Vampire Knight Fan Fiction ❯ Of Living and Learning ❯ Of Living and Learning 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 4

“She's alive?”

Kaname gave a terse nod in Hanabusa Aidou's direction.

“Aren't all the Ratoleias dead for the past three years?”

“Two.” Akatsuki Kain corrected his cousin.

Aidou gave an annoyed look at Kain, “Fine; two. But the point is, they're supposed to be dead already right? Along with their work,”

“Apparently,” Rima began. “She survived,” Senri Shiki finished for her. Those two had the knack for reading each other's minds.

“She was supposed to join the Night Class, you know.” Takuma piped up from his prop against Kaname's armrest. “But she declined. For now, anyway,”

Kain lifted a brow. “Join us? What for? She's a human.”

The Vice-Dorm Leader retold what happened at the Chairman's office, though he left out the part of Kairi asking if she could trust them. It was Kaname's decision to tell. When he finished, the vampires stared back at him in disbelief.

“The Chairman's new foster daughter?” Aidou blurted.

“And a Guardian as well?” Kain asked.

“Improving relations with us? She may be a Ratoleia, but what has that got to do with anything?” Ruka Souen leaned forward in her seat with narrowed eyes.

“Everything,”

The gathering of vampires jumped at the new voice. They snapped their heads toward the dorm's main door. A redheaded girl stood there in the Night Class uniform.

Surprise and something along the lines of a smile appeared on Kaname's face. Ruka noticed this and immediately directed a death glare at the new girl. Who does she think she is? Barging in like that! the beautiful female thought snappishly.

Takuma moved to greet her. “Kairi! What are you doing here? How long have you been—?”

“I heard everything,” she said and strode into the room, stopping before the vampires.

They regarded her with hostility and Kairi gave an exasperated sigh. “I just need to have a few words. Can you please listen first before attempting to murder me with your glares?”

At least some of them have the decency to look embarrassed. There may be hope yet. She carefully looked over each one of them, memorizing their faces. Her attention was particularly caught by one gorgeous female with long wavy hair seemingly spun from silk. The glare she sent her way was bordering on malicious, a far stretch from the guarded ones her vampire pals were giving.

I haven't even done anything to her. An archenemy already? I'm setting a record here, Kairi thought wryly.

“What's your name?” she looked directly at Ruka. The vampire added more venom to her glare as she grounded out `Ruka Souen'.

Realization came into Kairi's eyes. “Ah. The Souen clan,” Those from the Souen clan had always been more aggressive compared to the others. But why was Ruka acting like another tigress had encroached on her territory? By now, the other vampires had become aware of Ruka's growing animosity and Kairi decided to find out what got lodged up her ass.

“What's your problem with me?”

Okay, it didn't quite come out the way she had in mind.

Ruka gripped her armrests and jerked her gaze away. Kairi and the other vampires arched a brow. Forget it;she had more important issues to address.

Plopping down in a vacant spot on the loveseat between Kain and Aidou, Kairi began, ignoring the incredulous looks on the two vampires' faces.

“I'm sure you all knew of the vampire bio-genetics research Dr. Lucas and Reiko Ratoleia did,”

The small cluster of Night Class students nodded. She continued, “As their daughter, I have taken it upon myself to resume the project. I have made clear my intentions to Chairman Cross. As such, I need your cooperation on this.”

Shiki voiced a question. “Why would you need our cooperation? Your parents did fine without any interference from a vampire.”

“And you're just sixteen. How would you have the capability to conduct the research?” Rima added in a challenging tone.

Kairi sucked in a breath. This is gonna take longer than I thought.

“I've known about your kind since the day I was born. I studied about vampires since I could read. You could say I was the unnamed assistant in my parents' work. I think this qualifies me as efficient enough.” She eyed the group, daring them to go against her words.

At the silence, she went on, “After their death, I went to live with my grandmother. And now that my only remaining relative has passed away, I'm here under Chairman Cross' care as stated in my parents' will.”

“As it is, the project has been on a year-long hiatus. I want to resume it, but at a faster pace to make up for lost time. Because of that and since there are actual vampires in the campus; I want to work with you all.”

Kain went through her words carefully. “You're saying you want us to be your guinea pigs.”

“More or less,”

Ruka, Aidou and Rima exploded at her confirmation. Kaname held up his hand and the protests died down immediately. Gracing Kairi with a nod, he gestured for her to go on.

“I know it's a shocker but look at it this way: helping me would mean faster progress and it benefits the pacifism ideals you all have been trying to forge with humans as they will have greater understanding of your kind.”

Noticing the interested attitude, she plunged ahead. “You have nothing to lose.” Twisting her neck to look at Kaname, she brought up his promise. “You said `yes'. This is a turning point for your word.”

The vampires looked intrigued, with the exception of Ruka who became suspicious, and focused solely on their leader at the redheaded human's words. Takuma had left out something important when he recounted the incident in Chairman Cross' office.

