Tattered by Time

Chapter One

Upon Clow's death, the cards were scattered. He did not have sufficient time to make all the preparations necessary, and Keroberos and Yue were also left to drift.

At first, as all beings are want to do, they traveled together, going where the wind blew, as the saying goes. But one day, when Kero woke up, Yue wasn't there, and Kero found that this did not bother him. He merely got up, stretched, and went off to find more of the sun-ruled cards. He knew that the sad Moon would not be making an appearance any time soon…

Eh, he'd deal with that as it came.

By then, hopefully, all the cards would be back together.

&

Pain.

Yue staggered, letting himself fall to his knees, breathing heavily. He felt as if something were crushing him, something from the inside. Bearing down, pressing…he felt so heavy!

With a shaky breath, he forced himself to stand, fluttering his wings and wrapping them tightly around himself.

Clow's magic was completely gone now, and he was living only by leaching off of the cards.

Why?

Why was he doing that? Living? What was the point? And the cards were becoming irritated – there magic was not endless, now that their master was gone.

Yue took another shuddering breath, shaking even more violently. Why not just let himself disappear? It surely couldn't be more painful than this.

He closed his eyes, feeling the first spark of hope.

Ah, then – that's what he would do – disappear.

& A Long Time Later

Tsukishiro Yukito peered curiously at his garden. It was still a bit too early to tell, but he felt as if he would get a good yield this year.

Oh! He could practically taste the watermelon! Smiling, he made his way down to his 'grandparents' shrine.

"Good morning." He said softly. Today, he had brought a big, crisp leaf as an offering.

Yuki sat down whipping out his breakfast, (4 loaves of bread, lots of cheese, and some apples) to munch on. "Ah – your great-great grandchildren came to visit yesterday. Nade-chan is pregnant! She looks so happy!" Yuki nibbled contemplatively on an apple core. "It's only her and Are-kun who visit me anymore. I think the others are forgetting about me – the one who doesn't age." Yuki sighed, knowing that with each generation, his 'family' forgot about just that much more.

Thinking about that always made him sad. Where was his true family? Or his creator? Why had they abandoned him?

Almost 200 years ago, Yuki had been found, naked and as unknowing as a babe, in the middle of a forest. The people who found him, his grandparents, raised him, and never commented on his odd habits. It hadn't occurred to him until after they died just how different he was. He always ate at least 10 times the norm, was naturally graceful and athletic to such an extent that it bordered on the supernatural, and, of course, he did not seem to age.

Over the past few years, he had been slowly mulling over a decision. What was the point of living in this house – living such a cloistered life. What had he learned in the past century? What new things had he done? How many new people had he met? His mind was most certainly made up about this.

Finishing off the last of the bread Yuki stood up, neatly folding his food bag. "well, I've decided then! Next time Nade-chan comes to visit, I'm going to ask if I can live with her! Haha – I'm going to get a job! And learn more about the world!" he smiled sunnily. "But don't worry! I'll come around at least once a month to look after the house, probably more this year, to take care of the garden."

Ah – Yuki had such high hopes for the future.

&

Kero, on the other hand, had been royally pissed off for years. Oh – catching the sun-ruled cards hadn't been too bad. He could sort-of feel out their positions, and over the course of the couple of years it had taken him to catch them all, they hadn't migrated much farther than the outskirts of Japan.

The fucking moon-ruled, on the other hand… just thinking about it made him snarl!

Over the course of more than 100 fucking years, and traveling around the whole, fucking world, he still hadn't found them all! Unlike with his own cards, he could not feel each individual out, just the faint pulse of Clow's magic that they carried. And if they were very far away, he couldn't feel them at all!

And now he was back where he started, at Clow's mansion – after losing the trail of Dash in fucking Antarctica…fucking blizzard!

With a roar only a royally pissed off lion could accomplish, Kero liberally shredder the wood desk in front of him – and the book.

"AH! Why are all of Clow's books so delicate?!"

He needed a fucking spell, to find the rest of fucking Yue's cards…and he couldn't even turn a fucking page! His huge paws, tongue, head, wings, and hell, even his fucking tail could not manage to turn a single page without ripping something!

With another roar, Kero snapped his wings open. Fuck the books!

He needed to fucking kill something!

Let the rest of the fucking cards come to him! He was done!

Fucking done!

The cards he had managed to catch were in the Clow book, and they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Calmer, now that he had decided he was fucking done, Kero contemplated where he wanted to go.

Hadn't there been some big things in that Africa place? They could be fun to kill!

Yes! Yes! Chuckling evilly, Kero took off from the ground.

Those things! With the long nose and the big ears! He'd kill some of those.

Yes…Kero's future was decidedly looking up.

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Yay! My first ccs story! As such, I am Lady Mu, and instead of studying, I was struck with a story idea and just started writing this. So! I would love some feed-back, cuz if I think no one likes this, then I probably won't post very much…Oo yes yes!! So! Please read (which you did!) and review (which you should do)!

Lady Mu