Things We Used To Share

Submarines

Zero wondered just how much he spent on this new journal.

It was nice, the pages were thick and the cover was a nice silver color. He looked at his desk, notes scattered about and making small mounds on his desk.

He's actually very neat, and his space is never a mess. But he'd been on a trail and barely had time to clean up.

So he bought a new journal to write notes in, to write down any research that seemed to help.

Months of dead ends were exhausting, but he never complained, he never made a point to think of it as failures or setbacks.

He did get frustrated, in which he usually ends up making a bigger mess.

He filed away his papers neatly within minutes and placed the new journal on his desk.

There was a knock on his door, and he gave a little sigh, feeling as if he wasn't ever going to get started on his work.

He got up and opened the door, already knowing who the visitor was.

Kaname stood at the door, his hand holding a small pouch.

Zero gave him a look of bored confusion and a raised eyebrow. He let the Pureblood enter his small apartment, something he would've never considered back at the academy.

Kaname hangs his black coat on a hook.

But it seemed Kaname had news to share, and glaring at him at the door wasn't going to help anyone.

"It's clean in here. Last time, it was covered in papers."

Zero frowned and rolled his eyes quietly, folding his arms and leaning against the wall.

He watches Kaname, the Pureblood being in his space still a bit unsettling, even if they had been working together.

"You haven't found anything in the Hunter's library, did you?"

"I've already finished their library, even the private sector." He yawned quietly. "Any news on finding a descendant of the woman who made the curse?"

Kaname shakes his head.

"We need a remnant of her body, or a descendant. Both impossible to find." He replies.

Zero sighs and nods to the table, silently urging Kaname to sit while he makes something for them to eat.

Kaname stops him. "I must show you something."

Skeptical, Zero walks over. They both sit at the table, and Kaname pulls out the pouch he was holding. He unravels it, slowly, pulling the drawstring and pulling out jar.

Zero waits patiently for Kaname to explain, looking at the glass until he sees a spider.

"...it can't hear us." Kaname tells him. "But it had been spying on you." He poked the glass. "I had come days ago, but you weren't here, and I noticed there was a strange scent in your apartments."

Zero frowned at the fact he came in without an invitation, but stifled his comment for the moment, wanting to know more about the spider.

"I didn't meant to come in, but the spider belongs to a colleague of mine." He frowns, unhappy with the thought of her.

"Why is she spying on me?" Zero asks.

"She's spying on me as well."

Zero sighs again, glaring at the insect before speaking.

"Who is it?"

"Sara Shirabuki." He smiles at the face Zero makes. "A Pureblood with...a nosey personality. I need to see your notes."

He opens the jar and avoids being bitten as he squishes the spider. It turns to dust in his hands, and Zero curses him as he makes a mess.

He gets his notes, and places a folder on the desk.

"There doesn't say anything about Pureblood curses. Probably because it was kept secret or there isn't a known method yet to breaking them. It's a strong curse if it's still being passed down through generation." Zero explains, his hands in his pockets.

Kaname looks through and they go silent.

They had been working together, albeit forced due to circumstances, to break the curse.

Yuki says they're still 'prickly' with one another, but they work well together. Zero was displeased when he realized they had gotten closer, realizing they were slowly depending on each other.

It was sickening.

Kaname found it quite amusing.

A year and nothing, but the alternative is impossible, so they keep searching.

To try and save him.

"-Zero?"

He looks at Kaname, who stares back.

"...are you alright?"

Zero nods.

Kaname looks him over, before closing the book and standing.

"Takuma has been keeping an eye on him for now, along with Seiren when I leave the manor." He turned to Zero. "If you'd like to see him-"

Zero chuckles, just a bit. He frowns a bit at Kaname, but his amusement is clear. "I don't like how well you know me."

They both share a small smile, before Zero's face falls a bit and he's stoic once again.

"Not until we find this cure."

Kaname sighs now, and looks at Zero.

"...The next time I see him, he'll be awake, and not cursed." Zero tells Kaname, who seems to want to believe that as well.

But his world is full of bitter truths.

And yet, here is the only other person who may be the only one who understands his grief, and makes him want to believe there is another way.

Even if he'd been around longer, with nothing but dead ends.

"They're must be a way to expel the curse." Zero says, his belief tall as he stood before Kaname.

They wait for the other to speak, before Kaname places a hand on the table, and nods with a smile.

"...alright." He lifts the jar. "The headmaster has invited you to dinner. He asked me to tell you when I told him I was stopping by."

It had been a while since he'd seen Yuki and the headmaster, with hunting and research and Hiro filling his mind. He went to decline, before looking to Kaname.

He looked harrowed.

"...you're going, right?" Zero asks.

Kaname is taken back by the question, but shakes his head.

"I have to take care of some business-"

As he speaks, Zero grabs the black coat and his own, silent as he turned the lights off in the apartment.

While keeping a stoic face, he ushered Kaname out of the apartment, locking the door behind them.

"Let's go." Zero says, taking the lead as they walk down the hallway, Kaname following him to the staircase.

"...you're very pushy." Kaname tells him.

Zero hides a small smirk, surprised he would ever be the one to order around the Pureblood.