Hello dear readers!
This is Zero's birthday chapter. This used to be 3 different chapters, but I put them all together.
After the previous chapter Zero, Itsuki and Train sit in the front row of the bus
and Ringo, Kazuma, Yuuki and Maria are asleep.
In the previous chapter Hanabusa clearly didn't like Zero's friends. Will the two groups make it to Sorajima peacefully?
Zero Gaiden Chapter 10: Zero's Birthday
I'm walking to school today. Mommy has to stay home and daddy is already at work. It's misty and a bit cold too. I left early today so I won't come across any cars, but I forgot that nobody goes to school this early. Guess I won't come across any friends either.
"A lonely 20 minute walk…" I sigh. I wonder if people know what day it is today. No, they probably wouldn't. Ah, well, not that I really care. It would mean I don't have to stand on that wobbly chair while everybody sings for me. Those weird birthday traditions.
"Meow~!" I look down next to me where the sound came from and see a little kitten in a box. It's face looking right at mine and his eyes have a little sparkle from the light of the street lantern.
"Aawh!" I say and pick it up. I softly hug the kitten -it's fur is feeling really cold- and it falls asleep in my arms.
"Oh, how will I walk to school now?" I say to myself. I look at the creature sleeping quietly.
"Hm, I'll just take you with me." I whisper to the little kitten.
15 minutes later
I walk to the janitor, he is always the first person who is in the building.
"Uhm, Mr. Janitor?" I say, entering his little room.
"Ah, Zero-kun!', he says as he sees me through all the stuff he keeps in there. He walks towards me. "What is this?", he asks looking at the little ball of fur in my arms.
"It's a kitty, Mr. Janitor. It was cold, I picked it up and it fell asleep in my arms. I feel sorry for the kitty, it was all alone in a box."
"Oh, I see so you picked up a stray cat. That's a very good deed Zero-kun. But pets aren't allowed in school."
"W-What should I do?" I say panicky.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of it in secret until you go home."
"Really Mr. Janitor?! That's very nice of you. Thank you very much Mr. Janitor!", I say and carefully hand over the kitten. I walk to my classroom, I see the lights are on. I hope my best friend arrived already and the bus stops.
Wait. The bus stopped. I open my eyes and see the front window of the bus with its dark tinted glass to keep the vampires from burning. Ah yeah, earth to me. I close my eyes again. I'm in the first bus's upper deck with the Nightclass -and my friends-.
"Why did we stop, Train? We had a break not long ago." I utter still a little sleepy.
"Zero, you're in a bus, not a train." I hear next to me. I turn my head left and stare right into the idiot's eyes who just said that.
"Train, seriously."
"Huh?", he answers looking confused. He wasn't even joking, meaning he seriously answered my question with; 'Zero, you're in a bus, not a train.'
I'm glad I have my flawless poker face otherwise I'd be grinning about these lame things –the old me would be laughing with tears in his eyes–.
I know Kaname pretends not to hear anything but he is highly alert to everything my friends say and mention. By now must be thinking that in the past I was some sort of leader of a bunch of idiots. Not that that's not true. But we were more than just idiots fooling around. The only problem is that they don't see it. We're not serious and acting high-and-mighty 24/7 like vampires. That's why the only thing the Nightclass sees is a bunch of idiots. It won't be long before Kaname opens his mouth up and starts looking down on my friends which would activate their serious side and that will end up in a verbal fight and that will end up in a real fight and…!
"OH! HAHA! Sorry. We stopped because… wait." Train stands up. "You don't know Zero? What day it is today?"
"Uhm, no I guess."
"What's so special about today?" Kaname asks from the darkest spot in the bus, all the way in the back. Making the Nightclass interested too.
"Today, my friend Kaname," Ikki stands up from his place and talks like he is narrating a Shakespeare piece; "It's the day that now 19 years ago…" He spins towards the front of the bus on his Air-Tracks.
"A miracle revealed by a demonic angel came to earth that awakened the four elements underneath the cathe-drfemgh!" "Shut up Ikki!" Train says and tapes his mouth and his hands together on his back.
"A demonic angel," Train mumbles, "That's an insult to his- AUWCH!" I kicked Train.
"Will you guys stop behaving like morons?" I say, alright, I yell at them. Any more of this and Kaname will start spitting his venom everywhere.
–Just in between. I don't think venom spitting is a very clear expression for people who don't know me… I used to think that people who talk bad about others or try to create a fight with words are spreading hate with their mouths. So I used to call them venom spitters people who spit out hateful words. ….Why am I explaining this to myself?–
"Your followers do not seem very smart, Zero-kun." Kaname says, his head lifted slightly and his eyes narrowed. –Holy mother of whoever –Too late. Mr. Pureblood has started venom-spitting.
And he utters more venom; "They don't seem to understand you, nor they look like they would listen to your orders."
