CHAPTER THREE

To Recognize the Stars

By his second class, it was pitch black outside. As soon as he stepped out of his first to go to his next period, Akatsuki placed a hand on his shoulder. "Where you heading?" he asked although he didn't sound all too curious. But the gesture itself proved that this bronze-haired man did not want a certain reckless blond to sneak out and get himself in trouble, which of course, would result into him getting into trouble as well.

"On a walk."

"Walk, huh?" he echoed and stared at his cousin. He was frowning as he let go of his grip to scratch his head. "You know that whatever you're doing, I'll get dragged into it…right?"

"Who says I'm doing anything wrong?!" Hanabusa snapped but he knew fair well that even if his cousin wasn't with him, Kaname would still kill them both anyway. It was the burden that Hanabusa knew Akatsuki carried — the burden of simply knowing. His bluish green eyes peered at his cousin's butterscotch ones, challenging to try and stop him. Akatsuki sighed, defeated.

"Fine, whatever." The taller vampire sighed exasperatedly. "I tried."

Hanabusa just smiled.

But what they both didn't know was the way Takuma leaning over the door to hear their conversation, his ivy green eyes bright with curiosity. And he, unlike Akatsuki, had a spare.

xx-x-xx

When Hanabusa arrived — at the same spot — he yelped. "Get off me!" He shouted as a huge, vicious German Shepherd snarled and pounced. The thing took a step back towards the girl and she mumbled something, rubbing her eyes as she yawned. "Akira?" She frowned and then slowly looked up to see a wide eyed man. She stretched again, her eyes wincing. "Calm down boy," she said soothingly as she stroked the dog that was bent on protecting her. "It's just a student," she said but the dog still had its teeth bared as if he was in front of a monster.

"Can you get that thing away from me?" he shouted out, but the fear in his eyes made her laugh.

"Akira has been here longer than you have, stranger," she said breezily, smiling as she got up. She had to lean against a tree and stretch yet again before scratching her hair. The way she moved lazily reminded him strangely of Shiki — and the hair too, if not darker.

Hanabusa scoffed. "Oh yeah?" he challenged and took a step closer but goddamnit she wasn't blushing. She looked at him coolly, waiting. "I bet I would be a better star-watching partner than a mutt would."

She blinked, and then both her eyebrows shot up as she raised an index finger. "First," she said slowly, "that's rude. He is not a mutt, he is a beautiful God-given service dog that protects me from possible people who may take advantage of sleeping girls." Hanabusa stared. Was this girl real? Or was she purposefully created to agitate him in every way possible? "And secondly," she continued and her middle finger joined the index to prove her point, "since when were we stargazing buddies?"

"Well I didn't say buddies —"

The look she gave him cut him off. It was the sort of "are you kidding me" torn with "who do you think you are" sort of gaze that he only received from vampires of his level — that he was raised alongside with. From his cousins, from high-ranking vampires — not from human girls. Besides, weren't they supposed to melt and write poetry inspired by his icy blue eyes —

Right. She wouldn't know that.

But he was still a good looking guy, colouring aside. So how was she treating him so casually? Maybe this was a pretense, a play hard to get sort of tactic. He had to give her points for pulling it off. Or maybe...maybe she just wasn't —

He cleared his throat and spun the telescope around. He wanted to change the topic, quick. "Can your dog find Aries? And since we're in the Northern Hemisphere and it's December, I bet I can even find Perseus, at 90 and negative 35 degrees —" He stopped. Bent over the telescope and his eyes peering inside, he couldn't see anything. It was all blurry. "What the hell," he muttered, spinning it around. "Your thing is broken."

Suddenly she laughed and walked towards him. She shoved him away as she grabbed the telescope from him. Her fingers moved quickly against the knobs and he saw a smile playing on her mouth. "Knowing the location of the stars to the degree isn't very impressive. You do realize that everything in the night sky will just float away, don't you?" He could hear the smirk on her face. "And you shouldn't turn up the power that high, you'll miss the full picture. And the details that allow you to distinguish it." He stared, dumbfounded.

"Try it now, smart guy," she continued with that same infuriating smile. He glared at her as he took it away brusquely from her and faced Perseus. And just like that, he could see the stars. They still looked like scattered dots but he mentally connected it in his mind.

"Whatever," he muttered sullenly. How could he have forgotten to study the telescope — the tool? Wasn't he supposed to be proving his intelligence — not making a further fool out of himself?

Sensing his annoyance, the smirk disappeared and she pointed towards a large knob. "You see that?" she began, "you have to align the axis." Her fingers played with it as he leaned in, looking through the glass and she was right. "And then simply focus it." She continued but this time she had to awkwardly slip her hand under his arching body to adjust it and like she said, everything became sharper. He had no idea if it was muscle memory, but she had made the tiniest adjustment but it became...perfect. Absolutely crisp and clear.

And of course, he was very aware of how close she was towards him as she leaned in and explained the other crap of a telescope. With his heightened senses, he could feel the heat radiating off her, the slight touch of flyaway hair and the smell of...nothing. No perfume. Off. Just human smell, and coffee and blood. He found himself watching her closely and was surprised at the tone in her voice, as if she was talking about finding world peace rather than parts of a machine. Her eyes were bright and she seemed to forget about him as she went on and on, with him not hearing her at all.

Suddenly he blinked out of it and leaned back. When had she gotten so close to him? How?

