Title: Cradle of Blood – chapter 1 – It's all tears.
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight, this is a fanfic written for fun and for love of the series. I'm not making any money with it.
Pairings: Zero x Kaname. Also some Kaname x Zero.
Secondary: some Ichiru x Shizuka and various other pairings later on. (Yaoi and het.)
Warning: AU. Sex slavery, prostitution, mature themes. Hurt/comfort, so be prepared for the Hurt as well as the Comfort... ^^;
Do not read if you're underage or dislike graphic yaoi and dark themes.
Lemons later on.
This is AU, so Zero grew up as a hunter in the notorious Kiryuu clan, was never bitten and didn't go through the trauma of being turned into a vampire.
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The two hunters stood in the dimly lit street, among the falling snowflakes that turned to mud as soon as they hit the uneven ground of the old stone paved street.
The older man had a vaguely inebriated look on his unshaved face, and nudged knowingly the silver-haired young one, pointing at the display window they were looking at, and making vulgar comments from time to time, in a way that embarrassed the other rather than helped him choose.
This was hunter territory, but by far not one of the most illustrious areas.
It was one of the districts farther away from the headquarters, an area that mixed over-the-top shops trying to look like they came straight out of the better areas –and often failing at the attempt-- with seedy old buildings that seemed out of place even there, in what was called in the common tongue the "blood district".
The hunter cities, originally small and far apart, had exponentially grown during the war and even more immediately after the end of it, and those initially sparse areas had started popping up with lightening speed in the aftermath of the last battles.
They were nothing more than red light districts, but the more grudgeful among the hunters had insisted on the 'blood district' term until it ended up being adopted by everybody.
It was a reminder of what the ones locked behind those display windows were.
All the merchandise carried in those 'houses' –mere brothels-- was composed of the defeated side of the war.
The silver haired hunter staring at the display window, a young man named Zero, from the notorious Kiryuu family, looked like he was still almost a boy, but despite his delicate features he visibly had the strength of one who had lived much already, and he was undeniably a full-fledged hunter.
He didn't really have that much interest in the area they were in, but ever since his coming-of-age, the others at the headquarters just wouldn't leave him alone, harping on and on that he would only truly be a hunter and a man once he'd gone to the blood district at least once, so he was determined to get the stupid tradition finally done and over with.
The older man was a long time acquaintance of the boy's master and was said to know the area like the palm of his hand, so he had tagged along to chaperone the young hunter, at the demand of his master, who was vaguely concerned about some of the shops' practices with poor quality merchandise or extortive prices.
But much as the silver haired hunter had been decided to just go, pick the first shop that didn't look too dirty, choose the first vampire who didn't look too creepy and get it over with, now that he was there on the spot, things seemed more difficult.
He was a hunter and had grown up to believe that vampires were inferior creatures, beasts who deserved nothing more than a violent end, generally in the form of a merciful bullet through the head, but witnessing the display of their life of servitude was a shocking sight, and dampened his resolve. His gaze wandered over the display window of the shop in front of which he stood, where several of them sat on various chairs and fauteuils, metal and leather restraints holding them in place in an obvious manner.
Not that they had anywhere to run to anyway, or even the strength to try – no one took chances since the war, any act of rebellion was crushed instantly with a brutal determination and captive vampires were permanently drugged and/or restrained with charms. It made them more docile, and it completely cut off any chances of fighting or escaping.
"Go ahead, pick one of 'em and then you can do to him whatever you feel like for the night. It's not as if they were people, anyway! They're just filthy vampires. That's what they're for!"
"Uhhm, I know, but it still seems wrong. They sure look like people."
If they look so human, who's to say they don't feel pain and shame the way humans do?
"Oh come on! It's always been this way, there's nothing wrong with it. They're blood-sucking beasts, they should be grateful we even bother keeping 'em alive for this, after they lost the war and all. It's all they exist for, so don't take away their reason to be, 'kay?"
The old man had a sarcastic edge in his voice, visibly shocked by Zero's hesitation, but he was perfectly serious and deeply believed what he was saying. It was a commonly accepted belief these days, to the point where most grew used to just taking it for the simple truth, and never bothered questioning this status quo or imagining a world where vampires weren't slaves kept alive for sexual service.
