A/N: It's been a while hasn't it? Yeah...please don't kill me. I've had other things to do, like University hunting, finishing projects and various other things that have stopped me from writing. More in the later A/N's on updates and things. The word Indifference in the title does NOT refer to Zero. Just thought I'd get that out there. There will also be some shifting of POV's but it's all separated so there should be no confusion.

Anyway! Onto fic stuff:

Here are some Definitions, just in case you need them;

Ocular – Visual

Mexican Standoff – Glorified staring competition, minus weaponry. The object would be to intimidate the other using their eyes.

Witch-Hazel – It's an antiseptic liquid in a bottle (which has a really strong smell) which is used for cuts, grazes and burns.

Cull – Meaning 'Kill'. Cull or Culling is usually used in reference to cattle/cows. It's a rather animalistic way of killing someone if you use the word Cull.

Anyway. As usual : Read, Review, Enjoy. And you do not see any typos: they are simply letters that are wearing Invisibility Cloaks to deceive you. I will note now that Souen (as in the character Ruka Souen) may be the most frequent offender. I apologise in advance if you see any 'Souen' typos.

Zero put his head in his hands. This had to be some kind of side effect of Paradise: having weird dreams involving making out with a member of the opposite sex. It just had to be. But enjoying the experience probably wasn't a side effect of Paradise, Zero thought to himself miserably. With a sigh he ran his hands through his hair in an attempt to calm himself down.

Damn Kuran! First of all he's in my head and now I want him in my bed! Zero thought furiously. He stopped when he realised what he had said. Only hours ago, he had been admitting that he loved Kaname and now he was admitting that he wanted Kaname in his bed. Zero felt like weeping. This was not good. Not good at all. What had happened to those relatively carefree days where he and Kaname could have an ocular Mexican standoff in the middle of the courtyard? What had happened to the enjoyable times that he had had with Yuuki before she had turned twisted with demented ideas in her head? Is that what people would think this was – if they found out about the 'relationship' between Kaname and Zero? That it was twisted and disgusting? Zero's shivered. All of these thoughts...he'd never had to deal with this kind of thing before and now it was suddenly being pushed on him and Zero felt like he was suffocating within his own thoughts. Zero slumped into his chair and huffed. Why did he care anyway? Perhaps he'd be better off if he didn't care – about what people thought and about Kaname. But he knew that he couldn't even pretend to 'not care' about Kaname.

Zero couldn't help but wish that he had lessons because Zero didn't even know what to say to Kaname when he saw him. It wasn't like it was something you would bring up in a regular conversation: "Oh by the way, I had an erotic dream about you earlier. If I hadn't have been bought back to consciousness you'd have probably sucked me dry...in more ways than one. And, oh yeah, I would have probably enjoyed it." Zero laughed as he played the conversation in his mind and the mortified expression on Kaname's face as he found out he was sharing dreams with a raving lunatic who got aroused by just looking into his eyes. That would go down brilliantly, Zero thought sarcastically. He might as well just tell Kaname he'd given birth to a litter of kittens while he was at it.

It was only 4:30 which meant he still had hours until he could talk to Kaname. He knew how long hours could drag out for...to the point where hours felt like days. He had formed this regular pattern of getting up, doing the school routine, doing homework, having a shower, going to sleep and repeating the cycle. Speaking of regular things...Zero pushed himself upwards and slouched towards the bathroom door. Keeping the weight of the door on his toe so that it didn't slam shut, he reached the short way to his bathroom cabinet and slid the mirror aside, revealing packets of painkillers. He pushed past the painkillers to one small wooden box buried deep in the middle, nestled between hay fever tablets – which used to be Yuuki's – and a bottle of witch-hazel. Satisfied with his bounty, Zero returned to his desk and placed the box on the wooden surface.

