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Yuuki Kuran     The Grand Dorado held many wonderous sights, pleasing locales, and enjoyable resturants. It was a deluxe place for deluxe people. Yuuki Kuran spent a good amount of time there, for many reasons - one, becuase she was there to help it grow and smooth over any problems, and two, because such was her gift. A disposition much more suited for daytime, for the light.

    Also, Kuran Manor made Zero on-edge, and she wasn't running the Den Of Monsters or anything!

    So she sat, in the early evening, in one of the private observation decks, a glass of 'wine' in her hand that she sipped from from time to time.

    It really was better than pills, the Cold, Day-old spam of the vampire world.
Zero Kiryu "... We could have met at the cafe instead, you know."

Complaining is the first thing that comes out of Zero Kiryu's mouth as he pushed open the door leading in from the staircase. Of course he didn't use the elevator. Of course. His manner of dress is as typical of him ever since he got saddled with a lot of Hunter's Association work. The Cross Academy uniform isn't appropriate, but the usual white button-down with a black vest and slacks with a matching overcoat remains his preference.

He can't be bothered to maintain a professional demeanor when he doesn't have to, though. The tie has been untied and hangs loose, the shirt untucked and a little rumpled. Probably, he just snagged the damn thing off the back of a chair instead of grabbing a fresh one.

An irritated look flickers across his features as the smell of the 'wine' catches his attention. Zero sets the briefcase he was carrying next to the door, and rifles around in his pockets until he finds a loose pill.

"There's nobody else here. What is it?" He asks, popping the pill into his mouth.
Yuuki Kuran     Yuuki smiles, back still facing him, as the hair he claimed was draining her intelligence flowed down her back, laughing lightly. "But the cafe is filled with people, and if I try not to think about it, up here, I can't feel anyone. Well, except you. Close the door!"

    She takes a long gulp from her 'wine' glass, before setting it down on the 'bar' railing against the window.

    "Up here, I look out, and can imagine all sorts of things."

    She turns, then, her smile brightening incrementally. "You could have worn a clean shirt, too, but I suppose fair is fair. I wanted to talk to you! Can't I want that?"
Zero Kiryu Zero nudges the door shut with an elbow and advances farther into the room, surveying the surrounding observation deck. Bereft of people it has the quality that only empty rooms in new buildings /have/. It's echo-y in a strange sort of way that just doesn't feel right. Or at least, he always thought they didn't feel right. Like the dorms when empty. The pill in his mouth dissolves slowly.

The taste of it, if he had to describe it, is like sticking a penny in one's mouth and leaving it there. It's not particularly pleasant, although calling it disgusting isn't exactly correct either, except when compared to something more immediately alive and rich. Yuuki's wine, he could tell from the smell, was one such source of a more /fresh/ taste.

An exasperated sigh escapes him as he fishes out another tablet and tries to drown out the scent with the coppery taste. It gets more difficult as he approaches Yuuki directly, looking out in the direction that she had been. There's nothing there for him to find, though.

"If you're /that/ worried about my laundry--" He begins crankily, but stops halfway through. There are two reasons for this.

One, he's not certain she /wouldn't/ just take it as an invitation to start rifling through his things.

Two, he /was/ trying not to be such a mess with her. Somewhat. Just a little.

Zero focuses on the coppery taste in his mouth and looks out the windows again.

"What do you want to talk about?"
Yuuki Kuran     The room is tastefully appointed and warm, like box seats in a stadium. There's coolers tucked around here and there with food, hot food on order, and a fantastic view of the early evening city lights. But it is empty, in the way exclusive places are.

    There is a little wince, mostly sympathetic, partially disgusted at the smell. Her finely-tuned nose and discerning palatte makes her unhappy with the pills, even as she carries them herself.

    "What I wanted to talk about... ... ... Was us. Well, me, but that's also us. But mostly... I wanted to talk! To you."

    She blushes lightly. "I can't make that sound not-selfish, can I? I suppose selfishness is too natural to me. It... always was."
Zero Kiryu Frustration starts to mount rapidly, and Zero really isn't sure what to do with it just now. It's not like he really has a problem meeting with Yuuki, or that he minds talking about /them/ either. It's been long enough since he was assigned to be her bodyguard for political reasons that he just can't be bothered with pretending that he hates to be around her altogether. Sometimes he does, but that doesn't have anything to do with the way she acts /now/. At least, not meaningfully. At worst she's... herself. At a stretch, maybe annoying ever-so-slightly beyond his tolerances.

He takes a seat a small distance from the windows, reclining a little and resting his hands at his sides.

"This isn't Cross Academy. I'm not here to try to translate your..." He flicks a hand in her direction, "into actual conversation. What is there to talk about?"

"I already told you there's nothing you could have done that wouldn't have upset me beyond the ability to care for your company for a while." He adds, resting his cheek against his knuckles and looking out through the windows.
Yuuki Kuran     Yuuki frowns at the edginess, the frustration, giving Zero a good-natured shove on the shoulder. "I don't need translation, jerk!" She huffs, before laughing. There were so many memories of things just like this that percolated up inside of her - memories from both herself and Zero. "I don't think anyone knows me better than you, Zero. And I don't think anyone knows you, better than me. It's not about translation, it's about understanding."

