more of the Tomoyo_dreams thing
=_____________________=
FYI.
I AM NOT WRITING KYRIELLE.
Or at least, not without substantial bribery and I mean of the 'someone sends me the entire run of CCS plus the movies on CD with all the soundtracks and possibly the HOLIC movie and allows me to sit and paste bits at them on AIM or GoogleTalk or MSN and listens to me whine and possibly sends me Eriol plushies' variety.
Also, feedback makes the world go round.
He opens the door to find Daidouji-san, her face very pale and set, still almost neat despite being in England when Sakura-san had clearly told him that Tomoyo-chan was with her the night before and was practicing for an important competition in two days. He stares at her for a second and then he says, "Didn't you bring a bag?" And then, "Did something happen to Sakura-san?" and finally, "For God's sake come inside, you look like you're about to fall over."
She steps in, looks around automatically for a place to put her shoes, and then looks at him with her eyes huge and strained. "I need to talk to you."
He could say a lot of things, like Couldn't you have called? or What about Sakura-san and your mother, aren't they worried? but he won't because this is Tomoyo Daidouji, who is the steadiest person he knows and if she came to England to talk to him she must have a reason. "Does your mother know you're here?" he says.
"I left a note. I have to be back tomorrow. There's a choral competition."
"I know," he says, gently pulling her into the house. "Nakuru! Spinel! We have a visitor!"
Nakuru pokes her head around the corner and squeals. "Tomoyo-chan!" She rushes over followed by Spinel, and Daidouji-san allows Nakuru to hug her enthusiastically. "Are you alone? Is everybody all right? You look really tired, come sit down!"
Spinel, less exuberant,looks at Daidouji-san and then transforms without warning and pushes his great head against her hip. Daidouji-san sinks down and wraps her arms around him and buries her face in his fur for a long minute while Spinel purrs and rubs his head against her shoulder.
---
A little later they're sitting in the parlor and Daidouji's had two cups of strong hot tea and is beginning to look a little less like she just came from a funeral. Spinel's back in his false form so he can sit on Daidouji-san's lap and be petted. Nakuru's leaning on the arm of her chair, her arm half-slung around Daidouji-san's shoulders.
"So?" he says.
"I had a dream," says Daidouji-san.
He waits.
"I was in a room," says Daidouji-san, staring into her teacup. "It was all glass -- like water, almost, but not really. I could stand on it but there were things rippling under the floor, and I thought, I mustn't move or the surface will crack open. I stood there and then I heard someone coming toward me. I looked up and there was a girl."
Spinel looks up. "A girl?"
"I couldn't see her clearly at first," says Daidouji-san, "but she came closer and I realized that it was me. Only not."
Spinel's ears flatten.
He swallows, carefully, and picks up a biscuit. "Then what happens?"
"She said, Well met, Sister, and we stood for a second, opposite each other. She was smiling at me." Daidouji-san puts her cup down, very cafefully, and buries her hands in Spinel's fur.
"She said, Do you know of other worlds?"
He looks down and sees he's crumbled the biscuit into fine powder.
Nakuru looks at him and he shakes his head a fraction of an inch. They'll hear Daidouji-san out.
Daidouji-san's voice is quiet and even as she continues. "She said she could talk to me because we were the same, even though we weren't. She was a princess, a priestess, in a land called Japan that was far away. She was finding all the different Tomoyos she could, to warn us." She strokes Spinel again. "She said there was a girl and a boy. They're travelling with two men and a magic construct, and if they came to my world I must help them."
"Eriol!" says Nakuru sharply. "Breathe!"
He takes a deep shuddering breath and pushes the flood of memory aside to deal with later. "Go on, Daidouji-san."
"I said, 'Who do you mean?' and she said, 'The girl is named Sakura, she's a princess --' and I said, 'It's Sakura-chan? Is she in trouble?' 'Do you know her, Sister?' she asked.
