Chapter Twenty-Eight
The four teenagers and two younger siblings had settled in the food court for the afternoon, having exhausted the possibilities of the mall when the two children had started whining about being tired. The two of them had been settled at one table with ice cream while the four teenagers sat at another and played the ‘isn’t he/she cute’ game. It seemed to be one of Teiji’s favorite pastimes.
“What about him?” Tsuki asked, sipping her soda. “I’d say a six.”
“I’ll be generous and give him a seven,” Teiji said.
“Five point five,” Seimei said. “He’s too bulky.”
“Zero, has a penis,” Hideki put in. The others laughed at him. “But she’s cute,” he said, motioning to a girl walking past.
“Yeah, I’d bang her,” Teiji said.
Seimei elbowed him in the ribs.
“You’re not allowed to look anymore,” Tsuki told him, giving Seimei a significant look. Teiji just laughed and looped an arm around Seimei’s shoulders. Seimei tried valiantly not to turn bright red.
“Hey, mind if I join you?” a new voice asked.
Seimei looked up and brightened. “Hey, you made it!” he said. “I was hoping you would. Wasn’t sure you’d pry yourself away from Tsuzuki.”
Hisoka smiled and pulled out a seat. “I managed, somehow, to carry on.”
Seimei laughed. “Guys, this is Hisoka. Hisoka, this is Tsuki, Hideki, and this is Teiji.”
“Charmed.” Hisoka plopped into his seat. As none of the other three were particularly skilled onmyouji, none of them noticed that he was dead. “What are you guys doing, other than being banished from your houses?”
“Boy watching, for the most part,” Tsuki told him. “Poor Hideki is the only one here who’s girl watching.”
“I’m still allowed to look at girls,” Teiji objected. “Being bisexual doubles your chance of getting a date on a Saturday night.”
Hisoka snirked.
“Hey, look at her,” Hideki said suddenly, pointing to a woman on the other side of the food court. “Those . . . those boots, and that dress, and that . . .”
Seimei gaped. “Oh God! That’s my mother!” He reached over to cover Hideki’s eyes as the other three all burst into laughter. Seimei turned as red as a tomato. “You’re not allowed to ogle my mother!” He got up and marched over to her. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, hi, Sei-chan,” she said cheerfully. “Are you here with your friends?”
“Yes, cousins, but . . . one of them was ogling you! What’s with this . . . this dress? Go home, put some clothes on!”
Misako just laughed. “You’ve seen me wear this before.”
“But never near my friends!” Seimei protested.
“Well, I want to meet them.”
“Nooooo!” Seimei trailed after her as she marched over to the table he had come from.
“Oh, hello, Hisoka,” she said, smiling.
He smiled back, trying not to grin. “Konnichi wa, Misako-san.”
Seimei managed to recover from his mortification long enough to introduce the rest of his friends. He sat back down, next to Teiji, vowing that if he caught Hideki looking anywhere but at Misako’s face, he would kick him under the table.
“Oh, Teiji-kun!” Misako said. “Seimei’s told me all about you.”
Seimei’s head thunked firmly against the table. “Mom, I hate you.”
“It’s what mothers do, dear.” She leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “Anyway, I’m meeting the editor, so, jaa ne. Nice to meet you.” She bounced off into the distance.
Seimei sputtered ineffectually.
Before he could recover, Akane walked over and said, “Teiji-niichan, can I have another -- why are you sitting with a dead boy?”
Hisoka and Seimei both blinked.
“Huh?” Teiji asked.
“He’s dead,” Akane said, pointing at Hisoka. “You can’t tell?”
Hisoka coughed. “I’m a Shinigami,” he explained to the others.
“Ohhh,” Tsuki said. “I’ve got jack for onmyoujitsu. It’s why I went into computers. Tousan said that was okay; Kai got enough for both of us.”
Teiji, of course, had none, as neither of his parents had been actual Clan members. Hideki apparently wasn’t doing much better. Given how powerful Senichi was, Seimei figured it was only reasonable that at least one of his children would be powerful enough to see Hisoka.
As it turned out, both Akane and her brother could. They pulled up chairs and quizzed Hisoka until his face turned blue.
Seimei tilted his head suddenly, listening. “Well, time to go,” he announced.
