3. Joy.
T: Things are coming slowly together as far as plot goes so hopefully the updates should not stretch any further than once a week…however, work being as it is at the moment I will not state that as a complete certainty!
Kuraitsubasa: Well done! You were spot on with the Sorata thing, though it was less to do with Sei-chan's name and more to do with his power! Unfortunately you'll have to wait a while yet before you learn how Seishiro got onto Clamp Campus!
That done I still own little of what you see here and the warnings still apply…oh there is an addition of OOC but then that's because Kakyo isn't all angsty and stuff!
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It is too late for him to return to any semblance of sleep and so, once he has calmed a little, he pulls himself out of bed for a long soak in the bath.
Seishrio stirs him after an hour with a simple pancake breakfast, which Subaru devours as though he has been starved for a week.
"Will you tell me about the nightmare you had last night, Subaru?"
As was the tradition when Seishiro asked him that question he regarded the other for a quiet moment before responding,
"It was actually two nightmares…the first began as that recurring dream and then…shifted…a little."
"And the second?"
"I thought that I had awoken and I looked for you to comfort myself…you were not there and there was so much blood…"
"Subaru…I know we have discussed the possibility before, but I think that you should talk this through with Kakyo."
"I can not trouble him, Seishiro, especially with the wedding so close."
"Subaru, you know as well as I do that Hokuto will find out about this sooner rather than later…would you not like to be able to tell her that you have already talked to her fiancée and that everything is alright, rather than have her badgering you until you crack?"
Though there is humour in his words Seishiro's eyes are regarding him with such worry that he relents and remarks,
"I will go, but for your sake rather than my own."
……………………………………………………………………………….
Hokuto had told him once that Kakyo had had long hair when she had first met him and yet looking at the clean cut man before him he could not quite imagine it.
Indeed, if the truth be known, he could not quite understand how someone as quiet as Kakyo could be attracted to someone as brash as his sister.
It has to have been something in the circumstances of their meeting that had drawn them to one another, for they were completely and truly in love.
"Hokuto told me that you had been bothered in your childhood by re-occurring dreams, but I was under the impression that they had left you." The man remarks as he pushes his glasses back up his nose.
"For a while they had but with recent events…"
"Recent events?"
Aware that he had to tread a little weary as far as this subject was concerned he considers a moment before he replies,
"I had to rescue a young boy from within himself…"
"It might simply have been the strength of his emotions recalling to you the harder times of your youth."
"But I did not simply dream the dream of the boy beneath the sakura…"
"There was another dream?"
"I dreamt that Seishiro had left me…that someone had taken him away…
"There was so much blood….so very much…"
He shivers and Kakyo allows him a moment before he remarks,
"Things with Seishiro have become comfortable of late, Subaru and it is understandable that you have begun to fear that that comfort shall be snatched from you.
"Should you remain troubled by these newer, more violent, nightmares then do no hesitate to come back, until then I do not think you should let it overly concern you."
There is something in the other's voice that suggests Kakyo comprehends more than he is letting on and yet before Subaru can question this the other has moved the subject onto the matter of the upcoming wedding.
…………………………………………………………………………………..
It is his first trip outside of the Campus since Kotori's death and though Sorata is close enough that he can see him always out of the corner of his eye, he does not feel completely at ease.
A familiar profile catches his eye and his heart lightening slightly he calls out,
"Subaru!"
The other turns and, a blush creeping onto his face, Kamui notes the longer hair style and the make-up, which separates this person from Subaru.
"I am sorry…I thought that you were someone else."
The woman breaks into a bright laughter and informs him,
"I am Sumeragi Hokuto, Subaru's twin sister and it is natural that you would mistake us on our first meeting…"
"Forgive my belated introduction, I am Shirou Kamui."
"Kamui-chan…Hmmm, I do not think that Subaru has mentioned you to me before."
"We have not known one another all that long." He responds, aware how odd such a thing shall seem after the familiarity he had used.
Hokuto breaks into another bout of loud laughter and leaning close to him she enquires,
"Do you harbour a little crush on my brother?"
"No!" Hokuto giggles some more and grasping his shoulder she says,
"Let's shake your body guard, Kamui-chan and go grab a coffee."
Before he can reply to that, indeed before he really registers that she has made a suggestion to him, he is sat in a booth hidden at the back of a quiet little coffee shop.
"My fiancé was a Yumeni…do you know what one of those is?" She enquires as she settles down opposite him.
"Kasan told me that they were a person who could see other people's dreams."
"That is correct; sometimes they can also see the future through their dreams."
"Are you trying to say that your fiancé saw all of this?"
"Not all of it…indeed not even enough that I could tell you how this war is to end. However…
"Kamui-chan, I know that you were close to Fuuma."
"He was my friend before Kasan moved us away…"
"And now?"
"I'm not sure...I wanted to keep him away from me, keep him safe, yet I want him back so much…"
"Subaru was kind to you, was he not? And you felt drawn in by that kindness.
"Everyone else about you treats you as a monster or as some sort of god …my brother on the other hand…"
"Subaru talked to me as if I was any ordinary boy…tolerated me despite how harsh I was to him and I have a want to repay him for that."
"Give him your friendship then, Kamui, for Subaru has only ever had his sister, Sei-chan and myself in his life until now and it will do him some good to know that someone else can see him for who he truly is, rather than for his powers."
"Sumeragi-san…"
"Hokuto!"
"Hokuto-san…about Sakurazuka-san…"
"You have met him?"
"Yes…his power…"
"I know."
"What is he?"
"It does not matter. Sei-chan loves my brother and has proven his worth a thousand times over."
He wishes to reply to that but a discordant tune breaks into the air and apologising profusely Hokuto reaches for the source of that sound, her mobile.
"Hello…Kakyo, what can I do for you, love? Lunch with Subaru and Sei-chan…" She glances over to Kamui and enquires, "Could I bring a friend…not, not I do not think Subaru will mind…
"Okay, we'll be there in a minute."
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"Hokuto, you are being far too loud!" Subaru remarks once his sisters bout of laughter has faded.
His sister pokes her tongue out and, if not for the presence of Kakyo and Kamui, he could almost believe himself sixteen again.
They always seemed to fall into the old pattern when they came together, Hokuto teasing Subaru mercilessly about Seishrio and the older man responding with his usual flirtatious bravado.
Every now and again Kakyo would break into the conversation with some random comment and they would break the pattern to indulge in a discussion on that point of interest.
Kamui remained silent at Subaru's side, his eyes regarding the other with such devotion that the Sumeragi feared what it meant for the feelings within Kamui's heart.
At one point he catches Seishiro watching the boy and the older man dismisses the look with such a casual air that Subaru begins to believe he had been over assessing Kamui's care for him.
Seishiro loved him enough that he would be jealous of another caring for him in the same a fashion, after all…
Yet if that was the case why has the older man's face broken into a sneer for a moment as he looked on Kamui's adoration?
Why had it seemed that Seishiro did not truly care for him at all?
That the thought of someone loving Subaru was a thing completely incomprehensible to him…
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T: As you can tell things are on the move down, down, down, into the pits of angstyness and with that as the most hint you're going to get from me about what comes next I ask you to R+R.