CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A Flare's Reprisal (I)

He was in love with her.

Aidou Hanabusa had fallen for a human and he had no idea when had it happened. He didn't know if it was when she lied her butt off in front of the aristocrat vampire with that bright, nervous smile of hers; he didn't know if it was when he had drank from her neck and it felt like for once in his life, the thirst was quenched; he didn't know if it was the first time he had dragged her to tutoring and she had opened the door with that messy hair and sleepy eyes; and he didn't know if it was the first time he had ever met her and she was talking so earnestly about something as frivolous and far-fetching like stars.

But either way, it had happened.

She was still saying, "Oh God, oh God, I am hilarious," and wiping away that tear when he blinked and stared at her. Eventually, she settled down and took few deep breathes. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this."

But he couldn't get his mind into it. He cleared his throat before opening her textbook to the first chapter review, where he planned to make her do every single chapter test so that she would be prepared for the exam. "All right," he said, avoiding all eye contact with her, "let's start from the top with sequences and series."

"Wait, wait," she said and she reached down again, one arm shoulder deep into her bag. She came back up with hand sanitizer and a contact lenses case. Cleaning her hands thoroughly, she opened unscrewed the lid and carefully dipped the tip of her finger into an oddly coloured, tiny red lens and tilted back her head. She popped one in, and then the other. Then she blinked, staring at him wide eyed and gone was the hazel and now it was the strange, reddish brown colour. "I'm good to go."

He looked at her curiously, his eyebrows pulling together. "Is that really necessary indoors?"

"It's sort of necessary everywhere." She shrugged. "Alright, so sequins and -"

"Sequence," he corrected quickly. He flipped the pages with deft, quick fingers. "Read through the curriculum expectations and make sure you know how to complete all of it, and then," he paused to go to the chapter review page, "I want you to do all the questions."

She stared at him. "You're kidding."

"Why would I be kidding?" He frowned. "It's the quickest way to learn it."

"That's the quickest?" she repeated incredulously.

"Unless you have a fantastic memory."

She groaned, and then, "And I suppose you have photographic one?"

"It's actually called eidetic memory, and yes, I happen to have it," he said haughtily with a grin. She rolled her eyes.

"Not batman then," she murmured, "maybe Professor X."

He stared at her. "What?"

She stared back at him. "X-Men?" He continued to stare and she groaned. "Geez, you need to watch more movies."

He rolled his eyes. "I have better things to do."

She leaned in. "Like what?"

"Sleep."

She smiled at that. "And as a kid?"

"Experiments. Reading. Learning languages, customs, history," he mumbled, his eyes moving distractedly.

She muttered something about over-privileged little boys before asking louder, "What languages?"

"The necessary ones."

"That being..."

"The UN official languages: English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic...and Italian, Japanese," he told her without too much thought, as if he knew this like the back of his hand.

She grinned. "Je peux parler français." [I can speak French]

His eyes flickered up to her and he did not deny that there was something that made him want to grab her and rip off the ribbon tied over her chest and unbutton her jacket because of that perfect French accent of hers. And although he was staring at her mouth as she spoke, he still did not want his thoughts too obvious so with the same bored tone, he said, "Incroyable" [amazing]. She gave him a look before sighing, sitting back up straight again. He spun the textbook so that it was sitting on the table directly in front of her, sliding it closer. "So are we ready to start this?"

"Yep." She had her finger tips on her temples, pushing back the hair that fell over her eyes as she read the book and he wanted to laugh because it looked as if she was having a headache from simply reading the material by the disgusted look on her face.

He remembered the first time he had seen her and thought she was on the plainer side, but with each day, he noticed the little things like the hints of her French ancestry in her bone structure, in the shape of her eyes but evidence of Asian descent in the softness of her features, the skin tone, the lips. He remembered once that she told him her grandmother was a redhead, so it was a recessive trait and he wondered if they had kids, if they would have bright red -

Wait.

What?

"...all the light is giving me a headache..."

Was he just thinking about the appearance of their child? A future child?

"...plus this chapter is really easy, so can we just skip this session and..."

He was a vampire, for God's sake, and she was a human.

"...double the work next time?"

He looked at her. "What?"

"I have a headache. It's been sunny lately and the snow reflects the light -"

"Look at that, physics."

She gave him a withering glance. "The point is, can we just cancel?"

He could see the twitch in her eye, and noticed that she did look unwell. I guess it wasn't from learning. "Sure," he stood up, "no problem. I want to catch up on sleep anyway."

