"I don't need weak things."
He murmurs into his skin, fangs just shy of his pulse. He smirks when it jumps, and presses closer, the only thing separating them layers of fabric and their very skin. And the scent of blood.
Ichiru winces internally at the admonition, that firm slap in his face that trailed off as a tilt of his lips, the warmth of his body, and the rumble in his chest, that silent laughter. He hated him, in a different way than he hated his twin, and it was vicious. He pushed the sword in further, almost to the hilt, feeling it against his ribs and the wound that never seemed to stop burning.
Blood, their blood, flowing through their wounds, and the thought of it sickens him, but it makes him laugh. With a sword through his ribcage. Fucking masochist, he thinks, and coughs when the hilt is driven closer to his wound, the pressure of it leaving his left side electric and raw.
Rido laughs, so close against the silver haired boy's ear, and he smirks as he convulses against him. Like a child. He wraps his arms around his thin frame, a parody of a hug when he feels the sword's hilt hard against his chest-- it would bruise, but not for long. The boy coughs again, he's trapped and crushed by this embrace, and he's losing consciousness fast and fluid.
"There, there..."
Another murmur, mocking and arrogant and twisting the fibers of rage so tightly bound in the Kiryuu boy's heart that he growled at him-- weakly, quietly, but Rido heard it. And he smiled.
Perhaps, he wasn't a weak thing at all.
+x+x+x+x+x+x+
He walks around the Academy like a man on a Sunday stroll, the boy slung over his shoulder and the boy's sword in his free hand. He'd uttered a name before he fell unconscious, and he'd gone into his mind to see what that name was connected to. People uttered the most interesting things when they were dying, and the boy was no exception.
A mirror image, painted in red and white and black and the dry-scale gray of memories fast-fading, cascading through his fingers but never going away. An apologetic look, an annoyed look, a fierce tug at his heart strings- never to break, only to strain. But, oh, he loved him.
Footsteps on cobblestone floors, and the sound bounces off the barely illuminated walls of the prison buried beneath the school's charming halls. He thinks that the Headmaster is a hypocrite, but then again, who wasn't?
He hears panting, smells the blood that was similar to the boy's, and he knows in that instant, who this boy was calling for.
His nephew's pet. The Hunter-turned-Vampire. His older brother. His servant's pawn...?
Time to make a bargain, then.
"...Kiryuu Zero-kun... we finally meet."
A silver head snaps up, and lilac eyes widen. His lips part in a whisper, surprised and breathless. "Kuran...Rido..."
His eyes, Rido notices, were filled with darkness. Shadows. Darker things than the night and the nightmares held within it. When he saw the boy perched on his shoulder, he saw rage, vengeance, and the pulsing red of madness. The growl of a beast in chains.
"What did you do to my brother?"
The boy stirs, mutters his name again, and Kiryuu Zero responds, hurriedly, concernedly, "Ichiru."
"I want to make a deal with you."
There was no other option for him, and the blood trickling down onto his shadow -blood that wasn't his- is as good a bargaining chip as any other hint of imminent death coming from the boy on his shoulder. They were twins. And...
Their bloody communion was a sight, an act to behold. And so he did.
+x+x+x+x+x+x+
Yuuki -Juuri- clawed at him like a crazed witch, nothing in her eyes anymore, and Kaname's blood on her hands. She screams and thrashes against him, and that notion that she was like Juuri -was Juuri- is gone, dispelled from his mind by the blatant truth before him- she was not his precious sister. She was their daughter.
His nephew lies fallen at the feet of his new pawn, bound by vines whose thorns dug into his skin without a thought, dying but not quite dead-- Zero was being generous, he had yet to rip his heart out (he could see it in the way his fangs barely hid behind his lips). Ichiru watches from the shadows of the trees, the skin on his arms covered with with cuts criss-crossing with slashes, and the hem of his coat in zig-zagging ashes. And with blood on his lips.
"...Yuuki..."
The sound of breaking bones, the vines tightening their hold and almost pulling the pureblood into the ground, a gunshot that silences him and which makes Ichiru sigh at (he thinks) the messiness of it all. Rido smirks, and grabs the girl in front of him by her throat, choking her and silencing that banshee-like serenade she insisted on continuing. Zero winces, and Kaname fixes a glare at him, and pure hatred is passed on back and forth between them.
Just like him & Haruka.
The thought makes him laugh for a moment, and she bites him, drawing blood. He clenches his hand, and she tilts her head back, her eyes rolling and her fingers scratching at his hand. His servant needed to be punished.
Oh, Juuri, he thinks, and then, the sweet sound of defeat.
"..Yuuki...Yuuki...Yuuki... YUUKI!!"
Yuuki Cross' body hit the ground with a thud. Zero was on his knees, sobbing and pounding his fists on his nephew's chest, Kaname's eyes were wide and unseeing as he screamed his beloved's name repeatedly, and Ichiru was leaning against a tree, looking the calmest out of them all-- no, that wasn't it, he looked as empty as Rido felt. Their eyes met, and his belief is confirmed.
Rido watched him, transfixed, until he, too, fell to the ground.
+x+x+x+x+x+x+
He finds the Shirabuki princess beside Ichijou Takuma's body, and the command was out of his mouth before he could even finish it in his mind.
"Bind her."
Zero moves like lightning and water snakes, frighteningly quick and fascinatingly fluid, and strikes down the pureblood with a roundhouse and a foot to her -easily breakable- neck.
"R-Rido Kuran-sama? What's going on--"
He doesn't like her, and turns instead to the Ichijou heir lying dead to the world just across her. The movement is enough for Zero to guess (know) what he wanted done.
A hard stomp of his foot, that satisfying crack, a gunshot for good measure, and then he was by his side, like a silent shadow at his heels. A shadow dragging along vines and the scent of roses.
