![]() Chapter 4: Feelings
It was such a cool experience, she thought, her very first Clan council after all, something that until then had only been Subaru's occupation. She remembered how had she longed for that night to come ever since her cousin had announced it to her, and a slight, extravagant worry about being correctly dressed after all triggered lightly on her mind. It wasn't that she had spent hours at Kenzo for nothing... The inside, even though, disappointed her to the point of letting out a frustrated sigh that resounded in all the empty vacuity of the room when the curious gaze of her shimmering green eyes became accustomed to the shadows, just enlightened by the faint silvery of moonlight and the lights of three large candle holders that raised over the vacant, imperial table. "Candle light!" she manifested aloud, a cute, feminine grin of disgust curving her soft painted lips, "I don't remember it being a romantic dinner. Maybe I should have brought those two with me after all!" A firm, half painful squeeze in her forearm silenced her with a startled "Ouch!" "Hokuto-chan! Keep that voice tone low!" Mitchuru's rich voice hissed in her ear, it's quite embarrassed and exasperated accent sounding so entirely distant from it's usual serenity, "We are in the presence of Lady Sumeragi..." Hokuto's emerald stare concentrated deeper in the shadows that enveloped the room, and could finally locate the proud, meditating figure of the old woman sitting elegantly on a high backed chair at the head of the long table, her apparently frail body covered by a splendid, luxurious yukata robe, her aged though delicate hands crossed discretely at her lap. Olive green eyes abandoned the melancholic contemplation of the night sky through the ceiling-to-floor-high windows to turn right into hers, a half censoring, half hopeful stare bathing her stoic face with mystery. A carefree smile came immediately to beautify even more the teenager's delicate face. "Hi, obaa-chan! Are we late?" Hokuto forgot the strictness of the protocol as she rushed to her grandmother's side and, throwing her skinny arms impulsively around her neck, she placed a loving kiss on the wrinkled cheek, leaving an almost imperceptible hue of rouge there. To her back, tense Mitchuru let out a muffled sigh, to then respectfully bow in front of the Clan's venerated matriarch, the celadon waves of her thick mane falling forward to hide the devoted expression on her perfect face. Hokuto-chan missed the quick, almost imperceptible glint of complicity that lit the eyes of both women, busy with pressing herself against the thin chest of her grandmother in her bear hug. "Or... perhaps we're too early...? " she wondered afterwards, glancing with thoughtful concern at the lines of solitaire chairs that waited vacant at the large, almost gothic table. She took one velvet gloved finger to her cheek in a confused gesture she had acquired from her absent twin brother. Something there began to smell really tricky. "Where are the other Sumeragi women?" She demanded to know, her acute tone raising a bit in both curiosity and half aroused anger. Lady Sumeragi's elegant hands left her resting position over her breast to come to meet each other over the smooth surface of the table. "They won't come," The low pitched, almost eerie voice of the old woman filled the chamber with it's plain and serene tone, dark green eyes looking calmly into the sixteen year old girl's astonished expression, "We are the only three female members of the Clan residing in Tokyo at the moment." Hokuto's emerald stare became almost fierce with emotion, her ivory forehead frowning in indignant attitude, feeling a sudden sensation of wrongness and clandestiness began to fill the room with its thick atmosphere. "You mean you lied to me?" "Hokuto-chan, please calm down, " Mitchuru's soothing hands took gentle hold of her narrow shoulders, clad heavily in her eclipse suit, as she gifted the angry girl with a firm expression of reassuring sympathy, "Things will be explained to you, just give us a chance to start this meeting." Almost hesitantly, Hokuto made a slight effort to control the quickness of her temper as she let her slender cousin lead her to take a sit, one opposite to the other in front of Lady Sumeragi, the disgusted frown still on her ivory skin. She managed to keep silent as a small group of servants served the table, preparing it for dinner. "Then why did you bring me here in first place?" She finally inquired, looking half angrily at the serene figure of her grandmother, fingers nervously playing with the sun shaped earring to her right, "Why did you come to Tokyo after all, if there is no female council to attend to?" Lady Sumeragi draw a deep breath, her inner focused eyes glancing absently at her fuming cup of green tea. "You were told to come here under that lie only because I didn't want Subaru-san to know about this meeting," She explained, doing nothing but to envelope the eager Hokuto in even a deeper confusion, "Not Subaru, not... anyone else..." Hokuto-chan's bright green pools widened under the influence of the secret implications in that last innuendo, but she discarded her intrigue in benefit of her disgust. "But... why?" She kept on demanding as she began to nervously chop her beef. Her feelings of betrayal were not powerful enough to drive her to starve, "Why would you like Su-chan not to know about it...?" Both her companions exchanged a silent look, green melting into azure as both the somber eyes took a mutual, unspoken decision. "Hokuto-san," Lady Sumeragi started to talk to her with that typical lecturing tone she knew all too well, and Hokuto suddenly understood there might be a lot of seriousness in the subject that gathered the three of them that night, even more considering it was supposed to be kept secret from the actual Head of the Clan. Oh, yes. When she was called 'san' the matter was tough. Surely something concerning Mi-chan's ailing relationship with his illegitimate brother. But her imagination wasn't broad enough to give her a hint of why not to tell Subaru. "Hokuto-san, you are a high member of the Thirteenth Generation of our Clan, a direct inheritor to the Leaderhood of all our vast Family your honorable father, Sumeragi Seimei, was incapable to accomplish for reasons we all acknowledge, " the old woman's voice acquired a definitely dark mood when speaking out those words, making the suddenly intimidated teenage begin to feel a bit uncomfortable. Like every time she spoke about their father. Hokuto didn't understand why did she always like to torture herself by remembering the way he died. And less still that constant need to drive her to the same anguish she surely felt. "It should have been you, for it is the right that belongs to the elder of the inheritors, the one who became the new Leading Head of our Family after the dark hands of the Sakurazukamori stole your father's life from us." Hokuto-chan shivered, green eyes wide opened to the darkness of the room, enlightening it with their viridian resplendor. That one really caught her by surprise. Obaa-chan, wishing I was the one who lead the family? Rats, something here is entirely twisted! "And even though destiny decided your twin brother inherited all the Omnyoujitsu abilities that have passed from generation to generation through our blood line, it is still your most serious responsibility to attend to the obligations the high place you occupy in the direction of the Clan brings about," Lady Sumeragi paused, wondering at the effects her speech had triggered in her young listener. Hoping so badly to achieve the at least the minimum quote of seriousness from that joyful soul her dearest Hokuto treasured. When she spoke again, her voice appeared much sweetened, soft with careful delicacy. "Hokuto-san, I have discovered along these last few months that both Subaru-san and you have made the acquaintance of a member of the Sakurazuka Clan..." Hokuto-chan's jaw dropped, blood freezing in her veins as she charged her grandmother with all the glimmering astonishment of her wide open eyes. She stayed frozen for a moment, seemingly incapable of giving credit to her ears. Then a storm of emotions exploded all over her passionate heart, so different from her brother's. "You... you mean you've been spying on us??" Her shrilling voice was the most perfect mixture of anger, fear and surprise. Then a new glint came to her iris, and she gave her silent cousin an accusing look, "Or perhaps our dear Mitchuru-san have been opening her big mouth a bit too much about the subject!" Her emerald stare fixed the beautiful young woman with a killer glance of betrayed trust, "I should have supposed... Your sudden presence here, your nasty attitude towards Sei-chan... I was a poor blind fool not to have thought about all this before!!" Mitchuru's ocean colored pupils flashed in startled, hurt attitude, and she was about to answer to the furious girl's accusations when Lady Sumeragi interrupted her, her voice tone raised dangerously as she called the younger branch of the Clan to order. "Hokuto-san, I command you to control yourself! Mitchuru-san's presence in Tokyo has only come to confirm what I have learnt from myself, and that is the main reason for which I asked her to come here." Hokuto's beautiful, sparklingly angry eyes lingered a brief second more over her elder cousin, the dearest friend she considered had betrayed her, to then return to the majestic figure of the old Clan's Head, her fierce glance smoothening a bit under the cool surface of love and respect. Perhaps also an imperceptible trace of fear. That was something the old woman always felt distantly hurting to discover in both her beloved grandchildren. "Yes, I suppose you can say I have been spying on you..." She conceded in a soft whisper, then added after a while, seeing Hokuto's stare lower to the table, the passionate girl remaining mute, "Hokuto-san, why did you and Subaru hide this away from me?" At that Hokuto's proud chin lifted up automatically, a rebel glint shinning in her emerald eyes, slightly darkened by the long shades projected by her Sun-Moon hat. "So now we are supposed to tell you about every single person we get to make friends with? Then Sei-chan's name is followed by a very long list, obaa-chan!" She openly protested, a bitter accent in her childish voice. "Hokuto-chan, this is not a matter to joke about," Mitchuru decided to take part in the discussion on behalf of the respected Lady Sumeragi, her musical voice as strict in it's seriousness as soothing and almost mother like, as she bathed angry Hokuto in all the intensity of her ocean like stare, "We are talking about the very inheritor of our enemy's Clan. The man you have been sharing your days with, to whom you so openly welcome in your own home carries the blood of Sakurazukamori assassins in his veins! How could you ever allow such a thing?" Hokuto almost felt like laughing. Gods, both of them didn't had the slightest idea of the kind of person they were taking about. And her furious mind was suddenly filled with the wicked thought of wondering how would the two women react if they knew who had stayed keeping Su-chan accompanied in the pent while she was out. It would be such a hilarious thing to look at, their expression. "This is ridiculous! You don't even know Sei-chan!" Hokuto's hands came down over the table with a firm blow, making all of the porcelain table set jingle, as she raised in defense of her absent friend's name, "He's gentle and kind, and Subaru adores him! His personality has nothing to do with what his ancestors could have done." "We are not talking about ancestors here, Hokuto-san..." Lady Sumeragi's dark tone came to extend it's dominating influence over her granddaughter's arrogant protest, trying to bring her down to understanding the seriousness of the problem, "We are talking about parents, brothers, close relatives. What is exactly what you know about this man's life... nothing!" And Hokuto all at once found herself folding arms in reflexive gesture. She hated to admit it, but they got that right. Seishirou's personal experiences before meeting them have always remained as a mystery. Say, sometimes he really acted kinda funky, as if trying to avoid to discuss certain subjects with them. But still... "I think he has the right to keep his private life private," she decided to hang on to her stubbornness, refusing to touch a single piece of her dinner after this awful matter was set down. Both her grandmother and cousin exchanged a tired glance, a deep sigh escaping from this last one's graceful lips facing the bishoujo's immovability. "Hokuto-san, please listen to me carefully..." The beautiful girl couldn't help but letting out a surprised exclamation when she felt the contact of Lady Sumeragi's wrinkled hand that came to hold hers delicately, almost doubtfully, bright green lagoons going wide in unbelieving gesture. She thought she could count with one hand's fingers the times in which the old woman had touched either her or Subaru. And the old Clan's Head could perceive the tension, the almost rebound hidden behind the girl's astonishment, a sad shadow coming to darken even more the everlasting melancholy of her aged though beautiful face. Hokuto could feel her huge eyes filling with tears as she looked at her. "Hokuto-san, you were brought to this meeting with lies only because I wanted it's purpose to remain entirely secret to unwanted ears. Now that we are gathered here, I think it's time to let you know," The thin, still delicately graceful fingers made a little pressure over her gloved hand, olive eyes filled with mournful, pleading decision, "I only made you come here to ask you, to beg you to help me as Mitchuru-san had already agreed to do. Together, the three of us will be able to convince Subaru to let go of his sinful, obsessive affection towards this man. You, with all the love he treasures for you, are the best one to do it." "What?!" Hokuto almost stood from the chair, unable to believe what they were asking from her. "He will listen to you, Hokuto-chan," Mitchuru added, backing up the old woman's petition, an emphatic expression on her serene, ivory skinned face, "You are as the other part of his self. Please, you have to help us freeing your brother of all the wrongness and all the danger being with that man, our enemy, means to Subaru-kun, the very Head of our Clan! Your twin... " "He's powerful, " Lady Sumeragi's head shook slowly in sad resignation, her long gray hair swaying slightly over the proud shoulders, almost as if blaming it all on herself, for some reason that remained secret to both her companions, "But too soft hearted and trusting, just as his father was... He needs you to get rid of this man's influence, the sooner the better." "Stop! Stop! Stop!" Hokuto's fingers slipped from out of her grandmother's bizarre touch, both her gloved hands raising as if in self defense to lead the conversation to a radical halt, her face absolutely skeptic and bright crimson with anger. She looked intently at both close members of her family as if wanting to check on the seriousness of their words. "You two..." she started softly, sending her two partners in alarm with her unexpected calm before the unbelieving whisper of her voice turned into the usual, acute shrilling that was her trademark, this time heightened with anger and indignation. "You two don't understand a single bit of what you are asking from me!" An accusing finger was lifted up to them in protest, "You are not asking me to help my twin: you are asking me to betray him! You are asking me to betray Seishirou-chan's friendship! And worst of all: you are asking me to betray the love they hold for each other!" the excited girl didn't bother to hold back the striking meaning of her words, as she turned her attention fully towards her cousin, "Mitchuru-chan, you heard Subaru's words last night! I thought you understood what Sei-chan really means to him! How can you find yourself involved in this awful plan for tearing them apart? How could any of you ever thought you would involve me in it?" And she was half beginning to stand up. Willing to leave. She could not stand all that senseless discussion a second more. She didn't had the slightest idea of how their grandmother had come to know about Seishirou's existence, but she was already promising herself she wouldn't let that interfere with their friendship. Less still with the new born romance she had been working so hardly to forge and encourage. She was not going to allow that. "Hokuto-chan, I heard Subaru-kun talking about his feelings towards this... Seishirou the other day," There was a perfect trace of decision and serenity in that low, melodic voice, as smooth as the wind over the sea. That somehow lead her to turn her feverish green eyes to the calm figure of Mitchuru and listen to her soft words. The beautiful, young Mizunoto lifted her alabaster hand to run slender fingers absentmindedly across the ocean colored silk of her hair. "I heard him talking about the feelings that tie him to this man... Oh, Gods! And it reminded me of how Midori talked about that... mistake he calls his nii-san," The blue green stare of her cousin fixed in hers, eyes shimmering with firmness and emotion, "That is the main reason for which I talked to obaa-sama about it. About how this should be stopped. We must act mercilessly and definitively now if we want to save the Clan's Thirteenth Generation from being lost into darkness!" A pause then, as if she was measuring the decision of whether she should speak out her next words of rather save them for herself. "I saw the way that man embraced Subaru-kun last night..." The young woman closed her eyes as if she tried to carry herself into oblivion, then returned to Hokuto, her voice the strictest and most loving manifestation Hokuto had ever heard, and it didn't surprise her that her grandmother and her cousin understood each other so well, because they were absolutely the same. "Hokuto-chan, I don't want Subaru-kun to follow the same destiny as Midori... " Time seemed to still as both Sumeragi girls looked into each other's eyes. Hokuto could read the good intentions in her cousin's azure stare, understood that everything she wanted was the best for Subaru, just like she did. But, just like their grandmother, she had got it all the wrong way. And Hokuto's eyes stared into the young female Omnyouji's with all that mysterious, melancholic intensity, that silent and indefinable power both her look and her twins' shared. Her face was serious for the first time in the whole night. "Subaru is not Midori, Sei-chan is not your brother..." She spoke the words calmly, with the terrible serenity and inevitability of their meaning, "And I am certainly not you..." Mitchuru closed her eyes as if being stricken by a sword, "Hokuto-chan..." "Hokuto-san, stop being that cruel to those who really love you," It was Lady Sumeragi who stood first from the chair, raising herself over Hokuto's still sitting figure with all the authority and tyranny she had always surrounded herself with. And Hokuto suddenly remembered those distant days of her childhood in which she had to lift her little head in scared respect to glance at her distant, unreachable figure. "Mitchuru is only trying to save your twin's soul, but you seem all at once as blinded as him. I wonder what that man did to you to make both of you so unconditionally believe in him." "Loved us, " Hokuto answered calmly, pitiless, while she also raised herself from her place at the table, and to the old woman's same level, "Loved us and gave us tenderness. That is enough for both Su-chan and I, who have barely received it in our lives." Lady Sumeragi's olive green eyes widened for the first time in front of one of her grandchildren. Hokuto somehow seemed to find a bitter sense of justice in all that. "And I don't care if he is the very Sakurazukamori. He is our dearest friend, and we do love him," She repeated, folding her arms clad in rich black and white silk as she let her steps guide her out of the table, and over one of the huge window crystals, her back to her two family members as she stared into Tokyo's starry sky, "That is all that matters to me. I'll never betray him." Never... "Hokuto-chan, if you just had the slightest idea of what the Sakurazukamori really is..." Mitchuru-san's mutter was lost into the blackness of the half lit room, and never reached her. "Hokuto-san, you are talking about a man who could perfectly be Sakurazukamori! An aberration of human kind, a feelingless assassin whose presence has haunted and hunted the members of our Clan since almost the beginning of History!" the old Clan's Leaderess finally lost her temper, letting the ragged, imprecating sound of her commanding voice reach Hokuto even in her absort contemplation of the starlight, seemingly closed to any other word that may come from any of the two women that shared the shadowy room with her, "How do you in the name of the heavens dare call him a friend...?!" "Family." Hokuto turned to face them, moonlight bathing the paleness of her skin and the perfection of her slender body evidently appreciated beneath her tight, extravagant suit, granting her a distant, serene beauty that shone even brighter in the darkness that surrounded her than the faint glimmer of starlight in the night sky. Jaws dropped all over the room around her.
