Laurus Nobilis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
laurus_nobilis) wrote2006-07-31 01:43 pm
laurus_nobilis) wrote2006-07-31 01:43 pm
Entry tags:
Just Listen [XXXHOLiC; English]
Title: Just Listen
Rating: PG
Genre: Genfic / introspection
Characters: Yuuko
Summary: Even witches need someone to talk to.
Notes: Written for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
femgenficathon, with prompt #133: The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.... A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.--Rachel Naomi Remen.
Watanuki asked her once, after a particularly depressing job, if she was always drinking so much to avoid thinking about the things she had to do. Silly boy, she laughed, I like sake because it tastes nice! He stormed off to the kitchen then, muttering things about how she was ruining her health, and perhaps a little embarrassed about showing concern.
Yuuko didn't tell him that it's the opium in her pipe that helps her when she wants to forget about work. Then again, that wasn't what he had asked.
Her job is an ungrateful one; he was right about that much. Customers come and go and she rarely hears about them again. Sometimes her powers and her experience let her know what will become of them after they leave. It isn't always good to have that knowledge. There are too many of them that don't end well.
After all, even people who are not in the business suspect how these things can turn out. Be careful what you wish for, they say. What you want isn't always what you need. She wonders how many of them truly understand the meaning of those words. She has seen what a fulfilled wish can do to a person, and in many cases the results can be terrible. There is nothing she can do about it, and she has learned to accept that. Nobody, not even the Witch of Dimension herself, can change what another person wishes for.
But she is human, too. Just as she cannot pretend that she cares about everyone who comes to see her, she cannot pretend that the things she sees do not affect her. She has to listen to everyone's stories, and many times they have a bad ending, or she never hears the ending at all.
She has a very few things that keep her from letting her work upset her too much. There are her "unhealthy habits", as Watanuki calls them. There is her sense of humour, that so many people consider out of place in a situation like hers; but someone taught her once that there are times when laughing at the world on its face is the only way to stay sane.
And there is also that one person who listens to her once in a while.
* * *
The old fortune teller waits for her outside and receives her with the same kind smile she always has. They spend a few minutes in greetings and small talk, and finally they enter the house together, commenting on the latest gossip from the spirit world. When they settle down at last, the real conversation begins.
Yuuko doesn't ask about the possible outcome of the plans that are set in motion. It troubles her sometimes, but she and Clow were so thorough in their tweaking of details that there isn't much left to wonder, anyway. She also knows that the few things that lie beyond her Sight depend on choices that those children must make for themselves. In spite of everything that conspires against them, she still has hope; she can't take care of the ones who are travelling, but she is satisfied with her work in this world. Watanuki is taking his time, but he is learning.
So she talks about herself instead. After all, this is the only time when she can do that. She tells her friend about those moments when she feels lonely, because even though the girls and Mokona are always around a human being needs other human beings. But those are becoming less and less, she says, smiling, now that Watanuki is there along with the ones he dragged with him. He is a connection with the outside world, something she didn't have in much too long.
He worries her sometimes, though, and she admits it. She can admit it here. She has grown fond of her disciple, so young and inexperienced, and it can be hard to let him make his own mistakes and deal with the consequences. Yuuko prides herself on her control; she never intervenes unless it is absolutely necessary, and so far that method is working. He is already very different from the boy who first entered her shop.
Her friend doesn't utter a single word as she speaks. All the fortune teller does is listen: smiling at some points, nodding in understanding at others. And yet, as usual, her mere presence seems to work wonders. It feels as if every problem shows its solution, or at least a brighter side, even as Yuuko speaks. The two women are never surprised by this; they both know the power that lies in the simple act of talking to someone who pays attention.
There are still some things that cannot be solved in this way, however, and Yuuko leaves them for last. In those cases when her own power isn't useful, speaking doesn't work either. So she tells the old lady about those times when she dislikes what she does. She talks about the people that she isn't able to help, no matter how hard she tries, because they will not help themselves. But those aren't her worst customers, she says, not by far. The worst jobs are the ones when she grants a wish and knows that she has ruined somebody's life. She never feels guilty; she only does what she must, what they ask her to. They are always strangers. Yet she feels for them, even a little, even for a moment...
She closes her speech with a long, tired sigh. And then she asks a question, the one that brought her here and that she will pay with the bottle of sake that lies in her bag.
"Will I ever be able to simply do what I have to do, without caring?" she says softly
The fortune teller doesn't need to use her instruments to answer that. She just looks at her in the eye and smiles.
