Tal has been amazingly active these last few days and I'm glad to be working on my stories again. I admit I hadn't known what direction this story was going to go so I'm kinda flying blind with it but I'm having fun going in a different path than Blood Secrets. Couples will be altered some in this story as well. Kaname and Zero will stay together of course, and I happen to like Akatsuki with Hanabusa. Takuma will still get Senri, but Ruka will end up with Sai. There are others but I can't list them all. Enjoy the story.

I'm Going To What?

Yagari Toga could only think of one thing when his former student walking in with the Kensei hunter in tow. "Driving home the differences between Hunters and Vampires I see. I don't think it will change Kaname's mind about claiming you as a mate Zero."

That's what I told him... Sai thought as he entered the room behind his Alpha. Indeed it was one of the arguments he'd used to try to get Zero to dress by human standards but the silvette had ignored him. He had a feeling he'd likely have to get used to that as well. It seemed he'd be doing a lot of adjusting where his alpha was concerned. Zero just walked in and sat down in an extra chair without giving Toga's comment any acknowledgement.

"Eh, Zero." The Chairman spoke up when it seemed the silvette had no intention of saying anything. "It would be best for you to accept you marriage and complete-"

"No." Zero cut in before the man could even finish the thought. "It didn't mean anything so there shouldn't even be a bond to begin with." Adamant as he was about that point the look the two elder hunters shared was unsettling.

"Umm... You know that a bond can not be broken without great danger to the hunter. It could kill you." Kaien shifted uncomfortable as the two teens stared at him intently. Neither interrupted though, sensing that he was building up to something. "Toga and I have been searching the Archives for similar situations. There was one or two about incomplete bonds with vampires and a few with incomplete bonds between hunters or hunters and humans." The man laughed nervously knowing that the next bit was likely going to set the teen off. Mercifully Toga took over for him.

"Look, if you don't complete the damned bond you'll more or less go into a mating heat until it's completed." Toga explained gruffly, scowling the whole time. He didn't like even thinking about his student being with a vampire let along actually talking about him mating with a damned pureblood. He also didn't quite trust was the Association could be up to with this whole thing.

"What?" Sai shifted at the tone his alpha used and he was fairly sure frost had formed on the windows.

"Well," Cross started focusing himself a bit now that the teen knew the worst, "it appears to be our survival instict at work. The longer you go without completing the bond the worse the heat will get. It'll start out as just a light fever and restlessness. Eventually you will feel compelled to see your mate out."

"So I'm going to be bonded to Kuran whether I want to be or not?" Zero couldn't believe it. There had never been any mention of such a thing when learning about bonds as a child, but then it was rare for a hunter to enter into an incomplete bond.

"Not exactly." Kaien replied wondering how they would get the soon-to-be-Trueblood to agree.

"Could you just spit it out please?" Sai spoke up from his position by the door. He didn't like the way this was going.

"Since Soul Bonds are a hunter thing and not a vampire one, Zero will need to cast a charm on Kaname in order to be able to complete the Soul Bond." There was a charm they were taught for such a thing when a hunter fell in love with a human but the younger hunters hadn't know such a thing would work on a vampire.

"Do I have a say in this?" Zero demanded, he was holding tightly to his temper but he certainly wasn't happy about any of this.

"Of course you do, we just want you to know what's going to happen." Kaien responded sounding obviously upset. He was pretty sure Zero wasn't going to use the charm and would stubbornly deny the bond until his instincts gave him no other choice. "I would like the two of you to stay here with me, we don't know all the details of an incomplete bond and Kensei Sai is not a student so it will allow us to keep an eye on you both. We will be pulling you out of class as well because we don't know how a mating heat will affect normal humans."

"Have my things already been moved to my room here?" Zero growled, he wouldn't argue the arrangement but he didn't like the idea of going into heat.

"Yes, and the room across from your's has been readied for Sai whenever the two of you are ready to..." Kaien trailed off as the silvette stood and breezed out of the room, followed by the raven hunter.

~*O*~

Zero hung a towel on the doorknob of the bathroom, wondering when the Chairman was finally going to get the lock fixed. After stripping his female clothes he shifted back to his proper form and stepped into the shower. It felt good to be male again but he couldn't get his mind off of the warning he'd been given. He knew that hunters were a kind of cross between werewolves and angels with some feline traits and that some animal instincts carried over but he'd never heard of heat being one of them. How long would it take before it started to affect him? And what the hell had they meant about his heat affecting others?

