For the love of Lily

Summary: Kaname just wants to be a knight in shining armor on a white horse for Yuuki. But the white horse in question has different plans...

Pairing: Kaname x Zero, mentioned Kaname x Yuuki, perhaps a smidgen of Zero x Yuuki, (but really it's mostly one sided Lily the horse x Zero.)

(I can see people hurriedly clicking the back button already XD)

Disclaimer: Woe is me, for I do not own Vampire Knight.

Author's note: I haven't written in a long time, and sadly my muse came crawling back at last in the form of this little bit of fluffy cracky silliness. . . This will probably be about three to five chapters. I can't imagine stretching out something so silly much longer...

This takes place after chapter 42, so yes, there are spoilers. Don't read if you're not up to date.

Chapter One - The reluctant stead

Kaname Kuran wasn't really the sort of person who sat around feeling smug about himself. Not often anyhow. The truth was, nobody would have blamed him if he'd flaunted an enormous insufferable ego around school all day long. There was a lot to be smug about if you were Kaname Kuran.

Kaname Kuran had it all. Immortality, grace, beauty, elegance, intelligence, power, athleticism, devoted worshippers, the opportunity to have almost any partner he desired, money, coolness. . . You name it. Kaname was even good at writing poetry and making creme brulee, not that anybody knew about these little facts. Everything he touched turned to glory, it seemed, and everywhere he went he encountered desire and admiration.

To top it all, Kaname didn't sit about and revel in how wonderful he was. He had honed a quiet and becoming sense of humility. You would never find him bragging; other people bragged for him. Kaname didn't feel the need to impress people, simply because everybody seemed to be impressed by him already (and besides, all those worshipful gazes were so tiring.)

After years of being worshipped, adored and admired he'd never thought he would ever want to vie for anyone's attention, or be really envious of anybody. He'd also never thought he would feel nervousness or apprehension.

And yet, and yet. . .

On this particularly vexing Saturday afternoon he found himself tremulously approaching a pair of baleful eyes, wanting its owner's acceptance, needing their approval. The owner of the eyes was beautiful, graceful and slender, long limbed and lightly muscled, ill-tempered and proud. . . with a glossy white coat and a well-tended mane. Lily the horse was his objective, and she let out a warning horsey snort as Kaname slowly approached her pen in the Cross Academy stables.

Kaname had done his homework on Lily. She was somewhat notorious around school apparently. Her well-heeled hooves had kicked many an unsuspecting boy's backside. It seemed she let nobody tame her, accepted no-one on her back and had no qualms of lashing out at anyone. And how that proud, noble horrible temperament fit her.

It was the first time Kaname had entered the school stables (vampires tended to make horses nervous, and out of respect for the creatures he had let them be all these years) and he had to pause in his slow approach to appreciate her magnificence. 'If Lily was a vampire and not a horse,' Kaname thought, 'she would have been the most beautiful, most tempestuous, most awful pure-blood of them all.'

But she was a horse, and not a vampire, and for some reason Kaname would have far preferred the latter, especially in lieu of her vicious gaze. Even Zero, that brooding anti-social ungrateful prat, he who had mastered the art of the glare, would have looked positively sunny and cheerful next to the demonic visage of Lily the horse.

"It's okay," Kaname addressed the horse as quietly as he could, trying not to let the nervousness he felt show. "I won't hurt you." He was still a few feet away from her, but he slowly stretched out his hand to her.

He could see the whites of her eyes as she neighed angrily, surveying the hand which was still too far away for her to bite or kick at.

'Nothing to be afraid of Kuran,' he reminded himself, feeling slightly annoyed at his own hesitance. 'Even if she does kick or bite you you are a pure-blood vampire, with lots of power and amazing regenerative abilities.'

He felt slightly more confident at that. What a creature she was, that she had made him forget himself and recede into such frail, such human uncertainty.

'And you're doing this for Yuuki,' he added to himself, resolve strengthening even more at the thought. Yuuki was the reason he had disturbed the peace of the stable area. It wasn't that she had asked him to do this either.

He'd accidentally heard her talking to Yori, that friend of hers last night. Even with the new changes in her life Yuuki had still wanted to make time for her human friend, to indulge in simple girl-talk with her. And he'd unfortunately walked past her room at the wrong moment in their conversation.

"Are you and Kaname-sama really together now Yuuki?" had been the first thing he'd heard. He'd tried to walk away, too proud to eavesdrop on a simple female conversation, but unfortunately Yori's next sentence had halted his footsteps. "But you don't look that happy Yuuki."

Was she not happy?

