Tokyo Babylon Fan Fiction / X/1999 Fan Fiction ❯ Subaru, Seishirou and the Hokkaido Getaway ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Xandra (xandrabelle@hotmail.com) and Midorino Mizu (midorinomizu@yahoo.com) present Subaru, Seishirou and the Hokkaido Getaway

Disclaimer: Subaru, Seishirou and Hokuto are all the property of CLAMP, which was a sad fate for them, because they suffered a lot. But we don't own them and we're not profiting from them, so please, direct all praise to CLAMP for creating such wonderful characters.

Summary: Sumeragi Subaru's work takes him to the far northern island of Hokkaido. Naturally, Hokuto and Seishirou insist on accompanying him. The resulting high jinks are typical of any Tokyo Babylon story.

Chapter 5

The crisp weather of the day had turned cold and windy after the sunset. Both Hokuto and Subaru trembled in the piercing draft as they walked down the lamp-lit street. Seishirou as usual appeared unaffected, dressed in his dark, long overcoat. He appeared a virtual shadow, looming by the side of the brightly attired Subaru.

"I didn't realize it was so late," muttered Hokuto with some concern as she noticed the sparseness of people on the village street. "Ajibana-san has probably gone home, and I don't have his home address."

"Perhaps we should go back to the hotel, then?" inquired Subaru. He looked around the main street of the small town. It was deserted in a way that Tokyo never ever was, in a way that not even Kyoto had ever been.

He hadn't realized, before, the impact of always living in cities. He wasn't used to walking at night and being the only one around. Subaru shivered from a combination of the cold and the unaccustomed solitude.

His companion appeared to understand his unease, although if he shared it, he gave no sign.

"The sun sets quickly this far north, particularly this time of year," said Seishirou with a smile and reached over to pat Subaru reassuringly on the back. "It's actually still quite early, Hokuto-chan."

"But I'm sure Ajibana-san would have drawn such a beautiful picture of Subaru-chan for you, Sei-chan!" the female Sumeragi twin chirped, trying to keep her spirits up in the face of the gloomy atmosphere.

"Of course he would." Seishirou smiled down at the young Sumeragi Head. "Any likeness of my dear Subaru-kun could not help but be beautiful."

Subaru turned red and started to stutter out a response, when an older woman interrupted them.

"Excuse me, but did you say you were looking for Ajibana Naosuke-san?"

"Yes!" said Hokuto with a mixture of delight and relief that someone was willing to offer directions. "Can you tell us where to find him?"

Subaru let his breath out silently, glad that his sister was distracted, and stepped back to allow her to get the information she wanted. Sometimes, he wished he could be as assertive as Hokuto-chan, but it wasn't the way he'd been made, and he had long since come to terms with that.

But he was glad, he thought with a smile, that he could be around someone who wasn't afraid of grabbing what she wanted, someone so vivacious and outgoing.

Subaru's musings were brought to a sudden halt when he felt something behind him. He turned his head quickly.

His first thought was that she looked lonely.

His second was that she looked familiar.

She stood just behind him, with one hand pressed to the lamppost. Her hair was long and black and trailed to her waist, and she wore a beautiful flowing dress of violet silk.

Then she was gone, so quickly that Subaru almost doubted that he had seen her in the first place.

"Well," Seishirou murmured into the younger onmyouji's ear. "That was certainly interesting, wasn't it, Subaru-kun?"

"It wasn't a ghost," the Sumeragi said definitely. "It didn't feel like one."

"I agree. But just what was it then?"

"I'm not sure," Subaru replied.

Hokuto bounced up behind them. "Good news! I got Ajibana-san's address!" She frowned when she saw her brother's serious expression, what she generally referred to as his "business face." "Did something happen? What did I miss?"

Seishirou smiled down at the teenaged girl, his expression his usual cheerful innocence. "Nothing of importance, Hokuto-chan."

"Sei-chan!" she shrieked. "Are you keeping things from your future sister-in-law? There should be no secrets between us!"

"I would never dream of keeping anything important from you, Hokuto-chan."

Subaru ignored the light bickering Seishirou-san and Hokuto were indulging in, and concentrated instead on what he'd seen. It had to fit in with what was happening.

But he couldn't figure it out. He was certain that he was forgetting something. He was so preoccupied with thinking about the situation that he missed the sly sidelong glance Seishirou directed at him.

"Shall we return to the hotel?" Seishirou asked.

The protest was instant. "No, it's not late at all! It's only 5. We still have time to visit Ajibana-san. He doesn't live very far away," Hokuto said, overriding all Subaru's protests that they shouldn't bother the artist. Her earlier disquiet about being out in such a quiet place was forgotten. She hastily grabbed his arm and started dragging him away.

"Sei-chan could get him started on a commission for Subaru and we'll have the piece ready when we have to leave Hokkaido!"

Since Hokuto was a force all in herself, the trio were soon on their way again. Thankfully, it wasn't a far walk before they stopped in front of a house at the edge of town. It was small and whitewashed in that quaint picture postcard way. However once they were up close, they could see that it was obviously in a rundown condition, with the roof in shambles and the walls slightly moldy, as if the owner had more things to do than fix up his home.

Seishirou stepped forward and rapped neatly on the knocker.

