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Summary: As Reika slowly started to understand her new life, she came to the conclusion that fairness did not exist in this world and that blood was the only thing that mattered. [SI, Self-Insert/OC-Insert as Kuran Rido's daughter]

Enjoy.

To Rule The World

Chapter 15

Hit Or Miss

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"Be the flame, not the moth."
― Giacomo Casanova

Knowledge was a very dangerous thing. Reika was forced to realize that throughout the days following her sudden epiphany.

She had always been careful around her cousin, more than a little aware of his power and the harm she could inflict upon herself by making the wrong move around him. All this and much more still haunted her when the girl was in Kaname's vicinity, making the time they spent together more than a little nerve-wracking.

And yet, none of this actually managed to stop her from seeking him out.

As a pureblood Reika never had many chances at finding happiness. Despite all the vampires that envied the Kurans for their status, there wasn't actually all that much to envy. After all, not even all the money in the world could ever free them from the nightmare that their eternal existence truly was.

The prospect of an eternity was a very daunting thing.

(...Reika could not even begin to imagine living for more than a century, let alone forever...)

The thought of not having to spent all this time alone was as tempting as it seemed to be foolish. Kaname might have cared about her in his own way, but that did not immediately translate into love.

Besides, the female Kuran knew that her cousin's heart already belonged to another. While she might have never met Yuki, the other girl was still very much in the picture. Kaname visited his supposed little sister as often as his rather busy life allowed him, his devotion towards her clear.

Even Reika's awareness of this did not manage to fully stop her from hoping.

To a vampire, there was nothing quite as important as love and having found it while still as young as she herself was wasn't a certainty.

Kuran Reika did not want to give up on what might be her one chance at happiness.

Thus, she continued spending time with her cousin, playing chess in his office or relaxing together in the gardens.

And if her new found realization meant that she was more tactile during their meetings, then well, no one was complaining.

Reika did not mind shopping.

Neither did she mind doing it with company.

What did, however, bother her was being forced to spend a whole day with Ruka and two rather shallow friends of hers. The three of them prattled too much and worshiped the pureblood to an uncomfortable extent.

They kept their conversations proper and made sure not to criticize her no matter what. It was infuriating because Reika could not even ask them about their honest opinion when it came to choosing her own clothes.

Even if she looked bad in something, the two girls would still tell her that she looked fantastic.

Such a behavior was just tiring and redundant.

What did they think she would do to them if they told her their honest opinion? Smite them into oblivion?

Admittedly, she had found their actions funny at first. It amused her to see their pinched expressions when the two teens did not like something she wore but were too reluctant to say so. For an hour or two she even used their hesitation to entertain herself, however, the whole thing got old very quickly.

Right now, three hours into their shopping trip, she was just annoyed.

''We should go eat something,'' Reika decided, knowing that no refusal would leave the other girls' mouths. ''Do you know a good place nearby?''

''There is a nice Italian restaurant just two streets away,'' inferred Fuyumi. She was a distant cousin of Ruka's and the boldest one out of the girls.

The pureblood smiled a little tensely, wanting to just get this day over with. ''Great.''

And that was how she found herself sitting in a quaint little restaurant located within a small side street. Its decor was slightly tacky, but it still reminded her in many ways of the home she had lost.

The owner, a middle-aged Italian with a heavy accent, had greeted them at the entrance and then led them to one of the best tables within the establishment. For once it wasn't Reika's blood status that led to such a privileged treatment, but her final companion's occupation. Himawari was quite a famous model in Japan, who was slowly but steadily winning fame all over the country.

Their dinner ended up being surprisingly pleasant. While the girls still did not talk about anything substantial, the atmosphere surrounding them was affable enough to overrule that.

Besides, the dessert she ate made her so nostalgic that Reika could have probably even ignored the end of the world.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day.

''Ruka is quite excited about the upcoming school year,'' Reika said as she moved a pawn across the chessboard in a way that might or might not end up dooming her queen. Afterwards a smile tilted her lips upwards due to a momentary glimpse of discomfort appearing within Kaname's eyes.

They both knew why exactly Ruka was so exited about going to Cross Academy and it certainly wasn't the rigorous curriculum they would be offered.

The female Kuran smiled slyly, ignoring how her and Ruka were actually entirely the same. ''She's quite smitten with you.''

''She's smitten with my blood status.'' For a moment, Kaname looked at her as if she were a misbehaving child. ''You should know better than to try distracting me in such a juvenile way.''

Reika pouted and batted her eyelashes innocently. ''I have no idea what you mean.''

He regarded her dryly. ''You're losing. Again.''

''It's not my fault that you're such a horrendous teacher,'' she countered, sacrificing her queen all the while.

Kaname's left eye twitched ever so slightly, prompting Reika's smile to widen into a grin. She leaned back in her chair and met her cousin's gaze boldly, as if to say, 'this is all your fault'.

As composed as always, Kaname ignored the unsaid jibe and ended their weekly game of chess easily.

''You're mean,'' the girl stated mildly, her tone showing exactly how little she actually minded losing the game for what felt like the thousandth time.

