Slightly AU, but this will be in a different vein than Haunted was. I hope it's still enjoyable
It had been four years. To Subaru, the number didn't even register anymore. It was just the day that he went to Kyoto, to visit his grandmother and light incense and remember that he once had a twin. To remember that he was once one half of a whole.
One day a year wasted on memories that he preferred to leave buried, but it was his duty. She depended on him. The old needed that connection to the past, he supposed.
So they kept that ritual, year after year. They prayed together and had tea, and walked underneath the skeletal branches of the sakura trees that lined the estate's garden path while his grandmother subtly interrogated him about his work, his life. How was his health? Was he giving any thought to getting married? Wouldn't he come visit her more?
He smiled politely, answered her queries as noncommittally as possible. The day passed, melted into a quiet evening, early sleep on a bed that was stiff and slightly musty from disuse. The next morning he was on a train back to Tokyo.
Nothing had changed from that first anniversary. It was the same, down to the minute that the tea ceremony ended and he shut the door to one of the guest rooms.
His grandmother had only asked him once to reminisce with her, to look at their photographs and the room the twins had shared. Whatever emotion crossed his face at that suggestion had, it seemed, convinced her not to bring it up again.
It was that day they really started to drift apart. She was too bound to the past, and he was determined to forget it, to keep living. That was what his sister had wanted for him, wasn't it? To move forward with his life, not spend it looking backwards.
The train rocked softly, lulling him into a sense of drowsy contemplativeness. He shifted to rest his head against the side of the seat, staring at his hands and the tight black leather that covered them. He had tried, the first month, to go without them. It didn't help.
Gloves, at least, could be explained away to himself. It was too cold to go without them, his skin was too sensitive, having worn them for so long. Better than looking at the faint scars that ran underneath them.
He chose not to often remember the way she teased him about those gloves, the way she painstakingly took measurements of his hands, to be sure that the tailor could create twenty different pairs of them in silk and leather, summer and winter sets in every different color he could ever need.
It was different now. He only owned two sets of gloves, black and brown; the brown bought on the laughing, infectious insistence of a former lover and then eventually forgotten in the back of a drawer, like the other man's name.
He lifted his gaze, watched entire towns rush by like water. It was late by the time he reached his apartment, and he unlocked the door quietly, methodically slipping out of his shoes, hanging up his jacket and his keys. The place was pitch black, but he knew it by heart, moving to the small kitchenette with surety, pouring himself a glass of water, taking an aspirin for the lingering headache. The sensation of blindness, far from being disorienting, was something of a relief.
He finished the water, setting the glass down beside the sink. It could be washed tomorrow. For now, he was tired, even though he hadn't done much but travel all day.
His bedroom was sparsely furnished, a futon and a dresser barely lit from the blue and gold neon that filtered through the dark blue blinds on the window. The room itself was larger than most Tokyo apartments, a fact that made him smile wryly. One of the few actual luxuries he indulged in.
Stripping down to his slightly threadworn boxers, he tossed his clothes into the laundry basket, a whisper of noise loud enough to draw a sleepy protest from a dark shadow in the bed.
He slid into bed next to the other man, settling down comfortably as a muffled welcome back was murmured into his shoulder amidst a yawn, arms wrapping around his waist comfortably. Subaru closed his eyes on the surety that this was their last night.
He turned his face into the other's hair, inhaling deeply, savoring the crisp scent of the other's shampoo. He wondered if he'd remember the scent or the lips that pressed a lazy kiss to his collarbone in a week from now. They had been together for what, almost a year now?
Somehow, lovers never made it past this day.
It was a conversation perfected through practice, and each time it got a bit cleaner, more polished.
People were strange, in moments like these. Some cried, begging him to reconsider, and some just shrugged and gathered their things. You could never predict what they would do, either… the most fragile-seeming of his lovers could be the most nonchalant, and the worst crybaby had been a jail-toughened gang member.
This one was a talker. Not too desperate, but sincerely confused and not quite convinced of Subaru's sincerity. He stayed calm, trying to reason, to fix things, as Subaru made tea and watched him gather his things slowly, trying to delay the inevitable. Subaru mostly toned his arguments out, making vague counterpoints every once in a while, to show that he wasn't being swayed.
The computer beeped in the corner, a soft chime that nonetheless interrupted the conversation, his ex-lover falling quiet. It was one trait Subaru had always appreciated about him, the way he respected Subaru's work. He went to the computer, leaning down to read the incoming fax. He frowned a bit, re-reading it, sitting down at the desk slowly, and hitting the reply button.
"Is it something important?" The voice from the general direction of his couch was soft, hesitant. Subaru nodded, curtly, pausing to carefully word his reply, awkwardly typing it out.
There was silence behind him for a long time, and Subaru paused, sighing and reaching for a pack of cigarettes. "I'm sorry."
"You're serious about this, aren't you?"
"I am."
There wasn't anything else, just a soft sigh and the sound of bags being picked up, a door opened and closed.
The appointment was at a simple, small office, part of a corporation that occupied no more than two floors in a building. Some sort of small shipping industry, though Subaru neither knew nor cared what exactly they shipped.
Ichirio Nakagami was his contact, a bald, round man with a horribly nondescript face and a slightly cheap suit. He bowed several times in the first few minutes, leading him to a surprisingly large office. They sat, on opposite sides of an imposing desk, Subaru taking in their surroundings appraisingly.
"Forgive me, I know this is short notice for you, and I appreciate that you found the time to meet with me." He slid a file across the desk, to Subaru, who picked it up, opening it, thumbing through the stacks of reports and pictures of bodies.
"You said that the murders had been going on for several years now. Who else has worked on this case?"
"Everyone." The executive mopped his forehead with a hand-monogrammed handkerchief, sighing. "The police gave up after two years of dead ends… several private investigators have resigned from the job, and we have even brought in other onmyouji, including one of the Shiozu clan. They have a good reputation, from what I've been told, although of course not as excellent as your own clan."
Subaru frowned, nodding a bit. "I see." He flipped to the last report in the file, a hand-written report of findings. It was inconclusive.
Seemingly uncomfortable with Subaru's silence, his contact cleared his throat, nervously, and continues. "In the past few months, these unfortunate incidents have been escalating and the company cannot afford to allow them to continue. Since this case is proving to be quite difficult, my employers have taken the liberty of contacting both you and another specialist, who will function as a consultant."
Subaru looked up from the file, shutting it with a frown. "Another specialist?"
Nakagami-san nodded, dabbing at his face again. "He should be here at any time, actually. Perhaps you'd like some tea while we wait?"
He nodded, and the other man pressed a button on his phone, calling an office lady to bring up tea for three. Subaru resumed reading through the file, mostly ignoring the girl as she came in, barely nodding in thanks. He waited until she had left before picking up his cup and sipping it briefly.
A few minutes later there was a quiet knock on the door, and the sound of it opening.
"Ah, there you are Sakurazuka-san."