This is actually pre-yaoi. Anyway, I watched my first CCS ep today (which, as 
expected, wasn't the beginning of the arc) and spent an hour after mooning over 
Touya and Yukito. I mean, I've always liked them but I confess-I'm a hard-core 
manga lover. So, after that I just rushed off to my room to write this vignette 
between the two. Sort of like a what happened in between scenes. I don't even 
know what episode it was. The one wherein Touya had to play Cinderella and Yuki 
was the fairy godmother....<sigh> Don't tell me if this sucks. I'm way ahead of 
you. 

This is so brief, blink and you'll miss it. :) 


Touya, Yukito, A Few Words and Silences 
by Ycaiah 

/Are you in love with someone else?/ 

/Ah./ Yes. 

He hadn't lied. Though he had read on her face that she thought so, hoped so. 

Kinomoto Touya stared out into the city, his normally impassive face set in a 
small frown. Delicate white birds, the kind one often sees perched on a rooftop, 
danced in graceful patterns overhead. He liked to think they loved clear, sunlit 
days as much as he did-like today. It had been such a perfect one only to be 
marred by the incident in the auditorium. Touya could still feel his hands 
locked in that death grip, fighting not only for his life but hers. Pulse 
quickening, the adrenaline rush...it had been over so fast and then everybody 
was there, trying to figure out if they were alright. 

And just now, another complication. 

He closed his eyes tiredly, feeling the wind pick up and brush back his hair. He 
had only a few minutes more to himself before he was due for that dance he 
promised. /I should have just declined./ 

"You made her very happy." 

Why wasn't he surprised? Touya didn't bother turning around, feeling his lips 
quirk in a half-smile. "Playing the mind reader again? I hate it how you do 
that."

The click of light footsteps stopped just beside him to his right. "I didn't 
have to read anything." Touya glanced sideways into amused golden eyes, glinting 
behind the clear lens. "All her thoughts show on her face." A quiet chuckle. "I 
knew there was a heart hiding there somewhere." 

Touya refused to blush. "Iyaa...it's not a big deal. It's just a dance."

That smile turned playful, knowing. "Not to her it's not." 

Touya felt a small flash of irritation. He twisted slightly, so that he was 
half-facing his friend and the festive grounds below. "Why are we talking about 
this? You didn't come all the way up here just to cross-examine me, Yuki. What 
do you want?"

Something flickered in that honeyed gaze and vanished before he could decipher 
it. "You're not in love with her." Yukito spoke abruptly, glancing away in a 
gesture so un-Yukito-like that Touya could only stare, baffled. "In love with 
her? Of course not. How could I be?" 

Yukito ticked off his fingers one by one. "She's pretty. Obviously caring. 
Intelligent." His attention shifted back to Touya's face. "And she doesn't 
simper over you the way most girls do."

"And that is reason enough for me to love her?" Touya asked coolly, stung for 
some unknown reason. 

"Isn't it?" Yukito's expression didn't change, not one bit. Touya gritted his 
teeth so hard his jaw ached. Why was he acting this way? 

"No. And I thought you knew better." And he realized that's what it was, that 
small pain deep in his chest. Yukito didn't understand. For the first time in 
their years of friendship, Yukito was wrong about him.  In the span of a 
heartbeat, Touya could feel the gap that sprang unnoticed between them, an alien 
feeling of emptiness and being alone in your own self. It never had to be that 
way. He had never had to be alone. 

He stepped back, as much for himself as respect for their friendship and 
prepared to leave. 

"Matte, Touya."

"Nani?"

Yukito's voice was soft, with that note of someone who was lost. Lost like he 
was. "I didn't mean it." Touya looked at him, really looked at that seemingly 
innocent, placid face. That deceptive prettiness. 

"Probably not. But it came from the same source. Why did you think that, Yuki? 
Was it something I said?" 

Yukito shook his head, strands of white partially obscuring those amber eyes 
that hinted of green. "No. I'm sorry. You didn't do anything. I can't understand 
it myself." 

So sad....damn him! He couldn't stand to see those slender shoulders so weighed 
down by something that had to do with him. Clamping down on the hurt that still 
persisted, Touya sighed. Let out his breath in one exasperated, affectionate 
sound. He opened his eyes again, not realizing they had fluttered close. 
"Yuki....." 

Silence. 

Straightening from his usual half-slouch, Touya inclined his head and asked 
softly, eyes brilliantly alive. "Yuki, do you trust me?" 

"Yes." So simple it was perfect. Not even a blink. He could feel his first 
genuine smile spreading across his face. The hurt ebbed, the threatening 
headache subsided. "Sou ka." And his world righted itself, was back to normal. 

Life was good...at least for now. 

~END <?>

Dammit, I hate doing that. O.o

~ycaiah