To the guests who complimented my story, thanks! I didn't really like canon!Yuuki, either. She disappointed me in clutch moments. I hope my version of Yuuki is sufficiently different and good!
That said, we're about four-ish chapters from the start, I think? I haven't really gone through it comprehensively lately and am not really in the mindset to write anything unstructured, so too many fillers are unlikely, but there's going to be one next chapter at least, for my plan and additional character development.
"We're moving?" Yuuki asks Cross, trying and failing to understand why they would be relocating with Zero still so new and unsettled with them. Said boy is lurking near the back of the room, his neck rebandaged after he'd woken up late in the night to scratch at the still-healing wound again. He had opened her door again to get her about it once he'd been fully awake, and she'd helped him with the bandages once she got over the fright of waking up from a dead sleep to the smell of blood, and found him standing over her. He hadn't been staring, exactly, from what she could gather, but had mostly just been undecided about whether to wake her or not.
"Yes!" Cross says in a bright and cheerful voice. "I have projects in the works at Cross Academy, and I have to be on campus to oversee them! So, we're all going to move into the house I had built there!"
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Cross?" Yuuki doesn't bother reacting to his caterwauling about calling him Father, instead keeping her gaze locked onto his face.
"Yes!" He declares insistently. "And once we're there, I'll be able to enroll you both in as students!" Zero and Yuuki both, who have never attended an actual school, stiffen with apprehension. Yuuki casts a glance in Zero's direction, but other than his stiffened position and slightly perturbed expression, she can't tell what he is thinking about the idea.
It's three months into their stay in the new house, Zero's neck once more rewrapped with bandages, that it happens. The clash between the old system and the new. They're eating dinner, and Zero has been pushing his food around for the past five minutes.
"Kiryuu-kun. We actually have a guest coming over…" Cross tells Zero carefully from across the table. Yuuki, from where she sits next to him, perks up slightly with interest.
"So late at night?" Comes the subdued question from Zero, who scrapes his fork harshly against his plate when the doorbell rings. It's a loud, unfamiliar sound.
"Yes. Yuuki, you go answer the door," Cross instructs, keeping a watchful eye on Zero before they both turn to watch Yuuki troop out of the room and then turn a corner, disappearing from their sight. "You'll probably be able to tell, but I think you should be able to see it with your own eyes…"
"What is it?" Zero asks, but is not answered as Yuuki pulls open the front door. Standing on the other side is Kaname, who is now at least twice her height. Yuuki smiles in surprised delight, all thoughts and worries momentarily fleeing.
"Ah, Kaname-nii!" She exclaims, jumping up to hug him. He gives a small, fond laugh, walking into the house with her still attached to him at the neck. He closes the door behind him, and Yuuki gives a small laugh as he finally returns her hug before detaching her from him, resting a hand on her head. She reaches up a hand to wrap it around his wrist, and her face morphs from a smile into a pout. "You got taller again," she accuses, starting to walk backwards down the hall in the direction of the kitchen. She's an entire head shorter than Kaname's shoulders, which is somewhat unfair.
"I can't help it," he denies her accusation with a small smile. She huffs a little before hesitating to pull Kaname into sight of the kitchen and Zero, especially. She is sure that something bad is going to happen when Zero sees Kaname, and she's worried for the silver haired boy if Kaname were to take offense. He's incredibly gentle with her, and lenient with Cross, but she still worries.
"Please, don't…" She can't quite articulate what she's asking, but by the way his reddish gaze flicks from her to the kitchen, she can tell he at least gets the gist of her request. His hand falls from atop her head to cradle her cheek, her hand still around his wrist, before he rotates his wrist and captures her hand in his own.
"Alright," he agrees before making the last few steps into the kitchen doorway himself, the movement tucking her close into his side. When she can see the kitchen, she sees that Cross is standing. Once Kaname is fully revealed, Zero shoots into a stand as well, his chair toppling backwards. His eyes are wide, his already pale skin losing any color it might have had. One of his hands lands on the table, and she watches it grope along until it comes in contact with one of their dinner knives.
