Feel the Color Blue

Rating: T

Summary: Umi's daughter is nothing like her mother. "I don't know…. It feels like I have to stir up trouble just so that I remember I'm alive." Ascot/OC

Author's note: "Ashes to Ashes" readers, don't freak out. I'm working on the next chapter; it should be up in a few days. Anyway, this has been sitting on my computer for a while, and I thought that now would be as good a time as any to post it. So, let me know what you think.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Rayearth or any of its characters.

Part One: Helter Skelter

Enzeru Ashikaze turned up the volume on her car stereo and pulled her mass of navy blue curls out of the ponytail holder she had confined them to. She checked the car's clock as she flipped on her turn signal.

"Ah, shit," she said, seeing the glowing numbers on the clock. She was already fifteen minutes late for the university admission interview her mother had set up for her.

Directing the car into a parking spot, she switched off the music and checked her appearance in the rearview mirror.

Her mother's round, sapphire hued eyes set above high, aristocratic cheekbones stared back at her, narrowed in appraisal. There was nothing more than a trace of her mother's beauty on her face—the features were the same, but the grace that constructed Mrs. Ashikaze's face was conspicuously absent in her daughter.

She was over twenty minutes late when she reached the admissions office; the receptionist allowed her in reluctantly only after the mention of Enzeru's mother's name.

The interviewer was scanning Enzeru's application over the rims of her glasses. She didn't acknowledge Enzeru until the young woman was sitting in the chair in front of the large mahogany desk.

"Miss Enzeru?"

"Yes, that's me."

The interviewer stretched her arm across the desk, offering a hand for Enzeru to shake.

"My name is Fuu Hououji," the interviewer said as Enzeru shook her hand. "I'm a friend of your mother's."

"Yeah, I know," Enzeru said. "She told me when she set up the interview."

Fuu surveyed her friend's daughter through narrowed eyes. She didn't quite know yet what to make of the girl. "We generally do not permit prospective students to complete an interview if they arrive so long after their appointed time," Fuu said briskly. "However, your mother is a very generous alumnus of this university and, as I said, a good friend of mine, so we'll make an exception this time. Such tardiness will not be permissible in the future."

"Right," Enzeru said, twirling a piece of her hair around her index finger.

"Very well, then. The admissions committee has review your transcript, and, I must say, they were quite impressed with your grades. But I notice here that you've missed school several times this month. Were you ill?"

Enzeru leaned her chair back on two legs. "I didn't feel like going," she said, looking towards the ceiling.

"I see," Fuu frowned. "Your record also says that you've yet to take the required admittance tests. You do understand that it is impossible to be admitted without taking these tests?"

"Look, Ms. Hououji," Enzeru said, allowing her chair to fall back to all fours with a thump, "To be honest, I don't really care to attend this university. I didn't even want to do this interview—Mom set it up."

Fuu took of her glasses and surveyed the young woman before her. "You don't wish to take advantage of your mother's creating this opportunity for you?"

"The thing is, this 'opportunity,' as you call it, is really not about me at all."

Enzeru pulled her keys out of her pocket as she stood up. "Sorry for wasting your time."

It was all Umi could do to keep from losing her temper completely. "You just walked out? I had to set up that interview three months in advanced, and you just walked out? Enzeru, what's wrong with you?"

Enzeru sighed and rubbed her eyes, leaning her elbows on the kitchen table. "I told you I didn't want to do the interview. I told you; you didn't listen to me."

Umi rubbed her temples as she thought about her daughter. She had no idea how to deal with this girl—she never had. When she met her daughter's eyes, Umi saw her late husband staring back at her. "Why do you do this to me, Enzeru? I'm only trying to help you."

"No, Mom, you're not," Enzeru stated flatly. "I don't want to go to that university. I don't—I told you that."

"It's the best university around; what more do you want?" Umi got to her feet and crossed the room to her daughter. "You can't do any better. I can't do any better for you."

"God, Mom," Enzeru sighed. "You don't get it."

"So why don't you explain it to me?" Umi snapped, coming to her feet. "You pull this kind of crap all the time since your father died. What, do you think his not being around gives you the right to act like an idiot?"

