CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Into the Crater

He smelled the blood.

The moment aristocrat blood was in the air, twined with a human's, Zero knew that something was going on that definitely should not be going on. And for a moment, Zero thought that it was Yuuki – but with who? Certainly none of those privileged, idiots of vampires would possibly do anything to provoke Kaname yet again...

But it didn't quite matter who it was. He was sitting in the forest, relaxing and simply doing nothing – aside from avoiding the Winter Ball – and suddenly got up as soon as he smelled it. He raced towards the scent, and it led him to the girl's side of the dormitory. By the time he tracked down the location by scent, he ended up in a completely empty hallway. And when he kicked down one of the doors, the panicked blue eyes of Aidou Hanabusa met his.

The room stank with blood.

He held up his gun.

"It's not what you think!" the vampire shouted, his eyes wide with alarm. There was blood down his startled face, and his fangs were fully out. In his arms was a limp, burgundy haired girl. Zero didn't think. He charged over, shoving the vampire up by his collar and towards the window – he would have thrown him straight out too. For God's sake, blood was still dripping from the girl's neck and -

And then he was punched.

Before he could even think about it, he retaliated. His arm lurched out and crashed into Aidou's and he felt the satisfying but painful crunch of bone against his knuckles. The blond boy flew backwards, nearly breaking the window but caught himself at the wall but just as quick bounced back and wrestled with the vampire hunter, his fingers digging into the shoulder and his fangs fully out -

"Get off me!" Zero demanded through his teeth -

And several things followed that threat.

Kaede opened her eyes, sleepy and then her expression turned horrified the very moment the disciplinarian's arm moved down towards -

"No!" And the moment she saw the gleam of the silver gun, she thoughtlessly rushed over...

Only to get slammed. Right into the face – into the eye. By Zero. More specifically, by his elbow.

The room filled up with noise. With Kaede's unabashed profanity, Hanabusa's protest and Zero's confused breath. "Motherfucking shit -"

"Did you just elbow Kae -"

"What are you doing there -"

" - hurting like a fucking bitch. Holy -"

Hanabusa shoved Zero aside, forgetting completely about the fact that moments ago, he had forced his blood into Kaede's for her to heal. Although he was, in no way a pure blood, his bloodline was close enough that even his own blood should be enough to accelerate her healing to some degree. And it had. Her wounds did not close up immediately as it would with a pureblood's but in the moment, her heart beat had grown stronger and within a few minutes, the colour returned to her face. But then Zero had shown up like an avenger and nearly choked him to death if he hadn't got the chance to land a punch that threw him off.

And the next day, Hanabusa probably would not have treated Zero with any less or any more disdain.

But he had hurt Kaede. And that was crossing the line.

Zero seemed appalled by his own actions, but more so when he caught a glimpse of blood shot eyes, puffed up but it was just for a moment before she cupped her eye. She was still swearing as she turned away from all of them and despite the fact that there was evident blood in the air, Hanabusa went over to her easily with his bloodlust in check as he wrapped one arm around her.

"Let's get you to the -"

"I just need some...some towels," she mumbled but the moment she took one clumsy step, her vision blacked out and she fell into the door and then back at Hanabusa before steadying herself. "Okay, the nurse. I need to see the nurse."

"I'll go -"

"I think not."

Even though she had no idea who it was at the door, she froze. Hanabusa froze. Zero froze.

Aw, shit.

"Kaname."

xx-x-xx

This was weird.

Like, extremely weird. It was more than that. It was uncomfortable. And of course, awkward. I kept my gaze straight although it was nearly impossible to ignore the presence of the tall, dark haired man beside me. I saw him before – Kuran. Kuran Kaname. And he was more than intimidating when he was this close and I wondered about the gentle and soulful looking Kaname that I always heard being whispered about. I sneaked a glance and regretted it immediately when those girl-like long lashed eyes slid towards me.

And slowly, he stopped.

"The nurse isn't here," he said. His voice was...like a movie voice. Impossibly smooth, perfectly toned. Something Hanabusa and he both shared. Then he paused and looked at me. "Will you stay here?"

I watched him carefully. He didn't look suspicious, in fact, he looked like he expected me to make like a puppy and wait for him. "Am I in trouble?" I asked, despite the fact that my eye was swollen and it felt sore all over. And it throbbed. I was the victim, wasn't I?

This time he looked suspicious. His darkish eyes examined me closely before he reached forward – completely forgetting about personal boundaries, which I did not expect from a person with such a solemn expression – and touched my neck. I flinched. What the hell? But then he drew his hand back and there was something...crusting on it.

Was that some sort of sauce? I was eating -

"Are you light-headed?" he asked with a frown. I felt like I was in front of a doctor under his observational eyes and professional tone.

