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Bloody nurse

Chapter 10

"How do you like the soup?" asked Chairman Cross, sitting across the table from Zero, Yuuki sitting to his left. "I went to this amazing butcher shop yesterday and said I wanted to make the best broth imaginable for my children and the butcher advised me to buy this pork… Do you like it? I made it extra thick and yummy…"

"It's delicious, dad," smiled Yuuki, making the Chairman instantly happy.

"I'm so glad you think so! Here, have some more bread, it goes so well together." And he passed her the bread basket, which Yuuki took with a nod of thanks and placed it in front of her bowl. The chairman looked at Zero and seeing him eating spoonful after spoonful with his head bent over the bowl, he required no words from him. "That's good, that's good," he said to no one in particular.

Yuuki chewed on her bread and slid her eyes towards Zero for the umpteenth time during that dinner. He was silent, distant and avoided any eye contact, which she wasn't really surprised about. What did surprise her, however, was the vehemence with which he was gulping down the food. How can he be hungry not too long after…? She bit into the slice of bread again. How does it work anyway? Vampires swallow blood, so it naturally has to go down to their stomachs. She grabbed a glass of water to take a sip but paused to look at the contents of it. Or is it more like drinking water? That doesn't really stop hunger… but it quenches thirst… but blood is both…it's all you need… And as she was bringing the glass towards her lips, she watched the clear water slowly turning pink, red, and redder. She wanted to taste it…she wanted…something… Something she always wanted…

And she screamed.

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"Enter," said Kaname, sitting behind his desk in his chambers, going over a document that needed to be signed.

Ichijou entered the room holding a tray in his hands. "Sorry to disturb you, Kaname-sama, but the Chairman wanted me to present his latest handiwork to you." He placed the tray on one side of the desk. "He would have come in person but he said there's something he must take care of."

Kaname lowered the document he was reading and looked at the bowl of steaming soup.

"He said he'd value your opinion."

Kaname sniffed at the air around the soup. "Very well," he said, reaching for the spoon lying beside the pink flower-patterned bowl.

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Zero knew something was wrong even before he received the splash of cold water. He heard her pulse suddenly accelerate before she screamed so loud that it knocked the Chairman off of his chair.

The glass she was holding was mercilessly thrown at the table, drenching everything, his lap included, with water.

Yuuki for her part sat leaning back, holding both of her hands over her mouth, eyes wide with evident fear and surprise. For several seconds, everything went quiet.

"Yuuki-chan," said the Chairman urgently, getting up from the floor, "What happened, what is it?"

But Yuuki didn't hear a word. Her eyes were fixed on the tablecloth that was covered in red stains, some of the red dripping to the floor.

"Yuuki-chan?"

She watched as the stains got bigger and bigger until they turned everything on the table red. She clenched her eyes shut. No, no, no…

"Yuuki!"

And her eyes flew open, meeting a pair of worried grey eyes. Zero was leaning over the table, clutching her shoulder with one of his hands. "Are you alright?"

Yuuki slowly lowered her hands from her mouth and turned her gaze back to the tabletop, now covered with a white tablecloth again, albeit wet with water.

"What the hell happened?" demanded Zero, shaking her a little for emphasis.

Yuuki looked back at his now frowning face and then turned her head towards the Chairman, hovering helplessly at her other side.

Her eyes fell towards her lap and she gulped thickly. "Nothing, I'm sorry," she finally said. "I-I thought I saw a spider in the glass, so…"

She chanced a quick look at both of them. "I'm really sorry."

The Chairman sighed and fell back onto his chair. "Oh, Yuuki! You scared the hunter out of me!"

Zero slowly let go of her shoulder and straightened up.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Oh my, what a voice you have! I swear I heard the animals flee from the school grounds," Chairman Cross said, using his napkin to fan his face, clutching his chest with his other hand.

Yuuki stood up. "I'll clean it all up, it's the least I can do."

