Legal Stuff: I don't own X/1999. It belongs to CLAMP. I'm just messing around with it for a while, but I promise not to hurt it.

*   *   *   *   *

WARNING: NO YAOI AHEAD. I'll repeat that. This story does not contain Yaoi or Shounen-Ai. Well there may be a little bit of remembered Shounen-Ai; after all I am a firm believer that Seishirou and Subaru were in love (it's just too bad they hated each other so much). However, since Seishirou is dead now, don't expect to see any yaoi action. And no, I don't think there's anything like that between Subaru and Kamui now that Seishirou's gone. Sorry, but I don't. Anyway, if you are offended by descriptions of heterosexual relationships, please turn back now.

*   *   *   *   *

*   *   *   *   *

A Life Less Wonderful

by 18th Angel

*   *   *   *   *

The First Day

*   *   *   *   *

December 19, 2001

Tokyo

*   *   *   *   *

      Sorata Arisugawa awoke early, as always. The sun was just beginning to show its face, casting a friendly orange glow over the bedroom. He stayed in bed for a moment, just enjoying the warmth of the sun on his face. Then, carefully so as not to wake his sleeping wife, he got up and headed for the bathroom.

*   *   *   *   *

      Retrieving the morning paper involved walking through a thin layer of snow that covered the sidewalk in front of his house. Sorata could have floated over the snow effortlessly, or even melted it if he wanted to. But one of his main goals in life for the past two years had been to use his powers as little as possible. He wanted to have as normal a life as he could; and normal people had to put up with cold, wet feet when they got the paper on a snowy morning.

      The main headline proclaimed that the city council had approved funding for a memorial to honor those who had lost their lives in the disasters of 1999. That was nice of them. Sorata set the paper down and began puttering around the kitchen trying to decide what to cook.

      After a few minutes he heard footsteps behind him. "You were supposed to stay in bed." He said. "Now I can't be dramatic."

      "You had something dramatic in mind?" Arashi asked.

      Sorata turned to face her. "Well it is our first anniversary." He said. "I thought breakfast in bed was in order."

      Arashi smiled and leaned up to kiss her husband. "That's really sweet. Thanks."

      "Tell you what;" Sorata said. "You go grab a shower, and I'll have a breakfast fit for a queen ready when you get out."

      "Sounds good." With another quick kiss, Arashi left the kitchen, heading for the bathroom.

      Sorata stood and watched her until she passed out of sight into the bedroom. As so often happened, he was struck speechless by her beauty, and by the fact that they were together at all. He had fallen in love the day he met Arashi. But despite that, or rather, because of that, he hadn't thought he would ever be able to spend his life with her. After all, he was destined to die for the woman he loved.

      Sorata smiled. That was the funny thing about prophecies; they had a tendency not to tell you everything. He had died, all right. He just hadn't stayed dead. Yuuto Kigai, one of the Seven Harbingers, had crushed him under a thousand gallons of water on the Appointed Day in 1999, an attack intended for Arashi until Sorata got in its way. The assault pushed him so near to death's door that his Psychic Barrier collapsed, demolishing yet another section of Tokyo and leaving Sorata hovering precariously somewhere between life and death. Yuzuriha said that Yuuto was himself killed moments later by Fuuma, but Sorata certainly hadn't seen it so he would have to take her word for it.

      In any case, Arashi had dragged Sorata to the nearest hospital and somehow managed to get him in past the throngs of wounded and dying in the city. The doctors had been understandably perplexed at how Sorata could be half-drowned in addition to all his injuries, but they had done their jobs well, pulling him back into the land of the living. When he awoke, three days later, the battle was over. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Arashi's pretty face looking down at him. They had been together ever since.

      If the doctors had been puzzled by Sorata's bizarre injuries, they were completely baffled by the fits of laughter he and Arashi fell into when they told him the news: He had died on the operating table. He had been clinically dead for three minutes before the doctors managed to resuscitate him.

      He asked Arashi to marry him the very next day. She had refused at first, saying that it was too soon. That they needed to take some time to recover from everything that had happened. She was right, they couldn't have had the joyful wedding day they eventually did so soon after losing so many of their friends. The world had not perished on the Promised Day, but neither had the Dragons of Heaven escaped unharmed.

      Seiichiro had given his life to destroy Nataku. He had grabbed the bio-engineered killer and leaped off the Sunshine 60, driving them both through a highway overpass to their deaths. Karen was killed by Fuuma. A Dragon of Heaven to the very end, she was still throwing fire at the Dark Kamui even as he cruelly thrust his Sacred Sword into her breast. Likewise, their guide and mentor Hinoto had met her end on the tip of Fuuma's sword, as had her attendants, Sohi and Hien, trying valiantly to protect their Princess. Even their friend Keiichi had been mercilessly slaughtered by the Harbingers' insane leader.

