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Story being worked on...
Nov. 13th, 2003 10:23 amI am currently working on chapter five of The Bet. This story is one that does not want to die and I keep wanting to work on it, but I hit snags. It started out as a Touya/Yukito but Sakura keeps trying to steal the spotlight. *grumbles* Cute girl, but dang she can sure be a glory hog...
Here is a pic from The Bet: http://larania.angelcities.com/sakurazukatouy.JPG
Here is Sakura, from the sequel which I hope to get written: http://larania.angelcities.com/sakurakamui2.jpg
Here is what I have so far of this last chapter of The Bet. It is far from complete.
The Bet:
Chapter Five
Disclaimer: Neither Tokyo Babylon or Card Captor Sakura belong to me, they belong to CLAMP and I make no money at all from this work of fanfiction.
“We’ve been looking for four months, Eriol,” Li sighed and stretched, pouring his reluctant partner some tea. Eriol grunted sourly, taking the warm drink and just holding it, not drinking at all. Time was rushing past him, like he was caught in a stream with an overpowering current and all he could do was cling to the rocks.
“Yes, and all we’ve gotten are dead ends- I KNOW the Sakurazukamori is playing with us now,” Eriol put his tea down and ran a hand through his bangs. “Its like an elaborate game of hide and seek.”
“What- mad someone could outwit you?” Syaoran smirked, pleased, despite the situation that someone had managed to one up the annoying magician. Eriol glared at him.
“I refuse to answer that on grounds I could incriminate myself,” he answered loftily. Syaoran snickered.
“We still have a few years before the Final Day,” Li sobered quickly, saying that.
“Yes, so what are we going to do before the world ends?” Eriol sighed, now glaring at his teacup like the world’s end was its fault.
“We won’t let it end!” Syaoran answered fiercely, his eyes glowing like the wolf he was.
“We’ve found another dragon of heaven,” Eriol changed the subject. No need to tell Syaoran of his visions.
“That Jou character? Yeah, his inukami decided to stay with him- he doesn’t know why yet... but he will. The joys of being a Ten no Ryou,” Li hunched over.
“Being a Chi no Ryou isn’t much better.”
“Oh fuck you,” Syaoran got up and left.
Eriol blinked... what was that about?
~*~*~*~*~*~*
“You know, it really is a lovely day, Penguin-san,” Touya said to the small tuxedo colored animals that cackled back at him, like they were answering. The tall man leaned against the glass.
“It would be all the more lovely if I had people to spend it with,” he spoke conversationally to the birds more, and they bobbed their heads, croaked and cackled at him, and he smiled faintly, remembering saving one years ago...
“To-ya! You are talking to the penguins?” giggled someone behind him, and the veternerian turned to look into the smiling eyes of Yukito. Touya just raised an eloquent eyebrow.
“I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.”
“Well, we’ll leave you two alone,” said a voice behind Yukito- Sakura and Tomoyo, with Tomoyo resting her chin on Sakura’s shoulder. Sakura just gave them her mischievious Imouto grin.
“So- you two thought of any baby names yet?” she snickered, continuing the Gag That Refused to Die. Yukito turned a violent red.
“Its too early yet, I’m not due for another couple of months,” Touya answered serenely, getting some odd looks from passerby.
“Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?” Tomoyo quietly added, and Sakura covered her mouth to stop from laughing out loud.
“I honestly don’t care,” the darker of the men replied, and put an arm around Yukito. “So long as it takes after his or her beautiful father, I will be content.”
“TO-YA!” the snow bunny protested, putting his hands in the air. He tried hard to joke back. “I want a girl! We can name her Nadeshiko!”
This, for some reason, brought the conversation to a screeching halt. Touya’s eyes lost their playfulness as he turned to Sakura and Tomoyo.
“I thought you had a job this afternoon?” he said, voice calm.
Yukito didn’t understand the sudden shift in mood, but nodded to Sakura and Tomoyo as they walked away, giggling to each other. He grinned at Sakura’s clothes- long, silvery leggings under a white wrap around skirt, open to mid thigh, with a flounced blouse, with two long shawl like trains going from her shoulders to her wrists, but draped past her knees. It gave her the impression of wings.
Then again, he was dressed like the Return of the Hippie… Tomoyo’s varied tastes had struck again. Tie-dyed shirt, beads, fringed leather vest and bell bottoms over moccasins. He couldn’t have contrasted more with the veternerian in the Armani suit more.
