Wasteland – chapter 5 – Epilogue

Warnings: The fic is now complete~! ^_^/

Also warning: There's an OC in this chapter, but he was a necessary plot device.

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He wasn't used to waking up in the morning. Which was quite natural since he was a vampire.

But then, there were so many things he wasn't used to. Such as the way his body was aching so much that he just wished he could close his eyes again and pass out until the dull pain in his muscles was gone.

But that would be unwise, when you had no idea whatsoever of where you were or who might be holding you captive.

The pureblood opened an eye drowsily, then sucked his breath in and buried his face into the pillow when the light flooded him mercilessly, pain invading his senses. It was quite dim in the tent, but he was terribly tired and his senses were extra sensitive, even more so than usual.
Even the slightest amount of sunlight was enough to hurt a pureblood's eyes, and Kaname's current state made it difficult to put up his usual mask of stoicism.

And yet, the aches in his body weren't exactly all unpleasant. There was a general dull pain that was most unwelcome, but other than that, his body felt deliciously relaxed and pleasantly spent. His head was spinning a little though, and he wasn't quite sure where he was. An unknown bed, in a luxurious tent.

The pureblood sat up quickly to try and assess his surroundings, but winced and immediately regretted his decision as the pain in his backside made itself much more noticeable now that he was sitting.

Lifting the sheets to see, he found that he was naked as he thought. Not to mention that he felt rather sticky. A flush burned in his face as he tried and immediately failed to ignore the question in his mind.

If last night's blissful abandon was but an illusion, then who had claimed his body...?

A tremor shook him at the memory of the things that happened of which he was sure, the ones that tore him apart the previous day, and he grit his teeth to hold back the moisture he already felt forming in his eyes. The memories he knew to be real would haunt him forever, but the ones afterwards, the ones that he desperately wished had truly happened, were the ones he knew could only be fake. The memories of Zero coming for him, holding him and telling him things he'd dreamed so often of hearing… Zero touching him in ways he didn't dare hope for anymore…

The misery of waking up alone as he had feared and expected, the horror of realizing it was indeed all a dream threatened to finish breaking him, when something snapped him out of his musings very suddenly and unexpectedly.

An unknown young man with light brown hair had opened the flap of the tent and entered the room.

Startled, the pureblood shrank back on the bed, pulling the sheets to himself in a quick attempt to cover his nudity, a miserable look taking over his features as he struggled to make the fear on his face look like fury. He desperately attempted to regain a certain composure while trying to determine the intruder's intentions, painfully reminded of how terribly vulnerable his position currently was.

Much to the pureblood's surprise, rather than doing something to him, the young man stepped back with an apologetic look on his face, rising his hands in a reassuring gesture. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I didn't know you were awake. This is my tent, I just came in to pick up some of my things. If I had known, I'd have warned you before entering the room."

The pureblood could only stare at him in incomprehension, a vague look of puzzlement intermingling now with the worry that was still present on his face.

Realizing that perhaps vampires were more self-conscious about their nudity than humans –especially humans used to military life and sharing commodities-- the young man quickly turned around to avoid disturbing the pureblood any further with his gaze, and stood facing the entry of the room instead. "I'm so sorry if I offended you. Would you like some clothes, by any chance?"

This gesture puzzled Kaname even more than the apologies themselves. The way the man left himself completely open for an attack was so impossibly unexpected from a hunter that the pureblood just had to ask. "You would turn your back on an enemy?"

It was the young hunter's turn to look surprised by the question, but his expression quickly turned into a contagious smile as he turned his head to speak. "But you're not an enemy! You're Zero's long lost love..."

What?!

Kaname's shock at realizing that perhaps it wasn't all an illusion as he had assumed was such that he dropped the sheets he was still holding to himself.

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A few hours earlier, the commander of the hunter forces and the former king of the vampires were losing themselves in each other's arms and in the sheer delight of finding each other again after so many years apart.

In the general vicinity of the tent, a number of the hunter soldiers had been gathering, in a more or less discreet attempt to eavesdrop. They had been listening in on whatever they could catch of the sounds coming from within the tent, unable to know exactly what was happening but exchanging garish comments and crude jokes about the vampire king and what they believed he must be suffering inside the tent.

Until suddenly, the crowd fell silent with shock, recognizing their commander's voice filled with lust and arousal as he called out the enemy's name with an intensity and passion that were unmistakably that of a lover rather than someone claiming a prisoner by force as they had expected.

