moonlitnights: old/stories/tomoyostory.txt comparison

comparison old/stories/tomoyostory.txt @ 2:fc00894c1d4a moonlitnights

[svn r3] moved all the bad stuff to 'old'

author	rlm
date	Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:53:12 -0500
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+:fc00894c1d4a
+Love is the Crooked Thing
+By G. P.
+Comments can be sent to the author at: treeandleaf2002@yahoo.com
+Note: All characters and names are copyright CLAMP. This work is in
+no way meant to infringe upon their intellectual property rights.
+BROWN PENNY by William Butler Yeats
+I WHISPERED, "I am too young,"
+And then, "I am old enough";
+Wherefore I threw a penny
+To find out if I might love.
+"Go and love, go and love, young man,
+If the lady be young and fair."
+Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
+I am looped in the loops of her hair.
+O love is the crooked thing,
+There is nobody wise enough
+To find out all that is in it,
+For he would be thinking of love
+Till the stars had run away
+And the shadows eaten the moon.
+Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
+One cannot begin it too soon.
+Drawing a deep breath, pursing her lips in hesitant uncertainty,
+Sakura flicked the clasp of The Book. Like a shot, the click
+resounded loudly in the dimly lit room. Glancing up nervously, half-
+expecting the entire household to come running, Sakura let out a
+long, shaky sigh,.
+"Hoeeee, should I be doing this?"
+And without Kero to help, too. Another wave of ambivalence swept her
+pajama-clad form as she hugged herself tightly in the chill night
+air. For almost a month, she had been in turmoil, a gripping, minute-
+to-minute whirlwind of heartsick emotion. Knitting her brow, Sakura
+concentrated on the cards, willing them to come forth. Like leaves in
+a storm they fluttered from the book, lightly spinning in a
+breezeless swirl. Carefully reciting their names, Sakura closed her
+eyes, hearing them fall softly to the table. Then, silence.
+Blinking her green eyes open, she stared at the two piles neatly
+stacked before her. Sakura gently placed the bigger pile back in the
+book, closing the cover and clasping the golden latch with a decisive
+"snick".
+"All right, how did we do it before? 'Divide 4 with your left hand,
+in any order you like'"
+She remembered Kero coaching her the first time, sagely fluttering
+about as she arranged the cards. Oneechan had been in terrible
+danger, tricked by an illusion of Mirror. She had  felt his danger as
+a cold fist gripping her heart, squeezing tightly. The feeling now
+was just as intense, but so very different: not cold, but hot, not
+sharp and focused, but wild and dizzying.
+"There"
+She looked down at the 10 cards, arranged in three neat rows of
+three, with one set to the right side. Closing her eyes again, she
+began to chant,
+"Cards made by Clow, answer my question. Show me the truth of the
+situation before me".
+Speaking these last words, her heart fluttered as she drew a quick
+breath. Thinking, do I really want to know the truth? For a month she
+had not. She had turned away, closed her eyes, and desperately tried
+to shut out the feelings that battered against her. Like a frightened
+animal she had run, in sheer terror, from her own confused emotions.
+But every day those feelings caught her, like baying hounds that
+could not be stilled, hot breath on her neck, eagerly flushing her
+into the open and cruelly driving her to ground. She shivered again,
+sensing a whirling wind above the cards as her chant took effect. Her
+auburn-red hair was lifted and tossed as her pajamas rustled and
+flapped in the breeze. When the little zephyr died out, she blinked
+her eyes open, gazing at the middle card in the top most row.
+"This is who is talking to me?"
+With a strangely steady hand, for the nervousness had drained away,
+The Mistress of the Cards turned over... The Flower.
+"Eeeehhhh?"
+Puzzled, Sakura stared at the card, a sweat drop forming. Flower?
+Not some Card of power and drama, like Dream, or Sword, or Windy?
+Flower?! It was more than disappointing, it was�. irritating. For all
+the wrenching agony she'd been through in the past weeks, it was
+Flower that was talking to her?
+"This can't be right", she mumbled to herself. But it all looked
+right, no, it felt right, too. If she didn't know the source of the
+feelings that wracked her, she at least knew the Cards. And this was
+right.
