I'm back with more!

Enjoy.

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Chapter 21

Kiryuu Zero is mending.

A certain silverette groaned in discomfort, he was sleeping on his stomach, right arm under him and his hand gripping his side lightly. His other hand lay limp next to his head.

'Ugh I need to buy new shirts' Zero thought, wait when did he even put this shirt on? He vaguely remembered feeling cold, getting up and throwing anything on. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea since he could feel the bloody shirt sticking to his front; his bandages probably mangled after last night's events.

The hunter grumbled softly; he didn't want to think about last night yet, and right now he needed to get up and clean all this mess on his body. He had a bad pulsing headache and found it hard to open his eyes, his body felt groggy, dazed from the deep sleep and the intake of such a variety of blood.

Yes, Zero was given so much blood generously; he could almost feel each individual reverberate through him. The cheerful and joyous Takuma, the genius and self-assured Aido, the loyal and protective Kain, Shiki's self-sacrifice and submission, and finally the pureblood's calm demeanor but fierce and definite authority. The ex-human groaned again as a wave of memories washed through him, 'No!' he clinched his eyes willing himself to focus on the present for now. Silver lashes fluttered as he tried opening his glued eyes slowly; thankfully the lights were dim, thick curtains preventing the little light the late afternoon sun offered. Zero blinked repeatedly trying to focus his blurred vision, an empty neat bed came into view; the pureblood long gone. The hunter sighed in relief closing his tired eyes; he didn't really want to deal with anyone at the moment, he was sore, confused and quite uncomfortable with all the caked bloody bandages and dried sweat.

The hunter's wishes were not met however; for the next time he opened his eyes, blonde hair and big blue irises filled his view.

"Oh, Kiryuu-kun, you're awake! That's good; this will be much easier then!" Hanabusa Aido chirped none too quietly.

"Hey! Idiot, don't raise your voice like that! Can't you do it gently?" A certain noble female huffed in annoyance "Seriously!" She exclaimed flipping her long fair hair back.

"Shut up! Since when do you care Ruka!?" Aido exploded in anger, missing the slight blush that creeped on the other noble's cheeks.

"Aah, calm down you two, look at Kiryuu-kun…he's so confused" Akatsuki Kain sighed as he pointed at the hunter occupying the bed. Two heads turned towards the hunter

Zero had pushed himself off his stomach and was half sitting up, his arms supporting his weight, his head now turned towards the vampires. His silver hair was sticking in every direction and messy strands partially covered his pale face, his lips slightly parted and clouded lilac eyes gaped at them in awe, the usual frown missing from his forehead. The ex-hunter looked so endearing, like a small child lost in a market; they've never seen that expression on Kiryuu Zero before which is probably why it was even more precious.

"Ah! Kiryuu-kun," Aido finally broke the silence clapping his hand together "I'm here to change your bandages, they look bad, I bet they're uncomfortable right? Oh man you even have a shirt on!? That's going to make things more difficult! When did you put it on? I could swear you were shirtless the last time I saw you. Bloody mess, how are you feeling?! " The overtalkative blonde continued moving towards the night stand that harbored a large amount of disinfectants and clean bandages.

"…Aa…I…" Zero started but didn't trust his voice and only managed to nod instead.

"Don't know why these two tagged along though" Aido grunted pouting and gesturing with his head towards the two other nobles.

"I'm here to make sure you don't end up bothering Zero-kun too much!" Ruka spat in absolute anger it was almost comical, pointing at Aido accusingly.

Zero's eyebrows shot up in surprise before he could hide it 'Zero-kun?'

"Eeeeeh?! Why would I bother him! I'm the one taking care of his injuries! Aaah seriously can you stop this! You've been going on since yesterday…Zero-kun this, Zero-kun that…" Aido bellowed, daring as usual.

"What did you say? I dare you repeat that, you idiot, good for nothing-" more creative insults followed.

"Oi, come on you two, Aido sto-"

"You always take her side, what the hell! Not fair!"

