Less than a second after Yukari started screaming Ia placed her hand over Yukari's mouth, stifling the sound. Yukari stopped, her eyes wide as she stared at Ia.

"Don't yell," said Ia, keeping an ear out for any investigative parents. The house was silent. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Yukari's expression remained the same. Ia wondered if she heard her at all.

"Nod if you understand," said Ia. "I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth now. But keep quiet. Okay?"

There was a pause before Yukari nodded. Ia removed her hand and sighed. Her cellphone buzzed with a new text and Ia checked it. Predictably it was from SeeU.

get back to base now.

Ia snapped her phone shut and put it back in her pocket, running a hand through her hair. The werewolves had been extremely clear about wanting Ia to remain out of sight. Normally, Ia would have just jumped out the window, but she had to muffle Yukari's scream first, and in doing so, had to communicate with her. Ia couldn't simply run away now, because Yukari knew for sure what Ia looked like, which could lead to her giving away Ia's appearance to the vampires, which was the last thing Ia needed right now.

"Who are you?" Yukari said, quietly, before shaking her head. "Wait...no. Why are you in my room?"

"Um," said Ia, trying to think of an excuse, but her mind was as empty as a desert wasteland. Yukari was sitting up on her bed now, eyebrows furrowed. She didn't look especially afraid at the moment, more curious and perplexed if anything. It was an abnormal reaction to have when one had a stranger standing in their room. Just what exactly did Yukari and her friends get up to with that vampire anyways?

"Wait," said Yukari, again. She snapped her fingers and squeezed her eyes shut for a few moments before snapping them open, leaning forward. "Wait! You were in my dream, weren't you? You were chasing me."

"No, I wasn't," said Ia half-heartedly, realizing at the same time that she should have just ignored her earlier judgment and jumped out the window instead of staying in the room like an idiot. The longer she stayed, the closer Yukari would get to finding out more about her.

Yukari shook her head. "Yeah right. I know what you are." She pointed to the wall. On it was tacked a list with the title 'Bad Dream Causes'. "You're a dream-eater, aren't you?"

Ia stared at the list. It was extremely comprehensive. Everything from stress to werewolf transformation was on there. "What? Why do you even have that list?"

Yukari's grin dropped and she hugged her knees tighter to her chest. "That's none of your business. Anyways, I thought dream-eaters couldn't be in dreams. They just ate them."

Ia frowned at her. It was time for drastic measures. She dug up an old dream. It was heavily decayed, almost completely gone, might not even work, but it was all Ia had. She placed a leg on Yukari's bed, her hand over Yukari's forehead. Yukari stiffened and shrank away from Ia's hand.

"What're you doing?" she asked.

"Go to sleep," said Ia. "You've had a long day. None of this happened." She concentrated on the power the dream gave her. It was one she had gotten from a sick man in the slums, where he had the power to wipe memories at will. Ia didn't bother to dig too deeply in the man's psyche or reasoning for wanting so. She prayed that the dream wasn't too far decayed to be effective.

Yukari's eyes became glazed for a moment and Ia withdrew her hand. Then, Yukari blinked again.

"What was that?" she said.

Ia stared at her. "It didn't work?"

"Obviously not," Yukari said. "Could you get off my bed?"

Ia, properly abashed, did so. Her cellphone buzzed again, this time from Yuuma.

Where are you? We have to discuss next steps.

"You keep checking your phone," said Yukari. "Why?"

"That's none of your business," Ia said. "Anyways, whatever. Just...just don't tell anyone about seeing me." It should be fine if Yukari didn't tell, Ia hoped. The main focus of the operation would be on Miku anyways, and Ia would be staying out of sight from now on. If only she hadn't gotten sucked into that stupid dream, none of this wouldn't have happened.

"You literally just broke into my house and hid under my bed," said Yukari. "And you're a dream-eater! I thought those were all gone. Why shouldn't I tell about you? Give me one reason." Yukari folded her arms and waited.

"Okay," said Ia, raising a finger, "I really don't have time to deal with this right now. You're right that I'm a dream-eater, but think about it. I've evaded tons of reports, and there are a lot of false dream-eater ones." There actually weren't, but Ia hoped that Yukari would take her word for it and not dig too much into it. "A single more in the Seraphim bureaucracy would just be a drop in a puddle. Who says they'll believe you?"

