Romeo & Juliet

"Yuuki…" Zero whispered. They had on met a few times before Zero's parents figured out that Yuuki had powers and was just a monster in human form. Or so they thought. Zero knew that not all shifters were evil. He was a hunter and worked with his brother, mother and father to eliminate the shifters. Their families were enemies. Everybody knew that. The problem was that Yuuki's father was the headmaster of the Cross Academy. All the students at the Academy were shifters.

Rima and Shiki sat besides Yuuki. She was crying on her bed, with Mika, her wolf, next to her. Yuuki buried her face in Mika's fur and tightly gripped Mika's scruff. Rima looked at Yuuki and pulled her chin up.

"Yuuki, you're a princess. You can't cry like this." Rima said in a soft voice. Shiki nodded to Rima.

"So I can only cry inside. I can't show my sadness… Why? Why…" Yuuki whispered half to herself.

"Princess, you can have sadness. You just can't show it. As a pureblood shifter you can't, otherwise other shifters won't respect you." Shiki explained his voice emotionless, as always.

"Yes, Shiki's right… You can't cry because others won't think you're fit to be a pureblood."

"What if I'm not? And why do you two respect me?" She asked her voice a whisper.

"Because our friend, Kaname is your brother. We always respected him. If he respects you, then we have to, too. " Shiki answered.

"Right, and remember he's a pureblood shifter too." Rima continued. Tears started streaming freely down Yuuki's cheek.

"I knew it. So you don't actually want to respect me. You just want to please Kaname." She said louder than her usual whisper.

"That's not true. We respect you because you're our friend too. You're younger than us. If we wanted to we could just leave right now, right? But we're not leaving." Rima said.

"You're our friend, got it?" Shiki stated. Yuuki smiled, wiping her tears away. Rima stood up and stretched her hand out.

"Let's go." She said.

"Right!" Yuuki said then nodded. Shiki just followed them without saying anything.

"And… Where are we going, Rima?" Shiki asked casually. Both Rima and Yuuki turned around and glared at Shiki. He lifted up his hands and widened his eyes innocently.

"Just follow without asking questions." Rima said turning back and pulling Yuuki along by her hand. Shiki sighed and followed them, keeping Rima's request.

"Here we are." Rima indicated. Shiki just sighed in response. Yuuki looked around. They were in a small town; it looked about as big as the Academy.

"This place is… Rather small." Shiki observed. Rima glared at him and stepped on his foot. Yuuki ignored them. She just walked on. Rima and Shiki followed her. The three shifters stopped in front of the hunter's house.

"Hey are you sure it's here. There's nobody …" Shiki said, his voice plain. Rima nodded, lifted her head, and felt the cold breeze.

"I feel something…" Yuuki whispered. Rima and Shiki nodded.

"Princess, let's go now." Shiki said. Rima nodded again. Yuuki looked at Shiki.

"Ok." Yuuki said. This was one of the first times she agreed to do something. They walked away from the hunter's house. The wind blew stronger every minute. They finally got back to the Academy, a few minutes later.

"Hey, where's Mika? She's usually always with you Yuuki." Rima asked.

"I don't know…" Yuuki admitted. Yuuki whispered her wolf's name. Nothing. Three minutes later, Mika came limping. Her shoulder was bleeding.

"Mika! What happened?" Yuuki called as she ran toward Mika. Yuuki squatted down and lifted her wrist to Mika's forehead, where they both had the crescent moon. The wound on Mika's leg healed instantly. The black wolf nodded. She turned her head to where she had come from.

"Ok. Let's go." She said turning to Shiki and Rima. They both nodded, and Shiki sighed. Yuuki jumped on Mika's back. Mika was about as big as a bear. Shiki and Rima followed. Rima was jumping from tree to tree and Shiki was just running after Yuuki. All shifters had a natural running ability. They ran for a while and then found out the most horrifying thing in their whole life. The whole Cross Academy was on fire. All the students were panicking. The headmaster was trying to calm them down but it was no use. Kaname, Yuuki's brother, was fighting the hunters. Yuuki widened her eyes and that sight. She didn't want her brother to get hurt, but she didn't want to fight Zero either. A huge explosion made her come back to reality.

