Three Scraps
Some things will never be finished. I've decided not to let them rot on my computer. So beware: unfinished AND badly written.
The Glass Case
Characters: Sei/Su
Summary: Subaru never made it to 1999…
Seishirou returned that day just like he did every day before. He toed off his shoes, hung up his coat, and went to see to the spirit trapped behind impenetrable kekkai walls in the corner. The whisper of onmyoujutsu that allowed his hands to pass through the barriers and touch the boy was so ingrained into his memory, his routine, it was practically habit.
Subaru responded mutely, clutching at his hand and holding it against his face lovingly, kissing his palm.
The days after Subaru's death had been empty and gray. Seishirou didn't like to think on them.
When Subaru had died, he had not failed to take action, preserving the boy's spirit for all time behind carefully constructed kekkai walls.
At first, Subaru had stood inside the glass casing, hands pressed to the walls, mouth forming words Seishirou couldn't hear. He imagined they were pleas, cries-begging to be released. This pleased him-pleased him because Subaru was absolutely beautiful in his distress. Some days he would spend hours just watching the boy try to talk to him. And as Seishirou moved around the room, Subaru would move with him, pressing himself against whichever side of the kekkai the man was closest to, eyes following him endlessly. And Seishirou enjoyed this too, the way the boy was solely focused on him, dependent on him for release. He especially enjoyed the way the boy would blush and look all manner of flustered when he'd undress to get ready for bed, the same way one might undress in front of a chair or any other inanimate object. He was rather content having such a beautiful piece in his collection.
But as time passed, Subaru stopped talking, staring at him forlornly from behind his prison walls. Then he stopped moving Seishirou's direction, and eventually he stopped moving at all, lying curled up at the bottom of the kekkai, staring out at the bedroom with dull, dead eyes.
This hadn't pleased Seishirou at all. It had been rather like staring at one of the creatures in the zoo that never moved. Boring. What was the point of owning a canary if it wouldn't sing?
That had been the first time he'd broken the barriers enough to touch the boy, coaxing him to respond with slow caresses. Progress had been slow at first. The boy barely acknowledging him, but Seishirou was patient, coaxing emerald eyes to turn his way, to respond to him.
Etc.
Subaru never tried to speak anymore. But that was fine with Seishirou. After all, there was no point in pretty, purely audible noises. No point at all…
Untitled Story (cont. from Prequel)
Characters: Sei/Su
Series: TRC
Read Prequel HERE FIRST
There was something distinctly strange about the Sakurazuka household. It wasn't just the mysterious air that clung to the wrought-iron gates or the intimidating facade of twisted cherry trees and expansive lawns. Nor was it the voices that sometimes echoed from the enclosed gardens, sometimes the laugh of a small child and sometimes the bell-like ring of someone older, neither of which belonged to the sixteen-year-old boy who could sometimes be seen playing in the yard or the eighteen-year-old who would often sit and watch him fondly. No, it was more that things tended to happen at the Sakurazuka residence, things as odd as they were impossible to explain. For instance, Minori-san, the next door neighbor, once claimed to see an entire flock of white birds fly above the hedge before disappearing into bits of paper. On another occasion, upon returning a piece of mixed up mail, she had been greeted at the door by a half-green-eyed, half-amber-eyed man who could have passed for an exact (if slightly older) double of the sixteen-year-old. Her surprised "Sakurakuza-san?" had been met with a soft "I am he," and then the letter had been pulled from her fingers with a slight bob of a head before the door had been firmly closed, leaving Minori-san contemplating not only her sanity but everything from secret siblings to time acceleration.
All in all, the rumors surrounding the secrets locked inside the Sakurazuka home ran rampant. But no matter how wild or fantastical the tale, none of them came close to the truth…
xXx
One particular evening, it had rained fits all day so that by the time the sun sank out of sight, the electricity suddenly cut out, plunging the whole house into darkness. Seishirou lay in bed listening to the wind scream through the sakuras and enjoying the warmth of the body curled up next to his.
"Looks like you'll be sharing tonight after all," he whispered to the black-haired boy resting beside him, amused, when the clock on the bedside table suddenly went black. "How long do you think before we get company?"
"Five minutes, tops," Subaru replied, and despite the pitch darkness, Seishirou could feel lips curl into a small smile against his side. And it wasn't more than a few minutes later that the skittering of feet echoed in the hall outside the room, followed by the sudden squeak of the door. For a few seconds everything paused there, a single green eye reflecting from the doorway, the rain pelting the window relentlessly. Then the little one flew forward, into Seishirou's outstretched arms, waiting patiently to catch him.
"Seishirou-san," the little one clung tightly, burying his face in the man's chest while Seishirou and Subaru shared identical looks over his head. Of course, no sooner had the boy squirmed happily into the space between them than another person stepped timidly into the doorway, clinging to the door frame self-consciously. This second one was more silent, barely a sigh of floor boards to give away his presence, but like the first, Seishirou had been expecting it.
He held out his hand.
Etc.
Untitled Scrap
Seishirou… had found Subaru.
Well, sort of. After months of searching for the slightest hint of the boy, he'd been pleasantly surprised to feel that all too familiar signature again-like a calm, cool breeze, sensed, not seen, just beyond his fingertips. It had been a bit tricky tracking it down of course-that trace of a presence seeming to hop erratically and quite quickly from place to place one minute, then suddenly still away into nothing the next. Still, it was nothing compared to what he was used to… He had been chasing Subaru from world to world for many months now, sometimes tracking the faintest ghost of a rumor, hunting illusions and fables and gossip most of the time, and comparatively, there was no way something so solid was going to escape him now.
Jumping to the better vantage point of a nearby roof, he stopped, closing his eyes and melting into the darkness as he sought that presence again. Soft. Fleeting. Just out of reach, but close now. So close. He glided along the edge of the rooftop, the picture of fluid grace, eyes flickering over the alley below. Searching.
There! So dark it seemed a part of the shadow of the building it was leaning against-a living, breathing shadow, black-garbed and statuesque in its stillness. Seishirou crouched, careful not to be seen, and examined the lithe lines of the body before him, the familiar ruffle of black hair.
Subaru-kun, he thought, content for the moment just to watch the other, drinking in the sight appreciatively. Though there was something… something more willowy about that body, more sinuous in the length and curve of pale arms, even while possessing that same dark grace he remembered so well. And while he crouched there, trying to pin down just what was bothering him, suddenly, Subaru's head turned, a sharp movement, perfectly precise-turned straight to stare up at him, their eyes meeting in a flash of green and gold.
Seishirou exhaled… and forgot to breathe in again.
Not the right Subaru… The thought hit him full force-left him swallowing the bitter dregs of disappointment.
Etc.