‘Til Death Do Us Part
Credits: This story stems directly from the first scene in Yume, the pretty little ficcy by Flamebyrd. ::huggles Flamebyrd:: Much thankage for letting me play around with this idea. It's another Tokyo Babylon 'what if' story.
Warnings: Do I *need* to say it? Yaoi. Subaru + Seishirou. Also straight relationships. (Gasp.) Hokuto+Kakyou, and Subaru+OC. Angst, but when isn’t there angst in an X fanfic? No other warnings yet. Spoilers for all of TB, except the very end, because I’m pretending the end went *very* differently. None for X, as this takes place before the X timeline, because I’m a wuss and didn’t feel like getting that complicated. It’s going to be pretty light-hearted, on the whole, despite the title.
Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned them, Tokyo Babylon would’ve ended *so* differently.
Prologue
Seishirou had the vaguest idea that he was spending too much time in the office. Even the secretaries were starting to give him sympathetic looks. And his head ached, almost all the time now. He frowned, rubbed his temples, and attempted to concentrate on the file in front of him. Too bad the words wouldn’t stop moving. He frowned harder and forced the words to still. Too many late nights recently. Odd, though, that the job that was only a cover for his relationship with Subaru was becoming so much to him. Maybe because it reminded him of the Sumeragi . . .
He broke off that train of thought before it could proceed to its inevitable ‘how stupid could I possibly have been’ conclusion.
“Sei-chan?” Hokuto stuck her head inside the office. She grinned widely to see him look up. “Konnichi wa!”
“Konnichi wa, Hokuto-chan.” Seishirou forced his normal warm smile to come to his lips.
“I brought you some lunch,” Hokuto said, bouncing into the room. “The secretary said you’ve been holed up in here all day without a break, so I figured you’d appreciate it. It’s the good Chinese stuff.”
Seishirou breathed a sigh of relief - not for the first time - that Hokuto had stood by him after the whole mess with Subaru. Interesting that she had turned out to be the more forgiving between the twins; he would have expected it to be Subaru.
Then again, Subaru had been hurt by it far more. He had been the one in love. Hokuto was merely his friend.
No ‘merely’ about it, though, Seishirou reflected as he dug into his lunch. If it wasn’t for her, he’d probably never even see daylight. Or eat. Or hear anything about his Subaru-kun.
Hokuto chattered away amiably while he ate his lunch, gesturing wildly with her hands and looking around at the various animals that were in cages and inquiring after them. She came to visit almost every day, still.
“So, tell me, Hokuto-chan,” Seishirou said, finishing his lunch. “What’s the price for this lovely meal?”
Hokuto blinked at him. “Sei-chan,” she said disapprovingly. “I would never - ”
Seishirou smiled and cut her off. “You would never make me pay you back, but whenever you treat me like this, it’s always because you either want a favor or have bad news. Which is it?”
“Eheh, the latter,” Hokuto said, looking at her shoes.
Seishirou sighed. “I should have expected as much. Well, come on, out with it. I only have so long on my lunch break, you know.”
“Yes, well, Subaru-chan’s mmph . . .” Hokuto trailed into mumbles.
“What?”
“Subaru is getting mmmrrd.”
“Hokuto-chan, kindly enunciate your words.”
“Subaru’s getting married,” Hokuto blurted out.
Seishirou blinked. “I still think I heard you wrong.”
Hokuto shook her head miserably. “Don’t kill the messenger.”
“You know I promised Subaru I wouldn’t kill you,” Seishirou said absently. “He’s getting married? He’s only eighteen.”
“I know . . . it’s kind of a long story.”
Seishirou sighed again. “Well, you’d better tell me.”
Hokuto started waving her arms around. “Well, obaasama was getting all flustered because . . . well, because she knew Subaru didn’t want to have kids, and it’s way more likely that he’d have a future Clan head for a kid than I would. And she wanted kids sooner rather than later, in case something happens to Subaru in 1999 . . . you know about the mess with what may happen in 1999 . . . she wanted someone ready to step up. Which means Subaru has to have a kid awful soon, but he has to be married before he has a kid. So he’s getting married.”
“I see,” Seishirou said gravely. “To whom?”
“His friend Mitsuki-chan . . .” Hokuto trailed off again, then came back strong. “She was a friend of mine, to begin with, but after he started moping around two years ago after the whole mess with . . . with you . . . I decided to introduce them. They hit it off really well, for friends, I mean, and she kinda fell in love with him. He knew about it, but he never said anything, because he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. So when obaasama started pressuring him, he asked her to marry him. And she said yes.”
“Does she know about his . . .” Seishirou cleared his throat. “Preferences?”
Hokuto saw no need to be delicate. “Oh, she knows he’s homosexual. She knows about you, too, pretty much all there is to know.”
“Wonderful,” Seishirou said.
“Well, Mitsuki-chan is really nice,” Hokuto said. “She’s his best friend; she knows him even better than I do, at this point. And Subaru said - this is a direct quote, by the way - ‘She’s nice, she understands me, she won’t ask for more than I can give her, she doesn’t mind being married to me, I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather marry, and if obaasama doesn’t shut up soon, I’m going to have to kill her.’”
Seishirou couldn’t help but laugh at that. “When is this happening?”
“Uhm . . . Saturday.”
Seishirou raised an eyebrow. “Not one for long engagements, are they.”
“Actually they’ve been engaged for a couple weeks now.” Hokuto turned red. “I just didn’t know how to tell you.”
Seishirou sighed. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll assume I’m not invited.”
“I tried to get Subaru to invite you, I really did,” Hokuto said. “He said if you came as my date that was one thing and he couldn’t stop me, but otherwise you weren’t invited. And I wanted to bring Kakyou . . .”
“Go ahead,” Seishirou said. “I suppose it’s none of my business. I haven’t even seen him in two years. How are things with Kakyou, anyway? Any hints of marriage there?”
Hokuto laughed. “Yeah, right. For one thing, it wouldn’t really be proper if I were to propose to him, and for another, he doesn’t care what my obaasama thinks about whether or not we’re married. So maybe someday, but not for a few years at least. I don’t want to be married any more than Subaru did.”
“Can’t picture him as a father,” Seishirou said. “Especially not so young.”
“Mitsuki is nineteen, so it’s not like she’s much older,” Hokuto said. “But they’ll be okay. There’s lots of uncles and aunts and cousins who can help raise the kids. And I guess obaasama has a point . . . sort of.”
Seishirou nodded slightly, tapping at the file he was supposed to be reading. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to be doing much more work today.
“Sei-chan . . . you’re not angry at him, are you?” Hokuto asked anxiously. “He really can’t help it. I mean, he’s the Clan head. He’s got to have an heir.”
Seishirou forced a smile. “No, Hokuto-chan, I don’t mind. It’s not as if I have any claim to Subaru-kun any longer. If I ever did to begin with.”
“He loves you,” Hokuto said fiercely.
“No, Hokuto-chan,” Seishirou said quietly. “He loved me. I don’t think such is the case any longer.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Hokuto said.
“What’s it matter?” Seishirou asked peaceably. “He’s getting married in less than a week; there’s nothing I can do now. If I could go back and fix my mistakes . . . but I can’t. So tell Subaru that I wish him happiness - never mind; I’ll send a card.”
Hokuto raised an eyebrow. “Rub it in his face, why don’t you.”
Seishirou shrugged. “I have a right to be bitter.”
“I suppose,” Hokuto said. “Just don’t make him mad at me for telling you.”
Seishirou half-smiled. “I won’t make him angry. Or at least, I’ll try not to.”
Hokuto sighed. “I guess that’ll have to do.”
****
Part One
TB/X Fics