Kouchi na Uso (An Elaborate Lie)
Written by Jeldi

Series: X/Tokyo Babylon
Rating: PG-13/R
Pairing: S/S

Thanks for the reviews! I’ve been sitting on this chapter for a long time so here goes. I’m glad you all liked the twist of Seishirou not being dead...but that’s only part of it! Enjoy twist #2! ^.^ Everything will be explained so enjoy the slight suspense for now. Also spoilers for THE SCENE in vol16, though it is only mentioned in the briefest way possible (since it’s one of the most referenced scenes in X fanfiction). You should know the scene already. ^o^

Disclaimer: We all know that these characters belong to CLAMP and they’re too busy with Tsubasa & xxxHolic to care what we do with them. This fic is just for entertainment; no profit; yada yada…if you’ve read any fanfiction, you’re familiar with this already.

Kouchi na Uso – Chapter 2

Silence reigned on the line for several minutes, broken only by the crackle over the long-distance connection. Seishirou waited patiently for the former head of the clan to collect herself, the silence no doubt due to the suddenness of the call to her private line. “Sakurazuka-san,” Lady Sumeragi acknowledged after another moment, punctuating the honorific with a cold tone, “To what do I owe this call?”

Seishirou grinned, enjoying this moment despite the news he bore for the previous clan head, stating intentionally harshly, “I thought it imperative to inform you that your grandson just tried to commit suicide.” And I almost wasn’t in time to stop him...Seishirou admitted silently to himself.

“What do you mean by that,” she asked, her tone dangerously low, as if daring him to lie to her.

“I didn’t think a statement like that required clarification,” Seishirou retorted sarcastically, though he obliged her and retold the event that had transpired. Silence once again dominated the phone line, though Seishirou could hear sounds that were suspiciously like sobs. How unlike the former head...perhaps she is acting more like a grandmother and less like his predecessor, Seishirou thought.

“Rest assured that he will be fine; he is just unconscious from performing techniques in ill health,” Seishirou continued, drowning out the quiet sobs. “However, I am calling an end to this farce; it is of no use now. Call Hokuto-chan and tell her to come back to Tokyo, since you’ve neglected to allow me contact with her myself.” Seishirou sighed exhaustedly, betraying some of his own emotion to the former head by that simple action, then continued, “Both of us have much explaining to do to Subaru-kun.”

Lady Sumeragi had recollected herself and sighed in assent, thought there was a slight quaver in her voice, “Very well, I will contact Hokuto-san. We were all aware that it would come to this eventually.” The unspoken animosity in her tone implied their arguments on the subject years before.

“I will leave it up to you, Lady Sumeragi,” Seishirou stated. He depressed the button, effectively disconnecting the phone connection to Kyoto. All he had left to do was be patient and wait now that the necessary phone call to the Sumeragi household was made.

He rose from Subaru’s bedside, and moved back out into the living room to survey the damage. The shattered remains of ceramics and mirror glistened from the lighting through the windows; salt and herb leaves were scattered from their containers across the wooden floorboards. He walked over and kneeled by the mess, righting the small table and placed the salvageable items atop it. Rising, he walked over to the closet Hokuto used to keep the broom and dustpan in, to find they in fact remained there. Returning to the center of the room with the tools, he moved the table to a far wall and swept up the shattered fragments.

Once the room was returned to a clean state and everything returned to their proper places, he returned to the bedroom and sat watching over Subaru. Time blurred as he quietly watched over the sleeping onmyouji. It appeared that Subaru’s dreams had gradually lapsed into something more pleasant; his brows were no longer furrowed and the tension his face had held was now gone.

The eventuality of this scenario was inevitable, Seishirou thought. However, it was something that Seishirou had not intended to deal with so soon after his “death”. The despair and suffering Subaru had endured was still fresh, the raw edges of that wound easily susceptible to pain. Looking down at Subaru’s prone form, Seishirou knew how close he had come to losing something precious himself. And eye for an eye, as it were...He would have been living those same feelings himself, had he not been in time to stop the Sumeragi.

