Title: Cradle of Blood – chapter 25 – "A lie Into the sweetest truth… "

Pairings: Zero x Kaname. Some Kaname x Zero also, and a few secondary pairings.
Warnings: AU. Sex slavery, prostitution, mature themes and lemon stuff from time to time.

When I updated with chapter 24, I thought I'd be able to post chapter 25 less than a month after 24… ORZ
Sorry that I'm only updating now, 6 months later. O_o It horrifies me how long it's taken between chapters of this fic sometimes. So sorry, lovely readers! ;_;
(At least this time it wasn't as bad as the time I took what, 2 years to update? ORZ *crawls under a rock*)

Thank you so, SO MUCH for still reading/sticking around despite the delays, and thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews and PMs and encouragements!
You are all so wonderful! I appreciate so much every single word/review/encouragement/etc. you send! And I'm also so sorry that I didn't get to reply in so long. ^^;; But getting to read what you all write really makes me so happy and gives me so much energy to go on writing the story~! :D

RL has been all over the place and I didn't get to write or draw anything fandom in so long. T^T I had a lot of the chapter done back 6 months ago already, but then things got in the way of me writing etc.
But hopefully the next update will take less long!

CoB is finally nearing an important point for the plot, which it should have reached a long time ago if the slow updating hadn't delayed it all for so long. ^^;

Hopefully this chapter might make up a little for the wait, both in length and in content. ^^

This behemoth of a chapter is three times as big as a normal CoB chapter, and about six times the size of one of the shorter chapters. ^^;
I was tempted to cut it into two or three chapters but it would just have slowed the plot even more and would have interrupted it possibly at an awkward place, so it had to be crazy long. It's an important chapter for them all.

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Warning: Some parts of the chapter are pretty dark. If that's a problem for you, you might want to skip bits of it as you progress through it. Although if you're a reader of this fic and survived the previous 24 chapters, you probably will be fine… ^^;

Sorry if sometimes this story is terribly dark, but remember, the darkest nights still give way to the hopeful dawn. ;D And that dawn is made all the more lovely by how dark the night was. So one can always hope there could be some light at the end of any tunnel… even if only the future can tell what that light may be. ^^
*cough* Hopefully not a train. XD *cough*XD;; *is shot*

Also just in case due to the chapter, uhm, I don't hate Yagari or anything. ^^; (I don't hate any of the VK characters.)
I really like him, but the poor thing just happens to be the master/parental figure worried about Zero and assuming the worst about vampires, and thus he fits the inevitable role for this situation in the fic, especially considering the society they live in, in this AU. And the way he is in the manga only makes him even more useful for this kind of role in fics. ^^;
But he's not doing anything for the twisted reasons the people at the 'house' would be doing it for, he's gone there because of misguided beliefs and thinking he's looking out for Zero.

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When he glanced up briefly and met the raw fury in the hunter's single eye, the young pureblood faltered visibly, suddenly very unsure that any of the masks he normally wore had any chance to protect him tonight. The brunet's heart sped up, pounding hard in his ribcage. His every sense screamed danger at him.

The man's voice was deep and firm, and somehow conveyed just as much hatred and anger as his gaze had.

"My name is Touga Yagari, vampire scum. Have you ever heard it before? From a certain customer of yours, perhaps?"

For all the years of experience Kaname had in analyzing his many customers' reasons and motives, he could not fathom an explanation for the very visible fury emanating from this unknown hunter, and the incomprehension filled him with even more dread, pushing him close to panic.

Yagari steps were heavy on the floor of the bedroom, his boots clacking on the wood boards with an ominous sound as he drew closer to the brunet pureblood.

"Oh, that name has no meaning for you?" Sarcasm practically dripped from the old hunter's voice, and he continued in a snarl, "...How about another name then. Zero Kiryuu? How about you tell me about him then, huh?"

Oh...

Kaname froze on the spot, his eyes open suddenly so wide that it made them seem unnaturally big for a moment, making him appear even younger than he was.

So that time has come as I feared...

Kiryuu-sama has finally decided to throw me to the wolves.

A wave of something akin to acid rushed through the young pureblood's body, making him feel half-frozen and numb as if his body was no longer of this world, and yet so utterly broken inside that not even death could possibly justify so much pain.

Somehow... I had hoped I might be given a few more weeks... or even just a few more days. I thought... I thought... we had some sort of thing going on, something that might make him wait... a little while longer... before...before he...

The pureblood's fingers were shaking, but he didn't seem to notice. His heart ached so bad it felt like it might actually shatter for real, not merely metaphorically but actually burst in his chest somehow, like crystal that's been pushed too far and finally crumbles to pieces. He backed away unconsciously, his steps faltering and taking him closer to the bed once more, until the mattress pressed against the back of his knees, stopping his teetering retreat.

But then, even if Kiryuu-sama had waited I would just have wanted more time with him. I would always have hoped for one more day, one more minute. Grasping for another instant of mercy, another instant of his impossibly unreal gentleness, day after day.

The one-eyed hunter drew closer to him with a rapid stride, but Kaname remained frozen in place as if he couldn't see the man, unable to say or do anything even though his rational side reeled from all his survival instincts screaming at him that now was the time to do something, deny the potential accusations, put up a facade of innocence or seductive submission, or simply do something, anything, whatever it may be, to distract the hunter and hopefully delay or extenuate what would be ineluctably coming for him.

But whatever reason may say, right about now his heart didn't even have the energy of trying to fight the inevitable anymore.

I knew this day would come no matter what, and yet... yet... now that it's happening it feels like nothing I could ever have done to prepare for it would ever have made any difference, not even for one brief second.

Yagari's callused fingers gripped the pureblood's arm roughly, his other hand going for the brunet's chin, forcing the boy's face up, wanting to get a better look at him. The hunter towered over the slender vampire, several inches taller than him. Kaname looked up as the hunter expected, but his eyes were glazed over and Yagari saw nothing within that broken gaze but fatalistic surrender filled with death and desolation.

Someone less blasé might have backed away from the sheer power of the utter despondency emanating from the brunet, but Yagari's heart was hardened beyond belief by years on the hunt, and it blinded him to the sincerity of Kaname's plight.

"You don't fool me, bloodsucker. You're all the same guilty bunch, but you'll talk. One way or another."

Kaname's knees were barely holding him up under the weight of his emotional distress, but it seemed almost unnatural how easily Yagari tumbled the brunet backwards, onto the bed. The impression was also enhanced by the fact vampires had deceptively lighter bodies than humans, and Kaname's life in captivity hadn't done him any favors when it came to muscle mass or bulk development. He would naturally have had a slender and graceful build no matter what, but he was several inches shorter and even more slim than he would normally have been if he had gotten to grow up and mature in a healthy environment and not stumped by brutality, starvation and anti-vampire drugs.

The brunet's slender body fell back and splayed on the bed like a ragdoll, giving Yagari the feeling the boy was light like a feather in the wind. A willowy child, rather than an enemy on the battlefield.

But while such a realization might have cooled down the hunter's impetus in another situation, or if his prisoner had been someone else, it only irritated him in the current one. This was not a human boy or an innocent victim in any way. The vampire's visible fragility didn't strike Yagari as something innocent, but as a tool for deceit instead, and it drove further into his mind the thought that Kaname was a manipulative and cunning beast who was most definitely using its wily charm and appearance to take advantage of Zero. Otherwise why would the fiend so quickly have gone from behaving like any normal slave, to suddenly looking so utterly more broken and despondent than an instant earlier, even before he'd stated his intentions or any torture had even begun? Yagari was sure it couldn't possibly be a natural reaction from someone not knowing what to expect. The pureblood had to be guilty if he was reacting like he had been expecting this anger.

Don't let that animal play its mind tricks on you. He may not have his powers but everything about those beasts is geared towards lying and deceiving. They will sneak into people's minds and hearts and tear them apart from the inside if you let them. That filthy, conniving little blood-sucker! Don't let his wiles trick you!

With such thoughts in mind, the hunter climbed onto on the bed rashly, grabbing the pureblood's wrists and forcefully dragging him higher on the mattress so that they weren't as close to the edge anymore. Kaname stayed limp and let himself be dragged pliantly, but in a small, survival-geared instinctive spot still functioning somewhere deep inside the recesses of his mind, the brunet was starting to regain his senses. The initial shock of realizing that his precious savior must be about to put an end to everything he'd come to look forward to in his daily life had nearly floored him, but he knew he had to survive this too, like he survived the previous hurdles life had thrown his way. It would be horrible, and in his heart he wasn't quite sure how or even if he could truly get through this shock, but his rational side told him to brace for the storm or succumb helplessly. It's always been like this, you break apart then pick yourself back up and get up again. You can patch the pieces together more or less, but only if you survive the impact first. What matters is that you must keep going. Keep surviving no matter what they do to you.

It didn't mean that Kaname would be able to do much if anything at all to prevent whatever might be coming -after all refusing to obey was a sure method for a slave to get into a far worse world of trouble. But it did mean that a small part of his mind that wasn't still busy racing into mad panic at the thought of Zero coming to break him, was now trying to prepare for at least trying to minimize the worst. Even if it was too late to close his heart to the silver-haired man now that he'd shed all his barriers and defenses and let him in so deep inside his heart. At least he could try to freeze whatever was left of himself and his feelings, and hope Kiryuu-sama would leave some shards still in place once he would be done crushing him.

Kaname was lost in such thoughts and seemed almost catatonic when Yagari stared him down. Their faces were inches apart when the hunter decided to offer the boy at least one last merciful way out before going further.

"You can save yourself a lot of misery and pain if you don't try to play your fucked-up games with me. I'm not altogether cruel or unsympathetic. I see the life you lot live these days. I can even sort of understand that someone in such a situation might get the urge to take advantage of anything or anyone to make it less bad. What I can't accept is the method you've decided to use, and the person you've picked." The hunter's expression had hardened again by the end of the sentence, and his voice was harsh and sharp like a blade when he continued.
"So I'll spare your bloodsucking hide, but only if you put an end to this farce right now. All you have to do is confess and answer my questions truthfully. Start by telling me what Zero and you were doing all this time, and you just might avoid getting tortured within an inch of your miserable life. But lie to me again just one time and I swear, you'll be lucky if you get out of this still alive. I am a senior hunter, I can put a bullet in your head right now and not even have to pay the bloody fucking fee for your carcass's value. I can torture you all night long and not have to pay for anything or do anything more than mention it was a Hunter Association investigation. But you don't have to suffer through this all. All you have to do is tell me the truth, and you'll be just fine. I'm giving you the choice between getting away scot-free or suffering so much pain that you'll be begging me for that bullet by the end of the night. So, what do you say?"

If the hunter's words were meant to reassure the pureblood into thinking he might get away with less punishment if he confessed, they had the opposite effect, and not only because of the horror promised by Yagari's threats.

Kaname's racing mind went from maximum alert level to nearly full blown panic. He'd been played before, and cruelly so. People had done exactly this kind of thing, given him the impression they were different and less disposed to inflict pain or suffering, then later they would send in accomplices to torture him and question him, to see how far they could fool him or push things before it became obvious they were just playing cruel games with him and that everything was pre-arranged.
He'd long expected that sooner or later his Kiryuu-sama too, would do the same thing to him, one way or another. And now Yagari's questions fit too well with the past incidents and further cemented the brunet's belief that his fears were confirmed. As a result, the hunter's threats didn't feel like something dangled in front of his face as a mere mention of what would happen if he didn't talk, or even as any actual possibility of choice, but as a ruthless promise of something that would be done to him no matter how hard he tried to avoid it.

The brunet's breath hitched in his throat and he turned whiter than the sheets they were laying on. Rather than answering the question, or even looking like he might be considering it, the brunet stared at the hunter with a horror-filled gaze, his lips drawn into a thin line as if afraid of saying the wrong thing and making it all even worse. He'd been scared before, but this was on a whole other level.

And while it was only natural that he would react that way, unwittingly his despair only made things even worse.

Like a quid pro quo of misunderstandings feeding one another, there was now no trace of doubt left in Yagari's mind that this reaction was as clear a confession as any. The hunter practically growled in his throat. This pureblood whore knew exactly who he was talking about, and visibly didn't have a clean conscience or he wouldn't be so afraid.

Yagari seethed with the realization, furious to see how clearly his worries were confirmed. Now he was even more certain that he needed to find out exactly what this beast had been doing with Zero. He didn't for one moment believe the vampire would be this afraid if he'd just slightly attempted to seduce or manipulate Zero a little like Yagari originally thought might be the case. If it had been just that, there would be no actual clear proof of anything, and thus no way to be sure of how far it all went. So the pureblood wouldn't really have to fear that much more than the usual level of mistreatment vampires already normally endured. He had to have succeeded at his plan quite a bit, had to have achieved some pretty significant result, something concrete and likely to be found out, to be this deadly scared of retribution. What did you do to Zero, bloodsucker? Or what did you make him do that makes you so afraid I'll find out? You should be jumping all over the chance to give me some bullshit confession to try and escape most of the torture, but you're clamping up and looking scared shitless instead. What did you do to Zero?

All thoughts of mercy or of hesitation long gone, Yagari got down to business quickly, a cold fury reverberating in his dark gaze.
He pinned the pureblood down onto the bed hard, not bothering to tell him what he wanted, just reaching for the bondage restraints on the bedside table and fastening them roughly to the D-rings on the vampire's collar and wrist shackles. The hunter wasn't even done attaching them before his eye was already roaming the frame of the bed and quickly finding the corresponding rings on it, which the 'house' set up all around the bed to secure the slaves to the furniture for the sake of the customers who were into that.

Yagari pulled Kaname's arms open to bring his shackled wrists closer to the sides of the wide four-post bed, then fastened the other end of the leather ropes to the rings attached to the wooden frame supporting the mattress, before tugging at the whole thing for a bit to make sure that the pureblood's upper body was mostly immobilized. Kaname could still move his arms a bit, but not more than a few inches if he tugged at the restraints, so he couldn't go far on the bed, just writhe around at most.
The rings around the brunet's collar were now also attached to other ropes, and the hunter fastened those too to the edge of the bed, not so much to prevent the pureblood from moving his head, but to limit the range of his movements so that Kaname could only move his head around but not try to lift his shoulders very far off the mattress. The tension on the ropes increased the pressure of the pins on the inner lining of the collar, the way leashes and any sort of restraint always did, reawakening more harshly the ever-present pain from the neck wounds all slaves sported, as well as creating an increased pressure on Kaname's windpipe that made his breathing more uncomfortable.

The brunet's shaky breaths had sped up even more with the higher layer of apprehension he always felt whenever he found himself restrained.
Having his arms free wouldn't have changed anything concrete since there was no way he could physically resist the customers with the anti-vampire drugs weakening him so badly, not to mention that even if he had been able to, daring to resist would be unforgivable at their eyes. But for some reason having his arms and legs free made it feel slightly less bad. Maybe it was because when he wasn't restrained he felt a little like he was still in control of his own body; if anything at least to try and control his reactions better, in hopes of hiding some of his pain and fear from the tormentors' eyes.
Whenever people tied him up, spread wide open and exposed, he felt so utterly lost under their gaze that it was as if they could rip him open and stare at his very soul, taking from him what little he had left: the chance to hide a small part of the bottomless vulnerability that tore at him. Some things were so deeply ingrained for purebloods that not even years of slavery could silence the survival instincts telling him to hide the pain and fear least he be immediately taken as prey by countless sharks around him. Vulnerability was lethal, it must be hidden at any cost. And those pureblood instincts weren't truly off-mark even now; after all, the fact the customers of the 'house' had no use for his blood and wouldn't have viewed him quite the way members of the vampire society would have didn't change the fact that he was nothing more than prey for them too, one way or another. They wouldn't drink his blood, but they craved just as much seeing him at their mercy, broken, humiliated and dreadfully vulnerable.

