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ciirceeWhenever I give an expected deadline by which to expect fic, I end up lying my ass off, apparently. My apologies.
This story is a sequel (from the 'request more' idea) to Summer Blossoms" and was requested by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beady176. I love Touya and Yukito. I love them together and I love them on their own but I live in mortal fear of writing them.
Yukito accepted the news gracefully. He bowed humbly and stood, head still lowered in piety, with careful dignity. He left the temple with unhurried steps, waiting until he'd cleared the temple grounds before breaking into headlong flight towards the palace.
To-ya, his steps sang out upon the ground, the sounds running together in his head, faster and faster ToyaToyaToya. He tore past the guards at the castle entrance with Touya's name thrumming in his head. "I have a summons!" he called back over his shoulder, half turning as he raced down the corridor.
Actually, the summons he had was almost two years old and for all he knew it had been revoked when he'd started...becoming very engrossed with his studies. It wasn't that he was hiding from Touya it was just that Touya…looked at him. Whenever he was in the castle with the other candidates he looked at him. Unabashed stares that didn't waver or end and Yukito would look away blushing and see High Priest Karura eyeing him. He always ended up surreptitiously rubbing at his mouth, sure that his teacher could see the stain of the three kisses Touya had stolen over the years and was going to throw him straight out of the order for his shocking breach of etiquette regarding the crown prince.
If only Karura-sensei could see him now. If he could, Yukito wouldn't be taking the wide stairs two at a time, air burning in his lungs by the time he managed to top them. He swung hard around the corner. "Touya!" he cried. He fumbled the door open and skidded into the crown prince's bedroom. "Touya!"
There was no answer to his calls, just empty silence. "To-ya?" he called again, confusion finally wiping out the blind distress. He started towards the closed doors to the balcony, changing course abruptly when he saw the curl a scroll on Touya's writing table. He pushed tentatively at the finials, edging the scroll open almost guiltily. It was a detailed map of the far western border. Several areas were circled, or starred or squared off and all of them with notes written in Touya's strong hand beside them. Yukito suddenly remembered rumors of an upcoming expedition.
Rumors were about all the priest-candidates ever got, about anything. And they only got those because they had to use the castle library and the map-rooms. Being cut off supposedly protected their 'purity'. Which Yukito understood and normally didn't mind at all but this time…this one time…well, if (when) he became High Priest, Yukito decided, he was going to integrate the priest-candidates into outside life so fast that all the old Masters would spin in their graves.
Not that it changed anything now. Yukito gave up and slumped into the chair by the table, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes. He wasn't going to cry. He was nearly sixteen and a priest-candidate, too. He pressed harder. He was only going to Apapsis; it wasn't like he was leaving forever. He'd known it was coming, sooner or later. He wasn't going to cry just because he wasn't going to get to say goodbye to his…crown prince…before he left.
He sat back with a sigh, letting his hands drop. "Be sensible, Yukito," he muttered to himself. "This sort of thing—it's pointless. No wonder why you're being sent away now. If not, you'll never make it to High Priest." It was a sobering thought and, after a moment, Yukito stood. He was to set out at moonrise and the afternoon was already bleeding into evening.
The door opened before he could turn around. "Yuki?" Touya said from behind him. "The guards told me that you were in a panic. Are you all right?"
"In a hurry," he said in a mildly correcting tone, though the guards hadn't been at all wrong. "I was hoping to share my…," he hesitated slightly, "good news."
"I could use some good news," Touya said, the words accompanied by the faint jingling sound of his traveling cloak being shrugged off.
Yukito turned to look at him. Touya looked dusty and tired. "Trouble in the west, your Majesty?" he asked, catching the cloak before it could hit the floor and laying it over the back of the chair.
"Touya, Yuki," Touya grunted. "And no. Not really. Just no improvement. And there should be by now."
Yukito ran an absent hand over the dark blue material. "The most worthwhile things oftentimes take a troublesome amount of patience," he counseled.
"You sound like my father," Touya said, but he sounded amused so Yukito turned and gave him a lilting smile. "Your good news?" Touya asked and Yukito hung on to his smile stubbornly.
"I'm leaving for the Apapsis tonight," he said, folding his hands in front of him.
Touya looked at him slowly. "The old geezer's down-graded you to messenger boy and that's good news?" His voice was light but Yukito knew him well enough to see the slight tensing of his frame.
