Chapter 8
Mission
Slowly, very slowly, things began to get better. But Fujitaka had been right; Yuki was different now. He had never been too talkative to begin with, but now whenever anyone saw him, he always seemed to be lost in thought. But he was eating more, which was a good sign, and he wasn't avoiding Touya, which was even better, although he wasn't eager to be around anyone else. He still couldn't manage to meet either Sakura or Keberos's eyes, but hopefully that would come in time.
But it looked as though they weren't destined to get that time.
"Yukito-san?" Sakura asked hesitantly.
Yuki was sitting outside on the grass in the sun, staring up at the sky. When Sakura approached him he looked down at her, although as usual he didn't quite make eye contact. "Yes?" he said softly.
Sakura looked back over her shoulder to where Kerberos was coming up behind her, in full lion form. Yuki's body stiffened a bit when he saw Kero. He realized what it meant. A mission.
"We think we found Rand," she said as Kero stopped next to her. "And we're going to go deal with him. You don't have to come if you don't want to. I mean, you know, Yue doesn't have to come with us if you don't want to be there. We won't make you. We just wanted to let you know."
There was a pause. Then Yuki asked, "What are you going to do with him?"
"Kill him," Kero answered immediately, snapping his jaws.
"Kero!" Sakura scolded. She held up a card. Change. "I was thinking that I'd use the Change card to change him into a bug or a frog or something. I don't want him coming back and doing bad things, but I don't want to kill anyone."
Yukito nodded, looking away from Sakura. He looked thoughtful. "If you went out there without Yue and something happened to you," he said eventually, "I'd never be able to forgive myself. Take him. You'll need all the protection you can get around that guy." He stood up and closed his eyes and within seconds, Yue was in his place.
"I will do my best," he said. "I will not allow us to be captured again."
Sakura smiled at him, her best "everything will be okay" smile. "I trust you," she said.
As Yue followed her out of the yard towards Tomoyo's waiting van, Yue turned his thoughts inward.
Are you certain this is alright? he asked.
'Sakura must be protected,' thought Yukito. 'This has to be done. Are you sure?'
As you say, the Mistress must be protected. Yue paused. Yukito, I am... I am sorry for what I allowed to happen to you.
Yue felt the instinctual upswelling of Yukito's rage, which then subsided as Yukito worked to suppress it. 'It was a bad thing,' he said, which wasn't exactly forgiveness, but then, Yue had not been expecting any. 'Let's save our emotions for hating Rand.'
Yue almost but didn't quite smile. Channeling depression into anger. It seemed Yukito was learning a thing or two from him.
"Sakura!"
They all turned to see Touya in the doorway of the house, calling after them. "You're going now?" he asked, as they moved back toward him. His eyes fell on Yue and rested there. His frown looked worried.
Sakura nodded. "We have to do something permanent about Rand. We'll be back soon."
Touya's gaze still hadn't left Yue. But he didn't try to stop them. "Be careful," was all he said.
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