"But the war ended ten years ago… Sometimes I can't help but wonder if it's really fair to still have things that way."
The older hunter scoffed, apparently finding Zero's idealistic musings absolutely hilarious.
"Boy, you're still real young. You'll change your mind with time. But really, they almost never get diseases, their bodies heal amazingly fast, and with their looks and all it's like they were born for this, for our use. We're doing nothing more than what nature intended, and anyways it's still better than what those bloodsuckers deserve to begin with! Now just go in there and pick one, you might already be seeing things differently in the morning."
Zero didn't reply; his gaze was lost on the farther end of the display window, where a dark haired vampire sat on a Louis XV armchair, with a regal look about him that set him distinctly apart from all the others, despite the way his wrists and neck were bruised and his legs were held forcefully apart, chained at the knees and ankles to the chair to present a more lewd display for the potential customers making up their mind about whom to choose.
The young hunter hadn't been sure of what to choose – hunters made little to no distinction of sex when it came to vampires, as the vampire beauty made that males were just as appealing, and since they were not considered the way humans were, there wasn't really a moral compass to point a finger at anyone choosing a vampire of their same sex.
But that one vampire definitely caught his eye. If he was going to have to go through with this stupid thing for the sake of tradition, he might as well pick one who looked like he might provide an experience worth his while.
The older hunter patted him on the back proudly as he walked into the shop, then went about to make a choice as well.
--
Zero waited by the marble counter of the check-in area. The houses worked very much like a hotel with a vague allure of a tea house, in which you would check in for a room and then take with you your choice of entertainment for the evening, the length of your stay depending on what you decided to do.
Zero had filled in the customary little form, and the older woman who had checked him in came back tugging a thin silver chain in her hand. It was a leash, at the end of which stood the dark haired vampire that Zero had seen on the window. The leash attached to a thick leather collar tight around his neck, with various d-shaped rings around it for it to be secured onto other chains if necessary. There were similar restraints on the vampire's wrists and ankles, and he wore what looked like a very summary bondage outfit, the leather tighter than necessary, either to be more revealing or to cause an additional discomfort.
"This one, sir?"
Her sickeningly sugary smile and voice were somewhat unsettling from someone who basically sold lives, or at least the bodies of enslaved vampires for a night or a few hours.
The hunter nodded in silence and dropped some gold coins on the counter, paying the advance fee for the night before reaching for the chain.
"Excellent choice, sir! And we just had his fangs taken out recently, so if I may recommend, the mouth should be ideal right now, still sensitive and a bit raw."
She spouted the line out with a wink and a little laugh, as if she was confiding in something amusing, or innocently suggesting a particularly good dish, before turning around to lavish another sickeningly sweet smile on a new customer who had just walked in.
Zero shuddered lightly at the coldness with which those people seemed to dish out lives, even if vampire ones, and let his gaze wander over the vampire he had chosen. There was a light flush on his delicate features, and his eyes were resolutely locked on the floor, avoiding the customer's, a vaguely dead look in his gaze, from what little the hunter could see between the dark hair that spilled over the vampire's face. Apparently, ten years wasn't enough to stop feeling the sting of humiliation when hearing something like that told to your face.
In a quick movement, the woman turned back towards them and snapped her fingers harshly. The noise quickly jolted the vampire's head back up, and he bowed slightly, before turning around to show the customer to his room.
--
The room was lavish to say the least. The young hunter hadn't expected that from the outside look of the shop. It wasn't bad, but it didn't strike him as an establishment to have such a room.
The furnishings were luxurious to the point that the hunter wondered if they had been taken straight off one of the great vampire mansions that were sacked and pillaged as the war ended. That would explain why everything in the room was so harmonious and beautiful, albeit looking a little worn down.
Could he have inadvertently chosen a vampire who was formerly from one of the higher ranks? Not that it would make any difference. They were all equal now, all slaves and no better than objects or worse in the eyes of the hunters. Although Zero still wasn't sure whether it was fair to treat them all that way, and his hesitation made him unsure of what to do next now that they were in the room.
He awkwardly settled for small talk for the time being.
"So they tear off your fangs, huh?"
