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storypaint) wrote2007-04-18 10:24 am
Catching (Yuuko-tachi and Eriol-tachi)
Disclaimer: xxxHOLiC and Cardcaptor Sakura belong 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.
Pairing or Characters Involved: main xxxHOLiC cast and Eriol-tachi
Fandom: xxxHOLiC/Cardcaptor Sakura
Rating: G
Warning: angsty
Title: Catching
Author: rhap_chan
Notes: Written for 04 Youthful Folly, and for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
suppis_tenshi.
Excerpt: "I am Ichihara Yuuko," Yuuko said, extending a hand politely to Kaho, and then to Nakuru. She thumped Eriol on the top of his head. "You forgot the booze," she admonished. "It was Clow's turn."
He was surprised to receive the phone call. Some part of him couldn't believe she would communicate using such mundane means. Some part of him couldn't believe she had forgiven Clow for leaving.
But there was her voice, a little scratchy on the phone, but the part of him that was still Clow recognized it.
"We're going to catch fireflies tonight. Are you coming?"
"Why, I... yes," Eriol replied, caught off guard but unable to refuse. Yuuko had that effect on a lot of people. Her laugh was deep and hearty and made him smile in memory.
"See you at eight," she said, and the phone went dead. Kaho looked at him curiously.
"Did I ever tell you about Ichihara Yuuko?" he said.
*
At eight o'clock, Eriol stood on the sidwalk in front of a small vacant lot in the heart of the city. The two women who stood beside him looked confused.
"Has she moved?" Kaho asked.
"I wanted to see the lady who could best Clow," Nakuru said, sounding disappointed.
"No, she's here," Eriol said, and a woman's voice rose about his, sounding pleased.
"I wouldn't disappoint you in that, Nakuru," she said. Nakuru looked up, awed, at the woman who towered over all of them. She was dressed in casual clothing, a yellow halter and blue jeans, and she seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Standing behind her, looking irritated, was a boy that almost looked like Eriol, if it weren't for his tendency to slouch and his grumpy face.
"I am Ichihara Yuuko," Yuuko said, extending a hand politely to Kaho, and then to Nakuru. She thumped Eriol on the top of his head.
"You forgot the booze," she admonished. "It was Clow's turn."
"Sorry that I was so busy planning for my death that I forgot such an important thing," Eriol said dryly. The boy looked from Yuuko to Eriol and back again.
"I thought Clow was dead?" he ventured. Watanuki was clearly nonplussed. This boy didn't look like a ghost-- but he didn't think that he was "just a boy" either.
"A minor detail," Yuuko said, waving a hand. "This is my... employee, Watanuki Kimihiro."
"Your slave, you mean," Watanuki mumbled, but there didn't seem to be any real anger in it. As he spoke, two others approached the small group gathered on the sidewalk-- a boy with a decidedly neutral face and a girl with a disarming smile.
"Why all this for fireflies, Yuuko-san?" Eriol asked, lifting an eyebrow. She smiled.
"Why not?"
Yuuko directed them all down the dark street. As they walked, Kaho politely struck up a conversation with Himawari, which meant that Watanuki walked close to them, seeming suspicious, and the neutral-faced boy kept close to him. He reminded Eriol of a bodyguard. Nakuru ran ahead, whistling songs she only half-knew, and Spinel seemed content to curl up in Kaho's handbag, unseen.
There was a little black pork bun running around here somewhere, Eriol knew with the clarity of past and future sight, but Mokona Larg Modoki was uninterested in his presence. It knew he wasn't Clow better than any of them here, Eriol thought. Its simplicity made him glad. Mokona rested on Watanuki's head and made jokes that Himawari giggled at.
That left Eriol walking uncomfortably next to Yuuko. It was a bit odd, he thought, to spend time with his ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend. Yuuko didn't seem to mind Kaho at all, though she was careful not to call him Eriol (she hadn't called him anything outright, in fact; she knew names had power). He wondered why she seemed so much taller than Clow remembered.
"It is a lovely evening, isn't it, Yuuko-san?" he asked. It was a strange thing to meet her like this, on a clear night in-between no moon and a full one. It was the sort of night on which Clow had met Yuuko, actually. She had been--
"Perfect for staying up all night, catching fireflies and boozing," Yuuko said, pleased with the prospect. That had been how she and Clow had met. A young, foolish magician had followed rumors and half-truths to a small shop located far from the beaten path, across a damp swamp, only to find a ridiculously-attired woman catching fireflies and drinking rum from the bottle. He'd almost turned away, sure she wasn't the great Dimension Witch, but then he'd stopped and shared her alcohol. And he didn't leave again, not for a long time.
