I really appreciate the reviews I had received, I originally wanted to reply the reviews but well, I realised that I didn't have much things to say.. So, here it is, thank you for the reviews!
Hmm.. I was thinking that this fanfic doesn't have much romance actually, so I guess I'm removing that as a genre of this fanfic. And I realised that the prologue has a word count of 666! How nice!
Ahem, excuse me, that was random. I guess I should just carry on with the story. So Chapter 1 is here!
Subaru woke up, panting. He looked at his hands. Somehow, it seemed smaller. He clenched and unclenched his hands repeatedly in a steady rhythm, trying to calm his breathing.
"Subaru! Rise and shine!"
The door was opened with such a force that Subaru just sat on the bed, frozen for a few seconds before registering the green-eyed girl with pixie cut by the door. Upon seeing Subaru's expression, the girl's upbeat expression was replaced by a worried one. She sat on the bed and held his face worriedly.
Looking at the girl in front of him blankly for a second, an image of a hand stabbing through her heart flashed in Subaru's mind. Subaru then grabbed the girl into a hug and buried his head into her, sobbing. "Hokuto-chan, I thought you were killed!"
Surprised by the unusually violent hug, Hokuto slowly returned it and patted his back soothingly. "It's a bad dream, silly boy. Look, I'm right here, aren't I?"
After a while, seeing that Subaru had calmed down, Hokuto pulled back from the hug and wiped his tears away. She then smiled, calling him to get ready to school and left the room.
School? He turned to see his reflection in a mirror at the corner of the room. There, he saw a teenager with the same haircut as Hokuto. Oh, right. He was Sumeragi Subaru, a 16 year old boy living with his twin sister and working his family's animal-friendly organization.
Ah, so he was 16 again.
He stopped abruptly as he contemplated his previous thought. What did he mean by 'again'? Thinking back to his earlier outburst, he frowned. What was the dream about again?
After racking his brain and still could not come up with an answer, Subaru gave up. He got up from the bed to get ready for the day.
"Subaru-kun! Good morning!"
A familiar voice rang out across the corridor as Subaru was about to open the door of his classroom. He turned to see a black-haired man with glasses walking towards him. He was wearing the same uniform as Subaru and had a kindly smile plastered on his face.
A smile spread across Subaru's face. "Good morning, Seishirou-san."
"What is this?" Hokuto popped out behind Subaru. "Sei-chan, how could you greet Subaru and not me?"
"Oh pardon me, I was too enraptured by Subaru-kun to have noticed you. Good morning Hokuto-chan."
"Ohohoho! I see, I see. But you shouldn't forget the existence of your future sister-in-law here!"
Staring at the two's interaction, Subaru had a strange feeling. It seemed.. wrong for some reason. It was like a dream too good to be true.
Subaru pinched himself on the cheek, letting out an 'ouch' and earning himself the stares of both Hokuto and Seishirou. Subaru tried to ignore them and just touched the part of the cheek where he had pinched. Subaru could feel it turning red, but he wasn't sure if it was from the pain or the embarrassment of being stared at.
"Subaru-kun? Are you alright?" Seishirou asked worriedly.
"Uh, yes, I'm fine." Subaru replied quickly. To change the topic from himself, he asked a random question. "Seishirou-san, are you going to be a vet?"
Seishirou only stared at him even more strangely.
The bell for lunch break just rang when the classroom door was opened. A slight figure with messy black hair and sleepy amethyst eyes walked in.
The teacher, who was exiting the room, only shook his head and muttered. "Shirou Kamui-san, not again."
Kamui fell into his seat beside Subaru and groaned.
"Overslept again?" Subaru asked. A teasing note was evident in his voice.
Kamui lifted his tired eyes at Subaru and only replied with an 'urgh' before falling onto the table to nap.
The moment Subaru and Kamui's eyes met, Subaru felt a tug form the back of his head. A child-version of Kamui was crying despairingly, covering his ears and refusing to listen. Subaru held his head between his hands and tried to shake the image away. What was that?
After a while, Subaru got up and walked to the back of the classroom where a pale boy with long blond hair stood.
"Is something wrong?" The fragile-looking boy asked.
"Kakyou-san. I-I'm not sure. But are you fine enough to be walking around now though?"
Before Kakyou could reply, Hokuto jumped on him from behind, making Kakyou blush slightly. "Leave him alone, Kakyou! He's been weird all day. He even had a dream where I died or something."
"I don't really remember it anymore though." Subaru scratched at his head in embarrassment.
"I see." Kakyou replied simply.
Subaru turned to see Seishirou just turning back to the front of the classroom. He was smiling. No, not smiling. He was smirking. And it held nothing but coldness. Subaru shivered involuntarily.
He suddenly thought back to the dream he had in the morning. Something told him that the dream had the answer to that smirk. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer, but...
Exactly what was that dream?
"7 days, Subaru. Remember, 7 days." Yuuko said as she looked at the reflection of the scene before her.
"Yuuko-san? What do you mean by that?"
Yuuko closed her eyes. "Nothing, Watanuki. Nothing at all."
Ok, I know it's stupid. The Sumeragi Animal-friendly organisation, that is. But I couldn't think of anything else. Besides, I wanted Subaru to have a more relaxed life here. And yes, Seishirou is the same age as Subaru here, so he's not a pedophile this time.
I'm trying to portray their relationship like in Tokyo Babylon's, but it doesn't seem like it turned out very well. *frowns* And strangely, this chapter still seems like a pretty short one... Hmm..
Oh well, please drop a review and tell me what you think about this chapter!
