A/N: I will announce, right now, that this one's really weird, and that if you guys could spare some time, tell me if you're actually interested in seeing more, because as of right now, things are very vague and unusual with this. *pouts in confusion at her own story* But, it will without a doubt, be a KxZ fic (one of the very certain points), so for fellow yaoi fans, yay!

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Cracked Diamond

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Quiet concerned murmurs buzzed through the air, only seeming to add to the dark silence that surrounded them. Keen ears listened carefully to the heavy pants and groans that were coupled with piercing agonized screams, patiently waiting to hear a second voice join the first. Hands fisted in barely concealed anticipation and anxiousness. Backs and shoulders were hard with tension, just waiting…

At the first new wave of long wails, the concerned murmurs changed to relieved sighs and smiles, which soon changed to confused exclamations as the sound of a second wave of wails joining the first.

…Twins?

No, no, they frowned. Not twins, it couldn't be twins. Twins would mean…

"It's two boys," a soft female voice spoke up, "Yuri-sama has delivered us two boys."

"Twins? How can that be?"

"We were expecting one child; one heir."

"One Bearer."

"There is only one Bearer."

"Yes, the older, Zero-sama, however, the younger? What of Ichiru-sama?"

There was a moment of silence before another one of them spoke, their expression contemplative. "We do not necessarily need to view this negatively. They are twins. We can use the fact to our advantage."

"What are you…?"

"Two boys, completely identical in appearance, and we only need one. Why not just use one?"

"You mean to—"

"Yes, they will both be considered heirs to our line. Ichiru will be Zero's double. Keep the two separated; neither of them needn't know they have a twin in the first place."

"Yes…yes," one of them breathed, their eyes widening with realization, "We keep Ichiru-sama as Zero-sama's cover. As the Bearer, he will be in constant danger. It's only logical to have a spare, to keep him safe." There were several other enlightened murmurs and thoughtful nods.

"I see we are in total agreement."

"Wh-why…? Where are you taking Zero?" Yuri asked anxiously. One of the young maids shushed her, soothing her back. She impatiently waved her off, keeping her eyes on the Elder holding her firstborn. "Where are you taking him?"

"Not to worry, Yuri-sama, we are just going to keep him safe."

"Then why aren't you taking Ichiru with him?"

"Ichiru-sama is meant for a different future, Yuri-sama."

"What are you talking about?" She felt her heart drop to her stomach. What were they doing with her babies?

"Zero-sama will be kept safe in the Inner Garden. There is nothing to worry for him, and there won't be. Please, relax, Yuri-sama, you mustn't strain yourself in your condition."

"The Inner Garden?" Yuri's eyes widened. The Inner Garden referred to the inner most sections of the entire house, the center place, a place not but a few servants and chosen individuals were allowed to enter. It was nearly completely isolated from the rest of the household, and although it wasn't any less small or extravagant, the most anyone would be able to experience of the outside world was a surrounding garden. Did they plan to keep her son locked up, in the inner folds of the house, for his entire life? She couldn't call that protection.

"He, he doesn't need to," she protested. "Every other Bearer has lived normally, without having to step foot in the Garden."

"The circumstances are different for Zero-sama," he murmured. "All other previous Bearers had no choice but to place themselves in a position of constant danger. This time, we have a chance to prevent any harm from happening to him. Bearers are the heart of our line, you know this Yuri-sama."

"And Ichiru? What are you planning for him?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Yuri-sama, you must get your rest," he held the newborn close to his chest, and made to turn, heading for the door. Closing his eyes, he ignored his Mistress' pleas and demands, pushing himself to just keep moving forward, knowing this must be done in order to keep his young Master safe.

Kiryuu Ichiru was aware, ever since he could remember, that there was something he wasn't being told about. Something big. Since the moment he could understand what he was seeing, he caught sight of servants whispering, his relatives sharing knowing looks, and more than anything, the glances they would send him when they thought he wasn't looking.

