I don't like this chapter. It was really hard to write and I'm irritated about it. There is an omake at the end that is a scene I cut from this chapter. It's all going to be included later in a fashion but doing so now is a poor idea so I took it out. But I'm placing it here anyway.

CatNapObsessed, you're right that it doesn't have to do with Kaname being a vampire. This is something that I've carried over from myself, actually, and can't explain it very well, but when people seem inordinately interested in me in ways other than friendship or familial bonds, I get incredibly uncomfortable when they touch me or involve themselves in my business, even if I like the contact itself. It isn't them exactly, but their intentions, if that makes any sense? Yuuki can tell he isn't touching her with innocent or brotherly intentions and there are no clear boundaries currently established between them. She is not sure how to create those boundaries and is thus kind of snowballing into discomfort and confusion. Yuuki has spent much more time around Zero than Kaname and trusts him more than she does Kaname, despite their past actions.

Guest666, hi there! That is a nice OTP, I gotta say. Kaname's behavior is being played up slightly, but it is in character for him as far as I'm aware. I agree though. Kaname hasn't ever been my favorite character and I'm not really doing him any favors, but I've always been more skeptical of people like him I

pendora59, nice to see you! I'm only about 70% sure I know what you mean as google translate is sketchy, but it's nice to hear from you anyways!

EDIT 5/24: I mass updated previous chapters with legitimate line breaks, and I edited this chapter's typos. I'm not sure if I'll be able to continue using the lines, but I've added them now. And I didn't intentionally delete this chapter, sorry...

Yuuki doesn't want to leave her bed the next day. She doesn't make it to class, but by the time she wakes up, there's enough time for her to monitor the switch. Yori is back from classes and already changed into her casual clothes- loose cotton pants and a flowy tank top-, and she gives Yuuki a worried look as she stares at the ceiling of their dorm room. Her eyes are sore, she's wearing the same uniform she wore yesterday, and her chest feels like it's been hollowed out, painful and raw.

"Yuuki, are you alright?" Yori asks, stopping next to Yuuki's bed, near her head, as she looks down. There are shadows under her eyes, and they're red and slightly puffy. It takes Yuuki a minute for the question to make its way through the throbbing pain in her temples from all the crying yesterday, and she shifts a little in a half-hearted shrug. "If you can manage it, you should probably go to the switch over. Zero wasn't in class today, so he might not make it. Do you want me to come with you?"

"...No, it's alright," Yuuki says quietly, climbing out of bed and peeling out of her uniform. The muzziness and lingering depression is not uncommon for when she cries herself to sleep, but it's still upsetting on a low level. Due to her back being turned, Yuuki does not see Yori glancing at the collapsed form of Artemis and the gun that had been revealed amongst her blankets.

"Can I come with you anyway? Just to the switch?" Yori persists, dropping down to sit on her own bed as Yuuki puts on her spare uniform, ignoring the ribbon after failing to tie it correctly for a fifth time. Yuuki is moving uncharacteristically sluggishly, and Yori thinks she may not answer for a moment before she does so, the words dragging a little thickly but the flatness of her tone disappearing.

"If you want to, I don't mind." Yori turns and moves to put on socks and shoes, allowing Yuuki the pseudo-privacy to holster her weapons. She frowns as she slides the gun into place behind her, wishing she could have a chest holster like Zero for ease of draw, but knowing that even if her chest is flat enough to allow such, her uniform jacket is too tight. It's a minor miracle the gun is hidden by the jacket's natural folds, as it is.

Not five minutes later, they're making their way to the Moon Dorm gates for the switch, being among the first to arrive. Yori leans up against a nearby tree as the crowd begins to gradually increase. Among the gathering students, Yuuki can hear whispered rumors about how 'the Headmaster is out' and 'nobody has seen Kiryuu today?'

Yuuki's exhaustion fades out the longer she is awake, though emotionally, she feels a little fuzzy and strained, still. As the crowd begins to surge and grow louder, a distant and irritated idea prompts wonderingly if they would calm down if she fired her gun into the sky. She shoves that feeling back, because that's a Stupid Idea and unacceptable, so settles for physically bullying the Day Class students into submission. Her actions are new and unexpected, and the students follow her instructions for once with wary confusion after she has swept a third student's legs out from under them and then stomped on their pelvis.

