• Morning came and light streamed in on a blond Japanese boy who had a fallen asleep while pouring over his books. Tomi groaned slightly and buried his face in his arms to try to escape the persistent light that tried to wake him. He knew he had to go to school. It was what his father wanted. Despite everything, he truly loved his father. It was his mother he could not stand.

    Juliana Kurookami was beautiful, graceful, and had a certain charm about her while in public. However, given time, one could see what her true nature was. She was cold and she was cruel; particularly so to her son. No one really knew the reason why. Tomi had guessed that perhaps she had never really loved his father. She most likely had married him for his money. His father was almost 650 years old, and in that amount of time, he had gained a great deal of wealth, owning multiple theatres, amusement parks and anything that he felt was a good investment.

    Tomi lived in a pleasurable environment, but he lived alone, and that was why he felt miserable. Even his servants did not live with him. They lived in a separate house on the grounds and came to clean while he slept or was at school. Tomi missed his father, and wished he could go home to Japan.

    Sleepily, Tomi walked to his room and dressed in his school uniform. He went downstairs and had eggs and bacon for breakfast, since that was what was sitting there for him. He sipped a steaming cup of green tea before someone informed him that he was going to be late. Tomi nodded in a bored manner, and walked out to the car, climbing into the back seat.

    “Yuki-san... remind me again why I have to do this?” Tomi muttered, leaning back in his seat.

    “Because your father wants you to Tomi-sama,” the driver replied, “We had this discussion yesterday.”

    “Oh yeah...” Tomi said, having somewhat forgotten. He was rather distracted, thanks to a visit from a certain vampire. He picked up his text book and read on during the drive.

    “Tomi-sama, you really shouldn’t read while you’re in the car,” Yuki said, “You’ll make yourself sick.”

    “I’m fine,” Tomi said, “Stop babying me! I’m a mythical monster for God’s sake!”

    “My apologies Tomi-sama, I’m just trying to look out for your well-being,” the driver said and stopped the car in front of the school. The blond climbed and found he was surrounded by pretty girls. He was a bit taken aback by this and back up against the car. They crowded around him. He was tired and wanted nothing to do with them. The full moon was tomorrow night and it weighed heavily upon him. He shoved past the girls and went to homeroom, laying his head miserably upon his desk.

    “Good morning puppy,” came a soft elegant French voice.

    “Ohayou Gozaimasu(Japanese for Good Morning)…” the younger boy mumbled.

    “I’m surprised you’re here,” Louis said, “Given your… ah… condition..”

    “I’ll be fine,” Tomi said, “But I won’t be here tomorrow, or the day after.”

    “So I gathered,” Louis said. He brought his arm around the boy’s shoulders as if they were friends.

    “What do you want?” Tomi asked, looking at him with annoyance.

    “Why so sour puppy?” Louis asked, “After all we’re going to be neighbors so we may as well try to be friends.”

    “I assumed that we came to an agreement that you didn’t like me very much,” Tomi said, feeling the vampire’s weight on him like lead.

    “I thought we came to a different understanding,” Louis said, refusing to let the boy out of his grasp.

    “Then enlighten me,” the werewolf muttered.

    “Simply that if you try to kill me, I’ll have to kill you first,” Louis said with a laugh.

    “Lovely,” the werewolf said, “Vampire… it couldn’t have been a leprechaun, or anything friendly and cute… it had to be a vampire.”

    The vampire just laughed at the comment and ruffled Tomi’s surprisingly soft hair, despite Tomi’s annoyance with him.

    As the day progressed the vampire’s cheerful attitude towards him annoyed the young werewolf. As night grew near, and he could feel the nearly full moon calling him, his body grew more tired and weak.

    Louis threw his arm over the younger boy’s shoulders and was talking about getting together for a drink some time.

    “I’m too young to drink and you’re too… dead,” Tomi said.

    “Come, come now puppy, let’s try to be friends,” Louis said.

    “Get off of me…” Tomi said as he fell to his knees. He couldn’t bear the extra weight any more. If he gave in to the call of the moon he would actually be much stronger than usual, but as always he fought it and it wore him down. The vampire looked at his fallen companion and picked him up gently, carrying him to his castle.

    Louis called the boy’s servants to inform them that Tomi was visiting with him and then carried Tomi down into the dungeon and laid him in his coffin. He didn’t close the top of course, and the thought there were other bedrooms in the castle didn’t occur to him because no one ever used them. He went off to hunt and left the boy to rest. Such a troublesome person.

    Just as morning was breaking, Tomi opened his eyes. He took stock of his surroundings and froze. I’m in a coffin… he thought, surprisingly calm considering his inner statement, I must be dead… that damn vampire shot me in my sleep and now I’m dead….

    “If you were dead I doubt your thoughts would be so loud,” Louis said from his seat near the coffin, sipping blood from a crystal wine glass.

    Tomi sprang upright and stared at the vampire with wide, blue eyes. His jaw dropped, and he looked as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came from him.

    “I… I need to go home,” he eventually said.

    “The full moon is tonight, and I doubt you’re well enough to walk the five miles to your manor,” Louis said.

    “Then I’ll call my driver,” Tomi said, “I can’t be here.. when.. when the moon…”

    Tomi held his head in his hands, trembling slightly.

    “You’ll be fine,” the vampire assured him, “There are plenty of rooms you can stay in when you transform.”

    “I don’t want to be here!” Tomi said, “I want to go home! I… I want to go back to Japan…”

    Louis hesitated, looking at the boy. Gently he touched a hand to the boy’s shoulder.

    “Shh… I’ll take you back to your manor,” he said gently.
    Tomi had clutched onto the older male as he was picked up, and hung onto him fearfully.

    “Don’t worry,” the vampire said with a surprisingly gentle smile, “You’ll be fine.”