Title: "Certainty."

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight, this is a fanfic written for fun and for love of the series. I'm not making any money with it.

Warning: Spoilers for chapter 35 of the manga. But the blood bond thing is of course just made up for this fic. ;)

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"Are you sure you want this, Yuuki?"

"Yes!" Her voice rang with childish glee, and the way she smiled while she answered him, with her pink cheeks reddening slightly with excitement, made his heart melt. He ran a gentle hand along her cheek, caressing it softly and tucking loose strands of her hair back behind her ears, where they had escaped her delicate hairstyle.

Both wore formal clothing, Kaname in a dark suit and Yuuki in a flowy white dress with layers of lace that fell all the way to the ground. Pureblood children already normally dressed more formally, but the outfits they wore today were unmistakably designed for a special occasion. She had delicate flowers of hardened white silk woven into her hair with an exquisite arrangement of pearls held together by fine strands of gold. The ornament looked adorable on her, and would have looked irresistibly elegant on an adult, but since Yuuki was still a small child, inevitably it held together in a slightly less organized manner, as she couldn't help but bounce all around Kaname and all over the room, giggling in excitement, her joy so contagious that he couldn't help but laugh too as they both moved towards the dais that had been set up in the secret underground chambers of the Kuran mansion.

But he knew better than let himself be carried away by the moment, and so as they stood on the dais, he grasped her little hands gently, stilling her to make sure he had her full attention before asking one last question.

"But Yuuki, once we do this, it can't be undone. You have to be really sure."

She pouted in reply, but there was definite hurt in her eyes. A child she may be, but she was also a pureblood vampire. Her Kuran blood was ancient, and her decisions were unalterable, not motivated by a fickle childish urge. She knew what she wanted, and she was certain of it.

"I want oniisama to be mine, forever." She beamed at him, so utterly sincere and direct that he couldn't help but have to repress a shudder running through his body.

"I will be, Yuuki. I already belong to you with all my heart."

It was his deepest wish after all.
The fear that she may one day change her mind and turn away from him was the only thing that had dampened his spirits. Purebloods lived practically forever… so much could change, especially once she grew older and met more people. Would she grow tired of him one day? Or would she decide she wanted someone else after all?
Or worse… would she despise him when she fully understood exactly what he was and how he had been awakened and came to live next to her as her brother?

But in his heart, he knew he would always belong to her, even if she were to cast him away one day, and so, he had no doubts about the ceremony that would soon be performed. She may change her mind later, but he would still belong to her, bound to her will for eternity.
This wasn't a mutual bond -although he hoped that one day, when she was old enough to make the decision, she would want to turn it into a mutual one like the one their parents shared. But unless she made that decision, it would remain an unilateral blood bond, the ritual binding the will of the vampire offering his blood to the one drinking, making him her slave if she so wished.

Without so much as a hint of hesitation, Kaname turned to face her again and kneeled at her feet. Acknowledging that it was time, Haruka stepped forward, the ritual blade in his hand, and a look of resigned sadness on his face. He wished things had been simpler. He secretly thought Kaname was too hard on himself, blaming himself for things of which he was a victim as much as them.
Perhaps Juuri was right when she said that he had always been the softer one of the two, but he couldn't help worrying for Kaname, even thought this child wasn't exactly the same than the one he had fathered. In his eyes, Kaname was still his child.
Juri worried too, but in her own way; she couldn't help but give the priority to her little daughter, and she now watched the trio with determination in her gaze as she stood with her arms folded loosely. She had more or less demanded this of Kaname, to ensure Yuuki's future safety from Rido or any enemy that may cross her path.

But Kaname had wanted it too, and would have gone through with it even if Juri had never asked. So regardless of whether it was fair or not, Haruka would respect Kaname's decision, and he would perform the ritual.
He stood next to the boy, leaning forward to hold Kaname's jaw with a gentle but firm grip. Yuuki watched with rapt fascination as Kaname's eyes locked onto hers and he parted his lips, opening his mouth just wide enough to allow access when Haruka slid the dagger into it and cut a neat, unwavering line along the length of the young pureblood's tongue. Kaname shuddered at the sensation. Blood poured out of the wound readily, the compelling crimson liquid quickly pooling up in Kaname's mouth, a line of it escaping the corner of his lips and trickling down his chin; thick drops stained the white lapel of his dress shirt.

Yuuki's cheerful reddish brown eyes turned into a burning crimson, the ageless gaze of a vampire's thirst.

