Butterfly Wings

By Pseudonym Sylphmuse

Author's Note: Aren't you happy I updated? And so soon? I've lost all my files and stories because my computer crashed and all the information was swiped in the crash which means that I haven't gotten much to write about (and plus I don't even have the write program). Anyway, this is an extra long chapter for everyone as thanks for waiting so long.

By the way this is in Nakuru/Ruby Moon's point of view.

Chapter 7

Where will the Butterfly sleep?

With some surprise I noticed that Yukito was blushing... a lot more than usual. How unusual, how delightful, how particularly un-Yue-like! But then the two of them were two halves in one after all, as Eriol had explained to me more than once... using to my amusement a pie, plum pie. The humor in it was too obvious to me but I didn't comment upon it, especially when Tomoyo so innocently remarked that her name meant plum blossoms to me when I was visiting her. "I never knew you had such good taste," I remarked to Yukito and he blushed.

It was then decided that I had to use my utmost butterfly will to make a record of how many times I could make Yukito blushed... starting the next day. I needed my beauty sleep after all. "But then you were always around Touya and he is certainly a person of good taste... usually," I added thoughtfully.

Yukito looked amused even though his face held an expression of open, innocent curiosity. I wondered what Yue would look like if he had the same expression on his face as Yukito... then again Yue might just accidentally die of mortification then and there if he did. I had a distinct memory of Eriol telling me that Yue had often commented that he was supposed to be the "Sensibility of the three of us, Clow, Yue, and Kero" which I certainly agreed upon. Even though I found it eerily fascinating to watch Eriol revert to his other self.

The lines in his face deepened and his eyes weren't the same dark blue, they were a dark ebony. It was heartily creepy to look at, since Clow had a... more 'advanced' humor than Eriol.

In other words, the Clow Reed, greatest magician of his time... was a wicked prankster. A wicked, wicked, evil prankster, the other side of the wise Clow that people rare saw except from what I had heard Kero and Yue.

"Nakuru?" Yukito said, his voice wavering as this time it was his turn to snap his fingers in front of my face. I shook the web of thoughts from my head and resumed my cheerfulness, which reminded me... what had Yukito said before he woke me from my thoughts? Evidently he had noticed too and repeated his question to my embarrassment. "Why? When does Touya not have good taste?"

He saw the look on my face and promptly burst out laughing. I sniffed, haughtily, how dare he laugh at me? The beautiful, ever... usually elegant Akizuki Nakuru! Who had the talent of an actress (how else could I have made Touya love to hate me so easily?), the beauty of a model (how else could Eriol have resisted me when I demanded for him to make me a dress?), and the lightness of a butterfly. But all in all, it 'twasn't my fault that I hated licorice. My face paled remembering the smell of the hot licorice; I could just feel myself becoming claustrophobic with the disgusting things in my mind. They were even more horrible than those morbid books that Suppy liked to read. I shuddered and repeated to myself, "Breathe Nakuru, Breathe!"

I wasn't aware that I had actually said my mantra aloud. I had been wondering why Yukito was on the ground, rolling on the carpet, laughing no doubt, I thought savagely watching his shaking form. I was finding pleasure in watching him laugh, but did he really have to laugh so hard? He was hurting the feelings I had left that weren't hurt, if there were any feelings that weren't already immune to the hurt anyway.

Before I was aware of it Yukito was already up, pounding me on the back (heavily, I think that it is Yue's influence, Eriol had once told me had a very heavy backhand even though Eriol never did tell me why or how he even knew of that). I hacked and coughed before regaining my original composure, finally, I could breathe! I spread my arms wide, letting my lungs expand now that my ribs had stretched away from my lungs, taking a deep breath... and yawned.

And I have to say, I've never seen anything so amusing than Yukito flinching when he heard the bass rumble of my yawn, Suppi-chan had said my yawns resembled a large cavern's echoes, a large cavern with jagged teeth and the smell of sulfur.

I never did understand while he said my yawn smelled of sulfur, I'm not as stale as a cavern either even though my teeth is in perfect condition.

How strange, Yukito's laughing again. What is so amusing to him that he keeps laughing? My annoyance drifted away as I began to notice that my eyesight was becoming blurry, I must be really sleep, I thought, my hand in a misty haze. "Yukito," I murmured. "Where will I sleep?"

"Oh!" Yukito said, abruptly ending his laughs. He drifted out of his bedroom with me following behind him and went to slide one of the doors. He paused. I had been following him but his strange stop made me stop, right before crashing into him, as it was, my nose was now sported a little bruise from bumping into him. When had Yukito become so... hard? Must be the physical influence from the moon, I concluded.

I hesitantly asked, "Yukito?" He answered me by pulling the sleeve of my (no his!) pajamas next to him. What I saw shocked me; I had never seen anything like this happen before! The whole entire room was covered in leafy branches and vines, in the center of this elaborate entourage was a very smug, Cheshire-cat smiling Wood. Wood, as in the physical form of the Sakura Card Wood. She looked like a perfect nymph in her solid, forest beauty and she fitted a nymph's mischievous description as well. I've never seen or known of any cards that acted this way and she was the first one.

