Crimson on Lilac
[A X / Fruit Basket Crossover ]
By: Teno Hikari
email: tenohikari@cs.com
Summary: Sequel to 'Family Reunion' - reunited with his family, Kamui's peaceful life with his father, Souma Yuki, comes to a shattering halt when history repeats itself.
Warning: Dark themes with some slashy hints but I'm sure you're use to them if you've see X ... (and there's a little of it in Fruit Basket) ... you have been warned.
--------------------------
Chapter Ten
Kamui walked past the sixth construction site that morning and sighed. He thought the repairs from last year's earthquakes were completed ... but it turned out that they were far from done. What depressed the former Dragon of Heaven the most, was that not all of those buildings had been evacuated before they went down. Guilt stabbed through him once more ... how could he, Kamui, be happy with his reunited family while so many others lost theirs?
Guilt
That was something he never told Yuki among other things. His father had asked him to tell him everything. Everything. Kamui only told him about why his mother left, about her death, Hinoto's dream, and then the outcome; but, could never tell him the darker details. He could never tell his father how his child hood friend turned into a monster, how he witnessed his special person stabbed through the heart with his own sword, watched his seals die and leave their loved ones, and the death of his best friend. No, Kamui could never tell Yuki these things, he wouldn't.
Shrugging his shoulders, he sort of regretted leaving the mansion at an early hour and should have waited to ask Yuzuriha to come with him. He could picture her face now, frowning if she knew he was brooding again. He really needed someone to talk to ... someone who understood him. The teenager just then remembered that there was a certain vet who lived a couple blocks away and quickly made his way over to see him.
"Subaru!"
The thirteenth head of the Sumeragi Clan, turned to face the teenager with a small smile formed on his lips as the youth ran up to him. "Hello, Kamui ... this is a surprise."
"Nice to see you too," Kamui smiled as he walked with Subaru to his office. "How's work going?"
"It's work," Subaru answered and unconsciously groped through the pockets of his white trench coat. How the older man could walk around in a white coat, with black slacks and a turtleneck during the summer was beyond Kamui's knowledge. "At least I'm enjoying it."
"That's good." The teenager noticed that Subaru did not pull out his cigarette lighter and a cigarette, only a small package of chewing gum.
The Sumeragi caught his gaze and shrugged, "I'm trying to quit the smoking thing."
"Wow ..." Kamui was relieved. Subaru used to smoke quite a bit last year, and now that he survived the promise day, it would be waste if he died to lung cancer. "That's great!"
"My nicotine craving doesn't seem to think so," Subaru said dryly as he offered Kamui a stick of gum before sticking one into his mouth. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"
"Well, I had toast before I left and ...," Kamui's stomach growled and the teenager looked sheepishly at his Seal.
The onmyouji rolled his visible green eye. "There's a McDonald's nearby, I'll buy you breakfast."
"Can I get a Happy Meal?" Kamui asked excitedly. "You know the ones with a toy in them? I hear the transformers are back."
"Fine," Subaru's smile widened as he ruffled Kamui's brown hair. "But if you get an Optimus Prime before me, I'll kill you."
The teenager sweat dropped before sticking his tongue at the Sumeragi-part-Sakurazukamori, literally mocking death itself.
They spent almost an hour at the small fast food restaurant talking, eating and posing their Transformers action figures. Sadly to say, they weren't Optimus Prime, in fact they were characters neither dragon of heaven heard of. The Sumeragi was very surprised that the boy had developed an appetite, since last year he only ate when others forced him to. Kamui had consumed two egg mcmuffins, a stack of pancakes, scrambled eggs, three hash browns, and since he was being extra cute to the blushing female cashier - received four free apple pies. It had been more food than Subaru had ever seen him eat and was glad. Kamui was no longer that painfully skinny boy anymore ... or as Sorata had nicknamed him just to be cute (and maybe a little suicidal) : 'the walking stick figure'. However, Kamui was still skinny just not skeletal looking.
After walking Subaru to work, the teenager headed off on his own to wander the places in the city where construction wasn't around. Later, he'd meet both Yuzuriha and Nokorou for lunch. The Sumeragi waved good-bye and said he would drop by at the mansion later on to help with the 'strange drawing' research. Breakfast with Subaru had cleared his mind and Kamui wasn't going to let brooding bother him today, not when he was starting to get into a good mood.
