#kanamezero

[thoughtfullyluckyperson]

Hello do you have any vampire Knight fic recs?

I do, nonnie! But they'll mostly be Kaname/Zero fics, that's my VK otp. And mostly long fics since I just love long fics the best. Sorry for the wait, I had to refresh my memory and check my ereader’s fic folder. So, here we go.

Crimson Door, Blood Moon and Secrets in the Dark and all fics of Blackened Wing’s AU universe. I would suggest reading three main fics in this particular order and then reading smaller ones however you please (they’re mostly missed scenes and side stories and they don’t impact the main plot much; my favorite is Five Hundred Miles, aka the jungle survival story). Anyone who had read something in VK probably had already read this, since it’s the fic(s) that kinda formed kaze fandom. But still, they should be here just in case someone somehow missed them. 

That’s a canon divergence AU that forks from the canon on rather early chapters, so many latest canon plot twists don’t happen here (Kaname is not Kuran the Ancestor but young orphaned Kuran heir and Yuuki is not a vampire/his relative, from big ones) and many things are also unique to this universe. Which makes it so delightful, but also sucks because you won’t find it anywhere else. And I kinda like how this universe unfolds more than canon one. It’s pretty slowburn at first and then has plenty of smut later on (and what a smut! if you need a finest vampire smut, it’s the right choice, everything that could be done with one’s neck/teeth/blood is done here and what couldn’t is done too lol). Relationship is mostly m/m, but the story goes through f/m/m threesome phase at some point (there is no f/m/m smut in major fics but it’s present in a couple of smaller ones). I personally hate threesomes tbh, but here is the rare case when I don’t mind, it adds to the story and isn’t so big too. “Secrets in the Dark” is unfinished but the main plot is already over at that point, so it doesn’t leave you hanging. Though there are unresolved mysteries left for a sequel that didn’t happen, but you can read it as finished too. Sorry for babbling but I just love it. It’s not without flaws ofc, don’t let me raise your expectations sky-high, but read it if you didn’t. 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5428521/1/Hold-Me-Now-It-s-My-Turn it’s a kaze sequel to Zero/Yuuki long fic but you can read it on its own. At least, I did so. It’s a family drama set like 30 years into future. Zero marries human Yuuki, they get their happily ever after, but after a few dozen happy years Yuuki dies from an illness. Zero doesn’t really have reason to live anymore, and he doesn’t want to be Kaname’s charity case but Kaname can’t let him go. So there is a widower-with-kids Zero and Kaname who pined after him for years.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4600471/1/The-Other-Half-Of-Myself from the same author as the previous (they have some smaller fics too, look in their profile) That’s a very peaceful undramatic unproblematic school romance, as sweet as it can get. “Kimi Ni Todoke KaZe edition, the fic“ basically lmao, if you ever watched KNT. A tad boring for me personally because it’s so undramatic, but nice.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5629351/1/Unholy-Matrimony A very popular fic with an accidental-marriage-in-Vegas trope and then some spy shenanigans and mad scientists etc. Kinda a bit OOC-ish for my taste but enjoyable enough read anyway. There is a sequel too, it’s unfinished but close to it, so it won’t leave you all frustrated.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5053495/1/The-Stranger Total AU, Wild West, Zero, Ichiru and Yuuki are orphaned siblings living in the middle of nowhere and one day they find a wounded stranger. Of course they have to save him, of course there is something wrong with him (as in, he’s not quite human), of course there are people searching for him and they’re not nice... Here is an author I feel conflicted about - on one hand, it’s a quite good author, on the other, our kinks/squicks differ a lot and ff.net doesn’t have tag system so you never really know when something squicky is going to jump on you. But I remember “The Stranger” being mostly ok in that regard so I can recommend it (don’t read the mini side story tho if you aren’t into incest; oh, and Kaname is an asshole but what’s new). From what I’ve also read of this author (because when there is not enough content, you get less picky and more brave heh), “A strange relationship“ has rather abrupt angst ending but you can kinda fix it in your head, “The right to choose“ sent me to Pluto with a pro-life stance of some characters even when I was ready for the forced pregnancy trope, “A place for us“ has various incest, infidelity, gerontophilia, rape, everyone-just-wants-Zero and so on. So beware. But if your kinks will align or you’re not easily squicked, then you find a lot of decently written multichapter and complete stuff to read.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5596000/1/His-Eyes I remember it as a classic Cross Academy kaze story. You know, with patrols, uniforms, screaming Night Class fangirls, full moons, jumping from windows, secret meetings in a forest, exchanging blood for favors, falling in love with a rival... Nothing groundbreaking but I remember liking it quite a bit. Though now the notes say that the author edited smut out to save it from ff.net or something and I’m not sure if it’s worth reading in this state. I have an old unedited version saved in epub format tho, so if you’re desperate, probably it wouldn’t be a giant crime to share it.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5318440/1/Beginnings, https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5421652/1/First-Times, https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5709621/1/Pleasure-Dome A trilogy of non-vampire AU oneshots I remember being decent. Kaname and Zero are university students who meet in a nightclub.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7359668/1/Unexpectedly-Close-To-The-Edge it’s most likely abandoned and I typically don’t like to read abandoned stories and not sure about recommending them. But this one kinda stands pretty far from typical roads and I was intrigued enough to try. It’s pretty dark so be careful, there are rather brutal scenes of torture, rape and pedophilia I had to skim through (not between kaze and not shown as something good, but still). Timeskip after Yuuki leaves with Kaname, a rewrite of vampire society, purebloods are monsters and it’s shown in all gore-y details, Rido is alive (again), Yuuki is dead, Kaname is dying, there are intrigues of various levels, Zero is in the middle of this shit storm as a burnout bitter hunter mistreated by the hunter association. It’s like “VK meets Berserk” or so. I would’ve really liked to know how it ended, huh.