When the Night Class exits the dorms, she can tell that they're surprised at the order, but Kaname quells them before any of them can say or do anything, giving her a long, concerned look.

I must look terrible, she realizes as they begin to make their way to the school building, waving goodbye to Yori as she goes. Once she's pursued the vampires into their class, she makes her way back towards the outside to begin her patrols. On her way, however, she comes across the man from the previous night- Yagari- walking in her direction. Towards the classroom set for the Night Class' usage.

He's dressed more formally, his hair still a mess but his eye visibly blue in the better lighting. He's carrying a thick, hardcover book with a title in a language she does not recognize.

"Hey, Yagari-san, what'd you do to Zero? He did not attend classes, and Cross is supposedly missing, as well. So?"

Yagari gives her a long, level look before speaking. "We isolated him, of course."

"...Isolated?"

"Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me if he goes mad one day, and before I solve the problem, I hope to prevent any casualties."

"Where is he?" She demands, worried.

"Go away. I'm not free to chat with you," he insists, moving to walk past her. "That hermit says Zero can't be here, so I'm dealing with enough trouble as it is."

"Hey, what are you doing?" Yuuki asks as Yagari approaches the classroom door.

"My job. I'm the Night Class' substitute ethics teacher. Go do your own job, guardian." For a time, Yuuki contemplates leaving to do her patrols, but then as she remembers the previous night, and Yagari's attitude, and she sighs. She crosses her arms and leans against the wall, senses on high alert as a commotion begins in the classroom before it falls quiet. At class change, as the next teacher enters the room and Yagari leaves the room, she pushes off the wall.

His book is pierced completely through with a dagger, and his face is incredulously surprised at the sight of her.

"Have you been standing here the entire time? I thought you'd have gone to look for Zero."

"I want to. But as a guardian, I had to remain here to confirm that you would not be killed, or would not kill any students."

"What a good kid," he scoffs, walking forward only to stop close to her, his single eye somehow managing to bore into both of her own. "But even if you're a good kid, there's nothing you can do," he tells her with a dark expression and heavy aura. "If you really want to see him, though, he's in the guest room in Chairman Cross' private quarters. In the faculty building."

As he walks off, there is a terrible struggle in her emotions as she remains in place. She wants to go and see Zero now, but she needs to patrol. She shifts on her feet for a moment before deciding to act rationally, jogging off to do her patrols. Hopefully Zero is being monitored and is thus safe, and so will be there in the morning.

Knocking on the door to the room she is sure holds Zero behind it, Yuuki shifts in place. She's kind of desperately worried to know he's okay, to know that he hadn't done anything stupid while left by himself. As far as she knows, Cross had been with him, but that idea doesn't really help her feel any better, as Cross has been acting more passive aggressively and flighty lately.

When he opens the door, Yuuki can tell he is visibly surprised. He's wearing a soft looking cotton button up and pajama pants, and looks like he hasn't taken a shower in the past few days.

"Ah, you're okay," she sighs, relieved, though through the crack in the door she can see the edge of a bandage on his right shoulder, probably from the gunshot wound yesterday night.

"Yeah, everything's fine, Yuuki. You should leave," he turns and tries to close the door. With a frown of irritation, she lifts a knee and presses it into the wood, bracing her body weight against it to keep it from closing completely.

"Wait, Zero, why are you staying here? Because of Yagari?"

"Yagari was a guardian and teacher to me and my younger brother. My parents were hardly home," he tells her. Something in Yuuki's chest constricts at the revelation that Zero has a brother. Well, had. "When I was younger, I saw my first Level E vampire. She was my school nurse, a very elegant and beautiful lady. But truthfully she was an ex-human vampire who had escaped from the nobles' control. One day, she turned into a savage vampire right in front of our eyes, and… Sensei lost his eye while protecting me. We knew she was a vampire, but due to our belief that all doctors and nurses are good, we were naive." Unspoken is that he is calling her naive, now.

