Title: Embracing the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knight. Copyright belongs to Hino Matsuri, I only uses the characters for the story. I do, however own the Fujiwara Clan and its' related subordinates family.

Pairing: Kaname/Zero; mild Shiki/Rima; Ichijo/Risa(OC); Ichiru/Maria.

Summary: (AU) Sequel to 'Visitors from the Future', sets 6 months after last chapter of 'VFTF'. Need I say more? Wants to find out, stay tuned! WIP

Author's Notes: Yay! The long awaited sequel to 'Visitors from the Future', the trio are no longer in here but my Fujiwara Clan is still here: P Story will start 3 years after the trio leave…so let's see what our dear Kaname and Zero are up to now, shall we?

Quick Recap of the Original Characters featured in the story:

Fujiwara Yumi – Pureblood Leader of the Fujiwara Clan. Weapon is her own hair.

Fujiwara Yuka – Pureblood daughter of Yumi, Sister of Sayaka. Master to ex-human, Sawashiro Makoto and she have the ability to communicate with her future self.

Fujiwara Sayaka – Pureblood daughter of Yumi, younger sister of Yuka. Mainly in charge of household matters, ability and weapons unknown as of current.

Risa Miyazaki – Common Class Vampire of Miyazaki Clan, mother was Fujiwara Ami (deceased). Minor member of the Fujiwara Clan and is the grand-daughter to Fujiwara Hayate (elder from the Clan). Zero's cousin twice or thrice removed from the branch, loyal to Zero first, then Kaname. Have the ability to rule the Common Class Levels within the Night-Class. Weapon unknown, skilled in Kendo field… currently assisting Ichijo Takuma as his private assistant/secretary.

Fujiwara Misaki – Hunter's Lineage, but not a hunter. Zero's Cousin and the legal advisor to Fujiwara Corporation. Head person in charge of the M&M Law & Legislative Agency.

Fujiwara Satoshi – Zero's maternal Uncle. Hunter and the owner of Fujiwara Kendo Doujo.

Fujiwara Satomi – Hunter in training, cousin to Zero and Ichiru. Elder sister to Akemi, daughter to Satoshi.

Fujiwara Akemi – Sister of Satomi, cousin to Zero and Ichiru. Young and rising celebrity in media industry; and the official spokesperson for products manufactured by family business' company. Personal bodyguard is the brother of Wakaba Sayori.

Wakaba Hiroshi – guard to Fujiwara Akemi, Sayori's brother.

Mishima Yuuko – mother to Sayori, and assistant to Yumi.

Sawashiro Makoto – ex-human vampire, servant to Yuka.

Matsushita Ayano – Guard and Assistant to Ichiru; fiancée of Hiroshi Wakaba.

Kishimoto Hideo – big time womanizer and heir to Kishimoto Incorporation. Dealing with microchips and computers/electronics devices.

Junichi Miyazaki – Father to Risa Miyazaki, Common Class Vampire.

Tachibana Kenjiro – New transfer student to Night-Class from Fujiwara Gakuen, used to be Yuka's Right-hand man. Now allocated to Zero to assist him in the operations of Fujiwara Electronics…

Sakaki Miyako – New transfer student to Night-Class from Fujiwara Gakuen, used to be Yuka's subordinate. Now allocated to Zero to assist him in the operations of Fujiwara Electronics...

Chapter 1 – A New Beginning

Yuuki Kuran massaged the sides of her temples wearily, this was the third time in this week that she had to remove the memories of another day-class students who had the misfortune of witnessing a fellow student from the night-class with lengthen fangs ready to suck the blood of another willing night class student.

Although, the rules and regulations sets in place for the vampires on campus to abide has been tweaked a little and the secret behind the night-class could be revealed to any day-class students who they deemed suitable… it still does not means that THEY could go around sucking the blood out from one another's neck in PUBLIC. Granted, they did not do it in the broad day-light but still…aren't they aware of the possibility of fan-girls sneaking out after curfew to catch a glimpse of their beloved night-class seniors?!

It had been bad enough for them to be caught in the blood-sucking activities twice by the school councilors before, but at least they know their identities of being vampires and would simply turn them in to either Chairman Cross or herself to handle. If there is anything Yuuki was glad about the new school rules in place was that she needs not wipe off any of the prefects' memories, because they have already been informed of the vampires' nature and ways of living.

At the most, Yuuki would received dozens of warnings issued from the prefects pertaining to her 'flock' of people who had disregard the school rules… and she had been able to compromise with the prefects on duty about not letting the news leaked to the Chairman. Today's incident though would not be that easily brushed aside as before, because it involved innocent day-class girls who just happened to be a new intake this year. That poor girl had a nasty shock of her life finding things out in this dreadful manner, and in order to prevent the said girl from going into a state of hyperventilation…Yuuki had to remove the memories from the girl as an emergency act.