      When all was said and done, only five of the Seven Seals remained. Sorata had been overjoyed when Yuzuriha came to visit him in the hospital. The youngest Dragon of Heaven had come through the final battle completely unharmed, though she was either unwilling or unable to tell them how she had survived. He and Arashi were still alive, of course. Subaru had resumed his duties as head of the Sumeragi Clan. And then there was Kamui...

      Somewhere in his reminiscing, Sorata had managed to cook breakfast. Good thing too, as Arashi came back into the kitchen a moment later.

      "Breakfast is served, my love."

*   *   *   *   *

      "Sleep well?" Sorata asked as they ate breakfast.

      "Better." Arashi said noncommittally. Lately she had been having trouble sleeping.

      "No...bad dreams?" Right after the final battle in 1999, Arashi had suffered from horrible nightmares, a trend which lasted well into 2000. And although she would never say so, Sorata suspected that it was starting again.

      "Actually, I had a wonderful dream." Arashi said with a smile.

      "Really?" She nodded. "Anything in the kinky-but-tasteful fantasy variety?" He asked with a grin.

      "No." She laughed. "Nothing like that."

      "Well may I ask what this wonderful dream was, then?" Sorata asked.

      Arashi smiled again. "Kamui came to see us."

*   *   *   *   *

      The Clamp Campus was a noisy place around lunchtime, even more so the day before Christmas break began. The cafeteria always filled up quickly so most people just took their lunches outside to eat. Yuzuriha Nekoi was one of those people. Every day, she sat alone under the same tree, as if daring anyone to get near her. It wasn't that Yuzuriha was unfriendly, far from it. But there was a sadness about her that drove others away.

      Part of her was sad that, in her three years at the Clamp School, she hadn't really made any lasting friendships with any of her classmates. But she did have friends. She visited Arashi and Sorata as often as she could. And she saw Subaru every now and then. Besides, she was never really alone. She had Inuki, her faithful wolf-spirit, her constant, devoted companion.

      So it wasn't loneliness that troubled Yuzuriha. It was another kind of sadness. The kind of heartache that came from carrying a secret for so long that, even were she to decide to tell someone, it was too late. She knew that her friends wondered and worried about her. Subaru in particular had tried to get her to open up about her experiences on the Promised Day, but she couldn't.

      She had lost a friend that day. That was nothing special or unique, of course. Everyone in Tokyo had lost somebody. But she couldn't openly grieve for him as she had for her friends among the Dragons of Heaven. His name was Shiyuu Kusanagi, and he was a Dragon of the Earth.

      But he hadn't been a bad guy. He was friendly, and honest, and caring. In a way, she had been in love with him. And fate had been irredeemably cruel in forcing them to be enemies. In the final battle, on the Promised Day, Yuzuriha had found herself faced with the prospect of fighting Shiyuu. But he refused to fight her, the last thing he ever did. Insane and out of control, Fuuma had taken violent exception to Shiyuu's refusal to kill Yuzuriha.

      Rather than kill him quickly with the Sacred Sword, Fuuma chose instead to slowly tear her friend apart with telekinesis while she watched, unable to save him. She had often wondered in the days that followed why Fuuma didn't just destroy her as well. She certainly couldn't have stopped him. She finally decided that it was the madman's ultimate gesture of contempt for her; his way of saying that she wasn't worth the time it would take to kill her.

      That was what she couldn't tell the others. It wasn't that she had been in love with one of the Seven Harbingers, there was no shame in that. But to have been so powerless that she wasn't even worth killing... She couldn't bear letting them know that she had survived the final battle only because she had been deemed too weak to affect the outcome.

      In the years that followed, Yuzuriha had tried to put the past behind her. She had survived the end of the world. She had just started college. She was supposed to be happy. But she wasn't. And now the past was banging down her door, trying to force its way back into her mind.

      She kept having dreams, the kind of visions of apocalyptic destruction that had preceded the Appointed Day. She couldn't help wondering why. They had averted the apocalypse. Why was she dreaming of a future that would never come to pass? Perhaps the last dream explained it. Last night, she had seen only one image. A friend she hadn't seen since 1999. It could only mean one thing.

      "He's coming, Inuki." She whispered. The wolf-spirit looked up at her and whined softly. Yuzuriha smiled and scratched Inuki lightly between the ears. "Kamui's coming back."

*   *   *   *   *

      Across town, a man sat alone, deep in meditation. He sat motionless, his fingers laced with only his index fingers extended. His breath rose and fell with a steady rhythm that would have made a machine envious. It was entirely possible that the young man did not even feel the heat of the large fire that burned before him. His entire being was focused inward.

