CHAPTER TWO

A Star's Trail

"Hanabusa." Akatsuki snapped with a flicker of irritation in his sienna eyes. His eyebrows furrowed towards his cousin, but the blond vampire was squinting up towards the sky. The slightest sunlight was seen over the horizon, breaking through the black and blue of the sky. Hanabusa simply stared, expressionless as he ignored his cousin.

He wondered how the world would look like in black and white, but then decided the thought was too depressing to dwell in. How could anyone live without colour? He shook his head to clear the thought away. "Huh?"

Akatsuki sighed. His temper was little to none and it faded as soon as he ran his fingers through his hair. He was tired and wanted to get back into bed before the sun rose. "No one got hurt, did they?"

Hanabusa's face scrunched up. "No!" he cried out indignantly, "why would anyone get hurt?" He spoke quickly and his tone was immediately suspicious. Akatsuki stared at him, the slightest confused expression on his face. What's gotten into him?

"You ran out as soon as you smelled blood." He turned his head and there was no one around. Well, no one still around at least. "What, was it a squirrel?"

He blinked and his face dropped. "Sure," he said quietly and as soon as his strange behaviour had appeared, it was gone. "Just a squirrel." He nodded back towards the path away from the dense cover of trees and they began walking back towards the Dorms in silence. And they didn't speak at all — making Akatsuki only more curious as to what drew out his cousin, and why he was being so secretive about it.

But there was no way that Hanabusa was going to tell anyone that there was a human girl in the forest, stargazing, perhaps every night. That would be his little secret.

xx-x-xx

In the familiar blackness of my room — a single room, I gladly add — I ran a brush through my hair. If I looked down, strings of a darkish shade of gray would be present. I didn't know what colour my hair was and the thought irritated me. I groaned. It was the same every morning, and although once in a while I would ask my parents hey what colour am I? They would say things like copper brown but it was stupid.

Because how the hell was I supposed to know what copper brown looked like? To the extent of my knowledge, copper was the material of a coin and well, brown...

It was stupid to torment yourself over something you've never had before, something you never will have — and yet I did anyway.

It was that sort of going in circles that made me discover that my eyes were also hazel. In my dictionary, it was a darker sometimes lighter gray which wasn't very informative either. It was weird. These were the only colours – uh, shades – I've known and most of the time, that was how I decipher things. But other times when I felt like being an angsty teenager, I would bitch and complain about how everyone else has these magical, versatile things called colours and I had grey. Like this morning. I hated mornings — it gave me too much reflection time.

I sighed. "Just gotta get through the day," I mutter to myself as I propped up against the mirror. I popped in my red central lenses – it was exactly like how it sounded: a clear contact lens with red in the centre where my pupils were. It didn't give me colour as much as sharpened the ones I've already seen, giving them sharper definitions. I needed them particularly this season. Although it was December, it was still too bright out in the morning.

I didn't even know why I was thinking so much about appearances. It usually wasn't such a big deal. And no, it wasn't because I was a mature teenager or anything – it was just the way things sort of work when you have a monochrome vision. And despite my rambling, I knew exactly why I was thinking about these things: because I met someone. And you have to understand, I didn't usually run into people. People are simply there when I arrive but I've never met a stranger before. Again, another unintentional side effect of being an Achromatic. And I could lie all I want, but it was clear: I would not mind seeing the stranger again.

Do you know when you love something, and you want to scream out to the world about its divine perfection? Stars were like that to me. I didn't exactly want everyone loving it as much as I did – a teenager inferiority complex, I guess — but maybe I can share it with this guy. Again, I found myself sighing. Slipping on my sunglasses — which I wore not to look cool, I assure you, but to block out more light — I left the comfort of my room.

The light that streamed down the corridor was annoying but what was worse was the rush of girls getting ready to school. I should give them a break though; they have to care about that sort of thing. Visual appearances were a big deal when you could see colour. But this wasn't too bad. What was bad was the way they got ready after school and it wasn't because they were going out into town. Nope, it was because the Night Class was finally out of their shadows and out to play.

A familiar damp thing nudging at my hand made me grin. "Hey, Akira!" I bent down to shuffle the fur at its collar. Meet Akira, my service dog. Like I said, I wasn't blind but things got damn hard to see when the light was out at its full power during the day. I was still petitioning for Akira to stay in my room but so far, Headmaster Kaien only allowed him in a make-shift kennel but every morning when I would step out, my loyal canine friend would be already there.

I guess I was playing up the whole blindness thing with the sunglasses and dog, which made people think that I was completely blind. But it wasn't too bad, and I didn't mind the curious company — granted they cared for Akira, not me. And so I fell into the same monotonous routine of sitting in class and relying solely on my ears for the lesson. I wrote on a black paper with white pen and I wrote big. Again, all little modified things to aid the colour blind. When lunch arrived, I skipped it and opt out for coffee instead at the library. Then classes. And more. Then it was over.

To say the least, nothing was terribly interesting, not until night fell and I was back in my terrain.

xx-x-xx

It wasn't even dawn yet when I began setting up my beloved telescope out in the forests of Cross Academy. This whole forest thing made me a keeper, guaranteeing my student life here until I graduate. But since there was still a stream of light, my vision wasn't at its best. Light was confusing and so bumping into trees was a real possible pain in the ass.

I had my notebook out and astronomy texts. Setting up my telescope became second nature and within seconds, it was up and ready to go. The only thing left were the stars to come out. With a deep exhale, I kicked back on a blanket and felt the world around me disappear with the much needed nap.

xx-x-xx

Aidou shot some girls.

Figuratively, of course, and they were consumed with giggling and shrieks, wanting him to shoot them too. But he didn't — the first one was a weak attempt anyway. He sighed, clearly no longer amused. His arm went limp but he did it just for the sake of upholding that Idol image. It was usually fun being so completely and unconditionally loved by all these humans but with the approaching winter break, he just wanted to go back to his house and leisurely do nothing.

By the time he arrived inside his first class, the previously orange skies were now streaked with indigo and dark violet. He sat up straighter. As soon as it was black outside, he would be leaving.

After his encounter with that human last night, he realized how much he didn't like being patronized. He made a point of studying astronomy and stars so that he could recognize them just to make sure that no one would think of him as incompetent. It took him several hours and Ruka had called him a nerd as Akatsuki gaped with horror at him — but he knew it all now. And as soon as the stars came out, he would be out of this class and shove it into her face of how much more he knew about stars than she —

She?

What was her name?

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