Everlasting Spark ~DARK 03~
“B...be careful please,” the girl said in a shaky voice. “I don’t know how to do these things...”
He moved closer to her, trapping her between himself and the head of the bed. The expression she had on her face stirred something inside of him; something dark that he has never felt before. Her face flushed, breathing shallow.
Shuu has never seen her make this face before, but he already knew he wanted to make her do it again.
“Hm? Are you saying you’re inexperienced?” he chuckled into her ear, teasing her on purpose. He wanted to see if she could blush even more.
“Eh?! Are you insinuating that you aren’t? Who was it? Was it those annoying girls that always surround you whenever we have a ball?! I knew it! That Constance is such a snake!”
He laughed loudly at the way his simple comment made the girl all worked up. “Relax, I was joking.” He had no idea who that Constance even was. Chiyo, however, didn’t look that convinced yet.
“I think I would remember sleeping with someone, don’t you think?”
“So, you didn’t– “
“I didn’t,” he shook his head before cupping her face in his hands, kissing her softly.
Chiyo woke up gasping for air.
The last thing she remembered was Shuu sinking his fangs into her neck brutally, she must have passed out shortly after. However, she was not in that forest anymore, but in her own bed. Has everything just been a bad dream?
No.
She could feel the bitemarks aching faintly on her neck and there was slight bruising from where he had grabbed her on her thigh. The second she moved, she also felt her back ache, most likely from having been pressed against the tree bark. Whatever one wanted to call it, the way he had treated her was not gentle.
It took Chiyo a while to regain more sense of direction. She reached up to rub her temple when she noticed it: she was wearing Shuu’s blue sweater.
Confused, she looked around. Somehow, she expected him to lay next to her or some other crazy thing, like him coming out of the shower. But he wasn’t there. She could also not sense him anywhere nearby.
Slowly, she tried to trace back what had happened in the forest last night.
Oh, that’s right, he ripped up her dress, it probably was full of blood too. Did that mean he carried her all the way back, cleaned her up and gave her his clothes? Why did she feel touched by this? He was the one forcing himself onto her and destroying her dress in the first place. Technically, this would be the minimum to make it up to her, and yet she felt a warm tingle in her chest because of it. How stupid she was, she thought to herself. He showed a speck of kindness for a split second, and she already wanted him back?
She sunk deeper into her blanket. Despite her body being clean, she felt dirty and miserable. Chiyo sighed, pulling the covers over her head and making herself as small as she could. Just disappearing inside this bed was all she wished for right now.
Shuu was laying in his bed, covers pulled over himself for once. Usually, he didn’t bother too much with bed sheets, he could sleep wherever and whenever honestly. But after what had happened last night, he felt the strong need for a hot shower and a heavy blanket. It hadn’t helped in the way he had hoped it would - he still felt disgusting.
Even though he hated the woman and would love to see her suffer the same way she made him suffer, he never intended to hurt her in that way. It was so convenient to blame the moon on this too and yet the feelings of guilt just wouldn’t leave him.
Shuu looked at the piece of jewelry in his hands. He had found it between Chiyo’s pillows and felt even more conflicted ever since. Why did she still have it?
He was so stupid, why did he even kiss her? Nothing good ever came from being with that woman and he should have known it. He just wanted to sleep it all away, but her face appeared before him every time he closed his eyes.
And yet he couldn’t even bring himself to throw this pendant away. It was only a stupid piece of junk he had gifted her when he was younger.
He fell back and groaned into the pillow. What would be the best way to forget her already? He just wanted some peace of mind.
After the full moon started waning again, things slowly turned back to normal. The sun had gone down for a while on this day and the Sakamaki household got together for their nightly meal. An assortment of traditional Japanese breakfast items was served and Chiyo happily dug into the rolled omelet and fish.
“Someone has an appetite,” Laito said, something devilish and mischievous in his voice as always.
“What, I can’t even enjoy food anymore?” Chiyo asked, patience with the self-proclaimed freak starting to wear thin.
“Nfu, of course you can,” he said, “it’s just that it’s such a stark contrast to your gloomy behavior.”
Chiyo glared at him and sat back down in her chair, earning herself another sarcastic remark from the younger Vampire.
Shuu and she haven’t spoken with each other since the incident in the forest and every time their paths crossed a weird aura hung around them. She looked at the empty chair next to her; Shuu was the only one missing at the table, as usual. Just as she thought about this, the door to the dining room opened and Shuu came in.
