A Rose for the Dead
by Withered Black Rose

Rating:M

Summary: When Senri collapses one night during class, Takuma realizes that something is still desperately wrong with the young vampire. Elsewhere, Kaname confronts Zero for the first time since Rido's death and starts to tentatively explore the relationship they share. Meanwhile, Aido comes back to the dorm late and drenched, an unusual thing for one as prompt as Aido. When Kain begins to pester him as to what is wrong, he finds a startling truth. As Takuma begins to nurture the frail Senri back to health, things spiral out of control and disaster strikes the school once again. Then vicious things start happening to various members of the Night Class, and it's a race against the clock to find who is behind these terrible acts before someone loses more than just blood.

Warnings:A good amount of character beating/rape/ torture. Non-consensual blood drinking. Yaoi. Moments of lemon-ness.

Spoilers:Yes, for the whole Vampire Knight series, but especially for Vampire Knight Guilty. If you haven't seen to the end...well I did warn you.

Pairings:SenriXTakuma, KanameXYukiXZero (Any which way you see it), SenriXRima, HanabusaXAkatsuki, KanameXTakuma

A/N:This story starts two weeks after the end of Rido, with me making it so that instead of Yuki and Kaname leaving, they stay and everything returns to normal. Well, except for the fact that Zero hasn't spoken to either Kaname or Yuki since...So a few things will be different from what you might read in the manga and I apologize for that. I will say that I did keep it so that Zero still has his powers. I loved his powers. But he didn't get arrested (or whatever happened to him because of the Association) and Takuma didn't get kidnapped by Sara. As the chapters add up, it will get increasingly AU so expect different things.

As far as such things such as names for characters who have none (like Shiki's mom) and powers (like Takuma), I will make that stuff up. I'll find good names and powers that are best suited to the character in question.

A Note on Names: I mostly refer to everyone by their last names, mostly because that's how the anime has always done it. Ichijou, Shiki, Aido, etc etc. The only time this will change is when it's dialogue. Thank you.

Disclaimer: Vampire Knight and its characters do not belong to me. They belong to their inspired creator Matsuri Hino. I borrow them without permission, but with great affection. This story is for entertainment purposes only; no money is being made from it.

Senri Shiki blinked as the world went in and out of focus, everything going from its normal colors to gray and then back again. He shook his head softly and sighed.'It's happening again…The world is graying out…' He thought. He then let out a soft noise as Yagari-sensei's voice went from being normal sounding to muffled and staticky. He blinked his crystal blue eyes quickly a few times as the room went gray again. When it did not fade back to its normal twilight color, he shook his head. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw lightning flash for the millionth time that night, however, what set this lightning apart from all the other lightning bolts was that fact that instead of being blue or white, it was gray. The room was an ashy-gray color and all the noise was dim, as if someone had turned the volume down in the world.

He blinked a couple more times and then titled his head. Had he seen a shadow go past the board? No…There was no real light in the classroom, which meant it wasn't possible to see shadows in here. Or at least, it shouldn't be…

His eyes widened when he saw the shadow pass by again, only bigger. When it did it a third time, Shiki shook his head and closed his eyes. 'I'm seeing things. I bet it's just a delusion from lack of sleep…Yeah, that's it…' Shiki thought to himself. As he opened his eyes again he noticed that the gray color was still there. He sighed and then blinked.

When he next opened his eyes he spotted the shadow again. But instead of darting across the wall like it had the last few of times, it was still. Shiki tilted his head and then yelped loudly as it started racing towards him.

Shiki gave another yelp as a voice started shouting in his head, shouting about being in control and that Shiki should remain dormant. Shiki didn't feel it when he fell out of his chair and hit the hard wood floor. He didn't hear Rima's and Takuma's voices cry out his name as he fell. All he could hear was the voice in his head and his own screaming.

At first Takuma Ichijou had been staring off, his emerald eyes locked onto the back of Shiki's head. But then Shiki had shaken his head a few times, as if trying to shake something off. When Shiki had let out his first yelp, Takuma had been out of his seat, flying down the stairs. The only reason Shiki didn't hit his head on the floor when he fell was because Takuma had caught him.

