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Return to the Labyrinth	By : Capitalist Category: +. to F > Card Captor Sakura Views: 8619 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura, nor any of the characters from it, nor do I own Labyrinth. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Chapter 10

‘the many yesterdays’

The gargoyle force caught up with them after they’d fled the kingdom, in that lonely, barren wilderness that existed between worlds. Screaming for blood they attacked, hurtling into his company with fangs bared and claws outstretched. Rai barely missed getting his throat slashed open, dropping to the earth just in time and in the next moment drawing his sword. The next gargoyle that tried to attack lost its head. Around him his men were regrouping, beating back the sudden assault, encircling their prince though he had no need of such protection.

Another tried to dive straight down onto him, and only impaled itself on his sword. It took him a couple seconds to tug his blade out of the body, and he had to pause to slam his elbow into the face of one that thought he might be vulnerable because of it, and then break the stupid creature’s neck. He freed his sword just soon enough to block the swing of an enemy’s blade, swept it aside in a simple parry, and stabbed directly in the solar plexus. The gargoyle fell forward in death, one of its comrades shoving it hard into Rai and nearly knocking him over, momentarily entangling him with the body and trapping his sword arm. The second gargoyle leapt, ready to tear his flesh into shreds, but was knocked aside to the earth by something fast and sharp. It was dead before it hit the dirt, a glowing arrow sticking out of its throat.

The battle was already over. Bodies of gargoyles littered the hillside, and Rai shoved this last one off him so he could turn and see the new arrival more properly. Long white hair and wings moved gently in the breeze, feline eyes the color of frost sizing him up in return. Rai had never seen him before, but knew who he was anyway.

“Yue,” he greeted, bowing his head just low enough to indicate respect, “King of the Labyrinth. What brings you here, dirtying your hands with my family quarrel?”

The king raised an eyebrow. “A euphemistic way of putting it, your highness. This civil war has not only ravaged your kingdom, but now I see it’s spilled over your borders and come nearly to my front doorstep. That’s a little closer than I care for.”

“A temporary fallback,” Rai answered shortly, and flicked the blood off his sword before resheathing it. His men, somewhat in awe of the dazzling Yue, began backing away to a more respectful distance. Now that he was looking, Rai could glimpse the Labyrinth over Yue’s shoulder, the famous kingdom of puzzles. “I apologize for any inconvenience to your majesty. My father managed to drive us out this time, but we’ll be returning home soon enough. I will win this.”

Rai lifted his chin, as if daring Yue to refute him, but Yue merely nodded. “Yes, I think you will. However, you might find it a little easier to do so without your father’s spy constantly hovering in your shadow.”

The bow in his hand snapped upright, hands moving like quicksilver, and every man there but Rai flinched with surprise. An arrow zipped past him and tore neatly through the jacket of one of his subordinates, ripping the material open and allowing the crystal inside to fall to the earth. Rai knew well enough that it was one of his father’s magical gems; he’d once carried one himself. The king used them to keep track of his pawns.

“Traitor!” cried several of the men, and tackled the man to the earth when he tried to bolt. Carefully masking his surprise, Rai looked from him back to Yue.

“How did you -”

“I’ve been watching. I’m rather interested in the outcome of this ‘family quarrel’.”

“Then… I owe you my thanks, I suppose.”

“No need.” Yue’s lips curved up in a slight, but sinister, smile. “You’ll learn soon enough that when I act, it’s because it suits me to do so. I’ve decided that your victory in this war suits me.”

Rai was starting to feel a bit captivated by that cool crystalline gaze. He moved closer, lowering his voice accordingly.

“And why is that, your majesty?”

“Various reasons. Your father’s descent into madness convinced him that his own son would try to kill him, and this war is the result. If he defeats you, his paranoid delusions might very well prompt him to attack my kingdom next, and I do not care to waste time fighting that old fool. Furthermore, if he defeats and kills you, his only son, then he will die with no heir and your kingdom will collapse into even worse anarchy than it already has. Some other king will try to invade and conquer it for himself, upsetting the balance of power between our realms. And finally, I like you.” Rai caught another glimpse of that small smile. “I sense powerful leadership qualities in you. You have the potential to become a strong king.”

