storypaint (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
storypaint) wrote2009-10-20 10:59 am
storypaint) wrote2009-10-20 10:59 am
Entry tags:
Real Enough to Matter(Yuuko gen)
Title: Real Enough to Matter
Fandom: xxxHOLiC
Length: 505 words
Prompt:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
31_days: 20 Oct 09 // and within every dewdrop a world of struggle
Pairing: Yuuko and Watanuki gen
Other: n/a
Excerpt: She takes his watch but there are other things she could have taken, and she tells him this. His soul, the course of his future-- because his name is false, he is safe enough, but even that name was given in love, and so it means enough to matter.
She has had apprentices before Watanuki. Rarely does a year pass before a young person stumbles into her shop, empty but wanting. But rarely does a year pass again before they are dead of their own hubris. She doesn't give warnings for her own health (beyond redemption, there), but for theirs.
She takes his watch but there are other things she could have taken, and she tells him this. His soul, the course of his future-- because his name is false, he is safe enough, but even that name was given in love, and so it means enough to matter.
She does not tell him that yet. It is not time yet, when he is scarcely anchored to his tenuous existence. He would break apart and disappear in shards of glass, and she will not have that. He may be a boy born of choice and not of the fighting, blood, viscera known as birthright. But he is a child, and since he cannot be his mother's son, he will be Yuuko's employee. It is as close as she can get.
(She could not just mother him for free; everything between them must be paid for, or it will not exist when it is needed most, when she is gone.
Except-- except-- feelings, but hers she cloaks in whim and irritation. He does not have Clow's eyes and so she can just bear it. But bonding with him too close would be a mistake.
It is a mistake she makes. She is only human, after all.)
She and Clow tried to account for all of them, even the ones not naturally born, because they knew what it was like to have children who were not human. But Watanuki was the hardest. He is the child without sin, born of his other self's sin, and he has to cling to existence with every part of himself in order to make it to the end.
But even before he comes to the shop, Watanuki has been fighting for his life for a long time. He listens, even if he whines. Winter turns over to spring and then again to winter.
He lives.
Yuuko smiles and requests food out of season. She presses him into becoming someone greater than he is, and when he makes mistakes she scolds him and bandages his wounds (for a price, mind you, but she throws the scolding and advice in for free because she's a softy really).
And when he asks her finally, if he is real, she tells him yes, he is real. He has Doumeki's pure blood and Himawari's carefully offered heart and a thousand pearls of wisdom from herself. He has a soul that someone could take, had she not taught him to keep his name and birthday safe from strangers.
And he chooses to believe her. The world itself is very small, she thinks, and smiles. But that's all the world he needs.
Fandom: xxxHOLiC
Length: 505 words
Prompt:
31_days: 20 Oct 09 // and within every dewdrop a world of strugglePairing: Yuuko and Watanuki gen
Other: n/a
Excerpt: She takes his watch but there are other things she could have taken, and she tells him this. His soul, the course of his future-- because his name is false, he is safe enough, but even that name was given in love, and so it means enough to matter.
She has had apprentices before Watanuki. Rarely does a year pass before a young person stumbles into her shop, empty but wanting. But rarely does a year pass again before they are dead of their own hubris. She doesn't give warnings for her own health (beyond redemption, there), but for theirs.
She takes his watch but there are other things she could have taken, and she tells him this. His soul, the course of his future-- because his name is false, he is safe enough, but even that name was given in love, and so it means enough to matter.
She does not tell him that yet. It is not time yet, when he is scarcely anchored to his tenuous existence. He would break apart and disappear in shards of glass, and she will not have that. He may be a boy born of choice and not of the fighting, blood, viscera known as birthright. But he is a child, and since he cannot be his mother's son, he will be Yuuko's employee. It is as close as she can get.
(She could not just mother him for free; everything between them must be paid for, or it will not exist when it is needed most, when she is gone.
Except-- except-- feelings, but hers she cloaks in whim and irritation. He does not have Clow's eyes and so she can just bear it. But bonding with him too close would be a mistake.
It is a mistake she makes. She is only human, after all.)
She and Clow tried to account for all of them, even the ones not naturally born, because they knew what it was like to have children who were not human. But Watanuki was the hardest. He is the child without sin, born of his other self's sin, and he has to cling to existence with every part of himself in order to make it to the end.
But even before he comes to the shop, Watanuki has been fighting for his life for a long time. He listens, even if he whines. Winter turns over to spring and then again to winter.
He lives.
Yuuko smiles and requests food out of season. She presses him into becoming someone greater than he is, and when he makes mistakes she scolds him and bandages his wounds (for a price, mind you, but she throws the scolding and advice in for free because she's a softy really).
And when he asks her finally, if he is real, she tells him yes, he is real. He has Doumeki's pure blood and Himawari's carefully offered heart and a thousand pearls of wisdom from herself. He has a soul that someone could take, had she not taught him to keep his name and birthday safe from strangers.
And he chooses to believe her. The world itself is very small, she thinks, and smiles. But that's all the world he needs.