Chapter 14: When a Man Loves a Man
"An amusement park?" Zero raised his eyebrows as he stared at the glorious entrance to 'Whacky Wally's Amusement Park'. "This is the place you guys wanted to go to?"
Aidou grinned. "Well, you did say they could choose where they wanted to go."
"Don't start with me Hanabusa." Zero snapped at the blonde but unfortunately Aidou only grinned some more.
"Come on mom, let's go." The twins chimed together impatiently.
"Fine, let's go…" Zero gave in with a sigh. "And stop calling me mom, it's weird."
Yet Zero's words only went through one ear and out the other as the twins excitedly ran over to the first ride.
"Oi, stop running you two or you'll fall!"
"For a person who doesn't wish to be called a mom, you sure sounded like one just now." Came Zahara's straightforward response. The little bundle was walking between the two with a book clenched in her tiny hands.
Aidou muffled a chuckle at that, which granted him a glare from the silver haired teen. "It was funny."
Zero rolled his eyes and looked back down at Zahara. "Why do you carry that book around?"
Zahara looked at the red book in her hands before looking back at Zero. "I have my reasons."
"Can I see that for a second?" Zero took the book from her hands and inspected it.
The book was old, very much so. The once white pages had turned yellowish with age; the cover was worn out as if it was read over and over again. Zero didn't see what was so important about this one book until he opened the cover and read the neatly hand rewritten sentence on the inside cover.
'Property of K. Kuran.' Zero read to himself. 'Ah, now I get it…'
Zero handed the book back to Zahara. "Keep that with you always."
Zahara smiled and nodded. "Of course."
"Now join your brothers, it seems they chose the first ride."
The three stopped in front of a teacup ride, the twins had already made their spot in line and were excitedly waiting for their turn that would be next. After joining the twins in line, Zero glanced over to Aidou who's gaze was steadily on his.
"What?"
Aidou smiled. "Oh, nothing."
"Come on, tell me? I know there's something."
"I was just thinking of what an awesome parent you are."
For some unknown reason that made Zero blush. Zero never would've figured Aidou to be the sincere type but when he was he had the power to make your heart skip a beat and butterflies form in your stomach, a lot like what was happening to Zero now.
"Are you two coming or what?" Kano called out.
The twins, along with their sister, had already picked and seated themselves on a blue teacup and were waiting for Zero and Aidou to join them. The two were so absorbed with staring at the other that they hadn't known the line had moved and it was now their turn to ride. This made the blush on Zero's face turn redder.
"I-I think we should join them."
"I agree."
They both seated themselves together, the twins on the opposite side with Zahara, while on the other end sat Zero and Aidou. Once the ride started the three excitedly began twirling the teacup around. Naturally the centripetal force from the spin had Zero pressed up against Aidou's body. The silver haired ex-human became aware of how toned the other had gotten in the past year.
They were both a year older now. They were growing and even though Aidou was a vampire, which meant his aging process was far slower compared to a human but that still didn't have an effect on the workouts the blonde often did in his alone time when he wasn't teaching the three little ones. And now Zero could feel the overall outcome of Aidou's hard work in maintaining his body with exercises.
And boy was it impressive.
Zero was thankful once the ride was over. It took him a few seconds to gather his composure before following the twins to the next ride.
The next one was a pendulum ride called the 'Pirate Ship'. The tingly sensation when you dropped was the best part; the young ones couldn't stop giggling every time they felt it in their tummies. Aidou wasn't beside Zero in this ride. In fact, the two were on opposite ends of the seat with the kids in between them. The hunter was conflicted about this, happy yet disappointed.
Zero stretched his arms over his head before being led to another ride by his children. The carousal was Zahara's favorite, she had Zero ride with her on a white horse with a pink saddle. The plastic horse, in a way, sort of remained Zero of his horse Lily back at Cross Academy. The twins both chose black horses with golden saddles.
