MaruDa

Title: The Red Thread of Destiny
Author: Kyoko_godaikun aka Sentaikat
Pairing: MaruDa
Genre: A/u Fantasy
Rating: PG

Note: This comes from listening to Le Ciel too many times :)

Summary: Both Ueda and Maru have a secret in this universe where Magical People really exist.

The Red Thread of Destiny

By Kyoko_godakun aka sentaikat

Note: Do not archive without permission of author

Note: I am using the old English word for fairy in this story which is faerie.

It was a place, so much like the regular Earth, but so different. A place were magical people were real, were considered ethnic groups. The Oni, were considered a protected group in Japan. A part of the national heritage. There were laws protecting the Oni, in fact many regular humans wanted to be Oni.

Not all groups of magical people were so lucky. The Faeries were a group that were hated and despised in Japan. Most people believed them to be not really Japanese, instead sprung from alien roots.

The agency had many members who were Oni's. In fact Johnny-sama was one. Most groups had at least one Oni in their line up. They were the dependable ones, the ones who would stay loyal to the agency. Because Nakamaru Yuichi's mother was an Oni, he had found it easy to join the Juniors. He had been teamed up early with his first cousin Tanaka Koki. Not that anyone knew about the tie. Oni's kept their family ties quiet. Koki had another reason to keep the tie quiet, for Maru's father was a Faerie.

The one thing Johnny-sama hated was Faeries. Unlike some tales, most Faeries were tall angelic like beings. They also were almost impossible for Johnny-sama to control. So any fairy who joined the agency knew they had to hide themselves away.

"Oh look, the Magical People's Front want equal rights." Kamenishi Kazuya threw the paper on the table. The group was in their dressing room after a rehearsal.

Nakamaru Yuichi noticed that Taguchi Junnosuke glared at Kame. Maru knew that Junno was a faerie. No one else in the agency knew. It would cost his friend his career if anyone found out.

"I thought we decided that we won't talk about politics." Maru reminded him as he came into the room.

"Faerie rights aren’t politics." Kame began.

"Why can't Faeries have the same rights as everyone else?" Ueda, the radical of the group asked. He was always championing Magical people's rights.

"Because they aren't really Japanese!" Kame said. "Why do you care so much about rights for the stupid Faeries? It's not like you are one!"

"Drop it!" Koki snapped.

"Well Ueda, are you a Faerie?" Kame continued.

"Of course not!" Ueda said. "I'm also not a Brownie, an Elf or a Sprite, but I think they have rights too!"

Koki grabbed Kame and shoved him to the other side of the room.

Ueda sat beside Maru. They had become roommates in the last KAT-TUN draw. Every year the group drew names out of a hat. That determined who the person would share an apartment with. Maru liked being Ueda's roommate. They had soon become more then friends, but not quite lovers. Maru was drawn to Ueda. Maru hadn't believed in the red thread of destiny until he began to feel it between him and Ueda. Every cell in his body told him that Ueda was the one. The one that would make his life complete.

Ueda smiled at Maru. "Doing anything tonight?"

"I was going to hang out with Koki," Maru shrugged.

"Oh I see," Ueda's smile faded. "Are you and Koki serious?"

"Me and Koki?" Maru repeated. The idea of going out with Koki seemed crazy, since they were cousins. "I'm not with Koki. Besides...." He looked across the room at Koki talking seriously with Kame. "I have an idea he'll cancel our plans for tonight."

******************

Ueda was on a date. There was a festival taking place at a local park. He was going out with Maru, gentle kind Maru. Ueda promised himself that he would cherish every moment he had with Maru, for he knew, that one day, Maru would find out the truth about Ueda. Then Ueda would have to make Maru forget. But he hoped this time would be different.

Ueda felt himself drawn to Maru, in a way that he couldn't describe. He had never been drawn to any of his other boy friends. Sometimes it was almost as if he could see the red thread of destiny between the two. Especially when they where near each other. The Faeries had a strong belief in the red thread. For every one believed that it would develop between him and the one he was fated to spend his life with.

