Cessation
Izzy Girl V even the best laid plans... Syaoran's feet dragged heavily as he forced the front door of his home, affectionately called "Li Manor", open with unnecessary force. His sword clattered to the floor and he fell lifelessly into the nearest armchair, filling the fireplace with flames as he snapped his fingers softly. He sighed. Or maybe it was a groan, but it was altogether NOT a very contented sound. "Life..." he concluded, "Is unfair." He sighed again. "Or at least mine is..." The chinese boy didn't even feel odd talking to himself anymore... he had been doing enough of it the past two years, to be sure. He shrugged the thick, green overcoat of his battle gi off and sat quietly in only the silky white shirt and pants beneath the protective, emerald folds. Eriol was lying to him, that much he could be certain of. He was't gleeful about it in the slightest, as he might've been in the past. Back in those years... when everything seemed so simple: (Tell yourself you're trying to impress Yukito. Impress Sakura. Or not. You're not really sure who you're trying to impress anymore, as long as you make that Hiiragizawa kid look bad in to progress.)
"You've got a beautiful smile. You shouldn't glower so much." Grin, grin, grin.
(He didn't just say that... did he?) "That Syaoran Li... why is he always in the corner like that? He looks as if he could kill with that glare he's got there..." "Oh, that's just how Syaoran is. Not much helping that one. He'll come out of his shell eventually." A grimance, "Erm, I think..."
Not only was life unfair, but the past evil. Syaoran bit his lip and leaned backwards, closing his eyes and forcing himself to relax. It wasn't a winning battle, to say the least.
"Oi! Kinomoto-san!" "Really, Hiiragizawa-kun, you don't need to use so much respect when addressing me. It sounds rather ridiculous." "Many apologies, Sakura." A pause. Cooly: "Good day, Xiao Lang." Syaoran growled and Sakura giggled, "Oh, I don't think he likes it when you call him that." Grin, grin, grin, "Then I'll be sure to remember that in the future."
"Aie... it's so hooooOOOOOooooot!" Sakura fanned herself dramatically, "It's so tragic... is this to be the end of us? Melting away like soggy icicles into colorful puddles of failed humanity on the pavement!" "Oh, don't be so melodramatic, Sakura." Tomoyo chirped cheerfully, fiddling with the end of her thick, black braid, "We're almost home." "I'll collapse before then..." Sakura sniffled, pulling on the neck of her shirt to fan herself, "Gawd, my skin's cold... that's a bad sign, isn't it?" "You're going to die of heatstroke." Syaoran said quietly, stone-faced. Tomoyo and Sakura stopped walking abruptly and goggled at him. "W... what!?' The green-eyed card Captor sounded genuinely distressed. Syaoran blinked, "I was joking." There was a general sigh of relief. Sakura shook her head and slapped Syaoran on the back, "Syao-chan, can you maybe smile a bit next time? Sometimes it's kinda hard to tell..."
"Tomoyo-kun... I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now..." "Mmm-Hmm..." "Why is it that you carry your video camera with you everywheres?" "Oh! Hah, Syaoran, soemtimes you are dense. I thought that one was obvious... I like to capture memories. You and Sakura-kun... sometimes even Hiiragizawa-kun if he's not being terribly infuriating." Syaoran blinked an affirmative and watched Sakura as she slowly approached them, pacing the length of the park with a downcast expression on her youthful face. He frowned and exchanged a knowing glnce with Tomoyo, who had already stood, placing her camera on the ground just next to Syaoran. It was never a good sign when Sakura moped. The news might as well announced the end of the world for all the good it meant. "What's wrong, Sakura!" Tomoyo asked breathlessly, wrapping her arm protectively around her friend's shoulder. Sakura looked up, green eyes glassy and confused. She opened her mouth to speak, reconsidered, and ended up sighing unhappily. She raised her hands and began again. "I... I did something terrible today..." she scrunched up her brow, "... but..."