"Whaaa…hmm…really? I don't ta-"

"Because I'm always right! You little..."

The bickering sounds faded in the background as Zero closed his eyes sighing, a warmness tugged at his heart. He was planning on avoiding everyone now because he wanted to spare them, and he, the awkwardness but he didn't expect the vampires to act like this. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that at the moment the nobles were trying to be considerate. What surprised him more is that he wasn't annoyed by it, he was actually impressed. He had always thought that these vampires were merely hidden monsters, wolves in sheep skin, that they only acted like humans to maintain the image of the academy and the so-called peaceful coexistence. But now he just witnessed something deeply humane; consideration was not an easy trait and not even many humans possessed it.

The hunter groaned inwardly in annoyance; when did he start thinking of these vampires in such ways, he even dared to compare them with humans! He was Kiryuu Zero, the hunter whose family was slaughtered by a vampire and who was turned into a vampire against his will; he hated vampires, didn't he? However, in the back of his mind, the silverette knew it was not logical to hate an entire species because of only one vampire's deeds. Zero specifically held a grudge towards Purebloods, his resentment towards the rest of the vampire race was because of the way they worshipped purebloods. 'They don't worship them, they desire them; or more specifically, they desired their blood' Zero thought bitterly, it was pathetic really; he should feel sorry for purebloods, if only they hadn't murdered his family and ruined his life. But what about purebloods? Did he really hate them all? Yes he did! For four years! B-but last night that, that pureblood…

All this thinking made Zero's headache worse, "..Ah.." He winced as he felt his temple suddenly throb faster, he felt bile rising up but knew it would not leave his throat; 'it must be a bloody migraine' he thought. He felt the room spinning; he realized late that his arms were shaking and before he knew it his elbows buckled under his weight.

"Kiryuu-Kun!" Zero registered someone shouting his name, a couple of gasps, strong arms held him up just in time, the ginger noble had one arm stretched across his chest supporting his weight, his other hand was resting on the hunter's lower back. Zero appreciated the sudden lack of arguing voices, his aching head sighing in relief at the silence.

The redhead moved slowly trying to lay the grunting hunter on his back gently, but he was stopped by a familiar hand, he turned to his cousin with a questioning look.

"No, we need to remove his old bandages and clean up the wound before it gets infected, help me keep him up" Aidou explained in a renewed serious tone, Kain nodded and moved to sit behind the hunter placing his arms on the silverette's shaking shoulders. Kain frowned as he noticed the sheen of sweat forming on the hunter's skin; it was obviously a struggle for him to stay upright.

"Ruka, you need to inform the dorm vice-president of the situation, and tell him that Kain and I won't be attending classes today," he paused taking pity on Ruka's uncertain expression, she is quite strong and is not usually shaken easily but Aido knew that she had developed some sort of an attachment to the hunter. And right now he could see the hesitance to leave written all over her small face. "And tell him that we have the situation under control. Ruka," he continued, she looked up at him searching his eyes for a lie. "It's okay, it's nothing major, he passed the fatal stage, it's just that his injury was quite deep and so it won't heal so fast without proper treatment" 'even with the help of the pureblood' Aido finished the sentence in his mind. He kept a determined but comforting eye-contact with Ruka; he felt like he owed her an explanation just to keep her mind at ease. "Plus if it was serious I would have asked you to inform Kaname-sama but it truly is nothing major, so please believe me" he said so sincerely and softly that it was hard to believe they both were just having an argument minutes ago.

"A-Alright then" Ruka finally whispered in hesitation before she turned on her heels, and exited the room.

It was silent for a few moments...

"Ho~Okay~" The blonde huffed in a sing-song tone as he turned towards the bed; his cousin was looking up at him in appreciation for the way he dealt with Ruka. Kain knew that it wasn't really that important for Takuma to know about this but he knew that Ruka probably shouldn't be here; both for her sake and the hunter's. Ruka would only feel responsible if she saw the hunter in more pain, and Kiryuu would probably be uncomfortable too with both her guilt and having a lot of people in the room while he is in this state.