Aidou didn't very much care to ride the carousal, so he stood outside and waited. The blonde even took the liberty of taking pictures with his phone every time Zero and the little's pasted by.
The bumper cars was probably everyone's favorite by far, and if riding it almost six times wasn't enough indication that it was then they didn't know what would make it clearer. Zero had chosen a purple car with the number zero on it, ironic really. Zahara was too young to drive by herself, despite the fact that she harbored more smarts than all of them put together, so she had to sit on Zero's lap while she steered and he pushed the peddles.
The twins were in separate cars with different numbers, but they still managed to choose one of the same color, which was obviously blue –the twins favorite color it seems. Aidou was in an orange one with the number eleven on it that was facing the opposite direction from where the arrow was pointing.
The track was oval shaped with arrows pointing in one direction. In the center was a street lamp with only two colored lights, a red on the bottom and a green on the top. Once everyone was fastened in his or her seat with seat belts, the park employer –a young teen with messy brown hair- signaled the operator that everything was in check before the operator pressed the button that turned the streetlight green. All cars were in full bloom now, roaring to life with a foot on the accelerator and off they went causing havoc and mayhem.
Zero was sure he never laughed so much in his entire life than he did now. Watching the frustrated look on Aidou's face as he tried to bump against Zero's car was the most funniest. Zero had to give his daughter some credit; she was like a pro behind the wheel for a little girl the age of six. Her brother's weren't so far off either; they were spending most of their time pushing strangers off course than they did following the track's one-way arrows. Poor Aidou was the aim for all the little kids who enjoyed bumping into him; the blonde was having a difficult time as it was trying to control his car from going in reverse.
By the time they finished the sixth round, everyone was sweating up a storm. The day was beautiful but hot, at least up to eighty degrees hot. It was time for a break, an ice cream break.
Zero and Aidou came back from ordering five ice creams at the vendor toward where the kids were waiting at a picnic table.
"Now who asked for cookie dough ice cream?"
The twins held up their hands while Zero passed them their cup of ice cream.
"And here's your small strawberry ice cream with rainbow sprinkles." Aidou said passing a small cup of ice cream to Zahara.
Zero had a plain vanilla ice cream on a waffle cone. Aidou had himself an orange sorbet with caramel sauce and peanuts on a waffle cone. Zero raised his eyebrows at the weird combination.
"That looks wicked gross."
"Really? It tastes amazing though." Aidou answered over a spoon full of his ice cream. "Want to try?"
Zero looked at the concoction again before ignoring the spoonful of ice cream that was offered to him, he instead brought the hand that was holding Aidou's ice cream over to his face. Aidou watched enraptured as Zero licked the side of his cone where the ice began melting and saw as the red tongue moved up to the actual frozen dessert itself before retreating his back into his mouth.
"Your right, it's actually not that bad."
Aidou was too shocked by Zero's action to really give a response. It was the first he saw that tongue appear before his eyes, which he only felt -on occasions- when it was on his bare neck that happened whenever Zero was thirsty for blood.
"Hanabusa, your ice cream is melting!"
Zero's voice brought Aidou back to the here and now after his mind began to wonder to some not so child-friendly fantasies involving that tongue of Zero's.
Aidou licked up the melted ice cream from around the areas where it was dripping, his eyes occasionally glancing over at Zero as he did the same with his own ice cream. The blonde could say that he was very much jealous of that damned ice cream in Zero's hands.
After the ice creams were finished, everyone waited for a few before going back to enjoying the rest of the rides. By the time they had finished riding all the rides at least once (there were a few that Zahara was too young to ride, so Zero and Aidou took turns watching her as the twins rode on the more big kid rides), it was late evening and Zero was exhausted. He enjoyed himself today, more so than he would have thought. It was also a big help that Aidou was with him. They needed this, especially since how down the kids have been lately.
The reason for which was obvious. A year had past and Kuran hadn't made an effort to come see the little ones not even once.
