Chapter Text
"Yawn..."
"Stop yawning, Seimei. If others see you, your reputation will fall to the bottom of society."
"Heh....Douman cares about my reputation that much? It's also because we went to exorcise too late last night, and the emperor called us too early this morning."
Seimei replied as he rubbed his eyes, walking lightly beside Douman as they left the winding corridors of the imperial castle. Both of them were properly dressed, but the exhaustion from their conversation with the emperor was hard to hide, especially Douman as he was muttering curses as he walked.
"Why don't you just accept the princess, letting that old man call us like that is tiring."
"Oh, calling the emperor old man too, be careful you'll get beheaded~ But I don't want that, why don't you marry her, he also offered it to you."
"There's no way I'll accept being your alternative! She's beautiful, but I don't need something you don't care about."
"Hmm~ saying that is easy to hurt the princess, Douman."
Seimei smiled teasingly as he looked at Douman's displeased grimace, a certain amusement evident in his emotionless eyes as he spoke like a parent to the competitive child he had watched grow up.
"Douman is all grown up, at this age he still doesn't want to get married, it makes me really worried."
"Huh? You're older than me, and don't talk like you're my father."
"I've seen you grow up, so it's not wrong to be a little worried~"
"That's very wrong, especially when you're still single at an age older than me."
Douman frowned, sarcastically looking at the person who was clearly older than him but calmly looked down on the princess and lived alone like this. From the first time he met Seimei until now, that damn handsome face seemed to have not aged a bit, the face that made countless ladies fall in love but no one responded. And the owner of that face was acting in a hateful way.
"Why do I have to have a partner, I'm fine living like this."
"Huh? You want to live alone, later on you'll have no children, you'll grow old alone and regret it."
"But the storks will bring me children."
Seimei's (intentionally) innocent voice made Douman almost bite his tongue, he looked at Seimei in surprise, wondering if this person was really naive enough to believe such a nonsense story, but looking at Seimei's smirk made his blood boil.
"Tsk, the stork definitely wouldn't bring any children to a heartless person like you."
"Heh, you hurt me so much.."
Seimei pretended to be sad as he and Douman walked out of the wide doors of the imperial castle and moved towards Seimei's simple mansion, but both of them felt quite strange when they didn't see Byakko waiting for them like usual. Of the four shikigami, that crazy fan would always wait and go with Seimei, unless Seimei assigned him somewhere.
"Hey Seimei, where did that crazy tiger go?"
"I don't know, he probably went to deal with his own problems."
Seimei was also curious when he didn't see Byakko appear, the two of them without prior agreement rushed home to see if something had happened, and it seemed like something had indeed happened as a large number of people were gathered in the backyard. The curious servants surrounded a group of people in the middle of the yard...it was his three shikigami sitting down next to something while Genbu was raising his voice to disperse everyone.
"Alright everyone, hurry back to your seats, Seimei-sama will be back soon....Oh Seimei-sama, Ashiya-dono."
"Genbu, what's all the commotion here?"
Hearing the question echoing from behind, the curious people immediately shrank back, they obediently saluted the two curious onmyojis standing behind them and quickly politely left, leaving the onmyojis and shikigami with space to chat.
"Hm, now explain it to me, Genbu."
Seimei and Douman walked closer to Genbu, who was... looking at Seimei with a suspicious gaze while pointing at the small circle that was discussing something. And upon hearing their voices, all three looked up with suspicious gazes... no, Byakko's eyes shone with absolute trust but that didn't make Seimei feel any better.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Did something happen when I visited the emperor?"
"Seimei, let's be honest. Did you do something inappropriate with a woman about 7 years ago and then not take responsibility?"
"?"
"Are you delirious, Suzaku? Seimei-sama wouldn't do such a disgusting thing! It must be that people are just like people."
"??"