    She lets her shoving arm fall to her side, dangling over the edge of her stool. "Do you want to talk? Or do you just want to be quiet together? I could think up something needy and depressing to talk about, if you like. Or you could catch up on your sleep."

    She turns her head, to look at the rising moon. "I know you're bad about it. If you'd rather not talk, I'd be OK with not doing it. I... I care about you, you know?"

    She scrunches up her face. "And not in the weird posessive way. I remember when we were a family, too."
Zero Kiryu The demeanor that Zero walked in with stays familiar when Yuuki shoves at his shoulder. He's not /angry/, not really. That sort of frustration just sort of exists in him all the time, and even Kaien Cross didn't get a pass from it. Sometimes, she had, a long time ago. Not always, certainly not when they were out in public together when had all kinds of responsibilities to engage. But when they were alone -- a little like this, only without some sort of heated topic on the table.

That didn't stop the casual push-and-pull though, and it doesn't now.

In retaliation for the shove at his shoulder, Zero aims a light kick at the base of her stool. He's /very/ in control of his body-- it won't do much more than rock her obnoxiously. Like a normal person pushing against it underneath the table in any other situation.

"You said it yourself. Nobody knows you better than me." Zero leans forward, fixing Yuuki with that flat-gazed stare of his. It's not angry, or resentful. It's just the sort of expression he made at /her/, and maybe Kaien to some extent. There's certainly an /attitude/ to it, but it's not hostile. Not exactly.

"And /I/ know /you/ when you stand around blushing and beating around the bush. Did I say, 'Stop talking, useless!'? No, I just want you to get to the point."

He leans back.

"Otherwise you won't."

"And don't lie to me about possessiveness," He adds, "all vampires are like that."
Yuuki Kuran     Yuuki's chair rocks and she windmills her arms a bit, trying to achieve balance. Not becuase she was in any danger if she fell, but because it was part of the playful fighting between the two. Then again, there was a lot of weirdness between the pair, Kaien Cross's adoptive odd family.

    "Well, fine. The point, then. You reacted a certain way, when I said things. When I was trying to be strong, to... harness the feelings I have and put them towards a cause, I told you things, and you reacted in a way that I think we should..."

    She gives a slow glance to her 'wine'-glass. "We should talk? Clear out the air? I guess what I'm trying to say is... I've tried to stay away, I've tried to let you be alone, but I don't know if it helps. I don't know if /not/ talking is healthy. But I don't know /how/ to talk."

    Yuuki looks at Zero, locking eyes with him. "We haven't really ever /done/ it."
Zero Kiryu Zero runs his fingers through his hair in a gesture that can /only/ indicate continued frustration. She's right, of course. They don't talk, because he never saw a need to talk. Yuuki would push and he would resist. Yuuki would protest and he would brush it off. Yuuki would try to mend a bridge and he'd yell at her until she left for good. That... was them, more-or-less exactly. If somebody else was involved it didn't go any better, they were props. Bystanders. Collateral damage. But it would be a lie for him to say that he was satisfied with that.

"And what do you want me to say?" He demands, "That's it's fine for you to look at me like a plaything to keep around until you get tired of me? You and your neglectful king already did that, and it was barely a year before I was looking out for you again because that rotten bastard couldn't be bothered. Should I be grateful that you held him back so you could change your mind later?"

"I don't... understand what you want. And I don't understand why you don't get why I left it all alone."

The hunter lowers his hand from his head and looks at Yuuki properly again, his face having grown several shades more pale since he started talking. He says, "I'm not less rotten than I think your kind are, Yuuki. I'm just better at pretending. Do you think 'that' part of me didn't revel in having you 'donating' blood to keep me grounded?"
Yuuki Kuran     Yuuki wants to shush Zero, to take control of his words, to change them, to FIX them. She could fix them. She could make him be happy.

    All she had to do was tell him, and he would love her.

    And she also knew that doing so would take this precious trust they had, and shatter it for her own vanity. She knew that giving in to her needs as a predator would destroy her needs as a girl. As Yuuki Cross.

    Even as her eyes shimmered dimly, she averted them.

    "I want you... to talk to me. I don't need it. I won't demand it. Before I was a pureblood, before I was Kuran Yuuki, I was Cross Yuuki. And I thought of you as my brother."

    "I love you, Zero. I want you to be happy. And I want you to be happy... with yourself."

    She doesn't reach out, but she re-opens her eyes, a weak and helpless smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. "I don't think you're rotten. I think that all of you... understands, even if you don't want to, how I feel. You've felt it too, through me. Through... that." She trails off.

    Blood, Zero. She means Blood.
Zero Kiryu Zero Kiryu is simply out of his depth. He is a man who can resist his master's command, can stride undaunted through endless carnage, can strike down one of the most powerful purebloods the world can conjure as his foe. But he can't talk openly like this. He doesn't talk about his feelings, he doesn't know how to deal with what Yuuki wants. He doesn't want to bring her undue pain either, though he has brought her as much pain as she has brought him. Or so he assumes. He doesn't know, even if he is aware of how difficult he is.

