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10.
As he drifts lazily on a gentle breeze that carries a hint of rain, Yue finds himself wondering: when was the last time life had felt this good?
The full moon is shining above him, huge and beautiful. Stretching his wings wide under its silver glow feels wondrous.
Peals of laughter come from a little afar to his right and he glances over at his Master and their little family, enjoying the moonlight as well.
Harry has been steadily transforming the Cards, ever since the night he first evoked his own Circle, instead of Clow's. Touya is pacing him attentively, only letting him do one at a time, and demanding he takes two or three days off to rest every time he does.
He also insists that Harry must delay calling up the few he still hasn't fully connected to, spreading their use and later transformation over time as much as possible.
"And leave the attack Cards last," he says seriously. "That way if you're in a pinch you can use up the last of the magic Clow embedded in his Cards and conserve your own, not to mention you'll be quicker than if you have to change the Card before using it."
Harry looks like he doesn't understand the strategy or the need for it, but he does as Touya wants anyway.
Yue is grateful, because the constant draw on his own reserves is somewhat lessened this way.
He wonders, though, if Touya has 'seen' anything, to be so worried. Hopefully it's just another version of his 'sister complex', like Yukito claims, because if it isn't...
His Master's magic is slowly growing, but too little still to ensure the Moon Guardian's survival if it were to be expended all at once.
If they manage to avoid using it unnecessarily and take time to let Harry's reserves replenish every so often, they shouldn't have to face the problem. With any luck, his Master will never know the danger his Guardian is in. But if something forces their hand...
Yue knows that Keroberos is worried sick about it. The marked increase in the amount of time he spends playing videogames and the red-rimmed eyes he gets from it are a clear signal. Neither Guardian mentions anything to Harry however. He already has enough to worry about, after all, with how the drain on his magic is making him vulnerable to nightmares.
Yukito and Touya both know that he was prone to having them before, but now, they seem worse, much worse, and he is reluctant to discuss them. By unspoken agreement, it is Yukito who coaxes him on this point, and even Yue gives them privacy during those conversations. The kind-hearted young man is, after all, the best suited to help the child with this. Yet Yukito is sure that Harry isn't sharing the worst of it, not even with him.
Such worries cannot interfere with the joy of this night, however, and Yue puts them from his mind quite firmly.
Tonight, Harry has changed The Fly and the Moon Guardian isn't surprised that it isn't as draining as usual. Between the Moon bolstering his own energy and the child's innocent delight in streaking through the air, which strengthens him through adrenaline and endorphins, everything is going more smoothly than usual and they can truly enjoy themselves.
Harry will probably crash later, and Yukito in the back of Yue's mind frets about the likelihood of another nightmare, but Yue mutes the worry, revelling instead in the freedom of flight. Besides, tomorrow's Sunday and they'll all be able to sleep in.
Yue twirls in the moonlight and feels a laugh bubble up inside him. It is out of character for him, but it is happening more and more often.
Like the Moon he is tied to, he tends to reflect the light – the emotions – that are bestowed upon him and Harry's childishness is naturally influencing him. The innumerable scuffles Kero is drawing him in over the silliest pretexts are proof enough. As is his growing delight in simple things like the Moon's scattered reflexes on water or a race above the rooftops, wind rushing through his beautiful hair.
It is a little disconcerting, but he doesn't mind too much.
A squeal catches his attention and he slows down, floating gently as he watches the kids with secret amusement. And yes, he's counting Keroberos amongst the children.
The huge lion-like creature is showing off in the air, letting the moonlight sparkle off the blood-red rubies of his armour. What might have been an awe-inspiring figure however is completely ruined by the pink-and-white-clad girl straddling his back, a hand firmly clamped on the little round hat with pink pom-poms Tomoyo has talked her into wearing, for fear that the wind might steal it.
After Harry was able to describe her magic to her – of the Stars, just like Yue had guessed – Sakura had little trouble modifying the incantation to release the power of her staff from the Key. Just like Yue remembers from the Judgement, it is now a pink shaft topped by an encircled, five-points winged star above a little ruby red gem.
