Spoliers for Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty TV. Pee pee warning. This chapter contains sexual situations.

Via Vincio: The Braided Way

By Gabihime ( Gabihime at gmail dot com )

4 - The walls of Eden

-

Once upon a time there was a goose-girl who was born a princess, who was on a journey across the world with her handmaid. The handmaid had already denied the princess once. Before the rooster crows she will deny her three times.

The princess had once already been the victim of a terrible thirst, and her handmaid had refused to help her. The princess had been obliged to find a drink herself, and wandered the dark woods alone.

After they mounted their horses again, they traveled on again for some time, until the terrible thirst again struck the princess, and she turned to her handmaid and said, "Please, my friend. I am very thirsty. Will you find a drink for me?"

The handmaid turned on her with cold eyes and answered, "I shan't. I'll not be your servant. You aren't a princess!"

And because the thirst was so terrible, the princess was again forced to dismount and go into the dark woods searching for something to drink. When she found something suitable, she drank again on her hands and knees like a beast, and the drops of blood that had come from her mother cried out.

"If your mother could but see you, her heart would break in two!"

Again the princess had nothing to say, and she at last returned to her horse, but her handmaid would not speak to her.

They set out again for the far kingdom in silence.

-

When Yuki and Zero wandered in, chill from their snow pilgrimage, they discovered that their return was not necessarily welcome. The master of the cafe, while originally pleased at the additional business he had received at such a late hour, had finally tired of serving Aido cookies and chocolates, and when they at last passed under the lintel again he informed them very firmly that they were closed and that they could again sample his hospitality no earlier than six the following morning. Kaname could not gently coerce him into remaining open even a few extra minutes, despite offering him considerable monetary incentive, and as Yuki had no desire for this picturesque business to become a scene of needless argument, she put her hand in Kaname's and told him that she was tired anyway, and wanted to go rest.

They gathered their things and were promptly expelled from the cafe. The lights were doused and the door was locked in the same movement, and so they were left to find a taxi in the wee hours, as they had not yet hired a car for Haerbin. As it was late, they were required to walk some ways in the cold night air before they found a taxi that would accept their fare. The taxi was small, and could only safely hold three occupants, so Kaname held the door for Yuki and then for Ruka and directed the others to continue looking for transportation. He got in the taxi last and gave the address of the hotel to the driver while Yuki leaned over Ruka's lap to make apologetic hand-motions at the vampires and vampire hunter who remained standing in the cold night-wind.

"Hn," said Aido, as he wrapped his arms around himself and watched the penitent Yuki recede into the darkness, "I guess that makes me feel a little better."

Zero looked at him briefly, then shrugged and walked off down the dark street, in the direction the taxi had gone.

"Where do you think you're going?" Aido demanded after him. It would be just like Zero to stupidly follow after Yuki on foot, even though he didn't even know the way --

"To find a taxi," Zero answered, and then looked back at Aido as if Aido's stupidity was a new and wondrous animal.

Aido made a face that was so indicative of being gotten that Kain snorted and then clapped his smaller cousin on the shoulder.

"Come on," he said levelly, "Let's all look together."

-

The ride in the taxi did little to warm Yuki. The cold had settled in her bones and she shivered continually despite being nestled between Kaname and Ruka. Kaname attempted to rub warmth back into her arms, but this did not seem to do much good. She felt brittle, as if the cold had drawn her very thin.

Fortunately, the ride back to the hotel was not a long one, and at the front desk he made it clear that he required a pot of freshly brewed tea delivered upstairs. Then he picked Yuki up, which she did not protest, and excused himself from Ruka, who sat down in the lobby to assure herself that Kain and Aido returned safely and were not forced to sleep on the street like stray cats.

Kaname carried Yuki upstairs, unlocked the door to their room with some little difficulty, as she was still in his arms, and then deposited her on the other side of the threshold while he saw to the locking and securing of the door. He lay the key on the bedside table and brushed past her, as she stood, still shivering, by the door. He paused at the door to the bathroom to look back over his shoulder.

