Disclaimer: All characters belong to CLAMP.

Unlocked

It all began with an envelope.

Sakura was the one who brought the mail inside. She looked at the letters, separating the ones that were addressed to her, and smiled when she found one from Li. (Cerberus, on the other hand, frowned in such a way that it reminded Fujitaka of his son, but he soon discarded the thought; it was too odd, even by his family's standards.) Then she suddenly stopped, holding one of them in front of her eyes.

"Hoe…"

"What is it?" he asked. Sakura turned to look at him, thoughtful.

"It's from Eriol, but…" She trailed off for a moment, and then she gave it to him. "It's for you."

Fujitaka took the envelope without saying a word. It was too small to be a letter, and at the same time slightly heavy. He realised that he was holding his breath, but he couldn't help it; he almost didn't dare to look at whatever was inside it. He could feel the others' gazes upon him. They seemed just as surprised as he was.

Carefully, he opened it and took out the note that it contained. There were only a few words on it: For whenever you are ready.

The other thing that he found in the envelope was a key. It was small, old-fashioned, and a little rusty. He didn't have to wonder what it was for. He knew it perfectly well. After all, this was far from the first time he saw it. Even so, for a while he did nothing but stand there in silence, staring at the object on his hand.

"I can go with you," Cerberus offered, the first one to speak again. "I'll explain a couple of things, if you need it."

"Thank you," Fujitaka said, smiling, as he looked up. "But I think I have to do this on my own."

o O o

He was going to do it, he promised himself. But he had no rush. He would do things in his own time and, as the note had advised, when he was ready for it. For now, the mere thought of entering the old house was overwhelming. He had already been there once, after the spell that had given him magic; but he had been asleep back then. This time, it would be very different, and he wasn't sure that he could handle it yet.

A few weeks went by. Although Fujitaka did think about that key quite often, he was much too busy to let it take over his mind. It was only after a while that he began to get distracted easily, musing on half-recovered memories. Then he decided that he couldn't postpone it anymore.

Nadeshiko gave him a little kiss and waved him goodbye as he walked down the street. That was something else he didn't know nearly enough about, he thought. He had no idea of what kind of powers he had or of how to use them. He wasn't in a hurry to find out, either. He was content with his life as it was. From what little he could remember of the previous one, he suspected that this might have been part of the plan.

At the moment, though, he didn't think too much about that. He was looking for something else first.

It wasn't long until he stood in front of the gates, holding the key in a tight grip. Even from the outside, the house gave him a strange feeling, warm and melancholy at the same time. The sight was already stirring something inside of him; it made him feel uneasy, and he almost changed his mind.

He shook his head, ashamed of himself. If he was going to do this, he would have to do it now. There was nothing to worry about. This was his house.

Taking a deep breath, Fujitaka turned the key. The gates opened of their own accord – or that was what he thought at first. But then, without even thinking about it, he used the key on the front door and the result was the same. He discovered, a little startled, that he was the one who did it and not the place itself. Strange as the idea was, it made sense.

The dark entrance was inviting, but he hesitated. Once he got into the house, it would probably take a long time until he left. He decided to take a look at the garden first.

He remembered more than he had expected. The images returned to him as he walked around, flooding his thoughts. So many different flowers, changed on a whim every time they became boring. A small table with fresh drinks on it. Cerberus and Yue lying under the cherry tree.

It was curious, at first, but he soon got used to it. They were all fond memories, happy and warm. Surprised, he realised that he was smiling.

But he couldn't stay outside forever. There would be time to come back, after all; then he'd be able to take proper care of the garden. Hiiragizawa had left months earlier, and the place needed some work. Now, however, there was something else that he had to do.

He returned to the front door and entered the house at last. It seemed somehow easier than before, now that he was getting used to the place again. Fujitaka walked down the familiar corridors, looking around with a mix of amazement and recognition. There were so many things that he knew about, he noticed, so many little details that had been somewhere on the back of his mind and now resurfaced as if they had always been this clear.

Then he stopped dead. Before he could tell, his steps had led him into the wide living room. It was almost empty; he supposed that most of the furniture was in England now. He didn't mind. That chair suited Hiiragizawa much better than him, he thought, and couldn't hold back a grin. In spite of that, it was easy to recognise the place. He would have known it was there even if he hadn't had the fireplace to prove it. He could feel it.

This was the place where he had been born.

The realisation struck him suddenly, unexpected. This was the answer to everything. This was the reason he even existed, that strange story that they'd told him but he didn't quite grasp, not yet… and now it was unfolding before his eyes, all of it. He remembered everything about that moment. He remembered the anger and the tears and the relief at long, long last, and then that light –

And then he was in the present again, leaning back on the empty fireplace, and his blurry eyes stung.

"What have I done…?" he whispered, still not quite recovered, unable to separate his past incarnation from himself for an instant. The Guardians' expressions lingered in his mind, and he couldn't help feeling guilty…

But then he blinked and shook his head. It hadn't been him who had done it and, besides, it had been a good thing. He could tell that. There had been a reason for it, a reason that he didn't understand completely, perhaps; but it had meant Touya and Sakura so it had to be a good thing.

He didn't stay in that room, anyway.

o O o

Hours later, he was still wandering through the house. The memory of what had happened in the living room wasn't gone, of course, but at least the feeling had passed. He had decided to deal with that later, and let the rest of the rooms distract him. He had come for another reason. There was so much to see here, so much he tried to recall… It seemed that Hiiragizawa hadn't taken too many things, after all, and Fujitaka knew it would be impossible to look at everything in just one visit. But he couldn't bring himself to leave yet.

There was always something else that caught his attention. Most of the times, they were small things, apparently random objects; but they told him many stories. He knew how to read into them, how to make them tell him what they hid. Digging out the past was his job, he thought with a smile. It was no wonder he could do it with his own.

It was easy for him to recognise many things, to relate them to a particular moment or at least a larger image. Others weren't so easy to place. He could tell that they were familiar – should be familiar – but not quite why. There was a porcelain vase, for example, that had dragons painted on it. A tea set with pale pink sakuras. A paper fan in the shape of a butterfly. A bunch of old, old quills.

In the study, he found a heavy wooden desk with the drawers still full. This would be the last room for today, he told himself when he saw the already dark sky through the window. However, he was too curious not to look at the notes that he'd discovered.

He couldn't read them all then, and he didn't understand most of it anyway; they seemed to be about spells and magic theories. But he still took his time to go through them. Many of them had drawings: early sketches of the Guardians, of a moon-shaped bell… A rather large pile seemed to be just for the Cards. There were many that he recognised, either because he was beginning to remember them or because he had seen Sakura use them.

As he looked at the different designs, one of the sheets fell onto the floor. It was a drawing of a girl in a beautiful dress, too, and he thought it was another Card until he bent to pick it up and saw it closely.

It was Nadeshiko.

The sketch seemed far more rushed than the others, not nearly as detailed. Unlike the rest, it was obvious that this one hadn't taken a lot of time and attention. It was something done in the spur of the moment, the capture of a fleeting image that might quickly disappear.

Fujitaka smiled. He folded the paper neatly and put it in his pocket. Then he headed back home.

Perhaps he would want to find out more, later. But, for now, this was all he needed to know.