So I'm thinking that I do sort of have an update schedule. I've been posting at least once a week on Mondays? Now that we're on canon that should be sustainable, with a chapter occasionally midweek if the chapter is exceptionally short or I blitz through it like I did with this chapter. (Which practically wrote itself? I've been waiting for this chapter!) There's swearing in this chapter, and no omake.

Any guesses to the relationship dynamics I'm developing? I'm curious if I'm being subtle.

Valen Goncalvez, did you copy and paste? Suspicious.

xenocanaan, thanks!

pendora59, always nice to see you! Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad not to disappoint!

"Eh?" Yuuki blinks sleepily at the angered face of her teacher. "Extra classes? But I'm passing just fine." She manages to suppress a yawn, knowing that doing so would really not endear her to her already irritated teacher. In response to her protest, he lifts her last math test, revealing a 58% marked in red at the top. She stares at it uncomprehendingly for a moment before squinting slightly, studying it more intently.

It takes her a few moments to discovers the source of her abnormally poor grade to be her teacher having graded her paper somewhat stingily. She'd written down her entire process for every question, but had forgotten to actually write her final answer clearly every time. Sighing, she resigns herself to at least retaking the entire test as the class begins to empty.

"Hey, Yuuki." Zero's call is accompanied by a gentle tug on her braid at the base of her neck. She turns in her seat to look at him, and feels a shot of worry when she sees how pale his face is. She can't tell if he's clammy or anything like that, as other than his paleness and slightly pinched features, he seems mostly fine.

"Zero?" He continues as soon as she's definitively acknowledged him, releasing her braid and beginning to walk towards the classroom doors.

"I'm going now. Finish quickly and join me," he bids. Yuuki settles a little more firmly into her seat with a quiet huff, her arms coming up to cross in front of her chest as the teacher approaches with her new test paper. He's looking to where Zero has disappeared as though he really wants to call him back as well, but Zero is somehow always on top of his work and tests, and so he can't justify keeping him behind. Not like he can with Yuuki, who occasionally wanders off track in essays, forgets to be clear on tests and occasionally forgets to turn in homework entirely.

Making her way across school grounds, Yuuki frowns as she searches out Zero. He hadn't been on the typical patrol routes, or hanging out on any of the roofs they usually occupy, and she's starting to get worried. Nearby, she hears some voices, and she turns in that direction.

"The school?" Her eyes flick to the sky, coming across pitch darkness interrupted only by a full moon. "The Night Class?" She begins to trot over, Artemis dropping into one hand, though not yet extending. It's either the Night Class, or some Day Class students. She only hopes that Zero is there, so she'll know where he is, finally.

"...is Kaname so interested in that human?" Comes a feminine voice. Yuuki slows down and realizes that the event is taking place beneath a small overhang near the back of the school. There's maybe a dozen vampires out of class, and Zero is standing in the center of them, Bloody Rose drawn and tucked to linger just beneath the girls chin. "I can't stand it," Souen continues, now identifiable.

"There's no point in getting jealous, Ruka," Kain drawls, walking close to linger behind Souen. Yuuki internally flails a little before deciding to scale a nearby pillar, doing so quickly to gain a height advantage to watch all of the vampires at once, though her angle prevents her from seeing Zero's face. There's a slight shadow cast on the ground, but if any of the vampires notice it, they show no sign. "If Kaname finds out about this, he'll be furious."

Souen's face sours even more, and Kain circles completely around her to reach for Zero's arm, looking wary and moving slowly.

"Kiryuu, you should probably put this away," he tells Zero, who visibly stiffens as Kain gets closer. Yuuki can tell that he's already on edge due to being surrounded, and probably still holding a grudge for the attempted attack from a week or so ago- her hand twinges in memory, despite being almost totally healed. Zero's free arm reaches over to grab Kain by the upper arm, his feet shifting, and Yuuki wants to snort as she recognizes the movement.

Kain goes flying over Zero's shoulders, slamming into the ground and looking considerably dazed. Among the Night Class, someone comments, "that was so uncool."

"Shut up," Kain complains, sitting up slowly and turning his attention to Zero with a still somewhat startled face, standing after a second of Zero not trying to smite him.

