X/1999 Fan Fiction ❯ Common Ground ❯ Fertile Soil ( Chapter 1 )

Title: Common Ground: Chapter 1 Fertile Soil

Author: JadeHeart

Archived: Found on CLAMPesque Board, & AdultFanFiction. If anyone else would like it, please ask me first!

Fandom: X/1999

Rating: X

Warnings: yaoi

Summary: Subaru and Seishirou meet again.

Author's Notes: I wondered what might have been going through Subaru and Seishirou's minds when they finally met again at Nakano Sun Plaza

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this, they are all CLAMP's, nor am I making any profits from this.

 

 

 

Seishirou stood there, completely indifferent to the dust and debris that fell around him. The heat from the raging fires warmed his back as he calmly walked out from the remains of Nakano Sun Plaza to the street front.

 

He casually lit a cigarette and smoked, looking out before him with his one good eye. The skewed vision didn't bother him. He had easily adapted to it, just as he did to everything. It was no different to slipping into another persona, like another mask.

 

He blew the smoke out, letting it swirl around his face. He inhaled deeply, tasting the smoke not only from his cigarette but the burning buildings around him also. Smoke and concrete dust clogged the air, chasing eddies with the wind that whipped the flames into a frenzy. There was screaming, loud, all around him, stretching into the distance.

 

The destruction was not confined to just the Nakano Sun Plaza. Such devastation had reached out its ugly arms to encompass the surrounding district also. Buildings had crumbled, streets cracked and upheaved, cars and buses thrown aside, overturned, piled together, burning like pyres. Street and traffic lights lay torn and twisted, electrical wires flickered and tangled around everything they could reach like living entities.

 

The smoke swirled upwards, like the dragon he represented, growing all the time as the flames found more fuel and eagerly feasted. Growing, encompassing, consuming, reaching, hungry.

 

He dropped his cigarette as he reached the end and crushed it under his heel, an unconscious gesture of care on this ground of destruction. He felt nothing for what he had done, there was further work still. This barrier was down but there were others.

 

Time to go, he thought to himself, his long coat flapping up behind him like the dark wings of an avenging angel raining destruction upon the heads of mankind. He was about to gather his powers to finish what he had begun when he sensed another's presence drawing nearer.

 

He paused, fingers reaching into his coat, searching for his ever present packet of cigarettes even though he had just finished one. It was a motion of habit, something for the hands to do whilst his mind was thinking. Yes, he could definitely feel that presence. It was a presence he hadn't felt for some time, yet a presence that was as familiar to him as his own sense of self.

 

He stood still, cigarette packet in his hand forgotten, and looked towards the sky darkened with smoke and dirt, the brightness from the fires cutting brilliant streaks of light across it. It looked rather beautiful, he thought absently, but his eye and mind were more focused on the point of movement that was drawing closer at a quickening pace.

 

Subaru landed lightly on his feet some distance from where Seishirou stood. He felt a quick flash of surprise; Subaru looked different. He was older, grown up, no longer the child of sixteen he had been when last Seishirou had seen him. He stood there before him; tall, proud, strong, silent.

 

And still beautiful, Seishirou thought, looking over the lean form.

 

They stood in silence, both looking at each other, neither saying anything. The destruction still raged around them, rubble raining down into the streets as the damaged buildings continued to collapse, shedding portions of their form as though shedding skin.

 

Seishirou reached up and removed his dark glasses and smiled. “Subaru,”

 

*************

 

Subaru said nothing. He could feel the heat from the blazing fires pressing against him, almost like another's body enfolding around him, sucking the oxygen from the air as though it sought to try and suffocate him. This didn't bother him. He blocked out the destruction around him. He could do nothing for what was already done. He had come too late to prevent the damage, the barrier was gone. The Sakurazukamori had seen to that, in his usual efficient manner.

 

He looked at Seishirou. This man had filled his every thought for the past nine years. His emotions had run the full gambit where this man was concerned, eventually coming full circle. Returning to that one emotion that he had discovered too late when he was sixteen.

 

Love.

 

He had given up despising himself for having this emotion, for still having this feeling after all this man had done. Would Hokotu have forgiven him?, he often wondered. Somehow he thought she would. She was, after all, his twin and he did know how she had thought, just as she had known him. But his family never would have forgiven him if they knew truly what he was feeling. It wasn't revenge that he had sought through all these years as they had supposed. He was sorry for deceiving them. But again, he had given away these feelings of guilt. He had learnt that he had to just accept his feelings for what they were and act upon them, act for them, to achieve the only thing that he could to fulfil his life.

