Back again. Despite the lack of reviews, I write this story almost compulsively. Still, I wish more people would say 'hi'…
Disclaimer: As for the last few chapters, I still own nothing.
15.10.03 8.47 PM
Five days until the end of term.
Strange things keep happening. My incense lights itself at a mere whim and doors shut themselves behind me. I'm finding it harder and harder to hide my levitating pencils, and to top it all off, my bag packs itself. I have no idea what is happening, but when Yuki actually lets me talk to Shimo (he's getting better and better at blocking) all Shimo can do is smile mysteriously and say that it's 'supposed to happen', and 'entitled'. What the hell does he mean by that?
If this is a good thing, then Tohru is an intellectual giant. It's not that she isn't smart in her own right, but she's rather naive. Sometimes I wonder. Yuki's smarter, Tohru's nicer, Shigure's more charismatic… and the others… well, I wonder why me. This topic is once again Shimo's 'smile mysteriously' territory. I wish he'd stop it, but if I told him that, I fear he might take it in a completely literal sense, and I'll never get any emotion out of him again.
Grr.
I push myself away from my desk, and close my eyes momentarily whilst moving my neck about to work the kinks out of it.
I open my eyes and Yuki is standing in my doorway. He is leaning against it with his arms crossed, and a bemused look on his face. I smell the spicy sent of Tohru's cooking wafting up from the kitchen, but it does nothing for me.
"Dinner's ready."
I groan and stretch again. "Not really hungry."
"Then Shimo says you should rest."
I look up sharply, and glare at the smug smile on Yuki's face. If he isn't kidding, I don't want to think of the things that Shimo's accidentally blurted out. "You can speak to him?"
He nods, his smile not really fading. "We've chatted a bit."
"Then do you believe me now?"
Yuki shrugs his shoulders loosely and carelessly.
Pressing on regardless, I say "And anyway, since when has Shimo decided when I go to bed?"
I stubbornly ignore the fact that I had been considering the option myself. He knows me too well.
A distant,
glazed look comes into Yuki's eyes, like he's listening to someone only he can
hear. It's flipping true as well. "Since now."
Shimo's wondrous answer.
Smart-arse.
"I'm going to have to deal with that spirit…" I mutter bleakly as I shuffle over to my bed and pull my night things out from underneath my pillow.
I raise one of my feet behind me, reach behind with a hooked finger and flip one of my socks off. Its brethren soon join it on the floor amongst the rest of the stuff that clutters my floor space.
I look over my shoulder and arch an eyebrow at Yuki, who is still standing there. "You can go now." I tell him with a hint of superiority.
For the first time, I consciously will the door shut, and are satisfied when it slides home with a click. I'm finally getting the hang of this.
A cold wet nose touches my neck, and I come out of my sleep and bat feebly at whatever is sitting on my chest. It sniffs my fingers and I frown, but when it licks them, I yelp and sit straight up in bed. The small ball of stuff rolls over my sheets till it's near my knees, sits up, and shakes it's head to clear it. The white blob stares up at me with wide accusing grey eyes.
"What are you?!"
It smiles widely, makes a squeaking noise, and a small white flower floats down from the ceiling to rest in my lap. I stare, aghast.
"What are you?!"
It crows again, and white petals drift down from some unknown source to coat my bed.
"Quiddit." I tell it sternly, wrinkling my nose to dislodge the flower that had landed on it.
The thing seems ecstatic as I pick it up and bring it close to my face. Despite the strange way it looks, I fail to feel threatened by its appearance.
The white blob has a small head, and a suspiciously flower shaped ruff around it's neck, before a small petite body with limbs that are miniature and look like it could barely support it.
I stroke it's ruff, and the creature springs from my hands to bounce off my head my head.
"Arrgh!"
A twin scream sounds from downstairs, and something smashes.
The flower-thing pauses to look over my shoulder, and we both stare as a familiar fiery-winged spirit drifts as fast as possible in a corridor to the door of my room. He grabs the corner and swings around the corner.
"What happened?!"
I cock my head to one side, and have a strange feeling that the flower-thing (for lack of better name) does the same. I have a sinking feeling that sleepwalking Yuki had just disappeared in a blaze of light from the kitchen. I point wordlessly at the thing on my shoulder.
This is the first time that I've seen any sort of emotion out of Shimo, and I am surprised that he cares when I scream.
Shimo is confused. "A little spirit?" he holds out his arms, and the little thing is drawn with a speak off my shoulder to him. Shimo holds it up and inspects it from every angle. "It also appears to be bound to you. What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. I woke up and it was here."
The thing struggles free, pokes it's tongue out at Shimo, and scampers up to my side.
"It made these flowers when I woke up," I add, hoping to supply some useful information for the musing guardian.
"Then I must have some connection to them. Ask it to do something."
"Um… could you… um… make a flower for me?"
The thing pauses from scratching the side of it's face, blinks at me, meowls, and continues with what it had been doing before.
"You have to be more specific than that," Shimo chides.
I sigh, and try again "Thingy, make me a… marigold!"
It meowls again, this time joyfully, and a middle-sized bright orange flower floats down to rest on my lap. It makes the white petals around it look stark, and the marigold itself seems to blaze.
I lift the thing in my arms and it waves it's little limbs and squeals with joy.
"Can it do anything else?" Shimo presses on.
"Can you create water?"