"So Midori-kun was actually in constant communication with his half-brother, through that link, the cat's fiery eye," Seishirou's deep voice sounded both interested and curious at a time, his gentle hands brushing absentmindedly across the pale, sensitive skin of Subaru's naked arms, an inner focused glint of concentration enlightening the depths of the dark honey eyes. "It is utterly fascinating..." Subaru whispered a sigh as he pressed closer to Seishirou's broad chest, searching for it's comforting warmth to chase away both the coldness that haunted his body and the restlessness that filled his heart each time his mind recalled what was happening to his beloved cousin. Almost completely, he succeeded. It was more than quite difficult that all the anguish and concern brought about by the past days' events could get him down as he was standing there, sheltered by all the tenderness of Seishirou's caring embrace, the older man's familiar presence enough to carry all of his fear and worrisome away. The whole evening had been a dream he was not sure he wanted to finish. They had enjoyed a quick, though delicious dinner on their own -the best Seishirou had managed to prepare taking into account Hokuto-chan's very particular way of keeping the kitchenette tools in order,- and talked about all those little things Subaru was needing so badly to keep his mind busy with, in order to avoid discussing his family's last news. And small talk was something Seishirou had proved very skillful at. Subjects such as his life at school, his everlasting dream of becoming an animal breeder and Seishirou's latest work at the clinic had been supper's main dish. Afterwards both had sit on the living room to watch TV until all the documentaries at Nature Channel that interested them had come to an end and Subaru could barely resist the screen's radiance with open eyes. It had been simple and familiar, and he had enjoyed it. Both shared the same tastes and hobbies, and most of their opinions about the different topics they had discussed were very close to be shared, yet opposing enough to make it amusing to exchange them. It had somehow brought him closer to imagining how to share everydays' life with Seishirou-san would be like. And he had made himself blush with shame when he realized how much he would like that to happen. Now both stood together watching the azure night sky on the large terrace outside his bedroom, Subaru's tired figure leaning over the stone railing as Seishirou's body pressed close to his in order to keep him safe from cold, the older man's gentle hands abandoning his hold of the balcony's surface to drift now and then lower through the teenage's skinny arms. Possessively... Subaru hadn't been aware of how much he needed to be touched along the night, and perceiving nothing but kind concern in his best friend's gesture, he had abandonedly allowed him to do so. Like that he had finally decided he felt protected enough to tell him about what had happened. Seishirou's voice sounded so casual. Calid and understanding... It helped a great deal to smooth his worrisome and shyness away. He was not sure of what time it was. Probably late past midnight. He was yawning all his way through his first evening meeting awake. But it didn't matter. Somehow he found himself wishing that night would be eternal. The sparkling green eyes, half veiled by the beginnings of somnolence due to the lack of sleep at such a late hour, focused their dreamy gaze on Tokyo city's urban landscape, that spread in all it's wondrous majesty at both their feet, a myriad of radiance brought by neon and car traffic's light. Subaru smiled sleepily at it's beauty. Such a calid resplendor they gave, and still so much loneliness and coldness big cities like that could bring to the broken hearted... He suddenly found himself softly capturing Seishirou's wandering hand in his own, gloved fingers gently closing over his friend's strong and slender ones as that thought came to his mind. No, he was not alone. Subaru closed his eyes as he tilted his frail head back, and over Seishirou's broad shoulder. He'll probably never be. It terrorized him to imagine what would have been of him that night if Seishirou-san hadn't come to keep him accompanied, and he was suddenly a child being so scared of the dark. It was as if Midori's family tragedy had brought him to the closest certainty of what being alone really meant. As if his cousin's words about being lonely were being repeated over and over in his now understanding mind. I don't want you to suffer just because you're scared of your own feelings... Don't want you to be that lonely... Loneliness was an idea that he feared as bad as he had never feared anything else in his short life. "Are you all right?", the caressing heat of Seishirou's breath ruffled through his silky hair smoothly. And there was that loving, caring voice again, it's rich, deep tone softened by an unmistakable hint of concern about him. About his well-being. Seishirou-san... Without breaking the close embrace in which both held each other, Subaru's stare turned slightly to look into his dear friend's handsome, kind face, his emerald green, half lidded eyes partly hidden by the light shadows thrown by the thick fans of his eyelashes. Seishirou's free hand whispered softly through his ivory cheek. A sweet caress of the deepest concern. Subaru's glaucous iris trembled in their wetness and emotion. Seishirou-san... His face... So handsome, caring and tender... He was more beautiful than any person he had ever met. And there was that strange feeling of eagerness blooming within his heart again. "Yes... " Subaru found it difficult to catch his breath, being charged with all the intensity of those gold brown eyes as he was, "Yes, I'm fine..." Just like that, his strong arms holding him gently from behind as he always loved to do, he felt as if no harm in the world could ever come to him. Seishirou-san just wouldn't allow it. "That's good," a warm smile came to curve Seishirou's thin lips as his hazel stare returned to the absent contemplation of the faint starlight that lit the shadowy sky, all the artificial radiance of Tokyo's night life reflecting in the transparent mirror of his glasses. Subaru unconsciously imitated him, feeling something he thought was very close to relief. "I was just wondering... " he paused, a faint pink blush coming to color the alabaster whiteness of his delicate face as words faded on his tongue, killed by his eternal shyness. "Wondering what?" Seishirou gently demanded to know in silky tone. "Just... things, Seishirou-san..." Subaru muttered the words in such a low voice that, not provided that his companion was standing so close to him, he could never had heard them. After a moment of hesitation, Subaru obeyed an inner impulse of his heart and held on to Seishirou's strong forearms. "I was thinking about what a lucky person I am... for being with people who really care about me, like obaa-sama, Hokuto-chan... and you..." The huge emerald pools turned twice as bright with tears when the image of his desolated cousin crying desperate when being separated from his elder brother returned to his mind, partially making a bitter feeling of guiltiness arise in his heart for his own previous thought. "Poor, poor Mi-chan..." he whispered in a broken voice, somehow understanding all his dear twin soul's suffering and, as always, making it his own, "It must be so awful... not being able to stay by the side of the person one loves..." His low voice cut up in a weak, involuntary sob, and Seishirou felt the urgency to change the subject as swift as he could, not quite surprising himself anymore by the way the little Sumeragi's suffering affected him. "You know what surprises me the most?" A rhetoric question, enough to distract Subaru from his thoughts yet not consistent enough for him to answer it. Seishirou cradled his frail body in his warm embrace until he could feel the slight quivering in the thin frame fade away into his tenderness. And somehow it felt so good... So right, to protect him in such a simple way. To know he had the power to stand by his side and take all the pain and all the darkness away from him was something that pleased him as much as he had never imagined. What surprises me the most... There was a secret irony in his own words. He was not really sure why he had returned to Subaru that evening. He was still beginning to give a name to that unknown yearning that had arisen in his void heart all the day he had been apart from him, and all he knew was that Subaru needed him so badly, entranced as he was by all his close family's inner confrontations. That surprisingly had been enough to make him rush to his side, and he didn't regret it. The time they had spent together that evening was an experience he would carry with him forever. To think of the plain simplicity of the things they had done, almost ridiculous in their nature, and how much he had enjoyed them by the mere fact of sharing them with Subaru-kun was something extraordinary. More than extraordinary, incredible. He had come to know the purest meaning of happiness by the lone act of laughing along with a sixteen year old boy about the most stupid things his old self had laughed almost harder to even think about it. And there he was now, standing in the half illuminated terrace with the Thirteenth Head of the Sumeragi Clan cradled softly in his sheltering arms, soothing his anguish by whispering reassuring words into his ear that somehow seemed to be inspired by a secret voice in his heart, delaying the inevitability of his departure as much as he could as he embraced that weak body long into the night. No... Not the Thirteenth Head of the Sumeragi Clan. Not even a Sumeragi. In that moment he could just think about him as his own Subaru-kun. "I can't begin to understand how Mitchuru-san never noticed what was hidden in her brother's almost obsessive affection towards Kizuna," leaving his thoughts behind, he focused on his point, trying to bring Subaru into the conversation again for his own sake, "I mean, she always suspected about the cat's strange nature, but never even guessed from where that feeling of wrongness the poor thing inspired her was coming from. I find it really hard to believe, being such a powerful Omnyouji as she is..." "It's not a matter of Omnyoujitsu," a satisfied smile was brought to Seishirou's handsome face when he heard Subaru's voiced interest in his wonderings, something he carefully hid from him when the graceful teenager finally felt strong enough to break free from his embrace and then turned to face him, his skin the purest shade of pale moonlight had ever cast. Seishirou suddenly found himself holding back a sigh. Subaru-kun... Did nobody ever tell you how incredibly beautiful you are? Or is it that your beauty comes from this new warm emotion you've had my heart filled with ever since... I started to feel...? "What held Mi-chan and Himoto-san in touch was nothing like a jitsu of any kind," Subaru explained in a weak voice, unaware of the sudden shift the glimmer in Seishirou's brown eyes had suffered, his own gaze lowered shyly at his gloved hands, "Mitchuru-san would have never known, she could just sense the heavy aura of evil and pain that surrounds Kizuna, like many of us. But it's not a youki, nor anything that Omnyoujitsu can bring about..." The velvety skin of his forehead frowned in deep meditation, "... It is as if Himoto-san gained his power from his own, uncontrolled emotions. I can feel anger, and so much hate in him..." "And love," Seishirou completed in a soft whisper, surprising Subaru with the sudden seriousness in his until then casual tone. The amber-brown eyes appeared strangely abstracted, as if talking about something entirely alien to him, or maybe something he was still beginning to discover. "He loves his little brother..." Subaru let his head hang forward slowly, as if resigned. "Midori-chan loves him. He is in love with him," the expression on the delicate, childish face turned firm with the certainty of how much he needed to understand his cousin's twisted feelings, "I think it's for all the time he had been apart from him, wanting to be by his side, to have his brother to love and protect him. Loving him like that is the only way he has to live without him..." "Maybe if he had talked to his nee-san, tried to make her understand that in trying to protect him she and the Clan were only hurting him worse, " Seishirou ventured softly as if he feared to touch something very intimate on Subaru's heart, his strong and gentle palm coming to rest over his narrow shoulder, "... Perhaps like that she would have prevented this, when she was still on time..." But Subaru was shaking his head, the short strands of layered ebony hair disarraying slightly over his snowy forehead, "Mi-chan would have never dared to confront Mitchuru-san. She is the one who brought him up, and her temper is too much strict for a person as shy and sensitive as Midori to complain about anything she does..." Perhaps because of the older man being too silent, Subaru's brilliant green lagoons felt suddenly drawn to meet Seishirou's stare, a bit surprised when he found a tender smile curving his friend's thin lips, unaware of the fact he could perfectly use his own words to describe his own personality. Seishirou's expression was kind and understanding, though so entirely different from the previous one he had been wearing that evening... Deeper in intensity, in every sense. Not very sure why that might be, Subaru went on with his speech, suddenly feeling a hot wave of shyness coming over him for no reason he could point out. "My... my cousin, he's too much like that: very passionate, but incapable of finding the courage to speak that passion out loud, " he smiled a bit sadly, unaware of the innocent sweetness that feeling gave to his beautiful face, as he nervously risked to lift his emerald eyes to momentaneously stare at Seishirou's intense expression, "But... After all... who am I to judge him?" Subaru felt a little anger against himself brushing at the lower depths of his mind, and spoke his next words as a sort of self recrimination, "Just a coward who doesn't even dare to speak his own feelings..." He swallowed as he caught a quick sight of Seishirou's smile growing wider in passion, to then immediately return to the focused concentration on his gloved hands. He was dying inside, and the worst of all: for no reason he could name. And anyhow, against all logic existent, something inside of him forced him to go on. Subaru's velvety eyelids closed a little over his dreamy gazed eyes, his chest heaving up and down as he was finding sudden difficulties to breath correctly. Not so far above him he could feel Seishirou's breath, warm and caressing over his soft hair, he could hear the rhythmic pounding of his heart behind the slight barrier of his friend's clothing. "And when I finally work out the guts to do so, I choose the moment so that the person I should refer to is not even there, " his pale cheeks burnt bright crimson not with shame, but with emotion. His fate was already sealed, but he just decided to finish giving himself away by concluding his sentence, "... Like last night..." he muttered, the lovely shy smile still on his curve lips. And Seishirou-san was laughing, a warm sound that somehow helped him relax a little. But... Was it a trick of his mind, or there was also a hint of nervousness in Seishirou's casual, low pitched voice? "So I see! Was that the conversation Hokuto-chan said she should have recorded for me, Subaru-kun?" Subaru blushed, but anyhow he dared to lift his shiny eyes to Seishirou's, carried by all the calid and reassuring feeling his partner's familiar tone brought to his restless heart. Sweet mistake. And there he was, suddenly captured by the fierce, unspoken passion held behind those glossy, gold brown pupils, "Am I wrong or did you and Mitchuru-san had an exchange of opinions after she asked me to leave the apartment?" "Yes... Yes!" Subaru's voice tone suddenly assumed a firm and decided accent, tried to hold on so badly to it, his emerald eyes glimmering back to the impulsiveness that had enraptured his heart on that moment, though never leaving Seishirou's tenderly alluring stare, "I told her she had no right to speak to you the way she did, and demanded that she apologized with you for being so rude with someone that is... is so very special to me... I mean, for both Hokuto-chan and me..." He began stammering, as usual. Hating himself for that. His running heart falling to his feet as he saw how Seishirou's face expression went totally serious again, divesting itself of all his previously laughing and joking attitude. Something in those dark honey eyes became firm with decision. Seishirou-san...? The shimmering green eyes opened widely into the night in both fear and longing. The tall man lifted a slender, gentle hand to run his soft fingertips through Subaru's silky fringe's hair, then brushing his warm palm all the way down his feverish cheek, his thumb slightly touching the sensitive skin of his parted lips. Testing... Subaru couldn't prevent his body from quivering in emotion. He was all at once too affected by Seishirou-san's touch. "You did?" Seishirou asked in a tender whisper, his hazel look fixed on the trembling green iris, the questioning tone on his deep voice practically nonexistent. Subaru nodded nervously and could do nothing else but keep on talking, talking, barely pausing after each word. "I told her that you have always taken care of both Hokuto-chan and I so lovingly... I told her how much your friendship means to me... " And Seishirou-san was leaning forward, the sensual warmth of his exhalation becoming closer to his skin, sending ripples of flame across Subaru's shivering body. "And I told her that you are closer to me than any member of my Family has ever been... " The silvery glare of moonlight was eclipsed from Subaru's face. "And I told her that there was nothing she could ever do to tear both of us apart..." The world was fading away around him, until everything Subaru could see or feel was Seishirou's handsome face approaching his own, his loving brown eyes staring intently into his, his sheltering warmth enveloping him. Protecting him... Yearning for him... "And I told her that... Oh, Gods!" And Seishirou's lips were on his. Filling him with the sweetest desperation he had ever experienced, silencing his words as the warm, wet touch of his gentle mouth kissed every other thought of pain or concern away from him. So tenderly... Subaru closed his eyes in both terror and delight. A burning wave of a sensation he had never felt before ran through his still body from the crisp of his disarrayed hair to the bottom of his toes, and he surrendered entirely to it, as he could feel Seishirou's gentle arms encircling him softly and delicately, pressing him against his strong body as their lips brushed together in an endless contact of forbidden passion. Seishirou-san... His hands leaned smoothly over Seishirou's narrow hips, shivering at the half realized contact, as his tense body slowly began to relax in his embrace. Oh my God! Seishirou-san... And all at once, it finished. Finished much sooner than he realized he had wanted it to be. A deep sigh that made all his thin body shiver escaped from Subaru's chest in the moment Seishirou's lips abandoned his own, leaving them wet and