Zero
As the weeks went on, the dreams still haunted him. If anything, they had worsened since that first dream months ago. They had even invaded his waking hours in the form of flashbacks and daydreams. Each time he found himself lost in dreams of what could have been, what should have been, had the circumstances been a little different. He could not forget her, as much as even her memory was paining him.
The memories had been infiltrating his dreams as well, particularly moments such as when she defended him when his sensei tried to kill him, the first time she had allowed him to drink her blood, the time he had nearly kissed her in his room and many other memories were replaying in his mind. His photographic memory was making it impossible for him to forget her.
Less than two years ago, they had gone into the town together to do errands for the Headmaster. This was not an unusual task for the two guardians; they were allowed to leave the campus of Cross Academy as they pleased. Zero rarely left because he preferred to escape to his room when he was off-duty. Yuki left occasionally with Yori, but never by herself. Her early memories of being nearly attacked by a vampire had left emotional scars that made it hard for her to leave the safety of the school by herself. As usual, she had taken him to her favorite cafe without even asking him what he wanted. Her excuse had been the same she always used when he raised the familiar complaint of wanting to go somewhere else.
"Well, I love the parfait here," she has said with a nervous smile on her face. Despite his hatred of that place, he would have gone there a million more times just to see that smile. Even then his dormant feelings for her had been rising to the surface more than usual. He had assumed that it was because their secret, that he was drinking her blood, was bringing them closer together than they had been.
He sighed. Memories such as those kept haunting him, every single day since the first dream had caused him to awaken in a cold sweat. Every time he closed his lavender eyes, he saw her brown ones. Every time he daydreamed in class, she was in those dreams. Every time he sensed a fellow vampire nearby, he half-hoped it was her. It was torturing him. He closed his eyes in an attempt to fall asleep.
He was on the floor of the headmaster's bathroom, wearing only his pants and a towel around his torso. His vampire side was getting stronger by the day and he could no longer suppress it fully. He was coming what he hated most, a beast with an intelligence, abilities and beauty that surpassed those of humans, but at the cost of a constant thirst for blood and a savage side. The spell that was his tattoo had failed.
Into the bathroom she came, wearing only her uniform skirt and an undershirt. Even like this, she looked beautiful to him. Of course, she noticed him on the floor. She began talking to him and trying to get him to finish dressing.
Then, from her pocket she produced a handmade chocolate. She said it was the only one she had managed to make. She gave it to him. Its taste was sweet. Although he ordinarily did not like sweet things, she had used dark chocolate which had a slight bitterness. He wanted to tell her how well she had done, but something stopped him. It was that he could not even bring himself to hint to her about his feelings. He was a vampire and she was a human. There were lines that could not be crossed.
He opened his eyes to see the bright sunlight of morning. He wondered when the dreams would end and he could move-on. This torture, these dreams were causing him a pain deeper than even his slow transformation from human to vampire. He sighed knowing today would be another day where he would be reminded of how much things had changed, how although he had never been able to bring himself to admit it then, he had loved her. How he wished he could change the past, so that he could not have lost her. Yuki, the only one he had loved and the only one he ever would love.
He knew that his love had been one-sided. Even as a "human" she had been in love with Kaname Kuran. His mother had told him that if he truly loved someone he should let them go and if they loved him, they would come back to him. A year later her absence made her feelings obvious. She did not love him in the way that he had loved her.
He wondered if she ever thought about him. Although he knew he had stood no chance with her in a romantic context, they had been the best of friends. She had loved him in that sense; he knew that for a fact. That single fact provided some proof that his feelings were not simply the result of his teenage hormones.
He had been so ashamed the first time he had given-in to his vampire side. He was weak and had given-in. The Bloody Rose was in his hands and he was considering using it. Hurting Yuki in such a way had hurt him in ways he could never expect. He could not allow himself to do it again.
The pureblood was also upset. Her love for him was mutual; he cared about her in a way Zero had never expected. Why did a pureblood vampire love a human in such a way? The answer, he did not want to know. His hands moved towards the trigger, just as she burst into his room and stopped him.
He wished for the day when these memories would no longer haunt his dreams. Little did he know the subject of his dreams was making the same wish about him.