Inwardly I thought the way she had covered the entire room was rather elegant and thorough. I couldn't even see the color of the walls or carpet. I could only see the thick mass of trunks and branches, with blooming leaves of autumn red spread through. Of which I couldn't help noticing that the angle they had been put had purposely set them off to make it into a beautiful autumn scene.

"Why?" Yukito asked, his eyes for a brief second flashed a violet but it disappeared so quickly that I wasn't sure it was even there.

Wood shook her leafy head and just smiled. She blinked, one eye blinked before the other... the eye facing me and then the other eye followed. I was sure she wasn't winking... now was she? The unusualness of things was becoming disconcerting to me. She gave me one indescribable look before she shook her leafy head, which I felt as a compliment since the shade of the leaves on her head were similar to the color of my own hair. Her tendrils of wood gathered swiftly about the door, branches thicker than my waist could be seen near her as her furniture, the smug card. Pulling the door shut, the branches didn't withdraw but grew to cover the whole entire door, and it would've been impossible to open it again.

I'm not sure anyone would want to try, Wood had grown perceptibly long thorns all over her branches. Evil, evil, mischief-filled Wood.

Yukito and I hastily stepped back a few places, afraid of the thrones. When we were safely distanced away (in front of the next room) did the two of us snicker quietly to each other in relief. We would've giggled had Yukito not already opened the door.

And a more surprising sight than the Sakura Card Wood invading a room met us. It was luckily for us that we hadn't stepped in yet; it would've been dangerous with the slippery ice and the added decoration of ice stalagmites and stalactites. But we wouldn't have been able to step on the ice anyway because of the height of the frozen ice, which was three to four feet tall, with an even more smug and unabashed Ice card swimming happily inside the room. If I had been aware before that Ice's form was big, now I knew that Ice could probably make itself bigger or smaller by convenience.

It was only three feet long... the size of a small crocodile.

It blew a few bubbles at us but otherwise didn't acknowledge our presence. Then as if struck by an amusing idea, it lunged at us and hurriedly Yukito slammed the door. Our backs were against the wall when the ice burst through from the edges of the door and spread to cover the whole entire door in a web of crystalline ice.

Yukito turned to me and gasped an apology. "I'm sorry Nakuru, nothing like this has ever happened before. The Sakura Cards have never visited me like... this." He said and waved a hand towards the two barred doors.

I managed a smile, even though in truth I wanted to yawn and go to sleep right then and there. The day had worn me out and the addition of mischievous cards were not what I had in mind as a restful ending. "It's alright, maybe only Ice and Wood are here, there's a chance that the other rooms are vacant."

Afterwards I knew I should never've said that, my remark only served as the jinx upon us. The next room had an annoyed Earth card in it, Yukito and I now that we knew the temperament of the cards, quickly closed the door and left. We winced when we heard the sound of a door splintering and quickly hurried to the next door... and cautiously opened it. We promptly closed it upon meeting the growling face of the Thunder card.

"Do you think that there's a pattern in how annoyed they all are?" Yukito hesitantly asked as we leaned on the wall opposite of the room that held Thunder.

Slowly I blinked; of course there was a pattern! But I only said, "If there is, we still have to check all the rooms or where will I sleep?" The thought made my apprehensive, but I steeled myself towards the upcoming doom.

A look of uncertainty passed over his face but he soon too refused to back from the situation. "Yes, we do."

The two of us threw open the door and steeled ourselves to the shocking event of seeing another card. But before we had even caught a glimpse of the Windy card, she (the term in truth should be it, they being cards but what I think Clow had in mind was diversity to a certain aspect) promptly closed the door as soon as we saw her. We didn't dare try to go in again, Windy being the powerful card she is. For fun she might've tried to make us ride on her winds and just as easily drop us from a high elevation in the air, which I knew I wasn't ready for even though I did have wings of a butterfly.

I threw Yukito an unhappy look, which he replied with a crooked smile. I wonder if I should be moderately happy over the conquest of seeing that Yukito couldn't always handle everything, which must have been Yue's influence but I left that for tomorrow after having a good night's sleep and a cheerful excursion I would feel amused but for now I wouldn't. I wasn't feeling very cheerful either.

"Nakuru?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't we split up this job and you look at one half of the house and I'll continue to look at the other?" He waved to the left side of the house for me and the right side for him

"Sure." Hurriedly I opened the doors on my side to meet in succession, the Shadow (creepy card that one is, has a morbid sense of humor), the Voice card (such a... strange humor, she was imitating all kinds of voices, Tomoyo's and Eriol's in particular). The Bubble and Big card (in one room, with Bubble making bubbles and the Big enlarging them, wasn't smart of them since Big became trapped in a large bubble). In the last room I met a floating book, which was playing out a story... of a butterfly and the moon, I didn't even dare comment on that; the mischievous cards were jarring on my nerves. I have a perfect memory when it comes to the Sakura cards but I couldn't for the life of me remember what the last room's card was.

