The first time they met was when he was three.
He had just been released from a class on traditional tea making and had ventured onto the veranda to watch the sakura blossoms fall from the huge tree that stood majestically in the middle of the stretch of lawn.
Ruby eyes trained after random blooms as they drifted towards the earth, and it was when he was moving his gaze to a higher target that he saw the flash of blue. It was a pale blue, the colour of a cloudless sky on a warm spring morning.
It was then that he realized that he had had an audience the entire time. Intense red orbs locked with blank blue ones, and he watched, too mesmerized to raise an alarm, as the man held out a hand and caught a falling flower. Even when he began to take slow, measured steps towards Seijuurou, he found himself unable to budge.
Upon reaching him, a pale hand extended, and his eyes finally flickered away to the delicate flower that rested on his palm. Without thinking, he held out his own, much smaller hand and let the man tip the plant onto his.
Seijuurou's eyes quickly darted back up again when he sensed that the man was about to withdraw. "Who are you? What are you doing in my compound? Who let you in?"
His face had been closer than Seijuurou had anticipated, and he found his vision completely filled with a blue so bright it was almost translucent. They were kind eyes, as was the smile that curved his lips slightly.
"Those are not the questions a child should be asking."
Seijuurou narrowed his eyes and sat up straighter. "You have no right to talk to me in that manner."
Instead of bowing apologetically like the servants did, the man let out a huff that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. "Seijuurou-kun is much too grown up. You must remember to act your age sometimes."
The said child blinked, taken aback. How dare he use his given name so casually? Before he could voice a rebuke, however, the man went on.
"Do you like the flower I picked for you?"
Frowning in confusion, Seijuurou stared at the flower he held. "It looks like any of the other flowers."
Again, that smile. "So it may seem so on the outside, but -" he reached out and covered Seijuurou's hand with his. "- this particular bloom has magic in it."
The stranger's hand was warm, and Seijuurou wasn't really sure why he was surprised by it. Despite himself, he asked, "What kind of magic?"
"A wish," he said softly. "It will grant you anything you want."
For a three year old, Seijuurou was very apt at derision. "Do you think me a fool just because I'm young?"
"Of course not," he shook his head gently. "Make a wish, any wish, and I can promise you it'll come true."
"At what cost?" the younger queried. The other just shrugged.
"Why must there be a cost?"
"Because nothing ever comes free."
Shaking his head, the man said, "There are plenty of things that are free."
"Such as?"
"A smile," he said, a twinkle in his eye. "Can you smile, Seijuurou-kun?"
"I don't see why I have to." Seijuurou retorted, a hint of petulance in the tightening of his lips.
"I don't see why you need a reason to." The other man countered.
Seijuurou merely lifted his chin higher and stared back.
Blue locks fluttered lightly with the breeze as he let out another breathy laugh that tickled Seijuurou's ears.
"Such a stubborn child," he chided, reaching up to ruffle the stunned boy's red locks. "Think carefully before you make your wish."
And with that, he was gone.
Two weeks later, Seijuurou's grandmother was found collapsed in the hallway outside her room.
Little Seijuurou, as grown up as he wished himself to be, could not contain his tears, especially when he realized that there was nothing he could do to help.
The words of the strange blue-eyed man he met echoed in his mind, and he found the pink bloom sitting on his bedside table looking as fresh as the day it fell off the tree.
Cupping his hands around the delicate petals, he squeezed his eyes shut and made a wish.
The next day, they received news that his grandmother was out of harm's way, and though he would learn when he grew older that she had suffered only a mild stroke, from that day on, Seijuurou believed.