Zero glared at the box. He didn't know why he did, but at the same time he fully understood his glare. The box, more the contents of the box, had good and bad sides. The good sides were that he would be relieved from the gut wrenching, dry-vomiting sensations that he experienced on a daily basis. The bad sides were that they seemed to have adverse effects on him. Other than his eyes turning a deep crimson colour, upon swallowing the contents he always got a small high and aroused extremely quickly. Which was always a bad thing when he took them before seeing Kaname. Zero mused over whether the blood tablets were causing the dreams or not. But it couldn't be the blood tablets. He had been told specifically that they contained artificially made blood. In other words, a synthesized blood that gave him what he needed to live a normal life. He moved towards the foot of his bed, where his school bag was hanging from the post. He removed his books and work and retrieved a bottle of water from the bottom. Moving back to the desk, he popped one of the miniscule tablets from the box and popped it onto his tongue. The water swiftly followed sending it spiralling down into his body. He sat at his desk and began to sift through the endless wave of papers that covered his desk. Now all he had to do was wait.

Kaname padded barefoot down the long hallway. Kaname had to walk through this hallway every day to get to and from his room but he always enjoyed it. He never found it tedious or boring to stare at the same two walls and feel the light wooden floor bow slightly as it bore his weight.

The reason Kaname enjoyed walking down this hallway in particular was because of the walls themselves. Upon them were painting and portraits of famous vampires, nobles and purebloods who had been recognised for being different and for standing out. There was, of course, the odd one or two who were there for heroic recognition. But Kaname loved how all the others were there, together. Regular vampires, nobles and purebloods all mixed together and standing united in one place. Kaname sighed. If only that were the case in the real world. Nobles tended to become even more stuck up than usual and demanded outrageous things such as "Marry my daughter Kaname-sama, you will be a perfect match" but with an implied "it would also bring my family great wealth and prosperity if you became a part of the family and we would profit greatly".

Regular vampires seemed to believe that because they were classed as not special, they had an excuse to go out and ravage small villages and cull one third of a town of its humans. Obviously they would be apprehended and slaughtered themselves. And so the cycle continued there, too.

The purebloods, who were once a well-respected and well-liked group of vampires now had to suffer the feeling of isolation and constant bouts of loneliness. Kaname had felt that from the beginning but since the Pureblood Parental Massacre, pureblood children had been left on their own in the world of vampires to try and survive. Even those with siblings felt alone because they were left with the heavy burden of looking after another life as well as their own.

Kaname continued down the hallway a scowl marring his usually perfect face. Oh how he hated stereotypes. He was just about to begin another internal rant on the subject of stereotypes when he heard the creak of a door. He stopped but, after hearing no response, he continued to move.

"Kaname-sama?" a small voice called out. Kaname scowled. Of all the people it had to have been, it had to be Ruka. Kaname had been introduced to Ruka through coming to Cross Academy but they hadn't become friends. Ruka stayed away from Kaname on a regular basis and Kaname couldn't care less. He had, however, heard rumours floating around the dorm that Ruka had become infatuated with him. Kaname didn't know how. It wasn't like they had anything in common, apart from being vampires. Kaname had avoided her like the plague when he had found out, which was before he had even considered having Zero as a partner, only for him to return to his room one evening to find her scent covering his bed quilts. After being thoroughly annoyed that she had been in without permission, he had gone down to the washing machine in the kitchen and put them in the wash himself. The next morning he had walked out of his door, barefoot as usual, and trodden on a cake dish, sans the cake. Aido had probably snuck up and eaten the cake – not that Kaname even liked cake much to begin with – and left the dish in front of Kaname's door. But he knew that Ruka had put the plate there originally because the area smelled strongly of lavender, enough to cause Kaname to cough, and a little bit of chocolate which would be Aido. Needless to say, Kaname had spent three hours pulling broken plate shards out from the bottom of his foot in the kitchen, not caring if he irritated people with the scent of his blood dripping onto the tiles.

