Day 7, Card Captor Sakura, Kero, Spinel (G)

[ciircee]

This story was originally inspired by lazulisong talking about how cool it would be to have fic for the winter solstice. I agreed but, unfortunately, spent the solstice packing, renting a car, and invading my parent's house in an adjoining state. So here it is now!



Winter Solstice Waiting

Kero woke up from his drowsing half-sleep on the window seat because of the smell of cake and the influx of moon power. "They here already?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "How much cake do I get?"

Sakura set a plate with a large slab of cake on it in front of him. "They've been here for a little while, Kero," she said, handing him a fork. "You were sleeping." Kero watched her turn to her guests and smile. "I think he's been up all night playing Mega-Racer-Death-Car-Speed-Speed-Smash again," she said.

Hiiragizawa smiled at him genially. "I imagine it's the solstice. Winter is always such a sleepy time of year, besides."

"Eh? The solstice?" Sakura's head tipped to the side as her brows drew together in a tiny frown. "But he was fine last year."

Hiiragizawa's smile switched to her and softened. "This is the first year after switching to your power. Certain adjustments are being made. Spinel's been a bit peaky lately as well, this year," he explained, reaching up to pat Spinel whom, Kero finally noticed, was riding on his shoulder.

Akizuki bounded into view. "Suppi's been dopey lately," she said, flicking his whiskers affectionately. "And I've been genki-genki!"

"When aren't you?" Touya said dryly.

Kero shoved his cake into his mouth. "'Nicchan and the Snow Bunny are here, too?"

Yukito crouched down in front of him and smiled. "Touya and I brought the cake," he said cheerfully. "Hiiragizawa-san and the others brought takoyaki. Are you all right, Kero-chan?" he asked gently. Kero thought he could see Yue lurking in his eyes.

"Un!" he managed enthusiastically around another large mouthful of cake. He swallowed. "I'm invincible!" he declared. A yawn caught him. "Just a little tired. Where's my takoyaki? You didn't let Suppi eat it all, did you?"

Spinel fluttered down from Hiiragizawa's shoulder, dipping briefly out of sight before coming up with a dish. "Eriol saved you some, blockhead" he said, struggling up with it.

"Let me help you, Spinel-san," Tomoyo said. Kero swallowed back a yawn as she put her hand on the bottom of the dish, supporting it as Spinel carried it over to him on the seat. She still had her camera to her eye.

Kero stood up and flexed his wings. "Are ya' still tapping, Tomoyo-chan?" He leapt at the toothpick in one of the octopus balls and executed a complicated flip that toss the snack high into the air and landed it right in his mouth. He chewed quickly and swallowed. "Did ya' catch that? I perfected it on the professor's bon-bons!"

"I got it," Tomoyo said.

"Pig," came a mutter.

Kero glared at the kid priest. "What did you say?" He tried to take his larger form but found he could only manage a weak glow. "You talk big now that the sun's set!" he said instead, flying up and bopping him on the nose with his fist.

"Kero-chan!"

"Who wants to make cookies?" two other voices interrupted. Kero floated past the Li's head and looked at the kitchen. The professor was there with that teacher. "We're all set to go!"

Akizuki glued herself to Touya's back. "I'll make your favorite kind this time, To-ya-kun!" she caroled.

The Snow Bunny smiled happily, looping an arm through 'Nicchan's. "I'll make your favorite kind," he said to Akizuki.

"Yay!" Her arms tightened around Touya's neck as she clung to him a little more tightly. "Thank you!"

"I hate full moons," muttered Touya, plodding out of the room without even trying to shrug off a Moon Guardian. Kero really didn't know how he did it.

"Li-kun," the professor called, "Sakura-san told me that you're very accomplished with baking. Would you like to join us?"

Kero watched the kid priest look between the kitchen, Sakura, and then—oddly—to Hiiragizawa. "It's going to be rather specific to the Cards at this point," Hiiragizawa said amicably.

The kid nodded faintly. "I would like to join you," he said, heading into the kitchen.

