http://clampfix.fanworks.net/others/heartof.txt </head><body><pre>I was sitting tossing ideas at Tsukino Aeka Parvati across the breakfast table (we were having lunch), and she matched one and topped it. Since it was such an *excellent* idea, I promptly asked her if I could write the story behind her suggested ancestry for the character under discussion. She said I could. So here it is -- it ended up being a crossover with two other things, and I'll offer a Zen jelly doughnut to anyone who can successfully identify both of them. ^_^ **************************** Heart of My Heart The man known in various quarters as le pere Noel, Noel, or (rarely) Jerry sat in a small cafe on the Island of Coregos drinking iced coffee and pondering family ties. /It's true; you really can't go home again./ /Not to the same home, anyway./ /Even here, amid the lands that time had been encouraged to forget, the marks of change and progress are visible, if one knows where to look./ And even had they not been -- he had grown, and changed, and seen with different eyes since he had become Noel. The answers that had seemed clear in the Thousand Gardens of his childhood had vanished like soap-bubbles; the questions that he had thought to ask had multiplied and differed. Even so, some things had never truly changed; and one of those was being rather insistently called to mind as he waited for the arrival of a woman whom he had not seen in five years. "Tsutao-chan!" "Don't call me that," he said automatically as he turned to face her. The years had treated her well; heir hair, as black as his when last he saw her, was now a dazzlingly fair silver-gilt blonde. Her face was completely unlined, and what weight she had gained was distributed in all the right places to draw admiring attention. "Ah, yes -- you chose to change your given name rather than your surname. Well, here my surname is not Mine, and your given name is not Shigetoshi. Ne, Tsutao-chan?" "At least drop the '-chan,' O Oneesan-Whom-I'd-Love-To-Call-Obasan." "My, you're touchy," his elder sister said. "And you *are* my baby brother, after all." He glared at her for a moment, then laughed. "Teazer by nickname and teaser by nature. You ought to tease a little more yellow into your *hair*; either that or get a suntan -- as it is, your hair and skin are just the wrong shade to complement each other." His sister sat down opposite him. "I was afraid of that, Jerry," she sighed, following his lead in slipping back into childhood nicknames. "Do you have any *other* comments to make about my appearance?" "Well, I'm not too fond of that lush vamp look you've adopted. I thought the fresh-faced Miyazaki-ish way you looked last time suited you much better, Fujiko-oneesama." Ijyuin Fujiko rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how hard I'd have to *work* to get my body back into that kind of shape? Besides, most of the men I've been with seem to like this shape just fi-i-ine." "In shape is good," Ijyuin Tsutao (or Shigetoshi) said mildly. "Makes it so much easier to shinny up drainpipes and dash across roofs and leap for ladders dangling from helicopters, as is not that uncommon in our line of work." His sister sighed. "*Maybe*. A definite maybe." "You can criticize the way I look," he offered. "What's to criticize? You take so after your father's shape, it's scary. I don't look the first thing like *my* father." "Maybe a little around the nose, Teazer," her brother suggested. "Hmmph." "And is looking like Mother so bad?" "I didn't say *that*. It's just that... " Fujiko sighed. "You're the one with the vulpine ancestors. Why am I the acquisitive one?" "It's not the *having* stuff that's important," her brother argued. "It's the snarfing part that's fun. I couldn't care less what happens to it after I've got it -- come to think of it, if you'd like to come over here and thefitificate it from me, feel free. I'll even try and make it sort of hard." "It's not a good idea to transfer things across Continents if you can help it," she pointed out. "It does funny things to values, if nothing else." "You could always have lived here, instead." "Aside from the small fact that I'd rather not run into my father, thank you -- Mother has *some* pride, and I'd like to preserve it if I can -- I'd never have met the guys, and that would have been a true shame." "Speaking of which, how *are* your ex-swain and his friends?" "They were all doing well, the last time I saw them. And I wish you wouldn't call him 'my ex-swain,' it's -- I don't really know what we are to each other, but it's not anything that simple -- " "It's that part of each of you belongs to each other," 'Noel' told her. "And no matter how many dances and how many romances either of you has, you'll always come back around to your other half." "I hate you." Her tone was half-teasing. "It's not fair that my little *brother* should know more about me than I myself do. You certainly don't get that insight from Mother *or* from your father -- goodness knows what she thought she was doing taking up with him." "I expect she was relaxing, knowing that there was a safety net." "Well, yes, all we cuckoo eggs *do* have a place as the Ijyuin Family, but it's not as if most of us care to take it up at all." "And as for this 'insight' you claim I have, I expect I drank it in from Aunt Amari along with her milk." "I don't think Aunt Amari ever *nursed* you," Fujiko contradicted. "Trivialities," Tsutao dismissed the obtrusive fact. "Anyway," his