A/N: here's chapter four. hope you guys enjoy! ^^disclaimer: i don't own Hakuouki; Kawa belongs to me.
(edit: "Russians" is copyright to Sting)
Chapter 04: Russians
The whole earth looked to be burning. She sprinted as fast as her feet could carry her, her left hand glued to the hilt of the black The sound of blades clashing rang in her ears; she turned towards the source of the familiar noise, skidding to a halt as a soft gasp escaped her. A figure wearing a blue and white The figure in blue roared angrily as he disengaged their connected blades and sliced at the open belly of his opponent; blood flew in the air as the creature fell back. He panted, gripping the handle of his She widened her eyes in surprise. The face of her brother stared at her, smudges of blood here and there on his handsome face; his black hair was long and was kept out of his face by a high ponytail. "Take aim, and "Yasakawa, Blood made the air pungent around her as it stained her clothes.
"Toshi…?" She asked.
"
"Toshi!" She cried, sitting bolt upright in bed.
She looked around her room wildly to see that the hellish earth in her dream had disappeared and was replaced with the darkened walls of her bedroom.
A relieved sigh escaped her; she threw the blankets off, slipping out of bed and opening her door to see the hall was covered in the darkness of early morning.
She tiptoed to his room, opening his door to see him sleeping soundly in bed, turned away from the door and facing his nightstand; she quietly walked towards her brother, shaking his shoulder. "Toshi," she whispered.
He grabbed her wrist sharply, his violet eyes snapping open; he looked up at the owner of the wrist he'd grabbed to see his sister's gray eyes staring down at him.
He sighed and relaxed his grip, lifting his hand to run it through his black hair. "Do you have any idea of what time it is…?" He demanded, starting to sound irritable again.
"I know. I just, I had a nightmare." She replied, lowering her gaze.
His violet eyes moved to her again and he exhaled, sitting up. "Please tell me it had nothing to do with dancing odango this time…" He began to ask.
She shook her head. "No, it wasn't that. It was scarier... And it involved you." She added softly, perking his ears as she sat on the edge of his bed.
He looked up at her sharply. "How?" He asked.
She lowered her gaze and recounted her dream to him.
Both siblings were quiet after she recounted her dream, letting the quiet night air envelop the room.
"Maybe you paid too much attention in my class," he muttered quietly.
She made a face. "Yeah, maybe I did. But Toshi, what does it mean?" She asked, looking up at him.
Toshi looked at her sleepy but curious eyes, recalling the feelings he was experiencing earlier at work.
Chizuru… He shook his head and frowned. "No, that's not it." He grumbled.
Kawa raised a brow. "What's not it?" She asked.
He sighed and looked down at her again. "If you breathe a word of this to Souji or anyone else, I'm giving you extensive homework for the rest of the term." He quieted and told her about the things he'd been seeing, about Chizuru and the short sword at her hip, about the cherry blossoms.
She quieted as well and put a finger to her chin in thought. "It's like we lived a past life… Like in the Edo period." She remembered the blue haori he'd adorned in her dream and her eyes widened. "Shinsengumi." She whispered.
His eyes widened as well; he'd read over that word a thousand times in his studies in college, and in the textbooks for his class, but it never sunk in like it did now. The Bakufu, Tokugawa, the Meiji period… it was all clicking together!
"Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi," she mused softly, eliciting a shiver that rolled down her arms; he stirred at the words, looking down at her.
"What was that?" He demanded.
Kawa looked up at him. "Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi. That was you… Toshi, you were the Vice-Commander! In my dream, I saw you wearing the same blue and white haori the members of the Shinsengumi wore…" She declared.
Vice-Commander Hijikata… A slight smirk formed on his lips. He liked the sound of that.
"Chizuru," she said quietly, perking his ears; he looked at her again before looking away. "That was in the past." He said, stirring her.
Kawa looked up at him. "Toshi, you loved her. Your past self was in love with Chizuru. What're you trying to say by that…?" She demanded quietly.
Toshi shook his head. "It was in the past, Kawa. What happened almost two hundred years ago is history; and so is that part of our old lives." He stated.
She scowled slightly and looked away, sighing. "I suppose you're right. But Toshi, if you tried…" She began.
"'But' nothing. In case you're forgetting something, people back then could love someone older or younger than their age and the world was okay with it. Now in this day and age it's illegal, especially if the person you love is a minor." He reminded sternly, locking gaze with her gray eyes.
She lowered her gaze and quieted. "I know. Toshi," she looked up at him.
He glanced at his alarm clock and sighed. "It's late. Go back to bed, okay? We're both going to pay for this in the morning." He pointed out patiently.
Kawa nodded and slipped off his bed, looking at him and smiling for her brother. "Are you gonna be okay?" She asked, perking his ears.
Toshi looked at her and smirked. "Would I have been the Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi if I wasn't?" He returned.
She smiled again and sighed. "You've got a point. Good night… Hijikata-dono." She added quietly, smiling again before she left him at peace and went back to bed.
He watched her leave and sighed, flopping back into the pillows and looking up at the ceiling.
The girl's beaming face appeared in his mind's eye, her brown eyes filled with a happiness he knew he could never give her.
A frown crossed his face; he sighed and turned over on his side. "It's in the past," he reminded himself, returning to a dreamless sleep.
A light knock sounded on the front door.
She trotted out of the kitchen, rubbing sand from her eye, and opened the door.
