XXX
Story: [An Ashikabi's Pet]
Summary: Orphan meets orphan, healthy meets sickly, jaded meets kind. And Uzume is not at all jealous. Not even a little bit.
Genre: Family
XXX
Harry picked at the odd fabric, not entirely sure what to think of it.
On the one hand, it was clean. On the other hand, it felt more uncomfortable than Dudley's castoffs had ever done.
He wasn't sure what was going to happen from here on out, but he was resolutely keeping quiet about his name. They knew he was English, there was no way he could hide that, but as long as he didn't tell them his name, they probably wouldn't be able to find his relatives, and that meant that he wouldn't be forced to go back there.
Harry had not survived for three months on the streets of Japan just to go back to sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs.
Taking another look around the room, Harry sighed in disgust.
Blank walls, blank ceiling, blank floors, blank bed, blank everything. At least the cupboard was a kind of home, even if only by the smallest margin of such. This place was too clean.
And they expected him to stay cooped up in here for another week, just to make sure they hadn't missed anything that he might've picked up on the streets.
Harry twitched.
No. No, he wasn't staying here. Not in this too clean bed in this too clean room.
He needed to do something.
Bare feet hesitantly lowering to the ground, a sharp ear listening for any sounds that might imply someone coming in case he needed to pretend as if escaping wasn't at all something that he was doing, Harry went exploring.
XXX
Chiho leaned back into her pillows with a huff.
She was bored.
Uzume had come, and then Uzume had been forced to go, and now it was just her and nothing at all.
It wasn't that she didn't have anything to do. She could be catching up on some of the homework that she'd managed to neglect even in the midst of all the free time in the world. Or she could actually read through one of the books that had started piling up next to her bedside. But she didn't have anything to do that she actually wanted to do, and it was driving her up the walls.
She might've grown used to the hospital by now, grown used to the visiting hours and the complete lack of anything at all to do. But 'used to' didn't mean that she enjoyed the boredom of it all.
She wondered if Uzume might be planning on visiting with a nurse's outfit anytime soon. Or if that was actually perhaps a spectacularly bad idea, considering that it might make her unable to look any of the hospital's actual nurses in the eye.
Perhaps a maid? No, she'd already done that, and – whilst definitely a visual worth appreciating – it'd feel repetitive to see it again.
How about-...
The door slid open, a head of messy black hair peeking through. A child?
The boy glanced around curiously, then visibly winced as a voice drifted in from the hallway.
Hurriedly stepping inside and closing the door behind him, the boy remained carefully silent.
It might've been alarming, if it wasn't so obvious that the boy was doing something that he probably shouldn't be, and that he too was hospitalized for some reason or another. Instead, Chiho decided that it was probably almost as cute as Uzume.
A different kind of cute, more a rough kind of 'little brother' cute, than the fumbling sincerity of her Sekirei.
Still, despite how this was quite possibly the most interesting thing to happen to her for a while now, Chiho found herself wondering if perhaps there was a reason why the boy was so deliberate in his attempts to hide.
He didn't look hurt, though perhaps a bit skinnier than the norm. It was hard to tell. He might simply have some kind of internal sickness, and if he did then it would probably be a bad idea for him to go wandering around when he really ought to be resting.
She was simply going to assume that the staff would've had measures in place to contain him should what he was here for actually be contagious.
There was a long moment of silence and then finally the boy breathed out in relief.
Definitely doing something he wasn't supposed to, Chiho smiled with mischievous nostalgia.
Then the boy actually glanced around the room once more, and finally noticed her.
A guilty flinch, and Chiho marveled at his brightly green eyes, staring at her through a battered pair of glasses.
He really did look adorable.
XXX
They really shouldn't have expected him to stay in his bed. Hell, they really shouldn't have expected him to stay in the hospital. The kid had been dodging police for months, and his inclination to take care of himself probably hadn't actually changed, even if he'd been acting fairly meek once they'd finally managed to catch him.
