I suppose that, if I have time for two ongoing stories, I should be working on "Sweet Dream or Beautiful Nightmare?". But...I'm at a loss with that one. I mean, I promise that I will continue it, but...it may take a while. In the meantime, for the Zeki fans, I have begun an anthology about Zero and Yuki's early years together. It is a collection of interconnected fluff and drabbles focusing on the early years of Zero and Yuki's relationship, so bascially everthing prior to their years at Cross Academy. Yes, the title was taken from a David Archuleta song...yes, I am a dork. But I thought that the song reflected their youth well, especially Zero's. Plus roses are a prevelant image in the series. That being said, the following is a tad angsty, but it's also an exploration on how Zero felt when he first met Yuki. Fluff comes next, when I get around to posting the next short story. Some of the stories will be based off of flashbacks and bonus chapters in the manga, and others will be original stories of my own design. I'm aware that I'm not the first to write something along these lines, but I hope that you enjoy it anyways! Happy readings.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight. This anthology of fluff and drabbles is purely for entertainment and purely fanmade.

The Boy Who Fell to Pieces

Present day~

Zero Kiryu's long, strangely elegant fingers paged through the old leather photo album, their graceful movements incongruous with their usual actions-taking the lives of his enemies, the vampires. Those beasts in human form.

However, tonight was not a time for such dark thoughts and musings. Tonight…this night he meant to relive one of his dearest memories. Namely, the night he had first been gifted with the light of the sun.

A pair of chocolate brown eyes smiled up at him from the page.

He settled back into his wing-backed arm chair, the leather creaking, hand resting on the protective plastic that sealed the page he was on, shut his eyes, and remembered…

Four years ago, a winter's night~

The trench coat that Cross had draped across Zero's bony shoulders was a heavy, warm weight, a weight that should have felt protective, given what Zero had just gone through, but instead rang with the sensation of being oppressive.

As Zero slid out of the low-slung antique car, the warm air from the heating vent met the cold air outside and created a steam that melded with Zero's puffs of breath. He felt his face go numb with the sudden assault of temperature change, but it was nothing compared to how he felt on the inside.

Not horrified. Not scared or traumatized or disillusioned. Zero Kiryu, just recently aged twelve years, was completely and totally numb on the inside. He was a rose that wasn't merely touched by the frost, filigreed with ice on the edges; rather, he was a rose that had been frost-bitten down to its very core, frozen inside and out.

Zero was fully aware that his face was a meld of blankness and a cold sort of hatred, the only emotion that he had left in his arsenal. As the warm, kind hands of Cross descended onto the ridges of his shoulders, Zero fought the urge to jerk away. He doubted that he would ever get used to the touch of another person ever again.

Even though what had done this to him, to his family, could hardly be counted as a person. More like a monster that had taken on the pretense of human shape, a mask that had been ripped away like so much wet silk when those maws had clamped down on Zero's throat.

The wound had healed, but it still itched and throbbed. Zero felt every pulsing itch as Cross steered him gently by the shoulders to a small, elegant house. Zero would have shivered at the cold wind that blasted him from all sides, but his numbness was his savior in this case.

He was too cold for the wind to compete.

As they neared the front side of the house, the door creaked open, and light spilled out, a hallow that glowed around a small, slight silhouette.

The small, high, wind-chime voice reached Zero's ears before the sight of the person did.

"Headmaster…?" The small voice trailed off questioningly.

Zero had gone numb on the inside, had been numb since the members of the Hunter's Guild had found him sprawled out and wounded in his home, but the sight of this young girl struck a strange chord on one of his numbed-out heart strings. It wasn't anything that Zero recognized. It wasn't love, or even liking, but rather a certain…awe.

There was nothing special about the girl, not openly, anyway. She was perhaps his age, maybe a bit younger, and about an inch shorter than he was. But he'd always been on the small side, in spite of his wiry toughness. Her slim, childish figure was encased in a baggy white turtle neck, a short pleated skirt, and loose knee socks. Chocolate hair streamed in straight waves to her waist, and eyes that were nearly the exact same color stared out of a passably pretty face with open curiosity. Her feet were braced slightly apart, one tiny hand resting on the door jamb, as if to brace the door open.

Zero's expression remained passive, but something inside of him was reacting in a way that it never had before.

He gripped the edges of the trench coat tighter.

"Yuki, this Zero Kiryu," Cross said in a voice that was so warm, his fatherly love for the little girl was quite obvious, in spite of his grave tone, "his family was attacked by a bad vampire. He'll be staying with us from now on."