Sakura can call it forth with ease and when she wields it, it's like her power is swirling all around her. However, that does not mean she knows what to do with it, now that she doesn't have access to the Cards.
She'll learn, eventually, but in the meanwhile, if she wants to join them in their nightly fun-filled flights, Kero has to let her ride him.
They seem to be having fun together, anyway. Even as Sakura shrieks at the speed of his turns, that makes her loose the hat after all, and then yells in fright when Kero dive-bombs the little piece of white cloth floating gently down, racing Harry who beats him to the punch, catching the hat with a triumphant squeal.
The green-eyed boy is fluttering about, walking on a cloud both literally and metaphorically.
The changed The Fly has sprouted beautiful emerald wings from his small back, soft and feathery and glossy in the moonlight, and he's flying around like he was born for it, his green eyes sparkling with sheer joy. Not even Yue and Kero match his confidence and grace in the air.
Between his messy black hair, the evocative flapping wings and his mischievous grin, he looks like a fae.
Tomoyo, who is happily filming everything from a nearby rooftop, certainly thinks so. She'll have to enlist Sakura's help to convince him to wear the wonderful costume she's thought up just for him, next time they go out like this. She daydreams a little of a matching costume for Sakura, a gorgeous, sweet smile on her lovely face, as she films on the misadventures of her hat-turned-ball-to-play-catch.
An impromptu game of tag instigated by a mock-annoyed Sakura takes the three fliers to brush near Yue and the Moon Guardian lets the feeling of his Master's unguarded power wash over him.
It is strange, how similar to Clow's it is. Magic of the Dark... thrumming with secret energy, overwhelmingly strong, and cooler even than his own Moon magic. He reflects that perhaps that was why his Master was able to form such a strong connection to the Clow Cards, especially his Moon Ruled ones, despite lacking knowledge and experience, not to mention the Sealing Key.
The smell of rain grows heavy in the nightly air and Yue knows that they will soon have to turn in. Already fast clouds are gathering, intercepting errand beams of silver light. He sighs, turning around with a soft rush of feathers. He doesn't want this magical moment to end.
He catches sight of Touya standing next to Tomoyo. His pose is casual, relaxed, but Yukito knows him well enough that through his eyes, Yue can see how he is keeping a sharp eye on his younger siblings.
Yue contemplates an idea for a moment and he feels Yukito's mischievous encouragement. His other self is all for it.
He dives, straight for the dark-haired young man, who doesn't pay any attention to his soft landing behind him, until Yue's arms encircle him from the back.
Before he can protest, Yue kicks off softly and they are airborne.
There is a moment of stunning, as Yue's breath catch at the rush of sensations Yukito is inadvertently pouring on him. He is careful not to react to them overly much. For a long while now the two young men have walked the delicate line between friendship and more: Yue doesn't want to risk influencing them one way or another. He has no right.
The Moon Guardian stills, his wings beating slowly to the rhythm of their synchronized hearts, and waits.
And Touya relaxes into his embrace.
It is strange, this relationship they have.
Yue is well aware that it is primarily Yukito's feelings that are dictating its terms. His other self might be scared to admit anything, but he knows himself well enough to understand what the taller young man means to him.
Yue wants nothing to do with that. He refuses to get his heart entangled again. One Clow Reed is enough for all of eternity, thank you very much. He only tolerates some closeness out of respect for Yukito's feelings and choices.
Yet Yue finds himself turning to Touya more and more often for the kind of support and comfort his Master is still too young to provide. The quiet, unassuming friendship is a dream come true. It allows them, now, to fly together, carefree and serene, and it feels good.
He is also very aware that it is a blessing that they've come to this – that there is no jealousy nor animosity, that he doesn't resent Yukito, nor Yukito him, as might have been – and it's Touya's doing. Gratitude is too weak a word to describe what they owe to their silent best friend.
The air grows heavy with humidity. Slow, huge drops plop from the cloudy sky around them.
They barely make it back home before it starts pouring in earnest and Sakura talks Tomoyo into spending the night.
