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storypaint ([personal profile] storypaint) wrote2009-01-12 08:09 am

Subtlety (Eriol/Tomoyo)

Title: Subtlety
Length: 234 words
Fandom: Cardcaptor Sakura
Pairing/characters: Eriol/Tomoyo; Syaoran/Sakura
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Prompt/challenge you're answering: no_true_pair: Tomoyo and Eriol: O body swayed to music, O brightening glance / How can we know the dancer from the dance?

Excerpt: The dance was the catalyst, but it started the day she startled him and he realized he couldn't think of her as a child anymore; she'd been grown up all of her life.

It started with the dance.

No, that's wrong. The dance was the catalyst, but it started the day she startled him and he realized he couldn't think of her as a child anymore; she'd been grown up all of her life.

But that didn't change anything for a long time, and he went back to England and she stayed in Japan and they lived their lives for quite a long time without each other's presence.

She met him at the airport when he came for Sakura's wedding, with butterfly clips in her long hair, and he felt an odd warmth contemplating her adult figure. He ran a hand through his own hair, adjusted his glasses, and remained just as suave as he had been when he'd left, but there was something... something there.

He asked her to dance at the reception, and they waltzed across the floor, catching stares wherever they passed. Her feet flew and their conversation was easy. Syaoran and Sakura exchanged knowing glances.

When the song ended, she leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him gently on the mouth.

"Life is too short for subtlety, don't you think, Eriol-kun?" she asked, clasping her hands together at her chest.

He gaped for a moment, reaching up to brush his lips.

"You've changed," he said after a long moment.

"Just a little," she said, with a giggle, and this time it was he who initiated the kiss.