+"OK, Flower. I found you at the School Festival, practically
+drowning us in petals. Kero said you like people, and parties, and
+fun, and, " Sakura felt a blush creeping up her neck, "and you danced
+with me, hee". Hannyann! After the shock wore off it had been kind of
+fun, dancing on the rooftop among the scents of a thousand blossoms.
+So, it was Flower that called to her. But looking at the Card,
+Sakura could not believe that so gentle a thing could cause such
+stormy feelings. With a quick breath, Sakura remembered yesterday in
+school. Fidgety in class, the teacher calling her who knows how many
+times before she came to, Tomoyo tugging desperately at her sleeve,
+smiling as always. She remembered furious words with Li, stomping
+away from the puzzled and angry boy. And even Tomoyo! Turning her
+back on her very best friend, running away, sobbing. Wiping away the
+tears with her pajama sleeve, she remembered the image of Tomoyo,
+crushed, hurt beyond measure, clutching her hands tightly as Sakura
+raced away from her. Guiltily looking at the pink cell phone, knowing
+who had tried to call her all night before turning it off. Thinking,
+�Now, I'm even hurting Tomoyo-chan�.
+That's why she had to know, she could not put it off. Not knowing
+the feelings that battered her was painful, but now it was hurting
+the people that she loved so dearly.
+�Well,� she thought, �let's see just who, or what, is behind all of
+this.� Looking decisievely at the middle row of cards, she reached
+out and turned them over, 1, 2, 3.
+The Sweet, The Silent, and The Song.
+The emerald eyes widened as she scanned the cards. This made even
+less sense than Flower trying to talk to her. There was nothing sweet
+about the agony she had been feeling. Her heart racing and stopping,
+flushed hot and cold, dizzy and spinney with a longing that was
+tearing her apart. And a Silent Song? That was impossible,
+ridiculous. What sort of song can be silent? TV with the sound off?
+Karaoke? A broken CD player? But again, the Cards felt right.
+Whoever, or whatever, was causing her to suffer was there on the
+table, spelled out in three Clow Cards.
+Closing her eyes, Sakura concentrated, as hard as she ever had. The
+world fell away, room and house and family and friends and the whole
+wide world vanishing into an inner darkness. Only three cards in a
+black, velvety silence. Concentrate! For untold minutes, her
+breathing stilled, heart barely beating, there nothing but the three
+cards. All thoughts and feelings drifting away like incense at a
+temple, wispy little nothings in the vast dark. And then, she heard it.
+From far, far away, down a tunnel or a tube or a cave, barely
+audible in the inky midnight, a voice...no, a song! Sweet beyond
+words, charming, alluring, and hauntingly beautiful. Sakura's heart
+suddenly pounding, racing away from her as a stormy, thundering
+whirlwind ripped apart the darkness, drowning out the faint melody.
+With a shuddering gasp, she came to, reeling, dizzy,  the cards on
+the table slowly coming into focus:
+The Sweet, The Silent, and The Song.
+Breathing heavily, her fists in tight little balls, Sakura forced
+herself to calm down. Only one more. Pursing her lips, she glanced at
+the outside Card, separate, alone in it's own little row. This is the
+card that will tell me where. With mounting excitement, she reached
+for the card, then hesitated. What would she do when she knew? In a
+way, the not knowing was easier. Painful, yes, but not knowing was
+easier, safer, and more comfortable, because by not knowing, she did
+not have to do anything. With a smile, Sakura suddenly reached for
+the final card. She knew herself well enough. When she knew, she
+would act. From the very first sounds in the basement, she had faced
+whatever came along. Sometimes fearfully, sometimes with a push or a
+tug from Kero or Li, but she had met the cards, one by one. Her
+little hand reached out, flipping the final card over.
+The Maze.
+Well, this at least made sense. Total, complete sense. Because
+whatever, or whoever, was affecting her so severely was hidden far,
+far away. It almost seemed that she had been in a maze herself for
+weeks, stumbling up and down one blind alley after another. Fear of
+the time she and Li and Tomoyo were trapped in the Maze dissipated as
+her confidence burned brightly.
+"This is a maze I can understand.� Sakura�s once gentle face was set
+with an iron determination. Smiling, she whispered, �Now I'll find
+you".
