Here's a new chapter for ya'll. And what the heck, I might as well do one of these
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight and make no claim to.
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Finalizing the initial plans for battle preparations only took a short amount of time. Despite how well things had fallen into place so far on their side, for the plan to work they were relying on one thing-time-and there was no guarantee that the hunter's association would allow them to have it. Kaname already had a contingency plan in the likely event that the first plan fell through, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that since it would take a lot of energy even though it would buy them some time.
Mabye she was right that all those random shows of power yesterday were a bad long-term plan, Kaname thought with a slight grimace. If I had known that this was going to happen I would not have done that. Oh well, I can't change it now. Even though he knew that he couldn't do it, he wanted to have a rant similar to Yuuki's. Minus that one extremely traumatic event, he had had the same week Yuuki had. He had been there with her for most of it, and had felt more stress in the past week than he had in centuries. Constantly worrying if that breath was going to be her last, wondering if she was going to be the same happy person once she got through it all, if she did; it had been hard on him too. But not as hard as it had apparently been for her. He had centuries of experience to help him deal with the stress.
But even his experience couldn't help him deal with the stress that came from the realization that no matter how many plans he created, how many variations on those plans there were, it would never be enough. Even though he would never have admitted it out loud, Kaname had the desire to control things around him and this past week had taken every carefully laid plan he had and decimated them.
He had originally planned to change Yuuki and protect her while Zero destroyed Rido. He hadn't intended for her to even come face-to-face with him, let alone fight him. But that hadn't been how it happened. He also hadn't originally intended to destroy the senate, but that's how it happened. Uncharacteristically, he hadn't really thought about the repercussions of his actions before he killed them, but that actually worked out fine without planning.
But once he and Yuuki did have a plan for how to handle the newest revelations and issues and were prepared to present it, it got shot all to hell as well. True, the battle with Sara/Rido was only a minor setback in the grand scheme of things, and, as much as he hated to say it, did have its good side. It allowed Yuuki some closure with Rido. But again, the bad outweighed the good since it seemed to make Yuuki both afraid of him and her own powers.
Now this war with the hunters. Not only was it making him rework his plans, but it was putting the woman he loved in danger, yet again. He could forgive them for making him use his mind. It had been a long time since he had had to think through what more than one group of people would do at one time and he almost enjoyed the challenge. But, putting Yuuki in mortal danger again . . . that was something he could never forget nor could he allow it to go unpunished. They would die for this.
He jumped as he felt a hand on his arm and turned his head to see Yuuki looking at him with concern in her beautiful crimson eyes. It took him a few seconds to realize that she had spoken to him. She was a little unnerved at the distant yet almost murderous look in his eyes and wondered what he had been thinking about when she had pulled him out of it.
"Hm?" he asked raising an eyebrow wondering what he had missed while he had been thinking. And wondering why he had been that distracted in the first place. It was rare for him to get lost in thought like that. He glanced at the others to see if they had noticed his momentary lapse and saw, to his chagrin, that they all had.
"We were thinking that we had about finished here and were going to leave to finish the set-up process before the nobles get here," Yuuki said slowly, still eyeing him oddly. "We were wondering if you had anything else you felt needed to be added, or if we are actually done here."
"Oh," he said, visibly composing himself, "I think we are done here for now. We have done all the initial planning we can. We just have to wait for the first move to be made now."
"In that case," the headmaster said heading for the door, "I'm going to go see how evacuations are going and then start setting up a training area."
"I'll get a head start on setting that up," Zero said standing up from the table to join him. "Join me when you can but take your time, I can handle it."
"I'll come with you," Seiren whispered. Blushing a little under the knowing looks everyone gave her and realizing how her words could be construed after Zero telling the headmaster to take his time. "The two of us will get it done faster," she added.
Yuuki had to hide her smile to avoid embarrassing the other woman further as she thought, What are you trying to make time for? Kaname, however, didn't bother hiding his smirk. He even went as far as to make sure that Zero saw it, causing the younger man to blush almost as brightly as Seiren.
"Let's go," Zero said somewhat gruffly, grabbing Seiren's hand and leading her to the door before anyone could say anything to make the situation any more embarrassing than it already was. With a nod of his head to Kaname and a small smile for Yuuki, Kaien followed them.
Once she was actually sure they had left the room, Yuuki turned to her lover and said, "Kaname, we need to talk."
"I agree," he replied, surprised at the petulance in his own voice.
"You're mad," Yuuki scoffed. "I knew you'd be mad."
"I'm not mad," he denied "I'm. . ."
"Disappointed?" she supplied bitterly.
"No," he said slowly, wondering where that sudden bitterness had come from. "I'm . . . what's the word I'm looking for . . . hurt."
