So, at this point, everyone knows that I was forced to remove Lemon Island and its mature content due to the Eliminator Forum vicious attacking and trolling me. I'm going to move ALL my mature stories to a new website. If you're just as sick of this as I am, please join our cause to bring freedom back to Fanfiction!

Avenger Forum link, remove spaces and *: www. fanfiction. n*e*t /forum/Avenger/119079 (All information can be found in the Supporter forum.)

The Rebellion Forum link, remove spaces and *: www. fanfiction. n*e*t /forum/The-Rebellion/114259/ (Most forums are banding together here.)

Petition for an MA rating link, remove spaces and *: www. change. o*r*g /petitions/fanfiction-net-we-want-fanfiction-to-create-a-ma-rating

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Anyway, I have MOVED this story COMPLETELY to another site. You can find this STORY and all its subsequent UPDATES here: h*t*t*p*:/archiveofourown. o*r*g/works/699478

I have the same penname there as I do here: ParadiseAvenger

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For Aoionette. Bitter.

Summary: Zero hadn't seen Yuuki in over a year. What would be enough to bring her back?

X X X

Kiryu Zero realized on the mortician's slab that he thought about death far too much. He also hated to admit that the Level E had gotten the better of him and put him in this state. When a woman passing by had seen a bloodied young man in Cross Academy's trademark black-and-white uniform, she had immediately called for an ambulance. And, being a vampire and also having lost a lot of blood, Zero's heart had temporarily stopped beating so the EMTs pronounced him dead and now he was in the morgue on a cold slab waiting to be outfitted for a coffin and a tombstone. But, being a vampire, once his healing abilities came back into play and his body began to heal, his heart started beating again and he woke up rather confused and very aware of how much he thought about death.

Lying there, naked, the epiphany struck him like a solid shot by the anti-vampire Bloody Rose gun he always carried but was now probably boxed up somewhere and labeled with 'Personal Effects to be Collected by the Next of Kin.'

His whole world since Yuuki left was nothing but death.

During the night, he guarded the students of the Day Class from death at the Night Class's hands. By day, he hunted Level Es in the city and thought about hunting down the pureblood vampires. When he slept, he dreamed about Hiou Shizuka killing his family or about devouring Ichiru's essence or about Yuuki. Sometimes, he even thought about taking his own life—thought about how easy it would be since he carried a gun on his person day in and day out.

Death.

Death.

Death.

It was always death.

Maybe he should think about changing his name to the Grim Reaper, Kiryu Zero. Surely there was an anti-vampire scythe out there somewhere. Yuuki's Artemis Rod had turned into a scythe under her vampire influence. Maybe he should start using that rather than his gun and live up to his daily thoughts about death.

The coroner was puttering around the morgue, humming some classical score to himself. His life was also death, Zero realized. Maybe there was something inherently wrong with both of them. Life shouldn't really be about death.

Death was what came at the end when everything else was over.

Zero nearly laughed out loud at that thought, but stifled it because he didn't want to scare the daylights out of the coroner. (Dead people on the slab aren't supposed to laugh, after all. They're supposed to just lay there and be dead.) He was a vampire—for all intents and purposes, he was already dead and yet he was still living. Death would have to come for Kiryu Zero twice. Actually, since he had just died for a second time, the Reaper would probably have to come a third time. But with Zero's luck, he would live forever, always just out of the reach of death.

The coroner was beginning to get his tools of the trade set up in the stand beside the slab Zero was lying on. Zero didn't want to give the guy a heart attack, but he'd have to get out of here before the coroner started cutting on him. Cross Kaien would surely have gotten a call and was probably on his way here now to save his 'cute student' or in this case his 'adopted son,' but Zero would have to take matters into his own hands if the headmaster didn't get here soon.

The phone rang.

The coroner stopped his humming and went to answer it. "The John Doe? Yeah, I've got him on the slab. What? Someone's here to take a look at him. Okay, I'll meet him in the hallway. Yeah, okay. Bye." He finished up his conversation, peeled off his rubber gloves, and left the morgue.

Zero sat up immediately and looked around. There were three windows in the morgue with frosted glass and easy-to-open interior latches. It was the perfect escape route for the living-dead vampire-hunter-turned-vampire to leave by. Since Zero was a little naked with no idea where his clothes were, he snagged the coroner's lab coat from the back of his chair, scrambled out the window, and was gone. He was certain the coroner was going to be scratching his head over this one for a long time to come. Dead bodies don't just walk out of the morgue, not even in cheap zombie movies.

On the street outside the hospital, dusk was falling and it was chilly. Zero was certain he was conspicuous in his bare feet and stolen lab coat, but he tried to pretend he belonged there. It wasn't hard to get people to mind their own business with a simple glower and cold stare.

He was halfway to the Academy when he smelled the unmistakable nostalgic scent.

Zero froze in his tracks, looking around for the source and squeezing the lab coat shut over his naked body with one hand. For a long moment, he didn't seen anything and he almost thought he had imagined it after his near-death experience, but then he caught a glimpse of long chocolate-brown hair just as the young woman turned the corner.

He knew it was her.

It couldn't be anyone else, it just couldn't.

Kuran née Cross Yuuki—his childhood friend, his closest ally, his first and last love, and his mortal enemy.

