BLOOD STAINED ROSES

Blood Stained Roses

Chapter 4

"Well, well... I think the poor boy's fallen in love with you. What will you do now?" Ryou had begun taunting Kisaki the moment he stepped onto the stairs that led to the first floor.

Kisaki turned to the magnificently dressed figure. As usual, his clothes were expensive. His shirt seemed to be made of a very soft purple fabric that matched his eyes and poked out of his long black wool coat that was belted shut. He wore pants that seemed plain, but made to fit him perfectly. His hair was flawless as always; not a hair out of place. Kisaki, on the other hand, had wrinkled clothes -- a result from sleeping in them -- not to mention he had a few stray hairs.

"Don't be ridiculous!" he snapped.

"It's obvious. I can hear what he thinks about you," Ryou said, a smile spreading across his face. "Honestly, stealing a kiss while he was sleeping... poor thing."

Kisaki froze. How did he know? Chuu had been asleep. It was true that he had muttered Kisaki's name, but... he could not possibly know. Had Ryou been spying on them?

"Oh, I didn't need to spy," he answered without Kisaki voicing the question, "just as I didn't have to read your mind to know what you were thinking. And he knows. He has convinced himself that it was a dream, but the thought that you kissed him is still in his head."

"Excuse me," said someone in a soft voice, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Yami-chan broke a vase. We were wondering what we should do with it."

A short young man had entered the room, unnoticed by both Kisaki and Ryou. He was plainly dressed in a short-sleeved crimson shirt and black jeans, but his short dark blonde hair was tied back in two ponytails and his scarlet eyes stood out greatly in contrast to his pale face. He stood anxiously in the doorway; it was obvious that he did not like interrupting people.

"Which one?" asked Ryou.

"It's black with orange designs and it had some red roses in it," he answered.

"Damn it! That thing's old and extremely valuable... Now, I'm going to have to go fix it," Ryou muttered. "Well, Kisaki, we'll finish this later. In the mean time, I suggest you get some sleep... fix yourself up... you look awful!"

He turned to face the blonde, "Now, Miku, if you don't mind, could you take me to this vase?"

"This way," answered Miku.

He led Ryou out of the room, leaving Kisaki behind. He did not want to sleep, but he felt like he was about to do so standing up if he did not get to a bed soon, having only slept a couple hours in Chuu's room. He sighed in defeat and went to his room wondering if he would have the same dream he had had the night before. Part of him hoped that he would so parts of it could become clearer. Another part of him feared it. Some things were better left forgotten.

***

The vase lay broken in about five bigger pieces and countless smaller ones. Ryou sighed. He really should childproof the mansion, especially considering that Yami had broken almost every breakable in the place at least once.

Repairing the broken vase was not much of a task for Ryou. With a wave of his hand, and a few mumbled words, the pieces reassembled themselves. The vase sat seamlessly back on the table it had been on before. It was a trick he had learned from his sister, though he would never tell the younger vampires that. He preferred to let them believe that this was a power he had developed from being a vampire.

"There, good as new," Ryou said, standing by the newly rebuilt vase, "Now, please try not to break anything else."

Yami stood wearing black pants and a short sleeved black shirt with some kind of design. Her head was down so her hair covered her face, hiding a soft pink blush. She felt stupid for breaking yet another vase.

"Sorry, Ryou-sama," Yami muttered.

"Just stay away from breakables."

Yami nodded. "I wish I could do that," she muttered.

"As we get older, we discover new talents," Ryou told her. "Take Miku for example. He can start fires with his mind."

"That's just 'cause he's a pyro," said Yami.

Behind Ryou, Miku clapped his hands and smiled. He really did like fire. Just before Ryou turned, the blonde straightened up and acted as though he had not done anything.

"True... but then, so am I, and I couldn't start a fire if I used matches," said Ryou. "Anyway, I should be going. I want to be somewhere before the sun rises."

"Where are you going this time?" asked Yami.

"I'm planning to go to France for awhile," said Ryou, "and don't worry, there will be gifts when I get back."

He waved and left the room. In a few minutes, he would hear his voice, calling for everyone to meet in the entrance hall where he would officially announce that he was leaving for a short while. Yami suppressed a giggle as Miku shook his head. Everyone who knew Ryou agreed that he was completely ridiculous, but most still had to admit that he was still very amusing. That is, after the initial hatred wore off... if it ever really did wear off. Kisaki was the perfect example of how the contempt never really left. He had been with Ryou for about a couple hundred years and he still glared at him whenever they met.