Yue folds away, letting Yukito take over, and it's the bespectacled young man who urges the yawning children – and one irritable plush toy – to bed and then steps next to Touya, who is frowning thoughtfully at the clouds.
"Something wrong?" he asks with his engaging smile.
Touya, as always, is serious. "It's not ordinary rain."
"Huh?"
"Never mind."
But they do mind – they have to, when it goes on for days and it shows no sign of stopping.
People are starting to notice, to wonder. 'I hear it's raining only on Tomoeda City' – 'I wonder if this is something supernatural' – 'This rain isn't normal rain' - the comments are coming in thick and fast.
Li, who is delaying his return to Hong Kong for some reason only Tomoyo seems to comprehend, is the first to mention the possibility of a magical intervention.
"But I don't feel anything like that at all!" protests Sakura while she pours the tea for everybody who has gathered in the Kinomoto kitchen. "Do you?"
"Maybe it's just that you don't realize it... perhaps the culprit has much more power than any of us," is Li's gloomy retort.
Sakura clenches her fists, looking determined: "We have to check it out!" she cries, and Li nods furiously in agreement.
The light of adventure is dawning in Harry's eyes and Tomoyo clasps her hands under her chin with a lovely smile, talking about dark yellow rain capes and the need for gloves, pink for Sakura, green for Harry.
Touya interrupts them, scowling: "You have to stay as far away from it as you can!"
"Big Brother!" protests Sakura, but his furious gaze silence her.
"Maybe we can do both?" pipes up Harry hopefully. Touya turns his glare on him and he goes on quickly: "Hear me out – I could send a Card to scout it! That way we check it out but without getting close to it!"
Touya gives him a considering look. "Alright."
"The Cloud and The Rain still have to be changed," says Harry excitedly. "They'd be perfect..."
"You'll do it tonight," agrees Touya. "From here," he adds, glaring to his sister and the brat that hangs around her a little too much for his taste before they can suggest a 'spot with a better view' or something, that'll up the risks.
"Oh, but I had already imagined a wonderful costume..." sighs Tomoyo. "And then I wanted to film Sakura on tape!"
Everybody tactfully takes a sip of their tea to avoid commenting.
Touya leaves for his latest part-time job, as shop assistant at a music store, and Tomoyo goes home to work on the cape costumes, just in case.
Sakura broods about the strict orders to remain home she's received. "He's right," she moans, her hands fisted together over her knees and her head bowed. "I'm useless. Without the Clow Cards I can't do any magic to protect myself, and the Key isn't any use to me..."
"Clow made the cards so that he could do certain magics easier, but they weren't the extent of his magical ability," says Yue from where Yukito is helping Harry with some maths homework. "After all, everybody can do a certain amount of magic, it's just a matter of following the ancient rules. On the other hand, there are only a few magicians in the world who can make entirely new magic. You are one of those magicians, never doubt it – but you lack the knowledge and more importantly the confidence to manage."
Sakura's eyes fill with tears at what she perceives as a reproach, but Yue isn't done: "You should learn other magic, perhaps, until you figure out how to do your own," he says, before he lets Yukito call Harry's attention back to the maths problems he's supposed to solve.
The girl nods, a little uncertainly, but the cheerful smile that is so uniquely her is missing.
And Li makes a shocking offer.
"The Li clan is famous in China for its magic," he says haughtily, not looking at her. He ignores Kero's muttered grumblings about infamy rather than fame. "I could teach you some spells."
Sakura watches him wide-eyed and open-mouthed. To say that she's surprised is an understatement.
Li goes red in the face and turns even more from her, muttering rigidly: "If you want. I don't care if you don't."
"Li-kun..." wonders Sakura with a soft smile. "Thank you!"
"And what price are you going to exact, I'd like to know?" grumbles Keroberos with hostility.
"Kero-chan, there is no need to be so rude!..." yelps Sakura.
"No Li has ever done anything out of the goodness of their little black hearts!" retorts the Sun Guardian.
