DISCLAIMER: I don't own X or Tokyo Babylon, nor do I hold rights to any of the characters held within those works. They all belong to the four goddesses of Clamp. I'm just borrowing them for my own sick pleasure.
WARNINGS: Alternate timeline, Kamui-chan thrown into Tokyo Babylon. Terrible representation of Japan (well, I've never been there. Excuse the hell out of me) with no proper placement of important areas/buildings/etc. Snuggling of the yaoi variety implying many instances of faked innocence (lemon-version to be on website once that place is updated), more Hokuto-chan outfits, and hideously cute children.
Read at your own risk.
-BEGIN FIC-
I yawned loudly as I stretched, awakened by the soft beeping of the alarm clock that rested on the mahogany nightstand that sat upon three sturdy legs beside the elevated western-styled bed. Reaching across my partner in that sea of warm burgundy and forest green blankets and sheets, I lightly pressed the large snooze button on top of the device and read the large glowing red numbers to confirm what my brain was already muttering tiredly – it was four in the morning.
"Sleep well, Subaru-kun?" a voice that sounded as tired as I could feel I was quietly murmured beside me even as a warm arm slipped around my bare body, pinning me in place efficiently.
"Aa," I replied sleepily, snuggling against Seishiro-san's warm nude frame, pressing my cheek to his chest. "And yourself?" I asked after a few moments, leaving my head resting where it was, lifting a hand instead to caress his lips with slender fingertips.
"I always sleep well with you in my bed," he chuckled, kissing my fingers and nibbling lightly on the leather that covered them. "So, ready to go back to your apartment and get prepared for Hokuto-chan's breakfast spectacular?"
"Mm," I grunted. "Maybe in a couple of hours. As long as we get back before Shiro-kun wakes up and Hokuto-chan barges in, it'll be fine. They don't know I snuck out last night."
"If nothing else, you could tell them that you came over to get some help with your Anatomical Sciences homework. There is truth to that, after all."
Lifting my head, I smiled at him and nodded. "Aa. Arigato. For the assistance, I mean. You're saving me as far as that class is concerned."
"Ah, you know that's not true, Subaru-kun. You'd do fine in it if you didn't have so much homework that risked not getting completed thanks to your hectic work schedule," Seishiro-san said with a smile on his lips as he lightly ruffled my hair.
He did speak the truth. It wasn't as if any of my classes were so difficult that I wouldn't be able to excel in them under normal circumstances, but with work eliminating any opportunity to study or complete homework many nights and my grades at school partially dependant on my attendance and my completion of said assigned homework, I was running a merry gambit between responsibilities to my family and to my scholastic record. Often it was Seishiro-san who sat and did part of my homework, giving it to me to recopy in my own handwriting and evaluate as I transcribed it, making corrections or changes as necessary. He was always a fabulous help with my sciences classes – of course, that could be expected as sciences are directly incorporated into his daily life through his chosen career. English was another subject in which he was quite an assistance, summarizing my readings for me and testing my vocabulary randomly while I sat to write or sketch as necessary. Literature was yet another course he helped me with though not so much with understanding as with finishing assigned tasks within their set time constraints.
All were subjects I thoroughly understood, so I do believe that's why Seishiro-san had no qualms about grabbing my books and doing my homework while he was between clients at his clinic.
However, he was never allowed to touch my mathematics homework again. Math was my subject, one of which I was proud of my accomplishments in. They don't call me the human calculator in class for nothing.
Yes, I might forget equations and processes from time to time, but I can guarantee that once an equation has been figured out and a process determined my solution will very likely be right. Seishiro-san, on the other hand….
He tried so hard to help, but he's been eternally denied access to my math books.
I guess you don't need Calculus to be a veterinarian.
Seishiro-san always joked with me, asking me why I wouldn't rather be a math instructor or research scientist with my proficiency with numbers.
His eyes always sparkled when I would tell him that numbers aren't living, sentient creatures that need care and love to thrive and exist. Yes, perhaps I could make finer of a living doing as he suggested and would have an easy time of it, but it wasn't my dream.
Hell, if I was looking for a job guaranteed to deliver cash, fame or success I'd just keep my eyes focused on my current profession as head of the Sumeragi and abandon my dreams of being an animal handler. I get paid very well for each job I do, and am quite unfortunately well known amongst those who follow spiritual circles.
However, animal handling is a job I would rather do. I swore to myself long ago that the moment I could find someone who would be able to take my responsibilities to my clan and perform them as proficiently as myself I would be abandoning the leadership and devoting myself entirely to my own dream.
