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Pleasure Slave	By : Capitalist Category: +. to F > Card Captor Sakura Views: 84321 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 32
- 33
- 34
Chapter 33
‘dawn’

The sun rose, bringing another joyless and loveless day to the castle. It was the seventh since the day of Touya’s punishment, and each morning Yue woke was more painful than the last. Gone was the warmth that nestled against his shoulder, arm draped over his chest in casual affection. Now his slave slept on the far side of the bed, bandaged back towards him, leaving Yue cold and lonely between the sheets. Years of sleeping in this bed alone and now he could not cope with even a few nights of it.
Touya didn’t seem bothered. Every night he turned in early and slept soundly, unresponsive when Yue tried to speak or touch. The daytime was no better, his slave calmly going about his routine and speaking to anyone that spoke to him – save just one. To hear him exchanging even a simple greeting with a servant was enough to make Yue’s heart curdle with anguished jealousy.
He’d tried to kiss him. Three days ago and desperate to make things the way they were, he’d pounced on his slave and pressed his lips to Touya’s with a hunger that had been building for days. He poured his passion and ardor into the act, hoping to seduce Touya out of his silent treatment and respond to Yue’s touch once more. Touya, however, neither opened his lips nor fought to escape Yue’s embrace. His tongue slipped into a dead mouth, his hands clutched at a stiff and unbending body. The sheer absence of emotion doused Yue like cold water, and he retreated. If Touya had fought back, squirmed or resisted like he used to in the spring, it would have been better. At least then he might have looked Yue in the eye.
“I miss you so much,” he whispered to his sleeping slave. “How much longer will you punish me?”

Elsewhere in the castle, just out of the rays of the rising sun, drifted another heartbroken soul. Sakura adhered herself to the wall just inside the tea room’s balcony doorway, breakfast forgotten, and tried to see over the rail without stepping into the light. Just like always Syaoran was there below, pacing the wall in his morning watch, so far below that only the loudest of cries would carry between them. She did not need to be close, though, to see the details of his face. She knew his dark brown eyes were scanning the horizon, calm but alert, and that his unkept brown hair would be falling over them and obscuring his vision until he impatiently pushed it aside. She saw the light stubble prickling his jaw, and the way he reached for his amulet to clutch at it for a moment before drawing it off.
Syaoran drew his sword and it cleaved the air, his posture suddenly rigid with muscular control. Sakura’s mind flew back to that moment in the courtyard when she danced to his drills, and she remembered how warm and sweet the day had been. His hot breath on her ear she also remembered, when he took her in his arms and walked her through the motions, and the feel of his hard muscles against her body. Tears slipped free and dropped onto the balcony floor below, though she didn’t recall moving forward, and against her will she pressed against the rail in a mute appeal for Syaoran to see her and wave. She missed him so much, her chest burned with the ache of loss; if he would only speak to her again it would be healed.
As if he could hear her thoughts Syaoran paused and looked up. So far but so close, Sakura could feel herself reaching out to him in the vain hope that just this once he would reach back and everything would be alright again. For a moment, she let herself think it might happen. Then he straightened, turned his back on her, and the moment was destroyed. Tears falling off her face faster than she could stop them, Sakura crumpled to the floor and did not move until Ralen had returned.
“Time to go- what’s the matter with you? You didn’t eat a bite of your breakfast; are you still sick?”
Sakura hugged her knees to her chest and nodded. “Yes sir. I have no appetite.” Convincing him she was sick five days ago hadn’t been any problem at all, with her red and puffy eyes and trembling hands. How could she go outside for her walk, when Syaoran would only look on her in disgust and turn away?
“Well, then I suppose we can’t have you going outside today either. I’m sure that trainer must have given you something, all the slaves in that city carry disease. Maybe I should send for a doctor.”
“No.”
“Excuse me, slave?”
“Please don’t, Ralen sir, it will be gone soon. I only need to rest.”
“You’d better be right about that.” She’d been trying to stand, feeling a little wobbly on an empty stomach, and impatiently he gripped her arm and hauled her back in the room. “I don’t want you sick and giving anything to me when Yue finally lets me have you. Let’s get you back in your cage, shall we?”

