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tampered2008-03-27 09:25 pm
wishyuumay.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2008-03-27 09:25 pm
Log; Complete
When; March 26, around midnight
Rating; ... PG? (G probably works too)
Characters; Ichihara Yuuko [![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wishyuumay]; Clow Reed [i_themagician]
Summary; A Witch and a Magician meet up at the side of the road. Conversation ensues in which there is slight emo, slightly more bitching, and a whole lot of shadowed faces and veiled smiles.
Log;
Clow was taking a walk... or was he waiting and that's why he just happened to be somewhere in between Yuuko's shop and the bar she was drinking at, at this exact time? After all, this wasn’t exactly all that close to the building he lived in...
She'd just left Seventh Heaven with Greed-kun and Gray-kun when Yuuko bid them both a good night and politely made her excuses to head home by herself; she'd felt him magic nearby earlier on and there was no point in dragging the spectacle out. As she walked, the signs of that evening's heavy drinking fell away and by the time she spotted him, walking serenely under the moonlight, it would have been impossible to tell that she'd just cleaned out half of Seventh Heaven's stores. There'd be a hell of a headache to pay for in the morning, but she was willing to pay.
"What a coincidence," she drawled, well aware that they both knew full well that there was no such thing.
He smiled at the small joke between the two of them, the signs of his previous anger having long since been washed away in the spring evening's air. It seemed inappropriate to delve right into their previous conversation immediately, so he began almost as if this really was a chance meeting. "Indeed. Did you enjoy yourself?"
She blew out a small breath, shifting her eyes from him to the sky and her dominant magical patron, the moon. It was beautiful really... if nothing else weighed on her mind. Perhaps she could pretend for the moment; she was as good at it as he was when she wanted to be. "I did. It was fun," she replied, placing the faintest of emphasis on the past tense.
"I'm glad." Absently, he let his eyes wander to the street ahead of them and a cherry tree that was just about to come into full bloom - punctuating the conversation with a small lull as if to signal that the small talk part was over. "About our previous conversation... I just want to know what you want so that I can choose whether to act on it. I'm not sure why this has to suddenly be about you controlling me."
He was the one to continue their conversation first; Yuuko would consider a small victory, she decided, still gazing at the moon. Soon, however, she looked back at him. "That's not how it works, Clow. I can't tell you what I want you to do; you have to figure it out yourself. Or not." A small lift of her shoulders as the breeze fanned her hair out around her. "It's YOUR choice and your decision." She paused briefly, before continuing, "Time has not stood still for me as it has for you. You can choose to keep that in mind as you will."
"I have a few guesses, but..." he let that sentence hang, briefly, and it ended with only an unconscious exhalation of breath. "As much as you seem to resent me for daring to show up here against my will, I have at least as much right to be angry. Time did not, in fact, stand still for me all these years."
Resentment... yes, that was a good word for it. She resented him showing up here, now, and dredging up history she thought she'd buried with him. "Time runs for dead men now?"
"It's... everything changed. When you die, you have to learn to let go of everything and everyone, not just your body. And now I'm here, with... well, not everything or everyone, thank heavens, but a lot of it." Excuse him; he has something in his eye now. He removes his spectacles briefly to rub at his eyes, trying to repress what little signs there are of emotional distress.
... that's really unfair, she thinks; he has no right to be turning the tears on her. Yuuko is silent as she contemplates him, and the quiet wraps and curls around them as the wind picks up slightly, making both their robes flutter and dance. When the silence stretches too far for her liking, the Witch sighs softly, the tiniest exhale of breath, and sweeps ahead of him, walking along a path that led into the Gardens. "Walk," she ordered without looking back. "Let's not just stand there blocking the road; the gardens here are exquisite."
The sudden break in mood was more or less what he needed to regain his composure - Yuuko was always good at doing that, and Clow could never be sure if it was intentional. He followed her after a moment, catching up to her in only a few strides. "More so during the day, I'm sure."
"The night has its own beauty; I don't try to compare the two." Metaphor or not; she'd let him decide. (She wasn't quite sure herself.) "The butterfly gardens are my personal favourite; I must remember to give my compliments to the deities someday." She was half speaking to herself as the two of them strolled along the cobblestone path; she wasn't quite at peace, but at least the frustration had boiled down to a quiet simmer now.
"Hm." Clow is no longer... well, I guess you could call what he was doing back there 'angsting', but he's not exactly relaxed now, himself. 'Make a decision, you idiot!' he kept thinking to himself. 'You have to decide how to act now!' Of course, he could just let the situation stagnate indefinitely just to see what would happen, too. Come to think of it...