For his part, Kaname was becoming increasingly impressed towards Kairi. Last night, she had been frightened of coming in contact with his kind but not even a full 24 hours later, she had shown up on their doorstep with this proposal. Why were you scared of us? He questioned her silently. She just kept staring back into his crimson eyes unflinchingly; the same pair of eyes humans often cowered in front of when they realized he was a Pureblood.

Kairi resisted the urge to squirm in her seat. It wasn't due to being sandwiched between two devastatingly handsome vampires; it was because of the way Kaname's eyes seem to read into her soul. She maintained her gaze and wished she had the ability to read his thoughts. What was he thinking that would cause his eyes to darken so as he dragged them across her face? Maybe she was better off not knowing.

Either way, it hadn't been easy for her to come to the decision to confront the vampires the way she did. She'd laid down all her cards and damn if she was going to back down or be rejected.

“Deal,” Kaname's smooth baritone rang out.

Kairi's azure orbs widened with incredulity for a moment before they softened with gratitude. She gave Kaname with a sweet sincere smile. “Thank you so much. That one word meant a lot to me.”

The Pureblood returned her smile with a slight lift of his lips.

Ruka seethed at the display while the other vampires immediately became chummy around her since she received their Kaname-sama's approval.

The good-looking vampire on her left took hold of her hands in his and delivered a charming smile, his pale blue eyes sparking flirtatiously. “It's very nice to meet you Kairi-chan! I'm Hanabusa Aidou.” His eyes roamed her face, hair and body as he sighed appreciatively. “Kaname-sama and Ichijou didn't mention you were such a beauty.”

Kairi freed her hands and gave his a light swat. “A typical playboy, are you?” she turned her back on him and faced the vampire on her right instead, ignoring the flabbergasted Aidou at her un-swooned state.

“Since Mr. Thinks-He's-A-Hotshot there is a Hanabusa, you should be an Akatsuki judging by the close physical resemblance between you two.” She said to Kain and watched with amusement as he blinked stupidly at the bull's eye she hit.

Kain cleared away his surprise. “Yeah, my name's Kain.”

Kairi gave a friendly smile. “Nice to meet you,”

All right, now she had names to go with the faces. Before she could ask the two remaining vampires for their names, the male one with stylishly messed hair and dark blue eyes opened his mouth. “I vanquish E-Level vampires with Ichijou.”

He wants me to guess, eh? Let's see…the Ichijou clan has authority to remove berserk E-Level vampires and the clan that assists is…

“Your last name is Senri.”

The equally handsome vampire looked up from the magazine he was lazily flipping through and met her gaze.

“Shiki,” he said quietly. Kairi held in her triumphant smirk. Reading through the whole enchilada of vampire clans when she was four did pay off despite her parents teasing her being crazy.

The pale girl next to Shiki nodded at her when Kairi switched her gaze. “I'm Rima.”

Ruka stubbornly kept her eyes averted so Kairi let her be.

Takuma whistled when the introductions were over. “Wow, you know your stuff.”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “I'm lucky to have photographic memory. Or I would never have remembered all the details even if I read through the encyclopedia of vampire clans over and over for the next 11 years since the first time.”

Aidou, Kain and Takuma's eyes boggled while Shiki, Rima and Ruka stared. Kaname just gave a chuckle.

Sensing the dark vibes Ruka was radiating, Kairi decided to call it quits before the vampire leapt at her with her fangs bared. “Now that the hard part's done and over with, I'd better go.” Or risk becoming pissed female vamp chow.

She stood and moved to the big wooden double doors. The vampires stood along with her and walked her to the exit, though Ruka's movements were decidedly wooden like a rusty robot's.

Kairi stepped out onto the hallway leading outside and turned to give a respectful bow. “Thank you again,”

Kaname favored her with an indulgent expression that Takuma caught. The Noble recognized it to be the one he gave Yuki when she was a child every time he visited her. He hurriedly masked his astonished look and instead joked, “Your uniform is still white, Kairi.”

The human girl frowned at her clothes. “I know. Chairman Cross didn't have a spare black one so I'm stuck with this until he places an order. I'll have to attend lessons in it and be the odd one out.”

She made a face. “I don't wanna think about the questions I'll be bombarded with as to why I'm wearing the Night Class uniform while attending Day Class.”

Takuma grimaced as he thought about the violent reaction the Day Class girls were sure to have. He offered her a sympathetic smile, “I hope you won't break any bones.”

Kairi wore a cute `Huh?' expression and the Vice-Dorm Leader laughed. She cast him a suspicious look before waving goodbye to the other vampires gathered by the door and jogged off in the direction of her dormitory.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Notes:

Bonding time with the vampires. It's rather necessary.

Ruka picked up on the slight attraction between Kaname and Kairi. Yes, she'll be a jealous hussy for some time to come.

And Kaname's favoring of Kairi, I figured, can stem from the fact that he'd seen her emotionally weakened before and in a sense reminded him of young Yuki when he first rescued her. Hence the indulgent smile.

I'll be making up some facts regarding the vampire clans along the way for the plot. Don't hold anything against me if I come up with a whacky tradition or something!

Review!