Rumms: Well, this is what always happens. I wrote a Mei Ling/Yue story a year ago, swore it wasn't a romance, a habit, or anything else - and then look what happens. I go and start another one.

The truth is, this pairing has really grown on me. You probably all think I'm crazy in this SxS/ExT-centric world, but I see a lot of similarities in these two characters; especially, like I said in my other fic, if you're like me and have a bit of a Yue-Sakura bias. I really don't know where the idea of putting Yue with Mei Ling came from, but it's the most rabid plotbunny I've ever tried to ignore, and in the end I couldn't. So this fic is me, giving in.

You don't necessarily have to read the first ficlet (Interlude) to get into this one, but it probably helps. It's a short one-shot and it just explains the first unexpected bizarre meeting, and subsequent friendship, of Yue and Mei Ling. Another note: I'm aging the characters at around 17 here. My theory was that after the end of the Sakura Cards series, Sakura and Syaoran would naturally not want to be apart for very long, so I imagined he (and often Mei Ling) would spend their holidays in Japan.

So whether you like the idea or think I'm crazy, enjoy! I'm planning this to be longer than Interlude - probably five or six chapters. Oh noes :p Anyway, we'll see. Hope you like it. xxx


An Unlikely Twosome


It was an unseasonably hot night for that time of the year. The cloud cover was low, but occasionally wisps of vapour would part to reveal a star or two struggling to shine, or the spiked end of the moon, halfway to waning crescent. The street lamps cast a soft orange glow over the pavement, where two people stood entwined in each other's arms.

Sakura Kinomoto extricated herself from Syaoran Li's embrace, her eyes sleepy, her mouth soft and smiling. "When will I see you next?"

"Soon," smiled her brown-eyed partner. "I need tomorrow to catch up with some work, but may I take you to dinner in the evening?"

"Oh," said Sakura, putting a finger to her lips in a mocking gesture of ponder, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "I don't know. I'm not sure if I can stick seeing you two days in a row."

He laughed and grabbed her round the waist; she shrieked out a giggle, immediately slapping a hand over her mouth as the sound rang out in the quiet night. Syaoran promptly pulled her hand away and captured her lips with his own.

"It's a date, then," he whispered, drawing back and stroking a lock of caramel hair away from her face. With a sigh, he turned towards the door of the apartment building he shared with his cousin.

Sakura looked up at the building with a frown. "Mei Ling's window's dark. That's weird; she's usually such a night-owl."

Syaoran paused, looking slightly perplexed. "Yeah... I don't know if you've noticed, but she's been acting a little strange this month. It must be at least three times now I've heard her come in late – and I mean really late, not just Mei-Ling late. Last week it was after four in the morning."

"What?" Sakura asked, taken aback. "Weren't you worried? She's alright, isn't she?"

"That's the weird thing. She seems fine – better than usual, even. When she's not sleeping half the morning away because she's been out all night, that is."

"Haven't you asked her what she's been doing?" Sakura's voice was high with worry, symptom of the lifelong trait of her total dedication to her friends' wellbeing.

"Of course I have," Syaoran answered with a look of reproach, "but she just said she couldn't sleep and was out walking. I thought about following her next time, but it hasn't happened since then... except tonight."

Sakura hesitated. "Maybe we should go and look for her. She might be in trouble."

"It's only ten now. If she's not home in one hour, I'll go looking," Syaoran promised. He frowned again. "Honestly, I'd like to get to the bottom of it. And…" he broke off, a blush tingeing his cheeks. "We need to tell her… well, everyone… you know, what we decided tonight…"

Sakura blushed to match. "Yes," she whispered. "I can't wait. My father will be so happy…" And she melted into his kiss, as the warm glow from the street lamp cascaded over them.