"Take off your clothes," was what he said, in a way that made it clear that there was no room for argument.

He disappeared into the bathroom and she stood there and felt very stupid.

After a moment and some rustling, Kaname's disembodied head appeared in the doorway. His brow furrowed when he saw that she had not moved.

"Yuki," he insisted, "Take off your clothes."

This time he did not disappear, as if he required evidence of her action before he went back to whatever it was he was doing.

She blinked sleepily, because she was still very cold and her feelings were all muddled.

"Um," she started, and then flushed a little, "Now?"

"Yes now," he answered promptly, seemingly unable to understand her hesitation.

"But, but," she tried, and felt very silly and very embarrassed at the same time. "You're standing right there."

"Yuki," he sighed, as he was finally beginning to understand. "I've seen you naked before," he tried to patiently remind her. "Stop arguing and take off your clothes," he said definitively, "You're wasting time."

Mutely, Yuki began to strip off her mittens, although she was cold so her fingers did not move very well and as a result she disrobed very slowly.

"Parts," she sniffled defiantly after a minute or two, "Only parts." She did not intend Kaname to hear this small rebellion, but the senses of a pureblood are very sharp. He appeared again in the door to the bathroom, took one look at her undressing and crossed the floor to meet her.

"No, you silly girl," he said and began to unbutton her coat. His frustration was eaten by his affection for her, and he wanted to put his hand on the top of her head. "I've seen all the parts of you. There's no need to be nervous now. I've got to get you out of these clothes."

He pulled her coat off of her, one arm at a time, and was surprised to find her wriggling half-heartedly.

"When?" she asked, and he saw that her face was very flushed. He was worried she might have caught a fever from being in the cold for too long, "When did you see all of me naked?"

At this he laughed gently and deposited her coat on the bed before returning to undo the buttons of her blouse, which were very small and delicate slivers of shell that he despaired she would never get off herself, with such stiff fingers.

"All of the time, Yuki," he reminded kindly, but firmly, so she would not begin her feeble struggles again. "Nearly every time you had a bath. Don't you remember? When you were small."

"Oh," she said absently, and thought on this for a moment while he patiently undid her blouse, but as he moved to push it back, over her shoulders, something new occurred to her. "But that's different," she said.

"You're the same Yuki," he answered, and pulled the blouse off her despite her philosophical dilemmas.

Her skin was beautiful, milky and faintly translucent, as lovely as the moon, penultimate and ready to wax. He wanted to stay there, running his hands over her, running his eyes over her, for all the rest of time that would ever be, but he restrained himself. Her skin was also as cool as marble, which indicated nothing fine about her state of personal comfort.

She was not Galatea, after all.

He knelt to unbuckle one of her shoes and as he did she tugged gently at his hair. He looked up, but continued to methodically unbuckle and unfasten and unzip her.

"You know," she observed. "I'm pretty cold. I don't think I've ever been this cold before."

"I know," he answered, and bent his head again. "You're unused to regulating your body temperature. I think your blood is holding at a temperature lower than a human could tolerate. That's why I need to get you into the bath so you can warm up."

"Oh," she said again, because this was also a new revelation. "Well, that's all right then."

"It wouldn't have been all right if it had been for another reason?" he asked her and gently pushed her against the bed, urging her to sit so he could take her socks and stockings off. He did not look up, apparently busy with her hosiery.

"Oh no, it would have been," she answered and then flushed again, because his point blank question had caused her to answer more truthfully than she otherwise might have, "It was just really sudden," she tried to explain. "I was just surprised." She looked down at his dark head, and saw him carefully stripping away the stocking from a foot he held gently and firmly by the ankle. It seemed like an act disconnected from her, which was probably more indication that the cold had made her a little slow. "Of course I want to be with Kaname-sama. I've been waiting for a long time. Although," she admitted with some honest and cold-induced puzzlement, "I really don't know anything. How to do anything. I should know right? I feel kind of stupid. Maybe I really am an idiot," she lamented.

