Author's Note:

So I am currently on bed rest due to the fact that I somehow managed to knock myself out yesterday while getting ready to go to class. Still haven't figured out how I did that...but anyway, as I was bored and going through my computer, I found this story that I wrote more than a year ago. It's not finished, but I got a good deal into it and then never actually did anything with it besides read it for entertainment. This seemed like kind of a shame to me, so I decided to post it for the entertainment of others besides myself. :)

I'm not sure that I'm really feeling the first-person intro, so I shortened it. Most of the story will be in third-person.

The (brief) story behind this story can be found at the bottom of this page for anyone who's interested. Also, I own nothing. Not even my own soul. XD

I wake up often at the zenith point of night and day. There is something within me, I think, that attracts me to this time. No mystery what that could be, is there? No, no mystery at all.

Although I know this is not true. It's wrong to say that there is no mystery about me, even for something as small and unimpactful as this. Almost everything about me is a mystery, and I've been learning my way around the shadows of my foggy past for my whole life. From my continued survival to my very existence, from my birth to my true parentage- what is there to be known about those things? Whatever there is, I don't know it. I don't know anyone who does know, as the only things I've ever heard are hazarded guesses. And this world is so vast and so complex, I know I will probably never find the people who do know, if they're even still alive. If they haven't already forgotten.

I live in the zenith point between night and day. I slide between the two like an actor transitioning from her stage role to her true self, except I have forgotten which part of me is true and which has been created. Really, I don't think it's that simple. I feel like both parts of me are just as real, like I have some weird kind of personality disorder, but really, I am only one person. One person, just made up of two sides. I feel myself relate to the world through them both, vibrantly, vividly, gracefully. As long as I don't ponder too much about what I am and what it means, I can get along just fine.

Sometimes I sleep, and when I awaken, I always feel a tiny moment of confusion about whether it is day or night, and what that means, and where I should be. For most of my life, even after my transition, I was accustomed to using the night for sleeping, so there was never any dichotomy between the two. It is only recently, since I first began attending Cross Academy, that this crisis in my identity has become more pronounced, the difference between day and night become part of my quiet personal battle.

I know that I would have been perfectly happy to remain solely in the daylight, had it all been up to me. Despite what I had become, or what I had always been, it would have been entirely possible for me to ignore that new, other side of me completely. But since my transition, my life is no longer just about me, or so this is according to Headmaster Cross. In the darkness, my existence is a vital link to something both tremendously important and utterly irreplaceable, and it is my duty to uphold that link by becoming a participant in that world. Nevermind that I don't particularly want to be a vital link to anything. I'd rather just be a painter. But Headmaster Cross says that the most noble thing I can do with my unexpected life is to try, so I agreed to enter that world. Not to immerse myself fully- no, hardly that- for if this scene can be likened to wading into a pool, then I have barely gotten my ankles wet. I am still primarily made up of daylight's beams, and very reluctant when it comes to darkness. It hasn't been going that well either, I can honestly say, and this is only fueling my desire to get out entirely, even though I know that part of my failure thus far in the night world is my own doing. Deep down, I think that both sides of me really just want to ruin Headmaster Cross's half-thought-out plan, so I can shrug, say I tried, and then bail out and return to peacefully sleeping my nights away. But not yet, not quite yet. There is something I must finish first.

/

"Reina!"

A dark-haired, intensely beautiful young girl stood up after a moment's pause, having finished stuffing her things back inside of her backpack. She pivoted her head so she could see her friend approaching. Asuki padded up beside her and surveyed her preparations with a critical eye. "So you really are leaving? Sure you don't want to stay and hang out some more, at least? We're going to play apples to apples!"

Reina shook her head at the undeniably tempting offer. "Can't, Asuki. Sorry. I'm just not feeling that well tonight. I think some medicine and a restful night in my own bed is what I need."

