What was this feeling? I felt at peace. I was so relaxed I didn't even want to move a muscle. I was sitting somewhere soft, probably a cloud, snuggled up in a warm blanket. Was I back to being a baby? No, that couldn't be real - there already was a time when I was a baby.
But I was too lazy to open my eyes and see, probably harsh, reality. I wanted to enjoy this sensation of someone's hands going through my hair. It reminded me about my early years how mom braided my hair for school. Was my hair clean? Oh yeah, they were still a bit damp and smelled like pomegranates.
Suddenly, warm hands left me, leaving my head vulnerable to cold air. I wanted to grab on to them, but couldn't - blanket was wrapped really tightly around me, just like a straitjacket.
"Mom... Don't leave..." I mumbled sluggishly. After a few moments, I heard a click and felt hot air all around me.
Warm hands returned and made sure to go through every inch of my hair. I sat there, enjoying the the sensation.
§Reiji's POV§
When I pulled up my sleeves, I wrapped the girl into my blanket, making sure to secure her hands to her sides. Unconsciously performed movements of her limbs might be quite a bother in the near future.
Then I forced her to sit up, securing her position with some pillows. For a moment she looked like a baby - helpless, defenseless, and with a drool soon to be going down her chin.
I took out the hair tie and undid her braid. I didn't have a hairbrush nearby at the moment so I used my fingers to comb her still damp hair.
What an idiot to go to sleep with wet hair. Sick sacrificial bride is a problem for all of us. And Laito is no better than her. Didn't he know that humans are fragile and can die easily from the simplest things? Overdose on drugs is one of them. Good thing I had an antidote near by or she would have died because of a heart attack.
I need a blow dryer.
I stood up and left the mumbling girl alone on my bed. I think she was having some delusions caused by the drugs, because she just called me her mother. I had to use all of my willpower to not slap her for this insult, but what she said next was a good compensation for the disgusting words. She really was like a small baby, still dependent on her mother. Seeing her weak like this made me regret not having a video camera.
Thinking about the humiliation I'd force her to go through made my day. But I had no time to imagine things - she was trying to escape from her restraining. I had a blow dryer somewhere in my bathroom, so I walked there and got it.
When I came back and started working on her hair - she relaxed even more. It seemed like she was melting with every single touch I made. I think I used too much relaxants on her. I checked her pulse to make sure if her heart wasn't starting to slow down to a dangerous level, but she seemed just fine. Seriously - father will have to pay extra for this.
Here - she seemed ready for sleep and I was ready to hunt down the idiot who caused all of this nonsense. I just have to lay her down once again. She still had this moronic smile on her face when I started to unwrap her like an unwanted Christmas present.
"Awww, what a cute puppy." She squealed as she threw her hands into my hair starting to rub it vigorously.
"You're so fluffy and big. You're such a good boy, aren't you?" Now she was making that silly voice you use with babies, animals and morons. And the last time I checked - I was neither of those.
"Let go of me you imbecile!" I tried to push her hands away from my hair, but she somehow found her way to my ears.
"Doggy, don't bark, or I will punish you. It would be a shame if someone were to..." Her voice suddenly changed into a dark, threatening one, "rip off your cute soft ears." That's nonsense. I was a vampire - it was impossible for her to harm me. She made sure to slowly twist my ears in opposite direction to prove her point. I had no other choice, but to shamefully obey.
"Good boy." She smiled and ruffled my hair with one hand. I used this chance to remove her hands from my head and pin them down to the pillow.
"I'm not a good boy, Shizuka-san, I do bite." Her neck was beautifully exposed, as if her skin was calling for my fangs. And I was ready to answer this call of need.
I leaned down to her neck and licked her delicious skin, already imagining how her unsoiled by my brothers blood would taste like. She wasn't trying to get away from me or fight me, instead, she was lying perfectly still, as if she was asleep. I sighed. Here goes my dinner. I couldn't do anything to a sleeping woman - it wouldn't be fair to her... And not interesting at all - her screams and tears would make her blood taste even better and without them - everything would be dull.
At least she was sleeping and not pulling on my ears. After making sure that she was once again secured in my bed, I sat down in my armchair. I tried to relax and regain my ability to touch ears without wincing (no one shall know about it), but the ridiculousness of this situation and my current life just gave me a headache.
