The birth had been fairly difficult. It was nightmarish: Yuki's slim form saturated in sweat, thrashing in pain. Pureblood and even Level B births were uncommonly difficult, and Zero's short reference to Kaname's virgin curse was actually relevant. The event would surely be something to remember, and Kaname doubted Yuki would agree to another pregnancy any time soon. It wasn't as if they didn't have the rest of their lives, but in the whole of about 7,000 years, their grandparents produced about three children. Yes, it was certainly a difficult process.
It had been a boy, just as Zero had decreed. It wasn't embarrassment Kaname had felt at that moment, or even the much-abused notion of guilt. It was pure dread. Zero's attentiveness was chilling, almost as if he wasn't done planning, even on his deathb… perish the thought, but the thought that Zero was hiding something from him was very threatening to him. Over the years, he'd been wary of people with plans; people with schemes and designs on his, or, God forbid, his wife and child's lives. He was a guarded man, unmatched by any other in his senses of protection of loyalty. That someone he was protecting had hidden plans of their own made him question not only himself, but whether or not that individual was a danger. It was a complicated sort of thing.
Yuki had healed immediately after, of course. Her breathing had calmed and she'd fallen unconscious in seconds. Using sedatives at such a delicate point was unethical, especially since she'd specifically emphasised her wish for a 'natural birth'. She would, like her husband, question her own logic as soon as she woke up. In the meantime, Kaname held their child, names flying through his head that they had not agreed on, or even really discussed. He thought of their parents' names, particularly their father's.
"Harue," he said distractedly. The child in his arms squirmed and looked up at him, washed of his mother's blood. The baby stared at a strand of his hair, not yet strong enough to attack it, but eyeing it with a curious hunger. Kaname's eyes were dreamy as he stared into the little face, pale and sweet as his mother's. "Harue would be a good name." The boy's eyes were a strange blue, almost violet. It reminded him of springtime, particularly a small vacation at a cliff of a beach he'd enjoyed exclusively with his wife and Zero. They hadn't been able to see the sun most of the time, but Kaname had one memory that shone like the dawn.
Zero had, as he usually did, escaped from them to privately view the first few minutes of the day. He'd stood at the edge of the cliff in the morning cold, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, slowly becoming illuminated by the creeping sun's rays that managed the clouds. They poured over him, his silver hair and pale skin becoming golden in the rare light. Kaname remembered staring at him from a rock outcropping, leaning on the cold stone as Zero quietly prayed into the wind. He'd heard him fine enough through the wail of the harsh weather, but the words had been lost on him as he stared at the perfect contrasts. Zero had been twenty-six, almost peaking in his physical ability. That had been one of the last trips before the man's final decline, after which he had been confined to his house, which he was fine with, and then some sort of bed or chair, which he was fine with, and then the hospital.
After his rush to Yuki's ward, Kaname had made sure to keep a track on Zero in the back of his mind. He could tell how fast the man was breathing at the moment, if asked. And, as a matter of fact, Zero was not breathing very fast at all. When 'Harue' had finally been washed up and Yuki had fallen asleep, Kaname realised he had blocked the track. He thought of the nasty look in Zero's eyes, and his pleas for death and release from his 'keeper'. A man like Kaname had no time to display the sadness he felt in front of his family, but it was reflected with poignant clarity in even his son's bluebottle eyes, and he couldn't keep down the short choke from shock as he finally allowed the block to break, and the quiet sense of death flooded him. It would later be explained that Zero's blood had become so incredibly viscous that his heart simply couldn't pump it through, and had stopped accordingly. He had died in his sleep, his dreams fading to nothing as his brain lacked the oxygen to produce them. It would be lost on Kaname, almost more than his newborn son, whose eyes seemed to glisten with a wisdom that Kaname doubted he would ever earn. And so blue; so deep and teasing, already withholding secrets even his father couldn't fathom. They absorbed him and his sadness, and no matter what his protestations or true emotions were, he could not dissuade himself from giving in to their strange comfort.