When Shiki had kept screaming and thrashing wildly in his arms, Takuma had put his hand over his closed crystal blue eyes and whispered to him, "Sleep, my little Senri." His hand had then glowed purple and Shiki finally went silent and still. Takuma looked up at Kaname and asked, "Can I take him back to the dorm, Kaname-sama? He's obviously still unwell." Kaname had nodded and said nothing, the only sign of emotion on his face being the worry in his eyes. Takuma then stood up and shifted the sleeping Shiki in his arms and looked at Toga Yagari, their sensei.

"Go. And make sure that he rest." Yagari said while waving away the unspoken question. "Tell Zero I let you out, if he asks."

Takuma nodded and then walked out of the classroom, Shiki shifting slightly in his arms.

"Takuma…" Shiki murmured softly in his sleep. Takuma smiled and slowly pulled the door closed on the rest of the staring night class.

As Takuma walked down the dark and empty hallway of the classroom building, his smile slowly turned into a frown. He knew what they would say after this. They would say that Shiki was crazy, gone to pieces after Rido had possessed him for roughly a month.

Takuma shook his head. He knew that this wasn't true. Anyone who had spent more then ten minutes around Shiki would know that. Shiki could be his old playful-yet-bored-self, to an extent. True, he no longer laughed like he used to and he hardly ever smiled anymore...And yet…To Takuma, that didn't matter. The boy was alive, and he was healthy. Maybe some of his sanity was gone, but Takuma believed that time would heal the wounds dealt to Shiki's mental state by his father possessing him.

As Takuma went to pull the door open to walk outside he felt a presence. He smiled at the very recognizable presence of Zero Kiriyu and then twisted the knob and pulled the door open.

"Zero-kun! Don't you have some place else to be patrolling? Like perhaps the Sun Dorm?" Takuma's voice was surprisingly happy and light, despite the reason for him being out of class in the first place.

"Yuki's handling the Sun Dorms. What happened to him?" Zero's voice was flat and level, proof that he would rather be inside instead of out in the rain that was pouring down on him.

"He collapsed during class. Yagari-sensei let me out so that I could take him back to the Moon Dorm." Takuma smiled at Zero and kept his eyes from betraying the growing worry in his stomach.

Zero nodded and said nothing, just leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. After a minute or so he shrugged his shoulders and walked off in the opposite direction.

Takuma smiled softly and whispered to the wind, "Thank you, Zero-kun." He then shivered in the cold evening drizzle. He looked down at the sleeping Shiki and noticed that he was quivering in his arms, already soaked through. 'Poor baby…He must be freezing!' Takuma thought softly to himself. He knelt down and leaned Shiki softly against the wall, unbuttoning his own jacket as soon as his hands were free. Once he had it unbuttoned he slipped it off and gently wrapped it around Shiki, doing up the buttons in an attempt to keep it on him in the growing breeze. "There…Now you'll be warm." Takuma softly petted Shiki's head, and then he picked up the small brunette and continued through the rain towards the Moon Dorm.

Kaname had left class not too long after Shiki and Takuma, not to anyone's surprise. He had been leaving class early for a month now, going who knows where. Of course, he never left the grounds, but who would have stopped him? Certainly not anyone else in the Night Class. And not Yuki, who would never tell Kaname what to do. Which left the very person he was going to see.

He had been waiting for over an hour now, waiting for the foul-tempered ex-human guardian, when he finally smelled him. Due to his greatly heightened senses and the cleanness of the air after the rain storm, he smelled Zero several minutes before he actually rounded the corner.

"Kiriyu . Good to see you." Kaname smiled softly, letting Zero see that he meant no harm.

"Kuran. Shouldn't you be in class? Night Class students aren't suppose to be wondering around." Zero grumbled, leaning against a tree and folding his arms, knowing instinctively that Kaname would not let him leave quickly.

"I should be. But I wished to talk to you." Kaname mirrored Zero, leaning against the tree across from him. He slid his hands down into his pockets and raised an eyebrow at the hunter. "Am I allowed to do that?"

"No, actually. And I have rounds to make, so..."