Ralen hustled her through bathing and then back up to the throne room, obviously eager to isolate her as quickly as possible, and once he’d dumped her on the floor of her cage Sakura curled up to spend the rest of the day crying. It was what she’d been doing, off and on, for most of the week and so she was a little surprised to have her routine interrupted some hours later. Angry voices were the source, and she sat up when the echoes of loud footsteps and a vociferous argument filled the hall. That was a girl, shouting at Ralen, a girl’s voice that she knew.
“Meilin,” she greeted quietly, without standing, when the pair had rounded the corner. Her teacher marched up to the cage and planted her hands on her hips, visibly fuming.
“C’mon, Sakura, let’s get going. Blondie here keeps trying to tell me that you’re sick and that you don’t want your lesson.”
“I’m telling you that she’s sick because she is sick,” Ralen snapped, clearly exasperated. “She’s been confined to her cage for days now and she not in any condition to go leaping around the ballroom.”
“And I’m telling you that I have been paid to ride all the way up this hill and I’m not leaving without giving someone a lesson. Sakura, on your feet.”
She didn’t move. “Ralen is right, Meilin. I’ve been ill, and I feel very weak. I’m sorry to have wasted your time, but I can’t have my dancing lesson today.”
“Say what?” She looked scandalized and hurt, and inwardly Sakura winced. “But you love your lessons.”
“I- I know. I’m sorry to have disappointed you.”
She dropped her gaze, rather than look Meilin in the eye, and Ralen barked with triumph.
“Ha! I told you. Now if you’d be so good as to just turn around and go back to wherever you came from -”
“Hold it, blondie. I just had a long ride and I’m hot. Give me a minute or two to talk to her, would you?”
“Uppity bitch,” Ralen spat. “If you were under my control, I’d take you down a notch.”
“But I’m not. And anyway, you wouldn’t.” Meilin smirked up at him, unaffected by his blistering glare. “I’ll only be a few minutes, and then I’ll go. Surely you don’t care about a few minutes, do you?”
Ralen glanced back at Sakura, then to Meilin again, and shrugged. “I hope she gives it to you,” he muttered, and turned on his heels. Once he’d stomped out of the throne room and they could no longer hear his footfalls, Meilin dropped to her knees just outside the cage bars.
“Well, that’s better. Sakura, you can look at me now.”
She did not, and kept her eyes steadfastly on the hem of her skirt.
“Sakura, I’m a woman too. I know you’re not sick. You can tell me what’s happened.”
“I don’t think so, Meilin.”
“But we’re friends!”
“Yes, but you’re Syaoran’s cousin and I shouldn’t -”
“Syaoran?” Meilin repeated the name and laughed. “You mean this is his fault? Don’t tell me my stupid cousin has gone and broken your heart already.”
Sakura couldn’t help it; her shoulders convulsed in a sob. Immediately Meilin shut up, and this time Sakura could see the light of understanding in her eyes.
“Oh.” Her shoulders tensed, and briefly she sealed her lips together as if to suppress sudden anger. “I see. Tell me everything.”

