A Primrose for Mirror
by Morgan D.

I borrow Card Captor Sakura's characters from CLAMP and Kodansha every now and then to take them for a stroll.
I only claim authorship over Tien-Sui, character whose debut is in "The Dolphin's Footsteps".
This story takes place during episode 61 of the anime. Spoilers to second and third season (Yue).
Hints of Shounen Ai.

Glossary:
Hoe - Sakura's trademark yelp
Oniichan - older brother

Part I
Mirror and the Mistress

"MIRROR!"

The new cherry-scented magic throbbed around her, inside her, summoning her to the exterior world with a lively pull that she couldn't and wouldn't ignore. Her being spiraled joyfully for a moment, unrestrained, before crystallizing in the shape of a large, round mirror, her portal to the outside. She stood obediently before that portal, waiting for a brief moment until the spell consolidated. This new magic was younger, and slower.

At last she crossed the mirror's surface; her pink kimono, her ethereal wings, her green hair, they all disappeared as she stepped out. She stood before her Mistress wearing a dark gray, long-sleeved overcoat, white pleated skirt and red roller blades. Short auburn hair fell over her eyes, which now had acquired a bright emerald shade.

For that was her job, of course. She copied the image of whoever stood before the portal-mirror when she was summoned.

"Mirror Card!" the Mistress greeted her. "I need to ask you another favor."

Mistress Sakura seemed a bit uneasy. "Hun? But I..." Mirror trailed off, confused. Yes, it was the second time in two days that she summoned her. But that was what Mirror always looked forward, what she lived for! The other Cards were probably fuming in envy.

Behind the Mistress, a human boy looked around anxiously. Mirror knew him. It was the one who had temporarily owned Time, Dream, Return, Sand, Freeze, Storm, Dash, Voice, Bubbles and the Twins. The one Kerberus-sama had said was a distant relative of Master Clow's.

However, he looked nothing like the Master. Somehow he reminded her of Lady Tien-Sui, the Master's younger sister. Same clouded eyes, same clouded aura. Same eyebrows too.

"Well, you see..." the Mistress stammered. "I want you to... I mean..."

Mirror smiled. This was perfect. Last night someone had knocked on the Mistress's door right when she was about to give her the message, forcing her to go back to her card form. She was afraid that it would take too long until she -- or any of the few Cards with communication abilities -- would have another chance. But last than twenty-four hours later, here she was again. "Ahn... Mistress, I... you see... we..."

"Would you please go shopping with Oniichan?" the Mistress blurted out all of a sudden. Then, more sheepishly, "It's just that I need to go someplace else..."

Hey, that was usually what she was summoned for, ne? Master Clow was a very distracted man who often scheduled two activities for the same day. Or maybe someone wanted him to be at some place with certain people he really didn't want to be with. So he would send Mirror in his place. It had to be her, because asking Twins to duplicate a powerful wizard would be too dangerous, his magic could go out of control.

She didn't mind, not even being with those people Master Clow disliked. On the contrary. The exterior world was weird and funny, and it always gave her the best stories to tell the deck later. After all, so few among them could approach humans without being spotted. Mirror was one of the lucky ones.

"Please?" the Mistress implored. She was still staring at her with begging eyes, as if afraid that she would refuse her request. That was strange.

Of course she would do it. She would do anything she asked! "Yes... but you see, I..."

Mistress Sakura was jumping at the first word though. "Yes? Oh thank you!" she bowed gratefully. "Thank you very much, I'll be back soon and... Hoe?"

Mirror grinned. At last the Mistress had stopped pleading and bowing for time enough to notice that her copy was trying to say something to her as well. Glad to have her attention, the Card bowed too, and started her speech. "You see, Mistress, I wanted to tell you... I mean, they asked me to tell you... we want you to know that..."

And that was as far as she was allowed to go, since the boy chose that moment to grab the Mistress's arm -- very ungraciously, Mirror thought -- and pull her into a mad run somewhere. "What's the holdup?" he yelled. "Come on!"

As she ran, the Mistress still gazed at the Card for an instant, confused and apologetic, but then she was already beyond earshot. And what Mirror had to say wasn't the kind of thing that could be shouted hastily in the streets.

But good opportunities such as this were so rare! Most of the Cards lacked the ability to talk in a manner the humans could understand. Master Clow understood them, of course, but the new Mistress was still learning and there had been few occasions to work on communication. When she summoned them, there was almost always an emergency to be dealt with and no time for chatting.

All the more since the Cards had made a pact not to remain in their physical forms for longer than strictly necessary, because it drained too much of the Mistress's strength. Snow was still grunting a bit about Flower, who had made flowers rain down inside the Mistress's chambers when all she needed was a small bouquet of wild carnations to send to her great-grandfather on his birthday. Kerberus-sama assured them that he was there not to let the Mistress waste her powers, and that she had really, really wanted those carnations, so it was okay. Snow wasn't happy about it, but oh well... there was really nothing new in Snow looking down on Flower. Those two were always at odds, for obvious, natural reasons.

Intimately, Mirror wondered if behind Kerberus-sama's words wasn't the veiled implication that it really didn't matter if Flower created one single bouquet or an ocean of wild carnations; nothing would prevent the worst from happening. The Sun Guardian was just like that: kind and overprotective, always hiding the bad news from them, so they wouldn't be hurt.

That was why it was imperative that she found a way to deliver the two messages the deck had entrusted her. One was to the Mistress, but... "Again I lost the opportunity to tell her," she murmured to herself. Why did Master Clow's relative have to be in such a hurry? Now she would have to wait until the Mistress came back.

She sighed, trying to push away her disappointment. It would be all right, everything would be all right, she had to remember that. In the meantime, Mirror should focus on the task she had been assigned, which was...

...?!

"Go shopping with Oniichan?!?!?!"

~*~

Author's notes:
- In the anime Voice was sealed by Sakura, but I never understood why, since Syaoran was the one who cornered the Card. According to the CCS rules about card-capturing, Voice should belong to Syaoran.
- No one knows who sealed Bubbles (and also Wave, Through and Libra). I'm very arbitrarily giving Bubbles to Syaoran. At least we know from the second movie that he was there when that Card was captured.

Part II coming soon

This story is part of the Clow no Tenshi timeline. Check my bio and visit my site to learn more about this project.