AN: Somewhat of re-write for those of you who had the chance to read it the first time. I didn't really like the way the ending was setup, so I decided to delve into more a 'what if' scenario this time out.
This story opens up with some AU changes to Chapter 19 of the manga, so major spoilers ahoy for those of you who haven't read Vol.4 yet. Now, let's see if this pairing doesn't rock the boat too far…
Disclaimer: Vampire Knights is the rightful property of Matsuri Hino, Shojo Beat and VIZ media. Opening song is So Long, Good-bye by 10 Years.
A Spoke In The Wheel
Keep changing your mind; Like clouds in the sky.
Love me when you're high.
Leave me when you cry.
I know it all takes time.
Like a river running dry when the suns to bright.
So long… this is good-bye.
Maybe we'll meet again in another life.
Like strangers passing by.
Maybe we'll see clearly in a different light.
Keep dodging lights.
Like a thief in the night.
The sun will rise and expose all the lies.
So why deny that you and I lead different lives.
The rivers from your eyes can't change my mind.
So long… this is good-bye.
Maybe we'll meet again in another life.
Like strangers passing by.
Maybe we'll see clearly in a different light.
Ohh...
The rivers from your eyes can't change my mind.
So long… this is good-bye.
Maybe we'll meet again in another life.
Like strangers passing by.
Maybe we'll see clearly in a different light.
At an un-foretold hour of a cold and breezy night, young Zero Kiryu awoke with a start. Cherry eyes snapped open, a rush of breath flowing into his lungs as he listened intently to his surroundings.
The wall, the shadows upon them, and few pieces of furniture that he had in his room came into focus. But other than those, there was nothing more.
Sitting up in bed, Zero turned his head to the adjacent window. Pale moonlight streamed into the room, lighting the hardwood floor with indigo bloom upon its polished surface. Fresh snow was falling at alacrity past the clear skyline, dotted with the occasional star on the far horizon; he could practically hear the winds whipping around the house…
It did little to calm his spirits…
Creak…
Behind him… the sound of the bedroom door swaying open grated through the silence.
A feeling of dread coiled in Zero's gut, making him shudder, the hairs on his neck standing on end.
It was… her.
There was no denying it; that woman in the white kimono Ichiru and he had seen lingering around their parent's house… she was a vampire, a very, very strong vampire.
Worst of all, she was close by……
Creak……
He swallowed nervously. A part of him wouldn't dare turn around, yet by some insane act of will beyond his comprehension, Zero found himself twisting towards the entrance… somehow wishing that this whole nightmare would all go away.
…The sturdy oak door rolled lazily on it's less than adequately oiled hinges; darkness looming in the gap on the other side. The tension in the room seemed almost palpable. Even from the distance it was to Zero and Ichiru's bed, he felt unbelievably vulnerable.
Like he was being watched…
Creak…
Precious seconds came to pass, branching out into minutes, yet the night continued on. The blustery weather howled relentlessly outside, indicating that a blizzard was fast approaching.
Yet he still remained…
The silver-haired boy felt as if he would go mad. His master had taught him to never doubt one's instincts, not even in the slightest. And now-
"You've got good senses."
Zero flinched as if struck, the soft, silky voice causing a surge of panic to flood through him. Startled beyond words, he swiveled his head almost zombie-like to the corner of his room…
…To which his worst fears had become realized.
She was the same pale-skinned goddess as the first day they'd met. A flowing, elegant kimono hugged her slender, modestly endowed figure, tied to the front with a sash that was just as opulent as the rest of her. Long, lustrous locks of ashen silk cascaded down to her waist, straight as a hime princess but without the trimmed bangs. Her angelic countenance nearly made him gasp at how beautifully attractive she was, with luminous violet eyes that stole his breath away… even despite the fact that a lone tear trailed the perfect curve of her face.
It somehow dawned on the Kiryu prodigy that the vampire had been standing there since he had awoken… right next to his window.
"I'm amazed…" she began, her cold voice echoing the almost ominous expression adorning her ethereal features. "…You could tell I was here, even before your parents did."
