9. Past.
T: Only four more chapters left to go if it makes anyone any happier! That and the slash warning is going up (at last!)…apart from that though everything remains as it was and I still fail to own anything other than the plot and Orito.
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The instant that Sumeragi-san's fingers connect with his forehead he feels 'uncomfortable'…
It is a sensation that continues to progress until it is painful enough that a cry escapes his lips…
At that moment Sumeragi-san's hands are replaced with the more familiar sensation of his fathers and again the sharp shock of a spell tingles across his body.
The last time this spell had drowned him completely and from the moment of its casting until the moment of its fracturing he had been completely unaware of himself.
This time, however, he remains, briefly, in enough of a cognitive state that, when the fuzzy image of a dream appears before him, he knows that it is not his own.
The scene is a familiar one and, watching its progression, he feels a warm content lift his heart.
A group of boys are pushing and teasing the dreamer, their words as a knife to his fragile heart.
A spark of a simple spell passes over head and the group splits down the middle.
Clear now in the divide is his own face, a little younger than it is now and twisted into a mimicry of his father's empty smile.
"I believe you were just leaving, were you not?"
The gaggle looks to one another and, as one, they run from the scene.
His dream self steps towards the dreamer and extending his hand he enquires,
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, thank you…"
"My name is Sakurazuka Orito and it was my pleasure…"
"I am Kizuki Kamui." The dreamer remarks as he extends his hand out.
At the instant of contact Orito is met with a flash of images both of the present and of the past…
…Kamui lying, unconscious, upon the floor of a darkened cell, blood clear upon his face…
…Kamui's first hesitant introduction of his twin and the instant distaste in Fuuma's eyes…
…Kamui's kidnapper crouched over the boy, his lips forming words can not hear…
…Kamui casting a spell in order to find him, the concentration upon his Shikigami enough that he senses his attacker a moment too late…
As his father's sleeping spell finally begins to swamp his awareness he hears the kidnapper's words and wishes, with the strongest of sincerity, that he had the strength to fight the spell…
That he might, somehow, magically transport to Kamui's side.
"When your uncle contacts you tell him that you are surrounded by an intricate spell that, when activated, shall cause you to die in a slow and painful manner…one whiff of the police or a sign of a rescue and I will trigger it.
"For now do nothing, I'll contact him by phone when the time is right."
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The pail blue of the wallpaper that greats him as he awakes is a quick tell that he is in his sister's apartment.
The reason for this remains illusive until he raises his hand to brush his hair from his face and feels the course texture of bandaging.
Aware that Hokuto needs him with her he pushes himself, as gently as possible, into a sitting position and is greatly annoyed when, but a moment later, his head is again pressed against the pillow.
"There has just been a great toll placed upon your body and thus you would be best to let it rest, rather than attempt to push it further."
If he twists his head a little to the right he can just see Seishiro's face, the smile that is on his lips ill befitting the concern in the other's voice and thus clearly little more than an illusion.
"Why should my welfare matter to you?"
"Because I care for you."
"Why lie about such a matter, Seishiro-san?"
"It is not a lie."
"Even if I trusted you enough to believe that, there is still the matter of your son between us."
"Would you have preferred me to bring my child into the Bet also? To use both Orito and the tragic story of his mother's demise to goad you into pitying me further?"
"I would have preferred that you had never started the game…if you had simply let me go."
"Yet I could not do such a thing."
"Why? Why choose me, why create such a pointless Bet and why did you not simply kill me at the end of it?"
"I was drawn to you and that is why you were chosen, the Bet was not as pointless as you believe and I did not kill you because, in reality, I had been the one to loose."
He wishes both to believe in these words and to discount them as little more than a continuation of the game…wishes both to trust Seishiro implicitly and to discount his every thought, word and action.
It is a division that he knows can not easily be resolved and that he has no want to dwell upon when there is a more important thing to consider.
"Has neesan heard from the kidnappers?"
"No and I take it from that question that the process was unsuccessful."
"I fear so."
"Might I ask why?"
"I am not certain but it was most likely that I was not quite strong enough to maintain the spell for the time required to connect to Kamui."
"What of the opening of your scars?"
"Orito's emotions were strong enough that they threatened to engulf me, a threat that I was saved from merely for the intervention of the Tree."
"I see."
He had expected another display of Seishiro's 'concern', this more intense than the last and akin enough to the displays of affection that the Sakurazuka had shown during the Year, that he would be in no doubt to its falsity.
Thus the quiet acceptance of the matter is unnerving and he is filled with the sudden compulsion to spark another argument between them, if only so that things might be restored to a surer footing.
"I've unsettled you."
He tenses and the laughter that spills from Seishiro's lips is so very sincere that he turns his head in order to look at the others expression.
He is not completely surprised to see that, while he has had his back to the other, Seishiro has moved a little closer to the bed.
The genuine emotion clear in his one remaining eye is, however, unexpected and for a long moment he can do nothing but stair.
Eventually he finds his voice and enquires,
"What do you find so amusing?"
"How shocked you were that I knew your thought process."
"It is a little strange to be amused by such a thing, is it not?"
"For you, perhaps, but for myself…" He pulls his chair as close to the bed as possible and, leaning forward, the other places a hand to his forehead. "I am amused that you believe that you are as a stranger to me and I am amused that, for a while, I also believed as such.
"Yet, it seems that though your eyes are closed from me, I can tell still your most intimate thoughts…can sense your emotive state simply by reading the tension in your mussels; something for which I am infinitely glad."
"Why?"
"Because I never wish you to become as an unknown thing to me and because I have no wish for the year we spent together to have mean nothing."
"That makes no sense."
"I know and yet I believe it might do if only you gave me another chance…if only you would allow me back into your life even for the briefest of moments."
"You have betrayed me once before, Seishiro-san...used me and tore away my heart as though it were little more than garbage…
"Thus to allow you close again… to open myself up to the possibility of being hurt as such again…"
Seishiro leases his hold upon his face and, a false smile again on his lips, he remarks, "Of course…I understand," before he gains his feet and heads for the doorway.
He cannot allow Seishiro to step so swiftly from his life, not when there is a possibility that the other might be as he had initially believed him and, fighting away his dizziness, he comes to the other's side and pulls him into a hug.
"Though it is a difficult thing to do, though it is more than likely foolish, I wish to trust you…wish to hope that perhaps together we can learn to understand what you mean by those words."
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T: Seishiro's basically saying that he does not regret getting to know Subaru and that he wishes to continue on learning more of the other…it's something I'm sure those two will figure out as they go along! Next chapter will be up Tues as I have a party Sat night and will be spending Sunday in bed! Until then R+R