And all things considered, the way the current world treated the vampires was just another way of devouring someone, one that didn't kill someone instantly but instead tore their soul and body apart little bit by little bit over the years and years of abuse.

Kaname tried to escape those dark thoughts and calm down by focusing on the meager solace that came from knowing that at least, whatever time this man spent torturing him would be delaying the inevitable moment when Kiryuu-sama would join in and everything would be so much worse. Thinking about it again only made it worse though, and he had to swallow a strangled little noise of misery much akin to a sob, that threatened to escape his lips at the thought of that inevitable moment. If you'll destroy me anyway, maybe you should just get it over with already rather than making me wait. Although I don't think I have the strength to wish for that moment to come, not even if it's in order for it to be over faster.

If Yagari heard the little choked noise, he didn't let on. The hunter was busy rummaging through the assortment of things in the bedside drawer, looking in disgust at the ones that were obscenely shaped or just plain visibly more sexually oriented than what he would have preferred to use as more straightforward interrogation tools. He'd brought an assortment of knives, but he wanted to be discreet about this whole business depending on what he might find out, to avoid causing problems for Zero, and so he didn't want to open an investigation or anything official just yet. He didn't frequent 'houses' and thus wasn't aware of how extremely common it was for other hunters to use all sort of brought-in torture implements on slaves anyway, without it arousing any suspicion of ulterior motive or anything beyond a requirement to pay for the 'repair costs'. As such, he proceeded with his plan. He would start with whatever tools the 'house' had and move on to his trusty knives later in the night, depending how the vampire reacted and how quickly his tongue loosened. He hadn't lied in his threats, he was ready to cut him open and tear him to pieces if need be, but he had vast experience in interrogations and he still thought there was a chance that the boy might end up talking sooner rather than later. And besides, there was no hurry after all since he'd made sure Zero would be stuck at the headquarters and unable to visit the wretched 'house' for at least one night.

Yagari finally made his choice, tightening his fist around the massive handle of a heavy cat-o'-nine-tails style whip, much bigger than the normal variety. He sized it up, testing its weight before getting back onto the bed, sliding between the pureblood's legs. This will do for starters.
It was definitely a heavier model, quite similar to the ones found at the Association, and clearly suited for a prisoner's severe whipping or worse, rather than for bedroom play. But then, that was generally the norm for the tools used on the slaves. No one in the current society would have had any interest in using the softcore S&M tools human bondage practitioners might have employed on each other. The vampires' advanced healing and their abject status in society made that people wouldn't even think of using anything on them that wasn't meant for actual torture.

Instinctively, Kaname pulled his legs closer together as if he could possibly just hold them shut and keep himself safer, then cursed himself inwardly when the hunter leaning over him saw the little gesture and laughed visibly. So obvious… Might as well tell the enemy what he feared in particular!
The young pureblood hated himself for that weakness he couldn't avoid, for the easily predictable reactions that the years of trauma had made him unable to control or conceal.

In those moments, when Kaname heard his own heart hammering so loudly that he thought it might leap out of his chest, he irrationally feared that others could hear it too, and that it told them exactly how frightened he was, despite how badly he tried over and over to not let the fear show on his face. But he couldn't stop the little beads of sweat forming on his forehead, or the agitated trembling rippling over his flushed skin in small waves of shivers, racking his body from head to toe at irregular intervals, growing worse when any of the customers brushed his skin. He hated how good his body was at betraying his feelings. He may be skilled at wearing masks to protect himself, but the trauma also left him at a huge disadvantage in moments where it felt like he was losing his balance even more than usual. Years of abuse had made him even more vulnerable and openly broken, rather than strengthening him, and he hated what he viewed as an unforgivable weakness, as something revealing his worst fears to the enemies, laying him bare, for them to see not only his body but the recesses of his mind, letting them know exactly what to do to get such reactions of him and hurt him more deeply than mere blows could.
Every flinch, every shiver, every drop of cold sweat, and Kaname hated himself a little more, for all that he was now, and all that he should have been but that he knew was now well beyond his grasp. All the majesty, power and strength he knew he would have had if he hadn't grown up enslaved. If he wasn't reduced to the wretch he considered himself now, a mere shadow of what he could, should have been.

Swallowing the fruitless rage at himself, Kaname focused on following the man's every movement, his gaze intent and worried, willing himself to remain as impassible as possible. It wasn't an easy task, when the hunter's callused hands gripped the pureblood's bruised knees and pulled them up, spreading his pale legs.
The brunet bit his lower lip and willed himself to be strong. It's nothing more than what happens every day. It doesn't have to be any worse today than any other day. I just have to pretend it doesn't matter. Pretend that I don't care. Pretend nothing matters anymore. Pretend so well that maybe I'll manage to convince myself too. Even when Kiryuu-sama comes. If only... If only I could... He gasped for air, feeling as if he couldn't breathe.

Yagari's voice broke the still silence of the room, startling Kaname who was still trying to breathe evenly, and who had come to think the hunter wouldn't bother talking to him anymore. The fury and disgust still visible in the man's eye were just as present in his voice.

"Now, vampire, do I need to tie your legs apart too, or will you be an obedient little bloodsucker and hold them up for me yourself?"

As he spoke, he lifted the pureblood's legs by his ankles, so that the creamy skin of the back of Kaname's thighs was offered for the whipping, while his lower legs were held higher, more or less horizontally but out of the way to not obstruct the area to be hit.

The pureblood's sole answer was to stare at the man with a look of uncertain horror that told the hunter well enough that the brunet's mind was racing, weighing the pros and cons. Being tied up was always worse, but Kaname did not want much to take the risk of promising to hold his legs up by himself then accidentally closing them midway due to the pain and getting additional punishment for that. The anti-vampire drugs in his bloodstream weakened him considerably, not only by preventing him from using any of his abilities, but also physically, so he knew that as the weariness grew he would probably be unable to hold his legs up, especially with the pain of the whipping. But to actually ask to be restrained was equally horrifying.

The hunter grew impatient and ended the vampire's dilemma by deciding for him instead. He'd meant it as more of a rhetorical question anyway, and so he quickly snatched another pair of leather restraints from the table, and a few moments later, the pureblood's delicate ankles were each securely attached to a sturdy leather cord tied to the rings on the high beams along the sides of the canopy above the bed. The rope was just long enough for the vampire's legs to be spread wide open with his hips raised off the mattress of the bed by several inches. The cords and the emplacement of the rings on each area of the bed were all calculated to offer a wide array of possible positions one could tie a slave in. This one in particular left the pureblood immobilized and hanging at the perfect height for the taking, which was what the rope length and ring placement were intended for. The hunter had set him in that position with the intention to whip him instead, but the sight the vampire offered so enticingly was quite something, and the man let out a low whistle of admiration, before laughing gruffly at how the pureblood's pale skin had immediately taken a distinctively more flushed color with the additional layer of shame, regardless of how used to that the brunet must be by now.

The image was appealing enough that it made the man almost hesitate for a second. After all, he was technically paying to use the vampire, it was a waste not to take full advantage of his time there... But such thoughts were an unwelcome distraction at the face of his priorities. He remained focused on the objective he'd gone to the 'house' for, reminding himself of how important it was to not let the vampire sway him, not even into taking a different approach than what he'd planned.

He pressed the cold leather of the whip against Kaname's inner left thigh, to let him feel the rough material against the raised scar of the taming brand that the brunet had received as a young boy, after his capture at the end of the war. All vampires had those in some place or another of their bodies, branded onto their skin with a hot iron and sealed with a hunter charm. It served both as a humiliating mark of their slavery and as a charmed restraint, on top of being a disturbingly sensitive spot.
The pureblood shuddered involuntarily at the contact, and a soft shaky breath escaped his lips, apprehension going up by yet another notch. Goosebumps rose on his skin at the contact. It was all he could do not to panic at how wide open and vulnerable he was in the current position, especially not knowing exactly what the hunter planned to do.
Yagari slid the leather whip up Kaname's inner thigh, almost admiring how perfect those legs were, pale and flushed attractively in the right spots, trembling softly whenever the whip touched his skin.

Vampires all have bodies much more sensitive than humans, but this boy is especially responsive… Well perhaps this too will prove useful while questioning him…

A vampire's body was naturally far more sensitive than the average human's, not only to pleasure but to pain as well. It was something that hunters had long taken advantage of over the centuries, carefully engineering each of their weapons to inflict crippling levels of pain so that the prey could be incapacitated more easily, in some cases captured even when merely grazed by a hunter bullet. It was possible because the hunters knew that vampires would have so much more trouble handling the pain than a human would have had, their increased level of sensitivity making it unbearable. With bullets specifically designed to enhance that pain even further, it was arguably cruel but extremely effective.

After the end of the war, that sensitivity was further used as an argument in the propaganda claiming that nature had intended the vampires for sexual slavery. But while the supposed moral depravity and excessive sexual desire hunters ascribed to vampires were a subjective concept, the heightened sensitivity of the vampire bodies was very real, and frequently used against them.

Yagari brought down the whip, slashing a perfect red line across the pureblood's creamy skin.

Kaname clenched his teeth to stifle a yelp and braced himself as the hunter raised his arm again, and then again, the lashes starting to fall in an increasingly rapid succession.
The brunet's lithe body strained to conceal the pain, to cling to that one bastion for which he could still fight. He sucked his breath in before each impact, clenching his teeth and preparing himself for the next hit right on time whenever the leather was right about to connect with his skin. Not a single whimper escaped his lips yet. It wasn't a meager feat, especially in his condition. His muscles were tense, already ready for the next blow, and his gaze was locked on the hunter, measuring his every movement to know when to brace for the next impact.

This didn't please Yagari one bit.

"Too easy, eh, bloodsucker?" He spat the word out like a curse, before adding, "That won't do. Let's make things a little more difficult for you…"

The pureblood's eyes widened in worry as the hunter reached over for the bedside drawer again and this time picked up a bondage hood. It was a dark leather mask made to slide over the slave's head and encase it securely, offering a perfect blindfold with complete coverage of the eyes and the whole area around them, fastened by the straps wrapping around the sides and over the top of the slave's head.
It left the nose and mouth free, but plunged Kaname into a world of darkness the moment Yagari finished tightening the straps around the pureblood's head.

Kaname's jaw was set hard and he breathed through clenched teeth, trying to control the wave of panic rising from the bottom of his stomach, like a storm churning and threatening to swallow him whole.

Now the brunet would no longer be able to know when the next blow would land or prepare himself for it; the blindfold prevented him from seeing the other, from analyzing the type of person he might be based on his expressions and moods, or guessing what he might or might not do… and much worse than that, not seeing the other made Kaname's already far too abused mind slip into an instinctive panic directly derived from all the things he'd endured over the years, especially at Ichiou's hands.

He'd often been blindfolded then too. That darkness that felt all-encompassing was the same as back then, threatening to tear the ground from under his feet and swallow him whole. Falling into the depths, blind and about to be eaten alive.

Ichiou excelled in messing with his senses and his mind, using one against the other cruelly, eroding the young pureblood's sense of reality. Depriving him of sight had been one of the older man's favorite bondage methods, especially during the early years of Kaname's captivity, and it had left a brutal mark on the young pureblood.

If he managed to cut through the roiling panic and listen to reason, Kaname knew he was not back at the dirty cot in his cell at Ichiou's place, he knew he was here at the 'house' with this unknown hunter, and yet the scarred depths of his mind whispered to him that anything could happen, regardless of how much he repeated to himself that this wasn't Ichiou. He could be organizing this, he could show up any time now... In fact, that would be so typical of him.

That was why the blindfold was something he'd always feared so much more than any of the other bondage restraints the customers would use. He hated being restrained by them in any way, but the blindfold was by far the worst. He had far too many traumas associated with being tied down and at Ichiou's mercy, losing even the notion of time and space amidst his terror.

Maybe he was still back there. Maybe he never did get to leave that dirty cot in that dark cell at the old freak's place.

Maybe he'd just been dreaming all of the current events, maybe the 'house' and the past ten years were all just another of the countless delusions he'd have under the effect of the heavy hallucinogens Ichiou liked pumping him full of. Maybe his 'Kiryuu-sama' was nothing more than a figment of his imagination, created by his despair to try and escape the horror of it all. A sob broke out from his lips at such an unthinkable thought. It would make so much cruel sense too, if that turned out to be the truth.

Or maybe he was still in the middle of one of the conditioning sessions of his training at the house -he used to pass out and be prone to hallucinating while feverish during his training too. The nightmares he'd had then were too real for his abused mind to discern for sure what was reality and what was not, when he was plunged into total darkness.

The blindfold always did this to him, torturing him mentally even further than whatever the customers may do to his body. Especially with the idea that Ichiou might be just a step away, overlooking it all, inches away from touching him and subjecting him to untold horror so many times worse than anything any of the 'house' customers or handlers could ever imagine.
For all he knew, Ichiou could be standing right there and then, and this whole thing could have been organized by him from start to finish, even Kiryuu-sama's kind attentions that made him open his heart so foolishly. No, no, no, mustn't think of such a possibility, nooo…

He was hyper-ventilating by now, desperately trying to reach out with his other senses, to decide if he could trust the fact he didn't smell Ichiou in the room or not. But there was no way to know for sure, if he couldn't see it with his own eyes. The smell could deceive him.

Nightmares from the past were awakened by his instincts and ingrained reactions, merging into the present and throwing him into even worse disarray. That maelstrom tore a breathless cry of pain mingled with fear from Kaname's lips right when the first lash from the whip came down onto his bare legs. His voice had a higher pitch than before, and a tinge of panic to it that made it sound like something close to shattering.

The pureblood trembled and held his breath in when he heard Yagari's gruff voice in response.

"You're only making this worse on yourself. It's not as if I asked you something very difficult. Just tell me what Zero Kiryuu and you have been doing and what you two have been speaking of, throughout all the times he's come here to see you, and I'll end this. Of course, if you don't cooperate, I'll be forced to assume the worst and it will only get worse and worse for you…"

"I… I…"

Kaname's voice wobbled hesitantly, and he cringed at how much it made him sound so tearful and out of breath. It reinforced the impression he was even younger than his actual age, but it didn't mollify the hunter. Yagari's reply was as stern as earlier.

"Keep going. You what?"

There was no hope to be found in expecting any mercy. Kaname tried to gather his wits and resist the gaping chasm of panic stretching beneath him, about to swallow him.

Oh God...! It would be so easy to just obey and tell him whatever he wanted to hear... But then, even if the hunter had been asking that question for real, who would believe the truth when it was so impossible? And even if it had been possible to just say the truth, he knew well that this was all just a sick twisted game anyway. No matter what he may answer, the hunter would continue hitting him all the same, and it wouldn't change anything in the final outcome of it. The previous times this kind of thing happened, nothing he tried doing made any difference. At best, it didn't diminish his suffering at all, and at worst, his attempts to fix things backfired and only made him suffer even more.
Maybe Kiryuu-sama's game was seeing if his victim would try to tell the truth and incriminate him for breaking so many taboos and being so gentle to a vampire. If that's what the hunters wanted to see, then confessing would only earn him more suffering anyway... Unless it didn't even matter and they just wanted to see how long he would hold out like a fool, only to find out that they were just waiting for him to break, like everyone else before, and the moment he finally broke down and confessed whatever the hunter wanted to hear, they would bring an end to it all and do their worst.

A different thought suddenly crossed the young pureblood's mind. The ferocity in Yagari's voice spoke of the clear sincerity of his anger, and the intensity of it made Kaname's certainty waver. Maybe it wasn't all a farce after all.

What if it wasn't even a game, or at least, if it was a game for Kiryuu-sama but this hunter was not his ally after all? What if this man was truly some random unrelated interrogator unaware of Kiryuu-sama's game?

What if Kiryuu-sama hadn't meant to end the game just yet after all, and the man with the whip was truly investigating the whole matter due to some suspicion of a hunter fraternizing with the enemy by treating a slave gently? If they heard about it and didn't know it was all just a game for Kiryuu-sama, they would think it was something they needed to step in to interrupt... Kiryuu-sama would have no way to prove to them that he was only toying with a vampire and that the gentleness was just an act.