Yukari grinned. "Who says I'll be sending a report to the Seraphim?"

Ia's shoulders dropped. Shit. If not the Seraphim, then judging from what Ia learned from the dream, there was only one possible alternative. She asked anyways, the knowledge a rock in her gut. "What? Who else..."

"That's private," Yukari said. She was clearly aware of her higher position now, and enjoying it. It made Ia want to tear her hair out. In every way Ia was at a disadvantage here. She couldn't hurt Yukari - the werewolves were very clear on that point - and Yukari could quite easily report her to her vampire friends, which would pretty much destroy the mission. Especially considering Karnstein's close relationship with the Seraphim, well, if Yukari blabbed, then it was all over for both the werewolves and Ia.

Ia's cell buzzed again, from SeeU this time.

omfg get your slow ass over here already

"I really need to go," said Ia.

"Really?" Yukari put on a wounded expression. "But I was enjoying our chat!"

"I'm sure you were," Ia muttered as she walked over to the window. "You won't see me again. Don't tell anyone about tonight...please."

"Please was all I needed," said Yukari with a cheery wave. "I'll see you never."

-o-o-o-

"Geez," said SeeU once Ia ran back to the warehouse, panting, "that only took you forever."

"What happened?" said Yuuma.

"Yukari caught me," said Ia.

"What?" SeeU's eyes practically bugged out of their sockets, and in a flash she was grabbing Ia by her shirt. "Say that again?"

"Get your paws off me first."

SeeU shook her head. "You might have ruined everything. If this Yukari person even hints at anything then-"

"She won't!" Ia said, and the lie slipped out. "She...I...wiped her memory. That won't happen."

SeeU relaxed, but only slightly. "Dream-eaters can wipe memories?"

"I won't tell you unless you let me go," Ia said, and with a short growl SeeU let go of Ia's shirt and stepped backwards. "I just used an old dream to wipe it. She doesn't remember a thing. She didn't see anything." Inwardly Ia prayed that Yukari was true to her word.

"Well," said Yuuma, slowly, "if that is the case, then it should be fine. You say they all attend Vocalo, right?"

"Correct," said Ia.

SeeU shrugged. "What if she was just dreaming that they attend Vocalo?"

"That would be a stupid thing to dream about," said Ia.

"People dream stupid things sometimes," said SeeU. "You didn't hurt her, did you?"

"I didn't."

Yuuma nodded. "Good. We don't want to hurt humans. We're only concerned with the vampires. This is troublesome though, we have to get the humans to see that the vampires aren't as perfect as they would like to believe."

"Well, with Ia, we can," said SeeU.

"Hold up. If you want me to try to manipulate their dreams so that they can think a certain way, I can't make dreams. I can only plant them."

"Yes, we know," said SeeU with exaggerated patience. "Good thing we have a bunch of werewolves here who can dream, right? None of us like vampires very much either. Just mix and match our dreams with normal human dreams or whatever and it'll be fine." She sat herself down on a nearby crate with a sigh.

"So am I supposed to plant dreams in everyone's heads? Do you know how large the population of the city is? Besides, dreams aren't effective in changing people's mindset unless they happen repeatedly, so I'll have to plant the dream in everyone's heads more than once."

"You don't have to plant it in everyone's minds, though that would be ideal. I'll give you the details later," said Yuuma, and he opened his cellphone. "Say, in here it says that Miku is closest to Luka, who we know is a vampire, right? Are they in a relationship?"

Ia shrugged. "Sounded like they were about to start."

"Shit, really?" SeeU sounded horrified. "That poor human. She's probably going to be that vampire's personal snack box."

Ia winced at the imagery. "Ew. Really?"

"Of course! Why else would a vampire want to date a human? It's kind of weird, isn't it? It's like a wolf cuddling up to a sheep."

"Back on topic," said Yuuma. "Ia, we were originally going to have you infiltrate the vampire's social group, but that is no longer possible after you have been seen. Even if you erased the human's memory, we can't take the risk of having it come back. You will be switching roles with SeeU."

"What?" SeeU jumped up. "But the vampires can smell the werewolf on me! This is why we decided on Ia in the first place for that, because she's a dream-eater."

Yuuma held up a small vial. "I know, but this is the safest way. For smell, well. That's what this smell suppressant is for." A sweet floral scent filled the room once he opened the vial.

There was a short silence before Ia broke it. "You mean...perfume."

