Dark Sunshine
By Sei-chan-1999
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Summary: A chance meeting with a stranger in the middle of the night helps Yuzuriha to finally set free the hidden darkness within herself before she returns to the light.
Rating: K+
Disclaimers: All characters are the property of Clamp. I own nothing and I have made total peace with the fact. See? I'm totally cool about it.
*grinds teeth and forces herself to do slow breathing*
Warnings: A weird character interaction I'm pretty has not been done a lot before. No pairings. Just simple interaction.
Spoilers: Subtle references to Vol 16 of X. Set between Vol 11 and Vol 12.
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Dark Sunshine: Sei-chan-1999
"Why do you wear sunglasses at night?"
It was a valid question. The man in the black business suit looked as immaculate now as he must have looked at the start of his day. Yet, the sunglasses were an anomaly, especially at eleven in the night.
It wasn't advisable for a girl who was (nearly) fifteen to be out that late, striking up conversation with a man in his thirties during the darkest part of night, just before a new day began and that too, in an abandoned subway shuttle, but then, she wasn't any teenaged girl and furthermore, she had Inuki with her.
The man considered Yuzuriha's question and then, pushed the sunglasses into his thick black hair with two fingers to scrutinize her. He stood next to the rocking train's sliding doors, holding onto the metal railing with one raised arm, while she was seated on a folding chair some five feet away, her hands placed on her lap. They regarded each other solemnly.
One eye was blank, like God or an artist had forgotten to put anything within it. Inki went hysterical, growling and barking but the man obviously missed her companion since his expression never changed. Yuzuriha met his single eye with both of her own.
"Do you wear it to hide that?" she asked, incredulous.
"Sometimes," the man accepted with a smirk, "but if you really wish to have a proper reason for my action, you could say that I enjoy seeing my world in darkness."
Yuzuriha tilted her head to the side as she frowned.
"I can understand that," she said, "It's really sunny these days and the light-"
"No," the man broke in firmly, "You don't understand."
He smiled at her to let her know that the question was not unwelcome in any way and that he didn't have anything against her for asking him that. Yet, it did nothing to ease the slight sting in her heart at being treated like an ignorant child. But he hadn't told her to shut up, the way the others had numerous times before she had met the Seals.
He was encouraging her to go on, to ask him more and pull them together with nothing but words.
But he did not look like a man who'd give anything out without taking back something instead.
"In return," he continued evenly as the train jerked on its path through hundreds of rails through dark tunnels and Yuzuriha bounced a little in her seat, "May I ask you a question?"
She beamed at him.
"Of course!"
She wanted to calm Inuki down but couldn't draw attention to herself by stroking empty air. She contented herself by glancing near her ankle. The man remained unaware of her spirit dog and she smiled a bit in relief.
"What is a young lady such as yourself roaming outside so late at night?" he asked politely and Yuzuriha considered the question.
"I was at the movies and the show ended half an hour ago," she admitted finally.
"On a school night?"
He didn't sound as if he were reprimanding her; just curious and maybe a little concerned, although she wasn't sure about the second part.
She blushed at that.
"I have trouble sleeping," she said, feeling ashamed for no reason at all, "I thought going to the theatre for a late night movie might help."
"And why would you have trouble sleeping? I thought schools these days prescribed more than enough homework to deal with problems like that," the man teased her lightly, still smirking and Yuzuriha started to feel slightly uncomfortable.
"A friend of mine witnessed…a murder three months ago," she began to explain, faltering, "I saw it too and ever since then, I've had nightmares."
The radiant smile was gone. She was just a worn out teenager with short limp hair falling into her tired face and she was struggling to keep her eyes open, despite what she claimed.
The man nodded knowingly, as if he were intimated with all the details of the murder she had just mentioned, "I see," he said smugly, "Your friend, the chief victim of the incident, was probably so severely traumatized by it that in dealing with his recovery, you were conveniently forgotten."
Yuzuriha winced; it wasn't the way she would've put it but it worked for her.
And then….
How does he know that Kamui is a 'he'?
But the man continued, regardless of it all.
"Yet, to compromise your own safety like this…I'd say that it is a highly reckless thing to do," her companion mused, rubbing at his blank eye a little tiredly.
"That's not true," Yuzuriha piped up, "A place isn't made unsafe just by the time of the day. It becomes dangerous when the people within it are dangerous. A lonely subway in the middle of the night can be a safer place than Shinjuku in broad daylight if a killer is there instead of here. It's the people who define the nature of the place they stay in and that's what I believe," she ended her speech and looked up at him defiantly.