"Hurt?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes," he replied, "I'm hurt that you didn't talk to me about it before it got so intense that you needed to let it out that way. I knew that the past week had been stressful for you, and me, but I thought you were handling it better than you were." She opened her mouth to say something and he could tell from the look in her eyes that she had not appreciated his last sentence so he continued talking. "Not to imply that you should have been able to handle it better, but you seemed so strong and you never said anything about it bothering you, so I thought you had already dealt with it."
"I didn't want to burden you with my problems when I knew that you had your own to deal with," she said quietly looking down at the table.
"But that's what I'm here for," he said as though it was the simplest, most logical thing in the world. "It's not a burden for you to tell me something is bothering you. It's not wrong."
"But—"
"Would you prefer for me to let you know what I'm thinking or keep you in the dark?" He asked. She didn't answer, but she didn't need to. "Just promise me that you will try not to worry about inconveniencing me with your feelings. You are entitled to feelings as well."
She nodded, a small smile on her face. "Is that what you wanted to talk about?" she asked.
"Not exactly," he replied, "though we did need to talk about that as well. What I wanted to ask you is do you really think that Kyriuu and I are like Ruka and Aidou?"
She laughed and nodded in response. She found it funny that in light of all that they had learned that day he was still preoccupied with that simile.
"Which one do I remind you of?" he asked with a grimace. He wasn't sure he really wanted the answer. Would he rather be compared to a girl, or Aidou?
"Well. . . If I had to pick I would say Ruka-senpai," Yuuki said slowly.
"Why?" Kaname asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Because Zero and Aidou-senpai—though Zero is a little more profane—are both more outspoken and hot tempered than either you or Ruka-senpai. Also both she and you think that Zero and Aidou are idiots," she explained.
Kaname thought about it a moment and realized that she was probably right. And actually that was a rather well thought out explanation, especially since he had really put her on the spot there. "I suppose I can see that," he finally grudgingly said. "What was it that you wanted to talk about, Yuuki? Or have we already discussed it?"
"Actually," she said, "I was wondering if you had a back-up plan. The plan that we have is great, and will work, if they don't attack immediately. But if I was them I would attack before my enemy had a chance to prepare."
He felt pride swell within him at her words. She may not want to fight, but she was already thinking strategically. He had long known that she wasn't stupid, and though she implied otherwise earlier, he knew that she wasn't a child but he wasn't sure that she had it in her to think analytically about strategy when there were lives on the line. He was impressed, but he didn't tell her for fear that she would accuse him of being condescending.
"Actually I do," he told her. "I realized the same thing a bit ago and started creating a contingency plan. I will fill you in on it while we set up the training area we will be using, alright?"
She nodded and Kaname turned up his cup, drinking the last of his coffee before standing up and offering her his hand.
She eyed his empty cup for moment thinking about what he had said earlier that morning before she looked at him and asked, "Did you know something like this was going to happen?"
He shook his head sadly. "I had no idea that someone was about to declare war," he assured her. "I would have warned you if I had heard even a rumor about this."
She searched his face for a moment then, content that he was telling the truth, she took his hand and allowed him to lead her out of the kitchen.
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"I can't believe the nerve of that man!" Zero said to Seiren once they and the headmaster had gone their separate ways—with a knowing look and a "you kids behave yourselves now" from Kaien.
"He cares for you," Seiren said gently. She couldn't deny that she was more than a little embarrassed with how the day had gone so far, but the headmaster had just been teasing Zero. He hadn't really meant anything by it.
"I highly doubt that," Zero scoffed. "He wouldn't care if I died as long as I served my purpose doing it."
"Zero!" Seiren chided. "That's no way to talk about the man who raised you!"
"What?" Zero asked confusion in his violet eyes. "I was talking about Kuran and his smirking. What were you talking about?"
"Never mind," Seiren said quickly thinking that perhaps Zero had been so busy brooding on Kaname's facial expression to notice what the headmaster had said and not wanting to start a fight between them. "Do you think we should use the gym?" she asked changing the subject.
"I was just thinking the same thing," Zero replied, allowing the subject change because he didn't really want to think about what Kuran thought they were going to do alone since he already knew what it was and wasn't ready to go there yet. "It should be easily convertible to a training area. I was actually thinking more about how we are going to teach nobles how to fight."
"It actually won't be that difficult," Seiren said. "We all have some rudimentary training so that we can deal with Level E's. Most will just need a refresher course and some weapons training."
"I'm afraid you're wrong," he told her. "They are going to need to be retrained. Fighting Level E's is nothing like fighting a hunter, or another vampire. Level E's are completely controlled by their base desires, while hunters will be controlled by both logic and years of training. It is going to take a long time for the nobles to be ready to fight."
"They may surprise you," she said gently. "Besides, I'm sure that Kaname-sama has plans to buy us the time we need."