"Yuuko, my dear," she replies. "You have a heart."
Yuuko smiles, too, and is satisfied.
Rating: PG
Genre: Genfic / introspection
Characters: Yuuko
Summary: Even witches need someone to talk to.
Notes: Written for
femgenficathon, with prompt #133: The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.... A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.--Rachel Naomi Remen.Watanuki asked her once, after a particularly depressing job, if she was always drinking so much to avoid thinking about the things she had to do. Silly boy, she laughed, I like sake because it tastes nice! He stormed off to the kitchen then, muttering things about how she was ruining her health, and perhaps a little embarrassed about showing concern.
Yuuko didn't tell him that it's the opium in her pipe that helps her when she wants to forget about work. Then again, that wasn't what he had asked.
Her job is an ungrateful one; he was right about that much. Customers come and go and she rarely hears about them again. Sometimes her powers and her experience let her know what will become of them after they leave. It isn't always good to have that knowledge. There are too many of them that don't end well.
After all, even people who are not in the business suspect how these things can turn out. Be careful what you wish for, they say. What you want isn't always what you need. She wonders how many of them truly understand the meaning of those words. She has seen what a fulfilled wish can do to a person, and in many cases the results can be terrible. There is nothing she can do about it, and she has learned to accept that. Nobody, not even the Witch of Dimension herself, can change what another person wishes for.
But she is human, too. Just as she cannot pretend that she cares about everyone who comes to see her, she cannot pretend that the things she sees do not affect her. She has to listen to everyone's stories, and many times they have a bad ending, or she never hears the ending at all.
She has a very few things that keep her from letting her work upset her too much. There are her "unhealthy habits", as Watanuki calls them. There is her sense of humour, that so many people consider out of place in a situation like hers; but someone taught her once that there are times when laughing at the world on its face is the only way to stay sane.
And there is also that one person who listens to her once in a while.
The old fortune teller waits for her outside and receives her with the same kind smile she always has. They spend a few minutes in greetings and small talk, and finally they enter the house together, commenting on the latest gossip from the spirit world. When they settle down at last, the real conversation begins.
Yuuko doesn't ask about the possible outcome of the plans that are set in motion. It troubles her sometimes, but she and Clow were so thorough in their tweaking of details that there isn't much left to wonder, anyway. She also knows that the few things that lie beyond her Sight depend on choices that those children must make for themselves. In spite of everything that conspires against them, she still has hope; she can't take care of the ones who are travelling, but she is satisfied with her work in this world. Watanuki is taking his time, but he is learning.
So she talks about herself instead. After all, this is the only time when she can do that. She tells her friend about those moments when she feels lonely, because even though the girls and Mokona are always around a human being needs other human beings. But those are becoming less and less, she says, smiling, now that Watanuki is there along with the ones he dragged with him. He is a connection with the outside world, something she didn't have in much too long.
He worries her sometimes, though, and she admits it. She can admit it here. She has grown fond of her disciple, so young and inexperienced, and it can be hard to let him make his own mistakes and deal with the consequences. Yuuko prides herself on her control; she never intervenes unless it is absolutely necessary, and so far that method is working. He is already very different from the boy who first entered her shop.
Her friend doesn't utter a single word as she speaks. All the fortune teller does is listen: smiling at some points, nodding in understanding at others. And yet, as usual, her mere presence seems to work wonders. It feels as if every problem shows its solution, or at least a brighter side, even as Yuuko speaks. The two women are never surprised by this; they both know the power that lies in the simple act of talking to someone who pays attention.
There are still some things that cannot be solved in this way, however, and Yuuko leaves them for last. In those cases when her own power isn't useful, speaking doesn't work either. So she tells the old lady about those times when she dislikes what she does. She talks about the people that she isn't able to help, no matter how hard she tries, because they will not help themselves. But those aren't her worst customers, she says, not by far. The worst jobs are the ones when she grants a wish and knows that she has ruined somebody's life. She never feels guilty; she only does what she must, what they ask her to. They are always strangers. Yet she feels for them, even a little, even for a moment...
She closes her speech with a long, tired sigh. And then she asks a question, the one that brought her here and that she will pay with the bottle of sake that lies in her bag.
"Will I ever be able to simply do what I have to do, without caring?" she says softly
The fortune teller doesn't need to use her instruments to answer that. She just looks at her in the eye and smiles.
"Yuuko, my dear," she replies. "You have a heart."
Yuuko smiles, too, and is satisfied.