The vampire had been staring at the ground, waiting for the customer to make the first move, and was vaguely startled by the voice. He wasn't used to anyone speaking to him that way. Normally, customers talked to the handlers only, not bothering to acknowledge the vampires more than for short commands or insults. The hunters didn't like speaking to them, because that would mean that they were sentient beings…
The vampire almost wasn't sure whether he was expected to reply or not, but took his chance and spoke.
"Uhm. Yes. They do it again every so often, because the fangs regrow faster on purebloods."
"You're a pureblood?!"
He should have known, maybe, but it was rather hard to tell with the vampire's power being so dulled by the drugs and charm-restraints. And Zero had never met a pureblood in person before or after the war, so he hadn't had the occasion to get a feel of how different they were.
"I thought you knew? Usually that's the reason why people pick me."
The vampire wasn't sure what it was about this customer that made him less wary, but there was definitely something, a strange impression making him feel less in danger, almost free to speak without having to worry that he might be backhanded any moment for daring to open his mouth to speak when not ordered to.
Maybe it was just that this hunter had never come to the houses before, and wasn't used to the local traditions yet. Any other customer would already have him on his knees by now, or on the bed, but this one was just staring at the room and talking of random things without giving him any orders or shoving him around. But it was best to be wary, in case the young hunter was not as inexperienced as he seemed, and was just toying around. Some of the younger ones were among the most overzealous in displaying cruelty towards vampires, and he didn't particularly feel like inadvertently inviting a beating when his jaw was already throbbing so badly from the brutal fang removal that morning. The drugs significantly hampered vampire healing, so the pain would probably last several more days before it started to be less bad.
A vague shudder of distaste ran through Zero's body at the idea that the vampire he chose was a pureblood, but it disappeared just as quickly.
A pureblood had killed his parents. But the hunters had also massacred so many vampires during the war… So much blood had been spilled already. Both sides had taken a heavy toll, and all in all, Zero was fair enough in his judgment to feel that it wouldn't be right to blame someone for a crime committed by another just because they were from the same species. He hated vampires as a collective and might have felt otherwise if the vampire he was talking to had been in any position of power, but he still had enough innocence in his heart to not feel like turning the force of that hatred towards the bruised figure in front of him.
He disguised his reaction instead with the other thing he'd been thinking, in his surprise.
"I thought purebloods were practically all prized pets of the rich and fortunate?"
The vampire's gaze lost itself on the ground, an unreadable look taking over his features for a fraction of a second.
"It is often the case. I didn't have such… luck."
The hunter eyed him with surprise, slightly taken aback, and the vampire felt worry growing within him, thinking that perhaps he had said too much and would be punished for speaking. But instead, the hunter simply changed the subject, explaining instead his reason for picking him.
"I liked your eyes."
The vampire had a distinct something that set him apart from all the others and had inevitably caught Zero's attention, but it was those impressive garnet tinted eyes that had fully convinced him.
"Oh… They're a Kuran feature."
The pureblood kept up the conversational tone that the hunter had set up, but a shiver had ran through his slender body the moment he heard Zero's words.
Please don't pluck them out, please don't pluck them out.
The last customer who praised his eyes did exactly that, just out of pointless cruelty. They healed, naturally, but that didn't mean that it wasn't terribly painful and frightening all the same.
But this customer didn't seem to have any intention to do so, luckily.
Instead, Zero continued asking questions.
"Kuran? Your clan?"
"My… family. I lived with my parents, before the war."
He lived also with his sister, but he wasn't about to mention her. She was the very only one of them whom they had managed to hide and who might have a chance of survival in this upturned world. He would never mention her name to anyone.
She was human now, and it would be best if she never even knew he existed, so that at least she would have a chance of happiness. He wouldn't hesitate to pay for it with his life if he had to.
Zero's next question, pulled him out of his musings quickly.
"What's your name?"
The surprise was such that the vampire almost stared openly at first, but he quickly caught himself, expecting it to be a test, and lowered his head submissively, mumbling out words he hated but was much too used to.
"I have no name. I'm nothing more than a slave that lives only for your pleasure, lord."
His voice was even, but in striking contrast with the hesitant and more alive way it had sounded a moment before, when he was actually talking of his own accord. This sentence had been said in a monochord tone that sounded dead, one of a broken spirit too used to repeating those words he'd been forced to memorize.
The young hunter was shocked, and automatically refused that answer.
