To Hell with It (Vampire Knight boyxboy)

Two

"So, you're the little ex-human Kaname-sama went off to find?" The girl with light brown hair asked, looking Lucas up and down as if he were a bug in a glass case. "All that trouble..."

Lucas flinched at her biting and accusatory tone. He scolded himself afterwards, though. He had never used to be like this. He was from the city, from California, girls like this one had never been able to hurt him before. He used to be full of sarcasm and sass that left girls like her rolling their eyes in defeat. He never flinched away from them. He never used to have nothing to say.

"Leave him alone, Ruka," a boy with orange hair said with a bored expression. "It wasn't his fault."

"Six months, Akatsuki!" The girl snapped. Lucas shifted uncomfortably where he stood next to Kuran.

"Ruka," Kuran said, his voice gentle yet stern, "that's enough." The girl set her jaw and looked away from them. "This is Lucas Alviso. He will be joining us for some classes but will be spending most of his day with the Day Class."

There were shocked whispers suddenly. A boy with blond hair and ice-blue eyes stepped forward. "But he's a vampire. To be in the Day Class—"

"Lucas has missed a year of school. Our classes don't teach what the Day Classes do, and the education we have received thus far through private tutors is a resource Lucas didn't have." The tone of Kuran's voice had the blond-haired boy shrinking where he stood. The tone was authoritative, threatening discipline should anyone question him again.

"Will he be staying here, then?" Akatsuki asked.

"For now, he is with the headmaster," Kuran responded. "We shall see where he'll fit in best at a later date."

"Does he speak Japanese?"

"Yes, I do," Lucas said, though his voice wasn't strong. "Fluently." There was a sharp silence that cut through the vampires. They had been asking Kuran, a pureblood and the dorm president. He had been speaking for Lucas the whole time, after all.

A smirk tugged at Kuran's lips. Lucas had seemed very timid when he first met him, and he still did seem so. But to have survived on the streets for a year whilst being hunted by his own mother, Kuran couldn't see Lucas as being truly timid. There had to be tenacity in the boy, strength and intelligence.

"Where is your master?" Ruka asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Dead," Lucas responded with a simple tone. A gasp claimed the students and they looked at Kuran. "The American Vampire Hunter Association executed him."

"Americans..." someone muttered with disdain. Lucas understood the sentiment.

The vampire society in Japan was, understandably, different than that of Europe and America. To kill a pureblood in Japan was highly taboo, but in America, the laws were strict and unforgiving. The vampire society hadn't been happy with the execution of a pureblood, but the Hunters there were unrelenting in their stance that the pureblood was a danger to everyone, and the vampires hadn't taken the responsibility in restraining the pureblood.

There were no Old World laws in America. No discretion was given to offenders for the sake of their family name or their age. Purebloods were still held in reverence, but they were also expected to follow the same laws as a lower-ranking vampire. Such was the reason why so few took up residence there. And Europe wasn't so different in their sentiments.

"How old are you?" Someone asked. Lucas didn't see who.

"Sixteen."

Questions hung in the air, ones Lucas had been wondering himself. Why was he there? Why had Cross felt the need to help him? Why did Kuran bother with letting him attend the school? But these were questions everyone was too afraid to ask. Who were they to question Kuran and his motives? His generosity?