It was difficult to bend down with Ichiru slung over his shoulder again, but he does, and he examines the boy's wounds. Ichiou had not gone easy on his grandson, and perhaps that was a compliment. The boy wasn't very far from dying, and it wouldn't take long if he just left him there. He chances a glance at his new pet, whose eyes are as dead as the vampire before him, and he asks,
"Can you carry him?"
Zero pauses, and after a beat, nods his head.
They leave, walking to the sounds of death and destruction, the cries of a pureblood gone mad, and the hell-throes of vampires losing their pseudo-immortal lives.
+x+x+x+x+x+x+
A voice calls out to them, to Zero, but the boy only falters for a half step before moving on. The voice gets weaker as they walk away, but the tears that flow from Kiryuu Zero's dead eyes -as dead as the vampire over his shoulder- only fall faster and heavier with every step they take.
Ichiru sleeps on, and Rido thinks about his next move.
+x+x+x+x+x+x+
The towers crumble,
the palaces fall,
the boy who thought he was king
is beaten by nothing
but a child who has no sanity,
no heart
(but it's broken)
none at all
And the man who has him
in the palm of his hand
has come once again
to this king-less land;
he thinks
before he leaps
and pats every pet
he keeps
(with his hand)
+x+x+x+x+x+x+
Author's Notes: Welcome, one and all, to yet another of my sick fantasies. This time, it's about Ichiru and Rido, and the relationship that I perceive between them. This is just the start though, and there'll be more to come. For now, some explanations:
1st Division:
Everyone remembers this part, right? When Ichiru attacks Rido with his sword, and Rido says 'I don't need weak things'? Okay. I twisted it, so that when Ichiru moved to stab him, Rido turned to face him, thus receiving the blade head-on. As he could not be wounded by such an attack, he moved closer to Ichiru to 'at least get some use out of the little thing'.
The wound that's mentioned after Ichiru pushed the sword in further is made by Rido, when he was still an arm's length away and Ichiru had tried to pull the sword back (presumably for another attack).
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2nd Division:
I hope you guys don't hate me for this. In this part, Rido decides to take Zero as his own, if not to spite Kaname then at least to have another pet/toy. Rido offered to spare them both if Zero (and Ichiru, when he awakened) did his bidding-- his bargaining chip was 'life', specifically, Zero and Ichiru's. Yes, Zero accepted. You tell me why he wouldn't.
Yes, Zero still drank from Ichiru (that's why he's got the vines in the next divisions), as Rido watched/played voyeur (XD). Something else happened in that last line, can anyone guess? :D
(answer! at the later divisions... in the next part!!)
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3rd Division:
(author laughs evilly) XD YES! I DID IT! I broke Yuuki's brain! wh00t!
Rido had lured Kaname to him (using that awesome, yet-to-be-expounded bond), which made Yuuki follow him. The guys were led on a wild goose chase (they were stuck in the school--- I'm improvising here, don't sue me over the make-do's), so they weren't able to follow Kaname. After Kaname arrived at the spot where Rido was, Rido attacked him, dealing him an almost-killing blow. Then, Yuuki tried to attack him, but she was stopped by Zero, which caused her to pause, and gave Rido a chance to attack her, but Kaname saved her (I'm gagging as I write this part), thus ending up getting attacked again. This sequence continues for a while, until Rido knocks Kaname down into a state of unconsciousness.
The scene after this is what I wrote up there. Kaname just woke up after Yuuki's banshee-screams.
Ofcourse, the guys got out somewhere in the middle of the Rido-Zero-Kaname-Yuuki fight, so Ichiru had to go and take care of them. He used a combination of Hunter/Vampire charms and sword skills to fight against the vampires (and win). He collapses, because even with these awesome powers, he IS wounded, and the vampires aren't exactly helpless.
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4th Division:
More improvisations! Rido and the Kiryuu Twins arrive just as Sara Shirabuki comes to see the outcome of the Ichijou-battle. Does she know that Rido is alive/has been resurrected? Not sure. It doesn't matter much, now, anyway. I guess it did, but then, only for a vert short time.
And yes, Zero can break pureblood necks. Thanks to Rido. And Ichiru. And that awesome footwear (it's Converse!! jks, XD).
Why is Rido carrying Ichiru? Because Zero was busy playing sentinel. And breaking pureblood necks.
Why does he ask Zero if he can carry Takuma? Because it would be bothersome if he ordered Zero to do it, and it turns out that he can't. There's another reason, but I think you guys can get that one by yourselves :D (I have faith in you~)
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5th Division:
The voice was, ofcourse, Kaien Cross. Toga went off to see the vampires, and he's the one who finds Yuuki's dead body, and Kaname in the middle of a insanity-jag (hmm, I may write a Toga/Kaien take on that scene...).
So Rido's carrying Ichiru, and Zero's carrying Takuma. This is already me flashing the pairings in your face. If that still doesn't cut your mustard (how does one CUT something like MUSTARD? It's, like, cutting KETCHUP), here: Rido x Ichiru; Zero x Takuma x Zero. What, you don't like it? Then why the heck did you keep on reading? __
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The POEM: is just the first half. There's more. In another part (damn do I love cutting these things up!).
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So, that was my take on what should've happened at the end of the anime. Because I absolutely HATE Yuuki. And because I've grown to LOVE Rido, Ichiru, and Rido x Ichiru. And because I already ADORE Zero (doesn't stop me from torturing him, though...). And because Kaname needs to be humbled sometimes (he's got Zero in most fics already, and my taste buds were starting to rot--- can they do that?).
I hope this doesn't freak anyone out too much. Then again, if it makes you want to review, then go and be freaked out-- tell me so in your review. But if you genuinely liked this thing, then review-- it makes me want to write more (and write better).