DISCLAIMER: i don't own gakuen alice and i will write this disclaimer all in lowercase letters so i can reduce my embarrassment at admitting the truth.

This chapter is dedicated to Hotaru Imai. The events in this chapter take place a few days before Mikan wakes up in the Academy, when Hotaru is scheduled to be Turned.

Buffering

It was exactly five hours, thirty-one minutes, and twenty-three seconds into the morning when I was finally admitted into his house.

I began our greetings by insulting his house. "I was expecting some place much bigger. Just what do you do with all your money?" His house was surprisingly non-gothic, much to my disappointment. After all, he was of European descent and one would've assumed that there could've been some indication of European culture in the design of his home. My expectations were satisfied only after I entered his two-story home and observed the house's interior western styling.

Ruka reacted indignantly to my insult concerning his house, just as I planned. "Hey, I'm letting you in and I even went out to buy some food you humans like to eat so much. Couldn't you at least show some courtesy?" He gave me a stern look, which then changed into a more wide-eyed one. "Please?" He reminded me of an overgrown puppy.

"Sometimes I wonder why I wasn't the one born into your race instead of you. Your personality doesn't seem to fit the image your kind has given you throughout history."

Ruka sobered up after I spoke those words and I felt like rolling my eyes. Why did this serious side of him always come up when discussing this topic? Although he was a different species, it was inaccurate to label his kind as vampires because of the weaknesses they shared with humans. What was called immortality may have simply been a tendency to live longer than the average human before one made a fatal mistake and was defeated by nature. And perhaps there was a world within nature that governed the existences of creatures that were beyond human understanding.

Whatever the truth was, it didn't change the fact that I had only recently come up with a solution to possibly all our problems. It had taken at least one hour of brainstorming in my laboratory back home to think up a less-messy alternative of passing the Usagi Academy interview. However, I had to admit that my idea was only a hypothesis, an experiment that had never been enacted before, thus leaving the calculable success rate a question mark. Nevertheless, I had some confidence that I could get around the small factor of becoming permanently dependent on blood.

"I have an idea." I interrupted Ruka before he could open his mouth again to speak. I swept past him and let myself into his house. It looked comfortable enough, but I would have to remind myself to give him a few tips on furniture after I was finished telling him about my theory.

I walked over to the serenely white couch in the middle of his living room, which also served as a welcoming room, and occupied the seats with my Bottomless Bag. I rummaged around; the bag was an accessory still in its first stages of testing, which was the reason why the user ended up taking more than a few seconds to find the things they needed. What I was looking for eventually met my hand.

Ruka was approaching. "And this is why I worry about you offending all your interviewers, almost no manners at all. What are you up to- WHY ARE YOU HOLDING A SYRINGE?" Ruka shot back faster than any child I had ever seen trying to run away from their yearly immunization shot. His back hit the wall.

I looked calmly at the needle in my hand, then at Ruka, then back at the needle. I lifted an eyebrow. "You're scared of this? You?"

"I had an unfortunate run-in once with a needle, as you can clearly tell. And I really don't want to be anywhere near that thing."

"I think you broke your wall."

Ruka peered behind him hesitantly only see an indent in the shape of his torso. He gave a low growl. "I can fix that later. But whatever it is you're going to inject into me is not going to go away for a while unless I bleed it out!" He appeared adamant about his conclusion.

"I'm not going to inject anything," I said plainly. "I'm going to take from you instead." My words received an unexpected blush from Ruka's cheeks.

"Amongst my kind, the word Take has other meanings. It's…used between lovers so please…use a different word."

I felt like doing something to give him a push into reality. Everyone interprets words differently. "You're going to donate some blood to me and I'm going to inject the blood into myself so you won't have to handle the needle at all." I decided to go ahead and tell him the rest of my plan. "My hypothesis is that if I inject myself with your blood, I might be able to pass Usagi Academy's interview without having to permanently change myself into one of your kind. And if my experiment is successful then I can begin observing how long the effects last."

"And if you don't? What if this kills you?"

I could tell he was only trying to warn me about the idea, but he also looked like he really was considering the possibility.

"I'm sure it won't. And if I don't change back, then at least you don't have to exert yourself through trying to Turn me on your own."

He gave me an unreadable look. I looked back with as calm a façade I could muster. Not even someone with abilities like Ruka would stop me from my experiments. I was usually correct 97% of the time anyway, except for when I hadn't foreseen Mikan getting…

"Hurry up then. Let's please get this over with as quickly as possible. I'm going to endure this just for you so be grateful."