'Honestly, these newcomers should really learn to curb their blood thirst by using blood tablets instead of biting someone for it.' Yuuki thought inwardly to herself.

"Aidou-sempai, kindly gets me some aspirins. Will you?" Yuuki requested, as she slumped herself down in her chair heavily.

"There you go, Yuuki-sama." Aidou Hanabusa handed the pills over with a glass of water, obediently.

It has been a total of three years since the trio departed from their time-line, and recently Kaname and Zero had both left Cross Academy on a permanent basis. With their departure, they brought along the Vice-President of Night-Class – Ichijo Takuma, Risa Miyazaki and Seiren – the ever loyal guard to Kaname Kuran.

The night-class had undergone a change and shift in authority with the departure of the Kuran Prince, the control of the vampires residing on campus now lies completely in the hands of Yuuki Kuran. Apparently, the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan had wanted to spend his time and energy on getting the business up into shape and have decided to leave the co-existence work in his sister's hands.

Zero Kiryuu, on the other hand, left the campus simply because he had already graduated from the day-class and would served no point to continue residing on campus. Besides, with the transfers from Fujiwara Gakuen…there was no need for him to stay on behind. Since, among the transfer students included children from hunter's side – too.

"Aidou-sempai, how did Kaname-nii keep them under control anyway?" Yuuki asked frowning as she recalled the acts of those new enrolls under the night-class scheme.

"…Kaname-sama rules us with his iron fist." Aidou commented, recalling the number of times he was slapped for getting too close to Yuuki for their pureblood leader's liking.

"I mean other than the slapping and aura flaring thing, I obviously cannot used the slapping method to control them." Yuuki threw the newly promoted Vice-President of the night-class a look of annoyance.

"Yuuki-sama, you are too soft in your approach. Either way, Chairman Cross has wanted to speak to you since hours ago. We managed to hold him back claiming that you had a long day, and once you have free time on your hands…you would go and visit him." Aidou Hanabusa told the chocolate-haired princess of the Kuran Clan, with respect.

"Fine, I'll go and see what he wants from me now. Speaking of which, do let me know if Zero called back." Yuuki instructed, before leaving the lounge for the front door of the Moon Dormitory.

"I'm back, Kaname… are you in?" Zero Kiryuu called into the apartment, as he entered the penthouse unit situated in the heart of the bustling city of Tokyo. The apartment was part of his inheritance received from his mother three years ago when he signed the legal papers. He was currently residing in the apartment with his lover of three years, the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan following their recent departure from the Cross Academy.

"In here, my dear." The pureblood responded, while Zero arched his brows up in wonders when he pin-point the voice to be coming from the kitchen area.

"Pray tell, what on earth are you doing in the kitchen?" Zero started as he ventured towards Kaname's location, inwardly hoping that the former was not going to try his hands on whipping them dinner or something. Everything in the kitchen was newly acquired and he had no qualms of revisiting the kitchen utensils stores to replace anything, again.

Just last week, Kaname had tried to microwave some chilled macaroni that they had in the fridge for some supper and the attempt had ended up in a disaster of having the microwave oven exploding on them. Reason being, Kaname had not the insight to remove the metal fork from the dish before putting it into the oven to reheat. Anyone with common sense would knows that metal does not reacts well with microwave oven, but apparently the common sense does not applies to Kaname Kuran.

Kaname sighed as he took in his lover's look of exasperation, before responding. "Zero, relaxed… I am just getting a drink of water from the fridge. After last week's fiasco, I highly doubted I would dare to touch any of those kitchen appliances of yours again."

"…Kaname, I am not trying to imply anything of that sort. All I'm saying is that you need to learn the proper way of handling them before you do anything with it." Zero said as he combed his hand through his hair uneasily.

"I know…come on, let's get out from here. How's your day in the office, anyway?" Kaname asked, steering the topic of conversation away from the kitchen issue. He decided that he was not ever going to volunteer himself for any task that required cooking in future.

"Nothing much to say about that, the meeting agenda are the usual things to address and decide upon. It was quite a bore, actually…How about you?" Zero asked, glad to have the change of conversation topic too.

"It's coming along well enough, I supposed. The cousin of your brother's assistant was quite good at her job, it seems. It is amazing of how efficient she was with the task of segregating out the financial amount used by Ichijo Asato from the Kuran's accounts to fund projects under his name. The accounts on the Kuran's side are more or less straightened out by now. I figured Takuma had it worst, his grandfather's business weren't exactly clear it seems." Kaname said, as the duos made their way into the living room of the apartment unit.