Asuki nodded her loosely braided head, meandering over to the refrigerator and fishing something out. "You sure have been sick a lot lately." She commented off-handedly as she dug around. Out of her sight, the other girl stiffened for a moment, then relaxed as she emerged. "Here." Asuki said, handing her friend a popped can of root beer and a grin. "For your health." Reina took it with an easy smile, and made a show of knocking her head back with the first sip. She picked up her backpack and grappled with her coat. The two girls hugged by the door. "Reina's leaving!" Asuki hollered back into her warm home, which brought fourth a chorus of cries of "Bye, Rey-rey!" and "Don't be sick for club tomorrow!"

"I'll see you tomorrow." Reina murmured gratefully, and Asuki nodded and slid back into her house with a wave. Thanks for not pressing me was what the long-haired girl really wanted to say, but didn't. Reina met the cold night air head-on and she jogged out to her car, flinging her school backpack into the trunk where it collided with a simple white canvas bag embossed with the logo of a different school. She had been hanging out at Asuki's house, watching TV and playing games with her friends after school that day. Afternoon had turned into evening, and soon the girls had ordered a pizza and decided to have a sleepover in order to prolong the fun. Reina had regretfully told them that she was feeling too ill to stay. Actually, she was close to being late for class.

Mental note, Reina, she thought to herself as she backed out of Asuki's long driveway into the glow of the setting sun; The illness excuse has become overused. It's time to think up some different stories.

As she drove along the highway into the next town, Reina played her music softly from her dashboard CD player as she stared out the windshield, watching the last whisps of warm sunset color disappear on the horizon. The night was falling. Deep within herself, she felt a quiet, mysterious presence beginning to stir, a presence whom she did not exactly hate, but whose relative unfamiliarity jarred her. She turned up her music and drove onward.

Reina stopped at a convenience store at the edge of town, and fished a short list of common breakfast ingredients out of her purse. It was written in the messy hand of the Headmaster, and Reina spared the sloppy list an exasperated smile before locking her car and striding quickly into the store. The small convenience store was primarily full of men at this hour, probably all single men who were looking for a cheap and easy meal in lieu of actual cooking. Reina went about gathering the ingredients on the list like an automaton on a mission, glancing neither to the left nor the right. She had learned that it was not wise to meet the eyes of strange men while she was out alone in public; if they got the wrong idea from her gaze, they would often try to waylay her, and then she would either have to turn them down abruptly, or try to figure out a way of brushing them off politely. Both methods were troublesome and would cause her to be late. Moving faster than she probably should have amidst a crowd of humans, Reina made it to the front of the checkout lane, only to look up and discover that the cashier was a spotty teenage boy around her own age who was staring at her as if transfixed. Curses. He was unapologetically slow in ringing up her purchases, gazing at her the whole time, and Reina had to resist the urge to grab the scanner and do it herself. Normally she would have been more forgiving of hapless human males such as this one, but she was currently pushing late and somewhat annoyed about having missed out on a slumber party. As he bagged her ingredients, he smoothed back his hair and said something along the lines of "Haven't seen you in here before…." Reina just nodded. He probably wouldn't see her again, either, if he was going to be this hopeless in her presence. She took her groceries, being careful to avoid brushing his hand with hers, and headed for the door. The men all stared as she departed. As she swung the glass door open, Reina caught a glimpse of her reflection in a circular mirror poised above the entrance. Long, dark brown hair arranged back in a trailing bun, almost seeming to be illuminated from within. A slender waist, long, shapely legs, noticeable breasts, delicate-looking hands and feet, an alluring, well-proportioned face. She was wearing a long winter dress of deep, dark red, and tights that tantalizingly (apparently) displayed her calves. Her hair was complimented with a red bow, and her earrings and necklace gleamed. She looked like a doll from her own sweet Christmas dreams when she had been a child. Beautiful. Inhumanly perfect. Reina hurried out the door, away from that troubling, lovely reflection. She slid into her car and returned to the road.

