Vampire Knight: Innocence

Chapter One

Zero walked slowly down the familiar walkway of the academy. Memories of Yuuki were still flowing over him painfully every time he did so. She'd been gone for several weeks now. She'd deserted Zero to be with Kaname. It sickened Zero. Kaname was a jerk to him and Yuuki had promised to never leave him alone. The Chairman, his foster father, had also been down because of this. No longer did he cook homemade dinners; he just ordered pizza or they went out. Most of the original night class were gone, too. Now only left were Shiki and Rima. The night class had lots of new students though. Eleven new students. All vampires. Weird ones, too. The day class girls didn't get excited as much as they had when Kaname was around.

Zero also hadn't been able to guard the school as well as he once had. The chairman had noticed this and found another student to take Yuuki's place. He had entrusted Yori, Yuuki's "best friend", to the secret of the school and had her guard the school with Zero. Zero didn't mind this as much as he expected to. She was understanding and nice to him. Best of all there was no Kaname in this picture.

"Do you like it Zero, did I do a good job", Yori asked anxiously to Zero for the second time since Zero had zoned out again. Zero looked down at the drawing of the sky and smiled slightly.

"Yes, I do, Yori."

Yori smiled brightly, "Here, I drew it for you", she began while handing it to him, "Your birthday is tomorrow, what do you want to do to celebrate?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing", he repeated lamely.

"There must be something we can do. Maybe you and I could make a cake or--"

"It's just not the same anymore. . ."

"Yuuki on your mind again?"

"This is the first birthday I've had in a long time without her. . . I feel like going down the drain."

"Don't say that! We need to move on. Yuuki doesn't need us anymore. I'm sure she's doing just fine anyway."

"With Kaname," he groaned miserably.

Yori cupped his face in her hands, "Please try to forget her."

Zero took her hand and nuzzled it, "I can't do that, Yori. Yuuki was everything to me. Everything. Just as we were getting so close. . ."

Yori sighed and looked down, "Well, you're getting a bit overdue for your blood tablets. Let's go."

"They don't work for me. There's no point."

"Don't work? You didn't tell me that."

"I need real blood. . . I need Yuuki's."

Yori turned away sadly, "I need to get to my dorm room, I have homework."

"Okay. . . See you tonight?"

"Definitely", Yori said while walking away.

Yori paced the dorm room. She wished she still had Yuuki as a roommate. So Zero is in need of real blood, she thought, Whatever am I going to do about that? I can't give him my blood-- he'd never, I couldn't-- or would he? Or could I? She sat down on the bed and opened up her backpack to retrieve her math book and notebook. And what about Zero's birthday? I've got to get his mind off of Yuuki. . . Just for a day. . . She shook her head and tried to concentrate on her work.

The door flew open, "Yori, I'm back!", Yuuki screamed in delight, "How's everything been? I hope I haven't been forgotten!"

"Yuuki?"

"In the flesh!"

"Yuuki… What are you doing back?"

"Just thought I'd drop by."

"Just go."

Yuuki looked furious for a split second, "What was that?"

"You heard me, Yuuki. You've caused nothing but pain and suffering."

"Seems you're not going to be a very good girl, are you?" Yuuki said while coming closer, tilting her head, and rubbing Yori's cheek, "That doesn't sound too good."

"Don't touch me", Yori said while trying to pull away.

Yuuki's eyes turned a glowing red and she smiled mischievously . She took a tight hold of Yori's arm, "I'll show you how I deal with friends like you", she craned her neck to where her jaw was right over Yori's neck and she bit down, hard and began sucking blood.