King's Gambit, Knight's Tour A short post-canon character study, it kinda strikes the nerve for me. Can recommend the author in general, I like their other fics too.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31540631 One more of theirs, Kaname is a Hannibal-esque serial killer and Zero is his grumpy flatmate

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8173330/1/Servant This fic needs more love. A well crafted story which takes all the canon into consideration and works with parts that are not so exploited in fandom. AU where it’s Kaname who turns Zero and it changes the flow of story in interesting ways (Zero doesn’t meet Yuuki etc). It’s angsty though, and the ending is kinda intertwined with the canon too. (Oh, here it is on ao3)

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7804163/1/My-Eternity Another unfinished one but I hope it’s a very slow in-process and not abandoned. Very slowburn AU where Kaname slowly grows fond of Zero instead of Yuuki in their childhood and it changes things with Rido etc.

Some of these fics I had read pretty long ago though so I’m not sure if I’d like them right now or not. And it’s an old fandom, not very alive recently, so old fics tend to have certain tropes or manner of writing etc. Sorry if it’d be the case for you. But I hope you’ll find something you like :) 

(Also, if you’ll be searching for more, ff.net is your friend (albeit a cruel one, since, well, no tags). The majority of VK fics are archived there since ao3 was not a thing back when the fandom was most active. It’s a thing with many old fandoms. But you don’t have to read stuff on ff.net itself, it’s quite uncomfortable for longer reads. There are apps for downloading fics from there as epub/mobi/txt/pdf files and reading offline on your device. I personally use FanfictionDownloader for PC, and here or here you can do it online too).

UPD: Here is an old rec thread where other pairings can be found too.

[lordyouko]

I made a twitter account.. Find me @lordyouko.. what sort of things would ya’ll like to see from me on there? Fanfic things? Writing snippets? Current updates? Lemme know with a reply or an ask or whatever..

If any of you post anything with my ships, pls let me know so I can follow you~ Inucest, Sess/Kouga, KanameZero, KanameAidou, Tomarry, AaravosViren, etc etc

See you guys there!

[thoughtfullyluckyperson]

Oh wow. I thought everyone forgot about VK completely nowadays and there was not enough kaze amvs to start with but suddenly I stumbled onto this. Another beloved ship of past resurfacing is just what I need lol

(this one is old but great too, and these)

UPD Now I’m overcome with an urge to spill my kaze feelings, lol. I’ll do it under the cut in the same post just in case.

So, I remember first watching VK when 1st season of anime was aired. I have a soft spot for shoujo so I sometimes watch new arrivals. Honestly, it was not great. I liked the aesthetics, the music, creepy Alice ending, the vampire lore was pretty neat. Love Hino’s style too, her art is pretty. But the main conflict, oh god. A girl can’t decide if she wants the brunet or the blond, the mysterious and mighty one or the rebellious and tragic one. Her kinda-brother or her adoptive brother. Both are fixated on her and jealous of each other and she just can’t make up her mind. The brunet is better, he saved her! Or no, she can’t let the blond go, too! Or no, the brunet it is! No, the blond! Oh man, such intrigue, such complexity, much wow. Color me interested (not). 

