Reconciliation?
-Summary- Seishirou catches up. Kamui is pissy. Subaru is oblivious. Much sugar is consumed, and Kamui's sweet tooth gets the better of his common sense. Sei/Kam interaction, SS.
A/N - I'm pretty sure this evolved out of a dream that involved at least one of the scenes I used in here, I think the ice cream one. If it didn't, then I have no bloody idea where this thing came from. L-space, most likely. Damn L-space.
Disclaimer - I don't own.
-
When he catches up, the first person he runs into is Kamui.
Kamui doesn't realize it at first, which is probably the only thing that saves Seishirou's life. The vampire is wearing a uniform and leaving the ticket booth at the front gate of the amusement park that Seishirou has just left, and Seishirou is deeply amused by Kamui's choice of occupation on this new world. He wonders what drove the boy to it, and then he wonders where Subaru is working and if he can find out before Kamui realizes he's here.
He follows the vampire down the busy boardwalk, eyes never leaving his slim back, until he gets bored of this and decides that the best way to get what he wants is to finish his confrontation with Kamui and to get it out of the way. His footsteps speed up, and he is nearly upon Kamui before the vampire senses something wrong and whirls around, eyes narrowing to slits.
"You," he says.
"Kamui-kun," Seishirou says, and just to throw the boy off-balance: "May I walk with you?"
"No you may not," Kamui spits, but Seishirou ignores that and falls into step beside him.
"So," he begins, conversationally, "I noticed that you just got off work."
"I noticed that you're stalking me. Go away."
"Oh, now, really, Kamui-kun. That's hardly fair."
"Oh, yeah, that's right, it's Subaru that you stalk. You're just following me because you're not sure where he is, right? Well, guess what? I'm not going to lead you to him. Go find some other unlucky bastard to hunt."
"Very well." Seishirou's voice is soft. "I suppose I'll start asking around for Subaru-kun. Surely even if you two haven't been here very long, someone will remember him. As twins, you rather stand out. I'll start in here, shall I?" He points randomly up the street at a sign that appears to be hanging above a shop selling occult books.
"Don't you dare!" Kamui snarls, latching onto the back of Seishirou's sleeve and forcibly dragging him back. "I mean it!"
"What are you going to do about it if I do?" Seishirou says coolly.
"I'll kill you. You stay the hell away from my twin. You are not going to get the chance to hurt him again." Kamui's eyes are still slitted, and though his voice is deadly calm, Seishirou can tell that he is raging mad, and that he probably will follow through on his threat if Seishirou pushes the issue.
"Hurt Subaru-kun?" Seishirou blinks. "Why would I do that?"
"Maybe because you're an sociopathic criminally insane bastard!"
"If that's what you like to think," Seishirou says smoothly, and Kamui splutters in inarticulate rage. "Now, if you don't like the idea of me searching for Subaru-kun on my own, and you don't want to lead me to him, and you'll only kill me if I go near your twin, what exactly do you propose we do?"
Kamui blinks, thrown a bit before he recovers himself and draws himself up to his full, not particularly consequential height. "I propose that you get the hell out of here before I decide that being in the same world constitutes 'being too close to Subaru'."
"But Kamui-kun," Seishirou says, the height of reason, "that's no fun. Why don't we go get ice cream instead?"
Kamui blinks again, thrown off balance even further. "... Why?"
"Well, it's a beautiful warm day, and I think it might be worthwhile for you and me to spend some time working out exactly why you hate me so much," Seishirou offers, and Kamui keeps blinking.
"That's kind of a no-brainer," he says at last. "You hurt my other half and the person I love the most, so of course I'm going to hate you."
"Well, maybe," Seishirou says with a shrug. "But I still think we should go get ice cream. Come on, Kamui-kun. I saw a stand just outside the park on my way through town this morning."
"Hey, wait -!" Kamui stumbles after Seishirou without much choice; he doesn't want to let the hunter wander around on his own, for fear that he will run into Subaru, and he can't help but be curious why Seishirou doesn't seem to think that Kamui's hate is a no-brainer.
So he follows, bewildered and annoyed, and proceeds to be extremely uncomfortable when Seishirou graciously offers to treat him at the ice cream stand. The damn hunter is being friendly, and he's sure it's just a mask, a ploy to get Kamui to trust him and let him near Subaru, and he doesn't want to believe it, he knows it's a lie, but he's suddenly realizing something. Subaru was right about how charming the man can be, and his twin was also right about how easy it is to fall into believing his actions and words even when the truth might be quite different.
Kamui sulks as he eats his ice cream, and reluctantly has to admit that it's good, even if it's sullied by the fact that the hunter paid for it, and that if he didn't know better, he'd almost be willing to enjoy this little expedition.