"'For a very long time now,' I replied. 'But how fortunate you are!' she said. 'I have only seen her in dreams.' She looked at me gravely. 'Sakura-hime has lost her wings, her memory. They're scattered everywhere, and someone's after them. The boy, Syaoran --' I must have gasped, because she pressed my hands as if to give me strength '-- has given up something very precious to help her find them.'
"'Oh no,' I said, distressed. 'Li-kun would do anything for Sakura-chan. Tell me, what did he give up? Can he bear it?'
"'Her,' said the other Tomoyo. 'He gave up his relationship with her to the Witch of Dimensions as his most precious thing. Dear Sister, don't weep so!'
"I was silent with pity and horror and she wrapped her arms around me. 'She would have died,' she said. 'He couldn't bear it. Sister, we must help them.'"
Daidouji-san stops and takes a sip of her cold tea. "I remember," she says. "I thought, I have to talk to Hiiwagizawa-kun when I wake up, he'll know what to do. The other Tomoyo said 'You musn't let your Sakura be hurt, but you have no magic. Oh, I wish I could help you!' I saw that she was fading away. 'It's morning,' she said. 'I must go. If Sakura-hime arrives, Kurogane will be with her, he will help you --'
"'Who?' I asked.
"'My ninja,' she said, smiling a little. 'I sent him on a journey to become strong. Tell him that I recieved his message and that I expect his return.'
"And I woke up."
Nakuru is looking at him in the way that means she was only prepared to put up with so much from him and he's pushing the limits. "Let me get you some more tea, Eriol," she says, in a way that means he can either drink the tea or have it poured down his throat.
"Thank you, Nakuru," he says. "Well, Daidouji-san? What happened after you woke?"
"I thought about the dream," says Daidouji. "And I thought about calling you but I remembered the last few times you've called Sakura or the Kinomotos have called you, there's been problems with the line. And I remembered Li-kun said that he had problems when you called him, and then I thought about what Tomoyo-hime had said about someone being after the other Sakura, and I knew I had to speak to you in person."
"I could have --" begins Eriol.
Daidouji-san shakes her head. "No, even if you could have come to Japan, someone might have noticed. You're still very powerful, aren't you?"
"Someone's probably noticed you being visited in your dreams and then coming here," says Nakuru, grimly.
"I thought at least there would be a way to prevent eavesdroppers here," says Daidouji. "I remembered the wards, you see."
"Why couldn't you have gone to the Li?" asks Spinel, not accusingly but to get all the information he can.
"If another Li-kun is involved," says Nakuru, thoughtfully, "They'd be watching all the different ones they can. And if I know Li-kun, he'd put a spanner in their works a time or five."
Daidouji-san nods. "And I can't put him in danger," she says. She smiles and adds, matter-of-factly, "I am the only one who wouldn't be missed anyway."
"Tomoyo-chan, you know that's not true," says Nakuru, sharply.
"I know Sakura-chan would miss me very much," says Daidouji-san. "But I have no magic, and I cannot defend her."
---
---
A lot of Eriol's memories are locked in some strange way, only popping up when a condition that Clow had set is met. This is sometimes embarassing, sometimes annoying, and a lot of the time just plain infuriating. It's fairly obvious his past self was attempting to give him a chance at a normal life, but his past self never had to deal with idly flipping through a book and spending the next ten minutes with his head between his knees and a librarian asking if he wanted her to call his mum after his dizzy spell when something triggered a memory.
Yuuko and the other Sakura-san had obviously been one of the things that Clow had thought he didn't need to know about.
---
After they get Daidouji-san in one of Nakuru's less horrible nightgowns and put to bed with a hot waterbottle and a stuffed animal to clutch at if she wants it, they get a call from Japan. Which is Fujitaka saying, a little piteously, that Sonomi-kun is breathing down his neck because her daughter left her a strange note about going to England, and has concluded that he, Fujitaka, knows what is going on. Also, Sakura-san is having mild hysterics and Touya-kun is about to kill Li-kun on the grounds that it would make Touya-kun feel better, and Tsukishiro-kun is only half-trying to stop him. Li-kun, he adds, is wavering wildly between hiding behind Tsukishiro-kun, attempting to murder Kero-kun, and patting Sakura-san helplessly. Kero-kun is yelling at the top of his lungs and eating cookies because he's stressed out -- and if Hiizagizawa-kun has any idea what is going on Fujitaka would be glad to to hear about it.
