New Years Day- Save Myself From Me

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Senri can see a young Tatsuki of at least three years old. Since Tatsuki isn't closing off her mind, he figures that she wants him to see this. She wants him to know her past, to bring them even closer.

A little Tatsuki is sitting in her room crying her heart out, but no one is there to listen or comfort her. Eventually the tears drain her energy to exhaustion, and she falls asleep on the cold tile ground. Far away from her bed.

Her door is opened abruptly which startles her as she catches the sight of her father, Rido Kuran. She sits up, and looks up at the scary man that is her father. She tries her hardest not to cry, but he purposely unleashes his pureblood aura to frighten the child. He smiles at her pathetically quivering figure, and reaches his hand out to her. Tatsuki hesitates, but eventually takes his hand. Needing someone even if it is only a simple monster.

"Did my cute Tatsuki miss her father?" Rido questions her gently, but he's only being sarcastic. Tatsuki is young, so she cannot tell. She nods her head, and he chuckles at his pathetic and weak daughter. "Does Tatsuki want to see something with her father?" He questions her, and tightens his grip on her small hand. She doesn't feel it, but smiles up at her suddenly caring father, and nods her head. "Good." He pulls her along to a simple room with a chair just for him.

"Come sit on your father's lap." Rido tells her gently. She does so, and takes comfort in the warmth of his body. "Lets make my weak child stronger. Lets make her see the realities of being a vampire." He says putting a hand to her chin, and making her face forward. "Begin." Tatsuki sees a bunch of weak humans thrown in to the room. Other vampires make their way in, and look on at the humans. Tatsuki has no idea what's going on, but she doesn't really like it.

The vampires all grin at the petrified humans, and attack them. Tatsuki screams and looks away, but Rido makes her face the bloody massacre. She tries to move her face away, but he has a strong hold on her.

"NO PAPA! NO!" Tatsuki yells out with tears streaming down her eyes. Not wanting to see all this. But Rido only laughs at his daughter's terror. She screams and begs for him to stop, but he doesn't listen. He just brings more humans in to the slaughter. After what feels like hours of murder Tatsuki finally passes out due to her terror.

She awakens once more in her small room that now seems like a prison to her. She sits up, and looks around. Remembering the terror makes her cry. She doesn't want to close her eyes anymore. All she can hear and see is the massacre her father made her witness. It tears away at her making her feel like she's going insane.

"Papa, evil." She silently says replacing that fear with rage. Her mismatching eyes glowing crimson along with her rage. And the fact that she needs energy sustenance right at the moment. No one is there to provide it. It is times like those when a child needs fangs to feed at least from themselves, but she is left to starve into unconsciousness.

Senri wants to pull his fangs out, but he knows Tatsuki's nightmare isn't over yet. He rarely ever shows his emotions openly, but even his brow furrows and tears well up under his closed eyelids as he watches his elder sister's abuse. He keeps looking.

"See this cute little boy. This is your little brother, Senri." Rido says with a grin as his four year old daughter lies on the floor with no expression, but tears of pain managed to roll down her cheeks. She looks at Senri's picture. He smiles satisfied that he's managed to break his daughter in a year. She doesn't react to his torturing anymore. She's gone into herself and feels nothing at all anymore.

"I don't care, Rido." Tatsuki finally voices out. 

"Don't you want to meet him?" Rido questions her as he puts a hand to her bangs and pulls her up. She slightly winces, but keeps from showing Rido that expression. Their mismatched eyes looking into each other. Rido can't see into Tatsuki anymore, but Tatsuki can see the evil and madness in his eyes.

"That's a cute girl." His eyes flash crimson, and he goes to Tatsuki's neck. piercing it deeply. Tatsuki yells out in pain. 

"DON'T TOUCH ME, RIDO!" She yells out. Her powers react and with her blood his face tears off. She looks at her bloody weapon, putting her hand to her shoulder, and runs away from a faceless yet laughing Rido. She runs back into her small prison just to get away from him.

Senri has had enough and pulls his fangs out of Tatsuki's neck. He looks into Tatsuki's unfeeling eyes and holds her tightly. Finally understanding the complete hell she had to go through to end up like that. The way he lived seems like paradise now. Tatsuki holds him as well, and closes her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Senri says to her. 

"Don't be. We were just babies when we were separated." Both Shiki twins stand at the gate. Silently shedding their emotions since they cannot do it out loud. Rima turns away from the intimate moment between siblings, feeling sad for them. It pains her to realize that both their parents put each of them through so much pain. It makes her angry that she couldn't be with them a lot sooner.

"That man... he's a monster. Rido Kuran... My... our father." Senri thinks to himself, still seeing the cruel man with the same mismatching eyes as his sister. While his gaze makes him sick, her gaze makes him feel familial love for the very first time. He continues to hold Tatsuki for a bit longer before they decide to head back to the dorm and get what little rest they can.

