Chapter One
"Have a good day, Father!" The light, chirping voice that filled the oft-quiet Togakushi Shrine flew from the upstairs window, to the foyer and finally out the front door as its owner rushed to meet her waiting ride. Kotori Monou turned one more time to wave to her father before arranging herself on the back of her older brother's bicycle. Said brother favored her with a raised eyebrow.
"You shouldn't run like that." Fuuma chided gently, waiting until she seated herself to kick off the ground and take off down the street.
Kotori clung to Fuuma, making a face full of long-held exasperation, which he naturally couldn't see. "Oniichan, I'm fine!" She called, voice rising over the sound of the air and spinning spokes in their ears.
Fuuma risked a look over his shoulder. "You're fine until you fall over." He said in his deep, normally calm voice. Kotori couldn't remember the last time she'd heard her brother yell. Fuuma was notorious for being untouchable. Some called him stoic; others called him an ice prince. Neither was true, of course, but only a few people knew that. Kotori knew her brother valued his self-control, but he was far from being unemotional. Their classmates simply didn't know how to look for it.
At that precise moment, his features softened enough to suggest a smile. "You seem happy this morning."
Kotori beamed, tightening her grip around his waist into a hug. "I am!" She cried, brushing her long hair back with one hand. "I had a dream last night."
They flowed around a corner, the turn fast and steady, and Fuuma returned his gaze to the street. "Oh?" He asked, cautious. Kotori sometimes had terrible nightmares, ones that would wake her at any time of the night and bring her to tears. She saw some horrifying things in the dark of night, bloody images she didn't understand. "What was it about?"
She smiled. "This one was a good dream," she said cheerfully, and saw the line of his shoulders relax. Fuuma worried about her, she knew. Probably more than he should, really. She was nearly sixteen, after all. Nightmares were only nightmares. They couldn't hurt her when she was awake. "I dreamed about---" She cut off abruptly as a figure on the corner ahead of them came into view. "Kamui-chan!!"
The figure, slowly coming into focus in the form of a boy with dusky brown hair, raised a hand and waved as they approached. Kotori watched him run the last few feet to the corner. His face, split in a wide smile that made her heart skip a beat, began to shift into one of indignation as her brother seemed to have no intention of slowing down. As they zoomed past their friend, the expression turned to one of challenge and he took off, sprinting after them, shouting something at Fuuma. The older boy snorted softly and pretended not to hear.
Shortly, they arrived within view of the school gates, and the groups of students grew more numerous. Many of them cheered as they went past, and looking to her right, over her shoulder, she saw why. Kamui was right next to her, running at top speed to catch up. He chanced a look her way and grinned widely before snapping back into concentration.
"How close is he?"
"Shirou-san! Ganbatte!"
"Forget it, man. Monou's still faster."
"'Course he is, idiot! He's got the bike!"
Kotori laughed as the three of them finally pulled into the schoolyard and Fuuma slowed the bicycle to a stop. Kamui stumbled to a halt beside them, giving Fuuma a half-hearted shove as he bent over to catch his breath. "You... not fair..."
Fuuma dismounted, smirking as he locked the tire to a fence just outside the building. "I thought we were running late," he replied simply, the smirk falling from his mouth but remaining in his amber colored eyes. He pointed up to the clock on the front of the school. The hands were five minutes away from the opening bell. "Looks like we're right on time."
One of their classmates ran by, slapping Kamui on the back as he headed inside. "Nice try, Shirou," he called. "You'll get him next time!"
Kamui raised his head enough to scowl at the third-year before resuming his gasps for breath. Kotori giggled behind her hands. Her brother and Kamui had been competing this way since the beginning of the year. She had to admit, in almost a month of racing Fuuma's bike, Kamui had become much faster. She didn't have a clue as to what had started it; she only remembered on the first day of school, Fuuma had refused to slow down to match Kamui's walking pace. Instead of being left behind, Kamui had run after them. The two of them had done so ever since, testing each other two or three times a week.
