Translations:

Toutes les meilleures personnes sont folles - All the best people are crazy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”

- Edgar Allan Poe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rose could honestly say to herself that she’d never been in a more awkward situation, and she blamed the Sakamakis entirely. If they weren’t so set on these damn dinners every so often, she thought bitterly to herself as she pushed food around on her plate, not finishing the speculation.

She’d seated herself between Subaru and Shu, figuring that out of all of the bloodthirsty sociopaths at the table, they were least likely to murder her. However, based on the way Reiji was glaring at her, Rose was pretty sure she was dead either way. And while usually, that would be fine with her, she had a job to do at the moment, and dying would be rather inconvenient. Why bother? You’re going to fail anyway.

Rose shook her head slightly, trying to pull her focus away from the voices. In the two days since the “bleeding incident,” as she’d dubbed it, they had become a constant presence. They murmured to her before she went to sleep at night, distracted her when she tried to research, yelled at her whenever she came into contact with one of the brothers, and generally made her life incredibly difficult. And maybe there was a tiny, very lonely part of her that welcomed the company they brought, but it was largely overshadowed by what those voices meant. They meant strange, fearful looks, medication, hospital visits, therapy, doctors looking at you like you were a science experiment. They meant being labeled as crazy. And if there was one thing people hated, it was “crazy.”

She rubbed a finger over the tattoo she’d gotten in an attempt to spite Damien. Such a small sentence, split in two across her wrists in a simple, cursive font. Toutes les meilleures personnes sont folles. At the time, it had been something of a joke, a way to laugh at her dark past with a silly lyric from a pop song. But now? Now it made her nauseous.

“Little Violet?” The voice snapped Rose out of her reverie, and she looked up at Laito, who was sitting across from her. His green eyes were narrowed with what could be mistaken for concern, but a mischievous light glinted in them that betrayed his true intentions. He wanted to play, and Rose was not interested in being entertainment. “Why so distracted today?” Laito continued in a teasing drawl, resting his head on his hand. Dump his glass over his head. No!

“Just thinking of a good way to castrate you all in your sleep,” she grumbled without thinking, and the clink of utensils ceased suddenly. Glancing around, she noted every eye on her, some merely curious while others glinted dangerously.

“Tut, tut, Little Violet,” Laito cooed, cocking his head to the side. “There’s no need for such violence. And here I thought we were becoming the best of friends.” Rose snorted derisively, the sound echoed by one of the voices, which she tried her best to ignore.

“Ah yes, because best friends regularly sexually assault one another and drink their blood,” she hissed at him, her temper, as usual, getting the better of her. Laito’s smirk only widened, but the announcement had a much more pronounced effect on his more irritating--if that were possible--brother.

Ayato stood up suddenly, his chair tipping over and crashing to the ground. He glared down at Laito, and Rose would have been happy for the anger if she didn’t know where it came from. “How dare you? Didn’t I tell you that she was Yours Truly’s? I was to be her first,” he snarled at his brother, and Rose’s face flushed with fury at the possessiveness in his tone. They’d barely exchanged two words with one another, and yet somehow she was his?

Thankfully for Ayato and his dick, Reiji stepped in. “Ayato. Sit down. Your manners are embarrassing,” Reiji said, and to Rose’s surprise, Ayato listened. He listened with lots of grumbling and huffing, but he listened. Reiji didn’t seem to care about Ayato’s sass, which Rose was offended by--the dude had a fit every time she sassed him, turning to her with his usual icy expression. “I received a message from your father-”

“Damien,” Rose interrupted, and Reiji’s expression went from frigid to irritated.

“Excuse me?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“You received a message from Damien. He is most definitely not my father.” Rose was almost surprised how cold her voice had gotten. She could emulate Reiji quite well, apparently.

“Yes, well,” Reiji mumbled, actually looking mildly uncomfortable for once. “I received a message from Damien that informed me that your siblings will be staying with us for a short time. Were you aware of this?” Rose felt her heart swell, and her lips curled up into a relieved smile.