"What? Everyone has a name."
"Not us. We're vampires. We lost our names in the war."
"But you're older than the war. You must have had a name before?"
The vampire dared raise his eyes now, unsure of the reason why the hunter insisted so, but definitely puzzled by how different he was from all the other customers.
It was Zero's turn to be taken aback by the depth of those despair filled reddish eyes. The glance of them he'd had while the vampire was in display had been enough to convince him to pick this one, but he hadn't seen yet just how deeply sad and desperate he looked.
"Is this… some sort of test? I am not allowed a name." And as a hunter, there's no way you don't know that.
Even without saying the thought that passed through his mind, the simple statement alone could be taken for rebellious talking back and earn him a severe beating, but something told him that the silver haired man in front of him wouldn't do that.
"No test. And since I paid for you, you're mine for a night, so I say you have a name, and I want to know it."
This one was definitely different!
The vampire would have almost smiled in amusement if not for the horror of the world he lived in constantly, and the inevitable reminder of it in the words of the hunter.
"Kaname. It's Kaname Kuran."
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[tbc…]
So, at long last I've relented to my Muses' constant poking, and have decided to start posting this AU after all. :D
I started writing it in early september, but have been terribly busy for a while and wasn't sure yet when I would finally post it.
It's one of my favorites of the fic ideas I've had so far (there's so many waiting to be written...^^;), so I wanted to wait until I had more time to write it regularly, but seeing how busy I currently am and might stay for a while, chances are that if I keep waiting forever I'll never do it, so I decided to just go and start posting it despite being busy. XD;
If you are wondering why they both behave slightly differently, it's because while they are still the same people, they have lived very different lives from the ones they had in the normal VK storyline, so it inevitably influenced their outlook of the world and the way they react to various things:
Zero still grew up among hunters, but he wasn't present at the death of his parents, and was never turned into a vampire, so his hatred for the whole species never went to the extremes it has in the series. (The death of his parents was a tragedy, but the memory of the war was still somewhat recent too, Zero didn't lose everything like he had in normal VK, and as a result in the end it didn't have exactly the same effect.)
Kaname on the other hand, is of course still a pureblood and influenced by the way he was raised, but he has also been a slave for the past ten years, and is much too used to being beaten for no reason, so by now he knows better, and is a lot more careful and submissive than he was when he'd just been captured.
On top of that, Kaname didn't go through the same things he did in the manga, of being under Ichiou's guardianship etc, so he didn't get used as much to the same type of powergames and mental struggles from the same type of more cold/calculating viewpoint. The type of abuse he's suffered after the war was a lot more direct and lacking in subtlety.
To give a more exact idea: take the innocent and trusting Kaname from the flashbacks in the manga (yes, that Kaname that chairman Cross would say was so innocent and each time cutely fell for whatever story the chairman made up), and then imagine how he might turn out if instead of having had to learn to manipulate people under his authority, he was captured while still innocent and gentle, and was completely traumatized by years of abuse and slavery. (I'm going with the setting that vampires hit puberty earlier than humans, for survival reasons, although I don't know yet if the ages will be AU to be older back at the time of the war or not.)
Keep in mind this is AU, so a lot of the settings are different, some just a little, others a lot, so of course that inevitably affects how the characters are, even if they are still the same characters. ;D Certain details change.
I'm not sure yet of the rate of updating I'm going to go for, because on one side I want to update it as often as possible, and on the other side I'm crushed under deadlines and terribly busy at the moment, so it's a constant struggle to find a little moment to write. XD;
That and the fact I have various other fics I also want to write. :D
But hopefully you'll enjoy the fic whenever I can update. ^__^/*crosses fingers*
*will try to keep updating regularly, hopefully without making the wait between chapters too too long (Well, hopefully)* XD;
The title of the fic itself is a random idea that crawled out of my strange mind. *lol*
I thought the feel of it fit the fic, so there it is. It has nothing to do with any bands or music. Perhaps the title comes from a vague Silent Hill influence (totally unrelated to the plot XD), but it has nothing to do at all with the game either. *lol* XD
The title of chapter 1 on the other hand, is from a song by HIM, a band which has some awesome music I like to listen to while writing or drawing VK stuff. (You might know them, as they are the band who did "Vampire Heart". :D)