"So… Kaname Kuran is the reason why you've suddenly all decided to gang up on me and take me down?" Zero asks, his tone bland before it changes unrecognizably. It sounds eager for a fight, for violence. "I'd like to see you try, vampires. I've been waiting for a chance like this."

"Hey!" Yuuki shouts, jumping down off the pillar and landing behind Zero, Artemis extending and blocking the kick from a vampire that had decided to take Zero up on his offer. Her mind wheels for a second for a reason to dissuade the vampires, or even just Zero, as she's pretty sure neither of them, even together, can fight 13 vampires, some of whom are aristocrats and therefore have powers. "Fighting is against the rules, it's stated in the student handbook," she finally settles on, Artemis baton twirling in one hand before she uses a few fingers from that hand to pull on her Guardian cuff. "So regardless of whether it's Zero inviting a fight, or you of the Night Class picking one, I will not allow this to continue!"

"Look, can't we just drop this already?" Kain asks Souen, looking considerably more worried and reluctant. Souen glares at Yuuki for a moment, petulant, before huffing.

"Fine. It's not worth it, anyways… Let's go back to class," she calls. The Night Class members out begin to file back into the school, and once they're gone, Yuuki collapses Artemis once more, though she does not re-holster her weapon as she turns her attention to Zero.

"Zero, what's going on?" She finally asks, ignoring the dark look on his face. "You can't just go picking fights with so many vampires at once! Do you have a death wish?" Zero doesn't answer her, turning to walk away from her, and she takes a few steps after him, reaching out and touching his shoulder.

"Leave me alone," Zero denies, jerking harshly away from her and avoiding turning his face in her direction. Yuuki frowns at his back as he strides away, hesitating on whether to follow or not. She desperately wants to do so, wants things to go back to how they used to be, when she could poke and fight Zero, could make him carry her places when she was too tired to make the effort.

He's long gone from sight when she makes her decision, but it isn't that hard to follow his tracks. He doesn't really have too many places to go, and so she manages to pursue him into the faculty building. There's a heavy step on the stairs, and she turns in that direction, a bad feeling in the air leaving her to keep Artemis in her grasp rather than put it away as she usually does indoors. She heads down a flight of stairs, and sees slight scratches in the banister to her right.

"Zero?" She calls as she pivots and looks downwards toward the end of the next flight, where Zero stands, hunched and breathing harshly.

"I begged you to stay away from me, Yuuki," Zero strains. Pausing in place, Artemis extends in her grasp with hardly any prompting, the air filled with something she can't quite explain but that unsettles her. A hand lashes out and grabs onto the end of Artemis as soon as she takes a step forward, yanking the flashing metal and dragging her closer, one hand lashing out to grip onto her injured wrist. Artemis goes flying out of her hand as his nails dig into the remains of wound, her nerves seizing as her other hand scrambles to compensate, but Zero is pivoting her and Artemis fumbles out of her grip completely as he moves behind her.

The hand clutching her injured wrist loosens, and her free hand is caught in it instead as he uses that arm to press her close to his body, his other hand pushing aside her collar and the chain of her necklace. She has a second to move, and she uses it as best as she can, one foot stomping down and her other hand arcing upwards. Her angle is off, and her elbow to the throat fails, her arm continuing momentum and the back of her forearm smashing into his nose. The noise Zero makes is animalistic and angry, and his teeth dig deep into the side of her wrist, sending blinding pain zinging through her arm and sending her thoughts into a mad scramble as her own teeth reflexively sink into her cheek and tongue to prevent the scream that almost tears itself out of her.

She tries to escape his grasp but his body seems locked in place, and some of the blood from her wrist escapes Zero's lips, dripping hot onto the skin of her neck and the shoulder of her blazer, trailing down her front and into her clothes. It's painful, and she can hear the sound of him swallowing, but tears won't come and she's pretty sure she's in shock.

She'd known he was a vampire- or, at least, becoming one. Known he was starving, blood tablets scattered in places where she'd been finding him catatonic, or in rooms he had destroyed. There was a difference, it seemed, between knowing and knowing. And she had learned it the hard way, having underestimated Zero in a clutch moment.

