TIME LAPSE: 1 YEAR
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Charlotte was stood on the other side of the room, Yuki huddled in the far corner with her arms wrapped around herself. Charlotte didn't know what to do when she got like this, as Yuki didn't want to be touched, she didn't want anyone around her and it was heart-wrenching for Charlotte to see the once lively girl huddled in distress and confusion muttering to herself, her memories jumbling together. She didn't know whether to go and try and comfort the brunette despite having yelled at her to get away or respect that she didn't want to be touched.
"It's been six months since we've started living here... no... that's not right...?" Yuki muttered to herself, her voice small and broken, childish. She shook her head, jumping slightly when she realised that wasn't quite correct. She curled in on herself even more and Charlotte took a step forward, but she stopped when the girl screamed out, "Stay right there!" Yuki was breathing heavily, trying to make sense of the time they had both spent there, all of them. She clutched her head as if in pain, the intensity of her confusion causing her discomfort.
"Yuki," both Charlotte and Yuki jumped at the new voice, "is your past as a human giving you difficulties?" Charlotte hadn't heard Kaname enter, the first time such a thing had happened, and she turned to see the man stood in front of the doorway with discontent concern, "If it were anything else, I would, of course, wait for you for as long as it takes until you feel like doing it... but this is one thing that can't go on the way it is." He walked forward, past Charlotte, and towards Yuki, grabbing the girl's wrist and pulling her to her knees. Charlotte smelt the blood before she saw it and she narrowed her eyes at him when he pulled his bleeding wrist away from Yuki who tried to grab for it, "Yuki, you must use your fangs to get blood for yourself. You aren't a child anymore." Yuki slumped into his chest and shook her head and tried to reach for his hand.
"You tell her she isn't a child anymore, but you continue to treat her like one," Charlotte said, shaking her head as she watched the interaction. She frowned when Kaname gave in, giving Yuki his bleeding wrist and allowing her to take it to her mouth. "You even keep her locked down here."
"I do it for her safety. I try to protect you as well, but you insist on being disobedient. You're supposed to stay down here as well, but you don't. Must you test my patience?" Kaname replied as Yuki began drinking the blood that was spilling out of his wrist and he sighed, looking down at her, "I wonder why you go on refusing yourself, even when the animal side of you is this starved for my blood." He looked back at Charlotte. "Are you going to go to your lessons?"
Charlotte scoffed, "What lessons? I keep telling you, I don't need to be schooled, I've finished the same time Hanabusa did. Hello, I'm a genius." She rolled her eyes with annoyance, this having been about the fourth time she's told him that she no longer needed to be schooled and that there wasn't a real reason for to be have been attending the academy when she did, that it was just so she wasn't at the villa or any place else unsupervised. "And, about the disobedient thing, why do you think I was cast out of my home? You even acknowledged yourself months ago that I wasn't' the obedient type. You can't keep me caged, Kaname, and nor can you do it to her." With that, she left the room.
Walking down the corridor silently, she passed by a sleepy-looking Shane who was making his way towards the kitchen and she turned to him, "There's coffee, I made some earlier... you'll probably just have to reheat it." He rubbed sleepily at his eye and nodded, continuing past her. She pushed open the door to her room, walking inside and closing it behind her. She glared at the windowless room and sighed, walking towards her bed and plopping down on it.
Charlotte rolled over onto her back to look at the ceiling for a few seconds before closing her eyes, running her hand through her fringe. She pulled at it, examining the tips with narrowed eyes, making a mental note that she had to dye it again. Her hair was still long, but fringe cut appropriately. She had dyed her hair a dark pink months ago, having gotten bored with how blonde it was and took advantage of the light colour that would take perfectly to any colour she'd dye it to. And also because she had brought the topic up to Kaname and he said he'd rather have her stay blonde, so after hearing that she snuck out with Shane tailing behind her trying to get her to go back to the Kuran Mansion and she went out to get the dye.
She didn't quite like going outside, leaving the mansion, but she only really did it because Kaname would insist she not. She chuckled to herself as she realised how much she really hated being told what to do. She pushed her faded fringe out of her face and sat up on her bed, looking around her strikingly clean room. She had more space in her room than she knew what to do with. She had her four poster king sized bed against the wall, the black canopy draping over the top and the duvet was messily draped over it as she hadn't made her bed.