"That's not true!" exclaims Sakura earnestly. She turns to Li, hands clasped before her heart: "You helped me so much when we were catching the cards, Li-kun!"
"He's still a Li," whines Keroberos sullenly.
"Then call me Syaoran, if it'll make you feel better," is the astounding offer.
For the shock, Kero falls from where he's hovering and hits the table with a dull thud.
The Chinese boy is looking at Sakura askance.
"Syaoran..." she smiles, and nods happily. "But you must call me Sakura."
"Yue! Say something!" yelps Keroberos.
Yukito shrugs: "I don't think it's a good idea to hear out loud what my other self's thinking right now," he says with a big grin. "Especially since I approve of Syaoran's generous idea."
Harry giggles.
Sakura and Syaoran work together the whole afternoon. The boy is teaching her how to use his elemental talismans to simulate the effects of the Clow Cards, or at least, those tied to the elements. He is able to use fire, water, wind and lightning based spells with short trigger phrases and it would be a definitely useful talent for Sakura to share.
The girl has seen him charge with his magic the rectangular pieces of cloth or paper inscribed with ideograms countless times, but that doesn't seem to be helping her, unfortunately. She finds it difficult to evoke any kind of effect and even if, the few times she manages something, her staff enhances her spells considerably, she's not confident enough to obtain results consistently.
It doesn't help that they have very different instinctual affinities. Syaoran's most trusted element is lightning, followed by fire, but both are perhaps too aggressive for Sakura to dominate. She is naturally more inclined towards the gentler wood and wind, of which he has but few talismans.
Syaoran is surprisingly patient, though, and doesn't get upset with her, eve when his eager but clumsy student loses control of a fire spell and The Wave has to be hastily changed by a hilariously laughing Harry, in an attempt to put out the dozen little fires Sakura has managed to burst into existence all over the place.
As a consequence, even though Harry doesn't look too worse for wear, Yukito declares that the scouting mission can wait one day and by the set line of his eyebrows, the children know he will not budge on this point.
He is worried more than he lets on about Harry's nightmares. He knows that while his lost parents are part of what troubles him, there is something more to it that Harry doesn't share even with him. He does not want to do anything to risk an increase of the already too frequent episodes.
The next day, Sakura and Harry walk home together from school; now that Harry doesn't need too many clubs anymore, he's dropped everything except track running, which is made too interesting by the cooing delight of the changed The Dash, so Tomoyo has remained for choir club alone and the two former Cardcaptors are on their own until they get home.
Their brightly coloured umbrellas are the only cheerful note in the greyness and humidity of the atmosphere this strange rain has thrown over Tomoeda like a heavy blanket.
Sakura is chatting happily about a transfer student in her class. "He seems like a very nice guy and he's ever so polite! He thought I was worried because of this strange rain... he gave me a lovely flower that he picked in his garden, you know? And he complimented my smile... He is really rather sweet. It's the strangest thing... I feel like I've met him somewhere... and he says it's the same for him. But how is this possible? Still, Eriol-kun is so cute!"
Harry wisely says nothing to this. Interaction with his classmates has already taught him that girls are strange – and if it hadn't, Tomoyo-chan's obsession with fashionable costumes and filming Sakura would be proof enough. Sakura-nee-chan might be less weird than most girls, but when she goes off on 'cuteness', Harry has learned to stay still and quiet and let it pass.
He amuses himself thinking of the other, older, transfer student recently arrived from England to his big brothers' class. He thinks her name is Akizuki. Touya has been complaining non-stop about the – in his words – completely irritating annoyance that apparently has the bad habit of launching herself at him every chance she gets. Surprisingly, even the ever-welcoming Yukito doesn't seem to like her overly much.
The two are climbing the staircase in the Penguin King Park when suddenly, an unexpected whirlwind appears over their heads, spiralling down from the dark clouds.
They step closer to each other, uncertain and slightly frightened, and watch tensely as the windstorm turns into a dark spiral of water. Then a shapeless head is rushing towards them from the heart of the whirlwind, a serpent-like body of water that aims straight at Sakura with ferocity, slamming into the ground with a resounding splash.