They turned to walk away-
“What was that about? I was trying to go join in with that joke for once, and you completely shut me out,” he sounded a little hurt. Touya refused to look at him for a moment, but when he did, Yukito shivered. His eyes were flat, expressionless behind his glasses. Nothing at all…
“A daughter of mine, named Nadeshiko, would have to take over the family like business, like Sakura nearly did.”
Then the moment passed, like it never existed.
“So… do you want to go to the tea shop here for our date?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“We’re meeting Jou here?” Sakura asked, as Tomoyo handed her the note she had taken. They had gone to a small diner, some hamburger place, because Jou was trying to hire them.
The two girls had made friends with Jou, after his perpetual gloom had lightened, they could see the cheerful, devil may care youth he had been, and they found they liked him a great deal. Yet the oddest part about him now, as he entered the diner, was the dog that still followed him around, completely unhindered by a leash, and which people walked through like he wasn’t there, but would get pats and scratches from her master ever so often.
Yet only Tomoyo and Sakura could see the dog…
“What do you think is going to happen to them?” Sakura asked her wise friend. Tomoyo frowned and blinked for a moment, her face going oddly slack. Then it quickly became Tomoyo again. Sakura was, needless to say, unnerved.
“I think, that until whatever business Duchess has with this life is over, she won’t move on. Of course, it might be that she just DOESN’T want to move on- she loved her master with all her heart. He loved her. I think that they are happy like this…”
Sakura nodded.
Jou trotted over, and Sakura quickly shoved a tray of food in front of him. He grinned at her and immediately started wolfing the food down- and sneaking pieces to Duchess.
More odd staring as one or two people tried to convince themselves they weren’t seeing food disappear into mid air.
“What’s this job you have for us?” Sakura asked as Jou started draining his drink.
He paused his slurping. “Oh, yeah- well, these weird fires have been starting at this, um, place I know of. They’ve only been happening to, um, guys who, um, have been mistreating, um, the people that work there. I don’t really GO there, cause, well, I still love Yug’, and don’t really need to, but I got a friend who works there and she, yeah, she um… got roughed up a couple of times outside of work by, um, customers.” Jou’s face was starting to sweat.
“Jounouchi,” Tomoyo pronounced carefully. “What kind of place is it that you are trying to describe?”
“A Soapland?” he answered in a small voice.
Sakura nearly spit out the soda she was drinking, choked, and Tomoyo and Jou had to enthusiastically pound her back to get her to breath again.
“A Soapland? You mean, as in, prostitutes?” Sakura wheezed hard.
Jou nodded. “I, actually… I worked at one for a while,” his face turned very purple. “I just did the bathing thing!” he protested.
“Well, I met this girl, we kept in touch cause she was nice- and she wouldn’t tell me what was going on, but I read stuff in the paper about what was happening at her Soapland.”
“So- you want us to investigate what’s causing the fires?” Tomoyo clarified. Jou nodded, and gave the rest of his burger to Duchess, who barked happily.
“I think- um, do we have to actually meet the girls?” Sakura asked nervously, shifting around in her seat. Jou sighed.
“They aren’t bad people, Sakura-san,” Jou sounded sad. “It’s a place where people don’t ask questions. They go there cause they either need the money desperately, they want to hide from something, or they just don’t want people to know them. They got lots of reasons- some ARE bad, but most are just tryin’ to survive.”
Sakura sat back with a huff. Bad things had happened in her life- but she had never faced a situation like what Jou had described, where her choices were so limited that she would be forced to work at some place like that. Yet she had seen people who had been down and out- whose despair crushed them. Like Jou’s had been- and she hurt for them.
So much pain… so little she could do about it…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Syaoran Li looked up at the ceiling of his room, arm flung over his head, and told himself to forget.
He didn’t want to forget. He couldn’t forget.
He hadn’t told anyone- how could he?
Meilin was dead.
He’d had to listen to Eriol moan the loss of his lady-love. He’d been there through the reunion with Touya- but he couldn’t, not yet, vent his grief for his oldest friend.
It had to be his fault- they’d fought, like siblings, and the next day, a fire had started in the Li compound- he could still hear his cousin screaming… It couldn’t have been a year or more ago…
Maybe he’d be given a miracle, like Sakura. Maybe if he believed enough- everything would be all right.
That was the Invincible Spell- right?
Right?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Night had come with a suddenness that had left Yukito nearly breathless, as both he and Touya sat on the highest beams of Tokyo Tower.
Somehow this had turned out to be a threesome date- with Yue talking them to a part of the Tower no one would normally get to, free of charge.
“This is... such a beautiful city,” Yukito murmured, looking out over the constellation of lights that made up the city at night.
