http://clampfix.fanworks.net/smut/hinoto.txt </head><body><pre> And in the Strangest Couple category...:) ***Warning!!! Lemon Alert!!!*** *Most times, she navigated the Dreamscape as a small, drifting insect would -- floating over the ever-mutable world like a soap bubble, riding the currents of its unearthly winds without control or volition. But there were times when she grew restless, tired of simply drifting. The time would inevitably come when she wearied of being trapped even in her dreams in a tiny, frail useless body. *At such times, she would channel that surging restlessness, pour it like molten silver into her weak, undeveloped limbs. And then, as she could never do in the waking world, Hinoto would rise from her knees, stand upright, and run...* All I Have to Do Is Dream An X fanfic by Shanti Fader "I can call you mine, Taste your lips of wine, Anytime, night or day. The only trouble is-- Gee wiz-- I'm dreaming my life away..." --The Everly Brothers *Souhi, Hien -- leave us for a minute.* The handmaidens bowed, and without question, stepped out of the room. *Now, Saiki-dono. What did you want to say?* Hinoto turned her sightless eyes to the fair-haired youth kneeling before her. There was a long silence. "Being the Dream-gazer, seeing future of the earth," Daisuke said at last. "It's brought you nothing but pain." There was a hesitation in his words, and the familiar voice was underlaid with a gentleness and concern that Hinoto had never heard before -- not from him, not from anyone -- a concern, not for the earth or the future, but for *her.* It startled the Dream-gazer, and in that moment of unguardedness the thick, flinty walls behind which she barricaded her truest self gave a shudder and cracked. *You worry about me,* she spoke softly into his mind. Her pale, rose-hued eyes were blank and unfocused as ever, but her lips curved ever so slightly into a smile. *...Thank you.* The wooden floor gave a creak as Daisuke shifted uneasily before her. Hinoto thought she felt a slight rise in the temperature of the room -- had she made him uncomfortable, simply by thanking him? Suddenly, the realization struck Hinoto that Daisuke was more than simply a tool or devoted vassal, more than just another stone in the vast mosaic of the earth's destiny. For the first time in their long association, she found herself seeing the young wind-master as a human being -- a warm and vital knot of thoughts and emotions, memories, fears, and regrets. A human being, with a heart. The crack in her wall began to grow, shivering outward like a spiderweb even as Hinoto's focus narrowed, folding inward against the world, the future, until there was nothing but this one room and two beating hearts inside it. And then, with no warning whatsoever, the floorboards creaked again -- more violently, this time -- as Daisuke scrambled to his feet. Panic poured out of him like steam billowing from a cookpot; Hinoto could smell the sharp tang of fear on his skin, could practically hear the rapid flutter of his pulse. "I..." he began, a brittle thread of uncertainty cracking through his voice. "Hinoto-hime, I..." He drew in breath to speak again. Then there was only the slap of his shoes against the floor as he turned and bolted from the Dream-gazer's sanctum. ***** *What was I /thinking/?!* Having pushed his way past the confused Souhi and Hien without really seeing them, Daisuke pounded blindly up the stairs of the Diet Building and burst out into the bright July sunlight, feeling like a wild creature sprung from a trap. Dark-suited government men filtered in and out of the building, occasionally casting puzzled glances at the high-school boy who stood panting by the entryway. It had taken all of Daisuke's courage to say what he had said, to finally put into words the vague and vapory feelings he'd been having. All he'd wanted to do was to let her know that he saw her as a person in her own right, not just a vessel for prophecy and power. Someone who *had* to be tormented by the constant onslaught of visions, most of them bleak and filled with death and shatterings. He couldn't have said when the change happened. It was far too gentle and gradual a thing, like spring melting into summer. But there it was, and the young wind-master had felt he needed to speak. And then... That smile, the sudden gentling of her face, the sweet, human vulnerability that revealed itself behind the blind and mysterious mask that she always wore...It was as if her smile were a ray of sunlight that burned through all his pride and defenses to a soft and secret place hidden deep inside him. "What was I *thinking*?" Daisuke muttered aloud, moving away from the building, hands thrust deep in his pockets. "What sort of sick, perverted thing am I turning into?" *Daisuke.