Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight, or anything associated with it whatsoever. Alas, and woe.

Nightshade and Bile

Argentine

The moon was brilliant up in the sky. An opalescent vision of lustrous luminescence against the velvety blackness of the night, ringed by a prismatic halo in a ribbon of rainbow glimmers encircling almost the entirety of the darkened heavens to encompass what lay beneath. Attending the resplendence of Selene was the glittering stars ornamenting the gossamer veil of the Milky Way, the delicate points of light gathered like dedicated cortège awaiting to serve their superior sovereign.

All devoid of life.

Argentine illumination descended from the overseeing necropolis of the celestial, falling in irresistible shafts of cold colorlessness onto brick and bastion, stone and statue, throwing all into stark, monochrome relief.

Yuuki stood on the parapet-lined edge of the moonlight inundated roof, every speck of quartz and mica in the rigid stonework sparkling at her with lifeless luster. The foliage of uppermost branches of the weeping willow tree fornenst the arches of the fortification of academia, the lowest leaves barely caressing the empty ground, were edged in gilded silver, clear and sharp as a finely honed knife's edge.

She inhaled deeply, feeling her nose and lungs open and fill with crisp mezonoxian air, her ribcage expand against the confines of her school uniform, it's soft fabric softly chilled by the coolness of the domain of the dark. She exhaled her breath, the accompanying soft rush clearly audible in the silent stillness.

Despite her carefully sought out isolation, she listened for any answering hint of sound, even the faintest echoes of forgotten whispers. There was always the distant chance of being discovered. This was a risk she would not take, an outcome she could not face.

She loved her father dearly, and knew for all his exaggerations and eccentricities, his love for her in return, for both herself and Zero, was strong enough that should the unthinkable arise, he would endanger his life to preserve theirs'. For this reason, she was certain he would not approve if he knew of what she had decided. Trepidation bordering on overwhelming fear and dismay for her safety and future were the only likely reactions. Her father could never know she was facing such pain and not intervene; inviting the venom of death and not exhaust himself to see the cessation of her intentions.

It was the knowledge that he would disapprove, and if she was perfectly honest, which she was, rightly so, that made finalizing her decision so difficult. The step was irrevocable, a blackened bridge crossed that would burn to ash and be blown away by the winds of time into the endless abyss. Yet, she found she could imagine no other way. The extraordinary had been part of her life from the moment her memory existed, the fantastic, phantasmic, the surrealistic, and the violently supernatural was for her the familiar and comforting. Home was to be found beyond the bounds of logical comprehension, amidst a mind-shattering nightmare. Even if her desired future, what she held more dear than even her own life, were nothing more than a dreamscape, a rancid psychosis behind a sadistic illusion, normality had already been made irreversibly impossible for her.

Her emotion, her mind, her blood was drawn more powerfully than the pull of the tides by the moon to a man who terrified an instinct inside of her that shrieked he was elegant death. It wasn't foolishness or childish selfishness that drew her to him, as it was for all the short-sighted fangirls that she bodily held back on a near daily basis; it was far more profound, the buffeting of an ancient wisdom she couldn't understand, a solemn turn of the wheel of Fate that would grind her to bitter dust if she resisted.

True annihilation lay not in going forward; it lay in turning back.

The firm and steady treading approaching her from behind, quiet and controlled as the footfall of a feline predator, was deliberately loud enough for her to hear, but no more than that. The sound was for her benefit. They were subtly letting her know they had arrived; they could have moved in complete silence had they wished it.

Yuuki turned away from the glinting crystalline leaves of the willow tree to greet her comrades as they came to stand in front of her, less than an arms length away. She noted they were both in their casual clothes; Zero in a white button down shirt and jeans, Kaname in a black dress shirt, gray slacks and dark trench coat. Part of her wondered why she would bother noticing such details like that at a time like this.

"Kaname-senpai. Zero." She tried to greet them warmly, but keeping the strain from her face as she smiled at them was impossible.

Kaname, tall, broad-shouldered, imposing, a rare and genuine aristocrat and the reason such words as 'noble' existed. His rich chocolate brown eyes were filled with affection and a quiet happiness that came floating to the surface as he gazed at her face, the raw emotion not completely hiding the concern he felt over her visible apprehension.

