Unexpectedly Close To The Edge
Set 3 years after Vampire Knight Guilty, however, certain enemies aren't as dead as they were thought to be.
~{}~ signifies a change in time or perspective
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, these awesome characters do not belong to me in any way. They belong to Matsuri Hino. I just stole them and put them to use for my own sick mind ;)
Summary: Yuki's death brings the two former enemies Zero and Kaname closer than they ever expected to be. As the two of them - both broken in their own way - struggle to pick up a life again, will they cope by putting each other together again?
Rated M: mature emotions, rape, violence, M/M lemon (seriously, rated M for good reason!)
Chapter 2: A Nightly Visit
Two weeks later...
He stared into those lilac eyes that were supposed to be a gate to his twin's soul, but they looked at him as though there were actually a mirror to his own.
"Ichiru..." he heard his voice breathe.
He wanted to hold his twin, rest his forehead against his, like he had when they were younger and not think about all the horrible things that had passed.
But his brother's face did not react.
Zero ached to touch the lines of that familiar face - but his hands would not move.
All of a sudden the beautiful lilac of those eyes was no longer gentle - it was angry. There was no love in the eyes mirroring his. And even as Zero searched them for any remnants of the brother he thought he knew, the face became distorted as though it was nothing but a ghost on fluttering winds.
Zero wanted to call out - wanted to somehow hold on to his twin. "Ichiru... don't leave. Brother..."
But his form dissolved into wisps of vapor, leaving just the eyes to glare at him with unbearable hatred. Zero couldn't understand it. He loved his brother. No matter the betrayal, no matter the mistaken loyalties. He loved Ichiru. That angry and hateful gaze was tearing him apart.
"Brother..." he whispered knowing it was futile, knowing it wouldn't change the hatred in those eyes.
Then - as unexpected as it was - there was an answer. It was just a hint of a rasping whisper on the curling tendrils of the wind that were tearing at that now utterly shapeless form, but they tore through Zero's heart worse than any weapon could.
"I have no brother..."
The lilac eyes vanished and Zero was falling...
Zero woke suddenly to a loud crash of thunder, gasping for air, his heart hammering in his chest.
'Just a dream...' he tried to convince himself furiously.
He hung his head, closing his eyes against the persisting memory of his dream as flashes of lightning illuminated his tiny room through the open window before letting a deep darkness engulf it once again.
Ichiru - in his dream he had been so full of hatred. It was not him. Ichiru had never been like that - or had he? Zero shook his head. There was no sane reason to dwell on it. Ichiru was gone. But it hurt anyway. Zero clenched his fist resolutely. It mattered not that his twin had betrayed him. Zero refused to remember him that way. This dream was only evidence of his guilt, it had to be. Ichiru was not like that...
Zero focused on his surroundings when he noticed rain fell heavily outside, its gushing sound loud through the open window. The hunter shivered, wrapping his arms around his bare chest - he was soaked... obviously the rain had been blown in through the window.
'Damn, I should have closed the window...' he cursed.
After catching his breath and dismissing the disturbing imaged in his mind, he finally heard the knock on his door.
Since his doorbell was broken and he hadn't cared to enlighten his landlord about that fact, anyone who actually bothered to visit would have to knock painstakingly until he did finally grace himself to wake up or they'd just have to camp in front of the door until he came back from a Level E hunt. There really weren't many other alternatives to his whereabouts. Then again, there weren't many people who'd actually want to visit him.
He grunted, fleetingly wondering who in his right mind would even bother to come his way in this weather and perhaps he even felt slightly sorry for whoever had obviously been knocking for a while now outside in the pouring rain. It annoyed the hell out of him though, anyway.
"Ok, ok... I'm coming." he groaned... 'This is my fucking day...err... night off...' he thought closing the window. He didn't need to turn on the light - as a vampire he could see just fine at night.
He pulled on a pair of old jeans, grabbed the Bloody Rose, rubbing his head through a messy array of silver hair and slouched over to unlock the door.
He wasn't fully awake or maybe he wouldn't have. It was too late, however. The door was already open when his sense of smell finally alerted him to the identity of his visitor. He raised an eyebrow.
"Kuran...", he began, but didn't find anything else intelligible to say. He was so surprised to see the pureblood vampire that he didn't do what he'd normally have done - slam the door right back in his face.
Something was wrong.
