"Well ... I think it's time we established the specifics of our bet." Seishirou calmly poured a tall glass of milk and smoothly removed the soda out of Rocky's hand. The boy scowled, his hand reaching for his glass with an indignant snort as Seishirou swept it away and pushed the milk in front of him. The Sakurazukamori gave him a pleasant smile as if to say 'does your body good'.

To which the boy responded with a glare that screamed 'give me back my Jolt Cola or get bitchslapped back to the Edo era'.

Seishirou ignored him and held up the soda critically. "Dear God," he hummed. "This stuff could eat the flesh off the bone ... Why on Earth do you drink it?"

"Because it's slightly easier to stomach than wrinkly old pedophiles."

Seishirou raised an eyebrow, his attention still fixed on the soda. "Ahhh...Rocky-chan, I was beginning to think you and I were getting along too. Or is it just time for your nap?"

"Kiss my ass."

"With pleasure," much to the boy's shock Seishirou started the climb over the counter. Rocky turned an unflattering shade of magenta and eeped as Seishirou hands almost caught around his waist. He scurried behind Subaru--who was doing the dishes

"Seishirou-san," Subaru said firmly, reaching around the teenager to grab another plate to be dried.

"Subaru-kun ... That was a proposition if I've ever heard one. It would be rude of me to turn it down."

"No rough housing inside," the Sumeragi said smoothly, nudging Rocky out of his way gently.

The older man took the opportunity to wrap both arms around the small teenager and grinned wickedly. He nuzzled the boy's ear just to hear him squeak and struggle in his hold. "What do you say? I think we could use some quality time"

Struggles turned into panicked thrashing. "You'll pay for this..."

Seishirou laughed softly and purred up against the creature. "Fine by me ... how much do you charge?"

"SUBARUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!"

With a little snort Seishirou roughly dropped the boy, pretending like he was hurt by the boy's repulsion. He offered Subaru a charming sympathetic sigh, "such a tease ... how do you control yourself Subaru?"

Subaru continued ignoring them.

The Sakurazukamori shrugged with a smile. "Now, about our bet..."

Rocky glanced briefly at Subaru before opening wide innocent eyes and batting his long eye lashes once. "Bet?"

"Oh don't play stupid he already knows all about it."

"He does?" Rocky blinked, looking back and forth between the two men. "You told him?"

"Of course I did, after all it does concern him doesn't it?"

The creature nodded mutely, Subaru continued to put dishes away with a cold darkness hovering about him. Seishirou cast a glance in Subaru's direction, sighed and smiled apologetically at the boy. "It seems he's going to be a grump about it ... party pooper."

Plates clanked loudly as Subaru put them away.

Rocky looked guiltily at the floor.

Seishirou rolled his eyes, "well this simply will not do. I'm sure angsting in your own little corners is quite a bonding experience, but if you don't cut it out I will lock you in the bedroom together until one of you has a meltdown."

Subaru and Rocky glanced at each other, then looked at Seishirou with a mix of confusion-- and disgust on Subaru part.

"That's better ... now ... I think you should go somewhere romantic!"

Rocky choked on his milk, his eyes snapping open into large shocked purple pools. "What?"

Seishirou snickered, "what's the matter Rocky-chan, afraid of putting out a little?"

"Shut up!"

"Tease."

"Pervert!"

Seishirou's stare hardened, "Me? Who has the Oedipus complex here?"

"I know a place," Subaru's soft voice interrupted their squabbling. "Just outside of the city, hot spring a family close to mine owns."

"Charming ... I'm jealous. But it's perfect, because I think we can agree if you can't change his mind after hot and sweaty naked fun ... you'll never be able to. Ne Rocky-chan?"

The boy was the color of a ripe radish. "Ahhhh... yeah... ummmm..." he blushed

More dishes clanked loudly as they were set down by rough and angry hands.

Seishirou glanced in the Sumeragi's direction. "I think, though, we should wait a week before you two set out. Give Subaru-kun sometime to get out of this funk." Smiling he patted Rocky on the head, "do me a favor Rocky-chan? Go down to the store and buy me a pack of cigarettes?"

