**Warnings: SPOILERS, profanity, violence, and possible sexual situations.
**Summary: Set after series end. One wild night at The Friendly Fang leaves Zero with a heavy hangover, and new assignment. (Part One) Zero x OC, maybe some Zero x Yuki later.
**Note: This chapter was a bit too long, so I split it up into what should feel like two parts, but what are indeed two separate chapters. Please enjoy the story.
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* . B L O O D .. :.:: M O O N . *
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Chapter Two:
Zero's vision wouldn't stop blurring. He could barely keep his head up long enough to sense from what direction the great power was coming, much less to fire a true shot, or fire any shot for that matter. But he had to try…This power was unlike any he'd ever felt before – different, and stronger even than Shizuka, Rido, the so-called King Kaname…
Okay, so maybe sticking around to fight this unknown thing wasn't the best plan. But by the time Zero decided that it probably would have been far more affective to run away, he spotted her – inhumanly tall; lean muscles (odd for a woman to have); a mane of red-brown curls that exploded from her head like a brilliant fireball; golden eyes that seemed to glow even under the bright lights of the tavern; thick, ebony combat boots; caramel colored skin; casual teenage clothing that somehow looked like it'd been put through a shredder; the ruddiest, rounded lips Zero had ever seen, like two shiny puckered cherries; and a smell so rancid, so disgusting, so fowl that it actually made Zero lean over the bar stool and wretch again. It was a dry wretch; his stomach was already empty.
This woman put Zero's violet eyes and silver hair to shame – she stood out worse than a human in a storm of vampires. It wasn't just her looks, though. Zero managed to notice how the tourists in the tavern seemed to naturally shy away from her. It made for a nice, clear pathway for her to walk down, straight toward Zero. Quite obviously he was her target. Her golden eyes were trained right on him.
"Fine then," Zero growled, coughing a bit and wiping his mouth on the back of the sleeve of his school uniform. "Fine!" He closed his eyes, breathed, his hand still holding Bloody Rose in a white-knuckled grip. With one last swift glance at the mesmerizing harlot gliding towards him, Zero yelled and whipped his weapon out from his inside jacket pocket, silver chain flailing. Not half a second passed before Zero took aim and pulled the trigger of his anti-vampire weapon.
He failed to notice the brief look of surprise that passed across the girl's face, but that didn't matter. What did matter was that the purple explosion from Bloody Rose sent smoke, wood, glass, and debris flying everywhere in the enclosed space. Zero had suddenly (luckily) turned the people of the tavern into an enormous frightened mob. Guests and tourists alike started knocking over decorations, screaming and waving their arms, clamoring over one another just to reach an exit. Thankfully, the strange woman was swallowed up by the chaos, which was Zero's plan all along. He pretty much assumed that the anti-vampire weapon would be close to useless against her power, whatever bizarre power that may be.
The noise, however, did make Zero's head swim. Several times he felt himself get swept away by the mob, thrown about like a ship on the ocean. Three times he managed to shove himself back out of the crowd, but when he tripped and was trampled a fourth time he was knocked unconscious. So much for a clean getaway, was his last thought before the tavern blurred badly and the rushing people faded out. His mind went black.
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Paris made sure no one was looking (they weren't; they were all too entranced by the source of his discomfort) and made himself visible again just as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He'd altered his appearance slightly – an "older" look, like that of an aged human, so as not to detect the attention of any frequent taverners who might recognize him in his usual form. It seemed very unlikely that anyone would have noticed him either way, though, for they were all too interested in the scene that played out before him. Everything was happening much too quickly for him to even do some damage control!
He watched a young, eloquently tall, red-haired woman make her way down the center of the tavern, walking purposefully in a straight diagonal towards none other than the other (quite wasted) silver-headed vampire. Paris caught a glimpse of her expression – a wicked grin, eyes bright with a deadly playfulness – and his breath caught. She meant to cause a scene in his tavern, and he could not allow that. No, not any more than had already happened tonight. He could not allow ––
But before Paris could take one step towards the woman, the young vampire pulled a weapon from the inside of his coat and fired it right into the face of the fiery newcomer. The blast from such a weapon caused a light explosion to occur, and as such, the explosion caused the people of his tavern to go into a state of mass hysteria.
Paris himself was almost just as panicked; nothing like this had ever happened to him before, so he was quite unsure of what to do, exactly. The Friendly Fang was just as its namesake implied – a friendly place for good-natured humans on vacation to visit, drink, eat, sleep, and be merry. Not get attacked by terrorists, or vampires, or both!
While trying to stop his shaking, Paris spotted the red-headed woman amongst the frightened humans. She was unharmed and wild-eyed now – avidly searching throughout the mob for none other than the lavender-eyed fool who may have just put him out of business. In desperation to keep the two creatures from further destroying his life's work, Paris also began searching for the young vampire. He was in no condition to do anything at the moment – fight, flirt, or drink – so he had to be removed from the hysteria, and Paris had a feeling that the woman meant to hurt or kill him. He could not allow that; not in his Friendly Fang!