"Not enough sleeping in the Aidou Manor, Hanabusa?" she asked with a hint of a smile as she put away all the books.

"What?" He scratched the outer corner of his eye before answering. "Firstly, it's not a manor because it isn't on a large estate. It's more of a mansion," he said and she rolled her eyes, "and secondly, I don't usually wake up this early."

"Why I feel honoured then," she said as she slipped on her sunglasses and straps over both side of her shoulders. His eyes ran down this girl in perfect uniform, and he frowned. The idea of Kaede in such neat, pristine clothing was still odd to him, he wasn't used to her coming to the library by her own will instead of being dragged mid-way through a nap. As she tossed out the hair that was beneath the bag, he snapped out of his dazed observation and answered.

"You should," he said quietly. She really had no idea.

xx-x-xx

Although I was beginning to have a headache, I decided to stop by the Headmaster's office to talk about possible transfer into the Night class for the rest of this term. Despite the fact that it was winter, the days were still just as bright and this unnecessary suffering was...well, exactly that. Unnecessary. And over the break, I had already talked to my parents about transferring since why not? I was leaving the school anyway. My parents agreed to side on me and be more persistent on the matter as an added Christmas present on top of the one I received – a hoodie. I know, it didn't sound like much but I've always had a love for all things soft and it was the sort of expensive hoodie you would never buy for yourself but want regardless.

Obviously, I was never spoiled growing up. Medical and private school bills rack up a large debt and my father, although has a respectable and steady job that paid higher than the average, and my mother, a freelance artist, they was never one to lavish me in gifts. And I was completely okay with that.

I eventually arrive in the secretary-less office and knocked on the door, hearing the singy-song voice of the Headmaster to come right in.

"Hey, Headmaster," I said with a small smile. He had always been nice – too nice, if anything – but...well, all my attempts in the past to transfer was met with failure and I could only hope this time would be different because I was leaving. "I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."

"Go right ahead," he said an overly-inviting smile as he flourished his hand for me to sit on the chair. I stared before sighing, and sitting down. "So what can I help you with today, Misane? More Akira business? Student success? Or is it the -"

"I'd like to transfer to the Night Class."

"..."

"..."

He laughed.

Hard.

And I just stared at him, confused, until I finally have enough of this ridiculous respond. If I were one for fits, I would probably stomp my feet or slam the table but instead, I just stood up. "Sir, why do you always laugh -"

He didn't stop.

" - it's a perfectly reasonable request!"

He wouldn't even look at me.

"You know about my eye condition, and all the snow and the sun this year is making it increasingly stressful and my father told you already that I was leaving this year, so I was hoping that this third and final term, I could just transfer to the Night class after exams. I don't have to move dorms, and I can pay for the new uniform. But seriously."

He stopped laughing and looked at me suddenly very steadily in the eye. "I'm sorry, Misane, but that is just impossible."

"But why?" Honestly, what more of an eligible reason to going to class at night – when there were no light to obstruct and blur my vision – than well...having my vision obstructed and blurred?

"You don't fit the credentials."

"Is it an academic thing? Because I can promise you I'll pull up my marks if -"

"Nope, nope, can't do that at all," he chirped away. "Actually, while on this topic, I haven't asked you yet...how are you?"

"How am I? Well, my eyes are sore half the times and the other half, I get raging headaches because of-"

"No, no, silly," he waved his hand at me, "not about that. About the incident with Zero. I can see that the black eye is gone. You know that it was an accident, don't you?"

I frowned. "Of course I do." I would rather not talk about it. A couple weeks ago when Hanabusa had drove me home after the confrontation with his father, he told me not to worry about being in trouble at the Academy, and that he took all blame for it. But then suddenly, I come back and he told me he wasn't leaving either – wasn't suspended or punished in anyway. I didn't ask why, but I assumed it had something to do with the fact that he was an asset in some way.

"Annnnnnd, you're fine? Not at all light headed, nauseated, craving a certain food..."

What? "Well, like I said, I would be a lot better -"

But before I was finished, I was shoved out of the office and left alone in the dark corridors.

So I failed. Again. Fantastic.

xx-x-xx

The moment Hanabusa arrived back to the Moon dorm, he had to drag his foot up the stair case in the eerily silent dormitory. No one was awake at this ungodly hour of four o'clock, with perhaps the exception of Senri and Rima who may be out doing some photo shoot. But not Akatsuki, of course, not the cousin whom he had spent the winter break with, along with his other cousin Ruka.