“Most monarchs would feel threatened by a strong ruler in the neighboring kingdom.”

“Not this monarch. If it is our future to match wits someday, then I would enjoy the challenge.”

“And if, in the meantime, I owe you favors for your help in winning my crown, that’s just a bonus?”

“So suspicious,” Yue chided.

“You have a reputation.”

That smile again. “Do I? You needn’t fear, your highness, there is nothing from you that I want. Just a victory that will bring peace and stability to your land.”

“I won’t go to bed with you.”

“I won’t,” Yue assured him, “ever have to ask you.”

- - - - - -

“Sakura.”

He spoke so softly, as if he was afraid even a noise too loud would be all it took to shatter her completely, never to be put back together again. Maybe he was right. She tensed at the sound of his voice, there was no way she could not, but otherwise did not move. She didn’t dare look up.

“I know that you want me to leave you alone right now. But I’m sorry, we have to go. We can’t stay here, it’s not safe.” She could hear Li shuffling his feet. “If you follow me, I promise I’ll take you to a place where you can rest.”

Sakura did not want to move. She wanted to curl up in a little ball and hide from the world, better yet she wanted to go home, crawl under her covers, and hide from the world. But she was stuck, here in the Labyrinth, and the flat stone tiles underneath gave no comfort. What choice did she have?

Stiffly Sakura climbed to her feet, and when Li started walking away she limped along behind him. Kero was gone; she was too miserable to worry about why. She paid no attention to where they walked, or for how long, just stumbled through the darkness with a dull prayer in her heart that it would all be over soon. Every now and then she stubbed her toes on the stones and tripped, swallowing quiet whimpers every time, but though she was sure Li noticed he did not move to catch her.

At last he led her into a tiny enclave, a nook tucked away within the maze. It was grown over with heather, springy and soft under her feet, and with a sigh of gratitude she sank back down to the ground. Li dropped to his knees, plucking handfuls of the stuff, and started piling it up in layers.

“What are you doing?” she finally asked.

“You said the ground was too hard, last night. This will be more comfortable for you, if I can gather enough.”

Sakura’s shoulders sank. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.”

He spoke the words very matter-of-factly, not looking up, but Sakura still felt the uncomfortable tightening in her chest with that reminder of his feelings. It was such a shock, when she felt his lips pressed against hers, giving her her first kiss. She’d never even suspected.

“There.” He threw a final handful on top, patting it into place. “I hope you… will be able to sleep better tonight, than last night. Tell me if there is anything else that you need. Water? Food?”

“I’m not hungry.”

She crawled into the nest Li had arranged for her, but now that she finally had her chance to rest, her eyes weren’t closing. “Syaoran?”

He was walking away, his body framed by the less-dark of the doorway, but stopped immediately. “Yes?”

“When did you- how long have you… felt this way?”

“A long time,” he answered, after hesitating. “Years.”

“But we just met yesterday.”

“Yes, we did. But I saw you years before that.”

“I don’t understand. When? And how?”

“Can’t you guess?” He turned back to look at her, though she couldn’t see much more than the line of his face and perhaps a little light reflecting in his eyes. “Sakura, you were the reward. Yue came to me, let me look at you dancing in a white dress, and offered to give you to me if I would only betray your brother. You would have been… mine, if I hadn’t gone back to help him. I gave that chance up, but I never stopped thinking about you.”

He turned away again quickly, as if suddenly afraid of his own words. “But don’t worry. You are the princess now, and Yue has given me strict instructions to never touch you. You can go to sleep; I won’t do anything.”

As if she had been worried about such a thing. Sakura rolled over and curled up on her bed of heather without saying anything more, queasy conflict churning inside her. For five years she’d been falling in love with Yue, the king that gave her diamonds and made her princess, the king that was ready to trade her away like a simple object if it would only get him what he really wanted. He was not the man she thought he was. And there was Syaoran, who made this bed for her, who’d risked his life several times over to protect her.

She couldn’t think about anymore of it tonight. Sakura shut her eyes, and willed herself into the oblivion of sleep.

