*Author's Note: Here's another. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Vampire Knight.

As I dragged Yuki along behind me, my mind wandered. I was thinking about how Yuki had come into my room the night before. I really wanted to ask her about what had made her do it, and how she always seemed to know exactly what I needed. I decided against it. If she ever found out I had been faking sleep, she would be angry with me and embarrassed. Although I loved to embarrass her on account of how adorable she looked when she blushed, I did not particularly want her angry with me.

"Zero, are you listening? I said you're hurting me!" Yuki yelled at me, instantly pulling my mind back to the present. I realized I had been dragging her along this whole time and quickly released my grip. "Sorry Yuki, I wasn't thinking. Are you alright?" I asked calmly, though what I really wanted to do was take her fragile wrist in my hands and make sure I hadn't really hurt her. I had to be more careful. Not only was I exceptionally strong, since I wasn't exactly human, but Yuki seemed very delicate and fragile to me. Though I would never tell her, I was always very aware of even the smallest amount of strength I had to use when I was with her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's probably not even bruised," she stated. I sighed quietly in relief. I could always tell when she was telling the truth.

We arrived at our classroom just as the teacher had started asking the students to quiet down. Yuki went to sit next to her friend and fellow day class student Yori while I took my usual seat in the back row. It was time to sleep.

I was rudely awakened from my nap when someone started rapping on the table my head was resting on. Without looking up, I growled, "What do you want?"

To my surprise, the voice that answered was Yori's. "Yuki told me to let you know that she went to see Kaname Kuran, but that she will be back in time for patrol tonight, and that you should just start without her," she said matter-of-factly. Although I didn't consider Yori a friend, I did admire the fact that she didn't seem to be anxious around me like most other girls were.

"Why didn't she just wake me up and tell me herself?" I asked, although I already knew the answer. Yori seemed to think the same thing. "Why don't you tell me?" she said, raising her eyebrows waiting for an answer. When I didn't give her one, she sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's probably because you always get so nasty when she goes to see the night class students, Zero," she stated.

I snorted, conveying that she was way off, although in reality she was spot on. I could act like I didn't care easily, but on the inside I was burning with jealousy. I hated myself for it.

"Well, anyways, I'll see you later," Yori said over her shoulder as she began to walk out of the classroom. She didn't wait for a reply, most likely because she knew I wouldn't give her one.

After hearing where Yuki had gone, my mood was soured. I quickly got up from my seat and put my legs on autopilot. They knew where to take me without me even having to think about it.

Ten minutes later, I arrived at the only place on campus that I could count on not being disturbed. As I walked into the stable, I continued straight down the long aisle filled with horses, all of them snorting in discomfort at having a vampire so close to them, until I got to the very last stall on the left, the stall of White Lily.

Lily was as beautiful as she was ill-tempered. Her white coat was lustrous and her mane and tail were flowing and pearly. Her face was delicately made and her eyes were a deep brown that seemed to hold answers. However, aside from me, no one, horse or human, dared disturb her. I had once seen her rear up at a boy who had walked too close to her nose and pummeled him to the ground with her hard hooves. She was considered untrainable.

However, for whatever reason, she had decided to take me under her wing. I remembered the first time I had seen her.

I had run away from the headmaster's home after Kaname Kuran had come to visit Yuki. I always left when he was over. I had stumbled across the campus stables quite by chance, as I had not been living with the headmaster long enough to know the grounds. Curious, I had been about to enter the building when I heard a scream. At the time, I had registered it as a human scream and acted on impulse. I had run towards the sound around the back of the stable only to see a white mare, barely more than a filly herself, rearing up at a large grey wolf snarling and baring its massive fangs. I had stopped in my tracks as a trace of white caught my eye on the ground near her.

I had gasped as I realized what it was. A tiny white foal, no doubt belonging to the crazed mare, was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Without thinking I had grabbed a branch off the ground near me and ran yelling towards the grey wolf. He slowly turned his toothy grin on me and looked straight into my eyes before turning to bound away into the woods. I had dropped the branch on the ground and ran towards the fallen foal. Although the mare had made it clear she didn't want me there with her flared nostrils and pinned-back ears, she tolerated my presence, perhaps realizing that I was now her only hope.

Examining the foal, I had quickly realized he needed medical attention. Carefully hoisting the tiny colt over my shoulders, I took off at a brisk walk towards the stable door. The mare snorted, making it clear she would rather be doing almost anything other than following me.

After setting the foal down on the straw in the last stall on the left, I had run to get the first aid kit from the front of the barn. As I was running back, the mare had whinnied restlessly, nudging her baby with her soft nose. I had run back into the stall just in time to see the foal's labored breathing hitch a couple times just before he drew his last breath.

I stood in shock, tears brimming in my eyes as the young mother sniffed her foal, nudging him again and again. When he didn't move, she let out a mournful whinny, one of the saddest sounds I had ever heard. She had lain down in the straw with the lifeless colt, and the life seemed to be drained from her as well.