How great. She sighed.
“You’re late,” Reiji said. Shuu didn’t answer and simply sat down in the empty spot.
“Shuu-san, you really should try to be more mindful of getting up on time. If you’re not careful you’re going to be held back a year again,” Yui, who sat in the seat at the short table side, said. She seemed very worried about him all of a sudden and this really didn’t please Chiyo at all, even when she didn’t know why exactly. She saw Shuu only look at the girl calmly and then mutter a “whatever”.
Chiyo groaned in frustration. She has searched her school bag so thoroughly, but her book just wasn’t there! Dejected she slumped back down in her chair. How was she supposed to get through a lesson when she couldn’t even distract herself with anything? She sighed and looked at the empty seat next to her. He probably wouldn’t come to class anymore. She wasn’t sure how that made her feel.
Suddenly her mind wandered, and she imagined him sneaking away to the rooftop or music room together with Yui. She hated that thought but she didn’t have anything else to occupy her mind with, because she didn’t have her book with her!
She felt like crying.
The lesson didn’t seem to end at all and Chiyo was growing more and more uncomfortable. She kept thinking back to what had happened in the forest. Her back hurt every time she thought about it since the scars haven’t healed completely yet.
She sighed. Were she a real Vampire, she wouldn’t have this problem, because minor injuries would heal in no time. On the other hand, she would not be in this particular situation in the first place, if she was a real Vampire.
During the break Chiyo decided to roam the hallways a little. Maybe her book would turn up somewhere too.
When she turned the corner, she noticed a teacher speaking to Yui and decided to eavesdrop.
“Komori-san, you are relatively close to Shuu-kun, right?”
Was she? She saw the girl nod.
“Would you mind bringing him these? He has been missing from my classes lately so if you could take these notes for him?”
Was this teacher stupid? She and Shuu had the same classes, she could bring him the notes just as fine! Not that she would have bothered with it, since neither her nor him cared about their schoolwork, but the teacher didn’t know that!
“Oh, yes of course! I will go find him right now.”
Of course, she would. What a pushover.
When Chiyo made sure the teacher was far away enough and couldn’t hear them anymore, she made her way over to Yui. The girl looked up and greeted her.
“Oh Chiyo-san, hello.”
“Why did you agree to bring these to him? You know he doesn’t particularly care about studying here anyway,” Chiyo said.
Yui looked at her with her big and innocent eyes.
“Well, he already has been held back a year before and was sent to the north pole by his father,” she said, “he barely survived against the ice bears there and I don’t want him to fail again...”
He was what? His father did what?! Chiyo had a hard time pretending she wasn't surprised.
And how come Yui knew and she didn’t?! Oh, how her blood was boiling right now!
Yui still noticed her shock, no matter how subtle it may have been. She apparently did have an eye for subtelties after all.
“Chiyo-san, you didn’t know?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t.”
Chiyo tried to reply as neutral as she could. She wasn’t particularly keen on showing any kind of reaction in front of the girl.
Yui made an acknowledging sound and pouted, seemingly thinking about something, before speaking up again: “Well, I will go search for him at lunch break, class is starting soon after all! I will see you later.”
Then she hurried back to her classroom.
Chiyo watched the girl as she left, heart feeling weirdly heavy.
How come she missed such important information about Shuu? And how come Yui of all people knew about it? Had he confided in her? She wanted to hide suddenly.
The library with all its nooks and crannies came to mind. Surely there was some kind of section no students were interested in, where she could just bundle up and be pathetic in peace. She walked hurriedly, looking down at the wooden hallway floor.
“Are you not going to greet a fellow classmate?”
The familiar voice made her stop in her tracks. She hasn’t been paying attention to her surroundings while she was walking.
The voice belonged to none other than Ruki. Because one inconvenience on this day wasn’t enough.
She turned around and looked at him, trying to look as stoic as possible.
“I don’t really feel like exchanging pleasantries with the person who lured me into a dark alley and tried to kill me before,” she said.
“Maybe instead of this here, you should have read the story of Little Red Riding Hood. You would have known that following strangers is never a good idea,” he said and waved a book in her face.
It was the book she had been searching for! He probably took it from her the first time they met. Chiyo reached out and tried to grab it, but Ruki was quick to pull it out of her reach.