Rocky blinked, "they won't sell them to me..."

"Well of course they will ... here," he pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and set them on the boy's face. "There ... wear those and think really mean thoughts, they won't give you a problem."

The boy grinned and nodded, grabbing his jacket off the couch where he had so crassly left it. It slide over the bare skin of his shoulders with a hapless shrug, and after another foolish grin hopped out the front door.

Seishirou thought it was most curious. The boy knew he was a killer, but at the moment that didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Was the tiny illusion of a family he never had before that important? Was the illusion that strong or was his want to believe it? That he would ignore the horrors that had been revealed to him for its sake?

Quite curious ... but then the Sakurazukamori was a master of illusion.

"Why are you doing this?" Subaru whispered after the door slammed. "I was prepared to tell him, why is it necessary to break his heart?"

Seishirou's stare was surprisingly cold as he walked over to where the Sumeragi stood. "I'm not blind Subaru ... well not completely anyway. Go," his arms wrapped around Subaru's chest, chin resting lazily on Subaru's shoulder. "Do what you want with him and get it out of your system." His finger brushed Subaru's lips softly. "Because when you return ... you'll be mine forever."
--------------

Seishirou did not keep tokens.

He didn't need to, the action was natural and unconscious for him. There was no significance to it, he felt no exhilaration at the kill. Nor any wish to relive it. It was a worthless action and therefore went unmarked. To do so would be as strange as saving a fork to remember a meal. No matter how good the food had been...

There was something significant then about the ivory colored cross resting on his night stand. It was tacky-- threaded on a black shoelace worn and fraying with its age-- with reddish brown blemishes across the bottom and its left arm. It was excessive; a massive chuck of plastic that was once highly polished but now only gave off a dull luster. He thought of it then as he did now, that it was the most repulsive accessory.

But then ... Hokuto had horrible tastes.

It was creepy behavior, even for him.

His fingers had delicately worked the necklace out from under the stolen-- now bloody-- robes and slipped it into his pocket before he allowed the sakura's roots to work into her flesh.

The Tree grumbled over the loss of her soul and Seishirou had shrugged-- paying her no mind. There was nothing he could do after all ... there had been no soul left to satisfy the Tree.

Hokuto had a pathetic amount of power for a Sumeragi. But her final spell required a great deal to cast. She had used the strength of her own soul to cast it.

She had died happy. She had looked up at him with loving eyes. Eyes beaming with joy. She looked up at him, not a drop of defiance or spite or hate in her at the moment and she told him what she had done.

She had touched his face gently as she spoke, a touch of adoration.

There was a soft flicker in his heart when she smiled, proud of him in a bizarrely motherly way, and left a few whispered words before easing back into death. She had left life smoothly, as smooth and as soft as cream.

It was the smallest of touches, and was gone soon enough. He watched the Tree feed from her body with neither a shred of sorrow or guilt, just an unpleasant sick like feeling that had more to do with that flicker than her death.

Still...

10 years had passed and he kept her cross. She was not Christian, to her it had been almost as worthless as her life had been to him. But he bore it still ... all this time.

He felt weight shift across the bed from within the warm blackness of sleep. And quickly his consciousness began to raise to the surface. Gently he reached out of his sleep for Subaru.

It was the soft squeak that jolted his senses into realizing that it was not Subaru in his bed. He opened his eyes slowly to stare suspiciously at the embarrassed purple gaze belonging to the boy who had ended up practically on top of him in his efforts to reach over him to get something on the nightstand. Seishirou lifted an eyebrow in a silent, suspicious question. His expression freshly lathered with distrust and sleepiness. He spoke calmly, with a dull, flat tone in his words. "Well this is a pleasant surprise, not often I have a beautiful, limber boy wake me up like this."

Rocky turned a sickly shade of green and pulled back so far he fell completely off the bed.

Another squeak and a harsh thump. Seishirou smiled with amusement, he really was too cute.

"I was ... ummmm ... looking for something," Rocky stammered. "Subaru said he left it here."

