Author's Note: First fanfic in years! Hopefully the characters aren't too OOC. Reviews are GREATLY appreciated!
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Zero. Vampire Knight is solely Matsuri Hino's.

I.

The only thing left is a broken thread, a fragile vestige of the messy tapestry of their story. He had thought – believed, hoped, dreaded – it abandoned to the snatching winds, swallowed by the greedy abyss of time. But as he watches the vampires mingle and masquerade (the way she did) he knows that some tattered scraps of them (purposes, promises, and passions) still remain. And Zero knows better than to unearth them from the deep, dusty spaces of his heart.

II.

Shift. Silence.

The crowd holds its breath upon Yuuki's entrance. Zero realizes that he holds his own breath with them.

III.

Breathe in…breathe out…strive for apathy. It eludes Zero, but he's not pursuing it anymore.

His world diminishes into her, only her. He searches for everything that makes her Yuuki but only discovers everything that doesn't. Her lengthened locks. Her small smile. The smothered spark in her eyes. The grace in her glide. Her arm on Kuran's (that does not belong).

He's still searching.

IV.

Zero's eyes send a silent, unconscious plea. It's as if she hears. (Or maybe she's just searching too.) Yuuki turns. And suddenly Zero finds that last wisp of thread, severed by a kiss a year ago. It dangles (taunts, tempts).

V.

Gazes lock. Throw away the key. Her sigh sings a secret into Zero's ears.

VI.

His world broadens again as he turns away from her, but it's a blur of motion, colors, and noise. Meaningless. Heavy.

Then the scent of fresh blood, delectable and disgusting, coats the air. For a moment he fears (wishes) that Yuuki is the source. But instead, a pureblood vampire – murderer, monster, beautiful savage – cuts a wide swath in the crowd, stopping to smile at a jostled Yori. Cold fury propels Zero's feet forward just as the vampire reaches for her.

VII.

Zero's there in an instant, grabbing the vampire's wrist.

"Don't go touching a human so easily, pureblood."

VIII.

For a moment, he doesn't know whether his sharp words are meant for the pureblood before him only.

IX.

He almost enjoys the shocked murmurs and protests of the crowd, until one voice – piercingly distinct – floats over to him.

"Please let me through!"

It takes Zero a heartbeat to spot her amidst the crushing mass of the crowd. It takes Yuuki even swifter to arrive (with wings on her feet).

X.

She doesn't look at him.

XI.

He doesn't exist in her eyes. (Yet.) He's dissolved into the blood-tainted air.

XII.

Finally, she looks at him, and he's made whole again. But her face is a mask of innocence and indifference.

Her eyes drown him in want. He wants to rip off that mask and see (truth, lies, and meaning). He wants to unravel her to her core. He wants to taste her, kiss her, keep her, break her, tear her, make her bleed the way he does (flowingandflowingandflowing). He wants her to feel, to forget and remember.

XIII.

He realizes want is need.

XIV.

Her hand on his arm. Gentle, firm, and familiar; too familiar. New threads of fire – delicious, dangerous – snake up under his skin, weaving him into another tapestry of deception and despair with her. He doesn't, doesn't, does, does want it.

Too much.

XV.

"Don't…touch me."