"Come now Kiriyu, we both know you don't actually make your rounds. You like to say you do, but really you only do about half of it, right?" Kaname's eyebrows raised and his smiled widened slightly, a smile few people ever saw. Not that it looked like a smile, in reality. It looked more like a smirk, but it was as much of a smile as Zero would probably get for some time, considering what he had almost done to Yuki.

Zero sighed. How did Kaname always manage to know everything about him? "Not the point. What did you want to see me for?" He was not at all happy to be in close contact with Kaname and did not wish to linger for any reason. He could only guess that Kaname was still unhappy with him.

"Always straight to point Kiriyu. If you must know, I came to check up on you. We haven't spoken since-"

"-Since I threated to kill Yuki? Yeah, I call that avoiding you. Both of you."

"It's one thing to avoid me Kiriyu, it's another thing to avoid her. Isn't it a bit cruel to keep her from her best friend?"

"That's what she has you for, isn't it?" It came out as a snarled comment, Zero's temper rising.

"No. I'm her brother. There's a large difference."

"Really? I couldn't see one."

"No, you wouldn't."

"What does that mean?"

"You know what it means, Kiriyu." Kaname said Zero's name like it was an insult, or like Zero was getting on his nerves, which he was. Kaname was to the point where he felt like smacking Zero around a few times, just to vent some much pent up anger. Yuki had asked him-no, begged him-to leave Zero be, to just let him live. Kaname had obliged, only because he could see how much pain it would cause her if he had killed the annoying ex-human hunter.

Zero said nothing to that, just looked down at the ground and blinked a few times. Over the two weeks that had passed since he had killed Rido Kuran, he had done nothing but dream of Yuki. Dream of the girl he remembered, and the girl she was now. His head told him they were the same person, but his heart said otherwise.

After a few moments of being lost in thought he finally shook his head and pushed away from the tree. He glared up at Kaname and said in a curt tone, "If you really don't need anything urgent, I do actually want to try and get some sleep. So..." He let it trail off as he waited for Kaname's response.

Kaname, ever the patient hunter, knew when a battle could not be won. He had never suspected that making Zero come to terms with what Yuki truly was would be easy, so he had been almost expecting for Zero to try and blow off the conversation. Kaname continued to lean against the tree though and shrugged his shoulders. "No, I suppose I don't have anything else to say. I hope you have a good night Kiriyu."

Zero gave a small grunt as his response and turned to walk away. He had only taken about three steps when he stopped and thought for a moment. 'Why...Why is he trying to be so nice to me? Is it because she sent him here? Or does he just want to use me some more?' He turned back around to demand an answer to his question and blinked at the empty space.

Kaname was already gone, having left with vampire speed. Zero glared at the spot where Kaname had been, then proceed to march back to the Sun Dorms in the renewing rain storm, grumbling and cursing Kaname the whole way.

Kain watched in silence as his curly haired cousin plopped down in front of the fireplace, shivering. Kain could tell that the shivering blond was soaking from the pouring rain, yet Aido did nothing to get out of his wet clothes. He just sat and stared at the fire, mumbling softly to it. Kain grabbed the glasses of what looked like red wine and brought them over. "Something wrong, Hanabusa?" He sat down and held one of the glasses out to Aido.

Aido swatted the glass away and stared into the fireplace, not saying a word to his cousin.

Kain blinked and shifted his hold on the glass that Aido had hit, keeping it from splashing. "Hanabusa...." Kain slowly put the glasses down on his other side, his eyes never leaving his cousin's face. "What happened? Why are you so late getting back? All the other students got back awhile ago...."

"Just let it go, Akatsuki! I don't want to talk about it!" Aido blurted out angrily.

"That's a first. You almost always want to talk about whatever is bugging you. So tell me what it is."

"No...I don't want to bother you with it, Akatsuki...I..." Aido let the sentence fall, staring at the fireplace and shivering again. "Don't worry about it."

"Hm. That bad, hu?" Kain raised an eyebrow at his subdued cousin, but he let the matter drop. He stood up and walked behind Aido, kneeling down and starting to pull off his school jacket. "I know we can't get sick, but it isn't good for you to be sitting her dripping wet in the cold."

"I don't care, Akatsuki." Aido said simply. But even as he said this he did nothing to stop Kain from taking his jacket off, he just sat there and shivered.