Seishirou wondered why it was he had not detected the boy's presence, and how the boy had managed to break into his heavily warded apartment in the first place.

"Then why didn't Subaru-kun come to pick it up himself?"

"He's out ... working. He has a job tonight."

"Oh? And he didn't call to tell me you were heading over here? How unlike him."

"Well ... ahhhhh ... he kind of doesn't know I'm here," the boy admitted sheepishly.

Seishirou had already figured as much. Subaru trusted him, but it was not wise to tempt fate by sending the lamb into the lion's den. "How did you find this place then, if Subaru didn't tell you where I live?"

The boy shrugged awkwardly, indicating to his buried wings, "I felt my way here."

"Felt?"

"Followed Subaru's ... scent," he was not satisfied with that word.

Curious, Seishirou thought. The boy had followed the trails of Subaru's power like they were tracks in the snow. "and slipped under the door I presume?"

"The window," Rocky explained. "You left it unlocked."

Well of course he had, he was six stories up.

"Well then ... what is so important that you would break into my home rather than wait until morning for Subaru-kun to come get it?"

The boy pointed mutely at an object on the nightstand.

A bottlecap?

He blinked. He didn't know what it meant to the boy or how Subaru had ended up with it, or how it had come to sit right next to Hokuto's cross, but it struck him immediately as odd. If for no reason other than the juxtaposition of trinkets owned by one who held on to nothing and one who let nothing go. Wordlessly, he dropped the piece of junk into the boy's paws.

"What's that?"

Almost as soon as he deposited the bottlecap into the safety of his pocket, Rocky's mind was on the new course-- staring curiously at the pale cross by Seishirou's side.

Seishirou smoothly avoided the question, "Why do you ask?"

"It smells like Subaru ... kind of ... Subaru but not Subaru ... Is it his?"

Seishirou looked blankly at the cross, Rocky could sense an imprint left on the necklace nearly a decade ago? "No," he said sharply. "It's something of mine."

The boy reached out for it curiously, and before Seishirou could process the instinct he had seized his wrist with a painful snatch. Rocky made a sharp yelp as he was pulled to a terrifying closeness. Emotions were such meddlesome things, Seishirou thought as the sudden rage cooled in his chest. "Was there something else you came here for?"

Seishirou was holding his wrists tight enough to make the bones scream. His words hinted at the promise of a horrible violation should he not like the boy's answer. Rocky shook his head, eyes wide and terrified.

"Then," there was a dark hiss in Seishirou's voice. "Perhaps you should go?"

The boy nodded in response and scurried off the bed the moment Seishirou's grasp loosened. It was an odd sort of terror this boy showed, eyes filled with a pathetic sort of powerless whine. Unable to will the want to strike back or defend himself should Seishirou attack.

The Sakurazukamori followed him to the door, to ensure that the creature didn't stumble upon anymore information that Seishirou would not like Subaru to know. Not that there was much, the onmyouji knew almost all there was to know.

Seishirou could almost hear the gears turning in the boy's head, analyzing the situation over and over, trying to figure out where he's been wrong enough to make the patient older man that angry. Perhaps he considered apologizing a few times, before continuing to puzzle in waves of guilt. Each step was taken carefully and nervously, well aware of the beast stalking behind him.

Rocky stopped halfway to the front door and, tangled in his own thoughts, mumbled, "Subaru has a sister..."

That connection was all Seishirou needed to hear. Quickly he slid behind the boy and spun threads of spell around his young mind. The boy made a startled choking sound as the soft spell touched his mind and purple eyes immediately snapped open. His body went tense and resistant when the spell tried to seep in. His back pressed against the man's chest, Seishirou's arm holding him firmly in place so that he could not escape. His eyes quivered, looking up at Seishirou with a fascinated panic. A faint whimper escaped his lips.

"Sleep and forget," Seishirou purred.

Rocky was, as Seishirou expected, quite powerful and did not fall immediately. He twisted weakly in his arms, fighting a losing battle so stubbornly that Seishirou couldn't help but smile. He forced the boy's power down with some effort, holding it down so that the magic could take the boy's mind.

