Title: When...
Fandom: Vampire Knight (anime only)
Character(s): Zero Kiryuu
Summary: When...when had we gotten so close without me realizing it? How long has it been since the day we met, the day where she changed me.
Disclaimer: I own my character, Sapphire Crescent. Vampire Knight is not owned by me and if it were well Sapphire would be in that series to make Zero happy again~!
When…when had we gotten so close without me realizing it? How long has it been since the day we met, the day where she changed me.
I hated the headmaster for allowing her to stay when he knew very well the danger she could face by being around me or anyone in the area, but he insisted that she had no other place to go and he was not able to leave her on the streets.
He forced me to stay behind to help clean up the broken academy even when I did not want to be anywhere near the place that caused me so much pain.
"I'll be your ally Zero." Her words were almost like poison when I thought of the girl who betrayed me from the start. I opened my heart to her and she toyed with my emotions as if I were just a doll.
Sapphire Crescent, the only thing I knew about this girl, whom I had gotten close to, was that her parents refused to take her back when she pleaded with them that the school was being shut down. She always wore a smile, even after everyone knowing her secret, and remained helpful no matter the task given to her. She gave me hope without me even realizing what she was doing. I didn't know her before this because she was not in my class and I didn't take the time out of my life to know all the girls of the day class when the only one I cared for was Yuuki Cross—or should I say Kuran.
"Hey Zero, why the long face?" Sapphire asked, looking at me from an angle to see my face, but I quickly looked away not wanting to face her directly.
"Just thinking about someone I once knew." I responded, giving a poisonous tone to the word 'once'. I hated how Sapphire had always asked about my expressions, I already knew the looks I was giving, I didn't need someone to remind me.
Her perfect blue eyes, her dyed blue hair in attempts to be different though her roots of blonde were slowly coming back, everything about her made me want to hate her for digging into my life, but at the same time I just could not hate her.
She only tried to help me, she only wanted to see me smile, but every time she would mention smile I would instantly frown, only thinking of when Yuuki would tell me the same thing.
"I really didn't know you before just a few months ago, but to be quite honest I'm happy to have met you now rather than before." Sapphire smiled, looking at me with her innocent human eyes.
Or was she human? How would I know, I was deceived before it could happen again.
"Why did you allow her to stay? This place is dangerous, she could get hurt, what if I lose my sanity I can't promise her safety if that happens!" I yelled at my headmaster, my adopted father, not wanting another innocent life to be taken away. Never again was that going to happen.
"She had no other place to go, she told me her parents refused to take her back and will not stand for her to be around them. I remember she was one of the few girls to stay behind for winter break as well. I don't want her out on the streets not with vampires roaming around. She is safer with us and under your guard. It is up to you if you want to keep yourself a secret to her or not." The headmaster ended the conversation with that and walked away from me showing me that no matter what I said she was going to stay.
"Stop saying things like that." I muttered, looking at her sweet smile turn to a disappointed frown. She looked so sweet and innocent, how could she be anything else but what she appeared like to me.
"Never, not until you realize that I consider you my friend. Your past means nothing to me because I know you now, not the you from the past." Sapphire pouted and crossed her arms, looking away from me as if to show she was mad at what I had just said.
"You wouldn't know." I replied, walking away from her before she could say something to persuade me to stay by her side. She was all I had left in this world after Yuuki left with Kaname. I was not going to ruin her innocence by telling her the only secret precious to me, she was not going to know anything about my past.
"You ruin everything Zero." She called out in the distance, the sounds of her words showed she was crying, crying useless tears that were never going to change anything.
I just want to protect her innocence, I just want her to continue smiling as if nothing was wrong in her life, but who was I to say that, her life could be just as bad as mine and I wouldn't know a thing.
A knock sounded at my door, it was late at night and I was just about to retire for sleep. I knew it was Sapphire, but she confirmed it by saying, "This is Sapphire, can I come in?" Before I could even say an answer she opened the door slightly and peered inside. Seeing me on the bed, I nodded and she brightened up and opened the door fully. She then closed the door behind her and walked to my bed, sitting down beside me and looking at me directly in my eyes.
She seemed so serious, so cold, she reminded me slightly of myself for a second.
"Both my parents were killed by a vampire." She stated, looking away from me and towards the ground. I instantly shot up from my seat on the bed and looked at her. I could not see her face, but I knew she was crying from the sounds she was making. "They protected me and allowed me to escape without the vampire noticing."
