A/N - Hi there! Thank you for clicking on my story - very nice of you. This is my first multi-chapter Vampire Knight fanfiction, so some of my characters may be OOC in the first few chapters, but if you tell me what's wrong I might go back and fix it - at least the first chapter should be rewritten at some point. Enjoy!

Kashi-Cookie-Monster

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'Thoughts'

Chapter One

"Welcome back from the holidays, as you can see we have a new boy this year and I trust that you will all make him feel very welcome!" Headmaster Cross smiled happily at the excited class, but oddly enough not Yuki.

'Dear me, she must be late again!' Despite living only a couple of blocks away in the hostel that Headmaster Cross ran, she always managed to turn up late. 'Damn and I so wanted to introduce her to Zero.'

As if on cue, the door opened again and Zero stepped aside to allow the entrance of a short, slender girl with brunette locks and startling chocolate eyes that fluttered closed as she let out a yawn, rubbing her fists over them.

"Yuki, you're late again!" The headmaster reprimanded, his whingey tone taking away any of the threat that the telling off may once have contained. "I wanted to introduce you to Zero Kiriyu. He's going to be with us, so you're the ideal candidate to help him find his way around campus.

'Isn't he a little old to be in my year?' Yuki thought as he looked him over. He was a hell of a lot taller than her, but that didn't necessarily mean that he was too old to be here. It was the facial features and his build that gave him away – he was starting to lose the lanky build that belonged to guys her age, instead made up of lean muscle. Yuki pasted on her brightest smile, her eyes crinkling up as she fully faced the headmaster. "Sure!" She spoke out enthusiastically, before internally punching herself as she realised just how enthusiastic she sounded. "I mean I don't see why not."

Yuki turned back to the room, seeing all of the seats filled except for a small table in the back left corner. "Looks like that's us, ok Zero?"

"Riiigght… Yuki was it?"

"Yep!" Yuki turned and grinned again, startling and blushing at how close Zero was to her, his chest almost brushing her back as her pace slowed.

"Ah!" Yuki's eyes widened comically as something hard hit against her calf muscles, toppling her backwards, before squeezing shut again as she waited for the inevitable impact.

It didn't come. Instead, a soft cold hand wrapped around hers, another landing gently on her waist as it stopped her fall and coaxed her back into a standing position.

"You need to watch where you're going!" Yuki's eyelids lifted for her gaze to meet harsh eyes of coal, ringed deeply with a purple red. He was glaring, his face full of unwarranted anger.

"Well there's no need for that, I only tripped!" Yuki glared back and turned to face whoever had tripped her, fully prepared to shout at him or her, only to find that it was only an it.

She had fallen over a chair leg. A damn chair leg.

"Hey, you need to keep your chair tucked in!" Yuki screamed at the chair's owner and began preaching about Health and Safety, much to the poor boy's embarrassment. Luckily for him, Yuki was dragged off by her new-found friend and thrown into her seat.

"Hey, get off me!"

Zero sighed. "You have such a temper, you-"

"You don't know me!"

"That kid couldn't squeeze his chair in. Just look at him... he's eating right now."

"Well then, maybe he should go on a diet!"

"Yes, Yuki, maybe he should."

"He's the reason there is never enough cake in the cafeteria!"

"You're the reason that there is a high pitched squeak in my ear."

"How dare you! You're so rude!"

"Says the girl screaming loudly about some poor obese kid."

"Poor obese kid? His lunch could feed the whole of China!"

Zero lifted his head fully, his obsidian orbs burning holes into hers. "Once you've started something, it's not so damn easy to stop. It's damn difficult and people like you don't make it any easier! You think you know best, about something that you have likely never experienced. Don't preach understanding unless you do."

Yuki's eyes widened further as their teacher called for silence and she tuned everything out. Zero was right; she had no right to say the things that she had. She needed to apologize to him, and she thought it out until the bell went, only for her silver haired neighbour to leave the second the bell went, not waiting for her. She couldn't blame him.

"Zero, wait up!" Yuki called after him, but of course he did not.

They had multiple other classes together after that, sat together as they both arrived late. Yuki was surprised in the first lesson (not because he was late - he no longer had a guide) but at how civil he was, accepting her awkward apology without a response, merely turning his head down furiously to glare at the desk. He wasn't particularly rude to her, unless brushing her off occasionally could be considered as such. He spoke well enough to her about the work and the school, but the moment anything remotely even broached his personal life he clammed up.

She fizzled out as the day went by and her attempts became less and less welcome. He visibly darkened as the day went by, his eyes becoming duller and duller and his body set on edge, all twitchy. Was he waiting for someone to attack him? He kept looking at the clock, was he so desperate to leave, did he have anything that he would rather be doing?

He'd vanished completely during the break and lunch, and he did so when the end of school bell went too. She hadn't seen him at all until today, did he even know where the hostel was?

"Zero!" She called out, finding herself yet again chasing the silver haired boy. But once she'd pushed through the others leaving the room, Zero Kiryu was already gone off of the face of the earth, and Yuki turned to go home without him.

Most of the kids travelled by bus or car, or walked in the opposite direction from her; into town, so Yuki ambled down at an unhurried pace. At most only a pet cat or occasional neighbour would fear her walking into them as she walked home, her mind deep in thought.

Today those thoughts were of Zero, so much so that she barely noticed when the most familiar person in the world to her waved from where he waited, leant against the tall building that was her home.

