http://clampfix.fanworks.net/others/bluebird1.txt </head><body><pre>Hi all. Finished my rather unsmutty Clover smut fic at last, and here you have it. The final version will be posted at Indigo sometime in the next couple of days. Comments greeted with much rejoicing. Enjoy! - Kristin Indigo -- http://sekaiseifuku.net/index.html Warnings: Mild profanity, shounen ai/yaoi. Lemon content in part 4. Spoilers for Clover 3-4. All characters are copyright CLAMP and Kodansha. This is a fanwork written for entertainment purposes only. Comments to kolson00@yahoo.com, please! * * * * * * Bluebird Part 1 * * * * * * "You're a quiet one, aren't you?" One gleaming avian eye rotated to focus on the dark-haired boy who was leaning toward the cage. The creature within, which might have been a cockatiel but for its brilliant blue plumage, made no sound at all. It hadn't so much as squeaked all morning, and was almost unnerving for its silence, Ran thought. He was unused to the presence of an animal in the house, even an artificial one. This particular bird was destined to become Kazuhiko's girlfriend's birthday present in a matter of days, and with the sapphire sheen of its feathers, it was a fine-looking specimen. Still, Ran couldn't help wondering if somebody had forgotten to switch on the vocalization option before it was sold. "Would you cause trouble if I let you out?" He folded his hands on the tabletop and leaned in, smiling at the bright eyes within the cage. "I wonder, did they program you to misbehave? I guess misbehavior is natural, and their goal is to replicate the natural. But still." The bird began to skitter backward along its perch as his face loomed closer and closer. "I wonder. Did they program you to want to come outside?" He stretched a finger toward the cage door, and the mechanical creature flattened its feathery crest, tensing as if preparing to fly or fight. "Hey," Ran murmured. "I'm not gonna hurt you. See?" It was so easy to find the neural circuit, to network lightly with the artificial intelligence that was peering out at him from behind golden bars. He coaxed and soothed it, sending messages of calm and security. Helplessly subject to digital manipulation, the bird relaxed at once. It took one step toward him, another, another, and then leaned over to nibble tentatively at his offered finger. That made him pause, and his mouth twisted. His finger drew back. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's not fair if you can't say no, is it? And if you were real, I wouldn't be able to cheat like that. I'd have to be patient and woo you." He retracted his influence from the creature's computerized brain, letting it respond without magical interference. At once it ducked again and fled the few centimeters it could. He smiled ruefully. "All right, so I'm no good at wooing. That's no news." Remembering the suggestion Kazuhiko had made yesterday, that he ought to ask for a real bird, Ran shook his head. Sure, it would be fun to have some company, especially a parrot that could learn to talk--but he himself was enough of a financial burden on Gingetsu without adding frivolous requests. And a real bird could live a long time. Much longer than four and a half years, give or take. He rose from where he was kneeling at the table and went into the living room to survey it. The ceiling was rather high, and if the bird decided to take up a position over the doorjamb, he might never be able to get it down without cheating. He returned to the hall and stared at the creature in the cage. It stared back. The impulse was irresistible. * * * Lieutenant Colonel Gingetsu of the Secret Colors Battalion closed the door behind him, locked it, and set down his briefcase with a measure of relief that bore no relation to its weight. Mildly surprised when there was no half-sung greeting to welcome him, he made his way down the corridor, listening for signs of life. There was nothing, not even the usual music playing on the stereo. No sounds from the kitchen either, and no fragrance of brewing Earl Grey. Reaching the living room door, he found it closed, and lifted a hand to turn the knob. He had barely pushed the door open a crack when there was a muffled cry from the opposite side. "Wait! She might get out!" He froze, reacting to the alarm in Ran's voice with immediate tension. She? His left hand twitched, but he forced himself to remain calm and listen. From the other room he could hear Ran's slow, slippered footsteps--but they were moving away from him, becoming fainter. "Just give me a minute." He stared at the blank face of the closed door. "Ran," he said, "who might get out?" "The bird." A long day in the office at headquarters had dulled his brain. It took him a moment to remember that yes, they were indeed currently birdsitting Ryuu's present for Oruha, and yes, Ran was fairly taken with the thing. Slowly his hand lowered to his side. Again the muffled voice. "Okay, you can come in now. Just don't make any sudden moves." Gingetsu did as instructed, and entered the living room to find Ran perched on the sofa, and the bright blue cockatiel perched on Ran. The creature swiveled its head to glare suspiciously at the intruder as he crossed the floor. Ignoring the bird, Gingetsu looked at the boy, who might have been a uniformed high school student in his black, high-collared shirt with buttons down the front. Indeed, he might have been any normal 16- or 17-year-old busy with friends, clubs, homework, exams. He was not. "See?" Ran was beaming. "I got her to sit on my finger." Gingetsu allowed his eyebrows to incline upward. "Well, the 'her' is arbitrary, but I couldn't just keep calling her 'it.' You know, it must have taken me three hours, getting her to do this. At first she kept flying away. Maybe she just got tired." Ran looked down fondly at the cockatiel, then moved carefully toward the cage resting on the coffee table. "I sure don't have any experience with animals." "It's not a real animal," he