The others blinked at him. “Huh?”
“They’re done,” Seimei explained. “Tree-san said we could come back, and that someone would be along to pick us up in about ten minutes.”
“The ultimate beeper system,” Teiji said solemnly.
~~~~
When Hisoka got home from the mall, Tsuzuki had already ordered dinner and had it waiting. Hisoka, even undead, was still a teenager, so Tsuzuki had gotten some pizza. “Oh, you got food already,” Hisoka stated, his mouth watering. He hadn’t eaten at the mall.
“I can tell by the look in your eyes that you’re ravenous,” Tsuzuki said with a tiny smile. Truth told, he had been a little lost at first. His behavior around Hisoka hadn’t changed at all, and he wasn’t sure whether or not it was supposed to. However, Hisoka certainly didn’t seem to mind the lack of change, as long as they cuddled. Which Tsuzuki was fine with. He hadn’t done much of it before because he had thought that Hisoka didn’t like it.
“Yeah.” Hisoka picked up a slice and shoved half of it into his mouth with one bite. He had been very pleased at Tsuzuki’s lack of jealousy when he’d left to visit Seimei. There was hope for him yet. He shoved the rest of the slice into his mouth and opened a soda.
Tsuzuki just watched him, fascinated by this.
“What?” Hisoka asked, swallowing the last of the slice. He blushed slightly. “You’re staring at me. Am I being a pig? You can have some . . .”
“It’s very cute,” Tsuzuki said. “You’re not usually so enthusiastic about your food.”
Hisoka’s blush deepened. “Yeah, but . . . pizza. C’mon, have a slice.” He picked one up and waved it in Tsuzuki’s general direction.
Tsuzuki leaned over and took a bite, then reached out and took the piece so Hisoka wouldn’t pass out from shock.
“Um.” Hisoka sat down on the edge of the bed and took another slice, eating this one more sedately.
“Did you have fun at the mall?” Tsuzuki asked him.
“Yeah, it was fun,” Hisoka said with a nod. “Seimei’s got a boyfriend!” He delivered this statement with a huge grin; Seimei had not previously told him this, but it had been pretty clear from his and Teiji’s behavior.
“That’s . . . pleasantly ironic, somehow.” Tsuzuki saw his confused glance and hastened to explain. “Well, I thought you were dating him, and I was horribly, horribly jealous. And then as soon as I have you, he goes and gets a boyfriend.”
“It’s going around,” Hisoka said. “Subaru and Seishirou have made up, too. And if one’s to judge by Fuuma and Kakyou the other day . . .”
“It must be something in the air,” Tsuzuki said with a nod.
“Maybe it’s the impending doom of humanity?” Hisoka suggested, his tone quite cheerful given the statement.
“I think you’d agree with me that there’s not going to be an impending doom,” Tsuzuki said.
“Yeah, that’s true.” Hisoka picked up a third slice of pizza and contemplated it. “So what are we doing about that, anyway?”
“All I can suggest is that we try to save Fuuma at the end,” Tsuzuki said. “When it’s all over.”
Hisoka thought about this for a long minute. “If Kamui shoves a Shinken through his chest, we’re going to have a very small window of time to act in. It’s not going to be easy. It may not even be possible.”
“I have to try,” Tsuzuki said quietly.
Hisoka put down the slice of pizza and scooted over on the bed so he was leaning on Tsuzuki. Tsuzuki hugged him tightly. Then fed him a mouthful of pizza.
“We’d have to pull him over into the Meifu,” Hisoka finally said. “Like we did for Hijiri. By all rights, he should have died, too.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Tsuzuki said. “We can ask Watari exactly why that happened, to make sure that it’ll work for Fuuma.”
“We’ll have to do something about Kakyou, too,” Hisoka mentioned, pulling out of the hug and retrieving his half-finished piece of pizza.
“Oh?” Tsuzuki asked.
“He has no plans to outlive Fuuma,” Hisoka said quietly. “He’ll be dead before the Final Day’s out if we don’t stop him.”
“Well, that makes our window even tighter,” Tsuzuki said with a frown.
Hisoka shrugged, then shook his head. “Not necessarily. He won’t go out with a bang or anything like that. He’ll will himself to death. I mean, he willed himself into a coma for nine years, he can manage to stop breathing if he wants to. It’ll take at least a half an hour.”
