Disclaimer: The characters within this story all belong to CLAMP.
Warnings: Subtext.
Summary: They'd met once before, but then they'd forgotten they'd ever known each other.
Completed: January 11, 2010

Forgotten Meeting
by: Kagome-reincarnation

"Yeah, yeah – I'll be there. Six o' clock, right?" the black-haired boy asked of his friend as the two separated.

"Come a little early – we've got to sort into teams first," the other boy said with a grin before running off. He had his own chores to attend to, after all, if he wanted to play.

"Okay," Rikuo said, his farewells done. Now he needed to get home and work on his homework some so he could go to the game. But first… First, there was someone he had to go see.

A small smile broke out on his face as he moved down the sidewalk – there was only three houses to go, and he could already see the lightweight curtain waving slightly with the weak breeze.

He trotted forward, eager to speak with the other boy – the one that he simply knew was there, waiting for him. He stopped in front of the fence, his only obstacle to speaking with the boy.

"Kazahaya!" he called up. "Kazahaya, are you there?"

Almost immediately, a hand came past the curtains to push them aside as a small and pale face revealed itself at the windowsill. It always bothered Rikuo that Kazahaya always looked so ill… But the smaller boy always complained he was happy, so there wasn't much he could do about it, right?

"Rikuo? Is that you, Rikuo?" the thin voice traveled weakly, but not so weakly that the robust child couldn't hear it.

"What did you do today?" the boy called up, a grin in place as he threw his bag over the fence before following it be climbing up over the panels of wood that secured it.

Kazahaya smiled at him delightedly. "My sister and I slept in the garden," he said cheerily. In reality, the two had been sleeping in the living room, but the garden sounded more fun, didn't it? And… Perhaps it would keep his mind off of other, more unpleasant and unfortunate things that he didn't want to think about. "What about you?"

"I went to school again, today," Rikuo said, sitting cross-legged on the ground before the first floor window. Kazahaya, he knew, was kneeling before the sill – the proof was in the arms that propped up his chin. "And later, we're going to play soccer!"

"Soccer?" Kazahaya cocked his head to the side, his unevenly cut hair flopping as he did so.

Rikuo giggled in the way that young children do and nodded. "Yeah – it'll be lots of fun. Why don't you come out and join us?"

He always extended the invitations to the pale boy that always seemed so ill. Without fail, he invited the sickly boy to come play with them. While he realized that Kazahaya was probably too sick to come out and play with them, he thought that it was only fair to extend the invitation to him. Maybe one day he'd feel well enough to come out and play with them. It was with such hopes in mind that he always invited the other boy.

"No," Kazahaya said, a regretful and somehow sad smile in place. Rikuo felt his chest hurt at the look. "My sister doesn't want to go out today, either."

Rikuo frowned at the oft repeated line before speaking his own carefully scripted response – the same response he'd given so many times now. "Why don't you leave her behind?"

And each time, Kazahaya got that same surprised look on his face – as though he'd never considered it and simply couldn't afford to consider such a thing. "I couldn't," he said with a soft and resigned look on his face. "She'd be sad."

The little athlete's frown would grow at those words, but he'd stop pursuing the attempt. It always came down to the sister… And he didn't really like that. Kazahaya never got to play with them, and he never got to play with Kazahaya.

"Maybe tomorrow, then," he said with forced cheer. A dark look flitted across the smaller of the two, but Rikuo, thinking about the next day, didn't notice it.

"Maybe," Kazahaya said weakly.

Rikuo recognized the pallor in the smaller boy's face and immediately stood up, approaching the sill. "Are you okay?" he asked, worriedly. "Should I call for someone?"

Kazahaya shook his head, smiling at him. "I'll be okay, but you should probably go. I have to take my medicine in a couple of minutes, and I'll fall asleep again after that."

Rikuo blinked. "You'll fall asleep?" What kind of medicine was this?

The boy nodded, his expression solemn. "Yes," he said simply. Then he smiled. "I'll see you next time, Rikuo," he said. "Thank you for always coming by."

The soccer-playing boy stepped back, nodding. A smile popped into place as he thought about the next time they'd talk. He liked talking with Kazahaya. The other boy, despite his illness or whatever, was always nice to him.

"See you later!" he called cheerily.

He grabbed his bag, waved, and went off, throwing his bag over the fence before clambering over it once more. He waved jauntily once more before heading to his own home.

As he walked home, though, he ran over the conversation in his mind, thinking about what they'd talked about and the way the sickly boy had acted. Sick, for one. Kazahaya was weak – the boy had explained that the first time they'd met – but rarely did he feel so faint that he'd fade away as they spoke.

And today's goodbye… It hadn't been the usual farewell that Kazahaya used. Typically, the other boy said something like "See you later!" or something else along those lines and left it at that... But today, he'd thanked him?

Rikuo couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. His childish mind immediately thought of the sister that he'd never seen but for in pictures. He felt bad for the other boy for always following along with whatever Kei said. How could he make any friends that way?

As his own home came into view, though, these thoughts were removed from his mind in favor of the thought of hot food and snack that awaited him. Later, he'd pass by the house again, but the window would be shut. He wouldn't pay it any mind, since it had been shut more and more frequently as of late, though his frown would deepen at the sight.

The next day, though, the window would be shut again, and were he to look into it, he'd realize that the curtains were gone, and so were all the things that had been in the room he'd always spoken to Kazahaya in.

It would take a week before he'd finally be able to understand what had happened and why, and it would take another week before he'd stop feeling so morose about it. It took him a month to forget about it, but by then, he'd been introduced to a girl called Tsukiko.

He had no idea their paths would collide again later in the future, and he certainly didn't know that Kazahaya would suffer even more after the move. All he was aware of was the female that he'd been introduced to who didn't mind playing soccer to even out the number and wasn't afraid to hit back when she was hit.

Later, they would meet again, but they wouldn't recognize each other. No, instead they would butt heads, wishing for an easier partner. Their ritual meetings after school, at the same time each day would be easily forgotten. Children, after all, have long lives before them and many other memories to keep.