Zero sat there unblinking, waiting… waiting for the moment when she would pounce on him, tearing through his throat… devouring his blood…
It never came…
The woman merely regarded him with those haunting eyes of hers, like two frozen pools of indigo ice looking right through him.
Summoning whatever courage he had left inside himself, Zero asked:
"H-How… how did you get in here?"
"The twin sons of the Kiryu clan…" she stated, dodging the question entirely. The vampire stepped gracefully into the moonlight towards them, her lovely hair swaying about her, "…Even though you are both destined to be hunters, your brother has shown me kindness when others would not."
Zero's heart fell to his stomach as he cast a wayward glance to his bedroom door, a touch of a sad smile on his face. He should have known that Ichiru had been sneaking off at night to see her, and in all honesty he didn't blame him in the slightest.
Whereas his tutor and parents made them all out to be mindless, souless beasts that craved for nothing more than sustenance, this woman...... she was incomparable to them; to all of vampires.
"Your heart is suffering…" her voice whispered in his ear, "Just as mine is now…"
Zero turned uneasily to stare up at her, the vampire looming over his bed like a fallen angel, her white, moonlit kimono glowing softly in the dark. That pale, gorgeous countenance gazed longingly down at him, and in those few, tense moments the Kiryu prodigy had lost his voice.
In the time it took for him to blink, she was lowering herself onto his bed with all the meticulous grace that she embodied... sitting right next to him.
The young apprentice went stiff as a board when she wrapped an arm around his waist, while her other hand came to rest on his face, her silky ashen hair cascading over her shoulders. Her breath was so cold on his neck, it made him shiver.
The way she cupped his cheek in her hand, and how she held his body so tenderly to hers was so... gentle, like a lover. It was a far cry from the kind of cruelties he'd been lectured about.
"What will you do...?" Zero asked fearfully.
She leaned in, hair obscuring her marvelous features save for her lips, "-I must sate… my desire." she mewled. Her words were husky, spoken like velvet, the scent of flowers and perfume surrounding, them.
Zero tried not to sound frightened, but failed horribly at doing so. Surely she did not mean to…
"P-Please…" he begged. "Don't…"
Frigid softness met upon his neck, her ethereal lips teasing him in pure unchaste seduction. He could clearly feel the woman's ivory fangs scraping sensuously on skin as the collar of his pajamas became loose.
"Mmmm..."
"A-a-ahhh…" the grip around his waist became firmer, his young, virgin blood making her drunk with bloodlust. This was how she craved it; dominating her quarry as she took their essence, always in control. Her cold wet tongue slid ardently against his smooth skin as her lips pressed fully over the most erogenous place on the young boy's neck, sucking at it all the while.
"Nnn…" she murmured, driving a gasp from her prey. She knew of the fire that burned within her, and how taboo it was to think of such feelings for one so young...
But...
...It felt...
...So deliciously good.
After a moment's pause, when her lips came down upon that intoxicating vein running just beneath the skin, she sunk her fangs deep into Zero's flesh...
And she finally gave in to her darkest desire.
"…Haaaahhh—"
The vampire goddess took him, the last bastion of the hunter's humanity fading away with every drop that was spilled. All pleas for her to stop ended before they ever left his mouth. There was desperation behind her motions; that much he could feel from how she quivered so, her angelic soft lips like a vice on his neck
It was almost as if she'd been starving herself…
Slim fingers ran delicately through Zero's silver locks as she drank deeply from him, nigh repressing a moan of ecstasy. He was like honey and spice on her tongue, an elixir of purity and bliss coursing through her… suffusing her.
"Nnnnhhhh…"
Lengthy notes of silence reigned, interspersed with the soft melodic humming of a long-haired beauty and the steady bmp-bmp, bmp-bmp of the human's heartbeat in his ears. Zero's mind was everywhere and nowhere at the same time, his thoughts colliding violently together as his body responded in a way that seemed almost foreign to him.
The mixture of pain from the wound on his neck, the fear that his family would stumble in on this forbidden scene, and the silk-like touching of the woman vampire's lips on his skin... it was all pooling like molten heat into his stomach...