'Maybe ...'
'Maybe the dreams I've been having were just a coincidence,' he wondered, passing by a small playground. He turned to see the small children happily playing with their parents close by and smiled. 'Maybe I was just feeling guilty about being happy. Maybe I made myself dream those dreams again just to punish myself. Maybe Lady Sumeragi's drawing has nothing to do with anything ... maybe ..."
'Maybe ...'
'Maybe it has something to do with everything.'
Kamui stopped cold and a shiver ran down his spine. Purple orbs widened and he whirled around to look for something out of the ordinary. Something was wrong ... eerily wrong! His senses were ringing, like the feeling he was being watched, like something awful was about to happen; but he couldn't pinpoint a source! His heart that had been pounding against his chest, stopped for a moment as a loud explosion irrupted from far and high above.
That's when the screaming started.
His violet eyes caught sight of a burning apartment complex and before he knew what he was doing, Kamui ran towards it. People were screaming all around him. Screaming for the people inside that building, screaming for someone to call the fire department, screaming just out of fear. The screaming in his mind was louder and Kamui wished he could shut them up.
He pushed passed the crowd of people fleeing from the complex, ignoring the cries to evacuate. Common sense for his own safety wasn't present at the moment as he ran up the stairs and listened to the sound of anyone crying for help. As he ran, his mind was running as well, wondering what it was doing. The higher he climbed up the flights of stairs, the hotter it got while cobalt and crimson flashed before his eyes along with the falling debris of a collapsing ceiling. Kamui strained his ears to listen over the fire's roaring flames for anything and he didn't know why he was doing this. He didn't know why.
He pulled the hem of his shirt up to cover half his face against the toxic fumes and was ready to turn back. Why had he run right into a burning building? Why not just let the fire department handle it? Why was he still running through the flaming hallways, looking for something ... or someone?
Kamui panted, bending over to catch his breath while clutching his knees. Common sense had returned and it was now telling him that he should get the hell out of there.
The inferno was getting worse and Kamui turned to see that his exit was now cut off by the consuming flames ... how did the fire manage to spread so damn fast?! Cursing under his breath, he would figure it out later but first his instincts were telling him that he needed to find someone.
'Who? Who? Who?'
He kept asking himself while he shouted over the thick clouds of smoke. The youth was coughing now and he could see the darkness collect on his clothes, if he didn't get out of here the fumes would kill him before the fire burned him alive. The heat was becoming intense and the burning flames were so close ... only mere inches from his exposed skin.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!" the teenager shouted and wondered if he was going insane. Yes, he must be insane already, because he was calling out to someone who probably wasn't even here. There was no vocal response, yet someone was calling out to him, someone was begging to be saved.
'Where?' Kamui wondered frantically, his eyes scanning the fiery hallway.
Coughing
His eyes narrowed before a door, he had heard coughing. There, that door at the far right corner! That door that had a gaping hole in the floor between it and him. Cursing under his breath, he stepped back a little, careful not to back up into the flames. Swallowing hard he sped off and jumped over the hole while not smacking into the ceiling.
Unfortunately the landing was not as well planned out and his added weight by the jump had caused a chunk of floor to collapse beneath him. His eyes widened, starring down at the pit of flames just below his dangling feet as he was now Clinging for dear life.
'Wonderful situation you've gotten yourself into,' he thought to himself before looking away.
A few seconds later, he pulled himself up and winced as the large hole he leapt across had gotten wider. There was no way he could turn back now and the ceiling hallway looked like it was about to collapse. He would have to find his own exit, not big of a problem he hoped.
Scrambling to his feet, the teenager quickly avoided the wildfire, got to the room and kicked the door open off it's hinges. Kamui took a deep breath and starred. Within that room there was no fire at all, no smoke or collapsing ceiling ... everything was perfectly fine as if the room didn't belong here in this burning building.
Gasping, he saw a little girl laying asleep on a couch, oblivious to what was happening around her. Fearing the worst, he rushed over and checked her pulse. As soon as he felt it, Kamui lifted her into his arms and headed towards a window where he could see fire trucks gathering several stories below. There were also huge crowds of people everywhere around the building.
"Great," he muttered. "If I jump across to the next building someone's going to see it."
