Title: Visitors from the Future
Genre: General/Romance/Friendship
Rating:T
Pairings: Zero/Kaname
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.
Author's notes: Sorry for the long delay that I took in writing this chapter out, but previously I'm down with writer's block and was thinking of dropping my fic writing for some time. However, a quick scan through of the private message received on my account - I gathered that I should perhaps tried to finish this. Do bear with me for the rusty feel on the chapter; I need some time to go back into the authoring mood again.
{Recap - Last time on chapter 23, part B of VotF...}
'Damn ... does that mean that I was staring at Kaname like one of those love-stuck females loitering about the corner of the party, waiting for him to glance their way?!' Zero thought, resisting the urge to groan aloud from frustration.
Chapter 24 – Party of the Aristocrat Vampire Society Part C
"Hanabusa, kindly stop fidgeting about… I know you are bored out of your mind, but please – tonight's party was organized by your father. You should at least give him some respect." Akatsuki Kain commented as he passes by his fidgety cousin to get to the side of one Ruka Souen.
"Exactly, and while doing that – kindly refrain from staring towards the direction of Kiryuu; I know you are upset about him staring at Kaname-sama at every possible chance but please if Kaname-sama himself is not at all bothered by his stares, you should remain calm about it – too." Ruka Souen added while she sipped away from her champagne glass filled with unknown red liquid.
"Nice taste of RHB positive blood in here…"
"…Care to stop doing that? It's getting old – and by the way, that's just normal fruit punch." Aidou Hanabusa retorted back with slight annoyance, as though his family's party could be spotted serving blood to the guests – with the presence of the hunters around in undercover disguise.
Zero, in the meantime, found him-self in the washroom splashing water onto his face – while drilling the idea of his duty back into his mind. He was not going to go back out to the front with what his master had classified as the look of a love-struck teen expression.
Kaname Kuran, on the other hand, was still stuck in the midst of his socializing acts – and whilst he had tried to catch the eyes of a certain silver-haired guardian that passes him by; the former had been adamant on treating him as though he was invisible.
"Kaname-sama, may I have the pleasure to introduce to you – my daughter?" Another guest had come forth to greet the pureblood, causing the said vampire to shift his attention back to his task on hand which is socializing and politely rejecting any proposal of a match-making scheme.
Yagari Touga busied himself with the task of surveying the crowd that gathered within the halls, while shifting his position by changing directions every few minutes unlike his disciple whom had chosen to stick to the far end corner of the function hall. Fifteen minutes later, he found himself back in his disciple company towards the further end of the event hall.
"Words had been going around that you are the main suspect for killing that woman." Yagari started, keeping his tone low – no doubt, trying to avoid detection from the vampires.
"I know…but it hadn't been me whom gave her the final blow though." Zero responded, matter-of-factly not giving anything else out even to his own master.
"…" Silence was received from Yagari Touga's side upon Zero's words, and then followed by Zero's declaration of having seen his younger twin in prior.
"I see…" Yagari Touga murmured, there was no need for further questions to be asked – Zero had once mentioned that Ichiru was taken by that woman when he had been left out on the front porch to fend for him-self. Henceforth, when Zero said that he had seen Ichiru around – Yagari knew then, the younger twin of Zero must have stuck by the side of that Shizuka Hiou all these times.
Yuuki Cross sat alone in the empty but posh room within the property of Aidou Hanabusa's family, feeling very much restless. Being bore out of her mind, the girl had started to take interest in observing the room around her.
'A room without any windows…' Yuuki mused to her-self, as she found the sheer idea of it striking a familiar chord in her.
It was then that the door to the room which Yuuki was situated within swung open without warning, the sound of the door opening startled the dark haired girl as she spun round to face the intruder to the room she was in. Her expression of surprise gave way to perplex and confusion when she recognized the intruder to be the little vampire boy from before. She knew now that the little boy crying for his mother, and requesting for her to bring him around in search for the missing mother is a vampire child – after the vice president of the night-class had kindly lecture her on the reason behind her fainting spell.
"Big sister… I'm sorry." The boy inched himself halfway through the open doorway and said to Yuuki, then running off through the open doorway again leaving Yuuki behind to panic.
"Wait up, little boy … please don't let anyone knows that I'm in here, will you?" Yuuki make an attempt to run after the little boy, only to find that there is no longer anyone in the corridor way.
