A Love Before Time
Author: A good friend of mine, Mhavesheart, requested me to create a fic out of this song.
Mhaves, this is for you…Thanks for everything!
Disclaimer: I do not own CCS and the song "A Love Before Time"
A Love Before Time is the English Version of "Moonlight Lovers". A song from the movie, Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The famous singer, Coco Lee sang it.
An ExT songfic
Chapter I: Bitter Sweet Past"If destiny would give us a chance to be together, I'm sure there is a better place and time…" Clow Reed murmured as he touched the lips of the lady right in front of him.
"Another time and place?" she asked.
He remained silent. He doesn't know how it will happen. He just felt it.
"Aishiteru…" she murmured. Her amethyst eyes glimmered as she looked intently through his eyes.
Eriol sat on his chair, right in front of the fireplace. It was winter in England. As he stared blankly at the glowing fire, he remembered a part of his past.
The past that he was unsure if will repeat itself again.
"Eris…" he murmured.
"Who's Eris?" Suppi passed by and accidentally heard his master.
Eriol looked at him.
"Nothing." he answered with a weak smile.
---
"Open this door! Father! Please, I beg you!" Eris shouted as she tried to open the doorknob.
She kept on calling her fathers as she continuously knocking the door.
"You are not going to see that- that whoever he is." Her father answered back from the other side of the door.
"Father! I beg you"
"No! You will stay at that room until that lunatic leave!"
Tomoyo suddenly sprang from her bed. It was a dream.
"That girl…" she asked herself as she tried to recall the face of the girl. "Who is she?"
"I wonder who is she." She murmured as she stood up and gave herself a quick shower. "And why do I keep dreaming of her?"
---
"I've got this story from the net." Yamazaki said to the group of teenagers as he was holding a bunch of paper. "It was a romantic story with a hinge of drama in the end."
"Not one of your lies again?" Chiharu said with a disbelief look on her face.
She took a book from her desk and whacked it on Yamazaki's head.
"Awwwww!" Yamazaki cried in pain. "That is a fictional story, Chiharu."
"We are listening, Yamazaki." Sakura said as she looked eagerly at Yamazaki.
Everyone sat in circled position: Yamazaki, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, Sakura, Syaoran.
"What's that, Yamazaki?" Eriol suddenly appeared at the back of Yamazaki and tried to get a glimpse at the papers.
"Eriol-kun, Yamazaki-kun was about to tell us a nice story. Want to join in?" Sakura asked cheerfully.
"Why not?" he smiled as he joined in.
"Ok, here it is…" Yamazaki took a deep breath. " Not too long ago, a woman was born to become an heir. She was almost a perfect. She was simply beautiful, clever, kind and a talented singer. And her name is Eris. Lady Eris of Goodwillcourt."
Eriol's eyes narrowed when he heard the name "Eris".
"I can't picture her…" Rika sighed as she really tried to picture the woman in Yamazaki's story.
"She has this raven black hair which matches her amethyst eyes. Her red lip was perfectly constructed at her clear and beautiful face." Eriol suddenly interrupted.
"I still can't picture her…"
"Uhm- it is so hard to explain her exquisite beauty by just plain adjective words." Eriol smiled.
"And I think I pictured her already, Eriol." Sakura said as she stared at Tomoyo who just came in at the room suddenly. "By your description, she looks like Tomoyo."
Eriol looked at Tomoyo. He never noticed that she just looked like Eris, except that Tomoyo had eyes as black as her hair.
"No, it can't be." He said to himself. He never noticed it. Maybe, that was because he was just naïve.
"Ohayo Gozaimasu!" Tomoyo greeted. "What's wrong? Why are you all staring at me? Anything wrong?"
"No. Nothing… Come and join us. Yamazaki is telling a nice story." Sakura said.
"Sure." Tomoyo put her bag at her desk and joined them.
"Anyway, how did you know her description, Eriol?" Yamazaki asked.
"A wild guess, I think." He just smiled mischievously.