warm with the fiery passion he had poured in him, and he kept his eyes dreamily closed for a moment more. His first kiss... The familiar sound of Seishirou's kind laugher brought Subaru around again. The handsome man dedicated a soft, caring smile to him. "I am convinced Mitchuru-san found that last statement of yours particularly interesting, Subaru-kun..." Subaru echoed his laugher breathlessly, cutting it slightly as he saw Seishirou slowly began to lean over him again, the gentle smile still on his masculinely beautiful face. And this time Subaru tilted his head back, held his lips beckoningly ready for him until he felt Seishirou's mouth closing in on them again, his strong arms tightening the embrace that held their bodies together until they couldn't get any closer. Their lips began caressing each other in a slow and loving rhythm. Subaru's heart was beating too fast for it to be a dream. All across his skin he felt the half disturbing, half delightful sensation of that strange feeling of urgency that intoxicated his heart and mind, his whole body reacting to Seishirou's presence in a way he didn't understand. Deep within him, something brushed over his consciousness, something that was very close to fear. Something concerning his grandmother, he knew she wouldn't like that, but still nothing compared to Seishirou's familiar strength against the fragility of his deliciously aching body. And just then Seishirou's wet tongue slid across his moving lips, gently prying his mouth open. He came inside. Subaru let out a muffled whimper of pleasure as the kiss became deeper with dampness and passion. He could feel Seishirou's hands slowly gliding through his thin back, palms wide open moving stealthily over his hips, and his touch sent ripples of flame across his shivering body, heart pounding wildly in terrorized excitement. When they broke apart, Subaru refused to meet his friend's stare, fighting to catch his breath as he gave his back to Tokyo's neon brightness. "I'm cold. Let's get inside." He asked in a ragged whisper, as his gloved hands brushed up and down his skinny arms in order to regain their natural temperature. Noticing the slender body's slight shivering, Seishirou comfortingly wrapped his arm around the teen's narrow shoulders, his voice a little breathless as well, but firm with gentleness and care. "Whatever you want, Subaru-kun..." And Subaru knew he meant it, in every way. He let the older Omnyouji escort him to the crystal doors of his bedroom, let him open them for him and then hold his hand as they slid together across the incorporeal caress of the silk curtains. There he let him go, taking a few steps away from him as Seishirou carefully closed the balcony's doors again, his gaze rushing across the familiar surroundings of his own bedroom as if it was the very first time he visited it. His back to his partner, he embraced his own body tightly in his frail, almost pitifully thin arms as he let his head draw weakly backwards, an apparently endless gasp escaping from his burning chest. He was terrified. Though he could still not name a reason for it. And the weirdest thing of all was he found that fear utterly pleasant. He felt... so eager. Sensing a muffled movement behind him, Subaru turned slightly, head over his narrow, half naked shoulder, and caught sight of Seishirou smoothly throwing his coat over one of the sofas. He charged him pitilessly with all the melancholic intensity of his wet green eyes, as the handsome, fascinating man he called his 'best friend' slowly began to approach him with firm though calm steps, an unreadable expression in his beautiful, masculine features. Subaru looked at him with shimmering eyes, wanting him to leave, wanting him to stay, but most of all... Wanting him... Though he couldn't still begin to state what 'wanting him' completely meant. Subaru drew in a sharp inhalation. He turned fully around when Seishirou was only two steps away from him. He lovingly received the taller body in his open arms as they pressed together again, mouth seeking mouth without even exchanging a word of agreement. Both knew. Both yearned. This time Subaru himself spread his lips wide open to invite Seishirou's warm tongue inside of him. And Seishirou penetrated the damp heat of his mouth, sealing the kiss as his arms came around the thin frame of Subaru's chest, almost totally engulfing the fragility of his body in the warmth of his strong muscles. Momentaneously contented by possessing him in that way. Subaru's thin arms drew passionately around his lover's strong neck, giving himself away to the indescribable sensation his whole body was experiencing, feeling Seishirou's harmonious shapes moving against his own, an unexplainable hardness beginning to press against his inner thigh. His gloved hands spread over the huge back, caressing... Wanting... Exploring all the vastness of Seishirou's strong body, perceiving the firm definition of his muscles, perfectly appreciated over the soft silk of his shirt. And all Subaru understood was that they were both protected by the intimate silence of his own bedroom, completely alone in the deserted pent house as they would almost surely remain until early hours in the morning, and that whatever they decided to do would remain forever as their sweetest secret. Both Seishirou-san's and his... As if from a distance, he felt Seishirou's right tugging persistently down the knot of his tie. Felt him made a muffled sound of impatience inside him. It was probably too tight, as both were hardly breathing into each other's mouth. Acting purely instinctively, driven by his eternally kind nature, Subaru's hands quit in their slow, seeking moves to go and help him undoing it, breaking the deep kiss delicately to focus his concentration on helping his friend getting more comfortable. Seishirou let out a gasp of pleased surprise at Subaru's reaction, and threw his head back in delight, his glasses almost falling from the perfect arch of his straight nose by the impulsiveness of the movement. Oh, Subaru-kun...! He felt the slender, graceful fingers skilfully taking the garment in question away, enjoyed the exciting sensation of gloved fingertips brushing slightly, almost dangerously through his bare neck's skin in the careful process and he smiled as he let his stare lower to where he could see Subaru's self questioning expression, not completely sure what he should do with it now he was finished. Seishirou chuckled warmly, sensually, as Subaru's emerald eyes came to meet his own. He held that innocent, childishly beautiful face gently in his hands, lifting it to his, fingers whispering through the silky ebony hair in caressing, possesive moves, letting Subaru appreciate all the tenderness and passion that flew from the flaming depths of his old honey colored pupils. "Subaru-kun..." With a soft gesture of his right, he made Subaru let the undone tie fall to the floor, capturing his empty hand gently between his fingers. He smiled reassuringly at Subaru as both their hands caressed each other in a slow, loving motion, and the mesmerized teenager complied to him, a half excited, half dreamy expression on his precious pale face. He didn't had the slightest idea of what was going to happen. Seishirou's smile widened in tenderness at the young Omnyouji's naiveté. So his Subaru-kun was totally inexperienced after all... That was... utterly good. An intimate satisfaction spread all over his mind at that certainty. Something he thought he could almost recognize as... relief. So he was the very first person ever to be him... Seishirou somehow found himself feeling thankful at the idea. Subaru didn't even notice when his fingers stealthily slid inside the open bottom of his black satin glove, gently stroking at the rose petal soft skin that lied in there, perpetually hidden, totally busy with his own, shy caresses that sent Seishirou's heart on fire with more ease than he had ever imagined, experienced in that kind of matters as he was. And considering it was only his bare hand, Seishirou couldn't repress an almost imperceptible shudder of what he was sure might be emotion. Hunger for more... He slowly began to push the protective fabric away... At that, Subaru let out a startled exclamation, his hand fleeing from his touch as if it had received the contact of burning coil. Seishirou could read an abstract fear in the suddenly blushing face, and that reaction drew his hunter's sense on guard. "What is it, Subaru-kun?" he interrogated him in a sweet, exaggeratedly sympathetic whisper, his face still smiling reassuringly at him. He didn't need to hear the answer, though. "My Grandmother..." Subaru muttered the words with low, respectful voice, as if he was scared of the old Head of the Sumeragi Clan being probably listening, "... She doesn't want me to take off my gloves in front of anyone..." Seishirou hid a secret glint of ironic laugher in his hazel eyes, mocking to himself the old woman's prudent attitude, sensing a faint flame of anger slowly beginning to build inside of him. He was amazed to blame it on how it irritated him to perceive the firm grasp his absent enemy's influence held over Subaru-kun, and rushed to put it down, fearing to be exposing himself too much to the uncontrolled impulse of this new emotion. Somehow feeling defenseless to it... After all, he thought satisfied, how useless this, as well as all her other efforts had always been... As gently as possessively, he wrapped a strong arm around Subaru's narrow waist, pushing him closer to the warmth of his own body, filling him with all the caring and tender feeling of his smiling eyes, his other hand returning to his with deliberate, patiently slowness. Trust me... Subaru's trembling green iris never left Seishirou's hazel ones as his friend smoothly began to remove the glove from his fingers again, and Seishirou knew that for him it was as erotic as being divested of the rest of his clothes. A flaming shiver of desire raced through his tense body as a result of his own thoughts. All at a time, Subaru-kun... All at a time... And Seishirou kept looking tenderly into that shy, almost fearful face all through the process, lingering in every blink of the huge emerald eyes, enjoying every flinch of emotion triggered in the expressive surface of those deep green pools as he allowed him to go against his grandmother's will, perhaps disobeying her for the first time in his life. He was, had always been victorious over her. So it would be the first time for many things that night... Seishirou paused as he felt the familiar rebound of a protective guard set tightly over the grasp Subaru's glove held around his slender hand, musing at why had an expert practitioner as Lady Sumeragi chosen to use such a pathetic chain of jistu to hide what she knew was the difference between her grandson's life and death. Well, it didn't matter. Seishirou suppressed an evil grin. Perhaps she was not really good after all... Easily destroying the feeble spell with a single, comanding thought, he discarded the empty glove by letting it fall to the floor, next to where his tie laid. Subaru let out a deep breath, a soft aching expression brushing ghostly past his beautiful face as the green eyes continued enchained to his. Released, Subaru-kun? Just wait a little more... Hiding the sight of the pale naked back from his yearning stare from now, deliberately torturing himself with his growing curiosity, Seishirou freed Subaru's right hand to lay claim of the other, this time closing his teeth gently over the lustrous, soft cloth to then pull the glove away with the same nonexistent difficulty. Finished at last, he passionately grasped both of Subaru's naked hands, taking one of them to his mouth as he let his lips hungrily caress the soft, sensitive skin, kissing every inch of it with tenderness and desire, ignoring the blue resplendor of both the two inverted pentagrams that shone ominously greeting at his contact, marks he hadn't seen since the very first day they had met, almost six years ago. To find himself reacting that passionately... It was absolutely amazing to discover he was able of letting himself go like that. He perceived the sudden revolution in Subaru's body, the fear beginning to wake inside of him as he was free from the familiar protection that always accompanied him, wondering if he noticed them, if he could see them. Seishirou tenderly soothe his restlessness away with a quick kiss. No, Subaru-kun... He gently brushed his teeth over the velvety fingertips, biting them lightly, caressing the deliciously weak surface as he smiled Subaru's fears away from him. You are not in danger with me... A glimmer of relief enlighten the emerald pupils, captured by Seishirou's hazel ones. Not tonight. Subaru's free hand came shyly to rest against his soft cheek, and he let his lips play lightly teasing across the ivory palm. Not anymore... His warm breath lost itself between the silky darkness of Subaru's raven main, nuzzling at it softly, brushing his mouth all the way down his alabaster face, kissing eyelids, lips and chin as he headed towards the frail, sensitive neck, half hidden in his black catsuit. Subaru clenched his body to his, arms throwing desperately around his broad back as he moaned his own desire out. He ran his hands eagerly over Seishirou's broad shoulders, enjoying the feeling of his warm skin through the ethereal veil of his shirt and over the extremely sensitive touch of his naked palms, enjoying the forbiddenness of it. He just flinched slightly when he felt his beloved friend's familiar touch wandering away from him, as he moved silkily to stand behind his small back. Seishirou's arms came closely around him, then he felt gentle lips brushing lightly over the birth of his short hair, placing warm, wet kisses down the soft back of his neck. It felt so startlingly delicious... "Seishirou-san...?" he whispered his surprise breathlessly. And Seishirou answered him by slowly pulling down the zipper of his catsuit. A impulsive convulsion made Subaru's back arch out of the older man's tempting touch in astonishment and the beginnings of fear. "Seishirou-san...! What are you doing?" The strong arms wrapped tighter around his thin frame as Seishirou pushed him tenderly into the softness of his masculine body, his breath was a caressing heat ruffling through his disarrayed hair. "Relax, Subaru-kun... " A reassuring, tender whisper breaking beside his sweating face... Large, slender fingers massaging firmly at his narrow shoulders, easing the hard, scared tension of his weak muscles just a little. And suddenly all the sleepiness had abandoned Subaru's excited mind. Seishirou's lips were so close to his ear, almost touching, and he moaned aloud as he felt one of the big and gentle hands smoothly slipping inside the flexible fabric of his clothes, skillfully caressing the thinness of his chest, the flat hollow of his white stomach. This can't be happening... "Se-seishirou... san...!" Something he couldn't understand... Something at the same time terrorizing and delicious... It was... Seishirou pushed the upper part of the sleeveless, turtle necked catsuit down, baring Subaru's chest entirely. Pushing the elastic cloth until almost beyond his waist. Seishirou came to nearly rest his weight over him as his arms surrounded all the white softness of his ivory skin, and Subaru whimpered in fear and ecstasy as his friend and lover lavished passionate kisses from his soft, naked shoulders, warm and tender hands wandering freely across the briefness of his frame, caressing his nipples into diminutive, hard pricks. Caught up in a convulsive shiver that he somehow found extremely pleasant, Subaru could only surrender to that electrifying touch, thinking only about how terrifyingly good it really felt, of how much he wanted more, his whole body quivering slightly at the throbbing, eager sensation that now pounded in every inch of his skin. Somehow it didn't surprised him, didn't even startled him when Seishirou came face to face with him again, kissing his gasping lips as his fingers rushed through the neat line of buttons of his silk shirt, undoing them as fast as he could as Subaru's naked hands went to caress all of his muscled chest that became exquisitely revealed. Returning the favor... Trying not to think of anything else... Feeling a fever hotness in his cheeks as both their half naked bodies pressed together in wild abandon. He trailed fingers along the broad back, feeling the firm, strong skin beneath the desperate caress of his loving fingertips from under the light cloth just the second before Seishirou let the shirt fall over his back and onto the floor with a single, sensual movement of his shoulders. And all at once, they halted in their passion, looking tenderly into each other's eyes as both their naked chests heaved up and down with their ragged breath, a sea of clothes laying passively at their feet. "Seishirou-san..." Subaru's whisper broke the heavy silence and the dilated green pupils stared lovingly, devotedly into his companion's as he couldn't take the sensation that haunted him anymore, all his heart yearning with the need of finally voicing out his feelings, "Seishirou-san, I..." "Ssshhhhh..." And just before he could achieve the emotional catharsis he was seeking so badly, Seishirou gently pressed one finger over the soft curves of his beautiful lips, wet with his own passion, not allowing him to continue. Subaru felt an unconscious hint of something that approached frustration coming over him, but then he looked into Seishirou's eyes... And for only a second lasting moment Subaru thought he could read a slight fear in his best friend's honey stare, though Seishirou instantly blurred the passing impression by smiling warmly, sweetly at him as his hand caressed his cheek softly, "Don't say it, Subaru-kun... Please don't say it until you are completely sure of how much you mean it..." Oh, yes. All the previous feeling was gone in an instant. Seishirou's breath ran warmly across the alabaster skin of his graceful face, making him blush shyly and preciously at the tenderness in his eyes. He didn't resist what came next. Somehow he intuited, he knew he was totally safe. What could he fear after all from the beloved friend that had always protected him? His dearest friend... He dreamily closed his eyes as he felt Seishirou lifting his frail body in his strong arms, confiding in him, letting his head rest heavily over the big, broad shoulder, arms coming passionately around his neck as he allowed Seishirou to gently carry him the few steps that separated them from the perfectly tidy bed. He barely lifted his heavy eyelids as Seishirou laid him delicately over the soft mattress, letting the glaucous, shy resplendor of his emerald stare filter outside like facets cast from a jewel, the soft shelter of the pillows meeting his weary head. He stretched his thin figure comfortably over the bedspread as he gifted the handsome man with an innocently questioning stare, maybe wondering at what would be his next move. Still not realising all the danger and all the passion in what was about to happen to him... Seishirou could only smile at him with all the tenderness, all the unknown and warm feeling that filled his heart for him, as he came to place himself just at his feet over the bed. Subaru really trusted him... Blindly. Lovingly. He showed himself apparently content with the company. Seishirou found that