“Yes, it is. I truly enjoy this town,” Touya smiled out over it, and Yukito felt odd as he looked at the smile, like there was something he was missing. Or had been added- like the smile was real...
His smiles aren’t real? Yue muttered, in their mind. The thought was oddly disconcerting. Then it was gone.
Then again- what was real? Yukito and Yue shied from that thought as well.
Were they real?
Their wishes were those of their master- but Sakura was a sweet, loving person. How could they ever tell? How could they ever be real- or even whole?
“I enjoy Tokyo as well- its changed so much. So many things are here...”
Touya chuckled. “I suppose my reasons for liking this place are far more different than yours. Although that might change...”
“Why do you love this Tokyo?” Yukito asked lazily, leaning on Touya’s shoulder.
“Its the only town that can enjoy itself on the way to damnation.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sakura blinked at the door of the Soapland she had been paid to investigate. Her heart was racing, because she had absolutely no idea what to expect.
It was still daylight- the Soapland was still closed. Nervously she went up the short stairs, and knocked on the door.
“Excuse me- we’re not open yet,” said a voice form behind the door, and it opened, and Sakura felt like someone had punched her in the gut.
“Meilin?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Are you going to tell me what crawled up your ass and died, or do I have to use a post-cognition spell on you?” Eriol growled at his little descendent, who was staring off into space. To Eriol, it was obvious that Li had been crying- not hysterically, but the slow drip of tears seeping from a deep heartache.
Syaoran glared half heartedly at him, and turned away, not saying a word.
Eriol was silent for a moment.
“I warned you-“ and started to chant a spell-
“Its not any of your business,” Syaoran said in annoyance.
“It is if you are going to mope around,” Eriol crossed his arms.
Li wanted to growl at him, but Eriol was being sincere for once.
“Its been a year since,” he sighed. “Since Meilin died.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“MEILIN?” Sakura nearly shrieked, but was cut off by the Chinese girl’s hand covering her mouth, her cinnamon eyes as shocked as Sakura’s.
“Sakura?” she whispered back, and looked surreptitiously around, before grabbing her arm and pulling her inside. “What are you DOING here? This isn’t a place I ever expected to SEE you!”
“Me- what about you? I haven’t heard from you for nearly five years! I thought you were still in Hong Kong!” Sakura felt her knees wobble dangerously.
“You mean- Syaoran-kun didn’t tell-“ her ruddy eyes closed in pain.
Here is a pic from The Bet: http://larania.angelcities.com/sakurazukatouy.JPG
Here is Sakura, from the sequel which I hope to get written: http://larania.angelcities.com/sakurakamui2.jpg
Here is what I have so far of this last chapter of The Bet. It is far from complete.
The Bet:
Chapter Five
Disclaimer: Neither Tokyo Babylon or Card Captor Sakura belong to me, they belong to CLAMP and I make no money at all from this work of fanfiction.
“We’ve been looking for four months, Eriol,” Li sighed and stretched, pouring his reluctant partner some tea. Eriol grunted sourly, taking the warm drink and just holding it, not drinking at all. Time was rushing past him, like he was caught in a stream with an overpowering current and all he could do was cling to the rocks.
“Yes, and all we’ve gotten are dead ends- I KNOW the Sakurazukamori is playing with us now,” Eriol put his tea down and ran a hand through his bangs. “Its like an elaborate game of hide and seek.”
“What- mad someone could outwit you?” Syaoran smirked, pleased, despite the situation that someone had managed to one up the annoying magician. Eriol glared at him.
“I refuse to answer that on grounds I could incriminate myself,” he answered loftily. Syaoran snickered.
“We still have a few years before the Final Day,” Li sobered quickly, saying that.
“Yes, so what are we going to do before the world ends?” Eriol sighed, now glaring at his teacup like the world’s end was its fault.
“We won’t let it end!” Syaoran answered fiercely, his eyes glowing like the wolf he was.
“We’ve found another dragon of heaven,” Eriol changed the subject. No need to tell Syaoran of his visions.
“That Jou character? Yeah, his inukami decided to stay with him- he doesn’t know why yet... but he will. The joys of being a Ten no Ryou,” Li hunched over.
“Being a Chi no Ryou isn’t much better.”
“Oh fuck you,” Syaoran got up and left.
Eriol blinked... what was that about?
~*~*~*~*~*~*
“You know, it really is a lovely day, Penguin-san,” Touya said to the small tuxedo colored animals that cackled back at him, like they were answering. The tall man leaned against the glass.