It was only an instant, but he saw or rather felt that something was somehow off about the pureblood before he had even spoken a word. Actually, many things were wrong - his usually haughty eyes were downcast, hidden behind his long dark dripping hair and Zero could not see them. Even his expensive clothes sported none of their usual tidiness or elegance, but were simply soaked and rumpled, Zero noted. It reminded him of the fact that he himself wasn't even wearing a t-shirt and it was cold, wet and windy.
The hunter scowled as he slowly began feeling the pureblood's aura - the damn bloodsucker had probably suppressed it - knowing full well that Zero wouldn't have been budged to open the door by hell's hounds themselves if he'd known it was the despicable leech knocking. However, it did surprise him that he could feel something very un-princely about the aristocrat. For as long as he'd known him, this was the first time that Kuran showed emotional… turmoil...?
Where was the haughty facade? Sure, Yuki's death must have been a hard blow. But in that room, when she was dying he had not detected any of this chaotic aura - only sadness. Understandable sadness. Controlled sadness. A sadness he himself knew very well.
Yuki...
But he forced the memory away. This was not the time for it. Zero waited, judging it to be clever not to verbally pounce on Kuran at this moment for disturbing him on his night off. Besides, he was perhaps... a tad bit sympathetic.
"Kiryu." the other began. His voice, usually smooth and velvety, held an edge of desperation to it even though he had spoken very quietly. Even though it was barely audible, Zero had no trouble discerning his speech despite the heavy rain. However, he had trouble figuring out why the hell he cared enough to listen to it. Must be that shred of sympathy.
"Kiryu, I need your help." the pureblood continued quietly. 'Ok, end of sympathy, hold it right there. You're kidding, right?' The pureblood had to have about a dozen vampire noble slaves around him, ready to die for him just to have him notice their existence. 'And on my night off you need MY help?'
He was about to say something along those lines when Kuran lifted his head and stared straight into Zero's eyes for the first time in their exchange. Instantly, the hunter took a step back drawing his gun in a flash of hated self-preservation. The usually chocolate colored eyes were swirling red to the point of glowing hot. Zero could feel their gaze physically burning his skin. The look Kuran was giving him was one of sheer agony. Agony - physically and emotionally - as though it was leaking through those eyes straight from his insides to the hunter.
Now that was unusual for a pureblood. And when he spoke, his voice was just a whisper but those eyes clearly meant what it was saying.
"Kill me."
A long moment stretched out between them in which Zero tried to grasp the situation, gun still trained on the blazing eyes. Kuran didn't seem to notice how the rain gushed down on top of him and how the wind swirled leaves and debris against them. Zero felt more awake now that the cold engulfed his skin. He scowled fiercely.
"Idiot." he growled and lowered his gun, pulling the pureblood inside. Kuran didn't resist him. The hunter closed the door to shut out the rain and the thunderstorm.
Then he plopped onto his only armchair not bothering to offer the vampire prince a place to sit. Wasn't like he even had another freaking chair. People didn't visit him, for heaven's sake.
Kuran remained where he was, dripping rain puddles onto the floor. His burning eyes didn't leave the hunter as he followed each of Zero's movement's, faint amazement painted between the swirling anguish.
Zero glared back at him.
"Yeah, I know - you gave me the one and only chance in my life to finally finish you off and I didn't take it. Now explain yourself and maybe I'll change my mind." he said rather undiplomatically. Damn it to hell - he was mentally exhausted and definitely not up for playing games. He wanted the guy to just go away and let him sleep again. He hadn't missed however, how the other's eyes had kindled a brighter shade at the possibility of him changing his mind.
"I found out how she did it." Again his voice was barely a whisper.
"What?" What are you talking about, pureblood?
"Yuki..."
Zero's throat tightened. Wait...
"Yuki did it...?" he didn't understand. He had just assumed she'd gotten into some serious pureblood trouble. Something above his head. He hadn't thought much of it - vampires by nature were quarrelsome, jealous and possessive. Yagari-sensei had taught him so. Why would the top-of the-foodchain-Kuran and his sister be any different? The Yuki he knew had disappeared the moment that bastard slid his fangs into her neck to reawaken her. Or had she? There was that annoying voice in his mind again...
Whatever had happened wasn't supposed to be his business. Well, maybe that was a tad bit unfair. But Zero was tired and irritated. He sighed. Fine, obviously this was going to take a little longer...
She did it... whatever it was. Filled with incomprehension he stared at the pureblood.
"She did it for you, Kiryu." Kuran answered his look.
Zero raised an eyebrow and then scowled again. Kuran clenched his jaw, but decided to continue his speech.
"She wanted to become human again and forget about..." he trailed off, but the ending of the sentence clung to the air like an unspoken echo: '... and forget about me." Zero stared.