"I didn't know you had a brother. I didn't know that, and we're going to talk about it, but right now, we're going to talk about you being a dumbass again!" She slams against the door, forcing it open just enough for her to slip her body into the room, and the door slams loudly closed due to the lack of resistance against Zero's force.

Her hands shake slightly as she pulls the gun out and points it at the ceiling, making it incredibly obvious that she has it.

"You gave me this gun to use against you if you went mad. So, you can't decide to run from me!" She insists. "How am I supposed to keep my promise if you won't let me?!" Seeing that he hasn't yet looked at her, keeping his gaze instead on the door. Staring at him as she lowers the gun, she takes a second to think about whether or not it would be worth it to shoot him, herself, this time. Perhaps it would get the idea through his thick skull.

"Zero if you don't look at me, I'm going to shoot you," she warns, turning off the safety on the gun and cocking the hammer back then sliding backwards the top then releasing it. Zero turns in her direction, visibly reluctant, but does not actually look her in the face despite his head being turned in her direction, his eyes downwards. For an instant, reasoning abandons her, and she fires the gun, the bullet grazing over the same shoulder that was currently injured.

There is no purple sigil, the sound is incredibly loud, and blood spatters on the wall, Zero's face and the floor. He shouts in pain and staggers backwards, one hand lifting to grip at his shoulder as the blood flows thickly downwards. The scent is nearly overwhelming, not at all lessened by water as it had been before, and Yuuki's head nearly goes spinning as the gun drops from suddenly weak fingers. She realizes that she'd dropped a live weapon just slightly too late, but it does not go off due to the lack of bullet in the chamber. She hurries over to Zero with a quiet gasp, grabbing onto the bottom of his shirt and pulling uncertainly, trying to direct him to the bathroom.

"Zero? Zero, I'm sorry, come on. There should be first aid things in the bathroom, right? Come on," she calls. Zero doesn't seem to acknowledge her, but he does follow at her prompting, allowing her to pull him towards the bathroom. He staggers slightly, and she moves to be next to him, wrapping an arm around his waist. "Zero, I really hope you're not going to lose consciousness or control, please, okay? Because I feel really bad about shooting you just now, I didn't really plan to shoot you but it just happened," she babbles as they enter the bathroom and she helps him sit down on the closed lid of the toilet. She shoves a towel beneath the hand holding his injured shoulder, to staunch the blood flow. "And I also really want to bandage this up because I don't want to knock you unconscious while injured."

Noticing the blood staining her sleeves and shoulder, her throat and nose thick with it's scent, she pulls off the jacket and then her similarly stained button up, throwing them into Zero's bathtub before kneeling down to dig through the cabinet beneath the sink to search out the first aid kit. She's left in a tank top and the bottom half of her uniform.

"I hate vampires to the core," Zero eventually says once she has pulled out the kit. She pulls at his arms until he releases his shoulder and she is able to unbutton his shirt. He drops his hand back onto the towel as she peels his shirt away and then tosses that into the bathtub. "And I don't want to hurt anybody, but… I can't control my craving for blood… After tasting your own…"

"But you can," she contradicts, wetting a washcloth at the sink and moving to stand in front of Zero, swatting his hands away and pulling the towel back. He hissed in pain as the slightly rough texture of the towel is pulled away, and she wipes away what blood she can before pressing the wet cloth against the open wound. Zero's head presses forward, resting against her ribs beneath her chest, looking downwards, but she doesn't acknowledge it besides not moving away when she turns to dig through the kit.

"What?"

"You can control it. Your blood-lust. I'm safe right now. We're alone in this bathroom, and you're injured, but I'm in front of you and you're not attacking me. You're in physical contact with me and not attacking me," she explains.

"...I've been taking the blood tablets," he finally says as she places a gauze pad down on the wound.

"Correctly?" She questions, pausing.

"If you mean with water," he tells her. She looks down, and against the cloth of her skirt she can see some luminescence from his apparently glowing red eyes.

