Here is the next chapter of the story. My apologies for the delay in updating
millayui - I am glad that you liked the pairing. It is a bit unconventional, but I found them cute for some reason, and I am determined to complete their story.
On a Sunday afternoon, Yukito sat beside his sick friend as he lay on the bed. Touya had been in bed with a fever since Friday evening, which worried his best friend to some extent, as sickness was not something common for the sturdy youth. He gently stroked the brown hair of the young man.
Touya opened his eyes slowly, and looked around, his gaze lacking its characteristic sharpness. "Yuki," he muttered slowly, lifting his hand up to the face that was leaning close to him.
"Toya! Your fever seems to be subsiding, thank kami sama," Yukito smiled. Touya's eyes closed again, but his knuckles were tracing lazy circles on one side of Yukito's pale face. He seemed to be on the boundary between sleep and wakefulness. His other hand went to rest on the back of Yukito's head, his fingers buried in his soft hair. Yukito felt that Touya was drawing his face dangerously close to his own. His breath almost stopped, and when their lips were less than an inch away from each other, with almost an inhuman amount of willpower, he placed his hands on either side of Touya's head and pushed his body backwards. Touya's hands slumped on either side of his body, but his eyes remained closed. Yukito stood up, and went to stand beside the window, looking out to the dull gray street below. He felt awful. It felt like he was the most cruel person on earth to have denied Touya something as simple as a kiss after all that they have been through together. Yet, giving in to that desire would be an equally cruel thing to do to Yue-san. In the end, he chose to be kind to Yue-san at Touya's expense. After all, it was because of him that he met Touya in the first place. Forgive my selfishness, Touya, Yukito felt his eyes burn with the prick of repressed tears.
"Yuki," he heard his name being called, this time in a clearer voice. Glancing back, he saw that Touya had sat up on the bed, and was extending an arm out for him to take. He immediately turned from the window and went to him, taking Touya's hand in both of his.
"Man, I can't believe that I slept through all morning and afternoon," Touya said.
"You have been running quite a high fever since last night," Yukito said. "But it has gone down quite a bit since this afternoon, how are you feeling?" he asked, as he sat beside his lifelong companion.
Fortunately, Touya did not notice that his friend was avoiding his gaze. He encircled Yukito's slender frame with both arms from the back, and ducked his head a little to place his chin on his Yuki's shoulder. "Better," he said in a heavy voice. To Yukito's relief, he seemed to have no recollection of the awkward moment from before. Yukito moved one of his hands to rest on his friend's forearm.
"Actually, I had a dream, which made me feel better," Touya spoke again slowly.
"Must have been a really good dream then. Did you see your mother?" Yukito asked gently.
"Nope. I dreamt of us. We were alone, and we were happy. You were happy, Yuki, in a way I have never seen before," Touya responded.
"And Yue san? What about him?" Yukito asked, his voice quivering with an unspoken apprehension.
"He was not with us, but I was certain that he did not disappear from the world. Otherwise, you would never be happy in the way I saw you in that dream," Touya smiled.
"Thank goodness," Yukito finally relaxed and leaned back against Touya's embrace. "Do you think it can happen someday? Can I really meet Yue-san face to face?" he asked, tightening his fingers around his friend's broad wrist.
"I don't know, Yuki. But what I do know is that now I am more hopeful of it than I ever was," Touya answered. Yukito was about to reply when the doorbell rang.
"Is Sakura-chan back so soon?" Yukito said, glancing at the wall clock.
"The monster has the key, dummy. Also, she does not get dropped off by a car and a chauffeur. Now figure who it can be," Touya said.
"Oh, Tomoyo-chan is here," Yukito smiled. "Your senses are so good despite your illness, that's a good sign I guess. I will go answer the door, get more rest, alright?" he turned his head and brushed his lips lightly on the tanned face of his number one person before making his way out of the room.
