Scene #6040: Heavy Rests The Crown

Owner	Pose
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki Kuran, Director of the Concord, had summoned her bodyguard and 'coworker', Zero Kiryu, to her office in the Grand Dorado grounds. It wasn't the Kuran Mansion, which she had 'entertained' him at before, or the random apartment they had near Njorun back during the Union. In fact, she had a few small estates scattered about but having lost a goodly number of them in the universe shuffle, she had simply converted her presidential penthouse suite of an 'office' into her apartment. It was laid out like a penthouse suite too, with a centralized 'work office', with desks and chairs, rearly placed so that Yuuki could turn and look out across the floor-to-cieling windows (and tastefully automatic glass-curtains that would keep out the hateful sun), but there were couches, television, bar, kitchen, and even a little half-cordoned off bedroom and full (egregiously massive) bathroom tucked away. Which is why it would be odd, as Zero was buzzed in via her secretary (a meaningless, faceless professional of the Concord whose sole duty it was to people-manage and deflect, and was paid very well for the service) into the office to find Yuuki... Laying atop her desk, one arm placed with the crook of her elbow covering her eyes, and the other dangling off the side of the rich hardwood. The cushy (and blood-red) carpet crunched slightly underfoot on approach, and Yuuki was in some 'business casual' dress, her shoes discarded to either side as she flooped on her desk like some sort of melodramatic dumbass. Oh wait.
Zero Kiryu	For his own part, Zero maintains a number of bolthole properties near, basically, wherever Yuuki happens to be. They're not actually his-- they're Association holdings, usually rented for the express purpose of keeping an eye on Purebloods. Like Yuuki. They were always the same sort of vaguely-bad-part-of-town hole-in-the-wall, in no small part because there was no Hunter who couldn't handle living in the "cheap" part of town. Nobody was likely to mess with them after the first time, if there /was/ a first time. Although the Hunter agreed some time ago to try not to be... himself, he couldn't help but stare down the faceless secretary on the way in. Ordinarily these were the types he bypassed. Usually by exerting himself powerfully upon a door or wall or window. Occasionally by simply jumping. It's a habit he shares with Yuuki. Zero enters the office with his usual dull, irritable expression. He pushes the door shut behind him a little too roughly, and stops just inside the threshold to gaze at Yuuki draped across her own desk. His attire is the usual-- somewhere between actually well-dressed and too rumpled-looking to actually "be" well-dressed in the eyes of anybody for whom it matters. The tie is loose, the shirt wrinkled, and the vest hangs open. He looks down at the carpet, and then at last moves forward to stand beside the desk, looking down at Yuuki. "Hey. Useless." "What're you doing, having me call on you and loafing around on a desk like the leading actress of a trashy show?" He demands.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki doesn't move her arm off her face, instead wobbling with her shoulders left and right, groaning for show. The long, lingering 'ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' sort, that betrays a showiness to the whole event. "I'm not useless, and that's the problemmmmm." There's a beat, and her arm slips up so she can glance at Zero. "That came out wrong. But, it's true! The feeling. Not the... the words." She lets her arm fall off her face, ceasing her childlike rocking. "I wanted to lay down and cry but I couldn't find the tears. It wasn't so bad, when I was just working through things like the social events. Push some papers around. Make appearances at events. Don't talk much. Look pretty. I can do all that. None of it was hard, all of it didn't trigger anything." "Ghirapur, though... I feel like my /tongue/ is tired, from all the words I had to say, my head is aching from all the pleasant things I had to think up. I'm not like Aido, I can't just make anything I want to say, sound amazing. It's so much effort to just be 'the boss', that everyone looks to, and then having it explode in my face, having to make sure everyone stays in line..." She rolls over, now face-down on the desk. "I called you here so I could complain at you, don't be a Zero, jerk." That last bit is definitely intentional, as she mumbles with her nose mashed into hardwood. "I can only be myself around you."