* He stopped. "That voice...?" Yes, it was Hinoto calling to him. No honorifics, no polite forms, just his name, spoken with a gentle urgency that was unlike anything he'd ever heard before. His heart started to thud as if he'd just been running. "I..." he began aloud, then switched to telepathic form. *I'm here, Hinoto-hime.* *Please, come back.* That voice, only ever heard inside his own mind. Usually Hinoto sounded pale and distant, a prophetess burdened by the horror of what might be. Hers was the voice of one who moved men and women, schoolgirls and boys whose voices had not yet broken, like strings in a tapestry -- trying desperately to weave a future in which the horrors she foresaw could not happen. There was nothing remote in Hinoto's mind-voice now; it was as intimate as a rich silk robe folding in around his naked limbs. Daisuke shivered, feeling his knees dissolve in a hot, dizzy rush. Blood raced up to his face, staining the pale skin red. *I will.* ***** When he reached the sanctum again, Hinoto was alone. She knelt on her dais, propped up by her tiny child-hands; clearly she had not moved since his earlier precipitous flight. *I've sent my handmaidens away for the day,* the Dream-gazer said. *They didn't understand, but they went. We will not be disturbed again.* "What can I do for you?" Daisuke asked, sinking to one knee again. The wisp of smile touching Hinoto's lips deepened. *You can allow me to thank you.* "You...thank me? That's not necessary, Hinoto-hime," the young wind-master stammered. "I do this...I'm happy to serve you." *Truly?* A torrent of memories -- Kamui's arrival, the fight that nearly killed him, the weeks of helpless jealousy and rage over being shut out of the company of the Dragons -- washed over Daisuke and fell away. "Truly, Hinoto-hime." *Then approach me. There is something I want to give you.* With a rustling of her oversized robes, Hinoto raised one tiny hand and beckoned. Puzzled, Daisuke rose slowly to his feet and obeyed. *Closer,* Hinoto urged, reaching out her other hand. *Put your hands in mine.* Daisuke sank down to his knees, just outside the uneven circle of her robes. Trying to ignore the trembling in his fingers, he folded them around the Dream-gazer's porcelain-doll hands. For a moment, nothing happened. Maybe Hinoto's fingers curled and flexed inside Daisuke's hands, like a kitten stretching her paws. Then, with a strength the youth would not have expected, she gave a tug, pulling Daisuke towards her. Caught off-guard -- or perhaps simply caught in the strangeness of the moment -- Daisuke did not resist, but let her draw him down until his head was level with hers, and perhaps two inches separated them. *Do you trust me, Daisuke?* "With my life," he answered, his voice a hoarse whisper. *Then don't be afraid.* She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his forehead on the spot between his eyes. And the waking world dissolved away. ***** Darkness. A sense of emptiness, of floating. Nothing beneath the feet, nothing for frantic hands to grasp and cling to. No need to struggle or fear, though -- this was a warm darkness, rich and velvety as a mother's arms, or the depths of a living heart. And then... A keen, sharp winter wind cut through the lazy darkness, ripping the fabric of the night with icicle teeth, tearing it to tatters and whirling the shreds away. Void became place. Ground coalesced under Daisuke's feet. For a moment he hovered above it, like a child who hasn't yet been told that he can't fly -- then gravity reasserted itself, and up and down swung back into their proper orientations. The wind-master settled to the ground, feeling its welcome solidity like a sigh of relief. "What place is this?" he wondered, looking around. The ground beneath Daisuke's feet stretched out unbroken in all directions, glittering like a field of diamonds. It seemed to be made of stars -- all the stars of heaven, clustered together with none of the empty night sky to separate them. And then, even as he looked, it shifted subtly, or perhaps simply swam into focus. The starscape became a field of snow, wind-wrinkled and softly rolling like a quilt on an unmade bed; the snow glittered madly, though no sun was visible in the blank white sky. Here and there the white swells were broken by a tree, its leafless