Title: 025 - Search
Author: schyra
Rating: ?
Pairings/Characters: Haru, Gale, Cattleya
Warnings: Aaaaangst D:
Summary: Because souls aren't bound by a concept as simple as time. Once dead, Gale Glory's spirit is sent back to the past to find out what he's always wanted to know: What became of his children?
Author's Note: I haven't written in a long time, and it shows. orz
-~~~-oOo-~~~-
025 - Search
Because souls aren't bound by a concept as simple as time. Once dead, Gale Glory's spirit is sent back to the past to find out what he's always wanted to know: What became of his children?
These things, Gale sees.
Haru and Cattleya, alone at the beach. Cattleya picks up a cone shell and shows it to her brother, who is absolutely fascinated at the concept of a crab living inside it. 'Hermit crab,' his daughter calls it, and the three year old repeats the words to himself over and over, learning its meaning.
'Hermit crab, hermit crab, hermit crab,' he chirps.
Cattleya smiles, pleased.
They walk home laughing, seashells in their pockets.
These things, Gale hears.
"Why can't you just do as you're told?"
Cattleya stomps off to his room (he was planning to build another room for Haru when he got back, but it seems that he had inherited Cattleya's instead, while his daughter slept in her parents' bedroom) angry tears on her cheeks. He hears the door slam.
Haru sat at the table, which was covered in food that he had, in his fun, gotten all over the place.
He looked incredibly guilty.
Gale hears nothing from his son but the quiet chinks of porcelain, as the boy gathered up the remains of dinner and washed the dishes.
These things, Gale sees.
It's been an hour, maybe two, and Haru is still standing outside his parents' bedroom.
"Nee-chan...," he whines softly at the door. "Nee-chan... I'm sorry. Haru won't do it again."
Silence.
"I'm sorry... Won't do it again. I'm sorry."
He repeats the same thing over and over for what seems to him like hours.
"I'm sorry."
Haru is eight when he first says it.
They are walking up the hill, headed back to the house where Cattleya is waiting, talking about things as they traveled through the forest. The cafe owner had started a topic based on nostalgia. Because the boy beside him really did look like his dear friend, and looked more and more like him every day.
"Genma," he looks the man straight in the eye. "We don't need my father."
Genma's feet still, words dying in his mouth. They come to a stop along the path.
"Haru..," he finally manages.
"I can do all he can. I can protect nee-chan, I can help around the house, I can cook, I can clean, I can fight and I'll never, never leave her." Haru turned away and started home. "So what do we need him for?"
The sun didn't seem to shine as brightly when its light was filtered through a forest's canopy.
"You resent him," Genma calls after his retreating back. It wasn't a question. Just a sadly drawn conclusion, with much pulling and further tangling of the strings of this mess.
Haru turned back. "I won't let him take her away like he did mother."
This, Gale sees.
Haru is outside, on the cliff, sitting cross-legged and watching his mother's grave. He is soaking wet, did he sit outside in the rain? Half a blanket drapes itself over his head. He blinks and looks up at Cattleya's smiling face. He gratefully pulls the cloth over his shoulder. His sister sits down on his right, and they watch the grave together, cuddled in the same blanket.
They spend a long while just sitting there, watching their mother together.
It's the anniversary of her death.
Finally, when darkness was starting to tinge the orange sky purple, Haru got up. Cattleya took the hand he offered as he helped her to her feet, and wrapped the blanket tighter around her. The breeze was still cool. Haru led her back inside, one hand grasped warmly in his.
She sat at the table, still wrapped in the blanket as Haru made her a cup of chamomile tea.
Their mother's favorite.
He leaned against the sink while she finished, the hot cup cradled firmly in her hands.
When the cup was long dry, she still sat, staring blankly at the table, lost in her own thoughts.
Haru left to take a shower.
Later that night, Haru and Cattleya lay curled up in their parents' bed, breathing soft and shallow. Gale looked at them sadly. He could guess why. Neither could bear to be alone. Not tonight. Especially not tonight.
A cloud shifted over the moon, and the light coming through the window faded.
Haru sat up without warning. In the darkness, a pair of silver eyes looked straight ahead, arms wrapped around his knees. He was looking intently at something, someone who stood right at the foot of the bed.
Gale held his breath.
Maybe... maybe...
"Can you see me?" he asked.
He shouldn't be able to anymore, but Gale could imagine the thundering beat of his heart, the quickening rush of blood in his ears.
"No," was his son's soft reply.
"But you can hear me."
"Yes."
They were quiet for a moment longer. Gale wanted to say something, anything. First, I'm sorry. Then, you've grown. Then, it's been a long time. Then, I missed you both. Then, I love you.
Then, will you forgive me?
Haru stared still into the darkness.
"Who are you?"
Gale didn't know what to say. He waited a minute or two, trying to put into words what he was. I'm a spirit. A ghost. I'm your father. …...I'm dead.
Haru waited patiently for an answer.
He ended up walking out of his own bedroom without saying a thing.
In the morning, Cattleya awoke alone on the bed. Opening her eyes, she saw the space where her brother should have been having nothing but rumpled white sheets. She blinked, sat up and rubbed her eyes, then slipped off the mattress.
Padding slowly downstairs, she saw him. Haru stood at the stove, a white cloth tied like a bandanna to keep his hair back as he cooked breakfast. Noticing she was awake, Haru turned to her and smiled.
"Good morning!"
He looks... very much like someone else did. He had smiled just like that when she came padding into the room, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and wondering where mother was. Still asleep with the baby?
She smiles back.
This scene, Gale bears witness to.
Genma, his old, old friend, is visiting, and he leans against the wall in Haru's room, gazing out at the sight of the ocean. The room's owner sits on his bed, lounging at his window, likewise gazing out at the expanse of blue, the cawing gulls swooping over it, and feeling the cool breeze on his face.
"One day," Haru said softly. "Nee-chan will love me because I am not father."
Genma looked at him sadly.
"And I'll win."
This time, Gale feels.
He walks out to sea, out onto the sea, the sunset's light shining radiantly through him. Behind him was the place he called home, the friends he treasured, the scenery that brought calm to his heart. His family.
Did you find what you were looking for? A voice in his head, not his own, whispered.
Gale choked, feeling his throat tighten painfully.
"No," he released in a breathless sob. "..No."
END.