Disclaimer: I do not own VK, but I wish I did.

Author's Note: I decided to write a medical fic; after four seasons of watching House M.D. Results:

Very AU. Contains OCs but does not afflict with the plot or with the pairing. This fic has nothing to do with either of my previous works! The pairing is KanameXZero as usual. (I usually do not write this much in a week!)

"And that's our last patient of the day."

Kiriyu Zero sighed in relief. His assistant, Mokaiyama Soshiki, gave him a light reassuring pat on his back. Soshiki was a pureblood, while Zero was an ex-human. It caused some discrepancy with the Vampire Council, but Soshiki calmly told them that Zero was a better leader than he was. And he was. Zero, despite his low status in the Vampire community, was a very intelligent person. He led the hospital in a very orderly manner. Everyone who had a problem came to him, including other hospitals. He could diagnose a patient in less than a day. Because of this, the death rate of the hospital he worked at, the Kiriyu Clinic, was extremely low. The Kiriyu Clinic also happened to be the number one hospital in the community so the Council couldn't try to frame Zero without seeming to look hypocritical.

Zero shot a half 'I'm okay' smile at his assistant. He never thought that he would become a doctor out of all things. Raised a hunter, taught by a hunter and lived like a hunter; he was sure he would be a hunter. But then Hiou Shizuka came and screwed up his life for him. Well, at least he had a lesser reason to become a doctor than Soshiki. Zero's eyes softened at Soshiki. He pitied the boy. Soshiki had long dark blue hair that he usually tied back with a black ribbon, with bright yellow eyes. He became a doctor because of his little brother Minrou. Minrou was born with a very weak lung. He would often go into a coughing fit, sometimes hacking up blood. He had to get blood transfusions almost every week, which was usually provided by Soshiki. Minrou was currently on the waiting list to get a left lung transplant. Only problem was, a pureblood's body was so powerful, that a normal lung wouldn't suffice. Instead they had to find another pureblood or a very high level noble vampire to donate their left lung.

Soshiki smiled in return. He knew what Zero was thinking and he was thankful for the older doctor's support. It was rumored that Zero had become a doctor at the young age of 16. He was also the longest one able to withstand his vampire instincts. Rumor had it, that during the last test to become a doctor, (Which consisted of standing in front of a bowl of blood, trying to hold back your inner vampire's cravings for a certain number of hours; also the test that most failed at) the examiner had to leave to feed himself four times before Zero gave in. When he asked Zero about it, the ex-hunter replied, "I don't like being a vampire." He didn't really know what to make of that.

Another rumor was that Zero was working multiple jobs. But Soshiki knew that it wasn't a rumor. It was a fact. Zero was also a singer for a secret band called "Black Diamonds" which was popular in the human world and the vampire world. Vampires, however, could tell by the voice that the singer was a vampire. But people didn't know the singer's name so they called him Dia or Black. The productions of the songs were always fixed around his working hours in the hospital and Soshiki was forced to sometimes cover for him.

Zero also happened to be a favorite with most people. His sharp mind, witty sarcastic remarks sometimes got him into trouble with higher level vampires, (In which Soshiki had to drag him out of) but once they were reminded, quite rudely, that their lives were in the palm of his hand (by Zero), they usually relented, allowing the ex-hunter his remarks. But many people loved him for it. He was a laugh at parties, meetings, and could turn the most boring thing in the world into something fascinating. Several people, including a pureblood, had tried proposing to him. Zero, however, politely turned them down stating, in a very humorous voice, how an ex-human would look on a family tree.

"Let's go," Zero said standing up. His legs were quite sore and his white doctor's uniform was slightly crinkled from all the rushing he had to do in the course of the day. Nevertheless, they had to go visit their last patient, "Minrou won't be happy if we're late."

Soshiki smiled, his eyes twinkling. This was, personally, his favorite part of the day, "Of course."

Both of them walked slowly through the white halls. They stopped at a plain white door with a metal sign with '143' and a paper label of Mokaiyama Minrou. Soshiki knocked twice before entering, knowing that Zero would just have barged in. If Zero did, Minrou would most likely freak out. And freaking out a pureblood was never a good thing. Even a sick pureblood could take down a noble forcefully if they wanted to. There were times when Zero had to dodge sharply to avoid the random bursts of power from higher level vampires because he just appeared suddenly.

