Sliding gently out from between the warm sheets of Laito's bed, I began preparing Kanato's birthday breakfast. He'd want something unbearably sweet; rainbow sprinkle pancakes with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. I would do my best to deliver. Even while trying my best, I still somehow burned the rainbow sprinkles so that they looked a little blackish instead of their original colors.
"Kanato-sama," I called as I came into his room with the tray of breakfast goodies.
The room was extremely dark, shrouding my eyes in a thick veil. I didn't know something was on the floor until my foot caught. The tray crashed to the ground as my knees collapsed down to catch the majority of my weight. They felt heavily bruised and I cursed inwardly at my clumsiness.
"What the actual hell do you think you're doing?" Kanato roared and I cringed as he snapped on the lights. "Stupid woman!"
"I'm sorry Kanato-sama," I murmured, moving to clean up the mess, but as most of it was on me, there wasn't much to clean from the floor but the creamy milk I'd brought. "I tripped over one of your toys I think."
"Don't be so damn clumsy in the future!"
"Of course, I'm sorry," I repeated, standing up.
Kanato in his lilac boxers was an uncommon sight and I found my eyes often being drawn up to him as I pressed towels to the wet floor.
"Perverted woman, what do you think you're staring at?" he demanded and I blushed, ducking my head.
He grabbed my chin, "Forget about that stupid breakfast. I'd rather eat you."
My eyes widened as he grabbed my wrist and pushed me down onto the floor.
"K-Kanato-sama," I muttered as he straddled me with his knees. His eyes were alight with hunger and his grin broadened across his face as I pressed myself to the floor beneath him.
"You are to call me Master."
He didn't waste a shred of a second. His tongue flicked out to my shoulder and began devouring the chocolate syrup that had smeared there.
"This outfit, it is so much cuter than the maid one you wore yesterday," he said, peeling away to observe me in the Lolita style outfit.
It was navy blue with silver embroidery along the hems and white lace around the neckline. Or rather, lack of neckline as the dress spanned my chest just above my breasts and went straight over to my shoulders.
"I will dress you up in something better once I am finished here," he murmured, bending his head to continue licking away smears of whipped cream and chocolate.
One of his hands sat heavily on my hip, pressing me down while the other grasped at my dress, tugging down on the collar to expose more chocolate covered skin. The one on my hip moved to grasp hungrily at the hem, pulling it up to allow access to the whipped cream that had splattered across my thighs.
"H-hey!"
"Shut up," he grumbled. "So lewd, Doll-san. Your body is reacting in such a filthy way. Your heart beating like that..."
"Wh-why shouldn't it be? You're very attractive, Kanato-sama."
"Hmph, I suppose it's only natural for you to act that way after all... cling to me," I gently grasped a handful of his hair, massaging his scalp as he licked his way across my chest. "Now, I suppose I'll just have to lick all of this away..."
His teeth indented my skin teasingly but then slipped into the veins so quickly that I hardly realized the pain until a second later. I gave a small yelp of pain and twitched, but Kanato's pressure on my shoulders kept me from wiggling.
"That's it Doll-san, show me your pain..." he murmured, lifting his head and pecking my lips very tenderly. "If I do it like this, your blood still tastes good... I'll have to do it more..."
~
I'd never felt more out of place in my life. Kanato had stuffed me into a frilly pink dress that went to the floor, had given me a pink umbrella, and had put my hair in pigtails. I looked like Princess Peach's younger sister.
"E-er, I don't know if this is the right sort of outfit to suit me," I said tentatively.
"Don't question my expertise!"
"Mm..." I agreed mildly, still feeling rather put out.
Raucous laughter burst out behind us and I whirled around on the spot, nearly tripping on the hem.
"K-Kanato, wha-what did you put her in?!" Ayato laughed out, keeling over at the waist.
"Shut up!" Kanato growled, his eyes blazing.
"Oy, Laito-"
"Nfu, I came as soon as I heard," he chuckled, the pervert's eyes glittering with mischief. "Ahh, Miyako you look just... ravishing. Oh, do I see an ankle? So naughty..."
I stood on the spot, silently fuming under the pink frills. There were many insults I wished to hurl, not to mention the burning desire to tear this dress off completely. Although I felt as if I'd missed out on girly things while growing up, things like clothes shopping, this was never what I had in mind. But since I feared that if I were to open my mouth I'd ruin Kanato's fun, I kept it tight shut.
"I was about to dress her up in something different anyhow!"