I remained silent, not knowing what else to say to her as she continued on with her story of her past. The innocent girl I had once thought of her as was disappearing gradually from my sight, and there was nothing I could do about it.
"No one found out, no one cared enough to take me in to their home. So I enrolled in this academy far away from my town in hopes of forgetting everything. It was going so well until I met you, Zero." She looked up from the floor and stared into my eyes. She didn't look like the Sapphire whom smiled all the time, she looked broken and weary as if she had smiled in a long time.
"Why are you telling me this…?" I asked, unsure of what to say in a situation like this. She seemed so normal, so happy but she was carrying this on her shoulders this entire time?
"Because from the look of your eyes I can tell something similar has happened in your past. I never wanted to know it personally, but I felt that if I could get you to smile it would make me want to continue living as well." She answered, looking away from my eyes once again as if frightened by what I was going to say next.
"It's true, almost my entire family was killed by a vampire—a pureblood vampire." I didn't know why I was telling her this, telling her the one thing I did not want anyone else to know about me. "Except the only difference was that I didn't come out unharmed."
I knew this was a bad idea, I knew she was going to be frightened of me and say she hates me for what I am, but I couldn't help but bare my fangs to her and show her who I really was; A vampire.
Fear showed in her eyes momentarily before she calmed down and looked at my fangs, almost reaching out to touch them to see if they were real. I closed my eyes and waited for the scream, waited for the 'I hate you for what you are!' but those moments never came. I felt an arm go around my neck, then another and when I opened my eyes she was hugging me and crying on my shoulder.
"You must have been suffering your entire life, and here I was feeling frightened and scared hoping you would be the only one to help me." She continued to hug me, crying—crying for me. "You don't have to go through this alone; I'll be here for you no matter what. Fate brought us together I just know it.
"I'm better off on my own." I whispered, remembering in full detail all the things Yuuki had ever said to me, she wanted me to stop suffering too even though I owed my life to her. It had been a while since I craved any blood, but the only blood I've ever wanted was Yuuki's in the first place and now she was gone.
Sapphire instantly shot up and looked at me with anger in her eyes. "No one deserves to be alone!" She looked hesitant for a second before gaining back her confidence. "Rely on me, if you're really a vampire then take my blood to show me that you are!"
I could see the fear in her eyes when she spoke, I could see her past coming back to haunt her because I was the type of vampire that killed her family, just a vampire waiting to become a Level E.
"Never."
"Do it now!" She yelled and pulled my face closer to her neck, pushing her hair away from the spot and hoped that if she did all of this I wouldn't resist her.
My urges were coming back; my eyes were definitely the color of blood as I looked at her neck, unsure of what to do. I was hungry for blood, thirsty for a taste of the sweet disgusting blood that I had to feed off of in order to survive. I couldn't stop myself; I sunk my teeth into her neck and started to do the one thing I hated most in life—being a blood thirsty vampire.
When…when did I start depending on her? She was just that annoying little girl when I had first met her, but now she looked at me with a longing in her eyes. The head master knew of the forbidden act that I had committed so long ago. How long was it since the first time I sunk my teeth into her neck? A few months? A year? Time seemed to pass by differently when we were with each other.
The school was finally opened after all the construction was finished and everything seemed to go back to normal for the day class students. The night class never returned and I was glad to never see those vampires again, and that included Yuuki.
Sapphire and I were put in the same class after the year had ended and we moved up a grade. The head master said he was going to shut down the school once our class graduated so he took no new students that year and kept to the only class that had been there since the beginning. His dream of having a coexisting school with the vampires and humans backfired greatly when the only vampires he knew walked out on him and turned the academy into a normal school. The kind of school it should have been from the start.
"Zero, why the long face?" Sapphire asked, looking as innocent as usual. She refrained from asking during class to not cause a fuss, but she could tell that I was thinking about unpleasant things once again. "You need to smile more often." She smiled as an example to show it was alright to be happy, but I could not even fake the emotion even if I tried.
I never really was social at all in my life; my only friends were Yuuki back when she was human and now Sapphire whom wormed her way into my heart. I relied too much on her and it almost sickened me. There was no other way to cure my hunger except feeding off of her every week to stop myself from dropping to Level E.
I attempted to smile, but it ended up as a smirk and Sapphire just laughed at my attempts and patted my shoulder since I was too tall for her to pat my head. "Keep it up." She smiled once more and skipped along to talk to some other classmates about god knows what.
