Disclaimer

Card Captor Sakura and the characters and objects within were created by the members of CLAMP, published by Kodansha, and serialized in Nakayoshi. I make no claim to ownership of CLAMP characters, settings, or objects. This story is intended for entertainment purposes only and does not take away from the sale or production of any official Card Captor Sakura material. Any other resemblances to other works, published or unpublished, are coincidental, including the title.

Introduction

1. You'll notice that a line break like this:

marks "OOC" parts. I will try to be as OOC as little as possible.

2. This story was written more than 6 years ago by hand. I have little intention of changing previously posted parts unless you find issues with consistency, etc. When I get to the part that says "From here on, the story is new" then I will ask for more constructive criticism.

3. This story is intended to be fairly long, the length of a novel/novelette. You have been warned.

4. I am using the Japanese names to preserve authenticity, but am doing family name second – just in case anyone is confused. However, the informality of using the last name of someone with whom you don't have a very close relationship is preserved.

BEGIN

Dark and Light

Part I: The Power

Chapter 1: The Mansion

He'd sensed it as soon as he'd seen her. Magic, or the potential for it, almost limitless. She'd looked back at him innocently, not knowing who he was.

Syaoran Li almost hadn't had the nerve to try taking the Clow Cards from her. It didn't matter now; he'd failed anyway.

It was six and a half years later, anyhow; that incident was long past. He'd changed, and Sakura had changed. They were no longer children with childhood loves. The confessions they had so tenderly and innocently shared when the Hope Card was captured were long past.

There was always something going on the world. Something to take him apart from Sakura. The Clow Cards were famous all over the world now; imitation sets had sprung up in China, Europe, and most recently, in North America. But there were no new Card Captors. Only Clow Reed could choose Card Captors. And he had not chosen any new ones.

It was up to him and Sakura. They would no longer have the help of Cerberus and Yue, who had long since been sealed away, nor the help of Eriol and Kaho, who were in Europe, trying to stem the tide of panic from the havoc that the loosed cards were wreaking.

"Hey, Syaoran-kun!" Sakura called from his doorway. Syaoran opened his eyes; he hadn't heard her come in. "Tomoyo-chan is coming tomorrow!" Her emerald eyes sparkled. "She's boarding the plane now."

Syaoran sighed. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" He'd been sitting on the meditation mat, facing the window, his back to the door. Now he turned, annoyed, to look at her standing in the doorway.

"But... your door's open," she said, sounding hurt. Brushing long brown bangs out of her eyes, she looked at him, as if trying to determine if he were really angry. "Will you come with me to the airport tomorrow?"

"Sakura!" He rolled his eyes at her. "Can't you do anything by yourself? I have better things to do!"

"Fine, I'll go myself!" She glared at him. "Still Mr. Stuck-up, too good to be seen with a girl." She turned her back on him and stalked away. "You'd think he'd be a little more polite. And his door is open, anyhow..."

"At least I don't talk to myself," he called after her loudly, and got up to close the door. What was it with girls, anyhow? He'd see Daidouji soon enough – in fact, it was only twenty minutes between Daidouji's private landing pad and the hotel. There wasn't any need to follow Sakura to the airport. Besides, it was summer, and too hot to go out.

But you're missing out on being with Sakura, said a little whisper in the back of his mind.

"Oh, shut up!" he told the voice.

----

Sakura sat alone by the double-doors of the control tower. Tomoyo's family owned private landing pads all over the United States, as well as a sizable fleet of small private jets. Tomoyo's family was very rich, and Tomoyo herself was now the owner of a huge fashion company known internationally. Tomoyo also owned a smaller line of digital recording devices. That was because one of Tomoyo's favorite hobbies had been videotaping Sakura.

However, it was boring, sitting alone and staring at the sky, waiting for the jet to come in. She didn't have Syaoran to talk to. "Stubborn, stuck-up Chinese kid!" she muttered under her breath, but smiled a little too, fingering the tiny key, the Sakura key, that was on her necklace.

"The plane is now arriving. Please clear all objects and people off of the landing pad," a mechanical female voice said. Sakura stood excitedly, looking up at the sky out of the window, watching a small passenger plane do a triple roll in the air before swooping in to hit the runway, a quarter-mile away.

Her skin prickled. Turning, she jumped backwards against the window. "Syaoran!" she said, startled. "I didn't think you were coming."

