It wasn't very often they received a new student in the Night Class. Not very often at all. All those who sympathised with Kuran Kaname's vision of a world where vampires and humans coexisted peacefully – or, to be more accurate, those who were too afraid or respectful not to sympathise – already attended Cross Academy.

It was no surprise then, that the current students of the Night Class, as well as their appointed guardians, Cross Yuuki and Kiryuu Zero, were all a little wary of a newcomer so late in the school year. Especially after the very recent Hiou Shizuka incident, which through unspoken consent was a subject all those involved avoided discussing – possibly the first, last and only time Zero would ever agree with a vampire about anything.

The chairman, however, had assured them all in that bumbling, harebrained and totally unreliable way of his, that this time it was legit – though how he could know such a thing beyond the shadow of a doubt was outside anyone's comprehension. When 'politely asked' for some trivial details about the new arrival – name, age, previous affiliations and the like – Cross Kaien had simply refused to give any up to his naturally anxious students. It was a surprise, or so he claimed. One that they would have to trust him on.

"Besides!" the chairman had exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air exhaustedly as the grilling from his vampire students started to wear on his extraordinary wealth of patience. "If I told you anything it would be a breach of teacher-student confidentiality!"

Let's just say that this did not inspire the confidence chairman Cross had hoped it would.

"So breach it already!" Aidou Hanabusa had hissed, stepping forward menacingly. As the least rational of the vampires at Cross Academy, he was the one who'd overreacted the most and, by extension, the one who'd been the loudest – although he was normally the loudest anyway, so this last wasn't worthy of note.

Yuuki, who'd merely wanted to see if Zero had stopped by – he'd been slacking off again! – had looked from the chairman to Aidou-senpai and back again with a frown. She knew from experience how much of a hot-headed fool Aidou-senpai could be and that knowledge fuelled a nervous need to finger Artemis edgily; she prayed there would be no need to draw it, though truth be told she'd almost enjoy an excuse to beat the blonde pretty-boy about the ears.

"Aidou. That's enough." the steady, melodious tones of Kaname-senpai cut in, halting all fighting with but a few carefully articulated words. Yuuki glanced over at the calm and confident pureblood vampire gratefully and he treated her to one of those kind, enigmatic smiles of his – the ones that always made her blush, or stumble over her words like a fool. "If the chairman says it's safe, we should trust him."

"B-but Kaname-sama..." Aidou argued. He was silenced by a look from Kaname that spoke volumes. Volumes of what, exactly, was anyone's guess but everyone was aware that it wasn't pretty. Aidou, apparently deciding that today was a fine day to locate his usually absent sense of self-preservation, swallowed the rest of his dispute and bowed respectfully, one hand over his heart as was the custom. "Yes, Kaname-sama."

And so the matter had been dropped. The 'baby vamp', as Yuuki had affably referred to the mystery student during some light-hearted banter with Zero (banter that, unsurprisingly, was not received with much enthusiasm), had been permitted to enrol in Cross Academy's illustrious Night Class unobstructed. The buzz that had inevitably travelled through the Day Class like wild fire had long since died out when, in an irritable growl – the only way he knew how to deal with the 'Night Class Fan-Club' – Zero had informed the swooning girls that the new student was in fact female; now, all that remained of any human interest attributed to the 'baby vamp', was a sort of formal curiosity. And of course, friendly anticipation on Yuuki's part – clearly, she hadn't learned her lesson from last time.

For the vampires themselves however, there was an almost electric brand of nervousness which sparked and fizzed through the patiently waiting classroom, affecting even the most unconcerned members of the class albeit in the smallest of ways. A twitch here, a sudden eye movement there. That sort of thing.