In her head she can feel herself trying to rationalize this while her emotions battle for dominance beneath the hazy film of shock. Her heart is beating loudly and quickly in her ears and Zero continues to swallow, his intake probably helped along by the organ pushing her blood faster through her veins.

Another pull of her blood makes her vision actually blacken at the edges and a surge of strength gives her the ability to ignore the pain of ripping her wrist out of his mouth, his teeth not wanting to relinquish their hold. She quickly wraps her wrist in the bottom of her jacket, knowing she will continue to hemorrhage blood even as she puts pressure on the wound, wishing dearly that she could lift Artemis but knowing that if she lifted her hand from her wrist, she just might die. Swiveling in place, she stares at Zero as she begins to back toward the stairs leading upwards.

Zero's eyes are glowing a fierce and familiar red, his face, neck and upper chest covered in her blood. As she watches, he swipes a hand across his mouth, tongue licking the back of his hand seemingly unconsciously as it passes. He's breathing in heavy breaths, and his face creases with pain as his eyes meet hers.

"Yuuki…?" Her legs want to collapse out from under her, but her will manages to prevent them from doing so, adrenaline fueled strength still flooding her veins as her heart continues to jackhammer. "I'm sorry…" His eyes move away from hers. "I…" He takes a step forwards and the glow of his eyes fades away, and she knows that she would have flinched if not for that. Zero is back in control of himself, now, no longer succumbing to the vampire that had growled so angrily when she tried to escape him.

There's a footstep above them, and Yuuki turns her body slightly to look at the top of the stairs, unwilling to turn her head and bare her throat or turn her back on Zero right now, finding Kaname there. His eyes are wide and as he approaches, he seems to be momentarily confused.

"Yuuki?" She meets his eyes, feeling a pit in her stomach as she realizes that things are about to get a whole lot worse. As his eyes flick over her face, his eyes glow slightly and his expression changes into disgusted anger. "I see."

A hand lashes across her chest, pushing her behind him as he stands to face Zero, who hadn't looked away from her once. "So you've finally fallen to the blood lust of beasts, Zero Kiryuu." She has maybe a second to react, a strong feeling of déjà vu telling her that Kaname will kill Zero before she moves. Her injured wrist is jerked free of her jacket and she ducks beneath Kaname's arm, instinct having her throw her arms wide in an effort to block Kaname from Zero, to protect him from the attack Kaname has not yet made.

Her blood spatters in an arc onto the front of Kaname's uniform and the walls of the stairwell, and dizziness has her collapsing immediately backwards. Zero catches her, she can tell, his hands beneath her arms and pressing against her ribs tightly. For an instant her vision goes black, but she forces her eyes open, fear and desperation keeping her conscious as all her adrenaline begins to drain away.

"Yuuki!" Zero gasps. Kaname takes a step forwards towards Zero, and Yuuki feels a strike of fear that he will not heed her unspoken plea, that he will kill Zero anyways.

"Your blood lust must have been insatiable, to have drained her so much that she can't stand," Kaname comments, his eyes still angry but his voice and face calmer from what Yuuki can see through the tiny gap in her mostly closed eyes. He reaches out and collects her out of Zero's grip, lifting her into a princess carry and situating her arm against her stomach, blood still flowing from the wound resulting in a quickly growing, hot pool. "Yuuki's blood… Tell me, was it really that delicious?"

Her head rolls slightly and she is able to see that Zero has lifted one blood covered hand in front of him, his lips slightly parted and his eyes soft embers, not as vivid as before but the red nevertheless obvious. Kaname's grip on her tightens slightly and he shifts so her head rolls back towards his chest and shoulder, turning to head up the stairs, his eyes momentarily connecting with Zero's and flaring a vivid, furious red before he turns completely away and the red dims.

From where she is, though Yuuki is able to see that the red has not actually left his eyes at all, just dimmed so it is no longer luminous. It is not something she would have noticed unless they had glowed at all, as his eyes are naturally reddish, but not she can see that the red is more solid now, less interrupted by facets of brown or black.

As Kaname walks up the stairs, reaching the top, Yuuki sees Cross standing there.

"Chairman…" Kaname begins to speak, not slowing even slightly in his walk.