Eriol tries to find a way to explain things that will not result in the entire Daidouji-Kinomoto-Tsukishiro-Li clan descending on him and settles for saying, "She's fine, she's asleep, she'll be back tomorrow. Yes, I'll probably be coming with her. No, I can't explain what's wrong yet. Would you PLEASE tell Cerberus to shut up?"
---
He dials a random Japan-code number, because Yuuko can be reached, if you really need her, by a monkey banging numbers on a keypad, waits until a young boy answers, and demands to talk to Yuuko. The boy is suspicious at him and he says "Look, mate, I don't care, I just really need to bloody talk to Yuuko /right now/" until the boy leaves and Yuuko comes on.
The conversation has a lot of loud profanities in Chinese and other languages that probably only the two of them even remember and Yuuko, as always, alternates between laughing at him and being cranky. He says "bugger the price!" a lot and finally swears to God she'll have a case of the best Scotch money can buy by this time tomorrow morning if she will only tell him what the sodding hell is going on.
She tells him, and he hangs up the phone, walks out of his study, looks at Tomoyo and Nakuru and Spinel, and then he says "Oh /God/" and runs for the bathroom. It might not be his baby girl in trouble but it feels like it, it always feels like it's his own baby girl who's hurting where he can't help her when it comes to her.
"She'll probably be all right," Yuuko had said. "That idiot spell, you know. But so help me, if you try to interfere I'll feed you to the dragons of the Northern Celestial Palace. No freebies, you little brat. I expect that Scotch by eight am SHARP."
His baby girl, he thinks, shaking and kneeling by the toilet and trying not throw up again. Nakuru comes in and wipes his face with a cool washcloth and finally he manages to get up and think of what he's going to tell Daidouji-san.
FYI.
I AM NOT WRITING KYRIELLE.
Or at least, not without substantial bribery and I mean of the 'someone sends me the entire run of CCS plus the movies on CD with all the soundtracks and possibly the HOLIC movie and allows me to sit and paste bits at them on AIM or GoogleTalk or MSN and listens to me whine and possibly sends me Eriol plushies' variety.
Also, feedback makes the world go round.
He opens the door to find Daidouji-san, her face very pale and set, still almost neat despite being in England when Sakura-san had clearly told him that Tomoyo-chan was with her the night before and was practicing for an important competition in two days. He stares at her for a second and then he says, "Didn't you bring a bag?" And then, "Did something happen to Sakura-san?" and finally, "For God's sake come inside, you look like you're about to fall over."
She steps in, looks around automatically for a place to put her shoes, and then looks at him with her eyes huge and strained. "I need to talk to you."
He could say a lot of things, like Couldn't you have called? or What about Sakura-san and your mother, aren't they worried? but he won't because this is Tomoyo Daidouji, who is the steadiest person he knows and if she came to England to talk to him she must have a reason. "Does your mother know you're here?" he says.
"I left a note. I have to be back tomorrow. There's a choral competition."
"I know," he says, gently pulling her into the house. "Nakuru! Spinel! We have a visitor!"
Nakuru pokes her head around the corner and squeals. "Tomoyo-chan!" She rushes over followed by Spinel, and Daidouji-san allows Nakuru to hug her enthusiastically. "Are you alone? Is everybody all right? You look really tired, come sit down!"
Spinel, less exuberant,looks at Daidouji-san and then transforms without warning and pushes his great head against her hip. Daidouji-san sinks down and wraps her arms around him and buries her face in his fur for a long minute while Spinel purrs and rubs his head against her shoulder.
---
A little later they're sitting in the parlor and Daidouji's had two cups of strong hot tea and is beginning to look a little less like she just came from a funeral. Spinel's back in his false form so he can sit on Daidouji-san's lap and be petted. Nakuru's leaning on the arm of her chair, her arm half-slung around Daidouji-san's shoulders.
