A/N – In case I forgot to mention, Yuki is 16 and Zero is 18 in this fic. Also, Yuki is not related to Kaname in this, because that would ruin my plot something drastic.

Chapter 2

Quiet footsteps and a shadow sliding across the polished wood table announced to Yuki that she had a customer, and so she slid a bookmark into the crisp pages of the book that she brought with her specifically for slow mornings such as this. The shop opened early, so as to accommodate for the tired mess of businessmen getting their early caffeine fix, but that always left several hours of near silence save for the occasional jogger before the main rush flooded in.

So she was pretty shocked when she looked up and saw the world's laziest person glaring down at her.

"Can you tell me where I might find Ando-sama?"

"What are you doing up?" Yuki's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she stared at him, unable to keep the words from spilling out. "You're never up this early!"

Zero raised one delicate silver eyebrow, an action that was somehow too gentle for his dark, daunting eyes. "How would you know?"

"You've skipped breakfast and been late for school every day this week."

"And that's enough time for you to observe my sleeping habits?"

"I, well, yes!" Yuki glared at him. "I have no other assumption to go on, when you've been late 100% of the time so far."

"Around 87% now."

"Huh…" Yuki tried to wrap her head around the rather quick maths on Zero's part. Damnit, she didn't even know if he was right. "Well, how may I help you?" Yuki smiled, plastering on her 'talking to customers' face that made Zero's face soften slightly until it very almost resembled a small smile.

"If you'd been listening, you'd have heard me ask for Ando-sama."

"Is she your girlfriend? Is that why you're on time?"

"Why? Jealous?"

"Wha-no! But she is working right now! You shouldn't be asking her to slack on with you! Then I'll have to deal with this place all by myself!"

"Well then, it's a good thing I'm not here to ask her to slack off."

"Then why are you here so early?"

"I think that turning up late might show a bad work ethic."

"You thought right." Both Yuki and Zero turned to see a tall, curvy brunette woman leaning against the doorframe that led into the office.

"Ando-sama!" Yuki gasped out. How much of their conversation had she heard?

"Zero Kiryu, am I correct?"

"Yes, miss."

"Hmm," A small smirk curved her lips at the word 'miss'. "I think you'll do fine here. So long as you can be polite to customers." She pointed to her office. "I'll go over your hours and duties with you quickly, and then you can get straight to work. And Yuki," She called as she vanished back inside the small room. "I prefer the slightly less moody type."

888

Yuki sighed as she poured what had to be thirtieth pineapple cooler in a row. Whenever a group of children came in, it only took one of them to actually think of something, and then the rest of them would copy. She plastered on the 'talking to children' out of her range of work smiles and bent down to hand it to the blonde little girl. "Here you go sweetheart."

"Thank you miss!"

"You're very welcome." Yuki passed one more smile to the parents and then skulked back round to stand with Zero behind the till.

"Don't any of them think for themselves?" He asked quietly, drumming his nails on the counter.

"They're children, Zero. Of course they don't."

"So you always copied someone else as a child?"

Yuki's breath left her in one large gasp as she thought. She didn't know. Would she have copied off someone else? Or had she already a mind of her own? She remembered copying Kaname for a while, but that was just because she didn't know any better, and she trusted him to find something that she's like. Had she been so dependant before? She wasn't at all dependant now. But had she been then?

"Yuki?"

"Ah, I guess so, yes!" Yuki ruffled her hair up awkwardly as she turned towards the door to watch for another customer.

Did it bother her that she didn't know? Yes, it did. But there was no sense in lingering over it.

"What did you and Kaname mean when you were talking on Monday?"

"About what?" Zero frowned at her sudden change of topic. "We don't talk much."

"Kaname doesn't do drugs. Why did you call him a 'doped chav'." Yuki frowned at him. "And he's not a chav!" She barked out furiously.

Zero rolled his eyes. "Call him what you like. It doesn't matter to me either way."

"Of course it doesn't! You seem to hate him!"

"I don't know him well enough to hate him."

Another thought struck her. "Why are you staying at the Youth Hostel?"

Zero shot her a deep look, analysing her closely before turning away with a shake of his head. "That's none of your concern."

"Maybe not, but I'm nosy enough to want to know."

Zero sighed. "Of course you are."

"So you gonna tell me?"

"No."

"Well that's just rude! People who come to stay at the Hostel obviously need help, and you need to tell me what's wrong before I can help you! You have insulted Kaname is front of me, after already arguing with him for no reason! You avoided me when I tried to show you around during school this week and you won't answer any of my questions! You are just so rude!"

"Are you always this forceful in your attack?"

"Why are you even in my class anyway? You're older than me, and you're clearly not stupid!"

"Thank you for the compliment."

"You didn't answer my question!"

"Because you didn't ask me politely, and you seem to forget that I have no obligation whatsoever to answer you."

"I would like to know."

"So that you can help me?"

"Yes!"

"Then you should let me help you."

"I don't need any help!"

"Yeah, how about with Kaname?"

Yuki head snapped up sharply to glare at him coldly. "What do you mean?"

"I think that what I mean is obvious, or at the very least will be soon."

Yuki opened her mouth to reply but the words vanished as a new line of customers came up to the till.

Yeah, this was going to be a long shift.

888

Kaien Cross smiled happily as he bumbled down the hall to collect his guests for the evening. "Yuki, Zero!" he called happily, knocking on each of their doors. "I know you're both in there! Neither of you were here for dinner, so I thought we could eat together and get to know each other better."

"-Thank you but I've already eaten."

"-I'm tired and I would like to have an early night."

Kaien frowned as the excuses came in. Obviously there was a problem between Yuki and Zero already, after not even a week together. He hadn't seen them together in school either, other than when they were in lessons. It looked like this could become a major problem if he didn't interfere any time soon. He'd have to sort this out as quickly as possible.

"I will not take no for an answer. I would like some company while I eat, and I would like you two to join me. And since I have been in the kitchen since the two of you got back Zero, I highly doubt that you have eaten anything yet. Yuki, you had about 13 hours sleep last night. If you are that tired I shall have to call a doctor."

For the sake of argument Yuki wanted to point out that she wasn't necessarily asleep for the entire time, but the look on his face said that he was not going to back down in any way. She might as well just give in. That would be easiest for everyone.

"Ok." She murmured, a hint of annoyance slicing through her as Zero nodded his consent too.

"Good." Cross smiled brightly at them, a bright smile that was enough to set anyone off edge. "Let's go."

It felt awkward sat across from Zero like this, is the dark room. Kaien had always preferred fire or small delicate lights to massive, inelegant lights that too brightly filled the entire room. It felt calmer to him, and less professional than the lights that he worked under every day. His home was also a workplace, and he liked to be able to differentiate between the two.

One of the many reasons why Yuki was quite honestly confused to be here, sat across from a new inhabitant. The group ate as exactly that in the evenings – a group, using it as an opportunity to offer advice and companionship in a friendly, social atmosphere. It was important to anyone who needed help to realise that they didn't have to be in some stuffy office to discuss and deal with their problems. The moment it seized to be quite as frightening it was easier to get a handle of.

This was something else entirely.

Kaien watched the two closely, waiting for any kind of verbal interaction to take place but it wasn't looking very likely. He sighed. They were both such stubborn characters.

He only hoped that he was correct in his assumption that they were far too old to throw food.

A/N –Well, that was chapter two. Thank you very much to k.a.a-inu for reviewing and TamashiiWolf for subscribing. I think I wrote Kiriyu instead of Kiryu in the first chapter…:( My apologies.

Thank you for reading,

Kashi-Cookie-Monster

xxxx