Disclaimer: I still don't own VK, but I do own a shitload of VK crap! Who wants to see the Shizuka doll I sewed myself? Lol JK

Soooo…this was originally going to be chapter twelve, but then I found that I had nothing to say in between those scenes. Plus, we all need a little Zeki fluff after that heartbreaking last chapter. Actually, this is five pages worth of fluff. Whether or not that is "a little" is for you to decide.

Union

(Tentatively Titled Death By Pants)

It was dark. Wherever he was, everything was shrouded in darkness. He looked around tentatively, and realized when he glanced at his palm his five-year-old body was giving off light—and shaking heavily.

He glanced around, trying to decide what to do. He had to get out of the oppressive blackness…but what choice was there but to walk into it, hoping to find a way out? He took a single step and something clattered loudly at his feet; startled, he glanced down at the perpetrator of the terrifying sound. The block castle he'd made with Ichiru earlier that day stood out against the light, lit up on one side and spilling shadows into the gloom. Turning, he saw a green couch standing out of the darkness in the same way, and he knew instantly where he was.

400 Fujishima Way. His parents' house. Their living room.

"Vampire…" Phantomlike cold gripped his shoulders and tried to penetrate his skin. He whipped around, mortified, and found himself face-to-face with a dark void vaguely shaped like a man, large eyes glaring from near the top. He knew who it was, despite the utter lack of identifying features. Nagano Tatsuo. The vicious hunter from the Association with whom his parents used to meet.

Only Nagano's eyes weren't the terrifying red he knew; they were blue, icy, the freezing colors of the surface of Neptune.

"Blood thief…" The deathly whisper pierced through his ears. "Soul-eater…"

"S-shut up," he tried to say, but nothing came from his lips. Nagano's dark, ghostlike hand reached out to touch him, and he tried to back away, but the floor beneath was suddenly frictionless; closing his eyes, he tensed and shied away from the soulless touch, and began to fall…fall…

Zero's entire body convulsed in an instantaneous response to imagined impact. The sweat soaking his pajamas evaporated slowly into the cold air, bathing his skin in maddening chills. Shivering, he yanked off the wet top and tossed it aside. Yuuki slept soundly beside him, hogging the blankets as usual. He smiled dismally; at least her cover-greed had spared him soaked sheets. He pulled the wadded-up comforter gently from her arms and snuggled into her. The shivers dissolved in her warmth, and he closed his eyes and forced the nightmare from his nerves.

--

Despite the fact she was drinking up to one and a half times as much blood a day as she had three weeks before, and the fact that she was also drinking her weight in blood tablets, Yuuki's hunger still protested. It was like all her body wanted to do was be barbaric. Feed when it wasn't sleeping. Sleep when it wasn't feeding. How important was this? She was about 31 weeks along. If she miscarried now, could her baby survive? Could she survive? If she didn't get enough blood, would she just have the baby, or would they both die?

She didn't want to think about it.

She forced her mouth away from Zero's blood-covered throat and gasped for air. Since she'd realized she was taking too much from Zero, she'd been more careful, or as careful as she could be through the whole maternal-instinct issue. She was feeding her baby, and there was only so much she could control herself…

"Finished?" Zero asked, grinding a fist against his eye like he had an intolerable headache.

Yuuki sat back, yanking her hand through her wet hair and wiping the drops on the bedsheets.

"Maybe we should stop this," she mumbled, sucking the water from a tendril hanging near her mouth.

Zero's head snapped up from the pillows. His eyes widened and he glared. "What?"

"You know…I've taken too much from you." She folded her arms over her breasts, still bare from her shower. "Maybe I can try to hold off a little more, or take from someone else, but…I can't keep doing this to you. It's hurting you, and it's really hurting me."

He sat forward and cupped her face between his palms. "Don't you ever talk like that! I can take this 'hurting,' but I could never forgive myself if something happened to you or our child."