Syaoran's thougths were interrupted rudely by the obnoxious ringing of a telephone. He started, falling half out of his chair, and groped the end table desperately for the reciever. "Moshi mosh!?" he all but shouted into the speaker. "Syao-chan! What's wrong?" Meiling's voice on the other end was halfway between concerned and annoyed (naturally with a bit more emphasis on the 'annoyed' aspect), but was none the less urgent. "Meiling?" "No, it's the Emperor! It's a sad. sad day when you don't even recognize your own cousins voice, now quit it with the games, it's an emergency!" By this point in the conversation, Syaoran had worked himself into a somewhat more comfortable sitting position. He cocked an eyebrow and was about to comment that he wasn't the one throwing sarcastic comments in HER face, but the tone of her voice was at a very rare pitch... that of complete seriousness. "Emergency?" he demanded, "What's happened." "Erm... well..." she stalled, "It's not exactly something I'm willing to explain over the phone. You kind of have to see it for yourself."
Yukito was often ill. Syaoran was worried, but not shocked to see an unconcious Yukito spread out, pale and feverish, on the couch with Kero pacing the sofa's arm nervously and Touya clutching his clammy hand with a grim desperation. The shock came when Yue appeared from behind the edge of a corner, arms crossed and looking oddly... earthly. Syaoran was never much one to gape, but he hadn't even taken three steps into the house when it happened. His eyes widened and he froze, mid stride. Everyone stared at him, and after a moment, he spoke. "But... that's impossible." "Yes, I know..." Kero sighed heavily and brokenly, increasing the speed of his worried pacing, "By the end of this night, we'll lose one of them." "It was his choice." Yue said quietly, "He won't be the one to die if it comes down to it. He had a stronger will." Touya looked at the winged gaurdian sharply, "Where do you get off saying that? You're not the one laying on your deathbed." Yue shifted slightly and his eyebrows raised minisculy in what must have been an expression of insult, "Just because I do not collapse does not mean I do not suffer." Syaoran finally found his mobility, and came to sit by Tomoyo, who was wrining her hands even as they were folded neatly on her knees. Yukito whimpered in his sleep and everyone fell silent for a fretful moment. Meiling was the one who broke the silence. She threw her hands up in fustration and made a strangled noise to accompany the angry gesture. She then kicked the coffe table. A glass rolled to the floor with a dull thud and a magazine fluttered with great commotion. Several people glared at her dissaprovingly, but she maintained her actions with a firm stance, her chin in the air. "Everything's gone mad." she proclaimed, "Nothing makes sense anymore and I don't like it." she whriled around to stare at Syaoran, "And you... you promise to get answers! What did your friend in High Places tell you this time!? Did you find out anything useful, or did you waste your entire visit screwing the bastard!?" Syaoran, who had barely spoken three words since entering the Kimono household, reeled backwards, then sprung to his feet, livid and red with shame. "Li Meiling! What givces you the right to insinuate... to suggest that I..." he shook with rage, and Meiling grinned misciviously. "I've really struck a nerve, haven't I dear cousin. Well... you know, the truth always hurts more than any fabrication ever could..." she leveled her gaze and regarded Syaoran with disgust, "I guess you aren't mourning Sakura's death as dilligently as you'd have us believe." Syaoran steadied himself, then in one graceful moment he pulled his arm back and forced it into a wide arc, slapping his cousin soundly across her left cheek. Tomoyo cried out, but Meiling herself was silent. Her head snapped violently to one side. She didn't raised a hand to the throbbing wound, nor did she look her attacked in the eye. She struggled to gain control of her disbelief, then finally she faced him. "I hate you." she whispered, before turning and running into the night, leaving the door swinging in her wake. Tomoyo seemed to have an internal argument with herself over whether to go after the girl or not, but she finally approached Syaoran and laid a hand on his shoulder. He was staring at his hand in disbelief, as if he were dissaproving of his rebellious limb; as if he hadn't meant to slap Meiling... or at least hadn't meant to hurt her. "That was not a wise thing to do." Tomoyo muttered, her voice a confusing muddle of scorn and concearn. "Excuse me, but what just happened?" Kero looked to Syaoran and then to the doorway in confusion. "I think..." Touya said slowly, "That Meiling and Syaoran have just had a falling out..."
