PLEASE READ: So this is kind of AU, this is set in a world a little after Yuki became a vampire. But the catch is that Ichiru came with Zero to Cross as a kid. So he's been a prefect the whole time and isn't the "evil" twin. Other than that, this is just a crazy AU with an OC so enjoy :D
Hiro actually snorts in her face when Yori first asks. But Yori expects this much trouble, it would be more worrisome if Hiro accepts without a fight. "Please? You're the only one that can keep him safe," she begs. Hiro is the only girl without a roommate in the Sun Dorms, Yori needs to convince her.
The him in question is curled up on Hiro's lap as they speak. His bright orange fur shimmers; he's chosen to sit directly in sunlight and bathe in the warmth. It's a typical cat thing to do, really. Hiro doesn't mind cats, and even gives him a gentle scratch behind the ears. "What makes you so sure Ichiru's gonna let me slide?"
"You're his best friend!" Yori begs.
"Which gives him even more reason to slit my throat open when he finds a cat in my dorm," Hiro raises an eyebrow. "Why can't you keep him?"
Yori falters at that and lowers her gaze, "Yuki would catch me." Hiro doesn't press. It's no secret that Yuki and Yori haven't been on the best of terms lately.
"Guess a bitchy attitude is a complement to the long hair?" Hiro jokes but Yori gives her a stern glare. "I'm kidding," she sighs. She isn't really kidding, but Yori doesn't need to know that. The cat stretches out and presses his wet nose into Hiro's palm, asking for another scratch. Hiro can't say no to the small mewl it gives and sighs. "He's going to kill me," she groans.
Yori's ears perk up, "Is that a yes?"
The cat blinks his eyes and yawns, curling back into Hiro's lap and she really can't say no. To Yori, of course she could. It isn't a secret that Hiro is the least empathetic person to walk this school, and it's even less of a secret that Hiro cares for herself above all others, but it's a pretty cute cat. "I guess. God he's so gonna kill me."
"He won't," Yori reassures, a triumphant smile on her face. "You're Kiryuu-kun's best friend, besides I think he'd like the cat," She reaches to give his orange head a small pat. The cat whines and swats the hand for disturbing his slumber.
Hiro scoffs, "Yea, I'm stuck with Ichiru no matter how much I want to get rid of him," Yori rolls her eyes, "That is one Kiryuu. If Ichiru doesn't already murder me for keeping a cat, his brother is going to rip my intestines out and play jump rope with them in front of everyone just so no one tries this shit ever again," Yori starts a protest, but ultimately quiets down when she realizes that is a probable outcome. Hiro narrows her eyes, "Exactly."
"You don't need to tell him," Yori crosses her arms with a huff, "It's a month old kitten, and by the time it grows up we'll find a permanent home for him."
Hiro laughs, loud enough for the cat to hiss at her to shut up. "Ichiru tells his brother everything,"
"He won't tell him if he wants to keep the cat," Yori states.
Hiro looks down at the cat, stretched out with his belly exposed and sighs. She figures that Yori's right, one look at him and Ichiru will be cooing all over it like the idiot he is. "I suppose you're right." Hiro still groans loudly and rubs her temples. "How am I even going to tell him."
Yori giggles, "Hiro-chan always works something out!"
She rubs her temples, "I get to name him,"
Hiro started at Cross Academy two years ago with a clear goal: get in and get out. She didn't expect high school to be all fun and frivolous. She certainly didn't count on it being the 'best four years of your life!' She expected it to be hell in its rawest form. Although, in a sense, she'd really already experienced that. The separation between the Night and Day class already made Cross something special, but like all high schools, Cross had its own set of social rules for the normal non-fangirling population (however small it be). Rule number one, plain and simple, stay out of the way of the prefects.
Hiro broke that rule within thirty seconds of entering Cross by crashing headfirst into Ichiru Kiryuu. The grounds were beautiful, anyone could admit that. So long as Hiro stayed away from the Moon dorms, they were hers to explore, until of course Ichiru showed up to ruin that. He looked battered and bruised, silver hair sticking up all over and his violet eyes looked bloodshot. In fact, blood stained his uniform. So naturally, the first words Hiro said to him, were, "You look like shit."
Ichiru tried to snap at her, say something witty but keeled over in pain. He clutched his stomach and groaned. Hiro shoved her hands in her pockets and watched blood pool out of his fingers. Ichiru looked up, "Nurse's office, now." He snarled.
