Scene #340: A Kidnapper's Responsibility

Owner	Pose
Zero Kiryu	"You abducted me! From my house!" Notwithstanding that Zero had done so in reaction to self-harm and a breakdown, it had been true that upon delivering notice of his orders to Yuuki Kuran... he had simply taken her away without giving much opportunity to pack or have somebody pack for her. He had therefore resolved to run an errand for her the following day, which is exactly what he did first thing in the morning. Without telling her, or anyone, that he was leaving or what he was doing. He had left behind a mess of blood tablet packages, and nothing else. Not so much as a note. It's been hours since then, and he's only just now returning to the apartment building. It's an older one, owned by Kaien Cross, and it's seen better days since Zero started living in it. The man himself is dressed in his usual academy clothing, but he's long since passed the point of day where he was wearing it /well/. His tie hangs undone around his neck, his shirt is partially unbuttoned, and he generally looks unprofessional as hell. At present he is pushing a rather large cart in through the doorway. It's quite loaded, too! A much heavier front door probably designed to be a heavy-duty security door, and a more typical door for the interior office as well. There's other various repair supplies, and on top of all of it is a trunk. Inside the trunk is a wardrobe for Yuuki. It is entirely made of Cross Academy uniforms. There is not a single normal piece of clothing in there.
Yuuki Kuran	Zero would find that his early morning excursions had not gone without a peep. When he had left, in the morning, Yuuki had been curled up on his couch, with her winter coat draped over her form and using her arm as a pillow. The apartment that Zero returns to is... slightly different, in that it has been ineptly, if earnestly cleaned. Ineptly in the fact that Yuuki has never actually had to professionally clean so her job is not the level of a professional vampire maid that has dedicated their life to cleaning up a giant mansion. This is all to say, Yuuki broke into Zero's office and cleaned up aggressively, most things shuffled around and all of the empty blood tablet containers collected and disposed of. Which is great! But she kind of messed up his everything in Zero's office in her Great Quest for Trash. As he returns, Yuuki sits nursing a cup of coffee at the kitchen table and looking dead tired. Next to her is a small black container of her own tablets, a pair resting atop, as if she intended to take them. "Oh! Zero. You're back. I thought you were going to be back..." She looks around for a clock, before pulling out her cell phone and checking the time there. It's really late in the afternoon. "... Sooner." She finishes, as she kicks back the cup of coffee and slides the two tablets back into her container before pocketing it. She had obviously been awake waiting for him. "I cleaned up for you. You know, you look like some horrible addict to someone if they didn't know it's not drugs you're taking. Did you... Buy /doors/? I really could have just called up and got some /human/ contractors to fix this place up. Normal people, you know, who take money instead of orders from their vampire princess lord whatever."
Zero Kiryu	For the moment, Zero doesn't take the time to look around closely. Otherwise he might notice that everything's been messed up. He stops by the front door, pulling the heavier of the two doors from the cart and setting it up against the wall. He does so with an unnatural ease for the size and weight of it, barely seeming to recognize what an unwieldy thing it is. He shuts the damaged door behind him and presses further into the apartment, unloading the second door next to the open doorway of his office, and the various tools just to one side on the inside of the office. "I look like a horrible addict because I am a horrible addict." He says to Yuuki, as he folds the cart up to a more manageable size and leans it up against the wall next to the door. The self-hatred doesn't seem as strong in him today... it is more matter-of-factly than it is aggravated. He lifts the trunk up off of the ground one-handed, and sets it down next to Yuuki at the table. "I brought you some clothes." Zero says, moving around her at the table to fetch a glass from his cabinets. He seats himself across from her after a moment of moving around out of sight. It's a rather large, tall glass. More like the kind you'd serve an ice cream dessert in than an actual drinking glass, but... he just dumps an entire paper packet full of blood tablets in and lets them start dissolving. Evidently, Zero has realized he's not going to be able to avoid doing things like this in front of Yuuki with her around all the time, but he still looks a little bit... ashamed? Guilty? It's hard to identify the exact feeling, other than unhappy and perhaps a bit embarassed. "Why are you cleaning up after me?" He asks her, after seeming on the verge of saying something for an awfully long while. This is not the exact conversation that he wanted to have, and maybe it shows a bit. Something is bugging him, even if he's not able to approach it directly.