"Wh... what?"
Lowering his gaze, the pureblood explained haltingly with a cracking voice.
"Kiryu, she didn't... she never loved me the way she loved you. I... I didn't know. If I had known... if I had known what she was trying to do... "
Were those... tears... that ran down his gaunt cheeks? Zero decided they had to be, because as the pureblood continued, his voice became very unsteady.
"But when she wanted to drink from me - I thought it was because she loved me... why didn't she tell me?"
Zero's mind hung suspended in disbelief. This couldn't be true, Yuki had always been all over the dark haired vampire... Kaname-senpai here, Kaname-senpai there... Zero had been a brother, yes, a brother. But - regrettably - nothing more. She had even said so to him before she died. This had to be a lie.
"What are you talking about, Kuran?"
But the pureblood seemed to be rather lost inside his own misery. He was talking to himself - almost as though he had forgotten Zero was there. If the hunter hadn't known that Kuran was mourning her loss, he would have sworn that the pureblood was aggravating him on purpose by ignoring his presence. "Why didn't she tell me... I would have given her all my power to attempt the transformation... to the last drop of my blood, but she didn't tell me. And then she was too weak..., too weak to survive the hunter poisons..."
Transformation? Hunter poisons...? Was Kuran at all planning on making sense some time today?
Ok, so hunter poison made some sense. There weren't that many options for a pureblood to die. Zero's analytical part of mind kicked in. Hunter poison was not enough. It only suppressed vampire abilities until it left the body by a natural digestion. Even filled with hunter poison she would have mended in one or two days submerged in that amount of pure blood after the toxin left her body.
'She had to have used spells to bind it to herself permanently.' He remembered the agony in his mind at her last words. 'But only hunters could touch hunter weapons and cast hunter spells...' his thoughts trailed off abruptly. He looked intensely at Kuran.
"The Artemis." he breathed. The flash of pain in Kuran's eyes was all the confirmation he needed.
"She used the lethal bonding spell on the Artemis..." Zero whispered continuing his trail of thought. It was the only weapon with hunter magic that she would have been able to use - by sheer will power alone. Hunter weapons did not react well to being used by vampires, especially not pureblooded ones. His own Bloody Rose was no different. However, when Zero used it, it recognized his hunter heritage. But Yuki - pureblood vampire and without hunter blood...
He knew what that meant. It must have been torture beyond imagination. The spell itself was meant to only be used to bind less painful weaponry to a vampire to ensure incapacitation. But in combination with the Artemis fueling the hunter poison with her own strength, every vampire part of hers must have been in agony - being a pureblood - without anything human left inside her - that meant everything in her... like acid eating her soul away... until finally all her pureblood strength gave out, very slowly. Through his thoughts, Zero heard the pureblood's whispered lamentations:
"... all I did to save her... only prolonged the unbearable pain..." Kuran's voice broke. "I let her suffer... and all she wanted... was to be loved... loved by you... I don't know how she kept it from me... I... I should have seen it, but I was too selfish... I would have given her my life if only she'd asked..."
Zero could say nothing. His throat felt constricted, his mind stuck on an image of that day that had burned its way into his mind.
When she had left with Kuran, the two pureblood siblings an image of happiness walking into the sunrise, his own inadequacy had struck him down so heavily. He had then promised to kill her, but later he secretly believed she was happy and therefore, in those three years that had gone by, he had not clung to his conviction of coming for her. But to know now, that she had loved him, unrequited and died in consequence; it was... there was no word for the guilt, the hurt. It was as though she had died by his hand after all. The pain in Kuran's eyes found an echo in Zero's heart.
"Loved by you... all she wanted..."
Endless repetitions of those cracked words circled his mind. It hurt. It hurt deeply. Kuran could have stabbed him with a hunter weapon - it would haven't been anywhere near as painful. That damned, old insatiable ache. It was back.
Two weeks ago, he had left that death room finding only a hollowness inside him. A few laden moments of sadness - yes. But only for the memories from long ago. The rest was just an overwhelming hollowness. The same hollowness he had been nursing for so long now. He thought it wouldn't touch him. But now this... it was like drowning all over again.
Seeming to feel the change in the hunter, the wretched pureblood took a step toward him and spread out his arms in a gesture of helplessness, palms open toward Zero.
"Please, kill me." he said again.