He didn't like Ruka on a friendly level, let alone a personal level. Besides, in Kaname's opinion she had been 'gifted', if you could use such a word in this sense, with the horrible talent of being able to get a vampire to commit suicide and kill others surrounding them. For her to have complete control of his body for the last few minutes and seconds of his life...Kaname couldn't bear the thought. Kaname sighed and turned on his heel, plastering a fake smile on his face. Kaname had to stop himself from blinking at the young woman in front of him. Her resemblance to Yuuki was evident. Minimal, but still there. The same wide, afraid eyes. The same face shape. Irritating at best. Kaname shuddered. To think, he could have ended up with Yuuki. The thought mortified him. He found himself equally mortified at the thought of being with Ruka Souen.

"Miss Souen." Kaname addressed her formally. He had stated her name, yet he had somehow managed to make it sound like a question. Which, in Kaname's opinion it was. He just wished he could have said "Miss Souen, why have you stopped me in the middle of the corridor? My feet are getting cold and my patience with you is already running thin."

Ruka was rooted to the spot and had what she knew was a very audible gulp. She saw Kaname's lips twitch: he was trying to stop himself laughing at her. Ruka knew she was giving off the tell-tale signs of blushing without actually doing it. She Had always watched and admired Kaname from afar and it had taken her this long to actually say something to him. In reality, it had taken her this long to say Kaname's name aloud. When she was asking about him or talking to Rima about him, she always referred to Kaname as 'him' or 'he'. Of course, everyone knew who she was talking about. Ruka felt like she had this endless unrequited love for Kaname and that it was about time that she found out the truth. The truth would probably hurt, she knew that. But it was better than living a life where she thought Kaname would become engaged to her and they would live a happily ever after. Because it was highly unlikely that it would ever happen. It was, in fact, Rima who had finally – after listening to endless hours across many days of Ruka harping on about the pureblood – persuaded her to get an answer. Yes or no. Simple as that. But by the look on Kaname's face as he stood in front of her, she knew he was already thinking about someone else.

Kaname tried to hold back a smirk as he watched Ruka squirm. He was quite cruel really, he should just put her out of her misery. Oh the irony. But he wasn't going to. He watched her try to hold back a blush. The only person, apart from Yuuki, he had seen blush was Zero. But even then, Zero didn't quite manage to blush but did go quite pink in the cheeks. Kaname couldn't help but wonder if Zero knew that Kaname notice his flushes when he was around him. Kaname found them quite endearing but also very distracting. Every time Zero looked like that Kaname just wanted to bite Zero's lips. Kaname mentally shook himself. This wasn't the time or place to be thinking about Zero. Kaname had managed to maintain a straight face whilst thinking all of these arousing, strange thoughts. He was used to placing a mask in front of his face when he was in company. He had to, especially when his thoughts were on Zero. Zero, Zero, Zero. It seemed like the hunters name was a never-ending mantra in Kaname's head. Like his thoughts revolved around the silver haired man and his beautiful eyes and unique personality.

"Could I talk to you please?" Ruka asked quietly, snapping Kaname out of his reverie. "In private, if you don't mind." She added, almost as an afterthought, realising that she didn't want to have a personal conversation in the middle of the hallway.

Kaname narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't want to talk to Ruka in private at all. But he supposed he didn't have a choice. It would, of course, be rude to tell her where to put her 'private talk'. He tried to smile but it turned into a grimace.

"Of course. Where would be best for you?" Kaname replied politely. Ruka squirmed where she stood.

"I think my bedroom would be best." She mumbled and turned on her heel before she could look at Kaname's face, re-entering the room she had just left. Kaname stood there in shock. Her bedroom? He shook his thoughts away. It wasn't like she could really do anything to him anyway. Not in that way anyway. Kaname gulped as he crossed the line into Ruka's bedroom.

Everything was pink. And frilly. Everything had handmade doilies covering the surface. Kaname paled. He had never felt like going into a corner and retching in his life. But even then, it would have to be a corner out of this room and it would have to be a very dark corner, because every corner in this room was pink. And perhaps his vomit would be pink.