"M... mommy ...," the girl murmured in his arms, still asleep.
If it couldn't get any worse, it did. The room which had mysteriously been protected, was now on fire. Flames and dark clouds of smoke behind him, high above with witnesses below, a child in his arms; this was a death trap ... and whoever set it up would pay dearly, Kamui swear.
"You there!" someone spoke over a megaphone.
The boy's eyes looked down below to see that the firemen below had brought a large trampoline. They wanted him to jump down? From this height? Well, it was better than getting burned to death. He held the girl tightly in his arms and made sure not to let her go, reminding himself to land on his feet if he bounced off the trampoline. Sticking one leg out the window, he turned to face against the fire once more and something caught his attention.
Squinting his eyes, there back in the hallway where the flames were consuming the building, he could see something. A black blur in front of the gaping hole in the floor. Smoke? Kamui wondered, blinking as he slipped closer out the window. No, it wasn't smoke ... it looked like the outline of a solid object. Of a person!
"Come on!" Kamui shouted, extending his hand out to the dark figure. "The whole place is burning down!"
The figure didn't move, instead it seemed to turn away, back into the inferno. Kamui made an attempt to go back in and try to crab whoever it was. Whoever was insane enough to walk back into the fire.
"JUMP!" the crowd shouted from below.
The teenager squinted his eyes again, trying to search for the figure and saw nothing but smoke. 'My eyes are just playing tricks on me,' he told himself as he climbed out of the room completely. He clutched the little girl in his arms even tighter, before letting them both fall.
[ Author's Notes ]
Hehe, told you stuff was going to happen.
Reviewer Questions:
Anna asked: 'By the way, here's an odd thought not entirely related to this fic: if Kamui's sword was born from his mother Tohru, would that make the sword his brother in a cursed form?'
No, in this story Torhu did not give birth to the Holy Sword (Magami Tokiko did, and she's not related to the Soumas). Also, only the Jyuunishi have cursed forms - and since all the positions have been filled including the cat (does anyone know who the Horse is of the family? I believe Rin is the rooster, but haven't heard of the horse), so another jyuunishi wouldn't be born unless one of them died. I guess.
[A X / Fruit Basket Crossover ]
By: Teno Hikari
email: tenohikari@cs.com
Summary: Sequel to 'Family Reunion' - reunited with his family, Kamui's peaceful life with his father, Souma Yuki, comes to a shattering halt when history repeats itself.
Warning: Dark themes with some slashy hints but I'm sure you're use to them if you've see X ... (and there's a little of it in Fruit Basket) ... you have been warned.
--------------------------
Chapter Ten
Kamui walked past the sixth construction site that morning and sighed. He thought the repairs from last year's earthquakes were completed ... but it turned out that they were far from done. What depressed the former Dragon of Heaven the most, was that not all of those buildings had been evacuated before they went down. Guilt stabbed through him once more ... how could he, Kamui, be happy with his reunited family while so many others lost theirs?
Guilt
That was something he never told Yuki among other things. His father had asked him to tell him everything. Everything. Kamui only told him about why his mother left, about her death, Hinoto's dream, and then the outcome; but, could never tell him the darker details. He could never tell his father how his child hood friend turned into a monster, how he witnessed his special person stabbed through the heart with his own sword, watched his seals die and leave their loved ones, and the death of his best friend. No, Kamui could never tell Yuki these things, he wouldn't.
Shrugging his shoulders, he sort of regretted leaving the mansion at an early hour and should have waited to ask Yuzuriha to come with him. He could picture her face now, frowning if she knew he was brooding again. He really needed someone to talk to ... someone who understood him. The teenager just then remembered that there was a certain vet who lived a couple blocks away and quickly made his way over to see him.
"Subaru!"
The thirteenth head of the Sumeragi Clan, turned to face the teenager with a small smile formed on his lips as the youth ran up to him. "Hello, Kamui ... this is a surprise."
"Nice to see you too," Kamui smiled as he walked with Subaru to his office. "How's work going?"
"It's work," Subaru answered and unconsciously groped through the pockets of his white trench coat. How the older man could walk around in a white coat, with black slacks and a turtleneck during the summer was beyond Kamui's knowledge. "At least I'm enjoying it."
