Pathway.

T: Because everyone who's reviewed has asked for it and because episode 25 did not feature Vampire Sumeragi, I give you the Subaru version of Pathway. Warnings of ANGST and this chapter has a little more SLASH than the last! I do not own Tsubasa, something you can tell for a witty reason that I'll think of later!

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His father has 'died;' a week before he had been born and but a week after his mother had also fallen.

Their 'deaths' had been as an ending to his childhood and had set into motion a string of events that would end with him sharing their fate.

He had met them since his own 'death' and seeing their twisted, empty, husks had killed the little had that he had felt still towards them.

His grandmother had been his tutor, his friend and family for the first few years of his life and, apart from the occasional visit with his sister, his only source of company.

Thus when she had told him that she had found him a Rino, he has been both apprehensive and terribly excited.

It had helped that the one who he was to be bound to was littler more than a child himself and yet still he could not but help feel a little unsure of such an everlasting contract.

Then the connection had been made and suddenly there was warmth in his heart and a smile again on his lips.

But he was Gina and the one that he had been bound to…whom he had eventually fallen in love with….was Rino.

Their positions in life and their duties had been as barriers for their love.

And yet…

Somehow duty and destiny had not mattered and for a little while he had fallen into heaven.

Then they had taken his sister and he's chosen to stop ignoring their presence…

Chosen to fight back.

At least that had been the thought that had sent him across the border into their lands, his one sure protection handed to his love in a hasty ploy to keep him safe on their side of the border.

It had not, he realised now, been the complete truth.

Of course he had want to save his twin sister from the fate of their parents, but he had also wished to rebel.

In the end it had been the wish to cast off his grandmother's oppression and steer a new course for his life that had set him into that danger.

The logic, if such a thing could truly be called 'logic', had been that he might be able to somehow destroy the creatures and set his city free…

Set himself free.

It had been stupid and yet he had almost succeeded…had almost had in his hands the source of their power and then, ironically, his sister had raised the alarm.

He had been damned by the very person he had attempted to save.

Of course he had not understood then that he would never have been able to get Hokuto back, had not understood that she had submitted, willingly, to the curse.

It had been one of the things that he had discovered after they had killed him and he had become, in part, on of theirs…one of the things that he had used to amuse himself as they had skipped from world to world.

At first he had remained with the main group, fleeing, as the rest, from the one who hunted them.

Then he had learned who it was that was chasing them and he had split away from them with the intent of seeing his love one last time.

He had watched, in the shadows, as his love had given over his right eye in order to gain the power to see him again…

Had felt his world crumble as he had heard his love say why he was searching for him and again when that connection had been severed.

He had fled then, tears still in his eyes and the bitter memory of the happier times haunting him.

He had moved slowly, after that, lingering in each world to spread rumour and to keep his love off of his tale.

Had learned, slowly, to hide away his heart and the weakness that was contained within it.

Then their paths had crossed again.

He had watched him walking the desert, unsure if he should give himself over or remain still hidden from the other.

Then his love had cast away an object that, once he had it in his hands, he had recognised as his cross.

He had looked at the thing and known that his love had not meant the words that he had spoken to the Dimensional Witch.

Then he had come to the side of his love and tasted again the sweetness of his lips before he had taken him into his arms.

As he crossed into the town he had heard a voice cry out his love's name and he had looked to see a boy so much like his younger self that it had hurt a little.

"Do you know this man?" He enquired to the boy.

"Yes…please what is the matter with him?"

"He has been walking a great while in the desert."

"Then we must help him."

"I can not." He responds as he passes his love to the boy.

The child stops him when he moves to turn away and enquires,

"Are you Subaru?"

He is startled for the sound of his name at a stranger's lips and yet still he replies,

"Yes."

The boy smiles and informs him,

"He has been looking for you."

"I know and yet I can not let him find me."

"Then what shall I tell him?"

"If you must say anything of me then I beg that you ask him to stop…that you tell him that I am now beyond saving and will now be unable to keep my promise." He passes his cross to the boy and the child takes it before he responds,

"He shall not stop."