So he scanned the crowd for the silver-haired vampire. Paris was sure he would stick out like a sore thumb, and he did – for all of two seconds before he was knocked down again, somewhere relatively close to the exit. For a Pureblood of his prowess, a task so menial should have been laughably easy for him to accomplish… Paris melded with the shadows, knowing that no one would notice him, and swiftly moved to the place he thought he'd seen the vampire fall.
He was correct – he saw the young man lying next to another fallen man, both unconscious, and both still getting trampled by the hundreds of people trying to get away from the potential danger. Paris made himself appear again, this time in his usual younger-looking form. With the strength of a pureblood he easily picked up the two males and hauled them outside. He left the human lying up against the outside of the tavern where he wouldn't get trampled. The vampire…Paris thought for a second that he would like to find out more about this young fellow who drew so much attention to himself, but not tonight. Tonight Paris decided that the best thing to do was to take him home, where Headmaster Cross could deal with him.
The French Pureblood took one last look at his mostly empty tavern and shook his head. In the morning his staff would have everything in tip top shape again, but the incident would no doubt make the headlines on the morning paper. Paris was more worried about the damage to The Friendly Fang's reputation than the actual physical damage his purple-eyed friend had caused.
He sighed. It could wait, at least for a little while.
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Zero dreamt he was dead.
He'd been killed by the red-haired demon from the tavern, and his undead soul had been dragged down to Hell in her evil, smelly hands. Once in Hell, she put Zero through a thousand visual tortures – things that probably would never happen in real life, but in the dream they felt more real than real. He was forced to kill all of Yuki's human friends that went to Cross Academy by ripping their throats out with his fangs. To get him to do this, the red-haired woman would make him watch how Kaname had resurrected Yuki's vampire self – which in Zero's mind was by making love to her – over and over and over again until he begged for it to end, and that he would kill Yuki herself if she just stopped the images.
So one by one he drank and tore at the throats of Yuki's friends – his friends, in a sense. In real life, he'd started talking to them more now that she was gone. But here he killed them all, watched them as they twitched and slowly died on the fiery ground, their life blood pooling around them. When the shock seemed to wear off, the evil demon woman would make Zero watch Kaname change Yuki again, she would make him see her enjoy the pain, the change, the sex, the death of the human girl that Zero loved more than life itself. He cried tears of blood that mixed with the river of blood he was already swimming in, drowning in. He screamed out her name, begged for Yuki Cross to come back to him, to make everything all right like it should have been all along.
But of course his cries never reached farther than the ears of the devil woman – the bitch that had wrecked his world, interrupted his fond memories of Yuki with these horrible made up lies, who––
"Zero…?"
A distant voice made the image of the auburn haired woman start to fade. His dead friends and the blood and Hell and everything around him began to disappear.
"Zero, are you going to be all right?"
The voice became clearer. Zero saw that his Hell had become nothing but black. He could almost even open his eyes if he just…
Like magic his dorm room at Cross Academy appeared before him. No… Not his dorm, but definitely a room at the Academy. He was in the nurse's ward. He was shirtless, half buried in some white pillows and tangled in sweaty bed sheets, and the room itself was much too bright. However it was a relief to see a familiar place, and even a familiar face. Zero saw that the voice he'd heard belonged to Headmaster Cross Kaien, who was sitting on a chair next to the bed Zero was in.
"There you are…! I thought you were going to sleep for weeks with a concussion like that!" Cross exclaimed. "The school nurse said none of the medication seemed to be affecting you, which of course I already knew because of you being a vampire and all, but she was almost in hysterics, at a loss of what to do with you. I told her to let me handle you for a while, see what I could do. You've been moaning and restless in your sleep for the past hour or two."
"Ungh…" Zero rubbed his head, which was throbbing and pounding so hard he felt dizzy.
"Oh, here – take these," Cross said, handing Zero four white tablets.
"But these are blood tablets—"
"I know. But, ah, they'll help with…with your hangover, I think."
Zero haphazardly motioned for the glass of water on the bedside table. He quickly downed the pills once Cross had handed it to him. Instantly he felt ten times sicker, but the headmaster didn't seem to notice. "See! You look better already. I'll leave you to your rest now…"
Cross stood up and was about to leave the room when Zero stopped him with a curt, "Cross."
"Yes, Zero-kun?"
"What time is it?"
"It's three in the morning. When you wake it will be Monday, and you'll have classes to attend. You should rest."
"But how did I end up here? I don't…remember much of last night." There was no use trying to hide the fact that he'd been drinking heavily or that he'd also obviously been off school grounds, both of which were against the rules for any student, much less a prefect like Zero. The headmaster already knew.
Cross paused for a minute. He looked as if he'd been about to say something, and then changed his mind. Instead he said, "Get your rest Zero."