"Thanks." I said dryly. I walked to where he was sitting elegantly on the couch, looking as relaxed any other person. He wasn't looking even the least nervous even though I was approaching him with the one thing that had resulted in a dent in his wall shaped just like him. "Stay still." I warned him despite his calmness.

"Don't worry. I will." He wasn't looking at me when I sat beside him and poised the needle directly above his wrist. I couldn't see any veins. But I wasn't about to be deterred and brought the needle closer, before finally began making an attempt to get it through his skin. However, I had forgotten an important fact. His skin was more resistant to wounds than the average human and my needle was stuck right on the surface of his skin. I pushed down harder, but to no avail.

And then he grabbed my hand, just tight enough so I could still keep my grip on the syringe.

"Our skin tends to be thicker than yours'. The veins usually aren't visible, but you can insert a needle in anywhere and still draw blood. When you get our powers, you'll need to use this much strength in order to cut through our skin. You will need to remember how much force I use. This knowledge can keep you safe when you enter the academy." He raised my hand up slightly and then plunged the needle with deadly accuracy, speed, and strength into his wrist.

Flecks of blood landed on my cheek.

I watched the blood spilling over his wrist and on to my lap. He was making such a mess everywhere.

"I'll get a napkin." I said quietly.

"Are you trying to talk your way out of this? Go ahead. Take it." He nearly hissed his last two words and I avoided his eyes. They were probably a deep red. He was just trying to unnerve me, trying to intimidate me from completing what I set out to do.

I drew enough blood to fill the entire syringe chamber. My hands did not shake. He would not shake me; I was calm. And then I pulled the needle out and moved it so that it was poised over my own wrist.

"Hotaru." And the tone of his voice sent shivers down my spine.

I didn't hesitate. "And this is how much force is needed to break my skin." And pushed the needle into my vein. Then I fed Ruka's blood slowly into mine.

I didn't feel anything special. There was no sudden surge of pain, nor any spasms indicating a seizure. Ruka's blood was simply absorbed into mine without any immediate side effects. With this new piece of information, I stood up to put the syringe away-

And crumpled to the floor because my legs were suddenly unable to hold me. But I didn't touch the ground. He caught me.

As I lost the ability to focus on my surroundings, the last thing I remembered was being held in a pair of strong and strangely warm arms, something I didn't think a person who had lived for several centuries could ever possess.

Oo

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"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. You STUPID-!" Ruka roared before kicking the door to his bedroom open. "GIRL!" For once he didn't give a damn about the door.

If only Natsume could see him now. His friend would probably wonder where the previously gentle and effeminate Ruka had gone. He had gone wild and unstable. But then again, Natsume wouldn't have to wonder at all because if Ruka had a choice, he'd walk up to Natsume right now and slap him hard enough across the face to break his cheek! Why did that insufferable friend of his have to put him in situations like this?

However, he reminded himself that he was the one who had allowed the girl to inject herself with his own blood and he mellowed down. How could he ever truly place the blame on anyone else? He cursed himself for the way he felt deep inside his own mind. He was actually relieved that he hadn't had to Turn anyone and the things happening to Hotaru now would not be permanent. That was if he put any faith in her hypothesis.

She began to struggle against him.

Ruka immediately placed her down on to his bed. If that girl ripped a single one of his silk sheets…he probably wouldn't do anything to make her pay him back. His mind stayed on this thought as he took out a collapsible chair and set it up beside his bed to keep watch over the girl who had just made an attempt to test her own experiment on herself.

For an incredible genius, the girl could be so stupid sometimes. But then again, maybe it was useless to try and change that about her.

"Ruka."

He leaned forward without hesitation to hear what she was trying to say-

He hissed in surprise at a sudden pressure against his abdomen. Blood seeped through his torn coat and shirt, but there was no pain. The only thing thought passing through his mind was the revelation that Hotaru was already developing the speed and strength of his kind even as she slept. As he stood up to change out of his damaged clothes, Ruka couldn't help but smile in small disbelief to himself.

He easily discarded the ruined pieces of clothing into a corner of the room. On another day, he might've sought revenge on someone for doing something like that. But he was just about forgiving the girl on his bed for every little thing she did.