"Konnichiwa," Tomoyo greeted and bowed, maintaining her usual perfect manners as she beheld a slightly tired looking Tsukishiro-san behind the front door of the Kinomoto residence.
"Konnichiwa, Tomoyo-chan. Come right in. Touya rightly guessed it was you," Yukito welcomed the young girl with a smile.
Tomoyo returned the smile and walked in, expecting to see her cousin close by. When she saw that the living room and the adjacent kitchen was vacant, she glanced back at the young man who was closing the door behind her.
"Where is Touya onii-san then?" Tomoyo asked.
"Touya has been sick with a fever these last two days. That's why Sakura-chan had to swap his chores for today. Oh by the way, she went out to do some grocery shopping half an hour ago. She should be back in another ten minutes or so," Yukito informed.
"Oh, I had no idea. I should have called before coming today. It must be an inconvenient time for a visit," Tomoyo said.
"Daijobu, Tomoyo-chan. Touya seems to be on the way to recovery, and everyone in this house is always happy to see you. Let's have some tea while we wait for Sakura-chan to return, ne?" Yukito suggested.
A while later, they were sitting on the couch sipping their tea. "You know, it was none other than Yue-san who urged me come here yesterday," Yukito said. "I suppose he could sense my restlessness upon hearing about Touya's illness. I had transformed to let him have the day to himself, but he just wrote two words on a piece of paper, basically ordering me to stay beside Touya, and transformed back," Yukito chuckled.
"That's Yue-sama for you," Tomoyo laughed lightly, joining in the mirth. Well, that explained why she did not find Yue-san at the library the day before. But Yukito's eyes turned serious soon afterwards. "For all the sacrifices both Yue-san and Touya have always made for me, I sometimes feel that I have failed them both," he set down the cup on the table before.
Tomoyo thought carefully for a moment, trying to assess Tsukishiro-san's state of mind. "There are multiple ways to look at a situation, you know," she suggested calmly.
"It is hard for me to look at it in any other way, Tomoyo-chan. Even after giving up his powers for me, Touya still faces an uncertain future due to me. Because of the dual nature of my existence, I cannot impart our relationship with the same stability as an actual human could have done in my place. And poor Yue-san, he could hardly be himself all this time out of the concern of not getting in the way of my life. He had agreed to take just one day of the week for himself. I feel I had taken that away from him on this occasion," Yukito leaned his head back in mild frustration as he spoke.
"Touya onii-san gave up his powers to save the person who is irreplaceable to him. Since you were that person, Yue-san's existence could be sustained. Thus, Yue-san feels bound by his honor to return the favor to both of you in every way possible. I am sure you have also made your share of sacrifices in this, because if you paid no heed to Yue-san, and just did what your heart wanted to do, then you wouldn't even have felt the lack of stability in your relationship that you speak of. Please consider my words, Tsukishiro-san," Tomoyo said earnestly.
Yukito finally smiled at the young girl's wise words. "You seem to have everything figured out, Tomoyo-chan,"
"I could understand things better after becoming Yue-san's friend. It gave me a new perspective," Tomoyo mentioned.
"I wonder if I will ever have the honor of becoming Yue-sama's friend," Yukito said.
"He is not like you at all," Tomoyo said emphatically, the motion of her head swinging the long wavy locks that were tied in low ponytails on either side of her head. "He is even more serious than Li-kun and Touya onii-san, and he still scolds me often. But still I–," Tomoyo halted in her speech abruptly.
"But still what?" Yukito questioned.
"There's someone at the door. Sakura-chan must have returned," Tomoyo quickly said to hide the awkwardness of the unfinished sentence, as she heard someone turn the key into the front door. In a rare moment of heedlessness, she was about to disclose more than her rational mind deemed to be appropriate. If it was just Tsukishiro-san, it would not have been a problem. How could she forget that Yue-san was also literally there, right with them?
The distraction had served its intended purpose, for Yukito had stood up from his seat. The person who walked into the room a moment later was not Sakura, but the eminent professor of archeology, his face serious but kind, his hair now sporting some streaks of gray.
