Destined to meet...

[yinyangfox]

Who: Seimei and Kaoru
What: An Onmyoji seeking closure to a dream...
When: Modern era
Where: Earth
Warnings: TBA




He wasn't sure it was a dream or a nightmare. Hiromasa and Mitsumushi tried to console him, but as the weeks dragged on, Abe no Seimei grew ever more frustrated. He went through every scroll, every book, every painting. He spoke to spirits of the forest and mountain, traded favors with yokai, read the stars...Nothing answered the man's questions about red hair, loving smiles, a dream home, a river. There were demons and vampires and dragons.

Nothing made sense anymore.

The only person who had any advice was someone Seimei rarely listened to: Hiromasa.

"If there's something pulling your heart in a particular direction, you should follow it. You've always been so distant, Seimei. I think it's good that you've found a real passion of your own. Being divine protectors shouldn't be all our lives are about. I'm engaged now, too, so you should--"

Seimei tuned out after that, barely able to keep from rolling his eyes. He had no particular problem with Hiromasa's bride-to-be, he just didn't like hearing about it in relation to his own life. Hiromasa still didn't understand his particular inclinations. However his advice was sound. Seimei had never ignored his instincts before, so why start then? He just had to be patient.

He didn't realize he'd have to be centuries patient, but such was life.

He had to dye his hair black by that point, change his name dozens of times, give up his ancestral home. He wandered and waited. He would live forever, so what did it matter if the path to truly being complete was one he had to walk very slowly?

He just hoped the "prince" in his vague memories was as drawn to him as he was to them. So he took a position at the very home he used to occupy, sweeping his own floors and chanting his own chants, none of the other priests aware that in their very midst was the owner of the building they maintained. He was simply a very quiet and refined man, sleepy-eyed, fox-faced. Always watching the front gates, always a bit distracted but very diligent in his labors. Well-educated but miserable with popular culture, never one to join them in forays to the city. No, he was much too dedicated, some thought. even so, it was obvious he was waiting for something.

Abe no Seimei was waiting for the sunset.

Comments

[individuates]

They had all disappeared from the Bastion over time. Hikaru, then Seimei, and then one day Kaoru himself had woken at home - his family's home - in his own bed, without the reassuring bulk of the anklegator at his side.

Hikaru didn't remember - hadn't recalled, and Kaoru had laughed it off like it had been a dream. From then it had been into a dizzying rush of normal. Breakfast and car and school and club and home and he had fallen into bed so quickly once they had got home that Hikaru had felt his forehead and asked if he was ill.

He had lied and said yes. Chivvied Hikaru off to school and taken the Shinkansen to Kyoto by himself - he could explain it all later. If he were to go all that way and find nothing, he would...

Kaoru didn't know what he would. Bury it down and never address it again.

Travelling so far had been so strange, having the earth be solid and stable underfoot had been stranger. Off the train, he had gone underground, alighted the subway at Imadegawa and headed southwest and down the bustling main road. The five-pointed star was everywhere - Seimei's star on signs, flags, even on manhole covers, all telling him he was heading in the right direction.

The shrine entrance was quaint, the little mascots nearby quainter still, though the little charaicatures tugged on his heart a little. Kaoru almost considered going past several times. What realistically would he find there but statues touched by a thousand tourists?