A block and a half away, someone else was awake and thinking hard about a friend acting oddly. Kero sat on the lintel just above Sakura's bedroom window, staring out into the night. He could never keep tabs on Yue at the best of times, but it seemed strange, even to him, that on a restless midnight fly-about last week he had stumbled upon the most implausible couple he could think of. Mei Ling and Yue, deep in conversation on the moonlit grass of Tomoeda Park.

They hadn't seen him. After a couple of gobsmacked and confused moments, he had gotten a grip on himself and crept closer to hear their voices. To his utmost surprise, they were talking about Syaoran… and Sakura.

Kero knew about Mei Ling's persistent and unfading feelings for the Li boy, of course. There probably wasn't any one left in the world that didn't. But the way Yue had tentatively and cryptically spoken of Sakura had been a revelation to him. Oh, he had had his suspicions, of course – Sakura may have thought her guardian friend only cared about pudding and video games, but Kero had known Yue for an awfully long time and he certainly wasn't blind. He just… hadn't realised the magnitude of the situation.

But still – Mei Ling and Yue? Mei Ling and Yue? If there was an unlikelier twosome, he'd eat his hat. If he had one.

Kero shook his head, not knowing whether to frown or chuckle. He had a strange feeling that Yukito's house would be empty tonight, and Mei Ling's window would be dark.


They weren't on the lawn. They were in the bandstand by the ornamental lake, the faint moonlight only barely illuminating their chosen meeting place. For the first time Mei Ling had brought a candle, whose flame dipped and flickered over the wooden pillars that surrounded them.

These nocturnal meetings of growing frequency had come as just as much of a surprise to Yue and Mei Ling as they had to anyone else. The first time, it had simply been sheer coincidence – Mei Ling, unable to sleep through the agony of having the object of her hopeless unrequited love sleeping just on the other side of the wall, had taken to the streets in the hope of tiring herself into a dreamless sleep. She'd had no idea that she would bump into Yue halfway through Tomoeda Park, presumably doing exactly the same thing.

Half an hour of the most bizarre and unexpected conversation later, something had begun that neither of them could quite explain, either to themselves or their friends. They'd found they had something in common. More than they'd thought. Unrequited love is something that can only really be understood through experience, and there were no two people who understood unrequited love quite like Mei Ling and Yue.

After the first coincidental meeting, Mei Ling had gone back to Hong Kong with her cousin, and only managed to return when the next holiday season came around almost a year later. In her deepest heart of hearts, she might just have admitted to herself that when she went out walking in Tomoeda the very next night, the idea of finding Yue wriggled a tiny shard of hope into her mind. She knew it was futile to expect the same coincidence to happen again, or even why she wanted it to in the first place, but there it was.

And when she'd reached the park, he'd been standing by the lake. She'd never dared ask whether it was another coincidence – and if not, why not.

The candle on the wooden boards between them was the first sign either of them had made that these nighttime meetings were anything other than accidental. It seemed portentous, somehow. Mei Ling was slightly regretting bringing it. It had become an unspoken rule between them – Oh, my goodness, what are you doing out walking at this time of night? I would never have expected… yada yada yada.

Her lips drew upwards slightly, thinking of the absurdity of the situation.

"What?" came Yue's soft voice from the other side of the candle.

"Nothing," she answered, shaking her head. "I just…" she sighed and looked at the flame between them. "The candle's burning down."

She probably shouldn't have mentioned the candle. Yue looked at it awkwardly, as if he realised what it represented. There was silence for a moment.

"You seem quiet tonight," Mei Ling said haltingly. Not that Yue could ever be called loud, of course, but tonight he was even more preoccupied than usual. "What's wrong?"

For a moment Yue looked as if he was going to snap that it was none of her business, but changed his mind at the last minute, looking instead as if he was thinking what to say. When he'd done that on the first of their midnight meetings, they had ended up in a shouting match so fierce that Mei Ling had been amazed it hadn't ended in violence. She also secretly wondered whether it hadn't been that, in a twisted sort of way, which had made him want to see her again. It seemed like she was the only person who had the guts to stand up to him.

