Author's Note: I think this is another "Clow Story". It happens "once upon a time", when Keroberos and Yue were still "young".
~Wings~Yue lounged in his bed, on his stomach with his chin in hand, turning the crisp pages. He had read this printing of Faerie Queen countless times, but he took such care that the book looked freshly bound, except for the neatly cut apart pages. The paper was still as crisp as the sun-bleached linen sheets on Yue's bed.
He was a painting of white on white on white, his clothing, his hair, the white pages against the white sheets, until a comet of dirty, golden fur hurled itself through the bedroom doorway and onto Yue's back. A streaking trail of dust, soot, and cobwebs followed Keroberos, and swirled around both of them when the big feline swished his tail.
"Ha HA ha!" Keroberos was laughing and panting heavily, ignoring Yue pinned beneath him, directing his laughter back toward the hallway. Keroberos flexed his wings, sending another roiling cloud of dirty particles into the air. Speechless for the moment, Yue covered his book with a pillow.
Clow appeared next in the doorway, his jovial face streaked with black, and paw prints on his clothing. Grey dust powdered his black hair. He was more out-of-breath, but slightly less dirty, than his boisterous creation. Clow leaned against the door frame, inhaling and exhaling heavily.
"Too slow, old man!" Keroberos triumphantly called to him. "I beat you every time!"
"You… flew…" panted Clow. "That's cheating."
Keroberos cast his maker a skeptical look. "There weren't any rules!"
Yue turned over and tried to extricate himself, but his robes were caught under Keroberos' paws. "What are you doing?" he asked his brother finally, in a hard and exasperated voice.
"Oh, dear… Yue--" said Clow, looking at the mess that one creation had made of the other. Yue was now also speckled in black and grey, and he was angrily aware of it. Clow beckoned Keroberos. "Come down, Keroberos," he said with attempted seriousness.
"Get off," Yue insisted when his sibling was slow to obey their Master. He tossed the bedcovers after the lion and sat up on the bed's edge.
"What!" Keroberos answered back, whining slightly at Yue's angry tone.
Yue turned to Clow, waiting for his maker to support him. "You're both a mess," he said in confusion, when Clow didn't scold Keroberos or make the lion apologize.
"We were cleaning," harumphed Keroberos.
"Cleaning." Yue looked around at himself and at his room.
"We were cleaning," Clow explained apologetically.
"I don't know what you're complaining about," Keroberos said. "It's just a little dirt. It washes off."
"I don't like getting dirty," Yue insisted with annoyance. "And I don't like you running all over me, either."
"And you never do anything to get dirty, either," Keroberos accused. "You just sit around reading all the time and let me do all the messy work!"
Yue looked to his Master. "Clow!" he pleaded.
It would be wrong to give in this time, Clow thought, even though Yue looked adorable with that wronged expression on his soot-smudged face. Keroberos had a point, and Clow knew that he favored Yue excessively. "The two of you arguing isn't going to settle this," the sorcerer said. He walked into the room and, unrepentant of his own dirt, seated himself next to Yue. "Yue, what would you like Keroberos to do?" he asked.
"I want him to apologize," said Yue, confused that Clow would ask.
"And Keroberos," queried Clow, "what do you want from Yue?"
A smug grin crossed the lion's face. "I want him to do all the chores for a whole month," he declared.
"I think that the fairest way to settle this is with a contest," said Clow. "But—" he continued before his creations could comment, "you each have different strengths, so I cannot pit you against each other. So," he said, standing up, "I think we will do things a little differently."
"I'm game," said Keroberos.
"Yue?" Clow asked.
Yue looked at his maker with questioning but trusting eyes. "What you think is best, Clow," he answered.
Clow smiled knavishly. "This is what I propose, then. Yue… and I… will race. Keroberos, this time, you will be the judge. If Yue wins, you will apologize, and clean up here. If I win, however, the penalty will not be a month's chores. If I win, Yue," Clow said with a wicked smile, "you have to take a mud bath."
Keroberos howled with delight. The image of Yue immersed in mud was one that he longed to see.
"What kind of race?" Yue asked with concern. He didn't like the idea of beating his Master, and since Yue's physical prowess exceeded his maker's, Yue felt that the outcome was assured.
"Seven times around the manor," answered Clow without hesitation. "Loop will assist us in our contest. And Fly."