§Lauren's POV§
I was having a wonderful dream about a cuddly puppy, when everything stopped. Everything was all black once again and it was a sign that I was starting to wake up.
First thing I noticed was smell. It didn't smell like my room at all - it was more like an old library mixed with a chemistry lab.
Second thing that quite disturbed me - the bed I was in wasn't mine. Sheets felt a lot different than my usual ones. Maybe because they were wrapped around me so tightly that I felt like an uncut sushi roll? I opened my eyes to find a third and the most surprising thing in the room - Reiji, trying to relax in his chair, but failing miserably.
His face was facing the ceiling, his right hand was rubbing the bridge of his nose while the left hand, the one that was holding his glasses, was hanging from the armrest. His legs were crossed on the coffee table. His hair was a mess and so were his clothes. He even had one of his sleeves all the way up, while the other one was loosely hanging all the way down to his wrist and glasses. He looked like a cat, pulled right out of the dryer. He didn't look like Reiji at all.
"I will personally make sure she never gets her hands on any drugs ever again. Not even the flu medicine. She can die in a pit because of the sore throat for all I care. No, she actually can't - that would be troublesome. Father would punish us again. But I swear - she will never get intoxicated as long as she lives in this mansion. If she will get drugged - I'll just borrow the handcuffs from Laito. Or maybe the leash. And then we'll see. Yes. We'll see, who's the good boy then," Reiji was mumbling some really weird things. Just what on earth had happened?
I tried to sit up, but failed.
"Um, Reiji-san, what happened?" His hand stopped moving.
"Lauren-san, what kind of animal do I resemble?" Was Reiji on drugs?
"You resemble a really tired vampire who's ready to get pierced by a wooden stick. What happened to you?" He sighed, probably in annoyance. Was my condition and his looks anyhow related?
"Good - it's finally over." He slowly stood up and walked towards me.
"What's over? Why am I practically tied up? What in the name of Kami did I do?" He didn't answer any of my questions and simply picked me up. Reiji carried this sushi roll, that some of you might call Lauren, out of his room and put me on the floor, right outside his room.
I was unstable on my feet for an obvious reason - I looked like an overweighted Morticia Addams. Without saying a word, he pulled away his blanked, making me spin like a BeyBlade.
"Go to eat." And he was gone. He just slammed the doors shut right in front of me.
I got really angry. Why didn't he tell me what happened? I clenched my fists even tighter. Wait a minute... Why were my fists clenched in the first place? And I felt something in my hands. I was holding something soft. When I unclenched my hands, I had to suppress my scream. I was holding a fair amount of dark purple hair. Let me say this a bit slower: I. Had. Two. Handfuls. Of. Reiji. Sakamaki's. Hair.
I somehow managed to give him a new wild hairstyle with my bare hands. I felt a headache coming it's way. And here goes my survival plan.
I failed without even trying. I will die sucked dry because I couldn't handle some weird drugs. But I guess it's only a natural selection at this point - if I'm stupid enough to do god knows what to Reiji (dangerous vampire), then I don't really deserve to live. I walked to my room.
No, I can't give up! Even if I'm an idiot who can't take care of herself - I have to survive this. But how? I already let my chance of possible protection slip away. Well, after looking at this amount of hair, I'd say that I was holding onto this chance so hard, I almost scalped him. I don't think I can face him anymore. Ever. If I managed to get him into such an unsightly state. I put Reiji's hair on my nightstand to remind myself about my goal.
I walked to the bathroom to drink some advil for my headache, but I couldn't find my precious bottle. I could swear that I placed it here. But no matter how hard I was looking for it - it wasn't there. Who could have taken it?!
My thoughts were interrupted by the cries of my stomach. I haven't eaten a decent meal in a while, so I rushed to the kitchen. There I met person I really didn't want to see - Kanato.
"Oh, Lauren-san, are you hungry?" Kanato was in a really good mood for some reason.
"Yeah, I haven't eaten for a while so I thought I should grab a snack. I'll leave the kitchen right away." Don't try to neutralize a ticking bomb - run away from it as fast as possible.