said, without thinking--and regretted it at once, as the glow in Ran's eyes dimmed just the slightest. "Yeah. But it's still cute." Ran stroked the bird's feathery breast with his free finger one last time. "Such a pretty color." "Don't get too attached," he murmured. "It's Ryuu's." "I know," Ran said, and his voice softened. "It won't be here for long. I know that." He bent over the birdcage, smiling a pale, shadowed smile, and held the door open as he coaxed the little creature through it. Watching, Gingetsu arrived at the conclusion that no matter what he meant to say, it was coming out dreadful. Probably it would be best to stop talking altogether. The bird hopped inside without a fuss, rustling synthetic feathers as it settled onto its perch. Ran shut the door and turned, cheerful once again, as though the shadow had never fallen. "Oruha-san's lucky. It's a really nice present." Gingetsu eyed the cockatiel. It was rather pleasant to look at, small, and not at all noisy. Ran thought it was cute. Animal replicas, even high-grade ones, were very affordable these days. Of course, as Ryuu had pointed out, a real one was not out of his price range, either. But given what Ran had said in response, it didn't seem like such a good idea. /It'd only be trouble for Gingetsu when I die./ Ryuu had been a bit stunned at that, and Gingetsu couldn't blame his aide. He himself had never volunteered to explain the circumstances surrounding Ran's presence here; that was a private matter and always would be. More disturbing than Ryuu's reaction had been Ran's careless smile as he spoke. Did the boy really believe that the inexorable future might be made more or less tolerable by the presence or absence of a bird? Had he fostered that belief himself? As Gingetsu stood and stared into a mesmerizing swirl of guilt, Ran came up to his side, looking unfathomably glad to see him, as always. "I'm sorry," the boy was murmuring. "I haven't even gotten started on dinner. I'll go and figure something out." He turned toward the kitchen, frowning thoughtfully. "I think there's still shrimp left over." Without a word, Gingetsu followed him. Ran seemed not to notice until he reached the door to the hallway, where he stopped, turned, and blinked upward. "You don't want shrimp?" he asked. "I'll help." Ran continued to blink, and then smiled as though an entire flock of birds had deigned to sit on his finger. "Okay." They settled on curry. Gingetsu wielded his knife methodically against the meat and vegetables as he listened to Ran go on about taming the wild cockatiel and nothing much in particular. The sound of his chopping punctuated the boy's words. He said as little as possible, mistrusting himself to speak--except to question about matters like the appropriate quantity of diced carrots--until Ran got around to asking about his day. "Compiling and writing midyear reports," he answered. Nothing but that. A life-threatening mission or two would have been welcome this week. "I'll be working tonight also." Ran paused by the rice cooker. "You have to go back?" "No. I brought everything here. But I may be up late." "Ugh." He grunted in agreement with that sentiment. "Is there anything I can do?" Gingetsu thought for a moment. "Not with the paperwork. There's been talk about modifying your transport cage, and whether it can support remote operation. But only talk." "Remote operation? Should be able to do that. Um, I think that's enough celery." Ran leaned over his arm, just touching, to peer at the heap of perfect, pale cubes on the cutting board, and started to laugh. "Maybe a little too much." Tremors of laughter, warm against his arm. Dark eyes flashing. Hidden in the air, mingled with the flavors of cooking, the sapling scent of the boy, tantalizing and quick and green. "You're fast with that thing, aren't you?" More laughter. In the pan the meat sizzled. "Beware of men with swords in the kitchen." The knife, Gingetsu supposed. He meant the knife. It was time to think about something like onions. Smelly, stinging onions. "I'm starving, though. I guess I forgot how hungry I was." Ran skated across the tile floor to set their plates at the serving counter. "Let's put that stuff in the pan." They ate side by side at the counter, as usual. Ran devoured everything on his plate with enthusiasm, and went for seconds. It took a frightening amount of fuel to sustain his current growth rate, and even with that he remained persistently thin. To Gingetsu it seemed almost that he grew taller week by week. The two of them could set up a measure on the wall, he thought, the way parents did for children, and have Ran stand against it to mark off the centimeters with colored chalk. A lump of curry stuck as he tried to swallow. He reached for his tea to dissolve it. "So, you never told me, what's the new song called?" He blinked. "Oruha-san's. That last time you went to the club, when you took those flowers for her birthday. You said she was singing a new song, but you never told me what it was called." It was true. She had been. "I don't know the title," he said. "Oh." Ran's legs swung from the barstool, not quite long enough to touch the floor. "But if you want to hear it--" Delight flared, momentarily dazzling. "You recorded it?" "Half of the set." Gingetsu looked down at his plate. Pushing back his chair, he rose to get seconds himself, while Ran quietly illuminated the entire kitchen. As he dished the curry, he thought back to that night, recalling the smoke-filled lounge, the fresh weight of flowers in the crook of his arm, their heady fragrance, Ryuu's beatific face as he watched the woman on stage, Oruha's teasing kiss. It had been a long time, he realized vaguely, since he'd felt the touch of lips in anything but play or strict necessity. A very long time. "I remember," he said, dragging the words from his unwilling throat. "The song...it was something about love." * * *</pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>