Change of Heart - Chapter Eight
For Disclaimer see Chapter One.
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Warning: There's a little bit of shonen-ai in this chapter, so if you don't like that, don't read!
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Lovely Disaster - Part Two
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Next day began in a daze, because I overslept and got too late for breakfast with father, which caused him to ask me worried questions I could not answer -- at least not honestly without blushing deeply red. So, I just said that I had slept badly and was still tired which seemed to satisfy him enough to let me be for the morning.
Yep, I've been dreaming of Zero, part dream and sadly, part nightmare where he had been locked away by these hunters. Whew, luckily that part was only a nightmare and not real -- but it got to me, bad enough to wake me twice last night. Well, last night it had felt real enough in my dream -- too real. I could clearly remember him being dragged away from me, and they put him into a dark cell with chains and all. Then they left him there until he got crazy with bloodlust, his eyes a haunting glowing hue of red and his fangs, they seemed to be everywhere not just his eyeteeth as usual.
I think I awoke right before they finally shot him; I sat straight up in my bed from all the dread of witnessing this -- I had felt so helpless in my dream. Needless to say that the amount of pain it brought made me now absolutely sure of my feelings for him -- cause it felt like a part of me died then.
Well, that was just a nightmare but it felt so real, too real to me.
So it was already past midday when I finally remembered that Aido wanted me to meet him at that conference room and flushed with shame. I hadn't really intended to forget this but I was so tired after last night. Aido-senpai had sounded so earnest when he asked me that yesterday, this had to be important but I all I could think this morning had been about Yagari-sensei's words, about Zero.
So it was already late, when I went there, only to find Yori standing behind me, watching me with a strange expression. She must have gotten too curious after yesterday and followed me here.
"Yori?" I mouthed. "What are you doing here?"
"Um, sorry, but I wanted to help you Yuki." She muttered sounding mildly guilty for following me but her eyes showed that she honestly wanted to help me. I sighed, Yori, she always wanted to cheer me up and help. Not that I didn't appreciate it but I had to think about Night Class's secret for the good of whole Cross Academy -- and maybe more than that too.
"Eh…" I tried to say something but we were interrupted by a very upset Aido-senpai, who wore a very abnormal frown on his face.
"Excuse me?" He raised a brow, giving Yori a questioning look. I simply shook my shoulders in resignation, knowing that Yori wouldn't give in, no matter what this was about.
"Em, it's okay, Yuki." Yori muttered suddenly. "I know."
"What? You do know what?" I stared at her, as if I saw her for the first time today.
She gave Aido a slightly nervous look and finally shrugged, looking me straight into the eyes. "I know about Night Class."
I continued staring at her. "How?" I whispered after a while, but got no answer, because Aido-senpai interrupted us at that moment again.
"Um, girls, could you do this another time?" He said with slightly raised brows, sounding slightly annoyed and impatient.
I swallowed and nodded, seeing as how important this seemed to be to him. I gave Yori an unsure look before returning my attention back to him. "You wanted to show me something, didn't you?"
He nodded and gestured for us to follow him, which wasn't all that easy for Yori and me because he didn't seem to tone his pace down for us. We went into an unused classroom, which was totally empty because it was being redone; fresh paint was heavy in the air but it was unlikely for anyone to find us here.
Aido lead us to one of only remaining tables here and we sat down there, watching him taking his camera out of his jacket. The video he showed us then, was exactly as I imaged about the conference room, he had showed me a day ago -- but that was the only thing I've expected to see.
It was the hunters, I had seen at the gathering and they were quite loud actually. We could hear them loud enough that we had to tune the sound down several times as they started yelling at each other. They seemed not to care whether someone heard what they were saying or not; or maybe they trusted on the main building being deserted because of the temporary break father ordered.
I almost wished I couldn't hear what they were talking about but I knew this was important, otherwise Aido would've never gone to these extends of recording them on video -- and went out in the broad daylight too. So, I listened quietly but with a feeling of growing dread in the pit of my stomach.
