Alright, back to Clow/Yue.

[tammaiya]

It wasn't the poking of woodcut_21 and fahye; sadly, my it was my own mind wot betrayed me. And thus, the completed chapter of what is doomed to become a long and sprawling Clow/Yue monster-fic. (No, I don't know if it's the first chapter. Shhhhhhh.)


Clow: a singularly frustrating individual who could be both frighteningly perceptive and impossibly dense, all at once. He had been gone for just under a week on a rare business trip- something about persuading the local aristocracy that no, really, he had no intention of using his magic for their personal gain- and he had sent word to say that he would be returning that evening. Yue wished rather selfishly that the Mirror card could have been sent instead, but it was a silly thought and he knew it. She could look like Clow, but she couldn’t act like him.
Sighing, Yue tried again to read the paragraph that wouldn’t seem to make sense to his distracted mind. He had lost count of how many times he had read it, but each time the words seemed to run together until he forgot what they were meant to say.
Shouldn’t Clow be back by now? It was getting late.
“So, having fun pining?” Cerberus asked idly, rolling over to bask in the glow from the fireplace.
Yue started, almost dropping his book in the process. “Excuse me?”
Cerberus made a noise that was somewhere between a growl and a laugh, and it took Yue a second to realise that the Sun guardian was sniggering. “You’ve been reading the same page for twenty minutes.”
“So?” Yue asked defensively. “Maybe it’s a difficult book.”
Cerberus treated him to an amused and incredulous raise of the eyebrow. “Yue admitting he’s not good at something? I never thought I’d see the day. Unfortunately for you, I already know you’re a fast reader.”
Yue glared at him but did not deign to answer, instead turning the page over viciously and pretending to return to the reading that he had not, in fact, been doing.
“Generally it helps to move your eyes when you read,” Cerberus said helpfully after a few minutes had elapsed.
“Not that you’d know,” Yue snapped. “Given you can’t read.” Still, trying to read wasn’t achieving anything, and stubborn though he was he’d had enough of Cerberus’s snide comments for the evening. Slamming the book shut, he thumped it down on the coffee table and glared venomously at the smug lion. “Alright, Cerberus, what do you want?”
“Did I ever say I wanted anything?” Cerberus asked innocently.
Yue narrowed his eyes. “If not, then why are you bothering me?”
“Because it’s fun,” Cerberus answered evilly, then quickly continued when the look Yue was giving darkened to something rather more murderous. “And because you need someone to distract you from your pining.”
“I’m not pining,” Yue hissed, curling up self-consciously into his armchair.
“Of course not,” Cerberus answered sarcastically. “Which is why you keep looking up in case Clow has returned.”
Yue twitched and gritted his teeth. “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about, you stupid overgrown kitten.”
“Yue, you couldn’t be more unintentionally obvious if you tried,” Cerberus told him pleasantly.
Yue treated him to a withering look. “Of course not, idiot. You can’t try to be unintentionally anything.”
“Whatever,” Cerberus answered dismissively, waving a paw to emphasise his point. “You’re still glaringly obvious.”
Yue fought down the slight rising panic and sniffed. “About what?”
“Clow.”
Flinch. Yue wasn’t quite so unreadable as he liked to pretend.
“Don’t worry, though,” Cerberus added. “We all know Clow’s practically blind in all senses of the word.” He paused. “Actually, that might make for good blackmail material…”
“I think I’m going to kill you now,” Yue said calmly, and slid out of his chair.
When Clow returned, he was very confused to find his Moon guardian attempting to strangle his Sun guardian.
“… Yue?”
Yue almost jumped, and Cerberus made that bizarre sniggering noise again, prompting Yue to tighten his grip. “… yes, Master?”
“What are you-”
Cerberus opened his mouth and Yue forced it shut again with his hands. “Nothing, Master.”
Clow blinked, rather confused. “Ah… right. Well, I’ll just… be in my study, then.”
He turned around and vacated the room, cloak swirling behind him. Yue let out a relieved sigh.
“So I take it you’ll be doing my chores tomorrow?” Cerberus asked with renewed interest.
“I hate you,” Yue muttered, and left to find Clow.
