Author's Note: So this is a story a friend and I began developing forever ago and while it needs a lot of work still, I figured I would go ahead and publish this bit just to tantalize. :P Basically said friend and I liked the idea of crossing Cardcaptor Sakura, one of CLAMP's happiest, most rainbows and puppies and sunshine! stories with X, one of their darkest, most blood, guts, evil, darkness! stories. :P She and I personally really like Tomoyo and Seishirou and thus an odd idea was born... Enjoy I hope!
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Smoke? Clouds? Ash?
Tomoyo stared at the sky above her, trying to identify the ephemeral substances obscuring all traces of sunlight. She moved a hand slightly and felt it scrape across cold ground. Sitting up, she saw a broken world.
A false world…
This was an illusion. She wasn't sure how she knew but something about it told her, something about it was vaguely familiar… She wondered if this was some Clow Card's doing. Where was Sakura then?
Almost as if summoned by that thought, a soft petal brushed against her cheek. She looked up again to see flurries of petals swirling through the air like a rosy snowstorm. She caught one petal and examined it, wondering if this was the result of Flowery, but something told her this wasn't Clow's magic. Opening her fingers to let the chill autumn breeze snatch the blossom away, she caught sight of the blood stains smeared across her fingertips. Tomoyo shuddered but her attention was suddenly drawn away by the sound of voices in the distance.
Two men were standing on jagged boulders like cliff faces, talking to one another across a gap that she sensed was more than just physical. Bandages fluttered away from the one in the white overcoat and floated past the one in the black overcoat, like a silent rustle of an offering.
"Yin and yang." She murmured, pulling herself to her feet to wander closer but before she could take a step forward, the men both suddenly moved. There was a flash like lightning and she covered her eyes with her arm, holding it there for a moment before she was brave enough to slowly lower it and see what had happened. Her heart raced as she imagined the slighter, white-clad man to be the one injured.
He was on his knees, that was for sure but something seemed off. She could not tell much with his back turned to her like this though so she cautiously circled around and gasped in shock and horror as she noticed the hand that had gone straight through the darker man's chest. She ran toward them both, meaning to help, to get him to a hospital or something but even when she reached them, her hands slipped through them both.
Startled, she stumbled through them, and tumbled to the ground on the other side. She looked up, just in time to catch the white-clad man whispering "Seishirou-san…" and catch a glimpse of the darker man's raised head and smile before a loud ringing distracted her.
Tomoyo gasped and opened her eyes, staring at the alarm clock sounding shrilly on her nightstand. She slid out of bed in one fluid movement and turned the alarm off on her way to the window where she quickly drew the curtains back.
The sky was clear, the sun was shining and birds outside were singing gaily in the tree beside her window. Heat from the late spring sunshine happily peeked through the window to wrap her in a warm embrace.
She delicately rested one porcelain hand against the window pane, lost in thought still.
"Seishirou-san…" she murmured to herself. "I know that name…"
"Mistress?" A maid called gently from the door. "Your uniform is ready and breakfast is being prepared right now."
Tomoyo let the curtain drop back into place and turned around. "Thank you!" She answered with a brilliant smile, donning the black and white uniform just as she did every other school day and gathering up her backpack to leave as the maid neatly made the bed.
Keroberos had followed Sakura to school that day, caught in her backpack as he tried to sneak a taste of the lunch Kinomoto-san had packed for her. Tomoyo giggled softly as he and Sakura argued over the noticeable blank spot in her bento box where her father usually left her something sweet. At last, too annoyed still to talk to Keroberos, Sakura huffed and turned back to her, with a slightly concerned expression.
"Hey, Tomoyo-chan? Are you feeling alright?"
"Huh?"
"You seemed really distracted in class today. Usually you're paying way closer attention than me."
Tomoyo felt her heart soar for a moment at the realization that Sakura had noticed her. Then a cloud passed over it as she recalled what had been on her mind all morning. She explained the dream that she had had the night before, including the haunting feeling that she had known the dying man and Keroberos perked up his ears as she talked.
"A foretelling dream." He said immediately as soon as she had finished, his voicing dropping to that lower register that hinted at the more powerful creature hidden behind that plushie-like body.
"Hm? But I don't have magic like Sakura-chan." Tomoyo pointed out.
"Sometimes even people who don't have a lot of magic have foretelling dreams." Keroberos replied, crossing his arms with a small frown.
"A foretelling dream…" Sakura trailed off. "Does that mean it's going to happen?"
Tomoyo felt a chill run down her spine despite the warm afternoon sun.
"It might." Keroberos admitted darkly.
"No!" Both Keroberos and Sakura jumped and stared at her, as surprised as Tomoyo was at her own outburst. She clapped one hand over her mouth, embarrassed.
"Sometimes dreams like that are just a warning." Keroberos pointed out. "Or it could just be a regular old dream."
Tomoyo knew he was trying to console her but something had already clicked into place. She did not remember having ever had a foretelling dream before in her life, but some instinct prompted her to take this one as just that.
Autumn. She thought. It was autumn in the dream, probably late autumn; it was pretty cold. She stared at her hands in her lap, wondering if she could find the man in a couple of months, wondered if she could warn him in time.