"Rima told me to talk to you." Ruka started the conversation as she sat on the edge of a pale pink chaise lounge. Kaname surveyed the room, looking for a non-pink place to sit and couldn't spot one. Ruka spotted his nervousness. "Please. Sit." She offered, gesturing to her bright pink four poster bed with pink hangings and pink cushions. Kaname gulped.

"Thank you for the offer but I would rather remain standing." He replied lightly, trying not to scratch his skin. He felt like the pink was a plague that had attached itself to his skin and needed to be scrubbed off. And the smell of lavender was so overpowering it was clogging in his nose until the only thing he could smell was lavender.

"And may I enquire what you need to talk to me about?" Kaname asked as smoothly as he could without choking. Kaname truly was in over his head here. He would rather face a pack of angry wolves and a mob of Day Class girls – both of which were entirely different species but equally as dangerous as the other – over being in Ruka's room and presence for this length of time.

"I was wondering if you were single, Kaname-sama" Ruka whispered, too mortified to look Kaname in the eye. Kaname was grateful. A look of complete and utter shocked disgust crossed his face before he even had chance to register being disgusted. Never mind the fact that he was interested in someone else, never mind that they were the opposite gender...who would willingly date someone who was this obsessed with pink and was so weird? Her actions with the muffin and asking about him were bad enough but some of the other things she had done...it was borderline stalker tendencies. Kaname coughed.

"I'm sorry but I'm no longer available for that kind of relationship." Kaname admitted, much to the shock of himself. He hadn't meant to say that but...at the same time he had. He wanted her to know that he was with someone - well he would be soon anyway - and that she could stop with all of the weird looks that she would give him every time he walked in the room. "I'm sorry if I led you to believe that I was interested but I am not. I apologise." Kaname bowed his head to Ruka in apology. He wasn't apologetic at all: this was just being polite to the extreme.

If Ruka was shocked, she didn't say anything. Kaname took her silence as a cue to leave and did so. He shut the door quietly behind him and took off back towards his room. Why had he said that he was dating someone? Well, he hadn't said it in so many words but that was what made it so much more obvious. Kaname reached his room and wrenched open the door, slamming it behind him. Now he was panicking. If the news that he was dating someone got back to Zero, he'd never look at him the same again, no matter how many times he told him he loved him and that he was the only one that Kaname would spend the rest of his life with. Kaname knew what he had to do.

Zero had made three piles of paper: Homework to do, Homework complete and Crap. His homework to do pile was incredibly small, consisting of a few maths problems and some English sentences to translate. His homework complete pile was of medium thickness, due to it having practice papers lined in there alongside the generic homework and quizzes they were given on a regular basis. The 'Crap' pile was a different story. His 'Crap' pile had overflowed so he had to move it onto the floor. Cross Academy was like most other schools in the sense that they wasted paper on pointless things, such as the Periodic Table, which was already in the back of planners and already printed in the exam papers. Pointless pieces of paper piled up and just begged to be burned.

This was Zero's way of exercising control after he had taken his tablet. He had found that if he focussed on something that would stimulate his mind then the effects wouldn't hit him so bad. It also helped that he was staying up later than usual so that the effects could deplete even more. He had whittled the hours away by doing this paper organising routine, along with showering and tidying up his room. He'd even gone as far as to hang his clothes up correctly. The things he'd do to escape his own mind while the blood tablets worked.

Zero couldn't bear to think about Kaname at the moment. He knew that if he so much as said his name then his body would burn with an instant need. He'd accidently done it yesterday and had end up relieving himself in the shower, crying out Kaname's name without shame or fear of retribution. And if that wasn't bad enough, Kaname probably didn't feel the same way. He probably just took pity on Zero because he had started sharing dreams with a pureblood whom he'd hated for years. Kaname would never think about him in the way that he thought about Kaname.