“Thief!” she shouted.
“You’re so quick to jump to conclusions. I was trying to be a generous master and return a fellow student’s belongings,” he said. There was a grin on his face that Chiyo could only describe as disgusting. And what did he mean ‘master’?
“If you’re so set on returning something that was lost then why aren’t you actually giving it back?” Chiyo glared at him.
Ruki chuckled. “I hope you are aware, that the way you are behaving right now makes you look like a tiny, barking dog.”
Not another person comparing her to that!
“What do you want from me?”
“As I said, I am merely returning your book,” he said placing the item in her hands, “You should really watch out for strangers though, guineapig.”
And just like that, he left. Chiyo stood there for a while in silence before snapping out of it and retreating to the library before she got caught by one of the teachers. She wasn’t keen on getting lectured on wandering the hallways during class time.
She looked at the book in her hands. Suddenly she did not feel like reading it anymore; it reminded her of her weird conversations with this guy. She couldn’t figure out what his deal was, but she thought to herself that there must have been a hidden agenda behind his appearance. Why else would another Vampire suddenly come to this town?
Could it be possible that he was trying to get to Shuu through her? She couldn’t think of anything else that would make remotely sense. Her father wasn’t that influential, so that could not be the reason. Shuu was the eldest of King Karlheinz’s sons, which made him the official heir to the throne and as fixed the hierarchy in the demon world seemed on the surface, there was quite a bit of tension between the different demon races. She had read about the war back at home once.
Who knows, maybe Ruki and whoever else he was with planned to kill the Sakamaki family? She felt like she might have to raise the issue with the brothers at some point because even though Shuu was aware of Ruki, he didn’t seem like he had any intentions on doing anything about him.
Chiyo kept thinking about other possibilities while she browsed the shelves. There weren’t many books that caught her eye in this library, since a lot of them catered to the human students here and seemed too mundane to her. Going further in she found some more intriguing things, though the books at the mansion still were better.
She decided to grab a collection of tragic love poems in the end. The library felt stuffy, and she wondered if there was a better place for her to wait out the school day. Maybe the rooftop was a viable option?
Following the hallway, she eventually reached the stairs to the rooftop. However, it seemed as if someone was there already; there were voices coming from behind the rooftop door.
“Of course, I want someone that I live with to do well!”
Yui?
“Seriously, you’re such a weird woman… Don’t you have anything else to worry about?”
Shuu?
Chiyo peeked around the corner carefully, she didn’t want them to see her. She needed to know why they would be alone together in such a secluded place.
Shuu looked up, directly into her eyes. She gasped; so much for keeping herself hidden.
“I mean… I do, but...” Yui said. She sounded unsure now.
Shuu turned back to the girl, horrible smirk on his lips.
“Okay then,” he said, “I will go to all of my classes from now on.”
Yui seemed to perk up again. She was so gullible.
“But…” he said.
“But?”
“You’ll have to kiss me.”
Silence.
“Eh?!”
Yui stuttered and Shuu looked at her expectantly. Chiyo wasn’t sure why she kept watching the scene. This was awful.
“So, you won’t?” he asked. Then yawned and was about to close his eyes again.
“Of course I can’t kiss you just like that!”
Her voice was high pitched, even more than usual. Chiyo wanted to believe that he was just making fun of the girl, but there was this creeping heavy feeling and a pang in her chest. Was she jealous? How pathetic of her to be jealous of not only a human girl but of a human girl that interacted with someone that Chiyo herself broke ties with years ago!
Shuu just shrugged and made no attempts to keep up the conversation. Yui clutched the notes she was supposed to bring to him in the first place. She sighed in defeat.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” she said eventually. Shuu opened one of his eyes again in amusement.
“But you have to promise to start taking school more seriously, Shuu-san.”
He just shrugged again and waited for Yui to come closer.
Nervously, the girl leaned in. No way she would actually kiss Shuu now, Chiyo thought. And she was right, the other girl tried to angle her face so that she would be able to give him a quick peck on the cheek. Shuu clearly disliked that.
“Not like that,” he said and pulled harshly on her arm so that Yui lost balance and her lips clashed with his.
Shuu did not close his eyes, but instead his icy stare bore into Chiyo. He knew exactly that she was still there. Even if she wanted to run away, she couldn’t. Frozen in place, she felt as if her legs would give out if she attempted to move now.