The day was going to be a scorchingly hot one. Spirit was irritable, even after a thorough currying, and nipped at him when he tried to check on her teeth.
“Give it a rest, girl,” Li muttered, not really in the mood to play her games, and pushed her nose away. All the horses were in a bad mood with this heat, the stables one long row of flicking tails to keep the flies away and absolutely ripe with the smell of manure. He needed fresh air. With a bang he slammed Spirit’s stall door shut and strode toward the exit, and hardly had he taken one step outside of the stable when a fist connected with his nose and sent him flying right back into it.
It was a well-executed punch, perfectly aimed, and Li hit the packed earth floor with an unforgiving slam. Horses pricked up their ears at the sudden disturbance, but they were only curious and entirely unsympathetic. Bright hot pain rushed to his nose and Li wiped blood off his lip.
“What the fuck, Meilin?” In one swift and sure flip he was back on his feet, glowering at his cousin in the doorway. “What the hell was that for?”
“I think you know, and don’t bother acting like you didn’t deserve it. I hope it’s broken. Sakura’s heart sure is.”
So that was what this was about. In no time he’d closed the distance between them and a sharp backhand caught her across the face, almost throwing her into the nearest stall. “Nosy bitch. Mind your own business.”
“Like hell I will.”
Meilin’s legs were longer than they used to be, and her foot drove into his stomach in a vicious side kick, followed by a sweeping turning kick to his face. Li ducked to evade it and countered with a hook kick of his own, blocked by a jarring forearm.
“You bastard. How dare you say those things to her, after all she’s been through? She already has to live with one cruel jerk, but she thought she could trust you!”
“Trust? Don’t even say that word, don’t make me laugh. She was cheating on me, I saw her! Crawling naked all over that girl while Ralen watched! I had every right to be angry!”
Down the middle row between stalls they battled, a swirl of kicks and strikes that were finally meant to hurt, after so many years of practice. Meilin nailed him in the chest with another kick that sent him stumbling back into a post, and with a wheeze he tried to recover air for his lungs.
“So I suppose you’ve been honest with her, then? Told her all about what we’ve done together in the hayloft?”
Li scowled and wiped more blood from his nose. “Stupid kids exploring in the straw; it meant nothing.”
“But you didn’t tell her.”
“Because it’s over! She and I were together when she did that… stuff – she did it more than once. All the while telling me she loved me.” Bitterness lent strength to his turning kick, and Meilin almost buckled at the blow to her waist.
“You moron, she does love you. Don’t you know she’s barely eaten in the past five days?”
“She betrayed me -”
“She had to!”
“She was enjoying it -”
“Well excuse her for making the best of a horrible and humiliating experience. Did you even stop to think, for one second, about her situation before you passed your judgement? Did you remember that she was kidnapped from her home and sold into slavery? That she lives in a goddamned cage every day? And because her so-called master doesn’t even speak to her, she has to beg that overseer for everything she has. For the privilege of speaking to one of her only two friends in the world, she has to put on a show for him that makes her die on the inside with shame. Did you wonder what it would feel like, if Ralen could order you to have sex while he watched?”
She punctuated that last with a shove that sent him crashing into Spirit’s stall door. The mere suggestion of the image was enough to nauseate him, and he had to swallow.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Get over it. You turned your back on her because other men treated her like trash, Syaoran. Very classy.”
“You don’t know what it felt like to watch!” Li retaliated with a hook punch that nearly sent Meilin spinning into the ground. “I had to watch her kissing someone else, had to watch someone else’s hands going all over her body when I’ve only just begun to touch her. She’s my girl, mine, but I can’t even say so when someone else decides they want her.”
“Are you looking for pity?” Meilin snapped a front kick right up under his ribs, almost forcing him to double over in pain. “What the fuck did you think you were getting into when you started dating a pleasure slave? Are you seriously blaming her for being owned by someone else?”
She followed her kick with a sharp jab, and he evaded it neatly. Locking his grip on her wrist, it took only a simple twist to bring Meilin straight to the floor and he was quick to kneel on her chest.
“Exactly,” he panted. “She’s a pleasure slave, and I wasn’t thinking. I’m a son of the Li family, the only son, and I can’t bring a slave home to meet my mother. Our family has honor, pride, history! How can I bring home someone else’s whore and still hold my head up?”
Meilin kicked him in the head. “So that’s what this is about? You’re a bigger asshole than I thought you were. Because our family used to have money, you think you’re too good for her?”
“I didn’t say that! I just -”
“Yeah, you did.” With a jerk and a thrust of the hips she’d reversed their positions, and now she was the one digging a forearm into Li’s throat. “And suppose my parents had succeeded and I was sold off? I’m a Li too. Would I become trash just because someone put a collar around my neck?”
“I’d kill anyone that degraded you -”
“But Sakura doesn’t get the same courtesy. You idiot, don’t you know that she’s the best thing that ever happened to you? She saved you, and this is how you thank her?”
“Saved me from what?”
“Your wretched life, of course. You hated this castle, everyone knew it, you hated it because you had no friends and no one to talk to but a horse. Your mother saw it when you visited home, how much weight you’d lost and how dark and surly your face was. She wrote me a letter and begged me to convince you to quit, that the money you wanted for her wasn’t worth such misery. And I was going to try, at least until I rode up here and met Sakura. Don’t you see the difference she’s made for you, how much happier you are because of her? Are you blind?”
She released her pin to slap him soundly across the face; he was too stunned to react. “Well I can see it. And if Auntie were here, she’d see it too. She would kiss Sakura and welcome her into the family for it. You’re an idiot if you can’t even figure that much out. You don’t deserve her at all.”
Choking back an angry sob, Meilin pushed herself off him and sprinted for her horse. Within minutes she was in the saddle and gone, and Li could only watch her as his muscles throbbed and warm blood oozed out of his nose.

The music was so angry today, rich and powerful as it flowed from the piano and echoed in the room. It was another new song, one that Yue hadn’t heard, but Touya’s fingers were moving over the keys with skill as effortless as if he’d been playing it all his life. If his back was hurting, he wasn’t showing it. One jarring chord followed another, interspersed with a rolling melody that was probably written by a wronged, long-dead, musician.
Yue watched the muscles in his arms rippling with the motion, his hair falling forward over his eyes in his concentration, and ached to hold him. If he could only kiss him as he once had before on that piano bench, pull Touya into his lap and know that his slave wanted him as much as he did him.
“I’m sorry.”
He said the words the moment the music died, thrusting them into the stark silence without thinking. “I’m sorry I hurt you, sorry for what I did to you. A master does not apologize to his slave for a whipping but I will, because I miss you and I want you back.”
Touya did not turn around, but Yue imagined he saw a slight tension in his shoulders.
“Please, Toya. I am humbling myself for you, because you are so precious to me. I’m sorry. I will say it as many times as I have to, if you’ll just speak to me again.”
More silence, while Yue waited breathlessly for a response. It seemed to go on forever, probably no more than a few seconds, until Touya finally broke it.
He turned the page in his music book and began to play again.