Kaname, though doing his utmost to appear un-fazed – and succeeding for the most part – couldn't help but turn rapidly in the direction of any unexpected or unnatural sound which happened to occur this evening. As a pureblood, it was highly unlikely that anyone who walked through that door tonight would be capable of harming him – or anyone else in the room for that matter, if he decided it was not in his interests to allow such a thing. The question of his own safety was hardly something in need of consideration. But nonetheless he was set slightly on edge, more concerned with the distinct possibility that the new student would not enter the classroom soon – for if that were to happen he would be in no doubt as to where this mysterious stranger was, and he wasn't fully trusting of Zero's ability to protect Yuuki himself just yet.

If there was anyone who wasn't at all jittery this evening, it would be Shiki Senri and perhaps, on a lesser scale, Touya Rima. Shiki, who since an age he was almost to old to remember anymore had been taught to live as little more than a moving doll – a puppet, to use his oppressor's term – was indulging in his favourite snack as if it were any other boring, pointless and bothersome day of the week. The chocolate coated biscuit stick hung from between his pale lips like a lengthy cigarette, bobbing slightly as he methodically chewed his way through it. His icy blue eyes betrayed nothing – at least nothing that anyone could read – and to the eye of an impartial observer he was totally at peace. That is, if you could consider indolent-enough-to-border-on-being-a-corpse a form of peace.

Rima too, although less composed than Shiki by far – not a difficult achievement considering most who met him were convinced his only facial expression was one of boredom bordering on sheer lethargy – seemed quite unaffected by the prospect of a new vampire in their midst as well, her disinterested frown directed, as usual, at nothing in particular. True, she was... tensely inquisitive, for want of a better description; but there were few things in this world that could really make her fret and this just wasn't one of them. Frankly, she was more concerned about her rapidly diminishing pocky supply. Not helped, of course, by Shiki's insatiable appetite for the sweet treat.

"I wonder," Souen Ruka mused suddenly, breaking the terse quiet in a voice saturated with that natural haughtiness of hers. "what this new girl is like..." she finished, brushing a stray strand of her dusky blonde hair behind her ear.

The others turned to where she leant casually against one of the desks by the window, gazing rigidly through the spotless glass as though expecting a shrouded figure to appear from the cloak of the night, just like in the horror stories humans seemed to enjoy. Her caramel brown eyes were slightly narrowed, betraying her absolute distrust of the student though she had yet to meet her. No one was particularly stunned to see this; Ruka was, after all, essentially a stubborn and highly judgemental woman.

"Who can say?" Kain Akatsuki drawled, his deep voice resonating with a harmony he didn't wholly feel. His hands, stuffed in the pockets of his white Night Class uniform, were bunched into tight, anxious fists and his left foot twitched marginally now and then in a display one could – if one had sharp enough eyes to catch it – take only to be discomfort with the situation. "At this point, does it even matter? Whoever she is, she's enrolled now and that's that."

"Yeah, well as soon as she walks through that door I'm gonna lay down the law!" Aidou grumbled hotly, arms crossed tightly over his chest, pouting like a child who'd had their toys taken away. "It won't be like last time; whatever plans she's got, she'd better just forget 'em!"

"You're so sure she'll have plans." Ichijou observed, green eyes bright with excited anticipation. He was the only one amongst them who was actually looking forward to having a new classmate and the only one with even an iota of faith in their unnamed sister. "Ever heard the phrase 'innocent until proven guilty'?"

"Since when has any vampire ever been 'innocent'?" Aidou countered, his left fang peeking over the corner of his lip in a smug smirk. "That girl's as guilty as sin, mark my words."

"Enough. She'll be here soon and whatever else she may or may not be, she is our comrade until she proves otherwise." Kaname silenced them, sensing an argument. Or rather, knowing from experience that when Aidou was involved an argument was sure to ensue. "I'm sure I don't have to remind you all that I expect nothing short of proper manners when addressing her."

"Yes, Kaname-sama." the other vampires intoned, reverent respect for their pureblood leader evident in each of their tones. Or perhaps it was fear. Even after all these years, Kaname could never tell whether it was respect or fear the majority of the vampire community spoke to him with. Sometimes he wondered whether it really made a difference.

