Title: Coming Full Circle
Author: Seraph/Devil_Kirin
Pairing/s: RuHana
Rating: PG - 13
Status: On-Going
Genre: Romance/Angst(?)
Chapter: 1/?
Email: izumi1985@hotmail.com
Disclaimers: All disclaimers apply.
Archive: Fanfiction.net, Fandomination.net, and the SDBC...
Author's Notes: First things first, I thank all my reviewers who were so patient with my long breaks in between each fic, and that you all sorta gave me the courage to hang on... So this is my thank you gift to you guys who loved the "Sayonara" series...
This is a the final part of the trilogy (I seriously didn't intend it to become a trilogy) but due to the demands of my reviewers who all wanted a reunion sequel, this fic, "Coming Full Circle" should end off the "Sayonara" POVs nicely... I hope.
This will be one confusing fic. As I will not name Rukawa and Hanamichi explicitly, it is quite probable that you will end up mixing up both characters. I will try to make it as clear as possible, for easy interpretation but I cannot promise much.
Okay, Rukawa and Hanamichi, in "Sayonara", separated when they were in their third year in high school. That makes them... what, 18 years at that point in time? Anyway, they were 18 and that's that. Since this fic starts 5 years later, they're 23 now.
The question is... Will they reunite? Or will they never cross paths again?
Note: Coming Full Circle doesn't mean it must be a happy ending. It just means to close off a chapter in your life (figuratively).
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Coming Full Circle: Prologue
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Five years.
Five long, long years.
Who'd have thought it would take five years for him to face up to the truth?
No.
Somehow that didn't sound right.
Ah yes... how about this?: Who'd have thought that it would such a long time for him to admit to himself what he had already known as the truth even five years ago?
He smiled derisively at his own dark humour, aimed at mocking his own stupidity.
Sad, yes, but it was true.
He could never think straight when it came to HIM.
He could never solve any problem logically whenever that problem in question concerned HIM.
And he still didn't think he could.
But he could learn... couldn't he?
But that shouldn't matter anymore.
HE shouldn't matter anymore.
Why should HE? Especially when he was the one who chose to let HIM go...
Stupid, yes, but sadly, also true.
No.
It definitely didn't matter.
Not to HIM, at least, from what he heard about HIM.
Yes, HE was definitely doing well for himself.
He heard HE got himself a coach in a junior high school.
Somehow the thought of HIM as a teacher made him smile, almost.
For he'd also heard that HE got himself a new boyfriend in the process.
It shouldn't matter, really.
So why was his heart still hurting whenever HE was brought up during those brief conversations that he shared with his sempai?
Really. You would think he knew better than to brood over the past, being the 'mature' and 'understanding' young man that he was.
Obviously, there still remained some part of him from his younger, more rebellious days that simply just refused to be smoothed over.
He sighed, lifting his eyes towards the horizon where he could see the sun sink slowly into that fathomless sea.
For a brief moment, those eyes darkened, suffused with the emotive aspect of past memories bought to life yet again by the hauntingly familiar scenery that was surrounding him.
He wondered for a moment if HE was happy with his current lot in life, with that almost superficial characteristic in all of us who would prefer to wallow in our singular misery together.
"Do'aho."
And he smiled, even if that smile was short-lived and pain-filled, that long-lost, yet similarly so memorable warmth rushing throughout him as he recalled once more the former endearment he had used on HIM.
His smile cut off by the pain of remembrance, he wondered fleetingly if he meant HIM or did he mean the comment for himself.
Then he shrugged, dismissing the matter. It was time to go.
The man turned his back on that spectacular sunset, drowning out the last of his own internal battle about staying.
He stepped onto the crowded walkways, moving easily through the evening crowds, his casual-formal style of clothes mingling readily with that of the white collar workers around him.
His face was expressionless, as it had been all this time.
Stoic, it was once called, and it did its owner proud, refusing to betray the thoughts underneath.
What Everyone could see was that small smile the man wore.
But there was no one, not a single one amongst the crowd, who could read those shielded eyes under that classy pair of shades.
