Author's Note: Okay, I promise I'm still working on Coming of Age and chapter seven is definitely almost done. But this idea was rolling around in my egghead for ages! If I get an idea it's usually gone in a couple of hours, but the inspiration for this just kept coming and coming . So here it is… Enjoy XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight it belongs to the wonderful genius Matsuri Hino nor do I own a company… so please excuse any mistakes in accordance to the information pertaining to Kaname and Haruka's ^^'

Haruka had been sitting in his room for hours. Some of his company's stockholders were complaining about the current policies that they believe will lower their high stock prices. Of course, the people are always right, they all have degrees in business and many of them can tell the future. Haruka hated having to deal with people like this: the ones that seemed to wholeheartedly believe that they knew the best moves to make in every situation. But his board of directors wanted him to compile a presentation of all the changes in policy completed in the last four years. So here he sat, in his secluded estate in the valley.

The mansion was much too large, even for him, a spoiled pureblood vampire who always got what he wanted, but he never felt truly happy here ever since his dear Juri and his precious Yuuki had passed away. Yuki had been the light of his life, her perpetual smile had kept him going through all the idiocy he dealt with on a daily basis; Juri was the same, her simple scoldings had brought a smile to his face every time she tried to reprimand him. Then only four months ago, Rido, his demented brother had gone insane, burning through small villages searching for Juri and little Yuuki. And despite his constant warnings about traveling through the countryside, Juri had taken it upon herself to see her human friend, Yuna Wakaba, and her family a few hundred miles away...with Yuuki. They lived in one of the villages that Rido had destroyed, and on Juri's way there, she ran into him. She really had no chance against him and even more so since their little daughter had to be defended as well.

The Kuran king lowered his head onto his hands; these events always brought a stabbing pain in his chest, like no matter how much he breathed, there was not enough oxygen in the air. He closed his burgundy eyes, willing the tears that were forming there to vanish; after all, it was unheard of for a pureblood to cry, even when situated in his own chambers. And despite the ample amounts of work piled in front of him, Haruka could not stop his mind from wandering back to four months prior when he lost the two women in his life dearest to him.

It had been mid-august, he could recall the never-ending wind blowing through the city streets with people—humans mostly—constantly complaining about the chill in the air. He had just come home fro the office and Kaname came running up to him as soon as he entered the house. His son was always happy to see him, even if he almost never showed it. But this time, his eyes were red and wide, not from the blood-lust he so rarely experienced, but from crying for what seemed like hours on end.

Kaname had been unable to make any coherent words come from his mouth, his hiccups and sniffling getting in the way each time, so the young prince called for Simon, the city-house's head servant. It was Simon who was forced to tell Haruka to terrible news.

He didn't go to the office for the next month at least, not with a burning desire to track and murder Rido had festered in his gut. His brother had finally crossed the line. The preparations for his leave took some time, but eventually he accomplished all he needed in order to take off. The night before however, Kaname came into his room begging his father not to leave him alone; his son did not beg. He was more prideful than most and usually kept a stoic face about him. It was this small fact and the look of desperation evident in his son's eyes that convinced him to stay.

Instead, He sent a recon party to look for any clues to Rido's current location. They had come back only a few days later with no information—apparently, his damn brother had fallen off the map with no evidence as to where to find him.

After that, things started to become normal once more. But even now, only four months later it was impossible to wake up and not see his darling Juri laying there next to him. And this country estate, it was torture being here where Juri and Yuuki had been so fond of. Sometimes he could still hear the his little girl's laughter echoing through the near empty hallways. Haruka's only solace in coming here was to get away from that abhorrent city with Kaname who, ever since the tragedy, had insisted on traveling with Haruka on all his business adventures.

Ah, his son would be a handful if he ever became a rebellious teenager. He had a way with getting whatever he wanted from anyone, not to mention his aptitude for finding and creating trouble. Haruka smiled to himself; yes, Kaname would be bugging the staff right about now. He stayed on a strict schedule of behaving for a couple hours then promptly flipping a one-eighty and causing as much mayhem as possible in fifteen minutes.

It was getting closer to dawn now; Haruka had been working on these pointless files for over three hours and had gotten almost nowhere. His company did not often change around their policy, but when they did, it was a major change, usually involving multiple reasons, reactions and more people to put on staff. Apparently, to please his board, he needed to elaborate on every little enhancement and explain the reasons and the reaction each had within his company. He let out an exasperated sigh; if he kept at this pace, it would take him at least another day.

He allowed himself a small smile. If it would take him another twenty-four hours anyway, he might as well stop for now. Besides, he was hungry, and his cook was underworked anyway.

0o0o0o0o0o

Four months. Almost half a year he had been trapped. And finally, when he gets away this happens. He had the most unfortunate luck.

Snow wouldn't stop falling over his eyes, dampening his already soaked hair, freezing on his clothes, or what was left of them, and making them heavier by the minute. Moving was becoming a chore, a distasteful and hated chore. He just wanted to lie down in the snow, it looked so soft, like the blanket he had kept on his bed in case of chills. He missed his old bed, he missed the familiar smell when he buried his tired head into the pillows and the comforting warmth accumulated over years and years of use.

But he couldn't stop moving; he needed to keep going, keep his body moving and the blood flowing. So he trudged on, dragging foot after foot in a desperate attempt to stay alive. He didn't know how long he had been walking, or how far, his mind stopped tracking the time as soon as his body hit the frozen air outside his prison. He did realize that he wasn't more than a couple miles at the most from the damned place, so he wasn't going to let his body stop just because of some cold weather.