- - - - - - -

More by luck than anything else, Touya had actually managed to find a halfway comfortable place to rest for the night. After stumbling along in the darkness for a couple of hours, he happened upon a stand of weeping willow trees by a quiet stream. They were looking a little stunted, and not quite as thick as they ought to have been, but it was still good cover from the skies and he could tear off several switches to cushion the ground a bit.

He took a long drink, then decided to go ahead and strip for an au natural bath. The water was chilly and made him gasp, but it felt good to rinse away the sweat and grime he’d been accumulating since he got here. God was he ever tired of walking. He climbed out, pushed the water off his skin as best he could, and pulled his clothes back on. Back within the shelter of the drooping willow branches, he dug into his bag of food for dinner. He’d eaten a snack every few hours for most of the day, not wanting to get weak and dizzy from hunger again, and it was time for another. He was just preparing to bite down on a piece of bread wrapped around dried meat when the willow branches swished, and he froze. A gargoyle? Surely he’d have heard its wings… unless it had come on foot. He’d have to fight, or run again. And Touya was not sure he had the energy to do either.

“Stupid rassle-frassle branches! Let go of my tail!” Something little and yellow yanked himself out of the switches too hard and went spinning over Touya’s head with a yelp, hit another branch, and fell with a plop on Touya’s knee. Touya collapsed back against the trunk with relief.

“Urgghhh, stupid tree, just wait until daylight and then I’ll make a bonfire out of you!” He shook his tiny fist at the branches, then noticed who he was sitting on. “Oh, Touya! Fancy meeting you here!”

“Kero, you just about gave me a heart attack. I thought you were a gargoyle.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“Well, warn me next time you’re going to jump out of the shadows like that, I nearly hit you. How did you even know I was here?”

“I didn’t! But I smelled food.” He sniffed the air again, gaze wandering to the canvas sack by Touya’s side. “Mmm, is that brie I detect?”

Touya rolled his eyes and pushed the bag forward. “Help yourself.”

“Alright!” All but his tail disappeared into the bag, and when he emerged he was wielding a chunk of cheese bigger than his whole head. “Speaking as a connoisseur, it’s a good haul. Where’d you find all this?”

“Stole it from a troop of gargoyles.”

“Awesome! And here your sister was so worried you wouldn’t be okay by yourself in the labyrinth. She should have known -”

“You’ve seen Sakura?” Touya sat upright again. “You’ve talked to her?”

“Sure, spent all day with her and the kid.”

“Where are they now?” Hope blazed up within Touya; his chance to find Sakura had finally come. “Are they close? Can you lead me there?”

“Ooh, yeah, probably should have asked Li where he was going before I took off. Nope, don’t have any idea where they are now. Sorry!”

Touya considered strangling the animal, so contentedly munching away on cheese, but eventually just sagged back against the tree with a groan.

“Figures, I guess. No matter how hard I try, that brat is going to keep her one step ahead of me. I know that’s what he wants. At least now I know they had a chaperone… though not anymore, which leads me to ask why you left them alone.”

“Eh, don’t worry,” Kero mumbled with his mouth full. “Those two aren’t getting anywhere fast, no matter how much privacy they’ve got.”

“Say what?” Touya’s eyes had been closing, but now they flew open again. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean just what I said.”

“You say they’re not getting anywhere fast, does that mean they are getting somewhere?”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly…”

“Then, ‘exactly’ what would you say?”

“Uh…”

“Has he touched her?”

“Not that I know of,” Kero answered carefully.

“How about what you just think?”

“Of life in general?”

“Are you being evasive on purpose?”

“Who, me?”

Touya growled deep in his throat, and Kero flashed him a big, slightly nervous, smile. “H-hey, come on, Touya, we’re buddies! Don’t you trust me?”

“It’s him I don’t trust.”

“Well don’t worry, you fixed it pretty good so that the princess didn’t even notice his feelings, no matter how obviously he was mooning all over her.”

“I fixed it?”

“Yeah. She kinda got it into her head that Yue liked her, because you kinda didn’t tell her the truth about you and Yue.”

“There is no me and Yue,” Touya answered testily. “There was nothing to tell.”