“It would be all the more lovely if I had people to spend it with,” he spoke conversationally to the birds more, and they bobbed their heads, croaked and cackled at him, and he smiled faintly, remembering saving one years ago...
“To-ya! You are talking to the penguins?” giggled someone behind him, and the veternerian turned to look into the smiling eyes of Yukito. Touya just raised an eloquent eyebrow.
“I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.”
“Well, we’ll leave you two alone,” said a voice behind Yukito- Sakura and Tomoyo, with Tomoyo resting her chin on Sakura’s shoulder. Sakura just gave them her mischievious Imouto grin.
“So- you two thought of any baby names yet?” she snickered, continuing the Gag That Refused to Die. Yukito turned a violent red.
“Its too early yet, I’m not due for another couple of months,” Touya answered serenely, getting some odd looks from passerby.
“Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?” Tomoyo quietly added, and Sakura covered her mouth to stop from laughing out loud.
“I honestly don’t care,” the darker of the men replied, and put an arm around Yukito. “So long as it takes after his or her beautiful father, I will be content.”
“TO-YA!” the snow bunny protested, putting his hands in the air. He tried hard to joke back. “I want a girl! We can name her Nadeshiko!”
This, for some reason, brought the conversation to a screeching halt. Touya’s eyes lost their playfulness as he turned to Sakura and Tomoyo.
“I thought you had a job this afternoon?” he said, voice calm.
Yukito didn’t understand the sudden shift in mood, but nodded to Sakura and Tomoyo as they walked away, giggling to each other. He grinned at Sakura’s clothes- long, silvery leggings under a white wrap around skirt, open to mid thigh, with a flounced blouse, with two long shawl like trains going from her shoulders to her wrists, but draped past her knees. It gave her the impression of wings.
Then again, he was dressed like the Return of the Hippie… Tomoyo’s varied tastes had struck again. Tie-dyed shirt, beads, fringed leather vest and bell bottoms over moccasins. He couldn’t have contrasted more with the veternerian in the Armani suit more.
They turned to walk away-
“What was that about? I was trying to go join in with that joke for once, and you completely shut me out,” he sounded a little hurt. Touya refused to look at him for a moment, but when he did, Yukito shivered. His eyes were flat, expressionless behind his glasses. Nothing at all…
“A daughter of mine, named Nadeshiko, would have to take over the family like business, like Sakura nearly did.”
Then the moment passed, like it never existed.
“So… do you want to go to the tea shop here for our date?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“We’re meeting Jou here?” Sakura asked, as Tomoyo handed her the note she had taken. They had gone to a small diner, some hamburger place, because Jou was trying to hire them.
The two girls had made friends with Jou, after his perpetual gloom had lightened, they could see the cheerful, devil may care youth he had been, and they found they liked him a great deal. Yet the oddest part about him now, as he entered the diner, was the dog that still followed him around, completely unhindered by a leash, and which people walked through like he wasn’t there, but would get pats and scratches from her master ever so often.
Yet only Tomoyo and Sakura could see the dog…
“What do you think is going to happen to them?” Sakura asked her wise friend. Tomoyo frowned and blinked for a moment, her face going oddly slack. Then it quickly became Tomoyo again. Sakura was, needless to say, unnerved.
“I think, that until whatever business Duchess has with this life is over, she won’t move on. Of course, it might be that she just DOESN’T want to move on- she loved her master with all her heart. He loved her. I think that they are happy like this…”
Sakura nodded.
Jou trotted over, and Sakura quickly shoved a tray of food in front of him. He grinned at her and immediately started wolfing the food down- and sneaking pieces to Duchess.
More odd staring as one or two people tried to convince themselves they weren’t seeing food disappear into mid air.
“What’s this job you have for us?” Sakura asked as Jou started draining his drink.
He paused his slurping. “Oh, yeah- well, these weird fires have been starting at this, um, place I know of. They’ve only been happening to, um, guys who, um, have been mistreating, um, the people that work there. I don’t really GO there, cause, well, I still love Yug’, and don’t really need to, but I got a friend who works there and she, yeah, she um… got roughed up a couple of times outside of work by, um, customers.” Jou’s face was starting to sweat.
“Jounouchi,” Tomoyo pronounced carefully. “What kind of place is it that you are trying to describe?”
“A Soapland?” he answered in a small voice.
Sakura nearly spit out the soda she was drinking, choked, and Tomoyo and Jou had to enthusiastically pound her back to get her to breath again.
“A Soapland? You mean, as in, prostitutes?” Sakura wheezed hard.
