Title: Embracing the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knight. Copyright belongs to Hino Matsuri; I only use the characters for the story. I do, however own the Fujiwara Clan and its' related subordinates family.

Pairing: Kaname/Zero; mild Ichijo/Risa (OC); Ichiru/Maria; Shiki/Rima.

Summary: (AU) Sequel to 'Visitors from the Future', sets 6 months after last chapter of 'VFTF'. Need I say more? Wants to find out, stay tuned! WIP

Author's Notes: Ready for Part 2…? Here we go!

Chapter 4 – In which Leonard meet the aristocrats…Part 2

The vampire trios blinked at the person who answered the door in stunned silence; obviously they never thought it possible for the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan to come out personally to welcome them into the apartment.

"Yuuki, Aidou and Ruka… are you three coming in?" Kaname prompted, arching an eyebrow up in question as he took in their stunned expression with mild amusement apparent in his swirling chocolate orbs.

"Of course…we are just surprise that it was you whom answered the door." Yuuki responded smoothly.

"Ah… that's because Zero's in the kitchen, so I thought to make myself useful instead of sitting around idly." Kaname Kuran answered with ease.

"Where's Ichijo…?" Aidou asked, upon noticing the green eyed blond absence.

"I reckoned he was still on his way over, but he will most certainly arrive in time for dinner here." Kaname responded. He was going to get Aidou as well as Ruka to make them-selves at home, but eventually discarded the idea because he knew those two would never dare to overstep their boundary.

On the other hand, Leonard Kiryuu, who had been assisting his cousin in the kitchen, was constantly sneaking glances at the new arrivals. Zero, of course had noticed his young cousin's curiosity being directed outside and he would have send the boy out to greet Yuuki if it wasn't for the fact that his young cousin was still unnerved by Kaname's presence.

"You know, you don't really have to stay in here with me. You can jolly well be outside enjoying the TV while I get dinner ready on my own." Zero started, trying to coax his cousin into informing him of the reason behind the boy's uneasiness around his dark-haired lover.

"I know…but if you don't mind, I would much rather be here with you than to stay outside. No offences, but that boy-friend of yours unsettled me still." Leonard admitted with a faint tinge of blush decorating his cheeks, he knew it was silly of him to behave in such manner but he can't help it. Those scrutiny gaze of that Kaname Kuran reminded him too much of how his school's discipline master would regard him, whenever he was caught doing any form of mischief acts.

"Care to tell me why do you feel that way?" Zero prompted, his eyes never leave the dish he was cooking over the stove as he voiced his question to his young cousin, and now his ward.

"He reminded me of Mr. Roland…" The boy responded meekly.

"Mr. Roland…? Who is that?" Zero asked, blinking as he regarded his cousin with confusion apparent in his lilac eyes.

"Oh…he's my former school's discipline master." Leonard hurried to explain, mentally reminding himself not to refer to his former school's discipline master by the name again because no one here would know who he is talking about.

"…" Zero had no idea whether to laugh or say anything in response to his young cousin's words, the idea of his lover resembling some discipline master in school was kind of hard for him to picture. In the end, he settled for a slight shake of his head and said.

"Come on; help me bring those dishes out. I assumed you had set the table already?"

"Yes, I already set the table for eight…" Leonard responded, as he started to bring out the ready dishes to the dining area.

Meanwhile, Yuuki who had been wondering about the reason behind this impromptu dinner session requested by Zero finally landed her sight on the ten year old Leonard Kiryuu and promptly turn startling eyes on her elder brother.

"Who is that boy?"

"Here I was wondering when you're going to notice his presence around here… seeing that he's human and the scent should be quite obvious to you, Yuuki…" Kaname commented dryly as he shook his head in response to his beloved sister's retarded reactions. Both Aidou Hanabusa and Ruka Souen had long caught on to Leonard's presence the moment they stepped into the apartment, but Kaname had warned them into silence as he wanted to test Yuuki's reactions himself.

Upon the end of Kaname's words, Yuuki Kuran flushed crimson in embarrassment. Even after three years, Yuuki still finds it hard to decipher the differences between a vampire and a human… when it should have been easier to gauge with her heighten vampire senses.

