Chapter Text
“Hey, quack, hurry up! Or do you want to be kicked out on your very first day at Zuttomo?”
Vanitas shot his friend an angry glare but picked up his pace nonetheless.
“Please, like they are gonna boot me just for being late once. And whose fault was it that I overslept?! Next time you have problems with that girlfriend of yours, DO NOT call me in tears at 3 AM, baldy!”
“First of all, I’m not bald,” Dante snapped, trying his best to keep his skirt from being raised by the April wind while also dragging behind a small case with his belongings. Vanitas would’ve laughed at him if he wasn’t facing the same problem. Who the hell designed these uniforms? It was virtually impossible to walk in them without one’s private parts being exposed by the slightest movement of air. “I thought now that you’ve finally gotten glasses you’d see that. Secondly, Riche is not my girlfriend. Thirdly, I WASN’T CRYING, YOU MORON!”
Vanitas snickered. “Right, and I’m the Queen of England. Also, you know full well that I don’t need glasses, baldy. It’s for disguise.” He would have preferred to go without them, but Luna insisted that “extra security measures” were necessary, and he begrudgingly agreed. The braid, on the other hand, was definitely an overkill. At least I won’t have to wear a wig, Vanitas thought, glancing sideways at Dante’s ridiculous hairdo. This mission was going to be a disaster. What on Earth possessed him to agree to this clownery? They were so gonna be outed as guys in drag by the first student or teacher with functioning eyes. Vanitas would bet his lunch money on it.
“Like you’d need a disguise to look like a girl. Nature has already done its job, there’s nothing to add to that. Quack,” Dante said, desperately trying to keep his ginger wig in place.
Vanitas gritted his teeth. “Would you stop with the ‘quack’ already? I could break every bone in your body while naming each one of them, and you know that.”
“So you agree you look like a girl,” Dante teased, maintaining a safe distance just in case. Vanitas wanted to slap him, but they were almost at the school gates, so he had to suppress that urge for now. “Be on your best behaviour,” Luna instructed, while hurriedly helping him pack for school that morning. “We don’t need any incidents. This mission is very important.” As if he didn’t know that.
Zuttomo Private Academy was a very expensive school founded by a mysterious director who was yet to be seen at the premises. Getting “Blue Moon”’s agents enrolled there was no easy task, and keeping their place at the academy was crucial. According to an anonymous source, Zuttomo harbored a very important secret about the vampire queen. That’s why the youngest agents of the organization - those being Vanitas and Dante - had been chosen as infiltrators.
“Do we have to be in drag, though?” was Vanitas’s first question when his superior-turned-legal-guardian, Luna, briefed them on their mission. Why couldn’t they just be enrolled as themselves? Or at least under fake names, but as boys. That would save them a lot of trouble in the future.
“You will need access to the girls’ dormitory,” Luna answered, completely unphased. “That way you’ll have more opportunities to investigate the queen’s secret.”
Amazing plan. Put two teenage boys in drag to live in the girls’ dorm for however long it would take them to complete the mission. Very carefully thought out. Absolutely nothing could go wrong with that idea.
Vanitas sighed dramatically, looking at the massive gates of Zuttomo Academy. Well, they couldn’t turn back now. As ridiculous as it sounded, it was still a mission, and as the agents of “Blue Moon” they had to see it through.
The school yard was completely empty. There wasn’t a single student under the trees, on the benches, or around the large golden fountain that stood right in the middle of it. Dante smacked himself on the forehead.
“I told you we were gonna be late! Now-”
“You are, indeed, rather tardy. Explain yourselves, young ladies.”
Vanitas and Dante immediately turned on their heels. The cold, authoritative voice behind them belonged to a tall, elegantly dressed man with long black hair. He looked at the boys expectantly, arms crossed, right leg tapping impatiently on the stone-paved walkway. “Well?”
Vanitas braced himself. What a waste of my acting skills, he thought bitterly, before giving the man (what he hoped was) a shy smile.
“W-we are sorry!” Ugh, having to use that high-pitched voice was just as bad as wearing the girls’ uniform. Luna owed him a big one for this. “There was a traffic jam on the highway, we were stuck in it for ages! And then we got lost while looking for the school. We promise we won’t be late again!”
The way Dante’s jaw dropped at the act that Vanitas put on was almost worth the humiliation; key word being almost. He still wasn’t sure how he was going to survive even one day like that, let alone live at the academy for what, a week? two weeks? months? Vanitas swore to himself that as soon as he got back home he would burn his Zuttomo Academy’s girls’ uniform in a trashcan. If only he knew when that was going to happen.