"Hallo," called Yuna, dragging in a body, "I come bearing food!"

"Finally," said Yami, rolling her eyes.

"Quiet! You take a lot longer than I do when it's your turn to hunt," Yuna said.

"I wish he'd just let us get our own food," said Miku.

"The only one that's allowed to leave every night is Kisaki-san. Besides him it rotates two a night and that person's 'catch' feeds three," recited Yuna, "...but you're right, it is stupid."

"I agree, but I'm hungry. It's dinner time!" said Yami.

***

A soft knock startled Chuu as he stared at the ceiling, trying to think of something to do to take his mind off everything. The truth was that there was nothing to do and Chuu suspected that they might be trying to drive him crazy. He was not sure if his visitor would be a welcomed distraction or an unneeded reminder (he had heard Ryou call for everyone, but did not know why). He decided that he would check first. It was not as though he could stop Ryou from coming in if it was, indeed, him, but it would at least give him a warning.

"Who's there?" he called.

"I have your dinner," answered an unfamiliar voice.

"Um... okay then, come in."

The door opened and Miku stepped in, holding a tray with a plate of hot food. He handed it to Chuu who graciously accepted it. He was starving. Miku turned to leave.

"I haven't seen you before," Chuu said conversationally, "usually it's one of those crazy girls who bring my food..."

"I'm Chime Miku... and I'm guessing the girls that you're talking about are Yami-chan and Yuna-chan."

"Yep... one of them, Yuna-chan, keeps trying to molest me... that is until the other one hits her... or kicks her... she's kind of violent."

Miku nodded. "Yes, Yami-chan does hit people a lot... it's worse when she has a sketch book."

"Hey, I only hit people because they keep trying to molest me!" said Yami defensively.

Chuu almost spit out his food as he watched Yuna and Yami enter the room. He blushed and looked down, wondering if they had heard everything he had just said about them. Did everyone in this house have super sensitive ears?

"Sorry we didn't bring you your food tonight, Chuu-chan, but we were busy and we thought we should have the chef do it," said Yuna.

"You make this?" asked Chuu.

"Yes," Miku answered.

"It's good!"

"He's really the only one in this place that can cook. Well, Yuna can cook, but she's too lazy. I on the other hand would probably burn the house down or chop off a finger if I tried," explained Yami.

Behind her, Yuna nodded her head. Both she and Miku were recalling the vase Yami had broken not long before.

"Anyway, we thought you might be feeling a bit lonely, so we figured we'd have a little party," said Yuna.

Yami went into the hall and returned a moment later dragging a cart with a television and some kind of game.

"Yep, a karaoke party!" she chimed in.

"K-karaoke?" asked Chuu and Miku together.

"Yep, and I think Miku should cross dress!" added Yami, "I brought some clothes just for the occasion!"

"Ooh, I agree!" said Yuna.

"How about not..." Miku muttered.

When Yami and Yuna finally gave up begging him to cross dress, they came up with an order for everyone to go in. Chuu had no idea why he had agreed to do this, but he was thankful for the distraction.

The party lasted well into the night. When it was his turn, Chuu sang from his bed since he still did not trust his legs to support him. When he was done, Yami and Yuna clapped and cheered loudly as they did whenever someone sang as Miku sat quietly clapping in the corner.

"You don't talk very much, do you?" Chuu asked Miku.

"I talk... but I'm usually annoying when I do," Miku replied.

Chuu was not sure how to respond to this. Instead, he decided to watch Yami who was currently singing. It was not bad, he decided as he lay back on the bed.

"Don't forget what we are... we're vampires. We kill people so we can survive."

Kisaki's words still echoed in his head. So what if they were vampires? They obviously were not all bad... even if they did drink human blood. If they were bad, they would be ignoring him right now. That was what Chuu had begun to believe.

Hours later, the party finally broke up when Chuu began a yawning fit. He had no concept of time anymore. He did not know day from night. All he knew was when he needed to sleep.

"Hey, we should probably go. Chuu-chan is getting sleepy," Yuna, told Yami and Miku.

"Yeah, we should probably get some sleep, too," agreed Miku.

"Not that you need any more sleep," added Yami, "You slept half the day away!"

"I was up really late!"

Yami shook her head. They said goodnight and left. When they were gone, Chuu pulled the covers to his chin. It was not long before sleep overtook him. For once, he was happy. This was the best time he had had since he had arrived.

***

Kisaki was awake. He had his face in his pillow and was doing a good impression of a sleeping person -- or maybe someone who had suffocated in his sleep -- but he was completely awake.

