Well, I wrote this because I decided I wanted to do a one-shot. I wrote this baby all within a few hours, wanted to see what peeps thought about it. It's a sort of sad, melancholy piece, written in Touya's POV. Hope you like!
DISCLAIMER: As you might have already guessed, Cardcaptor Sakura is not in any way mine, other than this story. Go figure.
Touya looked up from his work when he heard the windchime lightly sound.
"What's up, Touya?" Yukito asked, who was working beside him. After graduating from college together, the two had come out with their relationship and worked together at the same business firm. Shortly after, Touya had invited his silver-haired lover to move in with him as they currently were now, almost five and a half years later.
"Nothing to worry about. Sakura'll be up in a second, though." Not a moment later, the two heard a brisk knock on the door of their apartment. Yukito gave him a strange look, his face silently asking 'how did you know?', as he went to get the door. Yukito had asked him once about it already, but Touya had only responded 'trick of the trade'. And the 'trade' was not so much a trade as it was a birthright; somehow, Touya's ability to see ghosts helped him track his little sister with supernatural ease.
Touya continued diligently working on the paper as he heard someone tiptoe behind him. "It's not nice to try to scare your older brother, monster" he said in a creepy voice, turning around quickly and making a scary face. Sakura nearly shreiked in fright, and hopped away from her brother.
"Mou, Touya, that's not fair! Why does Yukito always tell you when I'm coming?"
"He didn't, I'm just that good," Touya responded, but Sakura had already flown out of the room, eager to get a look at his flat again.
"Mmm guys, I like the new decorations. Puts a homey touch on it, can really tell the difference!" Yukito and Sakura were soon absorbed into a discussion about fabrics and colors and other things that Touya personally fled from like the plauge, leaving Yukito to chat up the brat. Touya didn't mind too much, anyways; he was looking for a chance to talk to Sakura's guest.
Touya walked outside to the hallway, lighting a smoke he'd deftly grabbed from his pocket (Yukito disapproved, but he still smoked every once and a while on the sly), and waited. "We don't have all day here, you know," Touya muttered, taking a long drag. Syaoran finally walked up the stairs, looking not a day older than eighteen, though Sakura and the gang were all turning twenty-one.
Syaoran just gave him a look of supreme displeasure, and his eyes focused on a point somewhere over Touya's left shoulder. Touya knew he was looking at Sakura, despite the barriers of solid doors and walls in the way. He knew Li could still see her, despite all that.
"Nice to see you, too," Touya said, handing the man a cigarette, and then held out a flame for him to light it. "Anything happened since I saw you two last, any threats or dangers to Sakura?"
Syaoran gave him a condescending look and nodded his head lightly, which Touya knew meant 'yes, but they were all pushovers,'. Syaoran rarely talked nowadays, so Touya had become good at reading his body language.
"Yeah, well I wouldn't be me if I didn't ask." Touya took a drag. "Saw your cousin yesterday, that red eyed wench. Apparently she's now engaged some chump in her dojo, the other sensei."
Li nodded in understanding, before squashing out his half-smoked cigarette on the banister and flicking it to the ground.
"Are they?- shit!" Touya hurriedly went to put his cigarette out, but was caught in the act by Yukito, who had just opened the door.
"Touya, Sakura wants you to show her your- what are you DOING!? Touya Kinimoto, you are in trouble!" Without further recourse, Touya was dragged back indoors by his angry lover, the door shut with a bang. Touya followed along, watching as Syaoran snickered at him from the corner of his eye. Touya nearly growled, just knowing Syaoran was thinking,'whipped'.
"Oni-chan, Yukito was just telling me about your sketches. I didn't know you liked to draw!" Touya grumbled as his little secret was exposed as Syaoran sat on the sofa next to Sakura.
"And Touya's really good, too. He just very private about it, is all." Yukito chimed on. Touya inaudibly murmured 'damn right'to himself- he still didn't want to show anyone save Yukito, and was kind of annoyed at the fact that that he had told her. However, Yukito's ire at his smoking kept Touya's mouth shut and he prepared to deal.
