A/N: Dedicated to YamiTenshi14 for the sweet review of the last chapter.

Chapter four: Unfond Reunions

Ruling Card: Mirror

'Keroberos!' I called in the dream plane. The place was one that Clow had originally created so that he could use Dream effectively, a niche of magical energy that was sealed from the rest of the world. The Cards, Keroberos and I used it more as a meeting-place when we were physically separated. It used enough magic to be sensed for quite a distance, which was why I'd stayed away from it after being unsealed; I couldn't let Keroberos know who I was, especially now that he was helping Sakura. He'd seen the false form I used before, of course, but he had no way of knowing that I was still using the same one. I could be anyone, after all. Male, female, old or young. If he was in the dream, too, he wouldn't know where I was; at least I didn't think he would. Keroberos' magic had always been less subtle, less intricate than mine, relying on brute strength rather than refined technique to accomplish a task.

'Keroberos!'

Several times after being unsealed, I had been told that Keroberos was breaking the rules by giving Sakura vital information about the Cards. If this was true, I needed to find out why.

That was the only reason I was here. It wasn't as if I was willing to be around him more often than I absolutely had to. I folded my arms across my chest, one foot tapping impatiently.

'I know you're there. If you don't come out right now, I'm going back.'

'All right, all right, jeez,' Keroberos complained, becoming visible. 'You'd think two centuries would do something about that temper of yours, but you haven't changed a bit, have you?'

'Neither have you,' I said smoothly. 'Unfortunately.'

He snorted. 'Grouchy, irritable jerk.'

'Superficial food-obsessed plushie,' I retorted instinctively before remembering that I was here for a purpose and getting into a catfight (pun intended) with him wasn't on the agenda. I cleared my throat. 'So I heard about your helping Sakura with the captures.'

Keroberos looked defensive. 'What about it?'

I raised an eyebrow. 'So it's true? You're actually going against the rules.' I shook my head in disbelief, and my hair slapped gently against my cheek and neck. 'You never disobeyed Clow before.'

Contrary to what I had expected, the Sun Guardian's temper didn't flare up. Instead, he looked serious, almost…………grave? I nearly choked at the idea. 'Yue, don't you think everything's coming together too pat?'

'What is that supposed to mean?'

'You know and I know how powerful the Cards are, and how intelligent – well, some of them, anyway.'

'Yes. Mine.'

He ignored that loftily and continued. 'Time, Erase, Power, Thunder – they're really powerful cards. But Sakura was able to capture them quite easily. And the Li brat's got a couple too.' Keroberos grimaced. 'He's a smart one. Still, the Cards are falling too easily; and they seem to be appearing one at a time – what's with that? And I can't sense where the Cards are unless they're really close or using magic.'

I sniffed. I could sense them, and I was in a human form. Keroberos was just careless. Or……had Clow Seen that he would break the rules, and restricted his false form's powers?

Sometimes I really hated that about him.

'I think Clow bound the Cards' powers somehow, made them weaker than they usually are.'

'Why would he do that?'

'I've been thinking.' I did choke this time. Keroberos glowered at me. 'Maybe Clow Saw that Sakura's the Cardcaptor, and he's making things easier for her so that she can capture the Cards quickly.'

'And this is why you're helping her?' I said, running a frustrated hand through my hair. 'Keroberos, if Clow had wanted Sakura to be the next Cardmistress, then why in the name of all things good would he have told you not to interfere!' I was aware that my voice was perilously close to a shout. Keroberos looked comically surprised. 'I don't know. He laid the rules a long time ago, maybe he didn't know–'

'This is Clow we're talking about,' I interrupted rudely.

'I suppose……' He looked downcast for a second before his stubborn expression returned. 'But I don't care, you know.'

'Hmm?' I said.

He looked up defiantly. 'I said I don't care. I'm supporting Sakura in this. Yue, do you even realise what being the elector is? What it really means?'

I folded my arms over my chest again. 'Enlighten me.'