'Strange…' Yuuki thought, and if she had any common sense in her she should have went back into the room and locked the door behind her. Unfortunately, Yuuki caved in to her own curiosity to see for her-self just how the party of a vampire society is like – when she was tempted by the sound of the music played in the main hall.
Slowly and cautiously, Yuuki crept along the hall-way as she peeked at the party going on below her at a lower storey. Scanning the faces of the participants for the party, Yuuki swallowed upon the recognition of many famous people whom she somehow chanced upon in prior – be it on TV, News or even from the gossips between her class-mates. Her thought then shifted back to what she had heard from her adopted father – Kaien Cross, about the existence of many vampires whom had taken up to the lifestyle of camouflaging them-selves in public.
Just then a familiar silver-haired guest came into her sighting view, and gulping nervously – Yuuki ducked and hide.
'What in the world is Zero doing here at a party organized for the aristocrat society?!' Yuuki found herself wondering. She highly doubted that Aidou would invite Zero along, even if he did – Yuuki certainly would not believe that Zero had accepted the invitation. Then pray tell why is it that Zero is here?! Is he here as a waiter or a servant? Yuuki wondered – because judging from Zero's attire, he certainly doesn't looks like one who is here to have fun partying.
Then is it because of other duties? A series of thoughts raced through the mind of the female guardian as she pondered over the reason behind the silver-haired ex-human hunter presence in the company of so many vampires – before the most plausible reason crept into her mind that Zero is most probably here to keep an eye out on the vampires taking part in the party.
Kiryuu Zero could yell, but he refrained from doing so – he was already the centre of the attention, no point drawing more attention to him-self. However, he was beyond exasperation upon sensing a certain supposedly unconscious female's presence while walking around the event hall keeping a lookout on the participants' behavior. Now he could only hope that nobody else had detected the presence of Yuuki – a mere human trapped in a vampire's territory.
"Kaname-sama, I've heard that during the most recent dealing with the council – you'd taken your position to side with the humans. Is that right?" Some aristocrat vampire's words draw Zero's attention back to the situation at hand, only to find a certain pureblood standing a mere ten steps away from him-self and judging from the man whom uttered those words – it was once again pertaining to Kaname's decision to defend him on the issue of 'killing' Shizuka Hiou.
"…" Zero said nothing, only maintain his unwavering stare directed towards the pureblood as the man give the aristocrats some fanciful reasons behind his doings. A short exchange of eye-contact had Zero knew that Yuuki must have sneak out from the room by her own means, he could easily see the mild displeasure in those swirling chocolate orbs of the said pureblood while keeping up a facade of his usual polite manners when it comes down to dealing with the lots of the vampires surrounding them.
'Try and locate Yuuki before anyone else does.' Zero could easily decipher the hidden meaning behind Kaname's eyes, and quite frankly speaking – this particular knowledge unnerved the silver-haired hunter a lot. Since when did he master the art of reading emotions that the pureblood usually kept behind his mask of indifference?! Nevertheless, Zero decided to simply dwell about it another time as he started to inch away from the public eyes and go in search for the girl whom had a penchant for attracting trouble to her-self.
Kaname watched with silent eyes as the silver-haired hunter went in search for his beloved sister, before turning his attention back to the father of one Aidou Hanabusa. The man was pretty adamant of the idea to match-make his daughter with him, that – he had already heard from Akatsuki Kain from before. It seems like Aidou had been throwing temper around because of that, deciding to go about the situation in a wayward manner – Kaname found him-self trapped with the rest of the aristocrat who wanted him to meet their daughters or wards that they had brought along with them for the party.
"My most utmost apologies for interrupting this little session, but please refrain from crowding up to Kaname-sama because it would end up with him being upset and thus ruining his socializing mood for the rest of the evening." The sound of a new-comer startled the aristocrat out from their enthusiastic mood, as everyone shifted their glance to the front door of the function hall.
"Sara Shirabuki-Sama…" Someone amidst the hall whispered in recognition.
Sara Shirabuki, one of the few pureblood clans that still survived in the modern society. As she made her way towards Kaname Kuran, those whom crowd before the dark-haired pureblood began to shift and make way for the daughter of the Shirabuki clan.