an extremely pleasant thought. Being as delicate as he could in the fierce throbbing of his desire, he brushed fingertips along Subaru's thin chest, feeling its softness, the deliciously persistent tension that held his weak muscles on guard, and let his touch drift lower through the ivory whiteness of the bishounen's belly, playing over his graceful shapes until he could feel whole Subaru's body relax sleepily into his touch, become acceptant of those strange caresses that both soothe his heart as put it on fire at a time. And Seishirou delighted himself with the heavenly vision of his defenseless, adorable prey turning comfortably to one side of the pillow, searching for the best position to enjoy his attentions. Feeling something he had never felt before to accompany the desire... Something indescribable, far beyond all that was tenderness and warmth, beginning to conceal itself inside of him. He contemplated him in absolute, hungry fascination... Knowing Subaru was at his will... Knowing Subaru belonged to him... Knowing Subaru was now totally distracted. So Seishirou's hands furtively moved to take hold of the black lycra cloth that hanged vacant around the boy's waist and then, without allowing himself a second of hesitation, he pulled both pants and underwear down and out of Subaru's resting body. The slumbering teenager came instantly out of his surrendering passiveness. He let out an excited, almost agonizing exclamation as he squeezed his eyes shut with instinctive reaction, head throwing back in both delight and terror as he was left totally naked over the warm sheets of his own bed. Naked... He didn't want to think. He couldn't. He was just conscious to the certainty that Seishirou-san was there, watching him, and that lone thought made all of his self burn in flames of both shame and emotion. Slowly, hesitating with fearful insecurity, he lifted the long fans of his dark eyelashes that just a second before had been denying him the vision. Protecting him from the reality of what was happening... And he could see Seishirou-san devouring him with the passionate, hungry look in his glistening brown eyes, his lips parted in absortness as he contemplated the warm light of his pale nakedness that had suddenly come to fill the room. His cheeks were colored by three different shades of scarlet. He could read an indescribable pleasure there... He could hear the steady, almost arrhythmic pounding of his heart as his gaze drifted slowly all the way through his slender body. He could read caring and desire in those warm, honey brown eyes... Subaru let out a breathless sigh as a shy, faint smile came to curve the trembling shapes of his velvety lips. And somehow he was... enjoying it... He liked Seishirou-san watching him... It was the most erotic moment of his life. He began acknowledging a sudden, incomprehensible change in his body's sensations. Felt a growing, delicious hardness between his legs as blood started fiercely pulsating through his small genitals, and his heart was filled with passion and need, and a myriad of other emotions he couldn't understand. Couldn't even control... He suddenly found himself thankful that Seishirou-san was by his side. And then Seishirou stood up, triggering a new startlement in his dreamy mind. Fearing that he could leave him... Like that... It would be a dream turned into nightmare. His running heartbeat almost came to a halt as he could see how Seishirou, his handsome, beautiful face enlighten by the most abstract expression that was partly a tender smile, so calmly unfastened the golden buckle of his belt and then pulled his fine trousers, then his small white shorts down, letting them fall to his ankles in perfect serenity. Eyes smiling at him all the way through the process through the crystal clearness of his glasses... Subaru couldn't fight down a shudder, whimpering weakly in the sensual attack of his own, fiery desire, refusing himself to trust the fascination of his gaze. His wet green eyes became wide until they ached in the natural impulse of being closed. But he couldn't... He wouldn't. Seishirou-san.... His face was bright crimson, hot with fever, and he knew he should avert his gaze. Somehow he managed not to, caught now in the absort contemplation of his friend's perfect, almost aggressively masculine body. Beauty, he thought. A sense of beauty he had never felt in such an intensity. A beauty he wanted to feel, touch, experience entirely in the dazed longing of his fearful passion. He contemplated him unblinking, daringly, as Seishirou-san took off his glasses slowly, placing them with care over the little bedside table, then smoothly returned to the bed and to him, a fact that he feared almost as much as he wanted to trail fingers along all he had seen. Subaru gasped at his own idea, all his thoughts fading away the second Seishirou lowered his body onto his, letting himself lay right on top of him. He thought he'll die as another flaming wave of that unknown sensation took him over. Now he could feel Seishirou-san's weight over him, the intimate contact of his warm nakedness pressing against his own, and he was suddenly fully aware of what he was feeling. Pleasure, pleasure as he never thought one could ever experience. And he whimpered in need, desperate with an urgency for Seishirou and all of his self represented. "Am I too heavy for you, Subaru-kun?" the handsome man silkily whispered as his tender hand caressed lightly the blushing softness of his cheek, looked into his childish face with half lidded eyes so full of sweetness, and loving, and passion. And Subaru could only look at him as the familiar heat of his breath ran through his naked skin, melting into the caring, gentle stare of those calid mahogany eyes, "... No," he panted weakly. "No..." it was all he could mutter as he smiled his fear away from him. Seishirou stayed like that, contemplating him sweetly and absortly for just a minute more, to then lower his weight onto him and touch their lips together, resuming the kiss both had left inconclusive, his big hand still softly caressing the warmth of his skin, drifting higher to lose within the silky mess of his dark hair. The pillows seemed to lift out of the bed to meet their resting bodies. Subaru offered his mouth to his in total abandon, the curves of an unconscious smile still lingering over it, shyly daring to move his delicate hands to lightly take hold of his friend's narrow waist from both sides, trembling at the softness of the skin, feeling Seishirou slowly begin to move against him and it was hardness pressing into hardness as both their bodies merged into a calm, swaying rhythm. He felt Seishirou's need complying to his own... He felt Seishirou's caresses drift lower, lower... The tips of his long, slender fingers playing teasingly across his side with such a mastery and tenderness that pleasingly surprised him. Overjoyed him. Hands as delicate and precise in touch and finger pressure over the slick surface of his aching body... An artist's loving hands... He gave out a light groan as he felt his friend's touch slid swiftly between both their bodies and into the warmth of his inner thigh, gently stroking length and tip as his other arm came protectively around him, half holding him, half lifting him from the bed. Subaru's arms came around the strong neck as he enjoyed that touch, aching and gasping into the kiss in terrified pleasure as he felt his legs intertwining with Seishirou's, body moving against body as his friend's tender, familiar touch kept on pleasuring his member. He let all his weigh rest on Seishirou's firm arm around him. So that was what it felt like... being touched by someone you love. And Seishirou's lips were breaking free, kissing him lower down the sensitive, weak flesh of his neck, sucking at the whiteness of his virgin skin, licking lovingly at the hollow of Subaru's throat as the boy arched his body in delight underneath the wet contact of his mouth. Subaru smelled like sweet baby perfume, tasted like lingering strawberry to the greedy caress of his tongue as his frail body shivered like a trapped bird underneath his own hardness. And Seishirou couldn't think about anything else but how to give him more. How to make him feel more. He let his lips caress the shivering fragility of his chest, his hands coming to hold Subaru's as he lovingly crucified him against the softness of the bed, his tongue playing over the hardness of the small, rose colored nipples before he finally took them inside his mouth, biting delicately at them, hearing Subaru whimper in ecstatic pain somewhere above him. He kissed all the way down his flat belly and just then a feeling of tension made him break away of his rapture. Why, Subaru-kun's surrendering passiveness seemed totally unfair. Even for being a first timer. He returned to lay over him, pressing the shivering body to his as he could feel the excitement running through Subaru's alabaster skin like small trails of fire, fingers brushing through the midnight strands of black layered silk, looking into the veiled brightness of those emerald eyes as his exhalations bathed him in all the hotness of his desire. He wanted that little, naive soft touches of Subaru to explore him as passionately as he had just done with him. Wanted to feel the throbbing desire flow through him as those slender fingers filled him with all their innocence and eroticism. He found himself wanting that more than anything else in the world. "Put your hands on me, Subaru-kun..." he whispered breathlessly as he gently grasped the thin, apparently breakable wrists and eagerly kissed the bottom of his velvety fingertips, anticipating it, smiling lustily, tenderly at him, "Touch me..." After that, he surged into the wetness of the little Sumeragi's mouth, sheltering him in his embrace as both shifted over the covers, granting him with all the familiar and reassuring protection his arms holding him tightly could afford him. And after a long, seemingly endless second he started to feel Subaru-kun's small, shy hands hesitatingly obey him. Fingers as slim and caressing as his curve, tender lips learning the damp and pleasurable ways of the deep kiss came to slid lightly among the waved, silky strands of his short ebony hair, caressing longly and tenderly, somehow making all his body relax as he let out a dreamy sigh that got lost inside the bishounen's mouth as he concentrated partially in what Subaru would do next. The fiery touch of his thin hands slowly traveled lower, along the smooth lines of his strong neck, then came to spread in all their exacerbating touch as they doubtfully, deliciously fondled the hardness of his muscles, the vastness of his heaving back. It was incredible... Sublime... Seishirou broke the deep kiss only to take the unbelievable delicacy of Subaru's perfect earlobe inside his mouth. He heard the boy moan lightly as he slowly began to nip it, exploring the delicate tunnel of his ear with the wet, soft tip of his tongue. He could feel the gentle touch of Subaru's hands trailing down his spine, and all of his attention focused on it as the caressing palms shivered over his hips... Yes. Started to move lower... Yes... And all at once Subaru's breath exploded over his neck, his hands rushing terrorizedly out of the contact of his strong body as the young Omnyouji's face turned faintly to one side over the pillow, breathing hard. Completely scared of what he had been about to accomplish. All Seishirou could do was tenderly smile at his fearful shyness, feeling quite an amusing sensation as inner protest for the interruption of his attentions was. He hadn't realized how lost he had been into his touch until it ended. So abruptly... But yet so promising. It seemed Subaru-kun would need a bit of help there. His smile widened. It didn't matter. He would teach him... Show him... It'd only make things more deliciously erotic. It'd only make Subaru-kun enjoy more. Decided, he raised himself over the bed, calling Subaru's distracted attention to him. He could read the shy, almost apological glimmer on those liquid green pupils as they came to meet his hazel stare. Smoothly, he took his delicate naked hand in his, carrying it to his mouth, kissing it sweetly and tenderly as he soothe Subaru's tension with his comprehensive attitude. Distantly he could nearly feel the thin body relax among the slightly messy covers as his soft lips brushed slowly through the nacreous surface, sucking lightly at the tips of his fingers, running the wet caress of his tongue all the way across the sensitive palm. Then slowly, carefully carry Subaru's hand through his own feverish skin, making the trembling fingers feel the definitions of his throat, the beating of the life that pounded so close to the pressure of his contact. He pulled Subaru's touch down across his broad chest, feeling a half suppressed whimper fade on the boy's lips as he contemplated him, his heavy eyelids partly hiding the green resplendor of his gaze as he delightfully allow him to carry his palm lower over the muscled warmth of his flat stomach. And then... Subaru's childish face enlighten with an expression of fearful, desperate ecstasy as Seishirou's fingers, gently but firmly closed around his vulnerable wrist, took his delighted hand into all the hardness and the heat that laid between his legs, wide open green eyes staring fixedly, terrorizedly into his face. Seishirou listened to the broken moan that escaped from his gasping mouth, held the gentleness of his touch to him until he felt how Subaru's fingers began doubtfully, fearfully stroking his warm manhood and he freed him from his tight grasp, knowing he didn't need to force him into it anymore. Fire cascaded all through the tension of his body as he let his head fall backwards, whimpering in delight, eyes closed to the pleasure of the sensation as he could feel Subaru's shy hand encircling him, taking a delicate, tentative hold of his member as his velvety fingertips slowly brushed up and down it's length. Exploring... Sending him into a throbbing enjoyment that almost took consciousness away. No... Seishirou fought to control himself, pushing down the urgent beating of the need that flood through his body, menacing to carry him straight into release. He didn't want the pleasure until he was sure he could share it with Subaru-kun. He returned his attentions to him, lightly brushing his ten fingers through the dark, soft down that surrounded the boy's erection, making him moan his passion out, listening to the rhythm of his ragged breath as it accompanied the feverish movements of his small hand up and down through him. He lowered his gaze at Subaru as the teenager writhed in ecstasy under him, and his heart was suddenly filled with a sensation that somehow seemed to surpass all of the wild desire that enveloped him, as the slender fingers brought him higher and higher into delight. The gold brown pupils dilated in devotion. He was so beautiful... So perfect, lying in all the translucent fragility of his precious body as he thought he could at any time lose him between the messy shelter of the sheets. As frail and delicate as a small, white sakura petal nestled in his cupped palm. Subaru-kun. The same who had shared every moment of his life as he now shared his bed for almost a year now. As self giving as always, totally surrendered and helpless to his will. He wanted him so... Wanted to own him completely, in all the innocence and tenderness of his being, make Subaru feel the rushing passion of the absolute release he would grant him. He realized he wanted him more than he had ever wanted anyone else. Anything else. He wanted to give it all to him. Fill him with all the hotness and the pleasure of the moment. He wanted to encase him in the damp heat of his mouth and taste all the intimate flavor of his hardening flesh. But he'd better not. Subaru was so sensitive, so weak... He didn't want to shock him. So he contented himself with holding tightly at the slender base of his swollen member, sweetly pressing his fingers to the pulsating warmth of the skin. He just wanted him to enjoy as much as he could, to be satisfied and happy in the imperative demandings of his passion, even if that meant to put his own desire down. And at that thought he realized how much Subaru really meant to him. Understood that something far beyond purely physical hunger heightened the sensations of his desire for the first time in his life. Something that had remained nameless, abstract all this time in the deepest of his heart and now seemed almost at his grasp, warmer and more tender than any other of the feelings Subaru had ever brought to him, filling the voidness of his soul with it's beatific touch. Something so precious and so right he couldn't still define it. He breathed into it, captured it's pure essence as he let his touch drift lower, his hands gently parting Subaru's legs as he brushed fingertips over the beckoning heat of his entrance. Maybe he should prepare him... But he then decided no to. He didn't want anything to anticipate Subaru to what he would feel. He wanted him to enjoy the unexpectedness of it, to experience all the delicious, painful pleasure it would bring. Unable to control his eagerness anymore, he took firm hold of Subaru's hips, lifting him slightly and, when he thought the boy was ready, pushed his erect sex against the tightness of his anus. A weak smile came to his parted lips. Oh, Gods... So hot, so wet, so... tight... It felt twice as indescribable as he had imagined. And Seishirou allowed himself to look down at him all the way through it, contemplated how his body became taut with tension and fear as the curve lips parted, seeking for air in all the perfectly smooth stillness of the moment, contemplated the furious blush that had come to take over the whiteness of his face, wetted by nacreous tears of emotion. Subaru-kun... Leaning forward slowly, careful not to capture Subaru's length between the slick surface of their bodies, Seishirou held him again in his sheltering embrace as he sealed a wet, loving kiss around his yearning mouth. Subaru's mouth had opened in a silent cry of pain-filled pleasure, his hands clinging unconsciously to the bedspread as he felt Seishirou-san forcing his way inside his body in a way he couldn't understand, shredding, breaking to open his way through him. Owning him completely... And it hurt. He felt an agonizing pain that paradoxically sent him higher into a rough sensation of pleasure than any other thing Seishirou had done to him all through that wonderful night. Felt a throbbing pulsation that strained to break free as fiery, involving waves of ecstasy started to break upon him. Somehow it felt so good, so satisfying, to have his dear friend filling his body with his own, hard flesh. Being like that he felt as if his self was finally complete. Just then that wet, gentle mouth came to wrap itself around his empty lips, filling him as well with its warm tenderness, with the touch of the soft, caressing tongue and everything was dampness and heat and passion. He desperately threw his arms around the broad, firm neck as he felt himself joining the rapid rhythm of Seishirou's hips arching and surging against him, complying to it, his own movements driving him further and further in with every time he went up, and he feverishly clenched his friend's strong body to his, pushing him as deep as he could, wanting to feel all of Seishirou inside