Cliché
Summary: Zero has always hated clichés, but as with everything, Yuuki is his exception.
When she was younger, Yuuki had been given her first book by her father. She had only been seven at the time, and he knew that, with Kaname and Zero around, she wouldn't get much female exposure, so he bought her a book. A fairytale book.
Though she wasn't as young as when normal girls read fairytale books, she still loved it. Loved it so much, in fact, that she decided Zero had to read it, too.
Puttering into his room, the book clutched in her first, Yuuki plopped down on his bed. Zero's eyes snapped open, then shifted to her. "Yuuki? What are you doing?"
"Reading to you!" She said brightly. "It's gonna be your bedtime story!"
"…I was just asleep." He deadpanned, and Yuuki pouted.
"Well, I'll still read it to you anyways!" She stuck her tongue out at him and propped the book into her lap, flipping it open to the first page. Zero's lips twitched upward when she wasn't looking, and he closed his eyes again, listening to Yuuki's voice, high and soft, like a caress, as she read to him.
"Zero?" She called his name softly after she was done. "Are you asleep?"
"No." He replied, cracking open an eye and looking at her; she smiled at him in response.
"So what'd you think?" Zero paused, scanning her face, smiling wide and happy, and didn't have the heart to take away that happiness, so precious to him, like the girl herself.
"What does what I think matter? What matters is if you liked it." Zero answered. The corner of Yuuki's mouth started to fall.
"Your opinion counts to me." She whispered, looking down at her book. Something inside of the silver-haired male twisted at her sad expression, and without thinking, he reached out a hand and placed it on top of her head.
"I thought it was sweet. Not something I would read on my own, but it was okay."
The smile returned and Zero relaxed. "Really?" She asked in a small voice, and Zero nodded. The grin on Yuuki's face widened, and she climbed into bed beside him, Zero's eyes widening at the action.
"I'm tired." She told him, snuggling up into his side, looking up at him with those big, hazel eyes. Sighing, Zero pulled the covers over her, making sure that she was warm and comfortable. She smiled at him, closing her eyes and lying her head close to his. "Night, Zero." A few minutes later her breathing evened out, and Zero laid there, watching her.
"Night, Yuuki."
Zero didn't sleep until much later that night.
----
After that, Yuuki devoured books. Although she didn't have much time for it, what with her school work and Guardian duties, whenever she wasn't doing that, she was reading. Zero took pride in the fact that Kaname didn't know about Yuuki's reading fetish until about a year later, when she had been sitting on the Chairman's couch and Kaname had come to see him. Zero had been sitting next to Yuuki, listening as she giggled and watched her as she smiled.
He may have thought it was stupid, but whatever made Yuuki happy and smiling was fine with it.
"And just what is Yuuki reading?" Kaname asked, coming over and peering over her shoulder. She said something in English, something that neither Zero nor Kaname understood, but each nodded as if they did. "Since when have you known how to read in English?"
"Oh, I taught myself, since--" she cast a glance at the Chairman, who was watching her, smiling. "Since my father started buying me books, and not all of the ones I wanted were in Japanese, so I taught myself." She offered Kaname a bright smile, and he gave her a tight one.
"When'd you learn how to read?" She stared at him, and he corrected himself. "I mean, when did you get into reading?"
"A few years ago." She grinned proudly, and Kaname looked startled, Zero observed smugly.
"Ah. I see." He then turned to the Chairman and began to discuss with him what he had originally wanted to do, and Yuuki stared at Kaname for a few minutes, eyebrow raised in confusion, but then she returned back to her book.
----
Zero may not have understood Yuuki's reading infatuation, but he did understand that it was important to her, and so he bought her books that he thought she might like (the sappy romance kind) for her birthday, and also for Christmas. And each time he was rewarded with a tight hug, a bright grin, and later on, a happy Yuuki.
Yuuki is Zero's happiness; why shouldn't he give back a little bit of happiness that she so freely offers him?
Though he DID have to admit that he was sort of lonely without Yuuki, what with her constantly reading.
Zero glanced outside; rain was pouring, and they had no classes, what with it being Sunday and all.
Tap tap tap.
He wondered what new book Yuuki was reading. She seemed to enjoy those really girly, romantic ones. He had tried to read one, once…he was permanently scarred.
Tap tap tap.
The plot wasn't bad, really, it was just so…Zero wrinkled his nose in distaste: romantic.
