X/1999 Fan Fiction ❯ Après ❯ Confrontations ( Chapter 8 )

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed! Greatly appreciated! Sorry about the long wait. Finals at school. Had to study. Damn the school system. Finals on the last day of school. Fuckers!

Author's Note2: This is going to be the last update for a while. I won't be able to access fanfiction.net for a couple of months, because I don't have internet access at home. Sorry. Please don't kill me. I already have Seishirou threatening my life and Fuuma's not far behind.

Warnings: Umm. Not much. A bit of lime, maybe. No promises though.

Chapter Eight: Confrontations

The estate was huge. Several houses, ten or more in total, stood around a beautiful courtyard, in which grew many sakura trees. One house in particular caught Seishirou's eye: the main house.

It was larger than the others, older as well. It had obviously been recently repainted, the blood red paint bright and eye-catching. This house belonged to the head of the family, though it current sheltered Sakurazuka Masaki.

A hand on Seishirou's shoulder brought the man back to the task at hand. He turned, finding himself face-to-face with Subaru. The younger man's mismatched green and white eyes met Seishirou's gold and white eyes.

"Are you okay with this?" Subaru asked.

"I'm just a bit nervous," Seishirou admitted. "I mean, these are people whom I haven't seen in thirty-five years."

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Subaru inquired. "Ayame did mention that I was welcome."

Seishirou took a hold of Subaru's hand. He raised it to his lips.

"You wouldn't leave me alone to deal with them, would you?" he asked, a small smirk on his face. "After all, they are your in-laws."

"Seishirou," Subaru said, blushing faintly. "That's not..."

Seishirou cut him off with a kiss. The Sumeragi melted into the kiss for a moment, then pulled away. He turned his lover around and began pushing him towards the main house.

"You're going to be late," he remarked when Seishirou protested with a saddened `Subaru-kuuuuuuun'.

The doors to the main house opened as the two men reached the steps. Ayame stood in the doorway, dressed in a traditional kimono. It was a beautiful kimono; black silk decorated with pale pink sakura petals and silver inverted pentacle on the obi.

"Hi, Uncle Seishirou!" she smiled. "Hello, Subaru-san!"

Ayame gave a small bow, her black bangs falling into her face. Subaru and Seishirou bowed in return. Ayame led them through the house to a large room in the back. Several people sat around a large table. And elderly man sat at one end. Two empty seats on each side of him represented where four more people were to sit. Ayame asked Subaru and Seishirou to sit on one side, then walked over and sat on the other side.

"Is everyone here?" the elderly man asked. "Is Seishirou here?"

Seishirou opened his mouth to say something, but Ayame motioned for him not to speak. The teen turned to the man.

"Everyone is here, Grandfather," she said. "Your son, Sakurazuka Seishirou sits on your right."

The man's blind eyes widened and he turned to face Seishirou. His wrinkled hands reached out. His face was full of longing and sorrow.

"Seishirou?" he asked.

Seishirou looked at Ayame. The teenager mouthed the words `take his hands'. Seishirou nodded, doing as his niece said.

"I'm right here."

"My son," Masaki said, touching Seishirou's face. "At last. We're together."

"Otou-san," Seishirou whispered, unsure of how to greet the father of whom he had no memory.

Masaki held his hands against Seishirou's face for a while longer, then put them in his lap. He nodded, signaling the beginning of the Clan meeting. A woman near the other end of the table stood. She cleared her throat.

"Sakurazuka Seishirou," she said, her voice filled with authority. "We welcome you back to our Clan. As the Sakurazukamori, you are duty-bound to be our Clan Head. However, with this title, comes responsibility. "

Seishirou raised an eyebrow. He should have known that there would be something else to being the Sakurazukamori. At this point, the woman paused and turned to look at Seishirou.

"Sakurazuka Seishirou, as our Clan Head and the Sakurazukamori, you are required to produce an heir to take your place when the time comes."

"You mean, have a child and let him kill me when I think he's ready to take my position?" Seishirou asked.

