(A/N: Sorry about the delay. I had to go with my mom, my sister, and my aunt to get my mom to the hospital – she was called and they said that they had the transplant ready. A day later, they said that the organ was too small for her. All in due time, I guess.)

XVIII. Opened

After the battle with Syaoran, there was a break in Seishiro's consciousness.

Another dream starting taking place in his mind.

Was it a dream though?

Or…

Maybe…an illusion…

From the start, it looked like wishful thinking…

But…

Wouldn't it be nice to dream…

To be able to indulge in the wonders in life…

…There was so much he had missed…

In reality.

In the real world.

He delved in and out of reality so easily nowadays…it was hard to tell whether he was dreaming or whether he was fully awake…

This one had Seishiro with another, one he had been looking for, the one he had been searching for…

For immortality…

For pleasure…

For other things that he did not know yet…

In this illusion…lit only by the light of the moon, he was standing in front of a bed.

A bed that held the one…Subaru…in its wake.

He looked so peaceful…so innocent…as he always did.

And all Seishiro could think of was destroying the visage of innocence, of beauty, of perfection in all of its aspects.

All he could think of was breaking the image of calm.

All he could think of was taking it all away.

On the bed, Subaru had his back to him, his arms curled under a pillow, his face carrying the weight of a long day.

Seishiro looked to his left…and then to his right.

No creaks in the floorboards.

No lingering footsteps.

Nothing to interrupt them.

Cautiously, instinctively, stealthily, Seishiro crawled onto the bed, careful as not to wake the sleeping boy. Not yet anyway.

There was a glare against his right eye – the light never seemed to leave him, no matter where he left, even as he tried to conceal it.

He put a hand on the boy's bare back. At first lightly, and then putting more weight.

Nothing.

He loomed over the younger male, whose rhythmic breathing was more than enough to get him anxious, tingling almost, at the prospect of what he was going to do next.

He took something from his right pocket – a small knife, one that could be used to crack open safes, locks, the sort. The blade shined in the twilight moon's rays.

The knife in his hand, he traced a cut onto the boy's left cheek.

This was more than enough to wake the boy. At first he stirred somewhat, and then, feeling the weight of Seishiro's hand on his bare back, and then seeing the blood that was running down his face, his eyes burst open wide as he tried to get away from Seishiro's grasp. He wriggled and writhed as Seishiro put a hand on his mouth, silencing the boy's voice but not the quickening of his breath, the air hot on his hand. He slowly straddles the boy's back, and leaned until his lips could reach the boy's ear.

"Don't be afraid…it's only me…I've come back…"

Before Seishiro could do more, or before Subaru could resist, different flashes of different faces, different scenarios ran through his mind. In all of them, he was the perpetrator, the one who started everything, the one whose want for bliss was the means to an end.

He was the one that controlled them, instead of the other way around.

The face of the boy's brother, Kamui. The face of his former pupil, Syaoran. The face of his younger brother, Fuuma. The face of the magician, Fai. The face of the warrior that fought beside him, Kurogane. The face of the young girl, Sakura. The face of the older woman, Yuuko.

The face of his mother.

Setsuka.

She was the only one that could control him.

Not anymore.

In another flash, Seishiro woke up.

Sweat dripping from his brow, his chest heaving up and down.

The illusion…the dream…whatever it was…

It was over.

His mother…his mother was the one that could control him, who had…closed him.

But now…he had been opened…opened to a new world of wants and needs, and the people, the individuals…one in particular…who could fulfill them.