He stared at Tomoyo at the corner of his eyes.
Lady Eris of Goodwillcourt, the only daughter of Duke Martin and his late wife, Erika. Eris is the most wonderful person living according to everyone. She was not only beautifully gifted but also clever and talented. Not to mention her kindness towards everybody. Everybody admired her. Every guy fell head over heel as they saw her, except for this one. He was an outcast, together with his servant and a pet tiger. His name is Clow.
One time, they met. At first, they are plain friends. Eris believed his abilities. Everybody thought that Clow's magical abilities was just a plain old joke except Eris.
"Kero-chan, I promise that this will not hurt you." Eris said to the tiger-looking creature.
Kero sighed and drank the medicine.
"I'm sure, for hours, you will be good as new." She smiled.
"Thank you for finding that medicine for Kero-chan, Lady Eris." Yue said to the lady as he bowed in front of him.
"It's ok, Yue-san. And please, cut that "Lady" thingy." She said at him as she smiled.
"What are these?" Eris asked as she looked at funny looking cards.
"Clow Cards. They have abilities, depending on each card." Yue explained.
"How magical." She was amazed.
"Not as magical as you are, Lady Eris." Clow interrupted as he entered the lounge. He approached Eris and kissed her hand politely.
"Really funny, Clow." She joked.
"I'm not joking." The powerful Clow Reed answered.
Eris blushed madly and said, "I think I've got to go. I'll just drop by again, tomorrow, ok?"
"Yue, escort her please." Clow Reed smiled at his silver-haired servant.
Suddenly, the wind blew hard enough that the paper (the story was written there) flew outside the window.
"No! Not my paper!" Yamazaki said as he hurriedly tried to catch the papers but he was too late. The wind blew the papers outside a window and into a small pond. Every part of paper is wet. The ink cannot be read clearly.
Yamazaki sighed, "That was the only copy of the story. I have no back-up files in my computer."
He was really upset.
"Now, Now, Yamazaki-kun. It's alright." Chiharu sympathized him.
"Yeah. Don't be upset." Everyone chorused.
"Isn't it funny, Eriol? The man in the story is named Clow" Syaoran whispered near Eriol's ear.
"Actually, Syaoran, It isn't just a fiction. It is a truth." He answered as he looked at the wet paper, floating at the side of the pond.
"What do you mean by?" Syaoran asked. "It's a true story?"
"The guy in the story is Clow Reed, Syaoran." He explained. "And it was a past. A miserable part of his past."
"Sakura, I…I… I knew that story…" Tomoyo stuttered as she murmured it to her bestfriend.
"That story? Wow! Then you can narrate it to me." Sakura said naively
"No, I haven't read any stories about that but… but I dreamt of it… Every night ever since you got all the Clow Cards." she said, quite confused. "At first, I thought it was just nothing but as time passed, it gets worse."
"You have probably read it on the internet." Sakura replied. "You know, LSS."
"Sakura, LSS is Last Song Syndrome." Tomoyo chuckled.
"Well, it can also mean Last Story Syndrome." Sakura defended as she blushed a bit.
"Probably so." She muttered.
"Hmmm… Why don't you try to sleep at our house tonight? Maybe spending a night in different ambiance will make you sleep and dream peacefully." Sakura offered.
"Ok." She answered. "Probably it's also because of the ambiance."
---
That night, Tomoyo stayed at Sakura's house. She was looking at herself on the mirror.
"The pain…" she murmured.
She removed her eye contacts. Her eyes were not black but amethyst. She stared at her reflection, especially the eyes.
"Hey!" Sakura suddenly shouted at her back. "What are you doing?"
"Sakura-chan…" she murmured.
"You looked so down. Maybe a little juggling with Kero-chan will make you smile." Sakura giggled.
"No, I don't think so, Sakura-chan." She answered.
Poor Kero-chan. He is always asked to juggle some small balls and it kept falling from his head. That trick really amused Sakura.
