Kaname held her tightly as she seemed to rest on her limp head on his shoulder. Zero tried to help her respond to her name. She did not respond. Takuma frowned as he nervously tried to help. "Yuki...Yuki," Kaien then jumped in. Kaname paused as he held her there, his face veiled with a mask of dread. Where...was her heartbeat? Why was she so cold? Why didn't he hear her silent breath...feel its heat on his shoulder? He slowly let her go, her body nearly falling all the way to the ground. Takuma held in a gasp when he saw the rose had faded rom her lips and cheeks.

"No...no!" Kaien suddenly yelled as he kneeled on the ground beside her. Her perfect brown eyes were still open, blood dripping from her chin and a single moth still trapped in the locks of her auburn hair. Zero tried to think quickly as he dropped down on her other side, putting his head to her chest and then sticking his fingers down her throat. There was no blood to clog her airway. That was it...she was gone. Kaname couldn't move...breathe...think. This was a cruel nightmare. It had to be. Like the ones he'd had before.

The little butterfly he helped to raise, to protect...to love. She was gone and for good this time. The morning was breaking through stained glass windows. Takuma looked to the windows and sighed. Moving Zero away and pushing Kaien's hands away, he lifted the dead Yuki from the altar floor and held her bridal style. "Where are you going?" Zero growled as he watched Takuma walk down the aisle of the church with the dead girl in his arms. Takuma frowned as he looked back at them. "I'm not going to let her waste away to ashes here...she needs to be buried."

A week later she'd been placed in the Kuran crypt. In a stone coffin, candles decorating it's surface as well as the reddest of roses. Her name was yet to be etched on the coffin. Even in death, she was a fascination. Kaname stood with Kaien, Zero, and even Takuma as they all stared at the cherubs and winged animals on the sides of the coffin. Vampires from near and far had come to see the human Kuran girl eternally sleeping inside the cold of a box in a dimly lit underground crypt, even the entire night class had come. She had on a pure white dress, made of Belgian lace and small pearls from the west coast of the US.

She looked like the princess she was with her hair sprawled on the velvet headrest of the coffin and rose petals hiding in her locks. The last of her vampire visitors had left after her ceremony, leaving the three men to watch her in her mesmerizing state of death. "Where do you think she went?" Zero suddenly whispered to Kaien. Kaien's heartbroken look moved onto his now only child, his son. His hunter uniform stood out throughout the funeral, with his weapons laying against the pillar a few feet away from Yuki's coffin. "What do you mean?" Kaien asked.

"Do you think she went up...or down?" Zero insinuated. Kaien looked back at the corpse of his daughter, the two vampires on the other side of it. "I know...I know she went up," Kaien whispered to Zero. Zero nodded sadly, swallowing. Takuma set a single white rose on Yuki's chest as Kaname watched with a heavy heart. "I can't believe it...I thought she'd be around," Takuma muttered. Kaname had no response.

Takuma put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "But I don't think she was sad. I think she's okay now...she has to be with your parents...at last," Takuma tried to console. Kaname looked at him with glazed eyes. Never had Takuma seen it before. The guilt and pain and fear in Kaname's eyes. Just by looking at the layer of salt water over his rich mohogany irises. Kaien and Takuma had their last look at the small girl before departing. Zero and Kaname met in front of her coffin, standing side by side as they looked down at her.

"After today...we are not going to bicker. We are not going to continue to loathe each other," Zero muttered deeply. Kaname took on a look of hardness. "You cannot promise that, Kiryu. I know that I couldn't...when what was rightfully mine harbored feelings for you," he scowled. "She wasn't your property. And frankly I was happy when she was happy and I know she was with you. But I absolutely can promise you we will not quarrel any longer. Promise me...after the moon is high in the sky tonight, Kuran...we will never cross paths, look at one another's faces ever again," Zero hissed back. Kaname and Zero slowly looked at one another before Kaname stuck out his hand. "Agreed," he said.

Zero gave him the handshake before they began to exit the crypt, both glancing at the vampire keeper whom place the coffin's roof over the girl they once loved. Reaching the ground level of the great graveyard mainly visited by the vampires, they looked at each other with such disgust a second time before walking in opposite directions.

A year passed. No one spoke of her. No one even acknowledged she'd come to the school at all. News reporters came and went for the first few months, questioning the death of young Yuki K. Cross. "It was a suicide," one girl had told the cameras. "Yeah, we heard she hung herself in the church down the way. She totally showed signs of depression though," the other had said. Yuki's sweet smile was in the newspaper at least once, before vampire friends of Lord Kaname had requested they stop the coverage of the "suicide" for family reasons. Zero never returned to the academy, taking on hunting full-time with Kaien once more.

Kaname's oldest friend Isaya insisted they throw a gala in honor of his fallen sister on the one-year February night she perished. He didn't decline. It was almost as if the vampire world had decided to show their face, the Aidou Hall Hanabusa agreed to let Kaname use overcrowded with vampires in extravagant black clothing. Zero stood to the back with Kaien and Yagari as they watched the madness and sympathetic talks of the Kuran girl's death. "Suicide. A bit dramatic. The girl was so lonesome and depressed she cut out her own heart.

I guess it's a trend that runs in the family," a vampire said. "Cut out her heart? I heard she committed suicide outside Cross Academy with a secret lover," the other said. Lies, all lies, Zero told himself as he shook his head. Kaien tried to ignore all the rumors floating throughout the ballroom as he began to turn away. "Kaien," a woman said, beginning to approach. "Loraine," Kaien recognized. "You did attend...I was so astonished to hear about your daughter. It wasn't until last month I found out she passed away," the woman, Loraine, said sympathetically.

Kaname then walked up to the three, Zero frowning. Kaname stopped as he looked at Zero. "Kiryu, I beg you, put away our agreement for the night. It's inevitable," he sighed. Zero did not answer, choosing to not even glance at him. "Lord Kaname," Loraine recognized as she bowed her head. "Lady Loraine, it's been a long time," Kaname said. "My condolences on Ms. Yuki," she said sadly. He did not respond. "I hope this isn't a bad time Kaien, I thought you might like to meet my foster daughter. She wants to attend Cross Academy next semester-"

"You have a daughter?" Kaname asked. "Oh yes...I adopted her last year around the same time Yuki passed away. She lost her family in a vampire attack, knowing her parents I thought I'd take her in," Loraine went on. Zero and Kaien exchanged glances. "Where is she? Sweetheart!" Loraine called. A young girl with thick brown locks, suddenly turned her head in their direction in a slimming red dress, looking to be about sixteen or seventeen. The three men froze. Fear consumed their hearts and it was suddenly like oxygen was limited.

Her deep reddish-brown eyes set on the three gently, her red rose lips parting. "She looks just like..." Kaien muttered to himself. Zero couldn't move. Kaname's breath was taken away. The girl's pure, angelic face twisted into a mischievously gorgeous smile. Zero frowned and Kaien felt something in his stomach knot horribly. Kaname tried to control a skipping heart rate as the girl licked her lips. "Wonderful to meet you," Kaien said hoarsely. Zero nodded a hello with a half smile, Kaname taking the opportunity to kiss her hand. "Gentlemen...this is my daughter. Chindi," Loraine smiled. Kaname not releasing the girl's hand as he stood looking at Loraine slowly looked back at her as she pulled away.

Zero and Kaname gave each other a death-asserting gaze once again looking at the seemingly innocent adolescent. She looked between them with a seductive countenance on her face. And with a dark chuckle, she spoke.

"A pleasure, boys. As always."