Zero Kiryu	It isn't surprising. This is the sort of thing they would always go through, back at school. Zero surveys Yuuki with a torn expression-- he doesn't /really/ want to be too sympathetic here, but he can't help but be a little bit concerned. After a moment or two, he seems to decide that it's better to at least try to be sympathetic. He seats himself on the edge of the desk, digging through his pockets while he listens to her. The familiar crunch of his blood tablets follows soon after, and then a shuffling as he slips the packet away again. "I don't have the energy for the kind of things you're doing now. There are Hunters who have it together enough to, but I don't." He turns back to look down at Yuuki, "It's not something that you have to do, either...but you're going to anyway." "Hanabusa is the same way," he explains, "but he's better at hiding it. You've seen the real Hanabusa before. When he came demanding food from us, that day." "... So I suppose this situation is nothing new, really." Zero adds, with a flat look.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki stops being QUITE as much of a stupid child when Zero sits down at the edge of her desk, flipping back over to her back since laying on your face when it's hardwood and even a few bits of desk clutter is just uncomfortable, even if it's pinpricks of discomfort or less. Even a fly can pester an elephant. "I think you do, though. You're so much more professional than me. Naturally, at any rate. You're so strong, and direct, and..." She mutters something, unformed words. "I don't know anyone who has the energy for these things, then, I guess. Maybe people are too used to the pressure. They've already thought of the words. But even Aido has... practice. Even if we both have so much time, you and I, we're still not used to shouldering hard burdens." She blossoms into a sad smile, cracking an eye at Zero in the process. "I guess Kaien also got used to it. He wasn't as deliberate before, but now he's the headmaster of a high school. I think we can both appreciate that." She half-nods, her chin bobbing down and the back of her head schuf-schuffing against her desk. "It's nothing new. Not this, not how I feel, nothing. Not even Aido being good at things. But I'm... I...'m glad you came, when I called. I needed someone." "I needed you."
Zero Kiryu	"No." Zero pulls his tie loose and leans back a little, resting his palms against the surface of the desk and looking up at the ceiling, "Nothing about the way that I am is 'natural'. I'm sick. I've always been sick. I'll always /be/ sick. I hurt all over, I'm tired all the time, and it only gets worse from there. I've learned to put up with it, but putting up with it is all that I do. That's why I don't have the energy for anything else. But you know all of that, so you should know better than to say, 'You're a natural.'." "What I should have said is: Even Hanabusa has had practice, and even Hanabusa runs dry eventually. That is something that can be learned, but..." He looks towards the ceiling, "... not by me. I'm already giving it all the effort and energy that I have." His expression flattens back out at mention of Kaien Cross, drawing his attention back down to Yuuki. Zero gives a light shake of his head, "The Chairman's freakish demeanor is just that-- freakish. There isn't anything good to be learned about somebody who decided that his life's calling was to run a high school. -Especially- THAT high school." A small, breathy noise escapes the Hunter at Yuuki's thanks, and statement of need. "Me, too." Zero replies, evidently unable to muster a display of emotion to match Yuuki's own. This should surprise no one.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki's desk is big, so there's plenty of room to lean back. There's more as Yuuki stops being a stupid baby and sits up herself, but there's plenty of room without that small consideration. Cowed, slightly, by his words, Yuuki exhales a little breath and Listens. It is a clear and conscious effort on her part, for in normal circumstance she'd be arguing - or just dismissing words with a distant pretty face. No, she listens. And Zero can tell, if he looks, because of her eyes, her brow, and especially her hands. Her hands just geeently leaving an imprint on the wood. "You're... yeah. You're right about Kaien. There's nothing good to be learned from someone keeping lunacy together. It's hard, and painful, for me, because even though Kaien means so much to me, I'm not sure the Night Class was a good idea. It was Brother's dream... But wasn't it too dangerous, for everyone? Just a selfish desire to bring the worlds closer. I don't know if that's mine. I want everyone to be happy, and it's something I can't have. Not really. So I either give in to my urges, and burn up, or I temper them, and get frustrated. Or, I focus on something else." She looks across her desk, at Zero, and leans towards him dangerously. "I'm not a natural, and I can't make up my mind. I'm awful, and needy. A 'monster'. But I selfishly want you..." She leans in a little more, before wavering back. "T-to feel better. To feel a little less pain." Torn between her instinct and her stupid shojo tendencies, she wavers on the precipice, before just quietly leaning forward and slipping her arms around Zero, her fingers spidering along his back, and resting her head on his de-tie'd chest. "I want the impossible all the time. But more than anything, I don't want you to go."
