By CLAMPraven

I own five dollars worth of lunch money and a piece of strawberry lace. If anyone wishes to partake of my immense fortunes by suing me, go ahead. I dare you to try and take my food away from me. ^-^;;

Yes, this fic contains shounen-ai. Everybody better know what that means. There’s going to be a lot of shounen-ai couplings, but a few other types of couplings as well (I’m a sucker for Syaoran/Sakura as much as the rest of you kiddies). Who’s Fye going to be paired up with? Well, if you can’t guess after the first few chapters, then I suppose it’ll have to be a surprise. Got a problem with that?

Oh, dear. -_-;; It seems as though I haven’t been to in a long, LONG time…my wit and self-deprecating humor are not as sharp as they used to be! However, I will try my best. ^-^

This is a crossover fic from the many romantic and often whimsical series of CLAMP; I’m not sure whether it actually addresses a meaningful theme, though.

I thought of the entire plot while lying in my bed. It was 5:00 in the morning, and the mischievous full moon was peeking through my window (that naughty peeping Tom ^-^), its light cascading all over my bed. I’d eaten way too many dumplings last night, and I felt somewhat less inclined towards sleep than I would’ve wanted. Hence, some rather scary thoughts occurred to me, all influenced by the first few volumes of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle…well, with some influence by my recurring stomach pain. It was something like a 2-hour hallucination. ^-^;;

I like Fye. Perhaps I like him a little bit too much…so much so, in fact, that I’ve made him a hobo (Am I sadistic or what?) ^______^;;;. All the other CLAMP characters are a little bit odd here, too. I haven’t written any fanfics in a long time, so forgive me if any of them come out of character, okey dokey? (Actually, I’m more likely to come out of character than they are…eheh…). Since I have pretty much the entire plot in my head, and I am somewhat forgetful, I will attempt to put all of them on paper as quickly as possible – while imitating CLAMP’s style and cleverness - which may result in irreversible brain damage for all of you at home. I don’t know. ^-^; You took that chance when you started reading, so HA!

Ahem…composure… -;;;

So, um, yes. Go on. Please. Read at your own risk. ^-^ And REVIEW, mes petits paresses. (Can you tell I’m Canadian yet?)

-

CHAPTER 1

Searching for a reason…

It was a blustery night…a night of the hustle and bustle of the streets, for it was the night of the full moon, a rare and wondrous event. The dingy streets were filled with smoke and an all-consuming racket of people and their loud problems.

"Hey, you! Don’t loiter around the entrance!"

"Make way for the paying customers!"

"Dirty hobos…they lounge around everywhere, and expect you to pity them when they’re making them lose their business! Well, what are you waiting for? Leave!"

The night was a crowded place. Surely nature didn’t intend for people to be this crowded. But when an animal has power over others, and is surrounded by nothing but its own kind, there is bound to be fear, sin…negligence. And so it was with men.

When one needs to remind oneself of humanity’s negligence, one only needs to travel to the innermost nooks and crannies of an industrious city.

A city such as Tokyo, perhaps.

And all that one person needs to do is look carefully. After all, they’re hiding everywhere…behind the battered dumpsites and within the ugly alleyways, camouflaging their hearts and their exotic mysteries.

"Who is that guy? Wasn’t he here an hour ago?"

"Oh, him? I’ve seen him before. He always walks around Tsubasa Park, feeding the doves, or whatever it is he does. He doesn’t have a home to go to."

"I wonder where he goes at night…"

"He doesn’t look half bad."

"What?"

"Ugh! How could you say that?"

"Never mind, never mind!"

"Well, all the same, let’s get going. I don’t like looking at people like that. It unnerves me. Plus, it’s depressing. Let’s go to the movies!"

"Yeah!"

Not many people look for the homeless. They don’t want to…it doesn’t bring them joy or retribution for their evils. The homeless serve no purpose to them.

But that doesn’t make them insubstantial.

Does it?

"If the tree falls and nobody hears it, does it make a noise?"

A question of reality, that is, and most difficult to answer. But the individual homeless person must believe that he is real, that it would matter if he lived or died…for belief is the most important thing in the world.

Heck, it’s even more important than love.

