Disclaimer: Like i can draw well enough to own Vampire Knight.
There was no rain that day. The winter sun shone brightly, but did nothing to warm the air. A cold wind swept the cliffside cemetery that Zero had only been in once before.
It should have been raining. Zero didn't know why, but he would have felt better with rain pouring down, soaking him and washing the gravestones clean.
But the world didn't care that Ichiru was dead, and so the sun shone like it would on a happy day.
Only two people had come today, besides the priest performing the ceremony and Zero himself. No one came to a graveyard unless they had to. Or if the person who died was very important.
But Ichiru was only important to one person.
When their parents had died, a lot of people had come, even though there was snow on the ground. Most of them had been colleagues from the hunter society, and Zero hadn't known any of them well. Even Toga Yagari was a mystery to him.
He had stood there with that Cross guy and the girl, watching his parents disappear under a mound of earth and snow, wondering where Ichiru was.
Now he was here again, and so was Ichiru, by their parents' grave. But nothing was the way it should be.
Zero didn't listen to the priest droning on. Ichiru shouldn't be dead. But he was, and Zero had no excuse. It was his fault.
It was his fault.
It was his fault.
He had killed Ichiru. He could have done things differently. He should have done things differently. If he hadn't been so weak, Ichiru would still be alive.
He felt a horrible emptiness now, an emptiness that was totally different from the hunger inside him. The hunger that had driven him to take the life that should have been most important to him. He was supposed to look after Ichiru, and protect him. That had always been his role.
But instead he had killed him.
It took him a while to realize the priest had fallen silent. Toga and the headmaster were both looking at him.
Zero remembered what he was supposed to do. He had done it for his parents at their funeral. Now it was Ichiru's turn.
He stepped up to the edge of the grave – Ichiru's grave – and stooped to pick up a handful of dirt from the mound that would soon cover his brother.
The pit yawned open. Ichiru's coffin had already been lowered to the bottom. It seemed so small there, this box that held all that was left of his baby brother.
He couldn't do it. He couldn't just bury Ichiru under a load of dirt. If anyone should be buried here, it was he, Zero. He was the sinner. Ichiru hadn't deserved to die…
He couldn't do it. He stared into the grave. He couldn't look away. He couldn't move. He was aware of the other men, behind him, aware that they had noticed he was frozen, but only in a very distant way. The grave seemed to grow deeper and deeper in his vision, until Ichiru's box was a mere speck far, far below him. No! Zero wanted to scream. No! Take me instead! I'm the one who should die! He wrenched his gaze away, towards the headstone.
He couldn't do it. Suddenly he was running, running toward the gateway of the cemetery. He had to get away from the open pit that was Ichiru's last resting place.
As he ran, the handful of earth he had been clutching scattered over the graves behind him. The icy wind caught some of it and carried it over the edge of the cliff.
Ichiru watched his brother depart from his spot beside the gravestone. Poor Zero. From what he could see, his older brother's conscience was taking a heavy toll. "Don't let it destroy you, Zero," he whispered. "I only wanted to help you. It's not your fault. I promise i won't just leave you here…"
The cold winter sun shone down from the cloudless sky.