8. Scars.
T: This chapter is a little shorter than those previous mainly because it is my problem chapter for this fic…thus beware the possible drop in standard and don't worry I'm back on form for the next chapter! The things in the smaller bold type are memories and the smaller italic is inner thought…trust me will make sense when you read the chapter! Nothing here is mine apart from the plot and Orito.
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The shrill sound of the telephone eventually interrupts Hokuto's tale of her romance and aids also to dispel the levity that the other had fallen into.
Her face hardening into a maturity that suits her features well, she crosses the room and lifting the thing to her lips remarks,
"Kizuki desu." The relaxing of her boy tells him that it is not, as she had feared, the kidnappers, but rather some other individual.
She is 'talking' to her caller for but a minuet before she is setting the phone back onto the cradle.
"Subaru is on his way over."
This information sends a small thrill through his body and smiling he enquires,
"Do you wish me to leave?"
"It would not feel right of me to ask you to move Orito-kun again and we both know that this meeting was all but inevitable."
"Things may become a little strained."
"I know and yet still I will not ask you to go…I want you here even if he doesn't."
Hokuto returns to her tale at that and she has just reached its conclusion when he feels a familiar pull on his magical senses,
"He is here." He remarks as a knock on the door sends Hokuto from the room.
Subaru has changed so very much from the last he had seen him…has grown into an all but unattainable beauty…and for an instant he can do nothing but stair.
Then Subaru whispers his name, the sound so heartbreakingly sincere that he can not but smile.
"It is good to see you again, Subaru-kun."
The uncertainty in the other's eyes hardens into a sharp anger and turning to his sister he enquires,
"What is he doing here?"
"Sei-chan has come to offer his help."
"And how, pray tell, did he know that you needed help?"
"Because I told him Kamui was in trouble…because I can feel every moment of his pain and how very scared he is…" This last is Orito, the last remnants of the sleeping spell that his father had placed him under showing clearly as a fatigue in his eyes. "Forgive me, Kizuki-san…if I had but stayed at his side rather than running from him as I did…"
Hokuto crosses the space and, leaning down, she presses a soft kiss to Orito's forehead.
"You can not blame yourself for what has happened…you are, after all, not the one who has taken Kamui from us."
"No and yet I might as well have been."
It is disconcerting to see Orito so completely over whelmed by despair if only because he knows he can not help his son free of this emotion…knows that he can do nothing other than hope that Hokuto will be able to turn his child's misery around.
Subaru has, until this point, remained in the arch of the doorway simply watching things progress from afar, yet as his sister opens her mouth in order to further comfort Orito he too comes to kneel at the boy's side.
"Would you give me permission to cross into your mind?"
"'Cross into' my mind?"
"It is an old magical technique that has been passed down through my clan for generations and through it I might be able to establish some form of a link with Kamui."
"Then I give you my permission without hesitation, Sumeragi-san."
He wonders how his son had learned the truth…wonders how he had reacted to the news and he makes a note to pose these questions to the child. For the moment, however, there is a more pressing matter to attend to.
"No matter your skill, Subaru-kun it shall not be an easy thing to breach through Orito's defences."
"Yet I have to try."
It is, of course, the expected response and smiling he remarks,
"You are still very cute, Subaru-kun."
The other flinches at the comment and yet he resists the temptation to retort, this another clear indication that the Onmyoji has grown greatly since their last encounter.
It seemed he was in for an unexpected, yet welcomed, challenge.
………………………………………………………………………………
He has uses this spell only twice in his life and on each occasion the other participant has been both unconscious of his 'invasion' and all but magically inept.
Thus working the spell upon one aware of his presence and of a unique magical strength, poses a new and interesting challenge.
It little helps that he can not quite snuff his curiosity in regard to his 'host' and that he is thus continually distracted by the memories that are passing by him.
It is a distraction that fades when he becomes snared into a particularly strong memory…
…Kamui stands a little before him, his face pulled into a visible look of distaste and his mouth forming the conclusion of a sentence,
"…it is everything that the Sumeragi-clan…the clan that shall one day be mine…opposes."…
The sharp stab of that admission is almost as an electrical shock and it severs to rouse an overwhelming guilt in his 'host'.
'I should have weathered this discomfort…should have placed a greater faith in Kamui's friendship.' This is his 'host's' internal voice and the shear force of the emotion within it overwhelms him.
: Caution, Sumeragi, if you loose your concentration then you shall be lost. :
He knows, though he has never heard it before, that this is the voice of the tree and it's black emotionless serves to bring back a little of his clarity.
: I wish to help you, Sumeragi…wish to assure Orito's happiness…but to do as such I need your cooperation…need you to give yourself over to me. :
He smiles and, stretching his hands out, he says,
"I am already yours."
He seems the scars on his hands begin to burn…feels a sharp agony sweep him and then he knows no more.
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She watches, unmoving, as the backs of her brother's hands begin to bleed…watches, frozen, as he collapses onto the floor…
It is only when her ears register the sound of Orito screaming that she comes back to herself…that reality comes flowing back in.
Seishiro has, by this point, placed his son back into a deep sleep and has leant over to inspect the wounds on Subaru's hands.
"What happened?"
"Backlash is the best bet and yet we shall have to wait to see if that is indeed the case." There is a distance clear in the other's voice and, though she knows there are other, more pressing, concerns, she can not but enquire,
"Are you not worried?"
"Subaru-kun has suffered more sever injury than this and survived."
"What of your son?"
The other tenses and she knows then, beyond doubt, that he has changed…that he is more than she had come to believe him.
"Tree-san will have assured that no real harm has come to him."
"And that comforts you, does it?"
"It is more a comfort to me than the thought of Orito relying on myself for aid."
"Why?"
"Because of what I am, because of what I have done and because of what I would ask of him."
She can think of no way to reply to this and the silence draws out enough to become uncomfortable.
Eventually Seishiro leases his hold upon her brother's hand and smiling genially he enquires,
"Might I bother you for a cup of tea?"
Thankful for the distraction both from the difficult silence and her worry, she returns the other's smile and enquires,
"As it's going to be a while before Subaru is awake why don't I bake us a cake as well?"
"Would you care for a hand?"
"You can mix the icing"
"Sounds perfect."
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T: Da dah! Next chapter will be Sunday that the latest and until then R+R