Title: "Enjoy The Moment (A.K.A.: Five Things That Never Happened To Sakurazuka Seishiro Plus One) - Chap 2: 1983"
Author: J.J.
Warning: It's an AU BASED ON THE MANGA, it probably contains some OOCness, uses Japanese words and includes some spoilers.
Notes: It should have been completely different. I've no idea how it evolved into this...
Warning over notes: This fic has notes. You will find them at the bottom. Each time you see a number between brackets it means there's a note connected to the word/sentence that preceded it. However I suggest you to read the notes AFTER you finished the fic unless the word/sentence connected to the note is really troublesome for you to understand. Anyway the fic should be still understandable without the notes. Notes are merely extra explanations for who wants to know more.
Disclaimer:
"Tokyo Babylon" and "X" belong to Clamp. I'm merely using their characters because I love them... especially Seishiro and Subaru...
Do I own something here? Oh yes, I own the plot and a sensitive heart which would surely break if you give me harsh reviews, so please be honest but nice, okay?
Thanks:
To Sami The Creator for betaing this! Thank you a lot!
Summary: What a tiny little change can do...

1983 - Tokyo - Chiyoda

His first visit to his mother was boring.(1) Sure, the woman was beautiful and... well he had just known first sight she was his mother but the ancient house she lived in held nothing fun for him to play with and he was annoyed by her habit of hugging, kissing and touching him. He wasn't used to being touched so much. It was just something his relatives didn't do and it annoyed him to have to deal with it now, even if he submitted to it obediently. She was probably like this because she was... well a young girl or very close to being one... he wasn't sure really, she seemed young but she couldn't be too young since she was his mother. Girls were often worse than glue. Anyways, now she'd left him alone in that boring and empty house, that looked like a prison, because she had work to do. Really, no one could blame him if he had gotten bored and had decided to sneak out and wander around Tokyo on his own. It wasn't as if he didn't know how to take care of himself. Actually, he was quite used to do it, the maids and his relatives back at his house in Kanazawa often paid him little or no attention at all.

The grown ups in Tokyo didn't seem to pay him much attention either. Actually they didn't seem to pay attention to anything that happened around them. His mother could have done her work right in front of their noses and they wouldn't have noticed. No one would notice and no one would care. He was used to that, it was like that in Kanazawa too. No one paying attention, no one caring, it was normal, it would be like this forever. People cared only for themselves. He shuddered, feeling cold all of sudden and not knowing why. Then his instinct told him to turn and he managed to catch a glimpse of one of the grown ups bumping into another child dressed in white and carelessly sending the boy flying against him. They both fell roughly to the ground.

"I'm so sorry!" the boy who had tumbled onto him hurriedly apologized to him. He then turned to apologize to the grown up who'd caused his fall but the man had already disappeared. The child remained where he was, looking around and unable to decide what to do.

'A Shikifuku,' Seishiro realized. 'He's wearing a Shikifuku and he's just a child... And yet I can feel so much power tapped inside him...'

"Are you going to get off me?" he asked the puzzled boy, who was still sitting on his lap. Not that he minded keeping him there. He was so cute that he wouldn't mind keeping him and taking him home, as if he was a wayward puppy, but the ground was cold and the grown ups would end up stepping on them. The boy turned toward him blushing and apologizing, eyes obstinately lowered. He tried to scramble to his feet and ended up tripping and falling on his backside again. Seishiro laughed at the unexpected show, stood with ease and offered to the other child his hand. The boy stared at it in surprise, as if unused to getting help. He turned to look up at him and Seishiro stared at the sight of beautiful and grateful green eyes that seemed somehow familiar. As he helped the boy to his feet, he felt a fierce and possessive feeling for him that made him unconsciously refuse to let go of the boy's hand.

"Where are you going?" he asked him pulling said hand closer, holding it even tighter as the child tried to gently pull it back.

"I... um... I don't know for sure... I was waiting for Obaachan to finish her business at the Kunaicho when... when I kind of felt as if I was being called and..." the boy lowered his head, green eyes filling with sadness. "I know it sounds strange but I'm not lying, I..."

