Triangular: 24
Author's notes: Hi there. Right now I am being forced by my alter ego, Naoki, to sit down and write the chap, thus making me unable to chase my beloved assassin, Sou-chan, around.
Sou-chan: [Smile] Ano…
ANYWHOO, let me write the chap and I'll let you enjoy. Together with my packets of sweets (that makes me happy and hyper enough to write), I'll write…uh…now.
***
Silence.
The two twins sat silently on either side of a massive black-covered, queen-sized bed, their eyes locked on their guest. The rain continued on pouring down, pattering on the house's roof; the white fluorescent light illuminating the pale face of the dark-haired angel lying between the covers. Gently, the older twin reached for a towel and wiped the last of the caked blood, erasing all traces of the red-hued liquid from the angel's face.
Shirou Kamui lay soundlessly sleeping on the black satin bed, his black-blue hair scattered across the pillows. His shirt, taken off him to clean it and press it, was silently sitting on the desk a few feet away. His arms and torso were wrapped in white linen bandages, a few specks of blood littering on random places. Miraculously, his face was untouched, for only entrails of blood and rain covered it when the twins found him.
Silence continued to pass between the two, no words exchanged, no sounds produced. With a worried glance, Sumeragi Hokuto looked up at her deathly-anxious brother.
"Subaru-chan…daijoubu ka?" She quietly inquired, putting the towel in a small basin half-full of lukewarm water.
Sumeragi Subaru, her younger twin, took his student's hand in his and tightly grasped it. "I'm alright…as soon as I know he is." He murmured his reply, his emerald eyes lingering on his angel's serene face.
What seemed like eternity passed, and as if it was a miracle, the aforementioned angel opened his amethyst eyes, startling the Sumeragi twins.
"Kamui-chan!!" Hokuto exclaimed breathlessly, happiness etched in her eyes as she saw Kamui awaken. "I'm so glad you're okay!! Wait here – I'll get you something to drink! Water? Oh I know, I'll make you some tea!!!" Grinning like a maniac and pushing a stray tear away from her eyes, she twirled around and hopped out of the bedroom, heading to the kitchen.
Without a word, Kamui pushed himself upward, making his weakened form sit up on the bed, still unaware of the warmth erupting from his hand. In inquiry, the amethyst-eyed boy looked down at his hand, still clasped between his math teacher's warm fingers.
"Sumeragi-sensei." Kamui said, his eyes suddenly expressionless, losing its sparkle. He smiled an empty smile at the startled math teacher.
"Kamui." Subaru returned the greeting, not making a move to let go of the angel's hand. "What happened?"
Kamui refused to answer the question. Instead, he asked back. "Where am I?"
"In my home." Subaru answered, still curious on how Kamui got beaten up. "What happened to you?"
**
Running away from where it all started, his feet thundered against the concrete as he sprinted away from CLAMP Gakuen. The wind played with his hair as he shut his eyes firmly, letting the breeze take his tears away from his amethyst orbs.
But the weather wasn't on his side.
As he ran as fast as he could, running as fast as his legs could, cold droplets of water entangled themselves in his hair. Rain started to pour from the now darkened clouds, splashing themselves against his uniform, gracing his cream-colored skin. But Shirou Kamui did nothing to stop. It was all too much for him to bear – all the pain was drowning his heart, making him lose his faith in everybody he knew. His heart had been sliced, diced, stabbed and burned, twisted with the hands that once made his heart beat livelier than ever before.
Rain continued to spill heavily from the sky's gray clouds, splashing against the concrete like tears of heaven. The angel, however, continued to race against crowds who tried to find shelter from the cold droplets of moisture. His face now adorned with a mixture of hot, salty tears and cold, bitter rain, he shook his head vigorously, pushing all thoughts of Monou Fuuma out of his mind.
Still dashing down a now empty, residential sidewalk, his slender, effeminate form bumped against a burly one, sending Kamui a few steps back.
"Well, well, well…" said a voice full of mockery. "Who do we have here?"
Another voice spoke up from what seemingly is a group. "He looks like a girlie to me, Makoto."
"Well who is he, then, Tetsuya?" said the first voice, sending a glare to his subordinate. Kamui just kept himself quiet, now trying to shove himself away from the group and continue to run once more. But his legs wore him out.
Nevertheless, Kamui started walking away.
"Hold on, girlie." Makoto said as he grabbed Kamui's school tie, jerking him back to where he was. Makoto brought his large, calloused hands to Kamui's chin, making the angel look up at him. "You're not going anywhere."
Kamui made no move to resist, although he had a very small frown cast upon his lips.
"Especially that you've bumped into me, Ieda Makoto." Makoto sneered, mocking Kamui as he held his chin in his hands.
