A/N: This one-shot is completely AU, so I couldn't even tell you when this is set. Theoretically, it's around the students' time of graduation (1 or 2 years after the beginning of the series). It is the aftermath of a war involving Cross Academy.

Warnings: Implied!MajorCharacter!Death

Disclaimer: This is fanfiction, which kind of implies that I don't own anything. Otherwise, this would be original fiction. And it's not. None of the characters belong to me. I just borrowed them.

Of Falling Petals and Grieving Hearts

The half-destroyed building of the Night Class was a desolate sight, and yet, given the damage done to the entire Academy, it looked defiantly majestic in the red light of dusk.

Yagari sighed.

If someone had told him what he was about to do a few years, or even a few weeks, ago, he would have hit them.

Shot them, probably, when they were being particularly annoying.

Purposely, he entered the building. Every wall, every stone seemed to radiate grief, and its inhabitants didn't look in any way more cheerful.

Takuma Ichijo, usually the vampire with the sunniest disposition and one of the few tolerable ones, welcomed him solemnly.

"Yagari-san, please enter," he said, the hint of a smile disappearing from his face before it festered.

Yagari just nodded grimly. He couldn't help it. He'd tried – really, really tried – not to see those vampires as anything else but the beasts in human form they were. However, after a few weeks of constant siege, having witnessed them risking their lives to protect the humans occupying the Academy and helping each other, it had been inevitable to feel a grudging sort of respect for them. Having watched them struggle and despair and yet refusing to make sacrifices, he'd even come to view the young vampires as comrades.

That did not mean he wouldn't like to shoot Hanabusa on a regular basis.

He looked at the bleak expressions of the Night Class. They'd failed what should have been protected. They'd sworn to protect the little girl, but all their efforts and hard work had been for naught.

The vampires didn't wear their usual school uniforms. There wasn't a speck of white in their formal clothes. The contrast to their pale skin made them look almost translucent and a little sickly.

Hanabusa for once didn't move or speak; he didn't even look at the hunter. His cousin sat beside him, a protective arm around his shoulder.

"Where…?"

"In his room, Yagari-san. He has given you free entrance," Ichijo promptly replied, sitting down beside Shiki who looked fragile and heartbroken. The poor boy was probably drowning in guilt.

'Poor boy?!' his more rational, hunter-trained mind immediately protested, but Yagari shut that voice down immediately. Cross would have wanted him to… Well, he would approve of his presence here.

Stubbornly and mutely, Yagari made his way to Kuran's room. Before he could knock, the door opened by an invisible hand. The pureblood aura was so strong Yagari instantly prepared for a fight, though he knew this was absurd and quite futile as well.

"Yagari-san, how have I earned the honour of your presence?" Kuran asked with detached politeness, looking at him with pointed disinterest.

"He refuses to attend to their funeral," the vampire hunter cut to the chase immediately, not bothering to further clarify who he was. There was only one person Yagari cared about deeply enough to go to a pureblood vampire for help.

"Oh?" Kuran did not sound surprised. "I cannot say I blame him."

He didn't utter anything else, but Yagari could easily deduct what the vampire didn't say.

'If politics didn't force me to attend, I would do the same.'

This was precisely the reason why Yagari was here in the first place. Both had been forced to watch their parents being buried too early in life (and it burned Yagari to feel sympathy for the pureblood, but he did. As dangerous as purebloods were, Kuran had been a child). Now both had to say goodbye to that girl they'd loved more than life itself. Yagari had learned quickly that all of Kuran's actions served the benefit of Yuki. He'd used his own entourage, he'd used Zero (Yagari gritted his teeth at the thought), he'd used everyone including himself to protect Yuki Cross. Only a fool could have overlooked Zero's affection for her and his readiness to serve as Kuran's knight to protect the queen.

Yagari had never liked chess. You had to sacrifice too many pieces. They'd won the game, but they'd lost the queen. Today he was here doing his duty by protecting the knight in this story.

"I know he doesn't want to, but he needs it. He won't go if I ask him to, but he will if you do," he then said.

"Kiryu-k…" Kuran stopped and began anew. "He has never obeyed any of my orders. Why would he listen to me?"

"Because he knows that you feel precisely the same."

That was all he had to say. As he was about to leave, Kuran's voice stopped him.

"And you don't?"

Yagari faltered and cursed himself while doing so.

'Never show weakness to a vampire, never show weakness to a vampire, never…'

Kuran's words, as usual, had a double meaning, and the hunter was aware of it. He decided to retaliate immediately, "You know who did it?"

"Yes. He died in the Siege."

The Siege.

It seemed like this glorious mess had already earned a name.

"Who killed him?"

"Kiryu-kun."

Six purebloods had entered this war, with only one on their side, who'd ironically been the only one to survive. Zero had killed two, and Rido had not yet risen when she'd been turned. That left…

"It is not Kiryu-kun's way to hurt his prey, Yagari-san. I wish I could tell you that he suffered."

Yagari only nodded. The young vampire probably knew that he was torn between feeling proud of Zero's clean kill and anger that the bastard pureblood hadn't felt the pain he'd inflicted so many years ago. Disturbed and angry, he left the room and moments later the building as he made his way to what would later become Cross' and Yuki's final rest.

He didn't know whether he wanted to kill Kuran for distracting him, or thank him.

Zero absentmindedly combed Lily's coat. She continuously tried to distract him by affectionately nuzzling her soft nose into his body, but apart from kindly stroking her every once in a while, he didn't react.

His mind was full and his heart dangerously fragile. If a vampire entered this stable with the intention of killing him, he wouldn't even try to defend himself. He simply didn't see the point.

"Yagari-san told me that you have no intention of attending the funeral."

As if on cue, the mellow voice of one particular vampire sounded from the stable entrance.

Unfortunately, it was unlikely that Kuran had come here to kill him.

Not today at least.

"I don't," he replied. Lilly was being remarkably tolerant of the other vampire's presence, but that was probably because Zero had just said more than for the past few days.

"I could use someone to… watch my back," the pureblood sais a bit hesitatingly using a phrase that Zero had used in the final fight.

"You have an entire group of willing followers ready to do just that," Zero replied a bit coldly, but his aloofness originated in melancholy, grief and fatigue, rather than hatred.

"I know, but they are drowning in guilt as we speak. Neither of them has met my eyes since…" Kuran's voice sounded as tired as his. Zero looked up and, for the first time in days, he was able to see beyond his own misery. The pureblood had never made it a secret that Yuki was his priority, Zero had simply decided to view it as obsession rather than actual care. Sympathy welled up and the hunter's eyes softened.

"I'll cover you if you cover me," said he, unable to help the bitter smile.

Kuran had been an excellent – dare he say it – brother in arms on the battlefield. It was time to see if that was also true away from it.

The vampire's lips twitched, but the smile never saw the day of light. "Thank you."

Zero softly returned Lilly's affectionate caress and straightened.

"Careful, Kuran-senpai! Never show weakness to…" vampires, "the enemy."

"Thankfully, there isn't an enemy in sight," was all the pureblood retorted and Zero felt a lump form in his throat. They weren't exactly friends – Zero couldn't imagine that they could ever be friends – but this comradeship he could deal with.

After all, Yuki would approve. And she was still the only thing that mattered.