"So?" he says.
"I had a dream," says Daidouji-san.
He waits.
"I was in a room," says Daidouji-san, staring into her teacup. "It was all glass -- like water, almost, but not really. I could stand on it but there were things rippling under the floor, and I thought, I mustn't move or the surface will crack open. I stood there and then I heard someone coming toward me. I looked up and there was a girl."
Spinel looks up. "A girl?"
"I couldn't see her clearly at first," says Daidouji-san, "but she came closer and I realized that it was me. Only not."
Spinel's ears flatten.
He swallows, carefully, and picks up a biscuit. "Then what happens?"
"She said, Well met, Sister, and we stood for a second, opposite each other. She was smiling at me." Daidouji-san puts her cup down, very cafefully, and buries her hands in Spinel's fur.
"She said, Do you know of other worlds?"
He looks down and sees he's crumbled the biscuit into fine powder.
Nakuru looks at him and he shakes his head a fraction of an inch. They'll hear Daidouji-san out.
Daidouji-san's voice is quiet and even as she continues. "She said she could talk to me because we were the same, even though we weren't. She was a princess, a priestess, in a land called Japan that was far away. She was finding all the different Tomoyos she could, to warn us." She strokes Spinel again. "She said there was a girl and a boy. They're travelling with two men and a magic construct, and if they came to my world I must help them."
"Eriol!" says Nakuru sharply. "Breathe!"
He takes a deep shuddering breath and pushes the flood of memory aside to deal with later. "Go on, Daidouji-san."
"I said, 'Who do you mean?' and she said, 'The girl is named Sakura, she's a princess --' and I said, 'It's Sakura-chan? Is she in trouble?' 'Do you know her, Sister?' she asked.
"'For a very long time now,' I replied. 'But how fortunate you are!' she said. 'I have only seen her in dreams.' She looked at me gravely. 'Sakura-hime has lost her wings, her memory. They're scattered everywhere, and someone's after them. The boy, Syaoran --' I must have gasped, because she pressed my hands as if to give me strength '-- has given up something very precious to help her find them.'
"'Oh no,' I said, distressed. 'Li-kun would do anything for Sakura-chan. Tell me, what did he give up? Can he bear it?'
"'Her,' said the other Tomoyo. 'He gave up his relationship with her to the Witch of Dimensions as his most precious thing. Dear Sister, don't weep so!'
"I was silent with pity and horror and she wrapped her arms around me. 'She would have died,' she said. 'He couldn't bear it. Sister, we must help them.'"
Daidouji-san stops and takes a sip of her cold tea. "I remember," she says. "I thought, I have to talk to Hiiwagizawa-kun when I wake up, he'll know what to do. The other Tomoyo said 'You musn't let your Sakura be hurt, but you have no magic. Oh, I wish I could help you!' I saw that she was fading away. 'It's morning,' she said. 'I must go. If Sakura-hime arrives, Kurogane will be with her, he will help you --'
"'Who?' I asked.
"'My ninja,' she said, smiling a little. 'I sent him on a journey to become strong. Tell him that I recieved his message and that I expect his return.'
"And I woke up."
Nakuru is looking at him in the way that means she was only prepared to put up with so much from him and he's pushing the limits. "Let me get you some more tea, Eriol," she says, in a way that means he can either drink the tea or have it poured down his throat.
"Thank you, Nakuru," he says. "Well, Daidouji-san? What happened after you woke?"
"I thought about the dream," says Daidouji. "And I thought about calling you but I remembered the last few times you've called Sakura or the Kinomotos have called you, there's been problems with the line. And I remembered Li-kun said that he had problems when you called him, and then I thought about what Tomoyo-hime had said about someone being after the other Sakura, and I knew I had to speak to you in person."
"I could have --" begins Eriol.
Daidouji-san shakes her head. "No, even if you could have come to Japan, someone might have noticed. You're still very powerful, aren't you?"