-

Fye knew that he was real. He knew that he mattered. Otherwise, he thought to himself, the store clerks wouldn’t get angry when he blocked the doorways to their shops, nor would the schoolgirls chatter whenever he came by.

He was a definite nuisance for them, something to be feared.

He mattered.

But would he ever make someone happy? A person he loved?

"So many couples are in Tsubasa Park tonight…! They must’ve all come out to bask in the moonlight," Fye smiled, as he passed the intricate design of the gate from outside, "and probably in the eyes of their beloved."

Kneeling down on the sidewalk, he scattered some of the crumbs from the bread that he had received from a kind baker that afternoon, and waited patiently for the crows to come. They were always out at this time of night. Fye didn’t even need to coax them with gentle words. They knew him, and came anyway…sometimes on nights when he didn’t even have any food to share.

"It’s a bit stale, but it should be all right. Come now, little birds…don’t feed on the scraps inside the park. The lovers there may find you bothersome on this lovely night, and they certainly wouldn’t like it if I went in…but you can feed out here. I rather like your company."

One by one, the birds settled down onto the ashen gray concrete, all of them black as the countryside night sky. Squawking and pecking noisily, they created quite a scene as they fought for the delectable crumbs, seemingly bickering fiercely with one another. With a wistful smile, Fye left them to their harrowing task.

"Every day for the last year and a half, I’ve seen these crows." He sighed, and shook his head. A sad expression rested upon his gentle eyes. "And all they’ve ever done is fight amongst one another, every time I gave them food. They don’t ever seem to change."

Slowly, wonderingly, Fye raised his head to the myriad of stars above.

"I don’t ever seem to change, either. Sometimes, I wonder…am I only a wandering crow myself? All I do is beg, and continue walking, but…"

He turned away. His dirty face was a pale image of confusion. The shades of damp red around his eyes made him look weak, vulnerable to the passerby. His lips trembled with the cold of the night, and by his troubled nerves alike.

"…Where am I going? What am I even doing? What do I live to accomplish…? A few years ago, I had my dreams and selfish wishes, but now…"

A moment of silence followed the ominous questions. After a period of painful thought, Fye wiped the mist away from his eyes with the backs of his gloved hands with a swift motion, and forced himself to look up again. The moon shined blazingly bright in the evening’s gloom, reflecting the artificial lights of industry and commerce, and he smiled fiercely back at it, somewhat wider than his habitual grin. He refused to whimper or cry…it didn’t become him.

Especially not under the glare of such a moon, he knew.

"What am I saying…? How can I cry on an evening this beautiful?" He laughed, and indeed, there was a hint of agony there, but the young man was a talented thespian, and he disguised his pain wonderfully.

"The moon is in the sky, and I have a bit of dinner. To worry about anything grave tonight would be to act a fool! All I need is the happiness of the occasion, and the company of crows." He sighed blissfully. "It sure is wonderful luck, that allows me to be this comfortable tonight."

The world is wonderful! Everything is wonderful!

Stunned, Fye blinked, and spun around, his muddy rags flying out behind him. That was no echo. "Who…?"

But it looks like there’s something missing in your life! What could it be?

Glancing around in puzzlement, he checked all around, but couldn’t seem to locate the person who spoke. All around him, the indifferent crowd rushed past, their tedious conversations clashing in Fye’s sensitive ears (he did, after all, walk alone most of the time)…and yet he couldn’t locate the voice who talked to him.

Who would want to talk to him?

What could be missing? Mokona wonders…

It was then that he saw it.

Standing near the steel gate of Tsubasa Park and peeking out from within a thick bush, was a round pink creature, about the size of a large rabbit.

It didn’t resemble anything that he’d ever seen before. Rotund and positively adorable in appearance, the creature had thin, slit-like eyes and a very mischievous expression on its face, making it look like a pixie. Moreover, it directed its enigmatic gaze at Fye and Fye alone, without blinking or twitching a muscle. There was also a semblance of an oval-shaped jewel upon its forehead, some sort of red ornament.

It wiggled its ears merrily as it waved a tiny stub of an arm at its awestruck victim-to-be.

Yes, look here - look here! I’m here! Mokona knows what it is you’re missing! Mokona knows – you’re missing love!