Disclaimer: Subaru Sumeragi and Sakurazuka Seishirou belong to their creators CLAMP. I am receiving no monies for this work.

A/N: This fic was inspired by the following quote:

"If I listen hard enough, I can hear him." The mismatched eyes slid shut. "I can feel him." He shivered. – Subaru Sumeragi, Sakurazukamori, from End This by Melcena (which, by the way, is really good in an understated sort of style. I found it at MediaMiner.)

There's a sakura tree in Ueno Park. That's not unusual, but this sakura is in full bloom in mid-December. That is unusual. There is a young man who leans against it, and that also is unusual. The young man is unusual.

Subaru knows he's obsessed. He doesn't mind much. Of course, that might be because he doesn't feel much of anything anymore. He slides down the Tree's bark effortlessly, relinquishing control of his muscles and kneeling at its roots. Tilting his head back, black hair scraping against the bark, Subaru gazes into the flowers above with one green eye and one hawk's eye.

A single petal detaches itself and floats down. Subaru closes his eyes; he doesn't feel the petal land on his face, but he does feel the touch of a surprisingly soft finger on the tip of his nose. It makes him smile.

A breeze rustles through the branches. Someone standing there would hear only the wind, but Subaru hears a voice murmuring his name.

Actually, he hears many voices. Such are the drawbacks of being an onmyouji near the most haunted place in Japan. But Subaru wants to hear only one, listening to that voice with every particle of his being. The others might as well not exist, so—for this moment—they do not, and Subaru is alone with a shadow of the man he loves.

Subaru arches his throat, inviting that touch to go lower. The cool sensation of dry lips is suddenly on his cheekbone and Subaru jerks. Instantly all touches leave him and he whimpers a soft apology, tense body stilling.

More petals fall, but Subaru does not see them. Subaru feels only soft fingers trailing over his face and a mouth that traces a five-pointed star onto the back of his hand. More wind stirs, but Subaru doesn't hear it. Subaru hears only that voice whispering, whispering and Subaru doesn't care what it says as long as that voice keeps talking.

But Subaru doesn't open his eyes. Source of power the Tree may be, but it does not possess the power to make its illusions visual. The voice and the touches are only figments of his imagination and the Tree's magic, and maybe—just maybe—the last Wish of a dead onmyouji.

Fortunately Subaru doesn't mind illusions. After all, Subaru-kun fell in love with an illusion named Seishirou-san, who loved him back; the thirteenth Head of the Sumeragi Clan fell in love with the equally illusory Sakurazukamori, who felt no emotions at all.

Sumeragi Subaru fell in love with Sakurazukamori Seishirou, who wanted him and needed him and isn't that close enough to love?

The Tree is hungry again. This reality intrudes upon Subaru, who opens his eyes, and for a flicker of an instant he sees one white eye and one amber eye looking back at him. Then all he sees is bloodstained rose.

Subaru always associates blood with Seishirou. Their relationships always began with blood. Blood in the shape of an inverted pentagram started a lethal Bet, blood on a teenager's scraped knees created a kindly veterinarian, sacrificed blood on white shikifuku created a hunt that lasted nine years, and heart's blood on a dark suit made Subaru the Sakurazukamori.

Subaru doesn't particularly mind killing for the Tree. Subaru doesn't feel much of anything anymore, except when he listens very very closely to the wind in the sakura tree's branches.