him. He broke the deep kiss to gasp for air over Seishirou's shoulder, the older man's weight keeping him trapped between his nakedness and the bed... Subaru breathed love. The hotness of his heavy exhalations ruffled through Seishirou's wet hair, that viciously stick to his sweating face, slipped inside his mouth, and he kissed it. Kissed all of Seishirou he had close at hand. He could hear the pounding of his friend's heartbeat, running at nearly its peak, as he felt his hardness beginning to move inside of him, quickly and surely against the tightness of his tunnel until the pleasure and the pain that overwhelmed him grew too much for him to bear. What was happening? "Seishirou-saaaan!!!!!" He let out an uncontrollable cry as pleasure broke inside of him, filled him with all the fiery sensation of release and he had to hold on to Seishirou's muscled shoulders as his frail body convulsed violently beneath him, nearly being torn apart as his back arched furiously against the slickness of the skin. His seed exploded all over their excited chests and the white bedspread, and Subaru could remotely perceive a blurred sensation of guiltiness and shame building in his heart. But just then Seishirou's strong body stilled atop of him, quivering slightly as his head was thrown back in delight. "Subaru... kun..." Seishirou let out a muffled gasp as an unconscious smile played over his lips. And Subaru's green eyes narrowed in fascination when he lifted his shiny stare upwards and as he silently looked at him. Contemplated the ecstatic expression of his handsome face as he came. He could almost feel it as the pleasure poured all through his frozen body, the tension of that moment of perfect stillness and the exhaustion that came to follow it. And Subaru smiled weakly... It somehow felt so right, so fair that he took his pleasure from him just as much as he had given to his body, heart and soul. He closed his emerald eyes as he could perceive Seishirou's hardness trembling in release and then a caressing current of heat breaking free inside of him, focusing in the sensation of it flowing furiously through his inner depths. At that Seishirou's body collapsed exhaustedly onto him. Subaru's arms wrapped unconsciously around his broad back, feeling the warm, involving, somehow comforting weight of his body lying over his own as both breathed hard, listening to the running rhythm of their heartbeat slowly becoming level again as it resounded in the silence of the empty pent house. His hand instinctively reached out to pull the forgotten, damp bed covers over them. He could feel a warm and creamy wetness leaking out of his anus, there were Seishirou-san had somehow entered him and sighed, delighted by the sweet sensation of relief and satisfaction that enveloped his heart and mind. His parted lips brushed delicately over Seishirou's dark hair, caressing his ear softly. Had he fallen asleep? His own eyelids were suddenly so heavy, he thought, a delicious weakness had taken him over as if Seishirou-san had drained all of the physical strength from him when he... Penetrated him... "Seishirou-san..." the dreamy whisper escaped from his lips, so close to Seishirou's unhearing ear, in which he blew an unconscious kiss. "Seishirou-san, I love you..." And his friend's arms came protectively around him, sheltering his frail body with all his familiar warmth as he muttered incomprehensible words and tenderly pushed him close. Subaru was nevertheless contented with his answer. Both accommodated themselves among the softness of the disarrayed bed and relaxed warmly into sleep without breaking the tightness of the flesh bond.
A furious gust of wind took over the old tree's strong, seemingly endless branches, carrying away a pink myriad of diminutive sakura petals that lost themselves into the deepest darkness of the night. Anger... Zillions of souls silently cried out in their eternal torture, feeling the revolution, taken away from the monotony of their imprisonment by the terrorizing change that had come over the ancestral bound that held them tied. Fury... An air of indescribable evil exploded in the ageless soul of the Sakura Barrow. Sensing betrayal. Brokenness. The perfection of ancestral voidness being filled up with... Feeling... The Guardian... The painful spirit let out an agonizing howl of rage that was lost into forever, the misty shadows of a night even darker than the one that surrounded it denying it the ability of reaching the one it wanted to touch. Empty... No more... Something was terribly wrong.
"I... I want to apologize..." Mitchuru's azure-green eyes broke for just a little instant out of the cautious concentration in the highway's road to drift slightly over the until then silent teenager that occupied the passenger's sit to her left, the caress of the wind bringing a swaying cloud of ocean colored hair around her serious face. Hokuto didn't returned the glance. Emerald eyes just kept on staring thoughtfully at the rushing urban sight of Tokyo's freeroad as her cousin's fast, cobalt Elantra accelerated through the crowded streets towards the still distant Sumeragi Building. "Why will you?" After a second of consideration, Mitchuru's attention returned to the driveway, not bothering in hiding a resigned grin that she knew her younger cousin would never notice, "You don't feel remorse for what you said, neither you are going to change your mind about your decision..." Her hands increased a bit the natural pressure over the wheel. "Will you?" "No!" At that Hokuto finally broke out of her reverie, sending little, furious emerald sparkles to her from her eyes, a grumpy expression of stubbornness that looked so incredibly cute still on her face. She had been wearing it since the late ending of the 'council', "Stop talking about that stupid subject or you'll only get me more mad! I said I want to apologize, to make friends with you! So stop making it tougher for me not to strangle you until we get home!" A sad smile that was the most perfect manifestation of hopeless worrisome came to Mitchuru's feminine lips, that smile she knew could break her heart to pieces in a matter of seconds. And it did. Hokuto's gloved hand came to rest over hers from above the change lever, the delicate, childish face now bathed in the most lovely mournfulness Mitchuru had ever known, green pupils glimmering her emotional regrets out to her. Lucky she was driving, she thought, that gave her the perfect excuse not to look at her directly. Not to let her notice the reproaching glint of her own, bluish stare, and yet the inner longing to hug her into her arms and cradle that innocent little person of hers sweetly in a mother like embrace. Oh, but probably she knew, after all. Both her and her totally naive twin were just like Midori: able to read a person's mind, yet not capable of seeing what was the best for them. Perhaps not even wanting to. It was utterly ironic. "I said awful things to you Mitchu-chan, and I'm sorry," She almost sounded like Subaru-kun when she used his favorite sentence, "But you and obaa-chan couldn't have got me more mad, accusing Sei-chan with that garbage... Please forgive me." "I forgive you, Hokuto-chan," Mitchuru's voice sounded monotone, almost empty, her stare still fixed in her driver's duty, "I only hope you'll be able to forgive yourself when it is too late..." A groan reached her from the left side of the sportscar.
Playful rays of sunlight caressed sleeping eyelids warmly, making the velvety, alabaster surface tremble slightly beneath its half disturbing, greeting contact. A second then Subaru's emerald eyes were shimmering open, wet iris still veiled by lingering somnolence shrinking at the hurting radiance that bathed the room, and the dreamy teenager had to bury his face deeper into the softness of his pillow as he let out a disgruntled sound, lifting unconsciously a slender, naked hand to his blinded stare as he batted his thick eyelashes rapidly, in order to shield himself out of the annoying clarity. But... what time it was...? A faint blue glimmer borning from his pale skin sent his wakening eyes wide in startlement, becoming aware of the unusual absence of his protecting gloves. And after the gloves, the rest of his clothes. At that his thin body relaxed back into the warm shelter of the bed almost instantaneously, light pink blush coloring his ivory face even as a shy, though utterly satisfied smile curved his delicate lips, the sweetness of the past night's blurred memory returning to ease his still half awaken mind. Subaru instinctively pulled the covers higher over the slenderness of his figure, almost as if to protect his already inexistent intimacy from his surely sleeping bed mate. He could barely recall falling asleep in Seishirou's arms after it... had ended. But he remembered the heat, and a startling, almost terrifying pleasure that had enveloped his body and mind, sending him into the most beautiful and uncontrollable rapture he had ever experienced. And he remembered release... Pleasure and pain blooming and mixing inside of him in an incomprehensible, delicious sensation, enough to make him cry tears of uncontrolled emotion. He remembered the tenderness... His tenderness... Letting out a muffled sigh, his weak voice almost breaking for the somnolence that menaced to carry him back into sleep, Subaru changed his position over the still warm mattress, rolling over to the opposite side. One skinny arm lifted forward to wrap itself tightly around the strong body that laid beside him, ready to press himself against it's sheltering softness. Oh yes, he wanted to sleep again. This time being aware of the familiar sensation of Seishirou's muscular body laying over him. Willing to take himself back to the delicious memory of how close they have been on that sublime, wonderful moment. He wanted to sleep like that... always. He wished they could stay like that forever. "Seishirou-san..." And his arm landed down into an empty expanse of bed. Huge green iris blinked Subaru's dreamy surprise out, his soft cheek coming to rest over the messy surface of the covers where Seishirou-san's chest was supposed to be, slender fingers drifting unconsciously slowly along the many twists and turns defined on the white sheets as if trying to capture any echo of his strong body that might still linger on them. A faint feeling of alarm beginning to brush over his still veiled consciousness. Why wasn't he there? Had it all been a dream? He tenderly smiled his own fears away as all around him laid the evidence that denied that naive possibility: the bedspread, still damp with the evident traces of their passion, the way the pillow and sheets had captured the masculine essence of Seishirou's Drakkar Noir cologne, which familiar scent even enveloped his own body's sensitive, naked skin... Letting out another deep sigh, Subaru rolled back to the right and struggled his way to a sitting position, unable to achieve anything but raising himself slightly over the bed and against the soft caress of his sunken pillow. His whole body ached painfully though deliciously. It demanded such an effort from each one of his weak muscles even to move, experiencing the tension of being forced beyond their resistance, as a lovely, nearly caressing numbness spread through his slender limbs. And he had bled a little. A slight shiver ran through the thinness of his back as he discovered a faint hue of crimson over the immaculately white linen, coming to confirm it when he shyly touched fingertips against himself. Well... it had hurt, after all. He thought he barely remembered Hokuto-chan saying that always the first time would hurt. An intense heat came to blush his cheeks, coloring them pink against the alabaster shades projected by the rest of his nude body as the skinny arms wrapped themselves around the almost insignificant frame in sort of a protective embrace, as if like that he could chase all of the shyness, and every little cobweb of uncertainty away from his innocent heart. Subaru let his weary head fall to one side until almost touching his narrow shoulder, green eyes losing absently into the contemplation of the white vastness of his room's wall. It had all happened so soon... He had never even thought about what it would be like before. His first time... Never stopped a single instant to ponder on what would it feel like after it was over. Gods, always considered as one of his twin sister's favorite jokes, even the idea of being kissed good bye by any of his female classmates sent him into a state of shameful hysteria, to come to think about that... But with Seishirou-san... His best friend. It all seemed entirely different. Perhaps it was partly because they were both male... Subaru's alabaster cheeks blushed into fierce bright scarlet. How could two men actually do that together? The way he had touched Seishirou that night... it had been as if melting into a warmth and a tenderness far beyond which he believed was humanly possible. He had never imagined it would feel so good, to touch a man like that... And to be touched. No... He unconsciously shook his head as his emerald gaze was lost into the absort study of his bare palms, pupils dilating in both pleasure and shame as he remembered how they had learnt the secret ways of his friend's deepest intimacy, the smooth, virile, perfect shapes of his feverish skin. Not only a man, but Seishirou-san... It was just because it was him he had actually felt so loved, so protected... So precious... Somehow he knew it had been right. He had never imagined it would be like that. The shimmering green pools glided thoughtfully slowly through the surroundings of his warm room, as he got to push himself more straight and breathed deep into the lately heated atmosphere. His bed was an almost surreal mess of fallen pillows, disordered cushions and the upper covers that impotently rolled over themselves all around him and onto the futon, the silky sheet being the only one that remained victoriously wrapped up into the mattress and the one that shielded his harmonious shapes from the curious gaze of sunshine. Brilliance cascaded inside through the open curtains of the terrace balcony, sending the whole place into an ethereal clarity he was hardly beginning to get accustomed to, and gave out the hint that it would surely be an early hour in the morning. What...? Something brushed at the lower depths of his memory, telling him that somehow there was a reason for which he should be worried about the time, but it all vanished as the emerald gaze came down to survey the room's impecable floor. The timid, childish smile returned to his velvety lips, even wider and sweeter than before with open relief and satisfaction. No, Seishirou-san hadn't gone anywhere. At least not far, considering his shirt and tie were still passively laying over the smooth surface of the futon, he could almost assure that in the same position they had been discarded the last night. His pants and underwear were gone, though. And his coat... Subaru turned the beautiful, delicate head to his left, the completely disarrayed ebony of his mane fluttering disturbingly in front of his seeking eyes as the slender fingers brushed the layered strands of his fringe backwards. Yes, it was also there, just over the coach to which Seishirou-san had confined it, the very first garment he had taken away... That somehow brought him back to the sweetly erotic memory of being undressed by Seishirou's loving, gentle hands, the caressing heat of his ragged exhalations falling over the sensitive skin of his bare neck, the sensation of pulling Seishirou close and feeling his body moving against him in that slow motion. That expression on Seishirou's face as he let go of his pleasure inside of him... A gasp escaped from Subaru's lips as he suddenly became aware of how he had closed his eyes in delight facing that memory, surprising himself by the ease with which his passion was triggered. He sighed even as his head unconsciously sank lower onto the welcoming pillow. Would it always be like that? Still smiling shyly, he let his slender hand whisper slowly downwards until it reached the floor, fingers closing lightly over the silky cloth of Seishirou's shirt, gently stroking it's whiteness, to then, after a minute of hesitation, lift it from were it abandonedly laid and tenderly push it against his naked skin into a tight, loving embrace. Would he always become deathly nervous, feel those unexplainable changes in his body's sensations each time his dearest friend ever looked into his eyes, ever held his hand reassuringly with all the kindness and the caring he had ever granted him? Seishirou-san... He could already feel himself hardening by the very act of whispering his name. He tenderly brushed the ivory whiteness of his delicate cheek over the soft fabric, eyes closed longingly, recognizing the familiar sensation of the older man's warmth that still lingered there, and he pressed the shirt closer still to his body. Wishing... Desiring so badly that it would always be like that... He was completely sure Seishirou-san had felt it. Perceived all of his fear and shame, the eternal shyness that was even stronger than his own will even as they merged into one, heart to heart, body to body, in that perfect moment of beautiful, absolute communion. He had felt the throbbing eagerness he held for him. And how he had protected him all through the night, always comforting him with his tender, comprehensive attitude, smiling reassuringly at him as his strong arms gently enfolded the shivering fragility of his body in that sheltering, soothing embrace... As much tenderness as he had ever received in his short life. Subaru's smile deepened in emotion, emerald eyes becoming wet with infinite and grateful happiness from beneath his quivering eyelids, as he slowly stretched his thin body over the bed's messy surface. No, he had never dared to ask himself how it would feel like, but he certainly knew what he was feeling now: he felt dreamy and romantic, felt for the very first time like the innocent and hopeful teenager he was supposed to be. Facing the certainty that things had changed so abruptly in his life, he felt the soothing knowledge that it had been for the better. And to go with it, a childish, faint feeling of frustration about Seishirou-san not being there to share the morning sun with him. Something that, of course, had a solution. His lips brushed a delicate, loving kiss across the inner collar of his friend's clothing, parting slightly in a delighted smile as he breathed inside the very essence of what that gesture meant, the silent voice of his deepest feelings. It smelled so good... So virile and adult, just like Seishirou-san... The rose petal soft, fragile eyelids lifted slightly to let his emerald stare contemplate the perfect outline of the shirt he cradled so tenderly in his arms, bare fingertips running slowly through the smoothness of the silk, and across the rounded shapes of the two initials that were carefully embroidered on the Armani label. "SS" It could have perfectly been his... And yet not, for the delicate forms of a sakura blossom that laid beside the two letters, a symbol he had been taught to despise and fear all too well since his early childhood, the very trademark of the Sakurazuka Clan... Subaru quickly pressed the shirt back to his naked body, chasing that thought away. It somehow made him think about the ancestral, almost infinite