A/N: been forever since i updated. my sincerest apologies.

She did not appear in school the next day. Headmaster Cross ranted and raved about her growing number of absences from class—"She'll fail if she doesn't go to class, doesn't she realize this?"—but when he sent Zero to retrieve her from her dorm room and found that Itami-san was nowhere to be found, the headmaster began to show some worry.

"Where could she have gone?" Cross grumbled, mostly to himself. He was hunched over his desk while Zero sat sprawled on the office couch, feeling slightly more relaxed than usual with his thirst still quenched. "Do you think she's just being rebellious again? Maybe there's something really wrong…" He looked up, peering at Zero through his glasses. "Go look for her, Zero, won't you?"

Zero tried not to sigh, extracting himself from the couch and exiting via the large arch window.

It didn't take long to find her. Her sweet scent still clung to his nose, unique and easy to follow, and honestly, what human expected to stay hidden for long perched on a tree branch just outside of a dormitory building full of vampires?

When he appeared at the base of the tree, looking up at her, he tensed. There was something wrong. She didn't seem to notice his presence, her face turned upwards into the light of the just-setting sun glinting down through the scant leaves. He was horrified to see there were tears trickling down her cheeks.

Her face remained unchanged as stone. She didn't look any sadder, wasn't sobbing, just silently allowing the tears to fall. Upon closer inspection, the sunlight also revealed to him the two not-yet healed puncture marks in her neck.

"I've got plenty more," she said.

He waited for her to elaborate, but she never did. She jumped off the tree branch, landing less gracefully than he expected—less gracefully than he remembered Yuki doing it. Then again, Yuki had been…

He shook his head forcefully, angry at himself for allowing his thoughts down that path again. That was the past, and he would never venture there again. He focused back on the girl before him, the purely human girl, who was staring over his shoulder with a glazed expression. Her hand was on her hip. She had not tied back her hair that day, and it fell into a dark wild mane.

The marks were obvious on her neck. She hadn't even attempted to hide them, not with a scarf, not with an ounce of makeup. They stood out. Still, that sweet scent wafted from her.

"The headmaster was concerned," Zero said stiffly.

Her listless eyes settled on him, finally making eye contact. "Aren't you being a good little errand boy?"

The young man's muscles tensed, eyebrows narrowing into a scowl. He didn't speak another word, turning away from her. He left her there, waiting for her to call after him or grab his arm. She did neither of those things.

That was good. He wouldn't know how to respond if she did.

The haze of midnight was enough to make any human drowsy, but Zero couldn't help noticing she seemed more awake than ever. Unaware of his eyes watching her from the shadows, she walked along the outside of Moon Dorm at a leisurely pace, dragging her palm along the wall. Her expression was wide-eyed, brisk, observing everything. The fingers of her other hand moved incessantly, as if playing an invisible piano, and she was humming to herself. He knew he was supposed to be making his own rounds, on the opposite end of the campus, but he might as well keep an eye on her…

Her eyes drifted closed as she walked and hummed.

"Are you sleepwalking, my dear? You've wandered very far from your dorm." The vampire's voice came from behind the column as a tall young man stepped out. His hair and eyes were the color of bronze, arms crossed over his chest and tone sickeningly polite.

"Get back to your room, vampire." She didn't open her eyes, left hand playing still.

Zero tensed, forcing himself to ease slowly out of his hiding spot…just in case.

"I'm enjoying the night air," the vampire said, gesturing at the sky. "My name is—"

"Kaito Saruwatari," Miu interrupted. "I know you. I know all of you."

Kaito dipped into a bow as a woman appeared in the dark beside him. She smiled at Miu and said, "That's a lovely perfume, Itami-chan. Very…sweet-smelling."

Zero's gaze narrowed, and he ventured even closer.

"I'm not wearing perfume," Miu snapped, "and do not address me as 'Itami-chan', I am not your friend, Hamano."

The female, Ayumi Hamano, laughed. "No perfume? Perhaps you just naturally smell sweet, Itami-chan."

"I wonder if you taste just as sweet." Kaito lifted his hands innocently as Miu twitched towards her Artemis Rod. "A harmless play on words, I assure you."

To Zero's surprise and horror, Miu's hand ceased playing the piano and delved into her pocket to retrieve a small knife. In one fluid motion she sliced her inner forearm and flung blood at the vampires.

"Here," she spat, "have a taste."

Kaito's expression had just begun to morph into one of hunger and bloodlust, Ayumi covering her mouth and nose, when Zero leaped in front of Miu. He grabbed her wrist in a fury, whipping his other arm around to show Kaito a detailed view of Bloody Rose's barrel.

"No one touches her," Zero growled, vision red with anger.

"You think we bow down to you because of a pretty little emblem on your arm?" hissed Kaito. "She asked for it."

"Go to your rooms." His voice, gaining in volume, was suddenly booming. "Both of you. Now!" He fired Bloody Rose at the wall behind Kaito's head, and the two vampires disappeared into the building.

Once the two were out of sight, he whirled on the girl. Before he fully grasped his own actions, he had grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the column. Her blood called for him, tantalizing and decadent. Just…one more taste…

He bent his head to her arm and took one long, slow lick. A shudder passed through her body, and he regained enough control to fling her body away from him with all his might. A bit too much might, perhaps, as she flew through the air and landed with a thud. He steeled himself against his bloodlust and ground out, "What was the point of that?"

She didn't respond for a long while, picking herself up and dusting off her uniform robotically. "Do you need more?" she asked finally. When she looked up, he was stunned at the heartless, controlled expression on her scarred face. "I have plenty."

"What the hell are you thinking?" Anger—at her, at himself, at how easily he lost control—bubbled forth. "Do you want to die?"

"Yes."

The wind ruffled her hair, passing through the columns. She hadn't hesitated, not even for a second. It had been her immediate answer.

"No one understands," she said now. "There is no way another being is capable of understanding. My suffering will not stop until my heart stops beating."

"You think I don't understand suffering?" he stepped toward her, his tone menacing.

"You don't understand mine, nor I yours," she snapped. A crack in her armor.

"You're aware of my situation, aren't you?" His voice, low and very close to her ear, rumbled in her chest. "Tell me. You think you've got it worse?"

Her anger, rooted so deeply within her, dissipated almost instantly. Her shield returned, expression cold, and she calmly pried his hand from her throat. He hardly offered any resistance and allowed his arm to fall limply at his side.

"Useless." Her lips settled into a stiff line. "Go find another meal ticket."

He watched her walk away from him, angrily punching the column where she'd stood when he realized he had not slaked his thirst that night. Skulking to his dorm, he knew blood tablets would not diminish his craving for blood, her blood, the fluid that scorched through her veins like red molten candy. He stayed awake that night, window locked, and at some early morning hour he heard a small, explorative tap on the glass.

Hope, dread, and disgust filled his body until it nauseated him as he stood and headed for the window; hope that a young, vibrantly alive girl would be standing outside his sill, dread at the thought of another feeding, and disgust that there had been hope in the first place.

In place of the girl, there was a little glass vial of a red, viscous liquid. From the moment he uncorked the vial and got a waft of its scent, he knew who had placed it there. He downed its contents like a shot of liquor, threw himself backwards onto his bed, and slept until morning.

A/N: reviews?