"I'm kinda surprised he went," Kero confessed, shoving another takoyaki into his mouth and pointing another one at Spinel. "What with that teacher being a moon-user too."

Spinel took it with a murmur of thanks before saying, "There are two Guardians," he said calmly. "And it's full moon. There's plenty of power to go around."

Kero chewed thoughtfully. "I bet he went 'cause it'd piss off 'Niichan."

"Probably yes," Spinel agreed.

"Tomoyo-san?" the professor inquired.

Tomoyo lowered her camera and gave him a bright smile. "I want to capture Sakura-chan's first magic lesson!" she said.

"Tomoyo-chan…" Sakura blushed.

Hiiragizawa gave her the same affable smile he'd given the Li kid. "It's mostly theory at this point, and very little practical," he said. He nodded to her camera. "I daresay you'd find better filming in the kitchen."

As if on cue there was a sudden, loud, clatter and Yukito and Nakuru burst out in a fit of coughs mixed with laughter. Tomoyo looked torn.

"I don't want my first try on tape, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura said, still blushing. "What if I screw up?"

"You won't!" Tomoyo said, but she stood up and headed for the door the professor was holding open for her. "Do your best!"

"I want extra icing on mine!" Kero called after her and the professor as the door swung shut. "Suppi's too!"

Spinel didn't react beyond a mild swipe at him, his eyes tracking Hiiragizawa as he showed Sakura a simple spell to move all the furniture in the room to the walls, save the chairs they were sitting in. "He's worried," he said.

"Huh?" Kero squinted at Hiiragizawa as he turned Sakura's hands palms-up on her knees and pointed to the lines of her palms.

"Eriol," Spinel said, his eyes narrowing. "He's worried about something."

Kero knew that there'd been something familiar about that kid's smile. It was Clow's 'oh, dear, something nasty is possibly going to explode if I don't do something and no, no, don't worry it doesn't concern you at all' smile. "Something with Sakura," Kero said, flicking Spinel's tail with his own, "otherwise he wouldn't care if Tomoyo-chan filmed. He's afraid she'd catch on if she stayed."

As though he'd heard them, Hiiragizawa looked up and smiled at them. It was amused, mostly, and a little rueful. "It never hurts to learn the basics," he said to Sakura, gesturing for her to lay out the Cards. "And the winter solstice is always going to be a bit of a bugger."

"Because Kero-chan and Spinel-san are weaker?" Sakura asked, her fingers barely touching the Cards as they flew out to circle around her. "So anybody who wants to do something we'd stop is going to try then?"

Hiiragizawa took that astute observation in stride. "That was certainly Master Clow's experience." The way he said Clow was strangely meaningful and Kero looked at Spinel.

"I don't think he can say, and if he can, then he can't say for sure," Spinel said in an undertone, curling up on the cushion and watching the lesson as it began. "He's worried, but not concerned."

Kero decided to trust him, partly on the basis of Suppi knew the kid better than he did and partly on the basis that Shield hadn't thrown itself over their Mistress but was floating contentedly next to Mirror. He ate the last bit of takoyaki and settled down next to Suppi to watch.

Most of what they were covering, Kero decided after a long, sleepy while, was pretty basic for an experienced magician. Sakura was catching on quickly and Tomoyo-chan's odd sort of sixth-sense about those types of things must have went off because she was back with the camera and a plate of heavily frosted cookies and some onigiri. He nibbled and watched as Sakura mastered several of the more difficult spells before the Li kid wandered back out with Mizuki sensei following him.

Yukito, Touya, and Nakuru appeared a little later and for a while the atmosphere was almost like a party as the kid priest and the lady priest joined in the lesson. At one point, Mizuki dropped out to show Yukito how to write and tie-off an ofuda. Touya laughed as Yukito kept messing it up until the kid leaned over and showed him again, in Chinese, and he got it. Tomoyo clapped after that, but it wasn't because of the success, but because—even though he was glaring—'Niichan said 'thank you' to the Li and meant it.

