In Too Deep

Kaname wondered vaguely when the fatal attraction had begun. The pureblood would secretly gaze from outside the ex-human's room; watching the hunter reading, taking notes, or sleep. Kaname knew he was stalking the hunter, knew that he just couldn't help but watch him in secret, but he didn't care. With the hunter's presence nearby Kaname would relax. It didn't matter how bad class was, didn't matter if he just had the most crappiest day of his life, with Zero nearby Kaname was able to calm himself.

In a way, the hunter had the same effect on the pureblood as Yuuki. But Yuuki's aura was an innocent one. Zero's aura was darker; one that attracted high level vampires. First Shizuka had been seduced; then Riido had attempted to devour the ex-human's power, and now Kaname, himself, (the one he had always imagined that would avoid the hunter's unknown charm) had fallen for him. In total, three purebloods had set their eyes on the boy. So far the first two failed.

In his state of distraction, something hit his left arm. Hard. The pureblood twitched, but didn't move from his spot. He looked up, trying to spot the creature.

What in the world? Kaname looked down. Whatever that thing was, it threw, what looked like, a rock at him. Odd, very odd.

Several days later…

Zero was tired, no exhausted. He had an Advanced Chemistry textbook lying open on his desk. Several sheets of papers, crammed with neat small handwritten notes, were scattered around him. He had a pencil in one hand, and flipping the pages of the textbook in the other. The pencil was moving rapidly across the paper. Being a vampire allowed him to move faster (in other words do his homework faster) but it also meant that he had to push his already exhausted body into tapping into his vampire power and utilizing more mental control than he originally would if he was human. It also meant that he would probably fall asleep in class, again.

Zero turned the page, finding that the chapter about "The Discovery of Atoms" was over. He pulled out a bookmark, stuffed it inside the book and slammed it shut. He leaned backwards his back pressing against the seat. After the Riido incident, life at the academy had become extremely dull. Everyone was more or less on speaking terms. Yes, even the ex-human had stopped treating the Night Class like crap and actually started respecting them. But only a little. Well, at least he stopped snapping at them at every chance.

He was a full fledged vampire now. After drinking his twin's blood, (he stubbornly refused to believe that Ichiru had died because of him and rather liked to think that Riido's attack had left him fatally wounded.) he had taken a large portion of Shizuka's blood. Vampire blood was more powerful than human blood. If a human drank from a vampire, their blood would slowly transform into that of the vampire's. Ichiru had feasted on Shizuka's blood for four years, most of his blood had been replaced by the more dominate, more powerful pureblood's. But he probably wouldn't have survived the transformation if it wasn't for the actions of another, closer pureblood vampire…

No, no, NO! Zero groaned. DO NOT THINK! Thinking is bad, remember? Indeed his attraction to the Vampire King had been well hidden. But that didn't make it any less hard.

Zero sighed, and brought his hand to cover his eyes. Most of his powers (hunter's, vampire's, and other's) had grown exceptionally during his transformation. He took one look at the clock. It was very late.

With school, then prefect duties, then homework; it was fair to say that the hunter had not gotten a large amount of sleep in the past four years.

Zero stood up and walked over to the bed and smashed face-down into his pillow. The open window allowed air to be blown in. It was refreshingly cool. Zero rolled onto his back, pulled the covers on his body, and fell asleep. He was so tired; he didn't even notice the figure watching him from outside his window.

Zero woke up. For a minute, he didn't realize why. But his senses screamed VAMPIRE!

He jerked out of bed. He twisted his head around trying to locate the creature. It quickly became apparent that the creature was outside, not inside, his room. His hand twitched and moved towards the Bloody Rose lying innocently next to his table clock. Picking it up, he held it to his chest. He looked outside, but a black blob flickered out of his sight before he could shoot. Zero scanned the area. There was nothing there.

He sighed and placed the Bloody Rose on his bedside table, still looking for any movement outside. Finding no movement whatsoever, he turned away from the window, yawning. He still had about three hours before he had to get up for school, and he fully intended to make use of that time. He took two steps towards his bed… and froze.

There, sitting on his bed, was Kuran Kaname holding the Bloody rose in his right hand. But Zero's surprise didn't last long. It was quickly being replaced by suspicion.

"What are you doing here Kuran?" Zero questioned.

Kaname didn't reply immediately. Instead he brought his left hand up to touch the slightly warm handle. The gun smelled completely of the hunter. The pureblood brought the gun closer to his chest and cradled it, knowing that the weapon was near Zero's chest not a moment before. (Zero twitched and reminded himself to give the gun a thorough wash before using it. Ever again. Although he didn't mind Kaname's scent on the weapon, the rest of the Night class might. They'd probably assume that the hunter shot Kaname, and Zero didn't want to be smoked, frosted and electrocuted at the same time.)

