Chip: Listen up! This story is VK, with the good ol' fashion triad relationship--as in, all three, in love. Don't like it, click the back button and get the hell off the page. Otherwise, read on for some Kaname x Yuuki x Zero. It's probably only going to be a few chapters long, probably somewhere around eight or so.

Read and Enjoy, peeps.

"Blood Bonds"

Chapter One: Voyeur

Flick. The pages were brittle between his fingers, the aged volume lying precariously on his thigh as he read. The book was a classic—a favorite—and well-taken care of because of it; tonight, however, it failed to occupy his attentions.

The classroom was dark as per the usual standard; their vampiric professor was at his podium lecturing on the morals of ex-human vampires and their status in the shadow society of their kind—the pro's and con's of their creation, it seemed. The others, his classmates, were ranged around the room across from him, each absorbed in some pastime to keep them from the tedium of lessons they'd all learned a million times.

Flick. Another page turned absently beneath his hand, but Kaname wasn't paying the book the slightest attention. Behind him, outside the window, he could see a lean, shadowy form standing at tense attention on the lower rooftop—a guardian to protect foolish humans from getting too close. A small, ironic smirk tilted the corner of the pureblood's lips—a vampire keeping humans away from other vampires. How quaint. And yet, to Kaname's trained senses, Kiryuu Zero's hunger was a sharp ringing in the ear—a warning. He allowed his gaze to flicker outside and hover plainly on the other man, seeing with clear eyes the way Zero hunched into himself, hands clenched tightly to the stone banister that ringed the building's lower roof; his silver-blonde hair fell into the boy's face but Kaname picked out the tense set of his jaw and the ghostly parlor of his cheeks.

Suddenly, as if sensing his observation, Zero looked up through the window and caught his gaze, belligerent and unaffected by fear. A sneer crossed the younger man's lips, the wind ruffling through his longish hair lending him an air of arrogance. Pivoting on his heel, the silverette turned and vaulted over the stone banister; the light of the moon caught on his pale skin and hair, casting him in a luminescence even as he fell, disappearing into the darkness of the forest below.

A small, wry smile slipped over Kaname's lips then melted away like an illusion.

Hunger. Kaname was feeling it himself just then—the gnawing sense of emptiness in his stomach, the tightness of his throat and the taste of metallic remembrance on his tongue. His eyes left that spot where Zero went over and flickered back to his book even as they narrowed; a hand reached into his pocket with slow deliberation, fingers brushing the small box in which he kept his supply of blood tablets.

Even before he could withdraw the container from its confines, Seiren was kneeling at his side, one hand crossed over her chest in a very formal address even as the other rose, palm-up, to be offered to him. She didn't look up at him, Kaname noted—the perfect obedience of a noble to her superior.

Smiling gently so as to not offend his ever-willing associate and friend, Kaname pushed her hand away, "Arigato, Seiren, but I will not require that this evening." Rising from his seat, he closed the old book very carefully and laid it in his place on the chair; Seiren glanced up at him then rose herself, ready to follow him. Again, Kaname shook his head. "No, please—stay here and take care of my book," he lowered his voice, speaking solely to her though he knew the others could hear, "You know what it means to me, Seiren—it is a treasure and I trust it to your protection for this time." He turned, striding across the room without looking at the professor or any of the others, "I will return shortly. I wish to be left alone."

A chorus of murmured acknowledgments followed as he closed the classroom door behind him; no one made to follow him, he noted—the others were well used to his nightly venture out.

The empty hall was cool, silent and—best of all—carried the scent of the one he most desired to see. He took himself to the end of the scent trail in the way he knew would attract the least attention—soundlessly, in the way of preternatural travel—with his impossible speed. To the untrained eye, it would seem that he very suddenly appeared in the grove just beyond the building, reclining easily against the bark of an old, tall tree that provided him with some cover. The air settled around him, hardly dispersed at all by his skill; the silence was never broken and his voyeurism never detected.

That scent though—oh, yes, the scent of blood—was thick in his nostrils, in his throat; Yuuki's blood, spilt for an unworthy vampire desperately clinging to his mortality. Eyes glowing red with his own bloodlust, Kaname observed with a critical gaze, struggling very much to remain detached.