Ruka knew these changes in his usual behavior would eventually come back to haunt him. This girl was going to become his weakness.

Hotaru groaned again and turned in her surprisingly uneventful sleep, fingers dripping with his blood. Would she really have such a hard time surviving in his world? She was proving herself capable of it again and again.

Perhaps it was just as possible that she could be his strength.

He walked out, then came back, a towel in hand, and lifted Hotaru's hand up to wipe away the blood.

Ruka had expected a lot more thrashing and screams of pain and agony, but it looked like she was going to be fine and maybe even wake up in just a few hours.

After he was finished cleaning up the mess on Hotaru's hands, he sat back down on his collapsible chair with an audible sigh to himself, shaking his head at the absurdity of his life. Now all there was left to do was wait and see the outcome of Hotaru's theory.

Oo

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I was immersed in Ruka's memories. They filled my mind with a sensation like a cup of water pouring into my ear. And then I was there.

Ruka stood, with his back facing me, in front of a closed door. We were in Alice Corps. I heard faint voices coming from inside the room.

"Have we met before? I mean a long time ago. I know this is a stupid question to ask and probably one that seems impossible, but I feel like I've known you for years or something." The one speaking was Mikan. I could only assume that this was probably when her memories of the past began to resurface.

Natsume was about to answer, "You-"

"Natsume, Mikan-chan! I'm back with the food!" This must've taken place more than a few days ago. I watched as Ruka interrupted Mikan and Natsume's conversation by walking in with several orders of takeout. But before anyone said anything else, the memory grew insubstantial and began to blur until a new scene came into focus.

It was snowing. A younger Natsume was kneeling in the middle of a bloody clearing, tears streaming down his eyes. I saw part of Ruka's face this time, his cheeks pale as snow and eyes just as cold. It was like the emotion had bled out of them. The clearing was silent as a graveyard.

"Ruka…" Natsume's voice startled me out of my own thoughts. I looked over to Ruka and saw that he looked as if he'd just woken up as well. His eyes were no longer cold. "She's never coming back is she?"

His words haunted me even though I knew what happened in the future. The scene began to blur and change before me. Ruka said something, but his voice was lost to the dying memory. Right before the memory ended, however, Natsume's words pierced through loud and clear.

"Then I will wait. For as long as I can." His words continued to echo and followed me into the next scene.

I was standing in an impressively sized room. The style was distinctly French. The furnishings, however, reminded me of a child's…I was turned sharply when I caught sight of a small form in my peripherals.

A small child sat listlessly by a window with a clear view of brilliant green fields. Despite the beauty outside the small, dull-eyed child hardly glanced at the scenery outside. Who was this person before me? I could hardly recognize Ruka as he sat there before me. I was so overwhelmed, in fact, that I spoke to this memory version of Ruka.

"Wake up, little boy." I said it quietly, too softly to be heard by a normal person, but I was always too quick to forget just how abnormal Ruka was.

"Hotaru." Ruka was suddenly looking at me. There was no other conclusion I could come to. I was the only one there and he had spoken my name. I had wanted a reaction and the Ruka in a memory had just replied back.

If I were Mikan, I would've yelled at the top of my lungs and leaped back several feet. But, true to my nature, I blinked twice. It was enough, however, to properly display my utter surprise.

"Hotaru. I'm already awake. You're the one who's asleep." He gave me a toothy smile, just like how a well-groomed little boy should.

"Yes. I know that already…" I decided that if I was going to show any appreciation for him I was going to do it now. "Thank you for giving me some of your blood for this experiment. I think it's going well."

"No problem. Just make sure you tell me that when you wake up." Ruka winked at me, which caused me to blink several times again. I suddenly felt my heart thump. What was this incredibly uplifting feeling? It didn't take me long to identify what it was.

The young Ruka was completely adorable. If I had my camera…but I waved the thought off. Save that for later.

"I like you, Hotaru." I didn't blink this time. I just stared. Maybe if I stared long enough I could fully understand what this boy was trying to tell me.

"Just don't ask me about it when you wake up." And he suddenly stood on the tips of his toes and kissed me once on the cheek. Before I could react to the kiss, however, the memory began to fall apart all around me and Ruka stepped back as if he knew what was happening. As the ground dissolved from beneath my feet, he continued to smile at me even long after I had disappeared from his domain.

I woke to the sound of my name. And it wasn't until I heard it a second time that I realized I was being called.