Broken out of his reverie by the intercom buzzing, he rose from the edge of the bed and headed out of the bedroom, intuiting whom it would likely be. Looking back as he reached the doorjamb, he cast a glance back toward Subaru, his form engulfed by blankets and his skin pallid except for the slight flush of his fever. Seishirou had a feeling he was going to have a lot of explaining to do for this particular newcomer.

Going into the kitchen he peered at the small inset screen. Sure enough, Hokuto was standing there, obviously upset and fuming. In all likelihood, Lady Sumeragi had not found it fit to tell Hokuto-chan exactly what had happened; he could see it in the manner she was holding herself. Perhaps she intends dealing with an upset and irate Hokuto-chan as a bit of retribution against me. He and Lady Sumeragi had never gotten along since this entire farce had begun; they merely tolerated one another. Not even bothering with the receiver, he headed back out to the front door, and opened it fully to Hokuto’s glare and crossed arms.

“What’s going on, Sei-chan?!” she screeched immediately, obviously having worried herself by contemplating every possible reason for the call, “Obaa-chan didn’t tell me anything! She just told me to get on the first train back to Tokyo to go to Subaru; that you would be waiting at the apartment.”

“Hokuto-chan, calm down and lower you voice,” Seishirou admonished. “Is that anyway to greet someone you haven’t seen in nearly nine years?” he continued, trying to lighten the mood.

Hokuto obviously did not want to have anything of it, “Don’t try to change the subject, Sei-chan! Four hours! Four hours on a train with no clue of what is going on! I think I’m entitled to be a bit upset!” Her eyes had taken on a scared look, though her gaze didn’t reflect her inner emotions nearly to the degree Subaru’s always had, “Did something happen to Subaru?”

“He is asleep right now,” Seishirou stated, attempting to evade her question. She looked at him skeptically, her expression stating that she knew he was trying to avoid a straight answer. Old habits die hard apparently... he thought. “Subaru-kun will be fine. He is just weak and exhausted. I’ll explain everything after you have seen him.” He moved to the side and motioned her further inside. She obliged, closing the front door and taking off her shoes. As she reached for a pair of guest slippers in the side cabinet, Seishirou took that opportunity to quickly grab the small set of luggage she had packed in her haste to catch the first train from Kanazawa to Tokyo.

Not needing to be led, she headed straight for Subaru’s bedroom and walked through the open doorway. Seishirou ghosted her footsteps, setting her bags just inside the hallway by entryway as he followed. Seishirou remained silent as he joined the elder Sumeragi twin by her brother’s side, watching her as she looked down at her brother’s flushed sleeping face. Her eyes widened slightly, and she looked up and toward Seishirou beginning, “Sei-chan, why was he using...”

He cut her off with a shake of the head and then said softly, “This isn’t the place for this discussion. Asleep he may be, but he can still hear us on a subconscious level. He doesn’t need ‘ghosts’ from the past plaguing his dreams as well.” Turning back and walking to the door, he waited for Hokuto to follow after she took one last look at Subaru’s sleeping features.

They both headed across the hallway to the kitchen, Hokuto trying hard to hold her tongue. As they reached the entryway to the kitchen Seishirou turned and offered, “Would you like some milk tea? It seems that is all Subaru-kun has been living off of for a while.” She acquiesced, taking a seat on one of the high-backed chairs at the counter. She stared at his back as he set water to heat up, waiting until he turned back toward her to ask what she feared. “What did Subaru try to do?”

Seeing the look she gave him, he sighed, “You noticed that the reason he is unconscious is because he wasn’t in good enough health to being performing any spells.” He paused until he saw her nod, “I had suspected something from his behavior this evening when I checked in on him through my shikigami. He might have succeeded in killing himself last night if not for that.” He waited for the imminent explosion, silently cursing Lady Sumeragi for giving him the responsibility of telling Hokuto.

“He tried to do WHAT?!” she shouted, her screech echoing through the apartment. She had jumped up, upsetting the chair she had previously occupied and leaned heavily on the counter, disbelief in her widened eyes.

