The summer sun beat down on Maya, annoyingly heating up her head as she walked down the half crowded cobbled streets. Small shops or stands were placed strategically to catch people attention. Maya was looking for a particular bouquet stand that sold naturally grown flowers. She had visited them once a year and had become good acquaintances with the older woman who owned the garden that produced healthy flowers like these.
Her gaze fell on the stand she had been looking for, but Atsuko-san, the old woman, was not there. Instead, she had been replaced by a middle-aged man. She approached the stand, pulling the man away from the book in his hands.
"Hello! What can I do for you?" He asked, smiling. Maya's face remained blank, but her eyebrows pulled together with confusion.
"Where is Atsuko-san?" She asked.
The man's face filled with anger and regret. "She's in the hospital. Took a fall a few weeks ago and it doesn't look good."
"I'm sorry. Tell her I, Maya, say hi and give her my thanks for the flowers if you see her." She pulled out a wad of bills to pay for the flowers that she was going to get, but the man stopped her with a wave of his hand.
"You're Maya, huh? Here." He stood from his seat on a low wooden stool and went to the back of the cart, pulling out a bag of red roses. There were probably five small bundles inside of it. "She told me to give these to you, free of charge."
Maya took the bag from him, feeling touched. She gave him a small, rare smile because he deserved it. He seemed like a nice man, and she was grateful for the nice gesture. "Thank you."
"Have a good day now." He said as she walked off. In return, she waved. The city cemetery was pretty far, but going there on foot didn't bother her in the slightest. Walks like this gave her a chance to relax and clear her mind, to listen to the sounds of people, the occasional horn or birds. Along with it came the lukewarm breeze that blew through the city, blowing different smells towards her nose. She loved it, especially if she was peckish.
After the killing of the Association President, Maya was once again free to enter into the facility as she pleased, although there was little to no motivation in doing so now. Kaien was already on thin enough ice as it was, seeing that he was the one that had killed the President, but for good reason. He had told her that the President had been drinking the blood of a noble vampire to stay young. This had angered Maya, knowing that all the pieces finally made some sort of sense from the way the President acted towards her. But she was mostly stuck in the dark. For now, she was free to do what she wanted, to work on her training or to grab a mission whenever possible. It was her chance to do something semi-normal, but with that ever-present omniscient presence of that Kuran kid. As he had promised, he had not bothered her, but she could still sometimes feel pokes of prods of his presence. Maya figured it was just another way for him to tell her that he hadn't forgotten his little promise.
She arrived at the Cemetery about an hour and a half later and reached into the bag, placing roses on her parents, Jax's, Zero's parents, Daisuke's graves. As she traveled over to the cleaner and newest addition to the line of graves, she noticed that there was already a bundle of white flowers on the grave, the small ribbon around them that gently moved in the breeze.
Zero's scent lingered on them, which meant he had been here rather recently. Maya had not seen much of him, or sometimes not at all. He was still taking classes at what remained of Cross Academy and hunted Level E's in incessantly at night. It was like he was addicted, just to remain sane. It left no room for conversation between the two of them, no chance to talk to each other and explain themselves and what was going on. Maya had a feeling that he was purposefully avoiding her because of what happened at the Academy that night, six months ago.
She couldn't blame him. In his eye, it looked like she had taken Kaname's side to become his lackey and faithful follower. But that was just the surface of the real problem that was deep, but not impossible to understand if Zero was willing to take the time to listen. All she would have to do is find him and corner him, and heaven knows that would be harder than it looked.
____________________________________________
Maya bent over, placing her hands on her knees. Her workout clothes were soaked with sweat, loose strands of hair clinging to her skin.
"Again." came a voice.
She raised her head, glaring at Yagari. He had a lit cigarette between his teeth, puffing away without a care in the world.
"Why don't you step in and I'll beat you to death." She hissed. She'd been sparring with a hunter in training when he'd walked into the training center which was attached to the Association in the back.
Yagari raised an eyebrow, scratching his head. "You threatening me?"
"Yeah, I am, old man." She replied, standing up straight. Her muscles were extremely sore, having not been able to get enough training in. "Just because I was a former student of yours doesn't mean you get to harass me still."
Yagari snorted and sauntered off. Maya shook her head, walking over to her bag and sat down on the floor and pulled out a water bottle to chug until she had to stop and take a breath.
Her cell rang from deep within her bag, and she cursed while trying to dig through her clothes and managed to pull it out by the sixth ring. Zero's name was on the screen.
She immediately answered, hoping that Zero didn't think that she was ignoring him. "Zero!"
"Hey."
"What's up?"
"I'm done with classes for today, and I wanted to talk to you."