"I know," he acknowledges in a grim voice, his eyes hard. Yuuki is fairly sure she blacks out, as between blinks she is first in Kaname's arms and then she is in a chair in the infirmary, Kaname crouched in front of her and wrapping gauze around her mostly healed wrist.

"I'm sorry I cannot heal it completely, Yuuki," he apologizes, not meeting her eyes as he runs a gentle thumb over the stark white fabric. "Healing is not something I am practiced in."

"Ah, it's alright," she manages to accept after a slight pause to let the words get past the muzziness of blood loss. "Thank you for healing me at all." He looks her in the eyes then, releasing her wrist and planting both of his palms against her knees.

"Are you afraid of vampires, now?" He asks intently. She blinks, eyes slightly wide, and pushes back her instinctive head shake to think over his answer. She doesn't want to lie about something like this, and knowing the answer would probably be important for her as well. She can't avoid this.

"I think…" She begins, tongue heavy and words slightly slurring together but coherent, "I'm-"

A tap at the door frame calls their attention over, revealing Cross standing there, expression serious. "Kaname, can you go back to the classroom for awhile? The Night Class is getting restless with so much blood in the air." Kaname squeezes her knees slightly before standing with a quiet,

"Alright."

Cross makes his way over, dragging a chair over and sitting down in front of her. One hand reaches out and grasps at her injured wrist gingerly.

"I took Zero to his room, and he's calmed down now," Cross tells her quietly. "Do you want to go home, or head to the dorms?" Her eyes meet his and she sees gentle sadness in them. Her shock fades and tears start to pool in the edges of her eyes. His own eyes widen and he releases her to open his arms invitingly, making soft comforting noises as she climbs into his lap and wraps her arms around his waist. The blankets he always has around himself wrap around her completely as she huddles close and she's enveloped in warm darkness as she starts to cry, her tears beyond her control as everything spills over.

Sitting next to Yori the next day, Yuuki twirls her pencil in her uninjured hand as the teacher lectures, her mind spinning through yesterday's events and digs up thoughts she had thought she'd buried. Yuuki had spent hours in Cross' grasp and had eventually fallen asleep. When she had woken up, Zero's room had been empty and Cross had told her that he'd relocated to the dorms after he'd woken, and that he would not be attending classes today.

"You're more awake than normal," Yori finally comments under her breath as she takes notes. "Does it have to do with why Zero is absent today?"

"Ah, slightly?" She admits, startled. Yori gives her the look that poor answer deserves and Yuuki shrugs a little. "I'm not completely sure why he's missing today, but last night something happened that probably has something to do with it."

Yori stares at her for a moment, her eyes flicking downwards to the gauze peeking from inside her sleeve. Yuuki feels her blood draining from her face and Yuuki's lips press into a slight frown as she pulls the sleeve down, not explaining the silent question. Yori's eyes bore into her own before she turns her attention back to the teacher, seemingly finished with the questioning.

Yuuki can almost physically feel the lack of Zero's presence behind her, and she falls back into her thoughts as something in particular digs itself up, having been pushed back that first night she'd discovered Zero's status and had to reassure herself that he was still alive...

Zero hates vampires, especially those who attack indiscriminately. He would probably prefer if they all died. That… probably includes himself, as well.

… That he hadn't killed himself when she wasn't looking.

The memory strikes like lightning and Yuuki wouldn't be able to stop herself if she tried, jerking into a stand and causing the teacher to grind to a halt as the entire classroom turns to her. She ignores his demands for her to sit back down, abandoning her things and jumping onto the desk and then vaulting over the person in front of her to land on the next one down. There's a great ruckus as she repeats this until she's out the door that she also ignores, panic igniting through her bloodstream.

She runs faster than she actually thought herself capable of doing as she moves for the male Sun Dorm, bypassing the security who make to stop her before recognizing her amd deciding that they were better off pretending to have not seen her at all.

