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storypaint) wrote2009-08-16 08:11 pm
storypaint) wrote2009-08-16 08:11 pm
Patiently Waiting for Our Wits (Yuuko gen)
Title: Patiently Waiting for Our Wits
Fandom: Chronicles of Chrestomanci/xxxHOLiC
Length: 1271 words
Prompt: From self: I have a sudden brilliant desire to write Chrestomanci/xH fic because Yuuko would dislike grown-up Christopher so very much, and he and Clow would probably get along fabulously.
Pairing: Yuuko and Christopher gen; Clow/Yuuko implied
Other: Set slightly before Charmed Life and some time between Clow's death and Watanuki's employment. Title from a quotation by Eden Phillpotts.
Excerpt: There was a magician in her garden, and he hadn't come through the door. He was just there, adjusting his cuffs and looking around with vague interest.
There was a magician in her garden, and he hadn't come through the door. He was just there, adjusting his cuffs and looking around with vague interest. The magic power she could sense coiling around him wasn't quite as strong as Clow's, but a touch stronger than hers-- just enough to irritate. And if that wasn't enough, he had more than one life... not in a reincarnated soul kind of way, but as his own.
Yuuko sighed. She wasn't the one who enjoyed consulting with magicians from different worlds, and the man she'd prefer to send out there to greet the show-off wasn't here anymore. She'd have to go herself.
She didn't rush. The magician had interrupted her breakfast tea, and she returned to her couch, sipping down to the dregs. She frowned in concentration, dipping pale fingers into her cup, studying the pattern in the tea leaves. She'd thought it strange this morning, this urge to drink English tea that wasn't even hers, just something he had left tucked into the back of her cabinet, but she wasn't surprised when her reading turned out to be useful.
She dressed in her favorite green kimono, and even Maru and Moro were quiet when they fetched her obi. They were good at sensing their mistress's moods, and irritation hung off her, as heavy as her loose hair. She pinned hers up elaborately, and eventually, stepped out into the garden. The clack of her geta on the porch made the man turn from his contemplation of her flowers. He bowed respectfully to the tall Japanese woman.
He was just a little bit taller than her, as well, and she tucked her annoyance into cool presence as she approached and bowed in return, not quite as low as he had.
"Chrestomanci," she said coldly, "even in Japan it is polite to use the front door."
"Ah, yes, but your shop is invisible to normal methods," he replied, smiling absently. "It took me some time to figure out a back way in."
He waved his hand and she made a mental note to trace his magic signature to his entrance point and block it.
His Japanese wasn't bad, she thought, but she felt the buzz of a dictionary spell tucked into a mental pocket. He knew the structure of the language, but he drew on the spell for clarification. It wasn't a bad spell, but she was surprised it worked here. His magic was very different from her own, and though her magic worked best in this dimension, others generally had trouble adjusting.
"You did not come to have a wish granted, then," she spoke. Of course he hadn't. She'd known that from the tea. But the less she pretended to know, the more she could know what he wanted to tell.
He blinked. "No, not at all. I'm here about you, of course. This shop is creating odd vibrations across spacetime. I'm worried about the stability of this Series."
"Aren't you an English official? Why would you come here?"
"Anything that might disrupt an entire Series is my concern," he said.
She looked at him for a long moment, studying the carefully-slicked hair, the clearly-handmade suit, the shine of his shoes. He'd probably spent nearly as much time on his toilette as she had. But like her, the Chrestomanci was not to be underestimated. There was a gleam in his eyes that reminded her of another's calm brilliance.
"You've found my shop and you know my title," she replied. "I am the Space-Time Witch. Don't you think I know the consequences of what has been done?"
"Well, yes, but--"
"It was unintentional. It will be corrected. And you..." Her voice grew soft. "Are decades too late to prevent it, no matter how hard you try. He and I met long before you were born... Christopher."
The Chrestomanci coughed to cover his surprise. Yuuko smiled, her lips bright red.
"You are quite as irritating as he is... was," she said. She stepped forward, into Christopher's space, and he took a step back quite without thinking. She leaned forward and took his chin in her hands, studying him from the close distance. It didn't work quite as well as it would when Watanuki came, but still made the well-dressed man swallow.
"Leave my garden," she said. "Maru and Moro will escort you out."
