimes the best hiding places really were in plain sight, after all.
"There's really..." His cousin frowned. The redhead hadn't wanted to believe him, but had at least agreed to give Hanabusa the chance to prove him wrong. Judging by the sharp drop in temperature, however, the blond didn't think he was wrong.
"There's really, something..." Akatsuki repeated.
"You've finally decided to believe me, Akatsuki?" he retorted.
The pair reached the end of the staircase, and there, encased in shimmering ice, was the pureblood, just as Hanabusa had said. Just as he'd known, all this time. Beside him, Akatsuki shook his head, stating, "Shizuka Hio..." For several seconds, the two stood there staring at the pureblood's body. Then the redhead admitted, "As you said, it seems like she has thrown off her own body."
"I don't understand why she'd do such a thing." The blond frowned pensively.
"It has got nothing to do with you." A stranger's voice rang through the chamber, and both cousins turned to see a masked man with shoulder-length, silver hair. "I am taking her body now."
Hanabusa tensed, and felt Akatsuki do the same beside him.
"Is it okay to let him go?" the redhead whispered lowly as the man took Shizuka's body from the ice.
"We can't make a move unless we know what Kaname-sama's intending to do," Hanabusa whispered back. He was loathe to admit it, but attacking the stranger would be the wrong course of action at this point. Who knew what Kaname had planned...
"You're right, we should report to the dorm president first, I guess."
The masked man was backing slowly away, his eyes never leaving the cousins. Neither side made a move, and at last the man and the pureblood faded into the darkness at the opposite end of the room.
Hanabusa nodded absently, staring off after the pair in contemplation. "Do so, Akatsuki..." For his part, following the stranger might not be the worst idea... He didn't want to lose track of the pureblood's body. Who knew? It might prove important to Kaname.
Yori paused to catch her breath. She recognized the building she'd followed Zero to as the Night Dorm, and in the back of her head she knew that at any other moment she would have been excited. She was finally seeing the inside of the place where the Night Class lived! In here was a library that could answer all of her hundreds of unanswered questions! At the present time, however, she was distracted by her burning lungs and the constant drip of snot out of her nose. Even detective work was not free from germs, she thought wryly as she fished out a tissue.
The hall was dark, but the window at the end provided enough light for Yori to see the door where Zero had run into clearly. Cautiously but quickly she approached, keeping her steps light and her breathing quiet. When she reached the entryway, she stopped. Inside, she heard the jangle of the chain attached to Zero's gun and a snarl, "Get away from Yuki!"
To Yori's shock, the voice that responded could be none other than Yuki's. "Get back, Zero! Please!"
"Get out of the way! Why?!"
Why?! The thought echoed through Yori's head as well. What was going on?
"This woman's the only one who can save you, Zero!" Hearing her friend's words, her eyes widened. Someone could save their friend? Who? And how?
"That woman will save me?" Zero spoke the words slowly, with the same non-understanding that Yori felt.
"That's right. If I keep my end of the bargain-are you listening, Zero?!" Yori swallowed. She certainly was listening, even if the silver-haired prefect wasn't. Yuki continued, "The only way to end this without you becoming Level E is if you drink this woman's blood. As I promised, I'll be bitten by her and become the same being as you. I'm scared, but I'm fine because...this way I can save you."
Yori stifled a gasp. The woman had to be a pureblood! And Yuki planned to sacrifice herself to that woman...to save Zero? The caramel-haired girl couldn't fault her friend's logic, but... But... Yuki would give up her human life? Yori wasn't quite sure what that meant, but she knew that she didn't want her friend to give up something so precious so easily.
Another metallic jangle was followed by Yuki repeating, "Get back, Zero!"
"Even if this story about drinking her blood is true, it can be after I kill her halfway, can't it, Shizuka?" the other prefect growled.
"Zero..."
"Move, Yuki!" There was a hint of desperation in Zero's voice. Yori shook her head mutely. What was going on in the room? She wished she could look inside, but she knew that the moment she did so she would alert everyone within to her presence. "Now that things have come to this, are you going to tell me that killing vampires is a bad thing?"
"No, it's not that! It's not like that!" There was a buzzing sound, one Yori couldn't place, and then she heard Yuki cry, "Sorry, Zero!"
"Why are you stopping me?!" Even through the wall, the frustration and raw emotion were evident in the boy's voice.
A new voice spoke now, one that Yori could only assume belonged to the pureblood. "You're tamed by her, you fool." A laugh. "Are you happy to finally hear the voice of your master, Shizuka Hio? It is because I have returned to my real body that my voice has the power to bind. That's good, hold Yuki like that for a while. You understand, don't you? You cannot disobey the commands given to you by your master."
"Zero, let me go!" Yori strained to hear what was happening, but could make out no sound for a moment until she heard Yuki exclaim, "You don't have to make Zero do such a thing! I'll be obedient while you suck my blood!"
"For four years this body has been starving...did you think that only your blood would be enough?" Another pause, but this one was punctuated by a sniffling sob that Yori recognized as Yuki's.