"No, my eye just hurts," I said. It was nearly swollen shut and if there was some sort of pus or blood, I really hoped he was a doctor so he wasn't inwardly disgusted. But he didn't move back. It was early in the morning, my voice felt too loud, this situation was...strange. And I was cold. I did not want to be here, and I could not stress out how isolated and uncomfortable this whole thing was. "But um, I'll be okay with water."

"Water?" His eyes narrowed ever the slightest.

Did I say water? "Ice...?"

He looked at me very, very steadily. Too calmly – as if he was void of all emotions. "Ice is all you need?" he asked again. With his question, I felt my face heat up and it was as if I was very focused, and could only think about the way he was looking at me – not quite worried, but as if...hesitant. I felt like I was missing something very obvious, and that I was failing a very important test all at once.

"Yeah," I said, my voice shaky. I tried to remember what else happened – but...it was a dream, some sort of half-coherent thought, right? "What else do I need?" But even as I was saying this, I felt my vision zone in. I knew exactly what I needed, because that little thing I thought I experienced – with Hanabusa – wasn't some delusional, exhausted imagination. It was real. Which meant -

Oh God.

And then I was falling.

xx-x-xx

"Papa?" [Dad?]

"Cadie! Tu t'es réveillée! J'étais inquiet quand tu ne m'as pas telephoné, ce matin - pn s'attendait à ce que tu appelle." [Cadie! You're awake! I was worried about you when you didn't call this morning - we expected you to check in]

"Desolé, je..." [Sorry, I...] The sudden change in language was natural to me. I woke up, blinking away the sleepiness and feeling crust in both eyes but happy nonetheless. I smiled at him, hugging my obviously worried father. He was dressed in what he called casual – dress pants and a pale blue button down. No tie, at least. But he still had his framed glasses and his jacket on. Pulling back, he touched my face gently, sympathetic to my confusion."Quelle heure est-il?" [What time is it?] I asked, rubbing one eye and gingerly avoiding the other.

"Dix heures, chérie. Le directeur m'a appelé car t'étais malade." [Ten o'clock, sweetie. The Headmaster called me because you were ill]

"Malade?" [Sick?] I tried to remember what happened. One moment, I was curled up on my bed, asleep and comfortable, anxiously awaiting for morning to come so that I could get up and leave early on the train to my parent's home...and then...someone visited me. Who? "Merde," [Shit] I groan. My eye was throbbing. What the hell? How did -

"Essaye de ne pas toucher ça," [Try not to touch it] my father said, gently placing a hand on mine, "t'es tombée sur quelque chose." [You fell on something]

"Je suis tombée?" [I fell?] When did I fall – onto the floor from my bed? How stupid was that? I couldn't. And how could my eye get hurt from falling onto the ground. Wouldn't have I remembered? "T'es sûr?" [Are you sure?]

"C'est ce que l'infirmière m'a dit. Détends-toi, chérie. Le conducteur de l'université sera bientôt là." [That's what the nurse told me. Just relax, sweetie. The driver from the university will arrive soon]

"Oh," I said quietly. "Merci, papa. Tu n'avais pas besoin de venir ici. Je vais bien." [Oh. Thanks, dad. But you didn't have to come here - I'll be okay]

He frowned and then turned my face slightly, inspecting it. I couldn't see the my own eye, of course. It throbbed, and felt a bit sore but it wasn't really painful. He made a thoughtful sound before he said, "Ouais, on dirait bien. Mais je voulais m'assurer." [Yeah, it looks like it. But I wanted to make sure]

My father stood up and ruffled my hair kindly, his eyes bright. I knew that we had the same colour – hazel – but his hair was much lighter than mine. I had always been told by my past doctors that I inherited most of my appearance, the usual softer edges of Asian descent and the ever slightest slant of eyes, from my mother but I was all my father when it came to colouring and personality. My mother was much more outgoing, more assuming and assertive. It was my father who preferred to be alone. But he was a scholar, one with a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics. I, on the other hand, was failing grade eleven math. "Est-ce que tu veux que je t'ammène quelque chose de ta chambre?" [Do you want anything from your room? I'll get it for you]

"Non," [No] I said as I stood up and tried to look for a mirror. He smiled at me and made for the door before I stopped him."Attends -" He turned around, looking at me curiously. "Merci d'être venu. Oh, et vous me manquez, toi et maman." [Wait - thank you for coming. Oh, and I miss you and mom]

He laughed slightly, and then walked back to kiss the top of my forehead gently. I really got along with my parents, they were my best friends. But I supposed it was a side effect of being a relatively "sick" child. "Toi aussi tu nous manque. On se voit à l'entrée de l'école dans vingt minutes." [Of course. I'll meet you at the entrance of the school in twenty minutes]

