Pathway.
T: I have wanted to write this fic for a while now mainly because I had a yearning to give Priest Seishiro some back story. It's come to print now rather than later because I've just finished watching episode 24 of Tsubasa and the teaser for 25 has me believing that their going to reveal the Vampire Sumeragi early, thus more than likely ruining all my lovely guess work! I will be using a few random terms here for various things connected to Sei-chan's home world but I'll have a glossary in my end A/N to alleviate confusion! Warning of ANGST, CLIFF HANGER ENDING and SLASH…my usual fair in other words! Stuff in italic is flash back. Not mine, if it was it'd be about priest Sei-chan rather than Shaoran...heh!
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It had been a week since had last eaten, perhaps longer since water had touched his lips and 'Rino' or no his resolve had begun to crumble.
Once or twice he had caught an image of the boy from the corner of his eye, a phantom shade that had passed the moment he turned to look at it properly.
He believed now that an illusion was all he was going to find here in the sands, for there was no cause for them to be out here amid the elements.
No true lure for ones such as them.
However, the ones he had talked to had seemed so sure and even the great power of the feather seemed unable to boost his own magical reserve enough that he was prepared should he find the boy in the next world.
Thus he continued to walk the desert, hopeful that the rumours would prove true and that he would find life here amid the sands…
Would find him.
Yet once he was again face to face with the boy what would be his next action?
He had thought for the first years of the hunt that he would do as was his duty and kill the boy and yet…
Had it not also once been his duty to protect the child? To hold him safe against the dangers of their world so that he could grow and rise into the position of 'Gina'?
It was a conflict that might have proved easier if he had maintained the necessary distance between his charge and himself.
Yet there has been a purity to the boy that was intoxicating, a purity that would lend well to the task destined for him and which had pulled at his heart until he had fallen for the boy.
"You have been so very quiet of late, Seishrio-san…have I offended you in any way?" Those precious emeralds were sad and smiling to ease that sadness he replied,
"You are to be Gina, majesty, and thus I have no right to be 'offended' by your words."
"I have told you before that I have no want to be 'majesty' in your eyes, Seishiro-san.
"My grandmother is strong and it shall be many years until I have need to become the protector and the ruler of this world.
"Thus if I have caused you offence I wish you to tell me."
"It is not that you have offended me, Subaru-kun, rather that I have been attempting to place again a suitable distance between us.
"Of late I have begun to feel all too much towards you." The boy smiles at that, pulling him down for a strong kiss before informing him,
"Good, because I love you, Seishiro-san and it does me good to know that you care in the same way."
He can see the boy still in his minds eye, dressed in the deep violets of his position and baring the odd golden cross, the symbol of his bloodline, about his neck.
Seven long years they had had together, the boy growing into a handsome man and he learning to let go his fears and his inhibitions…
Then, without warning, the boy had been gone from his side and he had been left with nothing but the boy's cross and the angry words of the current Gina,
"You allowed your sentimentality and your emotion to cloud your mind and slow your judgement and for that your charge has been taken by them…
"You must find him and do as you have been trained, Rino, then you shall bring his body back to me so that it can be purified and his soul allowed to ascend at last."
Thus had begun his journey, firstly on foot and then by dimensional travel.
He had feared that the witch would request the cross of him…indeed her eyes had fallen to that item almost the moment he had entered her home and yet…
"Two things do you value beyond everything and though I could request both of you I shall not.
"Instead I shall request only the payment of your right eye."
He raises his hand to his blind side and touching his false eye he allows another recollection to take him.
His mother stands silent at his side, pride clear in her eyes as he is presented with the small boy who shall be his charge.
He is only seven, and yet already there is a unique light in his eyes that shall make him great when his time comes.
"Today you shall be bound by your right eye to the person who shall be as your very existence, Seishiro and once that is done I shall leave your side forever, for there shall be nothing else that I can teach you."
"Goodbye, Kasan." He remarks before the cool hands of the Gina grasp hard onto his head.
There is a sharp pain in his right eye and then he can feel the anxiety of the boy before him…can feel the steady thrum of his heart and the soft curiosity of the boy regarding himself.
If he concentrates he can still feel what it was to know always that the child was safe and on occasion could even hear the child's thought.
Sometimes he believes this sensation is real, that though the anchor of their binding had been severed, the spell lingered still…
Sometimes, in the very dead of night, he recalls the moment that the boy had changed…recalls the intense chill that had settled over him even thought they had been so very far apart.
He knows that should he wish he could erase this recollection from his mind and yet he has not, it is part of his punishment for letting the boy go, after all.
He catches a shape in the corner of his seeing eye and turning he is met again with the lifeless desert.
Steaming his disappointment he turns his mind back again to the thought at hand.
He had been searching for the boy to kill him until the moment he met Shaoran…afterwards…
Shaoran had recalled the other to him with such vividness that for the briefest instant he had believed his search at last at an end.
Then his mind had reminded him that the boy was no longer as such, that the one he hunted was older, both in appearance and in actual years.
It was something he tried to recall as little as possible, for he had not begun to truly love the boy until he was all but a man, thus to hunt the boy was as less of a pain than to hunt the man.
Even after recalling this Shaoran had continued to remind him of the boy and it had been that, rather than anything else, that had prompted him to teach the other to fight.
This he had also tried to do for his charge and yet the young prince had had no want to learn anything other than the defensive art and had all but turned translucent when he had suggested that the boy learned of distancing himself.
