Title: Visitors from the Future
Genre: General/Romance/Friendship
Rating: T
Pairings: Zero/Kaname
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.
Author's notes: In this chapter, Wakaba Sayori had her first interaction session with Akatsuki Kain – cousin of Aidou Hanabusa. Later portion of the chapter, you get to see the twins with Akane plotting something mischievous and also a so-called argument between our dear KanZe.
Chapter 44 – In which Zero and Kaname had their first 'row' as an official couple…
Wakaba Sayori woke slightly after the sun had rises for the day, a quick look to the side – Matsushita Ayano was fast asleep. She had slept in earlier the day before, so she had no idea what time the girl actually came in.
Matsushita Ayano was the guard allocated to Ichiru Kiryuu, selected by the elders of the Fujiwara Clan members. The sixteen year old teenage girl was the only daughter of Matsushita Kenta and Keiko, and also the childhood acquaintance of Zero and Ichiru's cousin – Fujiwara Akemi. Skilled in the areas of Kendo, she was a student of Fujiwara Satoshi's Kendo Doujo since the tender age of five.
Matsushita served the Fujiwara Clan just like the Wakaba, they were in fact one of the oldest subordinate family to the Fujiwara Clan. The name of Matsushita is quite well established in the auto-mobile industry, and one would be surprised just how many of those industries out there actually contributed a share to the fortunes of the Fujiwara Clan these days. Unlike the Kuran, Shirabuki, the Hiou and the Watanabe – Fujiwara Clan is the only pureblood vampire ever in history to really fit in with the humans' population and modern society these days. It could be seen from their willingness to locate their homes in the middle of a bustling city of life, and not in the outskirts whereby community is small.
The Ichijo family while having taken a page out from the Fujiwara style of doing things had never quite succeeded in their blending in with the humans' population. Sure, Ichijo Asato had started up the Ichijo Enterprise out there in the modern city and was doing quite well. However, if one were to zoom in on their business partners – quite a number of them were corporations managed by vampires alike. That was the reason why Ichijo Enterprise had never quite made it abroad creating a name and a brand for them-selves. The Fujiwara though, was another matter entirely. They have business ties and relations with a lot of business corporations, governments and private agencies out there in the market.
For instances, the Matsushita had a high reputation in the world of the auto-mobile industry and Electronics sector of the manufacturing field. The Sawashiro, on the other hand, had undeniable ties to the underground world of the Yakuzas. Casinos, night-clubs and the shady areas of business usually fall under the Sawashiro's management. The Mishima family was the complete opposite; they were affiliated with the government tourism agencies and operate hotels, resorts – the more 'clean' type of recreational venues out in the Japan market. Last but not least, the Wakaba – they are well versed in the fields of archery and the family had relations to the police department.
"Sayori…?" The sudden sound emitting from the slumbering figure on her side jarred the hazel brown haired girl out from her thoughts.
"Huh…?" Sayori blinked twice to rid the sleep out from her eyes, before turning towards Matsushita Ayano.
"Have you brief Zero on his appointments to come in time yet?" Matsushita Ayano, Ichiru's personal bodyguard cum assistant prompted.
"…No…but I do know he would flip on it. He hates business dealings and socializing trips with a passion." Wakaba Sayori said in a deadpanned manner.
"I know, but still – you have to tell him. He should have known what he had gotten himself into when he signed on the legal papers to regain control of his own inheritances." Matsushita Ayano pointed out.
"How about you – have you inform your 'boss' yet?" Sayori throws back in response.
"I did, and he took it quite well." Ayano answered with a shrug.
"Gees…that's a given – Ichiru is the socializing twin, not Zero." Sayori muttered under her breath, as she started getting up to got ready for the new day ahead.
After making herself presentable for the day, Wakaba Sayori left Ayano alone to rest in the room and stepped out into the corridor way. The estate was of course engulfed in silence, since it was way too 'late' for the vampires to still be awake in sight. Sayori was in the midst of preparing breakfast for her own consumption, when she was startled by one Akatsuki Kain from behind.
"Good morning, Wakaba-san."
"Good morning, Akatsuki-san." Sayori managed to greet back in response, after she managed to calm her nerves.
"I apologized, did I startle you?" Akatsuki Kain frowned, as he regarded the human girl in front of him with mild concern.
"Just a bit, I wasn't aware that anyone would still be awake at this point of time." Sayori admitted, placing aside the plate on the kitchen counter top and turned to face the vampire standing behind her.
"I see…" Akatsuki commented, but did not leave just yet – and so Sayori decided to ask.
