Demitasse

by Phiso

A Parisian café, a few cups of fresh coffee, and the two most powerful magicians in the world. You'd think Clow and Yuuko would be having more fun.

Hello! This was originally posted in the TRC section, but after some consideration I've decided to move it over here. Frankly, I feel the writing here is a bit rough in places, so if you have any suggestions or critique I'd be happy to hear them. Enjoy!

Note: Because I feel I should explain the title (why, I don't know), it refers to the rather pessimistic view of life a certain character holds. Well, that, and it fits the activity and location.

…D . e . m . i . t . a . s . s . e…

"Now Yuuko, you shouldn't be doing that."

"Shut it, Reed."

The bespectacled man chuckled as the thin young woman opposite him popped open a flask and discreetly poured its contents into a thick glass mug. Leave it to Yuuko to ruin an otherwise perfectly good cup of prime Parisian coffee. He sipped his own non-alcoholic beverage idly, listening to the soft sounds of the French language float over them and wondering vaguely if anyone else noticed Yuuko spiking her own drink. Casting a mildly curious glance towards their rather snooty waiter – who, he saw with an amused grin, just happened to have his back to them - he said delightedly, "You're lucky he's busy with another patron; otherwise, he'd be insulted by your audaciousness and throw us out."

"All this needs is a bit of kick," Yuuko insisted with a smug little smile, dumping the rest of the liquid into her coffee before swiftly twirling the cap shut and slipping the gleaming silver flask into her pocket. "Honestly, Clow, sometimes you're no fun at all."

"That wounds me, Yuuko!" Clow placed a hand over his heart dramatically. "It wounds me in here – deep in my very soul!"

"Oh shut up," Yuuko snapped, throwing a pink cloth napkin across the table. Hitting him squarely in the face, it slowly but surely slid down his front and settled down in his lap. "Enough with the faux theatrics. We're in public."

Clow chuckled again as he daintily plucked the crumpled napkin off his person and placed it on the table. "As if that ever stopped you." Taking another sip of his coffee, he sighed deeply in satisfaction before giving the scowling woman a pleased smile. "Oh Yuuko, you do amuse me so."

Making an impatient noise, Yuuko crossed her arms and leant back in her chair, glaring daggers into a random person's back as she took a large swing of her drink. Afterwards, she proceeded to slam her mug into the table so hard it caused their neighbors to jump in surprise and Clow to wonder how it didn't break on contact with the glass tabletop.

The mage sighed, this time in exasperation. This woman could be so difficult at times. "Come now, Yuuko, don't be cross."

"I'm not cross," she replied scathingly. Nevertheless, she continued to glare so hard into the stranger's back that the man shivered before looking about wildly. Morbidly appeased by the man's discomfort, she took another, more ladylike sip from her cup before making yet another irritated noise. "I'm not," she repeated vehemently, tearing her gaze off of the now bewildered and thoroughly disturbed stranger and focusing it on the wizard, whose cool eyes were studying her from behind their thin wire frames. She shot him looks of loathing so withering that the flower perched jauntily between them drooped considerably, the innocent victim of a magician's quarrel.

The man was not discouraged. Shaking his head slightly and lifting the unhappy blossom with his finger, he suggested, "Since you don't want to have a conversation with me, why don't we play your favorite game?" The flower glowed faintly for a moment before straightening cheerfully, and Clow gave Yuuko a placating look.

The witch raised an eyebrow, intrigued. He didn't often agree to this game, and she was rather fond of playing it with him. No one else was nearly as good at it as he was. "You first," she said at last, uncrossing her arms and lazily turning her head towards the pedestrians walking by the café.

Clow cleared his throat before leaning forward, resting his chin on his folded hands before settling on a woman with long brown hair and a red dress. "She," Clow began, pointing a finger at her without changing position, "will find a man who will treat her marvelously for the first three months before changing into a monster. After a few months of abuse, she will rediscover herself as a strong, independent woman, dump him, and spend the rest of her life pursuing her dream as a singer." He paused, considering her a bit further. "She'll have a decent amount of fame, date lots of handsome men, and eventually settle down with an actor from Spain who loves dogs."

Yuuko chuckled before closing her eyes and thinking about her response. Grinning wickedly, she offered, "She will die a tragic death at the age of 40, her three beautiful children hating her as she passes and leaving her to die alone. One, her eldest and only son, will be a drug dealer; her two younger daughters will become a socialite and a porn star, respectively. Her husband, of course, died young in a plane accident." She opened her eyes, sending a merry little smile Clow's way as she took another drink from her mug.

Now it was Clow's turn to make an irritated noise. "Why do you always insist on predicting their deaths?" He pushed his slipping glasses up impatiently before shooting her a grimace. "You could have picked someone else and predicted their life, you know."

