Pretty noose is pretty pain.
TITLE: Taste and See
FANDOM: Vampire Knight
DEDICATION: To Amber and Phoenix. For HOTNESS and GREAT JUSTICE. Or something like it.
CHARACTERS: Kaname Kuran, Zero Kiryu, Yuki Cross
RATING: High teen.
SUMMARY: A conversation with Kaname leads to some bad calls. AU ending to “Twelfth Night”.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: The lovely reviewers who commented on my last Vampire Knight piece on ff.net commented that they rather enjoyed my take on Zero. One even said that they’d never seen a Zero quite that dark in fandom before. Honestly? I was shocked. Zero has always struck me as being a rather twisted, messed up individual with issues to spare. That he’s apparently not seen that way by many authors is surprising to me. I figured I may as well spread more love.
“You will not double-cross her, because you owe her that much,” Kaname informs him with an inflection that suggests nothing but fact. It edges on bored, which manages to shove Zero a little closer to that ragged edge he himself is teetering on. “That is why I’m allowing you to live.”
Zero feels his trigger finger getting itchy, and there’s nothing he’d like more to put a bullet between Kaname’s eyes, pureblood or no. Doing so would be easy - Bloody Rose is right there, waiting, screaming to be used.
Let’s end this. Let’s end him.
Bloody Rose remains at his side though. Were he to give in to this particular temptation, he’d catch hell from Headmaster Cross, not to mention raising the wrath of the entire Night Class. He pretends that how Yuki would react to Kaname’s death isn’t playing a part in this decision.
“You may go,” Kaname says with a dismissive gesture. It makes Zero feel like a whipped dog, but he does. He has no other choice.
-------
After his little chat with Kaname, his first instinct is to go find Yuki. This manages to disgust him and excite him at the same time, and truth be told, he’s unsure of which bothers him more.
He’s nauseous, but it’s the sort of nausea that accompanies empty stomachs. It’s an emptiness, a frustration, and a need all in one that he knows is absolutely wrong.
Someone forgot to tell his mouth that. He’s all but salivating as he barrels down the hallway, needing and craving beyond what he thinks he’d normally be comfortable with. The conversation with Kaname has changed things though, and Zero’s more than a little blinded by his frustration.
He bursts through the door, not bothering to knock.Yuki is lying on the floor with a textbook, pencil between her teeth. She must have been studying.
“Zero,” she asks, that familiar concern shading her words and shaping features. “You okay?”
She rises, schoolwork forgotten as she approaches him and puts her hands on his shoulders. A frown creases her face as she makes her assessment.
“You don’t look so good. Are you…”
The words may trail off, but he knows how she was planning on finishing it.
Thirsty? You don’t know the half of it, Yuki.
Zero nods, and suddenly she’s all sympathy.
“There’s no-one in the bathroom right now. Let’s go.”
-------
It’s when he’s at her throat before she can even take off her blouse that Yuki probably figures out that tonight is somehow different. When her head snaps back hard enough to dent the plaster, it’s certain.
“Zero,” she whimpers, and he’d put money on that being genuine fear in her voice.
It’s fantastic.
He draws his tongue along her neck, savoring the taste of her perspiration as though it were some kind of appetizer.
When he rips in to her jugular, it’s neither gentle, romantic, or any of the other sorts of things that the Night Class manage to embody. It’s the vicious act of a hungry, angry, animal, and he’s having a hard time feeling particularly bad about that.
He drinks.
And he drinks.
And he swears that she’s never, ever tasted this good.
He sucks back the blood as fast as her heart can pump it (and judging by her pulse right now, that’s damn fast and he’s sure as hell not complaining), and duly notes how much of an asshole this makes him.
Notes, and moves on…for now, anyway.
------
When Zero finishes, he can’t bring himself to look her in the eye as she methodically cleans her neck, bandages it, and adjusts the collar of her shirt.
He just stands in the corner, shaking from the pure hit of adrenaline that feeding always brings as he mumbles out an apology.
She presses out her traditional ‘it’s okay’ before she leaves, and he leans against the door as he tries to put words to what has happened. The repercussions of what he’s just done are starting to set in.
“What have I done?” He asks the silence of the bathroom.
His reflection looks back at him, haunted, but has no answer other than to accuse him all over again.
Oh, god, what have you done?
There, there, Bloody Rose coos from his hip. You may not be able to double-cross her, but you can hurt her, and Kaname too in turn.
It doesn’t make him feel any better.
He sits down on the floor now as he puts his head in his hands. They’re still shaking, but it’s no longer from the adrenaline.
