Disclaimer: CLAMP, CLAMP, CLAMP, CLAMP, CLAMP! Not mine.
Author's Note: This story is dedicated to the awesome SilverKleptoFox because everyone deserves to see their favorite pairing get together at least once without having to write it themselves. If you haven't figured it out by now, people, this is a Yuuko and Fai fic. There may be mentions and POVs done by some of the other characters but that's the pairing. You don't like it? Get over it or read something else. :)
This story is definitely AU at this point in the manga so just flow with me on this one. The specific time this story takes place is a bit fluid but I promise everything will make sense as we go along. Acid Tokyo and beyond haven't happened yet and nobody has lost their eyes.
Do not let the fluffiness at the beginning of this chapter fool you. Fools will be eaten alive by my words, their carcasses used as fodder for my muse, and their blood as ink for my pen. Enjoy!
Looking back...
Yuuko once told me that every person had a secret wish. That it didn't matter who they were, what they were, or how happy they acted. All people wish and every person has a secret wish.
Curious, I asked what her's was. I should have known better.
"Silly Watanuki." She smiled sweetly, a glass of sake in one hand and a pipe in the other. "It wouldn't be much of a secret if I knew, now would it?"
Sometimes I wonder how many times she's cursed Hitsuzen like so many of her patrons. Other times I wonder if she's ever really had one of her own wishes granted. Something in me knows these questions are important but then I remind myself that I've already asked enough stupid questions for one day.
If I had asked though... I wonder if her answer would have changed anything?
Most of all, I wonder if it would have changed him...
Yuuko's POV
"Look, Watanuki." She clapped her hands together and did a little spin. "It's such a perfect day outside, I think we'll walk to the market instead of taking the noisy train."
"What?!" Her part-timer reeled, voice rising a few notches like it always did when he thought she was picking on him. "Are you trying to kill me, Yuuko? I know how much you like to shop. How the heck am I supposed to carry everything back here? I'm not a pack mule, you know!"
The witch turned to him, smiling. She'd been waiting for that question. "That's why I asked Doumeki to accompany us, so he could help you. He'll be meeting us halfway at the park."
His left eye began to twitch as he fumed silently but it wasn't 'quite' enough for her.
"Of course, this means we'll have to have him over for dinner to compensate for his help. It's not his responsibility to carry all my stuff after all."
"You can't possibly be serious-"
"Of course, since we're having guests over we might as well pick up some nice sake and throw a party..."
"Party! Party! Par-tee!" Mokona chanted, jumping up and down in her purse with glee.
"But-"
"Yay, a party!" Maro danced around.
"Yuuko-
"Yay, a party!" And Moro followed right behind her.
Yuuko clapped her hands together again and grinned at the now sulking Watanuki. "It's settled then. Tonight we shall have a party and you, my wonderful part-timer, shall cook whatever Doumeki and Mokona want."
"Wait, I get why I have to cook what Doumeki wants but why Mokona?"
"Because he's cute, why else?"
"Yeah." Mokona hopped out and onto his head while the girls continued their chant in endless circles around him, each rattling off their favorite, and obviously random, dishes to the flustered boy.
"Gyoza!"
"Chawanmushi!"
"No, let's try Tsukemono."
"How about Yakitori?"
"Oh, and Oden. We can't forget the Oden."
"And Soba!"
"And Sashimi!"
The witch chuckled softly at the scene she had caused, marveling at how quickly the chaos could ensue with just a few simple words. 'But then, isn't that how it always is?' Her smiled saddened at the edges as her thoughts took her in a momentarily different direction, a constant perspective required in her profession. No one knew better than her the destruction a few words could wreak.
A wind chime sounds from just beyond the yard, pulling her from her monotony with a jerk.
"Is there something wrong, Yuuko?"
She turned, smiling at being caught off guard. Life didn't have any value if there weren't any surprises left. "Hmm?"
"You looked like you were starring off into to space for a second. It's kinda unlike you."
'So, it is.' Her tone grew serious. "The future is coming."
"Isn't it always?" Watanuki asked off handedly as the two of them, plus Mokona, now back in her purse, started walking- leaving the two girls to continue their maniacal dance in the yard.
"Very perceptive of you. The future is always coming but this one is different. This is..." She trailed off with a small frown, seeking the words she didn't have. "I don't know what it is, but it's going to change something, drastically." She shrugged it off, picking her smile back up and saying "Now we can't forget to pick up the sake while we're out. I know of this nice little specialty shop just to the west of the main market that's absolutely perfect-"
"As if I could ever forget to pick up the sake with a drunk like you around!" The boy shouted, waving his arms to and fro and making a scene like usual.
She chuckled. "I'll take that as a compliment."