boughs sheathed in ice like gloves on a lady's hands. Automatically, Daisuke wrapped his arms around himself; then realized that for all its glittering, icy splendor, this place felt comfortably warm. "Do you like it, Daisuke?" He turned, looking for the voice, then realized it came from *above* him. "Hinoto-hime?" he asked, staring up at the huge, crystalline sphere that floated just above his head. A thousand pale rainbows glimmered off its surface -- the only touch of color in this hiberneal place -- and inside, surrounded by the shining drapery of her hair and robes, sat the Dream-gazer. "This is the Dreamscape. I come here to find my visions of the future, but I can also shape spaces within it that are my own; it's something we all can do. I find it...restful...to have a place where the visions of war and destruction cannot touch me. A sanctuary, if you will." "I can understand that," Daisuke said, bowing his head out of habit. "But, if it isn't rude to ask, why is it winter?" Hinoto smiled. "Not rude at all. You see, this place is shaped by the minds of everything that dreams. If I were to make my haven a place of spring, then it would be easy for any of the millions of beings who dream of spring to find me here. In no time, the walls would weaken and fail, and my sanctuary would be safe no more. "Besides, there is a beauty to winter, too. Only take away the bitter cold, and it becomes something rich and strange, don't you think?" Daisuke looked around again, shielding his eyes against the brilliance. "It *is* beautiful," he agreed. Then suddenly, a vague something that had been bothering him throughout the whole dialogue clicked into place: "Hinoto! You're speaking!" She laughed, a sound as silvery and fragile as the ice- gloved trees. "Yes, Daisuke. I can speak aloud here." "Can you..." the young man hesitated. "Can you see?" She bowed her head; when she raised it again, her rose- colored eyes were fixed upon his face. "I can." Her smile deepened. Daisuke's breath caught in his throat. Wordlessly he stood as Hinoto's bubble began to sink. Just as it touched the ground, the rainbow shell burst, shattering outward into a thousand glinting shards that twisted away through the air, and spilling the little Dream-gazer onto the snow. Hinoto drew herself upright. As Daisuke watched in amazement, she rose to her knees...and then to her feet. Like a newly-fledged butterfly's wings, her limbs, her torso, even her fingers straightened and grew. Before the wind-master's eyes, the stunted child-body he knew so well took on a woman's proportions -- gossamer draperies no longer pooled on the ground around her, but clung softly to long limbs, slender yet exquisitely shaped. Even her face had altered; though still unmistakeably Hinoto's, the chin was sharper, the face longer and more heart-shaped than round, the eyes less childishly huge. She still bore the mystic sigil between her brows, but her eyes no longer wandered unseeing. And that, Daisuke realized, was the real difference -- far more than any physical alteration. Glancing down at himself, he suddenly noticed that Hinoto was not the only one altered. The ordinary schoolboy shirt and pants he'd been wearing were gone; in their place, a glimmering robe of transluscent white enshrouded him. It resembled in cut a man's kimono, but seemed to be made of myriad tiny crystals held together by fragile loops of thread. It rested against his skin with all the substance of woven snowflakes. *A strong breeze would blow this thing apart,* he couldn't help thinking. The wickedness of the thought took his breath away -- especially when followed immediately by the thought that Hinoto's robes looked as insubstantial as his own. A rush of desire filled Daisuke, so hot he half-expected the snow to melt around him. *I couldn't!* he thought, shocked at his own boldness. And then: *But this is...a dream. Why /can't/ I? Even if only in a dream, why can't I have what I want? Just this once, why can't I have what /I/ want?