"I'm angry at you," he announced, clear as day, and in a not-at-all-angry tone of voice. What, was he joking?
She paused briefly in her long, smooth strides, tilting her head back ever so slightly to look at him, eyes glinting ruby-red in the moonlight. Funny how the moon always shines upon her in just the right way, but then, she was beloved of the heavenly entity. "Oh~?" Her voice was mild and her eyes were not angry, but they both held an undercurrent that promised consequences if no good reason was given and given soon.
He nodded, and explained, "For pushing all of the responsibility for the elapsed time off on me. If you're so unhappy with the way things are right now, why don't you change?" Strangely, there was no emotion at all in his words or his face.
"Oh no you don't, Clow Reed. We all pay our own debts; don't try to pawn this off on me." She turned away and started walking away as if his words had been inconsequential. (They both knew better though, didn't they?) "And I've already paid mine; I'm still paying mine, it seems." That last was a quiet murmur under her breath to herself.
And he will follow her, anyway. "Dead men have no debts. That's rather the point of death."
"Another point of death is that you don't come back."
"That's hardly my fault, is it?"
"I don't know; IS it?" Not that she was going to stop blaming him, but she was interested in the answer nonetheless.
He would be honest, at least. If he had just done what he was supposed to when he died and not dicked around for so long, he wouldn't be here now. "... Not entirely."
Well, at least he WAS honest; the concession soothed her a little. Not nearly completely, but a little; it was a start. "Not entirely," she repeated without inflection. "So you are partially responsible. Meddling even after your death; why am I entirely unsurprised." That wasn't really a question at all.
He sighed. "Not so much meddling, more like... getting over some things."
They had reached the 1000-year-old sakura tree that bloomed perpetually in the heart of the Gardens and pink petals drifted around them, twirling gently with the breeze. (Yuuko rather failed to see the point of a year-long blooming sakura, since it robbed it of some of its symbolic nature, but she appreciated the aesthetics irregardless.) "Regrets, Clow?"
Clow may have been about to reply to that - surely, Yuuko might've liked to think that he was and then merely got distracted by the cherry tree. He looked up at it and smiled a strangely hopeful smile. "How appropriate."
Well, it wasn't like she had actually expected a response; if their positions were switched, she knew she wouldn't have given an answer either. Regrets were a keenly private thing to them both. "You WOULD like it," she said instead as she too gazed up at the soft pink blossoms.
"It's not just that. The symbolism!" He could See it blooming at points in the future when cherry blossoms don't normally bloom - a symbol of the fleeting nature of life robbed of its very fleeting nature. "An eternally blooming cherry, in this City... it goes against everything that's right, yet..." His expression grew more hopeful - maybe this just explained everything. Maybe the reason that the City had brought him here wasn't just some sort of cruel psychological torture after all. Maybe...
She could see his expression change from the corner of her eye and Yuuko liked it even less than when she knew he was thinking or plotting something she'd hate, because in this case, he looked like he was thinking something she might possibly LIKE (and not the way she liked alcohol or chocolate). Somehow, that was worse. "Hmph. It strips it of its significance; cherry blossoms are supposed to remind us of the transience of all things. But you never did like following the rules, did you?"
"No, I guess not. But this City doesn't exactly follow the rules, either." Trickery played at the edges of his expression for a moment.
Her eyes remained fixed on him for a minute, considering, before she apparently arrived at a verdict and looked back to the tree. "Hmmn~ you should feel right at home then."
He looks at her again with an amused but loving expression. She was so coy, he thought. He also thought that she had planned this, though, perhaps to help with his decision. Planned or not, she had. Still (or, rather, once again) the same arrogant magician who foolishly thought that he had the right to control the weather over his house so that the rain wouldn't over-water his garden, he quickly leaned in to give her a chaste peck on the cheek, like one between friends. "Thank you for taking me here, Yuuko."
Yuuko allowed it, though she cocked her head sideways to look at him after he'd stepped back with a slightly raised brow. "Still so arrogant," she told him, though now amusement instead of a bitter ire, shone in her eyes. "You assume this was for your benefit."
"Well, it does benefit me. Therefore, it must have been for my benefit." He grins, knowing that he is using a very special kind of logic that only people with planetary-sized egos can wield effectively.
"That's a special brand of logic that only someone with a multiverse sized ego like you can come up with." Oh yes, she called him on it.
"Ah. Well, you have my apologies, then - next time I will err on the side of caution and give you less credit. Pity, because that would have been a particularly brilliant plan." Just because Yuuko is right doesn't mean that she gets to win.
Her eyebrow arched a little higher than that. “Really, Clow, not all of us thrive on ego-inflating like you do.”