For all his chivalry in defending the new girl's honour, Kaname was just as concerned over her true motives as his underlings were – perhaps even more so, given that he had his own motives to be watching out for. If need be, he was certain he could deal with her well before it ever got to the point where any real damage was done, but intimidation and oppression were not how he liked to run things. At least not at first.

"Hey... Do you hear that?" Rima questioned placidly, cocking her blonde, pigtailed head in the direction of the door, a look of impartial apathy on her smooth, pale face. Even as she spoke, her total disregard for the situation was highlighted by the almost careless act of sticking a further two pocky sticks into the expectant Shiki's mouth without even looking – such was the fine art she had made of feeding her best friend the chocolatey sticks.

The others hushed and listened carefully, all except Shiki, who merely continued eating his sweets with an expression of jaded tedium. After a few seconds' curious inspection of the door, beyond which the steady clip, clip, clip of well shod feet could be discerned, Rima returned her attentions to the russet haired boy who, this evening, leant casually against her knees as he did most evenings. In her stoic, almost icy way, she found the sound of his systematic crunching a far more endearing sound to listen to and his boyish, charming features much more engaging to look at.

Not to be misunderstood, as Rima was certain such a confession would be were she ever to share it; she didn't enjoy these things – watching him, listening to him – in the same way the girls from the Day Class enjoyed these things. Rima would very much rather not be grouped with the likes of those shallow, simpering fools, who knew the male Night Class students no better than they knew the Emperor of Peru and yet were not above falling all over in pathetic, half-baked ideas of love. Rima on the other hand, found Shiki to be a remarkable specimen, fascinating in ways she neither understood nor cared to explore but knew had almost nothing to do with his looks. She found his attitude to the world in general refreshing and, she would admit, it was very much true that she was attracted to him and cared for him deeply – but for her it was different, because she actually knew Shiki.

For Shiki's part, it gave him comfort to be around Rima because she was quite like him in many ways. The others, although fond of him in their own ways and understanding of him to an extent, could never connect with him on the level that Rima did – his cold, oblivious exterior threw many people off, vampire or otherwise, but Rima – because she too was cold and oblivious – could relate to him. He liked that. To have a friend who was on exactly the same page as him for once was a pleasant change and so he'd allowed her to get closer to him. The closeness of their relationship, which had now progressed to them being nigh inseparable, was obvious in the small things they were able to do together; eating pocky, modelling and – on occasion, when the blood pills just weren't cutting it – a little blood donation.

So to them it hardly mattered who joined the class today. Or tomorrow. Or ever. Those things were inconsequential so long as it didn't interfere in their affairs.

At long last – it felt, to the vampires, like they had waited an age and more for this moment – the classroom door swung open gently, and in the entrance stood a silhouetted figure of small build. The figure was undoubtedly female, as they had been told she would be – this, the only figment of information they'd managed to squeeze from the chairman, had weighed heavily on their minds all week, especially in light of the last female student who'd joined their class – and her limbs were willowy and weak looking; bony, like she'd been starved for months on end but had yet to die. Her head was hung in a fashion that made her appear sad or repentant – or both, no one was quite sure which – and her mid-length hair, russet coloured and not unlike Shiki's, fell about her scrawny shoulders in a dull-crimson curtain.

The same, collective impression of the girl ran through the majority of minds at that moment; she looked like someone walking their last mile to the gallows.

I've been working on this story for a while now – it came to me quite suddenly after watching Vampire Knight for the first time – and I've decided to post it. I wasn't sure whether I would or not since I didn't know if I could do the idea justice, but after reading it over a few times I've discovered I'm quite happy with the way it's turned out.

I'll let you all in on a little secret, shall I? Actually, I'm almost finished this entire story. That's right. I'm almost finished the entire thing! :P Which of course means that updates will be regular with perhaps an update every few days. The reason for this is that it was originally going to be a oneshot but when I got to the region of about 12, 000 words I decided it was too long to be a oneshot.