For old readers and new people in Hikago fandom, welcome.

For Harumi, ever my inspiration in form of Hikaru's Phoenix.

Rereading that now makes me appreciate the humor and smart retorts all the more.

: Second Arc :

[Forest]

A boy walked around the capital city of Kyo's street. He was cute with huge dark green eyes. If not for the fact that he wore a ceremonial suit that clearly indicated his nobility, people would definitely smile and greet him. The city of Kyo was safe for children up until sunset, which would come soon, but they didn't dare to warn him, let alone approach him. How would they know if it wasn't some strange magic ritual? They knew that nobles dabbled in magic that kept the balance of their land. Several elders clapped their hands in his direction, praying for the child's safety and the rite's success.

But they couldn't have been more wrong.

Akira was simply running away. His eyes were heavily clouded with emotions. His hands clasped the bulge in his amulet tightly. Inside, the dark swirls contained by the small orb was moving more violently as time passed by.

Was it a wrong decision to run from his house? Akira looked back to the hill where Touya-no, Meijin-family compound was located. He couldn't think clearly, surely his mother was worried and his father would scold him from this action. But he couldn't stay there. He shouldn't be there.

Don't cry. I must not cry.

Forcefully shutting his eyes, he leaned on the outer city wall. He was already on the verge of crying. He shouldn't be near anyone if he couldn't hold it back.

Everyone panicked whenever he cried. His mother, especially, would try everything in her power to make him stop. Akira knew early on that he shouldn't worry others, way too early perhaps. After one particularly bad storm that destroyed the western wing of Touya family compound, young Akira had stopped himself from feeling anything that would make him cry.

Stopped feeling anything.

Sometimes he blamed this orb that he was holding. Whenever the bad storm came, it would shine brightly. Right, as if making fun of him. But it was also strangely calming. The soft glow would lull him to sleep, and when he woke up, the storm would have stopped. Isora's presence also helped, but he was 7 now. He shouldn't rely on his subordinate anymore.

But all his acts only lent to dig this empty hole inside him deeper. Shutting his emotions, deciding not to rely on anyone, fear of letting people down… Akira could only feel more anxious. He overheard his father told his mother one day, that his eyes looked dead. What could it have meant? He was still breathing. Living things breathed. Were his eyes dead because they didn't look breathing?

The day after he eavesdropped, his father taught him the Dragon Dance.

The movement became his morning and afternoon routine. He could feel his power aligned properly, making him breathe easier everyday. And nowadays, he had gone into deeper meditative state when he moved.

It felt funny at first. It was ticklish; he could feel his power as if it was physical manifestation, like a huge snake swirling around him. But he could see that every movement had meaning. He couldn't understand everything at once, but he instinctively knew from the sequences roughly how it must have felt to produce these kinds of movements.

The first part was a dance where he was longing for something. That something was in the center of all the movements. Pulling, running, jumping, evading, but couldn't help to be attracted to that center. The second part was where he felt a little shy. Akira felt like it was some area he shouldn't know yet. But he knew it was one half of something. He felt bliss. But once he understood this, Akira felt inexplicably lonely.

Because he knew the next parts would be the breaking of that union. He couldn't find it anymore. It could have been not there since the beginning. Never there, even.

What had been excitement came crashing down, resonated way too strongly with his own growing emptiness. Empty. He was young, he had seen some of the children of his age laughing with their friends, but Akira never had the capability to do that. He could never do that. He couldn't be happy without it.

It became unbearable.

And the deeper his understanding to the dance, the more he felt that loneliness.

The dance today was his limit. He had understood the last part. It was lashing out the rage, but finishing didn't appease it. Neither lashing out nor sleeping state at the end of the dance could return peace inside him. It only made him unable to control his emotion.

All his efforts to stop crying all this time would be useless if he did it now. He looked at the darkening sky with worry. It was summer and there was no sign of summer storm, and all of his answered questions of "did he cause all those storms?" could never be answered. Akira never dared to ask it to his father or Isora.

He shouldn't be there. He felt sadness rattled in his chest, so he knew he shouldn't be there.

So he was running, away from the home, away from everything, until he slowed down from tire. The outer wall was as far as he could go; Akira slumped against the wall while heaving in pain.

Maybe Isora would come to his trail anytime soon, now. His mother would worry excessively, he couldn't afford that. But maybe it was okay. If all those bad storms had been caused by him, surely him being away wouldn't hurt them. He shouldn't be near people he cared about.

But why did it feel so lonely?

The loneliness he felt resounded strongly with the dance. It wasn't the rage that made him feel like this. He wasn't mad at anyone, even his young mind could understand that. He just didn't want to feel so empty.

He just wanted someone to give him company, now and always, so that he wouldn't be alone.

Akira tried to get away from the outer wall, but he was too tired. He didn't even see the small bump on the road. The weak knees gave out as soon as he lost his balance. Tripping from the bump, he fell hard, grazing the hard ground. Both of his knees twinged with hot pain as blood trickled out. The shock made a drop of his tears fall, and once it did, nothing stopped him; he bawled his eyes out.