Cross Academy was not exactly part of the town, and everyone knew it. Its elite student body did not have established connections to the commoners in town, and when Reina came down here to shop or to relax, she always heard the townsfolk speaking of Cross Academy, in slightly awed tones, as that place, a place apart. Townsfolk did not have any reason to go inside, as employment there was exclusive, and aside from regular scheduled vacations or family emergencies, it was difficult for the students there- both day and night classes- to procure permission to leave. This was said to be the price to pay for attending a high-class boarding school academy that wanted its students to focus on academics instead of socializing, and provided them with a lavish boarder lifestyle to keep them happy. Reina knew the truth, however, as did the night class and a select few humans within the day class. The widely admired night class at Cross Academy was made up entirely of elite, aristocratic vampires. And this provided complications for everyone involved.

Reina had actually never been to the night class dormitories within all the few months that she had been attending Cross Academy. She did not pull into that side road as the academy came into sight. Instead, she drove straight up to the main gate and leaned her head out of the window, so that the old man who guarded the entrance from within a tiny blue booth could assess her identity. He nodded, pushed a button, and the silver gates creaked open, allowing her car to pass through and drive up to the school part of the academy. She parked her car in front of a currently unused structure, which was being remodeled into a campus 'guest building,' and slipped out of the car, popping her trunk and taking from within the pure white bag and the grocery sack. The stars were beginning to come out as she paced up the stairs of the ivy-covered structure and paused at the door. Bending down to eye level with the lock, Reina straightened the pointer finger of her right hand and watched as it slowly lengthened into a metallic, shining claw, which penetrated the keyhole. With a careful twist of her hand, the lock was released and Reina pushed open the door, stopping at the doorstep and closing her eyes. As she always did, Reina allowed her senses to run the length of the building and around it as well, searching for any movement, for life. Nothing worrisome responded. Aside for some squirrels in the attic, she was completely alone. Her long nail shrunk into a normal finger once more. The dark-haired girl padded down a pair of dusty, abandoned corridors until she reached a certain room, which she entered and tossed her bag onto the bed. There was no light, but Reina did not need light to see. The room contained a well-made bed and a clean dresser, and nothing else besides. Opening up her white canvas bag, Reina dragged from within it a pure white uniform, bordered with intricate black embroidery and clearly exclusively made. She laid it out on the bed and proceeded to undo the buttons on the back of her red dress, peeling it off her body from the top down. She pushed her tights down off her legs as well, and replaced them with black leggings that ran up to her middle thighs. Still dressed only in leggings and a plain red bra and panty, Reina hurried to the window and peered out as she heard the ten-minute bell begin to ring for the night class. This was also the final signal for the day class that they needed to be heading back to their dorms. From a distance, Reina could see a few black-clad day class stragglers beating a retreat down the path which led to the bridge of the sun dorm. She could also see a flock of white-clad students moving gracefully like doves, flitting around on the balconies of the school buildings, heading to their respective classes. There was a half-hour break between the time the night class students emerged from their dormitory and the time that their classes started, which allowed for them to prepare and socialize. For Reina, it meant that she did not have to participate in the infamous 'entrance' every evening with the rest of them. She hurried back to the bed and picked up the white dress-skirt uniform, quickly stepping into it and pulling it up around her body. She adjusted the bow, folded the collar, and smoothed the pleats in the skirt, before cramming a pair of dark brown boots onto her feet to complete the Cross Academy uniform. She folded her day clothes up on the bed and took them in her arms. In place of the uniform that her been in her bag, she unloaded the ingredients of her shopping bag in over her books and papers, and proceeded to swing her way out of the room and back down the hall. She locked the door behind her again as she left, popped her trunk once more, and set her red dress and other clothes gently inside. Then she turned to face the distant school, buried her keys deep within her skirt pocket, and ran.

She ran like the wind; she ran faster than a human eye could follow. She approached the main school hall rapidly, skirted gracefully around a group of chattering day class girls, who were craning their necks to get a final look through the windows, and leaped from the ground onto a deserted balcony on the third floor. Balancing herself on the ledge, Reina turned around to take in Cross Academy in all its expansive, lavish glory. The glowing lights of the buildings beamed out from in between deep patches of darkness. From way up high, Reina could see all the way to the edges of the academy, surrounded by dense forest on every side. The perfect cover for a school such as this. Reina re-adjusted the dark red bow which emblazoned the front of her uniform, and stepped deftly off the ledge. She ghosted through the double doors, and entered into a school taken over by the creatures of the night.