"I came here to request something of you," Kaname mumbled. This was highly embarrassing. A pureblood asking an ex-human for help. If it had been anyone else but Zero, he probably would have chosen death.

Zero raised an eyebrow. What? Request something from him?! Kaname could probably get everything he wanted by just sending a look at someone. And here the proud pureblood was, in his room, asking a vampire hunter for help.

"You need my help?" Zero echoed, still trying to process the thought, "For what?"

Kaname twitched. He looked as if he was struggling to say the words. ('Probably his pride, again,' Zero thought.) He decided to show the hunter instead of telling him.

Wordlessly, he pulled off his black leather jacket. He pushed up the left sleeve of his Night class uniform, never letting the Bloody Rose go.

Zero saw very clearly "what" Kaname was asking him to do. All over the pureblood's arm was a black marking. It looked like black vines had wrapped themselves around the pureblood's arm and sunk themselves into the soft flesh. It stopped just below Kaname's elbow. A dark angry red color was surrounding his arm.

"A hunter's curse? And a powerful one at that. Judging by the aura and how far it spread, I'd say you've neglected to treat it for quite a while," Zero scowled. Honestly, the pureblood was so proud he'd even suffer through the pain of a curse before treating it. But Zero also felt pity for the pureblood. Stupid, yet here he was. This particular curse did not inflict pain. Rather it cut all nerves in the area. So instead of writhing in pain he'd probably begun to lose feeling in that arm. Which in a way was worse. If he attacked in that arm, he wouldn't be able to feel it. And if that weapon was poisoned he wouldn't notice the pain nor would he realize it until it was probably too late.

Kaname glared and growled low in his throat. That wasn't true! He had tried to get rid of it. Not that his attempts were successful.

Flashback

"Kaname-kun this curse is too powerful, I can't get rid of it," Cross had said. Indeed the old hunter had tried and tried and tried to get rid of the curse for the past four days. And although Kaname wouldn't admit it, he was very grateful for the old man's determination.

On the first day, the mark was a tiny bruise. Assuming that it would go away like any other bruise, he ignored it. When he reached for a book on a top shelf in the library, his sleeve had slipped down. The old hunter had just chanced by and saw the mark. He immediately dragged the pureblood into his office, trying different ways of removing the curse.

On the second day, they continued to try to get rid of it. But it quickly became apparent that instead of going away, like it was supposed to, it was getting progressively worse.

On the third day, Cross had called Touga into his office. At first Kaname had been unwilling to allow the powerful hunter to touch him, but he needed help. But even with the combined powers of the two hunters, they could not remove it. The mark was shining a bright orange color, and the curse had spread to his wrist. Instead both hunters had used their combined power to prevent it from spreading to his visible hand.

On the fourth day, both hunters were thinking of ways to get rid of the curse. The curse had spread close to his elbow at this point. Then Touga had pointed out (smoking his cigar) that they were getting old, which meant that they're powers were wearing down. "Maybe," he said, "We need a young, more powerful hunter to remove it." But it seemed unlikely that the Hunter's Association would help a vampire, and even more unlikely that they would help a pureblood. Then Cross then suggested Zero. (Which earned him two nasty glares. One from the 'young' hunter's teacher, who couldn't bare to think Zero helping a pureblood, especially one that he despised so much, and one from the proud pureblood, who in turn couldn't resist the ex-human, fighting the urge to ravish the hunter every time he saw him.) But the mark was flaming red now.

Which brought us to the fifth day, when Kaname felt he had no choice left. He finally approached Zero, seeking help.

End Flashback

Zero walked over to Kaname. He pried the gun out of the pureblood's right hand. The ex-human sat down next to the Vampire King and moved Kuran's right hand so it was gripping his left wrist.

"Squeeze if it hurts, but no breaking my wrist," he said. Then he gripped the pureblood's left wrist with his and used his right hand's index and middle fingers to press down in different places on Kuran's left arm.

Kaname couldn't help but notice that the hunter's wrist was small. Now that he looked closer at the hunter, he could see that he was very thin. Probably underweight. Was he eating properly? And he looked tired too. Maybe he should talk to Cross about giving the prefect a break…

Wait a minute… Kaname mentally slapped himself. If he concentrated too deeply on the hunter, his body would react to the images flashing across his mind. Zero writhing and moaning underneath him. The pleasure filled gaze locked with Kaname's passionate one…

Damn it! Do not think of him that way! Do not think of Zero that way. Not yet…

Kaname squeezed Zero's wrist as a sudden flash of pain traveled up his arm. Ah, so there it was: the first contact of the curse. Zero released Kuran's arm and Kaname let go of the hunter's wrist at the same time.