Well, it was doubtful that he'd immediately returned to the streets, considering how he was wearing nothing but a hospital gown and didn't have access to his own clothes. But the fact that he'd gone wandering around could easily translate into him going looking for something to wear before he disappeared back out into the city.
And it really shouldn't have happened, because – even if handcuffs might've been a bit extreme – they should've at least locked him inside of his room. He might not be contagious, but who knows what he might've caught, eating from garbage cans the way he'd been doing.
Frankly, it was a miracle that he'd even survived as long as he had.
He stopped, hearing the sound of laughter coming from the room of one Hidaka Chiho, and found himself frowning.
Really, had that girl snuck inside after visiting hours again? Oh, he might be sympathetic to the chronically ill patient, but they were called 'visiting hours' for a reason, and even if he understood that they might want some quiet 'alone time' to themselves-... Well, he thought they could at least try to adhere to the rules of the hospital.
It was probably good that the girl wasn't on a heart-monitor or anything, because otherwise the people changing her sheets would've had a far-too-vivid certainty that she hadn't managed to make that mess entirely on her own. It wasn't exactly unusual for that kind of thing to get interrupted mid-act when heart-monitors started sending out warnings to everyone in the area. And they really didn't need to know that much about their patient's sex-life.
No, it was bad enough that they had to be pretend not to see the kisses that that silly couple kept stealing whenever they thought they were alone.
However, when he opened the door – after knocking and waiting for long enough that Miss Hidaka's nightly visitor could do that infamous disappearing-act of hers, or at least cover up – he found a very different scene than the one he expected.
The boy was there.
The boy who refused to tell them his name was there and warily staring up at him from where he'd apparently been getting along just fine with their long-time patient.
Well, at least this meant that he wouldn't need to search the rest of the hospital.
XXX
He refused to give them a name, too distrusting to give them any chance to locate his family or relatives. Too wary of the possibility that they'd try to make him go back.
Chiho couldn't really understand that. She didn't have family, and the idea that someone would abandon the possibility of being reunited with their own felt distinctly unsettling.
Oh, she knew that his life with those people probably hadn't been a very good one if he believed that the streets were to prefer to returning to them, but she couldn't really imagine it. And his absolute refusal to say anything that might hint towards who they could be, didn't make it any easier for her. Were they relatives? Parents? Caretaker? It was hard to say, and because of that nobody could quite agree what to do with him, or what to call him.
He didn't speak Japanese, and he definitely sounded British, but that wasn't exactly a lot to go on.
Chiho sighed, not entirely sure what to make of the boy, or if she even ought to try to get involved. He didn't have anywhere to go, and she wasn't exactly happy with the idea that he'd disappear into some foster-family that he'd never trust.
But she couldn't exactly do a lot about it, could she? She wasn't in any position to take care of someone else, let alone a child. And she didn't have any parents around whom she could convince that she really wanted a little brother.
It made her feel like a horrible person, that she probably felt more annoyed at the inconvenience of being an orphan than truly grief-struck at the memory of her late parents. But she supposed that was the passage of time speaking. Sooner or later, things stopped hurting quite so badly.
XXX
Uzume stared at the boy for a long silent moment.
Chiho tried not to fidget as her lover so carefully observed the boy who was currently busy with defiantly staring right back at her.
"I have a penguin-costume in about his size." Uzume finally concluded, throwing a small smile Chiho's way.
Chiho felt a sudden rush of affection towards the Sekirei and her willing acceptance, even as she couldn't help but picture the boy in a penguin-costume.
It was a rather adorable image, and one glance at his confused frown just made the image all the better. He would refuse it in a heartbeat, and then he'd probably sulk, and glare petulantly at them, and it made Chiho suddenly feel as if an ache in her chest – one that she'd grown too used to notice anymore – finally started to lessen.
XXX
Miya blinked at the Sekirei.
"What."
Uzume visibly flinched at the flat tone. "He doesn't have anywhere to go, and we can't exactly-... you know." She fidgeted. "She really likes him, and he-... he actually talks to her, which is more than he does to anyone else."
