7. Passionate jealousy.
T: Another non Tenshi chapter for those wishing to avoid them, though there is a small piece of plot significance here so it might be best to at least scan this chapter! Warnings remain the same and I fear I am still not a member of Clamp, will continue to try, however!
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Usagi-san is not looking her usual impeccable self, this he notes as she makes her way past his desk to her own and comprehending that there is an opportunity in this disarray he calls her attention to him, then enquires,
"Did you have a rough night?"
She takes stock of her appearance, runs a finger through her hair and smiling a little replies,
"Very much so…my boyfriend's mother was taken into hospital last night."
"I am sorry, how is he taking it?"
"I wouldn't know."
"I am sorry, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean."
She sighs and takes the empty seat across the desk from him before replying,
"Tenshi usually tells me of the smallest occurrence in his life, but this time I had to hear of the event from the hospital.
"I tried to phone him, of course, but the line was engaged."
"Perhaps he was calling to see how his mother was."
"Perhaps." She replies, her voice lacking confidence in the response,
"Do you want to go for a quick coffee? I know that you are always at least a half hour earlier for work than you need be and I am parched."
"That would be nice, thank you, Monou-kun."
Once they have acquired their coffees and have settled into one of the plastic benches in the staff canteen, Usagi-san begins to tell him of her life with Tenshi,
"I met him a year ago and right from the second I saw him I knew that he was going to be something special to me.
"It was an ordinary enough meeting; I had known Tenshi's mother, Marian, for a few years and she decided it was due time that I met her son.
She had told me his age but looking at him that first day I had not believed her words, for in his eyes was a comprehension and a restlessness far beyond his years."
She pauses here, and with a small smile continues:
"Marian told me later that he had always been as such, that from the moment he had been born there was an intelligence in his eyes that was not normal for one but two seconds old in this world.
"It was that intelligence that caught me and I would often find excuses to go and see him, to talk to him.
"He is a kind boy, if a little absent minded on occasion and thus it was all but certain that I would fall head over heels for him…" She pauses a moment to take a gentle sip of her coffee and then a faint smile on her lips she continues,
"It was only after we started dating that I saw the other side of him, a mysterious, seductive edge that seemed so adverse to his other nature.
"Hichigo-kun used to say that this other nature was a past life leaking though and he convinced me to take Tenshi on a course of hypnotherapy.
"Unlike Hichigo-kun I am more than a little cynical about such things and I expected the usual light show, a few clique responses and then a request for the entire course fee based on that one session.
"However, only two minutes after Tenshi had been put under, his voice deepened and began to talk of some sort of Bet.
"He said that he had made a mistake beginning such a stupid game but that he did not regret it, not when the conclusion had proven more than he had thought it could be.
"He said that today he was going to put an end to The Bet and fulfil both his own wish and his wish also.
"The man performing the hypnotherapy asked who he was and Tenshi replied that he was the one that he loved. The one that he had wronged through The Bet and who would at last be able to get his vengeance.
" 'My cute little, Subaru-kun.' He remarked as he smiled…such a disturbingly blank smile that I asked for the session to be stopped.
"That name I had heard before on Tenshi's lips, while in the depths of his reoccurring nightmare, thus to hear it during the session spooked me…enough, I am afraid to admit, so that I did not bring Tenshi again to that place.
"A little after that the nightmare became stronger, enough that Tenshi could no longer sleep through the night and desperate I turned to Hichigo-kun for help.
"He pointed me in the direction of the Sumeragi clan and for a while it seemed a sensible course to take…however, I soon learned that the clan had recently lost the woman who had been acting as head and that, for the moment, they were not taking on any more clients.
"In the end it did not matter anyway, for the nightmare faded a little in its intensity and Tenshi began again to sleep the night away.
"I thought myself rid of that nightmare until I heard that name again from Tenshi, this time not in reference to one in his past, but to one in his future."
"You are referring to the individual that he spent that afternoon with, are you not?"
"Yes, that is correct. It was that co-incidence more than anything else that upset me so about that meeting…after all, if Tenshi believed this Subaru linked in anyway to the Subaru of his past he might just try to make amends…
Might choose to leave me so that he could again be at this other's side."
"If he made such a choice then it would show that he never truly cared for you."
"That is true and yet…I love him and though it is selfish and more than a little possessive I can not let another take him from me.
"He is my angel…my light…and losing him…" She begins to cry then and he stretches across the table to hug her as best he can, his face schooled into a compassionate, neutral, expression despite the excitement that has flared at the heart of him.
He had known that Tenshi had recalled a little of his previous life, thus much clear for the genesis of The Bet and yet he had believed the child ignorant of their later association.
To learn that it was otherwise…to know that he recalled the very day of that moment on the Rainbow Bridge…it was both a horrifying and exciting realisation.
For the moment though he could not dwell on this development, not when he had Usagi-san and her broken heart to deal with.
"Have you tried calling him since that first time?"
"No…but I think that I shall try." She replies as she pulls out her mobile and pressing a single number brings the thing to her ear,
"Tenshi? It's Chihiro…the hospital phoned me about Marian…I don't know…perhaps she put it in her instructions so she could be sure that you were safe…why are you so angry Tenshi? Are we not dear to one another? Am I not the one to whom you trust everything?" There is a long moment of silence and then she enquires, "How can you 'not be sure'? Either you love me or you don't, there is no middle ground…no it is not simply 'one of those things', it is because of him, is it not?
"You know who I am talking about…the one whose name you scream in the night…how convenient for you, Tenshi…Subaru, that is who I am talking about!
"Really? I suppose your 'friend' has kindly allowed you the use of his bed whole he remains contentedly on the pull out sofa…a spare bedroom, how nice for you!
"Of course I am angry, Tenshi, you tell me that your feelings for me have muted, that you no longer know if you truly love me and then you simply expect me to be okay about it?" She presses another button on the phone and places it forcefully back into her pocket.
"I take it that things did not go well."
"Not well at all…something about Tenshi has changed so very much since he spent that afternoon with that man.
"He was so abrupt with me and so uncaring of my feelings…my Tenshi would not have simply told me 'It is one of those things' and expected me to understand.
Tenshi would not have been so very evasive either…even if he was ashamed of falling for another other than myself.
"No, that man has changed him and I swear that I shall find something in this other's nature that proves him fraud or charlatan and expose this to Tenshi so that he loses his love for him and comes back to me."
It amuses him that she believes she has the strength or resolve enough to battle him, though this is as a paltry amusement to that he feels at her blindness.
She is nervous of sharing Maki-san's fate, this clear in the way she looks constantly over her shoulder or becomes skittish in an open environment.
Yet despite this she has allowed a perfect stranger into her confidence…has allowed a perfect stranger to see her passion for one small boy and the weakness it pertains to.
He loves Tenshi and it becomes clearer that part of the boy loves him also and yet…
He has a job to do and no matter who is hurt or who has to die he will perform that job.
He has Seishiro's memory to protect, after all.
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T: Blink and you may miss the foreshadowing! I had thought to simply bring Tenshi and Subaru together happily and yet as this chapter evolved it became clear to me that such a thing was a little difficult at this point. At the moment Subaru has still in his mind a clear separation between Tenshi and Seishiro, thus he does not, as yet, view killing the boy as a true sacrifice, especially considering that it is now clear that Tenshi is the key to Usagi-san's demise! Please note that I do not yet know if this shall remain Subaru's resolve, the whole issue is more than a little clouded at the part of the tail that I am currently inking! R+R to help me improve!