Hiro continued walking. "Maybe if you were nicer," she drawled. Ichiru coughed violently. With a shiver he forced himself to stand and stumbled after her – only to fall again after walking a total of two feet. Humans were not good people – Hiro accepted this. She had no obligation to help anyone but herself. She'd definitely learned the hard way that humans were shitheads. So why shouldn't she be one too, she was human after all. But she also was not a murderer. With a groan, she turned back.
Hiro sighed, throwing his arm over her shoulder, she not-so-gently dragged his sorry ass to the nurse's office. "You owe me for this," she snarled at him. She figured if the boy could speak without passing out, he would have snapped something back. The trip to the nurse's office wasn't long – but when carrying a boy nearly twice your size it feels like a trip to China and back. Hiro dumped him unceremoniously on the bed and the nurse's face had gone pale. Shockingly enough, she looked more concerned about the fact that Ichiru had been found by her than the fact that his insides were falling apart.
Hiro had a hunch as to why, but didn't act on it. Acting on it never did any good, and she'd already decided other humans were too shitty for her to care about them. The nurse couldn't have driven her out any sooner, and Hiro sure wasn't keen on staying.
Hiro didn't learn his name until the next morning. She learned that his name was Ichiru Kiryuu, twin brother of Zero Kiryuu, also one of the many heartthrobs of the school (although, a good number of those were contained in the night class). Ichiru tossed her a glance then, but continued his prefect duties without much more. Hiro didn't care, she didn't plan on acknowledging him anyway.
Until it happened again, a few days later. Ironically enough, Ichiru had made it pretty far this time for the state he was in; yet managed to collapse directly in front of Hiro's door. And Hiro, who made a pact to hate everyone who wasn't herself, sighed. "This a new habit?"
"S-Shut up," Ichiru snapped.
Hiro made a move to close the door, but stopped when Ichiru gasped. She groaned, loud and angry to make her displeasure known. Ichiru murmured something against her shoulder when she hoisted him up, something about not asking for help, something about being fine alone. Hiro shrugged, "Fine by me,"
She didn't drop him on a bed this time, but left him cowering outside the door. If he didn't want help, he sure didn't want to be seen with it. And she sure didn't want to be seen with him. He called out to her as she was leaving, "Don't wanna know why?"
Hiro tossed a shrug at him, "Don't care,"
"But you helped,"
"You were bleeding on my door,"
"Friends?"
Hiro faltered for only a second, but brushed it off quickly. Fast-forward two years, and Ichiru would laugh at her for being so affected, but past Ichiru didn't know her, and didn't know enough to catch on. "Sure." Hiro's solo team of human hatred extended to two, that day.
They became inseparable after that.
And for two years that had been the only don't-break-unless-you-want-to-commit-social-suicide rule Hiro broke. The small population of Cross that didn't drool over the night class accepted her well enough – even far enough to include her as a friend, although Hiro didn't really consider any of them as close as Ichiru (though, her friendship with Ichiru was more insults and punches, but they still worked, somehow). In a way, Ichiru was like the prefect that wasn't really a prefect. Only three people gave Ichiru the time of day (two of which were Hiro and Zero themselves, the third being Kaname Kuran – who Ichiru truly regarded as a close friend from what he'd told Hiro. Zero did not take a liking to this), he was simultaneously unattainable by the Night and Day class. At least Zero wanted the cold front he'd built.
But still, Ichiru seemed happy enough. He insisted to keep Hiro and Zero plus Kaname separate, something about not mixing his two lives together. The hunch Hiro had flared up again, but she suppressed it. Whether she was right or not about that didn't matter. It wasn't like Zero didn't know her, Ichiru and her were basically attached by the hip when he wasn't around after all, but Zero never cared enough to outwardly talk to her. Although twice he had asked about Ichiru's whereabouts, and all Hiro had done was point in the wrong direction while Ichiru hid under her bed with a pile of snacks and videogames to shirk his responsibilities.
However, a little bit before she breaks rule number two on Cross Academy's normalcy list, Zero definitely notices her, and he does so with a glare.
"Listen," Hiro ignores Zero stomping towards them and tugs Ichiru down so she can whisper in his ear. "I really need to talk to you,"
"Now?" He raises an eyebrow, "The Night Class is about to switch, what's so important?"
Hiro starts to speak but quickly shuts her mouth when Zero approaches them. "What's going on?" He tosses Hiro a glare, but it's significantly softer than what he gives the other girls. "Day Class students should be in their dorms by now."
Hiro swallows, "I know, I just really needed to run something by Ichiru real quick,"
Zero doesn't look convinced. "Do it quick, then." He also doesn't move.