"Ruka." I blinked uncertainly. The light in the room was too bright. "Have you observed any changes to my body?"

"Just be careful not to bite through your own lips. Those who are newly turned often have that problem."

"So my experiment was a success." I didn't have to sit up to know that Ruka had placed me on his own bed. The animal posters decorating the room were enough of a hint. "Now we wait and see. Perhaps more than one dose will be needed…" I made as if to get up from the bed.

All of a sudden, Ruka gripped my arm tightly. Judging from the amount of pressure he used to grab me, I could only assume that he no longer needed to hold back any strength. The other me would've cried out in pain as bone shattered from the power of his grip.

"You were struggling in your sleep, though you didn't make a sound. Did you feel any pain while you were asleep?"

I considered telling him about what I saw and decided that there really wasn't any reason to hide what happened from him. "No. But I saw you as a child." I looked for any visible reaction from him, but there was none. "I received a few of your memories. Your blood most likely triggered a replay of them in my dreams and I saw a few."

"Did you see anything else?" He asked it offhandedly, but this time it wasn't hard to tell that he was nervous about the answer.

I held nothing back. "You interrupted Natsume, right before he told Mikan the truth. You had at least four boxes of takeout." Ruka looked away in embarrassment. "I saw…I saw Natsume crying. It was snowing." I trailed off for a moment, but I took Ruka's silence as approval for me to continue. "And the last memory was one of you childhood memories." I unexpectedly felt blood rush to my cheeks and I tried in vain to look away. Unfortunately, Ruka saw and he had to ask.

"What did you see in that one?"

"I…" I cursed myself a thousand times in sheer embarrassment. I suddenly couldn't find the right words! "I…I talked to you in that memory. And for some impossible reason you answered back. And…you told me…" I was so intent on thinking up a way to finish my sentence that I didn't notice when Ruka first brought his mouth close to my ear.

"It's alright." He breathed into my ear, causing me to flinch, much to my chagrin. "You don't have to tell me now."

"Good, because you yourself told me not to tell." My words threw him off, but he recovered a little too quickly for his own good.

"Are you hungry?" Although the way he could change the topic so quickly irked me, his question made me realize that I truly was feeling empty in the stomach, though I supposed it was only natural. And then I began thinking about the nature of my transformation and why I hadn't Turned only half-way since I assumed I would still have human blood somewhere in my veins. Did injection cause all the blood in my body to be temporarily replaced by Ruka's?

"Yes. I'd like something to eat." And much to my inner horror, he offered his neck to me.

"Take as much as you want, I have more animal blood in the fridge."

"What," The look I gave him was dead serious as I said my next words. "Do you think you're doing?"

"Giving you what you need." His eyes were suddenly piercing into mine, as if daring me. It wasn't the look of a gentle being, but of a predator.

"If I drink your blood, it may affect how long I stay this way and I won't be able to collect data for my schedule."

"Then you have until the end of this week, which is in three days." He hid his expression from me as he turned away and stood up from the chair he'd been sitting on to watch over me. "I'll prepare the animal blood for you in the kitchen. If you don't eat, you won't last long enough to change back." And it was only when he'd left that I noticed a discarded coat on the floor in a corner of the room. It had a large tear in the front and the edges were seeped in blood. Why hadn't I noticed the obvious smell of it when Ruka was still in the room? But the question answered itself when I concluded that the blood on the coat was none other than his.

I landed gently on to the clean wooden floors of the disappointingly non-gothic house. I looked back up to the place where I'd jumped from, simply marveling in the small feeling of achievement I felt just from being able to jump from a height where I would've normally broken at least one leg. I knew I would need to be careful of doing things like that in the future because it wasn't impossible to turn back into a human right in the middle of a particular leap.

"You took longer than I expected." His back was facing me when I entered his spacious kitchen. The counters were made with man-made marble. Pure marble was actually rougher and lacked in luster compared to the kind made by men. Humans. But when one of them temporarily became a different evolutionary species…

I confessed this uncertainty to Ruka. "I don't know what to call myself anymore. It doesn't feel right to say I'm one of your kind or call myself a human. Tell me, what am I?"

His voice was sympathetic when he spoke to me over his shoulder and I began to feel a low anger simmer in my stomach. "I can't tell you to get used to it because you'll be changing back soon anyways, but just leave it for now. If you have to think about it, remember you're just a human ingeniously pretending to be a vampire…well maybe I should say creature. The legends and superstitions that come with that label are barely correct."

