Hello dear readers! I am happy you are curious about my first story ever. This is the first chapter, I hope you enjoy it. I will be looking forward to your reviews ;)

A lot of changes have been made in this story, so I will be mentioning them on the go.

For starter, the events happen after the end of the manga, however, few things are different. You will discover in this chapter that Ichiru is not dead and his relation with zero is different than in the manga.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight.

I just borrowed its characters to mess around with them in my wild fantasies. :p

Zero is a 24 years old software developer who has been quite successful in his career to the point of being able to have his own IT company that he can now operate remotely from home. He also took interest in stock marketing that also played well for him. This allowed him to live comfortably in a luxury apartment located in a posh community inside the city.

It has been sometime since the war ended thanks to the sacrifice of Kaname. It was painful for Zero to see Yuki struggle after the loss of her savior and father of her unborn child. He tried to stand by her side as much as possible and give her the support she needed, that is, until Aido managed to find a way to keep the furnace alive without the sacrifice of the beating heart of a pureblood. After this great discovery, the genius scientist cooped himself in his laboratory for a God knows how long working on restoring the damaged parts of his leader's heart after taking it out of the furnace with the help of Isaya Shouto. Finally, they managed to bring Kaname back to life from the ice coffin, where he was carefully kept.

Truth being told, Zero didn't know how to take the news of Kaname coming back to life. It is true that he played a big role in achieving the equilibrium and peace they are enjoying right now, and seeing the happiness Yuki exhibits at the thought of having him back gave him a weird mix of emotions.

He hated the guts of that pureblood and could not even stand looking at his face without feeling nauseous, and fight the urge to pull the trigger of Bloody Rose. So having him back is similar to a nightmare coming back to haunt him. However, he could not help but feel glad that Yuki got back to her usual cheerful self, with her genuine smile and happy childlike giggles. She is not forcing herself to smile for the sake of reassuring the others that she was fine anymore, she was smiling because she was happy, simple as that. Even though this caused him to nurse a heartbreak from his love for her that Zero knew would never bear anyways.

Once Zero made sure that Kaname is well enough to take care of Yuki and assist Cross Kaien, he decided it was high time for him to get back to US, where he left Ichiru with the responsibility to manage his company and assets. The perfect opportunity to get away from everything and start a new chapter in his life once again.

However, Zero was taken aback by the news of his brother moving the company's headquarter to japan, barely a town away from Cross Academy. Extreme anger, frustration and fury were not enough to describe how zero felt about his twin's decision. Despite that, he knew he had no right to blame him. In fact, Zero did sign the deed and gave full ownership of his properties and company to his brother before the war began. It was a measure of precaution in case he did not survive, and then, with the mess of the association requesting him to take the position of the president, Yuki's pregnancy and depression, Cross Academy's management, Zero did not have the time to check on how his brother was handling things on his side. Ichiru's decision was understandable and logical from any point of view. Seeing as his lover will be settling down in Japan, and will not be able to visit him as often as before, Ichiru made the right decision of shifting to Japan to avoid the long distance relationship he hated so much to last any longer.

When zero decided to get the company back, Ichiru was more than happy to hand over the ownership again. Zero gladly accepted, but he forced Ichiru to accept the profits the company incurred during the time he operated it. The younger twin gratefully accepted it and used the hefty reward as seed money for the western-style bar he later opened in the city and named K-BAR.

Thus, these crazy series of events led to Zero having to struggle for some time. He had to finish the shifting arrangement with Ichiru while looking for a place to live (let's not mention the arguments he had to go through with Yuki and Cross about why he was adamant toward the idea of living in Cross Academy or even Cross city for that matter). Once everything settled down, and the company is on solid track again, Zero found himself having more free time than expected. Too many lonely boring nights where unwanted memories came crawling back.

On such nights, Zero would slip out of his pajamas, put on his casual clothes before heading out to K-BAR, he likes to help out there to kill time and enjoy playing at the grand piano, which will entertain the customers at the same time. He recently took a liking to learning the mixing of cocktails and experimenting with them. Ichiru was extremely grateful for that as well. Seeing that zero visits the bar and enjoys the piano, not only served in increasing the number of regulars at his establishment, but also helped in reducing Zero's bad habit of night prowling that he acquired in his time at the states. He understands the pattern of his older twin's life. If zero were not busy with work, he would make sure to have dinner with Ichiru before the opening hours of the bar. After that, he would head home to rest. Ichiru made it into a routine to call zero around 11 pm to check on him. Knowing his brother is a night owl due to his work of managing both Japanese and American branch of his company, Zero tends to exhaust himself if there is no one to stop him until he collapses. So when Ichiru calls, either zero would answer saying he is busy working and mumbling some curses about useless people…, or he would be on his way to K-BAR and have Ichiru prepare his favorite drink, or he would switch off which means he is fooling around with a complete stranger and do not want to be interrupted. In the latter case, the younger twin cannot help but swing by his brother's place early the next day to make sure that zero was home and okay, his nagging and early visit paid off when zero gave him a spare key to make sure he never wakes him up so bloody early again.

Tonight was no different; zero stretched on his chair finished his work and checked for any email requiring his urgent interference finding none. He slipped out of his pajama and took a quick shower before heading down to K-BAR. He entered and headed toward the grand piano after greeting few of the regular he recognized while ignoring the heated stare of some of them. There was an implicit rule that zero is not to hit on anyone in his brother's place and to reject all advances in order not to cause unnecessary trouble for his twin. Zero would also not appreciate the idea of his brother seeing him taking off with his one night stand, or worse, hearing about his random relationships from the bar talk. Ichiru followed him to the two-stairs high stage where the piano is located and handed him a glass of Bloody Mary that zero accepted with a smile. Ichiru talked about everything and nothing while zero finished his drink. "As usual the chatterbox!" thought zero, he enjoyed listening to his brother talking about his adventures with the bar customers, their funny stories as well as the grumbling of the bartender on how the owner should not be so friendly and involved with the customers …

"Oh yeah! I forgot!" said Ichiru suddenly; snapping zero from his musing while he fumbled with his phone and flipping the screen to show zero the content.