They walk around the park together, and Seishirou crumbles his ice cream cone instead of eating it so he can feed the ducks, and Kamui watches, silently, intently, studying his brother's psychopathic boyfriend in action. And concludes that except for the possessive obsessing behaviour, he might almost be tricked into thinking the man was human.
"You're pretty quiet," Seishirou says, brushing crumbs off his hands and smiling back at Kamui.
Kamui says nothing, but he continues watching the man suspiciously.
"You know, I'm not going to bite you."
Kamui tries to stare him down. Seishirou sighs, and sits down on the bench beside the vampire boy.
"Look," he says, finally. "I think that us fighting is pretty stupid, wouldn't you agree? Our intentions here aren't that different - did you notice that?"
Kamui's mouth tightens. "That's the problem," he mutters.
"To some degree," Seishirou agrees. "And yet, if it was you in my place - you would understand why I'm here, talking to you now, wouldn't you?"
"I'm not going to let Subaru go just to satisfy your need to totally own him," Kamui snaps. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I need my brother by my side, or did it not ever cross your selfish mind?"
Seishirou raises an eyebrow.
Kamui cannot stand the hunter's curious, indifferent gaze any longer. He throws the remains of his ice cream cone at him and dashes away.
Seishirou does not bother to follow.
When Subaru is done his job for the day and asks how Kamui's was, all his twin says is: "Fine."
He doesn't mention Seishirou to Subaru, and Subaru does not ask, though Kamui knows Subaru guesses that something is not quite right.
-
The next day when Kamui is finished work, the hunter is waiting for him again. He has a bag of cotton candy that he must have gotten from the concession in the amusement park, and he hands it to Kamui before the vampire has even entirely realized who he is.
"Damn you," he snarls, but accepts the bag.
Seishirou walks with him down the street in spite of Kamui's loud complaints and orders to go away, and when Kamui tries to evade him in a crowd by using his superhuman speed and dodges to get away, it is only to find Seishirou waiting for him once more at the docks, where he ends up.
"Aren't you going to eat your cotton candy?" is all he asks when Kamui swears at him. And asks how his day was.
Kamui snarls and tears open the bag, and takes a taste to quell his annoying companion. It's good, and it was kind of, sort of thoughtful of that bastard to get it for him. That's the reason he only takes the one taste, and no more. He doesn't want that bastard to think he appreciates it or anything.
Seishirou smiles in satisfaction, and then, while Kamui's mouth is full, he asks how Subaru is doing.
"All the better for not having to deal with you," Kamui spits bitterly through a mouthful of sweetness. And throws the cotton candy at Seishirou's head.
Seishirou takes that as a signal for him to leave.
After fuming for awhile and scaring away several flocks of seagulls, Kamui goes and retrieves the cotton candy from the edge of the wharf and takes it back with him. Subaru is surprised and pleased to find Kamui waiting for him with the confection when he gets off work. He's too polite to mention a certain fishy smell to it, and anyways it doesn't affect the taste.
Subaru thinks that Kamui has been working very hard for their sake recently, and wonders what he can do to show his beloved twin how much he appreciates it.
He doesn't think to question why Kamui showed up with candy, though Kamui usually avoids sweet things like the plague because it's one of his major weaknesses.
And Kamui doesn't think to question why Seishirou seems to know that plying him with junk food is the way to soften him up. Even if he had, he would never have believed that Subaru would possibly have told such an inconsequential yet damning detail to his psycho hunter beloved.
-
Seishirou is waiting for him again when Kamui is switched off shift for the day, and the girl who has replaced him for the past few days asks him how it is that his entire family can be so thoughtful as well as good-looking. Kamui shoots her a look of pure poison that leaves the poor girl nearly in tears, and stomps out onto the street to confront the bastard once more.
"Get lost," he tells him.
"I have crepes," Seishirou says cheerfully.
Kamui hesitates.
"I was serious about talking," he adds, and hands Kamui something filled with strawberries and custard and whipped cream.
"You're still a bastard," Kamui mumbles through the strawberries.
"Undoubtedly," the hunter agrees. "Shall we walk and discuss it?"
"Get lost," Kamui says again, but he isn't surprised when Seishirou follows him down the sidewalk once again, neatly dodging a crowd of tourists in order to keep up to the younger man.
"Fuuma-kun says to tell you he misses playing with you."
"He's still a bastard too," Kamui growls. But in spite of his harsh words, his thoughts stray to the hunter's brother almost kindly, and far enough so that when Seishirou asks him about Subaru again, Kamui tells him the truth without first thinking to lie.
-
"Want to go get coffee today?"
"I hate coffee," Kamui informs Seishirou icily as he storms past the hunter. "And I still hate you. Get lost."
