A/N: Another rewrite. Last I promise. OTL But i'm sufficiently satisfied with the results now. I'm slowly chugging through my story but I felt going back and dressing up old chapters would help me.. Gah, I should stop this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight

Yuuki gasped breathlessly. "Ze..ro..?" Her words faltered as they left her lips. The last syllable escaped in a whisper, a ghost of her former, audible voice. Yuuki's large eyes were pinned on him, petrified and confused. Her mind in a haze over the close space left between them, the distance from their lips growing shorter as Zero's drew nearer to hers. Her entire body locked in place, her bones heavy as if it were made of concrete.

She could feel his cool breath against her skin as he breathed, smelling the faint scent of mint that lingered on. Her heart skipped a beat from the thought swirling in her mind, the blood flow through her veins quickening as her cream cheeks coated a pinkish hue.

Inches from her plump lips, he paused, he was far too close than he'd ever thought he'd ever be with her, to her lips. He hesitated there for a moment. A moment that he felt was frozen as the dull ticks of the grandfather clock resonated through the small room, filling his ears with white noise against his loud beating pulse.

Confliction rattled through the moonlit-haired hunter, his anticipation tempted by every fiber of his being but reason fought against his rationality.

Acutely, he savored the gentle warmth of her palms, losing himself to the singular thread of his existence, the only thing he had to cling onto for all these years; the plank that hadn't let him drown under the relentless undertow of his misery. Instinctively, he leaned against one of her hands that were delicately resting against the sides of his face. He wanted them desperately.

Zero felt Yuuki's shallow breath escaping her lips. The lips that always curved into sweet smiles adorning the beautiful girl he yearned for, never failing to melt away the frost that coated his heart. The darkest depths of his being enticed to the possibility of the touch of those full soft lips over his own. Just once. Selfishly wanting her, just once. That's all he needed to calm the avid beast within him. The beast feasting upon older inflictions buried deep within him.

He didn't deserve her, though. He didn't deserve any part of her for a single instant, never feebly craving something as beautifully bright and iridescent as her with his tainted agonized existence.

The longing constricted rigidly within his chest.

Just once. Just once was enough.

Finality rushing through his veins, he pressed his lips against her lush ones, blissfully tasting her tantalizingly smooth lips against his own. His pressure was so delicate, so tender against her mouth that she could barely feel his touch.

Yuuki's cinnamon brown eyes widened exponentially, instilled with shock, trapped in a numbing daze. But for a moment, just a moment; her pounding heart reverberated so loudly in her head that she allowed her unsettling thoughts to float into smoke, refocusing solely on touch, his touch. His lips pressed more firmly against hers now and her eyes fluttered down into small slits, taking in the warmth of his hands against her flesh.

She was familiar to the warmth that radiated from his large hands; one lightly caressing her cheek, smoothing through her soft chocolate tresses.

She inhaled deeply; the distinctive scent that clung to Zero's skin, to his clothes, had drawn her in, further submerging her mind calmly. She could never identify the pungent scent precisely but it was very… Zero. She knew his scent, knew the warmth of his hands, which wasn't vexing. His kiss, chaste and innocent, was new and particularly inviting but she didn't know how to respond properly to him.

Something inside the core of her washed over, flustered with the feeling, her heart ached along with her stunned mind to comprehend it. Her incoherent and disorganized consciousness mushed together in waves.

Her freely fingertips were still along his pale cheek, carefully brushing soft skin gently till her tips ended to the edges of his jawline. Yuuki lost herself in that moment, feeling somewhat light-headed as he slowly pulled back. His eyes remained hidden behind a silvery curtain of hair.

Her cheeks flushed with a deeper crimson that contrasted her creamy white skin. Her hazy brown eyes glancing up at him, confusion obscuring across her features as her wide eyes took everything in. Her stomach gradually sinking as her thoughts slowly proceeded to process the actions at hand.

"Yu.. ki…" Zero murmured brokenly as his head came to rest against her shoulder, his hands gripping the sides of her arms within his grasp. Suddenly regretting his decision right after it was sealed. The mess he just made for himself. What had he done?

He… Kissed her. The gentle pressure of his lips still left an impression against her own, the taste of his lips still there, the mint she took in and now had mixed with hers. The red had darkened over her cheeks, if it was even possible to be more flushed than she already was.

The brunette was still captivated by the single moment.

What is.. Zero.. to me..

The words resonating within her entirely.