After he had left his residence in the city, he went back to his more private villa. Ruka had decided to spend several nights with her only other female friend, and of course, she dragged Akatsuki along with her so that she could use him as her very own clothing rack. Not to mention when they all at last reunited at the Aidou villa, nearly all of the things in Akatsuki's luggage had been Ruka's. But they fell back into the same routine of just the three cousins together.

It was the usual break. Dinners, and soirees and parties and a masquerade ball but it was nothing more too extravagant. Vampires didn't tend to acknowledge the change in just a single year – living for centuries and in some cases, immortality, made changes in decades worth noticing - not just 365 measly days.

He remembered when he found joy from all those events, especially if Kaname would attend. A pureblood presence always excited a crowd. But instead, the break had dragged on uneventfully.

His father was proud once again, and Hanabusa had heard him laugh about hearing their family name up in the space someday. Yes, he was informed of Hanabusa's...incident with Kaede and the name was now beginning to pique an interest but in the grand scale of thing, the idea of an aristocrat such as himself ever being with a human was implausible. Nagamichi decided to ignore the entire event – Hanabusa had messed up Akiyama, true, but that would one day have serious collateral issue. But a human was a one-time stint.

Frivolous fun, yes, but a future?

Impossible.

And Hanabusa had laughed and nodded, agreeing. Of course, dad, that's absurd. I was just...you know.

He was just enjoying his time with her.

That was all.

(Except, of course, it wasn't.)

xx-x-xx

He laid in bed, a bit before dawn, and watched the colours played on the ceiling of his room. He had allowed the evening light to peek through the curtains, and watched with an observant intellect's eye instead of artistic ones as the oranges played above him. And yet there were shadows. Black on orange.

He wondered if she knew how this look liked.

And then Hanabusa thought about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that, in short, theorized that one's perception of the world and their own thoughts were influenced by language. In other words, if there was a name – a word for it – it would change how they think about it. And so he imagined a mini Kaede, a tiny little girl with short, maybe boyish hair and bright hazel eyes, scribbling a picture and thinking it looked exactly like the sunset he saw, only to be stared at by others. To be whispered. To be laughed at. What the hell is that? Is the sky gray, the sun green? Why are the sun rays red, the clouds purple?

And then he imagined doctors staring at her like an anomaly. They would tell her parents that she had achromatopsia, that she was not the misconceived "colour blind" where she could not distinguish colour, but she just could not see colour. Period.

And then the world that Kaede had seen – the neutral, varying gray world – would suddenly be classified as different. That, he supposed, was when the hypothesis would kick in and she would realize she would never be the same as anyone else. But before that, before there was a name for it, she was probably living just like everyone else.

Did he pity her for that?

Maybe.

He was curious about her life. He was curious about what it felt like to not be able to go outside without some sort of eye protection. He was curious about the way she grew up. About...about vampire genetics in the blood that made him impervious to nearly all diseases and disorders. He wondered what would have happened if she consumed it...if she had woken up when he fed her his blood in a desperate attempt to strengthen her pulse – would she have seen colour?

He looked down at his hands, blinking when he brought it up. He didn't realize he had been holding the glass lens of the broken telescope. Slowly, he brought it closer to his eye, watching the way the light refracted off the prisms, the way a rainbow was hidden in the glass.

It was almost beautiful.

And then for the first time in a while, Hanabusa did not think about Kaede as this human girl. He thought about her as a test subject, a patient.

He was going to find a way to cure her achromatopsia.

He got up quickly, the bed creaking underneath his weight and of course, Akatsuki automatically groaned and threw his arm over his head, covering his ears with the pillow but Hanabusa paid no attention to him. He was consumed with excitement, the way he always felt before some sort of project. It didn't even have to be a scientific project. It could be...well, it could be collecting junk that Kaname broke but that wasn't the point. He left the Dorm and right back into the late afternoon outdoors, flinching slightly but stubbornly going forth anyways.

I could do this. I could find a cure. I know I can. Because surely, vampires wouldn't be paying attention to disorder and diseases like this, right? They would be...working on cancer, viruses, fatal biological errors. Not glitches that just made life more difficult. But he supposed first...he had to tell Kaede his plan. And that meant telling her he was a vampire.

And he grinned at the prospect of that.

