From Twisting Destinies.

Basically, where I put all the stuff that can stand alone, if someone doesn't want to bother with the whole fic. (Which is being rewritten. I swear. I worked on it just last night! -die-)

Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly.

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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.

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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.

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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..."

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