 

His life that had been so empty since that day that he had lost not only Hokotu, but also Seishirou.

 

He saw Seishirou raise a cigarette to his lips, slipping the packet back into the coat. The motions were so familiar to Subaru, brought so many memories flooding back from a time before, from a year that he had learnt, only too painfully, had been too perfect to be real. He watched Seishirou bring his lighter upwards, flicking it, but the winds whipping around the vortex where he stood, prevented the flame from catching properly.

 

************

 

As he tried to light his cigarette, from the corner of his good eye, Seishirou saw Subaru walk calmly towards him, each step firm and assured. There was no panic, no hesitation, just calm. He made no sudden moves himself.

 

This whole situation seemed a little unreal to him, as though something wasn't quite right, or the way that he had thought it would be. Was it because Subaru had grown, had changed and he, Seishirou, hadn't been there to see those changes?

 

He felt a little disoriented. He has looking at Subaru. He knew it /was/ Subaru. And yet….it wasn't the Subaru that he remembered from the year of the bet. This was a new Subaru - so familiar, and yet so different. But always unique.

 

Subaru had stopped in front of him now, barely a hand span between their bodies. He heard the click and flicker of a flame before his face, could feel the puff of warmth from its ignition before that warmth was swallowed up by the greater heat of the much larger flames surrounding them. He leant his head forward slightly to touch the end of the cigarette to the orange flame, inhaling.

 

“Thank you,” he said, taking the cigarette from his mouth and looking into Subaru's face.

 

Subaru said nothing, his face showing no expression. Seishirou was intrigued. He couldn't read Subaru, couldn't see what he was thinking. Once he could have, many years ago. Subaru's face had been like an open book to him. Every emotion, every thought, had been plain to see, etched into his features. His large emerald eyes had shone with the light of everything he had felt; from fear, determination, pain, compassion, embarrassment, and…..love. Subaru had had no secrets from Seishirou, whether he had realised it or not. Seishirou had known everything. How else could he have played out the year of the bet so masterfully?

 

But the young man standing before him now was like a stranger. It was Subaru's face still, matured certainly, but still those fine chiselled features. It was Subaru's body - taller, broader, leaner, and mature now. A man's body, not a boy's. But still Seishirou could not read him.

 

A thought suddenly struck him and he snaked out his hand to grip Subaru's wrist tightly, raising it to his face. Subaru's fingers were still wrapped tightly around the cigarette lighter that he had used. Seishirou brought the hand closer to his face, placing a soft kiss on the back over his mark, and inhaled deeply.

 

Yes, he wasn't mistaken. The smoky smell filling his nostrils was not from the cloying air around them, it was the bitter tang of nicotine. The smell came from cigarettes, from someone who smoked, and smoked regularly. And it didn't come from him.

 

He was a little surprised. Subaru had always been so conscious of his standing as the 13th head of the Sumeragi Clan and their long standing tradition as spiritual leaders. And part of that had been the strong belief in the purity of the soul, something that Subaru had had in abundance.

 

Seishirou almost smiled at the thought of that young sixteen year old boy so filled with compassion for others often at the expense of his own well-being, a heart just brimming with kindness and hope and purity. /That/ Subaru would never have dreamed of ever smoking, of ever polluting his body or opening himself up to the risk of disease, and thus weakening himself and preventing him from fulfilling his duties. His convictions of right and wrong had been far too strong.

 

/That/ Subaru would not have smoked. Yet /this/ Subaru did. He was certain of it. Yet he still had to know for certain.

 

“You …you do smoke, don't you?” he asked.

 

Subaru looked back at him. He saw a small flicker of puzzlement at his question, a small hesitation, almost the first flicker of any form of emotion that he had seen in Subaru's eyes since their meeting here. It brought back memories and he couldn't help himself. He smiled softly, “Not good for you.”

 

*************

 

Subaru snatched his hand away violently. That half teasing tone of voice brought back too many memories of another time, a time best forgotten; memories of a person who didn't exist, who had never truly existed, who had been nothing more than a farce. But that voice, that tone, those memories, also brought back his feelings for that person. For this person.

 

Enough. There had to be an end.

