A Pureblood's King

"Who is Kuran's king?" Zero Kiriyu overheard Rima Toya quiz her beautiful red headed boyfriend, Shiki, who was busy moulding a knickerbocker glory into shapes with a dark red tongue.

"Don't be silly. A pureblood is king," Shiki said absently, reveling in the rich chocolate mint of his icecream. He didn't see his girlfriend roll her eyes at his blindness, for Rima Toya was the more perceptive, as all girls were, when it came to matters of love.

Who's his king? Zero mused, slightly perturbed, as he walked away from the couple unnoticed. Who could be powerful enough to best Kaname? Kaname Kuran, who was lauded the prince of purebloods, to whom even other purebloods, like the reknown line of Souen, paid homage to. Was there even one vampire his equal – no, more – than his equal? After all, it was known enough that a pureblood was king.

"Who is your king, Kuran?" Zero asked that night as he slipped into bed beside Kaname.

"Well, if I'm the pureblood prince, that must make you my king," Kaname replied, and spent the rest of the night paying sweet, reverent homage to his lord.

END


What's Yours is Mine

"Come on, Silver. So what if he's your black and gold? I'm your eternal fortune. Let's just see what you can learn tonight, hm?" Zero grinned and slapped Matthew's lewd hand away, to the raucous laughter of another boy and girl. It helped that these four dorm mates had been together, inseparable siblings, for their two years at college, and that none of them had a drop of vampire blood in them to fear the elegant Asian man standing a few feet away. No sensible human, though, could deny the sensing the cogent jealousy emanating from him; the watchful gaze intensified at any hint of intimacy toward Zero.

"Honestly, Matt. You don't have my bet this time," Laura giggled. "After all, he'll only ditch that Kuran for a real woman – right, Kiriyu?" Half-hispanic and unbelievably attractive, Laura winked at Zero and curled his sleeve around her finger suggestively. Kaname was within her peripheral vision, and Laura pouted cutely as Zero nudged her away half heartedly. "Oh, he's a possessive one, he is, all smoke and thunder now, look at his eyes…you're a lucky one, Zero, really lucky…"

Laura was right, as Zero could feel, at the junction of neck and shoulder where Kaname always bit, the stinging sensation of an antagonized pureblood lover.

"Shall we see how much he'll tolerate, Zero?" asked Shin, a particularly handsome, dark skinned Japanese boy. He lay a long brown hand on Zero's thigh, and Laura hissed in amusement.

"Ha, he's hopping mad - ! I've never seen anyone look so aggravated, he looks fit to tear off his own arms, but he's reigning himself from interfering – just barely, though. Guys, we should stop – he could get dangerous!"

Zero laughed and pushed his friends off; "excuse me for a moment, guys", he said, and jogged over to where Kaname looked fit to spit.

"That was remarkably civil," Zero complimented, taking Kaname by his arm and leading him away.

"Well, don't take it for granted," Kaname muttered disagreeably, suitably mollified by Zero's presence now. "I didn't like that one bit."

"Yeah? I enjoyed it," Zero quipped. "Immensely," he added, seeing Kaname's dismissive sniff. Suddenly, the ex-human stopped in his tracks and turned Kaname around, holding him by both his upper arms. "Let me get this straight." Seeing Kaname about to argue, he added in admonition, "I'm only going to say this once."

Kaname subsided accordingly, and Zero took a step closer.

"Let me get this straight, Kuran. I love it when you're possessive," he began. "I love it when you hover by my side and watch my every move with a righteous and restrained jealousy. Especially when passersby are stripping me with their eyes and you just give them a look, and they wither away – I love that feeling of triumph inside. It makes me feel like I matter." He moved forward again; their toes were touching now.

"I love it when you glower at other men and women, I love it when they see the smolder of warning in your eyes, because that makes them jealous of me, that makes them want me, and want you. And it makes me feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world. I love it so much."

"But it won't make me treat my friends, my closest friends, any differently, and it won't make them treat me any differently. They're good people, Kuran, like Ichijo and Aido and Kain – and I'd give up a lot for them. I love them – as friends. Do you understand, Kuran? They're friends –"

Zero closed the distance between them, putting his arms around Kuran's waist and pulling him close. "You're not, you're special. I love your possessiveness - and don't you just write it off as another ex-human oddity, as you did just now when I said I enjoy these sort of occasions." His hand slid under Kuran's jacket, down the back of his pants pocket.

"I enjoy your possessiveness, because I'm your man. I'm yours. I belong to you. I want you." Groping fingers reached the bottom of Kaname's pocket, and curled in a vehement regret that their journey was blocked.

"So while I won't be heeding all the silent commands you're giving me to stay away from my friends, those slit-eyed thunderous glares won't stop coming." Zero tilted his head up, nuzzled Kaname's jaw with his nose.

"Is that clear?"

Kaname chuckled, threading his fingers through Zero's hair in contentment.

"Of course," he said, and to Zero's spying friends hiding some distance off, sent an arrogant, impeccably gorgeous smirk of triumph.

END


What's Mine is Mine

Kaname folded his arms stubbornly across his chest.

"No way," he said, looking squarely into Zero's spinning eyes.