"I'm happy Yori-chan," Yuuki's voice had been quiet when it came, and thoughtful. "Very happy. It's just not the happiness I imagined." He could hear her smiling brightly in spite of the words, and his heart had ached a little at that. Typical Yuuki. Always determined to smile for others' sake. He didn't want her to smile to make others happy, he wanted her to just smile, genuinely. His fist had clenched slightly. Was it that abominable silver-haired grouch she missed? Was that what hindered her happiness?

At this point he was full-out eavesdropping.

"Most of the time the real thing is much better than what you imagined," Yuuki had continued in that brave, cheerful voice. "It's just, you know, I'm a vampire now. And that's kind of different to the fantasies I used to have in my head. Vampires are not bad people, but... Flowers wither when I touch them. Little animals run away when I approach." A hesitation. "I don't mind, I always wanted to be with Kaname, I always wanted to be his princess, and for him to be my prince on a white horse but. . . "

There had been a moment of silence.

"There are no white horses, right?" Yori had prodded gently, perceptively. "Just vampires, right? And dark, vampire things? Not sweet, happy things?"

The silence in answer to that had been enough. Kaname had strode away, quietly, determinedly.

So she really wanted white horses and princes, did she? He had done this, he had turned her back into a vampire, rupturing her away from her sweet but short mortal coil. It had been necessary, but Yuuki had such a sweet nature, she deserved sweetness in return.

Well... who said vampire-princesses couldn't have vampire princes on white horses too?

Thus the reason why Kaname was now approaching the pristine white horse before him. Perhaps he was taking her words too literally, but perhaps a literal demonstration with a white horse was exactly what Yuuki needed.

Lily let out another blaring whinny, tossing her head in agitation. He was almost close enough to touch her now. He could smell her, feel her chaotic thoughts careening around in her head, feel the warmth of her breath and her body. So alive. She wanted to bite him desperately, he could feel it.

"Don't bite me Lily," he murmured soothingly, stepping forward slowly, hand still stretched out. He'd heard that horses responded well to gentle conversation, and indeed Lily was eyeing him as if she understood. "I'm doing this for my only precious girl, you see." Were her eyes softening? He stepped forward again. "I know you don't seem to like people, and I'm sure you definitely don't like vampires, but surely a creature as noble as you would understand a plight of such a noble thing as love. . . argh!!"

Her teeth clamped down on his hand midspeech. Chomp.

Chomp.

She had bitten him.

After the initial startled yell he'd let out Kaname immediately reverted to coolness. Years of practice had given him the ability to be calm even when in pain, and he impassively watched his hand clamped between the horse's teeth, his own inviting blood streaming down his arm in red rivulets. The horse's eyes seemed to be glowing with evil and satisfied malevolence. He watched the scene with detachment for a moment, and then snatched his hand away calmly.

He glanced at the hand only for a moment. The horse had bitten her hardest, it seemed, almost to the bone. Even with his healing abilities there would be a scar for a while. He coolly dropped the hand to his side after the cursory inspection, ignoring the excruciating pain easily. Pain was only temporary, no need for it to distract him. He set his eyes on Lily, who seemed to be wearing a horse's version of a smirk. Her intelligent eyes were positively triumphant.

"Biting the hand that could have fed you. Tsk, tsk," Kaname murmured. "You're going to make this difficult for me, aren't you Lily?"

Her head seemed to drop down and then back up. Was that a nod of agreement? What an awfully magnificent creature.

Kaname kept his gaze on Lily's black eyes. "You've chosen the wrong person to bite," he said evenly. "I'm not giving up. I'm doing this to make the only precious person in my life happy, and even if you and I become embroiled in a battle of wits and teeth for eternity I'll do this. I will emerge victorious."

Lily snorted, an ungraceful unladylike 'harumph.'

Kaname nodded at her, somewhat respectfully. "But I'll let you gather your wits whilst I go and take care of my hand. I'm not an unreasonable opponent to horses. You may have won this round Lily but I'll be back soon."

He turned to walk out of the stables in a dignified manner, ignoring the horsey snickers that followed him outside.

A/N - I don't know if anyone even remembers the small scenes with Lily the horse, but she's a pivotal character in this fic. (I loved the scenes with Lily and Zero XD) Zero was supposed to show up sooner, but oh well, he'll be in the next chapter. . . So will Lily. And yes, this is definitely Kaname X Zero, don't be fooled P

As you can see, Yuuki and Kaname are together and Yuuki is a vampire, as they seem to be at the end of manga chapter 42. . . but I'm loftily ignoring the rest of the plot and pretending everything else is fine.