But he was the rightful heir. There should be nothing he didn't know about that concerned his family. He was the one to take on the mantle of lord when he came of age, and that was only a few years off. He'd assumed, whatever they were hiding from him, he would know by then.

"…so beautifully innocent…"

"…so different from…"

Ichiru narrowed his eyes as he heard the maids go by his room. The paper doors didn't exactly mean for soundproof walls or rooms. His concentration broken, he paused in the middle of his calligraphy, and placed his brush down.

There they went again. The servants' whispers. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence. In fact, it happened much too often for his liking. He'd been curious about it as a child, but in recent days, it only worked to irritate him. He'd only get to hear snippets of their line of conversation, vague words with even vaguer contents he could make no sense out of.

He put in much effort to seem discreet as he tried to figure out what they were speaking of, when he was younger, acting as though he were a detective with a mystery to solve, but as he realized there were no forthcoming answers to his questions, he soon tired of it and focused his attentions elsewhere.

Ichiru sighed. How easy it was, back then, to switch gears towards another subject. He wished, in some ways, to have been able to retain that blissful ignorance, as he would then have no reason to have his mind suffer in circles about what could be so 'beautifully innocent' or 'so different'.

With every day that passed, his curiosity only grew hungrier, getting harder to keep back. What was his family hiding from him? What was so important they needed to keep him, the direct heir, in the dark about? He'd thought they could trust him, as he'd come to feel for them. Was it something so damaging? For they would tell him if it were it something more positive.

His lips lifted in a slight smile as he imagined his Elders acting as though they were children trying to keep from getting caught by their parents.

"Ichiru-sama?"

"Yes, what is it?" A slender hand pushed aside the door, parting it enough to show her face, and keeping her eyes lowered, the maid answered, "Tsumugi-sama has asked for you to meet with him."

"Same room as always?"

"Yes, Ichiru-sama." He nodded to show he understood, and the young maid bowed lightly before quietly sliding the door closed.

Resigned to not finishing his calligraphy at all, Ichiru cleaned up his station and neatly placed everything back.

"Tsumugi-sama?"

"Ah, Ichiru-sama," the elderly man smiled warmly. "Please, come in." His frail hands gently closed the thin book he'd been perusing, setting it down the on the polished wood in front of him. "I apologize for the short notice, Ichiru-sama, but I feel you might be ready." He motioned for the younger man to scoot closer.

"Ready for what?"

Tsumugi rubbed his jaw, looking all of his seventy-five years, as he murmured, "For what you've always wanted to know…"

Ichiru narrowed his eyes. "And what have I wanted to know?" Tsumugi raised an amused brow and chortled. "We've raised you well…"

Ever since Zero could remember, he'd been in the Inner Garden. He'd never once ventured outside of its boundaries, and hadn't ever felt a need to. The one time that came close to happening, it'd been due to his mother, who, under the pretenses of just wanting to see him, tried to take him with her, but ended up getting caught and resulting in severe punishment, as well as forfeiting the right to visit him any longer.

He had been three.

Supposedly, he'd missed not being able to see her, and had had tearful fits, but as of now, at the age of sixteen, more than a decade after the incident, he could not say that he remembered anything at all about his mother.

He was told stories, that she'd been a fairly attractive woman, and she'd passed down her delicate features to him, as well as how kind she was, and how she'd only wanted what was best for him when trying to take him with her. The household servants all seemed very sympathetic when speaking of his mother.

'She was a wonderful Mistress.'

Mm, it was unfortunate she'd died when he was eleven. Though they'd held a service for her, he hadn't been able to go, and had one of his caretakers bring him a portion of her ashes so that he may keep a part of her with him; if not in life, then in death.

She'd been the only direct family he knew of (he couldn't really count the Elders as family, just annoying old men that didn't know when to stop talking), and although he remembered nothing of her, that small connection tied them together. Mother and Son. It meant something special, didn't it?

Other than his mother and the Elders, there were only a few servants he came into regular contact with, and only one of them deigned to talk to him normally. He'd first thought all the others had been afraid of him, and was relieved to find that they were not afraid of him, but afraid for him.