distance that was set between both of them, separating them from each other by the very meaning of their Clans' names and history. And with all that also came the disturbing thought of his own family, all the conflicts and inner confrontations it was experimenting right now and which he didn't want to even remember, the figure of his dominating, almost tyrannical grandmother that raised over his mind like an ever present, ghosty guardian. She had always been so hermetic, so severe in spite of all her loving efforts to replace the mother he had lost... Her lone temper was more than a reason for which Hokuto-chan's kinky babbling about beds and boyfriends had been the closest resemblance he had ever achieved to talking about... that. "That" was definitely a subject he would have never dared to discuss with her. How would she react if she ever found out what had happened to him that night? What he had allowed Seishirou-san, no, the first son of the Sakurazuka Family to do to him...? Subaru shook his head unconsciously, sinking deeper into the softness of Seishirou's shirt as if seeking for his absent, reassuring protection. He didn't want to think about her. It only made him intoxicated with sorrow and fear. He didn't want to think about the Clans... He just wanted the happiness, the honeyed illusion that there were only the two of them in the world, at least for that morning. The enormous, suddenly abstracted green eyes kept staring fixedly at the large bedroom's ceiling. He had never got to know his mother, and he was told his father had died to the hands of the former Sakurazukamori when Hokuto-chan and him were only babies. All of his life, his whole childhood, his grandmother had taken care of him, and yet she had always remained so distant, unreachable in all the strictness and the seriousness of her temper. A beautiful, delicate queen of ice, rarely smiling, never letting him enjoy the softness of a caress, the warmth of a motherlike kiss he had sought many times, so badly, and he had slowly grown accustomed to that lack of tenderness. He had many times found himself wondering if it was equally difficult for him to express it. Tenderness... And all at once, Seishirou-san had come to his life, with his cheerful, loving attitude, his eternally caring smile and those old honey eyes which seemed so full of a warmth he had rarely experienced before they had met. Tenderness was a word that had come to have a meaning only because of him. Him... His unconditional, patient friend who had put up with his emotional breakdowns and constant shyness and incapability to return his open attentions for such a long time. His shoulder to cry. The male figure that had always been missing in his life. His everlasting, sakura petal dream of love and loss... Subaru's shinning stare abandoned the absent contemplation of the white roof to lower it to his slender, naked hands, which he lifted up in front of his face, a rare, almost bizarre vision he had never had the chance to linger at before. The liquid green of his pupils shivered slightly as his gaze met the two inverted pentagrams that ominously shone silver blue out the paleness of his virgin skin, immensely sensitive thanks to the constant protection of his gloves, a perpetually hidden mark that he knew had been left there by the Sakurazukamori. His father's murderer... He had felt it last night when Seishirou-san had momentaneously blurred the shielding guard his grandmother had cast upon his gloves all those years ago, hoping to protect him from what both knew was practically inevitable. Did she know he was fully aware of the existence and meaning of those marks? He ignored it, but it really didn't matter. Luckily, Seishirou-san had not been capable of seeing them. He was just a practitioner after all -a very advanced one, but still only a practitioner-, perhaps his Omnyoujitsu skills hadn't been satisfactory enough for his Clan to consider it worthwhile to keep on with his training, and probably he didn't even understand what those marks really meant. It was better that way. He didn't want him to know about all the pain and all the suffering one of his own blood mates had brought to his life. He didn't want Seishirou to suffer for him as he knew he would... And still he found himself smiling. He cares... He cares so much... He had dreamt of him that night. His warm, familiar presence had even been capable of taking him away from his constant, disturbing fantasies of sakura trees and unheard promises... It seemed Seishirou-san even had the power of protecting him from his own self. And yet there was the memory of that one moment, just before strong arms had wrapped tightly, possessively sweet around his frail body and carried him into the softness of the bed and the sheltering darkness of the oblivion that he so desperately yearned for. That almost imperceptible, yet present glint in the warm depths of those rich, loving brown eyes. Was it fear, Seishirou-san...? Just like me... I thought so, but still I wasn't sure... Somehow you looked so scared and surprised... I had never seen that look in your eyes before... Was it because of what I was about to say...? Was it because of the idea of... Love. His hand was suddenly trembling into a tight grip over Seishirou's clothing. The way he had mentioned love as if talking about something he had never known in his whole life... Seishirou-san, is it love what you need...? Making a last effort, he set the sheet aside and managed to raise himself completely over the disarrayed mattress, letting his small, white feet lower until they touched the perfectly smooth surface of the futon. Are we both as lonely... ? Did we seek the same thing last night, when we turned to each other's eyes...? He carefully stood up, lazily stretched himself into the perfect line of his thin body, still feeling the dizziness of sleep that menaced to make him lose his balance. Suppressing a yawn, Subaru's thin back bent forward, leaning over the writhed figure of his abandoned catsuit, but halted just before touching it, bright green lagoons shimmering with inner focused meditation from behind the thick barrier of his messy black hair. A tender, secret smile came to his lips, and instead he returned to the undone bed, grabbing lightly the ethereal form of Seishirou's silky white shirt and casting it delicately around the fragile, slender form of his naked body without hesitation. Seishirou's scent and warmth, even a ghosty resemblance of his strong presence enveloped the dreamy teenager's heart as his skinny arms whispered inside the almost ridiculously broad sleeves, slender hands never getting to meet the cuffs' bottom. Closing it over his slight frame, not even bothering in buttoning it, Subaru let his still faltering steps slowly guide him to his room's closed door, his bare feet dancing over the fresh wooden surface with a bit of awkwardness. He couldn't hold back a shiver that traveled up along the thinness of his spine when he came out of the heated, intimate atmosphere of the sunny bedroom and reached the empty pent's main corridor, his weak body trembling slightly facing the abrupt temperature change. There he let out a muffled, innocent chuckle as he caught sight of himself in the standing mirror. Seishirou's shirt certainly engulfed the most of his skinny figure, cascading smoothly down until almost the early birth of his slender knees, and still the translucent cloth left so little to imagination. It didn't matter, he thought with a shy smile, unconsciously wrapping arms around his own, delicate body and tenderly pressing the warm fabric against the paleness of the skin. He felt comfortable and protected in Seishirou's shirt. Somehow he found it really suited him, perhaps more still than his very own clothes. He wondered if there was any subtle meaning for that. Just then his distracted attention was called by a boiling sound coming from the kitchenette, together with the faint rattle of cooking tools, such a familiar noise at that time in the morning. Subaru's tender smile grew deeper with relief, understanding, a glaucous glimmer that was the most perfect manifestation of his deepest feelings coming to enlighten even more the emerald depths of his iris. So that was the reason for Seishirou-san's startling absence after all... As simple as that: his constant concern about him. He silently laughed his previous fears away as he rushed to cross the minimal distance that separated him from the kitchenette's twin doors, heart pounding faster as he approached them, all of the delicious sensation of happiness and plenty that had been enveloping his mind since he woke up becoming stronger, even more sublime facing the idea of meeting Seishirou again, the very first time after the last night's events. He needed it so... Needed to be with that man with an intensity that almost scared him. Find out if he also felt that honeyed nervousness, that precious feeling of eagerness that spread through his whole body as a lingering echo of the sensation that had enraptured his senses the past night. Slowly, nearly doubtfully, he pushed one of the white door blades open, questing emerald eyes flickering impulsively around the large room... My Good Gods... Subaru's heart almost stopped beating, filled all at once with the sweetest and deepest feeling he had ever treasured for anyone, a blushing fever exploding in his cheeks as he felt himself responding in breath and body to it's inner caressing touch. There he was... He stood behind the kitchenette's counter, bare footed, his tall, masculine body covered just by the teasing presence of his elegant trousers, that somehow only helped to emphasize the warm sensation of nakedness his muscular, broad chest inspired to his excited stare. Gold rimmed glasses were casually cast over the perfect arch of his straight nose, as they reminded Subaru that he never saw them when checking for Seishirou's clothing scattered around his bedroom. He was beautiful, he was masculine, he was all one could ask for, and he suddenly found himself stupidly considering then again if it was at all right that he felt drawn to his older friend's virility in such a way. Subaru's delicate lips parted as if to whisper a good morning phrase, but no sound ever came out. He had taken a shower, he could tell for the way his short, waved raven hair appeared lately wet over the smoothness of his brow. Seishirou seemed totally concentrated in preparing breakfast to the point he didn't even avert his honey brown eyes to look at him as he stood in silent fascination on the room's entrance. Though he knew Seishirou was aware of his presence. Somehow he had the certainty that his best friend's body was as sensitive to his closeness as his own was to his, and he caught the almost imperceptible trace of a secret smile that came to curve slightly the thinness of his lips, perceived the warm glint of recognition that enlightened the depths of those dark amber pupils. And yet he never looked at him. Subaru didn't bother to hold back a sigh, as he romantically let his head rest over the open door's frame, holding onto it unconsciously, his shy, complying smile coming to emulate the one that played on his friend's handsome, apparently distant expression. Why did he always have to be so mysterious? He just stayed there, contemplating him in mute devotion for a moment more, to then enter the sunny kitchenette with slow, short steps, the shirt that hid the softness and whiteness of his nude body swaying slightly with his graceful movements, sparkling emerald eyes never leaving the tall figure of his best friend. He swiftly slid behind the broad back as Seishirou leaned forward to grab the frying pan from the low cooking fire, crisped bacon toasting slightly over it, and he lovingly encircled his friend's narrow hips in a close embrace, pressing the softness of his blushing cheek against the firm, warm muscles. Subaru let the involving heat of his friend's bare skin envelope his body from beneath the almost insignificant barrier of his borrowed shirt, breathed in the sensual, masculine scent of the older man's smooth body while he felt as if melting into that contact, taking back all at once every hint of the sensations that had filled his heart the last night. The ghost of a slight flinch could be perceived in Seishirou's firm flesh, to then disappear into the steady rhythm of his relaxed breathing. Subaru held on to that tall body, brushing his parted lips over his friend's strong back, accompanied by the wet caress of his small tongue gliding between them, as he placed soft, tender kisses on it's nearly infinite, sheltering vastness. One of Seishirou's huge hands came to cover the delicacy of his gentle grip around the flat belly. "You woke up early..." Subaru whispered softly, shyly, without abandoning his comfortable hold of the older man's body as he resigned himself to be the first one to break that expectant silence Seishirou was so skillfully building up between them. He felt the calm breathing being disturbed by a warm chuckle and he felt pleased, felt as if all the remaining traces of shame or doubt were drained away from his heart by that soft, tender sound, and he suddenly found himself voicing out his deepest thoughts, "I would have loved to wake up and find you by my side..." Seishirou laughed again, and it was all perfect. "Well, someone had to make the noble sacrifice of getting up first in order to prepare breakfast, don't you think, Subaru-kun?" his voice was as calid and casual as it had been last evening, only that a hint of playful complicity made it sound more tenderly teasing, as if letting him know he was satisfied with keeping their sweet secret, "Or at least die trying, taking into account your sister's strange way of ordering the kitchen..." Both chuckled together at that comment, and Subaru's eyes almost felt like letting the tears of happiness that filled his half lidded eyes roll freely down his pale cheeks. That... It was exactly what he wanted. Exactly what he had dreamt of. "Seishirou-san..." Subaru laid all the honeyed gratefulness in that name, breathing it rather than voicing it, wanting Seishirou to know, to completely understand what that night had really meant to him, "Seishirou-san, I... Until last night I was... I had never..." "I know." At that the older man turned around, their eyes coming to a meeting for the first time ever since they had fallen asleep in each other's arms, and Subaru's stare surged into the deepest reaches of those bright, rich pools of dark caramel, a sigh escaping his half exposed chest as all his attention was suddenly drawn to Seishirou's handsome, smiling face. I know... It was almost the same as if he had said 'I understand' or maybe 'I felt that too'. For just a fleeing second, the image of Seishirou-san gasping out his name as his strong body stilled ecstatically upon him returned vividly to his memory, and perhaps he wouldn't have been able to hold back a shudder if hadn't been for his best friend's hands that came to gently rest upon his shoulders. "I know, Subaru-kun. Please don't think I didn't notice," Seishirou dedicated an understanding, almost fatherlike expression to him as the long, slender fingers gave him a delicate squeeze, and those eyes were glittering so warmly behind the perfect frame of those glasses Subaru thought he was getting much more than he deserved, "So, " the deep voice acquired a low, soothing tone of intimacy, as the smile in his face was turning into a sympathetic invitation to trust him, "How do you feel? You want to talk about it?" Subaru felt his heart aching at some distant point that had just been covered all those years both by shame, the lack of time, the lack of someone to really trust, to really lay all his confidence upon... Until you came, Seishirou-san, how many times in my life have I really heard those words...? And the green eyes were suddenly resplendent with tears as he realized how much had been missing. Realized forlorn... After all, it was just like Midori had said. They were so much alike, identical, even on that. Until you came there was no way I could ever realize that... I was never alone. Though I was completely lonely... "I-I don't know what to say..." he spoke the words wholeheartedly, without bothering to disguise the pain laid on them, the absolute cluelessness that gave him so much to think about the real feelings the very few persons that he could consider his closest family held for him, and the emerald stare was slightly lowered in both shame and regret, "I had never had anyone to talk about it before..." Never. Seishirou's hands abandoned his fatherly hold of his weak shoulders as the tall man came to gently wrap his strong arms around him, pushing him into the warmth of his naked chest: a soft, sheltering immensity in which Subaru could get sweetly lost, his contact becoming all at once filled with tender, comforting passion. Oh, yes... Subaru pressed his cheek against the firmness of those muscles as he squeezed his eyelids shut over the wet emeralds his pupils had become, crystal tears finally rushing their way from beneath the long eyelashes and onto his best friend's skin. Please hold me... Just to have you holding me like this... It seems enough for me to feel safe... Seishirou's heart was a swaying pyre of warm, warm passion. He slightly understood the source of the words he was speaking, less still the reasons that somehow pulled him to comfort Subaru, to keep on being the tender friend and protector as if nothing had changed between them after that night. It is over. That was all he was aware of. Over... The hunt... The bet... The stupidity of the game he had been playing ever since the day he laid eyes on the sixteen year old beauty the angel he had met under the Sakura Barrow had become. That morning... He had awaken to find he'd been sleeping inside the tight warmth of Subaru's body all through the night, arms wrapped tenderly around the frail, defenseless body as if to protect him from the shadows of his own soul. He had awaken to realize that he, the Sakurazukamori, the feelingless assassin that was the master and guardian of the ancient Sakura Barrow and the darkest terror of the Sumeragi Clan, had laid asleep with his defenses open for the very first time to the touch of an innocent, beautiful creature that was light in it's more pure manifestation, and also for the first time in his life... He had rested. Over... It had brought it's consequences, though. The feeling that had been haunting him now seemed to flow on every thought, every movement, ever since it had been unleashed that last night as a soaring bird of unknown emotion the second he had known ecstasy in Subaru's arms. Stronger still after he had arrived to the kitchen in what had been nothing but an innocently seductive move, the ethereal veil of his own shirt barely shielding from his hungry stare the perfection of that skinny, frail body, beautified by the recent awakening of his sexuality... But it was fine. That was the way he wanted it. The way he had chosen it to be. It's presence was no longer startling to him, it not even seemed to awake that urge for answers, that yearning to identify what sort emotions it was built upon anymore. Not now it was just totally part of himself, as well as Subaru was. Yes, it is over Subaru-kun... Now I almost find myself wondering if it really existed after all... Or if it was just a sheltering shadow I built upon my own