The thought, nevertheless, turns his stomach. It's very familiar.

He remembers the first time they met, with blood caked on his neck and shoulder. Being touched made his skin crawl but he was in such shock he couldn't push anybody off him at the time. He'd allowed her to help, and she had become somebody he could trust.

A sharp contrast to her weak half-smile, Zero just looks more and more miserable with every word out of Yuuki's mouth. It is not anger or sadness, neither of which is adequate to convey how he feels or the way he's looking at her.

"I understand, and I agree."

"I understand,
        but..."

"I don't think I can give you what you want. And I don't think you can give me what I want."

"Can you tell me that I'm wrong, Yuuki Cross?" He asks.
Yuuki Kuran     "Zero..." Yuuki replies, her voice every bit the exasperated, sisterlike Cross Yuuki that had unconditionally accepted the shocked boy that had come, bloodsoaked and empty, to Kaien Cross' doorstep.

    "Zero." She repeats, this time stronger, possessive, covetous. Kuran Yuuki, the one who had 'ate' the other her, the devil inside her.

    But they temper each other. One spoke from nurture, from seventeen years of humanity, from a dumb teenager and the brother she grew to love. One spoke from nature, a slavering, yawning abyss in human form, with lambent red eyes and shining fangs.

    But both don't define her. The truth was somewhere in the middle.

    "What I want, Zero, is a confusing mess of memories and urges. What you want is a salvation that could be a long time coming, if ever."

    She brightens incrementally. "But what we want... Maybe what we both need, is each other. Somewhere... in the middle."
Zero Kiryu The reaction that Zero exhibits to Yuuki's separate calls is best described as fluid. He responds best to the first of them, which prompts him to look up properly. But the second causes him to look away, a little-- not entirely, but enough that there is a notable difference. His gaze slips from focusing directly on her to just to one side of her face, as if he's looking either at her ears or /just/ past her. Whatever he may say, he doesn't seem inclined to meet the vampire on it's own terms.

That might be entirely instinctive, but judging by his own self-loathing, it's unlikely.

"I...
    ... suppose."

Zero stands. He could say and do a lot of things. Emotionally even this much is exhausting to him, and truthfully the things he wants to say seem unwise. It occurs to him momentarily to let her drink his blood, but he's been so hungry since he was burned that the idea strikes him as dangerous. He's certainly not going to ask to drink her blood. Not right now.

He raises a hand and ruffles Yuuki's hair, half-teasingly, half-affectionately.

What can he say?

"When you left," he begins slowly and carefully, "it was difficult. I was used to your blood. For a while, I... was eating my marks to stop myself going crazy."

That seems to be his limit. Zero withdraws his hand and walks away, moving to seize his briefcase next to the stairwell door. He doesn't leave, though.

Maybe he's just not sure what to do with himself after being that open, or what to expect. It wouldn't be odd if he'd just hit his limit, and decided to run away. But he seems to be waiting, instead.
Yuuki Kuran     In this case, Yuuki will take it. Not Kuran or Cross Yuuki, but Yuuki. She'll take it. She is quiet, and she listens. She lets herself be calm, and for as long as Zero looks at her, distantly, looks past her, she both forces and allows her anxieties, her emotions, her girlish wants and monstrous needs to fall still.

    Cross Yuuki would offer Zero her own blood, willing to give up her own purity to help her brother. Kuran Yuuki would fill another glass with the 'wine of the vein', which she had in plentiful supply, and 'reward' her favorite servant, her faithful bodyguard.

    Both were, however, what she wanted. She knew that she wanted it all to be better. She wanted so dearly to find some way to just fix the problem.

    It was the Yuuki in the middle that slowly slid off her own stool, an uncertain foot eased on to the rich carpet. Then a few more.

    The hug she moved to wrap up the taller boy with wasn't uncertain at all.

    Sometimes, compromising was being a peace with a start. And for both of them, there was plenty of time for small steps.
Zero Kiryu Being embraced by Yuuki while his back is turned is an old experience for Zero. She got into the habit, or so he believed, because he wasn't as comfortable with trying to extricate her from himself if she did it that way instead of from the front. He couldn't just give her a light push, so more often than not he'd just... put up with it, until she got tired of it. Today, he wouldn't have pushed her away or waited her out in this manner regardless.

A breath escapes him that he doesn't realize is a relieved sigh. It's been so long since he expressed such a thing that it simply doesn't register to him immediately that he was holding it at all. Slowly, his grip on the handle of his briefcase loosens and it slips free, thunking lightly on the carpeted floor.

There is, Zero decides, absolutely nothing he can say or do that wouldn't completely ruin the moment. So he shuts his eyes, and lapses into an all-too-familiar silence, that to him at least was much more common when they lived together with Kaien Cross.

And if he enjoyed it at all, he would deny it to his grave.