Title: Arise From Loving
Author: Grasshopper (A.K.A. The Undertaker's Muse)
Rated: PG-13
Warnings: Alternate history/divergence thingy. Angst, not-quite romance of both the female/female and male/female types. Slight mentions of incest, but that's to be expected, considering.
Fandom: Vampire Knight
Challenge: No True Pair
Prompt: Kurosu Yuuki and Souen Ruka are in a marriage of convenience
Spoilers: Nothing extremely specific after chapter 48, other than a mention or two about the nature of an adult vampire's feeding habits.
Pairings: (Kurosu) Kuran Yuuki/Souen Ruka, Kain Akatsuki + Souen Ruka, mentions of Kuran Yuuki + Kuran Kaname.
Summary: When Ruka first caught sight of the Kuran heir, she was still a child. But even a child could love and all of Ruka's love was for Yuuki.
Author's Notes: This is less of a ficlet and more like an excerpt from a larger alternate history fic (that I will likely never write). All you really need to know is that Kaname, the son of Haruka and Juuri died, but Rido never raised the clan's ancestor Kaname due to being very much deader than dead (and not coming back from it, either). Also not a pairing I ever considered writing - I'm firmly settled between the Zero/Yuuki and Kain/Ruka camps - but an idea I had some fun with nonetheless. And there's a glaring lack of Kaname, which makes me happy. (After a certain point in canon, I have a hard time giving a damn about him at all, so. Yeah.)
Disclaimer: All things Vampire Knight belong to Hino Matsuri-sensei. The poem used is Aubade by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Grassy only lays claim to the plot.

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I arose; with sweat on my lip and the wild woodgrasses in my spur
I arose and stood.
But never did I arise from loving her.

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"I hate being so unfair to you."

"And I hate that the world has been so unfair to you."

"This...will likely only hurt you more in the end."

"It's my choice to make, Yuuki-sama. And I have made it."

"You know that this isn't... I can never love you the way you want. It will always be onii-sama's blood that I crave." Dark eyes watched the caress of long hair across pale shoulders. Ruka's usual nightshifts covered more than the free-floating satin that now enveloped her, leaving her neck bare but for the waving tresses of hair.

"I don't need Yuuki-sama to love me. As long as I can be of help, then I wish to do so." Were she another girl, any other girl, Ruka would have pushed aside her hair, baring her neck to the pureblood before her. But Ruka had ever been a lady and such shamelessness was below her.

Yuuki's face, more expressive than any pureblood vampire's had a right to be, laid bare her struggle with temptation. "Ruka... After this, you will never be the same."

Ruka smiled, Yuuki-sama was always so gentle with the hearts of those she cared for. "If I'm not strong enough to bear such a weight, I don't deserve to be near Yuuki-sama."

Red eyes conveyed the words that Yuuki could not make herself speak.

"Someday, I will have to marry...and you will as well."

"Even so, my blood will forever belong to Yuuki-sama. No matter who else I share it with."

"I'm selfish. My need won't allow me to let you go. But I don't get why my using you makes you happy."

"Because my heart is Yuuki-sama's just as much as my blood."

"Having lost onii-sama so long ago, I don't think I'll ever really understand. He was gone before I learned to feed like an adult."

"We can't help who we fall in love with. Otherwise I would have stopped breaking Kain's heart a long time ago."

No one, not even Yuuki-sama, knew Ruka as well as Akatsuki. He knew her happy moments and her sad, when she was angry and hiding it, when she was keeping secrets. There had never been another for Akatsuki, who had long craved for his friend's blood. But Ruka's affections remained in a steadfast direction and Kain was well aware who her polar north was.

Still, if someone else had to be the one graced with Ruka's love, better it be Yuuki-sama. For all of her pureblooded ruthlessness, Yuuki-sama had the same warm personality as Juuri-sama. Such a thing kept her from taking advantage of the arrangement she had made with Ruka. And she would do everything in her power to refrain from harming Ruka's heart.

That was the only reason he never said a word to anyone, not even Hanabusa, about the situation. No one else need know what Yuuki-sama was to Ruka. And it would be dangerous for Ruka were anyone to find out how close she was to the pureblood princess.

So he remained, just close enough to defend them if needed but far enough away to leave them their privacy.

This was Ruka's choice. And Akatsuki would respect that, no matter how his body - his heart - screamed for Ruka's blood to be only his.

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The End