Yue played absentmindedly with one of the tassels on his robe, coming to a decision about what to say. "I've…" He hesitated. "I've been thinking. About a number of things. Clow, and my creation, and… Sakura."

Mei Ling was surprised. Despite having tentatively discussed her before, Yue didn't usually bring Sakura up himself, and Mei Ling didn't think she'd ever heard him actually speak her proper name. She leaned forward, listening carefully. Yue seemed to appreciate her silent attention, and his voice became less faltering.

"As you know, Clow Reed knew for most of mine and Cerberus' lives that he would die, and that Sakura would inherit the Cards." To Yue's credit, the bitterness in his voice upon mentioning Clow's death was kept to a minimum. "But what you didn't know is that Clow had planned our lives in more detail than we ever realised."

Mei Ling frowned. "Planned your lives? What do you mean?"

"Clow always had a habit of expecting the people around him to act exactly according to his wishes," Yue said, the bitterness now more noticeable. "He had everything worked out – from the opening of the Book to Sakura's destiny as Cardcaptor, the Judgement, the changing of the Cards – even," he said, his voice becoming quieter, "the relationships she would have with her guardians."

Mei Ling was feeling a little out of her depth. "I don't understand. How could Clow control events so far in the future? He died a long time before Sakura opened the Book."

"True," Yue said flatly, "But Clow had ways of influencing the future that I didn't really understand until recently. Did you ever wonder why Clow chose to fuse me to the personality of Yukito, a totally separate being, rather than just transform into an altered version of myself like Kero or Ruby Moon?"

Mei Ling, who had opened her mouth to ask another question, stopped as his words sunk in. He was right. It was strange. "No," she said truthfully. "I'd never thought of it."

"I am sure, however," Yue broke in more softly, "that you noticed Sakura's feelings for Yukito when you first came to Tomoeda seven years ago."

Mei Ling nodded. You'd have to have been blind not to.

"That," Yue carried on, looking as if every word pained him, "was no accident. Clow had always intended for Sakura to fall in love with Yukito… and for him to fall in love with her in return. Together, they would speed the capture of the cards and live," his lip curled slightly, "happily ever after, I suppose."

Mei Ling was completely blindsided by this unexpected news. "He meant Sakura and Yukito to be a couple? And he could control them to fall in love?"

There was a tinge of grim satisfaction on Yue's candlelit features. "Well, no. That was where his greatest failing emerged – the inability to understand that people have free will, and that you cannot plan someone's emotions. Clow completely overlooked two very important people in this perfect scenario of his. One was of course your cousin. The other was Touya."

Mei Ling's hand flew to her mouth. "Of course! Yukito never had romantic feelings for Sakura, because he'd already met and fallen in love with Touya. And… Syaoran…"

She stopped, the familiar ache welling up inside her. Syaoran had come to Tomoeda, met Sakura, and from then on their path to happiness had been sealed.

"It went wrong," she said. "Clow didn't expect it to happen that way."

"Yes. Although perhaps he wouldn't see it as going wrong… he just would never have imagined things could happen in any way other than he'd planned. But they did."

Mei Ling was quiet for a moment, lost in thought. It was all very interesting, but she couldn't help wondering why Yue was telling her this and where he was going with it.

As if he could sense her questions, Yue continued, his eyes once again resting on the dancing flame between them.

"I've been thinking a lot lately about the way Clow created me," he said softly. "For seven years, Yukito and I have shared the same existence. Yukito is not just –" here his face became bitter again – "a false form. Clow never really understood the magnitude of what creating new life means. Yukito is a person with desires, hopes and dreams just like anyone else, and it's not fair that half his time is stolen because it's occupied by me. Two people cannot live in one body. It's not right. It's not fair. It doesn't work."

"But… but there's no alternative, is there?" Mei Ling said, troubled. "I agree with you – no, don't –" for Yue had looked up with a wounded expression at her perceived dismissal. "You know I agree; I don't think it's right either. But what else can you do? You're not…" she trailed off in alarm as a new thought flashed through her mind. "Yue, you're not going to give yourself over to Yukito? Permanently?"