fear, my own doubts, to cover the reality of what you were so patiently reaching, discovering in my heart without even being aware of it... To hold your sweetness and your purity from finding out what I fought all these years to hide... My only weak point... My heart's lone weakness... You. He pressed his cheek against the layered silk of Subaru's ebony hair, settling his arms firmly closed around the weak, shuddering figure, supporting him, honey brown eyes closing in so much sought release. And if it's my destiny to live with this weakness, then I'll go on. I'll live the rest of my life trying to find a name for this feeling, for this almighty force that drives me to you, that makes me incapable of being empty when it comes to you if it's necessary... I'll do. I consent. I'll stay being what I am, my essence will remain unaltered. But still with this small, yet marginal difference. The knowledge that my heart is no more an impenetrable shield of voidness, the certainty that I feel through you, live through you, that what makes you happy fills me with joy, that what makes you suffer brings me suffering. His strong hand, the same he had run through the hearts of many nameless creatures that meant no more than useless, broken things to him now moved to stroke the feather-soft strands of hair covering the fragility of his neck's pale back, lips placing a soft, ghosty kiss over the white, alabaster forehead. Did you feel me inside of you, Subaru-kun? Did you feel the twinning of our souls, the way it touched my heart? Did you feel the seal over my heart crack by the lone, soft touch of your lips against my ear? Subaru-kun, do you have any idea of what you have done to me? Then again, it doesn't matter. Not now I finally understand... It is over. "I'm not going to commit the same mistake, Subaru-kun," Seishirou whispered that promise to Subaru's delicate ear, the heat of the older man's breath ruffling softly and caressing through the sensitiveness of his skin, "You have always come to me when something important has happened in your life. So please, come to me now," Subaru realized he was shivering with emotion against the warmth of those protecting muscles, "Even if it was not right, I want to know so I can spend the rest of my life hating myself for leading you into it..." "No!!!" At that Subaru knew he had to react. Had to make the friend he loved with all his heart realize what it had really meant to him. So he let his lowered stare drift upwards, until he was bathing Seishirou with all the passionate light in his eyes, a half imprecating, half shameful expression filling his pale face. Gods, it had been the most beautiful, tender experience of his life, and this man actually thought he had done wrong?? "You didn't force me into it, Seishirou-san. You never did anything to me that I... that I wouldn't have wanted you to do..." shyness filled his heart as he spoke words he never thought he dared to, feeling himself blush intensely as he did so, but he forced himself to look into those calid, caramel brown pupils, to let Seishirou read in his eyes what he wasn't capable of explaining with his voice, "Maybe I was scared at first, but then I... I enjoyed it," he muttered the word softly, aware of the way his lips shaped it out, as he was admitting it to himself as much as he did to Seishirou, "It was so beautiful, Seishirou-san... And I needed it. Somehow I understand now I was needing it so badly..." "Subaru-kun..." Seishirou's hand touched his cheek, that adult, infinitely handsome and tender face coming even closer to his own until his forehead, slightly covered by his waved, raven hair was leaning softly against his. And those honey eyes looked passionately into his as he was whispering a question that, more than understanding, Subaru intuited in his heart. "Did you mean it...? Did you mean those last words you gave me last night?" Time stopped as Subaru looked deeply into the face of that man that was more important to his heart than any other of his closest loved beings could ever be. The friend that had filled his life with a tenderness and passion he had never thought he'd know, the father figure that had been his guiding light where no one else had been able to soothe his restlessness... The forbidden love that had filled his heart with dreams ever since he had a memory... And Subaru Sumeragi just gave a slight nod, unaware of the fact that somewhere far from them, a delicate cloud of tiny, tiny Sakura petals was being carried away from it's branches by furious, unearthly winds, that something, someone, deep inside an ancient, abstract entity was being pitilessly torn apart and mutely crying out his name... "I have never thought about what it would be like to... to be with someone... the way I was with you last night but, somehow I feel that..." That... A childish smile came to curve his lips as he went on, emerald eyes shinning with a glimmer of emotion as bright as the one that enlighten the depths of Seishirou's stare, "It just had to be you, Seishirou-san... I just couldn't have thought about anyone else..." He heard the familiar, soothing sound of Seishirou's warm chuckle before the man reached down and kissed him. Subaru wrapped his own, skinny arms around the broad, strong neck as he felt his best friend's hands coming to take light hold of the shirt that sheltered his thin figure. He felt it as Seishirou cast it down his shoulders, pulled it off his body and let it slip downwards. The shirt fluttered like a white, shiny butterfly of cloth until it landed passively over the kitchenette's clean floor.
"At least admit it's quite unusual." Mitchuru took the corner of one of the few blocks that still separated them from the Sumeragi Building just as the lead light turned red, aware of Hokuto's naively questioning eyes on herself though she never averted her own from the crowded road. "The what?" "Come on, Hokuto-chan! Didn't you hear the least of obaa-sama's words?" A bolt of azure briefly fixed the extravagantly dressed figure of the sixteen year old girl with deathly severity, "You know not of the man's past, not of his private activities, and you still dare raise in defense of his purity and innocence against your own family!" Then was when Mitchuru just let the hint of anger in her words become evident, no more taking so much care in driving the car as in struggling to open her young cousin's eyes. "That is something I can't explain to myself..." Delicate arches of ebony eyebrows were raised in her honor over her apparently oblivious companion's emerald eyes, that shone with a barely disguised hint of skeptic annoyance. "No you cannot. That was obvious the right instant you met him," perhaps it was the weary accent evident in Hokuto-chan's passionate voice, or maybe the way she rolled her viridian iris backwards that was gradually succeeding in getting the young Mizunoto out of her senses, "Daijobu," a sigh of childishly emphatic resignation escaped from the delicate lips, painted silverwhite, "I'm going to make it crystal clear for you: Subaru and Sei-chan happen to be in love. So how could I ever mistrust someone who cares that much for my only brother??" Mitchuru made it so that the infinite disgust, anger and frustration towards both her stubbornness and the situation she was so calmly depicting were so perfectly mirrored in the stormy, azure stare she dedicated her. "Hokuto-chan, it's homosexuality! Even laying apart the worst of it," she hissed the damnable word with evident efforts, as if making it break through an inner barrier in her throat, knuckles white with tension over the almost forgotten wheel as she forced herself to push down the appalling memories that idea brought along. Don't you realize it, Hokuto-chan...? For just a fading second, the image of her innocently smiling Midori came to her mind, only to be chased away with an energetic shake of the graceful head. Don't you realise I'm trying to save you from falling in the same hell I live in? "It's sick, and it's against any law of nature, and no one has suffered that better that I. Is that what you want for your brother? Is that how you think the Head of our Clan must be...?" But Hokuto just folded arms and bathed her in a half lidded stare of sly understanding. "You know what I'm starting to believe?" she shot back as she laid her slim back against the secured door of the sportive vehicle, her voice an incredibly low, mischievous sound, "That you actually fell in love with him the moment you met him, so that's why you went on to tell obaa-chan: you hoped she could find the way to tear them apart so you could go make your move on Seishirou-chan without any obstacles..." "What???!" Mitchuru could barely avoid driving into a defenseless group of terrorized passersby as she skipped a red light.
Seishirou's entire clothing from shirt to underwear laid carpeting the impeccable futon floor, the whole room totally heated by the lovers' rhythmic, almost perfectly coordinated breathing, their muffled whimpers and broken moans resounding in the empty penthouse as a precognition of ecstasy. What it is to feel... Seishirou cast his head out of the quivering, weak softness of Subaru's naked chest with a loud gasp, as his wanting lips let go of the hard, diminutive nipple he'd been wildly pleasuring inside his mouth to go check on Subaru, whose head rested comfortably over the couch's arm: the closest both had found to a proper bed without putting down their desire until both reached the bedroom again. So beautiful... The teenage boy gifted his questioning eyes with an adorable, breathless smile that came to beautify his excited face the second his veiled pupils discovered his look on him, glancing tenderly at his sweating figure that laid in sweet protection over his own, nude body. "Seishi... rou... san..." Subaru-kun...? Seishirou let his teeth run smoothly through the weakness of that ivory neck, making him feel his passion, biting at his collar softly as his mind could only conceal one thought, his heart on fire by the lone desire to own him, to experience then again the pleasure of making him his. For ever... Gods, how I want to make sweet love to you... His lips sealed over the little Sumeragi's mouth in near desperation, tongues encircling each other in a daring, erotic swirl of endless sweetness. "Promise me..." Subaru's boyish voice came out, filled with uncontrollable, sexual pleasure the moment he released him to center all his attention on gently casting those pitifully thin, adorable legs apart so he could glimpse his way to paradise. "What...?" Seishirou gasped out in evident impatience as both their erections rubbed together, one against the other, in a rough, loving friction. Like that... "Promise me... we'll always... be together..." how Subaru-kun managed to voice out those words in his state of absolute breathlessness was certainly beyond him, and all Seishirou could do was chuckle unconsciously at such a naive request. "I swear... " His voice broke off the second he thrust inside the burning tunnel, letting all the power of the unknown feeling that enraptured him take total control. Submitting himself absolutely to it. Subaru could only whimper out his name.
"Look, I don't wanna fight over this anymore, 'kay?" Hokuto had turned round when being only two steps away from the cyclopeous, crystal front gate of the Clan's Building, shamelessly making the doorman hang on with one of the huge blades open to let her respectfully in as she practiced her best innocent child's pose: arms together at her front holding the black and white velvet of her sophisticated handbag, her face enlighten by the cutest smile she was capable of trying on. "Let's take a break and act just as the best family friends we've always been and leave the awful matter behind. I've already forgiven you for telling obaa-chan about our little secret, so change that gruffy face of yours and let's enjoy the few days you still have left in Tokyo!" Mitchuru sent her a half lidded, weary glance from the driving seat of her Elantra, comfortably parked in front of the humongous skyscraper's gates, the azure glimmer of her eyes half veiled by both worrisome, frustration, and the lack of sleep that was already draining away her remaining strength. Said like that, with that wonderfully carefree tone with which Hokuto-chan always spoke... The alabaster, violinist fingers tighten hardly over the wheel's surface. Oh, how she wished it was that easy... How badly she hoped she could forget... Put aside at least for a second lasting moment every one of the thoughts that kept roaming her mind, stealing away every instant of her attention as she uselessly, stubbornly sought for a possible solution to mistakes that had been made so many years ago before her birth... The shame for her father's weakness, Midori's ailing heart, Subaru-kun's blind, self-destructing innocence, and worst of all: her own, unacceptable incapability of solving anything. Obaa-sama... No, Lady Sumeragi... I have failed you. Failed on what you've asked from me. Failed myself on my own goal of being just like you... On that, to be there and to find herself incapable of doing anything was the worst punishment she could ever receive. And still she knew she was the eldest, the strongest. She was forced to think, forced to act for everyone of them: motherless children lost in a dark night. That is my punishment: the one that has consumed away my innocence, my youth. The one that had turned me into the born to lose idiot now I find out I have been all my senseless, stupid life... Still... If it was just to protect Midori, she would accept it as the biggest and most noble of the sacrifices she had ever made for her little brother's sake. But also on that... She had failed. "All right. A break, then..." Mitchuru conceded with a sigh, a surrendering movement of her graceful head sending all the waving silk of her hair back and over her elegant shoulders, as she half faked, half let out a mournful smile towards her cousin that was not only in her pale lips, but also readable in her blue green stare. Oh, Hokuto-chan, how I really envy you... Able to face life like that, with that incredible bravery and belief in your decisions, that capacity to put worrisome away... The smile became more intense, more real in her beautiful features as she received the thoughtful frown her younger cousin dedicated to her, as her sensitive self had surely begun to perceive her inner tragedy, so she added, "You'd better hurry up and prepare something to eat for Subaru-kun. The poor thing must surely be starving if he happens to be up at this hour in the morning..." Hokuto made a gesture as if to leave, then halted to send her a bright-eyed, slightly concerned look of those giant, green pools of radiance that her pupils were over the velvet clad weakness of her shoulder, "Why don't you come along and have breakfast with us? You know how Mi-chan and Subaru understand each other, so perhaps..." But Mitchuru was shaking her head, ocean colored hair swaying as if it was made out of real sea waves, "I still have to park the car and want to go check on Midori. I left him on his own the whole night, and still have a long talk pendant for all what happened. Thanks anyway..." Hokuto shrug as if resigned, though instantly seemed to reassume her cheerful mood as she started to walk to the gate the impatient doorman was still holding open for her. "Just assure yourselves to drop by before lunch!! I'm gonna cook something awfully delicious for us and I'm sure you don't wanna miss it!" Mitchuru's sad smile warmed up immensely as she caught sight of the sunny teenager entering the building in an exaggeratedly feminine hurried pace, halting only to thank the doorman with a sort of cheerful, rococo bow to then disappear towards the elevators' hall. This Thirteenth Generation... She absently turned the engine on again with a quick movement of her delicate wrist, then began to take the car out of the temporal parking place and onto the most convenient trail to the building's private car park in a mechanical, almost unnoticed way. I wonder what's happening to it...
Both laid exhausted and satisfied. Satiated. It was such an alien sensation to him, that completion, that relaxing feeling that everything was fulfilled, as he realized that not a single of the countless others he had had in his life had ever made it possible for him to achieve that feeling. Then, it had just been emptiness. The usual, half frustrating, half logical hollowness that overcame after the pleasure. Nothing compared to this... Seishirou ran a palm through the alabaster briefness of Subaru's naked back in an unconscious caress, sensing the tension of those weak muscles give in and relax acceptant under his contact, no more experiencing that scared tautness that he remembered so well from the last night, as the boy was surely about to fall asleep above him, face so deliciously hidden in his neck. This warmth, this perfection... The light tickle of Subaru's rhythmic breathing against his skin and hair, the slow heaving of his small chest to accompany his own... It was all one could ask for. And to go with it, the lingering echo of the pleasure that still remained somewhere in his mind, more persistent than it had ever been. In a way, Subaru-kun, last night was also my first time... The first time I've ever felt something beyond mere physical hunger, and it's all because of the feeling you awake in me, all because of you... With exaggerated care of not disturbing the slumbering boy so comfortably curled up on top of him, Seishirou cast one arm out of the protecting embrace he had around his thin body to go take light hold of Subaru's limp hand that held on unconsciously to his broad shoulder. Turning his head a little to the side over the sofa's arm, he silently looked at it's back. Contemplated how the azure-silver light that was born from the runic forms of the upside down pentagram that appeared perpetually carved into the pale flesh seemed to assume an even brighter resplendor at his contact. Mine. The death mark he had put on him to identify him as his selected prey all those years ago. The mark that said his life belonged to the Sakurazukamori... Seishirou let his masculine lips part in an unknown smile: one that was not the hunter's dark grin, neither the expression of faked cheerfulness, nor the one that had been the terrorizing nightmare of all his previous victims the moment he took their lives in his blood stained hands. This one was warm and tender, brought along by the feeling that now ruled his thoughts whenever it came to Subaru-kun, and Seishirou let it manifest itself freely with all the emotion it came with before he took that slender hand to his lips and sweetly kissed the very center of the Sakurazukamori Star. At once, the magical flame that lighted it up became twice as bright. Today I've laid claim on you again, Subaru-kun... From last night you bear a mark in your heart that states that you belong to me, but in such a different way from the one that means death, and hunt... He gently placed the sleeping palm back to where it rested, a diminutive spot of sweaty heat over the immensity of his shoulder, and Subaru unconsciously tighten his hold on him, delicately possessive. Seishirou's half lidded eyes remained on him a second more before being peacefully closed, the smile still lingering in his handsome, contented features. From today I decide to keep you forever.
