Today was the final spell of the Nakoudo Card. Nakuru sighed as she started to clear the table. For the past few days, Yukito had been openly avoiding the instances that they would be alone. With her simple mind, she couldn't understand why he was doing that.
"But he kissed me, right?" she asked herself. "Doesn't that mean anything?"
"Nakuru?" Tomoyo's familiar angelic voice made her pause. "Are you talking to yourself?"
"I-I'm sorry, Mistress Tomoyo. Was I talking that loud?" she asked, sweatdropping.
Tomoyo smiled. "No, not really." Her face then turned serious. "Can I help you with your problem, Nakuru?"
"Oh, surely you jest. How can someone like me have problems?" she asked, shrugging carelessly.
"You tell me," said her mistress, smiling a little. "I'm a meddling nakoudo, right?"
Nakuru nodded, then sat down. Before she knew it, she was blurting out to the woman her frustrations regarding the snow bunny.
"You know," said Tomoyo thoughtfully after listening to Nakuru's entire narration. "You guys are not yet a lost cause." She winked at Nakuru. "Watch the Tomoeda nakoudo in action."
Nakuru could only gape at her.
Yukito was in the middle of his philosophy class when Tomoyo knocked politely on the door of the classroom. The class halted, and Yukito himself was stunned. What would be Hiiragizawa Tomoyo be doing here?
He excused himself from the class and went out to see Tomoyo, who was still earning admiring glances from both the male and female population of his class.
"What is it?" he asked.
Without saying anything. Tomoyo thrusted two rock concert tickets to his hands.
"W-What are these for?" he asked, frowning. If this was her reason of disturbing his class just like that, he would have to scold the nakoudo for it.
"Today is the last spell of the Nakoudo card," she informed him matter-of-factly. "Tomorrow, you will stop feeling the way you feel for Nakuru, so I was wondering if you would care to enjoy the last day with her."
The Nakoudo card. He had almost forgotten about that because for days, the household was all worried about Eriol Hiiragizawa Jr., who still had not recovered from losing his favorite cousin.
Tomoyo smiled at him. "Nakuru is expecting you. Please make her happy even at least just for today, eh?"
Yukito looked away. "O-Of course." His eyes then went back to the rock concert tickets. Was it coincidence that the band that performed in the rock concert he and Nakuru first went out to see would be the same one to perform tonight?
He looked at the list of sponsors, where the Daidouji company logo was placed discreetly.
Of course, in a world where there was a Tomoyo in it, there was no place for coincidences.
"But I have a small favor to ask," said Tomoyo.
Yukito nodded, and the nakoudo told him her thoughts. In the end, Yukito was smiling.
Nakuru lamely dressed for the rock concert that Tomoyo set up for her and Yukito. She remembered what the nakoudo told her.
"You have until twelve this midnight to tell him how you feel," she told her. "When the clock strikes twelve, the spell would vanish, and everything would go back to the way it was before, understand? Waste no time and tell him how you feel."
"Tell him…how I feel," whispered the moon servant.
"Don't sweat it," advised Spinel. "Whether he feels the same way for you or not, the important thing is you were honest to him, even to the point of being open with your feelings."
She looked at the feline gratefully. "I know, I know. I tell myself that too." She then sighed. "Demo…"
The rest of her words were cut when she heard the doorbell.
"Good luck." And for the first time, the feline had no sarcasm in its words.
"Thanks." She smiled bravely and went to the door, where Yukito was waiting.
In the concert, with its dizzying lights and dancing crowd, Nakuru found herself gazing at Yukito who was modestly clapping with the people.
"Conservative Yuki-chan…" she whispered. After tonight…after tonight, she was sure there would be no more chance to tell him how much he meant to her in the decade-old friendship they had. She knew that she wouldn't be able to muster the guts to approach him about it in the future.
Determinedly, she pulled Yukito out. This puzzled the snow bunny.
"It's only eleven in the evening," he said when they were outside the warehouse where the concert was held. "We still have two hours of music."
But she didn't comment. She was looking at her shoes, wondering how to start the conversation…how to start her confession.
In the end, she sat down on the sidewalk, just as the snowflakes began to fall gently.
Yukito sat down beside her and took off his coat. Gazing tenderly at her, he placed it around her shoulders, then took his scarf and tied it securely around her neck.
She had no choice but to look at him. His handsome face was intent on his work, his fingers nimble and quick in doing the knot despite the chilly breeze.
"Yuki-chan," she began. "Do you know that I kissed Yue?"
"Yes," he said simply. He wasn't looking at her—he was still doing the knot, though Nakuru thought that he was taking awfully quite a while with the scarf.
"Y-You think he's mad at me?" she asked, voice barely audible.
