//Sike! I’m back! Does this count as a double update??? I think so??
Chapter Ten:
“Are you still sulking?” Sherry asks, standing in front of Zero’s sorry excuse for a front door. It’s early in the morning and the wind is howling. Surprisingly, unlike the last three times that she had shown up, Klaus isn’t sat against the door, looking like a kicked puppy.
There’s a shuffling sound from the other side of the door. “I’m not sulking,” Zero sniffs. Finally, Sherry muses internally, he speaks.
The female snorts. “Whatever,” She says. “Let me in, your Prince Charming isn’t anywhere in sight. He won’t know.”
Zero scoffs. Then, “Are you sure?” He asks, voice small and hesitant. Sherry can hear how he settles his hand across the door handle. She imagines him biting his lips and furrowing his brows. “Yeah,” Sherry smiles fondly, “it’s just me.”
“Okay,” Zero breathes out. There’s the sound of the lock clicking open and then the door handle turning. The door opens partially enough for Sherry to squeeze her way in. She shuts the door closed with the back of her boots, gaze settling onto Zero who has a thick, woollen blanket thrown over his head and shoulders. He’s holding the edges towards his chest, covered up fully like he’s protecting himself from something unknown in the hallway. He’s stood in a way where only his left side is facing Sherry. For a split second, Sherry wonders why, but then she notices Zero’s white hair. There are locks of his messy hair sticking out from underneath his blanket. Except, they’re not black like they usually are. They’re white. Stark white. Paper white. Snow White.
Sherry’s mouth falls open.
“Y-your hair,” She stutters out, voice bewildered. “It’s white.”
“Yes, I know,” Zero curls his lips into a scowl, turning his head fully towards Sherry to shoot her a glare, “thanks for pointing out the obvious.”
Closing her mouth shut with an audible click, Sherry can only stare at Zero’s right eye. Unlike his left one, which is still grey and somewhat puffy, as if he’d been crying, his right eye is… different. His pupil is gold, bright and brilliant. The rest of his eye is black, not a speck of white to be seen.
Swallowing, Sherry forces herself to talk. “Should… should I get you food? You know, not the human stuff. Other stuff.”
Because if he needed it, Sherry would get it. Anything for Zero. He was the reason she was alive after all. He was the reason she was saved. He was the reason she had survived the war.
Zero scrunches up his nose in distaste. “No.”
“Okay.” Sherry nods. She fiddles with the strings attached to her jacket. “So,” the female lowers her gaze to her scuffed up boots, “you want to destroy everything in your path and kill all of humanity?”
Zero levels her with a deadpan look.
He doesn’t say anything, just leaves to go into the living room.
Sherry hurries after him with a grin, asking him if he’d either like to be called Master or Prince — he was both, after all. She gets hit over the head, but it’s worth it because Zero finally smiles. It’s small and barely there, but it makes warmth course through Sherry’s being.
They spend the rest of the day huddled on the sofa, watching sitcoms they’ve seen a hundred times before.
And if Sherry sends a text to Klaus saying the coast is (somewhat, arguably) clear, well, it’s not like Zero notices.
He doesn’t notice the text Klaus sends back either. A simple, ‘I’ll be in the diner tomorrow.’
——
Zero shuffles through the diner doors, hands in the pockets of his dark jean jacket and head ducked. There’s a plain, black baseball cap covering his hair. Along with that, the hood of his hoody is pulled over it, the black colour of it blending effortlessly into the cap. Sniffing, Zero comes to the conclusion that the diner is more or less empty, there’s just the scent of Sai and Sherry and two others who are sat at the back, whispering quietly to each other. There’s also the scent of Klaus, it’s not as present as the others, it’s sort of mild. Like he had been in the diner recently. Zero forces himself to ignore the scent.
There’s a low and long whistle that catches his attention, followed by an appreciative murmur of, “damn, I forgot how good you looked in black.”
Zero registers it as Sai’s voice. “Ha, Ha.” He mutters, rolling his heterochromatic coloured eyes under the shadow of his baseball cap. He can just about see what Sai is wearing, bright red heeled boots and a pencil skirt.
“Oh, honey,” Sai says, eyeing Zero up and down like a piece of marbled meat, “I’m serious.”
Flushing, Zero walks past the black haired female with a grumbled, “knock it off.”
He gets a dreamy sigh as a response, along with a purred, “Of course, Master Zero.”
Ah. So Sherry has told Sai about his hair changing colour. The traitor. Ignoring her, Zero stops at the front counter, nose twitching. Klaus’s scent is stronger here. He doesn’t get to think about it because Sherry walks out from the kitchen door, holding cleaning supplies. She sends Zero a smile. “Welcome back, Master Zero,” she greets happily.
Feeling one of his eyebrow twitch in annoyance, Zero gives a displeased frown. “Stop calling me that,” he voices in a hushed tone.
“Hmm?” Sherry hums, waking around the counter with an air of innocence. “Oh! By your title? I haven’t called you that since we left home.”
“Yeah. Exactly.” Zero’s frown deepens. “No one here needs to know about that.”
“Not to be rude or anything,” Sherry shrugs her shoulders, her plum coloured hair falling behind her as she does so, “but your hair and eye sort of give it away.” And with that, she leaves to go clean the washroom.
Heaving a tired sigh, Zero enters the kitchen. The door closes behind him with a quiet ‘thump’ just as he registers another being in the room.
The intense scent of woods after rainfall suffocates Zero. It’s so dark and heavy that it makes his whole body tremble.
Klaus, the voice in the back of his head whispers. Predator.
//1038 words//unedited.
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