The summer storm veiled the city of Kyo that day, giving only enough warning to take down the laundries.

Akira's bawls had been reduced to sobs, shivering from the cold and helplessness. He had dragged his feet to the nearest tree. It wasn't huge, a young tree in the boundaries between the city and the small forest. It barely gave Akira any shelter from the rain. Crying eased the ragged edges around the emptiness, though it wasn't filled. He caused this. He obviously caused all those bad storms.

He wanted to apologize, he wanted to beg for forgiveness, but he couldn't begin to offer a reason. And it was cold. He could barely hug his knees. Akira started missing the hot miso soup he got in the morning, and the porridge his mother gave him when his stomach was weak. He missed the warm tea and blanket that Isora gave him when he was suddenly awake in the middle of the night. He missed the first ray of sun as he trained with his father.

But if he was this much of a burden, a curse, he couldn't go back there, could he?

"Hey, you idiot! What are you doing there!?"

Akira's head jumped from the voice, and at the same time, lightning stroke down the tree not far from him.

"Waaaah!" Both him and the voice yelled in shock.

Akira had no time to recover when the voice's owner grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the forest.

"That's why! Are you an idiot?! Everyone knows you can't take cover under trees in a lightning storm!"

"U-uhm..."

Akira couldn't walk properly from the wounded knees and the pull. He was still surprised. But the only thing he could think of was how warm the palm was. Maybe it was just raindrops-no longer tears-that fell down his cheeks.

Still, he fell down twice before he was pulled into somewhere dry. Akira looked around, still shivering with hiccups, indicating he was still shaken. The voice who pulled him must have belonged to that child in front of him. Surely, that was a boy, right? The ragged clothes looked too short to be proper for girls, at least those who Akira had seen before. Maybe one of the farmer family around Kyo?

"Th-th-thank you..." Ever the proper child, Akira remembered to express his gratitude.

"Wait there." The boy told him.

Akira stood still, wondering if the boy heard his thanks earlier or not. Before he could ask, the other boy had lit a lamp. No, not a lamp, it was a strange stone that gave a dim orange light.

"Gramps would be mad if I lit up many of these at once, urgh... Oh well, we're going South anyway, restocking is easy," the other boy said, leaving Akira amazed by the lack of care in his voice.

Soon enough, there were a dozen more stones that lit up once the boy hit them to the wooden floor of the small room. It didn't provide much warmth than fire this bright, but Akira was still thankful. He hiccuped once before gulping down the shriek when he saw the other boy stripping down to nothing.

"What? Don't look so shocked, you must take off your clothes too. Come on!"

"N-no... hic... no..." Akira harshly shook his head.

"Just how many layers you're wearing anyway? It's hot in summer!" The boy paused. "...before this storm, ne."

Akira still shook his head. "It's i-improper... hic..."

"Improper? What that means?" The other boy's head tilted as he asked. He squeezed out the water before spreading the fabric on the floor. "Take them off, you don't want to die from being too cold, right?"

Akira didn't know he could die from being too cold, but that was because he never lacked dry clothes and blankets in the house. This wasn't a room, this small four-walled shelter was probably that boy's home. Still hiccuping, Akira finally agreed and take his clothes off, one by one. They were black-and-white colored of formal attire. There was supposed to be an afternoon tea ceremony, if only he didn't mess up. Maybe it got cancelled now, because of him. Oh no. The guilt threatened to resurface his sobs again.

"Calm down," the other boy said, and just like magic, Akira felt really calm hearing that voice.

"Eh?"

"Heh, you're a funny kid. One second looking about to cry, then looking so surprised."

"The k-kid here is you!" Akira replied with a blush, but he kept shedding the clothes. He also didn't know what to say about the effect of calming down after hearing the other boy said so. Or even why the other knew he needed to calm down.

The other boy just grinned hearing his retort. "We're both kids, so no one loses, allright?"

Begrudgingly, Akira mumbled agreement to that. He winced while trying to squeeze out the water, but the fabric of his clothes was heavier. They didn't come out easily. The other boy offered his hand, and Akira nodded. Offering one of the edge of the clothes, it seemed they could know what to do without saying. Akira twisted the clothes counter clockwise, and so did the other boy. Later on, both Isora and his mother would wince from the expensive fabric treatment, but Akira didn't have that kind of knowledge right now.

"You're awesome though," Akira said, properly acknowledging the other's street smart.

"I always am!" The other puffed his chest, but then he looked sheepish. "Though I don't know which part of me is...?"

"Then I take that back," Akira turned the other way, both wanting to know the other's reaction and because it would be too embarrassing to say.

"Eeeh..." The other's black hair almost as down as the owner's shoulders hearing Akira's words, but Akira didn't have the courage to take those words back. "...But the storm is really sudden, huh... Gramps just went out to borrow some stuffs for the travel, but at this rate, we'll start tomorrow, I know it!" the other boy changed the topic. He sounded bluffing.

