Infancy is purity

Zero P.o.v (4 years old)

"WAH! Nii-san! Look at the beautiful snowflakes! Isn't nature beautiful?" Ichiru smiled at the small snowflake that fell on his cupped hands and turned to his older twin, who was looking at the fastly falling snow from the top of the lavish viewing balcony.

"It is." He replied, very fascinated by the falling snow. "Nii-san, they're serving the food!" "They aren't doing that Ichi. Stop lying.." He still had his hands outstretched to catch another snowflake.

Ichiru pouted and crossed his arms. "Hmpf... At least get inside and talk to someone..do at least that please?" He just sighed. He walked closer towards the metal railing and stuck his arm through the bars.

"Nii-san..." Ichiru moved closer to his older twin and placed a hand on his head. He looked towards his twin's clutched hand, that held a necklace. "Nii-san what are you doing? Isn't that necklace special to you? What if you dropped it?"

"Ichi... It's fine. I..I have a good grip on it..there! The moon and the emerald charm align perfectly! Come closer Ichiru! Look at how beautiful the gem lights up when aligned perfectly with the full moon!"

The gem shimmered radiantly, it's ray going all directions and emitting a bright green light. A stray light attacked Zero's vision, forcing him to drop it out of instinct. The necklace fell from the top of a 3 storey building and landed on the soft, early winter snow.

"..." ' Curses! How careless of me!'

"...I told you Nii-san." Ichiru remarked. Zero stood up and searched for the necklace, until he spotted it. "Nii-san. How are you going to get the charm without going out of this room and angering Ojii-san?" Ichiru followed his brother's movements as he pulled a dressing chair to the door.

He stopped himself mid way and had an idea. "Ichi. Do you still remember how to do the puppy dog eyes?" Ichiru gave him a slow nod. "I better have a reward after this..." Zero ran to him and pulled him towards the chair.

"I will cover you up in Ojiisan, Oba-chan and Gruncle Yoshi's jackets. Now. Hear me out. This may or may not work, but while you are 'trapped' you are going to have to make the most cutest cries for help and you know that they cannot resist our cuteness. So while you distract them for me, I'll take the opportunity to escape and successfully make it outside. Right now let's just hope that Gruncle Kabuto won't hear us for reasons you and I know..."

Both Zero and Ichiru shuddered violently at how accurately their grand uncle Kabuto always knows where they are, what they do, etc to an extent that they probably thought that he has 12 sights further into the future.

Zero went into the coat closet and forced down the coats that were hanging undisturbed. Ichiru sat in a fetal position and giggled every now and then when the fabrics of the coats made contact with his skin.

A few minutes later, Zero was done. Ichiru was entirely covered up by their relatives coats. "Perfect! How are you feeling Ichi?" Zero went closer to the cocoon of coats shielding his small body.

"It's fine..!" The coats muffled his voice. Zero chuckled sweetly and ran to the door. He started banging on the door and calling out to his Baa-chan. Ichiru chimed in, regardless if his voice wasn't loud enough to get through the fabrics of the coats.

Their voices were eventually heard by their grandparents and their grand uncle Yoshi. The first one in was their grandmother Shizuka who, not so elegantly forced opened the door, almost knocking over Zero.

"Damnit Shi-tan! You almost killed the kid!" Hideyoshi called from behind. She surveyed the room cautiously before she was taken aback by the swaddled heap of coats on the ground.

She knelt infront of Zero, who had tears in his big amethyst eyes. "Oba-chan..I was playing with Ichi..and and... I thought it'd be an amazing idea to play butterfly with your coats and pretend to be in a cocoon...but a few times around.. Ichiru couldn't get out.."

The adults looked at his teary eyes, judging if he was lying, but the innocence in his eyes worked like magic and they believed him. "I can't believe I'm believing him." Shizuka patted his head gently and moved to a crying Ichiru, who was actually stuck under a pile of coats.

"What the.?" Hideyoshi questioned out loud, visibly puzzled by how the buttons seemed like they where apart of the fabrics. "Hold on there little buddy. Technical difficulties is... trying to figure out what the hell happened..."

Zero managed to slip out the room and make it to the packed ballroom of very tall, lavishly dressed guests. He slowly made his way through the preoccupied vampires, all of which were purebloods, going on and on about shares, deals, business partners and so on.

He had a few run ins with adults who cooed at how adorable his small stature was, how beautiful his silver white hair was and his innocent amethyst eyes that suited his hair tie.

He finally managed to get to the main door and stubbornly asked the guard to open the door for him, since his stubby little legs couldn't reach the door knob. Once outside, the cold winter wind nearly knocked him over.