It seemed terribly unlikely that it would really be a real investigation, almost impossible even, but... not completely impossible.
He didn't question his belief that sooner or later, the silver-haired hunter would break him, but what if it wasn't going to be today? What if this hadn't been planned, and if this interrogation was for real and not just part of the 'game'?

And if it was the case, then confessing what they had been doing all this time, might actually incriminate Kiryuu-sama for real…? If this man is just an accomplice it won't change anything, but if what he says is true, then things might be very different. Nothing will stop them from torturing me either way, but this...

Kaname knew a lot about the ways he could get himself in trouble, but he wasn't knowledgeable in the laws hunters had for their own kind, or of exactly how bad it might considered for a hunter to treat a vampire as kindly as Kiryuu-sama had treated him. Was it just taboo and shocking, or could it actually destroy Kiryuu-sama's career?

In a strange way, he might be gripping the one and only weapon of revenge he would ever be given.

Because if the man interrogating him really was trying to find out if any laws had been broken, then confessing and getting Kiryuu-sama in trouble would be the one way to get back at him for the whole thing, for Kiryuu-sama seducing him, sneaking his way into his heart, making him crave and need him so bad, only to abandon him like this...
Kaname lost himself in a maze of uncertainty and fear, resentment against himself and against the hunters, against the whole world that had pushed him so far so often, like a cornered beast constantly at the edge of breaking down. He wasn't even sure anymore if what he was thinking made any sense at all, but in the middle of that whole chaos and panic that little light of revenge made itself visible. In his current condition that was truly the only weapon he might ever have the chance to use to strike back at a hunter who played him.

Sure, the interrogator might be just lying to him, but if he wasn't, then confessing was definitely the way to go. There was a big risk in it since if it failed, he would suffer through the very worst of whatever they may be planning for him, but he was certain they would already do their worst no matter what, so his fatalism born from experience convinced him that the danger wasn't significantly increased. And besides it was well worth the risk and the pain just for that one shot at payback. If it succeeded and if the one-eyed hunter wasn't part of the game, he would drag Kiryuu-sama down with him.

It was the perfect plan, reason and resentment told him. It wasn't as if he ever was given many chances to manipulate a situation into his advantage or to get back at hunters for all the misery they inflicted on him constantly. It was the one chance he had, and it was just perfect, even if it meant falling too. At least he would take down his enemy in the same fall.

He would finally have revenge, for once. It was within reach now, just waiting for him to stretch his fingers and grasp it.

So why did it feel like his heart was shattering to pieces right then and there?

A hot tear welled up, soon to be joined by another one, and the brunet squeezed his eyes shut tight, feeling the leather of the mask pressed tight against his lids, feeling the material drink up his tears.

I'm the biggest fool of them all.

A hunter comes here, waltzes his way into my heart, and makes me into such a complete thrall that I can't even think of betraying him without breaking into tears. It wouldn't even be a betrayal! It's not as if he cares about me! It's all only a game for him anyway! I was the only one who cared! He's just waiting to break me to pieces!

A hard ball of anguish was lodged tightly in the brunet's throat, squeezing his windpipe and making it hard to breathe. The tears came harder now, making it more and more difficult to keep some measure of dignity and not openly sob.

Over the past weeks, Zero had become so important for Kaname, that he'd ceased to be simply some random hunter that was unexpectedly kind, and had instead reached a semi-divine status. Even if Kaname was too hurt and too broken to actually believe this gentleness could be real, doubting his silver-haired savior was so horrible that it was nearly physically painful. He'd always expected to be betrayed by his precious Kiryuu-sama, but he couldn't bring himself to strike back, even more so before Zero had put an end to the game himself.

Now more than ever, the brunet had the renewed feeling he truly was a creature of contradictions, forever condemned to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, cursing his nature and his contradictory yearnings.

What if it really wasn't a game? What if...

WhatifKiryuu-samaactuallycared? …

No, that's impossible. There's no way in hell that someone could possibly be this gentle to me and not have bad intentions...

But still... even knowing this... I can't bring myself to incriminate him.

He sobbed softly, his chest heaving as he fought to regain his breath in uneven, bedraggled pants.

I'm the worst fool that ever lived. But I'll fall alone, if I have to fall.

Even if it's completely impossible that you don't intend to break me, I'll fall for your sake. I'll protect you with my silence to the very end, just in case, just for the sake of that unlikely possibility that this interrogation may be for real. I can't take the risk to endanger you in any way.

Even with the panic of the current situation and the terror of the bondage mask threatening to eat away his sanity, the image of the silver-haired hunter's gentle smile was etched upon Kaname's memory, like an overly bright light seared into his retina, an image that wouldn't leave him no matter how much he blinked or squeezed his tear-filled eyes. A sun of gentleness and warmth that his vampire eyes couldn't bear to gaze up to for very long.

I'm a moth that keeps wanting to burn its wings in your flame.

I can't hold back my muddled feelings for you or freeze whatever is left of my heart anymore.

I won't play games or even try to fight back. I surrender. What will come to pass will be whatever is meant to be, or whatever you want it to be.

I've already accepted that I'd be yours even if you decided to betray me, anyway.

So I'll just live up to it. Shatter me to pieces if you want. I'm yours to break or not. I'll protect you, in the only way I can.

When Yagari wasn't even expecting anymore that the pureblood would reply, Kaname finally spoke, in a shaky voice, catching his breath as he went along.

"I... I'm so sorry, but... I have nothing to tell you... I don't know that person or what you are talking about... I… I don't speak to the customers, nor do they speak to me. I just …obey them. There's nothing out of the normal going on and…and…that's really all..."

Despite the stammering, it was amazing that he could keep his voice sounding so earnest while lying in such a dreadful moment and under such emotional turmoil. At this moment, and out of sheer determination, he was probably doing better at sounding convincing than any other slave might have been able to in his position, even if he was very much running on fumes of instinct and self-preservation.
He was hoping that his breathlessness and shaky weakness might play in his favor also, disguising whatever hesitation might be left in his lie and giving him a more sincere countenance than he felt himself able to convey if his voice had actually been steadier. And with luck, the man would also think it was only the pain and fear of torture that made him tremble so...

This was a chess game too, one for survival, and for the protection of the only good thing he had been given in this hell-hole. There was no way he would let this man checkmate him into confessing anything that might harm Kiryuu-sama in any way.

But unfortunately for him, the hunter interrogating him had an excellent knack for telling when someone was lying, especially a vampire. Skilled and determined as Kaname may be, he was nowhere in a position to be as good as he might have been, especially if he had been without the increased element of panic caused by the blindfold.
And to a hunter as experienced as Yagari was, the slight strain in the vampire's voice, even disguised, made it clear that he was lying, and that there was so much more going on than what he was saying.

Whether he stayed silent or spoke, it was obvious that Kaname was hiding something big, just as Yagari had already assumed from the start due to the brunet's body language. The new lie only made the hunter's suspicions gain even more weight. Kaname's every gesture or sentence only dug his grave deeper, incriminating him more and more.

Yagari snarled and didn't bother dignifying with an answer what he viewed as an obvious lie and an insult to his intelligence. Instead, he brought the whip down hard onto the unprotected skin of the vampire's inner thighs, again and again marking the creamy expanse with angry red welts, paying no heed to the brunet's cries or his pleading.

"N-no, please! Please, I… I'm saying the truth!"

"Try harder, pureblood! Maybe that pretty mouth of yours can come up with a more convincing lie before I flay the skin off your bones!"

If the little bloodsucker wanted to play such games, so would he. He'd just have to see if his tongue got any looser after a good beating.

Elsewhere, far away from the 'Blood District', Zero was still virtually buried in a pile of paperwork. He glanced at the clock on the wall and let out a curse, seeing how late it was.

Hours earlier, he'd been getting ready to leave the office at his usual time, right when an urgent and awfully time-consuming assignment had popped up at the most inconvenient moment possible and had kept him chained to his desk since then.

Dinner time had come and gone a long while ago, he was left alone in his section at the headquarters, and yet the mountain of paperwork showed no signs of being done any time soon. He'd grabbed some pseudo food from a vending machine and had continued hard at work, but the feeling of something being awfully wrong wouldn't leave him.

Zero was a hard-worker and wouldn't be the type to complain about assignments or about having to put in extra time, but he couldn't shake off the sensation that this completely unnecessary task being tagged as urgent and explicitly given to him alone was disturbingly suspicious. Nothing about that paperwork was urgent at all, and it seemed more like the file had been specifically engineered to be tediously lengthy, and had been delivered right as he was about to leave.

The Association always had people around in the building, working at various random hours, but his shift would normally have been long over. If this were any other day, he would have been free to go about his daily routine and would have made a bee-line for the 'house' immediately after work. The timing of that mystery assignment springing up on him was really too inconvenient to be accidental.

It was way too strange to be happening for no reason, unless it was an elaborate prank, and he didn't see why it would be. Either way, it seemed to indicate that someone had been looking into his private affairs, and was now purposefully preventing him from leaving at the time he would normally have gone to the 'house'.
It seemed impossible that someone might have tailed him regularly without him noticing, and even if they somehow had, it wouldn't justify any suspicions on the HA's side, considering most hunters frequented the 'houses' on a regular basis; he wasn't doing anything out of the norm or likely to brand him as suspicious of anything. He racked his brain wondering what might be happening, and whether there could be any chance that someone might somehow suspect him or simply be trying to create obstacles for him for whatever personal reason. But how would they know anything…?

Notwithstanding, the assignment was a direct order from the higher hierarchy at the Association and so he had no choice over the matter. Suspicious or not, he had to finish it as ordered. But that strange situation filled him with worry and finished convincing him to try and finish it as fast as possible, and make some inquiries the next day as to what might be going on.

Unfortunately, considering how late it was he was sure it wouldn't be possible for him to have time to go visit Kaname and still make it home to sleep that night, but he would have to see him as soon as he could after that.

An irrational fear was gripping him, feeding him images of whatever could be happening at the brothel while he was strangely stuck at the headquarters.

Back at the 'house', quite a long time had passed. Both sides had lost track of how long it had actually been, but it was at any rate long enough that Yagari was finally having to make brief pauses because his arm was tiring down from swinging the heavy whip for too long.

Kaname was reduced to a mess of ragged breathing and sobbing gasps he half-choked on as they escaped his lips, but he still hadn't spoken a word of Zero.
The brunet's creamy skin was marred with dark red welts almost all over his body, the bite of the lash particularly cruel on such a delicate surface.

Yagari's anger -and his desire for retribution to be exacted from the vampire he believed to be toying with his apprentice- had made the whipping harsher and more erratic than it might have been if it hadn't been so personal.

Kaname's backside and thighs in particular were a bloody mess of welts and torn skin, his once alabaster pale legs now flushed pink and throbbing from being hit repeatedly, long red lines spreading like blood spilled on fresh snow, a web of countless blemishes all over his silky skin.

Blood oozed out sluggishly from all the places where the leather from the whip had crisscrossed too many times over the same welts and had eventually sliced the upper layer of the skin open as if someone had shallowly ran a blade over it, repeatedly.

The pureblood's limbs were shaking hard, from pain and exertion, straining against the ties. It made the little rings connecting his restraints clink softly against each other, even during the moments when Yagari paused. That soft noise was eerie in the silence of the room, in between whipping sessions, when only Yagari's harsh breathing and Kaname's ragged panting could be heard. When the lash was back to work there was too much noise -both from the hits and from Kaname- for either to be able to hear the clinking.

Yagari made a pause, and Kaname hurriedly tried to catch his breath, chest heaving with abandon. He half-choked as he tried too fast to get his breathing somewhat under control again before the hunter started whipping him again. But control was a concept so far away from anything he could grasp at the moment, that perhaps it was a lost cause no matter how hard he tried.

Along the years, he'd been told by many that that he was beautiful when he screamed. That his ethereal beauty was made most appealing when it was most broken, when he was on the verge of tears or sobbing his breath in and out harshly among hoarse cries of pain or despair, or both. When his mind was ravaged enough that whatever pride and restraint he might still have left simply snapped away and it all came loose in a maelstrom of tears and cries and intense broken despair. When even his most carefully crafted masks cracked away and he was left bare and exposed. Or so they would say.
Ironic that such a perfect beauty would reach its paroxysm when closest to the point of breaking, or just past the breaking point. Lost within such bleak thoughts, the young pureblood' mind swayed along, wondering if it was just his customers or if that was how all humans viewed such things, and whether there was any logic or gentleness left in this world of cruel games and utter deception. Maybe… Kiryuu-sama would find me more desirable this way also. Maybe that's why he would always hold me extra gently when I was more injured, but keep me at an arm's length when I seemed to be doing better… Maybe I was more appealing to him when I was more injured. This world is made of pain and cruelty…

Yagari was angry and hell-bent on tearing any sort of confession from him, so the flogging had been relentless and Kaname had gotten a taste of the heavy handle of the whip as well. Blood blossomed under his skin, into bruises of different sizes on various locations where he'd been struck by the thick base of the handle.

From a purely physically point of view, the young pureblood had had worse beatings before -especially at the hands of extremely sadistic visitors who had brought saws and other surgical devices-, but the frightening nature of the potential investigation as well as the presence of the blindfold awakening so many past traumas tore down his mental barriers and that wore him down considerably. Added to that, the inability of seeing his tormentor and thus of bracing himself for each hit also made that his body took the blows so much harder than it might have otherwise. The pain was so much more significant that way than if he had been able to see and thus to prepare his muscles for each lash.

He'd already been feeling exhausted from the customers before Yagari, but even more so now with the whipping, Kaname had been pushed far enough that he was no longer able to hold onto the little forces he had left, and didn't even bother trying to conceal his tears anymore. But even when so close to the edge of pure terror, he still managed to cling to that which mattered most in his eyes at the moment, protecting the reputation of his silver-haired savior.

If all he had to offer in sacrifice was himself and his broken despair and panic, then so be it; the enemy might break him but he would obtain from him no information incriminating Zero. Kaname would never betray him, regardless that deep inside, he was still convinced that Zero's kindness was just a mask that would slip away sooner or later. On account of the tiny, impossible little chance that maybe it wasn't a lie, he would never take the risk.

If Zero did betray his trust, then so be it, it would only be what he had expected all along. But he'd give him the benefit of doubt to the very end, regardless of his certainty that it was but pure folly, truly a fool's hope.

If it's but a foolish hope, then let me be foolish until the very last moment.

He would play the only pieces he had left, and keep his silence, at least until Zero made his move. Until the checkmate. It would be up to Kiryuu-sama to play the last move. His tears mixed with the beads of sweat on his skin, and he clung with all he had to the images of Zero holding him gently, so that he'd have the strength to keep going.

And so, he fell deeper and deeper each time the pain and the memories pushed him over the edge of a new mental cliff in the inevitable horror that blindfolded torture always awakened, until he could only sob softly on the bed, his throat hoarse from screaming too much, the blindfold soaked with his tears. The memories that resurfaced in a flurry with each blow turned the already grim reality into an even bigger nightmare, twisted by Ichiou's tainted touch and years of abuse, any form of torture made so much worse because he couldn't see who was touching him or what they might do next, or who might join in next.

Yagari was getting more and more infuriated by the vampire's lack of cooperation and utter stubbornness. He glowered at the brunet, angry and surprised thoughts swirling in his mind. How was it possible than even now, ten years after the war, with all that happened and that must have broken each and every single one of those bloodsuckers during all those years… How was it possible that this damn pureblood continued resisting so much? What the hell did he do to Zero that is making him so adamant about staying silent?

Running the back of a calloused hand over his sweat-drenched forehead, Yagari let out his breath, flexing his arm that was getting painful from the repetitive motions of the whip. On the bed, Kaname let out a choked gasp, half-pant and half-sigh of relief at the momentary cessation of the pain.