Of course, she didn’t expect for him to stay away from other women; she was sure he has had his fair share ever since she left him but to see him kiss somebody else in front of her was different. It still felt like a horrible betrayal. It didn’t matter whether he did it to mess with Yui or if he was serious; it hurt horribly.
Yui squirmed her way out of the forced kiss. Chiyo did not register what exactly she said after that, because everything around her felt muffled out. Just as if she was underwater, drowning. She snapped out of it when Yui bumped into her as she was trying to get away.
“Chiyo-san! Ah… I am sorry I- I need to go!”
All of the papers Yui was supposed to give to Shuu were scattered and apart from the wind everything was silent. Slowly, Shuu sat up and walked towards her.
What was she supposed to do now? Would he just walk past her? Should she try to get away as fast as possible? She wouldn’t even be able to; all she managed to do was take a step back towards the railing.
Shuu pushed her into the cold metal and instinctively she grabbed onto the railing bars. Her breath hitched when she was forced to look up at him.
“Is it your new thing to watch people make out? Don’t tell me you’re into that,” he said. He was clearly mocking her, but she wasn’t able to talk back to him right now. She feared if she said something now, her voice would crack, and she would start to cry. There was no way she would let him see her this vulnerable.
“Don’t look at me with that stupid expression. Won’t you say anything?”
What was she supposed to even say? That she hated seeing him with another woman? That even though he kept treating her horribly, there was still some part of her that longed for him. She would not be caught dead admitting this to him!
Shuu huffed and let go of her eventually. Then he left.
With the adrenaline gone and her being left in peace finally, her legs gave in. She slid down along the metal bars. She has been here for only a short time, and she was already at her wits end, feeling like giving up. Except even if she gave up there was nowhere else to go. Her father surely would not let her back home just because she decided so.
A pathetic sob escaped her.
How did she end up in this situation? Was it really all karma from stupid decisions in her childhood? Or was she a pawn in a mysterious game?
She put her arms around her knees and stayed in this position until the school day ended.
“Please hurry up and get in the car already,” Reiji said in a stern voice. He seemed in a particularly salty mood today.
Chiyo was trying to avoid sitting next to Shuu, but the way Reiji pushed for them to hurry up, she ended up sitting exactly next to him. This day had tired her out, she really just hoped she could bury herself under a bunch of blankets and never come out again. With some luck she would just die of suffocation eventually and all of her problems would be gone.
She looked at Shuu timidly and he sighed. The look in his eyes seemed just as tired as she believed hers to be. He quickly turned his head away and proceeded to look out of the window instead.
Yui, being the people pleaser she was, tried to lighten the mood by making small talk.
“So, umm, did any of you get to meet the new transfer students yet?” she asked.
“Transfer?” Ayato asked.
“Ah, yes,” Reiji said, “there was some mention of this a while ago, wasn’t it? What was their name? Mukami?”
Mukami?
Chiyo felt Shuu tense next to her.
Reiji raised an eyebrow. “Do you two have something to add? Judging by the look on your faces there must be something.”
“I don’t feel like talking about this, ask that woman,” Shuu said. He dragged a hand through his hair and leaned back against the window.
Why did he always shift the responsibility onto her? As if she didn’t find that troublesome either. Chiyo made a face and rolled her eyes. She knew he saw her reflection.
Turning back, she saw Reiji look at her expectantly and sighed.
“It’s not like I know much either. There is this guy, his name is Ruki Mukami, he is a nuisance,” Chiyo said.
Shuu huffed.
“He tried to drink her blood and kill her the other night,” he said. Chiyo rolled her eyes. So now he decided to care!
Reiji pinched the bridge of his nose. “And you didn’t think this was important enough to say at any point until now? More importantly that there are other Vampires roaming around?”
“So that horrible stench we felt…” Kanato said.
“…was probably this Ruki guy,” Ayato completed the sentence, “We gotta be careful, so they don’t find out about and steal our blood bank.”
The gazes collectively shifted towards Yui, who flinched uncomfortably under all the attention.
“In any case—"
Their conversation was cut short as suddenly the limousine got shaken by something, putting everything in disarray and throwing the people inside around.
“What the—"
“Aaaaah!”
“Fuck!”
The impact catapulted Chiyo across the floor of the car. She vaguely noticed hitting a blunt object with her head before she blacked out.