"Help me take it off" Aido directed already unbuttoning Zero's drenched shirt, both nobles tried to peel the shirt off the caked blood as gentle as possible not to agitate the wound. It was futile though, and the hunter hissed in pain, his lips shut in a thin line as he took deep shuddering breaths through his nose. The shirt was finally off however, and they could now take a good look at his injured side.

The blonde cursed under his breath even though he was already expecting this. The blood had seeped through the bandages and hardened around the injury during the night; the blood was probably old, before the hunter's deep insides were mended with pureblood and stopped the bleeding.

Aidou shuffled; getting all of the tools he needed ready and within arms' reach, kain's wondering eyes followed him around. The redhead looked down at the silverette noticing with worry that he was gradually holding more and more of the hunter's tense weight. He looked up at his cousin to let him know, only to see him holding up a pair of metal scissors.

"Alright…so I'm going to cut the bandages that are not stuck first, don't panic if you feel something cold!" The blonde nagged casually trying to lighten the situation, he already noticed that the hunter's eyes were shut tight and his silver eyebrows met in a deep frown.

The bandages were cut easily and removed from around the hunter's torso, leaving only the ones stuck to the wound.

"Okay, let's see how bad it is…bear with me for a bit" Aido said as he bent close to the hunter's side, he placed his shaky fingers on the edge of the bandages and moved them to test the situation. A firm hand suddenly grasped his wrist in a death grip.

"Ungggh…" the hunter groaned as pain shot through him, it started from the peeled bandages, moved across his stomach, up his back and shoulders and landed in his throat. He shuddered in disgust, he could smell the caked blood and the dirty bandages and before he knew it, he had fully slumped against the broad chest behind him as he let out an agonized sigh.

"…Hah…Huff…Huff…Hah…" He breathed quickly through his now gaping mouth, deep breathes forgotten. His eyes closed slowly as he tried to slow his breathing, tried to focus on something else other than the lump in his throat, or the flaming, throbbing wound, or the ache in his temple, 'Ugh' or the drops of sweat that rolled down his face and back teasingly making him more agitated. God, it hurt! He has never been this hurt before in his whole miserable short life as a hunter. The pure blood he drank yesterday really helped mostly in mending his, organs, bones; there was too much damage for it to heal everything.

"kiryuu-kun! Kiryuu-kun? Are you okay?" Kain was shaking his shoulders, shouting in his ear, and if only Zero wasn't too busy trying to breath he would have told the noble to shut the hell up.

"Aaaah, sorry, Sorry! Bad move!" Aido squeaked raising both hands in the air. The hunter opened one eye and managed to shoot one of his infamous death glares at the blonde. The hunter soon relaxed however; as he felt kain's warm hands rubbing his back trying to ease his breathing. "I just wanted to see how bad it was, sorry..." Aido mumbled as he made his way towards the bathroom and came back with a bowl full of warm water.

"Alright this will make it much better Kiryuu-kun, but I honestly can't promise zero pain, you have to withstand it"

The hunter let out a strangled chuckle.

"W-what?"

"What is it?"

Both nobles wondered at the same time.

"Z-Zero…P-pain?" Zero repeated, amused with Aido's choice of words.

"Pfffft" He heard Kain by his ear and saw Aido scoff at him while rolling his blue eyes.

"Well, since you're making jokes I guess you're ready" Aido couldn't help but grin amused by the hunter's coping mechanism.

"Umm, Aido? Why don't you use some sort of a painkiller?" Kain asked innocently but was answered with an exaggerated sigh.