This little boy—this little body, more fragile and delicate than the porcelain cherub he seemed to be—held secrets known and shared only by one and two men. Together, now, Kaname distantly imagined them overseeing his child's advancements and growth. Those violet eyes, so careful in revealing exactly what needed to be seen. Kaname regarded their almost certain fade to brown with disbelief: something like this was so much more relevant to life. Maybe this forthright understanding was something that would fade when the child learned his kind and his duties. If they were really to be gone in such a way, Kaname didn't think he could take it.
A short ray of light peered in from the window overlooking the nurses' station. Having studied up a bit, as well as knowing from experience, he instantaneously snuffed it with the curtain, keeping the poisonous curse from his newborn son's tender skin and knowing eyes. A small tuft of light young hair glowed briefly as the curtain fluttered, and Kaname swore the fluorescent lighting was that early sun, for the hair had shone against the pale skin luminously, like sun and moon. It was that day, and memories of Zero, knowing that he had purposely snuffed Zero's own energy for his own gain in the long run, that finally tore him down, and he allowed his son, in the first few hours of his life, the extraordinary sight of a grown pureblood's tears. Harue did not take it lightly, and gave his father the final push with that gentle gaze. Kaname's emotional block was blasted through cleanly and with immense precision, and his tears fell down his cheeks as he turned his head up and held his son close to his chest. He leaned against the back of his chair and the sill, long neck grandly exposed as he tried to stretch and stress the flesh, so the pain of the suppressed sobs would force themselves to stop.
He choked a couple more times, tears running down his cheeks and catching on his hair, sliding back and pooling in his ears and on the 'daybreak' vinyl of the sill. His son went back to staring at rogue locks of hair, allowing his father some sense of privacy as he backed down in his campaign. Kaname had no illusions that his son would be something most of the vampire world had never known, much like his sister and himself, and of course, their deceased friend.
Yuki stirred in her sleep, and the baby immediately looked over at his mother, wonder in his eyes. Kaname cleaned himself up quickly, wiping his face with a handkerchief and stuffing it in his pocket as quickly and carefully as possible, so as not to disturb his sleeping wife and not-crying child. He stood up then, crossing to the small cart that served as a newborn's bed, and laid Harue upon it, making sure the little boy was safely swaddled. He left the room as silently as he could, but he still heard Yuki groan and begin to wake up. Would seeing Zero really be more important than his first few moments with his family?
He didn't stop walking, and felt awful for it.
As he ascended the stairs, the scent of death became more apparent, and he found himself becoming angrier and angrier. When he opened the door to the floor, it assailed and choked him. He crumbled against the wall, Feeling Zero's desolation and misery as it lingered in the hallway. All he needed was one thing to latch on to; one shred of hope. He remembered what Zero had chastely told him early on in the sickness,
"Dead men don't hope for anything but to be alone. They just wait. Mortality isn't as romantic as so many poets make it out to be…" His tone had been dry at the time, cranky from having been disturbed by a nurse. Kaname felt overpowered by nostalgia and, of course, the anger and impatience that had boiled in Zero since he'd been denied the right to kill his sire. Kaname should have known at the time that that single moment would bind them tighter than what they'd do when they were sure all the Night Class was gone. The scents of sex and degradation were distinct and very potent, and also very attractive to people so powerful.
Kaname gathered himself and pried the door open, having allowed it to crack on his foot. As he made it down the hall, the feelings themselves didn't become stronger, but the same Shroud that had enwrapped Zero glared from the corner as its kin began stretching its cocoon around Kaname. His steps grew halting, then very quick and desperate. The Shroud sneered and moved back down where Kaname had come. His specialty was anger and extremity, not the regret and loneliness he felt coming off Kaname in waves. They made his body tingle pleasantly, and he thought to call on another of their kin to infect the wife with the doubt he'd felt growing in her heart since she's first discovered she was pregnant. And purebloods lived damn-near forever, so they'd be busy for a while.
