Credits: The line about "make your garden look nice" is thanks to Anne-chan. ::huggles her::
Warnings: There is much lime in this part. So beware. Or look forward to it. XD
Part Nineteen
//Perhaps there is really only one way to understand Kamui, and everything he went through; perhaps in order to understand, you have to know exactly what he was.
The definition of "sacrifice" (third; the first two have religious connotations), is "a destruction or surrender of something for the sake of someone else." This is how to understand Kamui. He sacrificed everything.
Or perhaps it was more than that.
Shirou Kamui had his father's last name, but that didn't stop him from being a member of the Megami clan. The last member of the Megami clan, to be specific. He was the last because he was the last one needed.
His mother was the shadow sacrifice for the earth; she burned as the earth would have burned had she not existed.
And Kamui? He was the shadow sacrifice for humanity. He suffered, and was tormented, and lost everything. All so humanity could continue to exist. He lost those he had loved, and his greatest love turned on him and tortured him more than anyone else.
All for the good of humanity.
Small wonder, then, that he became bitter.
Can things ever truly be different for him? Or will his losses always be in the back of his mind, making him wary of trust, of love, of happiness. Always waiting for it to turn on him, to be sacrificed on yet another alter for the good of the world.
Can anyone make things different for him?
Or will he forever be a sacrifice, trapped within his past.//
****
Kamui woke up feeling warm and safe, and truly rested for the first time that week. He opened his eyes and quickly found out the reason for both these things: firstly, he was wrapped tightly in Fuuma's arms; secondly, it was nearly noon.
He sat up suddenly, dislodging Fuuma's arm from around his waist.
"Whass wrong?" Fuuma mumbled.
"It's nearly noon," Kamui said, sounding surprised.
"Yeah . . . so what?"
Kamui blinked.
"'s Sunday, Kamui . . ."
"Right," Kamui said, lying down again. He snuggled up against Fuuma's chest. "We shouldn't stay in bed too much longer, though . . . I want to drop by Seishirou's and make sure everything went okay last night."
"Okay . . . we can stay a little longer first . . ."
Kamui had no objection at all to the prospect of a little more snuggling. They managed to drag themselves out of bed about a half an hour later, dress, and leave the house. Kamui had to hastily explain to his mother why Fuuma was there, coming up with a lie that he was sure she didn't believe.
They walked over to Seishirou's, holding hands. Kamui rang the bell twice, then knocked loudly. "You think he's not home?" he asked.
"I don't know where else he'd be," Fuuma said. "He's been sleeping until at least three every day."
Kamui knocked again, louder, then tried the knob. To his surprise, it swung open easily under his touch. "Huh," he said. "He must've forgotten to lock it."
The two of them poked through the apartment. A plate of cold food and two mugs of tea sat on the kitchen table, abandoned. The living room was empty, but the bedroom door was ajar. Kamui pushed it quietly inward and stuck his head in. Then he grinned and waved Fuuma over.
"That is so cute," Fuuma said, peering inside.
Seishirou was lying on his back; Subaru was sprawled out all over him, their legs twined together underneath the covers and his face resting on Seishirou's chest. One of Seishirou's arms was draped over Subaru's waist. They were both sound asleep. The sheets were pushed down far enough to reveal, however, that they were also both fully clothed.
"Well," Kamui said quietly. "I guess we know that it went okay."
"Should we go?" Fuuma asked, just as quietly.
"I think so, yeah," Kamui said. He started to back out of the room, then Seishirou's eyes opened and he blinked up at them.
"Mornin'," he mumbled.
"We didn't mean to wake you," Kamui said quickly.
"Nn, it's okay . . ." Seishirou yawned and half-sat, gently moving Subaru aside. He rubbed his eyes blearily and got up; Subaru frowned a little at his sudden absence and curled into a ball.
"What'd you need?" Seishirou asked, wandering out into the kitchen, picking up the stone-cold mug of tea, and sipping at it.
