Disclaimer: VK and Zero's inhumanly beautiful face are not mine. (Seriously. Have you ever seen a picture of him smiling? It MELTS your HEART.)
Secret
Yuuki spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen, trying a recipe that was a little more gourmet than what she usually served (it was a big step, but she had to learn to stir-fry sometime). Zero locked himself away, throwing himself on the floor of his room and gazing at that puzzle for hours. Neither lover even saw, never mind spoke to, each other before they found themselves sitting tensely and awkwardly at the dinner table.
"Oh, Yuuki, you look so much healthier!" the Chairman exclaimed when she came in with the food. He cupped her cheek, warm and pink with blood, and hugged her, food and all. "Oh thank goodness!"
"Uh, Cha-Dad," she said, holding the dish precariously. "You're gonna make me drop the food."
"Sorry, darling!" he squealed. "You feel better?"
"Uh, yeah! I mean, I'm not tired or dizzy or anything."
"And you were well enough to make a fancy meal! Thank God, thank God, thank God!"
Yuuki smiled awkwardly, set the food on the table, and sat before her father could latch onto her again.
"Not bad for your first stir fry!" the Chairman squealed, his mood peaking as he saw his daughter eating well. "I'm so proud of my little Yuuki!"
"Give it a rest," Zero snapped under his breath. The Chairman was too busy stuffing his face to notice, but Yuuki heard and shot him a warning glance. She picked up her fork and played around with the small pile of noodles and shrimp on her plate, not really hungry after feeding on such rich blood two hours earlier. Zero wasn't eating much either, although his lack of appetite came from the utter shame he felt every time he looked into her sad eyes. He didn't try to lie to himself—Kuran deserved every piece of it. But why did he jump him without thinking how it would make his darling wife suffer?
"Woah," Chairman Cross said, clutching his stomach and leaning back in his chair. "Rich." He sat back, suddenly stuffed, and gazed at his two children.
"What's wrong?" he asked, growing suddenly aware of the intensity between Yuuki and Zero. "Why are you both so quiet?"
"Hm?" Yuuki looked up and released a fake laugh. "Oh, nothing. It's just been a hard day, is all. We're fine."
The Chairman sat up straight, crossing his silverware on his plate. "Listen," he said, all business now.
"What?" Zero griped.
"I got a call from the Association today"—both Yuuki and Zero groaned loudly—" and I talked to them for what must have been an hour. Listen, you two. The situation in the South is getting worse. They estimate a seventy-five percent increase in the number of former humans in Tokyo alone. It's serious—serious enough for me to consider hunting vampires again."
A look of sheer terror crossed Yuuki's face; the Chairman held up his hand to comfort her.
"Only the bad ones, Yuuki. Only the level E vampires and the purebloods who are changing them. But I would never take up hunting again without the consent of you two." He lifted his eyes to them sadly. "I hoped I'd never have to kill again. But this situation is threatening to both our races. There are some cruel vampires out there, and they need to be stopped." He sighed heavily. "So would it bother you if I did this, one more time?"
"Why would I ever try to stop you?" Zero snorted. "These monsters are destroying the sanctity of human life. By all means, exterminate them!"
Yuuki gaped at him, horrified, and he stumbled over his words when he realized his mistake.
"Oh, Jesus—Yuuki, you know I didn't mean—"
She pushed away from the table and ran from the room.
"Christ, not again," Zero muttered, starting to stand. The Chairman stopped him.
"Let her be for a few minutes, Zero-kun. She knows you didn't mean it that way."
Zero sat again, slowly, and took a large drink from his glass. The Chairman motioned to the pill cup to the side of his plate.
"You going to take your blood tablets?"
Zero picked up the cup, shook the two pills into his palm, and rolled one between his thumb and forefinger.
"Funny," he said. "Sometimes I'm still afraid they're gonna make me vomit." He tossed them into his mouth and chugged them with the rest of his water.
The Chairman unlaced his hands and sat up straight. "There's not a whole lot I can do before the summer because I need to run the school. I mean, I'll take leave for emergencies, but most of my vampire hunting is going to be restricted to around here. But Zero, if you want to, you can probably help them when you go back to Tokyo."
"I'm not going back," Zero muttered.
"What?"
"I'm not going back. I'm staying here. With my wife and baby."
"Yuuki's not your wife, Zero-kun."
"She is my wife." He stood up and collected his dishes. "She means more to me than my own blood. I'm never leaving her again."
"But what about your education?"
Zero glared at the Chairman. "What kind of father do you think I am?"
"Zero!" The Chairman stood, his face a mixture of horrification and disgust. "No! Returning to school in Tokyo doesn't mean you're abandoning your family! Getting an education is the best thing you can do for your child, because you can get a better job!"
