Author's Note: I posted this fan on the 2nd of March, 2004. Oh, dear Kami-sama, where do I begin? I have to do major corrections in terms of grammar and elaboration of the story. You know, the usual descriptive and editing stuff. Of course, I'm still retaining my disclaimers years ago. I do not own any of the CCS characters, especially our Eriol and Tomoyo. This is specially made for BT-chan's ExT site.

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ONE STARRY NIGHT

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She was at the balcony of her room, overlooking the grandiose of their garden. Despite the magnificence of their garden ornaments and exotic plants, her eyes were fixated on somewhere else. She was sitting on a cozy chair placed near the balcony ledge. Her head perched on the balcony railings, she was staring at the magnificence of the dark sky. The blanket of darkness was embellished with twinkling stars, like Swarovski crystals under light. Her amethyst eyes a little bit misty, she attempted to count every star that illuminates the sky as a way to divert her train of thought to something better.

However, her personal issue in the aspect of romance remained in her mind. She pondered on the whys even though she only dated the guy thrice. The guy told her the reason: too perfect. She wanted to curse the man but stopped herself from doing so. Her mother taught her well of not stooping down on one's level.

Her lips opened slightly and the words "too perfect" were muttered in an ascending tone, slightly asking herself whether the man said something truthful or unbelievable. She frowned upon the guy's break up remarks. The man's insensitive comments burrowed deep in her chest, trying to cause more pain that she should feel. She blinked her eyes, trying to stop herself from crying.

She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and tried to compose a message. Mindlessly, she started typing and then suddenly stopped in the middle of her message. The supposed recipient of the message was working in Hong Kong and she did not want to make the woman worry. She knew how stressful Sakura's work is. She also knew how determined and industrious her best friend is. Telling her best friend her personal issue would only make Sakura more worried, and she didn't want that. She clicked the discard option and switched off her phone.

"Tomoyo."

A voice from behind suddenly surprised her, making her body frigid. The voice was too familiar and she immediately knew the owner of the deep voice. Tomoyo immediately turned her head and acknowledged the presence of a cerulean-haired man with a faint smile on her face. He was holding two white ceramic mugs filled with brewed coffee.

"I actually knocked," he said with a cheerful smile. His eyes, almost closed, upon smiling. "but just as I thought, you're too preoccupied to hear the door."

"Gomen, Eriol," were the only words she uttered as she tried to avoid his eyes. Quickly returning her phone back in the pocket of her dress, Tomoyo knew that the instant she fixed her eyes against his, a surge of buried emotions shall resurface. She didn't want that. She just wanted to think logically.

Her company offered one of the mugs and she accepted it, clutching the fragile mug with both her hands. Eriol stood beside her, his hand in his pocket while the other holding his mug.

Tomoyo placed her nose slightly over the steam of the coffee and inhaled the fresh aroma of the brewed concoction. The effect was immediate; her nerves calmed down.

"Yumi called me," Eriol said in a nonchalant voice. "And told me about what happened earlier."

Embarrassed, Tomoyo laughed a little. Several people, including her secretary Yumi, had seen her emotional breakdown in the work room. For the past two weeks, she was unable to function well, and it frustrated the hell out of her. Normally, she would have whipped up three to five designs a day. It was like she was in a dry spell and she knew exactly the cause. It was her recent break-up.

Tomoyo asked her company, "how much did she tell you?"

The cerulean-haired male did not respond to her question. Instead, he said, "you should have sent me a message. I could have easily picked you up."

She flinched as she pondered on how many times the man had saved her from emotional catastrophes she had. Instantly, the memory of being stood up in the train station resurfaced. Tomoyo could not bear the embarrassment of standing there for hours. Instead of meeting her, the guy had simply sent her a text message calling off the date and telling her the reasons why he was breaking up with her. One of her female body guards had probably felt worried upon seeing her standing alone in a train station, as the expectation of the former was that she is supposed to be in a date, and texted Eriol. The man immediately picked her up and comforted her.