The opportunity to work with creatures varying from the exotic and dangerous tiger to the unassuming gecko was far too attractive of a possibility to ignore, especially considering my affinity for animals.
I've always loved animals. They don't require you to speak to them, they don't attempt to rationalize everything you say, and they never judge you for a title you hold. They regard you as what you are and who you are, accepting you or fighting you, communicating wants and desires truthfully, entirely without the capacity to tell falsehoods. That very trait in of itself, the sheer truthfulness of the animal kingdom, made it such an interesting and, to persons like myself who value such traits, irresistible realm.
Plus they don't look at you funny if you stutter.
People, on the other hand, tend to do such. Which, of course, only helps heighten the nervousness that causes the condition in the first place. That's one thing I've always hated about dealing with people – they tend to make me, an already fairly skittish person, into nothing more than a babbling wreck barely able to communicate that yes, I am there to help them with their spirit crisis and yes, I really am an onmyouji even though I'm only sixteen.
My rambling thoughts were interrupted by the alarm clock gently beeping again. This time it was Seishiro-san's hand that reached out to hit the alarm clock then push the small slider bar along its top to turn its alarm feature off.
I took a moment to study that hand as it made its small journey, admiring its lightly tanned skin and its almost delicate bone structure laying under the fine mesh of veins that barely shown as raised ridges along the backs of those deceivingly powerful appendages. Reaching out with my own, I lightly ran my gloved fingertips along the lengths of his fingers, sighing quietly.
His other hand carefully snaked around my waist and drew my body along the length of his before slipping up my back to my shoulder blades and pulling me down. Our lips soon met, both parting slightly, our tongues lightly pressing their fleshy ends together before slipping side to side to rest their exploring tips in our partner's mouth.
Finishing our morning kiss, I sighed happily, barely noticing that he was resetting his alarm to awaken us in time to wash up and get to my apartment before either my dear sister or my houseguest noticed my absence.
I tugged at my outfit, trying to get the large buckles that ran over my back to rest somewhere other than directly over my spine as I leaned back against the subway train's seat.
Hokuto-chan had dressed me again that day, deriving much criticism from Kyoshi, a proclamation that I was 'luscious enough to pass for a high-paid streetwalker' from Yukio, and a whistle and lament about my lack of interest from Sumiko.
I was in black vinyl pants that left absolutely nothing to the imagination, coming to their termination a few inches above my ankles to leave them bare. My feet were comfortably encased in soft black shiny slip-on loafers with no decorative features whatsoever. The pants, the shoes, these were ordinary occurrences when Hokuto-chan dressed me, and nothing that would get my friends to critique me.
No, it had to be the shirt.
It was a soft gray number, fitting me like a second skin and made of sleek satin. That in of itself wasn't unusual. What were unique were the black vinyl belts that erupted from the shirt's side seams and shoulders, clasping together at my sternum and between my shoulder blades with large silver buckles and forming X's across my chest and back. Two additional straps circumfrenced the bottom of that shirt, wrapping completely around my waist a couple of times before buckling conveniently in with the buckle sported by the studded belt she'd laced through my pants' belt loops. The long sleeves were tucked under black vinyl gloves that clung up half of my forearms, held tightly in place by thick black bands and silver buckles like my shirt. And topping my head was a gray beret with a black vinyl band, buckled like all the others that accosted my body and sporting the Clamp Campus pin to mark me as a student and not just a stray vagabond meandering the grounds.
I don't know what had encouraged her to dress me like that.
She herself had been in a tight black vinyl miniskirt and a shirt that exactly matched my own. Her feet upon arrival had been clad in black high heels that sported straps that raced the length of her legs to end mid thigh. Her gloves, black as mine were, reached instead of to the middle of her forearms to the middle of her biceps.
Shiro-kun almost made me choke on my breakfast when he leaned over and whispered to me that in that outfit we could sell her on the streets for five hundred yen and a happy meal.
Setting all thoughts of my sister's outrageously alluring outfit (and the outrageously impressed stares we drew when we'd met at the bus station that afternoon) out of my mind, I instead focused on the sign at the train's forefront that advertised the area I was passing through. We'd just passed yet another subway stop, heading towards the Tokyo district that was the location of the small shrine Shiro-kun claimed to be near during this era.
Hokuto-chan twiddled her thumbs as she sat beside me. "Neh, Subaru," she began, leaving over to whisper in my ear, "what do you suppose we'll find here?"
"I don't know," I truthfully replied, shaking my head slightly. "I'm hoping that we'll find proof of Shiro-kun's story being true."