“Yes,” she breathed, struggling to keep herself from grinning. God, she missed her siblings so much it hurt. The terror and longing warring in her stomach at the thought of seeing them again in a hazardous environment made her dizzy. Her worry only heightened at the interest the other vampires took in this news.

“Will they be brides here as well?” Kanato asked, tilting his head to the side. Rose fought back a shiver at his vacant yet interested expression. Something about him freaked her out, and the feeling certainly wasn’t helped by his statement.

Before Reiji could respond, Rose decided to speak up and lay down ground rules. “No,” she began firmly, raising her voice just enough to get the brothers’ attention. “Look, you may see me as nothing but prey, and frankly I don’t care about that. What I do care about is that you see my loved ones as prey. Let me make this very clear to you. You are not allowed to touch my family. You are not allowed to lick them, grab them, or insult them, and you are certainly not allowed to bite them. If you harm them in any way, I will gut you with a rusty spoon.” Her eyes glimmered fiercely as she looked at each of them in turn. Maybe she didn’t give a damn about herself, but she would fight them if they harmed her siblings, even if it killed her.

When her eyes met Laito’s, he smirked. “You certainly seem incredibly protective of them. I wonder what expression you would make if I went and drank from one of them anyway.” He was goading her, and she knew it, but the thought of Alaine, Miri, or, God forbid, Ash being hurt by this monster made her see red.

Grabbing her steak knife from its spot beside her plate, Rose drove the point into the table between the fingers Laito had splayed across the wood. Leaning over the table towards him, Rose made sure he saw just how serious her threat was. “Do I make myself clear,” she repeated, her voice full of the promise of violence. To her surprise, Laito nodded. He almost looked scared of her. Good.

“Why do you care so much?” Shu drawled as Rose returned to her seat, leaving the knife in the table both out of laziness and to make her threat apparent. She turned to him, startled, but he didn’t seem to be joking.

“They’re my family. I’d walk through hell itself to keep them from harm,” she replied. You’re going to burn in this hell, and they’ll be right along beside you. Rose fought back a shudder at the direct jab at her fears, instead trying her best to focus on the present. Focus on what’s real. If only it weren’t so hard to tell anymore. Fortunately, the Sakamakis provided ample distraction by reacting in the oddest ways. Some of them rolled their eyes, while others looked astonished by her statement.

Shu chuckled bitterly. “How utterly naive,” he said with a slight shake of his head. Rose puffed out her cheeks, trying desperately to hold back the many choice words she wanted to say. Unfortunately, she had never been good at censoring herself, something that was sure to get her in trouble soon enough.

“You know what? Fuck you! I bet if I had the same icy relationship with my siblings that you do, you’d find some way to criticize me for it,” Rose hissed, trying desperately to murder Shu with her expression. Sadly, he remained alive, or as alive as a vampire could be. “What is your fucking problem? Are you all so emotionally stunted that your concept of empathy is nonexistent? Because that would explain a lot, especially in regards to your utter lack of knowledge on how consent works.” Rose took a deep breath, slumping back in her chair as she finally reined herself back in.

“Are you quite finished?” Rose met Reiji’s eyes, and the coldness in them sent a shiver down her spine. Fuck, she’d pushed it too far. Fix it, fix it, fix it. Looking down at her plate, Rose mumbled an apology, hoping to calm him down. “Apologies aren’t going to save you.”

Rose’s mouth went dry, but she tried her best to swallow the lump of fear in her throat before she met his gaze. “After,” she croaked, clearing her throat as her voice broke before trying to speak again. “Wait until after my family leaves. You can do whatever you want once they do, but please, don’t make them worry.” She didn’t know why she bothered. Reiji wasn’t likely to agree to her terms. But something changed in his eyes, a bit of softness that was gone in a split second.

“You will be held to that,” he said, and Rose sighed with relief, leaning her head back to stare at the ceiling so she didn’t have to face the looks the brothers were giving her. God, she was so tired. She let herself sit there for a few moments, wrapped in the murmurings in her head, before pushing her chair away from the table and heading for her room.

