storypaint | Freeze (Clow/Yuuko)

Comm: 30_cracks
Words: 180
Fandom: xxxHOLiC
Title: Freeze
Author: rhap_chan
Theme(s): 18. photograph (~precious junk)
Pairing/Characters: Clow Reed/Yuuko Ichihara
Rating: G
Disclaimer: xxxHOLiC 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.

Excerpt: "I would think that you'd love your youth immortalized," he teased.

Yuuko didn't like photographs, didn't understand the desire to capture a mood, a movement, a human being-- to force them into stillness, into two dimensions."

"You freeze them, stop their breathing," she said serously when Clow brought it up. "You know how images have power."

"I would think that you'd love your youth immortalized," he teased, glancing around her shop with new eyes, looking for portraits and photos. There was one cracked, dusty frame holding the picture of a strangely familiar Japanese woman, tucked halfway behind the counter. She was frozen in a smile. Clow decided not to ask.

"The best way to enjoy my youth is to live it," Yuuko replied, lifting an eyebrow. She'd been "young" since a time long before his birth, but she didn't tell him that. Men liked to be the older ones. And they didn't tend to date women who had been worshipped as goddesses (she was Inanna, Ishtar, fertility-war-freedom-trickster, but she didn't play that game any more).

The next time Clow came to visit, he brought a camera. She wouldn't answer the door.