 

He watched Seishirou draw on his cigarette, the end glowing golden, the smoke swirling upwards.

 

“I've been looking for you for a long time,” he said quietly.

 

“Why?” Seishirou asked, head cocked to one side, looking at Subaru directly.

 

Yes, Subaru thought, now is the time. He raised his hands and gathered his power, sending out his spirit shield, stretching upwards and out to encompass the damaged area around them, blocking the human survivors still milling around from that portion of the world, from further harm. When it was completed he answered Seishirou's question.

 

“To make my wish become this world's reality,”

 

*************

 

Seishirou didn't understand what Subaru meant. There seemed to be something there, a darker undercurrent to his words and actions that slipped away when Seishirou tried to grasp it, to analyse it, to understand it. Subaru's wish?

 

He looked upwards, gauging the spirit shield. He knew he couldn't break it. Not unless Subaru was dead or voluntarily released it. It was a unique ability that the Dragons of Heaven alone could perform. In a way he was a little jealous. It was a tremendous power. He half shrugged to himself. It wasn't that different to his own ability to weave his own illusionary world and trap people within it. His illusions could be just as binding.

 

Subaru had said nothing more, now falling silent after raising the shield. Seishirou thought he would prod him a little, see what he would let slip, try and break that calm, unflappable demeanour that surround the man before him.

 

“A spirit shield - for us? Or for The Seven Seals? No, you called them `Dragons of Heaven' in the Sumeragi household, right? And it is one of those Dragons of Heaven who will save the Earth from destruction.”

 

Subaru raised his hand, white ofuda clasped between his fingers, eyes calmly looking at Seishirou with no readable emotion. “Do you think I care,” he said in a voice that almost sounded dead it was so devoid of emotion, and so unlike Subaru to Seishirou's ear. “about the future of this Earth?”

 

Seishirou looked at him in shock. This could /not/ be Subaru! Subaru would never say he `didn't care' about anything! And he would never have said that about the Earth! About the future! What was wrong with him?!

 

As he stood there in surprise, Subaru released his attack. The outpouring release of power was enough to jolt Seishirou back into reality. This he knew and understood; power, fighting, destruction.

 

A half smiled curved his lips and, as Subaru's shikigami reached him, he quickly poured his power into his lit cigarette and drew a blazing red pentacle in the air. As the shikigami struck it, they were sliced to ribbons, blood dripped from the pentacle still hovering before Seishirou to the ground.

 

Seishirou was a little puzzled. Not that Subaru's attack wasn't good. It was very powerful, very skilful, and if he himself had not been a master onmyouji, he would probably not have survived, but he didn't understand why Subaru had lit his cigarette. Subaru /knew/ that Seishirou could, and would, use it in this way. Subaru was not stupid. Why had he placed a weapon in Seishirou's hands so easily?

 

Subaru didn't pause in his attack. He called forth more shikigami, directing them into a swirling attack against the man before him, planning, executing, striking. Seishirou called his own shikigami, the eagle perching on his arm.

 

White ofuda clashed with black ofuda, blood mixed with blood, claw and beak struck both sides. Buildings shook and crumbled, ground swelled with the upheavals, light blazed.

 

Subaru struck at Seishirou, bringing the glass down around him in the form of a pentacle, a trap that caught the Sakurazukamori in the middle. But Seishirou was strong, and withstood the attack. He looked calmly back at Subaru, a cut on his cheek slowly dripped blood down his face.

 

Seishirou watched Subaru. There had been tremendous force behind that particular attack. He felt the blood sliding down his face, the cut stinging in the air. Although that wound was the only visible one, he was more hurt than he let on. He could still feel every nerve ending in his body crying in pain, struggling to keep it under control. He would be covered in bruises from that impact, and it was with some effort he had forced himself to remain standing through it all.

 

Subaru wasn't holding back and he had more power than Seishirou had suspected. Subaru had been exceptionally strong as a boy, but that power had rarely been fully called upon, and rarely on the offensive. Subaru had tended to draw on it only as a last resort and as a defensive power, more a reflective power than anything else. Seishirou had never seen him gather his power for the purpose of attacking, or for destroying.

 

Something about that seemed…..wrong. And Subaru the man, was far, far stronger than Subaru the boy. So….

 

“Revenge for the murder of your precious sister…” Seishirou said, after all what else would be the motivating factor for Subaru's attack upon him since he had stated it wasn't to do with The Final Battle. So it could only be personal. “So, it's come to this, has it?”