The men looked at each other, some seeming lost, others already sporting scandalized expressions of disapproval, not sure on how to voice their thoughts on the subject, or whether or not this new development should be taken as a betrayal on the part of their commander.

The men had vaguely lost expressions on their faces, a few looking puzzled to the point of not being sure whether they should openly disapprove or not, others already taking on a mask of undecided anger at the unmistakable sounds that one could easily take for a betrayal of their race.
Many of the hunters turned around, searching the faces of their colleagues, instinctively trying to find out how the others were taking the news and unconsciously wondering whether they should express anger too or shrug it off. It was the turning point, the decisive moment in which a crowd's momentum wavers like a wave reaching its highest point, before its opinion settles and the wave crashes down, its final flow decided and no longer possible to change.

But before the crowd's ideas could risk settling for something sour, a young brown haired hunter pushed his way amongst them quickly, rushing to go stand by the entry of the tent. He folded his arms with a resolute expression before exclaiming loudly, making sure his voice carried over even to the soldiers in the back of the crowd. "Good!! He really needed to lighten up already!!"

It was Zero's lieutenant and right-hand man. The only one among them who would have dared speaking of the commander that way, for he was also a good friend of Zero's, regardless of how much the loner commander would refuse to let people get too close to him.

The hunters stared at his gruff look and comically exaggerated seriousness, and then exchanged glances with each other before one of them cracked up laughing, quickly joined by the lieutenant himself.

Soon, a number of soldiers couldn't help but start laughing too.
Seeing a high-ranked officer, of all people, taking the situation so lightly quickly dispelled the winds of trouble, and as soldiers were often disposed to, the matter had now turned to harmless sexual jokes accompanied by elbow nudges and crude laughter. Few among them still shook their heads disapprovingly, but they were very much ignored by the others, and did it more for morality's sake than out of a serious intent to go against the situation. The danger was avoided, and the soldiers' mood was back to the lightness and joy of the recent victory.

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A few hours later, there wasn't anything left of the animosity that had threatened to spark when the men had heard their commander and the pureblood together. It was quite the opposite, even. Their long time admiration of Zero had combined with the current situation to produce looks of awe and knowing smiles that vaguely disgusted Zero more than anything, as he passed by his men and felt the renewed adoration in their eyes, as if his conquests in bed somehow equated also to war victories, or at least to victories of which they inherited some of the glory by being his soldiers.

Already, tales were being told about his prowess, tales entirely spun by people who obviously weren't present and had clearly made it all up. The tales mostly told about how the valiant commander of the hunter armies, after defeating the enemy in the battlefield, had charmed its pureblooded king and faced him in a single match, besting him in bed and bewitching him completely until the enemy was at his feet, not by force but by his own choice.

After controlling himself to resist the urge to slap some sense into the first idiots he overheard telling such tales, Zero decided that whatever he did, idiotic stories would go around anyway, so it wasn't worth the trouble, much as the temptation was hard to resist.

Instead, Zero focused on the much more important task at hand, and organized meeting after meeting with his various officers, with the exception of his lieutenant, with whom he had already discussed the matter, and to whom he'd entrusted the protection of Kaname while he was away. He didn't want to leave the pureblood alone even for a moment, afraid that the soldiers may get stupid ideas.

Zero trusted his men, but when it concerned a matter of such importance said trust only went as far as he could watch them. The only person in there he trusted with Kaname's safety was his right-hand man, and even then Zero couldn't help but want to return as fast as he could. He didn't like the idea of leaving Kaname to wake up alone either, but the pureblood was sleeping so well that he didn't want to disturb him when he had gone through so much the previous day.

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Meanwhile, Zero's lieutenant was serving Kaname tea with biscuits, while filling the pureblood in with the nonsensical and somewhat amusing tales the soldiers had been telling based on what they'd overheard of the previous night… although he was naturally skimming over the cruder details of some of the stories, just in case.

Kaname was now mostly decent, dressed in a loose brocade robe –clearly not something Zero would have worn, so he guessed it belonged to his unexpected host, but it was cleanly washed and very comfortable, so he didn't ask the man any questions.

They were sitting on the bed, where cushions were plopped up so that Kaname could keep a position that was less straining on his still aching body. A small table was pulled nearby, an assortment of biscuits atop it, sharing it with a polished metal tea-pot and other tea necessities.

The various versions of the story took them from laughter to consternation, and the young officer paid close attention to the pureblood's expressions to see if he should steer the subject away when something turned out to feel more hurtful than funny.

Kaname quite inevitably caught on the man's tactful move – conversation maneuvering was a subject the pureblood excelled in after all – and eventually dropped his gaze to the half-empty tea cup in his hand, his features permeated with a visible dose of sadness.