Poor Mitchu-chan... Hokuto rode the elevator mindlessly, let her gloved fingers tap absently over the digital button of her pent's floor while her emerald stare remained fixed somewhere in between her sun-moon shaped shoes and the polished white marble floor, looking without seeing. Her face a beautiful, delicate shade of worrisome and concern she would never allow any of her beloved beings -specially Subaru, and that certainly included Seishirou- to see. Somehow she felt grateful she didn't have to share the ride with anyone. It had all come to sum up, as she was sure it would happen when she was left alone: the frustration about what was supposed to be a thrilling experience and had degenerated into a mute dinner staring furtively and the somber faces of both her Grandmother and cousin, the idiotic rambling about Sei-chan and the Sakurazukamori Seishirou himself would have laughed to death only to hear so, but worst of all, Mitchuru's attitude towards her on their journey back home. That enervating, devastating serenity she always clad her face with, unable to reach for her, unable to let her know about her fears and doubts, and therefore condemning her to being equally incapable to help her and stare in almost catatonic muteness at all the inner struggle that was so evident in her beautiful face. Forcing her to smile and joke as if nothing at all was happening... Hell, that was cruelty. Her delicate hand tightened into a small fist at her side as she lifted her stare to the floor's lead indicator, green eyes blinding in her outrage as pure lightning bolts. You fool! You selfish, stubborn fool... She needed to be angry with her. Fought so bad to hold on to that masquerade in order to avoid the real, frustrating sadness that overcame every time she thought about how awful it might be, standing in Mitchuru's shoes. Having to deal with Midori's unsuspected twisted feelings, and still carrying over her shoulders the burden of the stupid ideas about Subaru and Sei-chan their Grandmother had filled her head with in an almost evil way. She already had enough things to worry about on her own. Mitchu-chan, last night I just felt like slapping your face in front of obaa-chan and tell you to leave Subaru's education in my hands and Sei-chan's and go stick your motherly nose in your own business. Now tell me, is it fair that you remain the stone pillar for all of us and deny us the few ways in which we can help you? She stepped out of the elevator with a martial pace, her stilleto-heeled shoes tip toeing loudly over the stone floor of the pent's entry hall, an echo of all her angry grief. But of, course, there was that foolish need to emulate obaa-chan. To believe herself the all-knowing, elder responsible for all of them as if they were no more than mindless toddlers. To remain as sternly distant as the old Clan's matriarch had always been... On that, she might congratulate herself. So awfully good at taking after every single bit of their Grandmother's defects... Her black gloved hand began digging into her handbag's unknown depths eloquently, with a strength that menaced to tear apart the defenseless fabric. You're not going to have your way with me, you know? I won't let you. I never let anyone make me do anything against my will. She triumphantly took out a jingling set of two small keys held together by a heart shaped ring, only to then angrily discard them as she identified them as her Suzuki combi's ignition ones. An impatient grin appeared in her childish, feminine face as she resumed her quest. Those were supposed to be in Sei-chan's pocket... And I don't care if you go put your stern, I-can-handle-it-myself face on me. On everything that's in my hand... On every little thing I feel I have the power to... I will help you. A half satisfied, half evil expression came to her wide green eyes as she ceased for a second in her frantic search. Then a newly, self imprecating moan escaped from her painted lips. "Dammit!! I forgot my keys!!"
Subaru's resting, delicate head flashed out of the warm shelter he had found on the broad crook of Seishirou's neck at the persistent, unanticipated sound of the doorbell, green eyes wide open in evident shock as Seishirou was still beginning to get rid of the somnolence, feeling himself quite startled at such a sudden disturbance of his peaceful rest. Wondering what had triggered Subaru-kun's urge to escape him like that... The answer was given in no time. "Hokuto-chan!!!" The teenager's voice sounded frantic with nervousness and fear, highest than it have ever been until it could almost be compared to the twin in question's, as he struggled with little success to raise his thin body over his on the messy couch. The emerald, transfixed stare met Seishirou's blinking eyes, triggering a veiled sense of alarm in his still dizzy mind, "Hokuto-chan's back!!" Back...? Seishirou frowned as his honey brown stare turned to the twin white doors that leaded to the hallway as if expecting to get some more precise explanation on what was happening. And he did. "Subaru!!! Wake up, you sleepyhead!!! I forgot my keys!! Come open this damn door before I die of starvation!!!" The shrilling sound of that powerful voice raised to screaming tone resounded in every little corner of the room and also inside both their heads like a thunderstruck. "Hokuto-chan!" Seishirou managed to reach a sitting position over the sofa without making Subaru-kun fall out of it, as his now totally awaken mind rapidly tried to work out a solution for such an embarrassing situation. If Subaru's crazy, temperamental twin found them like that, he'd be a death man in a matter of seconds, as Subaru the center of her pitiless teasing for the rest of his lifetime. It wasn't like he would be allowing any of that to happen. They had been lucky enough she had forgot those keys... "SUBARU!!! ARE YOU UP??!" "What can we do...?? Seishirou-san!" the little Sumeragi's cheeks were absolutely scarlet in blunt contrast to the rest of his ivory skin, as he was gripping Seishirou's silk shirt to his body in order to hide away the beauty of his intimacy. Certainly remarkable, the fondness Subaru-kun showed towards that shirt... Lucky for both of them, Seishirou took pride on being an extremely fast thinker. "It's all right. Calm down, Subaru-kun," he assured to the terrorized boy with a serene smile, taking his time to go lay both hands on his weak, naked shoulders in soothing attitude, the calm in his deep toned voice making Subaru's adrenaline lower a bit, "We have done nothing wrong. Now, just to avoid the shameless fact that your sister finds you undressed, go to your room and get in the bed while I open the door for her, fine?" Subaru's shimmering green iris twinkled in slight doubt, his face filled with the loveliest, most childish questioning expression Seishirou had ever looked at, and he couldn't refrain himself from stealing away a kiss from those rosebud-like, parted lips. Can one become addicted to kisses...? "It's gonna be fine... I promise I'm going to dress up first," he repeated teasingly in a comforting whisper he blew directly into the delicate ear, "Subaru-kun, don't you trust me?" "Seishirou-san..." That somehow managed to make Subaru react. The young Omnyouji nodded slowly and stood up, still holding the whiteness of his shirt over the paler shade of his own body, until Seishirou understood for the most significant expression on his flustering face that he wouldn't leave until he turned round and faced the wall to not make him feel embarrassed. Ohh, Subaru-kun... You're such a lovely child sometimes... I'm surely gonna have to learn to live with this... Subaru gone, he smiled warmly as he put on all the available dressing garments that laid in passive exposure around the floor as fast as he could, taking care to make himself as presentable as possible to then head towards the pent's main corridor, not before changing the sofa's cushions' sides in order to hide away the naughty evidence of the passionate moments Subaru-kun and him had shared there. "SUBARU!!!!!!!" And it's getting worse... He made an annoyed grin as Hokuto's shrilling cut right through his ears, hurrying his way down the rugged corridor as he finished buttoning his shirt. It was incredible how he had passed by the obvious idea that the infamous council might have to end sometime. Guess that unusual obliviousness of his was one of the consequences he had thought about before. Still worth the whole burden... Fine, so where had he left his glasses? They always helped giving him a more respectable, serious look, and if he had ever needed that, it was now. As he made his mind go back to every movement he had made in the dressing up, stripping down game he'd been playing and reached out a slender hand to pull away some rebel strands of his ebony, waved mane that disturbingly brushed his face he suddenly realized he had them on. Oh great, had he been making love to Subaru-kun with his glasses on? Seishirou shook his disarrayed though still utterly attractive head in unbelieving gesture, as he also felt like laughing at his own clumsiness, wrist ready to turn the entrance's doorknob while he scrutinized his surely disastrous figure on a little wall mirror. Not that bad, to say so... But now it was time to seal his fate. As he cast the door open he came face to face with angry Hokuto, looking as fresh and extravagant as she had been when she left both of them alone in the apartment the night before, only that her cute, feminine face was now gifted with the most emphatic expression of reproaching disgust. He didn't hold back a smile as he stared right into the girl's astonished green iris, as she was absolutely ready and in the correct pose to start lecturing one who was at her same height and suddenly found herself in front of a broad chest. Emerald eyes rushed up to meet his own in open disbelief. "Sei-chan?? What on earth are you still doing here??!" "Good morning, Hokuto-chan..." he gifted her with his best look of cheerful innocence, a dazzling smile shining in his hazel brown eyes, the handsome, still a bit sleepy features assuming a censoring grin as he added, "Don't you think that's not the way in which a young lady greets an unexpected visitor?" The young girl's questioning eyes acquired a glimmer of understanding as she proceeded to scan him from head to feet, her high toned voice lowered to a sympathetic mood, "Don't tell me you spent the night here just because Su-chan was having nightmares on Mi-chan's stuff!" she shook her delicate head in imprecating attitude as she decidedly stepped into the penthouse, carelessly discarding her outrageous shoes at the entrance's step, "Oh, gosh! Sei-chan: that boy certainly doesn't know what he's got!" "Well... kinda..." Seishirou almost failed in suppressing a chuckle, closing the door behind them as he helped the female Sumeragi sibling on getting rid of her sophisticated eclipse coat, musing about he'd have to find a very convenient moment to let Hokuto know about the last night's events, "So how was your council?" Hokuto's nostrils gave out a despising sound as the teenager's short but quick steps took her right to the kitchenette's entrance in what almost seemed like an instinctive call of her household's duties. "Don't talk to me about that!" she commanded him while pushing one of the white door blades open, Seishirou patiently following her through the small corridor, and as she entered the other room, "If you had heard the mumbo jumbo obaa-chan tried to fill my head with you'd surely..." her voiced tone broke off in startlement, "And what the hell happened to that poor sofa??" Seishirou wondered if his camouflaging work on the sofa had been a bit too superficial, but just before he could part his masculine lips to speak an explanation, the impulsive Sumeragi girl was already answering her own inquiry. "So you took the sofa, huh? I swear Sei-chan, you are sometimes as light-headed as Subaru! No mystery why you two are so in love with each other," she opened the kitchenette's placard and took out a exquisitely embroidered apron, "You should have slept in my room!! It's far the most comfortable of the whole apartment! If not, there's still the guests one... that's... also," a frown came to her delicate brow as she gave a few sniffs, accusing green eyes fixed on Seishirou's, "What's that weird smell??" Seishirou's old honey eyes went wide in sincere startlement as he recovered the knowledge of some distant, blurred memory. "Breakfast!!" "What??!!" Hokuto's eyes were glaucous flames of disbelief. "It's breakfast!" Seishirou knew not of what to say, more surprised to his own self as he was to Subaru's sibling, "I totally forgot! I was trying to cook something for Subaru-kun when..." "My poor kitchen!!!" the young girl's frantic expression as she turned to behold the smoky remains of what had surely been a delicious meal when it still existed was the most priceless mix of horror and disgust Seishirou had ever witnessed, "What the hell did you intend to do to it, you irresponsible, careless bachelor!!!" "I told you!! I was trying to prepare some breakfast!" Seishirou raised up both hands in a pitiful attempt of self defense, seconds before he risked himself to try accessing the back of the counter where Hokuto was uselessly trying to get the ruined pieces of coal-like bacon out of the sticky frying pan, "Here. Let me help..." "You've already 'helped' enough!!" the furious girl slapped his reached out hand as if he was some kind of nosy child, green eyes throwing small, glimmering daggers at him from the liquid depths of her iris, "Go to Subaru's room and bring the sleeping beauty here if you wanna be of some help! Men!! You leave them alone for a few hours and Gods know what they can do!!" Seishirou ran off before he burst into laugher.
The large bedroom was as dark as if it was plain midnight when she entered it. Curtains closed, blinds down as if to shield even the palest ray of sunlight that might dare disturb the shadowed silence that hanged in the air like an almost corporeal presence. Azure-green eyes narrowed in concern under the obscure veil of darkness. "Midori...?" No answer ever came back. Slender, musician's fingers set up in a protective mitsu-in, Mitchuru Sumeragi furtively moved her light steps to the center of the room, all of her Omnyouji senses feeling a heavy aura of wrongness, of slightly suppressed evil that seemed to beat in every shadow, every hidden corner from which she felt as a thousand invisible eyes were silently watching her. But she felt no fear. Not for herself. "Midori, are you here?" Just acknowledged an inner, borning ember of anger that was triggered in her heart by sensing the blackness that surrounded her, as the supposedly logical thought of turning the lights on swiftly crossed her attentive mind, and was instantly discarded. That would scare her enemy away. Him... The unexpected sound of breaking china to her right made her heart leap, as she cried out a magical word of command which echo resounded all through the darkened room as if it had suddenly turned infinite. "On!" She jumped like an enraged raptor towards the thing that fiercely tossed and turned giving out loud, inhuman sounds of protest inside the star-shaped kekkai she had set up, her hands turned into pitiless claws to go grab it firmly and painfully. It had been him!! Without allowing herself to waste a single instant, she took the small, wrestling form of the terrorized cat she had captured to set it down hardly and violently over Midori's desk, as she frantically closed her fingers against the long, white fur to hold the condemned creature from escaping her fury. She concentrated all the strength of her glimmering stare upon that horrid, false eye. Settled all her energy, all the immovability of her will upon it, as she could instantly feel a wild rebound, the enveloping sensation of invisible flames that burnt through her helpless flesh, painfully warned her not to go any further. Mitchuru responded by digging her long, perfect nails deeply into the cat's taught skin, feeling the creature's blood as it started to flow, coating her fingers, while as if from a distance she could perceive the animal's terrorized cries of pain. But she held on. I'm going in. Her face remained a frozen mask of stoicism as the hellish fire consumed every reachable corner of her soul, pitilessly, revengefully. I'm going to get my brother back... Only in that, she wouldn't allow herself to fail. Still in the very instant she thought she'll be carried away by the unbearable pain, her whole self burned up to lifeless ashes by the terrible power that held her back from whatever laid hidden behind the cat's crimson pupil, the heated shield cracked. Shattered into mismatching pieces beneath the strength of her unblinking, glassy eyes, wet by unsensed tears. And beyond, as if peeking through a small, steamy crystal globe, she could glimpse the orange swirl of fire, flames that coiled savagely around the thinness of a boyish body in the ghost of a human form. Don't...! Witnessed how the ecstatic figure of her brother slowly embraced the bright aura of the unearthly pyre that surrounded him, burning his clothes to ashes, lighting up the swaying bottoms of his hair though never hurting him, as the boy became united with the flame in an ill, bizarre gust of sickening passion... Mitchuru let out a shrilling, agonizing howl of rage and anguish that was suffocated by the heavy darkness. There was a fleeing bolt of blinding azure flashing out of her two-fingered
jitsu just the second before it struck right on her aim for the cat's red
eye and the room was swallowed again by shadows
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