The scene played over and over in Meiling's mind. It was black and white and in slow motion, forever captured as a moment of absolute despair in her life. The spot on her cheek that his hand had hit was still burning, and the tears were coming, unbidden to her dark eyes. She stopped for a moment, and gazed at the bright, half formed moon, and then screamed, punching the rough trunk of a nearby tree. The brittle bark crunched loudly where she had hit it, but the impact hurt, causing her to wonder if it had instead been the sound of her fist cracking against the tree's ancient might. Not wanting to wait for the tree's answer, she began to run. Syaoran's hand inched forward and she was helpless to do anything but to watch it as it raked it's way across her tanned cheek. It kept going after the impact forced her face from it's line of fire, and then he drew it back to him, face sullen and unresponsive. She saw herself fight tears, fight growls, fight violence, fight everything but the words that came, the words expressing the extent of her feelings at that moment. 'I hate you.' Which wasn't completely true, but was true enough for her to say it. Syaoran was a selfish bastard. Always had been, always will be, but he was family and once had been her fiance in a silly arranged marriage. It's not like they were blood related or anything, and even if they were, silly things like shared uncles and aunts rarely meant much to regal and influential chinses families like the Li's. Meling had grown up with Syaoran. They played together, talked together, trained together, and when Syaoran travelled to Japan to meet his destiny at the hands of the Clow Cards, they fought together.At some point in her life, she had been convinced that she loved him. Not as a surrogate sibling, as he loved her, but the way a wife loves her man. Possesively. Not that she still felt that way, otherwise she would have found herself perpetually betrayed, Syaoran having sold his heart to Sakura almost from the moment he met her. But still, he was her closest friend and confident. She still felt like his sister, and for him to betray her like this. Her anger blinded her and she stumbled, crying, into the street and only missed getting hit by a car narrowly. Syaoran had slapped her like a cruel man slaps a submissive wife. He had made her look weak, and to Meiling, it was the worst crime anyone could commit towards her. She would never talk to him again until she had proven herself better in every way and manner. If she couldn't show him with words, she would do it with actions. She would beat him if she had to kill herself to do it...
Syaoran observed the conversation from a concious distance. He was still numb. Numb from the day's battle, numb from Eriol's words, numb from the shock of Yue and Yukito's seperation, numb from Meiling's scorn and his own reaction. He had always been a coarse person, but never the kind that would HIT someone. He had never known himself to perform such an act of personal and physical violence... and to slap Meiling... his COUSIN. A family, a friend, a former fiance... if he had been Japanese living in the Heian period he would have either commited Seppeku or shaved his head and become a monk. But since he was just a dishonorable Chinese boy living in moderized Asia, all he could do was sit and half pay attention to what was going on around him, pretending to care while metally torturing himself in accordence to the pain he had inflicted on Meiling. "... and I doubt it's possible to reverse it." "But Kero... would it be the same if you seperated your 'real' self from you cover self. What if you and the stuffed animal you pretend to be split into two entities. Would you suffer the same problems?" "What! I'm sorry Touya, but that really is a ridiculous question. You see, in the end, I was the smarter of the two of us. I chose an inanimate object as a form of disguise. Since it's never been alive, when I choose to depart and live in my own body, no damage is done. But in Yue's case, Yukito has been living so long with Yue inside his body, that it has almost become dependent on that extra bit of life. Now, it's like Yukito is missing half of himself." "Then why is Yue not suffering any of these repurcusions!" "He is... but you have to keep in mind, not only is Yue considerably more powerful than Yukito is as a mere mortal, Yue is older by quite an impressive margain. His life force is MUCH stronger than that of a nineteen year old boy with health problems." Kero paused, "I... I'm sorry, Touya. I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I'm just... worried about Yuki." Touya sighed and rested his forehead on Yukito's hand, "Isn't there anyone who would know... who would know what to do?" "Uh, well..." Kero scratched his head awkwardly, and shot Syaoran a nervous glance, "... Master Reed would know fo course since he..." "No!" Syaoran shouted. His vehemence surprised Kero, and the gaurdian shrunk, "The man is a chronic liar. We should avoid dealing with the lunatic unless absolutely necessary!" "Okay, okay... It was just a suggestion, but I don't see YOU coming up with anything better, Clam Boy." "The cards." Everyone looked at Tomoyo. It was the first time she had spoken since Meiling had left. "What." Kero replied eloquently. Tomoyo raised her watery gaze slowly and tucked a few ebony strands of hair behind a delicate ear, "I think..." she began, "That we should ask the cards..."