Unsurprisingly, she only made it about halfway before being accosted. Damn it. She stared impassively up at Ayato, who had caged her with his arms in the standard ‘sexy-bad-boy-with-no-concept-of-personal-space’ way, and was glaring down at her with enraged green eyes that were slightly darker than his brother’s. Actually, everything about him was slightly darker than Laito, from his hair to his eyes to his moods, and yet she still found Laito to be the more intimidating of the two.

Ayato bared his fangs at her in a small snarl. “Why did you let my brother bite you? You’re mine,” he growled, and Rose scoffed, rolling her eyes. Out of all the brothers, he was the one that acted the most like a petulant child, and he didn’t even carry around a stuffed bear.

“Really? I’m yours?” Rose mocked him, copying the snarl on his face before snickering. “We’ve exchanged like two sentences!” She tried to push out of his hold but found she was no match for his strength. “Go mope in your room or something and leave me the hell alone,” she hissed, and Ayato grabbed her throat, forcing her to look at him.

“I claimed you,” he hissed, his other hand trailing possessively up her body, making her stomach heave with nausea. He stopped at her breasts, seemingly almost startled that she had them, and the angry glint in his eyes turned predatory. “Look what the little human has been hiding from Yours Truly,” he murmured, and Rose’s disgust turned to icy fear.

And when she was afraid, her knee jerk reaction tended to be violence. Emphasis on the ‘knee jerk.’

Ayato let go of her throat with a howl, bending over to protect his crotch, and Rose took advantage of his momentary distraction, bolting away with more speed than she would typically have had. Adrenaline was a hell of a hormone, apparently.

Slowing down once she reached a familiar hallway, Rose tucked her arms around her chest, cursing herself for forgetting to bind it in a house of sexual predators. She’d been too lost in the misery of her mental break to think correctly. Now, however, her small bit of protection from having them lust after her body was gone, as it would be no use to continue binding it when they had seen her. Damn it, you idiot, she berated herself as she power-walked to the only safe spot she knew in the mansion.

She burst into Sabirah’s room, chest heaving and legs shaking. Sabirah, surprisingly, was nowhere to be seen, but Rose didn’t have time to go looking for her. She had to prepare for Damien.

***

Rose could feel the stares of the Sakamaki’s as she waited by the front door, but she was too afraid to care. It was taking all her willpower to keep herself from shaking like a leaf, and she didn’t have time for any snippiness.

She knew why they were staring, though. The entire time Rose had been with them, her wardrobe had consisted exclusively of crazily patterned leggings, oversized sweaters and sweatshirts, and jeans. Now, however, she’d donned a crisp white blouse tucked into spotless black pants, her hair tied up in a bun that hid her purple tips.

Rose hated the stiff feeling of the cloth, and she had to clasp her hands behind her back to keep them from tugging at the buttoned-up collar. But she didn’t want to aggravate Damien any more than she already had, not with how precariously her plan balanced on the edge of failure. Run. Hide. Don’t confront him. She wished that were an option.

There was the sound of crunching gravel outside, and Rose tensed up, preparing for what was sure to be a horrible encounter. As the massive front doors creaked open on their own, Rose thought idly about how it really needed that book on Newton’s Laws. She shook her head slightly, trying to get back her focus as Damien strode into the mansion, a huge, jovial smile on his face.

“Rosemarie!” He cried, wrapping her in a gigantic hug. She felt the Sakamakis stir a bit, and she knew what they saw. A surprisingly short and rounded middle-aged man with curling, salt and pepper hair and laugh lines. Not very intimidating, even a bit unimpressive. Damien pulled back, studying her for a moment before saying with a cheerful smile, “I really thought they would have killed you by now. A pity you’re still breathing.”

So, how was that for the introduction of a major antagonist? Was he what you expected? All the real life evil business tycoons are surprisingly unassuming and non-threatening, and I find that scarier than a dark and foreboding villain somehow. Anyone who can cause harm to someone and still smile is frightening.

Anyway, I got this one done a lot quicker, which I'm happy about. I'm slowly getting out of the low mood and low energy rut I'm going through (depression and a shit immune system are evil), so hopefully I can write more frequently. Have a lovely day!

~ Avie