With a sharp cry, they dive aside to avoid the rushing water, getting separated in the process, their umbrellas tumbling away desolately, forgotten.
The column of water separates brusquely in smaller ones that spear the ground with vicious force, bearing down on the girl, intent on crushing her. Sakura is squealing loudly in dismay and running for all that she's worth, trying her best to avoid the pressing attacks.
Harry has rolled behind a bush and discards his backpack impatiently, scared of the vicious water-thingie and frantic to help his adoptive sister.
He realizes now Touya's point about strategy, as he frenziedly rummages for some of the very few Cards he has never called out yet. He finds one within seconds and he throws it in the air without even looking at which it is, shouting: "Protect Sakura! Help her!"
Crackling, blue-white energy explodes and forms a magnificent, large white wolf that takes off at a run. Harry's breath catches in admiration and he gazes at the Thunder Beast for a long moment, but then he sees a water spike very nearly hitting Sakura and he's jolted into action.
Diving behind a tree, he closes his eyes and starts taking deep breaths to call up his magic. He needs something that can counter water, and he needs to conserve his strength as much as possible in case this attack is just the prelude to something worse and most of all, he needs to be fast. He definitely needs all his concentration.
He knows he can call up The Fiery once, because he's never used it yet, but then if he wants to avail himself of it longer he'll have to change it and be drained. It's only with the Cards he is the most in tune with that he can avoid falling asleep soon after using them. Unfortunately, he can't think of a Card he's already transformed that could be decisive in this situation.
He's worried about Sakura, and that makes it harder to focus, but he shouldn't be. For all her lovely clumsiness and adorable awkwardness, she is far from helpless.
A blade of light tears the air as she transforms her Key into her staff and readies herself for a magical fight.
She doesn't dare call up fire after she lost control of it yesterday, and the only other talisman Syaoran gave her is lightning: not the best choice against water, but it is fortunate that the Card Harry has sent to her is The Thunder and can enhance and strengthen her dawning magic. Besides, The Thunder was one of her early offensive Cards, back when she was a Cardcaptor. They have fought together before and know each other well.
The huge, striking wolf summons a bolt of lightning without any need for instructions and holds it ready, waiting for her magic to direct the attack. She whips out the dark yellow cloth and slaps it on the ruby red gem of her staff, like she's practised with her friend, calling up the familiar feeling of her magic.
The water hammers at her before she's ready to invoke the element she's chosen and she doesn't have time to sidestep it. She's drenched and trapped and she can't breathe and it hurts and when she thinks that her little brother might be experiencing the same, something snaps in her.
A shield bursts forth from her, made of pure magic, spherical and invisible except for its effects, and repels the water around her, letting her breathe, and move, and counter-attack.
Harry, who is still hidden, watches for a moment in awe as she evokes the element of Lightning and The Thunder launches itself on the zigzagging path her spell creates, power crackling over his spiky fur.
When it collides with the water column raised to squash it and the amazing energies explode in a spectacular clash, he shakes himself out of his stupor and goes back to his self-appointed task of transforming and using The Fiery.
But he's distracted.
Ever since the night he's first changed a Clow Card into a new Card of his own, he's practised sensing magic around him. It's something useful, but more than that, it's something special, and fascinating, and beautiful.
Now it is almost second nature for him to cast about for the pinpoints of light or waves of darkness that represent magic, even as he tries to concentrate on something else.
Sakura is as bright as a Star, as usual, and The Thunder is blindingly spectacular all around her, zigzagging streaks of glaring lightness. His own magic is wrappingly comforting as it seeks out the fiery streak it wants to coax under its rule.
But it is the wave of magic from above them and behind the attacking water that takes his breath away.
It is familiar, yet for a moment he cannot imagine why. It is not young and vibrant like Sakura's, nor cold but dazzling as Yue's or raw and bold like Kero's, nor is it elemental and direct like Li's, or strong and discreet like Touya's.
It is... powerful, thrumming, strong and cool. Magic of the Dark...
...Magic like his own.