Without thinking I had rushed to the mare, throwing my arms around her warm neck which was still drenched with sweat from her struggle with the wolf. The mare hadn't even flinched. I sat back and looked at her. In her eyes was a sadness so complete that I felt my throat constrict with barely contained tears again.

"Me too…" I whispered to the horse. "I lost my family too because of a heartless beast. I'm sorry…I'm so sorry I couldn't save yours," I finished, a single tear escaping from my eyes.

Sensing my distress, she had snorted softly out her nose and looked in my eyes before nuzzling my cheek with her velvet nose, as if to say "I forgive you". From then on, I had known this mare and I would be friends.

I was snapped back to the present as Lily stomped her right hoof on the ground, demanding that I stop standing there and pay attention to her. I couldn't help but smile at the impatient mare. It had now been almost four years since I had met her, only a couple months after I had come to live with the headmaster at Cross Academy. She had been only four then, still a filly in horse years. Now she was a fully grown mare.

"You would think after all this time you would learn to be more patient," I said fondly to the mare. She snorted at me, clearly disagreeing. I pulled a carrot stub out of my pants pocket and held it out to her. She looked at me crossly, but gingerly took the vegetable in her teeth and ate it. "I know you would prefer milk, but the groom told me if I give you any more, you are going to be so fat you won't be able to walk," I stated with amusement. Shortly after the accident with her young foal, I had discovered that Lily loved cow's milk. Ever since then, I secretly brought her some whenever I could.

Suddenly I heard a scuffling at the front of the stable. Thinking it to be the groom, I ignored it hoping he would go away, but the footsteps came closer and closer until whoever it was stood right outside Lily's stall. If the sound hadn't given the person's presence away Lily's pinned-back ears and low, threatening whicker would have. I turned around to tell him to get the hell out and found myself facing Yuki.

Of course she would know I was here. This was where I always went when I was sulking, and she knew it. I internally cursed for not thinking of that.

"What do you want?" I snapped, only slightly regretting my tone when a hurt look flashed across her eyes.

"I just wanted to let you know that I was back, and that it was almost time for supper," she said, eyes downcast. I was about to say something snarky when I heard Lily gnashing her teeth behind me.

"Yuki, get out, she could hurt you," I said, hoping for once she would listen to me. I would never understand why this mare chose to accept me, who wasn't even human, and reject this timid, kind girl. Yuki took a couple steps back. Patting Lily on the neck, I walked out of the stall and slid the barred door closed behind me. I continued walking, taking large strides down the center aisle. Yuki, realizing that I was leaving ran to catch up to me.

About ten feet outside of the stable, I sighed softly and slowed my pace ever so slightly so that Yuki could catch up to me. Before I had time to think, I felt her tiny arms curl around my waist and her cheek pressing against the back of my shirt. I stopped in my tracks, intentionally relaxing my muscles to allow her to be able to control my movement so that I wouldn't hurt her by dragging her behind me at all.

We stood like that for a minute, her breathing in my scent and me trying to control my runaway thoughts. Though Yuki never meant it, the close contact with her small frame did strange things to my body. I felt blood rushing to places other than my heated cheeks, and my breathing hitched a little. I cleared my throat hoping it would clear my head as well and broke the silence.

"What did Kuran want?" I asked through gritted teeth. Yuki, realizing that her arms were still attached around my waist, let go and took a step back, allowing me to turn around, my arms crossed, glaring intensely at her. One look at me and she quickly looked down, arms crossed around her stomach as if for protection.

"Nothing, it doesn't matter," she said quietly. I wanted so badly to ask her what if it does matter to me?

What if you are all I ever think about and the fact that you were with him cuts me deeply?

What if you are the only thing in my life that I couldn't live without?

I said nothing.

Yuki was not just my closest friend and in truth one of my only friends. She was the sole person in this world that I could truly say I loved. My parents and my brother had already been taken from me, and no one else had ever really given a damn about what happened to me. She was the only one who paid any attention to what I needed. And because of that, I could never let her know the true me and how I felt. If she ever found out the monster I really was, she would turn away from me for good. It was selfish, but that was not a price I was willing to pay for being honest with her. I couldn't even bear to think of what she would do if she ever realized that a monster like me was in love with her.

"Hey Zero?" Yuki said suddenly, breaking the silence that had come between us. I looked down at her expectantly, waiting for her to tell me what was on her mind. Her brows were furrowed and her pink lips were pursed in a tiny frown.

"…never mind," she said after a moment, apparently having thought better of saying whatever it was she had intended to. I sighed in annoyance.

"You always do that," I said irritably. She looked up at me, evidently surprised. "What?" she said innocently.

"That. Start to say something, and then leave me hanging," I said.

Of all things, she laughed. It was a sound that simultaneously stole my breath and stilled my heart. "You're right, I do tend to do that," she mused, still smiling. Looking up at me, still smiling, she asked me, "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded. Without a thought about what it would invoke in me, she grasped my hand, curling her tiny fingers around my larger ones, and I let her tug me along back to the headmaster's quarters where we were to have supper, all the while wishing that she would never let go of my hand again.

*Thanks for reading! Be sure to let me know what you think!