The Beginning
By Ryne
Crack.
The unpleasant (at least to most) sound of knuckles cracking was being generated in abundance as a young woman, possessing that particular habit, waited. Pressing her fingers down into her palm, she looked anxiously to the left, then right, apparently searching for someone. Cheeks slightly flushed, her hair soon became the next victim or her anxiety, twirled around the already-cracked fingers. Then undone, and then twirled again. After not-so-carefully extracting her fingers from her hair once again, her hands unconsciously went to the two ribbons that held her hair in its position, and undid them, only to wrap them around her palm and look around once more. She shook her head, and her hair followed the fluid movement. Fingers spread out and combed through the black strands, then tucked a few behind her ear.
Looking once more both to her right and left, she huffed quietly and sat down on the rock wall of the bridge, swinging her feet back and forth slightly. Meiling had always been impatient, and this was certainly no exception.
It was the time of day in-between day and night, something like dusk, but somehow different. Not quite dusk, nor night, nor afternoon; sometime where time stops for a couple minutes and changes from dark light to light dark.
Meiling watched as the gray rocks on the bridge grew shadowed from the setting sun, and her abstract gaze created patterns upon the rocks in the wall which her eyes followed, the imaginary twists and turns and not-so-imaginary shadows which shifted in the few in-between minutes. By the time her small "game" was finished, the in-between time was over, and the rocks had grown to be a dark gray, without shadows dancing upon it. Dull and dark.
Her eyes bored now that the game was over, they traveled upwards and looked at the almost-night sky. After sunset, but not quite night; the stars were beginning to show faint glows as the sky became a contrast to their brightness. She sighed again, and made an estimate on the time- 6:42 PM. Syaoran was supposed to meet her at 6:45, so she gave him a bit of slack in her guess.
Stretching her arms behind her, she looked again in both ways, then released the stretch and rested her hands on the top of the small wall which she was sitting on, as if she needed to support herself. Her nails absentmindedly scratched at the granite, and she smiled slightly at the thought of what Wei-san might've said to her: "Meiling-chan, you're going to ruin your nails, stop that," and then, he would chuckle fondly and rest his hand lightly on hers to stop the incessant scraping. Yes, that was Wei-san, always the friend, and sometimes the father- but mostly the friend.
The sky was noticeably darker now, and it was certainly night; the shadows played by moonlight, now. Syaoran was definitely late, which was a bit unusual for him. Then again, this whole event was going to be a bit unusual; Meiling knew that, and welcomed it. Slightly shifting her weight to one side, her ears picked up the small crinkle of a paper in the silence of the night, and her face softened into an unreadable expression. Inwardly giggling and embarrassed at herself for wanting to look at the paper just one more time, she extracting the small note carefully from her pocket and unfolded it for the billionth time that night. Her breathing grew a bit quicker as she read the note, as it did every time and as it would always do, no matter how often she read it.
Meiling,
I'm coming to Japan. I think you know why, you always understand me like that. You might kill me for not telling you sooner, but, Meiling- before you do, at least let me kiss you.
Love,
Syaoran
P.S. Bridge near the Shrine at 6:45.
Of course Meiling knew Syaoran meant 6:45 at night; he would hate for an emotional event of some sort to take place in the morning. Too much time left in the day to think about it; better at night, when one can simply sleep and dream contently, rather than having thoughts swirling throughout the mind the entire day.
Lost in her thoughts, Meiling never head the light yet firm footsteps of someone approaching. Tracing lightly over the grains and bands of the rocks with the tips of her fingers, she drew an invisible heart on the wall and wrote both her and Syaoran's names in them with her index finger.
"A little old to be doodling hearts, aren't you?" A voice behind her commented with an obviously suppressed chuckle. Meiling gasped and jumped slightly in surprise, then turned around reflexively.
At once she was met with a pair of rich brown eyes gazing at her with unhidden affection and a small twinkle. "Sy-!" She began to exclaim, but was stopped mid-word by his arms wrapping tightly around her and pulling her face into his chest.
Her heart was beating like crazy, and the momentary thought that Syaoran could probably feel it passed through her mind. Once she could breathe again, she took a deep breath and buried her face into his chest, noticing how soft his light blue sweater was. It smelt fresh and somehow cozy, if cozy has a smell. It smelled… right. This was where she should be, in Syaoran's warm arms and her face nestled against his chest, breathing warm breaths. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she observed that time seemed to have stopped.
Nothing, in Meiling's opinion, could ever have been more perfect.
What happened next, though, changed that opinion.
Time resumed, but in slow motion: Syaoran pulled back from the embrace slightly, and before Meiling could get the wrong idea, lightly took her small chin in his hand and tilted her face up, so that their eyes were met, and connected. Syaoran looked into her eyes as if he was searching for a sign from her, something to give him the "okay." Receiving only a wide gaze in return and a blush dancing upon her cheeks, Syaoran allowed a small smile to grace his lips, but before Meiling could comment, those same lips captured hers in a chaste kiss.
Her eyes widened, and heart beat increased even more. She hardly realized that her arms had traveled up to his neck and that she was clinging for dear life, as if she would collapse without his support- which she very likely would have.
Although the kiss was chaste, without tongue or any such aspect, it was soft and loving; a comfort. Breaking the kiss slowly whilst caressing her lips gently, Syaoran immediately pulled her closer to him and hugged Meiling tightly. All Meiling could do was let him hold her in his arms. This was not what she had expected, at all, and was completely dumbstruck at his boldness.
Syaoran sensed her surprise and chuckled warmly, reaching to her hair-buns and pulling the ribbons away so that her hair fell down to sprawl across her shoulders in an unruly fashion. Meiling simply blushed.
…And finally found her voice. Softly, she asked- or rather, said- "What…"
"Was that?" Syaoran completed her rhetorical question with more than a hint of embarrassment appearing on his features. Then he chuckled for the third time that night, and said in a quiet voice to match hers, "I don't know. You tell me," he grinned at her, still blushing, and was obviously expecting (welcoming) some teasing and clever comment.
However, all she said was, "I'm not sure, either," and almost before the words could completely leave her mouth she kissed him. After a somewhat teasing kiss (Meiling was gaining confidence, much to Syaoran's delight and slight terror), she pulled back and stared at him straight-forwardly with a loving look in her eyes.
"You tell me."
Without missing a beat, Syaoran answered this time in all seriousness.
"A new beginning, I hope."
Meiling nodded and smiled at the ground shyly. "I hope so, too."
FIN.
[ I hope you liked it, it's definitely just a bunch of pure MeiLi fluff! ^^ I might do a (long, chaptered) prequel to this, sort of explaining what happened to lead up to this point… or perhaps not. I'll give it some thought, at least. Demo, please review!! ^_^ --Ryne ]