"Just to make sure things had gone all right last night," Kamui explained.
"Oh, yeah," Seishirou said, looking at Kamui. "I meant to thank you." He walked over and, surprising both of them, pulled Kamui into a hug.
"Uhm?" Kamui managed.
Seishirou let him go and smiled. "Thank you. For sending him back to me. I know that can't have been easy for you."
Kamui managed a smile back. "Well, I'm smart enough to know who he really loves. Everything's okay between you two now?"
Seishirou nodded. "Yeah. Everything's really going to be okay." He paused. "How are you two?"
"We're fine," Fuuma said with a grin.
"Good." Seishirou yawned. "Not to kick you out, but I know that I saw sunrise, so . . ."
"Go back to sleep," Kamui said with a laugh. "We can keep ourselves entertained. But you might want to call Hokuto and let her know that Subaru won't be home for lunch."
"Okay," Seishirou said. He waved as Kamui and Fuuma left, drained his mug of tea, and went back into the bedroom. His stomach was doing some rather odd flipflops at the thought of having to talk to Hokuto, so he crawled back into bed and shook Subaru gently.
"Wha . . .?" Subaru yawned.
"It's almost one; you'd better call Hokuto and let her know where you are," Seishirou said.
"Oh," Subaru said sleepily. "Okay." He sat up and fumbled for the phone on the bedside table, having trouble dialing his own number.
Hokuto picked up almost immediately. "Moshi moshi!"
"Neesan? It's . . ." Subaru's voice trailed into another huge yawn. "It's me," he finally managed.
"Oi, Subaru-chan, I was wondering when you would call. How did it go last night?"
"Oh," Subaru said, yawning even more and completely unable to keep the sleepy pleasure out of his voice, "It went just fine."
Pause.
"You are at Kamui's, right?" Hokuto asked suspiciously.
"Uhhh . . ." Subaru hesitated.
"You and Kamui didn't . . ." Hokuto coughed. "You didn't do anything, did you?"
"No!" Subaru protested, seeing what his sister meant. "Actually, I'm, um . . . at Seishirou-san's."
Another pause. "You are?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Truly?"
". . . yeah . . ."
"Great!" Hokuto crowed. "I won't keep you any longer then. You two have fun! I'll make some dinner for both of you; be home by six!"
With that, she hung up.
Subaru put the phone back in the cradle.
"What'd she say?" Seishirou asked, pulling Subaru close.
"That she'll make us dinner and to be home by six," Subaru said.
"Good . . . let's go back to sleep."
"Seishirou-san, it's almost one o'clock . . ."
"So what? We were up awfully late."
Subaru tried to remember what time it had been when the two of them had finally abandoned their tea, stopped talking, and went to bed. They had been too tired to do anything beyond some kissing and cuddling, but for some reason he hadn't minded. It had been near dawn, perhaps even at sunrise, before they'd fallen asleep.
He started to reply, then realized that Seishirou had drifted off again while he'd been thinking. After a minute, he smiled, curled up against him, and closed his eyes. He didn't fall back to sleep, but he didn't mind; he was too busy reveling in just being close to Seishirou again.
****
Fuuma and Kamui stopped by Fuuma's house so he could change clothes, having not brought anything over the night before. Then they quickly agreed that Fuuma would most likely end up staying another night, so he packed some more clothes and his homework and the two of them went back to Kamui's house.
They had eaten a small amount of breakfast before leaving for Seishirou's, but not much, so they were both starving. Fuuma sat on the kitchen table while Kamui made some lunch, having been told he didn't need to help.
"You know, there's just one thing left I don't understand," Kamui said, frowning.
"What's that?" Fuuma asked.
"Just . . . why didn't I ever realize?" Kamui asked thoughtfully. "I mean . . . now that I've gotten myself straightened out . . . it doesn't make any sense. I loved you the whole time. I know I did."
"Well, how do you know that?" Fuuma asked, reasonably enough.
