A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews/faves/alerts and holiday wishes! I do appreciate them. Here is chapter 3, I'm working up to the action bits. Kaname and Zero are still working out this whole 'media sympathy' bit. We'll see where it takes them. Enjoy! ^_^
FULL SUMMARY: The Elder Council and the Hunter's Association has come up with a way to start war-order Kaname Kuran and Zero Kiryu to marry. Their refusal will mean war on both sides. Yaoi. KxZ/ZxK
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any Vampire Knight anything, that belongs to Matsuri Hino, I only lay claim to my original plot bunnies and characters.
"Are you sure of this?" Kaname shifted, hesitantly.
Seiren merely glared up at him from beneath her ash-haired fringe. "With all due respect, Kaname." Her voice was deadly like black ice.
The pureblood swallowed, tilting his head to stare up at the ceiling and allowing better access to his neck. His faithful bodyguard gave his tie a particularly vicious tug to compensate for the words she would not say to his face. "So, the interview…?" Kaname prompted.
"Will be a disaster." She said, flatly. "Cancel it. Take him to dinner or something."
"Or something?" Kaname resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "How bad would the interview be? We have yet to appear on television with a decent-"
"Very bad." Seiren stepped back, surveying her handiwork, an impeccably knotted tie. She sniffed. It would have to do. Her eyes flashed, briefly. "You can schedule another one, tell him this afternoon when he returns."
"This afternoon. Right." Kaname reached up to tug the tie. She swatted his hand away, meeting his contrite expression with a patented look of her own. "Right. No interview." He sighed. "What about the rest of it, how is everything else? Will all go properly?"
Her pale violet eyes seemed to glass over. She wavered for a moment.
Kaname reached out a hand to steady her, careful and cautious in his movements. After a long, silent moment, she pulled out of the trance, her lips tightly pressed together. "It will…work." She allowed. "But to make up for the interview, you will have to attend a few other things."
"Such as?"
Seiren rattled off a list of expected hosts, parties, meetings and other useful things. Kaname felt his headache begin to sprout. He could already see Zero's reaction to that.
"Isn't there any way around all that fuss?" He asked, hopefully.
The lithe girl seemed as if she'd like to roll her eyes, but controlled herself with obvious effort. "Perhaps, if you were seen together in public a little more often, your stories might make sense."
"But we're not trying to be a couple." Kaname blinked, confused. "We're trying to convince them that we just want to be left alone and that marriage won't solve the Council or the Association's problems between us." He frowned. "You said this would work."
"Things change." She said, shortly. "You of all of us, should know that, Kaname." With a brisk toss of her head, the bodyguard started towards the door. "Finish your coffee and eat your toast. You have a busy day ahead."
"So we have to appear everywhere together now?" Zero repeated, a half-scowl on his face. He didn't like that bit of news at all. Their worlds were as vastly different as opposites could be and he certainly wasn't going to suffer through one of Kaname's perfect business luncheons when the pureblood couldn't accompany him through Hunter business. Well, current Hunter business, if he had to sort it out, Zero knew he'd think of something. He really didn't want to, though. "I'm not giving up on the mission list. I gotta work, Kuran. There's no way I can be here and at the Association and then at-"
"As do I, Kiryu."
"You're a pureblood! Can't you just do some of your pureblood magic and make your-"
"There are limits to everything!" Kaname snapped, his burgundy eyes shimmered. "and I am not to abuse the power that is given to me."
"Oh no, of course not, you just like lording it around whoever is willing to-"
Kaname's glare shut him up.
A heavy silence settled over the duo.
"Perhaps I can make other arrangements." Kaname allowed. "I have other…places you can stop by and perhaps that will help to lessen some of the necessary travel. I cannot shift my schedule any more than I already have."
"Why, because the world will end?" Zero snarked.
The pureblood was silent for a moment. "Not all of it." He said, at last.
The silver-haired hunter gaped at him.
"You said that she was one reporter that wasn't bought off by the whole council face. We need her interview." Zero's frown had grown more pronounced. This wasn't the first time they were having this conversation in the past few days, but they'd just gone over this yesterday afternoon and now Kaname was bringing it up again. The idiot seemed destined to forever change his mind on a whim whenever the fancy suited him. It was starting to wear on whatever nerves Zero'd had left to his name.
"I wasn't suggesting to cancel it, merely that I might have some strings to pull." Kaname soothed. "Besides, you're in no condition to sit through an interview now."
"Strings to pull?" Zero exclaimed in dismay, shifting the ice pack cradled beneath his chin. He wished his vampire healing was more up to speed than it was at present. A lucky Level E had gotten in a very lucky blow. It wouldn't happen again. He'd made sure of it. Thankfully, Kaname's only response had been to look to Seiren who produced an icepack out of thin air. Zero had figured it wouldn't hurt. "Kaname! I thought you said she was independent." He winced at the movement that sent spikes of pain through his jaw.
"She is, but her supervisor, fellow colleagues and such are not quite the same. I have plenty of strings entangled with them and they can afford to lose a few before they become entirely useless."
"You're going to play puppetmaster from the wings again? Never mind. Cancel the stupid thing. I won't be able to speak half of the ti-"
"I'm not going to play with the interview!" Kaname exclaimed, exasperated. "I'm simply going to suggest that they might want to shift the programming an hour or two later, wouldn't that suffice?"
Zero blinked. Two hours would at least allow the swelling to disappear and his jaw to return to normal working function. In fact, if he dared to let himself think past the ridiculousness of sitting in a certain pureblood's study with a plastic baggie of ice cubes glued to his cheek, Zero might have wondered if Kaname was going to all that fuss just for him. "What?" He sputtered, inarticulately.
Kaname rubbed his forehead. "Seiren, more sandwiches." He said, wearily. "And something soft, for Zero to eat."
Zero nearly choked.
Seiren bobbed her head in understanding, flitting to the door.
Zero stared after her before his vampire thinking caught up to ex-human tastes. "No Jello!" He barked—and then of course, winced—before shifting the ice pack once more.
~*~*Thanks for reading! Poor Zero, he took a left hook to the jaw. *sigh* Duck next time, my dear hunter.~*~*~