“How sad is it, that a half hour is a large window of time?” Tsuzuki asked thoughtfully.
Hisoka laughed a little. “Well, when you can transport places instantly . . . besides, we can enlist help. We’ll need Subaru to help us with Kamui, anyway. From what I’ve seen in his mind, he has a habit of crying over dead bodies, which we unfortunately won’t be able to allow. I can just see that. ‘Hey, Kamui, mind if we nip off with Fuuma’s body for a bit? No, you won’t see it again.’”
Tsuzuki laughed, surprised. “Hisoka, you’re morbid.”
He smiled slightly. “Well, yeah, but that’s what would happen. We’ll need Subaru to pry Kamui away.”
“Very true.”
“But we’ve still got time.” Hisoka frowned. “Don’t we?”
“Yes. But we have to do something about Hinoto.”
Hisoka shivered slightly. “Yeah, we do. What?”
“I’m not sure,” Tsuzuki said. “What would you suggest?”
“Uh, well . . . I don’t know that much about her,” Hisoka confessed. “All I know is that she’s a Dreamgazer, and obviously a very powerful one. How can we fight that?”
“I can,” Tsuzuki said. “So can Kamui and Fuuma, and most likely Kakyou. To a lesser degree.”
Hisoka frowned slightly. “Would you consider it mean if I suggested we kill her?”
“I wouldn’t consider it mean, but it would definitely be a less preferred solution,” Tsuzuki said.
“We could lock her away until it’s done,” Hisoka suggested.
“That won’t stop her from trapping any of the others the way she did to you,” Tsuzuki said.
“And there’s no way to take away her powers?”
“I don’t think so, but Kakyou would be the one to ask.”
“If Kakyou knew something, he would have suggested it yesterday,” Hisoka said, shaking his head. “We were talking before you came back.”
“The unfortunate thing is, the Seals need her to predict things, but they just can’t trust her.” Tsuzuki took out his frustration on an innocent piece of pepperoni.
“Yeah, I know.” Hisoka sighed.
“The only thing I can think of is a really, really elaborate lie,” Tsuzuki said. “Which is to tell the Seals that you can tell whether or not she’s telling the truth, and then refer back to Kakyou to find out if her ‘visions’ were correct.”
Hisoka frowned. “I’m not sure that would work,” he said. “If I could tell that she was lying, I’d be able to tell immediately. I wouldn’t have to go off and think about it for a while.”
“That would be the big flaw, yes.”
Hisoka brightened suddenly. “Well, not necessarily. Because it’s not a lie. I can tell whether or not she’s telling the truth or not.” His face fell suddenly. “Of course, that entails getting near her. Which she doesn’t seem terribly inclined to let me do. And if I shield myself, or go in with you shielding me, she’ll know that we suspect her.”
Tsuzuki sighed. “I wish we knew why she was doing this.”
Hisoka considered it. “You could ask,” he finally said. “You know her, don’t you?”
“I used to think I did,” Tsuzuki said with a nod.
“And the Hinoto you know wouldn’t have done this?” Hisoka asked, to clarify.
“No.”
“That fits in with what I felt,” Hisoka said. “It was really strange, because for just a few split seconds I didn’t feel any malice, any evil. And then it was all there at once. That was right before I ended up trapped in the dream. It’s almost as if she was ready to just talk to me, and then realized I was a danger to her, and . . . something, I don’t know what, took over.”
“I don’t know,” Tsuzuki said, shaking his head. “I guess I’d have to see her.”
“Well, if she can’t trap you in a dream, it might not be a bad idea,” Hisoka said. “The one flaw is that the Seals might end up without a Dreamgazer entirely.”
“They really don’t need one,” Tsuzuki said, “because Fuuma is engineering everything so they win.”
“Yeah, but they don’t realize they don’t need one,” Hisoka said. “If they just keep winning by chance, sooner or later they’re going to realize that someone’s engineering it. Which we don’t want. But wait, I have an idea. If we could get Seishirou to agree, he could play a double agent for us. He can get Fuuma’s plans, and give them to Subaru, and then Subaru can say that Seishirou ‘just happened to let something slip’.”
