I apologize the lateness of this chapter. Halfway through I decided I didn't like what I had and cut out a huge chunk. Then after that I got a bit of a writer's block. = =; So I kind of doubled the chapter a bit. What I have here is also what I did not exactly like. I wish my intros could be a little more interesting, even to me. WHY MUST THE GOOD STUFF BE IN THE MIDDLE? *cough* hehe...

Oh yeah, I love you guys for reviewing *heart*. It makes me happy and more motivated. :)

Disclaimer: Don't own Vampire Knight. Never did, never will.


Zero closed the door quietly behind him tiredly. It was nearly 2 in the morning when he got home. This week had been crazy like heck. Customers flew in by the flock and there wasn't a time that any employee could even stop for a millisecond.

But Zero couldn't take any holidays if he wanted Ichiru to have a somewhat comfortable life. Anything that Zero earned was meagre and had to be used frugally to last until the next pay check. This basically killed Zero's life and left him little hours to spend to his desire. However, Zero had a solution to his problems.

Zero slept during school so he would be wide awake for his shifts after school. His teachers highly disapproved of Zero's behaviour and talked to him about it, even resorting to throwing things at him while he slept. However, Zero waved it all off with a nonchalant attitude. Zero's teachers also eventually stopped chucking things at him, but only because he began flinging the said items back at the teacher.

To the shock of his classmates, even when Zero slept through all his classes, his test scores still remained one of the highest in the entire class. They were very curious as to Zero's secret, but never questioned him because of his anti-social personality. Or rather, many have tried to extract the classified info, but all have failed. And got their asses whooped by Zero's fury.

Zero leaned against the wall while he took off his shoes. He noticed most of the apartment lights on. This was highly unusual as Ichiru always turned off the lights he didn't use once it was past 11. Zero frowned and wondered if they had any guests visiting. Zero rarely had any visitors for himself, but even if Ichiru had friends over he would typically restrict their stay to 10 pm latest. Zero could sense something wrong.

"Ichiru?" Zero called out quietly. For some reason, the twins had extremely good hearing and could pick up the most minuscule noises. It was useful when they had something to say to each other and had an audience.

"Ichiru? Where are you?" Zero had raised his voice to what normal people would call whispering. At this point Zero was listening to any sounds he could pick up. He could hear the slight buzzing of electricity running through the light bulbs. Outside the sounds of cars driving by and the faint train horn whistling sneaked past the cement walls of the apartment building to murmur softly into Zero's ears. Zero pushed open the bedroom doors and scanned the rooms quickly.

Zero's stomach seemed to be dropping to the pits when he approached the bathrooms door. There were no signs of guests at all; no extra shoes, no conversations in the air, even the TV wasn't on. Zero opened the bathroom door and called out his twin's name again. No twin in the bathroom either. Zero thought this was strange. Didn't he already check every room…?

That's when Zero snapped his head in the direction of the kitchen. He hadn't checked the kitchen yet! Zero raced out of the tiled room, almost slipping as he rounded the corner into the hallway leading to the kitchen. As Zero ran to the kitchen, he noticed several dishes set out; the food untouched. Zero mentally slapped himself on the forehead. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid. Are you blind, Zero?'

The first thing Zero noticed was the mixed smell floating around the kitchen. Zero waved it off as normal since Ichiru had cooked recently. It was after this thought that Zero stopped to look for Ichiru. Zero blinked in confusion, his eyes surveying the scene. Everything seemed to be normal except for a few things. The microwave door was open, the soft light glowing as if welcoming any glassware. The kitchen counter seemed abnormal with the couple plates sitting indifferent.

There was a plate of seasoned meat sitting in a slowly growing puddle of fat. Zero unconsciously thought that the food had been sitting out for a few hours. How long had Ichiru left the food unattended?

Zero wrinkled his nose in disgust. The smell perfuming the room kept bothering him. Or rather, it was a trace of the hidden smell. The scent held a metallic feel to it, like something you would commonly see in everyday life. As Zero pondered on it, he stepped further into the kitchen. His foot met with a cold mush and a tinkle of glass moving against the tile. Zero's eyes automatically zoomed in on the noise maker and the odd mush. He saw the recently-made food left on the floor. Zero also noticed little flecks of red droplets.

Blood, his mind supplied.

Zero followed the trail of food to meet a hand. His eyes quickly trailed up the arm to see Ichiru. Zero let out a surprised "Ichiru!" before rushing to his twin's side. The first thing Zero noticed was the smear of dried blood off the one side of Ichiru's mouth.

"Ichiru!" Zero shouted, panicked. He didn't know when Ichiru had fallen unconscious. Zero leaned forward and placed his ear next to Ichiru's mouth. He could hear the shallow breaths his brother took while watching Ichiru's chest rise and fall quickly. Confident his brother would live without the need of CPR, Zero thought out his options as they came to him. He could call the ambulance, but the ambulance usually took too much time to get to their location [1]. Option two flew into his head as a taxi. They took less than 10 minutes to get around. They would have to do.