The man watched him curiously, weighing his words. “So you two are our new transfer students.”
Give this guy a Nobel Prize, Vanitas thought, while trying to keep that stupid smile on. He had to admit that wearing glasses was not a bad idea after all. At least they somewhat obscured his eyes.
“Y-yes, sir! I’m Vanitas Suzuki, and this is Dante Ito. We are in class 3-B.”
The man nodded, shifting his focus from Vanitas to Dante. “My name is Olivier Kujou, I am your World History teacher. Since you are new here, we will not put your tardiness today on your record, but try not to be late in the future. School rules are the same for everyone.”
“Thank you so much!” Vanitas chirped, mentally gagging at his own voice. This better end soon.
“Oh, and one more thing. Boys are supposed to wear clothes that are in line with our dress code.”
Vanitas had to resist the urge to facepalm after hearing those words. He fucking knew it. This was the most absurd, preposterous, foolish plan to ever exist, and he warned them, didn’t he? What a way to-
“Mr Ito, I believe you can ask for a spare change of standard boys’ uniform at the custodian’s office. I will accompany you there, and after that you are going to give me a detailed explanation on why you felt the need to disguise yourself as a girl,” Olivier said nonchalantly, then looked back at Vanitas. “Ms Suzuki, you can proceed to your class.”
Dante’s face looked like he didn’t know whether to be upset that his cover was blown so easily or to laugh at his partner turning redder by the second. He went for the first option, which was a good call because Vanitas felt like strangling someone. Calm down, he told himself. Be happy that your cover was not blown. This is how it was supposed to go. Remember the mission. He just hoped that the teacher attributed his flushed face to shyness, not indignation.
“Y-yes, Mr Kujou!”
***
It seemed like Vanitas’s first day at school was going to get only worse from there. At least, that’s what he thought, trying unsuccessfully to find his biology class. What was this building, Hogwarts? Why was everything stacked against him that crappy morning?
Mumbling obscenities under his breath, Vanitas turned around the corner and immediately felt his body impact with something warm and heavy. Looking up from where he fell on the floor, he recognised the sudden obstacle as a fellow student.
“S-sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going. Silly me,” Vanitas apologized, fixing his glasses and skirt.
The guy he bumped into was half a head shorter than him, with light pink, almost white hair that reached just below his ears. When he turned around, Vanitas noticed that he had surprisingly feminine features - big yellow eyes rimmed with long, fair eyelashes, a petite nose. If he wasn’t wearing the boys’ uniform, Vanitas would have mistaken him for a girl. The picture was only spoiled by a piece of bread in the other guy’s mouth.
‘School rules are the same for everyone’ was what that teacher said, right? Apparently not, because Vanitas could name at least three rules that this other student was breaking. One, he was not in class during the first period. Two, he was wearing sneakers instead of shoes. Three, as soon as he finished his piece of bread, he lifted Vanitas from the floor and pressed him to the wall.
Are you kidding me? You’re not even tall enough to try and kabedon me like that, Vanitas thought with irritation. Keeping his girly act was proving harder and harder with every moment he spent in this goddamn school, and he was there for not even ten minutes yet.
“W-what are you doing? I’ve already apologized!” It would have been much easier to simply punch the other guy, but Vanitas didn’t want to get in trouble on his first day of school. Their (arguably, extremely stupid) plan of inflitartion had already gone off the rails, and the last thing he wanted was to ruin it further. He tried to squirm out of the guy’s grip but fell still when he noticed that his offender’s eyes weren’t bright gold anymore. They were glowing red.
A vampire. A hungry vampire.
Before Vanitas could even react, razor sharp fangs pierced his right shoulder, right at the juncture with his neck. He winced at the initial pain from the bite, but the discomfort dissolved quickly, giving way to a much more pleasant sensation. That’s the effect of this vampire's poison, he recalled from his studies on the subject, and then felt heat spread all over his face as he remembered something else. Something that was much more embarrassing and, unfortunately, very relevant to his current predicament.
Some vampires’ poison had an effect similar to that of an aphrodisiac, and apparently, that was the case with this one.
This can’t be happening, Vanitas thought, trying his best to keep the vampire, who was pressed against him very tightly, from noticing his situation. Sadly, he couldn’t exactly melt into the wall, or dissolve in the air. At this rate I’m gonna be exposed, too, Vanitas thought with horror. On the other hand, screw his cover. He was NOT going to be manhandled like that.
Slap!