Yuuki pulled away from him. "I don't have to sacrifice anything, I just don't want to take from you anymore."

"Well, who else do you plan to take from?"

Yuuki turned away so her legs dangled over the end of the bed, clutched her pillow over her chest, and gazed painfully at the carpet. There was only one other person out there she could possibly force herself to drag into this, and she knew Zero would never want to hear his name.

So it really sucked that her silence spoke as loudly as her voice itself.

He stood and began taking his clothing off. "I can't sleep peacefully thinking there's still a chance you'll choose him, Yuuki." Maybe he was a selfish jerk. So be it. Who wasn't terrified of losing the one person he'd ever loved?

"How are 'choosing' him and being willing to ask him to do this at all the same thing?" she demanded. "I can ask him for a little blood—for God's sake, Zero, he's my brother!"

"So you'll take as much as you want from him, but not from me? Am I not good enough or something?"

She leapt from the bed and whipped around angrily. "You idiot! It means I'd rather spare your life than his! I love you a hundred times more than I've ever loved him, or anyone else, for that matter!" Of course, Yuuki didn't add she'd have just as much trouble taking from Kaname what she had taken from Zero. "I've already taken more than you've ever taken from me! I don't want your blood anymore!" She didn't mean for it to come out that way, and her face flushed. But she was too angry to take back her fiery words.

Hurt rushed through Zero's nerves, but he disguised it with an iron glare and a turn. "You'll drink my blood when I say you will," he barked, yanking his pajama top over his arms. "I have as much obligation to you as you've ever thought you had to me."

"Who said I ever felt any obligation to you?" Yuuki shouted, snapping her nightshirt against her legs. "All those months I was giving to you…I did it because I wanted to, not because I felt like it was my duty!"

Zero didn't speak. Guilt kicked his anger out of his chest and left him tired and weak. How was it she could just tear down all those protective cement walls he'd built after Shizuka's attack, forcing him to melt like a frightened little girl? It just wasn't fair.

She misinterpreted his silence completely. "You're such a stubborn jerk, Zero!" she cried, throwing a pair of bundled-together socks his direction.

His love and confidence swelled out of his chest when the socks bounced lightly off his back. He whipped around and grabbed the tiny girl before he could lose his nerve.

"Yuuki…" he whispered gently, running his hands over her scalp.

"What?" she snapped defiantly, even though her face was buried in his shirt.

"Will you…will you marry me?"

In less than a second, her anger evaporated. She pulled back, startled, and gazed into the liquid lavender eyes. He was trying his hardest to hide it, but she and he were too close and she could feel it radiate from him like the light of a neon sign.

He's terrified. He's so terrified. He doesn't want me to reject him.

He should know better than that.

"Zero, you idiot," she muttered, pulling away slightly and punching him in the chest. "What a time to ask. Of course. Of course I'll marry you!" Grabbing his shoulders, she tried to leap up into his arms, but was too big and heavy to do it anymore.

"Here," he said, placing his hands on her backside. "Pull yourself up."

So she pushed off the floor and he hauled her into his arms, where she buried her face in the crook of his neck and wrapped her naked legs around his waist. She pounded her tiny fists against his back as if to punish him for their argument and said, in a voice still rough from her earlier defiance, "I can't think of anything that would make me happier." The sheer irony of the situation almost made him laugh.

"You're getting heavy, Yuuki." He hauled her weight to his right hand and wove his free fingers through her damp locks and kissed her on the cheek. She barked out a single laugh, and he spun her around once and laid her down on the bed, urgently crushing his lips onto hers.

"I love you, Yuuki," he spoke against her mouth.

"Mmm. I love you too, you annoying fool."

Zero chuckled. His hand tightened over her butt. Her tongue slid from her lips and passionately explored his mouth. He pulled away before they could get too serious and rolled over to his side of the bed.