"Well, yes, but smell suppressant sounds better..."

"No way," said SeeU. "I have to douse perfume on myself? Do you know how obnoxious that is?"

"We have no choice," said Yuuma, looking altogether too calm for the situation. "This is for the greater good."

Ia furrowed her eyebrows. "I thought werewolves weren't allowed to attend normal human schools."

Yuuma smiled. "Well, good thing we're unregistered. Here are your forms, SeeU." He reached into his bag and pulled out some rumpled school transfer forms before placing them on the table. "I have to go now, so please fill these out soon." With that said, he left, leaving SeeU and Ia alone in the empty warehouse room.

"I've been meaning to ask," said Ia after some silence, "but how did your pack get away with being unregistered? I thought that once the transformation process began, all werewolves were registered automatically."

SeeU shrugged. "We didn't go to the clinics. The rest is none of your business." She sat down on a nearby ruined couch, papers in tow, and began filling them out, selectively lying when necessary. "I don't see why I have to go to this stupid school. If you hadn't gotten caught, then none of this would have been necessary."

Ia winced. Hard as it was to admit, it was her fault that the mission got compromised. There was also the fact that she didn't even wipe Yukari's memory in the first place. Yukari didn't seem like the type who would rat Ia out to her friends - the girl had an honest appearance, and was relatively cordial despite the fact that Ia had just invaded her room, tried to wipe her mind, and hid under the bed. Actually, Yukari's behavior on the whole was way too calm considering everything. What did she get up to with the vampires anyways? No matter how hard Ia thought, her mind offered no answers. From what she had seen, Yukari's neck was unbitten, so she probably wasn't under the thrall of any particular vampire, so she shouldn't have been so used to getting random nighttime visitors...Ia shook her head. No point in thinking too much about it. It was over and done with. She could do nothing but trust in Yukari.

SeeU sighed another heavy sigh as she filled out another box on the form. "Anyways, after I apply and get accepted, we still need to make sure that I get assigned to the same student group as them. I was thinking of having you do that, but after you fucked up so badly with your first assignment, I'm not sure if you're capable of doing something as simple as that, honestly."

Ia closed her eyes and slowly counted to five. SeeU's words stung, but it was Ia's fault that she got caught. "Are you sure you can get accepted?"

"What? Of course!" SeeU bristled. "I was a top student before I became a werewolf."

Ia paged through the magazine. It was a fashion one, and thus full of models posing in beautifully put together outfits. Dreams on paper. "Right, okay."

"My grades were exceptional," SeeU continued, puffing herself up the more she spoke. "I was consistently ranked first in every subject and on every test. Once I send this school my transcript they'll be dying to have me."

"Wow. That's great, SeeU, I'm amazed."

SeeU either ignored or didn't pick up on the sarcasm in Ia's voice. "You should be!" With a decisive swoop of the pen, she finished off the papers. "I'm sure I'll be tops in this school too. You look like you're in control, but you're really a bit of an airhead, aren't you? Now that I think about it, it's probably better I'm going to school than you, anyways. Who knows how you'll do. Honestly."

"The point isn't to do well at school, it's to get in with the target social group," said Ia.

SeeU waved a hand, as if by doing so she would wave away Ia's complaints. "Right, right, I'm sure I could do that too. I'm going to go turn in these forms now," she hopped off the chair, "so stop reading your fashion mags and go prepare your dreams or whatever."

"Advertisements and magazines are dreams," said Ia with a sigh, but SeeU had already left.

-o-o-o-

Luka stared up at the ceiling in her tiny room. It was over. Sure, they didn't know the specifics of her identity, but that didn't matter - her cover as fledgling was effectively blown, as was her good status with most of the house. At least Gumi seemed fine with it, but Luka wasn't sure about anyone else. Most vampires didn't take kindly to being tricked.

Luka rubbed her eyes and refocused her thoughts. There was nothing in her head but dull resignation. She had to tell Miku the truth. She owed her that much, at least. Luka cringed to imagine what would happen once she broke the news to Miku - would she hate her for lying to her for so long? Would she hate her for even trying to start a relationship when she had been lying all this time about her identity? Luka didn't know, and she wasn't eager to find out.

A part of her considered keeping the lie going, but she quickly dismissed it. What was the point? Keeping it going would be a selfish move that would hurt them more, in the long run. Besides, if Luka felt this bad about telling Miku the truth now, how much worse would she feel once their fuzzy relationship became firmly established?

