000
AN: For those who haven't read the newest chapter of 'Vampire Knights' in the August 2007 issue of Shojo Beat… I guess there will be some spoilers and uh some for the coming chapters… Sorry about that. The Higuri family and all happenings are made up by me…
As usual I don't own anything except Kotori and Nicodemus….
0 February 0
A solid month passed and by now the infamous 'make out' scene between Kaname and Yuki had somewhat faded among the school populace. There weren't so many stares at the demoted former President and Member of the Disciplinary Committee. Now it seemed that everyone was buzzing about something new, Valentine's Day was fast approaching and people were pairing up everywhere.
Like bloody rabbits… Zero thought a little savagely as Yuki was holding back the crowd of screaming fan girls with her long staff, and as usual doing a poor job…
Headmaster Cross was continuing to deliberately keep his stepdaughter in the dark about almost everything happening in the school, now it seemed that in his eyes she had turned into another ordinary Day student. Zero let out a sigh, the Headmaster was a pacifist, a man with great ideals but he sure could hold a grudge.
As for Zero's relationship with Yuki it was as if nothing had ever happened, he said that though because Yuki was fastidiously avoiding him and really any other soul. She spent most of her time in the library after her twilight rounds or returned to her room. Yori also said that she was being quite distant since the fiasco at the New Years Ball.
Yuki was going to get the shock of her life in a few moments, Kami knows it might break her in two again…
Zero looked up, Kaname was standing at the top of the stairs holding his hand out for a beautiful girl to take. Her skin was whiter then ice or marble, her lips a pale pink rose, eyes a deep cerulean blue shrouded with thick dark lashes. Her hair was so dark ebony it was nearly black gracing her shoulders in elegant ringlets. Everything about her was perfect…. And she wore the Cross Academy girls uniform with a grace that put Kaname's to shame.
So she was Kotori Higuri the betrothed to Kaname Kuran, they were the two most perfect beings that Zero had ever seen. They were meant for one another….
He grinned a little, but his grin faded as he stared at the dumbfounded face of his co-guardian he saw Yuki look quickly away, as the rumbling of the crowd grew deathly silent.
"To all my dear members of Cross Academy I would like to introduce my betrothed Kotori Higuri. I would wish that everyone treats her with the most delicacy and kindness for she will be staying only a few short weeks."
And with that Kaname bowed and Kotori curtsied with the sweetest smile that Zero had ever seen before the stunned crowd suddenly burst into a cacophony of noise. Zero was nearly run over by the set of students that moved to the front of the already packed crowd. He kept them back with sharp barks and threats of week's detention all the while scanning for the petite form of Yuki.
"Attention students! I have an announcement!" Yuki stood at the top of the stairs the murmuring subsided as Kaname and Kotori moved like royalty down the cleared path for them
All eyes were suddenly on her "as you all know Valentine's is approaching and that is when Kaname-kun's suspension will be lifted…But due to the joyous events that have just been heard by one and all Headmaster Cross hereby reinstates Kaname Kuran as President Kuran!" the paper that she held in her hand shook, as Yuki choked back sudden tears. Her father was terrible sending her this message last minute instead of telling her in his office that morning.
The students' burst into loud cheers and everyone surged forward, congratulations ringing in the air
"GET BACK!" Zero suddenly roared, his throat gave a painful twinge he was going to lose his voice by tomorrow morning. Thankfully the teachers were here to herd their classes back to their dorms and Zero was released of the task of breaking up a group of 500-Day Students. As students finally scattered and thinned Zero looked around and found Yuki sitting on the last step of the Moon Dorm stairs, the white letter crushed in her hand.
A soft wind riffled through their hair as he came to sit with her, Yuki was silently wiping tears away from her face. Her body trembling with the sobs she was stubbornly holding in.
"Yuki?"
She gave a great sob and broke down "Zero why didn't you TELL ME!" she exclaimed weeping into her gloved hands.
"I was forbidden" Zero replied his heart breaking for the girl that he so loved. He placed a hand on her bent shoulder and squeezed.
"You knew she would be coming," he reminded her
"I KNOW BUT WHY!" she cried the rest of her sentence lost in her sobs. Zero kneeled down in front of her and pried her hands away from her face. Removing the handkerchief from his pocket he wiped away the tears from her face and nose.
"How can you still love him?"
"I don't know." She said in a small voice, her face red. He cupped her cheek with his hand
"No more tears Yuki, you will have to let him go now."
"B-but" she sputtered the tears rising again in her eyes.
"Forget whatever he told you, it all must have been lies" Zero crooned gently, he felt like Akuma saying this to her. But it seemed that this situation was going to work in his favor. He knew that the relationship between Kaname and the Headmaster must have changed drastically though he never saw it. The Headmaster seemed to work in strange ways, ways that Yuki and Zero knew nothing about…
Who was his stepfather anyway?
"Zero?" Yuki eyes searched his own, her liquid topaz eyes suddenly full of concern at his faraway look
"You know…. That my feelings remain unchanged" he began a bit solemnly Yuki nodded "then you also must know that I always will be there for you. I owe it to you, for it was you who saved me from…" a cloud passed over his eyes.
"You are all that is good in my world" Zero stated with a exquisitely sorrowful smile, Yuki smiled a little.