He chuckled. "Well, if this wasn't intentional, I don't know if you'll like what I'm going to do."
... THAT made her suspicious and the slight narrowing of her eyes might just give that away. "Really."
He nodded - really! Or he might just be messing with her head. "I think it'll annoy you, actually, and you'll probably say no - at least the first time. But I won't let that get to me~..."
"... hmph." She was annoyed, but that didn't mean she had to show it yet. And if he really meant that--which he probably did; she didn't know Clow to ever actually LIE-- then there'd be time enough for that later. "I've no interest in your riddles right now, you four-eyed freak. It's getting late and I do want to sleep tonight."
Oh, right - no, they really couldn't just stand there under the cherry tree and talk forever, could they? Yuuko always had that effect on him, making him try to linger in her presence as long as possible only to be disappointed when it was time to go. He pushed his glasses further up on his nose, although they were fine where they had been. "... Right. Yes, I ought to head home, too." One last look up at the tree, and then at her. "Goodnight, Yuuko."
“Not going to walk me back, Clow? I remember your manners being better." She's already started down another path, different from the one they'd come from (what was the fun of going down the same route twice?) when she paused and looked with a hint of a smirk on her lips.
Clow smirked back momentarily, almost wanting to tell her exactly how much of a damn tease he thought she was being right then. Instead, he pressed his fingers to his temple with an embarrassed smile. "Ah, of course! Forgive me." He moved to her side once again and offered his arm, not really expecting her to take it. It's just, that's what one does, for the same reasons as one escorts a lady home.
Haha, very funny Clow, but they hadn't made up quite that far yet, so she's still largely avoiding touching him. Yuuko glanced at him with an almost bemused smile, though there was a certain curl to her lips that made it slightly more than that, and began to walk again. On her own, thank you~
Clow responded with a smile and a sigh, intentionally sounding more put out than he actually was. As he said before, he wasn't going to let these things get to him. Even if they couldn't walk arm-in-arm, he would at least walk next to her, enjoying the silence for now.
Yuuko savoured the silence as well; as strained as their relationship might be right now, it was a nice slice of older days. She wasn't sure if the path was just shorter or if time just seemed to pass faster (that she would admit to having fun of all things), but they reached the gates of her shop quite soon. Stopping there, one hand resting on a pillar, she looked back Clow with a smile; faint, quite faint, but real.
"Good night, Clow." And with that said, she swept past the gates and disappeared into the shop.
Rating; ... PG? (G probably works too)
Characters; Ichihara Yuuko [
wishyuumay]; Clow Reed [i_themagician] Summary; A Witch and a Magician meet up at the side of the road. Conversation ensues in which there is slight emo, slightly more bitching, and a whole lot of shadowed faces and veiled smiles.
Log;
Clow was taking a walk... or was he waiting and that's why he just happened to be somewhere in between Yuuko's shop and the bar she was drinking at, at this exact time? After all, this wasn’t exactly all that close to the building he lived in...
She'd just left Seventh Heaven with Greed-kun and Gray-kun when Yuuko bid them both a good night and politely made her excuses to head home by herself; she'd felt him magic nearby earlier on and there was no point in dragging the spectacle out. As she walked, the signs of that evening's heavy drinking fell away and by the time she spotted him, walking serenely under the moonlight, it would have been impossible to tell that she'd just cleaned out half of Seventh Heaven's stores. There'd be a hell of a headache to pay for in the morning, but she was willing to pay.
"What a coincidence," she drawled, well aware that they both knew full well that there was no such thing.
He smiled at the small joke between the two of them, the signs of his previous anger having long since been washed away in the spring evening's air. It seemed inappropriate to delve right into their previous conversation immediately, so he began almost as if this really was a chance meeting. "Indeed. Did you enjoy yourself?"
She blew out a small breath, shifting her eyes from him to the sky and her dominant magical patron, the moon. It was beautiful really... if nothing else weighed on her mind. Perhaps she could pretend for the moment; she was as good at it as he was when she wanted to be. "I did. It was fun," she replied, placing the faintest of emphasis on the past tense.
"I'm glad." Absently, he let his eyes wander to the street ahead of them and a cherry tree that was just about to come into full bloom - punctuating the conversation with a small lull as if to signal that the small talk part was over. "About our previous conversation... I just want to know what you want so that I can choose whether to act on it. I'm not sure why this has to suddenly be about you controlling me."
He was the one to continue their conversation first; Yuuko would consider a small victory, she decided, still gazing at the moon. Soon, however, she looked back at him. "That's not how it works, Clow. I can't tell you what I want you to do; you have to figure it out yourself. Or not." A small lift of her shoulders as the breeze fanned her hair out around her. "It's YOUR choice and your decision." She paused briefly, before continuing, "Time has not stood still for me as it has for you. You can choose to keep that in mind as you will."