The more she thought about it, the clearer the solution became. She had to tell Miku. With a groan, Luka sat up and pondered. This was something that had to be done in person. A text or an email was far too impersonal for such things. As Luka reached for her phone, it buzzed with a text. She hesitated for an instant before picking it up. The text was from Miku.

can we meet after my classes r done? do u have time incense

Time incense...as if Luka even needed something like that. Another stab of guilt. She sighed and texted back a reply.

Sure. Did something happen?

Miku's reply came near instantly. Luka looked at the clock. Miku should be in the middle of class right now.

no i just want to tell u something. meet at ice cream shop?

Luka wasn't opposed. She sent back her reply and began composing her confession in her mind.

-o-o-o-

Miku couldn't concentrate on the ice cream. All of the dessert's sweetness turned to dust in her mouth as her mind struggled to come up with a good way to confess. It really shouldn't be this hard, Miku chided herself. They had gone on a date. Luka had kissed her. There was...there was tension. Honestly, their feelings for each other should be set and confirmed by now - all Miku needed to do was ask.

But Luka's expression was troubled, her eyes gazing off into some unreachable distance. Asking Luka out now would be, Miku felt, a bad idea. So she focused on her ice cream as her mind ran in endless circles. The atmosphere had become decidedly awkward thanks to the extended silence.

"Um," said Miku and Luka at the same time before they both trailed off. Luka ducked her head.

"You go first," she said.

Miku shook her head. "No, um...you first. Please," she added.

Luka sighed. She looked very tired, her skin paler than usual. "I've been lying about myself."

Miku furrowed her brow. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Luka toyed with a napkin. "I'm not really a fledgling."

Not a fledgling? Miku stared at Luka, brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not actually a three year old vampire," said Luka, slowly. "I'm...um...older."

Miku put her ice cream aside, dread stirring in her gut. "How old are you?"

"I can't remember," Luka admitted. "But it's a few centuries."

Miku gaped. Her mind scrambled to do the calculations. If Luka was a few centuries old, then that meant that she had to have existed from the time of the Nobility. She had to have, at one point, subjugated humans into doing her bidding, since that was what the Nobility did at the time before the revolution. Furthermore, living for centuries...Miku couldn't imagine how old that was. Her brief realm of human existence had only seventeen years of experience. Next to Luka's centuries, Miku was a blink of an eye. Not only that, but if Luka was truly that old, then who even was she? Her file in the Seraphim database said that she was named Luka Megurine, turned at seventeen, three years ago. But if that was a lie, then who was Luka really? Miku passed a hand over her face as weakness threatened to overtake her.

"Who are you?" asked Miku, not quite looking at Luka.

Luka looked around. "It's too crowded here." She got up from the table. "I'm guessing you don't want your ice cream anymore?"

Miku glanced at it. It had melted into mint chocolate soup. "Where are we going?"

"Just...somewhere more private," said Luka, if she could even be called 'Luka' anymore. Guilt seeped into her tone. "I promise I won't hurt you. I'll tell you everything."

Miku nodded, got up, and followed Luka out of the store. Luka stopped outside, glanced around, and started walking briskly to the left, Miku tagging along, her mind awhirl with this sudden confession. For all her preparations and Yukari's encouragement last night, Miku had never expected that Luka would suddenly turn around and tell her that, surprise, she had been lying to everyone about her age and identity. Eventually Luka stopped at a wooded area near the suburbs before turning to face Miku.

"I'm, uh, my real name is Elluka," said Luka, her face averted. "So...it's really not that big of a difference from, um, Luka, right?"

"Elluka?" Miku's eyes widened. Even she knew who Elluka was. That name had been splashed across history books and anti-vampire propaganda too often for Miku to not know who she was. "The Elluka? I thought she...you...died!"

"I didn't," said Luka. "I just...ran away."

"If you're really Elluka, you're around six hundred years old," said Miku. "And my textbooks said you were evil. You and your...your vampire nobility friends enslaved humanity for years! You did that?" It was hard reconciling her textbooks' image of Elluka as the human-despising noble with the Luka Miku knew. A part of her just couldn't believe it. There was no way that the Luka who watched a movie with Miku the other day, the Luka who saved Miku's life, was the same Luka as Elluka.

