And then blood
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Summary: Kuran Yuuki knew no limits whatsover when it came to the well-being of Cross Kaname. It might as well be the only thing she and Zero had in common, in his opinion. Role Reverse AU, Ancestor!BigSister!BAMF!Yuuki, LittleBrother!Kaname. Multiple POV.
Rated: M. Just in case.
Disclaimer: Not mine
Warning: Vampire Knight is his own warning. Nothing sexual...yet.
Pairings: Kuran Haruka/Kuran Juuri. 'Kuran' Yuuki/Kuran Kaname. Kuran Kaname/Kiryu Zero.
Note: English is not my first langage, and I'm not beta'd (btw, if anyone feels inspired...)
Veeeeery slow burn, arctic even. If you're here only for the romance and/or the smut, I advise you to look somewhere else. Personally I'm here for the character studies, that and to indulge my thirteen-years old self.
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I. Kuran Juuri
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It only took three years, two months and six days of play pretend for Yuuki to finally take upon herself to confront her 'parents'.
"What do you think of this one? This color would so nice on you, Yuuki-chan," Kuran Juuri held the bright yellow coat in front of her, staring critically at the pompeous design.
Her ever so serious child (not a child, not hers) glazed at the coat with an hilarious expression of pure bemusement. As if she couldn't possibly understand how she had ended here and now, arguing over the respective advantages of alpaga versus cashmire (cashmire won. Definitly).
"Juuri-sama, did you bought all...these?" the three-years old made a wide gesture emcompassing the rather impressive display of child-sized coats in various colors, materials and forms, spread all over their sitting room.
Juuri's heart tightened painfully at the usual 'Juri-sama' Yuuki adressed her with. What she would have given for a 'Mother' instead. "Of course not, darling! Suzume-san brought us samples, so we could choose one."
Maybe two. Or three, at the very least. She could have brought the entire shop and all their branches without putting a single strain on their indecent budget anyway, but the ever practical Yuuki would certainly frown of the 'needless expense." As if getting her cute little Yuuki all dressed up in cute outfits wasn't vital to Juri's happiness.
Naturally, they could have gone to the shop directly, but both Juri and Haruka shared similar reluctance to let their daughter out of the relative safety of their home. They would have to relent to peer pression eventually, for neither the Society or even Yuuki herself would tolerate permanent confinement, but until then...
"Why?" her not-daughter stared at her with her intensly crimsom eyes.
"What why?" Juuri repeated with a confused smile. "Winter is coming, you're going to need a coat."
But she knew at the moment she said it that it wasn't what Yuuki had meant. Of course it wasn't. Because Juri wouldn't get to play pretend forever, would she?
"Why this pretense? Why are you bothering with someone like me? I don't...understand."
Why indeed? After all, the one Haruka and she called their daughter had killed their actual son. Torn apart little Yuuki's soft skin with her ravenous fangs, devorated her baby's flesh and blood and left a cadaver of her newly born and only child. Destroyed Juri's heart, hope and love.
God, how much she had wanted anihilate her child's murderer. But, may her beloved son forgive her for her weakness, she couldn't. The ancestor Kuran Yuuki, in her forced newly-born form looked too much like him. A carbon copy, with her baby's milky white skin, button mouth, and the eyes. The deep purple orbs of pureblood Kuran, and Juuri, even at the peak of her grieving fury, couldn't.
She understood of course, from an intellectual point of view, that none of this was Lady Yuuki's fault, who, in a sick kind of way, was as much a victim of Rido's schemes as her own son. But it wasn't the reason why they had spared her, nor why they went as far as to actually adopt their baby's murderer.
To Juri's sick and broken heart, a poor mockery of a child, even one directly responsable for her firstborn's desmise, was still better than no child at all. And Haruka loved his wife too much not to indulge her self-destructive desires.
"I'm a selfish woman, Yuuki" the Kuran pureblood softly confessed, because that was the bold, cruel truth, and at the very least, she owed it to Yuuki, the not-child she had come to love as her own despite basic common sense.
A unexpected giggle broke Juuri from her usual circle of self-pity. She stared at her daughter with huge, unbelieving eyes. Yuuki was laughing. As in, truly, indisputably, having tears and almost-rolling-on-the-floor laughing. Yuuki never laughed.