It took very little time to find him; he was in the cold tiled sitting room adjacent to his study, standing at the window and looking up blankly at the moon. Yue approached slowly, uncertain as ever of his master’s mercurial moods.
“Ah, Yue,” Clow said softly, turning with a gentle swirl of his cloak to smile dreamily. “I’m glad you’ve come to join me.”
Yue let out a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding and moved to stand beside his beloved master, smiling slightly in return. The trip must have gone well - Clow was in an open mood, and wished for company. It was a mood Yue loved to see his master in, but it was also dangerous in certain ways. There was no time he felt the irresistible pull towards Clow as when the magician clearly invited his presence. He often wondered about the sort of things that ran through Clow’s mind at those times; he never asked, and Clow never told him.
Clow adjusted his glasses and gestured out the window. “It is a beautiful evening tonight, no?”
“Aa,” Yue agreed, fingers brushing lightly against the glass. “It is near full moon.”
“Quite,” Clow answered, glancing at his guardian briefly before looking back to the night sky. “How did you and Cerberus fare in my absence?”
Yue was suddenly terribly glad that Cerberus was not there to answer that question. “Fine, thank you,” he replied, feeling uncomfortably as if he were lying. It was ridiculous; he may have missed Clow, but it wasn’t as if his world had ceased to function. Not precisely. Hesitating, his hand lingered self-consciously against the window, fingers partially curled. “… I am glad you have returned.”
Clow laughed quietly, and Yue’s head jerked towards him in surprise, the end of his hair sweeping the floor like a silky white curtain being swished aside. His expression must have been somewhat disconcerted, for Clow laughed again and soothingly stroked a hand through the moon angel’s hair. “I laugh for I too am glad for my return,” he reassured Yue warmly, tugging tenderly at the lock which he had twined loosely around his fingers. “I missed you both. Come, shall we retreat to the library? I feel the need for the heat of the fire, and I really should greet Cerberus properly.”
Yue was tempted to refute the latter part of Clow’s comment, but reluctantly refrained. It somehow didn’t seem fair taking shots at Cerberus when the lion wasn’t there to defend himself. Instead he was content to walk in silence, basking in the affectionate warmth of his master’s aura.
“Ah, Yue…”
Having been taken unawares by the sudden breaking of the hush that had descended over he and his master, Yue blinked, expression inquiring. “Master?”
“Would it be prudent of me to ask precisely why you were attempting to throttle Cerberus earlier?”
“Ask whatever you wish, Clow,” Yue responded calmly.
“I see. So…?”
“No reason, Master,” Yue told him sweetly. Clow stared at him, faintly perplexed by the complex circles his guardian was leading him in. For that matter… It was dark, so he couldn’t exactly tell, but was there a faint tinge of pink to Yue’s cheeks?
Clow was beginning to feel rather firmly that he would never understand Yue. “Right.” He considered pressing the issue and pointing out that he had never known Yue to undertake unprovoked violence before, but after some careful thought chose not to. He had the suspicion that such contrariness on his part would lead to an argument, and for some reason he was loathe to shatter the comfortable atmosphere currently shrouding their conversation. Besides, if there was some reason Yue didn’t feel the need to tell him, it was only fair of him to respect that. Anyway, it was probably just Cerberus being obnoxious.
Though he’d never known Yue not to take any available opportunity to blame Cerberus before, either. This was beginning to give him a headache.
Yue cleared his throat. “Ah… Clow?”
“Hm?”
“You’ve been standing at the door to the library for about a minute,” Yue informed him tactfully.
Clow, lost in his thoughts, had completely failed to notice this. “Oh. Thank you, Yue.” Vaguely embarrassed, he chuckled and pushed open the door to be bowled over by an overenthusiastic fire-breathing cat. “Oof! Cerberus!”
“You’re back!” Cerberus rumbled happily, licking Clow’s face and ignoring the mildly chilly look Yue was shooting at him.
Protesting weakly, Clow laughed and tried to push the affectionate lion off his chest with no success. “Cerberus, please- hey- that tickles! The floor isn’t very comfortable- ack!”