She kicked off her TOMS when she realised she wouldn't really be needing to wear them, she didn't intend to go anywhere today. She slid off her bed, her feet landing on the soft plush black carpet and she made her way over to the violin case that lay on her desk. She rubbed at her tired eyes, it having been a couple of days since she had last slept, as she had started to be plagued by insomnia again. She yawned as she sat down in her desk chair and opened her violin case, frowning when she found only the bow was inside.
Sighing deeply, she stood back up from her chair and walked out the door, frowning as she walked towards the music room Kaname had set up for her when they first came here. He had remembered the girl was very much into music and had a room set or her with a piano and several other instruments he recalled the girl saying she loved and knew how to play. She couldn't quite remember if she had left her violin the music room or not.
She shoved the door open and frowned as she scanned her eyes across the room, her violin nowhere in sight. She growled quietly and walked to the piano, slumping down on the bench. She looked down at the keys before turning her body around so her legs were directly under the piano. She tentatively pressed down on one of the keys, the sound high and soft. She pressed it again, this time just a tad bit harder and the sound of the key she pressed down on was still high but not as soft as before.
She pressed down on it a couple of more times before moving her other fingers onto the keys surrounding the first one. She pressed down lightly on the ones her fingers were over. She played with one hand for a few seconds before lifting her other hand, her fingers pressing down on more keys, this time the keys she pressed down weren't as high as the other ones. She didn't intend to play an actual song, just aimlessly press down on the keys, but she began to actually pay attention and she chuckled to herself, recognising the song she was playing the acoustic version of 'Three Cheers for Five Years' by Mayday parade.
"You haven't played the piano in a while," Kaname said, startling the girl and causing her hands to smash down on the keys, making an unpleasant sound. He frowned at that, noticing her jump and he pushed off the threshold he was leant on. "I was never able to startle you before... what's different now? Why are you so off guard? Are you too comfortable?" There was genuine worry in his voice. He wanted the girl to be comfortable, but sometimes too much comfort was a bad thing. They both knew that.
She shook her head, a sigh leaving her lips, "I was just... thinking." She ran her hand through her fringe and shook her head again, forcing out a smile, "You just always catch me when I'm thinking." She stood up and walked away from the piano, heading over to grab the acoustic guitar she had brought with her from the academy, "I have to go out and get more hair dye, the pink's fading and it's unsatisfactory." She began to absently strum the guitar with her fingers, not bothering to search for a pick. "Is there anything that you wanted?"
"You're unhappy," he commented, walking farther into the room, watching as she strummed her guitar with an impassive face. "You smile and laugh and joke as if you're okay and happy, but you're not. I can tell." She shrugged, looking down at the guitar and changing the position of her fingers on one of the frets. She didn't look up as she began to strum a different tune, a familiar one to his ears, a song she played when he first heard her play. "Is that why you're being disobedient? Because you're not happy?"
She slammed her hand down on the strings, keeping it from making anymore noise and she gave him a sharp look, "That's all this is to you; I'm disobedient because I'm unhappy, or I'm disobedient because I'm too happy, too comfortable. Kaname, I'm fine, I just don't like being told what to do and you know that. I do try and obey, I do, but that makes me more unhappy than anything else. I don't like having to be hidden. I can understand why you'd continue to hide away Yuki, I get that, but that doesn't mean that I like it. Yuki has been hidden since she was born, I wasn't. The vampire world doesn't know about her, but they know about me. There's no point in keeping me hidden, keeping me caged because I can't live like that. I won't. I'm sorry."
She placed the guitar gently down on the ground and heaved a heavy sigh, feeling a lot lighter now that she had gotten all of that off her chest. She ran her hair through her hair, pushing it out of her face and looked up at Kaname who looked down at her with a strangely unreadable emotion. She didn't like not suddenly being able to read him. She stood up, looking around the room, "I know you're just trying to protect us, but I'm not a helpless child, Kaname. I can protect myself. I'm only here because you asked me to be here... and because my dad doesn't want me home alone at the villa all the time. But please know that I am a person who doesn't like to be kept inside when it's not my own choice."