"You want his little 'I am from the future' story to be true?" she questioned, arching a brow.
A sigh escaped my lips as I slipped down in my chair, tilting my head slightly to lay it upon her shoulder. "I don't know. It's just that the boy's so troubled that it'd be crushing to discover that his story is false. It's so easy to see the desperate longing in his eyes for us to believe him."
Lifting a hand to lightly pet my hair, she mimicked my sigh and nodded. "And you'd find it impossible to tell him that he's full of crap and kick him out because he's nothing more than a loon who has no capacity to handle reality?"
"Something like that," I admitted as I closed my eyes, enjoying her simple, loving touch.
"Subaru, you're so completely hopeless," she admonished.
"I know."
We remained like that until the next stop, where we needed to depart. Reluctantly separating, we rose and made our way through the terminal crowds to get off of the subway and maneuver to the surface streets.
"So, where's this shrine he's supposedly at, Subaru?" Hokuto-chan immediately chirped as we burst onto the streets and the warm sun's rays immediately accosted our flesh once more.
"It should be just a couple of blocks away," I said, dragging the map I'd carefully copied out of the books we have in the Clamp Library from my backpack. Burying my nose into the paper, I began to walk.
"You know, I wish you'd watch where you're going. That'd save us so many embarrassing little stops."
"Un."
"Mou!"
I ignored her, keeping my eyes to my map, looking up from time to time to catch the name of a street or a number off a building to determine our location in relevance to my reference. Hokuto-chan was good enough of a sport to grab my arm and steer me through the crowds on our small sojourn and keep me from running anyone down in my meandering walk.
It was nearly half an hour that passed after we'd left the subway terminal before we came to a halt in front of a small, unassuming little shrine tucked away into a nice residential area.
"This is it?" Hokuto-chan asked, arching a brow and scrunching her nose. "Not very big."
"It's not meant to be," I replied, tucking the map away into a pocket of my backpack once again. "This is it, though. Togakushi."
We both snuck to the gate as stealthily as we could and peeked inside.
I was astonished at what I saw.
Within those grounds, under a large sakura tree, was a sand box. Seated in the middle of that pit of white play sand was a small boy in baggy blue jeans and a loose red sweatshirt with a hood sewn onto it bearing a bucket and a shovel, humming happily to himself as he patted down the wall of the structure he was building, smoothing out the imperfections that raced through its construction.
The sunlight skittered playfully off his mussed black hair that swept in long, playful bangs over slender eyebrows.
Looking up, he smiled brightly at his play companions who were approaching from the house.
One of those two children coming from the nearby structure was a beautiful little girl with wavy blonde hair and lovely hazel eyes that stared at the world with unmatched innocence. Skipping over, her long white dress decorated with bright blue flowers swirling about her body in playful waves and her Mary Jane incased feet tapping lightly on the pavement, she laughed as she bounded into the sand box to sit beside the boy busily building in that pit. She took care to straighten her large brimmed sunhat before waving at the other youth who had been her walking companion.
The other child, a young boy with dark hair that stuck wildly out from the sides of his head and hung in ragged bangs to their termination at his eyebrows, grinned merrily as he shuffled to the sand box himself, his sneakers scraping along the sidewalk. Without care to the condition of his tiny designer jeans or his white t-shirt, he crawled into the pit alongside of the girl and looked with deep brown eyes at the mussed-haired boy who tapped at the walls of his sandcastle once again.
The child who had originally caught my eyes, the boy with the shovel, turned towards Hokuto-chan and myself. For one brief instant I'd feared that we'd been caught in our spying before I realized that he was simply looking at his two companions who were seated beside him.
I was entranced completely by those lovely amethyst eyes that sparkled in the sunlight as he laughed and happily talked to his friends. Straining my ears, I listened in to their merry conversation.
"What're you doing, Kamui?" the dark haired boy asked brightly.
"I'm building a castle for Kotori and me, Fuuma!" the purple-eyed boy proclaimed.
"Wow! That sure is going to be a nice castle when you're done with it, huh?" the boy named 'Fuuma' responded, staring at the mound in the center of the box. "Are you going to have enough sand to make it all?"
"If I run out, I'll ask Mom to get me some more from the hardware store," the child identified as 'Kamui' replied with a smile.
"It'd better be a lot bigger if it's for both of us!" the girl said merrily.
"It will be!" Kamui said, his face coloring slightly, his little brows knitting in frustration. "I just started on it a little while ago, Kotori!"
