Chapter five: Redemption.

T: Well judging by my reviews it seems Chaosdragon is making good her threat so hi new reviewers and sorry if you've suffered any violence! Silver salamander, I am dancing you just can't see me! J.J. blue, yes the ages are a little off but then that's because this isn't cannon but rather an A.U…I have the eerie feeling that I shall be using that excuse a lot with this fic! This chapter increases the Fuuma/Kamui relationship just a little but apart from that the warnings remain the same.

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Seishiro had felt so sure that he had been on the right track, that somehow Murimi was the key to his mother's murder, yet it seemed that his suspicions had proved little more than that.

Unless…

"Did Murimi have a child?"

"I do not know, Sakurazuka-san. Hokuto would be the one to ask that question to and yet . . . I do not think that she shall have wish to be reminded of Murimi or the hurt he brought to her family."

"Yet if he had a son before he died . . . "

"Sakurazuka-san, perhaps perusing this course is not the best for you. For if it proves that he had no son then you shall have just upset both Hokuto and yourself."

"Then what do you suggest?" Seishiro asked, annoyance evident in his voice.

"Wait until you are sure of yourself, sure that this boy is the one responsible for Setsuka-kun's death."

"And until then?"

"Subaru will be here again tomorrow, I suggest that you tell him the truth about his other world self and about your feelings for him."

Sakurazuka-san seemed to be considering this suggestion and then his smile darkened. "Even if this Subaru-kun returns my feelings it is not right for me to approach him. Not when I hurt him, not when all I can offer him is this . . . madness."

"There is no true madness within you, Sakurazuka-san, not any more at least. The first time that you awoke back into this world was a little after Hokuto died in your fantasy. You were mad then, without a doubt, for you believed you were seeing nothing more than a world of Subaru's creation. Believed that we were the fantasy and somehow found a way to break free your restraints. You stood in plain view and mumbled to yourself about the illusion of your tree being able to keep you safe, keep you hidden. Kamui was the one who found you and he said something to you that fallen back into your coma. It was thankful that you went back at that time, for you had not yet recovered from the shock of your mother's death. Yet I truly believe that your mind had now healed and that once you have seen justice brought to your mother's killer, you will be allowed to leave this place. Trust a little in your heart, Sakurazuka-san."

"You really are Hokuto-chan's husband, aren't you?" He enquired, his smile deepening.

Kakyo had know Seishiro Sakurazuka for nine years now, both in and out of his fantasy and this was the first that he'd seen him allow himself to hope for a better future. The first that Kakyo had truly believed that the other could have a life beyond this incident.

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He had decided to have his lunch out in the sunshine, something that had seemed a perfectly good idea until Kamui had spotted him. It was not that Fuuma disliked the younger man, but rather that he had developed rather too much of a liking for him. It had happened very quickly, one day the man had been a good friend and a colleague and the next . . . the next he had found himself unable to form intelligent sentences, found his skin flushing at inappropriate moments, found his mind wondering away to thoughts of Kamui's eyes or the younger man's lips.

This meant that sometimes when the man enquired after Fuuma's opinion he received a slightly odd answer. He'd then almost invariably lean forwards slightly and placing a hand to Fuuma's forehead ask about his health, usually with a worried, 'You are not sick are you?' Of course the proximity of Kamui would mean his skin flushed, so that his rather weak reply of no would seem all but empty.

It did not help that Hokuto had been teasing Fuuma about his attraction or that due to the heat of the day Kamui had removed his shirt and was now clothed only in a very tight grey t-shirt and jeans.

"How was he with Subaru?" The younger man enquired as he took the seat opposite.

"He seemed content, Kamui and more himself than he has in a long time."

"How about Subaru? You did watch him closely, did you not, in case the worry or the misery brought on an attack?"

"I watched him Kamui, and in his presence your brother became stronger, almost as though he wished to show Sakurazuka-san only his brightest elements rather than his darker self."

"He cares all too much about what Sakurazuka-san thinks of him. When we came here yesterday he asked mother, 'Seishiro-san was happy in that other world, wasn't he? That was because he loved someone there, was it not?'

"Mama smiled that scheming smile of hers and replied, 'Perhaps he did, Subaru, you shall have to ask him.'

"He paused then asked mother, 'yet if he loves someone in that world does that mean he has stopped loving us, mama?' Of coarse mother refused to answer that and he shut himself away . . . yet I can not see why, Fuuma, can not see why it should matter to Subaru if Sakurazuka-san thinks anything of us."

The answer was rather obvious as far as Fuuma was concerned and thus he chose not to reply to what could only be a rhetorical question. Instead he decided to find out why Kamui so disliked the older man, in what he hoped was a very sneaky manner.

"Kamui, perhaps you should wonder instead why it is that both your mother and Sumeragi-kun are concerned of what Sakurazuka-san thinks of them, while you desire so strongly to both hate and be hater by him."

"I have no need to wonder. Sakurazuka-san has a darker self, Fuuma, one that is hidden close to him and yet he shows it clearly in his dreams. Kakyo says that Sakurazuka-san's fantasy is a metaphor for the wishes he could not achieve in this world and I agree. Yet Kakyo then looks to the being of the Sakurazukamori and sees merely the wish for vengeance, the wish to blank away emotion so that he cannot suffer again this hurt. I see the true desire, the desire to be as his mother's killer, to blank away emotion so that he too might take life for his own selfish benefit. I see the desire to possess and control my brother by whatever means necessary . . . "

"All of us have an animal darkness in our hearts, Kamui; all of us possess the desire to control our most beloved person and to use that control to insure they think only of us, only of their own selfish wish to possess and be possessed by the one they love."

"There is more to it Fuuma, that I believe unconditionally."

Fuuma regarded the closed in expression on the younger man's face and knew that no matter how rational his argument, Kamui would continue to believe Sakurazuka-san his enemy, that he would continue to believe that that man posed some dark threat to his beloved family.

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T: He he! Yes Kamui does know more than he's saying, no, I'm not going to tell you what it is and nope it's not in the next chapter…cruel aren't I? R+R and perhaps I'll stop the torture!