A/N: About Zero's family, in my story it's really open to interpretation. I didn't want to go into too much detail, because I didn't want to be shoving my opinion down people's throats xD
Prompt: Puzzles and games (Written for a friend.)
Character/s, and or paring: Zero, Mr Soper, Vin, one sided Zero/Vin.
Disclaimer: ...sob... *brings out the tissues*
Unbeta'd.
Zero saw the world as a game.
Life was a game, Pinkerton was a game, and love was a game.
It was all her game. She made the rules. No one could ever undermine her ever again. Her parents had once undermined her. They ended up daughter-less.
'Not that they'd care.' She thought bitterly, as she pulled off the shoes she was wearing and moved into the bathroom next to Mr. Soper's office to get ready for bed.
She pulled on her panda pyjamas, and yawned. She was tired from all the 'paper organising' she did with Mr Soper today. She wasn't allowed to go to classes yet either. She had been to breakfast once, but no one really liked her.
'Except that Vin boy.' She paused while brushing her teeth. He didn't seem to hate her, actually quite the opposite. She had never been asked to be the friend of someone before. Her brother had made sure of that. Even as she mused over this now, she didn't care. Vin was just a pawn in her game.
Zero wasn't strange. She wasn't different either, but she certainly wasn't like the other students. They were all stupid. Zero was smart. No one was as smart as her. Zero was smart enough to never fall in love.
No one was worthy of her love.
She walked over to the couch that she had recently taken residence in, in Mr Soper's office. Closing her eyes to sleep, she smiled softly to herself. It was the only time someone could see one of her smiles that wasn't filled with lies, regrets or broken promises. It was just a genuine smile of a broken girl.
As she slept, she didn't know that in the boys' dorm, a little blonde boy was thinking about how he and Zero would get married and be the happiest couple ever. The boy drifted off tiredly with a smile on his lips. He would befriend her for real this time, and protect the fragile girl from any evil, because she didn't seem like the type of girl to like fighting away the monsters. He, Vin, liked damsels in distress, but would like it if he had a girl who would fight with him.
She was his Zero.
Mr. Soper noticed quickly that she was certainly different. Her icy blue eyes never seemed to ever be focused on anything. She started at you like you were a complicated puzzle, or like you weren't worth her time. Mr Soper had never seen her look at anyone like they meant something to her; even in the short amount of time he'd known her.
He'd known her for a week or so. Never once had she properly spoken to him without a smirk or a pretense smile.
When he had taken her to breakfast one morning, the only child who had been nice to her was Vin, who had tried to befriend her.
She stated at him for a very long time, and then got up from her seat and turned away, walking back to Mr. Soper's office. She had been staying in there for the amount of time she had been here, and barely said a word, or even ate.
He also noticed the bruises that were hidden behind her hair and around her neck. And she wouldn't tell a soul about how she ended up on the front step of his office, dripping wet and looking like she had seen a ghost.
But he didn't try to get her to tell him about the bruises or her family.
He just told her one thing the next morning.
"If you want to stay here, then there is a main rule you have to agree to. No violence at Pinkerton."
She, of course, agreed.
Because it was all part of her game.