Yagari didn't intend to continue with the whipping though. He saw plainly how ineffective flogging the vampire was being; he had to change tactics, and go for something that might work better. But he didn't want to use the knives just yet, and a different idea formed in his mind.

If pain alone was not enough, maybe there were other ways to add to it.

Yagari had initially assumed the vampire would give in and obey because all the abuse he'd suffered over the years would have conditioned him to obedience and to wanting to avoid additional pain. He'd thought it would be a piece of cake considering that any slave knew better than keep secrets when ordered to speak… But perhaps the pain of a whipping alone wasn't good enough to jolt his memory, and this slave needed a more direct reminder of where he belonged and of the fact disobeying a hunter was the same as asking for the worst.

And what better reminder than a type of brutality that might feel more intimate and more direct…?

Yagari hadn't intended to bed the young vampire when he came into the room, but if conventional types of torture didn't work to get the information out of him, then, dislike the concept as he may, the master hunter was ready to use different methods to achieve his goal.
Unclasping the buckles behind the blindfold and tearing it off the pureblood's face to allow him to get a look at what he was about to do, Yagari placed himself closer between Kaname's still forcefully parted legs and flipped around the whip in his hand, presenting it handle first instead, and pressing the tip of it against the brunet's quivering opening. He saw the brunet's gaze go from disoriented and blinded by the sudden light, to dismayed and disheartened as he took in the sight and knew what was about to happen.

The bulbous tip of the handle was much larger than the rest of it. It looked like it might have been crafted in that shape to wrap around the hand of the person wielding the whip and to serve as something additional to strike the slaves with. The base of it was almost wider than a man's closed fist. Hard and rough, it pushed brutally against the pureblood's already painful entrance, and brought a renewed surge of panic in Kaname the very instant the hunter pressed it there. He was already torn from the previous customers, and had just briefly stopped bleeding shortly before Yagari's arrival. He knew much too well what would happen if something so hard and large stretched his painfully abused entrance all of a sudden, especially since the injuries he'd sustained before would only tear open further. No one normally bothered to prepare him, and he doubted this hunter would be any different.

The pureblood had felt an initial instant of relief when the blindfold had come off; the instant he'd been able to see the room again, his gaze had immediately rushed to scan the surroundings and make sure that Ichiou wasn't around after all. But he realized now that he was being proverbially thrown around between Scylla and Charybdis. And for this, being able to see wouldn't give him any advantages.

Yagari's menacing tone of voice left no doubt about his intentions. "I have waited far too long already. I showed you more mercy than an animal like you could ever deserve. You brought this upon yourself."

Kaname could only react with panic as the ruthless pressure against his intimacy heightened. The handle was considerably thicker than most things he was usually penetrated with, and he knew from experience that he wouldn't come out of it unscathed. Tiny beads of cold sweat formed on his skin, the feeling contrasting oddly with the sensation of his body still heated from the whipping.

The young brunet made one last minute panicked attempt to avoid the imminent invasion, but the hunter immediately interrupted him.

"Please! Please, I swear I don't know anyth-"

"There's NOTHING you can swear on that I'll ever believe, bloodsucker! Give me the truth, or take what you deserve!"

"…"

Kaname's gaze was tearful but unexpectedly clear and determined, something quite unexpected, especially in one genuinely so afraid. He parted his lips once, briefly, as if hesitanting but considering saying something more, then decided nothing he might say would make the other change his mind, and so he just stayed silent, trying to control his breathing, a fatalistic determination shining in his eyes. He looked away, turning his head to the side as far as he could with the restraints and pressing the side of his face against the bed as if he could find some escape in the gesture, then clenched his eyelids shut tight and braced as well as he could for what was to come.

Nothing he could say would save him anyway. The only thing speaking might achieve would be to drag Kiryuu-sama down with him, and that was inacceptable. So there was no doubt left to have, he would just have to endure whatever might come his way. He wouldn't say a single word about anything. He didn't know how much his tormentor might already know of Kiryuu-sama's visits, and he wasn't about to risk anything by speaking even a word. Whatever will be, will be.
Never mind how loud the voice of the despair inside his own mind was, reminding him that it was all a joke, that they were playing with him, and his precious 'Kiryuu-sama' must be doubled over with cruel laughter each time he looked at the clock and saw how long his victim was lasting trying to protect him.

Could Kiryuu-sama know? Am I predictable enough that the others would anticipate that I would attempt this folly, that I would try and cover up for a hunter?

A hunter who was probably just waiting for the right moment to finish me off?

With that desolated look on his graceful face, his delicate lips trembling softly and his skin flushed attractively despite the injuries, the young pureblood was a perfect picture of tragic beauty, touching enough to have moved even the most hardened hearts, had they seen the truth of his plight instead of seeing him through the biased view of him being a vampire and thus the enemy. Only such preconceived blind hatred could prevent anyone from seeing the desperation and broken innocence emanating from every pore in the brunet's body.

As it was, even Yagari, determined to extract the truth from the boy as he may be, felt guilty for what he was about to do. But he was sure that Kaname was hiding something, and was willing to go to whatever lengths to make him confess. He squashed the budding feeling of guilt and practically growled in annoyance, snarling out a furious, "So be it then, vampire. You're the one who made that choice. I'll split you in two if I must."

The pureblood's jaw was set hard, and he braced himself as well as he could for the pain that he knew would inevitably be brutal. Tears spilled down his cheeks anew, but still he would not speak, no matter what.

To this hunter like to the others it all comes back to that same 'what you deserve, bloodsucker'… It's like a mantra for all of them. Perhaps for Kiryuu-sama too… But until I hear it from his own mouth, I will go on holding onto hope! Even against all logic. Nevermind that even I think I'm stupid for it.

Breathing through clenched teeth, Kaname was trembling visibly as the pressure increased. New tears he would have wanted to refuse shedding continued to roll down his cheeks unheeded, regardless of his best efforts. He clenched his teeth hard in an attempt to hold onto something, anything, to withstand what was about to happen.

Yagari made to shove the handle of the whip in, apparently undecided as to whether proceeding slowly would be better, or shoving it all inside in a single move. At any rate, the opening was far too tight for the latter and gave way slowly only, as the very tip of the handle begun to force its way in, breaching the resistance and starting to agonizingly spread the young pureblood open. A trickle of blood rolled down the brunet's cleft as the injuries done by previous customers tore open further, and Kaname bit his lower lip, squeezing his eyes shut harder as he felt the blunt object slide in deeper, a couple of inches now, making him feel like he was about to be split in two. He could feel that the thicker part was yet to come, and braced himself as well as he could, breathing with difficulty through the pain.

It was paradoxical, and yet he always instinctively closed his eyes whenever someone was about to penetrate him, be it with a part of their bodies or with anything else. He hated being unable to see, but he couldn't bear to keep his eyes open during that particular moment. But at least now that the blindfold was off and he didn't have to contend also with his irrational fears telling him Ichiou might be around. It made a world of difference. Without it, he was free to close or open his eyes as he wanted, to check and make sure every so often.

But before the handle could go in deeper or tear his wounds open so much worse, hurried footsteps resounded in the corridor and the room door swung open suddenly, hard enough that it slammed against the wall before being swung back shut equally quickly.

Those same hurried footsteps rushed towards the bed, but it was only when Kaname heard the voice of the owner of those steps that he could truly believe what was happening. He opened his eyes again, with a look of utter shock and horror.

The youthful voice of the newcomer was filled with absolute outrage and rightful anger as he furiously exclaimed, "Master! What the hell are you doing?"

Yagari stared up from the bed, in displeased surprise. He'd never expected Zero to be rid of the paperwork still within that same night, much less for the 'house' to let someone else into the room despite the fact he'd already booked the slave for the night. It was against all the rules.
The Master hunter didn't know it, but Zero had somehow managed to finish everything off at ludicrous speed and had acted on his worries by rushing to the 'house' the very instant he was done with the assignment.

Upon arriving there, already with the suspicion that someone had arranged things to prevent him from going that night, Zero made a beeline for the front desk and claimed that the person currently with the pureblood was a friend of his and that the check-in paperwork must have been filled wrongly since they had intended to rent the slave for some group action that night, and not for an individual use. Zero worded things in a cunning manner to make it seem like it was all prearranged between him and the other hunter, and that he was merely late. Group reservations were pricier, so switching it was in the 'house's best interest, and Zero had also flashed some extra cash which ensured he had the full attention and cooperation of the man at the desk, an obsequious young handler hoping for a fat tip for smoothing things over and changing the reservation.

And all in all, they couldn't care less what the hunters decided among themselves as long as the 'house' got paid, so Zero managed to switch the reservation to a group one and be let in despite how irregular the situation was, and how impossible it would have been otherwise, if it had been an unknown hunter likely to call out his lie and get him thrown out.

But now that Zero was finally there, things were going so much worse than whatever he could have expected, and not only because of Yagari.

Kaname was frozen in place. He'd already known it was Zero long before he heard his voice. Somehow, he was so attuned to him that he'd known right away, almost before he'd even picked up on the familiar scent when the young hunter had entered the room and slammed the door shut. He knew it in his very blood, that Zero was coming. However much the idea of being so open to the man terrified him beyond belief.

But rather than reassure Kaname, the silver-haired hunter's presence made a wave of utter horror rack through the brunet's already exhausted body.

A human in Kaname's situation would have been elated to hear his lover coming to his rescue, but the world they lived in made things so very different, so utterly hopeless and impossibly tainted with the poison of violence and despair.

The previous time someone had toyed with Kaname like that, they'd done all the same things, sending an accomplice to torture him and then coming to join that person later that same night, putting an end to their cruel game and shattering Kaname's frail hopes that someone might treat him well or care at all about him. It had happened before too. Each time it was different, and yet in the end it always turned out the same, he was deceived then humiliated and destroyed a little further, losing more and more little bits of himself and of his ability to ever trust again.

It had been horrible each time, but now it would be countless times worse.

Because with them, he'd only had half-hopes and strange longings telling him they might help him improve his situation. There had been no actual feelings, deep, tortuous yearnings, wistful desires, nothing of all those things he felt when he was with the silver-haired hunter. Oh, with him… Everything was different.

He'd opened his whole heart to this man. He'd refused himself for so long, trying to fight and convince himself that he shouldn't give in to the growing affection. But in the end, he lost all along, and he'd held himself wide open for the hunter.
Zero had the power to shatter him completely, heart and body, so incommensurably deeper and worse than others could.

And what other reason would there be for him to be here now? The game is over. Checkmate, I have lost once again, foolish vampire that I am…

What had he held so hard onto his last forces for? The mere sight of Zero here, now, was enough to nearly break Kaname on the spot before anything even happened. Because there was no reason for the hunter to have appeared now, if not to confirm that his worst fears were indeed true. He really had come to join the other hunter, like all the others before.

Horrified tears spilled down the pureblood's cheeks. His face had been flushed until a moment before, but it was now lividly pale, a look of absolute unbridled horror distorting his delicate features and making him look as if he was at death's door.

Kaname was certain that the time he'd most feared each time he'd been with Zero had finally come – that Zero would drop the mask and reveal himself to be like every other hunter. How could he possibly think otherwise? With the experience he had of people?
Each of the previous times that people had approached him faking kindness, there had been a defining moment like this one, when the mask had finally broken. Kaname had been too badly abused in the past, he could hardly be blamed for his certainty that this was exactly what was happening now too. Nothing Zero could have done differently would have prevented the brunet from fearing his past experience was repeating itself now. There's only so much you can suffer through before it twists your very vision of the world and completely crushes your ability to hope. Especially in a world already normally so bleak.

Kaname had tried so hard to not let Zero get too close, to not allow his heart to open up to him or warm up under his touches… but he'd been lost in the freezing darkness for far too long, and it had been simply impossible to go on resisting the hunter's soothing touches, regardless of how much his reason told him that the price to pay later would be much worse… He needed that warmth Zero gave him, he needed it so desperately much, even if the price to pay was losing what little he had left…

His heart, and himself.

He was certain that there was no way the hunter wouldn't eventually betray him, and yet, he'd yearned for him so terribly much that he had been willing to overlook that certainty for the time being, and only worry about the tragic consequences such a thing would have once it actually did happen…

To cover his eyes and focus on the moment at hand, in order to avoid looking at the inevitable destruction looming on the horizon, just waiting for the right moment to strike and tear him apart.

Well, now that time has come, hasn't it…?

The brunet's already dangerously shaken mind plunged into complete panic, and he could only scream.

"N-no…! No… PLEASE, NOT YOU! Kiryuu-sama… NOoo… No… no…!"

The terror Kaname felt now was by far much worse than the much more simple and familiar dread he felt when he was about to be breached by the whip handle, a type of sensation he was far more used to, however horrible and painful such a thing may always be. Physical pain was nothing compared to the utter agony of the despair swallowing him now.

Said whip handle was still in place, now back to pressing threateningly against the entrance of the pureblood's intimacy. It had mostly slid back out when Yagari had jerked to look at the door, but the master hunter's ingrained instincts were of not displaying surprise or hesitation while in the presence of a vampire, and so that momentary shock was immediately overcome, causing the handle to be somewhat awkwardly frozen in surprise but nevertheless still firmly held in place, nearly pushing back into the brunet's trembling flesh.

Yagari hadn't let go even when Zero ran into the room, but his hand –and the whip— had begun to slightly shake from contained anger. Not at Zero's arrival or even at his outburst itself, but at something Kaname had said, and that the older hunter couldn't have missed.

Still on the bed, Yagari lunged closer to Kaname, his free hand flying for the vampire's hair, grabbing onto a handful of it and using it to yank the brunet's head up, tearing out an yelp from him as he was jerked up and as far as the restraints would go. The pureblood's quivering backside was now even more fully pressed against the whip handle, as the new position forcefully caused him to practically be sitting on the tip of it and on Yagari's hand. His entrance stretched painfully once more, and the muscles on his arms and legs screamed in protest at being pulled taut and nearly beyond their limit, as the restraints were too short for such a position and were biting hard into the brunet's wrists and ankles.

The movement was too quick even for Zero to react, and before he could say anything, Yagari's voice rang loud with anger in the room, finding no match to it in the horrified expletive Zero let out in response, or in the pureblood's choked panting and stifled mix of whimpers and gasps.

"Six hours! For more than six long hours, I interrogated this bloodsucker and he wouldn't speak a single word about you! He swore to me he didn't even know so much as your name! And the moment you step into the room, it's like magic, he suddenly knows your name and calls it with no hesitation or anything. What an interesting miracle!"

But if Yagari's fury was liquid fire, burning on contact and sending renewed tendrils of panic through the pureblood's already beyond horrified mind, Zero's fury was pure ice, a cold anger that encompassed the whole room and that the young hunter never expected to ever feel directed at his beloved master.

It wasn't at Yagari as a person that the wave of anger was directed, though –it was at this entire society that condoned such things and made good people, people like his master, to truly assume that torturing a vampire 'just to make sure nothing wrong was going on' was something fine and acceptable, just because the captives were 'bloodsuckers', 'beasts' or so many other derogatory words that Zero heard everyday.

Words Zero himself wouldn't have hesitated to use in the past. Before he met Kaname, that is.

The look in the young hunter's eyes as he strode closer to the bed was unmistakable, and one Yagari had never seen his disciple sporting. It was indignation so deep it bordered well on pure rage, something the silver-haired man hadn't displayed even in dire missions where they'd tagged along together and where Yagari had gotten to see Zero flawlessly take down dangerous level E's without ever putting on an expression of anger or anything anywhere near the look he had now.

Putting a knee on the bed then sliding closer to the pair hurriedly, Zero wrapped an arm around Kaname's trembling shoulders, trying to keep his hold gentle and convey reassurance and protectiveness into it.
His voice was in perfect contrast with the gentleness of his touch as he practically hissed out, "Master, let go of him. Now." He managed to keep his tone of voice even but the worlds were dripping with anger.