The professor went around with hot chocolate and green tea and more cookies and onigiri, then came around again, ducking various magical darts, to collect the scattered dishes before he retired for the night. Sometime later, quite some time after they'd bid the professor goodnight, Yukito and Nakuru both suddenly lost steam.

Touya, however, looked happier suddenly. "Moon's down," he said. He poked Yukito's side. "Oi, Yuki, come on. Before you fall asleep on the floor."

"I wanna sleep over with Yuki and To-ya," Nakuru declared, oozing onto Yukito.

"Okay."

"No."

"Aww~"

Hiiragizawa cut across her protest, and Yukito's. "Mind your manners," he said succinctly. "Aside," he added consolingly, "you can't deprive Li-kun of his bed for the night."

Kero thought he heard her mutter, 'can too', but he was too sleepy to pay attention to a splenetic Moon Guardian. He'd seen better fits, anyway.

Mizuki, too, was standing, patting her on the arm anyway. "Oh, come on, Nakuru, we'll have a girl's night in whispering with Daidouji-chan."

Tomoyo lowered the camera and looked between Sakura and Hiiragizawa. "How much later will you be up?" she asked, stifling a yawn behind her hand.

"All night," Hiiragizawa confessed with an apologetic smile. "After a certain amount of figuring-it-all-out, most magicians find things to do in order to while away those select few calendar days that enjoy messing up our systems."

The Li rubbed a hand over his face, looking beat but unready to throw in the towel. "We can set your tripod up if you want," he offered. There were some days that Kero really liked him.

Tomoyo started to nod but stopped when Hiiragizawa gave a slight shake of the head. "We're going to be moving back into theory and situation," he told her. "Idle chit-chat, of a sorts. You'd do better to save your battery for the morning."

"Mmm," Tomoyo agreed. "Good night, then. Thank you for letting me film your lesson, Hiiragizawa-kun."

Sakura hugged her at the base of the stairs. "Thank you for coming to my first real Solstice, Tomoyo-chan," she said quietly.

Tomoyo hugged her back. "I'd never miss any of Sakura-chan's important days if I could help it," Tomoyo replied before climbing the stairs.

Kero heard a door open, a sudden flurry of loud giggling, then the sharp snap of a door closing. "Like anything wakes Yue," he snorted.

"Like that would stop Nakuru," Spinel responded in kind.

The lesson resumed, more theory and ethics being discussed, discarded, or detailed before they moved into situational usage. Sakura's examples were mostly of her own captures and transformations. The Li, in what Kero considered a very clever dig at Hiiragizawa, brought up situations that Kero found hilariously familiar in a distant sort of way. And he made sure that Hiiragizawa knew it by confiding his suspicions—and the more mortifying details—to Spinel in a very loud whisper. Spinel did not seem surprised.

Hiiragizawa's turn made Spinel lift his head. His master brought up startlingly elaborate and exact scenarios and Kero had the feeling that they weren't as random as he made them seem. Spinel's tail flickered against his own, the curl on his catching at the tuft on Kero's.

But they moved on after that, into random magical nonsense so Kero figured that Hiiragizawa was playing things safe rather than close-to-the-vest-oh-by-the-way-we're-all-gonna-die. Somehow, in the middle of a rather gruesome discussion about eyes, the kid priest nodded off. Rather than waking him, Hiiragizawa walked Sakura through a fairly complex transport spell which Kero watched from the edge of sleep.

"The trick," he said, shrinking his staff, "is not to tuck him into bed with your brother and Tsukishiro."

Sakura slipped the star-key back around her neck and gave the ceiling a worried look. "Should I go check?"

Eriol waved her off. "Trust your instincts," he said, which Clow had always meant as 'why spoil the fun?'.

Their conversation tapered into fanciful things like vampires and shops that weren't really there—and that sounded strangely familiar, somehow, and Kero was about to ask when it hit. He curled up around the pain that seemed to coat him like a second skin.

"Kero? Spinel-san?" Sakura was there, kneeling in front of them.