+Standing up, Sakura tightly clasped the Key at her breast.
+�Oh Key that hides the power of darkness, obey your Mistress�.
+Arching over the table, the girl picked up the Maze card and tossed
+it in the air as her room dissolved into golden light. Twirling her
+staff above her head, Sakura lunged and struck the fluttering card.
+�Release"!
+Part 2
+In the Labyrinth
+Standing at the gaping entrance of the maze, feeling a cool breeze
+from the deep dark within, Sakura suddenly wavered as a sickly fear
+settled upon her. There would be no help if she entered, no Tomoyo or
+Li or Mizuki-sensei to fetch her out. If she went in it was alone,
+except for whatever awaited within. Drawing a deep breath, she
+stepped lightly across the threshold, the golden light swallowed up
+behind her. As her eyes adjusted to the dim contours of the smooth
+walls, a sudden thought brought her to an equally sudden stop,
+�And once I�m in, how will I ever get out?� With a quick smile she
+drew the Flower Card and flicked it into the air. �Release! And leave
+a trail of petals that follows my every step!�
+Now, with every step a gentle rain of pink sakura petals marked her
+way. Plunging into the darkness, the tiny pajama-clad figure listened
+for the haunting strains of Song. But all was silent, save for the
+soft shuffling of her own feet.
+On and on she went, sometimes doubling back, sometimes spiraling
+around and around as the gray walls curved and looped. Finally, after
+what seemed like hours, Sakura slumped against the wall in an
+exhausted and frustrated heap.
+�I�m going nowhere like this�. She shut her eyes tight, listening,
+hearing only silence. �OK, stop walking, and concentrate. Concentrate��
+Three Cards: The Sweet, The Silent, and The Song.
+She had heard the Song, sweet and melodic, faint but clear and
+compelling. Now, there was only silence. The three cards were keys to
+what had plunged her into turmoil for the past month. Her senses,
+made keen and sharp by the year of hunting the Cards, could not
+detect the presence of a Clow Card in all of this. With analytic
+eyes, she turned to the stormy emotions that had beset her
+since...since when?
+"Since I found out about Yue".
+Yue, the real Yukito; and so coldly different. With a wistful
+sadness she recalled lights like falling stars at the festival, a
+gentle glance, the lazy arc of a candy thrown from a bike. Her
+affection for him was undimmed, but, changed somehow. She shook her
+head, jumped up with a start, and began walking again. Since Yue,
+there had been an emptiness, a hole in her heart where a chill breeze
+blew. But the strange, powerful feelings that wracked her were not
+because of Yue, not about him at all. Or, rather, it was because he
+was gone that those sweet, painful feelings were unleashed. It was as
+if a dam had broken, and a flood of emotion, long bottled up, had
+gushed forth sweeping all before it.
+Sweet, painful feelings. She stopped, standing quite still, and
+closed her eyes. Sweet feelings? Yes, they were. They hurt, they
+hounded her, and they had turned her life inside out. And yet, there
+was an intense, breathless sweetness. It was like the delightful
+feeling she had had with Yukito, or Mizuki-sensei, hannyann! But
+wrapped tightly with a longing, an aching sense of incompleteness,
+and an intensity that frightened her as no Clow Card ever had. And
+whatever caused it was in here, with her, silent. Whatever, or whoever.
+Frustrated, she began walking again, one hand following the smooth,
+cool wall, the endless corridors leading nowhere, the petaled path
+stretching behind her into the distance. If only she could hear the
+song again, she could get her bearings. She thought of Tomoyo-chan's
+songs, her sweet voice, and suddenly felt a pang of longing for her
+friend. Alone, the auburn haired girl realized how much she missed
+the presence of the one who was always  at her side, with her on all
+her adventures, waiting for her at school, always with a kindly look,
+a gentle touch, and encouraging words.
+Tomoyo-chan. The wonder, the miracle of her friendship was something
+she often took for granted amid the whirl of the Cards. But here,
+alone in the twilight halls, she keenly felt the absence of that
+sweet, loving presence. Even her odd obsessions, the costumes and the
+videotapes (sweat drop forming), were signs of her love. Then, with a
+gasp, Sakura  froze.
