[TRC] The Third Thing (PG; post-series; Yuui/Tomoyo) 3/3

[mikkeneko]

Title: The Third Thing
Rating: PG
Pairing: Yuui/Tomoyo. Romance, sweetness, mild angst.
Spoilers: Post-series, spoilers for the Nihon arc.

Author's Notes: The Owara Kaze no Bon is based on a real event, but I've made some changes. Technically only trained dancers are allowed to perform, and the atmosphere of the festival is supposedly dark and melancholy rather than cheerful. But the important details - it's an autumn festival, which traditionally takes place after dark, and the dance is performed by unmarried men and women - are all from the original festival.

<- Previous

Autumn in Nihon was the finest time of year, Yuui thought. He'd had time to see each of the seasons once - the two-year anniversary of his arrival here had passed not long ago - but he'd not been in a frame of mind to pay them much heed, last year. Now, entering into his third year of what looked like it was going to be a long stay, he made an effort to relax and enjoy it.

Winter had been full of snow - astonishingly so, given that it never really got terribly cold. The pond of water out in the gardens had never fully frozen over, and no ice formed on the surfaces of the running streams and fountains at all. Still, despite that, the heavens had let loose with masses of soft wet snow - enough to bury the city in a muffled blanket of whiteness and to let Yuui truly appreciate the sharp peaks of the palace roofs.

Yuui was no stranger to the discomfort and boredom of winter - he'd been raised in a country much colder, after all - but he had eagerly anticipated the onset of spring. He'd been disappointed. Spring had brought with it incessant rainstorms and cold, blustery winds - trees sprouted blossoms and dropped them and unfolded their leaves all in the same chilly gray blur. By the time the spring weather had finally thawed and warmed, there had only been a brief period of warm, sticky weather before summer arrived.

Summer was the true test, for Yuui, that his bad luck was truly no longer a threat. Although he was still accident-prone - and the results if he tried to pick up a game of dice or ching tiles were hilarious to all concerned - he no longer brought disaster. The second summer had seen no repeat of the harrowing drought of last year, no more terrifying storms. The differenc from last year had finally reassured some deeply buried anxiety in Yuui; and as his tensions eased, so too did the lingering effects of the curse.

Tomoyo still blessed him periodically - he'd protested that it wasn't necessary, but she insisted that she wanted to make him as lucky and blessed as he could be. Indeed, it was her determined kindness, as much as her practiced magic, that wrapped him in a warm, pleasant glow wherever he went within the castle. Past a year, now, and their friendship had only deepened. They had found, through long unhurried conversation, that they had much in common - perhaps not in their life's stories, but in their backgrounds, their tastes and interests, and of course, their magic.

Magic was hardly unknown in this world - nor had it been in Yuui's world - but there was a deeper connection that could be made between two master mages, that was difficult to achieve with anyone else. It came from a silent, shared understanding that there were greater forces in the world than anyone around them could see, let alone touch. It came from a common language - symbols and images and practices and principles of understanding - that transcended any mere barrier of word and syntax.

Yuui tilted his head back to gaze up into the darkening sky, and a soft half-laugh puffed past his lips. With the advent of autumn, the stifling humidity of summer had finally faded, and the sky was crystal clear, millions of stars gleaming in the velvet blackness. He had taken to joining Tomoyo, when she invited him, on the pavilion set up outside her chambers; it had an unparalleled view of the night sky. The moon, just edging past gibbous, shed a brilliant clear light that drowned out the stars around it; it hung low in the sky, inviting him to stretch up one hand and touch it. In all its beauty and mystery it reminded him of Tomoyo herself.

Princess Tomoyo did not merely practice magic; magic was a part of her, part of her identity and her life. She was the Tsukuyomi, the one who read the stars and guided her country and people through the deep unknown paths of darkness, and it left its mark on her. Beyond the part of her that washere - a slender, lovely young woman with shining hair and a gentle smile - there was a part of her that would forever belong to those clouded forces. Yuui could see it, and understand it… and he respected it, despite the sadness that lingered inside his heart. She belonged to her magic, and she belonged to her land. However good friends they ever became, she would always be out of his reach, as much so as the distant moon.

Yuui lowered his hand and sighed, shaking his head and chuckling ruefully at his own thoughts. The night was wearing on, and Tomoyo would be wondering what was taking him so long.

