Chapter 2
The words washed through him and he began to question whether they were even spoken at all. He didn't have the courage to turn around and next thing he knew, the night students had disappeared and he was left alone. He didn't remember the girls leaving and he didn't care where they were. All he could do is mentally punish himself for being so gutless. Why didn't you just turn around? He cursed himself, over and over and over again. The souls of his feet began aching and the sky was growing dark, yet Zero Kiryu refused to move from where he stood. His legs were in a dangerous lock and despite his head pleading for him to move, he could not. The scent of her had strangled him and held him where he stood. He was powerless. Powerless underneath a disgusting blood sucker. A beautiful blood sucker. Yuki, his Yuki. Not his, but what he wanted to be his. He cursed himself again for thinking such thoughts and finally gathered himself enough to move from where he stood. When he move his leg, he felt the gun nuzzled in his pocket shift and he was given a deadly reminder that she was in fact the very thing that he hated more than anything in this world.
Nightfall began to blanket over the academy once again and Zero found himself falling back into his usual routine of scanning the grounds and losing his head in the clouds. Though a fierce expression always rested on his face, the inner parts of mind were anything but. He was in a complete daze and despite telling himself to stop finding himself in that dreamy state, he could not help himself. Zero supposed that the students could control themselves without his protection for one night and instead lost himself over in his favorite part of the grounds. The barn.
"Did you miss me?" He said softly through the darkness. There was a second of silence before he heard the deep huffs of breath from his only friend, his white stallion, standing in the stall to his left. Zero smiled barely and reached through the blackness to touch the horse on it's snout, stroking his fingers along it's hairline and earning a small grunt of the gentle animal. "I know. I missed you too," Zero said. He smiled wider until he felt the prick of his fangs against his bottom lip, and then his face had fallen back into it's usual frown. The horse was calmly still underneath it's master's touch and closed it's large brown eyes, absorbing the vampire's touch and feeling at peace. Zero froze and said through his teeth, "Usually you're much more excited to see people." The boy slowly kneeled down and at the horses' feet, he saw the leftovers of a single apple. His heart stopped in his chest and he sucked in a deep breath through his nostrils. Someone else had already been there before him. "That's unusual," he said under his breath. But he was fully aware that it wasn't unusual, for there was always one other person that would gift his horse with apples the year previous.
The muffled sounds of sticks breaking caused Zero to freeze in his skin, slowly slinking himself farther into the stable with his horse and quieting it to allow himself to listen through the dark. The noises came to an abrupt end and a deep voice said, "I know that you're there, Zero. Come out." The voice was one that Zero recognized and absolutely despised, and it took every ounce of the white haired boy's strength to not destroy it at once. He slowly rose from the barn and stared coldly into the eyes of the man that he hated most. Kaname Kuran. Kaname smiled warmly at him and extended to open palms, showing his lack of defense, and said in a gentle tone, "We have some things we need to talk about, Zero Kiryu."
"What do you want?" Zero said lowly. What he wanted to say was, 'what else could you possibly take from me that you haven't already.' He held his tongue and touched his hand to his pocket, feeling the gun underneath the fabric and gradually losing the control to not take it out and pull the trigger. Despite the rage burning in his blood, he managed to maintain a blank facial expression. Kaname was entirely different, his face was both calm and friendly. Inviting even. "I'd feel more comfortable if you would put your gun on the ground, Zero." The request made Zero want to scream. Kaname was smiling, "It's the least you can do... considering my last knowing you consisted of you threatening my lover."
Zero grasped the gun through his uniform and struggled to keep on a neutral face. His teeth were grinding in his skull violently and his fingers were trembling with anger at such a thing to say. The mental state of Zero, the view of the man deteriorating in front of them, was almost amusing to Kaname. He ran his fingers through his dark hair and exhaled a small chuckle before saying, "I don't enjoy this, I promise you. And I also promise that I would not be speaking to you if it weren't completely necessary." Kaname hesitantly stepped forward, closing in the gap between him and Zero, and dropped both of his hands to his sides. The smile of his face had vanished. "She won't admit it," Kaname said softly, "but I know that she misses you far more than either of us could fathom. I cannot satisfy her alone." The man closed his eyes tightly and finally exhaled again before saying, "I love her more than the sky and the stars. And that's why I'm going to ask you for her forgiveness, for whatever she may have done to upset you in such a manner"
Zero was left dumbstruck. His fingers were still trembling yet he let go of the gun, instead putting his arms to his sides as well and freezing like a statue. Perhaps this was just another one of his twisted mind tricks. But behold, Kaname continued. "It's like this girl is dying in front of me. I can't protect her from this," his voice shook on certain words and he was clearly attempting to control himself. "She needs you. She needs your blood, just to make it by." Suddenly, Kaname's voice rose a few notches and the life began to pump back into him. "And you owe her that, for that is exactly what she has done for you. I'm afraid that she will - she will become nothing without you." The words of Kaname Kuran penetrated Zero deeply. There was no way that he was dreaming, for this dream surely would have gone the route of Zero shoving a dagger into Kaname's throat and watching him mercilessly die in front of him. Kaname's dark eyes met Zero's. They were dark and haunting as the icy eye boy growled, "Then let her. A dirty blood sucking leech means nothing to me"