"Yes, I figured from that look of his whenever he was presented with the financial reports of Ichijo Enterprise that he would simply wish for the report to be burnt because it gave him a swelling head just by looking over it." Zero smirked; the blond was always so happy-go-lucky that he found it incredibly amusing when the blond was gloomy.

"Indeed… so do you have anything planned for the evening?" Kaname Kuran asked, nuzzling his lover's neck in the process of speaking.

"No…not that I could remember. Why…?" Zero asked, sighing in content as he relaxed and leaned in closer to his lover's body for warmth and comfort.

"Yuuki called earlier on, says she have something to ask you about the Artemis rod. She asked for you to call her back as soon as you have time on your hand." Kaname replied, passing along the message to his lover as per his beloved sister's request.

"I see…Well, I'll just call her back in a while. I'm taking the showers first." Zero mused, inwardly wondering what else is there about the Artemis rod which Yuuki still had no idea about. That weapon has been with Yuuki for so long that Zero thought that girl had figured out everything about it now.

Kaname Kuran sighed when he felt his lover leaving his side for the shower; it seems to be ages since they slept together or involved in any of their 'exercise'. Their work had been taking up a little too much of their time together, with his current heavy involvement with straightening out Kuran Incorporation and Zero with his recent frequent hunting assignments received. The hunting assignments were of course requests from the veteran hunter, Yagari Touga, who had recently 'renewed' his acquaintance with Zero. Although, Kaname had a nagging suspicion in mind that the veteran hunter was actually sending his silver-haired lover off for frequent hunting trips so as to keep them apart…

'Well…if I am lucky, and that master of his refrained from calling him up in the middle of the night seeking assistance I could perhaps get some…tonight.' Kaname thought.

It was 7pm in the evening, but a certain green eyed blond vampire was still cooped up in his office within Ichijo Enterprise. He was currently working and studying at the same time, under the On-Job Training (OJT) scheme. This was apparently Zero's suggestion to get him to pick up the skills of managing a company in the shortest time possible. It seems like the typical studying on campus failed to work on him in the way it actually should, and Zero decided to opt for the alternative. Granted, the learning process is slower in this method but it proved to be more efficient on him.

One and a half year ago when Risa brought up the issue that the 'old coots' supporting his grand-father's ideals should be replaced on a major scale, and he had then decided to go ahead with the restructuring process of Ichijo Enterprise. Zero had assisted him in screening through the employees profile of staffs employed in Ichijo Enterprise and provide him with suggestions on the candidates to promote and demote, to keep or to retrench. Of course, what Zero provided him with are just opinions and whether or not he choose to do as the former says relied on his own judgment.

Ichijo Takuma being a newbie in business simply obliged Zero's opinions to keep the majority of the human employees and do away with most of the vampires in service. Especially those old coots that work together with his grand-father in dabbling in shady areas of the business and these shady areas of the business are actually dealings that crossed the line of the country's law. Among them included the trafficking of controlled drugs into the country, once discovered would be punishable by sentencing to ten or more years in jail.

No wonder they protested so vehemently when he bring in outside experts to sort out the company's books of accounts…and then the cops sets in to work. Knowing that normal cops would not have work on these vampires workers, Zero had pulled in some strings from the Fujiwara's network of connections and had sends in hunters and cops with specializing in dealing with the vampires in to hold them custody. The news made headlines of the following day's newspaper, and the reputable name of Ichijo Enterprise was then tarnished significantly by the press.

Following which, Zero had told Risa to assist him in the crisis PR management by putting forth a team to specially handle the situation. This was done effectively and efficiently, and after a whole six months of battling. The situation was finally under control, and now Ichijo Enterprise has officially shrunk in size. In fact, Ichijo Takuma had taken Zero's suggestion to heart by changing the company's name and expertise areas of business dealings to show the fact that the once prominent Ichijo Enterprise is no more.

The new name Takuma had decided for his family business is now 'Ichijo Holdings Private Limited', he kept a sector of the business in technological field and shifted the rest into publication industry. Ichijo Holdings now work in co-relation with the Fujiwara Electronics to produce mobile gadgets and computers hardware, and also Takuma had set up a printing company to work in collaboration with the agencies of local manga and stories writers to publish their works. Currently, he only works with the smaller agencies like the Shogakukan or the Hakusensha – mostly publishing works catering to young readers and the ladies' readers. Eventually, he hoped to clinch deals from the other agencies such as the infamous Kodansha and Shueisha.