“Seishirou doesn’t even have to let it slip,” Tsuzuki said. “If they think that Seishirou is evil, they might think he’s lying. But if comes outright and tells them everything, they’ll suspect less. Especially if you back him up in that he really does love Subaru and doesn’t want the world to end.”
“Fuuma will go along with it, I’m sure,” Hisoka said. “But as long as he pretends he doesn’t know about Subaru and Seishirou, no one will suspect him of being nice. As long as we have a few planned failures, because Seishirou wouldn’t know everything, we’d be okay.”
“Then I think our next step would be to talk to Subaru and Seishirou,” Tsuzuki said. “And Fuuma, of course.”
Hisoka nodded and flopped backwards, exhausted. “Planning is hard work.”
Tsuzuki moved the pizza aside, then flopped down next to him, pulling him into a very proprietary hug. He didn’t say anything. Hisoka just snuggled into it.
~~~~
As they all left the formal hall, leaving Meiri there with her scattered shreds of dignity, Chimori walked up next to Seishirou. “Would you and your son like to come over for dinner?” he asked. “Ichido-kun and his wife are going to be there, as is my wife.”
Seishirou smiled wanly at him. “That’d be nice. I’m sure Sei-kun would appreciate it, too.” He looked over as Jack came padding up next to him, and scratched the dog behind its ears. The dog looked quite confused, giving Seishirou a funny look. It was not often that Seishirou showed any affection whatsoever towards him. “Just let me call my -- er -- Subaru-kun.”
“Your Subaru-kun?” Chimori asked, with an amused smile.
“I can’t seem to shake him off with a stick,” Seishirou said with a nod. “But I don’t know if we were supposed to have any dinner plans. Or anything at all. I’m very new at this.” He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Subaru’s apartment.
“Sumeragi desu.”
“Konban wa, Subaru-kun.”
“Konban wa.” Subaru sounded pleased to hear him, which made Seishirou pleased as well. “You do know how to use a phone.”
“Aa,” Seishirou said. “I didn’t know if you were waiting to hear from me or not, so I figured I had better call you rather than risk your wrath.”
“Ah, you’re learning. How’d it go?”
“As well as could reasonably be expected,” Seishirou said. “I’m staying here to have dinner with my family. My father and his wife, that is.”
“Have fun with that,” Subaru said.
“Are you on perks again?”
“No,” Subaru said, sounding disgusted.
“You’re just very cheerful.”
“A) you remembered to call. That pleases me. And b) as much as I love you, I’m not a social creature.”
“Oh. I suppose you don’t want to come over when I get home, then?”
“You have a sixty-forty shot. Call when you get home.”
“Wait, which is sixty and which is forty?”
“Seeing you is the sixty,” Subaru said with a smile that was audible even over the phone.
“It might be late,” Seishirou warned him.
“I’m usually up until three.”
“All right. I’ll call you then.”
“Good deal. Have fun with dinner.”
Seishirou said goodbye and hung up the phone. “I never know what to make of that man,” he stated, looking vaguely confused.
Chimori raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’s a long story,” Seishirou told him. He glanced over as Jack suddenly perked up and went bounding towards the entrance gate. “Ah, Sei-kun and the others are back.”
Chimori looked quite surprised. “That’s a very well-trained dog.”
“With a very good nose,” Seishirou agreed. “And I think hanging around Sei-kun so long has sort of enhanced it, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I think the dog is more of a familiar than a pet.”
“That could be useful,” Chimori said with a nod, as the two of them strolled along the path.
“Oi, Sei-kun,” Seishirou called, waving as Seimei came up the path with the others, Jack padding along at his heels. Seimei smiled and waved back. He was still giving Hideki the evil eye. “Do you mind if we stay for dinner? Chimori-san invited us.”
“No, of course not,” Seimei said.
::Sure, don’t even ask me if I mind. I’m the one who’s been starving for a week, and I saved your ass today.:: The Tree directed this comment to Seishirou alone.
::I’ll feed you as soon as I get home, all right? Unless you want me to kill one of the other Clan members, you’re out of luck.::
::Ha very ha.::
::I thought you’d see it my way.::
“Come on, my house is this way,” Chimori said.