"Okaerinasai," Yukito greeted the older man.
Tomoyo stood up and bowed respectfully. " Ohayō gozaimasu, Kinomoto-san," she said.
"Tomoyo-chan, ohayō. Hope you are doing well," Fujitaka smiled at his niece. "Give my regards to Sonomi-san," he said. "Sakura is not back yet?" he turned towards Yukito with the question.
Yukito shook his head.
"Well, since Tomoyo-chan is here, I will take care of the dinner preparations, so that the two of you can talk when she returns," Fujitaka offered kindly.
"Oh, but you must be very busy. If she has chores, I can help her too, we can talk while working," Tomoyo said hurriedly.
"Mattaku, your friend has been working hard since the last two days, with Touya being sick and myself having an article submission deadline to meet this morning. I am sure she needs a break," Fujitaka insisted. "And Tsukishiro-san, thanks for taking care of Touya for us," he said to the young man. He glanced for a moment at the photograph of his late wife on the table. "I wish Nadeshiko-san had a chance to meet you. She would be so very happy for both of you," he remarked, almost to himself. Tomoyo smiled, realizing Tsukishiro-san's relationship with Touya onii-san basically had the blessings of the entire family. In fact, he seemed already very much a part of the family. The positive energy that this family always radiated was one of the many reasons Tomoyo loved to visit them often.
Sakura returned huffing and puffing with her hands full of grocery bags shortly. It turned out that she had run into Yamazaki Takashi at the supermarket, who held her up with his usual fanciful stories for a good fifteen minutes, before his flow was disrupted by a call from Mihara Chiharu. Yamazaki-kun and Chiharu chan were still going strong as a couple, from kindergarten to college, and Tomoyo found it absolutely lovely that she knew a lot of people who had such strong commitments to their relationships in the modern age of casual dating and frivolous flings. After they had gone upstairs to Sakura's room, her friend opened her backpack to reveal Kero-chan inside, happily munching some chocolates that she had placed inside.
"There goes my allowance money," Sakura sighed, lifting the small magical creature by the scruff of his neck. "This is why you wanted to go to the store with me, right?" she rolled her eyes at her sun guardian.
"It's Clow's fault really for leaving his entire fortune with Yuki-bunny and that sullen Yue who barely even uses his share. If he left me with some inheritance, no one would be able to accuse me of being a freeloader," Keroberos complained, fluttering out of the backpack, hogging as many chocolates and candies for himself as his little arms could carry.
"My, Clow-san, did some really horrible things, didn't he?" Tomoyo said jestingly as she sat down on the floor beside her friend's bed.
"Never seen a person more sly than Clow. I am glad that he made Yue the way he is though. For all the inheritance that he got, he can never taste a single edible item. I am glad that he is missing out on the best part of life," Keroberos stuck out his tongue in a cute way, before popping another candy into his mouth.
"Kero-chan, don't be so mean. Yue-san was made to be above such earthly things. That's a good thing in my opinion," Sakura stated.
"There were some evil magicians known for killing or weakening the familiars of their rivals by poisoning there food. I guess Clow decided to eliminate that chance when he created Yue," Kero remarked.
As for Tomoyo, it was certainly not helping her that the conversations seem to be turning towards the topic of the moon guardian in one way or another since she came to Sakura's house that afternoon. However, her curiosity got the better of her. "Kero-chan, what would happen if Yue-san tried to eat something? Would there be a serious consequence?" she asked, remembering the time Yue-san told her that he cannot eat or drink any human food.
"Probably food would just feel like chewing a mouthful of sand to him. But who knows?" Kero answered casually and started checking his phone, probably anticipating a text or message from the other sun guardian who lived abroad.