"Hey, I never noticed that you have amethyst eyes…" she said as she stared at Tomoyo's 'eyes.
"That's because of these contacts." She answered as she placed her contacts to its container.
"You have beautiful eyes, To-chan…" Sakura said as she looked deeply through her eyes.
"Come on, let us sleep. I'm too tired…" Tomoyo said as she pulled Sakura out of the bathroom.
"Goodnight To-chan!"
"Goodnight Sakura-chan!"
---
It was middle of the serene night. Two guys were talking at the balcony of Eriol's mansion.
"So, you left Eris…" Syaoran said as he looked at the stars in sky.
"After that, news came to me that the night before her arranged marriage, she committed suicide." Eriol said as he stirred his cup of tea.
"Suicide?"
"They said that she stabbed herself with a pocket knife. A pocketknife I gave her…" he explained.
"Clow, I'll return this knife to you immediately." Eris smiled at him sweetly.
"No. You can have it." He answered.
"But…"
"No buts, Miss…" he interrupted.
"And she can have your heart too…" Yue teased.
"Heart?" Eris asked.
"He meant scarf…" Clow answered immediately as he blushed a bit. "My scarf?"
"Scarf? It's not yet winter." She laughed as she waved goodbye to the two and went back to their house. She borrowed a good pocketknife since she wants to curve some woods into nice figurines.
"When I looked at both of you, I can see the hearts in both of your eyes. Admit it, you also have a feeling for her." Yue teased again.
"Now, it doesn't matter if I have." He answered slyly.
"It matters…" a voice came from the window.
The two looked back and saw Eris, standing outside the window.
"Eris…" he murmured.
"Clow-sama, if you need me, I'm at the kitchen." Yue bowed right after Clow Reed and proceeded to the kitchen.
"Uhm- Clow, have you seen my muffler? I think I left it here…" she said shyly.
"Come in while I look for it, ok?" he said as he opened the door again and started looking everywhere.
"I'll help you." She said as she started looking at the couch.
"Here, I found it." Clow said as he gave the muffler to her.
"Uhm- Thanks…" she said as she smiled sweetly.
Both of them blushed madly.
"And to make sure that we will never be together again, his father hired a wicked someone who knew things about curses. They put a curse on us that will last for eternity, even if we are reincarnated, the curse was in our blood." Eriol explained.
"Curse?" Syaoran asked. He was so confused.
"If we try to be together, one of us will die." Eriol answered. "His father told me to banish their place or she will die. Eris didn't know about this curse."
"Too bad." Syaoran commented. "But what if that curse isn't true at all"
"Anyway, why are we talking about her?" Eriol asked as he looked at him.
"That's because, you are the one who told me that Tomoyo looks like her. You are worried that she might be her." Syaoran answered.
"Oh, Yeah…" he agreed. "We're not sure. She doesn't have amethyst eyes."
"You seemed to be out of your mind…" Syaoran said.
"It's nothing…" Eriol murmured as he walked inside the house.
"Without you… my life is… is meaningless." Eris murmured as tears fell down from her amethyst eyes.
She was sitting at her bed. She was locked there for days. Her father won't let her out until her wedding day.
His father told her that Clow Reed died. A thing that she cannot believe until one day, his father brought Clow's bloody cape at her.
"Time will give us another chance…" she remembered. Clow told her about that.
"If whatever happened, if two souls are for each other, destiny would give them another chance. Maybe not here but maybe on another time."
"My life is meaningless without him and I am willing to end it here…" she murmured.
Her eyes caught the pocketknife that Clow gave to her.
It could be the instrument for her freedom. Their freedom.
She hurriedly took it. She can see her reflection from the knife.
She gulped and without a second thought she stabbed herself with the knife. She gasped. Her vision blackened and soon, she fell. Blood can be seen at the bed sheet.
Tomoyo opened her eyes wildly. It was another dream. A suicide.