Luka winced. "That was...that was six hundred years ago. You weren't even alive back then."

"Oh my god," Miku mumbled. She felt sick. The weight of Luka's words - 'you weren't even alive back then' - pounded into Miku's head. "That's so long ago."

"Time moves differently for vampires," said Luka, distantly. "We can't die naturally. I think a part of our minds is kept in stasis too. A vampire who got turned at ten will always stay ten, in some ways. I was still turned at seventeen, which isn't the most rational of ages. It's a way of reconciling our appearance with our minds. The human mind isn't built to live so long, and vampires come from humans. Six hundred years is a long time - longer than you can imagine. It's a blur to me, because that's the only way I can process it now."

Miku had to lean back against a tree, legs too weak to support her properly. "So? What does that have to do with anything? You still lied to me about who you were. You lied to me and everyone. And you still took over humanity with your vampire 'nobility'."

"I can't excuse what I did back then," said Luka, looking down. "I was high off the power. And there weren't many vampires, back then. We could do anything. For a lot of us, it was a...an 'us vs them' mentality. We used to be human, but we couldn't remember what it was like very well. And back then, no one knew what a vampire was, really. When we found that we were stronger and faster, when we discovered that we lived off of human blood and could live indefinitely off of human blood, we...lost sight of things. It was easy to rationalize that we were given this power for a reason, that we were made to rule over humans. But," Luka sighed, "in the end, we were monsters."

Luka's words made sense, in a way. Miku remembered how strong the bloodlust was in the Seraphim simulations. But...still. "If you're so old...can you remember how you became vampires? How did all of this start?"

Luka shrugged. "Supernatural creatures have always existed. Werewolves predate vampires, right? And creatures like dream eaters, wendigos, and so on existed before us too. I can't remember how us vampires began. Maybe it was just a virus that got out of control. Maybe someone wished for it. Maybe it was just a genetic mutation. Blood sucking creatures existed before us, maybe some kind of experiment went wrong." Luka paused for a moment, expression becoming thoughtful. "Did you know that unenchanted crosses used to drive away vampires? It's not due to anything magical. Vampire brains can't process right angle intersections very well, because it's not a formation that can be found in nature. It's completely human made. We hesitate to process it and that gives human vampire hunters an opening. But we adapted to it. It's impossible not to, because Euclidean architecture has many right angle intersections. But people still think crosses drive away vampires, because it's tradition." Luka laughed. "It's silly. Humans cling to all sorts of beliefs. If a cross has any power to drive away vampires now, it's due to whatever enchantment is on it rather than the cross itself."

Miku chewed her lip. Her earlier indecision about confessing seemed so far away now. As if her feelings about Luka weren't jumbled enough before, now she had to deal with the sudden revelation that Luka was actually Elluka and that, surprise, she wasn't actually a fledgling and was in fact much older. But Luka was still Luka, right? Did this change everything the two of them had gone through? Did it change the fact that Luka had helped her and her friends who knows how many times? Miku looked at Luka. She was the same, looked the same. Her face was pale and tired, almost resigned. Her posture wasn't as straight as it was normally. She was still the same Luka Miku went on a date with the other day. But something was different at the same time. Miku looked away. "Why did you lie?"

Luka half-smiled. "I lied at the beginning because I didn't want to get caught and killed by the Seraphim. Old vampires are dangerous, and I didn't know if you would turn me in or not. And once you start lying about who you are, it becomes harder and harder to take it back. Once people start to see you as one person, it's difficult to turn to them and tell them that you're also someone else. It's not like I didn't feel bad...yesterday, every minute, I was worried about this. And even back at the beginning, I felt guilty about not telling you who I was. I kept telling myself that it was too early to drop all of this on you, but that was just a lie to make things easier for me. 'Too early'?" Luka made a dismissive gesture. "It'll always be 'too early' when in reality it's more like 'too late'."

"Too late..." Miku laughed, shakily. "God, Luka. This is big. You should have told me..." Miku trailed off. Should have told her when? Miku didn't trust Luka at all until she saved her from Leon Magnus. Should have told her after saving her from Leon Magnus? At the time, Miku had been shocked by what had just occurred, recovering from getting kidnapped by an old vampire. If her savior had turned around to reveal that she was actually an even older vampire, what would Miku have done?