After that, Sakura and Tomoyo talked until dinner time, sharing a week's worth of stories and updates. Sakura wanted her to stay for dinner, but Tomoyo refused, saying that she had made dinner plans with her mother. Things like making a dinner plan with one's parent seemed somewhat weird to Sakura earlier, but as she grew up, she came to understand the dynamics of Tomoyo's family a bit better. She understood that Sonomi-san had to balance her dual role as a parent and an extremely busy executive who was in charge of a company, and hence responsible for the livelihoods of many other people. Several times in a week, she had to host her associates for lunch or dinner, leaving less time for her family. At other times, she would be traveling. That's why both Tomoyo-chan and her mother never missed a chance of being with each other on weekends whenever they had a chance. Although her own father was very busy himself, his academic role did not entail such formalities as having to host lunches and dinners, which is why he seemed to be able to spend more time with his family than Sonomi-san could.
"Say bye to Touya onii-san and Tsukishiro-san for me," Tomoyo said as they exited Sakura's bedroom.
"Why don't you say that yourself? Come," Sakura pulled her best friend's hand and led her to the adjacent bedroom that belonged to her elder brother.
Touya was resting, with Yukito sitting beside his lying form, when the door cracked open, and his sister's face peered inside.
"Sakura-chan, Tomoyo-chan, come inside," Yukito called affably.
"Tomoyo-chan is leaving and wants to say bye to you both," Sakura announced, stepping inside the room followed by Tomoyo.
"Get well soon, Touya onii-san," Tomoyo said gently. Her cousin only nodded and gave her a half smile from his bed. Tomoyo noticed that he was firmly holding one of Tsukishiro san's hands in his, and did not let go even in their presence.
"Onii-chan has been clingy like this to Yukito-san since he came to look after him," Sakura giggled as they both headed downstairs shortly. "It is silly, but cute," she grinned.
"I think he has the subconscious fear that Tsukishiro-san might disappear into thin air if he takes his eyes off him for more than a moment," Tomoyo whispered with a chuckle.
While having dinner with Sonomi later that evening, Tomoyo noticed that her mother looked paler and more fatigued than usual. She decided to ask about her health once they finished eating, as Sonomi seemed to be enjoying telling her about the latest venture of her company. However, while getting up from the table, Sonomi's steps faltered, and she narrowly prevented herself from falling by clutching the back of the chair she was sitting on.
"Okaa-san, are you alright?" Tomoyo rushed beside her mother, and placed her hand on her back to support her.
"Ah, Tomoyo-chan, I must have been very tired," Sonomi tried to convince her daughter that she was fine.
"No, that was not just fatigue. You were feeling dizzy," Tomoyo stated, her forehead furrowed with worry.
"Just a little bit. Sorry to make you worry, Tomoyo-chan. " Sonomi wanted to reassure her daughter.
"Okaa-san, please, you have to stop overworking like this. I am scared that your health will give in if you continue maintaining such a hectic schedule," Tomoyo entreated.
Sonomi lovingly pulled her daughter closer to herself with both arms. "Tomoyo-chan, it appears your mom is growing older, just like everyone else. But don't worry, I won't leave you abruptly like your otou-san. Unlike him, I want to be around long enough to see my girl finding her place in the world," she kissed her daughter's forehead.
"Otou-san had no choice in the matter, mother, but you do. You have to be more careful," Tomoyo clutched Sonomi's hand. She made her mother promise that she would go see a doctor soon, and take a vacation as soon as her upcoming business deal was finalized before Sonomi retired for the night.
