© 2002 Copyright by Gold (E-mail: )
Disclaimer: You know it.

This one's for Mikuro. Enter Monou Fuuma and a bit of a complication. Also for Shi and for Skuld-chan.

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas.

After The Fact (Version 3.0)
Part 4: The Other Soul

Monou Kotori, straw carrier in hand and a picnic basket over one arm, came to a sudden stop just inside the kitchen. Her older brother was standing quietly in the living room, his lithe, lean frame resting against the wall by the front door. There was a large picnic hamper balancing on top of the shoe rack, and a big cooler on the floor next to the tall boy. His back was to her so that his face could not be seen. But he had forgotten the sliding doors not far off. In the brown-tinted glass, Kotori saw her older brother's face reflected, and it was all she could do not to drop the carrier (with its two Thermos flasks of hot tea and chocolate) and the picnic basket. In all her fifteen years, she had never seen him look like that, head bowed, eyes shut so tightly that there were lines at the corners of his eyes, the very line of his nose and chin taut with a nameless grief and misery.

The misery Kotori thought she could understand—but the grief? Her face grew sad. He had changed so much over the past year. But she knew that she could never get him to talk about it. So instead, she deliberately stamped her feet, as if just coming into the living room, and put on a bright face.

"Onii-chan, sorry to keep you waiting!"

Monou Fuuma gave his sister a quick smile. "It's all right, Kotori-chan. Come on; we're almost late." He picked up the cooler and the hamper, and they set off.

As the brother and sister hurried along, Kotori glanced swiftly at her older brother, who was whistling a little tune. Her eyes narrowed as she recognised the tune. For a moment, she wondered whether she should speak to him about it. Well, a trouble shared is a trouble halved…and he was her brother, after all. "Onii-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"Is anything wrong?" asked Kotori cautiously. "You never whistle that tune unless there's something wrong." She swallowed, and risked a stab in the dark. "Has it got anything to do with Kamui-chan?"

Fuuma immediately stopped whistling. "No," he said, lying through his teeth. "I was just thinking of some nightmares I had lately, that's all," he added truthfully.

Kotori's little face grew grave as she glanced at her older brother. "Are you still having them, then? I thought—it's been a year now, nearly—surely there's some reason for it—maybe you should see a doctor?"

Her big brother had been having nightmares since he was sixteen and it showed no sign of abating although it was nearly a year since they had begun. They had started on the night of his sixteenth birthday and visited him at least twice a week. Kotori clearly remembered her brother's tortured cries from that first night—she had never heard her brother scream until then—and he had called out names in his sleep—hers and Kamui's. He had cried out their names in desperate, half-choked tones, over and over again, and sometimes, as the months went by, Kotori would hear him crying bitterly in his sleep. At first she had considered moving her room to the end of the floor, so that she could get more sleep, on their parents' advice, but after one week, she had moved back to the room next to her older brother's so that she could wake him when his nightmares woke her, and perhaps that way, they'd both get enough sleep.

But since the advent of those nightmares, Fuuma had become rather more silent and withdrawn. Kotori noticed that he now spent more time alone, rather than with Shirou Kamui, who was their best friend and sandwiched between the brother and sister in age, and who more or less worshipped Fuuma. Consequently, Kamui had drifted apart from them, and he was now very close to the Sumeragi twins, especially Subaru, the male twin, who rather reminded Kotori of an older version of Kamui at times. Part of the reason why Kamui had become so close to the twins was because he and Fuuma had fallen out over no apparent reason some six months ago, and their relations were frosty to the extreme.

Fuuma knew exactly where Kotori's thoughts were. "No need for a doctor," he answered calmly and automatically; he and Kotori had been through this conversation too many times, and Fuuma knew quite well that no doctor on this Earth could help him. With ease of practise, he changed the subject. "So—did Segawa-san ask you to this year's senior formal?"

Kotori blushed quickly. "Yes," she admitted shyly. She threw another quick glance at Fuuma, who had a curious look on his face. "Onii-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you—are you asking anyone to the dance?" Kotori asked hopefully. She could think of several of her schoolmates—male and female!—who would leap at such an invitation. One boy in particular…well, she didn't know for sure, but she certainly had a very strong suspicion…ever since the day Kamui-chan had apologised for not returning her feelings for him…

Fuuma shrugged. "No. Not interested." He hesitated before adding briefly, "I may not be going to the dance."

Kotori's eyes widened in dismay. "Not going! But onii-chan, it's your senior year! Why? It's your prom!"

Fuuma shrugged again. "It doesn't really matter to me. You can take lots of pictures for me, so I won't be missing anything." He smiled faintly. "Don't look so stricken, Kotori-chan. I don't really want to go to the formal."

"But if you're not going, then who's Kamui going to go with?" blurted Kotori.

Her older brother flung her a startled glance. "Kamui?" he repeated. He gave a careless shrug of his shoulders. "With Subaru, of course!"

"Of course?" mumbled Kotori dumbly. "What do you mean, of course?"

Fuuma gave his younger sister a cool look. "It means Subaru will ask Kamui to the dance with him, and Kamui will say yes," he stated dispassionately.

Kotori stopped walking and turned to her older brother. "Subaru-san's asking Kamui-chan…I'm not…onii-chan, what are you talking about? It isn't Kamui-chan Subaru-san likes, it's—"

"Sakurazuka-sempai. I know."

"Sakurazaka-sempai," corrected Kotori a little more sharply than she had intended to. She shook her head. "I don't understand why you're always calling him Sakurazuka-sempai—the two words are quite different, you know."

"Yes," replied Fuuma, and he did know. Cherry blossom hill—and cherry blossom grave…

Kotori sighed. "Onii-chan—if there's anything going on, please tell me."

"What could be going on?" asked Fuuma reasonably.

His younger sister gave him a troubled look. "I don't know. I'm asking you," she pointed out. "I just have this feeling that there's something really strange going on and I can't put my finger on it. But—there, now, you've distracted me. Onii-chan, why won't you make up with Kamui? I know you've been avoiding him—"

Fuuma's face hardened and he glanced at his watch. He cut Kotori off abruptly. "I haven't been avoiding him. Look, I don't want to talk about this, please."

Kotori obediently started chattering about something else. When onii-chan used that tone of voice, it meant that she had better skirt the issue, and she usually did, out of habit. Besides, it was too beautiful a day to argue, and perhaps it wasn't time to confront her older brother on the issue yet…maybe later. Perhaps later, when they met Kamui face to face, her brother and their best friend would talk.

She could still hope.

Author's Notes: Right. So I just decided to lump Segawa Keiichi and Monou Kotori together. Why? Well, Keiichi's a steady, cheerful, really good sort of guy. And Kotori strikes me as a gentle, pretty, sweet little maiden, and very suited to him. That's my little flight of imagination. I think they'd be happy together...and I don't want Kotori or Keiichi to be alone.