"So Akito is in a coma?" Shigure's voice drifted up from the main hallway where the dog was on the phone with the dragon. "Is that unusual at his age? With his part of the curse?" an few seconds later, "well, I know that you don't have access to a lot of that information…" he sounded defensive. "What? Why would he say that?" a few hums and then, "well, that's awkward. Just let them look at the books? Who?" Yuki frowned as Shigure stopped humming to himself, "You don't know? He just said to let anyone look at the journals? That can't be right." Shigure sighed, "yeah, I know, just look after him huh? Yeah, bye."
Yuki hustled back to his room when he heard Shigure approach the stairs.
"What was the phone call about?" Yuki heard Kyo ask from his own open doorway. Shigure shrugged and muttered "nothing" before going into his room and shutting the door. "Yo, rat-boy!" Kyo hissed.
"Akito is in a coma." Yuki answered quietly.
"Shit." Yuki frowned as Kyo swore.
"I thought that would make you happy Kyo, he would be yelling at you if he died."
"I need to ask him a favor." Kyo didn't sound too happy about it.
"What for?" Yuki asked, amazed, not realizing that this was the first conversation they'd ever had that made it so far without breaking out into a fight.
"Li needs to study some of his books for some magic thing." Kyo shrugged, "I guess I'll just have to tell him its impossible now." Kyo sighed.
"That's a weird coincidence." Yuki forgot himself enough to actually lean against Kyo's open doorframe, "Shigure was saying something about Akito telling Hatori that if someone wanted to look at the journals, then to let them."
"Holy shit." Kyo's eyes narrowed, "You sure?"
"Positive."
"Hell, I gotta call Li." He got to his feet then glared at his cousin, "Move."
Li hung up the phone and held his breath. Letting it out, he sighed. "There are no coincidences."
"What's going on Syaoran?" Meilin asked from the kitchen, her latest attempt at cooking sat on the stove. She poked the macaroni casserole with a fork and grinned when it didn't get stuck in the middle. "I think this one is edible!" Li walked into the kitchen, took up his own fork, and dug a piece out. He took a bite and thoughtfully chewed it. Swallowing he smiled at Meilin.
"Its good."
"Really?" her eyes grew large as she smiled, "Really?"
"Try it." Li smirked, "if you don't believe me." She took a bite then laughed, almost maniacally.
"Its food!"
"Lets have lunch, I'll tell you what Kyo wanted."
"Why did you call Li?" Yuki asked as Kyo hung up.
"Because he needs to know more about the curse Yuki." Kyo didn't feel up to fighting, for once, so he told his cousin without giving him a hard time. "He's trying to help us." Kyo turned to leave the hallway, Yuki clamped his hand on Kyo's shoulder.
"Help us how?"
"Do you really want to have this conversation inside?" Kyo snarled, "because I sure as hell don't think that Shigure needs to hear this."
"Outside, my garden." Yuki took his hand away and lead the way in silence.
He sat on a rock, letting Kyo decide to sit on the ground or pace. Kyo did neither, he grabbed a low branch of a tree and swung himself up. Lying on it he glared at Yuki.
"Do you really want to know what Li told me, because I hate to get your hopes up."
"No, you'd love to get my hopes up, then crunch them under your boot." Yuki scoffed. Kyo let one eyebrow raise as he realized just how violent his relationship with his cousin was. With Li and the others back in his life Kyo had found a balance that he hadn't had in a long time.
"How did we get like this?" Kyo mused, not answering Yuki's statement.
"How do you mean?"
"Why do we hate each other so much?" Kyo let one arm dangle and stared at the tips of his fingers as he hummed. "Its not like we ever did anything to each other to make us fight. Do you remember the first day we met?"
"At the dojo."
"Yeah. God you were such a scrawny kid." Kyo shook his head and laid it on his other hand.
"Akito didn't let me out much." Yuki fingered some of the smaller scars on the top of wrist, thin white lines that didn't show under his pale skin.
"Yeah, skittish as hell. You remember what Shishou did?"
"He had us fight each other. You gave me a black eye."
"You bit me."
"I didn't know martial arts back then."
"You bit me." Yuki shrugged, "I always wished I had the courage to bite Akito."
"I wish I had to courage to kick his head off."
"You would."
"You callin me out?"
"No, just tell me what Li needs the books for."
"A cure."
"…"
Yuki turned to glare at his cousin, "There is no cure!"
"He has something that could trap the zodiac animals away. He just needs to know how he can get them separate and make sure nothing else fills the gap that they leave. He thinks that if he can just read how it all started, or at least some of the histories, he can figure out how to do that."
"You still think your friends are magicians?"
"I spent an entire day as Li. I know my friends are able to use something that I can only read about in books."
"Fine. Good luck. You're going to need it."
"Come with us to the main house." Kyo found himself offering. Shocking himself, he noticed the shock on Yuki's face as well when he accepted.
"So we're going to the Sohma estate tomorrow?" Sakura lounged against Syaoran's chest, his arms wrapped around her stomach as they watched a movie on TV. Sakura picked it out from the video store, saying it looked interesting for a foreign film.
"Yeah. Apparently before Akito collapsed he open his library to anyone who wants to use it." Li shrugged, "it seems to good to be true." Sakura knew he was frowning from the tone of his voice. She giggled as the character dressed in black was pushed down a large hill, and the woman who pushed him realized who he was. Then she threw herself down the hill.
"Oh, that's so sweet." she stroked Li's hand absently not noticing when it twitched.
"What?" Syaoran was too aware of her fingers lightly glancing his, "a broken neck?" Sakura looked up at him and smiled.
"Their going to make up." she said as the characters on the screen collapsed into a passionate embrace.
"This is true love, you think this happens every day?" the man in black asked.
"Of course not." Sakura answered him, but still grinned with her eyes captured by Syaoran's.
"Are you happy Sakura?" Syaoran suddenly wanted to know.
"You're here, of course I'm happy." She wiggled around until they were face to face. She sat in his lap and kissed him lightly. "when you were gone, it was like this big chunk of my life was missing. I didn' t like it." Syaoran hugged her tighter and took a deep breath as her body pressed against his.
"When I was in Hong-Kong I spent so much time in the garden."
"The garden?"
"Under the cherry blossoms." he smiled when she did, "somehow it made me feel just that much closer to you."
"I love being close to you." Sakura bent to kiss him, both her arms wrapped around his neck. His hand snaked under her shirt to stroke her smooth back. The characters on the screen where making their way through a dark, gnarled forest.
"Can I stay tonight?" Li asked, pulling back gently and kissing her nose.
"What about the ROUS's?" the girl in red asked.
"If you want."
"Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist-"
"If you want." Li corrected as the man in black battled a large Rat. Sakura let her mind be destracted by the bloody battle on screen, but when the man in black seemed to be beaten, the woman rushed forth with a club to help. It was somewhat ineffectual.
"You know, sometimes I feel like I'm only slowing you down." Sakura admitted as the man once again saved the woman's life.
"Of course not. That's stupid." Syaoran brought her face back gently to look into her eyes again, "you've done nothing but make me a better person. I didn't have a sense of humor before you came into my life. Now look at me, I told Kyo my muffin joke."
"You didn't." Sakura bit her lip, "that's horrible."
"Its not that bad." Syaoran protested.
"Trust me, it is." Sakura bent down to kiss him again. "Toya is with the debate team, father isn't' back from his dig until Monday. Stay, I don't want to be alone."
"Tonight?"
"I'd rather it forever…" Sakura muttered against his lips. "but tonight is good for a start."