"Are you utterly sure--"
But there were two little soulless girls at his side, suddenly. Yuuko let go of his chin and turned away. The girls smiled up at him, and each took an arm. They guided him firmly through the shop (though he wanted to pause, to explore the scent of old, foreign smoke and the fans on the walls and the room he could sense glowing with protective magic).
They left him politely at the gate. He looked up at the crescent-moon pillars for a moment longer before stepping out into the world. The witch had not followed them, apparently trusting her servants to do as she'd asked. And he could have fought them, but really, there was no need.
Even as Chrestomanci, there were powers he did not have. The Time-Space Witch and her deceased companion had been dream-seers, able to gaze into the future, and if the information he'd been given was true, they were both very good at it. Still, he'd had to come and at least take a look. It was his duty.
He turned back to the gate and was unsurprised to see the boards cracked and ancient, the moon symbols broken, the lot overgrown and grassy. He'd already seen it when he came to this world, and he'd spent a great deal of time walking over the desolate space before he managed to pull apart a corner of the spell and enter her personal dimension... landing, luckily, in her garden, instead of someplace that would have been even more invasive. Clearly she valued her privacy.
He strode off down the sidewalk, looking for a convenient and quiet place to return home, his mind full of the witch and the way she'd known his name without asking.
He did a decent job of pretending not to be surprised when she paid a return call the next week, wearing a different but equally impressive kimono and somehow not looking a hair out of place in the parlor of Chrestomanci Castle.
"I called at the door," she said to him when he came in, not bothering to rise or look up from her tea. "I thought it might be a good example to you."
Christopher smiled. "Would you like to see my gardens?"
She nodded and stood, offering him her arm regally. When they walked through the flowers, she explained the plan to him ("Out of professional courtesy," she said wryly, lifting her eyebrow).
"Really, that sounds ridiculous," he admitted when she was done. She threw back her head and laughed.
"Hitsuzen," she said, a word over which his translation spell blipped confusion. "What happens will happen because it must happen, in order that the future will occur as it should. Also, your suit is ridiculous."
Christopher looked down at his clothing in confusion. She was grinning when he looked back at her.
"Don't concern yourself with my world," she said. "Yours is about to experience some great change."
A butterfly lit on her outstretched fingertip, pondering her crimson-painted fingernail. She let it flit away.
"It will balance out in the end. It always does," she said cryptically, and that was the only other information she gave before she left, in a flurry of wind and foreign magic.
Fandom: Chronicles of Chrestomanci/xxxHOLiC
Length: 1271 words
Prompt: From self: I have a sudden brilliant desire to write Chrestomanci/xH fic because Yuuko would dislike grown-up Christopher so very much, and he and Clow would probably get along fabulously.
Pairing: Yuuko and Christopher gen; Clow/Yuuko implied
Other: Set slightly before Charmed Life and some time between Clow's death and Watanuki's employment. Title from a quotation by Eden Phillpotts.
Excerpt: There was a magician in her garden, and he hadn't come through the door. He was just there, adjusting his cuffs and looking around with vague interest.
There was a magician in her garden, and he hadn't come through the door. He was just there, adjusting his cuffs and looking around with vague interest. The magic power she could sense coiling around him wasn't quite as strong as Clow's, but a touch stronger than hers-- just enough to irritate. And if that wasn't enough, he had more than one life... not in a reincarnated soul kind of way, but as his own.
Yuuko sighed. She wasn't the one who enjoyed consulting with magicians from different worlds, and the man she'd prefer to send out there to greet the show-off wasn't here anymore. She'd have to go herself.
She didn't rush. The magician had interrupted her breakfast tea, and she returned to her couch, sipping down to the dregs. She frowned in concentration, dipping pale fingers into her cup, studying the pattern in the tea leaves. She'd thought it strange this morning, this urge to drink English tea that wasn't even hers, just something he had left tucked into the back of her cabinet, but she wasn't surprised when her reading turned out to be useful.
She dressed in her favorite green kimono, and even Maru and Moro were quiet when they fetched her obi. They were good at sensing their mistress's moods, and irritation hung off her, as heavy as her loose hair. She pinned hers up elaborately, and eventually, stepped out into the garden. The clack of her geta on the porch made the man turn from his contemplation of her flowers. He bowed respectfully to the tall Japanese woman.
He was just a little bit taller than her, as well, and she tucked her annoyance into cool presence as she approached and bowed in return, not quite as low as he had.
"Chrestomanci," she said coldly, "even in Japan it is polite to use the front door."
