Shooting Star
Appuru

Tokyo Babylon and xxxHolic crossover, ignoring time lines. S/Sish.

The girl who walks into Yuuko's shop one late afternoon is the strangest Watanuki has encountered so far.

She has jet-black hair and glass-green eyes, wears colors that could blind sensitive people and carries a large box that emanates some kind of power. Maru and Moro grab each of her arms and dance with her; Mokona perches on her head, all chanting Hokuto-chan's here, Hokuto-chan is here! She and Yuuko cackle together in a way that absolutely terrifies Watanuki. Her full name is Sumeragi Hokuto, and she has come for a Wish.

Yuuko leads her into the main room, asks (commands) Watanuki to bring them tea, and they talk. They talk about fashion and weather and onmyoujutsu, family business, and the Sakurazukamori and stupid, thick-headed, oblivious little brothers. So many things. By the time Watanuki returns with the tea, Hokuto is undoing the strings from the box, removes the lid. Pushes the box towards the witch.

Yuuko lifts out a dress from its nest of tissue paper. It's made from an old victorian style, a polonaise with an underskirt, and the sleeves and train are large, lazy butterfly wings, which droop and shimmer with a thousand different colors. Ribbons trail across the ground. Delicate, detailed embroidery whispers from all over the silk.

It's different from the dresses I normally make you, Yuuko-sama. It's made, Hokuto says, from the scrap materials of every costume I sewed for Subaru. It has all my love for my little brother in it.

The dress is so, so beautiful. And it radiates a comforting presence, a warmth that Watanuki can feel through the thin shoji screens he's discreetly eavesdropping through.

It's lovely, Yuuko says. A rustle. She lays the dress back into the box, covers the lid, and Watanuki feels strangely bereft, as if he'd been enfolded in someone's warm embrace, and they had suddenly stepped away. But her voice grows a little harder, and he knows Yuuko's eyes are glowing darkly in the twilit room. However, Yuuko says, You already know that this is not enough to the pay the Price for your Wish.

I know. I'm ready to pay for the rest of it, too, Yuuko-sama.

The Sakurazukamori won't appreciate you meddling with his game, Hokuto-chan. He only wants Subaru-kun on the playing field.

I know, Hokuto replies, and her voice is venemously fierce, all sharp edges and biting green glass, the color of her eyes. I just... she falters, regains her footing. They're so dumb, together, but they could be happy. Both of them are so tangled up in spirits and death that they don't know how to live on the human plane anymore. But I know that the heart remembers, even if the mind doesn't. I just want to give them both--Sei-chan, Subaru--that chance to live. Even if--her voice breaks.--Subaru might get hurt, for my sake or for his. Even if Sei-chan is kind of a bastard to my poor, beautiful brother.

A Wish is a selfish thing, Yuuko says, more gently then Watanuki can ever remember her being.

Hokuto-chan.

What is it you Wish for?

Hokuto, fiercely: I want them to be happy. So, I'm Wishing for the power to stop Seishirou, to wake him up, before it's all over.

Yuuko, slowly: Your Price has been paid. And your Wish will be granted. When the time comes.

When Sumeragi Hokuto leaves Yuuko's shop, Yuuko stares after her for a long time. I don't get it, Watanuki says, confused. You said the dress wasn't enough, but she didn't give you anything else. How'd she fulfill the condition for her wish?

Some things, Yuuko responds, cost more then you could dream, Watanuki. And even then, if there are other Wishes, if there are those who will pay with an even heavier price then yours, your Wish may never come true.

Not everyone can be happy, Watanuki.

Are you saying--?

Well, Yuuko says, humorlessly, I'll have to find a new dressmaker.