Zero Kiryu	A troubled sigh passes between Zero's lips as the subject of Kaien Cross continues. He speaks poorly of the man, but he's not ungrateful. He just doesn't have the patience for the... well, the /everything/ that Kaien Cross is. He replies, "Yes. And no. A strong person can afford to be kind where a weak person cannot. I am the only person within the Hunter's Association who might rival his prowess if it came to a fight, and the same is true of Kaname Kuran. Because they are strong, they can... barely... afford to be kind. I don't think that what he was doing was a good idea." "But when it came to bloodshed, the Night Class /did/ defend the Day Class, even when they couldn't possibly win or even just survive on their own merit. Because of that, I can't say that it was a bad idea." "It /is/ a dangerous, and crazy idea. And only dangerous lunatics could bear its weight. For that reason I don't think the experiment was meaningful. If it can only be made to work by 'the strongest vampire' and 'the strongest hunter', then such a union is impossible outside of the umbrella of their sight." Zero's right hand twitches slightly when Yuuki leans towards him. He stares at her, but doesn't move. It's a familiar feeling, Yuuki deciding to just drape herself over him like this. It has a different meaning now, but he isn't uncomfortable with it. It's just how things were -- are. And he stopped being so blisteringly angry about... about all of this, a long time ago. It bubbles up sometimes, when something happens. But Zero Kiryu cannot, in the end, keep those barriers up. "I'm not going anywhere." He replies, and hesitates for a moment. "You are a natural," he says after an awkward silence, "but it's not at anything that is helpful for being what you are. Yuuki is still Yuuki... even if that /is/ an awful, needy, useless meddler." "That is why you aren't a monster."
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki rests her head on Zero's chest and lets her breathing slow. She relaxes, just a bit, the knots in her neck, her shoulders, her back all releasing their tension little by little. It's easier to listen like that. "That's true. You're right. You're usually right, when you talk about things like that. When I talk, it comes out twisted, like my tongue can't express what I feel." "It's... it's not pointless, but not 'useful' if it's only the most powerful can make it happen as a tremendous effort. You're right." Her hands squeeze the back of his vest, balling up loose, rumpled fabric. Her laughter is quiet, but above a sob in both mood and volume. "Well, you're almost right. I'm one of the strongest monsters, and I'm awful, and needy, and useless. But that's also why I need you, Zero. I'm Yuuki, and I..." "I love you, Zero." She breathes, and half-sits up, half-leans up to kiss the taller man full-on on the lips. It's not a carnal thing, but it is possessive and needy. Like her words. Like what she is. When the kiss breaks, even if by recoiling, she favors Zero with a sad smile. "I won't let you go. The strongest hunter, and the strongest vampire... Even if they can only make a world a little better through tremendous effort, the world will be a little better with them together."
Zero Kiryu	Zero offers a curt nod on the subject of Cross Academy's "experiment". Objectively, it was a disaster. Used as a battlefield for personal conflicts, and the predations of opportunistic vampires. And yet... and yet there at the end, the vampires stood between humans and those who would prey on them. At the time, he was in too much of a daze -- emotionally as well as physically -- to fully grasp the situation. But it was hard to argue with the results even so. Once in a blue moon, he wonders whether or not he ought to have told Kaien that he wasn't so wrong after all. But the words are so bitter on his tongue that he's never been able to bring himself to speak them-- even if he /has/ made an exeception for Yuuki. He's about to say something when Yuuki leans forward and his attention focuses. The foggy-headed world he lives in clears in answer to her words, and the actions that follow. They've always had a complicated relationship. A spike ofaggravation surges through him even as her lips meet his. Zero's first impulse is to push away, but he doesn't. His thoughts drift to moments in empty rooms and locked restrooms. They weren't sweet like this-- but they were the closest thing he got. His arms curl 'round her as he leans into the kiss. It's not a good idea, he tells himself. This isn't the first time he's been in this sort of situation with Yuuki. No, he agrees, but this time I'm not on the edge of a cliff. The internal argument barely matters. Zero isn't going to put a stop to this and kissing him is, for lack of a better word, charged. An outside observer might in fact describe it as carnal, but between the two of them has more the quality of a wound balmed, or a pressure relieved than anything else. There is no recoiling. But for his part when the kiss breaks, Zero Kiryu seems above all other things uncertain. His eyes open. "One day," he says, "you'll let me go." "But I'll stay with you as long as I can."