*Author's Note: This chapter may be a bit of a dry one…but all the same it is important plot-wise I suppose. Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight.

Zero and I were standing in the headmaster's office, looking dubiously at the items he had set out before us. The headmaster handed me a rather ugly bracelet with a small charm on it. He handed Zero a knife.

Before I could wonder what he was supposed to do with that, he sliced his hand, causing blood to well up. He took my wrist, holding his bloody hand over the bracelet, and let a single drop of his blood fall on the small charm. It sizzled. Strangely, Zero seemed to know what he was doing.

After watching his blood sizzle down to nothing, I looked up at him to find him already looking intensely into my eyes. I couldn't fathom what he was thinking. His eyes were so deep, so full of some emotion I couldn't quite identify. I stared back at him, trying to find what lie beyond those brilliant lavender eyes of his.

We must have been staring at each other for a while because when the headmaster broke the silence, it startled us both. "It's an ancient spell, a method that the vampire hunters have been using for a long time to tame an unruly vampire," he said. This explained why Zero knew what to do. He was from a family of vampire hunters after all. But when the headmaster said this, the word "tame" stood out to me. Like they were beasts. I didn't want to "tame" Zero. I didn't want to be given this power over him. Before I could think any more about it, the headmaster continued.

"The bracelet that I gave to Yuki works in conjunction to this crest," he said. Curious, I drew my wrist near Zero's tattoo on his neck as he held back the fabric of his shirt so I could reach it better. The way he was looking at me as I came closer made me think he knew what was going to happen.

As I drew closer still to his neck tattoo, there was a spark and it felt as though electricity was moving through my bracelet. It was a rather uncomfortable feeling, and it probably felt even worse for Zero as it was on his neck. I decided to withdraw my hand before anything worse happened.

As I tried to pull away, a force almost like two magnets attracting drew my wrist onto his tattoo faster than I could act. The moment the charm touched his skin it was as if some sort of force field had erupted from my bracelet and I closed my eyes from the impact. When I opened them, I gasped.

Zero was lying on the ground, eyes wide, not moving. He looked like he was paralyzed. I realized this must be the intended effect of the bracelet. I felt a swell of emotion for him and all I wanted to do was run over to him and hug him. "Zero…" was all I said, wanting him to know I was sorry.

"He's perfectly fine, you've simply immobilized him for a bit!" the headmaster stated what I had already realized, a little too cheerily. "Yuki, if Zero tries to bite anyone ever again please use that bracelet to stop him. Kaname has agreed to let Zero stay in the day class, but only on that one condition," he finished. I was trying very hard to not look at Zero, still paralyzed, but staring intensely at me again. Then I realized what the headmaster had just said.

"Kaname said that?" I said, surprised that Kaname had agreed to let him stay in the day class, considering his earlier statement that it just wasn't possible.

"Since his dearest Yuki made the request, Kaname just couldn't say no," he said, a hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice. He leaned down to talk to Zero.

"I'm sorry. I never wanted to use this method on you at all. Just try and make do with this," he told Zero, holding out the blood tablets and then realizing Zero still did not have the use of his arms. He put them back in his pocket and said, "And if you still crave the taste of blood…feel free to help yourself!" as he bared his neck to Zero.

I almost laughed at the expression on Zero's face. His eyes got huge and he looked as if he was going to throw up. I even heard him gag a little. Then he jumped up, suddenly able to move again and started punching the headmaster. While they were rolling on the ground fighting, I was trying to figure out what had upset Zero. Did it really matter whose blood a vampire took? Why was he so opposed to drinking the headmaster's blood when he had drunk mine without hesitation? Granted, I assumed the headmaster was joking, but it seemed odd to me. I filed it away in my memory for later.

I suddenly realized Zero was about to walk out of the room. I wanted to tell him that I was sorry. "Zero! Umm…" I started, unable to think of what to say next. But as always, he knew exactly what I wanted to say.

"It's alright. This is just fine," he said, walking out the door without looking at me.

The next day, Yori and I hurried to class, aware that we were about to be late. As we burst into the classroom, I saw the students all milling around and sighed in relief. Then I overheard them talking about a new professor.

"Did something happen?" I asked, a little confused.

"Didn't you hear Yuki? We're getting a new ethics lecturer today!" one of the students told me excitedly.

"Huh? But Why now?" I asked, wondering what had happened to our other ethics lecturer.

"I don't know, but I just saw him!" the girl stated dreamily. Oh no. So that was it. The girls in this class were so hormonal sometimes.

Just then, someone walked in, and I assumed it was him. I blinked a couple times. The girl had been right, for an older man he was very handsome. He had long, voluminous, raven black hair and light blue eyes…or at least I assumed the eye that was covered up with a leather patch was identical to his visible eye. He had a harsh look to him, but he was very well dressed. As he began to walk in a murmur went through the room, and all of us clambered into our seats.

"Seems word of my arrival has preceded me," he said, setting down the book that we had been using for the class. "The name's Toga Yagari and I will be your new teacher. Nice to meet you," he said, sounding as if he was less than pleased to meet us.

Just then Yori leaned over to me and whispered, "He's pretty cool for a teacher." Although I didn't disagree, there was something about him that made me uneasy. "Yeah, I guess…but—" I started to tell her, but then I caught a glimpse of Zero.

He was staring straight ahead, not looking at the new teacher. I knew him well enough to know that he was somehow deeply disturbed by something judging from the look in his eyes. I wasn't listening to the questions the students were asking, but all of the sudden, Zero seemed to hear one of them, which caused him to get up without warning and walk out of the classroom. I had no idea what anyone could have asked this teacher to make Zero so uncomfortable that he would leave, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was whatever had been asked that had caused him to go. I quickly turned to the new teacher.

"Um…sir…as a part of the disciplinary committee, I'll go bring him back," I said. Before I looked away, I could have sworn I saw a sad look flash across his eyes. I was beginning to wonder if this new teacher and Zero knew each other.

I ran out of the classroom, into the hallway and out of the school building, seeing Zero at the end of the walkway to the gates of the school grounds. I was running to catch up, but I knew I would never catch him if he didn't want me to catch him, so I yelled out, "Zero, wait up!" When he didn't slow down, apparently ignoring me, I shouted again, "Hey, come on Zero!" This time he stopped, and I figured he was waiting for me until I saw that the headmaster was there, standing at the front gate.

"Zero, you must realize that you can't just run away from all of your problems," he said, looking intensely at Zero, trying to convey some meaning that was hidden to me. Zero's eyes narrowed and he looked as if he was going to attack the headmaster, so I took his arm and hugged it to me, looking up at him, pleading with him not to. One of these days he was going to seriously injure the kind-hearted man, and that was something I never wanted to see.

Eyes widening for a moment at the contact, he stopped, looking down at me. Seeing my worried expression, he snorted and rolled his eyes, as if to tell me that he wasn't going to hurt the headmaster, but strangely, he didn't pull his arm away from my grip.

"Would you two be so kind as to run some errands in town for me?" the headmaster asked, apparently unaware of the recent threat on his life. At the same time as Zero spat, "No," I said, "Of course!" simply happy to not be in class and to be able to spend time with Zero. Hearing my answer, he looked at me, about to begin talking, probably intending to tell me he wasn't going, but I looked up at him with my best puppy-dog expression, gripping his arm tighter and saying, "Please?"

He looked at me for a long moment, sighed, and began walking in the direction of town, my arm still in his, pulling me along.

*There you have it. I hope it wasn't too boring, and thanks for reading! Let me know how I'm doing!