The Illusion of Normal

Disclaimer: I do not own either Weiss Kreuz or Rurouni Kenshin, this was something I came up with just on the fly and I always thought it was kind of strange story in my mind.

Part 1: The Bonds

There was a faint gasp, in some of the old house, the hidden room was maintained with little to no light. Small sketches on the wall were reminders of a time gone by, Ran had come in here to give the ancestor what he needed most. He laid down a bottle, waited, then saw the thin almost bony arm reach out, inside the room was a thin figure, a mop of red hair, and sad almost beautiful purple eyes.

Ran had been ten when he and the ancestor met, at first the boy had thought it was a ghost, but no, he was real. All he remembered was having his knees skinned, he was crying sitting in the tall grass, then realized someone was watching from the inside of the house. It was always the same and no more than a cursed existence seemed to dog the family, the boys were more affected too.

Aya-chan was unlucky though, after her accident, she ceased to age, she lay in a coma, unaging the same. While Ran grew up a bit, though he was aware of one problem, even with his height, he was unable to hide the curse from everyone else, he was starting to show the signs too. Elongated incisors, almost fangs, he had some problems during the day, though bright sunlight gave him a headache.

The ancestor would sit and listen to Ran's story, though he would not tell anything more than what he had told himself a thousand times. The ancestor, he just smiled, a sad almost knowing smile, like something in his mind was darkening, then giving a soft light. "It is normal," the voice was sad, there was a darkness to it that Ran could not avoid. "This one must sleep."

Ran knew he has seen the ancestor moving from the dojo to practice alone, while he went to work at the flower shop. It was the silence that came between them that bothered him. He had found that his ancestor ceased to even give out a name anymore, though he knew it.

"I brought home something," Ran announced one evening, he set down some clothes and went to find of course his ancestor in his room, his red gi was ripped again. "Come on, you might like what I brought for you."

The moment the other red haired man gazed at the clothing, his eyes showing a dull purple, not sure how to respond to having to this. He quietly went back to his room, his eyes down. "You're not going to hide in your room all night," Ran finally told him. "Can't you at least give a name?"

"Kenshin," the ancestor walked off and went to his room, shutting the door again.

For a few more months it felt like Kenshin would not come out, Ran put a bottle of blood in front of him and tried to again to make some sense. "Come out," he waited and the door slid open, the hand came out reaching for the bottle, then Ran decided to make Kenshin just fall out of the room, sure enough there came a faint sound.

"ORO!" Kenshin fell forward and was looking out into the hall as Ran was holding the bottle a bit away from him. He did not like being tricked, but somehow Ran was not going to give up on trying to socialize him a bit.

"Come out, at least come out and take a look around," Ran was holding the bottle gazing down at him. "I'm just tired of your mopping around here."

Kenshin's eyes were up at Ran who was taller, he gave a muffled sigh and nodded, coming out he looked around the house, it looked normal enough, at least for twentieth century living. It was something interesting too, Kenshin gazed at television, he had seen this thing a few times, then Ran took out the remote to turn it on, it was on a movie.

Okay, so maybe Seventh Samurai isn't the smartest….Ran thought and saw Kenshin sitting down watching, then a smile coming across his face, the scar was pretty much the only thing that turned a little red. He was laughing, the first time anywhere Ran had ever heard his ancestor laugh at anything in his life. He was looking at the screen, his eyes wide and sparkling. "Are there more of these?"

"Um…yes, there are tons of movies like this," Ran was digging through his supply of DVDs trying to find the movies, Yojimbo to Last Samurai. Kenshin though shook his head at Last Samurai. "What?"

"The whole thing, its wrong," Kenshin pointed to the person. "The person here, yes American…very nice man." He shook his head, then looked sad. "Very sad about his family."

"Family? You knew a real American General during that time?" Ran asked in shock.

"Hai, very nice man, very sad, his family was killed by idiot Custer, he called him the bad commander, not worth following if even he was working for the government of the United States," Kenshin sighed and shook his head again. "This one would like to see this one though." He pointed to Star Wars, of all the things that he had to a want to see, it had to be Star Wars.

Of all the things, Ran thought and put in the DVD and let his ancestor have his way. Sure enough Kenshin was looking serious, then smiled a little, he walked back to his room. "This one would like to see more movies," he walked into the room and shut the door. "This one will not wear these!" He pointed to some shirts and slacks.

