DISCLAIMER: I do not own Vampire Knight, but most of this plot is mine along with the names and most of the actions of KATSUR and AKIRA. The name 'Kuran' does not belong to me, though.

A/N: To my one reviewer: Thank you, so much!

Side A/N: I need a beta reader…and I'm sorry this chapter was short-ish. I'll do a longer on if you review more~

Names and other info.

Juuri Kuran- the 'Ju' Is Juuri means 'tree,' and the 'ri' is a traditional unit of measuring for distance. Kuran means 'Nine orchids.'

Haruka Kuran- Haruka means 'distant,' or 'remote,' and Kuran means 'Nine orchids.'

Rido Kuran- The 'Ri' in Rido means 'plum,' and the 'Do,'

means 'Earth.' Kuran means 'nine orchids.'

Katsura Kuran- Katsura translates to, 'The moon,' 'The laurel crown', 'gem', 'woman', 'cave' or 'spirit.' Kuran means 'Nine Orchids,'

Akira Kuran- Akira translates to, 'A harvest moon', 'Ultimate serenity,' 'bright eyes,' or 'gem,' 'a crystal clear mirror,' 'dawn.' Kuran means 'Nine Orchids.'

Kakai Kuran- The 'Ka' in Kakai means 'beautiful' and the 'Kai' is sea. So her name is roughly translated to: 'Beautiful Sea.' Kuran means 'Nine Orchids.'

Shiratou Shiki- The 'Shira' in Shiratou means 'white, and the tou in it means 'night.'

So, 'White Night,' and Shiki meaning "Shi, 'to support', and 'ki', 'Mollow,' a flowering plant with white or pink blossoms. 'To Support Mollow, White Night.'

Oboroi Hio- 'Oboro' means 'A hazy moon,' 'light,' 'shadow,' 'cloud,' 'gaze.' 'Something vague.' The 'I' in Oboroi means 'To really on.' The 'Hi' in Hio means 'scarlet,' and the 'o' means 'cherry blossoms.'

Shizuka Hio- 'Shizuka' means 'Calm and quiet,' the 'Hi' in the 'Hio' means 'scarlet' and the 'ou' is 'cherry blossoms.'

Hana Shirabuki- Hana means flower, and the 'Shira' in Shirabuki means 'white' and the 'Buki' is a flower with white petals.

CHAPTER TWO:

"Father, your what?" Rido slammed his hands down on the heavy oak desk, causing it to shake and crack where force- his hand - had left gaping cracks.

"Katsura's death has made me realize I want to avoid authoritarianism, if not for you, for Juuri and Haruka. So I am diminishing the monarchy, letting the senate govern the Vampire realm."

Rido bowed his head, letting his hair cover the hateful expression on his face. "But not for yourself?"

Akira sighed, and Rido didn't look up to see his face.

He didn't dare.

"No," came his Fathers reply, and the force of sadness in the one word made Rido's expression shift enough so he could look up. "Not for myself. Rido, my eldest son, I will not be here much longer. I am incredibly tired." A tear streaked down his father's cheek, landing on the desk for a moment, before sizzling and evaporation into the old oak. "Without your Mother, I am so, so tired."

Rido's finger gripped into the oak, and then retracted, leavening glaring scratches where they had once been. "And Juuri? Haruka?"

"I want you to tell them stories, Rido." His Fathers eyes where dark with the looming emotion of depression. "I want you to tell them of a man, who was in no way a coward. Who stood by them and never gave up until his life ended, of a man who loved his wife and their son to the ends of this planet and more. I want you to tell them the story of a man who left them to fight in the war, so he could protect them!" His Father's head bent in a misshapen heap of loneliness, his teeth gritting together with the harshness of a gentle man. "I want you to love them for your Mother and I both."

Rido's back straightened in a look of hatred, of heated passion, in the anger of knowing that he had lost both of his parents in less than one mourning period. "Of a man with courage?" He spat, and his Fathers tearful eyes met his for a moment. "Why should I lie to them?"

Rido stood, turning and storming out of the huge library, leaving his weeping Father and the withered hope that things would return to normal after his beautiful Mothers death.

Akira watched his son move out with sadness in his heart. "My Dear Katsura, what would you do?" The wind stirred the papers on his destroyed desk, making them flutter all around his library.

A envelope caught the Pureblood Kings eyes, and he hesitantly reached out towards it. It was a letter for Katsura, telling him of her days in the south before they were to get married. She talked about how excited she was to be going back to Japan, but how sad she was to leave the soft hill and desert of the south.

Tear's came to Akira's eyes as he read the latter, and couldn't help but let a single sob out of his mouth. Folding the letter back in its envelope he grasped it tightly in his hands. Picking up a quill ink pen, he started to write a letter of his own.

On the fourth letter he started to sob once more, and was suddenly very thankful for the sound proofing in the room. Sealing all six letters with the dark red wax of the Kuran seal, he sent one to the senate.