He didn't have to tell me that. I already knew they could still bleed like every other living creature on the Earth. "I'm sorry for ruining your coat." I said under my breath, before seating myself in front of a single glass of deep red liquid placed on the table for two in Ruka's living room. The reason for the small table was probably because Ruka hardly received any visitors except maybe Natsume. Or people like me.

"I can always buy another one." Ruka dismissed it like it happened every day. Maybe it did. "But," He turned to face me and I saw his pupils were slit. "A life isn't so easily replaced." His last word was whispered in my ear as Ruka was suddenly behind me.

He shocked me, though I gave no outward sign. At the same time, I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that he had moved so quickly and, even with enhanced senses, I could not keep track of his movements. Was there such a gap between our abilities simply because I had only done an injection and not been truly Turned. Or was it because Ruka already had decades of experience?

"Your hypothesis was a little too loosely based on chance. Experiments tend to have a higher failure rate when that's the case. I don't know why I let you do it."

I picked up the glass and drank it down calmly. Not bad. It was a little gamy in taste, but otherwise satisfied the emptiness in my stomach. "You let me do it because you trust me. And I also happen to be the maker of the Baka Gun series so I'm sure I could've persuaded you if things didn't go my way." My glass was out of my hand and in the sink right as I finished my sentence.

"Your interview is on Sunday. If my blood still hasn't worn off yet, then take another dose just in case. You wouldn't want to shock your interviewer with the strange sight of a vampire turning back into a human." He shot a smile at me over his shoulder. "That would be unfortunate and then I'd have to kill your interviewer to get rid of any witnesses. I'm being serious about this." He could've at least made an effort to appear more solemn, and the smile threw everything off, but it didn't make his message any less effective. "I hope I won't have to resort to those tactics. So be a good girl and do your best. I'm sure you'll get in." He turned back to finish drying the glass that had only recently held the blood of…something not quite a natural born animal.

"What kind of animal did the blood come from? It doesn't taste like the blood of a regular animal."

Ruka didn't turn back this time when he answered me. "That's because it's Tanuki blood."

I was quiet as I digested this new bit of information.

"There are plenty of them around Japan, enough so that their numbers won't diminish due to our hunting."

I spoke up then. "You speak of superstition as something untrue, and yet you talk about Tanuki blood like you can just get it right off the street. How much of our society's legends and myths are true? Even Science wasn't enough to penetrate certain truths and realities behind the creatures of this world." I shuddered at my own words. It was hard for me to admit that Science may have failed humanity in some cases. It was, after all, a subject that I had invested much of my time in.

"Why have you transformed my home into your laboratory?" Ruka sounded mildly irritated as he inspected my handiwork on a large area of his house, which satisfied me to some extent. Good. Let him stew.

"I am working on a back-up plan in case something goes wrong either at the interview or after I get in to the academy. I might have to make a run for it and, although my pursuers may be fast, they tend to underestimate humans. Hopefully, once I estimate the overall time limit for the effects of your blood, I won't have to resort to my back-up plan."

"Of all the places to put your little experiments, you decide to build it in the middle of my living room. And right in front of my TV!" He looked for a moment as if he were contemplating the forced removal of my possessions. But even if he was still stronger and faster than me, I had a better chance in resisting him now because of his blood, which was ironic.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you. You might step on something unpleasant."

Ruka twitched backwards and then he turned around. "I'm going to my study room. It's in the basement. And it's there because that's the biggest space I have in my home. Please don't make any jokes about it."

"I don't joke." I replied seriously. Then I watched him walk away for a few moments before I suddenly couldn't stop myself from remembering what the Ruka in the memory had said to me and I added, "And…I think I like you too." I turned away quickly so I could hide the returning heat in my cheeks and the morbid embarrassment in my expression. He probably didn't hear me.

Oo

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Ruka kept walking until he had closed the basement door behind him. And then he leaned into it with a shudder. Did she know he heard her? Her words had sent wild spikes of excitement into his chest. He laughed shakily to himself.

"You think you like me? Who says it like that? And when did I ever say I like you first?" He shook his head in disbelief. He continued speaking to himself as he descended the steps. "But you don't love me." Then he smiled.

Yet.

A/N

Okay. Forgive me. There I said it. Now I hope you enjoyed reading.