Title: Power

Author: schyra

Rating: ?

Pairings/Characters: Lucia, Haru

Warnings:

Summary: On birds, screams and things.

Author's Note: Random.

-~~~-oOo-~~~-

027 - Power

On birds, screams and things.

They were on vacation at a temple. Or rather, they'd stopped by the ancient, historical place because it was an interesting piece of architecture with a rich background, and it was a 'must-see' monument for those on their way to the hot springs. Lucia sat beside his father, bored, as the priest retold the story of how this place came to be. He glanced around him. Everyone sat cross-legged on the floor, listening intently to the priest's tale of the great fire that had occurred here a hundred years ago, razing a large village, and then about the large flood that had wiped out the village that was built here after the fire, and how the temple was built and many prayers said in the hopes that the hundreds of lives lost here would be appeased.

Haru fidgeted. Lucia frowned. The other boy was clearly uncomfortable, and kept shifting as if he wanted to touch the wooden planks that made up the floor as little as possible. He kept looking around him nervously.

"Father," Lucia whispered. "I'm going out for a minute."

King's lips tipped downwards a little in a frown at his son's slightly rude manner of extracting himself from their group, but he said nothing.

Lucia stuck to the shadowy areas of the large, airy temple. The smooth pillars with carvings on top seemed to stretch upwards forever. He crept around until he reached Haru's side.

"C'mon," he said, offering his hand. Haru jerked, then looked up at him, surprised. Then he took his hand and let Lucia pull him to his feet. Lucia led him out of the temple, their bare feet making almost no sound.

Once outside, Haru let out a breath Lucia hadn't realized he'd been holding. The sun was out and it was a bright, warm day. The occasional breeze swept by, and the sky was a bright blue, though there were several large, puffy clouds. The sound of bird-song came from varying points all over the temple garden, which was rich with flowers in bloom.

Lucia noticed Haru still seemed tense.

"What was it?"

Haru hesitated, looked back. "It's weird," he said.

Lucia shrugged. "It always is. So tell me anyway."

Haru looked out at the garden.

"There was screaming coming from the floor."

"...Ah." Lucia ran a hand through his hair. "The spirits of those who died here?"

"I don't know... "

Lucia looked at the silver-haired boy's back. A cloud passed over the sun, casting a patch of shadow upon them. The blonde stepped forward and pulled at Haru's wrist, stepping past him and heading towards a large oak tree. Haru immediately gripped the fabric of Lucia's sleeve, looking around him distractedly as they made their way into the garden.

The tree looked old, with fairly new bark now that it was spring and a solid, straight trunk. They sat down beneath it, in the shade of it's sprawling branches and dense layers of leaves. They waited for Haru to stop feeling uneasy, listening to the life around them.

"Birds," Haru suddenly said, pointing up.

Lucia looked where he was pointing. Right above Haru's head was a branch with a bird's nest in it. He looked back at Haru, saw the other boy looking up at it intently. Without even knowing why, he started climbing the tree, scaling its large trunk and hoisting himself up onto the branch. He may be seven, but he was more fit that most fourteen year olds.

Lucia blinked at the nest. There were three baby birds in it, and one broken egg shell. They barely looked alive, chirping weakly. What had happened to their parents? Weren't they feeding these things?

He reached out and gently gripped the nest, drawing it close to his chest, before beginning the

journey back down to the ground. He took care not to fall, as the wood was smooth and almost slippery beneath his grip.

When his feet touched the top of a root, he let himself slide down to the ground to sit beside Haru once more, the nest and its contents safe. Looking half-dead, but safe. He looked at it and the dying chicks inside, before handing it to Haru.

The other looked at the nest and blinked, then reached out with his left hand. Lucia passed it over. He held it, watching the birds sadly. Lucia watched him gently lift a finger to hover lightly over the heads of the tiny birds, as if stroking them gently. The blonde sighed, stretched his arms and neck, and tried to look up at the sky through the leaves. All that shone through was a searing light.

He turned back to Haru to say something, maybe about going back inside, and stopped.

The nest in his hand was empty of all but the eggshell.

The sound of a bird's chirp echoed above them. Then two. Then three. The call of fully-grown, adult birds.

Haru turned to look at him blankly. "Do you think it'll ever go away?"

Lucia closed his mouth and looked back. What was it, in the end? An ability, a sixth sense? Some kind of weird intuition? A gift? A curse? He didn't have the answers.

He looked back at the temple, the dark mouth of its entrance as if absorbing all light.

"I don't know."

END.