Ice cream, Donuts and A Stupid Book

Kaien Cross was great with kids, not just humans and vampires. But being an ex-hunter still meant that he had lots of miscellaneous work to do, so he had to leave his baby-sitting clients in the middle of the day, if worse came to worse. For that particular day the Kiryuu couple left him their elder twin, five-year-old little Zero, because Ichiru had taken ill and had to be confined to the hospital for days. Kaien was sure he'd cleared his agenda to accommodate his old friends, but whatever planning you had, something just came up at the oddest times. So now the man was left with no alternative but to find a place where he could leave the quieter Kiryuu child. Mrs. Momoyama was off vacationing in Hawaii and there was nobody else at home.

It was time for drastic measures.

He wasn't sure if the idea would work, but he stood by the porch and rang the doorbell all the same. Vampires were especially picky with how visitors behaved when they called, so ringing the doorbell and making a call prior was extremely important. Beside him, little Zero stood bundled up in his fur-lined jacket, wondering why on earth Kaien had taken him to such a place, but he never complained and just remained quietly holding the older man's hand. Kaien beamed at the pale-haired boy; he was extremely well-behaved and easy to take care of. But today his emergency couldn't wait.

The door creaked and was pulled open, and a dark-haired pureblood boy, about 12 years in terms of human attributes, stood on the landing looking incredulously up at Kaien, and then at little Zero.

"I thought you were kidding," the vampire boy said.

"Well, I wish I was, but I'm really rather in a hurry and this is the only place that came to mind that I can leave Zerorin here for a few hours," Kaien apologized as he bowed over and over.

"My name is Zero," the silver-haired child piped up.

"Aww, isn't he cute?" Kaien gushed over the pout the boy was currently displaying up at him.

"You know I don't do these things for free," the vampire boy spoke.

"Well, well, I know, I did take that into consideration," Kaien flailed his arms around a bit. "What do you want in return then?"

The vampire boy mulled his options, knowing he had the upper hand in this bargain. He rubbed his chin as he kept a critical eye on the veteran straw-haired hunter.

"I want that limited edition jigsaw puzzle of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper," he said after a few minutes' hard thinking. "That one with the 30,000 pieces."

Kaien could have dropped his jaw if it were possible. The vampire boy was a certified extortionist, so unlike his lovely mother at all. But the thought gave him pause; Juuri was not above pounding someone to submission just to make her point across, though. He supposed it was a Kuran thing. But to actually find a puzzle of the exact specifications…well, well, Kaien better start calling all of his connections en route to his meeting, just to see if this was actually plausible and all…

"Deal," Kaien said.

"Fine, deal," the vampire boy grinned – which was a rare thing in itself; the boy was as grumpy as a sullen grandpa at the best of times – and shook his hand as if to seal their agreement. He turned to little Zero. "Come on in?" He offered a hand, and Zero looked at the hand and then up at Kaien's encouraging face, then back to the hand again.

"Umm," he said.

"Kaname is a nice kid, he won't hurt you," Kaien cooed, giving Zero a small push forward. "He'll lend you his books and his chess set, and you see they have a lot of food in this place, especially salt broth ramen! So go on, don't be afraid of him~!"

Kaname reached forward and gently had the little pale-haired boy by the hand, pulled him into the house and slammed the door shut on Kaien Cross's face.

The house was very big, bigger than anything Zero and his parents had ever lived in, and they'd been to couple of apartments and flats already since Zero could walk. The vampire kid, Kaname, led him to a spacious receiving area where a fireplace looked cozy, and let him sit down on the couch. Zero sat almost rigidly on the piece of furniture and watched the vampire move about with huge purple eyes.

And then Kaname stopped pacing and tilted his head at him, and Zero copied the pureblood and tilted his head also.

For several minutes neither did anything, except stare at each other.

"So, do you know how to play chess?" Kaname asked.

"Umm," Zero shook his head.

"Do you like to read?"

"Ummm," Zero shook his head again.