-
Kaname shut the door quietly, having a hard time seeing the room. An orderly had come in after he'd left, opening the blinds and effectively blinding Kaname. He crossed quickly, making a point of not looking at the bed. Zero wasn't there, anyway.
"What are you doing?" Sounded a voice from a shadowed corner. Kaname let the blinds drop, still not turning around. The cold chill was biting, and he felt like screaming, the mortality trapped him so. Zero lingered in the corner, papery skin revealing every bluish vain in his body, heavy sacs under his eyes. The whites were growing yellow.
"You know, pureblood blood is so terribly interesting…" He inspected his nails in boredom as Kaname's fingertips dug in to the vinyl of the sill roughly, shaving off small streaks of blue. He heard Zero drop his hand to the armrest. He felt him looking at him.
"You really are going to try and keep me forever, aren't you?" Zero's tongue was dry, and his blood felt foreign and bulgy in his veins. Other than that, he just couldn't feel. It was a very strange sensation, touching without feeling. He drily connected that to his relationship to the man across the room. Who, he might add, looked very nice with those little streaks of sunlight creeping through rogue strands of his hair. He looked radiant, even though Zero could sense the tiredness and fear flooding the room while the grey-haired corpse, himself, was rather deadened.
"…" Kaname tried to start, but his voice felt awkward, like he was thirteen again, "… It was never my intention to do this to you," Zero's fist hit the arm rest hard, and Kaname winced, feeling the urge to rush to the man's side and inspect.
"I don't think you quite understand the severity of the issue, Mr. Kuran," He rose, bones creaking in a way that made Kaname's stomach clench and curdle. He stood behind the man and, like a ghoul, leaned in and conveyed what had happened to him in the last hour and a half,
"I died, Kaname," he bit the man's ear with a cold, foul-smelling mouth. Kaname flinched and gooseflesh crept up his neck, "I met Death-very nice, a little on the skinny side, though-and it showed me exactly what is going to happen after I die, as per my request. You can't imagine how shocked I was to see myself still crawling, hands and knees behind you, through the picture." His bluish hands crept up Kaname's shirt, and he admired, as he had in life, the overcoming youth of the body. It made him shiver with delight, strength creeping back into him. "I've seen very much, thanks to it." Kaname shuddered.
"You see, I'm not a ghost, Kaname." One hand crept up higher and bony fingers splayed over Kaname's chest, another one dipping indifferently under his belt. "I'm not a zombie," the hand on Kaname's chest suddenly gripped his throat tightly, the other fisting with a shocking cool the brunette's quickly shrivelling erection. "But I am most certainly dead. There is a very large problem with this situation." Zero dropped the man apathetically and Kaname stumbled for a moment from the shock. Even lacking pulse and passion, (as well as a normal core temperature) the man could still work him to hardness at the smallest whim or wish to see him begging. They did 'it' less than you'd think; Zero was the type who liked to watch him squirm.
"So," the corpse said cheerily, "what do you plan to do to resolve this little problem of ours?" He ruffled his hair with one hand, rubbing against a raw wound interestedly, poking and probing it with the curiosity of a child. He'd never been able to do something like this before. He figured he could tear out his cerebral cord and it wouldn't have any affect on him. Kaname whipped around and tore his hand away. Zero stood, slightly angled, peering into Kaname's eyes questioningly,
"It's not like I'm going to bleed to death?" Kaname looked uncomfortable, turning Zero's wrist over and getting a good look at the post-mortum bruises the man had inflicted on himself. Zero stared interestedly at him, "You can't sense me, can you?" He said curiously, Kaname looked a little taken aback, not yet dropping the wrist, but leaning back to a more normal stance. Zero straightened himself, a sickening crack forcing the other to wince. Kaname looked downright nauseous,
"No. I can't." He dropped the wrist to Zero's side, hand lingering unsurely. Zero leaned in a bit, continuing to stare at him, a rare look of curiosity and dreaminess blessing his face. Kaname had only seen it when the man was reading, or when once-warm hands roamed his body after a round.