Tap tap tap.
Or maybe she was reading one of those sci-fi books…she was also into those. A lot of those that she liked to read of the sci-fi books included medicine…or well, was in the thought of medicine. A lot were about viruses.
Tap tap tap.
"Zero?"
He almost thought that he imagined that soft, high voice, until he turned his head and their eyes locked. "Didn't you hear me? I was knocking on your door."
Not too long ago you would've barged into my room, no knocking necessary. At one time, he had thought it slightly annoying. Now, with such a casual gesture seeming so formal, he found himself missing it.
"Sorry." He muttered, and scanned her over, noticing a new book in her hands; he smirked. Romance. Of course.
Yuuki seemed to be steeling herself for something, he noted with interest, before she came over and sat next to him on his bed. He raised an eyebrow at the tension in her shoulders.
"I like to read romance books." She blurted out. His eyebrow rose higher. "The "chick-lit" kind of books."
"So I've noticed." He responded dryly, but she ignored him.
"And I've noticed that in almost every romance story I've read…the girl has a guy best friend. The best friend is in love with the girl, but the girl is in love with another guy. A lot of times the guy is handsome, rich, popular, and exactly what the girl's looking for. Or, at least, she thinks so, until the end of the book when she discovers she loves her best friend more, because he's always been there for her, and that will never change."
Zero's eyes narrow at her, watching as she chuckles. "I know you noticed how cliché my books were, what with your obvious hands-off approach to my reading, and I'm not mad at you, since I myself could never tell why I liked these books so much. I told myself that it was because it was cute, the two main characters getting their happy ending with each other…and then I realized…"
Yuuki inhaled deeply. "I was living one. The same kind of stories I liked to read was basically like my own life. Well, not exactly…"she smiled, and he knew that she was thinking of the kinds of monsters she associated with, and how that wasn't very common in the kinds of books she enjoyed.
"In quite a few of the stories, the best friend knew things about the girl that the guy she was supposedly in love with didn't know." She looked at him expectantly, and he stared back at her before glancing away, out at the sheeting rain.
"Your favorite color is cerulean. Not just any old shade of blue, but that light, clear blue of the ocean, because you love swimming. In direct sunlight, your hair has red highlights. You sleep with exactly four pillows, and you fall asleep on your right side, hand underneath your pillow, but you always wake up on your back. It normally takes you forty-three minutes to an hour to properly wake up in the mornings. You take three sugars and a little bit of milk in your coffee in the mornings. You like to sleep in late whenever you can, and sometimes when you're not supposed to."
She smiled at the last line, but didn't reply to his observations. "Finished?" She asked.
"No. But that's all I'll give you." There was no need for her to realize just how deep his obsession for her was. Her lips quirked upwards regardless, and she moved closer. He attempted to move back--she was invading his personal bubble!--but she grabbed his shirt, holding him close to her.
"Zero," Yuuki sighed, then bowed her head before picking it up and staring him in the eyes. "In almost every one, the happy ending is with the girl realizing how much she loves her best friend, and they wind up together." She smiled. "So I'd like my happy ending, too."
Was she…was she seriously suggesting what he thought she was?
But she was still watching him with those ever-hopeful eyes, and she was right, right in so many ways. Right that he loved her, had loved her he was first brought to the Cross Academy and she had cleaned the blood from his skin and held his hand, had put up with his silences and flat looks.
Yuuki had saved him in more ways than one. And he would do anything for happiness, but he had never believed that his own happiness would be entwined with her own.
"Please." It was just one word, but it broke his barriers, the way she broke his walls.
He grabbed the back of her head, wrapping his fingers in the smooth, soft strands, then he pulled her forwards, his lips meeting hers. Her fingers cupped his jaw, and…she kissed him back.
I want this kind smile and these gentle hands.
He just never thought he'd have it.
When their lips parted, she breathed his name, and Zero's heart, which had been hammering against his ribcage, shot up to his throat. She smiled at him, then laid her head against his shoulder. "Thank you."
Their story was not a fairy tale. Yes, she was the beauty and he the beast, and she had saved him, but it had not begun with a Once-Upon-A-Time. No matter what, he would still be a monster, and their ending would not be a Happily-Ever-After, because he was still destined for madness.
They wouldn't have a Happily-Ever-After; all they had were the Little Moments In Between, and for now…that was enough.