"I'm...I'm sorry!" the three years old struggled to keep her hilarity under control. "But that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"
...Ridiculous? Really? Juuri wasn't sure to understand what was going with Yuuki, but she could recognize a breakdown when she saw one. And as the last three years had proven, Juri was very good at playing along and going with the flow.
"Yuuki-chan," the 'older' Kuran gratified her cackling daughter with an obviously fake pout as she put her hands on her hips. "Are you mocking my pain?"
The small brunette's frail shoulders shook with renewed mirth, and Juri revealed in Yuuki's pure access of frantic joy. "Pl...please!" she begged for mercy between two crisis of laughter. "Okaa-sama, no more!"
There. That was it, she was going to cry, because even a thousands years old vampire had limits, and she had just reached her. Her heart missed several beats, and her blood sang.
She did not cry.
"And for that, young lady, we are going to take the pink one," Juuri took a truly horrifying coat from the pile, with more frills than any kind of decent cloth should ever have.
She would keep Yuuki's flash of pure disgust close to her heart forever. The commerating picture too.
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Here's what no history books would tell you about the esteemed Kuran Yuuki: she hated mathematics with the fierce fervor she usually reserved for raw tomatoes and big insects. And Rido .
"Look, it's not that complicated, Yuu-chan," Juuri called for all her meager reserve of patience as she pointed out the equation with her pen. "if you divide by six here..."
A sullen-looking four years old nodded along without any conviction. She was acting more like a child at that instant all the previous four years combinated. Any other time the adorably rare sight of her pouting face would send Juuri into motherly hysterics, if she wasn't currently trying teach something, dammit.
"You're not even trying," the self-appointed math teacher frowned at her inattentive daughter.
The thing was, Juuri really wasn't made of teaching material. She lacked the necessary and almost godlike patience requiered to impart knowledge to cute but stubborn little heads. Unlike Haruka, who had more wisdom in his little toe than his impulsive wife in her whole body. He had gracefully taken over japonese (which apparently had quite evolved in the last few thousand years, who would have guess?), english,vampire and human History, geography, economics...leaving to Juri the dreadful mathematics duty.
To be fair, she had asked for it. Juuri always had a head for numbers, which might as well be the only academic advantage she had against her nerdy husband. But how could she have know of all courses Yuuki hated maths the most? She was doing just fine, spendidly even when Haruka was doing the teaching.
Not. Fair.
"I am!" Yuuki protested, before smiling sheepishly. "I mean, I'm sorry. I really don't like maths. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Can I go read with Oto-sama instead, please?"
Juuri was not jealous of her own husband. She wasn't. "Yuuki, this is important."
"Is it?" Yuuki replied with huge eyes full of polite curiosity.
If Juuri red between the line, that 'is it?' would translate into 'well I did survive at least five time your lifetime without solving a single equation, so maths can't be that important, right?', and Juuri couldn't find anything to counter the argument.
"I'm sorry," her daughter quickly added with a genuine remorse, as she often did when she defied her 'parents' authority in any ways. Very odd, taking into account technically speaking, she was indeed far more older than both their lifespans cumulated. "I'm not really a...science person."
Juuri could concur on that point. Yuuki was many things, but a scientist she was not. More of a people person. She could leave her daughter alone in a closed room with hostile strangers, and in no time she would have them warped around her tiny finger, her adorably devious politician. Theorically speaking of course, since Yuuki had hardly left the house yet, even less on her own.
"Fine," Juuri sighed with good-natured resignation. "One more exercice, and you can go pester your father."
Yuuki's beam might as well outshine the sun from where Juuri was standing.
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When she was only ten years old, Juuri had been gifted by her father a tresor she would cherish her whole life: a chess set who had belonged to her Ancestor Kuran Ai, second Head of the Kuran family and first Vampire Queen. Though the wooden pieces held more value than a huge estate, at the time Juuri would have adored a spoon if she had been told Queen Ai had used it once.
As a child she had grown a rather unhealthy fascination for her Ancestor, a strong and brilliant woman who had united a world in complete chaos under her banner almost singlehandly. Vampires, humans, even hunters alike had recognized her amazing leadership and made her Queen. Even her fellow Purebloods had bowed to her.
Kuran Ai, from a young Juuri's mind, eager for female rôle models, had been the coolest person to ever grace this Earth.
