5. Eye.
T: The final chapter and as I have said previously there is a technical happy ending to this angst fest…just keep reading! At the risk of getting this fic deleted I wanted to thank kuraitsubasa for being my one constant reviewer and for keeping my want to post this thing alive! There is probably a small increase in the ANGST this time around and the SLASH becomes more prominent. I do not own anything here apart from my vain excuse for a plot and some of the logic! Oh and we're back in the present for this chapter.
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He has been in the family home for a week now, familiarising himself with the feel of it and learning as much as he can of the Sakurazuka magic.
It has become his home and though there is a temptation still for the warmth and happiness of the Seals home this is now but a fait thing.
It is odd, but he can almost feel his old self falling away as an old skin, revealing beneath it the heart and the drive of the man he is to become.
Sometimes he can even feel Seishiro inside his mind, faint warmth that comforts him and yet burns a little at the same time.
He has come out to the garden to take in the afternoon air when he feels Fuuma's presence.
Though he had been warned of such an intrusion he is harsh still with the boy, something that the other laughs off as coolly as possible.
He talks a little of Seishiro and his Wish and then he presents him with the container that proves, beyond doubt, that Seishiro is truly gone.
Seishiro's magic is all about the thing and he knows then that this was to what the man was referring to both within his diary and in various notes within the text books.
One note, jotted somewhere amid a spell book, jumps quickly to mind.
'There needs to be some connection between the current Sakurazukamori and their successor, something other than emotion or simple possession.'
This was the connection, Subaru knew and once he had taken it from Fuuma…once it was within him, he would be as prepared as he could for the tree's possession.
This in mind he snatches the thing greedily from the boy's hands and hugs it close to his heart with the thought that soon he will be again at Seishiro's side…
That soon they shall be one.
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The nurse's voice drifts away from him as the anaesthetic takes affect and he finds himself lost a while within a dream…
…He is 16 again and dressed in one of his sister's ridiculous outfits…
…There is a thought in his head that he needs to find someone and so he begins to run…
…He runs until his feet feel heavy and the breath burns within his chest and yet still he can not find what he is looking for…
…Then a voice calls out his name and suddenly a door is before him…
…Seishiro waits for him inside, his face stretched into a beautiful smile and his hands extended out towards him,
'Come, Subaru-kun.'
…He steps forwards and Seishiro pulls him hard to him, his hands moving to brush at the small of his back…
…He can feel the warmth of that touch and he pushes desperately towards it…
…Seishiro dips and they are kissing, the heart in Subaru blooming until he feels as though he is on fire….
Then he is pulled back to consciousness by the gentle voice of the nurse and though he is again without Seishiro he can feel the warmth of his presence still within him.
"Keep the bandages there for a week, Sumeragi-kun and then come back for a check up."
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He can recall still how very confident he had felt as he had looked at his eye the first time.
Can recall how at peace he had been to see that brown in his face…to have Seishiro so close that he could touch him…
He had come to the tree with that confidence and that completeness bubbling though him as a warm fire.
The tree had wrapped him instantly into its illusionary heart and he is met again with the childish beauty of its 'human' form.
'You have travelled far since last we talked and you bare now a part of Seishiro and yet…
'You are still Sumeragi, are still at the heart of you a poison to me.'
"If I could bleed away that edge of myself I would.
"For I dreamt as they put this eye within me and he felt so close in that dream that I did not want to wake…
"You have him inside of you, that I felt when we touched the last and to possess him completely…to have him always within me…I would do whatever it took."
She smiles and he feels the warmth of her pride before she informs him,
'Though he acted against the rules, though he, more than once, thought to turn from this…
'Seishiro has chosen well in you, for your passion…your drive…will make you the purest master that I have ever had.'
She pulls him to her and then her lips are on his…
He feels himself falling, feels the strength of her envelope him and then he is again within the room that he had dreamt of during the operation.
Seishiro is sat at the edge of a large oaken chair, an expectant glint clear in his eyes.
"Welcome home, Subaru." He remarks, his voice smooth…perfect.
"Are you real?"
"As real as you want me to be, Subaru."
He smiles and crosses the distance between them, pulling Seishiro so close that he can feel the edges of his illusionary form blurring into his own.
"Will you forgive what I did, Subaru? Will you forgive that I made a game of your feelings and my own?"
"I do not know if I can forgive…for you had so many chances to turn away from the game and yet…
"Yet you were raised in a way that meant you did not completely understand the gravity of the choices you were making.
"Thus, though I can not forgive, I believe that I can understand and in time forget."
"Then it is enough."
He kisses him then and it feels so real that Subaru could almost forget that this was little more than illusion…
Could almost believe that Seishiro was truly at his side, loving him and protection him as he had during the Year of the Bet.
For this closeness he had given his soul and yet that was as the tiniest of sacrifices to him.
He had his Wish now, after all.
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T: Yeh…not much I can say really…this ending just kind of spilled from me as I was writing the thing down and it was so nice that I couldn't bear to change it. As to slotting this into cannon, I'd say that this last bit happens the day before (beware the volume 18 spoiler) Nataku's demise. Also it was to the eye that Sei-chan's note in chapter one is referring…or rather to a spell to keep the eye fresh while Subaru goes soul searching…soz to those who thought otherwise! R+R it'll cleanse your souls!