Author's note: I do not own Vampire Knight or any of its characters. I simply borrow them to use in my own sick, twisted fantasies. ^^ I do, however, follow very closely with the plot from the manga. That does not mean, however, that I'm claiming it as my own. –Nira

P.S. This is a long author's note, and I apologize for that, but there's a lot of good/ important info (and some not so important, but still exciting… to me XD).

Just this month alone this story has had almost 500 visitors from around the world and almost 2500 hits! Thank you all so very very much! You all rock and I love you all to pieces! And special thanks to Jade Starlight, Last Assassin's Shadow, SukiKyt, and everyone else who has reviewed. I've got lotsa love for all of you. Thanks for sticking with me through all of this story and I hope you check out my next stories, too. :D

In other news, this story is coming to a close. It's sad, I know. :( However, because this story is ending, I've been debating on which of my many stories to publish next. I've created a poll that you can find on my profile page with a list of five categories that you can choose from for the next fanfic I publish. If or when you have the time, please go vote. It'd really help me narrow down my choices. Until then, thanks again for reading and supporting me and I hope you enjoy the chapter! :D

P.P.S. Chapter 21 is a really long chapter so for pacing's sake, I'm only uploading one chapter today and you'll get chapter 21 later, and because I'll be busy this weekend so I can't update tomorrow like I was planning to do. Congrats! You got your next chapter a day early! :D There are only seven more chapters after this one (unless I decide to rewrite or add more chapters at the last second like I did for chapter 19 ^^')! :D

Chapter Twenty

I don't know how long I was in and out of consciousness, but every time I woke up it seemed like I was in a different place or there were different people, some voices I knew and others that I didn't who always seemed to be talking about me. Eventually when I started waking up, I was up for longer and longer periods of time, but not long enough to hold conversations with anyone. The time that I was up for a long time and actually did have a conversation with someone, I was with a doctor and they said that I'd be free to move around in a couple days. I'd looked around and recognized the room I was in as the infirmary at school but the times that I was awake before that were blurs of moments that may or may not have actually happened.

I woke up again late one night and I looked around. I was dressed in a night gown and laying on a cot in the infirmary and I felt completely fine. I sat up and it felt like there was something tugging at the skin on my leg so when I looked at it, I found a patch of gauze taped over it. I assumed that I'd had stitches there. If there were stitches on my leg, I was terrified to know what state my arm was in since it had been worse than my leg. I just knew that I couldn't move it at all. There were stitches in my left hand, too, but those didn't hurt very much because they were wrapped tightly in gauze making my hand practically immobile.

"Oh good, you're awake. How are you feeling?" I heard Headmaster ask and looked at him as he came in through the door.

"How long have I been out?" I asked in turn.

"About a week. You'd lost a lot of blood and were in and out of shock because of the pain so the doctors gave you strong sedatives. We were afraid that we'd lose you a few times..."

"Does the Society know about my mission and what happened to me?"

"Yes, the Society was informed," he sighed.

"What did they say? What's going to happen to me?"

"Stop asking about the Society, Yua. It's not important."

"Damn it… I knew it. I need to train harder."

"No you don't. They gave you an extremely unfair challenge. Yua, you almost died! Not even Zero's first mission was that hard. The fact that you managed to kill him and live through it is saying enough about your skill," he growled.

"… Headmaster… I don't know how I killed him… I remember how I got the cut on my hand, but it was after he was already dead… I… I remember being afraid… and thinking that I was going to die… I don't remember drawing Natsuhiboshi or how I lost so much blood… I blacked out… I think it was just a lucky hit…"

"It doesn't matter. He's dead, your mission was completed, and you're still alive. The Society was in the wrong to begin with. I'm just glad you're okay," he smiled.

"So what happened to me?"

"Well, because of the extent of your damage and the situation of how you'd become damaged, we couldn't take you to a regular hospital because we wouldn't have been able to explain it without letting on that vampires exist, so we called one of the Society's doctors to come fix you. We didn't have everything they needed here, so we got you stabilized and transferred you to the Society's facilities where they could take better care of you. You had eight stitches sewn into your leg and five in your hand, but your arm was… well… difficult. Your radius was broken in three different places and you had an inch deep gash from just below your shoulder joint to your wrist. It took about a hundred stitches to close it up."

I got queasy just imagining it as he described the damage I'd taken. I laid back on my pillows with my eyes closed suddenly in a cold sweat and nauseous.

"Okay, okay, no more… just… It's not going to fall off is it? And it's covered? I can't see anything that was wrong with it? At all?"

"Take a look for yourself," he chuckled.

"I'd rather not after hearing all of that… Where are Yuki and Zero?"

"Probably asleep by now. It's sometime around midnight."

"Okay… Well I'm gonna go for a walk. I'm not tired and I feel really stiff."

"Alright… be careful, please. And no taking baths. You can't get your stitches wet."

"Damn it…" I sighed as I slid my legs over the edge of the cot and stretched, flexing my stiff muscles. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"You have prescription pain killers if your arm hurts too much. They're in the medicine cabinet in my bathroom."