He kept his own voice light, too. "I'm not running an errand. I'm going to study."
"You're too young." Touya's eyes had hardened and Yukito shrugged lightly.
"It's an honor," he replied. Somehow Touya's upset managed to quiet his own. It was an honor. He was going to be High Priest. The youngest High Priest in the kingdom's recorded history.
"Why now?"
"It's time," Yukito answered calmly. And it was true, he realized. He hadn't wanted to acknowledge it, but the slightly frightening truth was that his powers were beginning to outstrip his ability to control them.
Touya scowled. "I can overrule any orders."
And that…that made Yukito's heart skip double-time in his chest. He smiled without meaning to. "Not even your Majesty can overrule the King's decision."
"My father is sending you." Touya blinked at him, his face a careful mask.
Yukito nodded. "It's an honor," he repeated, "and it's time. This is the time I've been working towards for so many years. This is what I've wanted."
Touya's scowl deepened. "You wanted to leave?"
"I'll be back," Yukito said, even though the reminder had made his throat close up. Five years. Five years. "Probably in time to see your Majesty get married," he teased.
Touya had him backed up against the desk in the time it took him to blink, fury radiating off of him in waves that Yukito could almost see. "I," Touya said firmly, "am never getting married."
Yukito licked his lips nervously. "The kingdom is going to need an heir," he said, feeling rather stupid.
"Sakura will be the heir," Touya said. "She's the one who wants to get married. She's the one who wants to have a market-bushel of kids running around this place. She's even got that brat lined up."
The thought made Yukito smile. "So you're going to let her marry Syaoran-kun?"
Touya rolled his eyes. "According to you I don't have much choice in the matter."
"Ah, still—"
"Do you want me to tell you why I'm not ever going to marry?" Touya cut him off roughly. The blue of his eyes seemed to deepen, darken.
Yes, Yukito's heart thumped greedily. He bit his lips against the heavy, bruised feeling usually caused by Touya's kisses. "Not really."
Even as he watched, Touya's eyes shuttered and went eerily unreadable. "You said you were leaving tonight," he said casually. "Hao yun, High Candidate Yue."
The use of the old language--the formal language of the order--the use of his title, startled him. "Thank you, your Majesty," he answered by rote, bowing slightly as he said it, all the time feeling like he'd been slapped in the face.
He felt even more abused when Touya turned and walked away saying, "You should be going. It's full twilight and the moon will be up soon. Safe journey," he added before opening the balcony doors and stepping out.
One didn't get to be the high candidate in the order by being spineless. And he knew Touya. He knew him better than anybody. He'd misunderstood his meaning. Yukito followed him, stopping a handbreadth away from him. "This way," he said, reaching out and laying his hand against Touya's stubbornly-turned back, right in the middle, right against the place where his heart was beating steadily on the other side. "This way is the only way I can stand at your side." He took a short breath. "Your Majesty only has two sides at which to stand and one is for her Majesty, the bride-Queen."
"I told you," Touya started fiercely and Yukito pressed harder to silence him.
"The other side is for his Holiness, the High Priest." He gentled his touch, pulling his hand away so that he could only just feel the smooth weave of Touya's royal tunic. He could see the mountains that housed the Apapsis as a dark smear low on the horizon."Just a 'friend' is not welcomed to stand at his Majesty's side in court, nor may he offer his Majesty counsel about matters which he should not hear. Only an equal, in an equal office, is allowed the privilege of being always at his Majesty's side." He let the true words of his desire 'I want to always be with you' remain unspoken and bittersweet on the back of his tongue.
After a moment, Touya sighed loudly. "They're going to drum that 'majesty' crap into your head, aren't they?"
Yukito laughed. "Probably, yes."
Touya turned, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "It's probably going to take forever to break you of that and get you to use my name in private."
"Yes." He wanted to stand there forever, smiling at Touya and having Touya smile at him, but the castle bells were beginning to toll. "I have to go," he said regretfully.
"Then you'd better hurry," Touya said, shrugging casually.
"I will," Yukito said, stepping reluctantly back towards the door open behind him. Swiftly, before he could think better of it, he stepped forward again and then again once more, shifting up to brush a light kiss against Touya's cheek. "I'll hurry back, To-ya," he whispered. Without waiting to see what reaction his boldness netted him, Yukito turned and fled, retracing his rushed entrance from earlier in the day. He had a promise to keep, after all.