Miya released an aggravated sigh. "Uzume-chan, your Ashikabi is hospitalized, and young, she's in no position to adopt strays."
Uzume twitched, her teeth grinding together. "I know. And she knows that too." She visibly tried to calm down. "But you can, and I can pay room and board for him."
Miya stared at the girl for a long moment. "This isn't some toy that you can discard later, this isn't some pet that nobody will care about if you lose interest with and abandon, if I trust you to take care of him in my place, then this is something that can easily end with me being charged for neglect, Uzume-chan."
Uzume made a pained face. "If-... If we just let him go-... If we don't at least try-..." She took another deep breath. "Miya-san, this is the only favor I'll ever ask of you. Please."
Miya stared at her for another long moment, before finally shaking her head with a resigned sigh. "Izumo Inn was built to be a haven for those without places to go."
And he would've been most upset with her should she change that policy simply because the person in need of help was underage.
XXX
Harry liked Chiho. Liked her enough that he always felt a bit guilty about not ever actually telling her his name.
But if she knew his name, someone else would know his name sooner or later, and then someone might trace that name back to the Dursleys, and then he might have to go back there. And that wasn't something he was willing to risk, even if keeping his name from her still left him feeling guilty.
Chiho was a good person, a bit pessimistic about her own chances to leave the hospital one day, but a good person. Kind, funny, and beautiful. Uzume was nice too, even if she sometimes slipped into Japanese just so that he wouldn't know what she was talking about.
She was nice, because even if she could be annoying, she was never insincere. Never pretending to be sympathetic if she wasn't, never pretending to be able to tell 'good people' from 'bad people'.
The Dursleys had always known who the 'right folk' were. And the people around them had always known that the Dursleys were definitely part of that group. Good people, they insisted, who were willing to take in their nephew despite the embarrassment his mother was to his aunt's maiden name.
Harry trusted the 'right folk' about as far as he could throw them.
Uzume wasn't someone proclaiming to be a good person, but she was a sincere person, and that was probably better. She was the kind of person who'd grilled him about 'making a move' on Chiho, even as Chiho in the background buried her face in a pillow and tried to pretend that she wasn't embarrassed half-to-death by her lover.
Harry liked Chiho, and he liked Uzume, and they were happier together than they were apart, so he didn't want to get in between them. But being with them was nice.
XXX
[Time Passes]
XXX
Minerva had expected many things when she'd arrived in Japan in search of the Boy-Who-Lived, but the sight in front of her hadn't really crossed her mind.
The landlady of Izumo Inn had pointed her towards the inflatable pool in the backyard, where she'd watched several young women in various states of undress clinging to a young man in what nowadays was considered appropriate men-wear. There were a total of five individuals in the backyard who were not joining in on the very inappropriate behavior.
One was a young woman with short silver hair who looked a mix between embarrassed and exasperated by the scene. One was a young little girl with blonde hair who looked like she was sincerely considering abandoning her current place in the pool in order to go join in. One was a young woman with dark-brown hair who seemed to be laughing herself sick at the scene. One was a young woman with light-brown hair who seemed somewhat akin to fondly exasperated by the other woman's sense of humor. And the final one was the Boy-Who-Lived who was lazily propped up so that he could see what was apparently the main source of amusement for everyone at the Inn.
But she could've ignored that. Minerva could've classified the strange behavior from the young women as being one of those things that young people sometimes believed made a lot of sense for some reason, and then she could've gone on with her purpose here without more thought to it.
Except Harry Potter's back was to her, and there was a jagged scar around his shoulder that most definitely hadn't been there when he'd been dropped off at his relatives' house. It looked far too fresh for that, for starters.
Perhaps he was simply an adventurous child who'd been unlucky, but magic generally made young children quite problematic to injure without there being an actual underlying intent to cause them harm.
And a little bit to the side, and that scar would've been right over his spine.