"Sleep ... and dream of your beloved Subaru."

Rocky's will faded, the spell gaining footing on his unconsciousness with every passing second. Seishirou's will consuming him, over powering him, forcing its way inside without his consent.

And the creature was lulled to sleep, body limp and vulnerable in Seishirou's arms.

When Subaru came home that night he found nothing out of the ordinary and Rocky sound asleep in his own bed.
----------------

Lying in Subaru's bed he always felt safe, like the small glow of the Sumeragi's presence was an invisible shield. Mostly, though, he didn't feel alone here ... even though he always was alone. Even when he was with Subaru, the onmyouji was never with him.

But buried in the soft cotton sheets, feeling the Sumeragi's scent assaulting his senses it made him think that maybe in a small way... that wasn't true. It was warm here...

And he was always lured into the deepest sleep when in Subaru's bed.

Tonight was no exception ... only...

He dreamed.

He rarely if ever dreamed. But tonight the darkness was a tangible space in his mind. He floated lazily, looking about curiously-- noticing that his wings were drawn, the black leather relaxed and slightly curved around him.

Then the space became spotted by small speckles of pale color. Like tiny fish flowing in a large school on an invisible wind that swam around him, curiously brushing up against his skin as they passed.

He reached out his hand, finding that they shifted to avoid his grasp... again like fish.

Except they were not fish, he realized, they were petals...

"Who's there?" he called out, the sakura still twisting around him.

"A friend," someone answered, but he could not hear it ... only know that was the answer, and somehow feel it inside himself.

He looked around with a small degree of panic, trying to spot 'the friend' in the deep sea of black. "What do you want?"

"I think we may be able to help each other."

The petals swung close and brushed his cheek gently. It felt like a long finger, an invisible hand of something reached into his mind. It was not a touch he enjoyed. "Eh?"

"The people we love are going to destroy each other..."

Rocky's eyes grew wide with fear, "Subaru ... Subaru is in trouble?"

"Yes..."

He began to thrash about in the blackness, trying to force his way up out of that black sea. To break the surface of it and awaken. The sakura stiffened and drifted away from him as the voice spoke through him again and stopped his resistance.

"You can stop it."

Rocky froze, he did not like the sound of that ... it made it sound like Subaru was a willing participant in his own destruction and he had to interfere. He had no will to do that. His head turned, looking up at the sakura pelts circling above him, "how?"

"Stop him, if you don't he'll die."

Rocky frowned, this was not an answer he liked. "Will he be happy?"

The pelts stopped suddenly in their invisible wind. "Is that what you want?"

"No ... I didn't mean that, if doing this makes him happy I will not be happy for him ... but ... I will accept it. I don't wish him happiness without me, but I won't force him to be happy with me either."

The boy lowered his head, it was painful to admit that his intentions were not as pure as the Sakura had thought. The petals twitched with irritation. "Then ... you will not help me."

"I'm sorry, I don't want Subaru to die ... but ... I can't."

"Worthless," the Sakura stung, or maybe that was his own mind that accused him. But it was true, as low and pathetic as it was to even think it, it was true. He could not betray Subaru's wishes. If Subaru wanted to die...

The thought was cut off as his brain registered the sound of keys turning in the lock and abruptly freaked out. Shit, if Subaru found him in his bed, well the Sumeragi would likely not be pleased. Without a further thought to anything that had just transpired he leaped from the warm safety of Subaru's bed and flew down the hall to his own.
--------------

He woke up in warm arms and warm touches running across his scalp..The touch creating soothing shivers through his body. Being touched ... made him want to throw up lately. But he suppressed that urge long enough to at least open his eyes and see who it was that was petting him.

It was Subaru.

Or at least much closer to Subaru than anything else. The young Sumeragi had not been Subaru for a while. When Rocky looked up into his eyes he saw only a void where Subaru had once been. He missed him...

Missed him to tears.

But he swallowed that urge, convinced that somewhere inside that shell Subaru was still there. After all there was small moments of reaction from the man and that had to come from somewhere right? Every now and then, a smile, a look of concern, a bit of anger or sadness broke through the steel of his eyes.

