*Author's Note: Here it is, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight or its characters.

After a rather strained dinner, I excused myself and walked upstairs to my room. In truth I guess it wasn't really my room anymore, but my childhood room. I had moved into the boy's dorm when I started high school, but many nights I chose to stay here, as did Yuki in her childhood room. For me, knowing Yuki was right down the hall and that I could easily protect her was the draw, though I couldn't fathom why she chose to stay here some nights.

I headed straight to the bathroom, which adjoined my room, but also opened into the hallway, as it was the only bathroom in the small house. The three of us had to share it. Making sure there was no one inside, I walked in and locked both doors. Taking a little container of pills from my pocket, I freed one from the wrapping and dropped it in a large disposable cup, filling it with water from the sink and waiting for the pill to dissolve.

Today had been especially hard. It had been hard to be close to Yuki. The sound of her blood pumping as I had stood behind her this morning to help her with breakfast, the scent of her as I buttoned up my jacket over her shivering form, her almost hitting her head on the doorframe and causing her blood to escape…I quickly realized that although these were everyday things that were happening, it was getting harder and harder to control my lust for her blood.

The blood tablet was ready. I wrinkled my nose at its smell, so unlike real blood, the blood I craved, and threw back my head to choke down the vile liquid. I could feel it gag me on the way down and churn in my stomach. It seemed it lasted for increasingly shorter amounts of time as time went on. I sighed, throwing the cup in the trash and unlocking the bathroom doors. I didn't bother to wash out the cup. The headmaster knew my repulsive secret, and Yuki was human and wouldn't be able to smell the subtle scent.

I walked back into my bedroom and sat down on my bed, my thoughts going back to dinner. Yuki had stayed cold towards me throughout the whole meal, probably to cover up her embarrassment at almost running into the door post, and the headmaster had been annoying as ever, constantly trying to spark a conversation which neither one of us wanted to have with the other. I sighed. She could be so stubborn sometimes.

A sound caught my attention. Footsteps up the stairs, in the direction of my room. I could tell who it was by the loud sound they made on the wood floor. The headmaster opened my door without knocking and let himself in, shutting the door behind him.

"Don't you ever knock?" I asked, annoyed at the intrusion. He ignored my question and started asking me one of his own.

"Zero, have you taken a blood tablet yet today?" he asked me seriously. This annoyed me to no end.

"Listen, you don't need to check up on me. Don't you think I would know when I need to take one? Why are you asking me this anyway?" I said, barely contained anger in my voice.

Unfazed by my tone, he continued. "After you left the table, Yuki told me that she had almost run into the doorframe and you stopped her with your hand, yelling about a broken skull and blood. I just wanted to check that you had it under control. You know the consequences if you aren't able to control yourself," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," I growled, "Now get out. I have homework to do."

Sighing, he retreated from my room and closed the door behind him, taking the stairs two at a time to the kitchen.

About an hour later, I had finished my assignments and was just packing them up when I was surprised to hear a knock on my door. I hadn't heard anyone coming. It was without a doubt Yuki, as the headmaster never knocked.

"Come in," I said calmly. As she walked in holding my jacket, I tried to gauge if she was still annoyed with me.

"I…still have your jacket. I was just thinking…you might need it…you know, tomorrow…so…here," she said, walking over to hang it in my mostly empty closet. So she still thought I was mad at her. As if I had ever been mad at her.

She turned around, looking at me, as if waiting for me to say something. I knew what that meant. She needed something, and was too shy to ask.

"What do you need, Yuki?" I asked, sparing her from asking me. She looked relieved at my understanding of her.

"Well I was working on the assignment we got today and…" she let her sentence trail off, implying that it hadn't been going so well. I looked at my alarm clock on my nightstand, seeing that we still had an hour until we needed to start patrol for the night. Since it was a Monday, we hadn't had patrol this morning due to no night classes on the weekend. I was less than eager to start again.

"Of course I'll help you Yuki," I said. She had always struggled with school. Part of it was probably because she never had time to do her homework. She knew that I did well in school. It had always come easily to me, when I chose to actually put in the effort to do it. When it came to Yuki, I would always put in the effort to help her.

She dazzled me yet again with a smile that lit up her whole face. To hide my smile, I said, "Well go get it then," and she nodded, turning around to run down the stairs and grab her stack of papers and books. She ran up the stairs just as fast, making her breath uneven and her heart beat faster by the time she was beside me on my bed. I tried to subtly move away from the sound and smell of her rushing blood, but she noticed and turned to me with a sad look in her eyes. Thinking fast, I faked a cough and said, "Sorry, I have a cold…I didn't want you to catch it…" I lied awkwardly. Vampires rarely got sick.

Understanding flashed in her eyes and she smiled at me. She was so gullible sometimes, but that was one of the things I loved about her. Her innocence.

