Author's Nots: My first S&S fic, based on a random comment of how Subaru and Seishirou should be shoved in a room together and forced to talk. That of course will never happen – unless you bring in Hokuto and a few crazy ideas . . .

Angelic Intervention

Prologue

By Leareth

       

Sumeragi Hokuto was not having a good day. Ok, so time didn’t have much meaning to her anymore, being dead and all, therefore it was actually night when she woke up on the wrong side of the cloud. To make matters worse she had misplaced her halo and her outrageous variant on the angel uniform Kami had given her was now looking, in her eyes, decidedly out of fashion. Grumbling to herself using words angels shouldn’t use she yawned and rolled in her fluffy (albeit small) cloud over to look at the Earth below.

Something caught her attention.

Of course, it was rather hard not to notice the various explosions and collapsing buildings and blasts of power and the kekkai and fluctuations in the spiritual plane that emanated from Tokyo. Add to the fact that her brother was also there and she was fully awake immediately. Subaru in fact was in the thick of the destruction and that didn’t help her mood any. Muttering to herself about her twin’s bad manners, she extended her wings (shampooed last night for added softness) she rummaged around for her halo, found it, put it on and jumped off her cloud, flew down to Earth –

- only to be immediately thrown heavenwards by a blast of power. Yelling and tumbling head over wings she shook her clear of stars and gnashed her teeth with a cry of "K’so!"

No, she was not having a good day.

Blinking the afterimage of power away from her eyes Hokuto looked carefully down at the city-turned-battlefield in search of the person who had blown her away. He wasn’t very hard to find.

Hokuto rolled her eyes at her brother. The onmyouji was standing on a building, his short black hair blown backwards and blood dripping from a light wound on his cheek. His green eyes were tired but still burned with an angry flame. The slightly too-small jacket was torn and dust coated his old black jeans and turtleneck top that had seen better days. In short, Sumeragi Subaru was not faring well and was definitely in trouble.

"Subaru," moaned Hokuto, "How can you were such ugly rags like that!" she wailed over her brother’s fashion sense.

Down below, the younger (and breathing) Sumeragi fell to his knees. Hokuto’s eyes narrowed as they followed the shadow of an eagle that dived and slammed through her brother’s protective barrier. The shikigami’s keening scream of triumph as it swooped over Subaru’s head was amplified by Hokuto’s lament.

"Sei-chan, you don’t play fair!"

Muttering angrily to herself, she flitted silently and invisibly (she was a spirit after all) to another building, she perched on a spire and gazed at the man below her. She shook her head, her halo bobbing with her action.

"Sei-chan, this is not the way to make Subaru fall in love with you," she sighed theatrically as the assassin attacked her brother again. Then she pouted and tapped her lip with one slim finger. "Of course you being a Dragon of Earth as opposed to Subaru being a Dragon of Heaven doesn’t help matters any." She grinned mischievously. "What does help is that Seishirou still makes a good picture."

And it was true. The Sakurazukamori wasn’t even ruffled by the duel, his expensive black suit impeccable and longish dark hair falling just slightly into his sunglasses. Hokuto sighed – he looked so dashing in his black trench-coat.

Well, maybe slightly creepy too.

Three glowing white birds threw themselves at Seishirou and Hokuto whipped her head around to look at her brother. Subaru looked so cute with his intense emerald eyes and black hair.

The two men made wonderful pictures by themselves.

Hokuto scowled as Seishirou sent the ofudu back to their master. Now the picture would be even better if they were together. Hokuto grinned as she thought of it. Seishirou could stand just behind Subaru, maybe with his arm draped around her brother’s shoulders. Hmmm, and Subaru could look up at him with that adorable clueless look of his . . . oh that picture would be enough to make anyone swoon . . .

"Wah!"

Hokuto jerked her mind back to reality as she realised in her swoon she had fallen off the spire and was in the process of making contact with the ground with her head.

"AIEEEEE!"

Not that a fall would hurt her – she was dead after all. She squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for impact. Then belatedly she remembered that she was an angel and angels had wings. Quickly she opened them and came to a halt barely a meter from the street.

She would have blushed if she were alive. As it was, she looked to make sure no one had seen her folly. Not that anyone could see – she was in a kekkai after all. Relieved she fluttered back up to her perch behind Seishirou, reminding herself to keep a good grip if she started fantasising about her brother and Sei-chan together.

But they made such a cute couple! Dreamily she closed her eyes. In her mind she saw Subaru and Seishirou standing close together. Very close together. Subaru looked up at the taller man, and Seishirou lowered his head towards Subaru’s . . .

Hokuto swooned of her perch again but this time managed to grab onto a railing. Muttering profanities at herself, she drew her attention back to the fight.

The duel had intensified during her sojourn into La-La land. Subaru levied another blast at Seishirou. The assassin merely gestured and the blast rebounded of his shield and through the spire Hokuto perched on.

"AIEEEEE!"

