To Hell with It (Vampire Knight boyxboy)

Four

"You can fight," Kuran spoke so quietly and matter of fact that Lucas felt jarred from the silence they sat in. He felt his stomach do a flip and his lungs constrict momentarily.

Before he'd broken the silence, Kuran's room had felt uncomfortable and suffocating. Lucas sat across the pureblood at the older vampire's desk. The intimidation Lucas was feeling was infuriating and stifling. He slumped down in his seat while Kuran was leant forwards with his elbows resting on his desk, his fingers interlaced and covering his mouth.

He had simply been looking at Lucas, his reddish-brown eyes sharp and calculating. There was no emotion on his face, and the only sounds that had been in the room were their thudding hearts. Lucas shifted slightly, softly clearing his throat and tearing his eyes away from Kuran's.

"Yes," Lucas murmured. "My mother is a Vampire Hunter."

Kuran gave a tight half-smile. "Of course. I just didn't think you would be trained since you didn't... inherit the gene."

Lucas snorted and ran his hand through his hair, a wry smile coming to his lips. "I can't detect vampires. That is the only thing I didn't get from her, and it is the only thing that matters." He shrugged and looked out the window behind Kuran. "I have the increased strength and speed all Hunters have. But I can't tell the difference between a human and a vampire beyond obvious physical signs."

"You aren't stuttering anymore." Kuran leant back into his seat.

Lucas' lips pursed subconsciously. He wasn't stuttering anymore. He wasn't even sure why he'd been stuttering in the first place. Was it anxiety? His mind working slower than his mouth when he spoke? Both, perhaps. But he wasn't stuttering anymore, and whether that was because he was falling back into the old familiar patterns of speaking Japanese or because he was getting more comfortable.

That one, he wasn't sure. He found himself thinking in Japanese more often now that he was immersed in the language again, thinking less and less in English. It was the same when he was with his dad's side of the family who spoke mostly Spanish and Lucas followed them in that, speaking and joking with them in Spanish. He thought in the language, never needing to translate anything into English for him to understand. He'd managed to reach that level of fluency with Japanese.

And was he getting comfortable in his new surroundings? He couldn't say. There was still the very loud voice in the back of his head that told him not to. He'd inevitably have to leave soon. It was only a matter of time before his mother found him and destroyed yet another safe haven for him. He wasn't safe anywhere unless he managed to out-live her. He wasn't sure how likely that was.

In the end, Lucas just shrugged. "I guess I'm not."

Kuran's smile was soft. There was something about the pureblood that made Lucas feel so calm. He'd met purebloods before when he was a child. He'd always thought they were rather much too regal to be comfortable around. Ethereal and untouchable in their beauty and timelessness. Immortality inflated their egos, and Lucas always sensed that amongst them.

But the pureblood in front of him felt very different from the others he'd met in the past. Whatever ego he had was undetectable. He had the beauty that all vampires had and that untouchable timelessness, but it wasn't intimidating. None of it fed into the calmness Kuran exuded. Lucas didn't feel like he was going to be eaten simply just because he could be.

"I know it is only your first night with the Night Class, and tonight's events were not the most ideal." Kuran's eyes darkened dangerously for a brief second, and Lucas felt as if he should dunk, everything inside of him shouting for him to avoid the angry pureblood. But the darkness in Kuran's eyes was gone quickly and he composed himself. "But how did you feel?"