If it had been anyone else but Yagari, Zero wasn't sure what he might have done. As it was, he was terribly tempted to grab and shove back the older hunter's hand that was still on the bleeding vampire, but he forced himself to take a controlled breath, reminding himself that this was his master, who was more of a father for him than anyone else. Deep inside, angry or not Zero knew that Yagari hadn't had any truly bad intentions –he hadn't tortured Kaname out of sadism, but out of over-protectiveness towards his disciple. But if it had been someone else, that knowledge wouldn't have saved the person from Zero's wrath.

And much as the final results still infuriated Zero, he tried to remind himself that the true culprit was the outlook their world had of vampires, that insidious status quo that corrupted the minds of everyone around him, and not his master himself.
Or at least, he had to tell himself those things, or he wouldn't be able to reconcile in his mind his idea of his beloved master and the shocking sight in front of him, with Kaname spread on the bed and so obviously having been tortured by that same man. It couldn't possibly be the same person who had raised his brother and him and taught him everything he knew, could it? The mere thought of such a thing was heart-shattering. He owed this man everything he was. He couldn't believe his master could ever behave like all the others.

But it still didn't diminish his anger at seeing the state the pureblood was in, of course.

Yagari, still taken aback by the intensity of Zero's glare, hesitantly let go of the pureblood's hair and shifted backwards on the bed, before getting back up with the whip still awkwardly in hand and an uncertain look upsetting the severity of his expression. He felt strangely as if he'd touched and defiled something he shouldn't have. It was a most odd feeling, considering it concerned a pleasure slave in a brothel; but when he saw the strange possessiveness with which his apprentice held the vampire, he couldn't help but feel that way, shocking as the idea may be to him. As if for some unexplainable reason, that bloodsucker actually belonged in the younger hunter's arms, rather than in the clutches of the 'house'.

Zero was meanwhile quickly unclasping the restraints secured to the shackles on Kaname's wrists and ankles, but he continued speaking, through clenched teeth. "For your information, master, he was acting on my orders. I told him to act as if he didn't know me, even if he had to lie for that. I told him not to tell anyone that I'd told him my name."

Yagari felt tempted to retort that that was not how things were supposed to work. A slave wasn't supposed to ever disobey a command from any hunter –or from any human, for that matter— regardless of who might have told him what. Slaves were to obey anyone and everyone, regardless of what the order was or what they might have been told by someone else. If they failed to keep a secret as a result, then it was simply their fault and they were punished, regardless of the fact they were expected to reveal it if asked. The system wasn't about being fair, it was about total obedience and subservience from its prisoners.
But the surprise of hearing that Zero was the one who had ordered the vampire to remain silent kept Yagari from voicing his objections. His mind was racing to process this new information, too busy wondering why Zero would bother doing that, and in turn too occupied to complain about the rest. All along, he'd assumed that the vampire's silence was to hide his own ill intentions or manipulative attempts towards Zero, and not because the young hunter could have specifically told a slave to behave in that particular way. Not to mention that managing to convince a pureblood to obey his commands so thoroughly and despite being tortured was a feat in itself. If that story is true, that is…Would Zero lie to protect the bloodsucker...? Yagari couldn't help staring at his apprentice suspiciously, trying to decide what to believe.

Zero had finished sliding off the restraints, and was pulling Kaname closer to himself, still glaring at Yagari while cradling the vampire gently and trying to impart him what sense of safety he might be able to convey in the present moment.
But it wasn't working. Kaname shivered in his arms, his mind lurching into the storm within. The pureblood's heart was beating so fast from the sheer horror of it all that it made him dizzy from his weakened and drugged up blood flowing through his body so much faster all of a sudden. The pounding against his ribcage sounded deafening to the brunet, as if the sound could verily echo off the walls of the room and drown all other noise. His stomach was churning in horror, making him nauseous with anxiety, even as Zero's warm arms embraced him. After what had seemed like an eternity, he nervously gasped for air, not realizing he'd been holding his breath. Panic engulfed his mind.

The certainty that Zero would betray him any second now was nearly enough to suffocate the brunet. All he could think of was the inevitability of his imminent doom, as he went on expecting the worst to come in the seconds that would follow.

Against all that he believed in and knew he still needed to go on living for -in case the world ever changed, in case Yuuki ever somehow came to need him for anything, in case he could one day somehow be of any help to her through his life or his death...- against all that, an irrational part of him wished with all he had that he didn't need to continue living after this day, and that the hunter would just be merciful and kill him once he was done with him. It would be far less bad than surviving the upcoming ordeal. But no such luck for slaves, especially not a pureblood one. They were far too expensive commodities to be given any mercy.

He was so certain of his imminent doom that he didn't immediately understand the words exchanged by the two hunters, until realization dawned slowly and the pureblood begun to grasp what was happening.

Holding him gently in a careful embrace, Zero wasn't turning against him or brutalizing him, he was… defending him?

Kaname's mind was spinning and he couldn't quite understand. The reality in front of his eyes clashed too strongly with the way he'd been expecting everything to unfold, and the two extremes were so different that he found himself utterly lost and unable to process the current events and understand exactly what was happening or how it was even possible. He didn't know anymore which part of what Zero was saying might be a lie and which part might be true. But everything seemed to be turning upside down and what he'd believed all along to be fake and a game seemed to be instead turning into the sweetest truth possible, if only his ravaged heart could bring itself to hope again and to still think there was any chance this could go on any longer. But… that couldn't be…? How could such a thing be possible?

Yagari too, looked puzzled. Displeasure and suspicion were written all over his face. He'd paused for a moment while he examined mentally the unexpected piece of information Zero had given him, but he couldn't see any scenario where it wasn't at worst a lie to cover up for the pureblood's attempts to hide whatever he had done, or at best a very bad idea on Zero's part, regardless of what might have motivated it. He finally settled for asking, "But why would you tell this thing to keep your secrets in the first place?"

There was quite a measure of disapproval in his voice, and it was clear that the question he truly wanted to ask was 'why would you stupidly behave with a slave in a way that required secrets being kept to conceal it in the first place?'
Especially when one knew well that secrets held by slaves had no meaning. Any normal slave would have immediately confessed the secret when asked by a handler or anyone else, instead of putting up the unthinkable resistance Kaname had put up, withstanding pain and horror just to obey such an unexpected command. It was beyond foolish to risk so much, and Yagari didn't much like the idea of his apprentice making such dangerous mistakes.
The question Yagari did ask was close enough to the one forming in his mind though, and so Zero's answer went straight to the point his master had left unspoken. Whether it was because the younger hunter had sensed what his master was truly thinking or because he was simply reacting to the reproof in Yagari's eye, Zero blurted out his answer angrily.

"Because I'm not an animal! Because I see no interest in raping and brutalizing someone, vampire or not, just to feel stronger than them! And because in the screwed up world we live in, that could get me in trouble! So I decided to keep certain things secret. We treat them like they're less than animals, but what does that makes us when we rape and beat them?"

Zero strongly hoped the other man would understand. If it was anyone else, he'd just have continued keeping his secrets and not bothered trying to get the person to understand or accept the way he thought, not when there was so much at stake.

But this was Master Yagari, for crap's sake!

Not only did Zero want to believe that the older hunter would not betray him, but he deeply, seriously hoped to get him to understand. Even if he had to ram the idea into his mind with words so much more direct than he would have normally ever dared throwing at his master's face. The young hunter's cheeks had taken a distinct pink flush after his words, and a part of him was reeling in horror that he'd just yelled at the master he respected and loved so much, but… he'd also just pried the man off Kaname's battered form, and he was still torn between the fury he was feeling and his need to get his master to accept his view of things.
Not only because otherwise, Yagari might start his interrogation attempt all over again another night, but also because of much deeper reasons: Yagari was the one person he looked up to, the one person other than Ichiru from whom he craved approval and acceptance.

It was important. He couldn't not explain it to him. He had to get him, of all people, to understand.

Surely, he couldn't be the only onewho found disgusting the way everybody treated the vampires? Surely, his master, his surrogate father in so many ways, couldn't agree with everybody else that vampires were nothing more than living sex toys to be abused at will? They'd had countless discussions before, about what was and wasn't right in the current society, but it had always been about Yagari rebuking him and worrying that Zero might be too idealistic for his own good. Now that it was no longer about lofty ideals and vague concepts, but about a person of flesh and blood, trembling on the bed between them and bleeding from the abuse he'd just received, it was so much more important than ever before. Zero's arm around the brunet's shoulders tightened his grip gently, trying to convey to Kaname the idea that he would make things alright, somehow.

Unfortunately, a lifetime of anti-vampire beliefs and ten additional years of the current worldwide status quo were not so easily shaken, even by the youthful determination of one's apprentice. Zero himself, if he had led a different life, might have come to fully believe the things the other hunters accepted so easily. It was inevitable for a man of Yagari's age and background to view with intense skepticism his apprentice's reasons and justifications for anything that amounted to protecting or defending a vampire.
If anything, Zero's determination and earnestness only made his words appear even more blatantly misguided and reckless to Yagari, who now saw his apprentice's reasons as foolish whims requiring a quick intervention to protect the boy from the dangers of idealizing a race of bloodsucking beasts.

Yagari bellowed, "Are you out of your mind? I thought I trained you better than that! How could you possibly think a bloodsucker is worthy of anything, much less of trusting them with secrets that could harm your reputation and endanger your career?"

In his personal life, Yagari was not prone to unnecessary cruelty. But this was completely different. The way he saw it, it was his duty as a teacher to protect Zero from such dangerous situations, and seeing him purposefully walking head first into disaster was insupportable. By now, it was plain enough for Yagari that Zero's behavior towards that vampire was far too protective for his own good, and that it could easily damage his reputation if others found out about this folly. The boy was just starting to rise in the Association and he could lose all his chances if such a scandal were to dirty his name.

Visiting brothels was perfectly fine and a widespread practice, but being found guilty of 'subversive ideas' was serious business, and the thought-police mentality of their current society was not something that should be underestimated. Preeminent hunters had their careers ruined for disagreeing with the Association leadership, even on significantly less important matters than the vampire slavery. The danger would be all the more if it came to such a clear-cut subject on which the leadership was completely intransigent.
Even a man like Kaien Cross, one of the strongest hunters to have ever lived, and a good friend of Yagari's in the past, someone who had once been in line to be the next HA President, was now reduced to a life of opprobrium and mockery due to his beliefs, and how unkindly the modern world took to them.
No, there was no way he could allow Zero to walk such a path too. The boy showed such amazing potential as a hunter and had such a bright future ahead. So many doors were opening up for him, and so many more would too as his power grew and his skill became more and more clear. It would be a crime to ruin his chances out of a foolish youthful mistake.

Yagari suddenly found himself regretting bitterly not having brought a concealed gun tonight. He could have simply ignored Zero's ranting and put an end to the accursed bloodsucker right on the spot, simultaneously putting a quick end to Zero's problems. It would get two birds with one stone, by keeping the whole situation a secret forever, as well as freeing Zero of that unhealthy attachment.

But luckily for Zero and Kaname, Yagari didn't have anything on him that could bring death swiftly enough to the shivering ball of misery currently cradled in Zero's protective embrace. The master hunter huffed in contempt, vaguely pondering whether Zero might actually have the time to try and stop him if he attempted to kill the vampire using nothing but his bare hands and hunter charms. He decided against it based on the fact that purebloods, even weakened by drugs, were particularly hard to kill and it would probably require a little more time to finish one off than he could muster in a single quick blow, since he could easily surmise from Zero's posture that the younger hunter would have wrestled him off the vampire if he tried such a thing now.
He would like to believe Zero wouldn't have dared, but after what the boy had just said, Yagari wasn't about to take the risk. From past experience hunting together, he knew Zero packed quite a heavy punch, far more powerful than the strength the boy used when they sparred. And even if he believed he would eventually have the upper hand in a fight with his student, he'd hate to give the vampire the satisfaction of seeing two hunters rolling on the ground exchanging blows.
No, for now, it was best to momentarily step away and attempt to reason with Zero. With luck, the boy might just be confused and feeling possessive of his favorite slave, and was probably only behaving overly gently to 'it' due to misguided idealistic ideas that shouldn't apply to bloodsuckers. Things might not be too bad yet. It was important to explain things, to get Zero to realize his error, one way or another. Even if that meant being more than a little blunt and brutal. Setting aside the thoughts of physical violence for the moment –although he still regretted not having killed the vampire before Zero's arrival-, Yagari instead launched out on a tirade in a somewhat patronizing lecture tone.

"Look, I know how youth is, Zero. Youth can be like disaster waiting to happen. It's full of ideals and energy and it makes you feel like you could change the whole world. But you can't. The world is the way it is. It might not be perfect, but you just have to live with it. And if you ever decide to try and go change it anyway, I'll be happy to be standing by your side when you do… if you want to change it for a good reason, and for the sake of something that's actually right and good for you. Not for a bunch of beasts. Not because you've been fucking a whore of a bloodsucker that is so good in bed that it makes you want to behave like it deserves the consideration a human should get, rather than being treated like the soulless animal it is."

Zero's eyes flashed with anger and shock at the man's words. He opened his mouth to fire off a nasty retort when Yagari quickly raised a hand in a gesture to signal that he wasn't done, circumventing his student's interruption. The older hunter continued in the same tone, sounding paternalist, stern, and above all utterly contemptuous for the vampire shivering on the bed.

"Well, let me tell you, whatever misguided ideas you might have right now, that thing in your arms doesn't deserve your care, and it's alive only to serve all of its customers that way anyway, so you're wasting your time and your future chances by treating it like it is special! Go care for a mangy dog from the streets instead, will you? That at least would be better than getting all attached to some filthy beast just because it is a good lay. Of course it is good in bed! That's what they exist for! That's all that they are left alive for!"

Yagari had never been an outspoken advocate of the sexual slavery imposed to the vampire race –he accepted it as something that was part of the current world, although deep inside, he thought it a strange and somewhat repulsive idea, not because he thought vampires should be free, but because screwing one seemed like a stupid idea to him. He was by far more of a believer of putting an end to their misery with a well-aimed bullet to the head instead.
He wasn't defending those ideas out of personal conviction. But if Zero was going to risk his career because of a damn bloodsucker in a brothel, he wasn't about to pull punches or be delicate in his explanation. Far from that. And if by being vulgar and brutally to the point, he might help open his apprentice's eyes, then so be it. He was aware that he was being unnecessarily crude, even cruel, in his wording, but it was also helping him vent off the considerable anger he felt at the vampire right now.

Zero's eyes were shadowed by his bangs, and from the way his head was lowered Yagari couldn't quite see his face. But the tenseness in the younger hunter's shoulders and his clenched jaw were obvious even from afar. He was practically shaking with anger, trying to hold back from saying something he might regret.

In Zero's arms, Kaname continued shivering softly, his gaze empty and dead. His legs and backside were burning up with the agony of the cooling lash wounds. He felt dizzy and remained as silent as he could under the onslaught of insults, as if he hoped that by curling up into himself and staying very quiet and very still, he might perhaps disappear for a moment and not be obliterated by either side. If he could somehow burrow against the younger hunter's chest and disappear forever, he would happily have done so. Tears burned anew in his tired eyes.

The pureblood was deeply hurt, not only by the man's words, but more by the fact that in his heart, even he himself believed Yagari's words to be the truth, and so in turn he feared so much that Zero too would finally see it all as it truly was and follow his master's advice. Kaname's slave-training and the brutal way it was constantly reinforced by everyone and everything around him had deeply warped his sense of worth and his perception of things, and that only further worsened his already flawed image of himself.
The whole world accepted as the universal truth that vision of slaves and of how they should be treated; it was Zero's gentleness that was exceptional and inexplicable, so it inevitably seemed to the pureblood that such gentleness, such an impossible dreamlike thing, could vanish so easily, like the wisps of a dream fading away swiftly when a harsh morning tears you away from that sleep.