The sound of Zero announcing that the dinner was ready had every one who was lounging in the living room area to start moving towards the dining area. Once Zero brought out the last dish of the day, he slid into his seat next to his dark-haired lover who was seated at the head of the rectangular shape of their dining table. Yuuki was seated on the other side of Kaname, with Aidou on her other side.

"So Zero… who is this little boy?" Yuuki asked, as she observed the boy's appearance openly causing the ten year old to flush crimson.

"I would very much rather wait for Ichijo to arrive before saying anything, because I had no intention to repeat my words upon his arrival just because he had missed the announcement." Zero responded in a deadpanned manner.

"Oh…okay…" Yuuki dropped the subject easily enough, deciding that she could deal with the idea of waiting another few more minutes for the green eyed blond vampire's arrival.

No sooner had the words left Yuuki's lips, the doorbell leading to the penthouse apartment sounded promptly at seven on the dot. Zero made a move to stand and answer the door when the stealth-like female guard of Kaname beats him to the task.

"Kaname…when did Seiren got back?" Zero asked, startled by the female's sudden presence in his apartment unit.

"Five minutes ago…" Kaname kindly supplied, while his silver-haired lover sighed and made a move to add another set of cutlery onto the dining table.

"Looks like we arrived in time for dinner again…!" Ichijo Takuma beamed as he strolled into the dining area, taking the seat facing his childhood friend without a bat of his eyelid while Risa took the seat next to Leonard Kiryuu leaving Seiren the only seat available on the other side of Ichijo.

"Zero…now that we are all here, care to enlighten us on just who exactly this little boy was already?" Yuuki piped up, as she could no longer withstand the bubbling anticipation in her chest any longer.

"This boy here is my cousin off my father's side of the family; his parents' were both unfortunately killed in a car accident some-time ago. Previously, he was residing in the UK with both his parents…now though, he was officially under my guardianship and would be residing here with Kaname and me until he comes of age." With that said, Zero patted Leonard gently on the head signaling for the boy to introduce himself to the group gathered around for tonight's dinner.

Leonard froze for a second before he started to introduce himself in a rush, averting his eyes from the various gazes he was receiving and went back to his task of eating in silence. His introduction was short and clipped, with only his name being uttered from his lips.

The rest of the dinner, Leonard kept his ears open as he listened to the tale related by his cousin to these new people he had just met in silence. He heard someone questioning his cousin on how they never knew of his father's existence, and why he had been residing in the UK and not in Japan itself.

"Frankly speaking, I had no idea of my uncle existence until last night either. Apparently, that uncle of mine choose to lead a different lifestyle altogether by breaking away from the family." Zero said with a shrug, while Yuuki asked.

"What do you mean by a different lifestyle?"

"You know how my family lineage consists of mostly hunters?" Zero prompted, and upon Yuuki's nod in response…he continues on. "This particular uncle of mine opted to be a bank manager in UK after completing his studies over at Newcastle. He ended up marrying an English woman and settled down over there, so Leonard practically grew up in a normal human's environment. Vampires and hunters were apparently the very last thing on his mind until three days ago, when my 'not so dead' grandfather pops into his life."

If any of the night-class members detected the underlying sarcasm in Zero's last sentence of his speech, they did not show it. In fact, they opted to disregard the notion of inquiring on the issue further and moved on to the reason behind Leonard's parents' demise.

"I see…so how his parents' died?" Yuuki asked next, causing the ten year old to fix his eyes onto the floor and avoid looking at anyone in the room.

"…Car incident, both of his parents' perished instantly on impact." Zero's response was clipped, and hoping that Yuuki would drop her questions already. However, his silent plea was not answered as Yuuki's next query was to ask how did Zero ended up with Leonard in his custody.

"He was almost placed in an orphanage until Mamoru came into the picture. Of course, that cunning old man filed for the guardianship papers using my name and then bringing him over to wait at my doorsteps while he disappeared off the planet realm, again." Zero responded, the last part of his words coming out through gritted teeth showing his utmost displeasure.

"Okay…so what's the plan now?" Yuuki prompted, her eyes flicking towards the boy before landing onto her silver-haired friend.

"Well, I'm still debating on where to send him for schooling. Cross Academy only takes in High school students for the time-being, so I'm thinking of sending him into Fujiwara Gakuen. However, I do not wish to force him into it so I'm looking up some other alternatives and then let him choose for himself." Zero eventually said, before sending his cousin off for a shower while he moved on to touch on the other aspects that come in tow with his decision to keep his cousin in the same house as Kaname and him.