For a short while, he had been asleep. Nothing had become clearer during that time. There had not been any sleep-induced revelations that made sense of this madness. Instead, it just left him with the same questions: Who was yelling to him? Was this a memory from long ago that he had forgotten? And so on.

Just when he had thought everything would become clear, he had awoken - to Chuu's singing no less. It was pretty good, actually. But why was he singing? Kisaki automatically decided that he did not want to know and tried to go back to sleep. It was useless. He was awake now.

He listened as whatever was going on upstairs continued -- it sounded like a party-- and as they said goodnight. Kisaki heard Chuu as his nightmares began, but he tried to ignore him. He took out a pair of headphones that had been in a drawer next to his bed and blasted the music into his ears. He could not hear Chuu anymore, but he knew that in his room, Chuu was probably getting louder and louder.

Don't think about it! he thought. It was a lot harder than it sounded.

After an hour, Chuu let out a scream that somehow broke past the barrier of sound that he had locked his ears in. After that, Kisaki lost his resolve. He threw the headphones aside and moved, silently upstairs. When he entered the room, he realized that he had broken his promise to himself again. He watched Chuu's face as it changed from smooth and almost peaceful to pained. He listened to the younger man's heavy breathing.

Finally, Kisaki left the room. He had almost made another mistake, but he had managed to recover himself this time.

Chuu let out another scream. This time Kisaki ran back into the room and gathered the smaller man into his arms. He felt Chuu stir.

"Wha... What's going on?" Chuu muttered sleepily.

"Nothing, go back to sleep," Kisaki answered softly.

"Kisaki...san?"

He stiffened. Another mistake. How many more would he make? It was obvious that he could not leave now. He felt Chuu wrap his arms tightly around his waist. It would not be hard to break away, but what good would that do now? He would just be leaving Chuu alone with his nightmares again... Kisaki would probably end up coming back.

"Why...?" asked Chuu, "You were being so mean before, but now..."

"..." silence.

"Why won't you ever answer me?"

"Because I never know how to answer you. Most of your questions are the same ones I ask myself," explained Kisaki.

Neither of them moved nor spoke for a while. Neither of them knew what to say. They just sat there holding each other for what seemed like an eternity, but when Kisaki began to pull away, it seemed to be way too soon and Chuu did whatever he could to hold on.

"You need to sleep," he said, breaking free of Chuu's arms.

"No!" Chuu almost yelled, not caring if he seemed childish.

He threw his arms around Kisaki's neck and pressed his lips to the other man's. At that point, Kisaki had thrown all of his 'rules' out the window. It seemed that he had already broken all of them anyway. He hugged Chuu's waist and deepened the kiss, pushing it past the mere pressing of lips it had been only moments earlier. Reluctantly, Kisaki pulled away, leaving Chuu staring breathlessly at him.

"I really should go," he said, though he made no move to go at all.

"Don't go," Chuu whispered.

Kisaki glanced at the chair he had sat in the last time.

"No... Stay here," he tugged Kisaki's arm, trying to get him to lie in the bed next to him.

Kisaki sighed in defeat. He grabbed the covers, pulling them up as he lay down, draping an arm across the small body beside him as Chuu curled his body into him. It did not take long for either of them to fall asleep.

***

Chuu's turquoise eyes opened to meet icy blue ones that watched him serenely. A hand gently caressed his face and Chuu sighed contently.

"That's twice you've stayed," he said. "Are you going to give me a lecture this time as well?"

"No," Kisaki answered honestly; he gave a hollow laugh, "though I did think about it. The truth is that last night I decided that I give up. Trying to stay away from you didn't work anyway. I... I'm going to stay with you. If you want."

Yes, he thought, I'll do what I want against my better judgment. I'll hold him and make promises and pray that I can keep them. I'll stop fighting this force.

Chuu snuggled into his chest.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Next to him, he felt Kisaki tense. Panic was threatening to rise from within him until he felt Kisaki stroke his hair lightly. The worry receded and he let out the breath he seemed to be holding.

"It's those two idiots..." muttered Kisaki.

"Two... idiots?" repeated Chuu, obviously confused.

"Yami and Yuna."

"Oh."

"I should go," Kisaki said, then added, "I'll come back later." after seeing the disappointed look on Chuu's face.

"'bye," Chuu muttered.

"I'll be back," said Kisaki and Chuu could have sworn he had seen a smile.

He left as fast as possible, but it apparently had not been fast enough. The girls were just down the hall. They saw him leave and immediately began talking.