The woman looked at him quizzically. So did the entire Clan council. Seishirou began feeling awkward.

"What are you talking about, Uncle Seishirou?" Ayame asked. "What do you mean kill you?"

"Isn't that how the position is passed?"

"No!" Ayame said. "Whoever told you that?"

"My mother," Seishirou replied. "That's how I got the position from her."

Masaki cleared his throat. "That's not how we do things, my son. The position is passed through the blood-line."

"So, you mean I killed my mother for no reason? I wasn't supposed to take the position at all?"

"No, you were always meant to be Sakurazukamori, Seishirou-san," the woman at the end of the table said. "You just didn't take it the way you were supposed to. I don't know why Setsuka told you that you had to kill her."

"It was because she was mentally unstable," a man spoke up. "She shouldn't have been given the position in the first place."

"Let's not talk about my mother, please," Seishirou said, beginning to feel impatient and uncomfortable. "Whatever else we need to get done, let's get done."

Masaki nodded. "Yes. Let's continue on."

"You were saying something about an heir, I believe, Reiko," the man from before said.

"Yes," the woman said. "According to our information, Seishirou-san, you have no heir at the moment. And according to our Clan laws, if the Head does not produce an heir, the next of kin with the highest potential will automatically become the next Clan Head and Sakurazukamori. In this case, the one to take your place if you fail to do what is required of you is Ayame-chan."

Seishirou nodded. He understood this. "But there is a problem, Reiko-san. I cannot produce an heir. As I'm sure Ayame has informed you, I am not interested in women in any way."

"Yes, Ayame has informed us of your sexual preference," Reiko said. "None of us mind, but this is irrelevant to the fact that you still need to produce an heir. And there are ways to get around that."

"For example, my son," Masaki said. "There is the Replication blood spell. Have you heard of it?"

"No, I haven't."

"I have," Subaru said.

Masaki was startled by the unfamiliar voice. "Who was that?"

"Oh," Ayame said. "Grandfather, remember how I told you that Uncle Seishirou was living with someone?"

"You informed me of that fact, but didn't mention who it was, except that he was a Sumeragi."

Subaru began to feel nervous. He wasn't sure that what Ayame had told him about being welcome was true.

"Uncle Seishirou, would you care to introduce your guest?" Ayame asked.

"Of course," Seishirou said. He stood, pulling Subaru up with him. "This is Sumeragi Subaru."

"The Thirteenth Sumeragi Head?" Reiko asked.

"Yes," Subaru said, a tad nervous. "I hope you don't mind that Seishirou-san brought me along."

"It was more Subaru dragging me here," Seishirou said, with a smile.

Subaru glared at him. Seishirou merely pushed Subaru back down into his seat then sat back down himself.

Masaki smiled. "The Head of the Sumeragis in love with the Sakurazukamori. I never imagined such a thing could happen after all the things that have occurred between our two Clans. I'm happy for you two."

"Thank you, Sakurazuka-san," Subaru said.

Masaki nodded. Then he turned to his son. "As we were saying, the Replication spell combines the DNA of two beings to create somewhat of a clone. If you and Sumeragi-sama were to do the spell together, you could easily create an heir. The spell, however, creates two beings."

"So, with one spell, you can both create heirs," Reiko said. "Each child will have an unique ratio of blood. One will have more Sakurazuka blood and the other will have more Sumeragi blood."

"But what about the feud between the two clans?" Ayame asked. "Won't that just kinda fuel the battle between us and the Sumeragi Clan?"

"My grandmother may not like the Sakurazuka Clan," Subaru said. "But I have nothing against those who are merely doing their duty to protect Japan. And my opinion is all that truly matters, as I am the Clan Head and my grandmother is not."

"Then everything should be alright," Masaki said.

The council members all nodded. The conversation switched topics a few times, and Seishirou was officially made Clan Head. After a couple more hours, the meeting adjourned and everyone left. Mitsuko came in and invited Subaru, Seishirou, and Masaki to join her and her daughter for dinner.