The vampire weakened his hold but still didn’t let go even after an indignant palm met with his cheek. Seeing no other option, Vanitas pressed his hands into the guy’s chest and pushed as hard as he could. He was extremely surprised when his fingers came in contact with mush... softer flesh than he expected, given the vampires’ overall lean figure. That seemed to work, and the stranger stepped back. His face was flushed, and for a moment Vanitas saw a flash of terror in his eyes, but it was soon gone. Instead, he stared at the taller boy with a mix of curiosity and amusement.
Vanitas also studied the vampire much more carefully than before. Feminine features that he took notice of before he was attacked by their owner; a chest binder under the boy’s uniform that didn’t quite succeed in hiding the softness of unmistakably female breasts; and, now that he thought about it, no trace of an Adam’s apple...
The “guy” was definitely a girl. What an interesting turn of events!
Meanwhile, the vampire kept staring at Vanitas, blushing furiously. A few moments later she seemed to compose herself and leaned over the boy confidently, a sly smile on her face. Or tried to, since their height difference was obviously not in her favor.
“Be my food,” she said, lightly tipping Vanitas’s chin up with her fingers, her lips only a breath away from his. Now it was Vanitas’s turn to stare. Surely he’d misheard her?..
“Excuse you?” Was all he was able to supply. ‘Food’? Who even says that to someone they just met? She couldn’t possibly be serious, right?
“I really like the taste of your blood,” the girl replied, brushing her index finger over the bite mark on Vanitas’s shoulder, making him hiss in response. “Be my food. Property. Whatever you call it.”
Vanitas remembered that he was supposed to act girly. After all, he couldn’t let his emotions get in the way of the mission, even though he would have loved nothing more than to deck the vampire and keep looking for that damned class.
“I couldn’t possibly! Please don’t say such embarrassing things!” He tried to brush past the girl, but her next sentence made him stop in his tracks.
“If you refuse, I’ll tell everyone that you’re a guy.”
Vanitas looked at her in shock. Instead of words, she simply dropped her gaze; a faint blush returned on her face, though it was gone as quickly as it appeared. He didn’t need to follow the direction of her eyes to know what she meant by that.
Think, Vanitas. So one person at the academy knew his secret. However, she wasn’t a teacher, and more importantly, he knew something just as valuable about her. The question was, was he going to use that leverage now, or keep it for later? Vanitas looked back at the girl. At least, he thought she was female, but what if he was mistaken? For one, her voice sounded convincing enough to pass for a guy... He’d need to get definitive proof before making any allegations.
“Fine.” There was no need to pretend now, and Vanitas was grateful for the breather for his vocal cords, even if its cost was giving away his identity. He was tempted to threaten her back, but he’d already decided to wait for later. Let her think that he didn’t know her secret until he was 100% sure of it and ready to use it. “I’ll be your ‘food’. Maybe at least tell me your name?”
The girl grinned, obviously pleased with her (temporary) victory. “Jean Sasaki.”
“Nice to meet you, Jean.” Hopefully she picked up the sarcasm in his voice. “I’m Vanitas Suzuki.”
With that, he pushed past Jean and went off to find the nearest bathroom. Biology class could wait; he had more important things to take care of.
***
When Vanitas got to his dorm room at the end of that cursed day, he plopped onto his bed, leaving his unpacked case lying on the floor. He was supposed to live there with Dante for the duration of the school year, but since the latter was outed as a guy and put into the boys’ dormitory instead, he now had it all to himself. It was spacious and newly renovated; nothing like the room he shared with Misha back at Luna’s house. He absolutely hated how empty, soulless it looked.
Vanitas lay on his back, watching at the recently whitewashed ceiling, thinking about the events of the day. He’d rather die than admit it out loud, but he was happy that Dante wasn’t expelled; although that meant that he alone now had unlimited access to the girls’ dorm even if they were supposed to work on the case together. He was also partly glad that he wouldn’t have to look at Dante’s terrible disguise. Which reminded him…
Jean.
Vanitas wondered what made her enroll in the academy as a guy. From what he gathered, she wasn’t new there, yet no one he’d overheard seemed to realise she was a girl. Were they all blind or something? Where did they see a guy that pretty-
Woah, hold on, Vanitas scolded himself. Where did that thought even come from? What he meant was it was remarkable that no one had figured her out till now. If she was a girl, of course. Vanitas was already convinced that she was, but he still needed to find a way to ascertain that without causing problems for himself.
Suddenly, a plan appeared in his head, and Vanitas smiled. “We’ll see very soon who’s really going to be the ‘food’, Jeanne.”