---

"Oi! Fluorite-san!" A cheery voice rang out at him across the hallway, and Yuui turned in surprise to see Souma waving vigorously at him. She was with a few other guards and another kunoichi; from their playful demeanor, he gathered they were off-duty tonight and on their way to some entertainment.

Souma separated herself from her companions and bounded gracefully over to his side. He had become very familiar with the warrior in his year here; she was not only one of the Empress' body guards, close as a shadow at every meeting, but also her bedmate. It had somewhat bemused Yuui to see the ease with which the court accepted the arrangement - but then again, with the force of Kendappa's fierce personality behind it, he didn't see that they had much choice.

"Souma-san," he greeted her politely in return. There was still some confusion, in the fiercely hierarchy-minded atmosphere of the court, as to what Yuui's exact rank should be. As an outsider he ought to have none at all, but his quite evident power and proximity to the High Priestess made him a force to be reckoned with all the same. Yuui continued to muddle the issue by addressing everyone politely, even the chamber servants, and eventually people just gave up on trying to correct him. "You're in a good mood. Have plans for the evening?"

Souma laughed, tossing her dark hair behind her as her white teeth flashed. "You could say that!" she chortled; then she leaned into his personal space, draping a dark arm over his shoulder, and he began to suspect from the tinge on her breath that she'd already begun drinking. "What about you, huh? Heading up for another night of stargazing with the Princess?"

She accompanied this with a wink and a solid dig at his ribs, leaving Yuui feeling somewhat confused and indignant. He wasn't sure what she was trying to imply. "Yes, we should have an especially fine view tonight," he said uncertainly. "Altair and Vega are rising, and we hope to catch a glimpse of the sixth planet before dawn."

"Oh - planets," Souma said with an exaggerated eyeroll. "By dawn I bet neither of you will be thinking much about looking at the stars any more, huh? There are better kinds of 'heavenly bodies' much closer to home." She gave him a cheerful leer, and this time he could not mistake her meaning.

His body stiffened, and with a slight movement he pushed her arm off his shoulder. "It's nothing like that," he said in a tight voice. "I promise you there's nothing inappropriate going on. It's just stargazing. The Princess enjoys a companion while she is reading the heavens, that is all."

"Ehh?" Souma's voice turned heads up and down the corridor as she gaped at him incredulously. She must have already drunk quite a lot, Yuui thought with a wince, and tried to disentangle himself from her grabbing arm. "You telling me that you guys aren't playing shepherd and weaver every night you're holed up there together?"

Yuui felt his face burn, and he gritted his teeth to regain control of his voice. "Don't assume everyone's motives are the same," he snapped at her. "The Princess and I are good friends - dear friends. But I would never dream of approaching her in an inappropriate way. I am well aware that she is far beyond my station, and sees me as no more than a companion in the course of her studies. You do not need to remind me of that!"

"Oh," Souma was staring at him with a look of stunned incomprehension dawning over her features. "Oh." She scrubbed at her face with the net sleeve of her leather tunic, then turned to look over her shoulder at her companions. "Look, you guys, go on and get started without me, will you? I think I need to have a talk with His Awkwardness here."

Still fuming, Yuui found himself pulled into a small, quiet side chamber; the only illumination was the lamplight of the corridors and the gardens outside filtering through the rice paper. "All right," Souma said once she had him alone. Her voice was still slightly unsteady, but the raucous drunkenness of earlier was not in evidence. "Now, there are a couple of things here that I don't think you understand. But to start with, where are you getting this idea that Tomoyo is above your station?"

The question confused Yuui; he stammered for a reply. "I… well… she is," he said helplessly. "My understanding was that the Imperial family is not just royal, but also sacred. She is princess, and also Tsukuyomi, the predominant priestess of your country's spirit. All I am is some wandering vagabond, a foreigner -"

"Don't tell me you've been listening to those useless layabouts in the outer chambers!" Souma scolded him, wagging a finger in front of her face. "The only people who care about their exalted bloodlines are the ones who have no greater achievement in life than being born in the right spot. And besides, you were born a prince, weren't you?"

"Yes," Yuui said bitterly, and bent his head forward. He didn't like to dwell on thoughts of his home country, especially not when he'd found a true home here. "But they never wanted me - they cast me away as soon as they could."

"Never mind that," Souma dismissed his old pain with a brusque gesture. "The point is, you are of royal blood, which automatically makes you equal or better to any of those simpering twits. And if it's a question of what you've done with your life and talents since then, why, you've got a list of accomplishments that would make any Taoist master groan with envy. You have no reason to feel inferior to anyone here, and we're damn glad to have you, let me tell you that.

