A Dream of Smiles

-Summary- The world's most adorable manju bun gets his turn in the spotlight. Short, sweet, and fluffy, just like Mokona.

A/N – Mokona-centric! Someone had to do it. So I did, because Mokona's a sweetie. And I tried to make it happy but I'm not sure if it's exactly happy, but it IS short and sweet. Hopefully not too sweet, but we'll see. Yes, it is a drabble, because it's not quite long enough to be a proper one-shot. So sue me.

Disclaimer – Don't own, wish I did, enough said.

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Mokona has always been able to sense things about people that maybe people don't want Mokona to sense. It's one of Mokona's 108 Secret techniques. Mokona doesn't mind this sensing. It's just sometimes only slightly hard to keep Mokona's mouth shut. Mokona doesn't usually like to talk about his sensing. Mokona just likes to do something to help whatever's wrong.

But Mokona can't help but worry over these people… and Mokona wishes it wasn't so hard to talk about it with his friends. Yet Mokona also knows this: some people prefer to hide their hurts and try to heal alone. And Mokona's friends carry their sadnesses by themselves.

Mokona senses it as shadows – in Syaoran, which Mokona thinks is because of Sakura; and in Kurogane, and in Fai – but Mokona doesn't even have a guess as to what it is that makes Fai sad, or Kurogane sad. Mokona wishes they would say. Mokona wishes they would trust him. It's not right. Mokona wants to help them!

So Mokona does his best. As best as Mokona can do without knowing what hurts. Sakura helps Mokona – I think she can sense it a bit too. Mokona tries to keep everyone's spirits up, and Sakura makes them smile. We both do our best!

When everyone first came to Yuko's shop, Mokona heard the wishes of everyone Mokona travels with now. Mokona just thought it was a chance to have fun with new friends when Yuko made Mokona go with them, but now Mokona has a wish too. It's hard to say, but easy to picture. Like a dream. Mokona has dreams, lots of them and very vivid, but Mokona can never describe them afterwards.

Mokona sees a green place under the trees, with a blue, blue, sunny, open sky arcing overhead. It is spring, moving into summer, and the cherry blossoms are falling like snow from the branches overhead. Sakura reaches up to catch one, and as she brings it down Syaoran clasps his hand over hers, cupping it gently between their palms, safe. There is peace in his eyes now. The force that drives him is at rest, for once.

Smiling – a real, true, warm smile – Fai drops crowns of flowers on everyone's heads, laughing at their surprise. Sakura giggles when it goes down over her eyes, and Fai pats her head affectionately. The hidden watchfulness, the shadow in his eyes, the guarded element in his smile – they're gone. His eyes are the same clear, joyful, windswept blue as the endless sky above.

Kurogane brushes his crown aside and glares – half-heartedly – at Fai. He no longer seems to hold a grudge against the world, even against Fai, although he certainly would have a right to be mad since Fai just dropped pink flowers on his head. Whatever dwelled in his heart, lurking and gnawing there in the darkness is gone, robbed of all its power.

Sakura gets the flowers out of her eyes and smiles at us, and the warmth is like the sun.

And Mokona, too, is happy, because everyone has found a way to cast aside their sadness, and be free.