"I think he is." At last, he looked at her. "You know that he doesn't like intimacies very much."
"B-But…" She bit her lip. "Do you know that I kissed you afterwards?"
He nodded. "Of course. You think I'm the type to forget things like that? You are my first kiss."
Oh my! Nakuru didn't know what to feel. Delighted, for she was the first one to touch him so intimately. Frightened, for he might be disappointed that it had to be her to kiss him.
"I-I'm sorry. I-I just wanted to tease Yue," she found herself saying.
His forehead creased. "Do you want me to call Yue so you can apologize to him personally?"
"Iie!" Nakuru shook her head.
"Then don't say sorry to me." Yukito straightened and turned his attention to the falling snowflakes. He opened his hand and caught one. "Because I'm not sorry."
"You're not?" she echoed, eyes wide. "I mean, you weren't turned off or anything? I had always wanted Mistress Tomoyo and Master Eriol to teach me how to kiss, but they wouldn't hear anything of it." She played with the shoelaces of her boots. "Which is a pity, because they can be great teachers. They kiss every opportunity they think they're alone, and each time, they hold contests as the longest kiss they ever shared, or—"
He laughed and turned to her. She met his gaze, and they remained staring at each other for some moments, wondering what to say next.
"How can Nakuru-san turn me off?" he asked huskily. "Nakuru Akizuki-san is the sunshine of my life. She is my favorite person when I thought that after Touya, I thought I wouldn't care for anyone as much as I did for him."
"Hontou?" Her eyes widened. "Cool!" She grinned. "Y-You're my favorite person too…" She looked down. "I-In fact…" She then remembered something. "Yuki-chan, about the Nakoudo card…" She looked up just in time to see his face lowering down to hers.
Just as his lips touched hers, the clock tower in the corner struck, startling both of them. Her eyes widened. She wiggled free out of his arms and stood up, eyes welling with tears.
"Nakuru-san?" asked Yukito, looking up at her.
"I lost my chance!" she cried. "The nakoudo spell is over!"
"Huh?"
Nakuru wiped a tear quietly. "Yuki-chan…the nakoudo spell is gone. Now I can never tell you anymore how much I adore you, and love you, etcetera, etcetera." She collapsed back on the sidewalk, sniffling. "I don't know when can I have the chance to be brave enough not to think about the consequences of telling you that I care for you aplenty." She tucked her knees under her chin. "You wouldn't know anymore how I liked you ever since I saw how you cared for Touya. From then on, I never stopped thinking what it would be like for someone to love me like that."
"Nakuru-san…"
"Maybe I should steal the Nakoudo card and beg JR or Master Eriol to help me. Yeah, maybe I would do that." She wiped her tears again. "I'm such a baka, and I'm sure Mistress Tomoyo would think so—"
Her words trailed off when Yukito clasped her hand. "Let me," he said as his fingers gingerly wiped her tears.
"It's alright," he said, smiling. "You can tell me those things when you are ready. I would wait eagerly."
"You will?" she said excitedly.
"Yup. And by that time, maybe I can finally summon my guts to tell you why I try as much as possible not to like you aplenty," he said, grinning.
"Hmm?"
"I thought you loved Yue more than me."
"But…you're him!"
He shrugged. "As of now, I couldn't fully accept that. But knowing that you care for me…I think it's reason enough to stop being confused. After all, life is not life without eternal mysteries, right?"
"Right!"
"I don't need the Nakoudo spell to make me realize that I care for you." Yukito's eyes softened. "Besides, in my heart, I could feel that Yue cares for you too."
"Hontou?" Her eyes were so trusting that it moved the snow bunny.
And now he knew that Nakuru Akizuki loved him. She loved him as Yue, and she loved him as Tsukishiro Yukito.
He pulled her to him lovingly. "Tomoyo told me something about Winston Churchill."
"Is that a brand of a cigarette or a subdivision?" asked Nakuru.
"Neither. He's a person…he used to be the prime minister of Britain."
"Oh."
"He was once asked who he would want to be when he would be born aside from himself. Some answered 'Bonaparte' and other famous history figures, but he didn't. He said that if he would be born another man, he would want to be Lady Churchill's second husband." He clasped her hands. "And I feel the same way. If I wouldn't be like Yue whom you had to seduce into that delicious kiss, then I could be at least your simple Yuki-chan who loves you dearly in his own way."
"Y-Yukito?"
"Hai?"
She rested her head on his chest. "Maybe someday, we'll both have the guts to say these things to each other."
He nodded. "Me too. I believe so too."
And when Nakuru hugged him, he strangely felt like he had come home.
The snow bunny finally found the perfect warm mittens to hold him.
The end
Um, if anyone's interested with a JR/Nadeshiko epilogue, please email me and I'll come up with a oneshot ^^