I ain't messin' around! :P

~Belle :)

I was woken by light reaching my eyelids. I blinked, and realized I was still laying on the bed. I also noticed that I was being watched. Aido was sitting in a chair beside the bed, looking tortured. Kain was sitting on his bed with Ruka beside him, both of them looking worried.

Something had happened. My stomach growled loudly and painfully, and I had a clue as to what it was.

"What day is it?"

"Saturday." Aido croaked out from beside me. He wouldn't raise his face.

Oh my god. I was out all night Thursday and all day and night Friday.

"Why was it... that long?" I asked, feeling stupid. I put my hand to my neck by reflex, as if to protect the spot from further harm.

"Because he drank too much blood." Kain said flatly.

"We weren't sure you were going to wake up at all." Ruka whispered.

"Why did you drink so much?" I addressed Aido softly.

"Because I needed to." He looked up and met my gaze cautiously. He eyed my face of confusion with a look of guilt. "I'm so sorry."

"But you have those pills..." I said, remembering the blood tablets I'd found in the bathroom. "You can take those if you need blood, right? Surely I'm not-"

"They don't work for me anymore." Aido admitted, like it was something embarrassing. "I can't take them. They make me sick."

I looked at his face closely, and noticed his sunken cheeks and ashy complexion. His hair was stuck out every which way, and he was dressed haphazardly in some sweatpants and a t-shirt. His skin appeared to be hanging off of his bones in places, and I realized this wasn't even how sick he must have looked before he'd drank my blood. "How are you feeling?" I asked, cupping his cheek with one hand and stroking his cheek with my thumb.

He pulled away from my hand and I blushed. I'd probably offended him with my friendly gesture, especially since Ruka and Kain were present. I quickly folded my hands on my lap and drew my knees up to my chest.

Aido looked at me carefully, as if he were trying to pick the right words to say. "I... need your blood now. It's the simplest way for me to put it. I can't go only seeing you on the weekends anymore. I've made a terrible mistake and allowed this to happen. I shouldn't have ever taken blood from you."

"You're right." Kain snapped. I looked at him with confusion, not understanding his anger.

"Is there any way for you to go back to being able to take the pills?" I asked.

"Maybe." Aido voice gritted like sandpaper. "But it could take months, years..."

Kain and Ruka stood and took this as their opportunity to leave the room. After they closed the door behind them I put my face in my hands.

"If I hadn't woken up, Kaname would have been happy." I whispered, the gravity of nearly dying finally hitting me.

Aido grasped my wrists in his hands and pulled them away from my face. "He would have been the only one."

"So." I addressed him quietly, shyly meeting his gaze with my own. "What do we do now?"

"I have to take your blood more frequently for a while. Every couple of days. I'll come and get you on my breaks from class. It's the only way I'm going to get around it for now."

I realized then that Aido hadn't been at school for almost an entire week. "Did you hear about the soiree coming up next Saturday?"

Aido nodded. "Yeah. It'll be our first outing as a 'couple'." He raised an eyebrow and me and I saw a glimmer of the old Aido I remembered before this mess had started spiraling out of control.

I laughed quietly. "I suppose so. What should I wear?"

The boy with golden hair suddenly sat up straighter, and his eyes were fixated on my form. I felt self-conscious under his gaze, and looked up at the ceiling to avoid his eyes.

"Something white. Match me. And wear a white hat too. Be my Queen." Aido smirked. "Chessboard theme, right?"

I nodded. "I can do that."

"A knee length dress if you have one. Sleeves preferred. I can't have you baring too much of your neck and clavicle around so many other vampires." Aido seemed possessive, and I idly wondered why. It's not like I had anyone else like Rei vying for my affections anymore.

He doesn't know that.

Crap, yeah!

"Um." Aido looked up at me and met my eyes, seemingly desperate to hear anything I had to say. "Rei and Akane are dating."

Aido perked up. "Takahashi? And Masa-san?"

"Yeah. They kind of started dating while I was... away." My mouth turned up at one corner.

"What an interesting development." Aido's voice was smooth as silk and I instantly mistrusted his tone. The thought left my mind quickly as he reached over past my head and grabbed a glass of water off of the night stand. He looked at it and a few cubes appeared inside, and he handed it to me. "Here, drink this. I'll order some food. You must be starving." He stood and moved toward the phone.

"Mmm." I said, trying to flag him to come back while simultaneously drinking the water. "No, don't. I'm still too tired."

Aido frowned. "You should eat something. I drained you badly." He still looked guilty when he said this.

I scooted over and, putting down the glass of water, laid back down. I patted the bed beside me. "Come lay down with me. You still look tired too. It's early, we can sleep 'til the afternoon at least, and eat later."

Aido looked he thought this was a good idea and lifted the sheet before climbing in beside me.

"Wow, you must be really tired." I teased. "Not even going to change out of those sweatpants into your silk jammies?"

Aido almost pouted. "No." He leaned up and pecked me on the lips. "Now go to sleep." He curled into a ball beside me, and closed his eyes.

I turned onto my side to face him, but one last thought went through my mind before I drifted back to sleep.

Why would he kiss me when nobody's around...