Weak
Disclaimer: Hakuouki does not belong to me. I am just playing with the characters.
Summary: He didn't understand why his father ordered him to play nice with the Yukimura girl. Oh, even at nine, Kazama Kazama understood female devils were rare; but he didn't care. There was nothing special about her aside from her gender.
The Yukimura girl was much younger than him. This was his first impression of her. His second was that her twin brother followed her around—everywhere. Wherever she went, he was there too, like a second skin or a leech.
Chikage Kazama sighed and dropped from the tree limb he had been resting on. The children—because really that's what they were—startled. Chizuru dropped the flower crown in her hands, conveniently right atop of her brother's head, and stared at him. He nodded to her before moving on.
"Um…" He heard a timid murmur behind him. "Would you like to play with us?" She asked.
Without looking over his shoulder, Chikage answered, "No."
He didn't understand why his father ordered him to play nice with the Yukimura girl. Oh, even at nine, he understood female devils were rare; but he didn't care. There was nothing special about her aside from her gender.
Still, his stomach dropped when he heard a quiet "oh" from behind him. He grit his teeth. He would not turn around. Kazama were not weak, simpering fools who bowed before a female. Especially a female sounding close to tears. He forced his feet to move toward the house and tried his best to ignore the conversation behind him.
"It's okay, sister. You still have me."
"I know, Kaoru…but it still would have been nice to have a new friend."
He didn't stop, didn't dare look over his shoulder. Chikage repeated the words his father had drilled into him as he walked up the stairs. Kazama were not weak. A devil always keeps his word.
He had said no. He couldn't turn around now and play. That would not be honoring his word.
Besides…he didn't need friends.
Chikage ignored the way that hole in his chest seemed to grow wider.
"Oh, you poor child." He tensed immediately at the words and the voice. The mother of those two in the garden stood in the hall with him.
"What do you know?" He snapped. He was aware that he was being rude and that his father would probably lash him for talking to the mother of the Yukimura Clan like this, but he couldn't find it himself to care. Who did she think she was pitying him?! His lips parted in a snarl, but her sad eyes never changed.
"I know you are lonely," she said. "But it is a loneliness you condemn yourself too." She looked out at the garden where Chikage could still hear her twins playing.
"Shut up," he growled before storming away.
She didn't understand. No one could. Even the next head of the Yukimura Clan wouldn't…those pampered little brats would never understand what it meant to be raised in the Kazama Clan.
The Yukimaru Clan was safe.
The Yukimaru Clan didn't have spies from other Clans lurking in their halls. They didn't have servants just waiting to dig the knife in a little deeper.
The Yukimaru Clan knew nothing.
Those simpering pansies in the garden would never know what it was like to have to survive an assassination attempt at the hands of your own family.
The rage inside of him, the jealousy he could feel pounding away at his insides, threatened to bring his powers to the surface. He could feel the heat in his veins and knew he needed to reign it in.
If his father knew he had lost control like this…
The fire inside of him died down to a dull shimmer. His fists unclenched…and, as if a marionette suddenly without strings, he collapsed against the wall.
Then…for the first time in years, he cried.
He cried for the ache inside his chest that demanded he fill it with things he couldn't have: like friendship and his mother's and father's love. He smothered the sounds with his sleeve…and fought to stop the flow of tears down his cheeks.
Kazama were not weak.