"Hi Minrou," Soshiki said, with deep affection in his eyes, "How are you today."

Minrou, a boy with short dark bluish black hair and gold eyes, was sitting in a chair reading Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night Dream. He coughed once and said, "Not so good today, I feel kind of dizzy and still feel weak."

"If you want to read, do it on the bed, not in a chair," Soshiki scolded softly. He could never really get angry at his little brother, just how he could never really get angry at Zero. Soshiki saw Zero has a protective older brother, and Zero saw them as younger siblings.

Minrou nodded and shakily made his way over to the bed, with the help of Soshiki. Zero took the book out of Minrou's hands and placed a sheet of paper inside it, as a bookmark, "Read it when you're not dizzy, you're frying your neurons."

"Okay. Pass me my I-Pod will you?" Minrou asked softly, gesturing to the small device on the table, next to his chair. Soshiki stood up, walked over to the table and picked it up. He handed the headphones to the younger pureblood and asked, "What song?"

"Radiance by Black Diamond," Minrou said, smiling at Zero.

"Oh boy," Zero said, "You're still listening to that song? I made it ages ago."

"It's a good song and you have a nice voice," Minrou replied. He hummed the tune as the music flowed smoothly to his brain. Ahhhh, it really was a nice song. (Made by me)

Radiance

A deep affection was shown,

Through your eyes,

And as you look at me,

I could see your radiance.

Hearing your voice,

I suddenly knew,

That your radiance,

Was caused by me.

A light that shined,

Deep in your soul,

Became brighter,

And started to sparkle.

In the dark night,

Your light shines,

Like a star or a flame,

Brightly and warm.

Under the starry sky,

I saw that your radiance,

Became brighter,

And started to sparkle.

You've lost your way once,

But you didn't give up.

That is why your radiance,

Shines like it does now.

A deep affection was shown,

Through your eyes,

And as you look at me,

I could see your radiance.

"I can't believe you actually have a nice voice," Minrou said, "You used to be so serious." He put on a sullen face to emphasize his point.

"That was before I found the meaning of life."

"Oh? Then what's the meaning of life?"

"Forty-two."

"What?" Minrou asked, half laughing, "Forty-two?! I don't get it."

"Neither do I," Zero shrugged, "But, hey, who gives?"

Soshiki burst out laughing. It was followed by Minrou's laugh and then Zero's chuckle. These moments were precious, too precious not to share.

--

The next day Zero was in a bad mood. Well it all started with the man he had to go see for his daily check-up on patients. Koshima Ray, age: 23, hair color: black, eye color: black, race: noble-class vampire, diagnosed with liver cancer. Also waiting for a transplant. Oh and did he mention he was openly gay and flirted with Zero every chance he got? Ever since he first saw him about three years ago…

Zero blew him off, as usual, but then things got a little out of hand. Ray's hand somehow found themselves in inappropriate places, and the usual glare had no affect. So Zero pulled out his defense gun, Bloody Rose, and was going to shoot the damned bastard, when a nurse came in, shrieking her head off about a man collapsing when he was giving a speech. Apparently the man was carted in and identified as the next Vampire King, Kuran Kaname, so there was a mob of vampires outside the hospital doors worried as hell about him. Adding the screams of some of them, and Zero was sure his head would explode.

When Zero had gone to go visit Kaname, he had to get permission, by Kaname himself, to take a sample of blood. Unfortunately the man in question was unconscious, thus making it very difficult to ask. So instead, he told Soshiki to clear out the stupid mob outside, while he did a physical body check. It involved Zero, removing all of the pureblood's clothes and poking and prodding different places to see if anything was wrong or out of place. Generally it worked better if the patient was awake because then they could tell you if they hurt or not, but it wasn't an option.

Three minutes after he started, Kaname woke up, with Zero's hand on his chest. Needless to say, he flipped, making several things in the room implode and the walls crack severely. After he calmed down slightly he apologized (In which Zero was very irritated about his favorite tea mug getting smashed) and promised to pay for damages later. He was very nice about the whole blood issue, but was very into the physical examination. Well, so into it, that it made the ex-human slightly nervous.

