Twisting Destinies
Chapter Four
By Zanzou Youko
Disclaimer: Not mine... anyone feel like buying it for me? I thought not. Never will be, then.
Notes/Warnings: Can you catch the foreshadowing? Can you, can you? AU, TWT (Timeline? What timeline?), spoilers for the later manga, MESSING with the later manga, notevil!Muraki... Eventual TxH. Various other pairings implied.
A/N: :3 Thanks to Katsue for being a beta on this.. You're really amazing. 3 I'm going to Japan on April 15th... whenever it is that you see this. Getting back May 1st. ^_^ I'll try to work on this while I'm there! Hopefully less HUGE breaks between chapters. (I am so sorry. @_@) And hugs to Nemmie, Lys, Beccs, and Wolfie, who are all insanely good for my fic-esteem. 3 And go see D-chan's fanart at my user info! *pimp*
(Italics means dreams. ^_^ I'm not messing with the flow of time THAT much. *grin*)
~*~*~
Tsuzuki walked down the halls to his first class of the day, not looking down, but not really seeing the people around him.
He had not really seen anyone for quite a long time.
Tsuzuki didn't smile anymore. But no one really noticed. People hadn't seen him for
quite a long time, either.
~*~*~
As the term progressed, the three formed a tentative agreement. Oriya and Kazutaka spent most of their time outside of class in the brunet's room. Tsuzuki, who had made it his business to arrive at his room just before curfew every night to avoid Saki returning to his own dorm, had no problems with this.
The violet-eyed teen was just as happy to stay away and do his research. The less contact he had with Saki, the less he was drawn into the public eye. He remembered the last time an argument (and thankfully, only that), had come to the attention of the administration; while Ruka had not been called, he believed it was mostly due to their unwillingness to bring any discretions of an important line to the foreground of people's attention. He had been warned, though. And while he would not willingly admit it to anyone in the school, he would rather save Ruka the frustration and confusion that would be caused by her finding out about his less than stellar ability to fit in at the school.
For that reason, Tsuzuki was almost exorbitantly glad that Saki had not gone out of his way to confront him. He just saw it as a reprieve from their encounters, however briefly it would last; likely, Saki was just getting the timing right – it was feasibly quite problematic to find out how to approach Tsuzuki in such a way that would make him appear to be the instigator when the brunette made a point to return to his dorm just in time to avoid the prying eyes of the hall monitors; there was no reason for Saki to be so far from his own dorm that late at night.
It had never occurred to him that Saki had not faced him because he had found something else to do. In hindsight, he really should have seen it coming.
~*~*~
They made a beautiful picture together. Kasane was small, delicately shaped, womanly
curves and dignified upbringing all rolled into a perfect package. She was wearing a
formal kimono, deep reds and violet, accenting by the black flash of her hair and obi.
Cradled in her arms was her opposite-- his blond head was buried in her shoulder,
shifting as his tiny frame snuggled closer, pale blues and greens drawing the eye when
contrasted again the darkness he was buried in.
In that position, it was almost impossible to tell they were related. However, when she
shifted and stood upright, the child's face tilted up toward her own, and the relation was
made clear. While she was fully grown, and he just a boy, their features were obviously
similar. With his mother's childhood face, and his father's hair and eyes... well, the
villagers were happy; this boy was obviously a legitimate heir. The villagers could relax
now – all the guilt over the first child melted away. They were secure in the future.
No one around them noticed, or pretended not to, when Nagare took his son into the
forest and returned him to his mother silent and pale. When the child would play, and
speak as though others were there, it was merely because it was the normal thing for a
child to do when there was no-one for him to play with.
The Kurosaki child was their hope and the only things they would be bothered to notice
involved the succession.
~*~*~
Kasane rose, gently setting Hisoka on his feet, brushing out the minute wrinkles in his
yukata. She straightened, walking to the door. She paused at the pattering of small feet
still unused to the formal shoes they were wearing as her son caught up to her. The blond
grabbed her hand as he caught up, pulling down on her wrist. They walked out, and she
gently untangled their fingers as she turned and shut the door, fingers fluffing his hair as
she stood.
She made small conversation to the servants they passed, smiling almost apologetically
when her son refused to speak and only clung to her kimono. Once they had gone beyond
the last of the servant housing, even the brief interruptions of the help ended.
As they cleared the last trees of the sakura grove, she addressed her son almost casually,
"My sister Rui will be arriving today. Not too long from now, I expect." Her eyes shone
brightly, as though holding a wonderful secret with the child walking beside her. "You've
never met her, have you? She doesn't like to visit. She was quite unhappy with me when I
married your father."
Hisoka had stayed quiet throughout her musings, but now could not contain himself as he
looked up at his mother, innocent confusion briefly marring his features. "But Kaa-sama,
why? Otousama is so kind! Didn't your sister want you to marry a kind man?"
She laughed at that, though it seemed to come out slightly forced as she replied, "Maybe
she did. I think it was more that she felt jealous of me; we're twins. Why would he choose
one over the other?" Her tone turned mocking and self-deprecating here. "She never
could understand how Nagare-san worked."
They had reached the pond by this point; the water shadowed with fish, sunlight glinting
off the metal in the rocks beneath the surface, patterns dancing on what could be seen of
the bottom. Kasane paused at the edge, looking down at her son. "Stay here. I'll be
back." She turned from where her son was settling into the sand in his clean clothes, and
dipped her feet into the water.