"You know, you don't really appreciate things until you realise how deeply engrossed in shit you are." It sounded conversational, but more like Zero was talking to himself. As he stared at Kaname's eyes, Kaname had had no choice but to stare back. The yellowness disgusted him, and he turned away, sitting on the bed dizzily. Zero reverted to his embittered, sarcastic face, and flopped down beside him, lying with his arms behind his head.
Kaname's hand brushed his hair back, and Zero reached up, playing with a strand with none of the innocence Kaname's son had possessed. Hesitantly, he laid himself down beside the other man, staring up at the ceiling with a hand on his chest, the other draped carelessly above his head.
"I've studied cases like this before." Kaname's ears perked, and he faced the man's yellowed teeth and sallow eyes. The pale stomach jiggled unnaturally whenever he moved, as if everything had been scrambled. "You can truly keep me moving as long as you want. All you have to do is force-feed me." He smiled jokingly, but it looked maniacal and accusing. Kaname's shame crept into his cheeks and eyes, and Zero nestled his head back into his arms, "Technically speaking, I could be here forever," Kaname closed his eyes, listening to the gruff croaks of a dead man's voice. Zero's hand started playing with his hair again, but Kaname jolted out of nature. Not being able to sense someone was very disturbing. Not being able to sense Zero was causing that cocoon to tighten unpleasantly, and he felt choked beneath its weight.
Zero looked at him calmly, "You know I'm not really here, right?" Kaname opened his eyes and looked over at the inquiring man, who seemed to be playing with his hair automatically, as he would before they'd go to sleep together those summery years ago. "After Death left, it was strange. I can't feel, can't breath, my heart doesn't beat… it wasn't exactly what I had been expecting." Death lingered in the room, poisoning Kaname's flesh with a cold chill that made him press into Zero. It was a very rude awakening to feel himself only get colder. Zero looked down at Kaname, who had laid his head on his chest. The brunette was clenching the thin hospital gown, shifting and trying to get comfortable on the bony rib cage. Zero sighed and looked upon him with pity, drawing his arms around hunched shoulders,
"How many times do I have to tell you? Don't cry in front of a dead man—it makes him feel uneasy." Kaname shuddered at how much more sinister and disturbing the phrase was, now that it applied to Zero physically. The man held him tightly, and Kaname refused to let go of the white fabric. Death had seen this before, but it seemed very different with the current players. It was curious, how restrained they were to each other, though they could never follow each other. It knew Zero knew it was still there. It was interested in seeing what Kaname would do, because purebloods certainly did have very rich choices. It just hoped this wouldn't end like others had. The Shizuka woman had been smart.
Zero stroked Kaname's hair calmly, having chastised him enough for one morning. The man wept into his chest, and the tears felt awkward on his cold body. They seeped through the fabric easily, reaching his skin, each a small zap of the same strength touching Kaname's skin gave him. It almost hurt, but even when he had dug into the back of his skull earlier, he hadn't felt any pain. From this, he gathered an idea of what artificial life would mean for him if he allowed Kaname to have his way.
"Hey," he said quietly. Kaname tried to stop for a moment, holding his breath in short bouts to control small sobs, "why don't you let me see the baby?" Kaname just about stopped crying, wiping it all on his sleeve and getting up. Zero looked at him, not having moved. The brunette seemed disturbed, but faced him with a bright look in his eyes,
"Yes. Let's." Death came through the door with them, abandoning the room to Silence, who crossed his arms and legs with satisfaction; Death had such a noisy presence, it was hard to get anything done.
-
Kaname led Zero into his wife and son's room. Yuki had fallen asleep again, the baby soundly breathing beside her. Zero looked upon Yuki's tired, peaceful face with a mimic of it, his own much older, and much more tired than any level she could attain. When he saw the baby, he stopped in his tracks, staring at it in amazement. Yuki's baby. Kaname's baby. There was nothing in the world he could loathe more contemptuously or love more dearly. He walked up to the little table, keeping his distance and reek of decay as far from the newborn as possible, but still trying to get a good look in. Kaname rejoiced in the smile that spread across the man's lips. He looked beautiful, circumstances aside.