"Sure, these mutants are products of evolution. Yeah, but it's an evil evolution. God hadn't created Man like this. Hadn't created Man that he could fly the sky or move mountains … like a god himself. So, what I wanted to say is the following: we have to stop this, this evil evolution! Stop it now before it's too late!" Mori-sama said heatedly to the three other men around him.
"I see, but if you think those mutants being a menace to mankind, what about vampires? They do prey on humans since thousands of years. I say we need to do something to stop them first." The youngest looking one of them objected and frowned at his fellow hunters. He seemed not to understand why Mori-sama seemed to be focused on mutants only.
"But …" The oldest of the three, for he was the only one of them, who had grey hair, seemed to object with what has been said, but seemed not to know how to do so. He kept frowning at his companions, definitely not liking what they were thinking.
"No buts Aiki-san, they are a menace and need to be handled like one!" The youngest argued.
"But they're a controlled menace, Isamu-san."
"For how long? Take this Kiryu boy," Mori-sama objected with an evil glint in his eyes. "You know I saw him side by side with that pureblood, this Kaname Kuran. But how am I to complain? He isn't really one of us anymore, isn't he?"
"He did what?" Isamu-san looked now surprised at his fellow hunter's words. "You can't be serious, it's well-known that Kiryu-kun hates them more than anyone of us does."
"Yeah, you've heard me right, this Kuran backed him up, Kuran and the whole damned night class gang of this so called Cross Academy!" Mori-sama backed up his words, sneering at what had just said.
"Hmm, that was to be expected, sooner or later. You're right Zero Kiryu isn't one of us anymore nor is he truly a hunter." Isamu-san agreed finally, sounding disappointed about this news.
"You're darn right. He's a bloody vampire at that." Mori-sama replied with a low chuckle.
"So, you believe, he has betrayed us?" The taller one, who had short black hair, of them asked slowly, his voice was soft but I could hear the hidden menace behind it. I shivered at this, thinking of what this meant to Zero and possible for the whole academy. These men weren't nice at all and they were definitely more than a little danger to my father's dream.
I listed quietly while giving glancing towards Yori from time to time. I noticed how upset she was. It was understandable; it was clear to me that this was a little much for her because knowing that they were vampires and knowing their world was a different pair of shoes. No, I wasn't truly surprised that Yori knew about vampires anymore because I had suspected it to happen someday and I had been just surprised that someday had been today. Well, it wasn't all that difficult to figure out what our Night Class really was if you knew what to look out for.
Somehow I had expected it to happen, we were just too close for it to stay hidden forever. Yori was my best friend and I could trust her, but somehow I had hoped for her to stay obvious to this a bit longer.
After listening for a few minutes more I decided that I had heard enough and turned the camera off. I guess I must have stared at it for a while longer after the screen went dark because I noticed Yori getting nervous next to me. Well, I ignored her for the moment and turned my attention back to Aido on the other side.
"Can I have this?" I asked, knowing that I needed as least some proof of what I had seen and heard just minutes ago if I wanted to do anything good with it. Thankfully Aido just nodded and handed me the camera.
"It' okay. I've got another copy." He smiled then, but it was still a far cry from his usual one, way to serious for Idol-senpai. "It won't do them any good if they destroy this one. I've got it well hidden." Yes, he smiled but his gaze said clearly that I'd better do something about this or he would risk Kaname-sama's wrath and go with this to his Dorm-Leader to make sure something's being done at all.
So, I nodded my thanks to Aido, trying to reassure him that I would do my best to keep this from escalating, and motioned Yori to follow me. We left as quietly as we had come.
I wasn't sure what to do but I had to do something -- we had to do something, but how?
If I went with this to father, would he understand?
Technically we weren't even supposed to be here because father had ordered us to stay in our rooms, well at least Yori wasn't supposed to be out. Because of me being prefect I was supposed to patrol the school even it was implied that Zero and I would be doing it only at night.
"How?" I asked finally, trying to break the fearful silence between us.