"That's good." The teenager noticed that Subaru did not pull out his cigarette lighter and a cigarette, only a small package of chewing gum.
The Sumeragi caught his gaze and shrugged, "I'm trying to quit the smoking thing."
"Wow ..." Kamui was relieved. Subaru used to smoke quite a bit last year, and now that he survived the promise day, it would be waste if he died to lung cancer. "That's great!"
"My nicotine craving doesn't seem to think so," Subaru said dryly as he offered Kamui a stick of gum before sticking one into his mouth. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"
"Well, I had toast before I left and ...," Kamui's stomach growled and the teenager looked sheepishly at his Seal.
The onmyouji rolled his visible green eye. "There's a McDonald's nearby, I'll buy you breakfast."
"Can I get a Happy Meal?" Kamui asked excitedly. "You know the ones with a toy in them? I hear the transformers are back."
"Fine," Subaru's smile widened as he ruffled Kamui's brown hair. "But if you get an Optimus Prime before me, I'll kill you."
The teenager sweat dropped before sticking his tongue at the Sumeragi-part-Sakurazukamori, literally mocking death itself.
They spent almost an hour at the small fast food restaurant talking, eating and posing their Transformers action figures. Sadly to say, they weren't Optimus Prime, in fact they were characters neither dragon of heaven heard of. The Sumeragi was very surprised that the boy had developed an appetite, since last year he only ate when others forced him to. Kamui had consumed two egg mcmuffins, a stack of pancakes, scrambled eggs, three hash browns, and since he was being extra cute to the blushing female cashier - received four free apple pies. It had been more food than Subaru had ever seen him eat and was glad. Kamui was no longer that painfully skinny boy anymore ... or as Sorata had nicknamed him just to be cute (and maybe a little suicidal) : 'the walking stick figure'. However, Kamui was still skinny just not skeletal looking.
After walking Subaru to work, the teenager headed off on his own to wander the places in the city where construction wasn't around. Later, he'd meet both Yuzuriha and Nokorou for lunch. The Sumeragi waved good-bye and said he would drop by at the mansion later on to help with the 'strange drawing' research. Breakfast with Subaru had cleared his mind and Kamui wasn't going to let brooding bother him today, not when he was starting to get into a good mood.
'Maybe ...'
'Maybe the dreams I've been having were just a coincidence,' he wondered, passing by a small playground. He turned to see the small children happily playing with their parents close by and smiled. 'Maybe I was just feeling guilty about being happy. Maybe I made myself dream those dreams again just to punish myself. Maybe Lady Sumeragi's drawing has nothing to do with anything ... maybe ..."
'Maybe ...'
'Maybe it has something to do with everything.'
Kamui stopped cold and a shiver ran down his spine. Purple orbs widened and he whirled around to look for something out of the ordinary. Something was wrong ... eerily wrong! His senses were ringing, like the feeling he was being watched, like something awful was about to happen; but he couldn't pinpoint a source! His heart that had been pounding against his chest, stopped for a moment as a loud explosion irrupted from far and high above.
That's when the screaming started.
His violet eyes caught sight of a burning apartment complex and before he knew what he was doing, Kamui ran towards it. People were screaming all around him. Screaming for the people inside that building, screaming for someone to call the fire department, screaming just out of fear. The screaming in his mind was louder and Kamui wished he could shut them up.
He pushed passed the crowd of people fleeing from the complex, ignoring the cries to evacuate. Common sense for his own safety wasn't present at the moment as he ran up the stairs and listened to the sound of anyone crying for help. As he ran, his mind was running as well, wondering what it was doing. The higher he climbed up the flights of stairs, the hotter it got while cobalt and crimson flashed before his eyes along with the falling debris of a collapsing ceiling. Kamui strained his ears to listen over the fire's roaring flames for anything and he didn't know why he was doing this. He didn't know why.
He pulled the hem of his shirt up to cover half his face against the toxic fumes and was ready to turn back. Why had he run right into a burning building? Why not just let the fire department handle it? Why was he still running through the flaming hallways, looking for something ... or someone?
Kamui panted, bending over to catch his breath while clutching his knees. Common sense had returned and it was now telling him that he should get the hell out of there.
The inferno was getting worse and Kamui turned to see that his exit was now cut off by the consuming flames ... how did the fire manage to spread so damn fast?! Cursing under his breath, he would figure it out later but first his instincts were telling him that he needed to find someone.