Kaname braced his hands on his desk. He needed to tell Zero. Tonight. Kaname himself needed comfort after that horrifying experience with Ruka and the lavender. Kaname shuddered at the mere thought. And she thought that he loved her. Kaname smirked. It was quite the opposite. It appeared that, after tonight's encounter with the young woman, he never wanted to see her again. Nor did he ever want to see the colour pink again as long as he lived. Not a single shade of it. The only pink he would enjoy looking at was the colour Zero's skin turned when he became embarrassed. Now that was a nice pink. He sighed, a long and drawn out release of the air he'd been holding in. He was tense and needed to loosen up a little, especially because he knew how unpredictable Zero could be when it came to emotions. After being emotionally unstable as a child, Zero had grown into a cautious man who locked his emotions away. Kaname was the same but Kaname knew that if Zero told him that he loved him, that he probably meant it. But if Kaname told Zero...the fact that he was a pureblood didn't help. A pureblood telling a Level-E that he loves him? 'Unheard of'. 'Preposterous'. But none of those things would matter to Zero. 'It must be a mistake' . 'This is some kind of sick joke'. Those were the kinds of things that Zero would tell himself. That Kaname was messing with his feelings and that this was all some kind of dream. Given the irony of the situation where Kaname would be explaining this, Kaname would probably have laughed and that would have made matters worse. Kaname shook his head. No. He needed to plan this properly.

Kaname made his way over to his bed and stripped en route, discarding his tie and shirt on the back of his chair. He shrugged out of his trousers and folded them on the floor before climbing beneath the cool sheets. Closing his eyes, Kaname prepared what he needed to say.

Zero scowled with frustration as he tried to flatten his wayward hair. He didn't even really want or need to be sorting his hair out; Kaname liked it just the way it was it seemed. Zero shook his head and continued to try managing his mass of hair. He was standing there trying to make himself believe that he wasn't doing this for Kaname. He had an ongoing mantra in his head 'This is for me...not Kaname. This is for me...not Kaname' but, for all his efforts, he wasn't convincing himself otherwise. And if he couldn't convince himself...well...that meant he couldn't convince anyone. He truly was a lost cause when it came to convincing.

Zero grabbed his mouthwash and began to swill his mouth out. Zero needed to ask about the blood tablets. He knew that Kaname was in charge of the production but he needed to ask what was really in them. There was what he was told was in them and then there was what was really in them. That difference meant a lot to Zero. He hadn't been lied to but he had been deceived. Regardless, he couldn't wait to see Kaname again. He'd never admit it but he missed the pureblood during the day. And a very, very small part of him wanted Kaname to wake up beside him every morning so that he'd feel safe and secure in his strong arms. Zero sputtered, spraying mouthwash all over the sink. Zero tsked and washed the sink out and grabbed a washcloth to dab at the mirror where little splashes had bounced up. After clearing up the mess, Zero shifted into his bedroom where he climbed straight into bed, having already changed into his pants after having a shower earlier that night.

Zero closed his eyes and smiled. He was going to Paradise. It was almost like saying he was going home.

A/N: All I have to say is: I don't know why Kaname had a freak about pink. I just felt like I needed to add some humour to it. I know it was probably too much but it made me happy :D.

Since this chapter, I've uploaded another mini fic called 'My Guardian Zero' which is two parts and is complete. I've found that in-between writing Paradise, I like to upload a mini ficlets from things that inspire me. So if you would like to hear about more of my fics I suggest doing the author alert because I do post more than just this one story. That's a suggestion, not a demand. Anyway, 'My Guardian Zero' is a really short but sweet and sad little story that if you like some angst with a happy ending then I'd recommend you read.

I would love to hear suggestions for future stories! If you have any ideas for me, feel free to review or send me an inbox. It would be interesting to hear your prompts :D.

Again, another reminder that updates will still be infrequent. I'm trying to get as much done as I can without uploading it because I feel like uploading it without spending a good amount of time on it is just pointless. So I hope this slightly longer chapter makes up for the one month absence. It shouldn't be that long again for an update seeing as it's the holidays now, but I make no promises.

Thank you so much for your continued support on this one while the author has been catching up on life and the universe! You're all great :D

Until next time!...