Now Zero's, too.

"Yuki you are slightly later than usual. Is there something on your mind?"

"Kaname!" Yuki grinned, meeting his gaze with her own shyly, even after she had known him for so long. The school, in a way, had started to create a rift between them, and she missed the easy friendship and comfort that they had once shared. "Are you here to see the headmaster?"

"Do I need an excuse to come and see you now, Yuki?"

"No, I-uh just..." Yuki smiled again and fidgeted with the back of her hair awkwardly. "Are you going to be staying?"

"Do you want me to?"

"I... of course!"

He smiled gently down at her, his deep melodious voice rumbling quietly. "Then I shall stay."

"Good! You can stay next door to me again Kaname!"

"Can't I stay with you? We could have a sleepover." Yuki giggled and blushed as she brushed off his words. He was more like a brother to her than anything else, and even if he weren't he wouldn't want someone like her. She'd seen the people that he hung around with at school, generally the same age as him and much more mature than her. Even if she had been the right age, she was nothing close to them with their stunning athletic bodies, large breasts and high confidence. Those factors never changed, and Yuki herself agonised for hours over her flat chest and rounded stomach in front of her full length mirror. Her arms and legs too, were scrawny rather than lightly toned. That didn't stop his teasing from bringing pink to her cheeks however.

They raced each other up the stairs, waving at Chiru as they passed the reception desk. Headmaster Cross owned and mostly ran the Hostel, but employed Chiru to keep things ship shaped while he worked at the school. He still employed her during the holidays though, because she needed the cash and it gave him time to work individually with each of the kids. She was a nice lady with kids of her own, three of them too young too stay at home on their own so she brought them in with her; often all four of the during holidays and on Saturdays but only two on school days; one usually went straight home and the other was dropped off by a friend (sometimes Yuki) from the school across the road from her own. Although different circumstances had brought them there, everyone soon settled in to behave as a family, accepting Chiru and her offspring as part of it even though they didn't live there and were a family of their own. Headmaster Cross had offered them rooms every now and again but he always knew that his offer would be refused; Chiru owned a house that had been passed down to her by her mother and so didn't have to pay any rent or mortgage, she only had to pay the bills and have enough left to care for her family of five. Her husband had passed away while she had been pregnant with her youngest (the reason for which remained unknown to Yuki) and unfortunately had also left her with a large amount of debt. Once that was paid off, she would hardly need so many hours and would be able to either cut back or save up for a 'rainy day'. Chiru was obsessed with saving, she wanted to leave something for her kids. Working outside school herself, Yuki couldn't blame her.

They never locked the rooms that didn't belong to anyone as Headmaster Cross liked to give the idea that they were 'always open' to anyone, regardless of if they could afford it. If they stayed long enough, the headmaster and Chiru would try and get them back on their feet and into their own accommodation, particularly if they were past the age of 25, at the person's request if they were younger than that. Yuki laughed as she dodged past Kaname to open a door on the second floor, the one that Kaname would be staying in, only to meet a sudden shock, her mind and body freezing at the beyond unexpected sight.

Zero Kiriyu had taken the room next to hers and was unpacking when he whipped his head up to glare at their intrusion, his eyes slightly darker, the rings slightly deeper. He crashed the box he was going through out of the way, sliding it against his sofa; the long term residents here had a lounge sectioned off from their bedroom and a slightly larger bathroom. The box clinked as it landed – delicate objects colliding rather than glass or plate breaking.

"What do you want?" Zero asked them, pleading, his voice so desperate and needful that Yuki's insides melted and her eyes prepared to water. She wanted to reach out to him, but his previous behaviour had indicated that maybe she shouldn't.

Thankfully, Kaname recovered first, apologising sincerely. "I'm very sorry that we have barged in like this. We had not been informed of a new tenant here, and I hope that you can forgive our intrusion."

Zero only glared further, his face becoming cold as he looked Kaname up and down. "Polite words for a doped chav."

"I have no idea what on Earth you are talking about."

"Aw, c'mon. I can see it from here."

The two boys stared at each other unblinkingly, tensing as they eyed each other up. As a high school student, it wasn't a difficult leap for Yuki to realise that without intervention this was going to be a fight.

"That's ok," Yuki smiled and reached out a hand to Kaname, gently pulling at his arm. "We can find you another room Kaname."

He stared at her for a moment, his eyes running over her face before he nodded. "You're right, Yuki. We can just find another." He allowed himself to be pulled to the door and the turned back to Zero. "There would be little sense in us fighting. I would like us to start as friends."

And then he left closing the door quietly behind him without waiting for a reply.

"Kaname, come on." Yuki called behind her as she carried on down the hall, this time knocking before entering the room on the other side of his own. "Look, this one's free. You can stay here."

"I suppose it is just as close to you as the other."

Yuki blushed. "I-uh... Kaname?"

"Yes, Yuki?"

"What did you mean back then, when you were talking to Zero?"

Kaname smiled, and reached out a hand to her head, stroking her brunette locks. "Nothing overtly important."

Yuki frowned; they looked like they were seriously about to go at it! "Still, I would like to know."

"It's no concern to you, Yuki. I would prefer that you find out on your own." And with that he entered his room, pulling the door behind him and leaving Yuki alone with her thoughts.

Day One End

R&R
Kashi-Cookie-Monster

xxx