It was obvious to both of them that Seishirou's death was slowly rotting Subaru, but the Sumeragi insisted on pretending that everything was fine, that he was moving on-- a little colder but faithfully.

They never spoke about it.

"Subaru..." the boy breathed. "What are you doing here?"

He noted with some confusion that they were in his room and not Subaru's.

"You were screaming," the Sumeragi replied casually. "Bad dream?"

Rocky nodded softly then closed his eyes tightly and leaned into Subaru's touch. "You never call me that..." the boy mumbled so lightly Subaru had to strain to hear it. "Thank God you've never called me that..."

"Kamui?" a tremble of sincere concern broke through.

The boy shivered in an almost sick pleasure, "do that again.."

Subaru frowned, but did not falter in his gentle strokes. "Do what?"

"Say my name."

"...Kamui."

Rocky let out a quaking sigh of desperate relief and hugged Subaru tightly. "I was so scared ... afraid it might have been real, afraid of what it meant if it wasn't..."

It was obvious that the stoic onmyouji was a bit overwhelmed by this sudden hysteria. His arms held the creature, trying to reassure him as little as he could. "It was only a dream ... it's over now."

"No!" the boy said firmly, pushing Subaru away. "It's not a dream, it's ... a memory of a dream I had a long time ago."

Subaru was confused, "Kamui, you're not making any sense."

At the sound of his name, his real name, the boy trembled and reached back out for Subaru. "Promise me you'll never call me anything else..."

"Kamui..."

Large purple eyes begged him, "Please ... promise me."

Moments ticked by and Subaru stared down at the creature in his arms, unsure of how to interpret what he was witnessing. Finally he closed his eyes with a soft sigh and let the barest traces of a smile melt through. "Kamui ... I promise. I promise Kamui."
---------------

Seishirou was pretending to read. Wearing a small pair of reading glasses because somehow they made him seem less threatening. A man in glasses is too weak to hurt you. Or so they thought.

The boy stirred then awakened. His purple eyes opening wearily with a small groan as his body reminded him of the damage done once again. Those eyes had not been opened more than three seconds before his senses had returned enough for him to detect Seishirou's silent presence in the dimly lit room. And they turned towards the Sakurazukamori with ice coating the dark pupils. Hard eyes, Seishirou thought.

Eyes that knew.

But that was impossible, he was getting paranoid in his old age.

Those violet irises only held the knowledge for a second before it was blinked away and Rocky smiled, all traces of that frost melting. Whether he was only faking cheerfulness, or the knowledge only registered in the darkest parts of his consciousness Seishirou couldn't decide. But it was clear even as the young boy grinned that on some level he knew. "What are you doing here?"

"Watching over you," Seishirou answered dryly, pretending to be too engrossed in his book to notice. Even though his every sense was fixated on this child. "You gave us quite a scare there Rocky-chan.."

"Did I?"

"Fell out of the sky. You're lucky you weren't too far up, you could have been killed."

"Well," the boy said cheerfully. "I don't really know what happened myself, they just wouldn't work." He was referring to his black companions. "It seemed like the air fell right through them for a second."

Rocky's body was littered with bruises, scraps and gashes where the concrete had ripped his skin open and fiery friction had burned the flesh. Subaru had worried that he might have cracked a rib in his fall too, but that turn out to be just another deep bruise. Other than that, the boy was unharmed. His wings had managed to slow his fall enough during their collapse, a stroke of luck for the boy.

"Well..." Seishirou began in a tired, irritated voice. "Subaru took care of the problem, you'll be fine now."

Those eyes, deceptive things really, shown innocently and he cocked his head to one side and interrupting Seishirou's thoughts with an innocent question, "Neh... Where is Subaru?"

"Out."

Seishirou made a note, this boy was like Subaru yes. But he evidentially had a thicker skin than the Sumeragi. If the barest trace of memory was haunting him, he was not letting on to it.

"Well obviously," Rocky rolled his eyes. "Any idea why?"

"Nope."