                                            ~0~

"You called, President-sama?" Tatsuki questions as she enters Kaname's study in the Moon Dorms. Takuma is the only one who gives her a welcoming smile. She would return it if she could, so she can only wave at him. Kaname turns around in his swivel chair to face her. Both of them being expressionless, but Kaname is having a hard time seeing through this emotionless girl.

"Tatsuki, I've been getting complaints from the Night Class students, the guardians, and Headmaster Cross, about your behavior. Drinking blood on the school's premises is strictly forbidden. You know that." Kaname tells her. 

"Human blood, but I don't think I ever heard that drinking blood from my own kind is forbidden, and my brother at that." Tatsuki answers back. Takuma slightly winces at Tatsuki's abruptness. He can't really scold her either since they too took blood from each other not that long ago.

"That riles up the students, so I suggest you don't do that anymore." Kaname says more sternly. 

"Are you saying that because of the students or because you can't drink your-" Kaname makes a hole on the wall very near Tatsuki's left ear. She turns her head away and closes her eyes to spare herself a little from the damage.

"Kaname!" Takuma scolds him. He stands between them, and faces Tatsuki. "You too, Tatsuki. You shouldn't address Kaname that way either. Please get along and obey the rules. We are all working towards the same goal and looking for peace with not only humans, but each other." Takuma says trying to calm the tense situation down.

"Very well. Forgive my rude manners, Kaname-sama." Tatsuki says bowing. Both men can hear the sarcasm in her voice. Kaname keeps control of his temper, and tries not to let his new powers get the best of him.

"Shizuka-sama must have left a parting gift." Tatsuki says as she brings up the rumor that spread like wild fire when it happened, and then exits Kaname's study. As she's leaving she hears a window break. Coldness is all she knows. Never knowing love or affection, so she doesn't know how to treat people. The only one who now knows her well enough is her twin brother, Senri.

  "Tatsuki, wait!" She stops at Takuma's call. He catches up to her, and she continues to walk towards class. "Tatsuki!" He grabs a hold of her arm, and makes her stop. "That was very rude, how you treated Kaname." He says to her. Tatsuki simply stares at him. 

"I treat people the same way they treat me." Tatsuki tell him. Takuma smiles, and puts a hand to her cheek.

The strange tightening in her chest, the warmth flowing through her blood, and the crawling in her skin consume her again. "So, if someone gave you affection, would you return it?" Takuma questions as he moves some of her hair behind her ear. Her face feels warm to her. She touches it, and curiously wonders what it means. Takuma watches her, and notices the slight blush. "Cute." He blushes at his own mental comment, and then laughs at himself for being so shy.

"What?" Tatsuki questions him. 

"It's nothing. Come. Let me walk you to class." He says putting his arm out for her. She takes his arm and they walk on in silence as Tatsuki tries to figure out the strangeness in her body when Takuma is near her.

They leave the Moon Dorms and walk over towards the School building, right after the original transition time. He leads her on carefully as he looks around for the prefects. He doesn't want to get into any more trouble.

"Tatsuki, I'm sorry I didn't admit that we drank blood from each other." Takuma says as he slows down once they enter the school building.

"We weren't in the school building, so we shouldn't be getting into so much trouble. Anyway, I don't think it's the blood drinking that has Kaname Kuran so suspicious of me." Takuma looks back over at Tatsuki who meets his gaze. He stops walking all together, not once letting go of her hand. Tatsuki tilts her head, wondering what he wants to know about.

"Tatsuki, I don't believe  you're here for something bad. You just wanted to meet Senri again." He says with a sweet smile. Tatsuki looks down at their hands and nods her head. A sensation of relief fills her, realizing that he believes in her. Yet her mind is unable to put a name to the sensation she is feeling.

"That's right, I only want to be with my little brother and have a normal school life with him. Thank you for believing in me." Tatsuki reaches out to hold his face, trying to use the actions he's used on her in the past. Takuma jumps and is taken off guard by her gesture. He ends up blushing a little as Tatsuki observes his reactions.

"You are making such strange expressions, Takuma." Tatsuki mentions bluntly. He clears his throat, pulling back to compose himself.

"S-strange? I don't know if that's right, but I'll let it slide. I just-"

"Ichijo-sama, Shiki-san, what are you two doing out here? Class will begin as soon as I open this door." The duo is startled by the teacher as he interrupts the moment between them. Takuma apologizes for them and they head inside, sitting in their usual spot. 

"What took you so long?" Senri whispers to Tatsuki as she gets out her supplies to take notes. She casts a side glance at him and would rather talk to him than listen to class.

"Oh, I just had a meeting with President-sama because I'm causing trouble by drinking blood on school premises." She whispers back as Senri watches her write on her notebook. He frowns a little and sighs.