She had learned to play chess for the only purpose to get closer to her idol. She played often with her parents, or Haruka. Not Rido, though. Even then, her older brother played dirty. With time her obsession settled down for casual admiration, but she kept the precious chess set close to her in memento of her childhood crush of sort. She played with Haruka once in a while for old time's sake, and usually destroyed him. Haruka might be more patient, probably smarter than she was, but her peace-loving darling brother simply lacked the will to anihilate his enemy, while Juuri had those in spare.
It belonged to her now, as full of fond memories than her marriage ring or her mother's favorite books, on display in her bedchambers. And it never occured to her than it might mean something for Yuuki too.
"Oh," her daughter breathed, startled as she stared at the ancient set displayed on Juuri's vanity. "I remember this chess set."
Oh. Juori was so unbelievely stupid sometimes.
"It was Ai's," Juuri babbled out loud, as she tended to when nervous. Haruka never failed to mock her for that, the prat. "My father passed it down to me."
"She got it from her father," Yuuki whispered sadly.
Juuri froze. Kuran Kaname, Ai's father.
The relashionship between 'Kuran' Yuuki and Kuran Kaname remained one of the most fascinating and controversed mystery of the Pureblood history. Historian and experts alike had shed tears of blood and torn apart each others trying to resolve that giant blackhole in vampire history. If all agreed that Kuran Kaname had been the one to found their House, thus making him the first Kuran per say, and that his only daughter Ai had succeeded to him as Head of the Kuran and Queen of Vampires, the exact nature of Lady Yuuki's implication remained unknown, and the subject of many speculations over the years. Add to that the very strange death of Kaname under equaly mysterious circumstances, and the curiosity around Lady Yuuki's actual identity took epic proportions. The fact vampires had plenty of time to loose didn't help.
One of the most popular and commonly recognized theory painted her as Kaname's wife, and thus as Ai's mother. Some even claimed she had been his sister, therefore opening the ball to Pureblood's life-long tradition of inner-breeding.
However, plenty of 'evidence' tended to go otherwise. According to many experts on the subject, Lady Yuuki had met Kaname for the first time after he had had Ai. Which didn't disregard of a possible relashionship between her and the Kuran foundator, and with Ai as a mother figure. Some even brought up the theory of Yuuki acting as Ai's consort, instead of her father's.
And for course, regarding Kuran Kaname's still unkown cause of death, speculations ran wild with fantasy. Romantic sacrifice for his beloved, cold-blooded murder, betrayal of giant proportions, revolution attempts, every possible scenario had been said, written, painted, sang and in one sad mistake of vampire recent musical history, rapped. Never again.
A preposterous theory even claimed Kaname had given his heart to the Hunters in order to create weapons against vampires, but no one with half-wit believed that non-sense, aside from senile hunters.
One thing they did know about Kuran Yuuki would be the utmost respect Kuran Ai had treated her with, weither as a mother figure, actual mother, lover or fellow conspirator. She had been one of the Queen's most trusted advisors, if not the most trusted, and when she had decided into go into Sleep, she had been granted a place to rest into the Kuran Manor, guarded by their most devoted and talented servants. As a Kuran, she had Slep for centuries with the honour of the most prestigious name Vampire Society could offer.
And then, Rido.
"Do you play?" Yuuki interrupted Juuri's musing without removing her eyes for the chess set.
"I do," she admitted with a tight smile. "You too?"
Juuri could picture it perfectly. A grown up Yuuki, beautiful and sly playing against a dark-haired man with sad purple eyes, or a determined young woman with long curvy hair. Or her cute little Yuuki, utterly destroying Haruka, either because she was better or her soft-hearted husband let her win.
"Me?" Yuuki laughed without few mirth. "I'm an awful player."
They would have to agree on disagreeing on that account.
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"You want me to go on a playdate?" Yuuki blinked adorably over her cereals, torn between incredulity and horror, with a spice of what Juuri liked to interpret as excitement.
Yes, she did. Juuri wanted Yuuki to meet new people who didn't happen to be closely related to her. To have fun, instead of berate herself for the past or faults she was not responsable of. To make true friends of her own, to be loved because she deserved it more than anyone.
Hence, a playdate. After five years of 'raising' Yuuki, she knew better than say it that way. Her child was oddly sensitive about those matters.
"Well we can't keep you locked up forever, darling," Juuri smiled slyly as she leant on her elbows. "And Takuma-kun is an adorable child!"
"Takuma-kun?" Yuuki repeated, unconvinced.