Inuki growled. The man didn't spare him a glance.
He laughed, but not mockingly. But although it was appreciative, it was paradoxically condescending at the same time, sending chills up and down her spine. Her station was thankfully just two stops away. She couldn't wait to be back at the Imonoyama mansion.
"You're exactly right," the man said finally, "but for the record, right now, you'd be safer in Shinjuku, even with just a common killer on the loose there."
The words 'common', 'just' and 'killer' didn't belong in the same sentence. Yuzuriha shuddered and Inuki pressed himself protectively against her legs.
"Thank you for initiating this conversation," the man said finally, frowning at the electronic map above her head, "My stop is nearing and it would've been a monotonous ride without your company,"
Yuzuriha grinned brightly again. "It was a pleasure," she said, hoping obvious relief hadn't crept into her voice.
"I'd like to give you this, though," the man said and swiftly pulled off his sunglasses and laid them on the seat next to her before she could protest, "Have it, if you wish, as a keepsake of an intriguing conversation with a stranger under the most unlikely of circumstances, And although you may not feel so now-" he fixed her hard with a hard look, "you are an extremely fortunate girl."
When she tried to open her mouth to say something intelligent and mature, he beat her to it again.
"Take care of your companion," he added coolly over his shoulder as he adjusted his coat and prepared to disembark. He flicked his eyes over to Inuki as she gasped but a second later, the doors hissed open and he was lost in the Tokyo night as she knelt on her seat and pressed her face against the glass, watching him disappear.
Then, she was alone and sealed into the speeding subway once again, feeling like a gutted and dissected fish being shaken about in its tin until a monstrous hand opened the lid to push her into a starved mouth full of diseased teeth.
The next stop was hers.
She twirled the sunglasses, thinking of the man as she waited. Soon enough, she got distracted by something else and the lingering sense of unease left her. She'd have to walk home all alone in the dark now and while she wasn't scared, she wasn't looking forward to it. She wanted someone else to be her savior, someone to stand by her and pull her on gently…someone human.
But the one she was specifically thinking of wasn't there now.
As the train slowed to a stop, she caught sight of a lone figure on the platform; a tall young man with worried green eyes, who wore a cream trench coat over black jeans, a shirt and scuffed boots, a cigarette faintly glowing from between his long fingers.
When the doors opened for her this time, she rushed to meet him in delight.
"Subaru-san! Why are you here? You didn't have to come all this way for me!"
Seeing her, his harassed expression faded into a small smile and he put out the cigarette courteously before tossing it into a trashcan nearby.
"I'm sorry for getting in the way of your personal time," he began but never finished because Yuzuriha had flung her arms around his chest and hugged him hard, trying to cover up the fact that she was still shivering for reasons that even she didn't fully comprehend. He held her carefully, more out of courtesy than affection and while that would've once prickled at her painfully, causing aching pangs of jealousy coursing through her like the times when she saw him and Kamui together, she didn't care so much about it now. She was so glad to have someone…anyone….there with her then. He wasn't her special person; Kusanagi was out there somewhere but she suddenly realized how much she did care for Subaru despite everything.
"I'm glad you came. Thank you," she said and smiled up at him…this time for real. She felt so much better than she had before and as if to emphasize the point, she yawned and the older man had to smile again.
"It was getting late," Subaru offered by way of explanation, as Inuki sniffed at the heels of his boots. Yuzuriha tugged him along by the arm to get him moving and he complied. She couldn't wait to get away.
"It was late," she agreed and they walked home together, hand in hand, alternating between the lively conversation led by her and the peaceful silence he radiated every few minutes.
For the first time in many days, she could see the glittering stars in the night sky.
They were the sisters of the bloodied ones traced with fine lines onto the back of her hands, that neither of them had noticed yet.
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An expensive pair of black shades lay neglected on the seat of the subway that was being dragged further away from the city with every second.
A sudden jerk displaced it as it clanked to the floor, disappeared from sight…and shattered.
An omen of what was to come.
The End.
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Author's Note: This is something I wrote because Kamui gets too much of attention after Volume 9 of X that I wanted to shower a little of it on another character I have grown to like over time.
Please read, review, drop me a line and let me know what you think! I'd do the same for you anytime.