Slowly, the hunter rose from the chair and held Kuran's eyes. With a sure grip he lifted the Bloody Rose pointing it at the pureblood vampire. Usually, at Cross Academy, this would be the moment, when the pureblood smart-assed him with his arrogance and showed his unchecked disgust for the hunter before evading the bullet. But now, with the gun pointing between his eyes, Kuran looked relieved. His body relaxed as he stared down the barrel of the gun he had seen like this so often.
A lot must have gone wrong for the pureblood to act like this, Zero mused. Or was it an act? Doubt gnawed at him. Never trust a vampire. Even in frantic madness - wasn't it a vampire's nature to kill when threatened? He tried to read Kuran, but there seemed to be no madness there. So was he just playing with him? He decided to test it, but as the safety clicked ominously, all the hunter thought he saw, was a faint smile on Kuran's lips.
The gun was heavy in his hand, but to the hunter it was merely an extension of his well-trained arm. All he had to do was pull the trigger. The Bloody Rose always delivered. Zero felt empty as he stared at his weapon as though seeing her for the first time. This was his life - killing wretched vampires. He did it every day. Even though he himself was one of them. He had promised Yuki he would come to kill her one day because she was one, too. His gaze returned to the pureblood.
"You took hunter poison." Zero remarked almost casually. So one well-placed bullet would be lethal to the vampire prince. He needed no confirmation, he could see the effects, faint as they were. A pureblood in Kuran's emotional state was highly dangerous, easily aggravated and quick to lose a grip on the mental powers they held. And so far not a pane of glass had so much as cracked since he'd gotten here.
But more than that he knew for sure because above all, the more lethal they became, the more beautiful vampires would look. Though not in the least short of stunningly handsome, the pureblood prince in front of him radiated none of the lethal vampire beauty Zero knew he could display. Maybe he was serious about this after all. He had come here knowing Zero hated his guts, knowing this hunter would save him from the pain. Kuran had come here planning to die. And it wasn't an act.
'Because now Yuki is nothing but dust and he didn't see it coming', Zero grimaced internally. 'Because Yuki wanted me to accept her... Because I said that all vampires were... Because of me - it's me. Always me... ever the constant poison in her life.'
In a flash, Zero pointed the gun up at his own chin. For a second, Kuran looked confused. But before Zero could pull the trigger, the pureblood threw himself onto the hunter in a burst of energy. They tumbled into the armchair behind him and Zero found his weapon still in his hand - but Kuran was clutching at his fingers, pointing the Bloody Rose to his own heart.
The hunter grimaced not struggling against the pureblood he had hated for so long. He simply dropped the weapon.
"It's too easy, Kuran." he said heavily. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the armchair. "We can't just kill ourselves because we hurt."
If possible, Kuran looked even more desperate. Then Zero did something he never thought he would ever do. Before Kuran could retrieve the gun, he put his arms around the pureblood in comfort. He did not know why he was doing it, or what the other might think of it, but then again, he had never cared to think about what any vampire thought. The small burst of strength instantly left the slender body and the pureblood collapsed on top of Zero, sliding down him until his knees met the floor. He stayed that way, sobbing in grief into the hunter's lap with Zero's fingers in the tresses of his wet, dark hair. The mighty highborn pureblood, Kaname Kuran, was on his knees crying into the hunter's lap.
Zero let it happen. Even inside his mind he did not laugh or taunt. This was no victory. And it was not in Zero's nature to gloat over a broken soul - simply put, he found in himself none of his long-nurtured, fierce hatred for the pureblood. It was pointless now. Yuki was gone.
This man had taken Yuki from him - or so he'd thought. For that above many other things he had hated Kuran - at first. But Yuki had gone with him of her own free will. That was good enough for Zero. She didn't want him. End of story.
Without the necessity to protect Yuki anymore, his job was over. Of course he loved Yuki, still. But he loved more the memory of her as she had been when she was human. And with her being what she was, there was no place for him there. Still, knowing Yuki was happy - happy with Kuran - it made carrying on easier, somehow. Some part of him was with her, always. She had taken his heart with her and she was supposed to give it a home. And now she was gone. Dust. Because she loved a Level D, even though she was married to a pureblood prince who gave her everything he thought she desired. In a way, things had become reversed - almost as though Zero had taken her from him. Because she knew Zero had told her he hated her, now that she was a vampire. And she wanted the impossible - so that he might accept her.
