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storypaint ([personal profile] storypaint) wrote2009-10-13 08:50 am

The Power of Words (Clow/Yuuko)

Title: The Power of Words
Fandom: xxxHOLiC
Length: 493 words
Prompt: n/a
Pairing: Clow/Yuuko
Other: PG for sexual implications.

Excerpt: You couldn't know someone for as long as Yuuko had known Clow without picking up things. She knew enough English to get by and enough Chinese swearwords to make him blush.

You couldn't know someone for as long as Yuuko had known Clow without picking up things. She knew enough English to get by and enough Chinese swearwords to make him blush, courtesy of those times when something was going very wrong. He always said it was a good language to swear in, if one must, and she agreed.

Plus, it amused her when his ears turned pink.

"You should let me teach you prettier phrases, my love," he mourned, his hands on her injured foot. She scowled. At least the vase that had fallen on her hadn't broken.

"I have translation spells," she answered, waving a hand, "and Japanese is perfectly fine for my purposes. Oww!" She hissed, staring accusingly down at him. Then she could smell the source of the burning.

"You poured out the rest of my bottle?" she said in disbelief.

"Well, you don't have any rubbing alcohol," he answered. "And you know that words have their power, Yuuko, so I'm surprised that you would decline." He frowned at the blood welling up from her cut and summoned some bandages from the bathroom cabinet without letting go of her foot.

Since rubbing alcohol was the kind you couldn't drink, she really couldn't argue there, but she scowled anyway. He wound the bandages around her foot carefully.

"I could write you better poetry in Chinese," he continued. He followed with a string of phrases that presumably weren't new curse words. They had a nice rhythm to them, and when he finished, he fastened the bandage and kissed her foot.

"Why would I do something to make things easier for you?" she answered, acting as though she was going to stand, but sinking back into the chair with another muttered curse when she tried to put weight on that foot.

"I can't imagine," he answered, and there was humor in his voice but only concern on his face. "Are you all right?"

"Crippled for life," she answered in Chinese, just to see his face. It was appropriately shocked. That was another one of his expressions that she was fond of. She grinned victoriously, ignoring the pangs in her foot.

"Clow, you make such assumptions," she trilled, returning to Japanese. "I may not have been born to the language, but it isn't difficult to figure out."

He laughed, then, shaking his head wryly. "All these years--"

She giggled. He climbed to his feet and picked her up, then, as a man would carry his bride. She wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, using a bit of her expanded vocabulary.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. She rolled her eyes.

"You poured out my liquor. You owe me," she answered.

"As you wish, my dear," he answered, carrying her to the bedroom, where her foot wouldn't be a concern if they were careful.

"Always," she answered, nibbling on his ear, and she liked the expression that provoked, too.