Zero grumbled incessantly, but not about feeling sick or the fact that Cross always seemed to know something more than what he ever said. The matter this time was that he just hated being Cross's guinea pig. Why the hell did he have to stay in Cross Academy when all the other vampire floozies got to leave and do whatever the hell they wanted? It's not like having the presence of one pathetic lower level vampire in what was now an exclusive all-human academy would revive the headmaster's dream of a peaceful world between the two. That was just silly.
But Zero knew the real reason why he couldn't just leave Cross Academy like the others. It was because unlike them, this school was all he had now – maybe all he ever had. Yuki was gone, and Cross was insufferable at best. At least being a prefect was something he liked, something he was good at. At least he was accepted and even revered for his academic prowess here in this school. Who knew? Maybe he could graduate with top marks and become a professor or something.
One thing was for certain: he would never be accepted in the vampire world. Among humans he was treated as an equal, not an inferior. Ironic how truly unequal they really were…
Which reminded Zero of another thing he was very good at: vampire hunting…
Zero repositioned himself so that he was a bit more comfortable and directed his thoughts elsewhere. (Imagining Kaname's head on a bloody spike was most definitely comforting, but detrimental to the situation at hand.) No really – how the hell had he managed to get back to the Academy? He definitely remembered the woman with the brownish-red curls and freaky glowing eyes. He faintly remembered that he'd pulled Bloody Rose on her and fired a shot. But after that everything got very fuzzy and Zero just could not remember anymore.
He was exhausted. The new comfortable position he'd adopted seemed to remind him of just how good it felt to sleep after a hangover. That, and the blood tablets were taking affect. He readjusted his drowsy head on the pillow one last time before he fell fast asleep, thankfully dreamless this time.
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When Zero woke up again, he heard a voice talking like the last time – the same voice, even. But this time there was another voice talking to Cross Kaien that Zero did not recognize. In order to be discreet, Zero did not bring his head up. He kept his eyes closed and focused on what they were saying.
"But you're positive the damage was so minimal? I promise you, if it was truly my student's fault that your property was damaged, I will help secure funds for the repairs."
"You are very generous, Headmaster Cross, but it is not funds that I require. The damage was quite minimal – nothing a little sweeping and a couple of extra floor boards can't fix. I would, however, like to speak to the student in question. Is he available?"
"No, he's sleeping."
"Ah. Another time then?"
"Sir, if you don't mind my asking, why do you want to speak with him? If the damage is compensated and his punishment by my hand is satisfactory, then what other reason…?"
"As you may or may not already know, Headmaster, this is not the first time that this young man has come to my bar."
"I realize that, but—"
"And, as you most certainly may not know, there is a certain type of drink he favors over all the rest."
"Yes, actually I have heard of this so called-drink, but surely—"
"Headmaster, I'm positive you do not want to cause any discord between Cross Academy and the lovely town below its walls."
"What are you suggesting, man?" Zero heard the slightly too-long pause before the word 'man.' He could also sense that the 'man' Cross was talking to was most certainly not a man at all – he was a vampire.
"I just want to speak with him Headmaster. I mean him no harm, and I do not wish to kick him out of my bar for any reason. But…"(and here the vampire dropped his voice to a barely audible whisper)"I know what he is, Cross. I know why he craves that particular drink in my tavern, and I know why you don't wish for us to even be within ten feet of one another. But I am only trying to preserve the peace that this town once had, before your Academy destroyed it. Now these mishaps are literally knocking on my doorstep—"
"You go too far. This Academy has been, and always will be, a safe place for its students and a wonderful addition to this town. How dare you tell me otherwise – you, of all…people." Again, that slight hesitation as Cross searched for the right word.
"Either way, headmaster, your school gets a lot of good rep from word of mouth in The Friendly Fang. I'd hate for next year's student census to be half of what it was this year…"
Cross's voice dropped to a whisper now. "Are you threatening my students?"
"No, Headmaster Cross, I would never do such a thing. I'm just saying how horrible that would be, to happen to such a flourishing school – and all because a stingy, overly worrisome man wouldn't let a…friend speak to one of his students for half an hour."
"Half an hour." Cross said pointedly. "That's all the time you need with him?"
"It is most certainly a small and harmless thing to ask, headmaster, and I hate that it's taken you so long to see that."
"Very well. Come back later this morning, when he's awake. I have no doubt that he will be."
Zero's steady breathing froze. The tone in Cross's voice said that he could already tell that Zero was awake now, and that meant the other vampire surely knew as well. But that didn't really matter, did it? Cross had told him to come back later for a meeting anyway. Who the hell was this guy?
"I look forward to our meeting, Zero Kiryuu," the vampire said softly. He had a weak voice, the kind that didn't usually start arguments or make threats. But he had just threatened Cross's school…
Zero heard the door to the infirmary close quietly and wondered why the headmaster did not seem to get along with this vampire. He heard Cross sigh and make his way over to the chair he'd occupied earlier. The silence of the infirmary weighed down on him like a heavy rainstorm. It was slightly unnerving, depressing even. Zero let his mind wander…
What in the world had happened last night?
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A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please review. :)
Until next night...
~;~Shaku