As the week progressed, Tomoyo found herself thinking about Yue-san on and off amidst her daily activities. It seemed like she had not seen him for a very long time even though it had just been over a week. She found herself looking forward to the following Saturday. Even worse, she found herself binging through the old videos of her best friend's adventures in capturing the Clow cards, and their subsequent conversions to Sakura cards, secretly hoping to catch glimpses of Yue-san here and there. During those days, Sakura was the sole focus of her world, so obviously Yue-san was just a minor side character in most of those videos. He had never been too fond of the camera either, and always preferred to stay out of its field of view whenever possible. Even then, Tomoyo would pause the video during the short time segments in which he appeared to watch his actions more closely. She would then close her eyes and try to memorize every detail of his exquisite young face. She would think that none of the costumes her hands had ever designed could match the elegance of the white and blue silk attire that accentuated Yue-san's ethereal charm. Her mind tried to justify to herself that she was just studying his face because she wanted to understand his character better in order to be able to help him more, and that she liked his attire because she appreciated fine fashion. But Tomoyo was not a guileless girl who could be fooled by such reasons. Nature had gifted her with a keen understanding of human thoughts and emotions, and she had spent years studying similar things in others. She knew very well where the trail of her recent thoughts led to; it went right up to a precarious edge that Tomoyo was too scared to even think of walking. However, it seemed that she was unable to stop and turn back nonetheless. She was scared of the reality that she had started liking Yue-san way more than she was supposed to, and it seemed that there was very little she could do about it. Her panicked mind continued its futile attempts to hide from itself throughout the week.
On the evening of that Friday, Tomoyo was in the kitchen of the huge mansion that was her family home, trying to decide what dessert recipe she should make for dinner, when an attendant came in and announced that Tsukishiro-san had come to see her. When she went to her personal parlor, she found that the young man was standing in front of the medium sized screen on the wall opposite to the couch where she was seated a while ago. The screen displayed a paused video, showing Sakura in a battle costume, Keroberos in his smaller form, and Yue. Of the three, Sakura and Kero faced each other, seemingly in the middle of a conversation, while Yue's placid face was turned towards the camera. Tomoyo had forgotten to turn off the screen when she left the room.
"Tsukishiro-san," she called hesitantly.
"Touya was right. His eyes really seem to hide the emptiness of the sky within them," Tsukishiro-san seemed to not notice her presence as he muttered, his eyes fixed on the image of the young man clad in white, who was his true form.
Tomoyo did not know what to say, since she was not certain that the words were spoken to her in the first place. Yukito turned to the girl in a moment though. "Tomoyo-chan, sorry for calling on you so suddenly. Yue-san asked me to return you the book that you had lent him," he announced the purpose of his visit, retrieving a book from the backpack he carried, and placing it on the low table before the couch. Tomoyo looked at the book and then back to his young face with a quizzical expression.
"I wanted to cover for Touya at his part time work this week so that he gets a chance to recover fully, with Yue-san's permission of course. As the book is due tomorrow, Yue-san instructed me to return it to you with his thanks," Yukito explained.
So he would not be there tomorrow , Tomoyo thought, an odd mix of relief and disappointment sweeping over her at the same time. "I hope Touya onii-chan is better now," Tomoyo looked at the book. "Did Yue-san have time to finish the book?"
"Oh yes, I believe he did. He transforms during my sleeping hours to get such things done occasionally," Yukito smiled. "I am glad that I came. You know, this is the first time that I really got to see my other form," Yukito said, fixing his eyes on the screen once again. "If I am correct in assuming that this is Yue-san," he pointed to the screen.
"That's right. But, these older videos are of low quality," Tomoyo took a step towards the screen, brows furrowing to scrutinize the screen. "Quite unsatisfactory at places. You can see all sorts of noise and compression artifacts. Her fingers pointed to some blocky regions on the screen that depicted parts of the sky in the backdrop as well as some jagged edges of the trees in the background. "I was thinking about using AI to enhance their visual quality," she explained tactfully.
"That's a good idea to better preserve your childhood memories, Tomoyo-chan," Yukito said. "In our field many people are now using similar AI tools to enhance and re-analyze the pictures taken by older telescopes, which has led to some surprising revelations," Yukito said. He even proceeded to cite some examples from the journal articles he had read on the topic.
Tomoyo smiled as she listened to the young man speaking passionately about his subject, glad that she was able to turn an uncomfortable situation into an erudite discussion. It was a good thing that her presence of mind never left her side no matter how agitated she was internally. Also, thankfully, more people were present in the still frame on the screen than just Yue-san. Tsukishiro-san or Yue-san probably would not suspect anything unusual about it.