A choked little sob shook the brunet softly and he froze, swallowing the next one and attempting to remain as inconspicuous as possible. He wished he didn't have to hear this conversation. Kaname knew well that he should be paying close attention to every single word and analyzing the two men's moves and expressions to try and see if it could possibly be all an act or not, but at this point, he just couldn't bring himself to obey his pureblood instincts and try to think strategically. Everything was just too much, and pathetic as that made him feel, he clung to Zero's clothes like a drowning man, burying his face against the hunter's chest and breathing shallowly in the space between Zero's shirt and his open jacket. He tried to hold in the tears and drown in the scent of his protector, which always made him feel strangely safe regardless of how impossible of a concept 'safety' was for someone in a situation as precarious as his.

Zero's eyes had filled with a deep disappointment long before Yagari even finished his tirade. Somehow, the silver-haired hunter managed to hear it out until the end and resisted the urge to interrupt him, but that was in a great part only because he realized he was too angry to speak without the risk of going overboard. He was trembling with barely-checked fury.

By now, not even the knowledge that Yagari spoke out of worry for him rather than out of cruelty was enough to mitigate his urge to grab the man by the shoulders and shake him around while yelling at him. Ironically, he realized that urge must be mutual at the moment.

Zero sighed deeply. He was so repulsed by Yagari's diatribe and how it had been worded, that his need to contest it had momentarily died down a little, too shocked by the man's arguments to find them worthy of a reply. Or at least, that's how his rational part reacted, but his anger wouldn't let him leave it at that, even if it was his master he was talking too. The young hunter's voice sounded awfully tired when he finally replied, almost in a whisper, but his jaw was set hard with restrained anger.

"Master… you're mistaken." He held the other man's hard gaze firmly, before continuing. "But if you can neither see that nor respect the difference in our beliefs, then at least, respect my choices?"
He pulled the pureblood closer as he spoke, cradling him better in his arms, and Kaname shuddered, pressing himself more fully into the warmth wrapped around him, breathing and very much existing as discreetly as he could, shrinking against the hunter and relishing the reprieve he found in his arms, short-lived as it may be.

But the mere sight of the vampire curling up further in his student's arms repulsed Yagari so much that he lost the teacher-like tone of his previous harangue and spat back a more heated response. In his resolve and desperation to open his student's eyes and get him to realize that the thing he held in his arms was closer to a snake than to a human, the master hunter's anger escalated, making his arguments slide farther and farther into tasteless territory.

"That thing isn't a choice! That's a beast, less than a whore, less even than an animal! It has as much moral value as a rubber sex-cup to jack off in, or even less than that, for fuck's sake! Will you wake up already and stop treating it like a real sentient being?"

Zero's mind went blank. He nearly lost it and started yelling at his master, but he was dangerously close to snapping and actually getting physical, something he didn't want to do to Yagari, and so he struggled to regain some measure of composure. He felt like he was a hair's breadth away from getting up and punching Yagari in the face, and he was deadly afraid of how he might feel about that once he cooled down, or even simply about how things may be between them in the future depending on what he might say to the older hunter now, even if he did manage to control himself and not go as far as hitting him.

But he felt absolutely compelled to do something, at least. If not in direct retaliation then at least in response to the insults.
Maybe it was the anger increase caused by his master's latest string of vulgarity, that finally made it all overflow and made it impossible for him to hold in anymore without doing something, anything, to strike back or to display his rejection of the older man's words. Maybe it was that this course of action would be the best way to finally get the older hunter to shut up at last, if not by convincing him, then at least by shocking him into silence, whether from disgust or sheer surprise.
And maybe it was also that deep inside, Zero felt guilty for those insults he couldn't stop, and that he knew must inevitably be hurting Kaname. Maybe it made him want to prove, to the pureblood at least, that whether Yagari would see it or not, Kaname was not any of those things. Whatever society may say of vampires, he, Zero, refused to see things that way. Especially when it came to Kaname.

Zero himself could not have said for sure which of those reasons had tipped the balance in the end, but the final result was that Zero glared at his master for a long moment, breathing through clenched teeth and still struggling to restrain his anger, then carefully pried the pureblood off his chest –against which Kaname seemed to be still hell-bent on attempting to burrow in and disappear— and did something that made time stop for a moment, for everyone present in the room.

He tilted Kaname's head up and pressed their lips together in a passionate kiss.

The pureblood's eyes widened in shock and his heart skipped a beat, his breath catching in his throat in response to the tantalizing contact.

Yagari gaped in complete horror, watching his disciple claim the vampire's lips thoroughly.

If such a thing was possible, Kaname was as surprised as Yagari. To the point of being so frozen in place by the surprise that he initially didn't even kiss back -for a moment at least, until the dam in his heart broke down and it all came rushing in, an onslaught of sensations and irrepressible yearning flooding his sluggish reason until it finally registered that this was truly reality, and that their lips were truly touching.

At which point the brunet melted into the kiss avidly, still totally uncertain of what was expected of him but just far too delighted by the taste and feel of Zero's lips on his to be able to do anything but surrender himself completely into it. The hunter's tongue played with the pureblood's trembling lips, caressing them sensually and silently asking for entrance, without knowing how Kaname might react. But before Zero had the time to worry about whether his unexpected gesture might be unwelcome -even if he was belatedly starting to think it was perhaps the most inappropriate moment possible to suddenly up and kiss someone-, Kaname simply parted his lips in complete abandon, offering himself to the hunter without holding back or heeding any of the warnings his mind would have been firing off wildly about now, if he wasn't so shaken that he couldn't even think clearly at the moment.

Kaname's lips quivered, his breath coming out in shuddering little gasps he couldn't prevent, trembling and breathless that he was. And yet he still clung to the man with all he had, as if he was trying to melt into the kiss. Zero's qualms flew out of his mind and he grew bolder, their kiss deepening as they tasted each other, losing themselves in the mutual discovery and in the joy of that innocent and yet so utterly passionate contact that until now neither had fully understood how deeply they'd craved, or for how long they'd been waiting for it.
The adorable manner in which Kaname surrendered so utterly, needy and starved for the contact, clinging to Zero as if he was drowning and the man was his only chance to not go under, was irresistible and considerably fueled the hunter's desire to explore so much more of that side of the brunet. Zero wished he could have made the kiss far longer and even more sensual, if it weren't for the situation and moment which were far from ideal.

Regretfully, the hunter broke the kiss, but his eyes strayed inevitably to the inviting way the pureblood's lips remained parted in a breathless sigh even after he pulled back, and the way they glistened attractively, as if begging the man to come back, to claim them all over again and make the brunet his completely. Zero swallowed hard, having to hold onto all his willpower to resist giving in to the temptation of those luscious lips. The pureblood was definitely the very perfect embodiment of sensuality, utterly tempting and yet unexpectedly innocent, all manner of paradoxical extremes all wrapped together in a splendidly enticing package.

Brief as it may have been, the kiss had been mind-blowing for the both of them. But perhaps even more so for Kaname, who had never expected to be allowed such contact and intimacy with Zero, and who felt like the hunter had somehow managed to pry open his very soul and touch one of the things he'd been most secretly desiring. It left him feeling overwhelmed by it all and utterly exposed, but also so unexpectedly safe in the silver-haired man's arms.

That had been his first kiss.

The realization was so alien that in itself it would have unsettled him quite a bit if he weren't already so shaken by everything that he couldn't stop and think of it properly, at the moment.

Of course, it wasn't the first time someone made contact with his mouth, but it was definitely the first time that could actually be called a kiss. Every time before that, had been a cruel parody of it, usually done by people intending to either bite his lips to mock him and his inexistent fangs, or simply to shove something else altogether into his mouth. He had never been actually kissed, before this night.
The innocent childhood kisses Yuuki and him had exchanged when they were small and she fed off his energy were also so different, a feather-like contact light-years away from the sensual touch of Kiryuu-sama's lips claiming his and making his knees feel weak from the sheer intensity of it.

Kaname breathed raggedly now that their lips had parted. His head was swimming and his hands were shaking softly against the spot where they were still holding to the front of the hunter's clothes, fingers losing themselves in the folds of fabric between the hunter's jacket and his shirt, the gesture mirroring how he felt both lost and yet on same time so deliciously at home as well. He had no idea how to react to such an odd feeling, and so he just clung to the man's warmth, shivering softly. His face felt like it was burning from the heat of the flush that had taken over it.
Zero's left arm was still around the pureblood's shoulder, and his right hand now strayed to the brunet's hair, automatically caressing softly the silky locks and making Kaname feel yet a little more like he could just melt into the man's warmth, and like the light of Zero's presence was so powerful as to be blinding, enough that it might be able to consume the darkness he lived in, even if only for a moment.

But while the two were lost in each other, the gears of time were still running, and reality was bound to tear them out of their bubble much sooner than they could have hoped.

Yagari was so shocked that he'd lost his voice. It was a stark contrast with how argumentative he'd been until that point, and that brought a hint of a rebellious smirk to Zero's lips, as if he'd somehow scored a small victory in retaliation for his master's earlier behavior.
That lull in the storm couldn't last much longer though, and unsure as the master hunter may be of how to respond to such a revolting sight, he eventually recovered. It took longer than expected but Yagari managed to gather his wits and exploded with expletives before barking out, "Are you out of your fucking mind? Kissing that thing? He is the enemy! And besides, you know what their mouths are for?"

Zero tried to placate his master, but it was to no avail, and the older man quickly interrupted him, unhinged with disgust and anger.

"There's no danger, he's drugged and he doesn't even has his fangs anyw-"

"I'm not even talking about that! You know what we use their mouths for! You know what countless people have used it for! It's… it's… just another fuck hole, for fuck's sake! It's only there for blowjobs and nothing more! It's disgusting for you to even think of using it for a kiss! Get this into your head, those beasts are nothing more than a convenient hole at everybody's disposal! Just a hole that can't refuse itself to anyone, you don't even have to get their approval to fuck it, so why would you want to treat it any other way? Just take what you want from it and move on! Don't ruin your life by treating a living hole like it has a soul! And don't ever touch something so filthy with your lips, are you out of your fucking mind?"

Kaname's gaze, which had seemed to regain a hesitant liveliness after their kiss, possibly even a modicum of hope -however much this feeling for him may be comparable to a candle flickering in the wind-, now looked as if it had died off completely. The master hunter's last words were so painfully close to what the young pureblood believed of himself that the blow had robbed him of his breath.

It was something Kaname had come to believe of himself over too many years of abuse, but which was so painful and difficult to deal with, that normally he chose to avoid as much as possible dwelling on it. The pain would still be there even if he chose to avert his eyes from that cruel reality, but it would be less bad.
Having that painful truth exposed so brutally and being forced to face it was more than he could handle at the moment. He was suddenly terribly still, even the shivers that had been running through his body suddenly freezing, and his eyes glazed over with a sheen of despair so stark that Zero didn't think he'd seen anything that bad before, regardless of how often he'd seen the young pureblood in terribly dire situations.

Yagari had lost all restraint, too furious and too shocked to hold back or regain his calm. But he wasn't the only one losing it.

If Zero had already been looking positively furious at his master before, now he was practically livid. At long last he finally snapped, his anger rolling off in waves and causing his hands to shake, even balled into fists as they were now. He glowered at his master with a never-before-seen fury and for the first time ever Yagari told himself he wasn't quite sure he knew the young man in front of him as well as he'd thought he did.

Zero set Kaname down on the bed and stood back up ominously, his movements slow and precise like a cobra uncoiling just enough to strike. He was magnificent with the dark shadows of the canopy and of his bangs mingling together to mask his face, his eyes glowering from beneath that darkness like embers from the fires of hell. Zero's eyes may be human and not glow like a vampire's, but all hunters had something of the vampire within them, at least in the personification of a predator that was intrinsic to their nature. Zero's wrathful beauty embodied that concept so vividly that he looked like an avenging angel now, ready to rain the wrath of heaven unto any wretched creature who could commit such a mortal offense against the broken form on the bed.

But despite how deadly he looked, he was also still dreadfully young, and terribly jarred by the clash of his convictions and his master's, and by how much the older man had shattered the image his apprentice had of him. At this point, Zero was too shaken to channel his anger effectively, and was thus more liable to cause harm to himself than to the master hunter.
He tried and failed to regain a semblant of calm and composure, then straightened himself up and glared anew before lashing out at his master, voice trembling with rage as he yelled. "Is it really that disgusting to you? How disgusting? Disgusting enough for you to yell at me and try to convince me of things you know well I won't believe no matter what? For you to spew out all that garbage? Or is it worse? Disgusting enough for you to go back to that screwed up society of ours and denounce me?"

That suggestion went far beyond the scope of their argument, and at first Yagari didn't quite know what to make of the younger hunter's words. Zero had always been prone to go to extremes when it came to what was important for him, but not in a million years Yagari could have imagined that his student felt that strongly about the foolish ideals he believed were at stake here, or much less for the pureblood on the bed, who still now looked more dead than alive but whose glazed eyes were now showing a glint of very clear worry at this new development.

Kaname seemed as though he would have liked to sink into the creases on the bed sheets and disappear to escape the storm brewing in front of him, but he was most definitely still aware of his surroundings, however much everything that had been done and said that night may have overwhelmed him. The thought that someone in the corridor might hear this conversation sent him into near panic, before he remembered that with how thickly insulated the 'house' rooms were, no one with human -or even hunter- hearing would have been able to hear them, short of being right near the door, or of opening it. And with how drugged they slaves all were, not even the vampires in the adjacent rooms would know what they were saying.
Even dulled by the drugs, Kaname's hearing was still superior to the others' though, and he could tell that there was no one in the corridor. At that realization, the brunet released the shaky breath he didn't notice he'd been holding. He felt lost and completely shaken, but he was still able to think rationally enough that he'd gotten very afraid for Zero when the young hunter had started yelling.

But if there was no danger of an outsider barging into the room and hearing them, there was still plenty of danger stemming from the altercation itself. Zero was still fired up, and angrily pushed on further, still yelling at his master.

"Go on then! Leave this place, and go tell them how badly I turned out! Snitch on me to the association, and even to the people downstairs, for my sympathizing with the enemy and protecting a vampire! Do it, and even then, it still won't change my mind about what is right or not in this situation! It's too late for that! All you're doing is convincing me further of how wrong the world we live in is! I expected better from you, of all people!" Zero's chest was heaving, his face flushed, and pride and anger were the only things convincing him that the burning in his eyes was an impression caused by the heated moment, and not tears threatening to well up in his eyes, over how brutally disappointed in his master he felt in response to the man's behavior and words that night he was. He stood between Yagari and the bed, breaking the older man's line of sight to Kaname and looking like a wild animal guarding its cubs.

Yagari was flabbergasted. The color had left his face under the onslaught of rage from the boy he'd loved like a son all these years.

But Zero was too wound up to step down now, even in the face of Yagari's shocked lack of reply. In a moment of utter abandon, the younger hunter started making his way to the door instead, blinded by his fury and by the mix of resentment and deep disappointment."Here, I'll facilitate things for you!" he yelled, opening the door and ready to stride down the corridor. A part of him was trying to get the man away from Kaname immediately and by whatever means, but he didn't know himself how far he would have pushed this, as if compelled to pit himself against Yagari and dare the older hunter to destroy him if he wouldn't listen to him. Reason had abandoned him completely, replaced by nothing but raw fury and a type of self-destructive rashness characteristic of his own brand of youthful lack of self-preservation.

In a certain subconscious level, Zero perhaps realized that however shocking Yagari's opinions may be, the man did genuinely care for him, and accusing him like this was a way of punishing the older hunter, as well as forcing him to see the consequences of his words. But if such a calculating streak was present in Zero, it was at a level too deep for the hunter himself to grasp it consciously. He was too overrun with emotion to think rationally and understand what he was feeling or trying to accomplish anyway, beyond the immediate explosion of rage.

