storypaint | One True Threesome (Touya/Yukito/Yue)

Title: One True Threesome (or: Feathers in Their Bed)
Author: rhap_chan
Fandom: Cardcaptor Sakura
Pairing: Kinomoto Touya/Tsukihiro Yukito and Kinomoto Touya/Yue
Challenge #: 1 (table one) and #2 (table two) for 20loves
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura belongs to CLAMP. All fanfiction archived here is a derivative of canon material that is not my property. I do not profit from these writings. The opinions and actions expressed in these stories are not necessarily the views and beliefs of the original author or me.

Summary: Yukito decides that Touya and Yue need to get to know each other. They're going to be together for a long time, after all... Too bad that neither Touya nor Yue is keen on the idea. T&Y, T&Yue

If anyone had asked Kinomoto Touya not very long ago if he would ever be comfortable in a threesome relationship, the answer would have been an unequivocal no. And it still was.

He woke up every morning beside Yuki, and it felt right, even more right than it had felt to have been with Kaho (whom he had never woken up beside because of their age difference). He woke up and rolled over and hugged Yuki, and sometimes--

Sometimes he was disturbed by feathers in their bed.

It wasn't that the feathers really bothered him. What bothered him was the knowledge that at some point last night his sister had gotten herself into trouble. Well, that wasn't right either, actually. What bothered him was that at some point, Yue had been in their bed.

Half of Yuki or not, it felt to Touya as though the moon angel was invading their privacy.

He was quiet most of the time, Yuki told him one morning as they packed their bento. Once in a while Yue would surprise him by taking control or making a sort of remark that was not a remark that Yukito himself would make-- though Touya never could get him to elaborate on that-- but most of the time, Yue was quiet.

That worried Touya. He cared for Yue as an extension of Yuki, much as Yuki cared for his sister, and he wondered what Yue was doing when he was quiet. Letting Yukito live his life-- well, that was kind of him and considerate-- but didn't the angel want a life of his own? From what Sakura had told him, when Clow was alive, Yue hadn't wore a false form at all. And now that he was again awakened and among friends, he hardly wanted to come out at all.

It worried Touya. He wasn't sure that he cared for Yue like Yuki cared for his sister. He thought that perhaps he should love Yue as he loved Yukito.

It was uncomfortable to meet the guardian's eyes.

Yukito was more observant than many credited him, and it only took a few months for him to realize that the tension in his relationship with Touya was about the "other man" in his life. If it were an affair, it wouldn't be nearly as complicated. As it were, Yuki had several long fruitless conversations with his other self and finally came to a conclusion.

He had to teach Yue to love Touya too. It shouldn't be that hard.

Touya woke up the next morning next to Yue. There had never been a more disconcerting thing. Sometime in the night he had gotten cold, and had spooned Yukito for warmth, feeling that the other man's pajamas were softer than usually, and when he woke he sneezed.

There were feathers in his face and delicate white hair. When he sneezed Yue woke and froze. Neither of them moved for a long second.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Touya asked after a minute. He pulled away from Yue and began picking feathers off the bed to cover his embarrassment.

Yue didn't turn to face him (he couldn't feel dignified anymore if his false form's lover saw him blushing). He shut his eyes again and talked to Yukito, then argued with Yukito, then pleaded with Yukito, then screamed at Yukito. When that didn't work he decided to talk to Touya. Surely he wasn't any more comfortable with this than Yue himself.

"Yukito says that he is 'on vacation,'" Yue said dryly, and Touya had the mental picture of the moon guardian making the quotation marks. "And that we had better learn to be friends, since I am stuck with you until you die... That long, huh? Will you live as long as the old master?" His last few words seemed rhetorical, but Touya answered anyway.

"No, I won't," Touya said, and he could feel the angel shrugging in relief, and it made him angry. He pushed Yue out of the bed. He didn't wait to hear Yue's views on that matter. Instead he got up and got into the shower.

When he came back, Yue was sitting cross-legged on the bed, looking annoyed.

Not that that was anything new, Touya thought wearily and wondered how long it would take before Yukito gave up on his stubborn true form. Couldn't he see that the moon guardian had place in his heart for only one man, and that had been Clow?

"Yuki is working today," Touya informed Yue, "though I don't know how you're going to pull that off. Your turn for the shower."

He tossed a damp towel at Yue and it hit him in the face. And though he knew he would pay for it later, the look on the guardian's face when the towel fell was priceless.

Yue spent much more time in the bathroom than a woman would (combing that much hair was an art), but came into the kitchen before Touya left dressed in Yuki's work clothes and the familiar scowl. It was strange to see him out of his formal robes. He looked like an elf cosplaying as a human being. Touya had a place set for him, but he didn't eat. He sipped the tea, looking straight ahead and not speaking.