"You really will do anything for us on our Birthdays, won't you, Miyako-kun?" Laito chuckled with a stretching grin. "I should've gone farther with you yesterday."
"Eh? The hell do you mean?" Ayato snapped out, immediately bristling.
"Ah, you can't blame me, can you, Ayato?" Laito said, his eyes growing distant as he reminisced on yesterday's events. "The outfit she wore... ah-" his cheeks grew heavily pink "-it was irresistible!"
"You mean you took her-?"
"No, but I certainly wish I had," Laito crooned.
"Oy," Ayato's face was almost as red as his hair, his fists were clenched at his sides. "I'm to be her first everything, got that?"
"I've taken a few of her other firsts already," Laito said, hands on his hips.
"Hey..." I protested.
"Disgusting," Kanato growled, his upper lip curling at me. "What have you done, slut?"
"Nothing like-!" I argued. Really, it hadn't been much more than over-the clothes stuff. He was blowing it way out of proportion! "You're making it sound more perverted than it was!"
"She's at your beck and call today, Kanato-kun, you'd best take advantage of it."
"I did already," he muttered into Teddy.
"Kanato-" I yelped exasperatedly.
"What??" Ayato yelled, baring his fangs. "Did you take her-?"
"No, but if you keep bothering me about it, I will take her virginity!" he screeched back, rounding his shoulders and squaring off with Ayato where he stood.
I backed away, feeling my heart thud heavily in my chest. Desperately, I tugged the corset drawstrings loose and slipped out of the dress.
"I-I understand if you w-would want that, b-but..." I stammered, kicking off the heels as well.
"Who told you that you could undress?" Kanato growled, turning and glaring at me.
"I-I'm sorry, Kanato-sama, I just got scared of all this fighting. I can't keep you from hurting each other if I'm in a dress, y-you know."
Laito's eyes widened as he caught me in the half-bluff. He knew what was truly frightening me.
"Nfu, Miyako, you have the last say in what you want, you know."
"What is that supposed to mean? I am Doll-san's Master today! She does as I say."
Laito sobered, shaking his head, "Her blood will go sour when you push her limits. You'll ruin it for the rest of us if you don't pay attention."
"Pushing limits? Were you cruel to Miyako yesterday?" Ayato asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I didn't mean to," Laito said softly, crossing his arms and staring at the floor. He shook himself off. "Like I said, her blood goes sour – you had better pay attention, Kanato."
"I won't be as stupid as you," the younger triplet snarled back. "Come, Doll-san, we need to get you better clothes."
~
Lace tickled my upper arms as I sat beside Kanato in a restaurant awaiting our lunch. He'd, of course, demanded a dessert menu, but seemed to reconsider when I talked to him very reverently about the manicotti pasta that they served.
"I will try some, ne, Teddy thinks I won't like it."
"Well we won't know until you try," I said softly, putting a pink napkin onto the white, girly dress Kanato had picked for me at the store. It was lacy everywhere and he'd paired it with knee-high sheer patterned stockings and a set of childish and rather impractical pink boots. But I didn't complain. "I'm really in the mood for some."
"I heard your stomach growling earlier," he mumbled, tying a napkin around Teddy's neck. "It was annoying."
"Sorry, I forgot to eat this morning. Usually that's not a bother, but being in this house has really made me go soft."
"You should be grateful!"
"I am grateful, Master," I said absently. "It's just that Father never fed us very well. We had to rely on our own abilities to get food. He had a strict diet list even if he refused to cook for us so we weren't allowed to get fast food. I usually stuck to cheese sticks, microwavable things, granola bars, and raw fruits and veggies."
"You didn't have regular food?" Kanato asked, wide eyed.
"Yeah, that's... that's why I'm a horrible cook," I say with a mild bitterness in my voice. "I'm used to getting by on just about anything so I'm not picky when it comes to taste. Or rather, my sense of taste is pitiful so whenever I make things, they don't taste too good to other people."
"How do you know about manicotti?" he asked skeptically.
"Yui was a good cook, even at a very young age. She failed at most of Father's training, but that's where I came in. I'd handle the violent training stuff and she'd handle the food and taking care of our sister which required a softer hand. I tried to care for Rin as best I could but my efforts were better spent doing small things for her rather than cuddling her. I wasn't very good at that."
"I can't imagine you being violent," Kanato said in an almost shy tone, cocking his head curiously.
"Yeah..." I echoed. "It's very disorienting... I remember what I was; I barely hesitated to fight even my best friends back then. I was just so desperate not to be punished. But I know what I am now. They're two different people... it is very strange to have a personality change like that, but I know that the savagery is not gone. I would still do anything to protect the ones I love."