Weiss had no idea about what was going to happen, Ran had become a member after an assault on a training mission. He walked into the flower shop that morning only to find that the unannounced leader was no more than sixteen years old, then again, Omi was possibly more mature than he looked. He was not so serious at times, but he had held off a lot of the fighting between Hidaka Ken and Kudo Yohji.

I think that Kenshin can handle me being gone for a little while, I gave him enough blood to last a few days, I also left him some movies, Ran thought as he looked around his new apartment. He made some arrangements to go back to the dojo for a few days at a time to see him. "I'm aware that your cousin's health is a concern, so if you wish, we can have his medical taken care of," Manx had told him.

"Kenshin will not understand strangers coming to the dojo," Ran explained and knew that he was pressing it, he went back to dojo to check on Kenshin.

Sure enough he was sitting down in the living room watching Seventh Samurai, Kenshin's purple eyes were a little glassy. He looked up and frowned as Ran sat down behind him. "I was waiting for you, but you did not come yesterday."

"I was at work, I can't always come over," Ran told him.

"Work?" Kenshin moved his head to the side and smiled a little.

"I'm a florist," Ran had to say this in all seriousness, he was waiting for Kenshin to burst out laughing, that didn't happen. The poor former Samurai just smiled and nodded, like it was not really anything bad.

Kenshin in his curious nature had gone outside for maybe a few minutes to only come back into the house after getting a sunburn. Sure enough vampires could move in the sunlight, that was what Ran had discovered, but it made Kenshin a little sick and had a horrible sun burn. "How long were you out there?" Ran sighed inspecting the burn. "Maybe I should buy some sunscreen."

"Sunscreen?" Kenshin blinked confused.

"Look things have changed," Ran sighed and went to his bookbag to bring out a bottle of sunscreen, SPF 50. "We have the same problem, so I guess I should get more so you can outside. Also the new clothes are supposed to help you too, it covers yours skin better. The gi is so old, I can't repair it."

His ancestor was gazing up and went back his room and shut the door, this was of course his usual response to the idea of actually leaving the front gate. "This one is too dangerous to be out…" Kenshin muttered and shut the door to his room.

Walking up to the room, Ran knew it was that time again, he knew that since he was fifteen when it first happened. The truth of the curse led him to understand why it was actually important to do this kind of thing. He walked up to the door and waited, it was not going to happen unless Ran instigated it. He brought up a small knife and made a nick on the nape of his neck, he waited until a small stream of blood, he waited, the smell would attract Kenshin's attention.

Like a hungry cat, Kenshin opened the door, his purple eyes were now a dark gold, he blinked and his breath came in shallow gasps. It was always the same fight that made Ran know the truth of this curse, without warning Kenshin pushed him against the wall, his mouth locking onto the wound, the feline grace was gone, and he put all his weight onto Ran causing him to fall into a sitting position. He could feel his ancestor drinking deeply, the soft growl, the restraint was almost gone, an animal instinct had taken over.

Ran could feel a pain starting to well, he knew his own vampire nature was starting to come into control, he pushed Kenshin back, the more the two fought over it. Then Ran found himself lying against him, his breathing returning to normal, his mouth locked onto Kenshin's right wrist sucking on the wound his teeth made.

The first time they did, Ran had been sixteen, it was a wildness that caused him to understand what it meant to be cursed as a Himura. Kenshin had hated himself after this, he had awakened Ran's vampire nature.

When Kenshin came back to himself, he was aware of what happened between him and Ran, he was aware of the one thing that made him scared. "I shouldn't do this to…"

"Relax," Ran walked away. "If you don't do this at least once to twice a month, you end up snippy and mean. I would rather have you calm than mean."

A few days had passed and Ran had spent it at the flower shop, he had a mission and he knew the smell on his body was not pleasant. He walked into his apartment, went to take a shower, he stood under the water and thought about this fact. He had drank a little blood before the mission to keep his body from going wild, he knew that Omi and Ken were not going to be a problem, but Yohji proved much more difficult to hide from.

"I'm not going on this mission, could you do this?" Yohji handed him the watch, he looked at the human chess game and whispered. "I know you're doing this for the child in the hospital, so don't mess it up."

Ran didn't pretend not to understand Yohji's reasons for anything, he walked into the hall and saw the tall man taking back his watch. "I swear you're much better at using it than me." He laughed a little and turned his head to the side. "I was wondering about something, you said you were checking on your cousin."