My followers. They don't seem very smart. They don't seem to understand me. They won't listen or obey my orders? What are they? Dogs?
Ok, he really annoys me and now it angers me. Actually it makes me really angry. Honestly, right now, I want to murder him. Very. Badly. As in I want to murder really much, although murdering him badly could also mean making an attempt to murder him but not doing it properly… that's not a bad idea either…
Back to the legal solutions to my anger. I just can't help it, this sudden urge to make him shut up for the rest of this whole excursion. I hate it when people provoke me verbally; where I would punch someone in the face I now have to stay calm and suppress my anger and that suppressed anger is turning into some kind of energy that makes me want to punch him even more.
"Ché." But I can handle verbal provoking, I'm not going berserk over this. Ok, let's get things straight, he called my friends unloyal and dumb. He is at the end of the bus and I'm at the front, meaning there can't be any physical damage done to that coward plus Yuuki, Maria, Kazuma and Ringo are sleeping. Its better if we don't wake them up otherwise it will become a bigger mess.
"U-uhm, Kaname-kun, I-I think it's better if you don't say anythi-" Train tries to stop the beginning of a conflict and Itsuki shakes his head with a terrified expression on his face. I kinda feel like laughing from the inside seeing his face. They probably think I am going to attack him even though there is such a big distance.
"Kuran-sempai…"I say calm, collected and more elegantly than I usually speak. "I think you misunderstood my relation with these two. They are my friends, they don't follow me and I don't give them orders. You see, sempai, they are not dogs. We are all equal, but apparently you don't understand that since you treat everybody around you like your newspaper fetchers. I guess it's too much asked from you to understand that at all. And you know sempai, these two they're so freaking genius that your head'll explode you-!"
"Happy birthday to you~!" Itsuki and Train start singing. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you~!
The whole epic tension I created to give that pureblood a permanent mental stab just died as I watch my childhood friends singing holding a cardboard box.
"Just… Whut are you guys doing?" I ask them. I really hope for a normal answer this time but that's right next to impossible with then it comes to these two.
"What?!" Itsuki's eyes widen. "Zeze, you really forgot your own birthday?"
"My birthday?"
"Yeah Zeze! It's the twenty-fourth of October you forgetful moron!" Train pokes my head.
"I don't like to be remembered about this day…"
"Oh shut up Zeze! We already got you a present." Itsuki says and pushes the cardboard box into my arms and Train flaps it open.
"Now, I know he doesn't really look like him at all but he does sleep as much."
A little white sleeping kitten was sleeping inside the box all the time. It indeed didn't look like Tanuki at all. Tanuki looked almost exactly like a raccoon.
"Ah…" I look at the kitten.
Ikki stares at me; "Most people say 'Thank you.' at this point Zero."
"Sorry. Yeah, thanks."
"Now let us continue singing!" Train says happily to Itsuki.
"Yeah!"
"HAPPY–HAPPY–HAPPY BIRTHDAY~!"
"AYE SIR~!"
"Stop it guys!" I say. "What kind of song is that anyway?!"
"Ah, that's the Fairy Tail style." Itsuki answers. "Maybe we should sing it in the first pokemon theme tune Train."
"That's genius Ikki!"
"Guys, please no."
"Happy birthday Zero." It's Logan-sama's voice trough the audio system of the bus. "Today he became 19 years old."
I feel like doing a couple of face-walls, but I face-palm instead.
"Not you too Logan-sama…" I walk to the stairs in the middle of the upper deck. "Hey bus driver, move that bus."
My eyes meet with someone else's green ones.
"Well he can now."
A boy with orange hair walks up the stairs with a smile.
"Ta-" I tried to say his name. "Usuzuzu?"
He stands in front of me. His smile turns into a big playful grin that kinda scares me even though I don't want to admit it. I hope he doesn't make Kuran start venom-spitting again.
"Zeze!" he says and hugs me so hard, I can almost hear my bones breaking. "Ikki told me you don't have a girlfriend and you're 19 now, so when are you coming out of that closet?"
"W-what?!"
Takumi Usui, my best friend, let go of me. After all these years, this is the way he greets me? Oh shit. In the presence of the Nightclass too.
"Hehe, sorry Zeze." Takumi says. "But what happened? We used to act gay all the time. What's the problem now?"
"Ahhh…" Ok. Now I feel embarrassed. This is not how I expected to be reunited with Usu. "Eh, I matured?" I managed to say with my everlasting poker face. Takumi looks directly to Kaname, pointing his finger at him, he says; "You are the one who ravishes him aren't you!"
It can't go more worse than this right? Of course Takumi is oblivious to everything that happened here. And my relation with the Nightclass. Not knowing that I have changed a lot during the time we separated, he must have thought that the people of the Nightclass are just like the way we used to be in Sorajima.