"How what?" She replied and then nodded. "About Night Class?"
I nodded, ushering her to explain herself about this. Yes, I really needed to think about something else.
"Simple, I saw you and Zero one too many vanishing … and when you returned you've been wearing that." She swallowed and pointed towards the plaster on my neck, which I kept wearing even if the wounds were almost healed -- better to be safe than sorry in a school filled with vampires.
"You saw this?" My hand went to it, touching it because it seemed to itch every time I thought about why it was there in the first place and how it got there this time.
"Hmm, yes." She muttered and nodded again. "And with all the hints it was easy to come to only one conclusion even if it's really weird one."
"Don't talk about this with anyone, do you understand?" I gave her one serious look.
"Don't worry Yuki, I won't tell anyone." She reassured me with a shy smile and I nodded thankfully. I couldn't be glad enough for such a friend like her.
"How's Marie?" Yori asked then, I felt she too, wanted to change the subject, which was fine with me.
"As same as yesterday, Yori, but she wants to be called Rogue now. She still won't speak much with anyone." I replied, feeling now even sadder about the current situation. Marie, eh, Rogue, she didn't deserve all this shit; she's such a sweet girl and should be no-one's freak to beat on. Well, it certainly was sweet of Aido to think of her like that yesterday I thought and couldn't help a little smile despite the serious situation. Rogue had definitely liked that present from him.
So, I lead us back to Sun Dormitory but when we reached it I was given a curious look from Yori.
"This isn't the way to our room, Yuki."
"Right, it isn't." I agreed, seeing as we're sneaking into boys' dorms -- at bright daylight too. Thankfully, nobody saw us and we reached our destination without any further trouble.
"Zero?" I called quietly.
He opened the door, gave Yori and me a quick glance and gestured us to enter. Once we were inside and the door closed firmly behind us I gave Zero a short overview what Yori and I found out.
"We need to do something I think they even plan to do something against Night Class," I said and after a quick glance at both Zero and Yori. "And you, Zero, I think they want to kill you, too." I whispered in a hoarse voice, remembering now Yagari-sensei's words all too clearly.
"You're sure?" He frowned at this; it was obvious that he couldn't believe right away what I just said, but I think it wasn't the part about him, which gave him a hard time -- no, that he could believe anytime. I knew Zero, he did despise, what he was now, even if I did not so.
"They have no reason to remove me, yet, and even less to attack Night Class." He said seriously. "Look Yuki, you know I don't like them but there's simply no reason other than that…" he trailed off and jerked suddenly. "But if they found a way… no, I can't believe it." He muttered and murmured something unintelligible.
I stared at him, for I hadn't expected for him to care at all for Night Class or my father's dream, but what ever it was he was thinking right now, it made Zero seemingly shivering and for a moment I could see his eyes glazing over with a tint of red.
"Zero?" I asked worried.
"Yuki, Yori we've got to move Rogue away from here." He finally said. "It's her being here, a mutant, which heats this all up."
"But Marie … Rogue hasn't done anything." Yori objected. "At least not on purpose. It was an accident, yes?"
"I know, I know." He nodded. "But her being here and with what happened just a few days ago they cannot help thinking they have to do something to prevent further incidents. You know, most hunters aren't exactly open-minded and this whole mutant issue irks them even more. They think of her being here as a threat."
"And they remove threats." I concluded, nodding my understanding even if I did not agree with this; the facts were just to convincing. I felt cold dread gathering in my stomach again. This was slowly becoming an unwanted but familiar feeling to me. How could things turn ever into such a mess?
"Then we better find a way to move her away from Cross Academy." Yori said. "Yuki, I think it would be best if she returns to her friends, to America, don't you think?"
"Yes, of course." I agreed and smiled a little. I tried to hope that this would solve or at least cool down this whole situation but I was pretty certain that we would need to do more than just this.
So, we went to Rogue's room and explained the whole situation to her. At first she simply stared at us, not giving any sign of reaction. "Shock," I thought. "She's still in shock after all this happened."
