Disclaimer: VK is still not mine. But if it were, I would make Yuuki and Zero get together. Duh.

Viva la Vida

(Long Live Life)

"The hunter and pureblood lineages have never been combined," Zero said, looking up from his coffee cup to where the Chairman sat across the kitchen table. "What will that mean for our child?"

Cross looked up from the newspaper spread before him, took a sip from his coffee and threw his long blond hair behind his head. "It's true that the genetics have never been mixed, but that's no reason for the child to be anything but a normal baby. I don't think it'll be a Down-syndrome-type thing. It'll likely be classified as a level B vampire, as it has both human and pure blood running in its veins. But I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."

"What'll happen to her?" Zero asked quietly, tracing the design on the side of his coffee cup.

The chairman looked up from the newspaper spewed out in front of him. "Yuuki?"

"No, the child."

"You think it will be a girl?"

"I hope it will." Zero hoped she'd be healthy, and she'd be beautiful and strong, like her mother.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," the Chairman replied nonchalantly. He took another sip of his coffee and looked back to the newspaper. "There's less risk to the child than in human pregnancies because, well, they're vampires."

Zero glanced up at the ceiling, toward the room Yuuki was still sound asleep in. "Is there a lot of risk to the mother?"

The Chairman sighed. "Yes, unfortunately, obviously if she bleeds a lot, she'll get sick much faster than a human would. But you don't need to worry about Yuuki; we'll take good care of her."

Zero fought the guilt already stewing in his gut. How could he ever live with himself if anything happened to her because of all this? It was he who'd started their intimacy. It was he who'd chosen to have sex with her, to take from her the innocent virginity that had made her so vulnerable, so easy to love. It was he who'd provided the seed that had left her in such a weak state. If she died, it would be his fault.

"How can you know that?" he muttered. "The Hunter's Society won't help with vampire pregnancies, and there's no way we can take her to a regular hospital. She could die right here in this house."

"We'll figure something out. Why are you suddenly so worried about this, Zero-kun?"

Zero sighed. "She's entering her eighth month," he pointed out. "We're into the hot zone. She should have been monitored since day one, and if anything happens, we'll have nowhere to take her. No way to help her. And her bloodlust...I think it's getting worse."

"Zero-kun, she's a vampire. She's not as susceptible to a lot of the complications humans are. The main problem is the bloodlust, and that's a progressive thing. The more your baby grows, the more blood it needs to keep it alive. She's been getting slowly thirstier all this time, but now she's really beginning to feel that the your blood isn't enough for her anymore."

Zero thought about how exhausted he'd been recently, how Yuuki had gone from taking just a little blood every day to pushing Zero to the limit. He remembered what had happened the night before, how Yuuki had fed from him for almost five minutes and how he'd finally had to push her off, begging her to stop. Her love for him couldn't keep her from taking all the blood she could—her need to protect their child was stronger. Their sharing had gone from erotic and tender to painful and guilt-ridden, and it was a fact that destroyed both of their souls. Zero couldn't wait for this pregnancy to be over, for her to return to normal so their lives and their love weren't in danger anymore.

"I can't provide for her anymore," Zero whispered. He forced all his anger into his fist and pounded it on the table, his vampire strength creating a crack in the wood. "I can't give her enough blood." Ashamed, he buried his face in his hands. He was a failure. A failure as a partner and a failure as a father.

The Chairman reached over and patted him on the back. "You're not a failure, Zero. Naturally, she should be out every night, feeding on everyone she can find to provide for herself. But our Yuuki would never dream of doing something like that, so she's holding it all in, trying her hardest to survive without hurting anyone. You shouldn't have to be supporting her like this. Nothing is your fault."

"What isn't Zero's fault?"

The two of them turned to see Yuuki standing in the door, that shirt of Zero's she was wearing to bed (her shift no longer fit) hanging off her tiny frame like leaves of a weeping willow. Zero stood and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm sorry, Yuuki," he whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

Sorry for what? Yuuki wondered. Her sensitive vampire skin could feel Zero's heart beat beneath their chests to the sad song of an invisible metronome. She ground her teeth against the thirst it was causing to worsen. She couldn't bite him now. She was almost too positive he was still too weak from the night before.

Then it hit her as she felt his unusually cold skin brush against hers. She knew why Zero looked so sad, why he was holding her like she would otherwise evaporate. She had taken too much. The tablets didn't replace blood; they only helped the bone marrow create more of it. All the blood he had to give was now in her. Zero had become severely anemic; the life had been drained from him faster than his body could replace it. That was why he'd had to stop her the night before. He couldn't give any more, and he felt terrible.

"Zero, no, don't do this to yourself," she whimpered. "I can't take it."

A hand fell on her shoulder, and she her head to face the Chairman. "Don't worry yourself, Yuuki," he said. "I'll provide for you while Zero heals. You're both gonna be fine."

Yuuki's eyes leapt from her skull. To say that drinking the blood of her father would be disgusting was an understatement so huge it could have almost passed for a flat-out lie. Even if he was closer to her generation than to a normal birth father's, his position alone made the entire prospect mortifying. No matter how you did it, bloodsucking was a sexual act. And he was her adoptive father.