'Appointing the candidate means that I'm loyal to that candidate,' Keroberos said softly. 'As fully loyal to her as I was to Clow. Mind you, I wasn't that sure about her at first either. But I'm the one with the telepathy, Yue; I know that child's heart. With Clow, I never got to choose my loyalty. I'm not saying I felt bad about it,' he added when he saw my dark expression. 'I loved him as much as you did, Yue, in my own way. But Sakura – she's my mistress by my own choosing. If she loses to you in the Final Judgment, that can't be helped; that's beyond my control. I'll forget her and that will be that. But until then, I'm hers.' I was as stunned by the extremity of the statement as I was by the finality with which he said it.

'But Clow said–'

'I don't think Clow expected this,' he said thoughtfully. Keroberos was never thoughtful. 'My loyalty, that is. I think he made me to fulfill my duties too well.'

'That makes twice in two minutes you've questioned Clow's knowledge,' I pointed out.

'Yeah, so what?' his chin tilted up. He was being quite defensive. Could it be that he wasn't as sure of what he was saying as he sounded?

'You're questioning Clow. You, who know better than anyone except me the breadth and depth of his power.'

'That's right, I am. I don't have to justify myself to you, Yue.'

'Well, that certainly explains something,' I huffed.

'Yeah, what?' Keroberos said, immediately falling into the trap.

'Why your Cards are mad at you, Kero,' I mocked. I realised my mistake immediately, but Keroberos was too busy puffing up with indignation to notice.

The fight got underway immediately after that. Around the ninth or tenth embarrassing anecdote/insult, it degenerated into scuffling. Nearly twenty minutes later, we were hoarse, panting and severely rumpled. At least we hadn't started flinging magic at each other this time. I sat weakly on the ground and Keroberos slumped next to me, his fur hot against my side.

'I really missed fighting with you,' he said quietly. 'Even Power misses you.'

'Hmm,' I said. I wasn't going to admit to anything.

Silence fell. 'Yue,' he mumbled. I made a sound of reluctant enquiry.

'How are you?'

It was quite typical of us, I mused, that the pleasantries came after the conversation. 'Okay.'

Keroberos snorted. 'With all that angsting in the book, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.'

'Angsting, eh?' I wondered whether to start the fight up again. 'Shows how much you know, idiot.'

He didn't react to the insult, which meant he was serious. 'I remember you being sealed, Yue. That sort of pain doesn't go away easy.'

I made another noise, this one of dismissal.

'If there's anything you want to talk about……'

It was a genuine offer, and I was pleased even if I knew neither of us expected me to take him up on it. We had always had different confidantes – I had Windy and Dream and Keroberos preferred to talk to Clow on the rare occasions that his impulsive mind couldn't come up with an answer in a second.

'Thanks,' I said quietly. 'I'll see you later.'

'You mean after the Judgment.'

'Yes,' I said quietly. I couldn't risk my identity being exposed any more than this. Even Keroberos would notice if I was around him much longer; now that Yukito was beginning to draw my energy, I would not be able to hide as easily as I had earlier.

He stood up and gave me his leonine version of a grin. 'Well, seeya around, Yue. Don't trip over your hair and break your neck by mistake.'

'You're just jealous because you're balding,' I retorted.

He stuck his tongue out at me and vanished.

Nice to know he was still slow at banter.

I turned around resignedly. 'All right, Dream, out. Now.'

The Card appeared immediately, pouting slightly at being found out. 'Yue.'

Dream was the oddest Card Clow had made. Dream looked androgynous – and oddly like me. She had been created in order to help Clow focus his visions of the future. There had been some unexpected side effects to that, however; Dream was a creature who lived as much in the future as she did in the present, and unless she focused intensely she could start responding to a later conversation.

'I won't ask if you were listening.'

'That's probably just as well, yes.'