What in the world had the boy been exposed to?
XXX
Minato still remembered it vividly when he let himself think on it. One moment they'd all stared in open horror as the blade descended on Uzume from her blind spot, screaming warnings that they all knew would go unheard because it was already too late for her to dodge. The next, the sound of steel slicing through flesh and cutting through bone and a scream of pain that didn't come from Uzume's lips.
Then Harry was on the ground, and Uzume was furious, and everything after that was a rush to keep the boy from bleeding out and making sure that no vital organs had been hit when he'd somehow – impossible, it'd been completely impossible, he hadn't even been anywhere near to the fight in the first place – rushed in to protect the Sekirei.
The sound of a car misfiring had never even really registered in his head at all.
XXX
Harry had frowned as he'd descended into deep thought for a long moment, before finally answering her with another question.
"Can magic be used to heal people?"
Minerva blinked, feeling a little bit startled by the question. Though, considering how he must've been rather severely injured not too long ago, perhaps it was a valid thing to bring up. "Yes, it can. Though wizards and witches have different illnesses than muggles, and because of the Statute of Secrecy and the way muggle medicine work, anyone wishing to 'bridge the gap' as it were, are under severe restrictions."
Harry nodded, face still set in that oddly serious age-dissonant expression. "Then I want to go."
There were some shrugs passing through the room as the inhabitants of Izumo Inn tried to puzzle out what in her explanation had been the 'selling point'. Until the young woman who'd been laughing so loudly in the backyard suddenly spoke up, her own expression strangely similar to Harry's.
"Harry, Chiho-chan is going to make a full recovery." The young woman told him, looking slightly hesitant about if she ought to be trying to reassure him.
Harry turned to her, face determined. "But there are others out there. And nobody should have to be put through that. Nobody."
Chiho glanced between the two of them, before she slid out of her seat and pulled the young boy into a hug. Minerva was slightly distressed to note that there were tears in her eyes.
"I'd been wondering why you were trying so hard in class." She mumbled, sounding a bit like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, before pushing him away so that she could look him in the eye. "This can't be a way to repay us. You know that."
The boy nodded again, but his determined expression didn't change.
Chiho finally smiled. Proud and bright. "You're going to have to write to us all the time, okay?"
Harry smiled back at her, warm and happy as he agreed.
Minerva wondered what in the world the context of that conversation was, because she got the feeling that there was a lot she was quite a large amount of puzzle-pieces that she was currently missing. But even so, her objective had been completed without complications.
Harry Potter was coming to Hogwarts.
XXX
A/n:And this is Uzume's chapter, because I'm not interfering with Chiho. They were an adorable couple, and they deserve more than simply being brushed aside to make room for another.
Yes, Harry jumped in front of the attack that in canon terminated Uzume, by way of magical teleportation. He nearly died, people panicked all over, things turned out fine.
There have been several reviewers mentioning wanting to see characters that have already been used for this series, so I'm writing this down to remind everyone of which ones have and haven't been done yet.
The Ashikabi Series:
CH06: Harry the Ashikabi of Life (Kusano)*
CH27: The Devil Ashikabi (Karasuba)
CH29: The Ashikabi of Fire (Homura)
CH30: Matsu's Ashikabi (Matsu)
CH32: The Ashikabi of Death (Shiina)
CH34: The Ashikabi of Love (Musubi)
CH39: An Ashikabi's Pet (Uzume)
CH35: Ashikabi Collection Chapter 1
The Vagrant Ashikabi (Akitsu)
Not an Ashikabi (Miya)
The Runaway Ashikabi (Tsukiumi)
The odd ones out**
CH36: The Wartime Ashikabi (Musubi, Homura, Kusano)
CH38: Survivors of War (Karasuba)
*It was written several years ago, I take no responsibility for its quality.
**The theme being "young!Harry in Japan bonding with a Sekirei, and the reaction and ripples of Hogwarts to the interesting ways that Harry is changed from canon by this bond".