By the time I had come back to the hallway, expecting to find no one but seeing Yukito whose face was artfully put into a worried expression. I found it strangely like a bunny that his nose was twitching, I can't wait to say that to Yue and see if his nose twitches too; his offended look would be priceless.

I took a deep breath before reporting the cards I found. "I met Shadow, Voice, Bubble and Big, the floating book. The effect has just sent a jolt into my heart, don't ask about the details."

"What happened?" He said.

Throwing him an annoyed look I repeated, "Don't ask about the details."

He nodded and then recounted what happened to him. "I found the Fire card juggling in the first room"--I snickered--"the Flower card decorating her room, I don't think you would've liked sleeping in there," he said quickly.

With this I nodded, flowers were great... but Flower could overdo it sometimes.

"There was the Sweet card in the next room and around her were bags of what seemed to be licorice... Nakuru are you okay?" I nodded, even as I hacked and coughed remembering the overpowering smell of licorice. And I knew there was no way on this Earth that I was going to spend my beauty sleep... in a room full of licorice. As soon as he was sure that I could breathe again, he continued. "The Fight card was in the next and she was... overpowering to say the least. I closed the door and she punched through it, which I thought wasn't a safe enough place for you. The Sword was slicing things in my kitchen, which I think is a place you wouldn't want to sleep in."

I bobbed my head in agreement and before my eyes majestic white wings closed over the form of Yukito, swiftly they opened and there stood Yue in his moon-ly person. Without even a word of acknowledge towards me he was soon flitting towards all the rooms in the house, even in my exhausted state I could still find it funny that Yue should be floating towards the rooms with such speed. I stood stock-still, shocked. It took me a few seconds of remember whom I was when the door I was leaning on became sticky.

I had forgot about the ice. Muttering various... words that Eriol would've locked me in a room full of licorice if he knew I knew them I attempted to... detach myself from the ice. I soon did, the little accident had awakened me from the shock I had received from Yukito being reverted back to Yue.

Now I knew why Sakura sometimes said she might have a heart attack one-day with the surprises Yue brought. Fortunately my pajamas didn't rip when I tore myself away from the ice.

Cringing, I heard various loud crashes before Yue appeared as calm and unruffled as before to tell me, "The cards refuse to listen to me."

When he was done saying this, he reverted back Yukito to my surprise but then Yue had always been short of words towards me, since I could unravel him just by being a butterfly. As Eriol said and I quote, "Now that you've come into the picture Nakuru, I've never seen Yue wear so many surprised looks on his face." Suppi-can snickered but I found that to be a compliment.

Yukito sighed. "Yue suggests that maybe we can sleep in the same room, I'm sure I have a second cot that you can sleep in."

Rubbing my eyes I nodded tired as I was, I would agree to anything. I found it perfectly alright if I was to... what?! Sleep in Yukito's room? I asked for Yukito to repeat what he said and with a bewildered look in my direction, that he did as I instructed. "That's fine," I said wearily. Renegade cards, a short-ended Yue, there were just some things a moon guardian could handle before collapsing.

Through my haze filled mind, I was only aware of Yukito pulling a second cot out of his closet and I, sinking down onto it. What else happened after that was lost to me, I was in the realm of sleep after all.

Author's Note: So what did everyone think? Pretty bad isn't it? Even though extra long because everyone had to wait so long ^_^; Hopefully you liked it. Anyway, the humor in here is a tad different from my usual writing humor.

Inami - Ooh! Do sketch! I'd love to see it ^_^ Yes I am interested in Yami no Matseui (tried a hand at writing a fanfiction story on that but the story came out a tad too... panicked and garbled). Yukito is a little more human in this chapter... not his usual self, you'll see after reading ^_^

Ginny-Star - Why thank you! Even though you might think differently now that you've read this chapter, Nakuru isn't as bubbly here than the last few other chapters. I agree, has there ever been a time where Yue actually, really, truly blushed?

jade-lily - Yes after all that time I have posted a new chapter! And two months after ^_^;; my writing skills are becoming rusty, hehehe. I always did think the Bunny PJs were a good addition.

Blushing Sigh - I really do think your new nickname is cute! Blushing sigh... *sighs* kawaii! I'll try to update sooner rather than later now that I have more of a goal and a program that 'forces' me to write. I like length, so when I see shortness in the program I automatically start writing more.

Dawn the Espeon - Yes, it's true, this pairing is very rare even though I think they would fit each other easily, if not as a couple but as friends. Opposites sometimes make the best friends ever.

ChibiBakaKitsune - Let's see, I might explain the matter with Yue and Yukito both like bunnies in the next chapter. Thanks for reviewing!

Neko-Butterfly - I adore it to! And I'll eventually update sooner ^_^

Triangle144 - Thanks!

rei - I'll try.

AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE READING THIS, REVIEW! REVIEW, REVIEW!