"And besides, what does any of that matter?" Souma added as Yuui drew a breath, preparing to remind her of his cursed luck. "When the Royals choose a companion, nobody else gets to tell them no. Look at me! Sure, my family's technically noble, but we're so far down on the ranks that I'd never be allowed to stay in court without a sponsor. But Kendappa -"

The dark woman stopped abruptly, and her sharp face was softened by a smile that transformed her features. "Kendappa chose me," she murmured. "Out of all the soldiers and courtiers and suitors, she chose me. And neither of us have ever been sorry for a day of it."

"Yes," Yuui said quietly, humble in the face of her obvious affection. He smiled helplessly, lifting his hands in a half shrug. "But then again, I don't think anyone could tell Her Majesty 'no' on anything, once she's put her mind to it."

Souma laughed freely again. "No. Definitely not!" She fixed him with a stern gesture. "Tomoyo's the same, you know. She may act sweet and gentle when compared to her sister, but once she's set her mind on something, she doesn't let anything get in her way. She's chosen you, Yuui Fluorite. And anyone looking at you can tell you're mad for her. What exactly is the holdup here?"

"But it's not -" Yuui began in frustration. He ran one hand through his hair and sighed. "Even if that were true, it's not just… that simple. She's a miko,isn't she? The High Priestess of Shinto. I thought her position required that she stay a maiden."

"Oh." Souma stared at him. Her expression wriggled uncertainly, as though she wasn't sure whether to laugh or to smack him. "Oh, jeez, there are alot of things you don't understand."

"Like what?" he snapped, aggravated by her callous attitude. "If I'm such an ignorant barbarian, then enlighten me."

"Look, relax, okay?" Souma took his arm and pulled him further into the room; their vision had adjusted enough to take in the sight of the low benches before they tripped over them, and she sat them both down. "It's a little complicated. Let's start at the beginning. You know what makes the Empress the Empress, right?"

He didn't think she was asking for a lesson in politics, not that he would have been qualified to deliver. "She's supposed to be descended from the Divine Amaterasu, right?" he hazarded. "That's why it's part of her title."

Souma nodded. "You can't underestimate how important that is," she warned him. "Every Emperor since the founding of our nation - over a thousandyears ago! - has been of the same bloodline. We're not like Chuukoku, who changes dynasties like they're trying on a new pair of sandals. The line goes back unbroken to the beginning. The Emperor may not always have held power, not in the political sense, but we've always been true.

"And the best way to ensure that the line remains unbroken is to trace the descent from mother to child," Souma explained. "Oh, the Emperor is not always female - they're not all as tough stuff as Kendappa and her sister - but if the emperor has a sister, then the next heir will always be her child and not his. The throne always passes through the female line, as long as there's been a childbearing woman in each generation."

"That… I think I understand," Yuui said after a moment. It seemed a strange system to him; his home world had ruled by a strict patriarchy. But he supposed he could see, in a dynasty that valued purity of the bloodline above all, that they would not want to risk uncertainty about the line of descent. "But I don't understand what this has to do with Tomoyo."

Souma sighed, as though she were talking to an idiot. "Tomoyo and Kendappa are the only ones of their generation," she said, slowly and clearly. "And in the twenty years of her reign, there has been no heir."

"Oh," Yuui said.

He'd never considered it from that perspective before. It shifted Kendappa's relationship with Souma into a whole new light, and he looked at the sober expression on her face. His earlier comments about Kendappa not giving way to anyone's demands for any reason took on a whole new meaning now… but what would that mean for Nihon? "But - the Tsukuyomi is…?"

Souma shook her head. "It's not necessary for a priestess to be a virgin," she said bluntly. "Hell, a lot of the times in the outer provinces, the local clan lord ups and marries his priestess, and it works out all right. That's not the problem. The problem is that when a woman marries, she becomes part ofhis family. Either she'd have to give up her status to become part of his household, or he'd have to be adopted into hers; and most men don't want to be… diminished that way, becoming nothing but an accessory to their wife."

Privately Yuui thought if the men of Nihon really felt that way, then they deserved to miss out on every good opportunity that passed them by. But Souma wasn't done talking yet. "The Priestess doesn't have to be a virgin," she was saying, "but she does have to be a maiden in the sense of… having a certain amount of autonomy, that would be hard for most husbands to accept. Because of that, it's widely felt that it wouldn't be appropriate to pressure the Tsukuyomi into marriage, when she'd taken no interest in any man at court. But… the truth is, we're running out of time."