The Chairman stood up as well. "Then I'll go find you a mop, I'm sure we have one somewhere…" he headed for the door. "Where did I put it though…" he said to himself and closed the door behind him.

Yuuki went into the kitchen area and came back with a dry dishcloth. "Incredible how much water fits into one glass, isn't in?" she asked and looked up at the still standing Zero. Then she noticed something. "Gosh, did it spill on you too? I'm so sorry," she said hurrying to his side. "Luckily it was only water, it won't leave any stains," and she pressed the dishcloth to Zero's abdomen.

Zero's muscles twitched and he grabbed her wrist.

"Oops, sorry, didn't know you were ticklish…" but she trailed off as she looked up at his face.

Zero's face was a mixture of worry, anger, fear and a warning. He pierced her with a stare. "What did you really see?"

"Huh?"

His hold on her wrist tightened. "What was it that you really saw that caused you to act the way you did?"

Yuuki's eyes widened slightly. "Nothing!" she said hurriedly. "Except the imaginary spider, of course," she laughed lightly.

"Since when are you afraid of spiders?"

"Since forever! Every girl is."

"Liar."

"Bully."

Zero watched her eyes dart towards the table now and then.

"Afraid it'll appear in your bathtub water?"

"What?" she said in a high pitched voice, swinging her eyes back to him.

"The spider."

"Oh."

Zero watched her fidget under his frowning gaze.

Yuuki opened her mouth to say something undoubtedly smart but she lost track of what it was when her eyes were suddenly drawn towards a movement beneath Zero's chin. His throat. She instantly became mesmerized. Her brain slowed down, as if fogged…

"Why are you so jumpy?" Zero asked, oblivious to the change in her demeanour.

Her gaze resting on the collar of his school shirt, she answered in a much deeper voice than usual: "Isn't my hand pressed against your abs a reason enough to be jumpy?"

Zero's eyes widened. "W-What?" he stuttered, not sure if his hearing wasn't failing him. As if electrified, he let go of her wrist.

Yuuki looked up at him with wide innocent eyes and asked in her usual voice: "What?"

Zero was spared the embarrassing situation as the Chairman chose that moment to show up with the mop. "Here it is! Found it!" he smiled at the two of them.

"Thank you," said Yuuki, turning back towards the table and proceeded to collect the tableware, completely ignorant of what passed between them just seconds ago.

"Can I leave the rest to the two of you?"

"Sure," smiled Yuuki.

Zero walked around the table and followed the Chairman towards the door. Before exiting the room after him, he looked over his shoulder back at Yuuki and told her: "I'll be right back," and closed the door behind him.

Yuuki watched them go and took a deep breath when she was finally alone. She rubbed her eyes with one hand and gathered one neatly stacked pile of dishes into her hands. "I must be going crazy…" She walked into the kitchen area and headed for the sink. But as she was about to place the dishes on the counter, the very top one slid off of the others and smashed against the floor. Yuuki winced at the harsh sound and sighed. Just her luck.

She finally placed the rest successfully on the counter and squatted down to pick up what was left of the plate. She formed a small pile with the bigger shards on the floor and retrieved a dustpan and a brush. But as she carefully kneeled down and began sweeping the rest onto the dustpan, her mind wondered off, back to the events of the previous night, back to Kaname's chambers. Her sweeping slowed down as her eyes landed on the shards and her mind recalled the moment when she was kneeling down on Kaname's carpeted floor among the many strewn wineglasses…

Before she even realized what she was doing, Yuuki suddenly found herself kneeling on the kitchen floor with her left hand cut open, her right hand holding a shard from the former plate, which she instantly dropped the second she realized what she had done.