Listlessly Sakura sprawled across the floor of her cage and watched the moon float up into the sky, the castle silent around her with the onset of night. The stars were not beautiful when your heart was broken, she’d already decided. How long would this pain last? Telling the story to Meilin had at least eased some of the ache, since there was no one else in the castle upon whom she could unburden herself. But then Meilin jumped to her feet and stalked away, looking so tense and angry, and Sakura wasn’t quite sure who she was angry at. If she spoke to Syaoran, Sakura hoped she hadn’t made too much of a fuss.
Across the night sky the moon traveled, and the weary girl watched it for hours. Sleep came and went, in her dull fatigue, and when she found herself blinking awake again the moon had gone. The night was still silent around her, but Sakura sensed something was different. Idly she rolled over onto her back, and froze.
Yue was here. Not standing outside her cage and watching her, but here, in her cage, sitting right next to where she lay sleeping. She could feel the warmth of his nearness, and some of his long silver hair was trailing over her legs. A squeak stuck in her throat while her mind scrambled to process all this unexpectedness, but if Yue was bothered that she’d seen him then he didn’t show it. Indeed, he wasn’t even looking at her.
“M-master Yue?”
“Do not mind me, child. You may go back to sleep, I am not here to claim your body.”
Good to know, but there really wasn’t any way Sakura was going back to sleep. She’d been this close to Yue before, but standing on her feet. Curling up next to him in such a small space was decidedly more intimate, and she wondered how Onii-chan would react if he could see this. Awkwardly she pushed herself up into a sitting position and scooted a few inches back.
“Master Yue, is something wrong?”
His lips quirked up in a ghost of a smile, as if she’d asked something terribly amusing. Now that her surprise was fading, Sakura noticed that her formidable master was hugging his knees to his chest, looking more like a little lost child than the powerful creature he really was. “Master Yue?”
“How many years it’s been,” he mused softly, ignoring her, “since I lived within these bars. The world was so strange and scary to me, at the time. I’m older now, and stronger, more so than most humans could possibly comprehend, and I thought I had conquered that world’s mysteries. Why am I here again, lost and confused? How is it that he can do this to me?”
Sakura stared blankly at her master. If Yue was confused, then he certainly wasn’t the only one.
“I have not been so miserable in hundreds of years. To have him sleep at my side, but so cold and dead to my touch, is more than I can bear. Do you know what it’s like, for the one most precious to you to turn away in rejection?” After some hesitation Sakura nodded, but Yue wasn’t looking at her. “I had thought I was stronger than this. How can a mere boy reduce me to pain and bewilderment?”
Sakura thought she had never seen anyone look so sad. Technically, she knew, she should still be angry at Yue for what he had done to her brother. But these days there was so much sorrow in her heart that she had no room for anger. Delicately she placed her hand on top of his.
“My father told me that when you care for someone, you give them a piece of your heart. The more you care, the bigger the piece. It doesn’t matter how strong you are on the outside, if they have a piece of your heart to hurt.”
“The stupidity of human emotions,” he muttered.
“But it’s not stupid, Master Yue. There’s always a risk of pain, but when you exchange pieces of heart with another, there’s a closeness between you that no one else can ever destroy, or even understand. Even if that person steps all over the piece you gave him, at least you have that connection.” Sakura paused to wipe away a tear. “It’s really not good to be all alone, don’t you think? Wouldn’t you rather have someone special, even if he can hurt you?”
Yue’s hand clutched at hers with a desperate strength, and she bit her lip to silence a yelp. He was holding her palm to his cheek. “Oh Toya,” he whispered. “I want him back so badly, more than any other desire in my heart he is first. But he doesn’t want me. I have tried to apologize, I have tried to beg for his forgiveness, I have tried everything, but he looks through me and does not answer. What else can I do?”
His voice trembled as he spoke, and Sakura felt Yue’s pain. “I’m sorry, Master Yue. My brother is so stubborn; I don’t know what it is he wants from you. I only know that when we’ve fought, he always comes back to me eventually.”
“He loves you,” Yue pointed out bitterly.
“Onii-chan lo- cares about you too, Master Yue.” Sakura bit her tongue just in time, not quite ready to speak the word love on her brother’s behalf. “I think he just must be so angry right now, he’s forgotten that.”
“And suppose he never remembers?”
Sakura meekly shrugged. “Would you like me to speak to him? If he won’t listen to you, maybe he will listen to someone else.”
Yue blinked and lifted his head, then released her hand. It looked to Sakura as if something had just occurred to him, maybe something he’d forgotten for a long time, but then he smiled at her and the look was gone.
“You are a kind-hearted girl, aren’t you? Why do you try to help me when you have as much reason to hate me as your brother does?”
Sakura flushed under his penetrating look. “I don’t know, Master Yue. My father taught me to show kindness to anyone that is in need of it. I suppose I felt a little sorry for you.”
“Sorry for me?” He raised one eyebrow, probably too baffled by the absurdity of her comment to take offense – she hoped. Quickly she tried to explain.
“That is, you’re very rich and powerful and beautiful and I don’t feel sorry for you about those things. But, like when I gave you my picked flowers, I felt as though no one had given you anything for a really long time. Maybe people are so in awe of you, they forgot to be kind to you. And that’s a terrible thing.”
Yue looked contemplative. “Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps I too have forgotten the meaning of kindness, in all my years. I am fortunate to have someone like you to remind me.”
His palm swept along the curve of her face, and a stunned Sakura watched him lean forward and plant a light kiss on her brow. She didn’t even have time to react to that before he was gathering her in his arms, holding her to his chest. The warmth of his body and the beat of his heart came clearly through his thin satin robe, and a blush bloomed across her cheeks.
“I cannot bear to return to my bed and sleep alone,” he murmured, stroking her hair back from her face. “You are not your brother, but for tonight you will do. Just let me hold you as you fall asleep.”
He said ‘let’ as if there was some kind of choice in the matter, which Sakura sensed was not the case. His breathing was deep and even, though, and once she got over her embarrassment she realized it was nice lying against Yue like this. Certainly she was glad for the company.
A few strands of his long hair had fallen over her hand, and idly she fondled them. “Your hair is so beautiful, Master Yue. Can I braid it for you sometime?”
He swept the hair out of her reach, though with a gentle motion. “Thank you but no. That task is reserved for someone else… if he will have me.”
“I see.” Sakura yawned, and nestled against Yue more comfortably. “He’ll come back to you one day, Master. I just know it. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
The last thing Sakura saw before her eyes fell shut was the spread of stars outside her windows. Funny, they seemed a lot prettier now…