Seimei was a bit speechless but remained silent, waiting for the two to continue their long conversation until they explained to him the reason for those two questions. But Ashiya was not so patient, he walked beside Seiryu and Genbu while looking at the other three, but more noticeably, he quickly noticed something being held and protected very carefully by Seiryu, at first glance it was just a boy.
"Hey Seiryu, did you just kidnap someone's child?"
"I didn't!"
"Alright, he was just joking, Seiryu. Don't joke with him like that, Ashiya-dono."
Genbu quickly cut in between the two after Seiryu flinched and argued back. Seimei also noticed them, realizing that the cause might be here so he approached them, looking at Seiryu curiously, causing the shikigami to shiver from being stared at. He didn't try to hide it, he just didn't want this child to see the scene of those two crazy people arguing or see the person who seemed to be his father, what if Seimei was like those bad fathers who wanted to harm the child to cover up the story like in the stories the servants told! He didn't want that to happen...
"Stop thinking nonsense, you useless thing!!"
"Heek! It hurts!!"
Although Seiryu didn't say anything, Byakko's fanboy instincts could tell that this stupid dragon was having bad thoughts about Seimei, and a light hit on the head was worth it to stop him from thinking so much. When that caused Seiryu to have a lump, had to hold his head and sob, a small hand gently reached up to stroke Seiryu's head and softly comforted him.
"Are you in a lot of pain? It's okay... the pain will go away soon..."
No longer protected by Seiryu's long sleeves, this small child of about 7 years old was clearly visible to the two onmyojis. Chestnut brown hair, wearing a strange outfit, wearing a bracelet... and looking almost exactly like Seimei from head to toe, even down to the antenna on both of their heads. If one had to judge the differences, the other would be their height, age, and eyes. One looked lifeless while the other shone with such innocent radiance...
"Hey Seimei..."
"I didn't do anything, Douman. Don't look at me like that, and you guys too, Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryu."
"See, I told you Seimei wouldn't do that."
"Thanks for believing me, Byakko. But the rest of you don't believe me very much."
Seimei smiled slightly as usual as he approached the child and knelt down on one knee to be at eye level with the child. The boy was also a good child when it came to greeting politely, but the slightly trembling eyes and the strand of hair that curled in fear were quite obvious to Seimei.
"Hello, boy. Why are you here?"
"Ah, because Genbu and I were walking around and found...."
"Shut up, Seimei didn't ask you, you idiot."
As soon as Seiryu was dragged away by Byakko for talking too much, only the four people remained to surround the boy. The boy unconsciously stood next to Douman and Suzaku, a child's instinct when around strangers is to stand next to someone more familiar even if only a little, but it was strange to be more wary of him and trust Douman more when they were together and Genbu was the first to find the boy, not Suzaku.
"Little boy, did you know Douman and Suzaku before?"
"Yes? No! I don't know them."
Despite the confused looks of his family, Seimei easily saw through the obvious lie from someone who wasn't used to lying at all. But this aroused a strange curiosity in him, more than when he picked up Douman.
"Little boy, why did you follow Genbu and Seiryu here?"
"Um...I got lost...and they said if I followed them they would help me get home..."
"Huh? Genbu, isn't this the kidnappers' model text?"
"Please don't joke like that, we're not kidnappers, Ashiya-dono."
Seimei didn't pay attention to the gossip of the trio behind him and only focused on asking unrelated questions from age to height, quietly assessing the boy's expression before asking the final question.
"So what's your name?"
"Haruaki, Abe Haruaki."
Perhaps because he was tired of answering continuously, Haruaki seemed to unconsciously answer before feeling as if he had misspoken and unconsciously covered his mouth.
"The surname is Abe? Seimei, if you say this child is not related to you, then I'm not Suzaku."
"Alright, be quiet Suzaku. Also, Haruaki right? My name is Abe no Seimei, do you want to stay at my house until we find your parents?"
Perhaps because of Seimei's sudden words, unexpectedly gentle face, and outstretched hands, three people were certain of their own conclusions and one person was shocked speechless, only Seimei was still so uncomfortably comfortable...