"Is there perhaps anything which I could help you with?"
"Actually there is…Wakaba-san; do you have a minute to spare? There is something which I was hoping to speak to you about…" Akatsuki Kain responded with solemnity apparent on his features, causing Sayori to frown in response as well.
"Sure, I supposed breakfast could wait for a while." Sayori responded, setting aside her current task on hand and moved towards the dining room with the vampire in tow for the conversation to come.
Once in the dining room, Sayori waited until the fire wielding vampire had taken his seat opposite from her before taking the initiative to strike up the conversation between them. "So what is it that you wish to speak with me about?"
"My cousin – Aidou Hanabusa, I supposed you know where I'm coming from?" The vampire renowned for his wild hairstyle and dressing sense, started.
"…I believed so." Wakaba Sayori allowed a sigh of resignation to escape from her lips, as she looked up into the eyes of the fire wielding vampire and said. Of course, she knew what the vampire was trying to communicate with her about – she was not all blind to those actions taken by a certain blue eyed blond when it comes down to her.
The random temper tantrum; the over-protective syndrome; and the relentless attempt at striking up conversation and also not to forget those glances directed towards her way whenever that guy thought no one was watching. Wakaba Sayori might not be a full-fledge hunter, but still she was trained in these aspects – too. There was absolutely no way she could have missed those gaze of intensity being directed towards her, and it was not all that hard to pin-point the owner of those intensity gaze either.
"You have no need to worry, what he has for me is nothing but a mere infatuation. It will pass with time…" Wakaba Sayori told Akatsuki Kain, hoping to sound strong and firm despite the underlying lack of confidence in what she said.
"I certainly hope so, but it is hard to tell with Hanabusa. He could be rather bullheaded at times…" Akatsuki Kain expressed his worries across to Sayori, in a deadpanned manner.
His cousin had it bad for the girl, that much – Akatsuki was aware of. Despite his relentless attempt at highlighting the difference between his cousin and Wakaba Sayori; pointing out the sheer fact that nothing could work between the duos. Aidou Hanabusa was still avoiding the fact, and even went to the extent of sniping at him if the name of Wakaba Sayori was brought up for discussion among them. Since his cousin failed to see reason behind his actions, he gathered he would have to tackle the problem from another point – and that would be to speak with the girl personally.
"I see what you mean; I'll find time to speak with him about it." Wakaba Sayori eventually said, feeling the start of a headache setting in on her.
"I sincerely hoped that you would be able to talk him around." Akatsuki Kain replied, before turning on his heels and headed back upstairs for his long-overdue rest.
Akane Kiryuu hides behind a pillar as she listened to the conversation between Akatsuki Kain and Wakaba Sayori, sighing inwardly as she registered the main reason behind this conversation between the duos. Having come here from the future and changing several things in the past – there's only one thing neither she nor the twins had it in them to change. That is – the peculiar relationship between one Wakaba Sayori and Aidou Hanabusa.
Akane was not really aware of what had transpired between Aidou Hanabusa and Wakaba Sayori back in her own time, but with the way Aidou Hanabusa had remained single all the way without getting himself hitched with a bride. Akane was willing to bet whatever attraction the blond had felt towards Wakaba Sayori was not a mere infatuation, it would have to be something more than that.
"Oh boy… what a headache to be dealing with…" Akane muttered aloud to no one in particular.
"Akane… what are you doing down here muttering to yourself?" The sound of Zero Kiryuu speaking up snapped the girl out from her train of thoughts.
"Ah…Zero, good morning to you and where are the twins?" Akane greeted before inquiring on her siblings' whereabouts.
"Akane, its morning – they are of course still asleep…" Zero responded, eyeing his future adopted daughter as though the girl a screw loose in her mind.
"I see…" Akane made a knowing sound, inwardly wondering about the possibility of matching Yuuki up with Aidou Hanabusa. The idea has been weighing on Akane's mind for some-time now, and the more she pondered about it – the more plausible the situation seem to be. Oh well, she would have to run her idea pass Kaname Kuran first – she had no death wish on her list just yet.
"…" Zero eyed the sandy-haired girl with some suspicion, he had a feeling that Akane was planning to do something and she intend to rope the twins into it. Deciding to just deal with whatever the trio comes up with in time, Zero dragged the girl off towards the dining room for breakfast without another words being spoken between them.
"Kaname-sama, you called for me?" Ruka Souen entered the Study Room of the Kuran estate, and asked.