"You don't have to worry about making the stories sound less bad for my sake. As long as Zero's reputation is intact, I can't bring myself to mind much if…" he hesitated for a fraction of an instant, before abandoning his indecision at the choice of words " …if I'm made to be the whore in the soldiers' tales."

The pureblood was surprised by the sound of the lieutenant's teacup hitting the plate as he spoke the last part. The man was staring at him with a look of shock, absolute determination shining through his honest gaze as he refuted Kaname's argument immediately.

"You could never be a whore. Never. You're someone of the utmost importance, believe me."

Kaname couldn't help the measure of bitterness that seeped into his voice as he inquired softly "Really? What makes you think so?"

But his young interlocutor wasn't put off by the pureblood's uncertainty, and continued, in a confidential tone.

"Zero… isn't exactly a person of many words, as you know. And yet, I've been around for long enough to have seen it in his eyes so very often… that emptiness that was eating him inside."
The young hunter set down his cup and plate and turned further toward the pureblood, wanting to make sure he had Kaname's full attention before he continued. "Well, this morning when he called me over and asked me to protect you, that emptiness was gone. You did that. You complete him, in a way so perfect that he'd never be whole without you."

Kaname couldn't help but stare at the man's face. The young officer was dead serious.

The pureblood opened his mouth, and, against everything he was used to, he suddenly couldn't find the words to express what he meant to say, and closed it again, a flush spreading on his cheeks in a most embarrassing manner.

Kaname was even more beautiful off balance and sporting that unguarded expression on his face. It was almost painful to look at such beauty and know you could never have it, but the young man was loyal enough to his friend that he felt happy for Zero rather than envious, and merely finished making his point.

"And I'm sure the opposite is just as true. You two complete each other. So have hope in the future!"

The young lieutenant beamed at the pureblood with a sincere smile as he spoke, a smile which he kept on his face as they both turned to the entrance of the room simultaneously, the very instant they felt the entry of the one they were talking about.

All aches forgotten at the sight of Zero, Kaname practically jumped off the bed and threw himself into his lover's open arms, burying his face into his shoulder as Zero held onto him tightly, hands instinctively sliding gently down the pureblood's back in a reassuring caress as he buried his face into Kaname's tousled locks and inhaled deeply the delightful scent he had so terribly missed for so long.

Zero had been organizing everything to leave the hunter army. He'd still stay for a short time, to help organize things now that the war was over, and to minimize as much as possible the abuse of the prisoners by the hunter army, but once that period was over, he'd leave everything in the hands of his lieutenant and take Kaname with him, far from anything that could harm them.
Let the politicians and activists take over. The time for warriors was hopefully gone, and even if it wasn't and a new war broke out one day, their war was over. Zero was never going to let anyone with ill intentions anywhere near the pureblood, ever again.

He felt like he had an eternity to make up for, especially if he was ever going to forgive himself for having had to wait until he nearly lost Kaname to finally fully understand just how much the pureblood meant to him.

Zero ran a hand through Kaname's hair, lingering on the back of his head, the contact sending delightful little shivers rippling under the pureblood's skin and earning a contented sigh from him.

"I'm sorry I didn't wake you up before I left, my love. I'm here now…"

Kaname replied with a passionate kiss instead of words, clinging to Zero, arms tightly wrapped around the hunter's back, savoring the warmth emanating from his lover's body and seeping through his clothes.

They held onto each other tightly, refusing to let go, relishing in the intimate moment.

And much as he knew he would still struggle for quite a while with the trauma from the previous day, Kaname couldn't help but feel it was a small price to pay for what they had now. The two had spent years of agonizing emptiness, torn from each other and believing that there was no future ahead, and now they finally found themselves filled with the most unexpected hope in what lay ahead, a newfound certainty in each other's love and intentions giving them the strength to stand and face the future, no longer by themselves but together now, not willing to ever be parted again by anyone or anything.

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~The End~

Happy end! XD;;; Despite the loads of angst on the way there…? XD;;; *lol*

I wanted the lieutenant to be for Zero a little bit like what Takuma is for Kaname in the series… He was a necessity for that position and to dispel the crowd's ideas when they overheard Zero and Kaname together, but I ended up not giving him a name. XD;;;
I almost did it in the last chapter already, but in the end he became the nameless lieutenant. XD;

This is rather AU already, so I didn't go into what happened to the Night Class, but I'd like to think they've survived the war and were fine afterwards too. :)