"I should have told you sooner," said Luka. "I should have told you after we dealt with the wendigo incident." Luka shook her head. "I shouldn't have let our relationship progress to this without telling you the truth. I'm sorry."

Miku sucked in a breath. "So...so now what? What do we do now? Things are different now. You're not just Luka anymore. You're Elluka."

"Miku," Luka's voice became pleading, "please listen. I know I've been...lying about myself. I regret it, a lot. I never wanted to lie to you. I was...I was scared. I was scared of what would happen to us if you knew the truth about me. But does this really change that much? It doesn't magically erase everything we did together. I'm still me. My personality and feelings are the same."

This was too much to think about on such short notice. Was Luka the same, or was she different? Miku knew she was Elluka now, and her textbooks had painted a dismal view of one of the foremost ancestors of vampirism. Elluka had been cruel, cunning, and manipulative, close friends with Sateriajis Venomania until he fell for the human Gumina. Textbooks had been sketchy on the exact aftermath, but her history teacher had a pet theory that Elluka had killed Gumina for causing the fall of her closest confidante.

But here was Elluka in front of Miku's eyes, looking far from cruel, cunning, and manipulative. Instead, she looked defeated, small, and sad. Miku looked away.

"My history class said that you killed Gumina," said Miku. "Did you really?"

"Um...who's Gumina?"

"She's the one your friend Venomania fell for."

"Oh...oh right," Luka said. "Her. No, I didn't do anything to her. She just disappeared the night he was killed. Why would I even kill her? Does that make sense?" Luka frowned at Miku. "Do I really seem like the kind of person who would kill someone my friend loved?"

Miku winced. "Well...no...it's just what my history teacher thinks, because, um...she made your friend die, so maybe you got mad, or something, I don't know." It was a dumb question in retrospect, Luka deserved more than being accused of murdering her friend's lover. Miku wished she could take it back. At least Luka was apparently too tired to be offended for long.

Luka shook her head. "It wasn't her fault. She was engaged to the man who killed Sateriajis, but she never told him to kill him. What have your textbooks been telling you about me?" Luka looked at Miku askance. "I'm not the kind of person who would run around killing people for reasons like that. Anyways," said Luka, "all this took place ages ago. It doesn't have anything to do with us and now."

"I'm sorry," Miku mumbled. "It's just that...these things happened, and it's hard to stop myself from thinking about it."

Luka raked a hand through her hair. "What do you want me to do then, give you my life story? I can't remember what happened before I was a vampire very well. I think my family was very strict and military, like my father was some kind of general. There was a war, and..." Luka raised her hands. "I don't remember what happened very well. I just...became a vampire. I woke up in the rubble and I was a vampire."

"What was your last name when you were a human?" asked Miku.

Luka frowned and shook her head. "I don't remember. It's been too long."

"Oh..."

"Six hundred years is a long time," said Luka, "and I don't remember my life very well either. Like I said, vampiric memories are strange. But if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them."

"Um," said Miku. "Okay." She wasn't sure what questions to ask anymore, or even what to do. She had intended today to be a simple day where she would confess to her vampiric fledgling crush, but it had turned into something else entirely. The atmosphere between the two had taken on a strange, thick air. Luka was close, but at the same time, she was so far away, separated by the knowledge of her being Elluka, standing between the two of them like a brick wall.

"So...what did you want to tell me today?" asked Luka.

"Oh," said Miku, jolted out of her daze. "Um, I...ugh," she shook her head. "It's stupid now. Nevermind."

Luka was watching Miku carefully, her blue eyes unreadable. "Really?"

Miku sighed. "What you told me changes things, I don't know if I can still..." she trailed off, not wanting to complete that sentence. It would be too final said aloud, and Miku's feelings were a confused jumble that she couldn't put a single name to.

There was another silence. Miku stood there, heart thudding in her ears. Her limbs were heavy, her mind exhausted from running in circles. She barely slept the other night either. All she wanted was to crawl into bed and wake up in a world where things were simpler. Why did she have to go and fall in love with a vampire?

Then, Luka laughed. Miku looked at her. Luka was shaking her head, quietly chuckling, though somehow, her expression didn't seem very amused, the grin on her face more sardonic than happy. Luka looked more a vampire than ever at that moment, and despite herself Miku felt a nervous thrill shoot down her spine.

"Why are you laughing?" asked Miku.