As we worked through some of the questions on her homework, I went on autopilot, enough that I was able to let my mind wander a bit. There were not many ways that I was able to help Yuki, though there were a thousand ways I could hurt her. Sometimes it seemed that all I could do was hurt her, with my words, my actions, or even my physical strength. So the fact that she needed me, even this little bit to help with her schoolwork, warmed my heart. She did so much for me. This was the least I could do for her. As long as she had breath in her body I was here to help her in any way she needed me.

Tonight, patrol seemed to be pretty laid back. Maybe all of the lovesick teenage girls were too busy with their assignments, or maybe everyone was just tired, but the only people out seemed to be the vampires, and they stayed well away from me.

I had walked around my half of the campus, so I stopped at our usual meeting place halfway to wait for Yuki. She always showed up much later than me, probably due to her short legs and tendency to attract all the vampires to the scent of her human blood. Yuki ran into problems almost every night, while I almost never did alone unless I had to come to her rescue, which was most nights.

I heard soft approaching footsteps and sighed in relief, thinking it was Yuki, back safely from her half of the campus to patrol. I was surprised to see Ruka, a female night class student, walking towards me. If she weren't a vampire and if all my thoughts were not already consumed by one person, I may have found her beautiful. With her long dark blonde hair and graceful stride, she was considered a beauty among not only the humans, but the vampires as well.

"Ruka," I said tensely by way of greeting. Though we were far from being friends, she and I had an understanding. We both would give our lives protecting the ones we loved. Even if the one she loved was Kuran, I admired her unwavering loyalty.

"Zero," She said distastefully, though still her voice rang out like a bell.

I waited for her to get to the point. I knew she wouldn't have approached me if she didn't have a reason to. Finally, she obliged.

"Lord Kaname asked me to let you know that Yuki was safe, but that she may need some help getting home, and that—"

I was moving immediately, cutting her off. She yelled after me that I should thank her, she wasn't a messenger, but I ignored her and kept walking in the direction I knew Yuki was. I could smell her, and I could smell that filthy vampire with her.

I arrived at the place where Yuki, Kuran and two other vampires I didn't know the names of were standing. My eyes immediately went to Kaname's hand, resting on Yuki's shoulder. I didn't like the way he touched her, like she was his and his alone.

"Yuki had a run-in with these two. I need to take care of them, so I figured you could at least handle escorting Yuki home," he said in that calm, emotionless voice that I despised so much, clearly trying to evoke my anger. It worked.

"Come on Yuki, we're going," I all but hissed, glaring at Kaname as I grabbed her hand and towed her along behind me. She didn't struggle, but turned her head to catch a last glimpse of Kaname, who was quietly threatening the vampires who had had a "run-in" with Yuki, as we headed into the trees.

I was quiet for a long time, my blood silently boiling. What had happened, and how did Kuran find her? How had I not heard or sensed her distress?

"Zero?" she said softly behind me. I stopped, letting go of her hand, and turning around to face her. I looked down at her, waiting for her to finish her thought.

"I…I'm sorry. I know you must be annoyed with me, always having to come and get me. I feel like I'm such a nuisance to you. So…thank you again," she said, and to my dismay I saw tears forming in her eyes.

Before I really had time to think about what I was doing and all the ways it would be hard for me to control myself, I wrapped my arms around her, embracing her. I could not believe that she thought I was mad at her for needing help. I was mad at Kuran for obviously trying to provoke me, I was mad at those vampires for trying to harm her in any way, and I was mad at myself for not knowing she had needed me. But I could never be angry at her for simply needing help.

At the suddenness of my hug, her breath caught, and I felt her stiffen for a moment in shock before melting into me and wrapping her arms around me in return. I could feel tiny wet spots on my clothing where her tears had escaped. She talked into my chest, voice shaking.

"They tried to drink my blood. It's not like that hasn't happened before, it's just…I don't know. It always scares me. It brings back those awful memories…" she said, trailing off. I knew which memories she was referring to. I steeled myself for what I had to say, and pushed the words out.

"There was nothing to worry about, Yuki. Kuran found you in time," I said, hating that I had to say it, but knowing that it would comfort her. I had to put her comfort above my anger at him.

"You're right," she said, and I knew I had said the right thing, even if it pained me. She released me, allowing me to breathe through my nose again and took my hand.

As we continued walking, I allowed myself the tiniest smile as I thought of our embrace. Though I had strained to keep both my urges as a vampire and as a man reigned in, it had been worth it. I was the one she felt comfortable crying in front of, not Kuran. Not that it changed anything, but for the time being, I let it comfort me as we walked together in silence back to the headmaster's house.

*For some reason I had a hard time writing about night class students patronizing Yuki that weren't Hanabusa and Akatsuki…hahaha. Anyways, thanks for reading and leave a comment if you wish!