"Yuuki! What should we do?" Rima asked. Shiki closed his eyes for a while. He opened his eyes again.

"Yuuki, me and Rima are going to help fight with Kaname. We'll make sure we don't hurt them too badly. You go help the Headmaster calm the students down, and then try to find some that are strong enough to help us with the battle. Got it?" He explained.

"Right." Yuuki and Rima both said.

"Ok, ok… Everybody calm down. Ruka, Kain, Aido, and Maria. Come with me. Headmaster? Can you handle everything from here?" She yelled to all the students.

"Yes. And it's father! I'm so proud of you, my daughter!" He called back.

"Right… OK the people I called come with me!" Yuuki continued. They all followed her to the battlefield. There were even more explosions now.

"Wow, this really is bad." Aido commented. Everybody glared at him.

"Come on!" Yuuki called. "What are you doing?" They all rushed up to her.

"Kaname!" Yuuki called. She saw a shape walking through the fire.

"Kaname!" Yuuki called again. This time a voice answered.

"Yuu-ki…" He answered weakly.

"Ruka! Get him somewhere safe." Yuuki told Ruka.

"Right!" She ran to his side and helped him get up. They walked slowly out of the battle. The four shifters kept running toward the hunters.

"Zero! Zero! Where are you?" Yuuki called. The smoke was covering everything. 'Yuuki…' a voice whispered.

"Princess? Hey, we're here!" A familiar voice answered.

"Shiki!" Yuuki replied.

"Yuuki! Help!" Rima called. Yuuki ran toward her voice. She opened her eyes wide. Rima was pinned to a tree. Vines wrapped around her.

"What happened?" Yuuki asked confused. Nobody that wasn't at the Academy had the powers to control vines. And if somebody did, they wouldn't go after other students. She looked around and saw… Zero.

"Zero!" She yelled.

"Yuuki… I'm sorry…" He whispered. Vines started wrapping around Kain, Aido and Maria.

"What are you doing? Zero!" She yelled. Zero walked up to her. A silver wolf was with him. Yuuki heard a growl from behind her. Mika! Mika and the other wolf nuzzled each other as if they knew each other.

"Zero?" Yuuki asked.

"Come on. Let's stop this." He said softly. He stretched out his hand. He smiled. Yuuki couldn't help but smile back. She nodded shyly. They walked next to each other, holding hands. Zero released the shifters from the vines. They were free but they didn't move. Zero's parents and brother were on the opposite side of the clearing. Zero turned his head toward Yuuki.

"Yuuki. I'm sorry. I could have stopped this." He said.

"It's fine. We can stop in now, together." She replied. He nodded.

"Mother, Father, Ichiru, I'm sorry. I never told you this, but… I'm a shifter." He admitted.

"What!" They all cried.

"Why didn't you tell us?" His brother said.

"We could have helped you…" His mother added.

"No… You can't help me… From now on I will attend Cross Academy. I'm a shifter, I can't stay with hunters." Zero said.

"Zero, you don't have to do this…" Yuuki pleaded. "Please."

"It's fine Yuuki. I can't stop who I really am. The beast inside me…"

"Zero…"

All the shifters backed away, and soon, nobody was there except Yuuki, Zero, and his parents.

"Yuuki. I'll be staying at the Academy. Please." Zero said

"Ok Zero, but if you don't want to you don't have to do this." Yuuki pressed. Zero turned to his parents.

"Mother, Father, Ichiru, next time we'll see each other… We will be enemies." Zero said. He took Yuuki's hand and walked away in the spring breeze.

Ichiru smirked. "I'll be waiting, Zero… I'll be waiting…"