"Zero…" Yuuki calls, trying to get his attention. She watches Cross shift on his feet, crossing his arms as Zero swipes the knife into a reverse grip. "Zero, stop!" Yuuki shouts, trying to intercept him. Zero doesn't seem to realize she's there, keeping his gaze on Kaname, and she realizes just a second too late that her being in his way isn't going to stop him. Kaname pivots, the hand gripping her own releasing her hand to press into her upper chest, just beneath her collar bone. His other hand is slung in front of her face, blocking Zero's strike. She can see the tip of the blade in front of her face, covered with blood, having forced its way through the smaller bones in Kaname's forearm, near his hand. The point is maybe an inch from her left eyebrow.
"Vampire!" Zero's voice is loud- the loudest she's ever heard it, and from what she can see of his face, it's enraged. It's a big change from the apathy he's been showcasing in his time with Cross and herself.
"Ah, Kaname!" She shouts reflexively, jolting forward in worry.
"Slashing at me so suddenly… That's not so nice of you. What if Yuuki had been hurt?" Kaname asks, peering down at his face blandly.
"Shut up, vampire! You smell just like 'that woman'!" Zero snarls furiously.
"'That woman'? So, you are Zero Kiryuu? I heard about you." Kaname releases her to reach around and grasp the knife still in Zero's grasp, pulling it free of his arm and then Zero's grasp without so much as a wince or visible effort. "I'm sorry about your family," he says as he tosses the knife to the ground, "but I have no intention of getting killed by you."
The knife clatters to the ground between their feet, and Yuuki is able to see the terrible expression on Zero's face. It's dark, pained and resentful, but overall it's very sad.
"You're taking your anger out on the wrong person, Kiryuu-kun," Cross tells Zero, reaching a hand over to land on his back. Zero does not look away from Kaname and Yuuki, who's turned her attention away from Zero and onto Kaname.
"Kaname-nii, the blood…" She worries, reaching out to his hand.
"It's nothing. It'll heal soon. I am a vampire, remember?" Kaname denies, pulling his injury away from her and tucking the limb behind him and out of her sight. "And, anyway, I'm not the one who is feeling 'pain', here." Yuuki frowns and looks over to Zero, who has just turned away and is walking back towards his room.
She wants to go to him, but Kaname is here. And… She's maybe a little afraid of Zero, right now. It's strange, feeling like this, but she can't really help it- he'd almost stabbed her in the face, if Kaname hadn't intervened. She isn't sure he'd want to see her, anyway. She had, after all, been the kind to bring a vampire into the house where he was meant to be safe. It must have been a nasty shock.
She'll go to him once Kaname's left. With how closed off he seems to be now, it won't be long.
"I'll come again some other time, Chairman Cross. It would probably be best if I left for now," Kaname explains.
"Oh, alright, Kaname-kun-" Cross flutters for a short while before Yuuki is shooed away. She goes with minimal fuss, allowing them their privacy. She's fairly certain Kaname had legitimately come to talk to Cross, either way. Five minutes later, Kaname's car has driven away with him inside of it and Yuuki is hesitantly pushing her way through Zero's slightly ajar door.
"Zero? Kana- the vampire has left. I'm sorry that I didn't warn you..." She approaches him cautiously. He's sitting on his bed, one leg tucjed up close to his chest, with his face pressed into his knee. He hasn't so much as twitched since she's been in the room.
She reaches a hand out to Zero, and it's only her training with Cross that allows her to dodge his quick swipe. Her hair swishes at the displaced air, telling her that strike would've hurt.
"Don't you dare touch me with the hands that touched him!" Zero snarls at her, livid violet meeting wide rust. His face is flushed with his indignation rather than the paleness of his fury, which is a cold comfort to the sharp pain in her chestvat Zero's outright hostility. She hadn't been prepared for it, and it's a pain that's bitterly familiar in ways she can't really understand.
"Kaname-nii is a vampire who saved my life from a level E, and he's been nothing but kind to me," Yuuki decides to say after a while, figuring that Zero deserves some explanation for Kaname's apparently upsetting presence. "He's also an important pureblood vampire."
Zero's face is pinched with anxious confusion as he tucks both knees to his chest, his gaze no longer searing into her as she stands before his bed.
"There's something wrong with you. Both Chairman Cross, and you. Associating with vampires..."
Yuuki doesn't get any closer, allowing him the space he'd insisted on before her face softens into a pained, gentle smile.
"I'll leave, Zero..." She bids, turning with a small wave to the boy who is now ignoring her. "Sorry..."