Getting up from his spot in his chair, he extended his powers to sense the other Purebloods in the home. Only two small pecks of realization prickled at his mind, so he walked out of his library towards the presence of two adolescent Purebloods.

Marching into the room, Akira looked at the bustling maid, who was tending for the crying baby girl. Upon hearing the Pureblood enter, the maid turned around with a gasp, her pulse racing. "Oh! Lord Akira! Forgive me for being so startled!" She panted, and idly he nodded, wondering what had gotten the poor maid so worked up.

"Let me take her, please," He reached out his arms for his girl, who still hadn't stopped crying. Pleasing the quietly whimpering child in his arms, the woman went to see if Haruka had awoken. Sighing, the King dismissed her, and worriedly the maid let the still mourning babies to him.

Rocking the baby girl, but still not having the courage to look at her, her King muttered promises of peace to her, holding her tightly to his chest. When the small form quieted, Akira walked back towards the crib, ready to but her back and let she sleep. But when the King looked at her, he fell to his knees, his long dark cloak fluttering down on his sides.

The girls wide eyes stared at him with a quiet happiness, dignity, and curiosity. In the time she was born he hadn't looked at her, but now…It was like looking into something and seeing every moment of pride and joy being swept behind, leaving only the small child's face. Memories, thoughts, and hopes flashed into the man's mind.

The first a memory of him looking into the night in his calm solitude, and seeing the figure of a pale ghost wafting in the moonlight. Her long spiraling curls brushing the stone covered ground gently, long nightgown floating around her like the wings of an angel, beckoning him into his contentment.

It was the first time he had seen his wife.

Juuri's eyes where so much like her Mothers, even though not sharing their color. Her long red hair held her Mothers color with a curtain of darkness concealing it unlike her Mothers fiery red. The waviness was like her Mother, if not for the small difference of her Mothers being spiral curls, her's just being loose circlets.

Akira blinked away tears at the sight of her, the daughter who was just now starting to slow in her ageing.

Looking the age of two, yet only being less than a day old, she was already the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Juuri," he breathed, then bowed his head to let her small warm hands grip him. One hand rested on his cheek, the other gently patting his hair. "You will be my pride and joy, even with my hours marking down every second." He rested her in the crook of his neck, and slowly he felt her fall into sleep.
Gently and hesitantly he set her in the crib, and leaned down to place a kiss on her cheek, then another on her forehead. "One once said that the best things are first, and the most memorable the last." He pulled away to see tears streak down her sleeping cheeks, and for a moment he had to let his sobbing lungs fill with air.

When the sobs retreated, he turned his head to the other crib, looking down at the sleeping boy. The boy had dark hair like his own, and even sleeping, the aura of a great man. Even not knowing his son very well, Akira was very proud of him. Leaning down he kissed his baby son the same places as he had his daughter.

Turning back to the sleeping Juuri, he put down the envelopes and let them be gripped by the soft baby's hands. "Keep them safe, my little one."

Akira walked into what was he and his wife's room with a lead weight gripping his heart. He looked at the bed that had been cleaned, then at pile of crystals scattered by the Cello. The maids had taken every one of them and set them on the beautiful grand Piano, and slowly the King rested his hands on the keys. He looked up at the sheet music, and a painful memory of him playing for his pregnant wife as she sat and listened to him. Her favorite song, one with no name even, sat open and ready for its Master to play once more. Oh, how she had loved to for him to play, and how he had loved to play for her.

His fingers softly began to run over the keys, and immediately he felt her. He could feel her presence as he played the tune, and slowly as he played it stared to morph, for a lullaby into a song of sadness, reeking with essence of his feelings. He could hear her play the violin as he played, hear her tinkling laugh as others complimented them on their wondrous musical abilities. He could hear her beautiful voice as she sung to him at night when he asked her, as her lovely voice had lulled him to sleep as he dreamt his sweetest dreams of her.

His tears dripped down onto the keyboard, but even then he didn't stop playing. He played, and he played until his fingers where shaking and he had no more tears to cry. He played for her, he played his best good-bye for her, and he played as he wept his prayers that he hoped she heard.

He played until he was no longer able to play, and then past that point.

He heard Rido come in, heard the maids talk, heard the babies grow, but for a week he stayed and played the piano. He didn't stop to read the letter the maid set on the table for him.

And when he stopped playing, his heart didn't. It beat to the melody of his wife's tune, and even after reading the letter, signing the paperwork, and leaving the next day his soul still sat in that room and played with his wife.

And as the storms of vampires and thousands of dead bodies piled around him, he fought as he played. He played for months on the battlefield, and when he was finally struck down, he continued to play.

"Now, I finally get to really play with you, my love."

Where the words uttered from the dieng lips of the ex-King Akira Kuran, he who dies with his fingers moving on an invisible piano.

Vampires from across the world swore they heard the saddest music beige played, and only when it stopped did they have a sense of pure happiness.