'Who? Who? Who?'
He kept asking himself while he shouted over the thick clouds of smoke. The youth was coughing now and he could see the darkness collect on his clothes, if he didn't get out of here the fumes would kill him before the fire burned him alive. The heat was becoming intense and the burning flames were so close ... only mere inches from his exposed skin.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!" the teenager shouted and wondered if he was going insane. Yes, he must be insane already, because he was calling out to someone who probably wasn't even here. There was no vocal response, yet someone was calling out to him, someone was begging to be saved.
'Where?' Kamui wondered frantically, his eyes scanning the fiery hallway.
Coughing
His eyes narrowed before a door, he had heard coughing. There, that door at the far right corner! That door that had a gaping hole in the floor between it and him. Cursing under his breath, he stepped back a little, careful not to back up into the flames. Swallowing hard he sped off and jumped over the hole while not smacking into the ceiling.
Unfortunately the landing was not as well planned out and his added weight by the jump had caused a chunk of floor to collapse beneath him. His eyes widened, starring down at the pit of flames just below his dangling feet as he was now Clinging for dear life.
'Wonderful situation you've gotten yourself into,' he thought to himself before looking away.
A few seconds later, he pulled himself up and winced as the large hole he leapt across had gotten wider. There was no way he could turn back now and the ceiling hallway looked like it was about to collapse. He would have to find his own exit, not big of a problem he hoped.
Scrambling to his feet, the teenager quickly avoided the wildfire, got to the room and kicked the door open off it's hinges. Kamui took a deep breath and starred. Within that room there was no fire at all, no smoke or collapsing ceiling ... everything was perfectly fine as if the room didn't belong here in this burning building.
Gasping, he saw a little girl laying asleep on a couch, oblivious to what was happening around her. Fearing the worst, he rushed over and checked her pulse. As soon as he felt it, Kamui lifted her into his arms and headed towards a window where he could see fire trucks gathering several stories below. There were also huge crowds of people everywhere around the building.
"Great," he muttered. "If I jump across to the next building someone's going to see it."
"M... mommy ...," the girl murmured in his arms, still asleep.
If it couldn't get any worse, it did. The room which had mysteriously been protected, was now on fire. Flames and dark clouds of smoke behind him, high above with witnesses below, a child in his arms; this was a death trap ... and whoever set it up would pay dearly, Kamui swear.
"You there!" someone spoke over a megaphone.
The boy's eyes looked down below to see that the firemen below had brought a large trampoline. They wanted him to jump down? From this height? Well, it was better than getting burned to death. He held the girl tightly in his arms and made sure not to let her go, reminding himself to land on his feet if he bounced off the trampoline. Sticking one leg out the window, he turned to face against the fire once more and something caught his attention.
Squinting his eyes, there back in the hallway where the flames were consuming the building, he could see something. A black blur in front of the gaping hole in the floor. Smoke? Kamui wondered, blinking as he slipped closer out the window. No, it wasn't smoke ... it looked like the outline of a solid object. Of a person!
"Come on!" Kamui shouted, extending his hand out to the dark figure. "The whole place is burning down!"
The figure didn't move, instead it seemed to turn away, back into the inferno. Kamui made an attempt to go back in and try to crab whoever it was. Whoever was insane enough to walk back into the fire.
"JUMP!" the crowd shouted from below.
The teenager squinted his eyes again, trying to search for the figure and saw nothing but smoke. 'My eyes are just playing tricks on me,' he told himself as he climbed out of the room completely. He clutched the little girl in his arms even tighter, before letting them both fall.
[ Author's Notes ]
Hehe, told you stuff was going to happen.
Reviewer Questions:
Anna asked: 'By the way, here's an odd thought not entirely related to this fic: if Kamui's sword was born from his mother Tohru, would that make the sword his brother in a cursed form?'
No, in this story Torhu did not give birth to the Holy Sword (Magami Tokiko did, and she's not related to the Soumas). Also, only the Jyuunishi have cursed forms - and since all the positions have been filled including the cat (does anyone know who the Horse is of the family? I believe Rin is the rooster, but haven't heard of the horse), so another jyuunishi wouldn't be born unless one of them died. I guess.