The truth had come out about Maria Kurenai not long after the dance. Walking back to the dorm after a midnight stroll, Rima commented to her coworker, "It seems like she was possessed by a pureblood."

"Shizuka Hio," Shiki supplied the name.

"Yes... As we thought, we weren't needed at all."

"Purebloods are very powerful..." He trailed off, not finishing the thought, which came across as a blatantly obvious observation. "Possession..." he murmured at last, but she didn't know what he was thinking.

"They would have to be very powerful indeed to possess someone who wasn't a close relation. Although I heard they were cousins? Anyway, it seems like Maria volunteered."

"She isn't staying..?" he inquired.

"No, I heard she was going home." Rima shrugged. She hadn't really asked after the Kurenai girl. The only important piece of information was that Shizuka Hio was dead, supposedly slain by the prefect Zero Kiryuu, although that didn't quite add up. If she suspected anyone, it was Kaname Kuran himself, but she knew better than to voice such an opinion aloud.

"Everything ended well."

"Yes."

The spring flowers lining their path fluttered and tossed their petals in the breeze as though in agreement. The trees, however, were scarcely stirred by the wind's intimate touch, stretching away towards the luminary orb that swelled high overhead. In the moonlight, the highlights of Shiki's mahogany hair glinted like dark rubies, lustrous and beautiful.

The pair walked on in silence, the kind of silence that Rima usually welcomed. However, suddenly, strangely, the blond model wanted more. That silence raged violently through her veins; she swallowed dryly. Ever since the night of the dance, ever since the abrupt realization of her feelings for her coworker, she had been plagued with intrusive thoughts, all of them ending or beginning with her fangs piercing the mahogany-haired vampire's throat. She wanted to know more about him, to understand what lie on the other side of these silences. Although she was far more in tune with him now than when they'd first met, she could still rarely guess his thoughts when they were alone.

It frustrated her. Rima had been hungry before, had even experienced bloodlust, just as all adolescent vampires did when they went through puberty. But this was different. She felt as though she needed to taste him, to comprehend him a little more, to satisfy this dry, raw thirst that constantly itched in her throat. She didn't like the feeling, disliked how it distracted her from class and stole away moments of precious slumber. Maybe under normal circumstances she could have put an end to it by simply biting him, but this was Shiki. Craving his blood achieved nothing but vexation, because if she did bite him she may end up triggering all of the pain his mother had inflicted on him. He might close off from her or push her away, or she might hurt him beyond all forgiveness. She wasn't about to risk any of those things.

Most troubling of all, however, was this newfound infatuation. Now that she was aware of it, she was more aware of him. More than before, she had to curb her reactions and control the telltale changes in her heart rate. It was tiresome, but if Shiki hadn't read it in her blood, she wasn't about to admit that she was attracted to him. Hopefully in time it would pass and she wouldn't have to preoccupy herself with it anymore. What end could this liking possibly have, anyway, besides disappointment?

For now, unable to escape these feelings, she breathed in the rain and twilight of his blood and relaxed. Passing the time with him like this imparted something like contentment. These brief, tranquil moments were preserved for just the two of them, outside the mundane reality of their daily lives.

"Are you going home for the summer break?" she asked suddenly.

"Yes... Although it's a while from now..." His answer came slowly, underlined with apparent reluctance. The way he wouldn't quite meet her eyes as he said it, she knew he was unhappy.

Rima hadn't really considered the break; it was still weeks away, but she supposed she'd have to go home as well. Unexpectedly, the thought tightened uncomfortably in her chest. She wondered how it would be to pass so many weeks without her coworker after being with him every day...

"I guess we'll have to take a work vacation, too, since you don't live nearby..." she mused. What on Earth was she going to do without school, work, or Shiki? The break was shaping up to be downright torturous. Rima knew how her parents would want her to pass her time: attending soirees and meeting potential suitors.

"Yeah..." The melancholy in his voice resounded through her ears.

To change the subject, she questioned, "Did Ichijou-kun ever get into trouble with any of those Day Class girls?" She doubted that the vice president had, though she was curious. Neither she nor Shiki had gotten into any trouble for their own...breach of the school rules. Although, she wasn't sure anyone had even noticed amongst the chaos of the day.

A vaguely amused expression replaced the distant one. "Not that I know of."

"What a shame."

"What about Ruka-san?" he inquired out of the blue.

"What do you mean?" She frowned.

"Every time I meet you before class now, she's in the room," he pointed out.