"Can I see some?" She asked, and Touya wasn't even able to respond when Yukito responded for him, giving him a stern glance.
"Yes, Touya wouldn't be that ridiculous and selfish to not show her sister a few of his works," he said, stressing 'ridiculous' and 'selfish'. "Though he can decide which, of course," Yukito added on, blushing. A few of his sketches were of Yukito in decidedly risque poses. Touya had half a mind to show those to Sakura, just to get back. But of course, he wouldn't. He wasn't that stupid.
Flipping through his sketches, he picked a few that he thought were appropriate and handed them to Sakura. Syaoran looked on over her shoulder, his arm slung lightly across her back. "These are really good, Touya!" She exclaimed, going over the details. "You should really get into art more, like taking classes and stuff! Hey, I know an artist who you might want to talk to," Sakura went on, to Touya's mortification. He DIDN'T want anyone else to know, period. "He's a really nice guy, Gary, and and incredible artist. Maybe you two could meet up? Now, let me write down his number…"
In Sakura's haste she tripped over an ottoman, and as always Li came to the rescue, bracing her fall and rolling her gently onto the floor. Sakura laughed. "How silly of me, I should watch where I walk!" Walking right past Syaoran, she scribbled down the phone number before giving Touya and Yukito kisses and saying her goodbyes. Touya watched Yukito give his little sis a warm hug before escorting her out.
Syaoran watched the whole proceeding and followed, and suddenly Touya felt very sad. He walked up to Li, but didn't try to hug him or shake hands because he knew it'd do nothing. Syaoran only materialized from his ghost form, after all, when Sakura was in need of protection.
Syaoran had been protecting Sakura in a vicious battle three years ago, when in an attempt to draw the enemy away he was killed in a single swipe. He'd been stabbed, stright through the heart, dying on contact. It had destroyed Sakura, who had gone into severe depression for almost a year and a half afterwards. Touya had hated the boy, hated him for being there, hated him for dying, hated him for not coming back and setting everything right for a few weeks after that. He explained away his tears as tears for Sakura, his sympathy to the boy's cousin Meilin. But he knew, deep down inside, he missed him in an odd sort of way.
It had been nearly a month later when Touya had noticed something whenever he visited his distraught sister. Unexplainable things kept happening that all worked to Sakura's favor. A power stealing magician lost his staff, which contained all his stolen gifts. An assasin tripped and alerted Sakura of his prescence, and couldn't even throw a single star properly. Even Sakura's regular mishaps were not nearly as disastrous, ending in bumps and bruises instead of broken bones. Touya needed only to look with his second vision, and understood that Syaoran had not forsaken his current role in life, which he had died accomplishing. Syaoran was Sakura's guardian angel.
All that was fine enough, and Touya was greatful that she was in capable hands, but it just…stung, perhaps was the right word. To see the young man who had lost his life constantly protecting her, while being unknowingly ignored and rarely mentioned. Despite the years, the memory of it could still make Sakura fragile and Touya didn't know how she would handle the fact that her old partner had never left her side.
Touya held a hand out to stop Syaoran. "Listen Li, you don't have to spend your whole afterlife watching over her, you know. She has Yue and Kero Beros, after all."
Syaoran gave him a stern glance that said 'are you nuts?', before he looked down at some point behind him on the floor. Sakura, a few stairs down, Touya knew.
"Alright. I thought so. But, I just wanted to say, thank you." Syaoran looked up seriously, his amber eyes haunting despite or perhaps because of the fact that he was a ghost. He nodded, and Touya heard him silently whisper, 'I understand'. Then he slipped through the floorboards, and the curtains rustled.
Yukito came in just in time to see the curtains settle. "Did you open the window, Touya? Because I swear I sealed everything up. We shouldn't have any wind in this house!"
"No. It's too cold out." From his work room, he could hear the windchime.
"Then where's that cold draft coming from? Is it me, or did the temperature drop a few degrees since Sakura was here?"