Most of the students were in their classes by now, the doors opened wide to reveal a silent and half-attentive atmosphere, as the occupants waited for the final bell to ring. A few groups were still hanging around outside of doors, immersed in conversation. Reina passed them by without acknowledgement. She descended a flight of stairs and glided swiftly across the darkened hallway of the second floor. Hefting her school bag once again over her shoulder, she slipped inside a certain classroom in the middle of the hall, and made her way to the back of the stadium seating arrangement.

For one inevitable moment, a moment which she hated, the vampire eyes of everyone in the classroom turned her way in order to gauge the new arrival. Then, disinterested, they looked away again, and Reina was able to slip gratefully out of the spotlight and take her seat in the highest section of the room. No one else sat back here- there was plenty of space, it wasn't as if the class was packed. There was no assigned seating either, so all of the students tended to shift around in location a fair bit, according to their inclinations for that night. Reina always sat in the same seat in the very back, presiding over the rest of the class like a detached figurehead, like a goddess of stone who did not speak. This was how she preferred her time at Cross Academy to be spent- silent and alone.

Down in the middle section of the classroom was a group of aristocrats whom everyone could not help but know at this academy. They were of prominent political and social families within the vampire world, and many of them had influence that extended to the human world as well. They were the group which was privileged to be closest to the pureblood lord of this academy, who had not yet decided to grace them with his presence. Sitting still in a multi-row huddle were the well-dressed figures of Hanabusa Aido and his cousin, Akatsuki Kain. Next to them were Takuma Ichijo and Ruka Souen, speaking quietly together about something. Seated languidly in the row behind them were Senri Shiki and Toya Rima, who, from all that Reina had seen, were rather detached characters themselves, but permanently attached to each other. Their group was an exclusive one, even within the exclusivity of the night class overall. She watched them for as long as their eyes remained forward; when Akatsuki Kain took a moment to glance around the classroom, Reina stared fixatedly at the board. Soon that board would be filled with notes and terms, when the class was underway. She proceeded to take out her pen and notebook from her bag, and flip it open to a blank page. Reina actually enjoyed this class, vampiric history, and she was quite dedicated to soaking in all the information she could. Even if most of it was not to her liking.

Reina did not need to look at the door again to know when the pureblood lord had come in. A hush spread over the classroom which not even the teacher himself could command, and Reina felt her annoyance rise. She honestly did not understand these students. Kaname Kuran came in the same way every single night, after all. Perhaps it would have been surprising if he hadn't shown up, but whenever he entered a room, the vampires inside- who went to school with him- reacted as if seeing him for the first time. Reina tried to imagine how it would feel to be constantly greeted by that breathless, anticipating hush everywhere she went. She gritted her teeth and tossed the idea out of her mind. Horrible.

And that wasn't the only annoying thing. As the handsome pureblood sat down amidst his group of followers, greeted all around by murmurs of "Kaname-sama," and "Good evening, Kaname-sama," he raised his regal gaze to the back of the classroom and looked at her. He did this every single night, as if making sure that she was there. And of course, everyone else in the classroom obediently followed his gaze, so for yet another moment, Reina found herself inundated by prying pairs of eyes. Bothering hell. She glowered at her empty notebook page until she was saved by the arrival of the teacher, who pulled all the eyes forward toward him. He began to speak, and Reina pushed her annoyance aside, drowned it deep in the depths of her supreme detachment, and allowed herself to become lost in his world of history, a place where she was not.

Today they were learning about the various recent treaties which had been made between vampires and vampire hunters, and had been broken repeatedly by both sides. Reina shook her head in half-formed bemusement as she took careful notes. Honestly, with the amount of time that some vampires had been alive, one would think that they would have discovered a way to keep the peace and better their societies by now. But no. Perhaps they merely lived for bloodshed, just like their predecessors before them had done. How depressing.