Yuuki Kuran	"... Okay, fair. But we all are. Just like we're horribly addicted to breathing, and sleeping, and eating. You're... You take more blood pills in a day than the entire Night Class did put together. You should be satisfied with one, or two, a day. They taste foul, on top of that!" Yuuki protests, before reaching into her coat pocket, and placing a small stoppered vial onto the table. Inside is, of course, exactly what you think it is. A full medical test-tube worth of blood. Her blood. Placed in the center of the table, Yuuki goes back to sipping at her coffee. "I'm fine with this. You need control, and to be more stable, and if I'm around, it's the least I can do. I'm being responsible - this is a responsible thing. You're doing me a service, so I'm... paying you." She finishes. She looks away from his sundae-glass full of blood tablets. "I... I'm worried, Zero. Worried about you. And if I go try to help people, these aren't level E's that we'll be fighting - it'll be real, dangerous things. I want you to protect me from them. And I want you to also... protect everyone else from me. I can't /control/ my powers yet. I'm still breaking everything I touch."
Zero Kiryu	"It's not the same." Zero can't keep the aggravation out of his voice, but there's no real rationality to it. He can't explain why it's not the same. There is of course a difference, in that his food source is people. But ultimately his discontent with his situation boils down to a slow-burning prejudice that he hadn't managed to rid himself of. No, not even for her. When they parted a year ago it was with unkind words and hatred, and that... that had been his fault. She had come to set things right, because that's just what she does. And he... couldn't cope. Right now, Zero is having trouble even making eye contact. He reaches out towards the glass of water-and-pills, now that the liquid has turned a faint pink color. But when something else is put forward, his reaction comes quickly. His gaze moves up towards the vial of blood in the middle of the table. The physical response isn't quite immediate. Just looking at him from across the table, Yuuki can see him fighting it for a few moments before mostly giving up. Lavendar eyes slowly come alive with red light, piercing through the dim lighting of the kitchen to bore into her. The glass in his hand bursts like an over-ripe fruit as he tenses a little too much. Shards of glass dig into his flesh and themselves draw blood, though not for very long. His regenerative abilities aren't like Yuuki's, but they're far beyond even a regular vampire... and these are not serious wounds. More subtly, Zero's breathing changes. It becomes heavier, and gradually accompanied by small vocalizations of -- pain, mostly. He's been starving himself, especially since Yuuki came back into his life, and having the food that he wants right here in front of him is almost too much. "Why... do you keep testing me? Why can't you just leave it alone?!" Zero growls in frustration, and it is here that it becomes evident that he IS still on the edge of fighting his impulses. He wants that blood desperately, and he's holding himself back from taking it. But maybe it's not the vial that is the concern here.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki is... Hopeful. She's hopeful that this, finally, is the way that she'll help Zero. That this option, this stipend of pure blood will help stabilize her friend, and it will be a business arrangement he can approve of. She hoped and she hoped and she hoped, and as he picked up the vial, her face lit up like a delighted christmas tree. He would finally accept help. She knew it. And then he threw it back into her face. And then he well and truly says Some Words. There is a crash, as the chair she was sitting on is thrown backwards into a crumpled heap of plastic bits as she shoots up out of it, hands slapping against the table and leaving dents. "You... You...! You IDIOT!" She cries, as her own eyes flash red. But this is not some bloodlost display, but instead a tell of her powers coming wobbily to bear. The floor and cieling around her spider with cracks as her frustration reaches a peak. "Test you? TEST you? Is that what you think this is? Is that... is that your answer? Why did you abduct me from my own house? You said that the next time you saw me, you'd kill me! And I said some equally stupid dreck about how I'd run from you, forever, and now we're here, sitting at your table, and I'm trying to help you, and you... You're... AAARGH!" She cries, the blood that had sprayed around as he crushed the glass rising up in the air to hover in small globules that casually disregarded gravity. Things were getting a little Heated. "And then you, of all people, decide the very best way to do this, the very best way to tell me know, is crush a glass of fake, disgusting blood, IN YOUR HANDS!" She takes a deep breath, trying to steady herself, trying to bring her rampant powers under control. "Leave it alone? Oh no, Zero, we are well past just you and I leaving it alone!" She growls, before dropping to her knees, panting and holding her thighs. "I only... wanted... to help you." She stammers, all that fury having given way to a deep sadness. "I wanted to do this, for you, so you'd not have to act like a vampire. You could just drink it, and not... use your fangs, or touch me, or do anything. It was neat, and it worked, and it let me feel like I could do something, for you." She murmurs, her big red eyes watery and wavering now.
