dropsofviolet (dropsofviolet) wrote in no_true_pair, @ 2009-01-09 07:43:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | ! 2009 eight characters challenge, author: dropsofviolet, crossover: cardcaptor sakura/xxxholic, pairing: meiling/yuuko |
First Impressions (Cardcaptor Sakura/xxxHOLiC: Meiling/Yuuko)
Title: First Impressions: five ways yuuko and meiling never met
Author/Artist: dropsofviolet
Fandom: Cardcaptor Sakura/xxxHOLiC
Pairing/characters: (I) slight Meiling/Yuuko; (II) implied Syaoran/Sakura; (III) gen; (IV) Clow/Yuuko implied; (V) Syaoran/Sakura; Meiling/Syaoran implied
Rating: G
Warnings: Tsubasa spoilers; five AUs
Prompt/challenge you're answering: Meiling and Yuuko, first impressions
Excerpt: "You have a wish," she said, taking Meiling's hand and pulling her into the shop before Meiling could protest that she was just making a delivery.
I.
"It doesn't seem right that we have to bribe an all-powerful witch with cookies," Meiling grumbled to herself as she stomped up to the door of the odd shop nestled in-between the two skyscrapers. She rang the bell, shifting the box from hand to hand as she waited for an answer. She couldn't figure out why it was she who had to make the delivery, moreover. It wasn't that she didn't love her cousin, but none of this made sense.
The woman who answered the door had garnet-colored eyes and a wide smile.
"You have a wish," she said, taking Meiling's hand and pulling her into the shop before Meiling could protest that she was just making a delivery.
Ichihara Yuuko's hand was large and warm around hers, and she could feel the flush creep up into her cheeks.
II.
Meiling hadn't seen her at the wedding, and she was sure she would have noticed her. The woman was impossibly tall and dressed up like a street-performer, nearly out-classing the bride. But here she was, studying the buffet as though there'd be a test later. Probably some member of Kinomoto's family, she thought, but her curiousity got the best of her.
She approached and before she could speak, the woman greeted her.
"Li Meiling," she said, picking at the smaller appetizers, "Cousin of the groom. Born March 25th. One of the unfortunate Li's without a dab of Chinese magic."
"Who are you?" Meiling demanded, and the dark-haired woman smiled lazily.
"You can call me Ichihara Yuuko," she said.
III.
The professor was twenty minutes late and Meiling was ready to give up and leave when the woman rushed into the room in a flash of long black hair and bright-red schoolbooks.
"Professor Ichihara," she said, waving a hand at the blackboard and tossing the books down on the desk. "Welcome to Japanese 201."
Meiling raised her hand. "What time does this class start?" she asked, trying to sound innocent. The professor narrowed her eyes.
"When I get here," she said. "How do you say "Don't argue," in Japanese, Li-san?"
Meiling slunk down in her seat and tried to think of it while at the same time wondering how the woman had known her name. She only hesitated a moment before the professor spoke again.
"I think it's time for a field trip," she said cheerfully, picking a pair of glasses with red frames out of her purse and putting them on. "Down to the convenience store!" She pointed dramatically at the door and most of the class began to get lazily to their feet. Meiling lifted an eyebrow and followed them out of the door.
This was going to be an interesting semester, that was for sure.
IV.
"Though she may be but a being brought about by the turning back of time, this child may still choose a future for herself," Yuuko said. Fei Wong Reed frowned, and she let him do his work, as poisonous as it was. There was a time to interfere, but this wasn't it. She would wait, as hard as it was.
"A prisoner," Fei Wong said, reaching out for the girl, but Yuuko wouldn't stand for that. She could See the future-- not nearly as well as Clow had, but one did as well as one could with what one had-- and she had glimpses for this one, of a stern-faced boy and a girl with matching pigtails, of a disapproving glare and heterochromia.
"Though they bear the same existence, this child is not Syaoran," she said, with a gentle look down at the little girl.
"That child... she resembles Clow, when he was young," Fei Wong said. Yuuko smiled sadly, meeting the man's eyes for a long moment.
Not my daughter, no. But I will take care of her, she thought, stroking Meiling's hair, and she watched the other magician leave.
V.
"Watch where you're going, eh?" Meiling protested loudly when the woman bumped into her. She picked herself up off the street and followed after her cousin, calling his name.
Yuuko smiled and wished the two of them a few more years of happiness. There was no harm in enjoying childhood.
"Cute kid," she said to herself. "A shame about the magic, really."
She wondered if the pain she'd felt for the girl's future was in Clow's plans. Everything was in his plans, it seemed, but she found it hard to believe that he would want any little girl to cry.
Then again, he wasn't very good at predicting love, was he? And he never asked her what she thought about the way the threads of fate would weave.
Meiling had another destiny that she would find someday. Maybe it would lead her to the shop; maybe not.
Yuuko brushed off her skirt and continued down the street.