Jou nodded. “I, actually… I worked at one for a while,” his face turned very purple. “I just did the bathing thing!” he protested.
“Well, I met this girl, we kept in touch cause she was nice- and she wouldn’t tell me what was going on, but I read stuff in the paper about what was happening at her Soapland.”
“So- you want us to investigate what’s causing the fires?” Tomoyo clarified. Jou nodded, and gave the rest of his burger to Duchess, who barked happily.
“I think- um, do we have to actually meet the girls?” Sakura asked nervously, shifting around in her seat. Jou sighed.
“They aren’t bad people, Sakura-san,” Jou sounded sad. “It’s a place where people don’t ask questions. They go there cause they either need the money desperately, they want to hide from something, or they just don’t want people to know them. They got lots of reasons- some ARE bad, but most are just tryin’ to survive.”
Sakura sat back with a huff. Bad things had happened in her life- but she had never faced a situation like what Jou had described, where her choices were so limited that she would be forced to work at some place like that. Yet she had seen people who had been down and out- whose despair crushed them. Like Jou’s had been- and she hurt for them.
So much pain… so little she could do about it…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Syaoran Li looked up at the ceiling of his room, arm flung over his head, and told himself to forget.
He didn’t want to forget. He couldn’t forget.
He hadn’t told anyone- how could he?
Meilin was dead.
He’d had to listen to Eriol moan the loss of his lady-love. He’d been there through the reunion with Touya- but he couldn’t, not yet, vent his grief for his oldest friend.
It had to be his fault- they’d fought, like siblings, and the next day, a fire had started in the Li compound- he could still hear his cousin screaming… It couldn’t have been a year or more ago…
Maybe he’d be given a miracle, like Sakura. Maybe if he believed enough- everything would be all right.
That was the Invincible Spell- right?
Right?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Night had come with a suddenness that had left Yukito nearly breathless, as both he and Touya sat on the highest beams of Tokyo Tower.
Somehow this had turned out to be a threesome date- with Yue talking them to a part of the Tower no one would normally get to, free of charge.
“This is... such a beautiful city,” Yukito murmured, looking out over the constellation of lights that made up the city at night.
“Yes, it is. I truly enjoy this town,” Touya smiled out over it, and Yukito felt odd as he looked at the smile, like there was something he was missing. Or had been added- like the smile was real...
His smiles aren’t real? Yue muttered, in their mind. The thought was oddly disconcerting. Then it was gone.
Then again- what was real? Yukito and Yue shied from that thought as well.
Were they real?
Their wishes were those of their master- but Sakura was a sweet, loving person. How could they ever tell? How could they ever be real- or even whole?
“I enjoy Tokyo as well- its changed so much. So many things are here...”
Touya chuckled. “I suppose my reasons for liking this place are far more different than yours. Although that might change...”
“Why do you love this Tokyo?” Yukito asked lazily, leaning on Touya’s shoulder.
“Its the only town that can enjoy itself on the way to damnation.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sakura blinked at the door of the Soapland she had been paid to investigate. Her heart was racing, because she had absolutely no idea what to expect.
It was still daylight- the Soapland was still closed. Nervously she went up the short stairs, and knocked on the door.
“Excuse me- we’re not open yet,” said a voice form behind the door, and it opened, and Sakura felt like someone had punched her in the gut.
“Meilin?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Are you going to tell me what crawled up your ass and died, or do I have to use a post-cognition spell on you?” Eriol growled at his little descendent, who was staring off into space. To Eriol, it was obvious that Li had been crying- not hysterically, but the slow drip of tears seeping from a deep heartache.
Syaoran glared half heartedly at him, and turned away, not saying a word.
Eriol was silent for a moment.
“I warned you-“ and started to chant a spell-
“Its not any of your business,” Syaoran said in annoyance.
“It is if you are going to mope around,” Eriol crossed his arms.
Li wanted to growl at him, but Eriol was being sincere for once.
“Its been a year since,” he sighed. “Since Meilin died.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“MEILIN?” Sakura nearly shrieked, but was cut off by the Chinese girl’s hand covering her mouth, her cinnamon eyes as shocked as Sakura’s.
“Sakura?” she whispered back, and looked surreptitiously around, before grabbing her arm and pulling her inside. “What are you DOING here? This isn’t a place I ever expected to SEE you!”
“Me- what about you? I haven’t heard from you for nearly five years! I thought you were still in Hong Kong!” Sakura felt her knees wobble dangerously.
“You mean- Syaoran-kun didn’t tell-“ her ruddy eyes closed in pain.