"Get out of the way." Kamui murmured, grabbing Makoto's wrist and throwing it away from his face.
"What did you say?" Tetsuya murmured, narrowing his eyes as the rain continued to patter on their forms.
"I said get out of the way." Kamui said once again, obviously out of his mind.
"Hey," Makoto started, noticeably angry as he grabbed the amethyst-eyed boy's collar. He pulled the slender figure upwards, sending Kamui's feet dangling a few centimeters off the concrete. "Don'tcha know you ya talkin' to?"
"I don't give a damn." Kamui muttered, trying to get out of Makoto's grip. He did, when Makoto threw his figure away, sending his body thrashing with the hard, wet concrete.
"You don't give a damn, eh?" Tetsuya said, nearing the slumped teen on the ground.
"I'll make you give a damn."
After a few minutes of getting beaten up, the two bullies threw Kamui into an abandoned alleyway, colliding his weakened body against the hard brick wall. With a huge sneer on his face, Ieda Makoto brought out a small knife out of his pocket.
"You still don't give a damn?" Tetsuya asked, bringing out a knife of his own.
Kamui kept himself quiet. As he lay slumped against the brick wall, the shadows casting on his face, he barely opened his amethyst eyes. No one was going to care, anyway. Wouldn't it be better if he just died, right there, right now? No one would cry. No one would search for him. No one would even bother trying to search for his lifeless body dumped in some alleyway of CLAMP Gakuen.
It was better for him to die and disappear other than live and let him be mocked by society. It was better for him to die than to live and bring unnecessary pain and strife to other people's peaceful lives. To Kamui, his own life was treated like a toy, his own existence being played with like he was just some plaything that didn't have emotions.
Yes.
It was better for him to die than to live.
Than to bring pain and sorrow…
He preferred to die.
"You won't answer me?" Tetsuya glared as Makoto grasped his collar, roughly bringing him up.
"Alright then." Makoto started, the wicked sneer on his face getting wider and wider. "Let's have some fun with him for a while, ne, Tetsuya?"
"You got my idea."
Punches, kicks, even slashes of knives came to Kamui's tortured body. But Kamui didn't care. He just let the burly teens do whatever they want. It was better for him to die, right? So deciding that struggling was of no use, he closed his eyes and waited for death to come to him.
"Ne, Tetsuya, I don't want to damage his face." Makoto mocked, laughing like some insane idiot. Tetsuya did the same, delivering a swift kick to Kamui's stomach.
"I've had my fill. Let's get out of here before…
The words were just a series of sounds to Kamui's ears as he felt death come to him. He closed his eyes firmly, his body getting limp for a few seconds as the bullies decided to leave him there.
"Before what?"
"Before Sakurazuka-san comes back. He told me he'd be checking up on our job, so we better leave girly-boy here and let Sakurazuka-san see what we did to him." Tetsuya said, cleaning off his knife with the rain.
Makoto agreed, pocketing his knife as he and Tetsuya started to walk towards the sidewalk.
Sakurazuka Seishirou smiled to himself, adjusting his sunglasses once again as he walked away from the dark alleyway. His hired bullies sure did a good job of beating that boy up. Thinking that his plan has definitely succeeded, he smirked as his form started to walk away from where the crime was committed. He was sure now that Kamui wouldn't even think of getting his Subaru-kun back, or getting together with Fuuma. He was sure that Kamui had been scarred for life.
"What a great plan." Seishirou murmured, chuckling as he got in his black Jaguar and drove contentedly away.
He was still leaning effortlessly against the brick wall, blood slowly trickling down his arms and torso. His amethyst eyes were opened just a bit, enough to see the wet floor.
'I should just die.' Kamui thought, staring at the ground before him. 'Why does fate have to be so cruel to me and let me die a slow death? Death should've come easily, right?'
As he continued to stare vacantly at the rain spattering on the ground, memories flooded his mind. Memories of that day nine years ago…for it was raining like this.
~*~
He was seven years old back then, his younger sister at the naïve age of five. Patiently waiting on a bench under the shade, seven-year old Shirou Kamui fiddled with his fingers, waiting for his parents to arrive and fetch him and his sister from school. His large, amethyst eyes stared thoughtfully at the falling rain, thinking about how long it would take for him and his sister to get in their car and safely get home.
His sister was happily playing in a shaded playground, with other kids, giggles and screams of joy and laughter ringing in his ears.
He thought it was okay for his parents to be late. But a loud screech of tires and a deafening crash of metal against metal rang throughout the elementary division of CLAMP Gakuen. With disrupted thoughts, little Shirou Kamui stood up from his bench and walked slowly outside the gate, curious to know who was in the car crash, even with the warning of his teacher.