"Or are you just afraid I might eat you?"

"Um." A nod.

Kaname laughed. "I won't eat you," he sat down beside Zero with a smile. "So then, tell me what you want to do, so we can spend the morning your way. How's that sound?"

Zero thought about it. His parents would strangle Mr. Cross when they find out where he'd left him. But the pureblood did ask how he wanted his day to be spent. Zero scowled, thinking hard. And then an idea came to mind.

"Ice cream!" he exclaimed instead.

The best way to keep a child well-behaved and in a good mood was to accede to his wishes whenever possible. This was an ancient lesson Kaname had learned, courtesy of the memories that were just returning to him day by day and piecing together like a self-solving puzzle inside his mind. He wasn't sure yet but he could clearly remember spending some time in a day care center taking care of kindergarteners, and from what his own memories were telling him, the kids loved him because he knew how to spoil them when the more responsible adults weren't looking in their direction.

He'd called delivery for ice cream, and spent a good thirty minutes over the phone, letting Zero pick what flavors he wanted to be brought over. The little kid was fast shedding his shyness and asked for cookie crumble, coffee almond, rocky road, black forest – the works. They ended up ordering ten pints, to be delivered 30 minutes sharp.

While waiting Kaname decided to teach the boy chess but he quickly grew bored and threatened a tantrum by the way his lower lip started quivering, so Kaname picked him up and took him to the vast family library, which housed some 130 generations of book collections.

Kaname found out the boy seemed to have a thing for the ancient globe they had, so he walked over, carrying Zero still. The kid pointed to a random country and mentioned the capital and asked Kaname all sorts of questions about the people residing there, from their clothes and culture, and Kaname tried to answer as best he could. Although the pureblood doubted the information he had for some twenty countries; he had a serious feeling he was unforgivably outdated.

The ice cream arrived all in mint condition, and they took everything to the kitchen and he let Zero sit on the table and gave him a spoon.

"So, this is, hmm, chocolate mint," Kaname said as he let the little kid scoop ice cream out of the pint he was holding. Zero's mouth was messy with ice cream, and he'd already emptied three pints, but he showed no signs of stopping, so Kaname didn't relent in giving him the cold treat either.

"Yum, yum," Zero chirped happily as he scooped more ice cream and gorged on it.

Kaname watched the little kid stuff his face with ice cream. "You'll probably get fat," he told the boy. "As in really fat. Like, pot bellied pig fat."

The pale-haired child was too busy eating ice cream to care. Shrugging, Kaname got a spoon for himself and decided to help the child with his dessert.

They went outside next. Autumn had just started, and many of the trees surrounding the isolated Kuran manor were shedding their leaves in preparation for winter. For the heck of it, Kaname took a moment to go to the garden shed and took the rake with him, and they spent an entire hour raking whatever leaves they could find, with little Zero thinking to help by grabbing fistfuls of dried leaves and depositing them onto the growing pile Kaname was making.

When the pile was done, Zero and Kaname jumped into it, scattering the leaves all over with a crash. Zero laughed and liked the whole idea of it, and they spent another hour gathering a pile of leaves and then smashing themselves into it, and the leaves would scatter in a flurry of gold and brown around them, and Zero thought that this was just like in one of the books his mother often read to him and Ichiru every bed time.

Zero finally plopped down after three hours of playing, and complained that his tummy ached and he was getting sleepy. Kaname brushed dried leaves off his hair and picked him up, and carried him back into the mansion, saying that he shouldn't poop out here and on his trousers too, because that would be embarrassing and no decent hunter shit on his pants.

Kaname let the boy sleep on the couch. He'd curled up automatically when given a pillow, and Kaname had a blanket overhim too for good measure. He added more logs into the fire and sat nearby and reached for the book he had been reading before Kaien cross came round, and opened his bookmarked page. The hours trailed by in silence, with only the crackling of the flames piercing the quiet.

After three hours the little hunter boy roused himself and sat beside Kaname, and tried to read along.

"Triumvirate," Kaname said.