Izzy Girl V even the best laid plans... Syaoran's feet dragged heavily as he forced the front door of his home, affectionately called "Li Manor", open with unnecessary force. His sword clattered to the floor and he fell lifelessly into the nearest armchair, filling the fireplace with flames as he snapped his fingers softly. He sighed. Or maybe it was a groan, but it was altogether NOT a very contented sound. "Life..." he concluded, "Is unfair." He sighed again. "Or at least mine is..." The chinese boy didn't even feel odd talking to himself anymore... he had been doing enough of it the past two years, to be sure. He shrugged the thick, green overcoat of his battle gi off and sat quietly in only the silky white shirt and pants beneath the protective, emerald folds. Eriol was lying to him, that much he could be certain of. He was't gleeful about it in the slightest, as he might've been in the past. Back in those years... when everything seemed so simple: (Tell yourself you're trying to impress Yukito. Impress Sakura. Or not. You're not really sure who you're trying to impress anymore, as long as you make that Hiiragizawa kid look bad in to progress.)
"You've got a beautiful smile. You shouldn't glower so much." Grin, grin, grin.
(He didn't just say that... did he?) "That Syaoran Li... why is he always in the corner like that? He looks as if he could kill with that glare he's got there..." "Oh, that's just how Syaoran is. Not much helping that one. He'll come out of his shell eventually." A grimance, "Erm, I think..."
Not only was life unfair, but the past evil. Syaoran bit his lip and leaned backwards, closing his eyes and forcing himself to relax. It wasn't a winning battle, to say the least.
"Oi! Kinomoto-san!" "Really, Hiiragizawa-kun, you don't need to use so much respect when addressing me. It sounds rather ridiculous." "Many apologies, Sakura." A pause. Cooly: "Good day, Xiao Lang." Syaoran growled and Sakura giggled, "Oh, I don't think he likes it when you call him that." Grin, grin, grin, "Then I'll be sure to remember that in the future."
"Aie... it's so hooooOOOOOooooot!" Sakura fanned herself dramatically, "It's so tragic... is this to be the end of us? Melting away like soggy icicles into colorful puddles of failed humanity on the pavement!" "Oh, don't be so melodramatic, Sakura." Tomoyo chirped cheerfully, fiddling with the end of her thick, black braid, "We're almost home." "I'll collapse before then..." Sakura sniffled, pulling on the neck of her shirt to fan herself, "Gawd, my skin's cold... that's a bad sign, isn't it?" "You're going to die of heatstroke." Syaoran said quietly, stone-faced. Tomoyo and Sakura stopped walking abruptly and goggled at him. "W... what!?' The green-eyed card Captor sounded genuinely distressed. Syaoran blinked, "I was joking." There was a general sigh of relief. Sakura shook her head and slapped Syaoran on the back, "Syao-chan, can you maybe smile a bit next time? Sometimes it's kinda hard to tell..."
"Tomoyo-kun... I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now..." "Mmm-Hmm..." "Why is it that you carry your video camera with you everywheres?" "Oh! Hah, Syaoran, soemtimes you are dense. I thought that one was obvious... I like to capture memories. You and Sakura-kun... sometimes even Hiiragizawa-kun if he's not being terribly infuriating." Syaoran blinked an affirmative and watched Sakura as she slowly approached them, pacing the length of the park with a downcast expression on her youthful face. He frowned and exchanged a knowing glnce with Tomoyo, who had already stood, placing her camera on the ground just next to Syaoran. It was never a good sign when Sakura moped. The news might as well announced the end of the world for all the good it meant. "What's wrong, Sakura!" Tomoyo asked breathlessly, wrapping her arm protectively around her friend's shoulder. Sakura looked up, green eyes glassy and confused. She opened her mouth to speak, reconsidered, and ended up sighing unhappily. She raised her hands and began again. "I... I did something terrible today..." she scrunched up her brow, "... but..."