"Running out of time?" Yuui's head jerked up, his mouth going dry and his heart pounding in response to her words. "Surely you don't mean -"

"No, no!" Souma waved her hands in front of her, negating his half-formed fears. "Nobody's sick, or dying, or anything like that. But we don't have forever, you know. Tomoyo's already past thirty."

"So?" Yuui said with some puzzlement. Thirty didn't seem very old to him, especially not to one whose aging was slowed by magic. He himself had lost track of his exact age years ago, but he knew he was at least fifty years old.

She shot him a look of exasperation. "So, women don't stay fertile forever," she said in the same tone of exaggerated patience. "Kendappa is older by several years. If she doesn't give in to pressure to bear an heir in the next few years - and she won't - then it's going to be all on Tomoyo. Sooner or later, the pressure on her to marry… or at least, to take a lover… is going to be immense."

"They couldn't," Yuui protested sharply, feeling an unaccustomed flare of anger buried in his indignation. "They wouldn't dare!"

Souma looked at him for a long moment, and her expression softened to something a little like pity. "You have to understand how important this is to us," she said in a quiet tone. "This is the future of our country here - the bloodline of the Sun Goddess is what makes us who we are. There must be an heir, one way or another. If it's not you, Yuui Fluorite, it's going to be someone else."

A hot flush of blood flooded Yuui's face; he swallowed hard and tried to control it, mentally cursing the fair skin that made such displays of emotion impossible to hide. He wasn't even sure what all was in the hot and bitter mix in his throat; desire, want, jealousy, anger, indignation, mortified embarrassment. "I can't imagine anyone at court would consider me an acceptable… suitor," he said in a dry voice.

Souma snorted. "You kidding? At this point I don't think they care what species the father is, as long as he's fertile." As Yuui choked, she added in a more serious tone; "Remember it's the mother's blood that matters."

"I see," Yuui said in a tight, strangled wheeze.

The last of the humor faded from Souma's face, and she came closer to put a hand on his arm. "Listen, I know this is a lot for you to take in," she said. "Take some time to take it in. And think again about what I said. When Tomoyo chooses, she doesn't let anyone stand in her way. But she's got to know what to choose. And you don't have forever."

"I understand," Yuui said, after a long beat. He kept his face turned carefully out of the light, hoping that she would not be able to read his expression. "Thank you, Souma."

"No problem," she said. She stood up from the padded bench, all fluid grace and shadows in the dark. "I'm going to get on with my night off; I've lost half a bell already. You just think about it, okay?"

"I will," he promised, and he meant it.

---

This year's Owara Kaze no Bon matsuri - the Festival of the End of the Winds - fell on the same night as the full moon, and precisely on the day of a confluence of planets. The conjunction of favorable influences meant that this year's celebration was the largest in fifty years. For the occasion, rather than staying up in Shirasagi palace and attending a private ceremony there, Kendappa and Tomoyo had decided to walk the streets of Kyoto to enjoy the celebration.

The presence of the Empress and High Priestess in the town threw the festival planners into a frenzy, and the result was a flurry of lights and decorations that were truly astonishing. Music and drums trilled from every corner, and the shopfronts and even the street itself had been scrubbed clean. Enticing smells wafted out from bamboo stalls hawking traditional festival foods - grilled meat, fried dough, glazed honey and mirin.

All in all it was a fine night; a sharp night breeze reminded partygoers of the impending winter, but Tomoyo was bundled in enough heavy layers of kimono not to feel the chill. Her companion, too, was enjoying the night; a bright pink glow showed in his cheeks and nose as his breath fogged out in a laugh. Yuui Flowright had never been to a matsuri such as this one before, and the bright sparkle in his clear blue eyes brought a fresh charm to the old, familiar sights.

Their party had separated from Kendappa's some time ago; now they fetched up in the main square, with the attendants and guards clearing a comfortable space in the crowd for them, in order to watch the dancers. Colored lanterns hung from the eaves, lighting the whole town in a soft steady glow; brighter lanterns and braziers had been set up around the elevated platform where the professional dancers performed the Dance of the Winds.

