(AU: Ayana Kuran was the eldest child of Haruka and Juri and twin sister of Kaname—Well, not that Kaname. 16 years ago the Senate murdered her real little brother and left an impostor in his place. An impostor that answers to the same name and possesses the same likeness as her dearly departed brother.)

I.

She was the epitome of poise; her legs crossed over each other, firm supple calves exposed by the silky material of her dress. Yuki's eyes trailed up her figure, starting at the pair of cute wedge sandals on her feet to the peach-colored dress with tiny white beads embroidered on the bodice and skirt and the creme stitching of leaves to her glossy black hair and a pair of eyes of the deepest burgundy. There was a sort of vivaciousness superimposed over her whole face, but especially at the eyes. Eyes that she found extraordinarily arresting and as confounding, maybe even more so, as a harlequin mask. The young schoolgirl struggled for something to say, opening her mouth before she thought better of it and took a sip of her tea instead.

A smile crossed over the other woman's face as she lowered her teacup from her mouth, eyes twinkling from under her dark lashes. She looked amused by the situation and fully entertained by how flustered Yuki was. After the woman had complimented her on everything there possibly was to compliment someone on the petite brunette had flushed about a dozen different shades of red and was now staring into the cooling liquid of her rose tea, trying and failing to come up with a retort. Part of her, the skeptic in her brain, wondered if the woman was simply pulling her leg or if she truly meant all the wonderful things she had said. But there was such a look of earnestness on her face that Yuki felt that she couldn't be lying.

Her eyes scanned her again. Yuki felt her face growing hotter as she realized that her companion had stopped drinking her tea and was regarding her with thinly veiled humor. "Do I have crumbs on my face?" She asked. Her voice was smooth like melted butter with a slight raspy accent that made Yuki's stomach feel all fluttery.

"N-No," her voice squeaked embarrassingly and if at all possible she flushed even more. It felt like any minute she would keel over because her head would explode from all the heat trapped inside. She swallowed the lump in her throat and exclaimed rather loudly, "I love your dress!"

The woman was surprised by the proclamation, but her expression turned almost adoring as Yuki buried her face in her hands silently berating herself for being so socially awkward. A warm smile stretched across her face. "Yuki-chan is so cute," she cooed.

"I'm not really—"

"No you are," she corrected. "You're cute. Super cute. Super-mega Kawaii!"

"K-Kuran-sempai you're embarrassing me," Yuki told her.

"Nope! No-no-no, we agreed," the woman shook her finger at her chidingly. "You promised to call me Ayana. Two Kurans is confusing, remember?"

Yuki nodded. "Sorry...Kur—I mean, Ayana-sempai."

Ayana gave her a smile that Yuki was sure could bewitch and steal the heart of any one of a thousand of the cruelest and coldest dictators. She felt stunned by it, but she was completely powerless to fight against it's contagiousness; her lips tugging upwards in response. Ayana brushed a strand of her inky black hair behind her ear, then leaned forward and offered the plate of rose-shaped apple tarts to her. "Would you like another?"

Yuki shook her head. "No, I've had four already," she said.

"I think I'm going to eat another," Ayana took one off the plate and bit into it with relish. "I shouldn't. I'm trying to lose weight, but these—" she let out a small sigh of pleasure as she chewed. "—these are too good to pass up."

"I think you look fine," Yuki said. "I mean, you're not fat. Definitely not fat."

"You're too kind. I know I'm not fat, but I'm not really thin either," she replied. "It's all that bread in Italy—bread and pasta and cheese and gelato—Oh lord is that gelato heavenly. But it does nothing for my figure. I've gone up two dress sizes since I've been there. It's a good thing that I'm so tall, otherwise, that weight would definitely show. Us vampires don't even need to eat that much, but I just love food, ya know? There are certain countries that I can't live in because I'd get so fat and Italy is one of them. That's part of the reason I moved back here, so I could get healthy again."

"I didn't realize vampires could gain weight like that," Yuki said interested.