Zero walked over to his desk and began searching for a clean sheet of lined paper. Finding one under his textbook, he pulled it out, shoving his forgotten notes aside. He opened his drawer and removed a calligraphy brush with a pot of black ink. Zero reached up and plucked a strand of hair out of his head. The silver strand quickly became black as he yanked the cap off the brush, unscrewed the cap of the pot of ink, dipped the brush in the ink pot and painted the strand of hair onto the paper. He folded the paper in half so that the two flaps were pressed against his hair.

He walked over to Kaname, kneeled down in front of the pureblood, and pulled another strand of hair out. He pressed the hair to the first contact area and brought the folded paper to his mouth. Zero didn't like the idea of kneeling in front of the pureblood, but it was required to complete the ritual. Summoning up all his power, he blew hard.

Kaname, meanwhile, was having trouble. Oh no, it wasn't the painful kind of trouble. When the hunter kneeled in front of him, he was hit by another vision, one that made his blush extremely difficult to hold in: Zero kneeled in front of the pureblood, panting in pleasure. The chain around his neck glinted in the dim light. His lilac eyes gazed up to meet Kaname's dark brown ones, "Take me…"

Damn… It was getting more and more difficult to restrain his emotions around the boy.

Kaname's thoughts were cut short. The silver black strand of hair came out and transformed into a very small pearly white phoenix. The phoenix rose above their heads then shot down into Kaname's arm.

A very deep penetrating warmth spread through Kaname as the white phoenix sunk through his skin. Then a bright light flared and the black vines retreated, as if burned away by the warmth. Nerves reconnected as he began to feel again, until there was nothing left of the curse.

Zero stood up but stumbled slightly. He absentmindedly brushed away the strand of silver hair on the pureblood's arm. He felt drunk; the room was spinning. He shut his eyes, trying to block out the headache that started up. He made a move to his bed and almost collapsed on it. But before he could hit his bed hard, two strong arms wrapped themselves around his waist. Kaname carefully lowered Zero onto his bed, ignoring the soft protests.

Zero's body collapsed. He had obviously used more power than his body could handle. He fell unconscious as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Kaname leaned down. The hunter was always like this; using more power than necessary. He always pushed himself for the sake of others. But that just made him all the more desirable.

Kaname whispered something in the hunter's ear, his hot breath brushing the hunter's metal earrings. Something that he would never had said to the hunter in a million years when he was awake. He placed his curse-free hand on Zero's left cheek and stroked the flesh lovingly there. Then he was gone.

Zero woke up at the sound of his alarm clock. It was about time for first period. He sat up. He still had a massive headache and his legs felt like cement blocks. But he couldn't leave Yuuki to prefect duties by herself. He dragged himself out of bed and picked up the Advanced Chemistry textbook. He also picked up his notes and stuffed them into his backpack.

Yup, he was defiantly in for a long day…

Zero was hungry.

Thank god, classes had ended early. That meant he had several hours before he had to go patrolling. Extra time equals sleep. Most of the Night Class had not woken up yet. He had about 6 more hours until sunset. He wouldn't have to worry about bothering anyone if he could just get back to his room. And probably suffer in peace there.

He wanted to bang his head repeatedly into the tree he was leaning against. The ex-human groaned, sliding down to the grassy floor. He held his head in his hands. The stupid headache hadn't gone away, and topped with bloodlust, Zero felt that his brain was being shredded. He gritted his long fangs together as he heard footsteps.

Please, don't let it be Yuuki… Please, don't let it be Yuuki…

But it wasn't. It was Kaname. The vampire king, having visited the hunter's room and not finding him inside, had absentmindedly searched for him. Seeing Zero fighting bloodlust as he was now, it made Kaname's heart twinge with pain. How long had Zero gone without blood? Had he been suffering all this time?

Swiftly, he picked the ex-human up. The hunter struggled to get out of his grip, but the pureblood was strong. Zero blinked and they were suddenly in, what he supposed to be, Kaname's room. He was dropped rather roughly onto Kuran's bed. The hunter tried to move away, off the bed, but Kaname pinned him down, gripping his wrists and pulling them above the hunter's head.

With his free hand, Kaname opened his collar. He leaned on top of the hunter and whispered, "Drink."

Zero froze. This would be the second time that Kaname's actions had taken him completely off guard. The pureblood was offering his blood, without giving any reason.

"For Yuuki?" Zero whispered back.

"No, for you," Kaname said equally as soft.

Zero stiffened, then leaned up, lavishing the skin. His bloodlust had surfaced now, but he needed to control his actions. He gently lapped the skin, nipped it, and then sank his fangs into it. 'Well,' Zero figured, 'If he's doing this for me I might as well be nice about it.'