Yori froze. She was terrified. Suddenly she was falling, deeper and deeper into a black nothingness. As she fell what looked like translucent holograms of Yuuki and Zero and Her were all around. She tried to call out but no sound was made she could feel her teeth sharpening to where they were that of a vampire's. and then-- nothing. No, it wasn't nothing. She could hear something, a drum? Was it? Her heart beat, no, that wasn't it. "Yori. . .", She could hear faintly along with the drumming. Finally, she sat up. It was a dream, and Zero was getting her attention. So I fell asleep, she thought, It was a dream and now Zero has come for me-- I'm late! She hopped out of bed and swung her door open, "ZERO! I'm sorry! I fell asleep while doing the homework and--" She turned back and ran off.

"Are you okay", Zero asked while cautiously following.

Yori was standing in front of a mirror, examining her teeth, "Everything okay", Zero asked, now standing behind her.

"Just a bad dream", Yori said smiling at him through the mirror.

"Wanna talk about it?"

She shook her head.

"Well, you're late and the chairman says he has something important for us to do so, lets go."

***

Vampire Knight: Innocence

Chapter Two

Headmaster Cross sat at his desk across from a young looking boy with curly golden hair. Cross looked down at his watch and the boy fidgeted in his chair. "Don't worry, I'm sure your guides around the school for the time being will get here soon. They're usually quite punctual. I wonder what could be taking them so long."

"Oh, it's okay, I'm really just happy to be here. People like me don't usually get opportunities like this you know . . ."

"Yes, I know and I'm happy to hear that you're happy to be here."

The boy just sat up and smiled at Cross.

"Well, I guess while we wait we might as well do something. How about we go over the rules, shall we?"

"Sounds okay to me."

"Alright, lets see here. . . , he began, There are two sets of classes here: the Night Class and the Day Class. You are a member of the Day Class so you will be given a black uniform and you must never go out during the Night Class. But I'm sure that won't be a problem for you. "

"Certainly sounds simple enough."

"No skipping classes, of course. Getting caught doing so will lead to a detention. No"--, the door opened and Yori and Zero came in.

"Ahhh, Yori and Zero! You've finally made it. These are your guides, Eben. Yori, Zero I need you two to take turns getting him to classes and showing him around. He's a new student."

Zero sighed and ruffled his silver hair, "and I thought you had important news for us. . ."

Headmaster Cross's jaw dropped but he quickly recouped, "AHHHHHHH, ZERO!!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!" He exclaimed and straightened up, his eyes now gleaming like stars, "It is your honorable duty as guardians of the school to take care of our precious new students and make sure that all of the rules are in place! Why! If we didn't have you just think of how terrible our school would be", tears were streaming down his face from all of the excitement as he trailed on about the 'honorable duty' of the guardians.

"Here we go again", Yori whispered under her breath while headmaster cried and carried on.

Eben spotted Yori and stared at her curiously from his seat. Yori whispered to him to slip out of the chair and follow her. Eben did so. Once they'd reached the safety of the staircase they stopped. Yori held out a hand, "Hello, I'm Yori."

Eben shook it, "Eben."

"Come on, I'll give you a short tour of the school."

"Okay."

As they walked Yori talked to him, "I would introduce you to the dorm representative but you got here a bit later than most new students so he's asleep." Eben didn't say anything, he just kept following. "Shy guy?" Yori finally asked smiling.

"No. . . it's not that. . ."

"Then what?"

"Well, I don't think I'll fit in with the other kids. Most people here aren't like me. . ."

"Don't worry about it. It's impossible to have no friends here and you already have me."

"You barely know me."

"I'm everyone's friend."

Eben just sighed.

"This is the class you'll be needing to go to tomorrow morning", she said while opening a door and gesturing for him to go in. Eben stepped in and looked around.

"Do you like it?"

"It's a lot different from my old school", he said while nodding.

"Oh, is that a good thing? I don't know where you'll be sitting but tomorrow you'll probably get to sit wherever you want so you can sit with me and Zero if you'd like."

"That sounds good. I don't want to be like scared to sit down, ya know?"

"I know what you mean."

"So where's my dorm room?"