"Yuuki," he said gently, his smooth voice like crushed velvet sliding over her senses and soothing her frayed nerves. She had not realized just how anxious she had become until he spoke to her and instantly dispelled the wraiths of her fears. "You do not have to continue with this if you are feeling doubts or hesitation."

A large hand dropped heavily on top of her head and Yuuki shifted her cinnamon eyes to look over at a slightly scowling Zero, his lavender eyes critically scanning her face for signs of hidden reluctance as he spoke. "If you don't want to do this, say so. You can't go back, you know."

Yuuki's apologetic grin was tainted with a cringe at his sharp tone.

The hunter must have registered the harshness in his voice and the weight of Kaname's disapproving glare, because he checked himself, and said in a much more kindly voice, "It's alright if you changed your mind. It's a big thing." He lifted his other hand, which had been resting inside his pants pocket, to place on her shoulder. "You know, how much I-" he cut off abruptly, and shot an annoyed look askance at the pureblood. Yuuki assumed some sort of silent communication had passed between the two.

Zero removed the hand atop her head, letting it fall to his side, and returned his attention to her face before finishing with "-we don't want to be without you." His face flushed darkly in the bright light of the full moon, but his words were steady.

Yuuki felt an answering blush heating up her nose and cheekbones, but it wasn't as dark as it might have been once. She would not have come this far and made the choices she had if Zero and Kaname hadn't made their feelings toward her clear long before now. They had spent a great deal of time discussing the possibility –destiny-; both the benefits and the penalties.

Zero looked at her with a mostly neutral expression, but his handsome visage didn't quite conceal his fear that she really would express that she had changed her mind. The cold rays of the moon reflected of his already silvery hair and ivory skin, creating a soft, luminescent glow that gave him an odd, supernatural quality, highlighting his intense lavender eyes and the strong planes of his face.

Yuuki gave him a confident smile in return, taking his larger hand from her shoulder and clasping it in front of her in both her smaller ones. She felt as much as saw the tension drain from him. "I haven't changed my mind, Zero," she informed him calmly. "I'm just a little nervous is all."

"You needn't be." Her head swung with a swirl of her hair about her shoulders to look at Kaname as his words passed his lips. Deep chocolate brown eyes regarded her with warmth and the smile on his perfect features was both devastating and reassuring. He stretched out his large hand to just barely rest it against her shoulder. Unlike Zero, who dropped his hand there without giving it any thought, Kaname placed it carefully, as though fearful she might pull away from his touch. She responded encouragingly by leaning slightly into the gesture, even though she kept Zero's entrapped hand folded between her own.

Where the brilliance of the moon had illuminated the tall figure of Zero, the emanation of the celestial beacon seemed to flee from the intimidating Kaname. His deadly nightshade black hair, rich, dark eyes, and carved features seemed to somehow be defined by and reflect their own radiance, as if light and shadow were his to rule over equally and both feared his dominion.

Kaname recalled the hand on her shoulder, then rotated his arm to offer his open hand, palm up.

"Come."

Yuuki's blood began rushing heatedly against the inside of her veins for reasons she incompletely understood, and others she didn't understand at all. She reluctantly released Zero's hand and pivoted her body to face the tall frame of the noble pureblood fully. She was trembling finely, as much from the anxious anticipation as from the cold light of the distant moon.

She carefully placed her slim hand onto his larger one, and felt his long fingers close around it to encompass it fully. He lifted her hand towards his face, slightly turning her forearm as he did so, to expose the sensitive underside of her delicate wrist.

The full, dark fan of his lashes closed over his eyes as his smooth lips gently touched against her pulse point, his warm breath ghosting along her cool flesh. Yuuki felt her herself relax slightly at the calming, reverent gesture as he held her hand loosely in his own, free to be withdrawn at anytime. The feel of his breath was warm against her sensitive skin as he placed numerous small, feather-light kisses against the inside of her wrist, over the heel of her hand, and into the shallow depression of her palm. He placed one last, softly moistened, adoring kiss into the center of her hand before opening his eyes and regarding her, his own expression still partly obscured by the hand at his lips.