He had by this point managed to take nearly everything off of her, save her underthings. He did not stare at her overly long, despite the faintly silly and ambling confession she had just made to him. It had quickened his heartbeat, made his blood rise, and it was very, very difficult to ignore her in this nearly overwhelmingly adorable and vulnerable condition, not with her openly embracing complicity in her seduction -- but as he touched her wrist to feel her pulse he knew he could not let her dwell in chill discomfort just to satisfy his own pleasures, even if she was not really in danger. He gathered her against him and carried her into the bathroom.

Bath first.

Bath first.

He deposited her in the bathtub, which she discovered was lined with towels so her skin would not come in contact with the cold porcelain. They were then faced with the dilemma of her underthings. After all, everyone knew that you didn't wear your clothes when you were taking a bath. Yuki had learned that once when she was a toddler, and then again when the headmaster had taught her how to bathe herself again, so she was doubly sure of the facts. But although she was embarrassed, it never occurred to her to ask him to stop helping her, or for her to protest and claim some sort of self-sufficiency, because he was so obviously concerned with her welfare. More than being embarrassed, it made her feel very loved. It was like she was a little girl sick with the Spanish measles and Kaname was just trying to help take care of her.

She thought that was what he might do, if she really and truly did have the Spanish measles.

He leaned forward to thoughtfully divest her of her brassier and she flushed, but she was fortunately delivered from further embarrassment by a knock at the door.

Kaname was clearly troubled by the fact that he had been interrupted, but went to civilly answer the door regardless. While he was gone she closed her eyes as if she were about to do something momentarily unpleasant, like taking a bitter does of cough syrup, and managed to squirm out of her panties, and with some added difficulty, her bra. She expelled these from the bathtub and tried not to be nervous. She was the same Yuki after all, and he was just taking care of her.

Kaname returned to the bathroom with a pot of tea and some cups and saucers and paused for a moment in the doorway to look at her. He said nothing, simply looked at her for what seemed to be a long time, but was only a moment in their lives. He put the tea down on the counter near the sink and then leaned over her.

It was almost overpowering, having him lean over her like that, shivering, naked in the bathtub, while he was still entirely clothed and yet paying her such close, controlled attention. He leaned in close to her ear and hung there for a moment, breathing. He was smelling her. He was smelling her. She could tell he was. This was somehow more embarrassing than just sitting naked in the tub.

"I bet I smell bad," was all she could think of to say, a weak and empty protest. She was tired and cold.

"No," he answered, "You don't." And then he had swept all her hair in his hands and she could feel him pinning it up.

Then he turned on the water, and her toes began to tingle as if she were being madly tickled by a thousand feathers tipped with pins.

"Ah!" she cried out, "The water is cold!"

"No," he corrected her gently, "It's very warm. It just feels cold because your senses are dulled. Wait a few moments. Your blood will warm up."

She obediently flopped back against the towel to watch the water fill the tub and warm her up. He sprinkled something into the water, then he knelt on the tile and began to roll up his sleeves.

"Bubbles?" she asked him curiously. Bubbles are nice, she thought inanely. She was still cold.

"Bath salts," he said. "You can't have both at once. You'll like them. I bought them for you."

"They smell nice," she said, because it seemed like the thing to say when receiving a present, even under unusual circumstances. Besides, they did smell nice. She liked them.

By this point the water was over her knees, and she wriggled her toes. He watched them wriggle for a moment, then poured a cup of tea.

"Will you drink it without milk?" he asked, and looked for a moment like he would storm out of the room and wrestle a cow if that was what she desired.

She smiled and nodded her head. "I'll drink it without milk."

He passed her a teacup and only let go of it once he was sure she would not drop it on herself.

She sipped at it. It was hot but it tasted very good to her, even without the milk. She swallowed and then sighed with contentment. She was beginning to feel not so very bad anymore. As her faculties were beginning to return to her, she could now take notice of several facts that had eluded her until this point. The most arresting one was

Kaname

was

staring at her.