Kamui's hands paused for a second in what he was doing. "When you . . . when you died. I realized then. I remembered realizing it, but I couldn't remember what it had felt like, if that makes any sense. I remember thinking that I loved you, but I didn't remember actually loving you. And I don't know why."
"I think I may, actually."
Kamui looked up quickly. Then he brought in two plates and two mugs of tea. "Why?" he asked quietly.
"As odd as it sounds, I think it was a sort of self-defense mechanism." Fuuma frowned. "I mean, in the beginning . . . how did you feel about me?"
Kamui blushed a little. "Well, you were a friend, of course . . . and I thought maybe you could be more, but . . ."
"But then I turned into the Dark Kamui," Fuuma mused. "I think you honestly might have forced yourself to stop feeling that way. I think your mind might have just not let you. And then Subaru came along, and you latched onto him because it was the perfect way to forget you were in love with me."
Kamui nodded slowly. "But . . . why would . . . did I do that just because I didn't want to be hurt anymore?"
"That's probably part of it," Fuuma said. "But what I'm willing to bet is . . . well . . . if you had known you were in love with me, would you have been able to kill me?"
Kamui frowned. "I . . ."
"Just think about it for a second," Fuuma advised.
Kamui closed his eyes, thinking about the events that had lead up to Fuuma's death, thinking about how difficult it had been for him to raise a sword against his friend at all, let alone to deliberately cause his death. "No," he said softly. "No, I wouldn't have been able to." He wiped the tears off his face, feeling unexplainably guilty. Killing Fuuma had saved the world, after all, and there was no reason to feel guilty about that. But having to admit that he wouldn't have been able to do it, for any reason at all . . .
"That's why, I think," Fuuma said. "I think that you knew, deep down, that you were going to have to. So you forced yourself to forget, to not feel it, without even realizing it."
Kamui forced back more tears. "But what about this time? Why didn't I feel it this time?"
Fuuma was silent for a long minute, sipping his tea. "I'm honestly not sure. But I think old habits die hard. For example, before I came, you seemed to have almost forgotten about Subaru. I mean, you had fallen in love with him again, but he had turned you down and you didn't even seem to be too discontent with your relationship with him."
Kamui thought back, and realized that Fuuma had been right. In fact, it had been sort of nice to be just best friends with Subaru, to not have to worry about the more delicate nature of a romance. He had known from the beginning that Subaru was going to meet Seishirou and fall in love with him all over again, and it hadn't even really hurt when Subaru had turned him down. That is, it hadn't hurt until Fuuma had arrived. "But why . . .?"
"Well, I did say earlier that you were clinging to the past," Fuuma said. "I think the self-defense mechanism kicked in again, and you just had to take the time to realize that it really was different this time. And that I wasn't going to hurt you, and you wouldn't have to hurt me."
Kamui stared into his tea. "Great. Now I feel like an idiot."
"That's not really what I would call it," Fuuma said dryly.
"How about coward, then?" Kamui asked brightly, trying to cover the tears in his voice.
Fuuma sighed. "Kamui, you did the right thing by trying to forget me. You couldn't have gotten me back; not then, anyway. If you had allowed yourself to love me, the world would have ended. Could you give yourself a small break, please?"
Kamui laughed shakily. "And this time? What's my excuse now?"
"How about being a teenager?" Fuuma asked.
Kamui tried to laugh at that, and failed.
"I think," Fuuma said slowly, "that you were still afraid of me. And just couldn't admit it, not even to yourself. Sometimes, when you want really badly to be 'okay' . . . you make yourself believe that you are."
Kamui said nothing, tapping absently at the tabletop.
"Kamui," Fuuma said, "it doesn't matter. It really doesn't. It's all over now."
"We've just wasted so much time," Kamui said, looking away.
"And the longer you mope, the more time we waste," Fuuma said firmly.
Kamui blinked. He really couldn't find a decent response to that.
"Oh," he finally managed. Then, after a pause, "Okay."
