Your carried a heavy weight in your heart, not just from having lost your family from a young age like Yuki and Zero, but also from unrequired love. Growing up, despite his cold demeaner, Zero was always gentle and tender towards you. Often, he wrapped you in warm blankets during the cold and frosty nights, and made you hot cocoa drinks to hold in your small mitten-covered hands so they always stayed extra warm.

Particularly, near the start of your life with Kaien Cross, Yuki, and Zero, after Kaien had just taken you in because a vampire had killed your parents and you were the last to join their trio, evidently, you were grieving your lost family. Grievance was accompanied by depression, and on those first nights when you felt so lonely and heart-broken from losing your parents, it was Zero who always sat beside you in silence, and it was Zero who took extra care of you when you couldn't even get out of bed.

Ever the gentle soul he was, he took extra caution during these times to wash your hair and hands with the utmost care, and brush your hair to work through the all the tangles softly and painlessly. With the amount of affection and care he showed you, especially when you had needed it the most, how could you not come to love him?

For that reason, when Zero was attacked and turned into a vampire, when he went through his worst and loneliest experience, you held no reservations towards offering your body to him. You loved him, sincerely, from the bottom of your heart; so, you let him do whatever he needed to survive the night, drink as much of your blood as he needed to satiate his hunger.

No matter how much it hurt, emotionally, because your heart broke each time he still held you so carefully, tenderly, despite his animalistic vampire instinct overriding all logic and knowing that he would never return your feelings; heart-break, because the love of your life did not think the same about you, and physically, because his sharp fangs broke your skin so easily and then, he drank the life out of you, you never said no - you couldn't. You loved him too much and would do anything to take even a little bit of his pain away.

Slowly, your eyes started to shut involuntarily, as the last of your consciousness slowly slipped away, and you felt the ghost of life starting to leave you. Despite the pain, the ache, you smiled softly, even in your last moments, because if you died in a manner that was useful to Zero, it was a reason worth dying for.

The last whispers of life never fully left your breath, because the moment he realised how much he had indulged, Zero shrieked in horror, and viciously dug his sharp nails into his own forearm painfully to interrupt himself out of whatever daze he was stuck in, and moved himself away from you. His eyes glowed a brilliant blood red against the darkness of your bedroom, and your blood was stained in the corner of his lips, dripping down his neck. His eyes widened in horror, and he watched as colour slowly returned to your face from when he had pulled away, and you gasped for air, trying to breath life in. However, ever the privy to his thoughts of self-harm as self-inflicted punishment for being a vampire, you pushed away your pain, moved closer to him, and gripped his hands firmly in yours.

"I-I hurt you again. I-I can't do this, I can't let myself lose it like that again, not towards you. I deserve to die, take the bloody rose and shoot me! Shoot me so I can't hurt you like this again, please!" Zero cried, and he tried to take the attached gun, and shove it in your hands for you to actually do what he said.

You shook your head, and cradled his face in your hands with shaky hands, and hugged him tightly - well, as tightly you could while being on the brink of death.

"It wasn't your fault, I agreed, remember? You know I'll always help you, no matter what." You whispered, and the white-haired vampire easily returned your embrace, and clutch you tighter.

"I know, and that's exactly why I don't deserve it, I only ever hurt you. I don't want to do that, I love you too much, and only want to make you happy. Because I swear, to you, that I rather hurt, starve, and kill myself, before ever allow myself be the reason for your death. If that ever happens, I'm going to use the bloody rose right then and there to give myself what I deserve."

***