"Tree…yum…by…ret!" Zero said.

"Close enough, how about this word?"

Zero looked at the word Kaname was pointing to on the page.

"Umm…c…constel…lation?"

"Oh, that's good, you got it first try. This one?"

"Humm…den…deno…denomm…ment?"

"Close enough too, not bad."

Zero didn't understand many of the words Kaname had pointed to, but he tried his best reading them anyway. And the book Kaname had didn't have too many pictures, and Zero supposed that was rather boring, but he was learning new words and learning new words was cool, at least in his young mind.

"I think that's enough reading," Kaname said. "You want some donuts, maybe?"

"Mmokay," Zero agreed, blinking.

Back to the kitchen they went, and Kaname took out a box of assorted donuts from the fridge. Zero particularly liked the ones with chocolate sprinkles on them, and Kaname gave him all the donuts with the chocolate sprinkles. He ate them all, seated as he was on the counter, and Kaname got a pitcher of water for him. Zero was a mess now but he didn't mind the chocolate on his face, and Kaname seemed to not care either.

In his mind Zero wondered why all the other babysitters they had didn't give them as many ice cream and donut as they wanted. Kaname gave him whatever he wanted, and that was way better than any person his parents left him and Ichiru with whenever they had a hunt to accomplish. It was sad that Ichiru wasn't here too, but maybe when he got better then they could be left here together and they would have all the donuts and ice cream they could ever want. That sounded like a plan.

Kaien Cross stared at the chocolate-infested kid Kaname had led to him when he arrived to pick Zero up. Zero grinned up at him, and he looked like he had the time of his life – and too many sweets.

"He didn't want to shower," Kaname explained at the mess. "If I forced him, we would end up taking a bath together."

"You could have wiped him down," Kaien could have facepalmed. What did purebloods know about taking care of a child, anyway?

"He kept running away from me, and I got tired chasing him," Kaname shrugged.

Kaien decided there was no arguing with Kaname on this one. Anyway, what was important was Zero enjoyed. And on a slightly serious note, Kaien had to make sure that Zero wouldn't go prattling about this to his parents, or there'd be hell to pay.

"Come on, Zerorin, let's take you home so you can get a nice warm bath and mama and papa will pick you up!"

"My name is Zero!" the child exclaimed yet again.

Kaien took Zero by the hand and led him away to the car.

"Wait up," Kaname called. "Hey, Zero?" He approached and gave Zero the book they'd been reading. He winked. "Maybe when you grow up you can understand that, huh? And then we can have a merry talk about what the book is saying." He grinned – and Kaien thought it was a miraculous day; Kaname simply did not smile twice in one day – and ruffled Zero's silver hair. "Don't forget to brush your teeth."

With that, he turned to Kaien.

"You owe me a puzzle."

"Yes, yes," Kaien agreed, though inside he felt panic creeping up on him. Puzzles! And a rare one, to boot! Where would he look? "Well, see you, Kaname!"

They went, and Zero looked back at the vampire standing by the door, waving at them.

"Can I go here again, Mr. Cross?" he looked up at the hunter.

"Well, Zero, I don't know, but someday you two might meet again, yes?" Kaien smiled.

Zero smiled and nodded. He would look forward to it, definitely. In fact when they did in fact meet again many years later, Kaname would be by a balcony and avoiding having to dance at a waltz. Zero would have spotted him from where he stood on guard-duty for that soiree, and he would approach, and show him the book. The book was nonsense; it talked about this utopian society ruled by three persons, and it was all so boring that Zero did not finish it. He'd approach Kaname and excuse himself, and ask if he recalled the book. Kaname would look at the book for a long minute before remembering, and he would smile, and Zero would smile too and they would spend the rest of the night by that balcony, talking about the stupid book over ice cream and donuts with chocolate sprinkles.

A/N: This was a totally random idea that came up while a friend and I were chatting over - you guessed it right - chocomint ice cream and donuts with chocolate sprinkles. Hope you like!