Enzeru drummed her fingers on the table. "No, Mom," she said. "I think the fact that you don't give a damn what I do gives me the right."

Before Umi had time to react, Enzeru had stood and stormed out of the kitchen. Only the slamming of her daughter's bedroom door indicated to Umi where the girl had gone.

Sighing, Umi stepped over to the counter and poured fresh coffee into her royal blue mug. She raised the mug to her lips to take a drink, but placed her drink back on the counter, clicking her tongue in disapproval.

"What am I going to do with that girl?"

As soon as she stepped into her room, Enzeru switched on the stereo. The tenor's voice swelled out of the speakers, crooning a sweet story in a romantic tongue. Her mood eased instantly, and she fell onto her bed with a sigh.

Enzeru stared at the cottage cheese ceiling, replaying her latest bout with her mother in her mind. A frustrated groan escaped her lips. It seemed like every time she and her mother spoke to each other, shots were fired.

There was nothing to be done about it—the situation between her and her mother was hopeless. Umi wanted Enzeru to follow the plans that had been laid out for her: go to college, get a job, work only until a worthy man came along and then become a domestic goddess. Nothing was wrong with that life, of course—aside from the fact that it was the last thing that Enzeru wanted. The conflict made both of their lives far more difficult than was necessary.

It wasn't that she didn't want to get along with her mother: there was no one Enzeru admired more than her mother. But every interaction with the woman wore her out.

Sighing, Enzeru allowed her eyes to slide shut and the fatigue that was her mother's plan for her life to pull her slowly under.

"Like I said," Umi sighed, "she's been so hard to deal with since my husband died—I mean, I've gotten used to it; she skips school, she stays out late and I deal with it, but 

this…" Umi trailed off. "This thing with college… it's the worst yet. I don't know what to do."

"Wow," Umi's redheaded companion said. "Fuu said she was shocked after the interview; I didn't know that she was always like that."

Umi squeezed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "I don't know what to do," she repeated. "I need advice, Hikaru."

A laugh bubble out of Hikaru's throat. "Well, I'm not so good with advice. But you know who is?"

An ice blue eyebrow arched elegantly. "You think I should go to Cephiro to figure out what's wrong with my daughter? Really, Hikaru, isn't that taking advantage of your power?"

"Maybe," Hikaru shrugged. "But it's been so long since you were last there—Fuu and I go back once or twice a month; you haven't been in years. Not since you got married."

"That's true," Umi admitted. "I do miss Cephiro."

"So come back. Bring Enzeru with you. Cephiro did so much for us—maybe it'll help her, too."

"Maybe. I'll think it over, Hikaru. Maybe a visit to Cephiro is exactly what Enzeru and I need."

Strains of a Puccini piece drifted down the stairs to greet Umi as she entered the house. Umi couldn't help but roll her eyes—only her daughter would walk out of a college interview and then go home and blast La Bohéme at top volume. She made her way up to her daughter's room, half-dreading the confrontation that was sure to arrive.

The door stood partially open; "O Soave Fanciulla" floated to greet her.

Enzeru was curled up on top of the comforter, her dark curls fanned out across the pillow. Moist shining at the corners of her eyes gave indication that she'd spent some time crying. She didn't move when Umi stepped into the room—her mother assumed that she must have been sleeping.

When Enzeru was sleeping, Umi thought that her daughter was the most beautiful thing in the world, not in the least because she didn't talk. Her eyes rested on her daughter's petite form. Enzeru's dark curls spread across the pillow and around her face tugged at Umi's heart. Traces of the girl's father crept up on her at moments like this. When she was asleep was the only time Umi felt at all like she knew her daughter.

The sleeping Enzeru and the beauty of the opera made up Umi's mind for her. She stepped out of the room, picked up her cell phone and dialed.

"Hikaru? Hey, it's Umi. Yeah, I think I want to go to Cephiro."

Author's Note: Yeah. That's the first chapter. I have nothing planned and I'm moving in a couple of weeks, so please don't expect anything else soon. I'm working out of sequence with this, which I don't normally do. But we'll see how it goes. If it goes anywhere. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Oh, and if you want to find out about my life outside of fanfiction, please check out my blog. The link is on my profile. Thanks, guys.