"Oh, wow, is that Kisaki-san in pajamas?" whispered Yuna.

"I think it is! I had honestly thought that he slept in his regular clothes!" Yami chimed in.

"And he left Chuu-chan's room... You don't think they were having hot man smex do y-"

She was interrupted by a vase hitting her in the head. Down the hall, they could see Kisaki glaring at her. It was a very scary glare.

"Ow, that hurt!" whined Yuna. "It was a joke! I didn't know you could be so mean, Kisaki-san!"

He shrugged and went to his room, probably to change. When he did, he left behind Yuna, holding her throbbing head and Yami, who was currently poking the broken vase.

"Damn," she muttered, "now what are we supposed to do with this thing? Ryou's gone and when he comes back he's bound to ask."

"We could just say you broke it. That's believable enough," suggested Yuna, "I mean, we obviously can't say that Kisaki-san threw it at us. He would ask why and we'd have to tell him... that could get Kisaki-san and Chuu-chan in a lot of trouble..."

"I could always burn it and hope he doesn't notice it's missing!"

"Eep!" squeaked Yami as she felt a finger poke into her side.

She turned to see Miku looking innocently at the pile of ceramic.

"Wh- where did you come from?!" she shrieked.

Miku shrugged, "So, should I burn it?"

"Fine," muttered Yami just before she let out another squeak. This time she turned to glare at Yuna.

"Couldn't resist," she said simply.

"Anyway, let's...er..." Yuna had been about to say 'bring Chuu-chan his food,' but she realized that the tray they had been bringing for him was on the ground and the food had spilled onto the floor.

"Take the tray," said Miku, "There's more food on the stove. I'll just burn this."

"Alright," Yuna said.

She grabbed the tray and left Yami and Miku who were both amused by the fire Miku had started.

***

A knock signaled that Yami and Yuna were outside Chuu's door. After a yell of consent, they happily entered the room. He looked past them to see Miku still crouched over flames with an eerily cheerful smile.

"Um... was that fire I just saw?" Chuu asked nervously.

"Oh, don't mind that. Miku's sort of a pyro... not unlike somebody else I know," Yuna said, giving Yami a meaningful glance as she handed Chuu the tray of food.

"What?! Fire's pretty!" said Yami defensively.

Yuna shook her head.

"So..." she said in a voice that was supposed to sound casual, but did not come close, "What was Kisaki-san doing here so early?"

Chuu shrugged.

"Aw, come on, we know something happened here... spill it!" prodded Yuna.

"I have nothing to tell you two," said Chuu defiantly.

"You're mean!"

He shrugged again and began eating his food, smiling to himself. He could not help it. He was in a good mood. Randomly, he started to wonder how a vampire could make such good food.

"My complements to the pyro outside my door," he said.

"Thanks," Miku called back.

"The whole house can hear everything I say, can't it..." muttered Chuu.

"No, not the whole house," said Yuna. "The older ones hear more, but the farther we are, the harder it is. For example, if you're talking in a normal voice and we're in our rooms we can't hear you... Saki-san might be able to, though. She's the oldest apart from Ryou-sama and Kisaki-san... I think she's... a hundred and twenty...three? Her room's also kind of close to yours. Yeah, that sounds right. Kisaki-san might be able to hear you, too. Actually, I'd almost be willing to bet that he can. His room is almost right below yours... well, it's somewhere down that hall, like Saki-san... and he's older so..."

"How old is he?" asked Chuu.

"No idea," said Yami. "He doesn't really talk to us."

"How old are you two, then?"

"You don't have any manners do you?" asked Yami with a smile. "Weren't you taught never to ask a woman her age?"

Chuu stared at her for a minute. She was probably right, but he could not help but be curious.

"We'll tell you though," said Yuna, "Including the time before I became a vampire - that was twenty years - I am sixty-three."

"Ryou found me when I was eighteen making me forty-one," added Yami.

"I'm stuck at eighteen, but I'm really ninety-six," yelled Miku through the door.

"Okay... so Yuna-chan's an old woman, Yami-chans' middle aged, and Miku-kun should probably be dead?" said Chuu.

"Pretty much," said Yuna shrugging, "though there are some hundred year olds alive today."

Chuu finished eating and gave his tray to Yami who left with Yuna right behind her. He looked past them to see that the fire was gone and it looked as though nothing had happened. He shook his head. They were all crazy, but he did not mind. He liked the distractions they created.

He lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling as he often did when he was bored. He wanted Kisaki to come back soon.