He was crouched there by the side of the clawfoot tub, watching her breathe, watching her sip her tea, watching her wriggle her toes. He had rolled up his sleeves and undone his collar. His tie hung loose around his neck. The room was getting humid and warm from the bath. The mirror had already fogged up. She flushed and looked away.

"Is the water too warm?" he asked suddenly, and she shook her head.

"Good," he said, and nodded. Then he rose to choose a washcloth from the bath linens that were arranged on the shelf and turned back to her. He smiled at her comfortably. "Now," he said, "I want you to lie back and relax. I'll give you a bath. You can be an invalid a little longer."

"Oh," she said, because it was all she could think to say, and leaned forward, as if she might start out of the bathtub. "Oh. I'm sure I can manage on my own now. You don't have to do something like -- "

"Yuki," he said, and it was there, in his voice. She stopped protesting and swallowed her embarrassment mutely.

"I want to care for you," he explained, and then dipped the washcloth into the warm, salted bathwater.

Accept my care, is what he said.

She closed her eyes and leaned back again and although she was at first tense, she found that pretense fell away as he turned her face toward him began to gently cleanse it, working the warmth into her. As he moved to her neck and shoulders she felt like a puppy being washed, and she gave herself over to it, limp and agreeable. Although her heart sometimes beat more quickly, he paid no special attention to any particular part of her body, but he did pay thorough attention to every part of her body, in that he made sure she was clean and warm.

When she squeaked and shied away from his touch because he aimed to clean a sensitive area, he said simply, "Yuki," and she behaved herself again and tried not to be too, too embarrassed, or too, too interested, as he had made it very clear that they were in the bathroom for the purpose of Yuki being bathed, and she did not want to seem, well, wanton.

She had never been wanton taking a bath as a little girl. Not even as a little vampire girl, she didn't think. But then, having Kaname near her in the bath had not been strange then, although she had already known of and delighted in growing up to be his bride. But she did not have a boat or any seadragons to sail along on the interior sea of soap and bathwater these days. Perhaps that was why she was more easily distracted.

Kaname had finished carefully washing her feet, mindful that he did not tickle her, and sat back on his heels.

She lay her head against the side of the tub and thought aloud, "Onii-sama. Kaname-onii-sama." Her eyelashes fluttered and she smiled. "I'm sorry if you don't like it. It just feels nice to call you that sometimes."

"I don't mind it," he said, and his voice was strangely low and unnatural. She craned her neck to look at him, flailing one arm out of the tub in her attempt. He caught her wrist as she did and helped her get her balance before brushing his lips against her open palm. "Yuki is the same Yuki," he reminded her.

She smiled and lay back against the tub again, soaking in the water. She had given up her tea long ago for the warm, tepid wonder of the full bath.

As she lay there, warm and lazy and content, her mind wandered back to Zero, standing hatless and coatless in the snow.

"Do you think Zero is all right?" she asked without opening her eyes. "I just worry about him, because he's not even wearing a coat or anything, and I got so cold -- "

"I'm sure he's fine," Kaname answered calmly, but she was still troubled.

"Are you really sure?" she asked, biting her lip.

"If it will put your mind at ease, I'll go make sure," he said, and then rose and quietly left the bathroom.

She heard the keys rattle and then turn in the lock, and then heard the door close behind him. She blew some of the wispy hair that had not been successfully pinned out of her face, but it fell right back into her eyes again. Then she leaned forward and pulled out the stopper so that some of the cooling water drained out of the tub so she could fill it again with hot water.

It was still filling when Kaname returned. He smiled when he saw her efforts to extend her stay in their private spa and sat down again on the floor near her.

She looked up and he nodded, so she breathed a figurative sigh of relief and then relaxed again in the tub, waiting for it to refill. When it neared the overflow mark Kaname leaned over and shut off the water, and then they sat together in silence.

"Do you remember," she asked as her mind wandered, "When I locked myself in the bathroom accidentally?"