"You may hold him, if you'd like." Kaname felt anxious, wanting the situation to feel as normal as possible, clinging to any delusion that it was more savagely than any beast. Death looked at Zero curiously, to see what he would do. The man seemed to understand,
"I think I'd better not. I wouldn't want to shock him awake. He looks so peaceful, just like his mother…" He was incredible. Pale, pale skin, with a tuft of light hair that surprised Zero greatly. Yuki had not been blonde as a child, and he was sure Kaname hadn't, either. It was very strange. Death watched Kaname's anxiety warily: the man reeked of desperation and need. His loneliness infected even the spirit, and its bones rattled as the tendrils of insanity reached out to brush them. It could see the cocoon; the man was almost irreversibly ensnared.
Kaname walked over to the baby, watching him sleep with proud eyes still shining with a crazed light, "I thought to name him 'Harue'. I'm not sure what Yuki will think, though." Zero continued to stare at the child,
"I think it'll be a fine name." It was like watching a dog wag his tail for his master. Kaname glowed whenever Zero spoke, the urge to grow some sort of new, strange connection over the dead one making him seem wild, and the baby stirred appropriately.
"Oh! You have to see his eyes!" Kaname gently lifted the child from its bed and it grunted and gurgled as it woke. His eyes opened to reveal a shocking shade of violet-blue, and Zero began to understand a little more as Death kept his distance from the bright, innocent boy. The grey-haired man felt the inquiring gaze upon him.
Harue looked at Zero curiously, then reached out to touch his hair, which shone in the lone light that came from the long whitish lamp above the bed. Zero took a step back, and the baby gurgled at the game he felt they were playing, reaching out harder, but unable to lift his new arms high enough. Kaname frowned, walking toward Zero,
"He just wants to play with your hair. Go on, it feels strange, such tiny hands doing it." The baby could not ignore the dark emotions welled in his father, but so intense was his enthusiasm for the game, that he reached harder and harder, urging Zero to step forth and allow him to touch the silky mane. His presence was unlike any other, and the baby understood that it was also probably not something he would ever experience again.
Kaname pressed closer, but Zero put his hands up, motioning him to stop for a moment. He walked around them, reaching to touch Kaname's shoulder. The coolness pulled a gasp from the man, and he felt the unpleasant feelings of death and decay, intensified by Zero's current state.
"I can't touch him. I'm sorry." The mournfulness in his voice was something the Shroud would have felt proud of, but hearing that from Zero would make anyone feel weird. Even Death shifted in his presence. But Kaname spun around, persistent,
"You have to do it just once. He's your godson! I can't let you leave until you hold him. Please." Zero looked at Harue, who's focus and innocent intent were quite clear. Kaname held him out, urging Zero to take to squealing bundle. The man stood silently for a moment, then quietly said,
"I'll say goodbye to him. I just want to talk to Yuki first." Kaname looked relieve, but his paranoia doubled with the anticipation. Zero could see he wasn't far from a breakdown, and casually ordered him to tuck the boy in and send him to sleep. Then, they woke up Yuki.
She turned on her side and groaned, Kaname speaking softly to her. She opened her eyes when he said Zero was here. She looked puzzled, not sensing him in the slightest. When she opened her eyes a little more, they went wide, and her hands flew to her mouth. She whispered through her fingers,
"Zero? What's wrong? What going o-" She took a hard look at him, and felt bile rise in her throat, tears on the edges of her eyelashes. Zero looked away, almost with the embarrassment of a high school boy getting caught looking in the girls' shower room. It felt like something he really, really wasn't supposed to see.
"Oh, God, oh, God-How?! How did you-did it-ha-" Kaname explained it to her quietly, sitting on the bed. She stared at him in disbelief, hands still covering a good portion of her gorgeous face, tears still creeping and pooling over them. "Oh my God," she said. Zero walked to her with the awkward smile he'd had as a teenager, but rarely ever showed. The memory of his youth encased him, and that smile made him seem all the more unreal. Almost like a ghost.
