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Vampire Knight © Matsuri Hino!

These Wooden Ashes.
Hanabusa Aidou / OC
Chapter Ten

"You've been spending a lot of time with Chesa-san lately, Zero-kun."

It was a breezy observation that came from Yuuki Cross, who had taken to accompanying her taller friend on their grounds patrol that night. She waited for a response from him, a grunt or snort, anything, but there was only silence. Her peculiar eyes blinked and she turned her gaze on his, but his lie elsewhere.

"Zero…kun?"
"She asked a favor of me."

His words were just a quiet murmur; they had Yuuki's brows furrowing in concern.

"What was it?"

Their shoes crunched in the snow as she waited yet again for an answer. It didn't seem that he had trouble articulating the words he wanted to say, but deciding whether or not he should say.

But this was Yuuki he was talking to.

But…

"The Chairman… will not approve of my actions, let alone my motives, Kiryuu-san. Please… keep this as confidential as possible."

"She wanted to learn self-defense, seeing as she's now at a school surrounded by those bloodsuckers, and her Father was killed by one…"

"Are you asking me to lie on your behalf?" His query was dangerously low.
Steel grey eyes countered sharply, "I do not expect such a level of camaraderie between us. If it is unavoidable, then say what you must. I'm simply asking for the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."

Yuuki nodded slowly, a small frown capsizing her lips.
"I wish Chesa-san and I had classes together. I would like to talk to her. I'm sad for her; she's probably lonely."

Zero only stared into the dark trees before them.

"And what if I say no to this favor?"
"…" Chesa's small and calloused hands balled by her sides, and her iron eyes scrunched in frustration. Zero merely stood before her now, watching with a passive stance as the small girl swallowed thickly.

"You… are my only…"
It took a moment for Zero to actually notice, and once he did, he felt this slow dread begin to bloom in his gut.
Chesa was struggling.

But when she lifted those iron eyes to his own after a few moments, he didn't see steel resolve. He didn't see iron. He saw clouds.

He saw ashes.

"I don't know anything about you, Kiryuu-san. I have no right to ask you this. I have only been aware of your existence for about two months or so, when you and Chairman's daughter came to my shop. My Father was alive then," Chesa's voice was small. Everything was so tiny about her as Zero continued to listen, slowly softening with each word.

"B-But now he's not, you know?"

Were those tears?

"Christ's sake, he was murdered and I don't know why! He had some connection with vampires, so much that he ruffled their feathers a little too much and got brutalized by one! HOW CAN I NOT LOOK FOR ANSWERS! Answer me that, Kiryuu-san!"

But Zero couldn't answer her. He saw something about her; the way Chesa stood before him with her silky raven locks in tangles, her small face pink from frustration and the cold, the tip of her nose red from the frost, her clouded eyes… so ashen.

He couldn't say a word as he stood before a ghost.
This was not the girl who built coffins two months ago.

This was-

"I need answers, or this ignorance will destroy me."

And Zero couldn't disagree.

"We start tomorrow."

And that was the end of his conversation with Chesa Rebun. The boy turned his back and ambled off with his hands in his pockets, trying to erase that girl's heartbroken gaze from his mind.

"She is lonely."

Zero's comment caused Yuuki's silence, giving the boy even more time to see Chesa's face from that time.

Her eyes, more specifically.
How they had shown something he knew all too well.

He had seen a deep sort of hate lodged into those ash orbs.
A new, fresh hatred, simmering and burning.
For herself.

/~/

Heavy breathing filled the space that which the two occupied, followed by a few dull notions of impact, and finally a harsh thud finished it.

"Your right hook needs work. Your observation skills are lacking- you react slowly from directly in front of a target, but where your sight lacks, your hearing is superior. Again, get up."

Chesa grimaced from her sprawled mess on the dirt; her arms shook from where her hands were buried in the hard soil. It lined her fingernails; her palms were almost bleeding. But she slowly stood, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Zero saw her eyes flicker to the outskirts of their small space in the woods. There were students not too far off, making their way to their next class.

He sensed her trouble, "I said we could do this at night-"

"Let's go again."

/~/

"You knew my Father, didn't you, Kiryuu-san?"
"Briefly."

Chesa sat on a rough patch of dirt, a small twig in one hand, a pocket knife in the other. She was carving something into the wood. What exactly, she did not know, but creating something made it a bit easier to breathe again.

It made her feel a bit more… human.

Zero was leaning against a tree trunk adjacent to the raven-haired beauty, eyes closed and face tilted upwards towards the leaves and snow.

"What was he like?"
"Tch. You lived with him, not me."

A thick silence followed his words, and Zero had the distinct feeling that he had said something wrong. Opening his translucent orbs to see what damage had been done, he saw that Chesa had stopped with knife and totem. Like she had hesitated, because a second later she picked it back up again.

In that second, I felt nothing but shame. Because what Kiryuu-san said was true, I had lived with Tou-san. But… I just know… in that brief time that Kiryuu-san had met Tou-san…

I just know Kiryuu knew him better than I could ever have.

And when that thought graced Chesa's already-fragile mind, her hand slipped with the knife, and then there was blood.

Zero instantly stiffened, and his next movements were rigid as he covered his mouth and scrunched his eyes in pain. The pain of holding back his monster.

"G-Get out!"

Chesa was still sitting, but her gaze turned over to Zero-

"Kiryuu-san…?"
"Go!"
"What are you…?"
"I SAID LEAVE!"

Chesa had only risen to stand when she saw them.
His eyes only further complimented those sharp fangs which adorned his lips.

"Y-You're-"
Her world took a violent spin. Grey was morphing to off-white as she stared in horror at the boy before her, and then down at her bleeding finger.

"You want this."
Numbed.
"NO!"

But he was already in front of her, and her hand was already in a vice grip. His eyes, glazed, overridden with bloodlust, were transfixed on that warm crimson.

Chesa didn't say anything as he lowered his lips to her finger and his tongue ran over the surprisingly smooth surface, as he eagerly took in that soothing red-

THUD

It was still for those next few seconds as everything started to set in.

As Zero could only stay on his position on the ground, and Chesa retracting her leg from where she had managed to kick the boy a few feet away.

"It's disgusting, isn't it."

This came from Chesa.

The vampire boy merely sat, paralyzed, eyes wide and driven with lust, but slowly, ever so slowly returning to normal. Until he had enough to wits to form words.

"That taste-"
"-is disgusting-"
"-metallic…"

Chesa stood at the edge of their space, eyes on the perimeter of snow.
"I had Mercury Poisoning as a kid. I guess it never really left my system."

It took several more minutes for Zero to gather himself to be able to stand, but even then he couldn't form words. He was never a vocal man to begin with, but this was just icing on the cake.

Luckily Chesa spoke before it could get any worse.

"I don't resent that you are a vampire. It was unexpected, that's all. Let's just… continue with the lessons, alright?"
"You must hate it."
His bitter tone caused her to flinch, barely, but noticeable.
"A vampire helping me?"
Her answer was silence.

She countered it with a low murmur.
"Just tell me who my Father was, and it'll be okay for me."

Zero hated those words. He didn't want it to be okay with her. He was a fiend; he had taken her blood, and she had done nothing to fight it. She was too acquiescent. She was just the same girl-

"Tell me who my Father was, Kiryuu-san. Do not confuse your self-loathing with my affairs."

And right then, her words were so distant; he was reminded of that first thing that he saw in her. The first thing that made him agree to this whole ordeal.

They were virtually the same person.

"He was one of the best in the Association."
Her query was quick, "Association?"
And he waited a few beats for it to settle in.

"Hunter's Association."

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