"It is well that you have something to server away your emotions, Seishiro-san, indeed it is a comfort to me that you require still such a token and yet…
"I can not bare the thought of being responsible for another's pain, enemy or no and the guilt that would assail me after I removed the blocking item would be enough to destroy me."
Shaoran, however, had listened carefully to his words as he told him of the blocking spell and its purpose, had even gone as far as to enquire as to whether it was possible to create such a spell within oneself and thus remove the need of an item to hold the spell within.
It had been that question…that subtle difference…that had made him re-consider his reason for searching out the boy.
He cared too much for the young prince and his feelings on the matter that simply killing him would not be a thing of ease.
Indeed by the time he met Shaoran again he thought not of killing the boy, but simply of finding him.
Now after the passing of weeks…months or perhaps years, he wished only to return home and find the affair some horrible nightmare.
Yet even that was impossible.
He feels his body waver and he allows himself to fall, too weak now to fight against the inevitability of his death here in the lifelessness of the desert.
The truth was that he had stopped hoping to find the boy at least two worlds ago and that now he thought only of running from the nightmare than had come from his own foolish mistake.
It had been the boy's tears that had been his downfall, that much he marked well still in his mind.
The tears threaten so clearly in his loves eyes that he can not help but pull the man close and murmur gentle nothings.
"Neesan was taken by them, Seishiro…I have to cross the border, have to try and bring her back before it becomes too late and she is lost to me."
"Subaru, to cross over the border into the Vampire realm is death itself and though it is well to grieve your sister you can not do this thing…for this nations future is on your shoulders."
"Would you have me let her suffer simply because of my duty, Seishrio?"
"No, love, yet you must understand why I say these things."
"Yes, of course. In turn you must understand that I have to go."
"Let me come with you then."
"No! If I loose you both it shall kill me. Do not worry, the blood of my ancestors shall protect me and…" He removes the cross from about his neck, "The knowledge that you await me shall be as a light within the shadows of their world.
"Guard this well, Seishiro and I promise that I shall return to claim it again."
He grabs the cross hard into his hands and a bitter curse on his lips he fling it far from himself.
It lands with a soft thump and that is the last sound that he hears before he falls into darkness.
When he again awakes he is wrapped beneath soft covers and a hand is gently bathing his head in chilled water.
He hears Shaoran's voice and that stirs him completely from his lull.
There is a shadow in the boy's eyes that tells that his journey had been hard and yet he is smiling still.
"Shaoran?" He enquires; still not quiet believing himself truly awake.
"Ah, so you are awake at last."
"Why are you here? Indeed why are you helping me?"
The boy moves then, taking the cloth from a woman, this someone that Seishiro does not recognise, though he can not shake the belief that he should, and settles down at his blind side
"You have not done me any true harm, Seishiro-san and as to why I am here…this is my home now."
"Then your journey is at an end?"
"Yes, I have collected all but one of the princesses' feathers."
"I still can not bestow you that feather, Shaoran, for I still have not found the two that I have been looking for."
"Seishiro-san…I did not find you in the desert, instead a man brought you to me.
"He was very handsome and I could see through his eyes that he loved you dearly.
"He smiled and passing you to me he said,
'Tell him to stop…tell him that I am beyond saving and that I will now be unable to keep my promise.' Then he passed me this…" Shaoran informs him as he passes the cross back into his keeping.
"So he was here, after all."
"Yes."
He hugs the thing close to his heart and smiles just slightly,
"I can not stop."
Shaoran moves back into his line of sight, a neutral expression schooled onto his face,
"He told me that you might say that and to inform you that he shall wait for you at the ruins at the edge of our town.
"Asked me to request that you give over the power of the feather for it hurts him so."
"I would say that you are lying to me, that you tell me these things to gain your precious possession and yet…
"I do not believe you are capable of such a thing." He remarks as he pushes himself out of bed and back onto his feet.
He lets go the energy of the feather but does not linger to see if its restoration to the princess shall prove as a positive or a negative for Shaoran.
Rather he crosses out into the sand strewn streets, his seeing eye searching for and finding the ruins that Shaoran had spoken of.
He hesitates a moment, unsure still of what he wishes of the boy and then he moves…
Let fate decide what this meeting shall be.
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T: I may randomly write a Subaru version of this but I promise nothing as it depends on how nice Clamp are with episode 25! Errr…will get to the glossary in a moment I just wanted to say that…yes I am aware that Sei-chan is not bearing the cross when first he meets Shaoran, let us assume he's hiding it for whatever reason! Also in regard to the cross, yep I know it bears the Sakurazukamori mark (Inverse pentagram) and yet it made sense for it to be something of Subaru's, perhaps a representation of the fact that his family line was not afraid to battle evil or something like that! Also I liked the concept of those glasses being a magical aid of some sort, hence Shaoran remarking 'He's serious' when he sees Sei-chan wearing them…it fit as Sei-chan's right eye was as a binding between himself and Subaru. Shaoran's planet is a huge thing, most likely mainly desert thus it is more than likely that Sei-chan could walk for days without hitting upon anyone else. Right to the glossary….
Gina: Almost like a king/Queen but they hold also a responsibility to protect their kingdom from the darker aspects of their world…so kind of an Onmyoji/ Ruler crossover.
Rino: Think Suoh with magic and attitude…kind of a Suoh/ Sakurazukamori high bread…shudder I never ever want to write those two together with a slash between them again!
R+R I need the encouragement!