Subaru looked from the tower towards the gate that led to the mansion. His hands felt the stone wall chip away at his touch as he dug his nails into the window, his bracelet catching the glint of an obscure lamp far away from the tower, his eyes meandering from the path that led to the tower to the meadow that faced the left side of the mansion. His heart stayed silent as he heard his mother beckon him from behind. "Nee sama?"
He turned around, his mother's hands wrapped around the iron bars, a look of bewilderment in her eyes. He stepped close to her, placing his hands over hers, loving the soft touch of his mother, imagining what would have been the scenario had she been healthy. Her bony fingers prodded against his palm, as she rested her head on his closed fist.
"You might not get to see him for a while, mother." He placed his head on her fingers, kissing her knuckles. She sobbed a bit, her luscious white hair moving with the wind.
Karlheinz had probably never bothered to look after his surviving wife while he presided in the demon world. Feelings of anger and disgust overcame Subaru as he saw a dark figure emerge from the shadows. Mismatched eyes looked at him, glowing in the dark, as the dark figure stepped in, dissipating dust from the stream of light illuminating the cell.
"Subaru kun," Kou said, his voice oddly cheerful. "What a surprise to see you here. Your mother must be glad to see you once every ten years."
"I'll stab the other eye out if you act so high and mighty around me."
"Aww, don't act so closed off," Kou said, as Subaru saw his mother back away from the blond vampire, saying, "This is the spawn of Satan!"
"Now I get where you get your bipolarity from." Kou must have meant it as a joke, but the words stung deep into Subaru's heart, as he barked at Kou, turning towards him, "I'll kill you!"
"You can, after we get through what Reiji has in store for us, Subaru kun."
***
Ayato stared at the equations written on the sheet of paper before him, as his attention oscillated between Yui and the books beside them, trying hard to focus.
It was hard because he had to think through the problem first. She'd promised him takoyaki if he solved this last question without her help, but he was stuck at it. And why did she have to put her hair up in a bun like that? Her neck was exposed, and he only had two things on his mind whenever he looked up to see her staring back at him, her hands crossed on her chest as though knowing he wasn't particularly amused with this exercise.
Should I kiss her neck or bite down on it?
"I can give a hint, if you want," she offered, her eyes now fixed on the book she had been assigned for reading. She was sitting on her bed, her shorts riding up further on her thighs, The Diary of Anne Frank on her lap, and her damn hair twisted up in a bun. She'd stuffed two earbuds in her ears as Ayato had started complaining that she'd given him a difficult assignment, a soft voice singing some old songs, drowning out his whining. Ayato was lying on his stomach, his red hoodie too hot for him. He forced himself to focus on the last problem. He wasn't ready to give up on this one.
"Why are we finding out ages of fathers and sons? Don't we have better things to do?" He flipped through the previous solutions he had jotted down, hoping the answer would be written miraculously on the blank page once he revisited it.
"Ayato kun," Yui warned, and Ayato went back to pretending to write some gibberish on the paper. He looked at her in between his struggle to decipher the problem, and saw her bobbing her head to the song, her deft fingers flipping the page, and he found his stare following the curve of her collar bone, imagining what sound might escape her rosy lips when he marks her mercilessly there, holding her hands above her head, ripping her clothes off her one by one-
He buried his red face into his hands, not believing he'd been embarrassed by such thoughts. He just wanted to melt into a puddle and disappear from the face of the earth. Fucking no tits girl made him this nervous wreck.
"Ayato kun?" she looked at him, plucking her earbuds from her ears, his attention now drawn again towards her bare neck. She tilted her head to her side, a bit surprised. "You look like you just choked on something."
"Mind your own business." He didn't how harsh his words sounded. He just wanted to rip her into shreds for making him feel things he didn't want to.
She did look a bit offended, but didn't react to him. He wanted her to fire back some awful comment at him. He'd at least get some excuse to overpower her and fucking rip the assignment to pieces as he pounded into her, making love to her-
He sat up, facing away from her.
This whole idea was bullshit. Yui and her fucking takoyaki with chicken teriyaki. He couldn't handle the sexual tension, but he absolutely hurt inside seeing her oblivious to the effect she had on him. He should have waited till they were in school at least. The school library had plenty of space for them to sit in peace and study. He wanted to just sit in silence with her as they tackled through math problems for once. He'd thought spending time with her would ease his longing a bit, but now that he had crossed that threshold, he wanted to do more, be more to her. He scribbled the first few steps of the solution before he became aware of Yui's warm breath over the nape of his neck. She leaned over on him, her earbuds close enough for him to hear the song in her mp3 playing a cheerful melody.
"I think you need to multiply it by 3 on both sides to proceed." She takes his pen from his sweaty hands, her thin fingers slowly prying it from his death grasp and marking 3 on both the sides of the equation.
He took in a shaking breath, her honeysuckle sending waves of pleasure through his body. He snatched the pen from her, and finished the solution, writing the value of x and underlining. "Whatever. I want the takoyaki ready, I did the work."
She ruffled his hair, and said, "Good boy!"
He slapped her hand away and pouted. She smiled at him and went back to her book. Damn, only if he had caught her by the hand and stole a little kiss. Now that would have been a real fantasy for him. He turned to her, his head cocked to a side as he spoke, "You listen to sissy songs."
She raised her eyebrows. Looking up from her book, she said, "You seem irritated, Ayato kun."
How dare her comment on him being irritated. He'd held down the urge to push her on the bed and fuck the daylights out of her, and she had to poke a finger at his ego once again.
She smiled and went back to her reading, as he lifted himself up from her bed. "Pancake." His voice was hasty and urgent. "Ta-ko-ya-ki."
She shut her book and tossed it out of her lap. He found his gaze lingering there, wondering how she'll taste there.
"You're a child, Ayato kun," she climbed off the bed, slipping on her sandals as she looked at him, confused.
"What?" he asked, forcing himself to look up at her.
"You look at me weird."
He knotted his eyebrows. She was that dumb.
"Don't bother about it," he said, crossing his arms, and choosing to stare at the ground instead. She gave him a confused look, and turning around so he had the perfect view of her ass. Damn, he smiled to himself as she rushed out of the room. He thought of giving her a bit of helping hand. He walked in ease out of the room, even though the thought of staying in her proximity made his heart start up with excitement.
***
Laito rested his head against the window ledge, looking at the human girl rush towards the kitchen, Ayato following behind her like a loyal guard dog. Even though Laito clearly lusted for the petite blond haired girl's body, he saw some rationality in Ayato's actions. When you start to feel too much for your blood source, there was little others could do to pull you back up. He smiled as he saw them both brush up against each other, Ayato arguing with her as she prepared batter for something. Ayato had a knack for making people dance on his tunes, whether they liked it or not. Reiji came up from behind him, almost scaring him.
"Jeez Reiji, you're a creep."
"Says who?" Reiji pushed his glasses back, his glove on his left hand as always. "Last time I checked, I don't derive sexual gratification from animal documentaries."
"That was once," Laito said, dismissing the argument.
"Nevertheless, I came here to tell you about the plan. In detail."
Laito stole a glance at the couple below, obviously enjoying their time. He felt a bit of jealousy as Ayato clasped his fingers around Yui's tawny arms, and she let him drag her to the stove. Yui looked more lively and vivacious, as though some new energy had made home in her heart. Laito looked at Reiji's stern expression.
"Let me guess, you're going to punish them for coming late yesterday?"
"It's necessary." Reiji held his usual air of no nonsense around him. "Once you let these insolents do whatever they want, they'll just go ahead and betray you."
"Who would want to stay with you anyway?"
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing," Laito said, letting Reiji take the lead. "You first."