Disclaimer: Vampire Knight belongs to Matsuri Hino. I so admire her.

Truth

"I can't believe it! I'm gonna be a GRANDFATHER!"

Maybe if I were thirty, Yuuki thought. But I'm just barely eighteen, so he'll probably take this one a bit more seriously. She chewed on her thumbnail, peeking around the corner of the hall to where Chairman Cross was studying a cookbook in the living room. She had taken off her kimono, leaving her body to shine in its full, five-month-pregnant glory.

A strong, firm hand slid over her abdomen. "You can do it, Yuuki," Zero whispered in her ear. "He thinks I'm his child too. You won't take any more heat than I will."

"It's not that I think he'd be mad—"

The Chairman, mad, Zero snorted to himself.

"—it's just that…it's embarrassing. This is something that was supposed to stay between us."

"You shouldn't be ashamed of your child, Yuuki."

Yuuki laced her fingers with his and squeezed tightly. "Then you shouldn't be ashamed of yourself."

Zero stood still. He didn't have an answer to that.

"Is someone back there?" Cross called delicately.

"Come on," Zero sighed. "It's time."

Yuuki squeezed her eyes shut, squeezed his hand. Squeezed a tear from the corner of her eye.

"How about I talk to him first?"

Before Yuuki could protest, he was in the living room in one stride. "Chairman—"

"Zero-kun! Where have you been all day? Is Yuuki with you?"

Heavy sigh. Completely ignoring of the question. "Chairman, we need to talk. You and me. And Yuuki."

"Oh?" Cross's face fell serious. "What is it?"

Zero glanced back to Yuuki. Come on, was the message she received from his eyes. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she stepped into the open. Didn't open her eyes until she felt Zero's hand securely laced with hers.

She seriously hoped the Chairman's eyes were still attached to his skull, because they were fixing to pop right out. He opened and closed his mouth for a moment, clearly shocked beyond words. Finally, he whispered,

"With whom?"

Yuuki dropped her eyes, rose them to meet Zero's. "It's all right, Yuuki," he whispered.

"Yuuki…" Cross stammered. "…with…with…Zero-kun?"

She felt her lower lip tremble, and the waterworks began again. She fell against Zero's chest and heaved heavy sobs, ashamed of everything she had become. Zero wove his fingers through her hair and whispered to her to calm down.

"Zero…" her voice leaked out. She attached to his jacket with a death-grip. Folds of fabric squeezed between her fingers.

"Yuuki." The Chairman's voice was quiet, soothing. She felt a gentle, fatherly hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. I understand."

It was only at those last two words that Yuuki dared lift her head from Zero's breast. She still clung to him like a vice, but turned to stare into her adoptive father's eyes. They were empathetic, his face dragged down with pity and love for his only daughter. Yuuki slowly loosened her grip on her lover as her father reached out to her. She sort of stumbled from Zero's arms to the Chairman's, and he placed his hand over the crown of her head like she was a tiny child.

"Could you go make her some tea, Zero-kun? Green."

Zero curtly lowered his head in accord and, in his graceful, vampiric manner, swept from the room. Yuuki needed to be alone with the Chairman, he understood that. Cross was much more her father than he had ever been Zero's.

"Yuuki," Cross soothed, wiping a tear from Yuuki's cheek. "I'm not mad at you. I understand your love for that boy, and his love for you. I sort of knew about it all along."

Yuuki glanced up, startled because she hadn't known about it herself until about a year before. How could Cross Kaien have known before she herself?

"How?" she asked, drained.

He laid his hands on either of her shoulders and pushed her away from him so he could get a good look at her face. "It was always in you. The way you cared for him and vowed to protect him. The way you let him drink your blood so he wouldn't be sick, regardless of the cost to yourself. I know love when I see it, Yuuki-doll. I've been there so many times before."

Yuuki gave a watery nod. "I'll…be right back, Cha—Dad." She turned numbly and headed into the kitchen where Zero was preparing a teabag as he waited for the water to boil. She slipped her arms around his abdomen and pressed herself tightly against him. Zero closed his eyes, trying not to enjoy the feeling of her enlarged belly and breasts pushing strongly against his back too much.

"Yuuki…" He placed a large, work-hardened hand over her tiny, feminine one. "What is it?"

"Oh, Zero, I just…I love you more than anything I've ever known."

He was silent a moment before he turned and lowered his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. God, Yuuki, he thought. I thought I'd never hear you say those words.

He remembered the night he had met her, how she had been so concerned as she'd brought him up to the bathroom, how terrified she'd looked when she'd seen the mass of blood from Shizuka's bite staining his neck and shoulder, and how gently she'd held him as she'd used a soft cloth to rub the blood away. At the time, he had been too miserable to say or do anything or even to think of the beautiful eleven-year-old girl who was, in a single moment of compassion, anything but a stranger.

Remembering her love and concern that had so quickly turned them from strangers to family, Zero let a single tear fall from his eye as he clutched his darling lover to his chest. This was his girl. This was his soul mate. And, by God, he was never, ever letting that go. Ever.

"Zero—" Yuuki gasped. "Zero, I can't—breathe…"

Reluctantly, he opened his eyes and slowly released his stranglehold on his darling Yuuki. She stared at him fir a long moment, her eyes all concern and pity, and he stood up straight and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine, Yuuki," he assuaged. "Don't worry about me."

Their reverie was interrupted by the loud whistle of the tea kettle, and Zero swept past her to take it off the burner. Numb, she reached up to touch her fingers gently to her lips, where Zero had kissed her moments before. What an extraordinary person, she thought. So hard and cold on the outside, and so pure and gentle on the inside. So loving on the inside.

When they returned to the living room with the tea, Cross' face had transformed to its usual eccentric joy. "So this means…I'M GOING TO BE A GRANDFATHER!"

Yuuki let her forehead slap into her palm. Typical, she thought.