 

Subaru said nothing, giving him no answers, no clues, his dark eyes unfathomable.

 

“Is that what you wish,” Seishirou asked, looking at the younger man standing above him. “To kill me?”

 

He wished Subaru would speak. He /wanted/ to know what Subaru was thinking! He just couldn't read this man at all! There was something there….something….but he couldn't tell what.

 

Seishirou gazed up at Subaru where he stood on the window ledge of the building. His white coat whipped around him in the wind, flaring out behind him and then wrapping closely around his lean body.

 

He was truly beautiful, Seishirou thought, still so beautiful.

 

He looked Subaru over carefully, taking closer note of things. He found that he liked Subaru's shorter hair cut. It was severe, yes, but it suited him, framing his finely chiselled features without detracting from them. His eyes were still that brilliant emerald green, so unusual and yet so compelling. As a boy those eyes had reflected everything, but now, in the man, they seemed bottomless. Seishirou thought they could threaten to drag you down and drown you in those dark, unknown depths. If the eyes are the window to the soul, Subaru's soul was very, very far away and in a place of darkness. The body was clad in black; black shirt, black jeans, black boots. Subaru obviously still had a penchant for that colour and he wondered if the young man ever broke it with the bright colours that his twin, Hokotu, had favoured. Subaru had looked good when dressed in red or blue Seishirou remembered.

 

Subaru wasn't that much shorter than himself now, only about a hand span shorter, just the right height to….kiss.

 

Gazing at Subaru, Seishirou couldn't help but imagine that. What it would be like? If Subaru were standing before him, what would it be like to cup that sharp chin in his hand, to tilt the face upwards, to drop his head so their lips touched? He felt a jolt of desire at that thought. It was something he had wanted to do so many times during the year of the bet. To wholly own and control the sixteen year old Subaru in all ways - mind, soul and…body.

 

But he hadn't, it hadn't been part of the bet at that time, though if Subaru had offered he would have immediately taken him up on it. But Subaru had made no such move, more's the pity. So Seishirou had never had the opportunity to fulfil that desire. It was nothing more than a physical desire, a need for release of the body. There was no `emotion' attached to it, just a base need.

 

Now, Seishirou couldn't help but think such thoughts again, only this time they were more intense. Subaru the man, attracted him and turned him on, in ways that Subaru the boy, could never have done so. Subaru the man, was an equal, an adversary, a rival, an enemy. An old shoe that is so comfortable and familiar that you don't really think about it any longer, but you can not do without. He /wanted/ Subaru! He /wanted/ him badly!

 

Subaru was still silent.

 

“Cute,” Seishirou suddenly said with a broad smile, causing Subaru to blink in startled surprise. “That's what you are, Subaru. Cute.”

 

That statement caused one of the first clear emotions to show on Subaru's face. His brow furrowed and his lips thinned in annoyance. “Hmmph!” he snorted in response, as though dismissing Seishirou's words.

 

“I'd love to play a bit more, but,” and he reached a hand up to wipe the blood that still flowed down his face, “I've got things to do now.”

 

He did, but what he really wanted to do was be with Subaru, have Subaru alone and the two of them together. Intimately together. Just once.

 

Subaru leapt down, landing gracefully before him. Seishirou concentrated and drew the mystical symbols on his hand, using his own blood. He could hear Subaru chanting also and they both released their power at the same time.

 

The impact was tremendous as the two blasts, opposite yet the same, collided in a swirling tempest of power. Seishirou and Subaru continued to chant, pouring their power into their attacks, drawing deeper and deeper inside themselves.

 

Suddenly Seishirou found an opening and struck, slashing Subaru deeply across the chest. The impact broke Subaru's concentration and his attack faltered. His hand came up to clutch his heavily bleeding chest as he fell to his knees.

 

Seishirou stood looking down at the younger man before him. He didn't move for a moment. That had been too easy. Too easy to get through, that opening seemed too convenient, Subaru fell too easily. Seishirou had felt Subaru's new found power, he had felt the attacks and something wasn't….right.

 

He could hear Subaru breathing heavily. That was not feigned by any means. Subaru had been using a lot of power, drawing from his own life force. Just like he used to do when he was passionate about something when he was sixteen, Seishirou thought with a smile.

