The meeting was finished and the hunters quickly dispersed from Cross's office, before I could leave, Toga pulled me aside.

"You were late."

"Yeah, remind me to get my bike from the house, the school is way too far away."

He smirked, "You're still riding that thing?"

I smiled at him, feeling smug, "Fixed it up too, replaced some parts in the engine, it's a gem."

Toga chuckled and tousled my hair, "Well I should be informing you on what you missed."

"Go ahead."

"But that doesn't matter, what matters is that we're all currently under orders not to hunt alone."

I waved him off, "Okay yeah, I won't."

Toga squinted his eyes at me and came closer, "I mean it, Seina."

I looked at him straight, "I won't."

He relented and let me go. I got out of Cross's office and saw Kaito waiting beside the door.

"Come on, kid" he gestured to me, "let's get some dinner."

I grinned as I noticed how empty my stomach was, but I also knew that his actual motive wasn't just to get something to eat. It wasn't my concern though, I was about to get some free food.

We entered a small quaint cafe and I ordered a ordered a warm sandwich, thankful to get out of the cold. We chatted quietly and the sky outside quickly turned dark.

"So what's on your mind?" I asked after the 5th time he looked out the window, pausing mid conversation. His worried face was painfully obvious to me and I was aware that the cause of it was why he invited me out.

"Nothing, I just wanted to spend some time with you," Kaito said reaching out to grasp my hand.

I moved it away, "Just tell me."

He sighed, "It's Zero, he was right about this only being the beginning of what's to come, I want to get to the bottom of it."

This time I reached out and grasped his hand, "Is that all?"

He turned his hand over and tightened his grip on mine, "No, I also think that he's pretending to be calm but in reality he's emotionally unstable. He's repressing things. And he left the meeting with that face, I don't want him going out there and doing something dangerous."

"I think that he's perfectly capable of handling himself," I brought my free hand to my head, resting on it, "though I wouldn't mind if we stopped by his place."

Kaito nodded and leaned forward pulling a strand of my hair, a smile crept onto his lips making his warm eyes crinkle, "And I did want to spend some time with you, it's been too long."

I sat there frozen, not knowing what to say in return. He let go, threw some money on the table, and grabbed his jacket. Kaito walked to the door and held it, waiting for me, "Come on."

I followed behind him and my hand felt suddenly very empty, I stuffed it into my pocket, paying the feeling no heed.

We saw his figure go into the apartment building as we arrived on the street and we looked at each other, both knowing that he had been out hunting alone.

Kaito entered into his room and I stayed out, leaning further down the wall beside the door. He had known Zero for a very long time and though our relationship looked like it was getting better, we weren't close enough that I would allow myself to be there.

Kaito propped himself against the door frame, leaving it ajar.

He clicked his tongue, "You really are something," he crossed his arms, "You don't seem to care at all that we're currently under orders to not go hunting alone. Looks like dangerous behavior."

Something crashed and Zero responded, "I was never given such orders," and the door closed.

I shut my eyes and tried to focus on the murmurs through the wall. I trusted Zero… so far. He appeared in control like Kaito had said, but his vampire side was something I still worried about. Zero was no longer human, and though he was the same person, it was still a characteristic about him that made me worried.

I heard a violent slam and I immediately jumped forward. I ran to the door and burst it open, finding Kaito holding Zero by his collar and pressing him against the dresser. They focused on each other, not noticing that I had came in.

"Tell me what's with the gun!" he yelled, what was he talking about? "Tell me before you repress everything and it becomes too late to fix anything! When you're emotionally unstable that becomes my problem!"

Zero offered no resistance, and Kaito continued, though arguably more relaxed than before, "I have been closely watching you ever since I was assigned to this place. I have also tried instigating you, waiting to see your reactions. Sure, there's no doubt that you seem to be the ideal future association president, you don't let anything slip. But under the surface, you're emotionally terribly unstable. It's unbelievable that you can even patch things up enough to maintain such apparent calm on the surface," he paused ending his rant, "Do you even realize it?"

Zero continued to gaze downwards, "I actually don't feel any of what you described. As for the gun, there was a human with special abilities allowing her to use hunter weapons. Random circumstances made that she was near me and so I had her carrying that pistol as a sort of 'insurance' just in case."

His eyes darted and I followed them, noticing the small pistol laying on his bed. Was he talking about Yuki Kuran when she was still Yuki Cross? I wasn't aware that their previous relationship had caused such a toll on him.

"On nights where the urge to go kill vampires is nearly impossible to resist, having that gun there helps cool me down at least a tiny bit."

Kaito narrowed his eyes, "Vampires you want to kill, huh?" Does that include that pureblood from the ball?"

Zero's face was sullen and his lips turned downwards, I've never seen him look so raw and vulnerable before, but he snapped out of it and stared at him, "Purebloods are wretched creatures from which only tragedy is born. This is the only truth that will never change. Isn't it that way, Kaito?"

"I received orders sending me to this school," he let go of him and set his hand on Zero's chest, "for the purpose of becoming a new "insurance" for you."

