Part Seven
I now have to add oatmeal to the list of foods I can’t stand anymore. I don’t want to hurt Nakuru’s feelings, but can’t she just bring me something normal? (I hid the fourth bowl under the bed until Spinel agreed to empty it into the bathroom trash for me so it looked like I had eaten it.)
The door opens. If that’s Nakuru with more oatmeal, I’m going to throw up.
“Touya thought you might be hungry,” Yue mumbles, coming into the room. If he keeps staring at the floor like that, his eyes are going to go bad.
“Thank you,” I say, trying to see what the food is.
Thank God, a sandwich. I always knew Touya was smart. Just a plain sandwich and tea. Touya is moving further and further up the ranks of people I adore.
“Do you need anything else?” Yue asks hesitantly.
Quick, Eriol, keep him in the room. Don’t let him wander off and mope. “Company would be nice.”
Yue blinks. Several times. “Uh.”
Great, the old Eriolian charm working as always. “You used to be a better conversationalist, Yue.”
Yue actually blushes. Wonders never cease. Then he pulls up a chair and sits down, which is even more of a miracle. “What do you want to talk about?” he asks hesitantly.
Okay, so he hasn’t changed that much. “Anything. You can pick the topic.” I munch on the sandwich. Ham and cheese. Touya is rapidly approaching Godhood. Not that I’ll ever mention this. I have a feeling he knows anyway. Evidenced by him making the sandwich in the first place. And sending Yue up with it. Touya can be conniving at times. Must be the Reed blood in him.
“Uhm.” Yue stares at the floor. “How are you feeling?”
The one question I was hoping to avoid. It figures. “Better. I’m not as tired or as cold. I’m so hungry though, and all Nakuru will bring me is oatmeal.”
Yue mutters something. I hear the words “never was . . . very bright.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.” Pause. “It makes sense that you would be hungry. It’s the same reason that Yukito was always eating.”
I’m well-aware of why I’m hungry, but he’s trying, so I don’t say anything. “Well, I wanted to get up and make my own food, but Spinel wouldn’t let me.” I smile. “Don’t tell anyone else.” I don’t want the rest of them knowing that something the size of softball sat on my face until I agreed to stay in bed the whole day. Spinel seems to be enjoying this. I’ll have to ask Nakuru to give him a bath later.
“I could get you something else, if you want,” Yue offers. He is still staring at the floor.
“The floor can’t possibly be that interesting.”
Yue blinks. “Well, the rug has a very nice pattern . . .”
“You’re trying too hard, Yue.”
“Oh.” Yue glances up at me. “Sorry?”
“When did you becoming all apologetic? You used to be so . . .” I search for a word, because all I can think of is ‘such a bastard,’ which I doubt Yue would appreciate.
“Cold-hearted?”
I cough. “Not quite what I was going to say.”
“Yes it was.”
“Okay, it was. Now answer my question.”
“I didn’t used to be a bastard,” Yue states flatly.
“Well, no, but that doesn’t mean that you were wishy-washy. You were happy with Clow, and then you were cold with Sakura, and now you’ve gotten all . . .” I wave my hand vaguely.
“Wishy-washy?”
“Something like that, yeah.” I suspect I already know the answer, but it might do Yue some good to admit it.
“I don’t know.”
I would facefault, but I’m in bed. “You don’t know.”
“Yes. I don’t know.”
“Well, let’s try analyzing this.”
“Let’s not.”
I raise an eyebrow. “So you’d rather spend the rest of your existence miserable?”
“No. But I’d rather not discuss it with you.”
Okay, there’s the cold-hearted bastardhood coming back. “Who would you rather discuss it with?”
There’s a mumble that sounds very much like ‘Clow.’
“A real answer, Yue.”
Silence.
“See, there’s isn’t anyone else,” I point you. “Because you don’t want to upset Sakura-san, and you don’t want to get in the way of Touya-san and Yukito-san, and you can’t have a serious conversation of more than about twenty seconds with Kerberos, so you’re running out of options. Unless you want to discuss it with Nakuru, that is. She’s immortal. She might understand.”
“If I didn’t kill her.”
“Exactly. So who do you plan to discuss this with?”
More silence.
“Maybe I should have Sakura-san hire you a psychologist.”
Yue raises an eyebrow. “I can just see trying to explain this to a psychologist.”