"Thank you Zero" she smiled wanly and Zero lead her back to the Sun Dorm just as the blood red sun surrendered its power to the night…
0000000
Kaname dried his hair near the fire in his room as his fiancée lay in his massive bed playing with the rose petals that were scattered between the sheets. Her white nightgown matched the paleness of her skin, almost as if she was not of this world…
"Kaname" she muttered, Kaname turned softly to her gazing at his fiancée through the sheer deep violet curtains of his canopy bed.
"What is it my love?" he crooned running his fingers through his wet hair already getting a little too long… Takuma would have to cut it again and soon…
"Aren't you angry about your plan?"
Kaname feigned stupidity "What plan?"
"That plan about bringing Maria Kurenai to Cross Academy, now that Zero is human again she has no interest in following him. Though I admit it was quite dangerous for you to set up everything in this way. There was so much room to err, now Zero will never see his twin again." Kotori let out a sigh
"Don't say another word Kotori." Kaname countered knowing that she had seen all these things through her visions.
If there was one ability that the select members of the Higuri clan possessed that was of great value to all of the higher classes of vampires was the Sight of the Oracle. Though the Kuran clan kept their powers largely secret, it was Kotori's family that had saved many of the few remaining vampiric noble families from extinction at the hands of men and women such as Zero's sensei, Touga.
"I would tell you more, but you know it is not my place. I am here only to guide" she replied a little icily her cerulean eyes far, far away. Kaname had a feeling that she was angry with him, but that somehow always happened.
"Then you know how everything will end?" Kaname asked after a long silence.
"Yes, I did. But that was before that meddlesome demi-god Nicodemus interfered. Oh, if I only discovered how he came to know about this Destiny I would swallow him in a Dream so dark he would never return."
Kaname felt the hairs on his neck prickle; he saw something like power flash across his fiancée's eyes. She was angrier about this whole situation more so then he had first thought.
"What of Shizuka Hio-san?" he inquired again
"She" Kotori paused "I will not traveled down her Destiny it is full of too much… Corruption, she was the vampire that turned both Zero and his twin as you already know. But I cannot say if she was responsible for the Level E vampire that killed Yuki Cross's family. I only sent you there to save her before she died…"
Zero remembered that day ten years ago with a very faint smile, in those days Yuki had loved him deeply, without condition. She was like a chick newly hatched with no memory other then the terrifying vampire and the boy that saved her from him. It was only after that little Yuki discovered that Kaname was a vampire and still she loved him… Everything was so blissful until Zero came and the wheel of Destiny began to turn just as Kotori had foreseen.
"I haven't seen any of the Hio's in a very long time" Kaname observed as he slipped into the bed with her drawing the curtains around the bed.
"That is because they are so few left and most of them are mad… just like her" Kotori gazed serenely into his eyes softly running her fingers through his wet her.
"You are going to get the flu if you sleep with your hair wet."
Kaname laughed, "I never get sick"
Kotori smiled "That is true" there was another silence before Kotori spoke again.
"It is quite sad you know if only my Mother and your Father had waited till you and I were teenagers before pushing us together maybe we might have fallen in love."
Kaname smiled sadly "Yes, you are right but instead you and I are like brother and sister. And I." He lowered his eyes away from her cerulean ones
"You are in love with a human girl." She giggled but he glanced up seeing the sudden pain in her eyes
"I saw it long ago, long before I met you. I was so young I never understood until I first met you. I knew from the beginning that our relationship was doomed, and that I would never procreate any children to continue the Kuran line."
Kaname felt his cheeks flushing an old sorrow welling in him "I am sorry Kotori"
She laughed, "Don't be so depressed I chose this path, just as you chose yours. Now I believe I have used enough of my own Power to dry your hair so goodnight my dear husband to be." She dotingly kissed his forehead before turning over and Kaname waved out the candles before he too settled into in own troubled dreams.
000
"THIS DAMN DOOR!" Senri Shiki screamed as Rima Toya stood off to the side staring at the back of his head with frustration.
"You're such a BAKA! Takuma-kun has already tired and so has Aido-kun if they cannot do it you surely cannot. Now get away from the DOOR!" she cried yanking her friend by the collar away from the offending piece of wood.
Takuma appeared on the landing a moment after Rima pulled Senri away from the door, the door had splintered in several places after Shiki tried using his last option, brute force and kicking the door down with his foot. And yet the door did not open, for this was the room that Nicodemus had stayed in only for a short time and now that he had vacated it there was no way of opening it…
Takuma sighed that is why Kotori was disgracefully sharing a room with Kaname… Takuma felt his cheeks growing red, how dishonorable if his own Grandfather or any of the noble families heard of this… He wondered what would happen to his head.
Takuma tried to not think of that…
"Shiki-kun we have tried all ways of opening this door, including opening it by its hinges it just will not open. That boy Tsuki has somehow sealed it though I know not why probably just to annoy the whole house to no end. Now get to bed we only have a few hours before school starts."
Grumbling Shiki walked down the landing and into his room, Toya serenely following him to her own room and quietly shutting the door. Only after the house had once again fallen into silence did Takuma take a long deep breath.
He had a feeling that things were going to make a drastic change and soon.