With his heartbeat getting faster and faster with every step, Kamui finally managed to run towards the site where the two cars crashed. Surprisingly the police and fire department had arrived, preventing seven-year old Kamui to enter the scene. But as he saw the smashed car, tears sprang to his eyes.
It was their car. It was the car that was supposed to fetch Kamui and Yuzuriha from school. But now it was engulfed with flames, surrounded by firefighters as the rain continued to patter. Several bystanders, including a pair of 16-year-old Sumeragi twins and a 20-year old supposed-to-be Sakurazukamori, stared at the two cars.
"O…kaa…san…" Kamui muttered, falling to his knees as he saw a female's hand sticking out of the wreck. The hand was dressed in a pink sleeve, with the familiar silver bracelet and a ring. Kamui silently cried, finally noting that that hand could never stroke his hair again, that it could never caress his cheeks and could never wipe his tears away.
Small feet later came thundering towards the crying boy. "Onii-chan!!" Said a small voice, belonging to Shirou Yuzuriha. "Onii-chan, doushita?" the small girl asked, tugging at her brother's sleeve. "Why are you crying?"
Kamui didn't answer, but soon enough, the small Yuzuriha got the picture and she started crying too. In an attempt to comfort the both of them, Kamui embraced his little sister and they both cried on each other's shoulders. Their parents had died in a car crash.
A black convertible pulled up immediately by the bystanders, with the pink-haired lady who was driving it rushing outside to comfort the children.
"Kamui-chan! Yuzu-chan!" Said their aunt, Kasumi Karen, as she locked the two in a loving embrace.
"Karen-obachan…" Kamui cried, looking at his aunt with tearful amethyst eyes. "Okaasan ga… okaasan ga…" he stuttered, not knowing what to say. Karen said nothing, but only soothed the two of them as Kamui and Yuzuriha continued to cry in her arms.
Sixteen-year-old Sumeragi Subaru, however, wanted to comfort them too. But knowing that leaving them alone was best, Sakurazuka Seishirou and Sumeragi Hokuto stopped Subaru before he even did anything.
~*~
Would you really die, Kamui? Don't you know that Yuzuriha and Karen would be sad if you died?
Kamui opened his eyes, fully realizing that there are people who cared about him. For them, he would live. For them, he would go through hell just to make them happy. For them, he would live and try to live as best as he could. There were people who cared about him. Why would he limit himself to thinking only about Subaru and Fuuma? Karen was still there, so was Yuzuriha. Sorata and Arashi. His friends would worry about him. Kotori would cry for months because he would be buried six feet under.
There are still people around you, Kamui. Don't forget that.
So, in an attempt to survive, Kamui slowly but painfully stood up, clutching his arm for it was bleeding badly. After successfully standing up, he limped towards the sidewalk, intent on coming home no matter how battered he looked. It didn't matter to him anymore.
But his legs were worn out. His body was aching and blood was still dripping down his skin as the rain poured over him. Dizziness and nausea started to possess him, his vision blurred with tears and rain. Blinking the pain away, he continued on, limping from foot to foot as he tried to walk towards his home. But he knew his home was still far away from where he was.
Nevertheless, Kamui didn't give up. His face now mixed with blood, tears and rain, he struggled to keep himself awake, clutching a lamppost for support. Taking in breaths of fresh air, Kamui's fragile and effeminate body finally gave up.
"Kamui!" He heard an angelic voice say. In return, Kamui raised his head with the little strength he had, and smiled helplessly at the beautiful man who looked worriedly at him. Recognizing who it was, he continued to smile at him, a helpless look etched upon his blood-spattered face.
"Su…ba…ru…san…" he managed to say, his lips still forming that helpless smile. Finally deciding that it was time to stop, Kamui's heavy eyelids closed themselves, sending him reeling down to the hard, wet concrete.
**
Author's notes: A. Pikachu is eating Pocky right now. She is very happy.
ANYWAY, now you know how Kamui got beaten up. I know you guys probably hate me for making Kamui suffer through that [his terrible childhood is what I meant] and I hope you liked the chapter. It was kinda sappy, but what the heck. At least I finished it. Heeheehee.
Anyway, I do not own X or any of its characters. Any cameos (from different CLAMP series), are taken from CLAMP and CLAMP owns them. I don't own Sou-chan, although I wish I did.
Sou-chan: A. Pikachu-san, [smile] I really have to go now. But I think Nobuhiro Watsuki-san owns me, am I correct?
A. Pikachu: yes. Though Misao-chan owns you too.
I just did that disclaimer because I just noticed that I never make disclaimers, so there it is. I only own Ieda Makoto and Shinji Tetsuya, the guys who beat Kamui up. Hehehe. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and SOU-CHAN/MISAO-CHAN ROCKS!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! You guys probably don't know what I'm talking about. Aherm.
Ahem. Yeah. Please, R&R.