* * *

Fuuma looked up from the meal he was preparing to where Nataku stood in the doorway to the kitchen, the phone in his hand.

"What is it, Nataku?" Fuuma asked.

"Rion wants to know if I can go to the movies tonight with some other kids from school," Nataku replied. "His mom is going to be giving us a ride and she's paying for the tickets."

"I don't see why you couldn't go," Fuuma said. "We don't have any plans. So, sure. Go ahead."

"Thanks!"

With that, Nataku bounded away excited. He disappeared up the stairs and into his room. Kamui looked over from his homework at the table.

"I take it Nataku and Rion are good friends?" he asked.

"Yup," Fuuma said, chopping vegetables. "I'm glad Nataku has a social life outside of the remnants of the Dragons of Earth. Before I sent him to CLAMP Academy, Yuuto, Seishirou, Satsuki, and I were the only ones that he hung out with."

"I see," Kamui said, returning to his homework. "Ugh. Fuuma, do you know how to do statistics?"

"Having trouble with your math again?"

"Yeah."

"Hang on. Lemme finish these vegetables."

Fuuma cut the remaining vegetables and threw them into the pan. He wiped his hands on a towel and went over to Kamui. Sitting next to the younger boy, he took the paper and looked it over. He showed Kamui what he had to do as the amethyst-eyed boy ran his hand up his leg.

"Kamui, you're not going to get this done if you don't stop playing," Fuuma said. "Now come on. Dinner's almost ready."

"You sound like my mother," Kamui said, pouting. "Next you're going to ground me."

"I could ground you if I wanted to, Kamui. Just give me a reason and I'll throw you out of our room for the next two weeks."

"You'd be grounding yourself as well," Kamui said, pointing out a fault in Fuuma's threat.

Fuuma thought about that for a moment. "Damn, you're right."

Kamui grinned like a cat that had gotten to the cream as Fuuma rolled his eyes and headed back into the kitchen to finish dinner. Ten minutes later, Kamui, Fuuma and Nataku sat at the table, eating their dinner in silence. As soon as Nataku finished, there was a knock at the door.

Nataku ran over to the door and opened it. An American boy stood outside. The American boy smiled.

"Hey, Nataku," he said. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Nataku replied, slipping his sneakers on. He turned towards the table. "Bye Fuuma! Bye Kamui-san!"

"Be home before curfew!" Fuuma called.

"Hai!"

* * *

Later that night, Subaru and Seishirou lay in bed. Subaru was almost asleep, but Seishirou was wide awake. The day had been long and there were many things on the Sakurazukamori's mind. Specifically the deal with his heir.

"Subaru-kun?" he asked.

"Hmm?" came the younger man's sleepy reply.

"Do you want to perform that Replication spell? It's a good deal for the both of us."

"Seishirou, it's a bit late to be discussing heirs and spells. Get some sleep and we'll talk about it in the morning."

"We can't put it off for long. We have only until Ayame's birthday."

"Which is in seven months," Subaru said. He turned over under the blankets to face his lover. "Trust me, Seishirou. We have plenty of time to do it."

"Do you think we'll be good parents?" Seishirou asked.

"Stop worrying about kids, Seishirou. We have other things to think about."

"Such as?"

"Our anniversary. It's in two weeks."

Seishirou smiled. "And I have the perfect plan for it."

"Really?" Subaru asked with a curious smile. "And that would be?"

Seishirou chuckled. "It's a surprise. And I know how much you love surprises."

"God knows you're going to tease me with it until then"

"Of course."

"Seishirou?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Seishirou smiled and put his over around Subaru's waist, pulling him closer. He kissed the younger man, slipping his tongue into Subaru's mouth. The Sumeragi hungrily kissed back and pulled at the t-shirt that Seishirou was wearing.

"Seishirou..." Subaru moaned when their lips broke apart.

Seishirou kissed him again and slipped off Subaru's boxers. The two of them were about to go further when...

::I'm hungry.::

Damn it.

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Sorry about the late update. This is definitely the last update for a while cause of summer break. But I'll be back with several updates in September. I promise!