"Who is it?" a face peeped out as the wooden door swung open.

Hokuto bounced on the balls of her feet and waved. "Ajibana-san, it's me! I've brought my brother and Sei-chan to see you. They love your sketch. Can we come in, please?" she called, flashing him with her perky smile.

Apparently, Ajibana proved no different from any other man when confronted with that bright green-eyed eagerness combined with that beautiful smile. The lethal combination had opened many doors before and it opened this one today.

After Subaru was ushered into the sitting room and introduced, he looked about the place and noticed an assortment of oils hung around. Canvases were stacked up against the wall, some painted, some unfinished and others blank. He wandered over to a small stack of thick watercolor paper to take a closer look at the sketches.

He only caught a glimpse of the top one before he was practically bowled over by the artist. Ajibana rushed past him and scooped them up with an 'excuse me' before tucking them carefully away. The artist bowed apologetically. "I'm so sorry for the mess. What can I do for you?"

Subaru blinked owlishly at him, and then turned to his sister. He had discovered long ago that in terms of normal social interaction it was always best to defer to Hokuto-chan. She was just so much better at it even though when pressed, he could do very well with people, one on one.

"Subaru and Sei-chan were very impressed with your talent." Hokuto's eyes sparkled winsomely as she gestured at two of her favorite people. "They admired your sketch so much they wanted to compliment you personally."

Ajibana blushed red from the praise and started stammering. It was as if he was unused to any acclaim. "T-Thank you. But it wasn't necessary to come all this way. I would have been out in front of that store drawing again tomorrow."

"We felt it necessary to compliment you immediately," Seishirou informed him, speaking for the first time. "Also, I wanted to ask if you would be interested in a commission."

"A commission?" inquired the artist with some doubt.

"Yes." Seishirou's smile was just a touch wicked as he let his gaze fall on the young Sumeragi Head. "He needs to be immortalized on canvas, don't you think?"

Any reply Ajibana Naosuke might have made was interrupted by Subaru's heartfelt groan. "Seishirou-san!"

Really, did Seishirou always have to be so outrageous? And before strangers at that!

Ajibana, after blinking for a moment out of perplexity, seemed to realize he was in the middle of some running joke, and he shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't usually paint portraits, Sakurazuka-san. I more commonly do landscapes and city scenes.

"I'm more at home painting the aspects of the world that don't change so easily. Any people that appear in my art are purely incidental."

"What about the ghost?" Hokuto chimed in. "I don't think a ghost would be considered incidental."

Seishirou kept his gaze steady as he waited for Ajibana's reply. The created elements of his art were not normal, not anything a normal painter would be able to achieve. And the Sakurazukamori was quite certain that this artist was well aware of that.

Naosuke smiled at Hokuto. "I've always thought of ghosts and spirits as being less changeable elements, rather like Mount Asahi. The mountain doesn't change, just our perception of it. The same is true of the spirits."

Subaru opened his mouth as if to disagree, but halted when he felt Seishirou's hand on his arm. He looked up questioning to see his friend shaking his head slightly.

"Well, we should be going," said Seishirou. "Thank you for receiving us so late, Ajibana-san. We apologize for disturbing you." He smiled again, the very picture of a smooth debonair gentleman. "Your work is truly extraordinary."

Ajibana Naosuke was somewhat startled by the abruptness of the announced departure, but he hid it behind a polite smile of his own. "It was no trouble at all, Sakurazuka-san. A pleasure." He shifted his smile to Hokuto. "And it was a pleasure to see you again, Sumeragi-san."

He waved them off, his smile still pinned in place. Once they had disappeared from sight, however, his smile faded from his face and his eyes narrowed.

He got the feeling that Sakurazuka Seishirou knew something. Not suspecting some ulterior motives, but the man actually knew that he was causing the problems. That was impossible. He'd been very careful-all the canvases that had depictions of the "accidents" had been destroyed. There was no way anyone could know.

Still, the artist couldn't quite shake the feeling that Sakurazuka-san did know, no matter how impossible it was.

Out in the street, Subaru turned to Seishirou and tipped his head cutely to one side. Amazingly, his hat stayed on despite the fierce draft that was blowing. "Why did you stop me from disagreeing with him? He was quite wrong. Spirits do change, Seishirou-san. If they finish with whatever is holding them back, they can move on to the next life," he said, expanding on what he knew was the truth.

Seishirou merely smiled and shook his head. "Yes, his ideas about spirits were misconceived. But nothing you could say to him would have changed his mind. He seemed quite firm in his convictions. Besides, I thought we'd stayed on long enough, since he didn't wish to accept the commission to paint you," he said. His expression suddenly changed and a mischievous grin spread on his face.

"And I'd have to say that attitude was definitely misguided. How could anyone not want to paint you, Subaru-kun?" Seishirou's expression was a mask of theatrical pain.

Hokuto's laugh rang out through the still mountain air. "That's absolutely right, Sei-chan. It's just too bad! Perhaps you could get a proper artist to do it when we get back to Tokyo!"

"Nee-san!"

"Hokuto-chan has the right idea. I shall certainly make a point to seek out a good artist when we return."

The light banter continued and Subaru was soon too lost in protests to remember his original unease.

Notes:

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