At some point, she could feel his strength beginning to wane, the cold copper in her mouth no longer warm and quenching. A pity really: for she nearly couldn't help herself to more…
"…Ummm… (smack--)", a trail of blood and saliva bridged from glossy lips as she gradually relented. It made her swoon with guilt and ecstasy at how he tasted; a gentle lick captured traces of what was left.
Zero's senses came hurtling back to his psyche, somehow nullified under the dreamlike touches of the woman vampire. A part of him felt angry for actually letting this happen, and for a moment he began to shift uneasily in her embrace..
A hand of ice and silk cupped his face, bringing his gaze unto her fully.
Their eyes met for the second time that night… the tears were falling freely from the vampire's faultless visage, a line of crimson running down the corner of her mouth. Her hair and skin seemed to shine in the moonlight as it cast her in its benevolent glow.
And suddenly he knew...
He knew, that they were forever bound...
...Together.
All fear and hatred bled away from Zero at once. The way she cradled him tenderly in her arms was contrary to the darkness that she had bestowed upon him.
"Why…" he asked her, the hurt evident in his downcast cherry eyes. "Why have you done this…?"
She spoke to him then, her voice wavering,"-I'm sorry…-"
SLAM!!
The sharp crack of the twins' bedroom door rapping against the old oak frame scared Zero half to death, yet she hadn't even been fazed. Pairs of footsteps came flooding in as the lights came on, indicating that his parents had indeed felt this woman as well.
"Zero!" their mother cried out, "Are you alright?!"
Those indigo orbs that were so yielding toward the silver-haired boy before suddenly went dark as Shizuka blinked, glaring to the side. Rushing in behind his parents, Ichiru crowded into the bedroom, alarmed.
"Okaa-san… Tou-san, what's wrong--" he stopped himself short as the woman holding his dear brother came into view, "It's... you…"
Sword in hand, the son's father held it at the ready, disbelief clearly written athwart on his rough features, "Shizuka…Hio?"
Zero's scarlet eyes widened, "Hio?!" he gasped. And the direness of the situation came crashing down.
Shizuka Hio…: the pureblood vampire from a long family of known noblewomen, whose history stretched back long before most aristocrats. According to rumor, one of Shizuka's manservants was falsely classified as a Level E vampire by the Hunter's Association, and killed by a member of the Kiryu family. Zero had overheard his master discussing the matter with his parents one evening… as would explain why they were all moving out again so soon.
What's more... the Kiryu and Hio families had been courting future generations for well over a-hundred years. Such an hostile act against any clan was sure to incite retribution from either side.
"Shizuka...? What are you doing here," their mother asked, clutching her husband close.
Crimson streams dribbled down the goddess' chin as she pulled away, pink lips tinged red with life essence. Zero himself was growing drowsy from the loss of blood to the moon-haired goddess.
"--!! Oh god, you didn't...!"
Shizuka leaned her head against Zero's shoulder, giving them the most baleful glare. If there was any indication that she was intimidated by his parent's incurring wrath she gave no signs.
"You killed the man that I once loved…" her voice was as smooth as silk, belying the absolute hate she had for them. They had murdered her lover in cold blood, and for that... they would pay the ultimate price:
She would claim Zero for herself...
As her eternal equal...
"So now," her arms wrapped around the boy's figure, "I will punish you."
-Before either of them could make a move, the Kiryu family watched in profound horror as Zero, their eldest son was seized by Shizuka, her pureblood agility higher than that of anything ever witnessed.
And then she was leaping for the tall window…
Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion, Zero's mind having grown numb from Shizuka's prior feeding. He watched in awe as they crashed right through the glass, snow and wind whipping the two with bitter cold. In the fading light of his consciousness he looked up to see the snowflakes dancing wildly past as the Shizuka glided through the air, ashen locks of perfect hair flailing about her face against the backdrop of the moon.
She was his angel, Zero thought sleepily. Only his...
And just before everything went dark, she looked down at him with those amorous eyes...
And smiled.