I nodded in understanding and yawned. It felt like an eternity had passed since I'd walked. The stitches in my leg tugged and I winced but I ignored it and continued on, walking around in my night gown and slippers with a slight limp. Just like my night before the mission, I was wandering, not noticing or caring where I was going or where I ended up. I was just smart and conscious enough not to go outside this time. I passed by the Headmaster's quarters and noticed that the door was slightly cracked and the light was on. I heard voices from inside and got curious as to who it could have been so late since Yuki and Zero were asleep and everyone else was at home for the holidays still.

"I thought you'd be asleep by now. Is something bothering you?" Headmaster asked.

There was a long pause until a male replied, "Not really…" It was Zero and he sounded exhausted.

"Is it about Yua? She asked where you were earlier and—"

"She was awake?" Zero asked, cutting him off, so I smiled, noting how anxious he sounded.

"She probably still is. She's wandering around campus somewhere. She was feeling restless."

"When did she wake up? How long ago?"

"About an hour or so. Why?"

"And you just let her get up and walk off? What if she passed out somewhere or she broke her stitches?" Zero growled and I heard him rushing to get up from the couch and stomping toward the door.

I reached out and opened the door, smiling when I saw Zero standing there in shock, his hand extended to grip the door knob. I chuckled, taking hold of his outstretched hand as I walked in, smiling to the headmaster on my way toward the kitchen.

"Well, seeing as you're okay and Zero is now with you, I can stop worrying and go to bed. Good night, Yua, Zero," Headmaster smiled.

"Night," I called back.

As I was boiling water for tea and standing on tiptoe to reach to the back of the cabinet for my snacks, I felt Zero's stare on my back. Before I could even touch a can Zero had his arm around my waist, pulling me down like a four year old caught trying to steal cookies from the cookie jar on the top shelf.

"I'll get it," he mumbled.

"I can get my snacks on my own, thank you very much," I pouted.

"Please… just humor me…"

I could hear the agony in his voice so I sighed in defeat, not wanting to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. Instead of getting my junk food he started pulling ingredients out for a meal so I grumbled and became surly again.

"Put it all back. I don't want food. I want my pandas."

"Too bad. You haven't had a real meal in a week. If you keep it up—…" he started but trailed off, not liking the way the thought was going.

I sighed and wrapped my good arm around his waist and leaning my head against his shoulder. I felt him tense up for a second but it didn't last long. He sighed and wrapped his arm around me as he continued to get the things ready to cook for me and I noticed that he was blushing.

"Okay, what's this all of a sudden and why are you blushing?" I demanded.

He was quiet for a while, pausing and not answering, but blushing brighter. He didn't look like he was going to answer at all so I glared at him and went to pull away. His grip on me slightly tightened, preventing me from going anywhere and I stared at him for a moment, trying to read his expression. His face was a kaleidoscope of emotions, the only ones of which I could pinpoint were fear, worry, and agony. I squeezed myself between him and the counter, cupping his cheek as best I could with the gauze around my palm and demanding his attention.

"Zero, what's wrong?"

"I—… I thought I was going to lose you…" he mumbled. "If it wasn't going to be because of that vampire, it was going to be because of me… There was so much blood…" he shuddered and went quiet again.

"Zero? … Zero, come back to me. I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere…" I cooed.

"Does it hurt?" He nodded to my arm.

"Not really, but I'd rather not look at or think about it… I'm afraid it won't be there like a phantom limb or something…"

He weakly smiled, holding my hand gently to his face and kissing my wrist while I blushed and looked down. Zero chuckled once, letting my hand go so I looked up at him and found myself staring as he stared back only a few inches from my face. My breath caught, my heart raced, and my mind fogged up. His face was composed except for the slightest turning up of the corner of his mouth in a smirk.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"Of all the things you could possibly worry about or be afraid of, you choose to worry about your arm not being there… It doesn't bother you that I just confessed to wanting to kill you? Or that it wasn't a onetime occurrence?"

"No because I know you won't hurt me. You're too afraid of me not being here."

"If I was a level E that wouldn't matter.'

"But you're not."

"Yet…" he countered.

"And I already promised that I'd take care of you when it got to that point, so what is there for you to worry about? Quit moping because you're stuck with me 'til the end whether you like it or not."

"There's something seriously wrong with you…" he sighed, closing his eyes and bending his head down to press his forehead to mine.

"Says the one who can't admit to his own feelings," I retorted, playing with his hair. "Are you going to cook something or do I have to help you put all this away and starve for another day?"

He opened his eyes, staring into mine for a moment before he gently tilted my head up by my chin and kissed me.

"Will you go sit down so I can cook for you?"

I blushed but moved anyway, too shocked and hungry to object. I watched him cook an omelet and sausage for me and when he'd made my plate and set it in front of me, my mouth instantly started watering. I hadn't realized how hungry I really was until the food was directly in front of me. It took some time for me to get used to eating left handed and there were times that I got really frustrated, but it was worth it. Zero washed the dishes that we'd used and when he was done, he grabbed my hand and we wandered around the building. He walked slowly because of my limp and I loved him so much more because of it. I leaned on his shoulder, smiling and wishing the night would never end.