Ayana nodded. "It's harder for us. We metabolize things faster and if we haven't fed in a while those extra calories are burned off like that," she snapped her fingers for emphasis. "That's why level-Es look so thin any extra food they consume is used to curb their thirst."

"So eating large amounts of food can stop a vampire's need for blood?"

"Yes and no. It doesn't stop it per say. It only takes the edge off," she told her. "Think of blood kind of like water. For humans, you can last weeks, even months, without food. But no water, and you'll be lucky if you can last more than three days without dying. Even then you'd be severely dehydrated, weak with hallucinations and splitting migraines—It's the same thing for vampires."

A pensive look crossed over Yuki's face as she considered what she had just learned. "No one's explained it to me like that before," she said.

"Perhaps no one ever knew you wanted it explained," Ayana remarked casually. "Sometimes people assume you know things you don't actually know and the only way to correct them on that is if you ask. There are no wrong questions and the worst that can happen is that someone refuses to answer. And then, sometimes in not answering they give you an answer anyways."

The early morning sun was just beginning to peek through the drawn curtains as the two sat in the main hall of the Moon Dorm. The dorm was dead silent, except for the low shuffling of maids on the third floor, but they were so far away that it was indiscernible to human ears. The rest of the Night Class was currently at the main campus but were due to return any minute now. Yuki had escorted Ayana to the Moon Dorm after the upperclassmen had arrived in the early hours of the morning and insisted that Yuki stay for a cup of tea and give her the dish on the school and her classmates. One cup turned into two, then three, and then Ayana had requested that the maid bring out the apple tarts after Yuki's stomach let out an embarrassingly loud gurgle.

Yuki knew that she should've been getting back, and she felt some guilt over letting Zero continue patrols without her, but she found herself reluctant to leave Ayana. She was just so...interesting. Everything about her from how she spoke and sat and talked about, it was all so fascinating. This whole experience was by the far the most comfortable she's ever felt in the Moon Dorm and Yuki had no doubt in her mind it everything to do with the vampire sitting across from her.

That's right. She's a vampire. Yuki reminded herself. There was something so warm and inviting about Ayana that over the past hour, the schoolgirl found herself forgetting that important fact. Also, she wasn't just any vampire, Ayana just so happened to be the elder twin sister of Kaname Kuran, the girl's crush and head of the Night Class. She was just as warm-hearted as her younger brother. But she also noticed that unlike Kaname, Ayana was a great deal more open with her expressions and thoughts which might've been a result of spending so much time overseas away from the cool and reserved Japanese society.

Suddenly, Ayana twitched her head towards the main door that same smile tugging at the corners of her mouth again. She set her cup and saucer on the white marble coffee table and almost on cue, the doors to the Moon Dorm swung open and in shuffled the rest of the Night Class with Kaname at the front. The dorm-president halted mid-stride, his head raising from the stack of papers in his hands to first glance at Yuki before sliding over to Ayana. The other students stopped behind him with looks of curiosity and confusion in equal measure.

Ayana stood up from the sofa and closed the distance between her and Kaname in the blink of an eye. She knocked into him with such a force that had he been human, she surely would've knocked him off his feet and flat on his back, but he had been prepared and only took a step back as she threw arms around his neck. The familiar scent of sugary wisteria blooms and fresh apricots engulfed his senses as he wrapped his arms securely around the woman's waist. Likewise, Ayana was overtaken by Kaname's earthy scent of cedar and spiced wine as she buried her face into his chest. This embrace only lasted for a split second, before Ayana pulled back and thoroughly shocked everyone present by placing a brief, but affectionate kiss on the man's mouth.

A/N: Because I have so many ongoing fics, I don't have the time to be really starting another one. However, I had this idea in my head and I thought as a way for me to make sure I write a little every day, I'd start this fic and make the chapters really short so I could update daily. (Now, I'm probably going to fail at this. I'm probably going to forget somedays. But it's a nice goal to have.)

I usually write long, long chapters. But that takes a while between updates, so I'm trying out a new way to see if I like writing this way better. If you're interested you can check out my other VK fic, Explaining the Unexplainable to see how I normally write my chapters.