Their banter continued on and off as they walked to the park, he behind her, and Mokona chiming in every once and awhile before taking the conversation over completely when the witch fell silent in her own thoughts.
'The winds have definitely changed, there's a new flavor to this current path...' and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not.
Always. She had always kept a careful watch on the threads of fate, feeling them as easily as running a hand through her hair, each strand a separate and silky line. Unlike her hair though, she couldn't always see what the threads of fate held, they were constantly changing and moving faster than the eye, could see. Even still, they had a natural flow to them. Sometimes the flow was faster or slower but it still had a gradual variance.
Earlier though, something had changed. She felt it the second she heard the wind chime. The path that they were on, the one leading them to the park this very day, had altered. It had jerked and pulled taught- growing more so with every step that she found herself unable to look away and then suddenly...
It frayed, bursting into a million different end points with a million more different paths beyond them. She stopped walking as the universe expanded before her very mind in a haze of stars and strings almost too fast to see what had caused the sudden shift.
Almost.
"A new arrival."
"What's that, Yuuko?"
"Hmm?" She looked back at her part-timer and started walking again. "Just musing aloud."
Fai's POV
He'd only just arrived in this world with it's beautiful blue sky and thankfully warm climate and already he found himself wanting to leave it again, to hurry up and make his way to wherever he was going. Even if he didn't quite know where that was yet, but alas, travel by feather always left him a little nauseous afterward and he was going to have to wait a few days before using it again whether he liked it or not. Sitting down to wait out the post-travel sickness his mind returned, masochistically, to his current situation.
Why did he want to leave this seemingly peaceful world after only just arriving?
Quite simply because the feather did nothing as far as translating the local language went and he was sick and tired of feeling lost though he should be used to it now- he hadn't found a single world so far where he understood what was being said around him and his own magic, even dormant as it was inside him, told him that this one was just another in a long line of disappointments.
Sick and tired wasn't even a phrase at this point. He was tired. So tired he hadn't slept in over three days, but constant movement was an important factor at this point. And he was sick if homesickness counted which brought him to the more prominent point of his predicament.
Why was he traveling by feather? One of Sakura's no less?
Ah, that was an even easier question to answer.
Because he was an idiot.
About four weeks ago, as far as one can tell while traveling across time and space, they'd been on this one world- he didn't know the name of it but the country was called Darkness and true to it's name it was full of shadows and twisted folk interested in nothing more than power. To say that the princess' feather stood out like a beacon went was an understatement and if it was a beacon then Sakura herself had been a blaze.
They were chased from one end of the city to the next as they searched and more vehemently so after they'd obtained it. Deciding to cut their losses they decided to transport the heck out of there instead of fight, even Kurogane thought it was a foolhardy battle, but unlike other times with similar circumstances this time something went horribly, horribly wrong.
Powerful spells were being thrown at them from all angels, their luck holding out until the very last minute as Mokona swallowed them up. It was a split second decision on his part and even now... he wasn't sure why he did it, if it was because he'd gotten too close to the children and Kuro-pup or if his cowardly nature had gotten the better of him- either way he'd used his magic and there was no taking that kind of action back.
On the one hand, he had managed to save them all from a spell that would have dealt certain death.
On the other hand hand, he'd somehow made himself and the feather go in one direction and the ninja and children to go in the other.
And on a third hand,... he wasn't so sure if he was trying to return to his little group, his impromptu family, or to run away from them. He'd used his magic... and they'd seen... all those people...
'No. No more thinking about that. Not tonight.' He shook the more recent cobwebs from his mind and stood up, dusting his pants off as he went. There was a chance the feather only had a limited number of uses left to it and if that was the case he was better off spending as much time as he safely could in any of the peaceful worlds he came across.
Of course if he kept on moving like this the choice would be taken from him before he knew it. Either the feather would run out leaving him stranded on some world of one sort or another until he'd too long and Ashura found him or the others would miraculously show up before then, but if they did find him,... would they even want to...
"No." He told himself firmly. Any more thoughts of any kind and the chances of him just offing himself would rise drastically and since he hadn't made up his mind about wanting to die or not just yet... "No, no, no. No more thinking."
"Mommy, who's that funny man over there talking to?"
Fai looked across the street to see a little girl tugging on her mother's skirt and point at him. "Don't stare, sweetie." She chided, guiding her daughter away and giving him a strange look. "It's not polite to point at people."
"Is he talking to people's in his head? Is he a special person like auntie Marie?" The mother smiled at him sheepishly before picking up the pace and pulling them around a corner and out of earshot.
'Well,' He sighed, frowning slightly. 'That solves one of my problems but I could have sworn...' He shook his head again. There must be another source of magic in this world translating for him... then again this world did feel vaguely familiarbut still...