“Then what’s that mark -”

“Shut up about the stupid mark on my neck!” Touya clapped a hand over it. “I’m sick of hearing about it, it’s all anyone can ever talk about in this labyrinth. It’s not like I asked him for it. I rejected him, you know. I left. Doesn’t that mean anything to anyone?”

“Probably means something to Yue!” Kero tossed up the last chunk of cheese and caught it neatly with his mouth. “Seein’ as how he’s disappeared for five years to pout about it, and all.”

“I don’t feel guilty about that!”

Kero swallowed and looked up with wide, blank eyes. “Wasn’t gonna ask if you were.”

“Well, good.” Huffily Touya crossed his arms. “Because I’m not.”

Kero raised his eyebrows in a way that Touya did not particularly like, but rather than comment he dove back inside the sack to rustle up a small apple. “Ah, but it’s such a headache for me, you know? Because now this other king’s invaded and everything is such a mess, and I have to bust my butt looking for him. Yue really is so selfish.”

“So selfish he couldn’t even tell his own brother where he was hiding?”

“Yeah! Now what kind of -” Too late Kero clapped his paws over his mouth, then slapped his own forehead when he saw Touya’s smirk. “Damn it, I can’t believe I let that slip. Who told you? How’d you know?”

“Nobody told me; I figured it out about two days after we got back home. It wasn’t hard. You have the same wings, and why else would you go out of your way to help me? Li was terrified of going against Yue, but it didn’t faze you. You knew he wouldn’t do anything to you.”

“Busted,” Kero admitted glumly.

“Why didn’t you just tell us?”

“It’s not like I’m proud of it or anything. You think it’s fun being brother to that royal sourpuss? He’s so miserable he can hardly breathe, and he likes making me miserable too. Hence getting stuck guarding the Ripariat. The only thing that’s made him not-so-miserable is…” He let his voice trail off, but gestured toward Touya with one of his paws. “You know.”

Touya glared. “I don’t want to know. I don’t care. I told you, I don’t feel guilty about what happened.”

“Twice,” Kero agreed. “Hey, it’s no fur off my back what you decided. It’s not like I really care; I helped you make it to the castle just because it’s fun pissing Yue off. That you didn’t want to stay is definitely not my problem.”

He smiled a breezy, carefree smile, and Touya couldn’t help but remember that day in the city five years ago. Just once, for only a minute, Kero had lost that nonchalance and asked him to please do something. How much, deep down, had he cared enough to make that effort?

“I’ll say that I’m sorry to you.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I’m not sorry that I did it. I know it was the right thing to do. But you asked me to give him a chance, and I might have been willing to do that. Yue didn’t want a ‘chance’, though, he demanded all of me, for always, right then and there. And I couldn’t give that to him. I had to say no. I had my own life in my own world to get back to. So… I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted! But what is it that you do in your world?”

“Well, I – I’m still in college.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a place you go to figure out what you want to do in the world.” Touya played with a willow twig, bending it first one way and then the other. “At least in theory. It’s taking me a little longer than most.” Five years of it and three changes in major, and he still didn’t know what he wanted to be.

“So you don’t even have a trade?”

“No. But I will,” he added quickly, when he saw Kero’s eyebrows go up again. “I’ve still got time. I work to pay my own tuition, so it doesn’t inconvenience Dad, and anyway it’s best that I’m at home. He’s away so much, somebody has to keep an eye on Sakura.”

“Yeah… she said something about that. Either right before or right after complaining how you never keep company with young women.”

“That would be neither her business nor yours.”

“How ‘bout young men?”

“No!”

“So you haven’t been with anyone since you left the Labyrinth? Could it be because you’re missing my big brother after all?” He howled with pain when he got smacked upside the head with the willow switch. “Ouch! That hurt!”

“Good. Maybe now you’ll leave it alone.”

“Meanie.” Grouchily Kero chomped a large hunk off his apple. “You’re not at all like your sister.”

“I am aware of that,” Touya muttered tersely.

“I dunno why Yue decided he wanted you instead of Sakura. His tastes are so weird. I mean, look at Rai. You’d think he was smart enough to know it was trouble, getting into the pants of a neighboring king, but he -”

“What?” Touya sat up so hard and fast this time that Kero toppled off his leg, and caught himself midair just in time. “Yue… and Rai?”