He didn't realize when he left the open fields of the farmers and wandered into the dense forest. He did sense the warmth, or the lack of freezing winds, that the cover was providing him. After a couple of minutes, his mind started to work properly again. All the scenery around him looked as familiar as another planet's inhabitants. The land felt different here too. Not like the farmer's fields he had mindlessly passed through. No, it wasn't simply a working class area anymore.

He kept to the denser parts of the forest, shying away from the wind cutting through the trees. He needed to stay warm, and keep his path as straight as possible, if he veered anywhere near his previous prison, then they would find him, and they wouldn't let him go again.

He couldn't let that happen.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

"M'lord?"

Haruka looked up from the soup that Kaname had attempted to make while he had been working. Not to say that it was poorly made, but his son would never make it as a cook, or in anything to do with food. The servant in front of him was this estate's butler, the one in charge of all other personnel on his payroll. "Yes, what is it?"

"Our resident charm-caster just picked up an intruder coming in from the northern border. He's heading straight for the mansion at a rather slow pace."

"What's this intruder's status?"

"It's been registered as an ex-human, newly turned and his condition seems to be falling rather quickly. His body doesn't seem to be firmly rejecting the change, but it is in such a state where the boy could die at any moment. What action would you have us take, sir?"

Haruka stilled for a moment. If it was only a boy, and a newly turned ex-human, that meant the threat was low. But if this boy were to fall to a level E before he reached the house for help, then he would need to have him eliminated. But if there were any chance that he could be saved…

"Send a team to retrieve the boy and bring him back here for immediate treatment, have somebody send for the doctor right away."

"Yes, M'lord."

Haruka and Kaname sat in silence, the younger vampire worried slightly for his father. Usually he wouldn't be, but there was something about his posture that made him anxious. "Father, what's wrong?"

He didn't want to bring it up considering the involvement it had with Juri and Yuuki. Haruka had a feeling that the boy he was about to let into his house could be the very reason that Rido had killed Juri and Yuuki. There was a story of a hunter family living in that village, the same where the Wakaba's were and the same where his two dear girls had been murdered. These were well-respected and well-liked hunters, by both the hunter and vampire society; they never took unfair missions and helped Haruka and Juri promote coexistence. Rido had known of this and was not only furious, but very curious of such a family. Apparently, though it was only speculation, the hunters had two fairly young twin sons that were in the process of training, and even the vampires knew of the hunter twin curse.

Nobody knew exactly what happened to the family after Rido attacked, but the mother and father had been found dead inside their house, but neither of the two boys were every seen or found.

"Father?"

The older pureblood smiled at his son, only slightly reassuring his young mind, "Don't you worry about it, Kaname. How about you go and help the servants prepare a room for our unexpected guest?"

Kaname huffed, clearly displeased by the idea of actually assisting in cleaning a room and making it appear pretty and lived in even though it wasn't, but he didn't argue with his dad, nobody dared to do that.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was getting harder and harder to keep going. He didn't want to stop, not now and not ever. He would keep running from that place forever if he had to; he would never let them catch him.

The forest was still very thick around him, but the trees were beginning to thin, making it easier for his exhausted body to move, but also letting him know that a clearing was on its way. Good… perhaps he could actually rest despite his very real instinct to keep moving. But a rest would be good—besides if he pushed his body too much it could give out on him and he would die out here, or worse, get caught again.

To keep his mind occupied, he recalled the last time he had attempted escape. The following punishment had been hell, circle nine. His captors had starved him, both of food and of blood, making his descent into a level E very, very near. They had continued to whip him, making sure his frail body never healed. And… he shuddered, strong vampire auras were making their way to him—he could feel them. If his senses were still intact as they once were, then he figured about five common vampires and one noble were closing in on his location.

They weren't coming from his prison, so he relaxed only slightly considering they were still vampires, but they were still headed straight for him.

He moved into the nearest bush, trying to escape the vampires' senses. He realized the basics of his training stated that doing so would only agitate the vampires and it wouldn't help anyway. But his survival instinct had kicked in a while ago and it definitely was overriding his hunter training.

He sat silent for a couple minutes, hoping to any god that would listen that the vampires hadn't actually been looking for him; he didn't know what he would if he got caught again. But soon enough he heard muttered voices, a chuckle here or a curse there. Maybe he could get the drop on them…

The ex-human's body had a completely different idea. The only reason he had been able to make it his current location was all thanks to the adrenaline flooding his system, the instinctual need to survive. But now that he had stopped moving and his body had a chance to catch up, he wouldn't be moving any more. He could feel it, the lead weight settling on his limbs, making his eyes heavy with fatigue. He willed his body to move, anything, that could get him away from this new threat. The voices were dangerously close, he could actually hear every word spoken or muttered under a breath. Maybe they wouldn't notice him…

Black and silver dots began dancing before his eyes, he tried with all his remaining will power to keep them open, but his exhaustion finally caught up with him and he blacked out.

Hope you enjoyed it! I had so much fun writing this and I will be continuing soon! Let me know how you liked it so I can make any necessary changes :D Also, if it seems too much like other fics you've read send me a note and I will try my best to stay away from other author's plot lines... ^^; I always feel bad when I read somebody else's fic and it's like exactly the same as mine :P

Ciao 3