Things We Used To Share

An Ally

Hiro waited, leaning against the tower wall.

Maybe this wasn't a good idea, he thought.

He was waiting for Zero, who would probably be in a terrible mood since the person who fucking bit him and stole his human life away was back for revenge or something.

Maybe another Pureblood Vampire was what Zero didn't need right now.

After all, the last time they'd spoken, Zero didn't even want to be near him after finding out he was a Kuran.

He didn't have time to debate with himself though, seeing Zero walk towards him with an unreadable expression.

Zero stopped in front of him. Hiro swallowed a sigh, bracing himself for whatever would happen now. Would Zero yell and tell him to go back to his dorms? Would Zero not want to be bothered with him?

To his surprise, Zero seemed calm.

Unbothered.

"...why are you wearing that face?" Zero asked.

Hiro blinked, before looking up. "I thought-I was worried-you..." he stopped, unable to make a coherent sentence.

He sighed.

"I thought you'd be in a bad mood." Hiro admitted. "With...her being here."

Zero quietly ran a hand through his hair, eyes growing dark.

"So you know? Did Kuran tell you?" Zero spat.

Hiro nodded. "I didn't mean to go prying into your past. Maria-...Shizuka doesn't like me very well." Hiro told him with a frown. "And I'm not a very big fan of her, either."

"That makes two of us."

Hiro tried to smile, but he couldn't. "She's here for you, isn't she?"

Zero nodded.

"What are you going to do?"

Zero looked to Hiro, who's face seemed to be filled with distress and worry. It was chilling to be near a Pureblood who...seemed to care.

Odd.

"...I'm going to kill her."

Hiro flinched at that. He gave Zero a look of anger and confusion, disbelief in his eyes. "You can't kill her, she's the one who turned you. She can control you. And-how will you survive? If you kill her...you need her blood." Hiro paused, looking to Zero with worried frown. "How have you been surviving without it?" Hiro asked with wide, fearful eyes.

Zero didn't answer.

Hiro froze. He slowly looked to Zero.

"Are you...planning on destroying yourself as well?"

Zero looked Hiro in the eye. Hiro stared back with trembling fingers.

"You can't."

Zero scoffed.

"What's it to you, Vampire?"

"You can't be serious, Zero."

Hiro awaited an answer.

Zero didn't have one.

"...what about you? Don't you want to stay here?" Hiro asked with furrowed eyebrows. "To be here?"

"And be burdened with the thirst for others? I may not have been born a Vampire, but I can't live like this."

Why was he being so honest?

Zero looked to Hiro, who seemed to be completely distraught over their conversation. He looked sad, truly hurt, as if someone had torn away a bandage and stuck a lighter in the wound.

To his surprise, Hiro gripped his arm, looking up at Zero.

"Don't you want to stay?" Hiro asked.

Once again, Zero didn't have an answer.

Hiro frowned deeply, at a loss for words. Zero watched, surprised someone other than Yuki (maybe Yori and the headmaster), was so upset over him.

Why?

"Why do you want me to stay?" He asked, sliding down, too.

Hiro smiled gently, looking to Zero. He counted each thing on his finger. "You're my friend. You're smart. You're kind. You're Zero." Hiro gave a small grin, eyebrows still knitted.

But his smile faltered.

"...and you've also gotten your life taken by a Vampire, too."

Zero wasn't expecting those words.

"I told you I was unlucky, right?"

Zero nodded slowly.

"I was kidnapped as a kid and..." his voice wavered.

Hiro's voice grew quiet, and he seemed to be lost in thought.

"I had escaped. I didn't know what hunters were, and I'd never seen humans up close. Never had human food or heard real music..." Hiro closed his eyes. "And I have yet to see the ocean and the other seasons. What summer might be like, how hot it could be."

And then Hiro turned to Zero with wet eyes that sparkled in the dawn sky, reflecting in his eyes.

"You must miss those things? Doing human stuff, without the need to feed on blood. You were a hunter once before, right? I can't imagine how you must feel..." His voice bitter and he angrily shook his head. "You've become the very thing you hunt."

Hiro wrapped arms around himself tightly, as if he could drift away at any second.

"Yet you chose to keep living. Even if it was just for revenge, you go to class, and you make friends, and you patrol, and you're still so kind...and responsible. I'm sorry things turnedout this way."

Zero remained quiet, eyes distant.

He finally understood.

Hiro had been locked away from the world. He'd been different, been so understanding... because he was the same.

Hiro looked up at him, red and blue eyes twinkling as a pair of lavender looked deep into them.

"You've been hurting a lot, haven't you?" Hiro asked carefully.

A hand brushed at Zero's face, eyes wide when he realized he vision had gone blurry in his right eyes. Hiro had wiped away the tear, smiling.

They stared at one another, unable to look away.

And then Hiro ruined it.

"...So you can cry." Hiro said with a mischievous smirk. "And all this time I thought you were a clam."

Zero pushed his face away in false irritation, earning a laugh from Hiro.

"...What if we make a plan? And we take her down?" He said slowly, a thought forming in his head. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend? And we can turn her in to the Hunters!" Hiro spouted out theories and plans like an encyclopedia, listing things out and going through each plan in detail.

Zero could swear he could hear trumpets in the wind, a sarcastic symphony playing behind them as Hiro sprouted more ideas. 

He rolled his eyes, scoffing silently with a bittersweet smile as they sat there, the sky turning blue above them.