Without meaning to, her voice had taken a higher edge as this disturbing scenario presented itself. For a moment, they met eachother's eyes – something that, despite the fact that they'd met numerous times now, did not happen very often. Yue looked quickly away.

"No. Well – that's not quite true. I thought about it for a while. But then… you might think me selfish, but…" he looked up again. "I don't want to fade away," he whispered. "I have a right to live. Don't I?" he persisted, almost defensively.

"Of course you do," Mei Ling said impatiently. "Don't be ridiculous." A year ago, she knew, he would have made her pay for that jibe – but now she saw with delight that he accepted it with a sardonic smile. "You and Yukito need your own lives, but how would that work? Is it possible at all?"

"I don't know. But now, finally, I'm going to work with every ounce of strength I have to find a way. I don't think either of us can exist like this for much longer. And…" he hesitated again. "There's another reason."

Mei Ling, in a strange moment of clarity, saw what he meant as clearly as if she'd looked straight into his mind. "Sakura."

Yue looked up, startled. Then he laughed. "It shouldn't still surprise me that you know exactly what I'm going to say. But it does," he mused. "It still does."

"You think that separating yourself from Yukito will free you from what he was originally intended for," she said, as if she was slotting the last piece of a puzzle into place. "You think that it's because of Clow's plan for Yukito that you feel what you do for Sakura."

"I don't know for sure," Yue said, resolutely looking at the candle. His tone was stubbornly loyal. "She is an extraordinary person; there is no reason why my feelings should not be genuine. But…" he paused. "I cannot deny that I hope it is true."

Mei Ling took a deep breath. For a moment, she felt a pang of regret that there wasn't some complex magical reason, and therefore antidote to, her own feelings for Syaoran. But of course, she thought sourly, I'd wonder what was happening to the world if things were somehow easy for a change.

"Well," she said, breaking the silence. "Can it be done with the Cards, perhaps?"

"I'm amazed you think I haven't considered that," he said dryly. "But I am sceptical about that route, actually. One Card doesn't have the power to alter both Yukito and I in any significant way, even if there was one that happened to be suitable for our needs. Even several Cards at once…" He sighed. "I don't know. The problem is that it's so risky. If anything goes wrong, we'd be risking Yukito's life. What if we got it wrong and he vanished? It doesn't bear thinking about."

"And I suppose it'd be no trouble if you vanished?" Mei Ling said acerbically. "You deserve this as much as Yukito does."

She thought she could detect a fleeting trace of gratitude in his expression, but the next second his cool passivity was back in place.

"Anyway," Mei Ling said decisively. "Where's a will, there's a way. If there's anything we can do to solve this, we'll find it."

Yue lifted his eyebrows. "We?"

She was genuinely stopped short for a moment. "Oh, good grief. You didn't think I wouldn't be helping you?" She clicked her tongue, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm afraid that through some glitch in the universe, Yue, you and I appear to have become friends. And this is the kind of thing where, you know, you need a little moral support."

Yue seemed, if possible, a little flustered. "Well, I had assumed – your abilities –"

The realisation dawned on Mei Ling with a sinking sensation in her stomach.

"Of course," she said heavily. "No magic." The words sounded painful, as they always did. "Not much use to you, then." She suddenly felt cold and miserable, despite the mugginess of the air. The old tide of resentment at her complete lack of magical ability was rising with alarming speed, and suddenly she wanted to get away. She got to her feet.

Yue looked totally taken-aback, and was standing too before he knew what he was doing. "No – I did not mean –"

"No, no," she snapped. "You're perfectly right. What on earth could I do that would be any help? Let's see, what am I good at? Maybe I could sing a little song. Or bake a cake. Or perhaps I could try Judo-chopping you down the middle and see if that does the trick."