After a couple of seconds of tense silence, Kaname nodded, an apologetic look on his face, "You're right, Charlotte, I can't keep you hidden and you're not some fragile piece of glass. I just... you're so reckless and I worry about your wellbeing. I understand that you were on your own for so long and you are perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, it's not you, it's the people out there with ill intentions for you." He ran his own hand through his hair, pushing his fringe out of his face. "You don't have to apologise, I'm the one who should be. I'm sorry, Charlotte, for trying to keep you caged. But... can at least take Shane out with you when you go outside? Just take someone with you when you go, I won't have to worry so much then."
She gave him a genuine smile, one he hadn't seen in such a long time, the light of her smile reaching her dark blue eyes. She gave a tiny laugh, the sound like music to his ears. She walked over to him, patting his shoulder, "It wouldn't matter, you'll be there anyway. I know you send a piece of you to look after me when I'm gone, I just pretend I don't notice the cat... or you familiar presence that it emits. Although, I was quite surprised to see the cat, I thought you can only have bats and a wolf as familiars. But, I honestly shouldn't have been surprised."
"I'm curious to see what your familiar's would be. Bats no doubt, you've already showed that one and I know you would have more than one familiar," he said, following her as she walked out of the room and down the corridor towards her room. "You should go with Hanabusa and Yuki in the drawing room. Just to... help him teach her? I don't expect you to learn anything, I don't know why I thought it a good idea to have you take lessons as well. You are done with schooling and such."
"They're in the drawing room?" She asked, halting in her walking, looking down the corridor that the drawing room was in. When he nodded, she gave him a thumbs up before walking away from him towards the room and he watched her leave, his eyes on her back. He frowned, not believing her sudden happy act.
She walked quietly down the corridor, not bothering to knock on the door when she came to the door and she just walked right in, seeing that it was only Yuki inside the room and she sighed with content as she had her eyes closed, "It's so quiet... I can smell the snow outside. Oh, yeah... it'll be one year soon." Charlotte closed the door behind her and walked farther into the room to sit in the chair in front of the girl, causing her to open her eyes and she smiled at her. "Oh, hey, Charlotte... sorry about earlier..."
Charlotte returned the smile, "No, it's okay." She waved it off, Charlotte's reaction had allowed Yuki to relax a bit. "But... what does sound have to do with your sense of smell?" She had an amused look on her face and she laughed at Yuki's confused expression, not quite understanding what she was talking about. But then it hit her, the girl crying out 'you heard?!' and her face grew a bright red and she smiled sheepishly.
Charlotte hadn't a chance to replay, for her brother slammed the door open and knocked loudly on the wood, causing Yuki to jump and look over with wide eyes, but Charlotte merely turned to look at him, giving him a smirk and a wave of her fingers. He had an annoyed look, but it was directed to Yuki, "HEY, YUKI CROSS! What are you lazing around for?! Where you even studying for the next lesson? What's that?" Both Charlotte and Hanabusa looked down at the paper in front of the brunette as she had a Biro in her hand. "WERE YOU DRAWING THERE? I KNOW THIS IS A DRAWING ROOM, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT IS MEANS!"
"Why are we even in here? Shouldn't we be in the library?" Charlotte asked, looking over at the lavish couches to the left of her and she looked down at the table and chairs they were sat in with a frown. "I don't understand..." Her voice was childish and Yuki looked up sharply at the sound of it.
Hanabusa sighed exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Charlotte?"
"Huh?"
"Shut up."
She poked her tongue at him, slumping back into her chair and crossing her arms over her chest, glaring at him. She huffed and stood from the chair, stalking over to the couches and plopping down on one of them, her arms still crossed over her chest, "I'll come back when you're done being a dick." Charlotte broke out into hysterics when she seen Yuki shove Hanabusa back in an act of desperation and embarrassment and he flew back, landing awkwardly.
Yuki shoved the paper into one of the drawers of the table she had been sat at and slammed it shut, heaving slightly and Hanabusa picked himself up from the floor as she breathed out, "Um... let's just start the lesson... are you going to participate this time, Charlotte?"