This was hers. He was hers. And as he offered himself completely, he couldn't help the thread of fear in his heart that she wouldn't take the offering. But she did, her little hands holding onto the sides of his face, fingers losing themselves in the dark locks of his hair as she bent forward and drank greedily, her kiss a mix of perfect innocence and something absolutely primal and ancestral, sucking on his bleeding tongue hungrily, not wanting to waste a single drop. Haruka uttered the traditional words, and finished the ritual with the sealing spell. The force of the newly formed bond was such that it overloaded all of Kaname's senses at once and he went limp in Yuuki's arms, his eyes fluttering closed as the sudden surge of power made him lose conscience.

Child or not, Yuuki's pureblood strength was unmistakable, and Haruka had to actually put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention and tell her that it was enough; anymore and she would drain Kaname much more than necessary for the ritual. There was something feral in her eyes before she snapped back out of the desire for his blood, and quickly, she was her innocent self again.

Haruka gathered Kaname's limp form in his arms, setting the slender body down on the nearby divan and untightening his tie, while Yuuki bumbled around them, leaning over Kaname and asking her father how long he would sleep. Haruka shrugged in response, with a faint sadness on his face, and Yuuki licked the blood off Kaname's chin, very tempted to drink from him again, but holding back because of what her father had said.

Haruka turned back to his wife. "Juri… is it really fair?"

She had an unreadable expression, her eyes permeated with a vague melancholy mitigated by unwavering purpose. Her gaze softened slightly when it met her husband's. "Few things in this world are truly fair, these days. One has to choose whom to sacrifice."

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Kaname stood next to the chair facing the desk in his study, paying no heed to the pile of paperwork he had to finish before class this evening. He would get to it later; for now his attention was entirely focused on the lithe form that ran across the garden outside, and that he watched through the tall windows in his chambers as she patrolled the school.

When did it all go so wrong?

His heart ached in his chest as he saw the delight emanating from her frame as she bounced up to her grumpy fellow guardian. Kiryuu… But the growl died in his throat. The two guardians were friends, still only friends, but Kaname couldn't help the deep-rooted fear that one day it might be different. He wavered between the certainty that she would eventually return to his side – a belief that he desperately needed to cling to- and the inevitable fear that one day she would reject him and cast him out of her life. She had grown so distant over the years after all.

She was now human, free to roam the world as she may wish, and to do as she pleased, but he was the same as ever, still vampire, still inevitably bound to her will by his blood, even now. Her every wish was a command for him.

"Don't kill Zero!" After the hunter had lost his mind to the thirst and attacked her.

"Don't put Zero in the Night Class!" After he had considered doing so for her safety.

"Please do something, save Zero somehow!" Now that the hunter was closer and closer to falling to Level E.

He ran his hand over his throat, a shudder of apprehensive disgust rushing through his body. But he would obey once again, of course.
He had gone through great lengths to keep his neck untouched by anyone throughout all these years, with the secret hope that one day, she would be the first to claim him. But he would always obey her, even if her command was for him to submit his body and bare his neck to an enemy, to humiliatingly offer himself as prey for an ex-human. Truth to be said, he would much rather offer his own body than have her offering hers as she currently did. Knowing she did so killed him inside.

He couldn't blame the bond though. He knew that his heart had been hers from the start, and that he would grant her every wish regardless of the cost for him, even if he wasn't bound. That was also why he hadn't feared the bonding ritual. He knew he inevitably belonged to her anyway.

He lived with the constant agony of not being near her at all times, and the constant fear that one day, she might hate him and walk away from him, but he also knew that no matter how cruel she may ever be to him, he would always love her, always belong to her, body and soul.

And he had no regrets, even if she were to eventually tear his heart apart.

Bound by blood or not, he belonged to her.

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Just an idea I had, while fangirling the fact that as long as Yuuki asks for something, Kaname always does it. X3
I like better to think that it's just because he loves her so much, but the idea of him being bound to her will seemed interesting and the fic was born.

And on that subject, in chapter 35, when he finally turns her, there's a moment when she wakes up in the middle of it and is surprised, not sure of what's happening and struggling a bit. He covers her mouth so she won't protest before he finishes... I can't help but like the idea that perhaps, he did so because if she had commanded him to stop then, he would have had no choice but obey her. And he couldn't afford to not turn her, since Rido would get her otherwise. :D