He laughed at this, a genuine and unexpected sound. "I didn't think you remembered that. You were so very small."

"I remember!" she insisted, and splashed a little in the water.

"You had turned the lock without meaning to, and when you couldn't open the door again you sat down on the other side of it and just cried and cried. We all ran to get you," Kaname remembered aloud, and his tone was nostalgically fond. It was easily as comforting as the water. "But we didn't expect you to have locked yourself in the room. Father went to get a screwdriver, but I couldn't stand it, waiting and hearing you crying, hearing you afraid, so I just turned the knob until it broke, and you came running right to me." He laughed again quietly, "That wasn't the only time you locked yourself in a room like that accidentally, you know. Mother used to say that you did it on purpose, once you learned that I'd come."

"I don't remember that part," she wrinkled her nose, but then smiled, "You always came running, whenever I was afraid," she agreed, then thought about it. "You must have broken all the doorknobs in the house."

He paused, then answered, "I think I did."

She laughed and closed her eyes again. He spoke next.

"That's why I told the headmaster to take all the locks off the interior doors in the house. I was afraid you'd start locking yourself into places again, and I wouldn't be there to let you out." He looked at the top of her brown head, at the hair piled up on it, and then laid his hand to rest there before continuing. "But then there weren't any working locks on any of the doors the headmaster's house, and you were always following me. I went to the bathroom -- "

Yuki shrieked and covered her face with her hands. "Don't tell this story. It's so embarrassing!"

"It isn't embarrassing," he disagreed, "It's about you, so it's wonderful. Besides, I'd only tell this story to a very important person." She made another little groan, which he ultimately enjoyed, before continuing "I had gone to the bathroom and left you playing in the parlor, but then there you were, standing behind me with the door wide open. How I didn't hear you -- "

"I didn't want to be apart from Kaname-sama," Yuki protested, and found herself explaining against her will, "And I didn't understand that it was bad to follow you. You never told me not to follow you, so I went where Kaname-sama went. And then," she turned crimson and tried to hide her face in the water. "I saw you going pee pee." This last part was delivered like a mortified grade-schooler reliving her most embarrassing social faux pas.

"I was startled," comforted Kaname, who was laughing at the memory despite Yuki's discomfort. "I wasn't angry. I was just startled. Fortunately I had buttoned my trousers again before the headmaster came shrieking after you."

"I just didn't understand," she tried again and he stroked her head. "I didn't understand anything. But afterwards, after the headmaster had explained that it wasn't polite to follow people when they went to the bathroom, I remember you told me that I could always follow you, that you didn't mind. That made me happy, because I was afraid I had made you not like me."

"You're a silly girl," he said fondly, and ran his hand over the silken knot of her hair, down the back of her head, and then let it rest, cupping the nape of her neck. "And eventually you did stop following me to the bathroom."

She blew distressed bubbles in the bathwater. "Of course I did!"

Her momentary moral outrage subsided as she became lost in thinking of her past. She looked at the water dreamily for a few minutes and then softly spoke.

"When was it that I changed?" she asked, "From Yuki to Yuki? When did I stop being the Yuki who locked herself in rooms and followed Kaname-sama to the bathroom? Did you know, when you came to see a different Yuki? Were you sad when you realized one Yuki was gone?"

"You're always changing," Kaname answered very slowly, "From Yuki to Yuki. You're still changing now. I love Yuki. Every Yuki. I have always loved Yuki. I always felt as if I had been granted a treasure from heaven. Yuki is that treasure. To see you change and grow has been the greatest joy of my life."

"A long time ago," she said, then she stopped and shook her head, "Or not so long ago. I don't know how to think of it. I met a boy who was alone because his parents had been murdered by a bad vampire. He was very hurt, and he hated himself. His important person was taken away from him, and he was left all alone, and he was afraid to be loved. He hurt, but he kept secret that he hurt, and didn't tell anyone. He just carried that burden all alone. I wanted to help him carry his burden, because although he sometimes seemed scary, he was really very kind. I don't know how many people realize that. He's a very precious person."

