Classes were finally over after what seemed like days of listening to the teacher drone about nothing in particular that the Night Class did not already know. Kuro was bored. Slumped over the desk, the only thing keeping him awake was Shiro. He could not rest if she did not rest because her mind was still awake, and by God he felt it. The unending curiosity of her mind in its present state exhausted him. He decided that what he lacked was his usual fix of mischief. Kuro glanced outside, and, catching sight of Zero on the balcony beneath the window, resolved to greet him once and for all.
The Night Class filed from the room, weary and eager to escape to the Moon Dorms before the sun rose. Kuro took his chance then.
"Go ahead," he assured Shiro. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
Weary as she was, she did not protest, but gave him a hard stare. She did not like his mischief, and he knew it, but it could not be helped. Of course she did not like it; she would have repressed that side of her had Kuro not embodied it. Kuro crept away from the class and hurried to the balcony. Zero had been close to sleep, he remembered, so he couldn't have left just yet. He jumped onto the railing and spied the other hunter leaning heavily on the bannister as his eyes drooped further and further shut.
"Hunter!" Kuro called, and Zero regained consciousness. The latter's usual scowl resumed his expression as he saw Kuro.
"What is it?" he growled. "I have no time for you."
Kuro was amused; clearly Hunter was busy sleeping. He leapt down from his perch and came before Zero. He smiled sweetly at him, examining Zero's entire person. Kuro was observant – he liked to judge his opponents physically before challenging them. He found Zero to be an angry person, and strong in will and physicality. A worthy opponent, fellow vampire as Hunter was. Perhaps he could understand, then, the situation Kuro was enduring for the sake of his host.
"Why so hostile, Hunter?" Kuro taunted. He liked the new nickname he had devised for Zero. "Are we not comrades?"
Zero bristled and pushed himself from the bannister to stand at his full height. He found that using his height to intimidate others was a useful asset in hunting, but he frowned as he found Kuro to be at equal height to him.
"We are nothing alike, trust me," Zero muttered. Kuro smiled deviously again. What was wrong with this hunter? Couldn't he tell his own kind?
"We are more alike than you can possibly imagine, Hunter. Think on it," he replied. Kuro grinned, uncovering his sheathed fangs, and Zero's eyes widened. A vampire hunter, just like him! To accept or to kill – which would Hunter pick?
Meanwhile, Shiro was nervous about Kuro's absence. She had often likened it to sleepwalking: people who sleepwalked had no idea what they were doing, in the same way that she had no inkling as to what mischief Kuro was stirring up. She hated not being in control of herself, but she trusted Kuro. He would do nothing to jeopardize their cover, but it made her wonder what exactly he was up to. Presently she was perched upon the sofa in the common room of the Moon Dorms, waiting anxiously for Kuro to return.
"Are you alright?"
Shiro jumped as a quiet voice sounded behind her. She turned quickly to find Senri and Rima standing behind her, watching her carefully. Senri held a box of Pocky in his hand, as he always did.
"Would you like some company?" Rima offered, extending a piece of Pocky to Shiro kindly. The latter nodded and made room on the sofa for the both of them. Senri sat next to her, immediately lazing upon the sofa as if it was his bed. Rima sighed and perched lightly beside him.
"What're you doing up so late?" Rima asked, glancing at the rising sun through the large glass windows. She knew that associating with a hunter was not done, but there was something about Shiro that made her want to be her friend. Just as Takuma had said to them before about Shiro, he felt compelled to bow to her. What was she, then, that she could make vampires feel this way?
"I'm waiting for Kuro to return. I asked him to run an errand to the other hunter for me," she lied. Little did she know, Kuro really was paying Zero an overdue visit.
"I'm glad that you're not with him now," Senri said. "When you're with him, he won't let us near you."
Shiro smiled; hope bloomed in her that perhaps she might make some friends here. She needed independence from Kuro, even though she could never have it completely. It would be like wanting independence from herself – impossible.
"Shall we be friends then?" she ventured, seeking clarification of Senri's ambiguous words. They both nodded in complete synchronization. Shiro laughed; Senri and Rima were not unlike her and Kuro in the sense that they were in complete sync with each other. "Friends," she mused more to herself. "I quite like that."