"Why? Don't you want to stay with me and Teddy. Are you telling me that I'm unpleasant to be around?" I couldn't tell if I was walking on a very thin ice or if I was already underneath it.
"I thought that you wouldn't want me around." Since you called me human trash more than once.
"Why would you think that?" Yep, I was under thick ice.
"It's just... Teddy-san... Seemed to dislike me. Yeah." Even I didn't believe this lie. Kanato was staring at me, without even giving a hint of what he was thinking about. Right in front of him was an enormous chocolate cake and he was eating it all.
"Lauren-san, you said you were hungry. Eat some cake - I even prepared a fork for you." It was true - there were two forks stabbed into the poor thing. But I couldn't eat chocolate cake first thing after I woke up - to function normally, especially after the blood loss, I needed something a lot more nutritious than a cake. And I couldn't eat that cake for other two reasons: I would gain weight, freak out and get an injury while trying to lose weight and second reason, the most obvious one:
IT WAS KANATO'S CAKE!
No matter, how many times I will be offered his cake, I will always turn it down. My guts pretty much always send me false danger signals, but this time I will trust this feeling. If that cake is not poisoned to kill me - then his owner will definitely do the job.
"I'm sorry, Kanato-kun, but I'm not in a mood for sweets right now." I already did some really embarrassing things after drinking that spiced up tea - I can't risk with this cake. This family seems to be really fond of drugging food, so I have to be careful.
"Are you turning down my offer?" Kanato asked innocently.
"No, I'm just..." I tried to control my breathing, which was getting really hard. My heart was already beating like crazy.
"How dare you?!" Kanato slammed down his fork. "I was kind enough to offer MY cake to a trash like you and you dared to not accept it?!"
Can I still jump out of the window? Is the offer still here? And here I cut the wrong wire to set this bomb only seconds away from explosion. I was not a believer in God, but I was ready to pray for safety. If I stayed there any longer - I'm sure I would have had at least one panic attack and then they would know that I'm weak. They would use it against me and slowly crush me, laughing in my face while I would be begging for mercy.
If they find out about me freaking out for nothing and everything at the same time - I won't survive another night. My hands were starting to shake a bit. Kanato's angry glare was making me slightly lightheaded.
"Oi, what's going on? Are you eating my takoyaki?!" Ayato's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. He was here and he was talking to Kanato, who lost his interest in me. I felt relieved. I even felt a bit thankful that Ayato distracted Kanato's attention away from me.
"NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR OCTOPUS BALLS!" Screamed Kanato.
"What did you just say, you brat?!"
"DON'T CALL ME BRAT!" But on the other hand - Ayato was making this situation even worse. This was not a simple bomb - it was an atomic one and the fact, that I was in Japan right now was not helping me to calm down.
"Can't people in this household be quiet for at least five minutes?" Reiji walked in, looking even worse than before. Poor man didn't even care about his manners, but the fact, that he was here ceased my nervousness a little bit. He was obviously not in the mood to do any harm to me... I hoped.
"I WILL CALL YOU BRAT BECAUSE YOU ARE ONE!"
"PREPARE TO DIE, YOU TENTACLE HENTAI LOVER!"
Reiji rubbed his temples, wincing in pain every time Kanato and Ayato opened their mouths.
"Reiji, perhaps you know, where my bottle of advil had gone to?"
"This?" He took out something from his pocket. And you guessed it - it was my jelly angels.
"Thank you, and I was looking for them." I reached out my hand to grab the bottle, but Reiji put it back into his pocket.
"This will lower the quality of your blood."
"I really need them right now," I whispered, headache was getting stronger and stronger.
"TEDDY! GIVE ME BACK MY TEDDY?!"
"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EATEN MY TAKOYAKI!"
"LIKE HELL I WOULD EAT SOMETHING AS DISGUSTING AS THAT!"
*SLAM*
"SHUT UP YOU TWO!"
Reiji slowly took out my advil bottle out of his pocket, took out two pills and swallowed them himself. Then quietly gave the bottle back to me.
"My apologies."
"Thank you." We both sighed and just stood there, waiting for the fight to be over. After all - I still had to eat.
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In the next chapter Lauren will encounter two vampires and something even worse than them - stay tuned for more ^^.