Yuuki became aware she was breathing through parted lips, the air moving in and out in shallow, slightly ragged cycles. Her heartbeat fluttered against her ribs, and she realized the patient Kaname, still holding her hand a bare fingertips breadth from his enchanting mouth, was waiting for her cue to continue.

It seemed only natural to gently press her small palm back against those velvety lips, and feel him turn his head to lovingly nuzzle her hand with his patrician features, sighing softly as he did so. She automatically took a step toward him, the click of hard-soled shoe upon the stonework oddly loud in the quiet night, but easily dismissed.

His free hand came up to tenderly cup her cheek, the pad of his thumb sweeping back and forth along the soft skin just beneath her eye. A gentle lead from his hands told her to turn into his hold, like a dance partner performing a spin in the choreography of a waltz, and Yuuki found her slender back gently leaning into the solid backing of his torso, his body heat permeating the fabric of clothes to warm her night-chilled skin. His head came to rest atop hers, his soft exhalations fluttering her silky hair as he took in her scent. Yuuki rested comfortably against him, eyes closed, breathing slow, secure in his embrace. One strong arm was wrapped around her waist, her hand still lovingly held in his, and her other hand still lightly touching his firm jaw.

She was aware of very little outside of what her senses told her of Kaname. He seemed to surround her; his heat, his feel, and the intangible quality that never failed to alert her of his presence. She hovered in a dream-like state between waking and sleeping, quietly shepherded into a serene comfort immune to distress.

The part of her that had always been wary and fearful of Kaname, recognizing him for the ruling, dominant predator that he was, was locked away in a distant part of her mind by the pureblood. Kaname was careful to apply his enrapturing of her mind and senses such that the human part of her that, as far as he was concerned, tainted his beloved Yuuki could not intervene.

Yuuki hummed contentedly at the feel of velvety soft lips brushing tenderly against her temple, softly rustling the fine hair there, pressing carefully and unhurriedly along the side of her peaceful face, leaving fluttering kisses along her delicate jaw line, then begin a slow descent down the slender column of her neck.

Yuuki absently tilted her head to the side, unaware of the motion of submission and trust. Her breathing was slow and steady, the easy rhythm of sleep. Had she been able to note it, her limbs would have felt heavy and sedate, and the impossibility of her feeling of utter safety in the embrace of a lethal predator would have roused her from her faithful attendance by the Oneiroi.

Several more passionate, worshipful kisses were placed along the column of her neck, the life warmed blood beneath lazily flowing towards the surface in answer.

A soundless "sorry" whispered in a ghost of an echo across her consciousness before a deep pain sunk into the flesh and tissues of her throat, piercing and severing skin and sinew and sending searing sensation into her mind.

Heavy eyelids lifted hesitantly before a comforting blanket of reassurance was laid over her mind, encouraging her to return to her state of rest. With a soft moan, she ignored the feeling of her blood being pulled steadily from the severed arteries in her vulnerable neck, reverently lapped up by the steady strokes of a studious tongue, the unnamed influence on her thoughts telling her the mounting panic in an isolated part of her mind was of no consequence.

A disconnected aspect of her was panicking, fighting, shrieking that she was in danger. It struck out in vain against the barriers that restrained it. It clawed away at the will of the one that imprisoned it with utter futility. A desperate, broken wail, more horrific than that of the most agonized banshee, more terrifying than that of the most venomous mandrake, was voiced soundlessly and left less than a silent echo.

An abandoned cry of the already dead. Sound belonged to the realm of the living

Her eyelids were about to obediently slide closed once more when a faintly illuminated figure called her from her blissful contentment. Her vision required a moment to reawake, treading lightly from the hollow wraith land of Hypnos to cold reality.

Zero came into focus. His expression was slightly pained as he watched her, the lines of his mouth, so often hard and unyielding, had softened into curves of quiet distress.

Part of the illusion woven through Yuuki's mind snapped, floating into nothingness like a thread of gossamer spider silk. The long fangs embedded deep into her throat caused her to inhale sharply and jerk into rigid stiffness. Crackling sparks of pain danced and arched in sadistic revelry along her burning nerves and sent starbursts of agony into her eyes.