"Ichijo-san, are you quite done with your day-dream yet?" The sound of Risa Miyazaki, his now personal assistant cum secretary's voice jolted him out from his thoughts and back into reality realm.

Looking up sheepishly, he was greeted by the sight of the auburn-haired vampire glaring at him with unbidden annoyance apparent on her features.

"Oops, sorry Risa-chan…I didn't mean to zone out on you. So what was it that you are saying?" Ichijo Takuma asked, focusing his attention back onto the file back on the table in front of him.

"If you had been listening in carefully and not zoning out on me, you should know that the accounts and debts previously owed to Kuran Incorporation would be successfully paid off by the end of this quarter." Risa stated flatly and emotionlessly.

"Ah… that's a good thing, right?" Ichijo Takuma commented, finally heaving a sigh of relief after six months of stress piling atop of him.

It amazes him how his grand-father's had kept the business going with that much fishy transactions going along, and the liquid assets of the company was exceptionally low. Looks like his grandfather has been tapping into the accounts of Kuran Incorporation for funding over the past ten over years it would seems to be. Thinking back on the books of accounts being shown to him by one Matsushita Ayano's cousin, it would give him a very big headache.

In order to settle the disputes over the accounts with Kuran Incorporation, he actually had to sell out some of the business that was growing and had good prospect to other small medium enterprise out there in order to get in sufficient cash to solve the tight cash-flow problem encountered once he put a stop to all activities of tapping into the Kuran's accounts for funding activity.

With the selling off of the business, they were faced with an overwhelming number of staffs working in the company. That was the start of a mass retrenchment act, and the vampires were the first to go due to their high-paying salary. Of course, he had met up with each and every one of them in private first seeking for their cooperation in agreeing to a pay-cut policy. Those who agrees, he kept them on the list while those who refused to budge was asked to leave in a polite manner after paying them a significant amount as compensation.

Next came the crisis PR management after doing away with those old coots of the company, and followed by the legal proceeding of the change in company's name and the members of the board of directors. Now on the legal papers, it stated the director of Ichijo Holdings Private Limited as himself, the company secretary as Risa, and the accountant for the company as Iwasaki Mayumi – a fellow colleague of Matsushita Ayano's cousin who is now solely working on accounts of the Kuran's Incorporation.

But even with the restructuring work done to the company, he still have debts owed to Kuran's Incorporation that has yet to be paid off. He was genuinely grateful that Kaname had provide him with some leeway by not taking the whole issue up to the courts, and was willing to settle it privately among themselves. Three whole years, it took him three years to repay off whatever amount his grandfather had taken to use from the Kuran's accounts without seeking permission in advance. To pay Kaname's company off, and to fund the restructuring work done on the company… Ichijo Takuma had even taken to mortgage the ancestral home of the Ichijo Clan.

Of course, his decision back then was met by angry protests of the family servants' but seeing as he was the sole heir to Ichijo Clan. No matter how angry they are, no one could have objected to his decision made. To get them off his back, Ichijo Takuma had even dismissed the majority of the family's servant keeping only the driver and the assistant butler who he now named as the head butler in another estate of his family.

The main ancestral house held too many memories of his grand-father that he felt suffocated by staying within for just a matter of mere minutes, he knew his grandfather would rolled in his grave if he knew. The thing is Takuma simply just could not be bothered anymore, after all, he did killed his own grandfather and vampires when died has no need for a grave as they merely disappeared and turned into dust within a matters of seconds. So after dismissing the servants and putting up the house for mortgage…Takuma had shifted himself into a rented condominium unit near his company's address.

The reason why he choose to rent the unit and not simply purchased it was due to the fact that the housing rates are horribly high at this point of time, and between the need to keep his company's assets as liquid as possible… he gathered he should just make do with a rented apartment for now. It was bad enough for him to mortgage off one of his ancestral homes, if he does away with another – he would be 'in' for it.

Pertaining to the reason why he did not want to shift into his other family's estate was quite simple actually. It had something to do with his laziness, and also his love for being in a crowd. All the Ichijo family estates are situated way too far out in the outskirt of the community, quite an inconvenience for him when he needs to be going in to his company on daily basis. Unlike Kaname who could simply bunk in with Zero Kiryuu, who just happened to own housing in the city areas due to the Fujiwara's uniqueness… he had no such luck. Besides, he would not want to intrude on his friend's privacy and personal life too much lest it risk the wrath of the former.

Eventually, he settled for renting a unit in the same block of condominium building which the penthouse apartment of Zero Kiryuu was situated.