The blonde stood from the couch and sauntered over, shoving her hands into her pockets with a shrug, "No. Like I've continuously said - I'm already done with all schooling. Finished when I was nine." She sat back down in the chair was in before and looked over at her brother as he sat down in the extra chair that was placed in front of them, a scowl on his face.
"Yeah, whatever. I work hard as your private teacher, so can you both please open your textbooks? Page 167. Yuki, please sit down." He sounded beyond annoyed and Charlotte opened her textbook just to humour him. "I already know you're not going to do anything, Charlie... so can you please just help Yuki with her studies when she needs it?" Charlotte gave a curt nod, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms over her chest again.
"Hey, Yuki, you needn't be so... scared. It's not like he's going to tell Kaname," Charlotte said, speaking Hanabusa's thoughts. The girl looked over at her, her large reddish-brown eyes looking guilty and Charlotte reached out and placed a reassuring hand on her small shoulder, "If he knew you were still writing letter that we can't risk mailing out, it'd make him worry about you even more. He already worries about having to keep you indoors." She offered her a smile.
Hanabusa tilted his head to the side, "Who were you writing to, anyway?" Charlotte smirked at Yuki's hesitant mouth that was opened slightly. She leant forward to look at her, her eyebrows raised, showing that she was anticipating for the girl's answer. She made a motion for her to carry on.
"Uh... Y-Yori..." she gave another sheepish smile. She gave a side glance to the blonde girl beside her before looking at Hanabusa, a hesitant look in her eyes as she tried to think if she had done the right thing, telling him who she was writing to.
A thoughtful look crossed of the blond male's face, "Oh... her... Perhaps I could get the letter delivered discreetly." He tapped his chin, turning to Charlotte, his eyebrows furrowed, "What do you think, Charlie?" Charlotte leant forward at this, looking over at Yuki before getting up from her seat and walking over to her brother, plucking the folder from the table that he had his hand draped over. "Hey!"
She placed her hand on his face, "Hush." She opened the folders, knowing exactly what would be inside and she leafed through the several papers that had her own name on them before she got to Yuki's. She pulled them out, closing the folder and looking over the paper, a thoughtful look coming across her face as she examined the large red numbers scrawled onto the paper. She pulled out a couple of the ones that had her name on them to compare. She sighed, placing them down on the table for both of them to see what she was looking at. "I think... I think you should only get it to Yori if she gets a grade of at least seventy-five out of one hundred on the next test you give her."
"Your grades on tests aren't so great either, you were doing worse than me!" Yuki whined, a helpless tone to her voice. She slumped forward onto the table, resting her head on the desk and she groaned, shaking her head. "You both are mean." She lifted her head from the table and looked at Hanabusa.
The blond boy pursed his lips, "Just one thing, though: no talking about where we live, nor about anything vampire related. I left the academy without erasing Sayori Wakaba's memories... but I don't know what might have happened after we left." Charlotte gave him an incredulous look. She cursed at him inside her head for having been reckless enough to allow the girl to keep her memories. Although Charlotte hadn't gotten any negative feelings about the girl's personality the few times they had spoken or been in the presence of each other, an event such as the one that had taken place a year ago could change a person drastically, especially a human.
Yuki looked at Hanabusa fondly, "Aido-senpai... thank you, but no thanks. I don't mind waiting until it's actually safe to send it. I prefer not endangering this treasured place where Kaname-senpai and I can live together now... with Charlotte and Shane..." Charlotte chuckled at the late add in of her and the boy who had been stuck by her side like glue since that day. Yuki turned and gave her an embarrassed smile, a blush tinting the brunette's pale cheeks.
"Hah!" Charlotte sprang from her chair suddenly, whirling around and pointing her slim pointer finger at Kaname who was stood in the doorway, looking at her with an eyebrows raised when he noticed her movement. "I HEARD YOU COMING THIS TIME!" Hanabusa face palmed and Yuki looked a bit frightened at how sudden Charlotte had moved and shouted.
