Bloody Petals

Chapter 13

Yuzuru first knew Zero when the boy was eight. It was a moonless night when his master and also teacher Yagari came back home from a hunt and brought him home. The boy looked like he was on the verge of dying then, bloodied and pale, frightened and shocked, and at the same time, unresponsive. The brunette was jealous of the silent silver-haired boy at first, not because the boy received much more of Yagari's attention than him – though that was a large factor too – but because the boy, without even a proper training, had never been beaten by him. Not even once. And it greatly frustrated him that someone like that, someone who was a year younger than him, someone without any proper hunter training, someone who looked so fragile – like he would break if anyone touched him – was able to beat him in every single match.

It was three months after Yagari brought the kid home that Zero first started to talk. And Yuzuru still didn't like him. That was also the time when Yagari would make them spar, not for training but only for fun. The brunette never knew what happened to Zero before he was transferred to Yagari's care, but he was sure that it's none of his business. And he never asked Yagari or Zero about it, and they never talked about it either. He only learned what happened when some hunters talked about it secretly in one of their missions – though not in details since no one knew much about the whole incident anyway. That was also the time when he realized that Zero's memories were locked up for some reason.

However, it seemed his own emotions betrayed him by feeling actually not only glad but delighted and relieved when Zero started being a little bit more talkative – in a way that he was today – and also smiled a bit more. He was glad that his little brother, for that's what he decided Zero was whether he liked it or not, gradually felt that he really was part of their big hunter family. He trained together with Zero for years, lived under the same roof for years, and worked as a hunter together for years.

It's been ten years since then. And now, he could see Zero's back as the younger hunter walked in front of him. It was saddening, and at the same time nostalgic, that Zero was no longer that child some years ago who refused to even go outside the house. That one who refused to talk or even smile. Yuzuru couldn't even hold his younger brother's hand when Zero was scared anymore – because Zero, in all those years, had learned to hide his fears just to hide his weaknesses. For a hunter, it was necessary to hide their fears lest they wanted the vampires to exploit it. And Zero would surely punch him now if he asked if the teen wanted to go to the bathroom together with him.

And now... he felt that Zero was walking on his own, alone and sad, in a place where not even he as an older brother was permitted into...

He was brought out of his musing, again, when he heard Zero's loud sigh. "Yuzuru, I mean it. Don't burn holes on my back." Zero voiced before he turned his head over his shoulder. "If you want to say something, you can say it. I won't punch you or anything... probably."

Yuzuru chuckled at that. "Sorry, just reminiscing." His younger brother arched an eyebrow at that and he chuckled even more. "I can still remember when you used to wet the bed, Zero." And the silver-haired hunter scowled.

"I never wetted the bed." He voiced before he shook his head and started walking again. "Don't think of depressing things while you're here, Yuzuru. Even I can feel that you're disturbed about something." Zero stopped again, though he didn't turn around. "If you're bothered about me being a vampire, or about me being one of them, or about me being close to them, or about me drinking blood, or about me wetting my bed when I was young, though that never happened as long as I can remember, or about me–"

"Why are all of your assumptions about you?" Yuzuru arched his eyebrows this time, though the corners of his lips were twitching from stifling a grin. "It can be about Cross, you know. Or about those bloodsu–, I mean vampires, or about master, or about me." He gave an apologetic look at Zero, who didn't see it, when he mentioned the almost swearword they preferred to call the vampires. He knew that even if Zero was never bothered by it, it still meant that he called Zero as that. Because Zero was one of them now... whether they all liked it or not... whether they all accepted it or not.