Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for the plot.

Author's note: This is an AU and will be updated weekly. This writer knows next to nothing about Go; any references about the game are results from many researches. And please feel free to ask any question.

Summary: There was news that the heir of Fujiwara Clan had finally found his familiar. But Hikaru was a furious, brash, young child - who was still mourning and refusing to listen; while Sai was determined to make everything right again. Familiar!AU, Gen.

Prologue:

A Test of Worth

The morning sun was tender through the haze of frost lazing in the garden. Hikaru didn't remember when he had woken up – perhaps before dawn -, but he deemed it not of import. His father's breath had now turned steady and normal, replacing the quickened – agonised – pace it had first taken and risen Hikaru from his sleep. Sometimes, Hikaru wondered about ages – about the years that had passed speaking of mortality and fragility. The concept was foreign to him as it was intimatingly occurring in front of his eyes every single day. Hikaru tended to notice things that shouldn't concern him; and his father often reprimanded him for it in a resigned, fond tone. Thoughts of anti-aging spell now and then would spark insistence and something akin to hope in Hikaru. The notion of longevity flagued by none of human vulnerability was an ideal which Hikaru was eager to persuade his father into believing. Albeit, Shindou Masao was a firm man who wasn't afraid of the approach of death – who let time eat away his youth and, then, his health. His father was not going to live with him forever.

This fact – as bitter and terrifying as it was for Hikaru to admit – certainly had something to do with the presence of a man, whom Hikaru hadn't met before and who had visited his home the day prior in early afternoon. It was summer, heat brightening and slowing everything into faintly heavy moments laden with the high persistent trills of insects. The wind chimes rang out to sudden, hot gales trespassing the shoji doors of the tea room, which had an open view of their spacious garden.

A Go board had been laid between his father and the stranger, displaying a game just reaching the start of a fierce battle of chuban. Looking through the small slit of the thin wood-framed doors, Hikaru sat and used his heightened vision to observe the game silently. The goban was slowly lightened with the sheer power of each hand, sealing symbols circling around the two players' seats and waiting. A disconcerting weight settled over his stomach when the unknown male unsheathed his sword, cut through his father's defense in moves so beauteous it held Hikaru's attention captive just like his father's stones, and showed his worth. Hikaru didn't stay to witness the whole game, his footfalls darkened by the resentful, impotent, feelings warring in his heart and followed by the graceful, agile figures of his koi floating after their master's quiet call of distress. He didn't care if the abrupt absence of the water spirits in the pond would alert his father of the state of his son's emotions, because Masao was the one who chose to be discreet and found someone to look after Hikaru as if his father himself would not be enough.

Later, after that (unwanted, unwanted) young man left, his father told him about his loss of half a moku as Hikaru prepared for their dinner and pretended not to care. The koi fishes he had sent to the pond for their nightly rest, and he vaguely realized that, without their company, his anger then burned clearly inside.

It was half a moku.

"You didn't ask for my permission," Hikaru tried to keep his voice calm, but even that still indifference sounded rigid in his ears.

"Because I know you would always say no, Hikaru," his father responded, stern and understanding. "But I don't want you to be a stray when I can no longer breathe." And there, Masao bared his stark honesty and acceptance to Hikaru in a night reeking of summer's sultriness.

"He is of Suzaku's descents, so his status alone will maintain your safety once you are under his wings, Hikaru."

It was overwhelming, and Hikaru suddenly felt his previous indignation souring into a bone-deep tiredness that made his twelve-year-old body ache dully. So, Hikaru abandoned his dinner share and retired from the kitchen to find an escape in his room, leaving his father to stare after his small back. Hikaru had cried and slept until his father's racking coughs disrupted his slumber.

He hadn't let go of his father's hand since.

Note:

shoji - Japanese sliding doors.

chuban - middle game (Go term)

suzaku - Vermilion bird (represents the fire-element, the direction south, and the season summer correspondingly)