17th story in my series of short stories with various VK characters. Independent from the previous 16. :D
#: 17
Title: Much too late.
Characters: Rido, Juri, and a bit of Kaname and Haruka.
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight, this is a fanfic written for fun and for love of the series. I'm not making any money with it.
Warnings: Spoilers for the manga, for chapter 35 and possibly a little for 43.
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The long haired woman gracefully set her tea cup down before sighing softly and rising her eyes to meet those of the man sitting near her.
She had come over for an unscheduled visit, and he had offered her tea and pastries as they sat on the ornate couch in his drawing room.
"Rido… we need to talk."
His body automatically tensed.
Uh-oh.
The last time she had 'needed to talk', it was to tell him that she was leaving him. For Haruka of all people!
It was like a wound that had never closed, permanently gaping and tearing at him, as if the gap got a little bit wider each day, threatening to swallow his whole soul.
But he still resisted, he still appeared civil and proper, attending the formal gatherings and behaving as if the sight of the two together wasn't tearing his heart apart and filling him with a murderous urge more and more difficult to control, demanding that Haruka's blood be spilt and Juri be brought back next to him, from where she should never have departed.
The problem was, Rido didn't know how to make Juri want to come back, and he didn't feel he had it in himself to force anything upon the one and only person who mattered for him. With anyone else, he couldn't care less, but Juri had always been the one exception.
But the wound was definitely still much too fresh; she had severed their bond and left him less than two months ago.
When they sat together and had tea in his manor like this, just the two of them, sharing that silent companionship of people used to spending centuries together –Haruka had the tact to not tag along-- Rido could almost fool himself into believing they were back in time a few months ago, and this living nightmare he was currently trapped in was just that, a nightmare, and not something actually happening. He could almost convince himself that everything was back to normal.
Of course, she had to ruin it.
He instinctively feared what she may have to talk of. You already tore my heart out once, what ill news could you possibly still have for me?!
She made a little noise in her throat, as if giving herself courage to start, and he felt his breath catch; it was not like Juri to hesitate like that, and it made him worry even more about what she may be about to tell him. In turn, that apprehension turned into a bitter defensiveness, steeling his heart and preparing him for the blow, almost as if it was preparing him to strike back, something he couldn't quite picture when it came to his reactions to Juri. She was the very only person he would never raise a hand against. Even if he wanted to, it was physically impossible, he loved her too much, too deeply, his very own body would refuse to obey such a traitorous command if he ever tried to harm her.
Harming Haruka, now… The thought of that had been seeming more and more appealing over the past several weeks.
She noticed from the look on his face that the delay was only making things worse, and decided to go straight to the point.
"I'm pregnant."
He exploded. One moment he had been sitting on the couch, eyeing her with growing apprehension, and the next moment he was standing, nearly screaming at the top of his lungs what he would do to Haruka for this, with some rather graphic descriptions of dismembering and striking brutality.
Juri was taken aback, unsure of how to react at first. This was… different from what she'd expected. But while Haruka was more like their sweet mother, both Rido and Juri had inherited their father's fiery temper, and hearing him insulting Haruka quickly made her join the shouting.
It was brief but violent, even if neither touched each other, and even though Rido's violence was directed at Haruka rather than at Juri. But at her eyes, Haruka and her were indivisible, just how Rido and her had been indivisible, until her long hesitation between the two brothers had finally toppled over the balance of things.
"I should never have come here! This was a mistake! I should never have tried to tell you! To tell you…"
Tears in her eyes, Juri stormed out of the manor, still throwing back some last imprecations against Rido as she left. He followed her until she was gone, staying farther back with uncertainty but definitely still angry, perhaps even angrier than before.
Furious that she was leaving, and even more so that she was leaving him again, in such a definitive manner now, carrying the child of another, the one thing that made it certain that she would never be his again. That baby would be the physical embodiment of Haruka and Juri's relationship, the one thing making it impossible for him to have her, the one obstacle standing between the two of them.
--
A few years had passed, and they had all changed.
Haruka and Juri had matured as a couple, the baby giving them an experience of life so wonderful and yet so different that even millenia of youthful life hadn't been able to give them.
At the top of his six years of age, Kaname was an adorable child and the very joy of their days, as well as a promising hope as the future leader of the clan.
Rido had taken quite the opposite path, sinking into a violent depression fueled by the lack of Juri, and which he masked under the shield of his hatred and all-consuming rage.
Until that rage finally took him down a path he could never walk back out of, when it ceased to be a mere phantasm in the background, and the dark ideas that took over his mind in lonely winter nights became too present to be refused any longer.
Until he spirited Kaname away with every intention of destroying completely the one thing that stood between Juri and him. If not anymore out of serious hope of winning her back, then at least for the sake of revenge. Not against her, and perhaps not even exactly against Haruka anymore, but a direct revenge, wreaked upon the very being Rido now viewed as the very cause of his wretched misery.
A dark thrill had taken over his mind and body as he performed the ritual, as well as the torture – a pleasant bonus for him-- and successfully shattered completely the mind of the child he so abhorred.
The torture tools gleamed in his hands, stained dark with the boy's thick blood. Broken breathing sobbed out of Kaname's lungs, further fueling the sadistic glee surging through Rido's body.
But he never expected that Haruka and Juri would find him before he was completely done.
And more exactly, the one thing he never expected was the look of utter horror in Juri's face, as it was distorted with pain at the sight and she screamed at him words he couldn't possibly believe, but that registered very clearly in his mind even after Haruka crushed him into the wall.
She screamed "NOOOOOO!! He's your child, Rido!!"
But it was much too late, now.
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Please don't kill me, Haruka fans! XD; It was just a random idea. lol
The whole fic was written entirely because of the idea of Juri screaming that at Rido, about Kaname actually being his child. XD;
That's what she went to his manor to tell him. If he had reacted better, who knows how different things would have been? XD
If only she'd told him much earlier, none of this would have happened, perhaps. (Well, yes and no, chaos would still have happened as he would have refused that his love and his child stay with another man.)
I don't think I need to mention that this is all completely non-canon, obviously. XD
But it sure would be a different twist. XD;