Somehow, they'd convinced themselves into thinking they'd…taint him or ruin him, if they didn't keep their distance. He'd of course, thought it ridiculous. He wasn't made of rice paper. But as inane as the idea was to him, it held true for the servants, and the only constant human company he'd had since he was a boy, was Michiko, a kind motherly woman that'd taken care of him since he were a babe.

"Zero-sama, your tea?"

"Hm?" Soft lilac eyes never moved from the page. Stifling a smile, Michiko repeated, "Zero-sama, your tea."

A slender hand reached out, and lightly shaking her head, Michiko carefully wrapped his fingers around the tea mug, making sure his grip was strong enough before letting go. "Drink with caution, please, it's still hot."

"I'm well aware," came the quiet whisper, and pink lips parted to blow softly against the tea before the mug was tipped against his mouth. But before the warm liquid could ever make it to his tongue, several loud voices interrupted, followed by stampeding footsteps. Zero thought he could even feel the vibrations, especially as the noise grew louder as it approached his room.

Michiko stood up in concern, reaching for the door, wondering what could be making such a commotion, and gasped as the door was roughly slid open, a piercing snap echoing throughout the room. Her eyes widened as she realized who was standing in front of her. Giving a quick bow, she murmured an apology and stood aside to them in.

Ichiru stepped in, staring down in astonishment at the figure of his older twin. "My god…you, you're really here…"

"And you?" Zero asked softly. "What are you doing here, with a face identical to my own?"

His doppelganger (that was what one's double was called, no?) seemed to recover from whatever shock it was going through to answer, "Ichiru… We are twins. I have just been told about you."

Now it was Zero's turn to be surprised. "Twins… I didn't know I had a brother…" He murmured, his gaze focused on the scenery outside, watching the sun shine down on the flowers. He took no notice of his newly discovered brother's eyes darkening.

"You do, and you are the older of the two of us," he revealed, his voice sharp. "The true heir, the Bearer," he snarled.

At the intense aggression in his brother's words, Zero turned to his younger twin. "Yes, that was what I've been told," he looked back down at his book with a wistful airiness before shutting it and putting it aside. It seemed this was no time for idle reading. "They have kept this from you?"

"Yes, they have kept this from me," Ichiru's face was twisted in anger, and a lot of it, Zero thought with faint concern. "I've been nothing but a replaceable pawn to them! My life, my entire life, I've been raised to be your spare," he spat out. "Everything, they did for you, everything, they did to protect you!"

Zero looked up at his fuming brother with the slightest of frowns marring his face. "Must you yell?" He asked softly. "You look fevered, you need to calm yourself." He referred to his brother's flushed cheeks, waving a hand to the space next to him. "Sit and have some tea. It'll relax you."

Ichiru let out a scoffing, incredulous laugh. "My whole purpose in life has just turned out to be one huge lie, and you're telling me to calm myself? No, I am not having tea," he snapped out harshly when his brother still raised a cup of tea in his direction. "It's good to see you are so, so forgiving of all of this, brother, but I can understand – you are still the heir, the ever important Bearer, but what am I? Do I not have any value to them? What have I ever meant more to them than the spare they can get rid of at any opportunity?" His laughter this time, was breathless, mirthless, and utterly broken.

"All that they've taught me, all that they've raised me to be…" He slowly shook his head, "I honestly do not know who I am anymore."

Zero watched him with soft eyes. He could understand Ichiru's anger at being lied to his entire life, but he disliked him sounding so lost over it. So what if your life turned out to be different than you expected? Things were so much more interesting that way. The stories he read always had such twists and turns, giving out one surprise after another. It made it a joy to read.

"You are Kiryuu Ichiru," Zero patted the space beside him again. "And you are my brother. You still should have tea."

Ichiru stared, unable to comprehend his older twin's thought process, and ran an uncertain hand through his hair before scratching his neck and plopping down in the area indicated. "Are you really so unaffected? They've practically kept you prisoner here for sixteen years. You are also a victim. How can you feel nothing?" He whispered, resignedly accepting the tea that was offered.