"I have a few guesses, but..." he let that sentence hang, briefly, and it ended with only an unconscious exhalation of breath. "As much as you seem to resent me for daring to show up here against my will, I have at least as much right to be angry. Time did not, in fact, stand still for me all these years."
Resentment... yes, that was a good word for it. She resented him showing up here, now, and dredging up history she thought she'd buried with him. "Time runs for dead men now?"
"It's... everything changed. When you die, you have to learn to let go of everything and everyone, not just your body. And now I'm here, with... well, not everything or everyone, thank heavens, but a lot of it." Excuse him; he has something in his eye now. He removes his spectacles briefly to rub at his eyes, trying to repress what little signs there are of emotional distress.
... that's really unfair, she thinks; he has no right to be turning the tears on her. Yuuko is silent as she contemplates him, and the quiet wraps and curls around them as the wind picks up slightly, making both their robes flutter and dance. When the silence stretches too far for her liking, the Witch sighs softly, the tiniest exhale of breath, and sweeps ahead of him, walking along a path that led into the Gardens. "Walk," she ordered without looking back. "Let's not just stand there blocking the road; the gardens here are exquisite."
The sudden break in mood was more or less what he needed to regain his composure - Yuuko was always good at doing that, and Clow could never be sure if it was intentional. He followed her after a moment, catching up to her in only a few strides. "More so during the day, I'm sure."
"The night has its own beauty; I don't try to compare the two." Metaphor or not; she'd let him decide. (She wasn't quite sure herself.) "The butterfly gardens are my personal favourite; I must remember to give my compliments to the deities someday." She was half speaking to herself as the two of them strolled along the cobblestone path; she wasn't quite at peace, but at least the frustration had boiled down to a quiet simmer now.
"Hm." Clow is no longer... well, I guess you could call what he was doing back there 'angsting', but he's not exactly relaxed now, himself. 'Make a decision, you idiot!' he kept thinking to himself. 'You have to decide how to act now!' Of course, he could just let the situation stagnate indefinitely just to see what would happen, too. Come to think of it...
"I'm angry at you," he announced, clear as day, and in a not-at-all-angry tone of voice. What, was he joking?
She paused briefly in her long, smooth strides, tilting her head back ever so slightly to look at him, eyes glinting ruby-red in the moonlight. Funny how the moon always shines upon her in just the right way, but then, she was beloved of the heavenly entity. "Oh~?" Her voice was mild and her eyes were not angry, but they both held an undercurrent that promised consequences if no good reason was given and given soon.
He nodded, and explained, "For pushing all of the responsibility for the elapsed time off on me. If you're so unhappy with the way things are right now, why don't you change?" Strangely, there was no emotion at all in his words or his face.
"Oh no you don't, Clow Reed. We all pay our own debts; don't try to pawn this off on me." She turned away and started walking away as if his words had been inconsequential. (They both knew better though, didn't they?) "And I've already paid mine; I'm still paying mine, it seems." That last was a quiet murmur under her breath to herself.
And he will follow her, anyway. "Dead men have no debts. That's rather the point of death."
"Another point of death is that you don't come back."
"That's hardly my fault, is it?"
"I don't know; IS it?" Not that she was going to stop blaming him, but she was interested in the answer nonetheless.
He would be honest, at least. If he had just done what he was supposed to when he died and not dicked around for so long, he wouldn't be here now. "... Not entirely."
Well, at least he WAS honest; the concession soothed her a little. Not nearly completely, but a little; it was a start. "Not entirely," she repeated without inflection. "So you are partially responsible. Meddling even after your death; why am I entirely unsurprised." That wasn't really a question at all.
He sighed. "Not so much meddling, more like... getting over some things."
They had reached the 1000-year-old sakura tree that bloomed perpetually in the heart of the Gardens and pink petals drifted around them, twirling gently with the breeze. (Yuuko rather failed to see the point of a year-long blooming sakura, since it robbed it of some of its symbolic nature, but she appreciated the aesthetics irregardless.) "Regrets, Clow?"
Clow may have been about to reply to that - surely, Yuuko might've liked to think that he was and then merely got distracted by the cherry tree. He looked up at it and smiled a strangely hopeful smile. "How appropriate."
Well, it wasn't like she had actually expected a response; if their positions were switched, she knew she wouldn't have given an answer either. Regrets were a keenly private thing to them both. "You WOULD like it," she said instead as she too gazed up at the soft pink blossoms.