After some discussion, it was Ichijo Takuma who brought up one of the benefits of having Leonard residing under the same roof as Kaname and Zero.

"Let's look at it this way, shall we? Leonard is a human, and by taking him in under the roof…it could jolly well strengthen the relationship between vampires and the humans. Isn't it? That's what the whole co-existence deal was to begin with, right?" Ichijo Takuma commented with rekindled spirits of excitement sparkling behind his brightly lit green eyes.

Ever since his taking over of the family business, Ichijo Takuma was no longer that cheerful as before. It was true that that smile of his never left his features, but it just wasn't the same as compared to before. The responsibility of being a managing director for the Ichijo business had matured him a great deal, and while that is a good thing sometimes they just missed seeing the old Ichijo Takuma that always seem so carefree and jovial.

"You know, Ichijo did make a valid point… Kaname-sama could very well be the role model for the rest of the vampires to follow. A pureblood willingly taking up a human ward with no ulterior motives lurking underneath the facade, it would paint us in a positive image in front of the hunters." Aidou Hanabusa pointed out next.

"Indeed… but now let's move on, shall we? The anniversary mark for the newly formed vampire council is coming up next on the agenda, what do you people think we should do this year?" Kaname questioned, the tradition was for the council to host a party and invite all the influential members of the night society around to gather and mingle with one another. The pureblood heir was thinking of making some minor changes to the plans this year.

"Now this is a tricky issue to tackle, what exactly do you have in mind to do…Kaname?" Ichijo Takuma, being the grandson of the ex-president of the vampire council queried.

"I can't change too much of the tradition, but I was thinking of doing something slightly different this year." Kaname conceded.

"How about shifting the celebration out from the council building and move into public? Let's make this year's theme the 'Co-existence', shall we? Other than inviting the influential aristocrats and purebloods, let's extend out the invitation to respectable hunters and wealthy businessmen from the human's society this year, shall we?" Ichijo Takuma suggested.

"Ichijo, I know you want to make your dead grandfather 'roll in his grave' but are you trying to give every vampire working in the council a heart attack? I agree with the shifting to public concept and the inviting of respectable hunters but the part of bringing in humans…I would rather not have it on the list. Under the new governing rules, any events that took place in public with a large numbers of vampires attending would be requiring hunters' association members in presence to oversee the general public's safety.

That policy itself was still acceptable in the vampires' mindset and even if they don't enjoy the idea, they would abide by the rules. However, if you were to involve normal human beings in that situation…I do not think it wise at this point of time. You must understand that not every vampire in our society was really 'welcoming' to the notion of co-existence between the two races of people, and I could say the same for some of the purebloods that still existed in our society." Aidou Hanabusa reasoned in a logical manner.

The next fifteen minutes that follows were spend on the brainstorming of the vampire council's anniversary event, during which period of time Zero had shared his insight to Yuuki on the aspects of what she could do to keep the night-class students under control. Zero advice Yuuki to be more menacing in her aura display, and delivered more severe punishments to the vampires that challenge her authority given the chance.

"More severe punishments like what…?" Yuuki frowned, trying to search her mind for suitable 'punishments' but only to draw a blank and thus ended up seeking Zero's help, again.

"Take a page out of Kaname's book, and have them stand under the sun with pails and buckets of water on their head, hands and feet? Alternatively, you can send them towards the Chairman for the former to boss them around…I'm more than certain that man could have easily came up with a dozen painless methods to torture them mentally." Zero suggested.

Shizuru Hiou rang the bell to her uncle's apartment unit while she stood outside the door waiting patiently for the occupant to answer the door. Despite the fact that she would very much prefer to be paying her uncle a visit during nightfall, she knew that would not be wise as that's when her uncle start working in that pub of his situated in the town where most hunters resided. Besides, she was more than certain that her uncle would not be appreciative to the concept of having his cover blown in public. Hence, she had no choice but to pay her uncle a visit in the broad daylight.

Mamoru Kiryuu had just stumbled out from bed when he heard his doorbell to his apartment unit rang. With a sigh, he trudged towards the front door and pulled the door open without giving it too much a thought. Not a lot of people knew of his residence area, saved the exception of his old friend Kaien Cross, Fujiwara Yumi and also his niece Shizuru Hiou, who is also now a member of the Fujiwara Clan by marriage.