The large hand that had been cradling her rapidly blanching face clamped across her mouth to forbid the scream that had been threatening to burst free and blaze across the silent moonscape.

Zero gasped inaudibly as Kaname tightened his iron hold on her small waist to prevent her from collapsing. He rushed forward to place both his hands on either side of etiolate face to steady her. Her eyes snapped to his, invigorating cinnamon meeting calming lavender.

"Easy, Yuuki," he murmured gently, lightly sweeping his fingertips against her hair as if to soothe her after an awakening from a nightmare. "Easy…" His handsome face was concerned, but relaxed, and his demeanor was calming.

A series of deep rumbles resonated against her back, and Yuuki sluggishly realized Kaname was growling from deep within his chest. The pureblood's grip on her constricted and the powerful jaws holding the teeth in her throat tightened. Yuuki winced painfully, crying out silently, whole body shaking, reduced to squinting painfully to still be able to see Zero. His wary eyes flicked to Kaname, and then back to her, a decision residing in them.

"Relax, Yuuki," the words fell gently from his firm lips. The kind hands holding her face threaded affectionately into her hair to comfort her. "Don't fight him. If you resist it will hurt, let yourself relax."

Yuuki's thoughts banged around in her mind in a disconnected gyre, a chaotic whirlpool of suffering, panic, and the odd, warm, nameless beckoning that told her to simply trust it's unseen guidance.

"He can't force you." Zero licked his lips nervously before continuing. "He'll damage your mind if he does." Zero looked at her intently, willing her to understand. "Just calm down. Relax." The hands threaded into her hair gently massaged her scalp, helping her retreat into the relieving comfort of Kaname's wordless call, turning her back on the pain. She closed her tearing eyes again. "That's it, good girl," Zero rumbled encouragingly. "Just relax. We won't let anything bad happen to you. Just relax for us."

The patient lead whispering at the edges of her mind took gently command again. Slowly, the pain receded into inconsequence; not vanishing, but not important. Her respiration slowed from it's panicked hitch to a quiet rhythm. Serenity, peaceful quietude, flowed over her somnolent senses as the sovereign pureblood viciously dismembered her revenant fear.

Her restful limbs, still sedately heavy, slowly began feeling oddly cold, sensation languidly abandoning them.

Her head lolled back onto the support Kaname's strong shoulder; Zero still carefully cradling her face. The cold frost was creeping up her limbs, making its way unhurriedly, like ice crystals forming on flowing water, inwards towards her chest.

Carefully, Kaname lowered them both, her body completely limp against his, and settled himself onto the grey stone paving of the rooftop, gently tucking her smaller body against his larger one without removing his fangs from her throat. There was just enough feeling remaining in her face for her to feel Zero's hand pull away from her.

With an effort, feathery lashes lifted so she could look to him. Zero was watching her earnestly with distressed eyes, and via a means she could not identify, she did not want him to feel left out. She cared for him, too. Weakly, she lifted a deadened head and offered to him her delicate wrist.

Zero blinked in brief surprise, then smiled affectionately with just a hint of predatory intent as his eyes heated to a rich and lustrous wine red; the pale glow surrounding him made his image even more soft to her failing vision. His large hand, so often tightly griping the unforgiving metal of his Bloody Rose, instead lovingly accepted her hand in a gentle hold before lifting it towards his mouth, glistening, bone white fangs already waiting. His handsome lips parted and Yuuki felt the heat of his mouth a moment before he buried his wickedly curved teeth effortlessly into the veins in her narrow wrist. Distantly she knew she should feel pain or upset as the bizarre feeling of blood being forcibly drained and swallowed and swipes of a strong tongue registered, but the soothing brush of emotion across her mind dispelled any such notion, letting her to drift into peaceful, partial slumber. She sighed contentedly, affectionately leaning her pale profile against Kaname's bowed head while freely surrendering her arm to Zero, relishing the feeling of effortless intimacy with both men.