"Well, Kain because it won't work, and before you ask why, it's because I don't really have a strong enough anesthetic, it has never been made or needed for pure blood so far" The blonde shot his cousin an annoyed look when his cousin didn't show any comprehension. "Kiryuu has Kaname- sama's blood and any new intrusion to his body would cause the blood to treat it as a threat and try to solve it instead of prioritizing his actual wounds. Hence causing even more harm" Aido said in a rushed, low voice before turning his eyes to the hunter again, he knew this conversation is awkward for the hunter and just wanted to end it.

"Now, take a deep breath Kiryuu-kun!" The blonde ordered, and Zero did.

Warm water was squeezed from a cloth and onto its target, wetting the bandages and breaking the blood gradually. With each squeeze Aido would peel off a bit of the bandages and Zero would grind his teeth more. It was much better than peeling it raw but it still jostled the wound.

"Hey" Aido murmured stopping suddenly and demanding Zero to open his eyes and look at him "we've reached the hard part" So far the blonde has been removing around the wound, he tried trimming what he peeled off so far to make the cloth smaller and easier to control. The silverette nodded earnestly answering Aido's unasked question, it's almost over, then he can have that week of rest he promised his tattered body.

As soon as the noble squeezed the water and started peeling the bloody bandages Zero took it all back. He decided he was okay if this dirty cloth was stuck to him for the rest of his life. His eyes shot wide open, eyebrows joined, teeth clenched, his head flew back now bumping into the tall noble's shoulder. One of his hands clenched the sheets till his knuckles turned white, the other hand shot up holding on to the first thing it reached which happened to be Kain's forearm.

"HAA…HUFF…S-STOP…UGH...WA-WAIT...HUFF..." Zero knew he sounded pathetic but he didn't care at the moment, the pain was excruciating, his side throbbed, the bile was rising up again, and his eyes filled with unshed tears and dark spots.

"AIDO! STOP!" Kain finally barked as he understood that his cousin wasn't planning on seizing his ministrations. Zero's grip on the redhead's forearm was painful now, and from his angle, Kain could clearly see the hunter's agonized expression. "J-just…let him rest for a while." He stuttered sorely.

"Look! I know it's painful! But it's better to be done with once and for all!" Aido bellowed angrily feeling attacked and the need to defend his position. "If we keep coming ba-"

"I-it's o-okay…" The hunter cut him faintly gesturing with his head to his flaming side, Zero knew that the blonde was right, it was better to have the pain once rather than having it gradually. He gulped thickly, closing his eyes, clamping his hands and nodding vigorously.

Aido didn't need any more encouragement; he immediately got to the task trying to work as swiftly and gently as possible. And from then on it was just sounds of pained grunts and whispered reassurances.

"Huff…Hah..nmm.."

"Shhh...It's okay"

"..Oh Gh-God…nnngaaah.."

"Almost done"

"…shit…uggggh…"

"I swear, Kiryuu-kun...shhh"

"...Hah...ughnnm..."

"Last part"

"Huff…Huff...you...Nnm...said...ugh...that…befo~AAANGGH!" The hunter arched his neck and back feeling his whole body shiver in agony.

"There, Done!" The blonde said cheerfully holding up the last piece of bloody bandages for Zero to see.

"Aaah" the hunter sighed, slumping back in exhaustion, his upper body flushed against the warm broad chest supporting him.

His eyelids felt like they weighed tons, his mouth was dry from all the gasping and his throat hoarse from all the screaming, his hands unclenched their hold and his whole body felt numb. His headache was significantly better now and the throbbing in his side was slowly but surely dulling. He could hear voices around him but couldn't really place a full sentence, he felt like a radio tuning in one second and then tuning out the next. He could however feel the vibrations from the chest he was resting against

"Uumm... I believe he's about to pass out" Kain mumbled bending his head and taking a look at the dazed hunter.

Aido took a look at the undone silver head. "Yeah, I would be too" he said with a sympathetic smile." Alright Kiryuu-kun, I'm sorry but it's not quite over yet" the blonde murmured as he got up to get clean water.

Glazed violet eyes merely fluttered in response, the hunter sighed soundlessly, and silver head turned and was buried in the crook of the taller noble's neck.

