Betrayal

Chapter One- Dreams

By Larissa Hyuga

Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimer applies.

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She had played the whole afternoon into her house. That was an uncommonly cold day for autumn. Her brother, though, seemed to have had a great time.

When it was near the sunset time, she glanced through the window, while the maid insisted in combing her hair, to observe the two boys running outside. And then, a black carriage came rushing on the path to her house. Her little cinnamon eyes widened in curiosity and she straightened her body to see and listen better.

The two boys stopped running and waited. A man hopped out of the carriage and greeted the boys. His voice was low and calm. Her older brother came inside the house and in few minutes, he appeared outside followed by her father. Megumi observed the surprised look at Ryuusei's face become a worried one. He demanded the boys to enter and when the door slid closed, he looked around and Megumi was fast enough to hide herself. Her father hadn't seen her. And then, he approached the other man. Megumi could only notice he was older than her father but his face was shadowed by the sunset colors.

They both rushed to the carriage and the other man opened the door. Few seconds later, a boy came out of it. He was thin and lean, maybe as old as her older brother, she did not know. She could only tell he had very black hair and was wrapped in something that looked like a blanket. She could no longer see her father's face either but he came near the boy and waited for some seconds, listening what the other man had to tell in his very low voice. Her father only nodded and then, he touched the boy's forehead. The moment that followed, her father had run inside the house and she saw her mother pass by to meet him at the door. They talked in really low voice, but, to Megumi's dismay, the maid came, dragging her brother by the arm and also pushed her to the inside.

"Let's go upstairs. Mama and Papa are busy."

Megumi moaned and looked at her brother's faces. They were as annoyed as her. Everybody wanted to know what was happening and why their father looked so worried.

Upstairs, pretending to be playing with balls and Megumi pretending to be learning how to fold paper cranes, they spent their time. Nobody could hear anything from downstairs for quite a long while. The maid did not let them get close to the door. And then, for their amusement, they heard someone come running upstairs and then, strong steps followed. When the first person passed by the door of the room they were, they could hear it was their mother. They heard her sobs and her weak voice in a cut cry.

The maid could not control them anymore. The children all ran to the door while the maid was blocking their way.

"Mama, Mama!" they cried out. Everything was silent then. They could not even breathe. And then, they recognized their father's voice also whispering. Their mother moaned something like " betrayed" and then, they heard her coming to the door.

"It is nothing, I will come soon. Just… play and obey Osei."

The kids gave an impatient look to Osei, the maid. She looked down and said:

"You heard your mother."

xXx

Hours past the usual dinner time, the children saw their mother open the door. Her face was red just as if she had cried for hours and hours.

"Mama." The boys ran and clung to her legs. She stroked their hair and smiled at them ruefully. Then, she reached out her hand to the little five-year old girl who sat alone across the room.

"Come, Megumi-chan. Let's have dinner."

They went downstairs and found their father already there, ready to eat. The food had also been placed on the low table. As they sat on their cushions, Megumi realized they would have no guests eating that night. Where had the other man and the boy gone?

Her mother sat far away from her father, something absolutely different from their daily meals. The woman also did not look at the man although he sometimes looked at her with the corner of his eyes.

In the middle of the meal, while munching on a rice ball, Megumi noticed there was someone else in the other room. The shoji was not totally closed so she could see, in a very dark spot, the boy she had seen earlier. He seemed to be alone though and he had no blanket around him now. She kept her eyes on him with pure curiosity but he did not turn his face to the dining room not even once.

"Eat, Megumi." It was the demanding voice of her mother who brought her back to reality. She had realized the girl had spent quite a while looking at the boy into the other room.

Blushing, the child grabbed her chopsticks and ate fast.

They were allowed to stay up a few hours after dinner. However, dinner that day had been silent and had taken longer to start, so nobody was really sure if they should already go to bed. Her mother had just vanished after the meal. The boys were unusually quiet and decided to go upstairs on their own. Megumi had spotted her father coming and going into the house but, ten minutes ago, he had gone upstairs and hadn't come back. She was alone, sitting down at the porch as she usually did with all her colored sheets of paper. Although it was cold, the child found extreme happiness in staying some moments in contact with the atmosphere from the garden even under the insistent protests of her mother. That night, though, there was nobody to protest and she felt free. Making sure her red coat was warm enough, she just stood there, folding the papers and eventually, looking at the garden, which had already lost some of the leaves. Others were red and golden.

Megumi saw a shadow passing by, but no noise followed. Her heart pumped and, instinctively, she pulled the sheets close, squeezing the badly done cranes into her small hands. Any other weird move and she would run inside, crying. The shadow passed again but, this time, paralyzed by fear, she saw a boy emerge from behind the trees. It was THE boy.

