Realizations

He had sworn to protect her. Then, he had meant from the other vampires. Now, he was the greatest danger to her.

He had wanted so many times to just end all the pain, the disgust, the self-loathing that came with being a vampire...wished that he could crawl out of his skin and leave it all behind.

She wouldn't let him. Made him promise, even, that he wouldn't give up. At first, he hadn't really meant it, hadn't really believed that she'd wanted him to mean it.

After she willingly offered her blood to him (time and time again) to keep him from going insane with the bloodlust, the idea niggled at him.

And after she made a deal--one that would end in becoming a vampire herself--with Shizuka, his creator, to try to save him, he suspected.

But it was after she stood up to Kaname, her savior, on his behalf that he finally knew.

He loved her.

o

He had sworn to protect her. Now that he had become what he most hated, he still kept his promise and gave her that bloody weapon and told her to use it on him when he eventually went insane. It was inevitable, or so he thought, because that was the fate of humans bitten by purebloods.

With him, she believed that it was possible to overcome that harsh destiny. She just couldn't figure out why he kept trying to succumb to his fate and kept pushing her away when she was only trying to show him...

After she noticed how reverently he held her even while drinking her blood, the idea niggled at her.

And after he refused to allow her to give up her life to save him and demanded that Shizuka take more of his blood instead, she suspected.

But it was only after he'd awoken from that dream--thinking that he'd killed her and then coming so close to kissing her--that she knew.

He loved her.