"I trust you," he replied dismissively and the boy returned to look at him in surprise. Evidently he hadn't met many people willing to trust him over paranormal matters. Well, not everyone had been trained in Onmyoudo as Seishiro had.(2)

"Really?" the child asked in a small voice, filled with hope and gratefulness, looking truly too adorable for words.

"Sure," Seishiro assured smoothly. "So were you going to the where you felt it?" he asked and the boy nodded eagerly. "You shouldn't wander through Tokyo all alone, it's dangerous," Seishiro chided him gently, acting as if he were a grown up in charge of the boy's well being and not a child of his same age. "So I'll accompany you. Where do you think it's coming from?"

"There," the boy said pointing. Seishiro could clearly feel two kinds of magic at work in the direction being singled out. One was the faint and almost perfectly masked trace of the Sakurazukamori's one, recognizable only by those who had knowledge of it. The other, much clearer and more evident, was likely the one of the Sakurazukamori's target.(3) It wouldn't be a good idea to bother his mother while she was at work and... and he didn't want her to see the boy. He didn't want her to want to touch, hug and kiss him like she did with him. She might even try to keep the child all for herself. He didn't want to share him with her. Not now, not ever. He'd found him and the boy was his. He won't give him up to anyone, not even his mother.

"We're not going there. It's a dangerous place," he stated firmly and saw the other child looking at him anxiously, almost in protest. "Come on, come with me I... I'll buy you an ice cream," he decided, attempting to distract him from going after the 'call' as he began pulling him in the opposite direction.

"But... but..." the boy protested timidly as he was pulled away. Seishiro ignored his protests as he dragged him inside an ice cream parlour. The child moved closer to him nervously once they were inside, as the attention of all the customers seemed to turn on him and his clothes.

"Well? Haven't you ever seen a Shikifuku?" Seishiro asked loudly to the people inside the parlour causing them to hurriedly turn their gazes away. Satisfied, Seishiro ordered two ice creams, paid them and then pulled the boy towards a table to eat them comfortably.

"Thank you," the boy murmured politely, eyes lowered and a small, grateful smile on his lips.

"Oh, ice cream isn't tremendously expensive nowadays," Seishiro replied nonchalantly, swallowing a large portion of his own ice cream. "Try it, it's good," he assured.

"I... I don't mean just for the ice cream. I mean... I know those clothes are... well... unusual... and it's natural... for people... to stare... but it makes me so uncomfortable... and Obaachan... she said I've to get used to it but..." the child tried to explain hesitantly, looking as if he were one step away from crying.

"They're ignorant. Don't mind them," Seishiro stated firmly. "Eat or it'll melt on your fingers." The child smiled gratefully before beginning to lick at the ice cream timidly. Seishiro was surprised by how fascinating he found watching the boy as he ate. He had never believed there could be something better than eating sweets. It was just that the child in front of him was... beautiful. Beautiful in an adorably, delicate and cute way. Way more beautiful than his mother, way more beautiful than everything he'd before. It was strange how he found himself engaged comfortably in a conversation with the other boy, normally he didn't bother to talk with others, and yet it felt so good to talk with the other boy of... nothing in particular really, just how pretty Sakura were, what was buried under them,(4) why chocolate was better than vanilla, souls suffering when still trapped in ChiJou, the pros and cons of having or not having a sister, why it would be wonderful to be a veterinarian and how it sucked to be an Onmyouji... Just talking to him was special and they got so into the conversation that they lost track of time. As they moved to leave the ice cream parlour to go and try some delicious European sweets at a bakery close by, they almost ran into a person.

"O-Obaachan..." the boy mumbled recognizing the old woman and then he immediately lowered his head guiltily, his enthusiasm gone.

"I couldn't find you," the old woman said quietly. "Do you have any idea of how worried I was?"

"I'm so sorry..." the child whimpered. Seishiro didn't like what was going on, not one bit. The old woman wasn't hitting the child or yelling at him but, somehow, her quiet reproaching seemed to hurt the boy so much. Wiped away was any trace of that warm, affectionate smile that Seishiro liked so much as the boy's eyes grew watery and Seishiro just wouldn't allow it.