There was no need, Touya decided, to replace the bandages again. He snipped off the last of them and examined his back in the mirror, now crisscrossed with a filigree of fine scars. Someone knew what he was doing, that first day, and they’d healed well without infection or lumps of ill-knit flesh. Each scar was long but thin, and in time they would fade. But they would always be there; he would carry them until his death.
He pulled his shirt back on and left the bathroom, ignoring Yue and his pathetic plaintive stare as he walked past and then out of the room completely. It was dinner time.

Sakura noticed right away.
“Your bandages are gone!” she squealed, patting him lightly on the back to confirm it. “Does that mean you’re all better now?”
“More or less.”
“That’s so wonderful! When I first saw you in all that blood, I didn’t think you could ever heal -” Touya cleared his throat uncomfortably. “- but now you’re fine! I’m so happy.”
She smiled, which made Touya realize that it had been several days since he’d seen such a thing. She must have really been worried for him.
“Glad to oblige. Now eat your dinner.”
She complied, spearing and chewing a few mouthfuls of carrots before she set her fork down again. “Ne, Onii-chan.”
“What is it?”
“Now that you’re better… do you think, maybe, you might talk to Master Yue again?”
Touya dropped his fork. “What?”
“Onii-chan, you live in the same room! You can’t possibly go on for the rest of your life without speaking to him!”
“And if I did, what business of yours would it be?”
“He’s so sad, Onii-chan, it’s painful to watch. He feels so terrible, if only you would listen to him -”
“Unbelievable.” Touya shot to his feet when she tried to put her hand on his, pacing a fair distance from the sofa. “He talked to you, didn’t he? He’s not supposed to even be looking at you.”
“Onii-chan, please don’t get mad. It was only conversation, and I didn’t mind. Master Yue is really very nice, on the inside.”
“Nice,” Touya echoed, one hand unconsciously going to where a whip scar trailed over his shoulder.
“I know what he did was awful, but he’s sorry. Won’t you just let him apologize? He told me he misses you very much.”
“That’s not my problem. And you can stop trying to get involved in something that you don’t understand.”
Sakura looked hurt. “I only want you to be happy, Onii-chan.”
“And I only want to be left alone. By you, by him, by everyone. Stay put and finish that food.” With a huff Touya stomped out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him, so annoyed he could barely think straight. How dare he recruit Touya’s own little sister to speak for him? Was there no place in this castle he could find peace?
Touya tried to think of a place that might be deserted, and found himself climbing the stairs. Maybe up on a rooftop somewhere he would find solitude.