"It's just...so stupid," said Luka, shaking her head. "It's not fair. We make all this progress only to have everything start over again because of this?" Luka dropped her hand from her head. "I'm still me. It's not like I'll act differently now that I've told you the truth about me. I know it's a lot to process, but..." Luka's shoulders dropped, "I was scared of this happening, this exact thing. This was why I didn't want to tell you, because I was afraid that telling you all this would push you away, would make you scared of me and hate me all over again..." Luka trailed off.

"I don't hate you," said Miku, quickly. "Please don't think that. I'm trying to process everything."

Luka sighed, squeezed her eyes shut, and took a deep breath, passing her hand over her face. "Okay. Fine. If that's what you want. More time, right?" There was a subtle sarcastic edge that crept into Luka's voice. "You always want more time. Time doesn't work the same way for me as it does for you, and to be honest...I'm getting a little tired of this."

"Tired of what?" asked Miku.

Luka laughed dryly. "I'm tired of waiting, and I'm tired of being scared. I don't know what you want anymore. You keep going back and forth. I don't want to do anything more to drive you away, but...I'm tired of holding myself back, too."

Miku stared at Luka. "What are you talking about?" There was a pause before Miku realized it. Her eyes widened. "Wait-"

"No," said Luka, cutting Miku off. "I can't wait and I won't wait. If you won't say it, then I will. Miku, I love you."

All of Miku's thoughts short-circuited when Luka said those words, her thoughts sucked out into a vacuum. Anything Miku could have said died in her mind before they could reach her lips. She wasn't even sure what she felt, her emotions a confused, jumbled mess. She loved Luka, but...Luka wasn't who she said she was. But did that even matter? Luka was, as she said herself, still Luka. Or was she not 'just Luka' anymore?

"I know that this is a lot to process," said Luka, her voice quieter. "But I had to tell you. As long as I'm telling you everything, I might as well tell you this. Earlier, you told me that what I told you changes things. Did it change enough to change your feelings for me?"

Miku stared at Luka. "W-wait," Miku managed to croak out. "So you knew that I..."

"Well," said Luka impatiently, "it was obvious after the wendigo incident.. Plus, you told even me our date yesterday should have ended more romantically. I'm not that oblivious."

"Oh," said Miku with a shaky laugh, "I...I guess that is kind of obvious, I forgot I even said that."

Luka nodded. "But I need an answer, Miku. If you're too confused, if you need time to process all this, I can wait. But I need one eventually."

Miku closed her eyes and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart, tried to rein in her overactive mind. If she were to trace everything back to the beginning, to that night when it all began, follow the chain of events to now...what did she feel? Before Luka confessed that she was Elluka, Miku had been all ready to confess her feelings to her, right? Did this change that much? Should Miku wait? Would it even matter if she did? What would she stand to gain by waiting more? Things would be strange between them, and Miku had waited a while too, by her own standards.

It took what seemed like too long for her mind to make a decision. Miku opened her eyes and looked at Luka, looked past the cool beauty of her face to the person inside. It would be easy to break away and say that she needed more time, but time was a commodity that Miku had used too much of. Miku took a shaky breath and put her hands on Luka's shoulders.

"I'm...tired of waiting too," Miku admitted. "So..." her face flamed red and she looked down, hoping that Luka would get the drift.

"So?" said Luka.

"So, I mean...it uh, it doesn't matter that you're Elluka..well, no, it does matter, it matters a lot! But it doesn't matter enough for me to..." Miku hesitated. Luka was starting to look confused. Miku decided to cut right to it. "A-anyways! I...I accept. Your...confession, I mean. I..." Miku looked down. She couldn't quite bring herself to use a word as strong as 'love' yet, not when she was still confused. "I like you too."

Luka's eyes widened. "You don't need to push yourself to come to a decision right now."

"No," said Miku, hotly. "I don't want to wait anymore either. If there are problems, then we'll deal with them, um, together. I want to start enjoying the time I have with you right now."

"Right now?" asked Luka, dumbly.

"Yes," said Miku, walking over to Luka. "Right now." She hesitated, just for a moment, before leaning forward and sealing her words by pressing her lips against Luka's, smooth and soft.

Luka's smile, more felt than seen, was a soft curve against Miku's lips. "Good answer."

It's been a while, hasn't it? xD;; nothing like losing internet for a few days to get you back in the writing mood! Sorry about the wait, everyone!