Two years have passed since Zero vowed to kill off every pureblood, including Yuuki, but when the chance comes he can not make himself pull the trigger. He leaves her alive, unable to fulfill his pledge. However, now that Kaname is dead and Yuuki, who is now a mother is hunted, she turns to the only other man she's ever loved. Is Zero willing to forget the past to save the woman who stole his heart?
Ah thanks guys for the reviews! And thanks to, to all those who added me to his/ her favorites list. I had an extra day to work on this between college applications so I figured I would update now that it was possible. Please keep R&R. I love to hear what you guys think and in the next chapter, we get to see how Zero reacts with the newest, little Kuran...
The Desk Clark nearly toppled over in his chair from surprise as Yuuki ran inside. A gorgeous woman standing in the middle of his lobby? Her hair soaked from the rain and she was very out of breath but still her beauty glowed like a halo around her, making him unable to speak for a minute.
"C-Can I help you Miss?" Yuuki looked tiredly up at him in relief and uncertainty. It had been such a long night and she was physically and emotionally drained. She was still crying though the clerk couldn't tell through the droplets of rain falling down her face.
"Kiryu Zero said I should speak to you. That you would let me in his room." He looked up at her in even more surprise and Yuuki began wishing she had said nothing at all.
"Kiryu? Are you sure ma'am?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" She asked curtly, not very much in the mood to answer meaningless questions.
"It's just that…Well, I've never seen him with a woman before, specially one with a child ma'am. Are you his sister?" He asked doubtfully. For a moment, Yuuki thought about lying and saying that she was but with Zero's silver hair and personality she hardly thought that he would be close to believing her.
"No, No I'm not." It was not the answer he had been anticipating and he sat there dumbly for a long minute, trying to process what was going on. Yuuki watched him for a second longer than was comfortable. The baby was restless and fighting uncomfortably in her arms. With an impatient stomp of her foot she drew him out of his stupor.
"Will you show me to the room or not?"
"Oh, of course!" He cried as he stood up from the stool behind the desk. "Right this way Miss." He replied as he removed a key from his pocket and began up the stairs.
"Kiryu is my best customer, he's a bit quiet though, mysterious young man he is." Yuuki hardly had the patience to listen but then again, if she didn't keep her mind preoccupied, she would end up thinking of Kaname she couldn't loose control.
"He's a nice enough fellow I'll warrant you but I hope you know who you're getting yourself mixed up with ma'am? He's got some strange habits he does. Gone most hours of the night, always coming back with blood down his shirt. I've never seen a man with so much medical supplies in my life!"
They made it to the second level, with Yuuki gripping the railing with one hand to support herself. When they came to the door the clerk stopped and looked back at her. "You sure you want to go in? I can get you your own room. I can't say one way or another if he's trustworthy but I'd hate to see you and your child getting hurt."
"Zero was an old friend and he is taking me in now that I don't have a home. Please, just open the door."
He shrugged slightly and unlocked the room with a flick of his key. "I'll bring some extra towels and blankets for you and the youngin'. Anything else you need ma'am? I'd be happy to call a doctor to-"
"I'm fine thank you." She demanded as she pushed passed him and slammed the door shut behind herself.
The room was dark, a black material covered the window instead of a curtain one where you could see out but others could not see in. Turning on the light, she stumbled over to the bed and set the baby down with the pillows forming a make-shift crib around her.
It was all Yuuki was capable of doing. With a exasperated half sigh and half moan of dismay she sunk down on the foot of the mattress.
Looking around she focused on the bearings. If nothing else, Zero had not changed his living habits. A worn shirt hung over the chair in front of the writing desk while papers littered the floor. His small wardrobe was open ajar to show a long sleeved shirt that was trying to escape it's cage.
The room, the smell…all of it was so overwhelmingly familiar, even after the last two years she would not be able to mistake it. She dragged herself to the wardrobe and tiredly threw on Zero's shirt, dispatching her long nightgown for a pair of his pajama bottoms. She knew it would probably make him even angrier at her but she was too tired and too cold to care. Did he still want to kill her? Had she ran from one enemy into an even more dangerous one? It would have been funny if it was all so depressingly ironic. The man who had been trying to kill her for two years was now her only savior?
There was no clothing suitable for a baby, but she unraveled her from the wet blanket and used the sheet from the bed to make a warm cocoon around the infant after she had dried her with the one towel she had discovered.
As she laid the child down again she noticed an edge of paper sticking out from the pillowcase. Now that the baby had settled and was begging to close her eyes, Yuuki curiously pulled it out.
It wasn't a paper at all but an old, worn and yellowed photograph. In the picture, the old Yuuki had an arm wrapped around and very annoyed looking Zero while giving a peace symbol and sticking her tongue out at the camera. Cross Academy was in the background with snow falling around them.
She could remember the day so thoroughly. It had been a rare day where classes had ended early and the Night Class was allowed out early from the cloud coverage. A day where Kaname had stayed outside talking to her and only the increasing coldness had driven her back into her room. She had gone back inside and stayed there shivering with a cold sweat until Zero had come with a disapproving look and a large cup of steaming tea. He had stayed there that night until she had fallen asleep on the chair and when she woke she had been tucked into her bed.
It was all she could handle. The barriers she had built, the instincts she had been counting on to hold her together in front of her daughter evaporated. She covered her mouth so she would not scream and fell to the floor with tears blurring her vision.
She clutched the picture as she rocked back and forth on the wooden planks, overcome with sadness and anger. That time had ended, the day she said she would be Kaname's lover. The day when she had betrayed Zero and gone with his worst enemy. Now, she had neither Zero's caring, tortured arms to hold her or Kaname's gentle words and even gentler caress.
With the thought of Kaname new tears welled up to the brim over her eyes as she remembered the look on his face, his image fadding into nothingness. "Kaname!" She cried, trembling with uncontrolled emotions. "How could you leave me! How could you!"
Zero slipped back into the front lobby of the Hotel room. The rain had finally stopped although the clouds were far from dissipating. He had gone back to the manor to get Maria and take her back to the Hunters headquarters. It was the least he could do and he had also wanted to make sure he could divert anyone that had been following him.
After that he had returned, but only when he was sure that the Hunters had given up on him and continued their searching.
On entering the lobby the clerk looked at him with a frown. "Mr. Kiryu, you have a young lady waiting-"
"Has she been here long?"
"Yes, it's been a few hours but-" Zero did not wait for him to finish, he darted up the stairs, pulling out his key and walking into the room where he discovered both mother and daughter asleep. The baby was laid on his bed while Yuuki kneeled on the floor, her upper body leaning on the mattress with her hands gripping the baby's."
She stirred when he entered but it took a while for her to open her red eyes. "…Zero?"
He nodded and the closed the door, quietly so he didn't wake the child before looking Yuuki up and down. She was dressed in his clothing, her hair still damp from the rain.
In his room, on his bed, in his clothes!…He didn't know what to think. Two days ago he had tried to shoot her, now she was taking refuge in his hotel room? The irony was unbelievable. What greater punishment could he have been given then protecting the one person he had wanted to kill the most?