That was observant of him. Ruka had been cooped up in the room for days now, sulking. Rima was growing impatient with her. "Kaname-sama rejected her, that's all," she explained. Ruka had been naive enough to confess, for maybe the third or fourth time, and naturally she had been rejected again for the third or fourth time. The girl simply didn't learn, and no amount of knocking on the door or pleading from Kain had gotten her to come out. The model pitied the redhead. Kain should really move on himself, but he was utterly devoted to the honey-haired noble. Ruka wasn't worthy of his affections by half.

As they entered the Night Dorm, Shiki stated, "It's annoying."

Rima quashed a smile. "You only find it annoying because you want to hang out in my room."

He shot her an almost harried glance. "Ichijou-kun is always in our room... And when Ruka-san is in the dorm too much, the smell is nauseating."

That was true. Rima could scarcely breathe around the choking cloud of flowery perfume that weighed down the air of the room they shared. If only they had been allowed separate bedrooms... Or if only she had been rooming with literally anyone else... It was fortunate that between class and her modeling schedule she was rarely in the dorm.

"Well, Ichijou-kun doesn't smell as bad as Ruka, at least," Rima said.

"Just let those two room together..." Shiki muttered and Rima blanched. The idea of two of the strongest smelling vampires in the Night Class sharing a room together was frightening.

The pair came to a stop. Down the hall to the right was Rima's room, to the left Shiki's. A beat passed, and then the two turned in opposite directions.

"Good night."

"Good night."

She wanted to stop these feelings, but instead of shutting them off, she wished the Night Dorm did not have quite so many rules, and that she did not have to part with him at all. Already, she wanted the next evening to come, because the air she breathed without his scent to tinge it just didn't feel right anymore.

-o-

"Just live like a doll."

He had. He'd flicked the "off" switch and buried his heart underground. There, feeling as if he was lying on his own grave, he had fallen asleep dreaming of light, of departed ambitions, and woken brokenhearted and alone. He'd injected numbness and apathy into his veins like a drug until he could no longer remember the blue of the sky or the green of the leaves. Until all that was left to him was grey. The endless, eternal grey of a thousand winters that bleached out his vision and marched through his ears like the sound of death. And slowly, carefully, he had hollowed himself out into emptiness.

In the vastness of that emptiness, something, he didn't know what, had disappeared inside him. Sometimes at night he could feel it creeping ever closer, like the sharp breath before a plunge that never came. The silence encased him, and suddenly this feeling of defeat rained down to dampen all the colors to grey. The grey midnight rain insisted against his skin, never easing, never fading, battering him down into unease, fatigue, and apathy that stained the sheets beneath him. There, alone, his body curled tightly on the bed and his stomach knotted empty on nothing, he felt the faint spark of his lost self. That desperate, tiny spark carried her to him. Scents, feelings, sounds, all of them reminded him of her, all of them brought with them an implacable, unforgettable sweetness that he could not drive away.

He was helpless against it. Helpless against that tidal force of sapphire electricity. Helpless against the intoxicating reminiscence of her blood in his mouth. That blood had seeped through his veins, feeding directly to his heart and revealing at that deepest place within him the very essence of her. And he was seduced more by her free, unfettered heart and her idiosyncrasies than by the sensual perfume of her heated blood or her striking features. He was undeniably, unequivocally seduced by her charming bluntness and subdued humor, by her artistic flair, by her calm aura... Everything, everything converged around him, weaving together in a web that was Rima.

And he wanted it all for himself. Possessively. Perilously. Like an abandoned house, he should have kept himself shut. All the doors and windows should have remained tightly closed and locked, yet he had let her in. Perhaps one day that front door would slam shut and trap her inside, a prisoner to the insidious blood that infected his veins. Perhaps one day the memory of her blood would corrode his throat like poison until he was engulfed by the flames of thirst and desire, until he needed more and more, until he drained her dry of her very life...

For now, she had threaded together the rags of his body with her with the taste of her warm veins. Lately, he dared to want her to stitch him back further with a kiss... Increasingly, he was becoming aware of these budding desires, of the long-buried emotions, and most of all...he was becoming aware of himself. And while he might be standing at the precipice of a terrible doom, he also considered tempting fate. Because, after all, wasn't he special? Rima, she didn't choose her friends carelessly. Somehow, she had found him worthy enough to speak to and to walk beside. She had never once breathed a word of friendship, but he knew that they were. That should be enough, although the traitorous part of him selfishly wanted more.

He was transfixed by her. Her voice exhaled art, her eyes pulsed with lightning and poetry, her skin reflected moonbeams. Her presence was like a bell, calling to him, rousing his comatose soul and at the same time soothing it. He did not feel so torn when she was there. Each taste bud vividly recalling the flavor of her blood, his cheeks crept up into a small, lingering smile.

Drifting off to sleep in the dawn, his lips bloomed with her name.

AN: Hoho, now even Rima can't deny that she likes him...Hehehehe...