2. Fateful meetings

Yuuki was sitting at the fountain in one of the castle's gardens. She decided to go to French styled one, where every tree, shrub, lawn and hedge was carefully laid out in planned geometric and symmetrical lines thus emitting a certain sense of order. When she was here she felt like everything was going to be alright. A week passed by already, yet she still didn't know what to do with the whole marriage proposal. Even Kaname was reluctant to discuss it, rather occupying himself with other matters.

Yuuki still loved to go out in daylight, something she learned at the manor of Count Cross. Count was overly eccentric person, often coming up with most extraordinary ideas. She most certainly never got bored there, yet what she missed the most were their long walks in nature. She would often observe human children running through the fields, playing strange games, and young peasant girls peeking at passing shepherds, waving at them and giggling before their parents scolded them for not helping with work enough. When she closed her eyes she could almost hear the sounds of laughter, cheering and dog barking in the distance. It was strange, but she didn't seem to be affected by sunlight as much as most of the other vampires who were already deeply asleep. The castle was very quiet at this hour, with exception of a few guards here and there hiding in the shadows, trying not to doze off during their watch.

"Princess Yuuki, are you skipping sleep again?" a slightly scolding voice startled her from her musings.

"Yori!" Yuuki stood quickly and hugged her best friend, so glad to see her.

"Wait, you'll get dirty," Yori as a daughter of a head gardener was often covered in mud all over.

"I don't mind," Yuuki smiled, somehow reminded of their first meeting. It was shortly after her arrival to court. A lot has been going on at that time, and when she discovered this part of garden, she started to come here almost daily to relax and think. That's when she noticed a young human girl working diligently, carefully taking care of flowers, as if they were the most precious things in the world. Yuuki thought it very beautiful, and one day, decided to ask her if she could join her. The girl looked at her with a terrified expression, immediately refusing. Yuuki couldn't blame her for her reaction, it was unheard of for a vampire noble to do any kind of manual labour. Nevertheless, the next day Yori appeared with an extra pair of gloves, asking if the offer was still on.

"Are you still thinking about it?" There was no need to ask, it was written all over her friend's face, but she knew how to cheer her up. "You know what, let's go for a walk!"

Zero rubbed his neck for what seemed like a hundredth time that day. This strange stinging thing on his throat was result of the so called Lucky Charm, also the first step of their plan.

"What the hell?" Zero looked at his image in the mirror, quite horrified. There was this red glowing drawing on his neck, not so different from the ink signs he used to get at those vampire establishments. But, this one was bigger and seemed a lot more permanent. And of course, there was the whole glowing thing.

"Don't worry, it will turn black after a few hours."assured the author of the charm as he examined it more closely. "It's quite a piece of art, isn't it? I'm really proud of myself," he grinned "anyway, the important thing is, that it should protect you more effectively than any other external charm could have, and there is no danger of loosing it, either."

"Should? You mean, you're not sure if this actually works?"

"Well, there weren't many opportunities to test it out, yet." the old geezer replied. "But if this works, it would mean a complete revolution as far as the hunter charms are concerned. We're creating a history here!"

The young hunter just sighed and let his head fall on the table, murmuring something about being underpaid for working with lunatics. Yagari patted his shoulder comfortingly. "It will work. The old man might be a little out of it, but he's a real genius when it comes to hunter crafts."

Zero scowled at the memory, tugging the collar of his coat higher. He glanced across the market to see Yagari standing near one of the stalls with damask fabric.

Now comes part two of the plan. Lately, there were strange rumors among the hunters about certain pureblood princess. Someone claimed to have seen her walking through the market in the middle of the day masked as one of the commoners. If this rumour was actually true, then they were really lucky, because it would save them a lot of work as it was nearly impossible to get to the castle with all the vampire guards.

They didn't know which market it was, but the bets were on the biggest one in the city. It was near harbor and merchants from all over the world were selling all kinds of exotic things like oriental spices, ivory jewelery, silk fabrics, and many other. It was always crowded. Even during night, when townsfolk were replaced by vampires.

The actual plan was to follow the princess to the less crowded alley, where Yagari would pretend to rob her, with Zero coming to the rescue. It was a knight saving a damsel in distress scenario, which was supposed to be some kind of romantic fantasy of many ladies. His expression darkened, this plan sounded so stupid he couldn't believe he agreed to something like this.

Still, seven days have passed already and there was still no trace of her. It seemed that the rumor was just a rumor after all.

Just as he was contemplating going to suggest the older hunter to give this whole thing up, he felt a strange presence. It was like a vampire, yet he never felt something like this before. Not since Shizuka. He almost expected to see her as he turned around, but all he could see where two young girls in commoner's cloaks. He followed them noticing that the older hunter also changed his position, as he too became aware of the new presence. Zero watched as the pair stopped by a stall of Persian merchant selling little ivory figures of various exotic creatures. Their heads were covered by hoods, but from where he stood, Zero could see their profiles. He watched as the brown-haired one took the figure of some strange long-nosed animal, listening intently as the merchant explained fierecly, how the real animal was bigger than a house and that the people of his country were using them like horses.

"Won't you buy some flowers, sir?" A kid tugged at his sleeve all of sudden. A small girl was standing behind him with armful of wild flowers. Judging by their ragged, dirty clothes, they were probably from a nearby chantry orphanage. He gave them a whole silver coin making the boy bow deeply in thanks. The girl gave him the prettiest flower she could find bowing, too. "Thank you, sir," both said in unison before running away. It was moments like this that made Zero feel really grateful for the older hunter. If Yagari hadn't taken care of him, he would be one of them, too.

Zero put the flower-bud into the pocket, his attention back at the pair of girls. Suddenly, he registered a movement in the corner of his eye. A masked figure was moving quickly in their direction. He glanced over at Yagari who wore equally surprised expression. This certainly wasn't according to the plan.

The sun reflected of something in a stranger's hand. A dagger. This was an actual assassin and judging from his speed, a vampire one. Zero bolted as fast as he could, tackling the attacker before he reached the girls. Both crashed into the stall, causing the small ivory figures to scatter all around. After managing to wrestle the dagger out of the stranger's hand, the hunter allowed himself to take a short look over his shoulder to make sure the girls were alright. They were on the ground on the side, the princess must have pulled her friend to safety just in time thanks to her quick reflexes. Her hood had fallen down, revealing her long hair and as Zero looked her in the eyes, something made him pause for a moment. The purebloods truly were quite a captivating creatures.

"Watch out!" She shouted suddenly, making Zero remember himself just in time to dodge a hidden blade trown in his direction. The dagger missed his heart instead hitting him in the shoulder. The hunter cursed himself for making such a juvenile mistake. He took out his own knife and after a short struggle managed to stab the assassin in the heart, watching as he dissolved to dust.

"Are you alright?" the princess kneeled before him quickly looking worriedly at his wound. A people were starting to gather around them, murmuring and pointing at the princess.

"Yuuki, we have to get out of here quick" the human girl crouched next to them glancing around nervously.

"Right, let's go!" The princess put Zero's arms over her shoulders, her other hand coming around his waist supporting his weight quite easily for someone her stature. As they brushed through the mass of people, Zero noticed Yagari standing nearby. The older hunter nodded approvingly before disappearing in the crowd, too. Not as planned, but whatever worked, right?

They weaved in and out of various alleyways for some while. Darn, his shoulder hurt, the dagger must have been silver. Zero was starting to feel more and more dizzy. "Where.."

"To the castle," came the haste reply. Zero's last thought before he passed out was that this whole 'a knight in shining armor' thing somehow works after all.