Disclaimer:I do not own Rosario + Vampire. I do, however, own the specific type of dragon that I am using in this story, my OC (Tsukune's dragon father), as well as the plot elements that I haven't taken from R+V.

This is probably the most writing I've ever done at one time… fourth chapter today!

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The morning after the Kurumu incident, Moka seemed troubled. She walked in uncharacteristic silence for the duration of their trip to school. By the time they got to homeroom, Tsukune decided he'd had enough. Taking Moka's arm, he drew her aside. "Alright, what's wrong?"

"Tsukune… you know Silver started talking to me… us… through the seal?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well… what if that's because the seal's weakening? If… if it broke… would you still like me?"

He laughed. "That's what's been bothering you all morning? Good grief, Moka. Didn't I say before? Silver or Pink, it doesn't matter. You're both you."

Moka smiled shyly, and seemed about to say something more, but was interrupted suddenly by none other than Kurumu. "Good morning, Tsukune! Oh, and Moka."

She shot the other girl a poisonous look as she tacked her name onto the end of her greeting. Tsukune noticed, and carefully stepped between the two, turning to the succubus. "Kurumu… what are you doing here?"

"I'm in your class! Don't tell me you never noticed me?! Anyway, I made cookies! Would you like to eat some with me?"

Moka frowned. "Why are you making cookies for Tsukune?"

The succubus giggled. Tsukune instantly became wary; it wasn't a good sign. As it turned out, he was all too right.

"Oh, well, you know what Tsukune said yesterday about it being in our nature to enslave men? Well, the reason for that is to find our Destined One, our true mate. And I've decided that it's Tsukune! He risked his life to save me!"

Tsukune swallowed nervously as the two girls tried to stare each other down.

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In homeroom, Sensei Nekonome made an unexpected announcement: everyone would be expected to participate in a club. Apparently it was part of learning to integrate with humans. Tsukune found it laughable, but it was probably better to go along with the notion than spend all the effort required to get out of it. With a sigh, he resigned himself to the loss of free time. Nekonome mentioned something about how understanding humans led to a better disguise, and then some idiot in the front row made a joke about how she must not understand humans, pointing out her tail. He left class shortly after to get some rather impressive scratch wounds treated.

He had to admit, though, that the club exhibition was impressive. The school was chock-full of stands and demonstrations. Moka didn't have much of an idea about which club to join, and neither did Tsukune, so they decided to simply look around. Fortunately, they'd managed to give Kurumu the slip, at least for a while, so they could do so in relative peace.

Of course, they still had to deal with the various strange, creepy and sometimes downright disgusting individuals who tried to recruit them. The Phantom Photography Club wanted to take some rather inappropriate pictures. Their leader found that being a ghost did not stop Tsukune punching him in the face. The Chemistry Club received a similar reaction as soon as they brought up love potions. Things continued in the same vein for a while, until the Swimming Club showed up.

"Hey, you're Akashiya Moka and Aono Tsukune, right? I'm Tamao Ichinose, the Club Captain. Why don't you join us?"

Behind her was a gaggle of swimsuit-clad girls. All the boys immediately started clamouring to join, but the captain kept her attention on Tsukune and Moka. The vampiress looked uncomfortable, and Tsukune didn't feel any better. He made a regretful face. "I'm sorry, but neither of us get on well with water. I'm afraid we'll have to decline."

Tamao frowned. "Come now, surely it can't be that bad? What's wrong with water?"

Tsukune snorted. "Fire type youkai. Vampire. Does that answer your question?"

He pointed first to himself, then Moka as he spoke. The captain scowled, and walked away without another word. The club followed, and behind them came the flock of infatuated boys. Tsukune rolled his eyes. "Come on, Moka. Let's find something a little more doable for the both of us."

Smiling at him gratefully, she took hold of his arm and for once let him lead the way through the seething crowd. It was surprisingly difficult to find something for the both of them. A lot of clubs had questionable intentions, and there was no way Tsukune would let those near Moka. Some of the others, such as the martial arts clubs, would only have been good for him, and he wasn't leaving his friend behind (Silver liked the idea of joining a martial arts club, but Tsukune reminded her that she was only half of Moka and had to consider Pink.) By the end of the day, they still hadn't managed to decide.

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On their way back to the dorms, they passed near the pool. Instead of the laughter and idle chatter they expected, however, screams and shouts mingled with desperately splashing water. Sharing a look, the two decided to investigate.

When they reached the fence around the pool, both of them stopped dead in shock. The Swimming Club girls were all mermaids, and now that they had a group of boys in the water, they were hunting them down and draining their youkai one by one. Tsukune snarled and started to rip the fence open, but Moka stopped him. "Tsukune, we can't go in there! I'm a vampire, and… well, I didn't know you were weak to water, but it kind of makes sense, given that you're a red dragon…"

Tsukune grinned. "Weak? I never said I was weak to water. I said I didn't get on with it."

Leaving Moka looking at him questioningly, he tore the fence apart and walked calmly up to the pool before stripping down to his boxers. The mermaids quickly left their current prey and swam towards him, though they held back from the edge. The Captain swam closer, coming right up to the side of the pool and smiling up at him. "So, you decided to join? Or are you here to stop us harming them?"

She laughed. "It's a pity you're a fire youkai, and weak to water, or you might have had a chance."

This time, Tsukune roared with laughter, leaving the mermaids puzzled.

"Oh, you idiots. Did I ever say I was weak to water? Do you know what happens when you heat water over a fire?"

He grinned sadistically. "It boils."

