"Hey, Fay!" a familiar voice called his name. Fay turned around to see Tomoyo and Souma walking towards him.
"Hey." Fay smiled and tucked some hair behind an ear.
"Do you want to hit the mall? Tomoyo managed to get her mom's card." Souma jerked a thumb in gesture to the pretty young heiress.
"Sure." Fay nodded. "I wanted another bra anyway. This one is wearing down. I wished they lasted longer."
"We can stop by Victoria's Secret, no problem." Tomoyo flipped out her cell phone and dialed a number. Within seconds a fancy sports car appeared. Fay was glad it wasn't a limo that she used to have to pick them up. He had asked her to stop having those come to get them. They hopped in the car and drove for the mall. Souma was the one to start conversation.
"Why don't you go back to your old school, Fay, or at least not come to ours as a girl. It is so weird to see you dress up like a girl. You pull it off too well."
Fay gave a weak fake smile. It had been about three months since he had transferred from his all boys' school to a coed one for reasons he had not told anyone. The people who knew thought it was because of his recently murdered brother, Yui. That, in truth, was part of it, but not all of it.
"I won't go back." Fay said firmly. Tomoyo held a hand up to hush Souma's rebuttal.
"When he is ready, he will go back." Tomoyo whispered.
Fay heard and repeated, "Never."
Fay sat and watched the others in his PE class swim. This was the last week of swimming before they moved on to archery and he would've been swimming had he not been disguised as a girl. Tomoyo had come up with the lame excuse of burns on his front and back and his embarrassment and pain related to those scars. The teacher bought it or maybe they just didn't care to argue.
So there Fay sat waiting for the bell to ring. He finished his homework and doodled some, but in the end he just stared at his pinky finger on his left hand and the red string attached. The red string was something only he could see. It was the tie between two people who were meant to be together forever or death till they part or whatever. His floated lazily away from his hand towards a wall. The only time a string was pulled tight was if the two people were within several feet of each other or if he pulled on the little red thread. He needn't look around to see other strings floating around like his. Some of the strings were tight. Syaoran was swimming behind Sakura and their string was tight. Watanuki was farther away from Doumeki but Fay knew their strings were attached. The bell rang and Fay jumped to his feet and grabbed his bag.
"You're not going to wait for us?" Tomoyo called. Fay turned to face her but continued walking backwards.
"I was told to drop by the principal's office during lunch. I'll see you." Fay waved and turned around in time to see black before he bumped into it. Fay fell backwards onto his bum. He looked up to see a black haired boy turning to face him.
"Oh, I am so sorry. I wasn't looking at where I was going…" Fay stumbled slightly with his words until they stopped. He looked at the guy's left hand pinky. The red string was stretched tight and lead downwards towards his own pinky. Fay gasped mentally as he realized this. He was connected to this boy. This was who his "soul mate" was.