Their races were one of the more popular topics among their schoolmates; Kotori had heard that some of the students had set up a pool and were gambling on which day Kamui would finally beat Fuuma.
Personally, Kotori was waiting for the day when Fuuma would intentionally slow down and let Kamui win.
As usual, Fuuma walked them to their classroom, steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the pack of giggling first and second year girls that his presence never failed to gather. However, some of them had begun to accept her older brother's distance and were setting their sights on someone who couldn't ignore them as easily and -- even better -- blushed more quickly than Fuuma ever did. Kotori walked between the two most gossiped about boys in the school and didn't mind in the least that she wasn't the focus of attention. She had her days, few and far between, when a boy sought her out or called to her. Said boys were met with a dark look from her brother as her best friend shifted into the line of vision as if to make her invisible to the offender. Her self-appointed bodyguards protected her and loved her at a level few could match.
And recently, she'd begun to think that... just maybe... she was beginning to love them differently.
The trio paused in front of the first-years' classroom and Fuuma ruffled her hair gently, glancing over her head at Kamui. "Lunch outside today?" The violet eyed boy just grinned and nodded, sliding the door open that separated the two younger students from their daily grind. Another routine which had started up this year; making exceptions for Fuuma's kendo practice, Kamui's swim meets and Kotori's doctor visits, the three of them were rarely seen apart. Kotori had managed to make a small group of friends for herself and sometimes spent time with them, but the boys remained surprisingly solitary. Though none of them had actually demanded that they eat lunch together every afternoon, it had begun to work out that way.
Fuuma waved to the pair as they ducked into the classroom with thirty seconds to spare and then turned to jog up one flight to his own class. Neither had much time for conversation with each other or their classmates before the bell ring, signaling the start of another day.
"Where are you going?"
Tooru turned, violet eyes flashing with barely restrained anger. "None of your business," she snapped, tucking a child's suitcase under her arm as she tugged her tearful son by the hand. The little boy burst into a fresh round of crying when he caught sight of his friends. Her heart ached for him, but her exasperation trumped all her pity.
He folded his arms; his bearing resembled nothing of the soft-spoken and gentle man Saya had so often written about. "Did you think you were going to sneak out without an explanation?" Nothing like him. And she refused to be out-muled by the man who, as far as she was concerned, was partially responsible for her grief. It had been his family that had taken her most important person. Had led them apart... had helped to kill her.
She glared at him, her voice hanging on the air like frost. "What I do has nothing to do with you, Kyougo-san." Her grip tightened on her son's hand. "I can't stay here."
His expression softened minutely, but he didn't move from the gate's entrance. He and his... She couldn't stand to look at them. "Please, Kyougo-san," she pleaded softly. "Let us go."
"I know you're grieving, Magami-san." More and more, he seemed to become the man she had spoken of. "And I'm sorry you are in such pain. But think of your son," he pressed forward in her moment of weakness, seeing her waver as her memories assaulted her from all sides. Damn him. "Think of hers."
She let go of Kamui's hand to wipe at her eyes. "They'd be better off this way..." There was time, time to forget childhood friendships. Time to forget promises and whittle away at bonds. As painful as her grief was, she had no desire to see it in the eyes of either boy.
Kamui hovered at her side nervously, looking from her to his friends, back to her, back to them. His gaze lingered longer on them than it did her.
Kyougo shook his head sadly. "Magami-san... you know they won't forget."
"I'll never forget Kamui-chan," Kotori shouted from behind her brother, her little cherubic face scrunched up with fierce determination. Her eyes stared up at her through her daughter.
"Me neither," her brother's calmer voice piped up, his gaze directed solely at her son. Kamui took that moment to make his own decision and ran to his friends, whose hands he clutched at as he looked hopefully back at her.
Turning her back on all of them, she took the suitcases back inside.