"Kamui-chan's such a hard worker," Kotori chirped before scooting herself next to the little construction worker. "I'll help!"
"But I'm building this for you," Kamui whimpered.
"Does that mean I can't help?" Kotori sniffed, looking at him with huge, watery eyes.
"Let us both help, Kamui! That way we can make sure it's a huge castle, and it won't take as much time," Fuuma interjected brightly.
Kamui seemed to consider that for a moment before turning the brightest smile I could imagine to his two little friends. "OK!"
I managed to swallow an apprehensive gulp as I blinked. "Oh my god," I found myself whispering.
"That's him, isn't it?" Hokuto-chan breathed quietly behind me, her hot breath bathing my ear.
"Aa," I confirmed, even as I watched little Kotori dump a bucket of sand over Kamui's head with a bright laugh.
As Kamui burst into tears and Fuuma chased after the running blonde girl, Hokuto-chan and I backed away from the small shrine's gates and started our trek back to the subway terminal. My head was already struggling against the weight of the evidence just shown to me to confirm my houseguest's outrageous claim of futuristic heritage.
That was Kamui.
That six-year-old boy playing in the sandbox was Shiro Kamui.
There was no way to deny that simple fact. The same mussed black hair in relatively the same cut and style sprawled over the child's head. The same general face, though more round with the baby fat that clings to all children during their earliest years, was featured on that small boy as was on the teenager who was sleeping on my couch.
And those eyes….
Those beautiful eyes would be nearly impossible to imitate with their rich hue.
Yes, they were more innocent and bright with childish glee and merriment than those of my houseguest. Shiro-kun's eyes were dark and brooding, flooded with the sorrow of a tormented past and tortured soul. But in their brightest moments, those few instances where he'd look at me and smile like he did during dinner and a few times during this week when I'd thanked him for helping me around the house, they shined as brightly and as cutely as those the child I had stared at did.
And then there was the aura.
That was the most astonishing piece of evidence I had.
The boy in that sandbox veritably dripped raw psychic power, his spirit screaming of undiscovered strength, roaring for release like a dragon locked in its egg's shell and unable to burst free without an initial crack granted to give it freedom. So innocent, yet carrying so much potential for destruction….
Or salvation.
He radiated both. The Power of God's Will and the power of He Who Hunts God's Will. The strength and savagery of both the Dragon of Heaven and the Dragon of Earth. Yin and Yang. Both swirled and clashed within his spiritual being, writhing just out of reach and just under control under a shield of blissful ignorance.
Just the mere presence of that horrible strength was nearly overwhelming.
And the fact that it was mirrored exactly by the boy who'd smiled so merrily at him and decided to take it upon himself to help the amethyst eyed Dragon with his creation had nearly rocked me entirely. I'm not an idiot – I realized the very moment I laid eyes upon them what it was I was seeing.
'Kamui' and his twin star.
Both Dragons, present at the same location in the same era, carefully hidden from those who would seek them only by their immaturity and their unawareness as to their own destinies.
I was silent all the way back to our apartment.
Hokuto-chan, oddly enough, was just as silent as I was, contenting herself with simply holding my hand until we'd reached our destination.
"So it is true?" Seishiro-san murmured into his mug as he leaned against the counter.
"Aa," I replied as I lifted the teapot to fill my own mug and prepared to refill his. "He was telling the truth. We saw him today, right where he'd said he'd be. He was playing in a sandbox with his friends."
"Very interesting," Seishiro-san replied to my answer, letting his gaze fall away from me and rove instead towards the living room where Hokuto-chan was conversing quietly with Shiro-kun. "I am finding myself wondering why he's here. Certainly time travel isn't part of the power repertoire of the 'Kamui,' neh?"
"I don't believe so," I said with a shake of my head while I refilled Seishiro-san's mug with fresh, hot tea. "Yes, he has the power to rend most of Tokyo asunder with naught more than a snit fit, but I don't see the potential for ripping the space-time continuum itself. There must have just been some cosmic mistake – or a grand cosmic joke – in effect."
"Who would do this, though? And for what purpose?"
"You're asking questions I can't hope to answer, Seishiro-san," I said softly.
"Ah, sorry Subaru-kun. I was simply pondering to myself out loud. Don't concern yourself," he said with a bright smile upon his lips. Lifting his mug he took a sip of his tea. "Another wonderful pot!" he proclaimed cheerfully.
I let myself smile despite my worries over my houseguest and the implications of his presence. "Arigato," I murmured. "You compliment me, even though I know I can't hold a candle to Hokuto-chan."