"Ah, yes, but your shop is invisible to normal methods," he replied, smiling absently. "It took me some time to figure out a back way in."
He waved his hand and she made a mental note to trace his magic signature to his entrance point and block it.
His Japanese wasn't bad, she thought, but she felt the buzz of a dictionary spell tucked into a mental pocket. He knew the structure of the language, but he drew on the spell for clarification. It wasn't a bad spell, but she was surprised it worked here. His magic was very different from her own, and though her magic worked best in this dimension, others generally had trouble adjusting.
"You did not come to have a wish granted, then," she spoke. Of course he hadn't. She'd known that from the tea. But the less she pretended to know, the more she could know what he wanted to tell.
He blinked. "No, not at all. I'm here about you, of course. This shop is creating odd vibrations across spacetime. I'm worried about the stability of this Series."
"Aren't you an English official? Why would you come here?"
"Anything that might disrupt an entire Series is my concern," he said.
She looked at him for a long moment, studying the carefully-slicked hair, the clearly-handmade suit, the shine of his shoes. He'd probably spent nearly as much time on his toilette as she had. But like her, the Chrestomanci was not to be underestimated. There was a gleam in his eyes that reminded her of another's calm brilliance.
"You've found my shop and you know my title," she replied. "I am the Space-Time Witch. Don't you think I know the consequences of what has been done?"
"Well, yes, but--"
"It was unintentional. It will be corrected. And you..." Her voice grew soft. "Are decades too late to prevent it, no matter how hard you try. He and I met long before you were born... Christopher."
The Chrestomanci coughed to cover his surprise. Yuuko smiled, her lips bright red.
"You are quite as irritating as he is... was," she said. She stepped forward, into Christopher's space, and he took a step back quite without thinking. She leaned forward and took his chin in her hands, studying him from the close distance. It didn't work quite as well as it would when Watanuki came, but still made the well-dressed man swallow.
"Leave my garden," she said. "Maru and Moro will escort you out."
"Are you utterly sure--"
But there were two little soulless girls at his side, suddenly. Yuuko let go of his chin and turned away. The girls smiled up at him, and each took an arm. They guided him firmly through the shop (though he wanted to pause, to explore the scent of old, foreign smoke and the fans on the walls and the room he could sense glowing with protective magic).
They left him politely at the gate. He looked up at the crescent-moon pillars for a moment longer before stepping out into the world. The witch had not followed them, apparently trusting her servants to do as she'd asked. And he could have fought them, but really, there was no need.
Even as Chrestomanci, there were powers he did not have. The Time-Space Witch and her deceased companion had been dream-seers, able to gaze into the future, and if the information he'd been given was true, they were both very good at it. Still, he'd had to come and at least take a look. It was his duty.
He turned back to the gate and was unsurprised to see the boards cracked and ancient, the moon symbols broken, the lot overgrown and grassy. He'd already seen it when he came to this world, and he'd spent a great deal of time walking over the desolate space before he managed to pull apart a corner of the spell and enter her personal dimension... landing, luckily, in her garden, instead of someplace that would have been even more invasive. Clearly she valued her privacy.
He strode off down the sidewalk, looking for a convenient and quiet place to return home, his mind full of the witch and the way she'd known his name without asking.
He did a decent job of pretending not to be surprised when she paid a return call the next week, wearing a different but equally impressive kimono and somehow not looking a hair out of place in the parlor of Chrestomanci Castle.
"I called at the door," she said to him when he came in, not bothering to rise or look up from her tea. "I thought it might be a good example to you."
Christopher smiled. "Would you like to see my gardens?"
She nodded and stood, offering him her arm regally. When they walked through the flowers, she explained the plan to him ("Out of professional courtesy," she said wryly, lifting her eyebrow).
"Really, that sounds ridiculous," he admitted when she was done. She threw back her head and laughed.
"Hitsuzen," she said, a word over which his translation spell blipped confusion. "What happens will happen because it must happen, in order that the future will occur as it should. Also, your suit is ridiculous."
Christopher looked down at his clothing in confusion. She was grinning when he looked back at her.
"Don't concern yourself with my world," she said. "Yours is about to experience some great change."
A butterfly lit on her outstretched fingertip, pondering her crimson-painted fingernail. She let it flit away.
"It will balance out in the end. It always does," she said cryptically, and that was the only other information she gave before she left, in a flurry of wind and foreign magic.