I snorted. 'As long as this doesn't get out among the rest of the Cards, I guess I don't really mind.' Not that I was worried about that. Dream was one of the most reclusive beings I had met, human or other. 'So what did you think?'

Dream shrugged. 'He meant what he was saying.'

'Did you See something?' I probed. 'About Keroberos? Did you know he would do this?'

Dream looked uncomfortable; it was hard to know with half her face hidden. 'You know I won't talk about other people's dreams, Yue. But I can tell you this much – Clow didn't expect this.'

'Have you Seen anything else lately? After being unsealed?'

Dream nodded. 'A dream about Sakura.'

'You came to tell me this, didn't you?' I said with a flash of insight. She nodded again. 'What is it?'

'A woman. With long red hair. She has a strong aura of the moon. Not as strong as you, but enough to capture Clow Cards.'

'Not another one,' I groaned.

'My thoughts exactly. Be careful, Yue. This one, she's dangerous.'

'I will,' I said.

'Not physical danger,' Dream cautioned. 'It's your heart you need to guard.'

Puzzled, I agreed. Dream clasped my forearm for a second before disappearing, and I followed suit.

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Now that I was noticing such things, I was beginning to see that in some ways Yukito was very like me. My favourite thinking spot had always been the roof; apparently Yukito shared that preference, because he was up on the roof, thinking and scribbling absently in his notebook from time to time. I didn't read what he was writing; that would have been impolite.

His head snapped up and I sensed Sakura's aura. It was almost creepy the way he knew exactly when he was close to her. He almost needed to be near her. It was unsettling. I shivered slightly.

Sakura was on a shopping trip, and Yukito invited her in for some tea. They set off for her home after that.

As Yukito, Touya and Sakura made dinner, she chatted aimlessly about some festival that she wanted to go to. Touya insisted on accompanying her. When Sakura disappeared to talk to that camera girl, Touya and I waited for the inevitable teasing. Yukito didn't disappoint.

'Festivals have lots of people, and it's dangerous late at night, so you're worried.'

Touya made an inarticulate sound of annoyance and grudging admission.

'You're so kind, To-ya.'

'Shut up,' Touya growled without any real heat. Sakura came back in.

'Do you know where it is?'

'Yes, I believe it was the Tsukimine Shrine.'

There was a flare of distress from Touya's aura like none I had ever felt from the secretive psychic, and the knife he had been using was buried in the chopping block. Yukito and I looked over at him at the same time, concerned. He made some excuse, but nobody believed him.

Interesting.

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Yukito had asked Touya once why he hated the Li boy so much. The psychic had replied curtly that he was going to take something he had no business going after. I had thought he was referring to the Cards at the time, and been alarmed; I was fast coming to the conclusion that Touya had been talking about something else; Touya was less than pleased at how much the brat was hanging around his sister.

Inevitably, the Li brat turned up at the festival. Inevitably, he and Touya locked glares before (even more inevitably) engaging in fierce combat-er, competition for the prize, a stuffed rabbit. Yukito cheerfully led Sakura away from them to the riverside. I could hear the amusement in his voice, and for the first time I wished I could see his face instead of only hearing him or, at the most, see a flash of warm amber or a pale smooth cheek in the reflection of his glasses.

They found Glow in the dark there, though neither of them realised it. The gentle Card, one of Clow's earliest, whistled a subtle greeting to me; Glow was sun-ruled, but we liked each other. I sent my warmth back to it, a whisper of magic so light no one else could have sensed it. I could feel a moon-ruled Card close to where I was, near a large tree. Return, perhaps, or Dash. It felt like one or the other.

Sakura blushed and stumbled and stuttered, and I realised with dread and dismay that she was going to confess to Yukito. He was calm, collected. This was obviously a conversation he had planned.

But was he going to reject her or accept her?

I waited, as anxious as Sakura to see what would happen next.