She throws open the door to Zero's dorm room, finding him placing the barrel of Bloody Rose against the side of his head, the safety of the gun off. Icy terror flooding in and sending her lunging across the distance between blinks, impacting with Zero and sending them slamming against the wall behind his bed, one hand wrenching Bloody Rose out of his hand. It flares into painful sparks in her grasp, never having liked her, but she ignores that long enough to throw the weapon across the room, the flimsy chain that had connected it to Zero's belt loops snapping with the force. She's almost entirely on top Zero's lap between seconds, all this happening almost too fast for Yuuki to completely comprehend it, her legs on either side of one of his own and one arm around his neck to press him close to her in an instinctual move.

Zero's eyes are wide, his face a picture of surprise.

"What the hell were you doing?!" She demands, her panic and the aftershocks of her terror still scrambling her brain. Zero's face melts into a look that she recognizes as him trying to seem stoic and strong, but she can see the resignation and shock still in his eyes when she pulls back to stare him in the face.

"Nothing."

"Liar! The safety is off," she denies fiercely. He remains silent for a moment before,

"Why did you doing here, Yuuki?" He finally asks. She blinks in surprise and Zero arches upwards and rotates, slamming her against his bed and planting one hand on her shoulder, the other pressing against the pulse in her neck. She goes still, the pressure of his hand light but instinctually terrifying.

"Let go!" Comes a furious scream in the back of her mind, the voice startlingly clear before it devolves into incoherent insistence and snarling.

"This…" Zero's eyes leave her face and focus on her throat. "Don't you get it? So long as I hear this, you'll never be safe around me." His gaze doesn't move from there, and Yuuki takes what seems like his distraction to wiggle Artemis up into her palm, the rod extending directly into Zero's side, just beneath his ribs, with all the force she's able to coax the rod into using, the bed used as a brace. Zero's eyes widen and he chokes, tumbling off the bed with a strangled sound.

Yuuki immediately pushes to her feet, twirling Artemis over her head for an instant as indignant anger pushes up from an unidentifiable source, before she brings it crashing downwards. Zero's eyes widen further in surprise and he rolls aside, Artemis impacting where his torso had just been and cracking through the wooden floor of his dorm room with the sound of splintering wood. Yuuki continues her warpath, hefting Artemis back out and swinging horizontally at Zero, as using a hammer, with all the force she can. Zero barely manages to bring an arm up to block the strike from connecting with his shoulder.

His eyes widen, though, as instead of stopping, Artemis maintains momentum, making Zero curve around the impact and tumble to the ground, his shoulder being jarred into dislocation with the strike. He does not manage to get up the nerve to move again at Yuuki's next strike, and Yuuki notices, just barely managing to reel back her strike to only knock him unconscious and maybe give him a concussion rather than killing him, which that attack might have done had it connected with full force.

Zero is knocked unconscious on his floor, and Yuuki feels all of her anger drain out of her at once, using Artemis at a brace as she stands in front of Zero's unconscious body for a moment, slightly dizzy. She's not at 100% from all the blood loss last night, it seems. With a sigh and heave of effort, she collapses Artemis and reholsters it, walking across the room and picking up Bloody Rose. It sparks harshly against her palm and she ignores it, dropping it into the pocket of her blazer and then looking her palm over.

There's the beginnings of burns, like she'd grabbed onto a heated pan, but it's negligible. They'd be healed by tomorrow afternoon naturally, sooner if Kaname somehow sees them. Yuuki makes her way back to Zero, peering at his face, and decides that he's not likely to wake up any time soon. So she closes his room door, and then turns to go and sit on his bed, blinking in surprise at the bag left on it.

With a frown of dismayed irritation, she throws it back into his closet. There's no way she's going to let him just leave. For one, he's only 16. Two, he's currently a vampire, and she's almost completely sure that he's suicidal because of that. You don't just leave suicidal people to their own devices, no matter what. Looking over at Zero, she notices that he's wearing his tie poorly in the exact second that she realizes that he's probably not likely to listen to anything she has to say to him.

She unties her ribbon and reaches for his tie.

It's about twenty minutes before Zero wakes up, visibly dazed and off balance. His hands pull from where she's tied them rather securely with their ties behind his back, and his eyes open wide as soon as he registers that he's restrained.