"I'll enroll here. It's not a big deal."
The Chairman sighed. "Are you sure about this, Zero?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I don't want to miss her baby years."
The Chairman smiled. "Of course you don't."
Zero put his dishes in the dishwasher and turned to go.
"Zero," the Chairman said, catching the cuff of his son's sleeve. "Please tell me you aren't mad at her for today. I know you don't get along well with Kuran-kun, but his blood has probably saved your baby's life. You know Yuuki only has eyes for you."
Zero snorted. "Use every cliché in the book."
"Give me a break, Zero-kun."
Zero sighed heavily and shook his cuff free. "Sorry," he muttered, and turned away. The Chairman groaned, ran a hand through his hair, and turned to the soiled dinner table.
--
Slowly and softly, the door creaked open, and Yuuki glanced up from her beaten-up and falling-apart copy of Kokoro, a novel she'd read at least a billion times but never seemed to tire of. Zero closed his eyes and leaned back against the door, forcing it shut behind him.
"Hey," he said quietly, raising his eyelids and lifting his head from the wood.
"Hey," she replied, smiling gently. He pushed off the door and sat next to her, rested his hand along her jaw.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to—"
"I know. You're right. Not all purebloods are like my parents and me. Some are...some are..."
"Some are."
"It's heartbreaking," Yuuki whispered. She knew to whom Zero was referring when he said "some are," whom he was thinking about as his distraught lavender eyes gazed so imploringly into hers. But somehow, she couldn't find it in her to match his hatred of that woman. The Kiryuus had put her through something terrible, and she had reacted naturally, in the same way Zero had once she'd turned him into a vampire. Vengeance turned even the nicest humans into total monsters. She was glad that he didn't seem to pick up on her thoughts of how his treatment of Shizuka wasn't any better than Shizuka's treatment of him.
His side. She was always on his side.
That didn't mean she always thought he was right.
Wishing to change the subject, Zero lay on his elbow and placed his hand over her inflated abdomen.
"Do you want a boy or a girl?" he asked. She shrugged a little.
"I don't really care. But I think it's going to be a boy."
Zero gave her a twisted smile and smirked.
"What?"
"I'm thinking it's gonna be a girl, Yuuki."
She giggled too. "Ho-kay, whatever."
His smile faded and he took his hand away. "I think it's time I told you," he sighed, "the truth about my relationship with your brother."
She knit her brows. "There's something you're not telling me?"
"Something...happened. A long time ago, before...everything. When you were trying to get him to tell you who you were."
"What happened?" she asked, placing her hand over his.
"I don't know if I can tell you very accurately," he said. "I think maybe I should just show you." He pulled the cuff of his shirt back and held his wrist out to her. "Take it," he said.
"Oh, Zero, no," she moaned. "I can't take any more from you."
"Just do it," he ordered. "You aren't going to hurt me."
Hesitant yet curious, Yuuki looked from his wrist to his eyes and back again. Finally, she took his hand in hers and lifted his wrist to her mouth, gently sliding her teeth beneath his flesh, and his warm blood was flowing into her body. As she drank, Zero reached out and pulled her into his lap, and she closed her eyes and let herself softly drown in her partner's memories…
Eyes. Vengeful, fiery eyes, glowing intense red with frightening levels of anger and bloodlust. Razor-sharp nails tearing into tender virgin flesh; a piercing pain, a desperate cry, a surge of insatiable anger. A hand trying to stem the flow of blood, bright red fluid seeping between the fingers and soaking into the pure white collar and darkening the black cuffs.
And Kaname's blood flowing into her—no, Zero's—mouth, much richer and more nourishing than what she'd tasted earlier; delicious, yet flowing with a surge of grotesque deterrent, familiar to her taste buds but so much more potent. A personal threat, an inner cry for more of the pure, magical life. And a hand woven through blood-tinged hair, yanking her head back and sending pain through her scalp.
Two dark words, spoken with the voice of an untamed beast.
"Get out."
And the cool night air, chilling her blood-soaked skin as she ran, in Zero's body, back to the Sun Dorm, to the arms of the only person who had ever loved her, ever accepted her.
--
Horrified, Yuuki ripped her mouth from her lover's wrist and realized as she gasped for air how much she was crying. An endless flow of sadness pooled on her eyelids spilling over and landing in her lap, on his knee. She barely noticed their lonely descent. The cruel words he'd thrown at her after she'd become a vampire…the comments about exterminating the purebloods…the Bloody Rose pointed at her chest…none of that had been Zero.
Kaname's blood had been controlling him the whole time.
--