"Zero," she calls, rotating her hips slightly to shift Zero's head aside. He mumbles an acknowledgement as she tapes down the gauze. "Even if you hate vampires, or yourself, or even me, you shouldn't give up just yet. Hating me is okay, and hating vampires is okay so long as you don't do so recklessly," she says, "but I'm going to do my best to help you if you hate yourself."

"Hate… you? It's alright to hate you?" Zero repeats, his voice sounding somehow simultaneously flat and angry. "What's wrong with you?" Zero asks. She doesn't respond, tapping down the tape so it's in place firmly, and when she moves to step away from Zero, feeling like he might not want her so close anymore, his arms lift and wrap around her waist heavily, his head lowering and turning to he is resting a chin on the space above her hips, face angled away from her. "I don't."

Yuuki rests her hands on Zero's shoulder blade on his back, fingers splayed, and tries to make herself make sense before she begins to babble or bursts into tears again.

"Zero… Don't give up," she says finally. "Right now, you're more than just Zero. You're an important person to me, and one of the only people I think I can completely rely on."

"Yuuki…"

"If you go mad with hunger, Zero, and it doesn't look like you can be saved, I'll kill you. But… if it just gets to be terrible to survive off of blood tablets, I could donate blood. I won't let you bite me again, because that was terrifying and painful, but I could probably literally donate blood and then steal it from them to pour into a flask or something. You'd have to be careful, but-"

Zero's hand covers her face and he glares into her eyes.

"Absolutely not, you moron," he snaps flatly. "Just shut up. I'll deal with the tablets or I'll die."

"Sorry." Zero groans, releasing her and leaning back to drag a hand down his face. Yuuki steps back and sits on the edge of the bathtub, crossing her legs at the ankles and resting her hands on the edges of the tub to maintain her balance.

"I don't hate you. Not now," he repeats eventually, looking at her face intently.

"But someday?"

"I don't know," he answers, looking down towards the floor and away from her. Yuuki frowns.

"Hey, Zero?" He looks back up to her. "Stop being a dumbass, okay? Don't leave me behind, and don't run away from me," she instructs. His lips quirk a little and gives her a small nod before she leans forward, uncrossing her ankles and resting her elbows on her knees. "You mentioned a brother?"

"I... " Zero shifts, leaning backwards and looking away from her. "I used to have a little brother. My twin. He died on that day…"

"What was his name?" She asks gently.

"Ichiru," he tells her after a pause. Studying his tense form, Yuuki pushes into a stand and walks closer to him, hesitating before reaching out and hugging him. He tenses as his face is pushed against her solar plexus, and before he can react, she steps back and away, turning to the door.

"See you tomorrow," she calls from behind, leaving the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

As she makes her way across the grounds, buttoning up the shirt she'd stolen from Zero, she looks up and around. It's pretty late, probably in the early AM, as she hadn't gone to see Zero until she'd escorted the Night Class students to their dorms. Artemis is in its holster and the gun is in a pocket rather than holstered, Yuuki not really feeling comfortable with the metal pressed against her skin. There's a sound behind her, and Yuuki turns, the rod falling into her grasp but not yet extending.

Kaname's standing behind her, and Artemis finds its way back up her sleeve as she frowns.

"Kaname-nii? What're you doing out of your dorm now?"

"I had a meeting with Chairman Cross. And you, Yuuki?" He asks, walking closer to her.

"I'm making my way home after patrols," the lie is out of her mouth before she can rethink it, and Kaname stops in front of her, looking into her eyes. She reaches a hand up to rub at her neck, resisting the urge to crack it. There's something dark in his gaze, old and lonely and sad, and it hurts her chest to see it. When she was younger, she would just hug him and hope to drive it away, but she's older now, and something about Kaname has unsettled her lately. She's no longer so sure that initiating hugs or contact with Kaname will be so innocent or simple.

"After ten years…" Kaname's arms reach out, one hand cradling the back of her head before tugging her close to his body in a hug. There's a conflict in her emotions even as her hands reach up to grip the back of his Night Class jacket. "This is all that has changed."