Toward the end of the hour-and-a-half lesson, Reina glanced out the window and beheld two figures standing on a balcony of the building across from them, dressed in black uniforms with white-and-red armbands. One was a girl, short and petite with shoulder-length brown hair. She carried a long, collapsible staff, the Artemis rod, attached to her thigh. The other was a boy, tall and lanky, with floppy locks of silver. He toted a special gun, the bloody rose, attached to a chain that wound to his wrist. They seemed to be talking for a moment- then the boy strode quickly away, and the girl, with an innocently baffled expression, followed. The light on the balcony dimmed as she closed the door behind her. Reina returned her attention to the classroom with a complacent turn of her head. The adopted children of the headmaster, the Cross Academy guardians, were none of her business.

When the lesson came to an end at 11:30 pm, Reina stood up with the rest of the students and thanked the teacher before joining in the queue at the door. She gave the silver-haired vampiric man a small half-smile as she slipped out of the classroom, just in time to see him return it. Reina had always sensed that this particular teacher was aware of her dedication and rather liked her for it, even though he had yet to actually hear her voice. She wished that he taught all her classes. He, like Asuki, did not press her. As she moved away toward her next class, she was stopped by a smooth, light voice at her shoulder. "Good evening, Reina-san."

Reina's eyebrow did not twitch, but it was a near thing. She halfway turned, and replied in a calm tone, "Good evening, Kaname-sama."

He was standing behind her with his band of followers nearby, just far enough away to avoid flanking him, but they were all watching the exchange. Another horrible thing. Reina hoped that that was all, but it was not. The tall, dark-haired young vampire moved closer, and indicated toward her bag. "You have spices in your bag. I can smell them. Are you going to cook something?"

It seemed to be Kaname Kuran's personal goal to oblige Reina to say at least one thing per night. As for now, Reina thought that he might be getting at something, but it was too late to not have the spices in her bag. She shook her head evenly. "No. I merely picked them up earlier this evening, because the headmaster asked me for them. He's going to try to make homemade duck with them."

"I see," said Kaname, smiling his charming vampire smile. Behind him, Reina spotted Ruka's face darkening. She did not smile back. "It must be nice for you to be so mobile, Reina-san. Sometimes the academy can feel so confining, if you're here too long."

What Reina wanted to say was I think I've been here too long already. What she actually said was "Hmmmm." They had started to walk away from his group, down the hall to their next class. Kaname leaned in close, as if he wanted to ask her something very important. But all he said was, "So I assume that the smell of the spices doesn't bother you, then?" When she shook her head, he nodded at the classroom door. "That's good." He murmured. "You're lucky." Then the teacher arrived, and he gave her a tiny bow. "Enjoy your classes, Reina-san." He smiled again, and drifted quietly, elegantly inside.

Reina thought he knew. Or at least, ever since she had first come here, she had sensed that he suspected. She didn't think it was just a paranoid feeling, for she didn't sense it around anyone else but him. Now, like most other times, she was seized with the overwhelming urge to find out for sure, to seize the sleeve of his pure white uniform and demand he tell her what he knew. But that would have given it away. And Reina realized that whatever Kaname Kuran might or might not suspect about her true identity, he had not spread his suspicions around the rest of the night class. And although she might desire to find out his reasons for this discrepancy, she knew that it was probably safest to say nothing, and let things continue on as they were. Still, she watched him warily as he walked to his seat. He was a pureblood; she wouldn't put anything past him. How much did he know, and why was he keeping quiet?

"The nerve of that girl!" Reina heard Ruka complain as she passed by the classroom with half of her group in tow. "Snubbing Kaname-sama like that, when he's been kind enough to talk to her at all! That's a common vampire for you; no respect. Headmaster Cross should never have let her into the academy."

Reina leaned against the door and felt Ruka's scorching gaze glance off her as she passed by. Unbeknownst to anyone, she smiled to herself, an amused, fang-toothed smile as she stared at the moon sailing through the darkened clouds. If only you knew, she thought, feeling the deepened part inside of her stir and crack open its eyes for the barest sliver of a moment. If only you knew!