"Uh," he cleared his throat and looked away — at anywhere that wasn't this girl who cared for useless things like telescopes and stars out of everything — and then he looked up at the sky with his naked eye. There was a pale, glowing crescent moon and for a moment, he simply stared at it. A voice in the back of his mind whispered, wondering if this girl thought the moon was beautiful as well — but he shoved that thought away. "I should get back," he said and the sudden reserved tone didn't go unnoticed. "Thanks for the astronomy lesson."

She laughed, not at all offended by his sarcasm or abrupt departure. "No problem," she shrugged and turned away from him. "Maybe you'll be able to find a star the next time." And despite yet another thrown-out invitation, she was obviously forgetting about him as she checked her notebook, and then aimed the telescope to a different direction. And with him still standing there, she carried on her stargazing as if she was completely alone and he was never there to begin with.

xx-x-xx

My eyes searched the skies, of something different or unusual. I was pretty sure it was all stargazer's dream of finding a new star but to this day, there was nothing. Months, years and decades would go by and I still probably would not find anything, but you could always try, right?

I found myself staring at the moon. Even with a black and white vision, the mood emitted this strange, hazy glow that made me wonder what properties that it held that made it so fuzzy. It was hard to explain. Light blurred my vision, and in darkness the lines and edges became prominent. But the moon seemed like there was a cooler, brighter shade hazing over it. Not quite gray, not quite white. Was this colour? Or maybe because it was an illuminated —

"Hey!"

I let out a shout, my knees suddenly forgetting its job as I tripped over, uh, myself. My arm instinctively shot out to grab a hold of something – oh, but not the telescope!

Needless to say, I chose to fall instead.

"Sorry, sorry!"

My dog barked.

"I didn't mean to sneak up on you, I swear!" a man claimed, both hands raised and his eyes wide. I didn't know how to describe him but light seemed pretty close. Everything about him was light. I blew the hair from my face and looked at him with an obviously irritated expression.

"What are you doing?!" I called out as I tried to breathe normally. "You don't just sneak up on people like that!" I tried to calm down my growling dog. He held a hand to me but that made Akira go ballistic. Distantly I wondered why he was so angry and suspicious today. I frowned but the man — a student here — only laughed embarrassed.

"That's true, I'm sorry." He smiled apologetically. "My name is Ichijou Takuma," he introduced himself as he held out his hand again. I watched him warily, and raised the hand that wasn't holding down on Akira's collar slowly. His hand was cool to the touch. My eyes didn't leave him as I wondered what the hell was happening: why I was suddenly meeting people.

"Misane Kaede."

xx-x-xx

A stack of folders slammed down on Aidou Hanabusa's desk. He looked up, startled, and then glared his aqua-coloured eyes at the cheery blond in front of him. "What the hell was that for, Ichijou?" he complained with a frown as his fingers flipped over the pages. It was full of doodles.

"Nothing, I was just trying to get your attention," the vampire smiled, and Hanabusa could practically see the sparkles. For someone who may possibly become Head of the Council someday, he sure didn't act like it. The entire class turned to the two blond aristocrats who all of a sudden, decided to be loud during their last class of the night. Hanabusa's eyes slit to a glare again.

"What do you want?" he asked, his chin resting against his palm as his eyes wandered. Whatever his request was, the chances of him fulfilling it were slim to none. Takuma grinned again.

"Kaede."

"What?" He wasn't sure why he was in such an irritable mood. Maybe it was because despite the studying – God I actually studied? – he still failed at appearing smart. No, not appearing — proving. Out of everything this human could have expertise in, why did it have to be as something useless as stars? Why couldn't she be good at math, at Trigonometry? Then he could be better than her. Prove to her that he was a genius.

"It's her name," Takuma continued, "the one you saw before –"

"What?" Ruka turned around immediately, her pale brown eyes wide. "That's why you needed to leave? For a girl? Do you want Kaname to scold you?" She glared at him and threw a pencil across the room at her cousin which he ignored. He had shot up, palm against the table as his eyes blazed at Takuma.

"You followed me?"

Takuma blinked. "Well yeah." He didn't bother lying and behind him, Rima's eyes slid towards the two. She, like majority of the class, wanted the period to be over with and she didn't feel like handling Hanabusa's exuberance this early in the morning. She clapped her book shut. "You didn't do anything stupid, did you?" she asked in a passive tone. As amusing as it may be, she didn't want Kaname storming in and slapping Hanabusa for drinking blood from those stupid human fangirls. At least not today.

"That is so —"

Sensing his unexplained anger, Takuma laughed nervously, sweat dropping as he raised up his palms. "I didn't mean anything out of it! Besides at least now you know her name, right?"

"Who said I didn't know it before?" he said quickly and defensively.

"So there is a girl," Ruka said and she shot Akatsuki a look. He simply shrugged. He guessed as much but Hanabusa's business was for now, out of his control. The way everyone looked at him instead of directly at Hanabusa made him feel like he was his cousin's keeper. He sighed and fingered his already tousled hair. "He didn't do anything." But he wasn't so sure himself. His eyes rose to meet his cousin's. Hanabusa looked frustrated, he noticed immediately. "Right?"

"Of course not!"

"Then that's the end of that," Akatsuki said with a tone of finality. The teacher walked in, right on time and everyone lapsed back to uninterested silence. Hanabusa looked more glum than bored. And for the rest of the hour, he was simply doodling: stars and planets and the word maple* all over as if they didn't know what it meant.

Woah, guys. Thanks for all the feedback! It made my day and made me laugh. Longer chapter, mildly eventful and her (forgettable?) name's revealed - there.

Reviews would be lovely :)

*Maple is the English translation of the name Kaede.