"Okay," I said. He ruffled up my hair one last time before leaving. Then I looked around the nurse's office, unable to shake off the feeling that I was missing something.

xx-x-xx

Dr. Elliot Leroy felt just a bit uncomfortable to be following behind a petite, over-exuberant brown haired Japanese girl up into the girl's dormitory, and was relieved when he bid the girl farewell with his daughter's luggage in hand and a polite smile on his face. Although his Japanese was far from mediocre, it was clear that the girl was even more uncomfortable with him and felt the need to smile more often to make up for the lack of conversation. But he was used to it. Being a visibly white man in a city predominantly of Asian over the past several years gave him a thicker skin to such things. But with ten minutes left to meet Cadie – or by her Japanese name, Kaede – and knowing his daughter's habit of being ten minutes late at least, he wandered around the campus he was paying a ridiculously large sum of money for Cadie to attend.

But it was necessary, of course.

He knew what it was like to be bullied – God knew that Catholic french schools in France were hard, but worse yet there was a boy like him who was so dedicated to his studies. The French were passionate people, and many of the girls were...not quite to his suiting. And once he left the God awful elementary and even more horrifying secondary school, he had studied in England for his undergraduate, and the states for his doctoral degree. It was during his research years that he moved to Japan and fell in love with Hatsumi Misane. Life became easy...and then more difficult.

Especially when they had a daughter like Cadie. He didn't even knew she was colour blind until one event when she was a little over three years old and was drawing the most strangest thing and upon his advice, she reached out for certain colour and was struck confused. Several testings later, it was concluded that she was completely achromatic. Black and white. But she had never minded, not as a child. It was only his wife and he that worried for her. She still laughed like all the other children, and was amazed at the littlest things as one her age would. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like to live absolutely without a speck of colour – but she was fine.

But even if she was okay with it, a lot of other children weren't. He didn't want to put her through it. Cross Academy was an escape, a place of more well-mannered children and he had yet to hear a single complaint from Cadie.

He stopped when he was behind a blond haired boy who was so obviously sneaking around. He was hiding behind a pillar, crouching down and glancing to the side to the dormitories that he had just came from. Elliot frowned, and weighed whether or not to be a pro-active parent and call out this clearly rule-breaking act. With a sigh, he decided to. He really didn't want to, but the Headmaster had done a nice enough deed already. "Hey you, young man," he called out in perfect Japanese. The blond boy swivelled around, startled to death, his bluish green eyes wide. Then he sighed, visibly relieved.

"Oh, it's you."

"You?" Elliot repeated with a frown. He wasn't used to this – ill-mannered children. He worked around university students and professors, most of them international and fluent in either French or English. And whenever he worked with an undergraduate native to the country, they were always impeccably polite and professional. This boy, who seemed too privileged – then again, look at the setting – was not the norm. "Excuse me?"

The boy laughed shyly, touching his hair nervously before getting up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I was, uh, looking out for someone."

"That sounds very suspicious. Should I be worried?" Why did he feel as if he knew this person?

He laughed again, a fake laughter. "No, not really. I'll just be going now -"

Then Dr. Leroy remembered why he was so familiar. "I know you," he said and the boy stopped. He looked as if he was about to say the same thing from the way his eyes narrowed the slightest towards the older man, "You were a candidate at the research institute at the University of Tokyo, no?"

He blinked. "...I am," he said slowly, eyeing the man, "are you by any chance, Misane Kaede's -"

"Father? Yes." He walked towards the young man, and switched the handles of the luggage to his left hand so that he could hold out his hand. "Dr. Leroy, nice to meet you."

"Aidou Hanabusa," he said in a hesitant tone, his eyes never leaving his. He shook his hand firmly. "I'm a friend of your daughter's."

A friend – of Cadie's? Hm. "Really, she never told me about you."

He laughed nervously again, fingering his hair. "Well, we only became friends recently, you see. I was her tutor."

Elliot's expression darkened. "Tutor, hm?" He knew his daughter wasn't the brightest in certain fields. She was intelligent and mature, yes, but on paper...it wasn't as if he didn't get progress reports and calls every so often urging him to put her into more programs. "Thank you, she needs it," he said with a slight chuckle.

"You know, she told me her father was a scientist, but not a Doctor," Aidou continued, although his eyes were still moving around distractedly as if he was on the look out for something, "may I ask your field of speciality?"

"Astronomy and astrophysics," Elliot said proudly.

Aidou laughed. "Like father, like daughter, I see. Kaede spends almost every night out."