The twin's birthday was coming up soon and Hitoshi had planned a big celebration, one that will also begin their counter attack and introduce Zero as a pureblood. How that was going to happen was still a mystery to Zero, but if his future self was able to become an imitation pureblood then what was the harm in speeding up the process. Aidou was against the idea, of course, but Zero was already determined to risk it all for his children. They were the only things he cared for and he was willing to do anything for them.
Taking a deep breath, Zero slowly let it out from his nose before wiping the sweat from his forehead. They had just reached the exit gate when a small grumble was heard.
Zero looked down to see the normally composed Kazuki blush and cover his stomach.
"Are you hungry?"
Kazuki blushed a bit more and nodded.
"I think it's time for us to head home then."
"There's still one more place we wish to go before we head home."
"We can go next time." Zero began but was stopped in his tracks when Kano held the sleeve of his shirt.
"No! We have to go now." Kano insisted.
Zero looked at his kids in confusion. He wondered what other place they wanted to go to that was important. Zero soon got his answer when he pulled up to a cemetery that was about a half hour away from the amusement park. Zero knew this place all to well.
"Why are we here?" Zero asked, his eyes hollow and his voice low.
"Today is the anniversary of your parent's death and we wanted to visit the grave but not until we cheered you up first." Zahara answered from the back seat.
It all made sense now. The reason why the kids were so set on going out today was all for him. Zero wanted to cry but he held it in as he exited the car.
"Yea, let's go visit grandma and grandpa."
"Don't forget uncle Ichiru." Kano added with a smile that Zero returned with his own.
Zero stood before the graves he hadn't seen in almost a year since his brother's burial and smiled. He almost forgotten that today was their death anniversary, he was having too much fun with the people he cared about to notice but that didn't anger him. He was happy and even though his kids were purebloods, Zero was sure his parents would forgive him once they saw how happy they made him. The only regret he had was not introducing them sooner, but that was all right, he was going to do it now.
"Mom, dad…Ichiru. I will like to introduce to you my kids; their names are Zahara, Kano and Kazuki. They are half purebloods, but even so I love them and I am happy they are in my life. I hope that you can accept them and protect them like I will, because they are my important family. The only ones I have left."
"Don't forget about me." Aidou added. "I may not be these kids' father but I love them very much and I will protect them to my best abilities. Zero is no different."
Zero smiled. "Yea, I guess you are part of our family now."
As soon as Zero finished, a light breeze blew through and for a moment Zero thought he saw his family staring back at him from on top their graves with smiles as if approving Aidou, him and his kids.
Zero leaned against a marble pillar near the entrance of the cemetery. Zero left the kids by his family's grave just up the hill, they wanted to talk to them alone, tell them everything even though no one was there.
Aidou was accompanying Zero at the entrance. There was a comfortable silence between them before Zero leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on Aidou's cheek, which caught the other off guard.
"What was that for?"
"The kiss that you wanted before." Zero answered.
Aidou looked at Zero seriously. "I think you've misunderstood Zero, this wasn't the kind of kiss I was hoping for."
"Then what kind of k-" Zero didn't have time to finish when Aidou connected their mouths together.
It was only brief but in that brief moment, Zero became aware of a lot of things.
The feelings Aidou had been hiding from him, how tall the blonde had gotten over the past year, how Aidou smelled faintly like daffodils, and how whenever the noble was near him his heart would beat rapidly in his chest. Aidou's presence had become something of an importance in Zero's life and he never noticed it before until now.
"Zero, I love you." Aidou confessed. "And not in a friend kind of way, but more like how a man who loves a man kind of way."
Zero was speechless; he didn't know what to say. There were so many things he was feeling and he couldn't put anything into words. Yet he knew he had to say at least something.
"Hanabusa I-"
"Zero…Aidou-sempai?"
Zero's head whipped to the side and came face to face with the one person he had least expected to see so soon. Standing with Ruka as her escort was Yuki Kuran and by her expression, there was no doubt that he had bared witness to that kiss.
A kiss that will change the very aspect of the future that no one would see coming.
TBC…