“Cerberus, get off the master,” Yue said curtly, narrowing his eyes and trying to look threatening.
Cerberus grinned, massive pink tongue lolling out over sharp white teeth, and jumped off Clow to pad over to Yue’s side. “Jealous?” he muttered slyly.
Yue’s pale skin was once more stained with pink, and he crossed his arms sullenly, unable to think of a response that wouldn’t sound petulant or like he was protesting too much.
Clow pushed himself up from the floor, wondering if he’d missed something vital, for Yue’s behaviour had been notably peculiar since his return. Still, he mused, brushing the dust from his clothes, it might have something to do with the full moon.
“Master?”
Yue looked lovely when he blushed, Clow decided, then banished the thought. Yue looked lovely all the time, an angel with the ethereal beauty of the moon, and why was he thinking this? And more to the point, why did he feel like blushing now too?
“Huh? I mean, yes?” Clow answered, more than a little flustered.
Cerberus looked from Clow to Yue and back again, and the grin on his face changed into something rather more diabolical in appearance. Yue fought against the intense urge to give him a sharp kick to the ribs; he could almost hear the yelp, and it would be so very satisfying. However, even if the niggling guilt weren’t a problem, Clow would want to know why.
“You just seemed rather out of it, Clow,” Yue explained, shooting a nasty glance at the winged lion behind their master’s back. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to bed and tell us about your trip tomorrow?”
Cerberus waggled his eyebrows from his vantage point- thankfully out of Clow’s line of sight- as soon as Yue mentioned the word ‘bed’, and Yue felt his hands twitch as the urge to choke his irritating counterpart once more began to rise.
“I’m perfectly alright-” Clow began, but his words were disrupted by a yawn that seemingly surprised him as much as his companions. “Or maybe not,” he finished sheepishly. “Thank you for your concern, Yue. Perhaps that would be the wisest idea after all.”
Smiling tiredly, he ruffled Cerberus’s mane fondly and drew the fingers of his other hand through Yue’s hair, missing in his exhaustion the way Yue leaned into the touch and the meaningful look Cerberus was giving them both. “In the morning, then,” he promised, and retired to bed.
Yue remained where he stood for several minutes before retreating to the armchair he had been frequenting earlier in the evening. Cerberus followed him over, sitting next to him and gazing at him in a significant manner. Yue attempted to ignore him, but it was remarkably hard to pay no attention to exactly how unnerving the stare of a big cat really is. “What?” He snapped eventually.
Instead of saying anything, Cerberus glanced upwards, the direction of Clow’s room, and then back to Yue, the implication of his action implicit.
“Go away,” Yue said sullenly.
“Why?”
“… Clow isn’t the only one who needs to sleep, you realise.”
Cerberus snorted. “And you’re going to go to sleep right there, are you?”
“Maybe,” Yue muttered, sole motive a desire to be perverse.
“Do as you please, then,” Cerberus said airily. “Though I imagine it would be rather uncomfortable, and your hair will probably tangle. Of course, you won’t have any difficulty explaining the fact you slept there to Clow when he comes down tomorrow morning, and of course he wouldn’t feel at all guilty for not staying around to make sure you got into bed.”
“Alright, you’ve made your point!” Yue scowled menacingly. “Is there a reason for your tormenting me?”
“Not really, no.”
“Fine. I’m going to bed.” Gathering his hair and flicking it back out of the way, Yue got up again and stalked out of the room. Cerberus debated tailing him, but came to the conclusion that he’d pushed it far enough for one day. Exuding an air of satisfaction, he padded back to the fireplace and stretched out on the rug, purring softly at the thought of a promising start.
Yue would thank him one day. After all, it was for the Moon guardian’s own good.

Comments

[minkhollow]

Intriguing.
>>could simultaneously be frighteningly perceptive and impossibly dense all at once<<
Either 'simultaneously' or 'all at once' - saying both is a bit redundant.

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

Yes, I noticed that about the time when I posted. At which point I was too tired to know whether or not it was overkill, and went "... stuff this." and posted. *wry grin* Thanks, Jill! ^^ *changes sentence*