I walked away, towards the dorms to get away from all the loud students exiting their classes. The school seemed a lot more peaceful without the vampires around, the girls calmed down greatly though they were quite disappointed at first when they found out the night class was not returning. It made my job a lot easier and allowed me to have more time on my studies and not having to worry about night duty. Occasionally the headmaster will ask me to patrol the area in case of any vampire attacks, but as of yet nothing has happened since the night class left.
When…when had I started to fall in love with her? Her perfect smile, her bright blue eyes, her cheery attitude that always made me want to smile once more. Love had failed me once; I did not want to try it once more.
-But this time it's different, she is 100% human and is afraid of vampires excluding myself. She always tried to brighten up my day and every time she would be away from me I always felt like I was missing something in my life. She was slowly filling in the empty gaps in my heart, and I was allowing her to do it.
My family, my past, my mistakes, my regrets—she makes me want to forget them all just to be with her. But I can't, why should a lowly vampire like me be allowed such an amazing love like her. She deserved better and will most likely find someone better than me. A human falling in love with a vampire, it was just not possible. Not in my mind at least.
"Zero, why the long face?" The same old question. I looked at her, getting away from my thoughts and attempting to show her I was alright, but she knew me too well.
"Just thinking, that's all. Don't worry about it." I commented, looking away from her to hide the emotions that I kept locked up in my heart.
"Well I want to talk to you, in private. Maybe sometime tonight if you have time? We don't have school tomorrow so we won't have to worry about being out too late." Sapphire responded, picking up her things and standing up. "Meet me by the horse stables at 8." She took her leave and went off to talk to some of her other friends.
"What to do now." I sighed and hit my head against my desk, I knew people were looking at my strangely, but I ignored their stares—just like I always have.
Girls have always liked me, I didn't see why, but they would shyly try to talk to me, or get mad at Sapphire when she was around me too often, sometimes I wonder if that's the reason why she doesn't always hang around me anymore. I don't pay attention to their feelings usually, but when it came down to them hurting Sapphire for it, it angered me greatly.
Was I really that much in love with her?
My work was complete for the night and when I stared at the clock in my room it only read 7, I had another hour of waiting, so I decided to just get there early and wait on her instead. She picked the right spot to meet up since most people don't roam around the horse stables at night when there were no classes for it. It had been a week since the last time I had drunk her blood maybe that was why she asked to speak with me in private, to tell me to drink her blood once again.
But maybe she wanted to say something to me, something important and could only be said in private. Well I guess I'll find out.
By the time I got to the stables I had noticed her already standing there looking completely awkward and nervous. She paced around in the same spot and seemed to make herself dizzy once in a while and stand still, waiting for it to pass until continuing the routine over again. I almost couldn't stand it anymore and walked out from my hiding spot to greet her. It was close enough to 8 anyways.
"What is it that you want to speak about?" I asked casually, walking over to her with my attempted smile which only turned out to be a smirk yet again. Will I ever be able to smile again?
"I love you will you please be my boyfriend!" She practically yelled, running forward and hugging me before I could even react.
Huh?
A human who was deathly afraid of vampires just confessed her love to me, me of all people—a vampire, the same type of vampire that had killed her parents. I didn't know what else to do, I didn't know how to react, so I decided to let my heart decide for once in its life and hugged her back tightly.
"I love you too."
When…when was I able to smile again? Was it back when the girl of my dreams confessed her love to me and swore to be with me for the rest of her human life? Or was it when we finally graduated from school together and promised to live with each other for as long as we could?
The memories of our past seemed to be the only thing I wanted to remember and when I look into her smiling face, I'm glad that's all I can remember. She erased all my bad memories and replaced them with the kinds of things I've always dreamed of having, but never wanted to admit.
She opened up my eyes and while she took her time slowly trying to open me up, she did a fine job of doing it in the end.
Maybe I finally smiled the day she said yes to my proposal, or maybe it was our wedding day when I saw just how beautiful she was in her white gown. She had let her original blonde hair grow out and took away the blue from her hair saying she was grown up enough to love her for herself and not something she was not, like a fake hair color or a fake personality.
It doesn't really matter when I started to smile again, what really matters is the fact that she brought back an emotion that I had locked deep in my heart, and she opened it carefully with the right key.
She was truly everything I've ever wanted, and she was all mine.