3. Family.
T: This is a chapter I'm sure you've all been waiting for! This is all I will say on the matter! Beware the semi cliff hanger at the end but apart from that everything remains about the same warning wise! I own the plot and Orito (who is available for borrowing if you ask nicely!) but nothing else here.
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There is the stale smell of tobacco in the apartment and this, coupled with the smart Armani brief case abandoned in the hall, can men only one thing.
His father was home.
He finds the elder Sakurazuka sat in the living room, his one good eye focused on a newspaper and a troubled frown clear on his lips.
"Something not to your liking, father?"
"It seems that the political situation has become even more volatile since the last I was in Tokyo." The frown vanishes as though it had never been there and tossing the newspaper to the table his father remarks, "Let me look at you then."
He comes to stand before the other and at this angle he can see both his father's healthy left eye and the pearly white of his right.
This eye recalls to him always the one terrible year when he had been completely without his father's company.
That year had served to make him realise how much he needed his father within his life and also to open his eyes to the fragility beneath his father's diffidence.
For the other had come home at the end of that year not only physically changed but also mentally also.
He'd asked, once, as to what his father had done during that year and as to how he had lost his eye…
The cold dismissal he had received had been enough that he had not again enquired after the matter, but had not, as had been his father's wish, served to snuff his curiosity.
"Have you been in contact with any unusual individuals recently?"
The image of the powerful stranger he had met in Ueno flashes briefly in his mind and, curious, he enquires,
"Why?"
"The aura about you is slightly altered."
"Altered how?"
"It feels more as my own magic than it used to."
: Tell him it is his imagination, or construct a story. :
'Why?'
: Because he does not need to know of that other. :
'I suppose that I am still to be kept ignorant also?'
: Yes. :
Feeling more than a little put out he flashes his father a smile and remarks,
"I've been spending a great deal of time with Tree-san of late and that's most likely why my aura feels different."
"Yes, that must be it."
The silence stretches long enough to become difficult and desiring to change the subject he enquires,
"Where did you go this time?"
"Hong Kong."
"That would explain why you were so long this time…did you find anything interesting?"
"I met a gentleman who is practicing a martial art of a sort I have not seen before and that might be of use to us in training.
"You see it is all down to the positioning of the feet…"
He listens to his father's description of the new marital art with half an ear to assure that he can answer the other if he poses a question, and turns his mind again to the matter of these trips.
His father claimed that they were imperative to assure that they remained at the very top of their game, yet, though this was as viable a reason as any, Orito could not help thinking there was more to it.
It could not simply be co-incidence that the trips had begun after the Tree had had its talk to his father…
Could not simply be co-incidence that his father had begun to wonder after being told such a life altering truth.
He could not begin to imagine how his father must have felt as Tree-san had told him, as gently as possible, that his mother had been all but insane.
: She was not mentally capable of dealing with the 'practical' side of being Sakurazukamori. : The Tree had explained when he had pressed it:: She dealt with it eventually by shutting away her hear and I was content to allow her that escape…in the end it was that acceptance that caused this whole terrible mess, for Setsuka began to believe that I wished my protector emotionless.
: That belief she pushed onto your father and, if that was not enough, she then decided to tell him that the only way to become Sakurazukamori was to kill the previous owner of that title…decided to twist his young mind until he believed this as the solid truth of his world…until he had little choice but to kill his own mother. :
He had understood, then, a little of the anguish that was present now always within his father's eyes…
Had understood and forgiven the elder Sakurazuka's sudden need to be somewhere other than Tokyo.
"…But I fear that I begin to bore you and don't try to deny it, Orito, I see it well in your eyes."
"Forgive me father."
"On one condition."
"What?"
"You can make desert."
"Deal!"
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The apartment is a little more modest than he has become used to and yet there is a warmth in the space that makes it seem, somehow, larger.
"Mama is out at a shoot and that means we'll be eating take-away for tea." Kamui remarks as he toes off his shoes.
"Something that I would appreciate you kept between us, for my wife believes that the twins eat healthily when she is away and I would prefer that it remains as such." This comment comes from a medium set gentleman whom, despite the light blond of his hair, can only be Kamui's father.
"Good evening, Kizuki-san, I am Sakurazuka Orito and I am thankful for the honour of being invited into your home." He remarks as he bows as deeply as he can.
"I am Kizuki Kakyo and I would ask that you drop the formality as much as you feel able, Sakurazuka-kun, you are, after all, all but part of this family."
"Thank you, Kizuki-san."
"Come and see mama's studio." Kamui remarks as he pulls his wrist into a gentle hold.
The room in question is full of length upon length of exotic fabric, two perfectly proportioned dressers manikins and picture upon picture of models dressed in very uniquely styled clothing.
"It's certainly a very unique collection."
"Mama says that's why people love it so much."
"Kamui-nii mama said to stay out of her studio!"
"I was just showing it to Orito-san." The lad remarks as he brushes past his brother and back into the hall.
Fuuma regard him with the same wary glare as always and bowing he says,
"Good evening, Sakurazuka-sempi."
"Good evening Kizuki-kun."
The tension between them becomes all but tangible and is broken only by the sound of Kamui requesting,
"Come and see my room, Orito-san."
"If you will excuse me."
"Of course."
The evening flows in a similar vein, Kamui showing him the more interesting aspects of the apartment and he both amused by the others overly eager attitude and a little unsettled by the watchful eye that Fuuma had placed him under.
Despite this slight discomfort he feels at home in the apartment and, by the time the meal arrives, he is settled enough that he has completely let go his previously formal manner.
"Kamui tells me that you are skilled in a number of marital arts, Orito-kun."
"That is true, Kizuki-san; my father worried about me being alone, you see, and so he taught me to defend myself.
"As I've grown up he's updated that training with some very oblique disciplines and thus my skill in this regard.
"Indeed he came back from his conference last week with stories of a very rare discipline that he's discovered while in Hong Kong."
"Would that be the discipline that concentrates upon balance and foot positioning?"
"That is correct."
"The master of that particular discipline is supposed to very secretive…I wonder how your father managed to talk to him."
"You'd be better off talking to father about that."
The front door clicks open and there is a cheery cry of "Tadima" that brings a smile to the lips of Kamui's father.
"It seems that you are about to be graced with the presence of the lady of the house, Orito-kun." He remarks as he gains his feet.
The first thing he notices about the new arrival is the bright violet of her dress and the deep red of the lace that runs about the thing.
The second is the bright green of her eyes and how akin she looks to he that Orito had meet in Ueno.
Her smile has become a little less than it had as she had crossed into the living room and, one hand rubbing absently at the area of skin above her heart, she enquires,
"Who is this then?"
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T: Warned you about the cliff-hanger, did I not? Next chapter up tomorrow afternoon and until then R+R!