A/N: It's been a while, but I finally got in the mood to write this… something about the cold weather, perhaps? Hope you guys like it!
Ice Skating
It was a gloriously snowy day; fat, white flakes swirled as they floated ever closer to the ground. The wind blew and swept the snow around and around, as if the world had become a giant snowglobe.
Tomoyo Daidouji sat by the window, embroidering with half hearted concentration. She couldn't help her glances out the window, at the people walking down the sidewalk that passed by the giant gates that marked the entrance to the Daidouji estate.
Sakura-chan and Li-kun were out, somewhere. She had been invited, of course, but lately, she couldn't stay around them. It was too painful. She was good at hiding what she thought, what she felt, but she still couldn't hide forever.
She saw a dark figure stop by the gates and press the doorbell, saw the gates open and saw him begin the long walk down the path to her house. He had on a dark coat, and his dark head was angled downwards. Who…?
She watched him come closer and closer. His posture was perfect, but for his head, and his steps were steady. An aura of quiet assurance surrounded him.
Him.
She watched him as he walked, carefully, deliberately, as he grew larger and stopped before her door, directly below her window.
The dark head suddenly looked up and his eyes met hers sharply just before he put a hand out to ring the doorbell. A servant opened the door, and she heard the familiar call.
"Ojou-sama! You have a visitor!"
She had a visitor. On this blustery, snowy day, where all she wanted was to sit and wallow in her own misery, she had a visitor. He had come back to Japan just to torture her.
No, she amended, relenting. He had come back to Japan for college, and while he was here, he decided to torture her. Why would the reincarnation of Clow Reed need college, anyway?
"Ojou-sama!"
"I'm coming," she called. She left her perch reluctantly and made her way slowly down the stairs.
Eriol Hiiragizawa stood in her foyer, looking immaculate despite his trek through the elements, making conversation with her servant. At her arrival, however, he broke off his conversation to address her.
"Come skate with me," he said.
She blinked.
"What?"
"The pond's frozen over," he said. "Daidouji-san, do come." He gave her a little smile and held up his own skates, which were secured around his wrist by the laces.
He was strangely open, strangely… flirty?
Odd thought.
A feeling struck her, and on impulse, she agreed. "All right," she agreed, pulling on her jacket. Her thoughts should wait. Needed to wait. A distraction would be good for her.
He looked a little surprised, as if he had doubted his own persuasive abilities- no. Eriol Hiiragizawa did not doubt his abilities. More likely, he was surprised that she agreed so quickly.
She went to the corner closet to pull out her skates, then stopped.
"How did you know I had skates, Hiiragizawa-kun?"
A mysterious little smile played across his lips. "Lucky guess, Daidouji-san," he said.
It always useless to try to question him.
She pulled the skates out, put them in a bag and set out with him, the servant closing the door behind them.
"How has your winter break been, Daidouji-san?" he inquired politely.
"It's been fine," she replied, just as politely.
He glanced down at her.
She looked pointedly forward.
"You didn't have to agree to come if you didn't want to," he said.
"I agreed, didn't I?" she replied, eyes focused on the path ahead.
He was silent, and they walked along the otherworldly sidewalk, feeling the snow swirl around them, landing on their heads and gloves and shoes and melting ever so quickly. The life of each flake was so evanescent, but together, the piles grew ever taller.
Small icicles formed along the gates of her community; nature's own Christmas lights, as the muted sun reflected off of them.
She smiled, stuck out her tongue a tiny bit, and closed her eyes.
"That's adorable, Daidouji-san."
Her eyes flew open.
Adorable?
She eyed him briefly. "I like snow."
The usual mysterious little smile played across his lips, and he tucked his hands more securely into his pockets before answering. "I can tell," he said.
She felt unnaturally defensive of what she had done. Securing her hood around her head, she unconsciously mirrored his actions, and shifted her mittoned hands in her pockets.
The snow gradually lightened during their short walk to the pond. When they arrived, the normally clear path was blocked by two tree branches equally weighed down by the snow that had collected on them, pushing them downwards to lean across the pathway. It was a doorway for the sprites or gnomes or pixies, any of the little people. It looked fairy-tale-esque, in the most cliché sense.
She loved it.
