"Cup of Coffee"- Chapter 04
Disclaimer: the oh-so-talented people of CLAMP own Card Captor Sakura and all its characters. The band Garbage owns the song "Cup of Coffee".
Author's Note: Man it's been a while… gomen nasai, reviewers. (Did I say that right?)
To Xiao-Mao: Thanks for the plushie!
To Ah-Choo: She didn't learn magic… as you will see in this chapter, he was merely asking her if she wanted to learn.
To Onigiri: I used to call her Meilin too but when I visited kawaiisakurashrine (dot) com, a lot of the references to her spelled it "Meiling", so for the sake of the story and because of my trust in the information the webmistress of the site has, I used Meiling.
To Livi: Thanks for reviewing! I'd forgotten about this story, actually ; But I'm back to updating it!
"What were you going to ask me, Ruki?" She watched his head perk up a bit as she used his pet name. He stared at the ground for a moment, bit his lip, and then looked up at her with a hopeful expression.
"Would you... like to learn how to use magic?" he asked, his eyes locking on hers again but not changing into that darker shade.
"Haruko, I told you, I don't have a drop of magical blood in me," she stated, lifting her wrist and looking at her vein for a moment before turning to look at him again. It was true; she'd been born into a family where everyone had at least some magical ability, but she'd been born perfectly normal. Her cousin Syaoran, the future leader of the Li clan, could use elemental attacks with his sword and ward papers. What could she do?
Just then, Haruko stood up, stepped in front of her and took her hand. Tracing his finger over the vein, it seemed to pulse along with her heartbeat, pressing against the skin and retracting. A need to defend arose in Meiling and she immediately jumped off the swing, taking a fighting stance. In a moment, she released it upon realizing what she was doing.
"You're a fighter," Haruko started, putting his hands in his pockets, "and it takes a certain energy level and discipline to react that quickly. Yet just now you broke the stance almost as quickly as you took it, showing your ability to retract just as fast."
"So?"
"So," he said, taking a step closer to her, "magic is a lot like fighting. It takes practice, energy and discipline to master."
"But why would you want to teach me?"
He sighed and took his hands out of his pockets, placing them on her shoulders.
"Do you know how frustrating it is to not be able to share what I know with someone? In your family, you have some of the strongest members of the magical community right in the next room while I have no one. Not everyone is born with magic naturally, and the path to learning it is a bit difficult… but for someone who already has the self control for it like you," he said, cupping her cheek with his hand, "it should be a piece of cake."
Genji and Jin walked together down the street, each with an ice cream cone. Genji had a strawberry cone while Jin chose the cherry. As they approached the park they had left earlier, they noticed Haruko's and Meiling's absence from the swings.
"You know, I've been thinking…" said Genji as she took a quick lick of the strawberry ice cream.
"What?"
"Ruki and Mei-mei seem to be getting along pretty well," she said, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Yeah, they do."
Genji's small smile grew into a broad grin.
"So… you do know that the Carnival is coming to town, right?"
"The one we saw advertised at the Ice Cream Parlor?"
She nodded. Then they both broke in grins.
"It'll be here next weekend…"
"Then we should help Mei-mei and Haruko get ready for it!"
With a few giggles, they continued on their way home, completely oblivious to two pairs of eyes watching them. Just as they turned the corner and went down the street, the two pairs of eyes appeared, one set ruby and one set blue. In an instant, the bodies of those eyes appeared as well, Haruko's arms wrapped around Meiling.
"Ruki, what did you do?" asked Meiling, releasing the breath she'd been holding as the twins passed by. Haruko laughed for a few moments and suddenly she found herself laughing too.
"Nothing that you can't do without a couple of lessons, Mei-mei," he replied, turning her to face him and smiling as she blushed when he used the nickname his cousins had given her. "Do we have a deal?"
Meiling looked back at the retreating twins, who had not even noted their presence when they were no more than four feet away from where they had passed, then met those blue eyes with her ruby ones.
"Yes."
Haruko's smile broadened as he leaned in and hugged her. Meiling felt her heart skip a beat and found herself hugging him too. After about a minute, they let each other go.
"So what was that about a carnival that the twins mentioned?" asked Meiling, recalling it. Haruko grinned and shook his head.
"They're planning something so don't be surprised if it turns into a big event for them."
"Alright," she replied.
"Meiling…"
The voice broke through Meiling's thoughts as she cut up some strawberries for a snack. She turned her head as her eyes met with her cousin's, one of Syaoran's sisters.
"Yes?" she replied sweetly.
"You're glowing."
"I am?" Meiling looked down at herself quickly, the blood having drained from her face. In the two seconds she did so, a blur of thoughts went through her mind.
"No, silly.. you're glowing, in a sense. Your aura's not as dim as it was when you came back from Japan and, well.. I could sense your presence a bit farther than where I usually can. Good to see you cheered up," she said, smiled and walked away. As soon as she'd left the room, Meiling sighed in relief and turned back to her strawberries. The words her cousin had just spoken to her repeated again in her mind.
Gathering the strawberries into a bowl, Meiling brought them to her room where she set them on her desk, then turned and glanced at the mirror nearby. Bringing a hand to her cheek, she stared and then looked back at her desk, noticing a picture to the left of where she'd placed her strawberries. She glanced at it, where she was standing among a circle of her cousins and aunt, for the picture. It had been taken the day she returned to the Li mansion after having spent so much time in Japan. Her eyes looked hurt, her features were stiff and her lips in a tight line. Glancing back at her reflection, she smiled, then upon realizing she'd smiled so easily, couldn't stop herself from smiling.
'Life had a way for making up for the bad things,' she thought to herself, and that was that.
Author's Notes
DejectedxAngel: I was reading over the previous chapters and got to a comment I wrote where I said I had evil plans for the story. Then I thought 'what could possibly be evil enough to- ohhhh… hehehehehe". I know it's been ages and sorry doesn't make up for it, but school and current events in m'life make it hard to update. A bit over one thousand words… that's what I'm aiming for with my chapters now. Anywho, read and review folks!