This brought us to our current situation, in which Zero was removing a little bit of blood from the pureblood. Kaname smiled at the gentle touches of the ex-human. He always thought that hospitals were creepy. How can someone live in so much white?! But the boy in front of him, Kiriyu Zero by the name on his nametag, was very… reassuring. Kaname could tell, by the way Zero held himself stiffly, that Zero was irritated about something other than his mug.

Kaname had heard about the boy from many others. Rude and sarcastic, the boy had no respect for anyone. He treated everyone equal. But that was part of his charm. His remarks were, apparently, not to offend, but to humor. Kaname wanted to see if the rumors were true.

"Am I just so sexy that you have to stare like that?" Zero said suddenly, without looking up. Zero could practically feel the stare and it was making him uncomfortable. "Cause if you keep staring, my head might implode like my cup."

"I said I was sorry," Kaname said defensively. Hmmmm, how would he react to…? "And, yes, you are just that sexy."

Zero stiffened. Was he being sarcastic? "Uhhhh, thank you?" He felt strange. People usually didn't complement him like this.

"Your welcome."

There was an awkward pause.

"Okay I think I'm pretty much done here. Stay here; I need to do tests on this," Zero said standing up and pointing to the small sample of blood.

"But I feel completely fine," Kaname said, frowning. He was hoping to get back to work as soon as possible; after all, he was the next Vampire King, "Can't I go?"

"No," Zero said flatly, "'Fine' people do not collapse in the middle of the street. But if it makes you feel better, I can get your speech video and replay the scene where you collapsed over and over again until it sinks into your thick skull."

Kaname winced. Okay… that was uncalled for. "At least can I work on managing things online?"

Zero tapped his chin, pretending to think it over, "Now where have I heard that before?"

Kaname twitched, "Uhhhh…"

"Oh right, I think it was Koshima Ray, right before he tried to hit on me," Zero said, "Sorry, computers tend to have a negative affect on your sight and we can't afford to screw up your system. Not until we know what was wrong of course."

"So what am I supposed to do here for entertainment?" Kaname snapped. He immediately regretted that, as Zero flinched and said just as snappishly, "I don't know! Go read a book, play solitaire or something! You can even go memorizing all the past patients we have or had in and out of our hospital for all I care! What?! Do you think I have enough time to entertain all my patients all day?! Geeze!" With that he walked out of the door in a huff and slammed it shut.

Damn. Kaname didn't mean to make him mad. Zero is probably already stressed out by the amount of work in a hospital and that comment was like fuel to the fire. Ah well, he'd just apologize later, when he saw him.

--

"He's having a seizure, get the defibrillator!"

"Okay. One, two, three…" Zero said, pressing the charged pads to the vampire's chest. The man jerked and began panting harshly. The man's wife gave a sigh of relief as the monitor showed his pulse was back. "Okay…" Zero said thoughtfully.

"This looks like left ventricle failure leading up to paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea," Zero said frowning, "Sit him up."

"But he just got-"

"Sit him up," Zero repeated to the surgeon.

The surgeon rolled his eyes and sat the vampire up. The vampire on the bed sighed in relief.

"Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea?" The man's wife said slowly.

"Yeah. When the backward flow of blood doesn't go backward, neither does the fluids. Usually when the patient is sitting up, the fluid collects in the legs, but when he goes to sleep, the fluids go 'whoosh' into the lungs, making start coughing like mad. From what you told me, every time he sat up, he was okay, right?" A nod confirmed him. Zero frowned and turned to the surgeon, "Start him on a dose of neurotrophin-3. It hasn't been proven that this works, but, hey, a vampire's body structure is similar, but different than humans. You should feel lucky that your vampiric blood is preventing a swelling in your heart." Zero said reassuringly to the noble vampire on the bed. The noble smiled in response. "The last thing you need is more problems."

"On the charts, it seems he's had several problems in the heart before," Zero said directing the statement to the noble's wife.

"Yes, the last doctor we went to said that he should think about getting a transplant," The lady said, "But they didn't have any spare hearts that matched in stock."

"Ah, I see," Zero said, carefully, "Let me check the records. I think we had a donor yesterday. Also a noble." He paused, looking at the lady's beaming face, "Don't get your hopes up."