The little girl sighed. "You scared me."

The boy turned his head to look at the small girl who was talking to him, but he did not respond. Drawn by him, she got closer, she tried to see him in the light.

"Why are you there? Isn't it too cold? Mama says one could get sick where you are." Megumi insisted.

The boy walked to the porch, but he did not enter. He just stood close enough so that the girl could see his face.

She raised her dark eyes to look at him. He was pale, really pale wrapped in that purple scarf, wearing those dark blue clothes. His hair was shiny and black and only then she realized it was tied in a ponytail. "Handsome", she thought. But there was something on that boy, his sad semblance, his disturbing midnight eyes that looked down at her as if she was nothing. After a brief eye contact, the boy turned around and coughed. He coughed until he was breathless.

The girl reached out her small hand to him and he turned to her again with curiosity. "Papa can cure you. He is a very good doctor. Come, don't stay out there in the cold."

He hesitated for long seconds till he decided to place his hand over hers and walk inside with her. He walked to the same room downstairs. Megumi noticed someone had placed only one futon there. The boy sat on the futon and the little girl sat beside him.

"The man that came with you… is he your papa?"

With the light of the lantern on his face, he looked incredibly white. And for her big amusement, she saw his eyes were blue, although shadowed with something cold and sad.

"No." he quickly answered.

" And where is your mama?" she asked in that childish voice of hers.

"Dead. Tuberculosis." He blankly stated.

Megumi's eyes rounded. She did not know what that meant exactly but she knew it was bad. She had seen her father and mother talking about that and she knew it was a very serious sickness.

"I am sick too. But, uh, doctor Takani said it is not tuberculosis. Just a strong cold. But small girls like you should not be near me. Your mother and… your father will not be happy if you get sick."

She looked at him for long whiles. That boy was not older than her older brother and he spoke just like an adult. That made her sad and extremely childish.

"Are you alone?" she asked him and he nodded, his eyes closed.

"Mama said I will never be alone. I have her, I have papa and my brothers. Maybe you are not alone. And your brothers and sisters?"

"I have… none." The pause before saying none was bitter and thoughtful.

She got really sad and full of compassion for that boy. Looking aside, she saw a paper crane, a purple one she had made previously that day. It was not as good as the ones her brothers made but it was the best she had achieved. She got it from the floor and got closer to the boy, bowing before him and handing out the paper crane.

"For you. You are not alone today." She smiled her sweetest smile.

He got the paper crane from her small hands. " Thank you." He said; but he did not smile.

The following second, he turned his head to the other room and then, they both heard a carriage coming. Ryuusei Takani ran down the stairs the other second and opened the shoji, glancing at the boy.

"There you are. Let's go, he is here." He said, shifting his eyes to look at the girl sat by the boy. " Megumi!" he said in a rather restrained voice.

The boy stood up and Megumi followed him with her eyes, standing up when she realized he was going away. She followed her father and from inside, she was the carriage door opening. The boy grabbed a blue sheet of paper and, before stepping outside, folded the most impressive and beautiful paper crane Megumi had ever seen. Her father was waiting outside for the boy to come, but instead of heading to the carriage, he turned around and handed the blue crane to the little girl, that looked at it with sheer amusement.

"Farewell, …"

Megumi was not sure of the last word the boy had said to her. The wind blew stronger and covered his words although she did see his lips moving to say something else than farewell. The other second, he had already entered the carriage and it was already far away.

Then, a hand was placed on her shoulder and carried her inside.

Megumi woke up in the middle of the night felling strange. She sat down on the edge of her bed and looked through the glassy windows. She… she did not remember that day until now. She had just dreamed of it and now she knew it was real. And it had happened sixteen years ago, juts two days before her family had been disarranged. Just two days before her father had been killed, her house had been burnt down, her mother, Osei and her brothers had disappeared. And she had just told that strange boy she would never be alone.

But she was alone. Of all people in the world, there could never be someone as lonely as she was.

xXxXxXx

And here I am starting a new fic. I just got the idea for it last night during Civil Law classes. And NO, this won't be an epic one although it is also during Meiji Era. Or at least, it will be.

Well, the title of this chapter is " Dreams", so that whole part of Megumi's childhood was a dream. But in fact, it was something that happened, something she had partially blocked in her mind for it happened only two days before the big trauma in her life. And then, sixteen years later, she dreams of everything that happens. Oh, almost forgot to say this story is slightly AU. Or at least, I plan it to be.