A/N: Please enjoy.

"talking"

"thinking"

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Bloody nurse

Chapter 3

Yuuki planned everything very carefully. She knew she had to avoid being seen by the other members of the Night class. They wouldn't let her set a foot into the Moon dorms, she was sure about that. If they caught her, they wouldn't hesitate to use force. She'd have to be sneaky about it.

The window was out of the question. Any exterior of the building was, for that matter. And no amount of her physical strength could ever match the strength of a vampire. Let alone a whole bunch. So she'd have to use only her brain in order to even get a chance of speaking to Kaname.

It didn't take her too long to come up with something that might work.

She waited one more day, Sunday, since she needed the Moon dorms to be empty. And for that, she needed a weekday. A day, or a night in this case, when all of the Night class students would be at school, distracted and away.

That single day was a torment. She couldn't work properly. She tried to mask all of her anxiety in front of the others. Zero especially. She didn't want him to be suspicious. If he knew what she was planning for her Monday night… she shuddered at the thought. Zero told her on Tuesday he didn't want her to meddle in the vampires' affairs this time. He made that clear.

So Monday night, after sneaking away from her usual night patrol, she found herself in front of the huge mahogany double door, which lead to the Moon dorms.

Yuuki took a deep breath. Her plan ended here. She had no idea what to tell Kaname, what to ask him… She'd have to improvise…or come up with something real quick.

She took another deep breath and very slowly opened the door, afraid that it would make a sound. She suddenly couldn't remember if it does creak or not. To her relief, it only made a small whiny noise.

She stuck her head into the foyer and checked if the coast was clear. She snuck in on her tiptoes and very carefully closed the huge door behind her. After she heard a tiny click of the lock, signaling that the door was completely closed, she leaned her forehead against it and breathed a sigh of relieve. "So far so good."

"Yuuki?"

And she froze. Her pulse raced. Why can't anything ever go the way she plans it?

Very slowly, she turned around with wide eyes and tense shoulders. And her eyes were met with a shocked expression on Ichijou's face.

He was standing in the middle of the stairs, one hand on the railing, one foot placed higher than the other. He looked as if he was frozen in place. He wasn't wearing the school uniform but a white shirt and beige trousers.

It seemed they were both shocked to see the other. Their lips slightly parted, eyes locked, the silence stretched on. At least he didn't seem furious like the others… "Furious?"

And suddenly, Yuuki had enough. She was in the dark about the whole situation far too long. They all blamed her for something she didn't do. But somehow, the shock on Ichijou's face was the last straw.

Yuuki frowned and pulled herself as high as possible. And with determination in her eyes, she spoke loud and clear: "Good evening, Ichijou-sempai."

It took Ichijou a moment to recover. But when he finally unfroze, he nodded his head and continued to go down the stair towards Yuuki. "Good evening to you, too."

Yuuki walked forward and waited at the foot of the stairs. "I came to see Kaname-sempai. Is he still here?"

Ichijou stopped on the last stair, his eyebrows raised. "Yes, he's here. But he's not feeling well tonight. Maybe some other night would be better for-"

But Yuuki didn't even let him finish. "So I've heard. But he's been ill the whole week and I really need to talk to him," said Yuuki and she walked around Ichijou. At least she tried.

The moment she put her foot on the first step, he was in front of her again, two steps higher. "You can't see him now, Yuuki. If it's something important, tell me instead and I'll deliver the message to him."

"No, it's confidential. It's for Kaname's ears only."

"Then write him a letter and I'll give it to him."

"No. I wouldn't know his response immediately."

"He'd write you a letter of his own right away. He writes uncomm-"

"I want to see him!" shouted Yuuki suddenly, her patience snapping in half. "I've had enough! He didn't come out of his chambers for a week and I want to know the reason behind it!"

"Yuuki, I told you, he's not-"

"Stop it! Save the lies for someone dumb enough to believe that a vampire, and a pureblood on top of that, could be ill!"

Ichijou only stared at her with a shocked expression again, rendered speechless.

"I want to know the truth! I'm sick of all the death glares the others send my way every time we meet! And Aidou-sempai made it very clear that I'm the one to blame for what's going on. If I've done something wrong, I want to fix it, so please let me!"

After that, she took a deep breath to calm herself. She looked at her feet for a while. When she looked back up at Ichijou, she felt relatively calm again.

"Please, Ichijou-sempai, please. Tell me what's really going on with Kaname-sempai. I'm, I'm worried about him. And I don't want him to hate me…" and she looked back down, pink flooding her cheeks.