Zero Kiryu	Quite the opposite of Yuuki's outbursts, what Zero is fighting is no mere emotional outpouring. He wants her blood so bad he can almost taste it already. The fact that it is being offered freely does not make it particularly acceptable, even now. The fact that the questions Yuuki has to ask him about all of this address all the worst parts of him aren't particularly helpful. His gaze remains hard and angry, and the glow of his eyes sharpens a little. He can't cope with both issues at once. One of them is going to have to be resolved. Here. Now. An almost-clawed hand stretches out, carving deep scars into the wood of the table as it drags the vial long it. Zero snatches it up and drains it empty like a thirsty man who found an oasis in the desert. The sensation of it is, to him at least, incomparable. He hasn't eaten properly in such a long time, and it's been a year since he tasted this exactly. But... but the satisfaction of it isn't enough to outweigh his feeling of disgust at needing it, and giving in. The empty vial rolls from his hand, onto his lap, and then again onto the floor. Not enough distance to shatter, but enough to make noise. Not that there's anything left in it. Zero was very thorough with what little time he took to drink it. His labored breath eases audibly as the pain of starvation and intense hunger flits away. But the hunger isn't gone entirely... and neither are his feelings of disgust. Zero grabs the edge of the table and FLIPS it away from them. It shatters on impact with a nearby counter, a leg snapping off as it strikes the counter at an odd angle, and with altogether too much force. He sinks from his chair onto his knees, and for all his strength of will cannot decide what he should do. His body takes action independently of much of his mind, and he finds himself crawling towards her along the floor. But it is not the posture of someone submissive, or begging. If he lunged and tried to bite Yuuki, it would only seem natural. But it doesn't happen. Just when it seems it might, he answers her, "I... do not believe that you have ever meant to hurt me. Or test me. But what we mean, and what we actually do, are not the same things." Zero moves up next to her, putting his back to the cabinets and staring without meaning to at Yuuki's neck. "I have already told you why I 'kidnapped' you." He raises a hand to brush the skin against his own neck and the tattoo there, "I hate vampires... and I can't stand being one. If I had disappeared with that woman, I think that I would have been satisfied." "You... are my natural enemy. But I don't hate you." He admits, though it is plain that he struggles to articulate exactly what he means.
Yuuki Kuran	There is a breath, that Yuuki didn't know she was holding after her rant, that the young pureblood exhales when Zero drinks the vial of blood, but the desired effect - catharsis and relief - is tempered by his condition. So as they sit there, after having broken YET MORE furniture (Zero will be running out of tables soon), on the floor. And as they sit, Zero has his time to speak. And as he speaks, the cracked floor under Yuuki shifts and creaks, but this time the girl manages to keep it in, her long touseled hair having fallen across her face and obscuring her eyes. "Zero... Only you would have been satisfied. Would you have died and left me all alone? Back then, I didn't have anyone else. And it feels like now, I don't have much more. If you look between you and Kaname, Kaname is off being the King, and I'm all alone. You... care. You came to save me, even from my own house. You're not your usual self around me, but you're..." She exhales deeply, her own glowing eyes shining between strands of her red-brown hair. "You're here, Zero. You're here with me, right now. And that matters. More than you possibly know. I was scared, Zero. I was scared of facing 'forever', and it was scary enough with Kaname. But I don't think I'd be able to face it alone. I keep asking people what forever is like, but nobody can really answer me. I don't /want/ to be like the others, taking five-hundred year naps and casually killing off the people that serve me because of some stupid... need. Some desire. I want to be me, I want to be Yuuki. If I have to be Kuran Yuuki, then... At least I can still try, right? So, Zero..." She scoots over, extending her bared wrist to him, at head-level. "Try with me. Try /for/ me. I don't want to go through forever alone. It's too much to bear."
Zero Kiryu	"Yeah. I would have." Zero states, simply. There is no coldness or bite to it. It is not a mean-spirited statement. He had already accepted that he was a man living on borrowed time, and the best he could hope for is just living a little while longer. To take the person who did that to him with him, and deny them the opportunity to do it ever again... that would have been satisfying enough. It's selfish, and he has other reasons for not fighting to stay with Yuuki then, but that is the primary reason. As far as he knew, as far as anybody knew, he was a dead man walking from the very start. It was only Yuuki who was really in the dark, there. Even Kaien must have known. It's strange, to think how permissive the Chairman was considering the circumstances. He might have drained somebody dry by the time the elder hunter had elected to take action. Yuuki, in the meantime, speaks of concerns that he will never have. It wouldn't surprise him if he had to be put down eventually, even if it wasn't because of Level E. More likely because he killed somebody important, or... for some other political reason. "Yuuki. I do care. But even if I did stay with you, I'm going to die before you. Because other people gave me what I needed to go on, I've been able to live longer than I should have... but that's all." He looks down towards the wrist being offered to him, and just looking at him it's easy to tell that he wants to drink very badly. Nevertheless, he is restraining himself, even when it seems unnecessary to do so. "In the end, no matter what, you will walk away from me. And I'm not... I know I'm not an easy person to deal with."