"Is-is there anything you w-want?" She asked pitifully, sobbing as Kaname held her. Zero hesitantly reached out to place his hand on her back. He decided against it. He wanted her to remember the best of him, not the corpse he now was. Harue squirmed in his bed, whining and obviously on the verge of crying. Kaname tended to him. While Yuki and Zero had their final moments.
They recalled everything from trips around the world, to tripping in the schoolyard and toppling books, to tripping in little rooms in dark alleys that Yuki had been certain she never would have visited without him, or mementos her mother left behind. They reminisced about their childhoods, about arguments with Ichiru and growing up without real parents and, of course, 'Mama's interesting "My Style" cooking while Kaname stood idly near the bed, cradling his child without focusing on the boy. Zero was his world at the moment, and blue-violet filtered into a purplish, hazy grey. Nobody but Death noticed.
After about a half hour, Zero grew a little skittish, and Kaname watched him worriedly. Yuki grasped his hand and stared at him intently, until tears began pouring in torrents over her eyelashes and she had to let go of him to make it stop. Kaname handed the baby to her, and she held it closely. The eldest walked over to his friend and captive, the worry in his eyes apparent and on edge.
"… I think it's time I said goodbye." Yuki nodded, Harue still watching him curiously. Kaname looked like he was boiling after Zero said it, and Death watched him sadly. His vexation made the Cocoon swirl and bind, leaving almost none of his original form to be seen. He looked like a blackish plume of smoke, small, brown bracken-like arms weaving around him hungrily. Almost nothing remained but his desire to keep Zero. Even his newborn son became a threat.
"You can't leave yet!" Kaname hissed as Zero neared the door. His aura was vicious, and the baby began to whine again. Yuki cuddled him and hid those blue eyes from the two men. It was like they were sixteen again, sparks flying and truces called off. Zero seemed frozen as he contemplated breezing right past the man. Kaname nearly dared him to. The corpse reached for the door knob, hand suddenly snapping up and back to his side. Kaname was controlling his body. He looked over at the man; Death almost turned away.
Kaname stood, stunned and shaken, not yet having let go of his control over Zero's body. The grey eyes that had turned on him had clouded in the warm room, and he felt the strange sensations Zero was forced to endure as he tried wildly to re-establish their connection. His body grew colder, His bones feeling awkwardly-placed in the coat of his muscles and skin. The proud blood in his veins seemed to shrivel and dry, his mouth becoming sandy and his throat parched. It hurt to breathe, and he was always getting colder. Zero didn't have to breathe. Zero was dead; Kaname wasn't
Death didn't want to see this part; where the lesson was taught and the pureblood was sent away with his tail between his legs. Shizuka had fought cleverly until the end. The Kuran fellow was killing himself, or rather, allowing himself to be killed. Even the Cocoon shrank in fear of the pain. Parts of it dissipated, and through the self-pity and hatred, Death could see the pure mournfulness swirling mindlessly beneath it like a silver-lined cloud.
Zero waited for Kaname to release him. He had no real idea of what it must be like to rule dead flesh like this, especially when one was used to their target having a pulse. Kaname let him go, leaning on the wall as inconspicuously as possible, temperature slowly rising to its normal state, breathing forced from shallowness to deep sighs. Zero fought the pity he felt for the man, grabbing his hand and the knob, and dragging both of their bodies into the hall. He smiled at Yuki, blowing a kiss at her and winking at the baby as the door closed. The blinds were already drawn, so Yuki could only watch the short shadows under the door, listening to the hurried footsteps as her dearest friend and husband walked away. She clutched the swaddling cloth with aching fingertips and wet arms. Harue kept his eyes on the door, waiting for the man with the pretty eyes and strange, little aura. Death smiled courteously, and the baby smiled back, cheering up as the figure receded from the room. Harue would very likely be something neither his parents nor the waking world had seen. So like the Kurans.