But what he is thinking is not the case at all. And really? Of all the people he could point at, he picked Kaname Kuran. That means a very angry Nightclass, I believe.
"How dare you insult Kaname-sama!" Ruka shouts angrily.
"Whoa, sorry madam." My friend says to her. He seems to realize something. "Wait, insult? First of all pretty lady, it's a joke. Next of all Zero and I are very experienced gay people."
Some vampires chuckle, not like a normal person would. No, the high-class-rich-kid-chuckle.
- What kind of chuckle that is? Hmm… how do I explain that the best way? Ever seen Tora Igarashi chuckle? That's the high-class-rich-kid-chuckle.-
Back to the situation. 'Very experienced gay people.' Knowing Takumi he is just joking but these Nightclass creatures now assume that we're really gay or real idiots.
Ruka looks at Takumi and raises an eyebrow. Trying to imply she is not impressed but her eyes reveal she is quite shocked to see what my friends are like. I'd be shocked too though. I mean if you always see a chagrin, gloomy, emo vampire hunter and then meet his best friend. It's a big difference and a difference you wouldn't expect at all. Or she thinks I'm really gay.
I wish I could say something but I don't think Kaname will keep his mouth shut then. And if he talks, I wonder if I can still be calm after that or badly murder him.
"Oh, no." Takumi must have realized what Ruka is thinking. "That's not what I really meant, I-…"
"It's alright." Freaking mother of whoever! It's Mr. Pureblood. "You have proven to us that you are indeed Zero-kun's… friend. An idiot just like the other two. Oh and Zero…" Kaname focusses his stupid eyes on me. "…you were right. You and your friends are equal to each other."
They didn't do it –they never do- but the Nightclass sure felt like laughing. I felt like killing them all but sadly enough I'm responsible for their safety, meaning if Takumi would attack them I'd have to stop him. But to my surprise, he doesn't move.
" 'I'm sorry, we don't talk to people lower than us.' That's what you're all about right? You should have written that on your head." Takumi says. "Now I understand why Zero doesn't like you guys."
I guess Usu matured too. He turns around to also take a seat in the front.
"Zero doesn't like us because we are vampires and he is a bloody hunter!" It was Hanabusa Aidou. I look at Takumi, his eyes are narrowed. Shit. His patience is dead, he is going to attack him. Takumi turns around but I manage to grab the back of his shirt before he could try to move towards the vampire.
For the vampires it must look like Takumi just turned to say something back to Hanabusa not like he was going to attack them. Takumi seems to understand -my situation, the reason for my actions and-that attacking them is not possible.
So he says with anger clearly visible in his voice; "You aren't even listening, are you? You're just jumping into conclusions. Answering me with irrelevant bullshit."
The air starts to evaporate and slowly visible water drops float the air. At the same time Hanabusa's ice is creakingly taking over some chairs.
"Usui…"
"Aidou…"
Two voices made the tense situation fade a bit. My voice and Kaname's. Takumi seems calmer now, he sits down in the middle the bus on the right side. I think I'll leave him to cool down and go back to my spot in the front. Logan-sama probably has a camera here somewhere because as soon as I sit down he begins to drive.
General P.O.V.
Takuma Ichijou, vice-president of the Nightclass, moves from his seat next to Hanabusa Aidou to the empty seat next to Takumi Usui. The boy doesn't pay any attention to him as he stares out of the window.
"Uhm, do you mind?" Ichijou says carefully.
Usui turns his head towards Ichijou but doesn't really look at him. "No, sit down."
"So you created can extract water from air." Ichijou tries to start a conversation, in order to restore the peace.
"Uh, yeah." Usui says. "It happens sometimes when I get angry."
Ichijou looks at Zero's friend. Unlike his entry, he now had a serious and slight bored expression on his face. Almost the same as the silver haired hunter's. Ichijou figures that maybe the other guy is to bothered by what just happened to start a conversation anew.
"I'm sorry for the behavior of the Nightclass. I apologize on their behalf."
Ichijou looks from the boy next to him to the front of the bus and sees a bit of Zero's hair. He remembers his own 18th birthday on Cross Academy, where he invited Zero too. Ichijou felt that Yuuki and Zero belonged on his birthday too, as they always worked hard for the committee. He had a great night, even though the problems between Kaname and Zero, he had fun. But Zero's birthday is ruined thanks to the Nightclass. It was the first time Ichijou saw more expressions on the hunter's face than anger or depression.
"And I wish you a happy birthday, from the whole Nightclass, Zero-kun."
The front of the upper deck was quiet until Itsuki thanked Ichijou on Zero's behalf. After that the upper deck stayed quiet until the next chapter.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to review :3
I do not own Vampire Knight, Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, Air Gear, Black Cat, Fairy Tail or Pokemon.