This next class Reina did not enjoy nearly as much. It was all about getting along in the vampire world, and it was geared toward aristocrats. The class material mainly revolved around propriety- learning cultural skills such as dancing, conversation, and musical instruments- and practicing the ways in which to treat other vampires, depending solely upon their social status in this world, their 'level.' Reina did not take notes here. She did not feel that this was something she needed to know. Not only that, but this classroom was much smaller than the last, so she was forced to sit much nearer to her classmates. Reina was slouched down in her chair about halfway through the night's lesson, listening to another numbing lecture about the importance of proper behavior according to class distinction, when someone in the front raised their hand and questioned, "But what about half-bloods?"

The classroom went quiet again, the same type of silence that greeted Kaname Kuran's arrival among them every night. Reina did nothing. When she had first started as a student here, she knew she would have jumped out of her skin at a question like that, so she was quite proud that she managed not to bat an eye. She almost missed the teacher's reply.

"Half-bloods?" the middle-aged man repeated, raising his eyebrow at the questioner. "Well, I'm afraid that kind of thing can probably only ever be a hypothetical question. As you all know, half-blood vampires have become nearly extinct in our world, despite the best efforts of our greatest minds to bring them back."

"But there are still a few living in the world today." The student persisted. "They're protected by the vampire council, but still, one of us might meet one of them someday. Our families have connections, you know. What should we do if we ever meet a half-blood?"

The teacher pursed his face in thought. "Well, I assume that one would treat such a creature in the same way- relatively- that one would treat a pureblood. With great respect and deference, I should think. As you all know, purebloods and half-bloods ruled the vampire world side-by-side for hundreds of years after the transformation of the nature of half-bloods, which allowed them to rise to equal power and prominence. This was, of course, before the half-bloods began to die out at an alarming rate. Such creatures symbolize the ultimate fusion of two separate species, human and vampire. A half-blood's powers, as well as their very existence, are mysterious and admirable. And since there are so few of them left within our world, each one is all the more precious and wondrous."

"How many do you think are left?" called out another student. The classroom was completely silent. Interest was running high, thick in the air.

"There are only about 100 half-bloods known to be in existence at this time." The teacher replied, shaking his head at the dismal number. "Although there is no doubt that there are more out there somewhere in the world, it cannot be denied that the race has almost disappeared. Therefore, unfortunately, I wouldn't worry too much about the proper etiquette for greeting a half-blood. Most probably, none of us will ever meet one."

Slouched over in her chair at the back of the classroom, Reina kept her eyes on Kaname Kuran as the teacher gave a sigh and returned to his lesson. The pureblood boy did nothing out of the ordinary; he stared politely at the teacher throughout his tangent, and then returned to taking notes on the lesson at hand. His face was pale and impassive, and he did not once shift his eyes away from his notebook. However, Reina could not shake her deadpan feeling of unease as the teacher lamented the terrible scarcity of half-bloods. She felt, with some kind of almost sensory certainty, that Kaname was sparing her his gaze on purpose.

Well, that's the first chapter. :)

The story behind this story: I had originally planned on writing this story from the point of view of a female canon character. My first choice was Yuki, and I tried really hard, but... *doom* It's not that I don't like Yuki, but human Yuki is honestly way too much of a Mary-Sue for me to feel comfortable writing. She didn't interest me as the main character for this story. So then I tried Ruka, Rima, Sara, etc... But the problem with all of them was that I need my main character to come into the story hating Kaname. It's a major plot point, and I couldn't make any of them do that without making them insanely OOC, almost like different people- especially Yuki and Ruka.

So then I finally figured, "Well, if OOC is going to be a problem, I might as well just create an entirely new character!" Thus Reina was born, and once I solidified her personality and motivations, the story started taking off in completely new directions, which was cool. In order to stretch my writing abilities, I wanted to make Reina a character who is VERY different from my other OC, Lydia. While Lydia is average-looking with a good personality, Reina is beautiful, but her personality is...well, you'll see. Their motivations are opposite as well. While Lydia wants primarily to come in, Reina's only desire at this point is to stay OUT. We'll see how she goes about this in ensuing chapters.

Finally, what do you, dear readers, think about all this? I'd love to read your comments/reviews! They will make me a happy panda! :3

Thank you.