"Kindly make yourself comfortable while I used the facility." Mamoru throws over his shoulders at his niece without batting an eyelid.

"…" Shizuru Hiou sighed, as she closed the door to the apartment and went off to raid her uncle's fridge for some cooling drink to cool her-self off.

Five minutes later found the uncle and niece seated on the leather sofa couch in the living room of Mamoru Kiryuu's flat unit, staring one another in the eyes. Eventually, it was Mamoru Kiryuu that broke the silence between them.

"You know, you can sit down there and stare at me all day long or you could simply come outright with what you wanted to say and do something else more fulfilling for your day."

"…Yumi-sama sends me over; she says she's not going to be cleaning up after your antics this time around. You can either lie low over the next few days and hope that your grandchildren would not find out your hiding place, or you can meet them once and get everything straightens out once and for all." Shizuru Hiou crossed her arms across her chest, as she leaned back into the sofa to observe her uncle's reactions to her words.

"Oh…Is that all?" Mamoru prompted, causing his niece to roll her eyes in response to his words.

"Yes, that will be all. Do think it over and inform me of your decision should you decided to meet up with your grandchildren." Shizuru said in mocking tone of voice, before making a move to stand and leave the place.

Mamoru Kiryuu sighed once Shizura was completely out from his sight, and rubbed the sides of his temples wearily. Of course, he knew what Zero was capable about…with that Kuran heir's support. Mamoru should not be surprised if the elder Kiryuu twin show up on his doorstep one of these days, should he choose to hide away. He had after all, let it slipped to his youngest grandchild of his alias identity used and maintain in Japan. With the kind of resource on hand, Zero would be an idiot not to do some investigation work on his own.

'…Looks like it's time to air out some old laundry…but first things first, let me fill up my stomach with food before anything else was to be done.' Mamoru Kiryuu thought, as he headed into his little kitchen and start whipping up some breakfast for his own consumption.

At the same point of time, Zero was in his own penthouse apartment showing a number of local schools' brochures to his young cousin.

"Now I want you to look through the brochures carefully, and then tell me which school you would prefer to enroll in. While I understand that it was usually the guardian's duty to select the school on the ward's behalf, but I don't want that for you. We belonged under the same generation, despite the vast age difference between us. So I want you to make your own decision and live with it later on in life. Take your time, as the new term would not be commencing until March either way." Zero told Leonard so, as he handed the brochures over to the ten year old to look it over.

"Oh…okay, let me just think it over and get back to you in a few days' time, alright?" Leonard said, reaching for the brochures of the schools with the intention to bring it back into his room and look through them in details.

"Sure, but do let me know your choice by this coming weekend as I would need to make the necessary arrangement with the schools to prepare for your transfer." Zero responded.

With that, it marks the end of the conversation and Leonard retreated back to the privacy of the guest room assigned for his period of stay.

Zero, on the other hand, decided to drop the notion of heading into office this particular morning and pay his dear uncle Satoshi a visit instead. He had some questions pertaining to that 'undead' grandfather of his that needs some answering, and he was hoping that his maternal uncle would have at least some inkling to the reason behind those rumors of his 'grandfather's death'. Not to forget, he had a wedding invitation card to deliver to the former on behalf of his younger twin.

He was not worried about leaving his young cousin alone in the house for a few hours, because he knew Sayori would be dropping by in a while time with this week's groceries. Certainly, the latter would not mind tending to his young cousin for the few hours while he was away in Chiba for today. The hazel brown haired girl still remained as his personal assistant as of current, but she was no longer residing under the same roof as he was since their graduation from Cross Academy.

Wakaba Sayori was now doing a diploma course in 'Nitobe Bunka College' on Early Childhood Education. It was kind of funny to see her studying such a course for her tertiary education when she had no qualms of working in that sector later on in life. Apparently, she had been pestered by her mother to pick a course for her education pathway and had ended up picking a random one by throwing dice. Despite how she claimed that she had no interest in these areas of professionalism, whom was to say the same for the knowledge she acquired during this period of study would not benefits her in the long run?

Date started: 15/2/2013

Date completed: 20/2/2013