"Leave Kenshin alone," Ran walked away from him and held his towel.

Leave my ancestor alone, he doesn't need to know anything about what we do, I don't want him worrying himself, I don't want anyone to know the truth, Ran knew he was hiding a secret, Aya-chan was not what he was trying to hide more than his vampire of an ancestor. "Aya-kun," he turned to see Omi's smiling face, the boy was walking up. "I was wondering if you could help me tomorrow by exchanging shifts with me, I'm having a test to study for…"

"Yeah," Ran nodded, he took the shift and went to his room. He had to think about something else, the more he thought about it, the more he hated the idea.

In the days that followed after sharing blood, Kenshin had become much more curious, he would look out the windows, he would look through the slots of the gate. He sometimes just could not do much more than that. I could bring Kenshin to my work, Ran thought about this, then shook his head.

He walked to the dojo and saw Kenshin gazing through the gate's slots again, he was watching the people walking by. "Would you like to go…?" Ran asked only to see the red haired vampire shake his head and walk back into the house. "You were waiting for me?"

"Hai, this one was," Kenshin nodded.

"All right, what do you need?" Ran walked into the house and found the television had a huge bowl in it. "What happened?"

Kenshin got on his hands and knees and bowed. "This one must apologize for hurting the motion box…I was just upset with…one of the shows."

"Er…." Ran's eyes were wide. "What were you watching?"

"It was supposed to be a historical drama, but the whole thing, it was all wrong!" Kenshin sputtered and was shaking his head. "This one knew the real Okita and Saitou, the show was…"

"A work of fiction," the other stared at him and sighed. "I'll get a new television, but Kenshin…you seriously need to not take the shows so seriously."

For a few days, Ran spent them at the Dojo, he was fixing a few holes in the roof, he had replaced a few tiles in the roof and was fixing the electrical problems. Sure enough the Kamiya Dojo was still an active school and students did come and go, but the residential house was a different thing altogether. No one knew who really lived in the house, they knew that sometimes Ran would take up lessons, he was already a good student of the Kamiya Kashin style of kendo. He was not going to use it, but he also knew a secret family variant of the Hitten Mittsurugi Ryuu which was the Ancestor's sword style, this was taught in secret to the guardians of the house, those who protected the Kamiya Dojo. Kenshin did not take students, but Kenji did, and though father and son were estranged in some sense, it did not stop Kenji from teaching Ran anything.

Kenji had kept it a good point to remain away from the house, he did not want his father to know anything of the outside anymore. "It is dangerous, Ran, no matter how I look at it, To-san did not bring this curse intentionally onto the family. Nor did he want to hurt Rei and I, we were the results of his love for my mother. For any hope I have, we must hide To-san," Kenji looked away and smiled a little. "You are Rei's so many great grandchildren, her life as short as it was, was always to look after To-san. I hate to ask this of you and your family, Ran, but look after him."

"I will always look after Kenshin, he is after all the patriarch of the family, even if he hates what he is," Ran sighed and thought again of how to answer this one. "Kenji-sama, you are not going to tell him you're alive, are you?"

"Does it make a difference? It won't bring Ka-san back, it won't bring Rei-chan back. I want him to know he can live as he pleases, but he chooses to hide in the dojo like a frightened cat who is afraid of its own shadow," Kenji did not look happy for this to be said. "I want him to find someone, at least someone in this century that understood him as Ka-san did. Bring him out, show him the world, show him nothing is that harmful."

Ran turned his attention to Kenji's words and shook his head. "I can't do this."

"It is much to ask of a Fujimiya who was simply someone who were the grandchildren of my sister, but you and Aya are the last ones. I can't ask anymore than you can give. Aya-chan's medical bills will be covered by Kritiker, is that correct so I have no worries," Kenji asked or rather demanded the answer to this. "Know this, even if you work for them, To-san will find out and he will be even more displeased. The Hitokiri Battosai will live in the past, not in the present, do not walk the sad path To-san walked."

"And what about Aya-chan! Takatori is walking free as can be, you speak of me not taking him out, he could kill Kenshin-sama so easily!"

"Hardly," Kenji shook his head and walked off. "Just be careful Ran, and remember to show him the world. Also find out who did this to him, find out what vampire caused our curse and make To-san a vampire."

"I will do anything you ask, Kenji-sama."