Not even flinching at her sharpness, he looked toward the open kitchen door and admonished, “Hokuto-chan, try to keep your voice down.” He then met her look evenly and conjectured, “I think we were a bit too thorough in the creation of this farce. I suspect Subaru had never intuited that any of this was false, and he finally tried to take his own life on that premise.” He then turned away, pulling the tealeaves and strainer out of the cabinet.

As Seishirou pulled two glasses from the upper cabinet and dusted them off with a dishcloth, Hokuto righted the chair and began pacing the length of the kitchen, fuming in a high-pitched hushed voice, “What was he thinking?! When he wakes up I’m going to give him the lecture of his life! He’s is going to regret ever having conceived of the idea!”

Seishirou watched all of this from the counter, pouring water and cream through the tealeaf strainer into the two glasses, not caring to comment until her rant had reached its end. As her voice reached muttering level he chose to counter her idea, saying, “Somehow, I don’t think your twenty-five year old brother will be as receptive to a lecture as he was when he was sixteen. He might be the one to lecture you for a change...among worse possibilities.”

She stopped dead in her tracks, realizing that she didn’t know what to expect from her brother, who she had been estranged from for nine years. She had gotten letters from their grandmother, telling her how Subaru was doing, but she had never consciously realized the implications of their plans on her relationship with her twin.

Seishirou placed the tea on the counter, motioning for Hokuto to sit back down. “There is a great deal you do not know that has transpired. When was the last time you had heard from Lady Sumeragi?”

Hokuto slowly walked back to the counter, thinking. As she sat back down, she sighed and then said, “I think the last letter I received was about Subaru being in the hospital because of a battle.” Counting on her blue enamel-tipped fingers, she frowned, “That was about two months ago.”

Making a face she continued, “Grandmother doesn’t really give me much information. I don’t even know why he was in the hospital. She say’s it is because she doesn’t want anyone intercepting a letter and finding out that I am still alive. She has also been having a harder time sending information with the Promised Day close at hand; the entire household is extremely secure, so it is hard for her to slip letters through.”

Seishirou, always one to know what was logical, nodded in agreement, arguing for the former head’s caution, “I can see why she wanted it that way. It was the best way to insure that no one found out about this, Subaru-kun especially. If you had known why he was in the hospital you would have been back in Tokyo a lot sooner. Unfortunately, the Lady Sumeragi’s actions have also been to a disadvantage. You grandmother neglected to tell you many things, among them what transpired a week past.”

“What happened?” she asked, the statement forced since she knew she would not like the answer. Crossing her arms, she charged him with a full vengeful look, emerald gaze flaring, waiting for him to continue.

Seishirou returned her gaze evenly as he set his glass down on the counter. Raising that same hand before his face, he drew them both into a maboroshi, the kitchen’s surfaces fading into darkness. Hokuto instinctively rose from her seat as it disappeared and tensed, despite the fact she knew there was no threat in his action.

A scene was unfolding below their feet, making them appear weightless hovering above the steel supports. Dusk had fallen over the steel and concrete structure of Rainbow Bridge. There was no traffic, as the bridge had been closed due to the tremors plaguing the metropolis’ foundations. A lone figure was visible, standing at the very center of the bridge’s twin suspension supports. Hokuto looked on, realization replacing her previous anger. “Sei-chan...this was the site of...”

“A kekkai battle, yes. And the two that participated in this battle were Subaru-kun and myself,” Seishirou completed for her, as his illusionary self met Subaru down on the bridge below. Though the forms were much too far away to possibly hear clearly, the script unfolded perfectly to her ears. She watched in appalled silence as the recent past unfurled itself before her, took in every detail and willed herself not to cry out.

The brother Hokuto had once known could not be the one that stood before them in this illusion; a person full of pain and sorrow who wanted nothing more than to die. She folded in on herself, hugging her arms to her chest tightly to prevent herself from trembling. “Why?” she asked to no one in particular, her voice quivering with checked emotion. “How could this have happened?” She glanced at Seishirou, a single tear escaping and leaving a wet trail in its wake.