This story is a sequel (from the 'request more' idea) to Summer Blossoms" and was requested by
beady176. I love Touya and Yukito. I love them together and I love them on their own but I live in mortal fear of writing them. Yukito accepted the news gracefully. He bowed humbly and stood, head still lowered in piety, with careful dignity. He left the temple with unhurried steps, waiting until he'd cleared the temple grounds before breaking into headlong flight towards the palace.
To-ya, his steps sang out upon the ground, the sounds running together in his head, faster and faster ToyaToyaToya. He tore past the guards at the castle entrance with Touya's name thrumming in his head. "I have a summons!" he called back over his shoulder, half turning as he raced down the corridor.
Actually, the summons he had was almost two years old and for all he knew it had been revoked when he'd started...becoming very engrossed with his studies. It wasn't that he was hiding from Touya it was just that Touya…looked at him. Whenever he was in the castle with the other candidates he looked at him. Unabashed stares that didn't waver or end and Yukito would look away blushing and see High Priest Karura eyeing him. He always ended up surreptitiously rubbing at his mouth, sure that his teacher could see the stain of the three kisses Touya had stolen over the years and was going to throw him straight out of the order for his shocking breach of etiquette regarding the crown prince.
If only Karura-sensei could see him now. If he could, Yukito wouldn't be taking the wide stairs two at a time, air burning in his lungs by the time he managed to top them. He swung hard around the corner. "Touya!" he cried. He fumbled the door open and skidded into the crown prince's bedroom. "Touya!"
There was no answer to his calls, just empty silence. "To-ya?" he called again, confusion finally wiping out the blind distress. He started towards the closed doors to the balcony, changing course abruptly when he saw the curl a scroll on Touya's writing table. He pushed tentatively at the finials, edging the scroll open almost guiltily. It was a detailed map of the far western border. Several areas were circled, or starred or squared off and all of them with notes written in Touya's strong hand beside them. Yukito suddenly remembered rumors of an upcoming expedition.
Rumors were about all the priest-candidates ever got, about anything. And they only got those because they had to use the castle library and the map-rooms. Being cut off supposedly protected their 'purity'. Which Yukito understood and normally didn't mind at all but this time…this one time…well, if (when) he became High Priest, Yukito decided, he was going to integrate the priest-candidates into outside life so fast that all the old Masters would spin in their graves.
Not that it changed anything now. Yukito gave up and slumped into the chair by the table, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes. He wasn't going to cry. He was nearly sixteen and a priest-candidate, too. He pressed harder. He was only going to Apapsis; it wasn't like he was leaving forever. He'd known it was coming, sooner or later. He wasn't going to cry just because he wasn't going to get to say goodbye to his…crown prince…before he left.
He sat back with a sigh, letting his hands drop. "Be sensible, Yukito," he muttered to himself. "This sort of thing—it's pointless. No wonder why you're being sent away now. If not, you'll never make it to High Priest." It was a sobering thought and, after a moment, Yukito stood. He was to set out at moonrise and the afternoon was already bleeding into evening.
The door opened before he could turn around. "Yuki?" Touya said from behind him. "The guards told me that you were in a panic. Are you all right?"
"In a hurry," he said in a mildly correcting tone, though the guards hadn't been at all wrong. "I was hoping to share my…," he hesitated slightly, "good news."
"I could use some good news," Touya said, the words accompanied by the faint jingling sound of his traveling cloak being shrugged off.
Yukito turned to look at him. Touya looked dusty and tired. "Trouble in the west, your Majesty?" he asked, catching the cloak before it could hit the floor and laying it over the back of the chair.
"Touya, Yuki," Touya grunted. "And no. Not really. Just no improvement. And there should be by now."
Yukito ran an absent hand over the dark blue material. "The most worthwhile things oftentimes take a troublesome amount of patience," he counseled.
"You sound like my father," Touya said, but he sounded amused so Yukito turned and gave him a lilting smile. "Your good news?" Touya asked and Yukito hung on to his smile stubbornly.
"I'm leaving for the Apapsis tonight," he said, folding his hands in front of him.
Touya looked at him slowly. "The old geezer's down-graded you to messenger boy and that's good news?" His voice was light but Yukito knew him well enough to see the slight tensing of his frame.
He kept his own voice light, too. "I'm not running an errand. I'm going to study."