"Yui seems nice."
"She was," I said softly.
"She's gone?"
"Mmhm, killed by vengeful First Bloods that my father had aggravated."
"What an idiot."
"Yeah," I muttered, shaking my head.
"Why didn't the First Bloods kill him? Stupid human."
"He himself is a rather powerful vampire."
"But he's a hunter! Don't contradict yourself."
"I'm not," I muttered, staring out the glass storefront and watching colorful people walk by. "He would do anything to defeat his enemy even if it meant becoming one of them. He said that in order to fight demons we needed to be demonic ourselves. At some point, he'd decided to take that literally and it worked. He... he's a terrifying man..."
Kanato looked irritated, "He can't be scarier than me!"
"You can be scary when you want to be," I said mildly, holding my breath a bit as I said this, "but Father would never have my love like you do. I'm too frightened of him to care for him."
"Manicotti?" the waitress asked, her lime-green dyed pigtails bouncing as she offered us the plate.
"Yes, please," I said eagerly, watching her place the cheese-stuffed pasta in front of us. Kanato looked at it with interest and sniffed.
"It looks like cannoli but squishy and with red sauce," he said, looking intently at the creamy cheese inside.
"Here," I sliced off a gooey piece, wrapped the cheese strings from the topping around the fork and offered it up to him. "Try it."
He opened his mouth, eyes uncertain, but closed his lips around the spear of pasta. He chewed for a few moments, thinking.
"It's not horrible, feed me another piece."
"Of course, Master," I said, feeling fuzzy inside at the fact that he and I shared tastes, but the fuzziness turned into an ache as the good smells went into my nose and made my empty stomach clench.
"Tch, needy woman," he mumbled around his second bite, cutting a piece off for me and lofting it to my lips. "Say ah."
"Ah," I obeyed, blinking doefully. Tart tomato flavor and creamy cheese blasted across my tongue. "Ah, delicious!"
"When you came to our mansion, you didn't eat very much at first," Kanato noted as I fed him another slice.
"No, I wasn't used to it," I admitted.
"You still don't eat very much, but at least you aren't as ungrateful about it."
"Ungrateful?"
"You wouldn't finish the delicious foods that we gave you!"
"Oh, that, yeah, remember when I said that I had an uncultivated sense of taste? Well... all the good food that you served me was too much compared to what I'd eaten before. I was overwhelmed."
I gave a small cough, feeling my stomach turn slightly.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, er, I'm just allergic to tomatoes."
"What?!"
"Sorry, sorry, I just love tomato sauce and-"
"You idiot!"
"Sorry!"
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I love manicotti!"
"Tch," Kanato slammed a fist down on the table. "You're going to ruin my Birthday if you need to go to the hospital."
"No, I just throw up once and it'll be done – I'm good at handling it. You won't notice and I won't bother you."
"So you can't eat tomato sauce, tomato ketchup, raw tomatoes... anything!"
"I can eat ketchup since it's so synthetic and processed that its barely tomato anymore. Even though raw tomatoes taste delicious, they make me the most sick."
"Still, all those times you ate the tomatoes in your salad, you got sick? Damn, idiot woman..."
"Sorry," I chuckled, blushing in embarrassment. "I didn't want to be rude."
"I'm telling Reiji when we return."
"What? No! He won't make any delicious sauces anymore!"
"Don't argue with me!
I sighed softly, glancing around at the other customers who were throwing us anxious glances.
"I'm sorry, Master."
"As you should be. I'll need to punish you."
"As you wish."
I ducked my head, but he grabbed my chin across the table. His lips were on mine in mere seconds, licking the inside of my mouth with his feverish tongue and trapping my face against his for an indecent amount of time. My face grew hot and I pressed my thighs together as our heated time this morning was brought to mind along with these desires.
"M-master," I whispered, flustered as he broke away, a strand of saliva connecting us. "We-we're in public..."
"Are you embarrassed?" he asked smirking evilly as people around us coughed uncomfortably.
"Y-yes."
"Good, then you've taken your punishment."
~
"Happy Birthday, dear Kanato, Happy Birthday to you...!"
"Make a wish," I told him after we finished singing. I sat close, holding his arm fondly.
He smiled gently then blew out the candles. I clapped eagerly, offering him a knife to cut the purple and white cake. For a moment, he examined it.
"Oy, c'mon we don't have all day to wait for cake,' Ayato said angrily. "I want my piece already!"