A "bad" vampire? If he'd had laughter left inside of him, Zero would have barked out loud in disdainful, black humor. All vampires were "bad". The only good leech was a dead leech. Somewhat tolerant of the species before now, Zero had come to realize that they were all monsters.

"Help him clean up, Yuki," Cross instructed. "As you can clearly see, he's covered in blood." Oh. The blood must have been splattered across Zero's face where the trench coat didn't hide his skin. "I need to go to the police." With a small wave of his hand, Cross exited, shutting the winter night outside as he closed the front door behind him.

"Um," the young girl, Yuki, was clearly at a momentary loss for what she should do. But resolve took up camp on her features, her gentle eyes shining at Zero, curiosity replaced by concern. "May I…" She took a tentative step forward. "…may I touch you?"

Zero made no reply, although his insides were screaming, "Get away from me, don't touch me, don't!" Apparently taking his silence as assent, the young girl took up a position just behind and to the left of Zero, hands falling into place on his shoulders.

"This way," she instructed softly, steering him down the hallway of this warm, dim place much as Cross had steered him through the cold, blind night.

Zero was too occupied with being dumbstruck to take in his new surroundings. Instead of feeling disgusted and fearful at this girl's touch, he felt a strange…familiarity, a sort of belonging and calm that made no sense whatsoever. He was yet numb on the inside, true, but a new feeling was taking up space slowly, inexorably, competing for room with the ice sculpture in Zero's narrow chest.

Inside the bathroom, Yuki Cross faced him and asked gently, "May I remove your coat?"

He didn't answer, only stared at her. She slid the coat to the ground, and it landed with a muffled thump as it gave in to gravity. She flinched at the blood that was splattered across Zero's neck, face, and upper chest like morbid paint. But relief shone in those eyes of her when she noticed the lack of wounds. Her chest seemed to expand on a breath.

Padding over to the tub, she dipped a small hand towel into the steaming water and rung it out. Returning to the still-as-a-statue Zero, she asked, once more, "May I touch you?"

He didn't answer, but the cries of, "No, don't touch me," had given way to soft murmurs of, "Please, please touch me."

Zero could scarcely understand it. His silence was no longer born of hatred, but rather of shock. What was with this girl, with her kind eyes, her gentle hands that stroked the towel over Zero's skin, cleansing him?

Zero remained in his shocked state even as Yuki Cross helped him prepare for bed, changing him into a fresh set of pajamas that had been borrowed from her own drawers-thank god they were unisex-as if he were a small child. She even went so far as to draw the covers of his new bed down and tuck him in.

A seed of irritation took root, another emotion that he had never expected to feel again, along with surprise and a tentative, young sort of…trust?

Couldn't be.

Zero's body adjusted to the contours of this new mattress, a mattress that would be his for the foreseeable future. How could he ever sleep in a strange bed, in a strange dark room? How could he…

Yuki Cross, who hadn't left in spite of the strong go-away waves that were radiating from Zero's small, prone body, had scooted her little behind into a chair, dragged it to his bedside, and was now stroking his hair.

Her lips were tilted upwards in an angelic smile, her passably pretty face transforming to youthful beauty. Her chocolate eyes were brimming with infinite tenderness, her hand gentler than even Zero's mother' s touch had been.

A vampire huntress never had much time for her children and the little niceties of caring for them, even if she loved them dearly.

"It's okay, Zero-kun," Yuki Cross cooed, her hand stroking Zero's hair to the side in a soothing rhythm that kept tempo with her tiny voice, "I'm here. You're safe."

Zero glared up at her, both resenting this uninvited touch and yet starving for more. Unshaken by his animosity, Yuki Cross continued to pet him as if he were a feral kitten, gentle and persuasive. She hummed beneath her breath.

Against both his will and better judgment, Zero's eyes went heavy, and he began to dose, all sensations save for the gentle stroking of his hair fading. His world narrowed down to the gentle hand and sweet humming of Yuki Cross. Zero Kiryu fell into the warm, drowsy arms of sleep, and the ice sculpture that sealed his heart began to crack and fall to pieces.

The Boy Who Fell to Pieces/End

The next story will be entitled "Princess or Angel? Zero Discovers A New Emotion", and will be out soon. I forgot to mention, but while these stories are interconnected stand-alones, they will take place in a chronological order, progressing from this incident to right before Zero and Yuki enter the Academy. Please review, and thanks for reading,

~Night