“Good point. But I already know pretty much everything that happened. Plus I’ll talk to you for free. And you’re already mad at me for not being Clow, so there’s nothing to lose.” I grin again. Yue is looking more and more annoyed. Which is better than apologetic. “The truth is, you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings because you can’t hide behind Yukito-san anymore.”
More silence.
“Admit I’m right.”
“Fine,” Yue grinds out between clenched teeth.
“Thank you.”
Now, how do I fix Yue? Let’s start with the basics. “Yue, do you wish we hadn’t separated you from Yukito-san?”
“I don’t know.”
I resist the urge to ask Yue if he knows anything. “Well, I know you’ve enjoyed being out on your own at least a little. And I suspect you enjoy not having to,” I cough delicately, “share living space. Especially during Yukito-san’s more . . .” Gotta find a way to phrase this. “Intimate moments with Touya-san.”
“Very tactful, Eriol.”
“Take notes.”
Yue raises an eyebrow. “I used to think that no one could be more egotistical than Clow. But I’m beginning to change my mind.”
I shrug. “You must admit that tact is not your strong point. And very nice evasion of the subject, by the way.”
Yue smiles a tiny bit. “Thank you.”
“Now. Tell me whether or not I’m right.”
“You’re right.”
“Then why are you being wishy-washy?”
“I’m lonely.”
I blink. And blink again.
“I don’t want to invade Yukito’s life, but now I’m alone.”
I squelch the blink reflex. Then I bite my tongue to keep from pointing out that there are certainly better ways to gain friends than what he’s doing. “Everyone here would like to be your friend, Yue. You just aren’t making it terribly easy on us.”
“I don’t know how to make friends.”
“Well, if I give you tips, will you stop being so terribly snide half the time and so terribly apologetic for being snide the other half?”
“I’ll try. But I’ll still be snide to Nakuru.”
“I don’t expect any better. Actually, I don’t even care if you’re snide all the time. It’s the apologetic I’m really hoping to change here.”
“I’m sorry,” Yue says.
I think I see a hint of a smirk on his face. “Yeah, sure you are.”
Yue pouts. Which is awfully cute. Yue pouting, I mean. I’ve never really seen Yue pout before.
“Now, to begin with . . . Try spending more time doing things you like. And don’t just go do them alone. Try to get other people to go with you. What do you like doing?”
Yue blinks. “I like to read, but that’s hardly sociable.”
“You must like something besides reading.”
“I liked the beach. I can do without the swimming, though.”
I recall Yue’s half hour of ranting the one time he got his hair wet in the ocean and we were all picking seaweed out of it. No swimming for Yue. “What else?”
“I enjoyed archery when I was Yukito. Though there aren’t many places to just do that.”
“No, but it’s something you and Yukito could do together,” I point out.
Yue turns rather pink and mumbles something.
“What?”
More mumbles.
“I’m sorry, Yue, I still didn’t catch it.”
“Video games,” Yue spits out.
I blink. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
He gives me a glare of doom. “Jerk.”
“You like video games?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“No,” I say calmly, and sip my tea. “It just happens to be the funniest thing I’ve heard all week.”
“You’ve obviously had a boring week.”
I wave at my surroundings, indicating bedrest and oatmeal. “Blatant statement of the obvious.”
“You should ask Nakuru to liven things up for you.”
I grimace. I don’t even want to think of what Nakuru’s definition of ‘livening things up’ would be. “Anyway. You like video games. Has Kerberos been teaching you?”
“Good Lord no.”
“So you’ve been teaching yourself?”
“Yes.”
“And no one else has noticed this yet?”
“Not really.”
“Not really or no?”
“Not that I know of. I think Sakura suspects.”
“And why are you so intent on hiding this from everyone?”
“Because you were going to break out into hysterical laughter; I thought everyone else would to.” He glares at me. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
I pause. “I don’t think everyone would. At least, not to your face.”
Yue just twitches.
“Yue, there’s nothing wrong with liking video games. Most of us do.”
“I don’t like being laughed at.”
“Nobody does, but it happens to the best of us, so I suggest you resign yourself to it. Would you rather endure a little harmless teasing, or continue to be lonely?”
“You’re mean,” Yue says irritably.
“It’s the Reed blood,” I say.
“Sakura’s not mean. It is not the Reed blood.”
“I think Sakura-san is a fluke of nature,” I reply. “No one can be that cheerful.”