Syaoran's thougths were interrupted rudely by the obnoxious ringing of a telephone. He started, falling half out of his chair, and groped the end table desperately for the reciever. "Moshi mosh!?" he all but shouted into the speaker. "Syao-chan! What's wrong?" Meiling's voice on the other end was halfway between concerned and annoyed (naturally with a bit more emphasis on the 'annoyed' aspect), but was none the less urgent. "Meiling?" "No, it's the Emperor! It's a sad. sad day when you don't even recognize your own cousins voice, now quit it with the games, it's an emergency!" By this point in the conversation, Syaoran had worked himself into a somewhat more comfortable sitting position. He cocked an eyebrow and was about to comment that he wasn't the one throwing sarcastic comments in HER face, but the tone of her voice was at a very rare pitch... that of complete seriousness. "Emergency?" he demanded, "What's happened." "Erm... well..." she stalled, "It's not exactly something I'm willing to explain over the phone. You kind of have to see it for yourself."
Yukito was often ill. Syaoran was worried, but not shocked to see an unconcious Yukito spread out, pale and feverish, on the couch with Kero pacing the sofa's arm nervously and Touya clutching his clammy hand with a grim desperation. The shock came when Yue appeared from behind the edge of a corner, arms crossed and looking oddly... earthly. Syaoran was never much one to gape, but he hadn't even taken three steps into the house when it happened. His eyes widened and he froze, mid stride. Everyone stared at him, and after a moment, he spoke. "But... that's impossible." "Yes, I know..." Kero sighed heavily and brokenly, increasing the speed of his worried pacing, "By the end of this night, we'll lose one of them." "It was his choice." Yue said quietly, "He won't be the one to die if it comes down to it. He had a stronger will." Touya looked at the winged gaurdian sharply, "Where do you get off saying that? You're not the one laying on your deathbed." Yue shifted slightly and his eyebrows raised minisculy in what must have been an expression of insult, "Just because I do not collapse does not mean I do not suffer." Syaoran finally found his mobility, and came to sit by Tomoyo, who was wrining her hands even as they were folded neatly on her knees. Yukito whimpered in his sleep and everyone fell silent for a fretful moment. Meiling was the one who broke the silence. She threw her hands up in fustration and made a strangled noise to accompany the angry gesture. She then kicked the coffe table. A glass rolled to the floor with a dull thud and a magazine fluttered with great commotion. Several people glared at her dissaprovingly, but she maintained her actions with a firm stance, her chin in the air. "Everything's gone mad." she proclaimed, "Nothing makes sense anymore and I don't like it." she whriled around to stare at Syaoran, "And you... you promise to get answers! What did your friend in High Places tell you this time!? Did you find out anything useful, or did you waste your entire visit screwing the bastard!?" Syaoran, who had barely spoken three words since entering the Kimono household, reeled backwards, then sprung to his feet, livid and red with shame. "Li Meiling! What givces you the right to insinuate... to suggest that I..." he shook with rage, and Meiling grinned misciviously. "I've really struck a nerve, haven't I dear cousin. Well... you know, the truth always hurts more than any fabrication ever could..." she leveled her gaze and regarded Syaoran with disgust, "I guess you aren't mourning Sakura's death as dilligently as you'd have us believe." Syaoran steadied himself, then in one graceful moment he pulled his arm back and forced it into a wide arc, slapping his cousin soundly across her left cheek. Tomoyo cried out, but Meiling herself was silent. Her head snapped violently to one side. She didn't raised a hand to the throbbing wound, nor did she look her attacked in the eye. She struggled to gain control of her disbelief, then finally she faced him. "I hate you." she whispered, before turning and running into the night, leaving the door swinging in her wake. Tomoyo seemed to have an internal argument with herself over whether to go after the girl or not, but she finally approached Syaoran and laid a hand on his shoulder. He was staring at his hand in disbelief, as if he were dissaproving of his rebellious limb; as if he hadn't meant to slap Meiling... or at least hadn't meant to hurt her. "That was not a wise thing to do." Tomoyo muttered, her voice a confusing muddle of scorn and concearn. "Excuse me, but what just happened?" Kero looked to Syaoran and then to the doorway in confusion. "I think..." Touya said slowly, "That Meiling and Syaoran have just had a falling out..."