Ueda looked up to the night sky. It called to him. It called to all of his kind, to take off, to fly, to become a part of it. But Ueda couldn't fly. Because his father was an Oni, his wings had never developed were they could fly. Maru was beside him. He looked up to the night sky, almost as if he too heard the call.

"What does the sky say to you?" Maru asked him.

"Why would the sky talk to me?" Ueda lied. "The sky is a thing, not a person."

"It tells me to join it." Maru suddenly looked very serious. "Does it ever tell you that?"

"Of course not." Ueda again lied. He could see the disappointment in Maru's eyes. Ueda couldn't tell him the truth. That the sky talked to Ueda all the time. But Ueda, not being able to fly, could answer it.

"Come on, let's see the festival." Maru said. The went walking around the park.

Ueda decided he didn't really like the festival. While it championed his Oni side, there were booths after booth making fun of his Faerie side. There was even one from a hate group, asking people to join them in trying to get Magical People deported from Japan.

Ueda mumbled, "Why can't they just leave the Faeries alone? It's not like they hurt anyone."

"I agree every Faerie I've known is better then most humans." Maru said.

That made Ueda smile. He could feel Maru take his hand in his. Ueda suddenly felt as if he could tell the truth to Maru. That his friend would understand. But something inside Ueda made him not tell him. What if Maru was like most other Oni's Ueda knew? Ueda knew he couldn't risk it. He would have to keep the secret to himself.

*******************************

As the weeks passed, Maru begun to have suspicions about Ueda. Even though they were going together, Ueda kept Maru at arm's length, never getting too close. They hadn't become lovers yet or even kissed. Though Maru would give everything to love Ueda. To show his friend that he loved him completely. To do what the bond that had formed between them demanded. For Maru finally realized what the fascination between them was. For Faeries had a belief that the one who a Faerie was destined to spend his life with would be drawn to the other person by the red string of destiny.

In the past before he started to date Maru, Ueda would have boy friends, then during the height of the relationships, suddenly they would break up. In fact, Ueda's boy friends always forgot they were even with Ueda. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that Ueda was making them forget. The only type of creature that Maru knew that could make people forget was a fairy.

The problem was getting proof. Ueda was always very, very careful to not transform around anyone.

But then one day, Maru came home from work at a different time then Ueda. He could hear the shower running. The bathroom door was open. He couldn’t help it, he had to look. In the shower was the most beautiful creature he ever seen. Ueda had wings, small silver wings that only went to his waist, but beautiful none the less. His skin had a light silver-blue hue. His ears long and pointed. He had small horns coming out of his forehead. His features softened so that he was beyond feminine. There was radiance around Ueda.

Maru couldn't help but stand there, watching Ueda. Everyone laughed at Ueda for believing in Magical People's rights, but Maru now knew that his friend was one. He realized that Ueda's mother must be faerie, because as the rule in mixed Magical People Unions, the child always took most of the characteristics of the mother. From the horns and the blue skin, Maru knew that Ueda's father must be Oni.

He wanted to step into the bathroom, to transform himself. To tell Ueda that it was all right, not to be ashamed of his looks anymore. To hold him, and tell him that he loved him. But he was afraid. Maru's mother was Oni. He looked more Oni then Faerie. Perhaps Ueda would reject him for his real self was so hideous.

Then suddenly, Ueda was looking at him. His beautiful face grew panicked. He reached out a hand, and the door slammed shut.

*What am I going to tell him?* Maru thought to himself. *How can I let him know that he isn't alone?*

*******************************

Ueda was in a state of near panic as he got out of the shower. *He knows, he knows, he knows.*

Ueda closed his eyes, and suddenly he looked like a normal human again. But the fact still remained, Maru knew his secret. He dried off and put on his robe. He would have to make Maru forget. He had fallen dangerously in love again. Like always he would have to make them forget. . But this time he didn't want to. The red thread, he could almost see it all the time now. It drew Ueda to Maru.

He finally went into the living room. Maru was sitting on the couch. He looked happy as his eyes set on Ueda, joyously happy. Ueda could see the thread again. This time even larger, almost as if it were a string instead of just a thread.