"I don't feel so good," Kero told her, giving her a miserable look. He curled closer to Spinel out of sheer desperation.

Hiiragizawa knelt down beside her and ran a hand over Spinel's back, and then rubbed Kero's own head. The warmth was comforting. "It'll be all right in a minute," he said softly. "We've reached the limit," he explained, as Sakura's hand joined his. "It's short, but unpleasant."

Sakura nodded, or Kero thought that she did, saying, "I think I can feel it."

"Good!"

But the pain was fading, so he didn't care what who felt. "I want a cookie," he mumbled. "So does Suppi."

Spinel swiped at him with his back paws.

He rolled onto Spinel and though he was tempted to force his cookie into Spinel's mouth, he knew better. He crammed it into his own head and made obnoxious 'mm'ing and smacking noises while Spinel called him names between delicate bites of the peapods Sakura had brought him. When his cookie was gone, and he'd stolen several of Suppi's snacks, he rolled off of him again, wriggling around to look out the window at the pitch dark night.

After a moment with nothing happening, Kero rested his head on Spinel's flanks, yawning. "Don't fall asleep, Suppi," he said, yawning. He felt Spinel rest his head against his own hind quarters.

"Who's Suppi?" he demanded sleepily.

The next thing Kero knew was the smell of eggs cooking and rice and the professor saying something about cutting the rolled omelets. He didn't care. He pressed his face to the window. "I don't see anything," he said, looking over his shoulder at Spinel, who was also staring at the window, blankly fascinated.

"They woke up quickly," Tomoyo was saying.

"Everybody out of the way!" Nakuru shouted, shoving her master back against a wall as Yukito jerked Touya back into the hallway. "Clear a path!"

Kero, with Spinel keeping pace at his side, shot down the hall to the front door, barreling past the crowd in the house so fast that Mizuki's long hair whipped out on the breeze they left in their wake. Kero latched himself to the front door's knob and held on tightly as Spinel landed against his back. Together, they twisted. Mercifully, the door wasn't locked; it clicked softly as it opened to them.

Spinel pushed him aside and they had a brief tussle about who got to go first before they spilled out into the pink-and-blue early dawn. "Where is it?" Kero demanded, soaring up, looking frantically over the treetops and rooftops. "Where? Where? Where?"

"There," Spinel said suddenly. He didn't point, but he didn't need to. Kero could feel it like a heartbeat.

On the far horizon the first edge of the sun nudged its way into the sky, rose and gold and beautiful. It climbed and then, like life's blood—like magic—the first ray of sunlight spilled out, reaching up, reaching out across the sky.

Kero dove for it, tumbling into it with Spinel right beside him. He felt his wings flare, felt strength surge uncovering his true form. He roared, sending a yet of flame hurtling back towards the sun, it mixed with a jet of ruby-red light on its way. And while he knew that they were sending energy out, it felt more like drinking it in.

"That was fun," Ruby Moon said. He looked to see her sitting on Spinel's back, patting the jewel set into his forehead.

"One day, somebody is going to see that," Yue said from beside him, but the ever-so-slight quirk of his lips betrayed his dry tone.

From below, he could hear laughter and clapping. "Kero-chan, Spinel-san, that's so cool!" Tomoyo called, waving her camera at them.

He could see Sakura make a gesture and felt a spell tickled along his back. "Stay up as long as you want!" his mistress told him, the Windy carrying her voice up to them, and he guessed that her spell had been one of the invisibility spells that she and Hiiragizawa had been working on during the night.

Kero ruffled his wings in the light and wriggled in pleasure as Yue scratched his ear clip for him. "Bet you're jealous you don't get a solstice now," he said.

Yue stared at the sun for a moment and then made a bored sound. "I'm going back down," he announced.

"Me too," Ruby Moon said, slipping off her perch. "The fun part is the ride and that's already over."

Kero shared a significant look with Spinel as their counterparts landed. Moon Guardians. "Wanna race the sun into the sky?" he asked.

They did.