"What?" Zero's eyebrowed knotted.

"The purebloods are acting strange in a barely perceptible way, but they're definitely up to something and we're going to catch them by the tail and find out what it is."

Zero held a hand to his forehead, shielding himself from the sun's glare, "I feel a vampire's presence."

"Bingo. So the intel we got was really true," Kaito said.

We were at St. Delia's, an all girl's school, following a lead on some suspicious behavior that was happening within the confines of this academy. The shadows of the tall stone buildings and fir trees loomed over us, making what I assumed a cheery campus appear somber.

Zero jumped over the ledge of the bridge we were standing on, his black jacket flowed out behind him, "I'll go find out our target and their intentions."

"Yeah, you go do that," I looked down at him until his image disappeared beneath the trees.

Kaito huffed and grimaced, "That urgent need to rush out after his prey, was it just dedication to his job, or was it that he's hoping to be repaid with their blood?"

I put my hands on the edge and cocked my face towards him, "If you're that concerned why don't you go and chase after him?"

"No, I don't want him to think that I'm babysitting him. But..."

I whirled around and sat on the brick, "But… it's okay if I did."

Kaito nodded in agreement, though his slight frown made me rethink his action.

"I'll go see what he's up to then." I fell back and and did a flip, landing on one knee.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Kaito leaning over the side of the bridge, "Be careful, kid," he mouthed. I whipped my head around and tried to stifle the smile that was threatening to form and took off for Zero.

I immediately came to halt when the back of Zero's figure came into view. I reached for the gun in my coat as the same vampire that had stopped Yori at the party passed by him. His arm shot up and repeated my movement, but he stopped as the vampire stilled, quietly muttering something to Zero underneath her parasol. She continued walking past him while she talked and Zero finally turned in my direction.

I got closer as his eyes widened and his hand covered his face in reaction to something that she had said, it slowly lowered and I caught the end of their conversation, "Just disappear pureblood, don't piss me off more than this."

The vampire turned away and walked past me, an eerie grin quietly ghosted her lips.

Zero's face contorted into nothing like I've seen before. It was maddening and I clamped onto my gun from fear. It was the face of a vampire who missed catching his prey, and who saw his victim escape him before he could make a meal out of it or something, that face.

An arm jotted out in front of me and Kaito held me against his back.

"Kaito." I said, eyes still fixated on Zero.

He looked at me for a second, frowning and turned his gaze back to Zero.

"You are truly making one hell of a face right now." Kaito paused, softening his expression.

"I'll rush back to the association and report about what happened at this school," he pointed at Zero, "And as for you, you're going to take three days off or so and go see the doctor in charge to prescribe you some heavy-duty sleeping pills. I'm serious here. Get some rest. This break is required for the sake of your work."

Zero and I watched him speechless as he continued, fueled by the sight of seeing Zero react the way he did, "Start by going to visit your family at the cemetery. I bet you haven't gone there since forever, have you?"

He shook his head no in response.

"Do things right and buy some flowers beforehand. We may live in a world where we're constantly near the vampires, but even if vampires were to have feelings comparable to those of people there is still a definitive difference between us and them. The difference…" Kaito stopped trying to find the correct words.

I crept my hands towards his, as soon as he felt it he grasped it fiercely and I leaned my forehead into his back closing my eyes.

"That difference is that we try to erect graves to remember those of us that have left us behind, don't we? Even when there's nothing left to bury inside that grave. Whether our ways are "better" than theirs or not, this isn't about that, you understand? This is us being different from them. So go to the cemetery and get that difference in mind well… and don't show me again a face like the one you made."

Zero nodded and his lips turned into a hard line. He started to walk not looking back after what Kaito had said, I'm sure his silence was the result of his own remorse over that momentary loss of humanity.

We trailed after him also not saying a word. Kaito's long speech was very much about Zero as it was also about himself. His own face remained stone like, but I could see the shattered pieces that lied within. A cord had struck, reminding him of a past memory, and it had broken a piece of him again when it resurfaced.

We reached the place to part ways and I let go of Kaito's hand which I didn't notice had been holding on to mine the whole time. I darted forward and tapped Zero on the back and he turned around, his face still looking sullen.

I grabbed his arm and reached into my pocket pulling out keys and placing them into his hand. I closed his fingers into a fist, making sure that he had them.

"Here, take it."

Zero's eyebrows knitted together, "What is it?"

"They're for my bike. I know it take a while to get there, to your family."

The cemetery where his loved ones lied was the exact one all of our loved ones lied. It was specially designated for hunters and I knew exactly how long it took to get there, having visited the place so often in my past.

"...thanks," he said and tilted his head forward. He stalked off and Kaito returned to my side, once again holding onto my hand. We watched him until he disappeared from our view.

A/N: I just want to thank Juliedoo, basakesener, Inedible, Princesa de la Luna, and most of all dearmaggie for your kind reviews.

Thank you all for reading, reviewing, and following, I really appreciate it!

Hope you guys enjoyed the dose of Kaito in this chapter!

Love you all!

xo

-Vanesky