Disclaimer: I do not own CCS. But I like to think, sometimes, that I know what CLAMP were thinking.

Notes: Written for a Tsukimine challenge: "Age". The challenge was to write the youth of an old character, or the age of a young one. It came out rather oddly, but I suppose that's what I did. There are some brief moments of romance here, one of which at least I usually don't write, but…it seemed right. It belonged. I hope you agree.

Eulogy

"The first impression most people got of her was of energy. There was always that sense about her, an undertone of a barely contained exuberance that could overwhelm worlds. Few could have said why they got that impression; it was something in her eyes, something in her voice, something in the strange grace of her arms. There was simply no way around it. She was like that.

"Every now and then people would still ask her to pose for magazines or photography contests. She usually acquiesced, cheerful and unwilling to disappoint, to the students looking for a grade or the honest-to-goodness artists who thought they'd caught a glimpse of Helen. The professionals, though, she turned away politely. People who knew her might wonder if the memory always lurked behind her thoughts of the young mother who had died so young, the woman with her own green eyes.

"It was the eyes, mostly, or so the professionals said. Her eyes were beautiful, the color of a forest in high summer. It was the surprising color that was so attractive, so fascinating. But the others, the young men and women looking for something that could be perfection for them, said otherwise. It wasn't just her eyes, her hair, or her still-young body. It was everything; the tilt of her neck, the turn of her ankles, the slightest tilt of her hips, the twining of her fingers, the honest cheer in her smile. She was, simply, magic.

"She was magic, in every way, literal as well as not. Magic could come from other sources, could be seen in other eyes, but she was magic. She was the heart and soul of magic, the burning innocence like a sword that you could cleave reality with, if you tried. There was no way she could have not been what she was. Magic trilled in every bone, every muscle on her body. That was the draw of her, the force like a magnet that kept everyone there.

"It was the spark in her eyes, when she saw something that made her happy the way the whole world could. It was the color in her cheeks on winter days. It was the childish pirouettes she executed when she thought no one was watching, or when she didn't care if they were. It was the way she brought home every stray animal that crossed her path. It was the gift she had of making where she was into home. It was the shake of her head when she didn't understand something. It was her simple incapacity for guile. It was her confidence in everyone and everything, a confidence that she made us all share. It was the simple things she did every day that it would never have occurred to her that someone else might not have done. It was the innocence. It was her unbeatable spell.

"It was the pure magic of life lived to the limit of a spring day.

"It was Sakura, pure and simple.

"Goodbye, Sakura. Farewell, my friend."

Tomoyo Kinomoto slowly walked back from where she had been standing below the trees. Her husband reached out an arm for her, and she took it, leaning into him as the two of them comforted each other as best they could. Syaoran was crying, unselfconsciously, like a child. Absently, Meiling handed him her handkerchief, already damp from her own tears.

"Let's go home, Tousan," said Touya after it was over. They left as slowly as they could. It felt wrong to just go, leave the small green place under the trees where a gentle spring wind blew. It felt wrong to leave the small marble stone there by itself.

Sakura Kinomoto Li

April 1, 1986-May 13, 1999

It will absolutely be all right.

The End

Thank you very much for reading. I would appreciate your opinions. Did you think the tone sounded right? Was it too cheerful? Too dark? Any passage I should rewrite? Any passage you thought was particularly good?

There was really nothing else I could have put on Sakura's headstone.