"I can share the copies of the dvds if you would like to watch them," she offered.
"Tomoyo-chan, you are very kind. However, I want to find out more about Yue-san with my own eyes in real-time, rather through any recorded digital media. I want to hear his voice with my own ears, be able to shake his hand, get to know his personality, his mannerisms, everything. The videos will take away some of that anticipation, so I would rather not watch them at this point. It is better that I have something to look forward to, ne?" Yukito said.
"I understand completely, Tsukishiro-san," Tomoyo replied.
When Yukito left a while later, Tomoyo sat on the couch staring at the book at the table that Yue-san had returned to her. A small pout appeared on her lips. There was no one in the room when she talked with Tsukishiro-san. Yue-san could have easily appeared before her, at least for a moment, but he did not bother. It was only natural though, someone like her was probably inconsequential to him anyway. Even when it came to Sakura, Yue-san did not manifest himself unless she really needed his help or advice. As her initial disappointment dissipated, Tomoyo slowly realized she was being unreasonable in her judgement of the man. Yue-san had told her earlier that he made it a point to stay out of Tsukishiro-san's life as much as possible, except on the the one day of the week he had agreed to spend in his true form. Returning the book to her was just a mundane task which did not require Yue-san's presence, so he simply kept himself out of the way. It probably had nothing to do with wanting or not wanting to interact with her.
That night, Tomoyo awakened from a dream that she had already seen about twice before. The first time she had barely thought about it, while she dismissed the second occurrence as a coincidence. However, when it happened for a third time, she could not just shrug it off like the previous two occassions. Also, although the dreams started similarly on three occasions, she finally realized that there was a subtle progression. In her dream, Tomoyo saw herself sitting on a hill, surrounded by tall grases and some wildflowers. She was gazing up at the sky. No, rather, she was gazing up at the beautiful blue moon that adorned the sky. That was all that she had seen the first time. The second time, she saw dark clouds appear from nowhere and shroud the moon. In the third dream that she just woke up from, the clouds dissipated as suddenly as they had appeared, revealing the luminous orb once again. However, when the moon came out from the cover of the clouds, it was not a full circle anymore, but missed a small sliver at the top. It seemed that the clouds had broken off the small segment and carried it away.
Tomoyo sighed and walked out to the balcony adjoining her bedroom. She was well aware of the importance of dreams in the world of magic. She knew how the many progressive dreams that her friends Sakura and Akiho had over the years acted as harbingers of the incidents that followed soon after. Why me? She asked the silent darkness. She was totally a normal girl with no magical powers of her own. What did she have to do with such portentous dreams? The dream symbolically pointed towards Yue-san. It was not hard for her to figure out that part from the image of the moon. Yet, what was she supposed to do for him? She was unable to understand that on her own, and seeking the counsel of people like Hiragizawa-kun or Kaito-san who were experts in the knowledge of magic was also not an option due to the potential risk of divulging her own feelings about the topic to them. Tomoyo was prepared to make almost any sacrifice required of her to help the man who saved her life, but she feared that her good wishes were not enough, and she had no other power to alter the cruel reality of Yue-san's life. The restlessness of her thoughts about Yue-san were evolving into a problem by itself.
Tomoyo covered her face with her hands, wondering why her life got intertwined with magical elements in the first place. She could just have been a normal girl, blissfully unaware of the existence of magic, its beauty, and its dangers. She could have dated a normal person, fallen in love with them one day, and moved on. Yet, she never felt any desire for such things and she did not for a moment regret knowing a single one of the magical beings and the humans with magical capabilities who have become a part of her life. Tomoyo gazed at the stars, wondering what strange and twisted fate was written for her in those giant balls of fire that flickered as tiny lights in the night sky.
Thanks for reading, and it will be even better if you leave a review.