sister changed the subject, "how are your wives?" "Oh, they're in fine health and voice," Ijyuin Tsutao laughed. "At present they want a child, but we haven't had any luck trying for one the natural way. I'm thinking of looking into adoption services." "You're sure they'd take care of one?" "Living things, they take excellent care of. I rescued them a kitten when first we met, and he's now the healthiest and most active tom in the neighborhood, despite his advancing age." "I wish you luck." Her voice turned speculative. "Speaking of luck, have you anything planned?" "No, not at all. I'm sort of at a loose end, as a matter of fact." He winced at the sight of the gaze she turned upon him. "Whatever you have planned, Teazer, I'm not going to like it." "Well, it's just that *I* have something to be doing for the next few months, so if you could take care of one little thing for me.. " "I'm not switching Continents, even for you." "You wouldn't have to. It's here." "*Here* here?" "Not here-on-Coregos here, here-in-this-Realm here." Her tone was long-suffering. "What could you -- I am undoubtedly going to regret this. What is it?" "One of your father's aunt's sisters was hanging around *him*." "Oh, joy." "No, no, if it turns out all she wanted was a roll in the hay, some dinners out, and some expensive trinkets, I'll say more power to her. But *you* know your paternal relations... how likely is it that she didn't have something up her sleeve?" "Oh, *joy*." "So if you could stop by their corner and see... " "No." He was firm about this, at least. "No. No. No." "But please -- " "NO." "You've gone mean, Jerry. My own baby brother, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh..." "I've gone sane, is all. And you're still a dreadful tease." "Well, that's to be expected; I'm Teazer, after all. Half tease, half thief, and all woman." "Oh, really? Last time I checked the poem, Rumpleteazer was supposed to be a *male* cat..." Ijyuin Fujiko picked the elaborately folded napkin up from her place setting and whacked her little brother with it. And so, a week later, the man who went by the professional name of Le Pere Noel found himself crouched outside a window, thinking decidedly annoyed things about his too-clever elder sister. The elaborate defenses that his kin had thrown up to practice against had been simplicity itself for him to get past, especially since the most serious defenses had been set against those with Power -- and he, much to his father's dismay (and the cessation of any paternal interest in him) had been born without any. A far greater danger was that those within, alert as they usually were, would notice him; it was for this reason that he kept even his breathing hushed as he held absolutely motionless. Fortunately, his caution was aided by the circumstances -- the man and woman inside the window were arguing so loudly that they might not have noticed had the entire Rose Parade gone by outside. (He was not inclined to test the theory, however.) "I still say we ought to show him a *little* more kindness than you have on your plan," the man snapped. "We want him to grow up absolutely devoted to us, after all." "The less affection we show him, the more he'll value that which we do grant him," the woman shot back in vehement tones that suggested she'd gone over this five hundred times and didn't appreciate making this number five hundred and one. "He'll walk into fire for the hope of a smile and perhaps a word of approval." "And will he really need all that food? If he gets too big, we can't send him through smaller places anymore." "I intend him to grow up *healthy*, you fool. I didn't spend nine uncomfortable months carrying him just so that he could die of some minor complaint in his sixth or seventh year." "And we do appreciate all the work you've put into it... seducing that man and everything... " "That part was fun!" the woman shot back. "Not only does he have superior genes for our purposes, he's *very* skilled in bed." "Why, you -- " "Would it have changed anything, had you known? We planned for this child. With my genes and his, how can it help but grow to be one of the most skilled at our profession ever? And our little Arsene will be *ours*, our tool and our weapon." "Did you have to name him that?" The woman laughed, clear and cold and mocking. "Traditions may well be honored. Besides, will it not make our eventual triumph all the sweeter?" "Let's just hope you haven't woken him with all your shouting." "MY shouting? I seem to remember you giving as good as you got -- at any rate, that door's soundproofed. But if you must, let's take this to the lounge. I need a drink." "*You* need a drink..." the voice faded as the two made their way out of the room and down the hall. Noel permitted himself a hiss, and then leapt to the window that should match the door with the soundproofed room. It was barred. Within, on a pallet, a child of perhaps two or three slept, black hair cut in a plain bowl. Noel hissed again and removed two small packets of chemicals from their hiding places about his body. /Kin of mine or no, I am *not* leaving any child to the future they have mapped out, valued only for what he can do for them and what they can use him for./ /Such people are not fit to have children./ /While we... we tried and tried, and have not yet been successful. But if we had been, our children would have been loved for who they were, and for their existence alone. And while it might be nice to