It doesn’t help that the girl is completely dull, spineless and lacks personality. She is almost a reader’s placeholder, some “y/n” like in these character/reader ficlets. I like her design tho, especially when her eyes are not the size of half of her face. But it’s really unclear what these two guys even see in her to obsess over her so much. She’s not the most beautiful, not the most spirited and certainly not the most intelligent. It just looks like a standard “this badass hero was once a poor lonely kicked puppy and the heroine petted him at the right moment, so now he’s in love with her forever” trope with both of them. Boring. Now, I don’t hate her too and actually dislike it when kaze fics start painting her as cruel and bitchy. She’s a (mostly) nice girl, just weak and uninteresting heroine. I have lots of shoujo heroines I like, like Ouran’s Haruhi or Kamisama’s Nanami or Skip Beat’s Kyoko or Yamato Nadeshiko’s Sunako. Nevermind their guys, I would marry them myself lol. But Yuuki... Only heroines of anime-made-after-otome-games like various Amnesias and Diabolic Lovers actually manage to be more bland. (Though I must admit, the harem ending was pretty bold of her, ahaha. Not every day you see a shoujo heroine fucking all of her love interests and even birthing kids for them all. But why half measures, the real threesome would be even bolder!) And with that, both male leads actually have personality and are vivid and unique enough to be recognizable.

So I was watching don’t-remember-which-episode and then Kaname suddenly decided to feed Zero his blood while Zero was in chains and suffering and both were professing their eternal mutual hatred and “it’s only for her”s and Zero was making these faces and erotic feeding noises. I laughed almost to the point of falling out of my chair and predicted lots of m/m fics for this one (I was not wrong). It’s pretty rare for shoujo with a female lead, actually, to have the most popular ship made of male leads. Love triangles are present in a lot of shoujo mangas. Like, Skip Beat has Ren and Sho rivaling for Kyoko, or Hana Yori Dango has Tsukasa and Rui. But Vampire Knight is literally the only shoujo I can remind where there are actually tons of fics, arts, doujinshis for the ship of two rivaling male leads (it’s actually the most popular ship in terms of fan content). Typically shoujo fandoms tend to leave one of the leads for the heroine and then pair the spares. But not here. That’s the combination of weak heroine and interesting heroes and lots of contact and tension between said heroes at work, I guess. 

When you look at it from Yuuki’s shipping point, it’s mostly annoying - she’s a damsel in distress, they’re her defenders, she does whatever useless stuff and pines after them in turns, they’re there for her to choose from and show off their attractiveness to the audience, also for the audience to quarrel about who’s the best hasbando and should get the main prize. When you see it from kaze shipping point, it’s a powerhouse of delicious conflicts, tensions and kinks. It’s, ofc, totally non-canon but all the better for it. They’re the opposites in almost everything, coloring, tempers, upbringing, social stances. Both have tragic past. Kaname is on the top of the vampire world yet utterly alone, both adored and hated for his power and never, never on equal footing with anyone. Zero is an outcast, a pariah of both vampire and vampire hunter worlds, the last heir of great hunter dynasty turned into a mockery of his kind, self-hating and dishonored and slowly falling into bloodlust madness. Kaname is almost immortal and Zero’s days are so very numbered. 

Kaname considers Zero an eyesore and Zero considers Kaname a monster. Kaname is the chess master and Zero is his chess piece (a knight, ofc). Kaname as pureblood has almost thrall-like influence over vampires but it doesn’t work on Zero, he’s the only one who has the gall to constantly spite him and talk to him without any regard for his superior stance. Both are kinda free of society though - Kaname because he’s royalty and Zero because he couldn’t give less fucks. Kaname played a role in Zero’s family demise. Zero tried to kill Kaname with a table knife as a ten-years-old or so during their first meeting. Zero’s beloved weapon is actually Kaname’s (but he doesn’t know). They have their sights set on one girl and are both despising and tolerating each other because of her and doing it with sparkling passion. Kaname’s pure blood is precious yet he gives it to the lowest of low of vampire hierarchy and his rival with that. Zero can either drink the blood of enemy and be indebted to him or forfeit his sanity. Kaname is 80 lvl master manipulator but Zero is not weak and can stand his ground, and there is a certain mutual respect underneath all that antagonism. Both tend to be martyrs, both can be savage. Oh, and (deep into later spoilers which aren’t known in the anime and missing in old fics) Kaname is a thousands years old vampire who went into eternal slumber after seeing his first-great-love kill herself - guess what, she killed herself to create vampire hunters, Kiryuus are her kinda-descendants and Zero looks pretty similar to her. And Kaname in turn looks like, well, male version of Yuuki lol.

Not a cute wholesome casual ship but hella intense one. Add all the erotic blood sucking, “I’m in love with her, I’m sure, but why do I feel so strongly around him of all people” tropes and 100500 blood bond fanons to the mix and you’re set, welcome aboard! Such a pity that the fandom is half-dead, really, but it produced some pretty good fics when it was alive. (If you don’t know where to start, start with “Crimson Door” by Blackened Wing, that’s a first fic of long series and the series are fandom classics, it’s on ao3 and ffnet; beware that it begins as a m-f-m threesome but it’s kaze at heart anyway from the start. And here i have a few more recs)