      Subaru Sumeragi floated high above the city of Tokyo. He didn't kid himself that he was any kind of Dreamseer, but on occasion, if he focused enough on his meditation, he could catch glimpses of possible futures. Now he floated, desperately trying to pierce the veil that obscured the future, to see what lay in store.

      He had his suspicions; had carried them for some time now. But he needed confirmation. He was peering into the future to see if his suspicions were correct. But one image asserted itself, blocking out everything else, making it impossible to see anything.

      Finally, Subaru gave up. He stood, his legs stiff from sitting still for so long, and walked outside. He had been meditating since mid-morning. In a few hours night would fall, the sun was already beginning to sink.

      "Tonight." Subaru said to himself. "He'll be here tonight."

      He had only seen one thing clearly in all his recent attempts at divination. Kamui was coming back. He could only guess at the force that drew Kamui back to Tokyo, but he was very near. He would reach the city by nightfall.

      "If he's the one...then I must find him." Subaru whispered, casting a glance to the sinking orb of light in the western sky. "I must reach him...Before It does."

*   *   *   *   *

      The city hadn't changed at all. The mass destruction of 1999 had been repaired long ago. In every way, Tokyo looked just the way it had the last time he had returned to the city. From high above, the crowded streets looked tiny. With windows glowing in the moonless night, the field of stars below him went perfectly with the one above him.

      Carried on the wind, a cloud of sakura petals floated by. Out of habit, Kamui reached out and grabbed one of the dancing petals. He held the tiny petal in his fist for a moment before releasing it to join its brothers and sisters.

      In the distance, the Tower glowed brightly as ever. Kamui looked away as soon as his eyes fell on that hateful spire. Tokyo Tower was celebrated throughout Tokyo as the only major landmark to survive the devastation of 1999. But Kamui hated it. He always would. That was why he stood here, on the edge of the rebuilt Sunshine 60, instead of atop the Tower. He had vowed never to go near Tokyo Tower again. He would certainly never assume his perch on the tower's highest weather vane again. Just looking at Tokyo Tower dredged up too many painful memories. Actually standing on the tower would undoubtedly be more than he could bear.

      "Why am I here?" Kamui wondered aloud. He had decided in 1999 that he would never return to Tokyo again as long as he lived. He had left the cursed city before the dust of battle had even cleared.

      Arashi had begged him to stay, at least long enough to say goodbye to Sorata. But Kamui couldn't bear to be there anymore. Everything he had come to Tokyo to do, he had failed to accomplish. Kotori had died; he hadn't been able to protect her. He couldn't protect Fuuma either. He had been forced to kill his best friend. There was nothing left for him here.

      "So why am I back?"

      Go to Tokyo Kamui. Your destiny waits...

      "I did what you said mother." Kamui whispered. "My destiny was here. But it's come and gone. That part of my life is over. Why do I keep being drawn back?"

      Taking a deep breath, Kamui stepped to the edge of the building and leapt off. Halfway down, he changed his mind, activated his powers, and floated gently the rest of the way to the ground. He could almost hear a voice far away, laughing at him. You don't get off that easy, Kamui.

      He sighed. He had been called back to Tokyo for a reason, and it probably wasn't to commit suicide. He could have done that in Kyoto, after all. He had to find out why he was here. The sooner he did that...the sooner he could leave again.

*   *   *   *   *
TBC
*   *   *   *   *

Author's Notes:

      -On why I'm writing this story: Basically my muse is a sadistic bitch. She adamantly refuses to provide inspiration on any of my current fics and instead just keeps putting new ideas into my head. I think she's trying to break my brain. In this case, I was reading a lot of 'X' so there you have it.

      -On the impossibility of writing this story: Have you ever tried to write something that happens after all the major events in a story that isn't finished yet? In this case, the really major event hasn't even happened yet. I had to make up most of what happened on the Promised Day in 1999. Some I took from the movie, the rest I just made up on the fly.

      -On figuring out how old people are: Almost everything here is based on a single line from Volume 1 of the Manga. Sorata says that if he dies and his psychic barrier collapses, the entire area will be destroyed, perhaps today (and here's the key) "Or maybe three years from now...on the Promised Day in 1999" This indicates that the story begins in 1996. I then used everyone's oldest estimated age (or exact age in cases where it is said) and counted up to see how old they are in 2001. It took some doing, but I consider it worth the effort.

      -On the Clamp Campus: Here's a confession, X is the only Clamp series I've really seen any significant portion of. I knew that the Clamp Campus existed in the 'X Universe' and, needing a reason for Yuzuriha to still be in Tokyo, decided she would go there for the rest of her education. According to several websites dedicated to the various series' that focused entirely on the School, it goes all the way up to the college level. Therefore, Yuzuriha is a freshman in college, attending and living at the Clamp School. If my info on the school is wrong...well then I'm sorry. It's too late to change it now.