have a son to follow me in my career, I would never dream of demanding it of him. Whatever he wanted to be, we would try to help him be it, if we could./ The acid produced by the primary chemical reaction finished nearly eating through the bars, and he dusted them with alkaloid, casually bent the whole affair up and out, and tripped the window catch with a piece of stiff wire. Despite all his care, the window still creaked a little when he slid the sash open enough for him to enter. He stiffened, listening, but no one seemed to have heard. After a few tense moments, he slipped in and picked up the sleeping child. The boy was wearing a warm, serviceable flannel nightshirt that somehow managed to miss every aesthetic principle ever thought of in conjunction with nightwear. Still sleeping, he snuggled closer to Noel's chest, lips curving into a hint of a smile. /He looks... like me. Like the way I used to./ The man set the short note he had penned while waiting for the bars to melt down, transferred the little boy so that only one arm was in use, and leapt out the window, free hand catching a tree branch and swinging the two of them up and around so that they ended up perched on it. As he scrambled from the tree to the lower roof and thence towards escape, his mind entertained itself with and then dismissed speculation as to how closely the boy in his arms might be related to him... distant or first cousin? Connection so far removed that only his paternal clan's wish to claim those of use to it linked them at all? He had just vaulted over the inner wall and landed, a little harder than he'd planned for (he hadn't quite taken the child's weight into account), when the little boy woke. "Who are you?" the boy asked, quiet voice curious but neither afraid nor suspicious, as wide dark eyes stared up into his own. And Ijyuin Shigetoshi's decision was made in that instant, with the rightness and lack of hesitation of one long deliberated over and planned for. "I'm your father." "They said -- " the piping voice was wary but not hostile, and Ijyuin-called-Noel revised his estimate of the boy's age up a year -- "that you didn't know I existed, and wouldn't be pleased if you did." "I just found out you existed, and I came and got you right away. Will you mind, living with me?" "Please, may I?" the child asked. "Of course... but you must be very quiet now, so we can get away." The boy nearly froze, and Noel cursed mentally as he thought of what might produce such a reaction in such a young child. But the rest of the escape from the estate grounds was made without incident, and he sacrificed his suspenders to fasten the boy securely to his back before throwing himself into the hang glider he had stashed there and it out from the cliff in the same motion. They dropped dizzyingly, caught a draft and rode it up and out and away, and Noel laughed for pure pleasure. "It's like flying," the soft voice said from behind him, full of wonder. "Yes," the self-proclaimed father answered, pride in his voice. "It's one of my favorite things to do." /And another is to make the women who will be your mothers happy; I can picture their delighted faces, as I bring you in for their care, and feeding, and love./ That reminded him. "Will you mind having two new mothers? They're two of the nicest people I know." "As nice as you, Father?" "Nicer." "I'd... like that." "Will you want to keep your name, or for us to give you a different one?" That set off a long period of thought. "A different one," the boy said at last. "Because I'll belong to Father's family now." "You always did," Shigetoshi said, and meant it, impossible as it might seem. /Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,/ his sister had said, invoking the bonds of family. But that wasn't all. That wasn't even the most important part of what made a family. /Those behind us are my flesh and blood, but do I have any tie to them? No./ /Neither Aunt Amari nor Aunt Momiji nor any of the others had any tie of blood to my mother or to me, but they loved us as their own. They would have been my mothers, had we let them./ /And we... we will be the family of this child whose name his mothers and I have yet to determine./ /Heart of our heart./ /That is what you'll be to us, child of mine, my own chosen kin./ /Heart of my heart.../ *************************** Notes: le pere Noel: Father Christmas. Shigetoshi: My best guess as to how the heck you're supposed to read the darn name. Jerry & Teazer: Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer / Were a very notorious couple of cats... (T. S. Eliot) Tsutao: Grass boy. To match Fujiko (Wisteria child). Amari: Heavenly door, according to Akuma-chan, who kindly let me borrow her. Momiji: Autumn maple leaves. And the idea that Akira might in actuality be the fourth to bear that *other* name belongs to my wonderful, clever little sister Tsukino Aeka Parvati, who'd be a great fanficker if she'd just *write* the stories that clamor in her head... Sincerely, Luriko-Ysabeth, hon otaku | member in good standing of #WEIRD# | wSGA Kendappa Clan | Sosai/Pooh-Bah for life of the Washuu-sensei Rules club GSI of Washuu-Skuldism | miko of the Rei-shuu | White Knight of KOME #WASHU#; #SkAS#; #ALAS#; MADS; RFFC; Gamma Delta Iota (Ama-gumi branch) http://www-personal.umich.edu/~iac/weird.html "I *want* one of those!" (pointing to Kinomoto Fujitaka) -- Jan Story and I, after watching Episode 22</pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>