+Her love. Sakura, mouth open, stared at the ground in stunned
+surprise. Her love. The crimson heat of an epochal blush crept up her
+neck and shoulders and, like a red tsunami,  overwhelmed her.
+"She...she likes me...like that".
+Gripping the staff at her chest with both hands, Sakura stood
+breathless.
+"She...loves me". Shaking her head furiously, she cried, "Hooeee,
+why didn't I see? Why didn't she tell me? Why?"
+Closing her eyes, Sakura thought of how unspeakably painful it must
+have been for Tomoyo-chan, her most precious gift unseen and
+unrecognized. But from Tomoyo, never a reproachful glare, an angry
+word, never anything but unbounded, unconditional love.
+"Baka", exclaimed Sakura, as her tears fell freely, 'How can I have
+been so stupid? All this time, she loved me, and I, I didn't even
+know. I'm so sorry, Tomoyo-chan, I'm so, so sorry...." Dropping to
+her knees, the Mistress of the Cards buried her face in her hands,
+sobbing.
+All this time, loving me...silently loving me. Through teary eyes,
+Sakura stared into the distance and whispered,
+"Silently....loving me?"
+The Sweet, The Silent, and The Song.
+And then, she heard it again.
+Louder this time, the song wafted from the center, the very heart of
+the maze. Staggering to her feet, Sakura stumbled towards the sound.
+Her face, streaked with tears, brightened as she recognized the voice,
+"Tomoyo-chan...Tomoyo-chan!"
+Racing towards the source of the song, Sakura felt her heart
+throbbing from excitment and exertion. All the feelings of the past
+month welled up inside her, but focused now, like a laser beam of
+light. Now she understood. The roaring tempest within, no longer
+angry at her ignorance, throbbed in harmony with her own heart. Now,
+at last, she realized who she loved, had always loved, and always
+would love for ever and ever and ever.
+"Tomoyo-chan!"
+Ahead, a pale, amythest light shone as the maze began to dissipate
+and dissolve. The love song flowed like the burbling water of a
+mountain brook, like white-hot lava, like the stars and the suns and
+the moons in the black velvet river of the sky. Sobbing, laughing,
+delighted, Sakura neared the white shrouded, dark haired singer
+bathed in a shimmering, purple glow. Slowly the figure turned to face
+her, blue eyes sparkling, smiling.
+"Sakura-chan?"
+Puzzled, smiling, Tomoyo took her friend by the hand, leading her
+into the spacious room. A shadow of concern darkened her face as she
+squeezed the girl's hand and whispered,
+"Sakura-chan, are you all right?"
+Catching her breath, blinking as she realized the maze had vanished,
+Sakura saw the familiar outlines of her friend's room. Looking at
+Tomoyo she smiled, blushed fiercely, then glanced away.
+"Tomoyo-chan, I...."
+Tomoyo gently held her hands, head tilted to one side, and gazed in
+wonder.
+"Tomoyo-chan, I like you. I...I really like you".
+With a musical laugh that angels might envy, Tomoyo beamed and
+replied,
+"I like you too, Sakura."
+Shaking her head wildly, Sakura squeezed the startled girl's hands
+in an iron grip.
+"No...NO! I don't mean it like that. I....Tomoyo," Her emerald eyes
+flashed fire as she grappled with the words,
+"Tomoyo I....I love you. I love you, too"
+For a long second, Tomoyo's face was a mask of shock and surprise.
+Then, smiling through the tears, blue eyes shimmering in unforeseen
+joy, her face shone with a radiant, heavenly light. Hand in hand,
+eyes locked together, the two friends stood alabaster still. Leaning
+closer, Sakura felt a warm breath against her tear-stained cheek.
+Eyes closing, her lips lightly brushed against Tomoyo's. Tomoyo
+wrapped her arms around Sakura as she returned the kiss with a gentle
+passion.
+Sakura and Tomoyo stood, entwined and oblivious, as Flower gaily
+danced above them, showering the lovers in a hurricane of blossoms.
+Love is the sweet, silent song. And in the maze lies Tomoyo,
+waiting, her silent song heard at last by Sakura, who braves the
+confusion of the Maze to bring back her one true Love.

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comparison old/stories/tomoyostory.txt @ 2:fc00894c1d4a moonlitnights