For the second time Kero clapped a paw over his mouth. “Oops.”

“You mean they were- together?”

“Well, I guess you couldn’t say they were ‘together’, Yue just liked to, um -”

“Screw him,” Touya finished.

“That’s one way to put it.” Kero laughed weakly. “But that was all years ago, before you came along, so it’s not like he was cheating on you. It doesn’t count, right?”

“Right,” Touya finally managed, after a terribly long pause. “Doesn’t count at all.”

He got up and walked away.

- - - - - -

Rai collapsed onto the sheets, gasping for breath, every inch of his body glowing with a fine sheen of sweat after what he’d just been through.

“God,” he panted, “you are fantastic in bed.”

“I know.”

Perpendicular to his own body, Yue lifted his head from Rai’s hips and smiled that unnerving smile again. It was never a happy smile, just a hint of amusement or self-satisfaction or perhaps smug pride that he could reduce the fearsome Storm King to this state. Probably all of them. Moreover, he wasn’t even breathing hard.

“Don’t you ever show passion, Yue? Do you even have any, in there?”

“Already fallen in love with me, have you?”

“Not a chance,” Rai assured him, fondling a stray lock of long silver hair. “I will never allow myself to fall in love. And who could love an icicle like you, anyway?”

Yue made a thoughtful noise under his breath. “I suppose I’ll have to search until I can find someone. Perhaps that’s who I’m saving my passion for.”

“A fool’s errand,” Rai mocked. “You are not capable of love, Yue. Men like us are not capable of love. We’re kings. We have too far to fall.”

Yue took Rai’s chin in his hand, holding him as if to study him. Confound those eyes, Rai sometimes hated them even more than the smile. When they sparkled with lust and invitation then Rai could lose himself in their exotic beauty, but sometimes they turned distant and elusive. In them he could see only mystery, and a past he would never know nor would he want to.

“Youngest of the kings,” Yue breathed, “you know so little of the world. Someday you will know love, and you will do anything to keep it. Even if it means losing everything else.”

- - - - - -

“Hey, Touya?”

He’d been huddled by the stream for several minutes before Kero tried to approach him, arms wrapped around his folded legs and glaring at the sky. He would have liked to glare at the moon, wherever it was, but the thick clouds prevented him and so he had to make do with what he could. “Touya, you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound fine,” Kero pointed out, never a master of tact. “Are you mad? Jealous?”

“I am not jealous. Yue can fuck whomever he likes, it’s none of my concern. It’s not like anything ever happened between us, you know.” Not in reality, he silently amended. “It would be nice if he could pick lovers that didn’t try to kill my sister or lock me in their bedroom, but whatever. I don’t care.”

“Okay,” Kero said cautiously, after a longish pause. “As long as that’s settled, then.”

He tried to flit away, but Touya spoke up again.

“Kero?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“As long as it’s not for more details about my brother’s embarrassing affairs.”

“Not really. I was wondering about something… older than that. When I was here before, Yue said something about how he was in love, once.” Right away Touya sensed Kero stiffen with surprise, but didn’t let on that he’d noticed. “I think he was the king before. And that he died a long time ago. Is that true?”

“Wow. I can’t believe he told you about Clow; he never talks about him.”

“So it really happened.”

“You bet it really happened! Clow created both of us from his magic, but Yue is older. That’s after he built the Labyrinth of course.”

“He built it? Just one man?”

“Just one of the greatest wizards the universe has ever known,” Kero corrected. “Came from your world, you know. He didn’t talk about it much, but I got the feeling that people like him weren’t really welcome there. So he left that place and came here, to build his own kingdom.”

“How?”

“Not completely sure. He told me once that this world lies in the shadow of the other, and anyone that’s looking can find their way here, but he was on his third glass of wine by then and I usually stopped paying attention to him at that point. In any case, I know this much: he loved Yue more than anything. And Yue loved him back twice as much. It was like that long before I was even born.”

“I guess it was hard for him when he died.”