“What about Fujitaka?”
“I think Fujitaka-san’s habit of convincing his entire family he has no idea what’s going on when he knows exactly what’s going on could be considered a little mean.”
“Oh, fine,” Yue says, sounding even more irritated.
“Now, the point is, if by “you’re mean”, you meant “of course you’re right, Eriol,” then I think you could take a little teasing and tell people you like video games. And that way having something to do.”
“I’ll just let people find out. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“I suppose that’ll do.” I’m appalled. I’m falling back to sleep. I try to hold back a huge yawn and fail. We still need to find that woman so I can snatch back the rest of my magic from her. I wonder if she followed us to England . . .
Yue stands up to leave.
“Did talking help?” I ask sleepily.
“Marginally.”
“Better than nothing.” I close my eyes. Should probably take my glasses off, but my arms feel surprisingly heavy.
I open my eyes again as I feel Yue pulling the glasses off my face. He folds them up and puts them on the side table.
“Thanks.”
Yue doesn’t say you’re welcome. Instead, he says, “I’ll send Nakuru up to keep you company.”
I’ll get him for that later. Or maybe right now. “Okay. I’ll tell her how lonely you are.”
Yue gives me a look that could peel paint. “I should smother you with a pillow.”
I yawn. “So violent, Yue . . .”
“Maybe I’ll tell her how much you love oatmeal.”
“Maybe I’ll introduce the oatmeal to your hair.”
“I hear it’s good for hair.”
“Do you want to find out first hand?”
“Maybe we should declare a truce and lock her outside.”
“Sure,” I say. “But don’t tell her I agreed.”
“Fair enough.”
*****
I really don’t like the way I’ve been treated these past few days. I’m just trying to be nice and make some oatmeal for Eriol, but whenever I come into the room he gets this funny look on his face and turns sort of green. So I stopped making oatmeal. Then he and Yue were shut up in that room together for almost an hour, and I don’t mean to be rude to Yue, but that icicle isn’t that interesting! And then when I went to bring Eriol his dinner a few hours later (he’d been napping or I would’ve brought it earlier), he told me he didn’t really want it. What’s so wrong with applesauce? Normal people like applesauce. But he said he wasn’t hungry. And then! Half an hour later I found him eating something else!
I bet Yue made it.
I’m terribly annoyed.
Anyway, the whosits people are coming back tomorrow. They’re going to teach Eriol the magic-sucky spell, then we’re going to go back to Japan, find the bitch, get Eriol’s magic back, et cetera. Then we can come back to England so I don’t have to deal with Yue anymore.
Maybe I’ll put something nasty in his hair.
Oh, look, here he comes. He’s glaring, but so what else is new. That boy doesn’t know how to smile. “Hiiiiiii!” I’ll be nice. I’ll be nice. I’ll be nice.
“Akizuki.” He nods at me a little.
That’s pretty good for him; he acknowledged my presence. “Did you make Eriol dinner?”
Pause. “Touya sent me up with something.”
I glare. “What was it?”
“I don’t know. A hamburger or something like that.” A rather acidic pause. “Something that wasn’t soup or oatmeal.”
“Are you implying there’s something wrong with the food I gave him?” I can match Yue’s glare, I know I can.
“Why would I say something like that?”
Oooooh! He makes me so mad sometimes!!! “You just did!”
“I said Touya made him something other than what you had made him. It was merely a fact.”
“But your tone!” I’m screeching.
“I use that tone with everyone,” Yue states.
There he has a point. “But! You were making fun of me!” I’m amazed I haven’t brought the house down on us. Then again, I think everyone but Tsukishirou-kun and Touya-kun went sight-seeing again, and I’m sure I know what they’re doing.
“Akizuki. I make fun of everyone except Sakura and Yukito.”
“Because you’re a jerk.”
“Yes.”
“Well . . . well . . .” I’m trying to think of something really crushing here. “Fine!”
“Thank you.”
That big jerk is turning around . . . walking away . . . I’m still holding the applesauce . . .
Oops. I didn’t mean to throw it . . .
Hope I didn’t give him a concussion.
****
“Um, Yue?” I nudge Yue with my toe. He’s lying on the floor, looking rather dazed. “Yue, are you okay?” There is a plastic bowl lying next to him and applesauce trailed all down his back. “Yue . . .”