But as the thirst ripped at her throat, forcing her closer and closer to Zero's weakened veins, she realized she, yet again, had no other choice. Pushing away from Zero, she hugged her shivering frame and squeezed her eyes shut. Didn't open them until the tantalizing aura of human pulse pounded against her lips, and she realized Chairman Cross held his wrist—sliced open so that pure red fluid seeped out—under her nose, where she couldn't possibly refuse. Torture. Pure torture.

"It's all right, Yuuki. This isn't like you and Zero. If you want, I can get a glass and—ah!"

Her nails had dug too hard into his skin as she's lunged for his arm; any reservations she'd had drowned in the turbulent sea of red, the endless world of heavenly lifeblood she was floating away through. She lapped from his wrist in despair, gripping his hand in one of hers and his forearm in the other. A few deviant drops of blood plip-plipped onto the wood beneath their feet. Her whole being shook violently as she sucked in the delicious life, and tears of despair flooded her eyes. More. More. More.

"Even with Zero's blood, you still don't have enough," Chairman Cross muttered. He placed his free hand over the crown of her head. "My poor child. My darling little Yuuki."

Zero buried his face in his hands so he wouldn't have to see Yuuki fight so hard against her agony. It was just like that night a month ago. Even as she'd fed more and more on Zero, she'd been slowly losing blood to the baby, and being pulled away before she was finished the night before had tipped her over the edge. Here again was the voracity, exploding in a moment of gluttony and seemed insatiability. Turning his innocent, sweet Yuuki into a ruthless monster.

"There," the Chairman whispered as Yuuki pulled away, licking his wrist clean. "Don't you feel better?"

Yuuki stared at him with an unreadable expression, not exactly anger or fear, but not content, either. Confusion, perhaps, mixed with the bitter acceptance that she had just done something monumentally unethical to her. She noticed her father's cheeks weren't glowing with their usual roses anymore; they were chalky pale now, with just a hint of color to them. She covered her eyes guiltily, feeling criminal for robbing him of that life that was just so characteristically him.

"I'm sorry, Chairman," she murmured.

"Don't be, Yuuki," he answered. "You aren't my kin, but you are my child. You both are." He shot Zero a look, but Zero didn't appear to be listening. He had come up behind Yuuki and pulled her back flush against him, locking his arms tightly over her chest. "I have obligations to you, too," Chairman Cross continued. "Please don't belittle that." Sighing, he grabbed his coffee and started for the door.

"Oh, and Yuuki?"

She turned her huge brown eyes his direction.

"I want you to keep your eyes open from now on. The Council reported another finding last night."

Both Yuuki and Zero's eyes widened, and when they heard the door to the Chairman's bedroom slam, she fell into a chair and put her hand to her forehead.

"I suppose it's not really a bad thing," she mumbled. "I mean, the fewer purebloods there are, the fewer humans are turned…"

"It's not the point of the Hunter's Association," Zero pointed out. "Their goal is to destroy the level E's, not those who aren't a danger to humanity."

Yuuki sighed. "We're a dying lineage," she muttered. "That's why I was supposed to marry Kaname—to keep our bloodline alive. Even our children won't do that. Eventually, there won't be any of us left, and the transformation will be history." She gazed at Zero, remembering the despair of his excruciating descent into insanity. "The sooner the better, right?"

Zero was leaning his temple on his elbow; his eyes grazed the floor and he sat up in his chair. "I want you to be careful, Yuuki. That's the fourth one, and there aren't any leads on the killer. But there is a definite pattern; if you're a pureblood, you're a target. I try my best to protect you, but I know sometimes I fail, and you end u getting hurt…" His head dropped.

"We're together, Zero," Yuuki whispered. She slid her hand across the table and let it rest atop his. "That means we protect each other. At all costs. You're my obligation as much as I am yours. And I don't mind that a bit. You know I'm not a weak person, Zero. You know I can protect myself."

"I just couldn't live with myself if anything ever happened to you." He tried desperately not to remember the night he became a vampire. The night his demon took over and she was hurt at his own hand. There was no forgiving that.

When his eyes opened again, he was in her arms. She stood net to his chair and pulled him over so she held his head lightly against her chest. "That's why every minute I have with you means everything to me," she said. "That's why you're mine."

--

The fluff bunny has returned! Sorry for the wait. As I said, school started, and my government teacher started the year off "right" by assigning FIVE projects immediately. A lot of this I worked on during photography class. XD It's still a little rough, but I wanted to get it up, so if you see any problems or have any suggestions, tell me plzthx.

And this is completely off-story, but I'm willing to venture a guess as to the end of the manga here. Kaname is going to recognize how much Yuuki loves Zero, and he's going to realize that it is Zero, not him, who makes her truly happy, and he is going to give his life to save Zero's (or at least try to) so that Yuuki can be with him and be happy. God, wouldn't that just be the most romantic, perfect ending?? squeal And it would totally redeem Kaname in my book. Then if he lives, he can get together with Seiren or Ruka or something. Or Aidou. Because we all know Aidou is a flaming bisexual and is in love with Kaname. But who isn't in love with him? (Besides me.)

Gomen. I am a sucker for stuff like that. Ignore my ravings, por favor.