"Um." Hiro pauses. "I meant alone."
Zero gives Ichiru an incredulous glance, and Ichiru mirrors it while looking to Hiro. "I tell him everything," he says, not in a mean way, but in a way that implies Hiro knows this. Hiro opens her mouth several times, looking for some kind of excuse, anything at all.
She settles on, "It's personal." Neither of the Kiryuu twins look convinced. "It's super personal, like so personal. Um." She sounds stupid, but presses on. "It's so personal you wouldn't even…understand. I just – yeah, he won't want to tell you this. And you won't want to know it, trust me."
Zero coughs awkwardly, but turns away. "Fine." Is all he says, but Hiro picks up on the light red tinge to his cheek and mentally groans at what the hell he must think of her now.
Ichiru knows her better than that, though, and snickers. "Why the fuck did you need to get rid of Nii-san? And hurry up because the Night Class is almost here," he gestures off towards the white uniforms making their way towards the entrance, "and I need to get rid of a few stragglers," he gestures to the bushes that rustle a little too much for the wind to cause.
Hiro gets straight to it. "I'm hiding a cat."
And so, Hiro breaks rule number two – don't attract the Night class under any circumstances – when Ichiru screams, loud.
"You're WHAT?!" Hiro smacks a hand over his mouth in panic and he still spits out muffled words beneath her palm. Fortunately enough, they're incoherent and no one can understand them. But it still does attract attention. Zero returns in a flash, the remainder of the Day class girls forgotten at the cry of his brother and the Night class stands no more than ten feet away. Hiro doesn't even want to look to see their expression.
Zero is none-to-gentle when he grabs her hand, "What's going on?" His eyes are venomous and Hiro splutters to think of a response. His grip is death-like and Hiro just knows it's going to bruise in the morning. "Ichiru?"
"Um."
Hiro groans, "Thanks for the help."
Zero releases her hand and pins her with a glare, "One of you is going to tell me what's happening, right now." He demands. Zero isn't known for his calmness; that much Hiro can tell. She struggles for a response, at least thankful that Ichiru hadn't ratted out their feline friend just yet.
Thankfully, Hiro is saved.
Not so thankfully, Hiro is saved by Kaname Kuran.
"Don't you think you're overreacting a little bit, Kiryuu-kun?" It's common knowledge that one does not want to be around Kaname Kuran and Zero Kiryuu together, that's asking for hell to swallow you alive. Kaname gives Zero a steely glare and places a warm hand on Ichiru's shoulder. "Perhaps if you asked nicely, Ichiru would be able to give you an answer,"
Zero glares, and opens his mouth with a retort ready on his tongue. However, Ichiru is quick to cut him off – not wanting to see two of his three only friends (one of which, sadly, is his brother) fight. "It's nothing, it was me who overreacted! The thing is Hi – "
It's then that Kaname Kuran takes notice of her, only to give her the same spiel. "Should you not be in the Day dorms by now?" Unlike Zero, Kaname most likely has no idea who the fuck she is. Maybe a name, if anything, only because Ichiru likes to talk about everything, so she's sure Kaname has heard of her.
"Uh – " Hiro starts, but Ichiru grabs her arm and finishes for her.
"Actually, we both have to go, right Hiro? I have to help you out with your problem," They all look at the two of them as if they're mentally insane. Hiro can't blame anyone, they sure are acting the part. "Um, I'm gonna take Hiro back to the dorms, Nii-san can handle this right? I can send Yuki if-"
"No." Zero cuts him off at the mention of Yuki. "Take her back," Hiro doesn't get much more acknowledgement than a head nod.
Ichiru starts to drag her towards the Sun dorms, but this time Kaname pins them with a question and a hand, and Hiro decides she truly hates life today. "Ah, this is your friend, right?" Kaname gives Hiro a polite smile and she gives him a half-assed one in return. "Is everything alright? A problem I can help with?" Hiro must give him some credit, he looks legitimately concerned (much to Zero's chagrin, who grumbles at him to stay away from Ichiru – not as strongly as he used to about Yuki, but the venom is still there).
"No, no, it's nothing we can't handle," Ichiru laughs him off. Hiro hears the chatter of the Night class and feels sick at the thought of all the attention. But she forgets about that when Ichiru shoves her through the Sun dorms and forces her to open the lock to her room.
It doesn't take long for the cat to come catapulting at her feet.
"You got a fucking cat."
"His name is Maru."
"You got a fucking cat."
"….oops?"