A Thousand Years

~a Chichiri songfic~

Author’s Notes: Chichiri reincarnation (alternate universe) fic, to “A Thousand Years” by Sting.

__________

Events were already in place, and the insistent inner voice kept

asking him the same questions. Ri Houjun, an average Japanese student

and university hopeful, had always found himself locked in a mental

contest between two personalities, it seemed, that existed within.

A thousand years, a thousand more

A thousand times, a million doors to eternity

I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times

An endless turning stairway climbs

To a tower of souls

Post-it notes lay scattered across his desk. Homework assignments,

cram school assignments, activities, plans, and always right in front

of him was one that read "Hikou & Kouran's engagement".

The events - fluid dreams, half-memories, and a insistent whisper:

*This happened before, Houjun. Don't you remember?*

If it takes another thousand years, a thousand wars,

The towers rise to numberless floors in space

I could shed another million tears, a million breaths,

A million names but only one truth to face

Ri Houjun knew he doodled. If he wasn't thinking, he would draw the

"well" kanji, either alone or accompanied by other characters.

He talked in his sleep too - Hikou had told him so years ago - and

this was accompanied by odd dreams of a wandering helpful mage that

looked like something from a shoujo manga. He would say the name

"Suzaku" at the strangest times, leaving others to stare as he

apologized profusely.

There was Hikou. And Kouran.

A million roads, a million fears

A million suns, ten million years of uncertainty

I could speak a million lies, a million songs,

A million rights, a million wrongs in this balance of time

*History repeats itself.* That calm inner whisper.

He couldn't help but be happy for Hikou - the three of

them had been friends since childhood, had grown up

together, and now his own best friend was getting married.

But every time he saw Hikou and Kouran together -

Water

fear

anger

blood

water

pain

loss ~

But if there was a single truth, a single light

A single thought, a singular touch of grace

Then following this single point, this single flame

This single haunted memory of your face

*Kouran was yours, used to be yours, remember Chichiri?

Remember how you loved her back then?*

I still love you

I still want you

A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves

Like galaxies in my head

He remembered. It hurt.

But he remembered.

He was not only Ri Houjun, the student trying to get in

a university, any one at all; he was also Chichiri, that wandering mage,

whose fate was to be a Suzaku shichiseishi in the land of Konan. Whom

fate deemed should suffer the same chain of events, time after time

after time~

The full force of the inner voice shouted memories to his mind, and

he had no choice but to let it come. He had loved Kouran. In years

past, Houjun - for his identity as Chichiri came afterward - had loved

Kouran with all his heart.

I may be numberless, I may be innocent

I may know many things, I may be ignorant

Or I could ride with kings and conquer many lands

Or win this world at cards and let it slip my hands

I could be cannon food, destroyed many times

Reborn as fortune's child to judge another's crimes

Or wear this pilgrim's cloak, or be a common thief

I've kept this single faith, I have but one belief

"Hikou.... Kouran...."

Water

fear

anger

blood

water

pain

loss

*No! That won't happen this time! They're engaged, they're happy!

THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN!*

He could not escape his bloody past. It had caught up with him,

the fight that had led to Hikou's death in the flood. The same flood

that had claimed Kouran and his own family.

Maybe they had ideas of the truth as well.

If he - so long ago, the

Houjun back then - had realized Hikou and Kouran were MEANT for each

other, then none of it would have happened. Then he wouldn't be cast

in the role Hikou had played back then.

Even so ~

I still love you

I still want you

A thousand times these mysteries unfold themselves

Like galaxies in my head

Houjun slumped in his chair. "That... will not happen again..."

*Even if... even if I must make sure Hikou and Kouran are happy

together. I cannot do what Hikou did before, I will not do that to

them.... I swear it...*

On and on the mysteries unfold themselves

Eternities still unsaid

'Til you love me

 But there was always the future....