Crescent Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Unsung Verse ❯ Unsung Verse ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Crescent Moon belongs to Iida Haruko, Matsuda Takamura, TokyoPop, Kadokawa Publishing, and probably many others who are not me. No profit has been made from this story, written for the entertainment of myself and other fans. No challenge to copyright is intended.

Unsung Verse

by Cerise Tennyo

The light went out in Mahiru's bedroom. Up late tonight, Nozomu noted, making himself more comfortable on his rooftop perch. Midnight was long past. Then again, Mahiru had a lot to think about.

Nozomu liked taking the night watch. All of the Lunar Race felt most alive under the Moon, but legend put his kind as most beloved of the night. Besides, Misoka's talents best served day-watch, with its increased chance of unwelcome witnesses, and Akira was needed to keep Mitsuru under control. They still couldn't trust Mitsuru alone with the Princess, not if they wanted her hale, whole, and able to trust them.

Mitsuru viewed all humans with distrust, but the Descendant of the Princess garnered extra venom. In Mitsuru's eyes, the ancient princess had played her demon lover false, and betrayed the entire Lunar Race. Nozomu didn't feel quite so certain. Humans were just...different. Their memories, their customs, their beliefs...as different as Sun from Moon. Could they really judge a human's motivation just from a song?

The humans said the Princess's lover came for her with an army. That one detail had always intrigued him. Why bring an army, if he'd parted from her with a faithful promise? Why keep away from his beloved for ten lunar years? He understood waiting to claim her until she was grown, but why hold off from all other contact?

Nozomu hummed the song under his breath, softly, so as not to disturb the Descendant's rest. 'Princess, Princess, why do you cry?' Tears and laughter both had many causes. The humans' version said that only after the attack on her father's house had the princess denied her promise. That contradicted the view that she'd made a false pledge. The song raised more questions than it answered. Love had flowered between humans and the Lunar Race before...and it might do so again.

He could never see the Descendant of the Princess as prey. Her foremother had won the heart of a demon, had been claimed by him. Such a strong passion as that echoed in the blood for generations. Nozomu licked his lips, eyeing the curtain-shrouded window. Love and longing and need, swirled together in hot blood, offered freely... The tips of his fangs scraped against his tongue. 'Behind a veil of bamboo blinds...'

He'd held Mahiru in his arms, tight against his body. Mahiru had a lean build, sleek as one of the dolphins she adored. He'd kissed her, an affectionate brush of lips against a warm cheek. He'd wanted her throat, to taste her pulse. Her skin smelled faintly of chlorine and soap.

Once awakened, his desire never ended. It was the nature of the vampire to hunger, to yearn. The Princess's demon lover had gone mad from his longing. I would do the same, Nozomu thought. To be deprived of Mahiru after tasting her... That was the real danger in loving humans.

His pragmatic self surfaced, squelching the nascent dream. The survival of the Lunar Race depended on regaining the stolen Teardrops of the Moon. His needs, his hungers, took a distant second to that.

The next phase of their plan called for them to secure the Princess in their own custody. They needed easy access to her power. Would having her living with them, under the same roof, strain his control?

No, he decided. I can watch, keep close, even if I may not feed. For now.

Mitsuru...was a problem that still needed work.

He kept watching the window, alert to the things moving through the night, still humming to himself.

'Princess, Princess, when will you be mine?'

-end-