-Fin-
FANDOM: Vampire Knight
DEDICATION: To Amber and Phoenix. For HOTNESS and GREAT JUSTICE. Or something like it.
CHARACTERS: Kaname Kuran, Zero Kiryu, Yuki Cross
RATING: High teen.
SUMMARY: A conversation with Kaname leads to some bad calls. AU ending to “Twelfth Night”.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: The lovely reviewers who commented on my last Vampire Knight piece on ff.net commented that they rather enjoyed my take on Zero. One even said that they’d never seen a Zero quite that dark in fandom before. Honestly? I was shocked. Zero has always struck me as being a rather twisted, messed up individual with issues to spare. That he’s apparently not seen that way by many authors is surprising to me. I figured I may as well spread more love.
“You will not double-cross her, because you owe her that much,” Kaname informs him with an inflection that suggests nothing but fact. It edges on bored, which manages to shove Zero a little closer to that ragged edge he himself is teetering on. “That is why I’m allowing you to live.”
Zero feels his trigger finger getting itchy, and there’s nothing he’d like more to put a bullet between Kaname’s eyes, pureblood or no. Doing so would be easy - Bloody Rose is right there, waiting, screaming to be used.
Let’s end this. Let’s end him.
Bloody Rose remains at his side though. Were he to give in to this particular temptation, he’d catch hell from Headmaster Cross, not to mention raising the wrath of the entire Night Class. He pretends that how Yuki would react to Kaname’s death isn’t playing a part in this decision.
“You may go,” Kaname says with a dismissive gesture. It makes Zero feel like a whipped dog, but he does. He has no other choice.
-------
After his little chat with Kaname, his first instinct is to go find Yuki. This manages to disgust him and excite him at the same time, and truth be told, he’s unsure of which bothers him more.
He’s nauseous, but it’s the sort of nausea that accompanies empty stomachs. It’s an emptiness, a frustration, and a need all in one that he knows is absolutely wrong.
Someone forgot to tell his mouth that. He’s all but salivating as he barrels down the hallway, needing and craving beyond what he thinks he’d normally be comfortable with. The conversation with Kaname has changed things though, and Zero’s more than a little blinded by his frustration.
He bursts through the door, not bothering to knock.Yuki is lying on the floor with a textbook, pencil between her teeth. She must have been studying.
“Zero,” she asks, that familiar concern shading her words and shaping features. “You okay?”
She rises, schoolwork forgotten as she approaches him and puts her hands on his shoulders. A frown creases her face as she makes her assessment.
“You don’t look so good. Are you…”
The words may trail off, but he knows how she was planning on finishing it.
Thirsty? You don’t know the half of it, Yuki.
Zero nods, and suddenly she’s all sympathy.
“There’s no-one in the bathroom right now. Let’s go.”
-------
It’s when he’s at her throat before she can even take off her blouse that Yuki probably figures out that tonight is somehow different. When her head snaps back hard enough to dent the plaster, it’s certain.
“Zero,” she whimpers, and he’d put money on that being genuine fear in her voice.
It’s fantastic.
He draws his tongue along her neck, savoring the taste of her perspiration as though it were some kind of appetizer.
When he rips in to her jugular, it’s neither gentle, romantic, or any of the other sorts of things that the Night Class manage to embody. It’s the vicious act of a hungry, angry, animal, and he’s having a hard time feeling particularly bad about that.
He drinks.
And he drinks.
And he swears that she’s never, ever tasted this good.
He sucks back the blood as fast as her heart can pump it (and judging by her pulse right now, that’s damn fast and he’s sure as hell not complaining), and duly notes how much of an asshole this makes him.
Notes, and moves on…for now, anyway.
------
When Zero finishes, he can’t bring himself to look her in the eye as she methodically cleans her neck, bandages it, and adjusts the collar of her shirt.
He just stands in the corner, shaking from the pure hit of adrenaline that feeding always brings as he mumbles out an apology.
She presses out her traditional ‘it’s okay’ before she leaves, and he leans against the door as he tries to put words to what has happened. The repercussions of what he’s just done are starting to set in.
“What have I done?” He asks the silence of the bathroom.
His reflection looks back at him, haunted, but has no answer other than to accuse him all over again.
Oh, god, what have you done?
There, there, Bloody Rose coos from his hip. You may not be able to double-cross her, but you can hurt her, and Kaname too in turn.
It doesn’t make him feel any better.
He sits down on the floor now as he puts his head in his hands. They’re still shaking, but it’s no longer from the adrenaline.
-Fin-