Disclaimer: Don't own VK!
Aidou stared at the paper before him. He had expected it long before now, but for this to happen now of all times… The world was obviously against him today. Somehow his punishment for Yuuki had managed to punish him, as well. Now there was no hope of seeing Yori in the near future.
Yuuki had failed her test.
"How could you fail?!" he demanded, banging the paper back on the desk.
"I don't know! There were so many letters!" she cried.
"They're words! You should know what they are! You say more of them in a minute than some people do in an hour!'"
"They're complicated! How am I supposed to know what precipitous means, anyway?! Besides, it's your own fault. Maybe if you hadn't been so late last time, we would have had more time to study!"
"So now it's my fault?!" Red sparked in his gaze.
Yuuki took a breath. Then, "Sorry, Aidou-senpai. Right now it's just…"
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I know."
"Next time, I'll ace it, okay?"
"You better. You'll hurt my pride as a teacher if you fail again," he replied haughtily.
"Cheer up. Yori's not going to dump you because she didn't see you for a little while." She stuck her tongue out at him, then stood and skipped out of the room.
A wave of irritation flooded over him. Just how was it that his own punishment had turned against him like this? He sat down in the chair, mood plummeting even further down to splinter on the ground around him. It wasn't fair. Why should he have to suffer, too, when it was Yuuki who had failed the test?
He just wanted to see Yori again. Finally, he had seen into her heart. He could be closer to her. Except now he had to wait until after the ball to see her. Damn. Worse than Yuuki's failure, however, was that Kaname-sama was going to be home again this evening. Damn again.
There was only one good outcome of the whole situation. Ever since that night, he had stopped slowly going mad from thirst. He still wanted her blood, but he didn't crave it so desperately. For now, the blood tablet supply was safe.
Sulking, he rose from the chair and returned to his room. This mansion was a personal hell. He was stuck here almost constantly, forced to play tutor and errand boy at Kaname-sama's whim. Tonight, the pureblood was sure to have many more trivial errands for him to run, in preparation for the ball. It would have been okay, if only he'd been able to see Yori for just a little while…
He curled up in bed with the scarf, inhaling the soft scent that still clung to it. If he couldn't see her in real life, he might as well take a nap and dream about her instead. At least, he could until he was sent out like a servant again.
Damn.
The chatter tore through his thoughts like an insipid chainsaw. High-pitched, incessant, and pointless, it made the anger flare within him. He hated it here. The walls were crushing him, pressing in closer and closer until there was no room to breathe. He could hear them whispering her name into his ears, reminding him. She had been here, once. Now she was gone. A ghost. Only the walls remembered.
The smell broke him free from his thoughts. It was familiar, a smell from the past. The chatter hung around it like a fog. His eyes fought through the constant darkness that wrapped around him so closely to see the man standing before him in the hall.
"Good morning, Takamiya-sensei!"
The syllables pieced themselves together, now. Equally strident, equally grinding against his ears, but at least they made sense now.
"Well, good morning to you, too, girls," the man answered. "But hey, it feels weird to be called sensei. I'm not used to it yet…"
"Shall we call you Takamiya-kun, then?"
"Dre-am on."
Kaito? What was he doing here? Zero frowned at the other hunter, who was coming towards him now. Kaito had trained with him and Ichiru, once, when they were younger. Before everything. Before his world had been stained in blood. Before she had been stained in it, too.
The hunter was passing him now, slowing to say in a mocking tone, "Hey, I can feel your thirst for killing practically spilling out of your pores."
Zero whirled around to face him, the rage churning the air around him visibly.
"Long time no see," Kaito smirked. Then, sensing the aura of dark anger, he added, "Zero, there's no need to hurry so much when killing the vampires. I really don't think they'll turn all nice and proper all of a sudden just because they have a new leader. Even after it, you'll still get to be sent on so many execution missions that you'll grow bored of it, so there's no need to hurry now." For a moment the hunter studied him, eyes veiled. Then, "Well, see you. I have another class now."
For a moment, Zero almost called out for him to wait. He wanted to ask him something. Only, somewhere amidst the black, he had forgotten what.
The door to the Chairman's office opened, and the Chairman popped his head out, smiling cheerfully. "Kiryuu-kun! I was waiting for you to come in." Once Zero had entered the office, he continued, "You must be wondering what Kaito-kun is doing here. He's going to be working here at the academy as a teacher in training. We hired him on Yagari-kun's insistent recommendation. Although, in truth he didn't really need this training. He's already covered it all before.
"Kaito-kun is your brother-in-arms back from training times, and he also became a remarkable hunter, after all. You, Kaito-kun, and Yagari-kun have similar ways of thinking. It's only normal it should be this way, considering that you and Kaito-kun trained together under Yagari-kun at one point.
"You must already know this, but… We summoned him here from far away simply to help with the upcoming event. Security will be up to the three of you. I expect you to work together well, considering your past connections. If anything happens, security will lie with the three of you…
"You know Yuuki will be there. One year ago you…you claimed you would kill her. Zero, I believe that you wouldn't be the type to go as far as defiling the Hunter Association rules to throw yourself into this and carry out a hunt against purebloods without any reasons."
The Chairman paused here, clearly waiting for an answer. The silence swarmed, infesting Zero's ears, crawling into his nostrils and mouth and sliding insidiously against his skin. That name… The one name he hated to even think, and yet it was thrown at him once again. He could see the letters now, popping up before his eyes.
Zero, are you well? Zero, are you eating properly? Zero? Zero. I miss you. Zero.
The silence was buzzing around his eyes now, amassing his vision with heavy black specks. He blinked, gut knotted hard within him. He wanted to hunt. He needed to brutally vent off this intense, complicated feeling.
