•This is Real• [Diabolik Lovers × Male! OC]

Chapter 10: I believe I can fly

Itchy, restless, bored, all the emotions I felt as I watched the seconds slowly tick away in last period.

It had been a solid two and a half months since the brothers came to live with me and a solid two and a half months since I had done any of my 'regular' excercise. I could practically feel my body getting more sluggish from the lack of training.

I like to free run, from sundown to dusk and then some burgers. Ever since the brothers arrived Ive barely had the chance with all the babysitting I had to do with them.

Living with six hot vampires isn't as good as it sounds when they all act like 5 year old instead if 500 something years old, or however old those pedophile are. As much as I empathized with them, so far only Subaru and Ayato have partially earned my trust.

They both seem to regard me as equals or, in Ayato's case, good enough. However, I can't say the same for the others.

Reiji still terrifies me and Shu and I just doesn't talk much apart from the naps in my bed. Despite the countless tea parties I've had since the purple-haired one of the twins entered my life, he was still bipolar as heck and being with him was like walking on eggshells and Laito was Laito.

So as the bell finally rung, signalling the end of the school day and the end of the last semester of our year (Japanese year), I hauled my bag over my shoulder and dashed off after a quick bow to the teacher. "Have fun! Don't stay out overnight again!!" Luke yelled like the mom he was.

Not that I'd listen.

I rushed home, dashing past the boys who just stepped out of their limo, and nyoomed upstairs.

I shut the door and stripped as I wobbled to my closet. Hopping on one leg, I threw my trousers into the hamper and pulled out sone running leggings and a loose dryfit t-shirt.

A drawstring bag held my phone, earpieces, towel and water bottle as I practically slid down the banister, nearly barreling into a few of the brothers. I yelled a quick apology before slipping on my running shoes, grabbing my keys and dashing out the front door.

Key in the ignition, I stepped on my pedals and revved up my bike before speeding off, maybe kinda sorta going a teensy bit over the speed limit.

City lights faded into cedar trees as the afternoon slowly sunk before me, casting an orange-pink glow over the beaten asphalt that slowly turned into winding, dirt-filled paths.

I'd done this trip so many times it was practically instinct when I turned that final bend.

A small, dusty carpark next to a sea of small and tall trees alike. The shadow they cast were eerie yet inviting.

I kicked down the bike stand and turned the bike off. I grabbed the tarp from the trunk and draped it over the vehicle, fastening it securely before leaving the bundle behind in the desolate parking lot. Walking past a giant oak which had a worn carving on its shortest branch and a stone that was somehow atop a fallen tree trunk, the walk was off the beaten path and yet my feet seemed to know where to go.

My hideaway, my secret spot or hiding place if you will. The one place where the rest of the world didn't matter, where I felt covered by the shade of the leaves and the chill of the breeze.

Brushing my hands over the bark of a leafless tree, I gripped a worn branch tightly, hauling myself up as my feet gained traction against the rough bark. I climbed higher and higher, using every branch, nook and cranny as leverage to pull myself up the tree. Finally I reached the canopy.

I wasn't too high up, maybe four to five meters or so, nothing that would really kill me, not that I'd ever really fallen from this height.

I took off my bag, grabbing my phone and earbuds before hanging the bag on a branch. I tied it tightly and slid down the tree.

Happy with how the bag was hidden, I grabbed a jagged rock off the ground and scraped a stripe in the tree bark, dropping the stone right below it. Then I went off.

The ground was sandy, bumpy and obstacle ridden but I loved it. Every tree root and stump was a hurdle while every boulder and empty park bench was an opportunity to practice my vaulting. The euphoric feeling of the mid-spring chill running its fingers through my hair as my cheeks grew rosy from my exertion and the tickling wind.

I ran and ran with bated breath, the irony of the situation making me laugh. I hated running. Every physical fitness test I had I would never be able to do the long run without complaining endlessly. Whether it was the repetitiveness of the movement or simply the lack of changing scenery in those twenty over rounds of the track, I hated proper running. And yet here I was, feeling absolutely amazing while adreneline flowed through me. I felt like that one R. Kelly song.

So I continued. Every landmark flying by in a blur as I encircled the gigantic woodland.

The however many kilometers I ran seemed to go by in seconds as the next thing I knew I was standing by that gash in the tree, my phone ticking 10:34pm and a pale face looking down at me from the branch I hung my bag on.

"Laito?!"