Kaname rolled his eyes at the blonde girl before looking at his sister, "Yuki... really, I wonder how long it will take before you finally call me simply 'Kaname'?" Hanabusa got up from his seat, stuttering out 'Kaname-sama!' and turning to look at the pureblood. Yuki looked over at him with a startled expression and Charlotte began to wonder if that's all the girl ever felt when her human memories weren't confusing her.
"Oniisama!" Yuki got up from her seat and jogged over to Kaname who was wearing his black trench coat and cheeks slightly red from the cold outside. "I didn't know you were coming back from your trip today? But I'm so happy to be able to have you home earlier!" Charlotte frowned, not having known that he had left, or that he had intended to leave, but the pinkness on his cheeks signalled that he had been outside in the cold for quite a bit. When she had spoken to him more than a half hour ago he didn't look like he had been preparing to leave.
He gave an apologetic smile to her, "I'm sorry, Yuki, but I just dropped by and have to leave again right away." Even though Charlotte couldn't see Yuki's face, but she knew the girl was frowning at his words and sighed, slumping back down into her chair to further examine the tests they had been given by her brother a month ago and she snorted at her smartass answers. She hadn't really given an academic answer and didn't understand why her brother even bothered to try and teach her, they had finished their school at the same time and yet he was trying to teach her.
Someone coughed by the door awkwardly to gain attention and Charlotte merely turned her head in the direction of the sound, seeing her father in the doorway and they made eye contact, to which Charlotte thought it okay to give him a half wave and crow out, "Yo," in a form of greeting. The man's mouth twitched in a smile, seeing that his daughter hadn't changed one bit over the years and he bowed to her, having not forgotten of her status change.
Her father returned his attention to Kaname, "We must hurry up, Kaname-sama... or else..."
Kaname nodded, calling a, "I aware of that," over his shoulder.
Yuki winced, "Ah! The Aidos' father!" She bowed her head nervously, "Good evening!" Charlotte giggled at that, watching as her father squirmed uncomfortably before his eyes widened.
"AH! My deepest apologies, I forgot to salute to you as well!" Her father gave an embarrassed look before bowing quickly, his face red at the slip of his mind. She rolled her eyes at how formal and awkward he was, almost like he was forcing himself to walk on eggshells. Charlotte looked back over at the old exams in front of her, muttering out 'you're so stiff' as she looked over Yuki's answers, frowning as the majority of them were so close but not quite there and her brother didn't even bother to tell her that.
"Yuki, only a little bit more and I'll have things safe enough for you to be able to breathe the outside air freely again," Kaname said as he began to walk out the door, causing Yuki to smile in adoration.
"Let's hope you don't choke on a bug as you breathe the air in," Charlotte murmured, folding one of her tests into a paper airplane as Kaname briefly glared at her before he and her father made their leave. Hanabusa snorted at her comment when the pureblood and their father had left the room, causing Yuki to blush. "Well, I'm bored. I'm going back to the music room. If you need me, I'll be in there."
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Charlotte had been sat at the piano for the better part of an hour, a frown on her face as she lazily drummed her fingers over the keys, no particular tune in mind. She sighed and stood from the piano, walking out of the room and towards her own, passing by Shane's open door, the sound of him playing his guitar filling her ears for a couple of seconds before she entered into her own room and closed the door behind her.
She opened the drawers at her desk, grabbing her tin of drawing pencils and her sketch pad. With those in hand, she shut the drawer and walked to her bed, climbing on top and situating herself in the middle of the plush dark red duvet. She pushed her hair out of her face, running her fingers through her faded pink locks, it having been a couple of days since she straightened them.
She flipped through the sketch pad, a frown etching on her face as she came across the page she had hated with a passion but couldn't quite understand why she kept it. It was the drawing she had made a little over a year ago, three faces with the same eyes. The drawing she had made of Rido before she officially knew him, before she officially knew it was him coming. She glared at the eyes of the drawn pureblood, the eyes of his real face, not the two borrowed ones she had drawn.
With a sigh, she ran her fingers lightly over Rido's face, her fingers lingering over the malicious smirk she had drawn, "Oh, how is it possible that one man had caused so much damage in such a short time?"
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Word count: 4,584.