"Stop it," Yue snapped back. "I did not mean it that way, you know I didn't; don't be ridiculous!"

The words hit her and reminded her of something. A second later, she realised it was herself.

She turned around slowly. "Oh my god. Do you realise you sound just like me?"

Yue stopped, looking thoroughly confused as he realised she was right.

"Come to think of it, I was sounding like you there for a moment," Mei Ling said, fascinated, her momentary depression gone. "Have we really spent so much time together that we're rubbing off on each other?"

Yue looked as if he didn't know if the idea pleased or repulsed him.

They caught each other's eye, saw the humour in the situation, and both stifled a smile.

"Do you think we can ever get through one night without having some sort of argument?" Mei Ling asked, amused.

"I assure you, it's nothing of my doing," Yue said haughtily, but she knew him sufficiently well now to understand that he was teasing. It had come as a shock, at first, to learn that Yue had the capacity to tease, but there it was. Once you knew what to look for, you realised just how much of his true meaning had gone over your head in the past.

Since she was on her feet, she picked up her cardigan (rendered rather useless in this temperature) and tied it around her hips. "I know it's not that late, but I've got to be up early tomorrow so I suppose I'd better head off."

"Words of wisdom," sighed Yue. "Yukito has a morning appointment as well." He leant down and snuffed out the candle before following her onto the grass. It had become an unspoken agreement by now that he saw her to her gate before leaving.

"Don't think I won't be working on ideas for you and Yukito," Mei Ling announced as they walked into the electric glare of the street lamps. "There must be something… I can at least come up with ideas, even if I can't carry them out."

Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Yue's mouth twitch upwards. "I'm quite sure you will. You seem to have an amazing talent for focusing uncompromisingly on whatever task is at hand."

"Well, I don't know how else I would have learnt how to make cakes after that fiasco on Sakura's birthday that blew up her oven."

Yue let out a quiet laugh, but it died as they rounded the corner of Mei Ling's apartment building and found themselves face to face with the two people who had made their lives so difficult: Sakura and Syaoran, who had just turned around and were looking at them with unbridled astonishment.

"Mei Ling!" Syaoran exclaimed. "I was worried…" he trailed off as he looked at Yue, obviously completely nonplussed.

"I was at the park," Mei Ling said lamely, wondering what on earth the etiquette for this eventuality was. She and Yue had never talked about keeping their meetings secret, but on the other hand, they hadn't paraded it either. She realised now that she had enjoyed keeping their strange friendship all to herself. She looked sideways at Yue; would he want her to lie? What if he didn't want people to know they were spending time together?

Just as the spike of insecurity rose in her, Yue spoke. "Mei Ling went for a walk. She met me about an hour ago."

"An hour ago?" Syaoran frowned. "What's taken you so long to come back?"

"We were talking," Yue said smoothly, once again icy and impenetrable. Syaoran opened his mouth, but seemed to decide that as curious as he was about what his cousin and the Moon Guardian would possibly have to talk about, he'd rather not risk his skin to find out. He shut it again with a snap.

"I shall take my leave then," Yue said in the same cool tone. "Goodnight."

"Wait!" Sakura piped up, shaking herself out of the unexpected sight of the two of them. "Now you're here, we can tell you!" She looked at Syaoran, taking his hand as the wariness in his features slipped into adoration at her glance. "Oh please, Syaoran, I can hardly wait any longer…"

Syaoran's cheeks flushed with colour, but he looked inordinately pleased. Sakura clapped her hands and turned back to Yue and Mei Ling.

Mei Ling noticed the ring on her finger a moment before she spoke, and felt as if a bucket of ice water had been tipped down her back. Beside her, she felt Yue freeze as he saw the same thing.

Sakura beamed and held out her left hand. Something small and bright glinted under the street lights. "Mei Ling, Yue – can you believe it? Syaoran and I are engaged!"


Rumms: Oh noes indeed. Cliffhanger number one :p