Hokuto collapsed with the rubble then managed to spread her wings. She found another vantage point and sat on it firmly. Then for the next five minutes she devoted her energy to rearranging and fixing up her clothes. Of course physical disturbances couldn’t affect her, but Subaru’s blast wasn’t physical but spiritual and so he had unwittingly ruffled his already annoyed sister. When she had finished, she stood up and shook her fist at the two combatants.

"SUBARU NO BAKA! SEI-CHAN NO BAKA!" she screeched. "Damn it, you two are enough to make an angel swear! Oops!"

Hokuto put a guilty hand over her mouth and looked apprehensively up at the sky. When no deity appeared to chastise her, she went back to grumbling about the Subaru-Seishirou situation.

Below her, her brother’s green eyes narrowed. Then he drew his hands up before his face, clasping them with the forefingers extended. The onmyouji closed his eyes in concentration and began to chant.

"Om aribori sowaka . . ."

Hokuto blanched – well, figuratively. She knew what was coming next. A globe of pure power appeared around her brother. It slowly grew bigger in diameter and height, its light intensifying.

"Noubou Akyasha . . ."

Hokuto shielded her eyes, realising that the Sakurazukamori was doing the same.

"Om Arikya!"

The blindingly bright sphere of pure energy rushed outwards from Subaru at its center, its force and power slamming into Hokuto.

"AIEEEEEE!"

Hokuto was blown head over wings again but quickly regained control in mid-air. Down below, Seishirou had lost his sunglasses revealing his mismatched eyes, and his black trench-coat was torn in several places. Blood seeped into the torn white shirt from a dozen shallow wounds. The former veterinarian looked disdainfully at the damage, then smirked at his opponent. Then he sent his shikigami out again.

Hokuto moaned and clenched her fists infuriated. Her brother and his lover/enemy/opposite were really pissing her off! Why couldn’t they just kiss and make up?

In a fine demonstration of temper tantrum, Hokuto kicked a nearby wall as she hovered a hundred meters above the ground. Being a spirit her foot went straight through it, the momentum taking Hokuto as well and causing her to fall inside with a startled yelp. Hokuto swore as she picked herself up and retrieved her halo.

No, this was not a good day.

She sighed. She had been waiting for so long for Subaru and Seishirou to get together. Then the whole silly business of Sumeragi and Sakurazukamori and the End of the World and the Seven Seals and the Seven Angels had to come in and ruin her plans! And Hokuto never liked having her plans wrecked, even if it was by the Apocalypse. Stuff the Apocalypse! It was the tragic love story of two enemies that was important!

But Subaru and Seishirou – argh, she was so mad at them! Didn’t they realise just how perfect they were for each other? Nooooooo, they had to try to kill each other every time the other blinked!

"Someone should lock you two up in a room together for a few years!" she ranted at the two as another shockwave echoed through the building.

She stopped.

Subaru and Seishirou. Locked up together.

An evil grin spread itself over Hokuto’s face.

This idea had possibilities.

A lot of possibilities.

With a silvery peal of maniacal laughter, Hokuto disappeared.

       

Subaru breathed deeply trying to find some measure of calm. Of course, calm was very hard to find. Why don’t you try staying calm when someone is attacking you with shadow birds, sakura blossoms and blasts of energy, and you’re not sure if you want to kiss or kill that someone?

The setting wasn’t really conductive to calm either. The building he stood on was one of only two left relatively intact in the middle of the huge crater he had Seishirou had made. Relatively being the key word: he felt it shudder beneath him.

The young onmyouji set his mouth in a thin line and glared at the other man on the other building. Seishirou’s smirk wasn’t adding to the calm either. How could Seishirou be so composed when Subaru had managed to slash him in several places and tear most of his clothes to tatters?

Of course the Sakurazukamori looked very good underneath those tatters . . .

Subaru snarled at himself. This was not appropriate.

"Subaru-kun," said a voice softly.

The young man looked up warily. Seishirou smiled. Subaru-kun looked very cute under what was left of his clothes.

"Don’t you think the game had gone far enough for today?" Seishirou asked mildly.

Emerald green eyes flared at him with an intense fire and with great force of will, Subaru drew himself upright. "I want to finish it," he said in a whisper. Seishirou could hear his answer quite clearly. He did have certain advantages after all.

The assassin shrugged and smirked and let his mismatched eyes harden. "Then let us finish it," he said in a deadly emotionless voice as a shadow settled itself on his out flung arm and a shower of soft sakura petals floated out of nowhere.

Seishirou sent his shikigami in for the kill.

The exhausted Sumeragi fumbled as he tried to raise a protective shield. With a strangled cry he fell backwards as the spirit-eagle came right at him.

"Game over," said Seishirou softly.

A burst of blinding white light encompassed the pentagram kekkai set over the ruins, causing it to implode and fade away as if it had never existed. Behind the kekkai was revealed a clean (or as clean as Tokyo Babylon could be) and intact city.

Of the two onmyouji, there was no sign.

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