Yuuki Kuran	Zero says the exact opposite words that Yuuki wants to hear. That he would have died, becuase he would have been content, in that moment, with his death. It is a horrible thouht that Yuuki cannot banish from her mind. "In the end..." She repeats, then shakes her head, a tear running down her cheek. "Unless you bring me one, Zero, there isn't an end for me. Only for all the things I want. You're right. You'll die. So it's selfish of me to want to spend as much time as I can happily. I should begin my long forever tonight." She replies, without bite or hate or sarcasm. Just a sad agreement to his sentiment. She rifles through her now-dirty coat for her phone, pressing a few numbers numbly, before bringing the small slate to her ear. "Aido. Hire some humans to come fix Zero's house. I've done some damage to it. No. I'm fine. Thank you." She converses curtly with the vampire on the other end, no doubt waking him up at this hour, before dialing again. "Chairman? ... Yes, it's me. I'm sure you're happy. Listen, can I stay with you for a few days? Thanks a lot. No, I won't call you daddy while I'm there." Pulling her phone from her ear, her tear-filled glowing eyes and drapes of red-brown hair turn towards Zero... and Yuuki smiles. "I'm sorry for being a burden. I'll stay with Chairman Cross for a few days and then go home, I think." She offers,with only a single small sniffle. Then she gets up to gather her things. "I'll wait outside. He said he was sending down a car."
Zero Kiryu	Panic sets in immediately, and Zero doesn't give Yuuki a chance to walk outside or gather her things. He grabs at her wrist as soon as she gets up and tries to walk away. It's a selfish impulse, and not one that he troubles himself with fighting down. He looks desperate and repulsed at the same time, and the truth is... the last time he'd been drinking her blood, it wasn't him that she needed. Or at least, that's not how it seemed to him. Why does she need him now? Is it just neglect from the person she actually needs? A whim? Or something else? He doesn't know, but... Yuuki had gotten him to drink her blood just now. It was hard enough when he was starving, but the sensation is something that he's used to. The pain, something he can struggle against. But being satisfied again for the first time in over a year and then having her walk away... 'I'll go mad.' is what comes to Zero's mind. But more than that, the thought of Yuuki going back to that house and being ignored, and hurting herself in the snow... is far more cruel than the situation that he faces. "Yuuki." He looks up at her. "I have never wanted you to act with what I want in mind. From the very start, I was a ticking time bomb that would end up bringing harm to the things around me. But because you were there, time kept getting added, until my few short years turned into a life that I can't see the end of anymore." "I don't like me, Yuuki. I don't think I ever will." Zero continues, loosening his grip and looking at the debris-covered floor. "If you walk away because it will make you happy, then I won't complain. But if my happiness is a factor of your own, stay. Please."
Yuuki Kuran	As her wrist is grasped, Yuuki smiles faintly. She takes a moment to fix her hair slightly, before turning. "It's... really too bad, Zero. But I intend to keep adding time into your hourglass until it is too full to accept any more. Because /I/ like you. I trust you, and you draw out the very best in me. Because even if Kaname is my brother by blood, you are my brother by adoption. And I love you both... Even if I'm not /your/ fiancee." She offers, wiping her eyes and moving to hug him. She squeezes him, and her neck is RIGHT THERE, another even closer offering. One she is, on some level, consciously giving Zero all the opportunity she could give him this time. "I'll stay. But you... you get to explain to the Chairman how you almost ran me out." She replies, with a little laugh, still holding him close, like if she let go, he'd run away himself. "I'm glad you finally understand me, Zero. You being happy makes me happy. It's why I've been trying so hard. So... Do what you want."
Zero Kiryu	A chuckle comes soon after Yuuki embraces Zero. It would be easy to miss if there was any distance between them, and as it is, it's little more than a tickle of breath at her neck. But that's more than enough for it to be distinctive, and from him it must seem like a small miracle. He doesn't smile much at all, much less laugh. The idea of explaining all of this to Kaien Cross is a pretty funny notion, and as his arms close around Yuuki he answers her. "This state of this place is a better explanation than I could give him in words." It isn't a topic that Zero lingers on. He's hungry, and she's worn down his willingness to fight it. It's a little bit strange, though. Not that long ago, she was the reluctant one, and he was scolding her for not being prepared to deal with what she'd signed up for. A little fear gnaws at the back of his mind. What will you do if she does walk away, in the end? The little voice doesn't find much purchase. Close as they are he can hear the beat of her heart. For a human, it could be compared to being fed and waited on by a professional, offering up a perfectly prepared example of one's favorite meal. Zero's lips brush Yuuki's neck, and an instant later his fangs pierce the same spot. All told, he takes a little too much, but not enough to do real harm. It's been a long, long time, and his restraint is rusty at best. After all, when he hadn't been starving himself, he had sated himself on the blood of his marks. One does not need to practice care with a victim that will die regardless.