"Yes, I had something to ask from you. I would like you to teach Yuuki a thing or two, pertaining to the standard behavior in public." Kaname Kuran started, turning his eyes away from the window and directed them towards the female blonde vampire in his Study.
"Of course, Kaname-sama... I would be more than willing to assist you in that factor." Ruka Souen agreed easily, not knowing the troubles to come in time.
Zero Kiryuu waited until he was certain that Ruka Souen was completely out from earshot before speaking up and addressing the pureblood seated behind the work desk within the Study.
"I certainly hope Yuuki would not drive her insane during lessons, I'm sure you and I both know – Yuuki isn't really the 'lady' type of girl."
"You think I don't know that? That's exactly why I only told Ruka to teach Yuuki how to behave in public; I'm not having hopes of transforming Yuuki to a typical 'lady' person because I know she doesn't have it in her. " Kaname Kuran responded dryly to Zero's statement about Yuuki's personality.
To which Zero merely shrugged, pushing aside the topic of Yuuki for now and bring up another issue for discussion.
"So what did Maria Kurenai speak to you about?" Zero asked; he had seen how uptight his younger twin had been when the girl entered the Study to speak with Kaname before. There must be a reason behind his twin's agitation about the meeting between Maria Kurenai and the pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan.
"…I never did tell you what I went off to doing during the fateful night whereby the battle with Rido took place, did I?" Kaname suddenly said, causing the silver-haired teen to blink a couple of times before registering his words.
"Well, I didn't have it in me to inquire of you either…" Zero responded, wondering why Kaname was not answering his question outright and instead had to go in a round circle.
"I was at the council, and apparently Maria Kurenai had the misfortune of spying on the council only to see me cleansing out the members of the council in mid-actions." Kaname stated flatly, and then he waited for his words to sink into his silver-haired lover fully.
"…Okay, then I'm glad you didn't choose to 'wipe' her off the world of living too." There was a moment of silence, before Zero responded to the pureblood's words.
"Zero…do you seriously think that I would kill her off for that reason?" Kaname was frowning now, of all the possible response – he didn't think Zero would say something in that nature.
"I don't know, okay?! Maybe it just did not appeal to me that you would keep someone who had seen you attempting those dirty deeds alive!" Zero snapped, irritated by Kaname Kuran's words.
He had remained oddly calm when he heard of the pureblood's actions of slaying the council members – because he never cared much about the Vampire Council. He had no idea how Kaname had wanted him to react by telling him that Maria Kurenai had the misfortune of witnessing the 'cleansing' act taking place at the Council – the night he battled Rido. And so, his years of hunter's training came into play – and he ended up saying what he said in response to the pureblood's words.
"Zero, I do not simply murder anyone out from cold-blood. I am not that low in character." Kaname state in a tone devoid of emotions; his expression once again taking on his usual mask of indifference.
"Going defensive on me, are you now?" Zero throws out when he realized that Kaname had once again clammed up in defense with his emotions masked up behind that poker face of indifference.
"…" There was no response from Kaname Kuran; the pureblood remained unmoving in his position. That pissed Zero off completely, he knew his words must have strike a nerve in Kaname in order to render the man to clam up like a shell. Still, what else was he supposed to say in that situation? He had no idea what Kaname had against the Vampire Council in general, and when the pureblood brought up the issue of Maria Kurenai witnessing the former actions taken upon the council's members – the first logical comment was of course to comment on the pureblood's decision to spare the girl's life.
It would be good if Kaname Kuran had just decided to leave things be, but no – that guy had to press on the issue and get to the bottom of his thoughts on the matter. When he finally snapped and revealed his inner thoughts to the former, said vampire had decided to clam up on him out from self-defense.
"You know what? I think I'd better be off before I do something I'll regret in time." Zero Kiryuu eventually throws out to the defensive pureblood, as he stalked out from the room with the intention to cool his temper down elsewhere.
Kaname Kuran clenched his fist tightly by the side when he first heard the door leading to the Study Room being slammed shut in the silver-haired teen's wake. A part of him wanted to venture out and drag his lover back in with him and yet another part was thinking that it might be better for Zero to head out and vent off some steam. He certainly did not mean to just clam up like this after Zero snap at him, but it was his instincts at work – an act of self-preservation.
Irritation directed mainly to himself at its peak, his powers accidentally leaked out and caused several wine-glasses sitting in the display cabinet of the room to break in response.
Outside the Study Room, Akane whom was passing by said corridor way flinched inwardly upon the sound of the glasses breaking from the room within – followed by the slamming of the front door of the Kuran's estate.