"The costumes are beautiful," Yuui remarked; Tomoyo nodded agreement, although the couturier in her couldn't help but notice in disapproval some clumsy stitches, a few clashing or poorly chosen colors... Well, the costumes were part of the tradition, she supposed. "But why do they wear those strange hats?"

The hats in question were woven of straw, and they were of a typical triangular design except that they tilted low over the dancer's face, shadowing their features completely from view. "It is to hide their features from the eyes of the gods," the High Priestess answered. "The festival was first developed hundreds of years ao when deadly typhoons threatened the country. The people devised this festival and this dance to appease the gods and abate the storms, but they hide their faces so that no ill fortune will be able to find them. The dancers have to rehearse before each performance, so that they do not offend the gods by a slip or a stumble which could bring storms back upon them."

"They're amazing," Yuui said, awe echoing in his tone. "So graceful, every move in step... How long do they have to practice, to move so perfectly together?"

Tomoyo couldn't help but smile. "I do not know," she said. She turned to Aki, the maid who was helping her manage her heavy garments. "How long do the dancers usually practice? Do they stay the same from year to year?"

"Some of them are," Aki replied, "but they have to keep adding new ones as they lose some of the troupe."

"Oh? Why is that?" Yuui said, turning towards her curiously.

The maid tittered. "Well, the dancers have to be unmarried, you see," she said with a sly grin. "It's traditional. They say that it's a way to try to entice the gods' favor by displaying comely young men and women, but personally I think it's mostly an excuse for comely young men and women to show off to each other."

"In that case, you and Wizard Flowright ought to be up there dancing, shouldn't you?" A familiar, cheerful voice cut into the conversation; startled, Tomoyo turned to see her sister, accompanied by Souma and her gaggle of bodyguards, strolling casually across the square. Kendappa smiled dryly at the two of them. "Since both of you are currently unmarried."

Yuui's cold-reddened features blushed even further. "Ah, no, we couldn't..." he stammered. "I don't know any of the steps, and besides, only the official performers are allowed to participate..."

"Oh, officially, sure," Souma said with a roll of her eyes. "But once you get away from here the streets are just chock full of young couples practicing their own little Dance of the Winds. Give it a try, why don't you? You never know, the gods just might decide to grant you a blessing!"

Tomoyo felt her own face heat; combined with Souma's grin and wink there was no mistaking what kind of 'blessing' she had in mind. She chose to ignore the insinuation, instead addressing her sister. "Are you heading back to the palace now? Or will you be staying out for longer?"

"We will be returning soon," Kendappa replied, "but there's no rush. No one will be in any state to conduct business until afternoon tomorrow, so I intend to simply grant the whole palace a holiday."

"A wise idea," Tomoyo said with a mischievous grin. "We will be staying out some time longer, I think. Yuui has never had some of these common festival foods, I thought I would give him the opportunity."

Yuui shot her an inquisitive glance; Amaterasu just nodded regally and strolled on by. Once her entourage was out of hearing Tomoyo closed the distance to whisper in Yuui's ear. "Actually," she said in a low voice, "I've never had a chance to try some of these foods either, but it's unseemly for an Imperial Princess to take food from a street vendor, so I was hoping you could share some with me."

Yuui laughed. "I think we can work something out!"

The street vendors refused to take payment, hastily offering the best of their wares with effusive and elaborate compliments. Yuui and Tomoyo strolled on through the lantern-decked streets, munching on snacks. The food certainly wasn't as subtle or elegant as that produced the palace cooks, Tomoyo decided, but it was hot in the cold air and had a straightforward sweet and savory taste that was as delicious as anything more elaborate.

"Will this festival really go on all night?" Yuui asked, turning his head left and right to take in the singing townsfolk on street corners.

"For some, it will," Tomoyo answered, "but I suspect most of the celebrating will die down around midnight. They had planned -"

A sudden cacophony interrupted her, and the skies over the town lit up with bursts of colored light. Brilliant fireworks exploded above them, intermingled with deafening cracks and pops of strings of fireworks going off. A roar of cheers rose up from the streets, and a second wave of fireworks followed the first.

It took Tomoyo a stunned moment to regain her senses, and she found that Yuui had leapt close to her and grabbed her in his arms. His clutching grip slowly relaxed, and he turned his face down from the smoky sky and smiled at her sheepishly. "Forgive me," he said. "The sudden noise and lights, I thought -"

Tomoyo meant to ask what he had thought, but her throat was suddenly dry and her heartbeat thumped heavily in her chest. Yuui's face lit up in flashes of green and gold, red and white, each flash illuminating his features from a slightly different angle. His arms were still around her, and in the next moment, he leaned down and pressed his lips lightly against hers.