"Rogue?" I said but she didn't answer, no reaction from her.
I noticed that she gave Zero a strange but quick glance and then it happened.
Rogue moved faster than I thought possible for her and had Zero's gun pulled out in a flash.
She already had taken off its safety and pressed it against her head in one smooth movement before we could do anything to stop her. Her hands weren't shaking but her eyes, they were brimming with tears but she fought them back.
"I cannot live on like this!" She yelled and stared at me, holding me in place with her gaze. "Yuuki, you don't know how it is not being able to touch anyone … because of this damned curse!"
I hadn't known that she felt this bad about her mutation. Yes, I had known that she had problems with it but not like this; not those kinds of problems were you wanted to kill yourself. Well, I hadn't really thought about what it meant for her life.
"Your mutation, Rogue, what does it do?" I asked quietly, trying to get her to talk so I could try to come up with something to calm her down.
"I-I can't touch anyone, Yuki. If I do so, it's like I'm sucking people's life force, thoughts and abilities out of them; I absorb people. Killing them." She sobbed and began pulling the trigger.
"That won't work." Zero said in return. "Works only against vampires." He didn't glare at her nor did he smirk; no, he was absolutely serious but he also didn't try to stop her. I guess he understood her better than anyone of us. After all Zero had tried to kill himself, too.
"What?" She gasped. "You're not lying to bring me up from this?"
"No, I'm not." He reassured. "But I don't think that this is necessary, Marie-san. Your friends, shouldn't they be able to investigate why this cure failed right now? They might find a way to fix it." Zero's tone was earnest and I felt he meant every bit of what he just said and I could only hope that Rogue would see that too and come to her senses again. So, I gave her a reassuring smile myself.
Rogue stared at him for a long and swallowed deeply. "Maybe," she replied hesitatingly. "They would need to … since it happened repeatedly." She trembled now but the desperate expression in her eyes had thankfully vanished.
"Here, this belongs to you." She nodded finally and started to give Zero's gun back to him but before Zero could put his gun back into the safety of its holster Rogue stumbled over its chain.
She fell against Zero, who in turn tried to catch her on instinct and touched her right hand, which was bare since she didn't wear the gloves Yori had given her. I think she'd thought not needing them, as she was staying in her room. Well, how it was too late and all I could do was stare in shock for the moment.
He and Rogue were staring at each other with eyes wide eyes, their hands still touching I noticed. They were trembling, like they were about to have a seizure -- I trembled too.
My heart nearly stopped then; this couldn't happen, not to him, not Zero.
"Zero." I whispered breathlessly. For a moment it looked like he was fainting but then he started to shiver wildly. He was very pale but so was Rogue and both seemed to convulse with fits of some kind. Like trembles travelling from Rogue to Zero and back again. Darn, why didn't they move to break the touch? I felt anger welling up in me together with something else, possession; I realized I didn't want anybody else to touch Zero. He was mine.
I leaped for Zero, trying to pull him away from her and so breaking his contact to her but I was stopped by Rogue's frantic scream and the feral look on Zero's face. Zero was raging at her with deep red eyes and bared fangs. I had never seen him like this, not even during the first time he tried to bite back at the pool.
"Zero!" I screamed and finally managed to push Rogue away from him, thus breaking the contact. Thankfully it worked, only not as quite as I hoped it would.
"Zero?" I asked again but he just stared at me with wide-open eyes. I turned at Marie glaring at her in turn.
"How could you?" I yelled at her. I know it wasn't rational but all I could think at that moment that she had hurt Zero and it made me crazy with rage. Well, she didn't respond to me, no instead she stared at Zero, like she hadn't seen him ever before. She trembled again and had to support herself by leaning on a nearby chair.
"How can you live with this, this raging hunger?" Rogue's voice was heavy with emotion; it was rough from what happened moments before. I ignored here and kept my focus on Zero.
Zero didn't react to her question but stared into space; his eyes looked empty.
"Zero?" I asked, feeling sick in my stomach suddenly. I touched him at the shoulder, moving him further away from Rogue and trying to get a reaction from him, but he didn't respond.