Maya raised an eyebrow while watching fellow hunters spar on the mats. It had been the opposite of what she had expected. Instead of going to him, he'd come to her. "Umm...I'm just finishing up some training at the Association. Can I meet you somewhere?"
"I'll be coming by there anyway. I'll just wait for you. See you soon."
"Wait, Zero!" She said, hopefully before he could hang up on her.
"Yeah?"
"It's good to hear from you."
He didn't respond verbally but gave a hmph before hanging up. That was Zero, with his none verbal responses. Maya allowed a smile and grabbed her bag, heading to the locker room to shower and change. About thirty minutes later, she was in shorts, a black elbow-length t-shirt and black and white converse with her gym bag over her shoulder.
A head of silver hair caught her attention just inside the perimeter of Headquarters. Maya looked over, seeing Zero leaning against the metal fence, his eyes staring back at her. She gave a wave before venturing over to her car. Kaito had taken the motorcycle for the weekend. Throwing the bag in the car, she locked it and stuffed her keys in her pocket and strolled over.
"Hey Ze..."
"Hey."
"What is it you wanted to talk about?" She asked as a few hunters walked past them. She saw their curious glances, as did Zero.
"Things. But not here..." He replied, pushing off from the fence. He gave the hunters an icy glare before turning away.
"Lead the way, then."
Maya followed him to a mini-bar downtown. She raised an eyebrow at him but followed him inside. "Are you sure you're allowed to be in here?"
"I'm not going to buy alcohol." He grumbled. There was no one else in here, but it was open. The bartender popped his head out from the back room behind the bar, catching their eye. They sat down at a corner booth.
"What can I get for you two?" asked the bartender.
"Water," said Zero.
"Whiskey on ice," replied Maya, flashing her I.D at him when he came over to look at it.
Zero made a noise in the back of his throat. "You drink too?"
"Only when I need it."
"You sound like Yagari-sensei."
"Mmmm." She sounded, not having paid attention to that last comment, eyes on a crack in the wooden table between them. After the bartender brought them what they asked, he disappeared into the back room again. Maya took a sip before clearing her throat. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"You and Kuran."
"Fair enough. I want to know what's going on with you as well."
"You go first." He said.
"You must keep this between us, and only us. Understand?" She said. Zero gave a single nod. "It started after I'd saved Kuran and ended up in the hospital. He came and gave me his blood while I was unconscious. After I confronted him about it, he said it was given as thanks for saving his life, and saved mine in return. I was naive to believe that. He had done it for a more selfish reason." Maya paused to take another sip of whiskey. "The Takamiya line is one of the pure dire-wolf lines. The first of my families clan was Amara Takamiya, blood sister to Kaname Kuran, the first of his line as well. She'd promised him that she would help him when the time was right. When Kaname had given me his blood, he had awakened Amara inside of me, giving me her memories and feelings and power. When he awoke Amara, I became a servant to him. I can't kill him, and his orders are forced and I can't disobey. That's why Zero. That's why I protected him that night, why I went to places with him and couldn't tell you...And then, he told me that he was the one who let Shizuka out of her prison. He told me that he hadn't meant for my family to be caught in the crossfire, but that was a load of lies."
Maya grabbed her glass and took a few large swallowed before setting the half-empty glass down and groaned dropping her head into her folded arms on the table top. "It really freaking sucks. I wanted to kill him when I found out, but I couldn't kill him. I tried to, I really did, but my finger couldn't pull that trigger. It wasn't because I didn't want to, it was because I couldn't. Believe me when I say I would have ended him right then and there, damn the consequences." She sat up, the back of her head hitting the tall wooden back of the seat with a low thunk. She waved at Zero with a hand. "Please, enlighten me with your problems so that I don't have to dwell on mine."
"Kuran was giving me his blood to stabilize me from going insane. Yuuki helped but..." Maya could see a flash of anger at the mention of her name on his own lips. "It wasn't enough of course. After I drank Ichiru's blood, I became whole again and gained the power that I should have had at birth. Combined with the blood of three purebloods inside me, he said that I was to become to become the most powerful hunter in the world and that my only duty would be to kill every last pureblood until the world was rid of them for good." He sighed. "I wasn't going to do it without thinking, and I needed to quench the urge to just go on a bloodthirsty rampage. That's why I took every mission I could."
"I see..." There was a long pause between them, and only the sound besides their breathing was the movement of dishes in the backroom with loud music. "We've really mucked up, haven't we Ze..."
Note: This was kind of a filler chapter to get through some stuff that I didn't want hanging in the air above my head for all eternity. Besides that fact, my innerself doesn't want Maya and Zero to stay enemies. I love them too much! XD
The next chapter may be a bit of a long one.
Disclaimer: All rights go to the wonderful Matsuri Hino!