Why had he been scared of keeping it a secret again?

xx-x-xx

He told her it abruptly and all in a blur.

And she stared.

But she did not scream, not when he found her leaving the office of the Academy, not when he grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her to a corner where there was no one around. She just stayed completely calm as he said in a rushed voice I know how to make you see again – really see. I have an idea. And it's because I'm a vampire. I can help you. You want to see, don't you? The world in colour? I know you do. You have to want to. And I'll be the one to solve your problem – all the problems!

First, he sounded like a madman. But then she saw that he was completely serious, and completely thrilled about this idea and she was about to tell him that she had been to plenty of hospitals and doctors have inspected all parts of her eyes, that she had volunteered to let them gather painful samples just to find a single, working cone that would be able to gather the light and recognize it as a colour to her brain and -

Wait.

"Vampire?" she repeated.

And then it hit her.

"Vampire." She groaned, slapping her head. "Oh my God, that makes so much sense! That's why I can't join the Night Class – and that's why there's even a Night class, am I right? And everyone is supposedly perfect but they usually keep to – oh geez. I can't believe it." Her words were racing just as his was and she completely slid by the fact that he was not a human. She pulled his hands off of her. "Now I can go back and tell the Headmaster that I know, and that I don't care as long-"

This was not the reaction he had expected.

She didn't seem convinced at all that he could help her, in fact, she didn't even mention it. And then she didn't care that he was a vampire, she didn't ask if he had sucked her blood – which he had – and instead, she was going to talk to the Headmaster about it? "Wait!" he demanded, his thoughts slowing down now. "What – what do you mean? That's...that's all you have to say?"

"Look, I really have to -"

"You're not afraid?" he pressed. Did he want her to be afraid? To be frightened? Or did he just want her to know that he was dangerous and capable of hurting her?

But instead, she just stared at him with those murky coloured eyes, the once almost pretty ones that were now hidden behind the red contacts. She heard his confused tone, a clear distinction from the frantic one from earlier, and slowed down as well. "Not really," she said hesitantly, staring at him as if he was the crazy one, "I mean, you've been at this school longer than I have. And there hasn't been any...I don't know, blood-drained deaths. Or any deaths. And no offence but we," the royal we, "have been romanticizing vampires – uh, your kind – for a couple years now and it doesn't really change much...and that isn't important. Sorry, Hanabusa, but this is great. It all makes sense – I have to go talk to the Headmaster but I'll talk to you later, alright? Promise."

He knew that he should not have high expectations when it came to Kaede but this response was just...unbelievable. How could she not react? Did she not care if he was a vampire – but he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. He already knew how she thought of him as a human: too smart, too confident. Like a shiny robot. Disposable. Only worth her time when...wait. She had never once approached him before, only to return the telescope. All the other times, it was him coming to her. And now, as a vampire, he was still nothing. And he couldn't accept that.

Suddenly his arm reached out and his fingers wrapped around her wrist and the back of his mind flashed back to the moment when he held her down, when he had his lips on her neck...

"Hanabusa, what are you -"

"There's one thing that I also haven't mentioned."

She looked conflicted. "Well, can it wait until -"

"I don't know." He lifted her wrist to his mouth, brushing his lips just slightly against the pale skin. He could see the blue underneath and it was as if everything he had repressed was bursting to the surface. "Can it?"

Her eyebrows pulled together. "What the hell – what type of sick joke are you playing?"

"Did you think I was kidding about being a vampire?" he asked and he didn't know when it had happened, but something...shifted. Maybe it was when he realized that he, for once, was not the power in a relationship. He was the one constantly reaching and Kaede continued on her own and now, it was time to reap his rewards...

Again.

"Let me go," she said, looking around for any witnesses before her eyes flashed back to him. He didn't know if she was doing that for her sake, or his. "Hanabusa, this isn't funny. Don't do this."

Out loud this time, he said, "...again."

She stilled and stopped thrashing immediately. Her voice dropped, chillingly steady. Her eyes were on his – and she could see that they had deepened to some...stranger, not quite permanent colour. Very slowly, she said, "Again?"

And before he could answer, her left hand slapped across his face.

Bam. Last update until August. Things happened, lazy writing occurred...but hopefully a passable and decent while eventful chapter! Reviews would be lovely :)

Oh, and I think I mentioned this before but there's a poll out on my profile! If you want to vote for a character for me to centre my next story about, go right ahead!

Thanks for reading!