Instead of answering her, the older vampire started putting the board and its pieces into their packaging. Slightly miffed at being ignored, Reika snatched her queen before Kaname could take a hold of it and rolled it between her thumb and pointer finger. It was a beautiful piece, made of both gold and silver and extremely detailed. She might not have known how much the whole set had actually cost, but she was positive that it was a small fortune.

Kaname had gotten it from some aristocrat for one of his birthdays and he had been unusually fond of it ever since then.

As a whole, Reika had to admit, she found the entire thing quite pretentious.

And yet, she knew better than to say that out loud. After all, not too long ago, the female pureblood had bought herself a necklace adorned with quite a few diamonds. It would have been quite hypocritical of her to blame Kaname for being pretentious when she herself wasn't any different.

''You're leaving in the morning for a meeting with the council, aren't you?'' she asked instead, putting the last chess piece into its proper place inside the game's intricate packaging.

Kaname inclined his head. ''Yes, they still want to discuss a few things about Cross Academy.''

''Ah,'' she muttered unhelpfully. ''I see.''

Would he be visiting his sister afterwards? How often had he even visited Yuki this year?

Reika shook her head forcefully. Such thoughts were neither proper nor beneficial.

Trying to distract herself, the girl looked around the room until her gaze landed on the clock on top of the desk. ''You don't have much time left before you've got to go. Maybe you should rest for a while.''

He looked down at his wristwatch. ''I might just do that.''

It was as much of a dismissal as she would get from him. Heeding it was quite easy as Reika's thoughts, having been turned towards Yuki, were souring her mood and making her yearn for a little solitude.

She stood up from her seat in one graceful move and after uttering a soft ''Goodnight.'' she turned around to leave the room. The carpet was soft beneath her feet as she walked across it, each of her steps feeling more heavy than the one before. It was when she finally reached the door, her hand already closing around the handle, that Reika just stopped.

The girl did not like seeing herself running away from this. She did not like pretending that everything was alright and feeling jealous because of someone she hadn't even met yet.

In this new life, Reika had gotten used to getting almost everything she wanted. Until now, this mostly applied to material things, such as a new book or some exotic tea she had recently heard about. This flaw of hers could most easily be explained away by her upbringing and the fact that people rarely actually denied her anything.

There was no reason for them to do such a thing, after all, money was not a problem as her inheritance rose with each passing day. Besides, no one actually wanted to get on her bad side because of something as stupid as a book or British chocolate fudge.

As such, it was understandable that Reika was used to seeing things go her way and there was nothing quite as frustrating as that not being the case.

Unfortunately for her, there wasn't anything she could actually do against her frustration in this quite precarious situation of hers.

Or at least she had forced herself into believing that.

But Reika did not want to be that kind of girl. She did not want to pine after some guy for the rest of eternity because she was too afraid to do something. Too afraid to find out whether a future together was even a possibility.

The thought of living with such an uncertainty prompted Reika to turn around. She did not want the rest of her life to be filled with what-ifs and what could have been.

Walking back towards the desk, towards Kaname, was easier than she had thought it would be. She stopped moving right next to his chair and waited patiently until he finished filling out the document he had taken out when she had uttered her goodbye.

When the ancestor finally did look upon her, his gaze was both assessing and inquiring.

In favor of explaining herself, Reika reached out with her hand, stroking his jaw hesitantly with her fingertips.

Something akin to understanding flashed within Kaname's cognac colored eyes, but he did not pull away. Taking this as a permission, the girl leaned down until their noses brushed and their breaths mixed together. In spite of all the years the two purebloods had spent in each other's presence, they had only ever been this close to each other once before when Reika had allowed herself to truly mourn her lost life for the first time.

Being in this position, Reika couldn't help wondering if it had been inevitable from the moment when they had first met all those years ago.

Falling in love with Kaname hadn't been easy, and yet it had become as integral to her as breathing.

Tilting her head slightly to the side as to avoid bumping noses with the other pureblood, Reika closed the gap between them with no small amount of hesitation. The kiss that followed was no more than a soft brushing of their lips. It sent tingles along her skin and made the fine hairs on her arms rise lightly.

And more than anything else, that one kiss made her gums ache and throat burn with an unquenchable hunger.

She pulled back abruptly and opened her eyes, only to meet the already gleaming gaze of the ancestor, within it, a reflection of her own orbs, set aglow by a primal hunger.

Before she could even begin contemplating this development, a hand was buried firmly within her loose hair, pulling her back towards Kaname. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Reika registered the sound of the chair scrapping across the floor. By the time the sound disappeared, the girl had already maneuvered herself onto Kaname's lap.

Their lips met in a bruising kiss, again and again, and soon she could feel Kaname's tongue tracing one of her fangs. Fangs that were razor sharp and could and would cut it if he wasn't careful.

The game they were playing was a dangerous one. And it was this danger, this high probability of her losing, that made the female Kuran move slightly backwards.

Her breath came out in soft pants as she once again allowed her gaze to meet Kaname's. One of his hands reached out to caress her cheek and all at once, as the fire disappeared from within his gaze, the Ancestor looked somewhat softer.

This time, when their lips touched each other, the exchange was infinitely gentler.

It continued being that way until long after Kaname was supposed to leave.