"He only left to get an ice cream cone! You can't expect him to starve to death!" he protested, not really knowing why he was taking the boy's defence so to heart. He fought down an odd sense of déjà-vu. The old woman turned her gaze to him, and something inside him cringed as he recognized the power inside her and the fact he wasn't yet of her league. Yet. It would surely be a matter of time. He would reach her and surpass her with no trouble at all. He saw the woman's eyes widen once she had took a good look at him, as if she had recognized him, but he really couldn't place her features. She was... nothing special. Not at all like the child next to him. She didn't seem pleased to see her grandson with him as she picked the boy up in an almost protective manner, forcing them to let go of each other's hand. The woman cradled the boy securely against her chest as if Seishiro were some sort of threat and moved to leave hurriedly. He had no idea why but it felt so unfair to be left there, as if he had done something wrong, when all he did was buy him an ice cream and keeping him away from his mother...

"Hey!" the boy called from over his grandmother's shoulder as the woman was carrying him away apparently collecting all his courage in order to do so. "Next time we meet it'll be my treat!" he offered, he was immediately reproached by his grandmother.

"Of course it will!" Seishiro replied, cheering up and waving at him. The boy waved back at him timidly, smiling shyly and trying to not be noticed by the woman.

Next time. There would be a next time. He would see those green eyes again and then... then he'd keep them for himself. Sure. That's what he'll do.

To be continued...

JJ's Notes:

1. Seishiro met his mother for the first time at age nine. In the drama cd we hear that she seemed to like to hug and kiss him, almost as if they had an incestuous relationship. The side story in the manga seems to confirm it.

2. I'm assuming Seishiro's relatives in Kanazawa knew Onmyoudo and had taught Seishiro so, when he met his mother, he already knew the basics at least.

3. Many tend to forget that the Sakurazukamori kills those who're a threat to Japan. Due to this, I assume the little girl Seishiro killed in the manga (and that, in this AU, is being killed by Setsuka, Seishiro's mother) had some sort of spiritual power that presented a threat to Japan and Subaru sensed it.

4. According to an old myth (that Seishiro told to Subaru in their first meeting in 'Tokyo Babylon') corpses are buried underneath the Sakura trees and the blood of the bodies buried under them make the Sakura turn pink.

JJ's Extra Notes:
Yes, Subaru's grandmother realized Seishiro is more than meets the eye. I actually find it very stupid of her to leave Subaru alone but since, apparently, in Japan, preschool children can wander around alone so maybe what she did was pretty ordinary.

Dictionary:
ChiJou: Land of the Living
Kunaicho: Imperial Household Agency
Obaachan: "Grandmother" or "Old Woman"
Onmyoudo: "Way of Yin and Yang". Yin and Yang are the male and female forces underlying the movement and changes of nature. Onmyoudo is based on the Chinese arts of astrology, divination and Taoist magic and also represents a mystical way of living in harmony with the forces of nature
Onmyouji: "Person who practices Onmyoudo". Basically a magician, sorcerer, diviner and astrologer
Onmyoujutsu: "Art of Yin and Yang". The ability to use Onmyoudo spells
Sakura: "Cherry Tree" or "Cherry Blossom"
Sakurazukamori: "Guardian of the Cherry Blossom Burial Mound". The assassin who uses Onmyoujutsu to kill whomever threatens Japan
Shikifuku: Ceremonial Robe

Replies to reviews:

To Everyone who reviewed: Thank you! You're a great encouragement for me!

To M. Midori: blushes and hugs back Thank you! Well, I don't think there's a Seishiro who can resist to a Subaru, you know!

To Dark Angel Of Fire Ice: Seishiro's the most adorable brat ever!

To yumemi: Glad you like!

To 0ri: I'm happy to hear you like this. I've tried to keep Seishiro in character despite being so young...

Don't grumble silently, please let me know what you're thinking of this!
Send me your comments!