Amber eyes, a full head above hers, regarded her with the slightest hint of disdain. "It turns out I had nothing else to do," he answered, and shrugged.

The plane rolled to a stop on the runway. Sakura ran for the double doors and pulled them open, running outside. The ramp extended from the plane.

"Sakura! Li!" Tomoyo shouted from the top of the ramp, waving. She began to walk down the steps, quickly, but more dignified than Sakura was running; Tomoyo was a businesswoman, after all. Close behind her, the pilot was carting several boxes of luggage down the ramp. "You haven't caught many new ones yet, have you?"

"No," Sakura grinned at her friend. "We were waiting for you."

----

Syaoran trailed behind Sakura. She'd only seen Daidouji a few weeks ago, and they were hugging like it had been years. What was it with girls, anyhow?

"Hey, Li," Daidouji called. "When did you get that tall?"

He rolled his eyes. "I've been this tall for years." Daidouji was even shorter than Sakura, who was almost a full foot shorter than he was. Her black hair was plaited back into the same braid that she'd worn for years.

"I brought you a whole new set of outfits, Sakura!" Daidouji said, changing the subject. Syaoran suppressed a scowl. "One for each of the forty cards left!"

Syaoran hadn't found it to be a problem, because he had natural magic skills – but Sakura's magic depended almost solely on the cards, which, since she had sealed her own away some years ago, had made it quite difficult for her to catch any at first.

"Anyhow, I've rented a house in the country for all three of us," Daidouji continued.

Had Syaoran not spent years learning self-control, his jaw would have dropped. From the grin on Sakura's face, she had been expecting it.

"I saw the limo parked outside," Sakura said. "Are we moving today?"

"Yes!" Daidouji said.

Syaoran sighed. "Are all the functions in the house at least set in English? We're exchange students here too, you know. We should at least be practicing."

"Of course," Daidouji and Sakura said at the same time.

He frowned. "Why not stay in the city? No one's been in danger yet, and it's more convenient."

"Syaoran," Sakura said slyly, "If some of the university students should accidentally find pictures of you in costume..." She waved a photo album. "Besides, Tomoyo-chan has probably already had all our stuff moved while we were gone."

He stared down at both of them. Their expressions were almost identical, that of cats who had caught a mouse. "Fine," he said, sighing.

"Tomoyo-chan, you're the best!" Sakura said, flashing Syaoran a smile.

----

Syaoran did the math in the limo. At the rate they were catching cards, it would take another four or five months to catch the rest of the cards, which meant that he and Sakura had to stay for the entirety of the summer, and the next school semester as well. The thought of the rest of the year in a house alone with two girls and nothing to do... it was almost too much to bear.

"Sword, Float, Silence, Fly, Windy, and Jump," Sakura was telling Daidouji. "Syaoran has -"

"Power, Dark, Time, Flower, Dash, Invisibility," he interrupted.

"It's really too bad you can't use the Sakura cards," Daidouji said, all but ignoring Syaoran. Why did he even bother talking to them? "You would have caught them all by now!"

Syaoran scowled. It was true; the reason why he and Sakura had even numbers of cards now was because she'd started out at a disadvantage. He stared out of his window. They were well away from any towns and cities, driving through rolling gray-green mountains on a tiny two-lane road.

He heard Sakura gasp, and turned to look at the other side. Daidouji was pointing; he could see a gigantic, three-story estate, set in the side of a mountain. "Tomoyo-chan, you said it was a house! Not a mansion!"

"You'll need lots of spaces to catch cards!" Daidouji said, as if that made logical sense.

Syaoran wondered exactly how rich Daidouji was.

----

Despite all of his annoyance at moving, Syaoran could not help but be pleased with his room. Daidouji had anticipated his complaints. The decorations were sparse, except for a family portrait, a chart of the elements, and protection symbols hanging over the door and window. Instead of a normal bed, there was a futon rolled up in one corner, a door to a private bathroom in the corner, a closet, and a kotatsu table in the center of the room.

His suitcase lay on the floor beside the closet. He'd already checked it out. Thankfully, Daidouji had only put in ten new costumes, all variations of his original green Chinese outfit, nothing too atrocious. Perhaps she was learning how to make clothes for the customer. If so, it was a good omen.