The silence that fallowed was very uncomfortable. She felt very embarrassed for shouting at Ichijou like that. She all but threw her pent up anger from the past few days at him. And he was the first vampire this week (apart from Zero), who didn't glower and hiss at her no less. She could still hear her screaming ring around the spacious room. She felt horrible, not better. She realized again, with a painful tug at her heart, she was meddling in things, which were not of her world. A mere human, prying truths from a vampire. How grotesque.

"He doesn't hate you."

Yuuki looked back up with a sad face. "What?" she asked in a small voice.

"Kaname doesn't hate you, Yuuki," said Ichijou gently. "I don't think he'd ever be capable of that."

And he smiled at her gently, too.

Yuuki didn't know what to say to that. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Now it was her who was speechless. Still it was a relief to hear that. After a few seconds, she said: "But the others…"

Ichijou sighed. "You have to understand one thing, Yuuki. We feel very protective of Kaname. He's our master, our leader. We're all very grateful to be able to remain so close to him. We all respect him. We would do anything he asked. His grieving is our grieving. His pain is ours too."

The whole time, Yuuki watched in wonder as Ichijou's eyes sparkled as he spoke of his lord.

"But the others are overreacting. I apologize in their place. It's not in their right to be so hostile towards you. It's not like you've done anything on purpose."

But that caught Yuuki's attention. "On purpose?" Yuuki's hand flew to her mouth. "So I really did something? It really is all my fault?" Yuuki's eyes were as wide as saucers. She truly believed, and hoped, that whatever went wrong, it couldn't have been her fault. But hearing it confirmed like that made her gasp in disbelieve.

"What did I do? What is it? Please, Ichijou-sempai, tell me! Can it be undone? Can I fix this?" Yuuki was so desperate for an answer that she went as far as grabbing Ichijou's forearms.

She was staring up at him, hope and dread filling her brown eyes.

Ichijou stayed very still, only his eyes roaming over Yuuki's face, as if he was trying to figure something out. She really looked like she'd do anything at that moment. And he doubted he'd be able to make her leave.

After about a minute, Ichijou hung his head and sighed. "He won't like this."

Yuuki didn't say anything. It seemed Ichijou was talking to himself now. She held her breath and waited.

When he looked back up, he was frowning. "Is this something you really want to do?"

"Help Kaname-sempai? Of course I do," said Yuuki, looking a bit offended at the question.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

Yuuki let go of his arms. "Yes."

Ichijou sighed again. "Well then, follow me," he said, turned around and began walking up the stairs again.

Yuuki quickly threw of the shock from the sudden change in his behavior and caught up with him.

"It's not like I didn't try…"muttered Ichijou to himself.

After another two flights of steps Ichijou turned his head to look at her: "Just so you know, I'll be in big trouble for this." And then he smiled: "But I hope it won't be for nothing."

He stayed silent the rest of the way.

But when they finally reached the corridor at which's end Yuuki knew Kaname's chambers were, Ichijou suddenly stopped and turned on her: "Yuuki," he all but whispered. "Be very careful. I'm warning you now. Kaname-sama is a little…well, he's not himself." And he stared meaningfully into Yuuki's eyes.

Yuuki was taken aback by his true concern for her wellbeing. She stammered: "I-I'll do what I can."

Ichijou nodded and walked briskly towards the double-door to Kaname's chambers. Yuuki followed.

He stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath. He knocked twice, making nearly no sound at all. "Kaname-sama, I'm very sorry to disturb," he said in a voice as if he was speaking to someone right next to him. "Somebody came to see you and claims it's urgent."

He remained silent for a while after that.

"Yes," he suddenly said and Yuuki realized that Kaname was probably speaking on the other side of the door but only she couldn't hear him with her feeble human hearing.

"Yes, you did." Again an answer, no doubt.

"No, Kaname-sama, I know the state of things but-" Apparently, Kaname cut him off.

"I'm very sorry, but she insisted-" suddenly Ichijou gasped as something tore through the sleeve of his white shirt and he grabbed his upper arm. Yuuki gasped too as she could see blood seeping through the shirt under his fingers, turning it dark red.

"Yes, Kaname-sama," said Ichijou in a painless voice and he looked back at Yuuki. "He'll see you now."

Yuuki was looking and back and forth between Ichijou's face and the wound. But he didn't show any signs of explanation, nor pain. She took a tentative step to the door and grabbed the handle. She turned her head to look at Ichijou one more time: "Thank you," she said in a small apologetic voice.

He only nodded again and regarded her with a sad expression.

Yuuki turned back to the door and pushed the handle down, to let herself in.

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A/N: Hope you liked it at least a bit…

Take care,

Matylda