"I want to make the cake better... Doll-san, give me your hand."
I hestitated slightly, but obliged. He pressed the glimmering stainless steel into the palm of my hand then slid it down. A small, pealing whine escaped, strangled, from my mouth.
"Kanato!" Subaru shouted, jumping to his feet as I winced. Smatters of red dotted the cake's frosting, dripping down the sides and smearing in the white decorative frosting that read 'Happy Birthday Kanato'. "What the hell?"
"I-It's okay," I muttered against the pain. "I've had worse."
"There, there, no whining," Kanato crooned, immediately pressing his tongue to the palm of my hand and running it up the length of the gash so that it healed. "There's a good Doll-san."
"Now it smells more amazing," Laito murmured, sitting beside Ayato and lounging out against the arm of the sofa he was on. "I doubt it'll be the best, seeing as she was so uncomfortable with it, but it should be ravishing against the sugar of the cake, nfu~"
"Here," Kanato ordered, passing out slices of cake.
Everyone ate, granted, Subaru only prodded at parts of his piece. Kanato fed me non-bloodied pieces of strawberry cake every once in a while.
"Presents time!" I enthused as Kanato put down an empty plate. "Eldest to youngest, here we go... this is Shuu's."
Kanato eagerly tore through the gold wrapping to reveal a plush, quilted blanket with soft swirls on its different patches.
"I thought I heard you complaining about how cold the house was, so I figured this would keep you quiet," Shuu said matter-of-factly, eyes closed as Kanato observed the pattern.
"I suppose it will do," Kanato agreed touching the fleece with lingering fingertips then moving on.
"Mine is rather fragile," Reiji said, adjusting in his seat as Kanato teased the wrappings off. "But I thought that Teddy could use it."
"A tea set fit for Teddy – now he won't need all those horrendously oversized cups," Kanato said, smiling at the box of dinnerware.
"Mine next," Laito said, pushing forward a rather lumpy looking package.
Kanato tore the package apart eagerly and then made a noise of disgust.
"What the hell is this?!" Kanato burst out.
Ayato began laughing immediately, keeling over at the waist and burying his face in his knees.
"Teddy needs a Lady Friend of course," Laito said, grinning as Kanato gingerly handled the racy-dressed Teddy bear. She wore a hot red thong and bra. Her fabric eyelashes were long but her bearish face wore an innocent smile. "Is she not up to his standards? She comes with another outfit..."
"Tch, I should've expected this from the pervert," Kanato grumbled.
"Mine isn't as brilliant," Ayato said, still chuckling as he pushed forward a package wrapped in shiny red paper. It was can shaped and when Kanato opened it he found pudding. "It's that raspberry pudding stuff, your favorite. I got it in bulk so it might last you a week this go around."
"It might," Kanato allowed, his anger fading.
"Now mine," Subaru said, pushing his forward across the table.
Kanato took it and unwrapped the rather long and thin box, inside something long and silver glittered. It was a knife of sorts, not a dagger like mine which had a wide but thin blade. This one was thin but thick with amethyst studding the hilt. It had a small groove up the side that looked exceedingly sleek and elegant. It was slightly longer than my own.
"I know you've got a strong connection to the dead, or at least you did, but anyway, I learned that the amethyst is the gemstone of spiritual awareness so put into a knife and it can ward off entities that irritate you."
"What a beautiful blade," he muttered, staring at the gems glimmering in the light of the chandelier. "...Thank you..."
"You're welcome," Subaru said grudgingly.
"And now, my gift," I said softly handing him what I'd gotten him.
"Oh..." he muttered, tearing open the wrapping eagerly. "An outfit for Teddy and... a picture..."
"It's a picture of us – the one the photographer took at the indoor spa."
"I recognize it," he said, staring absently at it. He and I were staring up at the camera from a raft as we wafted down the lazy river together. My smile was wide and rather cheesy like a kid who'd had too much sugar while his was soft and content as he had his arm around my waist. "I like it..."
"The frame is symbolic too," I murmured softly, running my fingers over the intricate metalwork. "It's iron which protects the subjects from bad spirits. Sapphires are calming, supposedly to cast a steady, soothing aura over the subjects and finally, they are slightly purple which is a color that stands for good fortune."
"Why do you like shiny, material things so much?" Kanato asked, but the question didn't feel malicious. He seemed enraptured by the bluish purple sapphires.
"They're not just pretty to look at, they're useful too. I know I sound superstitious, but I have seen these gems work when given hefty, battle-class spells."
"Ne... I think it's really pretty, thank you..."