"Wait," he told her, as they neared the little entrance. He moved forward and raised his arm to move the branches.
"Hey!" She caught his arm. "Go around it."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Mother Nature created the entrance for somebody, and we have no right destroying it just because we're too tall for it."
"I never knew you to be too tall for anything," he replied, smiling.
She gave him a look.
"Ladies first," he said, motioning around the opening.
She tiptoed around it, holding her breath, afraid that the slightest move would ruin the perfection.
"Your turn."
He stepped smoothly over the opening.
Not fair.
She supposed he was about 185 cm, and the opening at most 50 cm, but it didn't excuse his unnatural cat-like gracefulness. Surely his coat would have caught on a branch, or something, but not a flake of snow was out of place.
She resisted the urge to pout. She was not a girl who pouted. She was not a girl prone to silly little girly gestures in front of boys. Men. Him. Except that she almost was, right now.
She shrugged, half in response to his actions and half to express her own confusion.
"Ladies first," he said again with a little bow, this time pointing towards the pond in the clearing.
It was fun, while it lasted. He was rather good, and she wasn't too bad herself, and they had a fair competition making elaborate patterns on the ice and making the other person copy them.
Both of their pale faces were tinged with red; rosy from exertion, they walked along in content silence, making their way through the tiny patch of woods, and coming onto the sidewalk.
He was ever so subtly gallant, lending her a hand to help her out of the woods, taking her skates and keeping them hooked over his arm even as they walked down the sidewalk.
Then suddenly- she slipped on a patch of black ice and grabbed at the nearest thing- Eriol.
Her head hit his chest as her hands grasped at his forearms, and the skates looped over his arm slipped and fell to the ground.
He steadied her as best he could, then-
His foot suddenly gave, as he stepped in another patch of ice, and they collapsed together.
She had never seen him so undignified, sprawled as he was, legs contorted in the most awkward of angles. He struggled to maintain a veneer of calm and failed miserably.
He blew his hair out of his face exasperatedly, then, as he caught her eye, laughed out loud.
He was so human.
"Pardon?" he asked, a smile still on his face.
"What?" she responded, confused.
"Something about humans?" he prompted. The smile looked odd, now.
Bloody hell. She had said it out loud.
"Nothing, Hiiragizawa-kun," she said. "Just a random thought."
"Of course."
He stood gracefully, offering her his hand. She took it with the tips of her fingers- her mittens had come off when he collapsed- and allowed him to pull her up.
"You have cold fingers, Daidouji-san," he remarked.
She glanced at him. "Yes, I do," she said, and she pulled her hand away.
They arrived at her house.
"Wait, Daidouji-san," he said, stopping her just before they reached the gate. "What did you say earlier?"
She shrugged.
"That's uncharacteristic of you, my dear."
"I'd like to go in now, if you don't mind," she said, turning away.
"I am human."
She stopped.
"I am as human as you are, in most ways. I wake up in the morning and I brush my teeth and wash my face. I eat and I drink and I sit, just as you do, and admire the beauty of the season."
He was saying…?
"I am human enough, Daidouji-san, to admit that I need companionship," he said, his tone almost mockingly light, but the undertones said it all.
She swallowed. "Is that all, Hiiragizawa-kun?"
"I am human enough to know that living through somebody's else's life is unfulfilling. Every human needs her own life."
She looked briefly over her shoulder. She met his eyes for half a second, then turned back towards the gate. "I have my own life," she said.
He was silent. With him, however, the silence spoke even as he didn't, and she felt compelled once again to look back up at him.
"Would you like to go ice skating again?" came the innocuous question.
The look in his eyes was anything but innocuous, however.
Another afternoon… that she would not spend alone. That she would not be sitting, waiting, hoping…
"Yes."
A/N: I started this at the very beginning of summer, when I was wishing for a little cold weather and ice skating of my own, I'm guessing. However, as the temperature was too far off and my own ability to imagine a wintry scene rather limited as I wandered around in a tank top and sophies, I finished this fic yesterday, sitting in… a tank top and a scarf. The scarf did it all! I swear… Anyway, I hope the fic brought a little seasonal cheer, especially as we head into November and real cold weather. And if I brought you cheer, a leeeetle review would be nice too shameless plug ..