Zero was so furious at the moment that he wasn't even sure whether his master really would have ratted on him to the people outside or not. He wasn't sure he knew what to expect of the older man after that night.
If he'd been thinking with a clear mind, he'd most likely have known that such a thing was not in Yagari's nature, and yet, at the moment the shroud of anger clouding Zero's judgment prevented him from seeing that. If the man was heartless enough to be capable of torturing someone like Kaname, then there was no telling what other things he could do. Or so, Zero thought, driven by anger and ignoring the fact that he viewed Kaname in a way that was caused by knowing him well and being aware of how broken and harmless the young pureblood was, while Yagari had no idea of any of that, and only viewed him as a potential enemy and a dangerous beast due to being a vampire and even worse, a pureblood.

The escalating momentum of this increasingly dangerous and quite potentially soon-to-be tragic situation was broken suddenly when, right as Zero swung open the door and took a dramatic step towards the corridor, he was interrupted by a combined outcry from both Kaname and Yagari, and in almost comical manner, was yanked back bodily before he could actually leave the room.

Two very different weights had grabbed on to Zero simultaneously, with such a frenzied hurry to stop his exit that they almost made him fall to the ground, as he stumbled backwards awkwardly, partially dragged back by their weight and pull. He had to regain his balance at the last second to avoid actually falling.

While each of them had completely different body-types and capacities, even more so with Kaname's current state, both Yagari and the young pureblood had been motivated by the same surge of panic over Zero's safety, and had both instinctively lunged for the young man to stop him from going any further in his self-destructive ardor.
Despite that difference, the two of them had surprisingly reached him at very much the same time, and Yagari had gripped Zero's left arm while Kaname had latched onto the back of the young hunter's jacket, nearly falling down in his hurry to cling to him and to put his weight into attempting to prevent his exit.

The master hunter's stance was one that spoke of his worry and shock, body outstretched to take hold of his student's arm, posture rigid and disbelieving, completely disconcerted by the turn for the worse everything had taken all of a sudden.
Kaname on the other hand, clung to Zero with all the force of his desperation and fear of what might happen to the silver-haired hunter if this momentary madness followed its course. His arms were wrapped around the young hunter's waist now, trembling from the intense exertion he'd put himself through to reach him fast enough, but holding onto him with all the strength his failing body had left and then some, as if he could with nothing but his determination and his need to protect him, make up for what his physical abilities were lacking in. He may not be as strong or fast as Yagari, but he would compensate for what he lacked with frightening levels of willpower and resolve.

It was a strange sight, the master hunter and the pureblood vampire side-by-side and united in their impetus to protect that same person, both frantic in their holding onto the silver-haired young man who meant so much for them.

It hadn't been a concerted effort, of course, and even now, the shock was evident on the older hunter's face as he saw the pureblood clinging to Zero with such obvious concern. The determination with which Kaname had rushed forward, his own wounds forgotten at the thought of Zero's danger, was particularly impressive. If not for the fact Yagari assumed Kaname's fear was of losing his protector, and not of the harm that could come to Zero, there was no doubt that the older hunter would have been mollified by the sight. -Zero may be of the belief that if anyone got to know Kaname, it should be impossible for them to go on upholding the despicable doctrine the current society leaned on, but the problem was precisely that hunters didn't normally want to get to know vampires, beyond the most immediate knowledge necessary to kill or capture them. Rare exceptions aside, they simply made their assumptions and held onto them, like Yagari was doing even now, ascribing ulterior motives to the young pureblood based not on the truth, but on what Yagari himself thought of the situation or of vampires in general. It was one of the reasons why no matter what the slaves did or how much they suffered, society seemed to be blind to it, always expecting them to be dangerous and deceitful even when it should have been obvious that it could not be so for everyone. There would always be a plethora of excuses to accuse them and paint them as villains, especially a pureblood like Kaname.

But as it was, Zero's actions had certainly cut short Yagari's current chances to continue his judge-jury-and-executioner session with the pureblood or even to continue arguing the matter with his apprentice right there and then. All three of them stared nervously at the open door, no one daring to speak now that the momentum had broken and that all were aware that someone outside would probably hear if any of them started yelling again.

Yagari's glare returned full force as Zero stepped back and shifted his body sideways to place himself as a barrier between the older hunter now in front of him, and the slender vampire shrinking behind him. Kaname's legs were shaking from exhaustion, but he was back to clinging to Zero's jacket and wouldn't let go, even though he could barely stand on his own. There was no way he'd let go, not when there was still a chance Zero might be in danger. He had no illusions that he might have enough strength to do anything if Zero chose to walk out anyway, but he still clung to him in hopes the contact might make Zero snap out of his potentially self-destructive fury.

The two hunters stared each other down, neither ceding one step of terrain, until Yagari let out in a low voice, raspy from anger and emotion and through partially clenched teeth, but still quiet enough to be audible only inside the room, "You have to be completely out of your mind with the filth that animal has been filling your thoughts with, if you think I'd betray you! I came here because I wanted to handle this matter myself, discreetly, but no matter how low you fall, I'd never rat you out like that. To the Association or to anyone else! You'd have to betray the Association before I write you off, kid! You should know me better than that. You would know, if your mind hadn't been poisoned by the likes of that snake behind you!"

Zero's throat felt tight and he felt himself dangerously close to tears. He still refused to back down, though, and looked out at the corridor with an unreadable expression of pain and anger before finally barking out a dry "Leave, master. Please just leave."
He knew it would be of no use to try and explain to Yagari that Kaname had never spoken a word against the Association or tried to influence him in any way like the older hunter thought. Nothing he said until now had gone through to Yagari, so why would this? Yagari was determined to hate and distrust the pureblood and would continue doing so even if Zero had a way to show him Kaname's innocence. It seemed to be a lost cause to explain things rationally at the face of such irascible hatred.

Yagari's gaze grew darker as he stepped out of the room, whispering low for it to stay between them only, "I tried to teach you how dangerous those animals are, Zero. I thought you'd understood the lesson back when this happened" –the older hunter pointed to his eye-patch— "but I guess I was too optimistic after all. It looks like I lost my eye in vain and you'll have to see for yourself how treacherous and insidious those..." – he gestured to Kaname with a look filled with revulsion and untold promises of violence – "…beasts are. Just promise me that whatever happens and however much you think you want to help that thing, you won't actually trust anything it says or risk your neck or your career for it." Yagari's eye was as stormy as ever when he glared down at the pureblood again, but it softened when he gazed back at his student's face before adding in a gentler -if somewhat weary- voice, "I know this is just the madness of youth and that it will pass, Zero. You're better than that, and I'll be waiting for you to return to your senses. I have no doubt that you will sooner or later. I'm not giving up on you, kid."

Their gazes remained locked for a brief while longer; Yagari's eye was filled with a sort of paternal hope that Zero might finally see what he considered to be the truth, and Zero's eyes were like pools of agonized guilt and liquid anger.

The young hunter wanted to say that he was sorry, for his master's lost eye, for failing him then and now again, for not turning out how the older man wanted him to be, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. Not after the harsh words they'd exchanged, and not now that he no longer believed in so much of what the hunters stood for. How could he apologize for defending the broken being that still now was clinging to the back of his jacket with such intensity, as if he was trying to protect him against all odds, even with that shaky touch?

And so Zero did all he could do in the current situation, and simply stared back silently and closed the door of the room, like a barrier between his master standing outside and Kaname and himself inside. He stayed in silence, both because he didn't have anything he could possibly say to Yagari right now, and because he feared that if he tried to speak, he might break down crying.

The most important bridge in his life other than Ichiru, might have burned down just now.

Yagari may have said he would wait for his return, but Zero feared that things would never be the same between them anymore. After all, it was now clear that he would never be the person Yagari might have hoped he would one day become, that ideal hunter that would never hesitate or doubt the justice of their cause.

But time could sometimes fix even the most brutal disagreements, and as Zero stood in front of the closed door and faintly heard the sound of his master's footsteps turning away, he felt that he had no choice but to wait and hope it might heal at least a part of the rift between them, since he couldn't possibly do anything else about it at the moment.

The young hunter was almost surprised by himself. Until a moment ago, he hadn't thought he would have been able to prevent himself from running out after his master to try and explain further, argue further, anything further. In past years, maybe he would have done exactly that, no matter how much he may know that no explanation could possibly change the older hunter's mind.
Hell, even a mere month ago, he would most likely have ran out after his master, trying to patch back together the pieces of the makeshift family he had with Ichiru and Yagari. His whole life he'd always had such a deep need to keep them together and make the whole dysfunctional thing somehow keep working. Out of love for the most part, but out of guilt too, his unending guilt for Ichiru's weakness, and for his master's lost eye.
Zero's fury had sobered up some, and he was back to enough of a level of rational thinking that he could easily realize that Yagari had purposefully mentioned the loss of his eye as a cunning attempt at manipulation, aware of how deep Zero's guilt ran. It was a wily tactic to try and guilt Zero into obeying him, and if he had done it anytime other than this night, it would have been extremely effective. Zero would have done anything to comply to his master's wishes and attempt to repay him for his loss. To atone for his failures.
For years the young hunter had been driven by that urge, and even now, the knowledge of what he had cost his master ate at him inside. Needless to say, his master knew that better than anyone.
But even with all that guilt, Zero now had something so much deeper and more important than even that, and which had prevented him from running out after Yagari, or from giving in to his manipulation.

When did he get additional priorities that weighted this heavily in his life?

The answer was uncertain, but it was as compelling as the soft, shivering weight still clinging to his back with such desperation that one would have thought that it was as if by holding onto the man the brunet could try and keep them both safe from the world gone mad around them.

Zero put a hand over one of the pureblood's slender ones, and squeezed it reassuringly.
He wasn't going to run after Yagari. He would try to explain things to his master, but he would wait, until the older hunter's head had cooled off a little. If such a thing was possible, considering the severity or the nature of their disagreement. Zero knew already that any attempts at patching things or explaining would be in vain, but he still had to try all the same.

For now though, nothing in the world could make him leave that room, abandoning so soon the shaken, broken form still gripping his jacket with shaky arms and an iron will no one would have expected to find in someone who had been so brutally abused and belittled for so many years.

So instead, Zero turned back towards Kaname and wrapped his arms around the pureblood's slender shoulders, pulling him closer and letting him know it was okay, that he wouldn't push him away now anymore than he did earlier.
Kaname melted into the embrace, still exhausted but feeling slightly less bad now that the tension was easing away a little with Yagari's departure. He didn't want to think about all the dangers looming ahead for them now, so instead he buried his face against the hunter's chest and breathed in deeply, basking in the utterly soothing effect that man's scent had on him. Zero chuckled softly at the brunet's endearing reaction, and nuzzled the top of his head, kissing the pureblood's hair and caressing it with his lips. He was surprised to see how naturally that gesture came to him when the brunet was in his arms.

Even though neither of them voiced it aloud, they both knew that tonight they had gone past a point of no return in the complicated relationship of sorts they had.

Garnet eyes strayed up to meet amethyst ones with a look of disbelieving awe and pure wonder, filled with unspoken questions, and Zero couldn't help smiling. The brunet's gently parted lips, attractively flushed and deliciously inviting, were a temptation no one could possibly have resisted.

And so Zero tilted Kaname's head back and kissed him again, more fully now, unsure of what he was doing or how wise or foolish it may all be, but emboldened by the fact the pureblood yielded so completely to his touch all over again. Kaname eyelids fluttered closed with an expression of utter bliss and he responded to the kiss awkwardly and hesitantly, but he was deliciously unresisting all the same, and definitely eager despite his clear lack of experience with that form of intimacy.

Zero chuckled softly as he deepened the kiss. It was deeply arousing how the pureblood responded to him so eagerly. When he'd first kissed him, he'd been worried that Kaname might not welcome it, but he was pleasantly surprised to see how delightfully his advances were received. It left him both tempted to push a little further and yet also wary of doing so, by fear of dampening the lovely brunet's enthusiasm. Better to tread carefully rather than ruin it all by rushing things, especially after what the poor thing just went through.

Kaname was entranced. For ten years, he'd been forced to learn everything one could learn about how to please someone in bed… but he had no idea what he was doing when someone kissed him. He felt like a man lost at sea, and yet it was a sea of delights and discoveries to which he happily opened himself as he parted his lips to invite the hunter to claim his mouth more deeply. Whatever he didn't know, he was eager to learn, anything he could possibly learn or do to please this man. His legs were shaking harder now, but even then he knew that it was more from excitement and the rush of emotion than from the nevertheless still very real exhaustion and pain from the whipping.

But that too would have to wait at least a bit, considering his current state. Zero was noticing more and more that the brunet was very much running on fumes, and that he most likely would continue doing until he depleted all his reserves, if he made him stay up any further.
Feeling a pang of guilt, Zero broke the kiss at last, and pressed his lips to Kaname's forehead instead, before scooping up the pureblood and lifting him into his arms bridal style, relishing in the sight of his blush going one notch redder at the sudden movement.

The hunter carried his precious charge gingerly into the bathroom, where he poured him a bath. The pureblood got cutely all flustered and tried to assure the man that it should be the other way around that things went, to which Zero replied with laughter and gentle reassurances.

Kaname wished to be preparing the hunter a bath instead, but weariness and pain were consuming what little was left of his forces, especially now that the surge of vitality that panic had given him earlier was bleeding away faster, and so he had to accept that even if the hunter had let him do it, he might not have been able to service him properly at the moment anyway. He had no choice but to rely on that oddly freeing feeling then, and surrender himself once more to the hunter, leaning back into his arms and drinking in every single one of the men's gentle touches and sweet attentions, as Zero lowered him into the bathtub and busied himself with washing them both.

The brunet's wounds impeded things getting any more heated than that for the time being, and the fiasco during that shower not that long ago was also still very present in Zero's mind, a thought that was enough to momentarily slow down the hunter's libido or his impulse to give in to the more heated suggestions his mind inevitably started to utter whenever he found himself holding the gorgeous brunet, even more so in such an intimate situation.
To Zero's credit, the roller coaster of emotions that night combined with his worry over the pureblood's wounds made that certain things that might otherwise 'stand at attention' when the two bathed together, were currently well-behaved and remained unobtrusively out of sight, or at least weren't poking Kaname on the back while they sat together in the bathtub and Zero bathed the brunet...

Careful to use only tepid water to avoid causing him more pain, the hunter washed the pureblood's wounds and patted him dry tenderly before carrying him back into the room, still wrapped in a towel. If Kaname had been a cat, he would have been purring with all he had right about now. And even not being one it very much felt as if he might be doing it, from how contented he looked burying his face against his protector's shoulder and sighing softly, unable to hold all that bliss within himself and practically exuding it; the brunet almost couldn't believe how unnaturally happy he was at the moment, the pure delight he felt so utterly far away from how bleak his life normally was.

That innocent awe and marvel the pureblood felt were obvious in his every gesture, and they had the effect of making Zero torn between the urge to hug the endearing creature as tight as he could, and a feeling of extreme sadness at the renewed understanding of how horrible the brunet's life was, for something as simple as being kissed and not being brutalized for a few moments to be enough to amaze him to such an extent. It was heartbreaking, when he thought of it. It also made Zero desperate to make up to the pureblood for it all, in whatever way he could find. To hell with the taboos of their society. There could be nothing wrong with kissing someone so beautiful and innocent, and one would have to be heartless to truly believe that his suffering made him any less worthy of such a touch.

The hunter held Kaname in his arms, on the blood-speckled bed, and they talked of sweet nothings, idling away the time in that tantalizing mix of intimacy and innocence that was such an inherent part of their relationship until then, both of them burning with the need to be close to the other and touch each other, but neither daring to venture much further right now. They did however exchange a number of kisses, each more sweet and captivating than the other, just satisfying enough to fill them with joy at the contact and yet far too stimulating to not leave them tingling with both the need for more and an awkward mix of yearning and hesitation, neither wanting to displease the other and both tiptoeing around each other in that same usual dance that was now so familiar to them, sweetness and wistfulness paired with caution and uncertainty.