 

Subaru looked up and saw that smile and glared. He flung his hand out, a white ofuda clutched in his grip. Another hand flashed out and gripped his wrist tightly, painfully enough that he released his ofuda and it fluttered away out of sight.

 

Seishirou reached out with his other hand and cupped Subaru's face, one bloody finger tracing a smear across the cheekbone. He leant down closer until their faces were bare inches, their warm breaths mixing and caressing each other's face.

 

Seishirou gazed deeply into Subaru's eyes, drinking in those features all over again. He could feel the smoothness of the skin under his fingers, closely shaven. He could feel Subaru's pulse beating against his fingers where his other hand still gripped his wrist.

 

He leant in closer and their lips barely brushed against each other. He felt the jump in Subaru's pulse, his breath hitch suddenly at the contact. Oh, yes, how he wanted this man! And if Subaru wished to, he would be able to find Seishirou. Perhaps then, he would finally find out what it would be like to bed Subaru.

 

He drew back a little, not releasing Subaru's captured wrist. “See you,” he whispered softly, seeing Subaru's hair ruffle with his breath, “Soon,” he finished, withdrawing his hand from Subaru's face.He wove his illusion and faded away into a cloud of sakura blossoms, keeping his eye fixed on the beautiful sight of the kneeling Subaru.

 

***********

 

Subaru had been startled at the sudden soft kiss that brushed his lips, so startled by the unexpectedness of it that he did not have time to control his body's automatic response to that contact. Then the Sakurazukamori had faded away as he did, in a swirling cloud of sweet smelling petals.

 

Had he read things right?, he wondered, remaining kneeling where he was. Seishirou had instigated that brief kiss, he had marked Subaru's cheek with his own blood and he knew perfectly well that with that blood Subaru would be able to track him down easily.

 

Was that really an invitation Seishirou had just given him? To find him? To…to what?, Subaru wondered.

 

Not to fight. Of that he was certain. They could have finished their fight right here and now. Subaru had given Seishirou plenty of reason to finally finish it, but that ploy had failed. Subaru had thought he had played it well. Just enough power to be a threat, to show he meant business and could hurt, and seriously hurt, the Sakurazukamori if he wasn't careful, yet at the same time allowing small gaps each time for Seishirou to counter. Subaru had been hoping that this meeting would grant him his wish, but Seishirou had not done so. Instead he had invited Subaru to come to him.

 

Should he?, he wondered, pushing himself to his feet, swaying slightly. He grasped the petals still floating on the wind in his hands, crushing them. “Seishirou,” he said through gritted teeth, feeling his stomach knot.

 

He took a deep calming breathing, wincing at the pain. Why not?, he thought, turning and walking away. What's he got to lose? If Seishirou wants to kill him, so be it. If Seishirou wants to do…..something….else… Subaru mentally shrugged, then perhaps he will find out what it might have been like if he had lived in a perfect world of happy endings.

 

He knew full well that the invite was not extended through any particular `feeling' the Sakurazukamori may have for him. He had resigned himself long ago to the fact that that could never be. No, he would go, he would find Seishirou, and then see what occurs. And that would be it. He would still look to have his wish fulfilled at some other time.

 

He pushed between and past the man and woman standing there, watching him, still thinking upon his own dilemma, his Seishirou.

 

“You! Wait up a sec!” a voice yelled out. “Where do you think you're going?!”

 

Subaru looked at the boy. He didn't know this person. He turned and began to walk away. He had more important things on his mind.

 

“A pretty face is no excuse for rudeness!” the voice yelled loudly after him.

 

Subaru stopped.

 

“You put up a spirit shield,” A feminine voice said at his back. “My name is Arashi Kishu.”

 

“And I'm,” the boy's voice interrupted quickly, “Sorata Arisugawa. Her future sweet lover, if you must know!”

 

Subaru heard a muffled `oomph!', as though someone had been hit.

 

The girl continued, “I am one of the Seven Seals, which the dreamseer, Princess Hinoto, is gathering. May we ask for your name, please?”

 

So, it has begun fully, Subaru thought. The Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth. The Final Battle is drawing nearer, the end of the world. That made up his mind.

 

He would track Seishirou. He would go to him and see what happens. For if the world is to end soon then he would be able to be with the man he loved one more time.

 

He could sense they were still waiting for his response and his ingrained good manners took over. He turned his head to look at them both, and replied,

 

“Subaru Sumeragi,'