Fuuma laughed at the bewildered look on Kamui's face. "Then come on. Finish your sandwich. We'll go see a movie."
****
"Neesan? We're here!" Subaru kicked off his shoes and dropped his backpack just inside the door. Seishirou followed him inside. When Hokuto didn't appear immediately in the front hallway, Seishirou took the opportunity to pull Subaru into a kiss. By the time they'd managed to wake up, they hadn't had time to do anything other than get dressed and head over to Subaru's.
They were very frustrated.
Either thirty seconds or three hours later, when they broke apart, Subaru looked around. "Where is my sister, anyway?"
"Listen," Seishirou said. Subaru strained his ears and realized that there was music on. "She probably didn't hear us come in."
"I hope dinner's ready," Subaru said. "I think she's got the portable radio in the kitchen on."
The two of them wandered into the kitchen and simultaneously raised their eyebrows at the sight before them. Hokuto was apparently showing Kakyou how to prepare something -- or at least, Subaru hoped she was, because they were standing far too close together to be doing anything else.
"Neesan, you didn't tell me this was going to be a double date," Subaru teased.
Hokuto and Kakyou both jumped. When they turned around, Hokuto was pink and Kakyou was pinker. "It's not a date," Hokuto protested.
"Uh huh." Subaru leaned back against Seishirou, smiling when Seishirou's arms came around to encircle his waist. "You two looked very busy. What were you showing him how to do?"
It didn't take a hentai to figure out how that could have a double meaning, but Hokuto firmly ignored both the statement and Seishirou's muffled snickers. "For your information, I was reading his palm."
Subaru blinked. "Really?"
"Yes," Hokuto said.
"I didn't know you could do that."
"Someone taught me at work yesterday," Hokuto said. "I thought it was interesting, and Kakyou was over, so I decided to read his."
Subaru immediately walked over and held his palm out. "Read mine."
Hokuto rolled his eyes. "Well, this line here . . ."
When she was finished, Subaru grinned and grabbed her and Kakyou's hands. "Hey, you two have identical love lines."
Hokuto and Kakyou both snatched their hands away, turning ever redder.
"The water's boiling," Seishirou pointed out politely.
****
"So you two are back together, right?" Hokuto asked, in one of those voices that boded ill if the wrong answer was given.
"Yes, neesan," Subaru said calmly.
"Good." She subsided, for a second, then asked, "Uh, and about the whole . . . uhm, tree thing . . ."
"It's fine," Subaru interrupted her.
"Ne, Seishirou-san," Kakyou said suddenly, "why haven't you been in school?"
Hokuto blinked.
"Uhm . . ." Seishirou said. "I kind of . . . sort of . . . gotajobanddroppedout."
Hokuto blinked again.
"Why?" Kakyou asked.
"Rent for the apartment and all . . ." Seishirou trailed off unconvincingly.
Hokuto suddenly jabbed a finger at him. "You! Will go back to school! Right this instant!"
"Neesan, it's Sunday night," Subaru said complacently.
"You know what I mean!"
Seishirou coughed. "I really don't have time . . ."
"You'll make time, young man!" Hokuto lectured. "You need a proper education!"
"Why?" Seishirou asked.
"Because . . . uhm, because . . . because everyone does!!" She paused. "Didn't you finish school last time?"
Seishirou and Subaru both blinked, giving Kakyou sidelong glances.
"Oh, she told me everything already," Kakyou said.
"Nee~saaaaan!" Subaru immediately protested.
"What?" Hokuto asked. "He was there for all of it last time, anyway. And I didn't give him every gory detail. Just enough so he would know what's going on."
Seishirou turned to Kakyou. "Then why did you ask why I hadn't been in school?"
"Because I didn't think being the Sakurazukamori was as time-consuming as that," Kakyou replied.
Seishirou sighed. "I did finish school last time. I was a veteranarian, remember? I didn't forge that diploma."
Hokuto gave him a speculative look, then giggled.
"What?" Subaru and Seishirou both asked.