"Hana sent me new pictures of Kei-chan, look at this cutie! It will be his fourth birthday soon; I wonder what I should get him… AAAAh! There are soo many things I wanna buy for my cute-.."

Zero suddenly took the phone out of his brother's hand, interrupting his talk, deleting the picture Ichiru just showed him and gave the phone back along with the empty glass he just finished.

"Agh! Why did you have to do that? "Whined Ichiru

" I made it clear that I have no interest in those bloodsucker let alone their children, so get off my back!" hissed zero while glaring daggers at his twin

"But nii-san! Kei-chan is …"

"Is nothing but the kid of a leech. Now, either you fuck off and let me play some and enjoy myself or I will look elsewhere so that I can relax without a nagging machine under my head"

"Fine…"

At that last statement, Ichiru's shoulder slumped in defeat as he retreated to the bar, put down the glasses before putting on his business smile once again and resume working. Zero felt bad for snapping at his brother like that, but it was his fault for pushing his buttons. He pulled up the cover of the piano, warmed up his fingers, and took a deep breath before he started to play some tunes. As soon as music resonated, the atmosphere of the bar changed. The patrons quieted down the useless chatter to listen; some even closed their eyes to enjoy every single note played. The silverrette played for a good hour before his shoulder started to ache, so he finished with a soft and soothing piece. Delicately covering the piano in the mist of applause, he stepped down the stairs in direction of an empty corner of the bar to get himself one last drink before heading back home for a good night sleep.

"Amazing performance as usual, Zero-chan! Worthy of a pro!"

"Would you pleaaase stop adding chan to my name, Ryou-san! Your regulars are starting to call me the same and it's irritating as hell," grumbled Zero to the bartender.

"Oh! Come on!" said Ryou while placing Zero's drink on the counter "What's the harm! Most of these regulars come just to listen to your music; they do not stay as long if you were not around."

"Good for you then, but they still give me the urge to punch them when they call me that" deadpanned Zero

"Oh that would be bad for business!" countered Ryou faking a horrified expression on his face, before both of them burst in laughter.

"How mean! Having fun while I am busting my head entertaining customers" Said Ichiru while flopping an arm around zero's shoulder and pouting.

"Well! Nobody asked you to play a host here" snapped Ryou while cleaning a glass

Ichiru gave him a tongue out before getting back at him by saying "As a matter of fact, this Ichiru-sama here playing host is bringing a lot of profit to the store. I dare you to deny that, Ryoutarou-dono"

"Hai! Hai! Hai! And this Ryoutarou-dono, as you said, ends up cleaning the mess you leave behind"

"What mess?" asked Zero, curious to know what he meant.

"A mess of stalkers going after you twin, going as far as harass him and follow him home. It got so bad once that, after everything is resolved, his man would call me every freaking night to make sure I took him back home and verified no one will ambush him before I am allowed to go back and rest. Oh! It does not stop there; he would call me again the next day to make sure I went to pick him up from home to the bar. My wife almost filed for divorce after that thinking I was cheating on her!" huffed Ryou in exasperation.

"Oh! I came to tell you table four ordered the same drink again for six people this time." Said Ichiru offhandedly

"You could have said that sooner"

"Sorry!"

After Ryou went to prepare the drinks, Zero turned around to face his twin who is still leaning on him and said "Ich, I am sorry for snapping at you earlier" at that, Ichiru smiled and ruffled his brother's hair "Don't worry about it, it's in the past now. Besides, grumpiness is nii-san's second nature, nothing new" Ichiru said that and jumped away as not to be elbowed by his brother.

Before Zero could react, his phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket interrupting their squabble. It was a message from Cross saying that he is concocting a new menu and he is inviting them over for a family dinner the day after tomorrow, adding that attendance is mandatory and punishment is in line for those who disobey with a bunch of weird emoticons and hearts all over the message. Zero's face scrunched up in disgust at that and his frown deepened when he reread the message only to be interrupted by Ichiru's whining while holding his phone as well. It seems he got the same message as well, thought zero. "I already had plans for that day, and been waiting for sooo long, Damn!" screamed the younger twin in frustration.

"You can always ignore Cross or show up later after your date. You don't get to see your man that often recently. It sucks to cancel it now." Said Zero sympathetically

"Yeah! But, putting family and mandatory attendance together, and you can figure out it is not any of those random invitations that old man throws every now and then. Something is up and he needs us all present to discuss it." Replied Ichiru in an unusual serious tone while twirling a strand of his long silver hair around his fingers.

"Yeah… I figured as much" sighed Zero.

"By saying family, Yuki and Kuran will probably be there. Will you be okay, nii-san"

"Well, I would prefer not seeing his ugly mug, but there is nothing to do about it. It's just a dinner after all…" Zero paused for a bit before finishing "Okay Ich, I better get going, I need to rest in order to work extra tomorrow and free that afternoon. Goodnight!" Zero gulped the rest of his drink, stood from his seat and left after giving Ichiru a tap on the shoulder.

"Good night Zero!" Ichiru could not help but have a bad feeling about this dinner, thus, he immediately dialed his phone to make the arrangement of changing his date to make sure he does not leave zero alone even for one second knowing how much his brother is reluctant toward going to Cross Academy under any possible circumstance.

What is this important issue? Who is Kei-chan? Does Zero hate going to Cross Academy only because of his heartbreak?

Drop a review and tell me if you wish to know what happens next. I will most likely oblige ;)