The mage's thoughts stopped abruptly when the wind changed direction and he rocked back on his feet before catching himself unsteadily. 'That was strange.' He blinked, looking around for whatever could have caused such a sudden shift. He was constantly in tune with the magic around him, he had to be if he wanted to survive the path he walked. So, to have his internal balance knocked off kilter like that, even for a moment, something had to have just changed in this world.
Something big.
Yuuko's POV
It got harder each and every time.
'It's not fair.' She pouted mentally.
One would think it would have been easy for her at this point to watch Watanuki fight his own battles when with every fight he was slowly getting better and better at relying on others, namely Doumeki, for help. Things still went wrong, the unknown still happened, and whatever did happen on these little missions could never be changed once it did. That was to be expected, this was real life after all, but he managed pull through each time- never bending to the odds- still, in it's own way that made it all the harder.
One of these times something would go horribly wrong, the great unknown would happen, and when it did her part-timer would be left to face the consequences of his often rash actions and nothing she could do would ever change that. She knew all about her place in the line of fate, a place that allowed no intervention whatsoever without the appropriate price.
A price she would never ask of either the two boys if it could be helped.
So, she'd pulled on what strings she could, making sure they were in the empty park at the peak time and that Doumeki was there when the other would need him most. She hadn't intervened, merely set up most beneficial odds as she led him out into the world even though she knew shadows would follow them everywhere they went but it was part of his life's path.
Whatever happened here today was needed for the future ahead.
All she could do now was stand back in the distance and allow the events to pass before her even though she had the power to stop them. Watanuki had verbally bashed his one true friend as usual, the other ignoring him because they all knew the boy was still too dense to understand either of their feelings and then the ground had started to rumble, a spirit breaking forth and trying to claim his delicious soul for his own.
She would remain silent the entire time, as usual, and when the battle was over she would calmly explain everything she could about the creature and the circumstances of the day as well as chide Watanuki some more as to why he should be asking for help from others- herself excluded and then both boys would, unknowing, be charged for the education she was trying to force on them so they could survive whatever the future held. That was her duty.
Doumeki already had an arrow drawn tight on his bow, just waiting for the perfect moment when the chances of hitting the other were the lowest and then everything would be over but then suddenly-
'The wind...' Yuuko's head jerked up, something had changed again forcing the spirit to charge without reason but instead of going towards Watanuki or the exorcist it launched itself right at her.
She cringed having no time to prepare-
-and then she was hit.
By another person.
Fai's POV
Curiosity getting the better of him, or perhaps his suicidal nature, he foolishly decided to follow the wind. Wherever it turned he would follow, eyes and ears fully imbued in the magic and breathing it in like an old friend. Familiar but like nothing he had ever sensed before and definitely dangerous. It led him to what appeared to be a park with trees and bushes and even what appeared to be a play area towards the other side but on this side... there was something all together different.
'That explains it!' He stopped, watching the scene unfold before him. There in the clearing stood, of all people, the dimensional witch. That's why this world was so familiar- he had been here before, and why he could understand the local tongue- the black Mokona. He didn't know if he should consider himself oddly lucky or normally unlucky.
He stood stock still, unable to move even if he had wanted to. She had her back to him, completely oblivious as she watched the two boys before her struggle against the threads of fate though they were clearly wrapped tight against the both of them and pulling at all angles. He wondered if that's why she was watching them as she did but didn't have much time to ponder it as wind changed once more- pulling every string free of it's knots and turning all paths within sight into mush.
He tried to turn, to run away before he could get involved and hurt more people but,...
"Yuuko!"
The shout rang out, forcing him to turn back involuntarily but the second he did he felt the wind wrap about his throat like a noose to a dead man. He faltered, feet going one over the other in their irrational haste to rush him forward.
In seconds he was thrown against Yuuko, knocking her back before something... the spirit perhaps, crashed into him with a chilling intensity. Air forced it's way from his lungs with a wheeze, ribs pressed together before cracking under the unseen pressure, and stars danced in his vision.
He could have easily saved himself, a coward always had half a dozen escape plans up his sleeve but did he really want to live? Did he want to die? Maybe he should just let fate decide? Idle thoughts passed through his head as the world went white, red, and then finally- black.
Author's Note: Well, that's all, folks. Not sure how well or unwell I did with this one so please leave a review and let me know. I feel like I was too vague in certain parts and too rambly in others so I suppose it could go either way. I don't know when the next chapter of this fic will be out but if I get at least ten reviews it'll probably be sooner rather than later. Also, my sis did some art for this fic which you can find at my new fanfiction blog listed in my profile as my homepage.