He didn't react to my question either, but just in that moment, the door went flying open and Kaname barged into the room, took a quick look over the scene in the room and fixed his glare on Rogue. He looked so angry, his fangs were showing and eyes glowing red; he glared at Rogue -- and then the window behind us burst into pieces and things started to fly around.
He was losing control, which was something I had never seen before; to say it scared me was an understatement. Wrong, this was so wrong. I didn't want to feel scared about Kaname-senpai. I shouldn't feel like this, right? But things went worse then because I could feel it, his terrible anger and I could see him focussing it on no one else but Rogue.
What had just happened? …
N-No, this cannot be happening…
"No!" I heard myself screaming and leaped between Kaname and Rogue no matter that a moment before I had wanted to tear her apart myself. "D-don't! Please don't Kaname-senpai!" I pleaded -- and he complied thankfully after an eternity of uneasiness.
"It had been an accident! Please d-don't!" I tried to explain.
"Accident?" Kaname repeated slowly as if to taste my words for their truth in them. It made me squirm under his gaze.
"Yes, Kaname-senpai, an accident." I repeated in voice as steady as I could manage, which sounded still far too weak to my own ears. How could he believe me, when I sounded like this?
"Accident," he then whispered while his glance turned to Zero, who kept staring into space with the same creepy expression on his face as he had minutes ago -- his eyes, they looked so empty. "Gone, Zero was gone." I thought with dread. "No, no, no …"
"Zero." I heard him say then, almost a whisper -- and Zero jerked around as if trying to pin down the source of the voice, he just heard. They still looked far away, like he was dreaming or something like that, but they were no longer empty. No, but they looked so inhuman. "Predator" I whispered and shivered again.
"Kiryu, it's all right." Kaname repeated, facing Zero directly now. He had pulled his face to him, so making Zero look at Kaname -- face to face.
"Kuran?" Zero whispered in return, sounding like being in trance like, but his eyes, they still seemed not to recognize anything in this room or what was happening around him. "Is he even aware of us around him?" I wondered.
Well, what happened next, seemed to happen like in slow motion, like being in a weird dream where you could only participate but not control anything. First, things seemed to freeze, a feeling like jelly of sorts. Kaname was staring at Zero, as if trying to figure out what's going on in his head. I know, I wondered briefly about the amount of worry in his eyes, which made me even more confused. Kaname cared this much for Zero? I had thought he only tolerated him because of me, but this was so different.
Then, suddenly, Zero smiled softly -- warmly and some life seemed to return into his eyes, but he was still staring at Kaname. Zero was looking at Kaname like a love dazed teen, I thought automatically and then choked at my thought. What the hell?
Next thing I remember was him leaning forward, closer to Kaname, close enough to almost touching him. And then …
I felt like my legs were giving away under me and my vision turned blurry, because -- Zero leaned even closer in, pulling Kaname to him and then … he kissed him, straight on the lips.
Zero was kissing Kaname!
I swallowed painfully, seeing as Kaname didn't seem to mind, he was kissing him back like he'd just forgotten where he was or that there were other people with them in the room. Had he just forgotten about me? I felt like crying.
I stared in shock but I was too frozen. to move, Z-Zero and Kaname? I'd never ever expected something like this; this utter bliss on Zero's face, being mirrored on Kaname's expression?
No, this was too much and my head swirled and everything went black, losing the ground under my feet like I've just lost grip on my love. I fell, that's all I knew but I think I heard someone calling my name but couldn't make out anything else. I think I heard Yori's speaking in a worried tone to me -- and I think she had been the one to catch me because I don't remember hitting the ground, but I wasn't sure because my vision was still very blurry.
The voices, I heard where too far away for me to understand, too dully.
It didn't matter, because my world had just shattered into tiny little pieces -- like the window of this room.
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Thanks for all your kind reviews. :D
Thanks for reading, oh, and yes there's a cliffy in this one. ;)
Miarath