Kaname and Zero were just about to settle down for their dinner, when the doorbell chimed causing the silver-haired man to sigh in response.

"I should start collecting payment on monthly basis from that friend of yours, if I have to wait on him for dinner every evening." Zero muttered under his breath, as he made a move to answer the door.

True to the silver-haired man's words, the visitors outside the penthouse apartment unit's door was none other than the cheerful green eyed blond – Ichijo Takuma and his current assistant, Risa Miyazaki.

"I thought you could handle cooking?" Zero eyed the auburn haired vampire girl from the corner of his eyes, as he hold the door open for the duos to enter the unit

"I could, but he says he's too hungry to wait." Risa answered in a deadpanned manner, while Ichijo Takuma bobbed his head in agreement to the female's words.

Zero shakes his head in response, as he closed the door to the apartment unit closed while making his way back to the dining table. He did not bother to serve the duos, expecting them to be on self-service mode. They had, after all, being turning up promptly during dinner time at his place over the past six months since their departure from the Cross Academy. By now, any form of hospitality towards them has been laid to rest and Zero expected them to serve themselves these days.

Dinner was filled with the usual conversational topics, with Kaname and Ichijo discussing their company's stuff while Zero and Risa ate in silence. Zero had not once inquired on the relationship development between Risa and the green eyed blond, since he did not think it his position to do so. Despite the fact that he was the one pushing them together following the departure of the trio…

However, seeing as Risa was now cohabiting with the green eyed blond under the same roof and seemed to be at ease. Zero figured that he had nothing to worry himself with, he knew the girl enough to know that if Risa was uncomfortable with the idea of living under the same roof with Ichijo alone – she would have long moved out of the blond rented unit by now.

"So how are things going between the two of you?" Zero took the opportunity to ask, after Kaname retreated into the Study to answer a call from the Vampire Council and Risa had volunteered to wash up after dinner for the silver-haired teen.

"What do you mean…?" Ichijo Takuma grinned stupidly, trying to bypass Zero's inquisition act.

"Ichijo…don't try to fool me. You know what I am inquiring about." Zero stressed, keeping an eye out on the kitchen to check if the auburn haired vampire was anywhere in sight.

"…Fine, I admit I do have an interest in her but I can't say the same for her." Ichijo eventually responded with a sigh, as his eyes traveled to where the figure of Risa Miyazaki was.

"Try to be a little more patient with her. She doesn't really have a good childhood experience, and with her parents' relationship in that manner… it's no wonder that she tried to keep the relationship between the two of you as professional as possible. She did not want to risk anything, I know she does not look like it but it remains a fact that she was actually quite fragile when it comes down to emotional aspects." Zero told the green eyed blond solemnly.

"I know… that's why I didn't push her or anything. I'm just taking it one step at a time and sees where it goes from there. Akane told me before, Asami's the same age as her… and Akane's mother was not even born yet according to what she had mentioned. Her father, according to what I've checked was only ten years old this year – still had quite a long way to go. Well, I'm quite sure I'm a man with patience so I'll just wait and see how things would play out in the end." Ichijo Takuma responded to Zero's words, before making a move to stand and meet up with Risa who was now done with the dishes. Together the duos make their way back downstairs to their shared apartment unit in silence.

Date started: 5/2/2013

Date completed: 6/2/2013

P.S: So how is it? The first chapter to the sequel…? Question here, I need inputs on ideas of what to be put in this sequel… I can't have the trio back, sorry. ^^ I can however, have the following options available…

A – Have Zero bring back a child from his hunting mission, probably some emotionally scarred kid who has his parents kill by some lunatic level E until Zero comes along and saved the day. The child ended up sticking to Zero like superglue and resulted in Kaname's displeasure and jealousy… (if you people pick this option, please comment on the gender for the kid XD)

In this situation, the kid will be human but KanZe would not adopt the kid… most likely would classify him/her as a ward, would be passes over to Cross eventually on paper/legal terms.

B – Zero's ancestor – Mamoru Kiryuu turns up still alive, and sending a vampire kid off to Zero's doorsteps with only a note to explain situation before disappearing somewhere again. In this case, the kid would be around ten to thirteen years old… and you get to see Zero and Kaname at a loss of actions as they had no idea how to deal with a teenage ward on their hands. If this is the case, no need for the kid to be adopt by them either cause the kid would be related to Zero by blood, however distant it was.

So care to clue me in which scenario would you people prefer? :D

I'll only work on second chapter after my mind works out the scenario… cause the two options are battling in my mind :P Can't decide. Second chapter would be up sometime end-Feb. This would be the CNY present to my faithful readers of 'Visitors from the Future'!