"You really trust him, don't you?" Zero asked perplexed by the trust she placed in the pureblood. A little bit of jealously rising in him as he realized that another woman he loved had some kind of thing for Kaname.
"He's never given me reason not to," she replied simply. "I trust you too," she added, seeming to pick up on his jealousy. "And even though no one else will understand it, I like you. And I've decided that I don't care who knows that we're together." As she finished she kissed him full on the lips in the middle of the school grounds. She felt a heady rush of something she couldn't name at the fact that she was finally taking her own future into her hands. Even when she heard a wolf-whistle from the left she didn't allow him to pull back immediately, but continued kissing him for a moment to show him she wasn't embarrassed to be caught with him.
Zero, while not embarrassed that he was caught kissing her, was embarrassed that he had been caught kissing anyone. He was not used to showing emotions to people, and affectionate gestures, like kissing someone, were not something he had ever expected to experience, let alone do in public. He had tried to break the kiss when he had heard someone whistle, but her hand in his hair had stopped him. He did, however, manage to make an obscene gesture in the direction of the whistler.
When they finally broke it off, Zero turned to see who had whistled at them and saw Yagari leading a large group of day class students. He felt a slight flush color his face at having been caught making out by what looked to be 90% of his class mates. The male half of whom looked envious that Zero was on that level of familiarity with a night class student and the female half looking shocked that Zero was on that level of familiarity with anyone.
Yagari looked amused. "Really, you two," he said attempting to cover the laughter in his voice. "I would think after this morning you would be a little more discrete. And Zero, that is a very inappropriate thing to do to a teacher. You're lucky school is not in session or you would be in detention for a month."
At his words the day class students began whispering among themselves, speculating about what Zero and the night class girl could have been up to that morning. A few of the guess were very close to the truth, though most of them involved much less clothing than had actually been present.
"You just had to say that, didn't you?" Zero hissed at Yagari. "Now they're going to think that we . . . you know."
"Now I never said that," Yagari said. "Any conclusions that they draw are their own. And I will not be blamed for the perverted minds of teenagers. Now, if you'll excuse us, I need to get these students to the train station."
Zero and Seiren stepped out of the way and allowed the gaggle of students to pass. Zero glaring at one of the boys who patted him on the shoulder and said, "Zero, you dog" with a smile. A smile that quickly fell as he caught sight of Zero's glare and thanked all the gods in heaven that looks couldn't kill. Though he highly suspected that the silver-haired boy could and walked faster so that he could get right behind Yagari thinking that Zero would not harm him right under a teacher's nose.
Zero continued fuming long after they had gone. He was angry that everyone seemed to think that he and Seiren had done that while no one realized that Kaname and Yuuki were. Even Kaname and Yuuki seemed to think that the two of them were going to and they found it amusing, even if Yuuki had tried to hide her amusement he had seen it. It was Kaien and Yagari that botherd him the most though, especially Kaien. He still hadn't forgiven the headmaster for being scandalized that he had shared a bed somewhat platonically with a member of the opposite sex but accepting of the fact that Yuuki and Kuran were sharing. He wondered how accepting Kaien would be to find out what Kuran and Yuuki were actually doing.
He broke off with a shudder. The fact that Yuuki was having sex with her brother was still too much for him to handle.
"It doesn't matter, you know?" Seiren said quietly. He looked at her surprised wondering if she had heard his last thought. "What all of them think," she clarified. "You and I know the truth. What they think is happening doesn't really matter."
"I guess you're right," he said with a sigh. "But it just pisses me off that they keep jumping to conclusions."
"We have much bigger things to worry about for now," she reminded him. "We can worry about what your classmates think after the war is over." He nodded his agreement. She was right, there were much more important things to worry about than what a bunch of teenagers thought: like survival.
He looked around the gym with another sigh. "Well," he said with a small humorless laugh, "let's get started.
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So what did ya'll think? I tried to fit in a little more fluff before everything hits the fan. I hope you enjoyed it. Leave me a review if you have time and feel so inclined
Figured I would answer a few reviews this time since I have time today.
Sparta306: Thank you! I always love it when people enjoy my work :) I will see what I can do about that, I do know that Kaname will be wreaking all kinds of havoc and I will try to let Yuuki have some havoc time.
12345667: I'm glad that you are enjoying it. Here's a new chapter for you :)
XxMoonlitSynnxX: Thank you so much! I will try to keep chapters coming at regular interverals at least for the summer.
Avenging Neko: Yep, the non-mobile version now has a big blue button. I'm glad you liked it, I was worred that I might have made him a bit too harsh on her. And I know! Poor Yuuki. But that's what happens when sadistic authors write :( lol
As always thank you for reading, and see you next week
Stickdonkeys.