The noble stiffened for a moment at the hunter's unusual behavior. "He must be really out of it" he mumbled to himself exhaling soundly. After a couple of seconds the noble stiffened again as he felt warm breath on him. He turned his attention to the silverette in his arms; he could feel heat radiating from him in waves. Alerted, Kain's head shot up towards the bathroom to find Aido was already back and crouching by the bed.

"Oi, I think he has a…fever" The redhead started urgently but only whispered the last word as he caught the knowing look on his cousin's face.

"Yes, I was hoping we would be quick enough to avoid it, but I guess not." The blonde shrugged walking to the bedside table and picking up a pill pack and a glass of water. "It should be fine though, he just needs medicine and some rest, is fever is not that high and it won't last with his wounds all cleaned up" He continued moving closer to the hunter.

"Hold his chin up, he needs to swallow this" Aido said holding up the small pill.

"I thought you said it doesn't work"

"It doesn't work if it threatening body function like an aesthetic, this is for reducing his fever, it will help instead so his body shouldn't complain, but I've chosen a strong one in any case, let's hope it works" The blonde shrugged.

The tall noble nodded and shifted, his left palm pressed against the silverette's forehead and gently tilted it backwards, his other hand slid under the hunter's chin; long graceful fingers prying the loose jaw open and holding it firmly.

"Nnmm" glossy amethyst eyes fluttered in annoyance and confusion.

"Kiryuu-kun, I'm giving you some medicine for the fever, we will leave you to rest after that, promise." Aido comforted as he placed the pill in the ex-human's mouth followed immediately by the water.

"Ugh" Zero moaned gurgling in discomfort as the water and pill washed down his sore throat, his body stiffened as he opted to coughing for a few seconds before he let out a sigh as his body went completely limp and he collapsed against Kain.

"Kiryuu-kun?" the tall noble exclaimed in shock.

"Don't worry he is fine, he's just exhausted, let's finish cleaning and dressing the wound so he can get some sleep" Aido reassured as he got to work.

Zero was so deliciously tired; he felt numb and couldn't move a finger. Not just his body but his head also felt fuzzy and disconnected. He signed in contempt; it was the good kind of tired, like when you sleep after a long week of exams or when you take a nap in the afternoon's warm sunlight after a long morning. He could feel a warm cloth on his side, cleaning him up carefully, and then another set of new bandages were being wrapped around his torso. His face was also wiped with the warm cloth before he was moved gently to lie on his back which he realized ached from sitting too long and tensing so much. He sighed in satisfaction as he felt each knot in his body loosen, and finally gave in to the darkness.

~~~~LINE~~~~

EPILOGUE

"Hehehehe, I'm going to get the camera, I can use this to black mail him!" Aido chuckled an evil grin adorning his face.

"I don't think I've ever seen him smiling before" Kain pouted, frowning in confusion.

"Huhuhu, He looks so contempt like a child who was just allowed to nap." Ruka beamed with heart eyes.

"Or a baby vampire that just had his first feeding" Aido snorted.

"Or a kitten that just fell asleep after a long day of exploring!" Takuma exclaimed clasping his hands together.

"Or like a pocky that fell out of the box and is now-"

"Oh dear Lord, Shiki can you not relate everything to pocky plea-"

"Pocky is the perfect way to describe anything." Rima said raising a delicate eyebrow at Ruka and patting Shiki's head.

"Are you saying that Zero-kun is a pocky!?" Ruka barked.

"Aaah" Kain sighed face palming "How did we get here?"

~~~~LINE~~~~

I really hope you guys liked all that whumpy Zer/Aido/Kain bonding! I try as always to keep them in character, but I guess it's hard with Zero slowly becoming their friend. However, reading the new Vampire Knight Memories the possibilities are endless!

I'm sorry for the long waits, but it's hard to be inspired and find time with work and life. Like I said, this story is very dear to me and I will always come back, so please always welcome me too.