For two heartbeats, three, they stood in that tableau with the lights flashing and smoke drifting about them. Tomoyo didn't know how to react. At last Yuui sighed and straightened up, his warm hands leaving her shoulders. "Forgive me," he repeated softly. "I should return to the palace now. Tsukuyomi, I apologize for burdening you with my feelings."

He turned and walked swiftly away. "Yuui-san -" she called out, stepping after him; but he did not turn back, and in her cumbersome robes she could not possibly match his pace.

"What just happened?" Aki asked, sounding as confused as Tomoyo felt. Still staring after the departing wizard, Tomoyo shook her head.

"I'm not sure," she said. "Let's go back."

---

By the time she returned to the palace, Tomoyo had some time to think over the confusing events of the night. Yuui had apologized for burdening her with his feelings; exactly what kind of feelings were they? She knew that he valued her as a friend and colleague, as she did him in turn. There were some bonds that could only be appreciated by a fellowship of magic. Did he also care for her as a husband for a wife, a man for a lover? She couldn't be sure; the warmth of his arms around her suggested yes, but the soft brush of his lips said no.

That light touch was more of a gesture of a parent to a child, not of a man to a woman. Was that how Yuui felt about her? Fatherly? She felt disappointed and a little bit angry at the idea; he might be older than she in years, but she was certainly no child!

She was getting nowhere by supposing, Tomoyo decided; the only thing to do was to call on Yuui and ask him about his intentions. She stopped only briefly in her own quarters, changing out of the hot and stifling formal kimonos into something more suitable for indoor wear, before heading through the darkened hallways towards Yuui's chamber.

The festival was far from over, and most of the palace's inhabitants were still partying down in the village. It was very quiet and peaceful in the castle, uncommonly dim since most of the lanterns had not been lit. The only light in the hallway glowed through the paper-frame panels and spilled under the door from Yuui's room; here was one person who was not celebrating.

She rapped on the wooden frame of the doorway. "Yuui-san?" she said crisply. "I would like to come in."

There was a moment of silence, of hesitation; Yuui didn't really have the right to refuse her entry, although it would be discourteous of her to enter without his permission. "Come in," he called at last, his voice muffled.

As Tomoyo slid the panel aside and stepped through, Yuui scrambled up from the low table where he'd been doing some writing, and bowed before her. "Your Highness," he said softly. "How may I be of service?"

Tomoyo frowned at him; she did not like this sudden retreat into subservient formality. "Well, for a start," she said tartly, "You can explain yourself."

Yuui stiffened, the lamplight playing over his features as he shifted slightly backwards. "About what?" he said, his voice reserved. "If it's about this evening's impropriety, I apologized -"

"Yes, you apologized for 'burdening me with your feelings,' as you said," Tomoyo interrupted him. "But I am by no means burdened; indeed, I feel quite at a loss, because I do not think I understand exactly what those feelings are!"

Yuui blinked, startled, and his mouth fell open. "I - I beg your pardon, Your Highness?" he stammered. "I meant - well - when I kissed you, I felt that -"

"Kissed?" Tomoyo frowned; the word had a stiff, unfamiliar feeling in her mouth. "Was that supposed to mean something, Yuui-san? I invite you to explain, because I am growing increasingly perplexed by this whole situation."

"Oh." Yuui took a step backwards, and sat down rather suddenly on one of his chairs. "Pardon me, Princess, I did not mean to cause such confusion. Do the people of Nihon not - kiss each other, to show their feelings?"

"The touch of mouth? That is what you call a kiss?" Tomoyo probed for confirmation. Yuui nodded, and Tomoyo considered it, then slowly shook her head. "I would not say so, not as a meaningful gesture. A parent, a mother might do something like that to a child, but it is certainly not something that adults would do. I was hardly expecting such a gesture, and certainly not from you."

"Oh." Yuui's voice sounded a little choked and strangled, and he put a hand up to cover his face; but around his splayed fingers, Tomoyo could clearly see the reddening flush of his face. "What a fool I was, to assume that the same gesture would have the same meaning in every world -! But this place has become so familiar to me, these past few years, that it completely slipped my mind…"

Tomoyo studied him through narrowed eyes. She rather suspected she knew where this was going, but she had to be sure. "Yuui-san, what is a kiss among your people?" she prodded him.