"Ichijo Takuma-kun," Haruka provided helpfully in response to his daughter's suspicious glance. "Concilman Ichijou's grandson."
Yuuki's frown didn't lessen in the slightest. "But you hate Ichio."
"I do not hate him," Haruka denied. "I'm just...wary of his political views."
Well, Juuri sure did hate the old geezer. Hard to appreciate an old man starring at you like you were a rare piece of meat. And his efforts to constantly but discreetly reduce Purebloods' influence had not escaped her notice. If he disliked them so much, he should have at least the gut to speak out loud, instead of plotting in the dark. And his daughter, Takuma's mother was no better than her genitor. Juuri had no idea how she could have given life to such an adorable cinnamon roll.
"You want me to spy on him?" Yuuki bit into her spoon full of cereals. She sure did take to that human food.
"Not spy per say," her brother shook his head. "But Ichio proposed a meeting between the two of you, and we thought we might as well kill two birds with one stone. Since you will have to socialize at one point anyway."
Yuuki looked prettily confused at the human expression, before she moved on.
"Takuma-kun is a very nice boy," Haruka kept going. "And if you could befriend him, it might help our cause. But if you don't wish to, you don't have to force yourself, Yuuki..."
"It's fine," she interrupted her 'father', her cheeks swollen with food. Juri had to physically restrain herself from pinching them frenetically. "I'll do it. And once I'm done with your Takuma-kun, he will be eating in my palm."
Oooooh yeah. That attitude right there? That was her girl.
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Predictably, Yuuki held true to her word. Takumi left their 'meeting', as she insisted to call their playdate, with stars into his huge chibi-like eyes and about a thousand compliments about 'Yuuki-sama' to spread to the world. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunatly, Yuuki ended 'eating into his palm' as much as he did in hers. Despite her thousands years of experience, she was not immune to the 'adorbs'.
"He's sooooo nice," her little girl whined pitifully, her head burried into Juuri's lap. "It should be illegal to be this cute!"
Yuuki couldn't see it from her current point of view, but Juuri was nodding hard at that statement. Story of her life, really. "Too good for this world," she added wisely.
"Exactly," Yuuki sighed and snuggled more closely.
Smilling contently, Juuri ran her hand over her daughter's small and vulnerable back, soothing invisble scars with loving caresses.
"You had fun then?" she asked softly after Yuuki had grown entirely lump with satisfaction in her arms.
"I guess I did," Yuuki admitted in a barely noticeable murmur. "It felt...nice to play like a child again. In a way."
Which, in the end, was all Juuri wanted for Yuuki.
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One playdate turned into two, then three, four, five.
And soon enough, once the word that little Takuma had been allowed to meet the elusive Kuran Princess had spread to the entire vampire community, everyone wanted a piece of her. Alongside her parents, Yuuki was showered with invitations to playdates, tea parties, concerts, balls, basket-ball matches...
"I'm half tented by this one," Juuri snorted with amusement at the orange and rond shaped card.
"What is backet-ball, okaa-sama?" Yuuki perked up with curiosity, and of course Juuri just had to explain to her baby the beauty of collective sports.
Haruka ignored their antics. Party-killer. "I'm thinking going to Aido's soirée."
"Aido Nagamichi? Why not," Juuri mused out loud. Their family had always been on Pureblood's side, and particulary loyal to the Kuran. Plus, the party wouldn't lack for children. "What do you think Yuuki-chan?"
She turned her head from the basket-ball-shaped invitation only to shruggle at Juuri's eager smile. "What you think is best, Okaa-sama."
Which wasn't a enthusiastic response, but Juuri would take what she got. As much as she enjoyed watching her daughter interact with other muckins-sized cuties, she should not forget that unlike children, Yuuki was an actual adult who might not particulary have fun making mud cake and playing Hunter and Vampire.
Plus, Yuuki had not left the house since her 'birth'. Juuri had assumed she might be dying to finally leave her confinement, but perhaps she did not felt confortable going outside the manor. And who was Juuri to force her anyway, only her distant descendant playing mother to fill the void in her vacent existance...
"Takuma-kun will probably be there," Haruka added with knowing glance in his wife's direction.
Yuuki immediatly perked up with renewed attention. "Oh, alright then."
Juuri took a moment from her silent self-pity party to thank whatever deity put Haruka in her life. She honestly had no idea how she would function without him, even less be a responsible adult.
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"Do you want to be friends?" Yuuki asked to the cute little blond kid.
