Title: Bleeding Hearts
Prompt: March 23 / the petals look like little hearts
Fandom: Vampire Knight
Character/Pairing: Zero, Yuki, Yuki's daughter / Zeki
A/N: Post!Series. And I'm on a writing splurge because despite the fact there are 1000 years of zeki to enjoy, I can't find a single fic for some reason. Am I looking in the wrong place?
And their kids need names. Naaammmessss.
Summary: Once again, Zero had her beat. "It's not fair," she said, pouting, "You're good at everything else already. "
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"Now what?" her daughter asks Zero, her eyes bright and eager. In her small hands a tiny plant sits, its roots tangling through a rectangular block of dirt.
For some reason it makes Yuki think of cheesecake, but that might be just her stomach talking. Sitting across from the two, she glowers and pulls her umbrella a little more so it covers her. "This is not fair."
Zero looks up at her, a smirk on her face. "It's not my fault you're not careful enough."
"The plants should be in sturdier containers," she responds with a pout. Beside her lies the remains of one such plant and she turns a little to avoid looking at it. "Besides, you're good at cooking already. And almost everything else. Let me be good at something for once."
Zero chuckles, before turning back to her daughter. "Gently hold it," he answers while he digs a small hole for the plant. "Then put it here."
Gently. Yuki watches the two. Gently. That is something Zero has always been, especially to her. Rude at times, annoying at others, but that has always been something that lay beneath. Even now, with his interactions with her—no, their daughter. Seven years were more than enough to consider someone a father.
Seven years...that was a long time. Yuki smiles softly to herself. Really, eleven years since that time. As hectic as they are, with the hunters and the vampires, she never expected to be spending a Saturday afternoon like this.
"Now what?" The little girl's voice is impatient as she plops the plant into the hole.
"Not like that," Zero chides, ruffling her brown hair. He fixes the plant's position, making sure it sits straightly in the hole. Pushing the dirt into the hole, he adds, "You put it crooked and your plants will end up like Yuki's."
"Hey!" Yuki snaps back to the present at the insult. "One of them came out straight."
"That's because it's the only one I finished replanting." Zero takes the child's hands, placing them around the plant. "Now you need to firmly pat it in."
"Firmly!" she chirps, her little fingers pushing the dirt hard. "Good?"
Zero inspects it and nods, a smile on his face. "Want to do another?"
"Yesss!" She pauses, looking around at the plants piled around them, at all the plants her grandfather had bought. "That one!"
"A bleeding heart?"
Yuki perks up at this. "A bleeding heart?"
"It's the name." Zero pulls out the small card for plant, passing it to her. "The flowers look like hearts."
"But somehow bleeding." Yuki looks at the small picture, the pink hearts hanging on a branch. Their tiny tails fluttering in the breeze. "They don't look that bloody to me."
Zero looks at her for a moment, almost assessing her. She flushes slightly under the stare, still not used to it. That will take more than seven years. "No, I suppose not."
He's not talking about the plant anymore. She looks at him, at the dirt on his hands and the small girl tugging at his shirt to start the next plant. Her own hands are crusted in dirt and the sun is still bright above them.
"Not at all," Yuuki confirms, smiling.