He is furious with himself and the world today for what happened yesterday, and he plans to resists all Seishirou's attempts to sway him with food as adamantly and staunchly as he can. He's off to a good start, at least. Kamui feels his confidence solidifying, and thinks, For Subaru's sake... I can do this.
"Tea?"
"Flavoured hot water? No thanks."
"Hot chocolate?"
"Allergic, you bastard."
"Oh, that's a shame. A glass of milk or juice, then?"
"Screw off."
Seishirou calls after him. "I found a little cafe that serves an amazing cheesecake."
Kamui whirls around and storms back towards him. "It had better be good," he says, glaring hellfire and divine righteousness at Seishirou. "But I'm still not telling you where to find Subaru."
Seishirou smiles, clearly amused, and clearly unbelieving. Kamui glowers at him, and swears inwardly. The people he's willing to associate with for the sake of his twin...
But he eats the damn cheesecake, and Seishirou is a good judge of food, if nothing else, because it is absolutely delicious, and he can almost ignore the fact that he's here with his sworn enemy instead of his brother. When Seishirou starts questioning him about the different worlds the twins have landed in, he gives in and responds truthfully, telling him what he wants to know. It wasn't fair of the hunter to bring up Fuuma again and to tell Kamui what he's been up to since they parted in Tokyo. But then, Kamui reasons, he is a bastard, so perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise.
He whips his empty saucer at Seishirou's head when the hunter asks Kamui if he can come back with him to meet Subaru, though. He escapes in the ensuing confusion when the dish misses and ricochets off someone else's table and shatters on the floor, leaving Seishirou to explain and apologize about the broken plate, and to foot the bill.
-
"Kamui, is everything all right?" Subaru asks on their way back to the hostel that evening. The light glints in his tranquil green eyes, and Kamui casts his brother a sideways glance, feeling uneasiness welling up within him.
"Fine," he mumbles, and prays that Subaru doesn't think to ask what he fears he will. He can't lie to Subaru. He doesn't think he could bring himself to try.
"You were late today. Did the park keep you overtime?"
"No," Kamui mutters, avoids his twin's eyes. "... was at a cafe. With someone."
"A friend?" Subaru smiles, truly happy for his twin's sake. "That's wonderful. Did you enjoy yourself?"
"... I guess," Kamui says, and is surprised to realize that except for the hunter's insistence on obsessing over Subaru, it really hadn't been all that bad.
In fact, if one could ignore the fact that the bastard was a sociopathic, criminally insane, all-round jerk... it's been kind of nice to have someone to talk to that understands the troubles of being a vampire, of world-hopping, of loving someone he can't exactly hold on to.
He tries to persuade himself it's his high sugar intake talking, but he is no longer sure that it is.
-
"Why?" is the first thing he asks the next day, before Seishirou can open his mouth and ask him what he wants to eat today. "Why are you doing this?"
Seishirou just looks at him. "You know why, Kamui-kun. Shall we go? I thought we ought to try the 'frozen yoghurt' at the stand down near the pier today -"
"No," he insists. "I don't know. I know why you're hunting Subaru, but this doesn't make sense. If you were so focussed on him and only him, you would have abandoned trying to get me to talk days ago, and gone to track him down yourself. Why are you doing this instead?"
"Isn't this the more proper way to do things?" Seishirou asks innocently, and then adds, "Come on, let's go, we shouldn't leave it too late or you'll ruin your supper."
Kamui, bewildered by the hunter's rather cryptic comment, follows him without thinking.
It is only after they are walking back towards the main street with said frozen yoghurt that Kamui starts again.
"What did you mean – 'the more proper way to do things?'"
"Well, it's hardly right for me to have spent all this time chasing after Subaru-kun and to never bother introducing myself to his closest family members, is it?"
"... What?" Kamui blinks, stares, then shakes his head. "You have got to be kidding!"
"No," Seishirou says cheerfully. "I already met your parents, but... they were rather short with me. I supposed that, if I could gain your approval at least, Subaru-kun and I would simply have to elope instead."
"WHAT?!"
"So here I am," he continues, calmly and methodically spooning yoghurt out of his cup.
"You bastard, you mean to say that you think that hunting my brother relentlessly through hundreds and hundreds of worlds is courting?!"
"Isn't it?"
Kamui throws the remainder of his frozen yoghurt at Seishirou and stalks away, absolutely crackling with rage.
He's in the occult book store before he realizes it, having stormed up the hill and through the door with all his thoughts concentrated on slowly murdering that hunter.
"Welcome to our shop, is there anything I can help you – Kamui!"
Kamui looks up, startled, to see Subaru standing in front of him in his tidy, somber uniform, and takes a deep, deep breath. He hadn't wanted to bring it up, but after what that hunter has just said, he isn't sure how he can not.