The silver hunter continued to mentally grump about the whole thing as he dried off and got dressed in his sleep clothes. He wasn't surprised to find Yuki waiting in his room when he walked in. He was surprised by how she looked though. "Yuki are you alright?"

"Fine." She answered shortly, not meeting his eyes. "Are you going to stay married to Kaname? You two can't really stand each other... I know you don't want this because you wouldn't have run away if you did..." Yuki sounded odd to him, like she was trying to hold something back and wasn't succeeding completely.

"I have no choice but to stay married to him really. Breaking the bond is almost impossible, and even if it succeeds there is a good chance it would kill me." He ran a hand through his spikes and slumped down on the bed. "I don't know what I'm going to do about the bond but I'm trying to come up with something."

"I'm sorry I signed that paper Zero." Yuki turned to leave. He believed her entirely but her voice had been more than just sad and guilty. She'd sounded almost angry. He wasn't sure what to do about that so he kept quite and let her go back to her own room.

Sighing he settled down to sleep, dreading the next afternoon because he knew Kaname was going to insist on talking about this further.

~*O*~

Sai smiled at the frowning vampire, thoroughly enjoying antagonizing her while Zero and Kaname "talked" with each other at the other end of the room. Sai personally thought it was more of a staring contest but he wasn't planning to interrupt in any case. Besides he was having fun messing with the vampiress named Ruka and answering questions from the one called Takuma. Occasionally one of the others would ask something but for the most part they just watched the interplay. He did notice that the cousins Kain Akatsuki and Aido Hanabusa were almost flanking the green eyed noble like they worried the hunter would lash out at him for some question he asked.

"So hunters can truly shift form?" Takuma asked, honestly interested in hunters as a race. There was little known about them and few who were willing to converse with vampires so he had every intention of taking advantage of this hunter's openness.

"Yes, in essence all of our shifts are charms but the stronger hunters can effect a change without actually using the charm. The ease which we can do so is influenced by how strong we are." Vivid blue eyes flicked away from the female to meet the eyes of the others'. "It like with our wings." Several vampires shifted closer at that, there had always been a rumor that hunters had wings but there was no official record of it. "The number of wings is indicative of how strong a hunter is. It's a manifestation of our aura, and our aura is what allows us to fly- not the actually wings themselves. Some of use can manifest them without going through the motions but it is a charm just the same. That's how humans that join the hunter ranks can still have wings. Well, they can if they are strong enough to pull it off. There are some that just don't have the strength for it."

"How many wings do you and Zero have?" Rima asked it, tipping her head in the direction of the other hunter, who seemed to be hissing at their pureblood.

"I have four as a "noble" hunter." Sai used air quotes to indicate that the hunters only loosely identify themselves by such titles, much to the amusement of those listening. "Zero should have six since he's a trueblood, though he hasn't Awakened yet."

"We know what a trueblood is, but what's Awakened?" Aido asked this time relaxing as they drew the hunter's attention away from provoking Ruka.

"Truebloods in generations past were hunted by vampires so we used a Sealing Ritual to disguise them as lower ranking hunters. Another ritual was done to release the seal- it was called an Awakening because they were "waking" the hunter's full power. Eventually they were simply born of lower rank and the Awakening happened on it's own when they were older." Sai glanced over to his friend and sighed to see him arguing with a scowling Kaname.

"That's pretty cool actually." Akatsuki sounded impressed by the hunters' survival evolution.

"That's nature at work." Sai replied with a nod in the tall vampire's direction.

"Not going to happen!" Zero snapped before he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room. The group watched him go by and Sai considered following. He changed his mind when Kaname brushed past him, growling lowly in his throat as he went.

Uh-oh... Was the collective thought for the group as the vampires cringed from the pureblood's anger and the hunter facepalmed at his alpha's stubbornness.

~*O*~

"I will not ignore this Zero, even if you are willing to." Kaname growled when he finally cornered the silvette.

"I am not going to present myself to the thrice damned Vampire Council as your mate." Zero retorted heatedly.

"Then at least complete the bond so that it's no longer an issue. We can work anything else out as time goes by." Kaname resisted the urge to rub his temple as he tried to reason with the younger teen.

"No." He didn't even hesitate to respond. "You don't know what it takes to complete a Soul Bond."

Kaname sighed in annoyance. "So tell me. I can't imagine it being anything we haven't already been forced to do."

"I'm not having this discussion with you now Kuran." Zero crossed his arms, not caring if it was a defensive move or not.

"Kaname." The brunette insisted as he had earlier in their conversation.