"Someone's probably noticed you being visited in your dreams and then coming here," says Nakuru, grimly.
"I thought at least there would be a way to prevent eavesdroppers here," says Daidouji. "I remembered the wards, you see."
"Why couldn't you have gone to the Li?" asks Spinel, not accusingly but to get all the information he can.
"If another Li-kun is involved," says Nakuru, thoughtfully, "They'd be watching all the different ones they can. And if I know Li-kun, he'd put a spanner in their works a time or five."
Daidouji-san nods. "And I can't put him in danger," she says. She smiles and adds, matter-of-factly, "I am the only one who wouldn't be missed anyway."
"Tomoyo-chan, you know that's not true," says Nakuru, sharply.
"I know Sakura-chan would miss me very much," says Daidouji-san. "But I have no magic, and I cannot defend her."
---
---
A lot of Eriol's memories are locked in some strange way, only popping up when a condition that Clow had set is met. This is sometimes embarassing, sometimes annoying, and a lot of the time just plain infuriating. It's fairly obvious his past self was attempting to give him a chance at a normal life, but his past self never had to deal with idly flipping through a book and spending the next ten minutes with his head between his knees and a librarian asking if he wanted her to call his mum after his dizzy spell when something triggered a memory.
Yuuko and the other Sakura-san had obviously been one of the things that Clow had thought he didn't need to know about.
---
After they get Daidouji-san in one of Nakuru's less horrible nightgowns and put to bed with a hot waterbottle and a stuffed animal to clutch at if she wants it, they get a call from Japan. Which is Fujitaka saying, a little piteously, that Sonomi-kun is breathing down his neck because her daughter left her a strange note about going to England, and has concluded that he, Fujitaka, knows what is going on. Also, Sakura-san is having mild hysterics and Touya-kun is about to kill Li-kun on the grounds that it would make Touya-kun feel better, and Tsukishiro-kun is only half-trying to stop him. Li-kun, he adds, is wavering wildly between hiding behind Tsukishiro-kun, attempting to murder Kero-kun, and patting Sakura-san helplessly. Kero-kun is yelling at the top of his lungs and eating cookies because he's stressed out -- and if Hiizagizawa-kun has any idea what is going on Fujitaka would be glad to to hear about it.
Eriol tries to find a way to explain things that will not result in the entire Daidouji-Kinomoto-Tsukishiro-Li clan descending on him and settles for saying, "She's fine, she's asleep, she'll be back tomorrow. Yes, I'll probably be coming with her. No, I can't explain what's wrong yet. Would you PLEASE tell Cerberus to shut up?"
---
He dials a random Japan-code number, because Yuuko can be reached, if you really need her, by a monkey banging numbers on a keypad, waits until a young boy answers, and demands to talk to Yuuko. The boy is suspicious at him and he says "Look, mate, I don't care, I just really need to bloody talk to Yuuko /right now/" until the boy leaves and Yuuko comes on.
The conversation has a lot of loud profanities in Chinese and other languages that probably only the two of them even remember and Yuuko, as always, alternates between laughing at him and being cranky. He says "bugger the price!" a lot and finally swears to God she'll have a case of the best Scotch money can buy by this time tomorrow morning if she will only tell him what the sodding hell is going on.
She tells him, and he hangs up the phone, walks out of his study, looks at Tomoyo and Nakuru and Spinel, and then he says "Oh /God/" and runs for the bathroom. It might not be his baby girl in trouble but it feels like it, it always feels like it's his own baby girl who's hurting where he can't help her when it comes to her.
"She'll probably be all right," Yuuko had said. "That idiot spell, you know. But so help me, if you try to interfere I'll feed you to the dragons of the Northern Celestial Palace. No freebies, you little brat. I expect that Scotch by eight am SHARP."
His baby girl, he thinks, shaking and kneeling by the toilet and trying not throw up again. Nakuru comes in and wipes his face with a cool washcloth and finally he manages to get up and think of what he's going to tell Daidouji-san.