Disclaimer: Dude, if I owned Vampire Knight, Kaname and Yuuki would not be together.

Dedication: Ren, because she's the very definition of friendship.

Kaname is generally better than Zero; Zero knows this, accepts this, but it is a bitter pill to swallow. However, there is one thing that Zero is superior in, and that...that is what matters most.

Zero knows Yuuki better than anyone else. Better than Kaname, who is rich, and mysterious, and everything everyone wants. Excluding him, including Yuuki. Another bitter pill to swallow.

But it doesn't stop the fact that Yuuki, when she smiles, has small dimples that appear, right underneath the corners of her mouth. That when she laughs, her eyes sparkle; that when she giggles, and her eyes are dark, she's just being polite. When Yuuki sleeps, she does so with her mouth open. Sometimes she snores. To Zero, it doesn't matter. He loves Yuuki, including her snoring.

Yuuki walks with grace, but can manage to trip over a lot of things. Her arms swing when she walks, and she puts slightly more pressure on her right foot than her left.

Yuuki is the kindest person Zero knows. She is nice to everyone, but Zero likes to think she's the nicest to him. Maybe she is, or maybe he just wants to believe that to Yuuki, maybe, just maybe, she might think of him more-than-a-brother, now.

Winter is Zero's favorite season. Yuuki laughs when he tells her this, and says that it's because his personality is like winter.

Later on, he makes her hot chocolate, even later after that, when Yuuki is asleep (she sleeps on her side, with her hand under her pillow, knees scrunched up and heaps of blankets on her, because that's how Yuuki always sleeps) he puts a vase on her desk, with white roses in them. White is the sign of purity, and Yuuki is pure. (Zero tries very hard not to think of all the way that he's tainted her, but calms down, because white is the color of angel wings, and Yuuki is an angel. His angel.)

Yuuki's favorite flower are white roses, and her favorite season is spring. The next morning, Yuuki tucks a white rose behind his ear, kisses him on the cheek, smiles, and goes to sit at her desk.

Zero places that rose next to the picture of him and Yuuki.

---

Zero notices everything about Yuuki, and notices the way her eyes don't shine whenever she looks/talks/thinks about Kaname anymore.

He wonders why this is, why Yuuki seems so sad even though it is spring, and flowers are blooming everywhere.

When the wind turns brittle and cold, and school has started up again, and fall is turning into winter, Zero gets his answer.

"Zero," Yuuki says, with a startling clarity turning her eyes into a soft caramel, and Zero is captivated, though that is nothing new, "Zero likes to take care of Yuuki. He protects her, makes sure she's happy."

Yuuki pauses to wet her lips, and Zero looks away.

"Zero's favorite color is brown, because he likes the color of Yuuki's eyes. He likes to cook, but won't admit it, especially when he does so for Yuuki. He likes math, and is patient," she smiles, "or, at least, tries to be, when he tutors Yuuki in it."

She looks at him, catching his eyes, and it takes his breath away. Again, she smiles, and Zero feels like he's falling, like he's falling into an endless pool of chocolate, and he remembers that he never liked chocolate much until that time that Yuuki made him one for Valentine's.

"Also, Zero loves Yuuki." He is startled that she knows this, but she won't let him interrupt her, "Zero loves Yuuki a lot."

She is walking closer to him, so close that he can feel her body heat. He knows that she is cold; she gets cold easily, which is why she dislikes winter. Though Zero loves winter because, and he will never admit it, he likes the way his jacket looks on Yuuki.

Suddenly, there is something soft and small in his hands, and he looks down to find Yuuki's hands in his. He moves to take them away, but she grips them, not letting him go away, just as she has always prevented him from leaving. From leaving her.

"Zero pushes everyone away, even me, sometimes." She smiles at him sadly, and Zero hates that, because Yuuki is made for happiness and smiles and flowers and spring, not sadness and winter. "But I never mind, because I know that you love me." Her smile brightens, and she leans closer, so that her body is pressed against his.

"And Yuuki just wants Zero to know that she loves him too. You've always done things for her, now let her save you. Don't push her away again."

And she leans up, and her lips press softly against his. Zero realizes that they taste like chocolate, and he wants to shove her away from him, because he can feel the blood thrumming in her lips, and his body aches, his fangs twitching, his body craving her blood.

Yuuki pulls back, and her eyes are soft and shining. "I love you." She tells him slowly, and his heart accelerates. "Please," she whispers.

Zero looks at her, at the happiness on her face, and all he can see is himself in those eyes. Not Kaname. Him.

So he makes the leap, trusting Yuuki not to let him fall, though she's never done so before; he leans forward and kisses her, and focuses on his human side, the side that is currently taking over as Yuuki responds to his kiss, unwrapping her hands from his and threading them through his hair.

And when Yuuki is lying in his bed, in her fuzzy pajama pants that she loves so much and his shirt, with her mouth open and hand under the pillow and knees scrunched up to her chest and blankets bunched around her, Zero watches her sleep, just as he has always done, but this time, it is different, because in her sleep, Yuuki is holding his hand.

Yuuki is Zero's, not Kaname's, his. His angel, his savior, his love. He is grateful to her and for her, because he might be damned, but he believes in faith now, because of Yuuki.

Yuuki murmurs his name in her sleep, and in the darkness, Zero smiles.

He is damned, he is dark and a vampire and so incredibly undeserving of her, but Yuuki...Yuuki can change that. Yuuki is now his life. Maybe he can change.

Maybe there is such a thing as second chances.