Yuuko merely laughed. "All right, all right," she said with a nonchalant wave of her hand. Surveying the crowds walking by them, she finally settled on a man with a tall hat and a mustache. "He," she began, smoothly pushing a strand of long ebony hair out of her face, "will be fired from his high-paying job within a week and plunge into a deep depression, attempting suicide but failing miserably. Soon afterwards, he'll loose all his money in stocks and try again but chicken out at the last second."

"Then," Clow interrupted, already disliking where she was going with this, "he will have a surprise reunion with his old high school sweetheart. Within a few short days, his love for life will return and he will marry her a month later. They'll live happily ever after, complete with a white picket fence and a puppy." The mage nodded, satisfied; taking a sip of his coffee, he chose to ignore the fact that his ending was disgustingly cliché.

"I didn't know Parisian apartments had fencing," Yuuko observed with an amused smirk, leaning forward and tapping his mug teasingly.

"Shut up," Clow said tartly. "He can live in a province." His scowl deepening when Yuuko continued to give him an annoyingly superior smile, he added, "It's better than damning him to the kind of death you gave that young woman."

"Relax, Clow, relax," she said, waving it off and leaning back comfortably. "Half of the time these things don't come true anyway."

"And half of the time they do," he added softly, his gaze falling into his now half-empty cup of coffee.

There was a long pause as Yuuko stared at Clow's bowed head, an expression of mingled remorse and vexation on her face. The snooty waiter, seeing a lull in conversation, came by to check on them; knowing the wizard wouldn't say anything in his state, Yuuko murmured a response in French that seemed to satisfy the waiter and he left. As the silence grew, Yuuko's patience wore thin; finally, she couldn't take it anymore.

"I don't understand why you're so worried," she said with a disdainful look towards the mage. "Can't you forget about all this for a day? We're in Paris, of all places!" She waved her arm around, motioning towards the grand city towering above them. "How often do we get to come here?"

Clow didn't seem to have heard her. "If only things were as easy as that game of yours," he sighed, absentmindedly stirring his coffee. "Just say a few words, and poof! Everything's all right."

"Clow," the witch said seriously, leaning forward. "There are some things that are just meant to happen: its hitsuzen. One of them is meant to be captured; another is meant to be broken; and no matter what your favorite color is, that staff is going to have to be pink." Yuuko cracked a smile. "You of all people should know this already."

"You and your hitsuzen," Clow chuckled, though there was no joy in his laughter. He took a sip of his now cold coffee. "It can't answer all my questions; it can't possibly plan for everything."

"You practically have," Yuuko retorted almost resentfully. He wanted answers, did he - maybe she would be able to answer more of his questions if he bothered to tell her more of what he saw in those visions of his. "Is there anything you haven't planned for? Your reincarnations have been secured, your guardians' future master has already been chosen, your cards - "

"What about them?" he said quietly, referring to something else entirely.

There was a beat. "She'll be all right," Yuuko replied nonchalantly, conveniently hiding the fact she too was feeling rather apprehensive about everything. "They both will be."

"How do we know?" His hands cupped the mug gently as he spoke, his eyes distant and gloomy. "They're only children; how can we be so sure of that?"

"What do you take Soel and Larg for?" Yuuko said sharply, insulted that he had forgotten about their creations. "I'm telling you, you've prepared for everything. The rest is out of your hands."

"Still, I wish I would be there to push it along a bit more," he sighed regretfully.

"Well," Yuuko said slowly, fidgeting uncomfortably; she hated it when he talked about his death. Geez, just because he knew when he was going to die didn't mean he had to rub it in all the time. "I'll be here, so you don't have to worry about that!" She beamed, as if she had solved everything with that one statement.

Clow stared at her. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"HEY!" Yuuko's eye twitched. "Just because YOU have the ability to look into the future doesn't make MY power any less potent!"

Clow gave her a surprised look before smiling warmly. "Take care of my relatives for me, won't you?" He finished his coffee with one last sip before looking down forlornly at his empty cup.

Yuuko made a sound like an angry bird. Would he stop looking so pathetic all the time? He reminded her of a scolded puppy sometimes, which infuriated her to no end; in her opinion, the most powerful wizard in the world shouldn't be going around with his tail in between his legs, no matter how depressing and bleak he thought the future would be. "I'm not a baby-sitter, you know," she muttered, crossing her arms and shooting him an affronted look. Clow chuckled.

"Thank you," he replied. Calling over the waiter, he ordered another coffee before closing his eyes and lapsing into a little tune. Yuuko frowned; she knew that melody. He grew into the habit of humming it every time he received a vision to divert attention. Now what juicy little tidbit from the future was he learning? And was he even going to bother to share it with her this time, or was he – as usual – planning to keep her in the dark?

He hummed quite some time, even past the waiter's return. Nodding slightly to his little melody as the fresh cup was placed before him, Clow opened his eyes a minute later and gave Yuuko a curious look. "Yuuko?"

"What?"

"You wouldn't happen to have anything left in that flask of yours, would you?"

"…You really are a creep, you know that?"