She's fairly certain he's talking about her lying straight to his face, but can't help the thought that he's lying, too. Finally he releases her, and she steps away from him. The scent of cigarette smoke brushes past her senses.

"Goodnight, Yuuki."

"Goodnight, Kaname-nii," she replies, not walking away. With a minuscule smile, Kaname inclines his head and turns to walk away first. She should really escort him to the dorms, but instead she turns and makes her way in the opposite direction, trusting Yagari to take him seriously and do better than she might have done.

Zero isn't in class when it starts. As Yuuki and Yori sit down, Yuuki wheedling Yori for class notes and Yori teasing her about her half-done braid, Yuuki notices the empty seat. She frowns, and when he fails to appear all throughout the first class, and before the second class can start, when there is no sign of Zero, she stands.

"I'll be back, sensei!" She calls."I'm going to try and find Zero!" She jobs out without waiting for an answer, ghosting a hand over Yori's head as she goes. When she's outside, she breaks into a sprint. She will either drag Zero to class by the hair, or she's going to find Zero in a terrible condition. She probably should not have left him by himself, but at the revelation of a dead twin brother, she's figured that her pseudo brother would like some time alone.

She goes directly to the headmaster guest rooms, bursting into Zero's accommodated room.

"Zero, do I need to-" she shouts before her words shrivel up and die in her throat.

Yagari is standing in Zero's room, and she can see Bloody Rose aimed directly for his head. Zero looks incredibly calm before his eyes meet hers and go wide. Yuuki's legs move before she can think twice. She lunges forward, Artemis falling into her grasp and swinging for Yagari's head before she can plan ahead, and at the same instant Zero's hands lash out to try and take Bloody Rose from him. Yagari moves too quickly, however, and he turns, firing a shot into Yuuki's chest. The force sends her skidding backwards and then falling, balance unsettled, and she manages to tuck into a roll.

She's prepared to launch at him again, but Zero has managed to disarm Yagari by the time she is upright again, the barrel of Bloody Rose tucked into his fist as Zero pivots and makes his way closer to Yuuki with a wary look in his eyes. Yagari stares at her with an unidentifiable emotion in his single eye before he sighs, one hand lifting to his face.

"Wouldn't it be a good thing to be killed by me?" Yagari asks before his palm is pressed tight against his eye-patch. "After all… "I won't let you regret losing your right eye to save me." That day, you made me an oath. Seeing you like this makes me want to kill you." His hand lowers and he continues. "I kind of feel that doing so will make me more comfortable- happier, even."

Yagari turns to look at Zero then.

"While you can still fight, struggle to your heart's content, but don't run away, Zero," he says as he makes his way out of the room. As he passes by them, Yuuki's still jack-hammering heart lurches in her chest and her grip on Artemis tightens. He stops, though, by the door.

"Hey, little girl!"

"I'm not a little girl, you wannabe pirate," she snaps before quailing. W-where did that come from?! Zero snorts softly and the man twitches before inhaling.

"His arm needs stitches, not only bandages. And… once he breaks down, you must stop him. I've been doing all of this for his own good-" she barely holds back a scoff as he lifts a suitcase she hadn't noticed before, "from now on it's up to you."

"For his own good? You tried to kill him-!"

"If I wanted to kill him, I wouldn't have left only a wound. Missing a shot from that distance? You must be joking." He scoffs before abandoning the suitcase he'd been visibly struggling with. "Ah, I'll just send for this suitcase some other time. I'm a busy man, no time to waste on things like this." He sighs before looking at Zero. "Goodbye. I want to see you alright at our next meeting. Zero…" A terrible feeling curdles in her stomach. "That woman… there's signs that she's alive."

And then Yagari is gone, and Yuuki hears Bloody Rose clatter out of Zero's grip as his hand lifts to grip at the side of his neck, over his tattoo. His legs seem to give out from under him, and Yuuki contemplates hitting him with Artemis for an instant before just collapsing it and tucking it away, circling around to crouch down in front of Zero's downed form.