“Oh, I wanted to talk to Senichi-san for a minute,” Seishirou said, seeing him getting out of the car. Apparently he had gotten dispatched to pick the teenagers up. Seishirou walked over. “Ano, can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Senichi said, looking surprised.
“Well, Sei-kun and I were thinking about perhaps moving onto the compound.” Seishirou looked rather loath to admit this after the spectacle Meiri had made of him, but asked anyway. “Sei-kun would be much happier closer to his friends, and I don’t think it would be bad for me either. How would I go about that?”
Senichi shifted a little. “Well, generally speaking, it would have to go through Meiri,” he said. “But after today . . . well, you know what, let me ask her. What happened today shook her up a little, and she might allow it. I’ll give it a try.”
“Thank you,” Seishirou said. “I’d appreciate that.”
Senichi smiled and hurried off to the rest of his family. Seishirou went back to Chimori and Seimei, then followed Chimori back to his house. Souji, his wife, greeted them cheerfully. Seishirou was still rather in shock by the way the entire family seemed determined to adopt him, despite the fact that they hadn’t seen him for thirty-four years. It was very strange to be universally accepted so easily. Well, except for Meiri, of course.
“Should I leave Jack outside?” Seimei asked politely.
“Well, he seems well-trained enough,” Chimori said. “He can come in.”
“Thank you.”
Seishirou was introduced, for the second time, to his half-brother Ichido, who looked very little like him but seemed pleasant enough, and his American wife Anita. Their four year old daughter, Wakana, was quite possibly the cutest child he’d ever seen. She took instantly to Seishirou and spent most of the rest of the night trying to cling to his leg. Seishirou found this endearing, if a bit alarming.
Dinner was loud and cheerful. Seishirou ate little and said less, content, for the most part, to watch everyone else. Seimei took a few minutes to get over his initial shyness, but was fine after that.
Senichi called afterwards to inform Seishirou that Meiri had, in fact, ‘blown her stack’ upon Senichi’s request. “We could just bypass her, you know,” he said.
“No thanks,” Seishirou said. “I don’t want to be here until she’ll allow it. That isn’t fair to her.”
“You know, since you’re technically Clan Head -- ”
“I’m not Clan Head,” Seishirou said. “I could never manage it. The past week has proven, if nothing else, that I can’t even be held responsible for myself, let alone an entire family of people. I can’t find my way out of a paper bag with two hands and a flashlight. I think I’m a hopeless case.”
Senichi coughed slightly. “We can talk about it later,” he said. “You won’t stop coming here, will you?”
“Not as long as Sei-kun wants to come,” Seishirou said, and hung up. He made his way back to the table, where everyone was still sitting and talking. He was beginning to wonder what to do about Meiri. He was beginning to realize he would simply never be able to face the woman down; she made him feel too guilty. He didn’t want to let anyone else speak for him; then he looked like a coward. He thought momentarily of just waiting for her to die. She was seventy-four, but then again, she seemed to be a very healthy seventy-four. She could live another ten or twenty years, maybe even more. That didn’t appeal to Seishirou very much. He’d been forced to give this up for so long that he didn’t really like the idea of being forced to stay away for another twenty years. Hell, Chimori might be dead by then; he would be in his seventies in twenty years.
“Dad?” Seimei asked quietly. “You okay?”
Seishirou shook himself out of his reverie. “Oh, yes, I’m fine,” he said absently. “I was just thinking.”
As far as Seimei was concerned, that was never a good sign, but he wasn’t about to bring that up in front of everyone else. “Oh,” he said.
Seishirou looked at his watch. “Well, since I still have business to attend to tonight, I should probably be going,” he said. “And Sei-kun has school in the morning, too.”
The others wished him a good night and safe drive home. Chimori took his arm and pulled him aside for a minute. “Are you okay?” he asked softly. “Really. I’m -- we -- are worried about you.”
Seishirou managed a smile. “I’m all right. Out of the two things that were bothering me the most, I managed to clear one and a half of them up.”
“If Meiri is the other half, I wouldn’t let it get to you,” Chimori said. “And I know that’s easier said than done, believe me. Until you showed up again, she took it all out on me. So that’s thirty-four years that I’ve been living with her acting like that towards me.”
“God,” Seishirou said. “I would’ve killed her by now if I were you.”