Yuuki is standing across from his downed form, Artemis on one hand and Bloody Rose in the other, having negotiated with the gun for permission to at least hold it (and felt stupid the entire time) about Zero's current mental state and the necessity of such a thing. As soon as he meets her eyes, both weapons spark ominously in her grasp, though she is not hurt in the process. The blue light lights the darkened room eerily.

"Zero Kiryuu," she intones in as emotionless a voice she can manage before her face breaks into a furious expression. Bloody Rose stops sparking, though Artemis seems to get more intense, lighting the room up even further and bringing Zero into light. "I don't know why you're so intent on leaving me behind, but I'm not just going to let you go! You're my best friend, and I refuse to allow it!"

Zero stares at her with an expression like stupefaction before he manages to find his words.

"And if I attack you again? I couldn't stop myself from drinking your blood, would have probably torn out your throat. What if I kill someone next time?" He asks finally.

"I'll stop you," she decides without hesitation. "If you lose yourself to your instincts again, then I'll just have to stop you."

"And if you can't?" He demands.

"I will stop you," she repeats. She isn't sure if she would be able to kill him, but she's absolutely prepared to maim him if it becomes necessary. She's already got plans unfurling in her head to ask Cross about getting another Anti-Vampire weapon, one more suited for containment than Artemis, or for a tranq-gun or maybe legitimate gun. She's pretty sure it's unlikely that she will get an actual gun, but the other two do not seem so unlikely.

Well, she'll ask about them after she's done yelling at him for giving Zero an Anti-Vampire weapon when he's a vampire (though how he uses it, she isn't actually sure), especially one so dangerous as Bloody Rose. Hadn't he thought that that may not be such a good idea, as Zero is apparently both a vampire and suicidal?

Zero stares at her in stunned silence, probably taking her words to mean that she would kill him if he went out of control, before he offers her a tired, somewhat relieved expression. Artemis calms in her grasp, collapsing, and Bloody Rose sparks with a slight sting in her other hand as the tension in the room dissipates. With a huff she tosses the weapon at Zero, the boy yelping as it lands heavily in his lap before seeing that the safety was reengaged.

"Did you think I would throw it at you with the safety off?" Yuuki asks with slight amusement, sitting down where she stood and staring at him in the gloom. He offers her an irritated-embarrassed look and she snickers at him before he winces. Yuuki's eyes immediately widen in realization and she rocks forwards onto her knees to reach over. She ends up in a hugging position, reaching around Zero and fumbling through the tight knots before she manages to untie them, letting Zero's arms free, and then she grabs the arm connected to the dislocated shoulder. She gives Zero a questioning look, and he nods.

Shoving his arm back into place, Zero lets out a grunt of pain and then stretches the arm, rotating and flexing both as she settles back on her heels to study him.

"Stop being such a dumbass, okay?" She asks after a minute. Zero snorts in surprise and doesn't bother to answer her, looking around his room. His eyes land on the large hole in his floor and they widen.

"I forgot you did that…" She turns as well and discovers the hole.

"Uh- sorry?"

"How did you even do that?" He demands, shifting to a stand to walk towards the hole before crouching down to investigate it.

"I don't actually know," Yuuki frowns. "I was just so angry, and I needed to make a point, so I did it. That was intended for you, though," she admits. Zero gives her a mildly alarmed look, and she huffs. "You would have been fine." The alarm turns to skepticism.

"Sure I would have been," he drawls. She mutters incoherently under her breath before her brain, now lacking it's insistent emotions, reminds her of what she'd done.

"Oh, no," she moans, collapsing backwards onto the floor. Zero gives her a curious glance.

"What?"

"I ran out of class to come and find you."

"And?" His voice conveys his confusion clearly, not wondering why she's so concerned about running to him.

"I ran out of class, during class. By vaulting over the desks." Zero snorts at her horrified voice. "I'm so dead. I'm going to have extra lessons, detentions, and piles of homework until I'm seventy." She bemoans, and Zero falls into helpless laughter at the apparently hilarious sight she makes. With an indignant, but mostly playful, shout, she rolls to her feet and lunges at him, bowling him over, and they devolve into wrestling. Though she's careful to avoid the areas she'd managed to hit in her attack, as they're likely to be bruising terribly already.

He manages to make her hair one big tangle, though, and refuses to help her fix it.