"Okay!" The girl said, suddenly much happier.

"Uhhhh huh…" Zero said, slightly freaked out, "Soshiki, do you have yesterday's records?"

"I put them in your office, fourth shelf," Soshiki said, placing more pillows behind the patient.

"Right… I'll be right back," He said quickly, bolting from the lady giving him a creepy smile. The noble on the bed laughed softly as he saw the nervous look implanted on Zero's face.

When Zero got to his office, he was met with a very strange sight. Kuran Kaname was sitting in his seat, flipping through all the records he had.

"…WTF?!"

Kaname looked up, brightening. Zero was so busy, that Kaname hadn't seen him ever since the first time he stormed out of Kaname's room; which only drove the stake of guilt even deeper, knowing that he upset the boy, when Zero was already quite distressed.

"Okay, I said you could look at my files, but put everything back to where it was," Zero said stiffly. He walked over to the fourth shelf and scanned for donors. Kaname seemed to be doing better these couple days, so Zero had heard from Soshiki. Indeed, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the pureblood. Soshiki had reluctantly handed him back his laptop, after Kaname pointed it out. Zero had begun to suspect he just fainted, due to the lack of sleep from all the Vampire Council work and the fact he was outside in the heat. (Which most vampires couldn't take for more than three hours, due to the ultraviolet rays.) All the blood tests came out as negative.

Zero pulled out a file full of heart donors yesterday; as he felt two arms encircle his waist. Well, a sharp jab in the ribs solved that problem. Kaname almost doubled over in pain, the ex-human was strong.

"Stop hitting on me you people; quite frankly, it's disturbing," Zero said glaring at Kaname. Zero had made the point to avoid the pureblood as much as possible, ever since that day. He'd even left the hospital to put some effort in his band, Black Diamond, when he found out that the pureblood was looking through the entire hospital for him. Soshiki informed him of this when he was in his office, eating lunch, resulting in Zero running out of the hospital like it was on fire.

"Not very nice, are you?" Kaname asked, rubbing his bruised ribs. The bruise would go away soon enough; he just wished it would hurry up.

"Not to those who hit on me," Zero said, turning around and looking at the pureblood for the first time in days. "What do you want?"

"To… Apologize," Kaname said quietly, "I was acting like a jerk, when I was able to tell you were stressed. I'm sorry."

"What? That?" Zero said absentmindedly looking back at the record, "Forget it."

Kaname inwardly flinched. He'd already apologized, what else did the ex-human want from him?

Zero must've sensed Kaname's turmoil because his head snapped up from the paper. "Look, I'm not saying I don't appreciate that you came here and apologized, it's just that, that day, I was in a really bad mood. One of my earlier patients tried to hit on me and then with all the chaos and you being carted in; I had a headache. And when you made that comment, I just snapped. It's not completely your fault, nor is it mine, so forget it."

Kaname gave a half smile. When he found this other guy who tried to hit on his Zero… wait… his? He changed the subject. "Do you like them?"

"What?" Zero said, looking back to the papers and pulling out a sheet of paper from the stack. Here's that form. Zero looked up and half froze.

Kaname was pointing to a CD; the Black Diamond's CD that Zero always had on his desk. "Uhhhh… Yea, I'm a fan of his works," Zero said slightly nervous. Not exactly the truth but…

"So am I," Kaname said picking the CD up. It was the third CD that Zero had made, Blue Moon. "My favorite song is Gold Star. Dia is a very good singer."

"Uhhhh…" Zero honestly didn't know how to reply to that. Gold Star was one of his earlier works, the second song in the first CD.

"But its odd isn't it?" Kaname said looking up from the CD case that had a deep blue moon with little black diamonds surrounding it, "Dia is very famous singer, but never attends any parties. No one knows his real identity and he leaves no trace of himself. The only way to talk to him is online over AIM. It seems as if Dia just became famous overnight, through his CDs. He never preformed on stage and never replies to even the Council who is looking for him."

"… So?" Zero asked raising an eyebrow.

"I want to meet him," Kaname said looking back at the CD. "He must be very lonely to hide himself like this."