"I'm sorry my love, for what I have to do." Ueda told him. He went to Maru, sitting beside him, touching Maru on the cheek. "Before I do this, I want you to know I love you more then anything."

"What must you do?" Maru asked.

"I have to make you forget." Ueda said. "I am something forbidden, no one can know about my real self."

"You can't make me forget." Maru took Ueda's hand in his, and kissed it. His lips lingered over the finger that the thread came out of. "Do you really want me to forget about your true self?"

"It's something I must do." Ueda said.

"But our thread." Maru took Ueda's hand. The thread wound around their wrists, tying them together. "Do you really want to break our thread?"

"How can you see the thread?" Ueda demanded. "Only Magical people can see it. Not Oni's."

"I'm not just Oni." Maru said. "We're alike you and I."

"We're nothing alike." Ueda told him. "I'm a half Oni, half fairy that can't even fly! How can you be like me?"

"I want to show you my true self." Maru let go of his hand, and stood up. "If you cannot accept me for what I am, then yes, I will make myself forget."

"Make yourself? Only fairies can make themselves forget." Ueda gasped. "Your mother's an Oni, I know, I've met her."

"Please Tat-Chan; please let me show you my self." Maru begged. "I know I'm hideous, that I'll never be as beautiful as you. But you need to see what I really am."

"All right," Ueda agreed.

Maru slowly undressed, then folded his clothes and stacked them on a chair. Then Maru closed his eyes and concentrated. Ueda couldn't believe his eyes when Maru transformed. He looked very much like an Oni. His skin was burgundy. He now had three additional eyes on his forehead. Long horns sprung from the sides of his head. His teeth were fang like. But he had wings. Beautiful wings of gold, the type that Ueda had always wanted. The type of wings that could fly.

"Yu-Chan," Ueda said softly. Maru believed that he was ugly, but in Ueda's eyes he was the most handsome creature he had ever seen.

"My mother is an Oni," Maru told him. "My father's a fairy. Like you I'm forbidden."

"Yu-Chan," Ueda repeated. "You are so good looking."

"I'm hideous."

Ueda reached up touching Maru's lips. "No beloved. You are fierce in your handsomeness."

"You are the most beautiful creature I've ever seen. I never, ever thought I would fall in love with someone so beautiful, someone who’s like me." Maru told him. "Please Tat-Chan, don't cut our red thread."

"Can you fly?" Ueda couldn't keep his eyes off of Maru's beautiful wings.

"Of course I can fly." When Maru saw Ueda's hesitation, he said. "What is it?"

"I can't fly." Ueda confessed. "The only time I tried I was a kid; I fell quite a way before my mother saved me. That's why I'm afraid of heights."

"Let me teach you," Maru went to Ueda, touching his cheek. "Let me show you the wonder of it all. You deserver to answer the call of the sky, to feel it embrace you the way a lover would."

The words of Maru were heartbreaking. Ueda knew he would never have what Maru talked about. A tear rolled down his cheek. "I can never fly. My wings are too small...."

"Our wings only grow larger when we fly," Maru told him. "Didn't you mother ever tell you that?"

"She said my wings are small because I am half Oni."

"That isn't the truth!" Maru said firmly. "Please Tat-Chan, trust me."

"I do trust you." Ueda unfastened his robe, then he let it slide over his shoulders, it landed on a heap on the floor. Then he transformed himself back to his real self. For the first time ever, he didn't have a lover that would hate the way he looked. He could see desire etched in Maru's eyes.

"You are the most beautiful creature on earth." Maru smiled as he saw Ueda's transformed state. Then he kissed his lips. The red thread formed again, until it completely bound the two lovers together.

********************************

Weeks later, if a person was watching closely at the right time, they would have seen two lovers flying together in the night sky. One slightly older Faerie, whose wings were fully developed, He was happy because he now had some who was the other half of his soul. The other slightly younger faerie had wings that had grown larger as he had practiced flying, until his wings were almost as long as his lovers. The youngest faerie was as beautiful as the stars he flew near. For now the faerie had the love of one so much like him. One that made him complete.