“I see that your grandmother neglected to tell you many things. Subaru-kun never forgave me for your ‘death’,” Seishirou sighed, motioning with his hands and causing the maboroshi to fade as it had appeared. As the kitchen came back into sharp relief, Hokuto reached for the back of the chair to steady herself and Seishirou continued, “And he also never forgave himself...for many things.”

Hokuto looked up at the older man, worry starting to crease her brow. “Many things?” She sat on the chair and reached out tentatively to take the briefly forgotten tea glass.

Sighing, Seishirou leaned forward on the counter. “Subaru-kun was always worried about his decisions and whether they would affect those around him. Even though he affected coldness and denied that he cared, that aspect of his personality has never changed.” He paused, letting his words sink in briefly before continuing, “I doubt he ever forgave himself for letting you ‘die’. He blames himself for your death...thinking that you died because of the decisions he had or had not made in time. And time was not able to heal that wound, though we expected it to.”

“And his blind eye?” Hokuto questioned, locking gazes with Seishirou.

“ ‘Kamui’ said that was one of his wishes. I hazard to guess that wish was due to the guilt Subaru harbored from this,” Seishirou said, indicating his own blind eye.

Hokuto broke their gaze first and stared at her glass, reflecting on the scene from within the maboroshi. The brother she had known was a fleeting memory in comparison to the distant young man that had stood below on the bridge. It was hard to find the wistful youth in that pain-ridden mismatched gaze. She shivered at the thought of having to face this disillusioned Subaru.

Breaking her from her train of thought, Seishirou continued, “He also, in all likelihood, hasn’t forgiven himself for falling in love with me. He still believes that he lost the bet.” He looked at her regretfully, “His words on Rainbow Bridge were enough to prove that.”

“Well, if this is how Subaru reacted,” she stated matter-of-factly, “there’s no choice but for us to have a serious discussion with him and have everything out in the open.” She looked pointedly at Seishirou as he cleaned up the ingredients from tea making, “And that also means you can’t be evasive anymore. You have to tell him the truth.”

She sighed and raised a hand to rub at her temples. This was going to be the start of a very long day. It was a bad enough shock for Subaru to find out that Seishirou was not dead. She could not begin to fathom what his reaction would be to her false death. But it wasn’t as if they could turn back the clock this late in time.

Though her return was under depressing circumstances, she chose to feign normalcy. “At least he’s not denying the fact that he loves you anymore. We just have to get the forgiveness part worked out.” She stood then, leaving her empty tea glass on the counter.

“It might be asking to much for him to be as forgiving as he used to be,” Seishirou said in response, as she walked toward the kitchen’s exit.

She stopped at the door frame and turned, trying on her best smile, though it was still strained around the edges, “All right, enough of this morbid train of thought...we’ll handle it when it comes. Are you coming?” she asked, tilting her head.

Seishirou dropped the towel with which he had been cleaning onto the glassy tiled surface. “Where, if I may ask?” he inquired as he came from behind the counter and followed her out to the apartment’s entryway.

“Well, first things first, I can’t have my brother starving now, can I? So, we’ll start with grocery shopping.” Hokuto stated matter-of-factly, trading the slippers back for her shoes. Seishirou followed suit and then moved to the side, opening the door for her. Though he knew that she was affecting her old-time chipper mask to handle this volatile situation, Seishirou made no comment.

Her smile grew bigger, gaining in familiarity to the mischievous grins she had always shown before, “Didn’t I tell you to take care of him, Sei-chan?” Then rolling her eyes dramatically, she said, “You men, you never know what you are supposed to do.”

She continued berating Seishirou as if they hadn’t spent the last nine years apart as the door clicked shut behind their diminishing footsteps.

(1) - Hokuto uses the term O-baa-chama to refer to their grandmother. It is a combination of –sama and –chan used by younger children to imply a “cuteness” to the honorific -sama.