"Travel? Are you going somewhere?" Akira asked before he could stop himself. It was a good thing he was sitting close to the glowing stones, he had begun to feel warmer. It helped that the wind didn't blow that strongly between the planks of those shabby walls too.

The other boy nodded. "Yeah, I'm moving to south," he replied, scratching the nose. "I don't know where that is, but Gramps said it was gonna be warmer than here."

"Here's warm enough in summer," Akira mumbled.

"Hm? Did you say something?" The boy asked.

Akira simply shook his head. They chatted a while after, and Akira could feel himself getting calmer. It wasn't even the case of pretending to; he sincerely felt happy. Maybe it didn't fill that weird hole in his chest, but this boy made it less painful as time passed by.

"Oh, the storm has gone, you should go home," the other boy said, noticing the lack of rain hitting against the roof.

Akira noticed that too, but for some reason, he didn't want to bring up that topic.

"You have to, Mom said children who were out at night would be stolen by oni," the other boy said. "If you're scared I can take you home?"

"No! If you're the one taken by oni, I don't want that!" Akira replied strongly, surprising the other. Then he gradually calmed down and said, "You don't have to worry. My caretaker always seem to know where I am. But..."

The other boy tilted his head, waiting for Akira's complete sentence.

"Can we meet again?"

"Haha, you're a real idiot," the boy said, which made Akira's cheeks puff in anger. He was always the smart kid, and yet this other boy called him 'idiot' three times. "I'm moving, right? Gramps didn't say it was far, but he brought so many stuffs just for the two of us travelling..."

Oh, no. No way. He just made a friend, and yet he couldn't meet again? Why was that? Akira was on the verge of another fit. His face must have been beet red, the telltale sign that he was holding back his emotion. Unrecognized by both children, the wind howled stronger again.

"Don't be sad," the other boy said. Akira blinked. The other kids always thought he was mad, but this boy called him sad. Again. It was scary how much Akira's feelings were known. "Someone told me, with every meeting there's a separation. But it's perfectly okay, because then we could have a reunion. I don't know the meaning much, but that's what they said. So you don't have to worry."

"I know those words," Akira said proudly, to which the other boy's cheeks were the ones puffing in anger now, yelling he wasn't stupid. "Reunion... it means we can meet again."

The other boy smiled. "Maybe next week."

"Sure."

Akira forgot how he got home that day. The important thing was that promise. But even that promise was soon forgotten, lost in the effort of having full control of himself. It only left him with softer edges of that loneliness. When Akira tried to remember that day, he only felt wistful.

Maybe next week.

A decade later, in the city of Kyo, a scrutinizing eye could see something move between the shadows. But they always left to the woods just in the outskirt of the city, and lost trail there. Aside from several reports of the sightings, neither police nor spiritual mapping could tell what that was, and people grew restless for a while. Since there was no harm, though, people grew accustomed to those sightings, letting it be.

In the southern gate, still connected to the small forest in the outskirts, four figures could be seen walking to the farming suburban area. There was no hesitance in their moves; they already knew where to go. After asking around, they had found that a stranger had been staying there for months since summer. In the autumn, the big harvesting time, that stranger was really helpful to everyone. As long as he got food, he could do three men work. Soon enough, he was no longer a stranger. They pointed to the local doctor's house when being asked where he was staying.

At night, the local doctor's front door was always open with lit room, welcoming anyone who needed urgent help. It was really easy to pinpoint the house. Surely, soon enough, the four figures had reached the place. Receiving them was a teenager with glasses, obviously surprised with the sudden visit.

"We came to see Shindou Hikaru," the male with red hair said. It was Waya.

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A/N:

It's not shotacon fic, I swear.

AHEM. Anyway.

Thank you so, so, SO much for reading this far! It's not a long update, but it is an update. How many years exactly since that last failed troll, I wonder... *looks afar* I was such a child, sighs. This flashback is much easier to write than 4-5 other scenarios I tried to do for the opening of the second arc. Still, I need to tackle them before getting to the exciting part...

The future chapters will be written with the consideration of a new story, so you can expect appropriate amount of back references. You seriously don't need to read past chapters. Unless you're masochist. Or you're a past reader who wants to feel nostalgic... They're embarrassing, though. I'm proud of what I could achieve back then, but still.

Ah, let's move on.

As of now, surely you've noticed that Akira is Ryuu-ou while Hikaru is dubiously the Ho-ou. Traditionally, the Dragon is male counterpart to Fenghuang (Ho-ou) female counterpart, but, ehm. After these years I found out my preference is HikaAki so if Hikaru is really Ho-ou, the role will be reversed. This warning might not be necessary, since I doubt there'll be anything beyond teasing or kissing in this fic. Maaaybe there could be some M-rated scenes, which could be accessed somewhere else, lmao. If we ever reach there.

The arc names aren't that significant other than inspiration and setting/mood guide, I suppose. Don't pay too much attention to them. Those of you who's close to Japanese references would know what will follow [Wind] and [Forest]... XD

Feel free to write your hopes or disappointment in the comment, it's always a delight to hear from new and old readers alike! (It's high time that I reread all the manga again haha xD)