Chimori shrugged. “Perhaps if I’d ever shown any talent for that field, I would’ve tried,” he said. “Senichi offered once, when he was in his rebellious teenager phase and hated everyone, especially his mother. I wouldn’t let him.”
Seishirou tried to picture calm and cheerful Senichi as a rebellious teenager. It didn’t click. Then again, he supposed it couldn’t have been easy to have been raised as Meiri’s son, especially after her prize child went so loony. “Oh,” he finally managed.
Chimori sighed. “Go home, get some rest, feed your tree, come visit again soon,” he said. “I’d like to talk to you more. If you don’t mind.”
“I don’t,” Seishirou said, and was surprised to find that it was true.
“Good.” Chimori gave him a brief hug, then saw him and Seimei out the door and into the car.
“So what was the phone call about?” Seimei asked.
Seishirou didn’t really want to discuss it, but he also didn’t want to lie. “Senichi-san had volunteered to ask Meiri about moving onto the compound.”
“I didn’t realize you were taking me that seriously,” Seimei said with wide eyes.
Seishirou shrugged. “I’d like to move here too, you know.”
Seimei smiled brightly. “Good,” he said. He thought being near the family was very good for Seishirou, as long as he stayed away from Meiri. “So what did Senichi-san say?”
Seishirou hesitated. “That Meiri blew a gasket when it was mentioned.”
Seimei’s fists clenched, and he asked the Tree quickly if he was sure he wasn’t allowed to kill her. The Tree didn’t deign to respond. “Oh,” he finally said. “How nice.”
Seishirou sighed. “I’m sorry, Sei-kun.”
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Seimei said, in a tone of voice which implied that Meiri did, and would be very shortly.
“Well, if she liked me better . . .”
“If she had a decent reason to not like you, maybe I’d understand,” Seimei said. “How did the whole meeting go?”
“It went fine,” Seishirou said noncommittally.
“You’re hiding something.”
Seishirou wilted. “How do you always know that?”
“It’s a talent of mine.” In truth, Seimei could tell because Seishirou would never offer details if he was lying. But he didn’t want Seishirou to know that.
“All right, it didn’t go fine.”
“I’m taking it by your tone of voice that I’m not to ask about it anymore.”
“I have the position back; that’s all that really matters.”
“I suppose,” Seimei said with a sigh, in the tone that implied he would let it slide if Seishirou really wanted to.
“It’s very simple. She didn’t want to let me have it, but I got it anyway, it’s over and done with now and therefore no longer matters.”
“Okay, I’ll take your word on it,” Seimei said. He didn’t think it would do much good to torture Seishirou about it. ::Tree-san?::
::Is it dinner time?::
::Not quite yet. I had a question, though. I always have questions. What exactly happened at the Council meeting?::
::One step down from full warfare, kid. Be glad that you were at the mall having fun.::
Seimei considered this, but kept a straight face. He didn’t want Seishirou to know that he was talking to the Tree. ::Dare I ask for the details?::
::I don’t know. Dare you?::
::Oh, what the hell.::
::Meiri didn’t want to let your father have the position, but we coaxed her into it, and now he has it again.::
Seimei ground his teeth silently. ::Those aren’t details.::
::Sure they were. They were more detailed than ‘one step down from warfare’.::
::Get more detailed than that? Couple more levels, maybe?::
::What do you want, kid, a running dialogue?::
::I don’t know how much of a bitch Meiri-sama is being.::
::Suffice it to say, quite a bit.::
::Right-o.::
::Basically speaking, since I can just tell you’re disgruntled, she forced Seishirou to tell her why I had renounced him, then tried to impinge upon my judgment in accepting him back, saying that he was too unstable for the position. Happy now?::
Seimei turned all this over in his mind a few times. ::With you, yes. With Meiri-sama, obviously not.::
::Actually, believe it or not, the whole thing was very good for your father.::
::How so?::
::Because he got to see the rest of his family leap to his defense. The fact that they actually care about him enough to defy her really got to him.::
::Maybe I’ll only maim her instead of killing her.::
The Tree sighed. ::Maybe you should just start with threatening.::
::Oh, I suppose.::
The rest of the drive passed mostly in silence, except for a little idle conversation. Seishirou let Seimei go up into the apartment to get to bed, since it was at this point nearly ten o’clock at night. Then he left to catch up on some of the contracts that had piled up and give the Tree a nice large dinner. It was nearly midnight by the time he got back, but he called Subaru anyway.