But what was she doing here?

Didn't she remember that he had promised to kill her the next time they met? Maybe she, like him, was tired of her life being nothing but death. Maybe, she was ready to die. No, that couldn't be it! Not Yuuki. Yuuki loved life… at least, she had when she had been human…

Zero hustled and caught up with her in the alley. Her scent was stronger here. He could smell her blood singing in her veins and hear her heartbeat even though she was dead like him. He grabbed her wrist tightly, spinning her to face him.

A small yelp of surprise escaped her as she looked up into his face. Her chocolate eyes were glistening with unshed tears, the pulse in her throat hammering, her lips slightly chapped, her long hair tangled and stringy, but god, she was so beautiful. In his cold hand, her skin was warm and painfully alive. Was he the only vampire that was truly dead? Maybe he was just dead inside…

"What are you doing here?" he demanded of her, his fingers digging into her flesh.

She moaned in half-realized pain. God, she had missed his touch. The feeling of his skin now lit her blood on fire from the inside out.

"Well?" Zero snapped.

Yuuki's eyes strayed over his body. Maybe she was looking for his anti-vampire gun, trying to decipher whether or not her life was in danger. Didn't she know he wouldn't need a gun to kill her? Her body was so thin and small he could break her like a twig. It turned out to be none of those things, though. Slowly, with his eyes fastened on her every move, she slipped her hands within the top of his stolen lab coat and laid her hands on the naked curve of his ribs. Her fingers fit perfectly into each hollow groove.

"So thin, Zero," she breathed out. "Are you starving yourself to death again?"

There it was again. That word, as if he couldn't escape it—death.

It was always death.

He yanked away from her and growled out, now holding the white lab coat closed with both hands. "What are you doing here?" he demanded again. It wasn't fair that she could just come back into his life and disrupt all the walls he had so carefully built around himself.

"The chairman called me," Yuuki said. "He said that you might be dead."

"I am," Zero snapped at her.

Her lips pulled in a pained smile. "Aren't we all?"

He stared at her, dumbstruck. This wasn't the Yuuki who had left over a year ago. She had become a living-dead pureblood vampire, but deep inside, even he could still see the human Yuuki's cheerfulness and care. Something in Yuuki was dead, just like something inside of him was dead.

"I'll go," she said to him. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright." And then, she turned to leave him once again.

It was animal impulse or maybe something just a little bit deeper that made him desperately grab her wrist and pull her back to him once more. Her body fell into him as if this was all she had wanted and she wrapped her arms around him tightly. Zero held her tightly, uncaring of all the death and pain twisted up in both their lives. In his arms, she was warm and so alive and he could feel his own heart beating a mile a minute that he couldn't even believe that both of them were really dead.

"I missed you, Zero," she sobbed into his chest. "When I thought you were dead, I just… I couldn't go on. I had to see you. I had to come."

He squeezed her to him, burying his face in her thick hair. Her scent, even mingled with the pureblood of a Kuran, was so wistful that it nearly broke his heart. This was it… this was why his life was death. He couldn't live without her. "Yuuki…" he breathed.

Then, he gently pushed her back so he could look into her face. She was so beautiful, even with her eyes red-rimmed from crying and her face streaked with tears. She was perfect to him, no matter what she had become or what she ever did. Yuuki was still Yuuki, his everything.

Zero dipped his head and kissed her.

For a moment, she feared that she would push him away. She was supposed to be engaged to that pureblood prince, Kuran Kaname, and Zero knew she loved that bastard deep inside her secret heart. But she didn't. Instead, her fingers twined through his silver-white hair and pulled him closer, her tongue darting out hotly to lick his lower lip. He opened his mouth to her, his own tongue darting out to meet hers. It was sloppy, it was careless, it was something both of them completely poured their hearts into. Truthfully, it was their first kiss all over again, but this time… Yuuki's confusion was gone. The first time they had kissed, Zero could taste her insecurity. Yes, she cared for him, but she cared for Kaname too. Now, that confusion was gone. He didn't dare think what that meant.

As if she could read his mind, she whispered, "It's you, Zero."

He enveloped her inside his arms, pulling her so tightly to him it was as if he wanted her to live inside his skin with him. His kiss became powerful and wild, his feelings pouring into her through their connection. She pressed her hands to his chest and forced him back a little, panting.

"Let's get out of the alley," she said. "We can," she blushed, "continue this at the Academy."

"I don't care who sees," he said, his voice raspy.

She huddled into his chest, her face burning. "I know, but… I want my first time to be in a bed."

Zero's heart skipped a beat. "But you've been with Kuran for over a—"

She was shaking her head. "I haven't… I," she hesitated. "I couldn't."

A small part of Zero swelled with pride and happiness. "Were you… waiting?"

"In a way, I suppose," she confessed.

He kissed her again, but didn't deepen it. Then, he took her warm small hand and together, they walked back to the Academy. The chairman, like the coroner, was probably back at the hospital, scratching his head wondering where Zero had gotten off to butt-naked and without his gun, but Zero hardly cared. Life wasn't about death anymore. It was about Yuuki.

X X X

And I removed the original mature content that continued from that point due to the trolls. Please join the cause to bring maturity to Fanfiction again. Or read this story and all its updates in its original version on Archive of Our Own.