Had he only the capacity to cry - tears would have crept silently into Zero's eyes betraying his thoughts of guilt and shame. He was a stupid Level D - a vampire himself! Why did Yuki care... in the vampire world she had been close to a goddess to her people. Female purebloods were so rare these days that adoration for them bordered upon madness. She could have had anything... but now she was dead. And here Kuran wanted him to end his life as well. Unconsciously, Zero lifted Kuran's chin to face the vampire. The eyes were still a swirling menace of red heat. But his look was defeated. It was ironic - all these years he had wanted to harm the bastard and now, when he showed up at his doorstep asking to be killed, all he did was let him cry here in his lap.
What would he have given three years ago to see Kuran's eyes looking at him like that? In defeat. In emotional anguish. Begging to die. He would probably be the first ex-human to ever have been responsible for not only the death of one pureblood, but an entire lineage of purebloods. If Kuran was indeed the last of his family... Three years ago, Zero would have shot him. He was certain. But now Zero felt no hatred toward him. Not now when he knew they had shared a love for the same woman. Two hearts that could've been hers completely. And by her choice she was gone - while all that was left, was those two hearts. Here they were, instead of two souls in love, they were only two piles of broken shards left to stare at what was left of each other. For so long, Zero had denied his body the release of tears. Even now he could not cry. It only hurt.
Zero hurt as much as the other - the difference was just that for him the pain was an old pain, familiar in its gnawing ache, something he had accepted whereas for Kuran it must be devastatingly fresh. He saw it in the eyes burning with the feeling of hopelessness. It was physically pouring from them. But the hunter could bear that burn he felt emanating from them, because he knew it so well. Kuran's eyes were open - all the pain was there, all the guilt, all the self-hatred, all the helplessness that must be so raw for the pureblood - it was all there, showing through the red burning heat, the trembling lips, the tears.
"You're blood-bound to her." he said looking him straight in the eyes knowing he was right.
He did not know Kuran too well. But he would not betray Yuki. Even if he was a calculating, sadistically scheming arrogant mind, Yuki was somehow exempt from that. He must have been truly devoted to her for letting him drink his blood to protect her, for going through all that trouble building the Academy just for her. He had really truly loved her. And with her adoring him so - it must have happened. They were siblings - it would make sense to have a blood bond form.
And now, blood bound to a pile of ashes he must be deathly thirsty. Kuran's control of that must be infamously absolute for him to lie here in the hunter's lap without tearing at his throat to get a drink. Zero knew only too well how easily overwhelmed he himself would be. Kuran's control was indeed extraordinary. Either that, or his death wish was just so much stronger.
"Did you do as she asked? Did you drink?" the hunter asked softly.
Kuran flinched visibly. He was a pureblood - purebloods didn't flinch. Well, purebloods didn't cry either, even in agony. Purebloods were perfection - they were above the law, hell, they were the law. And no one had the right to question them. There was no reason for him to answer. But surprisingly he did. "Yes." he confirmed hoarsely. "I... I saw it all..."
Zero wanted to be disgusted, but he couldn't. That meal must have cost him dearly. To be shown what you don't want to see right after having the most precious thing taken away from you... No, he couldn't be disgusted as he looked at the desolate figure kneeling there.
Kuran was soaked from the rain, his dark shirt and slacks clinging to his pale form. The hunter couldn't remember the vampire ever looking so thin and frail.
Great, now I'm sympathetic of a leech... the hunter grimaced. His own jeans were wet from where the pureblood had lain. He shivered, thinking that maybe a t-shirt wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all, but it wasn't the physical cold he was feeling. Yuki had just been way too dear to him for his own good, that was all. The emptiness was just a little closer than usual, he told himself. He'd get over it. What other choice did he have? At least he was used to it by now. Zero felt responsible. She had killed herself because of him. Kuran wanted help. Giving up was out of the question, but... Well, maybe at least there was something useful he could do.
"Never forget who gave you this blood."
'Guess, here's the chance to pay that debt...'
With ease, he pulled the wet pureblood up onto him until he was kneeling in the hunter's lap instead of the floor. There was no resistance in the shivering slender body. Only agony in the watching eyes. Perhaps he was hoping that if he obeyed everything the hunter said, he would have a chance of the Bloody Rose's mercy, still.
Holding the other's gaze Zero sighed and spoke.
"I am a Level D - just trash in your world. You're a pureblood prince, Kuran. You have obligations. You have that dream of yours - humans and vampires co-existing. People follow you. Remember Yuki. You know her, she wouldn't want you to give up like this. Ever."
Knowing full well how painful it would be for himself, Zero pulled the pureblood close and commanded.
"Drink."
Kuran's breath hitched.
"If you have to, drink it all. I don't care. But you have no right to resignation, Kuran - just as I have no right to purpose."