You could argue that none knew the man well enough to begin with anyway.
But you cannot argue that once those were taken off, the pain then revealed by those shadowed blue orbs underneath would strike you immensely and make you wonder about the sort of justice that was present in this world.
You would wonder what the man had undergone to bring such a haunted look in his eyes.
You would wonder about life and its most subtle, and most often, torturous little ways of proving the fatalists right.
You would wonder if the pain the man was suffering was worth his continuing to live on this earth itself.
But they remained, unmoved by the man who wore them, inciting no surprise in those who saw them.
Hence, it would come as no surprise that there was no one who saw past those sunglasses and delve into those incalculably treacherous cerulean depths.
No one was interested to anyway.
And so the man continued on his way, just as the world remained blissfully ignorant of that continually downward spiral of that hidden anguish within him.
**********
Friday, 13th May, 8 pm in downtown Kanagawa...
Sendoh Akira took a sip from his drink, barely digesting what he just heard.
He took another sip of that concentrated cocktail, presumably to assure himself that one, he was not dreaming and two, that he had heard the informer correctly.
The news had hit him quite hard, reducing the 24-7 smile on his face to a gloomy frown.
He stirred his drink absentmindedly, appearing not to notice that he just finished it.
It was forgivable on his part, given that he never expected THAT at all.
He reflected meditatively that he should have been prepared for something of this sort to happen.
After all, those two had never completely cut off ties emotionally with each other.
This was not counting the fact that they never communicated to each other in the whole of this five years.
They had left too much unspoken between them.
Too much hurt and anger to resolve.
Too many memories of happy times suddenly brought to an end.
Too much confusion, especially on the side of one, concerning the reason for their break-up in the first place.
There were too many things that had been left festering in the wounds that never really quite healed themselves.
He really should've expected this to happen.
After all, life never went accordingly to how one wanted it to go.
And those two were just one of the many prime examples he could bring up.
Sendoh sighed. [Five years...]
He wondered if that was enough time to ease the pain they both felt.
He doubted it. Given what they had both shared together, this... meeting of theirs was inevitable, that he knew.
Now, he just had to figure out how to soften the impact when it happened... to BOTH parties.
**********
The previously mentioned informer, Sendoh's best friend and ex-high school team mate, Koshino Hiroaki, looked at him rather anxiously.
He knew that it was unwise to interrupt Sendoh when the latter was thinking so deeply on any particular matter. But he could not wait.
He needed to know.
After all, this concerned one of their friends.
And that particular friend was one he wasn't inclined on hurting again so soon, even though a period of five years had passed since the Incident.
Correction: Not Incident, just a simple breaking of that friend's heart into smithereens.
And the immediate aftermath of even that alone had been enough to tell them of the incredible torture their friend had subjected himself to.
He wouldn't have cared less if this concerned any other people he knew.
But this concerned HIM.
And though their friendship with each other had been fraught with love and hate (figuratively), he would do anything in the world to prevent the exact same person from hurting HIM again.
Koshino clenched his fist, and then forced himself to relax.
If it weren't Reason who held him back against seeking out that person and smashing his face in the moment he heard the news, he would've done it, irregardless of the area that he would have to cover in search of That Man and the time he would waste in doing so.
Personally he wouldn't have cared if That Man died in the process, though he would've preferred that same process to be slow, torturous and agonising. He would've loved to make sure that HE would remember for all eternity.
Of course, Reason also dictated that he go look for Sendoh's assistance in this area, Sendoh being the more contemplative and patient one in this manner.
Come to think of it, he sorta regretted coming to even look for Sendoh in the first place.
And he showed it, what with his finger-drumming and restless looking-around.
Agitation was running high throughout his body as he fought to keep still and wait for Sendoh to respond to the news.
His nerves were as tightly stretched as that of a drum.
Just when he could take the suspense no more, Sendoh finally spoke up. "Koshino..."
TBC
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Author's Notes: ^_^ Cliff-hanger! *smirk* I'm a meanie. Sue me. Anyway, please R & R, ne?
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