In reply to the encroaching cold, an answering sensation began radiating out from the deep gouges in her neck, dictated by the luxurious tongue lapping at her seeping blood. A delicate lacework of unholy feeling, a fine poisonous mist of sensation drifted across her skin and through the dwindling sanguine fluid. It wove its way across her skin, made arabesque patterns in her blood, carved its filigree into her bones and deeper. The twining spirals curves painted themselves like calligraphy throughout her body, until they reached her feebly pulsing heart.

The patterns solidified into icy steel, the frosty metal seized her heart and gripped her whole body, from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. She froze unconsciously, locked into place. Two empty gouges in the side of her neck marked where his fangs had been as Kaname used them to tear open his wrist before he forced the bloody, gaping gash to her gasping mouth.

Thick, shockingly hot blood pooled on her tongue and began oozing relentlessly into the back of her mouth. A shocked gasped forced some of the heady blood up in to her nose and out on to her face in a hot spray. Following a new, alien, yet somehow perfectly natural set of instincts, she desperately gulped down the viscous fluid. Relief was instantaneous as near boiling heat roiled into the patterns and pathways etched into place by pureblood venom, reconstructing, reinforcing, and soothing her stripped system, starting with her stalled heart. The warmth streamed its way deep into her heart, then traced the curling strokes in her system to the deepest marrow of her bones and the most distant points of her fingertips and toes, which curled reflexively at renewed sensation. She became aware that her legs were wrapped in a pair of arms.

Looking sideways out of her eyes, over one of her two petite hands which had come up to grasp the taut forearm pressed firmly to her straining mouth, she could see Zero had sat down beside her and Kaname and had brought her legs up into his lap to keep them off of the hard stone.

The heat of the ambrosial blood loosed and soothed the seizure that had petrified her body, but weariness replaced it that made her sag bonelessly into Kaname's body's support. Her desperate swallowing of the heavy blood slowed and stopped. Kaname's forearm lifted away from her bloodied mouth. Her tired eyes tracked the gash, and she was amazed to see the torn flesh knitting itself before her eyes. She looked above her as Kaname gave her a gentle smile.

"Are you alright, Yuuki?" he asked, his eyes still a blazing with bloodlust, ignoring the few rivulets of dark fluid still dripping down his pale forearm.

"Hai," she replied, her voice smoothed by the blood coating her vocal cords. "I'm just a little tired."

A snort came from Zero's direction. She turned her gaze away from Kaname to look towards the silver-haired hunter. He returned her at her askance.

"You'll be tired for a while," he said, carefully adjusting her legs to a more comfortable position in his lap. "You couldn't even stand up now if you tried." He turned his silvery head, the strands of his hair flowing and shifting like mercury, to look at her. Despite the gruffness of his words, Yuuki saw a peace resting within eyes she did not recall ever having witnessed before.

"Oh." Yuuki leaned into the protective embrace of Kaname, marveling at how clearly she could see Zero and everything else within her sight, as though the world it had been outlined in fluorescent ink, and at how relaxing and soothing the pureblood's simple presence was. She buried her nose in the soft fabric of his shirt and curled in to the warmth he provided. She felt him shift above her and knew he was using his mouth to unhurriedly clean the remnants of his self-inflected wound.

"Just rest for now, Yuuki," Zero's familiar voice brushed soothingly against her sharpening sense of hearing. He gently rubbed the exposed skin of her leg with one comforting hand. "We'll take care of things."

Yuuki made a small sound of acknowledgement before closing her eyes, shutting out the brilliant shine of the full moon and burying her face in the welcoming darkness provided by the cover of Kaname.

She had no difficulty feeling cared for her. This was home after all.

AN: I originally composed this piece back-in-the-day, way back in the day, when there were maybe five chapters of VK out in English in Shojo Beat. That was what? Four years ago? There wasn't even a VK section on FF at the time and I wrote this intending to get it started, but never did post it.

For the purposes of this AU, the revelations in VK stop at purebloods being the only vampires capable of transforming humans. No falling to level E, no Yuuki actually being a princess. Nada. Although, I like what Hino did with her work better than my version.

The title is taken from lyrics of the song Don't Be Scared by Hannah Fury (which I do not own). Just about every song on that album would be a nice fit with VK.

Review if you like it.