The thing looks like it's thinking for a moment, and then a something falls, not drifts, to land with a squelch in my lap. A water lily. "Just flowers…" I manage to get out from clenched teeth. Eeew. I feel the wetness seeping into my pants as Shimo thinks deeply. "can you stop thinking about the flipping flowers and start thinking about how we're gonna save my bedding?!"
16.10.03 8.12PM
He's done what I never considered he would be able to do. I came downstairs this morning fully really to lie to Tohru through my teeth about whatever she saw, and she blamed it on being clumsy.
I asked Yuki, and he conveyed to me, somewhat paler than usual that Shimo had wiped her memory of the event.
I've realised that I have never really given thought to what Shimo can do. I plan to take Yuki into the forest, and make Shimo show me what he can do. We can make a day of it, and I can prepare a picnic lunch. How very domesticated, besides the whole 'magic' thing. That's the first time I've used that term with what's been happening. It's not that I didn't think of it, I just tried to steer away from it. This is sounding too much like an anime for me.
Four days till the end of term.
I wake up the next morning with my arms wrapped around the thing that we have called, for lack of better name, and since between Shimo and I (though I doubt Shimo was trying) there is probably enough creativity to fill a sock, Blossom. Yes, I know, you can't imagine how bad I am at problem solving.
I stare at Blossom and think 'fuck'. What do I do with it?
"Where do you go, god, where do I put you?!"
Blossom blinks sleepily, then crows. His entire structure changes then, and he seeps from between my fingers as a pale mist. It circles above for a moment to build up momentum, then slams into my chest. The mist disappears into me, and I am thrown forcefully sideways off my bed and land in a lump of sheets on the ground with an almighty 'thump'. For the second morning in a row, there is a scream followed by the clatter of dropped tableware, and Shimo appears, scowling in my doorframe.
As I sit wheezing with a hand splayed across my chest, Shimo looks suspiciously around my room. "Where's Blossom?" he finally asks.
I stab a finger at my chest as I try to regain my breath.
"What? You? Pardon?"
I stab at my chest again twice and my vocal chords finally start working again. "In me. It's in me…"
Scowling, Shimo strides over and grabs me by one of my arms. He hauls me to my feet and proceeds to examine my chest. "Stop it!" I yank myself away and stare, violated, at Shimo. I draw in a deep breath. "I'm okay. Go deal with Tohru."
Shimo nods and turns away with a swish of sash, red hair and wings. He disappears around the corner, and I stand, collecting my thoughts for a few seconds more.
The door shuts as I command it to, and I stride over to my wardrobe to stare at myself in the mirror. Same scowling tanned face and angry-looking red eyes that scare small children. Same coppery hair in an unimaginably boring cut, same wiry body, and same calloused palms. I stretch out a finger and a single cherry-blossom forms on the end of it. With a wry smile, I add it to my jar. In my jar is Shimo's feather, the marigold that Blossom made for me, as well as a few strands of dark red hair that I found on my floor. It's because of this jar that I know that I'm not insane, and I'm not imagining things. These things are real; real to touch, real to the eye. My jar of memories.
I dress again in my school uniform, making no effort about my appearance. I console myself that soon I will not have to wear the same boring outfit for weeks.
I sling my bag over my should and shuffle downstairs to eat.
Yuki sits at the table looking decidedly worse-for-wear, and Tohru has a slightly confused and glazed look on her face as she hands me my bowl. I feel slightly guilty. Shigure hasn't appeared yet (probably scared that his editor will be waiting for him), so we enjoy a fairly peaceful breakfast.
The three of us set off to school, Tohru in the middle and Yuki and I sticking to our respective sides, and I sigh as we pass under red-leaved trees. It's hard to believe that any of this is happening as we pass through such a peaceful place. Everything seems as it should be.
I close my eyes and breathe in the cooling air.
I open my eyes, and the path is foggy.
"Kyo, I've figured it out."
"Oh, fuck! Shimo now is not a good time!"
I turn away from my guardian as he stands in the mist a few feet away from me, and allow myself to sulk. I hate it when he does this, and now is a very inconvenient time.
"But I understand now! Blossom is an elemental! Blossom has been created by your mind to have dominance over the flowers of the world. With it, you can control them."
I stare, silently at him. Shimo looks exited with what he now knows.
"What this also concludes is that there are more than just Blossom. There is one for every separate element of life that your mind can conjure."
My eyes widen at the thought. "Then where are they…?"
"That I do not know."
Shimo turns away to retreat back into Yuki's mind.
"Shimo!"
He turns to regard me for a moment.
"When Blossom wet into me, I could create flowers myself."
Something almost like surprise flickers across his face, and then is gone. "You have given me more to ponder."
I nod, and close my eyes.
"Kyo?!"
My eyes flicker open to Tohru's concerned face.
"Daijobu ka?"
"Yes, I'm fine." I sit up and glance at Yuki, who stands a few feet away. He knew what was happening, probably warned by Shimo, and seemed unconcerned.
He could have at least warned me.
"What happened? One second you were just walking along, then you collapsed…"
"Don't worry about it."
I pat Tohru on the arm, about as comforting as I can get in my family's current situation, and brush myself off. "By the way, you don't have to tell Hatori about this either."
Tohru nods, and hovers close as we continue walking.
The mood has changed to one that is uncomfortable with an over tone of worry.
We all have things to think of.
Another chapter done. Geez, this went off on a new tangent… ah well, I gues it's time to bring other people into play then…