Scared and confused, she looked around the room for something to quickly cover it with. Finding nothing in her vicinity, she examined the cut closer. It wasn't deep, nor was it that long. As she watched some of her blood flow freely between her fingers and drip to the floor, an odd idea struck her: she wanted to taste it. I'm crazy, right? This is weird. I should feel repulsed. I should…but I really, really want to… just one taste… She bent slightly forward, bringing her hand up. She parted her lips and darted her tongue out. She took a deep breath that filled her hazy mind with sweet metallic scent and finally tasted what she so strangely desired.

"What are you doing?"

Yuuki's head spun around to see Zero in the doorway. "Um, I…"

Zero's gaze finally rested on her bloodied hand. His eyes widened and he quickly strode towards her. "For crying out loud, what did you do?" he asked urgently and grabbed her left wrist and dragged her to her feet and to the sink. Turning the tap on, he stuck her hand under the flow of cold water.

Yuuki winced. "I accidentally broke a plate and wasn't very careful while cleaning it up…"

"You're such a klutz sometimes, I swear I can't leave you in the kitchen alone for…" but Zero's tirade trailed off as he turned his face towards her. His eyes were instantly drawn towards her lips that were slightly smeared with blood. Seeing this he looked up into her eyes and his frown deepened considerably. He let go of her hand, reached up to open a top cabinet and pulled down a clean hand towel. He wet it in the flowing water, grabbed the back of Yuuki's neck and roughly rubbed the towel against her face, much like a mother would do to a child that just finished eating an icecream.

"Mmmm! Zero! S-Stop it!" protested Yuuki.

When he was satisfied with the result, he flunk the towel into the sink, turned the water off, reached for another one and wrapped it around her injured hand.

"Come on," he said, grabbing her other hand and towed her out of the room.

"Zero! Wait!"

But he ignored her protests all the way to their destination, which was the Chairman's huge bathroom. He pushed her through the door and instantly started rummaging through the cabinet under the washbasin.

"Sit down," he gritted through his teeth.

Yuuki, clutching her wrapped hand to her chest, looked around and saw a chair in the corner. "Zero, it's nothing. I can take care of it myself, you don't-" but her sentence was cut short as Zero urgently grabbed her by the waist and sat her down upon the counter next to the washbasin.

"Hey! Stop manhandling me!"

"I don't see that happening any time soon," he said quietly, screwing a bottle of disinfectant open.

"Excuse me?" said Yuuki disbelievingly.

He uncovered her hand and started to gently pat the cut with a disinfectant soaked cotton swab.

Yuuki hissed at the sharp stinging.

"Hold still."

Yuuki sighed. He was in his watch dog mode, there was no talking to him. She watched him through her bangs as he finished cleaning and bandaging the cut in silence. When he was done, he collected all the swabs and small papers littering the countertop and threw them into a small rubbish bin by the door. With his mission done, he slowly turned around to face Yuuki.

"Thanks," she said, waving the hand in the air in front of her, "but you could have gone about it with more grace, you know."

Zero ignored her comment and went to close the still open cabinet.

"We better get going, right?" she said. "Duty calls."

But before she could hop off the counter, Zero stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "No." He took hold of her prefect badge and slowly slid it off of her arm.

"What are you-"

"No prefect duty for you tonight."

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All the girls standing in front of the gate that led to the Moon dorms were very calm and quiet that day. This had a very simple reason. The one watching over the parade was the Chairman himself. Wearing a long coat, his arms folded behind his back, a trademark smile in place, he watched as the gate slowly began to open and the Night class students finally appeared.

"Aw, man, what is this?" complained Aidou. "No cheers? Really? Where's all the fun? I want to hear – Ow!" Aidou quickly looked to his side at Kaname.

"Behave," was all Kaname had to say for Aidou to pout and shut up.

"Good evening, Chairman Cross."

"Hello, Kaname!" the Chairman smiled widely. "So, how did you like my soup?"

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A/N: I know, I know, Yuuki's totally OOC in some parts of this, but it was needed…

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter at least a little bit.

I wish you very late Merry Christmas and a very close Happy New Year.

Please inform me of any potential mistakes.

Take care,

Matylda