"Tomoyo!" Sakura looked at her and said, "I tried to wake you up but-"
"It's ok." Tomoyo sat on her bed. She was sweating.
"Another bad dream?" Sakura asked.
"Suicide… She committed suicide…" she answered, her head felt a little ache but she believed that she can handle it. "Daijoubu. C'mon before we get late for school."
"Y-Yeah." Sakura said worriedly.
Tomoyo entered the bathroom as Sakura noticed that her Clow book was glowing. It never happened before. Red lights are shining from the book. Kero-chan noticed it too.
"Sakura, why are they glowing?" Kero asked as he inspected the book but never dare to touch it.
"I-I don't know. Maybe I should ask them." She answered as she opened the book and took
the mirror card. "Mirror Card, answer me. What's happening?"
The Mirror Card changed its form into Sakura. Two Sakura are inside the room.
"She's back, as we were all suspecting." Mirror Card murmured in delight and worry.
"Who?" Kero asked.
"Lady Eris." The mirror card answered.
"Eris?" Kero exclaimed. "How can it be?"
"As we suspected, she was reincarnated too, just like Master Clow."
"What!" Kero exclaimed again. She was surprised.
"Kero, who is Eris?" Sakura asked. "Why do you know her?"
"Sakura, Lady Eris is the bittersweet past of Master Clow." He answered.
"Wait, Tomoyo kept on dreaming about her lately." Sakura said.
"What? Oh, did I forgot to tell you that she have a quite resemblance to Eris?" Kero said.
"Except for the eyes."
"Eyes?"
"Tomoyo has black and Lady Eris has amethyst."
"No, you are wrong, Kero. Tomoyo has contacts. She really has an amethyst eyes."
Kero was surprised. "What?"
"We were suspecting that Tomoyo is the reincarnation of Lady Eris." Mirror Card said.
"T-Tomoyo is reincarnated?" Sakura asked. She was confused.
"We think so." Mirror Card whispered and changed back into its original form as a card.
Tomoyo came out of the bathroom. She was in a bathrobe as she damped her towel to her wet long hair.
"Sakura, you can use the bathroom now." Tomoyo said as she smiled.
Sakura just stared at her.
"Are you ok?" Tomoyo asked.
"Y-Yeah. It's N-Nothing." Sakura laughed as she took her own bathrobe and towel and proceed to the bathroom.
---
"Ok, today we are going to prepare a romantic play for the festival." Chiharu exclaimed.
"Of course the story was written by Naoko and Yamazaki" she sighed when she said the Yamazaki's name. "And unfortunately, Sakura-chan and Li-kun would not perform the main roles."
"Why?" Tomoyo asked.
"Sakura-chan and Li-kun will be the leaders of the props committee." Chiharu answered.
Sakura and Syaoran blushed as they looked at each other.
"Then, who will get the main roles?" Yamazaki asked.
"It's going to be Tomoyo." Chiharu answered proudly.
"What? No… I mean, I am the head of the Costume Department. I can't have the main role." Tomoyo objected as she stood up from her seat.
"Not anymore, To-chan. I'm sorry but I think you are the perfect girl for the role. Besides, Rika will take charge of the Costume Department." Chiharu said, relaxed and calm.
"Don't worry, Tomoyo-chan, I'm going to make your gown as perfect as you are." Rika exclaimed in excitement.
"No…." Tomoyo groaned.
"And of course, your charming prince will be…" Chiharu paused for a while. Everyone was listening to her. They where all excited to know who will be Daidouji's prince charming except for Tomoyo who was moaning over her role. "Hiiragizawa Eriol."
Everyone bewildered. This will be the first time they will saw Eriol act.
Syaoran looked worriedly over his ancestor's reincarnation.
"Why me, Chiharu-chan?" Eriol asked.
"Well, you are a prince charming and you know gentleman moves which are appropriate for the play. Also, you and Tomoyo will be a perfect pair." Chiharu answered happily.
Eriol took a glance at Tomoyo and said to Chiharu, "I'm not good in acting."