"Nothing," she said. "I just had this sudden mental image of you being in college. And probably a member of some club entitled 'make your garden look nice.'"
Subaru snickered.
Seishirou sighed. "I was not in the garden club," he said.
"Chess club, then?" Hokuto asked eagerly.
"No."
"Well, then, you'd better get back to school," she said gravely. "There's obviously a lot you haven't learned."
Seishirou sighed. "I really don't have time."
"You need to at least finish high school," Hokuto said severely.
"I'll let you copy my homework," Subaru said.
Seishirou laughed. "Oh, well, in that case . . ."
They finished dinner in peace; Hokuto and Kakyou left to go to a movie, ignoring Subaru's teasing.
"I wanted to ask you about that, actually," Seishirou said, sitting down on the couch and looking at the floor.
"What, going back to school?" Subaru asked, flopping down next to him, putting his head in Seishirou's lap, and snuggling up to him much like a cat would. Seishirou half-expected him to start purring.
"No," Seishirou said. "My, er, job."
"What about it?" Subaru asked.
"Well . . . I'm not going to ask if you mind, because you've already made it pretty clear that you don't, but . . . I just wanted you to know I'm going to be a lot more . . . well . . . selective. This time."
Subaru laughed a little. "I didn't expect you to start murdering children again, Seishirou-san."
Seishirou looked chagrined. "Of course not. But I thought I should say it anyway."
"I guess." Subaru sat up and draped himself over Seishirou. "Less talk, more action."
"Subaru-kun, this is your sister's couch," Seishirou said mildly. "We can last until we get back to my apartment."
Subaru pouted. "I suppose . . ."
"Or we could go up to your bedroom right now," Seishirou suggested.
Subaru smiled. "In a minute."
Seishirou hesitated. "You're . . . you're sure, right? I mean, I know that last time . . ."
"Seishirou-san, you're paranoid. We agreed that last time doesn't matter, right?" Subaru decided that his face was too close to Seishirou's neck for him to be doing nothing about it, and started kissing it.
Seishirou closed his eyes. "I know I'm paranoid," he murmured, putting his arm around Subaru's waist and pulling him even closer. "I'm just afraid of hurting you again . . ."
"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Subaru said right into Seishirou's ear, nibbling on it. "Now do you want to go upstairs or don't you?" he continued, running one of his hands up under Seishirou's shirt.
"Silly question," Seishirou murmured, his fingers tracing down Subaru's spine, making the younger man shiver.
Subaru pressed himself closer against Seishirou and their lips met, both of them melting into a kiss that held none of the desperation of their last lives, but all the passion.
"You know," Subaru said, pulling away from Seishirou what seemed like years later, "there's one thing I never quite figured out."
"What's that?" Seishirou asked, brushing his lips along Subaru's jaw.
"The eye thing," Subaru said. "Why did you stay blind in one eye and I didn't?"
Seishirou blinked. Subaru thought for a minute that he didn't know, then Seishirou said, "I guess I never thought to explain that because I thought you had figured it out too."
"It's that obvious?" Subaru asked.
"Well, no. Just . . . part of it, I think, is the time difference. I mean, I lived with one eye for almost ten years; I was used to it. You had lost yours less than a year before you died. But it's more than that. I think it goes back to why we lost them."
Subaru looked bewildered.
"I think the real difference is that I never regretted it," Seishirou said. "In a way, I was almost glad I had lost my eye. Because it was a reminder that I loved you. True, I didn't want to admit that I loved you, but I did lose my eye protecting you. And I liked that. I liked having lost something for you, as odd as it sounds. But you lost yours because of doubt, and regret. Which I don't think is something you particularly wanted to remember. So when we were born again, when we got to start over . . . I kept the loss as a reminder. But you wanted to forget about it, so you got both of yours."
"I see," Subaru said, nodding slowly. He smiled a little. "Very romantic of you, Seishirou-san."
Seishirou sighed a little. "Yes, I know. Sickening, isn't it."
Subaru snickered.