But the moment never came. Touya and the Li boy burst out of the bushes, each bearing the spoils of their victory. The Li handed Yukito his bunny, blushing and wordless and I sighed. Touya shoved his at Sakura, staring stonily ahead of him. I could see how his aura reached out to Yukito's, though; could see the minute flicker in his body as he changed angles to give it to Sakura, and the well-hidden disappointment in his eyes.

Was the otherwise perceptive Yukito that oblivious? Apparently he was.

As Yukito walked away with the others, I felt a small flare of magic. So Sakura had captured Glow. I was sure Keroberos hadn't told her, but that capture was a milestone for her. Glow had no magic aura to speak of; for someone to capture it, they had to care for all the Cards, not just want their power. The Li boy, for instance, hadn't even noticed it was there. Sakura had just proved her motives to me.

She was now one step closer to winning the Final Judgment.

After the summer festival, Sakura took three moon-ruled Cards in rapid succession – Fight, Loop, Sleep. She also sealed Move and Little, both Keroberos'. Between her and Li, nearly half the Cards had been captured.

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Yukito had begun to draw power from me more easily, although I knew he didn't know of my existence. Whenever he concentrated, he channeled a delicate flow of moon energy from me. At the moment, he was using it to cut Touya's hair. It was a skill I didn't have, and I wondered where he had learnt it. Hoping neither of them would notice, I pushed forward carefully, trying to see whether I could gain any insight into this new bond I had with Yukito. He didn't react, but there was a strange feeling of doubling, of dislocation; I could feel his/my hands running skilfully through Touya's silky dark hair. A peaceful feeling of focus was all I could feel from Yukito. I could only guess at what he was feeling from me, if anything. He began to cut, and I could feel my fingers moving as he did. I was deeply disoriented. Were they my fingers or Yukito's that were cutting Touya's hair? Was I only feeling what Yukito's fingers were feeling? Bemused, caught in a sort of warp where I could not act, only be acted upon, I felt myself drawing closer to some thin veil that I could sense but not feel.

This close to the surface, I could see Touya's aura. It wrapped around him like aurorae, colours blending and crackling. Unlike my aura, which extended outwards to find power, his aura curled inwards, sourcing itself within his mind instead of external forces like the magic Sakura or I used. As my hand brushed against his hair again and again, the scissors snipping with perfect precision, his power spanned the distance from his hair to my fingertips in sharp prickles like static. His aura was questioning, seeking, but it was not invasive; wanting to know only as much as I wished to tell it. The overall effect was oddly trusting, and it was even gentler than the emotions Yukito was feeling.

A part of me recognised that I was too close, that I was touching him, that I was touching him and there was no way he wouldn't know after this because he was smart and he had enough power to recognise me and it was too dangerous to do this any longer, and it was trying desperately to rouse me. The rest was drowning under the soothing cooling influence of the moon power that Yukito was drawing into himself through me; sinking into the peace that Yukito was feeling and into the pleasure he took both in doing his job perfectly and in the feeling of Touya's hair between his fingers. There are forty thousand nerve endings in each finger, I thought dazedly. Times five is two hundred thousand nerve endings in one hand which makes four hundred thousand in both hands' fingers.

Touya drew in a long breath. 'Yuki……' he said slowly.

'Hmmm?' Yukito said. Or was it me?

'Just now, you……I felt something……' I tensed. I was too close. I came to my senses and jerked backwards, deep into Yukito.

Luckily, Sakura came in the next moment, and Touya didn't mention it again.

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'It's not like you to fall off a cliff,' Yukito said, smiling gently.

Touya glowered mutely at him for a second before he said 'Extenuating circumstances.'

I watched interestedly as Yukito questioned him. Finally Touya lost his patience and held up a piece of pancake for him to eat, clearly intending to shut him up.

'These are good!' Yukito said after a bite. 'Did Sakura make them?'

Touya scowled. 'Shut up and eat.'

Yukito obliged for a while, polishing off nearly half of Touya's plate before he remembered that his friend couldn't exactly get up and get some more. 'So why are you upset?' he asked point-blank.

