Where You Go, I Go

He remained sprawled on the floor, looking thoroughly satisfied. "Hmm… tasty."

"You bit me," Alice said hoarsely. "You actually bit me."

"I asked politely. In my heart."

Alice finally found her voice. "Who are you?" She hesitated. "Are you a vampire?"

She already knew the answer. She wanted him to say it anyway.

He scratched the back of his head and pushed himself to his feet. "Well. Let's start properly, shall we?" He spread his arms with a dramatic flourish. "My name is Shidou. I am the great vampire, Shidou!"

He looked at her expectantly.

He looked like someone who had practiced that line in a mirror.

Alice stared back, utterly unimpressed. His confidence visibly deflated. She gave a small, pointed cough to fill the silence, and then, without warning, fell back onto the bed, drained.

"Aren't you scared?" Shidou asked, pulling a deliberately frightening face.

"Not really." A pause. "Especially after seeing how you behave."

His expression crumpled. "Wow. What an insult."

Alice laughed despite herself. "You're actually pretty funny."

Shidou blinked at her, and she offered a faint smile in return. It had been a long time since she'd laughed like that.

Strange, she thought, that the first person to make her laugh in months was the very creature she had always claimed to hate.

Then her tone shifted. There were things she needed to ask. About her curse, about the pain she had carried her entire life, about the vampire from her childhood. She wanted answers.

The pain had vanished, and she needed to know why. She needed to know what he had done to her, and whether it would last.

"Shidou," she said. "Can I ask you something?"

He noticed the weight behind her words at once. He looked at her for a long moment before answering, with deliberate casualness. "Not right now." His expression turned strange, unreadable. "From now on, we're partners. So don't rush things. For tonight, I'm leaving. See you."

"Partners?" Alice echoed. "Wait…"

But the door had already clicked shut behind him.

* * *

On the other side, Shidou's playful expression vanished. He lifted the hem of his shirt. Strange symbols were etched across his skin, and they seemed, slowly, to be spreading.

If they kept spreading, he did not have long. He pushed the thought away, as he had been pushing it away for days.

The curse. She must have wanted to ask me about it. He lowered the shirt. But I can't help her yet. And I shouldn't drag her into the vampire world.

He thought of the alley, the cold pavement, the scent that had pulled him back from the edge. She had saved his life without even knowing it.

He looked down at his hands. "But how am I supposed to protect her?" His face hardened. "She protected me. And all she ever wanted was a simple life. A life where she could live freely."

He leaned back against the door and closed his eyes. Inside, Alice sat alone, turning the same question over in her mind. The curse…

Her fingers drifted to her throat. The pain that had shaped her life was gone, and the quiet it left behind felt lonely.

High above the sleeping city, moonlight silvered the rooftops. A lone figure stood beneath it, his face hidden, only his back visible beneath a dark hood, the fabric stirring in the night breeze.

The wind carried the scent of rain, and something older beneath it.

He did not move. He simply watched the lit window far below, as though he had waited a very long time to see it.

"Finally," he whispered. "I've found you."

* * *

The sun rose, and a bright morning chased the darkness away. Alice opened her eyes to the same ceiling and the same lazy fan. Then she turned her head.

"…You?"

Shidou lay beside her on the bed, wearing a ridiculous, lopsided smile.

He was fast asleep, one arm flung over the pillow, snoring softly like he owned the place. Alice's face flushed red. "What are you doing here?!"

"Sleeping," Shidou mumbled, cracking one eye open. "Your bed is comfortable."

She bolted upright and scrambled out of bed, but her foot slipped. "Ah!" Shidou lunged to catch her hand and was pulled down with her. They hit the floor together.

Alice opened her eyes to find him hovering directly above her, their faces impossibly close. She could see every detail, his pale neck, the fine, almost delicate lines of his face. For a moment, neither of them moved.

"Why did you react like that?" Shidou said at last. "You could have gotten hurt."

Alice couldn't answer. She turned her face away. "Can you… get off me? This feels awkward."

"Oh." He pulled back quickly. They settled on opposite sides of the bed, Alice still flushed, Shidou looking just as thrown. He pressed a hand to his chest. Why is my heart beating like this? I've never felt this before.

Outside, a bird chirped, entirely unaware of the disaster it was witnessing.

Neither of them said another word.

* * *

Later that morning, Alice and Shidou stood together at the school gate, dressed in matching uniforms. Where his had come from, she didn't dare ask. She had tried, more than once, to convince him to stay away. Shidou had simply refused, trailing after her with the stubbornness of a child who wouldn't be told no.

"Where you go, I go," he'd said.

The entire walk had been exhausting. He stared at food stalls, got fascinated by drink displays, and wandered off to examine whatever caught his eye. Alice honestly couldn't understand how one person could be this much trouble.

"Is that a drink machine?" he had asked, pressing his face against the glass.

"Don't touch it."

"It has drinks inside it, Alice. Drinks!"

"You're a vampire. You're supposed to be terrifying."

"I am terrifying." He glared at a candy stall until the vendor laughed. "See? They fear me."

She looked toward the school entrance. A new life was beginning, one she had never expected, tied to a vampire and bound by blood.

So this is where my new journey begins. Me, and a vampire.

It should have felt like a curse, one more heavy thing. Instead, absurdly, it felt like the first morning in years when she wasn't walking alone.

She glanced sideways at Shidou, ready to scold him again.

But he was no longer smiling. His eyes had fixed on the school building, and the playfulness drained from his face as a faint, familiar scent drifted past on the breeze.

Someone, or something, was already inside.