"I know and if he should tell you that…if he should seem to mean it with the whole heart of him…then tell him I shall wait for him at those ruins." He remarks as he points to the buildings. "Ask him also to let go whatever foreign power he is holding to for it cuts me." He remarks as he gestures to the cuts upon his skin.

The boy leaves him then and he goes to stand in the shade of the ruins, hoping, beyond hope, that his heart will prove true.

He hears footsteps behind him just as the sun is fading and he turns to face his love with his monsters face,

"If you have the intent of killing me then I ask that you do so now while I bare this face."

"Why should I wish to kill you, Subaru, when you are as a part of me?"

"No longer, for you severed the link between us when you sacrificed that eye."

"True and yet I feel you still here." He remarks as he presses a hand to his heart.

"It does not matter, Seishiro. I am a vampire now and though I may not have fallen completely into the thrall of their power I must still feed to survive.

"Do you understand what that means? I have killed many people, Seishiro… so many people, all simply for my survival."

"I can not but help wonder if those you have slain did, in fact, deserve such a death, for you are too kind to have killed innocents."

"I was too kind, Seishiro. Surely you have read the many history tomes written on myself and Hokuto…on our insatiable thirst for blood."

"I have and I can not now believe them truth."

"Why?"

"Because your sister is not here with you, Subaru."

"That is because I killed her."

Seishiro regards him a moment and then he smiles one of his rare, genuine, smiles,

"If you are as you say then take my blood, Subaru.

"I am Rino still despite our location and thus my blood contains a great magical gift that would be of an asset to you."

"Why do you offer me this thing?"

"Because I love you, Subaru and I am willing to sacrifice anything to keep you strong."

"You can not save me, Seishiro, at least not in that way that you would wish."

"You are stalling, Subaru. If you are truly as you claim then there should be no need for such things."

"And what if I am not the murder I have claimed to be? What difference does it make that the blood which stains my hands is tainted as my own?

"I can not now go back, Seishiro, for all that I was is dead…"

"But if the power source was destroyed there is a hope that you would be returned to normal."

"That 'hope' is little more than fiction, Seishiro, a legend without basis. The dead do not come back to life and make no mistake, I am dead."

He regards him a moment in silence and then he closes the distance between them, his lips tangling into his own and his hands grasping to him as though he is drowning.

Pressed so tightly to him he can hear the thrum of his heart and feels the temptation swamp him.

What harm could one bite do?

He feels his fangs lengthening…feels the monster inside him gaining control and he pulls away.

"Don't you understand that I'm loosing control? At the moment I am destroying dirty lives…stealing from those who have, themselves, stolen and yet…

"Sooner or later I will get hungry in a village full only of innocents and then that shall change.

"I can not be responsible for such a thing, Seishiro…I will not."

"If the legend of our world proved true…if you could be saved…"

"Dimensional travel is uncertain, this you know, Seishiro.

"What if we never get home? What if we reach our planet just when the hunger gets too much?"

"Subaru, I have been travelling a long while searching for you without much hope of seeing you again.

"Yet still I searched and here you are…" He brings him again into a kiss and this time he relaxes into it…his passion now purely human.

"So are you willing to take the chance?" Seishiro enquires one they have separated themselves from one another.

"Yes, but you must promise me one thing."

"Name it."

"If we do not get home in time or if I am too much a monster when we arrive, you will kill me."

"You are serious?"

"Yes, for I would rather it you than anyone else."

"Then I promise, for I too would rather it myself than anyone else."

He takes his hand and for the briefest moment Subaru can feel the heat of their bond again…

Feels alive.

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T: As you can see I've created my own unique spin on the Vampire curse…basically the logic here is that you only become a full vampire if you had want for the curse, otherwise you become a sort of in between creature and the curse attacks you little by little until you cave. Hokuto wished to become a vampire because the one that she loved (Kakyo, just to keep the theme) was a vampire.

Apparently these strange vampire's are also controlled by some mysterious power source…one that, when destroyed, may bring back those in between vampires. Taking into account the unpredictability of legends, however, the destruction of the device might also save these in betweenies by letting them die at last.

Really I should write another chapter to deal with what the outcome of the legend is but its more fun to leave you guessing! R+R as I may just be swayed!