* Daisuke drew himself up to his full height, tilted his chin in the air. He focused, drew his energies together...and was astonished yet again, this time by how easy it was to work his wind-magic here. He had little more to do than wish for his wind and it sprang into life. Sweetly perfumed, yet cold and diamond- clear, the wind curled around them both. Daisuke made a gesture, and the wind changed directions -- flattening Hinoto's garments against her body and sending her long hair streaming out behind her. For a brief moment she stood, head flung back, robes molded against every line and curve of her newfound woman's shape; then the robe disintegrated, blowing away in a thousand glittering fragments. Hinoto smiled. She tossed her head, and the silver ribbons of her hair blew softly across her body, hiding then revealing. Daisuke made as if to step towards her, then hesitated. The chasm separating Hinoto's rank from his own suddenly yawned between them. And even though she now stood as tall as a woman, there was still something disturbingly childlike about her. Those graceful limbs were so thin and fragile they might have been formed of spun glass. Her breasts were the faintest of swellings, and the curve of waist to hips far from generous. It was almost as though even here, Hinoto could not create an entirely womanly shape for herself -- as though a riper figure would somehow betray the essence of who she was. And yet, somewhat to his dismay, Daisuke found his arousal growing ever more urgent the longer he looked at her. Pushing his doubts aside, he took a step towards her. With that simple movement, his robe fragmented and whirled away in a glittering cloud. Somehow, the space between them closed, though Daisuke didn't remember either of them moving, and Hinoto was in his arms. Her skin felt cool at first, but warmed rapidly beneath his hands; his own skin seemed to prickle wherever she touched, sending slivers of burning glass through his body. His entire body hummed and tingled; he felt hyperalive, not dreaming but more awake than he'd ever been. "...So good to be touched," Hinoto sighed as Daisuke gathered up the silvery weight of her hair and buried his face in it. "So good to see you at last." "You mean to tell me..." Daisuke murmured, trailing his lips along the curve of her throat, "...that you never saw me in any of your visions?" "Not like this," the Dream-gazer replied, and there was something evasive, a note of not-quite-honesty in her voice. Her words had the ring of a reply that is carefully crafted to contain no falsehoods while covering up an underlying truth. A cold, unpleasant sensation shivered down Daisuke's back, but before he could speak or back away, Hinoto's lips pressed against his and the world dissolved into sweetness. Hesitation gone now, he let his hands move swiftly over her body, tracing his fingertips delicatly over face and throat, reaching beneath her hair to caress the sleek arch of her back, then up and around to the gentle swells of her breasts. Hinoto gasped and her breath came rapid and hot as his fingers circled her tiny, pale rose nipples, teasing them erect, sending shivers of summer flame racing through her winter-pale flesh. Her head sank back, and Daisuke again pressed his lips against her arching throat, his gold hair falling softly into her silver-gilt tresses. She wound her arms around him; brittle glass melting into vines, softening into warm, pliant flesh. Daisuke's heart raced against hers as his hands moved over her body. Somewhere in a distant corner of his mind, the young wind-master was thinking that he didn't know how to do any of this, was wondering how the awkward, inexperienced fumblings he ought to have been committing had alchemized into this strong and confident touch. But that bit of his mind was dim and distant, and receded further every minute. *Perhaps,* he though as his hand slipped down over and between the curve of her thighs, feeling them soften and move apart, *this /isn't/ the first time we've come together this way. This body seems to remember something my mind cannot. Or perhaps it's just because this is a dream..." Hinoto made a sound as his fingers moved through the softly curling silver hair that grew there; when they penetrated the satin folds of the soft place beneath, she gave a startled, high- pitched cry and sank her teeth into his shoulder. And Daisuke stopped thinking at all. He was drowning, awash in pure sensation. Pleasure in the touch, the taste, the fragrance of the woman in his arms; need almost unendurable pulsing outward from his achingly hard sex. They folded down to the ground, knees softened by the flame racing through their veins, and sank into the warm, fragrant snow that lay in heaps around them. Hinoto's hips rolled and arched beneath Daisuke's hand, her legs white against the white snow. "Pure," the wind-master breathed, looking at the long, pale limbs, the silver torrent of hair, the whole of her body that seemed almost a part of the snowbank that cradled them. His lips took her nipple, like an animal plucking a pale, sweet