"Yuuki." Kaname slid the dazed prefect from the clench of Zero’s arms as if she were no more substantial than a silk scarf.

"Kaname-senpai!" Her gasp was honey thick in the wet air. Kaname did not blame Zero for the embers in his eyes, but he would not allow another to taste his precious girl again.

"Yuuki. Return to your dorm. I want to speak with Zero-kun."

"Please Senpai-" Plea or protest, it died with a sigh, Yuuki stilled and mesmerized by Kaname’s marionette eyes.

"Go to your dorm, Yuuki."

"Yes. . .Kana. . .me."

His back left a slick path in the condensation as Zero slid down the wall, panting raggedly. Pain and need choked him and he tore as his throat. He couldn’t make sense of the odd sort of amusement lighting Kaname’s eyes, not that he needed another reason to hate the pure blood.

"What are we going to do with you, Zero-kun?" The way his voice- it felt like the beads of moisture rolling down his skin. All of Zero burned. He’d hurried from class, eyes down, skin overheated. He’d flung himself in the tub, kicking on the cold tap and peeling out of his jacket. He’d sunk beneath the surface, let the nothing murmurs of water fill his mind, his fingertips dragging against his floating clothes. Boiling in his own soup, he was on fire. He’d writhed and splashed in the water and tore at his throat, and gods, licked his fangs. His hair, water darkened to ash gray, fanned across the red of his eyes. He’d burn or drown (why didn’t he have the Bloody Rose now?). If he couldn’t live as a human. . .then he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. The fine-boned fingers that tugged against his arm burned all the more. He’d risen from the water with a choked gasp. Zero? Zero! Where are you hurt? Water soaked into the front of her dark uniform. He’d been coaxed from the tub, they’d slipped on wet tiles, falling together. She trembled. Her chest to his, he could feel her heart fluttering sparrow-winged, but he couldn’t loosen his arms. No. It wasn’t that. It was that he couldn’t make himself try. He’d mouthed her neck, teasing himself, and then-

Yuuki. In that scimitar voice, toppling Zero from a gritty dune into a snowbank.

The pureblood’s hands were moon cold against his skin. It was such a relief he could have sobbed.

"Hnn. You’re a mess in these wet clothes."

"Nghaah! Leave me alone! And stay away from Yuuki!"

As Kaname peeled off Zero’s clinging shirt, he leaned in to whisper, "I am not the evil person, Zero-kun."

His shirt squelched against the tiles as Zero shoved Kaname back. He resisted the spell of the elder’s eyes and continued to fight against his hands. However, the powerful vampire was just as formidable with brute force as he was with magic and Zero could do very little against him.

"You cannot fight your own blood, Zero-kun." They twisted and wrestled across the floor, Kaname ever pressing his advantage, Zero’s abused clothes shredded by their frantic strength.

"It’s not- it’s not me."

"It is. . .within you. You cannot fight."

"Let go! I don’t need your presence!"

"It controls you. It will make you betray her."

"No!" Thrashing with long-repressed rage, Zero used the sheen of his naked skin to slip from Kaname’s grasp.

He was rising from his knees when Kaname caught and held him again. "Look." The moisture on the wall facing them pooled together, thickened and hardened into a mirror at Kaname’s will.

Light from behind him broke through his body, his reflection no more substantial than a cloud. The cords of his muscles, the dripping fringes of his hair, the long slope of his thighs, ghostly translucent. He appeared alone in the water mirror, Kaname cast no reflection at all. Foolishly, he tried to pull himself free again, but Kaname’s arms were hoops of iron for all they gave way. He looked down to see the damp and wrinkled sleeves of the Night Class uniform crossed over his chest and stomach.

"Look." Kaname repeated. And Zero had no choice.

He eyes were two hollows of red against his misty skin. The tattoo at his neck glowed like a brand. He’d fought against it for so long, since the first night. He ignored changes, took down the mirrors in his room, kept his eyes down cast when he prepared himself for the day. But now he could not. For the first time in four years he was forced to see himself for the vampire he was. His beauty rotted his heart and was breathtaking.

Every muscle wrapped itself around sculpted bone with grace. His skin was locked in dewy youth. With his vampire eyes, he could see percussion of his own pulse beat through his body.

"Kaname." He whispered brokenly, head sagging in defeat, "I don’t want to be a vampire."

He lifted Kaname’s wrist to his lips and sank his teeth in.

Pure taste sizzled across Zero’s tongue. Kaname’s power, his energy, cupped in Zero’s hands, trickling over his lips. His lids drooped low over his eyes- pain gone, agony quiet, and the burn, was replaced by an entirely new kind of heat. He gulped and lapped, completely absorbed until a whimper from Kaname shattered the red glass of his thoughts. Zero’s eyes flicked back to the mirror, the hand pressed to his mouth invisible, allowing him to see all of the red smear of his fangs and lips. His head fell back against the elder’s shoulder.

"So good, Kaname-sama."

A drop of scarlet fell against the plain of Zero’s chest. With a fingertip, Kaname pulled it down, painting a red streak across Zero’s body down to the crease of his thigh. Flexing his arm so that more blood dripped into his palm, he reversed his stroke and left a matching trail back up the clench of Zero’s torso, before he swept his reddened hand across his nipples.

"More?"

Zero could only nod, voice withered to ash in his throat. Instead of offering his blood however, Kaname slid his hand low over Zero’s belly, fingers carding through his wiry hair, until he was wrapped tightly around him.

Zero cursed, eyes snapping open. From the mirror, he could see his hands braced against his thighs, his skin was marbled with blood and it looked as though his gorgeous cock was thrusting against empty air, but he could feel Kaname twisting his slick palm over the tip, tightening his fist around the base. Zero looped his arms behind Kaname’s neck, stretching the length of him, putting his body on perfect display. Kaname seemed to approve and his rhythm picked up while his other hand worshiped the rest of Zero’s body, an unseen current dimpling his skin, smoothing through his hair. When the hand returned to his lips in offer of another bite, Zero watched ribbons of come surge from his body as blood dripped down his chin.