Yue stands up. “Where is she?”
“Who?” I think I know.
“Akizuki.”
“I haven’t seen her. I heard you two yelling, though . . .” I look at him. “Did you two get in another fight?”
“I’m going to kill her.”
“Let’s wash the applesauce out of your hair first,” I say.
“Then can I kill her?”
“No, but we can find something unpleasant you can do.”
He pauses. “Really?”
“Sure. I’m willing to bet To-ya will be eager to help. Come on.”
He follows me, rather grudgingly, up the stairs and into the bathroom. Yue often needs help washing his hair, so this is, relatively speaking, standard procedure for us. Sakura offered to use the bubble card on him once, but the mere image of Yue standing there with that Look on his face while his head was covered in bubbles sent all of us into hysterical laughter. Therefore I got elected, since we did technically used to be part of the same person.
Yue strips to his underwear as I fill the tub with hot water. Then he dunks his head in. It takes the two of us a good twenty minutes to get all the applesauce out. Yue is muttering under his breath the entire time about how undignified this is and how he’s going to kill her the minute he finds her.
There’s a knock on the door as I’m rubbing shampoo into the bottom half of Yue’s hair, as he works on the top. “Who is it?” I call.
“It’s me.” To-ya is apparently back from picking up our dinner.
“I’m washing Yue’s hair.” This is an explanation that must be given. To-ya was rather shocked when he walked in on this the first time. And Yue wouldn’t look at him for days; he was so horrified at being seen by To-ya when he was nearly naked.
“Oh,” To-ya says. Then he pauses. “Right now?”
“Akizuki threw applesauce at him,” I explain.
“Ah, that would explain it.”
“Explain what?”
“Why she was hiding outside in the garden, and told me to come get her when Yue had gone to bed.”
“There’s no sleep for me,” Yue says in an undertone. “She can rot out there.”
I cough delicately. “You might as well go tell her it’ll be a while. We’ll be done in about twenty minutes or so, but then I’ll need to help him dry it.” Yue always has to blow-dry his hair at least partially, or else it gives him a headache because it weighs so much when it’s wet.
“Okay,” To-ya says.
We finish washing Yue’s hair. Yue puts his pants on and we go up to his bedroom to dry it. To-ya walks in as we do this, causing Yue to turn a rather interesting shade of red. I resist the urge to point out that To-ya really has no interest in seeing him shirtless.
“Is Akizuki still outside?” I ask.
“Yeah, she’s lurking. I told Eriol he may want to think about creating a new guardian.” To-ya flops into a chair. “Why did she throw applesauce at you?” he asks Yue.
“I think because she called me a jerk and I agreed,” Yue says.
To-ya blinks. “That can’t be all of it. What else happened?”
“She was mad that Eriol was eating what you were making him but not what she was making, and she kept calling me mean and I kept agreeing and that just seemed to make her angrier.”
To-ya is valiantly trying not to laugh. “Oh,” he says.
Yue looks up at To-ya. “Help me think up something really nasty to do to her,” he says.
“I’ll work on it,” To-ya says.
We finally finish drying Yue’s hair. He wanders off somewhere to pout.
“We really have to do something about the two of them,” To-ya says with a sigh. “Why does Yue hate her so much, anyway? I mean, she’s annoying, I’ll definitely agree with that, but . . .”
“Well.” I count off the reasons on my fingers. “To begin with, she’s annoying. Secondly, she wasn’t very nice to me when we first met. You didn’t see half of what happened between Akizuki and I. Thirdly, she tried to get between us, which would have resulted in both Yue and I ceasing to exist. And she know what it would result in, too, but she didn’t care. Fourthly, when she showed up again, she was acting rather, shall we say, uppity. And it wasn’t technically her territory. Fifthly, and most importantly, Yue sees her as his replacement, and she’s stealing Clow’s and Eriol’s affection from him.”
“Well then,” To-ya says.
“Though the last he should be blaming on Eriol, not on Akizuki. Though perhaps he’s more annoyed that she rubs his face in it.”
“I can see why that would get on his nerves, yes. What do we do about it?”
“Well, we could lecture Akizuki until we turned blue in the face and she wouldn’t act a bit differently. Maybe we can get Eriol-kun to talk to her.”
“I sure hope so,” To-ya says, “because I’m getting sick of listening to them.”
****
Part Eight
Home