(And Yuuko remembered even one time before, when she rescued a silly boy from the clutches of the paranormal, but she wouldn't tell. It was her secret.)
"You're remembering," Yuuko said from beside Eriol. He looked up but couldn't see her face clearly in the dimness. He knew she was grinning.
"Yes," he allowed quietly, looking ahead of himself firmly to his girlfriend. Her hair was streaked with color as they passed by the neon lights of the city and the golden streetlights. Sometimes it appeared to be brown, but then it was blonde, red, auburn, streaked. It reminded him of a beautiful moth. He could see the little ball in her handbag that was Spinelsun, curled up and content to be sharing space with her. (He'd worried how Spinel would react to Kaho, when he brought her home, but the little sun guardian had offered her a paw in hello and then let her scratch his ears.) And of course, one couldn't miss Nakuru, who had hung back until she was following behind Watanuki in a obviously sneaky manner. In a few minutes she would jump on his back and make him scream (he was much more jumpy that Touya was).
"They're good for you," Yuuko said. "You're a lot less uptight then you were the last time we caught fireflies."
Eriol was going to protest, but he smiled instead. "I was afraid."
"Even in the night people may be led astray by firelight, and without a care for consequences, fall into a love that flutters more wildly than the fireflies," Yuuko said, quoting a poet whose name escaped Eriol. "It was frightening, wasn't it?"
"It was hitsuzen," Eriol said.
"Here we are!" she announced suddenly, and with the energy of someone much younger than herself she ran into the darkness of the park and unfurled the blanket she had tucked under her arm. Watanuki produced a picnic basket, which did contain booze.
"You owe me one," Yuuko said, handing him a bottle, which he passed on down to Mokona. He still wasn't old enough to drink, considering his physical age, anyway.
"Don't I always?" he agreed cheerfully, and the group of them drank and talked and joked and watched the fireflies. Eriol leaned back onto the blanket and looked into the night sky. Spinel came and sat beside him, tail twitching, and occasionally lazily batting at a firefly. On the other side of the park, Nakuru was trying to convince the neutral-faced boy to give Watanuki to her, much to Watanuki's dismay. Their fight was loud, but luckily there were no homes near to disturb.
Eriol shut his eyes.
"You remember when I tried to get you to catch invisible fireflies?" Yuuko said, laughing. She leaned near to him and he could smell lilacs and rum.
"Invisible fireflies?" Kaho inquired.
"I have plenty of fun stories about Clow and his youthful follies," Yuuko informed her drunkenly. "If only I'd had a camera, I would have had blackmail pictures for life!"
"And I of you," Eriol reminded. Yuuko waved in dismissal.
"No matter. It is part of the path."
"The path?"
Yuuko looked up at the stars and didn't move as a firefly alighted on her kimono shoulder. "Watanuki and I have been reading the I-Ching in order to become enlightened."
"He doesn't seem very peaceful," Eriol noted.
"He's as happy as a clam," Yuuko insisted. "Anyway, the fourth hexagram is Youthful Folly. Of course I thought of you."
"You could have thought about how alcohol led you to youthful folly," Eriol offered.
Yuuko didn't reply. Her lips moved: but the greatest youthful folly is falling in love, so of course I thought of you. There'd be no point. They both had separate lives now. The world was ever-changing.
She looked up at the stars and saw how many had moved, just a little, since she and Clow had met again, and she hoped that youthful folly would lead to older wisdom. It hadn't happened yet, but there was hope.
She brushed the firefly gently off her shoulder and lifted the serious atmosphere by singing songs with Mokona. The group didn't call it a night, at her insistence, until about three a.m., when Watanuki began to physically drag her home. She moaned a little in resistance, but let him do it. Eriol said his goodbyes and watched them go. The boy was a strange choice for her successor, he thought, but she always did pick the strange ones.
His new life clustered around him and they went to the hotel room, falling asleep somehow all-together on one double bed. He awoke the next morning with Kaho's head pressed into his neck, Nakuru's feet across his, and Spinel's warm body tucked behind his knees.
"Can we do that again sometime?" Nakuru said, waking up and stretching enthusiastically. Eriol nodded, and he smiled, youthful follies forgotten.
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http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/55028287/
I hope I got his 'calmly taking in life' look down. XD
And seriously, thank you again for the story! I love it and favorited it forever in my memories. My favorite part is the end where it hints at more late night get-togethers viewing the beauty of the night sky. This group of people just mesh so well together. And of course, the cute mental images I get of Spinel pawing at the fireflies. ^-^ Seriously, so so much ♥!!
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