Zero lightly rubbed a slender thumb against his mug. "I do feel some things. I'm not happy with their lies, and them having kept us apart in this way, but for now," he tilted his head with a smile, "I'm more interested in knowing about the brother I didn't know I had."

When remembering the first day he'd met his brother, Zero always wondered how they'd made things work out of such a messed up situation. After that, they'd gotten along fairly well, as well as brothers could get along, he supposed, but really, it seemed rather amazing. Things could've been so much worse. His brother could have held so much more resentment towards him, but he didn't, and they'd both learned to see each other as comrades of a sort, stuck in the same boat, barely trying to keep afloat.

But he mistook his brother's lack of anger towards himself as Ichiru starting to heal from the cruel turn his life had taken. He'd no idea his younger brother's anger was building day by day towards another target – the Elders. He'd no idea, and hadn't known until it was much too late.

It wasn't as though he felt regret for not saving the lives lost that day, he couldn't muster up much guilt over that, no, but he did blame himself for not having seen his brother's pain in time to stop him. Ichiru needn't go to such measures for revenge. But, Zero supposed, his brother did have a rather vindictive streak, and he couldn't say he'd been surprised by what he'd orchestrated.

On one hot, dry summer night, the entire Kiryuu household had been subject to mass murder. Ichiru and Zero were the only two spared. They'd been in the Inner Garden when it happened. By the time he'd realized anything was happening at all, the house around the Inner Garden had collapsed to nothing, a single woman standing amongst the rubble and crushed bodies.

She was beautiful, Zero remembered, and he'd known, just from looking at her, that she was one of them, a member of the elite, a descendant of one of the last remaining lines – a Kahou, another of the treasured Floras.

But it was from that very group Zero needed protection from, or at least, that was what the Elders had always told him. There were very few Kahous left, and as a Bearer, they'd do anything to have him in their grasp to use to their advantage.

"Shizuka-san, you weren't being light at all when you mentioned you'd finish them off with a 'bang'," Ichiru called out wryly, looking around at what was once their home.

"I never get a chance to exercise my strength. It's only natural that I do, when given the opportunity," she smoothly replied, her voice soft, yet piercing. Neither of the twins had trouble hearing her at all.

"Understandable, but we need to really make it out of here, my brother needs to go." He waved towards his older twin who was looking around curiously, crouching on the open porch to squint out at the pile of broken wood and ceramics, as well as some of the dead bodies lying under them.

Shizuka huffed a sigh and walked over to them, extending her hands to each of their shoulders before smiling. The next second Zero was alone, left to stand outside a western building, three stories high, and rather large.

Not really knowing what else to do (he'd never encountered an actual western door), he tilted his head and reached for what he assumed was the only thing that would open the door in front of him, first pulling in several directions, before figuring out that it turned, and was about to push it, when someone else pulled the door open from his grasp.

A dark haired woman, nearly a head shorter, smiled up at him. "Sorry for being a little late, of course you'd get impatient, huh? Come in, come in, you're Zero-kun right? Shizuka-san said to expect you. You'll be staying with us for a while."

Confused, Zero let her lead him inside. "And you are?" He asked.

"Oh! So sorry, I'm just so excited to have a new boy in the house," she giggled, "I'm Juri, you'll meet everyone else later. They're out right now."

"Out?"

"Mm," she nodded, "just a bit of shopping. Shizuka-san is always so my-pace, we never get any warning when she tells us things like this."

Not really understanding much besides the woman, Shizuka, having sent him here, and seemingly on short notice for these people, Zero bowed lightly. "Sorry for the trouble," he murmured.

"That's fine, you don't need to apologize for anything," she waved a hand, "are you hungry? How about some bacon and mayonnaise?"

It would be the first of many weird encounters he'd have with Juri's quirky taste in food.

"I suppose…"

Diclaimer: No own Vampire Knight.

Thanks for reading! :D

...And yeah, it's weird, I know...