His white fuzzy winter hat was covered in snow and lay a few metres away from him. He shook off the snowflakes that were on his head and wearily picked up his hat, dusted it off and wore it again.

'If my estimation is correct... I would.. say.. that the dressing room Ichiru and I were in... It could be facing west..'

He looked around for a moment, taking in his surroundings. He noticed colourful green, purple, blue and red streaks of light coloured over the dark sky, the trees seemed further away since the last time he saw them and the wind seemed stronger.

He walked around the building, keeping his eyes to the ground, just in case he doesn't miss his necklace. One turn and a few minutes later, he finally found it, sticking out of the snow and shimmering with the moonlight didn't make it hard for him to miss it. He immediately picked it up, tried to warm it up with his gloved hands and wore it triumphantly around his neck.

Then, he felt a pair of eyes staring, burrowing even, directly at his form. He shivered since he felt the stare get increasingly uncomfortable and so he turned around and looked up. He saw a familiar brown haired boy with the same look in his eyes, beautiful and secretive.

The Pain of remembrance

The boy was sitting on the window seat, his body was covered by the height of the window sill. He smiled softly, a bright pink blush dusting his cheeks and waved sweetly at him. The boy returned the gesture with a small wave and a fond smile on his face.

They stared fixated on to each other's eyes and the boy was the first to brake the staring contest when he turned his head to the left, got off the window seat and disappeared. 'What a strange encounter...huh? Why's the charm glowing all of a sudden?'

Zero rubbed the charm gently and the glowing started to fade. He smiled in satisfaction that his plan worked. Looked ahead of him and immediately, satisfaction was replaced by curiosity and awe at the emerald green sigils that appeared out of thin air and formed a walk way trail through the snow.

The sigils melted the snow and thanks to the glowing green he could see them shine much further ahead the walk way. 'This is so fascinating! Should- Should I continue this path..? I mean Baa-chan and Ojiisan would not be very happy about me going into a forest during a snowy midday...but I am sure that I will come back inside as quickly as I left! Yes, Yes. I will say that I was..er- in the bathroom, and- and I got locked in. I hope they'd buy my excuse..'

He huffed in enough air to release his anxiety and puffed it out, already feeling adventurous he set off down the trail not sure where it leads him. This of course, wasn't the brightest of ideas, but being stuck in the house for a long time and not being able to explore forests and surrounding ecosystems, fuelled his curiosity to adventure this trail.

Kaname P.o.v (5 years old)

'In my years since awakening. I have never seen such a beautiful black rose amongst the thorns... Could it be? Has Laxedus come alive like he promised?'

Kaname didn't realise that he was staring for a very long time until the beautiful silverette locked eyes with him and blushed. He noticed this adorable gesture and the soft smile, so he smiled and waved at the silverette.

'Such an adorable and beautiful rose...My beautiful black rose has come alive...My precious princess...Your warmth is what I yearn to feel once more..my love'

"Kaname, what did I tell you about lying to me about where you are actually going? I thought I told you to meet the Shirabuki family." His mother's musical voice pulled him out of his thoughts on a certain silverette. He rolled his adorable garnet eyes and got off the window seat half-heartedly.

The hallway was empty and deserted, with everyone downstairs in the dance hall. They made it to the meeting room and the Shirabuki family looked the least bit formal, considering how he doesn't like what they all wore. He didn't want to be there at all. He knew what both of their families and that Shirabuki girl, whatever her name was, wanted from both of them.

They sat at the opposite couch, facing the other family, so instead of sitting in between his parents, he opted for the seat on the left which was closest to the window. For the most part he stared at the snow falling and the wind controlling where the snowflakes landed. Once the atmosphere settled in, the woman with blonde hair and pale blue eyes spoke up first.

"So... Now that the meeting has started, Crown Prince Kuran, if memory serves me right, you said to give you three days to decide on the proposal. Have you decided yet?"

Kaname already knew his answer to this question. "Yes and my answer is no. She is not what I look for in a bride. In fact, she is the opposite of what I want- no. What I need my bride to be. Her looks are arguably what some other Vampirian match makers would consider but I am not attracted to her at all. Now if you excuse me."

The Shirabuki girl started sobbing, hard. Kaname did not spare a glance at them before standing up and leaving the room. He strode formally down the hall and heard a wail. 'I wonder what is going on...' he traced the cries to the second to last door on his left and used his telekinesis to turn the door knob and push the door open.

He was met by frantic, crying and seated HioKiryuu members, who from encounters with them should show no emotion. To see them react with any emotions other than strict formality was foreign.

"My... What has all of you act so unordinary? Could I help?" This wasn't going to be good on his future self if he helped other Vampirians so loosely. The first person to speak up was Hamada Hio, Who was comforting his wife quietly from the seat closest to the balcony.