Next to Juri, who to that point was all but vibrating with excitement, the boy's father tensed at her daughter's adorable question.
"NO!" little Aido screamed, cheeks puffing with indignation.
Wow. Right. If he hadn't been a five years who didn't know better, Juri would have desintagrated the offender by now. How dared he reject her baby's proposal in friendship? Did he not realized of precious her offer was?
Aido senior made a move to intervene, most likely to correct his blood and flesh upon his terrible manners. Haruka, clearly amused by the situation, put his arm in front of the noble. "Let's see how this turns out," he whispered with a small smile to his mortified host.
And everyone just assumed Haruka was the nice one.
"Oh. Why not?" Yuuki blinked and tilted her head to the side with polite confusion.
"I don't like you!"
'Do not kill the child', Juuri had to remind herself. 'Do not kill the child. Even if he's being extremely rude and ungrateful, and should be kissing the ground your princess stood on instead of insulting her.'
"I see," Yuuki sighed, before her pout evolved into a mischevellious grin. "I guess I will just have to make you."
And then she plunged towards the child. Aido senior gasped in fear, as if he genually believed her daughter would have murdered his only son in plain view.
"Aaah, let me go!" little Aido whined, trying to free himself from Yuuki's firm hold. "You're crazy!"
So. Cute. What Juuri wouldn't have given to be in his place right now. Or to have a camera available. Useful invention, camera. Especially to keep track of embarrassing moments forever.
"Hm, I don't know, do you like me yet?" Yuuki grinned at her parents, her head pressed atop of her victim's, keeping him locked within her arms in spite of the boy's furious wiggling.
"Nooooo!"
"Then I cannot release you!"
And now Juuri had to restrain herself from rolling on the floor laughing instead of murdering the brat. She was ready to forgive him his attitude since somehow, his thoughtless rejection had managed to pulvarize Yuuki out of her shell of indifference. What a troll, that child. Juri couldn't be any prouder of her progeny. Potential ascendance. Whatever.
"Yuuki," Haruka finally took pity of the Head of Aido Family and called out his rebellious daughter. "Non-consensual hugging is not how you make friends."
"Is it not? I wouldn't know!" Yuuki chukled happily, before releasing the smallest vampire from her hold.
Freed unexpectedly from his tormentor's clutches, Aido junior took a few steps, turned around to check if Yuuki wasn't going to 'attack' him with her womanly viles again, then ran to his father. "Ooootooo-saaamaaa!"
"Hanabusa," Aido senior put his hand on his son's shoulder with a severe look, which clearly wasn't the reaction the child had been expecting from his usually doting parent. "How could you be so rude to Yuuki-hime? Appologize immediatly!"
"No need, it is I who was at fault," Yuuki faked repentance while cheerfully walking back in her parents' direction. "My bad, Hana-chan!"
"Ha...Hana-chan?" Hana-chan tried valiantly to hold back his tears in front of the enemy. "I'm not a girl!"
"Oh, I noticed, worry not. Well, since Hana-chan doesn't want to be my friend, can we go?" and then she proceeded to drag both Juuri and Haruka by the hand. "By, Hana-chan!"
If this wasn't the start of a beautiful friendship, Juuri would eat her hand.
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To be honest, Juuri was not happy, not really. The memory of her dear child haunted her nights and her days faithfully. The knowlegde that Rido and whoever else had been involved in her innocent son's murdered might still roam free, unpunished, put a bitter taste to her joys. And still, the latent threat of the Concil against their kind hung over their head.
Not really, Juuri could not say she was happy. But, thanks to Haruka, and to Yuuki, she was...okay.
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"Okaa-sama," a five-years old Yuuki stared at her midsection with wonder.
Juri put her hand on her belly. A tiny, uneven, barely noticable heartbeat.
"Oh," she breathed as her own heart skiped a beat.
Another child.
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AN: Just to clarify, in this AU it was Kaname who gave his heart to the Hunter instead of the Hooded woman. Therefore this Yuuki IS the Hooded woman. This is mostly based on a theory I had when I red the manga, and I was like 'this chick looks exactly like Yuuki, is Yuuki her reincarnation or something?' Turned out she wasn't, but the idea stuck. Also, I really needed a badass Yuuki in my life.
Those who have read other stories of mine know I have a VERY erratic updating pattern. Just so you guys know.
Please leave a review on your way out, they are always appreciated!