"Move." It was the silvette's turn to growl at the vampire.

The pureblood's sorrel eyes held steady on lilac ones as he stepped back and let the shorter male pass. He silently promised himself that this was far from over.

~*O*~

Kensei Sai rubbed the palms of his hands against his eyes as he laid back on the bed he'd been given. He'd left the vampires shortly after Kuran walked out to avoid the pureblood coming back to try to question him or pressure information out of him. Surprisingly he actually enjoyed talking with the group and sort of looked forward to spending more time with them. He was particularly interested in Souen Ruka- he was aware enough to recognize his behavior around the female as trying to get her attention the same way a little boy would pull a girl's hair to get her to notice him. Strangely the idea that he was attracted to a vampire- the enemy of his people- did not upset him in the slightest.

Maybe he was just to tired for it to properly register. Resolving to think it through more when he woke, Sai got up and went about readying for bed. Sleep always helped things make more sense...

~*O*~

Zero seethed as he restlessly tossed around under his sheets. How could that high and might pureblood even think of showing him to the Council? Surely the brunette had lost his ever loving mind! Eventually he fell asleep, still ranting about it all in his head. A sharp pull on his skull jerked Zero back awake hours later. Instinct had him wake thrashing against whatever had him and he felt another pull.

"Ouch!" The pitch of his voice wasn't what he was used to and he calmed enough to realize that he'd shifted into a female sometime while he was sleeping and the pain was from him pulling his own hair, which had gotten wrapped around his arms. Panting the hunter fell back, still tangled in his hair, and noticed that he felt warmer than he should have. "Shit..."

His heat was starting already. The hunter sat up and began working on freeing himself from his hair. Once that was done he got out of bed, glancing at the clock which read 2 A.M., and walked down to the bathroom. He shut the door but didn't bother with the lights and stripped down before stumbling into the shower. He turned the cold water on full blast and sank to the floor waiting for the fever to pass. Did a mating fever pass?

"They didn't say it would happen so soon..." Zero grumbled, shifting around to try to get comfortable. There was a knock on the door that caused him to jump. "Yea?"

Sai stepped into the bathroom and closed the toilet to sit on the lid. The raven hunter leaned his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands, head down and staring at his own hands. "The heat already?" His voice was strained, letting Zero know that he was worried by how quickly things were happening.

"Yes." Zero watched his second through the water splattered glass. "How did you know?"

"Well, you made quite a bit of noise tossing about and then I heard the shower." The dark haired teen shrugged, not sure what else he could do. Zero was refusing to bond and wasn't listening to reason which left nothing else but to wait. "Is Kuran really so bad that you would choose death?"

Zero pressed his forehead against the door to the shower. "I couldn't say really. Kuran and I have always had a rivalry of sorts for Yuki's attention. We never really knew each other as anything else. Then Shizuka came along and because of her a bond was made between the two of us. But it was only done to save Yuki's life. But I still don't know him. I'm not sure if I even want to know him, even though it seems like he might be willing to "work this out," whatever that's supposed to mean. He's still a pureblood vampire and I'm not sure I could ever accept that fact after what happened. But... He's been different lately and I can't figure out why. I think part of it is just that I'm tired of not having any control over my own life anymore."

"So maybe all you need is time to adjust to the changes that are happening. Just don't take too much time okay?" Sai turned his eyes to meet his friend's through the glass. "I won't follow another alpha Zero. If we loose you I'll become a loner."

"Sai..." Zero wasn't sure what to say to that. His companion sounded so lost at the thought of him dying. It had been so long since he'd had anything to do with his pack he hadn't thought of what they'd do if the Soul Bond killed him.

Sai stood up and went back to the door, before closing it he turned back. "I talked to Master Toga the other night. He said that as the heat gets worse, you'll have a harder time controlling you gender. It's an imbalance in your hormones caused by the incomplete bond. If you need help call me." The door closed with a thud that echoed in Zero's mind.

Great, now he had a whole new set of issues to deal with. He knew Sai wasn't trying to guilt him into anything but he accidentally had. Before Zero had always thought that his pack had moved on to another alpha after he'd been bitten by Shizuka. After Sai's arrival he'd subconsciously realized that the Kenseis were still loyal to him, but it hadn't crossed his mind that the other hunters in his pack were still waiting for him to step up too. Groaning at the hopelessness of his situation the silvette banged his head against the wall, letting the freezing water fight the heat and struggling to regain his male form.

~*O*~

There we go a whole new chapter for Kink Meme. If it's not too much trouble let me know what you think.