Seraph Of The Stars

Prologue

"Yuu-chan, wake up!"

Yuichiro turned over on his hard mattress, groaning. His friend Mikaela rubbed small circles in Yuu's back, coaching him to wake up. 

"We need to get up early in order to get the best provisions, right Yuu-chan?"

"No... Go by yourself..." Yuu groaned.

"But it might be dangerous. What if a sith vampire tries to eat me? Oh, I'd be so alone and vulnerable..." Mikaela made a dramatic pose and glanced at Yuu do see if he was watching.

Yuu sat up and got out of the bed. "Okay, fine. I'm coming."

Mikaela beamed. He always knew just how to get Yuu to do what he wanted.

***

The two friends, along with their 'sister' Akane, came back from the provisions center, full and cheery. Mikaela held the provisions for the rest of his family, while Akane told jokes and Yuu occasionally tripped on his feet. The sky of the Sith planet Korriban was rust-colored, a dank breeze wafting through the children's hair. Sith vampires wandered around, some casting lustful glances in the direction of the three friends' bared necks. Whenever this occurred, Akane would shudder and pull up her collar, and Mika would hold the boxes of provisions so that Yuu's neck could not be seen.

Halfway through the stroll toward the children's 'home', Mikaela stopped and handed the rations to Yuu. He hugged Akane quickly and began to run off.

"H-Huh? Where are you going?" Yuu called behind him.

Mikaela turned and waved to Yuu, then disappeared behind a building. Yuu groaned.

"That idiot... He's always going off somewhere without telling," Yuu complained.

"I wonder where he goes off to every day..." Akane thought aloud.

There was silence between the two remaining children as they contemplated the meaning of Mika's disappearances. 

"So, you hear about the tree who drank too much root beer?" Akane asked, breaking the ice suddenly.

"Yeah, yeah, he got trunk. We all know that one, Akane," Yuu said, disillusioned, as he punched his friend in the arm.

***

"Thank you for the meal," the Hyakuyas chorused. The younger children loved to say it. It brought them hope. Yuu found the tradition pointless at this point of his life, but he was just an itchy kid, so no one listened to him. The family dug into Akane's homemade curry, a favorite of theirs.

"Where's Mika-kun?" Kota piped up halfway through the meal. Akane shrugged in reply.

Yuu groaned. He wanted Mika to come back. Mika was the only sane thing here on Korriban. Mika was warm, and shined, and always smiled and smelled like honeysuckle. Yuu would go insane without Mika. He probably would have killed himself if Mika hadn't welcomed Yuu into the Hyakuya family. If Mika hadn't let Yuu cry on his shoulders and hadn't let Yuu hug him until they went to sleep.

Mika... That beautiful, blond creep. Yuu hoped that wherever Mika had gone off to, he was safe.

Without warning, the door to the Hyakuyas' bunker creaked open. Yuu and Akane got to their feet. Akane threw herself in front of her sibling, while Yuu more or less crawled into a tiny ball.

"Miss me, everyone? Yuu-chan?" Mikaela asked. Yuu jumped up.

"I wasn't panicking! It was a position of self-defense!"