-
Kaname paused every few steps, eyes ahead of him, but somehow always looking away from the man leading him. Finally, Zero got tired of it and rounded on him,
"What the Hell do you think you're doing, Kuran?!" Kaname stared at him now, both of their lips creased tightly. Zero's grip on his shirt made the stench of death all too close. Kaname pushed him off, stepping back and breaking eye contact, looking like a spoilt child.
"I thought we had agreed you wouldn't do this." Zero looked at him with disbelief, running his hands through his hair to try and strangle the anger coiling in his fists. Kaname's eyes were livid, but Zero's shone with something the man would never attain, and would only very late in the game, understand.
"Listen to me, you pureblood son of a bitch—we agreed on no such thing. I was supposed to say my goodbyes, hug and cry, then get my ass out of here and wait to be taken away." Death looked a little affronted; it never took, it offered. Zero didn't care much at the moment. Kaname was an uzi ready to fire, and he had a couple of magazines he'd hidden for the occasion. The brunette snapped at him, trying desperately to convince him,
"Can't you see why you have to stay?" Zero had been playing his heartstrings all these years without even the least consideration for the tune he made. In involving the man in his plans, he'd been brought into Zero's web, as well.
Zero's look was cold as his skin, and he either didn't understand, or didn't care. Kaname shivered. "You can't expect me to stay here with you, forever. If someone wants to die," Kaname wouldn't hear it, and instead, shook his head, a disturbing, hopeful look in his eyes,
"Don't you see what this is? We have the chance we thought we'd been denied, all these years. You've even overcome death, Zero! Just think of the years ahead of us—and my son! I'd had all these fears you wouldn't get to meet him!" Zero kept shaking his head as the man spoke. He felt Death grimace behind him. If he didn't wrap it up soon…
"Kaname, I wasn't meant to see your son grow up. Just to meet him is enough for me. You don't need some bloody corpse standing by for emergencies. You have a beautiful family that's just beginning; I can't let you put that as secondary." The brunette's hands tightened and, with a flare of anger, he caught Zero's arm,
"You've tortured me, Zero. And now you're trying to just fade from view?" He was manic, "I'll die if you leave!" Zero's lips thinned, That can't be helped,
Kaname tried to search him for some semblance of pity, but once again, was foiled by the dead connection and invisible aura. Zero truly wasn't there. The silver-haired man appeared slightly sceptical, though the disbelief washed his head of smart retorts. He was completely blank of words.
Then, Kaname held his wrist more tightly, pressing up close and trying to appeal more to the emotions he couldn't place anymore. Zero couldn't be affected by something he didn't care to have. Grunting at the annoyance, Zero pushed him hard, back hitting the wall with a loud crack that dented the plaster. Quickly, the human was on him, pinning him and knowing he wouldn't fight back. Through the hospital gown, Zero could feel his entirely-too-hopeful hardness. He sneered; like a corpse could really provide what the monster wanted.
Without warning, he grabbed Kaname's chin and pulled it harshly forward, making the man stumble slightly between the cold of the wall and the cold of his body. The shock that hit him was worse. Something cold, slimy, and foul entered his mouth, rummaging for the common sense that would make him toss his fantasies aside. Kaname struggled to stay still, but it was like having a large slug worm its way into his mouth, leaving behind a thick, shimmering trail. When Zero let him go from the heatless kiss, he swore his chest constricted at the desolation on Kaname's face. The man looked terrified and shocked; it was one of the worst moments in his life.
Zero felt awkward suddenly, and he stepped away. Kaname crumpled a little against the wall, arousal still evident, but too stunned by the kiss to do anything. Zero watched almost nervously, doubt finding its way into his mind and creating a small cavern in his head. If Kaname didn't collapse, he would. Death looked on grimly as the pureblood's stun forced some rough breaths out of him. Zero hid his face with one of his hands, not bothering to look or be looked at by either of them, even though Kaname was incapacitated and Death didn't like to scrutinize.
"This is so fucked up—you seriously don't see why this can't work?" Kaname's hair stuck to his face in places, but Zero could no longer smell the tears. He just had a vague awareness of the sorrow replacing the life in Kaname's aura.