“Sumeragi desu.”
“Hi, honey, I’m home.”
“A bit late, isn’t it?” Subaru asked, sounding very amused.
“I had a Tree to feed.”
“I always knew that thing was an overdemanding pet.”
“Damn straight. Is it too late to come over? Or for you to come over here? Or do you not want to see me?”
“It’s not too late. I can either go over there, or come over here, whichever you feel like.”
“Well, if I stay here, I get to sleep an extra half hour.”
“Then I’ll come over there.”
“Thank you,” Seishirou said.
“I’ll see you soon.”
~~~~
Hisoka called Seishirou in the morning and the man agreed to meet them at Kakyou and Fuuma’s apartment. He was somewhat annoyed that Hisoka didn’t want to tell him what it was about over the phone, and somewhat puzzled that he asked him to please bring Subaru with him.
They met there at one o’clock, the earliest that Hisoka could get Kakyou to promise that Fuuma would be out of bed. Hisoka and Tsuzuki were already there when Subaru and Seishirou arrived, and seemed to be getting along just fine with Kakyou and Fuuma. Fuuma was sitting on the couch; Kakyou was in his lap.
“Hi,” Fuuma said. He looked at Subaru winced slightly. “Uh, sorry about the eye.”
Subaru just shrugged.
“Have a seat,” Kakyou said graciously. Then he stood up and went into the kitchen to get some tea.
“So, why are we here?” Seishirou asked, never one to waste time on preamble.
“It’s about Hinoto,” Hisoka said. “We think we might have a solution for the Seals.” He glanced at Seishirou, then frowned. “Do you two, uh, know about what Fuuma’s trying to do?”
Subaru and Seishirou both nodded.
“That clears that up, then,” Hisoka said, relieved. “We were thinking about how the Seals can’t just ignore Hinoto, but there is no real way to just get rid of her. And we can’t let them think they don’t need the information, or then they might realize what Fuuma is doing.”
“This is basically what we decided,” Subaru said. “Minus that last part.”
“So what’s your plan?” Fuuma asked Hisoka.
“Well, it mostly hinges on Seishirou,” Hisoka said, which made Seishirou blink suddenly and look rather nervous. “Because he’s a bit of an anomaly. I mean, by being an Angel dating a Seal.”
Subaru wanted to say that he wasn’t sure that was the only reason Seishirou was an anomaly, but settled for rolling his eyes.
“So we thought we could turn Seishirou into a defector double agent thing,” Hisoka said with a nod. “He gets his information from Fuuma, and passes it along to Subaru and the Seals. It’s less dramatic than Dreamgazing, but no less effective. And as long as Fuuma continued to ‘not know’ about Subaru and Seishirou, there’s no reason he would be suspected of trying to throw the battle. And if I back Seishirou up in that he really is in love with Subaru, the Seals will trust him.”
The four of them considered it for a minute. Tsuzuki sat in silence, with his arm around Hisoka’s shoulders.
“Sounds like a good plan,” Subaru said. Then he realized he was going to have to tell all the others that he was dating Seishirou. The plan suddenly seemed a lot less good. He cringed imagining Sorata’s reaction.
“It’ll have to be carefully done, but it’ll work,” Fuuma said. “But won’t Hinoto start to get suspicious when her schemes go awry?”
“Most likely,” Tsuzuki said. “But what else can she do? It would be too obvious if she attacked the Seals, and attacking the Angels would defeat her own purposes.”
“As long as she doesn’t stop caring about whether or not she’s obvious,” Seishirou said dryly.
Tsuzuki turned to Kakyou. “If she does start locking the others in Dreamscapes, can you teach me how to get them out?”
“I don’t think so,” Kakyou said, frowning, “but I might be able to use you as a conduit to get in. And they won’t notice.”
“But now we have to ask ourselves if Hinoto will content herself to that kind of attack,” Fuuma said. “Does she have any powers beyond that of Dreamgazing?”
“I don’t think so,” Tsuzuki said. “I think she just has a whole lot of practice at that.”