1. A More Humane Setting

Zero walked, hands in pockets, down the snowy front walk and up to the little wooden porch of the Cross household. The steps creaked as he put his weight on them, reminding him how old the familiar house was. With a minute frown, he knocked on the door, lost in his thoughts.

As she was sitting at the rectangular birch wood table in the kitchen whilst sipping hot cocoa, Yuuki heard a tapping sound coming from the front of the house. Abandoning her cocoa, and in essence, her father, Yuuki hurried to the front door and pulled it open, which caused it to bang against the wall. She stood there beaming with her usual cheery smile as she looked out at Zero standing before her. However, Zero reacted not as he was lost in his memories of the past.

"Zero!" Yuuki called out to him, taking a step out onto the welcome mat. Having stepped on a particularly icy patch of snow, she slipped and grabbed at his sleeve, catching herself and nearly pulling him down with her. She had been overly intent on shaking him out of his reminiscent state and bringing him inside, enough so that she'd lost all caution. Fortunately, her fall caused him to react.

His reverie disturbed, Zero silently looked at Yuuki and pulled her back up to her feet. He had expected as much of her; she never seemed to change, even after all this time. He sighed a bit as he finally allowed himself to be guided inside her home. Kicking off his boots for the moment, he turned to watch Yuuki as she leaned back against the door, closing it with her body's weight. Yuuki brushed her hair behind her ears as she slowly lifted her head to look up at Zero, her eyes serious.

"Zero..." Yuuki began as she pushed herself off and away from the door. Unfortunately, she was interrupted by her father's sudden entrance from the kitchen where she'd left him previously.

"Yuukiiiiii! Zerooo!" Kaien Cross called childishly as he sped into the room and made a leap for the two of them standing almost side by side. Both teens sidestepped the man and let him crash face first into the floor with a rather loud smack. Grunting, Cross put his hands on either side of his head on the floor as he pushed himself up onto his knees, looking up at his two juniors with sad eyes.

Ignoring him, Zero spoke. "We need to get a move on, Yuuki, or we'll be late for school," he spoke coolly as he walked towards the door again, and stepping back into his boots, he grabbed Yuuki's arm in the process. Paying no attention to her protests, he dragged her out the door and away from her father, leaving her with barely a second to get into her boots and grab her coat.

Once outside with the mahogany oak door shut firmly behind them, Zero pulled Yuuki down to the walkway before he stopped and turned to look at her, her arm being released from his grasp at the same moment. "What is it that you wanted to say to me inside?" He demanded of her as she took her time to fix her wrinkled clothes and pull on her puffy pink and tan winter coat.

Yuuki was taken aback by Zero's straightforwardness so early in the morning. However, looking down at her stylish tanned boots, she chose not to respond. Instead, she tried to walk past him. To her dismay, however, he would not let her off the hook so easily.

"Yuuki, I won't ask you again."

To his annoyance, she still remained unresponsive. Throwing his hands up in frustration, Zero walked on ahead of Yuuki, leaving her to decide for herself whether she'd walk with him to school or not. Before long, he heard her following behind him, her boots crunching the packing snow rather noisily, as he slid his hands into his pockets to keep them warm.

...

This is my first fanfic, and I'd love to hear some feedback from anyone who reads this. Also, if you see any sort of typo or grammatical error, please inform me.

For those wondering why it sounds a little off from the anime (I have not read the manga), it's because I'm not trying to make it the same. See if you can understand what I mean by reading the title over again.