Rating: PG-13 to R
Pairing: hints of Kamui+Subaru, Subaru x Seishirou,
OFC + Kamui?
X characters and situations do not belong to me.
They're CLAMP's. The quotes are from Neil Gaiman's
Sandman volume 9: The Kindly Ones.
Virtual Future: You Can Be Me When I'm Gone
by Beth
The beach was filled with white sand that seemed even paler under the grey winter sky. The seagulls' distant cries washed over the single figure standing on the seashore.
The violet-eyed young man shivered and pushed his hands deeper into the pockets of his fur-lined coat. He recalled another beach, with similar sand and birds, but warm enough that a drenched girl could stand there without shivering.
The memory felt like a dream.
Dreams... that was not a particularly good term for him. He remembered how another dreamer had plotted, and succeeded in bringing down many of his companions, before the one they'd all thought missing tore her heart out of her chest. When they had found her, the blood had clashed almost obscenely with her white hair. Aesthetically speaking, he preferred the harmonious edge of the almost-black water and the grey sky.
"Hey there!" a voice called to him.
He smiled at his companion as she ran towards him, her braid cutting through the chilly air.
"Found any amber yet?" she asked, catching her breath. She pulled her jacket's hood back over her head, tucking in the thick brown braid.
"No. What kept you?"
"I had to queue to buy the paper," she shrugged. "I think they were giving out CDs of Christmas carols with one of the weeklies."
"Anything interesting in the news?" the man asked as they started walking along the waterline, heads bowed down as they searched for the gold glint of amber in the white sand.
"Apart from the newest corruption scandal? As if that's surprising..." she sighed. "There's a mysterious death on the front page of the local section. A Japanese business man was found dead in his room at the Grand Hotel. There wasn't a mark on his body, the door was locked from the inside, and they've ruled out everything from heart failure to murder. Oh, and the room was full of cherry petals."
"Petals?" The man paused mid-step. He drew the lapels of his coat tighter around his body as a sudden chill passed over him.
"Kind of weird in the winter, isn't it?!" she laughed. "By the way, did you like that "Sandman" book I lent you yesterday?"
"I enjoyed 'The Kindly Ones' very much, thank you," he answered, still lost in his thoughts. "But I think I'm missing something - why were they after Morpheus, exactly?"
The girl's eyes lit up. "The root lies in the Greek ethics," she explained. "The greatest crime you could commit in Hellenic times was to spill family blood. This angered the Furies - the Kindly Ones that even gods feared. They would haunt the murderer until he destroyed himself, mentally or physically. They would follow him to the ends of the Earth... until the end of the world."
"No matter how far he ran," the young man mused. "No matter how much he changed."
"~The rule is cruel, but there's no doubt--~" she quoted.
"~I'll dream tonight of storms at sea...
Be sure your sins will find you out~."
"So true..."
The man looked towards the sea again. In his violet eyes, a long-gone battle replayed itself. He fancied that on this European horizon he could see the dim lights of a city he'd once fought for, that he'd lost almost all his friends for. That cloud, didn't its lower edge have the shape of the tower he remembered so well... the tower he'd washed in blood on the final day.
Behind him, he heard a soft, surprised gasp. Then silence.
"Nothing new under the sun," he mused.
"And that is why there is wisdom in the storyteller's tale," a man's voice answered. "Kamui..."
Kamui turned around and looked into a pair of mismatched eyes. The milky one was blank, but the emerald one held a piercing sadness.
"What are you here for?"
A wistful grin passed over Subaru's face. "~All around me darkness gathers~," he quoted. "~Fading is the sun that shone~." He brushed his fingers across the younger man's cheek, leaving a crimson smear. "~Let us talk of other matters: You can be me when I'm gone.~"
"From one destiny to another?" Kamui asked hoarsely. He shuddered with another gust of ice-cold air.
Another smile. "You understand, then."
"Why should I agree?"
"In Tokyo, we disturbed the balance. You restored yours by renouncing your power, but I cannot fight for both sides at once anymore. And you need to find a new fate now that yours has run its course."
Violet eyes squeezed shut. "And what about the Sumeragi?"
"I've already named a successor." Suddenly strong arms encircled Kamui, engulfing him in warmth and a fleeting smell of sakura. Soft lips brushed the younger man's ear. "Please, Kamui..."
Kamui pushed away slowly. He looked down on the crimson sand. Then his eyes returned to Subaru's face; a new light shone in the amethyst depths.
"~Flowers gathered in the morning - Afternoon, they blossom on...~" he quoted "Sandman" again.
Subaru caught his hands in his own and smiled, the Sumeragi surfacing for a moment from behind the Sakurazukamori facade.
"~Still are withered by the evening~," he whispered. "~You can be me when I'm gone~"
By their feet a braid of brown hair turned dark with soaked-up blood. Together with the now-crimson fur hood, it accentuated the corpse's bloodless skin.
In the summer, many families took their children to one of Tokyo's parks. This particular scene was taking place in Ueno.
"Daddy, can I have some ice-cream?" Yuka called out. "Arashi-neesan said I had to ask you!"
"Of course," Seiichiro smiled.
Yuka took this as her cue to run right back to the ice-cream stand.
Shimako turned to the priestess. "Arashi-san, thank you for coming with us here."
"It's a pleasure," the younger woman answered. "And I find your children delightful." She bent down to hand a sweet to the youngest member of the Aoki family.
"You spoil Sorata-chan," Shimako berated her.
"I don't think it'll do him any harm, Shimako-san. And now, Seiichiro-san, shouldn't we go and check how Karen-chan is doing on the swings?"
"Of course," he replied.
But the two ex-Dragons did not go straight to the playground. Instead they headed into the cherry grove.
They had no trouble finding the tree they were looking for. Arashi put her hand on its trunk.
"We'd like to talk with the last Guardian," she said.
"I'm already here."
They turned to see Subaru standing behind them. He looked young, no more than twenty, and that impression was reinforced by the white kimono he wore. He was also slightly transparent.
"I thought we'd be talking to Seishirou," Seiichiro noted after a moment's silence.
"Don't worry," Seishirou said as he materialized with his arms wrapped around his successor. "Subaru-kun left the business in good hands."
Author's notes:
Sea + amber + Grand Hotel = Sopot, Poland.
I'm not really sure whether I like this fic. It's a bit disjointed, and the moods swing a bit too abruptly for my liking, but I just wanted to get it out of my head. What did you think?