19th story in my series of short stories with various VK characters. Independent from the previous 18. :D
#: 19
Title: Zero
Characters: Kaname, Yuuki and… Zero. XD
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. Also, unlike some of my other fics with the trio, this one is Kaname x Yuuki, rather than all three of them involved with each other, so Zero x Yuuki fans might not enjoy it as much. ^^; (Her feelings for Zero in this one are more friendly/brotherly only, although you can wonder…)
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While waiting to see if the Academy would be able to reopen at a later date, Kaname and Yuuki were living in a large villa that belonged to the Kurans, and of which Kaname had regained control now that his former guardian was on the run and no longer had any power over the Kuran estate.
Neither of them wanted to return to the family's old manor, too filled with painful memories for them, so they had settled for this slightly smaller, more airy house instead.
Things were not the easiest, with the reorganization of much of the vampire society and of the Hunter Association, and with everything still being so uncertain, but at least they could find solace in the fact that they had each other.
Yuuki was happy to have Kaname around, even more so now that she knew he was so much more for her than just her savior.
As for Kaname, he was absolutely overjoyed to have her back at last, and also to be able to finally be completely open to her, now that there was no longer a need to hide who he really was to protect her.
That joy was however mitigated by the fact that, much as Yuuki was happy with him, she was also terribly sad to be separated from Zero. They'd been so close, and now the truth about her nature had torn them away. For Yuuki, it was like losing both a brother and a best friend, a part of her soul inevitably torn from her.
Much as she'd smile for Kaname, he could clearly see the lingering sadness in her eyes, in some ways and in some moments reminding him of how miserable he felt during the ten years he'd been forced to be apart from her.
If there was one thing in the world that Kaname Kuran couldn't possibly stand, it was seeing sadness coming from Yuuki: he would have done absolutely anything he possibly could to make her happy.
He believed that with time things would get better, that having him next to her, she would perhaps hurt less, and that maybe with time Zero would come to accept himself and the vampires in general more and not hold against Yuuki the fact that she wasn't born human. But even though time might fix the problem, it didn't change the fact that Kaname's heart was torn to see Yuuki suffering, and didn't want her to have to wait to feel better. He couldn't help but always want to provide a solution for her every problem instantly.
He'd tried all he could, doting on her constantly, being as present as he possibly could, but happy as she may be with him, she'd still look sad when she thought of Zero.
Kaname went as far as swallowing his pride and going after the hunter despite all that had happened before.
Zero was now constantly on the move, partially taking part in Kaien Cross's effort to reorganize the Hunter Association, and partially hunting level E's on his own. Kaname managed to track him down however, and showed up one evening.
Zero nearly shot him when the pureblood hinted that 'perhaps he could come and live with them?'
Kaname wasn't sure if the hunter realized how much it had cost him to offer such an unthinkable thing, but either way, Zero had adamantly refused, and insisted that he was very tempted to switch back to his genocide plan if Kuran didn't get the hell out of his place right that minute.
Giving up wasn't in Kaname's nature, but he couldn't exactly drag Zero to Yuuki by force and expect him to stay, so he had to retreat, for the moment at least, hoping to have more luck in the future, if perhaps the hunter had changed a bit his views on things by then. He'd have used other methods to try and convince him, but he knew Yuuki would disapprove of forcing her friend with blackmail or other such methods, so he had no choice.
In what he viewed as a poor attempt to make up for his failure, Kaname had returned home bringing Yuuki a grey tabby kitten instead, thinking that at least she'd have a little company during the times when he was momentarily away dealing with the various matters that had arisen from the remnants of the old council clashing with the newly established –and non-corrupt—new council.
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Understandably, Kaname was rather surprised when, (not even a single day after he'd returned from his failed attempt to convince the hunter), Yuuki woke him up in the middle of the morning, --a mere few hours after he'd gone to bed--, looking desperate and pleading softly "Kaname, help me find Zero!! I don't know where he went!!"
Kaname stared at her dumbfounded for a second, but before he could shake off the sleep and ask her what she meant, Yuuki was gone already, calling out for Zero as she ran in her nightgown through the corridors of the Kuran villa.
Kaname stared at the open door, for once unsure what to say, and dreadfully afraid that despair had broken her mind or something. It wasn't unheard of in the least, for purebloods, but he hadn't thought her sadness ran so deeply into hopelessness. Had he overseen something? Had he misjudged the intensity of her feelings for her friend, blinded that he was in his belief that her heart belonged to him and not to another?
He followed her around the house, fear rising in his chest the more he saw that she was not joking in the least, and was indeed completely serious in her attempt to find Zero in the house.
Kaname didn't know how to react, and fearing that trying to confront her with reality might do more harm than good, he tagged along, trying to help in her search as well, following her from room to room as she opened various doors and searched everywhere, sometimes even in small places that puzzled Kaname and made him even more worried that she had indeed completely lost her mind –he was quite sure Zero would never have fit in the cupboard she'd just opened, for example.
As they walked back into the main corridor between the rooms in the second floor, he was about to hug her and try to comfort her and promise that he'd try again, and that one way or another he'd bring Zero back for her… when his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by her unexpected squeal of joy.
Yuuki rushed and squatted down in front of the open door of a closet, exclaiming "There you are, Zero!!"
Kaname stared with shock at first, and then understanding dawned when she turned back to him… with the grey kitten in her arms, and a wide grin on her face.
"I was so worried, I couldn't find him anywhere, and I feared he'd… uhm, ran away from us like Zero… I mean… Oh…"
Only now was Yuuki realizing, from the look of mixed relief and sill vague stress on Kaname's face, that she'd forgotten to tell him of the name she'd picked for the kitten, and that the past several minutes must have been rather bizarre for him…
Knowing that Yuuki hadn't lost her mind, and was merely a little… overly care-free as she'd also been as a human was extremely relieving for Kaname, even though he still made the firm decision in his mind to try again later and figure out a way to bring back Yuuki's… other 'escaped kitten', the real Zero.
All in all, Kaname was in a much better mood after finding out that his fears about Yuuki's sanity were unfounded, and he could slip back into a much needed sleep as soon as they had returned to the room.
At least, until two or three hours later, when Yuuki woke him up again, shaking his shoulder, in a new panic now.
"Kaname, help me! Zero snuck into the bathroom and crawled into the back of the toilet bowl! He's stuck in the porcelain part of the bowl, I'm afraid I might hurt him if I try to get him out, you have to break the wall to take him out safely!!"
"..."
Kaname buried his face in the pillow and sighed deeply, finally starting to think that maybe it would have been less trouble if he'd just tried to drag the hunter there by force after all, at risk of being shot by the Bloody Rose or not…
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I was thinking of grey haired kittens, and the image of Yuuki running around looking for "Zero", and Kaname worried that she'd gone crazy (because he didn't know she'd named the kitten Zero) inevitably came to my mind… and so this ficlet was born. XD;;