Star Shadow: Yay! Another new fic!

Dark Stratos: Oh joy… At least this one isn't a chapter fic…

Star Shadow: Okay! I get it! Finish other fics!

Dark Stratos: Bingo.

Star Shadow: Well I'm sorry! This idea has been playing itself out in my mind for the past few days!

Dark Stratos: And the music?

Star Shadow: Well, it was pretty and kinda sad and it reminded me of him and could see him playing so…

Dark Stratos: It's still Final Fantasy X-2 music.

Star Shadow: Okay, I'll put it in the disclaimer…

Disclaimer: We own nothing and are making no money off of this or any of our fan fiction.

Fast Fading Smile

Star Shadow and Dark Stratos

Yumi smiled as she heard the soft music of a piano flowing gently down the corridor. The familiar tune always had a calming affect on her soul. As she walked towards the barren room the song was being played in, she hummed along. It sometimes worried her how familiar the tune was when she had no clue to the meaning behind it. There was something sad about it. Something she could never place.

As she pulled the screen to the room open, she let another smile grace her face. He was playing with his eyes closed again, letting sunlight dance in the through the open balcony. His face was so peaceful. She stood watching the boy. When he played, he was no longer Tekken no Soujiro, he was Seta Soujiro. His expression was not that of his normal attitude that hid more than he cared to talk about.

She was slightly shocked when the tune stopped midway through her thoughts. She turned her eyes back to the boy. He was looking at her with that fake smile plastered over his face. It held no joy or mirth. It was just a smile for smiling sake. She hated that expression.

"Hello, Yumi-san," he said tilting his head just slightly as he got up from the piano. "Did Shishio-sama call for me?"

"Yes," she replied only gracing him with a slight smile. "He needs to talk to you."

"Thank you for coming to get me, Yumi-san," he said with a bow before he moved out the door.

Yumi watched him go with slight worry in her eyes as he passed with that horrible smile plastered on his face. She sighed in thought only to be startled yet again by a voice.

"You can see it too, can't you?" Aoshi stated rather than asking as he moved through the door, heading opposite the direction that Soujiro had taken. "You see him hiding behind the facade of that smile."

"I-- Yes," she said as she began to follow the path that the younger man had taken.

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When he returned later that evening for the mission that had been wrought upon him by Shishio, Yumi noted, he still that that smile fastened on his face. After reporting to his Lord about the success of his mission, he excused himself with a bow and politely refused the meal that Yumi offered to him. With his hands still stained a bloody red, he quietly left the room after one more final bow. As she watched carefully she saw the corner of his smile fade as he turned before it went back to him as he faced the hall.

Yumi frowned as she subconsciously held to Shishio tighter. There was something wrong with the youth. Something was telling her that it was something important. She could never put her finger on whatever it was whenever she thought of any of the possibilities. He seemed to have a good upbringing, he was polite and courteous, and he didn't seem to have a problem with those he assonated for Shishio, nothing.

"Is there something wrong, Yumi?" Shishio asked looking down at the woman by his side.

"Oh!" she said looking up and loosening her grip on his arm. "I-it's nothing, Shishio-sama."

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As she walked towards her room, Yumi was half-shocked to hear the piano playing its familiar tune. She looked towards the room, something still telling her that something was still wrong. As she approached the doorway, she made her decision.

She gently opened the screens that led to the nearly empty room where the piano was kept. The light of the full moon shone through the still open balcony and on the boy who hadn't even noticed her entrance. The usual smile was gone from his face and his hair was dusting over his eyes, making them impossible to see. He was acting was so different, and it was almost painful to watch him.

Yumi was shocked as he stood halfway through his music with his shoulders shaking slightly. In an almost impossible to see movement, Soujiro hit the music from the piano, his hands a brownish-red from neglecting to wash the blood from them. He fell to his knees, sobbing, with tears running down his face as he bit his lip. His hands felt for the music and when he found it he began to tear it apart, all the while, repeating horrible things to himself while letting out muffled sounds of frustration.

Yumi ran to the boy that she held as close to her as a sibling, or even child. She attempted to still his hands before they were jerked from her harshly. Soujiro was on his feet and backing away.

"Don't touch me!" he sobbed openly. "No! Don't touch me! Please no! Don't--" he continued to cry as he fell once again to his knees, his hands covering his tear strained face.

"Soujiro?" she asked quietly as she placed her hand on his shoulder only to have him flinch away.

"No! Don't touch me! I'm a monster!" he yelled shaking his head as his arm came up on either side.

Slowly he backed himself into a corner, looking like a lost child, and that was when she saw it. This was Seta Soujiro. He was lost and confused, trapped in a hell of his own making. Trapped within what he had been told of himself and what he thought he really was. He was a child. This was who he was without Tekken and his false smiles to guard him.

A solitary tear slipped down her face as she saw everything so clearly as the boy curled in on himself and his pain that he showed to no one. He was hurting more than anyone she had ever seen as he fought with his emotions. She walked over to his trembling form, and before he could yell to her to stop, she wrapped her arms around him.

"No!" he sobbed again. "I don't want you to touch me! I'm a monster! A monster! I-I-- Stop!"

"You aren't a monster," she whispered to him as he continued to cry.

It was only after hours of crying, holding, listening and reasoning that Soujiro finally fell a victim to exhaustion

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It had been a week since Yumi had spoken to Soujiro. Only a week since she had gotten him to open up. It had been a week since he had cried. One week since she had convinced him that it wasn't his fault and that he wasn't a monster. A week since he had let his self-hate and self-loathing go.

Yumi watched him from a distance. She almost wondered if she had helped at all. That was when she saw it as he spoke to Aoshi. He smiled. And it was real. A real smile that held no pain or falsities behind it. She had been able to rescue the boy that stayed hidden behind his smiles.

~Owari

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Star Shadow: There ya go!

Dark Stratos: Don't forget to review!

Star Shadow: I really haven't seen that much of the Kyoto arc, so I'm sorry if I have some stuff wrong. I only saw the last few episodes of it.

Dark Stratos: This is all in her view of things.

Star Shadow: Please review! And for those of you who didn't like it, please flame me and tell me why.