He lifted up two DVDs to her eyes. "Action movies?" He offered, his green eyes giving off that puppy-dog expression that sometimes made her giggle.
She rolled her eyes patiently at his offer and sighed, opening the door wider for him to come in. "You and your stupid action movies," she mused with a shake of her head.
Souji made a face akin to a pout as he looked at her. "Well if ya don't wanna watch them, why'd you let me in?" He returned.
Kawa smiled patiently. "Because you're my friend, and it's too early to argue over what kind of movie to watch." She looked at him. "Isn't Kondou wondering where you are?" She wondered with a tilt of her head, referring to his older brother.
He shrugged.
"Y'know how the principal is; he said somethin' about having lunch with Sannan-sensei and Harada-sensei. This left me with free time to pester my favorite princess!" He declared lightly.
She smirked at him and took the DVDs from his hands, leading the way to the TV. "How many times have I told ya that I'm not a princess? Geez, Souji…" She said patiently, dropping the DVDs on the coffee table and plopping down on the couch.
Her phone buzzed on the coffee table, the chorus of the song "Reimei" ringing in the air.
He looked at the phone and smirked. "Cute; I never knew you were into anime that bad, Kawa-chan." He mused, watching her grab the flip phone and open it.
She stuck her tongue out at him and then turned to the phone. "Hey," she greeted the caller, leaving him to go talk in the kitchen.
Souji watched her leave and sighed to himself.
He'd known Kawa since they were nine, and even though she was shy when they first met, he always felt like he'd known her since before then… Like if he'd been friends with her forever, it felt like.
She had a smile on her face when she returned to the living room, stirring him from his reverie.
"Your boyfriend called you?" He wondered teasingly, perking her ears.
Kawa cuffed him gently, rolling her eyes. "Nope, and you know I don't have one, idiot. That was Hajime; I told him you were here and he said he wanted to come hang out." She explained, watching him rub his head gingerly from where she'd hit him.
Souji made a face and huffed lightly. "Sounds like he's got a crush on you, Kawa-chan," he mused, perking her ears again.
Her cheeks burned slightly and she huffed. "Don't make it out to be anythin' like that, Souji; we're just friends." She defended.
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Whatever. Oi, where's the oni-sensei?" He wondered, changing subject.
She shrugged. "He's holed up in his room, working on grading papers." She replied.
Souji smirked lightly. "Oh yeah; I bet he's prolly giving me an A+ for the work I did…" He began to say.
"More like a B- for your half-assed work." The aforementioned teacher's gruff voice interjected, making him wince slightly.
Kawa looked up at her brother to see he was holding an empty mug in one hand and the other hand in the pocket of his jeans.
"That doesn't surprise me. Nii-san, Souji and Hajime and me are gonna hang out here, just to let you know." She informed him, steering his slightly-annoyed gaze away from Souji to meet her gray eyes.
Toshi nodded, walking past her to put his mug in the sink.
"Don't get too rowdy, or one of you is going to be thrown out like a cat." He warned over his shoulder as he grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator, twisting the lid open as he closed the door with his foot, taking a swig.
"Aww, so that means nothin' like sex, I suppose?" Souji wheedled, perking her ears as well as his own.
He spat out the water, coughing as she blushed beet red and whacked her friend over the head with her right fist. "Pervert!" She exclaimed.
"OW, that hurt, Kawa!" He barked indignantly.
"Definitely not that! Don't even think about it either, Souji!" He threatened annoyedly, his violet eyes promising a swift death to the younger man if he so much as touched his baby sister.
She glowered daggers at her friend as he rubbed his head again, perking up when someone knocked on the door; she walked away to answer it as her brother took another sip of water.
Her friend stood at the door, looking at her blushing face and the vein twitching slightly on her right temple; he sweatdropped. "Do you want I come back tomorrow, or…?" He began to ask.
She shook her head and sighed. "No, it's okay, Haji. Souji… well, you know how he is." She smiled weakly.
He nodded and smirked slightly. "I don't want to know what he pulled this time, do I?" He wondered, stepping inside as she ushered him in.
Kawa sighed again and closed the door. "Nope." She replied.
A sneeze sounded from the couch. "Geez Kawa-chan, yer already gossiping about me this early in the day." Souji mused aloud as he rubbed his nose gingerly.
"Idiot, why would I gossip about you to Hajime? We both know you're a nutcase," Kawa remarked with a roll of her eyes.
Hajime sweatdropped again and sat down next to Souji.
"She has a point, we do both know you're one chemistry lab experiment away from being a bipolar sociopath." He amended patiently, looking at the DVDs and reading the synopsis on the back of the cover.
She glanced to the kitchen to see her brother had left to go back to his room, much to her relief.
"Some friends…!" Souji sniffed.
Hajime rolled his eyes and handed the first DVD to Kawa. "This one seems good." He mused.
Kawa smiled at him and nodded, straightening from sitting on the arm of the couch to put it in the DVD player, tossing the remote at him.
"Here, you're the one who decided on the movie." She declared, retreating to plop down next to Souji on the couch.
Hajime smirked slightly at her deigning him the rightful remote-wielder, hitting 'PLAY' on the remote when the main menu screen showed.
A/N: just a little humor and perverted comments from Souji ;D
Souji: /huffs and grins got a problem with it? review 'kay? i'd hafta kill ya otherwise~ ;3
Kawa: /sucker-punches him just review please. thanks~!
Souji: geez, that hurt..! D|