"It's not a problem. That's why we have what we call practice."
Tomoyo sighed.
"Cheer up, Tomoyo. Eriol is a nice person." Sakura said as she comforted her bestfriend.
"I know." She sighed again.
---
"I'll always love you…" Eriol said as he moved closer to Tomoyo.
Tomoyo stood up from her seat and moved an inch away from Eriol, "I'm sorry. I don't know what to answer."
"I'm willing to wait for your sweet reply." He answered.
"CUT! That was perfect." Chiharu exclaimed as she stood up from the front. "Ok, have a thirty minutes break."
"Hi-kun, To-chan, Arigato Gozaimasu! Thank you for accepting the main roles." Chiharu said as she bowed at the front of the two stars.
"It's the least I can do…" Tomoyo smiled.
"What friends are for, Chiharu-san?" Eriol smiled too.
"And another favor, can you two, go to at Room 919? Your costumes are ready there."
Chiharu smiled at them.
"Sure." They both answered.
As they walk their way toward the room, Tomoyo noticed that Eriol seemed to be quiet.
"Are you avoiding me? At first, we are close, right? And it seems that I am losing my grip to you." Tomoyo said, as she looked at him.
"No, I am not avoiding you, Daidouji." He answered coldly.
"See? I'm losing my grip to you. You call me Tomoyo, not Daidouji." She said, worried.
"S-Sorry." He murmured.
"Tell me, what's the problem?" Tomoyo yelled at him.
"There is no problem." He answered
"S-Sorry. I-I'm just being hysterical by these past few days because of that stupid dream."
She said shyly.
"Dream?"
"A woman committed suicide by stabbing herself with a pocketknife after his lover left him…"
It sounds familiar with Eriol. His eyes narrowed as she looked at her.
"Anything else?" Eriol asked due to his curiosity.
"Different scenario every night but the very same lady. A lady with the name of Eris…" she murmured as tears staring to flow from her eyes.
"Eris?" he asked.
"She committed suicide…" she murmured again.
He suddenly hugged her tight. "Tomoyo, I don't know what exactly was happening to you…"
It seemed that time has stopped when they are close to each other. Eriol felt his heart was beating fast, unusual to him.
Tomoyo never felt this warm before. Warmth that she felt that she knew it for a long time.
Suddenly Eriol remembered the curse.
"Uhm- how about trying to forget that and get our costume?" he asked as he let her go from his arms.
"Oh-yeah." She laughed as she wiped her tears. "Wait, I'm just going to rinse my face. I can't let them see that I cried."
As she pulled the container of her contacts from her pocket.
Eriol noticed the container and asked, "You use contact lens?"
"Yes." She answered as she removed her contact lens and put them in her container.
Her amethyst eyes were exposed to Eriol. On the other half, Eriol was shocked after she discovered that Tomoyo has amethyst eyes.
"Y-You have amethyst eyes. After all of the time, I thought you have black." His eyes narrowed as he searched deeply into her eyes.
"C'mon! We've got to get our costumes, right?" she smiled.
"Y-Yeah." He was stunned. Perfectly stunned in front of her.
He was staring at her.
"Eris." She called.
"Nani? Eriol? Daijoubu desu ka?" Tomoyo asked as she noticed him staring at her.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm just-"
"You called me Eris." She interrupted, as she looked at him. She's confused.
"Did I call you Eris? I don't re-" Eriol tried to explain but he can't find the right words.
He is confused. Confused if Tomoyo has a right to know about his and maybe her past too. He doesn't know if he will believe himself that Tomoyo might be the reincarnation of Eris.
It is not usual for a calm person like Eriol to be confused.
"Nah! Never mind it. C'mon! We've got things to do!" she smiled.
He stared at her for every move they make.
She is smiling and Eriol can't understand why. After dreaming a bitter past, she can still smile.
TO BE CONTINUED…Constructive Criticisms are welcome and flaming is not.
Please read and review.
Thanks!