"It's not just that. The symbolism!" He could See it blooming at points in the future when cherry blossoms don't normally bloom - a symbol of the fleeting nature of life robbed of its very fleeting nature. "An eternally blooming cherry, in this City... it goes against everything that's right, yet..." His expression grew more hopeful - maybe this just explained everything. Maybe the reason that the City had brought him here wasn't just some sort of cruel psychological torture after all. Maybe...
She could see his expression change from the corner of her eye and Yuuko liked it even less than when she knew he was thinking or plotting something she'd hate, because in this case, he looked like he was thinking something she might possibly LIKE (and not the way she liked alcohol or chocolate). Somehow, that was worse. "Hmph. It strips it of its significance; cherry blossoms are supposed to remind us of the transience of all things. But you never did like following the rules, did you?"
"No, I guess not. But this City doesn't exactly follow the rules, either." Trickery played at the edges of his expression for a moment.
Her eyes remained fixed on him for a minute, considering, before she apparently arrived at a verdict and looked back to the tree. "Hmmn~ you should feel right at home then."
He looks at her again with an amused but loving expression. She was so coy, he thought. He also thought that she had planned this, though, perhaps to help with his decision. Planned or not, she had. Still (or, rather, once again) the same arrogant magician who foolishly thought that he had the right to control the weather over his house so that the rain wouldn't over-water his garden, he quickly leaned in to give her a chaste peck on the cheek, like one between friends. "Thank you for taking me here, Yuuko."
Yuuko allowed it, though she cocked her head sideways to look at him after he'd stepped back with a slightly raised brow. "Still so arrogant," she told him, though now amusement instead of a bitter ire, shone in her eyes. "You assume this was for your benefit."
"Well, it does benefit me. Therefore, it must have been for my benefit." He grins, knowing that he is using a very special kind of logic that only people with planetary-sized egos can wield effectively.
"That's a special brand of logic that only someone with a multiverse sized ego like you can come up with." Oh yes, she called him on it.
"Ah. Well, you have my apologies, then - next time I will err on the side of caution and give you less credit. Pity, because that would have been a particularly brilliant plan." Just because Yuuko is right doesn't mean that she gets to win.
Her eyebrow arched a little higher than that. “Really, Clow, not all of us thrive on ego-inflating like you do.”
He chuckled. "Well, if this wasn't intentional, I don't know if you'll like what I'm going to do."
... THAT made her suspicious and the slight narrowing of her eyes might just give that away. "Really."
He nodded - really! Or he might just be messing with her head. "I think it'll annoy you, actually, and you'll probably say no - at least the first time. But I won't let that get to me~..."
"... hmph." She was annoyed, but that didn't mean she had to show it yet. And if he really meant that--which he probably did; she didn't know Clow to ever actually LIE-- then there'd be time enough for that later. "I've no interest in your riddles right now, you four-eyed freak. It's getting late and I do want to sleep tonight."
Oh, right - no, they really couldn't just stand there under the cherry tree and talk forever, could they? Yuuko always had that effect on him, making him try to linger in her presence as long as possible only to be disappointed when it was time to go. He pushed his glasses further up on his nose, although they were fine where they had been. "... Right. Yes, I ought to head home, too." One last look up at the tree, and then at her. "Goodnight, Yuuko."
“Not going to walk me back, Clow? I remember your manners being better." She's already started down another path, different from the one they'd come from (what was the fun of going down the same route twice?) when she paused and looked with a hint of a smirk on her lips.
Clow smirked back momentarily, almost wanting to tell her exactly how much of a damn tease he thought she was being right then. Instead, he pressed his fingers to his temple with an embarrassed smile. "Ah, of course! Forgive me." He moved to her side once again and offered his arm, not really expecting her to take it. It's just, that's what one does, for the same reasons as one escorts a lady home.
Haha, very funny Clow, but they hadn't made up quite that far yet, so she's still largely avoiding touching him. Yuuko glanced at him with an almost bemused smile, though there was a certain curl to her lips that made it slightly more than that, and began to walk again. On her own, thank you~
Clow responded with a smile and a sigh, intentionally sounding more put out than he actually was. As he said before, he wasn't going to let these things get to him. Even if they couldn't walk arm-in-arm, he would at least walk next to her, enjoying the silence for now.
Yuuko savoured the silence as well; as strained as their relationship might be right now, it was a nice slice of older days. She wasn't sure if the path was just shorter or if time just seemed to pass faster (that she would admit to having fun of all things), but they reached the gates of her shop quite soon. Stopping there, one hand resting on a pillar, she looked back Clow with a smile; faint, quite faint, but real.
"Good night, Clow." And with that said, she swept past the gates and disappeared into the shop.
ooc