"If you hadn't stayed in your room, and if I hadn't come to drag you out, you would have died, Zero," her voice is quiet, and she can't look Zero in the eyes. "You would have let him kill you." Something in her chest clenches and twists in pain and something like betrayal, Zero's calm accepting face flashing in her mind's eye.

"Yuuki…" Zero murmurs before a hand lands on her head. The warm pressure coaxes a few tears out of her eyes, and her knees fall so she's sitting rather than crouching. She lifts a hand to fist at her eyes with a miserable sniff. "I won't try to run away anymore. So… don't cry, okay?" Sniffing once more, she shifts slightly before rubbing her eyes again, this time more angrily, and swallowing. One hand lashes out, and she grabs onto his forearm, using her feet to push herself straight forward. Her head punches into Zero's stomach, and she uses her grip on his arm to drag him over her shoulder.

Staggering to her feet and holding Zero's considerably large body in a fireman's carry, Yuuki stalls for a second before pivoting, his body still from shock giving her the perfect chance to slam him into the ground as hard as she can, her shoulder impacting hard with his chest as a huge gust of air and a shout of pain bursts from Zero.

"Don't make me shoot you again! Go get stitches, and come to class tomorrow, at least!" She shouts, rushing from the room in the next instant.

OMAKE: The Bathroom Scene Cut

"Sorry." Zero groans, releasing her and leaning back to drag a hand down his face. Yuuki steps back and sits on the edge of the bathtub and then turns on the water, ignoring the fact that their tops are still inside.

"What are you doing?"

"Sound interference. What did you say we need to talk about? Seems important," She prompts, crossing her legs at the ankles and resting her hands on the edges of the tub to maintain her balance. Zero stares at her for a long moment before he shifts, planting his feet more firmly against the tiled floor and resting his hands on his thighs.

"You said you can rely on me, right? Then trust me," he tells her before grimacing, looking away from her. "I don't think you're completely human."

"What?" She asks faintly, a zinging pain going through her head suddenly, accompanied by a piercing cry she can't identify the origins of. With a wince, a hand comes up to press against her temple. "Ow!"

"Yuuki?"

"No, I'm fine. Headache. What do you mean?"

"You look almost exactly like Kuran, but tinier and a girl," he reveals.

"Nii-sama! Nii-sama! Nii-sama! Nii-"

"Oh," her voice is faint and hard for her to hear as she tries to silence the voice in her head. "So that's actually a thing and not something that I made up in my head to feel less alone."

"You noticed?"

"Yeah, a long time ago. But I didn't want to say anything, and it seemed like a stupid thing to say, anyway. As far as I know, I'm completely human. Maybe I wasn't before, though."

"Before?"

"Did I ever explain how I came to live with Cross?"

"No."

"When I was maybe five or so, I woke up in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard. I was alone, and I couldn't remember anything. I was attacked by a Level E while I was out there, and Kaname saved me by killing the vampire, and then brought me to Cross. Pretty soon after, I realized that I looked a lot like him, but I thought that was just me being stupid and desperate."

"No, the similarity is there," Zero confirms after some incredulous silence at her incredibly nonchalant and abbreviated explanation. "I don't understand how you can look so similar but not be a vampire at all."

"Artemis sparks in my hands sometimes, even if it doesn't hurt, and responds even when I don't release the mechanism. Bloody Rose almost burns through my skin any time I touch it," she notes, "which brings to question why you can use it, but I guess that's just one of life's mysteries, and Kaname is incredibly partial to me for reasons I could never understand."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I'm human. Kaname's a pureblood vampire - there's no drop of human blood running through his veins," she reminds. Then, staring into Zero's face, a hesitant thought occurs to her. "Zero… you hate vampires."

"Yuuki-"

"Do you hate me?" She asks. "Even if I'm human now, I was a pureblood vampire, before, and I might become so again."

"... I don't like the thought," he admits, "but I don't hate you. Not now."

"But someday?"

"I don't know," he answers, looking down towards the floor and away from her. Yuuki frowns and reaches over to turn off the bathtub once more.