He cleared his throat and lowered his hand, but he would not look her in the face, his bright eyes flicking from corner to corner. "I beg your pardon," he said again. "In my home world - the world where I grew up - a kiss is meant to… signal romantic passion, usually between men and women. It is - it is considered a signal that a man feels deeply for the woman he loves, and that he wish - wishes to form a bond of marriage, or… at least of physical attraction."

"So that is what you were trying to tell me earlier?" Tomoyo said slowly. "You were trying to signal that you wished to start an affair with me?"

"No!" Yuui burst out hurriedly, the deep blush overtaking his face again. "Nothing - nothing so crude, my lady, I swear. I wasn't thinking anything clearly at all, in that moment… you were just so beautiful, and I was moved to tell you so. A kiss is - a spontaneous kiss like that is - I don't know how to explain it any better," he said helplessly. "In my world, it just is. Everyone understands it, so there's no need to explain."

"I see," Tomoyo said. A deep, satisfied warmth was beginning to glow in her chest and stomach, and she felt the sudden mischievous urge to tease him. She looked at her Yuui - her guest, her friend - with a bright spark in her eyes. "Well, Yuui-san, I must say I don't think much of your world's traditions."

His eyes jerked back to her face, and the blood drained away from his face so quickly that she was surprised he didn't pass out. "In Nihon, if one wishes to tell a lady that she is beautiful, one does so in a proper way," she continued, "with poetry and - if one is so inclined - music. And we certainly have better ways of initiating romantic passion," she turned his own phrase back on him with a teasing drawl, "than simply smushing two pairs of lips together."

Yuui sat there, stunned and speechless, for a long moment. She folded her arms in her sleeves and smiled demurely at him, waiting for him to make the next move. She saw half a dozen trite and obvious questions - are you serious, do you mean it, is this just a joke to you? - form and fade on his lips. "Well," he said at last, when he'd gotten some control over his voice, "I can't speak for all of them, but most the ladies of my home world certainly seemed to think it was quite enjoyable."

"Really? I can't see how," Tomoyo teased him. "Of all the most delightful places on the body, I would hardly rate the lips as worth spending much attention on. Nor can I see how such a light, inattentive brush of skin could be very satisfying."

Yuui stood up, and at last closed the few yards of distance between them. "We'll see about that," he murmured. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace, and kissed her again.

This time it was no uncertain, chaste press of lips. He pulled her flush along the line of his body, his warmth glowing palpably despite the clothing between them, and his mouth bent to hers with full attention. His lips were no longer soft, but a firm and insistent heat, coaxing her own lips to part and run his tongue along inside them. The tantalizing contact sent unexpected sparks of pleasure through her, as though her mouth were full of fireworks, and ignited the warm glow inside her into an excited flame.

"Oh," she breathed softly, when at last their lips parted enough to allow a cool breath of air between them. "Now I think I see."

There were still fireworks bursting over the village, the distant roar of celebration, as they sank slowly together towards the floor, still locked in an embrace. In the semidarkness they kissed again, passions rising, and she guided his hands to the more difficult fastenings of her kimono.

"Tomoyo," he said, whispering her given name at last. "You know I - this isn't just about passion, it's - I have loved you for a very long time but I never believed -"

"Hush, Yuui," she said tenderly, splaying her fingers across his parted lips. "I have never loved anyone the way I care for you. You know, if you had been a little less shy, all this could have been yours long ago."

"If I had been less shy? Why did you never -" he began indignantly, and Tomoyo giggled. She couldn't help it; the sound bubbled out of her as though she were still a girl.

"This was the third thing, you know," Yuui said at last, hours later when the noise of celebration had finally dwindled into silence. Even so, his voice was barely audible in the quiet of the room; if her head had not been pillowed on his collarbone, she wouldn't have heard him at all.

"Hmm?" she roused herself to say, glancing up into the shadows of his face.

"The third thing I sought across all the worlds, but never truly believed I would find," Yuui confessed quietly. "The one thing the Witch told me could heal me, of my curse and all the old pain that went with it, and the one thing I was certain would always be beyond my grasp."

"What's that?" Tomoyo said drowsily.

He shifted around, partially sitting up and reaching between them to cup her chin in his hands.

"Someone to love me," he breathed, and kissed her again.

~the end.

On to the epilogue