"Stop it! You said that you only wanted my blood! It should be enough already! Why are you doing such a cruel thing to Zero!" Her friend's voice was wet with tears. Was Shizuka drinking Zero's blood then? Yori's heart was beating fast and hard in her chest. Maybe it was her cold, but she felt all of her blood rushing to her head, telling her to do something. Yet her feet remained rooted in place, unsure of what she could do in such a situation. How could she possibly save her friends from a pureblood vampire?
"It is punishment for being tamed by you," Shizuka said. "You tell me that I'm cruel, but who are you to tell me? The fact that your decision will torment Zero is obvious to even me."
Yori had to stop this. But how, how? Her mind franticly rushed. Was there any way to prevent Yuki from becoming a vampire? To prevent Zero from watching it happen before his very eyes? She didn't know.
"I thought that it'd be okay to be with Zero... I wonder if he'll forgive me one day..." The words were quiet, defeated.
Her feet moved before her brain had caught up. It was stupid. Idiotic. She always chastised Yuki for dashing headlong and thoughtlessly into trouble, and now she was doing it herself. But, if she didn't move now, it might be too late. "Wait! Please stop!" Yori rushed into the room just as a woman with long, silvery white hair was leaning towards Yuki's neck.
It was like still frame, like a movie that had paused quite suddenly. There was Yuki, restrained by a motionless Zero. And there was the pureblood, bent over Yuki's neck. Rose eyes flicked to Yori, one brow arched ever so slightly, and at last Yuki gasped, "Yori-chan, what are you doing here?"
"Please, don't harm my friends," Yori stated quietly. Her mouth had gone dry, and the words left her stunted and breathy. "If you need a sacrifice, it will be me."
Shizuka straightened, chuckling. Her gaze twinkled with veiled amusement. "How interesting. Eyes that stare directly at me... You remind me of Zero-chan when he was a child." The pureblood stepped away from the tiny prefect, considering Yori, and then murmured, "Zero, hold Yuki a little longer, will you?"
Yori saw Zero's knuckles tighten around Yuki's wrists. Saw the strain in his face and in his eyes. He was fighting the compulsion with everything he had, but yet it was not enough. Was that going to be her fate? Doomed to serve a pureblood for centuries against her will?
"Let me serve you, instead," Yori repeated firmly. She felt strangely numb, detached from herself. She had to save Yuki and Zero. There was only that to consider, and nothing else.
The rustle of silken fabric accompanied the pureblood as she gracefully approached. "I am very hungry... Tell me, were you raised happily? I'm a bit jealous..."
"A pureblood vampire, jealous of a human?" In spite of the situation, the caramel-haired girl couldn't keep the disbelief out of her tone.
"There are very few reasons for a pureblood to be happy... But, I would be happy to devour you. I'm being chased, and I need all the strength I can get."
"Yori-chan, don't! Run!" Yuki shouted, struggling futilely against Zero's hold on her.
Pale, chill fingers brushed down the side of her neck. Yori trembled. This was nothing like when Aidou had touched her. Despite his power over ice, his touch brought heat, and his bite was nothing to fear. This was completely, utterly different. The bite of this vampire would irreversibly change her life...
"May I?" Shizuka smirked.
Yori clenched her hands tightly into fists, forced herself to remain still and calm. Didn't Aidou live well as a vampire? He surely would have told her that there was no reason to be afraid. And as a vampire, wouldn't her cold be cured? She anchored herself to that thought, finding it strangely mundane and comforting. She didn't want this. Not at all. But if it meant saving her friends...
She nodded once.
When Shizuka's fangs slashed open her throat, it was chased by no pleasurable sensation. If Yori had hoped to experience it to offset the horror of what was happening, it was not forthcoming. Instead, she heard the sound of the vampire in front of her swallowing down her blood noisily, of Yuki wailing in the background, and of a dangerous buzzing in her head. The pain of the pureblood's bite did not abate, either. Rather, it grew, a crescendo of complete agony that bloomed from her neck to her fingers, from her fingers to her chest, from her chest to her toes. Every nerve, every bone in her body was simultaneously screaming, and it was only Shizuka's arm that kept her from collapsing into a heap at the pureblood's feet.
In a haze of pain, Yori wasn't sure how long the pureblood sucked from her neck. When the fangs finally retreated, she heard the vampire whisper, "Delicious... And now, I rather must insist on taking Yuki's blood as well..."
No! Yori wrestled with her body, commanded it to move, but the pain was becoming so loud that she could only see through a veil of black and red, pulsating spots that danced before her eyes.
"I don't want to lose such a cute servant," Shizuka murmured, pressing her lips to Yori's, and the caramel-haired girl felt something hot and sickly sweet enter her mouth. Her throat swallowed on impulse, and then the support of the pureblood's arm was gone and she was lying on the ground.
Time was moving in jolts. She could see the carpet. The ceiling. Shizuka bending back towards Yuki's neck. The jangle of the chain again. The sharp smell of blood, and then...
Darkness.
AN: Bet you weren't expecting this ;). Actually I wasn't really either. A friend of mine mentioned they'd like Yori to become a vampire so here we are.