"I did it too. I should have gotten in trouble too." Tatsuki reaches over and holds his hand. 

"No, it's alright. It was just a warning, so I didn't really get in trouble exactly. Just let me handle this, okay?" He squeezes her hand lightly, beginning to realize that Tatsuki is far too used to doing everything by herself. It may take a while before she lets him in and help her with anything that may overwhelm her. All Senri can do it stay beside her and be there to help her for when she's ready.

"Okay..." That is all he can respond for now. He's never been one to take the initiative in anything, so he just waits patiently, not wanting to be a bother to Tatsuki. He doesn't want her to disappear on him and have her be lost like his own mother.

They sit in silence, listening to the lecture for the day until break time comes. Two volunteer students begin to prepare the blood tablet drinks for all the students. Tatsuki looks ahead, she would much rather have fresh blood. She was raised in an environment that approved of drinking human blood. Since she wanted to maintain her secret, when her fangs grew out, she would try to find small creatures she could catch and drain them of their blood.

"Disgusting, I want fresh blood." Tatsuki says more so to herself than any of the people around her.

"Exactly what I'm saying! Those tablets are not very filling or appetizing!" Aido agrees with Tatsuki, looking back over at the expressionless girl. She nods in agreement.

"Yes, but we signed up for this the moment we decided to attend Cross Academy. We are learning to better behave with the humans." Takuma says with a smile. Kaname smiles and makes a sound of amusement.

"Well, I'm sorry I made you all come to this school and forced you to suppress your hunger." Aido jumps and before he can apologize, he receives a pinch to his arm from his cousin, Ruka Souen. The light brown haired young woman glares at him.

"Shut up, Aido! How dare you disrespect Kaname-sama in such a way?!" Aido's temple throbs and he starts to argue back and forth with her, their cousin, Kain Akatsuki is caught in the middle. He can only sigh as he becomes a victim of circumstance. Tatsuki looks at the lively group for a bit before she watches the prepared glasses coming down the rows.

Tatsuki picks up her glass and looks at it from different angles, she smells it, not satisfied with the scent. She must relent to her fate though if she wants to continue to stay at Cross Academy and be beside her brother. She glances over to see Senri drink his glass with ease. She turns her head to Takuma who looks like he'd also been watching her. It startles him a bit as she looks at him, but he manages a smile and raises his glass at her before drinking it up. The glass comes over her lips and she drinks it up, the taste was as unpleasant as she figured it would be.

"Don't worry, Tatsuki, my family is still working on the flavor of these tablets. They'll be delicious eventually." In spite of Tatsuki not showing any expression, he knows the taste was not pleasant to her. Tatsuki turns to kneel on her seat and face Takuma properly. She reaches out to his tie and pulls him forward, it startles a few students and has them staring.

"They will be tasty like your blood?" She asks, totally not seeing the provocative way she's pulling him forward. It makes him blush at the attention and the way she holds on to his tie, nearing their faces so close.

"Unless it's his blood, I don't think it will be." Senri comments as he sits back.

"Senri!" Takuma scolds him as he doesn't stop his elder sister from the scene she's causing. He sighs, relenting to his friend's plea. Senri pulls Tatsuki by the waist and makes her sit back down. Her upper body is in his arms while her lower body is back on the bench as she looks up at his gray-blue eyes.

"Did I do something wrong again?" Tatsuki asks, genuinely not understanding the concept of personal space and intimate propositions like drinking blood. Senri may understand a little more, but he is also emotionally underdeveloped and doesn't understand a lot himself. It feels strange to him that he has to be a teacher to someone in his family.

"Huh, I wonder. Usually we try not to drink any fresh blood in the academy." Senri explains to her. Tatsuki sighs and nods her head, not really getting why it's an issue. 

"Okay..." Tatsuki sits back up as the break ends and the arguing quiets down. Class goes on as normal. As class comes to a close, the students gather their things and prepare to head back to the Moon Dorms. As they file out of the classroom, the prefects wait for them at the doors. Zero stands there bored while Yuki bows and wishes everyone a goodnight.

"Eh, no fair, he got to enjoy fresh blood." Tatsuki comments making Zero and Yuki both tense up as the last four students finally come out. Senri doesn't respond, taken a bit by surprise at Tatsuki's blunt comment. Takuma clears his throat as he pushes them along to walk away faster. Rima looks back over her shoulder at the guilty pair before walking with her friends.

"Sh-she knows... I-I'm sorry, Zero." Yuki apologizes as she puts a hand to her neck where a band aid rests. He says nothing as he watches the vampires continue on their way. Zero knows he can't be careless and keep giving in to his hunger. He has to once again suppress the beast in him and not become a hypocrite as he judges the vampires before him.

"Lets go back to the dorms..." Zero comments as they disappear from their sight. Yuki nods her head, her brow furrowed in worry as she follows him back to the Sun Dorms.