… Is this guy crazy? Why is he telling me this? Is he implying something? "Okay…" Zero said cautiously, "So, you're telling me this because…?"

"You know who he is, don't you?" Kaname said suddenly, "I can tell by the way your acting."

"Does it matter? Even if I do know, I'm not going to spill all his secrets to you."

"At least tell me his name," Kaname said.

"No. He kept his identity a secret for a reason, which I won't bother telling," Zero said putting the folder back on the shelf.

"Tell me," Kaname's eyes narrowed as he pinned the ex-human to the wall, holding his throat.

"Are you threatening me, Kuran Kaname?" Zero asked. Kaname was squeezing his windpipe, but not enough so that he couldn't talk, "I wonder how the entire Vampire community would react if they found out that the great Kuran-sama murdered their best doctor for no reason."

Kaname growled, gave Zero's windpipe a final squeeze and let go. Zero fell to the floor, coughing and spluttering. Rubbing his neck, he glared at Kaname. Kaname felt a thread of guilt weave itself through his body. Damn. Why is it that Kaname always felt so guilty every time Zero was involved? He'd blackmailed people before, so why did it hurt him to do it now?

"If you want to talk to him so much, just AIM him like everyone else!" Zero snapped, "Maybe it's time you'd ask him yourself instead of telling other people to betray Dia. You might stoop that low, but I will not! Stop acting like a four-year old who hasn't gotten their daily dose of sugar! I think it's about time you step off your high plate and join the club, like everyone else!"

Zero stood up and stormed out of his office, his lilac eyes burning with deep hatred. Damn it. He'd had his life threatened before and remained calm. So why did it hurt so damned much when Kuran got angry at him?! It happened twice and both times he'd lost his temper.

Kaname felt pretty low now. Dia had obviously asked Zero to keep his identity a secret because he trusted him enough to withhold that information. Kaname had just asked Zero to betray that trust. Shit! And I just finished apologizing from before! Kaname groaned and buried his face into his hands. Shit, shit, shit! Okay, Zero said to AIM him, like everyone else.

Like everyone else…

Oh! So that's what Zero was trying to tell him. Ahhhhh… Fuck! Kaname buried his face into his hands a little deeper. He wanted Kaname to stop acting like he was king of the world; wanted to tell him that even though the vampire community was based on purity of blood, Zero based people on how they acted. And he just acted like a total idiot. Dia would judge him by the way he acted too, since he would not be able to see him in person but meet him online.

Okay… So I'll meet him online. Just AIM him. His AIM is… Kaname unburied his face and looked at the back of the CD; Black Diamond. Go figure.

Kaname placed everything back where it was, and left the office. Zero's office looked as if there hadn't been anyone there. Kaname returned to his hospital room and turned on his laptop. He signed on AIM, immediately getting bombarded with several companies asking for his support. He clicked out of the windows and typed in 'Black Diamond' to see what he would get.

Kaname raised his eyebrows. There were thousands, no, tens of thousands of 'Black Diamond's ranging from 'BlackDiamond0001' to 'BlackDiamond'sawesomefan'. Kaname scrolled down to see if he could find just plain 'Black Diamond'. Eventually, he found it.

He clicked on the name and typed a message:

KuranKing: Black Diamond, you on?

Kaname waited for a response. Instead he got a message saying: Black Diamond is currently offline.

The soon to be Vampire King sighed. Okay he's not on now. I'll just wait until he is on.

--

That night Kaname was updating his company. He still wasn't allowed to leave the hospital because Zero insisted that he should stay a week to see if any of the symptoms returned. Kaname wasn't happy about it, but reluctantly agreed.

Kaname leaned backwards on the pillows. The hospital had closed just an hour ago, and Kaname was tired of switching his sleeping routine to match a human's. But in this hospital, both humans and vampires resided so all vampires had to change the way they slept while visiting or as a patient. This was done so that humans do not wake up in the middle of the night while some vampire was playing some musical instrument and question the person's sanity.

It was about time for him to sleep. Kaname yawned behind his hand. He had been up for a full twelve hours now.

A notice appeared on his computer. All thought of sleep was swept away as Kaname read it, a smile appearing slowly on his face:

Black Diamond has signed on.

Author's note: So how was it? Read and review as usual. Again, I will not update this often!