And with that, he stepped into the pool. As soon as he touched the water, it started to hiss and steam. Within seconds, the water near him was bubbling, and soon the whole pool was too hot for the mermaids to bear. They threw themselves onto the paving around the edges, flapping like beached fish. Tsukune was glowing from within, an orange light burning in his chest and refracting in shimmers through the pool. A similar, smaller glow blossomed in all the unfortunate victims, and on close inspection, a tiny thread of orange connected their lights to Tsukune's, protecting them from burning. He grinned again. "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the pot. I believe that's the human saying. So now that you're out… what do I do with you?"

Raising a hand, his claws extended slowly, glinting viciously in the evening sun. The mermaids quailed as his teeth grew long and sharp. "I've always been partial to a fish fillet…"

"Tsukune! That's enough!"

Glancing over, he saw Moka entering through the gap in the fence. She was looking at him sternly.

"They've learnt their lesson, I'm sure. We can leave it at that."

You stopped me mutilating the succubus. It would be hypocritical of you to ignore Moka now.

Tsukune sighed. "I suppose you're right. Besides, what chance do I have against both of you in an argument?"

That statement left the mermaids puzzled, but they thought they had the answer when Kurumu appeared. They were wrong, of course, but Tsukune wasn't going to correct them when he had been provided such a convenient reason for his slip of the tongue in front of them. The succubus looked down at him standing in the pool with a smile as her eyes roamed his muscular figure.

"Wow, Tsukune. I had my ideas, but you're even better-looking than I thought…"

"Hey, Tsukune! Come out of the water. You might not be that vulnerable to it, but you're still a fire-type. It will chill you eventually."

The evening rapidly deteriorated from there, with Kurumu trying to seduce him into going back into the pool with her, Moka trying to get Kurumu to stop and Tsukune to pay attention to her instead, and Tsukune just trying to relax. However much he asked, told, scolded or even pleaded with the pair, their incessant bickering continued. Finally, he snapped, drawing his youkai up into his voice to lend it some punch.

"Both of you, shut up!"

They complied.

"Thank you. Now then… Moka, I need to talk to you. Kurumu, please go and find something else to occupy yourself."

With his youkai lending a powerful, growling compulsion to his voice, even Kurumu couldn't bring herself to argue, and slunk off. Tsukune let out a sigh.

"Finally. Alright, Moka… I wanted to tell you a little more about dragons."

She nodded nervously. "If you like…"

"Well, I'm a Red Dragon, as you know. We are the strongest kind, and grow to the largest size, as we never stop growing. Our elemental affinity is fire, but our nature means that we alone of the dragons aren't weak to our affinity's opposing element. A Red Dragon's fire comes from inside, in the core. The only way to damp that fire is to either completely exhaust our youkai or to force us to inhale water. Drinking is fine, swimming is fine, but if we inhale water it will also go down the fire duct. That's a bad thing for a Red Dragon, because once the fire is gone, it can never be relit. It's very hard to extinguish, but there's no going back once it happens. That's the tradeoff for our resistance to water. And there's more to it than just breathing fire – a lot of a Red Dragon's power comes from their fire. If you lose your fire, at least two thirds of your strength is taken with it."

Moka frowned. "I remember when your father attacked, he never breathed fire. Does… does that have something to do with why he hates vampires so much?"

Tsukune winced, and Moka knew she'd got it right. "Yes, it does. A few thousand years ago, there was a powerful vampire who discovered a charm to protect himself from water. Wearing this charm, he attacked my father and lured him into the river. Thinking he'd backed the vampire into a bad situation, my father charged, and the vampire nearly drowned him in the river, taking his eye out in the process. My father has never forgiven the vampire race."

The pink-haired vampiress was stunned by this story, but even more so by the implications. "So… if your father lost two thirds of his power in that fight… then when he nearly killed my father…"

Tsukune nodded. "Yes. He was weak compared to his prime. And he let your father live. He's told me the story… four scars. One on your father's face you'll know of. One on his neck probably also. The other two I doubt he's shown you. One through his chest and one through his gut. My father left those scars as a reminder of the superiority of dragons, or so he says. Personally I think it's because he likes making people seem inferior."

He sighed. "Back on topic… now that you know a little more about me, hopefully you'll be able to understand why I act the way I do sometimes. I was raised in the knowledge that I was superior. I was trained by the best, and I never wanted for anything except a friend. Now that I've got one, I'm starting to see that the rest was not as it seemed, but… I'm still unsure. And secondly… I suspect that Father might still have that charm. It's the sort of thing he'd have taken as a trophy. If you like, I could look for it next time I'm back home."

Moka stared at him with shining eyes. "Would you? That would be… amazing. No vampire in recorded history has ever found a way around the water problem that doesn't require prior preparation, either with herbs or blood, which is no good in a fight or an accident. To have such a charm… I'm sure that it would make a good enough offering even to bridge the gap between our species for you, but… I couldn't ask you to take something like that from your father."

"Moka, you don't have to ask. You're my friend, and I want you to be safe."

"Thank you, Tsukune!"

She grabbed him into a hug, but quickly started nuzzling at his neck. Sighing, Tsukune tilted his head and pulled his collar aside.

#~#~#~#

By next morning, the club situation was dire. Moka and Tsukune still hadn't found one that met both of their requirements. They stood off to the side of the square that sat in the centre of the school, frantically discussing what they were going to do. They were so absorbed in their problem that they didn't notice Nekonome approaching until she was right next to them.

"Haven't you two decided on a club yet?"

Tsukune sighed. "No, sensei. We haven't been able to find one that works for both of us."

"Excellent! Why don't you join the Newspaper Club?"