"You're too young." Touya's eyes had hardened and Yukito shrugged lightly.
"It's an honor," he replied. Somehow Touya's upset managed to quiet his own. It was an honor. He was going to be High Priest. The youngest High Priest in the kingdom's recorded history.
"Why now?"
"It's time," Yukito answered calmly. And it was true, he realized. He hadn't wanted to acknowledge it, but the slightly frightening truth was that his powers were beginning to outstrip his ability to control them.
Touya scowled. "I can overrule any orders."
And that…that made Yukito's heart skip double-time in his chest. He smiled without meaning to. "Not even your Majesty can overrule the King's decision."
"My father is sending you." Touya blinked at him, his face a careful mask.
Yukito nodded. "It's an honor," he repeated, "and it's time. This is the time I've been working towards for so many years. This is what I've wanted."
Touya's scowl deepened. "You wanted to leave?"
"I'll be back," Yukito said, even though the reminder had made his throat close up. Five years. Five years. "Probably in time to see your Majesty get married," he teased.
Touya had him backed up against the desk in the time it took him to blink, fury radiating off of him in waves that Yukito could almost see. "I," Touya said firmly, "am never getting married."
Yukito licked his lips nervously. "The kingdom is going to need an heir," he said, feeling rather stupid.
"Sakura will be the heir," Touya said. "She's the one who wants to get married. She's the one who wants to have a market-bushel of kids running around this place. She's even got that brat lined up."
The thought made Yukito smile. "So you're going to let her marry Syaoran-kun?"
Touya rolled his eyes. "According to you I don't have much choice in the matter."
"Ah, still—"
"Do you want me to tell you why I'm not ever going to marry?" Touya cut him off roughly. The blue of his eyes seemed to deepen, darken.
Yes, Yukito's heart thumped greedily. He bit his lips against the heavy, bruised feeling usually caused by Touya's kisses. "Not really."
Even as he watched, Touya's eyes shuttered and went eerily unreadable. "You said you were leaving tonight," he said casually. "Hao yun, High Candidate Yue."
The use of the old language--the formal language of the order--the use of his title, startled him. "Thank you, your Majesty," he answered by rote, bowing slightly as he said it, all the time feeling like he'd been slapped in the face.
He felt even more abused when Touya turned and walked away saying, "You should be going. It's full twilight and the moon will be up soon. Safe journey," he added before opening the balcony doors and stepping out.
One didn't get to be the high candidate in the order by being spineless. And he knew Touya. He knew him better than anybody. He'd misunderstood his meaning. Yukito followed him, stopping a handbreadth away from him. "This way," he said, reaching out and laying his hand against Touya's stubbornly-turned back, right in the middle, right against the place where his heart was beating steadily on the other side. "This way is the only way I can stand at your side." He took a short breath. "Your Majesty only has two sides at which to stand and one is for her Majesty, the bride-Queen."
"I told you," Touya started fiercely and Yukito pressed harder to silence him.
"The other side is for his Holiness, the High Priest." He gentled his touch, pulling his hand away so that he could only just feel the smooth weave of Touya's royal tunic. He could see the mountains that housed the Apapsis as a dark smear low on the horizon."Just a 'friend' is not welcomed to stand at his Majesty's side in court, nor may he offer his Majesty counsel about matters which he should not hear. Only an equal, in an equal office, is allowed the privilege of being always at his Majesty's side." He let the true words of his desire 'I want to always be with you' remain unspoken and bittersweet on the back of his tongue.
After a moment, Touya sighed loudly. "They're going to drum that 'majesty' crap into your head, aren't they?"
Yukito laughed. "Probably, yes."
Touya turned, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "It's probably going to take forever to break you of that and get you to use my name in private."
"Yes." He wanted to stand there forever, smiling at Touya and having Touya smile at him, but the castle bells were beginning to toll. "I have to go," he said regretfully.
"Then you'd better hurry," Touya said, shrugging casually.
"I will," Yukito said, stepping reluctantly back towards the door open behind him. Swiftly, before he could think better of it, he stepped forward again and then again once more, shifting up to brush a light kiss against Touya's cheek. "I'll hurry back, To-ya," he whispered. Without waiting to see what reaction his boldness netted him, Yukito turned and fled, retracing his rushed entrance from earlier in the day. He had a promise to keep, after all.