"It's been a long time, Sara." Kaname greeted as he lifted the hand of the female companion to his lips, the aristocrat way of showing respect to a female.
"Indeed, since you left for school I believed." Sara Shirabuki responded, her smile never to waver under the gaze of Kaname Kuran.
Yuuki was up on the second storey sneaking glances downwards to the exchange between the two pureblood descendents when she felt a hand to her shoulders. A yelp nearly escaped from her lips but another hand managed to clap over her mouth, thus successful in the task of silencing the unintentional yelp of hers.
"Care to explain why you aren't in the room where you are supposed to be staying in?" Zero questioned, in a tone that leaves Yuuki no room for argument.
"… I was worried… about the little boy from before, I wanted to know for certain whether or not has he found his mother yet." Yuuki responded.
"Still, it does not change the fact that the specific order given to you was to remain where you are – no matter the circumstances." Zero concluded, as he started to drag Yuuki back to where she should be staying.
The duo had just entered the room for about five minutes, before Kaname Kuran him-self strolled through the door and proceeded on to lecture Yuuki again for another ten minutes or so – highlighting the valid point as to why she should not go wandering about.
"I'll leave her to you then; I still had some work to do down there." Zero stated his tone flat while he made his exit from the room.
Kaname stared after Zero's departure with an unreadable gaze apparent in his eyes, was it just him or was it really that something in Zero's aura of being a Level D seemed off to him for even a split second of moment? It was true that Level D can detect the presence of humans and vampires in a crowd, but to be able to pin-point the exact location of a specific human or vampire in question would be kind of hard for these ex-humans – if his memory served him correctly. Then how on earth did Zero managed to locate Yuuki this fast and efficiently?
"Kaname-sempai?" Yuuki's questioning voice brought the pureblood back to reality, as he shifted his gaze towards his beloved sister in front of him.
"Never mind, next time do bear it in mind – not to disobey the orders given specifically for your own good." Kaname concluded, before he laid his head atop of Yuuki's stomach. The girl had been sitting on the bed listening to the lecture of one irate ex-human prior to his entry, and now he simply just took advantage of the situation by pushing the said girl to laid back down onto the bed while he rested his head on the girl.
"Eh… Kaname-sempai, what are you doing?" Yuuki asked, unable to comprehend the current situation.
"Be silence for a while, will you? My head is pounding from the entire ruckus going on down there." Kaname muttered aloud, inwardly cursing his own pureblood status – because it would mean frequent socializing trips to parties in the near future. A direct result of his way in handling the prospective match-making attempts downstairs.
Meanwhile, Zero whom had re-entered the function hall nodded discreetly towards the vice-president of the night-class before continuing on his way towards where his master had stood waiting for his re-entry.
"The party is about to come to a close." Yagari Touga started.
"I know."
"In the end, the target I've been pursuing all these while failed to turn up." Yagari commented.
"…" Zero maintains his silence on this topic, because it was not his place to say anything in return.
"Right then, I should probably get going already – help me say 'hello' to those brats of yours." The veteran hunter said again.
"…Will do..." Zero finally responded, after taking a minute of silence to let his master's words soak in fully.
With that, the veteran hunter make his exit from the party while Zero waited on for some more moments – until the servants of the Aidou family started to clear away the dishes being served during the party before returning back to where Kaname and Yuuki were left to their own device.
"I assume your duty for tonight is done?" The question greeted the ex-human from the lips of Kaname Kuran as soon as the former step through the doorway, separating the corridor and the room.
"… Not yet, it can only be considered complete after the whole lot of you arrived back on the grounds of the academy." Zero responded, flatly as he took a step towards the chocolate haired girl and knocks his fist lightly on the girl's head.
"Hey! What was that for?!" Yuuki protested, upon the feel of Zero's fist against the top of her head.
"That's for complicating my duties further!" Zero throw back at Yuuki, his face devoid of emotions while his eyes reflected mild mirth.
"…" Yuuki stared before puffing up her cheeks in annoyance to Zero's actions, but there was no way of her to do any retaliation of sort – because she had to agree her disobedience earlier on did caused some troubles to the majority of the night-class members.
"Well, then let's not dawdled any longer and start making a move on – shall we?" The pureblood spoke up then, as he rose from his seat – leading the way out from the room while the rest of the night-class members follow suit.
Date started: 31/12/2012
Date completed: 1/1/2013