His back pressed against a tree, Zero supported them both; one arm wrapped around Yuuki's waist to hold her firmly against him, the other raised to gently pull her head to the side, his fingers clenched in her hair the same way they were on the banister not too long ago. Yuuki's eyes were at half-mast and unfocused, but she pressed back into Zero and used one arm hooked around behind her to hold him to her neck. The near-quiet sound of a drinking, suckling vampire was overly loud in the grove—and Kaname's ears.

Zero—that worthless fool—was afforded the privilege Kaname himself wanted most.

And the ungrateful wretch had the nerve to say he didn't enjoy it—deny that he craved it with every nerve of his being. Kaname wanted to strangle him with his bare hands and then whisper into his ear the truth of how obvious it was to see, in his eyes, the blood lust.

The blood…

Yuuki's blood…

Kaname's fists balled at his side but he said nothing—made no move. This was torture, true, but it was a torture he inflicted on himself every night, without fail; every night, he left his class to come search for Yuuki—to check on her—just to bask in her presence, in her unaffected beauty and innocence. She never knew he was there, never sensed it—but there he most definitely was.

And then, not so long ago, he'd begun discovering her like this.

Zero's need for blood, it seemed, could not be sustained by the tablets any longer—or maybe, it never had been. Either way, maybe once or twice a week, Kaname watched as Yuuki exposed herself to danger—to death—in her effort to protect the friend she so cherished.

Her generosity—her kindness—never failed to leave him breathless.

He might not like it but he knew that if he interfered—told the Chairman or ordered her to halt—he would just upset her and that was something he couldn't have. He couldn't have her look at him with such fierce determination—such loyalty for another—and not want to grant her every desire.

So instead, he watched—her silent guardian—as a protection against death by overindulgence. Zero might be a worthless creation—a fool vampire—but Yuuki cared for him greatly; if he could not stop her from doing this for the man, then he could most certainly make sure she walked away from it safely.

A moment more—delayed, sweet torture—and then Yuuki's hand slid down, no longer holding Zero to her; Kaname's gaze narrowed, sharpened, but there was no need—Zero was lifting his head already, his other arm now sliding around Yuuki to support her more fully as she sagged in his embrace. Eyes turning from glowing crimson to luminescent silver-violet, Zero glanced around carefully before swinging Yuuki into his arms, carrying her close to his chest as he walked slowly away. Kaname watched him glance one way, then another, as if searching for some intruder—and then he was gone, moving in the way of the vampires.

A wary smile graced pale lips; so Zero was experimenting with his skills now? That was well enough, so long as he realized that it was only the blood of the most innocent, trusting friend he would ever possess that allowed him to do so.

Brought up short by that, Kaname's eyes narrowed, finding himself a little perturbed by the thought as well.

Turning on his heel, he moved himself, using the same technique Zero utilized with such amateur grace; he was in the hall, standing beside the door to his classroom nary a second later, eyes focused but mind wandering.

Yuuki…

Surely, she couldn't keep up this type of thing for too much longer. Despite the fact that she was a fully healthy, vital young woman—despite the larger benefits that lay dormant in her blood—she wasn't sleeping and she wasn't eating properly.

She couldn't afford to lose so much blood on a day-to-day basis.

Not even for Zero.

Actually, if he was strictly honest with himself, the best possible thing for her would be…

…for her to stay the hell away from the boy.

However, to tell her that would be—unspeakable, unthinkable. She would most assuredly disobey, perhaps going heinously out of the way or doing something foolish in a place where he would not be able to watch over her. No, no—that little grove suited him just fine; at least there he knew where she was, could look in on her.

No, he wouldn't be telling her of his concerns.

And nothing to the Chairman, either—the man's care for Yuuki would only lead him to the same option and he would undoubtedly take it.

No, then—another option was needed for himself.

Eyes concentrated in thought, he re-entered the classroom amidst a chorus of quiet greetings and retook his seat, sliding the book into his lap and opening it gently with one hand. Seiren bowed away.

Even still, with the book open, he did not focus on it—it merely laid there, open and willing.

He didn't read.

Open and willing…

…like Yuuki.

His lips pressed together almost imperceptibly.

Just then, with a sort of blood-lust building in himself, Kaname carefully turned over centuries worth of information in his mind, gleaned from books and from Elders and other, older sources.

He had options.

The only question left—and it was a rather large question—was which would best suit him now?

Author's Note: Alrighty, peeps--nows the time. Let me know what you thought of it? This is my shiney new pet and I want you to love and adore it--or else. Now, pretty please...review?

-Chip.