berry; she moaned, and wound her limbs more tightly around him. "*Now,*" she breathed, pressing her shuddering body fully against his. "Oh, yes. Now!" His fingers pulled away, glistening and fragrant with her scent, and glided up to claim her other breast; his body shifted slightly above hers, and then, with an inarticulate cry that was nearly a sob, he was inside her. Voices rose, braiding together in an echo of their limbs; the ever-heightening rhythm of their bodies flinging the snow back up into the air... ...and it wasn't snow, it was flower petals, and the Dreamscape was no longer winter but a warm and living spring... ...no, those white things were feathers whirling around their joined bodies, and they were soaring through the air like raptors caught in a mating frenzy... ...and then everything exploded into a white flame that seared away even the memory of color in one world-consuming flash. ***** Daisuke opened his eyes. He lay curled on his side, a silken roundness pillowing his cheek. Hard wooden floorboards supported the rest of his body -- and when he tried to move, his muscles groaned as though he'd spent the day running hard. *Where am I? What happened?* Confused and disoriented, he peered at the room in which he'd awakened. It looked like a place he ought to have recognized; someplace he knew well. If not at this odd angle. *Could I have fallen asleep in the Dream-gazer's sanctum?* "Hinoto?" he said aloud, his voice as drowsy as his body felt. A hand -- a tiny hand -- reached down and brushed a strand of sweat-damp hair out of Daisuke's eyes. *It's all right,* he heard with his inner ear. All at once, two things happened: the memories of the preceding (how long had it been, anyway? Hours? Days?) events came flooding back, and Daisuke realized, horrified, that he was lying with his head in Hinoto's lap. "I..." Color flooded his face and he scrambled up to a sitting position. Gone was the preternatural grace he'd known while in the Dreamscape; he moved with the long-legged clumsiness of a startled fawn. "Hinoto-hime..." he tried again, struggling for words to express the surge of conflicting emotions that churned within him. But stronger than confusion or shame, stronger than elation or even the desire that -- incredibly -- was beginning to stir once more, was an almost unbearable upwelling of pain at the sight of Hinoto locked back inside her stunted child-body: sightless, voiceless, barely able to move. *Daisuke, please don't be sad,* Hinoto urged gently, twisting her hands together in a prayerlike clasp. *You've done nothing to hurt or offend me. What happened in the Dreamscape was as much my wish as your own.* "Did..." Daisuke's breath caught in his throat; to his shame, he found himself fighting back tears. "Did it really happen, then?" he finished quietly. Hinoto smiled. *What is real, dearest one? Is /this/ real--* and she gestured toward herself *--or the body you held in your arms? For us Dream-gazers, the line between flesh and spirit has never been terribly clear. I sometimes pity my poor sister, so terrified of that ambiguity that she spends her every waking moment reveling in the world of the flesh. But I.... *Daisuke, all my life has been focused outward, out upon the world. Most of what I see, day and night, is horror. And I accepted that; accepted it as the price of my powers, as the role I was destined to play in this little drama. There's so much I'll never do, so many beautiful things in this world I'll never know.* Her smile deepened, suffusing her face with such poignancy that Daisuke actually had to turn away. *But at least you've given me this. At least I know what it means to lie in a lover's arms.* With an unerring confidence that belied her blindness, Hinoto reached out and rested a hand on Daisuke's knee. For a long moment, neither one moved or spoke. Then, trying not to sound too much like an eager schoolboy, Daisuke said, "Hinoto, can we...will I ever...?" Hinoto laughed softly. *Only close your eyes and call for me, my dearest one.* Author's note: Special thanks to K-chan for translating the chapter of X 11 that contained the scene which inspired this fic; and to N-chan for actually going out and buying the phone book in which the chapter appeared, so I could see the scene for myself. The fic pretty much follows the manga up until the bit where Daisuke flees Hinoto's chamber (though I've of course taken liberties with the inner thoughts of the characters); beyond that is my own invention. </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>