Against the dusky blue sky, already studded with a few early stars, the mountains were hardly more than wrinkled black shadows. Touya strained to see them more clearly, and could not. How long had he been gone from that place that was his home? Did anyone even remember him?
There were things that he could not remember, even when he tried his hardest to think. He could no longer recall the color of Kaho’s eyes, or what his neighbor’s name was, or the feel of his mother’s hand-knit blanket under his cheek as he fell asleep. Erased from his mind, he supposed, to make room for all he’d endured here in this castle. His life had changed so very much, in these past few months.
The last of the sunlight faded from the sky as he watched, relaxing on the wide stone rail, and all the stars came out. The night was so peaceful, it was probably inevitable that someone would interrupt.
“Hi.”
Touya shot a withering look at the newcomer out of the corner of his eye, not bothering to reply. It wasn’t that bratty kid, thank goodness, but some other roughly-dressed man Touya didn’t recognize. He must be another member of the guard.
“I’m allowed to be up here, before you ask. And I’ll go back to Yue’s bedroom when I feel like it.”
“Oh… okay.” He looked rather blank before offering up a bland smile. “If you say so. I actually just came up here for a little fresh air and the view; I didn’t realize there was someone else. I hope I’m not bothering you.”
“Whatever.”
He rested his elbows on the stone barrier and closed his eyes, obviously relishing the breeze, and for a while the roof was quiet again.
“It’s lovely, isn’t it? I come up here almost every night in the summer to see it, I find it so soothing.”
“I guess. Been here long, huh?”
“At the castle? Oh, long enough, I suppose. Lord Yue pays us very well for our service.”
Touya smothered a snort. “Yeah, he’s a real saint.”
“Er, well, I can’t say I know him well enough to say. He doesn’t bother speaking to us very often.”
“Sounds like him.”
“Oh dear, are you still mad at him?”
Touya shot him a warning look, and he was quick to raise his hands in surrender. “Sorry, sorry, I know that was none of my business. But, well… if you don’t already know, I should tell you that the servants spend most of their time gossiping about Yue’s relationship with you. It’s all they have to talk about.”
Touya groaned, pressing the heel of his palm against his forehead. “Yeah, I know. I just try to forget.”
“I really am sorry, I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just that lately there’s been so much chatter in the kitchen that I can’t even try to ignore it. Everyone knows that you won’t even speak to Lord Yue.”
He elected not to reply to that, and the other fiddled nervously with his hands. “Nobody knows what you did to merit the punishment. But everyone knows Yue regrets it. I’ve never seen him so unhappy as he’s been these past few days.”
Touya squinted suspiciously. “I thought you said he never talks to you. What would you know about his unhappiness?”
“I’ve lived here a long time, Toya. When Yue is in a bad mood, everyone in this castle can sense it. The castle gets colder, less welcoming. It’s unpleasant for everyone.”
Touya considered that. “What did you say your name was?”
“Um, it’s Yukito. Everyone calls me Yuki.”
“Well, Yuki, if Yue is more depressed and miserable than you’ve ever seen him, do you know what I have to say to that? Good. He deserves it.”
Yukito gulped under his fierce glare. “You really are angry at him, aren’t you?”
“I have every right to be.”
“That’s true.” He shrugged and smiled, with a breezy air that belied their serious conversation. “I would be angry too, if I were you. Just so long as you understand that Yue is in the grip of despair without you, and might never recover. No one’s ever cared about me that much. I don’t really know, of course, but I think it would be nice to be that special to someone. Maybe that’s something you shouldn’t throw away.”
He stepped back and stretched his arms overhead, yawning. “Jeez, I didn’t mean to stay up here so long, and I’ve been bothering your quiet time too. Time for me to turn in, I think. It was nice talking to you.”
He nodded in a congenial farewell and took his leave, apparently not bothered that Touya said no farewell in return. A peculiar warmth had kindled in his chest, at the idea that he was so very special to Yue, and he tried to banish that sort of thinking. Sore on his bottom from sitting on stones, Touya lay back so he could look directly up at the stars. It was late, and he’d had so many things to think about lately. It was the only excuse, he later reflected, for not catching the slip until several minutes after Yukito left the rooftop.
Toya.
Bizarrely, he began to laugh.

