Title: House guests
Fandom: Cardcaptor Sakura
Rating: PG
Length: 1500 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: This may actually be the first CCS thing I've posted, in the decade and a half I've loved it... Manga-based (probably mostly anyway). And it's complete nonsense.
Summary: Touya and Yue spend a little time together. Because a house has kidnapped them. (And Sakura, and Tomoyo, and Keroberos...)
oOo

Three hours ago, Touya was walking through the park with Yuki, an appropriately large bag of snacks, and plans for an afternoon ignoring homework in favour of watching terrible movies Yuki missed actually seeing through the years he didn’t really live. (There is a plan – Cultural Experiences Worth Actually Experiencing – only turns out Yuki loves terrible movies and curling up to watch them while Touya talks back to the tv. Touya’s pretty certain they’re going to end up watching historical dramas – the kind where everyone has at least three secret identities, at least one of which they don’t know themselves – and the entire cast dies in the 59th episode apart from one minor character who has to Go On And Make Sure Their Legacy Survives. He blames the whole thing on Clow Reed’s terrible taste in entertainment and tries to pretend he’s immune to the stupid addictive things.)

Anyway, all that aside, he had plans, and all of them were derailed the moment Yuki blinked, and vanished in a flail of feathers. Yue promptly shot off into the woods with absolutely no explanation, as usual, and Touya sighed and ran after him… into a grove he absolutely did not remember seeing before, containing a bizarrely ordinary looking house that definetly should not be there, and into which his sister was walking.

It was less surprising than it should have been when the door slammed shut the second he and Yue got inside, and refused to open for anything – even Keroberus breathing fire on it made no mark.

The resulting argument between Sakura and the louder of her guardians went on for most of the next three hours, in between attempts to make the house let them go. None of them worked, but nothing else had happened, either. The park was still visible through the windows, and the inside of the place wasn’t even creepy. Nor did it feel haunted. So Touya had settled in to wait out the argument (experience in the past year had taught him interfering only lengthened the process) and now his sister and Keroberos were staring at opposite walls of the room, Not Talking To Each Other.

It would be funnier if he weren’t stuck here too. As was Tomoyo, of course, camera in hand, eternally amused by the antics about her.

If Touya had known precisely how irritating it was to be caught up in all the strange shit that still followed Sakura about – and now his father, too, and wasn’t that great, Hiiragizawa handing over half his power and then buggering off to England without any lessons in how to use that power? Well, anyway, the other brat was going up in his opinion by actually checking in on Sakura and how things were going, and sending a bunch of useful books over from Hong Kong for their father, and mostly for distrusting Hiiragizawa about as much as Touya did.

Anyway, tangents aside, it looked like they were stuck here for the night. Yue’s entire contribution to the earlier argument had been ‘the doors will open again at the same time tomorrow’, and then he’d stood three inches above the floor with folded arms, glaring and exuding disapproval while Sakura and Kero had their shouting match over whose fault it was they were trapped in this totally creepy house.

At least Touya still had the bag of snacks. It was going to be a strange couple of meals, but better than nothing. Keroberos had graciously declared he would do without food, this once – as long as he got a whole chocolate cake to himself, with raspberries, and cream-‘. Touya had still never seen Yue eat, though on one momentous occasion he had drunk one delicate china cup of tea, after an argument with Keroberos about manners which led to a full week of Yue appearing at random to be Very Polite About Something, usually in a manner which involved opposable thumbs, while Keroberos hissed like a kettle boiling dry.

If Yuki came back, Touya was prepared to hand over at least half his share of the food, because Yuki might not need to eat but he always managed to look so heroic and determined to smile even when he could really do with a snack, oh no, I couldn’t possibly take yours – well, if you’re sure- that about half Touya’s wages still vanished on feeding him even though they both knew he didn’t actually need to eat anymore.

…In some ways it was so very obvious Yue and Kero were siblings.

Sakura sighed, apparently ready to give up on sulking. (It was Hong Kong Phone Call Night, after all.) “At least Dad won’t be home for a few days,” she muttered.

Touya winced. “Or he’d probably be stuck here too,” he added, under his breath.

Yue’s wings twitched, in what Touya had decided to interpret as a suppressed laugh. “…If you are concerned for your father, your mother will be keeping watch over him,” Yue offered, so quietly no one but Touya would hear it.

“I hope so,” Touya said, fervently. The last conference his father had attended had been… trying. Not that their mother had been much use, as by all accounts she’d been laughing so hard she was crying through most of the accidental bird summoning incident. Touya shook his head, and then raised his voice. “Okay! Time to get settled for the night. Speak up if you have a brainwave about how to get out, if not, I think it’s time to eat. Nothing else seems to be happening for now.”

There were two bedrooms. Sakura and Tomoyo would share one, of course, with Keroberos to watch out for them. Which left Touya with one large bed, and Yue.

Or, possibly, Yukito, but for the moment it was very much Yue glaring at the inoffensive curtains, feet still a good three inches from the floor, a whole inch higher than he usually hovered.

“You could change, you know. If you’d be more comfortable with Yuki in charge right now.” Touya sat down on the edge of the bed, watching Yue’s shoulders rise by the smallest of fractions. “…But if you would rather stay, that’s fine, too.”

The last thing he wanted to do was make Yue feel unwelcome. But the glance that won him wasn’t upset. A little flustered, maybe…

“…I should stand guard. It takes time to return. If you were in danger-“ Yue shut up, and turned back to the drapery. “I do not trust this house.”

“Well, it has kidnapped us. But you’re the one who said it would let us out tomorrow.”

And now Yue was shooting him such an irritated look that Touya had to bite his lip not to laugh. “I said the doors would open. I did not say it would let us out. …You should sleep, you need to rest.”

“Because sleep will be so easy after that thought,” Touya grumbled, and got another wing-twitch for his troubles. It was only just past nine, but he still tired easily, particularly when Yue was active. Less so than he had when they’d first made the deal. (He had a small, unspoken hope that his power was growing, like Sakura’s had done, and he’d be able to do more than just support Yue and Yukito with it one day. But if it didn’t, that would be okay too.) So he lay down, still mostly dressed, because it wasn’t like he’d been carrying pyjamas about.

Some time later, he gave up staring at the ceiling. “Okay, if you want to stay, do, but could you stop lurking in the corner? It’s creepier than the house that kidnapped us.”

Silence, then the shadow moved slightly. “There is nowhere to sit,” Yue pointed out.

“This bed is plenty big enough for us to share without coming anywhere near each other,” Touya promised, and there was a huff from the other side of the room. But Yue came across, slowly, and the mattress barely shifted with the extra weight – how Yue was so light was beyond physics, definitely magical…

Touya was asleep in about a minute, now that the other person in the room was breathing softly beside him, not over in the corner like a stalker. He dreamt strangely lucid dreams, of people living in the house, children playing, laughter and smiles everywhere.

Once, he woke up to gentle fingers smoothing over his hair, his face pressed against Yue’s hip. “…I think it’s lonely,” he murmured, and was asleep again before Yue’s hand stopped moving.

The next day, the house let them all out with a perfect lack of drama, right after they finished off the snacks they’d saved for breakfast.

And if there was a strangely familiar house next to Yukito’s the next time Touya passed it, well. Maybe someone had talked to the house in the middle of the night, when the rest of them were asleep. He might ask, one day. For now… he had a new set of snacks, and some atrocious films to make fun of.