"Here." He reached over to his nightstand and gracelessly yanked the drawer open. "I guess most girls get one of these." He slammed it shut again and handed her a small velvet box with an unusual lid (it was split down the middle and the two halves lifted apart).

Heart thumping fast and face flushing with embarrassment, Yuuki opened the box and lifted out the contents.

"Oh, oh my gosh," she said sheepishly, gazing at the thin gold band with a tiny ruby set between two smaller diamonds.

"It seemed more appropriate for a vampire," he explained his unusual choice. "It's not much, I know, but—"

"You're a college student," she responded. "Besides, I like simple. Big expensive stuff kind of buys out a relationship, don't you think?"

Zero shrugged. She turned the ring and started to put it on her finger.

"Hey!" Zero whined. "That's supposed to be MY job!"

"Oh. Sorry."

Giving a sardonic grin, he grabbed the ring in one hand, her hand in the other, and slipped it over her finger.

She laughed. "Oh, Zero," she goofed. "I'll never take this off."

"You'd better take it off," he said, placing his hand between her breasts and pushing her gently back so that she lay on the bed, "before you jump in a river or decide to re-pipe the house."

"Okay," she giggled, and he hastily took his shirt off and they kissed again, his hand wandering down her thigh and under her leg. His underwear began to tighten, and she reached down to relieve that tension, tossing his clothing off the bed. He grabbed her wrists and she allowed him to pin them to the mattress beside her head, surrendering all control. A decision to let him to her as he wished. An ultimate show of trust. He kissed her ear and her throat and her chest, her breasts and her nipples and her belly. His middle finger stretched over her palm and gently toyed with the golden band on her left ring finger. They were going to be married. Yuuki was going to be his wife, and they were going to live together forever and raise beautiful children.

They would never again be forced apart.

Zero let go of her wrists and piled a few pillows behind her head so she could sit up just a little. "We don't want to put pressure on the baby," he mumbled into her hair, folding his legs on either side of her waist so he could bend over her instead. Her heart racing, her vision blurred, she spread her legs a little farther, inviting him, and released a cry of rapture as he let himself inside.

"Is this…safe?" she asked, shutting her eyes against the building pressure, kissing the tightened muscles in his throat. "You know…for the child?"

"If I thought there were any risk at all," he replied, stroking her wet bangs gently, "we wouldn't be doing it."

She tensed her legs and closed her eyes as he pushed against her. Rubbed her legs against his inner thighs to invite more of the gentler-than-usual thrusting. His carefulness amazed her; it was as though he were afraid to even touch her stomach.

"You have always wanted this child, haven't you, Zero?" she whispered.

She took his silence as a yes.

A few minutes later, she came. He hugged her waist between his knees as her muscles tightened to carry the ecstasy through her body, and he broke away from her mouth and gently sucked on her ear.

"Kuran Yuuki," he whispered as she shivered against the pillows. "I will love you until the day that I die."

Those joyous words coupled with his soft breath against her ear threw her over the peak, and she released a small, ecstatic and uncontrolled scream. It echoed around the room and out the window into the silky black night, causing an owl to turn its head and let out a protesting hoot.

Downstairs, Chairman Cross pretended not to notice.

--

Notes of Relevance N Stuff

1. What Yuuki meant by "you have always wanted this child" was, "you have always wanted to have my child." And come on. We all know he has. :P

2. I just realized that that Zero's line is from Tuck Everlasting, and it's that powerful because Jesse, who says it, is going to live forever. Then I realized Yuuki and Zero are going to live for an undetermined amount of time too. Wow.

3. Sexual activity is seldom dangerous during pregnancy. It is actually good for the mother because the euphoria helps her stay happy during her pregnancy and also prepares her for labor.

4. Outtake: His underwear began to tighten, and she reached down to relieve that tension, tossing his pants into the corner where a spider ran away screaming, "OMG PANTS!!!" Sorry. I was with my sister when I was writing this, and we must have been high or something.

Ja ne!