"Anything else you'd like to ask me?" Seishirou asked, playing with Subaru's hair.
"Mm, no. I think we covered everything last night. And in that dream."
Seishirou looked blank. "What dream?"
"You don't remember? The dream we had the night after we slept together for the first time?"
Seishirou thought for a second, then -- "Oh, yeah! I remember now . . ."
"We weren't supposed to remember at first anyway," Subaru said. "And now . . . I think it doesn't matter anymore. I think it's time we both let go."
Seishirou sighed contentedly, smiling into Subaru's shoulder. "Sounds like an excellent idea to me."
****
"See? You can learn to enjoy yourself," Fuuma teased.
"Ah, shuddup," Kamui said, turning pink. "I had a right to be depressed."
"That's what they all say," Fuuma said. He watched as Kamui let out a huge yawn. "You want to go to bed?"
"I'm tired," Kamui said with a nod. "I think my mom must be asleep by now."
"We'll have to be careful to not wake her up," Fuuma said with a wink.
Kamui tried to keep from a) turning as red as a tomato, b) stammering out anything stupid, or c) falling over because the tone of Fuuma's voice was turning his knees to jelly. "Um," he ended up saying, and following Fuuma up the stairs.
Fuuma glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly midnight. Really too late to do anything if they wanted to be more than zombies in school the next day. And, he reminded himself and his libido firmly, Kamui wasn't really ready for that anyway.
Right.
Fuuma sighed a little and turned to his backpack, taking out his pajamas.
Or at least, that was what he meant to do, but they didn't seem to be in his backpack.
"I forgot my pajamas," he said out loud, half to himself, hardly believing that he'd been so stupid. He could have sworn he had put them in . . .
"No you didn't," Kamui said.
Fuuma turned to see that his friend was holding them. "When did you get those?"
"When you were in the bathroom just now," Kamui said complacently. "Really, Fuuma, it's too warm for sweats. You're just trying to keep me from being embarrassed, and while I appreciate the sentiment, boiling to death is entirely unnecessary."
Fuuma sighed. "Kamui, give me my pajamas back."
"Come and get them," Kamui said, sticking his tongue out.
Fuuma paused. "If you insist . . ." He walked over to Kamui, but Kamui dodged under his arms to the other side of the room, laughing. Fuuma managed to catch up with him a minute later, but Kamui hugged the pajamas to his chest, and Fuuma couldn't pry them out of his friend's arms.
"You're really asking for it," he said, tugging at them.
Kamui just laughed.
Fuuma started tickling him. Kamui yelped and let go, then flailed wildly, overbalancing them. Both of them went tumbling over onto the bed.
"You didn't get your pajamas," Kamui said, gasping for breath from the exertion.
"It's okay," Fuuma said, smirking at Kamui, who was trapped beneath him. "I got something better."
He lowered his lips to Kamui's, and it was one of those long, messy kisses that often happens between two people with very little experience. Kamui put his arms around Fuuma's neck, twining his fingers through Fuuma's hair. Fuuma settled himself carefully to one side of Kamui, leaning over him enough so that kissing was comfortable.
"I didn't know," Kamui murmured when they both came up for air.
"Didn't know what?" Fuuma asked, brushing Kamui's hair out of his face, caressing his cheek.
"That I could love someone so much . . ." Kamui closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of Fuuma's hands as the older boy gently ran one up and down his chest. "I thought after losing everyone, I'd never be able to love again . . ."
Fuuma brushed his lips over Kamui's closed eyes. "How much?" he asked.
Kamui searched for words, which was difficult with Fuuma's lips covering every inch of his face. "So much," he managed. He ran his fingers through Fuuma's hair, the words spilling out from his lips without him even thinking. "I love you so much I would do anything for you," he gasped out. "I want to give you the world, I want to give you everything . . . I want to stay with you forever, I don't want you to ever leave me . . . I don't think I can live without you, Fuuma . . ."