'Thank god the twins are not around…' Akane thought to herself, the boys' certainly do not need to witness or knows about this issue between Kaname and Zero.
The twins' boys had been taken out to town by Shiki Senri and Touya Rima, a ploy of her cousin to get Shiki Senri out from that hermit crab shell the model teen had taken to develop over the past few days of being anti-social and hiding away from the majority of the estate's residents. Yuuki, on the other hand, was pre-occupied with the lessons with Ruka Souen.
Initially, she was involved in the lessons too but Ruka had claimed that she was already well-skilled in that areas and do not need more practice. Furthermore, her achievements of constantly being praised by Ruka was getting Yuuki even more dejected with each passing minute and therefore Akane had taken the liberty to take a break from the classes' altogether.
However, if Akane had any ideas that the younger version of her future adopted parents would be having their first 'row' to speak – she would rather be in the room to keep Yuuki Company then to chance upon something like this.
And so, Akane took refuge in her cousin's room instead – and waking the said vampire up from his nap.
Ichijo Takuma woke to the sound of his room's door creaking open, and then the figure of one Akane Kiryuu sneaking in and took refuge by holing up in the tiny balcony of his room.
"Akane…?"
"Sorry for waking you, just go back to your nap. I just need something to entertain myself with." Akane started, directing a weak smile towards Ichijo Takuma's way.
"Akane, don't lies…tell me what's bugging you." The green eyed blond sat himself up in bed, and look Akane in the eyes as he said.
"Actually, it's nothing … really. I just had the misfortune of witnessing Zero and Kaname-sama having their first row since they got together here as a couple." Akane winced when she relate the earlier events to her cousin, uneasily.
"Okay… so what can we do then?"
"Nothing… this is something they had to deal with – by their own means. We, as outsiders can't really do much – I supposed, the only thing we could do now was to occupy the twins' attention and hoping the twins wouldn't catch on to whatever was happening between those two." Akane responded, sighing wearily as she flopped herself onto her back upon her cousin's bed.
"Don't they have their rows back in your time period? Why are you so uneasy about letting the twins catch on to what transpired between them before?" Ichijo Takuma asked.
"They do have arguments, fights from time-to-time back from where we came from. However, the twins never really see them having disagreement over such issues – what the twins seen were just a corner of the ice-berg. Since by the time the twins were born to them, the relationship between Zero and Kaname were pretty much iron-clad and unshakable already. It was me, whom had the misfortune of being stuck between most of their disagreements because I was the one with them since they started getting together. In fact, I'm one of the topics pertaining to their many arguments at that point of time."
"Huh…? Why is that so?" Ichijo Takuma asked the girl curiously.
"I've mentioned before right – I was adopted by them when they were in their early stages of the relationship?"
"Well, yes… you'd mentioned that before."
"Right, anyway – after my family demise'… I wasn't taken in by Zero right away. I actually spend nights in the quarantine compartments of the hunter's association until Zero practically marches into the place and bring me out from there. I do not know how he did it, but eventually he won out the argument and brought me back home with him. He left me with Seiren for a while and went inside the Study to talk things out with Kaname-sama, I believed.
I can't remember much, since I was practically just about four years old back then. I stayed in the Kuran's estate for about 1 week before Kaname-sama made up his mind to adopt me into the family, but of course – under Zero's name. No, it wasn't this building we are in right now – it's the estate situated in the outskirts of Tokyo. That is where I spend most of the years of my childhood days in – and honestly speaking, they fight about practically everything pertaining to me. From the point of adoption to the upbringing style…sometimes I feel as though I'm their practicing dummy doll to prepare for Akira and Subaru's arrival. Of course, there are other kinds of arguments too – relating to Zero's hunting profession and Kaname-sama's desire to get Zero out from that line of work."
"So did Zero stop?"
"What…? Oh, you mean stop working as a hunter? No… he didn't he continues on, but instead of executing orders as per the association issued – he started to pick and choose his own jobs later. I think he only stopped taking up hunting missions completely after he fell pregnant with the twins." Akane allowed a wry grin to play on her lips upon that sheer memory of that event to worm into her mind.
"Okay, so judging from your experience – how long do you think Zero will be away?" Ichijo Takuma hurried to steer the topic away from the private life of his pureblood friend and Zero Kiryuu.
"Maximum 3 days I believe… so until he had it in him to come back, please keep the twins entertained – okay? Dear cousin of mine…" Akane grinned, before leaving the said vampire's room – feeling all better now that she had gotten her worries off her mind.
Date started: 18/1/2013
Date completed: 18/1/2013