Laurus Nobilis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
laurus_nobilis) wrote2006-07-30 01:06 pm
laurus_nobilis) wrote2006-07-30 01:06 pm
Details [XXXHOLiC; English]
Title: Details
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance / introspection
Pairings: Clow/Yuuko
Summary: Yuuko knows Clow better than anyone.
Notes: Written forinsert_phrase.
Sake makes him thoughtful. It's a very annoying side effect, because Yuuko doesn't want to think at all when she's drinking, but Clow's melancholy is contagious. Just by looking at him, she can feel the weight of years and years.
She doesn't fully pay attention to what he's talking about, but she knows it's sad. It's always sad after an hour or two; it's always a bad sign when he starts speaking so much that he forgets about the cup in his hands.
Yuuko chooses to focus on something other than his words. She's still sober enough to notice the threads of magic that surround him, those barriers that he put up who knows how long ago and that never go away. Not when he's asleep, not when he's drunk, not even when he's in a trance. If it tires him to keep them working, he never shows it.
It's easy to understand why he needs them. There are too many people trying to find him. His own power is so great that it drowns all other presences, but Yuuko can sense them if she looks for them: discordant waves that feel different from his, some stronger than others, trying in vain to break the spells that protect him.
Sometimes she tries to read the threads and figure out the reasons behind those intrusions. They come from rivals and enemies. They come from colleagues or relatives who wonder where has he disappeared to this time. They come from people that, willingly or not, he has upset.
There is someone in Hong Kong (a woman, she thinks) whose water-based magic is constantly reaching towards the edges of his barriers. But he doesn't talk about that and she doesn't ask.
She has no reasons for jealousy; they haven't made any promises, anyway. Yuuko knows that she can't claim him as her own. She also knows that nobody can. He has lived too long, grown too much.
Now he's babbling some nonsense about the seasons and falling leaves. She has heard it before, and she still doesn't like it. Suddenly he trails off and his words end with a tired sigh. He turns around to smile softly at her. Yuuko smiles back as the most powerful sorcerer in the entire world rests his head on her lap.
This, she thinks, is something that belongs to her alone. She doesn't care about his past or about those who came before her. He might have been with many other people; he might even have loved them. But she has one thing that nobody else had or ever will.
He trusts her. It's the first time in his long, long life that it is meaningful, that it truly makes him vulnerable. She is not as powerful as he is, but she is strong enough to pose a threat. She could destroy him, if he took too many risks – and he has.
There are more barriers around him than the ones made of spells, and he has taken them down for her. He has forgotten about his fear of loss and his insecurities – it had been such an incredible thought, at first, discovering that even Clow Reed has insecurities – to show her a side of him that few are allowed to see. It's not arrogance or foolishness; only trust. And it makes her proud.
After all, who else knows him as well as she does? Yuuko has many things that no one else does, plenty of small treasures that belong only to her.
She knows that Clow is not pretending when he smiles like that, in spite of what other sorcerers seem to believe; that his gentle nature is real (and it's a blessing for the world, she thinks, that someone so powerful is also so kind). She has learnt to tell when he's being serious and when he's just telling a very elaborate joke. She has seen his eyes shine in delight at a new idea or a pretty sky or a particularly unhealthy dessert.
She knows that he hums to himself when he's working. That he rolls around and mumbles in Chinese in his sleep, and has far too many nightmares. That his ticklish feet are his greatest weakness after his terrible eyesight.
She knows that he likes cats and sakura trees and the colour black. She knows that he likes it when she twists his hair around her fingers, just like this –
"God, I love you," he whispers, half asleep and entirely drunk, and Yuuko adds those words to her list.
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance / introspection
Pairings: Clow/Yuuko
Summary: Yuuko knows Clow better than anyone.
Notes: Written for
insert_phrase.Sake makes him thoughtful. It's a very annoying side effect, because Yuuko doesn't want to think at all when she's drinking, but Clow's melancholy is contagious. Just by looking at him, she can feel the weight of years and years.
She doesn't fully pay attention to what he's talking about, but she knows it's sad. It's always sad after an hour or two; it's always a bad sign when he starts speaking so much that he forgets about the cup in his hands.
Yuuko chooses to focus on something other than his words. She's still sober enough to notice the threads of magic that surround him, those barriers that he put up who knows how long ago and that never go away. Not when he's asleep, not when he's drunk, not even when he's in a trance. If it tires him to keep them working, he never shows it.
It's easy to understand why he needs them. There are too many people trying to find him. His own power is so great that it drowns all other presences, but Yuuko can sense them if she looks for them: discordant waves that feel different from his, some stronger than others, trying in vain to break the spells that protect him.
Sometimes she tries to read the threads and figure out the reasons behind those intrusions. They come from rivals and enemies. They come from colleagues or relatives who wonder where has he disappeared to this time. They come from people that, willingly or not, he has upset.
There is someone in Hong Kong (a woman, she thinks) whose water-based magic is constantly reaching towards the edges of his barriers. But he doesn't talk about that and she doesn't ask.
She has no reasons for jealousy; they haven't made any promises, anyway. Yuuko knows that she can't claim him as her own. She also knows that nobody can. He has lived too long, grown too much.
Now he's babbling some nonsense about the seasons and falling leaves. She has heard it before, and she still doesn't like it. Suddenly he trails off and his words end with a tired sigh. He turns around to smile softly at her. Yuuko smiles back as the most powerful sorcerer in the entire world rests his head on her lap.
This, she thinks, is something that belongs to her alone. She doesn't care about his past or about those who came before her. He might have been with many other people; he might even have loved them. But she has one thing that nobody else had or ever will.
He trusts her. It's the first time in his long, long life that it is meaningful, that it truly makes him vulnerable. She is not as powerful as he is, but she is strong enough to pose a threat. She could destroy him, if he took too many risks – and he has.
There are more barriers around him than the ones made of spells, and he has taken them down for her. He has forgotten about his fear of loss and his insecurities – it had been such an incredible thought, at first, discovering that even Clow Reed has insecurities – to show her a side of him that few are allowed to see. It's not arrogance or foolishness; only trust. And it makes her proud.
After all, who else knows him as well as she does? Yuuko has many things that no one else does, plenty of small treasures that belong only to her.
She knows that Clow is not pretending when he smiles like that, in spite of what other sorcerers seem to believe; that his gentle nature is real (and it's a blessing for the world, she thinks, that someone so powerful is also so kind). She has learnt to tell when he's being serious and when he's just telling a very elaborate joke. She has seen his eyes shine in delight at a new idea or a pretty sky or a particularly unhealthy dessert.
She knows that he hums to himself when he's working. That he rolls around and mumbles in Chinese in his sleep, and has far too many nightmares. That his ticklish feet are his greatest weakness after his terrible eyesight.
She knows that he likes cats and sakura trees and the colour black. She knows that he likes it when she twists his hair around her fingers, just like this –
"God, I love you," he whispers, half asleep and entirely drunk, and Yuuko adds those words to her list.