"Tell me again," Fuuma said, sliding one of his hands under Kamui's shirt.
"I love you," Kamui said. "I love you so much."
Fuuma moved his lips from Kamui's jaw down to his neck, licking at the sensitive skin. Kamui shivered, one of his hands clenching down in the sheets. He thought of how many times he had felt this before, but then he had always been scared, and he wasn't anymore. Fuuma was so gentle that it was impossible to be frightened.
He thought briefly of Subaru, then realized it didn't matter, because Subaru had never loved him. And even if he had, it never would have come close to this. He closed his eyes and let go.
It was funny how his last life suddenly stopped mattering, how it was almost as if it had never happened at all. It was just Fuuma, and that was all that mattered.
So he opened his eyes, because he wanted to see, he wanted to forget, he wanted Fuuma to be everything, he wanted his entire world to be reduced to a point where Fuuma was all that existed.
"I can see your Wish, Kamui . . ." Fuuma murmured, playing with one of the buttons on Kamui's shirt.
Kamui tried to say something, but his grasp on language had become rather shaky and all he managed was a soft moan.
"But last night . . ." Fuuma said, hesitating.
"Last night I didn't know, I didn't realize," Kamui said breathlessly. "I wasn't ready because I thought you might stop loving me, I might do something wrong, I wasn't sure, but now I'm sure and . . ." His words broke off as Fuuma kissed him again, more urgently.
He closed his eyes because he wanted to concentrate on how to feel. He didn't need to see. He knew it was Fuuma.
Who else would it be, anyway?
****
"Hey, you're here!" Kamui was leaning against the wall outside school when Subaru and Seishirou walked up, hand-in-hand and both of them wearing somewhat sleepy smiles. "I thought you'd dropped out."
"Hokuto-chan talked me into coming back," Seishirou said with a yawn. "I guess I felt I owed her something."
Subaru snickered. "He tried to apologize to her last night. She just kind of giggled and said, 'Well, at first I thought I might not forgive you, but as it wasn't really you, but more like a less perfect version of you, taking it out on the you that exists now wouldn't really be fair, and it was a different version of me, too, and I'm not really dead, so . . .' She finally stopped when Seishirou-san's eyes started to glaze over, then just said, 'I forgive you, Sei-chan,' and went about her business."
Kamui laughed, then waved as Kakyou walked up to the group.
"Hi, Kakyou-san," Subaru said. "Have fun with my sister last night?"
Kakyou turned red all the way to the roots of his blonde hair. Then he said stiffly, "Given the fact that we were in love last time around, I've decided to refuse to be embarrassed about it now."
Subaru nodded, amused. "Which explains your blush."
"Quiet," Kakyou mumbled.
"Wait, since when does he know about all this?" Kamui asked.
Subaru rolled his eyes. "Neesan told him. I told her."
"Oh," Kamui said. He brightened visibly as Fuuma walked up, coming back from parking his bike. Kamui had ridden double behind him on the way to school. "Ohayo."
Fuuma smiled. "Ohayo, minna," he said, though he was looking only at Kamui.
Subaru snickered.
"Let's go in," Fuuma said, draping an arm around Kamui's shoulders, "before those two die of trying to suppress their laughter."
"Who, us?" Subaru asked innocently.
The five of them trooped into the building, waving to Kakyou as he left for his separate classroom. Subaru took Kamui by the arm just as they reached the class. "We'll be there in a second," he said.
Kamui blinked at him. "Did you need something?"
"I just wanted to ask how you are," Subaru replied. "I slept through your visit yesterday."
Kamui smiled. "I'm fine. We're fine."
"Good." Subaru wisely asked no more questions. "Should we have a teasing truce?"
"I think so. We can gang up on Kakyou."
****
//in kamui's dreams, sometimes he will see a dark haired boy who torments him, but then there is always a hand on his shoulder or a light kiss in his forehead to banish the dreams to their proper place.
he will never truly forget, but he has reached the all-important place where memory no longer matters.//
****