"Subaru," he says through gritted teeth, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe That Guy is hunting you like this because he thinks he's freakin' courting you?"
Subaru's cheeks stain deep pink immediately, and he stares at his feet.
Kamui's jaw drops. He can't quite believe what it must mean, but he knows Subaru, and it's hard not to see that - "You already knew?!"
His twin's deeper blush is answer enough, and Kamui is struck absolutely speechless. He whirls on one foot and flies out the door, thoughts whizzing and sparking around his head in high-speed bursts of uncontainable hysterical energy.
"Kamui! What's going on -?"
Kamui goes and hides himself down in the park for the next few hours, hunched over and miserable on a bench.
When he finally picks himself up to go meet Subaru, he doesn't say a word to his brother about his untimely interruption, and he doesn't mention Seishirou. Kamui catches Subaru giving him occasional concerned and odd looks, but he says nothing either, and doesn't act as though anything's wrong. Later that evening he ventures to mention Seishirou by name without Kamui bringing him up first, which makes Kamui think that his twin is hoping that maybe his realization this afternoon has changed his viewpoint on the hunter.
Kamui would rather die than relent on his theory that Seishirou is anything less than a total asshole, but grudgingly, painfully, he admits to himself that if Subaru knows what Seishirou thinks he is up to, and hasn't tried to stop him before, that maybe... possibly... it is because his twin doesn't really mind.
He doesn't sleep well that night, and he curses Seishirou for ever coming in and messing up both their lives.
-
"Kamui!" Subaru runs up to the ticket booth, breathless and beaming. "They let me off early today. I thought we should go do something together. It's such a nice day -"
He is understandably surprised when Kamui swears in his face, and blinks in bewilderment. "Kamui...? Is something wrong?"
Kamui looks around frantically; it's five minutes before the end of his shift, and he's sure that in a few minutes, that hunter is going to show up again, and Subaru is going to be there, and it's all going to go to hell once again. He's not sure he wants those two reunited. He's still not sure - in spite of how almost pleasant Seishirou's company has been over the last few days - that he trusts his brother's stalker.
He spies the girl who's supposed to come on shift after him, and yanks her into his place in the booth as he hurtles himself out, tossing back over his shoulder, "Have to go right now something urgent came up see you tomorrow thanks!"
"Kamui, you're acting kind of strange. Do you want to tell me what's going on? You look a little pale..."
Kamui is swearing as he pulls his brother rapidly along through the crowd. He sees the cafe that he and Seishirou ate at the day before, and yanks Subaru along after him inside the dim building, pushing through the line up, and sequesters the two of them in the bathroom.
"Er," he says, not quite sure how to explain this.
"Did you see... someone?" Subaru asks quietly.
"You could say that." Kamui swallows. "Listen. Subaru - don't kill me, please. Ah - well, that hunter -"
"He's here?" Subaru stills, his eyes unreadable. "Seishirou-san caught up?"
"He's been here for several days," Kamui says miserably. "Um. He's been following me around... trying to get on my good side... I didn't want to tell you. I wanted to see what he thought he was up to -"
Subaru is pale and trembling. "You should have said something," he says, quietly, and Kamui flinches.
"I'm sorry," he says. "I thought it was best if you didn't know... I didn't want you to get hurt, if he was playing games again..."
"Is he?"
"What?"
"Do you think he's up to some childish game again?" Subaru asks, still very quietly.
"Well..." Kamui hesitates. "I... don't really know," he confesses.
"I want to see him," Subaru says, and Kamui is sick with how certain his twin is, and he knows Subaru would be this certain even if he'd just told him that Seishirou wanted to kill him.
He has to make the decision. They can transport right now, get out of here, escape once more and keep on running. Or he can allow his twin this thing, watch his happiness for a brief period, and then...?
He has to make the decision now, and he doesn't know which one would be less painful.
"Let's go," he says, finally, heavily, and Subaru's eyes are bright and feverish as he follows his twin out of the bathroom and back into the cafe.
Kamui is nauseous with fear and self-loathing, but perhaps it's time that he allows this confrontation to happen.
-
"Good afternoon, Kamui-kun," he says, turning with a curious expression. "Where did you go? Did you get off early today -?"
Kamui shoves a cup of coffee and three crepes into Seishirou's hands, and the hunter's curious expression turns startled. "For me -? Thank you, Kamui-kun, but -"
"One's for him," he says, fiercely, jerking his head towards his twin as Subaru dodges his way through the crowd and cautiously, shyly approaches. He sees something shift in Seishirou's expression, though he's not quite sure what it is and what that means about his true intentions, but anyways, it's too late to do anything about it now.
He wishes he was anywhere but here, because he's sure it's all going to go horribly to hell, but he can't help but hope that maybe, possibly, he's wrong.
-