The scene played over and over in Meiling's mind. It was black and white and in slow motion, forever captured as a moment of absolute despair in her life. The spot on her cheek that his hand had hit was still burning, and the tears were coming, unbidden to her dark eyes. She stopped for a moment, and gazed at the bright, half formed moon, and then screamed, punching the rough trunk of a nearby tree. The brittle bark crunched loudly where she had hit it, but the impact hurt, causing her to wonder if it had instead been the sound of her fist cracking against the tree's ancient might. Not wanting to wait for the tree's answer, she began to run. Syaoran's hand inched forward and she was helpless to do anything but to watch it as it raked it's way across her tanned cheek. It kept going after the impact forced her face from it's line of fire, and then he drew it back to him, face sullen and unresponsive. She saw herself fight tears, fight growls, fight violence, fight everything but the words that came, the words expressing the extent of her feelings at that moment. 'I hate you.' Which wasn't completely true, but was true enough for her to say it. Syaoran was a selfish bastard. Always had been, always will be, but he was family and once had been her fiance in a silly arranged marriage. It's not like they were blood related or anything, and even if they were, silly things like shared uncles and aunts rarely meant much to regal and influential chinses families like the Li's. Meling had grown up with Syaoran. They played together, talked together, trained together, and when Syaoran travelled to Japan to meet his destiny at the hands of the Clow Cards, they fought together.At some point in her life, she had been convinced that she loved him. Not as a surrogate sibling, as he loved her, but the way a wife loves her man. Possesively. Not that she still felt that way, otherwise she would have found herself perpetually betrayed, Syaoran having sold his heart to Sakura almost from the moment he met her. But still, he was her closest friend and confident. She still felt like his sister, and for him to betray her like this. Her anger blinded her and she stumbled, crying, into the street and only missed getting hit by a car narrowly. Syaoran had slapped her like a cruel man slaps a submissive wife. He had made her look weak, and to Meiling, it was the worst crime anyone could commit towards her. She would never talk to him again until she had proven herself better in every way and manner. If she couldn't show him with words, she would do it with actions. She would beat him if she had to kill herself to do it...
Syaoran observed the conversation from a concious distance. He was still numb. Numb from the day's battle, numb from Eriol's words, numb from the shock of Yue and Yukito's seperation, numb from Meiling's scorn and his own reaction. He had always been a coarse person, but never the kind that would HIT someone. He had never known himself to perform such an act of personal and physical violence... and to slap Meiling... his COUSIN. A family, a friend, a former fiance... if he had been Japanese living in the Heian period he would have either commited Seppeku or shaved his head and become a monk. But since he was just a dishonorable Chinese boy living in moderized Asia, all he could do was sit and half pay attention to what was going on around him, pretending to care while metally torturing himself in accordence to the pain he had inflicted on Meiling. "... and I doubt it's possible to reverse it." "But Kero... would it be the same if you seperated your 'real' self from you cover self. What if you and the stuffed animal you pretend to be split into two entities. Would you suffer the same problems?" "What! I'm sorry Touya, but that really is a ridiculous question. You see, in the end, I was the smarter of the two of us. I chose an inanimate object as a form of disguise. Since it's never been alive, when I choose to depart and live in my own body, no damage is done. But in Yue's case, Yukito has been living so long with Yue inside his body, that it has almost become dependent on that extra bit of life. Now, it's like Yukito is missing half of himself." "Then why is Yue not suffering any of these repurcusions!" "He is... but you have to keep in mind, not only is Yue considerably more powerful than Yukito is as a mere mortal, Yue is older by quite an impressive margain. His life force is MUCH stronger than that of a nineteen year old boy with health problems." Kero paused, "I... I'm sorry, Touya. I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I'm just... worried about Yuki." Touya sighed and rested his forehead on Yukito's hand, "Isn't there anyone who would know... who would know what to do?" "Uh, well..." Kero scratched his head awkwardly, and shot Syaoran a nervous glance, "... Master Reed would know fo course since he..." "No!" Syaoran shouted. His vehemence surprised Kero, and the gaurdian shrunk, "The man is a chronic liar. We should avoid dealing with the lunatic unless absolutely necessary!" "Okay, okay... It was just a suggestion, but I don't see YOU coming up with anything better, Clam Boy." "The cards." Everyone looked at Tomoyo. It was the first time she had spoken since Meiling had left. "What." Kero replied eloquently. Tomoyo raised her watery gaze slowly and tucked a few ebony strands of hair behind a delicate ear, "I think..." she began, "That we should ask the cards..."