"Nonsense. When it comes to that toaster or that water spigot, you're a master," the veterinarian chirped.
Feeling my cheeks color, I bowed my head. "Seishiro-san," I muttered under my breath.
A light laugh erupted from him even as he reached across the counter to grasp my hand firmly in his, lifting it as to press the vinyl material to his lips. "Ah, Subaru-kun, don't worry yourself over Kamui-chan's situation. I'm certain we'll figure out what happened given time. It might have been something so simple as a powerful wish and a proper stimulation of his mind driving the power of the Dragon of Heaven itself to propel him back and give him an opportunity to live his desires."
I fought the continued reddening of my face that was occurring thanks to Seishiro-san's behavior and pondered instead his suggestion. "That would make sense."
"However, let's not worry ourselves about it. He's here, and that simple fact probably won't be changing any time soon. If it was an occurrence that happened due to a wish, it won't be reversing itself until that wish is either granted or proven impossible to grant. If it's due to a cosmic joke, it will play out until it's satisfied and everyone who had a hand in it has had his or her laugh. If it was due to something else entirely, who knows when this will end? So it's obvious there's not going to be a day in our near future that we'll find his presence gone entirely from our time."
Seishiro-san had a gift for always finding the underlying string of common sense in even the most abstract and obscure happenings. Nodding with his logic, I slowly withdrew my hand from his grip lest either my sister or my houseguest come marching into the kitchen for tea or refreshments.
"So let's simply enjoy our little guest's presence while he's with us, neh?" Seishiro-san finished even as he smiled when my hand removed itself from his grasp.
"Aa," I replied, letting my gaze fall upon the back of Hokuto-chan and Shiro-kun's heads as they sat side by side on the couch in the midst of some heated discussion.
"It could give us a wonderful opportunity to learn what happens, neh?" the veterinarian immediately piped up. "It would be wonderful if he could tell us our condition in regards to one another!"
"I'd rather not find out," I grunted, shaking my head. "Leave the future for the future. Knowledge could disrupt whatever's destined to happen."
"Ah, are you going to start with your thesis from last year's paper again?"
I grinned in spite of myself, my lips turning shyly yet haughtily towards their desired expression. "It was an excellent paper."
"I know. I've read it," Seishiro-san said with a smile and a nod. "So you don't need to explain to me why alteration of the past can never result in a desirable future."
"Then don't make me repeat it with silly suggestions, Seishiro-san," I said with a light laugh.
At that moment, Hokuto-chan decided to join us. My eyes widened slightly catching the ponderous and sullen look upon her face. "Hokuto-chan?" I began, concern flooding my voice.
She immediately smiled, her face brightening and losing what sadness had clung to it. "Any of that tea left?" she sidetracked, avoiding my questioning eyes with a grin.
"Aa," I replied, getting her a cup and pouring it full of brew. Handing it to her, I leaned over the counter. "Neh, what were you talking about?"
"Nonsense things," Hokuto-chan replied as she lifted her cup to her lips and took a sip. "I was finding out about those other two kids with him and what happened to them in his time."
I frowned. "Oh really?"
"Aa. Seems that they're the source of half of his nightmares," she replied.
The nightmares were a regular nuance among us all these days. Indeed, I'd been awakened three times over the week to his thrashing and crying out in the darkest hours of the night.
It was barely Thursday, too. Not even one week since he'd begun to stay with me. Just one day beyond the week since I'd dreamed his eyes in my slumber, seen his aura burst into reality along with my own in that empty dreamscape.
He'd wrapped himself in his blankets each of those three nights he'd had his terrible dreams, nearly strangling himself in his sleep as he cried out the names of those children I'd seen earlier at that small nearly-hidden shrine.
Kotori.
Fuuma.
I didn't want to think of what might have happened, of what he'd revealed to Hokuto-chan about this diabolical future he hailed from.
Just as I didn't want to think of what horrible events had managed to so destroy the innocence that flooded the eyes of the six-year-old I'd seen playing in the sandbox.
As Seishiro-san and Hokuto-chan turned their conversation conveniently towards the subject of dinner, I reflected instead on the boy who sulked on my couch. On the implications his presence presented, on the possibilities of future events displayed by his sullen eyes, on the horrible suggestions given by his sad state in contrast to his happy childhood self as he played with the children who now were the subjects of his nightmares
I couldn't join Seishiro-san and Hokuto-chan in their nonsense discussion and instead folded my gloved hands under my chin, staring off into the distance of the blank wall behind my kitchen companions as I reflected on all of the day's discoveries.
tbc...