"We lost one of our grand kids...looks identical to that one." He pointed to the boy who was huddled up next to the curtain with a downcast look on his face.

He knows who they where talking about. "I remember who you are looking for." The room went silent and all their gazes went to him. "Really?" "Where?!" "I swear I will punish him when I find him!" "When?" "Are you sure?" "It is fine. You don't need to."

He shushed them and told them where he saw him. They quickly collected themselves and he led the way to the last place he saw him. They made their way through drunk guests who were dancing mindless and tasteless, the alcohol made them forget their statuses.

Once outside, a strong wind furiously danced with the winter cold following behind it. The boy who was identical to his rose, he came to find out that his name was Ichiru, was knocked off his feet but thankfully he was caught swiftly by the legendary Yamato Kiryuu.

He led them around the building, until they made it to the spot where he last saw him. Something was off. A bright emerald green trail embedded itself to the snowy ground and opened up a trail that started from the last spot he saw him on and led into the frosty forest.

He trekked carefully towards the trail and followed it with his eyes deep into the forest, were the glowing seemed to continue further. He stepped on one of the green sigils cautiously but nothing happened. He did the same to the one infront and the same result happened..

"Oh Beto-san. It's too early..." He heard Hideyoshi say under his breath. "Could you know what is going on Shikamaru-san?" He directed his attention to Hideyoshi, who looked at him as if he had a third eye.

"Beats me..." Hideyoshi shrugged sheepishly. He focused his attention on the trail up ahead and continued forward. He followed the trail into the dark frosty forest and heightened his senses. His attention moved to the purple hair tie, ornamented with a two silver bells.

He slowly bent down and snatched it greedily off the ground. 'As beautiful as its owner.' He gently stuffed it into his inside coat pocket and continued.

Zero P.o.v

"Lady...are you alright?" He asked the lady who was in a fetal position, motionless on the snowy ground. He heard weeping come from her huddled from. The moment he moved closer his charm glowed brighter and green, red, purple and black clouds swirled around them. The charm opened up, what seems to be a strong vortex sucking up half of the woman who tried grabbing onto the frosty ground with her sharp claws. The charm was too strong and it sucked her into it, effectively closing the vortex and it's clouds disappeared completely.

He fell over from dizziness, landing on his bottom. He threw his head to the side and threw up bile. The cold wind softened up and it settled to a breeze. He stood up slowly, his vision took some time to refocus and once it did he saw a man and a woman stand a few feet from him, their eyes were glowing crimson.

"Oh my...looks like another meal lost in this blizzard." The woman laughed at her joke. The man moved closer to him and he jumped backwards, losing his balance and landing on his bottom again. "Are you lost angel?" The man scratched the left side of his neck and the scent of berries, vanilla cupcakes, honey, cream and watermelons filled the air.

The man licked his bloody claws and inched closer. 'So.. Sode...no Shirayuki' He managed to repel the man with one of his shields that formed a bubble around him and sent the man flying into a tree. He was getting woozy again. He reached his hand to the wound on his neck and pressed it lightly.

"Disgusting bags of dust and dirt, suddenly had the gaul to attack my beloved wife.." a smooth and authoritive voice seemingly came from nowhere. This statement was followed by a shriek and a small burst of red light that disappeared quickly but the shrieks echoed.

"Have mercy Kaname-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEIK-" another scream resounded. "Backward beast. The sheer stupidity to utter my name." Silence passed, and the stillness was interrupted by the soft noise of the wind.

Zero was fading in and out of reality. His shield dispersed without his command and a brush of cold air washed over his form. "My Princess is not meant to be lying on the ground like an animal..."

He felt his body being lifted from the ground and into a pair of arms his head swung motionless before he was adjusted to lay his head on this person's chest. He managed to get a look of his saviour. He recognised the eyes, the hair and the look in his eyes but this was replaced by worry.

"i we could have met under different circumstances-" "Rest now my love...my princess, those cold and dead eyes don't suit you. Rest them for now..." He did as he said and closed his eyes. The movement and the breeze worked perfectly in lulling him to sleep.

'It is fate that brought us together my princess

No such thing as different circumstances.

I have long awaited for this day

To carry you in my arms in such a way

Only my one and only precious rose

Is befitted to be carried by me and only I

Would be able to feel the warmth I had dreamt about from my time many, many years ago

This warmth that only I was able to feel..

This warmth I miss so dearly...

Our warmth we shall share for eternities..

To The warmth of the princess of my memories...'

I wrote the poem and I gave meaning to the line 'the warmth of the princess of my memories'

IT WILL ONLY EVER BE DEDICATED TO ZERO...