Disclaimer: Vampire Knight and its vampires ain't mine. But vampires are a generic, legendary figure, so I CAN and DO own other vampires. Gnarharhar.

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Clouds had blown in from the north, covering the sun and turning the already white room into a grey hell. He lay on his back in bed, watching Yuuki sleep fitfully five feet to his right. The medicine that had lowered her blood pressure had put her to sleep, yet the pain followed her into her dreams; dried tears stained her face, and every once in a while fresh ones slipped between her woven eyelashes as she turned fretfully. Zero cursed the day's events for stalking her into the one place she had any hope of finding peace.

The conversation with Mizuno-sensei that had followed the blood pressure scare played flatly through his mind over and over, the words slowed by the warping of his memory.

"He was just too weak. His body wouldn't stay warm, we had him in an incubator but…" A long sigh. A miserable shaking of the head. "It was like he was born three months early. He was so severely underdeveloped…your girlfriend could never have possibly fed enough to carry both babies healthily. You're lucky so much of what she had went to your daughter…otherwise, you probably would have lost them both. This is why vampire twins are so incredibly rare. Most women miscarry within the first three months."

As if that was any comfort to him at all…

--

"—ero?"

What?

"Zero?"

His mind shifted slowly, coming gently to rest on the sound of his name. Who was calling him? He peered through the blackness, but saw nothing. The perpetrator had to call him one more time before he fully came to.

"Zero, please wake up."

He opened his eyes. He was lying on his back in his new bed next to Yuuki, his right hand draped over the edge. Her heart monitor beeped rhythmically a few inches from his head; he'd been taken off his when he'd left the ICU.

What on Earth? How could he have possibly fallen asleep when his baby had just died?

Yuuki gazed at him from her bed a couple of meters away, reaching a delicate hand into the void. He stretched as far as he could in response, and the tips touched.

"What is it, sweetie?" he whispered, surprising even himself. He could only remember addressing her with an endearment once, and that was to try to convey his love when he was too much of a coward to say it. He had no idea where this one had come from—he wasn't a love-name type—but the small flicker in Yuuki's eyes told him how much she'd appreciated it.

She wiped away a tear. "I want to see our little boy."

Zero froze for a moment, staring into her deep irises so desperate with longing. Was she ready for this? Was it possible for her delicate spirit to ever be ready for something this wretched? He squeezed his eyes shut, then turned over slowly and hit the call button. He got out of bed and took her hand in his, climbed back into the small twin-sized bed with her and held her again while they waited for the nurse.

She was so light now. Like a feather, compared to what he was used to.

The nurse from earlier came through the door. "What is it, Kiryuu-san?"

"I want to see my boy," Yuuki demanded before Zero even had a chance to open his mouth.

The nurse nodded. "Okay. But first, Kiryuu-san, let's get you into this chair or something. Trying to fit into that tiny bed puts undue stress on both your bodies."

Zero grumbled but complied as the nurse pushed the blue plastic chair over to him. "I'll get your child," she said solemnly, and marched out. Silence blanketed the room for about two minutes, its pressure almost painful in Zero's ear canals. Yuuki barely noticed. Horrific images of what her baby had gone through washed through her mind as turbulent waves crash against a cliff side, and she began to weep again. He moved to sit on the side of her bed, grabbed her hands in his, and lay his head on her chest, his ear between her breasts the way she liked it.

"I'm s-scared," she said. "God, Zero, I'm so scared—!"

He reached up and gently stroked the crown of her head. He had no idea what to say to comfort her. "I'm scared too," would make her feel even more vulnerable. "It'll be okay," was out of the question.

"Did you…did you name him?" he finally stuttered out, lifting his head from her bosom.

Yuuki nodded, but when she opened her mouth to tell them his name, wails blocked her voice and she crumbled into the bed. So Zero leaned over to look at her identification bracelet.

Kuran Yuuki/Kiryuu Juuri/Kiryuu Ichiru.

There was no time to get to the bathroom. Zero thrust away from her bed and vomited onto the white tile floor.

--

When the nurse returned with the baby, Zero was drifting in and out of that hateful world of half-conscious dread, his face in one hand and his other over Yuuki's belly, where their babies had peacefully slept not a day before. He sat up abruptly as she came in.

"Here's your son, Kiryuu-san," she said softly, cradling the baby blue blanket that, unlike the pink one that twitched so sweetly with their daughter's movements, lay heartwrenchingly still. "Oh, dear." She'd seen the sick on the floor. "What happened?"

"I'm okay," Zero protested again, reaching out for his son. "Honest."

"Let me check you over real fast." She handed the baby to Yuuki , who squeezed her eyes shut and waited while the nurse checked Zero's blood pressure, temperature, pulse. The body of Yuuki's boy weighed heavily in her tired arms. This isn't happening. This isn't real. Please, God, this isn't real.

"I'll have to clean this up, but I won't disturb you after that." The nurse replaced the stethoscope around her neck and hurried out. Zero sat on the bed with Yuuki, and the minute he closed his arms around her she fell against his shoulder and hid her face.

"Oh, Go-od," she moaned, clutching the baby to her like her grasp could keep his little soul from escaping the body. "Please bring him back to me. Please please please please please…"

Zero slipped the blanket back and shivered when he saw the tiny white face, reached out and touched his son's icy walnut-sized hand. His hair was curly and brown, a lighter version of Juuri's, and when Zero gently lifted an eyelid, a dark lavender iris stared lifelessly back at him. He shuddered again and slumped over, clutching his loves gently to his chest.

"My baby…" Yuuki sobbed. "My poor little baby…"

Yuuki moved her head onto Zero's shoulder, and he leaned his head atop hers. They had no idea how much time passed—as far as they were concerned, it no longer existed.

--

A good forty-five minutes were gone before they were able to part with him, to let the doctor take him from their arms and give him back to the earth, where he now belonged.

"I'm so sorry," Mizuno-sensei whispered as she took him back. "I know it is no comfort, but remember you are hardly alone in this. Most women lose their first baby in some way or another. The best thing to do now is to treat your daughter as the miracle as she is…and never forget how lucky you are to have her."

--

One more chapter! I really am terribly sorry about the unexpected hiatus. Writer's block+senior art projects+finals=not good. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry