Title: A Sweet Blossoming
Author: Yih
Written: January 2002/ February 2002
Disclaimer: All rights of characters are exclusively Clamp.
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"The final step…" he murmured to himself, standing on the idyllic porch. He stopped himself from knocking on the door, just standing there taking in the breath and courage that he needed to do this. How he needed the strength to take this undeniable step even if it meant pain. The smile on his face was poignant and contemplative, the normal Eriol trademarks.
"I thought you were home."
He glanced around puzzled until he looked in front at the door. His eyes widen with surprise and shock, and it was a rarity that one could astonish him. Even Ruby with all her practical jokes hadn't managed to do that to him since he was elementary in age. He bit his lip, nearly drawing blood until the exquisite creature studied him with a perplexed expression.
"You're not my husband, though you seemed like him from the inside," she remarked with a soft, sweet voice. "I must be losing my touch. Now that I look you, you don't really remind me of him anymore. You've got his height and his sweet smile, but that's where the physical similarities end. It really must have been your smile that drew me out. Well, you must be one of Sakura's friends, aren't you?"
Eriol face faulted, incredulous at the least that he was seeing and hearing Sakura's long lost mother. "Your Sakura's mother?"
She beamed and nodded. "Yes. Are you Syaoran?"
His throat rumbled uncomfortably as he cleared it. "No," he answered, "I'm not Syaoran."
"Then you must…" her voice trailed off as she tried to think of who another of Sakura's friends.
"I'm Eriol," he introduced himself, bowing reverently.
"Oh, Eriol!" she cried out with recognition. "I've heard of you before in some of the hazy conversations, well they were hazy to me at least. But I have heard your name spoken before, though I'm not quite sure where I heard it. I think Fujitaka might have spoken of you, something about being able to…" her voice trailed off as she squinted her eyes in an effort to pull back memories that ghosts really don't have in their translucent forms other than that of their past lives, "to… to--"
"To be able to see you freely as you are?" suggested Eriol with a cheerful smile on his face. "That is what I gifted him with when I came to help your daughter capture the Clow Cards, ultimately becoming the spark that made her change those Clow Cards before they lost their powers into the new Sakura Cards. That is who I am, part of the reincarnation of Clow Reed, of which your husband is the other half."
Nadeshiko's mouth opened up with an appreciative noise rumbling in her throat. "Aww! That's it!" she exclaimed exuberantly. "That's why I recognized your name. I think I can remember that for a while," she murmured delicately, hovering over him like the mother he never had. "But you really don't resemble my husband that much, even in your physical appearance. However, you do share his undeniably sweet smile that I love so much about him. Do you know my husband, Fujitaka?"
Eriol continued smiling away, knowing full well that her memories of what he had told her drifted in and out and around her mind until finally they'd slip away. For ghosts had only one thing on their mind, their past and the present and the future were lost in a whirl of endless time that they had for themselves. In the end, nothing stayed longer than the one thing that kept them on Earth, and for Nadeshiko that was her family—and the main reason was Fujitaka.
"Yes," he told her gently, "I know your husband."
"Hmmm," she murmured her hands moving in and out through his skin, "you have a lovely lips. They look exactly like my husband's lips. Very chiseled and smooth and perfectly lovely. Has anyone told you that you have beautiful lips?" she asked pleasantly. "I'm sure they have; I'm sure there's several girls that you've already kissed that have already have told you of this very thing! You must be one of Sakura's friends… and here I am chattering away with you. Go ahead," she urged, "ring the doorbell."
He didn't even have to go that far before Sakura opened the door for him before he even had the chance to press his finger against the doorbell. His eyes opened wide with surprise as Sakura's head peeked out. Her face glanced up at him, his tall figure a silhouette against her bent form that was searching for something or someone. Her mouth opened up with a shock that surpassed Eriol's own.
But her greeting was joyful. "Eriol!" she exclaimed. "I haven't seen you in years! And here I thought it was Kero trying to play another trick at me. Or that it was squirrel or bird that had gotten in trouble," she ruefully admitted, "because we've had a bit of an incident with the animals recently. A bird actually flew into the house and got trapped, and oniichan ran over a squirrel with his motorcycle."
"Really?" he queried. His eyes caught up between the two visions before him, one his heart and the other his love's mother. Now similar they looked, and yet how different they might be since he didn't really know Nadeshiko for what she really was. It took him a few seconds of glancing between them, utterly astonished before he realized he was ignoring Sakura. He finally said, "Now that is something different. I'm sure things have been really lively here."
"They have!" she eagerly agreed. "Ack! I've been talking to you out on the porch when I should be asking whether you'd like to come in or not! I'm quite forgetful at times," she confessed, stepping aside to allow him to enter. "Would you like to come in, Eriol?"
He nodded and shuffled in next to her, slightly surprise to find himself not quite towering over her, but tall compared to her. She cranked her neck up at an angle and declared, "You really have grown since the last time I've seen you, Eriol. May I ask what brings you into the neighborhood? I'm hoping it's not for business because I'd really like to have sometime to catch up with you. It'd be wonderful if you were here on a vacation."
He'd like to have told her it was her, that was the reason he was in the neighborhood. He'd like to have told her he was here only for her, and it wasn't business. And there was no other reason but her. But he didn't tell her, instead he kept on smiling cheerfully and gestured with his arm for her to lead the way into what direction she wanted to direct him. He had a feeling he'd be seeing Yue very, very shortly.
But he couldn't help but glance back one last time to see Sakura's okaasan waving enthusiastically at him, saying good-bye quite happily. He never knew how Sakura had gotten through without having an okaasan, even with a loving otousan and oniichan like she had. He hadn't had one himself, but he considered Sakura ethereal and fragile that it made him ache inside to imagine the loneliness of not having a maternal figure.
It was only when Sakura tugged on his sleeve that he realized he had been ignoring her for the second time, caught up in his thoughts. She leaned up against him, an understanding smile on her face and she glanced over his shoulder. "You've seen my okaasan, haven't you? Is she as beautiful as the photos?"
Eriol was about to ask her where the photos were when Sakura whirled away from him and threw her arms up in the air, catching his eyes toward the movement which drew itself to the portraits and pictures on the walls. Several of them were of Touya and Sakura as children, and as they were growing up—but others were of a breathtaking young woman photographed everywhere. "She is as beautiful as the photos, if not more so," he responded honestly, his eyes filled with awe as he circled around the amazing hallway. He was taken back by how much each photograph captured.
"My otousan," Sakura began, "loves taking photos. He is really good at what he does, even though it's only a hobby. This is how I know my okaasan. Each of his pictures has such meaning that by looking at them, I begin to understand her personality and what she loves. Even now, looking at them for the millionth time I can see something new about them that I never have before."
Sakura was staring at picture of her okaasan under a cherry blossom tree with the most fascinated look at her okaasan blowing away the fragile blooms when a soft voice murmured, "I wondered when you were going to make your presence known to her." Both Eriol and Sakura turned away from the photo and glanced at the magnificent aura of Yue. He continued, his voice smoothly dangerous, "Now that you're here, may I talk with you privately?"
Eriol nodded and moved away from his position next to Sakura and followed Yue into Fujitaka's study. He was barely in the room when Yue lifted his hands up menacingly, as if to send a beam of magic at his reincarnated former master, but he simply shut the door with a loud bang. A slow, silky smile curved his lips up in a strangely sinister look before his smile faltered and he said carefully, "There is much that we need to talk about."
"Master should be very pleased," remarked Spinel, watching Ruby polish off the last bit of the room with a rag instead of her special brand of magic.
"And of course, I can tell him—you didn't help me!" she yelled into his ear loudly. She grinned impishly as he jumped up to his feet. "You're so lazy, it's a pity Suppy."
Spinel glared at Ruby, but said nothing. Instead, he decided to ask the question that had been lingering in his mind the past few hours. "What did master ask you to do?" he inquired. "Why wasn't I told?" His voice plainly a little hurt that he hadn't been aware of what was going on, not jealous at her assignment, just wondering why he hadn't been told of it.
Ruby sighed, rubbing Spinel's head in a reassuring way. "Well, I think he didn't tell you because he was so anxious and busy planning so many things. He told me what he wanted me to do scarcely an hour before he sent me here. So I didn't have enough time to tell you the tidbits," she told Spinel apologetically. "I'm sure it's nothing at all. Besides, I was better at this sort of job than you are. You'd probably end up playing a chess game with Yue when you're suppose to upset him. I'm not quite sure why master wanted me to upset him, but I did my job as he asked with little improvisations on my part."
"Typical Ruby," Spinel muttered beneath his breath.
"Hey!" she cried out, throwing the rag on his head. "I was being nice to you!"
"I know, I'm grateful," he murmured, smiling. "I think it's rather amusing that we get along so well when master isn't it here."
"That's only because I like to rile up the master up a little," Ruby remarked. "It makes things much more interesting. And it gets him out of his shell of his. It's good for him to show some emotion now and then, even if it is annoyance. Sometimes, I think that he goes so deeply underneath his skin and hides himself that we can't even touch him. But then again there are times that I think we're his best friends."
Spinel purred his agreement. "Yes, we are. And this mansion, sparkly clean will please him very much. It's been a while since we've seen that happy smile on his face. Quite a while, I'll be overjoyed myself to see it. The only thing I'm curious about is why he had you provoke Yue like that. It's not his usual style to go around making people mad, and he was right to chose you. You do try people's patience."
She chuckled and squeezed Spinel's cheeks. "I know you're just jealous that I can get a reaction out of person, while you can only bore them to death with your boring attendance. And you know it, that's why you're trying so hard to make me feel bad about my skills when I should be flaunting them daily!"
Spinel rolled his eyes and grumbled, "That was a short lived truce."
"So what do you want to talk about?"
Author's Note: I'm sure you guys are dying to know what Yue and Eriol want to talk about, so we'll talk about later =). I think I'm getting quite good at cliffhangers =). Anyhow, the situation's changed on getting "chapter email alerts" from me. If you still want them I can email you an invitation to my emailing group or you can send an email here to subscribe: sakurafanfics-subscribe@yahoogroups.com As always, your comments and questions are totally appreciative, and I do reply to reviews occasionally if I'm not busy working on the next part. If you want a response, tell me =) I really do enjoy your views and they help me know what you guys like. Thanks! Ja ne!