He had never offered before. Never. To anyone. But now he did. And he was serious. He knew at this point his bare skin in the cold had to be temptation almost beyond resistance to the thirsty pureblood. Unchecked shivers ran through the malnourished body at his words. The hunter watched the pureblood mentally battle himself. His thirst must be terrible, the hunter thought. But Kuran didn't lose it. It was only a few seconds before he seemed to have a grip on himself again. He had to give him credit for that. Then Zero felt the pale, cold hands reach up to him slowly, without trembling before they lightly came to rest on his shoulders. Kuran spoke quietly close to his ear, his voice smooth but sad.
"You're right, Kiryu. Yuki... she wouldn't have... I have embarrassed myself. I have no right to resignation. But you are also wrong, Zero." The use of his first name accompanied by an ever so slight caress at his shoulder brought the intense closeness between them to the hunter's attention. He fidgeted mentally but he refused to show it. This was desperation and thirst - nothing else. The soft voice continued. "You have every right to a purpose. And if I take too much blood, I expect you to drink in return."
Zero stiffened, bracing himself for what he expected to be excruciatingly painful - his mind bringing back the memory of Shizuka's bite to him in full clarity. He struggled to compose himself. But he needn't have worried. Instead of tearing into his flesh, Kuran's fingers softly threaded through his hair, gently pulling his head back, as his tongue licked his skin right where the female had burned the pain into his memory so long ago. His fangs sunk in, and immediately the most incredible sensation poured into Zero with that bite.
Desire raced through his entire system mingled with deep sadness and regret. They weren't his own feelings - but they were not alien to him either. However, they were utterly unexpected, which was why the hunter was helpless to the emotional onslaught. If it had been pain, he would not have lost himself. But the lust raging through his veins, the regret and guilt burning inside and the terrifying sadness was like a narcotic to his mind. He struggled against its lure, but this was undoing him. Zero moaned deeply and shuddered uncontrollably before he could do anything against it, while his eyes stung with tears he couldn't shed.
He felt that the pureblood was thirsty, more than just physically. It was running through his veins with whatever it was that pureblood bites injected into their victims. His assessment had been dead right. The pureblood had been in physical pain of that thirst - much stronger than Zero had ever experienced. For a short instant that thought tore through the hunter's system, too - before being chased away by the pureblood's deep melancholy. It was drenched with feeling like he was betraying Yuki when finding relief in someone else's blood.
Maybe Kuran controlled it quickly, or maybe Zero was just too overwhelmed to notice much else than the induced sensations of relief and tingling pleasure. But he had felt it nonetheless. Zero thought fleetingly that the pureblood deserved this relief. No enemy deserved such pain. Drowned in a haze of melancholy pleasure, he relaxed as the pureblood drew from him slowly and deeply, his aura betraying raw vulnerability and deep desperation while he let himself get drunk on the hunter's blood. But all of that only added to Zero's arousal. He hadn't known that the act of drinking blood could be anything else but painful, his senses were completely unprepared for this.
~{}~
Kaname felt the hunter writhe under him, as he tasted the thick crimson liquid that was life to himself. The hunter's blood tasted wonderful to him. Its metallic taste was rich and sweet on his tongue as it let the clawing coldness in his chest dissipate slowly. There was a slight sting there, the hunter heritage zinged in his mouth, but not badly. Zero was hunter, but also a vampire. Instead of feeling like he was being electrocuted, he felt a spicy sting as though there was too much cinnamon in his blood. It clashed into his senses, overwhelming him - but for one who had gone without drinking for two weeks, it was the most heavenly thing to taste on earth. He pressed closer to the warm body, all senses bent on the flavor of Zero's blood alone.
He could taste the hunter's emotions. At first he tasted the fear of Shizuka, but the bitterness in the blood dissipated as the pureblood poured more pleasurable sensations into him. Unexpectedly, he tasted no hatred toward himself, but rather a rough kind of honest sympathy. That surprised him somewhat and he paced himself to draw the liquid crimson more gently.
There was more that he could taste - he couldn't help aching in answer to the hunter's love for Yuki as he tasted a terrible, deep-seated regret rivaling his own. But he also tasted things unfamiliar to him. Like the other man's strength of mind. It was a foreign kind of strength to him. Where Kaname's strength of will was that born of his natural birthright to rule, Zero's was of another kind completely.
He drank more gently, still, so he could savour the nuances of determination that were all there. This was the kind of strength he needed so desperately, the kind that is born out of suffering and helplessness, the kind of strength that lets a slave who has nothing to lose triumph over a king who has it all. The kind that was fueled by the hunter's unwavering stubbornness.