"You're just the life of the party, aren't you?" Touya asked sardonically when he cleared his plate and Yue's as well. The moon guardian lifted an eyebrow. Touya went to work.

When he came home in the evening, Yue was in the kitchen with the fire extinguisher and a new expression on his face-- frustration. He was muttering something vulgar in Chinese that Touya hoped his innocent boyfriend didn't understand. Even Touya didn't get all of it, and he'd worked a temp job with a group of Chinese construction workers.

Gently Touya took the fire extinguisher from Yue, put out dinner, and made something for them to eat. Yue drank tea and nibbled at rice. Touya remembered that his sister had said that Yue never ate, so he wasn't entirely worried, but he hoped that Yuki was okay with their diet.

That night Yue found a blanket in their closet and slept on the couch. Touya felt lonely in their bed.

When he fell asleep, Touya drifted into dream. Minds are so much more susceptible to the spiritual world when one slept, especially Touya's. His worried focus on Yukito allowed him to focus in on the boy and his other self on the spiritual plane. They were having an argument.

"Yue, please. Not everything I say is valueless. For the most part, you let me run our life. You trust me that much. Why are you balking now?"

Yue flipped his hair and Touya fought the urge to giggle. He looked like a girl when he did that.

"You deal with your life and I'll deal with mine. I don't have to be all dreamy for your lover boy just to make you feel better about living with him."

"Yue, we don't have separate lives. I want you to be happy too! You slept for a very long time, and I'm sure that it was lonely." Yukito's voice was gentle. Yue turned away.

"I am good at being lonely," Yue said, and Touya's mind drifted away from their internal conversation into more normal dreams.

Touya didn't have an early shift the next morning, and when he woke up Yue was already gone. There was a bento packed on the kitchen counter, its knot clumsily tied by long porcelain fingers, and with it was a note. The script was elegant and archaic, rather hard to read.

Have a nice day, it said. Yukito misses you.

Touya ate the lunch, and if it wasn't quite up to Yukito standards, it was still pretty good. He wondered if Yue had ever cooked for Clow.

When Touya made the bento the next morning, he wrote, Have a wonderful day. I miss him too.

Eventually Touya discovered that Yukito would only take control of their body when Yue went outside. So when Yuki was working or at school, Touya sought him out for a little quality time. His scent was beginning to disappear from their bed and Touya didn't want to wash the sheets. Then he would feel even more alone.

At home, Yukito was always Yue, and Touya was himself. It would have to be enough; it was all he had to give.

The night after Touya washed the sheets he woke up and found feathers in the bed. Oddly enough, it made him smile.

After a while he realized what Yue smelled like, lilies and pine needles and China. He didn't mind it too much.

After three months, he woke up with a wing spread over his body, each small breath rustling the down. It was a soothing sound, and Touya felt warm and safe. When Yue woke up, he looked embarassed, but Touya didn't say anything. Their house was a lot more silent than it used to be.

Yue began to learn who Touya was. Despite the intimacy his false form had with the Cardmistress's brother, Yue knew almost nothing about the man. He had Yukito's memories, but they were like paper doll cutouts in his head, or a play done long ago that no one remembered the name of. Yue learned that Touya's favorite food was steak and that he preferred the first shower and that his ears were the same shape as those of the mistress.

He learned that Touya cared a lot for everyone he knew, and that he did it quietly but reassuringly. Touya was dependable, and sometimes broody, and lonely without Yukito, with whom he was so closely bonded.

Yue learned to like Touya. A little.

After four months Touya was starting to feel like he was going to go insane. When he felt Yue slip into bed with him that night he turned to face the guardian. They were nose to nose and for a moment Yue crossed his eyes to see Touya properly, and Touya laughed, feeling a surge of affection for the guardian.

"Do you love me?" Touya said to Yue. The guardian blinked twice as though he were considering it. Those eyes of his-- they were so hypnotizing, so cat-like, so sensual... Touya found himself wanting to kiss the angel's eyelids. The thought both excited and worried him. This was just strange.

"No," Yue said, but there was a small hesitation in his voice and Touya wondered a little if the guardian was just being his normal stubborn self and answering the question without thinking about it.

"I love you," Touya said, enjoying the feel of it on his tongue and the way Yue's eyes widened as he heard the words. He looked a little panicked.

"I know," Yue said finally. "Go to sleep."

Touya did.

The next morning beside his bento was a note written in elegant, archaic script. It said, I don't know what love is now that he is gone, or how it should feel. I'm not even sure it exists. But if this is love, then I'm happy. Enjoy your lunch. ~Yue-kito

Touya sat down at the table for a moment. He thought about everything and how utterly strange it was, and it gave him a headache, but he guessed it was worth it.

He went to work, but he made sure to stop at the store on the way home and get plenty of food. He figured that Yukito was probably coming home from "vacation" tonight, and he missed Yukito's happy smile and feathers in their bed.

~End