The pull between them was stronger than ever though, and neither dared to speak yet of what it might mean for them from now on. There was no going back to how things were before, and not only because of Yagari.

Although especially because of Yagari, they both knew that they should be extremely careful from now on, and agreed that it was best to stay on the safe side and not risk any blood sharing at the moment, as the last thing they could want was to incur anymore suspicion, on the part of Zero's master or anyone else.

Zero was still on edge about the way Yagari and him had parted, and Kaname babbled aimlessly both to try to lighten the man's mood and because the exhaustion was catching up with him heavily now that the bubble of panic had burst. He did his best to remain awake and distract Zero of his worries, but tiredness made his voice sluggish and his thoughts muddled. The events of that night left him unsure of what he was left grasping at, but at any rate it was quite clear to him now that Zero was at the very least cut of a different fabric than the people who had toyed with him before, and whatever that might mean in the long run, for the time being Kaname was so utterly happy that he was practically constantly beaming, blushing cutely in Zero's arms, his smile so disarmingly innocent that it would have moved anyone who saw it.

Zero too uttered random sweet lines, lost between his dark thoughts over all that had happened, and the fact that Kaname's smiles were adorably infectious and he was getting increasingly addicted both to them and to saying whatever caused the lovely brunet to smile like that again.
It was ironic how Kaname thought that Zero's very presence was like a blindingly bright light or a flame for the moth he viewed himself as, and yet from Zero's point of view it was the brunet's normally rare but so touching smiles that he found utterly dazzling. And the fact those smiles were so frequent and blissful that night was a delightful change.

Kaname's weariness eventually had the best of him, and he fell asleep in Zero's arms, his delicate features relaxing against his best attempts of staying awake, and his body instinctively curling into the hunter's scent and body heat. He clung to the man like a barnacle to a ship, making Zero chuckle and reminding him of how those same delicate fingers had held onto him with so much fortitude earlier, to try and prevent him from endangering himself. Such small, delicate hands, and yet, they could channel so much resolve and protectiveness despite how much their owner had gone through.

Zero caressed Kaname's face, gently prying the brunet's hand off his jacket to bring it to his lips and kiss his knuckles and his folded fingers softly. The pureblood pressed himself further into the warmth of Zero's embrace, and the hunter found himself marveling that such a beautiful creature could possibly not only exist, but trust him enough to fall asleep in his arms, especially after going through so much. Running a finger down the silky skin of the pureblood's face, Zero gently stroked his cheeks, the curve of his nose, his soft and pliant lips that seemed to entice him even in his sleep... He was careful not to wake the brunet, but he couldn't resist touching him right now. And Kaname seemed to glow, exhausted into oblivion but so amazingly happy to be in the man's arms, yearning for the contact as if it was a counterweight that might undo the terrors he'd gone through in the previous hours, if not wipe away completely all the horror he'd withstood over the course of so many years.

Zero's heart swelled in his chest at the sight, and he found himself thinking that Kaname was indescribably precious, and that he had to protect this graceful being at any costs.

How is it possible that you are in my arms like this? How is it possible that you trust me so much?

"Tomorrow, everything will be different, Kaname."

He whispered the words softly by the brunet's ear, and stopped himself before he could add more. He wanted to say something like 'I promise you', but that thought made him want to also add immediately something along the lines of 'and this promise I intend to keep' due to his past failure, but both of those lines sounded empty and almost as offensive as his equally strong urge to promise Kaname that he would keep him from being harmed by anyone from now on. Now that was a promise he wouldn't dare voicing, not the way things were now, so full of uncertainties and danger even after their wondrous kiss and the increased closeness they shared. If he promised such a thing and broke his word, he could never forgive himself.

Zero felt suddenly like anything he might say on the subject would sound trite or hypocritical, and glared at the wall instead, wishing he could somehow do away with the whole twisted system and make it so that no one would hurt the pureblood again. It was an impossible thing, reason told him... And yet, it was the one promise in the whole world that he most wished he could make.

Meanwhile, in his sleep, Kaname was having a beautiful dream.

He was back at the gorgeous gardens of the Kuran manor, laying on his back in the grass, but his head was pillowed on Kiryuu-sama's thigh as the man sat on the grass with him.

The best of both worlds, that of his lost memories and that of his heartbreakingly impossible yearning for his silver-haired savior – but in his dream he was so happy that nothing seemed impossible, and those two worlds were somehow united in a perfect match, the reality or possibility of which he did not question.

The grass was soft and warm under his back, and the hunter's hands gently caressed his face, tickling him gently and bringing delighted smiles to the brunet's lips. They both watched the clouds lazily unfurling on the sky above, and smiled at each other so happily that it almost hurt.

The sun didn't burn him in this world, and nothing threatened to interrupt their pleasant moment together. There was no war, no slavery, no cruel people to tear them apart or hurt him or pressure the hunter into complying with a cruel society... there was nothing bad in the entire world.
Kiryuu-sama was bending over to kiss his lips, and Kaname sighed with such delight that he almost had trouble breathing. The world seemed so impossibly bright and happy that it brought tears of delight to his eyes.

In his mind, it all appeared composed of a patchwork of images taken from his memories, a number of them a bit off because he had spent so much time in captivity that he didn't quite remember exactly what grass felt like under one's fingers, or what the outside air even smelled like, so his mind suggested various impressions to replace what he couldn't remember.
The sound of the wind in the trees or the way greenery would have looked like in the distant background, the scent of fresh flowers in bloom or of the leaves on the forest ground and everything around them, it was all a little bit off and unreal because after how long he'd been locked away in misery and despair, he could no longer remember what those things were like.

But in the dream Kaname didn't realize any of this, too happy to notice, his mind fooling his perceptions into making the patchwork world seem real and flawless, filled with nothing but happiness and joy.

Maybe that's what Paradise would have felt like. Once you were finally dead and no one could hurt you anymore…

The thought was interrupted by Zero's voice, and through the haze of his sleep, Kaname could still hear the words the man was whispering to him in reality, but they came through in an altered manner, penetrating the dream a little as if the hunter had been speaking under water. He could hear him, but things changed, the dream adding or removing bits of his sentences, even if in Kaname's sleeping mind it still all somehow made sense, and translated into making it look like it was the Kiryuu-sama in his dream who was the one speaking to him in the garden.

The words of the real Zero and the dream one mingled together as Kaname looked up at him, drinking every word in.

"Everything will be different tomorrow, Kaname. I'll make it all better. I won't let anyone ever hurt you like this ever again."

It wasn't clear whether the man was really speaking all those words, or whether they were a product of Kaname's wistfulness. For him, at least under the effects of sleep and of the idyllic dream, it didn't matter anymore if the promises were impossible or not. The fact Zero would make them to him at all filled him with joy and gratitude regardless of the outcome.

The pureblood wanted to reply to the man, to tearfully thank him, to make promises of his own as well, but for a moment that reminder of reality pierced through and all of a sudden the wonderful happiness of his dream-world appeared strangely impossible to him, as if it was all made of sugar and silk paper, a breath away from crumbling to pieces.

A disturbing thought crossed his hazy mind.

If everything was fine, then why was it that the feeling of imminent doom that had been haunting him all those past days had not fully left him, even now…?

It still lurked there, at the edge of his consciousness. In his dream, it appeared personified by a disturbing area of deep shadows swirling at the edge of the garden, cold and windy and dripping with evil, only barely hidden by the far edge of a low wall that the rose bushes climbed on.
He hadn't noticed it there until now, but it seemed impossible to miss once he spotted it. The plants all seemed wilted in the area closest to that ominous presence, rose branches drooping down and shriveled, the grass dead and brown, soggy with moisture like rotten clippings resurfacing from under the dirty slush of melted snow.
The spring-like happy atmosphere of the area of the garden they were in seemed to recede all of a sudden, shrinking away in fear of that ominous shroud, much like the sound of the wind in the trees and the birdsong had abruptly gone silent. The void stared at his very soul, silencing everything else.

The brunet shuddered, drawing closer to the hunter's warmth, as if afraid that the darkness might suddenly sweep closer and swallow him away.

Why was it still here? What else could it be hinting at, if not the maelstrom of change that had nearly uprooted his life that night? What other horrifying terror could possibly be about to break over his head now?

That worrisome thought and his peaceful dream threatening to turn into a nightmare nearly unsettled the pureblood enough to awaken him, but then, the silver-haired hunter in his dream caressed his face and went on speaking, sucking away all of the brunet's ability to concentrate or think seriously.

The shadows of dread receded, chased away into the deepest confines of the garden by Kiryuu-sama's all-encompassing presence. With the sound of his voice, the sounds of nature all around them returned as well, coming back to life as the man went on speaking.

"I've invented a way to fly, Kaname. We'll soar among the clouds, and none of those people will ever be able to touch you again."

The brunet's eyebrows furrowed in surprise and he stared at the man, wondering if he'd heard him right. But Zero's seductive gaze was overwhelming, and the weirdness of his words didn't register as impossible in the world of the dream. Instead, it pleasantly distracted Kaname from the presence of that noisome presage still lurking in the background, and Zero continued, his melodious voice pulling Kaname into a trance-like wonder.

"You will see, Kaname, it will be wonderful. I have a special device called the Bloody Rose, which can put an end to all of your suffering at last... You'll be free to fly like a bird..."

The pureblood and the hunter laced their fingers together and Kaname looked up at the sky above, not understanding how this would be possible or what the 'device' was, but laughing happily at the thought of Kiryuu-sama holding him and them flying among the soft wispy clouds.

He clung to Zero's warmth, wistful and needy, afraid that this moment might not last, some of the desolation of reality still seeping through into the dream, making him feel cold and desperate.

I'm so afraid of being alone…

I've been alone for ten whole years, although they've felt like an entire eternity instead…

When you're here with me, it's the only time when I actually feel alive.

Please don't leave me alone again, please… please…

Tears formed in the brunet's eyes and he turned to the side, burying his face against Zero's stomach, holding back the urge to sob at the thought that the hunter could leave him to face the emptiness of eternity all alone again. He would much rather die.
But Zero's gentle voice lulled the brunet and shooed his fears away momentarily, until Kaname finally relaxed enough again and sank into an even deeper sleep, the dream and the link to reality both fading into oblivion right as Zero was telling him something about the clouds being edible and tasting like the cream puffs he had brought Kaname before, and which the pureblood so loved.

The hunter's warmth and his strong arms kept Kaname's fears and nightmares at bay, but reality was still terribly bleak and difficult.

Laying next to him on the bed, Zero held him tightly, tucking the brunet's head under his chin, kissing his hair as Kaname slept, and wishing the world was a less gruesome place.

Let the storm come another day. Today, I'll hold you close and wish tomorrow was nothing but a nightmare. I'll wish for a world in which I could spirit you away from this shithole and never let anyone else touch you ever again.

Or if that's impossible, at least a world in which I would have the courage to actually shoot you and put an end to your suffering and slavery once and for all.

But I don't think I ever would have that courage in this world.

No matter how much that might be the only way I have to save you from this horror.

Of all impossible things to want… As a hunter, I should have chosen anyone else to get attached to, and yet, I just can't help it.

I want your gentle smile and your kind hands.

I just can't help wanting to protect you regardless of who you are.

Is that such an unforgivable thing...?

.

.

.

[tbc]

Post-chapter note:

I feel compelled to mention it, since the fic touches on the subject of Kaname being unsure on how to kiss etc./feeling lost when being kissed, that this is an inevitable thing for a fic in which he is in the situation he is in in CoB, since life in the brothel made him terribly skilled at certain activities but completely lost when it comes to matters of the heart... ^^
This kind of subject when it comes to kissing has been covered in other fics also (the best of them probably being "Blood Ink and Ecstasy" by KagamichiHime, which is an amazing fic and which you definitely should read if you haven't already!), but I wanted to clarify that Kaname's reactions etc. to kissing (and to other various things) had been planned as a plot element in CoB from the beginning (several years ago), and are not something I put in to imitate BIaE or any other fics.

It just happens that CoB is horribly slow and long, and so, things I had already planned to put in it also show up in other fics before they get to happen in CoB.
But since the stories are independent and neither me nor the authors of other fics touching on such subjects took the idea(s) from one another, such things just happen to be common elements between the fics simply because they are inevitable plot elements for this kind of situation, much like bondage etc. would also be.

I know no one would think the idea was pilfered from anywhere, but I can't help mentioning it anyway just in case, whenever I notice that there's anything in one of my fics that's a plot element in common with other stories as well.*paranoid*

...And I also mention it because I just wanted any excuse to pimp the lovely "Blood Ink and Ecstasy" again, since it's such a wonderful story. XD
Go read it if you haven't yet, it's one of the most delicious fics on the whole site! :D

And sorry for the dramatic-sounding cliffhanger with the mention of Bloody Rose during the dream, btw. XD; *couldn't resist*
But... don't worry too much, it's like so many things in the VK manga, it's to be cliffhangery and all tragic-sounding. XD *lol*

And speaking of the manga, you probably noticed that a number of quotes that both Kaname and Zero use for Yuuki in the manga, or that Yuuki uses for them, show up in various places throughout CoB, in a Zero x Kaname setting instead. XD *has fun doing that*
(Such as the mention of Zero wanting Kaname's smile and gentle hands, or Kaname's realization that he feels so strongly for Zero that it's okay even if he gets betrayed. And various other such tidbits throughout the chapters. ^^)

As usual for CoB, the chapter titles are all chunks of lyrics from songs from the band HIM, btw. ^^ It's one of my favorite bands, and a bit of a tradition for this fic in particular.

Hopefully the next chapter should be updated much faster than this time around... ^^; *crosses fingers*
I've already started writing 26, and it's already over 4,000 words long (so far, mostly of Kaname being adorably delighted over them having kissed, and cutely rolling around in bed inhaling the Zero-scented-sheets and so on XD), so hopefully it should be updated at a more decent rate if I don't get swallowed by busy RL or anything. ^^

NOTE: If you are wondering why Zero and Kaname both behave slightly differently than they do in VK, it's because while they are still the same people, they have lived very different lives from the ones they had in the normal VK storyline, so it inevitably influenced their outlook of the world and the way they react to various things:

Zero still grew up among hunters, but he wasn't present at the death of his parents, and was never turned into a vampire, so his hatred for the whole species never went to the extremes it has in the series. (The death of his parents was a tragedy, but the memory of the war was still somewhat recent too, Zero didn't lose everything like he had in normal VK, and as a result in the end it didn't have exactly the same effect.)
Imagine the sweet and gentle Zero we've seen in flashbacks with Ichiru etc, and how he might have turned out to be if he'd grown up more self-assured and without the self-loathing and anger of turning into a vampire.

Kaname on the other hand, is of course still a pureblood and in part influenced by the way he was raised, but he has also been a slave for the past ten years, and is much too used to being beaten for no reason, so by now he knows to put up a mask of fake submission, and is a lot more careful than he was when he'd just been captured.
On top of that, Kaname didn't go through the same things he did in the manga, so he didn't get used as much to the same type of powergames and mental struggles from the same type of more cold/calculating viewpoint. The type of abuse he's suffered after the war was a lot more direct and lacking in subtlety.

To give a more exact idea: take the innocent and trusting Kaname from the flashbacks in the manga (yes, that same Kaname that chairman Cross would say was so innocent and each time cutely fell for whatever story the chairman made up), and then imagine how he might turn out if instead of having had to learn to manipulate people under his authority, he was captured while still innocent and gentle, and was completely traumatized by years of slavery and constant abuse. (I'm going with the setting that vampires hit puberty earlier than humans, for survival reasons.)

Keep in mind this is AU, so a lot of the settings are different, some just a little, others a lot, so of course that inevitably affects how the characters are, even if they are still the same characters. ;D Certain details change.