Kaede? He was in Japan long enough to know the rules on formalities. It took him God knew how long to call his wife Hatsumi and be accepted. He remembered being twenty five and laughing as Hatsumi blushed when her brothers heard him call her by her given name within the first several months of their friendship. But by then, they were already head over heels in love and planning to wed. And now, nearly forty years old, they were still together. "Yes, she had always been an avid star watcher." He paused and studied this boy.

From a purely objective point of view, Dr. Leroy could understand if a girl his age was interested in this young man. He was handsome, sure. He seemed on edge as well, but Dr. Leroy wasn't sure if it was because he was looking out for this certain person or because he was talking to an adult, although he doubted it was the latter. This was the boy, after all, that he remembered the faculty was trying to get under their wing so that the post-graduate unit would be able to work with some research group that was willing to give a grant of a quarter million. He was intelligent, then. And wealthy, if he went to this school.

But for the life of him, Dr. Leroy could not understand how his daughter became friends with a boy like this. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Aidou."

"You too, Dr. Leroy," Aidou said with an oddly cheery flourish, "should I be expecting to see you around at the university in the next couple years?"

Elliot laughed. "I doubt it, I will be working with the group at the Pierre and Marie Curie University."

Aidou laughed as well, seemingly about to say something along the lines of too bad before he stopped noticeably. His grin dropped and he leaned back slightly, his eyebrows pulling together. He paled. "Wait, is...is it just you?"

He looked at him carefully. "Pardon?"

"That university...is it in France?"

"Paris, yes." He paused, and then he understood. "I think I see where you're going with this – and yes. Cadie will be finishing her high school with me."

"Cadie?" he echoed, sounding very lost. This boy was like a broken record. From understandably nervous yet with an underlying charm, he went straight to a very awkward, teenager. "Kaede, right. Uh. And that's...next year?" he asked, one eye wincing slightly as he scratched his temple with his finger.

"That is the plan, yes." Cross Academy was a renowned, prestigious and internationally recognized school and schooling here would look good on a transcript – her marks aside – but Cadie needed to broaden her horizons. She spoke Japanese, French and English flawlessly, from her earlier years. Born in Japan, but raised in France and spent up to fifth grade in the States, she adapted well to many languages. But he wanted her to have her last year in France, and maybe – hopefully – begin her undergraduate studies.

High, high hopes.

"I – I didn't know that," he said quietly, looking down. "So in a couple months..."

"June."

"June?" he repeated.

For a potential doctoral candidate, the conversation was getting tedious. "Yes, that is when the school year ends." Dr. Leroy cleared his throat. "Well, I have to be going. Again, it was nice meeting you." But this time as he was about to walk out, he stopped in front of a young man who was nearly his height. A man with an undeniable, ancient expression that even took the PhD scholar by surprise. "Excuse me," he said, as he continued on his way, but even then, he did not not hear Aidou's words.

"K-Kaname."

And then,

"Shit."

xx-x-xx

I was rummaging through the fridge for some ice, which surprisingly, was non-existent. I mean, how do you not have ice? You pay a couple thousand a year for school, and they didn't have ice. Unbelievable. I looked up at the mirror again, sighing at my image. My right eye was all puffed up and swollen, dark everywhere – I actually got a black eye. And I could see the black. This was embarrassing, but I wasn't going to wear an eye patch and there was no...bandage for your eye. I groaned again, wondering where the nurse was when I heard the door click open and...

Look at that.

"Kiryuu?"

Behold - my mediocre Grade 10 French, blame Canada's shitty education for any mistake but I figured since she is half French...it would be interesting to add. And I think we all know how horrible inaccurate Google Translate is. Rusty french, sorry. If any of you pick up on mistakes, do tell :) Sorry ~

+ And thank you to Moka-girl for correcting it!

If the french is just too...inconvenient/confusing, do tell! I'll stop adding it between Kaede and her father. But if you don't mind and maybe even enjoy the difference...tell me as well, so I'll note it and use it in later chapters :)

Oh, and yes - Cadie is her English/French name. So officially, in Japan, she would use her mother's surname and the name "Kaede = Misane Kaede. But anywhere else, she may go with her father's surname and English name, Cadie, short for Cadence, Leroy. Just throwing that out there.

On another note, I was writing this story with the Canadian school year in mine - usually the two term, winter break, and then exam. And then another exam before the summer break. In Japan, I learned that it's a tri-semester sorta thing so I will be following that, but keeping the whole exam-after-break thing as opposed to the exam-before.

Anyway...speaking of school, I'm done grade ten! Exams are over! Thank the Lord I got by the year!

Long, long AN. Sorry.

Anyway, thank you for reading! Reviews would be lovely :)