"You don't know what this will do to me, Zero." He was at half-mast, gripping his coat and his forehead in an attempt to steady himself and stall the raging headache in his temples. Zero's flatline mouth was terse and uncomfortable, and he really felt like leaving. Kaname looked up at him then: some little boy he'd never met, and probably wouldn't have wanted to get along with. Someone who had gained the same sort of painful wisdom he had, in due course. He didn't want this last memory to be so polluted for them. He didn't want to have such morose conversations when they were both finally gone. So, hesitantly, he stepped forward, still unsure of what to do. Then, thinking, To Hell with it, he gained empty confidence and reached out to wipe the man's cheeks. Kaname's hands immediately left his face, almost reserving it for the cold touch he knew couldn't make him feel any better.
"I am dead, and you will die. You have a wife and child, and I have my tree and my brother. When this is all done, we'll be sipping lemonade and enjoying hot days. Until then, I need you to give your son someone to look up to. I couldn't bear it if the kid turned out like me. Or worse, you." Kaname didn't laugh, but Zero's caustic smugness was at the very least enough to get him breathing normally. Death almost sighed; Kaname was fully visible through the cocoon, but it was only being kept at bay while they had their moment. Zero stroked his cheek and touched their foreheads together, sighing sharply,
"I'll not have you regretting not treating your family right when you're on your own deathbed. It's not a fun thing to do." Kaname brightened very much, startled in a way by Zero's straightforwardness. He nodded, but tendrils still tugged at his legs until his entire body felt leaden with dread. Zero saw it all, but didn't say anything. He merely grasped Kaname's warm hand for a moment, feeling that small, painful spark of life, and then let go. He turned and walked down the hall to the stairwell. Kaname didn't stir, but the anguish held him close in Zero's place. The door opened, and a body went through, hip hitting the door frame like usual, but without the following curse, which made the scene all the lonelier. At last, only a foot and calf were visible through the doorway, the small flutter of a hospital gown, and then the door closed, and Kaname couldn't help it as the last of his paralysis wore off, and the sign made in his mouth with the sickening taste of dead blood sobered him. Zero had tricked him, and he hadn't even known it. They had both been trying to escape something, that moment: Zero had just made a better show of it. And Kaname hated him for that.
Death looked uneasily at the man holding his head in his hands, wanting to hide behind the pillar in case some of the sorrow decided to seep out and look around for another host. Kaname looked up for a moment, rubbing his face and waiting for his eyes to lose their redness before he went back to his wife's room. Death swore the man had seen it, but nothing in its book told it that that was possible. Then, as eyelash barriers readied themselves to be broken, the man sprinted from his spot and down the hallway, chasing a ghost while another stood behind him, watching with company the pathetic show of a man recently introduced to mortality. Death stood straight, looking quizzically at the two brothers smirking in the brunette's dust A glimmering string followed Kaname from Zero's mouth, almost looking like the after-kiss wire always suspended between them.
"There's no chance he's having happiness without you, you cruel, unhappy bastard,"
"He can handle himself."
"Oh, I'm sure he'll prosper," Ichiru's smirk was cruel, "And you'll get to play with your godson, just like you'd planned," Zero smiled, his brother leaning on him casually, picking at his nails with a slow smile that had become well-adjusted on a face that wouldn't change much more,
"'T's not like a kid needs a babysitter forever. Plus," he said, turning to an identical face that less that mirrored his own insecurities (he wasn't as accustomed to being so out-of-the-picture,) "There's a fair chance he'll fight it as stubbornly and strongly as everything else." Ichiru looked at him oddly, leaning over a bit to inspect his brother's face,
"Careful, brother; sounds like someone's getting cynical already," Zero made a tired face, then asked Death, rather pointedly as he trudged off,
"Do you want some lemonade?"
-
Originally, there was going to be something about Zero daydreaming about Ichiru, but I figure I'll save that bit for [another] rainy day.