Yue was pulling on his evening robe when the door swung open, Touya pausing just inside the doorway to fix a disgusted glare on him.
“You really are an idiot. You know that?”
Hands on his sash, Yue froze and stared. The end to Touya’s silent treatment was so abrupt and unexpected that he had no response, and could only watch as Touya closed the distance between them in long strides.
“Sweet-talking my sister into taking your side wasn’t enough, I guess. But that up there really was an insult to my intelligence, which you of all people should not be underestimating. Really, Yue, haven’t you figured out by now that I don’t care if you’re sorry? That it doesn’t matter where the apology comes from, because I don’t want it? Do you really think sorry is going to take away these scars on my back?”
“Then what do you want?”
“The same thing I wanted last week. Or did you think I forgot?”
Yue was standing at the foot of his bed, and it only took a light push on Touya’s part to knock him flat back onto it. In the next moment his slave was climbing on top of him, pinning his wrists to the sheets in a frightening echo of his dream.
“Maybe if you weren’t such a selfish bastard caught up in missing his sex toy, you might have noticed that I wasn’t angry about what you did. I’m angry about why you did it. So spare me the useless apologies, and the speeches about how you’re so miserable and lonely. You’re miserable? I have to live with the proof that a dead man is more important to you than I am.”
Without relaxing his grip Touya dropped forward, nose stopping just short of Yue’s, his lips a tantalizing tickle away. “So you tell me. Now. You tell me everything there is to tell about Clow, or I will never come this close to you again.”
As abruptly as he’d put himself there he was gone again, settling himself into a sitting position on the corner of the bed and looking at Yue expectantly. Feeling rather sideswiped, Yue pushed himself upright.
“Slave, it is not your place -”
“Don’t even start.”
“I cannot speak of him.”
“Try.”
“It is too painful!”
“Don’t talk to me about pain,” Touya snarled. “You owe me this, Yue, you owe me the truth!” Fury flashed through his eyes, but an involuntary catch in Yue’s throat – dangerously close to a sob – softened his expression. He looked so hurt, Yue wondered how he couldn’t have seen it before. “I’m chained to you but your heart belongs to someone else. It’s not fair. I at least deserve to know about him.”
His slave spoke nothing but truth. Yue knew this, but still the words stuck in his throat. How could he speak of Clow, after all this time? The pain was hundreds of years old in his mind, still fresh in his heart.
“I’ll start,” Touya prompted, when several moments of silence had ticked by. “He made this castle, didn’t he?”
Yue nodded. “Every brick. He loved to build more than anything.”
“And he built it when?”
“Years… hundreds of years ago.”
“And he made it with magic.”
“Yes.” Yue closed his eyes and breathed in the night air, the images so vivid in his mind they could have been real. In his memory he could see Clow, peering through his spectacles at a print that would become mortar and stone within a day. It had been his delight. “Clow Reed was a sorcerer, the most powerful this valley has ever known. Possibly the world.”
“Why isn’t he in any of those history books in the library?”
“I removed any that mentioned his name when you told me you could read. They’re hidden in another room. But yes, Toya, he was well known to the villages below. They venerated him, held him in awe, begged him to become their king.”
“He didn’t?”
“Always he refused. He told me that people must find their own way or there would be no progress in their civilization, that they must learn to lead and judge themselves. Still, he enjoyed their company and there was always a steady stream of visitors in this place. There was no art Clow could not discuss, no science he wasn’t expert in. From everywhere he collected books and trinkets of learning, and would dispose of nothing. He was a genius.”
“Were you his slave?”
The direct question hit him neatly in the chest, and he had to take a moment or two to gather himself before answering. Touya was watching him steadily, almost calmly, but there was no mistaking the intense curiosity in his eyes.
“It is not the word he would have used,” Yue finally answered. “But he created me, gave me a home and taught me everything that I know. I lived every day to please only him, I worshipped him. To leave him was unthinkable, he was my whole world. In that sense, yes, I was very much his slave.”
“He created you?”
“I told you he loved to build. After years of study he’d honed his sorcery to the point where he sought to create a living thing. In his love of astronomy he looked to the heavens for building material, and chose the moon. You might say that I am a child of his magic and the moonlight.”
Touya’s eyes were wide with amazement now, though Yue had long taken his existence for granted. “Why? Why would he even try such a thing?”
“Because he was lonely,” Yue answered softly. “No human, male or female, could provide him with the love he craved. In his dreams he saw a creature of moonlight that would accept and understand his eccentricities, share his love of magic, never leave his side. He created me not knowing I would be male, but loved me anyway. When I had learned to control my powers and strength, he took me from my cage and to his bed.”
The gentleness of his hands as they stroked Yue’s body, he could still feel. How carefully he instructed Yue in the art of lovemaking, and the love in his eyes as he embraced his willing slave… Hot pain ripped through Yue’s chest and his shoulders convulsed; desperately he fought to keep his cries within.
“It is too much, Toya, I can speak of this no more.”
“He’s dead, I know. How many years has it been? Hundreds? My own mother hasn’t been dead more than a dozen years, my father just two, but I can talk about them.”
“Father?” Yue echoed scornfully. “Mother? To me Clow was beyond these things, he was my everything. Teacher, lover, companion, parent, even god. When he died, my world went with him.”
He’d failed. Tears spilled out from behind his hands as he struggled for air, lungs burning with the effort. And then of all things, he felt a pair of arms encircle him and hold him to Touya’s chest. His slave was murmuring soothing noises, combing his hair back from his face, comforting him. It was no more strange than anything else here tonight.
He wept for a long time, relieving himself of a pain he’d never divulged to anyone, and patiently Touya held on until the tears had run their course. And when they were gone, a brief shudder running through his body to signal their departure, he felt almost light.
“How did he die?”
“It was… in a way that was so very Clow. He showed no signs of age, though he lived over a hundred years, and then one day he announced he would leave this world. I had no warning. It was a brutal shock.”
“Just like that?”
“Exactly like that. The grief consumed me for many months and I did not even get out of bed. I loved him so much, I would have followed him into the next world if only he hadn’t forbidden me from trying. His wish was for me to live on in his castle, however, and see that it was kept clean and well-guarded as it would have been when he was alive. In this I have not failed, nor will ever fail. His mother’s family, well established in Terriene’s society at the time of his death, tried to claim the castle for themselves but I would have none of it. I fought to protect it, and I won.”
“And you’ve been here alone ever since.”
“I’ve had the servants, and my slaves -”
“Yeah. Like I said, all alone.”
Yue was limp with exhaustion, and didn’t fight it when Touya let him gently down upon the sheets. His arms were so strong, like Clow’s had been.
“That’s enough talking,” murmured his master- no, his slave. “Goodnight.” A soft warmth descended on his cheeks, and he knew Touya was kissing away his tears. His beloved slave had come back to him. With that one thought fixed firmly in his mind, Yue drifted off to sleep.