"You know that you can't just come every time I'm in trouble," murmured Tomoyo. Eriol remained silent. In her peripheral vision, the man was simply assessing her with his bright cerulean eyes. "It doesn't look fair. You have your own job and surely you have your own problems."

Her eyes filled with confusion, she started mumbling incohesive thoughts while watching her faint reflection on the brown liquid. "And you know that it's inevitable for a designer to have a creative setback or two. I mean, I tried going for an haute couture look then suddenly, I found myself gearing towards avant garde, then the next thing I know, I'm a mess."

He gently placed her hand on her shoulder, signalling her to stop. With an assuring smile, Eriol simply said, "I'm willing to stop my world for you."

Disbelieving what the man had said, Tomoyo slightly shook her head. The man removed his hand and returned it in his pocket.

"Heard something funny?"

"I didn't know that you can be a funny man," she replied with a laugh. "But between the two of us, I'm the ridiculous one."

The skin between Eriol's eyebrows creased as he watched the raven-haired woman staring blankly at the sky. He knew the turmoil beneath the calm facade of the woman.

Slowly, her feelings materialized as she pondered on her thoughts. She pulled out her phone and switched it on. Going straight to her inbox, she opened a text message and gave the phone to Eriol. "I didn't show you his message before."

Eriol took the phone from her hand and carefully read the rather short text message. Ure rich, pretty, intelligent, and kind. Ure perfect BUT cnt c u anymore.

It was rude, in his opinion. Eriol's jaw hardened as he returned the phone to the owner with a dim look on his face. Tomoyo placed her phone on the balcony railings and continued, "And it's funny because instead of just shrugging off the entire ordeal, I'm here moping over something that wasn't serious in the first place. I mean, we only had two dates."

"You are a human," Eriol replied as he placed his half-empty mug on the ledge and leaned his back on the marble railings. He looked up and took a deep breath. "You are entitled to get hurt."

Tomoyo crossed her arms, trying to fight off the coldness of the night. His words were reassuring. Upon noticing her position, Eriol, without a word, went inside her room and came back with a thick blanket on his arms. He enveloped her body with a thick blanket then returned to his position.

"The first man to have the courage of asking me out," Tomoyo told in a high-pitched voice, clutching the hem of the blanket. "and the first one to dump me."

"He just isn't the right one."

Hearing that, Tomoyo had the courage to look at him and smiled. She found the statement rather ridiculous coming from Eriol. "The right one?"

He cleared his throat, sensing the disbelief in her tone of voice. "I may not be the best person to say this, but believe me, I know that he isn't the one."

"Coming from someone who isn't romantically involved with anyone." Her eyes sparkled as she laughed at him.

"Touché," he chuckled. "but, it doesn't mean that I have never felt love." "Do you know the triangular theory of love?"

Tomoyo shook her head. The cerulean-haired gentleman took another deep breath before explaining. "A psychologist named Sternberg said that the perfect love has three components: intimacy, compassion, and commitment. The first has something to do with closeness, connection, attachment, and bond. The second pertains to attraction, may it be sexual or physical. The third is about desire to remain together in a short or long term."

"Go straight to the point, Eriol," Tomoyo interrupted with an apologetic smile on her face. Staring into her amethyst eyes made him felt a little bit jumpy. He cleared his throat once again, trying to divert his attention to explaining the concept.

He made his number one point. "You have to look for someone who's willing to stay by your side, regardless whether you are in hell or beyond."

Eriol knelt in front of the sitting woman and cupped her chin. "You have to look for someone who appreciates the real you, stripped of wealth and fame."

He looked straight into her amethyst eyes. His cerulean pair against her fiery mauves. Surprised by Eriol's actions, Tomoyo flinched yet she was unable to remove her eyes off his.

"And that someone is willing to go beyond extra mile to be with you." His face was inches against hers and she could feel the warmth of his breath against the coldness of the air. In a blink, his lips were against hers, sending shivers down to her spine. When their lips parted, he stroked her cheek gently and smiled.

"You know," he said to the surprised designer. "I'm willing to be that someone."

FIN