Yume no Sekai (or, The World of Dreams)

Primus

                  

NOTE: Okay, so I feel like I should add a disclaimer: the Japanese at the beginning, middle, and end of the chapters? Yeah, there's a decent chance that they're not accurate -- I'm not Japanese, and I got them from Google Translate. I read the romanizations, and picked the ones that seemed most trustworthy from my sparse knowledge of Japanese from subbed anime. Anyway, they're supposed to say "The World of Dreams -- Commencement/Start/Beginning," "The World of Dreams -- Unfinished," and "The World of Dreams -- End." Of course, as an addition to this disclaimer, I do not own X or any of CLAMP's works.

夢の世界 – 開始

The Sumeragi, walking through the streets of Tokyo, felt a slight tinge on the back of his gloveless hands. Instantly, he tensed and waits with heightened senses for the feeling to intensify into burning. Despite willing himself to avoid glancing at his hands, the onmyouji could not help flexing his fingers while gazing down at bold twin black pentagrams. They marred him, desecrated the sacred name of Sumeragi. He could feel the hunter nearing as the marks branded his white flesh once again.

Subtly, slowly, all the civilians began to trickle out of the commons, as if directed by long-buried instinct to flee. The scent of sakura seemed to permeate the air as the last happy family left – but perhaps that was just his paranoia.

No. Apprehension and... anticipation. The marks flared with a certain subdued light that didn't exist at all, and the Sumeragi felt a change of atmosphere. Without turning, he identified the approaching man.

"Seishirou-san."

"Subaru-kun."

"What are you doing here."

It wasn't a question, and there was no point in its "asking."

"Why, Subaru-kun, I'm an Angel – or do you prefer "Dragon of Earth," as the Sumeragi call us?"

Drip.

Subaru's eyes flashed to the cement ground and found puddles of crimson blood. His gaze travelled from them and up the Sakurazukamori until Subaru reached his bare hands. They were covered in blood, and the trail of vivid red did not stop at the wrist. Dull emerald eyes focused on him, never leaving the path; the blood abruptly stopped just above the assassin's elbow.

"You came from a job."

Subaru stated the obvious, careful to not let any emotion into his voice. However, compared to the Sakurazukamori who had spent his entire life perfecting the skill, Subaru's attempt appeared terribly elementary, and only made him more transparent before Seishirou.

Smirking at Subaru's efforts, he spoke with a conversational, lightly amused voice containing nothing but scorn and disregard.

Fool, it seemed to say.

"Yes, I did. A politician's child, at Nakano Sun Plaza. What she was doing, unprotected, in  place like that – its beyond me."

Habitually, Subaru reached into his coat for a cigarette. The action, nor the manner in which it was made, did not go unnoticed. The assassin, never missing a beat, supplied Subaru with fire from his own lighter, an expensive steel-and-gold affair.

As he did so, the still-wet blood coating his fingers smeared all over the polished surface of the lighter. Seishirou, as he was bringing the flame up to the cigarette, seized Subaru's wrist, the one holding the cigarette. Seishirou's hand caused a thick, irregular red circle to be drawn upon Subaru's skin, and it only smeared across a wider area as the younger attempted to break free from a grip much too strong. With a quirk of an eyebrow, Seishirou yanked the other back to him, causing him to be pulled to Seishirou's chest.