Zero took out his cell phone and called the taxi provider. He waited impatiently while the dial tone kept ringing. 'Stupid taxi provider.' Zero thought. Finally somebody picked up. 'Yes!' Zero cheered inside, unknowing of the next few words.

"Hi, you have reached Haneda Taxi Cab Ltd. Please hold."

'No!' Zero yanked his cell phone from his ear and stared at it in shock. He hung up and tried again. Unfortunately for Zero, he had to call five more times before being connected and able to call for a taxi [2]. Having accomplished his goal, Zero glared at his cell phone in his hand thinking, 'I need to get a car.'

Zero turned around and checked up on Ichiru. His breathing seemed to have evened out a bit, but Zero was still concerned about his brother's wellbeing. Fainting on the floor with blood splattered near your mouth and having irregular breathing wasn't exactly settling.

Reluctant to leave his brother's side, Zero quickly ran to grab Ichiru's coat. It would be cold when Zero moved Ichiru to the taxi, then to the hospital. Zero draped the coat over Ichiru's shoulder before running to the apartment window and peering out to check if the taxi had arrived. It was the longest ten minutes in Zero's life.

Zero was impatient for the taxi. He paced back and forth from his twin's body to the apartment window. Oh how he wished he had two bodies so one could stay with Ichiru and the other to watch for the taxi. On another note, Zero would be able to work twice as hard to earn double the money! How sad it was that the world didn't work this way.

Zero's patience (or should it be impatience?) finally paid off when the next round at the window revealed the awaited taxi. As gently as he could, Zero carried Ichiru in a princess fashion out the apartment. Zero zoomed out the apartment and took the stairs, not willing to wait for the elevator.

When Zero ran out the apartment building's doors, the taxi driver was waiting for his customers. He leaned against the side of the car with the passenger door open. Zero slid Ichiru in the back seat and sat beside him, letting Ichiru's head rest on his shoulder. Zero closed the door and turned to the driver, who just got into the driver's seat, and barked out, "To the nearest hospital."

The taxi driver did nothing but nod his head, understanding where Zero's destination was. The driver signalled and merged into traffic, giving Zero, yet again, more silence to ponder on as his brother lay unconscious. Zero looked at Ichiru with worry.

Zero couldn't take it anymore. The slowness of the cab was killing his sanity. He dug into his pants pocket and grabbed a fist full of money. Zero shoved that fist in between the driver and the front passenger seat.

"Look, I'll give you all this money if you step on the gas. I'm in a hurry here." Zero growled, annoyed. He dropped the money into the front seat and flopped back into the backseat. The driver stared at the money in shock. He didn't have to count it to figure out that it was more than the taxi fare called for.

The cab driver tipped his hat with one hand, and turned to the road with a gleeful smirk.

"Yes, sir!" He made a big act of raising his leg to stomp on the gas pedal. All the passengers of the car jerked back slightly from the acceleration of the vehicle.

The taxi swerved around the other cars on the street, leaving some angry drivers to curse at the taxi. In the background Zero could hear plenty of horns blaring and braking screeches galore. Zero could almost swear that some cars had crashed in the taxi's trail of dust, but he wouldn't have bet money on that.

The taxi made it to the hospital in less than ten minutes. Zero stepped out of the taxi hurriedly, but grabbed the door quickly once he was completely out of the cab to support himself. He was a little dizzy from the acceleration to a sudden stop, but he did not want to show this weak side of himself.

Zero took a deep breath and turned around to retrieve his brother. He gently scooped up Ichiru and began to run the short distance to the hospital, leaving the passenger door open. The trip from the apartment to the hospital seemed to never end for Zero. It was like time had chosen to slow down JUST to torture Zero.

As soon as Zero ran in the emergency room, a nurse had already called for a stretcher. This surprised Zero a bit, but he placed Ichiru on the stretcher anyway. The team of doctors rolled Ichiru through a set of doors, away from Zero's sight. As much as Zero wanted to follow, a nurse went up to him with a clipboard of questions. She asked a few on how Ichiru came to be in his current condition, but Zero could only answer to most of them with "I don't know."

It took almost twenty minutes to fill out the questionnaire. Zero sat in one of the waiting chairs heavily. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep the day before and now the stress of Ichiru unconscious was zapping him of his remaining energy. Zero leaned his head back to relax against the wall. His eyes also felt the tiredness as well, and only closing them would take away the weariness.

It wouldn't matter that much if Zero closed his eyes for a few minutes. It wasn't as if he was going to sleep. He had taken up all-nighters before. This would be no biggy. He would be… ready at the slightest… signal of… Ichiru…

*yawn*


Oh, I have author notes...

[1] I think I heard that was the case. Or maybe it was just L.A. where traffic is more congested, probably?

[2] Ah, this story. It happened to me and two friends once. We were calling for a taxi ('cause my friend was using crutches for the time being and walking or getting a ride home was inconvenient) and we just kept calling and calling. It took so long that we had to keep rotating who was calling until someone caught a hold of an operator.

The next chapter might come out in a month or less? If it comes out in a month (or more), I'll try and make it around this chapter's size or more. I feel you guys deserve at least that much. R&R guys.