He could taste the traces of anger that were only there to protect a hurt child against a hostile world. And always he could taste Yuki in him. It was strange that it was still there - it was almost four years ago that Zero had been struggling not to fall into the madness of a Level E and had taken her blood. But it was as though his body had never given her up. She had been the first one he had bitten and yet she had not hated him - maybe it was her utter devotion to saving him that let her innocence be ingrained within him, somehow. Kaname cried at how this body had been able to preserve the taste of her so well.
This hunter was the most wonderful symphony of flavors. He had never looked at him this way, not until right now when he relinquished control over his own essence to the pureblood. A nuisance or at best, a tool was all he had known him to be. Belligerent, pointing his Bloody Rose at everything that had fangs. Scornful, ill-tempered and bad-mannered. He had not expected this. Instantly, he understood why Yuki could have loved him so deeply. He showed that rude and hostile persona only because there was simply too much heart to be hurt. The pureblood pulled the writhing hunter in a soft embrace while he drank.
He was intoxicated by Zero's blood and person. He couldn't stop drinking. He knew what his bite induced in the hunter because he did it on purpose. He wanted no harm to him, he did not deserve it. He deserved Yuki - Kaname didn't deny it, he deserved her more than he ever had - he himself had been born with the means to protect her, born even with the claim on her because she was born a Kuran and therefore a sister to his blood. But the hunter had had no chance - yet he had fought for her every step of the way nonetheless. He admired him for that. No, he wished this man no harm, only relief.
The hunter was trembling and moaning in his arms, weighed with grief and lit with an artificial, burning desire. Kaname could feel the hunter was hard under him, the jeans unable to conceal the pureblood's control over him. But he just couldn't stop drinking. This blood was so intoxicating, he couldn't even want to stop. He was desperate, hurt and so vulnerable. He was currently a million things a pureblood wasn't supposed to be, but he didn't care as he held on to the hunter's blood like a lifeline, burying himself into the hunter's bare chest as though the weakened Level D could somehow anchor him. Even though he knew the hunter was dangerously drained and overpowered by all the emotion he was inducing, he still wanted to drink more. He needed more. It was the only warm thing in this cold place of mind he was currently in.
Zero made no move to struggle against being drained or to follow the pureblood's expectancy on returning the bite. He stubbornly drifted in and out of consciousness riding out the overwhelming thunderstorm of emotion until he couldn't struggle his way into consciousness any longer and his body went limp from the lack of blood.
Only then, did Kaname feel his responsibility kick in again. He pulled his fangs from the hunter's weakened body and - on impulse - kissed the bite softly before licking at the wound that still bled sluggishly.
"Why do you always defy me, Zero Kiryu?" he whispered trying to gather enough mental strength to want to let go of his lifeline physically.
His neediest thirst sated, he was now in almost full control of himself again physically and the hunter's poison in his system was slowly dissipating. There was no danger to the hunter from his blood. His long draught had not lessened his emotional distress, but it had compensated for the physical pain from the blood bond. Kaname swallowed hard.
Wait. Hold on. That... that was impossible...
A blood bond was a bond for life... literally... for life - when one died the other inevitably followed.
Unless...
Kaname stared at the unconscious hunter in his arms
"Zero..." he breathed. "How..."
Did he even know what he had done? And HOW...?
Breaking a… blood bond?
A blood bond was so strong a connection it was highly unlikely to occur to begin with. It wasn't just a matter of mutual blood sharing, rather both persons involved had to be physically, and emotionally attuned to each other in some way. Basically, to even create it, they already either had to be unable to live without one another or be so similar they could be one even without the bond... Between two pureblood siblings that was conceivably more probable than with any other couple. So it had been natural for him and Yuki. She had adored him, had loved him as a brother and he had loved her with all his heart.
He had come to Zero so he would kill him, because it might take weeks of him slowly falling into madness until his body gave out and he wished for the pain to end without any more suffering. Suffering for himself - or others in his path. A mad pureblood was like a natural disaster. You could only wait it out and pray you didn't die. There was no stopping it. It was the only conclusion of a pureblood's broken blood bond.
Kaname knew of only one way to break a blood bond. His eyes looked at the hunter, as though engraved in that pale skin of his strong body might lie the answer. Maybe it was because there were faint traces of her embedded inside the hunter...
