18th story in my series of short stories with various VK characters. Independent from the previous 17. :D

#: 18
Title: Our children.
Characters: Guess as you read? :D
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 recent manga chapters. (Can't say which exactly without giving away which are the characters in the drabble. XD It becomes obvious fast, but see if you can guess right away or not? :D)

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Her laughter was crystalline to his ears, the musical sound cutting softly through the cold air of the winter morning, soothing him like the calming sound of water drizzling between the rocks in the peaceful little mountain rivers than ran along the road leading there.

She twirled around, her merriment making her feel like dancing. He laughed too, softly, incapable of resisting her contagious mirth. Snow crunched under their feet as they walked, admiring the wintery scenery, words not needed in that moment of companionable silence.
She twirled around herself once more before holding onto his arm, dragging him into the playful dance, both awkwardly matching each other's steps and movements to waltz unsteadily on the snow, faces flushed from laughing.

Her silky brown hair floated around her as she moved, ethereal as her beauty, something made for the night but irresistibly innocent under the hopeful sunlight. He had the urge to reach and touch her hair, feel the long locks slide between his fingers, but he held back at the last minute and merely smiled at her

If this were to be their last moment together, he would inevitably have regrets, but he would treasure it forever, etching into his memory each second of it, so that he may never forget her smile, or the way her garnet eyes gleamed with glee and hope for the future. A future so terribly uncertain, but one for which she relied on him, one for which she trusted him with the safety of all that mattered most for her. It didn't matter that she belonged to another, and he belonged to a world that made that even if it hadn't been the case, it would have been impossible for them to be together.

She made anything possible. When she smiled at him, he felt he could move mountains, change the entire world for her.

And he would, he very much would, or at least, he would try all he possibly could for the sake of that ideal.

She caressed her swollen belly gently, whispering sweet words at the little life inside, and he smiled, secure in the certainty that he would kill or die for her, and for the child she carried, however much such an idea may have seemed shocking to him a mere few months earlier, when he'd tried the unthinkable and made an attempt on the thing that was most precious in the whole world, in his eyes – her life. The shocked way he'd looked at her pregnant belly then was light years away from the way he looked at it now, with a devotion that stemmed directly from his devotion for her.

It was completely unrelated to the fact that back then, she'd given him her blood so that he'd survive his injury. She'd given him so much more than blood, so much more than a mere cure for his body – she'd given him a reason to live, a purpose in life, something to turn what he viewed as a cursed existence enslaved by fate into something he could actually use to try and change the way things were: She'd given him the will to try, the will to change things, and the strength to keep going on.

All of this because he loved her.

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And now, years after the moment when they danced together in the snow, he may be alone, he may have lost her, but he still had that same determination born out of devotion for her, and that unwavering will to go on at any costs, to keep protecting what was most important for her, to keep trying to change the world to suit her gentle views of things.

Little Yuuki was asleep next to him, her little head resting on his leg. She was cuddled up into a blanket and had passed out a good while ago, bored by the movie they'd been watching together. Kaname was sitting on his other side, surprisingly also asleep for once, his head resting on the man's shoulder. Cross could well feel that the life under the council's guard must be stressful and tiresome for the young boy, and didn't wake him up just yet, figuring he might as well stay a little longer and get some rest before he had to return. He was determined to set up the part of the school that he wanted to open to vampires as soon as he possibly could, so that Kaname could come live near them, rather than be forced to remain with his current legal guardian. Cross had tried all manner of things to get the boy out so far, short of appealing to the council and asking for Kaname's guardianship directly – they knew it would be denied, and Kaname had begged him not to take such a risk, that may alert ill-intentioned eyes to Yuuki's presence.

Cross had a hand over Yuuki's head, stroking her hair gently, and the other over Kaname's shoulders, caressing his arm as well. The two may not be biologically his children, but he viewed them as nothing other than that, and pulled them closer to himself lovingly. Yuuki remained asleep, merely cuddling up closer, while Kaname stirred a bit at the movement, but even asleep he was aware of his surroundings, and only feeling the peaceful proximity and the soothing scent of his loved ones, the boy didn't wake up, just making a little noise and burying his face closer against the man's shoulder.

Cross smiled fondly at the two and looked up to the peaceful sky he could see through the nearby window, whispering softly "The children are doing just fine, Juri."

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I was wondering if it was obvious from the beginning who the two in the snow were. :D
The idea was that at the beginning, you might think it was Kaname and Yuuki, and then when he wants to touch her hair but gives up, you might think it's Zero and Yuuki… but then it quickly becomes clear that it was actually Kaien and Juri… X3