~*~*~
Nagare followed the sakura, knowing the usual path his wife took when she went on
walks. He had talked to some of her maids, some of whom informed him that their son
had been with her. He felt a cold trail of fingers run up his back, picking up the pace of
his search for his wife.
Rui was coming. Kasane had arranged this without his knowledge; had the woman
cleaning her room not seen the letter, he wouldn't have known, even now. It wasn't the
fact that her twin was coming that alarmed him – what had made him worry was the fact
that she was not acting as though she would meet her twin when the other arrived; with
most visitors, she would have been getting ready for hours, if not days, before the person
arrived.
He left the sakura trees behind him, turning to follow the path that led to the pond, where
Kasane's walks almost always ended.
Sitting there, at the edge of the pond, legs tucked beneath him, was their son. There was
no sign of Kasane, and as he walked closer to the pond edge he could see what Hisoka
was holding clutched in his hands. His mother's black obi, dripping water, sand marking
the edges wherever the piece of silk touched the ground, chafing the boy's skin where he
clung to it.
"Otousama," his heir whispered, eyes clenched shut, "Kaa-sama won't come out of the
water. I called for her, but she won't come back..."
Nagare's eyes widened briefly, before sliding shut. Plans were already circulating in his
head, arrangements that would need to be made, even as he crouched down next to his
son, gently taking the rough edges of ruined silk from the smaller form's swollen fingers.
"It's alright," he consoled, gently taking the boy into his arms, "It'll be alright..."
~*~*~
Tsuzuki liked the school library. Discounting the fact that most of the students attending tried to avoid the slight musty smell aroma given off by the majority of the books there. Those books, however, were the very things that had the teen frequently coming back. For hours, he could immerse himself in just one of the ancient volumes there, careful not to draw the ire of the watchful librarian.
Moving quietly down the halls around the library toward his own dorm, the violet-eyed teen pushed open the door to the school's courtyard. His eyes darted around, probing the darkness for any other inhabitants of the school before stepping outside. Tsuzuki contemplated the text he had been puzzling over for the previous nights. It was not the best he had ever come across in his search, but the brunet believed that it could hold–
Tsuzuki jolted to a stop, instincts screaming at the faint sound of flesh striking flesh and the instinctive sounds of pain drawn from tightly closed lips. He turned to face the direction the sounds came from; squinting, he could barely make out two forms within the shadow of an old custodial entrance. Carefully, he made his way toward the figures, suspicions forming quickly in the back of his mind.
As he slowly drew closer to the figures, his eyes grew accustomed to the dark. Oriya's
hair was free of its customary ponytail, becoming matted as he slowly collapsed against
the doorway. His hands were fisted on the ground, a bitter, angry look on his face as he
quietly taunted his upperclassman. Saki replied in a tight, fuming voice, the end
discernable as Tsuzuki neared the two students, Oriya's eyes drifting away from the boy
holding his shirt to light upon Tsuzuki, ignoring Saki, who continued on in a hissed
whisper, "You thought I would just forget you… what you did to me?"
Oriya's eyes darted away from his roommates' gaze, whispering harshly, "I never… did
anything… to you…"
Saki's grip tightened on the other boy's shirt before roughly pushing him away, straightening to look down on his classmate. "I know there's something wrong with you. With your whole family. People don't just come out of nowhere to make friends with us. It doesn't work like that—the Muraki family don't HAVE friends." Saki sounded confident, but even as he spoke his arms wrapped around himself, eyes darting to the side.
Oriya's eyes hardened as he propped himself up the wall, slowly dragging his form upwards. "Maybe if you were nicer to the favoured son, your father wouldn't have sent you to a school so far from Tokyo. Have you even had a chance to hear about their will? They're only left you enough money to continue on through high school. Once you graduate, you're on your own."
Saki's eyes darkened at the dark haired teenager's words, hand reaching back to strike Oriya once more as he raged, "If it weren't for you and your family's intervention, I would be the heir!"
Tsuzuki had heard enough. He darted forward, grabbing Saki's arm as it descended on his flinching roommate. "Oriya," he drawled, "You shouldn't be out so close to curfew. It's a good thing I found you when I did - I can show you a faster way to our room." As he spoke, he slowly manoeuvred himself between the two other students, raising his head to meet Saki's eyes.
Overcast eyes tracked the two youths as they slowly moved away, darkening for a moment before glancing down at his watch. He darted away, straightening his clothes, with a curse.
Tsuzuki slowed, watching Saki's departing form disappear between the trees. When Saki turned the corner toward his own dorm, Tsuzuki stopped, jerking Oriya around to face him. "This way," he murmured, turning back toward the doorway where he had happened upon his roommate facing off with the Muraki boy. As they reached the door, his hooded eyes darted a glance back for a moment before snapping back to the entrance. He took a moment to brace himself before jerking the door outward, rusting hinges offering only a brief shudder before swinging open.
"Come on." Oriya's eyes tracked the brunet's form before sliding closed. He followed, the wind of the door stirring a small group petals before returning to stillness once more.
~*~*~
Sadly, no omake this time... ^^; I might be able to do 2 for next time, but for this chapter, the need for sleep has made me decide to just POST the damned thing.
C&C? =D