Kain's eyebrows rose even higher. "What happened out there, Hanabusa? You're hardly ever this quiet and willing....Normally you throw a fit when I try to undress you in the common room..."

Aido didn't say anything for a long moment, but then leaned back against Kain's chest and murmured. "I'm freezing...make me warmer…"

Kain smiled softly at the back of Aido's head, finally managing to get his school jacket off. "Of course, Hanabusa." He locked his gaze on the dying fire and it flared up, the heat almost suffocating in its warmth. "First, you have to get out of as many wet layers as you can, okay?" Kain then went to work on getting Aido's vest off.

Aido just sat there, motionless.

Kain tugged off the vest and tossed it into a corner with the jacket, and then pulled Aido against him. He wrapped his arms around his shivering cousin and held him close. "Are you warmer now, Hanabusa?"

"Much warmer...thank you, Akatsuki..." Aido closed his eyes and laid his head against Kain's chest. "I'm...I'm in pain."

Kain gently rest his head on top of Aido's head "Why? What happened? Did you anger Kaname-sama again?"

"No...Not this time."

"Then what happened?"

"No....I'm not going to talk about it. Not to you, not to anyone..."

"Hanabusa....?" Kain's hand slowly traced up Aido's side from the ground, stopping on his waist and squeezing softly. "Somebody hurt you..." Kain softly sniffed him, intent on finding out who had scared his cousin this bad.

Aido was calm until Kain's hand touched his waist, then he freaked out and pushed away from his cousin. "Akatsuki...! Leave it be, will you?" He trembled, and the scent of his rising fear and panic was enough to drown out the smell of anyone else on him.

Kain's eyebrows lowered into a frown as he calmly regarded his cousin. "Now I know something is wrong. You've never minded when I've touched you before. On the contrary, you usually like it. So what happened? Who made you this scared?"

"Nothing happened! Lea...Leave me alone, Akatsuki!" Aido blinked rapidly, desperately trying not to cry.

Kain blinked, shocked. "Aido..." He crawled over to where his cousin had skittered to and wrapped his arms around him, holding him close. "I won't leave you alone Hanabusa...I care about you too much to just leave you be. I'll stop prying, but I won't stop caring about you."

"Please just forget that anything has happened...please...please..." Aido shook in Akatsuki's grasp, yet he buried his head in Kain's chest and clung to his shirt. "Please…"

Kain shifted and wrapped one arm around his shoulders and slid the other under Aido's legs. He picked Aido up and slowly stood up. "It's a good thing we share a room. You won't have to be alone tonight..."

"...Akatsuki....I'm sorry..." Aido murmured softly as he buried his head against his cousin's chest.

"Sorry for what little baby?"

"I'm sorry...sorry that I let myself be used....so sorry...so very, very sorry..."

"Used? Used by who?" Kain's voice was soft, and yet he felt like a hand of ice had been placed on his heart. Someone had used Aido and badly. Kain carefully walked up the stairs and towards their room trying very hard not to let his cousin jolt around too much.

"I'm...I'm...I'm so sorry Akatsuki! I'm so horrible...! I'm so useless I...I..." Tears streamed down Aido's pale face.

"Shush. Whatever happened, I'm sure it's not your fault. I'm positive of it." Kain used the hand under Aido's legs to open their door and then kicked it close with his foot once they were inside.

He walked over and gently laid Aido on the bed. Aido instantly curled into the fetal position, his now silent sobs causing him to shake.

The hand of ice on Kain's heart tightened its grip as Kain watched his cousin sob. Kain had lived with Aido all of his life and not once had he seen Aido cry like this. Aido was strong and cheerful; the only thing that had ever made Aido cry was pain.

Kain pulled a chair over and sat on it backwards, watching his cousin intently, softly singing a lullaby his mother had taught him.

"I hold you tight, I watch you close. I keep you safe from the monsters of your nightmares. I protect you, I love you, I keep you close. No matter how loud the thunder booms or how bright the lighting flashes, I will be here. Now sleep my little angel, and let your dreams wash over you. With the rising moon, I shall be here...Just you wake and see..."