The vampire's eyes fluttered open and was greeted by big, round green eyes staring at him.
"Niky!!"
Nikolas closed his eyes and pretended to go unconscious. Kazu smacked his chest, causing the vampire to go into a coughing fit.
"What is wrong with you?" Nikolas grumbled.
"Me? What's wrong with me?" Kazu pushed his face into the vampire's. "What's wrong with you?! You have a lot of explaining to do."
The boy put his head against the pillow and looked at the gray ceiling.
"Why were you fighting Zaros?"
No response.
"I've been wanting to ask this, but your hair and eyes look different. What did you do to change it?"
Silence.
Kazu's tail flicked in irritation. "Fine, you don't want to talk." The werewolf crossed his arms.
The two sat in awkward silence for a few minutes.
The impatient wolf grumbled, breaking the quietness. "But you have to tell me what happened between you and Akio."
Nikolas's gaze shifted onto Kazu.
The werewolf's ears perked up. "Now that I've piqued your interest, tell me!"
Nikolas turned his head away. "No."
Kazu let out a tired exhale. "You know Niky, you have to stop avoiding your problems."
"I'm not, that's why I fought Zaros."
He shook his head. "I'm not talking about him, but since you brought it up, why were you fighting him?”
The vampire scoffed. “He wanted ‘to talk’.” Nikolas rolled his eyes while responding.
“Well, about Akio.” Kazu reached for a bowl sitting on the bed. He grabbed the candy and started to stuff his face while speaking. “Can't you tell you're hurting him?"
"That's what I'm afraid of," Nikolas mumbled.
"Well, I've known you for how long?"
The vampire grabbed a piece of candy from the bowl too. "Almost twenty years."
The wolf nodded. "I know that you're not one to express how you feel, but if you don't talk to him he’ll break up with you."
Nikolas's eyes shot open and crushed the candy with his teeth. "What?!" He yelled.
"Aren't the two of you dating?"
The vampire vigorously shook his head, his face feeling flushed. "What gave you that idea?"
“Geez, for someone so calm and collected, you can be awfully noisy.”
The two boys turned to see who opened the curtain beside Nikolas’s bed. A boy wearing glasses sighed heavily.
Kazu gasped. “It’s Acchan’s friend!”
Nikolas frowned at the wizard. “What are you doing here?”
Ryunosuke put his right hand on his hip. “Oh? Can’t I care about my friend’s friend now?” He pushed up his glasses with his pointer finger. “I heard people talking about the fight you got into with Zaros. Plus,” he stepped to the side to show the unconscious vampire on the bed next to Nikolas. “I'm impressed at the amount of damage you did to him.”
The werewolf tilted his head. “Wait, I thought you went to school with Acchan?”
“I do. I also go to night school to master my magical skills.” He smiled at Nikolas. “He knew that.”
Kazu’s ears pointed up in surprise. “Niky, you knew that?!”
Nikolas raised a brow. “I see him around campus.”
“Enough about me. What’s more important is Akio.”Nikolas went quiet as Ryunosuke continued. “Akio is worried about you. You have to talk to him.”
“After what I did, he probably hates me.”
“Hates you enough to be thinking about you all the time?” Ryunosuke crossed his arms. “I’m with Akio for most of the school day, and you’re clearly on his mind all of the time. Because you’re avoiding him he’s probably going crazy.”
Nikolas scratched the back of his head. He asked timidly, “You think so?”
Ryunosuke took off his glasses and snapped his fingers, controlling a piece of fabric to clean the lens. “For being the heartthrob of Takuya High, you’re clueless about love.”
Nikolas took out a candied beetle from its wrapping and plopped it into his mouth. “I've only dated once.”
Ryunosuke facepalmed. “You’re HOPELESS.” He put his glasses back on. “Kazu is right, you need to face your consequences and talk to Akio.”
“Fine,” Nikolas grumbled. “I’ll go to school and talk to him.”
Kazu gasped. “Are you insane?! You can’t go on campus during the day.”
“Akio managed to go on campus at night,” said Nikolas.
“And he almost died that one day,” Ryunosuke argued.
Nikolas covered his mouth with his fist. “He didn’t die because of me.” His facial expression darkened. “But I did exactly what I didn’t want to do to him…” Nikolas muttered.
Kazu tilted his head and looked at Ryunosuke who was just as confused.
Nikolas pushed the blanket off of him. “What time is it?”
“School ended already, it’s six in the morning,” said Ryunosuke.
“Does day school start soon?”
Ryunosuke shook his head at Nikolas. “Today’s Saturday, so there’s no school.” The wizard’s eyes widened. “Crap, I need to go.”
“Wait, why?” Kazu questioned as Rynosuke gathered his belongings.
“We have a match in a few hours.”
“I’ll come with you,” Nikolas said while getting out of his bed.
“Nikolas, no,” Ryunosuke protested sternly, “You need to talk to him, but not right now. You need to rest.”
Nikolas gave a dark look at Ryunosuke, but he was unfazed. Ryunosuke twirled his finger, tucking the stubborn vampire back into bed before leaving the Nurse’s room.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