"Why Fly?" asked Keroberos.
"You showed me my disadvantage earlier," said Clow with a smile. "I think I need my own set of wings."
They decided on the young cherry tree as the start and finish point. Keroberos settled himself down in its leafy shade while Clow released Loop. The Card would assure that the racing pair would not be seen by anyone outside of the grounds. The surrounding geography was sparsely inhabited, but there was no point in taking chances that some peasant farmer would look up just as a winged figure came into view. Clow then released Fly, not on his staff, but onto himself. Wings to match his companions' formed on the sorcerer's back.
Keroberos laughed. "They look kind of funny, Clow," the lion said. The sorcerer winked at him.
"I leave my staff in your care, Keroberos the Judge," Clow said. He reduced the staff's size back down to a key, and handed it over. Yue was waiting quietly at the starting line; he looked at Clow expectantly when the sorcerer came to stand beside him. Clow smiled at his opponent. "I expect you to do your best, Yue," he said. "No holding back." The sorcerer clapped his hands together, then clowned by stretching and making small practice jumps until he coaxed a smile out of Yue. "I'm anticipating the challenge," Clow said.
"Ready?" started Keroberos. Yue grew serious and poised to fly. "Set." Clow matched Yue's stance. Keroberos hopped with excitement. "Go!"
They launched into the air simultaneously, and matched each other's pace for the first lap around the manor. Yue could have pulled ahead, but he had six more loops in which to out-race his Master, so he didn't feel the need to go all out. Clow did not seem to be pushing himself, either. The sorcerer raced through the air smoothly, as if the use of wings was natural to him.
"You are doing well," Yue could not resist saying.
"I've done this before," Clow said nonchalantly. "What did you think I'd been doing all those centuries?" He spiraled in the air, a showy little maneuver that cost him speed.
Yue paused in the air, watching to be sure that Clow was stable again. Clow shook a finger at him disapprovingly and then sped ahead. He gained the advantage of several body lengths before the surprized Yue could catch up with him.
"But you have never flown with us before," Yue argued.
"That never meant that I couldn't," said Clow, before he pulled ahead again.
Through the second and third loop of the race, they were always within a short distance of each other, sometimes with Clow in the lead, and sometimes with Yue in the front position. Keroberos cheered encouragement to his maker when the pair started their fourth lap past him.
Realizing that they were more than halfway through the race, Yue concentrated on making his small lead more certain. Why had he assumed that he would defeat his maker easily? Was it because Clow's displays of athleticism were few and far between? Despite his already long life, the sorcerer had kept his health and youthful appearance, and the strength of his magic was formidable. He rarely showed the extent of his abilities, prefering to live subtly. Yet the evidence was all around: his extended life of peace and leisure, his Cards, and his companions.
When they circumscribed the manor house for the fifth time, Yue started to worry. Though he was still slightly ahead, the distance was close, and he could not take the advantage for granted. Clow looked exhilarated and not the least bit tired. Unlike running, flying for speed like this used more magical power than physical power. Clow's magic outstripped Yue's. Yue needed to find some way to use his experience with regular flight to counterbalance Clow's power.
He climbed higher into the sky, where the thinner air put up less resistance. The wind was cold on his face, but that had never bothered Yue. He was dangerously high up now, relying on Clow's spells to keep him from being seen. The pleasure of flying engulfed him, and with it, the extra speed that he needed.
Yue thought that he was well ahead in the seventh and final loop of the race until the sorcerer's winged form shot up past him. Clow swooped upward, and then shot back down like a falcon intent on its prey, speed increased immensely by the steep drop. Yue copied the maneuver, but it was too late; Clow slowed near the ground and touched down gently by Keroberos seconds before Yue made his own hard impact.
Keroberos pounced on his Master, shouting with uncontained joy. He bit and shook the sorcerer's robes playfully, and knocked Clow down to the ground again and again with rambunctious delight. Laughing, Clow wrestled back until both he and the lion were left panting between chuckles. The three of them now sat on the lush grass, but Yue sat slightly apart, looking dejected.
"I lost," said Yue, in a humbled voice. "The penalty…"
"Dirt washes off," said Clow. He stood up, walked over to Yue, and kneeled beside him. With a gentle hand, the sorcerer lifted Yue's chin. He looked at the dread in Yue's face. "And you will look splendid in mud," he added.
~*~