"What?" Zero demanded, agog. "Kaname, they'll be here any minute. There's nowhere else to go, and I'm not going to risk expulsion from school because you couldn't hold your passion for a few minutes! Now get into the vent!" Zero's finger jabbed commandingly at the tunnel in the wall, once used for ventilation but now dusty and almost-forgotten. It was barely big enough for a man to crawl through, and one would have to be on his knees in the dirt and dust – to Kaname, that was hardly a worthwhile exchange for escaping the remonstrations of a few uptight teachers, on the night patrol for students out of bed, overhearing his enthusiastic greeting for Zero – a student dallying with a stranger in the corridors, no less! – but Zero had been ridiculously adamant about "not getting caught" and "not getting a record" and such, and so, they had fled away from the authoritative adults who were bent on identifying said delinquent student.

"This is entirely uncalled for," Kuran argued. "I will not crawl – "

"You will crawl, you will crawl forward, and you will be silent!" Zero hissed, hearing the teachers' calling get louder.

"Show me your pimp cane, and I'll be your slave," Kaname sneered stubbornly. "But until then – " Kuran stopped mid-sentence to jump two feet into the air. "What was that?!"

"That was my pimp cane, Kuran, and unless you want to get better acquainted with it, I suggest you get on your knees and move," Zero ordered, his voice low and hard. His fingers curled menacingly, dangerously close to Kaname's crotch.

Kaname was distracted for a moment from the task at hand – after all, an angry and domineering Zero was a splendid, novel turn on, and what better way to end this escapade with an all-out act of rebellion in a school corridor?

But Zero looked nigh unwilling to be mollified by any sort of pleasure now, so Kaname obliged Zero by crouching down and squeezing his shoulders into the vent. He felt the sting of Zero's hand on his ass, urging him to be faster, and grinned as he eased his way forward. This was going to be interesting.

END


Nice and Easy

"Really, Zero. You should just kiss and make up," Kaien Cross said, spreading his hands and shrugging, as though there really was nothing more to it than that.

"It's. Not. So. Simple. For the last time! And stay outta my affairs," Zero retorted, struggling valiantly to read a thick book.

"Of course it is. Just a simple kiss and –"

"One kiss!" Zero snarled suddenly, disgusted. "One kiss?! What will one kiss do? One kiss makes me the one apologizing, makes me the one at fault. One kiss from me panders to his ego, as always. He's so arrogant, he never admits he's wrong, never, I always have to be the one humbling myself to his whims and don't tell me he's pureblood, don't tell me I'm being immature, because you know what, he's even more immature than I am!"

"Oh, certainly." Kaien Cross demurred, hiding his own smile. From the corner of his eye, Zero had subsided into a shamefaced blush. Truly, Kaname must be a knight in leather and chains to get his little ice-block of an adopted son all grown up and fiery headed! Cross sighed to himself with a parent's satisfaction, to think that this handsome boy managed to snag himself a fine man, heh heh – not that he'd ever doubted his worth, of course…

"Let me tell you, just how immature he is," Zero raved, almost foaming at the mouth. "I was talking to a salesgirl, a salesgirl, about the preference and size of my clothes, because I was interested in tailoring a full formal suit. She's no older than Yuuki, as innocent and eager as Yori to do a good job, and who should come storming up when she's holding a measuring tape around my waist, but a rabid, fanged, slobbering wolf. He fair nearly twisted her arm when wrenching her away, that uncouth imbecile, and unhinged his ravenous maw, she was cowering in terror, it was such a terrible scene!"

Cross, who happened to have called up the salesgirl in person after hearing Kuran's side of the story the day before, knew for a fact that Kaname had only tugged the measuring tape out of her hands and insisted with courtly gentility that he do the measuring. Shikei, as she was named, was taken aback of course, but thoroughly unharmed.

"Just kiss and make up," Kaien had counseled Kaname gravely, but the pureblood had given him a long suffering look of disbelief.

"Well, well, a young life is filled with many different flowers," the present day Kaien said placidly. "I'm sure something will work out."

"Flowers! Not one single flower have I received from that – that man – only thorns and sap! And insects! Stinging bees!" Kiriyu vociferated heatedly. And with that, out he stormed from Kaien's room.

His mind whirling, Kiriyu decided that sanctuary in his own room would be an appropriate course of action. Peace, privacy, and nobody to squeeze with in bed, the freedom to sleep uninterrupted, something he'd never thought would be taken away from him.

He pushed past the doors and stepped onto a thick velvet rug, making his way though the cavernous chamber, till he reached the sofa upon which Kaname reclined with a book held upside-down.

"I'm sorry, Kaname," came the words automatically, as though he said this every time, which he did. The incorrigible pureblood grinned, put his book away.

"Finally, Zero. I've been waiting for you to make it up to me all week!"

END


Never Say Never

"You never give me flowers! Don't you think that any properly committed man would at least acknowledge flowers as a universal sign of affection? Almost everyone gets flowers during Valentine's Day, right?" Zero demanded, a blush tinting his nose at the implication that he was the feminine side of this relationship, although in all fairness, he was just trying to prove a point.

Kaname held Zero's gaze with a loving, tender depth of intimacy that almost made Zero forget his main complaint – Kaname's lustful, brusque tendencies that shied far of the nobler aspects of love.

"Well, Zero," Kaname said after a long and careful minute of thought, "you have never given me flowers, either."

END


Thoughts, comments, constructive criticisms, and most especially reviews, are encouraged! How goes my attempt at short and simple? Encouragement is greatly appreciated. Happy Valentine's Day, guys!

- Talking Cockerel