A/N: I am...back? Hehe Sorry for the 2 months delay. School killed my mood, and I had to make sure everything has been taken care of before I start writing again. I lost my mojo, too, so imagine my frustration.
Thanks to Property of Eriol for always reviewing, and for all who read, reads, will read this fic.
Act 24, Winter
Seeing Rika Sasaki and Chiharu Mihara again was probably the best Christmas present she had ever received from anyone, not that she received anything in the last fifteen years, and not that their arrival and this arrangement had ever been for her sake. Her friends had happened to be connected to Eriol's superior and violinist friend anyway, and their attendance tonight was easily a coincidence.
For the past two hours she was beaming, untiring and much more cheerful than she probably was in the last few days. Sakura had voiced out her observation but she had merely smiled again and even allowed herself to laugh. She was being cryptic with her euphoria as if she should be because deep down she thought this feeling of elation made her somewhat uncomfortable and guilty, as if she didn't deserve to be this happy and as if she shouldn't be in the Amamiya house with these people who had quite startlingly accepted her rude presence in their lives.
Tōya lifted a crystal wine glass that glittered beautifully against the candlelight as he prepared for his speech. The others in that long table had fallen silent at his signal.
"Minna-san, our family had not initially intended this gathering to be a thanksgiving party for Eriol-kun's recovery, but I guess we couldn't wait for New Year's day to come. Thank you for accepting the invitation and for coming to Fukuoka to celebrate with us."
"Hai. It's Christmas after all. This year is quite...different, and it's so inconsiderate of me to assume that you didn't have any other plans," Sakura added while she stared at the plate in front of her, seemingly speaking to the couples sitting side by side. There was a faint blush that was suddenly present on her face that was hard to miss especially when Tomoyo was right beside her.
"Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan. I like coming to Fukuoka," Yamazaki piped in with a smile to offer the awkward girl.
Chiharu merely nodded to Eriol's direction and the latter returned her action with a nod of his own. The exchange looked like it was a secret trade but Tomoyo had somehow caught their gestures though she had not understood their implication.
"A toast to the sympathetic season," the doctor then declared ironically, almost smirking in effect. Then without warning he turned to Eriol. "May you be more mindful of your well-being now, cousin, and may you spare my poor heart from the emotional trauma."
His declaration wasn't meant to be something wounding, but his azure-eyed cousin had anyway sighed in response and tried his best not to look annoyed or bored. Either the annoyance or boredom was directed to himself or to Tōya, Tomoyo couldn't tell.
"To Eriol-kun and his promising future," Terada added as he raised his own glass, and his fiancée did the same.
"The competition is next month, isn't it? Ganbatte ne."
Rika's words roused the pianist from his stupor, but they didn't make him thrilled at all. The only color that was left of his pale face had now completely faded.
"The preliminary judging is not open to the public but we can watch the second part. Hoe! This makes me so excited. It's oniichan's first competition after all."
His best friend didn't even have a sarcastic comment to say as he offered his encouragement along with the rest.
"Yes. Arigatō. I'll be doing my best." The pianist's response faltered a bit but only Tomoyo could hear that hesitation and only the former heiress could see how his jaw tensed and how those sapphire eyes fell.
Hiiragizawa Eriol didn't look as positive as he was supposed to be. He was Clow Reed's son after all and everybody in that sophisticated dining room knew how capable he was of wining that competition, and nobody could even doubt, but in that moment of mirth nobody was aware of his existing discomfort or the underlying cause of it.
"Hiiragizawa-san..."
Sympathetic amethyst met guarded sapphire.
Tomoyo hadn't intended to break his concentration by saying his name but there was nothing left to do but give him an assurance that she was certain he'd anyway reject.
"It's going to be alright, Hiiragizawa-san."
She knew it was so overconfident of her to assume she could lift even just a little of that burden for him but it was also the least that she could do. The senpai was doing this to be noticed by his father, Nakuru had already told her. But there must be something else that he wanted to achieve, that acknowledgment for being his own person, an identity of his own, and this maddening pressure was suffocating him.
It must have been so difficult for you. You're always compared to someone far greater, to your own father no less. But you really don't have to prove anything, Hiiragizawa-san.
Her smile must have been contagious that even a fraction of that grim line on Eriol's lips had relaxed and those beautiful sapphire eyes were warmer when they rested on her own amethyst orbs.
"Thank you, Daidōji-san."
Why did it suddenly feel so terribly stifling?
Her heart was frantically beating in her chest. She must have blushed shamelessly again and Eriol was surely going to see her expression if he was positioned right across her.
The former heiress could swear she had been visibly melting in embarrassment.
Luckily, Yukito had saved her from more embarrassing things to come, appearing in the room again with more of the gorgeous cuisine that his kitchen crew had prepared.
"This is absolutely beautiful, Yukito-san," her emerald-eyed friend swooned at the luscious food on the china platters. The colorful arrangement arrested everybody's attention including Eriol's, and Tomoyo silently thanked the servant's genius once more.
The snow had settled attractively along the side of the estate where he could see the frozen lake, sparkling mysteriously in the night like crystalline dusts along pristine plains of white. Eriol suspected that the mellow light of the moon had created the mesmerizing impression, and it seemed as if he was staring at an ashen sky instead of snowed fields.
"Waxing poetic in that imagination of yours again, nee Hiiragizawa-kun?"
The comment made him tear his gaze away from the window.
It was rather abnormal that the intruder of his reflection didn't start his statement with a bizarre lie about snow or winter. Yamazaki could be perceptive if he allowed himself to be, and even after three years, this fact still surprised the dark-haired pianist.
Eriol made sure he kept his face unreadable when he completely turned to the smiling man.
"I don't know what you are talking about, Yamazaki-san." It sounded oddly like a cheap denial even to his own ears.
"Of course, of course," the violinist indulged him without much of an argument or witty comeback, smiling wider in amusement. It was disturbing how Yamazaki's eyes always disappeared when he did that, and it was much more unsettling that he didn't have anything to say.
While Yamazaki was tuning his violin for the duet, his girlfriend and Tomoyo were engaged in a rather active conversation. Then the latter had laughed suddenly which temporarily ceased the violinist's actions.
"She looks prettier when she's happy."
Of course, she does.
"Who does?" Eriol didn't even have to pretend that he didn't know who Yamazaki was talking about, but he was growing suddenly self-conscious knowing he had almost the same opinion about the oblivious woman.
She's actually prettiest when she's happy, his traitorous mind just had to add.
At the corner of his eye he could make out his colleague's amused expression that was etched on his countenance. For some reason, the violinist was able to read his thoughts.
"You act just like Li-kun right now," Yamazaki dared to tease the azure-eyed man as he busied himself with the last adjustments. "Is this why you chose to play Beethoven's Spring tonight, Eriol-kun? Is she the inspiration?"
"What are you—what do you mean I act like Li?"
"Ready, Yamazaki-kun?"
"I am, Terada-sensei," Yamazaki called back, ignoring the pianist's question and standing straight with his instrument on his shoulder and his bow ready. The audience had been prepared to listen to their performance for quite some time now. "Are you, Hiiragizawa-kun?"
Just because he arranged the meeting between Tomoyo Daidōji and her friends it didn't mean anything like that.
Anything like what?
Eriol nodded once as he settled on the piano tensely. He had caught the former heiress' lingering smile before he could stop himself, feeling more self-conscious than he had ever been in his life.
I don't know, he answered his own question.
He threw one signal to his partner's way before he flexed his long fingers instinctively, believing the warmth of spring had wrapped his entire being as the notes resonated in the room.