Sakura wasn’t sure why she left the tea room on her own, her dinnerplate still as full as her brother’s. Ralen was bound to be angry, once he’d tracked her down, but this castle was so full of unhappiness already that she couldn’t be bothered to care. Not really sure where she was going, just so long as it wasn’t her cage, she wandered down the corridor and descended a stairwell. Heavy footsteps coming the other way prompted her to draw aside and make room, praying that the world would give her this one small favor and make it not be Syaoran.
It was Syaoran. But his appearance was so startling that she forgot her shame, and a horrified gasp escaped her. He winced and looked away.
“Oh my goodness! What happened to you?”
“Looks bad, doesn’t it? I had to tell the men my horse attacked me, of all things.” He brushed one of his bruises with gentle fingertips, scowling. “My family doesn’t believe in pulling punches.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. I was on my way to see you… what are you doing down here?” Sakura had no answer, and could only shrug. He didn’t seem particularly interested in her reply, though, and snatched her wrist before her shoulders had even dropped. “Fine. Come with me.”
She was given no chance to argue. Clumsily she stumbled down the steps behind him and tried to keep up with his long strides, Syaoran’s head constantly swiveling to check for witnesses. He dove into the first door he could find, which was pitch dark of course. The fading twilight still shed light on its small balcony, and he led her there before finally releasing his grip. Absently she rubbed it.
“Meilin told me you haven’t been having an easy time.”
“No.”
“If it helps, I’ve been pretty miserable myself.”
Sakura shook her head. “No, Syaoran, that doesn’t help. Why would I want you to be unhappy too? There’s so much of it here already.”
He snorted and shook his head, raking his hair back from his face in that gesture she knew so well. “You… would say something like that, wouldn’t you? You’re right, I should have known better.”
Sakura remained silent.
“You’re always so happy, Sakura, and carefree. Sometimes I forget just how horrible your life has been these past few months, and how much was taken from you. I- I’m sorry for the things I said to you. It was not deserved.”
A dangerous spark of hope lit up within Sakura, and she hugged herself.
“It still kills me to think of you with anyone else but me, and it’s only going to get worse because every day I fall more in love with you. But what choice do I have? Meilin is right, I have nothing without you.”
His hand cupped Sakura’s face, and she noticed that she was trembling. “Will you have me back?”
Hope blazed up so fiercely that she almost couldn’t speak, and it was with excruciating difficulty that she forced it down.
“Oh, Syaoran…”
“Please say yes. Please tell me I shed all this blood for a reason.”
“D-did you know that Ralen is not the worst man I’ve ever known?”
“Huh?”
“No, he really isn’t. He is honest in his cruelty, at least. The worst man I ever knew was a man that smiled at me and acted as a friend, and took the sunflowers I offered as a gift. He came to find me the next day, tied me up, and took me away from my home.” Sakura swallowed, or tried to swallow, a tight feeling in her throat. “When you looked at me the way you did, Syaoran, I felt as though he had returned.”
“Sakura, I’m so sorry, I was wrong and I won’t do it again.”
“How do I know?” she cried, feeling as if she might break down any moment. She wanted to believe him so badly, because she loved him so much, but pain had taught her to be wary. There really was so much risk in giving a piece of your heart. “How do I know that I can trust you?”
Syaoran brushed away a tear with his thumb. “I’m not just asking you to trust me, Sakura.” His hand slipped down her face, along her arm, and clasped hers as he took a step back.
And then he knelt.
“I’m asking you to marry me.”
What little oxygen Sakura had managed to get into her lungs promptly fled. Statue-still, she stared at Syaoran in the moonlight and he stared right back.
“Wh-what?”
“Sakura, will you marry me?”
“But- we can’t. I’m a- and you- we can’t.” She hesitated. “Can we?”
“I’m not saying it will be easy.” Looking deadly earnest, he stood again and held her hand to his chest. “Two hundred gold nobles is so much money. But I’ve saved up some and I’ll save more, I’ll work hard and save every cent that I can. It might take a long time, but I’ll offer to buy you from Yue. And when I do, you’re a free girl. I want you to be my wife, come home with me to Corryn and meet my family. I love you, and I want you to be with me always.”
Mouth open, Sakura was still staring, and a long minute passed before he squeezed her hand. “I need an answer, Sakura.”
“Oh! Oh- right. Yes! YES! Yes, I will marry you!” Some kind of shriek escaped her throat, though whether it was laughter or excitement or tears she could not say. She leapt on him and he caught her easily, cradling her in his arms under the starlight. His face was bruised, his lips cut, and the vague taste of blood still lingered in his mouth.
It was their most magical kiss yet.

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Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

Say it with me: awwww….. Is that enough fluffy sweetness for everyone, after all that angst? It feels good to have happiness in the castle again, I must say. I was surprised that so many stuck up for Syaoran after the last chapter, actually, though I’m certainly not displeased. That means I did my job as a writer, setting up his motivations correctly, but I’d figured since most of you are girls that you would side with Sakura. Oh well!

I was going to give the prize to my 800th reviewer, but that turned out to be Tina Rina, who got the shout out last time. I’m flattered that you had a dream about my story, but don’t worry, Tina. The ending that you saw is nowhere even close to my ending – and I won’t say anything more on that.

Saline gets the shout out. You had me falling out of my chair with laughter because of this: http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u135/radish_baby/yuestalking.jpg. Did you draw that yourself, or did you just find it somewhere and think it was appropriate? Hysterical. Dearest readers, I would love to draw art for this story but I am so unbelievably unartistic. Your fanart is welcome! I don’t have a website to put it on, but if you send me a link I’ll be sure and post it in the author’s notes.
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Pleasure Slave