Kaname could not be sure. But his mind responded to him again, his control was back and all because the hunter had wanted to... help him? That itself was so terribly precious, he hardly wanted to dwell on it for fear it could not be true. In the vampire world there was almost nothing but selfishness; a pureblood had no friends, only subordinates or strategic allies. A pureblood had no emotions, only a facade. A pureblood was respected, adored and most of all feared. In essence - without a blood bond or total mind control there was no one you could trust.
But Zero, born a human, had none of this ingrained in himself. He respected people he considered worthy. He cared about people he wanted to care about. And he helped someone because he wanted to. Because underneath all that bad temper and anger his heart was true. He was right in reminding him of his obligations, reminding him of how Yuuki would be appalled by his behavior. Zero had simply reassembled the pureblood... put him back together without second thought, of his free will, not because he had to respect a pureblood, not because he didn't have a choice or because rules and conventions bound him. He had given him his life back just like that … of his own accord.
Still in silent awe, he discarded his still soaked shirt on the floor and carefully gathered the unconscious hunter in his arms. He carried him to his bed and sat down, the hunter in his arms. He regarded him as though looking at him for the first time. All vampires were drawn to beauty and the pureblood was no exception; his eyes wandering over the curiously silver hair, the sensual mouth, now pale from the loss of blood, the surprisingly soft skin and the strong, ever defiant jaw.
Three years ago, he had merely been a youth. Now the hunter was twenty, he was a man and it showed rather nicely in his stature, Kaname thought. His bare chest was heavily muscled and his arms were strong, but it was the kind of physical appearance that you gained by fighting too much and not taking care of yourself. All the muscles were pronounced, all tendons sinewy. There was no more boyish softness about him. Yet, perhaps due to being a vampire since he was a child, his skin was still smooth and soft and went well with his eyes that were so expressive with their strange amethyst color. He thought sadly how it was a shame that no woman, no girl but Yuki had ever been hugged by those arms that had so much to give. He couldn't resist the urge to touch the silver bangs and move a lose strand out of the hunter's face.
Then he lengthened a fingernail and tore a wound at his own throat.
There was no danger to the hunter from his blood with the hunter poison in his system diluted by the large quantity of that intoxicating blood and his regained strength. With his finger he trailed his blood onto Zero's lips. The vampire inside the hunter stirred, fangs lengthening. His eyes opened slightly burning in a crimson shade of lilac betraying his thirst.
"Kuran... Kuran, what are you doing...?" He slurred. The pureblood was amazed at his level of control. The fact that there was still lilac in the crimson was indicative of the hunter's grip on himself. Woken from unconsciousness in his state of blood loss, any vampire would go straight for the blood and not... talk. He had actually expected the Level D to tear at him in a furious bundle of claws and fangs, like he had at Cross Academy - but then again, maybe he shouldn't be surprised so easily. Not only had the hunter fought the urges too long to be easily overwhelmed, but he was now also a full hunter after obtaining Ichiru's strength.
"I nearly drained you. I want you to drink, Zero." he coaxed in answer, using his first name again.
"Kuran, you damn prick... you always want. Go away. I'll be fine." he slurred again still slightly out of it, his tongue now slowly licking his lips. The tint of amazing lilac in his eyes vanished below a swirl of crimson after that taste.
Kaname's breath hitched at the sight. There was something highly compelling about someone so stubborn finally giving in to vampire instinct. He chuckled and held the hunter's face close to his throat. He could tell that the hunter was definitely not lucid, but if this was what his vampire self was like, then the hunter inside Zero was much stronger than he had thought possible. "Well, most of the time, I get what I want. Now drink."
The taste of pure blood on his lips and the closeness to the wound from where it poured was showing its desired effect.
"Go away." the hunter said, head lolling.
"No. I want you to drink." Kaname raised an eyebrow. How could he still be struggling? He pressed the hungry lips to his throat, where the wound almost healed. That had Zero claw into his skin - but Kaname quickly realized, that he was trying to pull away from him instead of toward him. Kaname frowned. Exuding a small bit of control over the other, he tipped Zero's internal struggle in favor of the vampire inside him.
"Whatever." the hunter growled. He bit down with much less grace than Kaname had shown him, but without inflicting pain intentionally. Kaname was relieved. He had not expected such stubbornness... The pureblood held him, because it took quite a while before Zero had gained more control over himself again and Kaname let him drink until he stopped of his own account - it was the least he could do. He did not know how much the hunter could read from the taste of his blood. Kaname could not be sure if he knew what he had done. He did not know how the hunter would take the news that they were now bound to each other by blood. Worst of all, Kaname had no way of explaining exactly how it happened.