She stopped because his hand had stilled on her neck, and she turned to look at him with a mixture of confusion and sadness.

"Onii-sama," she said. "I've always loved you. Always, from the very beginning. From each and every beginning. I want to do everything I can to make you happy, because I never want to see you alone, I never want to see your unhappy face again. It hurts me. You've had enough sadness. I want you to smile."

"Yuki," he whispered, his voice low and husky, and he gripped the muscle that spanned the place where her spine met her collarbone.

She was breathing unevenly, and her voice wavered uncertainly.

"Onii-sama," she repeated, and this gave her comfort, because she felt that this was a bond that nothing could break, "Can you love the Yuki who wants Zero to smile?"

He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against her warm shoulder, smelling the scent of her wet flesh and the bathsalts, feeling the heat of her body against his skin. It beat between them, the blood, the smell of his fear, the scent of her guilt, the rose scent of the water, the rosy pink of her flushed body, and the slickness of her wet skin, and then he had wrapped his arms around her and was holding her as tightly as he could, as if he could crush her into himself.

"Yuki," his cry was soft and terrified, as if he were a lost boy, and he held her as if he would break her.

Hearing him, she began to cry, sobbing pitifully, "You hate that Yuki. I knew. You hate that Yuki."

"No," he cried low, into her neck, and it was painful, it was terrifying and it was painful. "No. I love that Yuki."

And they both cried, and they both panted, wanting air, and he held her like she might dissolve into nothing, and she clung to him, naked and wet and sobbing, until the bathwater had gone cold again.

"I love Yuki," he said again quietly, after they had gone still, and it was an affirmation for both of them.

Then he picked her up out of the water that was December-cold, and he carried her away with him, out of the bathroom, and delivered her into his bed.

-

In a room lit by the pale and vermilion tremble of candlelight, he laid her down in the bed, which was full and downy deep. It was dim in the room, and they had no use for electricity, although the fingers of dawn were beginning to creep at the horizon. Their seduction was not very organized, as it had not been planned in advance, although it had been premeditated in some senses, and he distractedly shoved her coat in the floor as he struggled to untie his shoes and unbutton his shirt at the same time. She began to get chilly, as she was still damp and the room was cool, so she sought refuge under the blankets, sending more of her patiently folded clothing into the floor.

Under the blankets there was heat and warmth and a familiar-unfamiliar scent: two bodies close to one another, and his long fingers read the pebbly-pliable texture of her skin, counted the places and the spaces between places, as if he were measuring her with his hands, discovering and rediscovering her, manic, and deliberate, and barely controlled, an addict finally given access to this elusive drug. Her hands and her mouth discovered him, curious and haphazard and intensely devoted. She tasted the salt on his skin, and rubbed her cheek against the hard line of his hip bone. He indulged in all her tender mysteries, and she gave them up, crying and crying his name, all the names she had ever given him, because it gave her pleasure to lose herself in the sound, or because he wrung it out of her, or because she wrung it out of him. He tangled his hand in her hair and pushed her head down and she bit him and was bitten repeatedly. They licked some wounds closed and other wounds open, and it was always messy and sometimes painful and a little awkward but brilliant like an eclipse.

They did not find themselves spent and exhausted until long after the master of the cafe would have allowed them back in for tea and biscuits.

When he finally curled himself around her limp, moist body, she responded by feebly wriggling toward him and dazedly murmuring, "Onii-sama, I think everything is nice."

"You're a good girl," he commented into the back of her neck and breathed in the feeling of her closeness, until he at last went to sleep.

-

Author's Note: Thanks for all the kind feedback again. I am committed to writing this story and am pleased that other people are enjoying it. I appreciate that readers may be rooting for Zero or Kaname (or maybe just for Kaname x Zero XD) but as the one spinning this yarn, I can't do that. Don't worry, things are going all according to plan. For good or for ill, this is a story about two men and one girl, and no one ends up shot in the head (or thrown off a train like third class mail).