"Well, you came a bit unexpected so Headmaster Cross hasn't filled out all of those papers and such. So you'll be staying with Zero tonight."

"Oh, man, he's kinda weird."

Yori giggled "Yeah, but he's a good person and he grows on you."

"I hope so. . ."

The door to the classroom opened and Zero came in, "Yori, you didn't have to leave me in there with Headmaster Cross."

"Sorry, Zero. It was your own fault. You're the one who started it."

Zero just made a face.

Yori stared at him for a moment and said, "Zero, I'm off to bed. Eben is staying with you tonight so you take care of him."

"Staying with me-- what?"

"He hasn't been assigned a room yet and that's going to wait until tomorrow."

Zero stared Eben down for a long minute or two, "Okay, let's go, Eben. Good-night, Yori.""Good-night, Zero."

Eben waved, "Good-night, Yori."

"See you tomorrow," she said, waving back.

Most of the lights were off because of the time and neither of them exchanged words until Zero said, "I haven't shared a room in a long time, please don't be a problem. I barely get any sleep at night as it is."

"It's only a few more hours until we are to get back up. I'm sure it won't be too bad."

"Yeah, right."

"I'm used to sharing my bedroom with someone."

"Lucky you, too bad I'm not."

Eben was quiet for the rest of the walk and the remainder of the night.

Zero just couldn't get used to Eben. It was like he had a bad aura and he could just taste it. He knew there had to be something wrong with him he just couldn't figure it out. He looked down at the floor, where Eben had volunteered to sleep because Zero's dorm had only one bed. Where is this boy from? He wondered again and again. It seemed right when he'd gotten to sleep he was being woken up by Eben.

"Zero, Zero, isn't it time to go?"

Zero sat up with his arm out threatening to hit him.

"What?"

Zero dropped his guard, "Sorry, you startled me."

Eben gave him an odd look, "I'm going to headmaster Cross now. He probably wants me early to assign me a room." Without waiting for a response Eben turned and left the room.

Zero made it to the classroom just in time and took his usual seat next to Yori, "Where's Eben", Yori whispered to him as he sat down. Zero tried to whisper back but the teacher shot him a stern look that even caused other students to look back at them. It would have to wait until he returns or after class.

There was soon a tiny knock at the door, "Come in", the teacher said.

A scared looking Eben peeked his head in and stepped in awkwardly. His brand new uniform said it all: New Student. "New student", the teacher asked, pulling out the roster to see if he was on it yet.

"Y-yes, sir", Eben replied, he was clinching the text books he'd just received to his chest.

"Well, sit. Anywhere unless I decide otherwise."

Yori looked back and waved her hand high to get Eben's attention and Eben trotted over to the seat on her right side and sat. Yori gave him a pat on the shoulder and showed him what page and which text book to get and get to.

Zero tore a piece of paper and wrote a note to Yori,

"Yori I don't like him"

Yori looked down at the paper and sighed then wrote back on the back,

"You barely know the guy. Cut him some slack. Is someone getting a bit jealous?"

"You know me better than that."

"You need to be more social."

Zero didn't reply to that one. What was there to say? All he had achieved was her believing that he was jealous of him.

--To be continued. . .

Author Note

This was my very first fanfic. I hope it was liked and I hope readers will enjoy it and read the next two chapters that I should be posting soon. ^^ I'm also wondering if I'll get any reviews and how people are liking Eben. I personally adore Eben but I'm starting to doubt his originality and I'm worried that he might end up too much like Zero. . . I'm sure I won't let that happen though. I don't think readers are going to like the fact that there's no Yuuki or Kaname but hey, they left. This is just the continuation of the series prior to the next season. For the readers who hated the Yori thing; I have no intention of pairing up Eben or Zero with her. No need to worry about that.

In the next chapters. . .

Zero begins suspecting horrible things about Eben and starts searching for background information and clues on him. Can he prove that Eben is a lie or is he really just overreacting over jealousy?