Instead, struggling with himself, he just managed to say, "Yeah, you are right…" Then, burning with violence, "All I'm waiting for is just any excuse that will allow me to jump in and do the killing in accordance to the association rules."
The Chairman swallowed, eyes growing immensely distant and solemnly resolved. "If that's how it is, then… When that time comes, I will firmly stand my ground between you and Yuuki… Regardless of whether my acts are right or not, Zero, you both are very dear to me."
"Do as you please," Zero dismissed the words brusquely. It made no difference.
Striding down the hall, he felt the weight of the envelope in his jacket pocket that he hadn't bothered to remove all week. He despised vampires; not just for what they had done to his family or to him, but for taking away the only thing he'd ever… Ever loved.
He stopped to lean against the wall, shuddering for a moment and squeezing his eyes shut. The black silence in his head was taunting him, now.
His throat felt dry again. He wouldn't hesitate to kill them all. If they gave him any reason, he would eradicate them completely. Despite that, when he thought of her… When he saw her wide, innocent gaze…
Could he pull the trigger when faced with those eyes? When he could see her, smell her at that distance again, knowing she was alive? Somewhere, buried deep within her… His fingers traced the edge of the envelope. If he killed her, would it be murder? Hadn't Kaname already killed her before when he'd slaughtered her carefree innocence and changed her into a monster? In the empty hallway, faced with his own memories, the unopened letter, and the black of the silence, he wasn't sure.
Yuuki placed the book carefully on her head, sticking her tongue out for a moment in concentration. There, she had it! Carefully, she stepped out onto the first stair, and then the second, taking care with her heels not to trip. The book teetered dangerously for a moment, then straightened. A triumphant smile edged across her face.
The heel of her left shoe caught against the stair. With a jerk, she felt herself tumbling down the stairs.
"Ah, oops!" she cried, lurching for a moment out of control as the book fell from her head. Then, taking hold on herself, she pushed against the bannister with an arm, straightening her fall and propelling her over the stairs. She landed at the bottom cleanly on her feet, unhurt. The book skidded across the floor harmlessly.
"Heh. A flawless landing," she smiled a little, thinking back to the nights at the academy. How many times had she intervened like this before Aidou ate some hapless girl… For a moment, disbelief washed over her again. Now, wasn't that hapless girl her best friend?
Still, she was proud that she had managed to catch herself. On the night watch, she would have had to rely on Zero during her moments of clumsiness. Now, she was determined to rely on herself.
Zero… She wanted to show him her new resolve. She wanted to show him that she had grown up, if only a little bit.
"Yuuki," Kaname's voice drifted to her ears. She jerked up, suddenly embarrassed. She hadn't meant for him to see her fall so clumsily! "You're working hard on those exercises Luca gave you."
"Yeah," she replied, a little sheepishly. "I don't really get how to be elegant, though. I'm trying pretty hard, in any case. But it's fine. I'm confident enough that I can at least avoid blundering in any way that might get people at the party laughing at you, Onii-sama."
Kaname smiled. "You'll let me help you get ready beforehand, yes?" It wasn't really a question, even though he had phrased it that way.
"Of course," she nodded, retrieving the book and placing it back on her head. The tricky part was going to be balancing it with him watching.
Seven days to go…
"Takamiya-sensei," Yori greeted the new teacher in the hall. She still wasn't used to seeing him around. However, his presence there told her for a fact that something was happening. He seemed to know both Yagari-sensei and Zero-kun, and the Chairman wouldn't bring in a third hunter without good reason. Which meant something big. Something involving the vampires.
"Ah, your name was Sayori Wakaba, wasn't it?" he named her easily. She was surprised that he remembered her name. "I didn't ask this earlier because it's always been in front of the class, but are you Zero's girlfriend?"
How many times had she been asked this question? Did it really look like she was dating Zero? Her mind ran through their interactions. Either Zero was grumpy, angry, or ignored her. Was that a typical boyfriend-girlfriend relationship?
"No, a close friend of a childhood friend of his," she answered.
"Oh."
"There was something I wanted to ask you, if I may…" She hesitated for a minute, checking his expression. It seemed alright to ask, so she continued. "The Chairman…he and Zero-kun are both looking really on edge. Did something happen recently? Or is it something that is about to happen anytime soon?"
His expression remained unreadable. "…You know, even if you are one of the few people we allowed to keep their memories of what happened, that's going too far. I have no obligation to answer you."
She bit her lip. "If it has nothing to do with my best friend, then it's fine, but… If it's something that concerns her, then I must…" She had to know that Yuuki was safe.
For a long moment, Takamiya-sensei said nothing. Then, quietly, "That close friend of yours…is she a vampire?"
Yori's eyes widened. She glanced from side to side quickly. She had to make sure no one was around before she could answer him.
"It's okay," he assured her. "The students are already inside the classroom and can't hear us. Eeh… You know…it's the first time I've seen a human who's close friends with a vampire and wasn't all fed upon until they're torn to pieces. Such a thing really exists, huh…"
Yori was suddenly glad that Aidou's bite mark had healed so quickly. She didn't tell him that she actually hadn't seen her friend for months. Or that she was sort of in a relationship with another one… "Is it wrong to be friends with them?" she asked.
For a while he said nothing. Then, "I could take you with me in secret… If you can promise me you'll remain in my field of vision at all times, I could take you to a certain place at the end of the week… At midnight on Saturday, we will be holding a ball. A ball…for vampires…" His voice tapered off ominously.
Yori felt her heart beat faster. A ball? How many vampires would be there? Did that mean…could that mean…Yuuki would be there?
Her eyes met Takamiya-sensei's firmly. This could be her one chance. The one opportunity to see her closest friend again. She couldn't let this slip through her fingers.
"Take me with you." Her words were final.
A/N: Review! Next chapter, ball!