2. Friend.
T: Thus begins the plot proper! Have decided not to bore you with a musing on the development of the plot and to let you just enjoy the thing as it progresses! Thus I say that this chapter has an OC and remains AU but apart from that it is relatively tame. Italics and things inside :these: still mean what they did last chapter! I fear that I own nothing you see here other than the rather ropy plot line!
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
One of the few perks of being trained, from a young age, in all imaginable forms of combat was that it had fine tuned his body and had thus made the more physical aspects of his education less of a chore than they might otherwise have been.
It was something that, as a showman, he took advantage of whenever he could and that had earned him a rather sizable 'fan club.'
"Sakurazuka-san, I baked you some more of those oat cookies!"
"Thank you Miri-san, I am sure that I shall enjoy them as much as I did the last batch."
"Sakurazuka-san, I found another book on rare martial arts that I thought you might like to read."
"Thank you Kiri-san, I am sure the knowledge within these pages shall help to fine tune my art."
"Sakurazuka-san, is it true that you are looking to enter the national martial arts tournament that begins next month?"
This last comes from the softly spoken sectary of the security division and the sound of his voice acts as the strangest of deterrents for the crowd.
"Thank you, Takumura-san."
"After years of suffering the same thing I consider it my pleasure, Sakurazuka-san. But as to my enquiry…"
"I am not yet certain as to whether I should enter."
"You are highly skilled in your art, Sakurazuka-san and you are doing well enough in your lessons that it should not be too harmful for you to miss or week or two…"
"I am honoured to receive such praise of my skills from one such as you, Takumura-san and it is true that my school work would not suffer from the time I would need to take away from lessons…"
"However?"
"However, I believe my ties to the city are enough that it would hurt me to break them for even the shortest amount of time."
"Would one of those 'ties' be Kizuki-san by any chance?"
"How did you know about Kamui?"
"I have seen the two of you together occasionally at lunch time and it was clear in the way you treated the lad that you have some affection for him."
"You are an only child, are you not Takumura-san?"
"That is correct."
"Then you shall understand a little of the loneliness that I have felt while growing up…shall understand, I think, why it is that Kamui has become so important in my life."
"The friendship you have found with him has filled a little of the emptiness in your heart…has made you feel as though you are of worth to someone other than yourself?"
"Yes, that is it precisely."
The Takumura bows deeply and informs him, "Do not let anyone tell you that you have made an error in this choice, Sakurazuka-san," before he leaves his side at last.
……………………………………………………………………………….
His lunch is taken, as always, amongst the small cluster of sakura trees that grow in one corner of the campus's vast garden.
His mind is on matters other than his bento, this something his companion notes swiftly and, with his usual polite demeanour, the other enquires,
"Has something occurred today to trouble you, Orito-sempai?"
"I've warned you before about calling me 'Sempai' Kamui-kun."
"I am sorry…"
"I have also warned you about apologising needlessly."
"I shall try my best not to do it again, Orito-san."
The boy's smile is enough to shift a little of his maudlin mood and he begins, at last, to consume his lunch with his usual gusto.
He still can not quiet lay his finger upon how someone so utterly opposed to him had become his one and only friend and yet he has long since given up searching for a definitive reason for his attachment to the Kizuki.
"So what were you thinking about?" He tenses a little at the unwarranted question and Kamui can not help a small chuckle at his reaction. "I may be eight years your junior, Orito-san, but I am not stupid. You used my formal manner and your dislike if it in order to avoid answering my question."
"Your brother becomes a bad influence upon you."
"As I am on him and yet you are avoiding the question again."
"I happened into the company of Takumura-san today."
"Do you mean Takumura Suoh?"
"I do."
"Should not such a meeting be a thing of excitement for you rather than something to bring you distress?"
"It was a great pleasure to finally be able to talk to him and yet the subject he chose for our discussion…"
"So this is to do with that competition again, is it? I thought I had told you that you should go."
"As I told you last time I can not simply walk away from you, Kamui-kun, no matter your assurance that you'll be 'fine'."
"You can not shelter me forever, Orito-san…both for your sake and my own…" The last of the sentence dies in the boy's lips and the guilt in his eyes is enough to show that he has been pressed to say something he had wished to keep secret.
Indeed but a moment later he turns his head a little from him and says,
"It's better you pretend I didn't say that."
"I had thought that we had agreed never to keep secrets."
"It is not a secret; it's simply me being silly."
"That statement is not quite true."
Kamui tenses and suddenly he looks so much older than he should…looks so very unlike himself that Orito wishes that he might take back the last few moments of this conversation.
"I have told you before that I am of an 'influential' Onmyoji family, have I not?"
"That is correct."
"I have recently been told that my powers are likely to mature enough that I shall be the most obvious candidate to one day succeed my uncle as clan head.
"This means that once day I shall be taken from all those I love dearly and forced to endure the succession rights on my own.
"I believe that such a separation would be all the harder to bear if I was as accustomed then, as I am now, to having you at my side…thus would it be better for my sake if you began to lease a little of your hold on my life."
"How do you believe such a thing would benefit myself?"
"You do not need me always there beside you, Orito-san, for my presence would become to you, eventually, as a stone, weighting you further and further down until inevitably…"
"Enough!" It is a show of his upbringing that the word is not shouted and yet there is venom enough within it to start Kamui from the almost trance like state that he had fallen into. "I have no wish to listen to belittle yourself any further, Kamui-kun, nor do I wish to hear you speak as though your path in life has been set merely for the strength of the magic in your blood."
"You make it sound as though refusing such a path is simple and yet…"
"You have a responsibility to uphold?"
"'responsibility' is not quite the word I would use…it is more that I have a want to make my uncle proud…" There is an apology hidden within the words and a guilt clear in the boy's eyes that he knows is there partially for his sake.
"I can understand your want to do well for one you care for, Kamui-kun and I am sorry that I raised my voice against you."
"I should not have said anything."
"Or rather I should not have pushed you to do as such."
There is a long silence and then the boy smiles one of his rare, open, smiles that seem always to make everything right and he enquires,
"You're father is home from his conference today, is he not?"
As far as the entirety of the Clamp Campus was aware Sakurazuka Seishiro was a high ranking official within the government; it was a lie he and his father had built together and that held enough of a truth that no one had yet questioned its validity.
It had also, of late, been a useful way to explain the ling journeys that his father had been taking and thus his absence from various parent/teacher interaction activities.
"That is correct."
"He has been gone longer this time than is normal, has he not?"
"He has."
"Are you not lonely on your own?"
"Sometimes."
The boy considers the honesty of his reply and then he remarks,
"You could always come to my house one day…things there are probably a little noisier than you are used to what with mama's singing and Fuuma-'nii's music, but we are all very friendly and I'm sure papa would offer you the quiet of his study if things got too hectic…"
"I would be more than happy to come and see your house."
"Then I'll ask mama."
The shrill sound of the bell cuts through the companionable silence that falls between them and, shrugging his bag back over his shoulders, Kamui remarks,
"I'll see you soon, Orito-san."
"See you."
: That child shall be your downfall should you allow him any closer. :
'I believe I am free to make my own mistakes, am I not?'
: Somehow I knew that you would say something along those lines. :
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
T: This chapter is actually shorter than those that come after it, this to make up for the giant nature of the first chapter and also so that I could end on that Semi cliffy! I should have the next chapter up on Tuesday but until then R+R!