“That’s understating the case.” Kero plopped down on the ground next to him with a heavy sigh. “Sometimes I think part of Yue died along with Clow. The part of him that could, occasionally, be fun and smile happily. He buried his emotions down deep, wouldn’t let himself show feelings anymore. And every year he just kept getting colder, and crueler, until he was the king you know.”

They say he’s lonely, and been searching for true love again ever since.

Touya hugged his legs against his chest. “After all that, do you think he’d really want to fall in love again?”

“I wouldn’t have thought it, no. But this is Yue we’re talking about, and I’ll never understand what’s going on in there. Maybe he misses that happiness he used to have with Clow. Maybe he misses the way he used to be.”

“Why me?” Touya whispered into the night. “Why pick me, and get his heart broken, and spend years recovering, for a nobody like me when he could have some handsome powerful king like Rai?”

He felt more than saw Kero’s shrug. “That’s something you could only ask him. But I wonder if even he would know.”

- - - - - -

By rolling over, Rai had an excellent view of the night sky that surrounded them in this glass-walled tower of Yue’s. Every star shone so brilliantly, pure and clear, it was almost more light than dark out there. The moon, half full tonight, was close to dipping below the horizon. Rai enjoyed the novelty as well as the beauty of the scenery, the night sky being something he didn’t see often in his own clouded-over kingdom.

“Dienst has attacked Mercredi. The two are officially at war.”

“I know.”

“Dienst has the larger force. I think he’s going to win.”

“You jump to conclusions too quickly, Rai. When will you learn to look at other factors besides brute strength?”

“When I see some evidence that it’s not the only thing that matters,” Rai replied, maybe just a little curtly. “He’s asked me for my help. I’m considering it.”

“Don’t. No good will ever come of entangling yourself with the others’ power struggles, it will only lead to your ruin.”

“You didn’t let that keep you from involving yourself with mine.”

“But never to the extent of risking myself or my kingdom. That I would never do, no matter how much I wanted you to win.”

“Of course,” Rai grunted, and rolled back the other way to face Yue, who was staring rather dreamily at the ceiling. “The ice-cold Yue never risks anything of himself, always arranging everything to suit him before he even shows his face.”

“That’s what is smart.”

“That’s what’s annoying. Aren’t you ever curious, Yue? What it feels like, to put all of yourself on the front line, not knowing whether you’ll triumph or die?” Yue still hadn’t even looked at him, and Rai’s irritation grew. “Don’t you want to know the rush that comes from staking everything on that one fight and winning? I wonder if there’s anything in this world that could make you consider it.”

“I wonder if you’ll ever admit to yourself that your anxiety to fight is only borne out of a desperation to convince the world you’re stronger than the king you replaced.”

Rai scowled at the other king. “I am strong, Yue. Much more so than the day we met, and getting stronger with every passing year. If you aren’t careful, I’ll soon become stronger than you. Suppose one day I decide to invade your kingdom?”

“Then that day is the day you’ll discover no strength is a match for me. Try it at your peril.”

“You could at least look a little nervous,” Rai growled. “You could at least look at me.” In a flurry of impatience he straddled Yue’s hips and pinned his wrists to the sheets, leaning over to force direct eye contact. “It’s as if you don’t even see me anymore, Yue. What is it you’re looking at, in the distance, that is so much more fascinating than me?”

Yue didn’t bother to deny it. He met Rai’s stormy glare with placid indifference, and smiled that infuriating smile. “I’ve just been watching my new conquest today. He’s learning to play the piano; it’s very endearing. Lately it seems more and more of my thoughts are taken up with him.”

“Through with me, are you?”

“Upset, Rai? I understood that you did not intend to fall in love with me.”

“And so I never have. But I had hoped, by the time this ended, that you might have at least recognized that I am no longer the unwitting prince you seduced. You might at least understand that I am my own man now, in total control of my kingdom, and a power to be feared.”

“Then you still need to learn that I fear nothing in this world.”

Rai flexed his fingers, resettling his grip that held Yue down. “I suppose I’ll have to kill you someday, just to convince you how wrong you are.”

To which Yue replied, quite calmly, “That’s my line.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

This plot’s getting thicker than London fog, isn’t it? Yue, you bad, bad boy.
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