Touya and I both choked. It was unlike Yukito to be so direct. Touya's hand brushed his temple absently as he considered whether to reply. Finally he said, reluctantly, 'She looked like Sakura.'

'Oh?' Yukito said, while I froze in shock. Illusion was captured……Mirror. Why had she…? 'A small girl ghost. That's sad.'

'You don't get it, Yuki. She looked like Sakura. Exactly like her.'

Now it was Yukito's turn to freeze as it hit him. 'Oh my,' he said.

The scowl was back, but he looked bemused as well. 'You know, there was something…personal in the way she sought me out. It felt like she was angry, but it wasn't quite at me. I didn't really get it.'

I did.

Touya brushed his hand across his forehead again. He'd been doing that all evening, and I wondered why.

'Are you all right, To-ya?' Yukito said softly, concerned.

Touya shook off whatever thought he'd had. 'Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine.'

'All right, I'd better go then.' Yukito stood up. 'Thanks for the pancakes.'

'I only gave you those because Sakura looked so guilty when she brought them up, I thought she might have done something to it. I'll have the rest now that I know I won't drop dead after.' It was a rare victory for Touya and he relished it.

Yukito shook his head fondly and left.

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I was expecting Mirror that night, but that she would be in tears I hadn't foreseen. She appeared in my room and promptly burst out crying.

'I hurt him, Yu,' she sobbed out. Amazed that the normally tranquil Mirror was so distraught, I sat her down on the bed and watched, feeling helpless. 'I m-made him fall off the cliff (sniffle), but h-he was so nice after. He didn't even h-hate me a little e-even after I……' she buried her face in my chest and cried some more. Yukito's pyjamas were getting wet from the tears.

For a brief moment, I felt jealous of Touya, whose sister wouldn't have dreamed of crying on his shoulder. I had never been in this situation before and it was making me uncomfortable. 'Hey……stop that,' I said gently. 'I don't think he's angry with you. He even told Yukito he wasn't. Besides, the fall couldn't have hurt him too badly.' A lie, but I was out of ideas.

Obviously the wrong thing to say, because that only made her sob harder. 'He could hav-ve been killed!' she wailed. 'I'm horrible!'

'No, you're silly. It happens to everyone once in a while.' I pulled her away from me. One of the few advantages of not being human is that crying doesn't make your eyes puffy and red. 'The important thing to remember about being angry is that you shouldn't take your anger out somewhere else.'

'What?'

'You didn't want to be captured, so you were angry with Sakura for being a Cardcaptor, right? But you took that anger out on Touya. That wasn't really fair, now, was it?'

She shook her head violently and shoved it back in my chest again. It hurt.

'It's only natural to do that, though. So stop beating yourself up about it. You wouldn't do it again, would you?' Another fervent shake. 'Then don't worry too much about it. Do something to make up for it if you can.'

'It's not that easy,' she protested. Was she really centuries old? She seemed so young at this moment; as childlike in her repentance as she had been in her anger.

'No. But if you act without thinking it's the best you can hope for,' I told her bluntly.

'Doing a great job of comforting her, I see,' Watery said acidly as she wrapped an arm around Mirror. I hadn't noticed her appearance. 'I'll take over from here.'

I rolled my eyes as they vanished together.

I never found out what Watery said that night, but apparently it worked, because the next time I saw Mirror she was her old self again. I was rather relieved that she'd come when she had. I was concerned about Mirror, of course, but I had something else to think about.

That evening, while I was leaving the Kinomotos' house, I had sensed a powerful magic aura just outside. It was moon magic, very strong, and distinctly female. It was nowhere near my own power, but more than enough to capture a Clow Card.

The next night brought news of Maze's capture. Maze had managed to trap both Cardcaptors within its power, but a strange woman had helped them escape and captured the Card – and then handed it to Sakura without hesitation. It was almost anticlimactic when Windy told me that she had long red hair.

The plot was growing thicker.

Clow would have loved this.